Disaster Averted!

Wednesdays are typically busy days that include heading for Ocala by 2:20 for music lessons and a stop at Aldi's. So, I always plan something I can make ahead for dinner or something Landon can fix if he's staying home. By the time we get home, everyone is ready to eat immediately.

Today promised to be even busier as we needed to leave by noon to drop Sarah off with her mom and get to the Scholastic Book Fair sale. Landon and Greg also had eye doctor appointments, so I had a crockpot meal planned. I browned bratwurst, cut up potatoes and onion and apples and put the recipe into the crockpot.

About ten minutes later, I noticed that something smelled funny. I saw smoke coming up from my crockpot. I quickly unplugged it and lifted the crock out of the outer piece. Upon investigation, I found that the metal heating element part had melted completely through the bottom of the hard plastic exterior.



I was so thankful that I hadn't plugged it in and left immediately as I do sometimes! Needless to say, I had to run to Walmart for a new crockpot. Thankfully, Walmart is only 5 minutes away.

Clay's First Birthday

We were thrilled to have a chance to visit with our friends Ron and Lisa Kearse and their family while they were visiting Ron's parents. Greg's family and the Kearse family grew up together, in church, family camping vacations, etc.

Ron is a major in the Marines and stationed at Quantico right now. His brother Allan is a Lt. Col. in the Army and getting ready to move from TX to CO. We were thrilled to get to visit with Allan's family when the kids and I were traveling through TX last spring. However, when we went to D.C. last fall, Ron and Lisa were in TX!

Anyway, their littlest guy, Clay, was turning 1, so Grandma and Grandpa had a cook-out. We've had a ton of fun at cookouts at their house over the past 20+ years!

Can't you just imagine Clay thinking, "Oooo, what is this?"


Then he gets his first taste! Would you look at those eyes?


I think he likes it.


I'm sure he likes it!


In fact, he's wearing it!


Lisa, Clay, and Ron


The entire family: Lily, Caden, Lisa, Clay, Ron, and Colin.


Caden gives Carys a ride on the back of his bike.


We had a great time!

We Finally Did It!

Well, we took the plunge and put our house on the market yesterday. No, I haven't taken up real estate in my spare time. The "Linda Meahl" who listed our house is affectionately known by us as "the other Linda Meahl". We both married into the name. Her husband and Greg are cousins.

We had a certified appraisal on our house a couple of weeks ago. Then, we listed the house for lightly less than the appraised value. If we can sell it for that amount (or even slightly less), we can pay off our mortgage and pay cash for a house in Ocala (slightly smaller than ours or without a pool but also without a mortgage).



When Greg took his current job we were expecting to be paid $200/month toward our health insurance after 6 months and to receive bonuses for each job he supervised. Well, the market went south and none of those benefits have materialized. So, we have to do something in order to continue living. Thankfully, we have no other debt other than our mortgage, but it's tough to feed, clothe, shelter and provide medical care for 6 people on one income. We've been praying for wisdom and feel like this is our best option. Otherwise, Greg would have to get a second job (not a good option since he's already gone from home for 12 hours every day) or I would need to get a job (not a good option if it includes sending the kids to public school), or Greg would have to get a different higher-paying job (not easy to do in this economy).

So, we're going to see what God will do. It wasn't an easy decision since we designed and built this house ourselves AND because it's a LOT of work to move. But, you know what? It's just a house. Everything we have came from God and belongs to him, and we want to hold it all with an open hand.

As Linda took pictures of the inside of the house, Carys followed her around with an old digital recorder pretending that it was a camera and taking her own "pictures". Of course, I couldn't get her to stand still long enough to actually get a picture of that!

Catching Up

Well, we seem to keep so busy doing I don't know what! I'm in the thick of thinking about school next year. I am more up in the air about curriculum than I have ever been. Landon is a done deal. He'll dual enroll at CFCC for physics and calculus and do American government at home. He's done with his English and foreign language credits (well, the math and science credits needed for graduation,too) plus most of the extra life management stuff I designed for him. So, he's going to have a little breathing room in order to tackle his first college classes.

Gerren will do Algebra II, American History, English II and Biology of some sort. We're trying to decide on a curriculum. What I used for Landon (Apologia) is just NOT going to work for Gerren. We're also trying to decide whether to begin tackling a foreign language or not, and if so, using what curriculum.

Chase will continue doing CLE math, but I'm not going to do Sonlight 5 in its entirity with her. I just didn't like it that much when I did it with the boys. So, I'm researching options including SL 5 readers and read-alouds (but not history), Florida history (I have this from the boys) along with the Maps and Geography book and maybe putting real effort into memorizing the States and Capitals more thoroughly and the Presidents. Or maybe I'll do Runkle's geography program with the SL 5 readers and read-alouds. Decisions, decisions!

Carys is going to do Sonlight Preschool 3/4 which is really just reading good books. Here's a picture of her looking really cute one day.


Boy, do I have trouble getting a good smile out of this girl!


Finally, we are praying about selling our house and downsizing financially so that we will have NO mortgage which for us means NO debt. In doing this, we would probably move to Ocala where Greg works and all the churches we've visited are and where Gerren and Chase have music lessons. Now, the other REALLY BIG thing we are praying about is purchasing a home in the historic district which would need to be completely renovated inside. It would be a major project, but we'd end up with no mortgage, enough space, and a really neat home. There are a LOT of details that God would have to work out perfectly, though. So, we're praying for him to make everything clear to us.

Finally, I just have to share this last picture. One Tuesday night before Civil Air Patrol, Landon came into the room dressed for PT like this: black shirt, navy blue shorts, black socks up to his knees. We all almost keeled over laughing! He is SUCH a nerd! But the really wonderful thing about this kid is that he just doesn't care. He's so comfortable in his own skin. Upon threat of disowning, we got him to change the shorts into burgundy ones and to swap the socks out for shortER white ones. He refuses to wear the no-show socks. What a kid! :)

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day in central Florida. We decided to go back to a church we've visited several times about six weeks ago. We are still participating in the "great church search" again. Ugh! Anyway, the service was fantastic, so we were so glad we went. We had lunch at Logan's. I hadn't been there since Greg's birthday in June 2007 and had been wanting to go back. We had no wait to be seated, great service, and a wonderful meal as well.

All day Carys kept asking if we were "going to Easter". Well, we thought she meant church, but she kept asking. Then we thought she meant home (to see her Easter basket), but she kept asking. Finally she said, "The bunny's nice, right?" and I realized that she was asking to go to the Walkers (our friends who always have an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday afternoon). They just weren't up to it this year, so we were on our own. It seemed so strange to us, but I couldn't believe Carys remembered it from last year.

Here are some pictures. Only the girls dressed up. We seem to gravitate to churches where you don't dress up :), and the boys take advantage of this.

It's so hard to get Carys to smile normally!




We headed outside for a few pictures, since it was such a beautiful day.




The theme for the Easter baskets seemed to be "movies" this year.


I had already purchased the two Tim Hawkins DVDs that we didn't already own and the newest Veggie Tales (tratree tales - as Carys calls it).


However, during the week before Easter, Target had an awesome sale on DVDs and Greg picked up four others.


So everyone got 2 DVDs in their baskets ...


except Chase who got one and a new dress for Liberty.


There was also a lot of candy. Gerren checks out the robin eggs inside the plastic eggs.


We had a great, relaxing day. "He is risen. He is risen indeed!"

What's Happening?

There's been a lot going on around here but not many picture-taking opportunities. I am SO bad about blogging when I have no pictures to post.

I administered the IOWA test to my homeschool group this past week. It's funny how grueling it is to have to get up and out three mornings in a row! Gerren and Chase also took the test this year. I test them every other year beginning in 3rd grade and stopping once they get to high school, since they will then begin taking college placement tests, etc.

Landon took the CPT (College Placement Test) and CLM (College Level Math) at our local community college this week. He blew them away. I also mailed in his Dual Enrollment Application package. He hopes to take a computer course this summer then Calculus and Physics in the fall.

I need to renew my teaching certificate by June 30, 2010. I usually do this early in the recertification period. But this time, life slowed me down. I am certified in two areas: middle school math and elementary education. That means I have to recertify both areas. This involves 120 points, 60 points in each field. One college credit is worth 20 points. So, I need 3 credits in math and 3 credits in elementary education. A lot of different things count as "in field" for elementary ed, and a computer course is basically "in field" for anything. I also found out that a CLEP test will count if you have a college award credit on a transcript from the test. So, I'm debating whether to take the College Mathematics CLEP test (worth 6 credits) and send the scores to CFCC then request a transcript or taking Intermediate Algebra and Microcomputer Applications at CFCC this summer. Each is a six-week summer course. It seems like a miserable summer to me. But I haven't been an actual student at CFCC for a long time, so I'm not sure if they'd award credit on a transcript to me for the CLEP test or what. ??? I can't decide what to do, and I have no energy to try to call someone at CFCC and figure it out. Blech!

The boys are at Airfest in Tampa this weekend with their CAP squadron. So, it's much quieter here. I'm enjoying it! :)

Landscaping

After moving into our house six years ago, we finally gave up on ever getting the landscaping finished. This fall, we got our friends Chris and Lisa Winn of Chris Winn Lawn and Landscaping to finish it for us. Jeff also finished the curbing that he and Greg started when they were first opening the curbing business. They all did an amazing job. We really love this little area of the yard. We spent a couple of days at the beginning of the year sitting out there.



We bought this little fountain to sit by the grill area. It gives the appeal of a water feature without the cost of putting a big one in.

New Year's Eve

We were blessed to spend part of New Year's Eve with our friends, the Lacognatas. We have done some really wonderful things with this family, and we miss seeing them every week. 3 of our kids are close in age to 3 of their kids, both families homeschool, Kim, Joe, and I are all from Illinois originally, and we're all Christ followers, so God has knitted our hearts together. We spent the evening eating, watching a Tim Hawkins DVD, and finally playing Apples to Apples. We missed Alleson who was working, and Landon and Gerren who were at CAP Winter Encampment. The girls had such a good time that they didn't want the evening to end. We should have kept Nina and Sarah overnight!

Jon and Joe Lacognata


Sarah and Nina Lacognata and Chase

Groundbreaking!

Well, our church has finally broken ground for it's first permanent, owned - not rented, facility ever! We had a fabulous time at the groundbreaking yesterday. But it was HOT! I don't know why we always seem to do things outdoors on the property in hot weather (which is a great deal of the year here in Florida)! I did not have my camera with me as I was playing keys this weekend at church and didn't have time to go home in between. Our friend Darren had his, though, so he took this picture for us. We were divided in groups by when we came to the Springs. So that's the meaning of the sign by which we're standing.

What We've Been Up To

I guess I've been too busy reading everyone else's blogs to keep up with my own.  Really I don't have any good pictures to post, and I don't feel like I'm much of a writer.  So, if I don't have any pictures, I don't blog.  This isn't good because lots has been going on here.

First, here's why I don't have any good pictures.  Last week was our 19th wedding anniversary (hard to believe), and Greg bought me an awesome digital SLR camera.  I have been wanting one for a year or more.  It's is great, but I just don't have the time right now to read the manual and figure out how to use it.

Second, we took a quick trip to Atlanta this weekend to see a Braves game with Steven Curtis Chapman in concert after the game.  The game was HOT!  We only saw half as we were late arriving.  After the game, we moved down to the concert area and waited while they set up the equipment.  After it was all set up, they proceeded to cover it up because it was thundering and lightening in the distance and closing in quickly.  They decided to wait the storm out as it was supposed to pass over in 30 minutes.  It did.  However, it was too dangerous to uncover the equipment and play the planned set.  So, Steven came up and did a completely unplanned set with just his voice and guitar.  He talked a lot about the loss of their little girl Maria in May.  It was the first time he ever looked his age (which is just 17 days older than me!).  It was an incredible time, even though I wept through a great deal of it.

Third, we started school for the most part today.  I decided last year to do a rolling start from then on.  So, last week, we started 1 or 2 subjects each.  This week we added our Sonlight stuff.  Next week, we'll add everything else. 

It's going to be a busy week.  Tonight is our only night home.  The boys have CAP tomorrow night.  Church and lessons and rehearsal after church will fill up Wednesday afternoon and evening.  Thursday night we're spending with our dear friends who are moving to Greenville, SC, to start a church.  Friday night I have an LASIK check-up in Tampa at 6pm, then we plan to meet up with some other dear friends who have moved there.  Then it'll be a long weekend as I'm playing at church.  Whew!  Pray for me as we try to figure out what is causing this overwhelming exhaustion and fix it!

CAP Pool Party

Landon has been a member of the Citrus County Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol for over a year now. Recently, Gerren decided he'd like to join, too. The Deputy Commander of Cadets and his family hosted the second annual pool party for this group. So, we all joined in the fun (except Daddy who was at work) last Friday.

A chess game was part of the fun...


so was an exciting football match.


Chase and Carys had a great time in the pool.


Landon is always interested in the food.


This is a picture of all the CAP members present.


It was incredibly hot (hence my hair being pulled back).


Shane and Landon joke around for the camera.


Thanks to my friend Mary for sharing the pictures with me!

Freedom Fest

On Thursday night, July 3, we headed for Brooksville for Freedom Fest. This was an event sponsored by the Joy FM and the Brooksville Ministerial Association as well as a few other groups. The headline of the evening was the free Matthew West concert (well, it cost $5 to park). The evening was awesome except for the 15 or so minutes of rain. We weren't very well prepared for it. The concert was fabulous! Here are a few pictures.

Carys smiles for the camera!


You weren't allowed to take food or drinks of any kind into the park. So, we planned ahead to eat there. Unfortunately, there really weren't a lot of vendors. We were thinking "fair food", but ended up with BBQ sandwiches, a cheeseburger, etc.


Landon's enjoying himself.


The fireworks were put together by the same company that does the Super Bowl fireworks, so they were really awesome.


The only downfall to the evening was the length of time it took to get out of the parking lot. We sat there until it was cleared before turning on the van. Gas is too expensive!