New Venture!

Okay....we spend lots of time at home now that we are here in Florida. Since we moved, I have been searching everywhere to find deals on fun things we could do here in a tourist town and not break the bank. My kids see people playing mini-golf, riding go karts, all the tourist stuff, and they want in on the action. One night we went to dinner and were talking with friends and they suggested that I start a blog about saving money right here in PCB. With her persuasion, I decided it might be a great way to share the deals that we take advantage of. So whether you are vacationing in PCB, visiting friends and family, or live here and need to stick to a budget, my blog may be just what you are looking for. From freebies around town, to airline and hotel deals, I will try to keep you up to date with all the latest bargains.

My blog is appropriately name PCB on a dime. You can find it at www.pcbonadime.blogspot.com
My FB page {which is easy daily access and reminders} is https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Panama-City-Beach-on-a-Dime/438936772783424  or you can search: "Panama City Beach on a Dime" on FB

Honestly, the blog will have more info, full articles, etc. The FB page is just an avenue because most people are on FB at some point throughout the day and may not have time for full articles. Be sure to like the FB page for it to show up my posts in your New Feed.

Hope you all have a blessed day!

Where has the time gone?

Ok, so Spring officially arrived and has brought with it MANY BEACH DAYS! We are really enjoying our beach time. We had a wonderful Easter and celebrated with our new church family. It was definately weird not being back home with family for our traditional dinner though.

This is the kids on one of their last days of school work for the year. They were soooooo excited to be done for awhile. They really worked hard these last few weeks.

Melissa ready to head to Scampy's for some seafood.

We have also had some visitors!! We have had Nanny and Poppy, Nanny and Nana, and of course, The Jenkinators.

Kirsten out in front of our house being goofy!

Ready for an evening ride!

 We are so glad that it is summer and ready for a visit back home. Hopefully, July 13th we will be pulling up in TN for a two week stay with family and friends! Hope everyone back home are doing well. Love to you all!

No news is good news, right?

Well, once again, I am the blog slacker! I never make any promises, but I do try to keep you updated. We are all doing lovely and spending lots of time outdoors. Between the parks and the beaches, we spend most days outdoors. We finally finished our schoolwork a couple of weeks ago, so the days are now much more fun around here. We have been working on some projects, educational games, and watching lots of movies. That's my favorite kind of day. Much more relaxed than usual.
Bailey is doing great and healing nicely..thank you so much for all the prayers and we continue to hope that he will get a little better everyday!
If you get a chance this summer, come down and give us a visit, we miss everyone dearly.

It Springtime!

Finally Spring has arrived!~

Of course, most of our winter here felt like Spring already...it's kind of like we have jumped into Summer. Easter is at the end of the week, and oh, how we are gonna miss being with family this weekend. I have got a ham to cook, and we are gonna dye some eggs, but we are gonna miss the family gatherings and egg hunts. Instead, this week we will spend most days at the Marina Civic Center for the Panama City Passion Play that is put on by our church. {go HERE for more info.} It is a very LARGE production. Kirsten will be participating in the performances on Thurs, Fri, and Sat night. She is very excited to get to join in. Chris and me and Bailey will be spectators each night. :O)

Our homeschooling is finally winding down for the year and we have less than a week left to go. The kids are very excited to be finished and have lots of time for bike riding and swimming. We have been going to beach about once a week to try to get Bailey some water, but he really needs more than once a week. I can't wait to be done with school, so that we can just stay out there all the time. He is still looking quite a bit better and we are still only taking claritin and singulair....this is probably the least amount of meds that he has ever taken. He has also been seeing my chiropractor here on the beach. She is a wonderful lady. She found that he had some pinched nerves in his neck, so she has been working on getting that corrected for him. It will take awhile to see if there are any improvements to his health. She says that all bodily functions and illnesses can be connected to your spine. So we hope that this correction could maybe help his overall health. {fingers crossed}

Chris job is still going well and his travel is slowing up a bit {thank goodness}. He has started walking with some of the men at work and he has invited several of them to church at St. Andrew. We are hopeful that they will come for a visit.

So, I guess that is it for now...things are pretty much normal and boring...LOL. {that's the way I like it} Enjoy your Spring!!!!

Things are moving into place

Well, we made the move from the temporary condo, to the new townhouse. We are loving the townhouse and feeling like we live in a home, not a vacation resort..lol. Our townhouse is a couple blocks from the water and is almost new. It's a 3br/3ba 2-story townhouse with a garage. We are loving having a garage and all the storage. We had prepared ourselves for condo living, so anything better than that is a huge bonus!! Kirsten says "stairs are over-rated" She hates when it's her time to vac them!
In January, our family, church members and friends came to meet me and the moving truck and packed us all up. One family (the Jenkinators..tee hee) even helped me drive the truck all the way back to FL. Friends like this are priceless. Not only did the clean, and pack, and come and stay with us, they took time out of their crazy lives to drive us back down here, unpack and set everything up. I love you "Jenkinators"!
Now that we are settled, day-to-day life is getting much easier. We are back on track with our school work and are set to be done in early April. The kids are working very hard and are learning more and more everyday. Chris is still loving his job and has been traveling alot! He was gone over 14 days this month. He is learning alot though and really falling into his job well. Everyone at work seems to really like him and he has made some friends. We have found a wonderful church and are feeling like this is where God wants us right now. After many visits and many different churches...this one seems to fit the most. They have wonderful classes for all of us, Chris is doing a Courageous class, Awanas for the kids, and they are very Missions-minded. They have over 12 trips planned for the next year. Its very exciting. The church is called St Andrew Baptist Church and is located in the St. Andrew Bay area of Panama City.

We have started to do more and more with the homeschoolers in our area. We have went to some of their homes, went on field trips, and had a nice Valentine's party at a park!

Bailey's health is continuing to improve. Since January, we have been trying a Gluten-free diet with him and he looks better than usual. We have had him off of the pedia-predisone since then also. We weaned him off slowly and we are hoping he can stay off of it. He has been on it since he was 3 or 4. It is soooo bad for you. Please pray that he will continue to heal. We are very excited for the sun, sand and salt of the spring/summer. This usually heals him even more. We have found one dermatoloigist in Tallahassee, but we are hoping that we won't need to go see her very often. Please be in prayer about us finding doctors in general. I am in need of a good OB-GYN, we need a chiropractor, a dentist for all of us, a family dr, pediatricians and an orthodontist for Kirsten's braces. whew!!! The thoughts of that is completely staggering to me. The pediatrician alone is enough to make me freak out. Most dr.s just cringe at the sight of Bailey. They want to mess with his meds, his treaments in general. For now, we have our own way of doing things and he is getting better, I just don't want someone to mess with it. LOL.

Bailey cooking up some treats!!!

Well, we are hopeful that now that Spring is almost here, family and friends will return for some visits. The kids are excited to show the grandparents their new rooms and their bicycle skills. I can't wait for "visitors" to come for a visit as well...it gets a bit lonely here. In March, we will be celbrating Kirsten's 11th birthday and in July, Bailey's 9th. It seems NO WAY possible that they are this old. They are so so big now!

Clint and Linli are still in China...working on getting Linli a visa so they can return to the US this fall to finish up school and so she can work on her Masters. I can't wait to see their faces. Their wedding is set for May 20th in China. My parents will be traveling there to be present for the ceremony. Considering the price tag, the Hyder's will not be attending. The price for flight alone would be near $7000. We will be helping my parents with a reception at the end of summer/fall for them held here in the states. We are very excited about that as well. Kirsten is starting looking for a dress to wear and I have been hitting up pinterest for lots of ideas. We have also continued our studies of Mandarin so that we can speak more to her family when they visit. So, until next time! zài jiàn....that's Goodbye in Chinese!