Missing Photos

I was working on my picture albums yesterday and today. I had three different albums going on at one time that got to be a little confusing at times. I have one for Andrea, one for Taylor and one for the family. I was making sure that my pictures were ending up in the right album.
As I was working on a section of Taylor's I noticed that there were no pictures for his second birhtday. I looked in the other albums and nothing. I was quite sad.
Then when I was working on a section of Andrea's I found no pictures of when she started Kinderarten. I remember taking quite a few pictures of her with her backpack, out in front of the school sign and a few in her classroom.
I began to think: my children are 3 years apart. When Taylor had his second birthday, Andrea would have just turned 5. Which means in a few months she would be starting Kindergarten. Then I remembered a roll of film that I put in to get developed. When I went to pick it up they told me that it wasn't there. They gave me the number for the place where they get printed. Come to find out that if you go a certain period of time without picking up your pictures that send them back to the company and they destroy them. How sad. It would be nice if they gave you a little friendly reminder phone call or something before sending them back.
So, both of my children have an important event in their lives missing. I'm glad I have a digital camera now.

Living Out in the Sticks

When we lived in Deltona my friend and fellow teacher, Kathy Anselmo, told me that when we moved to Lake County we would have to put our trash cans on the back of our truck and haul them up to the road. I said, "No way. Living in Lake County won't be like living out in the sticks." Well, guess what? We do have to load our trash cans and haul them up to the road. I do like living out where we do. It's very peaceful and our property is just beautiful. What's nice about where we live is that we aren't in the city, but within 10 minutes I can be at Publix, Wal Mart, Target, the bank, etc.
There is one very frustrating thing about living out in the boonies. We don't have access to high speed internet. We have dial up and it takes forever. One day I got an e-mail from a friend that had pictures and it was taking forever to download. In fact, I had 11 other e-mails that wouldn't open until that one was opened. I had to let the computer run all night so it could download the pictures. Trying to add pictures to a blog is another joke. I literally was trying to upload a picture to my blog and it was taking forever. So, I went outside to wash and vaccum my car. When I got back in, it still hadn't finished. I was ready to give up on blogging. Blogs are more fun to read when there are pictures. I've found a solution to that problem.
The other day I got on the phone and called Embarq and Dishnetwork to see if, by now, we could get something better than dial up. No luck. I then got the idea to ask someone that lives in Lake Dalhousie what they use for internet. I found out that they have comcast and love it. I got on the phone right away and found my service request from five years ago. Boy, do they keep good records. They found out that the house near ours uses Comcast. They are sending someone out next week to see if we can hooked up.
I will cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Nesting Stage

You know when you were at the end of your pregnancy and you started doing all this stuff so that everything would be in order when the baby came? Well, that's kinda what I feel like now, though I am NOT having a baby. I get this way about 1 or 2 weeks before school starts. There are many projects that I had on my mind to do that haven't been completed yet and I only have 4 more days left. School doesn't begin for me until August 11, however, we are leaving on our week trip to Mrtlye Beach on Friday morning. These are the things that I have left to do: make Brother Hewitt's pants into shorts, visiting teaching, temple day, photo albums to finish from last year (that's a BIG project), burn my photos onto CDs, download all my computer info onto my external harddrive that I bought in June (no Debbie, I haven't done that yet), make 450 spelling cards and laminate them, and create new folders and transfer all my reading documents into their proper folders (we have a new reading series this year). I still have to water the trees each day, mow on Thursday, fix and eat meals, run errands, finish a book I'm reading, pick up Andrea from the airport, wash clothes, pack and do daily house chores. Do you think I will get this all done? I am going to think positively about this and say, "yes."

Two Thoughts

Before I go to church I pray that I will hear something that will touch me in some way. Today I heard two statements that touched me and caused me to think. The first one was this, "The world teaches us to know something and the gospel teaches us to become something." The second one was this, "If you want blessings that you have never had, then you need to do things that you have never done before." Those two statements have very deep meaning to them. I now need to examine myself and look at what I have become because of the gospel being a part of my life. I also need to think really hard about those blessings I have been asking for and what I need to do to make those happen. I'm glad that I didn't get distracted and heard those 2 comments.

The Inside Has Been Neglected

I feel like I have spent my whole summer outside doing yard work. I think the inside feels a little "left out." When summer comes I have the time to touch-up paint my walls, clean the windows inside and out, steam clean the carpets, wash the baseboards, etc. I knew I had only this Saturday to accomplish some of those things. So I washed my car and got it vaccumed, washed all the baseboards, pulled out the oven and refrigerator and cleaned the floor under and behind them, and cleaned the two 3 glass paned sliding glass doors and thier tracks. My windows and carpets will have to wait for another time. Christmas maybe??
To end my day of hard work I went to Bealls and bought a few things. That was my treat!

30 Oak Trees Have Arrived

We had 30 oak trees delivered on Friday afternoon. They are in 15 gallon pots. We are putting them at the front and along the side of our property to make a border. One day, 30 years from now, they will look big and beautiful.
So Mark spent Saturday, Sunday and today digging holes and planting them. My job is to water them twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. We have a 125 gallon water tank, so it goes by pretty quick.

One Down, Two to Go

Andrea called us late this afternoon and said she passed her first exam. She got a 96 on it. Way to go, Andrea!

A Prayer is Answered

Isn't it nice to know that our Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and they do get answered in one way or another and in His time. I have been asking this certain prayer for about 2 weeks now when I go on my walk in the morning. It finally was answered today. I am grateful that it was answered in the way that I needed it to be. So my prayer this morning was one of thanks.

Later in the day another prayer was answered. Taylor had his friend Lance come over this afternoon. I went to our Primary Presidency meeting and got home around 4:00. I saw the bikes down on the dock and went to look around. I noticed that the ganoe (flat bottom canoe) was gone. This is no big deal because they always take a ride in it when he comes over. However, they weren't anywhere in sight and I couldn't here any kind of noise around the lake. Those boys are always making a bunch of noise. I yelled for them, but no answer. You know how well sound travels across water. Plus, they like to turn the ganoe over and let it fill with water. My mind began to think the worst. I thought maybe they were turning it over and got stuck under it, gators, etc. So, immediately I said a prayer that everything would be fine.
It was then that I thought, "What was the last thing I said to Taylor?" How were my words spoken then? I think we take life for granted. I would hate for one of my children to leave this world remembering unkind words being spoken to them.
We did find the 2 boys up on shore at the far end of the lake. Taylor and Lance have been banned from the ganoe for the rest of the summer.

Hair Cut

Yes, I finally went and got my hair cut today. I think it was in September of last year when I got it cut last. That's a long time. I just don't seem to fit things like that in. It feels really light and healthy again. It will take a little getting used to. I like how the hair in the back flips out.

Andrea's Off

Andrea got up bright and early this morning for her trip to California. She will be out there for about 3 weeks. She is out taking some classes. She has been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now. We went to Best Buy last night so she could purchase her first digital camera. Have a great time, Andrea! We know you will be successful with your classes. Have fun exploring California and take some good pictures.

New Plants

On Friday we decided to go to The Yard Stop in Mt. Dora to look for A plant to put in place where one of our sago palms died. When we got there we found a plant we really liked. Then we decided to walk all around. Well, when we got to the very back we found these very unique looking trees. We also found some Travellers Palms. We decided to get 2 of the trees and 2 of the Travellers Palms. We had no idea where they were going to go. It's kind of like buying a pair of shoes that you really like and then finding an outfit to buy to go with them. We did end up finding places for all 4 of these plants. Andrea was very sad because we ended up uprooting her crape myrtle (?). We transplanted this crape myrtle about 2 years ago and it just hasn't taken kindly to the move. Andrea has had such faith in this plant and has never given up on it. It was quite touching to see the expression on her face when it got ruined with the tractor.

This is the unique tree that took the place of Andrea's crape myrtle.

We bought 2 of these. They will go into a new island with a palm tree.

This is the plant that took the place of the dead sago.

YW Lake Fun

The dock beauties: Anabell, Melissa, Andrea and Nashua

Nellie, Jensen and Emily

Sister Carter (the wild driver), Nashua, Emily and Anabell

Melissa and Andrea

This is when the steering froze. Andrea pulled them into shore.

Way to go, Andrea!

Lunch For Two

I took Debbie to








in Mt. Dora today for her birthday lunch. Yes, it is a little late, but she has been quite on the go lately. I wanted to take her somewhere she has never been before. I didn't know if she would like it, but I think she did. We both had chicken salad surrounded with fruit. It was yummy!

Taylor's Off to Camp

Taylor got up bright and early this morning, 6:00 am, to go to Scout camp. He packed his suitcase like he was going to be gone for 2 weeks. He is taking rifle shooting, archery and environmental science this year. He has been looking forward to this ever since school got out. He will be joining Brother Peeler and the Sanford ward since he is the only boy from our ward going. I will miss him joining me on my morning walks. Have a great time Taylor!

The Weeds are Gone

I have spent the last 4 days outside doing yard work. Yes, that's right, outside where it is hot, where you sweat and get dirty. All the things I hate about being outside. I would rather do work inside where it is cool, you don't get dirty and you don't sweat. I was mowing, edging, weeding, weeding and more weeding. Mark would come and tell me that I was doing it the hard way. All he needed to do was spray his magical liquid and the weeds would be dead in a week or two. But, I like to see results fast. I don't like to wait for things to happen. Does that mean I am impatient? There are 3 islands when you first come into our property where I spent most of my time. They were covered with palm fronds, weeds and vines. I also took the shovel and made a nice edge all the way around the three islands. Everytime I drive by those islands I go really slow and look at how beautiful they are now. That work was worth all the effort.
So here are the islands after the weeding.