The teacher says.

This is a story from William's teacher...

In preschool yesterday morning, I passed out white paper bags. I asked the kids to color one side of the bag, so later in the morning, they could turn it into a frog puppet! A hand went up..."Mrs. knight? I'm exhausted...I think i need a rest first!" My reply..."Do you think you have a little energy in one arm to ...color?" Reply, "yes...I guess." This was 9:20...preschool had just started at 9:00!

: ) Also, his CBS teacher said that he has grown up so much from last year!

Callie's CBS teacher has told me more than once, "she's such a good girl, she's such a good helper."

: ) I love my kids. They're great!

Drum roll please...

We all came together to spend $10 on Water as our First Gift this season...and the grand total raised in only 24 hours....was OVER $10,000!!!

Providing life-saving, clean water to over 1,000 people for 10 years!! Amazing!

Thank you so much! What a difference one day will make for years to come in the lives of so many!

You can continue giving water via donations all year long on the link in my side bar, or by purchasing gifts (for others or yourself) on Water4Christmas's etsy shop! Lots of fun stuff there!! (PS, I wouldn't mind a white H2Africa decal, hint, hint)

My new coffee mug!

Pardon the interruption

I'm going to interrupt this current blog series to bring you a BIG announcement!

Tomorrow. Friday November 13 is the day.

Water 4 Christmas's day for the First Gift!! Give $10 Friday as your first gift!

Let your first gift this Holiday season be for life! For Water that gives life!

Gifts to dig fresh water wells in Liberia. All donations go straight there!

This is the old water source in Wakesu, Liberia:

And THIS is the new water source thanks to Water 4 Christmas 2008.

Beautiful!! We have affected thousands!!! Lets do it again this year!

You can go here to give. Or click on the First Gift link in my sidebar to the right.

Here's some background...

If you missed it, you can still give at Water4Christmas.com.

Smokey mountains

Another busy day!

Today we again took our time in the morning, did some snuggling.

The kids took a fun bath! Callie already wanted to take another tonight.

Then we headed out to Dollywood. We all had a blast! The kids loved the rides. Callie's favorite was the Scrambler and William liked the bumper cars.

We all went on our first Ferris Wheel ride together.

We were there all day up until the time we headed over to the Dixie Stampede to watch the "horses dancing" as the kids said. They loved this dinner show! William enjoyed cheering for the green team, the "North" and he liked the comedian character "Skeeter" and his dancing chicken. Callie liked everything...horses dancing, pigs, chickens, singin', dirt...the list goes on.

Thank you Dolly, we had a great day!!

Tomorrow, nature calls. Spending the day hiking at the park.

Gatlinburg, TN

I'm going to try blogging as we go here on this vacation.

Yesterday we packed up and drove to Hagerstown, MD where Callie and I attended Bible study while Jon brought William to a dr appointment (asthma) and then brought him back for his class and then ran some errands. After that we headed out for our 8 hour drive to Gatlinburg, TN.

We arrived in Pigeon Forge at night and the Christmas lights were everywhere. This town is quite lit up even without Christmas, but it's really bright now, complete with every one of the 12 days of Christmas items lining the street. William calls it the Christmas town.

Our condo is great. We thought the kids would go to sleep well last night after traveling. Not so, they were too excited to get to sleep together. Tonight, however, is a different story! They fell sound asleep in the car and woke only enough to take care of business before drifting back to sleep. This is our view.

kids sleeping arrangements.

Today we lounged around and did some researching and planning. We headed out for lunch atSonic. My first Sonic meal ever, quite possibly thanks to the influence of Mr Bill Glass. We wonder if we would have gotten a discount if we mentioned that we know the guy in the comercials. Probably not.

After lunch we went to the "Upside Down House" as the kids call it. Wonder Works. A museum of sorts of scientific fun things. Make sense? Things like optical illusions, how hearing works, earthquake exhibits, flight simulators, etc. The kids thought it looked funny, but when they heard the speakers outside the building making creeking and groaning sounds as if it was falling down, they wanted to leave. After a bit, once they forgot we were in an upside down building, they enjoyed themselves, but when we returned to the lobby and they remembered, they were ready to leave. Also funny, they both wondered why the potties weren't upside down too.

laying on a bed of nails

Dancing to make shapes on the screen.

Stepping on a picture on the floor to make it morph.....

but the funny thing is, with flash, it really looked like this...

We also all took a turn in the pitching simulator. Jon's fastest was 54 mph and mine was 38. To which my dear, gracious 90+mph pitcher brother said, "add a few mph to that since you were just warming up". That puts me in the 40s! Aren't I amazing?

Then a little shopping at the Smokey Mountain Knife Works. Interesting...possible Christmas gifts for a couple people. And then off to dinner at Mama's Farmhouse. Mmmmm! Delicious! Then groceries and back for bed. Busy day! But fun. Better sleep now, those kids will be up at the crack of 0630 again I'm sure.

I promised more Thomas

and here it is. It was such a fun day! Rainy, but super fun!

Not so fond of the freaky Sir Toppam Hat

And a quick stop by The Bass Pro Shop on the way home.

You know how you sometimes get mail for other people at your home, sometimes a neighbor, sometimes a former resident, sometimes a wrong name or misspelled name for you? Here is my latest. A refund from the dog's heart guard medicine. The bank almost wouldn't take it.............

Sunset from the window at work.

MInnesota everywhere, but no purple...

Lately I have been seeing and hearing about MN everywhere.

At work a co-worker found out I was from MN and began to tell me about his army buddy from MN and a class mate of his in college. Another co-worker sitting there asked if I had known Lisa (another co-worker) before I moved here. Lisa grew up near Rochester and graduated from Winona State about 7 years earlier than me.

The book I am reading is published in Minneapolis.

The documentary Jon has been watching on National Parks has talked about a man from MN who was instrumental in helping to get the Ntl Park system established.

A book the kids got from the library was written by a woman who now lives in Bloomington, it was also published in Mpls and in her thank you she thanked the Red Balloon Bookstore in St Paul.

HOWEVER. Today William's color of the day at school is purple. He has no purple clothing to speak of! Even Brett has a purple shirt! What is going on here??? We do have some hand-me-downs coming from Liam that are sure to have some item including purple???

Thankfully, we were able to find a hat. A hat he got as a tiny baby, it's even signed. It's still a bit big for him, but he'll grow into it, and we will have it for years to come for moments like this. (Thanks for the hat, Mom.)

You can never go down...

The video on this site has provided much comfort for William. : )

Does God exist?

Enjoyed this video. True story.

This breaks my heart.

Water For Christmas is gearing up!! Be prepared. $20 can give one person clean water for a lifetime!

William's dreams

Recently Wm has been remembering and telling us about his dreams.

The first was scary. He woke up yelling. Boulders were running after him and he was yelling at them to get out of his room.

And last night...."The man from Minnesota came and told me I should go fishing. Can we go fishing?" I'm wondering if this was really a dream or just him recalling some tid bit of wisdom passed on to him from some 'Man from MN'...though I don't seem to recall if I know many men from there who fish... : )

Maybe he'll have to try out some fishing when we're back in Dec.