My Day Through the "Eye"Pod

Today was, simply put, GORGEOUS!! I started my day doing wash and not much else since the house was already cleaned! :)

Dan is training to run a half marathon in March, so the past few Saturday's, he takes Danny to the park where a bunch of his friends play soccer, and Dan gets in his Saturday run on the paved Greenway trail, while they are playing. Today he asked if Tamara and I would like to go along and take advantage of this beautiful day. :) So we did!

Her and I walked a little over 2 miles, while he did his 5 mile run. (He and I walked another mile after he got done with his run, too) This was the first time he ran more than 4 miles and he did those 5 miles in 53 minutes!! That's pretty good if you ask me!

**I had my Ipod with me today, hence the name of this post! All today's pics came from there, so excuse the poor quality**

My walking partner.... <3 It was so funny! I could tell when a fast song came on her player, because she would all of a sudden be out-walking me! :)

The trail....

Pretty flowers along the trail.

I was really surprised how many people were out running, biking and walking!! It's good to see people in our town out and active!! :)

Got back to the soccer game and watched them play awhile...
(Danny is in the white shirt and shorts on the left)

(and here, he's the second "white" person from the right.)

Late afternoon I went outside to enjoy the cool breeze and lovely, mosquito-less weather....

The sky was so unique and "fluffy".

And only a few minutes later, it changed to this!!! Wow!!

I enjoyed sitting in the new chair that the guys just finished for me. :)

This is hopefully a project for Danny to work at this summer...building more of these chairs to sell! :) 

So, that was our day...in a nutshell! :)

Hope yours was beautiful too! 

Forgiveness

This song has been going through my head a lot this week. I keep struggling with an issue with another person in my life. I want victory and pray for it every time negative thoughts come to my mind about the situation! 

The past week I have struggled so much, then....

Last night the Wissman Family sang at church and Loren talked about the parable in Matthew 18 of the servant who was forgiven a ginormous amount of debt but then he turned around and threw HIS servant in prison for the small amount the servant owed him. The first servant was handed over to the tormentors!

That hit home yet again.....I have been forgiven SO much and yet I hold a grudge over something so small. All it does is torments my mind and makes me worse for the wear! The other person probably sleeps soundly in their bed every night, while I struggle on.

All I have to do is forgive!

 I know I will have victory over this issue soon, with God's help. :)

Don't let forgiveness wait! You are the one who suffers!

Boys and Woods

 Do you ever get to the point where you just need something for your kids to do other than sit at a computer or in front of the TV? I mean, we do school 4-5 hours a day, Monday-Friday, but when that is done, they often gravitate towards electronics!!

I often wish we lived at a place where they had something to do outside....like woods, animals, or something.  But most "hobbies" like animals take money, of which we have no abundance of....

So, today Dan and Danny took their ax, weed whacker (not gas or battery powered, arm-powered) and a  little branch snippers and made a path into the "woods" beside our house. Now, I would have never ventured to do this.....the "woods" look too overgrown and I had idea's of coyotes, snakes and such living in there!!

Turns out, once you break through the outer barrier of brush, it's actually quite inviting!!

Danny welcoming Tamara and I to "his woods".

They blazed a trail into the woods, and cut out a little clearing....then built a wall out of vines and branches, etc.

The wall they made....

I see a lot of time spent in the woods in their future! 

While the guys were making a trail they found a partially buried piece of green tin and a long board that had roof rivets in it....we are pretty sure they either came off of our house or the shop next door during that awful tornado in 2004! (the year before we moved here)

A closer-up shot of the tin...

They also made a little trail to the creek.....

I am so thrilled that Dan took this time with Danny to make a place for them to release some of their creative energy that was being taken over by the world of electronics!! **just hope they keep their eyes open for snakes!** :P

Max found a deer bone in the woods and was enjoying it! :) He has been our "naughty" dog. While we were in SC over Christmas, he dug out under the fenced in back yard....TWICE! Since we are home he has done it another time or three! :P I hope he soon learns his lesson!

Dan and Rex....

It's been a good, relaxing Saturday. Danny is at the park playing soccer with friends while Dan does his run on the bike trail......(he is training to run his first ever half marathon in March!!) I am so proud of him! :)

 Tonight we are going to hear the Hinson Sisters in Marianna and then going to do some grocery shopping at Walmart.

So, aside from washing and doing dishes, that has been my day! Oh, and did I mention it is a BEAUTIFUL near 80 degrees day??? And they say this is January?? :) I'm looking forward to a record breaking low Jan. electric bill!! :) Yay!

{First Week of 2013}

Monday, Dec. 31, the guys spent the day on the State Game Lands, hoping to shoot 2 deer (they could each get one), but especially hoping Danny could get his first ever. He bought a gun this summer with birthday money from last year, and so this was the first year for him to go deer hunting. He was thrilled! :)

The first day he missed 2 deer. :( Then on Tuesday, New Years Day, they went out again and didn't see a thing!! :P

This was their little shooting house :)

We were invited to spend New Years Eve with the Redmonds. Keith and Sarah (their daughter) were here from MI and we were looking forward to seeing them again! :) The Riley's were also there.

 We played "Telephone Pictionary".....you know, Telephone, the game where you whisper something in someone's ear and they pass it down the line and you see how it turns out when the last person repeats it out loud? (Or Whisper Down the Lane, as we called it growing up) Well, it was the same thing, pictionary style. I laughed SO HARD!! It is def. a fun group game!! :)

(Forgive some of these blurry pics, they are from my Ipod)

Jeremy, Mariann and Desirae drawing....

We enjoyed our evening and brought in the New Year dancing around the campfire! :)

One day I went out to the kitchen and found my candle flowing all over the table! :P

Wed., January 2 was Tamara's 12th birthday. We spent the day shopping in Panama City, with her friend Carmen, and Carmen's mom who is also my good friend! :)

We didn't buy Tamara a birthday gift this year, instead, we let her do her own shopping! :)
 The girls had won a restaurant.com gift certificate LAST Christmas at a cookie exchange, so we used it that day as well, at Los Rancheros.

My meal :)

Since it was Tamara's birthday they came out and sang for her and she got a free Fried Ice Cream! Yum!!

We spent a little while in Books-A-Million. I think I could spend a DAY in there!! :)

In Claire's at the Mall....cute glasses!!

The guys went out hunting again that morning and before Tamara and I left to spend the day shopping, I got a text from Dan that Danny had shot a deer....at 8:11 AM!

He had forgotten the camera and since we were driving right by the land they were hunting on, we took it to them and got to see the deer! 

Danny is so strong, he could hold the deer up with one hand! ;) Okay, not quite! :)

Yeh, it was a small deer-a button buck! :) But he was thrilled!!

 

They brought the deer home and skinned and butchered it and then went back out to see if Dan could get one, but he didn't see any more!

Tamara had a hard time choosing something for her birthday while we were shopping, so while we were at the book store I picked up something I knew she wanted. :) 

2 Nancy Drew books....and lotion!

Supper consisted of pizza, since we were gone all day and I wouldn't have had time to cook the supper she wanted....we saved that for another night! :)

But I had made her birthday cake the night before....a chocolate cake with PB icing! :)

Thursday morning, Tamara woke me up and asked what she should do with a bucket of "tossed cookies". :O She complained of stomach ache a couple times on Wed. and didn't eat much at lunch or supper, but I contributed it to "womanly issues". I don't know what caused her to throw up because it only happened once and she's been fine since, so it didn't seem like the stomach flu!

By Friday night, I felt like I was getting a sore throat and by Sat. it hit me full force! The sore throat had went away, but I had the sniffles and a deep chest cough that hurt so bad! It felt like a knife in my chest every time I coughed. I spent Sat. and yesterday just lying around, taking my cayenne pepper concoction and Mucinex, drinking lemon water and sucking on menthol Halls!

By yesterday, the cough was mostly gone, but my throat was sore again. I can tell I feel alot better this morning, but I'm still sneezing! :P Just thankful it wasn't worse and hoping everyone else stays healthy!!

Dan brought home a box of sweetness from my Secret Sister after church yesterday! And yes, I am sharing! :)

I am so thankful to my family for taking care of life while I was not feeling well! Dan tackled the dishes and made food on Saturday and him and Danny did the dishes after lunch yesterday! I love my guys and am so blessed!

Today we start back into the routine of school! It was a great break and much needed!! :) Only 4 more months! :) We can do this!

Happy Birthday!!

Today, 12 years ago, we welcomed our sweet little 7 lb. 12 oz. daughter into the world around 2 PM. She has been such a joy to our family and I cannot believe how quickly she is growing up!

Just a few pics of her journey through life so far.... :)

Newborn

3 months old

6 months old

3 years old and holding her "Muffin"!! <3 Muffin was her faithful friend through the first 6 years of her life. He went with her EVERYWHERE!! :) He got left behind in a shopping cart at Target, 35 minutes from home, when she was maybe 3? And since her mommy & daddy loved her so much, we drove back the next day to pick him up after calling and finding out that someone turned him in at the lost and found. He was hidden so well in her play kitchen one night that we were exhausted looking for him before she went to bed!! :) So many Muffin memories. Now he sits on a shelf in her bedroom! :) I think there is still a little soft spot in her heart for him! :)

4 years old

5 years old

The summer she was 4 was a big deal for Tamara.....we moved to FL. She did well with the move and made new friends quickly. It wasn't long till she lived longer in FL than in PA, but sadly, she forgot a lot of faces from PA! 

6 years old

Also 6 years old

I think I had got a special deal from Walmart...really not sure why we did 6 year old pics twice?

Our first mother/daughter picture....she was 6 and I was 29 :)

And one with her brother....I think they were 7 and 9 here.

 I cannot thank God enough for the great brother/sister relationship these two have had. Granted, they had fights, but they also loved to play and imagine together. It never ceased to amaze me how they could make up stories about whatever they were playing with. They would both throw in comments and make their imaginations work together. Many times I wished for a mini tape recorder to catch some of the funny things they came up with. 

They still can be caught doing this from time to time!! :) 

I think right now is probably the toughest time for them. Danny is 14 and getting out of the "playing with toys" stage, and sometimes she can't understand why he would rather read or shoot his guns and not play with her. But, I think in another year or two they will be best friends again in a new sort of way! 

So right now, it's my time to make her feel useful and to be there for her to take up some of the slack. And I've been enjoying it! :)

This is now.....12 years since that wonderful, painful, exhilarating day in January 2001!! :)

I love her so much and I am really enjoying time with her....she is becoming a fine young lady and fulfilling a dream I've had all my life....having a daughter of my own! I thank God for blessing our family with her!!

She is most definitely her Daddy's girl!! They are able to relate very well, since they have similar personalities  I am thankful for the relationship that has been forming between them! He is her protector, her shoulder to lean on, her love....for now and they share a love of humor!! :)

I cherish this picture!!

"A Father is a Son's first HERO & a Daughter's first LOVE"

Happy Birthday Tamara.....we LOVE you!!

She is looking forward to spending a day with her best friend, shopping!! :)