St. Augustine - Take 2

After doing a bit of school work in the morning today, we went into St. Augustine to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument. The fort was constructed in 1672, making it one of the oldest standing structures in North America. It is currently after 11:00 p.m., so I won't take time to give more history, but if you are interested, please visit the Castillo's website through this link: www.nps.gov/casa



A view of the fort from the street (click on the picture for a larger view).




An aerial view of the fort with a full moat of water.




The view from on top of the fort looking out over the inlet that leads to the Atlantic.

200 year old graffiti etched into the wall in the guards' quarters.

Our friend, Jim Breton, who has his RV parked down in Kissimmee, drove up to spend the day with us. We had a great time Jim -- thanks so much!

After we left the fort, we walked down St. George Street and found a great little Italian place, Pizzalley's Chianti Room, where we ate dinner. Following dinner, we made our way to Kilwin's where we indulged ourselves with some fudge.

After dinner, Sarah's request was that we go to the beach, so we headed to St. Augustine Beach. Tom was excited to see how the Excursion did on sand, which he still doesn't know since he wasn't allowed to go any faster than 10 mph. Anyway, Sarah had a ball and pranced around in the water as the sun set.

Sunday afternoon, we met Grandpa and Hazel, and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jennnnnnnnnnn at Cracker Barrel. It's so nice to have family in Florida -- vacations and family reunions all in one!

Grandpa was busy this week picking oranges and lemons which he shared with us. Yes, those are lemons! Notice how they dwarf the oranges! The lemons are sitting on top of more oranges, so we'll be doing lots of juicing this next week.

Tom and I ran into Publix and picked up a manual juicer so we didn't have to wait until we got home (where the electric juicer is) to enjoy fresh, squeezed orange juice. Oh my, it was soooooo yummy!

We need to get some school work done in the morning, and then we are off to explore St. Augustine again!

St. Augustine - Take 1

We arrived in St. Augustine Wednesday evening around 7:00 p.m. after a nice drive with minimal traffic and wind. It was sooooooooooo cold! The temps dropped down into the 20's through the night, so when we woke up Thursday morning, the water spigot was frozen leaving us without any water. We had enough in our tank that we could at least brush our teeth.

Christian and Sarah warming their hands by the toaster oven while waiting for the trailer to warm up right after we arrived.

The Potter's School is still in session, so we are schooling while on the road. Here are Tom and Andrew tessellating congruent figures, while Christian sits in chemistry class Thursday morning.

Sarah up in the loft reading in her literature book.

Finally, after getting all of the boys school work graded and submitted, we were able to venture out of the trailer and explore St. Augustine. We drove around a bit before stopping at the Fountain of Youth, A National Archeological Park, where we learned about Juan Ponce de Leon landing here in North America in 1513. The stones above were placed by him in April, 1513, commemorating the site where he came ashore. There are 15 stones one direction, and 13 stones in the other direction, for the year 1513.

"The Fountain of Youth" Ponce de Leon claimed to have discovered.

We enjoyed hearing about the history and visiting a planetarium that showed us how the early explorers plotted the stars, but I think we enjoyed the animals the most. Here is a beautiful, albino peacock. The animals were all very tame and ate out of our hands.

Sarah feeding a squirrel.

Andrew feeding a rhea -- she was still being nice at this point. Shortly hereafter, she began aggressively (and painfully!) taking peanuts out of our hands.

We found a tree to climb . . . . .

A monkey hanging from a tree!

"Love, love will keep us together . . . . "
(Think Captain and Tenille)

As is the tradition, we ended the evening with a Dutch Blitz tournament with Baxter as our featured guest player!

The Past, Present and Future

THE PAST

We are thankful for all of the blessings the Lord bestowed on us in 2008. None of us experienced any serious illness, we enjoyed the company of family and friends, we were able to take an extended vacation with our RV, and despite the suffering economy, Tom has a job that he enjoys. We continued on with our homeschool journey and are thankful for all the experiences and people that God in His providence crossed our paths with. There were a few trials that came our way, and we stand on the other side of them, grateful for how the Lord made Himself known to us and guided us in His wisdom in the midst of each one. To Him be glory for preserving us!

Some events of our recent past:



Christmas dinner at Mom and Dad's in Florida -- Mom set a beautiful table and served a scrumptious dinner!



Sarah opening up a pair of sweet , fuzzy pj's from Nana and Papa




Christian and Andrew with their new air soft guns from Nana and Papa




Jeff, Mom, Dad and I




Andrew, Christian, Aunt Jennnnnnnnnnn, Sarah, Uncle Jeff, Nana and Papa




Sarah performing her first public solo at His Master's Voice Christmas concert.




For the third year in a row, we spent New Year's Eve at the Hawkins' house. Following the evening's festivities, the boys stayed at their house and Kristin came home with Sarah. Here they are enjoying homemade cinnamon rolls on New Year's Day. Later on in the afternoon, we went back to the Hawkins' where we were served a traditional New Year's Day meal of ham, black-eyed peas, and collard greens for dinner. Mmmm good!




Bryan Anderson and Christian entered their pH Robot 2.0 in the local science fair and won 5th place.



THE PRESENT

Presently, Tom is on a trip and will be returning home Monday (19th) evening. Christian, Andrew and Sarah have been a tremendous help to me as I recuperate from some surgery I had this week to remove some painful endometrial adhesions. They made Greek Chicken Pasta for dinner tonight -- yummy!

While I've been taking it easy the past few days, I have been learning to use Photoshop Elements 7.0. So far, it has been very easy to learn, and I've transferred all of my photos (all 3,500 of them) from the EasyShare photo managing software I have been using for the past couple of years. I am very impressed with the editing tools that Photoshop has, and I have barely scratched the surface of what this program is capable of. Here are a few photos I found in my files and touched up:



Here is a photo of my brother Jeff and I from many years ago. The original photo was yellowing and I used the Auto Correct Color function on Photoshop. If only it could restore my little kitty to me! Shortly after this picture was taken, Mom got all of the kittens adopted out that our outside cat, Tigger, had given birth to. The one that I am holding was my favorite, and I remember it being put into a bushel basket in the trunk of someone's car for a ride to its new home. I'm sure it was much happier with its new owner than it was with a 5 year-old girl mauling it all the time!



One of my favorite pictures -- Jeff and I with Grandpa Umbaugh with the catch of the day. Grandma and Grandpa Umbaugh lived on the greatest property ever, with two big, stocked ponds to swim in, row across, fish in, catch tadpoles in, hunt for frogs in, and even get baptized in if they were holding a church meeting. Photoshop picked up on the variation in the grass between the undisturbed dew on the ground and the areas where we had walked.




Here is the photo I am most excited about. This picture is of my Grandpa Vermillion (standing on the right) with his two cousins, Paul and Walt, during WorldWar II, when they were all serving in the Army. As you can see, the original has taken a beating through the years.




Here is the photo after I touched it up with Photoshop -- wow! I am really going to enjoy using this program!


THE FUTURE

What 2009 holds, we don't know, but we know Who holds all things in His hands, and we rest in His perfect will for each of our lives, come sorrow or joy. In the short-term future, we are planning on leaving Wednesday for a camping trip to St. Augustine, Florida this week, providing I can pull everything together Monday and Tuesday.

Plans for this year's garden are in the works! We will be trying a different planting approach this year -- "lasagna" gardening. Google it to find out more!

We pray that the Lord abundantly blesses each of you with all things eternal in 2009.

The next updates will be coming to you from St. Augustine!

Patience, please!

My dear blogger visitors, I haven't forgotten that there are those of you that are faithful to check our blog every day! How disappointing it must be day after day to find the same post dating December 23rd . . . . .

I confess that the Christmas festivities have left me really, really behind. I ironed the last of the linen napkins that were used for one of our gatherings in December and got them put away, so hopefully, I can begin to move on to something other than cleaning up after Christmas!

I have various pictures to post, but need to gather all the cameras I have been using to photograph with and get them uploaded. We have had camera issues these past few months -- none of our cameras will hold a battery charge for longer than a few pictures. I take two or three pictures before the battery goes dead, then have to find another camera, take another two or three pictures before the battery goes dead, and then find another camera . . . . . well you get the idea. Due to some generous gifts, we purchased a new camera last week (Thanks Mom and Dad!), and will be posting some pictures soon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We pray that all of our family and friends have a blessed Christmas!

Tom will be working the 23rd - 26th, so the children and I will be traveling on the 24th to my parents' house in Florida. Yes, we are going to suffer with 80 degree temperatures for Christmas! All five of us will be returning back home on the 26th.

I came across the following through the blog of a friend, and in this season of materialism, I wanted to share it with you:


The Wisdom in Hot Chocolate
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.
During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.
Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
“Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.”
Now consider this:
Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.
The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!!


May your Christmas be filled with joy, peace, contentment, and hot chocolate!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew turned 15 years old today!

Tom left on a trip very early this morning, so we began celebrating Andrew's birthday yesterday so Tom could share in his birthday dinner.

Andrew chose his favorite foods for his dinner which are, chicken parmesan, twice baked potatoes and roasted asparagus with cheese.

Tom, Sarah and Andrew anticipating sinking their teeth into Andrew's choco-scotch (chocolate and butterscotch) marble birthday cake.




He awoke to balloons and streamers that Sarah decorated his door with. However, by the time I took this picture, the balloons had disappeared.

Andrew spent his day with fellow members of His Master's Voice, who performed at the local VA hospital. Here is the Concert Choir performing Carol of the Bells a capella. It was beautiful!

The Jazz Band performing.

Following their performance at the VA hospital, three of his friends, Christopher Chafin, Joseph Deaton and Jacob McAvoy, came home with us to enjoy an afternoon of fun and pizza. This is their serious picture taken with their air soft guns.

This is a better representation of what they looked like all afternoon!

We hope you had a wonderful 15th birthday Andrew! We all love you very much!

Love,

Dad, Mom, Christian and Sarah

Annual Christmas Tea & Cookie Exchange

Sarah and I hosted our 3rd annual Christmas Tea and Cookie Exchange. We shared cookies, exchanged tea cups and delighted our taste buds with tea party fare served on Christmas china!

Menu

Tomato Bisque Soup
Smoked Chicken Salad on Croissants
Peanut Butter & Jelly Tea Sandwiches
Mini Quiches
Veggies and Dip
Grape Salad
Assorted Fruit
Blueberry Mini Muffins
Banana Nut Bread
Mini Cinnamon Rolls
Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake
Almond Scones with Lemon Curd & Devonshire Cream
Lemon Squares
Cream Puffs
Petit Fours
Truffles
Mocha Punch
Hot Christmas Punch
Assorted Teas



The delicacies awaiting us!




Some of our guests filling their plates.




Sarah and I had two guests of honor with us this year -- my mom, Sharon (Nana), and my great aunt Jan. They were savoring the tomato bisque soup.




Little Emily Grace - PRECIOUS!!!!




While the girls were downstairs working on a craft, the ladies exchanged tea cups.




Nana read a twist on "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the girls for their tea cup exchange. The poem includes the words "right" and "left" in it instructing them which way to pass their package. When the story ends, whatever package you are left holding is yours to keep.




The girls displaying their tea cups after the exchange.




A picture of our guests minus two who had to leave early.




Sarah with her great, great Aunt Jan - #14

Sarah with her Nana

Sarah, Nana and Me