Spring Break part 2

On Thursday of Spring Break, we went riding. For Jasmine, Kaleb, River and Winter, this was the first time on a horse. Kayla missed this event.

Jessica on Rebel. He lived up to his name, but she did fine.

River rode Golden Feather and was not at all afraid. She liked leading him around better than riding him though.

Jasmine was on Dartarious "Dart"

Kaleb was on Starbucks "Bucks"

I rode Cowboy, and Winter rode with me.

This was a lesson situation, not a trail ride. I wasn't sure what it would be when I signed up. All of the kids enjoyed it and are still talking about it. I was sad that the one who most wanted to do it, made decisions that just could not be overlooked or tolerated, and she had to miss it. But there is always next time. 

The rest of our spring break was routine beach bum activity. 

I will post Easter photos soon.

Spring Break

Spring break is winding down for us, while some of you are starting break on Monday. Ours had its ups and downs. Several of the activities I planned were from one child's wish list, and she managed to sabotage them for herself, but I refused to let her ruined it for everyone. We pressed onward with whoever was cooperating at the moment.

Before spring break even started, two group went scuba diving. Group one consisted of Kaleb doing a non-certified dive, while Rick and Jasmine did a regular dive. Jasmine has a lot of ear trouble and was not able to go below 10 feet. So she completed a shallow dive, and then Rick did a 30 foot dive. Unfortunately he ruptured his ear drum!

Then Tyler and I did a dive. There was a strong current making it challenging. We only dove to 37 feet. It was good visibility, though.

On Monday we were going to have a fairly quiet day simply walking/running and cooking out at a local park. But the weather looked like it was going to be stormy, so we grabbed frozen baked spaghetti from Walmart and went to Jessica's.

Afterwards we walked/ran at a park we hadn't been to before.

On Tuesday we were supposed to whitewater raft, but in addition to rupturing his ear, Rick blew his knee out, so we had to cancel that. Ty had already taken the day off, so we drove to St George Island and climbed the lighthouse.

Then we played at the beach behind the lighthouse.

To be continued ...

It's Been a Month

It's been a month since I last posted. Sometimes there is nothing to say, others times there isn't time to say it.

Opening a shop at our local flea market has been very time consuming, but it's also given me a sense of purpose.  It has been a waiting game with hearing back from a publisher about my YA fiction. No answer to my e mails, no nothing. A waiting game to hear from our adoption worker and wondering why everything has come to a halt. But when it comes to the shop, we are all fully engaged.

Ty and I spend the week searching for good buys--toys that are for sale cheap because of their condition that we can clean up, repair etc and get ready to resell. Our family room (you remember I fixed it up a while back--see that post here) now looks like a warehouse. Other than being totally frustrated by the clutter, I am loving it.

Tara came to visit the shop. I will take some better photos of the shop on Friday. The flea market is open 8-5 Friday and 7-5 Saturday and Sunday. We can't get in during the week at all. So bad news if we leave something there we need.

We've had spring break.Too much of it was spent dealing with behavioral issues, but we also had a nice day at the beach.

I took River to the park while Jessica went to her prenatal appointment. She goes weekly now.

There is a big storm moving in right now, and school is already canceled for tomorrow. Jessica is due on the 11th, and I'm hoping she doesn't go into labor during this storm.

I have a parenting blog that features quick tips since most of us don't have much time to read. You can check that out HERE.

Who has already had spring break and who is on break this week?

Spring Break Highlights 2

One of the highlights of spring break was a trip to the zoo. It was quite a ways away. It's near some beautiful beaches, but we were short on time so only got to spend a few minutes there. It was a little cool for the beach too. But it was definitely beautiful.

The birds were the best part of the zoo.

I bought a hula hoop and beach volleyball

River hung out while mommy went to the dentist

Spring break ended with Easter weekend.

 We were supposed to go to the beach to grill after church, but it poured, so we grilled using the panini press. We made banana boats.

This is my getting ready to go to church in pouring rain look! I did take the raincoat and work boots off!

I am not sure why Ty isn't in any Easter pictures! He went to church and grilled with us. Then he went to movie. But he was here again in the evening.

If you get a chance, check out my parenting blog. There's a lot of variety on it. Today I borrowed someone else's post about parenting attachment disorder kids. I also posted about books to read with your middle school children. Please check it out HERE and click to follow.

I hope to post soon about our Home Depot and Lowes projects and the trip we did make to the beach. We also hope to tube at the springs after church Sunday. It will be a quiet weekend for the child who told each parent that the opposite parent had signed her planner when really she forged my initials due to so many write ups she didn't want us to know about . So she and I will be making up a test and homework she decided not to do this weekend. I also may have some exciting writing projects ahead. So I'll be working on those. River is getting dedicated this Sunday too.

***It's been really quiet on here, and I wonder if anyone is still following. I know once the twins came home from Haiti, most fellow adoptive parents shut down their blogs and are on face book now. If you're still reading this blog, please say so in the comments. Or just say what you did for spring break.