Boys State

Every year American Legion posts in all states except Hawaii choose a delegate to attend Boys State, a program to teach high school juniors about government. The program takes place for a week in the summer after the student's junior year in the state capital.

There are many veterans in Florida, so there are many American Legion posts. Typically, two different posts have chosen their candidates from Citrus High School in Inverness. The number of interested young men has been decreasing as there is more and more to do. So, one of the local posts decided to look for a homeschooled candidate this year. They contacted the local Civil Air Patrol squadron for suggestions, and the Commander recommended Landon.

He had to give a speech to the members of the post and answer their questions. They voted to send him to Tallahassee as their delegate for Boys State.




Isn't he handsome? He's so excited about going as he LOVES politics!

Happy Birthday Carys!

Well, I'm almost a week late writing this post. Carys' 4th birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and she and Landon and Greg and I were at a Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach for the CAP Special Activities Selection Board. Gerren and Chase were back in Inverness for the Disciple Now weekend for the youth at Cornerstone Baptist Church. We didn't haul all her presents to the hotel, so she had to wait until we got home in the late afternoon to open them. We did enjoy lunch at Sweet Tomatoes in Orlando on the way home.

Here's Carys with her pile of gifts.


Chase went to the Dollar Store and loaded up with stuff she thought Carys would like: a coloring book, Reese's peanut butter cups, Tic Tacs, and gummy worms.


Gerren gave Carys a big bottle of bubbles, and Landon gave her an umbrella. (Of course, I picked out both these things.)


Gran gave Carys this Polly Pocket set, and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kay gave her a $20 bill.


Grandma Epie and Papa JoJo gave her $500 for her college fund.

The ONLY good thing about a birthday so soon after Christmas is hitting the sales. I got this My Little Pony set for half price.


This baby doll was on sale as well.


I wanted to get Carys her own jewelry box, but they didn't have them at the Walmart in Inverness (about the only local place to shop). So, we got her this LeapFrog Fridge Words instead.


Well, on Saturday, we went to a Walmart in Cocoa Beach to get a couple of things, and lo and behold, they had these jewelry boxes on clearance for $5! We snatched one up.


Cary has played with these ponies every day since her birthday.


We were so surprised when Carys didn't fall asleep in the car on the way home from Cocoa Beach. Well, she made up for it. At around 6:30 that evening, she climbed up in Greg's lap and was asleep in 5 minutes. She slept until 8:00a.m. the next morning!

Where Has the Time Gone?

Here it is January 10, and I haven't blogged all year! Well, it's been a madhouse around here since December 30. Plus, I'm too busy reading other people's blog and Facebook statues to post my own. Bad, bad!

Anyway, on Monday, December 28, they called Greg's mom from the cardiologist's office. The 30-day heart monitor she was wearing did not look good. They sent her to the ER. On Wednesday, December 30, she had a pacemaker installed. She began having pain in the area under her left breast that evening. She had one or two bad episodes of pain every day. She would be moaning with tears running down her face. They had to give her a Darvocet every time. They did an x-ray to see if the wires to the pacemaker were all in place. They also did two cat scans. Everything looked fine.

On Saturday, a representative from Medtronics, the pacemaker company, came in to test her pacemaker. She was having a pain episode at that time. He seemed very concerned about the situation and said he'd never seen anything like it. Still, he said her pacemaker was fine. He called and talked to the cardiologist on call who later came and examined her. He told us the pain was not caused by the pacemaker and was coming from "the outside". We had no experience with pacemakers, so we assumed that they had just yanked her around while placing it and pulled muscles that were having spasms. She went home to Jeff and Kay's since she was not supposed to be by herself for 4 weeks.

On Sunday night, she came to our house since everyone is at work at Jeff & Kay's during the week. She continued to have these pain episodes as well as a very strong heartbeat that you could feel with your hand in the same place. By Wednesday, I decided that this should be better by now. It had been a week after the surgery. So, I called the cardiologist's office and explained to the nurse what was going on. She said to bring Colleen in.

When we got there, she used the same machine to test the pacemaker that the Medtronics rep had used on Saturday. However, she found that the ventricular lead was not working. The pacemaker then operates at a very high voltage trying to make the lead work and this was causing her diaphragm to spasm. Now, why didn't the guy find this on Saturday? He also mentioned that someone was supposed to have checked her pacemaker on 12/31. No one did. He was the first person we saw, and that was on 1/2. Greg is furious, to say the least. She has to go in tomorrow and have this lead repositioned. Another surgery, anesthesia, etc. We will NOT leave the hospital this time until it is right. Mark my words!

That's what's been going on here - in addition to starting school last Monday. This week, we'll hopefully get Gran's problem taken care of. Then on Friday, Gerren and Chase are attending the Disciple Now conference at Cornerstone. Greg, Carys, and I are taking Landon to Patrick AFB for the Special Activities Selection Board for CAP. You must go before this board in order to participate in many of the national activities that take place during the summer for CAP. Greg got a free weekend at a Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach for Christmas from the Hampton where he works. So, we're taking advantage of it.