Archives for June 2012

Happy Birthday Buddy

June 29, 2012 By JulieK

I find it very hard to believe (and I know I say that every year) that my baby boy is 11 years old today!!! Seems like just yesterday that the “little” 8lb 11oz chunka chunka arrived!! We’re on summer vacation, and when he goes back to school in the fall, he’ll be in the 5th grade!! How can that be?? I found a couple of fun older pictures to share… I was so excited to find this one of Sean and Oscar!! I didn’t know I had it!

Playing in the back yard on the playground

and posing with Kathryn on her birthday when he had just lost his first tooth!

Hard to believe that adorable cutie pie is 11 now… Here’s some recent pics that make me cringe ’cause he can’t possibly be this old…

Who is that grown boy fishing and taking it so seriously?

or the Cub Scout making crazy faces? This one just cracks me up!!

Or climbing through the Polar Caves?

or playing in the sprinkler in the backyard…

I hope you have the happiest of birthdays today!!!

Here’s three other Sean birthday posts!! Some super fun baby pics included :)

Age 10

Age 9

Age 8

Key West Vacation

June 26, 2012 By JulieK

I love being a teacher, and one of the many reasons why is Summer Vacation!! Of course, one of the drawbacks is that you can only go on vacation when everyone and their brother is also on vacation (sadly, no late September Disney trips for us), BUT we always have a super fun time travelling during the summer when we can take our time and do what we want. Remember, last year? The 18 day and 5 states Amazing Western Adventure? Here’s a post about it… And another post about it… Well, this year we decided to tone it down a little bit… We went to Key West for 7 days. It was fantastic and relaxing, just what we needed after a long school year. CAUTION>>> This post will be long and picture heavy :)

So, we had a 7am flight, and that meant we got to Ft. Lauderdale pretty early and we could enjoy the drive down the keys :) We stayed at the Sheraton which is across the street from Smathers Beach! Our first order of business… Check out the (wow it’s warm) ocean!

Then it’s off to Mallory Square for the Sunset Celebration!

Most of our days were spent wandering around Key West, checking out the scene and eating :) No visit is complete without checking out Sloppy Joe’s

We visited a couple of different sights every day… Here’s one of the kitties at the Hemingway House

Another sunset, this one from one of the upper keys (not sure which one we stopped at… there’s so many).

A visit to the Summer White House. Our tour guide Jimmy grew up in Key West and sold the president a newspaper, by walking up to him as he walked down the street… Can you imagine just walking up to a president on the street?? He was a fabulous tour guide as he had so many personal stories!!

Fort Zachary Taylor… We toured the Fort, then went back later that afternoon to go swimming at their beach (but I didn’t bring the camera when we went back…)

Oh… Bahia Honda state park… Beautiful!! We took a day and just went to the beach! Here’s a bunch of pictures from our fun day there…

ummm… Do see that picture above?? If you know me, you know that it is SHOCKING that I went in swimming!! In the ocean (which was darn close to air temperature!!) I’m not a huge fan of swimming (I can do it, I just don’t particularly like to) … but this was great!!!!

Chickens, chickens everywhere… Seriously! The chickens and roosters and chicks are everywhere!! Including one trying to hop up on the table and steal Sean’s french fries at one restaurant (we were eating at a table outside), and another that got startled on the street and almost jumped right into our car!! Good thing Mike’s window was only open 3/4 of the way, the chicken banged into the window and went on his merry way…

Snow Cones at the beach!

and you can’t go to Key West and not see the “Cat Man”… That man is insane!!

Our last couple of days were overcast and windy… Here we were at the boardwalk and they were just looking when a wave hit :) They got soaked :)

And a peek at all of us at the southernmost point…

I “only” took about 500 pictures :) We had so much fun, and it was a relaxing trip… No agenda, the biggest thing we had to decide was where we were going to eat that day :) If you go… You must go to Paseo and get the fabulous corn… And got to the Hogfish bar and grill… YUMMY!!

More Handmade Cards

June 25, 2012 By JulieK

I know I’ve mentioned my obsession with stamps… I’ll freely admit that I am mostly a stamp hoarder… I buy them because they are so cute, but until recently, I didn’t use them too much!! Well, enter the monthly Card Club that I co-teach at Late Night Croppers and you have the perfect “excuse” to actually USE the stamps that I ~~hoard~~ buy!

Here are the 3 cards that I made for last month’s card club…

This first one uses two different stamp sets from The Stamps of Life

This adorable Popsicle stamp is also from The Stamps of Life

This last one uses a Technique Tuesday stamp

Book Review: 1000 Days The Ministry of Christ by Jonathan Falwell

June 23, 2012 By JulieK

1000 Days The Ministry of Christ by Jonathan Falwell

Jonathan Falwell certainly has a family history with ministry. In 1000 Days, he chronicles the approximately 1000 days of Jesus’ time actively ministering here on earth before the crucifixion. Mr. Falwell uses snippets of scripture to illustrate Jesus’ words, and then interjects how we can use those words to help ourselves here today. There are present day examples to use as illustrations of how we can use the information in our own lives and live in a more Christ-centric way.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be, I enjoyed reading it, but what I wanted to read was more of a history book, maybe taking all the information we have in the Gospels and merging them together as a chronological history lesson. That is not what this book is. This book takes several specific events of Christ’s ministry here on earth, and uses the scripture to evangelize and preach about how we can use the scripture in our daily lives. I think it would be a good introduction for someone who does not know much about the scripture. There is a lot of basic information in each chapter, and if a group of people wanted to use the book as a jumping off place to learn more, there are group discussion questions included at the end of each chapter.

I did enjoy reading the book, but I wished that the balance tipped more toward the scripture and less toward the preaching. Overall, if you’re looking for an overview of Jesus’ ministry, you’ll get a good foundation through this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

End of school kids’ gifts

June 20, 2012 By JulieK

Well, we all know that I have a “problem” and simply LOVE to make things!! Well, when I saw this idea on Pinterest I knew I was going to have to make something similar!! She offers a printable to use as a tag, but I couldn’t possibly use it :) Especially when last month’s stamp set from my “Stamps of Life” club membership featured ADORABLE Popsicles!! Here’s the stamp set (I am not an affiliate, just a club member, and I LOVE the stamps!!) So, I was able to find the swirly straws, and used the small single serving Kool Aid, and then stamped the tags (“only” 50 of them, for both kids’ classes!!) Here’s the tags I made…

The image is stamped in 3 parts… First I had the outline and the words stamped in black, then the sticks in brown and finally the super fun red “Popsicle!” I punched a hole in the corner, and tied them to the clear treat bags with red and white twine. Here’s one all done…

I think they came out super cute! Don’t forget to click on the Pin it button if you want to share this on Pinterest! You can follow me using the Pinterest button in the top menu too!