Pictures

Here is a picture of Morgan & Alex's Edible Book Contest creation. They worked hard on it and did a great job. They placed 2nd in the 7-12yo group and won $25.




Here they are receiving the award. They were so surprised and excited!





And while I'm posting pictures...I just have to share this one of the Christmas tree my mom & Alex set up in her guest bathroom, aka the fish bathroom!

Next time...pictures from my birthday gift! Corey insisted that I open it early so I'm getting to play around with it tonight....2 weeks early! :-)

Feeling Thankful

I am surrounded by family. Corey & the kids, of course, and my mom, brother & his girlfriend within 30 minutes of us. My aunt is about an hour away in Nashville. Then we have Corey's brother, Shawn, just 2 hours north (until Sept '08) and then his 2 stepbrothers & their families about 1.5 hours east. The rest of our family is spread out but always in our hearts.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with my brother, his girlfriend, my mom and Corey's brother all at my brother's house. We had fun playing games, visiting, and eating delicious food. We had a nice bonfire outside too. Next weekend we are heading east to visit with the other brothers.

The family is going through a rough time right now with the youngest brother. He could use some good thoughts right now. A friend's husband suffered a heart attack the day before Thanksgiving so we are keeping them in our thoughts too.

While Thanksgiving has come and gone I am feeling thankful. Here is my list:
* Our big, extended family
* My wonderful, supportive, hard-working husband
* My amazing, bright, strong-willed children
* Our good health
* Nice strangers & nearby family members
* Our house
* Our fuzzy children that always help me relax & feel better
* All my friends

I know there is more but this covers most everyone & everything. :-) We are blessed and we appreciate it and are thankful for it.

To all of our family and friends...we love you and appreciate you in our lives. We hope the coming year allows us to see more of you.

Winding Down and Gearing Up

Our fall activities are winding down but the holidays are just gearing up. Nice how that works, huh? The kids have been done with soccer for about a month. Yesterday was the last fall bowling league day. There is no HP Club meeting in December but there will be the Yule Ball. So for now we just continue with our days and start working on the holidays.

Morgan has let us know that she finds our science program lacking in excitement, challenge, etc. She's bored and is totally not enjoying...thus her reason for balking at it. We've all talked and I'm hoping she'll let us know these things earlier instead of just giving us grief about doing the work and explaining WHY. Alex and I enjoy it so we will continue working with it. I've been asking around and searching for something to work with Morgan. In the meantime she's going to be doing some reading and such for science.

On Tuesday, Kali and Tux go in for their spaying and neutering...poor babes. Tux will get to come home at the end of the day and Kali will get to come home on Wednesday morning. As of Wednesday Corey will be on vacation until Dec 3rd. He's been on call this week so we will be ready for it. We are having Thanksgiving at my brother's house this year and Corey's brother, Shawn, will be joining us. He is stationed at Fort Campbell, KY right now (for a year). After Thanksgiving we will start working on our holiday baking. Corey is happy to be able to join in this year since last year the kids and I did it all during the week days and Corey was working. He put his foot down this year since he'll be on vacation. LOL!

We've joined a homeschooling book club and are reading our way through The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. We are enjoying it and are looking forward to discussing it with the group. We've also discovered an indoor bounce center that the kids love. They have these huge inflatable bouncers inside and the kids can just go crazy. Fun on a rainy day!

TEN YEARS

Ten years ago today our little family began. Well, we didn't know we were going to be a family but Corey and I met in person on Nov 7, 1997. We met online and decided to be together so I packed up and drove for 2 days to get to NY. Some friends knew about it but no one else! After that came the fun of telling our families. Man, that was fun. ;-) But through it all we have not only survived but have thrived (in my opinion) and have a wonderful family to show for it. The trust and faith in each other that we've had from the very beginning has extended to many aspects of our lives and has done well for us. Everywhere we have moved has been sight unseen, like our original meeting (although we had traded pics) and we even bought our house without seeing it in person.

It has been a great 10 years. Stick around to find out what the next 10 years has in store for us.

Thanks to everyone that has been with us. We appreciate your love, friendship and support.