Another Week in Review.

OK, so these are our pictures from the past week....well, I think it's been more like 10 days...

Science Experiment about lung capacity.  I think Nicole's face is turning red.

 These two are the sweetest siblings!  Waiting nicely for their turn.

OK, Hannah's turn now to blow through her straw.  How much water can she push out?

This is Nathan, gathering up a big breathe, ready to blow super hard!  Isn't he cute?

One of our drawing pieces for this week.  Be impressed....be very impressed.  Why yes, that IS my drawing of the Statue of Liberty, thank you very much!

 Oh, this isn't about me?  Well, fine....here are Nicole and Hannah's as well.  Lady Liberty looks a little ticked off in these drawings.  I love how Hannah included the buildings of NYC (including her attempt at the Empire State Building)

 I LOVE this map of the USA that Hannah drew.  She wasn't looking at anything, actually she drew it when she was suppose to be doing something else.  But, I didn't get mad.  This is why we trace!

Earlier this week, we learned about Pennsylvania through our Road Trip USA guide we are using.  So, of course, we needed to celebrate this great state!

We made peanut butter kiss cookies, with Hershey's kisses, since the largest chocolate factory in the US is in Pennsylvania.

We also tried to make a Philly Cheese Steak.  I never made nor eaten a sandwhich like this before.  It was our dinner one night, and quite good by the way.  The kids are asking me to make it again.

 We topped off the week by going to a concert for one of my favorite muscians.  I first heard Andrew Peterson play when I was in college.  His voice has a unique sound....and it's exactly the same live as it is on his albums.  You've got to respect that!  He is a great storyteller, which made the songs come to life.

 The kids hung in there for a long, late, and maybe not exciting to them concert.  This is what Hannah looked like by the end of the night!

 Just kidding, she's still our little cutie, with her ornery little brother.

 Wait, now it looks like a strange two headed monster!

 Nevermind, it's just a goofy four year old!

 Nicole insisted upon standing in line aferward for a photo with Andrew Peterson.  (Why is my hair so yellow?  Mom.....I think I need to go back to dark again for a while...)

 He was playing around with Nathan and pretending to "flick a booger"  at him.  I decided to pretend along.  This is a classical "Michele" picture.  I'm doing something stupid while everyone else is smiling....so embarrassing.

 OK, this might be the best thing from the week!  Nathan wrote me a card.  I says, " i luv u momee".  It's perfect!  I love it!

 Finally, we were learning about the evolution of the American Flag, from the first "Old Glory" , possibly designed and sewed by Betsy Ross, to our current flag.  It inspired this mess of red, white, and blue.

St. Pete

Sometime last week we decided to visit a sweet friend who was at All Children's Hospital in St. Pete.  We don't make it down that way very often, the kids and I tried to make a day of it.  After our visit, we decided to eat lunch at The Hanger, a restaurant located in a small private airport just off the Bay.

Just as we walked onto the patio, a small, private jet aircraft took off.  It was super loud and really exciting to watch.

 Then we mostly saw little prop. planes an even a helicopter.

 The kids' menus were printed on a little cardboard airplane.  It was really cute.

 This is one of my favorite lunches with the kids.  There was free entertainment, provided by the aircraft, and the food was actually really good.  It was really relaxing.

 We explored the inside a little bit, and had fun with this dolphin, painted to look like an old fighter plane

 On our way out of town, we drove past the pier area and saw several hundred sail boats docked, so we decided to check out.  It was a beautiful marina, with a little play ground too.

 Our last stop was Weedon Island.  We visited this great Pinellas County Park last year, but thought we'd hit it up one more time.  It has beautiful board walks, nature trails, and a really nice indoor culture and history center.

 The kids were given a scavenger hunt to help engage them in the displays.  Nathan worked on his for 30 seconds, Hannah lasted a painful 10 minutes....but Nicole made it the whole way through.

 The displays in the center are really beautiful.  Nathan is sitting under their mangrove tree display.  It gives you a sense of what it is like to sit under a mangrove island.

 Nicole has fun showing Nathan around the center and trying to entertain him.  He has two really great center.

 They were checking out the shell mound replicate.  It was fun teaching them some of my archaeology tools and ideas I learned while in college.

 The exhibits have a wide variety of interactive tools.  This one showed the benefit of fires in the pine forests of our area.

 The children are working on their puzzle solving skills while trying to re piece a pot from shards that had been excavated.  This was a favorite activity.

 I love all the interesting little places that you find, sometimes by asking questions, sometimes by exploring, and sometime by referral.  This was a really fun day for us.

AHG- Service, Leadership, Friendship

I hope that one day, when the girls read this blog, they will ignore my bad spelling (disguised as typos), and even worse grammar, and that they will smile and remember all of the wonderful opportunities and fun times they had growing up.  

Once again, we had a really great experience at a recent AHG Service Day.  September 20th was the American Heritage Girl's National Day of Service.  The charter church for our troop runs a food pantry that is open to the public twice a month.  So, we decided that the food pantry would be an appropriate place to serve.

 The girls were given paper bags and asked to collect non-perishable food about 10 days prior to the service day.  I will be honest and say that we did not go collect canned goods.  They day I set aside to do that, it was raining all day.  So, we just scoured our own pantry.

 The girls earned 3.5 hours of service by working at the food pantry.  They started off by emptying bags and sorting the cans into the correct boxes.

 Then they worked in the "shopping" area, where people who are in need pass by and pick up a certain number of items at each section.  It was fun to see the girls take pride in their displays!

 Nicole said to me "Mommy, I had no idea that there were so many people who were hungry!"  She couldn't believe that this many people needed help receiving food.  I think she felt very rewarded by the day.

 The girls worked really hard throughout the morning.  I never heard one complaint (from mine or any other girls).  They were given a variety of other jobs such as bagging candy (for the children who come through), sorting clothes, making bags of beans, carrying bags, etc.

The girls have asked if we can go back and serve again.  They really loved the ministry.

I enjoyed listening to the members of the church who run the pantry interact with the people who came. They constantly invited them to church.  You could see that many of them knew the stories of those who came, asked about family, prayed for the people, and worked not just to fill their physical need, but their spiritual need as well.

American Heritage Girls has been a fun organization to be involved with.  I am thankful for the reminder to serve others, and the values it is instilling in our daughters.  Besides opportunities for service, AHG also offers girls opportunities to be leaders, to share devotions and testimonies, to participate in proper flag ceremonies, and so on.  

Hannah got to be in her first official flag ceremony earlier this week.  Nicole got to hold the AHG flag and Hannah was the AHG Flag guard.

Nicole also was given the opportunity to share a devotion.  I was so proud of her.  She stood on a stage, in front of at least 100 people, used a microphone and shared about her experience at the food pantry.  Then she quoted a large portion of Mathew 25 as a way to share with the girls how we obey God when we help and serve the poor.  Yeah, I cried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecTLYGUJ4bc

I found out that their unit is working on their needlework and also the Bible Basics badge.  I don't know anything about needlework, so I think it is really cool that they are learning about it. 

One last word about AHG....yesterday, both girls were extremely upset because "They never get to spend time with just each other and have fun, the way the used to".  I guess they don't notice that they are homeschooled and are with each other constantly, but that's besides the points.  I offered the suggestion that they pick an AHG badge to do together.  One they both would be interested in.   They can spend time working on it together, build memories, have fun, and use as little help from mommy as possible.  

Part of their set design

Making their puppets

They took me up on it!  All day yesterday they worked on their Puppetry badge.  They had a great time using a hot glue gun, designing puppets, planning and then performing a puppet show.  

This was their little stage

The big scary giant

Nicole chose the optional activity of learning about sound effects.  Hannah is holding up a tornado (purple sticks), Nicole was making a tornado sound by mixing small beans in a container.  She was snapping sticks and pulling on duct tape to make thunder.  It was cute, and made her think "out of the box"

So, one more feather in the hat of AHG....a way for sister to bond with one another.  I have heard the next badge they want to do with each other is Cake Decorating :)

A Time For Everything

October of 2011 began a time of change for our family moving on from what used to be AVI, the successful A/V business that his father started and they labored together to build, only to be destroyed in months by a new owner (it's sad....and that's all I've got to say).  The decision at the time to move to the Tampa area was not all that difficult because of what was going on where he was working.  Jeremy was offered a very similar job in an established company.  Due to a non-compete clause in his contract, we had to move away, and this was a wonderful option.  So, we moved.  It was a God thing. Truly.  Our house, which had been on the market for 10 months and over 60 showings and no offers, all of a sudden got two offers the next day.  Within a couple of months, our family was living in an area where we did not know a single person, or a even a single road.  It was actually quite exciting.

We have truly enjoyed living in the Tampa area.  We all enjoyed a period of rest at the beginning where we had no obligations or expectations from anyone.  I spent my days either at home with my children or exploring the surrounding area.  Sometimes it was lonely, but we were determined to make it work.  Jeremy's biggest fight was probably adjusting to the traffic of a big city.  Although we live on the outskirts, almost in the country, he had to drive into the city, with commutes that could easily become 2 hours if there was an accident or bad weather.

The kids and I got involved in various organizations and classes.  We were introduced to American Heritage Girls, a scouting organization that was  almost 18 years old but I had never heard about.  We jumped into a CC Community, and later helped to start and establish another group.  We took day trips and explored museums, state parks, zoos, Busch Gardens, and occasionally wound up on "the wrong side of the tracks".  We made wonderful, sweet, Godly, and encouraging friends.  It has truly been a blessing!

However, deep in my husband's heart has been a longing to start and run his own business.  It was something we occasionally talked about, and he talked with some friends about, but nothing that had a name or meat to the conversations.

Until this summer.  The conversations came up again.  However, the attitude, the ideas, the opportunity were all different.  The conversations went beyond just a thought or a dream and into planning, strategy, and excitement.  Within a few weeks, we knew this was the right time to embark on a new adventure.

Next month, on the three year anniversary of his decision to leave his old company, Jeremy and his good friend Aaron will officially begin a new journey together.  Syngergy CTS (Custom Technology Solutions) will officially be open for business in Naples.  We are so excited!

Jeremy and Aaron have known each other for close to 10 years.  They have lived life together, worked together, participated in studies with one another, and prayed for and with each other.  They are Godly men who have grown into amazing men, fathers, husbands, and providers.  Each offers skills that will compliment the other.  Their expertise in high end audio, video, lighting, shades, security, home integration, and IT will be driving factor behind their new business.  Best of all....they love Jesus!  Both of them.  They have spent much time praying for this business, and I know they will be praying over their jobs and seeking opportunities to shine the Light of Christ to their customers, contractors and future employees.

In less than a week, our house will finally be on the market, and praying for a fast sell.  After months of God ordained warranty repair work, our house is now in amazing condition and ready for a new family.  We will miss living here.  I will miss our wonderful neighbors (seriously....they are amazing!).  I will miss the view out of the back yard, the birds, the alligators, the turtles, the deer, the sandhill crane, but probably not the occasional bear ;)  I know my children will miss the cul-de-sac and the pool.

We will miss our wonderful Classical Conversations Community, our encouraging American Heritage Girls Troop, our educational science class at Crystal Springs, the quick and easy day trips to Gainsville, the springs, and Orlando.  We will miss our church....oh, our sweet church.  Yes, we will miss a lot about Tampa.  We have truly enjoyed living here.

However, there is much to look forward to as well.  We will be close to my family again.  I know the kids are excited to see Yaya, Papa, and Uncle Justin more often.  We will rekindle friendships from the past.  I can not wait for date nights at the pier.  I can feel the cool evening breeze and imagine sitting and talking with the love of my life while listening to the waves lap the boards and drinking a hot chocolate.  I will be better about taking the children to the beach, no longer complaining about the drive or the sand.  Never mind, I'll still complain about the sand :)  I am excited to explore the Naples/Ft. Myers area the way we explored the Tampa area.  Although I have lived there  almost my entire life, I don't think I know all of the nooks and crannies and jewels of SW Florida.  I want to find them!  I am sure we will join a CC group there, and who knows....maybe we'll help start an AHG troop, or find a great science class down there.

Most of all though, we will get to continue on an amazing journey with Jeremy.  I once told Jeremy that I would move to Antarctica if that is where he felt like we needed to be.  Thankfully, he chose Naples instead ;)  I am excited to be on this journey with him.

So, what now?

This has become an added part of my life.  Boxes, boxes, and more boxes.

We are working hard to de-clutter and clean, which also means preliminary packing, for our house pictures in a few days.  Then, life continue as normal as possible for a little while.  We will continue to serve in the areas we have worked.  I will continue to be the director of our CC Community, and Lord willing, a mom from within our community would step up and take over my position.  God has that completely under control.  I trust Him fully.  I will continue to serve as Vice-Coordinator in our AHG troop.  When we leave, there is someone who will step into that space as well.  Our assigned service at church is coming to a close, but we will be available as subs until we move.  Jeremy will continue to work here, while also taking occasional trips down south to finish the set up process.

Until God moves us completely, we will continue to serve where we have been set.  We are excited for the future, but we are still fully engaged in the present as well.  Life is a beautiful journey, and I'm happy to be on it with my family :)