Ahhhh! Friday (sigh).

Mixed emotions today...

I'm feeling blessed that I have two, healthy and happy sleeping children taking naps right now as well as the world's BEST husband (he really is...no really!), a roof over our heads, food in the fridge, family to love and be loved by, military out there fighting for Americans back home and abroad and a Savior who gave His life for little, old me and I get to spend eternity with Him!!!!!
I'm tired (a good tired) from a fun day at the zoo with a great friend and her daughter.
I'm frustrated after watching the Democratic National Convention this week (see more below).
I'm happy because Rob gets off early today and has a three-day weekend (hooray!).
I'm excited because we're going to finally finish tackling our garage organization.
I'm a little scared due to the fact that there are FIVE major storms in the waters surrounding Florida and we're bound to get some serious weather from at least one of them.
I'm hopeful to squeeze in some golf with my hubby this weekend.
I'm at ease knowing that we're 95% prepared for hurricane season.
I'm sad to know that there is so much pain and suffering still going on in our world as I sit here comfortably in the peace and quiet of my home.
I'm amazed at God's soverignty everyday.

I never get "comments" on posts where I talk about politics, but let's face it friends, we're in the midst of it!!! I'm not the greatest at words so here is a small article that sort of portrays what I feel as an American. I've included a little bit of the article, but you can see the whole article HERE.

"Wait a minute. Who said anything about government helping folks get back up when they get knocked down? Is that what Papa Biden was talking about? It sounded like he was saying people should get themselves back on their feet.

I'm a big fan of getting back up, personal responsibility, educating yourself, making good choices, and getting over the idea that the world owes you a living.

I'm also keen on people not playing the victim, not feeling a sense of entitlement, and not fearing competition. And when you're struggling in a tough economy, you don't give up or lay blame or ask for a government bailout, you work harder."
Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist.

Hurricanes on Their Way

Please be in prayer for all of us here in FL and everyone surrounding the Gulf of Mexico (poor Louisiana, Cube and Haiti just can't catch a break!) that this Gustov doesn't become the powerful hurricane that everyone is predicting. There's also ANOTHER storm expected to hit our gulf by next week, "Hanna". Our Gulf of Mexico is really warm right now...a breeding ground for hurricane strength.
I hope everyone has their hurricane supply kits stocked this season. I recently went through ours and will be restocking more it in the next day or so. In our kit we have the following:
- canned goods (vegetables, fruit, spagettios, etc.)
- lots of bottled water
- a kerosine cooker, although we have a firepit in our backyard that we roast marshmellows on. I'm sure we could cook other things on it.
- lighters
- candles
- mosquito repellant
- BATTERIES
- flashlights
- hand sanitizer
- little, battery-powered fans to cool yourself with
- a battery-powered radio
- matches
- gas for our grill and generator

***FOR A GREAT LIST OF HURRICANE SUPPLIES YOU DON'T WANT TO FORGET, CLICK HERE

Hello Again!

Alright, so once again, not one picture to update. Sorry folks. Life has never been busier around here and I'm hoping that it will slow down just a little. Wait, scratch that. Looking at what's to come in my day planner, that doesn't look too likely.:) Anyway, God gets me through each day with amazing endurance and waits patiently for me to spend quiet time with Him. Isn't our God so good?!!!

In the past week, we've been:

Trying on and purchasing new shoes, weeding out our garden to get ready for our fall garden, seeing our butterfly house flourish and fall (we had about 40+ caterpillars in it, but I failed to make sure there was enough food...milkweed plants...and they pretty much all died-urgh! Another lesson learned.). We've been looking for "big girl beds" for Avonlea (most likely bunk beds), planning Avonlea's third birthday party, switching Lincoln from two naps to one (I knew the day was coming!), planning to begin our new Mom's group called Mom's LINC (Living in a Nurturing Community) at church, practicing with fondant (any suggestions? Please help!), catching up with old friends, preparing food for get-togethers, organizing weekly household chores, getting haircuts, homeschooling, organizing our garage (thank goodness for shelving and plastic bins!), making doctor appointments, making birtday cards and getting ready for fall (I love shopping for decorations...I get this from my mom...and it's so much fun decorating around the holidays).

I promise to update soon with more pictures. Sorry for the delay friends.
I also hope that each of you finds time to spend with Jesus today!!! :)

Tagged!!!

*I think I've already done this "tag" a few months ago, but here goes nothin'! :)
My sweet blogger friend, Kelli tagged me...

4 Things that I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Senior in High School
2. Dating Rob (little did I know he'd be my awesome, God-send of a husband)
3. Applying for 6 different colleges and got the most scholarship money from Greenville College in Illinois (which is where Rob was attending at the time).


4 things on my To-Do list for today:
1. Get Avonlea's pictures taken (3-year pics)
2. make a cheesecake for dinner guests tomorrow night
3. marinate BBQ chicken for dinner guests tomorrow night
4. Start making Grandparent's Day cards

random things I love about my husband:
1. No matter how grumpy I may be, he always finds a way to make me feel better and laugh and doesn't hold my grumpiness towards me.
2. He locks up our house at night, sets the alarm and turns out all the lights (It's weird, but I like it when he does this.)
3. He never hesitates to help out with family duties, house projects or simple tasks around the house (giving the kids a bath, cleaning up after we eat dinner, etc.). It's like he reads my mind that something needs to be done and he just does it.
4. Just being in his arms makes me feel so safe and loved!

4 jobs that I've had:
1. student recruiter for Greenville College
2. MOM!
3. Taught preschool while going to college
4. Taught Middle School English

4 movies that I've watched more than once:
1. Lord of the Rings (especially this past weekend, it was on ALL day Saturday)
2. can't think of one
3. can't think of another one
4. mind...going blank. I don't watch too many movies.

4 places I have lived:
1. Florida (still here)
2. Illinois


4 places I've been:
1. London, England
2. Puerto Vallerta, Mexico
3. Nassau, Bahamas
4. Somewhere in Conneticut for my brother-in-law's wedding at the Coast Guard Academy. It was gorgeous!

4 places I want to visit:
1. Ireland
2. Alaska
3. Prince Edward Island in Canada
4. Greenland

4 TV shows I watch:
1. Anything on Discover Health Channel
2. Anything on TLC
3. Jon and Kate Plus 8
4. I still watch Friends re-run episodes. Yes, I know. I need to let go and move on.

4 things you may not know about me:
1. I collect playing cards. We're BIG card players in our family.
2. I keep a journal to each of my children. They will get it when they turn 18.
3. I can't stand idiotic drivers. The kind that don't go the speed limit or fail to turn on their blinker when turning. That kind!
4. My mother-in-law was my 2nd and 5th grade teacher in elementary school.

People I tag:
1. Mel
2. Lori
3. Jo
4. Kris
5. Dinah

Baking, shopping, cleaning, laundry, homeschooling, church, caterpillars, painting, reading, beach, dishes...What we've been up to!

Please be praying that Tropical Storm Fay stays a tropcial storm or a LOW grade hurricane. Evacuations are already in place and tomorrow's first day of school has been cancelled. Here's a picture of Fay.


On another note:
I can definately say that the Bates family has been up to A LOT lately!!! Here are just some of the things we've been doing around here: baking, painting, going to the beach, reading, watching a whole, new generation of Monarch caterpillars emerge in our butterfly house (no pics, sorry) - I lost count at 50-something!, we lost our bunny, but found her again, teaching Sunday School, leading worship at church, shopping, replacing our bedroom door, cleaning, LAUNDRY, homeschooling, birthday shopping for all the September birthdays coming up, preparing for hurricane Fay tomorrow, cleaning out bedrooms/clutter, attempting to clean out our garage (Labor Day weekend, we'll be cleaning out our garage, taking things to Goodwill and Rob has promised to make us shelves to keep things organized and neat-you're my hero!), playing in the bathtub, learning how to unload dishes and the list goes on!!! After a two months of having family (from China and England) here, it's bitter sweet to say goodbye. Although it's nice to get back on our schedules here, we miss our family so much and are so glad to have had our time together this summer.

Here is a picture of Sam and Abigail in their disguises they earned from Chuck E. Cheese. Here's Rob helping me clean after our company left. What a sweet huband! You rock babe! After many months of researching local preschools and weighing pros and cons of putting her in preschool, Rob and I have decided to begin homeschooling Avonlea. We're beginningn with preschool and then we'll take it year by year after that. There's definately confidence on my part due to the fact that I used to be a teacher. I have so many manipulatives in our garage that it's nice to know we don't have to spend a lot of money on education this year (preschool can get quite pricey, especially for the good ones!). So here is our School Box. It's filled with her workbook, nursery rhyme books, her alphabet book, my weekly lesson planning book, thematic books for that week, note cards with her Bible verse for the week, etc. She loves her school time with Mommy. :) Here's our letter of the week box. We're starting with letter "A" this week. Avy gets to walk around the house/yard/outings and find things that begin with this letter. Every week, it's a new letter and we go in order. She also has a preschool workbook we're working through. Other objectives we cover each day are: weekly Bible verse, nursery rhymes, what the weather is outside, we read books pertaining to our theme during the week (this week is "All By Myself" and "The Body") and the letter of the week. She also has a book we made where she cuts things out of magazines that begin with the letter of the week. We do a calendar time each day to talk about the days of the week and the months of the year, as well as couting in English and Spanish. Avonlea loves to help me fold laundry lately. Her job is to fold all of the small towels and wash cloths and place them in the kitchen drawer or bathroom basket. It's cute to see how excited she gets to help me. Bless my husband! We needed a new lock on our bedroom door (with the old one, a child could lock themself - which never happend thank goodness - in our room and we didn't have a key), so he began installing a new one, only to find out that it wouldn't work (wrong size). He then had to go out to Home Depot and get a whole, new door! We still don't have a door on our bedroom, but it's a work in progress. :) Lincoln has learned how to unroll toilet tissue (great!). This is what I found yesterday. Note to self: keep all bathroom doors closed! :) This picture reminds me of the front cover of that book "Love You Forever". Baking chocolate chip cookies Shopping at the mall. Avonlea is very much into beads, bracelets, makeup, dressing up, etc. She's becoming quite the little girl. She's not very much into princess getup yet, although she does like to watch the movies. I'm TOTALLY fine if she never gets into it though. I think it's been taken way too far these days. (Just a personal opinion.) Trying yogurt for the first time by himself! It was messy, but he loves his yogurt.

Game Night!

If you know our family, you know we LOVE playing games, especially hard core games that involve physical contact! :) Somehow, every/any game we play winds up with someone bleeding, bruised or scratched. We've had nails broken and bent back, blood dripping, bruises that are 6 inches long and last for weeks...it's brutal I tell ya, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. We love playing "Dutch Blitz" (a fast-paced card game...the favorite), "Spoons" (another fast-paced card game involving spoons...this can get brutal!), a new game called "Perudo" (a game from Peru which involves bluffing) and "Apples to Apples", not to mention good, old "Mad Gab". Tons of fun.
Dean (bro-in-law) and Nate (my little brother) going at it, fighting for the last spoon! This IS a family game folks, I promise! :)
Getting ready for a game of "Dutch Blitz". Mom in action playing Spoons.

Feeding Ducks at the Library

The kiddos and I love to feed the ducks at our local library during the week after story hour. This week, we brought along Avonlea's friend, Grace.

Avonlea and Grace feeing ducks.

Lincoln checking out the ducks.

Avonlea, sneaking some bites. :) (It was good bread, I promise!)

Cinderella

As we watched the CNN special tonight about the terrible trajedy of the Chapman family losing their daughter, Maria, I couldn't help but cry and mourn for them. As a parent, you do all that you can to protect your child(ren) from evil, accidents, bad influences, etc., but God is in control. I can't imagine the pain they are experiencing on a minute-to-minute basis, but you'd better bet I'm praying for them as I know many others around the world are as well.

Rob and I will never forget watching Avonlea as she danced next to Andrea
(my cousin) and her dad in her wedding dress to the song "Cinderella". This was right after the trajedy happened with the Chapman family when we traveled to St. Augustine for Andrea's wedding. I remember seeing tears in Rob's eyes knowing that
1.) he wasn't looking forward to the day he'd give Avonlea away and
2.) feeling grief for a Christian family who had lost their daughter a little older than Avonlea.

God bless the Chapman family as they still mourn the loss of their daughter here on earth, yet rejoice in her heavenly life with Jesus. Hug your kids extra tight today.
(I love you Dad!)

Check This Out!

This was sent to me by my awesome brother-in-law Don. Thanks! :)

Growing Up!

The kids were both dressed up for church this morning and I just had to take a picture of them against our new landscaping Rob and I put in yesterday. They're growing up soooo fast!!!

Here's my little man. I can't believe how huge he's getting. He's such a handsome, little fella. Takes after his daddy, although I think he looks more like me (Avy like her daddy). He'll be 14 months next week and it seems like yesterday he was a baby, swaddled in my arms. He's definately forming his own opinions, likes and dislikes lately. He has to do EVERYTHING big sister does and this gets on her nerves. She's learning to be patient and teach him instead of getting upset when he wants to join her at something he hasn't mastered yet (puzzles, playdough, computer games, etc.). Oh there are day when I think the whining and fighting will never stop, but just when I get to the point of all frustration, there is a moment that takes me by surprise. A moment like when they're both in a room, tickling each other and laughing, or snuggling on the couch, etc. I'm so glad our kids are close together. Even though there are tough days as they're little, I often look into the future and see how close they'll be as they grow older together.


Not her best smile, but these days, this is her "cheese smile". Whenever I have the camera out, she automatically says "cheese" and it's this fake, yet "trying" smile. :) This is one of my favorite dresses on her. Her bangs WERE going to be grown out, but during lunch today, after the millionth (word?) time of her brushing them aside so she could see, I finally cut them tonight so she can see. We might try another time to grow them out, but for now, it's bangs for this little girl!
It's weird to think that my baby girl is turning three next month. We're already in the works for a Little Einsteins birthday party. I've been trying to find a cake to copy online and all the ones I've found involve fondant, something I've never tried, but will soon. I'm going to attempt a practice cake in the next week or so to see if I can pull it off. Avonlea is very excited about her birthday party and it's actually quite exciting for me as a mother because the past two she's had, she wasn't really into it and didn't comprehend what a birthday party was all about. Well, this year is different and she's stoked about her special day coming up.