Vacation Part 2

While we were down in Williston, we went swimming at a couple of the many natural springs in that area. The temperature is 70 degrees, but it feels more like 40 to me! It is soooo cold! But Ben loved it after he got over the initial shock. Me, on the other hand..Here's Ben swimming at Manatee Springs. We also swam at Fanning Springs which feeds into the Suwanee River.

We also visited Cedar Key, FL which is one of the oldest ports in the state. I had the best fish sandwich at a little cafe there! Here's some highlights of the town.

Ben on a manatee.

Here's my dad at an old homestead there that we toured.

A view of downtown from a distance.

We saw a couple of dolphins swimming out a little ways too, but every time I tried to snap their picture, all I got was the splash they left behind!

On Saturday, May 31st, we took a daytrip to St. Augustine. It is about two hours from my dad and stepmom's place. If you have never been there, if you ever get the chance, go! There is so much history there and so much to do and see. We visited the Castillo de San Marcos, a really old fort. We got there just in time to see them shoot off a cannon.

There was a parasailer out in the distance that we watched nervously. We weren't too scared for him though since they only shot a blank. :-)

Here we are with one of the volunteers. I'm sure they love when tourists such as we were bug them to be in their pictures.

Here comes a litte tourist! Man, we've got to do something about his hair! One of the watchtowers overlooking the Atlantic.

Sometimes I've Got to Get Away (Vacation Part 1)

...which I did with my family these past couple of weeks. (Adam came back a week earlier than myself and Ben.) We had such a good time visiting family, sightseeing, and enjoying the beautiful weather. On Saturday, May 24th, we attended the 50-something annual Chessher Reunion held in Baker, FL (in the panhandle area). My paternal grandmother is a Chessher. She celebrated her 92nd birthday just a few days after the reunion. She gets honored every year at the reunion for being the oldest living member of the family. What an amazing lady she is! She had 10 kids, raised 13 kids, took care of my Aunt Mary who had Downs Syndrome who passed away last year, and has just been such a strong example to me and my family. Ben also got the award the second year running for being the youngest member of the Chessher family in attendance. (It would have gone to his cousin Zac, born three weeks after Ben, if he had been there.)

On Memorial Day, we were in Williston, FL just south of Gainesville with my dad and stepmom. My cousin came up from Orlando with her little boy Zac. This was the best picture I could manage of those two little busy bees together: (Zac is on the left, Ben is on the right.)

The next day, we went to the University of Florida's butterfly atrium where they breed butterflies and then release them in the atrium and let you walk through, sit on benches or whatever. It was crazy..butterflies where EVERYwhere! You had to be careful where you walked or moved your hands.

My stepmom Cheri and my dad. See the butterfly flying by there?

Ben had to take a breather.

Beauty begets beauty.The result of that begetting..a line of cocoons.

If you stayed in one place for very long, butterflies would take up residence on you. Here's one on Adam's wrist and Ben's shoulder.

Just as Cheri is taking the picture, one lands on her hand.

Celebrating Could-be Celebrities

Have you ever dreamed that you were best buds with someone famous? I have them every now and then. I don't think I want to be friends with them BECAUSE they're famous, but more because they seem fun to be around and they'd have plenty to talk about that I wouldn't know anything about. Usually I wake up really disappointed..haha..Lame, huh?

You want to know who, don't you?? K, fine..most recently Stephenie Meyer who wrote the Twilight series..I don't remember before that though. Or at least that's all giving you. ;-)

But I was thinking about it and I already know some really amazing people who are incredibly talented at something specific. Some people I know can write something that I can experience through their words so much that it seems like I'm there, some can just make me pee my pants laughing at them (in their writing or otherwise), some are amazing musicians, some are very creative and could whip up the cutest scrapbook page in a matter of minutes, some can make a masterpiece of a meal, and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. So here's to the amazingly talented people in my life. (By the way, that's all of you in some way or the other.) Love around! group hug, group hug..

Park and Personality

Yesterday for playgroup, Ben and I went down to play in the fountains . I think he liked the attention from Lily and Sarah much more than he liked the water! It was such a nice day out--a little warm, but I stayed close to the water trying to coerce Ben in to notice the heat too much. When I finally just put him over a fountain, he wasn't too crazy about it, and at that point, neither was I..we were both ready to go and get dry. Afterwards, we fed the ducks and pigeons our cold french fries.

Then last night for enrichment meeting at church, everything was "purse"onal. We all took a personality test which I've taken before and thought I just did something wrong (I mean, those questions depend on who you're dealing with, your mood, etc. etc.), but I got the same results this time as before. I think if there was a Miscellaneous or Indeterminate category, that would be the one I'd fall into. Total, I got 9 points for Sanguine (or yellow or whatever), 9 for Choleric (or Red), 11 for Melancholy (Blue), 11 for Phlegmatic (White). My strengths were very slightly more Melancholy than the others, weaknesses were even across the board give or take a point, probably because I have plenty of weaknesses to choose from..hehe.

I, personally (no pun intended), like the simplicity of the Disney princess personality test that I took. (The questions were a lot easier!)

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

(compliments of http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354)

So there you go, now you know all about me!

Our Little Garden

Our garden is finally planted. Thanks to our neighbors, we didn't have to turn the soil over by hand, but we were able to use their tiller. By "we", of course I mean Adam while I attempt to keep Ben out of the mud..I mostly succeeded.

So now we have tomato plants, squash, zucchini, hot peppers, jalepeno peppers, cucumbers, bell peppers, and even a little bit of rosemary. With a little bit of tlc, hopefully we'll have some good, fresh vegetables soon!

Here's Ben with a front row seat of the action!

Tagged

10 Years Ago:
I was a junior in high school, working, schooling, trying to stay out of trouble.

5 Things On My To-Do List:
1. Clean house
2. Fold and put away laundry
3. Work out
4. Finish preparing sharing time lesson
5. Balance budget


5 Snacks I Enjoy:
1. Peanut M&Ms or Reese's
2. Chips and salsa
3. Cookies and cream ice cream
4. Granola bars
5. New favorite is Snow Cones (Strawberry cheesecake flavor..mmmm!)

5 Foods I Love:
1. Anything Mexican
2. Carino's Fire Stix
3. Baked spaghetti
4. PF Chang's orange peel beef or lettuce wraps or spicy eggplant
5. Green or red curry chicken


What Would I Do If I Were Suddenly A Billionaire: Buy every kid I know an education, pay for missions, go on family vacations with immediate and extended family and friends, pay off bills, buy a radio station for Adam to play whatever music he wanted, build a house with all the upgrades, hire a maid and a hair stylist..okay, im getting carried away! As if this would ever happen any way..

5 Places I Have Lived:
1. Baker/Escambia Farms and Paxton, FL
2. Nashville, TN
3. Salt Lake City, UT
4. Tuscaloosa, AL
5. Sulphur, LA

Favorite Quote: don't have one

I'm tagging:
1. Laura (back!)
2. Cheyenne
3. Valerie
4. Erin
5. Katie G

BUT..choose 5 of THESE questions to answer and remember to elaborate on your answers!:



what do you see yourself doing in 10 years?
most embarrassing moment?
biggest crush?
favorite tv show?
best day you've ever had?
favorite celebrity and why?
if you could do any job (other than parenthood), what would you do?
favorite place to be?
what do you hate the very most?
favorite book or genre of books?
cats or dogs?
what are you most grateful for?
most frivilous thing you've ever bought?

YOUR choice


I'm anxious to hear your answers! :-)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

...and the Very Tired Mom. We had a blast over the weekend celebrating Ben's 1st birthday. One of his favorite books to have us read to him is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle so that is what we had to have as our theme. I had a 24-serving cake made at the bakery not too far from here (Jo's Party House) and then made a caterpillar cake myself. And of course Ben had his very own cake to demolish/eat. I think he ate pretty much the whole thing even after he ate all of his dinner!



For the caterpillar cake, I took a king-size cupcake pan and made about 12 cupcakes, arranged them into the crawling caterpillar shape on a sturdy styrofoam poster board, then cut a little bit of the side off each one so that it would fit snug next to the next cupcake.

For the frosting, I made buttercream, put about 1/2 cup or so to the side and colored the rest with green and yellow. (Just plain green looked too St. Patrick's Day-ish.) I frosted every other cupcake with the green/yellow, then added to the frosting quite a bit of blue food coloring to frost the remaining cupcakes. For the antennae and eyes, I just used construction paper although if I would have had time, I would have used rolled out cookie dough to make the antennae and letters to stick on top that say "Ben's 1st" or something like that. I also couldn't get a pretty color of purple using food coloring (red and blue) so I might would have gotten some purple icing coloring just for things like this. I used Hershey's Kisses for the feet.

Games that I had *intended* to play but just never got around to were:
1. Pin the Food on the Caterpillar
2. A scavenger hunt to find foods with a hole them (black dot from construction paper) that the caterpillar ate through
3. See how many "holes" (Cheerios) the kids can toss in the air and catch in their mouths

Party favors were sugar-filled plastic fruit, plastic caterpillars, butterfly stickers for the girls, and some odds and ends like bouncy balls, pencils, etc.

For the invitations, I put an apple on the front and hole-punched a hole out of it and used pom-poms to make the caterpillar.

But most importantly, we had fun bbq'ing with good friends and family! Thanks for all who could come and all who were here in spirit!

Here's a couple of shots of the birthday boy: