We've been Adopted

"Mommy" cat has been visiting us for several weeks now. Patches and her get into quite the screaming matches. And respecting Richard's wishes, we haven't feed her...until this weekend. Richard has been building me a pond in our front yard (By our front door). We got the pond in the ground and filled it with water to make sure that it wouldn't leak a couple of weekends ago. Since then, we have had other things to get done and the pond was put to the side...still with water in it. On Friday, Richard and I went to Pebble Junction and picked out our rocks to go around the pond and to build the waterfall. So we got up on Saturday ready to place the rocks around the pond, when we noticed two kittens drinking out of the pond. That is when we realized that the cat that has taken up residence in our yard is a Mommy...mommy to FIVE kittens. Sooooo...we feed her and her five kittens. Now that we're feeding this family, they are staying in our front yard and we have to say...they are so cute!!!! But one sad thing though, Mommy cat is very friendly and not quite full grown herself. I think that Mommy cat was someone's cat until she got pregnant and then she was put outside. It's my goal to get the kittens friendly enough to take all of them to the SPCA and get them their shots, dewormed and spayed or neutered...we'll see.

Memorial Day Memories

We had Tyler, Colton, Wesley and Dakota spend Saturday with us so that Brent and Emily could get their rental home ready for the new tenant. The kids LOVE to play with one another. They have built a "condo" out of branches and leaves in our dried up lake bed. I had planned on Tacos for dinner but my Hubbie convinced me that we had to grill hamburger and hotdogs. Tacos just aren't an American food for our American Holiday. Todd was able to spend the day with us as well since his travel plans were changed.(I have a great picture of the kids and Uncle Todd along the pool until I noticed that Todd is showing plumber's crack...so it's not on the blog)

Then on Sunday, we took the boat and the Criste family to Disappearing Island. It's called Disappearing Island because when the tide comes in...the island (which I think is actually a HUGE sand bar) is under a couple of inches of water. The pictures are of us trying to move things out of the water, but eventually you just give up and know that everything is going to get wet...that's part of the fun of the island. Being that is was Memorial weekend, the island was so crowded which is part of the fun...you end up making new friends. A couple of neat things happened. One was three F14 Fighter planes fly above us in a formation and then antique Mustang Fighter planes fly above. It made you salute!

All About ANDREW JOHN

In going back over my blog, I realized that I don't have a lot about Andrew, so this post is about him. In the past, we've had him very involved in Little League and I have pictures of those days. But this year, his father and I decided to put him in the After School Sports Program because it was the best time to make it work with what we had going on with everyone else in our families. Little League has been a minimum of 6 hours (often more)a week which doesn't seem like a lot, but when juggling the activities of five, it took up so much time...so the After School Sports Program just made sense. Andrew loves his coaches and every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, he learns and plays all different sport activities. This program is right after school and he finishes at 4:30 which is the same time that Sarah gets off of the bus. I'm saying all of this to say, I think this is why I don't have many pictures of him because I haven't been at the After School Sports Program. But I wanted Andrew to know that we are very proud of him. Actually, a few weeks ago, it seemed that every morning on the way to school that Andrew would start "sighing". I asked him a few times if everything was OK and he always told me that he was bored. I had his father talk to him and Richard talked to him. We just wanted to make sure that nothing was happening at school that we weren't aware of. He told all of us that he just gets bored at school but he was OK. So I called his teacher...just to make sure. Mr. Sweatland didn't think that anything was wrong with Andrew and went on to praise him...told me that Andrew has always been respectful, hangs out with good kids, gets competitive in gym but isn't mean (the competitive is a Tallman thing...that's what I told Mr Sweatland)Mr. Sweatland told me that the school will miss his attitude when he moves to Middle School next year. Then the following week, Andrew had pulled his groin muscle in the After School Sports Program. I went into the office with Andrew to fill out a request to have him not participate in gym that day. His coach was there and again told me how much they loved having Andrew and would miss him. (Since "Mom" caused so a fuss over his sighing, Andrew no longer sighs anymore nor complains about school being boring.) We love you, Andrew. May you continue to be respectful, always learning and always helping others...even your sisters :-)

Sarah's Spring Concert

Sarah has always been involved with Music and been part of the Choir. This was their last concert. And I have to say that I was very impressed with singing! They sounded great. This last concert was songs from the 50's, 60's & 70's.(Sarah wore a Poodle skirt) I'm not sure how Megan and Sarah managed it, but they were able to be by one another all year long. Sarah LOVES Mrs. James, her Choir teacher! I'm thankful that my children have such great teachers and adults involved with them.

Hannah's Last SFA

SFA stands for Success For All. It is a program that the Florida Public Schools have put a lot of effort into the elementary grades...wanting to ensure that every elementary student has the foundation to be successful through out their school years. At the beginning of the school year, Hannah joined the SFA in Reading which meant that every two weeks she brought home a back pack with 10 books that we'd read. Once a quarter, all of us involved in this program had a function one evening at the school that usually entailed pizza and some type of program to make the children excited about reading. Our last meeting was last Wednesday, May 21st. The students were asked to tell their favorite story in an different way. Hannah was one of four that participated. The other students didn't want to participate. She dressed up like Cinderella, told us about the story and twirled in her dress. We ended the program with Ice Cream Sundaes. Thank you so much to Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Payne for all of their help and desire for every student to be successful. Hannah now reads at on the 2.3 grade level. (Uncle Todd came to this program since he was home from his trucking job.)

Little Miss Liberty

First Grade had an end of year musical production. All the songs were Patriotic. Hannah got to be the Liberty bell. She spoke her part so loud and clear.Hannah's Poppi was visiting Hannah's dad and got to see her perform

America's Next Top Model

There are parts of parenting that I find difficult like constantly teaching my children that they are responsible for their actions, keeping up with homework and the never ending laundry. But there so many other parts of parenting that I love. One of the best things is seeing these little humans that God created becoming wonderful people. One thing that we talk about a lot are the dreams that they have in their hearts. I want to be my children's biggest fan. Sarah goes back and forth between being a veterinarian and a neurologist. Andrew wants to be 1st Baseman for the Florida Marlins. Hannah wants to be a mommy. Andrew took these pictures of Hannah when Hannah wanted to be the World's Prettiest Mommy.

Sarah Plays "Mommy"

One of Sarah's homework in Teen Challenege was to take care of Baby Bob for 12 hours. Her teacher programed the doll to wake up at 5 pm and go to sleep at 5 am. Sarah did really well with Baby Bob and kept up with his crying until about 3:30am. Then she decided to just let him cry. (He had been up about every hour and a half to two hours needing to be feed, changed or just be held)His crying kept getting louder and louder until Hannah and Andrew were awake as well. I reminded her that there was to be NO parent involvment. When I went to wake her up, I found her completely covered up. Normally, Sarah is awake before me. On the way to school that morning, she told me that was the hardest thing that she has ever done. After her teacher checked the chip in the doll, Sarah got a 100%.

The BIG Bear

Carlos has been spring cleaning his home and gave this big bear to Hannah. I drove with this big bear in the front seat of the Explorer and got so many stares from the other drivers. When I picked Hannah up, she just SQUEALLLLLLLLLLLED!!!!! The bear is bigger than she is.

Small Changes at the Williams Home

These are just some little things that have happened around our house this spring.

I'm sure that you have heard me talk about the sandhill cranes that we have fed since we moved into our home. Sandhill cranes pair up for life and often when one dies, it's not long before the other one will die as well. Last year in February, I was sad when only one bird would come up to get corn. (They come in the morning and in the evening) But after a while, we realized that there were two birds coming at different times to be feed and that they were sitting on a nest. Sure enough, a few weeks later, we had two babies joining their parents. We did lose one baby, but the other one stayed with its parent until January. Now we're back to one crane coming at a time. When they bring the baby with them, I'll take pictures.Richard has a trailer that he takes to job sites. The trailer has been a huge blessing because he can put his tools and lawn equipment and have everything that he needs. But when the trailer is sitting in our garage, he often forgets to lock the door. We have a sparrow that got in the trailer and decided his tool belt makes the best support for her nest. She is now sitting on four eggs. She does not like us paying attention to her eggs. I've never seen such a tiny bird make such a fuss. (I tried to get a better picture of the eggs, but Mama bird was really fussing at me) I guess for now, the trailer will stay in our drive way.

Hannah and I wanted to see if we could grow an avacado tree. We let the seed sit in a glass of water for a couple of months (being held with three toothpicks) We kept waiting for the seed to grow roots. She and I would pick the seed up by the toothpicks and talk about the slime that was growing on the seed but no roots. Richard finally told us to throw it away. I agreed and went to throw it out...picked it up and noticed a long root coming out of the seed which hadn't been there a couple of days earlier. Hannah and I planted the seed and now the tree is going to outgrow the pot.

EASTER SUNDAY

We had Grandma, Brent, Emily, Tyler, Colton, Wesley and Dakota come for Easter dinner. And as much as I love having my family here, I do miss those that aren't here. I can't wait for all of us to be together again. (If I ever get to go on Deal or No Deal...that is what I'm playing for...enough money to take everyone of us on a really long vacation and enough money to cover everyone's bills) We missed Todd who has been our Egg Hider in the past. Brent and Emily hid the eggs and the kids had fun. I love that the cousins like being with one another! We couldn't ask for a prettier day!
Sarah along with three other from the Youth group sang Resurrection Melody as part of our worship this morning. (They were moving so the picture is a little blurry)

Coloring Eggs

I have to confess that Easter has "snuck" up on me. I don't know if it is that Easter came earlier this year or that I have just have to much else going on, but regardless, I had to take a look at myself...Do I take it for granted that Jesus died for me...that I allowed the one "season" that we celebrate His resurrection catch me by surprise!!!!

At the last moment, we did color eggs. I don't want my kids to think that we don't have time for Easter.

Resurrection Egg Hunt at Curch

Yesterday, we had a resurrection egg hunt at Church. There were several crafts that the kids made, playing in shaving cream and then an eg hunt. The eggs were hidden in water, jello, cold noodles, sand and many other places. We ended the morning with praise and the story that Jesus is alive...conquering death!

Sarah Goes to Seminole County History Fair

I am very proud of all three of our children! But this post is about Sarah.
Many are aware that she is part of the IB program (which means though she is in in 7th grade, she is actually taking 9th grade courses) And I have to say that it has been a very hard year because the subjects require so much time and studying. But one thing that I love about this program is that since 5th grade, she has had the same girlfriends with the same strong scholastic goals as she. (I know that we are still new to the teenage game, but our Sarah is sweet, loves being with the girlfriends, her family and God. Just a side detail about her though...she and I are reading a book at nights called "The Truth About Guys"...every teenage girl MUST read this book...so boys are becoming a part of her life) But back to the history fair...this was the first year that Sarah entered. Megan and her decided to do a group project together on Hiroshima. They spent hours and hours of research and then hours of hours of putting a project together...they spent a couple of weekends together...and it tuned out to be fun for them. The first edition of the project was turned into their teacher. Her advice: "Great paper, great project! I think you have a chance to win the school. But let's make a couple of corrections, like take the glitter off the backdrop...Hiroshima and glitter don't go quite so well." Their teacher also told them that regardless of how they did in the school competition, they would get a 105...if they wanted to try to win their school, she'd encourage them to go, but if they didn't want to change their project, they could try again next year...they still had the 105 grade. Sarah really wanted to move on...so again we were re-doing the backdrop...changing it to black...retyping the information and putting it on 3-d to make it "pop" of the blackboard...again Megan and Sarah spent more hours on their project.
Then came the competition at their school...they were interviewed quite extensively by those judges...and were given some hints for the interview at the county...and they won!
The Seminole County competition was held Saturday, March 1st...an all day event. Sarah spent the night at Megan's so they could get their project set up at Tuskawilla Middle School. Their interview was suppose to be at 11:50 am...but thankfully we got there early because the judges decided to interview early...at 11:30 instead...We all hung out the school for a few hours until 2:00pm when the judges made their decisions. (There were several projects to judge). Our girls didn't win (came in fourth and the 1st & 2nd moved on)and they were disappointed..they had great plans of going to State (in Tallahassee) and on to Nationals (Washington DC). This was their first year though and I know that before they are done with school...they will go to Nationals.
I was very proud of them for doing their best and going for the top and not settling for just the 105.
(My camera ran out of batteries, so Andrew took pictures with his video camera...which doesn't focus on still pictures too well)

Sarah and her best friend, Megan Yingst

Camp Makaweekee

Hannah and I went to Camp Makaweekee in Chiliota, FL this past weekend with her Girl Scout troop. I did this blog backwards, so you'll have to go to the bottom and read it to the top.