Weekend with the Days

This past weekend we were invited to be guests at the Vogt's Cypress Lodge, which is actually just a private residence south of Orlando on Lake Hatchineha but I felt like I was at a resort. The atmosphere was awesome, the hospitality was wonderful, the food was great and the company well anytime you are able to spend time with close friends then it is worth everything. Our close friends Steve, Diane and Austin Day were in Florida to spend Spring Break with her parents at their Winter home and the four of us were invited to spend the weekend with them. It was a great weekend.

I think Diane's parents Joyce and John enjoyed our company just as much as we enjoyed their's. Here is a picture of all of us together.

Off for an airboat ride............to spot for Gators and we saw plenty both big and small.

Jonah was my airboat buddy

After much hesitation, Courtney decided to ride the airboat from the canal around to the front of the house which was on the lake side. It was there that she decided the airboat was not for her and got off at the dock.
Phillip, Courtney, John (Diane's dad) and Steve coming around from the canal which is at the back of their house to the lake on the front side. This is when John punched the gas on the airboat and Courtney said "No, Thanks" and got off at the dock.

Phillip, Jonah, John (Diane's Dad) and Austin, off for an airboat ride.
Jonah and Austin fishing from the boat dock on the canal.

Jonah truely enjoyed being able to fish whenever he wanted to this weekend. Even in the rain, the kids were able to stay dry under the boat dock. Here is just one of the 17 fish that Jonah caught this weekend. None of which were keepers but Jonah didn't mind.

Courtney's first fish that she ever caught. She would not hold it so Austin stood behind her with the fish so that I could take her picture.
Courtney enjoyed fishing almost as much as Jonah did. However, she had no desire to go out in the boat, she was comfortable fishing off the dock in the canal.
The moon's reflection on the lake Friday night was awesome.
I am not sure which one I like better, probably the sunrise on Saturday morning. The bedroom that Phillip and I slept in had sliding glass doors that faced the lake so this was the view that I awoke to on Saturday morning.
It rained off and on all afternoon on Saturday, which did not stop any of us from having a good time. The boys did a lot of fishing, both from the dock and even battled the rain by taking the boat out. Diane's dad grilled his famous steaks for us. Phillip and Steve enjoyed an afternoon movie while Diane and I sat on the front porch talking while enjoying the view of the lake and watching the rain.

Oh, we also watched the WKU boys Basketball game, which was a close game down to the last second of O.T. We taught Courtney how to play Mexican Train and they taught us (the Starling's) how to play "pass the trash" which was a fun game.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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Still Friends......

Where does the time go? Wyatt, Jonah, Ashley, Courtney

November 1999

Jonah, Wyatt, Ashley, Courtney

March 2008

When I met Phillip, 17 years ago, I met Minta. Even though we were not close friends at the time and never really planned for our kids to be so close in age, it just happened that way. Wyatt was born six months before Jonah and Ashley was born 2 months before Courtney and even though we knew that each other was pregnant we really did not become close until after Courtney was born and we started play group together on Wednesday mornings. It was at this time that Ashley and Courtney became "like two peas in a pod". They went everywhere together and majority of the time they were in there own little world playing not with the whole group but just the two of them. If you saw Courtney then you saw Ashley, even before they were walking. Over the years with our move, we have stilled stayed close friends and even though there has been times that the two girls have not been in contact with each other for a couple of years, they always get together like they have never been apart. Of the course, Wyatt and Jonah have always been good friends too but not like Ashley and Courtney.

Recently the kids and I spent the night with my friend Minta and her kids at Gold Head State Park to help celebrate Ashley's tenth birthday. It originally started out that Wyatt was going to spend the night with Jonah, while Courtney spent the night with Ashley and a few of her friends in a cabin at the park. Well, Minta thought that it would be neat for the all of us to stay at the lake and it was just that. Even with the down pouring of rain on Friday and not being able to do what was planned outdoors. Minta had a backup plan. The kids made homemade pizzas, had ice cream sundaes, played games, dressed up and anything else that you can do in a small cabin with no TV in the middle of the woods. It was really alot of FUN, even Wyatt and Jonah enjoyed themselves in a cabin full of girls. Minta and I sat on the porch of the cabin till late listening to the rain and catching up on our lives, with the kids laughter in the background. Thank goodness the rain ended during the night and we were able to wake up and enjoy some of the activities at the park.

Mud Anyone?

This afternoon Jonah, Courtney and their friends decided that since their moms would not let them go swimming at the pool, they would play in the mud. Leslie and I who were enjoying our free time painting, could hear the kids outside playing and Leslie's husband even told us that the kids were having mud fights but we never thought this..............
Trey and Jonah
Courtney and Andie

Totally covered and totally having FUN!!

What a MESS!!

Next time I think we'll let them go swimming.

Green Eggs and Ham

Every year I fix green eggs and ham for Dr Seuss day. Usually, we read Green Eggs and Ham and we have made hats out of paper before. But this year, I decided to make the hats, yes, call me crazy. This is probably one of the craziest things that I have done in a very long time (I think). I do not care to sew at all and in fact my sewing machine has been used more by other people then by myself. With no pattern, I bought the material (took a wild guess on how much) and spent several hours making these hats so that my kids could wear them for a hour if that. They did turn out pretty cute, Phillip and my neighbor were impressed and Jonah and Courtney decided wear their Thing 1 and Thing 2 sweatshirts even though it was in the high 70's. Now, I realize my kids are bordering on the age of being to old, but I never hear a complaint so until that day comes or until I start forgetting what day it is, I guess we will enjoy our green eggs and ham. Thing 1 and Thing 2 waiting on their green eggs and ham.
The kids can be a little dramatic, they eat green eggs and ham every year and every year they act like it is the first time.

We all like Green Eggs and Ham!!!
Check out Courtney's teeth (ham) with her eggs.

My Space

My Space and no I am not talking about the website, I am talking about my little space that I call my own. Behind this door is my space, where I can go scrapbook and escape from the rest of the household. Courtney was so sweet to make this sign for my door and for the most part, when I am in my space, I am left alone to enjoy my time scrapbooking.

Where the words CREATE, help me do just that. When we were looking for houses last summer, I was also looking for an area that I could call my own, a place where I could sneak away from the ciaos and be in My Space. This area in our large walk in closet does just that. Everything that I already had from my old scrapbooking cabinet fit just perfect on the shelves in this closet. Plus I have space where I can keep the cricut out all the time. My fellow scrapbooking buddies gave me this picture last summer before I moved, so now every time that I sit down to crop, I think about them. It was these four that kept me busy scrapbooking last summer while Phillip was out of town.

Organization is the key in this scrapbooking closet. When we moved I made it a point to organize all that extra memorabilia that I had scattered about, movie tickets, party invitations, special cards, newspaper articles and now I am working very hard to find a home for those things in my scrapbooks so that I can appreciate them a little more. So far I have accomplish a lot but still have a box of things to go through. However I am feeling pretty good about what I have accomplished. Yes, I am one of those people who loves to get rid of unnecessary things, like receipts, junk mail, old papers; it makes me feel good.
My creative space is just the right size, it helps me to stay on top of things by putting things back when I am done with them.

A must in my scrapbooking closet, is a jar of Jelly Belly Jellybeans, which is my all time favorite snack while I am scrapbooking.
The DVD player keeps me company within the four walls. Of course some of my favorite DVD's are Grey's Anatomy, 7th Heaven, Little House on the Prairie and Reba, plus the additional Chick Flicks.
A small bulletin board above my creative space, gives me the perfect spot to put those ideas, memorabilia or extra pictures that I need to find a home for.
Maybe I like my space so much because its just big enough for me and Rascal. Yes, I do allow Rascal to come in, he likes to lie under my table or if I am sitting on the edge of my chair then he likes lie behind me in my chair and usually he leaves me alone, maybe this is his quite space.

Day 4 in DC

One Million dollars in ten dollar notes
We awoke this morning to our last full day in DC. We took the hotel shuttle to Regan National Airport where we caught the Metro (DC’s subway) and headed into the city. We had a small list of things that we wanted to see before leaving DC. Our first stop was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which was the one must see thing on Phillip’s list. As some may know, Phillip loves the history of money and has a good collection of unique finds over the years. After taking a 45 minute tour of the facility, we were on our way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. After visiting Jefferson’s Memorial we headed over to the Washington Monument to pick up our tickets.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

With an hour and a half wait, before our time to go up in the Washington Monument, we decided to walk several blocks to a restaurant called the Potbelly, a little sandwich shop off of Pennsylvania Ave. We were introduced to this little local sandwich shop on Tuesday by Bob our tour guide/bus driver, and we loved it so much that we wanted to visit it one more time before we left. Of course both times that we ate at the Potbelly it was busy, but they knew just how to get a crowd served quickly, faster then any fast food resturant.
After lunch we headed back to the Washington Monument just in time to travel 500 feet up to the observation area. We were able to take some good pictures of the surrounding DC area. I am so glad that we waited until today to go up in the monument because any other day except for Tuesday would have been too cloudy.
At the bottom looking up

Birdseye view of the Capitol from the obsveration area at top of the monument
.......the White House
.........Lincoln Memorial
..........Jefferson Memorial
Courtney takes a picture of the monument from the ground

After the 500 ft ride

This was the kids first time ever on a subway, they both thought that it was neat and after a few trips on and off they were getting the hang of it. While on the subway the kids made a game of seeing who could stand the longest while the tram was moving without holding on.


After the monument, we headed for the National Zoo, which was the one thing on the kid’s must see list. They both wanted to see the Pandas and really did not care about seeing any of the other animals. The youngest panda truly put a show on for the kids, he was playing with his food container and was quite active.

Across from the National Zoo, we enjoyed ice cream at Baskin Robbins,

before heading back outside in the freezing weather.



Today was the day that the kids were able to see a side of street life that they normally do not see and I felt like it was a true eye opener for them. We had a beggar ask us for money, we saw a man eating out of the garbage, and saw several street performers both on the street and down in the subway. We also saw several homeless people sleeping on the streets this week. I don’t think we realize sometime how good we have it. This evening we enjoyed our normal routine of the evening and that was relaxing at the hotel pool. Tomorrow, we start our journey home. They are predicting freezing rain during the night and in the early am, so I am thinking that sleeping in, sounds pretty good.