This morning we woke up to the sight of a mixture of sleet and snow, the perfect weather conditions for SLEDDING!!! Blow up the sleds put on your snowsuit, lets Go!!! With about six inches of snow, the more we sled the faster we went. We would have races sitting down, standing up, or even allowing people to push and fight. Lets just say it was a fun day!
(Sorry there aren’t many pictures I was having too much fun that I completely forgot).
-NatetheGreat
God gives us many blessings throughout our lives. They may come in small packages, in the love and warmth of family and friends, in an encouraging word, or simply the sweet letter received in the mail just yesterday…
But one of God’s greatest blessings He gives to His children,
comes as a little baby
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”
-Psalm 127:3, 4
This post is dedicated to welcoming Sarah May into the family! Born to Brian and Tina (my brother and sister-in-law) on January 8th 11 A.M., weighing 6 lbs. 14 oz. Congratulations, Brian and Tina!
Mother and baby are both doing well, and were able to come home from the hospital day after delivery. I wonder when I’ll get to see her! New York is unfortunately a long ways from Virginia…
Sarah May is Brian’s third child, and the 18th grandkid in our family. (that makes an even amount of boys and girls now) I’m an Aunt again!! It may indeed be the 18th time, but it never gets less exciting or special.
I can’t wait to meet you, Sarah!
-Kasie, proud Aunt to many such blessings
“Mr. Dan,” our Buyer’s Agent.
“But Leo, he’s a sweet guy!”
~Fay, in What About Bob?
Don’t worry; our Realtor isn’t a thing like Bob Wiley in “What About Bob?”, I just happen to like Fay’s line. In fact, Mr. Dan’s not even intentionally funny. He’s (as Fay says) a sweet guy, very professional, and good at his job; it’s just that insane, rather amusing things happen to him from time-to-time. 
The very first time we met Dan and went with him to look at property in Tennessee, he ran out of gas not five minutes into the trip! We drove him to Wal-Mart so he could buy a gas can to take to his truck, and eventually to the gas station to fill her up all the way.
That was only the first day we met him; little did we know for what we were in for during the following weeks!
One time when we saw Mr. Dan, he had broken a tooth the day before – simply from biting into a piece of celery! Only such a thing could happen to Dan…
Dan’s GPS is high quality and top-of-the-line, but failed to give better directions than Dad’s good ‘ole fashioned road map! Dan stopped twice at small town coffee shops to inquire of our whereabouts. “I may be a man, but I’m not afraid to ask directions!” He cracks Mom up! Only Dan…
We were returning from a trip around the area when Mr. Dan set up the GPS to take us back to Kingsport. He glance at the GPS screen; “46 miles?! There’s a quicker way that’s only 26 miles. Let me set this thing straight…” After his ‘improvements,’ we found ourselves in the boonies of Tennessee, driving for fifteen miles on a one laned, bumpy road. (we were in the sticks!) It wasn’t until one and a half hours later that we arrived at our destination. (guess we should trust the GPS next time!) After laughing over our adventure, Mr. Reynolds joked about making us tee-shirts that read; “I survived looking at property with Dan Reynolds.” Hehe, I like that idea!
Dan once unknowingly left his GPS in our mini van, and didn’t even realize it! We had nearly left for Virginia when we spotted it. Lucky for him, we were traveling in a similar direction as he, and were able to meet up with each other and return his GPS. Only Dan… (you know, I had some sneaky thoughts about keeping that thing…
We were looking at a house and eight-acre property when Dan came up to me; “Have you seen the keys to the house? I opened the lock box, and carried the keys with me while walking around the property, but now I can’t find them.” I shook my head slowly; oh dear! This was not cool at all! The minutes that followed would find Mr. Dan wandering through eight acres of pasture land, searching high and low for the missing keys. Well, as it turns out, after Mom got over her fit of hysterical laughter, we prayed together, and within moments Mr. Dan had found the keys. Whew, that was a close one! Praise God he found them! We still get such a kick out of that story.
The most recent episode took place Friday morning when we called Mr. Dan to set up a time and place to meet. Little did we expect that he was taking his call from in the emergency room! “You know how you’re in the shower and you fling your towel behind you? Well, when I did that this morning my towel struck a glass fixture on the wall; the glass shattered, and a huge piece of it scraped my leg digging straight to the ligament.” He had to go to the emergency room to get it cleaned and stitched up. Wow! What kind of people have accidents like that simply when they’re taking a shower? Only Dan…
I’m not saying any of this to make fun of Mr. Dan. On the contrary, we love our Realtor, we enjoy his company, and have a lot of fun laughing with him (yes, even over his misshaps; he’s an excellent sport). He’s a great Buyer’s Agent and we’re very appreciative for all his work, research and advice. I don’t know what we’d do without him!
Like I said, he’s not exactly a funny guy, just funny things happen to him. We think you’re great Mr. Dan!
-Kasie
It may very well be one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in the short history of Independent Christian Filmmaking (ICF). Battles, history, good plot, and even some special effects all combine in this epic film – the style of which I believe is a first for ICF.
And this is the best part: this movie is created simply by families, their friends, volunteers, and perhaps a few temporary employees. That’s it!
Even now, the Burns Family is putting in hundreds upon hundreds of man-hours editing the film – at a rate of 8 hours of work for each minute of film!
So now, look forward with me, to the 2008 release of Pendragon: Sword of His Father
What more can I say? Good ole’, classic epic material. We’ll just have to wait and see the whole thing!
Oh, and by the way – one of the regular readers of this blog has a little sister with a prominent role in this film.
As many of you have noticed in Kasie’s post, she was wearing one of those “Rebecca St. James/totally British/bee-bop caps” that she and I have (figuratively) been drooling over for months
To say that they are cool are an understatement.
They are totally and truely awesome!
The first time I remember seeing “those cool hats” for sale was in Boston Massachusetts, at the market across Fanuel Hall. I tried on various lovely hats, and would have bought one if it weren’t for the intimidating price of 30 + bucks! After vigorous research online I found out that the said cap was called a Newsboy Cap. Has anyone seen the Newsies? That helps me remember the name…
I pondered if I should buy a cap from ebay, but if I went that route I wouldn’t be able to see what it looked like on me… And so far (as our physical search entailed) we hadn’t seen any other Newsboy Caps for sale!
On our way back from Tennessee last week, we paused to visit the only KHOLS for miles around. I wandered around the store pausing at the clearance racks only 
and eventually found myself in the hat and scarf section. I amused myself by trying on different “bucket hats” (Kasie knows what I mean) then was amazed to spot out of the corner of my eye, an entire row of newsboy caps!
AND… as my thrifty eyes spotted a bargain…they happened to be on sale! Praise God!
As they say the rest is history.
I picked a sweet camel color with some gold-ish feminine elements. It goes with just about anything!
Well there’s my first post of the new year! I know I’m the slow poke of the Willi, but one of my New Years resolutions is to write at least one post a week. Sure go ahead and bug me if I don’t
I know this is extremely late, but we haven’t posted a batch of pictures on Chronicles of the Willi since the Christmas Trees! Besides, I thought y’all might like to hear how our Christmas in Virginia went, even if it is two weeks late.
Well…
This year was the first Christmas that the Willi made a gingerbread house! (yessir, that’s history for you right there) Karlyn, Angie and I spent all morning in the kitchen gluing and cutting out pieces for three houses, one large, and two mini ones. (one small for us Willi, and one to give away) Poor Karlyn burned her finger using the hot, melted sugar in the process, but we eventually assembled all three houses, and later gathered the family together for the best part: decorating!
Christmas morning came bursting through with bright sun and warm Virginia weather! After a delicious breakfast of monkey balls, other special treats and Bible readings, we began the long process of opening presents and exchanging gifts. I say ‘long’ because for one, we had of a lot people joining us (Willi, Jason’s flock, and Karlyn’s parents), so what with gifts to and from all three families it wasn’t until three hours later that we were finished opening the last gift! Also as a fun tradition on Karlyn’s side of the family, we had each written clues on our presents as to what’s inside, and the receiver has to make at least one guess before opening it; some of the clues that came up were incredible!
I mentioned before that the weather on Christmas day was warm. To give you an idea of how warm, the boys went outside during the afternoon and played football, tee-shirts and all! No white Christmases here I guess!
Check out the pictures:
![Jason's annual calendar! "Bug Me Not"](http://blog.thewilli.com/wp-content/gallery/tales-of-christmas/fh010118.jpg "Jason's annual calendar! "Bug Me Not"")
It was my very first Christmas away from home, and although everything was so different than what I’m used to, I was surrounded constantly by love and family, hugs, cards, and ‘Merry Christmases!’ from New York, and I had a wonderful time.
Hope y’all had a great Christmas as well!
-Kasie
It was November 17th 2007 when we left home set out for the south. We’ve been here now for eight weeks! Over a month, going on two. Wow.
You know something? I honestly can’t figure out if time has passed by slower or faster than it really is. It seems like ages since I’ve seen our dear friends and family in New York – how I miss them! Yet on the other hand, I’m happy and keeping myself quite busy at my temporary home in Virginia. Sometimes the weeks fly by so fast!
Time has its own way of passing here in Virginia, same as it had its own way in New York. Though both worlds are completely different, I’ve adjusted to the change and find that I like it. I’m going to love living down here!
I have been enjoying eight weeks of fellowship with family, fun, and many adventuring trips to Tennessee – it’s great! For the most part, it’s been very restful; a time to catch up things I never had the chance to do before. Not to say that I haven’t been busy, for indeed, I have been!
“So, what do you do all day?” some have asked.
Believe me, there is plenty to do! There’s the obvious ‘school’ as part of the answer. (that’s one of neatest things about homeschooling: you can take school with you wherever you go!) I take turns cooking meals for our families, doing chores around the house; I care for or play with the kids, sew, help Karlyn with a various odds and ends, house hunting with Mom and Dad, reading books, playing music, watching movies or playing games with my family, writing (letters, emails or blog posts), and so much more!
Don’t worry – I’m never idle!
Has it really been eight weeks? Yes indeed; I checked it twice on the calendar. I think now that Time has neither flown by, or dragged by. Though on some days it may seem too slow or fast, I think ‘ole Time’s going just right, the way it should be.
Hmm…I wonder what’s in store for us during the next eight weeks! Who knows? Life truly is and adventure!
~a dorky picture of me in my newsboy cap
-Kasie
P.S. My apologies for the lack of posts around here lately. I’ll be sure to fix that! We’ll also try to get some more pictures up. Oh, and what do y’all think of the new banner? Any problems viewing it?
Happy New Year everyone!
Pass the sparkling cider, and cheers! to the New Year, 2008! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
And while you’re at it, check out all the verses for Auld Lang Syne! Never thought there were so many words to it, did you?
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?
CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I’ll be mine,
And we’ll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne
Love it! Happy New Year y’all!
-Kasie
