handsful

This was Dylan’s first glimpse of the ocean…he took to it right away.

Lainey was very excited! Back when we lived here, she always liked the beach but the waves scared her a bit. Not this year.

The buckets and shovels were put to good use.

His idea of belly surfing?

Someone needs sunglasses

not a care…

Warning: These next two pictures involve themes that could be construed as non-politically correct. You’ve been warned.

Can you tell which is which?

I have no idea what to say here.

The beach is a great place to practice your cartwheel.

These pictures are from last Saturday. We went back to the beach yesterday, but decided to leave the camera behind. Dylan loved it even more, going out deeper with Daddy, jumping waves with Julianna and Emily (our friend Jon and his daughters came to hang out with us), and making wet sand castles. Even I – not exactly a beach lover – had a fantastic time.

So, we’re in Florida right now…and, it’s hot. Though, I hear it’s just as hot back in NC.

We’re here so that Abbey, Marley, Payton, and Ethan can be student leaders in our previous church’s Power Up Clubs. If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time, you might remember what that is. In a nutshell…

80+ church members have offered to host and donated their front yards.
27 teams made up of 7 people each (age 12 up to college, plus 1 adult leader)
Each team puts on 3 clubs per day – 10am, 5pm, and 6:45pm.
Each club lasts 1 1/2hours and it’s made up of music, drama, games, snacks…think VBS without the church building :)
The kids spend the whole week at church…girls in one building, and guys in another. A whole staff of church members have the daunting task of feeding them 3 meals plus a snack each day. God bless them.

This is Abbey’s 3rd year doing PUC, and the trips 2nd. They have been beside themselves excited to do this again. And, let me tell you…it ain’t easy. It’s work. In very hot weather, sometimes in yards with little to no shade.

But, none of that matters. They get to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Something that puts Christ on display in front yards all over the city. Something that I pray will grow them in their faith, while they show kids what it means to love God without bounds.

This morning at church, the kids busted into the sanctuary (for all 3 services) with all the energy that 180 teens have, and did one of the PUC songs for the congregation. Forgive the blurry pics…

Abbey and Payton in this one.

And, Marley. It took us a while, but we finally found Ethan in the back. Because we saw his hat.

After church, we took the kids to lunch. Zach, one of the boys best buds, joined us. Guess it was pretty sunny, since 2 of them had to shut their eyes for the pic.

Move in time. Having 2 girls and 2 boys doing this, means we end up walking back and forth (and back and…) between the two buildings.

Abbey’s little corner of the world for the week. She’s been in the same room with the same friends for all 3 years.

Marley’s room. She’s the one in the red shirt. Heh.

The littles loved being around all those teenage girls. Two of the girls in Marley’s room took a special interest in them. These are sisters, both adopted from China. Elizabeth and Emeline spent a ton of time with them, letting them play with their phones and taking pictures with them. How sweet.

Abbey and Angelina – friends for years.

Over in teenage boy world, here is Payton and Ethan’s room. Payton has an air mattress, pillow, and blanket. Who needs a sheet, right? Ethan’s bed has a yellow ball on it. ?

I found Ethan in the jr. high room. The theme for this years PUC is Superheros, so each team comes up with their team name and signature (i.e. color bandana, mask, etc.)

Ethan might be taking it a tad too far. Not sure if this is superhero or terrorist?

They had their first clubs tonight. Payton has a part in his team’s drama, as does Abbey. Marley and Ethan give their testimony tonight at their clubs. I’ll be sharing pics of the clubs we take the littles too – you can be sure. Like you doubted.

Tomorrow…pictures of our afternoon at the beach with Lainey and Dylan (his first time!)

Today was an official Field Trip day for Generations Christian Academy.  We did not wear matching t-shirts or name tags and we did not walk in a single file line…like the million other school children we saw today.  Another perk of homeschooling, maybe?

Our friends, Kelley and her daughter Kylie, joined us today.  It was actually their idea to go to the zoo, and Kelley clued me in on getting a nature center membership that covered this zoo, plus a bunch of other in and out of state places, for a year.  There was about a $30 difference in price for a year, vs. a one-day ticket for our whole family.  That decision was a no-brainer!

Some pics from today…

This is how the littles enjoyed the zoo.  Randy’s dad and Kathy gave it to them yesterday as an early birthday present.  JUST in time for our zoo visit…how nice!  We got a ton of comments on it, and others asking where we got such a cool wagon.  My only complaint? It needs a brake…it’s hard to keep it from rolling on a hill!

Here comes a seal…Dylan loved how they kept swimming right by the window!

I don’t remember what they were looking at here?!  A bear, maybe?

Speaking of bears, they tried out the polar bear cave.  He was snoozing on a rock and didn’t seem to mind sharing.

Liking his first US zoo visit (we did the Safari zoo in China)

Another zoo fan!

Photo op!

Favorite thing I overheard today?  “Hey, that kid looks just like Justin Beiber!”  Heh heh…

Learning about chimpanzees…

and, posing with a monkey.

We stayed till they closed, and then drove the long 1 1/2hrs home.  We had a great day, but this momma is worn out!  I’m so tempted to call in “tired”  tomorrow ;)  Think I can get a substitute on this short notice?

The NC State Fair. A childhood MUST for both Randy and I. The kids went a few times when they were little, before we moved to FL in 04. Now that we’re back in NC, we were so excited about starting up our fair tradition again. Despite waking up to RAIN, we pointed the truck in the direction of Raleigh.

The Fair has several things you just have to do/experience. Animals. Rides. Food. Not necessarily in that order.

There is always a poultry exhibit…lots of cages with lots of roosters, hens, and turkeys. We all decided that the huge red dangly thing off the turkeys beaks would drive us crazy. Just saying.

The best part of that exhibit hall is the table full of precious little baby chicks and ducks to hold. They’re so fluffy!!! :)

In the large animal exhibit, we saw cows, pigs, and goats presented for auction and judging. There’s also a milking area where you can pay $2 to milk a cow. Marley, Payton, and Lainey wanted to try it. Abbey remembers that a cow almost kicked her in years past, so she thinks they have something against her. Ethan passed on the opportunity, too. He was more interested in those rides coming up.

I decided not to post the pics of the kids actually milking the cows…in case anyone is squeamish. Did I spell that right?

The prize for milking a cow is a carton of NC State milk. Lainey has yet to ask about where “brown milk” (as she calls it) comes from.

Randy – the horse whisperer. Not sure he’s getting his point across.

Proof I was there. Yes, it was raining when we first arrived, but it soon cleared to partly cloudy and the temp was great!

After watching some pig races (I did mention we’re in North Carolina, right?), we were able to feed a few animals.

Sliced carrots. They probably would have preferred the fried oreos. Sorry dudes.

Abbey was very excited to see llamas. She loves llamas.

Marley has such a way with animals, this goat is being lulled to sleep by her.

In case you’re wondering about the post title, the fair has gone completely deep-fried crazy. They’ll batter and fry anything. ANYTHING.

We saw fried snack cakes, candy bars, moon pies, oreos…(okay, we tried that last one. I don’t recommend it).

Really? Does bacon need HELP to be more unhealthy? I mean, I love bacon, who doesn’t? But should we really deep-fry it?

This one was new this year. Help me understand this…

A burger, with all the trimmings, between 2 glazed doughnuts. I can’t even imagine. And, there were people in line for this thing?!

I won’t say we didn’t have our share of fair food, oh we did. Marley loves the roasted corn. Abbey had a candy apple, like she always does. We ate at our usual sit-down booth sponsored by a civic organization – they have the best buttermilk biscuits :) Cotton candy, fudge, funnel cake, polish sausage, french fries from Al’s, etc. It was all good.

Fun house = fun for Payton and Marley. The 5 big kids (including Randy) rode some crazy rides. I was content to hang with Lainey during those. Us girls rode the ferris wheel and I tried hard not to imagine falling out. Heights aren’t my thing.

Ethan gets his speed on…

The girls are giddy with fair happiness.

heh. heh.

What a cute sheep, I think I’ll take her home.

Anyone hungry for a burger? Just kidding…

For those not in the know, Payton’s nickname with his friends is Tater. Randy got that started a while ago, we don’t remember how!

Yes, Abbey is inside a big plastic ball.

A big hamster ball on water.

Where the goal is to try and stand up.

Not surprisingly, Marley connected with her inner-hamster and mastered it.

Lainey decided against being a hamster, and went with being an artist. She painted her own pendant of a horse. Sweet.

All in all, we had an amazing time at the fair. We squeezed in everything we possibly could and – though I’d kinda hoped we wouldn’t – we stayed till the fireworks at 9:45.

Which meant we’d get home around 1:30am. But, it was so worth it. I have great memories of going to the fair as a kid. (I even still have a small, silver ring with an engraved “D” on it – they sell the EXACT same ring at the fair today, I saw it!) And, our kids will look back on this crazy day and smile. I just know it. They’re already talking about next year. :)

And, it’s me!  Last Friday, I crammed a lot of luggage and all 5 kids into the Yukon XL and headed to FL.  Unfortunately, Randy had to stay behind…lots of meetings, conference calls, traveling by car and plane to be done. 

Which is all good and bad.  Being “busy” when you’re in sales is a good thing.  But, I miss him TERRIBLY.  This is the longest we’ve ever been apart (I can hear the resounding “Awwwww”s going on) and it stinks.  How DO single moms do it?  My patience isn’t thin, it’s GONE.  Lainey hasn’t slept very well on this trip.  Could be because we’ve stayed in 4 difference places?  Or, I’m getting her so tired during the day going to Power Up Clubs that she can’t settle down at night?  Whatever the reason, she’s been a bit “edgy” lately (putting it nicely).  Which is sending me OVER the edge every now and then. 

Back to our trip.  We promised the kids when we moved that we would most definitely bring them back for Power Up Clubs.  What’s that?  Our FL church doesn’t do regular, old VBS.  The amazing children’s pastor came up with a different idea, years ago, to take VBS to streets..well, in this case neighborhoods.  She plans a whole weeks worth of VBS-type stuff (theme, skits, songs, games, etc.) – asks church members to host the clubs in their yards and invite neighbor kids – builds teams of around 8 youth (7th grade to college age) each – and sends them out to 3 host homes per day.  It’s AMAZING.  This year, there were 67 host homes around Jacksonville!  The kids and adult leaders stay the whole week at the church, and are fed by an army of volunteers who handle the ravenous appetites of hot, exhausted kids each day.  I’m told the food is awesome :)  Oh…if you want to see last years Power Up Club, search for it on the sidebar.  I blogged about our club last year. 

Each of our big kids was on a seperate team!  I wanted to take Lainey around to the clubs so we could see her sisters and brothers in action, so I’ve logged a lot of miles on the truck this week!  We ended up seeing 7 clubs total.  I loved seeing the kids stretch themselves…Marley in FRONT of people, playing a character in the skits!  Each gave their testimony, too. 

Today is the last day of clubs, and tonight is the celebration called Power Surge!  I’ll be taking Lainey, then we’ll gather all (heh heh…any bets that we’ll find ALL of the kids belongings??) of their stuff, and head back to my friend Anne’s house to stay the night.  Tomorrow, we head HOME.  What a lovely word!

Sorry, no pictures…the site that I upload photos from decided to CHANGE all of their settings and procedures and now it won’t let me upload.  I’ll get that figured out asap! 

Next post from NC :)

Whew.  Last week was busy.  Fun, and not so fun busy. 

It started with my flight to NJ, for my grandmom’s funeral.  It was odd to be there, knowing she wasn’t with us anymore.  I’m glad I was able to make the trip for my mom.  And, we’re just thankful that she’s out of pain and with her Lord. 

While I was at the funeral, Randy was driving the kids up to Florida.  We had this trip planned for some time…the kids were registered for a youth conference at church called Out2B.  Mornings of amazing biblical teaching by Charles Covington, afternoons of service to the community, evenings of fun and little sleep.  They were jazzed about going. 

I literally flew in to NJ, went to the funeral, and flew out – so I was at the Jax airport that same evening and Randy picked me up from the airport.  The kids were farmed out to various friends houses and Randy, Lainey and I stayed at a hotel. 

Church the next morning was wonderful…how we missed our friends!  That night, we stayed at our dear friends Jon and Anne’s house (some of the kids again farmed out to friends homes). 

The next morning, Anne took Randy to the airport.  He was due to be in Vegas Mon – Wednesday.  I took Marley and Anne’s girls to drop them off at Out2B. 

The next few days were relaxed and pretty laid back.  Lainey and I spent our days hanging out at Anne’ s house playing with the “zoo” (check out her blog on the sidebar – Life is a Zoo).  We also went by the old house to go through stuff we left in the garage…did some cleaning, took some things to charity, etc. 

Wondering where the pictures are yet?  I took almost NO pictures.  Just never got the camera out.  Until, Anne decided it was time to teach Lainey to swim.  She’d been telling me that she’d be thrilled to teach her – she taught her own girls and is fabulous with Lainey.  So, off with the floaties and…

no fear, trusting completely.

she listened intently.

Learning to walk the wall…

having a blast

and, in no time at all, she was off!

swimming underwater like she’d been doing it for years.  She’s not entirely sure what to do with her arms yet…usually gracefully holds them behind her, with her feet kicking like mad.  And, picking her big noggin up to get a breath is something she’s still working on.  But, Anne said she’s a “natural” and the easiest kid she’s ever taught to swim.  Ever.  Lainey couldn’t get enough of it.  So, as long as there is an adult supervising, she’s going no-floaties.  We’ll keep them for times when the big kids are with her down at the dock swimming in the lake.  I’m so proud of her! 

Before long, it was Wednesday and time to go to church for the end of Out2B banquet and to pick up the kids.  Charles spoke one more time to the kids, and the parents got to listen in.  He’s amazing.  Teaches Bible at a public (yes, PUBLIC) school in Mississippi.  The way he grabs the kids attention with hilarious stories that tie perfectly into his message on the Sermon on the Mount was incredible. 

So, I farmed the boys and Abbey out again (they wanted to spend AS MUCH time as possible with their friends) and Marley stayed with Lainey and I (her besties are Anne’s girls) at Anne’s house again.  Thursday morning, Jon went to the airport to pick up Randy (he had taken the red-eye so he could be back in Jax early) while I started packing us up.  We spent that day picking up a trailer to pull behind the truck, loading the trailer with items from our garage, adding more items from our rented storage rooms, and finally pulling out to head back to NC around 6:30ish.  Our intent was to drive until Randy got too tired and stay at a hotel…Randy had gotten VERY little sleep on the plane.  Turned out, he found his second wind and we arrived home at 1:20am. 

So, now you can see (if you’re still reading…) why I’m glad we’re now settling back down into our new-normal routine of living here in NC.  I’ve gotta go…more unpacking to do.  :)

I had such a hard time narrowing down which pictures to post about our trip to Magic Kingdom last week!  As you’ll be able to tell by the large number of photos, I decided to go all out and post almost all of them. 

We had participated in the Give a Day / Get a Disney Day promotion a few weeks ago by volunteering at our local City Rescue Mission thrift store.  Those few hours gave us all (except Lainey) free passes for one day at Disney!  With our move coming up, we wanted to go ahead and use them so we woke up early last Wednesday and hit the road.  We arrived around 10am. 

The kids all wore their Disney pin lanyards with their current Disney pins to trade/collect.  We bought Lainey a lanyard, and bought the kids a few pins each to use for trading.  Lainey was really into it, wanting to trade with all the Disney employees! 

The boys favorite attraction is the Stitch’s Great Escape.  It’s really hard to explain how it works.  Suffice it to say that in one part, you hear Stitch burp and then smell that he had a chili cheese dog for lunch.  I skipped this one. 

We all rode the carousel.  :)

See the goofy mom?  Get it?  Goofy.  Disney humor.   

Ice pop break. 

Having fun, Abbey? 

Notice the obvious joy on the boys’ faces?  We’re in line for their FAVORITE ride…care to guess?  Think of a Disney song that’s nearly impossible to get out of your head. 

Yea, that’s the one.  :)

I asked Lainey if she liked this next ride – she said a definite no.  She didn’t like getting wet! 

She did, however, enjoy feeding the beautiful bird some of her fish crackers.  A perk about living in Florida…we have really pretty birds!

See?  He was just hanging out among the crowds. 

Amazed at all the Disney sights. 

Lainey LOVED the tea cups. 

Her first ride was with just the girls, spinning it just a little.  By the end of that ride, she was ready for big-time spinning with the whole gang.  I couldn’t catch her face during the ride, but believe me when I say she was having a smile explosion! 

Randy prides himself on how fast he can spin a tea cup. 

In case you’re wondering if I ever rode any rides, let me assure you I did.  I love Space Mountain, but it’s too dark for pictures.  Rode that twice.  Randy and I rode Thunder Mountain Railroad a couple of times, and tried getting pictures of each other. 

This was the best of the bunch.  What a riot. 

How can you not smile at Disney?

Sword in the Stone

Marley couldn’t budge it either.  Despite those guns she’s got!

Amazingly, she pulled it right out a second after I snapped this picture :)

Ethan and his stare down.  I think it’s cute and a little scary. 

After about 9 hours, the sun started to go down and we started to wind WAY down.  Disney at night is gorgeous. 

green…

 blue!  Disney magic…can you imagine their light bill?

Me either. 

Zai Jian (“Goodbye” in mandarin) from Disney!  Not sure WHEN we’ll be back, but we will be back :)