Okay, so seekinHISwisdom had blogged about her kitchen and was interested in seeing other people's kitchens. She also asked what some of our favorite kitchen items are, so I added a few pics of some of them, too. I probably went overboard on pics here, but enjoy....

 Oh, and by the way....I had to do some serious cleaning up this afternoon to make my kitchen look this good. I did take before pics but am scared to post them. I doubt anybody lets their kitchen get as awful as mine!! Mail piled up, children's projects all over the bar, jars that need to be taken out to the garage, dirty dishes and groceries that never got put away...plus more all make for a very messy kitchen!!

Those closet doors are hiding my laundry "room". I will pan around to the left and take you all around my kitchen.....

 Back some time ago I had created a blogspot, but didn't do too much on it. It was more for family and close friends to keep up with our lives and I was going to make it more personal to those who had supported us in prison ministry. I decided to revive it and then got to enjoying it...the only drawback is that it's harder and takes longer to add pictures, but for now I am going to be doing all my updates on there...I will let you know here, when there are new posts, so my Xanga friends can stay in touch!!
 Here's the LINK
 If you have a blogspot or something similar...feel free to friend me!!

 Today is my 32nd birthday and my dear hubby is taking us all out for supper...he's says I am not allowed to cook today!! I've had a wonderful birthday weekend so far!!

 I have got Tupperware stock coming out my ears!!  My goal this fall is to sell as much of it as possible to help us pay some debts. My deepest desire right now, apart from growing closer to God, is to be completely debt free and I know that won't happen overnight! But here is one step in that direction!

 Take a  look at my Picture Trail albums of all my stock...if you see anything you need/want, gimmee a hollar! I will even be happy to ship out of state as cheaply as possible!
Here is the link to my Tupperware Clearance.

Last evening was the GEMS (Gospel Express Ministries South) 2nd Annual Benefit Banquet put on by Candice Nissley. Beautiful , blessed evening!

==============The Banquet Hall===============

Marilyn helping her hubby get ready to serve. Doug & Marilyn are board members, in fact, Doug is the Chairman. Fine, fine couple!!

Miss Emily and Miss Ashley getting the salads put together!

The wonderful servers~
 Back: Doug Gingrich
Middle: John Maxwell (missionary chaplain),Jeremiah Myers, Samuel Drawbond, Paul Padgett (missionary chaplain)
Front: Susan Drawbond, Emily Redmond, Marilyn Gingrich, and William Hochstedler (?)

Sponsor Board...we were blessed with many new sponsors and most of them did the Diamond sponsorship which was a real blessing!

The new GEMS display board Dan and I made.

Dave & Jill Smith were at the welcome table.

==========================Silent Auction============================

 This helps to generate additional support!

Baked goods were a big hit last year, so this year we had an abundance of them

Marilyn G. decorated two cakes Guess which one brought the most??

Gators                              or                                 FSU??

 
The Gators one sold for $45!!

Cakes by Marie...I think the German chocolate went for $35!!

17 year old Brianna Rhodes was the violinist again this year. She does a GREAT job!!

======================The Supporters and GEMS members=======================

Thanks to all the Red Oak CMC members who sponsored!! Means a lot to us to have your support!

David Ratliff gave his testimony. He is a former inmate who is trying to start a new life outside the fences! Pray for him and all the men and women who are released. It is a tough road ahead....

 ~Brianna~

=====================Servers=======================

 Emily and Susan cleaning up bread plates.

John M. serving....

Susan was a beautiful waitress!!

Jeremiah

Samuel

Paul

Candice, the wonderful coordinator...planner... and Ashley, her kitchen help.

Jill Smith and daughter Leah.

Mr. Gary Montgomery was the main speaker for the evening.

Dan was the moderator...whoa, sorry about the red eyes! And it is so hard to get a picture of a speaker not in the midst of speaking. No, he wasn't whistling!

Jonas Bontrager (board member) gave some closing comments and read off the winners of the silent auction items. Candice and Doug were runners, taking the "tickets" to each winner.

Gary (volunteer chaplain) & JC Montgomery

The Henry's and Montgomery's

Dan   I

Time to pay up.... Dan Nase, standing, is also another missionary chaplain!

===================Cleanup===================

 It's amazing how quickly that room was tore down and cleaned up! Thanks to the many helpers!!

Lenny- the dish washer. He had a huge job to do and did it with a smile!!

Bill instructs Dan where to put the tables that were rented for the event.

Chaplains Smith and Henry~ You don't know how many pics I had to take to get this "good" one! Crazy guys!!

Chaplain and Mrs. Smith

A huge thank you to all the supporters for helping make this a successful event...thanks to you, these volunteer chaplains will be able to continue ministering full time to the thousands of inmates they see every day. God bless you~
 And a huge thanks to Candice Nissley for her vision to help the ministry and making this all happen! May God give you the desires of your heart, Candice!!

==========================================================================

  Our church is trying out something new...a homeschool co-op of sorts. Yesterday was the first day and Rocky W. is taking on the task of teaching the kids carpentry skills. They will be building tool boxes.

 First of all they sat inside and he showed them the blueprint for the tool box.



Then they learned how to tell measurements on a tape measure....learned all about reducing fractions like 12/16 to 3/4.

 Rocky and Maria

Then it was outside to mark the boards for making the first cuts. This is pecan wood and it looks kind of old and gnarly, but till the end of the day it was looking way different!



Dan helping Stephen get his marks "right on"!



Rocky let the older kids us the saw....after informing them how dangerous it can be!



Danny with "his" wood.



Then Rocky took each of their pieces of wood over the jointer to get the edges nice and straight....



 ....so Dan could send it through the table saw.



Faces:

  
 
  

Carmen catching her pieces of wood.....



Jake was checking to see how well these goggles worked from keeping the saw dust out of his eyes!!



Beautiful saw dust....if only I could add the smell!



Then it was time to send the wood through the planer....making it look real nice!





Maria catching her piece of wood....



Stephen



Found some fire ants carrying away a piece of someone's chip!! Team work!!!



 I didn't get any pictures of clean-up, but the kids did a great job of sweeping up all the sawdust and helping carry all Rocky's tool back into his trailer.
 I say we had a good first "carpentry skills class" and I know my son is excited to continue!
  Tamara wasn't on any of these pictures, because she chose to join our homeschool group in a Paper Mache class. Maybe one week I can go with her and see what all they are doing! Thanks to Emily for giving her a ride!!

 This morning my men are off to church for Men's breakfast! Then when they get home, Dan and I have to finish the GEMS display board we are making for the Banquet tonight.....pics to come if I remember my camera!!

Have a wonderful day~

 Can you guess what kind of flower this is? It seems to be native to the Henry's weed patch only on a certain day! Last Friday Dan went into the garage for something and discovered our freezer door got left open once again! This time it was the other child! I think it's time for a chest freezer so that can't happen. I did think at first that possibly the freezer quit, but it is up and running nice and cold again!
 This was a flower or "weed" that got some corn and peas dumped on it when I threw out the boxes and bags of no longer frozen, but spoiled veggies!



The next day, our dear son was in the garage (not sure why) but he got a brainy idea to see exactly just how it feels to put your tongue on frozen metal...in the freezer! Well, since no one was there to hear his cry for help, he pulled and pulled and left some of his tongue in the freezer! I don't think he will EVER do that again! Poor guy....a hard lesson learned!



Yay for 42 lbs. lost (since last August)!! Got 48 more to go......



Labor Day weekend our church goes camping at Torreya State park...this year we got the Yurt and went one night.



Inside....



Behind the Yurt, the ground drops off. You can't really tell how steep this is, but I would hate to get too close to the edge! This is the "mountains" of FL!



 Sunday afternoon we played games and just visited...
  Amy, Ayla, Tamara and I played Mexican Train domino's



Samuel, Joy, Jonas, Lonnie, Ivan, Dan and Lenora visiting.



Inside Jonas' camper a fierce game of Blokus was taking place!



A cool spider..he was neon green and red!



A big banana spider....they were all over....one took up residence right outside the Yurt door. Guess he kept the other creepy crawlies away for us!??



The kids playing in the air-conditioned yurt.



Angie and her first daughter, Jasmin Kay!



Her son, Forrest....



The girls just got back from riding on the back of Sharita's pickup after a hike at the Bluffs.
 Beth, Ashleigh and Susan



Dan getting the fire ready for Sunday supper.



Hot dog sticks ready and waiting....





Tammy Q....the humidity was making her curls pop out!



Waiting for the fire to get hot enough....



Cooking....



Almost immediately after I got the food all out on the picnic table, this friendly guy came to visit. We named him Roscoe. He very much wanted to eat with us, but we were good and followed the park rules. No food for Roscoe!



Playing Rook after dark.



Monday breakfast...we had cereal, banana's and blueberry muffins



Susan, her niece, Ayla, and Tamara...



The boys spent alot of time riding bike. Jay, Chris (a boy they made friends with), Austin and Danny.



Monday after we packed up, we headed over to the picnic area where we were having lunch with everyone from church. Only 6 or so families camped....but most of the rest came for the picnic.
 Danny and Austin rode their bikes over ahead of us.



Taste testing the boiled peanuts....sorry Amy, you can't hide!!



Only in the south.....



Amy got a hold of my camera and snapped a few...



So I got one of her in return Thanks for being a friend Amy....(even if you are mean!)



Here comes the party!



Some awesome games of Snitch...even if Sharita and I got skunked!



More snitch and boiled peanuts....





Happy Labor-less day.....



 After we got home and unpacked, we crashed for the afternoon. Had a nice relaxing evening, reading, playing games and watching "Chicken Run".
 The sad part to my day was getting the phone call that our friends, Art & Karen Meulenberg's 7 year old son Adrian, fell off their pickup and was run over and killed when they were hauling fire wood. My heart breaks for them...wish I could be there... Karen and I grew up going to church and school together...I have so many memories of fun times on her families farm and hanging out in the youth group...she was in my bridal party....I am so, so sad. They have 4 other beautiful children as well. Please pray for them as they go through this tough time. Especially pray for Art since he was driving the truck!  One bright spot Tamara and I talked about was that in the morning, he woke up just like any other day, but that afternoon he got to meet Jesus....how I long for that day!!

May we each spend our days as if they were our last...and treat our family as if it was their last!

The Meulenberg kids....Adrian is on the right holding his baby sister. This was the picture we received last Christmas.

Friday Dan had off work. We spent the day shopping in Tallahassee and then headed up to my sister, Chris' for the night and all day Saturday. Saturday evening was my nephew Tyler's 16th birthday party. We had to come home after the party so Dan could preach in the prison today. So that's a quick version of our weekend....here are the pics....

 We went in to Old Navy to see if they had any sales going on and they were doing free face painting for the kids. The lady, I think she might have been the manager, did an excellent job. She said she was taking classes!

My Tiger boy~

Flower-girl~

The Martin's kittens...they were so cute sprawled out all over each other!

Heidi...

Chris was making a "path" for a relay game she planned for the party.

Trying it out....they had to kick a soccer ball through it.

Happy 16th Tyler!!

Then: 
  3 months old                                   4 years old

Now:

It was a pretty, but HOT evening...and gnatty! Youth don't seem to mind that so bad when they are having fun!

Getting ready for the relay....

Fun on the trampoline~

The only 2 girls....Amber and Nicole~

Actual relay~ Since Tyler loves football, this relay was centered around football and other sports. They split into two teams and had to don football gear and then hit a baseball, kick the soccer ball through the path, shoot a hoop, and then run back and pass off the equipment to the next guy!

Hitting the baseball~

Kicking the soccer ball~

Shooting hoops~

Cheering on the last two guys~

 Hope you had a great party, Tyler!! We left before it was over so we wouldn't get home too late
  Happy Birthday tomorrow!!

Wednesday I went to Harvey's for groceries. Every Wed. they have specials that are good that day only. One of the specials was 10-12 lb. bags of green peanuts for $.99 a lb.!! I had been wanting to find some, to can boiled peanuts and was thrilled to find this deal! So I bought around 22 lb.. We cooked up a batch that evening for snack time after working outside trimming shrubs and other work.
 Then Thursday Yolie came over and brought her pressure canner and we canned 21 qt. of boiled peanuts and I froze about 10 qt.

Lunch time... Pizza, veggies and dip, jello salad and cookies

Tamara and Carmen made beaded keychain animals.

The finished result. We haven't tried any yet, to see if we did it right, but since Yolie has done this before, I am not too concerned!!

Friday morning was our homeschool groups Back to School celebration. We went bowling at Kindell Lanes. It was only $1 for shoe rentals and the group funds paid for the games!! We had great fun!!

Kay & Sylas using the rack. I had never seen anything like it before, but it was great for the real little kids!

Tamara

Danny

Friday evening we were invited to the Youth v-ball game. Had lots of fun there, too!! We have a wonderful youth group and some great "young families"!!

Scott setting to Ally...

Eric & Collin taking a break

Maria with her new look...missing teeth!!

At the end of the night, the group that was still left got together to make a picture to send to Jeremy who just left that week for Liberty University in VA. We missed him....
R. to L.- Tiffany Anderson, Hayley, Caroline Yoder, Susan Drawbond, Jody, Beth Drawbond, Samuel Drawbond, Dan, Scott Cloud, Allison Wilson-Ayers, Emily Redmond, Phil Anderson and Ben.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to help Eric & Yolie move into their new house!! YAY!!
 Yolie's aunt and uncle, Dan & Rhoda and Cousin Beaver also helped as well as her parents.

We didn't move everything. Since they will be living next door to her parents, where all their stuff is stored, they will move the rest little by little as they have time and are ready for it. We mostly moved the big furniture and things they needed to start living there.

Tamara and Carmen spent most of the day playing in Carmen's new bedroom!

Ian enjoying toys that were packed away for a year....it's almost like Christmas, digging out all the toys!!

Time to relax.....

 This afternoon I am going to see the Dr. to see if they can help me determine a reason that my heart is skipping beats so often. It has been doing it for almost 2 weeks now. I've had it happen quite a bit over the years, but never this often for such a long period. Your prayers would be appreciated!

The weekend of August 14-16, our family rented a cabin at a state park near here. Friday night just Dan & I went (thanks to Rocky & Heidi for keeping the kids for us!!) then we picked them up Saturday morning and spent all day and Sunday morning at the park together. Lots of pictures.....

The park....

The cabin.....

Bedroom....

Dining area....

Kitchen...

Screened in porch...

 There was also a nice bathroom with a big shower, and a loft where the kids slept.
   We borrowed kayaks and Dan & I went out for a ride soon after we got to the park. It was the first time either of us had went kayaking and we really enjoyed it!

The fishing pier.

Lake Seminole

After it got dark Friday evening we brewed some coffee and sat on the porch and played games....so much fun to just relax! The reason Dan chose this weekend to "get away" is because he had just finished up a semester of college and was starting a "free week". Today it's back to work for him!

Saturday morning...more coffee We got up at 5:30 to watch the sun come up over the lake.

A little disappointed that a big cloud covered the horizon, so it wasn't as pretty as we hoped! But it was still a neat experience!

Two men out fishing early...

Headed back to the cabin for breakfast...

Breakfast clean up...then off to pick up the kids!

The first activity after getting back was more kayaking. Danny had went kayaking before and was excited to go again. Tamara had never went before, but was also excited....

Dan & Danny out on the lake...

My sweet daughter with the guys in the background.

Finally it was her turn. She freaked out when she first sat in the kayak still partially on land, because it was so tippy, but once she got completely in the water she did great! We were amazed how well she did!!

Here Dan was pretending to be Mater from "Cars". He was rowing backwards...."No need to know where I'm going, just need to know where I've been!!"-Mater

Then Danny and I took a turn....

And then Dan & I....

By the time we were done, it was time for lunch...hotdogs and leftover shrimp and catfish from our supper the night before.

The children just loved the loft. They had so much fun playing together while we cleaned up lunch.

After lunch we took a walk....

Found a single swing....

Lots of squirrels outside our cabin!!

And a HUGE moth!

Late afternoon, Dan & Danny went for a longer kayak ride. You can barely see it, but at the top of this picture is a bridge. They went beyond it to another part of the lake...Tamara was watching them get ready to go...

And they are off....

We had mountain pies for supper that night.
 Danny watching the coals get hot.

While we were sitting outside waiting, squirrels above us kept dropping pieces on pine cone, and every now and then one of these would fall down!
 OR, was Dan eating them??

Cooking time...

Tamara was "riding her horse" while she waited patiently for her mountain pie to be ready.

Time to eat!!

And then it was time for Smores!! Yum!

As we were finishing up supper...the clouds were rolling in. Soon, Dan spotted a rainbow and not long after that we had some heavy rain. So we took our party indoors! More games and enjoying the rain from the screened in porch.

Sunday morning after a breakfast of bacon and egg wraps, we packed up and headed to church. Dan was the sharing time leader and we also had to practice with a group to sing in the PM service.
 We were packed in good time, so Danny played a few games of Bejeweled!

What a fun, relaxing weekend....it was good for all of us! Ready for church...

Goodbye Lake Seminole...see ya next year!!??