Jim's Surprise Birthday!!

Soooooo we had a surprise 50th birthday party!! I cant believe it but we actually pulled it off. He was surprise!! We originally wanted to do a pig roast ourselves but we figured Jimmy would want to be a part of it so we had is catered instead. Rib City actually cooked this one for us. They were awesome. They came out and set up and even brought plates!! Wasn't it beautiful?!

This is what we decorated the tables with. We originally wanted to put down table clothes but the wind was so bad they wouldn't stay on the table unless we put more tape in it than the actual table cloth. I think it looked better all natural anyways.

Pig and cake lay out. I will talk about the cake later in the pictures...yeah that is a deer.

That is the sign. We had the party out at the FGCU Buckingham Center, off of Buckingham Road. It was a great location!

Here is Jimmy coming up to his party. I think he had put it together by this time.

We made a fire in the big put just for looks at first. It did provide nice heat later on.

Some of the spread.

Yes, I have to put in pictures of O'lena.
This is the best part. Jim got to cut into his own pig. I think he kind of enjoyed it. We did have enough pig to last a good couple of meals later too. He/she was yummy.
This is the park where it too place. We thought it was quite nice. It is open to the public for parties and retreats.
Everyone digging in.
Olena playing with the puzzles.
Say cheese!
Gunkle and Lena.
Yeah, we made him serve his own pig.
The deer to tell you where to turn. Jim did say he recognized it when turning in, but wasn't sure at that point why it was out there.
The view from a far.
The second best idea that I had...i thought it was funny....
Derick smoking the hamburgers...hahaha..he was just suppose to be grilling them but for some reason it got a but smokey. You can see which way the wind was blowing.
Grandma Lee and Jeff came down from North Carolina for the party. It was a big surprise too. We had known for a couple of weeks that they were coming and it was really hard not to slip and say something. REALLY HARD
Awwww the cake. These are out of order..of course, but here is where he started cutting the cake. I'll talk more about this cake later.
O'lena's best friend. She loves Autumn.
Stuffing the face with marshmallow. mmmmmm
So the fire place was so big that even Derick could get roasted. :) I think this was my favorite picture of the evening.
Jimmy's cake! The best cake ever!! It is a deer! With a cigar! And a shot gun! And a liquiar!! So stinking cute!! And yummy too.
Me and a tuckered out Linguini. I had a better one where I was not grabbing her crotch to keep her up on my lap, but it has seemed to have disappeared.
At the end we had ran out of firewood so we sent Bryan and Ashely to round up some more. They came back with a tree. It was so long that it didn't fit in the truck so Ashley had to hold on to it while the truck pulled it around.

Round two, or was it three. They were the best firewood finders out there.Cutting the last bit of meat off the hog. We didn't want to waist any of it. Jimmy is getting carving lessons from mamma. I thought this was so cute.

Naturally this is out of order, but this is O'lena with Grandad. He is her comfort pad. When ever she see him, she goes right up into his lap. So stinking cute.
All in all, everyone had a great time. I am curtain the birthday boy did; which is the only thing that matters. We just hope this will go in history as his most favorite birthday ever! Well at least I do and think mom does too.

Camping at Highland Hammonks

We went camping right after D came home. We brought the family along. Okay, okay we went together :) Beside Bryan getting dragged along, I think everyone had a good time. Highlands has some nice trails to hike, but the mosquitoes would eat you alive. The sites are really nice.

Of course there was a tree that was just hanging there, all nice and beautiful, long and strong, and what do boys do?!?!


Here is Jimmylee trying to hang with the boys....

I have to admit, I think my daughter helped Bryan get out of his funk. By the end of the trip I think he somewhat had a good time- even girlless-Family photo opp
Yeah...I think she might have had something to with it. Yeah, he likes her.
So stinking cute!
Self portrait on the skinny boardwalk . Kind of scary with the kid. Especially when on the bank across the way is a big alligator.
Dude, I just realized my head look huge.

Me and Leneey hanging out in our chairs.
So cute in her chair.
Everyone hanging out.
So funny...Mom, O'lena, and I went biking and what do we see...Ricky Raccoon! A very talented Ricky. When we first started watching he was eating a piece of bread on the fence and then he jumped on to the dumpster, lifted the top, jumped in, got another piece of bread, then came back out and ate his meal. We couldn't believe it. Very talented!

Camping..always fun.

Goings on

So thing have been going around here. Nothing too exciting but stuff is a happening. The pictures will help me tell all the events.
I got my hairs cut last week. Of course it looks great in this picture but I haven't been able to get it look anything like this since. The bangs are fun though.Well the septic tank has been acting ummm "funny." After pumping it out TWICE, we have figured out that our drain field is not draining the rain water when it pours. It just POURS right back in. It seems to just been an issue during the raining season though. We are sucking it up and not getting it fixed, so that means we are saving water as much as possible. And one way Derick is doing that is to take showers outside. (The water goes on to the ground not the septic tank. )
Yeah, that's not bath water!

Aww this picture is better. Lena pushing her car on a walk around the neighborhood. She is getting big. Tall and heavy.
This is a picture of her taking a picture of herself. She was having fun playing with her mommy's "apple." At first i thought she was calling my phone that because she has a game on it that has an apple on it, but someone pointed out that there is an apple on back that she sees (it is an iPhone.) So now it is mommy's "apple." (yes, she does know what a real apple is.)
Another very exciting thing is that she got her own new potty!!! She has been practicing sitting and reading her books on it. She gets a sticker when she sits. She actually went pee-pee the other day!!!! I was so shock and excited that I scared her. She is working on it at school now too. We may have a potty trained girl here soon!
So Derick left me for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!! He went prairie dog hunting with his dad and brother in Colorado. He did have a blast but I think he was glad to come home. We missed him terribly. Me and O'lena really just got to know each other while he was gone, but we were very happen when he came home. Here is some pictures that I got from him from his trip. I have played this one up from my phone. I love that app.
He is actually talking to me on the phone right here. He is looking cool in all his hunting gear. I might have to talk him into posting about his trip. From what he told me they had a good time, only one run in with the law, one crazy-almost shot someone shot, and several hundred dead prairie dogs.
Mommy and O'lena. She was eating her dinner, if you cant tell.

Brannon turned 18!!!!!! Can you believe it?! I can not. I remember when he was born. Spaghetti dinner at Rosemary's was a blast. Brannon and Bryan has both started at FGCU. They both are enjoying at much as they possibly can. I think Brannon has realized that there is a lot of girl drama in college.
Our friends son had his 1st birthday a couple months back. She was wear the sponge-bob hat. We thought it was cute.
This is a picture of O'lena actually being good during church. She is getting better and better. Well except for a couple of weeks ago where she got fed up and ran to the door and started banging her head against it, then wailing because it hurt. All this DURING SACRAMENT!
I am trying to think of anything else...There is always stuff going on, I just cant remember it when it is time to write it down.

I am actually enjoying my job right now! I have a second teacher this year and we have been able to split the students up into a high/low situation. I have the high, Eva has the low. Now when I am talking high, I mean the higher students who are reading about 1st grade (I teach middle school) can add, and are able to write some. They are not up on grade level, but they have some academics. This year has been great because I am not feeling guilty that the kid who is "high" is not being ignored because all my attention need to go to the "low," behavior students. We have done so much already! It is awesome for both groups. Now if my school would shape up, I might not want to leave any more....right...

What else?.... O'lena moved up at her school. She is now in the two year old room. She moved up last week. I have started to see a change already. Some for the good, some for the bad. She seems to more whiny than before. Well I think so at least. She is talking and copying like crazy. She is showing more preferences and she is understanding a lot more. The girl doesn't forget either. "Out of sight, out of mind" doesn't work for my child.

Oh man! Have you seen the new fall line up. It is the first time in years I actually want to watch TV. There is something on every night that I want to see. So much for going to bed early any more. Yeah that reminds me too... I was being so good with my P90X. Up every morning at 5:30, working out. I even did it every morning while Derick was gone. I was just seeing results....then....Derick came home. For some reason, and I am not blaming him, after he came back, I seem not to be able to get myself out of the bed any more. It was a fight before but I had some will power and motivation, now nothing. I just don't care nor want to. It was weird. Maybe next week....

Oh, fun kid story....so on Friday last week was BB King's birthday, right. The reason why I know this is because they did this big thing on the announcements that morning. Well come to find out one of my students, actually it was more but one just spoke up, thought it was Burger King's birthday!! hahahahaha That is the difference on what they hear and applying their background knowledge. Okay so it is probably more funny to DHH people than normal people but it made us laugh. After my comparative lesson I bet you my kids know who BB King is now!!

That's it for now. :)