Great homeschooling post...

on this blog: That's just me!


It really is a must read!

Have you been....

longing for a wonderful retreat with quiet surroundings? I found just the place...here.

Hope you don't mind the "prison-like" ambiance.

Goings-on...

I have been sick with a bad head cold for the past few days but am feeling much better. Colton is sick now. Poor guy, he slept on the couch today with a good fever going. I love this time of year but dread the illnesses that come with cooler weather.

Jesse sold his guns recently and bought the girls a new video camera. It is a cute little thing, looks like an i-pod. Isn't he a nice daddy?! They have been having a blast with it. Filming movies is practically all that they do in their free time, especially Julia and Alicia.

Carlina and Alicia were baptized on Sunday evening. Our church had a Baptism service at a families house in the country. They have a pool (water is coooold!) and a huge yard. It was a thrilling experience. 5 others were baptized. Jesse got to put them both under and up.

School has started..

thus, I haven't been on my blog too much. It is going okay. Garrett says that he does not like lessons...especially handwriting! The others are plugging along. We went on a field trip today to visit a company that makes trolleys. They deliver them all over the country. Next, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut, then went to the park and then toured the Pizza Hut kitchen. We have about 10 families in our homeschool group. Lots of little kids and not too many older ones.

Oh, about our dog...his name is Jake. I gave him middle name (I always do) and it is Ruffian:)

New Dog...New Car!

Clunk....clunk...

That was the fateful sound we heard while driving down the hill off of the highway, headed toward Target. We were going to meet a family in the Target parking lot to get a free dog. Black smoke began to pour out of the back of the suburban and the clunking got louder. We barely made it into the parking lot. Jesse checked the motor and felt that finally the poor, old beast had bitten the dust (as in the head had cracked). It only had 430,000 miles on it...I mean, they just don't make 'em like they used to! Jesse went in to Target to call his mom, while I waited for doggy to make an appearance. Soooo...

fast forward 2 days and we now have a new (well, new to us!) 1999 Suburban and a new (also, new to us!) 2 year old bulldog/australian shepard mix. Enjoying both!

More fun photos

Katie had a wonderful time with her friend, Sarah. She took most of these photos.

Friends from Florida..

have been visiting for the past several days. We met Karyn and Sarah when we moved to Orlando in 2004. They, along with Karyn's hubby & Sarah's dad, Gary, moved down from Maryland, into a house 2 doors down from ours,about the same time as us. We became great friends and have really missed them. What a treat to find out that they were coming to see us!! Katie and Sarah are exactly 6 months apart and love to play dress-up, make movies, play with their stuffed animals, etc.