Crystal River Meet

Rose and shone early this morning to get to Daniel's Cross Country meet in Crystal River. He said it was a very difficult course with lots of sugar sand. Well, he had a great run and he beat his best time. His new PR is now 18:22!

We're so proud of you, Daniel!!(who prefers to be called Dan nowadays!)

These next few shots are from last week's meet in the Villages where Citrus won first place out of 5 schools.

Some of the Citrus guys

Daniel's reaction to the announcement of the winning team...He tells me he's glad he went with Cross Country instead of football! Mom's happy.

Our "Wilderness Survival Boys Club" received an unexpected treat when Jackson's mom and dad took us out for a boat ride! What a neat surprise-the boys had a blast! Thank you Brian Family!

Everyone's ready to go! Jacob, Alex, Jaret and Ethan

Alex's sister, Anna joined us for the day.

Now the boat is picking up some serious speed.

The boys were screaming their little heads off.

Stop for a little dip in the lake. Lake Spivey? or Henderson? :) Jaret and Jacob just enjoying the ride.The whole crazy gang...Jaret, Jacob, Alex, Ethan and Jackson.
The Skipper!
And his first mate! And here's the reason for the trip! We were supposed to be keeping a lookout for some natural habitats. This is a fish bed!
...And this is just purty.

Dan's back!

Well, it's election time again and my husband's on fire. He's got a whole lot to say and only 30 days to say it. I must warn you...he's not afraid to speak his mind!

Go to Dan's Blog

I beat the sheriff! Yippee!!

CAP Promotion!

Our Civil Air Patrol Squadron had an open house last night for parents and friends. Daniel and several other cadets were promoted and we also enjoyed a dedication ceremony of a beautiful print that was donated to our Squadron. This print hangs in many places, I remember the Pentagon was on that list.

The niece of the artist came up from MacDill Airforce base to dedicated the painting.

This is Daniel's first promotion in CAP. This first step is a result of completing his first lesson in Leadership training and memorizing the CAP oath. He has gone from Cadet to Cadet Airman! These are the cadets that were promoted...
This is Daniel with Major Bill Sumner.
Josh and Daniel sharing a laugh with the Mayor of Inverness, Bob Plaisted, who came out for the dedication and promotions ceremony.

There must be something to post about!

Just taking a minute to blab about whatever comes to mind...Let's see... We are absolutely in love with our church, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Inverness...come visit!! Pastor Greg will "bless your socks off" so bring along an extra pair.
We are nearing the end of our 3rd week of school. So far we are mostly on schedule. Right about now I can really begin to see if we have too much on the schedule or not enough and where it needs tweaking! So, I'll be working on that.
Daniel has been using Florida Virtual School for English 1 and Mom likes it a whole lot more than student. (That's simply because he doesn't care for writing essays much) I love that there's someone else out there to help me in this area. I feel confident enough to actually teach him how to write, it's just sticking to a schedule that troubles me. Sometimes it's nice to have a due date! I think it will help Daniel to put forth a little more effort if he has other input and comments about his writing. The teacher actually calls and helps with any questions we may have.
Daniel has been running daily with the Citrus High School Cross Country team and doing very well. He decided against football at the last minute and Mom is openly thrilled about it. I love to watch him run! First meet in Brooksville on the 20th!
I've been attending MIC(Moms in Christ) at Cornerstone on Tuesday mornings. We're working through a book called The Power of a Positive Mom. We watch a weekly video and have some prayer time and discussion. Food is also involved, of course. Again...extra socks.
I have no pictures to post! tsk tsk...I'll have to fix that.

Embracing Fay

Even though Tropical Storm Fay was making her way through the area, the boys weren't about to let that keep them from experiencing the great outdoors last night! I snapped this picture around midnight after they got the idea to pitch the tent! Ethan decided that he'd rather have Dad's spot in the bed while Dad and Jaret braved the wind, slight rain, croaking frogs and mosquitoes. As wonderful as that all was, they couldn't quite make it until morning, though, and they sneaked back into the house and crawled in bed!

Best Books

Inquiring minds wanted to know. This is one of the lists of books I was checking out...
http://www.listsofbests.com/list/11632

A Nice Story...

On Saturday, Dan met up with some friends from his high school graduating class to help out a fellow classmate in Brooksville. Joey Merrion has MS and was in great need of help with a few things so the Class of '83 showed up with their boots on and ready to go!
Click here for the article and video from Bay News 9!

3 Men in a Boat-A Must

Three Men in a Boat

The laundry and the dishes are calling. My lunch is way past due. I have a new favorite book...(for today anyway)This book was written in 1889 but I've just discovered it. (I'm consistently chiseling away at the rock above me) The whole book is online for the reading....Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog

I haven't laughed out loud while reading a book in a long time. I found it on list of: "Books You Must Read Before You Die" and "Greatest Books Ever written" Quite daunting lists!!

My little piano man!!

I finally figured out how to upload video!! Yippee! Here's some entertainment from Jaret!

So, has anyone seen the "Cheesus" that this woman found in her Cheetos bag? It's silly, I know. It goes right along with the grilled cheese with Mary on it and the pretzel. Remember the pretzel?! That was a good one. This lady doesn't plan on selling her find on ebay or anything. She put it in a box for safe keeping. It should probably keep pretty well(with all the preservatives!)

How long do you think my french fries will keep in a box? Or should I try to get a million bucks for them? These two french fries have been sitting on my kitchen window sill for at least three weeks now. We found these fries in this position right out of the McDs bag. The horizontal fry is passing directly through the center of the vertical fry. Of course, making it look like a cross. The kids had alot of fun with it and tried to get me to list it on ebay. I'm not that bold. It sure is funny, though.

Summer Fun and School Prep!

Wow...who's got time to blog?! I've been keeping busy cleaning off bookshelves, going through closets, rearranging clutter...trying to get ready for the next school year. I had a successful week on Ebay; buying and selling school books. I had never sold anything on Ebay before this week because it was a little scary to me for some reason. Well now I'm a crazy person searching the house for anything I can make a few bucks on!
I'm still in need of a few items for our next year, but mostly I'm ready to get moving. I've been on a scheduling frenzy trying to figure out how we're going to get done all that we need to get done without Mom losing it. Daniel is going into 9th grade this year so things are going to get a little more serious for him. Daniel's schedule alone is daunting...He's going to be playing football for Citrus High School and that starts immediately when school starts. This will be his first time on a football team. The whole school year is filled with sports. After football we have soccer and in the spring, track and field. He has also just become a member of Civil Air Patrol which meets weekly. Piano lessons and youth group praise band are on the agenda. We are on the look out for a good art teacher for weekly lessons and he still needs to maintain some lawn jobs as well.

Here's a quick list of our chosen curriculum for the year:

Math-U-See for all the guys
Sonlight for History and Reading
A Beka for Language and Spelling
A Beka for the elementary Science
Apologia for Daniel's Science
Daniel will taking English 1 on Florida Virtual School(1st timers for FLVS)
A Beka Spanish 1 for Daniel


It's been a nice summer off and we've had some fun. I had a chance to read a few good books:

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham...Cute story but so much football!
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham...VERY funny
Eli by Bill Myers...What if the Messiah came today? Jeans and a T-shirt?
No One you Know by Michelle Richmond...LOVED it
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy...VERY good
House Rules by Rachel Santog...a very moving yet disturbing memoir
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks...always have a Sparks for the beach

Why don't I add a few random shots!

This is Daniel dressed in his BDUs (Battle Dress Uniform) for Civil Air Patrol.
This was his first time in a uniform for CAP because he has just become an actual member. Dad's enjoying seeing him in uniform so much he may even join CAP himself as a senior member to help out! Football huddle

Just plain fun

Key Biscayne for the 4th

The 4th of July on Key Biscayne has become somewhat of a tradition for the Gandees! The parade was great and the fireworks were the best ever!

I just love this Uncle Sam!

Megan and Katy at the parade.We were so blessed to be able to get out with some friends on a sailboat while we were down! After we sailed a bit, the kids jumped out for a swim.

Tried a few times to get this mid-flight shot!

From our spot out on the water we could see this house up for sale:

$27 Million is the price tag...this is where parts of the movie "Scarface" was filmed.

We were enjoying the windy ride up at the bow!Katy and the rest of the crew!

Katy and Me

The Captain and his first mate! (Katy's brother, Bill and his wife, Lisa!)

Ethan loved finding all the different ways to get around the boat!Daniel and DadKelly and Dad

What a gorgeous day!
Jaret back in the pool!
...and the beach!

...isn't it nice when they love each other?! For 5 minutes!!My favorite KB Critter.