Ordinary Life

Our hearts are in Beaufort today. We stand in Spirit and in Prayer with the Cushman Family as they say "Good-Bye-For-Now" to their sweet little Ellie.

Until recently, I didn't know much about Disney's Little Einsteins. Now, thanks to the free Disney JR app, we are all on a first name basis. Sometimes, Riley even lets me be June... (other times, I have to be Mary or Joseph and she is Baby Jesus...or we are both puppies... but that is another story for a different day) For the uninitiated, Little Einsteins set their adventures to classical music and plug in classical works of art along the way. I never thought my two year old would be running around saying "Mozart" "Seattle" or "Paris, France" but she quotes these amongst other high brow tid-bits and phrases. My concern is that she is going to think there are lyrics to some of the musical pieces... to insist that Beethoven's 5th really does go: 'I Love Balloons, I Love I Love Balloons...' but, I suppose we'll cross the bridge should we arrive at it. Rye has a musical soul- she loves to listen to music; to dance and sing a long.  Be...

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Silent Shiny Baby Jesus from Jim Morgan on Vimeo .

If you have already gotten a Christmas card from our family in the mail, you will recognize right away that this is our actual Christmas card's cover. (Unless you already live in Florida, then you got something a little different) Once you click on the links, you will see that the letter is the same as well. If you have not received a card in the mail, it is either delayed due to the antiquity of our local post office or ...well, I was running low on stamps, see... and I knew that I planned to send this here virtual one... so... please enjoy this version and know we love you very much! Even if you did receive a tangible card in your mailbox, there is a slideshow of the children in the virtual card. Rather than try to get one good shot of the children all looking in the same direction at the same time, I had the realization that I could hit the continuous shot button and improve my odds...2000+ still shots later, I had another realization that a movie would be easier and after...

For the purists:  Retooning the Nativity from Igniter Media on Vimeo .

We headed out to the beach to take pictures for this year's Christmas cards... I used the continuous shot mode on our camcorder in hopes of catching a few good shots (ever try to get multiple kids to look at the camera, smile & not twitch...simultaneously? Fun stuff, that.) (See Also: my everyday camera has been re-assigned for use by Chandler & Logan in their FLVS Photography Class...and had dead batteries)  So, the camcorder... I always forget about the continuous shoot function until I accidentally hold the button too long (it is usually always around Christmastime when I am scrambling to make pictures happen and end up resorting to the camcorder) I was a little delighted by this realization... "This way, " I thought,  "perhaps I will actually get them all looking in the same direction with print worthy expressions" I figured I had improved my odds anyway. Once we got home and I began to sift through the 2,000+ stills (the downside of continuous shoo...

Are you keeping Jesus in a manger? I Am Here from onetimeblind on Vimeo .

Liked This: JESUS & SANTA CHRISTMAS VIDEO from Barton Damer on Vimeo .

Nicholas Mark, 1985 I have known Nick for as long as I can remember. No, really. I don't have a childhood memory that doesn't also include Nick's existence. An existence which started a handful and half years ago on this very day.  Happy Birthday Little Brother  (who has always been like an Older, Wiser and Better Looking Brother  ;) When I think of our sibling-hood, several key memories always come to mind first... Climbing over The Ugly Sofas & Red Eyeball Chair ( * see picture below) in games of " I Can Do Something More Dangerous Than You Can" A game in which one of us would do something 'dangerous' like leap from the ottoman to the sofa and the other one had to take that dare then up the ante by jumping from the sofa back to the ottoman with our eyes closed ! I think of hours and hours riding around in the backseat of our various family cars -usually in the  hot, sweaty, summertime- making up games to keep ourselves entertained en route to small c...

We took pictures for a Christmas card this afternoon. Pretty soon, you ought to be getting one in the mail or seeing our 'virtual card' online... or both. In the meantime- here's a sneak peek from today: It helps to look away from the camera from time to time Counting piggies and blessings Okay~ I realize it's mostly toes, so... ...STAY TUNED! :) 

This weekend, we LIVED at a local ball park while The Brewer Brothers participated in tournaments... Some of the games were LATE GAMES, so we befriended coffee:  Enjoyed healthy snacks (what? they're orange, like carrots!) in the truck with Buzz & Woody  (Rye has just discovered the Toy Story Franchise): Gathered "flowers" in the big field:  Caught up on some reading: Discovered RING POPS  ® Napped: Oh, and we watched a little baseball:  FERNANDINA BEACH PIRATES  12U BABE RUTH LEAGUE