Just for fun

What is something I say a lot?
E: That you love me
N: Stop
G: Be quiet, and I love you
K: In answer to the question of what is for the next meal—food.
J: I love you

What makes me happy?
E: When I clean my room so you can get in
N: The Cosby Show
G: Coffee
K: Peace & quiet
J: Visiting with friends & family

What makes me mad?
E: When I ask you something over and over
N: Bugging
G: Loudness
K: Not peace & quiet
J: The unfavorable aspects of parenthood

How tall am I?
E: 30 feet
N: 5’ 2”
G: 5’5”
K: 5’5 1/2”
J: 5’5”-5’6”

What's my favorite thing to do?
E: Do my hair
N: Sleep
G: Rest
K: Drink coffee
J: Reading

What is my favorite food?
E: Vegetables
N: Lara Bars
G: Salad
K: Steak
J: Butterscotch pie (*shocked look from me*) Chocolate Pie

What is my favorite drink?
E: Wine
N: Water, no coffee
G: Coffee
K: Coffee
J: Mudslide

Who is my best friend?
E: Miss Margie
N: Miss Margie
G: Mrs. Waters
K: Miss Margie or Mrs. Water
J: Me

If I could go anywhere, where would it be?
E: to buy toilet paper
N: The jungle
G: Kentucky
K: out of the house, because we are under quarantine
J: Caribbean Cruise

Do you think you could live without me?
 E: No
N: No
G: No
K: I think I could live, but I think I would be very upset...I can make food.
J: Yes

How do I annoy you?
 E: When you don’t let me have tablet time
N: School
G: Sending to my room without my phone at night
K: Just one? You call me George and you sing in the morning.
J:By acting your age

What is my favorite tv show?
E: It has an A and a G in it (JAG)
N: J-A-G
G: What's it called? I forgot the name.
K: The Unit (Dad's favorite), no...JAG!
J: NCIS

What is my favorite music to listen to?
 E: WAYFM
N: Christian
G: Straight No Chaser
K: Songs that are annoying, if played more than 4 times (?!)
J: Christian Pop Rock

What is my job?
E: To teach us
N: Home schooling
G: Teaching
K: Teacher, mom, not my maid
J: All things

 How old am I?
 E: 23
N: 41
G: 40
K: You don’t look a day over 25, but you are 43
J: 41

 What's my favorite color?
 E: White
N: Green
G: Blue or Green
K: White or green
J: You don’t have favorites

 How much do you love me?
 E: lots
N: a lot
G: On a scale of 1-10, 100
K: a lot?
J: More than I did 20 years ago

Vacation

We've never been big trip takers.  We started off our marriage with a short, three night honeymoon to a state park.  Since then, I can count on one hand the number of trips we've taken that didn't involve visiting family or friends, almost all of those while staying in their homes.

We completely splurged last week though.  We headed off to the beach in southern Alabama.  We looked at a few hotels, but due to our family's size there was only one place I could find that would allow us to stay there in the time frame we were looking at.  After seeing the price, I decided to look into renting a house.  For the same cost as that suite in the busy Pensacola area, we could rent a three bedroom house in a quieter place.  It did require putting down a nice sized deposit, but we cleaned up after ourselves and I've already been notified that the deposit is on its way back.  We also had the benefit of two bathrooms, a full kitchen and dining room table, plus beach things (beach towels, and folding chairs for our use, so we didn't have to pack them--a big deal with our itty bitty car and 6 people).  And the best part was our beach access was so very close.  We could have walked had it not been for the kids wearing themselves out in the water.  We only wanted to stay two nights, not sure how everyone would do and trying to limit our costs, and though many homes are only available by the week, we were able to find an accommodating place.  Anyway, I'd encourage families, especially larger ones, to look into this as a possible way to make your trip easier!

One of the side benefits of homeschooling is that we got to take our trip in the off season between the traditional spring breaks and summer vacations, so we spent our time on the beach with no one closer than shouting distance, if that, unless they were walking through.

 

 Cute little 'beach' house, though it wasn't directly on the beach.

 Our first night--it was so pretty and neat as a pin.

 

  Kate hung out as far out as we would let her get--riding the waves.

 Gabby hunted for shells and played in the water close to the shore.

 Nate built sand castles, ran the beach, and played in the shallows.

 

Ellie wasn't overly sure about the sand shifting under her feet with the waves, but she did like the 'giant sandbox.'

God really granted us a beautiful couple of days.  The weather was warm and the skies clear.

This is quite possibly my favorite picture of the trip!

Winter Wonderland

The world around us has gotten rather cooler than usual.  We spent several days watching the forecast seeing the expected totals of snow and ice oscillate between 1" and 11" and back again.

By Sunday afternoon, we decided we were actually going to get some snow.  Justin ran out with Kate for a sled.  They couldn't find any, but they did find a river tube.

We woke Monday with a bit of a disappointment.  Justin checked and his school was still listed as open.  By the time he was out of the shower, the situation had changed and he was home for the day. 

Someone missed out!

 

We had two days home with him.

 

The second day he and some neighbors cleared out the street and people's driveways.

This morning we wake to snow falling on top of our ice.  He had a delay, and couldn't get out on his first attempt up the hill with the fresh snow, but got to go in to work a little later than his normal start time.  The rest of us are safely home.  My normal shopping day is Monday, so we've made do with odds and ends of food we keep around and are emptying out our pantry.  We'll do a good restock in a few days when the temperatures melt the mess.

We have been so thankful to have kept our electricity, despite the ice, and that we have food and supplies to keep us comfortable.  We are awfully blessed!

Visitors!

Sometimes being home with the littles can be pretty isolating.  We moved here with three littles, so I didn't get out much right off.  Nate was a little baby, but very adventurous, making the park a real challenge.  In the past I always found a MOPS group to get involved in, but here I had Kate starting home school, so that was out too.  We're slowly finding relationships with people around us, but this summer has been a real treat for us.

 

We've had friends from west Tenneessee visit for an overnight with their three girls.

We had friends from Justin's home town visit for dinner while they were vacationing with her family in town.

 We had friends from Kansas (who had also left, but headed off to Indiana) stay with us for a few days with their boys.

Then a friend that was visiting her parents here in town stopped by for a playdate with her girls, when she was here from Maryland--I didn't get a picture of that group.

The kids have loved having extra people around, and I always enjoy it too.  I have teased my introverted husband that we should open a bed and breakfast when the kids are grown.  He's not quite on board yet with talking to strangers over breakfast each morning!  But we are thankful for all the visits and to get to see so many people without loading up our entire crew.

Shakespeare in the Park

We made the trek downtown for Shakespeare in the park again this year.  This year they were doing Midsummer Night's Dream.  This is Kate's favorite Shakespeare, so far anyway.  We've seen a children's version at the library before.

We got a spot right down front.  The fairies were constantly in motion.  They came around and stole food, played with our shoes, and toward the end one of them took the girls to go dance with her around the small stage in the middle of the park.  Gabby turned down the opportunity at first, but went when Kate decided to go.  They were thrilled to be part of the show.  Unfortunately you can't take pictures during the show, so I don't have any of my little fairies.

When we left Nate told us, "We need to bring the baby.  She likes it!"

Pumpkin Time

We took the littles to a Pumpkin Farm this weekend.

We rode a hay wagon across the farm,

and each of the littles got to pick out a pumpkin.  

They got to see pigs, sheep, and a mama cow with her young calf.

 We didn't see any pumpkin fields though (lots of hay bales painted to look like pumpkins), which I thought was a little odd, but they enjoyed the trip.

 Farmer Kate and Pumpkin Gabby approved.

 On Sunday it was quite a bit warmer for pumpkin gutting and carving.

 Nate asked his Daddy to make a scary pumpkin.

 Gabby was a little hesitant about getting pumpkin goo on her hands, but she did clean out her own pumpkin this year.

All lit up!  In case you are wondering, Gabby's pumpkin has 4 eyes and Kate's is the snaggle tooth--quite fitting as one of her top teeth is hanging on by a thread.

Weekend

We are generally homebodies on the weekend.  This weekend though, we crammed in every possible activity we could come up with!

I found out Friday morning, because evidently I live under a rock most of the time, that they were putting on Much Ado About Nothing downtown.  Actually, I think I had heard this, but it had not stayed in my head that long.  I was probably picking out curriculum or telling Nate to, "Please stop jumping the couch for the love of all that is holy."  It was the last weekend that it was running.  Much Ado is my favorite Shakespearean piece and Kate is really into Shakespeare at the moment, yes, at six.  She has memorized a fair chunk of Hamlet's "To be or not to be..." soliloquy and she loved Midsummer Night's Dream put on by the downtown library.  They set it post WWII and added musical numbers to it.  The littles loved that the actors 'hid' in the audience: running around, sitting on people's laps and blankets, and hiding behind small children during the eavesdropping scenes in the garden.  The kids really enjoyed it (as did I) and didn't get restless until almost ten (them, not me)--way, way past their bedtimes.  Even with that, they did manage to make it to the very end.  Kate is already asking about going next year, since they are putting on Midsummer Night's Dream, and also if she can act in one of their plays in the future.  She will be our little thespian!

On a side note, we have lived in the area for 2 years and never run into anyone I knew from before (we have friends, family, and family friends here, since I only grew up about an hour from the north side of town).  In two days I ran into a cousin at the park with our children and at Shakespeare in the Park we ran into a friend of my sister and cousin.  I hadn't seen either of these two people in 15 years.  Thanks to Tori for the family picture!

Saturday morning Justin took the Buick for emissions testing, for the third time.  The first time the wait was estimated at three hours, the second the gas cap evidently leaked, but this time it passed.  Whew!

Then we headed to a pioneer days festival.  We watched a blacksmith, saw an infirmary, learned about mourning customs, saw traditional cooking,

listened to traditional music, wrote with quill pens, 

the littles rode in a 'train' pulled by a tractor (Nate cried horribly when we left),

and Kate learned to dance The Virginia Reel.

The 16 year old fellow, Oscar, was very good with her, and Justin even let him live.

Her sister, who wanted to dance, but couldn't work up the courage teased her that if she danced with Oscar, then Kate must be Oscar the Grouch.  This offended Kate greatly until I laughed at it and told it was just silly.  Then she laughed too.

Saturday afternoon I had won tickets to see Last Ounce of Courage.  I never win anything and entered on a whim, never thinking I would possibly win.  We bought the littles tickets and took them along, since it was rated PG.  Justin and I can neither one completely decide what we thought of the movie.  It had some really good parts.

We spent the rest of the evening explaining to our children that actors aren't really hurt nor do they die when their characters do, that the jail wasn't real, and how they knew which key to use (not quite sure why that was suddenly a question, since we each have several keys on our key rings).  It was the first time our kids were really exposed to any sort of violence (it was very tame by today's standards), since we don't watch much in the way of TV or movies unless our Saturday morning Veggie Tales, Gumby, or Fraggle Rock and occasional episodes of The Electric Company count as much.

Sunday was church, leading children's worship, chatting with the parents/grandparents, and after seeing 'long wait' next to Aladdin in our Netflix queue for a long time, we finally got it to watch with the littles as a substitute for those Saturday morning cartoons we skipped for pioneer days.  A day of rest!

I hope your weekend was wonderful too!

This past weekend (in pictures)

We spent the weekend at my parents' home.

We hung out with our Gam,

Picked up sticks in my old wagon.

Visited Grannie (my Daddy's mom),

And celebrated the 50th anniversary of the ice cream social with, well, ice cream.

Kate danced a jig.

We showed PawPaw how to get to the inflatables.

We hung out with our sister.

We slid down huge slides with no fear.

And sometimes we took our sister with us.