Month: May 2007

Homeschool Conferences

Arlington, Texas Homeschool Book Fair

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It was a great day! We were exhausted afterwards, but we were all very encouraged by the people we talked to and the good reports we heard.

While Stephen was working at the booth, one lady came and picked up a Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends book off the stack. Turning it over and seeing our pictures on the back, she asked Stephen, “And which one are you?”

Another lady came up to the booth and picked up Before You Meet Prince Charming. “I’ve never heard of this book before” she told Sarah. Pointing to Sarah’s picture on the back she asked “Is she a famous author?”
When Sarah explained that it was her, the lady seemed quite embarrased.

Sarah and my Dad ate lunch with some homeschoolers attending the conference. After Sarah got up to leave, one girl commented, “You gotta be careful what you say around Sarah…she might write about it”.

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After supper Dad and Stephen were glad to have some daylight left so they could play catch in the hotel parking lot.

Now we are all back in the hotel room getting ready for bed. Dad just shared a verse with us:
“I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus… for they have refreshed my spirit and yours.” (1 Corinthians 16:17) We talked about how that is a great goal– to refresh the spirits of others.

Homeschool Conferences

Problems solved…

My dad and Stephen made it safely to Walmart! When the mechanics saw our tire, they were amazed. They had never seen a bulge in a tire that large.

We are grateful for how the Lord has taken care of us in the situation! The tire could have exploded as we were going 70 mi per hour down the interstate, but instead God allowed us to notice the problem when we were parked and get it fixed before it caused trouble.

Miscellaneous

Tire Trouble

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About a half hour ago, Stephen came running in to our hotel room saying, “where’s the camera?” He wanted to take a picture of our van tire. Here it is:

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Dad and Stephen just headed off to Walmart to get it fixed. They said they weren’t sure if the van would make it there or not…so…they could be gone a while! I wanted to go along for the adventure but Dad and Stephen didn’t think that was necessary. 🙂 I’ll post again later about what happens.

Family News/Homeschool Conferences

Our trip has begun!

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After traveling 921 miles we finally arrived in Texas! Thankfully, we all like to ride in the van. Especially Sarah—she can’t get enough of it. Usually she’s disappointed when we arrive. Behind our van we are pulling a 24 foot trailor.

We will be on the road for a month, primarily traveling to 3 homeschool conferences (Texas, Mississippi, and Florida).

I am planning to post a picture a day, so those that are interested can keep up with what is happening. I may not always be able to post the picture on the day, but if I can’t I’ll post it the next day.

Well, the plan was to have everything in the van Monday night and leave in the morning. As usual, it didn’t happen that way. Since we didn’t leave until until Tuesday evening, we drove through the night. We stopped to sleep in the Walmart parking lot. Since we have 4 bench seats in our van, most of us were quite comfortable. Sarah slept on the floor. She said she liked it.

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We made a stop this afternoon to drop off a box of Spanish “Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends” in Oklahoma City at “The Lighthouse”. A homeschool family, the Engles, bought an old building downtown that they are fixing up as a ministry center. Currently they are running a bookstore, coffee shop, Creation museum, and they provide appartments for missionaries to stay in. This week they are going to the Dominican Republic so they wanted to distribute the Spanish translation of our book there.

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Stephen’s 22 Birthday!

Since I had some extra time in the van today, I put together some pictures from Stephen’s birthday. The actual date was the 16th, but we celebrated it just last week. To explain a few of the gifts you see here…

-Stephen has been mentioning for a while how he’d like a giant stuffed penguin. We found him one an hour before his party. 🙂 When my mom called the toy store they asked “Now how old is your son?” She said “Well, he’s actually 22…” We’re glad Stephen is still young and fun at heart. 🙂
-The sign he is holding says, “If it weren’t for coffee, nothing would get done around here.”
-My grandparents gave him a commentary of the Old Testiment by William McDonald
-Sarah ordered this white shirt for him to wear when he freelances for our local newspaper. The little caption in the corner says, “A wise man once said, ‘don’t forget to remove lens cap.’”
-In the middle is a picture of his German Chocolate Cake.

Miscellaneous

Valuable Assistance!

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Top: Marie Briceland is printing envelopes; Chrissy Baskerville is processing orders.
Bottom: Nickie Biegler is designing a new Bright Lights brochure; my grandpa is labeling CDs.

We are leaving tomorrow for a “southern trip” to Texas, Mississippi and Florida (in that order). There is a lot to do because we need to prepare and pack materials for 3 conferences, put everything in order before we leave, and take care of a month’s worth of work here at home.

We are grateful for the help of Nickie and Chrissy, (who come over one day a week to help in the Bright Lights office) and the others who often join them.

My grandpa comes over faithfully four days a week and helps with whatever we need him to do. (He duplicates and labels CDs and DVDs, packages orders, helps us pack for our conferences and trips, etc.) He takes a load off our family by all he does. Since there has been an abundance of work recently, Grandpa has been getting here earlier in the mornings, and one day he got here at 4:30am!