I know, it's been a while!!

I am aware that it has been a while since my last post but life has been all consuming lately. A majority of my life these days has been car shopping because despite my best effort at begging, they totalled my van. I hate car shopping!! I am clearly out of my league since it not that often we have had to do this. The last several cars we have had we have bought off family and friends so going to dealerships is a new thing. We have, as of yet, not found anything that has wowed me and that I have thought of buying. We looked at a van this afternoon that could be a possibility because it had everything I wanted in a car but we will see. I am not getting my hopes up or anything. All I know is that Matt and I are having a hard time sharing a car because of our radically different schedules. It also doesn't help that his car, a Ford Explorer, doesn't fit us all. I am bound and determined to find the absolutely the best deal out there since I proudly claim the title of "cheapest person alive"!!

I celebrated my 31st birthday on November 29th with a trip with Matt and the kids to Disney. Since this was a preplanned trip and I no longer had a car my wonderful dad, for my birthday, lent me his van and paid the gas for us to go. And to top it off my awesome Uncle Buddy got us a hotel room for two nights! The reason for the trip was that since we were pass holders, we were invited to the taping of the Walt Disney Christmas Day Parade. We had up close views of the Dancing with the Stars cast, Jessica Simpson and Katherine McPhee. What a neat experience! The girls got to see one of their favorites, Sabrina Bryan. Be sure to watch the parade Christmas morning to see if you can catch a glimpse of us in the crowd. My birthday night we had reservations at "Chef Mickey's". It was once featured on the Food Network channel so it is widely considered the "it" place to go. I called for six weeks trying to get in because they start taking reservations six months in advance and it was book solid until the day before we left they had just had a cancellation. How cool was that?? I had wanted to go there for months!

School is progressing nicely. Jacob and Hannah are just finishing up the first semester this week with the Florida Virtual School. They will be studying this week for finals so that after they take their tests they will have the remainder of the year off. Semester two starts after the new year starts. Noah and Noelle started Odyssey of the Mind a few weeks ago. They love it! If you don't know what that is, a group 6 to 7 same aged kids get together once a week to solve a problem off a list the organization puts together. It is totally student led. They can't have any help or influencing from adults. Adults are there just as crowed control and can't put in their two cents.

We went on a field trip last Wednesday to WJXT News Channel 4. The kids toured the station and got to watch a live broadcast which in they got to wave on camera. They thought that was totally exciting!

Hannah had her Dr appt last Thursday at the Nemours Children Clinic in downtown Jacksonville. He put her on Synthroid which she will be on for the rest of her life. He wants her to return in 3 months for blood work to check how the medications are working.

Tomorrow, December 10th, we will be having a Christmas cookie and gingerbread house decorating party with my homeschool group. We had done it last year and it turned out so cute so they can't wait to do it again. I will be sure post pictures in the next few days.

Well, I'm sure this doesn't cover everything but at least I have posted something. I will be sure to keep in touch and keep you posted on my car situation.