Ready for the Fair

I had several errands to do today and one of them was to drop off some pictures at the fair grounds for the exhibit hall. I love going to the fair. I like the smell, the sounds, the lights. It's always fun. Tomorrow night is a great night for families to go. Up to six people a carload for one price gets them admission and unlimited rides. It's really not a bad deal when you consider the money you drop on tickets to ride.

I had several pictures to choose from that I had taken this year, but I can only turn in three, so these were the three I chose:

Fourth Of July Fireworks from the Kings Mountain display.


American Bald Eagle from our trip to Tennessee.



And the lovely Miss Naomi at Kendra's birthday party.

It's been raining the last couple of days so the fair grounds were terribly muddy. I had mud caked to my tires and the bottom of my car. Justin was sweet and rinsed all of that off for me. It was so gross. Red mud is the WORST! I remember living in South Carolina as a little girl and finding red clay. Now that stuff was somethin'! It was fun to play in though.

School is going ok. We've hit an unexpected bump in the road already this year, but it's ok. We're actually managing to stay on course.

Hannah is spending the day with my mom, the boys went to put gas in Justin's truck, and Bruce is sound asleep. I think I'll pull some meat out for hamburgers tonight and take a little nap here on the couch until the boys get back. Short naps are great energy boosters!

On My Heart This Morning...

You Hear Me When I Pray

There've been times, in my life
facing so much fear and strife,
not knowing just what's best to do

That's when I needed You the most,
that's when I found You so close
assuring me that You'd see me through

If I but fall upon my knees
You'd hear my desperate plea
assuring me the answers on the way

For in my hour of deep despair,
I call on You, You're always there
it's good to know You hear me when I pray

Many times I've searched high and low
not knowing which way to go
Satan tries confusing me more

But then a voice so tenderly
whispers, "Child, bring it to me,
I hold the answers you're searching for"

You see, no matter where I have been
or how far deep in sin
and even though I may run to hide
Down in my heart, one thing I know
Jesus loves me, this is so
And He stands with arms open wide

If I but fall upon my knees
You hear my desperate plea
assuring me the answer's on the way

For in my hour of deep despair,
I call on You, You're always there
It's good to know You hear me when I pray.

Rush Night 2010

The last couple of weekends and some through the week, the youth group worked on their Rush Night displays. They all did a fantastic job!

Last night after the service, Pastor had each of the team captains stand up and tell their team verse and slogan.

The Pi Gamma Hunters had their display looking like a hunting site. I loved it!

The next display was by the Chi Alpha Survivors. They also did a great job. I loved how they had their individual names on the tiki torches. Hopefully no one will get voted off this team this year. haha...

And the last display was by the Nu Delta Cherokee Nation. I, personally, liked the tipi setup. That's one little Indian that sleeps in there, I'm tellin' ya!

;0)

The parents were asked to bring soups and sandwiches. I was glad too. I was cold all day yesterday and that soup hit the spot, for sure! I should have brought some home because I'm cold today too!!!! LOL

My buddy Kim was helping herself to some yummy grapes off the dessert table.

Hunter's Ben and Kendall were in full gear ready to hunt some ducks. It was funny because they all had those little duck calls and whenever the other teams would start chanting their cheers they would all start blowing their duck calls. It was so funny.

Here we have Brother Mark and Mrs. Jeannie with their team.

And Bruce and me with our team. I did not get a pic of Brother Chris and Mrs. Dana with their team, the Survivors. I'll have to bum one from someone and get it on here.


And after all the excitement wore down, there was time for little hugs and lovin's.

Brother Johnny and his little Indian boy. He must be the one sleeping in that tipi.

It was a wonderful night and all of the children did a great job. We'll know the winner of the Rush Night points Wednesday night. It's gonna be close whatever the result may be.

Progress, Progress!!

I haven't posted anything on the new addition to the church building. So here we go!


There is a group of missionaries that go around helping churches put their buildings up and they've been doing that for us. Some of the men in our church have been able to go up and help and it's been neat to see them out there working together. Justin had an opportunity to go up and help yesterday. He really enjoyed that!

To the left is the addition that went on a couple of months ago. It'll have extra bathrooms, a music room, teacher's workroom, and I think some extra Sunday School classes. The radio program has been moved up to the main building and we may have a room for that. Anyway, that addtion connects to the one they're building now, which will hold our gymnasium and more classrooms, and banquet room/Fellowship Hall. The little space there between them will be used for pick up and drop offs.

This is the inside of the gym, banquet room, and classes. Our bus ministry will be moved up here. That will be wonderful!

And these are the men putting in the many hours and hard labor to get it up! Clayton, Justin, Brother Tommy, Brother Nathan, Brother Bivey, and Brother Ken...

Brother Ken again, Brother Wayne, Brother Ronnie, Brother Cooper and Brother O'Riley.

This is the inside of the first addition, standing in the foyer. There's some big rooms down there!! I was really surprised. LOL

Our church people are very excited about this and looking forward to having some great things going on in these rooms and buildings.

1 Chronicles 22:2 "And David commanded to gather together the strangers
that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to
build the house of God."

SYATP

When my friend and fellow home schooler asked me a few weeks ago if I was aware that SYATP was coming up, I was clueless to what it was, exactly.
SYATP = See You At The Pole. I wasn't as clueless as I thought, though. I had heard about "See You At the Pole" but had not heard it called SYATP. Anyway, it is a time where you can meet and pray around the flag pole. Mainly praying for your school, surrounding schools, and your community. I believe this was actually started in a public school. But we take advantage of it as well.
We met at our church and James led a short devotional from Jude before we prayed.


Mrs. Kim and the girls were able to make it. They are getting ready to leave for New Zealand to be missionaries over there and because they are on the road a lot we don't get to see them as often. So I'm glad they were able to make it.


After prayer, we loaded the van and went to our local museum to see their WWII exhibit.


The displays were wonderful. The main focus was on WWII, but there were also pieces from WWI, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. I don't recall anything from the Korean War. Pretty much all of these items were donated by family members of our veterans.

The boots above tugged at my heart. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the holes in the bottom of them. They belonged to Palmer D. Fulton, American Expeditionary Forces. He was assigned to Company A, 144th Infantry, 40th Division Machine Gun Batallion, a very large machine gun unit. The guns were pulled through the fields and roads by mules. The unit was known as the "Mule Skinners."

I enjoyed the display very much and was glad that my children were able to look at these things items, read about them, and see the pictures. It brought into light things we don't think about when we think of war or our soldiers and the history of what our men and women in uniform have gone through for us. I'm looking forward to hearing Hannah's essay on the exhibit too.

~~~~~~~~~~~

When we finished the exhibit, we left for the park to eat lunch and let the younger ones play for a bit. They had a good time, I think.

Harrison, Deborah, and Elizabeth enjoyed time on the tire swing. Going round, and round, and round...

and round and round and round....

until Harrison finally had to get off with an upset stomach.

It was a beautiful day for this field trip and we had a good time.

Successful First Day

We had a great first day of school. Hannah hopped right on her Algebra. After about thirty minutes she said that Algebra wanted to make her curl up in a ball and cry. She followed that with a sigh and "It's going to be a long year!" LOL I'm still hunting a good Geography curriculum, so if you know of one, please let me know.


Harrison jumped in with both feet too. He reviewed number sequence and some multiplication, learned about Lief Ericson, studied the importance of learning about God's creation, started his first Unit in Spelling, and worked on subject and predicate parts of speech.

It was a good day and they finished up around 1:30 this afternoon. We have a field trip scheduled for Wednesday and we're looking forward to that!! We'll be visiting a local museum to view their World War II exhibit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a picture of a rabbit that we saw a few times at the beach. He was in and out of the vegetation. He had little rabbit holes everywhere. One minute you'd see him and the next he was gone. He was a cute little fellow.

Vacation!

I got a couple of emails and a note on facebook wondering where I was and why I hadn't been blogging. Remember I told you a few posts ago that we were making plans to go on vacation? Last week we did just that and it was wonderful!
This is the perfect time of year to go! We like to go after regular schools start back. That way the beaches aren't crowded, the hotels aren't crowded, and we pretty much have everything to ourselves. :D
When we left last week, it wasn't long until Harrison was becoming sleepy.


Hannah and Justin had already passed out.

And it was just me and my darlin' enjoying the quiet ride down and talking. He is so funny. He had me rollin' several times in laughter.

When we got to the hotel it was already dark. The pool and lazy river were still open (AND EMPTY!!!) so the kids headed straight down to play.

Hannah decided to just hang out for the evening.

My men in the hot tub. Don't they look relaxed?

:0)

Listening to the ocean.

The front of our hotel...

The back of our hotel...our room was the third floor down from the top, third from the left.

:D

We ate at chick-fil-A Monday before stocking up on groceries for the week. Hannah was thrilled to see that she was now too tall to play in the play place. haha

Bruce's sandwich was in the shape of a heart. It was meant to be because he loves chick-fil-A.

Harrison got Justin in the game they play and Justin had to do a push up.

But then Justin turned right around and got Harrison. So funny! And a little embarassing too, that my sons were doing push ups in the middle of the restaurant.

We played in the ocean. Well, they played in the ocean. I don't get in the ocean. There's too many creatures out there. But it sure is a beautiful part of God's creation!

I'm positive we were the only people that used the indoor pool all week.

We saw people parasailing....

played football on the beach....

played some more in the ocean...

went shopping....:D

Enjoyed spectacular sunrises...

went rock climbing...ok, not really. Justin just posed on top of a rock at the putt putt course we played at.

We always have the M***** Putt Putt championship and choose a place we haven't played yet down there. I think the Mayday Putt Putt was the only place we haven't played. So Mayday it was!

Hannah won the tournament. Bruce was in shock. He's never lost, of course. Hannah won $20. She was thrilled.

We played UNO by the pool...

read some books....

And all in all, it was a fantastic week filled with nothing but time with my family and some relaxation.

Like they say, all good things must come to an end. I am so thankful the Lord allowed our family the opportunity to spend this time together.

Bruce and Justin go back to work and we start school in the morning. I'm ready to get started in the 2010/2011 school year. It's going to be a great year!!