Birthday Busy-ness

Yesterday a research company called to poll me. The first question was, "How many adults currently live in your household?" I realized that I had to answer THREE!
Alyson turned 18 yesterday and entered the world of responsible adults. :) We have been so busy lately and celebrating her birthday got a litle squished in between several other things going on, but it was a fun day.
We started out with breakfast from Chick fil A on her way to school. We had balloons delivered to her at school and one of her friends made a big batch of cookies for her. She headed straight to a track meet after school and didn't get home until almost 10! It was fun watching her, though-she won the triple jump!
After we got home from track, we opened presents and enjoyed ice cream cake.
I'm excited for her and what this next chapter of her life will bring. Her story is a beautiful one, written by her Savior, and I'm honored to get to be part of it.

I can't remember how I posted that picture from my phone before but if I do, I'll post a picture of the birthday girl.

Edith Wilson

Click here to listen to Jarrett's latest song. I love it! 

Mobile blogging

Thanks to Kate for this brilliant idea! Now we'll see if it actually works. Here is a picture of the shrimpboat and me off my phone. Worth a couple hundred words? (I can only figure out how to do one pic at a time...)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Just in case you think I've abandoned you, fear not.
It's just that my computer is fried and the only way I can check my email/blogs is on my phone or here, on my dear husband's laptop. Neither of those things have my camera loaded on to them, which means that I can't upload any pictures--like pictures of my birthday, and Alyson and Joshua playing outside, Dave and Joshie at the Kennedy Center, our van that someone decided to hit and run, and Nick being contorted into different positions at the doctor's office. And, frankly, my stories just aren't as interesting without pictures!

So, don't worry---we're still alive, and things are still happening, and one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) I'll show you.

Until then, you'll have to use your imaginations...

Exploring

The knowledge most valuable to the child is that which he gets with his own eyes and ears and fingers (under direction) in the open air. --Charlotte Mason

Handsome

The children's choir sang this morning and Joshua dressed up in his suit for the occasion. I caught him hanging around outside after church lookin' stylish....

The Barn Show

This morning my girlfriend Angela and I went to antique/craft/really cool stuff show at a place called The Barn.

It was so much fun! Three ladies run a shop out of a renovated old barn. Angela has been there a couple of times--usually it's only open by appointment--and bought a gorgeous dresser that she and her husband renovated and made into an incredible vanity in her bathroom. Apparently they have open houses a couple of times a year so she took me to check it out. I bought this coat rack:

and a Christmas present or two.

Here are some pictures from their website in case you're not a "link clicker."

Many of you who are reading this right now are salivating, I know--do not fear. Now that I've found this place, it's definitely on my list of "places to take people when they visit." They will be having another show in December, but will be open a few weekends in between as well.

A Mother's Prayer for her Daughter In Law

I've been reading a book called "Preparing Him for the Other Woman" at bedtime. It's subtitled "A mother's guide to raising her son to love a wife and lead a family." It's a lovely book with chapters like "Teach him to resolve conflict," "Teach him to become a Godly leader" and "Teach him to express love." It's full of practical advice on how to do this at different ages. I especially like the last chapter which talks about preparing ourselves to give our sweet boys to their future brides.

For those of you who are moms of boys...

Dear God,

Prepare me to love my future

daughter-in-law.

Give me a heart that welcomes

her into our family. Help me to do my

part to prepare my son to be her husband,

and help me to release my beloved

boy to her when the time is right.

In Your name I pray, amen.

Fall Weekends

We've had some fun weekends already this fall~
Last weekend Alyson, Joshua, and I went to a barbecue at Jackie's house in Columbia. Jackie is my step-sister, for those of you don't know, and she just received her doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins in a field I am not smart enough to discuss. She has a job at NIH for her post-doc research work. I'd say she's come a long way from when she used to sit in the back of my car talking to her pretend "students," but really, we all knew she'd end up being hugely successful.

Congratulations, Jackie!

Monday my dad and the rest of the family, who were in town for the graduation celebration, came down and spent the day with us. It was great catching up with everyone. Gabe is working hard counseling troubled youth and it was neat to hear the passion in his voice about what he does. Adrianna and Ethan are both enjoying college (i think for different reasons.....) and Adri will be graduating next year and moving on to her graduate work, too. It was a fun day seeing everyone!

This weekend our friend Jana came to stay with us. She is working in New York for a few weeks and we were excited to get to see her and hear all about her wedding this summer and her honeymoon to South Africa! Most of you remember that Jana was one of Alyson's gymnastics coaches in Germany and we've loved that we get to stay in touch with her. We are hoping that she and her new husband, Markus, will be able to visit us in the spring on a layover during their vacation.



enjoying the great weather and working off some of the chocolate treats Jana brought! (I should be on there, too...)



Snail Mail

Don't you just love getting "real" mail? I do. In fact, everyone here does. It's the first thing Dave asks when he comes in from work, and Joshua always watches for the mailman to see if he got anything.
There's nothing like a handwritten letter with your name on it to bring a smile to your face, don't you think?

Today we got a letter from Noor, our adopted son in Palestine! It's so exciting every time we hear from him--we really feel like he's part of our family. In Joshua's last letter, he told Noor a little about himself-where he was born, what he likes to do, and asked him to teach him how to write "Joshua" in Arabic. We were delighted to see that Noor's uncle (who does the letter-writing for him) began the letter with "Guten Tag," which is what, Joshua explained last time, means "hello" in German. And they not only showed him how to write Joshua in Arabic, but "hello" as well!

I wish the letters didn't take so long to go back and forth--it's so exciting when we hear from him! I hope he and Joshua grow up to be friends/pen pals on their own. I can't help but think that we could be making a difference in their family's perception of Americans. And getting to know his family is so enriching and exciting to our lives--what a treat to get to have this experience.

10-10-10

Yesterday was a great day--not only was the date cool, but we got to celebrate our Dad's Happy Birthday!!
We relaxed for a while after church and then went out to one of our favorite restaurants in the area to celebrate. It's a german restaurant and the food is ok, but what makes it great is the atmosphere. Those of you who have been to Germany will appreciate the lights strung across the patio, the tall stand-alone heaters here and there, and of course one more round of "ein Prosit!" Joshua was very interested in making sure the band knew it was his dad's birthday so the entire group sang Happy Birthday to him in english. :)

We came home and opened presents, sang Happy Birthday again while Joshua accompanied us on the piano,  and ate pumpkin pie, made by Alyson, while we watched Amazing Race. 

Happy Birthday, my love~hope you had a wonderful day!

Star-Spangled Camporee

Wow-Cub Scouts has really started off with a BANG! this year! We've had a lot of fun activities and we just started the second month!

This weekend we participated in the Star-Spangled Camporee at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. This event was in honor of the 100th anniversary of Scouting and was put on by the Baltimore Area Council. The Boy Scouts camped for the weekend but the Cub Scouts just went up for the day on Saturday. The day was sandwiched between two major rainstorms and was gorgeous. We even came home a little sunburnt. :)

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Fort McHenry was the setting for the writing of the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key. It's a must-see if you are visiting this area and yesterday made a great destination even better.

We brought 5 boys with us and added one more later in the day. We joined several thousand other Scouts for a day of activities, exhibits, entertainment, and education. We got to see demonstrations of all kinds--from firing of a cannon, to hide tanning, to playing marbles (which we learned and earned a Cub Scout belt loop for!). We got to participate in a flag ceremony and presented our folded flag to the park ranger. We met all kinds of celebrities, like the Baltimore City chief of police, the head of the Parks and Rec department, "Lord Baden Powell" (the founder of Scouting), and even former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!

Checking out the artillery



Civil War Soldier



Getting ready to make the "Living Flag"



Meeting "Lord Baden Powell"



Met some soldiers on break



A real-life tanner



The tiny flag is a normal-sized flag. The other one is Fort McHenry's flag



The boys with their properly folded flag, presenting to the Park Ranger



Hanging with the soldiers

Playing a game to win a boomerang



He won!




Good buddies on a good day




Some of the goodies they brought home

 



Close-up of the patches



Zachary's visit

For the last 10 days or so we've had a special guest at our house. Zachary came to stay with us while the rest of his family was away. Zachary's family is one of our oldest and dearest friends--going all the way back to when Jarrett and Michael (their oldest child) were in 1st grade. Zachary and Joshua first met when their sweet family let the kids and me come hang out with them for an entire month when Dave got extended in Iraq after the year-long deployment. Joshua was 11 months and Zachary was 19 months old. They are like brothers--in just about every way. (wink)

We had a great time with Zachary here and will miss him a lot! In fact, Joshua said to me, not five minutes after he left this afternoon, "Well, what am I going to do now?"

We did a lot of fun things this week-went to the annual Cub Scout picnic, played outside A LOT (they may need to get a trampoline for that boy!), played with friends after piano lessons, had a great time at an agricultural festival, chased the kitties around, went on a picnic of our own, and even went to the movies. The boys did their share of work around the house and earned enough money picking up sticks in the yard to get to do a little shopping at the mall. School got done every morning and both boys fell asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows every night.

And, just for Zachary's mom, here are some quotes from the week:

Joshua: Now, don't you want to get a cat?
Zachary: Yes!
Me: But I thought your mom was allergic to cats.
Zachary: She is. But when she gets old and goes away somewhere, then I'm getting a cat!
_

Zachary: Hey, Miss LeighAnne, guess what?!
Me: What?
Zachary: Did you know that pink is the new black?
this little tidbit of information was followed by a 20-minute discussion between the boys about how that could be true. It had something to do with pink being lighter, and mixing colors, and squinting your eyes just the right way.....

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Laying Low

Wow! I didn't realize it had been two weeks since I last updated! Don't be confused--it's not because there hasn't been anything going on, I've just been too busy (or tired!) to tell you about it!

Here are some pictures to let you see we're still hangin in there....

On Sept. 11, Joshua and some of his Cub Scout Pack participated in the Volunteer Firefighters' Parade here. He had a great time--and that makes 3 parades this year so far for him. He's a pro!

Joshua took some homeschool classes at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. Alyson was off school that day so she and Nick tagged along with us. The big kids watched a 3-D IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon while Joshua took a class called "Just Beachy." We had a nice day, and ended it with lunch at Olive Garden. I like having a picture of the three kiddos--even with the shorty hamming it up in the middle...

Country Cousins/City Cousins

For the last week we have had my niece visiting from Florida. She's from Montana, working as a nanny in Florida, and will be heading to college in Washington state next year. She graduated from high school this year and is really taking advantage of her opportunities to see the country!

The cousins all had a great time together. There was MUCH time spent in Alyson's room watching movies, talking, and laughing. I'd post pictures, but I have none because the door was usually SHUT.

We got to take Morgan out a little and see some of the sights, though.....
As much of DC as we could possibly see in one LOOOONGGG day.......

just outside the National Archives, which I hadn't been to before. It was amazing!

Checking out the digs...

Much-needed rest

One of my favorite things to see in DC.

We had a day of shopping at the mall, of course, which involved lots of clothes trying-on.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor

At the dolphin show in the aquarium, Morgan got picked to be the volunteer. She even got to pet one of the dolphins!

The boys braving the "Splash Zone"

The big pay-off

She and Jarrett (who came up to see her) took the Metro in to meet Dave at the Pentagon, too. No pictures allowed in there, but they had a good time and they even got Chief of Chaplains coins from an old friend from Germany.

And all too soon it was time for her to head out.

It was great having her here--she was just like another member of the family. Oh, wait--she is!! :)
Bye, Morgie! Come back and visit soon!!

And the battle begins....

This little guy greeted me in the morning. I am wondering if he is a scout sent to see what kind of forces his group will be up against this season or if it's just a warning.....

Senior Pictures...

Tonight we had Alyson's senior pictures taken. Our sweet friend Kara, who lives in Georgia and was visiting family in Virginia, braved the rush-hour, Labor Day weekend traffic and came up to shoot the photos.
We shot the pictures at Camp Wabanna, which is run by yet another good friend of ours (thanks, Jen!) and the setting was absolutely gorgeous. Morgan is visiting us this week so we even got to get some cute cousin-shots!
Kara did a great job and Alyson was beautiful. I can hardly wait to see the finished products! Here is a little teaser if you can't wait, either.....

A Long Way To Go......

Me: We will be studying World History this year going all the way back to 1500 BC! Do you know what BC means?

Joshua: It means a really long time ago--like before the 80's, when the dinosaurs lived.

Me: Do you know that I was alive in the 80's?

Joshua: Yes. That's what I mean. A really long time ago.

Another First Day of School

and it went a little something like this.....

New School Supplies

Mixing

Tasting

Yum!

There was reading on the hammock

and after everything was done, a pirate treasure hunt

Success!

We had a fun, fun day! Joshua just told me as I put him to sleep that he didn't want the first day of school to end. :) The treasure hunt was his idea--this afternoon when we were all finished with school he told me that he thought we should have a "1st Day of School Festival." He is never one to let the opportunity for a party to pass him by. So he thought of clues, we wrote them out, then he hid them, and filled up a treasure chest. Then he surprised Nick and Alyson with the first clue he "found" on the path outside.
This year Joshua is studying World History/Geography with Sonlight, Science 2 w/ Sonlight, A Beka Language Arts, and Saxon Math. He is also still taking piano lessons with Miss Jen, and we just ordered our tickets for the new season at the Kennedy Center!
Nick continued where we left off last year. He did really well today--we are taking it slow to start so we can figure out just what he can handle in a day.
A fun day with two sweet boys. :)