Beach 2011 album

Here is a link to even more pictures from the beach! Just click on the picture :)

Jim's fishing trip

Beach pictures

Cameron had SO much fun feeding the birds!!

I am pretty sure this crab is saying Arrrrr!

neighbors having fun

Cameron is building something!

Catching a wave! This is probably my favorite picture! A man was cleaning fish and spraying it down. Apparently it was tasty!

a couple of the dolphins playing.

Our LVC group minus 8 that left early.

Leah, Shelby, Sara, Tara

We also got to see a beach wedding :)

Port Aransas

We decided to leave for our trip early- so we left on Wednesday right after Jim got home from work. We drove about 3 hours and stayed at a hotel for the night in Buda Texas. We got up early the next morning and were on our way! We got to the beach around noon- we had to take a ferry across, as we were staying on an island. It was too early to check in at our hotel so we decided to do a bit of exploring. We happened upon a fishing pier that had a bunch of dolphins sw imming around and playing! That was pretty cool! We then went over by the beach- bought our parking permit that is good for the whole year (this means we should go back! haha) and the kids got their swimwear on in the van.
The sand was completely different than in Virginia (I have only ever been to the beach in VA and NJ) it was more like powder here- nice! We also saw lots of new creatures and tons of seashells! Cameron and Ethan ran to the beach and didn't think twice. They were ready to catch some waves. Sloane- not so much! She was pretty intimidated by it all. She was pretty content to just dig in the sand.
6 families from our street ended up going to Port Aransas. I can't even begin to tell you what a great time we had. The first night, we ate at a cajun place. They didn't serve people on plates- they brought the food out and dumped it in the middle of the table- right on top of the table cloth! That was kind of cool and weird.
We found a hermit crab and I decided to bring him home with us and add him to my hermit crab tank (I later found out much too late, that he is a different kind of crab and I basiclally murdered the poor guy by taking him from home)
I got burnt to a crisp the very first day at the beach! There was a cool breeze and it just wasn't that hot so I didn't think about it. It was the worst sunburn I have had in my life :( What a way to start out vacation!
Of course one of our kids went missing- It always happens at the beach and I knew with 14 kids in our group it would happen. It did. It was Reese- Sara's youngest daughter. She was gone for over an hour(!!!) She had wandered away and went looking for us but went the wrong direction. She was over a mile away. Even after she was found- I think we all still felt sick to our stomach!
On Saturday Jim and a few others went on a deep sea fishing trip. It rained that morning and I guess the water was pretty choppy- aka- lots of puking going on in that boat! Not Jim though, but apparently he did feel pretty sick for a bit. He was hoping for Tuna but it was the wrong season- he needs to come back in the fall for that. He got some snapper though!
In a way this beach trip was better than living near the beach. I didn't have to go home and tend to any chores or anything. we just went to the beach nearly all day every day. It was wonderful! We did take a few breaks to do some souvenir shopping of course, but the rest of the time was beach time!
The last night there we decided to do an evening stroll on the beach. I had decided earlier that I was going to do some family pictures of everyone before we left. 1 family left for home early and 1 was too tired to show up, so I didn't get everyone but almost. I got some pretty good pics of everyone. After that trip my camera got sand EVERYWHERE. yuck.

done!

lisence class is done! done! done! Yipee! He got a 95% on his test this morning. Not sure if I am more excited for him or for me though :) No more studying like crazy for him and no more grumpy Jim for us....Well, we know that isn't true but hopefully he wont be AS grumpy! LOL! Unfortunately for him- no car in the super near future because I used up our entire savings on my surgery- I added it up and I think so far this year I have paid $8,000 out of pocket. Can someone please PLEASE tell me why private healthcare is a good thing???
Anyway- no car for Jim- maybe in october after the fall outage. By then we might have a down payment saved up!

Band!

Looks like Ethan is going to be giving up choir next year and doing band instead! It is only available to 6th graders and he is very excited! We aren't sure what instrument yet but it will not be drums or string instuments. Right now he is considering the tuba....we will see about that! LOL! GREAT opportunity for him but a major pain for me. Band will meet every morning before school starts (I will have to take him early and then take Cameron later...) And since they will have a large instrument they will not be allowed to ride the bus home because there isn't room- which means I will be picking him up every day too. Whaaaa! Yes I am going to complain about it but it is a great opportunity so I will suck it up when the time comes.

misc.

Well, I finally got an oppertunity to work for CASA- The job is helping social services, but looking out for the child in abuse/neglect situations. I would be responsible for deciding what is best for the child- not best for the mom or anyone else. This would mean deciding if a child should be removed from the home, placed in foster care or with a family member, or if they are already removed- deciding whether the parent has made enough changes that makes the home safe enough for the child to return home or if he/she should be placed up for adoption.
I have my book and have been studing. I have 2 8 hr days of training coming up this week. This isn't really the type of work I want to end up doing but it is a good place to get some experience with the court system (I want to be a juvenile probation officer). I don't really enjoy the thought of working with sad broken families, abused children, alcoholic parents....maybe just hits too close to home for me. I would much rather work with angry, crazy, wild teenagers! But like I said- this might help me to meet the right people and possibly get better aquainted with 'the system'
Also in our news: I am thinking tenatively about getting a second dog. Maybe in the fall when we will be home more. I think it would be good for Finn to have a buddy.

vacation?

You may be wondering what we are doing for vacation this year. Well, we have actually tenatively planned not one but TWO vacations this year! And none are visit's to family(sorry) We decided this year we are just having fun and playing. Usually our vacation time is eaten up by going to see family which we love but we want to see other things as well (hint hint- this means come and visit US!) So we had talked of going to SanAntonio to go to Sea World. How fun!!! Then a neighborhood conversation ended up turning into a neighborhood vacation. That's right- LVC is going to the Gulf of Mexico for 3 nights! 6 families- a few are staying in a rental house and the rest of us are staying in hotels that we got a crazy good deal on. 3 days of BEACH!!! This is where we are going- http://www.portaransas-texas.com/ June 23-26 It looks like alot of fun! This will just be a long weekend and Jim is still trying to work out the details at work, but we are going! Then we will try to finalize plans on Sea World. I guess this is the year we finally start exploring Texas! Honestly, more than anything about this beach trip- I am excited to take some fun pictures. Here in the Ft Worth area there is just nothing pretty. not many great flowers, foliage, scenery....but the beach is another story! I am getting my camera all cleaned up and getting all my lenses and filters ready. Yeah!!!

my rebel

For some reason- totally out of the blue, Ethan decided he wanted his ear(s) pierced. Well, he IS 11 and if Sloane were to ask me by that age I would have said yes (first grade is the youngest I will let it happen) and because of that, I coudn't say no without becoming just as sexist as the school district that I hate! So- I told him yes but that he would have to pay for it. I also reminded him that he wouldn't be allowed to wear it at school, so more than likely he would have to let the hole close up at the end of summer. He was okay with that. I did talk him into only getting 1 ear pierced though! Soooo we went to the mall and the girl had the gun out and ready to pierce....Then he remembered that karate has a no jewelery rule....So, we left without a pierced ear. He went to karate and got permission from them, but by then it was just a pain to go back to the mall. I used to pierce ears and various other things so I had my own piercing gun as well as earrings. I just did it myself (payment was mowing the lawn!). He said it hurt alot more than he thought it would, but he LOVES his earring! LOL!

summer fun

We are so lucky! The city of Joshua (right next to us) put in a new splash park this year- and it's FREE! It is small but still fun and a great way to cool off in the summer!

Sloane LOVES water, however she is not fond of these sprinklers at all. In the pool- she chooses to get wet- but with sprinklers they just get her wet without her having any control so she hates it. At least the boys have fun there!

And when all else fails- we have the little inflateable pool in the back yard :)

Ethan's award ceremony

I know I have said before that THIS year was Ethan's year. The award ceremony just proved it. He got so many awards I can't even list them all! How amazing is that?!Ethan accepting his awards from the principal
Ethan was one of the top 10 readers in his whole grade level!

He was also 1 of 3 that got the CEO award- which means he was able to complete all 20 hours of community service this year!

I am so proud of him- he really did a great job this year. I just hope that 6th grade goes as smoothly!

Last day of school!! part 1

This is the last day of school. Cameron made it through Kindergarten! Today they had the awards ceremony- the kids had a few songs to sing and then received their awards. This is the whole group of Kindergarten kids. Cameron is in the front row on the left hand side.

Cameron's teacher put together a slideshow afterward in her classroom. She has taken TONS of pictures throughout the year. She gave us each a copy of the cd and also made a online photo album of all the pictures she has taken! So nice! She has been such a fun teacher. Hopefully Cameron gets a teacher that he likes just as much next year! We had so many teachers to thank this year so I just made some gifts for them. Bookmarks for everyone and the crayon frame for Miss Trice :)

North Joshua Elementary Talent Show

All of kindergarten performed in the talent show. It was really cute. Cameron was a 'muscle guy' for the song Pump It! For as shy as he has always been- he has perfomed SO well for all the shows they have put on this year. He actually wants a solo part next year! Who would have ever thought!?