Our Adventurous Anne

This weekend, Anne was invited to her first "big girl" birthday party and they had Rock Climbing. I thought she might be intimidated, but boy was I wrong! I don't think there is much this girl won't try! She didn't get far and she had help - but she did it!!!!

Horses - rock climbing - what's next???

As for me - I spent the day today at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine for a Bridal Show. It was the biggest one I have done yet and it was so much fun! They said about 400 people came through. I came home and crashed on the couch though. It was fun but exhausting! I will do another one next Sunday at UNF. I shut things down to a minimum while in Oregon but haven't seemed to skip a beat. I can't believe I've had my business now for 3 years. It is truly a gift from God to be able to do what I love to do and still be at home with the kids.

We are off to Disney on Friday and Saturday for Jarod's birthday. He'll be 9 next Monday. We are praying that Hannah steers clear of Florida so we can head to Orlando.

Until next time with Disney pics.......

Drying Out

We are finally high and dry. It cleared up pretty quickly now that it stopped raining and the sun has come out. We woke up this morning to see our grass again! And our mailbox! It will be a while before the ditch dries up - we call it our mote. It keeps water in it all the time - but not these:

Fish!!! In our front yard! Tadpoles too. Fortunately we haven't seen any snakes yet. Or gators. Now wouldn't that be fun.

We've had many new forms of wild life in the last few days - including the big white cranes. I guess they've been after the fish. I am quite tired of the tree frogs though. I had 6 of them in the door jam of my van last week. I had to get a guy in the Wal-Mart parking lot to help me get them out as I didn't want the mess from smushing them and I didn't want them to hop in my van. Each time I open my van, I find a new one. I finally had one in my van last night. I went to sit down and it hopped out at me. UGH!!!!! I guess they are just looking for a dry place - but my van is off limits!

Well, thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Let's just hope that Gustav stays clear of Florida. We have Disney plans next weekend........

Until next time...

Hooked on Blogging

We enjoyed creating our Oregon blog so much, that we have decided to continue with a new one from here at home. Instead of sending out mass emails with photos and such, both Russ and I can get on here and keep everyone up to date with all that God is doing in our lives.

We've been home from Oregon since last Wednesday and it has been crazy! Russ went right to work on Thursday morning and instead of the 3 days he has to prepare for Orientation, he had 2 hours. By 10:00 he had all these 8th graders and their parents in his classroom, wondering how the year was going to be. Russ wondered too! Then on Sunday, we went to Jarod's Scout "Back to School" gathering and he found out everyone had already decided he was going to be the Assistant Cub Master for the Pack! Guess that's what happens when you work for the scouts for 6 weeks! Needless to say, by Monday he was good and grumpy!

We took Jarod to his Orientation on Friday. He settled right in and was very excited about school starting. Although both he and Anne wanted to sleep everyday until 11:00 as their bodies were still on Oregon time. We finally have that turned around.

We've decided that God knew exactly what we needed and has given us some down time. We were in school for three days when Tropical Storm Fay hit Florida and shut down the Jacksonville area. So, we have had three, much needed, lazy days here at the Franklin house. Those three days may turn out to be more, as we are surrounded by water and cannot get in or out of our driveway. We are very thankful for our hill. The creek that this has come out of is expected to crest today so we think this may get worse before it gets better.

Still high and dry - just surrounded.....


Our Back Yard

This is the swing set - the swings are under water.



This was taken while standing on the front porch


Our mailbox. I don't think we'll have any mail deliveries today...

We'll keep you posted on our water situation, so, bookmark us and keep checking back. Until next time.......