MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Western Caribbean Cruise

For Thanksgiving week this year, we decided to take an 8 day Western Caribbean cruise. We took the Carnival Freedom out of Fort Lauderdale on a Saturday and returned home the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The first full day on ship we went to watch the "Marriage Game", also known as the "Newlywed Not So Newlywed Game." We've watched this show every time we've been on the boat, but this time we were picked to play! One couple had been married a day, the other had been married 61 years - so we were the couple in the middle. We were chosen because we acted like fools in the audience in order to get picked! It was fun - Tim got all the answers wrong and people on the ship now know more about us than anyone needs or wants to know! We had fun though and spent the week being recognized by all the people on the ship.... usually they would have a remark to make about one of our answers!

We had a great time and enjoyed relaxing and catching up on our rest. Since we had 5 days at sea, we had plenty of time to rest. The itinerary took us to Cozumel, Costa Rica & Panama. We had never been to Costa Rica and Panama, so we were looking forward to seeing new sights.

The excursions booked through the cruise line are so expensive we decided we couldn't really do much if we booked through them. So we decided to do like we've done before and hire someone off the boat. This usually costs us the same for all 3 of us that it would cost for just one of us otherwise.

When we got to Cozumel we hired a cab to take us on a city tour and to the Mayan ruins. After about 20 minutes we realized the cab driver the tour company hooked us up with spoke no English and we speak no Spanish. Not only that, but she was on the phone talking & texting and all over the road. Needless to say, I had to ask her to take us back to the port. We were going to try another driver but then decided we'd had enough and since we'd seen those sights before we headed back to the boat.

Our next stop was Costa Rica. Once again we hired a cab driver. (making sure he spoke English!) We had been warned about violence and people getting robbed so I was a little concerned, especially when I saw the armed guards everywhere. But I decided to let it go and enjoy. First he took us to a little boat that we got in with a guy who took us on about an hour tour through the rain forest. We passed a few other boats and even saw some of the people from our ship on a much bigger boat (about 40 people) and I was glad we had a private boat. At the end of our boat ride, the cab driver picked us up and took us to a banana plantation to see showing us other sites along the way. We stopped at a fruit stand and sampled some of their local fruit and it was delicious! We bought a few little bitty bananas to eat and they were by far the best bananas I have ever tasted. We had a good time and didn't spend alot of money.

Our next stop was Panama. We hired a cab driver at the port, again making sure he spoke good English and we were off on our way. Of course we wanted to see the Panama Canal since we were there and just wanted to tour the city and learn about the people and the culture. We hit the jackpot with the driver we hired. He gave us the best tour yet - telling us about the people, the culture and everything in between. He was very experienced and gave us more information than we would have ever expected. We enjoyed him and learned alot from him. When we went to the canal to watch a ship come through, we noticed other people were listening to our tour guide and asking him questions. They had paid the big dollars but didn't have anyone other than the lady on the loud speaker explaining anything to them. Once again, I was glad we had hired a private driver. The countryside was green and beautiful, but Panama City was very dirty and poor and I was a little scared driving slowly through that area....especially when the driver told us to lock our doors. There is an area there where you can buy goods really cheap, but I didn't want anything bad enough to get out of the car there! Again, we had another great day of sight seeing without spending a bunch of money.

We had some really nice dinner table-mates. 2 couples each with 1 child, so there were 9 of us all together. Jonathan, Ruth and Lior were one of the families we met and we ended up meeting them for Nintendo DS Mario Kart racing as well as going to a couple of the shows with them.

Julian had a good time at Camp Carnival and met a couple of boys that he hung out with. He got more free rein than he ever has before and got to run around the ship with his friends and stay up late. He took part in the Kids Talent show and ended up singing Michael Jackson's Beat It for the crowd. He did a great job! Funship Freddy and one of his friends danced while he sang. It was fun to watch him perform!

We had a good time... enjoyed the food, enjoyed the shows and enjoyed the ports. Mostly, it was just nice to have a good time together as a family away from the computers, TV's and other distractions. I missed being with the rest of the family on Thanksgiving and I especially missed our regular Thanksgiving dinnner! Of course, it was also great to get home! Thanks to KD and Bobby for taking care of our animals while we were gone. Balto and Kobe always love going to visit Aunt KD at the farm!

To view the rest of our photos, click here.

Spring Break - Karate Tournament, Camping & a Safari

We made a trip down to Boca Raton, Florida - about a 4-1/2 hour drive from our house - so JT could compete in a tournament there. He was pretty excited because he saw a couple of his old instructors there that he hadn't seen in awhile. He did really well! He brought home a 1st place for Forms, 1st place for Weapons and 3rd place for Sparring.

We pulled our camper down for the weekend to make a mini vacation out of the trip. We ended up staying at a KOA at Lion Country Safari just outside of West Palm Beach, FL. We had never heard of Lion Country Safari, but a few friends told me they had enjoyed it. It was a place to visit! The safari itself was great and lasted about 1 hour driving through at about an 8 mph pace. Of course we could stop whenever we wanted to. They had a CD you play while you're driving through that narrates the area and the animals and does a great job. They are rated the #3 zoo in the country. Other than the safari they also have a walk through zoo which was nice. Not as nice as the Jacksonville Zoo though. But, we don't have a safari. I would definitely recommend it to others to visit when they are down in Southeast Florida.

Spring Break - JT Rock Climbing

JT Earns His Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts

This was a big weekend for JT! Not only did he get his black belt, but he also earned his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts.

The Arrow Of Light is the highest rank in Cub Scouting, and is the only badge of Cub Scouting rank that may be worn on the Boy Scout uniform.

To earn the Arrow of Light badge, a Cub Scout must earn the Webelos badge plus five additional Activity Badges from selected groups. The Webelos Scout must additionally satisfy five other requirements designed to prepare the boy for Boy Scouting. Webelos Scouts who aspire to this achievement have worked very hard to get here.

So, once again, we are very proud of JT!

JT Gets His Blackbelt!

JT has worked very hard for the past 1-1/2 years to earn his Black Belt in TaeKwonDo. He has shown a great passion for it since the beginning so we have tried to support him as much as we can. He is in class 3-4 times a week and thoroughly enjoys it. Sometimes I think Tim and I know as much about karate as he does since we sit in every single class watching him... Perhaps they should consider awarding honorary black belts to parents.

Mom and KD came to watch him perform with the Demo team and he was also asked along with just a few others to perform his form, weapon form and board breaking for the crowd. As always, he made us all very proud. As soon as I get it edited, I'll add the video of the demo team as well as some other great performances from other students and teachers.

Miami Taekwondo Tournament

Tim and JT drove down to Miami on Friday for a karate tournament. I wasn't able to go because I had a baby shower I was helping put together for a friend. JT did great and ended up in a tie breaker for Forms and won! So, he came in 1st for Forms, 1st in Weapons and 2nd in Sparring! He received a trophy for each so he now has 3 trophies from this tournament and 3 medals from the last.

We Bought a New Car

We've been talking about trading in my Avalanche for some time and downsizing to something smaller that gets better gas mileage. With the gas prices at $4 a gallon, there was no way were going to get a decent trade in, so we waited.

We found ourselves with nothing planned for Friday and decided to go "look" at some cars. We both liked the Chevy HHR right away, but also looked at several other makes and models. We ended up liking the HHR the best and went home and did some Internet research. After just a little searching we found a really nice 2008 Nimnicht Chevrolet. I've purchased there several times and have always been happy. After test driving it on Friday and thinking about it and working out the numbers, we went back on Saturday and made a pretty decent trade we were very happy with!

It's going to take some getting used to moving from a big truck to a smaller car, but with lower payments and better gas mileage (plus I love the way it drives) I think I'm going to love it!

It just happened to be white! This makes my 5th white vehicle.
My dad (who also loved white cars) would be proud!

Christmas #2

My sister Shelly and her son Bo came down from Tennessee the day after Christmas. The rest of the kids are all grown up now and had other responsibilities and weren't able to come. It's that time in their lives where we will see less and less of them. It makes me kind of sad, really. Bo has grown up quite a bit since the last time we saw him and he seems to be doing well.

Since they came in after Christmas, we waited to have our Christmas dinner and present opening with the family until Saturday, the 27th at Mom's house. Here's a photo of Mom. She's doing well since she had a pacemaker put in the first part of December.

Since all 3 sisters don't get together very often, we tried to make sure we got a few photos of us all together. I think the older we get, the more we appreciate and enjoy each other's company.

Here's a shot of all of us together at Mom's house.

Happy New Year!

We went to Zambito Oaks Farm (my sister KD's house) for New Year's Eve and the boys set off some fireworks. We just hung out and enjoyed each other's company, eating, talking and watching TV. JT and I left in time to get home by midnight, before the crazy traffic and in time to see the New Year in with Tim since he had gone home earlier.

We went back to KD's again on New Year's Day and hung out for a while before going to Mom's for dinner. We got to see the newest chickens and how big they've grown since they hatched and surprised my sister last month. Momma chicken doesn't like us to get too close, so I steer clear. The boys, JT & Bo, wanted to ride the horses. KD taught them both to ride from as early as they can probably both remember and they both seem to be naturals at it. Maybe it's in their Roman blood?

We then ended up going to Mom's house to eat the traditional black eyed peas for good luck. Mom made us a nice meal and it gave us some more time to sit and visit with each other. We ended up going through some old photos and reminiscing about our childhoods.

Check out the photo we found and posed ourselves now, compared to how we looked 42 years ago! Fun!

Here's wishing all of you a safe, happy, prosperous New Year richly blessed by God!