Nashville!

Just a heads up...We're off to Nashville for the awesome annual ATI conference...I don't expect to be posting over that time...we will return, full of God's power and blessing, on the night of Sunday, June 3rd...
It will be awesome, and I'm sure that I'll be telling all about it!
Until later...
Carrie

And he's only two years old!

Ben is all about wheels. But those on Fire trucks and Ambulances seem to be of special interest to him, so this is what happened when he found a a toy amulance at a yard sale this morning...
Nina: Benjamin, take the ambulance and go ask the lady over there "How much money is this?"
Ben obediently goes and asks, "How much money is this?"
Nina here's the lady say slowly and clearly: Twenty-five cents
Ben returns to Nina...
Nina: What did she say?
Ben: a quarter.
_______________________________________________________

Here's his poem that he made up...and BTW, we've asked around...he made this up....

This one's orange,
this one's blue;
This one made
A pot of stew.

Is it just me...or is this an extremely smart 2 year old?! And we've not worked on the coin understandings...

I'm continually amazed at his understanding!

Such a great "hanging out" day!

This morning everyone slept in really late (due to everyone staying up way too late last night) and then they all went yard sailing...Note: THEY. I prefer a quiet morning at home... so that's what I got...
Papa and Daniel went to work, Mama, Nina, Dudley, Peter, Suzanna and Ben all went yard sailing and I fed David and put him to bed. Thus, the house was quiet and I could read! After 17 chapters of Job and 2 of Acts, I swithched to writing letters...then it wasn't long before the yard sailers got home... So that's a great start to an awesome day...for me at least...and for those who went yard sailing, they thought their morning was great too.
Nina, Zeez and Ben went to Walmart for a while...
Now nothin's really happening...
A friend of Nina's got lost in Atlanta yesterday, so she couldn't come last night to see Nina, so she wanted to see her today. She called, I don't know...maybe 20 minutes ago and said she was coming right over...well, she's Mexican, and BTW, that means that she'll be over probably sometime this afternoon or tonight if nothing comes up... So we'll see when she comes!
And Home fellowship is tonight and we're also gonna get Mr. Reeves to take a family picture of us....

Nina is Here!

She got here at about 4:45 pm yesterday afternoon and we have had a blast! After supper last night, and after a lot of talking, we had ice cream and played Scrabble...oh, so fun...even though everyone kept getting bad letters...My team (Dud and I) started out with almost all vowels, Mama and Peter had a problem with way too many consonants the whole game...and Papa and Suzanna actually did get 100% vowels multiple times...Daniel and Nina just got a wierd assortment of letters the whole time! But it was cool!
This morning Mama, Nina, and Suzanna (and maybe anyone else who wants to go) are gonna go thrift shopping. Seneca has a ton of really good ones.... Note: I am not included in that list...I hate shopping, especially thrift shops!
Anyways, we're having a great time with Nina.... She's so awesome!

I will keep you posted!
Note: Pun intended...

Sunny....(update)

This is a refresh on the picture of Sunny...Click here to see it

Day after tomarrow!!!!!!

...Nina comes home!!!!!
We are all entirely excited! I hope you aren't getting bored because that's all I talk about...maybe I should discuss something else...
What about the fact that due to some unknown technical difficulty, we are connected to the internet at the poke-slow rate of 19.2 KB per second! In case that doesn't mean anything, go check out what you are connected at...in Febuary we had the all time low of 34 KB per second...or so we thought...Any more, we would think that it was lightening speed if it got that high...Just out of curiosity, what are you connected at? I'd love to be able to know what my computer should be doing...drop me a comment and let me know!

News and an Invitation

We’re done with school!!! And boy does it feel good! I think that the boys have a little more math to do, but we are all glad to be near the end!
We’re also excited because Nina is coming home on Thursday!! Joy!!!! And BTW, we’re having a drop-in on Friday night for her. If there’s anyone around here who reads my blog and you haven’t already heard...you are now officially invited to come over at 7:00 on Friday. We’d love to have you!

Carnival of Kid Comedy #11

Here we are and its time for the eleventh edition of the Carnival of Kid Comedy!
It seems time flies by so fast! I can't belive its been 11 weeks since this great idea developed! Anyways, here are this weeks giggles--all stored in these little technical links....

A carnival new-comer is Elena LaVictoire from My Domestic Church
shares her experience with how hard it is to explain the Celsius scale in Math and Science

Dana at Principled Discovery shares Filling Our Shoes. Oh how they imitate those who are older!

From Raising 4 Boys we are have a good parenting tip at Throwing Eggs in the Kitchen.

The estate owner of The Carnival of Kid Comedy, Kim C. at Life in a Shoe features her re-occuring 4-yo Becca in Tatoos.

Over at the blog of the Nerd Family we hear about a little fellow with The Kid Pespective.


And for my own...it was a hard decision...my little brother has been making me laugh all week, but I think I'll spotlight the time when he wanted a Bell Pepper.
Its hard not to put in two or three...But you'll have to search my homepage for those...I won't steal the show.

I have enjoyed quite a number of laughs as I put his together and I hope that you all did too!
Be sure to remember that the Carnival will be hosted once again by Kim C. at Life In A Shoe next week! Head over to the Conservative Cat's Carnival page to submit your laugh for next week!

<laughing still>

Hits on my website....

I just love to watch my site meter. But more than just knowing how many people visit my blog and what city they live in, I can know how they got to my site. Its so fun! It sorta cool to see...this many people from hear...and whatever...but I love seeing when people search the web and how they got me...such as the following searches that I found:
spring break (a blogger search)
violin playing (also blogger)
shawn and nina wedding (msn)
warm weather where to live (google)
greatest place to Live united states (google and yahoo!)

but its so crazy! Every third one is Jullian Beever!! And no kidding!!! I wonder why?
In case you are wondering who he was...here is what I wrote about him to start with...

I just laughed when I saw the msn shawna and nina wedding...you know....I talked about shawn lane and alot about nina coming home....and also about Miss Carrie's wedding and also Gregoria and Felix's too....
Anyways...that's what I'm laughing about....but I'm really tired...good night!

Neighbors over for supper!

The neighbor boys (and one of their friends who happens to go to our church) were over playing basketball with Peter and Dud and then Matthew (another neighbor) came over and soon after the pizzas were ready... (Btw, they were made with Kim C.'s recipe for pizza crusts, and everyone loved them!) so we invited them all to eat with us. It was great! But, there wasn't much pizza, so we had to fix a quick salad and lemonade and 3 batches of G-whiz (a citrus smoothie) and then our bananas ran out so we fixed 3 batches of milkshake. (That was because we had a lot of cheap ice cream!) So when we were sure they were full, Daniel's buddy Big Jake came over...and so he finished up the pizza for us!
Then, Dud got out his airplane that he got at a yard sale...it needs some part for the engine before it will work...so they tied a string to it and spun around in circlesso that it would fly...that was probably really unclear...sorry, I don't know how to explain it... but anyways, you have to spin around to make it go...so when they started to have a contest for who could make it go the fastest. Big Jake made it go really fast. then when it did crash, he did too. He tried to stay standing up, but he was too dizzy. It was funny.
I love having lots of people over for supper...though they were all guys...

And how could I forget?

The Tankersleys have their baby now!

Little
Jonathyn Lawrence Tankersley
was born at 2:07 on Friday, May 18th.

I have not seen him yet, but hopefully we will be able to tomorrow!
...and how do you like the spelling? the "Y"? I just love it!

The days are drawing near!

Nina is coming home the 25th!!!! Today is the 19th which means only 6 days!! We are all really excited! We saw her last when she was here in Febuary...so its been awhile and...yes, we are all looking forward to being together again!...like who wouldn't? I guess I don't have much to say other than that I'm excited...and that Nina's coming home!

Tomorrow is....

The Carnival of Kid Comedy!! If you haven't submitted anything, go ahead! I'm having fun putting it together!

Pico de Gallo

We have recently uncovered this awesome, colorful, easy to make, mexican salsa: Pico de Gallo...
1 large onion chopped
5 finely chopped tomatoes (medium to small)
half of a fresh chili pepper fine chopped
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoon fine chopped fresh cilantro

this is so colorful and Entirely delicious!

...you mean a bell pepper!

Ben--reaching for the long slices of bell pepper--says, "may I have some Boy onions?"

Kid carnival coming up!

On Saturday, I am scheduled to post the Carnival of Kid Comedy. It is basicly a compilation of links to other people's blogs and everyone shares some experience or something where a kid made them laugh. With Ben around here, I never fail to be able to think of something...though there have been a few terribly busy weekends when i forgot about it...
So, anyways, on Saturday I will be hosting, so come check it out! Also, I'd love to have anyelse join me in adding funny quotes from cute kids to the show...if you have a blog, write a post about it, and send the link to me...if you do not, you can eamil it straight to me at upwardway@gmail.com I will put it directly in the carnival...I'd love to hear from all of you, and can't wait til Saturday!
The deadline for submitions is mid-night Friday.

Sunny

It is final: Sunny must go.
What he needs is someone who can spend lots of time with him...and in our family there are eight kids--we don't have time to spend on training a dog...we have enjoyed Sunny, but will have to get rid of him. We built a fence for the little boys, and put the dog in it...but we find ourselves not playing in the fence, because the dog is there. Ben is fine with Sunny if someone else is with him...but he needs to be able to play by himself and not need to be babysat...that's a big reason Papa built the fence...
So, all this to say...does anyone want a little, cute, very playful, loving, active, puppy?

When two year olds get confused...

On Saturday Morning:
Me: Ben, where did I go last night?
Ben: At a wedding.
Me: Whose wedding?
Ben (with a big grin): Miss Carrie's Wedding

Ben: Zeez went too. She sat in the back seat.
Me: That's right.
Ben: And you sat in the other back seat...(meaning the front bench seat :) )

Later...I come downstairs dressed to go to Felix and Gregoria's wedding...
Ben says, "Are you going again? Are you going to Miss Carrie's wedding again?"
Nope...

Our two-year-old cuddle bunny

Mama laying on the sofa…”Ben, would you like to come cuddle with me?”
Ben comes and climbs up on the sofa and lays down. But there’s only about 6-8 inches to lay on….so he keeps tossing and turning, trying to feel secure on the edge of the sofa…
Finally Mama suggests, “Why not go down to the other end of the sofa… there’s more room there.”
So, Ben gets down and goes to the other end. He lays there for a minute, then says, “Mama, you come down here!”
He wanted to cuddle with her…so he ended up back at the top…with Mama. 

Such a busy week!

Wow! Well, I warned you it would be busy… here’s the simple schedule of what we did last week…and just for the record, don’t fill your week this full!
Monday:
Company over for supper—Joel and his room mate, Seth
Tuesday:
9:15—10:00 Mr. Reeves takes us to OCA in Seneca for our newspaper interview about the book, This is Now
3:00—4:30 Violin lesson at the Reeves to practice music for the wedding
6:45 Bluegrass band lesson and coaching with Shawn Lane in Walhalla (40 minutes away? Maybe? Dunno…)
Wednesday:
Men’s meeting at 7:30
Thursday:
5:15 Get up
6:00—8:15 Clean Goldie (my dad’s work)
10:00 Schmitts stopped by to check out the bed Dud’s making for them…
1:00—2:30 Clean Senn’s house (a neighbor of ours) with Reeves
2:30—4:00 Practice the music for the wedding with the Reeves
7:30 Rehearsal for the wedding
Friday:
5:30 Get up
6:00 Practice bluegrass as a band before Papa went to work
10:00 Leave here to go pick up Papa at Goldie, drop Ben and Zeez off at the Schmitts house and then drive to the South Carolina Welcome Center (on the Georgia line on I-85)
11:00—1:00 Play bluegrass
2:00 about when we got home…
6:30 The Maguires pick up Zeez and I to take us to Greenville (an hour away) for Miss Carrie’s (our piano teacher) wedding.
10:30 We get home
Saturday:
1:30 We have to be at the church to play the prelude for Felix and Gregoria’s wedding…
5:30 We get home from their wedding
6:30—9:30 Book Signing!!!
Sunday:
6:00 Get up
7:30 “Do” Mother’s Day
8:15 Jump into action to clean up the house!
10:00 Home fellowship
12:30 Lunch at Grandma and Granddaddy’s house
4:00 get home…


It was a long week!

A wedding...

On Saturday, we (Bethany, Hannah, Katie, and Mrs. Reeves, and Dudley and I) are playing our violins (and me on the viola and also some piano in there too) for a wedding. A couple at our church are getting married... Its really cool, but its really putting a really busy spin on our week...and don't forget the other wedding we're going to...or my booksigning...its busy!

My stats

I don't know if you can tell or not...but I have a new fascinatoin with posting on my blog...multiple times each day. I don't know why...I also am fascinated with stats. I check my stat meter...becuase I am fascinated by it...I haven't quite figured it all out...but I love it.

My Music

I've talked a good deal about seeing Tugalo Holler...well, I just went on their website today and then to their myspace and they have some samples of their music...This is mostly for you, Megan, cause I told you I'd try to find some samples of my favorite music online, but also its now recorded for anyone else who wants to know about it...

TTFN....Ta-Ta-For-Now!!!

Whoopee!!!!

I forgot to mention the most awesome news of all!!! Nina is coming home to visit the 24th through the 30th!!! We're all so excited!! You should have seen Mama right after Nina called....she really actually was jumping up and down....skipping around...and periodically she would whoop and hollar, "Nina's coming home!!!" I thought it was amusing, but I'm really excited too, and to tell you a secret, I was jumping up and down and skipping around and whooping too....it was just a little abnormal to see Mama doing it. :)

Monday evening

Well, I didn't even mention the awesome fellowship that we had on Monday night. But, its time I did. It was really encouraging to me. We had Joel Helms and his room mate, Seth, over for supper. They got into a serious discussion and it eventually ended up with talking about alot of how the Navigators got started and alot of their core values and standards. Joel iscampus minister with the Navigators, so, wow! He shared the wheel concept. The hub is Christ and the outside of it is the obedient Christian life. The four spokes are prayer, memorization, witnessing, and fellowship. But what he pointed out is how, even though they do alot of memorization, that's not the focus, its Christ. They do alot of witnessing, but that's not the focus, its Christ. After all, the power in the wheel comes from the axal and the hub. It comes through the spokes to the outer wheel. It was really significant to me: When a wheel spins, the spokes become a blur. They are not noticed. Its the Hub and the wheel that you can see. Isn't that an amazing insight? Its been really significant to me!
After dinner, we played music...Joel has a quality voice (especially on the bass end, which sounds really cool with our band!) and Seth has the most awesome voice! It was great, we had him singing solos, and it was so cool! He doesn't play an instrument, but he sings really well!!! And, BTW, Joel plays piano and guitar and...well, Dud pursuaded him to try out the mandolin for a few songs...and he did fine!

Wow!

We just got back from lessons...and, yah, Shawn Lane is good! Dudley played Orange Blossum Special...and then Shawn played some of what he would do in the "E" part... then I played Uncle Pen that I've been working on...because every fiddle player is supposed to be able to play that...I stumbled through my break (and I played it about as well as ever before) and then he says, "You know, I played some with Bobby Hick and you know he played with Bill, and he was one of the first ones to record Uncle Pen...he taught me the real way to play it.." And he proceeded to play the most awesome Uncle Pen I've ever heard! It was great!
He really helped us on the vocals too, which is one of the core reasons for the whole thing. It was a really good lesson!

My life is in >>FF>>

Today is going to be busy! Well, actually this whole week is incredibly busy.
Today Mr. Reeves is gonna pick me up at 8:00 ("real time") and take me to Oconee Christian Academy because the Reeves girls and I have to be there for an interview with the Seneca paper about the devotional book, "This Is Now," that we contributed to. Its a teen devotional written by teens for teens...so anyways, we'll be there...and then when I get home from that, I'm gonna work on putting together a recipe book of WGPL recipes for my piano teacher who is getting married. That will take a while...and I'm not gonna finish today,but I'll get a lot done (hopefully), but we (Dud and I) have to be back at the Reeves at 3:30 for a violin lesson...no...its not really a violin lesson, but we're playing together for Felix and Gregoria's wedding and we have to practice...Here comes the Bride, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring...etc...
But, did I mention that sometime through all this I'm gonna spend lots of time practicing fiddle for tonight. Its our first fiddlin' and band lesson with Shawn Lane. Yes, the big Shawn Lane from Blue Highway. He is gonna teach Dud and I and coach our family band. I'm really excited! But I've got to get time on the fiddle today!
So...we have a busy rish toady...and I have to say....its typical for this week! This week is gonna be great! ....but really busy! Two weddings (one of which we are the musicians for), a book signing for the This is Now...and well, did I mention what we've got going Friday? Our first paying gig as a family band! We'll playing for two hours at the...ready for this?...at the South Carolina Welcome Center!

Mary Ann...

BTW, we name all our computers. In the past, we have had names such as Rascal, Old Yeller, Misty, Bessie, and....that's all I can think of now....but I'm naming my new computer Mary Ann after the Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel book ... one of Ben's favorite books. Mary Ann was what Mike Mulligan named his steam shovel.

My little brother is cute

After reading Ben his bed-time story he says, "Can you cuddle with me ONE MINUTE." I say yes and we snuggle down. That's when he said:
Sometimes when you don't cuddle with me and you go in your room and go to sleep and brush your teeth and go to the bathroom and go to sleep... ...some thunder comes and its scary.

Yes, as if me cuddling with him before he goes to sleep has anything to do with if there's thunder...

....So now I'm worn out!

Today we babysat Schmitt kids (Bobby-3, Maggie-8 mo.)while Bob and Kasie went to a wedding. It was great. When they got back, The guys played "21" which is apparently some game of basketball...then they set up the volleyball net. Yes, Megan. We actually played volleyball. We played five games--one before supper and 4 afterward. Then, we played 4-square until they left...so we're all athletically worn out!!!! But, it was really great!! Oh, and more athletic effort was all the trips I pulled Bobby and Ben in the wagon around the yard, up the street and down, down the culdisac AND UP, etc. I am glad I can type sitting down!

My new favorite music

I have found music that I love...and my mom likes the fact that its gospel and that its not western cowboy music...:)...she got really sick of listening to that 24/7! Its instrumental hymn piano playing! And the master of it is...Charlie Miller. I have his Melodies from the Heart
I really like David Warren too, but I can't find any of his stuff online...The album that I have of his is Strength for today: Bright hope for tomarrow

A strange spring break!!!!

I ran across this link today...its kind of a wierd idea...huh? I can't imagine!!

My new ---------

Guess what Mama got me at a yard sale today!?!?!?! A computer!!! I am so excited!!! It has XP and is probably about a 2000....It says it just has word on it....but I can open and use Publisher documents.....so maybe it has that too....Isn't that cool?!?!?!

What counts for eternity?

I have really been challenged lately about how little in my blog would count in eternity. I read and enjoy blogs by others who are encouraging and inspiring with their posts. Yet mine is all about my life...and I am not stopping to encourage others in their walk witht he same Lord that I long to please.
So here I am...
The thing that has really been on my heart lately is to be a servant to my brothers and sisters, but most of all, to my mom. There is so much good and I can learn from her, and she has done so much for me, that if I can serve her while I'm here, than that is the best thing I can do!
Service! So, now I have to go serve my mom by fixing supper....
Later...

To the Dentist

Wednesday I got six teeth sealed...yah, great. The sealing wasn't too bad except for the fact that I had to hold my mouth open wide...and the sand blasting didn't last that long...but the worst thing was having that "Mr. Thirsty" vacuuming tool in my mouth for 30 minutes straight! My mouth got really dried out!

180 days!

Yesterday was our 180th school day this school year, and so although an unusual thing for Mama to do, she let us off on school for today as celebration though we do have a little more school we have to do, but today is celebration day!

Where is NIna?

Ben: We're gonna run some errands. I'm gonna drive, and Mama's gonna sit in the other front seat.
Me: You are gonna drive?
Ben: No... Nina's gonna drive.
Me: Nina? Where is she? Is she home?
Ben (repeating what he's heard us say): She's in Indi-apolis. She's diong well.
--after a moment's pause-- She's with her friends.
Me: What's her friend's name?
Ben: Ruthie. That's what her friend is called.

A blog for your pet?

How funny!! Kim C. over at In a Shoe said her kids started blogs for their pets...I enjoyed those, but what made me die laughing was the blog for the roosters they fattened up for a feast... Here are the others: The cat, dog, rabbit, and gerbil.

And did I mention the party?

We had a surprise party for Peter and Suzanna on Friday. It was funny, Peter figured it out, the party that is, but not everything. He walked in with a look on his face that said plainly, "I'm not surprised a bit, I knew it." But he was surprised when he turned around and there were the Arnolds and the Custers and the Maguires! He thought it was just the Reeves. <laugh>

Yes, we're just busy!

Being home can be summed up in one word: BUSY!!!!! I just love having a blog…but sometimes I wonder if I should have one if I can’t post on it regularly. Oh well, I’ll try harder. Once a day, or at least that’s my goal, and boy have I failed recently!
On a lighter note, we’ve been having a great time around here. We had a points challenge last week and the reward was a secret. We didn’t know where we were going. It was an “outing” and Mama would tell us nothing about it. As we were ready to go, Mama emphasized that everyone needed to bring socks and when Peter had one with a hole in it, we turned around and went back so Peter could get a sock that didn’t have a hole in it. Dudley figured it out. Soon after, Zeez figured it out. She told Ben where we were going. Ben told me… so everyone knew except Peter. We laughed all the way there and then Peter got it when we were almost in sight of the place we were going to… BOWLING!!! The first time anyone in our family has gone! Well, of the kids, excluding Dan cause he went with some friends once out in Texas but he wasn’t on this trip so that didn’t matter.
A lot of other things have been going on…on Thursday night, we (Papa, Dan, Dud, Peter and I) went to the Apple Valley Bluegrass Festival in Longcreek (45 minutes away? Maybe?) It was great!!! We got to hear Tugalo Hollar, and Carolina Backroads. That was the third time I’d heard Tugalo Hollar, but the other guys, they are really good!! The fiddler they had was Shawn Lane…he’s like Nationally known…and he gives fiddle lessons up in Pickens and so we’re looking at him maybe giving Dud and I lessons plus him coaching us as a band…it’s a pretty cool opportunity!
I gotta go, but I hope I shall return!