Conference

The staff and faculty dress as "Tacky Tourists" the first evening to keep conferees from getting intimidated by the editors.




Do I look thrilled or what?






Jessica gets called up front. Many of the teens from the teen track dress in fantasy or other costumes.






Getting ready to teach my after hours session.

Writer's Conference

Jessica













Jessica with another teen writer.













Kathy (me) and Clella who writes devotional books.












Kathy and Christine Tangvald who has written over 70 children's books. Her daughter and husband just adopted a little girl from China. They got a waiting child abou t 13 mo old so it went very fast.









Kathy with the Kindred Heart writers. They write devotion books, parenting books etc.











Lake Yale conference center.



















Kathy with Eva Marie. She has written suspense books, women's fiction but also has a beautiful book about Israel.












Kathy with Torry who created the character of Wootan for Adventures in Odyssey and writes drama as well as acting.









All for now. I'm off to session.

Way to go Tyler!

Ty had his belt test today. He just started karate last spring. Those of you who know him know that his asperger's affects not only his coping ability but his fine and gross motor skills and overall muscle tone including the muscles used for speech.


He has worked hard on the requirements for his orange belt which not only include all the karate skills but also an oral recitation.








Ty demonstrates basic arm blocks.
































Proud mom.

















He passed.




















Good job Tyler!

Wouldn't it be nice...

...to just take a nap whenever you wanted to?



This is Shy on the couch in the TV room off our bedroom. He woke up when my flash popped up.

















No rest for me. I leave for writer's conference first thing in the morning. So today I need to finish running the hand outs for my sessions, finalize the after hours schedule, finish my article for Living with Teens, attend Ty's karate belt test, get Jessi off to work and Jasmine off to gymnastics.

Second Day on the Job

Being dramatic about getting home at 11:00 last night.





Getting ready for his second day at the movie theater.

Happy birthday part 2

The birthday girl! Rick was off today so he went and picked up the high schoolers early and two pizzas so we were all waiting when Jasmine got home. Normally we are not all together on a Wednesday except before 6:15 a.m. or after 10:30 p.m. when Jessica gets home from work.





Jessica bought Jasmine a puzzle.





Madagascar 2, a lion webkinz & Surf's Up.









HSM 1 DVD, HSM 3 soundtrack and a shirt from Aunt Lou.





















A shorts outfit and dance clothes from Uncle Ken.























































A new beach towel. That will probably go to Haiti with us because it's thin enough to pack.






Reading cards.








An iPod!









Fun game!

















A new scooter from Grandma Sims.








Reading a card







Listening to iPod









Blowing out candles







Swirl treats

Happy birthday!

When we lived in GA, we were foster parents. (Once we moved to Florida we were no longer eligible because five is a full house and we have five. At that time we had four in the house and six was the limit-but often we had seven.) One of our foster children left to live with a grandparent. We were called and told there was a newborn with many birth anomalies who may come into foster care but they weren't sure. I said I was very interested. The child who left was a special needs eight-year-old and I needed a change. We kept getting calls and were offered three other girls ages 7-11 but I kept turning them down telling them that I wanted to wait and see if the newborn went into care. Meanwhile, she had been air vac'd to Shands in Gainesville for ten days and then returned to Valdosta. I took her home at 21 days old.



















Jasmine is my joy and song!













At first there was a reunification plan for the mom but it didn't work out. However, due to wrong paperwork filed and all sorts of mishaps, we did not actually adopt her until she was 3 1/2 years old but she was in our house the whole time so it wasn't like the wait we are having now. Tyler is holding Jessica's prayer card at the courthouse because after waiting all this time for her adoption, it happened while Jessica was on a mission trip to New Mexico.














Happy 8th brithday