Writer's Block

I love to write and for the last several months, I've started several posts and not finished them, which for me is very frustrating. I feel like I'm being forced to procrastinate and I do that well enough of my own free will. Or is it predestined??? {smirk} So, rather than wait until I finish each post, I'll just do this in bullet form. Here goes......

• We're slowly working away on our own website, which is targeted to roll out before Christmas....of this year!


• As all 3 of our readers know, we fired the cable company many months ago, after having basic cable for several years. Then we gave our TV to my little sister and ended up with a dinky little thing to watch movies on. A Viewmaster would have a better picture than this thing. So lately, I've found myself standing in the big screen TV aisle at Best Buy and dreaming of larger screens. I may have to break down and get one.....for movies only! No cable.


• Elizaabeth continued the Arkanblogger tradition and took 1st place in the Arkansas State 4H Fine Arts Competition at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Grace will be up for the title next year. If she takes it the first time out, we're going to try and get some official document that says the Arkanblogger sisters are the first to ever take any state 4H title for 4 consecutive years in a row. Can you say Guiness Book??? I say this with all humility of course.


• If live in Central Arkansas or ever find yourself in the greater Little Rock area, you must try this eatery....The New Green Mill Cafe in Little Rock---there's nothing really new about the place but you get meat and 2 plus cornbread, cake and enough sweet tea to kill a person....all for about 6 bucks. My personal favorite......the meatloaf, white beans and cabbage. If you're feeling especially risky, try Todd's hot sauce. Get there before noon or you'll be sharing a table with new found friends or eating in your car. Todd takes cash only and is open for lunch from 10:30-2:30, M-Sat.


• Mrs. Arkanblogger and I went and saw The Dark Knight on our 22nd anniversary. Yes, she really did want to go. I've been a Batman fan, since about 5 year of age and I just turned 46, so...well...it's been a very long time. I have in my posession many, many Batman comic books from the 60's, 70, 80's and into the early 90's. My opinion was that the movie is good...really good in parts, but not something I'd want to see a second time. The Joker is more like Al-Queida Joker, maybe worse, which keeps me from taking my 9 year old son. That alone is rather disappointing for both of us.
• On my birthday last Saturday, I got to work on the yard....in the rain. I cannot describe how refreshing it is to stand outside in a driving rain. It made me feel so alive and even closer to God. I was reminded of exactly why little boys love to play in the water and I hope to do that again very soon.
• I am convinced that for the most part, Facebook and the like are LARGE time bandits.
• Decided a week ago to take the backroads home from a business trip to Tupelo. Now there's something that you don't hear every day. I'm really glad I did it, even though it took me an extra hour and a half to make the trip back to central Arkansas. The interstate gets old, as does driving through Memphis.
• If you like southern non-fiction, go buy the latest book by Rick Bragg. It's called The Prince of Frogtown. Rick is an Alabama boy and a Pulitzer prize winning author. He and I are very close in age and I can relate to his story. He seems like someone from my own family and I can say that because I've met and talked with him in person.
• I really, really, really need to get in great physical shape by Thanksgiving. That's approx. 12 weeks from now. Game On!
• Tattoos......are heathenistic, a misunderstanding of truth and are a focus on self. If you have become a Christian after getting one of these things, please set some money aside to get it removed. You should be ashamed of it and it sends a confusing message to the younger generation.
• To all you marketing geniuses...Sex or the idea of it may sell, but it will never ever sustain.

More later.....time for sleep.

The Arkanblogger

Greetings From Columbia, Missouri!

It's been a while since our last post and the year 2007 is fast coming to a close, so I wanted to slide in one more paragraph or two under the wire before the clock strikes midnight on Monday.

Exactly one year ago, we had taken the mother of all North American winter road trips from Central Arkansas to Southwest Montana for Mrs. Arkanblogger's parents' 50th anniversary celebration and to snow ski for a week. This year we've managed to make it to Rogers, AR for a quick overnight at Mimi and Popsey's (not even 24 hours), then to Harrison, AR for a couple of days at Peepaw and Nana's and then on to Columbia, MO for a few more days. Lots of packing and unpacking with the 7 of us. Argh!!! Next year, the plan is, Lord Willing, that we'll be staying home for Christmas and the New Year.

It's a balmy 20 degrees outside this evening and thankfully, I'm in bed tucked under an electric blanket (with dual controls I might add). We are in the home of my brother-in-law and his sweet wife, who are not only OUR hosts, but are also housing and feeding my mother and father-in-law and beginning tomorrow, my sister-in-law, her husband and their 3 children. It's a virtual hotel around here.

This year has brought with it, several noteable events of both sadness and great joy. The troubling times include but are not limited to, the untimely death of a friend of our family, the passing of my last living Grandmother, a car accident resulting in life threatening injuries to a friend of my children and my father-in-law suffrering a series of strokes that have left him with some challenges to face and overcome and Mrs. A's auto accident which has left her with lingering neck problem.......on the other hand, our oldest daughter started her college program and is progressing nicely with all A's and one B so far, our 2nd oldest won 1st Place in the state 4-H Fine Arts Competion, all of my family except me were part of the cast of "The Gospel According to Scrooge" at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship (which drew around 1700 people to 4 evening performances), Mrs. A and I went to Baylor as sponsors with the Cornerstone Celebration Singers to watch them perform in Youth Cue (at which our oldest daughter got asked to participate in the National Youth Cue Tour to Canada), Mrs. A and I got to fly to Dallas the week before Christmas for an evening out with my regional office counterparts and their spouses, I got to visit Chicago for the first time and attend the national Greenbuild Conference, one of my childhood friends and his wife moved back to Arkansas from Texas and Mrs. A, Grace and myself have changed our lives by changing the type and portions of food we intake and by making excercise a part of our daily routine..........resulting in reduced clothing sizes by all involved. We plan to meet our goals on fitness and weight reduction by the end of March and are well on our way. When appropriate, we'll post before and after pictures. You'll be amazed and hopefully some of you will even be inspired to do it yourselves.

Speaking of goals, we're setting a few for 2008, which I'll list here over the next few days. I encourage you to do the same....keeping the list realistic, challenging and manageable.

I hope that all of you will take the time to reflect on the past 12 months and reflect on those things that need changing in your life and be thankful for your blessings. Make a list of them and pray that others might specifically receive them. If you can be the messenger of a blessing, then go and do it.

God's Blessings in 2008!!!

The Arkanblogger

Summer!

Here are some pictures of Caitlin and I with Kayleigh the artist, and two of our other dear friends. These were taken at a really neat coffee shop where we got together as a sort of end of Summer get together. More pictures to come!

Paige

 

 

 

 

And more...

 

 

 

 

Continued from Below

Here are some more pictures from the Hardy trip!

 

 

 

 

Greetings everyone! I hope that all of you have had a wonderful Summer and start of this GLORIOUS Fall season. I know that we have not posted on this blog in such a very long time, but I thought I would try and get us back up to date. There will probably be quite a few pictures for you all, and I will try to put a few normal posts up as I try to keep maidenology updated as well (along with piano, school, choir, cheer, co-op, etc...). Here are some pictures of us with our cousins on a weekend trip to Hardy, Arkansas. Enjoy!

Paige Arkanblogger

 

 

 

 

Home Away From Home

Tonight, I find myself and young Christopher tucked away in a beautiful historic bed and breakfast (http://jonesborobandb.com/)found in the thriving community of Jonesboro, Arkansas. This lovely old home, which is owned by one of my customers and is run by his sister and her husband, is a favorite overnighter of mine.....and it is an extra treat to bring young master C with me this time around. The weather is unseasonably cool and we had the opportunity visit out on the expansive porch and enjoy the quiet of the early evening, while swinging in the big wicker swing and drinking homemade lemonade. I didn't want to come inside and I treasure times like these with my children.

May God bless all of you...........

The Arkanblogger

Father's Day Blessing

First of all, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! Today was absolutely amazing. Such a wonderful way to spend Father's Day. I don't have much time, so I am limited to telling you about the main event of today.

Ever since last fall, our choir has been working hard on a repertoire to sing at a choir festival perform at the end of the year with the members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra at a gorgeous church. This is tradition with our choir every other year. But this year, it was a little different. Not only did we have the first group of seniors graduating from the choir who had been in it for as long as possible, or the group of alumni (including some of the original 13 of the choir...we are now at over 80 at least) who came back to sing a few songs with us, but this year, we were doing our concert as a benefit for the Hope 4 Hannah project. This made it all the more special, helping to take the focus of off us, and to put it on the Lord.

This year, our concert was held at a beautiful church that had great acoustics for a choir to sing in. After the hours of practicing on Monday night, the hard work from all of our sectionals coaches, and the time and major of our choir director, Pastor Eddie, it was so wonderful to get to go and sing in a place like that with a real orchestra. This concert was an experience that I will never forget. At first, I did not realize just how big of a deal this concert was (just like Pastor Eddie said...). But once the orchestra started playing, it hit me.


One thing that our choir director really does that makes our choir more than just any old youth choir is that he really tries to get us to sing each sing from our hearts, truly praising God. I would love to tell you about singing each song in particular, hearing our seniors sing the solos, and crying at the end because it was so amazing and such a blessing, but as I said, I am limited on time. But below you can see two pictures from tonight. One of them is a group picture of my sisters and I with Pastor Eddie, and the other is a picture of four of our seniors singing. Caitlin is the one with the microphone (she did wonderfully!). I am sorry the post is so short. Perhaps when we have our computer fixed, I will get to really tell you all about it! I hope that all of you had a truly blessed Father's Day!

Paige

PS: remember that you can click on the pics to make them bigger!

To Tell You The Truth

Looking back at the news of the last couple of weeks, I am reminded of the recovery of the 2 young boys that had been abducted in Missouri. One had been missing for several days, another for a few years. Something that's impossible to grasp, unless it has happened to you or yours. A terrifying experience at the very least for one family and purely devastating for another that lived years without knowing the whereabouts of their son...or if he was dead or alive. They have had years stolen from them.

When discussing these events with my very close friend, who lives near the area where the last young boy was abducted, he made memtion of a comment by one of the local churches. The comment was, "the recovery of these boys is proof that God still answers prayer".

My friend, when describing this very common train of thought among many Christians as "vile" and "vulgar", was moved to anger. "What about", he asked, "the prayers for the children who haven't come home? Some of those children most assuredly have parents who are more righteous and prayed more fervently than the parents of these boys and their children are gone, probably forever. Others, are certainly not as righteous as the parents of the boys in the news and their children have been brought back to them...or moreover have never been taken at all". Statements such as the one made by that church, prove nothing but the lack of understanding, stupidity and/or arrogance of the people who make such comments. One cannot possibly say with any certainty, that whether God answers prayer or not, has anything to do with the recovery of these boys. We haven't even discussed the harm that more probably than possibly came to these young ones while being held captive. The extent of that damage has yet to be determined. Did the prayers not work until after a certain period of time? Or until after a certain amount of suffering was endured by the boys or their parents? Was all this to happen in God's own time? To be a proponent of such ideas as truth is vile and vulgar indeed.

God is God and there is only one.
God is truth...He created it.
God is the Lawgiver.
We as a people, society and nation, are to abide by the Laws.
People can and do break these Laws, causing at times, untold harm to themselves and many times, others that were just simply in their path.
Christ redeems us when we confess, believe, repent and change our lives. He provides a "bridge back to God...or to righteousness. Personally, I don't think we have a complete understanding of the extent of what this means.
On that note, we who identify ourselves Christian people, nor anyone else, have not arrived at "all knowledge" or "complete understanding".
If we don't have understanding on an issue, then we have the opportunity and at times the responsibility to go on a quest for the truth. To pursue the answers as doggedly as finding out if the earth was flat or round. And remember that vocal proponents of a "round world" were at times murdered by the firm "flat world" believers for doing what? Telling the truth.

-The Arkanblogger

I Missed the Sign

Have you ever taken a wrong turn, then had to re-trace your steps because you didn't follow a sign? Well, I experienced this on the slopes as we were skiing down the mountain. It started just fine smooth. Nobody was falling, there was no snow falling, and it was a beautiful day. Until we went straight, instead of right. I was with Marie, Elizabeth and Emma Joy. As we were skiing, we all of a sudden came to a hill. But not just any hill, we were looking almost straight down. We had come to the black diamond hill properly named "Northern Lights" (perhaps this is what you see as you are going down?) Now I am not a professional skier, and I was not about to even attempt to ski down this thing. None of us were. So we took off our skis, put them on our shoulders, and hiked up the hill from whence we came. I guess you could call it our one adventure (that is what I kept on saying to everyone as we were hiking up). Marie and I made it to the top first, so I decided to take some video to have as a memory of our wrong turn. It really was not funny at the moment, but we can all laugh at it now. More pictures are coming soon (when I get them all sorted out...)


\

Paige ;)

Real Twin Fiddling

You have heard me talk about the great music, so I thought I would give you a small taste of some of it. I wish I had some of all of it for you to hear, but this will have to do for now. On the fiddles are my cousin, and a good friend. The guitar player is the good friend's Mom. They played quite a few songs, but I personally think this one was one of their best. I hope you enjoy it!

Playing Cards...

Here I learned how to play the wonderful game called "Aww Shucks". It was a bit like spades, but at the end there is a twist (it was a good one). At the other table people were playing "Wizard". This is a game that is also similar to spades and played like hearts. I recommend both of them, especially after a hard day of skiing. Ah, and Uncle Mad has a blog of his own. I am sure he would love for you to stop by!

Round One of the Photos from our Trip

Here are some of the pictures from our trip. These particular ones are from the night of the party. It was my Grandparents 50th anniversary. There were many other pictures taken, but here are some of them. There is one pictures that is not from the party that I will explain. Oh, due to loading issues, they are in no particular order. Hmmm.

This picture is behind the house where we stayed before heading to the cabins. Christopher was quite overwhelmed by its size.


This is Renee playing her beautiful harp. It sounded so lovely!



Here is the whole group playing Pachelbels Canon together. Caitlin is at the piano, our cousin on the violin, and Renee on the harp.


Here is the head chef and chief dishwasher, (both of them my uncles). They did a ton of work trying to get ready for this, as you can see.


This is our wonderful Grandma Caroline. We were at the house at that moment and most of us were busy making the food for the next day.


Oh, the cake was so pretty! Mother Arkanblogger made it.


This is the piano that Grandfather rented for all of us to play on. The touch was so nice!



Mmm...that chocolate fountain was good! There was not much food left by the end of the night.


Here is some more of the wonderful food that was made by the amazing chefs. Thank you so much!


The very creative presentation of the delicious smoked salmon, courtesy of Grandfather and Uncle Dean.


Our dear cousin playing the piano. She did so good!


Observation of the chocolate fountain.


Here are some people talking. Grandfather is among them on the far right.


Here are some more people talking. The one on the left is Bryce, and I am not sure about the one on the right...


More great fellowship going on here.


Here I am with Ms. Anne. It was so wonderful to see them again!


Mr. Roger, Ms. Laura, and Renee. We had such a great time!


Here is the band that played. Our cousin is the one with the fiddle. All of the music was wonderful.


That is round one of the pictures. There are some more to come along with a few videos and posts. Until then, Happy New Year!

Paige and Caitlin