Gerren's 18th Birthday

 I need to catch up on this blog.  Two of my friends have daughters getting married this weekend, and it is making me weepy to think of how quickly the time has passed.  I'm not sure I'll make it through Erin Miskiewicz's wedding in September!

Gerren turned 18 on March 10, 2013.  He will be leaving to join the Air Force on May 13!  He asked for new earbuds, so we got him some and a USB charger.

He's wondering WHY he's getting a USB charger!

The charger was to help charge his new Kindle.

 

 

I think he likes it!

A beautiful card from Carys

Dinner after church at Grace Japanese Steakhouse

Singing "Happy Birthday" over free fried cheesecake

Landon's 20th Birthday

It's hard to believe that Landon, my very first baby, turned 20 this year.  We celebrated his birthday a day late, since he was coming home for spring break on March 1 anyway.  It was hard to choose a gift for him this year, since he's able to buy almost anything for himself.
 

We started with dinner at Ayuttaya Thai, a place we'd always wanted to try but never have.  It was awesome.  Landon really loved it an can't wait to go back.















When we got home again, Landon opened his gifts.  Carys made him a card as she does for everyone.















He also had his Valentine candy to open, since I didn't mail it this year!















 He asked for an Amazon gift card which we provided. :)  Then it was time to open his main gift.















He has loved the Marshall Cavendish World War II encyclopedias since he was 11 or 12.  The librarians at the Beverly Hills library used to crack up when he checked them out repeatedly.  Unfortunately, the Marion County library does not let you check these out.  Landon tried over his Christmas break, so we bought him a used set.

Of course, he requested strawberry shortcake, which I make on my homemade angel food cake.  Carys insisted on a picture of the cake!

Mary Feik

 Our Civil Air Patrol squadron's annual awards night was held on Thursday, February 7.  They had an incredible guest speaker, Mary Feik.  Mrs. Feik is the only person who had a CAP achievement named after her who is still living.

She spoke for over an hour telling us her incredible story.

The lights were down for her slide show, so the pictures are dark.

Mrs. Feik's speech was so long that all the awards were presented together.  Chase won Cadet of the Year.

Mrs. Feik signed a Mary Feik award for every cadet that had earned one from our squadrons and nearby squadrons.  She also spoke personally to each one of them.

Chase and Gerren hold their awards up in this photo.

 Greg, Chase, Mrs. Feik, and Gerren (aka Captain Meahl, Sergeant Meahl, Colonel Feik, and Lieutenant Meahl)

Valentine's Day

 We had a big Valentine's Day this year.  Last year we had waffles, so now it's a tradition according to Carys.  I made waffles, needless to say.

I was set up the night before as you can see here.  We also had hot chocolate - a recipe from Crockin' Girls that I was wanting to try.  It was too rich for everyone's liking.

Each child got their own personal heart of candy and a little bag with Combos and red licorice in it.

 













 Carys' heart had puppies on it.  She loved it!

 













 Greg gave me tulips - my favorite flower - although he can only ever find them potted for Valentine's Day.  I prefer cut flowers, but these are second best.  He also gave me a package of cherry licorice (I don't like strawberry) and a bag of Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Sea Salt and Caramel!

 I had found another recipe from Crockin' Girls for chocolate dipped marshmallows that the girls put together.  These were a hit!  Melting the almond bark in the crockpot was very easy. 

Finally, Chase and I received a Valentine's Day gift from Landon via Amazon.  It was a box of Twinings tea bags.  We loved them!  Twinings has by far the best Earl Grey tea of any I've tried.

 












It was a pretty terrific Valentine's Day all in all!

 

Seven!

January 17, 2013 - Carys' 7th Birthday!

I can hardly believe my baby is seven! 

And what happened to all her teeth?

There was a big pile of presents on the dining room table,
 and Landon wasn't even home to add his.

From Mom and Dad, Carys got The Lorax DVD...

A new game for her Leapster 2...

Two My Little Pony sets I picked up on Black Friday...

And a Melissa & Doug reusable sticker pad.

Chase gave Carys two of her own toys that Carys had been
drooling over - a Tinkerbell...

and some Legos from an old Lego Advent calendar for girls.

Gerren gave Carys a bag of gummy bears.

Carys' birthday fell on a Thursday when Greg works all day and night, and Landon isn't home from school.  He was coming home Friday though, as they had a three-day weekend with Monday off for Martin Luther King Day.  So Carys chose to wait to eat out (our birthday tradition) until Friday night.  We went to Cracker Barrel.

We don't usually do cake and candles.  I let each child choose a dessert for their big day.  This year, Carys chose a cake (White Cookie Cake), so we put candles in it for her.

Sick!

Monday night, Carys had a slight cough.  Tuesday morning she was rather lethargic but had no temperature.  She had a dentist's appointment at Shands at 4pm.  We do NOT cancel Shands' appointments as it takes so long to get another one.  So, we went.  She had eaten a couple of bites of cereal for breakfast and that's it.  She fell asleep waiting to leave.

Waiting to leave for the dentist's

She slept the entire hour to Gainesville.  I got her a smoothie after her appointment, she drank a couple of sips, and slept the entire hour home from Gainesville.  When we got home, she took a quick bath, fell asleep on my bed and slept the entire evening.  By the time she woke up, she had a fever and a very congested cough.  She slept most of the day Wednesday and the entire afternoon Thursday, eating almost nothing.  This morning she woke up fever-free.

Chase has the fever and the congested cough.  Sigh!

2013 Already?

Seems it's time for my monthly post as today is January 7th and my last was on December 8! :)  I'm hopeless.  As I'm reading other blogs, I think about updating mine and it never goes much farther than that.

We had a great December.  Landon arrived home from school on Wednesday, December 12.  We had two more days of school and then were off for the next three weeks.  It was wonderful.  It's been many years since we've taken three weeks off at Christmas; we just haven't had the time.  This year, we had finished 18 weeks of curriculum, half of our subjects that take the longest, by December 14.  We'll finish up the year in mid-May depending on how much time we take off this spring.

On Saturday, December 15, we headed to Busch Gardens' Christmas Town for our annual Meahl Family Christmas Event.  It was the 8th year in a row we've done something together rather than exchanging gifts, and we always have a great time.   Chase and my niece convinced me to ride a crazy roller coaster with them.  I can't believe I survived.  I always loved roller coasters, but I'm getting older.  What can I say?

Sunday, the 16th, was my 50th birthday.  I was NOT looking forward to it.  We went to Carrabba's for dinner.  I was so thrilled to have our friends, the Spiddles, join us.  Landon and Chase gave me a really neat gift.  On the way home from school (Orlando), he went by The Cheesecake Factory and bought me two pieces of cheesecake.  They froze them until Sunday!  That was so thoughtful.  They also gave me two poinsettias.  I always want poinsettias but can never justify the expense of buying some.  I'm still enjoying them. :)   Greg tried to buy me Christmas dishes which I had asked for.  It's almost impossible for him to buy me anything.  Luckily, I found the Pfaltzgraff Winterberry pattern at Belk for 70% off the day after Christmas.  I also had a coupon of some sort with me.  I got a much nicer set of dishes for less than he paid for some that were red on the inside and white on the outside or vice versa - not my idea of Christmas dishes.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with candlelight service and dinner out at the Ocean Buffet.  It's the second year we've eaten there, and we really like it.  The kids always open one "wintery" gift on Christmas Eve (fleece blankets or mittens or warm pajamas).  This year they all got long-sleeved shirts purchased at Old Navy on Black Friday.

Christmas Eve

Everyone agreed to get up before 10:00am on Christmas day.  Teenagers!  So, we had homemade cinnamon rolls, did the center candle of our Advent wreath, and began opening presents.  Landon was so excited to see how everyone liked what he gave them.  He really went all out this year.  We gave three gifts a piece to the kids - one major gift and two smaller ones.  Landon's major gift was a Kindle (the lowest-priced model that's simply an e-reader), Gerren's was a luggage set (same thing Landon got his senior year Christmas), Chase's was a set of telescopic binoculars for looking at the stars, and Carys' was a Leapster 2 (which you really can't call a major gift since I got it for $20 on Black Friday!).  Everyone liked their gifts, though Carys needs more games for hers to really enjoy it.  Her birthday is 1/17, so I foresee games in her future. :)

The traditional Christmas morning photo

Landon gave Greg a Kindle Fire.  He broke the iTouch I bought him a year or so ago by sitting on it in his back pocket.  So, Landon figured at least he couldn't sit on this one.  Our only dilemma is trying to convert the albums we bought on iTunes to mp3s.  The newer ones are convertible, but the older ones aren't.  I need to put that on my to-do list.  Greg bought me a purse I hated, but I found one I liked a day or so after Christmas and bought it.  The kids bought me a pair of FitFlop clogs which I really wanted, but I didn't like the style, they were too expensive and they were too small.  I also found a different pair I liked a day or so later and Landon order those (he actually saved money)!  See, I'm awful to buy anything for.  I need to make a Wish List on Amazon.com like my friend Kristine does.

A Doctor Who shirt from Landon to Gerren

Carys was so thrilled to hand out her gifts

"Girl" Legos from Landon to Carys

A My Little Pony calendar from Mom & Dad

Gerren needed new running shoes....these were too small!

 

Leapster 2 from Mom & Dad

Brave

Landon bought Chase a messenger bag from some anime' they watch

Luggage for Christmas your senior year in high school may become a traditional gift!

Playing with the Legos now that they're put together

After a dinner of steak, baked potatoes and salad, we headed to the movies to see The Hobbit.  We enjoyed it even though it didn't get very good reviews.  When we got home, we had dessert - cranberry cheesecake - and opened stockings as usual.  Everyone loved what they got in their stockings which included ear buds and iTunes gift cards.  My stocking had caramel creams (which I love) in it.  That was all.  Caramel Creams.  Certainly a disappointment.  It's hard for someone whose love language is gift giving to live in a family where almost no one else's love language is gift giving.  Sigh.

We had a great New Year's Eve of game playing and appetizer-type foods at home with our family.  Everyone made it until midnight, even Carys.  New Year's Day we had a turkey I bought on sale near Thanksgiving for dinner, then Landon took Chase and me to see Les Miserables.  I really liked it, though I didn't cry for the whole three hours as I've heard of people doing.  (Landon says I may not have a soul.) :)

We're back to school now and looking forward to all the spring holds, including Gerren's graduation from high school entrance into the Air Force.  Maybe I'll update more frequently.  Yeah, right!