How Time Flies!!!

I cannot believe I haven't posted a single thing since last October! WOW, time sure has been zipping by. Home schooling has taken a huge priority in our lives and along with that our intense Iron Man Triathlon training. Since my last post, my husband & I have ran several half marathons, a few sprint triathlons and the BIG one, Iron Man Florida a few weeks ago!!!! The training was intense, but well worth it! Victory tasted so good when I finally crossed the FINISH LINE 8 hours later. EEEEK! Our journey is just beginning and I'm loving every minute of it! Training for a second Iron Man as my hubs trains for his FULL Iron Man in August is time consuming but it is a journey we are embarking on as a family. The blood, sweat & tears bring me joy when I hear all 3 of my boys say "Mom, when can we do our first triathlon?" Luke, my middle child, told me the other day he wanted to be a pro triathlete when he grows up! I got great joy in sharing that with Steve later that night. We must be doing something right!

My Baby Turns 5

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY Jack!



It's so hard to believe but my "baby", Jack, turned 5 on October 3rd. In my eyes Jack is still "baby Jack" and we just recently stopped calling him that on a regular basis! When I go to pick him up he is all legs and long, not what I remember of when he was short and small. I apparently have a hard time making my brain catch up to reality! I now know the true meaning of "enjoy them while they are small". I can't tell you how many times I would hear that from family, friends and strangers, where ever I would go. When you are a stay at home mom, and you have more than one small child at home with you, you live for the next "step" and not the now. I have tried to soak up the smaller years with Jack knowing he was to be our last child. How I wish I could go back and keep doing all those baby things over and over again as I now miss them. I truly am enjoying seeing him and his brothers grow up into young boys.... cherish every moment of your kids younger years.... they are only little for a short time!

Iron Man 70.3

I DID IT!! I have taken the plunge and I am diving in HEAD FIRST!!! 2010 Iron Man Half 70.3 here I come! The coming months should be interesting.... Steve is also competing in this endurance event so our training schedules should be interesting! I never thought I would ever be blogging about doing this kind of stuff, but never the less here I am in the middle of it all. My prayer is not only to just finish the race, but to be a shining light for Jesus and to be given the opportunity to share in his love while encouraging others to reach their goals. Gonna need LOTS of prayers coming my way over the next 7 months!!! I did fail to mention that a good friend of mine who recently lost her husband to cancer, will be training with me and competing in this race as well. I find this to be an honor to share in this experience with her as well with my husband. God is GOOD!

Reading Made FUN!

Who says school should be boring, all work and no relaxation? Today the boys got to do school in their jammies and kick back a little while reading. I stumbled upon these amazing outdoor lounge chairs while zipping through one of my favorite stores. To my amazement, the lounge chairs were 75% off! So what's a girl to do when ya see that kind of a deal! I tossed 2 of them in my cart and scrambled out of the store before I spent any more green backs. Once I got home I realized I should have picked 3 of them up instead of 2. What was I thinking??? Did I honestly think that my boys would be able to share the 2 loungers and take turns during reading hour? HA! So it's back to the store we go later today to retrieve one more lounger... hope they still have at least one! I had a heck of a time explaining to the hubs why I bought these "mattresses" as Luke called them. I was quick to correct him in saying they are loungers, and were purchased for our quite time when reading. Needless to say, my plan worked and the boys were thrilled to lay down, get comfy and read. Money well spent I say!

First Day Of School @ Rolling Acres Academy

BBBBBRRRRRRRIIIIIIING, school is officially in session! Today was Jacks very first day of school and boy was he excited! This was my first day of teaching 3 boys but I embraced the challenge. When all was said and done, we had a great start to the new school year. Besides the usual book work of language, arithmetic and spelling we are embarking on some new territory. Every 2 weeks the boys and I are going to do a unit study on a country. To start us off and rolling, our first country is Mexico. Today the boys learned how to say all the primary colors in Spanish and some of Mexico's customs. Tomorrow we will be making home made corn tortillas and diving deeper into Mexico's history. I never thought home schooling could be so much fun! Here's to a fun filled school year... CHEERS!

Rolling Acres Academy

Welcome to Rolling Acres Academy! The boys and I have been hard at work getting our school room ready for class on Monday. After we placed all the final touches we decided our school needed a name. So we came up with Rolling Acres Academy since we live on acreage on a small hill, tons of trees and a lake. HA! I know it doesn't make any sense but it sounded good, so it stuck! Today our last shipment of books came in so we can officially start on Monday and the boys couldn't be more excited! I too have to admit I am anxious to start the new year.... ya know, get back into a good routine and have a schedule to stick to. Summer has been a blast, but we haven't kept to a schedule much. Then again that's okay cause it's summer and that's what your supposed to do... have fun..... and we did! We lived it up! Now it's back to reality. Happy home schooling to all you moms out there in blog land who take on this very rewarding challenge! CHEERS!

Back From Break

Wow.... time sure flies by when you having fun! We have had one crazy, busy summer! I cannot believe it has been so long since I blogged, but with three very busy boys who have kept my every moment running, and I mean RUNNING, I only seem to find a few minute here and there for blog land. Summer has never been better! Besides the usual visits to the pool and play dates with friends we have taken a couple of road trips as well and had a visit from Steve's brother Dale and his family for July 4Th. Our first road trip was to Tennessee to visit my dad with a quick stop over in Atlanta for the night. Seven hours is about all I can handle in the car alone with three boys. HA! We spent several days in the Cumberland Mountains with Pappy (my dad) then returned to Atlanta to visit my sister and her family. This was the much anticipated visit of the year as my sister recently had her second child and the first girl for this side of my family. We spent the rest of that weekend spoiling her rotten and making wonderful summertime memories with all the cousins. After a week of all that we headed home to unpack, clean then turn around in one week and head to the Florida Keys for a mini vacation with the hubs. This was the boys first trip to the Keys and their first time snorkeling. Needless to say Andrew is hooked... I think we have a future marine biologist on our hands. Andrew couldn't get enough of the water and marine life! Amongst all the trips to the reef we managed to fit it a glass bottom boat ride, that was spectacular, and a trip to Key West that is a whole other story in itself. On Saturday Steve competed in another triathlon, that was a sprint distance, and placed 5Th in his age group and completed the race with a new PR of 1 hr 10 min. We also celebrated Luke's 7Th Birthday while in the Keys and to Luke's surprise at dinner he received a birthday cake like no other!!!! The restaurant that we were having dinner presented Luke with a whole raw fish on a platter with a lit candle in the middle. His face, as was ours, was priceless upon seeing this creature on a platter with a candle in the middle! Good times and great memories. Now we find ourselves back in a groove and getting ready to kick off another school year. This year is a bit different that all the past ones as we will be home schooling ALL they boys this year. I'm looking forward to the change and embracing what God has in store for our family. Only two weeks to go and we're off and learning! Until then we plan to soak up as many pool days as we can and enjoy every moment God has given us! Happy summer to all. :)