I'm so sorry to have been gone this long! Sometimes life takes you on a little detour and you just have to go with the flow...you know what I mean? Priorities...priorities...priorities :)
Anyways, I thought I'd just give you a quick 3 month update...

January...
We had a wonderful time at the Stone's Christmas\New Year's Party....


I had a terrible mishap with my thyroid medication and lost half my hair! Huge lesson in humility :) and that you should NEVER take the generic brand of thyroid medication.

**Sorry, no pictures of this event!**

We traveled to Panama City to bury my 98 year old great-grandmother. She was a lovely Christian woman and I have many fond memories of growing up with her. She is who I was named after. Her full name was Iola Lillie Dee Vandores Hood Strickland. Whew! Things were a lot different back then! Here's a picture of her younger years...

Lane became more and more involved in his 4-H Archery Club and starting winning several competitions...

And we began some of our "Homesteading & Self-sufficiency" projects...starting with the animals... we built hog pens...Lane is showing one in the Flagler County Fair this April and we have one we are raising for our freezer...Leah is raising chickens to show in the Fair but not to sell, these will be be for eggs and meat...and Lacy is raising rabbits for rabbit stew...I'll post more pics on all that later... :)

February...

Jamey was forced to start Paramedic school, which he wasn't very happy about since the previous year he had quit a very high paying job to take a very low paying job in order to be home with his family more to pursue some "family entrepreneurship" BUT we are trusting the Lord has a reason and a plan that will be for His glory and our good :) The grueling schedule hasn't been easy (roughly 2-3 days off a month and will soon only be 1 day!!!) so we would covet your prayers. Lane and I are filling in the gaps as much as we can and we've learned to treat every moment with dad as extra special!

Lacy celebrated her 4th Birthday...

Lane won more Archery competitions...1st place in Pre-State and 2nd in State! Then he went on to Nationals in Kentucky!!!

We had another great visit at the Stone's...maybe I'll try to do a post of just party pics??

Started an organic vegetable garden, that is quite pitiful...no pics of that yet...
As well as many many other things...
April and May are approaching fast and they will be very busy too...
More ministering to dad...
Easter...
Leah's 8th Birthday...
Lane's 16th Birthday...whoo hoo!!! Big Party????
The Flagler County Fair...to which YOU ARE ALL INVITED...April 15-17
And the end of another "school year"...just to name a few...

I don't know how often I'll be able to post but I hope to squeeze it in somehow!
..........Would love to hear from everyone.........

3 comments:

blog said...

Yay! So glad you posted! I enjoyed the update, and I especially enjoy the pleasure of getting to spend Sundays with you all!

I'm hoping we can come to the fair; that will be a lot of fun!

Love,
Lauren

Laura {{* *}} said...

Yes, I have missed you Iola
but the last post was enough to chew on
for a good while.
It is good to be caught up,
but sad that it is not
in my living room
with a spot of tea.
Let us work on that notion.

♥ {{* *}}

Olivia Christine said...

Thanks Mrs. Burnsed! :D It was AWESOME! :D Missed you! :D