Eli Blogs: Hanging

Hello my name is elijah . i went on a tight rope. it was fun.I was with my grandma.

Cole blogs:Scrapbook

Hello,I'm cole and I'm working on a scrapbook.I've only done one page.Take a magnifying glass and look at the picture closely, you might see some things.comment on what you see.

Thats all folks.

Books I've Read More than Once

Michael has been re-reading all of his favorite books recently. I rarely ever read a book more than once. Since hundreds of thousands of books are published every year and I've only got at most 70 years to go (though, please God, don't make me hang around that long), I don't have time to go back and re-read. That's why I like when they make books into movies - I can enjoy the stories multiple times condensed into a nice manageable two hours.

Still, watching Michael re-read his favorites got me thinking about what books I have read more than once. These are the ones I could think of:

Children's books

• The Giver
• Chronicles of Chrestomanci
• Johnny Tremain
• From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• A Hidden Magic
• The Westing Game
• The Hero and the Crown (many times)
  
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• The Bronze Bow
• The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe many times, all the others twice)
• A Wrinkle in Time trilogy (The first and last many times, the second only a few. A Swiftly Tilting Planet was my favorite book as a child.)

Adult books

• Wuthering Heights (three or four times - loved it when I was younger, like it less and less the older I get)
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Handmaid's Tale
• Moby Dick (not by choice)
• Rebecca
• The Cheerleader
• Menfreya in the Morning
• About a Boy
• Pride and Prejudice (many times)
• A Room with a View (once a year - my favorite book ever)
• The Book Thief (just re-read)
  

It's possible that I've re-read other Jane Austen books, but I can't remember for sure now. I've also skimmed through the Anne of Green Gables books multiple times and Twilight more than I'd like to admit.

So that's approximately 22 books. 3/4 of them I read and re-read when I was a teenager.

I estimate that I've read 600 books since I was 12. That might be a low estimate. So 22 books out of 600 that I've read more than once. That's pretty crazy!

July 9, 2011

July 9, 2011: the day Michael and Erin finally updated their television set.

I know this news will come as a big shock to some readers of this blog, who have been nagging us for years now to get a new television, but the old TV served us well over the past 11 years, reliably providing us with great (if not completely clear) entertainment. I remember well the night I bought it...Although it's only a 20" television, it got wedged in the stairwell leading up to my attic bedroom, and once I finally got it up there, I figured I'd have to lower it out the window if I ever moved. Luckily, somehow the men in my life were able to get it down the stairs.


Other exciting events from this day in history:

• Cole and Eli had a piano recital, showing off their amazing musical talents.

• Eli learned to ride a bike with no training wheels. It took him exactly one try, and he didn't fall down once (until many hours later when he rode into a lamp post). He's a natural!

Smilin' Rylan

I found some pictures tonight of Rylan as a baby. We don't have many pictures of him from then because I wasn't too big into taking pictures and most of the pictures I did take were on my laptop that died. So this was a real treasure of a find.

Cousins!

We try to make it over to Kentucky/Tennessee twice a year to see grandparents and cousins. I know two times a year isn't much time to get to know their cousins, but I hope the boys have good memories every time we visit because (as I kept lecturing Cole and Eli, who were not being super nice to Brad) "friends will come and go, but family is forever."

The newest cousin, Alexander. What a sweet, sweet baby.
(belongs to John)

Will, a little spitfire
(belongs to John)

Katie
(belongs to Stephan)

Anna
(belongs to Stephan)

Peters cousins, minus Diana's kids
My mom and I were noticing how much alike all of the Peters kids look in this picture, except for Eli who looks like Diana's kids. All of the Peters have beautiful eyes.

Diana and her kids are still in Hawaii while her husband is in Afghanistan, so only John's and Stephan's kids were there. Cole kept making me laugh saying things like, "We're team Peters" and "Let's get a picture with just the Peters boys," referring to him, Eli, and Rylan although every single kid there had the last name Peters.

Oh Cow Oh Cow

On our second day in Kentucky, my mom signed us up for a tour of a nearby dairy farm. It was wonderful! We were the only ones on the tour that day, so we got to get up close and personal with the cows. The boys played on a fabulous playground, and at the end, we got to eat homemade ice cream made with the cream from the cows.

I'm not sure if Eli is blinking in this photo or if he meant to make that silly face. Knowing Eli, it's probably the latter.

I was really impressed with how much the farmer there loves his cows. He kept affectionately patting them and told us sweet stories about them. I don't know that I'd feel so fond of my cows if I had to get up at 5:00 every morning including holidays. But then again, he does get to eat ice cream every day...

Rylan Says...

Rylan's cousin Anna thought his name was Ryan, and Rylan can't say his name, so we heard a lot of this over the past couple days:

Anna: Come here, Ryan.

Rylan: My name is Ry-yan!