Dear Sisters,

I HEART THE BEACH!

2009-09-20T22:59:00.010-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I went to the beach this afternoon with M I L and the kids and I took some beautiful pics of the sunset right by the Fort Pickens entrance! I can't wait for you two to come down in November and hopefully you guys will be able to witness a breath-taking sunset for yourselves!

I can NEVER get enough of the beach..... it is just too gorgeous!
I L O V E P E N S A C O L A B E A C H ! ! !

Miss you and love you guys,

Joy :0)

I KNOW..... IT'S BEEN 6 MONTHS.........

2009-05-04T13:04:00.015-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I'm sorry it's been a long time. I guess I haven't been in the mood to blog until now. I just wanted to share some pics I have taken in the past 6 months.........

Here's Jr. in our church's Christmas play on Christmas day. He played Joseph and did very well with his lines.

Mar on her 9th birthday. Can you believe she is already freakin' 9 years old! Dayum we are getting old!

Jenn, Bryan and I @ Flounders. It was nice to have a friend for one whole week :0)

Lil pumpkin posing in front of Red Lobster on Easter. She looks so whimsical here......

Same day, a pic of the kids w/ what's her face's daughter. I do not know why Jr. is making that face for.........

Lil pumpkin @ daddy's company picnic. She really likes to make faces for the camera. That will probably be my next post because I have a whole mother load of pics of her making funny faces.

Well, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am still alive and breathing. Can't wait to see every body in July!

Miss and love you guys soooooo much,

Joy

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2008-11-29T14:55:00.014-06:00

Dear Sisters,

This Thanksgiving was significant in so many different ways. First off, this was my very first major holiday away from home and second, this was my very first Thanksgiving I'd be cooking all by myself. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice and enjoyable, but it just was not the same without you guys there :0(

I am so proud of myself. I really think I deserve a pat on the back and a medal for the dinner I put together :0) Preparing a holiday dinner is very labor intensive and I can't believe I was able to pull it off! I'm hoping one day I will be able to master the art of Mass Cooking for 45+ people just like Mom. Cooking this dinner is just a precursor for me! So anyways, this is what I made for the special occasion:

1. Brined Roasted Turkey
2. Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes
3. Broccoli Casserole
4. Baked Mac N Cheese
5. Sweet Potato Casserole
6. Sugar Glazed Carrots
7. Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Stuff I did not make from scratch:
1. The dinner rolls
2. The ham which Bryan brought over
3. Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing
4. Brown Gravy (which came in a package)
Please note: I will attempt to make the stuffing and gravy from scratch next year :0P

Other stuff I made that I did not take pics of:
1. Spinach Garlic Dip served w/ crackers
2. Cheesecake Cups
3. No Bake Oreo Sheet Cake
4. Pumpkin Pie
**I have to stress that the frozen oreo cake was phenomenal! It tasted just like an ice cream cake (and is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper, too) and I will be making this for Archie's birthday next year!

The one thing I ran out of time to make:
1. Apple Crumb Pie (which I will be making tomorrow)

The turkey was out of this world! The white meat was so juicy after bathing in a brine bath (salt and sugar solution) for 24 hours. I soaked the bottom side for the first 12 hours and then flipped it over to soak the breast for another 12 hours. Once you try this method, you'll never cook your turkey any other way!

Mmmmmm, check out our dinner and please click on the pic for a closer look :0) I think Mom would be so proud of me if she was here!

Here are the fellas enjoying their dinner :0)

Here are the rugrats always goofin' around.

Here is our "Happy Family" pic. I have no clue why lil pumpkin is making that face :0P

The kids love Bryan. Archie and I have nick named him B-ryan or B-roni after the show "The Family Guy "

Here's my poor lil girl eating lollipops for dessert because all the ones I made are milk based and because I was unable to make her apple pie :0(

We have PLENTY of leftovers and you know what that means..... I don't have to cook until Monday, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!! I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving!

Love you guys sooooooooooo much,

Joy :0)

P.S- Arlene, please thank Matt for his lil pep talk about cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I think he really calmed my nerves down :0)

PERDIDO KID'S PARK

2008-11-29T13:34:00.016-06:00

Dear Sisters,

I have discovered another neat place to take you guys whenever you all come down to visit. Perdido Kid's Park is by far THE best park I have EVER been to! I can't wait for you guys to see this place because it is gianormous! It is literally a small wooden village for kids!

You see, few weeks ago the kids and I went to this park for Mar's end of the year soccer party and when we arrived there, I took one look at the entrance and I was like, "Fudge!!! I didn't bring any money for admissions!!!" So, we headed towards the gates and I come to find out this freakin' place is FREE! Holy cow, I wish I knew about this place when we first moved down here! It is a bit out of the way though..... approx. 10 miles away from our house, but it is worth the trip. Since our first visit to the park, the kids have been back 3 other times (thanks to their uncle :0P).

This is the front entrance that almost made me crap myself!

My lil pumpkin is so funny! I told her to pose for me and this is what she did :0)

The pics I took does no justification for this park! You have to see it with you very own eyes to believe how grand this place is! There is sooooo much to this park too that is not pictured in this blog: a picnic area for bday parties, tons of slides and swings, a special designated area for toddlers, public restrooms and a small nature trail across the way. I am absolutely in LOVE with this place and I can't wait to bring you and the rest of the rugrats here!

Miss you guys so much,

Joy :0)

OUR FIRST HALLOWEEN AWAY FROM HOME

2008-11-29T12:51:00.007-06:00

Dear Sisters,

Yes, it is almost December and I am just now posting Halloween pics. I guess I am just plain ole' lazy :0P. So finally here are my pics for our first Halloween in Florida.

Before we adventured out to go trick or treating, we stopped by Archie's work and the kids were able to go cubicle to cubicle for candy. It was imperative that I bring the kids to his office because a lot of his coworkers are like, "You have kids??? Yeah right!" So here are the kids @ daddy's work. I don't have to explain what they are because as you can see their costumes are pretty much self explanatory.

Here we are posing w/ Archie's coworkers. Check out Bryan w/ the melting face! You can click on the pic for a closer look! The kids were too scared to approach the poor guy :0P

After our field trip to Archie's work. I had to cook dinner so Archie and the kids headed out in the van in search for a neighborhood to trick or treat in. I wish the kids could've stuck around the neighborhood but there was not one kid in sight! So anyways, the kids came back 35 minutes later w/ an almost empty bag and I was like, "WTF happened Archie??? Why don't they have candy in their bags?!?!?" I guess Halloween is not a big holiday over hear because they went to like 4 different neighborhoods and no one was passing out candy :0( I felt soooo bad for the kids because they came home so disappointed, so I reloaded the whole fam into the van and drove to a neighborhood (which is on the other side of the city) that I knew was passing out candy.

Man, I miss the old neighborhood. Adam Shore is THE best place to go trick or treating no doubt. I hope next year I'll be able to find a neighborhood closer to home where the kids can go treak or treating.

Hope all is well and miss you all,

Joy :0)

ANOTHER ENJOYABLE WEEKEND....YESSSSSS!!!!!

2008-10-13T23:10:00.004-05:00

Dear Sisters,

The kiddos and I have really been taking advantage of the nice weather. This past weekend Ray took us and smelly Daisy to BayView Park. This is another place I would love to take you guys to whenever you all decide to come down. It has a nice playground and picnic area, docks for fishing and also to stroll on, a fenced in doggie park and it even has it's own lil doggie beach :0) I wish I took pics of the whole place because the facilities was quite impressive. Anyway, I got some pics of the kiddos playing w/ their uncle......

Oohhhhhh, to be young again......

This boy is FOREVER hangin' on his uncle!

Smelly Daisy had a great time @ the park as well =0P

Such a nice time we had..... I wish their Dad didn't have to work that day :0(

So that was on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was even better because I got to have the WHOLE afternoon aaaaalllllll to myself. First, I brought Mar and Jr. to church. After church, we rushed home and I made sandwiches for lunch. After I inhaled my sandwich, I said my goodbyes to the kids and their father, ran out the door, jumped into the minivan and sped off to the beach.

That day I decided I wanted to go to a different part of the beach. I usually go to Casino Beach ( where that ginormous pier is located), but instead I drove 2 more miles down the road to the beach that is next to the Fort Pickens entrance. The beach area is sweet, but the public bathroom is gaud awful.

Doesn't this pic make you wanna visit me ASAP!

This is the view facing east towards the condos.

And this is the view facing west. There is no residential development on this side and it seems like you are on a deserted island. I decided to walk westward in search for a whole sand dollar. I have been on this quest for the whole summer and I have always came home empty handed :0(

No luck in this pile.......

and no freakin' luck here either.

I keep on finding half dollars...... it's too bad I can't super glue these two together =0P After an hour of walking, I just simply gave up. I went back to my beach chair and just......

C H I L L E D

It was nice. I mean really, really nice to just be able to lounge on my trusty beach chair, just reading my book while listening to the waves and not have a care in the world for a good 5 hours =0P. Don't get me wrong, I love going to the beach w/ them, but there's no relaxing there cuz they are in the water 92% of the time and I can't even turn my back on them for a split second. Well, that sums up my weekend!

Miss you guys a whoooooooole bunch,

Joy :0)

P.S- Oh and btw, as I was slowly dozing off in my chair, I heard a little girl screaming w/ delight in the water and you know what she found ........ A WHOLE SAND DOLLAR....... UGH.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY ALYSSA!!!

2008-10-05T23:50:00.007-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I just had to post this pic! This is my most FAVORITE pic of my lil Alyssi taken @ my going away party. I miss her soooooooo much and I wish the kids and I were there to celebrate her 2nd birthday. Please do not forget to send me some pics from her birthday party and please give her and big hug and kiss for me!

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY MY LIL ALYSSI!!! I MISS AND LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Miss and love you guys,

Joy :0)

IT WAS A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

2008-10-05T21:02:00.034-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I had a fabulous weekend! Lately I've been feeling down because I've been jobless for a while but that is all going to change. Yesterday I finally took my CNA exam and I passed both my written and clinical! The written test was pretty easy because it was all common sense, but the clinical was the part I was very worried about because most of the people who took it before me (I was the last in line to take it) failed :0( There were about 15 people there to take the clinical test and only 5 of us passed. I feel bad for the people who failed because half of them were on their 2nd or 3rd try. But yeah, I passed and I should have a job in a couple of weeks (I'm hoping).

Today we all went to the seafood festival in Destin (which is an hour away). Ray felt bad that I missed the one in Pensacola last weekend so he took us to this one. I've been waiting all summer for this and it was definitely worth the wait :0)

Here's my lil pumpkin sleeping on the way to Destin and yes she still likes to "eat" her blankie.

This was the food section of the seafood fest. The smells coming from this section was so intense that you can taste it! There were 4 other rows of tents which I did not get to visit because we got there an hour before it closed plus I was too busy stuffing my face.

I got the jumbo shrimp skewer and crab fritter platter from this booth. Stupid me did not take a pic of my food because I dove right into it :0)

Ummmmmmmmmm..........

look @ all of this fried goodness!!!

I did however remembered to take a pic of my second plate which consisted of fried crab legs, sausage gumbo and seafood jambalaya. Man, that gumbo was insane!!!!!

Daddy had a headache, but he was still able to enjoy his food :0)

Shown in this pic: a very happy me after committing gluttony. Not shown in this pic: my stomach busting outta my pants ;0)

Poor kiddies, I was not paying attention to the time and they were only able to go down the slide once (which is shown deflated in the background).

After eating, I wanted to check out the beach because I heard the beaches in Destin are gorgeous. Man, the beach we went to was SWEEEEEET. The sand felt like baby powder on my feet and the water reminded me of light blue sea glass. I can't wait for my next visitor to come down because I will be taking you to Destin!

And again more beach pics. At least the children are wearing something different ;0)

I wish we had our bathing suits because the water felt really nice.

The brats got their shorts wet..........

especially this one here and that is why she is not wearing any pants in this pic.

So, I hope you guys had a nice weekend as well. I really wish I was home for Alyssi's bday party. She must have been so cute blowing out her candles. Please send me some pics of her bday party via Kodak Photo Gallery or something like that.

Miss you guys sooooooooo much,

Joy :0)

UNCLE RAY, THE HUMAN JUNGLE GYM

2008-09-30T10:25:00.000-05:00

Dear Sisters,

It is again soccer season for lil Miss Mar and she seems to be enjoying herself. I think she has a lot of potential, but the poor thing is still a little timid when she plays. You see, she is so scared of the ball hitting her face that she practically lets the other player take the ball from her! Geeezzzz, I have to help her get over her fear cuz she's just letting the other players fly right by her. I think I'll do some dodge ball sessions in the backyard to show her the ball doesn't hurt that much, plus I think it would be lots of fun throwing a ball @ my child ;0)

Ray has gone to a couple of games w/ me and the kids. He's been really patient w/ them and I just don't know how he does it because you guys KNOW how loud and obnoxious they can get! When he's home, the kids tend to swarm around him and I always tell them to let their uncle breath but he always says it's okay. Anyway, here are some pics from her first game, including pics of the kids smothering their uncle ......

Here's my super star player in the making posing in her soccer dress.

These are the Jaguars ladies and gents.......

I told Ray to put them down for God's sake, but he never listens to me!

This has got to be one of my most fav. pics of my lil pumpkin :0)

And of course the boy had to have his turn, too.......

My gosh, patience can only go so far and I just don't know how he does it! I can only imagine what is going through his head when the kids are attacking him. I hope you enjoyed the pics..... I just had to share them w/ you guys because they are just so ridiculous!

Love you lots,

Joy :0)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LIL PUMPKIN!

2008-09-28T20:52:00.001-05:00

Dear Sisters,

It's been a while since my last post and I guess I've just been plain ole' lazy. Well, the weather for the past 3 weeks has been INCREDIBLE. It's been mid 80 during the day and 68 @ night. The kids and I actually went to the beach after church and it was soooo gorgeous out. No Diana, I did not take any pics today cuz all of my beach pics look the same ;0) The gulf was nice and calm and the kids spent their whole afternoon in the water. Ohhhhhh that water......... the water was a nice greenish aquamarine color today..... so gorgeous! I just don't think I'll ever get over how nice the beaches are down here :0)

Anyways, I can't believe my lil pumpkin is already 3 :0( THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY FOR ALL OF THE NEW CLOTHES! She has a whole new wardrobe for the cooler season and I REALLY appreciate it, foreals! I don't even know what Floridians call this season. It's not Autumn or Fall. Maybe they just call it the "cooler season". If a fellow Floridian happens to read this, could you please tell me what this season is called :0)

So, for my lil pumpkins birthday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese and just had cake and pizza @ home... nuttin' too fancy. Well, WE had pizza, but the celebrant had pizza crust because of you know what and she was content w/ that.

Here's my big girl wearing Lola Evie's outfit.

She really loved the rides!

Yay!!!!!! Tickets!!!! That is what Chuck E. Cheese is all about!

Oh my! My lil pumpkin rode on this virtual roller coaster ride 4 times in a row.... she couldn't get enough of it!

Here's the strawberry Littlest Petshop cake I made for her. It was really ugly until I added candy hearts to it :0)

My big girl w/ daddy blowing out the candles. She is too freakin' cute, man.

So yeah, we had a fun day, BUT it wasn't the same because the cousins were missing :0( Birthdays were always fun back @ home. Man, I really do miss you guys!!!!

Miss and love you lots,

Joy :0)

PERDIDO KEY

2008-09-16T23:25:00.016-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I think the best part about living down here are the beaches. My goal for the summer was to visit different beaches that are within an hour drive from me. I've been to all of them on the map below except for Fort Pickens, as the roads to that beach were never repaired from Ivan back in 2005. If you actually click on the map, you can see where we live (Myrtle Grove) and how far the beaches are from us. I think a lot of people think we live minutes away from the beach, but actually it is the same distance as driving to Nantasket Beach back home.

The kids and I usually go to Casino Beach but for the past couple of weekends we've been going to Johnson's Beach in Perdido Key.

I'm not quite sure if Perdido Key is actually part of Pensacola, but it is so beautiful over there or shall I say, "the grass is greener on the other side" if you know what I mean ;0) It actually feels like I'm on vacation when I'm over there because they have all these different pastel color houses and picture perfect palm trees (which I don't have pics of) when you first enter this little town. I wish there were picture perfect palm trees all over Pensacola. Before coming down here, I used to think that the whole state of Florida was all tropical with palm trees all over the place and I'm assuming a lot of northerners think the same, BUT here in good ol' P'cola I've only seen them in:

1. Fancy neighborhoods

2. In front of hospitals and

3. In front of banks

Anyways, here are a bunch of pics of the kiddos in the "public" part of Johnson's beach.....

Most of buildings on this beach are condos....... I think I will retire here :0)

I think for the next beach season, I will buy 3 bathing suits for each child because I just realized that most of my beach pics I have taken look like they were all from the same day.

I love this "Bay Watch" running pic.

Here's my lil pumpkin enjoying my bag of Munchos......

Mmmmmmmm, soooooooo goooooooood!!!

I think there are only 4 to 5 more weeks of beach weather in this part of Florida :0( I am going to try to make the most of it and try to go 3 more times. I am REALLY going to miss my exotic tanned skin and I'm not looking forward to turning back to my original pasty beige color :0(

Miss you guys sooooooooooo much,

Joy

P.S- You can actually click on all the pics to take a better look if they are too small.

ED'S VISIT PART II

2008-09-01T12:35:00.002-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I can't believe it is already September! Hurricane Gustav has already arrived and fortunately all we are getting in this part of the gulf region are spurts of heavy rains.

I REALLY need to get used to tropical storms and hurricane warnings, as the season runs until mid October. I was a bit worried when tropical storm Fay was making it's way to our area last weekend because the news was flashing flood warnings on TV. Thank goodness all Fay did was make big waves for the surfers @ the beach that day the guys went fishing @ the Pensacola Beach Pier.

This is the pier the guys went fishing @ last Sunday.

The boy caught his very first fish!

Hey, you know if they were fishing @ Wollaston Beach, they would've caught a tampon instead ;0)

I think Ed was a lil sad that I got there too late w/ the camera to take a pic of the 22" fish he caught (which he had to set free cuz it was too small).

Ray was happy to be there :0)

That day they went fishing, Fay was making the waves really big and there were signs posted to stay out of the gulf. Here's a pic of the beach on a good day.......

Here's a pic of how ruff the water was last Sunday.

A beautiful day on Pensacola Beach (Casino Beach) ........

Ruff waves that would've carried the kids off to sea........

There's a beach right across the street that faces inland called Quietwater Beach. That beach has zero waves and is great for the lil ones to swim in. I could've brought the kiddos over there that day, but it's not gorgeous like Casino Beach, which faces the gulf. It's okay though.... instead of swimming in the beautiful gulf, we went seashell hunting ;0) Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend.

Miss you lots,

Joy :0)

JUST PLAIN BORED

2008-08-29T22:50:00.014-05:00

Dear Sisters,

It's a Friday night and I am so freakin' BORED. I wanted to play poker tonight, but the peeps we invited just flaked out. I'm bummed cuz I needed to redeem myself from the last poker game plus I needed to make some money to buy some pampers ;0)

I can't believe Labor Day weekend is already here. I have no plans :0( Ray is in Jacksonville for the long weekend and Archie is working Saturday and Monday. I think I'll just end up cleaning the house and shred the 4 boxes of mail I have laying around here. I hope you guys have plans. You all are probably going to a bbq or something fun.

My job hunting has really SUCKED. I've applied @ like 6 places and nobody likes me :0( Maybe I am just unemployable in FL. My nail license did not transfer. They said I would have to do another 120 hours of schooling. I don't think I'll do that cuz I am always checking online for day spa jobs and nobody is hiring. Tuesday, I am going to apply @ every freakin' restaurant in Pensacola. I'm also going to get CPR certified either this week or next week so I can work for this nursing temp agency to work as a CNA or a home health aide. I really did not want to go back into that but I'll do anything @ this point. I can't wait to go back to school so I don't I have to work bullshit jobs anymore. I'm hoping I'll be able to use Archie's FL residency so I can start taking classes in the spring :0)

Well anyways, I forgot to post these pics of this cute lil box turtle Ray found in his yard back in June. We only kept it around for a couple of days then we let it go because I did not want the cute lil thing to starve to death.

Aint he the cutest lil thing you've ever seen!

He's hiding and wishing me to go away :0)

I think I have a turtle fetish now just like how Diana did back in the day :0)

The kids were sad to see him go :0(

Wellllllllll, I hope everybody has a great and fun filled weekend. Eat tons of turkey burgers and smoked ribs for me! Man, I miss Matt's cooking!

Miss and love you guys,

Joy :0)

ED'S VISIT PART I

2008-08-27T20:27:00.022-05:00

Dear Sisters,

It's already been two days since Archie's mom and brother went back to MA and I already miss them :0( It was so nice to have them around and I hope they are able to come back for Christmas. I THINK Ed had fun while he was down here. I wish we could've went out a little bit more but he was very content with staying in and watching movies @ night.

The first night he was here we just chilled in Ray's backyard, drinking beers and smokin' butts. SPEAKING ABOUT BUTTS, Ed said that cigarettes cost $6.50 in MA! HOLY SHIT!!!! They only cost around $3.oo @ the commisary. Anyways yeah, so we stayed in the first night but the second night we took him to Seville's. Please note that they do not play that corny music in the clubs. I had a blast hangin' out w/ Archie and his brothers cuz we haven't done that in AGES. Ed had a great time as you will see in the following pictures :0) But first off, I had to include pics of Archie and Mo that were taken right before we went out because they are just waaaaaaay to funny!

This is Ray's pony Mo. He was never broken in and is just an oversized dog that roams around his backyard. Mo is an asshole. He doesn't like me and I most certainly don't like him. He likes to try to nip me whenever I go outside. HOWEVER, for some odd reason, he LOVES Archie. Whenever Archie is outside, he LOVES to go next to his face and nuzzle with him, I shit you not! I think it is the cutest thing and I always laugh when he does it.

Here's Ed on his 2nd Johnny Walker. Notice how sober he is looking......

This is me forcing the brothers to smile. I HAD to take pics to show proof we actually went out!

That's Brandy, Archie's coworker. We hang w/ her a lot and she kicked my ass playing pool last night @ O'Reilly's Pub.

Taken from the top floor of Seville's. The music in this section of the club SUCKS!

This is Archie's other coworker Bryan. We hang out a lot w/ him as well and he too kicked my ass last night @ a game of cut throat.

Heeheehee, this is Ed on his 4th Johnny Walker and feelin' GOOOOOOOD :0)

And I'm pretty sure that was his 6th one, but it didn't matter cuz he was on vacation :0)

So yeah, it was a good time that night. I' m hoping that one of Ray's friend's daughters can babysit for us once in a while so that Archie, Ray and I can all go out together. If not, I don't know when we'll ever get to all hang out like that again.

Miss and love you,

Joy :0)

UPDATE ON THE LAST TWO POSTS

2008-08-21T14:49:00.002-05:00

Dear Sisters,

Remember how I mentioned in my last entry that Mar and I got interviewed by some news reporter @ my little turtle excursion, well THANK GOD they did not put that in their segment. However, we were in a good amount of their footage and you can see my fat ass in the video :0( Fudge, I think I've gained like 8lbs since I got here and then the camera adds like another 10, UGH! Well anyways, here's the link to the footage that was shown on the news a couple of nights ago.

Also, I just went on CNN again and found out that the Big Foot body that was stuffed in that huge ass freezer container was FAKE. It was a stupid costume stuffed w/ animal remains. Don't these people have better things to do!?!? Man, I REALLY hate being so gullible :0(

Well, I hope you guys are able to watch the news footage before it is taken down from the website. Miss you!!!!!

Love Always,

Joy :0)

GOOD LUCK LIL ONES!!!!!

2008-08-19T14:05:00.010-05:00

Dear Sisters,

For the past couple of weeks I've been emailing back and forth w/ Kirsten, the marine biologist who specializes in sea turtles. I asked her if the kids and I may accompany her to her next sea turtle release and she replied back saying it was hard to predict when but would let me know. Low and behold I got that magical email last night and I was like, "Fudge!!! The kids have school tomorrow and she's releasing the babies tomorrow morning @ 9:30." As you guessed, I let the children miss there 2nd day of school to witness this awesome event and this is how we spent our morning......

Here are the lucky babies that were cared for by Ms. Kirsten

There's Francisca shaking the babies fin before he heads off into the deep blue sea

Hello handsome!!!

There's Kirsten releasing 4 to 5 babies @ a time

Good luck lil ones!!!

Off he goes into the Gulf of Mexico

These type of sea turtles are called Kemp's Ridley Turtles. They are the smallest in the sea turtle fam and are on the endangered species list. The sad reality for these turtles is that it is estimated that only 1 out of 10,000 reach adulthood :0( I am so glad that me and kids were able to witness such a wonderful event! Please check out Kirsten "The Traveling Turtle Girl" on my blog list! Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the pics! Hug and kiss the kids for me!

Love Always,

Joy :0)

P.S- The local news was there during the release and interviewed me and Mar..... I'm hoping they show Mar on the news tonight and NOT me!

HOLY SH*T!!!

2008-08-15T11:54:00.006-05:00

Dear Sisters,

I was browsing through CNN today and I came across this article that I thought you guys might find very interesting. Man Diana, if Dwayne ever saw this article, I would never hear the end of it! Well anyways, I always knew that they existed! I KNEW IT!!! Here, check it out and feast your eyes on this beauty .... www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/bigfoot.body/index.html

Miss you guys terribly,

Joy :0)

P.S- A lot of sites are calling this a hoax. Even if it is, I know they are out there (along w/ UFOs, aliens and the Lochness Monster)!!!

I MISS THE RUGRATS!!!!

2008-08-13T14:56:00.000-05:00

Dear Sisters,

Florida has been okay so far (I guess). I really miss home. I especially miss the lil ones :0( I miss John's screaming. I miss Alyssa's little voice singing, "Lola, Lola, Loooooolaaaaaa". I miss Ganilo lining up his little toy cars and I miss Dante making his cute cooing noises. It sucks that I won't be there to watch them get bigger and more louder, so you guys need to post some new pics on Facebook, Myspace or just send it to me through Kodak Photo Gallery.

Archie's mom and brother are coming down to visit next Wednesday. I CAN'T WAIT!!! I know Ed will want to go around town so that will give me something to do for a week. I'll probably take him to the beach a couple of times and then we'll all go out @ night when Ray and Archie are home from work.

Well anyways, post or send some pics of the rugrats..... I really miss them.

Love Always,

Joy :0)