Please read the post below this one too. Blogger was driving me nuts with how it was formatting things so I decided to break this up into two posts. Grrrrr...
I am going to go back to mostly posting pictures and writing comments on them.
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| Friend Violet's birthday. |
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| Duncan and Allen on the Tour de Cure on March 24. |
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| Being silly at the dentist. |
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| The girls did a field trip to a surgery center at Florida Hospital. |
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| They got to pretend they were doing surgery. The hospital did such a terrific job on the field trip. Thanks for Jennifer for organizing it! |
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| On Sunday, April 2 we attended the annual Ladies and Girl Tea at the church. We sat at Patti's table as usual and as usual, she did such a beautiful job decorating it. |
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| Aunt Wanda attended with us. |
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| Grandma also came and Jennifer and London sat with us. |
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| On Thursday, April 6 I took the kids to SeaWorld as part of a homeschool field trip. We haven't been there in probably three years so it was basically like Colby's first time. |
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| I love it when they can ride the rides all together without me!! I do not enjoy those teacups. |
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| The girls on Atlantis for the first time ever. |
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| My view during lunch. Wait for it... |
On Sunday, April 9 we got the very sad news that our friend and Duncan's colleague, Rob Fulbright had a massive heart attack (we think) while jogging with his youngest daughter. He was only 47. He officially passed away on Tuesday. Duncan and I attended the funeral on Friday. You know how when someone dies people just talk about the good things? Well, I truly believe there were ONLY good things to say about Rob because he was such a great, great guy. Despite the horribly sad circumstances, it was actually very uplifting and inspiring to attend his funeral. He loved the Lord (and lived that) and we know we will see him in heaven again someday. We have so much hope!! The closing song was my favorite, "It is Well With My Soul" which ironically was written by a man when his four daughters passed away. Rob is survived by his four daughters.
Yvonne, his wife, gave me my epidural when Calleigh was born. She was in the room, of course, during the emergency c-section and right after they had pulled Calleigh out, Yvonne says, "Congratulations, it's a boy!" I was like, "WHAT???" She apologized all over the place saying she hadn't seen either way that it was a boy or a girl but thought we were expecting a boy so just said that when she saw the baby was born. But for about four seconds, I thought I had a boy instead. Whew! I've teased her about it since then but mostly I have looked up to them as two parents doing a terrific job raising four daughters including two teenagers. I just still can't believe he's gone...
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| Because of his job and because of the kind of person he was, the funeral was held at the Calvary church rather than our own because thousands of people were in attendance. |
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| Due to Rob's death, the big Easter celebration (that actually takes place right near his house) was cancelled. Instead, the kids did soccer in the morning, then Grandma and Grandpa came over for brunch and an egg hunt. |
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| At the big Easter party, there is a golden egg with a big prize in it. So we did a silver egg. Brady was the lucky one to find it! |
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| $20! |
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| Later we met the Isidros and Bergherms at Jetty Park beach. |
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| We all wanted so badly to be on the Oasis of the Seas that was pulling out on its voyage. |
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| It really was a glorious day. |
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| The evening before Easter we went to the Ocoee High School right next to us to volunteer with Bread of Life which was packing boxes of food for needy families. It was nice because all ages could help! |
Some other random pictures...
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| You never know what kids you're going to find sleeping together. |
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| I thought after we got back from Key Largo where Colby didn't take naps that he might be done. But it was a premature thought. He's back to naps. |
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| Grandma had hip replacement surgery. As expected, she is recovering exceptionally well. |
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| Uncle Ricky came into town with the seniors for their class trip. We only got to see him on Sabbath but he was obviously busy. |
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| Homeschool perk...working on your Spanish in the back yard. |
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| We are studying the 4th day of creation. Trying to really grasp how far away the planets are from each other by doing this experiment with toilet paper. If you placed the planets and their distance from the sun to scale, Uranus would be as far away as Calleigh at the end of the line. |
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| Also trying to understand their size. |
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| Calleigh wanted it to be very clear that Pluto is NOT a planet anymore. |
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| Duncan usually cuts the boys' hair but he had the boys one Sunday and he needed a haircut himself so decided to just have theirs cut too. It was so AWFUL that he had to recut it himself. It's beyond me how he can learn to cut hair by watching YouTube for 10 minutes but a professional messes it up. |
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| The boys got some new baseball gear. I had given Duncan a baseball glove for his birthday so he and Brady were playing catch. Brady declared that baseball is now his favorite sport. He was in awe of Duncan and says after a few minutes, "Wow, Dad. You are SO good at this. Have you been practicing?" |
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| Later, I took the kids to the field to play ball and Calleigh snapped this cool picture. |
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| We dissembled Colby's crib for Ricky and Ana to take back for their baby (coming early June). Colby is now sleeping in Brady's old bed converted back to a crib. |
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| Brady's "new" Ikea bed that a neighbor was selling. |
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| Duncan had the kids while I was volunteering at the consignment sale and the next thing I know, they all own matching Crocs. |
The puppies are doing pretty well. As I write this, I believe it's been almost a week since an accident. But lest you think you are being in lulled into complacency, that they're not going to do any more harm, you find things like this..
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| Chewed up the ottoman. |
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| Chewed up our math curriculum. Did Calleigh put it in Dasher's mouth?? I wish I had a hidden camera. |
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| The second baby gate to bite the dust. Duncan and the kids were upstairs on a Friday night and I was ironing in my bathroom. I heard a noise and came running out to find Donner on the stairs on the other side but Dasher was literally on top of this netting. He tried to jump over but couldn't quite make it so the front was over but not the rest of him. It then ended up tearing right down the middle. Puppies!! |
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| They do have their cute moments. |
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My recent favorite picture of the boys.
One story before I close and declare myself officially caught up. The other day I was in the kitchen with the kids eating lunch. As we're talking about whatever Calleigh says to me, "When I grow up and have kids, I want to homeschool them." I couldn't even respond. I was so caught up in the beauty of the moment. I could feel my eyes pricking a little as my mind drifted to, "Wow, this has been such a beautiful, bonding experience that my daughter wants to pass it on to her daughter." And then, cutting into my precious thoughts, I hear this voice saying, "That way I won't have to get a job." Kids can sure keep you humble.
Have a great rest of your weekend! |
