My Man and His Truck

Now some of you reading this will not understand this at all and then others will be able to relate and feel my pain laugh with me at the same time. Today was a beautiful spring day so we, of course, decided to drive our ’72 Bronco to the baseball fields. It was the perfect day to ride with the wind in your hair.

We were just about home and all of the sudden which is not abnormal for anything ‘all of the sudden’ to happen the cable to the gas pedal breaks in half. Yes! The gas pedal was flat on the floorboard. It was perfect timing, if there is such a thing when your gas pedal wire suddenly breaks in half, we cruised right in to a parking lot under some beautiful shade trees.

Being married to my wonderful husband for 13 years (14 years in May), I have learned to stay quiet. As opposed to getting irritated when he doesn’t call AAA right away! I really do stay quiet and find it only encourages my hubby and our relationship. ; ) My job? Helping when asked and keeping the boys busy with reviewing skip counting, history songs and praise songs. Oh, did I mention it was 12:15pm (Yea, we hadn’t eaten yet).

Well, for 45 minutes Brian worked on the pedal and worked on the pedal……

I am always very impressed with Brian and his ability to continue trying to figure things out when he doesn’t know exactly what to do. I am sure I could do the same. (I do not have that character trait and am still working on it.) I admire him greatly for that trait.

After 45 minutes Brian tells me to call AAA so I do. While I am on the phone with them I notice him working a tad faster. I get off the phone with them and 2 minutes later he tells me to call them back and cancel. He fixed it! Mind you the gas pedal is still on the floorboard!!

Again, I have learned to say O.K. So what did he do? He improvised his own hand throttle. What!?! Yeah, again, quiet mouth and encouraging wife. (That me!) I canceled AAA and off we went. LOL! My husband drove us home in our ’72 Bronco.

The best part about this story!?! Our boys witnessed their dad figure out how to fix the Bronco with a calm spirit and best of all how do keep trying when it doesn’t work the first time. What an awesome family experience! Love you honey! Oh, and here is a picture of our drive home. ; )

Thank you Walmart lady...

Last week our family took a trip to Walmart to gather our supplies for camping. (Yes! It was a fabulous trip!) -- Not so much the Walmart trip but the camping trip was fantastic. : )

I believe that particular trip to Walmart will forever be engraved in my four and half year old's head. As we were walking down the canned soup isle, Aaron stopped to watch what the ladies were doing. If you know Aaron at all you know he is VERY curious and could very well be Curious George's first cousin. (LOL!)

The kind Walmart lady noticed him and turned to Aaron. She said in a very serious voice, "This is what happens when you don't go to college." Since that time Aaron has told multiple people that he will for sure be going to college because he does not intend on putting cans on a shelf and counting them. : )

Thank you Walmart lady for being an inspiration to my child -- because you know sometimes it just doesn't matter what Mom and Dad say. ; }

Paper Mache, Baking Soda and Vinegar! Oh My!

We are learning about volcanoes!!

Brennan and Aaron had a great time making their paper mache volcano!

Today they painted it -- getting it ready for the explosion!!

I love watching my children learn!

The Exploding Volcano!!

Snow in Tampa?

Steve Spangler Science is the best! Our boys would LOVE to see snow. At our geographical location that is near impossible (although I might argue that point this week). Santa was good enough bring snow in the boy's stockings and they made their own!

This is as close as they may get this winter but they played in the "snow" in the back yard and had a blast.

That evening we had a family smore party. We love building bonfires in the backyard and roasting marshmallows. Who can resisit adding chocolate to them? I know one person -- my hubby! He doesn't particularly enjoy roasted marshmallows but he does like to play with fire - LOL! And the rest of us benefit --- He still roasts the marshmallows but we get to eat them!

Trapped in my computer!!

Digital photography is such a great invention! NOT! Don't get me wrong, I love not buying film every month in bulk. What I don't love is all my pictures being forever trapped in my computer.

I take a plethora of pictures each month not to miss one event in my children's lives. Only to come to the realization that I am missing enjoying the pictures and memories because they are not printed out. I remember in the "old days" going to Walgreens, Target or Walmart and printing my pictures each month. Placing them in their albums and framing the special pictures.

When digital first came up I would rush to Walgreens and print the pictures off my memory card. Then Snapfish and Shutterfly appeared. Why rush anywhere? I can just upload my pictures and print them whenever I want. Right? Wrong! I forget to print!

I have all these cute pictures in iPhoto just waiting to be enjoyed. Only a few get uploaded to our blog or on FaceBook and I can't enjoy them on those fabulous online applications. Let's face it -- I need to be more diligent on uploading and printing. At the rate I am going now I will have to print three years of pictures off of Shutterfly to catch up. That's not intimidating at all!! - HA!

Can you guess what I have been trying to do for the past week? You got it -- upload all of this year's pictures so I can make a calendar for 2010. So others may enjoy just a few of our precious memories.
Have fun sorting your pictures from 2009. I hope you are better at it than I.

Oh--- and these pictures are (you guessed it) just a few of our fun memories from 2009 or past.

Last Minute Craftiness

I have to admit that being crafty is one of those love/hate relationships I have. Having two VERY active boys, homeschooling and cleaning up after two VERY active boys keeps me busy. My friend, Kim, posted some adorable little pumpkins she made and I decided to go for it.

Another reason I don't always get crafty is because I don't have all the materials I need to complete a project and that drives me absolutely crazy!! But for this cute little project I did not have to buy a thing. Big plus!

We are fortunate enough to have two families coming over to spend Thanksgiving Dinner with us this year and I wanted to make it special but simple. With 6 adults and 7 children their is only so much you can do before it is all destroyed. - LOL!

As you can see in the pictures. I made my cute little Pumpkin Place Settings and cannot wait to get my table set tonight, ready for tomorrow.

~Enjoy your Thanksgiving~

May God Bless your Family!

Fun Eats for Kids

Edible Indian Corn

This year we are having some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner after Festival de Gracious.
I thought it would be fun to make these edible Indian Corn treats. They turned our really cute and so easy to make.

Here is the link for the instructions: http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/edible-indian-corn-688364/

Happy Thanksgiving!