Back on again!

Hello family and friends!

Yes...it was a very busy year 2006-2007. I finished teaching at FCS last June and now we are homeschooling this year for a variety of reasons. For FCS fans, we loved it there and miss it!

Wanting to get blogging again here and hope to be more dedicated the rest of this year. First of all, some of the "spices" in our family want to get a new name. Therefore, Peppermint will now be referred to as Mace, and Spearmint will be named Chili for the hot chili peppers that he loves. Mace is getting applications filled out for colleges and Nutmeg, Ginger, and Chili are at home. Mace is in PSEO classes at a nearby college and is taking 14 credit hours!!! Plus he also is taking a Physics class. Just finished FCS soccer season with both Mace and Chili. It looks like Chili will be in FCS basketball this year.

Sage has kept busy with his work even though others in his field have had some hard times. We are very grateful to God for this. Thankful, too, for the longer "fall" season to keep up with his outdoor work.

Winter has definitely arrived here, at least yesterday it showed a sign of truly arriving with some sleet and ferociously, strong, chilly winds. So with sadness of heart, we bid farewell to a wonderful summer and fall!

Managed to almost get our house completely painted (again) before the below 50 temps. Only have some windows left that we can actually take down and paint the trim inside. We weren't pleased with the last paint, red and blue, which we finally decided did not blend well at all with our brown roof. So now look forward to a picture when we finish those last windows! Anyone care to guess what two colors we went with? The siding is cream. I will give a prize to anyone who can guess before we post the pic but you only qualify if you haven't seen our house and know what we painted it already.

Two cousins just spent the last four days with us. It was a lot of fun to have them here. M is 10 and E is 12. We took a fun hike at Pioneer Park, had a "make your own pizza" night, played on the tramp, and on the last day, the girls went out for tea. They also enjoyed playing "The Scrambled States of America" game.

Last weekend, everyone except Sage, got to see the wonderful production, "My Fair Lady", put on by our high school. It was fantastic and the songs and catchy lines are still stuck in our minds.

Regarding news from last year, (this is more for my family history and you can ignore if you don't want to hear past news...) Chili and Mace both played soccer and basketball at FCS. Chili played tennis at PHS. There was an unfortunate glitch for Mace and so he helped our youth pastor coach the junior high tennis team. The girls both played youth basketball at FCS. I taught Jr. High Bible, Practical Math to juniors and seniors, Yearbook to highschoolers, and P.E. to gradeschoolers. The year before I had taught two junior high math classes and business math along with the P.E. and yearbook. The yearbook is definitely a time-consuming commitment, but the final product is rewarding. The boys were in youth group, with Mace being on the worship team. Girls attended AWANA. Sage and I both helped co-teach Sunday School classes. I helped with 3rd grade and he with 6th. All in all, we were busy during the school year with school, sports, and church. Mace and I were both in the school drama, Our Miss Brooks, Mace as the high school basketball coach and I as a teacher, Miss Audobon. Fun to be a part of it.

We took two trips to Indiana in the summer to visit my relatives. One after school was out in early June and then later at the end of July. A couple of highlights of the second trip included visitng some historical hotels in French Lick, Indiana and visiting my old alma mater, Ball State University. For Mace's sake, we also checked out Taylor University, a wonderul private Christian college in Indiana. A spiritual delight for me last summer included being a part of a Beth Moore Bible study, Daniel. I recommend it for all women and it would even be good for men, too. Another fun event for summer was attending Sonshine with some friends for a day. A good friend and her daughter drove with us and we met some friends there. Mace and Chili stayed for the entire event. We heard several good bands. Mace and I had also seen the Newsboys, Kutlass, and Stellar Kart last spring.

Nutmeg had a special birthday by spending the day at Mall of America's Park. She rode and rode. Mace and Ginger rode, too, while Sage and Chili "shopped." Chili spent his birthday with a couple of friends at Buffalo Wild Wings and a movie. He loves hot food, however, even the three of them couldn't finish off the "blazin' wings" there.

Ginger is almost as tall as me, will be taller than me soon! Nutmeg is sprouting up, too. Even Chili is catching up to Mace. Ginger still loves gymnastics, although she is not participating right now, she hopes to sometime this winter. Nutmeg has finally got her wish after two years of begging to play the violin. Ginger, Nutmeg and I are all enrolled in a Strings program together.
Ginger is playing the viola, while Nutmeg and I are trying the violin. We hope to master "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" soon.

Best be off now. Will be sharing pics soon. Love to all, Rosemary