First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the kids. Someone asked me today when I saw them at the store, "how do you spell relief" S-C-H-O-O-L!! Don't get me wrong I love my kids, but I do enjoy the school year when I can have a few hours to get things done with no interupptions. This year is very enventful. Carissa started her Senoir year today with much excitment.
She is so excited to be a senior. It is fun to see her so happy about what the future holds for her. I am excited for all the fun things we have to look forward to this year. Christopher started High School today. He was quite nervous. He kept asking Carissa all sorts of things and more than once. I am sure his year will be a success after he gets over the first day jitters.
Bryan this year is the big man on campus. Being in the 8th grade. He is excited to moving forward and I am sure this will be an exciting and busy year for him. Hannah started first grade today. She was so excited and very cute. She has her really good friend in class with her and that made things even better.Well off to welcome the kids home from school. I am sure we will have a busy and eventfull year. Stay Tuned! Oh I almost forgot. I guess I had no need to worry as of right now Fay is not heading our way! But I have learned my lesson and will be more prepared for what lies ahead. So for right now, I still love Florida!

Fay Who??

OK, I have been out of the loop for the past week or so. I have not seen or heard the news. Matt came home tonight and asked if I had gas in the van. I thought he was asking because we have to get Uncle Mike to the airport in the morning. No, he is asking because Tropical Storm Fay is possibly heading this way. What? I am not ready for a Tropical Storm that could possibly turn into a Hurricane according to the news report I saw this evening. There is so much I had planned on doing to be more organized in the event that we had to leave our home and bring our valubles with us ie: my pictures. I have pictures stored everywhere around the house. I kept putting off and putting off thinking I had all the time in the world to get everything in a central location in the event we have to leave! Now, I have no time to get everything ready. I am sure I am stressing way to much about this and all will be fine in the end, but I will be up thinking about this all night. Tomorrow is allready busy as it is. I need to take the kids school shopping, chaperone a church dance in the evening, plan a lesson for sunday, clean my house, do laundry. To many things to do and now to add on top of all of that I have to prepare for a possible Hurricane. Seriously who would not be stressed out and if you are one who would not be please inform me of how you do it, I need some serious advice! To top this all off the kids first week of school starts on Monday. And I was just saying today how much I love living in Florida. We shall see if I still feel the same way after all this excitement!

Mixed Emotions

Well, it is official Hannah has lost her first tooth. She has been working for weeks to loosen this tooth up and get it out. Yesterday she really got it loose while we were at the Mall. Every mirror we saw she had to stop at and see how much it would wiggle. As Hannah and I were sitting in the car waiting for my 3 other ones to emerge from the movies, she says to me, "look mom" Here tooth at this point was just really hanging on by a thread. So I told her " you need to pull that thing out" and with that she says with a proud smile on her face " I just did". She was so excited the blood pouring from the spot was not an issue. She was so excited she had to call her daddy and then grandma's to tell them the exciting news. She came straight home put the tooth in a baggy and straight under her pillow for the tooth fairy. Thank goodness the tooth fairy stopped by last night, and since it being her first tooth and all she received $5.00. She is one lucky girl. Just a side note the reason why this is titled mixed emotions is because, I am pretty sad that my little baby is growing up and this is just one more milestone that makes me realize how fast they grow up and how I need to enjoy every moment I have with my 4 beautiful children.

Family Visits

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind! My sister and her family were here for the last 12 days. We have such a good time together. Especially with the kids. They all get along so well and enjoy each other's company a lot. My sister and I even got to enjoy two girls nights out while she was here. We spent a lot of time at the pool and just hanging out. We did manage to get to the Naval Air Museum, for the 2ND time in 3 weeks. ( I think my kids are pretty much done with that place, and so am I). But it was nice to get to share that with my sister and her family. We saw the movie Walle, it was horrible! Really can't kid movies just be a fun things for kids to watch, instead it turns into some political statement. We did not get to the beach but 3 times while they were here. The Jelly Fish are just really out of control and going in the daytime is miserable when you can't get in the water. So we spent two evenings down there were my sister was determined to build a sandcastle with a working moat around it. I am happy to report that the second time it was a success. It was a little different with Carissa working everyday we did not get to spend much time with her, so most of the pictures will not have Carissa or Matt in them, because he is working all the time also. Christopher, Bryan and Austin did a British Soccer Camp. I think they really enjoyed it and hopefully picked up some new skills they can incorporate into there soccer game. Not much else going on. Getting ready for one more visitor. Matt's Uncle Mike will be coming for a week before the kids go back to school. Speaking of School, I am looking forward to it starting. Not looking forward to all the driving and activities and homework, but looking forward to regular bedtimes, and a true schedule again. I have to say I am not excited to buy all the ridiculous amounts of school supplies that we have to purchase every year. I do believe we have to take out a small loan to get the kids everything they need every year. Well I have rambled on enough. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Fun little game!

Here are the directions:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you have of Matt or I. It doesn't matter if you know us a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about us, We'll assume you're playing the game and we'll come to your blog and do the same thing. Thanks for playing!

Great Website

I have to let everyone know about this great website that my great friend Maria let me know about. I have kept it to myself for long enough and I thought I should share it with everyone. It is www.thepioneerwoman.com, she has some really great recipes and I have found myself checking out her website almost every day! Her apple dumplings is to die for. Her lasagna is delicious, and her crash potatoes are a great switch up on potatoes! She is not only full of information she is hilarious too. I just wish my blog could be as interesting!

Summer Fun

Well summer is in full swing now, and I am still not as organized as I would like to be. We have been spending a lot of time at the pool. We have only been to the beach twice since school got out, because the jelly fish have been really bad, and they don't seem like they want to leave. This past couple of weeks have kept us really busy. I went to youth conference with the kids from church and had a great time. I was exhausted when I got back but it was all worth it. The girls are a lot of fun and there were some great speakers we got to enjoy. Matt' parents were here and just left a few days ago. We mostly just hung around the house and took Hannah to swim lessons. We did manage to get to the Naval Air Museum which is always fun. I really think Matt's dad enjoyed that the most while he was here. We also went to Destin to Osaka's Japanese Restaurant. They have the hibachi grills and we thought it would be fun to take the kids. They had a blast. Actually we all had a great time. When we walked in Christopher said, "this is a really nice restaurant" I thought to myself, yea its not Chili's which is the nicest place my kids have probably eaten at in a very long time. Hannah had this crazy look on her face the whole time. The cook was doing all sorts of jokes and trying so very hard to get Hannah to laugh but no luck on his part, she is a very tough crowd! She did say she liked it alot, although it was a good thing she ate crackers on the way there because she did not eat one bite of her food! We are now getting ready to have a full house again. My sister and her family are coming for a visit. We were not sure it was going to happen but it all worked out and I cannot be anymore excited to have them here! I am looking forward to a girls night out with my sister and no kids!!