Going to the Beach

 A few weeks ago we went to this cool Oceanographic center near us.  I for got to get some cool pictures from inside.  But it is neat.  They had neat things to look at and a cool guide to tell us about what we were looking at.  They even had a neat touch tank, and he even told us some fun things about the creatures we were touching.  Like, the conch can make pearls, just like an oyster.  They are pinkish in color, and you can plant them into the conch, let it grow, and take it out with out harming the creature.  Neato.  The best part is, Its free to go there and check out their cool stuff.  They do like donations.

Below is from today.  We went to the pond down the road and tried our hands at fishing.  Yesterday we bought some kiddie fishing poles, and today we got to try them out.  I only put a hook on Maren's, because I knew there would be a disaster otherwise.   The poles came with cute floaters, which were fun for the kids to cast out.  Brenna's was a fish, and it was fun to joke around that she caught a cute little pink fish.  

Maren, Brenna, Corby, and Conner (behind the tree) fishing at the pond.

Cute Conner showing off his fishing skills.

Here's fisherman Corby and Fishergirl Maren. 

Brenna fishing, oh so cute.

       Hi, this is Maren. My mom had stuff to do at the moment. This is after throwing and throwing reeling and reeling until I finally caught a fish (it's green by the way) and my mom said I wouldn't catch one (I have to admit did not think I would catch one either)

THIS IS MY FIRST CATCH (I also wrote the beach one to)

A lovely day at the beach

  

 swimming

Snorkeling and

 playing

 swimming

 even more swimming

 playing in the sand

1.  and a cute little Brenna

I'm back.  Maren is such a great helper.  I know the pictures are kind of smudged.  I was so surprised, and pleased when she caught that fish.  I couldn't believe it.  We didn't even really have any bait, just some plastic worm thing that came with the fishing rod.  And we had so much fun at Bathtub beach.  Corby was showing off his great swimming skills, and the kids had lots of fun with their snorkels and masks.  They are still working on swimming with fins on.  I think we'll go somewhere a little more calm tomorrow to test them out some more.  Yesterday we went to a beach in Vero, called Jayce Park.  It had nice white sand, like at Crescent Beach, although not as fine.  The waves were also a bit stronger then I like.  It almost claimed Brenna a few times.  I would turn my head for a second, and she would dash into the water and get bowled over, then the wave would try and pull her in.  Luckily I only looked away for a second so I could dash in to save her before any real harm could happen.  I think I'll go back there when she is either a bit older, or when I have another grown up with me.  Well, we are only partway through our Spring Break adventures.  Keep an eye out for more fun and exciting updates.  :)

Free Books!!!!

My Friend, Jenny (Used to be Bala), posted a link to a website where you can read some great children's books for free.  All the new and popular ones.  When you read a book, you can then have them donate a book to a charity of your choice or even to your kid's school.  The web address is http://www.wegivebooks.org . If you don't have a school that your kid is going to, or you want a school to donate to, please consider having them send the donated books to Chester A. Moore Elementry School, in Fort Pierce.  Thank you so much.  Enjoy your readings, I know we have.  :)

Twila's Memorial

In Memory of our Beloved Twila

This afternoon I was resting on the couch, after the kids got home from school.  Maren came in and in a worried voice said, "Mom, I think there is something wrong with Twila." Nothing ever good comes out of a statement like that.  So I quickly went to her room to check on our sweet little pet. Sure enough, she was lying still on her side at the bottom of her cage.  I don't know what happened. She had plenty of water, and plenty of food, and her cage was decent. 

We had a little funeral for her where we sang, "God Be With You Til We Meet Again."  I also read the scripture from Thessalonians3:16. "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means.   The Lord be with you all."

Our sweet little Twila.  How we will miss you. 

Twila's homemade casket. Made with love.

The grave sight.

Everyone had a chance to tell her good bye and decorated her grave with pretty flowers from around the house.

Twila will be missed, but we know that life will go on, and that one day we will see our little Hamster friend again.  One of the blessings of having little pets, is it helps demonstrate the cycle of life, in a shorter timespan.  Thank you Twila for your wonderful lesson, and for being a wonderful little Hamster.

Power Outage

Last night at about 8:30pm, the kids and I were watching a show together, and I heard a small boom outside, and the power went out through out the whole house.  The first thing I did was to get a flashlight and make sure that all of the doors were locked.  Sean was working at the plant, so it was just me and the kids.  I looked outside, through the window, to see if the other houses were out as well.  No, it was just our house.  Everyone else had power.
The next thing to pop into my mind was a certain email that someone had sent me a while ago about killers, kidnappers, and rapists that would cut your power out to lure single women outside of their houses.  Needless to say, I was nervous.  I called Sean at work, to let him know what happened.  He suggested going to my fuse box and checking to see if a wire had just tripped.  No such luck.  Everything was still pitch black.
There wasn't much he could do from work, so we hung up, and I called a friend to get the number to FPL (Florida Power and Light) to report the outage and hopefully get useful information.  They said the earliest they could get someone out to our place was around midnight.  I politely thanked them, and asked them what to look for when they came, so as not to let in someone with bad intentions.  Luckily they said that they would not need to come into the house, so not to worry about that.
I was still nervous that there could be some mean prowler outside, and of course the kids were nervous as well.  So I called 911 and calmly asked if it were possible to send someone over to check and make sure the area was safe.  I always say it is better to be safe then sorry.  Besides, I didn't have any of my neighbor's phone numbers handy, otherwise I would have asked one of them to peek out their window to see if they could spot what was the matter.
This whole time I was trying to get the kids to bed as calmly as I could, but there was way too much excitement for them to go down too easily, and the slightest sound or movement would have them coming back out to me.  Luckily, at about 9-ish, the policemen came knocking at the door.  I told them my worries, and they looked all over, and tried to even look and see what would have caused the outage to my house.  They saw nothing, to my relief, and before they left, along came the FPL workers to check out the lines.  Thank goodness.
It was about 9:30ish when the lights finally came back on.  FPL kept calling with updates on the power outage.  Apparently I was one of five people who was affected by the blackout, the others I could not see within my house, and seemingly some small animal had caused it all.  What a relief.  I much rather it be some small animal that had caused it, then some strange person wanting to cause me and my kids any harm.
My sweet husband, during this escapade, was able to get out of work to come home and help me, but since he has to drive such a long distance, by the time he got home everything was already in order. He stayed home long enough to hear the great story, get a bite to eat, then return to work.
The kids also, finally were able to get to sleep soon after it all.  I just have to express my gratitude to the fact that the police acted so quickly, the FPL employees came so promptly, that my friend was so willing to help, and my sweet husband was so willing to respond to my little fright, and somewhat emergency.  We do live in such a great country to have such wonderful blessings as this.

Fluffy

I gave Baby a bath tonight.  Can you tell the difference?  They say that her breed name, Bichon Frise, means white fluff ball, can you tell why? 

Before the Bath, Yesterday. Not so fluffy,
and not sowhite.

After the bath, Today.  She is fluffier and
much whiter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here is our st. Patrick's  day.

cute little kids waiting for leprechauns and not to mention GOLD!  

 Brenna with a fancy smile with a green top good thing too on the top of a pink sweatshirt.

 Corby captured our leprechaun 

 This is what Conner will do when he maybe will find Gold 

 Just to mention I wrote all this my mom asked me to.But I couldn't resist!

Trust me it was very very hard to catch the leprechaun and found it was a dog and she ran out of money.:(

WELL I HOPE YOU WORE GREEN SO YOU WERE NOT  

PINCHED!

HAPPY ST.PATRICK'S DAY!

patriotic dog

PATRIOTIC DOG

Since Baby is still a puppy, I still find her trying to chew on random items she finds lying around.  When I spotted her with the flag, I just had to get a picture.  It was a moment just too cute to pass up.  The best thing about having a small dog for a puppy.....when they chew on your stuff, you hardly notice. Her jaw isn't strong enough to chew  through things she finds.  I am also happy to say  that she is finally potty trained.  I guess she is finally old enough to hold it in longer.  She really has been a little blessing in our family.  I couldn't have asked for a better addition to our family.  

Oh Say Can You See!!!

A little happy American Dog!!! :)