Halloween...... Thanksgiving......

Well, the computer is still "sick" with a virus and I haven't been able to post the Halloween pics - and really, not much has been going on since Halloween....no news to tell :( We live boring lives - ok, well, not really........

Thanskgiving was a wonderful day. We had friends over and ate a feast of food! It was fabulous! Unfortunately I had to work on Black Friday, but I still made it out to Target in the afternoon, but NOT for Christmas shopping....no, instead I had to buy household goods. Who else do you know that waits until Black Friday to go shopping for that kind of stuff?

We did have a bit of a scare happen just a couple weeks ago.....I had to take a trip to the ER with Jayce. He was bit in the face by our dog (only after provoking her to do it though -- trust me, Jayce is to blame since he didn't learn the last time something similar happened). Apparently (I was driving home when this happened) Jayce and Sadie were laying on Jayce's bed. Jayce had lay next to Sadie, face-to-face, and was petting her. Sadie didn't like him being in her face and she growled. We have taught the kids that if the dog growls it means "back off". Well, Jayce continued to pet her until Sadie got to the point where she was tired of him and she bit him. She got him good enough that one part of his wound would not stop bleeding after several hours. So, off to the ER we went....... Jayce didn't get stitches or staples, but instead got sterostrips (sp?) to keep the skin pulled together. This boy has had more head and face trauma than any other child I know.........

And I said we live a boring life............HA!

pics coming soon....

....pictures to follow.....our pc "caught" a virus and since that's where my pics are, I can't post them now.... :(

My trip to Monticello, Florida, was fantastic!! Although I had no "experiences" myself, it was truly a girls weekend getaway.

My Saturday started out early, much earlier than I had wanted it to (I like to sleep in, what can I say :) My friend, Deanna, and I left her house at 9:00am in her convertable - with the top down. The drive alone was relaxing and invigorating at the same time :) Any how, we got about 15 miles from her house when I commented on stopping at the animal shelter to check out the dogs. (Check in wasn't until 3pm and we both knew we were going to make a leisure trip up to Monticello). Well, two and a half hours later, we both left empty-handed out of the animal shelter. lol But we did get to see lots of cute dogs and one very hurt dog. I really wish I had acres of land to take all of those dogs home to....

So, we leave the animal shelter and continue North -- as we get into Monticello, we find ourselves lost in this small town. We had to stop and ask for directions from some locals. But we finally managed to get to the bed and breakfast. It was a beautiful sight with the sun blazing down onto the property.

We met seven others at the bed and breakfast. Apparently I was the head honcho on the trip b/c they wouldn't let any of the others check in until I got there (yes, Deanna and I were the LAST ones to arrive...tsk tsk, right?) The inside of this old Victorian style home was amazing! I'll expand on the details of the home when I am able to post pictures, otherwise it won't make much sense.

So...we all ran around this house like little kids, checking out all of the little nooks and corners. And everyone had their cameras close at hand, snapping various pictures. Next thing we knew, it was time for dinner. We had our dinner at Jakes - a local restaraunt with plenty of local charm. After dinner we had to rush back to the bed and breakfast to get ready for the big "ghost tour". To our surprise, a group from FSU arrived with the Big Bend Ghost Trackers; they were going to tape the tour! It was so exciting already, and then to know that we were going to be on t.v.....ha! Well, we don't even know when/where the event would air.....but it was just fun knowing we were going to be on t.v. lol

Our ghost tour took about 90 minutes. We saw lots of the old town and heard many stories of death and life. But still, no one had any experiences.....when we got back to the bed and breakfast we built a fire outside and had a few drinks. It was just so much fun to hang out with the girls, have a few drinks, lots of laughs, and snapping pics of orbs all around us. I didn't go to bed until 6:30am - I was up at 9:30am. I was tired! But it was all worth it.

We spent the next afternoon at the cemetary where we heard a story about a little girl who was buried there. I have some pics to post of this little one's gravesite....and something showed up on the picture...twice.

Thanks to Patty, Amber, Lori, Kat, Deanna, Carla, Wendy, and Christina for such a great weekend!!

'tis the season!

Ok, I know many of you may think I am some kind of crazy person, but the idea of spirits, ghosts, the "afterlife", or whatever you want to call it, intriges me. The shot on the right was taken last year around Christmas time. Yes, I broke the law (which I didn't know was a law then!) by going into a cemetary after dusk... but after seeing some pictures that a friend of mine took when she went "ghost hunting" at a cemetary, I couldn't help but see if I could see the same thing. Well, as you can see in the picture, there are tons of orbs. This particular picture shows a canopy over a new burial. Of all of the pictures I took, this is where the most orbs manifested.

Ok, so what's the point to all of this? Well, tomorrow I will be heading to Monticello, Florida - about 2 and a half hours from Panama City. I will be joining a group of my girlfriends for an evening at the John Denham Bed & Breakfast voted the #1 place to sleep with a ghost. Prior to our lodging, we will take a ghost tour of the historic town. Guiding us will be the Big Bend Ghost Trackers , a professional paranormal investigative group. I'm so excited!! I'll have more to tell after this weekend.......hopefully I'll have some news worth sharing :)

what I'm thankful for this week

10. The weather finally cooling down, which means I get to sleep with my windows open!

9. My job. My employer is so understanding of the times I have to leave early for family circumstances (which happened quite often this week)

8. My determination to lose weight, which was brought on by a trip to the mall trying on dresses for the Christmas party.

7. A clean car - Addison helped wash it and Jayce vacuumed the entire inside!

6. My patio swing - there is nothing more relaxing than sitting out on my swing in the fresh evening air, watching the kids ride thier bikes, climb the tree, or just run around with thier friends.

5. Milk - I have been craving milk like crazy lately! We go through at least a gallon of milk a day.

4. All three of my children being in school.

3. Again, my job - for allowing me to cut my hours down to 30 hours per week, allowing me more time with my kids.

2. Not having daycare costs! We actually made it through the pay period without dipping into our savings!! (sadly, this is the first time this has happened since joining the Air Force)

1. Living in a neighborhood where I feel safe letting the kids run around in (actually leaving the yard) and all of my kids' friends who call to see if the kids can come over to their house to play! All three kids have different friends who will do this....it's fantastic! I no longer feel like the entertainer! And this allows some "me" time, too - which helps me be a better mom.

bye bye training wheels!

I heard it was so, but didn't believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes... yes, our baby is officially "out" of training wheels! Not that she wants to be riding her bike the 'big girl' way, though. I actually had to bribe her into getting on her bike and showing me that she can really do it all by herself....and as you can see...it worked! It's a wonder what you can

get a 5 year old to do for a popcicle

(Bradi, take note ;)

florida room

Okay, it's taken me quite some time, but I have finally created a space in my Florida room that I actually enjoy being in! I really enjoy this space much more than the plain concrete floor, peppered with dead bugs in every square foot of the area; plain white walls, plain screened windows, and broken screen door.

Since we are on a budget, we had to scrape for some things and be creative with others. For instance, the "grass" floor came from the large piece we purchased along with our huge water slide (which, by the way, has broken -- we were reimbursed 100% though!!). Okay, back on track.....so the flooring had actually been laying on the sandy ground all summer long....shhhh, don't tell anyone! A trip to Target and we are sporting some live greenery and sheers for the windows! It's crazy what some live plants will do to a space! And the sheers, well, I stole that idea from others in the neighborhood who have the same "look" going on. My sister-in-law let me in on the (cheap) sheer tip. And the chairs and tables came courtesy of the BX end-of-summer clearance sale! Whoo hoo!

oscar meyer weiner

About five months ago, Jim and I decided to volunteer for a new rescue center in Panama City, the Animal Rescue Center of Bay County. We are all animal lovers in this house, but when you hear just how many animals are euthanized each month in Panama City, it makes your heart sink. Well, one night while we were visiting the monthly Friday Fest downtown, we came across this booth, occupied by a cute little dog in a kennel. Of course we all had to stop and say hello. It was then that we learned about the ARC. It was quite an hour later that Jim and I decided that we would like to foster dogs.

So far we have fostered two dogs. Our first dog, Jack, was in our home for just over a month before he was adopted out. Jack was a scruffy dog, and fairly big compared to our other two dogs. We decided that after Jack we would only foster small dogs - smaller than Sadie if at all possible.

After our summer visits were over, I drove to the Bay County Animal Control Shelter with the founders of the ARC; I was going to pick out our next foster dog.

Here he is..........Oscar, our very own little weiner dog :) When we saw him at the shelter, behind bars, he was covered in huge fleas, he had a gash on the back of his neck, and he had skin irritations from mites. This guy

was picked up as a stray and we think he had been a stray for quite some time because of his condition.

Oscar went to the vet the day after we decided to foster him; he got nuetered and was ready to come home with us just two days after laying eyes on him (record time for such circumstances!).

I'm sorry to say that I hope Oscar finds a home soon because I am falling in love with him! He is just so sweet.....