So special

I meant to post a picture of this earlier in the year but just didn't because it was made during a hard time.  John made this for my Aunt Pat because she requested a piece of stained glass for her window in her den when she moved into her new house.  Then she got very sick and life got crazy and busy but John wanted to live up to his promise to make her a piece of stained glass. I love and respect that he did that for her. It meant alot to me for him to do that.   I think it turned out beautifully!  I know she didn't get to enjoy it as long as we wanted her to but I hope it brought a small sliver of joy to a very hard time.  I cry when I look at it because I know the cross is what we have to stand on, rely on and put our hope in.  I know that she is with Jesus and she is well and whole again and rejoicing with the Lord.  And someday I'll see her again!

A nice ending to a stressful day

Wednesday was our first day of school at home for the 2012-2013 school year.  It was a little stressful to say the least.  We were all a little grumpy by the time the afternoon rolled around. So when we went outside that evening and saw this it brought smiles to all our faces and made us remember the promise God made to us and it reminded me that God is with me.......even during the very stressful days when I feel like I might pull my hair out.  :-)

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First Day of School

Today was our first day back to school.  The kids were excited to go back and I think we are all ready for a little bit of a routine again.  But, I will miss not having to set the alarm!  It was hard getting up at 5:50 this morning!  I like to get up and get myself ready and get a cup of tea before the girls have to get up.  I am dragging already tonight and it's only 7 pm.  Can I go to bed this early?!  ;-)

 2nd and 6th grade

They were so excited to have new rolling book bags!

Elisabeth is 7!

Elisabeth is so excited to finally be 7!  She promptly reminded me that she's almost 10.......just 3 more years.     She wants to be as old as Ansley so badly.  I told her she shouldn't rush it.  Just enjoy being 7!  She started the day off with chocolate ice cream,   then went to day camp and had a huge chocolate chip cookie cake and then had a 2 layer chocolate cake at her party that evening.  That was one sugared up little girl!  She had 16 or so friends join her at Monkey Joes for a party Friday evening.  They had a great time and played and played and were exhausted afterwards.  She had a great birthday!

Ansley turns 11

It's hard to believe but that time of year has rolled around again and my "baby" has turned 11!  That's only 2 years away from being a teenager.  Oh my!   She is a blessing and is a sweet, funny, very creative, always happy young lady.  She moves into the middle school youth group at church this year and she is very excited about that.  We have a very active youth group and a great set of youth leaders so we're excited to walk alongside her in this new season of her life.   She recently had a party with 16 (yes....16!) girls attending.  We  did crafts, played games, made ice cream sundaes and played water games outside.  It was fun but went by too quickly.  Happy Birthday sweet Ansley!

 The Peace Sign cake :-)

 Make a wish.....

We even "tie-dyed" the inside of the cake

Puerto Rico Part 2

 Me and my new Puerto Rican friend, Elizabeth.

 A storm is definitely headed our way!  It poured as soon as we got to El Yunque rainforest. It rains alot in the rain forest  ;-)

 We finally made it to the Falls after a 40 minute hike into the rain forest.

 Views from El Yunque tower

Beautiful Puerto Rico

As most of you know, John and I spent 5 days in Puerto Rico celebrating our 20th anniversary in May.  The weather was great and we really enjoyed Puerto Rico.  It's only a 3 hour flight from here, everyone speaks English, easy to get around (for the most part) and you can drink the water!  What's not to love?!   We didn't get to do all that we wanted to so we definitely plan on going back again to see the rest of the island.  Here's a few pictures but there will be more to come because there's too many to post in one sitting.  Adios...

 The beautiful buildings of Old San Juan

 The narrow cobblestone streets of Old San Juan. It's a parallel parking nightmare.

 Our beautiful room at the El Convento in Old San Juan

 The courtyard right outside our room

 The plunge pool on the roof

 The church across the street from the hotel. Ponce de Leon is buried there.

One of the many patios at the hotel.  

Bubbles

Tonight we made our own bubble blowers from empty water bottles and made our own soap mixture from water and dishwashing liquid.  Then we headed outside for some fun.  We made some HUGE bubbles!

A night on the field

Ansley recently had the opportunity to attend a Knights baseball game with her Girl Scout troop and then sleep over on the field afterwards.   I think there were 200 girls that slept in tents on the field that night.  (Thank goodness I didn't have to do this with them! I don't ever want to sleep in a tent again if I don't have to.)  They even got to watch Tangled on the big screen.  Ansley had fun but it was unusually cold that night for that late in May and they froze!  Ansley said it was a great experience but she's never doing it again!  

Ansley's 1st Horse Show

Ansley participated in her first horse show last weekend.  The weather was perfect and everything went very well (ie: Ansley didn't fall off and break anything and scare me to death).   We had no clue what to expect or what we were getting into. Luckily someone dropped off riding pants and boots at the barn a few weeks ago and Ansley's riding teacher gave them to Ansley for free.  What a blessing!  I love free. :-)  The only thing we had to buy was a while polo shirt so preparing for the horse show was pretty easy on my part.  Ansley rode Gypsy.  It's the horse she normally rides during her lessons.  She's an Arabian and very sweet.  Lazy alot of the time but very sweet.  We prayed that Gypsy would be in a good mood for the horse show and not be cranky and stubborn.  Thank goodness she woke up on the right side of the bed and cooperated the whole day.  I can't say the same about some of the other horses though.  There were several young girls and guys that had tears that day due to the behavior of their cranky horses.

Ansley had a FABULOUS time and enjoyed the whole day.  And I mean a whole day.  We were there 6 1/2 hours.  I was exhausted by the time we left and I didn't even do anything but stand around and watch.  The sun zapped all my energy.

Ansley won 5 ribbons:

5th place:  English walk/trot (13 & under) class
1st place:  Beginner Riding Lesson - Walk/Trot class
4th place: Arabian/Morgan go as you please class
4th place: Equitation English (13 & under) class
2nd place: Egg and spoon race

We are very proud of her and her positive good attitude throughout the whole show (even when she wasn't winning a ribbon).   We chalked it all up to fun and a learning experience with the added bonus of taking home a few ribbons.

 I think this horse is beautiful

 It was a VERY  long day for Elisabeth but she hung in there without too much complaining.  

Yay Ansley!