the view from my front porch....

whether from the outside looking in, or the inside looking out....

 it's been a strange day here on our front porch.

 a horse, a turtle and a cat.... crazy stuff!  But, I must say that the craziest...

 Is this...

 Peach trees are blossoming...in MARCH!  I'm no farmer, but I am quite certain this is some crazy stuff!  It was 80* here today!

We are loving this weather, and praying there will be no major frost ahead for all of our farming friends! 

Happy one year in the USA...

March 19, 2011 we arrived home from Colombia.
Yesterday Spencer was asking if we could go back to Colombia, and Lucy said "NO!"  We laughed, then he said,  "Can we go to Guatemala?" to which Lucy once again said "NO!" Then he said, "Can we stay here in the USA?" Lucy yelled "YES!"  Glad she likes it here!  Too funny, that girl. 

 We are totally enjoying this awesome weather.  We took the kids fishing at a pond near our house Saturday, we didn't catch anything, but had a great time.  Quincy took her first dip in the water, she was a bit nervous, but we had fun watching her!  Tonight, Ryan took the kids fishing to the stream nearby and they caught a bunch of fish, then we went to the lake and Quincy went swimming again. 

Shorts in March!!

science fair....

Dylan explaining his project...

 This cracked me up, all the girls were standing nicely near their displays and the boys...they were throwing paper wads at the target on the wall behind the display tables.

 Dylan won 2nd place for the 8th grade!  He was pretty surprised.

the other 8th grade winners...

This is Dylan's first year being "in school" as apposed to home school.  It has been a blessing for us to watch him do well in school {always room for improvement, but he's learning...}interact with his friends and teachers and  handle this adjustment so well.  While we miss him around home, this has been a good year for him and he is enjoying it and for that, we are thankful!

Good job Dylan!

dear 16 year old me...

I am sure many of you have seen this, it has been out for almost a year now.  But, I wanted to share this in case someone may have missed it.  It is almost spring and I know everyone gets the urge to go tanning so please take a moment to watch.  But first, here is my story....

  About 8 years ago, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.  I had a small spot on my leg which I asked my doctor about, and she said, "I am not sure, but I can send you to a specialist..." we didn't have good insurance, and Ryan was in seminary, so...I said, "no thanks, I am sure it's fine."  Didn't think too much about it until...Christmas rolled around and my sister gave my parents a HUGE medical book and as I was flipping through it I saw a picture of the exact spot that was on my leg, under the heading of "Malignant Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer...!"  I decided to ask a friend who was a nurse if she thought it was suspicious and she immediately told me to "get that taken off!"   So I called my doctor back,{nearly a year later} and got that referral.  Sure enough, they took a biopsy and I got the call with the dreaded word CANCER  and my name attached to it! yikes!  I went back in and they took out a HUGE chunk of skin from the top of my left leg.  I still have a nasty scar.  Thankfully, they got all of it.  It was a slow growing form and had not spread any further, so no other treatment was necessary.  I had to have skin checks every 6 months and now I go back every year. 

 Lucy got a haircut today, no she didn't get a hold of a scissors again...I just decided to cut it, it was getting quite long.  

 But, she did get a hold of a green PERMANENT marker!!!

Who knew...lotion works fairly well at getting it off skin, Thankfully, as far as I can tell...that is all she colored on!!

Oh my...this girl!  Such a little stinker!  Speaking of stinker...

I have 2 of them and they are so much fun!