Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Greetings blogger friends.  It's been a long time.

Life has been absolutely crazy.  Liz graduated from the University of Florida,  Emily graduated High School, Mark finished elementary school, and Greg, well he's just plugging away at USF.  He got accepted into the College of Exercise Science which he was working very hard to achieve.  He also just today got his NASM certification.  Not exactly sure what it stands. He is currently working as a personal trainer and it has to do with that.  Obviously you can tell I am not up on personal training.  I guess now that I have one in the family,  I should maybe start training.

Steve and I managed a trip to New York City in July.  We were celebrating our 25th Wedding anniversary.  It's not until October, but we decided to take our trip in the summer before Mark started school.  We had a blast!  Neither one of us had ever been so that made it even more fun exploring somewhere we had never been.  I loved it! I can't wait to go back someday.  We saw  the sights (Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Empire State Building,  the 911 memorial site, Rockefeller Center).  We stayed in Times Square which was CRAZY full of people.  We even managed two shows....Jersey Boys and Phantom of the Opera.  Such great shows.

Here we are in Central Park

Mark starts school next Monday already.  Middle School!  Hard to believe.  It was really weird getting all the back to school stuff and only having to get it for one kid.  I am done to one school for the first time in YEARS.  I've always had the kids in different schools and on different schedules.  It's kind of sad.  It's been an adjustment not being needed all the time.  I know the kids will always need me, but now they are self-sufficient.  I know it sounds weird but I do miss it.    Usually dinner consists of just Mark and me.  Steve gets home later and the kids are all gone out or working.  I never know if they will be home for dinner or not.  

Finally, I got a job.  I am a scrapbook/Paper-ed instructor for Michaels.  It's started off slow.  It's hard to build classes and get people in but maybe now that school will be starting soon, I can be a tad more busier.  It's been fun and I have learned so much from the training.  I've been trying hard to make more time for my scrapbooks.  I have always loved creating them and over the last few years, I just haven't spent as much time on them as I'd like because of all the craziness with the kids.  So, I've decided to make that a top priority.  I am in the process of creating a new blog in addition to this one so I can post some of my layouts.  I am hoping to get a bit more creative by doing it and hosting some challenges and swaps.  I used to be in a group on the old AOL boards and we would do all kinds of swaps and fun stuff. I really miss that and hope to start again soon.  I will keep you posted as soon as the new blog is up and running.  

I am going to end this post with some random pictures and I am going to do much better at updating this blog.  I miss blogging.  I've tried to keep up with all my friends blogs but Facebook has pretty much taken over. I'm actually getting kind of bored with FB. It's great to keep up with all my old friends and family, but I miss my blog buddies.

Anyway, have a great Tuesday.  Hope it's a good one.

 Yes!  She did it.  It was down to the wire, but she's done with High School

 Here's the little man all decked out for his 5th Grade Celebration.  So handsome.

Prom.  She was beautiful.

Our college graduate.  Go Gators!

Oops, guess I really need to get some pictures of Greg.  He's not one to get his picture taken.  He's the one who always disappears when the camera comes out.  Guess I need to work on that!  

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Well, hello there blogger world! What's up?

I can't believe I haven't blogged in MONTHS. I have no excuses. My life really is a highway.

I have lots to update (which is why I haven't blogged). First, Liz is home from UF. She moved back home in December, for good (well for awhile anyway). She got an internship with the Tampa Bay times her last semester. She's a business writer. Best of all she's getting paid to write! Everything she has worked hard for is finally paying off. She's interned for the past few summers, but they have all been unpaid. I am so excited that she is getting paid to write! She has loved writing stories ever since she learned how to write. I am so glad I saved all her "stories" from when she was young. She was a writer on the middle school paper and was a write and Editor in Chief of the high school paper. She continued that all the way through college and even became Editor in Chief of The Independent Florida Alligator at UF. Words cannot describe how proud we are. She will become a college graduate on May 6th. YIKES.

Greg is doing AWESOME at USF. He's in his second year working on a degree in Exercise Sciences. He is currently working as a personal trainer. He's also working on a certification for being a personal trainer on his own in addition to this class load. Again. so proud. Now if he only had the extra time to get his mom in shape. :)

Emily graduates on June 5th. I will have ANOTHER high school graduate! I'm too young to have my kids so grown up. She got accepted into USF as well but unfortunately not until the Spring session in 2013. So, she was really sad but hey, she got in. She is going to do her first semester at the community college and then transfer over the 2nd semester. So proud of her. She has the worst case of "senioritis" since school started so it's been a long school year trying to keep her on track. Too many changes at the school and it's just not the same. I will not be sad to be finished with the high school. After 8 years, it's time to say goodbye.

We found a middle school for Mark!!!!! Yeah. That is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. The public school system hasn't worked for him. They are so focused on their stupid FCAT scores. I've never been quiet about how I fell about that. So, we've decided to go private. It's going to be tough with 2 in college and then him in private, but we all do what we have to for our kids. If I have to eat top ramen, I will. It's very hard as a parent to see your child struggle. It's hard when you hear the parents of the "smart" kids complain about the "not as smart" kids. Everything is such a competition these days. Regardless if they are at the top of the class or the bottom of the class, they are all kids and they just learn different. I've been blessed to have some great teachers who recognize that. Sadly, it came a little too late for him with his previous school, but he seems to be on track now. He is really excited about this new school and that it won't be as near as big. I feel really good about this.

Steve and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in October. Hard to believe. So we are planning a nice trip just the two of us. Something we have never done before. Seems like whenever we celebrated a milestone anniversary, we were always moving. So, we are hoping to go on an Alaskan cruise. If that doesn't work out, then I would love to go to New York City. Never been there. I would love to go see show on Broadway and take a stroll through Central Park. I'll keep you posted on what we decide.

I promise not to disappear again for months. I have more news to hopefully share soon. Don't want to jinx it if it doesn't work out.

Happy Thursday!