Christmas

We started our Christmas Eve with Jeff's family. Lots of good food and fun...and of course, presents. Rock Band was Shayne's big gift from US. We are having lots of fun with it. Our christmas finally ended on Sunday with my side of the family Christmas. My nephew Matt and his family came up from AR and my sister and brother in law came from Pittsburgh. We had our annual rob your neighbor game, tons of great food and fun playing cards and watching movies. We had an awesome holiday but I'm ready for it it be over.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Shayne turned 12

Shayne got 2 lego sets from Aunt Vicki, Uncle Dave, Aunt Marsha and Uncle Steve. He already has one put together.

Digital camera from Mom and Dad. Shayne is always taking our camera and we end up with weird pictures so now he has his own.

blowing out the candle

Happy Birthday Shayne. We love you very much and are proud of you.

My FAVORITE Santa

Steve and Santa. I think this is a great picture.

Santa with His Singers.

My hubby is my favorite Santa. He does a great job and has fun doing it. Great job Jeff!!!

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas. "God Bless us Every One"

I'm Thankful for....

1. God, He holds me up

2. a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and doesn't see my faults

3. my son, who is my greatest joy.

4. two loving parents who don't judge me and love me just the way I am

5 my sisters who will always be there for me

6. my nieces and nephews! Too many to count and still adding on.

7. Jeff's family (my in-laws) who have always made me feel accepted.

8. David and Steve , who are NOT my brother in laws but my brothers

9. my home. it may be small but it's comfy and filled with love.

10. My dog, she's so sweet

11. the time I had with my grandparents

12. Jesus, who loved me enough to die for me

13. Sunday lunched with my family

14. Prayer group "Boys"

15. Shayne is having a great year at school.

16. Teachers who have loved my son. And counselours too-CARLA!!!

17. my church family

18. vacations spent with family. and the beach :)

19. steady jobs

20. Jeff having the courage to go back to school to pursue other options

21. Old Friends

22. New Friends

23. Hugs

24. Laughter

25. Family camping trips in our cozy camper

26. that I have all I need

27. Salvation

28. forgiveness

29. Happy Endings

30. That I have so much to be thankful for.

Scouting for Food

Scouting for Food pick up was this past Saturday. At 1st we were discouraged b/c we didn't think our area of pick up had left much food and at the firehouse when we 1st started boxing up the food it was very slim. Well, we didn't need to worry since very soon the floors of the firehouse were covered with bags and bags and bags of food. It was awesome and the boys worked very hard filling the boxes up and loading them onto the trailer. Brian and Chris J. in the middle of the piles filling up boxes.

Jeff and Shayne loading boxes onto the 2 wheeler to take over to the trailer

Piles and Piles of food.

Thanks to everyone who put food out on their front porch on Saturday. The Boy Scouts collected about 2.2 million cans of food. Awesome Job!!

Been 2 weeks since I've posted anything. We must be boring. Some good news is Shayne is still doing well in school. His 2nd grading period ended last week and he has ALL A's and B's. I think he had 2 C's last time. I'm thrilled. He still loves it, but it very resistant to doing homework. Thankfully he doesn't have too much of it....5th grade had way more. We did Scouting for Food Saturday and that was COLD. Lucky for me I got to stay in the warm car. Shayne said if it's that cold next week he doesn't want to pick up bags....too bad for him I'm not giving him a choice. I'm working a lot more now. 35 hours a week....guess that might be FULL TIME. I really don't want to work full time but it's working out okay. Jeff's been busy working and going to school for his EMT certification. He really enjoys that. I feel like this blog is one of those christmas letters. It is that time of year.
Have a great week. Hopefully we'll continue to have boring ones. I think that 's better...less stressful.

Nature Art

Shayne at a beautiful look out during sunset at Pere Marquette State Park. We had a great drive today looking at the changing of seasons. Shayne likes to call it Nature Art.

This tree was my favorite of all we saw today. It has so many colors in it. We drove down the Great River Road to Pere Marquette State Park. It was great.

Shayne taught me about Nature Art yesterday and how God gives us a gift of art through nature. We looked at how beautiful the clouds were while we were driving and since I had my camera with me he snapped some shots.

Happy Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. Shayne decided he didn't want to trick or treat so we handed out a little bit of candy to our neighbors and then headed over to the Henley's for their open house. We saw lots of friends and ate lots of yummy food. Last year Jeff started dressing up. I'm not sure what has possessed him to do this,but he has fun with it. His last minute costume turned out pretty good. He's a Rock Star!!
Shayne reused last years costume and added a little blood to his face which you can't see. He enjoyed running around and sneak attacking our neighbors. He's not so good at being sneaky.
Overall, it was a great evening. Now I guess I'll have to really start focusing on Christmas shopping. Marsha and I are going out today for awhile. At least the weather is fairly warm.

nothin' much

Well, I guess we've been pretty boring. Doesn't seem like much to write about. School is still going great for Shayne....he got 100% on his spelling test last week. He stayed after for a club called School of Rock. Jack Black wasn't there but they did attempt to play Rock Band. I think he may try it again next week.
Jeff and Shayne went Boy Scout camping last weekend. They had a good time. Got a little cold Saturday night,but the rest of the time was fine. I went to the movies and dinner with my sister and a friend. We saw Secret Life of Bees which I really enjoyed. But beware, it is a tear jerker. Now I'm reading the book. This weekend is full. Jeff's cousin, Kari, is getting married on Saturday and we have the Fall Festival at church Sunday night. Maybe I'll have pictures to post by then. I've actually enjoyed our boring life for the past week. It's been nice.

Best Conference EVER

I am happy to say that we just got back from Shayne's conference and it was a WONDERFUL experience. He is doing great. He has adjusted to Middle School extremely well. He LOVES his teachers and I can say that the ones we spoke to tonight think highly of him too. He is just a great, happy kid now. And they said that he is sweet, kind and respectful. We are just very proud. It feels great to leave a conference like that. And even into the 2nd grading period his grades are awesome so far. WooHoo!!!!

Dog Park

I know, how exciting can a Dog Park really be. But it is for Star. She loves to run with all the other dogs and then it wears her out for the rest of the day...that's the best part.
We did have some excitement though...not pleasant. Shayne and I were sitting on a bench watching Star play. Other dogs will come up to you and want some attention. Well one little boy dog apparently wanted to mark his territory. So as we were talking Shayne felt something warm and wet on his leg...he got peed on. The owner was so embarrassed and brought water to clean off his leg and while all that was going on her little doggie came over to me and peed on my leg...luckily I had jeans on. She poured water on me too. She was so distraught that her dog would do such a thing. Shayne and I just laughed it off and came home with a story to tell.

A Fun Day

Shayne and I decided to spend some time at Purina Farms to watch the Dog Agility National Championship.
It was okay to take dogs so Star came along. When she noticed the dogs "working" she watched with excitement and cried because she wanted to play with them.

We then went to Lone Elk Park and saw Buffalo
and 3 Elk. One was in the water when we 1st arrived but the picture wasn't that great.
The weather was perfect and Shayne said that the whole thing was very worth it. He and I plan on taking Star to a dog park tomorrow. We went last week and she loved it.

Great Job Shayne

Shayne is doing great so far this school year. He had 3 A's, 3 B's and 1 C. He still loves school. I cannot tell you how proud we are of him. He is really making an effort. Way to go Buddy!!

My Favorites

Hangin' with Donald
Marsha "riding" Shamu
Space Shuttle in background
Yet another family pix
Steve and Marsha

Disney World

The Magical Kingdon
Steve spoke to Donald in his "Donald Duck" voice and Donald got so excited that he pulled Steve up there to have his picture taken with him. Steve wasn't even in line. We never found Mickey so that Steve could talk to him too.
Splash Mountain. Marsha, Shayne and I were the only ones to ride. We got the front rows of the car.
Groovy hats.

We had a great day at the Magical Kingdom. It wasn't crowded at all. The longest wait for any ride was 10 minutes. Marsha, Shayne and I rode Space Mountain 2 x's in a row without a line at all. It took us longer to walk up to the ride than to even ride it. I loved it. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. September is a great time to go if you want to take a chance with hurricanes lurking around.

Our Favorite Day.........Sea World

Entrance to Sea World
Shayne feeding Stingrays
Shamu show
Another Family picture

SeaWorld was our favorite day. Feeding the Stingrays was pretty neat. I was a little squimmish about it but it was fun. They feel very slimy. Shayne LOVED it. They are his favorite sea animals. We watched the whale and dolphin show and the famous Shamu show. We were mezmerized by both. We did get rained on some during the day but it was still wonderful. Disney World picture coming later.

Pictures #2

Shayne's "sandcastle"
Jeff tracing Shayne
Family picture
Steve and Marsha enjoying the ocean.

Shayne loved the beach. It seemed to be hard to get him out and the end of the day. We had really great waves and he loved diving into them, jumping over them and riding them. In fact, we all did. Of course I also enjoyed a little reading on the beach. We all three want to go back.....

Pictures #1

On the way down to Florida we stopped in Mobile,AL to visit our nephew Sean at Spring Hill College and visit the USS ALABAMA. We loved seeing Sean. He took us on a quick tour of campus and then we had dinner together. The ALABAMA was great. Lots of climbing steps inside the battleship. We also went inside a submarine which is the 2nd picture above. More pictures later. I took well over 500. YIKES!

we're home

We got back from Daytona Beach yesterday. We had the best vacation and no worries of hurricanes. Now it's so devastating watching what Ike has done in TX. Amazing.

So, we made it safely home and are resting up today. Shayne still has some homework to finish but accomplished a lot on our trip. I will post pictures later this week. Time for unpacking,laundry and grocery shopping now.

Hurricanes

Ok, so we're leaving early Saturday morning for Florida. Sometimes I wonder what we were thinking planning a trip in September. Of course, I never considered hurricane season, just like that fact that the cost was lower. So no we anxiously watch Hurricane Ike and it's path. We're still going and hoping and praying that he goes a different route. We're excited to get out of town. We're headed to Daytona Beach and will be visiting Disney World and Sea World while we're there. Shayne is very excited and happy to be out of school for a week. Steve and Marsha are going with us so we'll all weather the storms together.

Gustav

My nephew,Sean, goes to school in Mobile, AL at Spring Hill College. Since Gustav is moving in they are closing school until Wednesday. Sean is going with one of his friend to Huntsville, AL to wait out the storm. They are in pretty heavy traffic driving there now. Let's remember to keep all of the storm victims in our prayers.

I LOVE SCHOOL

While Shayne was getting ready for school this morning he surprised us by saying "I LOVE SCHOOL". I was so excited to hear those words!!! Never in Shayne whole school "career" has he muttered those words. Woo Hoo!!

Aquaport

Took Shayne and his buddy Tyler to Aquaport today. It was a perfect day. Not too hot, actually perfect for swimming. I got to relax and read. I also fell asleep for awhile. And even spent time in the lazy river and went down one slide with Shayne in a double raft. It was a lot of fun. Nice way to end the summer. We're hoping to squeeze in one more day there before it closes for the season.

Shayne seems to be doing ok in school. Not much homework yet. He's been very responsible with turning in ALL the papers I had to sign. Seems like at least one every day. He really is enjoying Middle School so far.

Noah

Little Noah passed away on Saturday. A day shy of his 1st birthday. Please pray for his parents, Deb and Josh. I can't imagine what they are going through. Even though I don't know them personally I just hurt so much for them. Their faith is incredible to me.

Last weekend.

We squeezed in lots of things last weekend and really enjoyed spending time with my niece Kelly and her family. We don't get to see them as often as I would like. We also had a baby shower for Andrea since Kelly and my sister Vicki were in town. We ended our week with a trip to the Botanical Gardens. It was my 1st time there and I loved it. It's a very beautiful place. It was a nice weekend before getting back into the swing of school again. I may post more pictures later. I only took at least 100.