Random Life

It is the pictures taken of daily life that seem to mean so much later on. When you can look back and "remember when" with your family and friends. Pictures act as milestones in life to mark the passage of time and declare growth. It is too bad that they seldom catch the essence of the moment because only human memory can know what that moment caught in digital form or on film meant to the one who was there. It will never look the same in that picture as it looked to your eye.

Birthday Weekend

Morgan participated in the 2009 Missouri Archery Association Outdoor Adult and JOAD Championship tournament on August 22. She competed in the Junior Girls division.

The targets for this competition were set at 50, 40 30 & 25 yards.

Morgan won first place in her division, Junior Girls Recurve. She set a new state record in this division. She will have her name added to a plaque as the best female Junior Girls Recurve archer for 2009.

On Sunday Morgan celebrated her birthday with her family at home. We all enjoyed her chocolate chip yellow cake with chocolate fudge icing. Unfortunately she had to bake it herself. Luckily for the rest of us because she is a wonder in the kitchen.

Don lighting the candles of Morgan's sixteenth birthday cake. Please ignore the obviously incorrect date at the bottom of the birthday pictures.

Random Pictures of Life as it Happens in the Basket

Move over Harry Potter!

KayLynn can work a pair of bright green rubber boots and a St. Louis Cardinals hat. Even her Mom thinks so.
Mr. Mouth , Mr. Mouth..anyone remember playing this game. I am sure I bought this at a thrift store.

Vivi modeling the latest in Allis Chalmers hat and hot pink rubber rain boots.

Somewhere in this picture is Morgan graduating from a week long internship program at the Family Life Fellowship Church. It was a week of helping in different jobs throughout the church . She also had fun swimming and hanging out with peers for a week. Through the year she will use what she learned in service on Sunday and Wednesday evenings. At the end of this service something like ten young people were baptized into the Body of Christ. What a great event to be at. God is good.

Archery

Morgan participated in the Show Me Mo Games on the 25th. She competed in the girls youth division of archery. She won a gold with a score of 576. Considering she lost an arrow she couldn't afford to lose and it was her first outdoor competition , it was a good effort. Morgan has been practicing archery since the spring of 2008. This is her second competition. Lots of thanks to Morgan's coach Larry Skinner. Larry has been involved in archery for many years.

Days gone by

It is amazing to look at these old pictures and think of life then and life now. This first picture is a Thanksgiving celebration in Quincy , IL in 1994. Ann, Janna, Cecil and me are all celebrating our November birthdays. John and Pam are celebrating their wedding anniversary.

This next picture is a day in our home-education past. This was taken in our house in Atlas, IL. Jacob is holding the flag. Brittney and Ethan are under the flag and Janna is looking on. I believe this was 1994 and Morgan would have been a baby. I really enjoyed those years of little ones. Days at the park . Reading book after book. Teaching them all to read. Watching them grow into the wonderful people they are now.

This last picture was taken somewhere in Birchtree, MO, home town of Pat's grandmother. It was 1995 and we were visiting Birchtree for a memorial service for Pat's brother Jim. I love Ethan's "googely", what he called making a face, in this picture. Hard to believe that we were just about a month away from learning that Morgan had cancer and all the change that brought to our lives. God is good.

you light up my life

I will miss you while you are gone. The house on Williams Street is a little too quiet. The dinning room table is a little too clean. Kitty is getting too much sleep. Your uncles may be forced to watch Peter Pan, Jungle Book, Winnie the Pooh or "Puppies" so that I don't get too lonely. And remember "Tut, Tut, it looks like rain" .

Monday

It started Sunday nite, window unit for upstairs leaking water inside and eventually not cooling to Jane barking getting us out of bed to find the sewer backed up and spewing into the basement.

The pictures are the sewer repair Monday afternoon. Now with outside cleanouts and the reality of rodding out said sewer once a year, we hope that no more digging will be a reality.

The white spot in the middle of the picture above is apparantly grease and silicone balls from powder detergent. Part of our problem. Now Morgan will not pour grease down the drain and we will not use power Cascade.

Later this week I messed with the A/C and lo and behold the compressor started operating on its own. Miracles do happen.

Ethan is 20

Where have all the years gone. Where is that little boy who used to follow Jake around everywhere. Gone are the years of yelling "Ethan are you ready yet?" And hearing him yell, "Brittney, you don't have to tell me." The years have brought me a wonderful son.

Jack is 7!!!

Jack recently celebrated his 7th birthday. He had Texas cake with his family at home.

Leaving and Learning

Yesterday morning Don and I took the boys to the airport to begin their trip to Kentucky. Their destination was Morganfield. They will be studying and working for the next one or two years. Job Corp has offered them a great opportunity and I am proud of them for stepping up and out to take it.
They are both wonderful young men who will be greatly missed until they get some time off in July.

Mother's Day 2009

I was so blessed to have all my kids with me this Mother's Day. I want to thank all of my children for making me a Mom. On the days when the road is hard and long and the laundry smells bad I remember days like this and it is all worth while.....well most of it.

But the one I want to thank the most is their father. The man I have loved for 22 years. Without you there would be no family for me to care for.

How We Play in the Basket