Orlando

Me, Matt and all the kids left for Orlando last Tuesday. We spent the first couple of days doing the Disney thing. We stayed at Pop Century on the Disney Resort property. We had the best time. On our way into town we stopped and picked up Matt's mom in Oveido at her high school friend's house and she spent the afternoon with us. We took her and had lunch at Planet Hollywood. It was nice to see her since we hadn't seen her since we were last in New Port Richey last May. Luke was just a couple of weeks old last time we saw her. Tuesday evening until midnight, all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday we spent at all four Disney parks. We had bought the Disney dining plan so all of our food was prepaid in advance which was really nice. Just one less thing to worry about. On the plan, we also got to eat some of the places we would not normally eat at because they are just too expensive for seven people. It doesn't matter where you on the plan we made sure to take advantage of it. The waiter gives you a copy of the receipt that tells you what it would have cost had you paid cash. Imagine our shock when we were at the Coral Reef in Epcot and the "bill" came to $285.00. Of course we didn't have to pay that but we would have if we hadn't been on the plan. Isn't that crazy? and that was just one meal!
Thursday afternoon we went for my annual trek to the FPEA Homeschool Convention in Orlando. We were there Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We took in some classes, bought some of our curriculum for next year and had some good fellowship with thousands of other people who do what you do and what you are going through. I really love going there. I can't say that I will ever take Matt and the kids again but it was ok. Maybe next time they can do the Disney thing while I do the convention thing. Taking a one year old to conventions wasn't the smartest move we ever made. He definitely made things challenging!
Luke has been pretty sick since his birthday in March. We have been battling ear infection after ear infection as well as stomach bugs and colds. He just can't seem to shake this stuff. He has an appointment at Nemours on June 6th with the ENT. His doctor also wants him to see the allergist for allergy testing before his surgery since he had a reaction to an antibiotic he has been on recently. Matt and I think it will show an allergy to milk. That will be difficult to deal with! Whatever we have to do to make him feel better. The poor kid is always under the weather. You can't help but feel bad for him. We were just in the emergency room last week because he was running a fever of 105.3 with ibuprofen and Tylenol. Nothing was working! As it turned out it was his ears again.

Matt's mom and the kids after Planet Hollywood at our hotel.



This was us at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot. You can see it because the lighting is very low but there is an aquarium in the background. It is like eating underwater.


With the Disney dining plan you get dessert at every meal. This was Noelle's dessert at the Coral Reef. We thought is was so cute we had to take a picture of it!



On Thursday we ended up at Chef Mickey's for the breakfast buffet. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto come around to your table for autographs and pictures.

Kindred Hospital

We have had a very busy couple of weeks here in the Sherman family. On May 14th we took a tour of Kindred Hospital in Green Cove Springs. It wasn't so much as a tour of the actual hospital but more of a tour of different medical careers. They talked about what each department did, how much schooling was involved, what the pay range was and what the need was for that career was in this area as well as nationwide. Noelle has always wanted to go into the medical field she says as a nurse or a pediatrician. I really tried hard to steer Jacob towards the pharmacy because they make a TON of money but he is clearly not interested. We think he is headed down the computer career path. He is not sure what avenue but he does know he wants it to involve computers somehow. He is really into movie making so I think that may play a role somewhere also. Noah has always said he wanted to be in the Navy. I can see that! He is just that kind of kid. I am encouraging him to get a college degree first so that he could go in as an officer and he can make more money. I have heard that is how it works. Hannah, we aren't sure what lies in Hannah's path yet. She is very undecided and that is ok because she has a lot of time to decide. She is considering a paralegal career but nothing has really been decided.

This is Noah in the physical therapy department.


Noelle is watching a nurse play a patient walking with a walker.



This was when we were in the lab. Jacob is looking into the microscope at some blood cells.


Jacob is all signed up to take part in the "Volunteen" program at Orange park Hospital this summer. He needs to have at least 75 volunteer hours for high school so this is his first step to achieving them.

Hannah turns 13!!

We celebrated Hannah's 13th birthday on Saturday. The festivities actually started on Friday evening when Matt and I threw her surprise party here at our house. My dad got her to babysit while we decorated and got her friends to the house. Boy, was she SURPRISED!! We had a Hannah Montana karaoke party and sleepover. We had 9 girls here to spend the night. It was so crazy!! They sang karaoke until about 3am when Matt told me to go take away the microphone. At 4am I had to tell them to GO TO BED!! They were so loud!! I had given them a few rules like 1) don't go outside, 2) don't go on the computer and 3) no getting on the phone before going to bed myself around 12am. I apparently forgot to mention the rule about not warming up pizza in the toaster. Yes, the toaster!! They got hungry after eating all the nachos and 60 cookies that I left out for them so they tried to warm up pizza not in the microwave (because they didn't think they would be allowed to use it) but in the regular toaster. They finally drifted off into dreamland one by one sometime between 4am-5am after eating, drinking, singing and giving each other makeovers. I got up the next morning and made them blueberry muffins with OJ, milk and bananas and counted down the minutes until 9am when moms were to show up.

What a night!!!

Surprise! This was Hannah coming in the door....


Hannah and her friends sitting on the floor eating dinner.


Her Hannah Montana guitar cake.


Hannah and Noelle sang the first song, "If We Were a Movie".





On her actual birthday we took her and the kids to Ichiro, a Japanese Steakhouse. We all had chicken and watched in amazement as they cook it in front of us with lots of animation. I didn't get any pictures of this dinner. We charged the camera batteries from her party but forgot the camera when we left.

She combined some of her birthday money and bought this bike and helmet. She had outgrown her bike years ago and needed another one.

Our Family Expands

We have added two new members to the Sherman family. This is Maggie & Bubbie and they are little Yorkies. Actually his name was Max but we already have a crazy dog named Max and we thought one Max was enough!! They are so sweet!

The Good News!!

Matt and I took the kids to see the Christian body builder group, Team Impact, last night and I am VERY excited to tell you that Jacob accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We have been patiently waiting and praying for him to do so for a while now. We are very proud of him and we look forward to my brother, TJ, baptizing him soon.