2008 is here

Another year has passed. I can't believe how fast the years fly by. 21 years ago this evening I was anticipating getting married the next day. I am thankful for the family God has blessed me with. Briana has had a great year in Argentina. She loves Palabra de Vida and has made many friends all with the same goal, serving the Lord and learning Spanish. Andrea is gearing up for tennis. This will be a different year as she will be playing at Ed White this year. Joanna has had a great year in school. She has become very independent. She is expressing an interest in computer science. Krista, well she is Krista , very much loving life, her dog and her family. We all have our goals for the year. Mine involve fitness. I have had four major injuries in 18 months. Three in the last 6 months. My sholder is still messed up. This has hindered my tennis play so I have to come up with another plan for fitness. Joanna and Krista will be working on keeping their room clean. Andrea's are tennis related. Of course, Briana wants to finish her course at PBB. For Jimmy and I working on our spanish is always a goal. He says I need to get in with both feet. Pray for me as Briana leaves on Saturday.

God Bless you in the New Year

It's Christmas Eve

As I sit and watch my favorite Christmas movie "Preacher's Wife", I am reminding myself to slow down and enjoy my family. Dudley says in the movie "Our time here on earth is precious" . He works hard to make Henry Biggs realize that. I wish all my friends a Merry Christmas. Enjoy the time you have with your family. God bless you...Dios les bendiga.

Melody

Vacation

We have been on vacation this week. We have gone nowhere. Actually that is not true, we have gone shopping many times. We went twice to the town center. It is so pretty there. The place is all lit up with Christmas lights. The thing I like the best is it doesn't matter how many people are there it doesn't seem crowded. Everything is outside and spread out. Some of the stores are high end but it is still very nice to go there. It has a Disney World feel.

Tonight we went to St. Augustine. It was lit up as well. It was a little disappointing because the Bridge of Lions was under construction. Jimmy got an ipod for Christmas. He plans to get rid of his big stereo system by buying a small set of speakers for the ipod and storing all his music on it. Technology is great. I also got my Christmas present early...a kitchen aid. I have been using it to make Christmas gifts. It does everything except remind me to grease the pan or add the oatmeal which can cause problems with my baking. All in all I really love it.

Briana turns 19 tomorrow. I can hardly believe it. She is so grown. She heads back to Argentina 2 weeks from Saturday. Her time at home has flown by.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas from the Tyson Clan.

Melody

Wow have we been busy

Since Briana has gotten home, we have been quite busy. Por su puesto, we have been shopping alot. We have put up our Christmas decorations inside and the lights outside. This week alone, we have already had two parties. There are two scheduled for today. We are only attending one.

Last night we picked up Andrea's Christmas present...a beagle. She is adorable and is named Nala. Daddy hasn't chosen the nickname yet. He always comes up with a good one. I will post pictures with stories later. Bella is being quite snobby, but that is not unsual.

Bella can't wait for Briana to get home

I just had to post this picture. It is so adorable. We pick Briana up Monday, 3 days from now. Does Bella look like she is ready?

My daughter, Krista

My daughter approaches schoolwork in a very unique way. Just look at the picture. She had to write an essay for English. She wrote about Lucie, great but when I looked at the instructions for the essay she was supposed to write about shopping. She had to research, outline etc. We pulled up the resource, she read everything and wrote the outline. For the first writte assignment, she only had to write the introduction. No problem, she already had the outline, she just had to put the meat on it. I left for the grocery store and told her to write the introduction. I came home and looked at it...it was about my dog lucie. I couldn't understand why she did all the research about shopping and then wrote about Lucie. Her reply was that she hates shopping, why would she want to write about something she hates. That's logical isn't it. It is but at some point she has to start coloring in the lines.

Today we talked to her science teacher and she refered to a paragraph she was supposed to write. For research, she was supposed to make a chart about the animals in Belize. Guess which animal was on the chart...not lucie this time, Sam, whose habitat our back yard. I can't figure out what is going on in her brain.

One positive, she had to answer the question: Where do the fossil fuels come from? She answered Noah's flood. In response to the question What is the impact of global warming on our earth she said "There is no such thing as global warming" I guess she hears and retains what she wants to. Daddy said she is smarter than her teacher.

Let's catch up

Life has been busy with ordinary things so I haven't taken the time to write here. This blog was designed to keep my daughter in Argentina posted of the everyday happenings in Jacksonville. I am not sure she has even read it. She hardly has the time to write me.

Today is the day after black Friday so I will tell of our Thanksgiving happenings. Wednesday night we watched Christmas Shoes. I cried through most of the movie. That movie always reminds me of what I have to be thankful for. I am very sad that Briana is far away, but at least I am fairly certain she will be here for Christmas. Typically, the family eats Thanksgiving dinner at the Villareals. This year my brother in law has been tearing down and expanding his house. Days before the dinner he was still tearing up things. The house is 100+ years and I didn't think my asthmatics could survive. I volunteered my house. That was Monday. This year it was only the Tysons and the Villareals with Fabby and Janell and the Grandparents. The Brantleys were added, Carnes then another set of Villareals. It ended up being very nice. It was alot of work though.

We always go shopping on Black Friday, at least the female parts of the Tysons and Villareals and Grandma. Grandma had to work so she didn't go. Andrea and I began our day at 5 am at the unlikely place of Pep Boys. They had oil on sale. 5 quarts and a filter for 10 bucks. I got 2 and Andrea got one. We also got $10 gift certificates, Jimmy was excited. Then we went to Kohls and to Orange Park Mall. Jimmy actually got off early and we ate and went to the Avenues. He has never been able to be part of the Black Friday festivities. We went to Target and the season 5 of 24 was only $15 so we bought it and have been watching it. That show is so intense.

Today I planned to stay in my pjs all day long and supervise the kids school work. Grandma decided she wanted to do the grandkids shopping today. So off to the Avenues we went again. Wow, I am tired of shopping.

We have one week until Briana gets home. I have alot to do this week. I want the semester of school done so we don't have to do any while she is home.

I am sure I will have alot to post about in the upcoming weeks. I hope I have the time to do it.