What's Up?

Well, Jasmine is up! Way, way up north about 40 miles south of the Canadian border. They left Friday afternoon and only made it a couple of hours before the bus broke down. They were supposed to arrive in KY at their hotel about 9 p.m. but arrived at 5:30 a.m. and slept for a bit. They went on to Holland MI where they sang at Benjamin's Hope. Monday they were at Mackinac Island and today are at a camp.

Biking on Mackinac Island

On the ferry to the Island

Sunday was parent/child dedication at church, and Winter was dedicated. Hunter wasn't there, so Jessica went up with River (siblings usually go up too) and Winter, one in each arm. She was last, so Pastor took Winter and held her during closing prayer. Then he invited everyone to stay for the reception and said, "I'm taking this one with me, but I'll give her back." That was really nice of him. And Winter was a total angel. She had woken up,but she just looked up at him perfectly calm.  

 Praying for all the parents and babies

 River is thinking, "That man has my sissy."

 I love this picture of Pastor walking down the steps with Winter. It's like the verse where Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me..."

 The twins were there, but they were more interested in the food tables than pictures.

Yesterday Kayla and I went to inprocess for Teen Court. I think it will be a very good thing for her. She has a whole notebook of homework to do. She has to go to a life skills class that I will also attend with her. She has to appear in a court with a teen jury who will determine her community service hours and other things, she has to have an evaluation and she has to do both public apologies in court and written apologies. She will have a jail tour and has the option to go to the ME office. No dead bodies, but it is required if there are any drugs involved, which there is not so she does not have to do this step.

The good thing is that the lady will allow her to go on our short vacation and on to mission camp for five weeks, and that will count as 8 community service hours. Then she'll start her court things. Unfortunately both she and Kaleb are several hundred dollars short for camp.

Another good thing is that when I told the lady we had a completed homestudy to adopt a teen boy she didn't tell us we were crazy, ask why we'd want another one when we were going through this with one etc but said that we are doing a good thing giving another child a chance and dealing with the issues with the ones we have.

We have not yet gotten the final copy of the home study so have not inquired about any specific boys. I am afraid that most of them will not want to leave their counties, schools, and friends to start over in a new place though. We will see what happens.

Jasmine's tour finishes Sunday with a concert at our home church, although we are not the church that sponsors the choir. The kids are from many churches. Tuesday three of us pack up and leave for NC with the other three following on Friday. From there, Jasmine and I will go on to Elkhart, IN, Cincinnati, OH and Montgomery, AL and home. The others will drop the twins at camp at Merritt Island and then head home. I will be gone June 13 to July 1. 

I am going to be a mess because my hair is in serious need of a cut and perm but the lady who does it is out because of foot surgery. Her niece was going to do it but then had some weird stuff happen with stroke like symptoms and is now out too. I'm going to go for the scraggily look rather than have someone I don't know do it. I have quirky hair and am seriously afraid I'd greatly regret letting someone else do it.

What's up with you guys?

Life Now that School has Started

Now that school has started, we are kind of into a routine, and life is pretty ordinary. We still try to get to the pool or beach on the weekends, but it's not the same. Sigh.

Two of the kids have an insane schedule.

Our days go like this:

On school days, Rick and Kayla are out the door at 6:10 to drop Kayla at her charter school bus stop, and then Rick goes on to work. Jasmine, Kaleb and I get up when they leave. Previous years we all had devos and family meeting at 5:40. So it feels different not doing that. We try to read a devotion at supper because despite the crazy schedules, we try to all eat together even if it's at 4:30.

Kaleb does his afternoon jobs at 6:30 a.m. because his afternoons are crazy. He also does his homework before school. Jasmine does her homework in the morning, too.

Either Ty or I leave with those two at 7:45 and drive them to two schools in two very different districts. Jasmine's school starts at 8:30 and Kaleb's at 9:00. She is in kind of a poor school, and Kaleb goes to the rich middle school. It's laughable how different the school are. Sometimes they have club before school. Both twins plan to join Fellowship of Christian Students/Athletes.

In the afternoon, we pick Jasmine up at 3:10. We were going on to Kaleb's school (he gets out at 3:30), but the car line is so long that it was a two hour round trip. So Rick is picking Kaleb up at 4:00 after he gets off. That is about what time we actual got through car pick up anyway. His doing that really helps because we can get Jasmine home at 3:30 instead of 4:45. Kayla's bus gets here about 3:45.

On Monday evenings starting after Labor Day, Jasmine will have County Christian Choir from 6-8:15. This includes a Bible study each year. They will be going on tour to Michigan next summer.
The twins were going to be in the Middle School choir, but the director was just selected to sing with the USAF choir and tour the world. So middle school choir was cancelled. There has been a bit of a fuss over that, so they may come up with something for them.

Jasmine has percussion at 5 and full band at 6 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was no way to get her home, fed and back in the days before Rick took over picking up Kaleb.

Kaleb has swim team every night at the college which is about 45 minutes away, a little less if there is no traffic. Thankfully it starts at 6:45 so he has a short time to get home, eat, change and head back out.

We are going to take Wednesdays off from team and all three go to youth group at church. We may take some Fridays off too. Jasmine has football games many Fridays. I would like them to have some unscheduled time too, although the twins need the structure of schedule even if it's scheduled outdoor free play or Wii (electronics are rare around here with the exception of Ty which is pretty much all the time he isn't at work or driving).

Kayla was supposed to start city soccer, but she violated some counseling goals/rules/boundaries, so she will start with either school soccer or city basketball in a couple of months. She will do youth group with the others but is disappointed there is no middle school choir.

So life is a bit crazy around here. If grades fall or kids get too stressed, something will have to go. The problem is that band really stresses Jasmine out, but if you skip a practice, you can't play at the game plus you get an F AND have to write a research paper. That goes for excused absences too, so don't dare get sick! She is going to drop band either after first semester or after the year because of the stress. It also takes the whole summer. This summer we went on a family vacation at the only time we could, and she missed percussion camp. It wasn't pretty. She also missed an evening practice the week of her surgery and couldn't carry her drum during full band camp because of the weight and her recovery. I think kids need the summer off. We do our summer math and reading packs, but also family time and free play.

While the kids are at school, Jessica, Tyler, River and I get time together. Jessica, River and I went to the beach last week.

My Nikon is damaged, and my water camera's battery went dead after these two photos, so no cute water pictures.

Ty is always talking about how I do things with the girls, but that he and I don't share any major activities (our advanced scuba fell through--money and instructor changes), so he and I went to comic con in Pensacola for a day.

This morning before going to the pool, the girls went to Lowes to the free kid's workshop. Technically Jasmine is too old, but that's one advantage of being small. Even though her age is on the registration form, they have never told her she's too old.

They made the last of the Avengers characters they've been making each time. There were six total.

We've been also working on using the jigsaw at home.

So that's kind of how life has been here lately.

River's Dedication

Our church has a parent/child dedication three times a year (or maybe it's twice a year). The parents don't just dedicate the baby/child, they dedicate themselves to raise the child to know God. Jessica dedicated River two Sundays ago. Hunter attended, but didn't go up with her. He does not share our faith, although at one time he did. At least he came. Hunter's mom came and brought his niece, ZonaMae, and Zona Mae's other grandmother. 

Waiting to go into the church.

Braving it by herself.

With the pastor

We did not manage to get everyone in a picture. Ty was at work, and Adam was on his way home from his reserve weekend. Others were getting cake.

Mrs. Ginger is between Rick and I. She's the children's minister and has played an important role in our kids' lives.
Our photos look more like a line up than a family photo!!!

Papa Rick and River

Adam got there after it ended.

Here are a few other photos of River from other days.

This and That

There is nothing big going on right now. No drama. No crises. No winter storm. Just a bit of this and that.

Sadie Rose is settling in well. She just has to learn not to chase the cat!

Caspian is kind of a diva. He has the most seniority. Max, who died a few weeks ago, was the last pet that came to FL with us from GA. We had Max and Scrappy both a very long time.

Sasha can be a lap dog, but she can also wrestle the boys too.

I think we wore them out.

River Cheyanne is doing well and comes over to visit a couple of times a week.

Jessica and I started a new photography class on Friday. River went along. I might have spent more time taking pictures of Jessica and River than what we were supposed to be photographing.

This was just much more interesting.

Jessica is holding a toy that used to be hers. We brought in her keepsake trunk from the shed, and she took few outfits that used to be hers to try on River.

 We have been working on a lot of crafts for our 14 days of kindness the first 14 days of February. Everyone was so cheery back in November posting comments every day of what they were thankful for, but now winter has gotten nasty and people aren't as cheery as they were at the beginning of the holidays. So we are going to spread some cheer to people in our lives in February. 

I will be posting more about that later on my blog for girls. Check HERE in a few days.

This evening was the joining award ceremony for our American Heritage Troop

Vicki is our leader. I am shepherd--basically chaplain.

Tyler may have gotten a custodial job at the mall. He is excited about having the chance to work and a pay check.

Today is the twins' 6th homecoming anniversary. We had a special meal and cake, but I didn't think to take any pictures because Kayla and I left for AHG, and Kaleb left for swimming.

And that's it from here. If you aren't following my other blogs, please click the link at the side (if you are on a computer) and follow them.