Landscape Entry

Savannah's FFA group at school decided to enter the landscape design competition at the fair this year. Unfortunately, they had only a couple weeks to prepare since they didn't know about the deadlines. But, they still did a great job, especially for such short notice. They did a feng shwa (or however you spell it) theme. Don't ask me anything about it, just look it up online. Anyway, here's some pictures of them setting it up and the finished project.

Here, the kids are setting it up, with Levi's help. More setting up. In the foreground, Ashton and Gina are desperately trying to get the fountain to work. It never did.

The finished product. None of the students could be there the night of the judging, so Savannah was the group's representative. Here she is, just before the judging. The landscape looked great and was very original.

Here she is explaining the theme to the judges and answering their questions. We don't know how the team placed, but they didn't win. Thankfully, the judges gave Savannah many hints for next year's entry, on how to obtain plants and decorations from local nurseries. That will come in very handy, as this year the group bought everything themselves.

It was a lot of fun for the students and they are looking forward to next year's competition!

Those Talented Girls!

I have such talented and artistic girls! Here's the proof!

This is the gingerbread house Ashton made at school in her culinary arts class. They made the dough, cut it out, baked it, built the house, and decorated it. It took them about 3 weeks to complete it and you know she had a blast doing all that! lol She brought it home yesterday. We're enjoying looking at it...and the boys are chomping at the bit to dig in! This is the back of the house.

This is the front.

Then there's Savannah. She's been drawing since she was very young....and always such interesting and unique things. I've saved bunches of them. Lately, she's gotten a little more serious with her drawing, even taking a graffiti art class online at home. This is a coi fish she drew just the other day. I don't know if she copied it from something or just drew it on her own, but on her own wouldn't surprise me a bit. I told her that once she added color it would be really pretty....and it is. See?

I don't know where they get such artistic abilities from, but I know it's not me!! lol

Aren't They Beautiful?!?

Wednesday, August 19 was a very special day for Savannah. Today she got her braces off after 3 1/2 years!! Whoo hoo!!

Here she is as we were leaving home to go to the orthodontist appointment. The last "metal" smile.

Here is the tech actually removing the braces.

And, here she is! Ta-dah!!

The doctor came in and noticed that she had a ripple in her front tooth leftover from the braces, so he had to do some filing.

And, here she is! The end of the metal....and the beginning of a lifetime "clear" retainer set. Man, I wish they'd had clear retainers when I was 15!!! lol But, seriously, doesn't she look just mahhvelous?? I think so!

New Beginnings

Well, I'm back again, and for sure this time. lol So, even though today is Monday, and I should be posting a menu, I think I'll do a family update instead, since I've been gone so long. Maybe tomorrow I can post the menu for this week. But first, let me just say a big THANK YOU to those of you who are still faithfully checking this blog to see if I've updated it. I can't believe you're still hanging around, but I do appreciate it.

I'm going to list updates in no particular order, just as I think of them, so here goes: Savannah won her one year contract with the modeling agency. We have to pick her favorite picture from the photo shoot and have it put on these 5x7 and 8x10 cards for her to use at auditions. Once we return some of the cards and the signed contract to the company, she will get a password for their website/bulletin board where they post upcoming auditions. She can then go on there and pick which auditions she wants to participate in. The company does not take a commission from her until her contract is upgraded to the professional contract. Right now she is in the "development" stage and they want her to go for these small jobs so she can get experience and build her resume. Their aim is that after 9-12 months, she will be able to upgrade to the professional contract where she gets the "big" jobs. I think they liken this "development" time to a weeding out time, where the ones who are serious will really use this time to build their resume and those who aren't serious will sort of dissipate, ya know? I plan to let Savannah go which way she will. If she's serious, she will check the bulletin board and if not, she'll "forget". We'll see what happens.

Today I start school with the boys. Yes, I know it's July, but to tell the truth, I'm already behind by 2 weeks. I really wanted to start back on June 15 or 22, but it just didn't work out. Ugh. I was determined that I wouldn't start school until I had finished the back room, which I finally have! Whoo hoo! Well, mostly anyway. I took some before pictures, and after I finish getting the stuff put away from this weekend and our 4th of July party, I'll take some after pictures. I'll post those later this week. Anyway, back to school. So we're starting today. Indy is starting 2nd grade and Levi is starting kindergarten. This is going to be veeeerrry interesting. lol I do have a neat new curriculum I'm trying and it looks like it's going to be fun, yet "gentle learning", if you know what I mean. Not too high stress. I'll let you know how it works out.

Ashton is working this week at our church's children's camp. She's working 9-5 each day this week, Monday thru Friday. She worked one week in June also, and she was gone so much it was like she wasn't even in town. I really missed her. I will this week, too. Unfortunately (for me...lol) next week she'll be going to youth camp in NC with our youth group, so I'll miss her then, too, and she really won't be here. THEN, the following week, she'll be at my mom's house in NC for a week, all by herself with Mamo. She's going to have a lot of fun, but I will miss her. Somewhere around the 24th or so, the other kids and I will be going up to NC to spend a couple weeks with my mom and see my brother before he goes over to Iraq (or wherever they send him) again. Nicky's going to stay home and work, but he'll have 3 whole weekends to work on some stuff around the house. I think he knows what he wants to work on, but I don't know. It'll be a nice surprise for me when I get home. We'll see what he gets done. Fun, Fun!

Speaking of Ashton, as I was driving her to church this morning, we were talking about her going to school in the fall...well, next month, really. I am so sad thinking about her being gone off to school. I was like this before Savannah went, too, but once school starts and I ggt back into the swing of baseball, field trips, park group, school stuff, etc. I got over it and I was ok. I know it'll be the same with Ashton, but right now when I think of her going to school, I get sad. sniff, sniff! I know I'm really going to miss her.

And again, speaking of school, in case you didn't know, Savannah's going to be homeschooling again. She decided she was sick of all the drama and nonsense and time wasting that goes on in school. So, she's going to be continuing in the vet class/program at her school, while doing all her other classes at home. She's doing some of the classes online and some in books on her own. She's very excited and even made me get her geography assignments set up so she could start today, too. It's funny. She's still working on a class online from this past school year, but soon, she'll finish that one and starting the new ones. We've ordered her books for the other classes, so when we get back from NC, she will start on those, too. Oh, and she's doing great on her driving. She drives me almost everywhere now and she's getting much better. I'm very proud of her.

Well, I guess that's our updates for right now. I'll try to do the menu tomorrow and maybe the pictures of the back room on Wednesday or Thursday. Hope you all have a great week! And, thanks for hanging around!!

Fun Stuff!

I know I've been MIA, but I'm here now. First, we've been sick this week with 3 different things around here...yuck! Savannah and Levi had a stomach flu thing, Indy had a fever going, and Ashton had a bad cold. Nicky and I have had a little of the stomach flu, but not enough to really consider ourselves "sick", just feeling yucky. Thank goodness. I always say I can handle when the kids are sick and I can handle when I'm sick, but when the kids and I are both sick, it really stinks. That's the hardest thing for me. But, thankfully, this time, I avoided really being sick.

And, besides all that, I've been diligently working on cleaning out my back room. It's slow-going, but it's going.

Last week the boys went to VBS and had a ball. I'm glad they got to go. Did I tell you that last time? I don't remember, but I forgot to check what I wrote before. Oh well.

So, here's what's going on here the last two days....

Yesterday, Indy was in the house playing and I knew it, Levi was out back and Savannah had taken the dogs for a walk. When she came in, she said, "Levi's out back screaming." I said, "He is?" About that time, Indy started giggling. I looked at him and asked if he'd put Levi in the dog kennel. He said, "No," and kept giggling. We headed out back to find him and this is what we found. Apparently, Indy had gotten into my newly cleaned (thankfully!) garbage can to dig out a toy I had put in there and when he got out, Levi climbed in, but couldn't get out. He called for Indy to help, but Indy went inside and started playing. The little bugger!! We laughed so hard and I ran to get the camera, of course! I'm such a bad mom...lol. He just stood there, watching while I took photos. He's so tolerant of his mother and her camera! lol Anyway, he finally said, "Stop taking pictures and get me out!" We cracked up and finally, Savannah helped him climb out. Poor guy.

And, the big news today is.......(drumroll, please....)

Savannah got her restricted driver's license today! She is sooo proud and excited and wants to go driving...anywhere!!

Right after she got it, we headed over the zoo for a few minutes since we've been stuck at home all stinkin' week. But, when we got home, she wanted to drive around the neighborhood to practice. We practiced for an hour. lol I'm gonna have to practice with her a lot in the next few weeks so she can help with the driving to NC when we go next month. Yay!

Well, that's about it for today. I'll try to do better with the blog next week. Have a great weekend! :-)

This is a tree in the parking lot of my grocery store. These trees are all over the place here, and right now they're blooming up a storm! Some are pinkish/purple and some are the sunniest yellow you've ever seen. If I can manage to remember, I'll get a picture of a yellow one. I don't really like yellow very much, but on these trees, it's beautiful! I even like it better than the purple one! Imagine that!! lol Anyway, these trees are sooo pretty now with all their flowers. The whole tree is flowers. It's amazing!

Lori, you can tell Emily that I'll always think of her when I see this tree in bloom. Why? Because last year, before you guys moved, we went to Publix and she was with us, and we were all talking about how pretty this very tree was with all the flowers. For some reason, when it bloomed this year, she came to my mind. I guess she always will when I see this tree. :-)
Here's another one using his imagination.... Levi set up the race track in a straight line, then used it as a golf line. Too funny!!
Last week, Savannah and Juan walked over to a nearby school field to take some pictures. The first one, they set the timer for and took it themselves. I thought that was pretty cool. The second one is an awesome picture Juan took of Savannah. I think it was an accident, but it came out sooo good.

Just wanted to share some recent pictures. Have a great week! We're having a great time in Jerusalem....Wish you were here!! :-)