We Are So Glad That Summer Is Here!

Summer time means digging in the dirt, catching frogs, and playing with cousins.

Parker shows off his toad! Kirsten shows off her "handsome prince."

Brandon shows his toad.

All the toads together.

Alec is digging a hole to keep his toad in.

This is TOAD MANOR, complete with a kitchen...

a dining room...

and a bedroom.

Kirsten's Last Art Project

Yesterday, I took all the girls to Saltillo for their last are session with Ms. Vicki for the summer. They all painted beautiful pinwheel pictures and of course did a spin art. I think they could do a spin art every day.

I am still trying to run. My goal is to run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, and run 10 minutes, and keep that going for several miles. Right now, I can run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute and then make it 5-7 minutes depending on the day. I would love to be increasing faster but I am content to just keep at it and hope it will come. Last night, I watched The Biggest Loser live finale on NBC. This is my favorite television program, bar none. The contestants are amazing with what they are able to accomplish in a short time. Now that my show is over for the summer, it will be a long wait until fall for the new season. You can log onto www.nbc.com to see the before and after shots of all the contestants. This year they had the youngest, the oldest, the heaviest, and the sickest contestants they have ever had on the show. The oldest contestants did very well and proved that you don't have to be young to lose the weight. After watching the show, I woke up this morning and ran 2 miles and walked 4 miles for a total of 6 miles. I hope to run/walk every day whether I am tired or not. It is ridiculous for me to use the "I'm too tired" excuse ever again.

My Aunt -- The Storyteller

My mother's sister, Jan, and two of her cousins, Rick and Bob, came to Blue Mountain for a quick visit. It has been good for the four of them to catch up after many years of not seeing each other. Tonight we had a cookout to which all of us were invited. The food was great and the conversations never stopped. Nobody wanted to stop for posed pictures, so this is the best I got.

The kids ate at a table under the easy-up tent and visited while eating. This picture is of the kids listening to Aunt Jan, the master storyteller, tell a story of the fisherman, his wife, and a magic fish. Kirsten and Alec had heard this story on Saturday and so they were glad to help act out the story.

Kirsten masterfully played the shrewish wife. Alec performed well the role of the magic fish.

Taking a bow at the end of the story.

Next, Aunt Jan told another story that included a tiger, mad stinging hornets, and a fairy that nobody sees. She gave the kids an action for each time she mentioned these characters. The kids listened extremely well and did their part in performing the sounds for the characters.

The kids begged for one more story and Aunt Jan obliged by telling a story of a spider inside a melon and the people around the melon who thought the melon was talking. The kids laughed and laughed and the story was told very well. Thanks, Aunt Jan, for the entertainment!

WE ARE DONE! DONE!! DONE!!!

We are done with our school year today. I don't know if the kids are more excited or if I am. Either way, we are glad to be through with another year. Every year, we start off excited and then by the end, we are just enduring the lessons until we are done.

I ran another two miles today. I walked a total of 1:45 minutes out of that two miles, but my time was slower today. Not even to the half mile mark, my sister leaned over and asked me if I felt like I was trying to run with an elephant on my back. I answered YES! The humidity is so high today, you feel like you weigh more than ever. The weather said the humidity was 94%, YUCK! I hate the summer weather. I am a spring/fall/winter girl.

We are going to Tupelo today so the kids can run together with their teammates. We are running a race together next week and they will get to see the course ahead of time. They are looking forward to seeing their friends.

Many Hands Make Light Work

My sister, Lisa, and I took six kids running today and we ran 2 miles and walked 2 miles back to the house. Our local pumpkin patch is exactly 2 miles from our driveway to theirs, so it makes for a good course to run. The kids all finished ahead of us, of course, but our times were pretty good too. I ran/walked (a little) the 2 miles in 20:30 which is very good for me. My sister did it in 19:something. We were not running race pace but were glad that our times were pretty good. After getting back home, my other sister, Kathy, was there with her pressure washer to clean my mother's house. All the kids thought it would be fun to help, and so they jumped right in.

It really did not take too long with all the hands and rags doing the washing. The kids thought it was a lot of fun and not much work at all.

The girls get creative with the table as a step stool.

All the boys, even the little ones, helped wash the house.

It's That Time Again

I arrived home from work today and saw four boxes of books on my table. Yes, it is time to order school books for next year even though we are not quite through with this year. I had ordered from Library and Educational Services and also from ABeka Book. The kids were excited about the first set and not about the second set. If you have not ordered from L.E.S, I strongly urge you to check out their website. It is http://www.libraryanded.com/ . They run specials about four times a year, so be patient and wait on the sales. They are running a 30-83% off sale right now on most of their stuff. The books I ordered were almost all half off. You have to register as homeschooled to order, but they have great service, quick to ship, and excellent and educational books.

Kirsten was moaning when I was opening the stuff from ABeka. I was looking through the books and called her to come and see them. She looked at them and her eyes lit up and she decided that maybe school would be fun next year. It happens like that every year. At first, everything is new and exciting and then towards the end of the year, we are just plugging away just to get everything done. But, it looks like she will enjoy sixth grade and I hope Alec will enjoy fourth grade. For now, I will set the books aside until we get done with this current school year.

Busy, Busy Weekend

This weekend has been really busy. I worked on Friday and then went to our church who was hosting a Creation Weekend. Dr. Rob Carter, from Georgia, who works with Creation Ministries International came and gave four different sessions on Creation. It was very interesting. The first talk was kind of an overview on Creation and Darwin. He is very passionate about his work. His is a geneticist/scientist/creationist. He has done many things including scuba dive all over the world as a marine biologist. I am still not really sure what his official title is, but he loves the field of genetics. The second thing we did on Friday night was watch a brand new film targeted to non-Christians about Darwin and his life. It was very interesting; it was mainly produced to get people asking questions about evolution and its false assumptions. It is a first class documentary and they hope to be able to broadcast it on Discovery. I would have liked to see it "disprove" evolution more openly, but their focus was to target groups who would not listen to a Christian film. On Saturday morning, the first session was all about dinosaurs. This was my favorite session and the kids were mesmerized by it too. They loved hearing about dinosaurs and really paid attention. I wish I could remember more about what he said, but it was fascinating. The next talk was about the field of genetics and how this field increasingly disproves evolution. He also said that most evolutionists know that evolution could not happen, but they refuse to admit it openly. The last session was about the history of Darwin. All in all, the information was astounding. Yesterday, we had church in our brand new building. Our old building burned about 4 years ago and we had been meeting in our gym ever since. The new building is so pretty and the singing was just fabulous. The accoustics are phenomenal. Last night, I went running with our pastor's wife (who ran a marathon in Jackson, TN, last weekend). She took it easy on me and we ran for 7 minutes, walked a minute, 8 minutes, walked a minute, 8 minutes, walked 2 minutes, and then the rest gets a little fuzzy. I told her to keep me running even when I wanted to quit and she did for the most part. I have not run since last Tuesday (which was not a good run) and I was scared to try again. But, last night felt pretty good.

Alec Has a Blog Too

After finding out that Kirsten had a blog, Alec began to pester me about one also. So I finally got him one going. Kids do not understand how long it takes to set one up and he kept saying, "I want to blog now!" His address is alecsplace09.blogspot.com . He has listed some random thoughts and I hope to be able to direct some of his thoughts into creative writing. It is my hope for both of them that they will use it as a journal.

Kirsten Has a Blog

Today, I finally gave in and created a blog for Kirsten. Her address is kirstenskorner09.blogspot.com . She is so very excited and has already posted on her blog. I know she will post almost as often as I do. If you have a chance, stop by her blog and leave her a comment. We are so close to being done with homeschool this year. I am so excited and so are the kids. We have less than 16 lessons to go and we are already through with some of the subjects and can't wait to be out for the summer. I already have my summer planned out and hope to get everything accomplished while school is out. I am sure that I will find other stuff to do and not get some of it done, but I am going to try to get to it all. I spend part of my summer getting ready for the next school year. I really try to be organized and have an overview printed out before school even begins. It takes a good part of a month to get it all done, but it is worth it as I don't have to think about organization again. Our church camp is coming up and we spend some time getting prepared for that and a whole week is spent at the camp grounds. We love it and would not miss it for anything. The kids are excited to be a part of a running camp that is planned for 1 week in June. This will be the first and they cannot wait. Much of the summer will be spent in the pool, but we also have to find time to run. There are several 5K races coming up and the kids are looking forward to them. I also plan to get caught up again on my scrapbooking. I am not that far behind, but since I take so many pictures, I do not like to fall too far behind. I am caught up through January of this year and I realize that is not behind to most people, but I like to stay on top of it all. I hope to be able to do it all, but we will see what happens.

Bambi -- Born Yesterday

Yesterday morning, this little mule colt was born to my sister and brother-in-law. All the kids decided on the name Bambi -- her mother is called Belle. They also have another female horse named Bebe; the kids wanted to stick with a B name.

There are no words to describe just how long the little colt's legs really are. It is truly amazing that her little legs were all bent up inside her mother just yesterday. She is still trying to figure out the nursing part, but she never gets far away from her mother at all. She runs every step with her.

This picture shows her trying to figure out how to lay down to take a nap. Yesterday, everyone kept thinking that when she was sleeping, she was dead, and they kept waking her up just to make sure. She got very little sleep yesterday and now she is trying to catch up.

She finally figured out how to tuck her legs under her so that she can lay down. This pasture is visible from our backyard and the kids have spent a lot of time watching the cute colt.

Celebrating Alec's Birthday at the Lake

Alec could not wait for his party day. He has been nine for almost a month now, but he wanted to have his party at the lake, so we had to wait for the weather to be warm enough. Once again, Sherrie (aka "the cake lady") made another marvelous creation for Alec's birthday. He wanted a Star Wars: The Clone Wars theme and she provided a cake to go along with it. It tasted even better than it looks, if you can believe it. Thanks. Sherrie, for the marvelous cake.

Alec had a tough time blowing out the candle. It was so windy, the candle would not stay lit. We had to light it three times before he actually got to blow it out.

Notice, Brandon's face as Alec opens a card with money in it.

Alec received this very cool book from the Duley family. It is full of interesting, amazing, and gross facts. That is a perfect book for a boy.

This present was from us and Alec had to see it wrapped for a few hours and it was bugging him so much that he did not know what was inside. He was thrilled with the gift and couldn't wait to put it together. We made him wait until we got home.

All the boys enjoyed playing with their light sabres. We had planned on playing light sabre tag, but the boys had more fun playing their own games with the light sabres. They also enjoyed riding on their scooters. There were about 8 scooters at the party and they all had fun racing each other around the circular drive near the campsite. The girls hung out in the camper to get away from the boys and had a marvelous time. They told me I was the "coolest Mom ever" when I made the boys get out of the camper and leave the girls alone.

After cake and ice cream, opening presents, and the games, I gave all the kids a kite and everyone covered the hillside to fly the kites. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The wind was so high that it was very easy to get the kites up in the air. Even the little kids had no problem flying the kites. What a great day!

Isn't that beautiful? There were over 24 kites flying at one time, but I couldn't get them all in the same picture.

Taking time to feed the ducks. After the party, some of the kids went to the lake to share some of the bread with their new "friends." These ducks kept wandering up to our campsite knowing that we would get out some bread and feed them. They came up every 4 hours or so.

The Northeast Christian Academy 5K in Ripley

Several Spartans participated in the NCA 5K in Ripley on Saturday morning. It was a rainy morning and somewhat cool at the beginning, but right before the race began, the rain stopped. Several runners set a new PR (personal record) and it was a fun race.

Alec crossed the finish line with his new PR -- 25:16:29 -- way to go, Alec! Alec placed 3rd in his age division. He was beat out by the lightning quick Brandon and Macain. Kirsten, also, had a new PR -- 27:12:12 -- her previous best was 30:30. We are so proud of her! She also placed 2nd in her age group and she was ecstatic. Only Martha beat her and that is saying something about Kirsten's race today. She usually doesn't place in her age division because this is a tough group of competitors. Even I set a new PR -- 32:28:09 -- my previous best was 37:07. In the process, I won first place in my age division, and that has never happened before. I have placed 2nd before, but only when there are only two people in my age group. This time there were at least two others who placed behind me. These two things (my time and placing) are so encouraging to me and now I have the mindset that I have to keep running and improving my times.

The Spartans did us all proud. Everyone placed in the top six in their age groups.

Maggie -- 38:11:23, 1st place.

Brandon -- 23:50:71, 1st place; Macain -- 23:58:44, 2nd place; Alec -- 25:16:29, 3rd place; Mark -- 28:43:00, 4th place.

Martha -- 27:00:91. 1st place; Kirsten -- 27:12:12, 2nd place; Hannah -- 28:54:16, 3rd place; Claire -- 29:37:84, 4th place; Sarah -- 30:37:52, 5th place; Margaret -- 31:04:44, 6th place.

Tyler -- 23:58:99, 1st place; Richard -- 31:25:43, 2nd place.

Lisa (Brandon and Claire's mom) -- 29:53:37, 1st place. Her previous PR was 34:something.

Julie (Kirsten and Alec's mom) -- 32:29:09, 1st place.

Yonea (mother of 9) -- 32:33:81, 2nd place and new PR.

Family Camping Trip at Tippah Lake

On Friday, we left to go to the lake for a quick camping trip. We all love to escape "real life" and get away from it all by going to the lake and just enjoying the beauty of God's world.

I bought a ladderball game and the children really enjoyed playing with it. None of us had ever played before and it was really neat. Alec especially enjoyed the game.

Kirsten looking cute under the trees by the lake.

Both children enjoyed gathering wood for the campfire. After gathering the wood, the wind was so strong that we decided to roast hotdogs in the grill instead. Later, the wind died down enough that we felt comfortable starting the campfire and they got to roast marshmallows.

My husband's idea of camping includes our satellite, TV, and DVD player.

Kirsten and Alec also enjoy playing with our magnetic dart game.

It is so relaxing by the lake with the breeze blowing through the trees. LOVE IT!

Learning the basics of starting a fire.

Staying warm by the fire on a cool night.

Alec loves to be by the fire also.

The Spartans -- Together Again

Today was the day the kids have been waiting for since last October, a get together at the Park Along the River in New Albany. These kids were so excited to run together and visit with each other. They all had a really good time running and talking and playing after practice. Coach Heather gave us an overview of the year coming up - practice schedules and track meets and other things for the season starting in August. There were many new people to our group and we are so thrilled to see the people from last year and to add the new people to our group.

Some of the girls before practice starts.

The older boys talking together. I think they were as excited to visit and practice as the girls were. Some of the intermediate boys visiting.

Gathering together to listen to Coach Heather.

These boys were gentlemen and gave up their seats for the moms to sit and listen,