Staying "afloat" ;)

Lots going on since we got home from our trip. Back into the swing of work which has meant working some night shifts for me. :/ I have struggled to get enough hours when our census drops since I am PRN, so I have had to work some night shifts lately in order to get hours.

We also have lots of activities and events for the youth and children. We took some youth and kids from our church to Magic Springs (Amusement Park) here in Hot Springs for the youth day called Uprising this past Saturday. More on that later. We also have a clean up day this Saturday at our church before our Back to School Bash the following Saturday, followed by a cake auction to raise money for the youth ministry. We are trying to outreach and are back in a new semester of Wed. night activities. I am teaching the kids and Adam is teaching the youth. We are working on other community volunteering/ outreach.. which will hopefully include tutoring at the Boy's and Girl's Club and mentoring at the local schools.

In the midst of all of that, GRACE STARTED 3 YEAR OLD PRESCHOOL last week!! :) She couldn't be happier! She loves it and we love it too. It is at St. Luke's (Episcopal) Day School. More on that later too! :)

Adam's parents also got here yesterday and will be able to stay with us a full week! :) We are enjoying the time with them too.

We are grateful for each and every one of these opportunities!!! :)

Panama City Beach 2011

As you all probably know, we went to PCB, FL week before last. It was about a 14 hour drive from here so we left on Monday and stayed in a Hotel for a night in Pensacola, FL to break up the trip a bit. We had planned on staying 5 nights at the beach but come Sunday when it was time for us to go.. we decided to stay another night at the beach and then drive the entire way home on Monday, instead of stopping in at another hotel :)

Thursday, Aug. 11th was our 10TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!! So this trip was planned to celebrate that and also a much needed family vacation. Grace went to the beach when she was 4 months old but hasn't been since so this was really a new experience for her. She LOVED it! Loved the beach, the sand, the pool, the ocean, etc. etc. She kept called the condo "our house in Florida". Adam and I decided that had a really nice ring... ha! :) She talks about going back to 'our house in Florida'.

There was a rain shower almost every day that we were there. Thankfully they didn't last too long at any time. It was cloudy some.. but Adam would say that's perfect and besides I got sunburned on the second day there! It was still a WONDERFUL trip. My boss at work loaned us her tent/ gazebo for the beach for those sunny times and it was great for Adam and Grace.

Our anniversary we went to Gulf World Marine Park and later that evening to Captain Anderson's Restaurant. It was all perfect!! We spent lots of nights at the new Pier Park that has shopping, many activities, rides for the kids, eateries, etc. We love that place too. We made just about a nightly routine to 'splurge' with ice cream/ yogurt in Pier Park. After all... it WAS vacation! We also went to Funland Arcade the first day we arrived while waiting on our room to be cleaned. This was so great because this is the SAME place I used to go with my family as a kid when we vacationed at PCB while we were waiting to get in our room. It was awesome to get to now make memories of doing the same thing with our kid. She loved it too! We all did!!

Another great memory... Goofy Golf. My family and I used to go there and play miniature golf also. There are pictures of that... now pictures with our little family!!:) Now Grace playing miniature golf, that was another funny story. She couldn't quiet get the whole hitting the ball in the hole so we told her to just throw it.. you can imagine how that went... ha ha ha!! She ended up just placing her balls in the holes and of course she did GREAT in our eyes! :)

On Saturday night, we went on our free dolphin cruise (courtesy of Bookit.com) and had so much fun. Grace got in on the dance and hula hoop contest. What she didn't realize is that I held the hula hoop and twirled it round and round her dancing hips to make her feel like she was DOING IT!! She couldn't do it herself :)

Overall, we are very thankful for our time and Grace did fabulous with the very LONG drive to and from FL. I took 250+ pictures so I couldn't narrow it down that much so it's a slideshow of all the favorites. You can arrow to the next to go faster... :)

Time with Friends

While I was away and even when I was at home this week, Grace has had some time with some great friends. Our neighbor, Ms. Debi, has grandchildren that come stay with her for a week every month or so. Well, this week she has had them. They are Windsor (3) and Max (5). They love to play together so we let them get in the pool together on Monday before I left. Then on Thursday, Adam had invited a great friend from church and youth volunteer (Paul) over and his kids so they could play with Grace. Adam let them get in the pool too. Adam said they had a blast!

Ms. Debi asked if Grace could play again today at their house and I agreed. I was planning on picking up Laci (a youth girl) and getting her out of the house for a while anyways today. I took Ms. Debi up on her offer and let her go play for a few hours and while Adam did homework I got Laci and us girls went to Benton to the nearest TARGET!!! :) I thought it would be something different and then we went and ate Burger King after that before I took her home. It was a great time and much needed. I am trying to encourage Laci in her walk with the Lord and to be there for her while she is struggling right now..

Thankful for our time!!!

Abby and Isaac with Grace

Windsor and Max in these first two:

Camp Hot Springs 2011

I was blessed to be a part of Camp Hot Springs at Spring Lake this year. It is funny how it all worked out. All along Adam had planned on being a counselor for some boys at this kids camp and he was going to be gone all week for this. Then, at the very last minute they decided they needed a camp nurse and didn't have one. They were asking me to do it but at first I said I couldn't since we have Grace and Adam would be gone too. Then they decided they needed a camp nurse worse than a counselor because they had enough, so I took Adam's place and was off to camp. By the time it was all sorted out, I didn't arrive to camp until Tuesday morning around 6:45am. Another girl was going to share the responsibility and time there and that fell through.. so I came on Tuesday and stayed the rest of the week until yesterday at lunch when it was over. Adam just came back and forth to be there if needed and to just be a part. He came some on Tues, Wed, and Friday.

So I found out they had lots of children who got medicine and mainly needed a nurse to dispense all of these meds. Well, I was a bit surprised when I saw this...



And this was just the morning meds I dispensed. There were just as much at night and throughout the day I often gave, Tums, tylenol/ ibuprofen, creams, etc. As the week went on it got busier at my little nurse's station. More and more complaints of aches, pains, bug bites, rashes, hurt foot, etc. etc. Nothing major though... thankfully!

I was thankful that the camp was only 30 minutes away so that Adam and Grace could come at times too. Grace and Adam even got to swim in the pool, and got to cane pole fish on the last day and enjoy snow cones and a few meals there and services.

I ended up loving those children and especially the little girls. I got to know one particular group of girls and spent most of my time following them to all the activities. The camp was for ages 4th-6th grade. Of course, it was VERY hot with record heat indexes. On Wednesday our heat index was 120 degrees but thankfully they had tons of water activities for all of us to enjoy. They have a big pool, water-slides, they have paddle boats, and also had a fire-truck come one night and spray all the kids with water. :) They also have a zip-line and can you believe... I did it!! I did all of the above (except getting sprayed with the fire hose). Oh my goodness, I chose the one where I had to step out of a tower and I was TERRIFIED when I got to the top to do this.. but I did and it was SOO much fun! The worst part was just stepping off!:)

In all, these kids had a blast and there was awesome praise music, services,great speakers, etc. for the kids and many of them prayed to receive Christ!! Christ was definitely glorified and His name was made known to those 50+ kids!! We're excited for the follow-up with these kids and their families!!

Few churches were involved in putting this together and it went great!

Another crazy thing is how amazing the Lord works every thing out. I volunteered for this camp with no intentions on getting anything back from it besides being a blessing to the kids. I just was willing to help. This was a FREE camp for kids in the Hot Springs School District so I sure didn't expect to be paid for my time there as a nurse. Well, the Lord ended up blessing me anyways through this camp. It was a surprise to get a check and I was very grateful because I was trying to figure out how I was going to fit work in after being gone all week from Grace and Daddy (at home), and have church and then we leave for our 10th Wedding Anniversary trip to Panama City Beach on MONDAY!!!! (YAY!!!). Well, it worked out that I got a bit of a paycheck so I was very thankful!!

The girls were so cute to watch.. they often danced in their spare time.


Believe it or not, the crazy lady in the front with the dark brown curly hair is a ZUMBA instructor. She also runs 30+ miles a day. She has lost lots of weight.. anyways... she is CRAZY, and boy can she dance!! :) She was teaching all of the girls zumba routines and they LOVED it! :)








Me on the zip line!!










Christian Magician :)


Too bad I didn't get a pic of the pool or water slides...

Where's "Grace"!

Grace's imagination is running at full force these days! With this, she LOVES to pretend that she is all kinds of Disney characters. It first started with Snow White, then...Cinderella, Ariel (The Little Mermaid), RAPUNZEL, and now Jessie on Toy Story.

The Rapunzel went on and on for days which included her being Rapunzel, and she wanted me to pretend to be Mother Gothel, and Daddy to be Flynn Ryder... ha ha ha! We went through this story over and over again. She just LOVED playing this. Her latest love is Toy Story. She especially likes Toy Story 2 (haven't seen 3), with the cowgirl named Jessie :) I'm Andy's Momma and Adam is Woody. LOL

I even braid her hair a little like Jessie's and she does a bandana (which is a headband), boots, cuffs on her wrists (washcloths), a hat (cap that is suppose to be a cowboy hat), etc.

A few pics of her being partially 'decked' out. All of this has spurn a new love for boots and she has wanted to wear them nonstop since this. Hence.. the reason for boots on Sunday :) We did find her a little Jessie doll and it came with Buzz Lightyear, at Walmart. She HAD to get a picture of it.

I cherish these days! There's nothing like the excitement she gets for us to play along with her.

Partying with Friends..

Last Saturday, Grace was invited to a Birthday party for Isaac, who is the brother of one of Grace's VERY favorite girl friends here, Abby. Abby is 4 and her brother was turning 7 yrs old. They had a party at the bowling alley and of course, Grace had a blast. The highlight for her... learning how to play air hockey with a friend Abby and playing it continuously!! They were so cute playing too.. :)

Fun and Family

Mom and my step-Dad (Gary) came for a visit week before last from that Saturday thru this past Thursday. We had so much fun. We did things around Hot Springs that we haven't done yet. The first night we went to the infamous McClard's BBQ restaurant which was good. The next day we spent most of the day at home, except for a brief shopping trip with Mom, cooking. Mom and Gary had brought some fresh green beans, tomatoes, corn, Okra, even a green tomato, cucumbers, and so peaches from AL. We ate most of the veggies that night with a porn loin and then Mom made her AMAZING peach cobbler and we made a freezer of vanilla ice cream. Everything was great with the exception of me messing up part of the ice cream by putting it in the ice cream freezer and letting it run without the turner in it... oops!! :) That night though, we all loaded up and went down town and walked around. This was so neat and fun! It is just a neat environment down bathhouse row and with all the shops and restaurants.

The next day we went to Lake Ouachita except Adam had to stay home and do homework. Grace got a new Puddle Jumper floaty and LOVED the water. She didn't want to get out! I am amazed at how she is getting so brave this year and even learned how to kick her legs, etc. and swim to us! Such a change from previous years! That night Mom and Gary graciously watched Grace while Adam and I had a date night. It was so nice... we went to Fisherman's Wharf that is right on Lake Hamilton and you can see in the first two pics.. our view :)

We did more shopping on Wednesday and Adam and Grace went to church that afternoon for a little bit but I had to work that evening for 4 hours. They left Thurs. am. The departures are always hard but we were so thankful for the time!