Happy Birthday America!

It was a pretty quiet day around here this Fourth of July. We were invited to a friend's house from church for a cookout. Besides us, there were quite a few other couples from church & Emmaus, including KD & Bobby. JT had a couple of teenagers to play with in the pool, so he had a good time. It was nice spending time with people from church and getting to know them better.

When we got home Tim and I just wanted to relax and watch TV. JT really wanted to go to the fireworks downtown so at the last minute we decided to head out. We left the house 20 minutes before the show was supposed to start. I didn't think JT was going to be able to stay awake long enough to get there.

Fortunately, we were able to park at Fidelity where Tim works. By the time we got there, carried our chairs out on the lawn and sat down, it was 9:45 pm and the fireworks started. Less than 15 minutes later they were over and we packed up and left. Since I'm used to going way early to find a place to park and a place to sit, being there just 15 minutes felt like it just wasn't worth the trip. I should have just been thankful to have a place to park and not have to hang out too long. JT barely sat down in the truck and fell asleep immediately.

I was glad we went though. I have memories of fireworks from when I was a kid and I don't want JT not to get to experience them enough to have good memories.

JT's 10th Birthday

JT was given the choice to go to any restaurant he wanted to celebrate his 10th birthday. I expected him to choose Sakura's Japanese Steakhouse or Red Lobster since those are his 2 favorites. To my surprise he said, "I want to have breakfast at Aunt KD's house on my birthday, it's a tradition Mom!" Of course, I was thrilled because I could easily afford feeding everyone that way, plus, Aunt KD and Uncle Bobby would be the one's cooking and cleaning up!

So, per his request, we had eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese grits and waffles for his birthday "breakfast" dinner. It was the 3 of us, plus his Aunt KD, Uncle Bobby, Nana & Jenny.

I bought an ice cream cake at the grocery store. I was gone all day to a meeting and Nana had said she was going to bake a cake... but I guess she forgot, so I bought one instead. The icing was all messed up, but it still tasted good and he enjoyed it... which is all that mattered to me.

One of the presents he received for his birthday was the karate uniform he has on in the photo below. He's been wanting it for a long time, but since it wasn't cheap, we wanted to make sure he got to a point in his Karate that he would make use of it. It's called the XMA uniform.... which stands for eXtreme Martial Arts. He wants to start performing with the "Demo Team" and in order to do so, he needed to have this special uniform. He made all A's & B's on his report card, so part of his reward was earning half of the uniform... then we just surprised him and paid for the other half. We couldn't have bought him anything that would have made him any happier. He also got a new XMA bo staff that he's been wanting. All in all he had a great birthday. Money from his MiMi and Papa, and from his Great Grams, and his Great Aunt Bette (all in Michigan). He got a Walart gift card from his Aunt KD, Nintendo DS & shorts outfit from Nana, Dangerous Book for Boys from Jenny and a few Nintendo DS games from us.
Following is a video taken during class the day before his birthday where he got their traditional birthday spanking from the rest of the class.

The night before his birthday there was a huge Black Belt testing in the Jacksonville Veteran's Memorial Arena downtown that he wanted to go to. There were hundreds of black belts testing so we went down to see what goes on and to support the black belts from our academy. JT had a choice of wearing his white karate uniform or dressing nicely. He chose to dress in slacks, shirt and tie and was looking rather dapper! He carried his purple belt around with him and got it signed by Chief Master William Clark (8th degree black belt ... pictured below) and about 14 other people.

Here's a photo of JT and a proud looking Daddy! (In case you can't tell, JT fixed his hair himself... and used about a half tube of gel I think!)

As usual, no photos of me. Since I'm the one who takes the photos, I rarely get my photo taken.... but I was there. I have to work on doing better at getting Tim to take photos of me. I don't want JT to look back at photos one day and see that Dad was always there but Mom wasn't!

See More Photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/rtungett

JT's Cub Scout Advancement & My Birthday

Today JT advanced from a Webelo I to a Webelo II in Cub Scouts. It's hard to believe he only has one more year to go and he'll move up to Boy Scouts! My little boy is growing up!

They had their advancement ceremony in the outdoor Chapel in the woods behind the church because the fellowship hall was being used. The weather cooperated and it was fairly nice while we were out there. We celebrated with Pizza after the advancement ceremonies and a couple came out and brought a bunch of snakes, iguanas, a skunk and some other critters to show them. JT seemed to enjoy holding the tail end of this big snake.

Today was also my birthday and I had a really nice day. I had breakfast with my friend Traci, lunch with my friend Geri, several gifts from other friends, and I was sang to at least 15 times today. It made for a very special day for me!

Geri had me over for lunch and surprised me with this little cake complete with a cleverly crafted fake candle (since she didn't have any)! This other photo was from when KD and I celebrated our birthday's together at Sakuras Japanese Steak House with our husbands and Mom on Sunday night.

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Thanks to everyone who made my birthday special!!

Mom's 75th Birthday

We enjoyed dinner out to celebrate Mom's birthday at the Japanese Steak House. It was a nice evening out. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, it was one I had never been to before, but it was pretty good.

J.T.'s 9th Birthday!

On Thursday, June 14th, we celebrated J.T.'s 9th birthday with the family at his favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. Mom, KD, Jenny & Joel joined us for dinner. Since it was his birthday we let him order off the "adult" menu. Of course, since he ate Lobster on the cruise, that is what he wanted to get. But being the mean parents we are, we told him no. So he ordered crab legs instead.

He is growing up too quickly! This birthday also marked his 6th year with us.... unbelievable in some ways, but in other ways, it feels like he's always been with us.

He celebrated his birthday with his friends the day before at the movie theatre. He and a few of his friends went to see Spiderman 3.

Happy Birthday little buddy! We love you BIG time!