Trip to Goodwater

We had a great time visiting with our friends, the S. family in Goodwater, AL.

Here are the girls hanging around talking and visiting:

The guys spent a lot of time playing chess. Wesley M. was the chess master:
Some serious chess action going down here...

We also had a great time playing music. Here's Joey on the drums:

We also spent a lot of time practicing dancing for the ball...
More dancing:

Here is Angela doing the Cotton Eyed Joe:

Edgar also had the Cotton Eyed Joe down pat:

Cotton Eyed Joe

After watching all of the young folks doing the Cotton Eyed Joe over and over and over and over and over and over again, I was reminded of "the song that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends..." Anyhow, I decided that the Cotton Eyed Joe was just way too aerobic for me. I have therefore come up with a few verses to add to the song:

(verse 32 - after about the first 20 minutes of the song)
I’ve been dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
started dancin’ a long time ago
why did we start this? I’ll never know
why did we start the Cotton Eyed Joe

If I keep dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
I will soon be down on the flo’
my heartbeat racin’ oh don’t you know
I’m havin’ a heart attack Cotton Eyed Joe

I was dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
my heart is pounding mo’ and mo’
not lookin’ to good here oh don’t you know
better call 9-1-1 Cotton Eyed Joe

I was dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
now I find me down on the flo’
let those paramedics in through the do’
outta the way now Cotton Eyed Joe

I was dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
now I am still down on the flo’
my heart now flat-line oh don’t you know
you better start CPR Cotton Eyed Joe

(verse 284,568 - five days later)
They’re still dancin’ the Cotton Eyed Joe
I was buried a long time ago
why did I do it? I’ll never know
met my maker doin’ Cotton Eyed Joe

~Mr. Larry

Home Alone

Hello one, Hello all!

I hope ya'll are all having a good day. Dad and Mum are out of town for a few days, so T.J. and I are holding down the fort...and yes, the fort is still in one piece. We tried not to get tooo rowdy, but you know what ice cream can do to a person. LOL.

Today we had to make produce deliveries to Nashville, so we had lunch out, made a couple other stops and just had a jolly time! I thought I would share a couple pictures with you.

Praise the Lord for such a wonderful brother, who puts up with all of my weird moods (and even chauffeurs me around town).

YUM!

Need I say more?

Of course, hot chocolate would have been a better choice, it was so cold! It has been rather dreary outside today, a cold, rainy kind of dreary. But it was a rather refreshing change from the blazing dry heat we have been having. And the rain is a blessing for our garden, so I can't complain (and it did give me an excuse to drag out a long sleeve shirt and some fuzzy socks ;).

I noticed this rose earlier this morning, as I was clipping herbs. I just couldn't resist taking a picture:

I will send you rain in it's season, and the ground will yield it's crops

and the trees of the field their fruit.

~ Leviticus 26:4

You O God, did send a plentiful rain; you did restore and confirm

your heritage when it languished and was weary.

~Psalm 68:9

Haawi ke aloha,

Angela

The Beach!!!

Hello all!
Sorry for the lack of postings lately. Life's been busy, and, as they say, "time flies when your having fun"! :) Well anyway, waaaaay back in July (can you believe July and August are gone already?!) we went to St. Augustine Beach to spend some time with Dad's mom. We made two seperate trips down there because we are not able to leave the farm for any length of time. The first time Mum stayed home to look after things around the farm while the rest of us went down there. :( We missed her a lot, but it made the second trip seem more special because we were all able to go! Papa offered to watch the farm so that we could all go together. But alas! We had so much fun just being together and relaxing that I didn't take very many pictures. But here they be, few though they are.



Trip #1

Both of Dad's brothers and their families were there when we arrived that afternoon, so we had a big crowd at lunch. Everyone left sometime that afternoon, so it eventually dwindled down to just us and Grandma. We went for a swim and then just had a relaxing evening curled up on the couch with cookies and ice cream.

Sunset

"Now my dear, you must remember to always point your pinkie when you drink...What? I don't care if it's not tea, you should point it anyway!"

No, I know what your thinking, this is really not the same picture.


My family and me were once wild an free, but now we ain't doin' so great. We used to go down and stay at the beach, but now we're all on the couch by eight.
LOL. Interducing Grandma to Tim Hawkins. I wonder what she thinks of us now?




I can see it! We're almost there! I have been waiting for this moment for a whole YEAR!




Ah, the beach.

Nautical painting "The Shrimp Boat"

Playing frisbee in the water

Dive!!

One point for you!

Now you see me...

now you don't!

We always love watching the pelicans fly over the water

And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." Genisis 1:20

Father and son

We found this really cool jelly fish, I had never seen one quite like that before!

Just me an' my bro


Trip #2

It was so nice to be all together at the beach! We did a little more exploring around town when Mom was with us, there are a lot of quiant little shops that are fun to visit.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:11

Da Vue

Mom found this awsome shell washed up on the shore. :)

T.J.'s birthday is in July, so Grandma always gets an ice cream cake to celebrete!

(:It really doesn't look big, but it really does seem bigger when your eating it:)

BEHOLD, our high-tech movie theater.

"Welcome to Surf Flics. May I have your ticket please."

And I shall leave you with a picture of St. Augustine's fort, Castille de san Marcos.

I snaped this picture as we were leaving so it is kinda blurry.

Adios, mi amigos!

Angela

Sunrise...

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

- Psalm 19:1

I took this photo last week as the sun was rising over St. Augustine Beach. - LH

Mother

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there! Mothers are such a blessing, and we do not seem to appreciate them as much as we ought to. Just think, if there were no mothers the world would end, there would be no future generations born!

So here's to all the mothers out there. Thank you for being what God designed you to be, and for being an example to us younger girls so that one day we too can fulfil that wonderful role: Mother.

And here she is, mine own wonderful mother. Proverbs 31 in the flesh! What a wonderful example and encouragement she has been to me.

These words I dedicate to her:

And suddenly theories and speculations ended, and she knew. She knew that faithful self-forgetting service and the love that spends itself over and over, only to be renewed again and again, are the secret to happiness. For another world, perhaps leisure and beauty and luxury- but in this one, "Whosoever loses his life shall gain it." Margaret knew now that her mother was not only the truest, the finest, the most generous woman she had ever known, but the happiest as well...

All her old castles in the air seemed cheap and tinseled tonight beside these tender dreams that had their roots in the real truths of life. Travel and position, gowns and motor-cars, yachts and country houses, these things were to be bought in all their perfection by the highest bidder, and always would be. But love and character and service, home and the wonderful charge of little lives- the "pure religion breathing household laws" that guided and perfected the whole- these were not to be bought; they were only to be prayed for, worked for, bravely won.

-Excerpt from Kathleen Norris' book "Mother"

I love you Mom!
Angela

No the map really wasn't that entertaining.




Across the river

Daddy

So much beauty

Ditto! (Dad's caption additions are in blue)

We visited the horticulture center next. Daddy and I had

never been in there before, it was so neat! The flowers and cacti

were so beautiful.

Yours truly - also very beautiful!

Blossoms

Isn't she beautiful?

Through the waterfall

I thought these lilies were so pretty and unusually large,

but when we went to the store the other day I saw some

that were just as big!... I think I need to get out more.

my wonderful daughter!

"There's a church in the valley by the wildwood..."

I love the stained glass windows at the chapel! All the

stained glass windows had flowers etched on the glass which

I found so unique and pretty.

We went to a Mexican restaurant with the Deckers Saturday night;

I think about a fourth of the people at the F&D retreat had the same idea!

Friends a few tables down

We stopped at a local convenience store and to get some ice cream for dessert.

Due to the lack of an ice cream scoop I had to use Dad's pocket knife to serve

the ice cream. Talk about primitive conditions!

Hear ye, hear ye! For the first time in F&D retreat history Mr. Phillips and
his daughters had to play the infamous "help your daddy get ready for work" game.
Little Virginia was such a cutie. Though she was the one that volunteered, she mostly just stood there scratching her head in wonderment as Jubilee did all the work! LOL.

Her audience.

When Virginia jumped on the stage Saturday night, a lot of the little girls that were still

there plopped down on the floor with cameras. After babbling on for a little while she

looked down at her little audience and said, "now I'm going to sing a song for you." LOL