Spring has sprung!

Hi everyone!  Things have been busy here (again...as always!!), but we're doing great!  Bear Cub is officially registered for kindergarten!  Woo-hoo!  That turned into a decision, as his name was pulled in the charter school lottery, so we had to decide between that school and our neighborhood elementary school.  As crazy as it seems to by-pass the school that we could WALK to, we decided that the charter school might be a great place for BC!  It's K - 8, has a brand new building, and focuses on math and science!  I toured the school and liked the smaller feel.  There will only be 18 kids in his class...all the way through elementary school.  We will have to drive, but it's closer than the preschool we go to now, so it's just fine.   It has a bit more of a private school feel, but is still public.  We are excited for him...I just hope he loves it when school starts in August!

We've had some fun weekends here lately, so check out the photos!  These are just the ones off of my phone....oh yeahhhhh!  I got an Iphone about a month ago!  I probably only use 10% of what it is capable of doing, but it sure is fun and takes awesome quality photos!  It's pretty fun!  There goes THAT $30 extra per month...oh well...it was time to upgrade!  It makes my work stuff a bit easier, too!

Enjoy the pictures!  Happy Earth Day to you!  We have lots of little trees growing in various sized pots in and around the house...my land-loving hubbie is starting his own forest that will eventually get planted up on our property!  I'd say we're doing our share for Earth Day!  :)

Hanging out with his cousins from TN at Aunt S and Uncle G's 50th Anniversary Party

Surprise!  Happy 50th!  

Backyard fun...we always get so much use out of these blow-up pools!

A blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl....  (anyone know that song by U2?)

Easter egg fun!

Getting ready for the egg hunt with cousin A!

They are just TOO cute!

I love my vacationer life....

Hi all!  Happy Spring Break ... and St. Patrick's Day!

I can honestly say that this week off from work has been WONDERFUL - relaxing, fun, sleep-filled (sleeping in until 7:30 is awesome for us!), gorgeous weather...PERFECT!!

And...the best thing of all is that the week has been nice and SLOW...making it feel extra long!  We had a great time at St. Pete Beach - spent 2 nights there at a hotel that had everything we needed right on property.  The beach was beautiful!  Every time I spend time on our beaches, I can't help but think to myself..."Wow..we live HERE!!"  To me, our beaches are paradise.

We were able to spend time with both sides of the family, have some quality time at HOME, and take a day-trip up to our "farm" in North Florida.  We stopped by Gainesville (Go Gators!) on our way home and had an early dinner at one of our favorite sandwich places from our college days.  Brought back many happy memories -- crazy to be sitting there with our almost SIX year old, reminiscing about our days at UF.  I think we have convinced Bear Cub that he MUST attend the University of Florida when he's ready!  I tried to talk him into early admission, but he wasn't quite ready for THAT just yet!  ;)

Enjoy the pics!!  I'm off to check on my corned beef and start the cabbage for our St. Pattie's Day dinner!  

May you always walk in sunshine.

May you never want for more.

May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!  

 Have I mentioned that we have a new pet in our house?  Meet Hermie, the hermit crab.  :)  We didn't have the best of luck with the Betta Fish, so we moved on...and so far, so good!  

 Heading off to play with Cousin A...and her baby sister, lil Cousin A!  :)

 Relaxing on the beach...look that blue sky and ocean!  It was like this for both days we were there.  GORGEOUS!!

 Dolphin fin!  Off to the left...we saw a few groups of them on both days.

 Our resort  :)

 BC loved the hammocks!  And made a couple of "girlfriends" during a lounge session.  He loves the 

12 - 14 year old girls....oh my!

So awesome...the resort takes in injured and abandoned IGUANAS...there were 18!!  You can only imagine how intrigued BC was with this area!  It made our outside dining experiences GREAT!  Free entertainment for the man!

 He didn't want to hold the baby chick at the tractor supply store (no, we didn't buy a tractor) but he sure wanted to pet these cuties!

 A happy man on his way to the farm!

 Our property!

 We planted a fig tree!  And barb-wired around it, hoping to keep the cows (which we allow to graze on the property for now) away from it.  Fingers crossed!

Had to get our old-time fave dessert at the Gainesville sandwich place. It was as good as it ever was!!

SPRING BREAK!!!!!

In just 10 hours, I will officially be on SPRING BREAK from work!  Yippppeeeee!!

My virtual school does not get an actual spring break, so I took the week off so I could also have the time with Bear Cub while his school is out and Daddy Bear is off, too.  Yay!!

Our original plans to drive to Indiana have changed, so we are going to relax, enjoy some time at home and the beach, and get some STUFF done that we never seem to have to do.

I tell you what...preparing for a week off is exhausting! Although I don't have to make lessons plans (another beautiful thing about this job), there is still a lot to be proactive on.  But...I'm almost there...I'm counting down the hours!

I will post pictures soon!!  Let me survive today and the last push of student calls, then I will be a better blogger!  Have a happy day!  :)

February Review

Hi there!  How is it that February is almost over?  Where does time go?

February has been busy!  Bear Cub has been doing really well at school, which we are so proud of!  We went to his "Kindergarten Round-Up" where we got to check out the local elementary school and learn more about it.  I think he's even a little excited about it!  The classrooms look great, the school is very nice, and it's within walking distance of our house!  How crazy to not get in the car everyday to drop-off and pick-up!  The kids even got to go through the lunch line and get a little snack during the event.  I think BC was pretty impressed.  :)

We've made some trip to the zoo and aquarium, swam in our community pool, and even ran in a road race! Bear Cub earned a finisher's medal for this one and was happy about that!  Maybe a future track star?  I've been sick the last week or so and finally went to the doctor.  My first diagnosis of bronchitis!  Once I started taking some medication, I felt better! Still working on getting my voice back fully, but that continues to improve each day.  I'm glad to have my full energy back!  Luckily no one else in the house has gotten what I had, so I'm happy about that.  I thought we were going to make it with no illness this winter!

We're getting ready for a spring break road trip to Indiana in a couple of weeks.  Wondering how BC will do?  We have some fun stops planned along the way, so that should help!!

Enjoy the pictures!  And hopefully I'll get back to my better blogging ways soon.  My work has been busy and we've entered "senior season," where 12th graders are just NOW registering for this required class for graduation.  It's stressful for me knowing they have to finish my course in order to graduate this year!  Sometimes, they can be the least motivated...which makes my job even harder!  Ugh!  For those of you with high school aged kids....a word of advice...stay on top of the guidance counselors to make sure your child has everything necessary for graduation BEFORE the senior year!  OY!

Happy Sunday!

 Zoe has been extra lovey lately and will snuggle up like this!  How precious is she?!?  I love that girl so much!

 A few weeks back we met up with some of our friends from Clermont - here's BC with one of the boys.  We had a great time!  (Don't they look like they could brothers?)

 That SAME day we went to the zoo, BC had a cooking birthday party to go to for a classmate.  It was at Young Chef's Academy and the kids got to make their own little pizzas.  It was so well-organized and really fun! Bear Cub enjoyed it!  :)

 Cutie-pie mini chef

 Kneading the dough...

 Ta-da!  Yum!

 Some fun at the beach a few weekends ago...

 BC loves this little gal, too.  They are best buds!

 Recent artwork he brought home from school...done all on his own.  His explanation, "Two green anoles, dewlaps flashing, sitting on a log and watching the water snake."  I was super impressed with this!

 Yesterday's road race - 1/2 mile kids run!