Even the dog likes a sucker now and then

The other night after returning home from a banquet the dog was in the kitchen and I noticed one side of her mouth looked very swollen. I assumed something had bit her. Upon investigating she had something stuck in her mouth. The ring pop sucker piece was stuck between her teeth. I assume she must have found a sucker on the other end and decided she needed it. It was quite funny looking!

The load is much easier

A few weeks ago our washing machine which was on its last leg finally died altogether. We had already fixed it once about 6 months ago and decided that rather than put the money into fixing it again we would buy a new set. A little frustrating when it was only about 5 years old anyhow. But for whatever reason all our appliances from GE have been junk although they were brand new 5 years ago. But that's another story, we won't go into at this point in time of the many times they all have been fixed. After many trips to Lowes and Home Depot and many other appliance places and lots of research, we finally decided on the front load models. They save on water, which is a plus if your paying a water bill. The average washer uses about 40 gallons of water per wash they say. I believe it after cleaning up the mess off my floor that ruined my wood . Also after my washer finally died and wouldn't spin out I had to empty many times a wet and dry vac sucking water out of my machine to get my clothes out. Also the fact that they don't agitate as they wash which wears your clothes out much faster. The front loaders use about 6 gallon's of water and turn your clothes to wash them. They are much quieter, use less soap because it is a concentrated special kind that you use. Also one nice feature on the one we bought was the silver care option which uses siver ions to sanitize. A nice feature when someone gets sick and bedding needs washed. Also these washers spin your clothes at about 1100- 1300 RPM's compared to 600 RPM's on a standard washer. Which means your clothes are dryer coming out of the washer which makes for shorter drying time. Yeah! I'm all for saving time and money on the electric bill. And the big drum in the washer means you can cram more in. Yippee! So after having a washer that was having technical difficulties I was sooooo excited when my new one was delivered. My family thought I was crazy. I sat and watched the first load wash for about 10 min. and was amazed at how much fresher my clothes smelled and dryer they felt coming out of the wash cycle. They all have decided I am not crazy, even Meagan likes to go peek in and watch them wash or dry.

Finally... The last day for 3

Today is the last day of school for Jess, Zach & Andrea. YIPPEE! Three less lunches to pack and no morning chaos. I am totally burnt out on packing lunches. By the end of the year I have lost my touch at finding something new to pack. And my kids are picky, so that poses a problem. Britt has one more week of school and exams to take. Can't wait for it to be over. Trying to plan our vacation for the summer and not sure when this is going to fit in the schedule.
Rod is moving his office next door to where he is at now and we have phone and security wiring and a few other things to fit into the schedule, plus moving over to it by the first week of August. And He & I have additional liscensing classes to take for 3 days over a weekend in West Palm all before this office can be opened. Yeah! So somewhere in there we need to fit in a long overdue needed vacation and fun time with the kids. Well before all that can be accompished my house and the kids rooms especially need some deep cleaning and throwing of junk away. So, off I go to get the laundry started and strip some beds . Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

Zach's artistic abilities...

Zachary brought this picture home from school the other day. He had to draw this in art class. I forgot to ask wether it was something he just created or if it was something they had to draw from a still pose that was sitting there. Anyhow, I thought he did a great job! He says his flowers are too small and that they should be bigger. But I still thought it was a very nice picture. I am amazed at his drawing abilities because mine and Rod's are Zero! I am so glad he enjoys doing these kinds of things and being creative. He will sit and color or draw something almost every day. It helps to keep his little mind occupied.

Year end achievements....

Jessica received 4 awards this year at the end of the school year. She has made tremendous improvements this year and it has shown with all her grades and her confidence level. The awards she received were Teacher's Honor Roll. This is the 4th time this year. And we are so proud of her for that accomplishment. She also received Most Improved Student Award. That's a definate. Also Artistic Achievement. And last but not least The Goosey Award ( her teachers name is Miss Goosey) . This award was for The most positive and agreeable student in the class. We are proud of her accomplishments this year. Hope that means we'll have a good year next year also.

At Zachary's award ceremony he received Artistic Achievement. I think we may have a budding artist here. He enjoys drawing so much and actually does a pretty descent job at it. Sometime I might post some pictures he has drawn. Nothing may ever come of his artistic abilities, but I know that he sure has me beat when it comes to drawing anything.

Movie night

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The other night we decided it was time to sit down and relax and watch a movie. It's not very often that we have time to just sit back and relax, but we decided it was high time we did anyhow. So we chose the movie Facing The Giants. We all gave it an "A" rating. We had heard it was very good, but we are a little slow to take the time sometimes to watch a good movie. I think it was an excellent choice. Very good christian based movie. I recommend everyone take the time to watch it. We could all learn some valuable lessons by it. So everone take a night and pop some popcorn and relax and watch a good wholesome movie with your family. We enjoyed it! Below is a picture of Meagan holding her play remote and sitting in their little chairs for the floor. She was so cute watching the movie. I couldn't resist snapping a picture. About 5 min. after taking the picture she was out for the night sprawled on the floor.

Enjoying an evening with Disney on Ice

Last night we ventured down to the south Florida Fairgrounds Expo Center to see Disney on Ice.It's something I have always wanted to do and knew the kids would enjoy it too. They had no idea where we were going so wasn't a bit suspicious even when we pulled into the parking lot and got the tickets. Jessica even saw the sign but don't really think it clicked with her that we were going in to see it. My parents sent me money for Mother's day so it was used to buy the tickets. Thank's Mom & Dad. We all had fun! We actually had pretty descent seats for the cheap seats. We got the 6th row, so thought that was pretty good. Meagan really enjoyed it! Her face lit up to see all the action happening on the ice.
The story surrounding the whole thing was about the Incredibles going to Disney and trying to blend in with normal people. Can't say I have ever watched the Incredibles, but my kids were sure to tell me all about it. The bad guy captures Mickey & Minnie and the Incredibles go from each different spot in Disney like the Pirates of the Carribean place, to the Haunted Mansion, to the Teacups etc. looking for the bad guy. It was quite an adventurous night. It was a pretty good show. Now we can say we've done it. High School Musical on Ice is coming to the area I think this summer or early fall. Maybe that's something to look forward too also.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my Mothers birthday. Unfortunately I didn't really have a picture of her by herself, or one that is really nice. So this snapshot was taken while she was at work. But it doesn't really matter.We won't say how old mom is. Women don't like to tell their age. But she still looks and acts young so that's all that matters.
Hat's off to mom today. Hope you have a wonderful birthday. Hugs & kisses to you from all of us. Wish we were there .

What a wonderful husband!

I have to say that I think I have the most wonderful husband in the world. He most usually cooks most of Sunday dinners. I help him some, but he does a big share on Sunday's. It makes it nice to have a break from all the cooking that is done throughout the week. So Mother's day is no exception. He is a great cook, and we have both learned alot over the last 17 years. We will try to cook anything once, and what one of us doesn't figure out the other one will. We get creative sometimes. That can be good, but also bad because if it turns out really tasty, next time we might not remember everything we put in it. And we surely don't believe in writing it down.
One of the favorite things is Rod's pies. Now I could make it myself, but I like his pie crust better.So he made my favorite Carmel Apple Pie. It is always delicious!Of course I helped cut up the apples. But he does the fun part of of making and rolling the crust. Thanks Rod for a yummy pie!!

Happy Mothers Day!

Mom Schaub with Meagan ! She's a terrific Grandma!





Grandma Brown having fun in Orlando!


We want to wish both our mom's a happy mother's day. You both are wonderful mothers and mother-in-laws. We wish we could be with you both , but many miles and family commitments keep us far away. Hope you have a wonderful day! We love you both!!

The latest happenings

Well nothing much is happening around here. We are battling a severe drought and we have water restrictions on us as to how many times a week and what hours we can water our grass or wash our cars. In Martin county we are aloud 3 days a week. But they are suppose to be going back to the drawing board and possibly cutting us back another day. I saw in the news that Palm Beach county schools use water to run their A/C units and they use something like 1.6 million gallons of water a day in that school district . So they are raising the temperatures up to 78* in the classrooms to conserve water. They say this will only save about 55,000 gals. per day or about 1%. But I guess every little bit helps. Just hope the kids aren't too uncomfortable.
With the severe drought we are experiencing wildfires. We have them in Georgia which is shifting the smoke into Florida and we have had one to the south of us in the Everglades and yesterday a fire just North of us at Pt. St. Lucie FAU campus. It was quite smokey here yesterday. Made it very hard to stay outside and smell it. It's cleared up a little today but theirs still a hint of smoke. They say more than 200 fires are burning in 55 counties throughout Florida.
To top it off we have our first named storm of the season. Her name is Andrea. Imagine the excitement I had to know a storm has been named after my rambunctious 6 yr. old daughter. Now they say the storm is no big deal and we may see a little rain out of it but not enough to help out our drought. For those of you who don't live in
Florida our hurricane season doesn't begin until June 1st. So we are not excited to hear that the tropical storms are starting in 3 wks. early.
On another note , Andrea has a severe rash, which I thought was sea lice, but I think now it's possibly poison ivy. It continues to spread all over her and is very itchy. We are trying everything to get rid of it, but it's a slow process. Anyone who has any miracle cures please let me know.

Andrea's party....

This was on Wednesday. She was so disappointed she wouldn't get a cake on her birthday , So I made cupcakes!

Andrea with her yummy cake!


A close up of the cake. It was white and chocolate because she likes both and she wanted Strawberry shortcake on it.


On her new bike. She was so excited!

Tonight we had a small party for Andrea. We were having Phil & Lora Gray over so decided to make it the night to have the birthday cake. As they are always deliciously made by our Friend Cindy Marroquin, we really don't need to eat all of it by ourselves. We had a nice visit with friends we don't get to see very often. It's pretty sad when we live within walking distance and still can't find the time to get together but a few times a year. This was suppose to have been done in March with them, but life was too busy with all the birthdays in the family and all. So we have fallen into May. Anyhow, we had some good food on the grill and some good fellowship and a good cake too. Above are a few pictures of the marvelous works that Cindy does on her cakes. I don't know how she does it. She is so talented. Of course
I can't draw, so could imagine what a cake would turn out like if I tried. Andrea also got a new bike from us. It seems as if you need a new one every so often with living here on the water. They rust up so fast. I can't count all the bikes we have been through in the ten years we have lived here.

Happy Birthday Miss Andrea Renay Brown!!

Six years ago today Andrea made her journey into this big bad world. I remember going to bed on the night of May 1st thinking I was probably in labor. I didn't tell Rod so I wouldn't alarm him. But went to bed feeling some slight pains, thinking maybe it was just wishful thinking. As I laid in bed and watched the clock and timed the pains they would become closer then farther apart. So, even though this was # 5 , I still had my doubts. Although I had never before had any false labor with any of them. As I continued to time them, and breathe through the pain, I was debating about what time I should wake Rod up to let him know. It wasn't long till the decision was made for me because my water broke all over the bed. I reached over and touched his arm and it was like he knew what was happening. I've never seen him jump out of bed so fast. We called the midwife and told her we would meet her at the Women's center.I decided to take a shower before leaving so I wouldn't feel so yuk! The midwife had also been staying the night in Hobe Sound because of her nights on call she would stay with a friend who could watch her daughter if she were to be called in. As we made our way to Stuart on A-1-A we came up on another van going fairly fast ,but not as fast as Rod. We passed her! She assumed it was us, so she told us she decided she better speed up too, because it must be coming pretty fast and she didn't want to miss it. We both arrived at the center at the same time. No time for checkups or normal procedure. I was dilated to 10 and ready to push. Andrea was born within 15 min after arrival at the center long before the nurse got there. I'd say we almost cut it a little short.



Andrea was 8 lbs 13 oz and 20 1/4 "




Me and Midwife Barb McCarthy shortly after birth




Going home a few hours after Andrea was born



A favorite. When she started crawling she would just fall asleep anywhere. I found her many times in the dogs bed.



Another favorite! She thought she was a hollywood star playing the piano!


Another favorite from a couple years ago. This shows the sweet and innocent side!


I have to say the past 6 years have been interesting. Andrea is the hair stylist in the family. She has to brush and fix everyones hair. She loves to play and to fight with all her other siblings. She is very voicetress(sp)and keeps us all on our toes. But I wouldn't have it any other way without her.
Happy birthday Andrea. We all love you very much!!