The Bark Collection

You never quite know what will attract a person's attention or how long that something will stay at the forefront of someone's mind. In the same fashion, you never know what thoughts go through someone else's mind until they express those thoughts and you just listen.

Thomas has been talking for days about a tree that fell behind Amelia's school. I hadn't really paid attention/understood the big deal until I just listened today. There's a branch that's maybe 10'+ on the gravel walkway where we pick up Amelia.  We've passed it a few days, but today, he got to make his wish come true. He was able to grab a chunk. Earlier in the day, Thomas talked about how he needed a special box to collect bark, and how he needed to go around and collect bark that was falling off different trees because he wanted to see how some were alike or different, and to learn the kinds of bark on all the different trees. He wants to make sure that whenever we travel to different states, that we make sure to bring home some bark from the special trees that grow in those places.  He said he would like to have a book to make some notes about the trees the bark comes from. Of course, on the way back to the car with his precious bark specimen, he proclaims to the group of (older) kids, adults, crossing guard, and siblings, that he FINALLY got to start his first collection - his collection of "tree skin."  You can imagine the chorus of people who chimed in, "It's called 'bark,'" as if he didn't already know that.  I think he was just trying to use the non-technical term for all the other newbies who aren't familiar with "bark."

On the way home, he treated it gingerly and talked more (and more and more about it) but was interrupted (shocker) by Amelia who told him how he could use it in a much better way than just putting it in a box.  Her idea was to paint it white, get another matching piece, tap it to the top, chip off 2 little parts and bend them to make a T so that the bark could become a see-saw for little dollies.  After taking a breath, she added that she and grandmama would need to sew some seatbelts for the dollies so they wouldn't fall off the bark see-saw.

The whole time she was explaining this, I struggled to contain my giggling.  It was so characteristic for both of them to have these "plans" for something so simple.  John, who gets practically no airtime with his older siblings in the car, was thinking, but not speaking just yet.  I look forward to hearing his ideas about Thomas' bark tomorrow.  My guess is that he will want to get to school early before the crowds, drag the tree to the woods, and toss it down into the gulley where all the other tree limbs are.  He'll likely want to bring his wheelbarrow and transport any bark scraps back to the woods, and remove any indication that the limb was in the walkway.  He'll probably even look around long enough to determine the tree the limb broke away from and point it out.  But for now, all he has done with it was to walk by, and in devious little-brother fashion, break half of it and giggle, which sent The Collector into a tearful hysteria. I must go find "the box" for the collection now because he's a persistent little guy.

Edited to add: John shared his thoughts about the bark today.  He said, "Well, Thomas, you really don't neeeeed to collect it and keep it.  You should just leave it outside." You can imagine the rebuttal to this opinion.  John continued, "Well, you definitely shouldn't leave it on the floor in the living room. You left it in the floor so I stepped on it."

Where are you guys living? (Change of Address!)

"Everywhere and nowhere"is the best answer! Everyone we know has been asking, and we don't have a better answer just yet. We have been so fortunate that friends have allowed us places to stay while we have continued to search for our next home. We've bumped around here, there, and everywhere this summer. We've written up and submitted 4 offers on houses. We've had sellers decide they didn't actually want to sell, prices go UP on houses after we submitted offers, and we've been outbid. God apparently isn't ready for us to settle down into our next place just yet. In the meantime, we've stayed at the beach, at Homewood Suites, at our choir director's house, at some friends' downtown vacation condo so far. We'll move on to my mom's house, a Disney resort for a night, another hotel, and on to another friend's house for a few nights until we land in our rental home on Aug. 15. Our new temporary address will be 700 Emory Dr., same town and state, 27517. The house is just a hair (200sf) bigger than our old one we outgrew and just mile away from our old house, but we are renting it month to month and can still buy as soon as the right house comes up for sale. It'll be great to settle in and get ready for school to start. The rental house is in between both schools, so it'll be great to walk to them as much as possible. Michael keeps on saying it's been fun to stay in these nice homes but it'll be depressing when we finally do buy and our house is nowhere near as nice! We look forward to moving in soon!

Station One has a pole!

We attended the 4th annual Touch a Truck event in April, and we'll add pictures from that event eventually. Thomas talked at length to Fireman Keith who attended Will's birthday party last year and was on the first firetruck that responded to our neighborhood fire last month. We learned that Station One has a fire pole to help the firefighters get to their gear and truck quickly. We had few minutes to stop and check out this pole, and we were given a very special tour by some very special firefighters. We ran into Keith at the grocery the next day, and he was pretty impressed with the chiefs' demonstration.

As we pulled into the station, Will and Thomas proclaimed, "We've seen their fire trucks at touch a truck, at school, and at the party already, so we really want to see the fire pole. We don't need to see the trucks this time." It's a good thing because the trucks were all out responding to automatic fire alarms on campus.

So....Here is what we saw! The 4 year old boys and the 2 year olds, Charlotte and John, really enjoyed our visit! (CLICK ON THE PICTURE to see the videos, then tap the edge symbol on the bottom right to go full screen!)

Thank you, Chapel Hill Fire Department! We appreciate all you do!

First Sleepover

This week, Amelia decided she wanted Thomas to have a sleepover in her room. As they were discussing it at dinner, John realized he would be left out, so he kindly let them know he would be sleeping over with them. We thought for a minute he may actually enjoy having his own room, but that was not at all important to him. He tried to tell them that he was going to sleep on the down-low (trundle) bed, but Thomas had already claimed it. We realized this was T's first time sleeping on the trundle. So, here they are, pajamas matching, with Nana blankets (made by Debra's mom, Nana) and Build-A-Bears from Grandmama (Monkey Monkey, Owen the Owl, and Rover the Dachsund) and a ton of love swirling about the room...


and here is how we found them in the morning. They slept until 6:45 - a pretty normal wakeup time.

Surprise, I made a kite!

Thomas is always putting together items to create something new. Michael usually discovers his "creations" by looking and listening to him playing. He made a pepper grinder the other day with some of our "cutting food" that has halves of produce that velcro together. He used a lemon half on top and a carrot half for the long part of the grinder. He was twisting the velcro pieces back and forth to "grind" the pepper.

When I was talking to our next door neighbor and her children in the yard yesterday, Thomas discovered the twine we used to outline the new mulched beds in front of the house. He asked if he could go make something with the string, which was, of course, fine. A couple minutes later, he comes running through the yard screaming, "Look Mom, I made a kite! Isn't it a great kite?"

Sweet Sixteen, Girlfriend!

Our dear sweet niece & cousin Allison turns 16 on Jan. 26th. She is a lovely girl in so many ways. Her smile and beautiful singing voice are just tiny little glimpses into the wonderful person she is inside. If you ask our kids, they'll tell you how she loves each of them, loves her pets, her whole big family, her parents, especially her big brother Grant in Afghanistan, and her billions of stuffed animals. God has grown her into a lovely and brilliant young lady. We all just adore her and look forward to spending time with her each summer. Sometimes we get visits with her during the winter as well.

She popped into town for a Duke BBall game earlier this month, and Michael invited her to come in and take a look at the kids who were supposed to be sleeping. I think we surprised her!


Congratulations, Brian and Marian, on your awesome little girl who is all grown up now!

Amelia seeks your help!

If you would like to read to or sponsor this Kindergartner in her first ever Ephesus Elementary Read-A-Thon, please let us know! Pledge amounts are due by Jan. 20th and the funds need to be turned in by Feb. We'll try to capture some pictures of her reading adventures!