A Different View...

Life is so full and busy...can't seem to find the camera when I want it and when I find the camera, the computer is occupied by Doug or I'm really needing to do something with one of the kiddos...

Just so you know I am in fact alive and well, I thought I'd send you over to my mother-in-law's blog. Doug's mom and stepfather have been staying with us several weeks. They have moved their 5th wheel camper into the yard, hooked up to water and electric, and have been such a blessing to us.

For a different view of our "Life in Texas", go see Al and Nita's Travels You'll have to go back in the archives to 11/09 and read to about New Year's.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll get a post put up from my perspective. Can't wait to show you pictures of the kids, the chickens and the canning I've been doing.

Time for an update...

I know, I know. It's been forever since my last update. Life around here is happening at full speed and will slow down a bit once Nutcracker is over (in 11 days, but who's counting).

Ballet classes, Nutcracker rehearsals, basketball practices and lots of games, me working, doing some canning (marmalades, applesauce, apple butter and 19 pints of salsa...wouldn't Beth be proud of me Nancy?), getting ready for Thanksgiving...oh, and educating my children along with my regular day to day doings...well, you get the picture.

Doug's mom and Stepdad arrived in their camper/condominium on wheels on Sunday and will be staying with us (in our yard, that is) until after Christmas. AND Doug's brother and his family will be coming down for Christmas. I'm so glad! Doug hasn't spent a holiday with his family since we moved here 4 years ago.

Oh, MY Dad and stepmom are coming from Buffalo for a long weekend in time to see opening night of Nutcracker...and my brother is coming for a week, right after that.

So in the course of a month, we'll have seen much of our immediate family. Whoo hoo!

I haven't the time to upload pictures, but I will soon. Promise.

Hi Y'all

It's me Emma. This is my first annual blog post[hopefully]. I will tell you about my life in Texas and such.

I am 5ft 3 and a half in. My hair has decided to be really wavy, and I am still skin and bones!!!



MY AVERAGE WEEK

MONDAY: 7:00-11:30ish is school time. 4:30-7:30 is ballet/pointe class, pilates, and rehearsal for Nutcracker

TUESDAY: school , 3:40-4:10 french horn lessons

WEDSDAY: school, 4:30-6:45 ballet/pointe class

THURSDAY: school, 3:30-7:45 help teach Ellie's ballet class, ballet/pointe class, rehersal for Nutcracker

FRIDAY: 9:30-11:00 mother's helper [not my mother. A lady from our church with three kids under the age of five] 1:45-2:45 band rehersal, 2:45-4:30 best friend Stephanie [she plays the flute in the band and is in my ballet class] comes to our house after band and before 4:30-6:15 ballet class.

Nutcracker is underway and every Saturday I have 3 to 5 hours of rehersals!!! However, despite the chaos, I live, eat, and breathe ballet.

I MISS Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Emma

In Memory of Grannie

Emma Elizabeth Boisse

1911-2009

My dear, sweet Grannie passed away Saturday evening. The kids and I were singing, "Because He Lives" with her on Wednesday afternoon. It was her favorite hymn. At her funeral yesterday, we cheerfully sang her going home song.

She lived 98+ years on this earth. I figure she has known the Lord for over 70 years! Up until a few months ago, Grannie would still wear skirts and stockings. Every day. She'd leave off the stockings in the heat of summer. She lived by herself and cooked and cleaned for herself. She lived on $700 a month since my Poppy died (25 years ago!). She prayed for each member of her family. Daily. In the last couple of years, as her eyesight was failing, she told me that she wanted to memorize as much Scripture as she could, before the Lord took her sight.

We're so very glad that we moved to Texas when we did! We had 4 wonderful years with our Grannie. My children, especially the older 3, have wonderful memories of time spent with their GREAT GREAT Grandmother. What a privilege!

Here she is, being silly with Everson's hat. She was 'just' 94 in this picture!

Grannie made the curtains for the girl's bedroom.

We're sad. We'll miss her. But even 5 year old Everson knows that we just buried her body and that her soul is worshipping our Lord even now.



On a side note...it was the first funeral for our children. While trying to respect the folks around us, my kids were asking so many questions. It was like a field trip ;-)

You know you've become a Texan when...

...it's 62* outside and your children complain about it being FREEZING outside.

Nutcracker 2009 News

It's that time of year again. We just returned from looking at the cast list and I have 3 very excited children!

Mark your calendars for 12/4-6...

Ellie will be a mouse in Act 1

Erik is a Party Boy and a Gingerbread Kid
OH and he is the PRINCE UNDERSTUDY!

Emma will be a Snow (her dream part) and is an understudy for Spanish and Waltz (which are parts on POINTE...after only 6 classes on pointe)

I knew that our Fall would be busy. But now, with these understudy parts...I need to start making freezer meals today!

Still creating great lego ships and boats...and never wearing shirts...Still loving to play dress up...and now a big NINE year old...

Still making lego ships and happy that basketball practice has started up.

Started French Horn lessons...and began pointe classes in her 8th year of ballet.

Helping mommy churn butter from fresh cream.

We're on a fall break. Already. Remember we started in July? But my 98 year old Grannie is quite ill, and moved into my mother's house. My Aunt in Buffalo (Dad's sister, mom's best friend) died suddenly last weekend and my mother is in NY for the funeral. So this week, I am spending a lot of time helping care for Grannie. The kids have been troopers...and have respected Emma's authority as I've been out of the house each morning. Today I'm catching up and coming up for air.

First day of school quotes:

"I LOVE SCHOOL!"
Emma, grade 7

"WOW! It's already lunchtime? This day is going by so fast!"

Erik, grade 5

"This doesn't make sense. Can you please help me?"
Ellie, grade 3

"You mean I have to do MORE?! Can't I go play with legos? I don't think I want to do school anymore."

Everson, grade K

Two days into the new curriculum...a few more weeks to work out the kinks and to figure out how to keep Elisha quiet and out of trouble...

While Elisha keeps himself busy with my lipstick (see today's earlier post)...the older kids have found ways to cope with their entirely-too-boring-summer.

You see, I've not signed them up for anything. Not. one. thing. No camps. VBS. Summer ballet classes. Nothing. This is so fun! Watching them cope with boredom. Maybe they won't be too sad when I start school next week.... I'm changing curriculum and adding a 4th student (can you believe Everson is ready to start school?!). Given all the changes, I feel like I need to get a head start before ballet classes, basketball practice, and Nutcracker get going in a few weeks. Not to mention, I need to get together a 'school box' of goodies for Elisha for times all the older kids are busy with school. Wish me luck.

This is for Uncle Sam and Will ;-) BOY POWER!

Why I shouldn't leave my purse lying around.....

This is a FIRST for me! I saw that Elisha had carried off my purse and keys. He often does and pretends to go bye-bye. This day, Doug had stopped home for a drink. He and I were talking. As Doug walked to the front door to leave, he saw Elisha, sitting amidst the contents of my purse, with my lipstick in hand...and in hair....and on lips, legs and clothes. And very, very pleased with himself. He even demonstrated to us how he rubbed his cheeks and hair with his lipstick-covered hands...

As soon as I find the camera, I'll post new pictures.

In the meantime..

At dinner most nights, Doug asks the kids various doctrine questions, requiring them to give a previously-memorized answer. A catechism.

Two nights ago, Doug asked Everson, "Where is God?" The answer is, "God is everywhere." Sometimes, the kids will say, "God is omnipresent." Just to make us laugh. The pronunciation is especially funny coming from Everson.

So Everson gave the funny answer, "God is omnipresent." Then the simple answer. Then paused and said, "I know Jesus is at Christmas...because there's lots of presents."

We all died laughing!

Elisha loves being outside. If it wasn't over 100* he'd be out all day. In fact he doesn't mind the heat. It's the rest of us that prefer the cooler indoors ;-) Before we left for the beach, Doug wanted to get the yardwork done. It's a huge job taking care of our grass, weeds, trees and gardens. Elisha made motorboat sounds for about 30 minutes while Doug was working. Then he discovered the unattended weed eater. He ramped up his motorboat sounds and wished he could figure out how to pull the starter and help daddy.

Our beachouse is the one in the back. This picture was taken about 2 feet from the water...

Elisha loved loved loved the sand, the water, and his Daddy on this trip!

This is a zoom view of the USS Lexington from our balcony. It is a WW2 aircraft carrier. We didn't go on the tour, because we thought the younger set would get bored. But it was amazing to see how BIG it was! Below is the view of the beach from our balcony. It was perfect. We just might do this again...

More Beach Pictures...

Elisha LOVED the beach. Here, Erik is trying to keep Elisha from running off into deeper water.

I think this is my all-time favorite picture. Ev is looking out at the big kids in the big waves.

Elisha wanted to help his Daddy dig this hole, rather than help the other kids dig. This was before he discovered Daddy's shadow...

Ellie and Everson spent countless hours digging holes in the sand...only to have a wave come up and fill their hole with more sand and water. Needless to say, they slept well each night.

The kids discovered that if they stood just right, the sand would suck their feet in. Quite fun.

Doug and the little boys enjoying the surf on Corpus Christi Beach

VACATION 2009

We spend 3 nights right on Corpus Christi Beach and had a blast! We found jellyfish and rocks upon our first venture in the water...which led to tears. We played anyhow and made plans to drive down to Padre Island the next day.
North Padre Island beaches were about 45 minutes from us and worth every minute we drove. We got there late in the afternoon, the beach was basically deserted. The sand was unbelievable. The kids had so. much. fun. We planned to go back another day. But locked the keys in the trunk and had to wait for a locksmith ;-) So we spent more time on CC beach as the older 2 tried out their new boogie board on the waves.

The kids found this seahorse on N. Padre! We put it back in the water.

Doug and the kids checking out the smooth sand and warm water of N. Padre Island.

Elisha LOVED chasing and stomping on Daddy's shadow while we were at NPI

We also took in the Texas State Aquarium (http://www.texasstateaquarium.org/) and watched a Dolphin Show from underground. Elisha liked getting up close to the marine animals. No pictures...I forgot the camera ;-)

The kids showing off their biggest sand castle of the trip.

Sunday morning, we packed up and hit the road to New Braunfels (between San Antonio and Austin) to take in Schlitterbahn Water Park. WOW. Everyone had fun. Doug took the older kiddos on many of the rides, while I stayed with Elisha in the toddler water playgrounds. He must have gone down the waterslides close to 300 times! Really. The slides were low, easy to climb up on, soft, and landed in 8 inches of water. Perfect. Ellie and Everson had fun in the kiddie parks too. Again, no pictures...not sure I could have managed keeping the camera dry.

We got home close to 11pm Sunday, tired, exhausted, a bit sunburned...and with lots of laundry. If I can get the slide show to work with me, I'll get it on later today. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures.

Where to begin?
*Ballet recital (2 different performances for Emma)
*Everson learned to ride his bike without training wheels. A record age for our kids!
*MAJOR haircut for Everson
*Set up and filled the pool.
*Getting ready to say goodbye to another homeschool military family...moving to JAPAN
*Celebrated my Grannie's 98th birthday!
*Expanding our garden! We now are growing: tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow and orange peppers, jalapeno and habanero peppers, green beans, wax beans, carrots, cucumber, onions, radish, eggplant, corn, zucchini, summer squash, cantalope, watermelon, okra, and strawberries.
*This weekend, we're planting more carrots and green beans and possibly corn. Oh and don't forget the fruit trees: peaches, plums and cherries all have fruit. Some pears and hoping for apples and figs. Never in a million years would I have imagined this!

Fifteen Years!

Today marks a big day in the history of our family.

Fifteen years ago, Doug and I stood before our family and friends and said, "I do."

We're taking the kids out to dinner to celebrate with us. They're thrilled to get to share in the celebration. We might sneak out ourselves this weekend. Quite frankly, I'm happy to share the night with the kiddos. Who knows, we just might come home and watch our wedding video with the kids. And listen to them laugh at how young (and skinny) we looked.

Happy Anniversary Doug. My life couldn't be more complete than it is at this very moment.

Thought you'd enjoy these pictures of Elisha helping me clean out some buckets. I had just ordered some bulk popcorn and oats and needed a place to store them. Doug got me these buckets from one of his customers...a donut shop. I wonder why I didn't get any donuts...

It was a pretty warm day last week, so I decided it would be fun for Elisha to play in the hose and buckets. And play he did. For about 45 mintues. Then he came in for a nap and slept for over 2 hours!

I came up with a plan for the summer: Swim for an hour after lunch each day, so Elisha takes good afternoon naps ;-)

Here's some current pics of Elisha. He has finally gotten to the point where he doesn't scream at the sight of the camera. Not because he's afraid of it. He used to scream because he firmly believed that I was playing with HIS camera. Now, he just stops and strikes a pose for me.

In these particular pictures, Elisha was supervising the removal of granola from the pan. Ellie calls these pictures, "Baby meets granola."

Our future NBA Superstar

Erik lives, eats and breathes basketball.

AFTER his basketball season ended,

he decided to spend all of his free time

practicing his skills in preparation for next season.

Three and four hours each day.

Not to mention all the basketball he has been watching

with the NCAA tournament on TV (and the internet).

I keep telling him that I hope he makes it into the NBA...

because his mom and dad won't have any money when we get older ;-)