Building a Shooting Range

My brother, son and 2 nephews started building a shooting range this morning. It's a project that we have wanted to do for awhile now but just was not sure how to go about it. My brother Larry has been planning a design for awhile and put the plan into action. I can't wait until it's finished so they can enjoy some fun, safe target practice. I'll post more pictures when it's through.
Please keep my brother Jerry in prayer. He will be flying home over this weekend from Iraq. He has been working there for the last year. He will only be home a month and is suppose to return unless he lands a great job here while he's home.

Playing in the Dirt

Scott and one of our neighbors has been plowing for several weeks trying to get the ground right for planting. They starting planting watermelon seeds yesterday. The planter was not working properly so they decided to get Hunter involved and started planting by hand. I really think they just like playing in the dirt. At the end of the day everyone needs a long shower including the dogs. I think Pepper and Daisy has had a bath 3 nights in a row now. They love it on the farm. Daisy was brought to the farm to be a watch dog but instead she is a big chicken. Every little noise she hears she runs and hides behind one of us. She's a sweet heart though and very much a part of our family. I'll keep pictures posted as the watermelons and other crops they plant start popping up.
Have a Blessed day.
Sherry

Back in the Saddle

I love spring. It seems a time of new beginnings to me. I am trying to turn over some old leaves and start some new beginnings. Dieting is at the top of my list. Exercise is at the bottom. I'm thinking about it so that's a beginning for me. Keeping up my blog will be another I really want to focus on again. Speaking of blogging. A lot has happened since my last blog. Christmas came and went as well as the new year and Valentines Day. All of the holidays were nice and busy for me and my family. Hunter is playing soccer for his middle school team and waiting for the first big game. You know me-I'll be there to cheer him on win or lose. What ever he's playing is my favorite sport. Scott is driving me crazy starting one new project after another. I wish I had his drive and energy. He works, is trying to start a entertainment business on our farm featuring a petting zoo, bounce house and hayride. He also is in the process with a friend to start a huge garden of watermelons, cow corn, and lots of other veggies. It's really neat to watch the process of undertaking such a large project. His friend tried to get me to learn how to drive the tractor today. Can you believe that. I told him not today I'll stick to driving my dogs around on the golf cart.

Farm Pictures

Scott loves for me to display pictures of the farm on my blog.
Here is a few new ones we took. We have seen a large number of turkeys lately in the field.
I took a picture of one of our bulls this afternoon. He is one of our largest calves. I think he was born in January. We have had about 6 or so calves born since him. They are growing fast.
We are very thankful for the rain that has made us have nice grass for them to graze on.
Check out Hunter and Scott with the watermelons that were grown in our field this summer at bottom of page.
Have a blessed day.

Go Away Fay

Just thought I would share a few pictures of our farm flooded by Fay. SOOOO ready for Fay to go away and stay. At least we can get in and out of our home and road. We need to remember to pray for those whose homes were destroyed by Fay. Scott said he has seen lots of fallen trees, power lines and flooded homes on his beat.
Blessings,
Sherry

Summer's Here

Hello to all my long lost blogging buddies,
I know it's been a few months but I'm gonna try to post at least once a month this summer if not more.
We are just finishing Vacation Bible School up and had a nice turn out. We have some super teachers this year and one of our youngest teachers has done an amazing job with her class this year. The kids love and respect her and she has led 5 children to the Lord this week. Can I get a Amen. That's what it's all about right there. It seems to be a lot of work but oh sooooooooooo worth every minutes of time and effort that goes into it.
I'm looking forward to a vacation coming up soon with my parents and son.
Hope everyone has a safe, fun and cool summer.
Because He Lives

Spring Break Fun

I know it's been awhile but hopefully I am back blogging again. Guess I have just been lazy.
Hunter was on Spring Break from school last week and we really stayed on the go. His friend was in a cheer leading competition in Jacksonville so we went to see her and stayed with my parents and visited friends for a few days. He was thrilled to hang out with his buddy Jared some. Back to Palatka to meet his friend at the Clay County fair Tuesday. Wednesday we took my parents to a museum and out to dinner. Thursday back to Jax for Hunter and Scott to go deep sea fishing and Scott's Mom and I spent the day shopping. On Friday we went to Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA and met his friend, one of her friends and her Mom . We were so tired by the end of the day but we braved it again on Saturday for about 1/2 a day before the rain started. I was ready to head home but stopped too shop a bit at some outlet stores. Sunday after church we had a VBS meeting to get things rolling. Looks like it's gonna be a fun VBS this year. We will take an imaginary trip to Hawaii. I'm excited since I haven't made it there in person YET. If you have never helped with VBS you should at least once in your life. It is lots of fun and what a blessing to see little one's come to know Jesus.
Until next time.
Because He Lives

Special Delivery

Shadow had 3 kittens this morning. They are so cute. Mom and kittens seems to be doing fine. She is being such a good Momma.

Dad and Scott finished putting up a fence yesterday. Praise The Lord... No more opening and closing 2 gates every time I leave the house. YIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEE

Dad planted sunflowers running along the fence line in front of and down one side of our house. I can't wait to see them in full bloom.

Hunter started soccer practice Tuesday. He is very excited to be playing again and to have the same awesome coach he had last season.

Please keep my brother Jerry in your prayers. He is now in Iraq learning how to turn salt water into fresh. He is not in the military but working over there as a civilian for the next year.
My prayer is that he learns this trade and can come back home and use it to help solve the water problems in Florida.

Please keep the Tribeck family in your prayers. Jim went home to be with the Lord last night. I am so thankful we have such an awesome God to take care of us.

Blessings...

Spring is in the Air

My parents came for a visit yesterday. This morning Hunter and Dad went out to the garden Dad plowed up a few weeks ago and began working the dirt again so they could plant. Hunter loves spending time with his Papa and I think Papa is pretty fond of Hunter too.

We had another calf born yesterday. He is really cute. That makes 5 new calves since January.

Our cat Shadow is going to be a Mommy soon also. We are all very excited to see the new kittens. I made shadow and inside cat since she's so close. I lock her up in my bathroom at night but when she started meowing at 5:30 this morning she came very close to becoming an outside cat again :()

On Feb 22nd we had a storm come through. It messed up our new gazebo we put on our deck last summer and bent Hunter's trampoline in half almost. Praise the Lord no one was hurt.

I'm really excited about VBS planning starting at our church. I love the fact that so many children come to know Christ during VBS. It's such a wonderful opportunity for everyone to get involved and invite someone to come join the fun. If you have never helped during VBS you are really missing so serious fun.

Blessings

Family Fun

My parents and Aunt and Uncle from N.Carolina came for a visit this past week. It was so great to see everyone. My Uncle Bill is my Mom's brother. We played on the farm, went to church, out to dinner, shopped and enjoyed each others company. I wish they could have stayed longer. It always seems you run out of time for the things you want to do with company. Hopefully they will come back soon. We plan on visiting them over summer vacation.
We had another calf born this past week. He is solid black except a little white on his face like his momma. He is very small but so cute. Speaking of babies our Cat that we just got in Oct is gonna have kittens. She is such a great cat. I hope her kittens are as sweet as she is. She's solid black. The other night we saw a tiger colored male on our back porch. Not sure who's cat it is but it was very pretty. I'll post pictures when they arrive.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Blessings

Howdy

I wanted to show you Pepper's new pillow that Hunter made for her. When Hunter was about 5 my Mom taught him to sew simple things like a button or how to hem curtains. He started hand sewing pillows for himself and friends. His other Grandmother thought it was neat and bought him a Singer sewing machine for Christmas this year and my Mom taught him to sew on it. He enjoys it and picked it up quickly. I haven't learned to sew on it yet. Hopefully Hunter will teach me. Our dog Pepper is getting older and Hunter wanted her to have a huge bed. I think we made it too big but Hunter said it's just right for him to lay on it with her while watching T.V.

Check out this huge egg one of our chicken's laid. I had never seen an egg so large. Thought it was neat and decided to share.

I guess I will be blogging more again. I was substitute teaching at Hunter's school several days a week but our state is going through a budget cut and they called me and said they had to cut all subs. Maybe next year. I will still see the children since I plan on volunteering some.

Blessings...

Children In Action

Our Children In Action (CIA'S) at church have been learning about a missionary named Eric Bergquist. He started a ministry in San Francisco California called the Page Street Baptist Ministry. They help homeless people and runaways. They give them an opportunity to earn food and clothing by helping and serving others. Our CIA'S are collecting new socks for a mission's project to send to help with this ministry. Here are a few pictures of the kids decorating a sock box and a mural to conclude this months lesson. My class is 1st thru 3rd grade mostly boys and Mrs. Suzanne's class is 4th thru 6th grade and mostly girls. Last night before my class joined the older class to work on the project we were discussing donating the socks to this ministry. I gave each boy a pair of socks that I had purchased to put in the box. None of them wanted to carry the girls socks to the box. The boys were quite curious about who donates the rest of the clothing. I explained that other's helped this ministry as well and some might donate shoes, or pants or even underwear. You should of seen their eyes light up and they started giggling. I said well we all wear them right and they all agreed. Then one little boy with a very serious face said who has to donate the bra's? He was very glad that it wasn't us and it wouldn't be our next mission project.
Blessings

So much to do So little time

It seems since the New Year has began I have hit the pavement running and haven't stopped . Of course if you looked behind me you wouldn't believe it for one minute. Hunter tried to be my new exercise coach but I wasn't a very good student. I think I made it to class 3 days in a row before I dropped out. My friend Cindy invited us over to their house for a cookout last Saturday and she looked great. She is doing Jenny Craig and going to the gym every day. How do you people stay focused? I try and give up before I hardly get started. I'll try again tomorrow or the next day...
I have been subbing at a Middle School quite a bit lately. I really enjoy it and some classes are more challenging than others. I like that I am starting to know a lot of the students by name instead of face only. They are really a great bunch of kids. I do have to wonder how many parents actually check or at least ask their child if they have pencil and paper before they leave home or if they have homework when they get home.
Everyone is doing well and Hunter's burns have healed nicely. He is putting Maderma on them a few times a day.
Please put my friend Becky's son Jay Pope on your prayer list. He is having surgery April 1st and will have a lengthy recovery. He is such a sweet young man and I love him dearly.
Hope everyone is off to a great start this New Years and I look forward to hearing from ya.
Blessings,
Sherry

New Year, New baby Calf

Hunter and I went for a ride on the golf cart to check on the cows this afternoon and we found a baby calf had been born and he looked like a little lamb. I will take better pictures later it was starting to get dark on us but luckily I thought to grab the camera just in case we saw something fun to take a picture of. I have missed some great pictures on the farm of deer, coyote, turtles, owls and turkeys. Scott is really the picture taker in the family. He just seems to have a better eye when it comes to photography.

Hunter is recovering from 2nd degree burns on his chin and neck. He was frying something Sat night and dropped the tongs by accident in hot oil and they popped opened and splashed grease on him. We are thankful it was not any worse than it was. His burns are already starting to heal and I am greatful for all the prayers, phone calls and words of encouragement. He went back to school Wednesday bandaged up but I hope he won't have to wear them next week if all goes well.

Hope everyone has had a wonderful new start to 2008 and just wondering if anyone made any New Year's resolutions?? I use to say every year mine was to lose weight. Since that never worked I made a resolution not to make a resolution to trick myself into losing weight. That didn't work for me either. Sooooooooooo the saga continues...............
Blessings

Happy New Year

Christmas was very nice this year. My family and Scott's family all came on the 23rd for dinner and fellowship. We had a great time but it ended too quickly. My parents,daughter and son in law stayed the night after the party and we opened gifts. Everyone left Christmas Eve and Hunter, Scott and I went to a candle lite service at our church that was very heartfelt. After that we went riding to look at Christmas lights. It has been nice having Scott off on vacation this Christmas.
The last few days we decided to go off on mini day trips that has been fun. Wednesday we went to Green Cove Springs and drove through the city of lights and ended with a fun night of roasting marshmallows, and ice skating for Hunter at the arena they had set up. Thursday evening we drove to Gainesville and ate at the Melting Pot(fondu) Yummo. Today we went through Hastings and found a really neat place that a gentleman had collected antiques and showed them off in an old train station building. He even has another building that makes their own chips and sells them. Then we went on to Saint Augustine for a early dinner and more ice skating for Hunter. This arena was much larger and they played a movie in the back ground so parents could watch while their children skated. They even had a bubble machine that made fake snow fall on the ice skating rink. It looked pretty cool falling but Hunter said it made it pretty slippery.
Looking forward to a wonderful new year in 2008 but sad to see Scott's vacation coming to an end. Blessings

Childrens Christmas Party

We had a Christmas party for the children at church last night. They all seemed to have a great time. There were about 35 children. We started the party off by inviting the whole church family to eat dinner and have birthday cake for Jesus with us. Then Mrs. Glenda read the story of Jesus to all the children. We then made a few crafts that were so cute. Mrs. Suzanne had the fellowship hall decked out with decorations. She is such a talented sweetheart. She also let the children make an adorable manager scene craft and reindeer treat bag. Next we played a few games that were kinda long but fun. All in all I think the party was a success and fun was had by all.
Christmas is only 5 days away and I thought I was through with my shopping until someone called today and said guess what I bought myself and of course it was what I had bought them already.
That is totally breaking the rules. You can't buy yourself ANYTHING from Dec 1st until after Christmas. Now I have to go shopping again-UGH
My son in law graduates from law school tomorrow. I am very proud of him.
Hope everyone has a Blessed Christmas.

Cutest Company All Year

I had two very cute visitors last night and thought I would show you how cute they were. Do you know these precious children. I wanted to keep them but their Daddy took them home with him :) Lauren helped me put more ornaments on my tree and helped take some off. Michael was more interested in playing with the large spot light and blinding Lauren and I. We had fun and their Mommy should be proud that I didn't let them eat any candy before dinner but did send home candy canes for them and Emmy.
I love to see Christmas through the eyes of a child. In fact I love to see life through the eyes of a child. Don't blink you will miss it and have to wait for grandkids or friends kids.

Chickens get new home

Thanks to my Dad the chickens have a new home. Dad and Mom came last week to visit and Dad made a really cool chicken house. He put cute little doors on it to let the chicken's in and out and a trap door on the side to collect fresh eggs with ease. I am so amazed at his talent. When I was a little girl he built me a playhouse for Christmas one year. It had electricity, lights, carpet, windows,a front porch with a light on it and shutters that had a S on them. My mom made me white curtains with red tie backs to match the red carpet. When I decided I was too old for the play house it became his storage shed that he used for years. I love you Daddy-you and Mom are the best...
I finally hung my stockings today. I have been so slow to decorate this year even though it has been sitting in my living room floor for over a week. It seems that most of my decorations are not tall enough for the ceilings in this house. Oh well what is most important is that we remember the reason for the decorations. Happy Birthday Jesus...
We helped decorate the church tonight after the evening service. We had people singing around the piano, kids running around with tinsil, trees and lights and wreaths galore. It was fun. I've never been to a church before that everyone helps decorate, usually when you walk in one person has done a perfect job on everything. I can honestly say this church feels like you belong when you worship, eat, decorate, laugh, cry and pray with each other. I thank God for our little church in the middle of a cow pasture.
Blessings

Busy December

December seems to flash by so fast every year to me. I know it's because there is soooooo much going on and you want to try and take it all in but it makes me tired. I really want to slow down enough to fellowship with family and friends and remember the true meaning of the holiday. Jesus' birthday.
Hunter's soccer season came to an end last weekend and they had a team party. It was very nice and J.J made us an awesome cake. Hunter is looking forward to sign up's in Feb.
I have subbed at Hunter's school twice this week and it has been a great experience. Tuesday I taught a business class and today Social Studies. Children truly are a gift from God.
Hope you all have a blessed week.

I love Christmas

We were trying to put the Christmas tree up this afternoon and I had the front door open. Shadow our new outside cat decided to come in and make herself at home on Pepper's blanket. Pepper didn't seem to mind one bit. She is such a sweet kitty but I'm not quite ready for a cat and dog in the house. Of course Lindsay by phone and Hunter tried to convince me Shadow needs to be inside all the time. Sorry I'm not into litter boxes and will be so mad if that cat pee's in my house:)
On to Christmas decorating. It is going well but not anywhere near finished yet. I have to run Hunter to soccer practice in a few minutes. Tomorrow is the last game and we had not lost a game until last night and it's a team we have beaten before. The pressure is on we play the same team again so I know both teams are going to give it their all. Both teams have great players and they all seem to be good sports. Thank you God for my child, that he is able to run and play and talk and laugh and learn about you. Amen.