Have you ever eaten a squid dog?? I subscribed to the Family Fun magazine for a year and this past issue they had recipes for squid dogs. A great meal for kids to make! Just cut hot dogs up in smaller pieces and push uncooked spaghetti noodles through them, put them in a kettle to cook and voila!! :) A much more fun version of hot dogs!! :)

~~UPWARD BASKETBALL~~

This year, we allowed the children to choose one sport to play. Danny chose Upward basketball. He never played basketball before, but thought it sounded like fun. I was a little unsure, because he is not the most coordinated person around. I am glad we gave him this opportunity, though. While he is not their best player, he is learning and the interaction with other boys his age is good for him! He is seeing some ways not to act, and learning some good sportmanship skills.
Tamara is not into sports at all but wanted to try out cheerleading. She is having a great time!! :)

Ready to go to their games Saturday morning....

During half time, the cheerleaders go center court and do a few cheers. Tamara is in the back row center left. (the tallest one)

A closer shot....

During half time, all the players and cheerleaders gather for a 5 minute devotional by a local pastor.

Tamara cheers for the 3rd and 4th grade boys from 10-11 AM and then Danny's game is from 12-1. That gives us time to run home for lunch or grab something in town, or enjoy a packed lunch at the park.


Devotional time....

Taking a break. They rotate players each quarter, which gives them a chance to rest up and watch their team mates play.


3 weeks down, 4 more to go. I think we will make it!! :) Dan takes Danny to his Wed. evening practice and then I take Tamara to her's Thurs. evening. It makes a busy week, but I think it is a good experience for them, especially since we homeschool and they don't get a chance to play sports as much.

Well, I need to move....we have Ladies Encouragement Night tonight! :) Looking forward to that...I need it! :P

Rain and More Rain!!

Last evening we heard on the weather that we could have some severe storms this morning. Soon after Dan left for work at 6 AM, we had a LOUD crack of thunder that woke both the kids up. Not long after that, the weather alert went off warning of some severe t-storms, flash floods and letting us know we were under a tornado watch. At 7 AM the alert went off again saying that a tornado was forming 4 miles west of Blountstown, so we kept our eyes and ears open for the next 15 minutes. During that time it rained so hard I couldn't see the trees out across our yard!

The rains came and came and came some more! Danny just checked and our rain gauge was full at 5 inches, so I guess we could have actually had more that spilled over!?? All that came in just a few hours and flooded here worse than I have ever seen!


The small creek that runs through the woods beside us came up half way across our yard!

Our neighbors (Jonas & Emma) driveway was flooded completely shut!

And the following are 2 pics taken from the road in front of our house.

I didn't know we lived on an island! :)

After the water went down a bit, you could see that it really washed out our driveway....

All this water.....

was trying to gush through a small culvert under the road!

Hoping for sunny skies soon!! :)

Mother/Son Date

So, what does a Mom do when she has a free afternoon to spend with her son? I wanted to do something fun, educational, and cheap! :) Here is how we spent those "free" hours.....

Danny wanted to eat at Connie's Kitchen, but we found out they only serve food till 12 noon and it was after that till we arrived, so we decided to try out a new place in town, The Country Creamery.
I don't think I'll be going back there again right away. We paid $15 for 2 sandwiches I could have made at home and 2 drinks!!!! :O The food was good, though and I guess in this case it was the experience that counted!??

We both ordered BLT sandwiches. :)
They had a nice outdoor picnic/porch area, and we had it all to ourselves.


Since we only got sandwiches, we also stopped at Burger King and got the new "Cupcake" shakes. They weren't half bad!
We enjoyed the shakes at our local park (Does that grammar sound funny to you...I don't usually enjoy the shakes! LOL) then got ready to practice basketball. Danny is playing Upward basketball this year and he needed more practice. He wasn't able to make it to his first game and then the next practice his coach was sick, so he only had one practice before his first game almost a week and a half later. We had a good time and it brought back memories of playing basketball in high school! :)


Danny & Coach Mom :)

When we got tired of practicing, we ran a few errands in town and then parked at the bike trail and walked about a mile or so. It took us awhile, because we stopped and enjoyed nature and took lots of pictures! :) We met a wonderful young lady who was biking the trail and got to chat a bit with her! :)

There were SO MANY birds out today! The woods were just full of them. I think we could have sat and watched them for a long while. Most of them blended in well with their surroundings, but we did see one pretty male cardinal.

This one was bright colored too and lit up my day!! :) <3

I spotted a tree I wanted to take Danny's picture at....across the stream of water.....
So, he jumped.....

I took his picture.....

...and he jumped again! :)

He insisted that I let him take my picture, so I jumped across, got my picture taken and he also got evidence of how ungracefully his Mom jumps! LOL!!

Pictures through a culvert...

Reflections... :)

Stopped for a self time picture on the bridge! :)

No, we didn't write on the underpass! ;) But the message fit!
I asked him if it wasn't a freaky feeling to know that cars were driving over the bridge right above his head!?? (he was standing on the top of a wooden bridge similar to the one in the pic above)

The trail we were on....

After the trail, we had to spend a few minutes on the train....with Mr. Goofy! :)

I thank God more every day for allowing me to experience a son! It is an awesome responsibility!! Another 7 years from now, he will be old enough to "be on his own". I want to cherish the moments I have NOW!!

~*~*~**~**~Birthdays~**~**~*~*~

Tamara had her birthday cake a little late this year since we had so much going on over the time of her birthday. She didn't mind! :) Happy 9th birthday, sweetie! ;)

Saturday evening we were invited to Eric & Yolie's for Carmen's 8th birthday party!
Carmen made and decorated her own cake!! :)

Beaver, Dan and Eric chewin' the flab~
and lil Valerie bein' cute, Collin zonked out in his daddy's lap! :)

Pizza Time....homemade pizza, that is!!

Mrs. Naomi played Happy Birthday for Carmen on her harmonica! :) How special to have your great grandma play a birthday song for you!!

Carmen requested that the children come dressed in some type of "costume". Danny was a pirate and Tamara a princess....

Carmen loved her Webkinz pony from the kids!

Danny giving piggy back rides to Ian...

HELP! The pirate had captured the princess!! :O

The costumed ones....
Cowboy Ian, Princess Tamara, Cute Lena, Indian Sean, Pirate "Frank", and Pretty Lady Carmen :)
It's great to have wonderful friends!! :)

A Visit to Mission San Luis

Last Friday our homeschool group took a Field Trip to Mission San Luis. I am not going to go into alot of commentary about it. If you'd like to check it out, click here.

The council house....

The council house was the city hall, ceremonial center, and lodge for more than 1500 Appalachee's.


Here you can get an idea how high it is...over 5 stories high!

The opening at the top.....it was to let the smoke out from their fires they had inside!!

Boys listening intently! :)

Visiting the Spanish village....


The blacksmith shop was back in the woods...

He asked Danny to be his apprentice for the day! That is how HE learned....working long days for 3 years and all he did was pump the bellows....I imagine that gives you some muscle!



A Spanish house...


I like the shelves hanging on the walls!! :)

Then she took us outside to show us where they cooked the meals...

A chicken coop...

I absolutely love these old trees hanging with Spanish Moss!


Visiting the fort...

An old cannon.....

The outside of the fort....the slots in the side is where the soldiers fired their guns from!

Dried fish....food they would have eaten back then! :P

Inside the fort, sitting at the meal table.

The guide showing a sword from those days. You can also see above him, the windows they shot from. Most of them were closed.
Also, behind him is where they did "surgery" on wounded soldiers....
Very meager instruments to work with.

They fired one of their guns for us....I think everyone jumped! It was so loud!! :)

The sidewalks leading up to the fort had all kinds of imprints in them....human foot prints, animal foot prints and different leaves.


Then we went onto the Friary Complex.

Neat thatched roofs....although I'm glad we don't have to have roofs like this!

In the kitchen....


Visiting the Franciscan Church
How do you like their pulpit? :)

Rachel and Leah doing confession...
:) :)

We took our lunches to a nearby park.
Some of the kids had fun climbing trees...


There was also a big lake and a long bridge across it.... I found some pretty ladies sitting on a bench on the bridge! :) Leah, Rachel and Kayla :)