Category Archives: Uncategorized

Creation Museum

Posted on by
Reply

 Can I just say, “WOW!”  We had a wonderful, amazing time at the Creation Museum!  It was two hours from our friends’ home so we had decided to load up the kids and go.  Unfortunately, one of their kids was sick so they stayed home and we borrowed Laura to go with us (because, as I said earlier, Zoe and Laura were inseperable).  So, we decided to spread the germs (and we did) with all of Christiandom.  And, as Mark put it, we traveled nine hours and were blessed with free tickets…there was no way he was going to let sick kids stop us.  Okay, so they really weren’t the ones who were sick.  It was actually Mark and I that had to keep running to the bathroom (at least we weren’t throwing up).  The museum is very well done and for the first time, our kids weren’t running from place to place…they actually stopped and listened as we explained each exhibit.  I was impressed with that.

 The live fish were fun too!
 And the garden was soooo beautiful.
 They made a perfect backdrop for our beautiful young lady!

 The animals enjoyed us petting them (as long as we had food)…and we got to see a Zonky and a Zorse (that’s a donkey/zebra mix and a horse/zebra mix…an example of changes within the kind not jumping from one species to the other…a chicken-cat for example would never be able occur…as well as an ape-human…different species see?!)

 Josiah, Liam, and Zoe all voted to ride the camel.  Laura wanted to win we got there but Mark held firm that we weren’t trekking all the way back down to pay for another person to ride…so it was just the three!

 Naps on the go!
 Posed picture time…

Bryant’s fav place…
Okay, this was really long so you’ll have to come back tomorrow for the coconut story!

Facebooktwittermail

Posted on by
Reply

It was such beautiful weather, that we couldn’t resist taking the kids to another park (we’re still in Kentucky here)…by this time we had throw up occurring on a regular nightly basis Ceili Rain and Ace were the main culprits)…however, they always felt fine during the day. Who knows how many people we infected while we were there!
Josiah has this obsession with all things trains…and dirty!
I’m not sure who was hopping here but I love this picture!
Megan is such a cutie and had lots of smiles despite having a double ear infection!

We all know about Liam right??!!  You must return tomorrow for a story about him at the Creation Museum.  It’s a must read!
These tweens look like they got attitude…but they sure were sweet together!  And inseparable!

The playground was gated and Ceili Rain and James were contained!

Yes, I do believe he knows how cute he is!

They are sitting together and being sweet…unfortunately this is the day Bama lost 🙁 

Facebooktwittermail

Playing at the Playground

Posted on by
Reply

Yes, we’re still here. It seems that having six kids and trying to teach them has slowed me down a bit on my blogging. I’ve declared that we are going to have a boring week and weekend this week so I can catch up on our adventures the past few weeks!

While visiting in Kentucky, we went to a beautiful park with the intention of feeding the ducks. However, we didn’t actually get to feed the ducks, but we did see a house that Abraham Lincoln’s father helped build!

Okay, less talk…more pictures…here they come:

The house that was mentioned above.  It’s being restored due to a fire.  Arson seems to be a theme in that town as a pretty neat kids park we wanted to go to was destroyed due to arson…hmmm.

Who’s cute kids are these???

We found a tree just begging to be climbed…however, the older kids chickened out!  But the younger ones let Mark put them up there.

Zoe spotted a large beetle and Josiah wasn’t too keen on the idea of one being so close to him.

Mark loved climbing too!

Sometimes I do take cool pictures!
Megan and Ceili Rain were so cute but on this rare occasion when I turned around with the camera Ceili Rain refused to pose.

Anywhere we went, you could hear Kristina or me yelling, “James, this way!  Come back James!!!”

Facebooktwittermail

In Which We See the Duggars Live (along with a few thousand of our closest friends)

Posted on by
1

Sometimes, we just throw our brains out the window. A couple of weeks ago was one of those times. Kristina, one of my bestest buds, informed me that the Duggars (the family who is on TLC with 19 kids…and counting) were going to be an hour from her home speaking at a local church. The event occurred the day before our scheduled departure date. It took very little convincing for Mark to agree that we would leave a day earlier and do a marathon drive to get there on time.

We planned to leave the house at 7 in the morning, but didn’t actually get out until 8…not too bad for us leaving on a big trip. The drive, thankfully, was pretty uneventful. Multiple stops included to nurse a baby, take potty breaks, and eat. We were about 15 minutes late (not bad for leaving an hour later than planned) so we go to see only a little bit of the kids singing. We didn’t get to hear them play their violins but that was okay.

It was very encouraging to hear a mom of many…who, at one time, like me, had many who were pretty young. And despite, a person behind us who felt it her duty to call out a rude comment (which I was, thankfully, only able to partially hear) concerning the number of children they have (like it’s anybody’s business to begin with), we enjoyed their talk very much. The kids did too.

If they hadn’t been so tired from traveling, we would have stayed to meet them…as it was, our children came before our desires and we headed back to Kristina’s house for a much, much needed rest…but, here’s proof that we actually saw the Duggars:

Not only did we get to see them, we also got to see the crew from TLC, who was just as famous as the Duggars…really…people were getting their autographs too…me, I just snapped a few pictures of them 🙂

At this point, no one was throwing up yet.

Facebooktwittermail

Getting in shape

Posted on by
2

It’s past eleven on a Sunday night and I’m still working away!  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some things done tomorrow and post some pictures.

Anyway, I thought that since I haven’t got pictures ready from our week out and about, I’ll post on this.

It is my goal to be physically fit before or rather should God bless us with another baby.  Given my track record, we’re looking at about six more months tops before then 🙂  Soooo, I’m on a deadline to lose baby weight from, oh, say, the past five pregnancies (I lost the baby weight from Zoe’s pregnancy pretty quickly…having your gall bladder removed, via an emergency at four weeks post pardum will do that to you).  Actually, somebody (meaning the men) in our family (that would be Uncle B, Papa, and Mark) decided that it would be fun to see all of us bust a move (or break a bone) on some ski slopes this winter. 

And so, I would love to be out on the slopes (very briefly…it’s cold out there folks…or at least I think it would be…I’ve never been skiing) and not huffing and puffing and bulging where there needs to be no budge.

Let’s also tag on that Mark and I both feel a responsibility to God and our family to be good stewards and take care of our bodies by eating right (most of the time) and exercising.

Let’s just be honest here…I’ve got about forty pounds to shed/musclize (yes, I made that word up) to be down not only to a good weight for my height but to also be healthy.  And, honestly, I started working out at about six weeks post pardum.

Mark and I started September using a DVD.  It’s called 10 Minute Trainer, and it works great.  The goal is to not really use just one ten minute workout but to stack them together doing about three to four a day.  We’ve gotten up to doing two a day.  However, I started back this month going to the gym.  And with my gym workouts, I decided to use the First Day to 5K Podrunner Intervals.  Let me be the first to say, I do not enjoy running…nor breaking a sweat.  That is just what these DVDs and podcasts will do though.  And actually, I’m enjoying the Podrunner exercises.  They really are working.  I’m not really sure I’ll actually run a real 5K race…but just knowing I could at the end of a few weeks, well, that’s reward enough for me 🙂

So, the Podrunner Intervals is a podcast that is FREE!  That’s right.  Free.  I’ve heard there is an app for your phone you can buy or a podcast that you can purchase.  But what I have is free.  The goal is interval training running and power walking for around 30 minutes (it gradually adds more minutes per week) for three times a week.  I’m on week 2.  I’ve heard some complaints about the lyrics being inappropriate but all I’ve ran into is “Play that funky beat.  Check this out.”  and that’s it…but then again, I’m only on week 2.  The music is hip hop/techno and not boring at all.  I really enjoy it and it keeps me focused on it.  Supposedly in about ten weeks, I’ll be ready to run a 5K.  There are also podcasts for 8Ks and 10Ks and a Ziggurat (which sounds excruciating).  I’m not sure I’ll have time to do the 8 or 10 Ks before we hit (and I do mean that literally) the slopes…but we’ll see.

Here’s my plan:
5K training on Mon, Wed, and Fri. 
10 Minute Trainer (mostly lower body/total body and abs…I’m getting cardio through the 5K and those videos provide enough cardio without having to throw it in…but I could if I wanted) on Tues, Thurs, and Sat.
Rest on Sunday

And the weather is pretty enough that I can take the kids for a mile or two walk around our neighborhood on those off-gym days or just to go walking with Mark after supper.

I’ll try and remember to report back every month on my progress.  So far, I’ve lost five pounds.  Actually, I gained a couple of pounds on our vacation last week, but thanks to the kids (and Mark) sharing the stomach bug, I lost three in one day!  I can tell I’m actually getting in shape because I’m not huffing and puffing through some of the workout videos now.

Here’s a couple of confessions:
First, I found 10 Minute Trainer while feeding Bryant in the middle of the night (people sell interesting stuff late at night…I believe Mark regrets cutting our cable off).
Secondly, I’m actually running on a treadmill, not fast, mind you, but I haven’t fallen off yet.  Even I’m in shock that I’m running.  In place.  And not being chased one single bit.  My dad should be so proud!

So what do you do (if you do anything or are trying to do something) to get in to shape?

Facebooktwittermail

Painted Piano

Posted on by
1

I got a wild hair runnin’ through my veins a couple of weekends ago and convinced Mark that our piano needed painting. He thought I was a little looney but agreed to let me do it. I had been researching painting the piano for awhile but finally decided it just had to be done!

Zoe and Ace have been taking lessons for a little over a year now.  We had purchased a clunker piano (that left us infested with nasty roaches…but that problems been taken care of now) but then a friend offered to sell a spare one that they had for a good price.  So we bought it.  However, after it had sat in a house with 12 children (at the time..they’ve since been blessed with #13), it had seen quite a bit of use as a cup holder/paint catcher and what not.  Not a big deal to us because it sounded good.  We keep our Bibles on the piano because it’s easy access to during family worship.  However, I could not find some basic book stands to save my life…anyways, I gave Mark the choice of painting the piano red or green.  I was thinking a darker green would look good.  Mark opted for a red one since he’d never seen a green one before.

I asked Mark if he had ever seen a red piano…he hadn’t.  Hmmm…well, anyway, we went with red and here’s the mostly finished project!  I love it.  It looks a lot cleaner (with a few touchups needed), and it matches the (insert fancy know it all voice here) decor of the room.  You know, action figures, children’s books and a changing table (that’s coming up soon, I promise)…the fancy stuff. 

So, what do you ya think?  Want to see more painted pianos (so you know I’m not entirely crazy)?  Go here!

Facebooktwittermail

Ant Trap

Posted on by
Reply

 
 Last week, I came down to our bonus room to the announcement:  I’m building an ant trap.  
 

And build he did.  I was pretty impress with his ingenuity and initiative to invent an ant trap.

We’ve had an ant problem at church and this past Sunday they were coming into the nursery area.  We were getting ready to leave and Liam was taking things off the shelf…building an ant trap!  If they keep up with this inventiveness, they might just be able to support us in our old age!

Facebooktwittermail