Monday, September 18, 2006

God is so good!!

So most of you know that we took over the landscaping part of the ministry and it is now it's own company. That happened Aug 1. All has gone really well but we are moving into what's typically a slower time of year. We have been trying to plan and decide what we need to do if income gets too low in the winter. Apparently, God has it figured out. :) Tim just got a pretty big job out of the blue last week. Then we also found out that he has an opportunity to bid on a pretty big commercial account this week too. That would be awesome and that would set us up for not needing to do anything else in the winter. So we are just praying and doing our best with the proposal and everything. It's hard not to get anxious but we are trying to just ride it out and see what the Lord has in store with that.

And then today Tim brought home some more good news. Last year he applied to the Cherokee Co Fire Dept. It is a life long dream for him. He did great on the physical part of the testing, one of the best that they had ever had. And it was a really hard test, people were passing out. But he didn't pass the fire part of the written exam. And therefore didn't get the job. Well today he saw the fire chief whom he had done his physical test with last year. Cherokee Co is growing at such a rapid rate, that they are hiring 35 more firefighters this year. The Chief told him to go to the office and fill out the paper work and get in for the class that they will be holding BEFORE the test. Meaning that he will have an opportunity to learn the information that he didn't know on the last test. There was no class offered before. So, we may have a fire fighter in the family soon. It would be an all around great scenario if he got the job. They work 24 on and 48 off. So he could do landscaping too. The fire dept would mean awesome benefits for us, which would be HUGE!!!

So anyway, lots of unknowns right now of course. Wouldn't be exciting if it was any other way. But we are just trusting that the Lord will make it clear for us as we go along and He will continue to lead the way and that above all, He is glorified in all that we do.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

More Aquarium Pictures



We got to see them feed the sharks.












Madison showing me how big the Sturgeon fish were.














Mackenzie "petting" the stingrays and sharks.




A pretty butterfly in the butterfly garden.
 Posted by Picasa

Homeschooling Perks

One of the perks of homeschooling is that EVERYTHING is a teachable moment. Wednesday it rained (A LOT!!) so Tim took the day off and we went to the Tennessee aquarium. We had so much fun that we bought a family pass. And then we spent the rest of the week learning more about the fish and reptiles that we saw. It was awesome!

Mama and the girls


They had a huge exhibit of starfish. This is a dwarf starfish. It's TINY!!

We were so glad we got to see Nemo.

The cute otters showing off for us.


This gross looking this is a sea dragon. It's the seahorse's cousin.

A very lovely Pirahna


Thursday, September 14, 2006

More Destin Pictures

Fuddpuckers is a really cool place for kids. You can write on EVERYTHING there and they have an alligator beach with hundreds of live alligators. Doesn't get much better than that!
Mackenzie writing on the alligator statue at Fuddpuckers

At the gator beach


More art work

The view of the beach from our balcony

Our VERY impromptu vacation to Destin, FL.

Tim's aunt and uncle have a condo in Destin FL. Tim called me on a Tuesday and said that the condo was free, but it was free THAT WEEK. So the next morning at 4am, we were in the car on our way to FL. We were there long enough to have 5 full days there. It was a lot of fun.
Leah's first experience with the sand

She warmed up pretty quickly!
The girls having breakfast

That was as close to the ocean water as Leah preferred to be

Playing in the sand with Daddy


Madison is not so much of a morning person

Leah liked the pool MUCH better than the ocean


So did Madison!

More sand


Hanging out in the pool