The Homer's

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!

2012-01-15T20:46:00.003-05:00

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE GIRL!
I LOVE YOU HONEY BUNNY!!

ALL OUR LOVE,
Mommy, Daddy, Jared and Kevin

Time Warp

2011-12-29T14:00:00.001-05:00

Where does the time go!? I am so thankful that I take the time to jot down notes every few months on what is going on with the Homerhouse. These kids just keep growing so, so fast. It seems like yesterday we were cheering for first smiles, steps and lost teeth. We are moving on to new firsts like middle school, band and sports accomplishments. Looming in my future are first dates and driving lessons. I am NOT ready to have a teenager in my house. Not that Jared isn't a great kid, it's just the marking of a new chapter in our lives. Some days I wish I could slow down time and some days I would like to hit the fast forward button. For better or worse I am glad to be getting all of this written down somewhere. My scrapbooks are about 80% complete and I will, someday, complete the one I have started. Until then my blog will have to be the bridge to then and now. Its just so much easier to sit at the computer for 5 minutes than to pull out all of my scrap booking stuff. I'll save that for when I need something to do when the kids have left home ;). Until then my schedule is packed tight with church, school and sports stuff for the kids. That won't last forever so I will take it while I have it...crazy as it may be.

On reason for the melancholy post is the attached picture. You never notice how quick the time passes with the little everyday things we deal with. We got to see our best friends this Christmas that we haven't seen in a long time. I was amazed with how much everything had changed yet had remained the same. Seeing someone everyday you don't notice the little things...I'm glad I have the pictures to remember them even if I don't see them happening.

The growing weeds: Tommy, Spencer, Mikayla, Tabitha, Jared, Kevin,Kiersten, Ryan

Back a lifetime ago at Joe's Crab Shak...so proud of each of these little urchins and the wonderful young people they are blossoming in to!!

Christmas Present is here today...bringing joy that will last....

2011-12-25T19:22:00.002-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

FROM THE HOMERHOUSE!!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-19T21:01:00.005-05:00

Luke 2:7

She wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.

What a wonderful time of the year. The decorations are up, cookies are made, things are starting to slow down. Time to reflect on the meaning of the season. So many wonderful Christmas memories this year. We kicked off the season with the annual Mt. Bethel concert. The kids usually love this and with Jared in orchestra now he really enjoys seeing all the instruments. I took the opportunity to take photos of the kids for our annual Christmas card as well. What a wonderful afternoon! We decided to treat the kids to Mellow Mushroom (Jared's favorite) afterwards, ahhh...let the season begin!

We also had a wonderful evening with great friends and family at Mamaw & Pap's. What a great chance to see how all the kids have grown, not to mention the size of the family. :D

We missed our annual trip to Bethlehem, we were all really sad about this. Schedules just didn't work with Rob being gone out of the country and the kids coming down with colds. The good news for them being sick was that we had more time at home (swim practice wasn't really conducive for coughing fits) to listen to holiday music and watch Christmas shows. Sometimes God slows ya down when things get really hectic. It was a nice chance to catch our breath in the middle of a normally busy time. We did manage to get Kevin to the eye doctor to replace the glasses that were lost in Orlando. He also got contacts so that is a BIG change for him. Once he figures out that he doesn't need to "come in for a landing" with the contact, it should go smoother. ;)

Tuesday of this week we had Jared's 7/8th grade orchestra concert. He is still principle 2nd Violin (yay!). They played little drummer boy and Baroque Fugue (sp?) Afterwards, we treated the kids to a trip to see Santa and milkshakes for everyone. :) Making memories...

This past weekend was busy with a swim meet but we still snuck in some holiday magic. Driving home from the meet we got to see some lights that we normally wouldn't see. I would still like to drive around an see our neighbors lights and decorations. Maybe this week ?? Running out of time I guess... (oh and at the swim meet, Jared had 6/6 personal best events. He had 3 200's on Saturday which was difficult but he did fantastic. Ryan placed in the top 3 for all 7 of her events.)

We are looking forward to this weekend! Christmas Eve will see Grammy, Pop Pop, Gran, Grandfather and Uncle Ricky at the Homerhouse. We will celebrate Christmas here as well and then off to the Halvorsen's for the annual "Cousin's Christmas". I am quite certain that a trip to Hartwell is in the works. We spent very little time there this summer due to crazy schedules, I would like to just plant myself on the couch, next to the tree and the fire until I grow roots. Just kidding, but that is my favorite spot-with a nice coffee and my new book. I know the kids have plans to go to the movies, help Uncle Ricky in the garage and play outside if the weather cooperates. A trip to Discover Mills is in the cards too I hear. As long as I'm with my peeps, I don't care where we go or what we do.

Christmas greetings from the Homerhouse!! Stay tuned for Christmas Day pics. :)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-01T19:03:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

The Homerhouse decided to go on a road trip this year. I got a call from RCI in September that we had a week in space bank that we had to use or we would lose it. We had already paid to keep it in the bank and figured why not try and take a trip down to Orlando. It had been two years since we went as a family. Seeing as I had my hours cut back at work we decided to go as cheap as we could. We cashed in Delta points for gift cards, Coke points for gas cards and hotel points for restaurant coupons. All in all we spent about $400 out of pocket for a 9 day trip for 5. Not bad! Can I get on one of those coupon shows??

The first day we drove in and hit Disney Quest. As we left downtown Disney Rob ran up to customer service to see if we were finished with our no expiration tickets. By my calculation we had used up all of our tickets. Apparently not. We had one day left over so we decided to plan on a water park for Tuesday.

Sunday was Downtown Disney, visit with our Disney Gypsy Staci and dinner at my cousin's. Thank you Nave's for a wonderful dinner and chance to get caught up before #2 arrives! :D

Monday was Harry Potter at Universal, so first things first.

I cannot begin to describe how wonderful Hogwarts and Hogsmeade is. There are no words for Harry Potter fans. The kids loved it and so did I. The boys read the entire series this Fall so they really could take it all in. Ryan has seen all the movies so she enjoyed it as well. I...would move there ;)

Tuesday was the water park and we had the best weather of the week, we picked a good day. I even rode some rides. ;)

Wednesday was back to Universal, but we hit a snag. The HULK ate Kevin's glasses. Poor Bu was so upset. On the bright side he was due for new ones anyways. We did leave a bit early to meet up with Stace again. We enjoyed some Disney Pixie dust and headed home for a quick sleep.

Thursday we were right back at the park for opening. We drive those poor kids like mules. They will be so happy to get back to school after a theme park trip! We scooted out again early to visit one last time with Staci before leaving.

Friday was a LONG day that the parks, open to close and we squeezed as much as we could get into the day. Including, but not limited to, a near dislocation of Ryan's shoulder from a whozshamadoodle on the Dr. Seuss merry go round, an out of body experience for me on the Doctor Doom Fear Fall and a probable broken rib for Rob on Jurassic Park. All in a day's fun!! :D

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed over to Palm Coast to visit with my Aunt and Uncle. We had a blast at the pool, on our nature hunt and just hanging out in the theater of their condo building. I really did not want to leave on Sunday. Traffic was looming before us so we got an early start. It was sad to leave the sunshine state but we know we will be back soon!! :D

Jared in front of his most favoritest eatery-Blondies

Rob's favorite part-Jurassic Park....well it was until he met his demise on the straight down drop.

The Homerhouse 2011

HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY!

2011-11-17T17:27:00.003-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!!
Number ELEVEN :D

Love You Bu,
Mom, Dad, Jared and Ryan

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

2011-10-31T17:17:00.000-04:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite pictures of Ryan that I have taken. :)

Jared carving his "hot dog" design that he made.

Ryan and Kevin working hard at their pumpkins

Jared's "hot dog", Kevin's "Traditional" and Ryan's "Kitty"

The boys putting the finishing touches on the outside decorations.

My favorite pic of the three, Ryan as Frankie-Stein, Kevin as a Crypt Ghost and Jared as a MineCraft "Creeper"

Jared's favorite, I guess Creepers are not very social creatures ;)

This was the first year that Jared went off with his friends. Though it was an adjustment for me, I did ok. I knew that he was with a good group of kids (Josh and Hannah) so that made it tolerable. They showed up at our place around 9, wow-they walked all the way from the front of the subdivision! :D
Kevin and Ryan had a great time walking with me, Grammy, Gran and Uncle Ricky. Daddy guy and Grandfather stayed home to hand out candy and to sample the new Pumpkin ale that Rob made. It was great to have the Hartwell Krewe here, even if it was just for a few hours.
I can't believe it's time to put the Thanksgiving stuff out...Christmas will be here before we know it!

October update minus Halloween

2011-10-27T14:43:00.010-04:00

Kell White 10/11 Football is officially over. The team ended the season 4-4 and boy did they play hard! With the exception of two teams that REALLY do not belong in our league (but that's another blog entry) the boys had a great season. Rob really enjoyed coaching and Kevin enjoyed being starting center again this year. Both boys are already looking forward to the 2012 season where Kevin will try out for the Kell 6th grade team. Way to go Kell, Hook 'Em!

October also saw the first Orchestra concert of 7th grade for Jared. I am proud to say that he is the principle second, which means he is the 1st chair of the 2nd violins. I had to google it to understand that there are two types of violins, 1sts and 2nds. They play different parts like harmony and melody for instance. So, Jared is the "best" of the second violins. We are so proud of him and so happy that he loves to play. Rob and I both wish we had learned an instrument and it looks like Jared picked it up really easy.

Swimming in October was fantastic as well. The kids swam the first weekend at Georgia Tech and had 50/50 personal bests versus right on their times. The next weekend was HUGE for Pinkie as she swam her first 500Fr. I missed it because I was out of town with Jared but I got lots of pictures, texts and email updates from my peeps at the pool. She came in at 8.07.98, just 8 seconds shy of Jared's 500 Fr time. She had Daddy there to lap count and her friend Jack was there to cheer her on.

As I mentioned, Jared and I were out of town. We went to the beautiful mountains of Ashville to Lutheridge Camp with the GLSC FX3 and Confirmation kids. I think we had 42 kids and 16 adults, what a great crowd! We had an absolute blast and I can't wait to go again. We had fun all weekend though I would rather not have participated in the white water rafting. ;) It was cold. It was wet. I have to say it was a bit fun...Jared even got out and jumped off the jumping rock 22 feet into the French Broad River. No thank you!! He did it twice and I froze just watching him get in that water. Here are some pictures from that trip :)

The front entrance. I totally googled this shot. It was dark when we arrived and I was in the middle of a coach bus, not the best opportunity to get a picture. :)

The group on the water. Jared was in the first boat, I was in the last.

1st shot of Jared's boat. He's having a GREAT time!

1st shot of my boat...notice my death grip and grimace?

Pretty nature shot ;)

2nd photo op, Jared with his roller coaster wo-hoo-hoo-hoo face. I can almost hear him :)

I LOVE the look on the counselors face behind Jared, contrast that with the guide behind her ;)

Yeah, still thinking I'm about to die...BUT I didn't cause I am sitting here blogging about it. :D In my nice warm slippers, with a cup of joe. :)

Tri for Tourette 2011 (x 3)

2011-09-20T15:47:00.009-04:00

The History:
Last Year Jared decided to do something completely unprecedented in our house, he wanted to do a Triathlon. What?!? Yup, he wanted to swim/bike/run. We have some friends at Chattahoochee Gold that do them and they have kind of lit a fire under everyone to at least Try and complete a Tri. So last year Jared did VERY well, and Kevin was miffed that we didn't sign him up.

So time came around to register for the 2011 Tri and I put both boys in immediately. Ryan on the other hand was on the fence about doing it. Our friends (The Everest's) are still very involved in the Tri world, in fact they were housing their friend and National Iron Kids Tri Champion, Winter Vinecki, at their home for a week. Winter came to Gold practice all week and got to know the kids. I went to see her speak at Bascomb Elementary in Cherokee County and was sincerely impressed. She started doing Tri's with her dad when she was 5 years old. When she was 9 her dad was diagnosed and passed away from Prostate Cancer. She started her own organization, Team Winter, to raise awareness and raise money. Man, I love this kid! She is at over $330,000 in 3 years. I know how hard Friends for LIFE has worked to bring in $280 K in 8 years, this kid has my utmost respect! SO, with that being said, Ryan was now enamored with doing a Triathlon (thanks Winter! ;))

The Race:
Last year we had it SO easy (except for the rain). Register, prepare and line up one child. This year we knew we had a problem. One kid was getting in the water and starting the transition to the bike while then next was getting in the water. Then we had one transitioning to the run, one to the bike and the third getting into the pool. It became increasingly more difficult as we threw more balls in the air, or kids into the race if you will. Jared started off the chaos with the 100 yard swim and I was able to catch a picture of him as he came running up the ramp into the bike transition area~

Next came Kevin up the ramp while Rob was watching for Jared to start on the 2.5 mile bike~

While I was waiting for Ryan to swim, Jared ran behind me from the bike transition to the run~

Last up the ramp was Pinkie and she was on fire in the pool, I think the girl passed 5 kids during that leg of the race! :D

I followed her to the bike transition area and was running along the course to try and make my way to the finish line-Jared should be done soon! Whew! I'm getting my exercise :) I snapped a quick pic of her on the bike as she zoomed past me...

I J.U.S.T made it in time to see my Jared cross the finish line, WTG buddy, I am SO proud of you!

I turned around and guess who was coming down the hill? Yup, Kevin on the run!

I had a few minutes to get a shot of Jared Post-Race and make sure he was doing alright, he was so proud of himself, we were sure he beat his time from last year!

Before we knew it, it was time to look for Kevin. We were pretty sure he was hurting. I'm impressed that you can take a football player off the field and throw him right into a Tri, but that kid has moxie man, he did it and looked great too! We found out later that he wiped out on the bike- no injuries-just a slower time. (I LOVE how Jared is waiting for him at the end!!)

I walked over and sat down next to Kevin to give him some congrats, man he looked beat, but I got a great picture of him. "Everything hurts", he said, but he was happy that he did it!

By now we have no sign of the Pinkster. Where is she?!? I started getting worried when lo and behold she comes WALKING down the hill. She and another girl were chatting away like two old ladies walking their dog. We start yelling at her to RUN, that she is in a RACE, to MOVE it...:) all I can say is that she was having a really great time. That's all that matters ;) We waited an immeasurable amount of time for her to finish the run when she finally came around the corner. I was running down the sidewalk with her and so was Jared, that was SO super cool!

A couple quick pictures of her and she was off to the bouncy house in the celebration area. She has already had her post race smoothie and fruit. I can honestly say that she took in the ENTIRE experience.

One last picture of all of them together, at the end of the race. No injuries, no sadness~ Just the smiles of happiness that they accomplished the Tri...together!

The Results:
So after getting the kids home and carb loaded we had a chance to catch up on the day. Jared loved it and would gladly do it again. Kevin had fun and will probably do it again. Ryan had a great time but said she wasn't sure if she would do it again. Give her time-I think she really liked it. :) Results were not yet posted when we went to swimming the next day. Our friends asked how we did since they were at a different Tri in Iowa. Ryan was over the moon about the entire thing saying that she would definitely do it again. See-I told ya ;)

Monday night I finally got the results.

Jared came in 2 minutes under his time from last year. He was 21st out of 24 but I was really impressed that he came in 5th for the swim leg. WTG!

Kevin was 31 out of 34 but I was so stinking happy he finished (so was he!) ;) He came in in the middle of the pack for swim at 16th.

Ryan finished 17th out of 23 and was 3rd in the swim. Had she run up the ramp I am quite certain she would have been first. We just need to work on our transition times (these kids are FAST!) and a bit on the running for Ryan (ahem, that means she has to RUN not WALK next time) hehehe.

Over all it was a great event, the money went to Camp Twitch and Shout which is sponsored by my friend from Relay for Life, Brad Cohen. See how life just intertwines amongst itself?

Kell White vs. Harrison Blue--Hook 'em!

2011-08-27T15:23:00.003-04:00

Yay! It's that time!!! Kevin's football games are here and he has been working SO hard. He will be starting again this year as center. He loved it last season and really wanted to do it again. Apparently at practice he does really well on his snaps and game day is the chance to see what you're made of. Rob unfortunately got word that he would have to miss the first two, maybe three games. A trip to Australia could not be avoided. :( As his second year as a coach he was not happy about it but knew the boys worked hard and cheered them on from the other end of my phone. He stopped by and helped the kids warm up then had to jet...hahaha

Wishing the boys luck

I loved this shot :D

taking the field for offense

Great play, resulted in a TD for Kell. They won the game 22-12!

Some more pictures from the day:

I loved this, think the poor boy was hot? Astro turf is about 10-20 degrees hotter, ick.

What a cute cheerleader ;)

My rotten little monkey urchins :)

Good Shepherd Bake off 2011

2011-08-21T12:58:00.001-04:00

So here we are again, two months later (woops, it's September-make that 3) before I got a chance to blog about the Summer happenings in The Homerhouse. I blame Facebook. I upload pictures all the time to FB and then I don't blog because I have a ton of repeat offenders that follow the blog and then also follow me on FB. I don't Tweet, I tried, I don't like birds, so Twitter is out for me. FB serves it's purpose but I digress.

Part of the reason I constantly find myself in this position is because we are ALWAYS in motion, even when we relax we are on the go. THAT is why I want to blog-before I know it I will be blogging about Jared going off to College. ick.

One of our commitments is the Church Youth committee and Fall Fair. I usually do what I can to help with these two events. When I found out there was going to be a BAKE off I just put the idea out of my mind. You know me and the kitchen...not a great relationship. So when Kevin decided he wanted to enter I had to revisit the idea. We were filling out the form and noticed that there were age divisions. If you remember Kevin took home a prize from the 1st annual Chili Cook Off. Now he was really excited to be going up against "someone his own size". There was also a division for Ryan (groan) so of course she wanted to make an entry as well. *Sigh* ok, well then I may as well enter too. So we had Ryan in the 4-9 age group with her Famous Chocolaty Chocolate Cake (from a box mind you ;)) and Kevin with his Wild-Berry Pie. He. Would. Not. Settle. It had to be pie and it had to be wild-berry with no strawberries. I went with Great Grammy Frink's coffee cake, using Key Lime filling in honor of summer. :)

There were two prizes per age division, Name and Taste. Kevin won for name last time and he wasn't fooled-he wanted to win for taste. Ryan didn't care, she just wanted to enter. I saw the task as a daunting afternoon in the kitchen-an place wholly uncomfortable to me.

Ryan was up first. To make the effort of keeping to the 4-9 age limit, though my kitchen knowledge ranks between 7-8 years of age, I let Ryan do MOST of it on her own. I pulled the cakes out of the oven and Kevin helped with the mixer but other than that, she did it all on her own. Oh yeah, right, the egg shell pieces-Kevin helped her pick those out. Lucky I told her to use a bowl first in case such an occasion should arise. See, I know some stuff in the kitchen. ;)

Mixing

Pouring

Flipping ~that was tricky ;)

Decorating--Super yummy if you like chocolate cake. The entry name?
"WWJD?...Eat my Cake!"

We got the kitchen cleaned up and then it was Kevin's Turn. If you notice the thermometer in the above picture it was 100 degrees outside, too hot to even go to the pool. Maybe a day in the kitchen with my kiddos wasn't so bad after all.

When we had gone shopping the kids had to pick out all the items on their own. Kevin wanted berries and he picked raspberry, blueberry and black berry. He found a recipe and made the pie *almost* on his own. I did have to step in and show my wicked pie top making skills that Grandma Lou taught me. The recipe called for a covered pie crust but he "wanted it to look like a picnic pie". He also changed to top from white sugar glaze to a brown sugar/ butter caramelize. Whatever dude, it's your pie.

What do you get when you cross a geek and the kitchen? A kid, happy in all his hairs, that it's "Pi" day.... Oh yeah, I heard that 8 million times.

weaving the top

Germ-a-phobe-me makes sure there is no tasting in the kitchen, but I did let him lick the topping bowl. Who can resist brown sugar and butter?

TA~DA, and the entry name?
"Water in to Wild Berry Pie"

Mine was nothing to blog about therefore there are no pictures. Maybe because the house evacuates when I put my apron on. Oh well, quiet time.

At church we had a lovely pasta meal followed by the competition. Ryan was crestfallen when the 4-9 name winner was called out. Kevin didn't care when the tween name was called out and I didn't really get creative with my name, Sublime-Key Lime. Yeah, I figured it would be a name like Adam's Apple Pie or Taste of Eden, something like that so I just went with the obvious. (BTW, Adam's Apple Pie was the winning name. HA!)
Then I got nervous, the winner for the 4-9?!?! RYAN, yahoo, the kid can cook-the curse is broken. She was over. the . moon. Everyone told her how wonderful it was. Kevin was grumbling under his breath that it came from a box. ;) After that victory I got REALLY nervous, I wanted Kevin to win, this boy LOVES to cook. He had this all planned out and the pie was so decadent. No fooling, I was hoping people wouldn't eat it so we would have some to take home-it was THAT good. But no worries, he won. Oh, yeah-the boy got the award. Know what it was? a bunt pan. Super cool for an aspiring chef but only my child would look at the pastor and say, "I wish I would have won a crock pot". Oh, help.

It ended up being a GREAT day, it was a ton of fun and I had made memories and yummies with two of the urchins. A day to remember and their efforts were rewarded. As for me? I lost out to a carrot cake. Whatever, more leftovers for me ;)

Bells are Ringing, Children Singing...

2011-08-15T13:53:00.001-04:00

Yup, it's that time again. Bells are Ringing, Children Singing...something-dum dum, back to school again. Oh, wait~~ here it is, I found the lyrics-thanks google :)

"School bells ring and children sing, It's back to Robert Hall again. Mother knows for better clothes, It's back to Robert Hall again..."

So goes the jingle that my dad would sing every Fall. I got to where I dreaded hearing it. Apparently so did my parents since that's what used to come on the radio (hehehe) ahem, the television before school would start back in Milwaukee.

Alas, it comes around every 365 days and so I post a picture of my little urchins at the mailbox. This is the last one with Kevin. Apparently in Middle School, you can't do this. Maybe next year Jared will let me since it's a two for one and he won't be out there alone. Too bad, Kevin won't care so I'll make like I'm just going to get him in the shot and then swoop in for the perfect picture. Yeah right!

Another year of The Big Bus swallowing up my little ones. :(

Moving Time :D

2011-08-01T12:17:00.000-04:00

Thirteen years my brother Rick has lived in Michigan. Thirteen years I have been waiting for him to move back! :D This summer while we were in Florida we got word that Rick's house had sold. Yippiee! The trip home from Florida was on a Saturday, then right back in the car on Sunday to Whitehall. Ryan joined Rick, Mom and I in this adventure. We spent the week packing and organizing plus making some stops at our favorite local places. We got to eat at our favorite restaurants, shop at our favorite store and spent some time driving around. One thing we found on our trek was a Dairy Treat and they sold Dole Whips. I think I am secretly glad we didn't know about this until the end, I would have weighed 800 lbs after that week had I known. :) It was bittersweet leaving Michillinda and the amusement park on the corner, but I am looking forward to having Rick closer for holidays, for special days and for well, just plain old any days. He's still traveling as much as he has been, but now he can fly into Atlanta instead of Grand Rapids. Welcome Home Uncle Ricky!! :)

Ft. Myers Beach 2011

2011-07-30T12:32:00.001-04:00

Be still my soul. I love the beach. I love being at the beach with my family and my "beach" family. I love July. I love Summer.

This year we had another wonderful vacation to Beach Club I. For the first time Rob and I were owners as well and that took some of the stress off of having 8 people in one unit for 4 weeks. You know that saying about fish and relatives...? Well, we had plenty of fish this year and thanks to a second unit the relative part didn't come into play. ;)

One of our first stops is to see Rob's Aunt and Uncle and his 98 year old Grandma. This is a highlight of our trip and mom usually comes along to see everyone. This year Rob's folks were down at the same time so we had a mini family reunion the first week of our vacation. We did make our way back down before the end of July.

Ryan, Kevin, Jared and Great Grammy

Kevy Bu and Uncle Ricky

My beach bunny

The rotten little Monkey urchins ;)

Lots of shells this year due to the beach expansion project.

My attempt at artsy

Kevin saving the critters

Another attempt

Rob and the love of his life~~hehehe

The Times Square clock (more awesome artfulness)

My Guy :D
s
My favorite Artsy shot of the Summer

Time to leave, one of our last nights on the beach for 2011.

We had such a blast (even thought the first 2 weeks were pretty rainy) at the flea market, shopping, nightly beach walks and just having summer fun. We got to see my girlfriend Eva oodles and she got to stay with us some since we have the 2nd unit-not to mention all the shopping trips to Island Sol. A trip to Marco was not to happen this year, but maybe next...I don't think I have ever been there and I would love to see Eva's newest store there. We had a few chances to see my cousin Danny and his beautiful family. We also had one of the best years fishing that I can ever remember. Remind me, I need to get the pictures from Rick and Dad so I can do a separate post on all of our fishing adventures. :)

Time to start thinking about back to school... ick.

Pink Shell 2011 iPhone pics, raw and unedited

2011-07-26T18:57:00.003-04:00

I take SO many pictures with my iPhone (Buddy). I don't always have my big camera with me but I want to catch life in the action. I may not get a chance to blog things for a while but when I do I at least have some sort of photo to go along with the narrative. Please excuse the quality, Buddy doesn't do well in certain lighting conditions. After a year and a half I just figured out how to get all my pictures off the phone and into a file without having to email them one by one, hence all the collage posts from May, June and July. At least you know what we have been up to, even with all the crazy random pictures thrown together. :) Also excuse the fact that most of these are on FB, I wanted to add more commentary. Enjoy our month at the beach. More pics to follow from the Nikon...

Kevin during low tide, critter hunting. He spent the evening "saving" the lightning whelks on the sandbars. Did you know that the Lightning Whelk is the only left handed shell?

The HomerHouse :)

Mister and Sister :D

Mom and Dad

My dad tried like crazy to get the kids to do this shot last year. This year they did it with out complaint but I didn't have the camera!

I love, love, love this picture. It sums up my daughter in totality, ya know, that "a pictures worth a 1,000 words" kind of thing. She is a water baby!

Eva's first trip shark fishing. We had a great day, thanks Rick! :)

Pinkie catching bait

I love this one, she is trying to save all the star fish. My kids get so irked when people (kids especially) mistreat and man handle the sea creatures.

Summer reading at it's best. Who wouldn't enjoy sitting on the porch, with a breeze and a great book? ahhhh......decadence!

Six Flags 2011

2011-07-02T16:28:00.001-04:00

Each year the kids have the opportunity to read for free Six Flags tickets. Boy, do they know the way to Jared's heart! We let the kiddos pick a friend to take, especially since they have the same option to get free tickets too. It's a win-win. This year we had a sleep over afterward, it was chaos but so much fun to welcome summer.

Ryan & Gabby

1st stop? The BRAND NEW Dare Devil Dive, Jared has been waiting MONTHS for this to open, he was over the moon excited. Everyone went on except for Ryan, Evan and Mom...that's ok-someone needs to watch the stuff ;)

Lived up to expectations, which for him are pretty high :)

Thunder River: Rob, Anthony, Jared and Jordan

Thunder river part two: hehehe, guess who got wet? Kevin, Evan, Gabby & Ryan
No worries Kevin, we were all going to get soaked in a bit. A HUGE summer storm came out of nowhere so we ended up calling the day short by about an hour. There was so much hail, wind and rain I thought we would float away. We stopped at Waffle House for dinner and then back to the HomerHouse for sleeps, great visit-next year will be here soon I am sure.

Ready? Set? JUNE!

2011-07-02T16:13:00.000-04:00

Ryan's class project, a pumpkin seed in a cup. She begged us to plant it! Wanna takes bets on if we will have a pumpkin for Halloween?

Got a chance to sneak up to the lake for some summer fun!

Jared got to go to Aerospace Camp at Southern Poly (Thanks Grammy & Pop Pop). He had a BLAST and wants to go again. If you look close you can see the golden eagle pin he won. Only a few were handed out all week. He won the boomerang contest :)

More swim team for Chargers

Ryan on the Blocks, she and Jared won MVS this year for their age groups.

Happy Father's Day! Jared got straight A's last year so you got a flier that entitled you to get Braves tickets for a great price. We took them up on their offer since that seems to be the new Father's Day tradition.

Dad and Kev with Ryan peeking out :)

Pinkie and Duff, first time swimming at GT, beautiful pool!!

Menchies, our new addiction, so scrumptious...mmmmm.....FroYo.....

Hey look at that! Our pumpkin got bigger. We had three flowers on it when we left for the beach, but no busy bees were around to pollinate. :( No pumpkin for us this year. I think she and daddy guy are going to plant an actual garden next summer, I am sure we will have tomatoes too :)

Sky Valley

2011-06-02T16:42:00.005-04:00

Where, oh where, does the time go? I promise I was just blogging about Goats on the Roof not too long ago...

Ryan and Duff waiting to get to the mountains

ahhh, Rob's official start to summer. He LOVES this porch and an ice cold beer after a game or two of horse shoes. I think Rick and I were triumphant over Daddy and Rob. Since I blog about it, I can make stuff up. If anyone ever reads this they can challenge my decisions to declare us the victors :D

Geocaching on the top of Black Rock Mountain. Seeing the spring tornado damage was heart breaking.

Got lost trying to geocache on the way home but found this cool spot that mom and dad had been to before, Mark of the Potter. Such an incredibly cool place to go and we were lucky to stumble upon it.

End of May recap in 20 seconds or less

2011-06-02T15:41:00.001-04:00

Gold Banquet on May 13th, Ryan got her 3 year pin. I took her annual photo with Coach Falco. Will she officially be swimming for him next year? We will see? :D

Yahoo, the neighborhood pool opened this weekend, Ryan and Duff took the plunge to start off summer...

First long course meet of the season, Ryan came within 1.18 sec of the team record for the 50BR. She beat all her times and so did Jared, way to go guys!

Duffy waiting while the kids have after school summer swim team practice in the neighborhood

Cherokee Relay with our friends, the Amicks. Awesome night! It was so nice to just attend an event instead of being in charge of something at the event. Entirely different perspective for us and the kids.

First Chargers meet, Kevin won the event for his 25 FL

Meghan and Ryan, go Chargers!

Hannah, Jared & Josh, the three musketeers :)

Last day of school. I surprised Ryan with a trip to 3-Thirteen to get her "Pink" put back in. So much easier than the hair color of last year. Let's hope this lasts!

Relay 2011

2011-05-09T18:35:00.002-04:00

Friends for LIFE 2011

I did not even take my camera this year, all the pictures I have are courtesy of my Dad :)
Color guard to lead the opening lap

Jared selling pizzas

Mommy and Ryan

Survivor/ Caregiver Lap

Mom, Nan and Tracey

Mr. Willy Wonka and the Misster Relay participants

kind of blurry but it's hard to get this shot of the luminary ceremony

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED

2011-05-04T18:32:00.001-04:00

WOW #12 where has the time gone?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Love,
Mom, Dad, Kevin and Ryan

Jared's Birthday Field Trip

2011-05-02T19:26:00.001-04:00

Jared's Birthday Field trip 2011. All our boy wanted was to see the penguins, not the ones at the Georgia Aquarium down the street, the ones in Tennessee. Well, you only turn 12 once so we packed up with the kids plus Justin and Anthony. We had a GREAT day!!

First stop was the touch tank

The next visit was to the butterfly room. I think Ryan could have stayed in there ALL day. Butterfly Ry was like the butterfly whisperer. They LOVED her.

Kevin was getting SO frustrated because they would not land on him. He tried so hard to "hold" a butterfly. Ryan got one to land on her finger and shared with her bubby...

My personal favorite ;)

This picture absolutely cracks me up. I love Kevin's face :)

I forgot this ones name, yes I did know it for a while...I learned it during the up close Penguin encounter that we were able to go on...HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!

So happy to be with his friends and hanging out with penguins. I think the day was everything he dreamed it would be. We got to observe the penguins with about 8 other kids. It was a great way to ask questions, watch up close and learn more about my boys favorite animal

I love this shot of the sea horse

sea dragon, so beautiful!

We did both aquarium buildings, two animal encounters (the penguin encounter and all about sharks), we saw the IMAX move about African Elephants and Orangutan monkeys in the wild. We indulged on Ben & Jerry's and totally enjoyed our Tennessee day.

April Recap

2011-05-01T18:18:00.001-04:00

I started the month by telling the kids to enjoy April cause before we know it, it will be summer. April and May FLY by in the Homerhouse. I am now sitting here in my bathing suit the 2nd week of June catching up from a crazy 6 weeks...

The weekend of the 15-16th we had our 8th annual Spring Garage Sale for the Relay for Life. We raised around $1,000. Not bad, I can deal with making $500 a day :) That Sunday we went to Chattanooga for Jared's birthday present, the Tennessee Aquarium with Justin and Anthony. I have about 160 pics from the day so I will post that separate.

The next weekend was Easter at the lake. The weather was beautiful and the service was great. I really enjoyed hearing the trumpets (Daddy and Rick)...maybe next year Kevin will join in. He is looking forward to taking up the trumpet in the Fall. :)

The next weekend was a Girls Weekend in Orlando. Rob gave me a trip for my 35th birthday to head down to Ft. Myers to see my girlfriend Eva. She grabbed me at the airport and we drove on up to Orlando to stay with my high school girlfriend Staci. The tow girls had never met before but you would never know it-we all had such a great time. Friday after we hung out for a bit we got all dolled up and went to dinner at Ohana, the BEST dinner place on Disney property. I have never seen (or eaten) so much food. We laughed until we cried almost every moment of the evening, what fun! Saturday we hit the parks. Staci works at EPCOT so we we lucky to get a ticket to get into the Park (THANKS STACE!!). We walked into Epcot from the boardwalk ( I had never been back there) and spent about half the day in EPCOT. I got the kids treats there, including Duffy. Duffy needs his own post...long story short, Duff is like Flat Stanley and the "Girls gone wild" spent the day walking around Epcot with our teddy taking pictures. :) Oh yeah, we are wild ones! The plan was to get the pictures developed and put into an album for Ryan. We spent the other half of the day in MGM, so much fun and I even rode the roller coaster. EEEK! Sunday I taught the girls how to geocache...after a morning at downtown Disney. I think they are both hooked :) What a great time. Eva and I said goodbye to Staci Sunday night and drove home to Cape Coral, I had a flight out Monday at 1 pm. How I hated to leave...plus I had Relay breathing down my neck.

Speaking if Relay, that was the following weekend. I will post on that next but we really did well. I was worried that we wouldn't have enough help, but everything worked out just fine. We raised a few thousand dollars the night of and ran out of pizzas three times. The new balloo-min-aries were a HIT, so great!

Spring Break 2011

2011-04-08T22:59:00.005-04:00

So here we are, I am all caught up on chores, sorting the stuff for the FFL garage sale next week and blogging is current.

We started the week by going up to Hartwell. No burning this time, just fishing for the Bu. The last few times we have been up there the weather has been less than stellar and we wanted to make sure he got a chance to fish. Saturday was WINDY as was Sunday and Monday. Didn't stop the boys from getting out and wetting a line. No luck.

Sunday was a bit less sunny out so we hit the movies in the afternoon, HOP for everyone except Lars and Rob, they went to see Source Code. Each group like their flick and we made it home in time for a sun set cruise. I caught my first EVER bass, the only fish seen all weekend. Poor Bu, all he wanted was a Garr like he had seen on River Monsters. That night we finished up the duck tape creations that we had started in the morning. Hair bows, flip flops and wallets for the boys were on the list of items made. Don't forget all the flowers that we made with the sticky substance. The swimmers have all gotten into using duck tape as a great art medium...Ryan can't wait to wear her shoes to the pool.

Monday was more fishing, horseshoes and hair cuts. I have to say I could pay a ton and get the same cut, my mom should go into business...
Tuesday the kids each had a dentist appointment. Ryan had a small cavity that needed to be sanded out. Apparently she only has 2 of her 6 year molars. Her front teeth are no where near the surface, looks like they might come in at Christmas after all. A round of ice cream for everyone (hey, it is Spring Break!)
Wednesday we spent the day getting ready for the garage sale. Each day we cleaned out different areas of the house. Today was basement and bed rooms. YAY de-clutter. Thursday was more of the same, just kitchen and closets. Each night we went to a park, Wednesday was the soccer fields and Thursday was JJ Biello. Had to get out and play just a bit.
Friday was play day. If it stood still this week it was either washed (laundry), cleaned or donated. A morning of blogging was on my agenda but the kids played with forts and hung out together. I LOVE when they play nice! Soul Surfer at the theater for the girls and I let the boys go see Diary of a Wimpy kid. We tried out this new Fro-Yo place called Menchies, played at the toy store and when dad got home had dinner out and another park-the castle playground at 1st Baptist. Super fun end to a great week-won't be long and we will be out for SUMMER!!! YAY!

Carrollton aka soggy wet mess

2011-03-28T22:20:00.003-04:00

Each year we make two trips out to Carrollton to swim, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Spring is notorious for storms in Georgia and they usually come our way via Carrollton...that meant that when we were at the swim meet, we got the brunt of the storms. Now this pool is pretty awesome, it's a glass green house. The walls and ceiling are ALL glass. It is really a cool place to swim (well-steamy is more like it) but the kids do well here. Friday night Jared didn't have any events. Saturday morning he only had three. That made me scratch my head, why would we drive out there for 3 events? Well, he actually made finals in all 3 events. This was his second Prelim/final meet, something we are still getting used to. That meant he swam in the morning, posted a top 16 time and had to come back that night and swim it all over again...aahhh, now I get it, 3+3=6. Duh. Way to go swim mom. Poor Jared, we learn everything with him.

So as I said, Jared posted a top 16 on Saturday in the 50 Breast, 100 Back and the 50 Fly. In the finals he finished 12th, 14th and 14th respectively. Pretty cool considering we had been there 14 hours by the time he warmed up til he cooled down. A LONG day.

In the mean time, Ryan had the second shift to swim. She had 4 events plus the chance to swim in relays. She usually gets bumped from a relay by a faster swimmer or there are not enough girls to make a team. This time she made the A free relay and she was super stoked, that is until the storms caused such a back up with delays that she only got to swim 3 events and the final event and the relay got cut from the meet. Boo. At least she crushed her times for the 3 events she did swim. That little fish is getting ever closer to a state cut time and she's only 8! I do have to say that even though we were stuck in a leaky greenhouse where it was raining inside and the kids were soaked and so were the parents, it was a fabulous day.

Day two was even better. Jared made 3 for 3 again and finished 16th in the 100 Free, 11th in the 100 Breast and 14th for the 50 back. Really impressive. His times were right on or lower and he was super proud of himself. Way to go Jared!

Ryan's second day was one for the memory banks. She got to swim all 4 events. She was up on her time for one and then way down on her time for another. She would crush her times or DQ, it was really strange. I think timing was off from sitting for two days as well as an impending growth spurt. Her memorable swims came from the 50 back (and the lovely corkscrew DQ), the 50 FL where she totally crushed her time and almost beat our her arch nemesis and the 25 back where she was on an 18 second pace and freaked out, slowed to a stop and went from 1st to 4th. But the pinnacle? Hands down, the medley relay. Gracie (8-back), Sammi (7-breast), Ryan (8-Fly), Ana (7-free) made up the toughest group of 7 and 8 year old girls I have ever seen. The A relay team was seeded 2nd and they pulled off a 1st beating their seed time by a second. Overall Ryan took home three 2nd place medals (25/50 Br and 50 Fl) and one each of 1st (relay), 3rd (IM), 4th (25 Bk) and 6th (50 Fr).

Spring String Jamboree

2011-03-22T21:52:00.005-04:00

Jared decided to throw the violin onto his plate of things to do. He really picked it up fast and he seems to really enjoy it. I love the fact that he is using my old violin that I never learned how to play. I decided to chaperon the field trip over to JJ Daniel (Rob's old Middle School) and boy was that an eye opener. I know that we have exceptionally good kids and I am thankful everyday but to see some really snarky pre-teen kids REALLY made me appreciate our three wonderful children. I enjoyed my time served to the Palmer Orchestra but I was glad to get home to my rotten little monkey urchins.

Part of the fun of being there 2 hours early was that I got to watch everything unfold from one middle school group to six local schools. It was a wonder to watch everything come together and actually sound like music when the kids literally ran through each piece once before showtime.

By the time the actual concert started my battery was on it's last leg. I zoom in on the first video so you can see we are right in front of Jared just on the front of the "stage" where he is way in the back. You can always go to: thehomerhouse You Tube channel to view in non blurry full screen

Toomers Trees Field Trip

2011-03-01T16:10:00.002-05:00

The first weekend of our break we found out that the Toomers Trees had been poisoned. For anyone who went to Auburn this is such a sickening thought. Why would someone hurt our trees? Our roots run deep in the plains and they start with those trees. Whenever we have a big win, we make an exodus to Toomer's Corner and roll the trees with toilet paper. It's a great way to celebrate and it's harmless. Why would someone do this? It is just despicable. We decided to take the kids on a field trip to see the trees before they die. Brandon is living down there so he met us for the day and we made some awesome memories.

Outside of Samford Hall

One of my favorite bookstores on campus

The trees with Toomer's in the background

Rob and Bran in front of the lesser tree

Looking back at the trees from outside of Toomers Drug store

Going in to get a lemonade

Ryan's first drink of lemonade, YUMMO!

The boys as we head over to see more of the campus.

One more shot from the other corner

Haley center. I had many classes here :)

Outside the Colosseum. I have a picture like this from when Rob graduated.

How cute will this picture be if Ryan signs on to swim for AU?

The aquatic center-utterly breathtaking.

Both kids said they want to swim here-time will tell.

Loved this display at the Auburn museum inside the new Arena

Getting tired of walking around

The boys met Aubie at a baseball game

Ryan decided to come meet him too :)

Beautiful day with great company. We won't wait so long to come back again!

Italia (Rob's pics)

2011-02-27T10:47:00.001-05:00

Rob gets to travel quite a bit for work, great places like Turkey, Australia, maybe Estonia...you get the point. He hijacked my camera for his trip to Italy in February. I posted some of my favorites but Rob will have to add notes as to what we are looking at...I'm sure I missed something of great historical significance but maybe he can shed some light. I was never really good at history.

Vatican maybe?

This place looks huge, the people look so tiny! The statues on the top must be 15 feet tall...

I know this one. The only picture I asked him to take. It's the Bridge of Angels near the Vatican. I remembered this from my brothers travel pictures and I wanted Rob to get to see it.

Love this one...

Trevi Fountain maybe?

Rob loved this, I agree.

I am quite certain this picture does NOT do justice...

February Break

2011-02-22T10:27:00.001-05:00

We decided to head up to the lake for some R & R during our February break from school. I wasn't sure if I would be a fan of all these week long breaks, but I have to tell you, the year has flown by. We got to sleep in on Saturday and that was SO sweet! Then we hit the beach to burn, burn, burn. Mom and dad have quite a bit of property to keep up with so we decided that we could lend a hand. It's not always fun and games up there. The stupid raccoon decided to make a home for himself in the Windy Two so that mess got cleaned up as well. A hard day of work and we had the rest of the time to play.

Sunday the weather was grumpy so we all just hung out around the house.

Monday was time to Geocache! We decided to drive around and hit some of the ones we have had trouble with in the past. Now that we know what we are doing it made it a bit easier. Unfortunately we let Grandfather pick the movie that night and he is now on movie restriction!

We decided to head back in time for practice on Tuesday but traffic was awful so we ended up missing it by 30 minutes. The rest of the week we just chilled around the house, got caught up on chores and made plans for our visit to Auburn on Saturday.

Ryan did decide one day that we needed to go to the store and buy fabric for her to make a pillow case. Gran and Grandfather got her a sewing machine for her birthday and I had been promising that she could make one. I think it turned out pretty cute. :)

lay everything out to get ready

removing the pins as we go

TA DA! a new pillow case for her travel pillow. Great job Ryan!

Chili Bake off~~Lament to Lazarus

2011-02-14T15:10:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows Kevin LOVES to cook, Rob does too and the one thing they make together is Chili. There's nothing better on a Sunday afternoon than a nice big 'ol bowl of Chili. Yumm-o! SO the boys entered the 1st Annual Chili cook-off for our church to raise money for the Youth Group. Guess what? Rob got called out of town. :( Considering I have NEVER made a pot of chili I had no clue where to begin. I told Kev he was on his own and if he still wanted to enter then he had to do the cooking--all by himself. :D

There were two prizes awarded, name and taste. He was obviously going for taste but ended up winning for name. Have to admit that Jared helped him a bit with this. I only helped pour off the grease :) Either way he was happy to have placed and dad was super proud, even from across the pond :)

Way to go Bu, so proud of you! Can you cook this week? ;)

Rays Invite

2011-02-04T16:03:00.002-05:00

This weekend we devoted to swimming...again. It was a tough meet for both kids-long events, long days, and big kids with fast times. Ryan had to swim girls that were almost 13 since it was a 12U event. Jared just had to try and post respectable times.

They both totally rocked it out and they each blew their times out of the water. Jared dropped time in 8 of 8 events and Ryan dropped times in 7 of 8. Unbelievable! The most incredible times were Jared's 200 Back, he dropped 10 seconds and on his 200 Breast he dropped 15 seconds. 4 seconds off on his 50 Back and 200 Free. Amazing!

Ryan had a 15 sec bombshell for her 100 Breast, an 11 second on her 100 Back and a whopper dropper of 21 seconds down on her 100 Fly. Super fun to watch. She also posted time in a new event, her 200 Fr. Her seed time was 20 seconds more than she swam it so I guess she did really well in that event as well. WAY TO GO!!

Ryan's 8th Birthday Party

2011-01-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

My baby can't be 8 already!?!

As most of you know the Homerhouse kids are allowed just a handful of special people for their birthday celebration. This makes things difficult when trying to choose who is going to attend but when we have the birthday treat we can do more intricate activities.

This year Ryan picked her two girlfriends Ashleigh and Shay. She wanted "stars on the ceiling" (a local Mexican place) and to go paint pottery.
We had so much fun hanging out making our creations! Shay made a jet ski, Ryan a turtle, Ash a coffee mug, Jared a snail, Kevin a longhorn magnet and football and I made a cereal bowl with cinnamon toast crunch characters on it. We had so much fun!

Afterwords we went back to the house for some chocolaty-chocolate-chocolate cake...Ryan's favorite.

I hope year 8 brings everything your heart desires Brittle. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Photo Shop Lesson I

2011-01-22T18:55:00.005-05:00

I AM SO EXCITED!! Jared has been teaching himself how to use PS Elements the past couple weeks. I got it for Christmas (LAST YEAR...ooops) and I have ALWAYS wanted to do a black and white with a touch of color, that was today's lesson #1 YAY!!
Here is the before:

Here is the after:

Now I want him to help me move the Christmas tree in our photo card.....be back in a minute.

Ok lesson #2 was to move the Christmas tree behind the kids. This year I had grabbed a quick shot on the way out the door to church. Two problems with that 1-the light was behind them (HUGE boo boo) and 2-the tree was moved from the middle of the room where it has always been (eliminating problem number 1). So it drove me crazy to have that dumb window in the back ground of our photo card. I wondered if I could do anything about it in PS...here is the result. :)

and the after:

Obviously this was done quickly, but I know now that it can be done-with time and patience...it's not perfect but it's a start :)
Thanks Jared for the lessons!!

MLK swim meet & Kell Greenhorn

2011-01-17T19:54:00.005-05:00

I have no pictures from the MLK meet. I tend to not take my camera there because it is not the best area of town. That was made obvious when Ryan's iPod got stolen while we were sitting with 20 of our friends. On her birthday no less. What a bummer.

As far as swimming was concerned, Ryan placed in all her events. This was her last meet as a 7 year old (since her birthday was the day after they started the meet she was registered as a 7) and she went out with a bang. She has finally grown into her age group and as kids age up and she gets faster I expect her to be close to the top here soon. She is seeded in the top ten for most of her meets and has been in the top 6 after finals. Awesome! The final results are still not posted from this weekends meet but she placed 3rd in her 50 free (dropped 3 seconds and is 3 seconds away from a 9-10 state cut...are you kidding me?!), 6th in her 25 back (right on her time), 2nd in her 50 breast (dropped 1/2 a second), 2nd in her 25 fly (down a second) and she qualified for the medley relay and they took first. WTG Pinkie!

Jared also swam on Saturday for the MLK. Rob hasn't seen him swim in a while and he was pleasantly surprised. :) In his first event he took 3 seconds off his 100 free and took 24th place, next up was his 50 back where he dropped a second and came in 24th place again, 100 breast is still his favorite and he was right at his time and came in 12th, final event of the day was the 100 IM where he came in on his time and probably finished around 22nd.

Sunday was a full day at church and the Kell Longhorn Classic. Since it is our tournament it is mandatory to be there and volunteer. While I took the church shift with Jared and Ryan, Rob took Kevin to the match. It was not a beginners tournament and Kevin got pinned pretty quick in both his matches. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

He came back the next day (Martin Luther King Jr Monday) for the Kell Greenhorn. Also our tournament but this time for 1st and 2nd year wrestlers only. My parents were in town for this since my dad had a hearing aid appointment. So far I was the only one to witness a Kevin win over the last two years and Kevin was set on getting a pin. His first match was a bye, second was a win by forfeit--great, we were guaranteed a bronze before he even stepped foot on the mat.

His first kid beat his first opponent. I looked at Kevin and told him it was the kid he ALMOST beat the week before, he only needed a couple more seconds to get him pinned, so today he just needed to get in there and get the pin early. I have NO CLUE if this was the same kid. :) Kevin got in the ring, put a game face on and got the kid pinned in the first period. AWESOME!!! 1st pin EVER :) Super excited. My dad had to leave for his appointment so he had missed it, luckily Gran was there and so was Jared so I have people to vouch that he did really do it. I bought him his shirt and he was over the moon.

His next match was also a win by forfeit so he was now guaranteed silver. Sweet! The coach of the other kid requested a rematch for exhibition during Kevin's bye. Since Kevin's coach thought the other kid should have won the first time around (he was VERY proud that Kevin went from being the non aggressor to the winner in that match) I wasn't sure how it would go. At least my dad was back in time to see Kevin actually compete. Not sure if the other coach just wanted mat time or redemption? Well, he got the mat time but Kevin walked away with his second pin. Too bad it didn't count for scoring...it was a nice recreation for Grandfather :)

Third match was against the kid that got beat in the first round. I told Kevin that if he won this he was champion. I also told him this kid was taller and faster, but he was stronger and bigger so get in there and intimidate him right off the bat. When he took to the center of the ring I almost peed my pants. The look on his face was like a chihuahua trying to stare down a pit bull. He had this weird constipated angry look on his face but it must have worked. The kid was pinned by the 3rd round and Kevin was the champion of the 10U! I was so super proud of him.

I don't usually take my camera to wrestling because the light is always so poor at the gyms. We were so blessed that a friend of ours was on the floor and took awesome pictures and got some great ones of Kevy. What a memorable day!!

the starting hand shake

Kevin going in for the first strike, right or wrong always go in for the first move. I told him to tackle that poor kid, maybe not what his coach would have said but I put it in terms he could get fired up about.

wrestling faces! love the dimples ;)

take down!

this one makes me laugh and think about Christmas Story, "he laid there like a slug, it was his only defense..."

Guess the kid was trying hard to not get pinned down...

...didn't work! :) Kevin got the pin and the win.

YAY! The Champion :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN

2011-01-15T18:14:00.000-05:00

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY RYAN!!

WE LOVE YOU!
MOM, DAD, JARED and KEVIN

Snowmageddon 2011

2011-01-13T23:28:00.004-05:00

They started talking about the storm a week ago and they haven't stopped coverage since then. Warnings were given like go buy milk and bread. We have heard it all before but this time it was serious. When they started saying on Saturday that the kids would be out of school Monday I paid attention. There's no way they could mention that without knowing for sure. The hate mail the weather channel would get for false hopes would crash their ratings for sure! The rumor was that the storm was going to hit Sunday around 5 pm. That's fine since we had just made it home from Kevin's wrestling.
5 o'clock came and went. So did 6, 7 and 8. We finally sent the kids to bed knowing that school was closed but we weren't quite sure why. All the states West of us had declared states of emergency, Facebook was going nuts and there was nothing to show for it. Until 9:13 pm. Just kidding, I have no idea when it started. All I know was I stared out that blasted window for HOURS then during a commercial break of Desperate Housewives the deck was covered in a dusting. Could not have been more than 5 minutes, wow. Within 20 minutes we had an inch, in an hour almost 2. By the time we went to bed after surfing news show after news show we had close to 4 1/2 inches. We woke up to a couple more, a total around 6 inches. Problem was that when the system went through it sleeted on top about 1/4-1/2 inch of ice. Fun for sledding, not so much for snow man making. Bottom line? We ended up being out of school ALL week.

Roads were finally tolerable on Thursday but not good enough for buses. School will be out Monday as well for MLK. Ryan keeps going around murmuring how awesome her birthday gift from God is, an entire week off of school. I was happy since I wanted a do-over from being so sick over Christmas. Looks like it's a win-win. Now if you'll excuse me, I am craving milk and eggs with toast. ;)

right before bed, I grabbed the camera. This is the most snow I have seen since 1993.

It's been since the 1980's when Cobb schools were closed for a week. That was also from an "ice storm". At least we didn't lose power on Monday night for the BCS National Championship! War Eagle!! Sorry, I just had to throw that one in there, I found the picture when I was editing photos. ;)

Sprayberry Classic 2011

2011-01-09T22:43:00.002-05:00

After the Grizzly Tournament in December Kevin decided he wanted to wrestle in the Sprayberry Classic in January. He was already signed up for the two Kell tourneys but he wanted to do another one. Since conditioning seems to be his thing more than the killer instinct- get out there and cream your opponent-we decided that Kev would call the shots as to what we signed him up for. He's happy working out and we're happy he's getting exercise in the off season. Whether he competes is totally up to him. I decided to take him by myself since we had an impending storm system moving in. We needed serious provisions and Rob was in charge of doing that.

The first round of three was super intense. Kevin hung in for all 3 periods and the kid got a pin at the last second. I guess he did some sort of hold that wasn't legal so Kevin was pretty upset. Judging by how upset his coach got at the ref, I believe the other kid did something illegal. For the 2nd bout Kevin got in there fast and furious, more like we see him at practice. He WON on points, his first official win!! I was SO happy for him.

I think this was his 10th tournament, an average of three wrestles per tourney-he lost about 30 times in a row...pretty tough to keep getting up from that. But Kevin did, he got the tech win, now he wants the pin win. The third bout was ugly. The kid creamed Kevin on points. I'm not sure if he got a pin or not, the ref was less than stellar. Quite a few complaints but since I have no clue what is allowed or not I just had to depend on the coaches to fight that battle. I snapped another quick shot of Kev with my phone, the lighting was terrible for the big camera. We raced home to settle in for the huge snow storm...would it really snow again this soon?!?

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T22:54:00.001-05:00

MERRY CHRISTmas 2010!!!

our 2010 photo card

time for stockings, the kids got stuff from all over the world, that Santa guy sure does travel alot!

shortly after we finished opening gifts, it started to snow. Guess who was the 1st out to play? ;)

Time to warm up with some of Rob's home brew. Like the glasses he got from mom and dad for Christmas? ;) Now, "I'll have a beer" takes on a whole new meaning...

The kids finally got on their extended deep sea diving gear and ventured outside. I took a picture of the snowman they built with Grammy but it didn't come out very well...

...see what I mean? white on white. reminds me of a Carvel cake mom ordered once. :)

Haley decided this snow stuff looked kind of neat...

...you could see the yummy birds really well! Just kidding. I took this picture because Grandma Lou always loved Cardinals.
It was a fantastic day with our family. We were able to have a white Christmas, first in Atlanta since the 1800's. We all ate, and ate, and ate. We also got to warm up with my new Keurig machine. Made making hot cocoa by the gallon very easy!

Total Eclipse of the...moon :)

2010-12-22T22:20:00.000-05:00

I love that song, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler....Ryan loves the movie Eclipse (she's on team Edward ;)) and Jared loves lunar eclipses. I got an email from my dad that there would be an eclipse that night. Not that big a deal they happen quite often, just not always in the northern hemisphere. What was cool was that it was happening on the winter solstice. Not long after I got a call from Rob that the Tellus museum in Cartersville (about 25 minutes from here) was having an all night-"Night at the Museum" kind of thing in honor of the event. Rick happened to be in town so I asked him if he wanted to go on a field trip to see the eclipse. He was game, Jared was stoked and I was picked to be the driver. We headed out around 1am to partly cloudy skies. When we got there the clouds were thickening and by the time we got our tickets the moon was gone. No worries, they had live feed from Florida so we still got to see it, kind of. We had fun walking around the museum past hours, sitting in the theatre for the Q & A session and going out to check the skies in the big observatory on the campus. Hey we even made the 11-Alive news...well a glimpse of the back of Rick and Jared's head made the news. :) We tried to do a goober in the back ground shot but they must have edited us out. The guy in the black shirt was where we were standing. Guess they didn't appreciate our 4 am humor. ;)

Mid December Recap

2010-12-14T10:29:00.002-05:00

After an awesome time for Thanksgiving, the kids went back to school for three more weeks. In that time we hit Bethlehem, Nancy's concert at Mt. Bethel, The Bartow's Christmas party, driving around looking at lights, Christmas concerts & plays and various sports.

Here's a shot of Ryan helping me get the gingerbread men ready after swim practice one night. My thinking was to take the kids to Bethlehem and then come home to hot cocoa and gingermen. Best laid plans. Mt.View changed what nights Bethlehem was open so we just came home to some sweet treats. We ended up going the next weekend.

This is supposed to be a video of Kevin playing the blocks during his Christmas concert (click here to go to the HomerHouse YouTube site where I uploaded it). I guess the video is too large. :(He was super excited to be the understudy and was tickled pink that the original person couldn't attend, making him the block player for his class' song. He even made the credits. :)

This is supposed to be a video of Ryan's class play (YoutTube). This girl worked so hard at her lines. She knew hers as well as everyone elses. The best part was that Rob was supposed to be out of town but his trip got cut short due to weather. We surprised Ryan with his attendance and she was over the moon. I think we have an actor in the family. ;)

Jingle Bells and Grizzly bears

2010-12-13T21:59:00.004-05:00

This weekend is one of my favorites every year. The Jingle Bell swim meet up in Dalton Georgia. It was Jared's first meet and is super fun. Not only do the coaches and attendees wear Christmas hats, but the kids get candy canes for best times. It is also broken down by age group so it's an easier meet. For Pinkie swimming against 11 year olds most of the time, this was a welcomed relief. This girl did awesome. I was so happy for her that she won each of her events. I have never seen a Homer name at the top of the list so I took a picture with my phone. Cheesy, I know.

And from the Chattahoochee Gold Newsletter--
The event winners were: Pinkie Homer (50 free, 50
back, 50 fly, 50 breast, 100 IM)---awesome

While Pinkie and I were in Dalton; Rob, Gran and Kevin were wrestling at the Grizzly meet in town. Kevin got pinned in 11 seconds the first round and again in about 45 seconds the second round. He ended up with the bronze but is still waiting for that win!

Sunday of that weekend took us up to Gainsville to swim. Kevin stayed with Grammy and Pop Pop while Gran, Jared and Mom went to the pool early. Rob and Pinkie came a bit later. Jared swam well, he even made a qualifying swim for the 100 breast!
We figured Ryan wouldn't do anything of interest since she had been posting best times for the last three meets. At one point she was told she was on the free relay team & she was super excited. After her 25 Free (posting a 17.14-SUPER fast for a 7 year old and a personal best) she was told she wouldn't be on the relay. To say she was devastated is an understatement. She was ANGRY. She wouldn't talk to Rob, myself, her coaches or Gran. In her mind her best wasn't good enough. I was a bit upset because she still had the 100 free to go. When she got on the blocks she wouldn't look in the stands. No cutesy little I love you's, dances on the blocks or way to gos. Nope, she was all business. When that horn went she was off like a shot. In lane 4 she led the pack through the first 25. By the 2nd people were starting to look at her swim, by the 3rd lap they were looking to see "who was that kid" and by the 4th we were all in awe. That little monkey took 14 seconds off a best time 100 Free. I don't know where that button is for turbo charge but we need to find it! :) She ened up getting a ribbon in all 5 events that day.
After that monumental swim Rob and Ryan left the pool to drive mom back to the lake while I stayed with Jared for his first finals. IT's a LONG day when you have prelims and finals with little sis swimming in between. I think we were there for 13 hours?? Jared placed 12th in the 100 breast, super cool since he was seeded 16th. Way to go Jared! He wants to make a finals first heat so he can hear his name called on the blocks. That's an awesome goal. :)

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-28T21:06:00.003-05:00

The new rule for Cobb county schools is to have the entire week off for Thanksgiving. We hate it when we go back to school so early from summer break, but by the time winter starts rolling in, we're ready for a breather. The Homerhouse decided to relocate to the lake for the week. Rob was working from home and I took the week off to be with the family. Jared had a big project due so he was working on reading the book for that. Mom had given him a book about the Dam break in Toccoa Ga when we were at the lake this summer. He needed something to read for a Social Studies project and it fit the bill. :) During the week we decided on a field trip to Toccoa Falls to see what he had been reading about. As we piled into the car Mom made a comment, "I wonder if there are any Geocaches there?" When we went to Sky Valley in Spring I downloaded a geocache app to my phone, sure enough on the trip to Toccoa mom and I played on our phones and found some Geocaches.
Now for those of you unfamiliar to Geocaching, it is like a GPS scavenger hunt. You look up the area you are going to be in (national parks are a goldmine for Geocaching). Add the coordinates into a GPS and find your way to the treasure. In the early days a tupperware type box was placed in a hidden location. A note pad was also in the box. When you found the box you took the stamp from the cache and placed a mark in your personal journal. Then you as a hunter would have a personal stamp that you would place in the caches log book. Then you re-hide the cache and go on to the next one. Initial names for geocaching inclue letter boxing, puzzle hunting and questing. We stick with Geocaching. Now days there are still log books but instead of stamps there are trinkets or coins. Take something, leave something. Most of the time it's junk but sometimes you can get lucky and find a traceable coin....but that's a whole nother blog post. :)

Here's Jared at the site of the memorial for those who died in the Dam break. By the way he got a 98 on the project. :)

The rotten monkey urchins at the falls.

So we put the coordinates into our smartphones and realized we had to drive to our first Geocache. WE.WERE.HOOKED. It was so much fun trying to figure out where to go. Rob was driving, Rick was co piloting and the rest of us were dreaming about what might be in the Geocache.

After some hunting, reading the clue on the phone and some light digging through leaves we (a-hem, I) found our first cache. Not quite sure what we were expecting to find but this was it. A log only (no trinkets) cache but it was our first.

The H2K GeoKrew. Daddy was missing because he was on his way back into town for the holiday. No worries, he'll get a chance to go hunting!

After driving in circles for EVER we decided that we had to learn how to use the apps to find the caches. It was tricky figuring out the technique. We found our second location but we were very limited on time due to weather and daylight.

Our first trip was on Tuesday, caches found-1. We hit a few more on Wednesday on our way to shop til you drop. We found a geo-coin but I won't go into detail on that story. Thursday was Thanksgiving and we went by boat to about 5 different islands. I can't wait for summer! Friday saw Rob heading out of town while the rest of us took the ENTIRE day to Geocache. I think we made 17 stops?? Crazy I know, but it is SO much fun. It's a great family activity that we can all do together. Plus it's great exercise. I think we found a new hobby!

Blog a thon final installment

2010-11-20T18:36:00.006-05:00

So Jared made Honor Roll for his first term in Middle School. Ryan made the wall of fame before Thanksgiving (that is the fastest that any Homer child has made it up on the wall). Kevin got straight A's on his first report card of the term, another HomerHouse first. I can honestly say they are doing fantastic in school all around. So awesome guys!

At Carlton Farms in Cartersville (our favorite corn maze)

Ok, I loved this shot too, I couldn't decide :)

Ryan was asked to come read to her preschool during conference week. She was so honored and practiced for weeks. She picked Skeleton Hiccups and The Little old Lady who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. It was so cute to watch. Kevin was a big helper holding the book and helping with sound effects. :)

We decided to have a sleepover for 9 kids the weekend of Halloween. I'm not quite sure what I was thinking but we had such a super fantastic time. We went to the Haunted House in the neighborhood to benefit St. Judes, ate cookies, played video games and just had a great time.

This is one of those pictures that makes me pee my pants. Look carefully at Jared. I love how they think I'll never know what they are doing. We always have ways of finding out, sometimes it just takes a photo edit to see it!

Ryan is in mourning, Kevin is super serious and who knows what face Jared is making under that mask!

Jelly Bean the pumpkin with Kevins #66 pumpkin

My AU with Jared's Oblivion pumpkin

Kevin's actual birthday party. Think the kids were sick of cameras?

I L.O.V.E the expression on Kev's face when he got his iTouch. Thanks to Rob's Delta points we were able to get him his wish list gift-he was totally surprised! Look at Jackson-these boys crack me up! :) We had a great time at Dave & Busters and even had a mystery guest show up at Zaxby's for dinner and games...Uncle Ricky was in town!

Blog a thon part III-almost done ;)

2010-11-20T17:46:00.009-05:00

So continuing on with our whirlwind tour of the HomerHouse Fall review. Jared started Confirmation classes this year. Hard to believe he is already that age. The program changed this year so it will now take 3 years to complete the course. We are in for a 7 year confirmation commitment. Here's the scary thing---Jared will have to come home from college to see Ryan be confirmed. AHHH! Crazy how fast the time is going here. Jared's first overnight camping trip to Luther Ridge was in October. He had a BLAST! I think 50 something kids went to NC for the weekend. I know Kevin is excited for his turn to go with Jared for an overnight.

A first in the HomerHouse, Jared decided that he wanted to do a Triathlon with Anthony. How can you argue with that? They already train for it, we might as well sign up. The other two kids want to do it in the Spring, so we may become a one sport family. I doubt we can give up year round swimming or football but ya never know!

Jared at the finish line. The first rain we had in over 2 months and it POURED down. I was so nervous for Mr. Careful Careful to do the bike portion but he did fantastic!

Not only did we go to Kevin's games, we went to the big kid Kell games as well. This was a shot from Jr. Longhorn night where they call all the young players out on to the field. Ansley gets all Ryan's clothes and is my girlfriend Trisha's daughter. She's two years younger but almost as tall as Ryan so I think they may have to start sharing clothes. They other cutie pie is Gabby, Ryan's girlfriend down the street. We had a blast and the Kell big boys are STILL undefeated and they are in the third round of the state playoffs. We are totally going if they make it to the finals!

Jared picked up an instrument this year. My violin. Rick gave it to me for my 10th Christmas gift. I love it but never learned how to play. Jared seems to be a natural and this is a shot from his first concert. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least! When the 7th graders came out it was amazing to see how they will improve in a year.

We decided to head to Stone Mountain for the Pumpkin festival. I took a quick shot of the Homer Kids, Mary and the boys before the 4D movie started. We look like a Hershey's commercial! :)

Pinkie on the blocks. We started our swim season in October and the kids did GREAT at their first meet. The Gold invite was a great season opener and they both did really well. Not two weeks later were they on the blocks again for the Carrollton invite. Pinkie for a second meet in a row beat all of her times but one. That is fantastic.

Jared was close on Ryan's heels with personal bests. He didn't break all of them each meet but he did break at least half which is still fantastic. Looking forward to the Jingle Bell meet in December, it's always a favorite and holds a special place in my heart.

This picture should get it's own post. Notice anything different about Kevin's looks? He got glasses at the end of October, what a change. I'm shocked that he was the first but he does really well with them. I think Jared may need to go with Ryan for her 1 year check up in December. Who knows, we may have all three in glasses soon. I hope not but we'll see. haha get it?

Blog a thon part II

2010-11-20T16:52:00.004-05:00

So continuing on with the blog a thon.... We went to the beach in July, then came home to school, lake weekends, football and more football. I will try to keep these in chronological order but I am not making any promises. Each occasion was awesome and worthy of blogging!

Jenni, Rich, Trey and Auntie Nancy came up to lake Hartwell. How cute is Trey?!? I wanted to eat him up all weekend. This child is so sweet and wicked smart. We all had so much fun together but I think my kids really enjoyed being the big kids and helping out their little buddy. He loved making the trucks honk, doesn't everyone?! :)

Ryan teaching Trey how to jump off the dock

Mom and Nan with a concoction ;)

Rob on the yamaha, great weather and very few boats

Jared chillin

This year for Labor Day we had company come in to town. We were very blessed to have my folks, my dad's sister Sandie, her hubby Milt, Dad's sister Karen and her hubby Gary come stay with us for the weekend. The gang was all together for Dad's oldest sister, Mary & Ralph's, 50th wedding anniversary. We had such a fantastic time. The last time we were all together at the HomerHouse was for Gramps' 90th birthday in November 2003.

Are you ready for football?? This year Rob decided he was going to help coach. That worked great for me since I had the swimmers at the pool. Practice time carpooling went very smoothly this year. :) Rob was in charge of special teams, Ryan was water girl, Jared sometimes was ball boy and I was the team videographer. Kevin got to start as center and played some defense as well. The team went 6-2 and tied for a playoff but lost in the tie breaker. Kev was ok with that, the boys were tired and he had wrestling to look forward to!

Kevin and his best friend Jackson. I can't wait to see these two young ones grow up together!

Kevin as center-go Kev!! He only had about 4 bad snaps all season, pretty good record. There is a special relationship between a center and his QB ;)

Getting ready to go to the first game of the season

Kev and Coach-Dad :)

One last weekend at the lake. Mary, Anthony and Andrew joined us for a few days when the kids had a break in September. It almost makes going back so early worth it. I think we saw three boats in four days. The kids had a fantastic time and want to adopt Gran and Grandfather. I'm sure we will have another lake visit at some point. :)

Blog a thon 2010

2010-11-20T16:11:00.006-05:00

I have absolutely no idea how I got so far behind on my blog. Life gets in the way of living. I know that part of it is that I got new computer software for my camera. I have no clue how to use it and I haven't had the time to figure it out yet. We got home from the beach in July and the kids went right back to school a week and a half later. That meant I went back to work and the blog got pushed aside. That makes my heart hurt. I haven't even had time to read other peoples blogs. There is so much stuff that I missed in the past couple months. I will have to do better in the future! I was planning on going through and posting all the pics in real time but that would take forever since I am so backed up. My new plan is to post pictures, raw and unedited so that I can at least get them out here. Here it goes!

Our first stop this year was to visit Rob's Grammy. We went over to Rob's Aunt Barbara & Uncle Paul's for the day. We had such a wonderful time catching up with everyone. The kids had a blast swimming in the pool while the adults had a play date. We stayed for pizza and left with full bellies and full hearts. I am sure that Grammy will out live us all, she shows us what living in your 90's is all about! Ask her about Bingo or cards, she's one of the best players I know. :)

Swimming at Great Aunt Barbara's house

Annual 4th of July photo on the couch.

This picture cracks me up. Remember the shot of us in the mountains? We have a goober in the background making faces. This shot is scarily similar, just closer up. :) I took this photo to prove we do use sunscreen. People think we don't but we are sure to slip, slap slop every day. :)

The boys of Beach Club I 2010. Someday this will be in the elevator or in a collage :)

Some of my favorite people on the planet at my most favorite place on earth!

This picture is from Daddy's camera. Mom, Dad, Rick and I escaped down to the Keys for a day. Rick and I went diving while mom and dad snorkeled. It was a great day, with awesome weather. We finished our field trip off with a scrumptious meal ocean side, the food in the Keys is delicious!

Another Grandfather shot. He kidnapped the kids one morning and walked down to the DQ...for breakfast. Who says you can't have ice cream at 9 am??? That's what grandparents are for right? :)

We had boat issues this year. It was bad and it cost Rick bunches of money. It was sad to not be able to get out on the water but when we did we made the most of each day. We caught and ate quite a few shark. The kids love bringing in the black tips. Taste like chicken! I was out on the last day when we brought in HUGE fish. I think they were mackerel. haha yes, holy mackerel, they were ginormous! We were able to trade them for smoked mackerel at the smoked fish place down the street. I'm not sure how Rick cleaned them (I was cleaning the boat) but mental note for next year. I think it worked out to be a great trade.

Pinkie girl.

Those eyes kill me!

hehe I love this shot of Jared and I. Yes, I do take pictures of myself sometimes. :)

Family photo after an AWESOME vacation. This year was the perfect storm of vacation so to speak. Rob was there the entire time. Rick left a couple days but came right back and Daddy was there for most of it. Mom and I were there with the kiddos as usual, but I L.O.V.E.D having all my people around me. One of the best vacations ever!!

Happy Birthday BU!!

2010-11-17T19:35:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!
Mom, Dad, Jared and Ryan

I heart faces Week 34~Beach Fun~

2010-08-24T15:30:00.003-04:00

BEACH FUN

This week's theme is Beach Fun. Considering we spend most of the summer there I have oodles of pictures to chose from. This week was really hard to pick just one entry. I decided on my favorite of our tween, Jared. It's hard to get more then a grunt some days but when I asked if he was having fun on vacation, this was what I got. Wow, a pure eye twinkling smile, not a snarky "stop with the paparazzi" grimace. These are the days I live for.

Head on over to Iheartfaces to see more of this week's Beach Fun photos.

First day of School 2010

2010-08-05T16:09:00.003-04:00

I'm sitting here trying to keep myself busy. I can't wait for Jared to get home from his first day of middle school. I already posted pictures of this morning to Face Book but left his off. I figure the mailbox picture might get him beat up or hung from a locker when displayed in a public forum. Technology has come so far from my collection of mailbox pictures. I don't think anyone ever even saw them but my parents. Now it's what you do. Post "first day" pictures in the morning, go out for lunch with friends or go to work, then post or blog about the kids day-information you harvested from them while enjoying a sweet treat either baked or store bought. Wow, I am a suburban mom for sure!
So while I watch the clock tick bringing me closer to seeing what classes Jared got, if he got lost or if he had a friend to sit with during his lunch period-I will blog... :) Let me just add a side note that I about passed out at the bus stop today. 97 degrees is H.O.T for the kids to be back in school. Going back this early breaks my heart. I will reevaluate in September when we have our first week break and we head up to the lake for some late summer fun. MAYBE then I will like it, but not today :(

Kevin looks r.o.u.g.h. I felt as tired as he looks. Ryan on the other hand was bright eyed and bushy tailed ;)

It was so hot out my camera fogged up...at 6 in the morning. eeesh.

much cooler when Jared's bus came by an hour plus later. HOMER, get it? Like the shirt? That kid has a funny sense of humor ;) Guess his teacher will remember HIS name today-ha!

Georgia State Games

2010-06-22T15:07:00.004-04:00

What an awesome way to end our swim season. The kids swim from August through June and Kevin joins up for summer swim in May and June. I can't even imagine how tired they are of the sport by the time vacation rolls around! A few years ago Jared wanted to head back to the condo while we were at the pool. I asked why he wanted to sit inside on such a pretty day and play video games... his response? "hanging out at the pool isn't my idea of a break". Touche, young grasshopper :)
This year in Gold had so many mile stones. Jared's first state cuts, Ryan moving to silver from bronze, and making some great new friends for both kids. It's hard to sit at a meet for 8 hours with just your sister to hang out with! :) Summer means long course meets, summer swim team for Chestnut hill and Georgia State Games.
Long course went well, Jared swam two meets and Ryan swam one. Pinkie got a high point trophy for the Swim with Dad in Jonesboro last weekend. Forgive the lack of pictures, the air was out and it was close to a sweat lodge spiritual experience in the pool. I decided to leave the camera alone and concentrate on breathing! Anyways, Ryan got a 9th place overall for the 8 and under girls. Awesome. I hope she will do will next year, I'm sure she will, she's already close to the top of the pack and she has a year and a half in this age group. :) Jared on the other hand has his work cut out for him. Aging up to the 11-12's is a HUGE drop in times. I expect he will have a rough go of it for the next few months. We shall see. :)
I'm looking forward to blogging about Kevin after we get home from the beach. He starts right into football practice in July. Rob will be one of his coaches so that will be a new experience for the HomerHouse. I'm excited because with Rob coaching, he is in charge of getting Kevin to the field, one less carpool for me to lose track of! :) Maybe Kevin will get a skill position? Full back perhaps?

Here's some photos of the Ga Games-our last swim until OCTOBER!! Ahhhhhhh :)
Ryan swept her events and got all gold medals and Jared got 4 Bronze, a Gold and a 5th place ribbon. Fantastic!

racing during warm ups

coach "mom" gives the warm up orders today

ready for her first event

Great job guys!!!

Little boy blue

2010-06-02T16:23:00.004-04:00

I've been blogging a bunch about the swimmers recently. Not much has been going on with Kevin since wrestling ended. He will start football as soon as we get home from the beach, he can't wait to get out on the field. Until then he has picked up a new hobby, the trumpet.

Jared went for middle school orientation a few weeks back. We were discussing all his options-band or orchestra-which instrument etc. We already have an electric guitar, two acoustic guitars, and a full set of drums. Jared decided the violin was right for him. Good thing Rick gave me one for Christmas many moons ago. One of my favorite gifts ever and now Jared will use it in 6th grade. :)

While we were deciding what to do for the eldest, Kevin was contemplating the trumpet. Grandfather, Uncle Ricky and cousin Cal all play the trumpet. Uncle Ricky also has a french horn. I think there is a band at Chalker in 5th grade, not sure if it is for 4th grade as well. We will see in the Fall. We placed a call to Grandfather to see if he had another horn sitting around. In deed there was and Kevin couldn't wait to get his hands on it. I went to work the first day he had it and by the time I came home he had figured out how to play hot crossed buns and another "song" that I couldn't quite put a finger on.

Since Kev is kind of in the jet wash of summer swim flurry I asked if he could go to "Camp Gran" for a few days to get some extra lovin. Kev was exstatic! He learned and practiced the scales and by the time I saw him a few days later I was amazed with how well he was doing. He stayed at the lake and I will see him tomorrow. He's been with Uncle Ricky and Grandfather so I know they had some playing time in there. I'm glad he found something to make his heart happy. :)

Swim with the Champions Tour

2010-05-22T15:23:00.001-04:00

Did Ryan win a GOLD medal??? Nah, she's just borrowing one until she gets her own. ;) We signed the swimmers up for a pro-am with 3 Olympic medalists: Misty Hyman (Ryan's favorite), Maritza Correia and Matt Targett.

Here's the group shot

they were all SO nice, we will do this again!!

Ryan on the blocks against Misty...AWESOME! I had to quick grab my still camera because I was getting video at the same time. I will try and post those later.

autographs at the end. Ryan has had Misty's picture on her door for the last 3 years. :)

Notice the bling?? Those are Matt's 3, yes 3, NCAA AUBURN rings. He let Ryan wear them since her middle name is Auburn.

I had pictures of Jared but his group was way across the pool. He had a great time as well. Rob and Kevin stayed home and had some "guy time". Looking forward to a great summer in the pool.

Last Days at Chalker for Jared

2010-05-21T16:12:00.001-04:00

Wow the last few weeks of 5th grade are PACKED with fun things to do. We had the field trip to Tennessee, the Target presentation, a Hawaiian Luau with DJ, a red carpet lunch and video presentation, awards assembly, class awards and the walk of fame through the halls. We didn't get that kind of treatment in 5th grade! Jared received 1 award, the class Science award-Way to go!
One bus stop on our street uses silly string on the 5th graders for the last day of school. Since they only had two kids this year they invited all the 5th graders and their families to come to their stop. We had silly string, a banner for the kids to run through, popsicles, cold drinks and plenty of pictures. The bus driver was SO sweet about the entire thing, even when her bus got "decorated".
YAY!! It's officially SUMMER VACATION

Medieval Feast-Roger Bacon

2010-05-13T08:08:00.003-04:00

ROGER BACON

like the monk wig? $2.50 (yay me) the other stuff we already had at home.

decorations for the feast, the room looked outstanding!

more decorations.....

...and more

a shot of the class all decked out. I spy with my little eye:
Leif Eriksson, Ann Boleyn, Johannes Gutenberg, Richard the Lionheart, Marco Polo, Queen Elizabeth I, Kubla Kahn, Henry the VIII...

This would be "Roger" slaying the 7 foot tall dragon that was in the room....

The last two weeks of school are JAMMED full of activities for all three kids. Between the field trip to Tennessee, Medieval Feast Day, Field Day (x3) and end of the year projects (x4) we are going to ENJOY summer break!
Jared chose to do a monologue on Roger Bacon, a monk who developed the scientific method, discovered the camera and helped spread Christianity :) Good Boy! :) He did a great job on his presentation, we may have an actor on our hands. :) The room looked beautiful for the feast! I didn't help much because it was on the tails of Relay but total props to the moms that took that project on. I was SO tempted to buy one of the huge Knights for my Dad, he's always wanted one ;)

5th Grade Field Trip

2010-05-12T07:34:00.002-04:00

5TH Grade Trip to Tennessee

"JCubed"
This is Jared's group of pals, they did a business project together and that was their name:
Josh, Jared and Jordan

:):)Never seen the penguins at this aquarium before :):)

love this one ;)

I loved the butterfly room, I could have stayed in there all day. Made me think of relay...

This is a Relay butterfly, "painted lady" I think is the name.

Jared and Autumn

Inside Ruby Falls. I wasn't a fan of the tunnels to get there but I LOVED how these pictures came out :)

They were doing a light show with music to make it more exciting...

pretty :)

The castle is made from all the rock they brought up from the elevator shaft to get down to the caverns. I think we were down 270+ feet.

Today was the class trip up to the Tennessee Aquarium, IMAX and Ruby Falls. It has been a LONG time since I have done that day trip. The aquarium was great because we did a building I have never been in before. I actually liked that one better then the main building. The touch tank, butterflies and penguins were awesome! We had a pizza lunch on the plaza and then off to IMAX. We saw the Hubble Movie and Jared was in heaven. It was super cool in 3-D and we learned quite a bit. The entire room shook when the shuttle launched-I can only imagine being at the Cape for the real deal. Next stop was Ruby Falls (named after the founders wife, not because there are Ruby gems everywhere). We had to take a tiny elevator down a narrow shaft into the caverns...walk for 30-45 minutes and viola! the Ruby Falls. The kids had a great time, I was exhausted :) The coach bus trip was fun until the airconditioner quit...minor details.
Rob picked us up at school and we were off to Chick Fil A. Jared and Ryan BOTH made student of the month for May and got a free meal in their honor. Nice :) Tomorrow is the Medieval Feast for Target.

I ~heart~ Faces--"Celebrating Mom"

2010-05-11T20:31:00.004-04:00

CELEBRATE, Remember & Fight Back!

Every year our family does the Relay for Life with the American Cancer Society and each year it is the Friday night before Mother's Day. For Survivors and their families it makes the day even more special. I saw this mom and her little girl walking the track with the BIGGEST smiles on their faces. Mom is a cancer survivor and the little girl is just so happy to be with her. It was such a sweet moment I asked if I could get their picture. The theme for Relay is Celebrate, Remember, and Fight Back...I think this is a perfect picture Celebrating this Mom! Head on over to I heart Faces to see other pictures "Celebrating Mom".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!

2010-05-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

WE LOVE YOU LITTLE MAN!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!
Mom, Dad, Kevin & Ryan

Mako Mania 2010

2010-04-25T14:40:00.002-04:00

Wow, this weekend was bittersweet. I couldn't wait for Ryan to swim this meet in Dalton. It's a trophy meet and I thought she had a great shot at a couple trophies. As it turns out, she didn't get any (unless there is one for High Point, then she is in the running for that). She swam FANTASTIC! Pinkie had 5 out of 10 events beat her best time. That is really good! Her best event was the 100 FR where she paced for 75 and then sprinted for the last 25, everyone was watching her race to the finish...it was really neat to watch. I can't wait for her to hit the summer swim team pool. Great job girly!! :)

The flip side was that this was Jared's last meet as a 10U. He has been swimming with his buddy Anthony, but now he will move up. This also means that we will be morning shift for one swimmer and afternoon for the other. Swim meets just went from a half day marathon to a full day schedule hijack. Jared swam ok this meet. His breast stroke is completely shot for some reason. Have no clue what happened to it but his fly is taking off. On his 100 Fly yesterday he had an epiphany. Apparently he figured something out, something clicked (like riding a bike I guess) and he did really well. I told him that practice was the time for that not at meets but at least he got the feel of it....it's only been 5 years. Anyway, his new "trick" worked because he swam the 50 fly like his hair was on fire today. He came in 2nd in his heat where he was seeded 4th. He would have had a 2nd place trophy but someone from a previous heat leapfrogged over him and he made 3rd. Awesome. He also got a 3rd place trophy from the 100 FL the day before. He did ok on points, like I said, they may not get overall point trophys...we'll have to wait and see what happenes when they get to the pool on Monday.

Next up, Long Course---ugh---we go from yards to meters and 50/100/200 instead of 25/50/100/200...the events drag on and so do the meets. Jared is only doing two this summer and Ryan, one. They will be doing summer team for the neighborhood again and I don't want them getting burned out.

Spring Break

2010-04-10T20:49:00.001-04:00

What a week. I seriously sat on the porch the entire time. I think I went on the boat a couple times and in the house to eat and use the bathroom, but the majority of the time was outside listening to the kids play, riding our bikes or shooting the b-b gun. All of us got into the bb gun action. I loved some of the pictures of the kids going after the tin cans...

Of course the Easter bunny had a HUGE hunt for the kids, hid the baskets and brought lots of chocolate. That explains the chocolate foot prints from one room to the other. Maybe hard candy for the outside eggs next year :) Like Ryan's socks? My nickname used to be "little miss red socks" from my 1st principle Mrs. Jurrack....guess it's herreditary. :)

Spring Break wouldn't be complete with out a Rusty trip. Sherry was gracious enough to let us come love on Rusty for the afternoon. What a great day!

Rusty and Ryan

We had a GREAT time visiting with Uncle Ricky, Gran and Grandfather...the time went too fast as always. Soon it will be time for Sky Valley-YAY that means SUMMER time. Wahoo! I can't wait to spend EVERYDAY with my three favorite little people. They are gettign so big so fast. I wish time would just slow down for a bit. Jared goes off to middle school next year, sniff sniff. New adventures to be had...

Ryan's 1st Communion

2010-04-01T20:30:00.002-04:00

Wow, where does the time go?? It seems like yesterday Jared was taking his first communion. Now Ryan has completed her class and is ready. She did really well during the question and answer section of the service, first one with her hand up for each question. :) I took the opportunity to get a picture of all the kids cleaned up and ready for church. It's rare to catch them in something other than a suit or a singlet ;)

i heart faces-Angles

2010-03-22T19:46:00.004-04:00

Focusing on Angles Week

Funny enough the title of this picture is "My Angels" so I guess this is my Angels angle shot. I absolutely adore this picture! Our kids make me smile (most days) and this picture reminds me of the beautiful summer day we were having out in the front yard. Something we rarely have time to do during the busy school year. Head on over to i heart faces for more Angle pictures.

Short Course STATE 2010!!

2010-03-02T15:41:00.004-05:00

The sign says it all...2010 Short Course State in Savannah Georgia

Jared during warm ups. I went on the deck on Saturday to get photos but just during warm ups. The first day I took video of Jared's race from the stands and the second day I left the camera behind. The seats were really crowded and I was afraid it would fall through. Jared did ok during his swims, two seconds from his beast time on each event but it was a learning experience. It's a shame that his times have been dropping like rocks but it just didn't happen for him when it counted. :(

He didn't mind though, we had a blast with our friends.

After the meet we went to the Crab Shack on Tybee, the gators were a bit sluggish but then again, so was I. The wind was terrible and it was really cold. It was cruel to be on the beach and it be so chilly.

The adults got appetizers and Jared decided that he needed to try oysters in the half shell. I love seafood and this is by far my least favorite. He said he liked them...yuck. :)

On the Tybee Pier, what a cute couple of kids ;)

Tybee pier from the freezing cold beach.

What a great trip...hopefully we can go again next year ;) Ryan's not too many years away from making a state cut. Jared will have his work cut out for hime next year, he ages up and the times are crazy fast.

Snow Watch 2010

2010-02-15T11:17:00.005-05:00

Got the kids off the bus and went in to wait for the snowmageddon to hit!

It's snowing!!!

When can we go outside and play?!?!

Ryan had a meltdown and missed the first few minutes of playtime. She was peeking out at the fun and the boys were hitting her window with snowballs!

Jared making his snowball to start Frosty-unaware of the danger behind him...

...look out Jared!!

After Kevin missed Jared at point blank range, they decided to work together to build our FIRST snowman in our own yard EVER. They made one 2 years ago at Rick's in Michigan, but not at home.

Ryan got paroled and everyone joined in the fun.

This is tough work :)

Starting to take shape

DONE! What a great job. It's easy when you have a kit ;)

Jared hitting the sled on Day Lily Speedway...and

the sled hitting Kevin on the nose....

Ryan looking cute before her death run down the street. Just kidding, the snow/ice was starting to melt so she went super slow.

What a beautiful day! It was worth the wait...only 10 years in the making. Maybe we'll get another one this year??? Nah....

Genetics??

2010-02-07T10:26:00.006-05:00

SMILE!! ....or not?

I know I just posted this one of Ryan, but it makes me laugh every time. Jared and Rob RARELY make faces. Kevin, Ryan and I on the other hand make them all the time. Grandma Lou used to laugh out loud when I was talking to her and say, "oh, the faces you make-it's amazing". I'm sure she was being polite because they are not amazing beautiful, they are amazingly scary. Here is a montage of the crazy sheep in the family

... oh-here's one more. Guess we know where it comes from!

Kell Longhorn Wrestling

2010-01-17T20:51:00.001-05:00

HOOK 'EM Kevin!

Kevin started wrestling as soon as football was over. Glad to say, he loves it. We are getting used to a new sport (again). I think he is really good at it so we are encouraging him to stay with it again next year. Here are some pictures from his first two tournaments. I took a couple and a team parent on the floor took the other ones. I am so grateful because we were so far away and his pictures came out so much better then mine did. The links should take you directly to the shutterfly address to see all of the pictures of the team. I posted my favorites. Kevin was in the 10 & Under for the Kell Longhorn and the Kell Greenhorn.

At home before the Tournament, not a fan of the singlet.

warm ups. Hi Mom!

Click here to view these pictures larger

YAY!! A Bronze medal for coming in 3rd in his bracket! Way to go Kevman :)

Swimming the MLK in Downtown

2010-01-16T19:47:00.001-05:00

Ryan is officially 7 for her first meet. This meet (MLK invite) will be tricky every year because of the way her birthday falls. This year she was just older for the meet. Not so big of a deal since she isn't aging up, but it may be an issue in future years. Since she's too young to really care about state cut times, the only thing she is going for is IRON MAN (posting a time in all available events for her age group). She has been missing the 50 Fl for 2 years but at MLK, she finally did it. WAHOO!! Next goal is to post a Top 10 Time for the Gold Girls in each event in her age group, she already has quite a few :)
Jared swam well, he even matched his state cut time for the breast so that made me feel better, he's not going to state on a fluke ;) The poor thing is so close on a couple more events, we'll see. He still has two more meets before state. The reason we are trying to get them in this year is that next year the state cut times are REALLY hard to make. The jump from 9-10 times to 11-12 times is HUGE. He really doesn't have a shot at state next year unless something momentous happens..which I don't foresee-this IS Jared we are talking about. Marching to his own drum is an understatement. His coach always says that he hopes we never get caught in a fire because Jared would still take his sweet time, even then. Anyways, here are some pictures of the day. I know swim pictures can get boring so here are my favorites from the weekend:

LOOK how comfortable he looks on the blocks-AWESOME! It took a long time to get here...

Ryan on the other hand rarely gets intimidated...

...even when the girls are twice her size :)

Great form Pinkie:)

Not to bad for Jared either. He's come a long way this year!

Pinkie's Party

2010-01-15T20:12:00.002-05:00

Ryan opening her big gift from mom and dad-Cinderella Castle playset. Ryan was super happy to get this, she has looked at it EVERY time we go to Disney.

That's a nice face. hehe I laugh when I see this one, what a lady...NOT! I have to say, she gets that face from me ;)

Her brothers gave her this, funny.

I had to post this picture. She's reading her own birthday card. I don't have to help anymore except for the really big words. sniff sniff.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!

2010-01-15T08:01:00.000-05:00

Happy 7th Birthday

sweet girl!

WE ♥ YOU!!!
Mom, Dad, Jared and Kevin

Chalker Blockers #739 Regionals!

2010-01-09T14:14:00.002-05:00

Regionals!!

Chalker Blockers team #739 was the first team from Chalker to advance from prelims to Regionals. Next stop was State if they qualified. Each group had three chances to run the table with their robots. They also had to present their project to a technical panel of judges as well as a project panel of judges. Lots of presentation skills were learned this year and the kids did an awesome job. I really thought they might have a shot, IF they could get their robots to run the table spot on.

First Run-not good, not too bad. They scored 120 points.

Last run of the table. They only scored 90 points and they made some crucial errors.

What do you do while you're waiting for your turn? Hang out with friends and play games at the different teams tables. Ryan and Marcelene won bears at the ECMS Short Circuit booth. Cute :)

Or you could just hang out under the table, which is what Kev decided to do. I have to admit, we had been there 10 hours and we were waiting for the announcement of the winners. Jared's group did not place in the top three of any of the categories (Team Work, Technical, Project or Table Run) and they did not place in the top 16 overall which meant they did not advance to State. It was a hard loss, they did so great and they came so far in just a few months. Josh and Jared will be going to middle school next year so it should be interesting to see where that takes us. I may be running an independent team out of my house if there isn't a team at Palmer. We shall see. What an awesome experience though!

Snow Day!

2010-01-08T14:34:00.004-05:00

Hot cocoa and a PJ Snow day

Wow, school is closed for a dusting! No worries, the ice underneath is the real killer. Either way, it means a snow day for Cobb County and a sleep in day for us! Rob was out of the country due back the next day so we had some time for it to melt before he got home. It took a few days believe it or not. The lakes stayed frozen for another week and a half. Winter to me is 60* NOT 12*!! :)

see the pizza mans footprints in the snow drifts ;)

it's pretty at least, just wish there was more so that the kids could go out and play!

Bronze to Silver

2010-01-08T13:43:00.002-05:00

Remember our super excited Bronze Girl??....

...Well, meet our super Silver Girl!!

Sorry the picture quality is low, the camera did NOT like the cold snap we had in January. Going from Arctic to sauna is never a good idea. Ryan couldn't wait to get into the pool to practice so my lens didn't get a chance to defog. This is our Pinkie Girl on her first day of Silver practice. She was officially 6 when she moved up, I wonder if that's normal? I don't think it is. :)

Watching the clock to see when to leave.
Like her new cap? She got that for her birthday. If you don't know the story, there were two Ryan's in her Bronze group so Coach K called her Ryan Pink (her goggle color). The boy Ryan would still look up though so Coach just started calling her Pinkie. Everyone calls her Pinkie at the pool, her friends, all the coaches, the owner of the team...yes, the owner knows who she is. It's kind of like her super power persona. I like to think of her as a mini mascot for Gold, she's such a firecracker and LOVES being in the pool-it really is a lot of fun to watch her swim.

just keep swimming...just keep swimming...

Did you have fun? "YES!!"

You'll shoot your eye out!

2009-12-31T13:16:00.003-05:00

Who hasn't seen the classic, A Christmas Story? We watch it every year, once on Thanksgiving and then all day on Christmas Eve. We just have it running in the back ground. I remember the first time I saw it, I was at my aunt and uncle's house for our annual Christmas Dinner and I thought it was so funny. I think I was 10 or 12??? Anyways, for the last umpteen years, it has been a tradition in our home.

As you may know Ralphie wants a Red Ryder carbine-action, two hundred shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time. Well guess what? That exact gun does not exist (according to Wikipedia) but Wal-Mart has something VERY similar. It IS a Red Rider and it WILL shoot your eye out if you're not careful. Good thing we are careful in the HomerHouse because both boys got their very own Red Rider. Thanks mom and Dad ;)

It's hard to tell who was more excited, the kids or the adults. Now I am seriously afraid of our kids having guns, in fact, they weren't allowed to even have water guns for years. That all changed when they went to a friends house to play and they first thing they did was run to the toy gun bin. We figured a better way would be to teach them about gun safety instead.

So when Gran and Grandfather came in the door with the Christmas gift of lore, Kevin ran to grab some cans for us (yeah, I said US ;)) to shoot at. He was first up, he took his turn and missed all 5 times. Jared got all lined up and took his shots, missing all 5 times. Next up, Grandfather-"let me show them how to do it". Hit on the first shot. Nice. Now it was my turn. I snuck in my shots before Rick could get out with his shoes on. I missed, not quite sure why..I used to be a great shot. Rick comes out, I think he hits the mark and then we all start over again. Gran and Ryan we safe inside and Rob wasn't up at the lake yet. Yay, less people in the rotation= more turns for us! :) Kevin missed again but Jared got a hit, look at his face!

Then I decided to shoot lefty, and guess what? That did the trick! BINGO, Tracey 3- coke can 0. We had fun until it got dark and the weather got dreary.

Kevin did manage to hit the cans, a few times. I had a picture but Jared got in the way he was jumping around so much. The next couple days the boys continued practicing their shooting. They have to have an adult cock the gun (my rule) and they have to go one at a time.
They can't wait to get back up to the lake to have another go round!

Uncle Ricky showing Kevin how to load the BB Gun

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from the HomerHouse!

Time to open stockings! We asked the kids to wait until 6:30 am Christmas morning, and we heard footsteps at 6:29 am. Of course they snuck down to see the tree, but they did come get us up before they opened anything. I was so thankful to have another year of shopping at the toy store. Before I know it, I'll be looking for things at the electronics store, the clothes and the latest gadget retailer. At least they were still "little" for me this year. :)

I love this shot! Ryan was jumping on the couch, oh so excited, she can't wait for everyone to get in the room to open gifts!

Jared asked for Mexican Jumping Beans this year...interesting choice ;)

Kevin finally got his drums. Too bad we put them in the basement....who knew Kevin was still afraid to go down there alone? ;)

Ryan got stuff for her American Girls, a "pink 'toothpick' guitar" and all the digs for her Zhu Zhu's. What an awesome day!!

Christmas Time in the Suburbs...

2009-12-23T09:36:00.004-05:00

Annual Homer Kids Holiday Photo=disaster. It all started when I forgot to get the picture after church on Sunday. One night I looked up at the calendar and realized that I needed to get on the ball if we wanted Christmas cards instead of New Year's Cards. I had the kids run upstairs and throw on something nice on top of their school clothes. Ryan was in her PJ's but made a quick wardrobe change. It ended up ok, but not what I had planned on.

We also decided to try and have the cats in the picture this year. We finally got a system using treats and choke holds. This obviously didn't work but I thought you might enjoy the pictures! The outtakes make me giggle :) This picture was close, but if you know Kevy, this is his grunt face...

Outtake 1: Jared getting a whack in the face

Outtake 2: Kevin getting clawed and Jared getting kicked...Haley looking at all the action. perfect.

Gingerbread 101, make sure the kids have lunch first. They were all grumpy and had to be seperated before the roof was completed. Each child got a section to work on in "private" and then they ate the house. Not quite what my dreams are made of but they had fun...I think ;)

Jingle Bell 2009

2009-12-12T08:58:00.002-05:00

YAY it's Jingle Bell time! This is one of our favorite meets. Maybe because it was our first meet ever, or that the kids get tons of candy canes, but probably because the awards are easier to get. This meet gives awards by ages which means that even though Ryan swims the 8 and Unders, she got awards based on 7 and unders. Ribbons and medals found their way to the HomerHouse after this meet, we had some awesome swims and even a STATE CUT!!! Jared has been working SO hard to get a State final time. We are now official to go to Savannah in February for Jared to compete in the 50 Breast. He is working on the 100 Free, 50 Free and 50 Back as well. We shall see. Here are some pics of the day. This is a hard pool to get shots of because parents are not allowed on the deck.

getting ready to hit the deck

waiting with Daddy

on the blocks for the 100 Free

cool shot with Jared in the water and Anthony on the blocks

Ryan after her 25 breast

Jared on the blocks for his 50 Breast

"I DID IT!!!"
This picture makes me cry. I ran down to the deck and got the biggest, wettest hug of my life. He was SO happy!! Way to go Jared!

Here's the recap:

Ryan
50 Fr 5th place (ribbon) 14 points
25 Back 9th place 9 points 1 second
25 Fly 4th place (ribbon) 15 points
25 Breast 2nd place (Medal) 17 points
100 IM 6th (ribbon) 13 points

She got a total of 68 points for her team! Way to go Pinkie :) No best times but 3 ribbons and a medal, AWESOME!

Jared
100 Free 12th place 5 points
50 Back 13th place 4 points
50 Breast 2nd place 17 points STATE CUT :):)
50 Free 10th place 7 points
100 IM 9th place for 9 points

He shaved time off his personal best in EVERY event, fantastic! He got 42 points for the team and a medal for his 50 breast. Oh, and did I mention a state cut for that event as well??? Can you tell we are super excited?! :)

Better late then never...

2009-12-06T08:51:00.002-05:00

Kevin's birthday at the Tellus Museum was awesome! We had our kids, Kevin's buddy Jackson, and the Solano boys join us for an afternoon of learning, mining and celebration. I even made Kevin's cake. Well, Rob made it, I iced it :) Enjoy! :)

Outside the museum: Jackson, Jared, Anthony, Ryan and Andrew, Kevy Bu

playing in the mineral museum part of Tellus

deep concentration ;)

LOVED the planetarium show, it was about the science behind the Christmas Star

watching sound waves

"I get to keep all my gems!"

ARRRGGGH, cute "Disney Face"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBBY!!!

Chalker Blockers are going REGIONALS!!!

2009-12-05T19:54:00.006-05:00

pep talk from Mrs. Taylor---their fearless leader :)

Last Fall Jared came to us and asked to join an after school group called Chalker Blockers. It's a Lego Robotic club where they work together as a team and program a Mindstorm NXT robot. Our schedules were packed so we said no. Big mistake. This kid has "the knack" and we know it. So when they had a Spring league we let him join. In fact, Kevin joined too but decided it wasn't for him. This Fall we couldn't wait for sign ups.

Teams are also asked to decided on a problem to solve based on the theme of the competition. Jared is the lead programmer for his group and they decided on Yellowstone National park. The issue is animals walking across the street and getting hit by cars. Their solution was two 180 degree cameras, one on each side of the road. If an animal is spotted in the one camera a cross bar comes down to stop traffic. When the animal is seen in the other camera (safely across the street) the arm will go back up allowing traffic to pass. Great idea, great skit and great presentation to the judges. They have a second category, Technical. This is where they take the robots to the "table" and get interviewed by the judges. They have to talk about team work, their captain, the computer programs etc. Team #739 got all but two excellents in this category. Third group is Team Work, aka Gracious Professionalism-apparently they did well here also. Fourth, and final, is the table. The teams get three chances to "run the table". They score points based on what they knock down, what they leave up and what they end with. For example, they want to knock down the walls but keep the access markers all standing. They want to knock the truck down the ramp or cross the bridge. It's very complicated programming and it's actually a nail biter to watch.

Team #739 was once of the youngest teams there today and they did awesome. They scored 20 points on the first run and 60 on the second. The final run they got 135 points landing them into the finals at 5th overall. WAY TO GO!! As parents and teachers, we have no clue how the standings are and when our team was called in 5th we went nuts. It was so great to see the kids so excited! What a long but awesome day!

Regionals Bound-Chalker team #739

Week 47 - “We ♥ Tooshies” Photo Challenge

2009-11-30T22:34:00.006-05:00

I love this week. I wish we could do more weeks like this one, I know the site is I ♥ Faces, but I L.O.V.E shots from the back-side. When I saw the topic this week I knew exactly which picture I was going to use...my mom and my little girl on her first day without training wheels. Ryan got the hang of it quick and before long she didn't need anyone holding her steady...I'm glad I got this shot when I had the chance! Head on over to I ♥ Faces to see other Tooshies!

Week 47 - “We ♥ Tooshies” Photo Challenge

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVY!!

2009-11-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

Happy 9th Birthday BU!!

We Love you,
Mom, Dad, Jared and RyRy

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T20:23:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Be safe and have fun!

Uncle Shucks

2009-10-19T20:27:00.003-04:00

The HomerHouse has started the tradition of going to the corn maze every Fall. We try a different one each year and we LOVE them. The day we chose to go was after a swim meet and we were so tired but the weather was SO beautiful. Since I am actually blogging this in December, and it snowed this morning, I am longing for those gorgeous Fall days!

Last year I had a shot where Ryan looked 80 feet tall, this year Kevin is in the shot with her. I think they look HUGE in this picture.

My rotten little monkey urchins

Kevin taking aim. He would do well with a red rider...

Ryan thinks guns are icky. Look at her face!

Aim a bit lower Jared ;)

What cute kids! :)

On the hunt, here we go!

Found it!

Taking a break half way through. This is my favorite one.

On the hayride, more group pictures--Smile kids! "Hey look kids, Corn!"

Can it get much sweeter then this I tell ya? What a great day!

Jonesboro recap

2009-10-18T20:54:00.005-04:00

Wow, what a weekend. Last weekend we had a swim meet with a 5:30 am wake up. We did the corn maze on Sunday afterward and I have yet to post those pictures. Here we are a week later and I need to post more updates, where did the week go?!

This weekend we had to split up again. Kevin had a football game on Saturday morning. Rob was doing the chains so he had football duty. I again went with the swimmers. I am looking forward to next weekend, no meets and I get to watch Kevin play!

Rob said the game was fantastic. Kevin got a lot of play time and they came so close to winning. Apparently the kids on this team were HUGE, remember the "oak tree"?? There were three on this weeks team. Oh, and they were undefeated-well, they still are undefeated. BUT, the Kell team gave them a run for their money. Way to go boys! Coach sent over this shot that someone took on Saturday.

The swimmers had a great meet as well. Considering they had a meet last weekend (back to back meets are for the birds) their times were really good. Most of thier results shaved time off their seeded times and are right about what they did last weekend. Oh yeah, and Ryan got a trophy. She came in 5th place overall for the 8 and under girls. This was a 14 and under meet so there were no 25's, just 50, 100 and 200's. She swam a TON but hung in there. It's really weird to hear people yelling, "go Pinkie" from all over the aquatic center. Folks from the other team were cheering her on today. What an awsome thing! She has so much spunk and is so stinking cute when she swims. She didn't do her breast stroke pull out yesterday, she said she wasn't comfotable doing it so I told her to do whatever she could to post a time. I didn't want her to panic on the block since this was her first 100 breast. Coach Karen asked later why she didn't do it and she said, "mommy told me not to". Whoa there girly, not my words. Anyways, she did the pullout today and shocked quite a few folks. I had people coming up to me saying that she really did a great job and that she looked fantastic. That was really neat. :)

Jared is working on his endurance and Coach says he's doing great. He's making new friends and is having so much fun. He is getting closer and closer to a state cut. Not sure if he'll make it this year but he's trying. He was 18th overall in points today-top 15 got a trophy. He was SO close :) Here's the recap:

Jared:
200 free-3.20.14 took 8 seconds off seed time
100 breast-1.52.35 took 5 seconds off seed time
50 fly-50.55 took 1 second off
100 back-1.41.35 took 6 seconds off
50 free-38.81 1 second over seed time
50 back-46.35 took 6 seconds off
200 IM-3.45.42 28 seconds off previous time
50 breast-50.68 took 3 seconds off seed time
100 free-1.36.24 right on seed time (1.36.29)
100 fly-1.51.93 took 6 seconds off

Ryan:
100 breast-new event, posted a 2.12.48
100 back-2.04.24 took 20 seconds off
50 free-51.34 took 5 seconds off seed time
50 back-57.47 took 7 seconds off
50 breast-1.02.05 took 14 seconds off
100 free- 2.01.63 took 22 seconds off seed time

Ryan with her first year round swimming trophy. I remember my first trophy...

Sunday Swim Update

2009-10-11T11:29:00.002-04:00

Did I really wake up at 5:30 am or was I just dreaming all day? The kids swam so fast today it must have been a dream. First up was Ryan and her 25 free style. All summer she was dropping her times and I was hoping that she would break 20 seconds and she DID!! I went nuts, seriously nuts. Next time I act like that will be WHEN Jared makes state. He has decided this year that it's worth going (all his friends are making state cut times) so I guess we have something to work for now. Here is the recap of their times. NO DQ's this weekend-awesome!!
Out of the 17 events the kids did, only one, ONE, event was an added time and it was only (+.20)--that makes me so happy!

Ryan:
25 Free, 19.36-dropped 4 seconds! Woot Woot!!
50 Back 55.98-broke one minute-YAY!! dropped 9 seconds off her time
25 Breast 31.63-dropped 2 seconds.

Jared:
50 Free-right on his time (swam Friday and same thing on his time)
100 Back-1.39.18 dropped 8 seconds-awesome!
50 Breast-50.41-dropped 3 seconds
200 Free-3.22.00 dropped 6 seconds-wowza!

Great job guys! Let's see what next week brings out of Jonesboro. I'll have pictures from that pool, it's easy for the camera.

Saturday Sports Update

2009-10-10T11:27:00.003-04:00

No pictures today, too hectic. Last night we started off with Jared swimming two events and me timing. Jared did well on his 50 free, right on his time. He also swam the 200IM to which he has never posted a time. I think he's tried it two or three times and he always gets a DQ. This time he posted a time which was very close to his friends seed times. I thought he did great!

This morning we had to split duties. Rob took Kevin to football in Canton and I took the swimmers to Mt. View. I H.A.T.E to miss my kids playing sports. It tore my heart out to not be there for him. Stupid schedule conflict. Kevin's team lost but he said he had a great time. He played defense for the first quarter and only one offensive play. Maybe he'll start next week...we will have to wait and see.

Jared and Ryan we up at oh-dark-30 for a 7am warm up. We had many guest appearances today, Grammy, Auntie Nancy, Mrs. Havird (Ryan's teacher) and her hubby Scott. Mrs. Havird used to swim for Gold so that was fun for everyone. Many thanks to everyone that came out to cheer on the kids! :)

Jared's times:
100 Free dropped off 2 seconds
50 backstroke dropped 5 seconds
100 breast right on his time (+.20) AND he was in a last heat.
50 fly dropped 4 seconds....AWESOME JOB today Jared!

Pinkie's times:
50 free dropped 14 seconds
25 back dropped 3 seconds
25 fly dropped 2 seconds AND was in the last heat (the fastest swimmers)
100 IM she dropped13 seconds....GREAT JOB PINKIE!!

Off to watch some football and catch a snooze!!!

Homecoming videos of Kevin

2009-10-04T11:46:00.003-04:00

This video cracks me up. I love how excited Kevin gets at the line, watch him take his down...then he followed the play, great job Kevman.

This is Kevin and another Longhorn taking on the Oak. They had to double team him since he was so big! Kevy did stay with him though...

Another shot of Kevin and the oak. Loving the follow through!

one-one-oh baby!!

2009-10-03T21:42:00.006-04:00

Kevin was lined up as a starter when the first game of the season rolled around. Due to rain the game was canceled and we didn't get to play. The next two weeks we were at Disney and Kevin didn't get to play. The following Saturday we were on the fields but Kevin lost his starter spot. He was so disappointed to only get to play 8 plays that game. We told him that he had to work twice as hard and double his efforts at practice. Last week was a bye week so he had plenty of time to show the coach he was ready to get his starter spot back. Today came and we were pretty sure that he was going to be a sub again since he didn't practice as a starter. But guess what?!? He ran in for the first play of the game!
We were so excited, he got to play the entire first quarter (and most of the rest of the game). Kevin kept looking back thinking the coach was going to pull him. He finally settled in and totally rocked the house. There was a kid on the other team, I kid you not, as big as Rob. He was H.U.G.E! Kevin called him the oak tree. I was taking all kinds of pictures and I actually caught one of Kev and another kid double teaming him-take a look:

Kev had an awesome play where runner fumbled the ball and Kevin made the recovery. Sadly the ground caused the fumble so it was a dead ball but it would have been a stellar play had the ball stayed in play. Way to be there Kevy!
When we got in the car on the way home he said it was the 1-1-0 that made the difference. I kept telling him after practice, "if the coach want's 100% from you, give him 110". Whenever he would look over at me I would give him a one-one-oh hand sign and he would thumbs up. He said it was the extra 10% that did it. Wow-he does listen! AWESOME! Here are some more shots of the boy, we are so proud of him!! :)

p.s. Kell lost 12-6 but as Kevin said in the car, "I won so much more today"...

look how he's watching that ball!

look at that hustle! Go Kev!

reviewing the plays...

heres a shot of the oak tree. Look at Kevin in the top left, great block dude.

will post video tomorrow, Auburn's on!

Changing colors

2009-10-02T20:27:00.005-04:00

This is a fun post, our kids are now famous. Just kidding. They were chosen from a long list of qualified applicants to become web models for the Changing Colors website. Kidding again, Sorry. They really are models but the short list was really, really short ;) You have to know people I guess. hehehe

My girlfriend Eva owns a couple stores down in the Ft. Myers area. Years ago we met and each time we went into her store we talked a bit more. I know, I never talk, right? So anyways, she has this awesome store with really cool clothes, jewelry and nail polish. YES!! I L.O.V.E. nail polish!! We have such a hard time going into her store and finding shirts. One design is cuter then the other and it's so hard to make a choice. I think we own them all...seriously, no kidding here. In the shade the shirts are in black and white and in the sun they turn into full color. Super Cool! Go to her website and check it out. The kids pictures just got to Eva today so they will be up after her hubby works some technical magic. Stay tuned!

Ryan looked a bit stiff so I told her to, "put some sass into it". What do you think?

God willing and the creek don't rise...

2009-09-21T17:37:00.005-04:00

What a mess. When I left for work this morning the little lake in my neighborhood was higher then I have ever seen it, up to the fishing dock. While I was driving in to work in Alpharetta I was getting a bit more concerned. The Noonday creek had flooded, the soccer fields were gone and things were looking pretty bad. I made it in to the office and sat there and listened to the POURING rain for about 5 hours. Rob called and said the middle schools were shutting down so I needed to figure out what was going on with our kids. We figured they wanted to move the MS up to 1:30 dismissal and keep the elementary and high school on their schedules for the buses.

I called Karen to find out what was going on and got no answer. I decided to leave work-allowing for plenty of time to get home for the bus. I got a call back from Karen that she had picked up her daughter and that I should do the same. Streets were closing and blocked by fallen trees. She warned me that the little lake was close to crossing the street...what!?! I decided to hang up when the thunder was hitting before the lightning. At a light I called Rob and warned him to come home then hung up to drive. The amount of rain on the road was unbelievable. It was white-capping on the street and I was throwing a wake behind the truck.

After a few road closures, downed trees and broken street lights, I made my way to school to get the kids. Since the road was washed out I wanted to get them and get back home before the little lake spilled over onto Day Lily, if that happened we would not be able to get back home. Rob had called and told me that he made it home but Day Lily may get flooded soon. I got the kids, took a weird way home and made it before the street got closed off. Not sure how it is out there. I don't think it's wise to be walking around.

Rob did get some pics while we were coming home. I also have video. Karen sent me some more pictures but for some reason they are very small. You should be able to click on them to see better. School is canceled for tomorrow and I am quite sure we won't be going anywhere. More then one neighborhood has a bridge or two washed out-gone-people stuck in their homes. What a mess. The forecast calls for rain for the rest of the week...

This is Mistflower, the lake usually drains into a creek that flows behind our house.

Here is the creek that is usually about 12 inches deep and about 3 feet wide. It stretches as far as we can see and is flooded over the tennis courts.

This is a picture from Karen, it shows the other side of the creek, the first side is in my back yard, the other side is halfway across the club house parking lot. All in all this is about 200 feet wide.

The courts are flooded...we just had them resurfaced a month ago.

another shot of the back yard....