September 2008
Bonnie has been spending time with our church's Deaf Ministry, especially in helping with the after-school program.

August 2008
This was a busy month. We started with a get away for a weekend at Tradewinds, which was great. Then back to teaching Kindergarten for Anne; starting teaching a three-day-a-week 3-year-old class for Sandra; first grade for Seth; and third grade for Savanah. Plus this was the beginning of my 4-day-a-week work schedule, which I asked for. And then there was the Olympics. I don't know which "sport" I slept through best: gymnastics or synchronized swimming. Actually gymnastics would be better if it were full contact gymnastics, Put two oposing team members on each end of the balance beam and let them try to knock each other off; the last one remaining gets the points. Or for the mat exercise, put two full teams on the mat and let them play King of the Hill, throwing opposing team members off the mat. The last team remaining gets the points. Or maybe for the rings, let opposing team members each get one ring and try to kick the opposing team off its ring, kind of like the American Gladiator TV shows.

July 2008
This was Family Cruise month, thanks to my mother. Nanny sponsored a total of 22 of us on a great cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Key West to Cozumel and back. Yeah!!! And we are ready to do it again.

June 2008
Of course the fantastic highlight of the month was Natalie and Robert's wedding on a lake in Fayetteville, Georgia. Pictures to follow.

May 2008
For Memorial Day weekend we made the traditional trip to the Hyatt with Sandra and the kids (Steve was sick). To say they loved it is an understatement.

April 2008
April was Perry's. Of course many months are Perry's, our favorite get-away spot at Daytona Beach.

March 2008
What happened in March. Hmmmm. Hard to think of anything important. Well, except maybe Robert and Natalie got engaged!!! After somewhere around three years of hanging out together, then getting to be steady, then a couple, then whatever it is called, they finally made it official. And you need to check out that ring! Weddings plans are being decided. My money is sometime in June. Stay tuned.

February 2008
What do you do when you obviously have too much time on your hands? The answer is that you take on a home project. This is one that we've been fooling with for a while now, so it was time to get serious. Yes, kitchen remodeling! And you know we'd get serious about the time the stock market was taking a dive. But any any rate there we were with computer designs, patterns, and plans. Who would know that it might be easier to buy a new house than put a new kitchen in an old house.

January 2008
A New Year; therefore New Year Resolutions and the resulting guilt trip for not following them. But I did make mine and decided to post them on my computer. While doing so I ran a search of "resolutions" and was helped to recall that I'd also recorded my resolutions for 2006. Unfortunately they greatly resembled my 2008 resolutions. I guess that is an A for consistency and a D- for execution. This month we were back out at Steppin' Stone Farm twice for volleyball, which was fun and rewarding. But the ultimate highlight of the month was skiing in Colorado with Tom and Marilyn MacIver at Copper Mountain. A wonderful time!

December 2007
Bonnie, Sandra and Anne made their second annual trip to the Big Apple. At least that's what they say, because they claim all pictures were inadvertantly erased from Sandra's camera. And, yes, we had a nice Christmas, followed by the annual trek to Perry's at Daytona Beach for a relaxing time at the beach.

November 2007
Robert departs for England, Savanah and Seth playing church league basketball, the triplets' first birthday, and Thanksgiving. Another uneventful month.

October 2007
Lots going on this month, including a nice visit to Naples to be with the triplets and Robert departing for England. But we also had a big birthday in the family. Thanks to all who sent their best wishes and memories.

September 2007
Fall football; Anne getting her class going at Sessoms Elementary; Seth and Savanah in school; Braden, Skyler and Daylin beginning to walk; Robert finishing up his fund raising for England. A highlight was Bonnie, Anne, Sandra, and Karen travelling to Discovery Cove in Orlando for a great day. Plus Bonnie and Jay continuing with volleyball, and Jay staying with his racquetball.

August 2007
Good family time at our vacation home-away-from-home: Perry's in Daytona Beach. Plus three birthday celebrations. Robert continuing with his fund raising. Anne getting started with a new school year. Karen's babies now nine months old and getting ready to walk. Sandra sending Seth off to kindergarten and Savanah off to second grade. Bonnie thinking about fall tennis. Oh, yes, and it's almost football season again!!

July 2007
A restful summer so far. Anne has been taking training; she will be on the Hillsborough County Advisory board for the Kindergarten program - quite an honor. Robert is "into" fund raising. He visited Sunday School classes here in town and is courting a church in the Atlanta area to be a major sponsor. He put together a few humorous thoughts based on his experiences to date. Karen's triplets are starting to speak a few words and to stand up in their cribs. We had a nice Independence Day with Steve and Sandra and friends; and we got away for a overnight at Disney to visit two of the Disney waterparks.

June 2007
Resting our backs this month, as we spent the last part of June moving Anne's materials from her classroom at Yates Elementary School where she has taught for the last four years. This fall she'll try new challenges at Sessums Elementary. This will be a slightly longer drive (oh, no, have to get up ten minutes earlier) but the environment at the school is expected to be really nice. Unfortunately, with her apartment full of four year's worth of "stuff" the living conditions there will be a bit grim until she moves all the materials into Sessums. Robert is still working on his funding for his four-year mission to Birmingham, England, so that will be him standing outside Wal-Mart with a cup soliciting donations.

May 2007
We celebrated the Memorial Day weekend in Orlando at two very nice locations. My business at Stetson changed as we will be giving up our virtual schooling program. Will be transitioning the program back to the Florida Virtual School in June. Now it's back to continuing education programs. At least I won't be answering student e-mails all through each weekend.

April 2007
On the first of the month Bonnie awakened me and she was frantic. The cat had "escaped" from the house. Wearily I grabbed some clothes and went outside to search. After I had made a couple of laps around the house and nearby neighborhood, Bonnie came to the door and waved at me - holding the cat. April Fools! (She'll pay.) April was also Tax time. Our second year with Turbo Tax^TM and - for a second straight year - got our taxes in a full day early!!! And how about this: the program helped us catch an error in the 2005 return, for which we got over $700 back from Uncle Sam. Oh happy day.

March 2007
March is Strawberry Festival time, so we just had to take Savanah and Seth to watch the Pig Races, to see the X-Games demonstration, to ride the midway rides, and to eat all the snacks they wanted. We also made one of our frequent trips to Perry's at Daytona Beach. We just can't stay away from the free donuts in the morning.

February 2007
A big month for Sandra and Steve. Baby Sydney jojned the Roberts family, happy and healthy, though Sandra took a bit to get back on her feet. All is well. This was also traveling month, with our annual business (and pleasure) trip to the Association for the Advancement of International Education conference. For the last two years the conference was held in Boston; this year it was San Francisco.

January 2007
This month marked our 40th Anniversary. Like the SuperBowl Champs we went to Disneyworld! Now why when we live like 70 minutes from Mickey's front gate would we do anything like this? Hard to explain. January is a bit cold for the beaches, and we didn't want to be too far away from Sandra as her baby was due. Well, we did spent about five hundred hours searching the Internet for a great getaway, but we just couldn't come up with anything that met our wants and needs for January 2007. Now we're not apologizing 'cause we actually spent two days at Universal Studios and then two days at Disney and they were great times. We hit six parks in five days and did all kinds of things that we sometimes can't do when we're with the grandkids, like ride the super roller coasters.

December 2006
This was Big Apple month for Bonnie, Sandra, and Anne who spent five days in New York. They had the greatest time ever. Sites and shows. For Christmas I got Bonnie very nice perfume and the kids pitched in to buy her a pneumatic nail driver. She loved the nail driver. We followed up with the annual trek and gathering at Perry's Ocean Edge Resort in Daytona Beach. Fun times. On December 31st, however, we were very saddened by the loss of Bonnie's Mom, Claire, who had been recovering from pneumonia and doing well, all things considered, but took a sudden turn for the worse. Grandma always took my side with Bonnie ("What a wonderful man he is"), mostly when I didn't deserve it, and for this and many, many other reasons her passing leaves a big hole in all our hearts.

November 2006
How many grand children do we have. Two? Nope, five!!!! Karen had three healthy babies on November 8th: Braden, Daylin, and Skyler. What a life-changing experience – changing, changing, changing. And then there is feeding, feeding, feeding – just in time to start the cycle anew. The Braden Clan were there at the hospital: Bonnie, me, Sandra, Anne, Robert, and my Mom. I hung through the first weekend and then Stetson duties called. Bonnie was there for the first week or so. I remember back when Bonnie and I brought Karen home from the hospital and it was a 24-7 effort that we barely survived. Multiply that by three!!

October 2006
As if she needed encouragement ... Bonnie got this 560 page hard-bound book from Home Depot titled "Home Improvement 1-2-3." (In case you might have forgotten, if you want to keep Bonnie happy, forget the dozen red roses; just bring home a reciprocating saw or some other outrageous tool for her to play with.) Well, that book dictated the demise of all free time for the month, as she decided to remodel four rooms - simultaeously. Since she could anticipate my reaction to such a plan, she employed a tactic used before, as in starting all four while I am at work, so I arrive home to find the house looking like Day Two on Xtreme Home Makeover. Bonnie understands that if I'm given a choice between living in a construction zone, or scrambling to help get the work done to reinstate good order and discipline (from my military background) I can be counted upon to pitch in. Actually she did most of the work, but we now have two newly painted bedrooms and two redone baths with new lights and towel racks. And another notch on Bonnie's carpenter belt. Oh, by the way, we did get to slip away for a long weekend with the grandkids at Orlando's Nickelodeon Family Suites Hotel, mostly known as the Nick Hotel. A great place for Savanah and Seth.

September 2006
Well, the good news about September is that football is in the air. (Actually Tampa Bay Devils Rays baseball is also still in the air, and that's where you might be getting that unpleasant odor.) Since Bonnie is no longer teaching Wee Care, she is back with her weekly tennis and her doubles team is undefeated for the month. Jay's program with virtual schooling is busy with fall registrations. Anne has most of her kindergarten students adapted to schooling.

August 2006
Back to school for Anne and back to breaking in nearly 20 kids into the world of education that they'll get to experience for the next 12 or more years. First grade for Savanah, who had a hard time of it to begin with because of the long days compared to her previous half-day schedule, but she now loves it. And Seth is the star of his class so all is well there. Sandra, Anne, and Bonnie helped throw a shower for Karen, and that was a fun event. Sandra is no longer teaching at Wee Care (nor Bonnie) so Sandra is helping work on the school's curriculum. Robert is back with CCF at Georgia Tech, training interns and continuing his intramural sports skills. Bonnie and I continue to spend a couple of Saturday mornings each month at Steppin Stone Farm giving volleyball clinics to the girls there.

July 2006
Robert returned from his trip in England and went back to Georgia Tech CCF to train up the new interns; the balance of the family got away for five days at Redington Beach for some relaxing times. Bonnie and I spent some time working in the yard, seeing if we can win the fight against weeds and bugs. So far we are losing bad. When we pull into Kerby's Nursery, the owner sees us and calls his travel agent saying that it looks like he will be able to take that trip to Jamaica after all.

June 2006
June was baby month in the clan, with Sandra anouncing that she and Steve were about to have an addition to the family, and Karen announcing the December arrival of triplets. Robert was on his trip to England and doing well there. Anne was enjoying her summer and making some spending money by tutoring and working a Beef O'Brady's. Jay and Bonnie continued with volleyball a few nights a week.

May 2006
Getting close to the end of the school year for Anne, Sandra, and Bonnie. This is also the month Robert goes for ministry training in Indianapolis followed by a trip to England to scout out a site in Birmingham.

 

 
 
April 2006
Tax time. This year we agreed to forego our annual experience in meeting new people at 11:50 p.m. at the Tampa Post Office. At Bonnie's urging, we bought Turbo Tax^TM and got our taxes in a full day early!!! Rejoice, rejoice. We also kept up our volleyball, playing mostly three times a week. Now if we could just play better.

March 2006
We must have done some work this month, but somehow all that remains in memory is the Plant City Strawberry Festival and our seven-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the ship Mariner of the Seas. We also began some work on assembling photos and other data for our Family Album.

February 2006
Jay's Virtual School duties took him - and Bonnie, of course - to Boston for another Association for the Advancement of International Education conference. In addition to recruiting students for the Stetson University Virtual School, we made some time to taste the seafood and see the sights. This month I did want to highlight Bonnie's checklist for departures from our home. The checklist includes shutting off any running water; ensuring the stove, oven, and iron are off, making sure the doors are all locked, and unplugging or switching off any appliances that need not be running while we are gone. It's a great list, with only one small problem.

January 2006
We begin the New Year counting our blessings. We lost both good friend Charles Wright and Bonnie's Brother Steve Dunn this month. These events occasioned the meeting of friends in Tallahasse (for Charles Wright) and of familiy (for Steve Dunn) in Killen, Texas. Both of these men wre truly loved and will be very much missed by those who knew them. .