Sophie's latest lyrics

I'm still too busy to post much right now...BUT, I had to take time to share this because it totally cracked me up. Some of you probably know that our Sophie (age 9) has written some original songs in the past...her biggest hit was the irritatingly catchy "Nachos & Cheese" that she composed a year or two ago (she said she was inspired by her brother's breath, just so you know.) Well, on Sundays, we have implemented a new household rule...the kids are supposed to have "no screens" to encourage them to do other things beside watching TV and playing video games. But they are allowed to use the computer as long as it is for creative purposes only....they just can't play games on it or surf the internet, etc. So Sophie has taken over the computer upstairs....been churning out the songs, stories, newspaper articles....you name it, she writes it (she keeps asking for her own blog!) Anyway, I just came upstairs to use the kids' computer and found this...the lyrics to her latest composition. Now remember...she is 9.

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"MY ACHING HEART

My achin' heart
My achin' heart
I've got a heart that's achin'

I am alone
I am alone
You just don't want to see me

Well, go away
Well, go away
I don't even love you now

My achin' heart
My achin' heart
I've got a heart that's achin'

-To all you people who are heartbroken"
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WHA' ???? Not exactly sure where this is coming from or what to make of it...but I'm thinking I should be concerned. Yes, I'm laughing, but surely this kind of angst cannot be healthy for a 9 year old. I thought we had a great, open mother-daughter relationship and GOOD GRIEF the girl talks non-stop, so I didn't think it was possible that she might have something she was keeping from me. Quite literally, I didn't think it was possible....she DOES NOT STOP TALKING...she keeps NOTHING to herself...did I mention she talks A LOT? Maybe she's just good at empathizing with other people's pain....or maybe I need to be listening better?

Once again, I have been slacking off with my blogging! Don't have time to post much now, but thought I would share Mary Rose' poem that she had to write for English last week. I thought it was sweet & special...like her!

Where I'm From

by Mary Rose Stinson

I am from the Bible,

from learning the days of creation

to memorizing verses.

I am from the birch tree,

from the apple, pear, and plum tree,

whose sweet juicy fruit

Mom would make into

delicious sugary preserves.

I am from beef and salmon patties,

and from peanut butter and cinnamon sandwiches.

I'm from smelly friendly dogs

and sweet gray cats.

I'm from lots of family fun

every Christmas,

and the annual scavenger hunt.

I'm from clumsy priests

who change their last names,

from the rope swing

in the front yard,

from orphaned fawns,

from baby skunks,

and even from the bright red cardinal

that crashed into our window every morning.

I am from those moments

that you don't appreciate until they're gone,

the precious moments that I will always remember.

Whew...Summer just flew by!

Wow, it is almost the end of July and I'm still in shock that the kids go back to school in a week! We have had an extremely busy, but wonderful summer and hate to see it ending so soon!

Here are the major events since the last posting....

Jacob and Mary Rose went to Kamp Kennessee again in June. Loved every minute of it...lots of old friends, new friends, and fun, fun, fun. Here's a link to their talent show performance with our friend, Dan Lankford....

http://http//www.facebook.com/home.php?#/posted.php?id=1131271242&share_id=118974488956#s118974488956

After our Atlanta trip for my parent's 50th anniversary (see earlier post) we headed out to Texas for our annual trip to Dallas. Kevin & Conrad played golf in the Tyler "GPGA" tournament, Jacob got in to the Texas FC camp in Austin at the last minute and the younger kids and I had a great time hanging out in Dallas with Mary and kids. Mary is such a great hostess and we were pampered and spoiled all week....swam, ate, swam, napped, shopped, swam, ate...you get the picture! Here are a few shots of our time in Dallas...

Baby Cora LOVED Uncle Kevin...probably 'cause he fed her anything she wanted!

Bedtime buddies.....Mary Rose, Selah & Sophie

Me & Mary

A serious water balloon fight

Stinsons and Flemings after our intense Whirlyball night...

Jacob happy to see his siblings after Texas camp.......

Brooke Payne...one of my dear Texas friends!

After picking Jacob up at camp, we headed to San Antonio to see some more of our favorite Texans. We visited with the Moody, Freiling and Klutz families....shared memories, laughed a lot, ate too much....a wonderful visit in every way!

Here are some shots of us having fun in San Antonio:

The Stinsons visit the Alamo

Mucho fun at El Mercado

Finally got to catch up some with my sweet Melissa!

And our dear friends, the Moody's, whom we miss SO much!

We love all of our Texas friends so much and would visit so much more if it just wasn't so far away....and so HOT!

Back home to Tennessee last weekend, grateful to come back to cooler temperatures, plenty of rain while we were gone to keep everything green and blooming...ahhh, nothing beats coming home! And the best way to end summer...?? All the kids just left for a week at Pops and Grandma's in Kentucky! I don't know who was more excited, the kids or Kevin & me or his parents! Well, it probably wasn't his parents! They are so sweet to do this each summer....and they all have a blast, but I'm sure it wears them out! It probably takes them a whole year to get their nerve up to try it again! We are excited to have a week to ourselves...wonder what we'll do....

Playing catch up...

Wow, I am so behind blogging! I have no excuse, other than the normal hectic schedule which has been even busier than usual! What happened to a relaxing summer???

SO much has been happening since the last posting in May. I will hit most of the highlights briefly and will try to do better in the future...although that may be even more difficult than usual. "Why," you ask? Well, because I have finally succumbed to the pressure and joined Facebook (or "CrackBook" as my brother-in-law likes to call it, due to it's highly addictive nature) I've been a member for 24 hours, and have already wasted at least 3 hours on that swirling vortex/black hole of social networking. I am going to try to exercise a lot of self-discipline, but I'm sure my household will suffer from some neglect until the newness wears off, just like the other "junkies" have warned me. One other unfortunate "casualty" of Facebook is the blogging world. Most of my friends have been so consumed with Facebook once they sign up that they tend to neglect their blogs (Sandy Sullivan, I'm talking to you!) or they never read anyone else's blogs, since they catch up with them on Facebook instead. I am going to try hard not to let that happen. To my devoted blogging friends: I promise to keep reading of all your blogs, even in the midst of this Facebook madness. And to my family: I promise to really really try to keep blogging, even if no one else ever reads it! I am trying to look at our blogspot as a "virtual journal" of our family's life that will be a way for us to go back and reminisce. I am not a scrapbooker (I love it, just don't have time for it), so this blog is our "online scrapbook" to keep up with major events, milestones, memories, etc.... That concept of blogging gives me an incentive to keep on posting, despite being forsaken by the Facebooking majority!

Ok, enough ranting about FB (come & visit me there, if you'd like....OH, I'm such a hypocrite :)....

Here's what's been going on for the last 6 weeks...

By far our BIGGEST news is this: Jacob was baptized into Christ on May 30!!!!

This was a day that we have prayed and looked forward to for...well, since Jacob was born 13 years ago! So of course, we are overjoyed about his decision and praise God for His love, mercy and awesome plan of salvation! It was a Saturday evening, and we had quite a few friends join us at the church bldg to witness this blessed occasion, to help us cry tears of joy and to celebrate!

The other big event this past month was my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. The party was in Roswell, GA, in the same building complex where Kevin & I got married 17 years ago to the day, isn't that weird? My parent's anniversary is actually June 17th, but we had the party on the 27th, which is our annivesary...and it didn't hit me until we got there to set up that we had been in that same reception room exactly 17 years ago! We had almost 200 guests, lots of food, memories and laughs; it was a wonderful, perfect day, but I still don't think we were able to honor my amazing parents as much as they deserved!

Here's the whole family...all 27 of us! With some of the older grandkids in college and Jeff's family on the West Coast, we hadn't all been together in 2 or 3 years!

Mom & Dad on their special day!

The younger grandkids all sang to "Mimi & Papa"

Mom looked like she could overflow with happiness all day!

In other news this month, Mary Rose entered her first fiddle competition at a local Bluegrass Festival in June and won 2nd place for her age division (which was 11-14 year olds, so she was the youngest in her age group).

Jonathan & Shawna and the boys joined us at the festival...it was a gorgeous day, great music and we had a lot of fun!

Jacob and Mary Rose headed out to Kamp Kennessee week before last and had a great time again, of course. There were a few new faces and lots of old friends to get reacquainted with. They had fun playing some bluegrass in the talent show with one of our new favorite friends, the very talented Dan Lankford. Visit my facebook page and see link on left side to see a video of their kamp talent show performance; I will try to post it here myself soon!

Oh yeah...I also broke my foot about three weeks ago and have been wearing an oh-so-stylish boot for the last couple of weeks. It is hot, heavy and extremely uncomfortable, but black velcro goes with everything and is so slimming.........ha! I wish I had an exciting, heroic tale of how I broke it, but it was just pretty stupid, actually...just horsing around with the kids at the neighbor's pool and jumped in the shallow end in a very un-graceful way that resulted in two stress fractures in my right foot. My dad had just broken a bone in his leg after falling off a ladder, so we got our picture made in our matching boots while I was in Roswell...

That's all I have time for now! Will try to get some 4th of July pictures posted soon! Hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day!

Belated Birthday wishes!

May is a VERY busy month for birthdays around here, and I did not get around to posting this as promptly as I should have, but I wanted to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to some of my most favorite people who celebrated their special day over the weekend!!

First of all, my most bosom friend (I can hear you snickering! It's a most honorable title, I tell you! For you Anne of Green Gables fans, that is what Anne called Diana!!)...Michelle turned 41! I know that's hard to believe...she looks like a teenager.......how does she do that?

My most favorite brother in the whole world turned 49 and unfortunately, he's MUCH too far away to celebrate with him properly, but here's lots of XOXOXOX from your favorite sister (sshh, I won't tell the others that, your secret is safe!)....

And the dread pirate Silas, my scurvy scalliwag of a nephew, turned 6! Here's a picture of him with some of his cousins at his very festive pirate party over the weekend....

"SCHOOOOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!"

We had a fantastic final week of school, with lots of ceremonies, awards and parties. But boy, oh boy, were we ever ready for it all just to be OVER with!! Nothing beats sleeping in on that first morning!! The kids first day at home was spent catching frogs and tadpoles....a perfect way to start summer break! Here are a few highlights of the past week....

Our baby has graduated....from kindergarten, that is! It goes by WAY too fast....I'm sure all you moms out there know how that feels! Isaac had a great kindergarten year and loves school, his new friends and math! Go figure - must get that from the Stinson genes...it sure doesn't come from his momma!

Here is Sophie and her third grade class and....

... Sophie receiving an award for maintaining the highest spelling average in her class.

Here she is with her good friend, Caroline.

Here is Mary Rose with her "besties"....Abigail, Emily and James....

Here is Mary Rose receiving an award for the highest overall grade-point average in her class...

And she also received the "Outstanding Character" award for the 5th grade.

We were also very proud of Jacob, who won the "Blue & Gold" Award for 7th grade at the middle school award ceremonies last week. The Blue & Gold Award is a peer-voted award that recognizes exemplary character. I don't have a picture of that award ceremony yet...I will post it soon! In the meantime, I will just share this special picture of him.....

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful mothers!!! As the saying goes "All that I am or ever hope to be...I owe to my mother." Cheesy, but true! We love you both so much and are so grateful for you!!! We can't say "thank-you" enough for the examples you both are as wives and mothers as we try to raise our own children in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord."

God is good in so many ways....and not least of all in this - He has blessed us with godly mothers!

My own sweet husband and kids were good to me today! Lunch at my most favorite Mexican place....Garcia's fish tacos are out of this world-YUM.....breakfast made before I was out of bed, beautiful hand made cards from the kids.....and Jacob bought me tickets to the Hendersonville Garden Tour - his idea, with his own money- how sweet is that!? AND, my thoughtful hubby got me the best gift ever........a new GUITAR! I had been hinting at that for months...ever since Isaac started taking his lessons back in February. I couldn't stand sitting in on his lessons and not having my own guitar to strum along; I've wanted to learn for a long time before that even, so anyway, now I can!! I LOVE IT!!

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

Our sweet and sassy Sophie turned 9 this past week!!!

Sophie celebrated her birthday in style with a pink & black themed party at our local pottery studio with some friends. They had an fun time painting, partying and pigging out on some massive cupcakes!

I was trying to get a shot of her blowing out the candle; but ever the drama queen, she had to display some theatrics when we lit the sparkler candle.....

This pose was accompanied by loud screams and greatly exaggerated trembling...if you know Sophie, I'm sure you can imagine! Oh, puh-leeeeeze!!!!!!

Our fun-loving, people-loving, and attention-loving Sophie brings much excitement into our lives and keeps us entertained with her antics!!! She is a special girl in so many ways!

Happy Birthday, Bubbles!

Mary Rose Spring Recital

We are so happy to have found such a wonderful music program for Mary Rose at Belmont University. It is quite a drive for us, but so worth it! She just performed in her spring recital this past weekend. This has been her toughest piece yet and she worked MANY hours to get it ready...we are proud of her hard work!

Sophie's new look

She's been counting down for weeks and the big day finally arrived....SOPHIE GOT HER BRACES OFF!! And she's been eating all the popcorn, hard candy, bubblegum and cheetos(which are all strictly prohibited with braces) that she can handle ever since. Poor deprived child....no cheetos for 9 months!

Hoppy Easter!

Here are a few pictures from our Easter Sunday...hope your Easter was egg-cellent, too! (No, I didn't make the bunny cake!)

Spring Break Adventures: Yahtzee in a Wigman

Well, this was a memorable Spring Break! We stayed fairly close to home this year and just headed into Kentucky for a few days of cheap thrills! First and foremost was our excursion into Indian territory...actually, it was just Cave City, KY, and there are no actual reservations there. BUT there is the infamous WIGWAM VILLAGE!!!! http://www.wigwamvillage.com/

Wigmam Villages were built in the 1930's as tourist attractions, mostly along Route 66 out west (you may have seen one in the Disney "Cars" movie.) The are only 3 still in existence and we are "lucky" enough to live just a couple of hours away from one!! Yee-haw! It is definitely not what I would call "4 star accommodations" but it was just one of those things that I thought would make for some lasting memories for the kids...some pleasant and some not so pleasant, but definitely a trip worth remembering!! The interior of our Wigwam #9 was all of about 250 sq.ft....not much room for lounging. But after a big buffet dinner at the local watering hole, we all piled on the beds, watched American Idol (they did have cable TV!) and then stayed up playing Yahtzee 'til bedtime. What a night!

The next morning, we hit some of the other "touristy" destinations in the Mammoth Cave area and had a blast on go-carts, alpine slides, etc... (actually, i was not a participant on the "Yes..i DO want to die today!" alpine slides. R U Kidding me??? You could not pay me enough money to get on those death traps. It's not the slides that bother me, it's the ride up on the ancient ski-lift thingy. I secretly think that these alpine slide places scour the countryside watching for ski resorts to go bankrupt and shutdown and liquidate their inventory so they can get a ridiculous deal on a ski lift....all the while knowing that the reason that the ski resort went bankrupt was because people had DIED on their malfuntioning sub-standard ski-lift. Just a theory, but still valid, IMHO. I watched from a distance and prayed for my children and husband to be spared from the obvious impending deathly danger that they did not take seriously AT ALL! They were actually smiling and laughing while hanging 30 ft above the ground on that tiny piece of rusty skinny metal, oblivious or uncaring that the were so close to Death!!!!) then we headed to West Kentucky to spend a couple of days with Kevin's parents.

We took the scenic, back-road route to make the trip more interesting....here is the ferry we had to get on to cross some river...don't remember the name. It was a little scary, but the kids thought it was the coolest!