Jail Time...

The home school group (HEAR) put together a field trip for us today. We visited the Person County museum, the Sheriff's dept/ jail, the police dept. and the court house. We had to park at one location and walk between buildings. It was raining the entire time which just added to the fun!

This is Peter and a buddy checking out a "holding" cell for prisoners who are put in isolation or need a little time to get some drugs out of their system. The boys were intrigued by the hole in the floor that was the "toilet".


After the Jail, we went to the new police station and then to the court. I had no idea what was on the agenda at the courts. It turned out that we had a little lecture by the judge and then were able to observe "drug court". Definitely over our heads, Emma feel asleep and then awoke when we had to "all rise"! We left, very quietly, while the judge called the lawyers, officers and defendant to his desk.

A new day

It's a little after 7am this morning and my heart is just truly thankful. I am thankful that I got up around the time my alarm went off and I am thankful that I sat down and read from my Bible this morning. This morning I read (randomly) from the book of Micah and I was just impressed with the awesomeness of God's word. I know I take for granted the fact that I own a book that has God's word to me in it. I was just thinking about how many people out there and around us that may not even have a Bible or have one but don't read it. We as believers are so fortunate to have the Words of the Lord at our finger tips.
I am also thankful to be up this early and to not have any little ones up with me so my thoughts can go uninterrupted for a bit as I just think and pray.
I am just thankful this morning and I wanted to share.

I also wanted to share a blog that I have been following for about two months. It's the story of a family that has really moved me to think more about the goodness of God, His Grace and the outpouring of His faithfulness in the midst of hard times.

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

If you haven't seen this blog yet, I would scroll down a bit to the Monday post titled "Fast Track". You will get a summary of their life there.

I hear a door opening....

Not Shy

It's Tuesday night and for us that means our friend Branden is coming for dinner...For me that means, make sure that I have plenty to eat because "B" can put away some food. I just had to take his picture.



I think he liked it....He actually had two servings even though he was using one of my "mixing bowls" as Emma told him.

We love you, B.

On the road

We decided to take the family to Morehead Planetarium on Monday. They do a morning showing of the Magic Tree House - Space Edition. Peter and Emma are huge Magic Tree house fans. We typically have at least one Magic Tree house tape sets at our house from the library per week. I try to encourage breaks from the tapes but they don't happen often. The show was pretty neat but the Planetarium (as a museum) was a bit of a bummer. I thought there would be more to look at but it's basically just the show. We were at the edge of UNC-CH's campus so we took a little walk. The day couldn't have been called complete if we didn't head over to Duke for lunch....

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Easter Eggs

Our church has a tradition of having our Easter Egg hunt at a family's home. We had a great time. This year Peter graduated to the "big kid" section of the hunt! Let's just say that Ryan has full understanding of what Candy is and he knows how to say the word....






We had great fun and are still enjoying the candy!

5 for 5

We have now officially all had the stomach bug....Philip succumbed last night around midnight, Ryan succumbed during the night sometime (apparently unaware of it) and Emma lost it shortly following dinner tonight. The bug seems to have dimensioned in strength as it went through the family! Philip has a big weekend required of him so hopefully he will feel great when he wakes up tomorrow.

Thank God for Spring!

Happy belated Birthday

As Philip posted, Ryan celebrated his second birthday on March 18th. I believe Peter and Emma have a bit of the gift of Prophecy in them. The morning of his birthday (before I started throwing up....) they told me that it wouldn't really be his birthday b/c we weren't having a lot of people over and a party. I tried to explain to him that those two things don't make a party...
Anyway- by that afternoon I was in the bed and Philip who was thankfully working from home was watching the kids. I overheard a great conversation between him and Peter. It went something like this:
Philip: Hey Peter, guess what? We're going out for dinner?
Peter: We can't Daddy. It's Ryan's birthday and Mommy has a special hot dog dinner planned. It's his birthday dinner.
Philip: Oh, Hot dogs...I think I can do hot dogs...let me go talk to mommy.

It made me smile that Peter understood the importance that I was trying to instill that we had a special meal planned to celebrate Ryan's birthday. Philip indeed cooked the hot dogs and they had a great time. I think Philip got a bit frustrated with the kids b/c none of them were really eating much, a small fact that I neglected to tell him before dinner.

Since Ryan's cake didn't get iced and I didn't get to sing Happy Birthday, we did the whole cake thing again the next night.


This is our gift to Ryan for his birthday. He is having a great time with it and not sharing with his siblings. And, yes, it was raining but I was feeling a little guilty and he really wanted to ride his bike!

I'm Back

I am a little hesitant to say but I am actually feeling much better! I think it just took a trip to the Dr. to get my body back in motion. As my darling husband graciously explained I have been a bit under the weather. It seems as if our family had that nasty 2 week virus that included fever, head stuff and stomach stuff. I went to the doctor today b/c my ear had been aching and I thought it might be an ear infection. However, she said my ears looked clear but my nose was quite stuffy. She gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and some samples of some nasal spray. I have decided to do the nasal spray and hold off on the antibiotic. I am feeling better and I just don't know what I think about the whole antibiotic thing!

The kids and I were scheduled to go to Charlotte to spend some time with my family by marriage. I prayed last night before I went to bed that God would make it clear to me what my decision should be about this trip. He answered that prayer with a 1am wake up from my darling Peter who told me that, "I just threw up in my bed". So I cleaned him up and said to the Lord, "Did you have to be this clear?!". Emma has a slight fever and a case of tummy aches so it is best that we stay here and hopefully rid ourselves of this nasty virus.

I did pick up a bottle of Lysol disinfectant spray at the drug store but how exactly do you disinfect your entire house? Any suggestions???

Real Sick

I had to let all you know that DeAnne is still sick---she is really sick. She is so sick that I think that she is just really sick. She is even so sick that she had to go to the doctor. You know that's bad. She is just that sick. Ryan (since he is two) has started doing the cooking. And Emma is still supervising Ryan's behavior ---- but he really has matured a bunch since turning two. And Peter is still enlightening us on the finer details of Christ's crucifixion on the cross. So just remember DeAnne is sick ---- and that is why you haven't heard from her --- you might want to give her a call --- because she is sick.

Blessings to you all,

Philip

Sick

Hello all of you fans of DeAnne's blog. I wanted to slip in a little note telling you that DeAnne is sick, sick, sick. It is pitiful how sick she is. She so sick that I don't know if she could get sicker. She is just plain ole' sick. Wow, she really is sick.
I'm not going to tell you about all the gory details of how sick she is. But, I do have to tell you that the kids have really chipped in around the house. Peter has taken on the responsibility of teaching everyone in the house what to do and what not to do (including myself). Emma pretty much oversees all of Ryan's behavior--and continuously reports to me how he now is playing with knives, he is leaning out of open windows and he has let wild animals roam around the house. Ryan's major responsibility is to make sure that he gives Emma plenty of material to report back to me about (kind of like the stock market and politicians [especially those in NY]). My job is to make sure this seamless process runs like a well-oiled machine. And as you can see---this is a piece of cake.
Speaking of cake---yesterday was Ryan's 2nd birthday.
Now I will tirelessly get back to the responsibility at hand of working over the finer details of evangelism by producing a well executed and finely tuned paper on Baptism, Conversion and Morality.
Blessings to you all as we live with our Lord through this next week. May we remember that the trial, whippings, beatings, false accusations, thorns, blood, lies, mockings, abandonment and death were for our sins and should have been our punishment. Now let us live into that resurrected life---that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Getting back

Well, it seems we went off again and I forgot to report our travels!! We spent the last week with my parents at the beach and the week prior to that at home sick! It seems that we all caught something when we were in West Virginia. My family was sick (excluding Philip), my sister and her kids (excluding husband)and kids, my mom and maybe my dad-jury's still out on him....It was rough. Somehow the men in our family got the healthy way out this time. I haven't been that sick in 5 years. Needless to say that week was a wash! The week at my parents was great but we were still recovering from sicknesses. Peter and Ryan experienced the brunt of the sickies this week.
I am so thankful to be home in Roxboro and I am praying that we are finished with being sick. I am so tired of wiping snotty noses and searching high and low for tissues!!

Philip took some pictures of one of our beach afternoons

Make a postcard - it's easy!

forgotten pictures

I just realized that I forgot some pictures from West Virginia.

This is Ryan with his Auntie mashing ramen noodles for our broccoli slaw!



This was one of the mornings that the kids were lined up for their video time while us grown-ups had showers and ready for the morning!

West Virginia trip

We all had a great time in WV visiting with our family. Emma still asks when are we going to go back. It is always interesting to see who ends up "pairing off". This time around it was definitely Emma and Charlotte. They got to share a room and a full sized bed which secured their relationship! Charlotte helped Emma get her clothes on and fix her hair. Emma loved all of her dolls!
Peter and John also shared a room and spent a lot of time together. Then there's Ryan and Sam. Ryan spent a large majority of the time trying to play and hold the cat. They both loved trains and loved for Poppop to put together the tracks!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Our final full day in WV, my mom and I took the oldest 4 to the Clay Center. It is a children's museum of sorts. It was a great time and we ended it off with Chick-fila!
The pictures are a little blurry b/c of the lighting or maybe I just didn't take good pictures!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

It is finished!

About a month ago, I volunteered to do a "cross stitch" for the women's group at church. We were doing them to give away at a meeting in April. For some reason I thought it would be fun and good for me to do. My mom taught me to cross stitch when I was young but it hasn't been something I've done in like 6 years. After getting an extension and getting permission to alter the pattern and only do half of it, I finally turned it in tonight. I am so relieved it's over.
Here's what it looks like. Don't look closely because there are lots of mistakes!