December news! :)

A picture of what it is doing outside at this moment, with more a comin'! :) Very pretty (though it's quite yukky driving in it).

An unfinished picture of our tree. Kerri wanted to show her friend at school how many lights are on our tree. I like LOTS of lights (1100)!

Our "The Dog". Kerri bribed Zeus with a treat to sit & model her reindeer headband. (Excuse the background clutter of our laundry room.)

No more JC Penny Portraits (my plan ended & this may be the last year I get the traditional "daughters together"pose)...... so our portrait studio- the great outdoors!

Since posting last we have had a variety of things still happening, just like everyone else does! :)

I like making list so I'll just list some highlights instead of giving it in paragraph form.

* Kerri's surgeon says that she is healing up fine, though she'll probably have to be careful with her diet in the future since she has a hiatal hernia. We go tomorrow (weather permitting) to a new oral surgeon to find out what he'll do for her TMJ.

* We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Jeff's mom & dad. They came down on Wednesday and left Saturday morning.

* Unfortunately, the flu bug hit Kerri Thanksgiving night, then Jeff & Sharree the following week. I got it this past week and so far Jeff's parents haven't gotten it.

* Jeff had to get several tests done, so they hospitalized him in order to expediate the process. He gets all his test results & information this week.

* Jeff & I went to a Christmas concert by Point of Grace (our Christmas gift to each other) and out to dinner (present from the girls) on the 4th. We had a great time on our date day since we don't go out on dates very often!

I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season! It's my favorite time of the year because first of all God's gift to us- Jesus, the songs, festive activities, decorations, & traditions: driving around & looking at Christmas lights, making cookies, watching special Christmas programs, hearing news from family & friends via Christmas cards, and Christmas vacation. :)

Merry Christmas!!

FINALLY........an update!!!!!!! :)

Sharree's picture for Student Convention.

Kerri's submitted photo for student convention.

Kerri's woodworking project.

Sideways view of Sharree's woodworking project.

First of all, I apologize for taking sssooooo long to finally update our blog. My family has informed me that I start up a new "hobby" & forget the previous ones (something I am working on improving). Maybe it's just me, but the older I get the harder it seems to multi-task and the faster seems to fly by. At any rate, I am going to try & faithfully update at the beginning of each month (now I can be erased off your black-list, Aleda :) ).

So.... here's a short update of some of the major events that have happened since I have last blogged.

March - the girls competed in a Student Convention & each won 6 ribbons -proud momma talkin' here!! :) *pictures uploaded above

May - Kerri was diagnosed with TMJ.

I tripped & fell into the cement block doorway at school, which required 6 or 7 stitches ( I don't remember now) and caused a very nice black eye. This happened 4 days before........

Sharree graduated from high school with honors. Jeff's parents, my parent's, and my brother & his family came for the big event. It was GREAT having a bunch of family here.

Cousins enjoying each other: Aiden, Kerri, Shaelyn, & Sharree.

The graduates: Sharree & Jennifer

The family. Did I say how wonderful it was having everyone here?!! :)

Senior picture layout done by my friend Wendy. As you can tell she does awesome work!! She made it hard for us to pick out which pictures to use.

Another Senior picture layout. There were LOTS more but it would take me a long time to load them all. :)

June-August - Sharree & I did Farmer's Market on Saturday morning during the summer.

We took a long vacation and went to NY for four days, then MI for four days. Of course, we had a wonderful time with our families. It did seem short compared to the week we usually spend at each place, but Sharree had just started working part-time at Burger King and she wanted to come along.

I went couponing with a couple of my friends most Monday mornings. I will have to blog about that later. :)

August - School started back up. I have 10 students and Kerri is a Junior this year.

September - Jeff's work merged with another company. He & another guy split a 3 driver route now -job security!!! He has been quite busy during harvest.

October - Kerri had emergency surgery for a perferated gastric ulcer (they thought it was a ruptured appendix) and was in the hospital for four days. The surgeon & pediatric doctor at the hospital determined it was caused by 2 of the 4 medications she was taking for her TMJ. The surgeon also said she had a 1.7% chance of anything like that happening to someone her age. She is doing well and we are checking into another oral surgeon for her TMJ.

Sharree has been undergoing different tests as well to determine what has been causing her to have some health issues since she was little.

Kerri turned 15 on the 24th. Only 6 mths. until she can get her permit. AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November - Jeff has a birthday tomorrow and he'll be ____ ! :)

Looking forward to Thanksgiving when Jeff's mom & dad come for a visit. We had pretty fall colors around our house and I tortured my girls by having them get their annual fall picture session with me. :) I'll have to post some of those later after I upload them.

At any rate, I hope everyone has a wonderful THANKSGIVING!!

More Snow!!

February 5-February 16

= 3 snow storms

= @ 25 in. of snow (hard to tell with blowing snow & BIG drifts)

= 4 snow days (NO SCHOOL!!!!)

Christmas

These are a couple pictures of the girls from Christmas Eve- another one of those yearly traditions of mine. :)

Christmas morning: The next two pictures are of the girls opening their final gift from Jeff & I. A trip to Florida. Needless to say they were very surprised, VERY EXCITED, & couldn't believe that we were going the next day! We have been planning this trip since June for the girls as a one of their Christmas gifts. It was so much fun planning it, but got to be a little bit hard near the end to keep it a surprise. But we did!!!

Saturday, we traveled to Macon, GA, and stayed at the Ramada (very nice). Then we finished traveling to Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday. We stayed with my cousin, Aleda, & her husband, Dan. Her daughters & their families came over for dinner (delicious, homemade spaghetti) and I got to meet their children for the first time. My cousin Aleda & I are 2nd cousins, so you can figure from this picture that there are 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th cousins in the picture below!!!! :)

Front row: Me, Kerri, Sharree, Cynthia, Aleda, Alexa, Austin, & Shawn. Second row: Derrick, Brenda, Alex, & Pam.

Monday, December 28th: Epcot

We were in Stuart, FL, Tues. - Thurs., with our friend, Jonathan. After we finally, woke up on Tuesday, we took the girls to see the Atlantic. It was the first time for Kerri to see the ocean, & a "first" for Sharree since she didn't remember it before we moved to Ohio (she was 2yrs.). It was beautiful, but chilly.

Blowing Rocks, Jupiter, FL.

Our host, Jonathan.

While at Jonathan's, we: went to two different beaches; went to two malls; went to my friend, Rachel's house for dinner with her family & sister; and toured Hobe Sound Bible College campus with the girls & Mrs. Judy Fay as our guide.

On Friday, we traveled to North Carolina, to be with my brother & his family. We haven't seen them for a couple of years and it was the first time for us to meet my nephew, Aiden. It was a short, but sweet visit, and we so enjoyed getting to know Aiden. He had no problems adjusting to any of us. :)

Needless to say, we had an awesome time on our trip! The girls ranked their top favorite things as: #1 seeing/meeting family & friends, #2 Epcot, #3 the ocean/beach, #4 eating at lots of different restaurants.

It was definately a memory maker!!