Trip to Wolf Lake

:) Hello I'm glad to be back in town again... although I really would not have minded staying a little longer. Hey, but I can get cell phone reception now!!! :)

On Wednesday, we (Consie, Howard, the four children, Vanessa, and I) left SC with a car loaded down with food (and very, very yummy food at that!).

Sunday we returned... :) Here are some pictures from our little trip I hope you will enjoy.

We stayed in a very nice huge house on Wolf Lake in NC. The weather was awesome the high was 68, at night it dropped to about 45... :) and best of all the water felt absolutely wonderful!!!

The room I stayed in

:) I had a room inside of the house all to myself (+ Charity for a couple of nights.) It was a great place to curl up and read in the late mornings... :) I don't think I woke up before 8 once while we were there. It was nice for a change.

Howard reading

The house had a great view off the back porch. Which was also a good place for reading, thinking, working on sudoku puzzles, :0) or just doing nothing.

Just in case you might have wanted to know here is a random fact... I really like porches!!!

The Weather really was about prefect.

On Saturday we spent a good bit of time on the pontoon boat just having fun.

:) I love look on Ryan's face.

I was in the tube and the kids were watching from the back of the boat.

The guys stopped to swim for a little bit. Then they drifted the boat over where some trees had fallen into the water and went about fishing.

Here is the fish Vanessa caught.

The lake was really clear and you could see the fish swimming around toward the bottom. There were some really big ones down there.

After getting wet I was a little chilly and Vanessa very sweetly let me wear her dry shirt. While they were fishing I found a comfortable place and continued reading my book (Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)... with a couple interruptions consisting of a little boy, tree branches, and Caroline with a camera. It was a lot of fun!!!

:0) And of course, before we left we had to have some family pictures taken.

:) Thank you Consie!!!

So, after hearing about my trip would you like to go???

~Oh it's just another boring day... :)

Hello. I trust you are having a wonderful day. :) I am!!! After work I'm leaving town for a couple of days and am really looking forward to it.

(I will miss people though... well at less most of them.) :)

Sunday it poured at our house for a little bit. The weather has been really dry recently and we needed rain, but in the process it washed the ruts in our driveway deeper.

My car does not like them at all! :(

Last week when watching Trevor look at some of the pictures I had taken with his camera, I realized I had left out several random but quite exciting things to watch while they were happening in May. Here is one of them.

Our driveway is not in the best of conditions right now. A long time ago the culvert running from the pond to the creek started caving in. Since then it has been eroding away. (Dad is planning on fixing it when he has the time and money.)

Around the 10th of May, the propane man came to fill back up our tank and was trying to back up to the house. (He was a new guy and had not been to our house before.) I feel very sorry for him it really was not his day. He backed the front right tire into the hole pictured above....

He called a tow truck to come pull him out. About 15 minutes later the guy called him back to let him know it would be awhile, because he had lost his keys and was having trouble finding them.

In the end it all turned out OK. :) Daddy came to the rescue with the tractor and pulled him out. He turned around and drove up without any problem.

(I think I slightly embarassed the poor man taking pictures.)

What would we ever do without our daddies!?

Lance

Tuesday after picking up my daddy from work I came home to a little brother who started working quite hard in a attempt to get me to cut his hair (Which is something I told him I would do a little over a week ago)... while I was sewing and talking on the phone with Trevor.

:) He started out by calling me endearments and rubbing my back...

When it became evident this method was not working too well he dashed off to get the cloth we use to keep the hair (for the most part) off the neck and out of the back of their shirts and started dancing about the kitchen using it as a cape and pretending to be Count Dracula.

:) Very funny to watch.

After about five minutes of this behaviour he once again was on the run.

:) This time after the scissors and comb...

I gave in and started chopping off his hair. He has started turning all curly on top and it makes cutting it difficult. It did not take long before I sent him off to wet down his head.

:) All the while J.E.B. was enjoying the show immensely while taking pictures. Most of them were of himself making faces. If you were to have walked in, I'm pretty sure you would have thought we had escaped from the mad house.

I can't help but laugh when I see these pictures of him looking it the mirror after I had finished.

He was thanking me for cutting it and telling me he liked it while make different faces. I'm not really sure if I should believe him. What do you think???

Oh life is never boring with brothers around.

Lance is a great to have about. He is a bookworm, has overwhelming self control and discipline (Except for when it comes to teasing Adah, then he just can't seem to stop himself), is a endless source of comedy and laughter mixed with a contagious smile, and in many ways is a challenging encouragement spiritually. I can't imagine what our family would be like without him.

I hope you all have had a good day.
:)

My Room...

:) Good morning.

Trevor told me about three months ago that I should to do a post on my room. :) I thought today might be a good day to show you around a little. I moved out of the house to a room above the barn (pictured above) about three years ago. :) And no it does not have a bathroom.

You can't see it, but at the bottom of the hill there is a creek. I love curling up with a good thought-provoking book ( :) Especially in the cool evenings of fall with the rustling of the leaves in the trees.) and hearing the water trickling over rocks.

It's really is not as cluttered as it looks... or at least I hope not!
If it is someone please tell me so.

:0) I'm helping Sheppard store some of his furniture.
The book shelves, end table, chair, bed frame, and lamp are all his. (o:

For the most part I'm very happy with it. There are a good many things I'd like to change (like the color of paint on the walls), :) but for now it's home.

:) Have a great day!!!

Random Facts and Tid-Bits

Hello!!!

About two and a half weeks ago our computer here at work picked up a virus off a memory stick or flash drive and proceeded to crash. A lot of what we do involves using this computer so it has been quite interesting to say the least. Almost everything has been reloaded and is running. :) We are getting to learn where to find and file things all over again. :) lots of fun... j/k!

:) We had are Homecoming service Sunday at Church. It was very uplifting!!! :)

:) I got two fill in for the primary class teacher. It was a lot of fun. I'd never taught a class before.

On the 17th Faith had their Mother - Daughter activity. It was fun although I would have rather been home doing other things on a Saturday... :) My mom had a good time though.

:) I absolutely LOVE having brothers!!! They can be most annoying at times though...
Sheppard (with Lance help) piled rocks and cleaned up around my stairs.

I now have a little flower garden. :) I've never had one before and I'm finding it to be as much fun as I thought it might.

Sheppard did most of the planting for me... Didn't he make it look cute!??

On Monday he added a turn in the steps up to my room. It makes them so much easier in the dark!!!

What do you think of them???

Getting the wood to finish the job was quite fun. :) We literally slid through the doors of Home Depot as they were closing Monday night. On the way home we quoted some Scripture and sang a couple songs... :) I love being a part of a larger family!!!

~Tuesday, May 6th~

:) This morning was fun. Ashley and I had our monthly cup of coffee.
(Have I told you anything about Ashley Tyndall Stafford? She is my best Friend. :o) I'll tell you more about her later.)
About once a month I meet up with Ashley at her parents house to have coffee with her and her dad. Poor guy he has 5 daughters... :) He did gain two son-in-laws last year though!!! :) I really enjoy get togethers.
It all started about two and a half years ago when Ashley and I were both working at GBS Lumber (and she was not married). Instead of us both driving there we would meet at her house and ride together. :) And of course have a cup of coffee with her dad before leaving. Time moved on and we no longer meet at the Tyndall's house in the mornings, thus no talking while dunking ginger snaps in the living room with her father. :) Then Ashley started helping her mom with some of the cleaning once about every other week. (Don't ever have her dust your house unless you are willing to do it again after she leaves. :) She gets in a hurry and misses stuff. :o) love you Ashley!!!) We got to talking one day about missing those morning get togethers with her dad and decided to make a point of getting together there once a month when she was going to be cleaning for coffee.
Here is a picture of Mr. Tyndall when he had stopped by UPS to mail a package to his brother. :) It was nice of him to send his brother a gift but...

he had just gotten out of the hospital and it was a brotherly prank. :)

Doing a post at work is a good bit of fun. I just spent about 25 to 30 min. trying to get this guys picture taken. We had to get him to open his eyes long enough to take a picture. He did not cry once during the three times his mother had to wake him up. He is six week old and ten pounds.

Because this is the first time we have done one for a baby this little and I was the one who did it... I was just dubbed "The Baby Picture Taking Expert" by Sam. :) It's easy to become a expert here all you have to do is something no one else has done and do it well and Viola! you are the expert. :)

The first day of May :)

:) Today is Thursday May the first... This means our fearless leader Josh (as Sam lovingly calls the store owner) was in to pay bills and print out our house account holders monthly bills.

Here he is hard at work. When he is here doing this my job gets a lot harder. I get to keep the customers as far away as I possibly can.

Normally there is something like this you can see floating around above his head.

Oh but this morning to my delight he was quite pleasant to be around. He even laughed a little and let me take a picture (and he SMILED!!!). He does not like having his picture taken. :)

Recently the store has been rather slow in the mornings. Last week I started been bringing in my cross stitching so I'll have something to do. People see it on my chair and find it hard to believe that a young person knows how to and enjoys doing it. :) Here is what I'm working on.

This is what the pattern looks like.

I love watching it start to take form. Don't know why but it is a quite relaxing past time... even the undoing after miss counting part. Hmmm have I gone crazy???