Swimming and Wading

September 29th, 2008

In the very waters that a young Davey Crockett once swam, we enjoyed ourselves last week!

They call it a “River”, but trust me, it’s no bigger than the Wappinger or Fishkill creeks back in NY. (Funny how living near the mighty Hudson River for so long puts things in a different perspective!)

Enjoy the pictures!

(Did you see the muscle on that last picture? Oh yeah…)

One Year of Blogging

September 28th, 2008

It’s our “Bloggaversary”! :-)

Where has the time gone? Can it really have been an entire year since we began our family blog?

A good many things have taken place since the 28th of September 2007, the most obvious one being that we moved! (hopefully everybody knows that already…) :-) After a 7 month ‘stop’ in Virginia, our home is now in Providence Glen, East Tennessee.

And now, as of a few weeks ago, we’ve decided to step out in faith with a music ministry! Our band site is set up, we’ll be playing at nursing homes and churches, and we’re cutting a CD! God has blessed us with friends and connections to help us in this endeavor. May He receive all glory!

Throughout all of this it’s been a great joy to be able to share our lives through pictures and stories with you, our dear friends and readers. Hearing from you through all your comments is what makes blogging fun. So…thank you all very much!

Here are a few ‘blog stats’ for you to enjoy:

Number of posts in one year: 223 (including this one)

Total number of comments in one year: 2,237

Post with the most coments in one year: Happy New Year! with a total of 40 comments!

Here’s to the beginning of another year of blogging for the Willi!

Reject Pictures from Photo Shoot

September 25th, 2008
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“Do we have to do a photo shoot today, Walter? It’s hot!”

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Oops, Walter didn’t get into the picture in time….

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Uhhhhhhhh…… NO. :)

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“Set the camera timer for 10 seconds, Walter – not 2!”

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Uhhhhhhhh….. NO.

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Now THAT’S, pretty cool!

To see the picture that we ended up going with, visit TheWilli.com! (Good thing it was none of the above….)

Not a Creature Was Stirring…

September 24th, 2008

..Except for a mouse!

Last week, upon arriving home after an all day expedition, we noticed that someone (or something) had helped themselves to the sunflower seeds in our pantry. Neat little holes in the bags, and the hulled remains of seeds were the tell-tale signs that “we were not alone”.

But the day was spent; far too late to travel to town for mouse poison, mousetraps, and other such material. We figured that the varmints probably lived in the crawl space, and they figured out how to come inside the house via the dryer vent hole. So after taking a few precautions such as closing the pantry door, we retired for the night.

The next thing I remember was being jolted awake by a blood curdling scream! It was Mom – “MIKE! COME HERE!!! OH MY GOSH!”

Looks like Mickey Mouse was paying us visit. :)

I stumbled out of bed and ran to the pantry, rubbing my blurry eyes. Dad was there, still trying to adjust to the light, and we were soon joined by everyone else. What follows is a bit of our conversation…

“What’s wrong?! What is it?!”

“It’s a mouse! Here in the pantry!”

“Where is it now?”

“I don’t know..Somewhere behind that bi-”

“Eeek!! There it is! Don’t let it get away!”

“Let me get a broom for you Dad…”

“You know how funny it would be if the mouse got out of the pantry? We’d all be chasing it throughout the house like crazy!”

“That would NOT be funny.”

“Eeek!”

“Whoa – there it is again!”

“Don’t let him get out – use the full paper towel rolls as a barrier!”

“How are you going to catch him, Dad?”

“Don’t squish him – it’s not a bug!”

“How ’bout putting bucket on top of it?”

“What do you need dear?”

“If I could have a large rag, that would be great.”

“I still think it would be hilarious if we had to chase it all over the house…”

“There it goes again!”

“GOT IT! It’s inside the rag.”

“Now what do we do with it?”

“I’ll just throw it outside here…”

“No! It might come back!”

“He’s too smart, Dad – he’s figured out how to get inside. He knows too much!”

“How do we kill it?”

“We can put it at the other end of our property…”

“No, that’s still too close.”

“Well, we better do something with it quickly, ’cause I need to hit the restroom really bad!”

“How about suffocating it?”

“How would we do that?”

“We can chop off its head!”

“Oh gross…”

“Don’t let go of it Dad!”

“We can drown it, right?”

“Yeah, that might work – get a bucket.”

Pear Trees

September 22nd, 2008

When we first met our neighbor he suggested that we raise a small herd of cattle. “You’ve got enough room for ‘em,” he said. But Dad responded, “We’re actually going to use our land for agricultural purposes; we’ll plant gardens of vegetables and herbs, fruit trees, etc…”

We’ve seen a few raised eyebrows in past conversations when he came to the ‘fruit trees’ part, but when Dad says something, he means it. Needless to say, I wasn’t at all surprised yesterday when Mom and Dad came home from Lowe’s with two pear trees in the back of our mini van!

We planted both trees near the garden at the bottom of the hill. They should start producing fruit in just a year or two – how exciting!

~a closeup of one pear tree’s leaves

I can just imagine a scenario a few years down the road… We wake up one morning with a hunger for fresh fruit, and our breakfast is right outside! :-)

-Kasie

P.S. Happy Fall!

“We Locked the Edit on Pendragon.”

September 14th, 2008

Pendragon - Sword of His Father

“The meaning of this small statement is huge. Finally, after 3 years of blood, sweet and tears, after hundreds of hours of work on the script and nearly as many revisions, after 15 grueling weeks of shooting, after working with hundreds and hundreds of friends we didn’t have at the beginning – Pendragon is finally poised to be completed.”

[Click here to the rest of this post by Director Chad Burns]

I stand by my statement that Pendragon looks like the most ambitious independent Christian film ever – and potentially the best. (After all, we Willi are partial to epics…..)

Go Burns Family!

Black Widow Spiders

September 12th, 2008

“I say spiders, for there were many”

Hidden inside some chimney pieces by the side of our house lived a whole family of black widow spiders!  Seven in all, most of them were found in old cardboard boxes which were immediately burned.

This is the view from the top.

This is a view of its underside – notice the little red hourglass shape

Thankfully God protected us from being bitten, even though one crawled up my arm!

After that experience we have been very careful what we touch! lol

The Cyber Move is Complete!

September 12th, 2008

To those of you on the email updates and haven’t visited this blog for a while:

Our “cyber move” is complete! Chronicles of the Willi is now using a subdomain, at http://Blog.TheWilli.com. What about the old TheWilli.com? Well, that has become a music band site!

As we hinted at before, we’re stepping out in faith and going all in. We’re playing for the folks in a local nursing home a few times, and are scheduled to record a song at the studio next month! We expect to cut a complete album soon after that.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support! And why don’t you check out The Willi band site!

Seems Like It Was Just Yesterday

September 9th, 2008

…When our house was put together!

Here’s a quick video that I put together for Oakwood Homes. Most of the footage was taken by Mom – way to go Mom!

Some Downtime….

September 8th, 2008

We’re about to experience some downtime on TheWilli.com – the squirrels that run this server are going on strike! :)

When we emerge, this blog address will change to http://Blog.TheWilli.com!

Thanks for your patience! I’ve got to get negotiating with those furry, money-loving squirrels – they’re a tough lot.

[End of bad humor attempt]

- Walter