Life with my sister

This past weekend we went fishing to begin our April birthday celebrations. If you are new around here, Anna will be 8 on the 20 th and David and Daniel will be 11 on the 24 th . We celebrate birthdays for days!!! Samuel was at a D-Now weekend, so Stephen and I took Daniel, David and Anna to Heber Springs to trout fish. I have never been fishing before. I actually got my first fishing license right before we headed out of town. I wasn't real excited about going, but the kids could hardly wait! Daniel caught the first fish and Anna soon followed. By the end of the day the 5 of us had caught 23 rainbow trout. I was so excited. Everyone got their limit but me, but I didn't mind. The kids had such a great time. Our feet were covered in mud, many of us had fallen down because of it but it didn't dampen our spirits one bit. We had a great time! Now to celebrate with cake, ice cream and presents for the rest of the month! Julie

I have lived in small town for most of my married life. I have only lived in a town with a Walmart in it for a total of 19 months. I've been married for 18 years!!! I've loved living in small towns. I enjoy the closeness of the community, knowing what people drive and waving when we pass on the road. I like the small-town feel. I like being able to see the stars at night from my backyard. I love not having to lock the doors of my house or car. I have loved small town living. I have embraced it. But let me tell you about living in a bigger town. I LOVE IT EVEN MORE!!! I never thought I wanted to live in a bigger town. 2700 people was big enough for me. But, I don't know if I can go back. I can run & get Anna tights before church on Sunday (something I couldn't do in my small town), I can get free wifi at my local McDonald's. I like the traffic. I like the bigger town feel of the community. I even enjoy my security system and hearing my van honk when I lock it! ...

Ok, I'm back. Abby has done such a great job filling it the gaps for me here on the ole blog. I'm almost leary of starting back since she is such a great blogger. We are settled in our new (temporary) home. Christmas decorations have gone up and come down. School has started, stopped, and started up again. Life is pretty normal. Our Sundays are different but we are just calling them our new normal. Stephen has been busy preaching at different churches on Sunday's filling in for vacationing pastors. The kids are going to a homeschool academy one day a week. I'm looking so forward to this for them and also for me. They get a day with friends and fun subjects taught by someone besides me and I get a day to myself. Hallelujah & Amen! God has been so real to us the last two months. His provision has been more than I knew to ask for. Stephen and I have shed happy tears being the recipients of God's goodness to many times to count. If you don't have a relationship ...

Sunday night at church I noticed that Daniel's jeans had a hole in the knee. This is his only pair of jeans. For the first time, David and Daniel are different sizes. Well, not sizes so much as the cut of the jean has to be different to fit each one. Today was the first day I had to go find him a pair of jeans. I tried our local resale shop (that I love) and they had NO jeans. So, we headed to our nearest town with any kind of retail stores to find jeans. The poor thing tried on jeans at Walmart, Sears, and JCPenney to no avail! He probably tried on 20-25 pairs of jeans. Size 8,9,and 10. Bootcut, relaxed, loose, straight, skinny straight(which was defintely a NO!), husky and regular. We left with no jeans. Why is it so hard? Right now the only jeans that fit are Gap and Old Navy. So, we will be driving a little bit farther in the next couple of days to buy jeans. Crazy. But that is not what I wanted to tell you about. This is! We went to the mall today in our nearest big town and o...

We are preparing for spring. These warm sunny days are making us antsy. In the last 2 days we have made 1 trip to Lowes and 2 trips to our local feed store. We (and when I say we, I mean everyone but me) are making 4x4 raised flower beds. Our hope is to plant lettuce, broccoli (that takes 16 weeks to grow!), cucumbers, tomatoes, a few herbs, squash, peppers, and watermelon. It should be a good-eatin kind of summer! When I went to The Pioneer Womans website today she had pictures of her own raised beds with step by step instructions. So, I wanted all of you to know that we had ours up and filled with dirt, which also contains poop(which Anna says so cutely) before she had hers posted on her website. I'm just sayin. We will be without any posts from Abby this weekend as she is otherwise occupied. So, I might just hijack this blog and tell Abby secrets all weekend long. So, if you have any let me know! Julie

I said crafting, not crafty. I can be crafty too, but not very often. I am still in Bentonville . I came up to northwest Arkansas Sunday afternoon. I met cousin Sarah and went to her house. It is amazing. First, the drive to her house was beautiful. Being fall, the trees were changing colors, falling from the trees and swirling on the street before us as we drove up the curving road. She has a log cabin house. Ok , so it isn't a log cabin, its a log house and a beautiful one. It is my kind of place. Just beautiful. Sarah, Brandon, Grace and Molly were gracious hosts. The ministers wives luncheon went very well, better than my dreams/nightmares. I once dreamed that 12 people came and the chicken wasn't done. But we had 39 preachers wives there and the chicken wasn't only done, but tasted delicious. I am so honored to have been a part of that day. Today, while Stephen went and attended to Baptist state convention business , the kids and I went and had a mini-vacation day. We ...

It has been a long time since April 18, when I last shared my wisdom and wonderful stories with you. (HA!HA!) So, I will now update you on all my happenings. April 20- Anna turned 3. We got up early that morning and drove to Pine Bluff to pick up her cake. It was so cute!! At 1:00 all Anna's friends came to celebrate her birthday. They had so much fun. They squealed and played with the streamers that were decorating the fence. She opened her presents and loved them all. It was a good day for Anna! April 21- Star City has an annual festival called Stardaze and it is set up right in front of the church. So, we took advantage of the situation and FBC held our own little FREE carnival with bounce-arounds and games with free prizes. It was a hit! That afternoon our revival team came in. Trent Broussard flew in from Michigan and Tom and Robbie Bray drove in from Florida. It was great to see our friends again. We had a great week with them. April 24- David and Daniel turned 6!!!!! I can...