Paoli Peaks

Last Tuesday, the four of us, plus one of Jonah's friends, John Mark, headed up to Paoli Peak for a day of skiing. For the last several years Jonah's birthday "wish" or want is to go skiing, which is usually a challenge to fit into our schedule because for some reason our weekends in February are just CRAZY. Last year, Phillip took Jonah out of school one day and he and Jonah, along with one of Jonah's friends went skiing. Well last Monday when they called school 2 hours early, Phillip started working on taking Tuesday off because we figure with it snowing school would be cancelled for Tuesday and we would take off and go skiing. So that is just what we did.

" Our snow princess"

The soon to be birthday boy, I still can not believe that he'll soon be 15!

This kid has only skied 4 times in his life but to watch him ski you would think he has been skiing his whole life. The first time we ever took him skiing him went down a black diamond and now he is doing jumps.

Courtney and her daddy, she was always racing him and winning!!!!

This was only Courtney's second time skiing. After her first fall, she looked at me and said I don't want to ski, I don't like it. I reminded her that it had been a long time since she skied and that it would take a while. Well by the middle of the afternoon she was off with the boys going down slopes by herself and even down a blue square. I was so proud of her.

There she goes......

There goes my hubby.....

There I go and I am upright......you laugh! I wasn't very talented that day. The snow was very slick because of the low temps which made you go fast. Lets see, I landed in the woods once, cutting my glove and thumb and I can not tell you how many times I fell getting on the ski lift. Oh and skied into the caution fencing twice. If only someone else was hand my camera beside me during those times. You would really have some pictures to laugh at.

The kids on the ski lift coming up from the bottom of the slope.

She looks like a pro.

Let me just say after being there since 10 a.m. in the 20 degree weather Phillip and I were done, Phillip and I were done by sundown. I could not feel my toes any longer and my face was numb. So Phillip and I went inside and sat by a fire, well it really wasn't much of a fire and it really didn't put out much heat at all but soon my toes did start to thaw out. Interesting enough we did run into someone there from BG, I mean out of the whooping 50 people that were there that day, we run into someone from BG. Finally around 8:30 we were able to round up the kiddos starting thawing them out and head back to BG. I know that Jonah would have stayed all night if we would have let him. Good thing it closes at 9.

Blessings to all~

Carla

Flashback Friday

Doesn't he look so young? Some days it seems like just yesterday and then other days, well, I realize that my baby boy is about to turn 15 in just 8 days. Looking back at this picture of Jonah, I remember this day like it was yesterday. It was December 2000, Jonah was just shy of turning four and our play group had went to O2B kids in Gainesville for our play date. Jonah loved to play with the tools, he was drawn to them. He has always enjoyed anything he could do with his hands.
This was also the day that I lost an half carat diamond out of my wedding set. We had spent the entire morning and O2B Kids and on our way home, I looked down at my hand on the steering wheel and notice that my diamond was missing. Yes, I freaked out! LUCKILY, we had insurance and it was replace without any cost. WHEW!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It is suppose to warm up a little this weekend, anything should be better then the freezing temps that we have seen the last two mornings, -3 degrees has been the low. Our driveway and road still is covered with snow.

Blessings to all~
Carla

Day # 12

Tomorrow will be snow day #12, SERIOUSLY!!! I can't believe it. We dismissed school today 2 hours early, letting the students leave at 12:30. Since I am a school employee I have to stay until my normal time to leave, which is 3:30. Our principal let me run the kids home at 1:00, which at that time it was only raining, NO SNOW. I then returned back to school. Shortly after 2:00, our principal announced that the roads were getting bad and we could leave. Well this is what it looked like on my way home. This pic was taken on our street. What a difference a hour makes. It is a beautiful snow I will say that, a wet snow, one that sticks to everything. In 12 days Jonah turns 15 and more then anything he wants to go snow skiing (not that he didn't just go with his Adventure Crew), so in the morning, since it is a snow day, Phillip has taken off work and we are heading to Paoli Peaks to hit the slopes. Wish us, I mean me luck. I'm not a BIG skier like my son is. I promise to post a few pictures.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!

Blessings to all~
Carla

Flashback Friday

Since this month is the birth month of my first born, I thought that I would share a picture of Jonah and his dad taken the spring of 1997. Jonah was just over a year old. This picture was taken in our backyard in Starke, Florida. Jonah loved to play outside and loved to swing on the hammock that hung between two tall trees right beside our patio. He loved to go high and always would say "again, again"!! Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!

Blessings to all~
Carla

Cross Country Adventures

Back in September, actually it was the first Wednesday in September during 7th period to be exact, a gentleman came into my office, kinda in a hurry might I add, asking me if my son ran. I had to have looked at him kinda puzzled and said no. He then rephrased his question and "can your son run." To that, still a little puzzled I answered, "kinda." By this time I realized who he was, Coach Eaton the Cross Country Coach and I did not have the time to sit and "play" his games. So I said, " Jonah is in the gym, you can go and talk to him." Well that is how all this got started. Shortly both Jonah and the Coach was in my office and that afternoon I was taking Jonah to his first cross country practice and little to my knowledge the next day would be Courtney's first cross country practice. It was been nice having both kids in the same sport, same practices and for the most part the same races.

Even with joining the team after season had started they both did very well for their first year and very little conditioning. We traveled to Louisville for one of the largest races in the area and both kids went to Lexington where they ran in state. It was an awesome season for us all, the kids made new friends and so did Phillip and I and it was fun to travel with the team.

South Warren's First Cross Country team

(making history)

Courtney ran a PR of 15.46 for the 3000m and a PR of 21.10

for the 4000m. SHE ROCKS!!!!

Jonah's PR for the 5000m was 19.20PR. WAY TO GO!!

The varsity boys won AA Region Champions. We were all so very proud of them.

Of course I could not resist including a family photo. This was taken on 01/11/11 at their banquet. Can you believe how fast my kiddos are growing?

Blessings to all~

Carla

Flashback Friday

Just recently one of my high school friends tagged me on face book with this picture taken at our High School Graduation on June 6, 1991. The moment I saw this picture I started laughing for several different reasons BUT most noticeable..... look at our hair, I can only imagine how much Aqua Net we used and how much volume our hair still has even with our caps on. Then I paused and realized that this year will be our 20 year class reunion. WOW!!!! Where does the time go??!!



Blessings to all~

Carla

Back from Retirement.....

Blog Retirement that is. It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since I blogged. So many times I've thought about blogging but then wondered where to began when you haven't blogged for so long. Then last night I came to the conculsion that blogging is like riding a bicycle, you just jump back on and away you go, I think :). Anyway, last night I found myself awake until 2 am reading my blog and I realized that the reason I started blogging in April of 2007, was to keep a "journal" of the adventures in my life. Not saying that my life is grand or extravagant and many days its kinda boring but as I sat last night and read my previous posts I realized that there were several things that had slipped my mind. Yea, call it old age but in years to come its going to be nice to look back and read these posts. So with that said, retirement from the world of blogging is over for me. Till the next post.



Blessings~

Carla

Pictures to go along with prior post....

Just a few pictures to go along with my last blog post.  I know you are probably thinking why did I not post these at the same time but the truth of the matter is simply that I was too lazy.  I load all my pictures and edit all my pictures on my laptop which is slow and last night I was on the kids computer, which is faster then mine, may I add.   Anyway last night I was looking at my blog and I got a wild hair to post something and the last thing I wanted to do was switch over to my computer.  I know, laziness!!!!

The kids and Rascal enjoying the snow on one of our many snow days.

Courtney ripping out the shelf paper out of the cabinets at the new house.

Jonah tearing up the flooring at the new house so that they can lay ceramic tile.

Jonah and Emily waiting for Bible Bowl to begin at Lads to Leaders

Courtney and several of her friends at 6th grade graduation.

Last day of school....YIPEEE!!!!

Secret Keeper Girls

Hope I didn't bore you.  Ha! Ha!

Blessings to all~

Carla

Update

I know! I know! It has been about 5 months since I've written anything. I have been busy but that shouldn't be an excuse. I'd like to look back one day and see all the fun things that my family and I've done together. I keep saying that I'm going to do better but that doesn't happen. I don't even know if anyone really reads this anymore, but I read other people's blogs all the time so I'm going to press on with this one.

Well since I last wrote we bought a house here in BG, renovations to that house, I applied for a job at the new high school (which I didn't get), Snow days (several), Lads to Leaders, spent spring break in Florida, Opry Mills Mall flooded along with parts of Nashville and BG, the kids and I was in a fender bender one Wednesday night after church in the pouring down rain, I applied for a job at Moss M.S.(which I got), celebrated lots of birthdays, Courtney and I attended Secret Keeper Girl with some friends in Nashville, Sixth grade graduation and both kids survived their first year of public school. It doesn't sound like we've been busy but really, we have.

 I'm still trying to decide if I will try to play catch-up with all the pictures I have. I probably will not, well maybe a couple.  So you will probably be inundated with lame picture posts tonight or next week. Ha! Ha! Nothing terribly interesting or controversial... so don't get your hopes up.

Blessings to all~

Carla

Too Long

Let me just start out by saying that it has been a very long time since I have posted anything on this blog. Unfortunately, there is not one specific reason why I haven't blogged, maybe it was because of Facebook or maybe it was the lack of time or maybe it was because I felt like there was a lack of followers. For whatever the reason was I have since realized how much I enjoyed blogging and missed keeping up with my fellow bloggers.

As I begin 2010, I want to turn over a new leaf and start back blogging again, so I will begin with a brief summary of the highlights that have occurred in my life since my last post in May of 2009.

In July, our little girl decided to put Christ first in her life and was baptized by her daddy at church camp. We were so proud of her decision. Courtney is maturing into a wonderful young lady right before our eyes. She has a heart of gold.

This past summer we had a couple of visitors from the sunshine state. My mother in law and nephew came up in July and spent a couple of days with us. During their visit we did a little sight seeing and visited Abraham Lincoln's childhood home.

Now that I am posting this, I realize that July was a very busy month for us. My dad celebrated his 68th birthday in July. He had told me about a birthday party that was going to happen in his honor but never did he imagine that the kids and I would make the trip down to Florida for it. Boy, was he surprised!!! The party was a blast, an all day event. Dad even played a few songs on his new guitar.

At the end on July, the four of us took of to Chicago for a weekend get away before school started. It was a quick trip but we were able to see all that we wanted to see of the windy city. Of course while on Michigan Ave, Courtney and I had to visit the American Girl store.

We also went to the Aquarium. I love this picture of Phillip and the kids with the Aquarium in the background.

Of course, when you go to Chicago you have to go to Navy Pier, there we rode the infamous Ferris Wheel.

While the kids were not at camp during the summer and in between our mini vacations. We again enjoyed many summer days being lazy by the pool at Southland. This is one of those fun photos that I snapped of Jonah going of the high dive with his board. I love the action shot!!!

This was the first year for the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a minor league baseball team. We were fortunate enough to enjoy several games.

In August, Courtney attended her first ever concert, Demi Lovato. We had great seats, thanks to a wonderful friend.

September 4th, marked Phillip and my 16th wedding anniversary. I can not believe that it has been that long. Where does the time go????

During fall break we took off for the beach. Nothing like a little R&R in Destin. What a nice and relaxing vacation!!!

Since we were in Florida for 18 months I missed watching the leaves change, however I did not miss the raking of the leaves. Which we had lots to do this year in our front yard alone.

Is she not growing up too fast??? For Halloween, Courtney dressed up in her poodle skirt that my talented neighbor in Florida made for her.

After five years of homeschooling, we decided it was time for both kids to try a new chapter in their life....public school. With much prayer, we made this decision and have been pleased with the adjustment. Both kids brought home straight A's, which makes us very proud of them.

In December, the 6th graders at Courtney's school hosted a parent/child dance. Phillip took Courtney to the dance and out to dinner on the special night.

This year Courtney has discovered a true love for music. First she tried out and made it into chorus and then she decided to play the flute in the 6th grade band. It has been a pleasure to watch her grow and learn new and exciting things this year in school.

Jonah decided this year that he would play football, yes this was a total shock to Phillip and myself, but we all enjoyed the season even though we were sitting on the edge of our seats for most of the games, praying the he would not get injured.Jonah was inducted into the National Junior Beta Club in December...we are so proud of him.

And yes, we were very blessed with a wonderful Christmas this year. We were unable to make it to Florida so that was a very big change for us. However, I will admit that spending the entire day at home in front of the fire with my pj's on was nice.

Well like I said a brief summary of the highlights over the past 7 months and maybe this will be the kick start that I need to begin blogging again. I hope that all of you had a blessed Christmas and I wish you all a great 2010.

Blessings to all~

Carla