Happy Birthday America!

Thursday night the Navy Base through their annual 4th of July celebration complete with lots of FREE fun for the kiddos. There was face painting, which the girls wanted desperately to do, jumpy castles, slides, and even a carnival ride. And then the food.....you could get anything from hot dogs and fries, to steak on a stick and funnel cakes and shaved ice. My dinner....funnel cake and a pina colada shaved ice. Nutritionally lacking, but it's only once a year!

The fireworks were really good. Not as long as in previous years, but I can't complain. We spent the evening with the Kings and the Colo'n family. It was a great time. And then we came home to get ready for an entire day and night out on the boat on the 4th........














Kris, Jenn, Susie, and Danielle -














Tyler and Mark enjoy a funnel cake as they watch the fireworks.

The kids dug a hole in the sand to make a recliner so they would be more comfortable watching the fireworks. The things kids come up with, I tell ya!

we see the bear....FINALLY

As I have said many times before, we live with LOTS of wildlife. Just this past weekend I walked to the mailbox only to find 8 deer grazing in the backyards of neighboring homes. Many people have told us stories of the bears that frequent the trail between my home and my neighbor's home. And it didn't take but one morning of finding trash scattered across my lawn to believe it...



So here's how the story goes.....



Saturday night, after a long day of friendly gossip and eery psychic readings, I was cleaning up the house before getting ready for bed. I walk into the garage to put something into the recycling bin when I hear a rustling about 4 feet from me, on the other side of the garage door. I could clearly make out the sound of someone opening the garbage container and it slamming down. It was 9:30 p.m. and I couldn't figure out why the kids would be taking anything outside - heck, they never do any other day!



After coming back inside and counting 1..2.. 3...4 children all inside, I knew something was up. So, (as my friend Dawn would say) in "white girl in a scary movie" fashion I walk towards the noise. I walked slowly outside and peek around the front of the house. I see nothing...but I hear the rustling and see the trash tipped over. I continue to move closer, thinking it's just a racoon. And then I see this head, about 4 ft in diameter (I'm in the moment.....everything looked bigger than it really was!) chomping on my leftovers!



As quick as my heart dropped into my stomach, I was in the house running around like a chicken with its head cut off yelling "holy sh**, the bear's in our trash!" (I repeated this at least a dozen times as I ran through the house). Then I come to my senses and think WHERE'S THE CAMERA?? I grab my new Olympus point and shoot camera....Jim grabs the flashlight........and this is what we caught.......

We let the kids walk outside one by one to see the bear with their own two eyes - seriously, it's such a cool story to tell their friends, right!?



This guy just laid their eating away and looking up at us every so often.....it was so surreal. We were all thinking "this is the cub....he's not so big"........

Then he stood up!

And we all ran into the house! He was huge! And the only thing seperating myself from him was my car. But I couldn't help myself. I wanted to get closer - get that one good shot (yeah right, it was pitch black outside). I was shaking like crazy from adrenaline.

There was seriously ONE piece of cake on this plate that he's licking and he stayed in this position licking and chewing for at least 2 minutes. That's one slow eating bear.....

**for the record, there has not been a single black bear attack in the entire state of Florida, ever. And these are protected animals.

Happy 8th Birthday Jayce!

I am a horrible, horrible mother....posting Jayce's birthday pictures a whole month late!

Here's a quick re-cap of Jayce's birthday party:

• We rented the base pool for Jayce and all of his friends
• The kids would NOT get out of the pool for cake
• After telling (not asking) the kids to come get cake - at the picnic table just outside of the fenced pool area - the bugs ate everyone alive
• The Happy Birthday song was sang in record time
• The kids ate cake and were back in the pool in 5 mintues FLAT
• The kids would NOT get out of the pool for presents - again, until told to do so
• The parents mingled
• The kids swam
• The party ended.
  
  
• 

Way to go Tyler.....I mean, Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Jim

Jim wanted to go out fishing on his special day.....but the only thing he caught was 1 catfish (sorry Jim, but it's true!).

Like many other fishing outings, Tyler came out victorious among the men. Tyler reeled in two trout (which we grilled up later that night), two shark (one of which broke his line), and one ladyfish (who also broke his line). Way to go Tyler!! Now we just have to work on getting him to touch the fish.........

How do you know a Redneck fish when you see one?

Count his teeth!!!

Once again, I'm in awe with the sharks.....this one was bleeding all over, dripping on the deck of the boat, on the seat....yuck! (Another one of Tyler's fish.....)

Even though we were seeing stingrays galore, we ventured off the boat in the middle of the Bay to catch large sand dollars (still alive). I am suprised, yet grateful, the large stingrays stayed away from us. We captured 31 large sand dollars - JACKPOT! ;)

Derrick cooked Tyler's fish along with Mahi Mahi and some crab legs - it was his gift to Jim for Father's Day.

this past week...

....was a busy one for me.

• Monday I was preparing for a personal, one-on-one Photoshop class with a fellow co-worker (turned out Monday was a bad day for him...so we rescheduled for Tuesday/Wed - which was fine with me b/c I was not in the mood for a late night)
• Tuesday I began my PS class - 4 1/2 hours - wrapped up shortly before 11pm
• Wednesday I wrapped up my PS class, another 4 1/2 hours - wrapping up again shortly before 11pm (did I remind you that my bedtime is anywhere between 9-10pm?)
• Thursday was my purse party - FUN - I got 1 new Coach and 1 new Kate Spade purse (I never knew there was a "purse" side of me before......I am becoming high maintenance! jk)
• Friday I was able to sit, relax, and do NADA (translation: not a damn thing!) for the entire night - I think I watched a movie - or fell asleep on the couch - or maybe that was the night I fell asleep with Tyler and woke up at 2am to return to my own bed....who knows!
• Saturday I took Tyler and his two friends to the pool for a couple of hours, then raced home to get ready for my Passion Party two hours away (not a bad turn out - signed up another consultant)
• Sunday the kids and I tried to get the house turned over and ready for Kris and Kammie's two month visit - I feel like we accomplished what we set out to do...now I just have to put away the laundry (and say goodbye to laundry for two months!). Did I mention that my sister-in-law loves to stay busy and cleaning house and doing laundry is what she actually likes to do? OMG...how did I get so lucky!?!?

I am spent. It doesn't seem like a whole lot, but it feels like it!

I am hoping to get some of my Photoshop pics up here soon -- I am SO excited to have this program and know how to use it (at least a little bit)!

20

That is the approximate number of sharks that were caught off-shore yesterday morning, afternoon, and early evening.

This is the first shark we saw as we were putting "The Toon" into the water -- a boat of men had JUST cut this shark open and gutted him right in front of us (yuck). I don't think Tyler thought it smelled good...either that or he didn't like the blood dripping from the shark's body - and who can blame him?

I think Bruce was the first to catch a shark.......this guy is about 3.5' (the pic doesn't do him much justice). We put him on a line (sorry if I'm making some improper fishing terminologies to all of you professionals out there) because we were told that someone would be brining a grill and we would be enjoying shark for lunch. We let him hang out right next to the boat. He sat mainly on the bottom of the sand and at one point I thought he had died...but my screams told me different as I tried to pick him up to show the kids....yeah, I'm a chic.

Here is Tyler realing in his second or third shark of the day....

And here he is! I'm guessing the Bay is probably not the best place for us to be swimming....

We had to let the small ones go......but they are still very intimidating when they are in the water!

There's Katlyn telling us it's her daddy's second shark of the day (caught about 20 minutes after his first catch of the day) Maybe 4'??

Up close & personal - please don't bite into my leg!

Our "line" consisted of tieing the rope to the shark's tail (hey, I'm from the North...I have no clue if this is the right way or redneck way of doing things......but I'm guessing it's redneck since Dangle is the one who is demonstrating for us ;)

The kids were swimming in the same area.....and there were a couple of times I had to remind the kids that there was a 4' shark directly below them!

After the party float had gotten a few holes poked into her (remember the big float from previous posts?), we needed to make a run to Dangle's truck to get some superglue and try to make some repairs to the popular float. Here's some pics of our trip back to the boat launch...

Susie (pictured with me) had her 5 year old take this shot of us......

Kneeboarding with a REAL kneeboard and a REAL rope, made for such sports :) (I tried to kneeboard, but the pics didn't turn out - seriously - I have to admit that I was unsuccessful and very weirded out about being left afloat in the middle of the same Bay that 20 shark were pulled out of AND more stingrays were jumping out of!)

Your very cool captain.....

Jim's turn to kneeboard (I was told that I did a better job ((thanks Susie!)) -- but he gave it many more tries than I did! I was too scared in the water)

Did I mention that we are wearing a child's Scooby-Doo life vest?? lol -- much better than the orange life vest though!

After pulling out of the water at 7pm we managed to make it home and then back out the door at 815pm for dinner at O'Charley's.......

Justin, Jim, Bruce, & Dangle Susie, Jenn, & Cindy

The kids were WHIPED OUT! Kelsey cuddled in her own chair and fell asleep....Katlyn and Tyler took a nap kindergarden style, and Addison could barely keep her eyes open.

Last Day of School!

Already? Yes.....it's true. The kids are out of school already! We take pictures on the kids' first day of school,

so I figure we can take pics on their LAST day of school, too!

Dude, seriously....you need a haircut!







Jayce...why are you hiding??















Now that's a happy face!