A Few Pictures of Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful day.  We truly enjoyed our day together as a family.  I think the kids stayed in their pj's all day and with living 3 states away from family we didn't venture out of the house all day.  Even though it was sad not being with our family for the holidays. 

Every year Rascal gets a Christmas present... a gift bag of dingo bones and every year, he takes one bone out of the bag at a time until he has every bone out of the bag and they are all nice and neat in a little pile.  Then he guards them for the rest of the day, slowly chewing on then.  It's hilarious!!!  It's the first gift that we do just because it's so much fun to watch.

The kids went shopping for Phillip and I this year, they thought it would be neat for Phillip to have a electronic dart board for the bonus room.

The kids dressed in their Christmas pj's, of course always a tradition to open the night before Christmas.

I told Phillip that the only thing I wanted this year was a camcorder,

we haven't had one since the movers stole ours in 2007.

I can't get over the fact that these BIG BULKY headphones are back in style.  They were in style when I was in like middle school and that seems like forever ago.

We surprised Courtney this year with an iphone.  As she was unwrapping her present I called the new phone, which was in the box, the phone started ringing and her face was PRICELESS!!!!!  She needed a new phone, her other phone was a piece of junk!!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father...

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Blessings to all ~

Carla

Merry Christmas!!!

From Our Family to Yours!!!

19 years

19 years ago today, I walked down the isle to say "I do" to the love of my life.  He has been a wonderful husband, an awesome dad, and a great friend.  I am so glad that he choose me to be Mrs. Starling.  It's hard to believe that we have been together (dating) for 21 years, over half of my life has been spent with this man and I am so looking forward to spending so many more years with him.  I have truly been blessed!!!!

Blessings to all ~
Carla

So Blessed

WARNING!!!

This post contains a lot of pictures......WARNING!!!!

There are times that I realize how fast my kids are growing up and that my pictures do not always consist of Phillip or I with them, like when they were little.  I know that sounds silly, maybe I'm just being a little sentimental.  So this afternoon when we arrive home from church as we pulled into the drive way before Jonah even parked the car, I said "no one changes, I want pictures first."  Yes, I heard a couple of groans but I warned them that if everyone cooperated we would be done quickly and we were.  I will say that is one thing that gets better with age.

 Always have the camera ready with his crew.....I love that I was able to snap

 this picture of Phillip being silly with the kids.  What a face!!!

Jonah, yes, he is just like his father!!!

 I love this girl!!!!  God certainly BLESSED us with one special young lady.

I really can say that she is not a follower and she is one that
will stand firm for what she believes.  I hope she is always that way. 

I am SO BLESSED......

Phillip and I will be celebrating 21 years together at the end of this month (dating) and then celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary next month.  WOW.....how time flies!!!

Well, I hope everyone had a bless and wonderful Sunday and if you haven't taken snapshots of your family lately, then I encourage you to do so.  Life's too short!!!

…by Him everything was created, in Heaven and on earth…

all things were created by Him and for Him.

Colossians 1: 16

Blessings to all~
Carla

Cross Country

The season has official begun, meets, that is, races, the fun stuff.  as far as cross country goes,

they have been practicing since the second week of June, six days a week,

 waking up at 5:30 to be at the park by 6:30 in order to run before the heat of the sun hits.  

It truly takes dedication!!!

I never thought in a million years that I would be a cross country mom, 

but I am and I AM PROUD OF IT!!!   

This morning we met at the Kereiakes at 7:30 for team photos and then a 3k time trial.  Next Saturday will be our first actually meet which will be a 6K relay.   Our team has almost double since two years ago when SWHS was opened and I am so proud that my kids have been a part of this team.

The high school team

Courtney trying to push down a tree, no, not really this is a stretch to prevent chin splits.

Warming up before the time trial....

Caroline, Sara, Courtney, Jonah, and Megan

My son is known for his bright pink socks.  

He started wearing them at the beginning of the season last year and has wore them ever since.  

It's nice because I can spot him from a distance.

Strengthening the hip muscle.

Jonah and Ross receives a pep talk from coach before the time trial.

Coach talks to the team before the race/time trail.

getting ready........

Top three runners, Jonah, Ross and Chris.  

I love how Ross and Jonah are in sequence.

Courtney, bless her heart, did not have a good run.

  She battled hip pains all during the run, you can see it in her face.  She ran a 15:04, 

coach knew something wasn't right, first thing coach said to me was,

"what happened?"  Maybe next Saturday's race will be a better race for her, let's hope!!!

Here comes my boy, coming to the finish line in first place.

Jonah crosses the finish line.....10:24 his time for the 3k. 

A cute picture of Phillip and I dressed as twinkies today for the time trials. 

Go Spartans!!!! 

 Yes, I wore my hair straight today, actually the last couple of days I've done straight. 

I like it but the guys (Jonah and Phillip) prefers it curly.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Blessings to all ~

Carla

Weekend Happenings

Seriously is the weekend over already!!!  Well, for the record we had a very laid back and relaxing weekend.  Phillip's family left on Friday, they were stopping in Tennessee and then heading back to Florida on Sunday.  Friday afternoon we headed to Nashville to Opry Mills to do a little back to school shopping since it was tax free weekend.  Whoo Hooo!!

Courtney spent the night with her friend Bailee, friday night and then Bailee spent the night with Courtney, saturday night after the SWHS football game.  It usually hard to separate those two once they are together and they're a hoot when they're together.

Saturday afternoon, before the rains came and while Jonah took a nap, Phillip and I enjoyed some time in the pool, along with Rascal.  Yes, he floated around in the pool with me, he is so rotten!!!

Sunday was church, followed by a much needed nap on my part.  I told you it was a very relaxing weekend.  I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done somewhere along the way over the weekend.

On Sunday evening Jonah and Morgan attended the Train Concert at Fontanel Woods Amphitheater in Nashville.  Jonah gave Morgan these tickets as a graduation gift back in May.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Hold on to what is good...

I Thessalonians 5:21

Blessings to all ~

Carla

More Fun with Family

On Wednesday we headed out to the Mennonites so that Phillip's mom and sister could get some homemade jelly, we also needed a jar.  Our favorite is seedless black raspberry.  Whenever any of our family comes to town they always like to ride out to the Mennonite community, which is something that they don't see much of in Florida.  I will say that I still find it very interesting how they live and applaud them.  It has to be a hard way of living, but you can surely see one thing, they all work together for each other's benefit.

While we were out there, we picked up some fresh peaches and a couple of watermelons.  You can't beat their prices and I love that you don't have to worry about any chemicals.

We stayed pretty busy everyday going different places.  Tammy and Mary wanted to visit Heartstrings since they had heard me talk so much about how wonderful of a store it was and of course they feel in love, who wouldn't.  Brooks could only think about getting back and jumping in the pool at the end of the busy day.  What a little fish he is!!!

On Thursday, Gene, Tammy and Brooks woke up early and headed to Mammoth cave.  Mary stayed with us and then we all met up in Glendale for lunch at The Whistle Stop.  Talk about great food!!!  We also stepped into a cute little shop across the street, in fact the small little town in filled with antique shops, I see a road trip in the near future.

After lunch we headed to Fort Knox to the Patton Museum, which was a must see for Gene.  Phillip, the kids and I had been about 6 years ago but thought it would be fun to tag along.  We were a little surprised when we arrived to find that about 80% of the museum had been moved to Fort Benning.

 Brooks, Jonah, Gene, Courtney and Tammy, outside the museum.

 Phillip and his mom

 The girls

 My beautiful daughter.  It is so hard to believe that she is going to be a freshman.

We were surely blessed with a wonderful visit, great company, safe travels and much love.   I miss being close to family but I love living in KY!

Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus...

Romans 8:1

Blessings to all ~
Carla

Family comes to Town

It's been a busy couple of days.  Phillip's mom, sister and her husband and son arrived on Tuesday for a visit.  They had a full list of things that they wanted to do on top of the everyday things that was happening in our life. Phillip took the week off and I was fortunate enough to be able to work my schedule where I left each morning after our meetings.  Jonah took Grandma Starling flying, we went to Ft. Knox, ate at Whistle Stop in Glendale, spent the evenings swimming, shopped and much more.  In fact more pictures and posts to come, I won't leave anyone hanging. HeHe!

Phillip, Mary (mom), Tammy

...put your hope in the LORD. For there is faithful love with the LORD,

 and with Him is redemption in abundance.

Psalm 130:7

Blessings to all ~

Carla

Weekend Happenings

Friday night the high school youth group had a lock in at church.  Courtney said that they was hardly any down time and that they had a blast!!  There were nerf gun wars, constant running, in fact she fell down the stairs once, but over all had a wonderful time.  A group of our wonderful college kids stayed the night and helped, I will just say they are great kids to still hang with the high schoolers.  She was so exhausted when she got home, she could only take a couple hour nap Saturday morning before we headed off to a party but when she arrived home later that afternoon she slept from 4 p.m. until 8 Sunday morning.

Saturday morning Phillip and I had a yard sale.....YUCK!!! But, we where able to make a little $$$$, donate alot of stuff, like a truck load and clean out our garage, so it was beneficial.  I finally sold all of Jonah's armbands, at one time he probably had over 50 of them.  I sold the last 23 to a very sweet, special young girl who was really tickled about getting ALL of them.  The other big hit item and I am sad that I did not take picture but it was a collection of keychains that were Jonah's.  The whole thing probably weighed 3 pounds and were probably a total of at least a hundred different keychains, from poker chips to crocs.

I needed to move the china cabinet this weekend and in order to do that of course everything had to come out of the top.  What a mess and HOW does a closed china cabinet get dusty.  So that was another task this weekend.

Saturday afternoon was my best friend's daughter's fourth birthday party and I of course decorated this cute bag that I found at the Mighty Dollar.  It's vinyl and then I used my cricut to put her name on it in vinyl.  I bought several of the bags in the turquoise and hot pink to keep around for gift bags.  They are too cute!!!  I love that you can use the bag for other things, everyone needs a bag!

Jonah came home from boy scout camp Saturday morning with a trunk FULL of STINKIN' wet clothes.  He said that they had several storms during the week, loosing power to the camp Friday night and was still  without power Saturday morning which made them take cold showers in the dark before packing up and heading home.  Camp was a success for him, he completed three of the four merit badges that he was working on at camp with only one think left to complete on the last merit and that's attending a meeting which couldn't be done there.  That leaves ONE merit badge left and his Eagle Scout Project and he's DONE!!! Hallelujah!!!!  With that said, Jonah was a little motivated on Sunday to work on his last merit badge, so while Phillip and I painted the hall baseboards, Jonah sat in the hallway asking us family related questions for his last merit badge.  I am so proud of him!!!

Let me just start out by saying, to see my husband with a paint brush is saying a lot.  He HATES painting, therefore usually I do all the painting and really don't mind it.  If Phillip will hold down the "fort" while I paint.  But on Sunday afternoon, he got inspired to paint the railings going up stairs then before I knew it he was painting the trim around the door and then the baseboards in the hallway and WOW,  what a difference a little paint can make.  I wish he would get this inspired to paint more often, especially the baseboards in the bathrooms.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true...whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

Blessings to all ~

Carla