Lake Eva

I sure do miss having my phone...I wish I had it so when I do random things that I didn't plan on, I could take some pictures.  Today we went to Lake Eva Park in Haines City.  I didn't even know it was there, but it is a beautiful park and we will definitely be going again.  Major picnic place, very nice.  Aamerik was having so much fun and loved the slide.  He is sleeping very comfortably now, ha ha...
Tariyah didn't want to leave, they had many activities that most parks do not have, so it made it more fun, a lot of new things to do.
This past week we also registered Tariyah for school, we thought she was going to be going to Loughman so I went and registered her on Thursday, and then that evening we received a notice that she got into Bethune Academy in Haines City.  We have heard a lot of good things about the school and while it is not Davenport School of Arts (DSA) that we were hoping for, it is comparable in education and about the same distance.  The only thing that DSA that Bethune doesn't have is dance class that I think Tariyah would've loved.  Oh well, we can always try again next year if we for some reason don't like Bethune.
Jaemyn had gotten into Discovery Academy of Lake Alfred about a month ago, because of his IEP.  We are about 13 miles away from the school and at first we were told that we are out of their bus zone area.  I kept asking questions about busing to see if perhaps I could take him to another stop and it turns out that their stop boundaries go right by us and are kitty corner to our neighborhood.  We were really excited that he got into Discovery so I was able to work it out where Jaemyn would be able to walk to their boundary from the back of our neighborhood and meet the bus.  This was a big relief for us.  No sooner had we gotten this worked out when I received a letter from the Schools saying that Jaemyn was accepted into Daniel Jenkins Academy in Haines City.  Wow, that was awesome, but now another choice.  We love the campus at Discovery, it almost looks like a college campus and it makes you feel good just being there.  When checking about courses it appears that they too are comparable in choices and the biggest differences are the newer campus at Discovery and Jenkins being closer, only 5 miles away instead of 13.  It was still a hard decision, one that I have prayed about and we decided to go with Jenkins, mainly because of closeness to home.  Also, right next to Jenkins Academy is Lake Eva Park, so that could be a + too.

Chocolate in the Ice Machine?

Last Saturday Teighlor was trying to get some ice cubes out of the freezer, we have a dispenser on the door.  At first she wasn't getting anything, then she heard the clink, clink of the ice drop into her water.  Only when she looked at her water as she was going to take a drink, she saw it wasn't ice like she expected, it was pieces of Chocolate candy and partial wrappers.  ha ha
Later she asked who put candy into the Ice Maker and the culprit started to giggle, yep it was Jairyn, lol...he thought it would be a funny joke and really it was, quite clever only he stuck the candy up into the machine where it chops the`ice for crushed ice.  Teighlor had quite the mess to clean up.
I thought the idea was awesome, so we decided to play the same prank on Taiason, she was gone for the moment and would be home soon.  I showed them where to put the candy on the door so that it would drop right down into the cup.  It worked great.  Taiason got her cup of ice and ended up with a surprise.  She said "Hey, How come candy came out of the ice machine."  Everyone laughed and she got a sweet treat.  I think we need to play the prank on Bapa too!!!

For another story today,
Tariyah woke up this morning and comes to me looking a little frazzled...
TAP: "I had a Nightmare" :o(
Me:"Oh No, what was it about?"
TAP: "The bad girls with the ugly hair were trying to kill Minnie the Princess!"
Me:" what happened?"
TAP: "The girls turn back to the Monster and Minnie went behind the door and locked it."
LOL....she is too cute...I am glad it wasn't worse and Minnie is safe.

Wart ~ our Toad

So I learned a little information on new friend "Wart".  He is a toad that has been around for the past 3 months and he comes out at night on the back patio. One thing I learned is that he can stay as long as he wants. :o)

The Southern Toad
Bufo terrestris

The Southern Toad is the most common in the Southeast

and its size ranges between one and three inches.

Ours is brown with small darker brown blotches.

He is a night eater, which we know first hand, as he

can be found on our patio very early many mornings,

 looking for his favorite breakfast of ants and cockroaches,

for which I personally want to thank him~

A Walk in the Neighborhood

My mom called me on Saturday with a challenge for the kids.  We were to take a walk around the neighborhood and the kids were to write 10 things that they saw while on our walk.  Then when we got home they were to write a short story or poem that included all 10 items and email it to Meema.  She would reward whom ever participated with $5.
The kids were so excited just to write the 10 things down that most of them wrote more than 10.  At this point I didn't tell them what they were going to do with their list, or that there was a prize at end. I am going to post each of their stories or poems and for Tariyah she actually did a drawing of what she saw and I scanned it and sent it to my mom.

Jairyn's Story

title: Aamerik the brave

In a summer green day. Where sun-sets shine upon wheat. 

A boy name Aamerik was building a bird house. A big hibiscus bloom high as the trees saying... "zxvasHsrdflkjsflkjsdfaLKJDSFKLJASDFJKLJLKSDFkjsfdaigonropoireiutiuoiolkxzmkmblkzdoiewnjflknkldljmnurfnjkdodmzdl;kjdgtnzldpo".

The hibiscus scared the birds and they all flew away.

So he ran to his fort at dead end street to hop on his airplane, then got on a train and went to WA DC. Through houses he went . 

got the president. ran back home. he was amazed. so he reward him with dandylion seed

love jairyn

if you don,t have nothing nice to say just something mean

Aaliyah's Poem

Once a upon a time there was the sunset.

The fresh grass sways in the wind. 

There in the woods  a little pond.

Flowers bloom all around,                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

All of the wild melon grow. 

Tree will bend in a perfect bow

To the lovebugs, as they pass by 

A  train will pass by, listening to

The palm trees as they say hi. 

All of the houses will smile.

It's been a magical day...

Good Night.    

Taiason's Story

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Hibiscus. She was the most fairest Princess of the land. "You look beautiful as always, princess" quoted Lady Tiny white flower. "Inside-out" And it was true, for not only did she look pretty she acted pretty as well. Hibiscus just smiled as her Lady brushed out her long magenta hair in the top of her castle. It was a typical evening for the princess, trying to look pretty for her subjects when she went out to meet them and listen to them about their lives. Everyone enjoyed being around the princess, she was sweet and beautiful.This made Sir Dust hill, Lord of the other kingdom next to hers greedy. He wanted to keep her for himself, so he sent his many red bushes soldiers after her in the night to kidnap her. When they had taken her they tied her up to a Fire Hydrant  Within the Lord's kingdom. "You cant keep me here forever" she squealed, but the lord just laughed "Yes I can" he teased back. The princess was miserable and so was her people when they had learned she has been kidnapped. they looked everywhere in the kingdom and couldn't find her. The people were even thinking of giving up. But a peasant called Sun didn't want to give up. Secretly he loved the princess and wanted her back. Since this boy was very clever he decided to sneak into the "Watermelon Jolly Rancher Wrapper Bar" to see if he can overhear a conversation about the princess. He was lucky. The first people happened to be some of the red bush soldiers that spilled out that the princess was at the Dust Hill castle. Sun rushed as fast as he can to his horse Orange flower Pot off to the kingdom of Sir Dust Hill. Meanwhile The evil Lord was thinking of ways to make the princess miserable. So Hibiscus was locked up in a guarded cage. Luckily Hibiscus managed to sing them to sleep as she try to figure out the rest of her plan of escaping. Sun managed to get to the Kingdom by then and noticed the huge Thicket Bush wall, Now how will he go through. just then he heard her singing. She often sang for the kingdom so he knew it was her. He followed her voice to a small hole in the bush. There he saw the tower where the caged princess was. He balanced a bunch of white stones to create a staircase to reach her. Before you know it he was in the tower. But Lord Dust Hill, just entered as well. Sun grabbed the princess, before the Lord could call orders. And jumped out the window. He didn't know how he was going to escape. The he noticed the wispy whitish-pinkish weed. Legends told that if you use it you can transport anywhere. He closed his eyes picked it up and imagine the kingdom the princess lived. Then magically they were transported back. He eventually became the prince since the princess loved him too. And they lived happyily ever after THE END

The dark day       by Jaemyn cole

The houses grow silent the tree’s breeze flows. The grass sway as the streets grows calm. The bushes rustle fast as they can. The birds go fly to their nest. Clouds start to darken as the cars go to their garage. The forest on the hill waits for the sun to feed and shine on them again. As kids dream all sorts of stuff as the moon shines on earth, nocturnal animals start to feed. Kids and parents waiting to come back to earth from the dream land to see the sun shine again. The sun wakes up and shines brightly. Saying “good morning people.” As they greet back happy to see the sun

Not Friday the 13th?

Yesterday was not Friday the 13th, but I had my bad day a day early. :o( Not that I am superstitious, it just worked out that way.
It started out with me needing to go to Walmart to get some milk, so I loaded up Tariyah and Aamerik and off we went.  We were on Davenport Blvd and stopped because a bus was letting a child off.  We started to go again and I decided to look at the family that had come to meet their child.  I looked back to the front, where I should've been looking the whole time, and I was too late.  Everyone was already stopping again for another bus drop off. We were about 6-7 cars behind the bus, they stopped so suddenly that I tried to swerve to miss the truck in front of me.  No such luck, I think I would've had less damage if  I hit him straight on as he had a tow hitch.

I drove back home after the police report and $164 ticket for reckless driving, I wouldn't say it was necessarily reckless but I suppose...my tire was rubbing on something the whole way.  I knew I wouldn't be able to drive anywhere else. I didn't go to the store after all, I am grateful for awesome neighbors who gave us some milk for Aamerik to last through the night.
We arranged for a tow truck to come pick it up this morning and now I am with out a car for who knows how long.
Thankfully no one was hurt in the accident, Aamerik cried, but more because of the jerking of the car.  I too am ok, I can feel a little soreness in my shoulders and neck but nothing major.
This has been a very trying few days as Aamerik lost my phone as well and I know it is somewhere here in the computer room, but I can't find it. :o(  Then the accident, kids arguing constantly lately, especially the girls.  I know part of the problem, we haven't had scripture reading as consistently as we should, I think it is high time we get back into gear.

General Conference

This seems to be a difficult time for anyone to focus and pay attention for so long, especially children, but alas, I must include myself in that category.  I love to hear what our Prophet and Apostles have to say, but I really struggle sitting down and being able to pay attention. I have done much better about being able to watch the Sunday sessions, now I need to include the Saturday sessions.  I know it is important for us to hear these words and I really do have the desire, but it is still oh so hard.
So I can only imagine if it is so difficult for me, how is it for the kids.  They do get the little packets from Church and that helps, but I decided to try and start a new tradition.  It is not fool proof and there is still moments of lack of attention, but I'll tell you what, it is a big improvement and some of them, especially Jairyn, even look forward to it.

A lot of people have a Super Bowl Party for Football for that last final big game.  We are not big sport watchers so we don't have one.  Instead I thought, "what if we had our 'Super Bowl Party' on General Conference weekends".  I try to get favorite foods of the kids, usually Chips/Dip, soda, veggie snacks, fruit and then we BBQ meat and potato skins and a few other things, then we just kind of have an all day buffet and let the kids help themselves.  It is still tricky because they want to talk while eating, but I try to remind them that if we want to be able to do this that they have to listen while eating.  It's not perfect, but much more enjoyable than it was.

Then I had a friend that had an idea where she would take her kids on a roadtrip and listen to conference in the car while driving.  Another AWESOME idea, at the end of the road trip, about 2 hrs (1 session of conference) they would do something fun as a family, this last time they went to a wildlife preserve, and then they would drive home during the 2nd session and would listen again.  I would like to try and incorporate this for our Saturday sessions, I just need to figure out how to get the kids to listen while in the car instead of laughing, playing and talking.  But it will be worth a try at least once, maybe twice. :o)

This is Salsa and 7-up bicuits I made from recipes off of Pinterest.  They are very good.  The salsa was a bit spciy/hot, but still good.  I will definitely make it again, just gotta figure out how to tone it down, lol











I found this little frog when I was adding soil to one of my house plants. I am thinking he was already in the plant, hmmm....scary thought, but he is cute. We let him go outside.

General Conference Quotes

I found several quotes from General Conference and put them together.