My Favorite Santa

Every year Jeff "helps" Santa out at our church Cookie Social and a few other functions. He really does a great job and loves playing Santa. He had tons of kiddos on his lap today telling him their wishes!! My facebook page has all the pictures if you really want to see them. Caden couldn't wait to see Santa. He followed him all the way to the back of the auditorium for a pictures. He's so cute.

Santa with Ms. Kay Plaster. Jeff always loves his hugs from her and some other special ladies!!

Santa and my Momma. Isn't this a cute picture!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!!

Family Foto

Halloween Fun!!

Jeff and I had fun dressing up for halloween. Headed to the Henley's for their open house.

Jeff and his buddy Jack, gansta style!!

Me and my preschool kiddos on party day!!

Back to Preschool

Well, I am officially back to teaching preschool. This time it's full time. I'm teaching 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year olds. I have a cute group of kiddos. Only 5. That's enough for now. I'm excited and nervous to do this. It's been a long time since I've worked 5 days a week. It'll take time to get used to it, but I am sure it'll be good. And I only work during the school year and can still take Shayne to school and pick him up. I'll keep you posted on all the adventures I have.

One more step completed

Jeff spent most of the day yesterday taking his National Practical test which is one step closer to recieving his official Paramedic license. I'm happy to announce that he passed it all (12 stations) ont he 1st try. It's a huge relief. Now he has to finish his clinicals, he's need about 25 more leads. And another big test, which is the written test. He's working very hard for this and I'm so proud. Today, he and Shayne are headed to Scott AFB for the airshow. Blue Angels are there. I'll post pictures soon.

Finally....he's done

Graduation was last night. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I was sitting in that audience watching him walk across the stage to get his certificate. Wow!! He's done. He is almost an official Paramedic (after national testing). One speaker said they should be called EMCs Emergency Medical Caregivers, not T for Technician. They have an important job. 1st on the scene. He will see things and do thing none of us will ever want to, but he WANTS to. He is an awesome man who loves helping people. If anyone deserves to do this job, its Jeff!! Had a small celebration at DQ afterwards. Shayne and I are so proud. And of course, ice cream is always good!!

Hugging his teacher. Very awesome!!

There it is....the certificate of completion!! Look at that smile!!

This is the Tshirt quilt my sister, Marsha made for him. He was so happy to receive this. Thanks Marsha for making his night!!

Thanks so much for all the prayers that you have all lifted up for Jeff and for Shayne and I too. He's not completely done with his goal, but he's one step closer. Now, just a few more prayers for the testing in a couple weeks, please!!

Melting Pot

Had a girls night out with The Boys, my prayer group. What a fun place. We had a great time stuffing ourselves and all felt like we needed to roll out of the place to get home.

Pam and I enjoying our dinner. We had a variety of meats to "cook" up plus veggies. Chicken,Beef,Pork,Shrimp and ravioili. There were great sauces to dip them in too.

Our chocolate fondue. It was chocolate with crunchy peanut butter. YUM> I think that is a marshmallow. We also had pound cake, brownies,rice krispy treats,strawberries,bananas...

Took us about 2 1/2 hours to eat but I was a GREAT evening!!

My Favorite Guys

So, I got my boys matching shirts and they actually wore them. They both look good in blue!! We had lunch at Bandana's after church. YUM!! My choice since it's almost my birthday!!

Love this picture!! And the amazing part is Shayne will hardly let me take his picture anymore. Got lucky today!!

JULY so far

So, we've been having lots of fun lately. Spent July 3rd with our friends the Carothers. Ate BBQ and swam in their pool. Shayne could spend all day in their pool. It was perfect day.

Celebrated Mom's birthday while Luke and Andrea were in town. Luke enjoyed helping his Great Grandma blow out her candles and eat some ice cream cake. YUM!!

Spent time at the ZOO. Here is me feeding the stingrays. It is a very awesome experience.

Had dinner with Alli and Sean while Alli was in town visiting!! Always enjoy a good steak and good company!!

Then we celebrated out beautiful niece Tori's 13th birthday. Pool party at Scott and Kathy's. She got tickets to see Justin Beiber...that made her excited. Me, I have just a little clue of who he is. He's on the cover of this Tiger Beat.

Summer is going quickly but we are enjoying it. Really we've just taken it easy. Jeff has about 1 1/2 months left in Paramedic school. He's working hard with class and clinicals on the weekends. Hope you all are enjoying your summer too!!

Johnson Shut Ins

We had a wonderful time at the Shut Ins. Didn't get many pictures because my camera took a little dip in the water and stopped working. Shayne and his friend Jacob jumped off rocks into the deep water holes. That's why my camera dipped, I was trying to get to a place to take their picture and turned my ankle. I think the adults have more trouble at that place than the kids. I saw many adults (mainly Moms) with stressed and haggered looks on their faces. Kids just climb with no effort and get right back up. So, it's a beautiful place to spend the day. The campground is brand new and VERY nice. Great family adventure!!

Looking Forward To

spending time with my boys
camping at Johnson Shut Ins
my Tuesday night Bible Study
hanging with my prayer group
4th of July with my family
fireworks
reading a book
hugs from my son
stalking my friends on facebook
walking the dogs at the Humane Society
long summer (which is already going to fast)
cooler weather
sleeping late
BBQ with new friends
holding hands with my sweetie

Already enjoyed this summer:

Hanging with my sisters
70th birthday party
graduation parties
walking on the beach
Navy Air Museum
reading
sleeping late
playing with Star
camping with The Boys
Camp Ne-O-Tez
BBQ Pork Steaks
fires in the firepit in the backyard
watching the stars at Ne-O-Tez
catching lightening bugs

What we've been up too

We've spent the last week or so being quite busy. We started out last week heading down to Camp Ne-O-Tez to work. It was K-2nd grade kiddos. They were so good and we had a great time. Here is some of the kids during the shaving cream fight.

Vicki and David came into town. Marsha, Vicki and I spent 2 days hanging out. We spent one day at the Botanical Gardens. It was fun.

Then it was off to Sean's college graduation party. Had a little rain but not too bad. Turned out to be a good day.

Here's me and my sisters with our Daddy. We each gave him a new lawn chair for Father's Day. A week early since Vicki was here.

Jeff's still in Paramedic School, I'm still working about 3 days a week and Shayne is enjoying his summer off. Have big plans in a couple weeks to camp at Johnson's Shut Ins. Very excited about that!! More later.

a little bit of our weekend

CONGRATS ANTHONY!! Our nephew graduated from St. Louis University High School. He was 12th in his class of over 250 students. He is headed to Loyola in Chicago in the fall. Way to go Anth!! Friday night I went to Florissant Church of Christ for their musical. It was an awesome performance! Can't wait to see what they do next year now!! Awesome show about Esther!

Sunday we headed to Camp Ne-O-Tez for PreCamp session. It's only until Tuesday but they pack a ton of activities in for those kiddos. They have a blast and are wiped out by the end. Jeff and I were too....we slept late this morning and took naps this afternoon!!

Ready to "start" the week now. My sister Vicki is in town and us sisters will be hanging out for a few days. Always fun!!

Bittersweet

My baby finished 7th grade today. It's so hard to believe that he is that old. 13 now. His voice is changing, he's a tad bit taller than me now and creeping up on his Dad. It seems like we were just praying for God to send us a bundle of joy and now he's so big I can't even hold him. The sweet part about him is that he still "wants" his Momma. He'll still hug me, let me tuck him in at night and tell me that he loves me. Now my prayers are for him to grow up to be a mighty man of God. I pray that we are giving him a strong foundation and a faith that will carry him through as an adult. He amazes me so often. Things that he'll say that just sound so grown up or just "wow" me. He sees things differently than I do but I love to see how he sees. He really makes me think a lot.

So, now we will enjoy the summer. He says he's not an 8th grader til next school year starts. I love you Shayne and am very proud of you!!

Roger's 70th Birthday Surprise!

Jeff's sister Robin planned a 70th bday party for Roger. It was at Helen Fitzgerald's Pub where she works. He thought he was helping her put together the dance floor. But no, we all yelled, "Hullo" when he came in. That was one of his favorite sayings followed by DUH!! He says he was surprised. He sure had a good time, we all did!! Here he comes with his cart ready to go to work!!

Roger and Marge with the grandkids. Nick and Steve in the back are there "adopted" grandsons and Sean is missing b/c he is on a cruise. (Poor Sean!!)

Blowing out the candles before we dug into this awesome cake...strawberries in the middle, YUMMY!

Roger, Jeff and Shayne. Great 3 generation picture. I think Shayne will be surpassing them both in height very soon!!

Roger and his kids (minus Jason) with his Momma, Grandma Horton.

It was great seeing lots of friends and family. I think Roger enjoyed his special Day!! Happy Birthday Roger!!

$7400.00

Almost to our destination of Dauphin Island, AL we had an accident. Rear ended while we were turning into a Hardee's restaraunt. Luckily we weren't severely injured. Some back and neck soreness that seems to be getting better everyday. Found out today that the damage was $7400.00 YIKES!! Thank God that the other guys insurance is covering everything. Now we're driving a Kia Sorento for a few weeks. Trying to be patient. Pray that the insurance company will be able to transport our car back and we won't have to drive back down to Mobile, AL to pick it up. That's what we're hoping for.

We headed to Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL this weekend. Our weekend didn't start out great, more on that later but ended perfectly. Our nephew Sean graduated from college (which is really not possible, he was just born). We proud of you Sean!! Here we are with the handsome graduate!

The graduate with is family on the deck of the house in Dauphin Island. Great place to go to btw if you enjoy the beach and don't need to do a lot of shopping or sight seeing. It's a 6 mile island with white sandy beaches.

Sunset on the beach. Later that night we stood on the beach and watched a beautiful sky full of stars. I actually saw a shooting star. We were messing with the poor crabs on the beach at night. Shayne spent every moment available in the water. Toward the end of the weekend though tar balls were washing up of the beach from the oil spill (they used some chemical on them to solidify the oil). But we already miss the beach and can't wait to go back. We ended our trip in Pensacola at the Naval Air Museum...more on that later. Happy to be home.

So last weekend I went camping with The Boys, well some of them not all of them. Remember thats what my prayer group girls and I call each other. Not to be confused with my boys, which are actually, my boys. Anyway, we had a very wonderful do nothing relaxing kinda weekend. Except for the rain and tornado warnings! We were so proud of ourselves that we actually built a fire (with the help of Sara's yellow pages she had in her car) and then we grilled burgers over the fire!! Of course, my batteries were dead on my camera so no pictures. Then later Saturday night we pigged out on awesome chocolate fondue with strawberries,bananas,pineapple and other stuff....it was heavenly!!
This coming up weekend my boys and I are traveling to Mobile, AL to see our nephew, Sean, graduate from Spring Hill College. We are making it an extra long weekend, leaving Thursday night and coming back Monday. Spending Sunday in Pensacola at the Naval Air Museum. We are actually staying on Dauphin Island in AL and are praying that the oil spill STAYS AWAY!!! Planning on spending Friday at the beach. So, I'll make sure that I have plenty of batteries so be prepared for many pictures when we get back.

Industrial Tech

Shayne's 1st project in Industrial Tech. He got a 95% on this clock. We're looking for a special spot in the house for it. I'm really proud of him. Industrial Tech is his favorite class this semester. Next project, a bird house. Can't wait to see it.

Shayne and Jeff spent the weekend with Steve Jones hunting. It was youth season for turkey. They saw some turkey but Shayne never got a shot. He did also enjoy shooting Mr. Steve's pistols and shooting clay pigeons. Jeff said he did really well at that, I think Dad was impressed by his boy! Shayne ready to hit some clay pigeons. He looks so big in this picture. Guess he is growing up

My 2 tough boys.

this is my favorite picture. Don't mess with my boys!!

Easter Fun

Saturday before Easter we took Star to an Easter Beg Hunt. The field was full of toys and treats for dogs. It was a lot of fun and an absolutely beautiful day! Star wasn't real sure about the easter bunny she didn't want to get close so Jeff had to hold her down.

Here is a picture of Star with some of her goodies she "found" at the Beg Hunt. She is afraid of the stuffed bunny too. She also got tons of milkbones and a cute easter bandana.

Sunday we went to brunch with Jeff's family at Helen Fitzgeralds...Yummy! And spent dinner with his parents.

Shayne got new video game so he's happy. He only has about 8 weeks left til summer break. Can't believe that he's almost done with 7th grade. My baby is growing up too fast.

Anyway, overall it was a good day, even got a nap.

Shayne and THE plane

Obama is visiting St. Chuck and the Lou today. When I picked up Shayne from school we headed over to the airport and found a perfect spot to watch Air Force One land. It also parked right in front of where we where. We couldn't see him deplane, but we were able to watch the motorcade drive away. It was a pretty neat experience. The plane is HUGE. It was quite a deal. TONS of cops and secret service. Shayne and I counted 21 cop cars and 6 motorcycles ready to escort him to St. Charles. AND today we hit 70 degrees outside which was awesome!! Only a 1/2 day tomorrow and then its SPRING BREAK for Shayne. Hopefully the weather will be great and we'll be able to do lots of things. Shayne and Air Force One

Air Force One (and apparently Mrs. Stalhut's car too)

Finally, an update

We've been enjoying watching the olympics so far. Star barks at the TV when watching speed skating, hockey, snowboarding...all the fast moving events. I put a video of her watching on my facebook page. She is too funny! We did go to an ice sculpting event on Main St. St. Charles, very cold day but beautiful statues. Unfortunately my battery died on the camera so I didn't get a lot of pictures and only one finished product. I love the sculptures work....its fascinating

Finished angel. We watched them attach the wings....very cool!! Water and freezing spray works well.

The boys have both been busy with school. Jeff passed his ACLS test today so he is certified. It stands for advanced cardio life support, which means he can do more than just cpr to save someone, he can explain it, I can't....anyway, that was the excitement of our day. Shayne only has 2 grading periods left for 7th grade (they have 6). He is ready for Spring Break and then summer vacay. Me too! At least I'm ready for Spring....bring on the warmth!!