Lessons from a 9 year old

Knight took Rara to work the other day. She doesn't have much exposure on the route yet, but J-Bell was gone and Desti was sick. That only leaves 3 choices: go alone, take Rara, or take J-Bird. J-Bird has long since proven that he is too young yet. Plus Rara loves to go.

So Knight is supposedly having a bad day, except it is really hard to have a bad day when you are with someone so happy and full of life. He shared some of what he learned having her around:

• It is nearly impossible to walk from the truck to an account. It is much preferred to hop, skip, run, or use another mode other than walking
• There is a difference between skipping and Wizard of Oz skipping. Wizard of Oz skipping is where you go twice on one foot, then twice on the other. Rara was more than happy to share this information with workers and managers alike.
• When someone compliments you on your beautiful hair, it is cuter and funnier to tilt your head and repeatedly bat your eyes at them instead of saying "thank you"

We always say that with Rara the glass isn't half full, it's overflowing.

Update

I know I need to get more committed about posting. Not because I have so many interested readers who are waiting for some witty comment out of my mouth. Those people who came for that gave up a LONG time ago. I just have this need for a creative outlet, and since most of mine are geared for the 9 long winter months we have up in these here parts, I haven't had any outlet for my creative genius (ok, not so genius, but, whatever!)

So here's the update of our lives...

My two youngest were baptized on the 6th. Pastor was suddenly nervous about baptizing J-Bird when, while they were in the changing room before going to the baptistry he asked Pastor if he could do a cannonball into it. Rara went first and when J-Bird came out he had a strict warning that no cannonballs were needed. Picky picky!

We had some blue jay parents ready to be empty nesters and kicked those babies out or the nest. We had what I think was two different babies land at different times on our slip n slide and sit there for a long time, one for most of the day. We went to bed and it was still there. We are hoping that it flew away instead of becoming lunch for a neighborhood cat. I wouldn't let the kids touch it, but they enjoyed being as close as they could to it.

Other than that, if you are looking for us, you can find us at the pool, or on the river kayaking. Speaking of which, I need to get ready. We are heading out again today, this time a new river. Hopefully I'll be able to get some great pictures to share. Anyone up to going out with me???

Photo hunt-- Pointed

Fireworks from last night. Well, at least they look pointed.

Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein
an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

Photo Hunt #2--Bright

To veiw more PhotoHunt go here.

Is it getting warm in here?

For the first time since we have moved into our house I sit surrounded by insulation. The insulators came today and filled our walls with expanding foam insulation.

They got the WHOLE house done in 6 hours.

When they were about halfway through the kids and I stopped home to grab a couple things, check on the progress, and grab some lunch. We came home to the door wide open (that is how they got the hose inside), windows still open, with the men working hard.

One of my wonderful, home schooled children looked at me and said, "It's starting to work already mom. It's already warmer in the house!"

I personally think the heat had something to do with the fact that it was hot and muggy today.

At least they are looking for positive signs!

Wordless Wednesday--Watch out for the horse Zebra!

It was an African theme at camp this year...

FYI

Just to let you know...

If...

your family enjoys kayaking, but is just getting into it and figuring it all out...

and if your husband decides he wants to see how the dog will do kayaking...

and if his plan is to get a blow up raft and put the dog in that and tow it, having one of the kids sit in the raft holding the dog...

and if you have never seen this dog around big bodies of water so you don't know if it likes it...

then...

...you may have a dog that does not like the raft

...the dog may jump out of the raft a couple times

...the dog may crawl up onto the tandem sit on top in the middle of the lake

...the dog will keep shaking all the water off, but it is now in a kayak with you, spraying you.

...the dog may kiss solid ground when you finally reach shore again.

I'm just sayin'

Sharing the Love

Melody over at Slurping Life has decided to share some love with me. Melody is such a neat person, has such a talent for photography, and those boys! I just want to show up at her door some day and let our kids get rambunctious and crazy together. Thank you Melody for the love. You know you would be getting this from me had I got it first :)







For the ones I'm sharing my love with...
Amy from The Junk Drawer (previously Laughing Through the Tears) She is a special bloggity friend whom has never stopped praying!
Leeann from The World: Through the Eyes of Me I have been blessed by her honesty and love for life.
Cindy from Still His Girl Her and her husband has been an inspiration to us.
Rach from Greene Acres. She is a truly a blessing and a beautiful person, inside and out!

I am going to cut myself off at this point. Awards go around and spread so quickly in bloggityville that I wanted to leave some love for everyone else to share.

Photo Hunt #1 (for me)-- Water

I have decided to play along with PhotoHunt.

About PhotoHunt: A theme is given for each Saturday. Post a photo, on your site,
that best represents the theme.

This weeks theme is water. This was taken from the comforts of my kayak.

Didja Hear?????

They're Gone!!!

The girls are at camp for the week. All settled in, their beds made, and thrilled I was leaving the last time I saw them (well... the backs of their heads anyway! lol) We only have the boy. He loves being an only child once in a while.

A new blog...

As I was reading my daily fix to some of my favorite blogs, Big Doofus posted about The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Yes, it's a real blog. And I found it hilarious!

...but maybe that's just me.

For more "Unnecessary" quotations you can read Miss Sniz (wife to Big Doofus) post on the subject

Sew..Sew...Sew...

I just finished this years swim suits. Camp is next week so I was on a time crunch. I'm done sewing for now. Woo Hoo!!!

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i feel so bad i was sad that i would have to work today and my sisters and brother got to do fun stuff all day so my dad took me to the movies and i dint eat that much but ether i got food poisoning or somethings going around so i vomited 3 times (my mom doesn't like me saying the other words for vomit) so my dad went throw all that for nothing so jurnee had that shoppers in discise thing so ciara got to go she has not done a full day she has only done 4 stops but there are 10 stops on my route she was very exited but when she is going to have to do it every 3 weeks she wont like it well by

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hello today we might get to go garage sailing today but tomorrow I'm pretty sure I'll have to get up at quarter to 4.00 and have to get sorry try to get done with the route and and get home at 11.00 so we can do camerama in Cameron if you don't no what the route is its were me and my dad go and sell little Debbie's and i think this is the order of the stops walmart in lady smith county market in lady smith the food mill the corner store 2 skabrouds that are my favored stops on the route i don't no the name of this one i call it the farm store 2 bp that one the people are Reilly nice and they have two stors and one is way out in the county so they let us drop of the little Debbie's there and they bring them out two the other store and then finely jimmy boys there Reilly nice to then we get to go home i love to eat at county market they have perfect cheese omelets there if you think I'm weird taking about food after all this if you tried them you would love them its the only thing i Reilly like about the route well the only people that Reilly no all this is Rebekah Lia Brandi and Sarah my best friends so as you see I'm very busy tomorrow and happy birthday to mom,gram pa,Burke,Gina,grandma,Angie,Josie other gram pa,Isabella pasters mom,Kristi and Mrs helms new baby

Baby story

For a great childbirth story read Mommy's post about her newest daughters arrival. My kids were wondering why they didn't drop off the other little ones for us to babysit during her ob check. Excuses, excuses. How many people can say that their garbage man picked up their garbage at 9am and helped deliver their baby an hour later? Congrats Mommy!

**I'm sure our face friends have read it. I am putting this on for my readers who don't know them.

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i am very happy one of my cosines may have gotten saved with me in the basement of my gram pas house i told her aloud about it and right there me and her knelt down and i think she got saved but who knows but the heavens were rejoining i hope it took alout of explaining to but it was worth it and congratulations Mrs helms on the baby i rely want to see Anica please pray for Isabella her mom is not saved thank you by

Fishing at Dads

My Birthday

Yesterday we went down to my dad's house to celebrate his birthday. Since my birthday is today there were some presents waiting for me there as well. Becca gave me Digital Photography Workbook for Dummies and Digital Photography: An Introduction two books that will be very helpful in helping me really learn how to do this photography thing the way I want to. Gina gave me a great tripod for my camera. It has some features I have not seen on other tripods (not that I've looked a whole lot either). The tripod was on my wish list. My mom combined my two passions and got me a water proof case so I can take my camera with me on my kayak. Woo Hoo!

After that mom, Becca and I hopped into the kayaks mom and I brought to dad's, paddled to the other side of the lake, portaged across the road to the river, and paddled down to moms house. It was the first time I was out in our tandem kayak, and first time out this year.

Now I'm REALLY remembering why I love kayaking.

Paradise.