Secret Sister's Garden Party

Every February our church ladies have a "Secret Sister Revealing Party".  We find out who had our name for the previous year. Some ladies don't participate but are still invited to the party. Those who want to participate again, enter their name, and then draw one name and that person is your "secret sister" for a year. You are supposed to pray for them through the year and giving gifts is optional.

Angie and Susan planned the event this year. They planned a "Garden Party" at Angie's house, but as the day got closer, the weather looked less and less desirable. They were forecasting rain, wind and severe t-storms. So the party was indoors instead!

Tables set up for the 20 some ladies.

Visiting before the meal was ready.

We had salad, bread sticks and yummy broccoli soup.

Angie & Susan served the soup and drinks.

I didn't get a pic of the dessert table, but we had delicious chocolate cake with snickers in the icing, chocolate dipped strawberries and fruit pizza.

Tamara and Maria ate on the back porch.

Pretty flowers on each table~

Jasmine <3 ~enjoying the sweets! 

I had my friend Yolie's name.....and turns out she had mine! :)

She gave me a beautiful embroidered towel/washcloth set, a pretty pink scarf and some cake decorating tools! :) Tamara and I are going to try our hand at cake decorating. We've been doing some research about using fondant, but I think we will start with icing and see how that goes, first! :)

Looking forward to a not-so-busy week. Tomorrow we have another Chemistry co-op class, and Saturday our church is going on a 16 mile bike hike in Tallahassee. And then Sunday a group of us ladies from church, and a few from GA, are going into the women's prison for a chapel service. I need to finalize what I am going to share. We also have to sing a few songs. The inmates already requested "Jesus Signed my Pardon". We sang that last time and many had never heard it before and loved it! :) 

Valentines Day 2012

My Valentines gift.....A night out!! :)

We decided to do a family "date" this year.

The restaurant of choice was Ruby Tuesday's.

Danny & Tamara

Our little, but blessed family~

Tamara said she matched Duke tonight! :)

The food was SO good! And the drinks....mmmmm!! :)
Dan and I got Peach Splash and Danny had the Berry Fusion. Tamara chose a Root Beer, but after trying our drinks, she wished she had got something different. We shared with her! :)

My love and I <3

We stopped at Wal Mart for a few things while we were in town. There were a bunch of crazies out!! Wow!

Dan bought us some mmm-mmm-good Krispy Kreme's with raspberry filling.

They went just wonderfully with a pot of decaf coffee!

I gave Dan the movie "Courageous" and we gave the kids "Treasure Buddies". 

A good day was had by all! :)

Chemistry Class ~Week 5

Emily is doing a wonderful job of teaching our kids chemistry class! I am enjoying it almost as much as they are! ;)

Class time.....review and new facts.

Mrs. Kay, standing against the left wall, is Emily's helper and also does some of the teaching.

This week we had 4 tables of experiments that some of us Mom's manned. The 3 groups of kids rotated between stations.

Here, Ms. Pam was helping them mix citric acid, sugar and baking soda. They each took a spoonful and put it in their mouth. What do you think happened? 

It foamed and fizzed just like carbonation in soda. {wish I had got pics of some of their faces} ;)

I really don't remember what they did here, but I know it involved ammonia! :)

Another group at the same table.

Trying to get away from the ammonia smells! :)

This was my table. The kids dropped iodine of different kinds of food. If the iodine turned black, the food had starch in it. If not, it didn't. We also discovered that paper towels have starch in them! ;)

The results...the bread, crackers and cereal proved to be starchy! 

 The one carrot looks black, but I think it's because there was a lot in the little hole I made in the top.

Ms. Patty and her table. I don't remember a whole lot about this one, but they put plain water in the glass, added food coloring and then stirred in clorox?? The clorox made it go back to clear water again! :)

See....the blue is slowly fading.

When we were all done, they took a cup full of the mixture they tasted and added water, to watch is foam up out of the cup. :)

Twas another fun class. I don't think we will be ready for this to end....3 more weeks to go!

Valentine Delivery

Yesterday a few of the families from our homeschool group delivered the Valentine's the kids had made a few weeks ago. We took them to the local Health & Rehab center. 

Each resident in the cafeteria got a heart like below, which had a container of lip balm inside it.

They also got a toothbrush with a little note attached.

The nurses got a bottle of water with a drink packet attached.

The 4 older boys delivered to the nurses stations, while the rest went to the cafeteria. :)

Kayla and Anna both played a song on the piano in the cafeteria while the other kids were handing out the Valentines.

I took a picture of the cafeteria, with the kids doing their thing, and was promptly told photo's were not allowed. So I will not post that one! *patient privacy*

~All the kids~

The organizer of this event, Robin Y., got a call later in the day thanking us for doing this. The residents were so excited and were talking about it all day and showing off their "goodies". It's fun to make other people's days!

Icy Beauty

The last few mornings have been REALLY cold for FL! Last night was the coldest, registering 17 as the low! 

Danny set up the sprinkler last night so they could enjoy some ice one more time this winter. I love the beauty of the ice, especially as the sun comes up and shines on it.

This morning I was too wimpy to go out to take pics, but Danny was more than willing! :) So these are thanks to him! :)

Ice on the Magnolia tree~

Ice on the crepe myrtle~

And ice on my rose bush~

It took till after lunch for it all to melt. Today was not a real warm day! But it sounds like tomorrow will be back in the 70's! :) That's what I like.

I think my blood has definitely thinned out since we moved here. I used to love cold weather, but anymore, once I get cold it takes me so long to warm up!! :P I'm ready for spring! I just hope this cold snap doesn't' do harm to all the trees that are already getting leaves! I also have some phlox blooming in my flower bed. I hope they don't suffer....they add some fuchsia beauty to our brown front yard! :)

Happy Birthday Sean!

Last evening we were invited to the 8th birthday party of Sean M. It seems we were just at his 4th birthday party! :) Time keeps flying by and it's fun to watch these little kids grow up!!

We had a yummy supper of chili dogs, beans, potato wedges, chips, tea.....

and then, of course, cake and ice cream! :)

Sean wanted a Spiderman cake.

~Friends~

There always has to be a silly picture too!

Time for gifts! What fun!! :)

Feb. 9, 2012

Pictures fresh off the press! :)

Tonight we worked a little more at the fence. Dan set two more posts with sakrete and Danny put tie wires on the top of the fence.

We moved the dogs kennel from where it originally was. It was right outside John's {neighbor who lives in the apartment on the back of our house} bedroom window and the barking bothered him. Either I am getting used to it, or they aren't barking as much at night, because they haven't woke me up at all the last few nights and they are outside OUR bedroom window now! :)

Putting on tie wires~

The new gate that was added into the old pre-existing fence.

All that's left to do is add the chain link on the other side, then we can let the dogs out to run in the back yard, without worrying poor Duke.

The sunset tonight~

Dan called me on his way home from work tonight and said after he got gas, he couldn't restart his Jeep. He thought it might be the starter, as it had got stuck one other time. So I went to pick him up. He tapped on the starter while I turned the key and it sounded like it might crank up, but alas, it wouldn't. So we went by the parts store, ordered a new starter, and he hopes to go change it in the morning. Hopefully that is the problem, so it can get taken care of.

It really did happen at a good time. Dan has off tomorrow, so he should be able to get it fixed before he goes back to work on Sunday. Also, I am sooo thankful it happened just 10 minutes from here, in town, rather than 40 minutes away at the prison!!

God was looking out for us! :)

Dan and I are both battling a head cold right now. The kids both had stuffy/runny noses for a day or two, but they seem to be feeling better. Now if we can just get over it yet!

Event Planning & Family Time

The end of January, the planning committee for the GEMS Ladies Tea fundraiser met at Candice's house to go over the event, fill positions and plan the last minute details.

Candice is a gifted decorator and I am enjoying working with her and this fine group of ladies!!

She had her kitchen set up in the decor we will be using for this year's theme.....

"With God ALL Things Are Possible"

The table set with a yummy salad, chicken pecan quiche, fruit, cheese, cake....Mmmmm!!

Meeting time! This was the first time I met some of these ladies and their daughters! Candice got a committee together for the first time, this year, to help her organize this fundraiser. Her vision is for Mother's and Daughter's to work on this together. I think that is going to be a good thing.

Candice and her daughter Lina

Esther and her daughter Jewel

Carol and her daughter Shaelyn

Peggy and her daughter Sarah

Me and Tamara

After the meeting, the kids and I drove up to GA to be with my parents and my sister and her family the rest of the weekend!! :) {Dan came up on Saturday}

Cousins happy to be together again!! :)

Friday, our children went with their cousins to school. That was their FIRST time sitting in a real school setting {well, other than Danny going to Kindergarten at a public school}

While the kids were in school, Mom and I went along to the Martin's new restaurant, Family Table Restaurant, in Pelham, to get ready for a large crowd that day. Friday's are usually a big day customer wise, plus that particular Friday they had to serve around 80 people with the Rotary Club {they had a special speaker that day and it was a bigger crowd, think it actually turned out to be about 60 people}

Rhoda gets out the big whisk!! :)

Nicole is the official sweet tea maker...and it was Mmmm, Mmmm good!

Mom taking the fat off the roast...

Chris was making gravy, I think....

And this was where my lunch came from. :)

Nicole relaxing before the doors are open.

It's not often I have the privilege of eating lunch with my parents!! :)

Saturday, Chris, Mom and I went into the building Dad and Dwayne are remodeling and helped unwrap 80 new chairs for their conference room.

We enjoyed a supper around the fire that night...

Later, we were joined by Dwayne's parents and sisters to celebrate Heidi's 13th birthday! :)

Happy Birthday Heidi! She is almost as tall as I am!! :O

Sunday afternoon, after naps, we were drawn outside to enjoy the warm weather and another campfire. There were still hot coals there from the night before.

Mom teaching her grandchildren how to whistle with a blade of grass! I remember HER mom, my Grandma, showing us how to do that, but I could never quite get it. Maybe I wasn't patient enough??

 Anyway, I got it this time! :)

The "Crystal Gang" as they dubbed themselves, coming back from playing in the woods.....and they brought some more wood for our fire. It LOOKED like they were dragging something dead! :P

Before we left Sunday evening, Mom and Dad handed out gifts to those of us who couldn't be in PA for Christmas.

Tamara got some fuzzy socks, chapstick and perfume.

It's always fun to spend time with my sister and her family and having Mom & Dad there, made it even better. I enjoy every moment I get to spend with them! Just wish we didn't live QUITE so far apart! :P 

But, this is where God has us and I guess it will be up to Him to grant that wish! :)