a visit from the HOFF family

We had our very dear and special friends come and visit back in November. We have know Carl and Shaleen before any of us had kids. I just love these people as if they were born into our family. We have served with them at church, raised our kids together, laughed together and now...we live thousands of miles apart. But that hasn't stopped us from getting together. They have now visited us in 2 different states. And now...our kids are growing up and still have a great time together.We visited a local plantation home and got a great private tour. Our guide filled us all in on local history and the teacher in me loved it all. This beautiful old home is right here in our town.


And then...on the back side of the property is an old cemetery and log homes. Such extremes to the history. Don't you just love the late afternoon sun? Beautiful.



A big thank you to the Hoff family for coming all this way to reconnect and meet our new boys. We love you and wish we lived close enough to see you each week at church.

mule after mule after mule

Not long ago we went to a nearby town to watch a parade. This wasn't your typical parade, no marching bands, no clowns, no tossing candy to the crowds, no fancy floats. Nope. This parade was all about MULES.

We lined the streets will lots of local type folks and watched as mule after mule after mule walked by. Some pulling old mule wagons.

Most working as a mule team.

A few pony mules pulling mule carts.

To mix it up a bit...a sheep herding dog herding sheep down the middle of the street.

Then, back to more mules.

I had never seen so many mules before. It was easy to spot the mules from the horses. Those big ears gave it away every time. Now I have been educated on mules. Not horses. Not donkeys. But mules.

The Symphony

We had the opportunity to join a homeschool group here to go to the "local" symphony this morning. It turned out to be a fantastic event. The girls had never been to something like this before and I wasn't sure how much they would actually enjoy it. The concert was Lemony Snicket's "The Composer is Dead". Even from the name, I thought that Tissy would be scared or nervous. The idea of it is to "introduce" the different instruments (kind of like going to see Peter and the Wolf when we were kids).

Music is something that we haven't ventured into all that much and I do feel a little convicted about that. Maybe our time today will catapult us into that arena. We had studied the science part of instruments this year and learned all about sound and movement (HERE). And then to refresh their minds we filled in a few sheets that I downloaded from Enchanted Learning (HERE) that categorized the instruments in groups.

The concert was FANTASTIC. It was funny and interesting and extremely entertaining. I am so glad we took the chance to check it out. To top it all off, it was FREE. Note to self, take advantage of the opportunities around and widen our world.

Only bummer was...I ran out of battery on my camera and you can't take pictures in the concert hall. So I had to borrow some online.
The girls were really impressed with how fancy the concert hall is. Oh...I am so glad we live here!!!!

Science Center

We spent the day on Friday enjoying the Science Center as a family. Like I said in my previous post, I do know that I am going to like it here. I can imagine there is tons to take advantage of for family fun or for activities for homeschooling. We just need to venture out and find it. As with these kinds of places, it is worth buying the year pass for the family if you plan on attending more than once in a year. We hope to get back there next week, they are offering a class for homeschoolers.
Here the girls are lifting a car. This tied in perfectly with what we have studied for science (forces and movement with Noeo).
After our big study on space (HERE), they really liked this moon walk exhibit. We all gave it a try (notice I did NOT include a picture of me up there).

Here are Chuck and Tally trying out the Space Walk where you are kind of weightless. Notice how high up Tally is. She is pretending to float in space and fix the space shuttle.

As part of our science this fall (HERE and HERE), we studied musical instruments and the different ways they make sounds. Again, a great hands on example of a pipe organ. Just love how all of this ties in with our school work.
At one of these fun puzzle boards Tristen was checking out the puzzle for parallel lines (how cool...our lesson last week was on parallel and perpendicular lines in Math).



About 2 years ago, I taught a class at a homeschool co-op on the body (HERE). It was one my favorite studies I have ever done. Oh, I would have LOVED this "body" to demonstrate on.
We really had a great time and it was a HUGE treat to have Chuck along for this kind of an outing. We are just having a nice time, spending time as a family...just waiting to get into that house (more on that when we get some details).

I know I am going to love it here...

...where else can you sit on a giant rocking chair?

(Did you see that? Focusing on the positives again. If nothing else, I am determined.)
***don't forget***vagueness is appreciated in our locale***

home sweet home

We are back from our little trip. I really wanted to post while we were there and time just slipped away. I am trying to process my thoughts about our time there. It really was a good visit but it also was a bit of a weird week. The day we got there I found out about my dad's concern about his heart and that put a bit of a damper on the week. Since I am on that topic I will ask for prayer for him. He goes in early tomorrow (Tuesday) for major (quad or quin) bypass surgery. I am feeling distant and like there is nothing I can do to help them out. And feeling so badly that my dad has to go through this. Praying for a speedy recovery and that all goes well.

OK, on to some details about our time...we had such fun. It was so great to see Chuck just thriving in his new work environment. He just fits there. It is so great to see him so relaxed and confident. It is wonderful to see his co-workers so glad to have him there and see him make great contributions. I look forward to sharing more about the company and some of the neat things that they are involved in.

















We had a wonderful time exploring the town. It has such a quaint and classy atmosphere. There is an old town square that is steeped in history. I look forward to learning all about the civil war history. We have never lived in an area like this before. I hope we are close enough to the down town to enjoy it.














We also loved this old factory building that is now a shopping area with cute stores and restaurants. On Saturday mornings there is a fantastic farmers market in this parking lot. What a great resource. We didn't buy much but we sampled plenty of goodies.






















We were able to check out some houses on Saturday afternoon. The style of houses are very different there and there is a colonial feel to a lot of them. As of right now we have no contract on our home so we can't look all too seriously. It is good to get a feel for the area and try and figure out what kind of a life style we want to do this time around. Not sure we can recreate our country life that we have here.

As I finish up on an update of our time I have to share a picture of the MOST unusual thing that we saw in the yard of one of the homes. Even if this home was my favorite (which it wasn't), it is a HUGE deal breaker and I can't imagine it will be easy to sell.







Yep, that is a grave yard. With very old headstones. 17 and 1800's. Even so, to have that right in your yard is too high on the creep factor for me.


We had a slight change in plans to come home. My neighbor called and asked if we were ready for the possible hurricane Fay. Nope. Had no idea. After a few seconds to talk it through, we decided to pack up and take off that afternoon and drive straight home. Chuck came with us and he is flying out first thing in the morning. I really wasn't up for driving home in the rain. Hopefully his flight takes off before the rain and wind hit our area. The 12 hour trip was long and we made it home at 2:00 am but we are here and ready to crash after our whirl wind trip.

(again, please pray for my dad and his surgery tomorrow)