14th Birthday

You know the saying don't blink or you will miss it? Well I never realized how true that saying was until recently, we just celebrated Allyson's 14th birthday party last weekend!

This party was completely Daddy to the rescue, this momma was not on her A-game to get the party planned. With just going back to work and having the beginning of the school year stress all around me planning her birthday party kind of got away from me. So Dad stepped in and planned the entire thing....even down to the cake! We wanted an easy for us party and she started out wanting a big water slide in the backyard, then it moved to going to the St. Cloud pool, but weather the week before was not the best for us to be planning an outside party. So we...I mean he decided on a Dave and Busters party.  We have never been but been wanting to go, and it turned out to be a pretty fun party! I would love to go back again. 

Allyson invited her entire cheer team which is 18 kids, and she ended up with about 10 kids showing up, which I call that a success for a party! Most importantly she and her friends all had a good time! 

 

Meet Hannah nope I mean Zoey!

Impulsive??  Yup! That's us! 

We went to the animal shelter today to just "look" at the dogs and guess what?? We got a new addition to the family! 

Allyson has been asking for another pet for a few weeks now and Steve kept telling her no, well today he said we could go to the pound to just look.  We walked in and there was full breed German Shepherd and he got that look in his eyes that said we were getting a dog today! So we looked at him and we just wasn't sure if he would mesh well with Buddy and Kitty. We kept looking and then saw this sweetie! We took her into the little room and she started running around and playing! He told Allyson if she wanted it then we could get her! So she will be coming home Monday afternoon! She has to get fixed, shots, and the microchip put in.  Can't wait to bring her home....lets hope she gets along ok with Buddy and especially Kitty-Kitty! 

So without further ado meet Hannah Zoey! 

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Starting Fresh

Ok so it's been about 5 years since I've written anything on this blog so I think it's about time to see if I can start this again, and be consistent with it!

Where has this summer gone?? I can't believe that I go back to work in just a little over 2 weeks! It really does seem like we just got out of school and I'm already getting ready to head back again! We've had a good summer and we have really enjoyed our time off! Here's a quick run down of what we've done:

• Howl at the Moon to kick off summer 

• Beach days....too many too count! Love some salt water therapy

• Pool Days

Allyson and Allison had their yearly all day trip to Disney! This year they made it to Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Michelle is a trooper every year and takes them one day a summer and they get there when it opens and stays until it closes! 

 

• I was one of the teacher chosen to attend a 3 day PLC conference in Tampa. Wow I walked out of there with fresh outlook on my career! I'm so happy that I was able to attend

• Aquatic Days

• We had a family vacation to Maryland and spent a few days in Washington D.C and spent a few days visiting Gettysburg.  That will be whole post in itself 

That is our summer in a nut shell!!! 

Spring Break, and Softball

It's the last day of Spring Break, BOOOOO!!!! I have really enjoyed having this week off! We didn't really do much but hang around the house, but it was so nice to be able to stay up late and get up whenever my body was ready and not when the alarm clock said it was time to get up! I watched a few movies, cleaned the house, (and kept it clean) and just hung out with Allyson. We did go paint pottery at The Clay House with Allison and Michelle, which was a lot of fun! Both girls picked out a converse shoe to paint! I can't wait to pick them up this week to see how they came out. I painted a little vase. I will post pictures when I get the pieces back!


Allyson has also been playing softball still. She is working really had at pitching, and has gotten to pitch a few times in games. We can see a lot of improvement from last year to this year and she is loving it more and more!!

I love the face in this shot with the ball still in view! Such determination on her face!!

This past Friday we went up to the lakefront and watched a movie outside. I always end up forgetting about these but I caught it this month. One Friday night a month the city shows a movie outside on big screen for free!! It is a lot of fun! We bring blankets and snacks and enjoy a movie. This month the movie was "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian". We always forget how cool it gets at the lakefront with the breeze coming in off the lake, so we sure were glad that we brought blankets to keep us warm!

Wahoo!!

I went to Publix today and between coupons, and buy one get one frees I spent $69.00, but I saved $53.00!!! I'm starting to really watch and shop with coupons to save money. When I saw my total and then how much I got I was all happy in the store!!
My best deal was some frozen steam fresh veggies. They were 50% off so $1.19 per bag then I had coupons to go along with it, so it broke down to this:
3 bags= 3.57
$1 off 2 bags= 1.00
$1 off 3 bags = 1.00
.35 off 1 bag= .35
.50 off 1 bag = .50
So total I payed 0.72 for 3 bags, or 0.24 a bag!!! I love it!!!

February Recap

Whew....February was a short month but we managed to cram a whole lot of stuff into it!! Let's see to start out it was a COLD month!!! We live in Florida and well I have a limited supply of long sleeve shirts, and sweaters and the ones I have have gotten a lot of wear this month!!

Let's see we went to the county fair and had a blast despite the cold! We took Allyson's friend Nathaniel with us so that she had someone to ride with, and they had such a good time!

We sold a whole lot of Girl Scout cookies, both in pre-sales and in the cookie booths!

Allyson started softball again, so we have been running back in forth between practices and the season started on Saturday but it was cold and raining so the first game was canceled. So her first game is this Tuesday and I'm so excited to watch her play. I even think she will be pitching an inning!! She has improved so much over the year! Last year she couldn't throw the ball from 3rd to 1st, she barely made it from 3rd to the pitcher. But now she whips that ball from 3rd to 1st!!

Oh, yeah she even went to the dentist for her cleaning and got a clean bill of health! No cavities for her!!

Alright here some pictures to go along with our month!

COLD!!!

Uh, we live in Florida!!! This past week it has been so cold it's not even funny!!!! Don't get me wrong I have been enjoying this cold weather, however I'm not use to it and DO NOT have enough warm clothes for these cold days!!!! Especially shoes! 98% of my shoes are open toes, and my little toesies are cold!

This past weekend was the perfect stay home and relax watching TV, on Saturday we even got sleet and SNOW in the middle of the day! Uh, again this is Florida not somewhere we are use to having this cold weather! Allyson thought that was the coolest thing, and well quite frankly I thought so too!

In this picture Allyson is on her way out to school and is all bundled up!
She is wearing:
1 tank top
1 long sleeve shirt
1 short sleeve uniform shirt
1 light jacket to keep on in the classroom
1 heavy fur lined jacket
1 pair of jeans
1 pair of super fashionable boots!
1 hat
and a pair of gloves


We are not use to having to wear so much clothes to keep warm!