General update for April

For Easter we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was great to see the family. On Easter Sunday we went to Church with some friends in Cincinnati (Chuck & Kathy Meadors). Terry came also and then took Cara & Deanna to a special show. Then we went back to Grandma's to have dinner /fellowship with the family. It is always so good to see everyone.

The next weekend 4/17 & 18 we went back to Cincinnati for the Mid western Home School Conference. It is in its 3 rd year and well on its way to comparing to CHAP. We were able to see Little Bear Wheeler, one of the highlights of our visit. He will be retiring from the circuit so if you can get an opportunity to see him this year you should, He is supposed to be at CHAP next weekend. We aslo enjoyed speakers from Summitt ministries; John Stonestreet was a favorite and Dr. Jobe Martin from Creatures that defy Evolution. Larry Schweikart shared enlightening stories from 48 liberal lies about American History. Explaining in detail how the public school texts have changed over the years. We really enjoyed the conference.

After the conference we went to Grandma & grandpa's to visit for a while and made dinner for the children. Grandma kept the children while Terry & Julie and Chuck & Kathy took Dean & Cara out for dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse to try sushi! Quite an experience, a wonderful evening and lots of fun. We all tried the sushi - Dean really liked the salmon roll. I really liked the crab roll. We also had a full meal with it cooked in front ofus on a hibachi grill. It was great - a very special event if you want to give some one a treat this is a nice idea.

I traveled down to Nashville on Wednesday 4/22 to be there for Deanna's show on Wednesday evening and to work with her at The Grand Ol' Opry for the Dove Awards rehearsals & show on Thursday. Friday & Saturday we had a nice relaxing time together shopping, running errands and just being together. On Sunday she had to play for two worship serices at her Church and then a bridal shower so I took a friend to the airport and started for home. I was planning to visit Bradley. Usually I stay with Deanna until dark and start for home at night time, but I am only able to visit Bradley until 6PM. About 1/2 way through my 3 hour drive the transmission went out in my van. I was so thankful I was not on the side of I-65 at 2AM as that is when I ordinarily travle that path. I did not get to visit Brad, but I talked with him on the phone and he knows what happened.

My next trip is schedule for 5/9 - Even if my van is not back on the road, I am sure I will be. We'll have to pull out 'old reliable' - my green 98 Plymouth voyager. She has 340,000 miles and I can still trust her to take me where I want to go. She has been to Washington state, Canada twice, Texas, Florida, Chicago, New York and everyplace in between. We bought her in Bristol Virginia in June 98 on our way to Knoxville for an ATI conference(after our van's transmission was acting up). She continues to serve us well.

Our normal everyday stuff includes schooling, mowing grass, weeding & mulching, collecting eggs, tending to chickens and enjoying beautiful spring weather. We try to take a walk as often as we can, we do not get to it everyday but when we do it is a highlight of the day. Our farm sits on a corner of a relatively main county road and a dead end road. The stream runs along the road and trees line it most of the way. From our house to the end of the dead end & back is 3 miles. Always a refreshing stroll.

On 5/16 we will begin butchering chickens. We have about 150 to butcher we'll probably do 30 - 50 each weekend for 4 or 5 weeks(we'll see how the first week goes :-/).

Love ya'll - hope to see ya soon.