bits & pieces

 Here is my weekly random photo blog post.  My goal is to start getting better at blogging these things, having shorter blogs, and fewer that are super long with lots of pictures.

My little sweetie. This was my first photo on my new phone.

 School Daze....yep....this is what it comes down to sometimes.  Falling asleep at the table while I drone and on and on....ahem...I mean...while I read.

 However, sometimes school work looks more like this :)

And, hopefully there are some smiles to go around too.  

 The girls wanted to work on spending more time together doing fun things that they both enjoy.  One day, they decided to work on their cake decorating badge for AHG.  They had to make their own cupcakes, learn about different types of food coloring and tint their icing, then decorate their cupcakes.

 These are suppose to be little fish.  But, I made a turkey.

 The girls are enjoying their horsemanship lessons.  They learn basic stable manners, riding, and care of the horses.

 I love that she had to clean the horse's shoe.

 While the girls are at horse lessons, Nate and I get to go on a date.  Silly antics are a necessary.

 This particular day, he got to play in the Chick Fil A play area for a while.  He spent the whole time entertaining me and trying to make me smile.

 After a long day of cleaning in preparation for the selling of our house, we ended up at Chilis around 8:00pm.  Yep, Nate has on his jammies, Hannah got super dressed up (tights and all), and Nicole is wearing a simple dress.

 I have a whole rant in my head about children, chores, and how hard it is to let them help...but how great it is to teach them to help.  However, this is not the time.  Maybe tomorrow.

 The best part about selling a house is that I have great kids who want to help clean.  The worst part is that I have great kids who want to clean (but end up making a bigger mess....or work too slowly).  I'd rather go with the help and deal with the consequences of their childishness than be to picky over a perfect home.

 Nate's been on a roll lately! The girls are expected to do their laundry.  They have to bring their baskets down, and put it in the washer and dryer (they love that part).  Occasionally, I'll grab the clothes at night at fold, but usually it is their job to fold and put away.  They have been doing this for a while.  It's generally a slow process.

Anyway...I do not expect that of Nathan (yet).  However, yesterday the girls were putting their clothes away, and Nathan wanted to make sure his got put away.  I told him I would fold his clothes after my shower.  Apparently, he wasn't interested in waiting.  While I took a shower and put my own clothes away....HE sorted, folded, and put away his clothes all by himself!  The only thing I had to do was hang the shirts up in the closet because he can not reach!  I was super impressed.  Hopefully, he'll make a great husband one day!

Nathan is also a bit confused about the selling process of the house.  Before we can leave to go anywhere, we always make sure the rooms are basically cleaned up.  I asked him to check his, and this is what I found.  His suit case crammed full with his jammies, a pop gun, and all of his cars.  I asked him why he did this and he said, "Mommy, if someone comes to look at our house and buys it, I don't want them to have my things.  We have to take these with us".  He's still not convinced that the sale will take longer than buying groceries at the store.  He's worried someone will take his cars and jammies.  Cut boy!

Yep, it's that time of year....chocolate sales for AHG.  How can you resist these two little cuties, selling chocolate door to door!

Watershed & Sinkholes

Another day at Crystal Springs Preserve brings us to a class on the watershed, aquifers, and sinkholes.

After a brief description about the watershed and pollution, the class was split into teams.  Of course, we went for a boys team and a girls team.  This division brought very interesting results!

The kids had about 15 minutes to design a small town that had to include a river, two ponds, a zoo, a farm, a construction area, a golf course, a neighborhood, and a garbage dump.

The boys had a town with protective walls, army men, and lots of bridges.

The girl's town was really pretty, neatly organized and cute.

However, the girl's town had more pollution run off (golf course right on the river, garbage dump surrounded by water, etc.

Before they were finished, they created three sinkholes (a problem in our part of the start).  The sinkholes were made by  burying a water balloon and covering it with dirt.  This simulates the aquifer system that is just beneath our feet here in Florida.  Usually, the aquifers (like underground caves) are filled with water.  However, when there is a drought, or we use to much water, the aquifers begin to recede and can no longer hold up the ground that is just above it.  So, when the children "pop" their water balloon, the ground above the balloon collapses and creates a sinkhole.

For the first time ever...I understand what a sinkhole is!

We love Crystal Springs Preserve!

11 Happy Years

Last weekend, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.  In some ways I can't believe it's been 11 years already, and in others....it feels like we've been married much longer (and I mean that in a good way!)  It has been an honor to spend this time with Jeremy.

He is hard working, compassionate, caring, loving, tough, a man of integrity, adventurous,

funny, fun, Godly, silly, and my favorite person to be around.

Although we there have been trials, we have walked through them together.  Being married isn't easy...but it also isn't hard.  It's work.  It takes time, patience, sacrifice, compromise, love, vision, perseverance, and trust.

I am so thankful for this man.

This is what happens when Jeremy tries to take selfies of us...he's so tall that he cuts off my head.  Great picture though babe!

As we embark on another journey in our life together, it was so nice to take an evening away, slow down and enjoy one another.

But first...I should start at the beginning of the day.  We generally "sleep in" on Saturdays (and that means we wake up around 8:00 instead of 6:00), and the kids usually turn on the TV and grab some cereal.  However, last Saturday they didn't do that.  They woke up early and set our day off right!

They decorated for our anniversary.

Streamers in the door way.

Decorations down the stair case

And even the word "HAPPY" spelled out in streamers on our chairs.  Nicole made Jeremy an egg sandwhich, and she made me some cereal.  It was so thoughtful.

Between cleaning the house

Nate's first time in the attic

mowing the yard

Nicole's first time mowing the grass

and watching our wedding (an annual tradition...and....Nathan kissed me on the cheek every time Jeremy kissed me in the video, and the girls got all giggly during the ceremony)

That evening, after a day of working hard on our house, we took off for Medeira Beach.  We have never been there before.  We made it just in time for sunset (and playing with our new phones).

We did slow motion videos of us running through the water.

And Jeremy stood, in one place, for about 15 minutes while he "filmed" the sun setting.  He time lapsed it into about 30 seconds.

And....we saw a draw bridge go up.  Apparently this was a first for my husband :)  It was cool though....that a road that huge could be lifted straight up!

We enjoyed walking around St. John's Pass and watching a finishing tournament close out their day with their big weigh ins.

Seriously, this would be a great place to take a vacation!  Family friendly, huge beach, shops and restaurants near by.  Sign me up!

We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, a first for me.  I ordered fried chicken ; /  But Jeremy got a variety of shrimp.

They have these little license plates that say "Run Forrest Run" when you don't need anything from the waiter, and then "Stop Forrest Stop" when you do (I put it out one time, it worked.)

Our waiter topped the night off with a little Forrest Gump trivia.

What a fun evening and memorable anniversary.  Thank you baby for sticking with me, loving me, supporting me, and being my best friend :)  I love you!