I've joined the ranks of those...

who need reading glasses!

boo-hoo!

And it makes me feel old...

So, I bought the cutest ones I could find and they happen to be from Forever 21.

-There is something kind of ironic about that. lol

I love them soooooooooooooo!!!!!

But I don't love being one of those ladies who has glasses part way down her nose all the time to keep from being blind if I look up. Ugh! I think I will wait more than a few years before I resort to keeping them on a string around my neck though. ; )

~Speaking of Forever 21, someone recently told me that they have John 3:16 on the bottom of their bags, and they do! How cool is that!?

~Becky

The happenin' place to work

So, we all knew Starbucks would be the coolest place ever to work, but we didn't know that it would have so many fun benefits like free drinks while you work, a pound of coffee a week and some health insurance even for the part time employees... just to name a few. Not to mention a kid who smells yummy when he gets in your car.

Speaking of yummy, when you get a job there, every friend you have proceeds to tell you what free drink they want you to bring them. lol

Our Starbucks is 3 miles from our house which makes it an oh-so-convenient place to work and it also happens to be the busiest, MOST profitable Starbucks in our entire state of Florida which totally explains why I can never get a parking place.

So, our oldest guy is pretty excited about his new job and his plan is to start saving for a car.

~Becky

New school year and one less student!

We painted our school/family room this summer and I just got it done in time for today! I did a bunch of lesson planning before our company came and got all my books ordered in a timely way. (this is a big improvement over last year) Yahoo!

I spent the weekend filing away last years work and moving old books and replacing them with everyone's new ones. Then I made the kids their daily schedules. Oh, I love that part. -Ms "Type A" here! -So, we were all ready for our big day today and I was excited!

The big changes around here are that we added a high school student (Yay, Joy!) to our home school and we lost one. Happy first day of college Zac!

Today was the first time I've ever sent him away for school! Praying for him to 'be Jesus with skin on' and go make a difference in his world. : )

I'm glad I'm not one of the moms I know, sending there kids off to college. Glad he chose to stay here and go to school nearby. His community college is only 8 minutes away. It is in downtown and it looks like they knocked down several condemned buildings, built some new ones and called it a community college campus. lol -Not pretty but very convenient. -He decided to leave his wallet at home today. ; ) I'm pretty sure I'm NOT sending Joy that that campus someday. lol

Andrew is having Zac withdrawals and Zac only had one class today! : ) It is pretty cute how much he loves him. When we took my niece to Florida College the other day, I showed the kids the mail room and told them how much mail from home meant to me and I got A LOT of it. (thanks Dad!) -So it was cute last night when Andrew said he wanted to write letters to Zac and send them to his mailbox at his school. SO SWEET! We had to explain that his school doesn't have a mail room!

That is the first day of school from here! So far so good...

~Becky

My niece is here!

My niece from CA came to visit! She'd never flown before -EVER and she came out all by herself! Such a brave, sweet girl.

We are having lots of fun.

We picked her up around midnight last week and then she and Joy chatted until 4:30 AM, so needless to say, there was some sleeping-in that happened on her first day here! Once she was up, we headed to Florida College, where my hubby and I went, and where she hopes to go in a few years. I gave her my version of a tour around the campus and had fun going on my own 22 year old trip down memory lane!

We took her to our favorite beach the next day, on the Gulf of Mexico. There were huge waves which made it so much fun and which is odd for the Gulf. My noodle actually got ripped into 3 pieces from the force of the waves. Totally felt like we were on the Atlantic side! Certain people who will remain nameless always forget how fair they

are and don't put on sunscreen and always come home red

and sore. Why is that? : )

Because this is Florida, the next day included another beach trip! My BFF took my gang (minus Zac who had a second job interview at Starbucks) and her kids to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic coast. They had a blast and visited some relatives of the BFF's while there and then headed back to our coast. Then sleepovers abounded. Boys at our house and girls at her house.

Saturday the boys were all burned (and whiny? Why? Because we forget that God made our family fair and we don't remember to wear our sunscreen!) so my hubby had them get on their instruments and make a music video! He has such great ideas. This kept them busy almost the whole day and it is SOOOO cute. I hope to post a link to it soon. (I know my parents will get a kick out of it) Meanwhile the girls were sleeping in half the day and then watching chick flicks together at the BFF's house. We all got together later here for dinner and this dessert, which is SOOO yummy on a hot summer day! But then the kids talked us into ice cream sundaes too.

Church was the next day and we spent a mellow day at home.

We went to the park in search of alligators on Monday. The lake was filled with blooming lily pads and looked beautiful, but they hid the alligators from view, so no such luck showing the niece alligators in the wild. oh well! Sonic's happy hour made up for it! Joy learned how to make some duct tape wallets. That night the family band added their cousin and they played/sang the Coldplay song 'Yellow' together, which dad said earned them ice cream at BO'S. (a hole in the wall that has the best ice cream place in our city!)

I had my favorite peanut butter and chocolate shake, which is to die for! Then the girlys and I watched Beastly! : )

Tuesday, I had a college-bound guy to do a bunch of errands with, so they were on their own and they made these cute dessert hamburgers which we affectionately call crabby patties now:

And Joy taught her cousin how to knit hats and she taught her and I how to crochet while all the boys were off to their friends' houses for before-school-starts-sleepovers.

Yesterday we did the mall.... Me and 5 teens! Never boring! : )

Then it was off to church and a late night pool party.

I got them all home around midnight and then I got so sick! It was either the stomach flu or the fact that although I fed the kids dinner, I only ended up eating french fries and Twizzlers for my dinner at 11:00 pm. Not sure how that happened. Oh was I ever sick, all night long and all day today. I can't say I minded being in my bed all day and resting. My sweet hubby had to take off work to take our niece to the airport. The kids all went and gave her a big send off. She cried and didn't want to leave so I guess she had a great time too. : )

Good-bye Summer! It was fun but I can't wait for school to start! It will be great to be on a schedule again. One that includes less running around and all of us sleeping before 11 pm instead of eating. lol

~Becky

Baseball and a concert

Joy and Andrew read books for 24 hours, no, not in a row, ; )

and earned free tickets to a Rays game which we went to last Friday night. Guess who was doing a concert after the game? Here's a clue

-A certain 80's chick band and the song 'Vacation.'

When my BFF heard about the concert, she said "I'm in" and bought tickets for her and her kids too!!! Hubby had to miss the fun due to his back. He still can't sit form more than 20 min. Actually, hubby was not sad at all about missing the concert -just the baseball!

The game was rather dull but the ladies in the band LOOKED amazing,

like they were in their 30's! But they have to be about 55 at least!

I'm grateful to the camera man who kept focusing in on one of their members hands which looked about 60 years old if they were a day. So... I encouraged myself, that my face and hands are at least going to look like they are from the same generation someday and not 30 years apart. ; )

Thanks Joy and Roo for giving us all a fun night!

~Becky

Zac got a job here!!!

After two interviews! Hooray!

Congrats Zac!

Edited to update: His Fine Arts human video team came in 10th place in the nation!

whoo-hoo! This has been one exciting week for him!

~Becky

Fine Arts Nationals

Zac is in Phoenix, AZ for the National Fine Arts competition where an estimated 7500 teens from all over the nation have come to compete in various categories. His human video team competed on Tuesday and earned the highest rating -'superior.' There were 42 other teams that earned a superior also. Out of those 42 teams, his team stood out to the judges and earned a 'call back' to perform it again this afternoon!!! So at the moment they are in the top 24 teams in the nation! Hooray!!!!

As for the rest of the trip, they've had a great time spending 5 hours at the Scottsdale mall while they were waiting for the rest of the group to fly in.

Sounds like they've had a lot of burgers this week! They ate at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries (Zac's new favorite restaurant) and In-N-Out Burgers and Burger King... which obviously lost any charm it ever had after the first two burger places. LOL

They also went hiking, at night. -Sounds like a good idea when it is 111 degrees during the day.

I'm so excited for him because this is his last year and God totally gave him the miraculous financial provision to go and it is just awesome to know that they are doing so well in the competition. It is a beautiful, God glorifying human video. PTL!

~Becky