Happy birthday, Andrew!!!!

Helping Peter see the snakes.

He's such a good big brother :). 

Andrew is turning ten :)!!! Andrew is a goofy, very rambunctious boy, haha :). He is also often the first to jump up when something is needed. Andrew loves to make breakfast for us, and his specialties are muffins and eggs. Actually, he just generally loves to cook, as he jumps at the chance to make us mac'n'cheese cassarole for supper, and help Daddy with hamburgers :). For years now he has been begging Mama to let him make hamburgers whenever Daddy has been out of town on a business trip, even if he has to make them on the stove. While Mama was trying to come come up with fun and easy meals to eat while our friend was here, she told me, "Well, I guess we'll have Andrew cook hamburgers one night while Daddy's gone." Andrew heard her and gave a little jump as he exclaimed "OOOOO!!!!"
"Inside," Mama said.
"Oh," he said shortly. "Why CAN'T I use the grill? I'll be careful!" If you give him an inch he'll go for a mile ;). So we had very yummy hamburgers made INside ;).

Andrew also loves to make things (except origami dolls.... ;) ). Putting together model planes, making something out of cardboard and glue, helping Daddy with any little wood working or house fixing, he loves it all (I found him the other day tightening the fridge handle that was coming loose without any prompting!). He says he wants to build houses when he gets older, and so Bethi and her friend have recruited him to build one for them, haha :). He shares a room with the two little boys, and let me tell you, sleeping with Josiah is no small feat, haha! They have a lot of fun playing with their knight sets and suction cup bows and arrows together. Josiah is typically the runner for Andrew, collecting his arrows, so they make a great team ;). They also love to play ball together (though most of us know no rules). Andrew got to go to his first baseball game with Grandpa this summer, and he loved it :). He now knows so much about the game rules... and I'm just like, what is this language, haha!

As I'm writing this out, I'm also trying to convince Josiah to go around the table rather than over it, and it made me giggle as I remembered how horrified and terrified Mama was the first time 18-month old Andrew ran across the table to get to his seat because it was quicker (he's always been a boy... but then, Abbi did it too... hahaha!). It doesn't seem that it's been so long since he was that little. I remember finding out he was on the way, and how excited we were for a baby boy. I remember sitting on the floor with Tori helping him work on crawling, and how he used to giggle when she would squeak, haha :).  When he was little, he would give what he called "gentlemen high fives" which was where he gave ladies the gentlest, slowest, softest high fives he could, so as not to hurt them, and he LOVED to bring Mama "stick bouquets". He was so excited when Peter arrived, and he was no longer the only boy, and now he has three little buddies :)! Now he's in his double digits, and it's hard to believe!

Happy birthday, Andrew, I love you!

Older Brother ✽ JeightJeight

Tori was talking to Peter awhile ago, and somehow it was mentioned that Josiah was younger than Peter. (Peter has more of a poetic nature, while Josiah is known as our "moncho man", so I think this helped in just flooring Peter...) He was sooooo shocked to find that he was the older brother, it was cute, haha!

So, a few days later, all the little ones piled onto my bed and we were snuggling and laughing together, and Peter told me, "Hey, you know what?"
"What?"
"EVERYBODY in this house is bigger than me, except Josiah and Noah.... because, APPARENTLY Josiah is younger than me..."

Mama told me that he than came to her later and decided to get this down once and for all, and went through "Daddy was born... then Mama... then Bri... and Tori... and...?"
"Then Bethi," Mama prompted.
"What?! Bethi is BIGGER than ANDREW?!?!?!?"

Josiah brought me a piece of paper recently and asked me, "Can you spell my name?!"
I wrote his name in the corner, and handed it back to him.
"Yes!" he exclaimed. "There is a 'J'" -pointing to the j, I was impressed, he'd never done that before- "and" -waving at the rest- "numbers!!!!" :)
"So," Tori commented when I told her, "I'm going to start calling him JeightJeight instead of JoJo. Hi, JeightJeight." (He has too many nicknames; JoJo, Joey, JoJo-Tomago, Siah, Si, Joe, Joeyakins. (That last one originated with me, but don't ask where it came from. I add "kins" (and/or "girl" for girls, lol) to the end of names as a form of endearment, and have for forever. But I guess his went from Joeykins to Joeyakins because it somehow reminded of Coriakin in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Hey, it seems to fit, but when or how I connected the two, not even I am sure...) (And I've been rabbit trail happy lately... you should have seen all the parentheses in parentheses I had in a late night email I wrote recently, haha! Okay... bye...))

Unexpected Captive ✽ State Spider

Earlier this week I was reading a post by a blogger I follow (hey Julia!), and she was telling us about a huge spider she found at the park. Literally the next day, I walked outside. I was just going to see if the basketball hoop in our backyard would be usable if we got a new net, because I had forgotten to when Mama asked me the day before. I saw a clear rubber maid, and thought that was weird. So I peek in it.

AND THERE WAS A RIDICULOUSLY LARGE SPIDER IN IT. And it was so bumpy.

I kind of freaked out, because I figured, since the rubbermaid was from the garage, then that thing had been living in our garage. I checked the basketball hoop, and as I walked back by it, I couldn't help taking another peek, it was so nasty and fascinating.

And then I noticed that there were little tiny bits of dirt running around the box. EXCEPT THEY WEREN'T DIRT. It was a bunch of little spiders. And all those bumps on the spider? Yep. More baby spiders.

Then Daddy let us know that it was actually IN THE HOUSE the night before. He thinks he found it as soon as it got in, but it's still gross and disturbing. And then he researched it and found out that this was another famous Wolf Spider. Which happens to be South Carolina's official state spider. I live in the only state to have an official state spider. Ew. Oh, and by the way, when I say it was "another" famous Wold spider, I mean it. Apparently they are one of the few spiders to carry their young with them, and when I was about eleven, Daddy went to take care of a giant spider on the kitchen floor, and little baby spiders ran in every direction. I was in the kitchen doing supper dishes, and didn't know what was going on until Mama started shrieking, haha. It was a dramatic event. And now it's happened again...

Chatterback ✽ I have a Murderous Maniacal Laugh

Does anyone remember my blog post about the snowgie Mama set off at Kohls? (As an aside, were has the time gone?! That was our last trip out together before Noah was born, and now here he is 5 1/2 months, and IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT LONG AGO. But then I think of everything that has happened since then, and I'm like, how did we fit all that into such a short time?! Lol!)

So, Mama decided to give me one of these snowmen for my birthday. A lot of laughing ensued while she and Tori were in the bedroom wrapping stuff up, and at breakfast I was told that I would get to hear about it later. It turns out, they were laughing at this thing. Because when it started talking, Mama told some one it talks baby talk.
"Baby talk!!!" exclaimed the snowgie (BTW, Tori says that this is the snowgie Olaf named Walter. Since I like the name Walter and I dare not disagree with Tori, this stands ;).)
"It just said baby talk," Mama announced in consternation.
"It just said baby talk!" Walter chirped back.
"Mama, it SAYS "chatterback" on the box!", I am told that Tori informed her.

And as they were telling me this after I unwrapped it, I had a very bothering thought.
That "murderous maniacal laugh" I said "terrified me" last March?
That was probably a chatterback of my own.
I'm sorry to everybody who has to listen to me.

And as an aside, Walter likes to play his classical music in an electric guitar style. It's kind of entertaining and disturbing. And about fifty times a day someone wants to know if they can have my "snotman". And then I hear chicken nuggets and other random words chanted back and forth until I put him up, haha :). The whole family has gotten enjoyment from impressionable Walter from beginning to end ;).

Peter has no idea what I'm writing and just asked for him again... haha!

Fulfilled Promises ✽ Love

I always love the first day of a new month. In a way it seems like a fresh start, a clean slate. It seems like a time for new beginnings, reevaluation and renewal of enthusiasm. It feels full of hope and promise. And so September 1st is always a day to look forward to, just like the first of every other month is. And for a dear friend, today was certainly a day of realized hope and fulfilled promises, and not just a reminder of those things.

Miss Lillian was a precious lady who loved the Lord- and loved others. If you were to sum her up in one word, "Love" would be the one you would pick. She had so many other qualities and blessings to share with others, and yet, through all of them, you just felt and saw and received... love. She was gentle, but spunky, and always so grateful. Nothing she did was ever for show, and it only made it that much more beautiful. She lived a long life of wonderful testimony to our Lord and Savior.

Today I woke up to a text from her daughter letting us know that this morning she went to be with her beloved King; to rejoice at the throne of her Lord, to be reunited with her husband as she has looked forward to so often in the past year, to receive the fulfillment of all the promises that the Lord has given those who serve him. And though we here on earth mourn the loss of her beautiful spirit, I am thankful to know that the Lord is faithful to those who love and honor Him. I will miss Miss Lillian, and my heart hurts for her family. And yet our future arrival on those beautiful shores will be that much richer as we join her in praising the Lord before His throne, and we have such precious memories of her to hold onto. Miss Lillian is now realizing the fulfillment of Christ's promises in full, in a way that even the strongest christian may never comprehend here on this fallen earth. Her Savior's love, that surpasses her own a hundredfold, is now being fully made known to her. And I known that she is praising him for his mercies <3.

"Whoever pursues righteousness and love 

finds life, righteousness, and honor."

    

                      -Proverbs 21:21

I wrote this post last week, but I couldn't bring myself to post it right away. I almost decided not to post it at all, but Miss Lillian was such a precious part of my life, that I wanted to share this with you and ask for prayer for her family. She and her family were some of the very great blessings that made our time in VA something we wouldn't have given up, and I am so thankful that we were able to know her, no matter how short the time <3.