Our Karate Girl Part 2

Carissa had her first Karate Tournament since starting back into Karate. She did AWESOME! There is a picture of her doing the high jump. Pretty cool, I had no idea she could jump so high. She took First Place in the traditional form category and took Second place in Sparing. I had video of her doing her Form but for some reason it was not on the camera when I uploaded the pictures. So enjoy the still pictures of our Karate Girl! SHE ROCKS!

Abby

Abby our cat is a real part of our family. We love Abby a lot, but we also like to tease her a bit. Hannah and I were at Target and with it being the Halloween season they actually had costumes for cats. So we could not resist! As you can see how cute Abby looks with her dinosaur hat. (She hates it, but we try to convince ourselves that she loves it.) I had to share the picture because it cracks me up!

My Love

I wanted to take a moment to give a little shout out to my husband. Although he never reads my blog, and told me never to put pictures of him on here, I figured what he does not know won't hurt him! Today is our Anniversary and while we celebrated it on Saturday night with a wonderful dinner at PF Changs and a fun time riding go-karts, today is the actual day. I wanted to let everyone know that I am married to the most wonderful man, husband, friend I could ever ask for. Matt takes such good care of me and the kids. He puts up with all of my "issues" and that can be tough ( I even have a hard time putting up with my self sometimes). He is Kind, Caring, supportive, Funny (there is never a dull moment when he is around), Handsome,and a wonderful Father ( our kids are so lucky). He takes such great care of our family and works very hard, so I am able to stay home and take care of the kids. He truly is the best Partner I could ever ask for.

Soccer and Scuba

The last couple of weekends have been quite busy. The boys had there opening day of soccer last Saturday and we were at the fields all day. They had pictures and games. And since the boys are playing on different teams this year we pretty much live at the soccer fields. Bryan is playing with a lot of the same kids from last year and they are having a blast. They have a great coach and they seem to work well together. Christopher's team on the other hand have not played together before so they are struggling a bit to get there team to work together during the games. Christopher has been doing a great job, but I know he is frustrated with his team mates. Carissa started Scuba Diving lessons last weekend. She is loving it. She does two deeper dives this weekend. Because of the weather they will be diving in Fresh water springs. They will dive 60 feet if I remember correctly. I am so proud of her that she is following her dreams. For as long as I can remember she has talked about wanting to be a Marine Biologist. We have been lucky to live in Florida where even in the High School she can take Marine Biology. Her becoming dive certified is just another step in achieving her dreams. Right now I do not have any pictures of soccer or scuba to post. But hopefully I will get some good pictures soon to share!

6 Random Things

I was tagged by http://meekhouseofinsanity.blogspot.com/
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the Person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
5. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Here goes my 6 Random things.

1. I was a ballet dancer starting at the age of 3. I was even in the San Jose Nutcracker 2 times. I would love to still do ballet!
2. I am deathly afraid of getting the stomach flu. When my children have the flu. I will stand outside the bathroom and if I get near them and have not even touched them I wash my hands till they are raw. (sorry kids, I still love you!)
3. I have slight OCD, when it comes to the house being locked. I triple check the locks on all the doors at least 3 times a night, and I cannot just look at the lock and see that it is locked I physically have to touch it! (I know I am strange)
4. I watch way too much TV!
5. I will not touch raw meat. I actually wear medical gloves to touch the meat. If I do touch the meat without gloves I have a really hard time eating it. (my goodness I have issues!)
6. I was almost on the Oprah Show for one of her makeover shows. I was even contacted by her producers. (I guess I wasn't interesting enough)

Ok, reading back I have real issues! I Tag, my sister Crystal(so you will finally update your blog) Amy, Sarah, and Becky

Family Resemblance

I recieved this picture above from my Uncle. It is a picture of my dad when he was 13. I was totally amazed at how much he and Christopher look alike. I hope everyone else can see the resemblance. Can you see it??

New Table

I just wanted to share some pictures of our new table. It is a counter height table that will seat eight when the leaf is in. Also when the leaf is in, it opens to a complete square. I love my new table, and hope that it will continue to look so "pretty" once I finally let the kids sit and eat at it! Just kidding I only made them eat at the counter the first day we had it! I wanted it to stay nice for at least 24hrs.
Just a cute side note, as we were moving the old table out of the house Hannah says, "Hey someone drew with crayon all over the bottom of the table". Matt and I started laughing and told her that she had done that! I am glad she is old enough that we don't have to worry about art work on the bottom of this table...I hope.....
I also wanted to share a picture of my centerpiece! I love this thing. I decorate with shells a lot becuase they are free!! And we have some really pretty shells at our beaches. I cannot take credit for this though. My friend Joanna had put one of these together on her table and I fell in love with it, and I think it looks so nice, so Thanks Jo, you have great taste!

Our Karate Girl

So let me explain this for those of you that do not know. When we lived in California Carissa had done Karate for years. When we moved from California to Texas Carissa was a brown belt in Karate. When we got to Texas there was no Karate place that was equivalent or really any good. So here dream of becoming a Black Belt was put on the back burner. Well fast forward to Florida. Carissa had been trying to find a job forever with no luck. We were driving home one day and there is a Karate club around the corner from our house, I told Carissa you should see if they are hiring. And she did and they were. Carissa was working in there summer day care program with the kids. She decided that she wanted to take lessons again, and to her luck and ours they were free to employee's. So she now pretty much lives at the Karate club. She goes to work straight from school and then comes home for a quick hi and maybe a bite to eat and then back to Karate for Class. It has been great for her. Not only is is a great Mon-Fri job, but she works with great people that absolutely love her. And she is getting to finally full fill her dream of becoming a black belt. Today she had her belt advancement. Since it is a different type of Karate then she was doing before she had to start out as a white belt again. But the great thing is she is being "fast tracked" so instead of going from white to yellow she got to go to orange. So today while I was watching my daughter I was holding back the tears. She is doing something she loves and I could see how happy she was. Enjoy the pictures and the video!

Fire

So the other day I was looking out our back door and saw lots of smoke. For those of you that don't know our back yard is a forest area with lots of trees and shrubs and the occasional mother bear and her three cubs. (Yes I did say bears, we have have had them in our backyard and in our trash on numerous occasions, Although I have never been able to get a good picture of them.) Ok, sorry back to the fire. So Matt and I jump in the car to see where the fire was originating from. We were happy to see that it was across the street so our home was not in danger. So since we were in the clear we sat and watched the fire and the firefighters for awhile. Of course I did run home to get my camera so I could share the excitment with all of you!

Hurricane Gustav

So Hurricane Gustav has hit. We were located on the eastern side of the storm, but 200 miles away from the point of impact. Sometime really early this morning I awoke to a Tornado Warning. The winds were blowing pretty hard and the rain was coming down. All morning we had wind and rain. It is still pretty windy out. But I think the worst has past us. We were lucky with this storm. I can see how a Hurricane can cause so much damage. We just got back from the beach where I was blown away. The waves were up almost to the sand dunes, and you could see that water had come up into the sand dunes at some point. I got some pictures and video. They don't really tell the real story of how high up the water had come. For those of you that have visited us, you will have a better understanding when you see the water coming in way past the lifeguard stand. For now I still love Florida!