Yard Work

We did a project out in the front yard today. For a while, we have been wanting to re-mulch our landscaping in the front. This is a picture from before we got started:

We tied Roi up to a tree and planned on spending several hours out there. First, I sat in a lawn chair while Colin blew and raked out all of the old mulch. What a mess that made!!!

(((I have a video I want to put here. It is Colin with the blower and the mulch flying everywhere. However, at the moment I can't figure out how to get it to post. So, stay tuned for that!)))

Then, we both put on our gloves and pulled all the weeds. Meanwhile, Roi layed under our truck in the shade only coming out to get a drink of water every once in a while. He leads a hard life, that one!

Once all of the old mulch was blown out and the weeds had been pulled, we had to clean up all the raked piles of mulch. This is proof that I helped!!!

Then it was time to go to Ace and purchase 20 bags of pine bark mulch. When we got back home, I left to get lunch while Colin put the mulch in, and when I returned...

I saw this:

           

Looks great!

A Few More Pictures

This is Colin, me, Kelly, and Nick in front of the fish aquarium at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney.

Pete and Colin 

Nick, Pete, and Colin at the Irish Pub at Pleasure Island

Kelly and Nick

SB

Spring Break 2005

Spring Break 2006

Spring Break 2008

For the past 4 years, Kelly and I have been in Florida for Spring Break. Back during our first year teaching, we drove straight through to Destin, FL for Spring Break. It was great fun. Last night we reminisced about the fun times we've had over the past several years in Florida. We all met up at Downtown Disney and then went to Pleasure Island. I wanted to post a picture from each year, but for some reason I can't locate the pictures we took last year. Maybe they weren't taken with my camera. Check out my flickr for the other pictures that were taken last night. I was so happy to be able to meet up with them and spend some time with good friends. 

Come Visit!

I'm so excited about the rest of this month and April. We have lots of visitors, which is great! Pete is here now visiting from Chicago. They (Pete, Colin, and Mike) rented a boat and went out on the lake all day while I was slaving away at work. :) They seemed to have a really fun time. All three of them came back sunburnt though. They didn't see any alligators, and they didn't catch any fish.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet Kelly and Nick at Pleasure Island for a night of fun. This weekend we are planning on driving over to the beach to meet up with my friend Lauren and her little guy, Jeremy. Kara, Travis, and Payne are also in the sunshine state, but too far away for me to go visit. THEN, I'm on Spring Break! And my parents will be here. Yay!!! I have all sorts of exciting adventures planned for their stay. I love love love visitors. Jessica, Mike, and Kaelan will be in Orlando the following week, so I will meet up with them at the parks I'm sure. Can't wait to see all of them!

Living in Orlando definitely has it's perks! There is so much to do. You have the beach just an hour away, Disney and all the other theme parks, perfect weather, plus lots of great shopping. But, I do miss all of my people a lot, so when we get all of these guests, its super! I have lists of things that I want to do with each group of visitors, and I'll hopefully take lots of pictures to post on here. In addition to people coming down here, Colin and I are planning on being in Indiana/Illinois/Michigan from about June 26-July 11. We hope to make our rounds and hang out with all of our family and friends!!! 

In other unrelated news...

• Katrina, Trent, and Paige got out of the hospital yesterday morning. They are all home and doing well. I'm a proud "auntie"!
• Colin finished his classes which he is really happy about. Now he is eligible to test for engineer and lieutenant. That will free up his schedule a bit too!
• We had a really nice Easter dinner in Venice. It was fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa McCormick, plus Colin's aunt, uncle, and cousins. An added bonus was that we each got a chocolate bunny from Fannie Mae. :) YUM! Mine's already gone.
• I am counting down the days until Spring Break. My students have "spring fever", and they need a vacation really badly!!!
• In my school district you are a temporary employee until 3 years of service. This is only my 2nd year teaching for them, so from year to year, I have no clue what school I will be teaching at the for the following school year. My principal called me in today to let me know that he has a position at my school next year. That was a relief because they did cut 4 teaching positions. I was thrilled with the news because a.) I really like the school, b.) I love the students there, and c.) its really close (2 miles) to our house. I don't know what grade I will be teaching, but that doesn't bother me too much.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my ramblings. Enjoy the rest of your week! 

From Easters Past

Happy Easter!

Its a Girl!!

...and baby makes three!!!

Katrina and Trent had their baby girl. Welcome to the world, Paige Elizabeth! I've been waiting on pins and needles while getting updates on my phone via text messages from Katrina's sister, Karrie. Baby Paige made her grand entrance at 11:15 P.M. on Saturday, March 22, just 2 days before her due date. I got a picture sent to me on my cell phone, and she is precious. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches. I'm beyond thrilled for them. Congratulations Katrina and Trent!! I can't wait to meet your little girl. 

flickr

I have added a flickr link over to the left. If you click on it, all of our pictures will come up. I uploaded all of the photos that we have on our computer, so some of them are rather old.  I will continue to put new ones on. Boy, am I getting blog savvy!! :)

Happy Spring!!!

Friends and Family,

Hope this finds you doing well! Nothing much is new around these parts. The weather has been wonderful so we have been grilling out and spending lots of time outside on our screened in porch. Also, we've been busy "spring cleaning" and getting ready for all of our spring break visitors. Colin has been occupied with various house projects, work, and completing his Fire Officer I classes.  I have Good Friday off, and I'm planning spending the day at Disney. I have to celebrate -- only 1 more day until FCAT is over! This weekend we will be heading down to Venice to spend Easter with Colin's grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. I don't have any exciting pictures from the week, so I'm adding one of our new area rug and leather chair. The other one is the recessed lighting that we put in our kitchen and living room. We hope you have a blessed Easter! :)

Love,

Melissa and Colin

First Blog Entry

Family and Friends,

Welcome to our website! Since we live so far away, I've decided to create a blog to keep everyone updated on our day to day life. I figured this would be a good way to keep in touch with everyone and be able to easily post pictures. 

    

Thanks for stopping by! Leave us a comment to let us know you were here. :) Hope you all had a super weekend!!!

Love,

Melissa and Colin