Friday night Uncle Mike came for a visit. We had a lot of fun visiting, and Justin was quite entertained. He got to swim, play basketball, wash Mike's Hummer, go "4-wheeling" on the property around here, and in general not give Mike a second's rest! We had a bonfire last night-it was a beautiful, clear, warm night. Kyle played one on one basketball with both Dave and Mike-and beat them both. That was fun to watch. We only lost one basketball in the pond-to my knowledge it has not been recovered. Last night I heard a loud thud and it was poor Taylor-she walked into the sliding glass door thinking it was open.(we leave them open on nice days) She was a really good sport and laughed about her poor nose! This morning we heard our air conditioner kick on and something was obviously the matter. Dave looked out the window and a frog was in it and did not win it's ride on the big blade-yuck! That's life in Florida!

Lindsay got a new webcam for christmas so she could talk to her friend Bethany, so they recorded a video just for you guys! (: Merry Christmas!!

Merry Cheesemas!

Thank you Gary and Michele for sending us a treat! The funny thing about that is that my brother sent us CHEESE! I am not sure of the meaning because anyone who knows my brother, knows he hates cheese :) Like he can barely be in the same room with it! I think I will go have a lovely snack now! Thanks again!

Christmas Party

Last night was the Christmas party Lindsay planned for her sophomore class. It was a great turnout-we had about 25 kids there. Dave is a great master at getting events ready. He built a huge screen for the back lanai so the kids could play guitar hero outside with the image projected. That was a huge hit. He also built a fire pit and had a big bonfire going that they all enjoyed also. By the end of the night we had 3 basketballs in the pond from the driveway pick-up games! We had to order pizza 2 different times, and the chocolate fondue was a huge hit. We made Dave's mom's hot chocolate mix, and had it going in a big crock pot. It got pretty chilly, so they enjoyed that too. At one point the singing from guitar hero was pretty loud-I thought the authorities might show up-but I guess we didn't bother anybody! Taylor was the guitar hero "go-to" person for setting up what they wanted, and Justin was vocals when they needed it. He also played basketball with the guys and had a ball. I always thought that if I had a pool and if we had a party, that it would be great to have floating candles-so Taylor, Justin and I lit lots of them and set them free in the water. Unfortunately, I did not turn the filter off, and Dave noticed that there were not many candles and he saw the lid to the "catch" glowing! It was too hot to touch so we had to get something to get it off. It was pretty funny. All night the rest of them made their way in there!

"Happy Birthday" Dave!

Here is the view from our table that we enjoyed at a restaurant called "Turtle Club" in Naples. We all went to celebrate Dave's 45th birthday, and our anniversary. It was a beautiful night, and we made sure we were there for the sunset. Our table was actually on the beach!

Concession worker!

That will be $.75 cents!

This past week was just a blur....here is a quick update. We received an e-mail that Lindsay had won an award for her science fair project, and that if we wanted to see her get it we needed to be at the chapel service. She had been saying all along that she hoped she would not win anything because she would be so embarrassed! Dave and I hid along the back wall of the dark room, but that stinker looked around and saw us. She did a "double take" and then started shaking her head as her friends hugged her! Her comment to us was that she is officially a "nerd" now!
Justin has taken on a new responsibility after school-he likes to work the concession table. I had Taylor take a picture of him-I will try to get it posted. He works there for hours. Kyle came home last Thursday. He is off until the middle of January. He had a successful first semester-Praise the Lord! He is headed to Columbus to spend a few days with friends starting tomorrow. He was freaking out tonight because he said a snake chased him into the garage-and when Kyle freaks out-he makes us all freak out. In my "happy place" the snake slithered away into the grass and not into the garage. Last Friday Taylor got to cheer with the Varsity cheerleaders for pack the gym night. She was one of three middle schoolers who got to do that, and the only 7th grader. I was proud of her, she really kept up, and in some cases was more energetic than some of the high schoolers. I hosted a breakfast birthday party for a new friend this morning. Seven ladies came, and we had a nice time chatting and eating. It was a lot of hard work getting the house ready for company because I had gotten lazy about some things...but Dave and I worked like crazy over the weekend. I wish I was the "ultimate housekeeper" that always had the perfect house at any moment. Not happening! :)

This weekend was very busy! On Saturday morning we worked as a family at a housing authority complex with other volunteers from our church. We weeded the landscaped areas, and then mulched them. It was very warm-in the 80's. Dave and I were proud of everybody-the girls and Justin did a great amount of hard work! When the kids in the complex saw the fruit, chips and coolers that the church had set up for the volunteers they came out to have some! Of all of the residents, one man came out and grabbed a shovel to help-which I thought was nice. One thing the girls noticed was how most of the kids were dressed really well-they wondered how they afforded such nice clothes. ?? Kyle called us that morning to tell us that he was in Tampa for the Boston College vs. Virginia Tech game. He had great seats, in the military section. I don't know how he snagged those tickets for free, but he loved being there. That is one thing he misses about his college-there is no football at Southeastern. Then Saturday afternoon we were invited to a football party-Alabama vs. Florida Gators. We were told we had to root for Alabama-which is fine with me, because I don't know anything about either one of them! All I learned was that Alabama's mascot was an elephant "big Al", and something about "roll, tide roll....". It was fun, even though Alabama lost. It was a good game, and nice people were at the party. We were all tired today. A big shout out goes to my little god-daughter Emily who I hear set her hair on fire when blowing out her birthday candles this afternoon in Chicago. Poor girl! Fast action averted disaster....