Wednesday, April 27, 2011

We are still here : )

Once again I am not blogging as much as I used too, but on this rainy, stormy day I thought I would share some odds and ends with you.  As a family not much per say is happening here.  Two weeks from today we will go on our first camping trip of the summer : )  But hubby still needs to do the breaks on the RV and put on a new front wheel.  That however will have to take a back seat to fixing our Durango.  A week a go today it quit running, needs a new fuel pump.  Well he got one Sunday, but since then it has been raining, and I don't mean a little!  I am praying to have it up and running by Friday, shopping day.  Then we will take care of the RV.

Other than that, a little over three weeks to son's graduation celebration.  He deserves a party, he has been working 45+ hours a week.  Speaking of a celebration, Easter was pretty darn awesome here.  The weather was magnificent and the fellowship uncomparable.  We ended up with about 15 people here.  There were two dissapointments, one being a friend couldn't make it due to a toe infection, and the other being our . . . neighbors.  We have had a few run in's with these folks before, but nothing like on Easter Sunday.  They have twin 10 year old boys, who were behaving inapropriatly with their body parts twoards all the teen-age girls at my house.  When one of the girls mothers went to talk the boys mother, lets just say the apple doesn't fall from the tree and I thought the Navy was in town.  I will try to cut the family a little slack though, as the mother had run over their own dog the day before and had another Navy type melt down then too.  Unfortunatly that happened right in front of my mail box, while all the neighbor childern were in my yard running through the sprinkler.  So lets keep that private well drilling, illeagle chicken keeping, family in our prayers.

Well it is tornado season again in middle TN.  Our town is in a 'hallor, and is protected by Short Mt.  It is scary though when it's raining cats and dogs (we don't need any more), and hearing all the warnings around us.  But we have lived here nine years now, our house is over 60 years old and still standing! I am begining to be a real trooper, I don't even run to the basement anymore.  Heck, I didn't even get out of bed this morning - LOL 

Here are some random pictures to help pass the time, and show you the animals around our house.
This is Chester, aka Pester, our newest cat.  He is taking a nap in the new fuzzy blue recliner/rocker, and stretching.

How far can he stretch?

Looks like pretty far!  LOL

This is Waylon, the only puppy we have left from the nine Z rescued last Fathers day.  His girl friend keeps saying she is taking him, her dad keeps disagreeing.  No, he is not suppose to be on the deck table.  Guess he is just trying to get to higher ground with all this rain, notice the mud in our yard behind him.

This is Tina.  Tina is sleeping on our corn hole game, which we can't use due to the rain.  The corn hole game is on out air conditioner for the dinning room, which we can't use because hubby won't put it in yet - LOL

And this is E, missing teeth and all, showing you the art project she did in school today.  Her big sister B is her art teacher : )  Lots of cutting and pasting today.  Come on, admit it, you miss cutting and pasting too!

OK, it is still raining, the children are running and screaming, and I don't have any gopher wood.  Sigh, I still feel blessed.  Beth Ann

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Back from Cincy

Actually I returned home late Sunday evening from Cincinnati, and the weather was wonderful!  We were running late because we stopped in Lexington, KY for lunch and some antiquing : )  Over all I would rate the trip a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to attend the Great Home School Conference of the Midwest, and with such an awesome group of ladies who share my faith and are filled with grace.  We had two suites in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Dukes Convention Center.    Many times it was faster to walk than to wait for the hotel shuttle, except when it was raining or the morning we had to be at a lecture at 8:30 a.m. : )  My poor legs and back were tired from wandering among the 300+ vendors in the exhibit hall.  Many ladies had those plastic egg crate thing's with wheels and a telescoping handle.  A couple of vendors sold them for around $25 - yikes!  I had all my worldly possessions in a back-pack/purse and then I carried a tote bag, and just sucked it up.  The only bad thing to mention were food prices  on the premises (of course).  Bottled water was going for $3!    I had my own bottle and just repeatedly filled it from one of the many water fountains, as they have filtered water.  Again, it was an amazing time, shared with amazing people.

Here is our group on the day we left.  We are standing in front of the fountain at the public library, which was across the street from our hotel, The Garfield Arms.

The grand finale for the conference was The Duggar family (they have 19 children and home school).  I don't want to talk about how long the line was or the wait to be seated, but it was a nice evening.  I had read their book, so not much new information.  However I did not know they had a show on TLC (we don't watch tv).  Since then I have rented one of their disc's from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  I mostly enjoyed it because my 14 year old dd did, and it had some great info on courtship vs. dating.  They make it look 'cool' and because of the size of their family, dd appreciates ours a bit more : )



Of course I brought my knitting!  I took it with me everywhere I went and was delighted to find one of the vendors was selling a fiber art curriculum.  It contained knitting, weaving, carding and dying your own wool.  So cool to see these things make a come back.  I managed to knit a hat on the way up there, and on the way home.  It is a 5 hour trip after all (gain an hour going east).

We also took a day to visit the Creation Museum and meet Ken Ham.  He is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, a christian home school curriculum (to put it mildly).  He is a celebrity in the world of home school and maybe even a modern hero.  I encourage you to check him out at http://www.answersingenesis.com/  These are the same folks you might of heard of, who are building a life size ARK.  I so can not wait for that!  This was my second time to the museum and my first with no kids.  There is also a planetarium, but I did that the first time, not the second.  I was able to really talk more of it in and it was so much more . . . vivid, 3D for me.  It made may faith stronger and affirmed that we were on the path that God had placed our family.  I would love to go aging with a group from our church or even take the hubby and twins.  Sigh, guess I just want to go again - LOL

Well, I enjoyed the weather, the fellowship, the faith and the affirmation on home schooling, right before graduating my first from home.  I can't believe the big day is only 4 weeks away!  There have been many ups and downs in the 6 years I have been home schooling, but it is so well worth it!  Not only is it biblical correct, but it turns out kids to be proud of.  We are living our life for God and we are not afraid to live it out loud.

Blessings, Beth Ann