January 2014

 This month is the reason that I found it impossible to blog for the past few months.  Our lives were thrown into turmoil when Greg's boss at the county fired him for refusing to add something to the minutes of a meeting that didn't actually happen in that meeting.  There was a recording of the meeting that proved it.  The boss tried to get Greg to resign so that "it wouldn't be on his record", but we did not feel that was the right thing to do.  So there was a termination hearing in front of a Human Resources employee.  Greg won this hearing because he had received a positive job evaluation 6 months earlier and a performance bonus a few months earlier and his boss had not followed the employee handbook of steps that should be followed when an employee has unsatisfactory job performance.  We figure that he's just managed to intimidate everyone into resigning in the past.

He was reinstated to his job and the boss waited 2 days to write him up twice (!) and terminate him again.  This time the HR person upheld the termination.  Greg appealed to the county administrator (a good buddy of his boss), and he also upheld the termination.  Of course there is much, much more to the story, but I'm summing it up here.  The boss who fired him is a bully who is liked by almost no one at the county but is the longest employee there.  If HR and the county administrator hadn't upheld the termination, they would have been admitting that the boss was wrong.  So, I guess that would have made them liable for his actions.  We considered suing the county for wrongful termination, but Florida is a right-to-work state.  Greg did not have a contract, so he can basically be fired for any reason.  We felt that pursuing a lawsuit would not benefit us in the long run.  So, we didn't.  We're counting on God for justice whether that's in the short term or the long term.  In the meanwhile, God has provided for us.  Greg has been working more hours at his second job, the Hampton Inn, and he's had all kinds of other work passed on to him by his brother (which actually pays better than the hotel does).  However, he's gone from home as much as he always was, and we'd really love for that to end and for him to get one full-time good-paying job.  I've pinched the pennies about as tightly as I can, so there's not much to be done there.

Thankfully, we had health insurance through the end of January, because Chase dropped a coffee cup and cut her hand so badly that we had to take her to an urgent care place for stitches.

Dad removed her stitches as he had for me, Landon & Carys as well.

We celebrated Carys' 8th birthday on January 17.  We ate out at Bubbalou's BBQ in Orlando.

Then we went home to open presents and eat cake.  Yum!

My Little Pony Monopoly from Gerren

A slinky!

December 2013

This year was my 51st birthday.  Ugh!  Oh well, I guess it's better than the alternative. :)


This was the very first Christmas without one of my children at home.  So strange!  We got to Skype with Gerren later in the day.  He worked all night Christmas Eve but had Christmas night off.  We opened gifts to/from each other via Skype as well.

The annual photo - we managed to get Gerren in there!

Carys LOVED these boots!

Chase embroidered these designs from some Anime they watch onto kitchen towels for Landon.

 

Landon didn't have many requests, but black socks was one.

Landon gave Chase a Samsung tablet!

Chase asked for a silver watch and actually liked the one I picked out!

November 2013

 In November, Gerren left for his first duty station, Whiteman Air Force Base, MO.  We sold him Greg's truck, and they both drove across the country in it.  They stopped in Illinois to see Grandma Epie and Papa JoJo on the way.  Then Greg flew home.  This was the last time Gerren got to see Papa JoJo.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Florida this year with the Miskiewicz family as usual.  We were missing three family members for the first time ever.  Gerren had just had leave and could not get more at this time.  Erin and Jeremy just got married in September and couldn't afford to come all the way from Wisconsin.  The rest of us had a good time, though!

Carys skypes with Erin and Jeremy.

Chase made hot chocolate and she, Carys, and Miss Kim looked at the stars.

I love this picture SO much!

Cheese!

October 2013

Get ready for a whirlwind of catch-up posts that cover the last 7 months.  I realized that I wanted to do this when I was trying to figure out how many times my parents came to Florida after Carys was born before my dad was no longer able to travel.  The only way I could figure this out was by looking at my blog.  So, I need to keep it up!  Here goes!

Gerren graduated from Security Forces tech school at Joint Base San Antonio (the same place he did BMT).

Then he came home for about 10 days.

He was still home on 10/31 for the Meahl Family Scavenger Hunt which Carys did all by herself this year!

September Update

Well, September is almost over, so I guess I should update since my last post.  We left for our timeshare on Saturday, August 24.  But we spent the week before leaving shopping for a minivan or car.  We were so torn as to which we should get.  Finally on Thursday, we bit the bullet and bought a used Prius.  We figure it will save us a fortune in gas over time.  It was hard to choose moving from our big conversion van to a small car, though. 

Anyway, we always have such a great, relaxing week at Suntide, not doing much but swimming and reading, etc.  This year was no different.  It was so strange only having four of us there, though. 

The girls enjoyed meeting up with their friends, the Bratolli girls and the Beatty kids.  Carys always makes new friends as well. 

The Beattys live in Manhattan.  Mikaela is a year behind Chase in school, but they always have a good time together. 

Nolan is a couple of years older than Carys, but this year she decided that they're going to get married.  Oh boy!

 

 Dennis is from Maryland and is one of Carys' new friends.

 

 Nolan, Mikaela, Chase and Carys

The Beattys took the kids to St. Armand's circle for ice cream on the last night.  There you can buy a $6 ice cream cone (it's probably more than that - we avoid St. Armand's personally).

 We got back home on  Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  Though Greg was off during the day on Monday, we did school since we had to take the following Monday off.  I hate 4-day weeks.  It messes up my Sonlight schedule!

Anyway, on Friday, September 6, we left Ocala, went to Orlando to pick up Landon, and headed to Raleigh - all 5 of us in the Prius!  It wasn't bad, but I think we'll be renting a minivan to go any further, like Illinois to visit my parents. :) 

We arrived late Friday night and got up early Saturday morning to attend the wedding rehearsal of Erin Miskiewicz and Jeremy Phillips.  I was the wedding coordinator, Greg was the handyman extraordinaire and Landon was the MC for the reception.  We rehearsed, had some time off that afternoon, and attended the rehearsal dinner that evening.  The next morning, we headed to the venue to set everything up.  We planned to go back to the hotel to check out and dress.  Well, there was more to do than there was time, so the girls and I went back and checked out and brought Greg's clothes to him.  After the wedding and reception, we drove to Savannah that night and then back to Orlando Monday morning.  Landon needed to be at his Quantum Mechanics II class by 11:30.  Then we drove back home as Greg had to work that evening.  EXHAUSTING!  But we wouldn't have missed it for the world!

We've spent the rest of this month doing school and running to various doctor and dentist appointments, just regular check-ups.  Funny how time flies just doing those normal things.  I wish I had some wedding pictures to post, but we were too busy working to take any.  I hope to get some from Kim soon. :)

Interesting School Stats

 Click on the graphic below to see the whole thing.

 
Source: TopMastersInEducation.com

August Update

I am so conflicted as to whether or not to keep up with this blog for several reasons.

1) I don't have anything important to say.
2) I am on Facebook.
3) I'm not very good at keeping up with it.
4) I've had a lot of trouble posting pictures the last few posts.

However, for now, I'm going to try to give a picture by picture update of what's been going on in our family since my lost post in March.  Hold on to your hats!

In March we went to Wonderworks with two other families with high school kids from our homeschool group.

On May 5, Chase turned 15.  How did that happen?

On May 3, we celebrated Gerren's graduation, and....

...on May 13, he left Ocala for Air Force basic training in San Antonio, TX.

On June 30, Greg turned 50.

Then, on July 6, we left Florida and spent a couple days in IL with my parents on our way to....

....Texas for Gerren's graduation from BMT.  Thursday morning we cheered as he ran by....

...during the Airman's Run.

Later that morning, Carys tapped him out after the Coin Ceremony.

We had a lot of catching up to do during base liberty that day.

On Friday morning we watched them Pass in Review on the parade grounds and graduate!

Greg tapped Gerren out this time.

Gerren had town pass the rest of Friday.  We ate at Dough Pizzeria Napoletano and watched Netflix movies in our hotel room.  He had town pass all day Saturday, and we ate that day at another Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommended place, El Bohio.  On Sunday, he had only base liberty.  So we met at the BX and had breakfast at Burger King.  We went to chapel on base at 11:00am, then had lunch at Manchu Wok which was in the food court of one of the bigger BX's at Lackland.  There are many!  Gerren had to be back by 4pm, and we headed home.  It was a VERY LONG drive!

We took pictures Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, July 28, we got together at our house with Greg's cousin Bob and his family while they were in town for a few days. Rebekah held up pictures of AJ and Gerren who were both out of town. :)

Monday, July 29, the girls and I began our rolling start into the school year with all our Sonlight stuff.  Chase was doing Math and some Life Management along with reading a few books all summer.  Carys continued her reading and math on a light schedule all summer, so we just added to it.  The first week went pretty well.

Chase a very intense load this year.  She is a sophomore.  She will be finishing Geometry by December, and starting Algebra II, so that her junior year she'll be ready to start pre-calculus.  She's taking 1 credit of church history, 1/2 credit of World Geography.  Her church history is Sonlight 200, and we're using the Adventuring Through the Bible book (along with some books she's used in the last two years) to make a 1 credit Introduction to the Bible course.  She's finishing up driver's ed (the book and DVD work anyway).  She continues Aerospace Education which is just her CAP work for each promotion.  English II consists of Sonlight 200 literature and vocabulary.  We'll also be using Brave Writer's Help for High School writing supplement once we get everything else going.  She's also taking Chemistry.  She gets up at 7:30 and works straight through, pretty much until 5pm.  I remind her, though, that she doesn't have homework after that.  :)

Landon is home for two weeks while the campus is pretty much closed down between Summer B and the Fall semester.  Gerren is in tech school at Lackland AFB training as a security forces specialist.  He will be stationed at Whiteman AFB near Knob Noster, MO, after that.  We hope he'll be able to come home and work for two weeks in the Recruiter Assistance Program prior to that.

I warned you to hold on to your hats, huh?

Linda