Sarah's Budding Photography

My Sarah has been interested in photography ever since Laura Nossal babysat them in the summer and took pictures of them playing in the front yard.  For her birthday in November we bought her a camera and she is getting some good pics!  I have 300 at a time uploaded to my iMac, with a good dozen or more that are excellent-not bad for a beginner.  Here are some from her recent upload:

Baby Brother is fun to take pics of.

If you really look you can see her hands and the camera

Leave it to my girl to get creative with a cookie

One of my favorite tree perspectives

This gopher tortoise was walking up our new street.  

The photographer and sleeping baby brother together with their blankets.

From above

It really is eerie the way Jacob sleeps in the car, but this is what we see EVERY trip!

SO PRECIOUS!!  I love the little knuckle dimples holding his blankie!

Our bougainvillea in Jupiter was in FULL BLOOM when we visited!

Such a sweet shot of Naomi and her Piroette!

Gorgeous wet hibiscus with our backyard stuff in the background

Who'd have thought to take a picture of stucco?  It makes your eyes dance to look at it,
but I am impressed with her taking it!

Another cute one of Gabe with the wind parting his hair in the middle!

Sweet little sister with stuffed animals! 

"Bougainvillea with bi-colored fences"

Very nicely done!

I call this, "Clementine on a road trip"

Should we call this Earth Science?  Biology? Tasty?

    

Weight Watchers Week #17

     I am keeping up my losing streak.  Weight loss reminds me of Bunco sometimes.  You can still be a winner by being the biggest loser!!  I lost .8 lbs this week (is that considered 3/4 of a pound?)
     This week they talked about exercise at my meeting.  This is what I need to start getting serious about if I want to lose more than .8 - 1.5 per week.  If I want to beef it up I am going to have to do more than parent and homeschool 6 kids or even 8 minutes of Wii skateboarding here and there.
     Pray that I will exercise every single day that I can!

Weight Watchers Week #16

   So I have officially hit the 16 week mark!  Super exciting.  I got a little clapping hands charm to put on my 10% keyring (where did I put that?)!  Stay and sustain I think they call the award.  So I have stayed, I continue to lose and I continue to press forward!
     This week I lost an even 1 pound. Mind you I am losing slowly now because I am not exercising still.  I have lost 30 POUNDS-as of tonight-without exercise-just diet alone!!  It really is amazing to me!  However, my dear husband has asked me to make our anniversary on July 12th my goal for total weight loss.  For my big goal that is 50 more pounds.  That gives me about 6 months or 24 weeks to lose 50 pounds.  I need to lose more than 1 pound a week to meet that.
     Time to exercise. . . sigh!

Weight Watchers Week #15

     Really, it has been 16 weeks since I joined, but since WW rewards me for persevering to 16 weeks, and I didn't go one week in December, we are calling this week 15(but I know the truth!).
     Some weeks I get really low about any loss because my scale or the Wii Fit board doesn't show it.  Some weeks my scales are totally in my favor and I find out they lied.  This week followed the first!  I was sure I would only break even or even have gained for the first time since joining the program.  However, I was totally surprised to find out that I lost 1.6 pounds!
     This brings my total to 29.6 pounds in 15 (16) weeks!  So next week, when I am rewarded for working hard for 16 weeks, I will have lost 30 pounds.  Course, it would be really cool if I could loose 2.5 pounds this week and show a 2 pound/week loss average.  .  . hmm, I see a goal in mind!!!

The Move

   I took a trip to California from December 10th-13th with just Gabriel.  I had a blast staying at my parents, visiting with my aunt and cousins and attending the annual Floyd Family Christmas Party.  The best part was surprising my brother and sis-in-law with the fact that I was there!  The party was at their house and they asked my parents to come early to help with the To Do List.  When we got there, Scott was in the front yard planting flowers and I opened the van door and asked him if he needed help!  Priceless!
    The day after I got back to town, Marc and I discussed the upcoming move/transition/Christmas plans, etc, and decided that we were crazy enough to pack up our house in a week and a half and move to Sarasota county on the opposite side of Florida before Christmas.  It was a crazy idea!  It would have been impossible without the devout help of dear friends in Jupiter who helped me pack or watched the children for me and also the help of new friends from our new church (which Marc is pastoring) who helped us pack, unpack and organize!
     The worst is behind us on that one, but our friends in Jupiter were surely shocked that we up and moved without proper goodbyes!  Marc is still there 4 days a week working and sleeping in our old, empty house, but the good news is that our church in Jupiter is throwing a goodbye party for us the weekend we return for Marc's cousin's wedding!  What a great way to come back and say goodbye while in the meantime, I am getting used to the new area and getting time with the ladies out here!
     Why did you move in a week and a half? You may be asking. . . Well, two main reasons!
1. We wanted to get the kids back into normalcy and schedule.  We had been off of school already since the middle of November and to drag the move into the end of January would have made it hard to school, pack and feel sane!  By moving before Christmas we shortened the amount of crazy time before starting school again on January 3rd!
2. We wanted me to start to get to know the ladies here!  I had only visited our new church 3 times before Christmas!  The first was the weekend they were checking us out (and we them!).  The second time I came my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their 4 kids came with us, so I was spread between old and new.  The third time, my parents were with us, so again, not a lot of opportunity to get to know people.  Our Christmas visit was supposed to be a 5 day visit while staying at a hotel!  Those 5 days cost more than 2 months of cheap rent at our current residence!  It seemed a no brainer to move into the rental, not stay at the hotel.  However, at first, we were going to stay in an empty rental on air mattresses.  Then Marc and I decided Christmas would be more enjoyable with FURNITURE!
     So we pushed to move in a week and a half and we have. . . drumroll. . . .normalcy, schedule, and time for me to get to know the wonderful ladies here!

                          God directed, we followed, and we survived!

It's Been a While, but HEY, I moved over Christmas!

     Sorry to have dropped the ball!  I am still here!  I have many posts to do: Move, Christmas, Kids, New Church, WW.  It is already after 10pm, so I will only do WW tonight-it is the easiest!
     It has been 3 weeks since I updated my weight loss.  Over the two weeks were moving I did not go to meeting and weigh in.  On December 28th I attended my first meeting here in North Port. Over the move I also didn't track a since food I ate.  I lost 5 POUNDS!!!  Talk about working the weight off!  I should move more often!  HA HA!!  The good news is that I definitely made my 10 pounds by CHristmas goal, and even overshot it by a pound!  Praise the Lord!
     This past week, when I weighed in on Jan 4th, I only lost half of a pound.  BUT IT WAS LOSS!!  My grand total is up to 28 pounds lost!  My pants are a little loose, but I wish I showed 28 less pounds more than I do!
     This week has been bad for me.  I was trying to get back into tracking, still get a grip on the new points for everything, started back to school and was SUPER HUNGRY on top of it all-not usual.  I don't know how it is going to go this week, but I'll let you know after Tuesday!