Who is that {un}masked man???

I laughed so hard at this picture I cried! I just had to share it here. The kids' school had a social gathering for families to get to know each other and hang out. November 21st they had a hoe down. We ordered BBQ chicken dinners from a local restaurant, had country music, line dancing lessons, and just generalized getting to know each other. We had a great time. As you can see, there were several photo ops! This was JUST Paul's size, and the look on his face is priceless. The new goatee tops it all off. The kids thought it was great fun too:

I think these were the first actual pictures I got of Paul sporting his first ever goatee. We are not really sure how he came to grow it, but I liked it instantly (he has NEVER had facial hair since I have known him), and so he kept it. He is still getting used to the itchiness! Now that's love! I think of that whenever I look at it! What do you think???

Winding down

Aaah, baseball season draws to a close. Riley's team did very well. He learned a lot and met some new friends. One of the families hosted everyone at the local pizza place/arcade. The kids all had fun playing the games and we parents finally learned each other's names after sitting together all season and rooting on each other's children whom we each knew on a first name basis! It was fun to discover some similarities (a fellow nurse, someone who was a neighbor of our dear friend Carole from Agape and other things), and discuss the plans for spring ball. This was Riley's first season playing in the majors division. He wasn't sure he was ready for that fast pitching, but did well in spite of his insecurities. We discovered he was the youngest on the team. Everyone seemed surprised to discover his age. He fit right in size wise. I am hoping he will want to do some work on hitting in the off season to build his confidence more. It is hard to know how much to push these things at 10 years old! He would really rather be reading than about anything else at this point...which I am certainly not discouraging!

Holden has one more soccer game next weekend (tomorrow's game has been cancelled due to a very rainy day today and more expected tomorrow). He was so excited that he finally got a turn playing goalie at the last game. He played at that position the entire first half and the other team did not score a single goal! Then, he also scored a goal near the end of the game...which we all missed because we were chatting. We clapped when the goal was scored, but had no idea until after the game that Holden had scored it and have no idea how it came about. So sad. Parent demerits were issued and much deserved! He is definitely in love with this sport. I am not sure I am going to be able to convince him to play baseball in the spring so that we are not going in so many directions when those seasons start back up!

And, because one sport is just not enough for Gabriel, he also started playing with the school's flag football team. Cross country is not over and he has to split time between the two practices on occasion when they are scheduled on the same night, and also spends multiple nights at practice after school. We are so blessed to only live 5-7 minutes from school! They are currently 1-2. which is better than last year's winless season! He had a game in Sarasota that I was miraculously able to attend, probably the only one all season because the games are so early in the day, well before I am off work. They lost that one, but it was still fun to watch! Gabe is learning lots about running routes and seems to be playing a receiver position. I say seems because the ball never seems to be thrown his way! Oh well! He thinks its fun anyway, who am I to disagree???

Things are slowing down a bit here, I am so glad. The kids manage to do their homework and make great grades and keep their room (somewhat) picked up, so we are calling it a good so far!

Fall concert

The kid's school has one music concert a year. It is in November (which is nice, they do some Christmas stuff too) and it is very well done. I have to say I really miss the band that they had at Heritage. It is really surprising to me that band is not offered here at a school that is bigger than Heritage. Alas, I don't really know if any of our kids would want to be in it anyway! It makes me a bit sad because I enjoyed playing the clarinet in band during high school a lot. Besides the exposure to music and the discipline of learning to play an instrument, there were lots of fun band trips, both marching band and concert band. Oh well, God clearly has other plans!

This is the entire grade school from preschool to 5th grade. Some of the middle schoolers also participate. They do have a praise band with guitars and drums that a few of the kids participate in and that looks like fun. The thing I will probably remember the most about this particular concert was the extreme difficulty in finding the children something to wear. We have gotten away from buying them lots of clothes lately, they simply don't need as many when they wear school uniforms. By the way, the public schools here have school uniforms for the grade schools too, so our kids don't find it too weird at all. They are all very similar, polos and khaki pants/shorts/skirts. ANYWAY, I spent several hours the night before the concert (Paul was out of town at a Dave Ramsey Financial Counseling training class for the week) digging through the kids clothes desperately searching for some dark pants and white shirts that still fit them. Shorts were not allowed, and it seemed every pair of pants I pulled out had shrunk several inches from the last time they were worn and fit perfectly fine. Shirt sleeves seemed to have had the same problem. It was extremely frustrating. THEN, they also had to have dark shoes. Riley the monster child has grown SO much that he is wearing a men's size 10 shoe (heaven help me, he's only in 4th grade!) and has no dress shoes that fit him, just sandals. Alayna, also sprouting, had no black shoes, just brown, but no brown skirt or pants, just black. Aaag, I had to dress her in a black skirt and brown shoes. At that point, I didn't even care. I kept saying to JoDee (who always stays with me when Paul leaves town), "These people at the school who make these dress code rules have no idea what they are doing to families!!" I vaguely remembered last year thinking to myself that I was going to keep an eye out for dark pants and white shirts that are stylish so my kids didn't look hodge podged again....so much for that idea...hodge podge it was! Thank God Gabriel wasn't involved in the show and actually went on a youth fall retreat for the weekend! I am pretty sure I would have pulled out my hair if I had to find him something to wear also. Whew, I apparently needed to get that off my chest!

This is Holden with some new friends. These twin boys are new to VCS this year, but Holden made friends with them quickly and wanted a picture with them. He was pretty fascinated with how alike they look (they are identical) and thought it was fun that he had a twin for a mom and twins for friends.

I forgot to dig out and charge the camcorder, so I filmed a few clips from the concert. Here is one of the Kindergarten/1st grade songs. Enjoy!

I have to admit that the concerts here are so different than at home. I remember being so moved by the singing at the concerts at Heritage in our home church's sanctuary. I think it was because it was smaller and my own kids were easy to see and each had a special part. Now, at such a big school, they just seem lost in the crowd, somehow less special. I was a bit emotional that night, nostalgic and also missing my husband probably played a part. I hate to admit how much we still miss Heritage and our time there, the families, and especially the teachers. Don't get me wrong, we are VERY happy at our new school, but I think there is a special place in our hearts for Heritage that can never be replaced!

Some belated blogging

Yes, that is Alayna's jack-o-lantern. Paul and I were both able to attend her class Harvest party! First time ever, so I was glad I was able to get few pictures. Above, their craft was to use brads (simply pushed into the pumpkin)and ribbon to make the jack-o-lantern face, so cute, BUT, the pumpkin we sent was TINY since we didn't know why we were sending it! She made it work though!

Paul helping another child who had a tiny pumpkin.

Alayna was pretty thrilled to have her daddy at school.

They also decorated their own sugar cookies and devoured them (my kind of craft!)

Alayna's work of art.

I was thrilled to be able to use my lunch break to be there without having to get time off approved! If all the class parties are on Fridays, I should be able to attend a few since I work fairly close to their school on that day.

Stay tuned for some more belated posts, nothing earth shattering, just a catch up on our cray lives! Thanks to anyone who is still reading this blog, your comments warm my heart and encourage me in a way you would not believe!

One Christ, Won City

The pastors of various churches around Venice have come together to brainstorm how to win the city for Christ recently and out of that, One Christ, Won City was born. A few months ago, the churches got together for worship on the beach followed by each church performing their baptisms together. Over 40 people were baptized and the band was made up of singers and musicians from 4 churches. We then had a time of fellowship with watermelon. Many families from our church and school were there. It was neat to see those 2 worlds colliding. There were over 1,000 people there in all. It was amazing. It went so well that there was a second event planned. This was a prayer meeting. We went to the beach again to gather. The pastors each got up and shared what was on their hearts and led us in praying in groups for specific requests including the lost, our government, our churches, etc. It was amazing AGAIN! Here are some pictures from the second event.

I had to stand on the corner of the boardwalk railing to get up high enough to get all the people in the picture, and I am still not sure that was all of them! It was something to behold!

The kids had a safe place to play and enjoyed seeing school friends. This is Holden's friend Garrett who is being home schooled this year and he doesn't get to see him very often. They were thrilled with the unexpected play date!
I took the opportunity to brush up on the skills I learned when I took the photography class (that I never finished because I went back to Iowa this summer). Unfortunately, I didn't remember much but got a few fun pictures:

Boys will be boys. Here are Robby, Josh and Holden digging for puffer fish (they found several tiny ones), clams and sand fleas (GROSS):

Alayna didn't notice I was taking her picture for a minute:

...or maybe it was less than that, because then this started:

Heaven help us!

Not Me Monday! Working Woman Edition (yes, I know its Tuesday)

What did you expect?? I could do it all and do it all well AND on time??? Yeah, not so much!! I have not missed this little "Not Me" tradition of mine SevEreLy since returning to work. No, I have had no need to post any of the embarrassing things I have not done. Since I am back to work, I behave perfectly, have had no trouble adjusting from my world of all things Cardiology into this world of discharge (and I'll leave it at that), fevers, sore throats, back pain, abdominal pain, shoulder pain, knee pain...I think you get the idea! I certainly did NOT get secretly very excited when a patient mentioned he had chest pain! I was certainly not excited to look at a 12 lead EKG, or adjust his medications to help him feel better. I was not relieved to realize some of the things I learned were still in my brain (okay, they were a bit buried, but I found them!)


I am so glad that I did not accidentally flip my script pad out of my pocket into the toilet AFTER I was finished using it. Boy, oh boy, was I glad I didn't have to put my hand into the toilet and retrieve the practically brand new script pad. I was even more relieved that I didn't have to ask anyone what to do with it, since I knew of the proper way to dispose of a urine soaked prescription pad so that no one could misuse it. I was not practically on my knees thanking God that the shredder was recently (like just a few days before this incident) replaced with a storage bin and I could place it in the bin and not have to pull it apart to feed into the shredder bit by bit.


I did not thoroughly enjoy lancing an infected skin cyst yesterday. It was not only fun for the first part and I did not start to feel ill watching all the drainage (which I will not spare you the description of) come out of the wound. I was so grateful that was not right before lunch! I did not manage to scarf down my entire lunch in spite of it.

I did not feel so excited when I saw 20 patients in one day. I do not measure my usefulness by the number of patients I see in one day, that would be goofy! I am not so excited for a day off tomorrow (yeah Veteran's day--just another reason to be so thankful for our vets) though. I am not spending my day off helping one of the offices I work at to pack up for a move across the street to have the current building remodeled. No, that would be ridiculous!

Oh, I almost forgot how freeing it is to laugh at yourself! What have you been hiding???

Some fun in a box...

Many thanks to Grammy and Papa Prachar for the fun box of goodies that arrived this weekend! As you can see, the t-shirts fit everyone perfectly and they donned them right away. As soon as we learned the Iowa game was on as we were opening our box, we turned on the game. We were treated to Iowa's first loss this season :o( Paul is convinced we can't watch another one because they will lose again! He is not a football fan!

Of course after every group picture, we have to do a silly one...when will they grow up??? Too quickly, I am sure!!

The box of goodies also included some fall colors in the form of a new dish towel! It brought some fall to the kitchen quite nicely! Thanks!

And of course the kids were SUPER excited about all the treats in the box! The chocolate covered Twizlers are my personal favorite, but it was all great! The cute snowman pops (marshmallows dipped in white chocolate an decorated) will be the closest thing to winter we will have here too! Paul will get his fill on his next trip to Colorado Springs in December...I am cold just thinking about it! He will finish up his training on this next trip (YIPEE!) and is also attending training for financial counseling with Dave Ramsey upcoming! Pray for him and his travels if you think of it!

We are doing well. We are staying busy with sports and kids' activities. I also am so excited to have finally gotten some accountability to my running. I am meeting some ladies in the morning...or should I say dead of night (we meet at 4:50 AM), and we are running 5 miles three days a week. The other 2 days are my later work days (I go in one day at 9 AM and the other one at 10 AM), so I get to sleep in and go to the YMCA to do the circuit and run about 1 mile or more if I have time. I am amazed at the energy I have! I had to quit running with Paul because it was bothering his knees, and I couldn't run outside at night or in the early morning (still dark) by myself. I was getting really bored with the treadmill. Now, 5 miles flies by and I am off to shower and attack my day! I am also amazed at the fact that I can no longer manage to stay awake much past 9 PM! No, by the way, there will probably be no pictures of my running group since we all roll out of bed and head to our meeting place! Its funny, its still dark when we finish our run, so I am not sure any of them would recognize me on the street except Kristin who I ran once with last fall and whose husband is a pilot at Agape. She let me into her group, THANKS Kristin!