To post or not to post...

Ok, so here's the deal. When I try to post photos my computer shuts down my internet connection. This is bad if you have a photo blog that desperately needs to be updated! In lieu of photos I guess I will have to actually write to keep you updated on our latest & greatest happenings.

A quick rundown of the rest of last year...

~ In October Nana came for a visit and brought her new knee with her. We tried to wear it out & almost succeeded. We went to the movies, celebrated my birthday, did word searches, went to Lowe's to build things and visited a pumpkin patch, to name a few things we did. The kids really enjoyed their "surprise" visit from Nana for their fall break!

~ Also in October Dan & Charlotte Miller came out for a visit. While they were here we celebrated Eli's birthday ( a few times) at school, at home and at The Rainforest Cafe. I was able to see the Hermitage - President Jackson's home, with Dan & Charlotte; which was something I had never done before. (That's the good thing about visitors, you get to do things you might not do otherwise!) We also went out to eat at lots of fun places and of course we had to go to Miller's Grocery for lunch one day. Dan & Charlotte even made it to the Great Smokey Mountains before it was closed due to snow and ice. Thanks to Dan, I now know where every Harley Davidson shop is in a 100 mile radius! It was a fun visit! :)

~ In November I got to go with Adrienne on her first field trip in kindergarten to the Discovery Center here in town. They still rode the bus even though we didn't travel far and it was a highlight of the trip. Before school let out for Thanksgiving, Tony & I were able to go & have a Thanksgiving lunch with Adrienne & Eli in the cafeteria. It was so cute to see all the little Pilgrims & Indians dressed up in their paper vests & hats. It did make for a noisy lunch however.

~ Esther invited us to their new house in NC to celebrate Thanksgiving & Brandon's safe return from Baghdad. Sadly, Tony could not get off from work to travel that far and I did not feel safe trying to drive it by myself in the snow and stuff. However, a friend here in town told us that we had to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family since we couldn't travel to be with ours. They re-arranged their schedules and celebrated on Wednesday with us so Tony could be there (as he had to work on Thursday). We had an awesome southern style Thanksgiving down in Alabama with Sandi and Randy and their families on Wednesday and the kids and I had a quiet day at home on Thursday.
I can't help but recall our first Thanksgiving here in Tennessee at the all you can eat buffet at Shoney's. It was our first away from our families and I was so sad. Thank goodness I can laugh about it now. While I still miss our families, especially during the holiday season, I am so grateful for the friends God has put into our lives here to fill the gap.

~ December brought me another field trip opportunity, this time with Eli. His class took a trip to Nashville to the Children's Theater for a production of Alexander and the no good, very bad, horrible day. (Or something like that.) It was fun to go to the theater even if it was for children. I really enjoyed it and so did Eli.

~ Adrienne participated in the children's choir at church this year and performed beautifully on the stage despite the child next to her that was determined to make the worst possible faces she could. Adrienne is still singing the songs and even put on a performance for her classmates at school just yesterday with another girl in her class at school who was also in the choir . "I just want to love you Jesus... I just want to praise you Jesus... I just want to love you more and more." I often pray that my children will show God's love to others at school and am amazed at how my prayers are answered through their childlike faith.

~ Speaking of music...Adrienne and I went to a Christmas concert together. It was "Have a Fancy Yancy Christmas". (Yes, Yancy...not Nancy.) I don't know if her cd's are in your local Bible bookstore but if you can find them I would recommend them highly. Rockin' music for kids and enjoyable for parents. www.yancynotnancy.com

~ On a funny !?! note...Tony's patrol car was vandalized by an unidentified vegetable one night. We're pretty sure it was a zucchini. It made quite a mess and broke his mirror. He even had to fill out a police report. (They offered to put some extra patrols on the house in case the villainous vegetable made a return.)

~ Our Christmas was pretty low key. We went to the Christmas eve service at church in the new sanctuary and wow, it was amazing! The music was great and sharing in communion as a family with the kids almost brought tears to my eyes.
After church we went home to find that Santa had come while we were at church so we could have Christmas together before Tony went to work. The kids had so much fun opening up their gifts from us and from their extended family. It was also neat to see how excited they were to give us the presents they bought by themselves at school with their own money. They did a pretty good job too at picking out gifts that would mean something to the other person. It was so sweet to see the hug Eli gave Adrienne after he opened up his #1 Brother key chain from her.
Christmas Day Tony was working, but was able to be home for a few hours in the morning to eat breakfast with us. Thankfully most everyone else was at home too so it was a fairly quiet day at work for him.

~ New Years Eve the kids and I stayed up to yell "Happy New Year" to each other and watch the ball drop in Times Square. It was a fun beginning to the year and the kids have bragging rights at school from staying up so late. :)

~ So far this year things have been going smoothly. We're trying to get back into the school routine after being off for Christmas break only to come back to school and have two more days off for "snow". I think we managed to get two inches. They're calling it the "blizzard of 2010". It was mighty cold though, for Tennessee. Things are just starting to thaw out and I actually saw buds forming on some tree branches today as I was waiting to pick the kids up from school.

I'm looking forward to seeing what this new year brings and hopefully I will keep you updated!

A little taste of Tennessee

Here are some small ways that Tennessee has invaded our life.

This is a drink that is manufactured up in Eastern Tennessee. One of Tony's co-workers brought him some to try. It tastes like a combo of Sprite & Emergen-C. You gotta love the slogan though, especially in this time of economic uncertainty, "Enuf is Enough!".

Eli came home from school with this. I asked if it was a class assignment & he said "No, I made it up myself!" I figured they had been studying Elvis but apparently Elvis has just snuck into his subconscious here in Tennessee. Check out that hip action!

The kids were playing hide & seek with Daddy. I thought this was pretty funny. Notice the daily outerwear. It's been hovering around 45 during the days & 20-30 at night. Brrr!

These are some big pillows I made for a friend. It was my first attempt at making & sewing on piping. I was encouraged by the results & may even attempt to make some new floor pillows for our home now! Even though I am no longer employed sewing at a shop I seem to have plenty of various sewing projects from friends & am able to make $10 here & $20 there. Enough that I don't feel like a "kept" woman. :)

Rollerskating part 2

We had a chance to go rollerskating again after church with a free coupon from Eli's school. Whee! This time Tony got in on the action. We tried to figure out how long it had been since he had last worn skates & came up with junior high at the latest (a long, long time ago). He didn't do too bad considering he was the supporting player for both kids most of the evening.

Adrienne found a friend who helped her skate & gave her encouragement.

Balloon Fun

Beware the dreaded balloon monster!
We finally took down the balloons that the kids had decorated the stairs with & of course they had to play with them.

A little balloon tug of war.

Rollerskating & other odds & ends

Our little tree.


One of the fun things the kids got to do with Nana before she left was to go rollerskating for the first time. It was a noisy night with the kids from Eli's school filling the roller rink.

Nana helping Eli with his laces.


Once we got everyone laced up they were not quite sure what to do.



So....we started out on the carpet.



Adrienne divided her time between the carpet & the bounce house they had for younger children. She did very well on the carpet though & now wants her own skates.



Eli got brave enough to go out on the floor. I helped him quite a bit at first but he soon got the hang of keeping his balance on the slick floor.

We're not ready to go out & race anyone yet but it's highly likely that we'll go to the next skate night his school offers.

Here's Nana with Mike B. Our soon to be too famous for us friend!

Frost on the leaves in the morning just starting to melt.

Amish Country

Adrienne & Nana & I traveled down to Lawrence County with some friends that used to live in the area to see the Mennonite community. Most of these photos were taken from the hip, literally, as the "Plain Folk" do not approve of picture taking. We were blessed to have beautiful weather & everyone seemed to be out enjoying it, especially the children. At times they were literally shielded from view by their Mothers so we could not see them. Once we started talking to the women however, they opened up & our children would peek at each other from around whatever they happened to be hiding behind...a door, a window, me, the van. I tried speaking to the little ones but they remained silent. They did give us big smiles & waves however & I wished I could have taken all their photos they were so sweet looking.

Two little ones.

A community building.


Adrienne & Trapper in a store with Amish handcrafts.


Building a new house & putting up the chimney.


Two women & one small girl in a covered buggy.


The open air buggy.


Going for a wagon ride.


A family car.


Hitching up the horse.


Taking a cow for a ride in the cattle buggy.


This is a deluxe buggy with an extra row of seats in the back. This family has money.


The houses are white & the workshops are red. We "English" only got to go into the red buildings.


The kids were fascinated with the peacocks & the albino bunnies they had at this home.


What a beautiful view of the pasture & the hills with the autumn colors.

Laundry day.



This man sold us some soap & candles. We found out that his oldest son is getting married this month. He said, "My son decided it was time for him to get married. He just had his birthday & turned 21 on October 30th." I asked if the girl was from around here & found out she was from the other side of the highway which is considered far away by buggy.

Frisbee

The weather was so nice on Sunday that we decided to go to the park. As an added bonus Daddy was still home & Nana was here for a visit. We all decided to go out & play frisbee. (& yes I did put down the camera to toss it a few times myself.)


Adrienne in action!


Eli hamming it up for the camera.


Nana being athletic. She said that any "athletic" photos of her had to go on the blog as proof!


Eli would toss to Daddy & if he missed Adrienne was his fetcher & then she would throw it back to Daddy.


He caught this one with his knee!


Adrienne was hanging upside down on the bars & her poncho fell right over her face. It was so funny when she landed right side up & had this beautiful "poncho hair".