I got to meet an E-maginary friend today!

As a Sonlight Curriculum user, I frequent the forums that the company hosts as a benefit to using their program. And when I say frequent, I mean I practically live there, but don't tell my dh, okay? One of the ladies who is also a Sonlighter was traveling through my area in the Sunshine State and we scheduled a meetup at a local outlet mall. What fun! Here are a few pictures!

Me and Beth from the camera phone:


The mall was very crowded and I didn't want to ask some stranger to take a picture with my baby Nikon D40x. Call me untrusting, but hey, it was a MALL, you know. So the camera phone had to work.

Here's Beth shopping for shoes:



That time I was too lazy to pull out the Nikon, so the camera phone works, shoot me. Anyways, note the Cheesecake Factory bag :) We were going to eat dinner there but the wait was too long. Beth does not live in the states any longer so must do her shopping here when they are state side and time was of the essence. Since you go to The Cheesecake Factory for CHEESECAKE, (duh, right?) she decided to get a couple of slices to go. She may, or may not, share with her dh. I say, ransom it. :D We ended up eating at Taco Bell, much cheaper and faster.

So while we were checking out the Liz Claiborne Outlet, my eye wandered across a display of clearance items and a little red change purse caught my attention. Well, since we had splurged a whole lot less than I had planned on dinner, I thought I'd spend a few $$ on me and this adorable, sassy(adjective courtesy of my Boonie friend, Susan) little change purse. But , Beth, being the extremely nice person she is decided to treat me. How very sweet of her and I love it. Check it out, I took the photo (with my precious Nikon) when I got home using the centerpiece I made up for Christmas.



Isn't it loverly! I love e-maginary friends!!!

Mince Pie, a mixed blessing.

So last week the grocery store had Mrs. Smith's pies on sale. I'm not a baker of pies (cookies and cakes, certainly, but pies not so much) so I decided to grab a few. I picked out an apple, a dutch apple and, what I thought was a cherry pie. Yeah, it really pays to actually look at the label in your hand. Sigh...

So, it turns out I managed to purchase a mince pie. It couldn't be too terrible, could it? Well, let's just say the females of this house are the least picky eaters and ,yet, it was the males who loved the mince. Strangoids! LOL. I think I've passed my dislike for cooked raisins along to my daughters. And apparently, cooked dates are in the same category. That would be the EWW category. I'll be watching for Cherry Pie sales!

Wordless Wednesday

Two Turtle Ducks and a Portrait of a Pear Tree???

Ah...the sounds of the season. Christmas Carols. They've been ringing through our home on the voice of angels, er, impish little kids who keep changing their Christmas lists. So last night youngest dd, Emma, was singing the Twelve days of Christmas and cracking me up. Apparently, her true love will be giving her two turtle ducks and a portrait of a pear tree. I wonder how he'll get the pear tree to sit still long enough?


So, about those Christmas lists? Our ds is pretty good about being very specific and only putting things he's pretty sure about on the list. He may be a bit type A (like his father) but it sure makes getting him gifts pretty easy. The girls, however, are a whole different story. Especially the youngest, Emma. "I want that." is a common phrase from her. It really doesn't even matter what it is or who the product is intended to entertain. In fact, other than food, I've never heard her say that she didn't want something. I pray that it turns into a good thing for her as we try to guide her through these years teaching her about wants and needs and discipline and charity and so on. Parenting is stinkin' hard! But I bet you already knew that, huh? Well, why didn't someone warn me, uh, like 14 years ago?

Unseasonably cool weather in S Florida lately. Not that I'm complaining...

The cold fronts have been coming this way with wonderful regularity. I'm loving these days with the highs in the mid 70's or lower. There will be no complaints from this quarter. I just hope that the weather can stay cool through next weekend. The All-Star Battle at the Beach is this coming weekend and ds plays for the Acreage All-Star Hawks. It's a whole weekend of games. Our team plays on Saturday and then again on Sunday. GO HAWKS!

On to other topics...We had a great Thanksgiving. We chose to head over to Busch Gardens. What a great idea. I'll post pics in another post. Last year we had Thanksgiving at Sea World. I'm lobbying for Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios for next year.

It's been a bit stressful though the last few weeks. Both of my grandmothers were in the hospital two weeks ago. My mom's mom was having stroke symptoms but they tests show that it was not a stroke and they aren't sure what it was, but she's fine now.

My Dad's mom, OTOH, is not doing so well. In June, at her birthday, she scratched her arm and didn't care for it properly. This led to a rash on her arms that was incorrectly treated by the doctor over the last few months, it's proved to be very difficult and nothing has cleared it up. She has put on weight and has not been able to be mobile because she needs to use her arms to get out of a chair. Two weeks ago, walking across her living room, she fell and broke her upper arm. This created even more mobility issues and some other issues have come up.

She is unable to care for herself. In fact, with the meds and some blood loss that the dr. thinks is from the broken bone. I don't know, 4 pints in a month seems like a bit more than normal for a broken bone, but okay... Anyways, she's been out of it mentally and physically she's just not able to do anything. I'm worried but I'm over a thousand miles away. I want to go out to Arkansas to help, but with the All-Star game, the holidays and money issues, it's not looking good.

Oh, and then there's the whole driving in winter thing. You know, I'm a South Florida girl, no snow tires or chains or any of that stuff. I don't do ice patches, lol. If things get worse, I'll head out and just do my best to be very careful. Flying would be great but it's not likely, especially since I'll probably be bringing my girls and my aunt and her two teen boys. For now, it's wait and see. :(

I was TAGGED! and of course I only take forever to play :)

I was tagged by my friend Wendy over at Wendy's Homeschool Antics

The rules:

• Put a link to the person who tagged you.
• Mention the rules on your blog.
• Tell 6 quirky things about yourself.
• Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
• Leave each of them a comment letting them know they've been tagged.

1) I'm a serious night owl. Sometimes I have to stay up all night and day, just to get myself to sleep at a normal time. I think the problem is that I have a 28 hour inner clock, instead of a 24 hour clock. So my body just doesn't get that it's supposed to go to sleep about 16 hours after waking up. It wants to stay up for 20 hours and sleep for 8. See the problem?

2) I talk a lot! If you call me, I'll stay on the phone for as long as you want. But it's extremely unlikely that *I* will call you. I'm paranoid of interrupting your day and I dread rejection. Seriously, I hate filling out credit applications, too. I just can't handle the rejection. If I won an Oscar, I'd be just like Sally Field, "You like me, you really like me." Of course, I probably wouldn't have shown up to accept because I'd be terrified that I'd lost.

3) I love chocolate, but don't care for chocolate cake all that much, unless there is ice cream to eat with it. One bite of cake with a bite of ice cream. No ice cream, then no thanks on the cake.

4) I can go all day without eating, but let the darkness fall, and I'm a ravenous maniac. I've really had to curb this to lose weight (60+ lbs gone since May 16th, woohoo) My favorite late night snack is tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese dipped in salsa mixed with sour cream. Yeah, that's good stuff, lol.

5) I would like to get a tatoo and a nose ring, but dh has vetoed it every time. Eh, maybe one day.

6) I'm a die hard Jacksonville Jaguars fan. I rarely miss a game. Though I am going to miss this weeks game for my SIL's baby shower. I hope she appreciates this. She probably won't though. She's dismayed that my nephew seems to be enamored of football. I say send him to our house on Sundays, we'll take care of him and teach him all things football!


Okay, so those are six quirky things about me. That was hard! You have NO IDEA how hard, lol.

I have to tag 6 people...

Leslie, Amanda, Wendy, Kelly, Jes, and Kelly.

Nothing exciting really happens here.

That is why my poor blog is so lonely. I'm a terrible communicator. I don't write letters, maybe I'll remember to email you. If you're lucky, I'll give you a call. I just stink at communicating. Even just in every day life. Dh and I will often get into a little tiff because one or the other of us will insist we told the other something and, either we were too busy preoccupied with something else to hear or we had the conversation in our head. We're strange, I guess.

So now we have Google Calendars. I put something on my calender, it shows up on dh's and vice versa. Forget having the family calendar on the side of the fridge. Tried that, didn't work, lol. Dh can access his calendar from his phone, too. That way he can check what's going on each day while he's at work. That's important when you have three dc playing three different sports!


Check out some more Works For Me Wednesday posts at Rocks in My Dryer

Fay was pretty much a drencher with an occasional wind blowing through.

We're pretty wet down here in the FL swamplands. Our houses are looking like they were built on little islands. And for all intents and purposes, I guess, they are. When a house is built here, they build up the foundation either by digging a pond on the property or bringing in dirt. We have some standing water, but not too much, it'll be gone tomorrow I think if the rain is done soon. We don't mind the storm since it keeps the temperatures down in the low to mid 80s. That's a dreamy day for August in S FL A few place around town lost a number of branches, I think we're down a total of one small pine branch. Here's a picture of the local elementary school. I was kind of surprised at how many branches were down.



Our yard has a lot of water in the lower areas. Here's one side




Across the street, our neighbors' two ponds have joined into one. Usually there's a driveway in there.




So a lot of water and a few downed limbs, not too bad. Fay's a wimp Though she's gonna try a little more wind here, yet. We'll see.

Pounding Rain in the Swamp!

I can't imagine what the morning will look like outside our door. Tropical Storm Fay is dousing us. We probably won't get too much wind, but the rain, oh my! Thankfully, our little pond was low on water. This means somewhere on the water system (and south Florida has a very intricate water system to keep our homes out of the water) they opened gates. Hopefully there won't be too much standing water in the morning.

My girls are still awake, too and my temper is not pleasant because of this. Not sleeping at night is a huge problem here and truly is begin to frustrate me beyond belief. I'm afraid they get it from me, though. The weather made it very difficult to even walk the dogs today so everyone has an abundance of energy still. I'm ready to drug everyone, including myself!

Dinner Hugs...

My nearly 13yo ds just hugged me. I didn't even ask him to. It was a spontaneous pre-teen hug! I think I'll mark it on my calendar!

And, what, pray tell did I do to earn such a rare treat from Sir Moodiness??? Why I made a dinner consisting of Beef, Broccoli and Potatoes. This is my young football star's favorite meal, according to him. What? you say. NOT pizza? Spaghetti? Nope, not those.

All of my precious offspring do love those things, but they do not rank as #1 for any of them, lol. My dc are a bit more sophisticated, and I had very little to do with that. Right after Beef for ds ranks Salmon, go figure! Even the youngest who doesn't care for veggies at all, will scarf down broccoli and cauliflower. I think I need to consider growing those in a garden. Who needs tomatoes? Give me a garden with broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and carrots.

So what earns you spontaneous pre-teen hugs???

So I mentioned football season is here!

I'm really impressed with ds' coaching staff this year. Let me say, they are awesome! I know it's only little league, but just ask some of the big names in the pros where it started for them and they'll say in little league. Now, I'm not under any crazy ideas that my ds will play football in the pros, it could happen, but the numbers aren't all that great in his favor. But a college scholarship, certainly, Maybe a full ride, but at least a partial one based on sports. He's pretty dern smart, too. FTR, anyways ;)

Last year was his first year and he had a pretty good coach and his team went on to win the super bowl in the division. Pretty good stuff. Exciting, and all. We'd love a repeat this year, but we'll be okay if it doesn't happen. What we're really thrilled about is the chance to play under this coaching staff. One of the coaches is actually a coach on the high school team. He loves to coach these guys and he's dedicated. The boys really respond to him. And Jacob is blossoming. The down side is the time commitment. Egads!

This week, 4 days will be have a portion of them spent on football. And that's just a start. Oh, did I mention Emma is cheering? Yeah, for a team NOT ours, ewww. LOL and then Raina has softball starting up in a couple of weeks. I think we've lost our minds. I never thought I'd be this sports mom. But I'm really loving it, strangely enough.

So tell me, who else is a bit nutty with kids in multiple sports? Please, I can't be alone????

I'm alive, really I am...

I'm sorry! I just disappeared after my trip to California! I had a great time meeting my forum friends! Just a total blast. I got home and life seemed to become a free for all.

First, good news, since returning home from CA, I have dropped nearly 40 lbs. Yup, 40 lbs in less than 3 months! If you want to know how I did it and if you can do it, drop me an email/comment and I'll let you know how I did it.

Second, football season is about to began. This is ds' second year playing in our community's little league. We're very excited. But along with him being in football, we're trying something new. Our youngest, Emma, will be cheering and the older dd, Raina, will be playing softball. We are obviously gluttons for punishment. I'll try and post some pictures soon.

Third, we started school today! It actually went very well. But Emma was at cheer camp this morning from 9 to 12 (and tomorrow, too.) The olders are much easier to do school with. Emma really, really has a hard time with the idea of doing school work. Not sure why, but she really makes it hard for me. So I'll get the first two days started with the older two and then Wednesday, perhaps we'll get somewhere with Emma.

Meeting 40-something of my closest friends...that I've never met before!

In less than 48 hours, I will be in the sky flying west to my second Big Fat Meetup(BFM). I will say that we are meeting in Southern California, but that's all I'll say about the location till I'm home. Needless to say, I am sooo excited. I've actually met some of these ladies before, seven of us are Two-timers to the BFM and one of them is from right here in FL. We've had a couple of FL meetups together.

So, why are we doing this? What do we have in common? What's the point?

Well, the only thing that we all have in common I think is Sonlight but I'm pretty sure that we all use it in different ways. Some of us are nearly done with our hsing journey and some are just beginning. We are doing this because we spend so much time together on the forums that we feel like a family. We are each other's support and encouragement in times that are tough and we celebrate together in times of victory and success. The BFM is a fun weekend where we'll be able to connect IRL(in real life) in a way that forums and email don't allow. I think we are all excited.

And CALIFORNIA, I can't believe I get to go there. The farthest west I've ever made it was the beautiful state of Colorado, but I'll finally be able to say I've crossed the continent. Now I just have to make it to Alaska

A new friend in our backyard...

He's gorgeous! He was partaking of the fine meal of whatever vermin was in the far reaches of our property, lol. I say feast away

I hope he (or she) comes back.

Sunday Night Chocolate...A Sad Story!

So tonight I decided there was a need for chocolate, A huge NEED for Chocolate...



It's just regular ol' Betty Crocker Brownies with a bag of Ghiardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed in, but yummy! Here's what it looked like after the family got a hold of it...



But, alas...TRAGEDY strikes...



It fell on the floor, see the doggie hairs...I was very sad, it was my piece, good thing we made a nice big plate of them, huh?

We have another visitor in our yard...

Most people in the US won't see these running wild, but we have two. Here's one in our Mulberry Tree out front...


And here...



These guys aren't natives. I'm not sure where they've come from, but they've chosen our front yard to live in. At least they're not noisy neighbors and they don't stay up all night, lol.

Look who stopped by for a visit!

We have a pond out front of our home that attracts all kinds of wonderful wildlife. One day I'll have a gazebo and a fountain out there, but that's still in the future. Today I glanced out the front window and saw this guy floating.


He's a Wood Duck. I don't see a female around but she could be up in the ficus. They actually roost in the trees. Isn't he a beauty? I'm hoping for baby ducks this year, we used to get them every spring, but not so much the last few years.

My first TAG!

I've been tagged for the first time! By my lovely friend Trish in Honduras over at Sowers4Pastors

The rules are as follows...

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


First of all...Yay! thanks Trish for tagging me. I'm not sure I'd want to do a million of these, but a few here or there sound fun, fun, fun...

Now on to seven random facts...hmmmm

1) I played the Viola as a child/teen...I still have the viola but it is in need of repair. If I could get it fixed, or get a new one, I'd start playing again. It's a beautiful sounding instrument and I miss it.

2) I was extremely healthy til I got married. I tell dh that marriage to him was my downfall. One month after marriage I ended up in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Two years ago my gall bladder had to be removed. I wonder what's next, argh!

3) I'm a Jacksonville Jaguars football fan! I love them, have since the day the NFL announced that Jacksonville would get one of the 1995 expansion teams. Jacksonville is my hometown and I miss it. I've been to two games in the past two years and I plan to make one game a year from now on at a minimum!

4) I wanted five children, dh wanted one, we thought three was a good compromise I always thought I'd be better with boys, I was right, though I have two girls. They puzzle me some days but fortunately they are not extremely girly girls, for my sake. LOL

5) I have never lived anywhere but Florida's east coast. I don't know that I ever will, either. Dh teases me by saying we'll move to TX when he retires, I won't hold my breath. We'll still be in our mid to late 40's and our youngest will be almost grown or grown depended on which year he retires. So we'll still be living life.

6) I had PRK laser surgery on my eyes two years ago and now have near perfect vision after 23 years of extreme nearsightedness. The last two years have been so freeing. If I had to do it again, I certainly would. I'm trying to talk dh into getting it done.

7) I've recently taking up photography. Soon I'd like to take classes. I've been told that I'm pretty good by some people who know, so I'd like to learn enough that I can make a few dollars to help supplement my staying home with my dc.

Well, those are mostly boring, but they are certainly random. I've been away from my blog for sooo long, I apologize for my absence. I'll be blogging again regularly from now on. Thanks to Trish reminding me to log on and post a blog! Let's see who I'll tag...

1. Wendy at Wending Through Life with Wendy
2. Emily at Teaching TWO Little Miss Smartypants
3. Amy at Working Title (she wanted to know how one gets tagged )
4. Tara at My Balancing Act
5. Kelly at Life with Boys
6. Sarah at Ponderings...
7. You, whoever you are...you're it!

That was hard!!!! I hope those I tagged are okay with it. I've never tagged anyone before (well since childhood when we played Tag, but that's not quite the same, now is it? ) I don't know if I want to do that anymore, lol...tag me again and we'll see.

Spring in Florida, looks a lot like Summer in most places...

But there is a spring... We have some trees that are still working on waking up this year...


This a Bald Cypress and the first sprigs of Spring coming out.


Flowers you won't see outside of the swamp.


New friends to make

Spring is really a beautiful time in South Florida, too bad it lasts such a short time.

Wordless Wednesday! I almost forgot!

New Braces

Join us for more Wordless Wednesday

A lost treasure found.

A while back The Gremlin Wrangler posted about going thru some of her childhood things stored away in her shed. It brought memories of two of my favorite doll from childhood. Adoption dolls. Remember those? I had two. One was all the way from Xavier Roberts in Atlanta, birth certificate and all and the other was made by my mom's boss' mom, did you follow that? LOL! Well, thru the years, and there have been many, I had misplaced those dolls and Carrie's posts brought back thoughts of where they might be. Well, not to be all spiritual or anything, but God loves to delight in His children and not even 2 weeks later I get a call from my cousin, Cari, who now lives in my grandparents house. I had lived there from the age of 15 until I was married, with a few semesters here and there away at college. She was trying to clean out the garage and came across a box of stuffed animals. She saw a doll on top and knew it must be mine. I am now reunited with my beloved Amber Lynn and Shannon Marie.

Here are Amber Lynn(dark blonde/green eyes, adopted from Babyland) and Shannon Marie (Light blonde/blue eyes, Handmade with love by Mrs. Zaire)



Aren't they beautiful? Did anyone else have one of these, back before Cabbage Patch Kids were all the rage and mass produced? I think we'll have to get them some new clothes. And, another blessing, one for each girl!

You can't mop a dirty floor!

Yesterday after taking down all the Christmas decorations, dh and I vacuumed and mopped. We put the swiffer in the dining room, to await vacuuming of dog hair before mopping and went into the boys' room to begin the big cleanup in there (moving furniture and getting rid of stuff ) So I come out of the boys room and see the floor wet and the swiffer moved. Emma loves to play with the Swiffer, so she had started mopping the dining room. I yell out, "You can't MOP a dirty floor." and take the swiffer, then I crack up. Um, I guess waiting to mop a clean floor saves me on housework,

Interested in a bed and breakfast in NW Arkansas? I've got a place

This is my Dad and Stepmom's Bed and Breakfast in Bentonville, Arkansas. It's a gorgeous home that has been remodeled and updated. I'm hoping to get up there next month to see it for myself. But for all of ya'll in the Midwest interested in a getaway, check it out.

The A Street Guesthouse

Let me know if you are interested!

What I did today...

FTR, I will not post "before" pics. I'm so embarrassed at the state of our back room, sigh...It really is horrible. So today I began...the art cabinet was the first to be attacked. We had moved it recently and taken all of the STUFF normally stored in there and put it a rubbermaid bin. So it needed to be sorted and organized and replaced in the cabinet. Here are the results after culling out a number of old, yucky things that we no longer needed/could use. I love throwing stuff away



See the blue bin and all the crayons... here's a closer look:


Aren't all those crayons lovely? The bin now only carries whole, good quality crayons. No more minuscule pieces. No more "Denny's" crayons brought home from Kids Eat Free night. No more "Quick, buy the kids something to keep them busy at the dollar store" crayons. I love crayons, the smell of new crayons brings joy to my heart. This bin, before, not so much. The thoughts of dismay that went thru my mind each time one of my dd's would drag the crayon bin out would overtake any other thoughts occupying my mind. How would they ever find the color they were looking forward? Where exactly would I find all the rejected broken pieces of crayon afterwards? So, I took on the Crayon Bin and what you see above is the beautiful results.


And the leftovers? Here they are:



What should I do with these? I'm sure there is some crafty mom at there who can tell me what to do with them. Please do share!!!

The Never-ending Homeschool Day...

My dc are perfect, really they are, they must be. We homeschool, you know. Okay, they're not. And today was proof. We started out late because I slept in. Ha, who am I kidding, I sleep in most days, today was actually earlier than many, 9am. We are all night owls here. So, I got everyone up and moving around and getting dressed and eating and doing their chores, etc... And around noon we started. And by "we started" I mean the attitudes came out and the fidgeting began and the "I'm not the parent but I'm gonna tell you what to do anyway" started and the interrupting the person reading to tell mom about something that had nothing to do with lesson and the kicking brother/sister/cousin/dog under the table and the poking and the making faces. ARGH!!!!! This is what happens when you take a month off... We've only done school one other day this week so far, so Saturday and Sunday might be school days (In between the football games!


After a while, a looooong while, everyone finally took me seriously and we finally finished up (well, as much as I had the energy to do) around 6pm. That's really only 6ish hours but it was all the drama. I hate Drama!!!! So now I wonder if there is some netflix movie dh has been holding out

Wordless Wednesday: Flyover

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday