Committee Stories-What's That?

I want to encourage y'all to do this crazy, random, fun, writing challenge which is the perfect thing to do on cold, indoor evenings. Grab a couple siblings (they can be really young or really old-they only need to be able to put words on paper) and a piece of lined paper and pencil for each. Then sit in a circle and start a timer for, say, 2 minutes. Everyone writes a few lines to a paragraph of the beginning of a story. Try to leave a bit of suspense or mystery at the end of your section when the timer goes off. If you’re in the middle of a sentence go ahead and finish, and yes, semicolons are legal. ; ) Then everyone around the circle- pass your paper to the person to your right, wait a few seconds for everyone to read the section, and then start the timer, and WRITE! Do this until everyone has their own story starter again and the story has come to some sort of conclusion. Read the whole story in front of you and give it a name. Make the stories as weird and funny as you want and have fun! 

This is one of our favorites--

   

Shane’s Adventure

(Emma) Vroom, vroom! A black car sped down an alley and disappeared behind a corner; a red truck raced after it. It turned the corner and stopped. A man got out and saw, to his astonishment, a row of men dressed in black holding guns.

(Anna) He clenched the truck door handle and took a quick step backward, his eyes quickly taking in the scene. “Shane Matthews,” an accusing voice spoke, and he saw a dark figure step from the black car still smoking behind the blockade of agents. “Why are you following us? We are nothing of your concern, little cowboy. And yet you persist on making a scene,” he growled.

(Perry) “Well," Shane drawled, still grasping the truck door handle, “as long as you are real agents, I don’t have to worry about a thing. But I happen to have a hunch that you’re not real agents.” He grasped the door handle more tightly. “And,” he added, “that you’re not real people either.” He pressed a hidden button on the door handle and light short from the front of his truck.

(Kate) The “agents” disappeared completely, and Shane sighed. “I wish they’d stop sending holograms to try to scare me. What I need is some real action.” An impossibly deep voice spoke from above, “You have you’re wish.” He tipped his head back to see out from under his hat and saw a gigantic black helicopter. His heart stopped, and he tried the button again. It didn’t work.

(Pearl) Dozens of black birds came swirling out of the hatch in the bottom of the helicopter. Shane took action right away. He threw a rope into the sky and fortunately it hooked to a sky hook. Then he climbed and climbed. The birds did their best to knock him down, but he had his hand gun ready. “Help!” he heard a soft but scared voice plead. Shane reached the helicopter and pulled himself inside. The birds were about to attack the earth bellow, but then Shane saw a button that said “destruct all fighting units”. Shane pressed it and instantly the birds floated into a passing mist. Then Shane saw a bad guy in the driver’s seat. Beside him was sitting a beautiful girl all tied up in ropes. He knocked the man out and shoved him out the window. Then he flew the helicopter down to a little chapel in Pennsylvania where he and his fiancé wanted to get married.

The End

Life: a post by Aimee

So my life is pretty much over. I lived a good long life, had a son and a
daughter, a little red car (I was always speeding) a nice house, and now
I'm sitting around with my fellow Lifers enjoying my retirement at
Countryside Acres. At the end of my career I  had a large list of
accomplishments such as winning a Nobel Peace prize, saving an endangered
species, and inventing a better mouse trap. I know, the world really really
needed a better mouse trap. You're welcome. Well, I asked my siblings to
expound upon the accomplishments and tell exactly what I did so here they
are. Be amazed. I invented Doritos flavored ice cream. I designed a
complicated mousetrap I can't describe that uses the mouse's psychology
against him. I cured the common cold by having creepy Miss Frizzle from the
Magic School Bus go inside my body and find the cure. I saved the
endangered Purple Ant Eaters by inviting them over to my house to clean up
my ant infestation. Free lunch for a week. Created a new teaching method
where the student smacks his head on the back of his chair while saying
math facts. Pounds the information in, I guess. And the biggie...won the
Nobel Peace prize by paying Paul (he became President in the game, way
outdid me) a fortune to get everyone to give up their guns while he was in
office. Sounds pretty useless. Verses from Ecclesiastes come to mind. Can
they make a Christian version of this game?! Evangelism would be more
awesome. -Aimee

Our Random Moments of Inspiration

It's always been a joke around here that moments of inspiration seem to come during Grammar lessons and some of the most clever poems, sayings, or story ideas are thought up then. Apparently though, the game "SET" has the same effect for the other day the phrase "you're quotable" was heard often while a tense (and talkative) game of "SET" was underway.

"The last presidential debate was rated R for thematic elements and Hillary's evil laugh."
"Don't put words in my mouth. It's my mouth, so that's trespassing."
"I love inside jokes, especially the kind that are so inside that the people who made them up don't know what they are."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

All of Betsy's family came to town for a couple days, and we've enjoyed hanging out with  them while they've been here. Monday, everyone dropped by our place (with pizza!) and the little Ks came for a pre-thanskgiving get together.
Thank you, Lord, for family!!

Looking back on August

August was a month filled with new challenges and so many blessings, and we made countless special memories! Here are just a few random pictures.

New 14 year old in the house! Beware!

The birthday meal!!!

Ice Cream. Of course. :)

Up front at church with all the others whose birthdays are in August.

Numerous scavenging trips to thrift stores. Thank God for Goodwill (and reverse cameras to pass the time away!!)

Kate made this scrumptious banana pudding & vanilla wafer thingy that disappeared within seconds of it being placed on our table at church (it never had the chance to participate in the potluck food line). :P 

SOMEONE quietly shut the door while Paul was in his room and made quick use of the scraps of danger tape Jerry brought home from the work sight.

House of girls; ya know, gotta warn them.

This summer, though I have been so bad about posting about it, we had a blast participating in the Arizona Bible Bee for the first time!!! We finished in August and everyone gathered for Celebration Day. Here are just some sneak peak photos of the games at the Hive Meetings we attended.

The girlies with some friends

 Ready to play Water Balloon Battle Ship!

 Introducing our family's team of Bible Bee-rs, complete with a banner Jerry created.

A hilarious Bible quiz with buzzers and all

Hopefully a post about Celebration Day and some more of the festivities will appear soon. Somehow. :P

Drawing, drawing, drawing!- has been the theme around here. Ya gotta be careful nowadays,  when you think you're just sitting on the couch reading. :) 

We think these two are exceptional:

She drew it off a photo and recolored with a smartphone.

Paul drew this one, also off a photo. Isn't it REALLY good?!

And....

For some days, a secret for BB was being put together (in the closet :P) by the older little girls and when it was finally revealed...

She was...um, ecstatic.

A whole doll clothing store was set up...

With cardboard hangers and everything!

She was presented with a stack of Monopoly money and immediately began shopping for her various sizes of baby dolls. 

And that was a really random post of all the things I didn't have time to post about in August. 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Autumn!

Happy autumn, everyone! It truly is the greatest season!!!

 Kate made these deeelicious shortbread acorn cutouts to celebrate the occasion. How did y'all celebrate?

Spray Bottles, Dragons, and a Makeshift Choir

Summer days in this baking desert have been very full of work, play, family, and community. So many things to be grateful for!!
I'm grateful for...

• My nephews--Bobbers, Lum, and Beef Stew (or Stewy). Each one of them has touched my life so much in their own little ways. We were so happy to have them live with us, but we're also very glad for them that they have their own little house. ; )
• Being able to help Perry and Tyler move. It was great to be able to see their house and help unpack some things. What a cute little house for a cute little family!
• My chaperoning job. I've gotten to do it five days in the last week or so! ; ) I really enjoy hanging out with the cute happy people and serving them in this way. (And it pays really well too. My "clients" treat me to all sorts of yummy things, and when they went to Prescott I got to go too. Hooray for cool weather!) ;P They are so considerate and inclusive (as any two courting people can be). ;P  It's a joy to be with them!
• The old Jimmy Stewart movie "You Can't Take It With You". Wow! It is so awesomely funny! If you ever want a glimpse of what our life is like--watch that movie! We had a family movie night with that and some yummy microwave popcorn.
• Bible Bee hive meetings. My memorization partner is such a joy! Hi, Hannah!
• The Green Ember by S.D. Smith. Don't let the Beatrix Potter style cover fool you! It's a full-blown, amazingly written adventure! Very good!
• The Restoration Hardware store! *Alice steps into Wonderland* *Angels sing* *Kate goes crazy*
• Singing in a makeshift choir after church. Thank you, Paul and Matthew for setting it up!! It was so much fun. We had a great time singing to the Lord, and it was surprisingly good sounding for a bunch of people who hadn't practiced together before. ; ) One of the newcomers to church actually thought we were a choir which flattered us all immensely. Very good times. ; )
• Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Aimee's generous Man brought us a sampler of them. It was so much fun to test them out. (Thank you, Aimee's Man!)
• The sweet texts we're getting from Perry telling us all the cute things that the babies are doing. We taught Lum part of the cup game while they live here, and he just decided to do part of it today! ; )
• Little friends at church! So many of them came up to greet me and give me hugs or hang on my arm as I was talking to someone older.
• Matching my two littlest sisters at church. We wore red skirts and white shirts. ; ) It was so fun! (Every time Daddy would say, "Where's so and so?" I'd just say, "She's in a red skirt.") ; ) 
• Hilarious family discussions of whether or not the word "both" could mean more than two. Google may have settled the issue. For now... ; )
• Music. I'm loving Josh Groban's instrumental "The Wandering Kind (Prelude)", almost everything by the PianoGuys, and "The Cup Song". Here's the original version of it from the movie.(Please note that these links are on YouTube, so be careful to guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Also, "The Cup Song" does unfortunately have a reference to drinking, but what I enjoy about that song is its sound.) Great background music for working in the kitchen or any time the mood needs a little lightening! ; )
• A fresh notebook and about four story ideas! County fair story here I come! Children's picture book second draft here I come! Dragons and chimney sweeps story here I come! Robin Hood, Peter Pan, Queen Susan, and King Arthur all in one story here I come! (I know, the last two story ideas are crazy. I love them.)
• Crazy family spray bottle fights. Wow, enough said there. O.o.
• Our sweet dog Ella. (Lum calls her "Lella".) Love. ; )
• Danny Kaye. We were laughing over our favorite parts in his old movies ridiculously late last night. ; )
• The love of God, so rich and pure, all measureless and strong.

Today what are you grateful for?

Originally posted by Kate at http://thesacramentofliving.blogspot.com/

Catching Up Part 3: Late Night Ice Cream and Splash Pad Fun!

Late Night Ice Cream

Paul had the cool opportunity to help out a friend at his booth at the AFHE convention over the weekend. Saturday night he joined Aimee and Tyler and Perry at the Minion movie.... 

And the others had a party of their own. : )

The younger kids were ecstatic when Jerry flicked the lights on in their room at some late hour and asked, "Sorry to disturb you guys, but would you come help me eat some ice cream?" This was greeted with shrieks of delight (of course).  

  Four different flavors to pick from and heaping bowls. :) 

Mmmm. Yum, yum!

Splash Pad Fun

One day the boys had work to do at a park nearby and took us along. 

The playground was unusual but interesting!

 Then we found the splash pad and...wait for it...SPLASHED! A LOT!

Then to dry off some of us played around on the basketball court which was in direct sunlight and warmed up in no time! Then Jerry treated everyone to pretzels or nachos, and ice cream cones from the cute little restaurant, Windy City Dogs, in the middle of the park! Such a fun summer activity and the perfect thing for hot weather!

Moving Day!

Praise the Lord the Ks' finally closed on a little home of their own! As sad as we are to see them go after living together for close to 6 months, we are soooo excited for them and look forward to seeing them in their new place! On Friday numerous friends came and offered their help and 15 passenger vans. The Ks' were soon moved and even partially unpacked! Here are some pictures from the work!

First we pulled everything of theirs out of the the backyard and packed up their  bedroom.

Then we packed the van full for the first load.

Looking so grown up!

Entertaining the littles and keeping them out from under foot.

Little brother wants to see too! Love the tip-toes! 

So cute! He was pretty thrilled to be able to see everything that was going on.

The first load all ready to go!

The crew.

Meanwhile all the peoples at home base were loading up a trailer. The first crew got back and refilled the empty van, joining the rest of the moving crew back at the new house.

With the dog and everything!


Some of the moving helpers.


The play room. :) Keeping the littles occupied.

"Where does this go?" I love how the boy in the brown shirt looks like he is getting a ride. :P

King of the house. :)

Almost done unloading the van!

Everyone loved Perry's cool typewriter and of course they all had to try it out. :)

The awesome assembly crew had the boys' room put together in no time.

While the girls worked on unpacking the kitchen the boys teamed up on junk in the shed and got it cleaned out and ready to be used for storage. 

Everything was done by 4:00, and we left soon after. Thanks to everyone for helping with the blitzkrieg!

Next we will continue the update with:

Catching Up Part 3: Late Night Ice Cream and Splash Pad Fun!

Make sure to look for it on the 29th!