First Day of School

Today is the first day of school in the county that I live.

Today is the first day of school that I didn't have a child attending in 13 years.

This was Kyle on his first day of kindergarten...

It seems like an eternity ago. 

This was two weeks ago...

 

 

It has been a long road for all of us.  School was not always an easy road for Kyle.  Or me for that matter.  Or anyone else in our family that stood behind Kyle constantly telling him that he could do it.  I wish someone had pulled me aside 13 years ago and said "You will have to fight for your child.  You will have to push your child.  You will have to push those around him to help him.  But in the end, you will have pushed him to the finish line."  If someone had said that to me, maybe I wouldn't have spent the last two years hyperventilating!

 

The person who gave the keynote speech spoke of running a marathon.  And how important it is to realize that the graduates finished.  Maybe not first, or on time, but that they held on and finished.  I felt like they were speaking directly to Kyle.  It was nice to hear validation for Kyle to have finished.  Maybe not on time, but that didn't matter.  No one will ever ask him did he graduate in June or August! 

 

 



 Congratulations to the class of 2013.  No matter when you graduated!

Hard to Believe

Hard to believe it has been 16 months since my last post.  We had a lot of personal things going on over the last year.  I found it hard to write.  So, I didn't.  But things change, time moves forward and you realize that you need to start again.  I've attempted many times to blog again, only to think where do I start now after being off for a year? I'm going to just post daily a few things that have occurred the past year, guess I will start with the most important:

We became Grandparents this year. 

Riley Elizabeth was born on March 13, 2013.  Here are a few pictures of the last few months.

If you look at the last picture you will notice my living room has become a playground.  You forget how much stuff a little person actually uses!

I'm Really Behind!

We have had quite a few busy weeks here in the Gambler household.  Birthdays, relatives visiting, craft shows just to name a few.  I will be posting about all of these over the next few days as I organize pictures to post. 

These posts will NOT be in chronological order.  I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl!  Actually, I will be posting depending on which photos are available as I'm sitting at the computer at 4 a.m. and  only willing to post photos that are currently in the computer since I don't want to turn on a light.

My Dad was down visiting for a week, so we grabbed my cousins daughter from college close by, and along with Kyle spent a day at Busch Gardens. 

Busch Gardens



A great time was had by all.  Kyle and Tory rode every roller coaster at least once, and ALWAYS in the front row.  First up was Cheetah Hunt:

I was thankful for Tory's bright blue shirt.  It made them easy to pick out when the went by.

And away they go.  The Cheetah Hunt actually is so long that the entire ride is over 3 minutes long.  In roller coaster time, that is a long one!

This was Sheikra.  Lets pause for a moment.  What you can't tell with this photo is that the ride takes you up 200ft, then as it comes over to plunge you at a 90 degree angle, it stops.  Yes, stops and hangs you there.  So I actually had no problem taking this picture, as they posed for it!

At this point, my Dad and I bid them goodbye and went off on our own.  We caught up with them 4 hours later, to hear all about the rides and the fact that they had never stopped to eat.  If you eat, you cannot ride, so they waited until they knew we would be leaving before settling down to grab a bite.



Lather Lovely is here! Finally!

It is finally up and running.  Lather Lovely has a website that is actually working.  It isn't complete yet, but it is there.  It only took me 3 years!  Please check it out at www.latherlovely.com! 

We are headed to Clermont, Fl this weekend to participate Lakeridge Winery's Winefest.  Of course, the weather has been fantastic, now this weekend it is supposed to rain.  Go figure.  At least we did buy a new tent last month, which should keep us dry.  Our old tent had started to show some wear, and for certain shows, they require you to have a white tent.  Mine was beige. 

I will update the blog through the weekend with pictures of the Winefest!

He Is Back, For Now....

Nico was returned to us yesterday morning.  He had traveled quite the distance and by the looks of him had been up all night running.  Our posters were up about 5 minutes when we received the first call that someone had him.

We brought him home where we bathed him (that ought to teach him to run away again, he hates getting a bath!), fed him and let him lay on the big dog cushion to sleep.  We had to keep all the other animals away from him as he came home really cranky.

As in, bare your teeth at everyone, kind of cranky.

Today he is up and back to his old self.  The dog pen has been repaired, again, and hopefully we will not be posting another lost dog post.

In other animal news, our darling Duchess just turned 17.  She is like the energizer bunny!

New Year, Same Old Issues

It is a brand new year and I am faced with an issue we have had multiple times in the past.

Nico has escaped, yet again.  Back in 2010, Nico ran away.  Which led to us to finding someone else's dog and also rescuing Bella.  You can click on all of the links and read those stories.  But today, I find myself once again printing Lost Dog posters with this face on them

I've lost track how many times Nico has gotten out.  He is a runner, that is all I can say.  But this time, I have to admit it was my fault.  We left for dinner, and I completely forgot the dogs were in the dog pen.  Not sure where my head was.  Certainly not with the dogs.  When we came home, Nico had dug out.  Don't know when, other than somewhere between 7:15 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. 

Keep us and him in your thoughts and lets keep our fingers crossed that we find him, again.

3 Months

In honor of it being 3 months since my last post...yes, I'm making fun of myself.  I should be ashamed that it has been 3 months since my last post!  It has been a busy 3 months though, so let me explain.

This was every weekend in October:

Yes, it has been that time of year again.  And this year, we did really well at the Pumpkin Festival.  REALLY well.  The second photo of the chocolate scrub, that sold out, and if you took a whiff you would know why.  It is like taking a shower in brownie batter.  It just smells yummy!

This has boosted my confidence to try more shows, which the first one is this weekend.  Followed in 2 weeks by another.  It has also led to invitations to do different shows in February and March, as well as Christmas gift orders rolling in. 

On top of all this, I finally got back into the work force full time.  I know, wrong time of year to do that, but I'm enjoying what I'm doing, so all is well.