Strawberry Pickin'

We took a trip with our friends to a local fruit/veggie farm to pick strawberries....the best thing is that we didn't have to spend time on our knees to pick these strawberries....everything is grown hydroponically on towers...it was great!!

Some of us and our friends...

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I'm personalizing a post a came across here while randomly searching other mommy blogs...

Outside My Window… the sun is shining and it around 70 degrees. It was supposed to be colder today, but has warmed up very nicely. It's warm in the sun and cool and breezy in the shade.
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I am thinking… doing my taxes, what I'm cooking for dinner, how much I'd love to take a nap but can't because I will never fall asleep tonight, my camera battery dying right as I was taking the very important Pocahontas Park picture for Sharon, how my girls are digging in the black dirt in the hole the dog keeps digging under the fence.....

I am thankful for… my husband and that we are still friends not just husband and wife, I'm thankful that God is who He says He is, for my job in these times of economic crisis, healthy children (thank you God) and MANY MANY more things to come.
God who lets me put all of my worries, cares, struggles, burdens and doubts on Him. I couldn’t carry it all. His strength is very much a part of my daily life.
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From the kitchen… Looks like steak and rice tonight..beyond that...your guess is as good as mine :o)
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I am wearing… My old navy pink velour pants and my long sleeve black shirt...its either this or scrubs...been a long time since I've needed to wear anything more...no shoes, hair down....and my normal hodge podge of jewelry...
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I am creating… well in my head I have a hand full of pages I'd like to accomplish when I go to work on my scrapbook with Kristen on Saturday...I'm also creating our wish list for next years curriculum.
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I am going… to take Bryce and Taylor to their first karate class in about 45 minutes...and then I'm going home to finish dinner...then I'm going to put some kids to bed and myself to follow.
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I am reading… The Politically Incorrect Wife...

I am hoping… that tomorrow's bible study will prove to be what God wants for me...I've decided to do the Beth Moore study...I real excited.
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I am hearing… Bryce playing the XBOX in the living room...the girls outside....the neighbors little doggie barking...Oh wait...I could hear the dog barking because he was crawling under the fence into my yard....I hear my husband breathe as he naps after school....
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Around the house… There is entirely too many things in this house...that's a goal of mine, some things have to go. We love this house (even though we are out growing it)...so since we aren't getting any smaller....some things have to go.
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One of my favorite things… Ummmmm, I will have to get back to you on this one because I am so tired the only thing I can think of is curling up next to my husband and taking a nap....
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A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Bible Study, one night of work (instead of the usual 3 nights, the Frog Leg Festival (yep, I live in the south for sure!!) a night cropping with my bestie!! and finally a Sunday where I can go to church without having worked the night before or after. Oh and lets not forget MLK day...that's a FREE day!!

Even When I Forget.....

In the past 3 years, I have scaled down my commitments to value the time that we have as a family while our children are still young. We started homeschooling, I came back to our hometown to work closer to home, we've even started on a journey for Tommy to go to school and learn a new profession. All the while I been seeing God in these decisions. It was terrible when we realized that he couldn't build boats anymore because of the accident, but only God would have known that the economy would have been this bad at this time and that boat building would not be productive nor stable. I didn't chose nursing...God chose it for me more than 25 years ago. There's concrete evidence of this in the "All About Me" book that my mom saved from kindergarten, and today this is one of the more stable jobs in the world. It just amazes me that all the while when I think I'm the one making all these decision....I turn around and find God there with a wink. It was Him along, putting these decisions before us or even sometimes allowing life to give us no choice in the matter.
So, as I rack my brain trying to decide...where or when or if we will move. Wondering if staying in this small yet ever growing town that I (and my parents and grandparents and their parents) have grown up in is the right decision. I take consolation in the fact that my God is ever present and will always help us to make the right decisions...if we allow Him to.
Thank you Lord for always being there even when I forget to invite you in.

Our Very First ROAD TRIP!! (part two)

After we left the Clair's in Gallatin (TN) we headed toward Ober-Gatlinburg. We were determined to see snow even if it was the man made kind. Our friends The Kimbrough's met us there.

FYI - GPSs are not always right and sometimes can make a trip much longer then it has to be.

Here's more of the Smokey Mountains...Ahh, isn't beautiful!!

Taylor cheesin' it up for the camera.

I didn't get many pictures at Ober-Gatlinburg because we made it there as it was closing. But I thought this picture of Ray and Cathy ahead of us going through the tunnel as we drove down the mountain was really neat.

After we left Ober-Gatlinburg we drove down to Georgia where The Kimbrough's live.

Taylor, Ray and Rachelle.

Cody, Caitlan and Bryce.

The Erdwein-Kimbrough Crew

Tommy, Dawn, Bryce, Caitlan, Taylor

Ray, Cathy, Chris, Chelsie, Rheanna, Cody and Rachelle

WHOA BABY!!

8 awesome kids, 4 old friends, too many years in between!!

Making new memories and rebuilding friendships = PRICELESS!!

Rachelle and Taylor

These girls were inseparable.

Bryce and Chris

If you would have told me that this visit would have turned out this GREAT...I would have never believed you.

Caitlan, Rheanna and Chelsie

Keeping them up 'til 2am wasn't the best of ideas...but we didn't want to miss one minute!

Ok, so we kinda found snow.

We had taken the kids to the skating ring and it was closed to the public. The kids were really disappointed so we decided to let them play in the "snow" from the zamboni. It was a small 15ft x 6ft pile of ice shavings that the kids had the best time having a snow ball fight. The four adults were have a great time watching the kids until they decided to start including us.

LOVE IT!!

Me and My Honey Bear

p.s. we had just been stung in the side of the head by a rouge snowball..."yeah, really fun Rheanna!!"

Ray and Cathy

It was so great to rekindle our friendship with The Kimbrough Family.

I hope we will never let this much time pass again.....

Our Very First ROAD TRIP!! (part one)

We decided to take a quick trip...it started out to be a small 48 hour trip and envolved into a 4 day trip. Still not nearly as long as I would have liked but way better than just the "Hunt for Snow" that it started out to be.

This is us heading toward Nashville, TN. See the map, breakfast, crossword and other road trip paraphernalia. We were on our way to The Clair's. It had been way too long since we had seen them. Notice the rain...it was in the 30's and we were hopeful that it would snow before morning. Unfortunately this did not happen. The mountains are so beautiful, I was in heaven! Tommy, however, didn't share this cozy feeling with me. He was rather unsettled among the height of these massive hills.

Here are the Erdwein and Clair girls the morning of Caitlan's birthday. It was so nice to be in TN with them for her birthday (at least some of it). It was 18 degree; 8 degrees with the wind chill. Can you say "Holy Cow!!"Caitlan, Haylee, Taylor, Ciara Bryce & David. (Dalton was at home sick)

Michelle and I = BFF

"ICE"

This is what the thermometer for the outside temp on my truck would flash every time we started the truck. We had never seen this before.

It was so awesome to be together with them after all this time. We can't wait 'til we have the time to go back and see more of Nashville...and the Clair's of course!

Playing Catch Up.....

So much has happened since I lasted posted so I thought that I would dedicate this post to catching everyone up to speed...

The kids particpated in the Homeschoolers Bowling Day at Super Play USA. It was alot of fun. The kids are quite good at bowling and Bryce really gave me a run for my money. Even Taylor was throwing her 7 pound ball down the alley like a 5 year old pro. The only thing missing was Daddy.

Here is a typical Thanksgiving at our house. Yes, we play with our food! Every Thanksgiving before we start cooking the Turkey Tommy makes sure ol' Mr. Turkey dances and does his exercise. Everyone's hands are washed so don't let our tradition keep you from joining us on Thanksgiving but it is something that the kids really look forward to every year.

Here is Bryce and Caitlan getting started on another one of our traditions. We put up our Christmas tree and decorate the day after Thanksgiving.

Our house all lit up! You can faintly see Tommy in the background still working on the lights. He did such a good job. I love colorful lights, no plain boring white lights for my family!!

Tommy + Dawn = TRUE LOVE <3

Our photographer Taylor did a rather swell job.

I was just about to climb in the truck to head to work.

This morning we took Caitlan to the barn to give her the news that we have decided to lease a horse for her as her birthday present. This is her face as she took her blindfold off and was face to face with Soni. He was the first horse that she rode when we switched to Shady Oaks for riding lessons. Her expression is priceless.

Just a random picture of her bright smiling face as we left the barn. What a beautful young lady she's turning into.

I tried my best to flip this picture but I couldn't. It was such a cute set of cupcakes...I had to go ahead and post it anyway.

Caitlan and McKensie

Caitlan Taylor and Julia

She danced as everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she is so much fun!

Green tongue and green shirt...you can't say that my kids never match.

Caitlan, Stephanie, Taylor and Melanie...Oh, and Kylie Girl in the background.

We had the party at Humiston so that we could all have front row seats to the Christmas parade...it was so much fun to have all the kids together. Why don't we do this more often?

Well, there you have it. You are all caught up...right up to Dec 6th. Since it's "the most wonderful time of year" I will have many more pictures to come. Including our secret trip in two weeks...

One BUSY Day!!

Here they are outside the planetarium at IRSC. We went with our homeschool group to see the show Trip into Space. It was very cool!! Bryce and Caitlan were interested in the whole show, but Taylor wasn't very fond of being in the dark for so long.

They like being at this college because they know this is where I went to school to be a nurse.

Checking out all the astronomy stuff.

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Next we went to the Manatee Viewing Center on the river. It has been usually cool here so I thought there would be a good chance of seeing a manatee or two, but no such luck. We did however strike up a brief conversation with a fisherman who was using mullet as bait. Taylor informed him that the fish he was catching (the mullet) were swimming in school (school of fish).

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We still weren't ready to go home so we drove over the bridge to the St Lucie County Historical Museum. At this museum there is a lot of local history. I went to this museum when I was in Elementary school.

Bryce showing off the "little cannon".

The kids really liked this exhibit, where the family lived in a one room house. They couldn't believe that they had to eat, sleep and work all in one room.

I really thought this was a cute picture. That's just Taylor being Taylor!

Here this nice lady was teaching us about the "ice box". She said every few days the ice man would bring in ice with the "pointy tongs" (my words not hers). The family would have turned that yellow sign on the wall to the number of pounds of ice they wanted for that delivery. This is how food was kept cool before electricity. However, sometimes not cool enough and people ended up with food poisoning quite often.