One of my favorite boys is Justin. He might not know it but I really admire and love him. I'm sure he only feels like I'm posting this because he "rat-ed" me out for not posting about him along with a picture but I do love him, his strength and his wisdom.  

Amazing Youth

I have recently been called to serve in the Young Women organization as the Mia Maid advisor and I couldn't be more thrilled because the girls are amazing! I am extremely impressed with the youth these days. They are faced with so many trials but they have such strong testimonies and truly have a deep understanding of the Gospel.

I laugh, I cry, I cheer on their accomplishments and teach them. Actually to be perfectly honest, I learn so much from them and admire them more than they would ever know. Heavenly Father knows me and has blessed me with the opportunity to serve these Young Women. With the church's new curriculum COME UNTO CHRIST, I am able to teach these girls patterned by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This way of teaching has been a wonderful way to bring all the girls together and has opened the door of communication and discussion but more importantly has invited the Spirit. It is magnifigant the blessings that has come from this method of teaching.

A Higher Education

I HAVE FOUR CHILDREN. 

 ALL FOUR CHILDREN ARE ENROLLED IN COLLEGE!

I am one proud mother.  It has been a long journey raising children as a single mother but it is rewarding when you see your children take steps to further their education.

Nicholas is taking online courses. After all his military training as a Combat Medic, his goal is to become a Physician Assistant.

Justin is living in Winterpark, Florida and is enrolled at Rollins College.  Currently, he is undecided on his major although he is throwing around the idea of a Psychology as a major.

Miranda is taking classes at Tarrant County College.  She is uncertain what she wants to persue as her major although she is such a great writer and enjoys helping people.  Writing/Journalism? Psychologist?  Both ideas she has been thinking about. 

Hunter got accepted to Sam Houston State University and will begin classes in the Fall.  His major is Mass Communication with an emphasis on Film.  

I couldn't be prouder of my children and their accomplishments.  They are AMAZING!!!!!

Back to Back State Gymnastic Champions

Seeing from my title, I indicated that there were back to back state gymnastic championships. Obviously, I had not blogged last years event so I am highlighting them both.

Saginaw High School has an awesome boys gymnastic team. For the past 2 years, SHS has won the State Meet.  And for the past 2 years, the team has gone undefeated all season long.

To breakdown just how impressive this is, let me try to explain.  Say the gymnasts have a total of 12 meets per year.  If they win their meet and their scores outrank an opponients score around the state, they win that meet as well.  So in retrospect, they have scored higher than all the teams throughout the state and they essentially won approximately 130 meets.  So instead of a 0-12 score, theirs would appear as 0-130.  No losses and 130 wins.  IMPRESSIVE!

Hunter has been District & Regional Champs in several of his events both years and has placed in the top 10 in his events both years.

I am extremely proud of Hunter and his teammates.

Adelynn & Logan...my precious grandbabies!

You know that I haven't blogged in a long time when I have not posted pictures of my precious grandbabies.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

"A Little Slice of Heaven"

I love to travel, I love meeting new people and I love history. That is why I fell in love with Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia..."A Little Slice of Heaven", I always say.  This place was one of the most amazing places I have ever been fortunate to visit and I look forward to visiting again.

I was hired through the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to work at the prestigious Williamsburg Inn. I worked alongside some amazing chefs.  My Executive Chef was Travis Brust, who as I worked with him got selected to compete in an International chef competition AND won 1st place in his category and 3rd overall.  My Executive Sous Chef was Scott Watson and he, along with Chef Travis and Chef Mel were selected as guest chefs for the prestigious James Beard Competition in New York City.  They represented the Inn magnificently.  Thank you for the honor & privilege you entrusted in me to be your Pastry Extern.  I appreciate the opportunity you gave for me to grow and learn in this industry.  

Williamsburg Inn

Colonial Williamsburg is known as the "Revolutionary City". This was our Nations first Capitol before relocating to Richmond.  The streets of CW are transformed into a living museum and "residents" educate guests on what life was like during the Colonial Period.  You get a chance to tour through the homes and shops and learn about the history of these homes and purchase items that were customary in the day.  All of the items are made on property; the bricks, the paint, baskets, etc. that are used in the upkeep of the area. Dine in a local tavern and enjoy food and drinks that were available to our forefathers.  The streets are adorned with horse drawn carriages and residents play games on the lawn and you have an opportunity to join in on the fun.  Daily the members of the Fife & Drum line march along Duke of Gloucester Street engaging guests with their uplifting music.  It is truly a sight to see.

How to make yarn demonstration

Revolutionary Soldier

Revolutionary Soldiers

Colonial Nursery

Playing games

Colonial Shops

Learning from our past

Actors from "Cry Witch" play

A glimpse into the past

One of my favorite stores...I love the bonnets

The Palace

A stroll on a beautiful day

Revolutionary games played by the cutest little boy.

Fife & Drum Members

Life Changes & Highlights

Where do I even begin?  It has been sooooo long since my last post and I would have regrets if I did not blog about my experiences, so...here goes!

State Gymnastic Results

Way to go Saginaw! The team placed 3rd in the state. As for Hunter, he rocked! Of the four events he competed on, he advanced to the events finals for Pommel and placed 10th. Not too shaby for only being a sophmore with less than two years experience in gymnastics. We are so proud of him.

Look how our Garden Grows

So I blogged recently about planting our first garden; which we refer to as "Adelynn or Ady's Garden". I am amazed at how the garden is growing. Our small efforts are paying off. We haven't produced a lot of vegetables yet but we are producing and that makes us so happy. We feel such satisfaction from knowing that we are trying to contribute more to our food storage and being self reliant.

Meet Nicholas & Allyssia Ramirez

* Nick met Allie at Reception for Basic Training. She remembers "the guy" wearing his

cowboy boots with his Army uniform because he didn't have any other shoes.

* Nick and Allie fell in love. At first it had to remain a secret (Nick is the only guy I

know that can meet a girl when there is supposed to be a "No Fratrinization in

Basic" rule)...figures!

* We met Allie at graduation from Basic in November and instantly loved her.

* Nick and Allie are both Combat Medics and therefore were both getting stationed at Fort

Sam Houston in San Antonio.

* Nick visited Allie for New Years in Pennsylvania. Her family and friends adore Nick.

* They really got to know one another quite well at AIT. Training for Combat Medics are 18

weeks long.

* They had planned on a long engagement. Not wanting to get married before Steve came back

from Afghanistan was important to them and Allie's sister was getting married next year so

they wanted to be respectful and wait until after her wedding. They had however discussed

that IF there were a chance for deployment than they would marry sooner. Allie is active

duty and has been stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. Her assignment has attached her to a

brigade that just returned from oversees in December and is already slotted to go again.

Therefore, they chose to get married sooner.

* They had a small wedding in front of the Justice of the Peace but has plans for a larger

wedding later on.

* We are so excited for the happy couple. We all just LOVE them together. I know many have

already met Allie, but I am anxious to let her meet the rest of the family...we think you will

love and adore her as much as we all do.

Combat Medic

After Nicholas completed Basic Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in November they sent him to do his specialized training a.k.a. AIT in San Antonio, Texas. After an additional 16 weeks in training at Fort Sam Houston, Nick has graduated as is now a Combat Medic. We are so proud of our newest soldier.

Regional Gymanstic Meet

Regional Meet Highlights:

Parallel Bars- 3rd place

Rings- 3rd place

Pommel Horse- 2nd place

Saginaw High School...Regional Champion!!!!

I was able to attend the first evening of Hunters meet but was out of town on the second evening. My friend Anita was texting me updates. Aparently, they DID NOT have Hunter in the computer and when he and the coach realized that he was not getting his name called, they had already announced the winners. Once officials heard about their mistake, they made an announcement that Hunter had placed in those three events. He didn't get the "recognition" of standing on the podium but he got the medals and HE DID AMAZING. I hope they do the right thing and give the students who "thought" they had placed a chance to compete at State. Afterall, that would be the right thing to do.

State Gymnastic Meet schedule is:

Thursday, April 14th from 10:00- 1:00 (Compulsary)

Friday, April 15th from 10:00- 2:00 (Optionals)

Saturday, April 16th from 10:00- 2:00 (Event Finals)

Location:

Arlington Martin H.S.

4501 W. Pleasant Ridge Rd.

Arlington, TX

Parking is available in the St. Barnabas United Methodist Church on Pleasant Ridge

Fees:

$5.00 adults $3.00 students.

Hope to see you there!

Adelynn's Garden

Recently we have begun a vegetable cantainer garden a.k.a. "Adelynn's Garden." The reason behind this is because Ady followed Dax, our dog, out the doggy door and began helping us with putting the soil in the containers for our plants. It was too cute.

So far we have planted 2 containers of green beans, 2 varieties of tomatoes & both bell peppers & jalepeno peppers. Once we get our new containers we will plant the potatoes, esparigus, garlic and onions. We would like to have carrots if we are not too late.

We don't know exactly how to garden. This will surely be a trial and error season but so far after only 4 days, our plants have grown up above the tops of our containers...seems hopeful. Now lets just hope the rabbits don't get to them first. We want to can (and eat) as much as we can.

District Gymnast Meet Results

After two days of competition, here are the results from Hunters District Gymnastic Meet:

High Bar- 11th place

Parallel Bars- 4th place

Pommel- 3rd place

High Bar- DISTRICT CHAMP with a 1st place win!

Saginaw High School is: District Champions for their second year in a row.

There were 69 competitors and Hunter's overall rank was 16th place. Top three teams and/or individuals who placed in the top 10 in any event moved on to Regionals on March 31st and April 1st.

Basic Training Update

Nick is completing his third week of basic training at Fort Sill, OK. From his letters and weekly phone calls, he is adjusting very well to the Army life. In fact, he says he is bored. The physical part of the training has not been challenging to him (no doubt it is because he has always been so athletic and while living in Las Vegas, he hiked, scaled the cliffs while mountain climbing, and snowboarded...a lot) and most of the other stuff has been...in his words, "common sense". Overall he is doing very well.

Here is a recent picture from Basic.

Graduation Day!

Miranda has graduated! Yep, one year and eight months early, she has graduated. She said when she first got pregnant that she did not want the baby to be a reason why she didn't get a good education. I am very proud of her. She has worked very hard to accomplish her goals of getting her diploma.

She will officially "walk" with the Class of 2011 at Saginaw High School in June. Until then, her plans are to take a class in the Spring at the Junior College so she can fimilarize herself with the structure of college life and she plans to take more classes in the Fall.

Congrats, Miranda...Keep up the good work and keep working hard.

Story Circle Network

I am participating in an eight week training class at TCU called The Story Circle Network. The Story Circle Network is a national not-for-profit membership organization made up of women who want to document their lives and explore their personal stories through journaling, memoir, autobiography, personal essays, poetry, drama, and mixed-media.

Each week, we will learn skills and techniques to help us to delve into ourselves and discover and become aware of our lives. Storytelling allows us to document these experiences.

Throughout the eight week course, we each have two assignments which we will present to the other women in the class. Our assignments will be to write an essay (up to 5 pages in legnth) and then we will discuss them in the class. Two women will present per week. My first assignment will be October 4th. I chose the first week, although God only knows why, and my second presentation will be November 1st.

We were asked to make a list of 10 factors/events that have been important in our lives as a stepping stone to help us with our storytelling. Here is my list:

1. Marriage

2. Children

3. Travel

4. Divorce

5. Loss of faith/gaining of faith

6. Single parenthood

7. Full time employment

8. Becoming a grandmother/teenage daughter pregnancy

9. Cooking

10. History/genealogy

11. Family/friends

Ok, so I added another. There were many but these hightlighted my most important.

Another thing suggested was that we write our own obituary.

As I discover more, I will continue my storytelling.

To Serve our Country

Last Thursday my ex-husband, and dear friend, Steven was told he would have to go all the way back to Las Vegas to work with his reserve unit for the week. He has been trying to get a conditional release from the reserves so that he could get picked up for the Special Forces Selection process and the only way that could happen is by going active duty. Week after week and month after month he waited for the paperwork to go through to no avail.

After working only 4 days, he got his answer to why nothing was being done with his release. He had been reassigned to a reserve component outside Dallas that had been activated and he was put on orders to go to Iraq. On Monday, he would have to report to his new unit, only 7 days after reporting to Las Vegas...oh, the drive he made!

After only 3 days of being with his new unit, he was informed that they would be going to California for 3 weeks, have 2 weeks of leave, go to El Paso for a month and will be shipping out in November...NOT to Iraq but to Afghanistan instead. God bless our soldiers!

This picture was taken of Steven and our oldest son, Nicholas the day before he left for training in California. As they knew i would; I bawled. Nicholas leaves for basic training next month.

Can or Not to Can?

Over the last few weeks, my mom, brother and I have been canning peaches, perserves and pinto beans. It is a scary thing to begin canning if you have never did it before. Every step is to be prepared and planned precisely in order for the outcome to be good. Trust me, my canning friends are on "speed dial" in my phone.

We prepared a peach crisp and it was yummy. The Peach Preserve Delight was delicious but i am scared to death about the pinto beans. We followed the directions to the tee when preparing them but I have not yet ate them. Someone must include on the instruction sheet as a final direction...PRAY! Pray that all your efforts pays off and no one falls ill.

I feel such a sense of accomplishment that I am preparing for my food storage. (However small it seems, I am starting and that means something) We have been enjoying the times we spend together and am overall pleased with the outcome and will be soon planning on other canning projects. Meats and greenbeans are next on our canning agenda. Can or Not to Can? CAN with the help of Prayers, of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I can hardly believe that my "baby" turned 15 today. Where did all the time go?

We were stationed in Germany and my mom had sent down a box full of new girl clothes. Five times we were told we were having a girl (even the day before the birth) but that is not what God intended for our family because out came our little boy, Steven Hunter.

Mom still asks why she never got those clothes back...she says she had spent a fortune on them. But seeing that Miranda was 14 months older than Hunter AND she was so tiny (she was 14 pounds at a year old) so by the time Hunter was born she was only a few pounds more, well lets just say that she looked mighty cute in her brothers "hand me downs!"

Hunter shares a birthday with his dad. Happy Birthday Hunter and Steven!