Voici

Wow I didn’t blog for a whole year!

Well… mostly that is because of facebook, but also because I have started working and I couldn’t remember my password here, either.

I am working for social services now…. something I have always wanted to do. It’s what I went to college for, just never managed to do with moving around due to Dan being in the military and having kids and homeschooling and all. But here I am employed with social services, thanks mostly to Obama’s stimulus package.

I enjoy most of the job, although it is so busy due to the rise in unemployment. We are all overworked and it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get caught up. Interviewing people is fun, and the computer system is even fun, but the paperwork, not so much.

I’m currently in training. They will send me periodically for policy updates and such. I love training! The hours are awesome and it is so relaxed it’s almost like a vacation.

Cassie is in her last year of highschool, consecutively she is in her first year at college. She made the honor list. Great job, Cassie! I’m proud of you!!

Praying for those in Haiti.

Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone and the New Year is coming up… Time sure does go by fast. We have taken the boat out on warm days… Dan and I were just able to go out on Saturday. It was bitter cold and then the temps rose into the 60’s. I’m lovin’ it!

We are really enjoying having the boat. We haven’t taken many vacations over the years, and now having it is like having a vacation day whenever we want. It is so much fun, and there is nothing like feeling the salty breeze and rocking on the endless water.  Dan loves being out on it so much. I’m so glad that we got it! We are looking forward to taking the girls out on it this summer.

Last night Dan’s boss offered us his tickets and we went to the Ravens last home game. They won against Jacksonville and are now going to be in the playoffs. It was a good game, lots of fun to be at, and we had a great time. We stopped at the Outback on the way home for a late night dinner. We enjoyed a terrific date. What a nice end to a long Christmas holiday weekend. : ) And we didn’t have to worry about the girls, as our friends had asked for them to spend the day with them. It all worked out great!

I can’t believe in a few days it will be 2009! Happy New Year! The Lord is good!

Bonnie here~  Dan took the boat to a man who fixed the fuel pump. Sunday after church we were able to go out on the bay. It was a little choppy, and it was windy, but the skies were blue and the boat ran perfectly!

Dan was very happy! Here’s some photos we took with the cell phone…

Last week Dan and I had a great time at the Renaissance Fair. We ran into some friends from church in full costume!

Ahem. The picture you see above, is our boat getting towed. “What? Towed?” You may ask. Yes, indeed. Towed. “Why would you need to be towed?” You may ask. Well, let’s just put it this way…

*flashback*

Dad: “Hey let’s go on a boatride today. I fixed all the wiring and I put in the new gas tank and etc. etc. etc.”
Us: “Ummmm sure I guess. Are you sure everything is all good and ready?”
Dad: “Well yeah! I fixed it all.”

So we hop in the truck and off we drive to the bay. We load the boat into the water, tie it to the dock with my mom’s awesome horse reign tying skills, and park the truck and trailer. We all get into the boat and go, “Oh great! Nothing bad happened so far!” Dad starts up the boat with this phrase: “Hmmm maybe we can ride to one of those islands today.”

So off we go. Finally, we get into like, 15 foot water. The engine dies. “Uhhhh,” we all say in unison, “What’s wrong?” Dad keeps turning the key in the ignition and finally it starts back up. We go out a little further. It dies again. “Uh-oh. That’s not good.” Are the words whispered from all four of us. All of the sudden, the sky turned black and we realized we wouldn’t make it out alive a big wave comes and rocks our boat. We thought, even for just five minutes, we just might drown. We all put our lifejackets on, for at least the next half hour.

Nope. It wouldn’t start again. If it did, we couldn’t get it to move. Or stay idle. Oh dear.

So out we sat, in the boat, in the Chesapeake bay, for 3.5 hours. Yes, 3.5 hours. Don’t worry, we had chips. And water bottles. And a dying radio. And cell phones. So it’s all good.

The first hour passed. We were drifting in closer to the beach. We were thinking about swimming in to the shore, but we figured we couldn’t leave the boat (not to mention the cute little jelly fishies we saw dotting the cold, brown water). We were trying to flag down other boaters, we were making in calls from the radio to the people that are supposed to help you when you’re in boating trouble, etc. etc.
Then, “Please move back.” From the shore. We looked over to see a park ranger with a megaphone.
“Move back, please. Move your boat back.” We tried and tried to start our engine but to no avail. “Move your boat back please!” Hmm. We were getting nowhere. Another hour passed, after being informed that we couldn’t get help from the radio people. Finally, the police and coastguards came out on a boat.
“You need to move your boat back, you’re getting too close to the beach.”
“Ummmm, we can’t, we’re having engine trouble.”
“Oh. Put on your lifejackets.”
“Um okay. But can you tow us?”
“No we can’t. It’s against the rules ’cause we’d be competing with the towing companies. Do you have a number you’d like us to call?”
“Ummm we have one. Thanks.”
“We’re supposed to stick around until the towing company comes.”

So we called the towing company, and they said they’d be here in about 45 minutes. Then came that towing boat. Finally, we were being rescued! We could see some children on the beach who were watching, and we saw them pumping their fists in the air in joy for us. Yay!

When we finally were all settled back in the truck, my dad was doing something in the boat while it was on the trailer. My mom saw that other people left their boats on their trailers in the parking lot.
Mom: “Hey, that’s not a bad idea. We could leave the boat here closer to the water.”
My sister Anna, excitedly: “Yeah!!!! And if we’re lucky, someone will come and steal it!!!!”

We all laughed wickedly. When my dad heard, he wasn’t so impressed.

So… When do you suppose we’ll go on another boat ride?

~Kitty

I decided to copy mom’s idea and put up pictures of me with my friends. A lot of these will be off my phone, so bear with any grainy-ness. Also, the way they’re inserted is quite strange, so I’m like “Computer say wha???” Sorry. These aren’t all my friends… More pics soon.

~Kitty

I thought I’d post some photos of our ‘real life’ friends that we took last Christmas.

Allison and Daryan.

Kylie with baby Luke. She LOVES babies. LOL

Anna and Katie.

Some of the children making cards.

Katie, Emily, and Linda.

Emily, Ruthanne and Danielle, who are both off to college this year.

Nathan, Mark, Charlie, and Jimmy playing Wii, with Travis watching.

Tia, Kassie, and Johnny hanging out, and not looking too happy, LOL.

The Smith sisters.

Peggy, Sandra, Janet, Sharon, Horacio, and Don.

Diane talking with Don.

Andy and Carol.

Amy and Bill

A different Amy, and her husband Brian

A different Brian, Sandy, Alice and Gary

Horacio and Sharon.

Lara and Patrick

Ron and Sally with their grandson Travis

Our pastor, Ed, and his wife, Sandy

Don and Lynn, and Heather with the giggles

and these are some pictures we took while we were camping…

Maggie and Anna exploring!

Me walking through our camp

Tia, Kassie and Kitty, too.

Me and Anna walking towards the shore.

There you have it. Hope you have enjoyed meeting our friends!

~ Bonnie

Our friends told us about a tradition of theirs — they burn their school work at the end of the year. The kids loved the idea and so we decided to do it this year.

When we moved in, we worked hard to clear a section in our woods. It’s near a running stream and is a cool place to hang out. Kitty and I hung some party lights from the trees. So, last night we pulled some chairs down there and Dan built a little fire in an old grill.

The girls gathered some of last year’s workbooks.

Tearing up your old work and burning it! Just imagine how good that feels! LOL

And we of course toasted some marshmallows, too. Yum!

While uploading these, I discovered some photos that I forgot to upload from the park. So, here’s some more…

This is one of the ospreys that nest off shore.

Kitty got a shot of the water lapping up on shore. Cool eh?

Great shot of the bee, even though the girls hate bees.

They have a nice little garden there. So, of course there are plenty of beautiful butterflies along with the bees!

Isn’t this a cute little guy?

Walking through a trail in the woods, you come across a little swampy area.

This little guy is very happy in his home there. : )

And so is this heron. Watch out little frog!

I enjoy living on the east coast. And I’m really thankful for parks!

There are a lot of great parks on the eastern coast. There are several parks along the Patuxent river nearby.

We visited one labor day. We didn’t take the good camera, but we took my old one and I got a few interesting shots.

We were walking up a trail to see Bloede’s Dam.

We found it! This was a photo of it from above.

We realized to see it well, we had to go back a ways and cross the river. We took off our shoes and walked across. There were a lot of sharp rocks! This is a shallow spot. Nearby a lot of people were swimming and it looked pretty deep, so we were happy to be able to cross easily. The water felt cool and it was fun!

We continued walking down and saw the dam. And yes, that’s people up on the dam! There were signs posted everywhere with warnings to stay back, but there were guys drinking up on the dam. If that wasn’t crazy enough, they were using it as a slide!

Now, this is a shot from the other side I’d taken earlier. This is how tall this thing is and how far up those guys were!

Pretty high! Thankfully no one got hurt. But we were worried about them the whole time. And as we were leaving, rangers came and chased them off.

We enjoyed the water for a bit while we were there. It wasn’t green at all. Just in the photo. LOL But there were minnows all around, bumping up against our feet!

It was a great day. We enjoyed it and will go back. There is another waterfall nearby that we’ve gone to before. And we need to get shots with the good camera.

There is tubing along the river. You can put in your tube here where we were past the dam and float for a couple of miles. That would be fun!

There is also fishing. One guy said that he’d caught a 14 inch something or other. Can you tell fishing is not my thing? LOL I like to eat fish, but don’t like to kill them and don’t even like killing worms. I’ll stick to shooting nature with the camera!

~ Bonnie

I consider such a privilege to be able to teach my kids. And we’re able to do it constantly pointing to the Lord. So much of it can take place outside and out and about. I find such joy in nature. He has made such an awesome creation.

We love to take lots of photos whatever we do, wherever we go.

This is our view of the bay from the shore. Isn’t it gorgeous!

We have been going to the park several times a week, and each time we see these three baby fawns. Their mom is sometimes nearby and sometimes not. Of course, it’s the highlight of our day when we see them!

Here’s a shot of mom. I read that they have a gestational period of 7 months and give birth in May or June.

This is one of the best shots of one of the babies. I just love those big ears!

Here’s another one we got of the buck. At one point after we took the photos, we walked off. A few minutes later he came running towards us and it was a little unsettling. Because we know that they can be very territorial during mating season. But he turned right before getting to us. We saw him come out again and graze a couple minutes later.

It’s crazy how close we can get. Where he is grazing, there was a group of kids playing soccer just 50 feet away in the field. And he walked out of the woods very nonchalantly to munch on the grass. Those kids were very excited!

There was a horseshoe crab washed up on the beach. Very cool but awfully smelly.

The beach and the water lapping up on the shore is the best thing for me. I enjoy it so much and it seems like “home” when I’m there. It’s even better when there are deer to see, too. One day I hope to live at the beach again. Hope you enjoy the photos. We really enjoyed our day!

~ Bonnie

We went to a local baseball game tonight and it ended with fireworks… It was super fun! We found a ball that had been hit out of the park and my sister was really happy for that. The fireworks were really awesome… they looked like little fireflies, soaring to the heavens. Well, more like fluttering to the heavens. We were worried because it looked like it was going to rain all night and it didn’t! PTL! So yeah I just wanted to share that… I have some pics on my phone so maybe I’ll put them on here soon. Peace!

~Kitty