Happy Easter - Spring - Passover!

Wow, it certainly feels like Spring in Neptune Beach today!! Perfect convertible, baseball, soccer, and cold beer weather! We have had an extra long winter and these signs of Spring are just what has been keeping us busy!

Best wishes to you and yours during the Spring Season.

Love to All!
Debbie, Matt, Madeline, and Cameron

PS- Thanks for humoring my resolution to "Go Green" by visiting our blog. Feel free to print our Easter photo card. . . as we will not be mailing them this year.

Overheard. . . .

If you have children in your home, everyday life, etc. then you know that if you stop and listen long enough, these little people come up with some pretty good stuff as they are saying whatever is on their minds. . . . C seems to have no censor on his pie-hole, so he usually gets the story told about him. . .but every once in awhile, our M will toss out a real witty zinger. It became such habit at my old job to share a daily story about what C (and sometimes M) had said or done in the last day, that we even thought about dedicating an entire blog to it. We have had some doozies over the years. . . . I am sure you can imagine! If not, see these two examples and let me know what you think. Happy Tuesday!

1) The other morning I overheard Matt telling Tucker, our French Bulldog, not to jump up on him (he was in his work clothes) and then Cameron says, "Dad, he cannot understand you - he speaks French!" (of course this was in the most condescending tone a 7 year old could muster, short of saying "Duh!!!")

2) The inevitable happened today. When I told Madeline and Cameron that we were going to the UF/FSU baseball game, Cameron said "Yes, but I have to make a Gator sign after school!" (he said this while doing the Gator chomp with his arms) I said "Cam, what about the Dawgs; Auburn?" His response, "But Mommmmmm, that is where I am going to college." And Madeline said, "Don't worry Mom, I am going to Harvard. I am Switzerland." Guess we have to move now. . .

Stalled Resolution. . . .

Well, it appears I have stalled on my resolution to update the blog more frequently. In fact, I realized today that I have done anything with photos since November. Shriek! We can hardly believe it is March already!! Where has the time gone?

C (I am going to use the children's 1st initials going forward)finished up Winter Basketball recently. . . I think his team won one game. It was brutal. They sure did have a fun time playing, though. C running up and down, back and forth, and again. The perfect game for his energy level. Last Saturday was our first baseball game of the Spring Season. Not a good start. . . . I know there is a 2 week learning curve and it is all about having fun, but does not find losing very fun! He was grumpy the rest of the day! We are in the final stretch of 1st grade and his teach just had a baby, so she will be out for the remainder of the year. Boo Hoo. We have a great sub though.

M has started back to soccer and has her first TWO games this Saturday, she is so excited! She also started back Girls on the Run, which was awesome in the Fall. M ran a 5K in December almost effortlessly! Crap, the girl will now be able to out run me! M is still doing fantastic in school and in fact has her first day of FCAT testing today, EVER. She is SO nervous. Her teacher told me this morning that M had asked her what would happen if she threw up during the test. What? A 9 year old nervous like that already? What to do? And the funny thing is, she is going to do AWESOME!

Spring Break is around the corner. . . yeah! Also, my sister's and I are going to Amelia Island to celebrate A's 40th birthday! Girls Weekend, whoo hoo!! I am also getting psyched about my trip to Bali to R. It will be long, long, travel days but 2 weeks in paradise, need I say more???? I am sending in my VISA application today. Yeah!!

All this fun and Matt is busy working, working, and more work! Hopefully, he can take some time off for Spring Break and we can have some fun!!!

Hoping to post pics soon and get you all caught up!

Love to All,
Debbie

February?? Already???

Oh my, how time flies! Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I feel like I still have Christmas stuff to put in storage! We are back in full swing. . . .basketball, soccer, girl and cub scouts! Photos to come soon.

We hope everyone is having a great new year thus far!

Love to all!

And a Happy New Year to you!!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I can hardly believe it is 2010 already! I can remember back in 1991-ish, when they announced Atlanta would have the Olympics in 1996 and it seemed so crazy say 1996! The bonus being that I would have just turned 21 - whooo hoooo! And now, here we are 10 years into the new millennium.

It has been a good 10 years. Both my children were born in this decade and we are all healthy! I could not ask for anything more. You certainly cannot put a dollar amount on that. Looking forward, in the next decade. . . both children will get their driver's licenses, Madeline will graduate high school, and I will turn 40 years old!!!!! (not really that BIG of a deal tho. . . right?)

We rounded out 2009 with a plentiful Christmas. As most of you know, I was laid off in February 2009, BIG adjustment to the family income (in the negative, yikes). But with careful planning and focusing on togetherness this holiday season, we still had an amazing Christmas! I loved it when I asked the children this morning what their favorite presents were and got some suprprising answers . . .after Madeline named her laptop, the Wii, and Cameron said his TV. But in a close second, they said "We got some really cool books!" I LOVE IT!!! Matt and I worry about education frequently and what we can do to get them the best one possible and how we can augment the education they are receiving. And with children so happy to read, I am thankful! I know that will bode well for them in their futures. Matt granted my only Christmas wish with a ticket to visit my friend in Bali. That will be quite the adventure! And I was able to surprise Matt with tickets to the Outback Bowl to see his beloved Auburn Tigers beat Northwestern (barely, it was a nail biter).

And here we are, Day 4 of the New Year. The house is quiet (except for Tucker snoring on the couch) since the children are back in school and Matt is back to work. I plan to summit Mt. Laundry today and dig out the Christmas Graveyard that rests in my living room. I truly wish I could keep my tree up ALL year! OR . . .maybe I will just crawl back under my WARM covers and take the day OFF!!!

Happy New Year to you and yours.

With Love,
Debbie