Rest assured

I got some more pics from Thanksgiving... I don't have Freddy napping because he had to go to work.
After this :


They did this:

Give Thanks!

Here are a few of the things I am thankful for:

1- My husband, who is always striving to do God's Will for our family
2- My kids, who are growing up to be great adults.
3- The home that God gave us. May I never take it for granted and always use it to glorify HIM. 4- My mom, for not killing me in my teen years.
5- All of the friends that I have been blessed through the years, those still here and those who moved away.
6- My job, though frustrating at times, I know God has a plan.
7- My bed!! I love to sleep.
8- Food in my fridge. I remember times in my life when that wasn't the case.
9- Our 2 vehicles and no car payments. May they last a long while.
10- My brother and my sister-in-law. Without them, I wouldn't have my niece & nephew, whom I miss a lot!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I trust in Him and know He is always with me.


I am sure there is more, but for now, this is a good start....


One thing I wanted to do this Thanksgiving was get our family picture. Freddy used his camera last year and we got our picture taken in the backyard. This year, the weather was yucky so we didn't do it. Now I have to wait till Steph comes back home, which will be in 2 weeks. MAYBE


A cool thing that did happen is that Kaya (my cat) and Bella (Steph's puppy) look like they are trying to be friends. Bella wanted to play, but Kaya would only hiss at her. Then, later on, Kaya seemed to be searching for Bella. Still kept a distance, but the interest was definitely there!


Bella Looking for Kaya


Kaya looking for Bella

"I'm watching you, dog!"

If they had one more day together, I am sure they would have become buddies!

Here's the Pig Jam Pics!!

Fred's BBQ Digs


the prize winning pork!

Fred & his supportive (lovely) wife


Good looking chicken!


Fred getting his ribbon & $50 check


Having a "hog wild" time!


The proud Daddy's girl


I forgot to mention that Fred was competing in a group of 30 teams.
So, 2nd place for a first timer was pretty good!! :)

Pig Jam 2007

So here's how it went:

Fred went to the Plant City Pig Jam yesterday (friday) and started setting up his station by 9am.
I showed up around 5pm to keep him company till 9pm. Then I left him alone in the elements (40 degrees). He didn't sleep but maybe 15 minutes. By the time Andy and I showed up at 10am with McDonald's breakfast, he already had all the meats on the grill.

He turned in his chicken at noon.
He turned in his ribs at 12:30pm

Steph and Andrew show up with the camera

He turned in his pork at 1pm
He turned in his brisket at 1:30pm
Then we waited... waited... waited.

While we waited, we cleaned up and broke down camp. We took turns walking around the place and checking what was going on. A couple of Fred's co-workers showed up and got some free food. The Moore family (minus Meg) showed and got some food. Then Bob went and spied on the competition. He came back with news that Fred's brisket was the best he tasted.

Freddy showed up around 4pm, but had to leave for work before the winners were announced.

The Dawson family stopped by and hung around for the winners presentation at 5:30pm,
which was cool because we had a nice cheering section when Fred WON 2nd place in the "pork" division!!!!!

That was way cool. When he didn't win with the brisket, he figured he was done...

So, it was a neat event to do, even though the poor man is exhausted and froze last night. He thinks he'll do it again, this time I hope he has a partner that will help him through the night...

Steph has the pictures on her camera and as soon as she sends them to me, I will post them.

And, for those of you who let us borrow stuff, some food is coming your way!!!

What's New...

Well, nothing much, really.

I was going to wait till after Saturday to talk about Fred's try at a BBQ contest.

But I thought maybe I would now talk about Andy. As I type this (9pm), he is in Sarasota with his school soccer team playing a game. He is going to be EXHAUSTED tomorrow. Actually, he has been that way a lot lately. If he doesn't have a game at night, he has practice at school in the afternoon. I see how worn out he is, trying to keep up with school work too. But I don't know what he would do if he didn't play soccer. He has been playing since he was 5 years old. It's part of WHO he is. I like watching him play. But to be honest, it was easier when he was younger. The game is so much more physical as they get older. Last week, he got knocked over in such a way, he looked like a rag doll in mid air. I grabbed my friend's leg next to me to keep me from jumping up and screaming. (had to apologize to her afterwards)
He's hoping to play in college. That's in less than 2 years! I can't believe that.

In my eyes, he's still my baby.

My baby with a full beard. ha ha

My Grandbaby!

Nina has a new baby girl! Thankfully, she has 4 legs and is real hairy! Her name is Bella. I have to admit, even though I don't like dogs, I think I could grow fond of Bella. She is adorable!! When you hold her, it feels like you are holding a stuffed animal... Anyway, like grandkids, I can enjoy her for a while, then she goes home!

Here is a picture:

Anyone looking for a teacher's aid?

Well, Thursday and Friday were the WORST days at my job... I really think I need to find a different job.

Without going into details of the kids, there is one child who came to school on Thursday and completely went on a rampage the minute he got to school. I am talking running around, throwing chairs, lunging at the other students, growling and trying to scratch and pinch me. He had to be removed, only to be brought back to see if he could "join the class nicely". This happened 2 times, then it was decided to call his mom. Well, it took about an hour to get a hold of his mom. She comes and gets him, only to bring him back at 12:30pm. The only things left for our class were nap time & centers time before they went home, so I didn't see the point.
Friday, my teacher was absent and I was put in charge of the class. This student came in and was doing a repeat performance. I told the AP I wasn't going to deal with him, and she said I didn't have to. A substitute teacher was coming in and her sole job would be watch him.
Well, all I can say is I was glad it was Friday because I need AT LEAST 2 days to recover.

And let me remind you, I work with K5 & 1st grade kids....

I am not sure I can handle/deal with the policies and regulations of the public school system. I know they are there for the good of the student, but I'm, sorry, when 1 student keeps 11 others from learning and having a productive day at school, there is a problem.

I really like the school calendar. I am looking forward to having 2 weeks off for Christmas. If I went back to work at the Credit Union or something like it, I wouldn't get that...
Maybe I can find a position at a Christian school...

Then again, am I supposed to be where I am for God to teach me something? Am I supposed to be contributing something to the school for God's glory? But I don't think I can handle it...

Will you please pray for me? I need direction in a BIG way.

It's getting hot in here!

So, for those of you who don't know yet, I work at an elementary school as a teacher's aid in an ESE class of 12 K5-1st grade kids. Needless to say, something interesting, if not funny, happens just about every day. Just ask Fred & Andy, who have to listen to me at dinner every night...

Well, last week on Halloween day (of course!) our class was having music time around 8:45am. There is one student who has a hard time sitting still and participating. So we have come to the conclusion that food helps calm him. He was not doing well with music, so I proceeded to make some popcorn in the microwave for him. As I sat back and watched the kids in music, the volunteer that comes in on Wednesdays to help out said "what's that smell?" I said "oh, it's just popcorn". That's when we turned and saw smoke coming out of the microwave! So I jumped up and opened to see there was a bag of doritoes up in flames! (see, to keep ants away, we keep our snacks in the microwave, I didn't notice the doritoes in there) so the Speech teacher (who was in the room with us) and the music teacher marched the kids out of the room before they even knew what happened. In the mean time, the volunteer is opening windows, I am getting cups of water (yeah, I realized later I poured 3 cups of water into an electrical appliance), and the fire went out... Luckily, our class had been invited to another room for a presentation, so the room had time to air out. The fluky thing is that the fire alarm is directly above the microwave and it didn't go off!! I believe it was God having mercy on me. I truly believe that if I had been the one responsible for evacuating 700+ people out of the school, I would have had to quit on the spot...
Well, what I have learned 2 things from this:
1-ALWAYS look inside the microwave BEFORE starting it.
2- for an impromptu fire drill, our kids did great!

Hi there!!

Ok, so I thought this would be a cool way to keep all of our friends posted. Plus, I think this is the more "grown up" way, though I will be keeping my "myspace"...
James & Anna, I AM NOT COPYING YOU! :)