Late Night Posting

WARNING: It's really late and I am waiting on the laundry which I neglected earlier to finish up, so this may be more of a rambling than anything else.

We've been busy, busy, busy here. Our summer is almost in full swing, just waiting for Q's school to be over. The Shop is open and picking up right where it left off last year. It is so great to see all the locals and chat with the tourists etc. The schedule is a bit hectic right now, but those details always iron themselves out.

We are still loving our new place! In the last week we've had a raccoon treed in the yard (thank you Boss Dogg), had a bear in the backyard until Boss Dogg chased him away (thanks again!) and found an injured bird which we tried unsuccessfully to nurse back to health. We are spending most evenings around the fire ring, roasting marshmallows, playing guitar and such. We discovered an awesome creek right off the river, perfect for the kids to play in. It really seems like paradise for us right now. We are so thankful!!

Maisie is still growing like a weed and starting to show signs that she may be interested in getting up on those hands & knees pretty soon. At 9 months she is 50th percentile for height and weight (20.5 lbs) and 95th percentile for head size!! Yes, she is definitely one of our children :)

Everett is really starting to expand his vocabulary which is starting to FINALLY quell his temper a bit. YEA!!

Walker has completely skipped over his kindergarten reading and gone straight into first grade! He is so proud of himself and we are so proud of him too!!

Quentin is blowing our minds with his musical ability. It comes so easy to him! He heard and watched his friend play a classical piece on the piano the other day and then came home and could play it perfectly from memory! He was playing for me a new piece last night, it was very pretty, then he took his hands, crossed them (so the left hand played the right hand etc.) and played the piece again, perfectly! The kid is crazy!!

Well, the laundry just buzzed so here are a few random pictures :)

The Great Train Race 2009

Well, it was the first Sunday in May so naturally it is The Great Train Race!! One of my favorite days of the year! Even though this 2009 brought us rain by the buckets full, we all still had an outstanding time cheering on all the kids. And the wet weather did nothing to deter the kids from giving it their all!

For the first time we had 3 runners, yes even Everett got in on the fun this year! Quentin did his usual mile run and had an all time personal best time (for competition) of 9:21. So proud of him!



And Walker really let his competitive juices flow in the quarter mile. He wanted to run the mile this year, but by the time we figured out he actually COULD run a mile it was too late to change his registration.




Here is a little look into Everett's pre-race conditioning.

Everett ran the Caboose Run (1/4 mile) and fought (literally) the entire way down the hill! LOL!! He was screaming and fighting until he saw all of us standing and cheering for him and he just gave us quizzical look and then went back to his run and his screaming. Too funny!! Once he crossed the finish line and received his medal and accolades he was one happy kiddo!



As always, there were many friends who ran as well.
Emma & Tim

Will sprouted wings and flew!!!

Here are Charlie & Margarete (Will's dad & little sister).


Will also had a younger brother who ran, but he was too fast for my camera :)

And lest we forget little Lowell, running with his mom, Kate! TOO CUTE!

It was a wonderful day and we are all looking forward to next year!

Moving On Up...

Or out anyway. This week has been spent packing and unpacking boxes. Many. Many. Boxes. But I am proud of our progress! Each and every member of the family is in love with the new digs, me included! It is absolutely perfect for us. When Everett throws a temper tantrum, he is no longer underfoot, he is waaaaaaayyyyyyy across the room! AAAAHHHH!!

Today the kids and I took a nice break from unpacking and went for a little jaunt into our woods to explore the new property. OOOOOO the wonders of nature!

Another cool side note, is that we found out our neighborhood and the creek that runs through it, was once a gold mine. So the boys now have visions of striking it rich, they are working on a system to start panning tomorrow. LOL!!

Here are some random pictures from the last few days.

We found a dead tree and the boys pushed it down. We then found that it was infested with termites :)



Also on our walk today we found a grave whose homemade tombstone had fallen over. It was the resting place of someones beloved dog or cat named Harry. The boys took this VERY seriously, vowing to pray for the family who lost Harry. They set the grave marker back in it's proper place and had a moment of silence.

Easter this year has to go into the books (or blogs) as one of the best ever! Filled with excited children up at the crack of dawn, a beautiful service at church, followed by an enormous dinner filled with family & friends.

Maisie and the boys were up and at 'em a little after 6:00 on Sunday. They were thrilled to find that the Easter Bunny had left them baskets of candy and...fishing tackle (the Bunny is looking out for our dentist bills). After they were loaded to the gills with sugary treats and the floor was covered in Easter grass, we were donned in our Easter best and off to church. The service was wonderful and spot on as usual, filled with classic Easter hymns (love those!!). And as always there was much fellowship after the service.

I want to take a minute here and just say how much I truly love our little church. A year ago, I never would have thought I'd hear myself say this. I just wasn't sure about it. But now a year later, I know that we are supposed to be here. I know I can learn a lot from, not just my pastor and his family, but the entire congregation. They make me long to give more and do better.

So after church, it was off to Mom & Dad's, where the whole family (in-law's too) and Uncle Roy's family had gathered to fellowship and feast! There was ham, smoked game hens, a huge beef tenderloin, Melissa's potato salad (the best EVER), pea salad, macaroni salad, homemade macaroni & cheese, roasted potatoes & carrots and hot buttered rolls. THEN there were the desserts! Strawberry/Rhubarb pies, upside down pineapple cake, cupcakes, dessert breads and so much more! Seriously, it was incredible! We ate and the kids played. We ate some more and took the kids on walks to the barn or the pond in order to digest. We told old stories and new stories, watched the kids hide & hunt their Easter eggs, we laughed a lot.

It was a wonderful Resurrection Sunday! A time to celebrate and be thankful for the great sacrifice our Father made for us and to realize His wonderful grace and drink it up.

Happy Easter!

OK, that last one was from last week, but it's just too cute not to post!! Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks?!?!?

Where Are We Now??

Well, I know it's been a while, but we are still here and kickin'

Actually, we are kicking really, really hard! In less than a month we will have moved to a new house and opened the shop up for the season. The thought of it all makes me want to crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head! But I know we will get it all done and we will survive.

We are all very excited about the move! It is a much bigger house on 10+ acres and it is walking distance to the Rappahanock River. Basically it is in the middle of no where! AHHHH!!!! HEAVEN!!!! We will miss being so close to all of our friends, but a change had to be made and we believe we've made the right one. Q will remain in school until the end of the year and then all of the kids will be home schooled again (live & learn I suppose).

As for the shop, things will remain pretty much the same. We are painting the inside to give it a fresh new look and we will be adding nachos to the menu (this will require great restraint on my part). We will try to push the boat rentals even harder this year, and are hoping that having each one equipped for fishing will help.

As usual things are plugging along at a frantic pace. I guess we must like it that way, because we always seem to wind up going 100 miles an hour, never reaching for the break.

The boys are getting bigger by the second! And each night I go to bed thinking "How in the world are they going to be men in a few years?!?!?" It's a scary thought, but with lots (and lots) of work and even more prayer I suppose it will happen.

And if you watch closely you can actually see Maisie getting bigger right before your eyes! Seriously the child is HUGE! We don't have an official weight, but we are guessing she is between 22-25 lbs! But she is 25 lbs of absolute joy! She is happy no matter what, when or where. When she is at home she is all smiles. When she is out and about she will stare a hole, with her great big eyes, right through any stranger who tries to talk to her, but rarely does she make a peep. And in this family that is a real and true blessing!!

In her 7th month she started saying Mama, Dada, Buh-Buh, and lately Dadeeee. Poor The Dude doesn't stand a chance.

Quentin is trudging right along in school, though he finds most of it pointless and mundane (which it is). We've had to have many conversations about doing our best in ALL things, even when we find it pointless. His marks are outstanding and we are very proud of him. And on the bright side, he has made many great friends that he will get to keep in touch with through Scouts even after we move to No-Man's-Land. It has been a difficult year for Q. He has not had the time to delve into all of the things he loves so much, but in a way it has been good for him too. He's come out of his shell and grown up so much. The child never ceases to amaze us.

Walker started his Kindergarten curriculum and is doing wonderfully! We had planned to take this year "off" but that wasn't working out too well, so we plunged right in. He has also started cub scouts and earned his first belt loop last night. It was for marble shooting, his pap-paw will be so proud! He is loving every second of scouting. He is also learning all kinds of mad skills in his rock climbing class! He's learned how to tie a figure-8 knot, a double figure-8 knot, how to repel and run a zip line. Cool stuff!! Walker has become the absolutely sweetest boy in the world! He loves his family, and pretty much every person he meets, so unconditionally and he expects that love to be returned, he feels it is just natural, that's the way it is supposed to be. We could learn a lot from him!

And last but never, EVER least (or last for that matter) is Everett. Where to begin? He is still the feistiest little guy God ever created. HOLY COW! And just when you think he's completely out of control and you can't take another second, he goes and does something absolutely hysterical and he'll have you rolling on the floor. He's a quick study and knows where the line is and treads it often. Though he puts us through the ringer each and every day The Dude and I both firmly believe that we will not have to worry much about this one in life. God has great things in store for him. He is a born leader who commands (and demands) attention and is absolutely fearless. He does not wear his heart on his sleeve like his brothers, but when it comes down to it he does have a big heart, he jsut shows it differently. Heaven help the person, animal etc who tries to get in his way!! He will come to his brothers' aid gladly with both fists swinging!! And don't even THINK about messing with his baby sister! Though it is rough around the edges right now, we find this all to be good stuff!

So our not-so-little-family is coming along quite nicely. We find keeping our expectations low is a good thing. Right now we consider it a successful day when everyone eats at least one well balanced meal (doesn't have to be at the same time), everyone has all limbs in tact and no facial bruises or lacerations, and at least one person in the house gets a bath or shower. Today was a success.

Rental House

For those interested in the rental house, here are few pictures. Please pardon our clutter as we live with four small very active children :)

The living room.

The Dining Room. The black wall is painted with chalk board paint, great for writing messages and such.

Primary Kitchen.

This is one half of the finished basement. Shows wood stove.

The other half of the basement. The bar is to the right.

The secondary kitchen in the basement, located on the other side of the bar.

Bathroom on the main level.

Half of one bedroom on the top floor, connect to the other bathroom.

This is the other half of the bedroom. (Please pardon our clutter, this is an active household!! :) ).

This is half of the bathroom on the top level of the house. It connects to the bedroom pictured above.

This is the other half of the bathroom. It also holds the closet and washer & dryer. We are leaving the washer & dryer in the house for tenant's use.

I will try to get the other photos posted of the other bedrooms and other parts of the house. 2 of the other bedrooms are very large with hardwood floors and large closets. The other bedroom is smaller, located on the main level of the house and has 2 closets.

The house also has a very large screened in back porch which connects to an open deck. The back yard is fully fenced. Off and on street parking is available to UMW students. It is approximately 2,400 finished sq. ft.

Feel free to give me a call to set up a time to come and look at the house. We are flexible on the start time of the lease. Thanks!

Emily

How's This For Embarassing????

Everett has been struggling with an ear infection for quite some time now. So, yesterday I decided to take him back to the doctor to see f the meds were actually doing any good. It was just the two of us so he was being exceptionally good. He was still loud, very repetitive and rambunctious but he had captured the attention of the absolutely packed waiting room, which was his ultimate goal. In fact the place was so packed E & I couldn't even get a seat when we first got there. After a while a couple of seats opened up and we moved into them.

Our ped office has rows of chairs set up back to back so the rows are facing each other. The row where E & I were sitting was facing the door and facing a row of only 2 chairs. And soon a very large bald black man and his 6YO son came in to occupy those two seats directly in front of Everett and I.

I must stress here what I mentioned earlier. Everett is loud. His voice is much like mine, LOUD. And if he thinks he is being funny, he is even LOUDER. And because he's the third kid he is repetitive. He often gets drowned out by his siblings, so he has picked up the habit of saying things over and over and over until you repeat what he is saying.

SO, back to yesterday...No sooner did the large, bald, black man take his seat no more than 3.5 feet from us then Everett stopped what he was doing, took a couple of steps toward him, pointed and said (crystal clear!!), "Mom! Barack Obama!, Barack Obama! Barack Obama!..." And on and on he went. I tried to quiet him by whispering, "No, that's not Barack Obama." But he was not having it. He kept pointing and saying it over and over. I looked at the man, who was most definitely looking at me. So, I just sort of shrugged and embarassingly said "I'm sorry. We watched a lot of the inauguration coverage yesterday." He just sorta gave a smile. Finally, I dug in my bag and found a lollipop and plugged the whole.

UGH!! I've never heard the child say any two words more clearly. I can just imagine what that man must have been thinking! LOL!!