Update on US!!

Well... Baseball and Softball are finally over!! The kids had lots of fun, but it was getting to be too much so I'm glad that its over!! Also, it was either freezing at the ball field or the mosquito's were eating me up!! They did have a great season. Alyssa team wasn't very good, but she didnt care. Stephen's team was good, but it was never good enough for Stephen! My kids are so funny! Such opposites!!

I love this picture of Alyssa, she's on second base talking to her friend on the other team!! Another great Alyssa moment was when she was dancing in the outfield. She had a song in her head and she was a dancing machine! All of the Mom's were crackin' up on the bleachers!! It was hillarious!!

After Alyssa's last game we went out for Pizza, well they had pizza!! It was fun!

Here are the trouble makers!! (except me!)

Also, We decorated the inside and outside of the house this week!! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

Once again... Stephen got ahold of the camera... He likes taking lots of butt shots or he takes the picture when your making a silly face!! aka your not expecting it!!  He is such a silly boy!! I love him so much!!

All we have left to put out is the BIG SANTA blow ups!! I will wait until after Thanksgiving to put those up!! We are really excited about our trip to South Carolina this week!! We get to have an Early Thanksgiving Dinner with Detto!! Yippy!! We are all set. We have our audio books and we are ready to go!! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!

Our Cruise and More Updates!

We had a GREAT vacation last week!! Detto and I went on a 6 day/5 Night Cruise!! We went on the Carnival Inspiration, it was a LOT of fun!! The scariest part was no contact with the kids for 6 whole days.... My brain was doing flips.. What if Stephen has an Asthma attack, what if Alyssa falls and breaks a bone, What if, What if, What if.....
I Do Not like being away from my kids!! I guess it is part of the whole "homeschool thing", but I don't like it! I know they were safe and of course nothing happened!!

Anyways... The Cruise was so much fun! We went to Grand Cayman, Bahamas & Cozumel, Mexico!! Wow, was that trippy! Mexico was hilarious - No Rules!! No Problem!! We went outside of the "touristy" area and Wow did the scenery change!! Trash everywhere, poverty, huts, etc. They shop owners were VERY aggressive not only to get us to buy, but also yelling at the other shop owners... Everyone sat outside of the shop and yelled for you to come in and buy from them! One guys said to Detto, "Come let me rip you off!" His accent was so thick that Detto asked him, "Did you just say 'Come let me RIP YOU OFF'?"... He said, "Yes, I know someone here will, why not let it be me?" We were crackin' up!! (We didn't go in his shop)
The town was crazy... Our cab driver hit the car behind us when he was backing out of the parking space.... he acted as if it was no big deal. He sideswiped other cars while driving down the road and almost rear ended a truck in front of us!! It was scary! But, we had a great time. The food was great and so was the ocean! We went back to the boat after only 4 or 5 hours in Mexico.

The Bahamas were not nearly as crazy... They drove on the "wrong" side of the street and they were on "Island time", but other than that it was not nearly as adventurous as Mexico.
We went diving in Grand Cayman and saw the most amazing fish and corals ever. We got to swim over a sunken ship and a HUGE coral reef! I would love to take my kids to see that. It was awesome!! We walked around the town and found a beautiful church. (We found a really neat church in Mexico also, but there were so many people praying that I didn't feel right about taking pictures inside.)

Overall we had a great time. I cant wait to go on my next cruise!! It was definitely something I would recommend for couples!! I loved the little towel animals!!

I got home and we started school back up. We are only on week two!! The kids are doing great in school. The also started baseball!! Tonight was their first practices. Stephen is playing on what looks to be a REALLY good team. Stephen hit very good tonight and he even caught a very high ball. I was nervous, because that's how he got hit in the eye last time... but no problems this time!! He caught the ball and then immediately threw to first base. If there had been a runner going to second, Stephen would have gotten him out!!! The kids are excited about their new teams. We are playing in Mount Dora this year!! They were nervous at first, but then they realized Alyssa coach lives two house down from us and Stephens coach lives in the next neighborhood. They already know some of the kids on their teams from swimming in the community pool. It was two really good practices!!

I think it will be good to have the kids involved in baseball while Detto is away for 5 months. It will help make the time go by faster. We will be at the ball field 3 nights out of the week and we will be at church on Wednesdays. That should keep us pretty busy!! I am not looking forward to him leaving, but.... Oh well!! For those of you who don't know yet... Detto is going into the Army Reserves! He will be gone for Basic and AIT!! Ugh!! I wish there was a faster way to do this!! He is really excited about it!!

I need to get caught up on some of my quilting... My sister's Baby shower is in two weeks and I haven't even started her baby quilt. I need to finish my BOM and catch up on my Quilt-A-Long!! I did finish my Round Robin project. I haven't gotten "MINE" back yet!! But I am sure the person who is STILL working on it must being doing a GREAT JOB!! hahaha (Lisa has it in NV)

I really enjoyed doing this project and I have posted the other quilts as I worked on them.

I am also working on making new cushions for the swing. Detto isnt thrilled with the fabric that I picked, but it is paisley and so I had to buy it!! This is hard fabric that is VERY hard to work with. I bought outdoor fabric. It is beautiful, but very stiff!! I will post pictures when I get a little further on the project!!

Starting School

Friday was our first day of school!! It is hard getting back into the routine! We are in a new town, new house, new curriculum, new planning tools, new everything... Things went good though!! We had a few bumps, but nothing serious. The new planner we are using was a little difficult to figure out at first, but now it is soooo easy to use! It is easy for both me and the kids to see what we have completed and what we still need to work on. It has a button for the kids to click when they have completed an assignment and another button for me to click once it has been graded!! It makes report cards, tracks progress, and so much more!! It took me several days to watch all of the instructional videos and read the manual, but now I have got it up and running. I love that I can reschedule anything with just a click of a mouse!! Yippy!!

We are excited about our school year and all of the fun field trips we are going to go on this year!

Monday we are going to the Orlando Science Center. I thought the field trip was on Friday, but then I checked the website and the kids were bummed that I mixed up the days!! Oh Well!! We went swimming as our field trip for the first day of school!! I have a feeling that swimming will be a regular "Field Trip" for us!! It was fun though!!

I have share a great discovery that I just made.... the kids will do ANYTHING for computer time. Even chores!! I made a new rule that they only get 30 minutes per day on the computer, well let's just say that went over like a load of bricks!! They kept asking how they can get more time... then it hit me....

CHORES!! For every chore they do "with out being asked" they get an extra 10 minutes on the computer!! My house is spotless!! They cleaned the bathrooms (and since we have 4 bathrooms now that was a blessing), they vacuumed downstairs, upstairs, and THE Stairs, they did laundry & dishes. It was AMAZING!! It was like "cleaning Elves" moved into my house!! I would turn around and they were cleaning something else. Stephen even vacuumed the sliding glass door track!! He was on his hands and knees vacuuming under the table, baseboards (which gets them bonus minutes!!) I was amazed!

I picked the jobs I hate to do, like dusting and baseboards, and gave them double bonus minutes for doing those jobs!! At this rate I wont ever have to dust my house again!! This was definitely shown to me by God himself!! I am so thankful!!

It has been great!! Things have been going really good in the new digs!! We love the neighborhood. The kids have made lots of new friends. There are TONS of kids on our street and there are even several "homeschool" families in the subdivision!! We met a really nice homeschool family with 4 kids... the boys are Stephens age and they play baseball!! Not only do they play, their dad is a coach, and Stephen is going to be on his team. We signed up for baseball and softball yesterday and found out that Stephen was on his team!! Isn't that great?

The kids are siked about playing ball!! The ball field is about 5 minutes from our house. This will be really good for me since I will probably be at the ball field several nights a week, with both of the kids playing this fall! I am not looking forward to Detto missing the ENTIRE season, but I will take lots of pictures and video for him!!

Small Town Baseball in Leesburg, Florida

I realized tonight how big "small town ball" really is in our community. Baseball season is coming to an end and I must be reminiscing already.

I had to search for a parking space tonight! I was shocked!! Grandparents come to every game, aunts & uncle's, cousin's, and neighbors all come out to support the kids!!

I love that we are able to enjoy small town America. We know about 1/2 of the people at the field, either through sports or Detto went to school with them.

Tonight I was talking with one of the other mom's and she said, "Wow, you guys seem to know everyone here!" She's right! Detto went to school with half of the crowd and the other half we either go to church with or have met at the ball field. Now let me clarify - Baseball or Football field.

Someone asked me at church last night, "When is baseball season over?" The best response was given by Detto's friend Bob - Bob chimed in, "Right before soccer starts!" I just stood there and laughed because he is actually correct!! I feel like a true Soccer Mom/taxi Driver. Our schedule is filled with the kids sports!! But, I love every minute of it! I am glad that I am blessed with a sports loving family. It is so fun to watch your kids on a field giving it their all or even bird watching. I love it either way. I love the commradery that it creates and the sense of belonging that the kids have. I am also thrilled at how many homeschoolers participate in city league sports. We have had homeschoolers on every team that we have been on. It is great that mine aren't the only ones. I am truely blessed.

Here are some pictures of Alyssa's game tonight. Unfortunately they are in 5th place (out of 6 teams)!! Thankfully Alyssa could care less what place they are in. She is happy after every game whether they win or lose. She is definately a great player and an asset to her team. She is an excellent hitter and she has great follow through skills on the field. Tonight she had a great stop and a great throw to first base. She kept the runner from getting to second!! I am so proud of her!! We only have a few weeks left and I am sure they will be just as exciting as ever!!

I love my family. I love my community. I love that we have all races and walks of life on the field playing together!!