School is almost done and then it will be the "Summer of Fun for the Sims". We are so excited. We have plans to go to Kings Island, hang out at Rolling Hills Pool, go to the lake with our neighbors and Tio Kurt and Tia Marie.

For those of you who did not know but the Sims family was on TV. We were featured on the DIY Network on a show called "Desperate Landscapes". We filmed last year in April and the show aired on May 14th. The title of the show was called "Tale of Two Doors". We have it saved on TiVO so anytime you want to stop by and watch with us let us know.

Jeff is officially coaching basketball again. We are so excited. He will be the varsity assistant for boys at Fairfield. This means he will not be coaching golf next year.
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Aaron will be trying Karate this week. He is super excited. He is now 12. He is turning into a young man right before my eyes.

Daniel is playing soccer. He is now 11. He is looking forward to summer. I haven't told him yet that we will be working on some school stuff over the summer. He'll appreciate that, not.

Sean is looking forward to taking tennis lessons with Tio Kurt. I'm tyring to convince him to try diving also for Rolling Hills. He loves diving.

My jewelry business is going great. I sponsored my first jeweler and she is awesome. I am looking forward to getting my business growing even more over the summer. I'm going to Texas in July Premier Designs. I am looking forward to this time. They do not focus on sales, they focus on growing in your relationship with Christ. I love this company. It is centered around God and serving.

Our house is open this summer so stop by and visit.

Sorry no pictures to share right now. Will try to update soon.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2008

Christmas Day 2008 was AWESOME!!!!! The night before we went to church as a family. Our friends Daniel Wisler and Casey Jo Snyder joined us. The boys were a little tired but overall we had fun.

The boys slept through the night. I wanted to get them up at 2:30, just after we put them to bed at 1:30 to open presents but Jeff said "no". Then I wanted to get everyone up at 5:30 and again Jeff said "no". Finally, at 7:30 a.m. I begged to get the boys up.

They were so excited. I first made them put on the Santa hats and the HO HO HO shirts. Then they opened their stockings. For Christmas Aaron got an IPod Shuffle (silver) with his name engraved on the back, a bath robe and lots of art stuff. He really enjoys drawing. Daniel got a red IPod Shuffle with his name engraved on it, a bath robe and an alarm clock CD player. Sean got (can you guess?) a blue IPod Shuffle with his name engraved on it, a bath robe and a Star Wars Lego kit. I got some perfume and a Sudoku book. I am totally addicted to Sodoku. Yesterday I did Sodoku for three hours. I love the problem solving. Jeff got a fleece pull-over and a book that he has already read.(oops) LuLu and Zoey got toys in their stocking. I will upload more pictures later.

For dinner I made meatloaf, macaroni and we had the bread that the Whitaker family gave to us. It was a nice candle light dinner. It was a great day.

Thank you Lord for blessing our family.

Christmas Eve 2008

Today we spent the day cleaning up the house. I currently feel like organizing the whole house. This also means the boys have to clean :).

We went to Kentucky to visit family over the weekend. We celebrated Christmas with both families. The boys got lots of gifts and money. They were so excited. We enjoyed spending time with our families. Jeff's family still gets together with his Dad's brothers and sister and their kids. It was lots of fun to see the Sims family. For my family we had lunch at my parents with all of my sisters and their families. My Dad wasn't feeling well so I was sad that he could not get around and enjoy the day.

Tonight we are going to church at midnight. I am looking forward to seeing old friends. This will also be Daniel's first time to take part in the Communion.

Tomorrow morning will be so much fun watching the boys unwrap their gifts. They are so excited. I remember getting up really early to open presents when I was a little girl and then going to my grandparents for the day. Tomorrow we will spend the day together, have our traditional meatloaf (yes I said meatloaf) and macaroni with cheese. My kids are Guatemalan, they don't like the traditional ham or turkey Christmas dinner. Last year I made meatloaf and they said it reminded them of Guatemala so that is now our new family tradition.

Enjoy the family pictures. I will post again after Christmas with our pictures.

MERRY CHRISTMAS. Thank you Jesus for being our Blessed Savior!!!!!!

Halloween 2008

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I don't post as often as I would like. The boys had an awesome Halloween. We invited a couple of friends to go with us. We decided to go to our old neighborhood this year. The boys got tons of candy. Aaron dressed up as a "Gangster". Daniel was a "Spy". Sean was a "Businessman". Jeff and I also enjoyed walking around with them and talking. It was a great night to be out.

We also went to Kings Island for "Fear Fest". Normally I would not got to that but someone told me that on Sunday's it was not scary. So we went on a Sunday after church and had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.

Sims Family Blackout September 2008

Hello to All,

Well this has been an exciting week at the Sims household as well as everyone else in the city of Fairfield, Ohio.

It started on Saturday, September 13th when we attended Sean and Erin's wedding in Indiana. It was a lot of fun despite Daniel and I being itchy from Poison Ivy. We got home around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning and went straight to bed. Daniel and I woke up really itchy so we decided to go to an Urgent Care. Thank goodness we went. On our way home we noticed the wind was really blowing but thought nothing of it. We dropped off our perscriptions (after both of us got shots in the butt) at Kroger and said we would be back to get them later. Little did we know that the whole town was about to shut down due to a blackout. Jeff went to work, the boys were watching a movie and I was taking a nap.

Well about 1:00 p.m. the boys woke me up to tell me that a tree limb had fallen. I said "thats okay, mommy is taking a nap." So they went back to watching TV so I thought. They continued to play downstairs with no TV because the electric was now off. I woke up around 2:00 p.m. and realized that my fan was not on. I kept trying to turn it on not knowing what was going on and then realized we had no electric and the wind outside was blowing really bad. So I went to check on the boys and that's when I saw a big part of a tree in our backyard not far from our house. Then I went outside and saw another big part of a tree in our back yard close to the driveway where the garage is. Our chairs on the deck were blowing all over the place, our trash cans were all over the back yard and the soda cans we are collecting were all over the backyard. It was crazy.

We stayed inside. I was not able to go to Kroger to get mine and Daniel's medicine so we just suffered through the itchiness. Luckily we got the shot at Urgent Care. Jeff was able to come home. We worked on cleaning up some of the cans and other debris then we grilled out hamburgers and hung out with Kurt, Marie, Tonya, Malory, Hannah, Adam and Riley. It was fun just sitting around talking.

Then the call came that there would be no school on Monday. On Monday, thankfully, Kroger was set up to only give out perscriptions not for any groceries so we borrowed eggs from our neighbor and cooked eggs and oatmeal on the grill. Monday evening we had chicken on the grill. Our neighbor DeSean also had a generator that he hooked up to our refridgerator to keep it coo. It was fun roughing it. We played games by candlelight and hung out with our neighbors. It was a blessing that we were home on Monday because my neighbor Tonya's grandmother was rushed to the hospital and I was able to watch her kids for her. Sadly, her grandmother passed away Monday afternoon. Monday evening while playing cards our electric came on and we were so excited. It lasted about 5 minutes and then was back off until Tuesday morning about 3:00 a.m.

Tuesday no school so we just hung around, went to the library and out to eat with Jeff's golf team before their big GMC Tournament which is today (Wednesday).

Today still no school, but life is pretty much back to normal. We are now allowed to drink our water so I assume that we will have school tomorrow.

We will look back on this time and think of how much fun we had sitting in the dark, playing games by candlelight and spending time with family and friends. This was a great reminder to take some time and slow down to enjoy each other.

Rockbridge 2008

Hello From Rockbridge,

We are having a great time here at Rockbridge. The days are filled with work and lots of fun. Right now the boys are doing the Zip Line for the new campers coming in.

Big news in our family is that our son Daniel Sims asked Jesus into his heart yesterday morning. We are so excited for Daniel. GOD IS SO AMAZING!!!!

Love,

The Sims Family 5

My 2nd Mother's Day

Well I just celebrated by 2nd Mother's Day. My husband gave me the night off by leaving me at my parents to spend the night. I had a great time with them but also missed my boys.

I love being a mom. God has truly blessed me with 3 wonderful boys. It is amazing how much I love them. They are growing so fast. They are like little men.

I pray that everyday that I will be a godly and patient mother. One who will be quick to listen and slow to anger. I want my sons to be able to talk to me.