All of my immediate family has made it to Arkansas!

Yes, Aaron caught the biggest fish. What's new? Though it is not as big as my biggest last year...


At the beginning of September, my "little" brother came to visit and finally made the last person in my immediate family to come to Arkansas. (Haha, Cameron, you were in CA for 5 years and had to get married to get them to come...I did it in only a little more than a year :P). We had fun going camping and fishing in Mountain View (north of here, in the foothills of the Ozarks) and the best part of the weekend was going to see a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Murray's dinner theater that Saturday!! It was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love plays! Copyright forbade us to take pictures of the play, so y'all will have to settle with one of us at the theater. It was the most fun thing I have done in a loooong time!
By the way, that is me, Nate, and Nate's brother Matt.

I couldn't get any good pictures of Aaron inside the theater, because my camera was running out of battery and the flash is the first to go, but here he is in line waiting to go in.

Ok, here is my haircut...

Short and straightened (but only temporarily).

By Aimee. Oh, yeah....

...I was in the middle of something last time I posted (in July), so:
Weddings
1. Cameron
2. Joanna
3. Nate's cousin Brandon. He and his now wife, Shelia, are off-Broadway, sometimes television stars and he has produced his own country music album. Very nice wedding, though the bride was 45 minutes late and we sat in the 95 degree humidity under the sun and I got a sunburn on my back. :D Having just attended my cousin's down-home Christian wedding, it was an interesting contrast. Brandon and Shelia are not believers and many people there weren't. Of course there was an alcoholic bar and (by the end) many drunk guests. Because we had a more-than-three-hour drive back to Little Rock (and were a little out of our element) we left early (before the bride and groom) but we later learned that there was a free microphone time that we were glad we missed (the toasts were embarrasing enough!) I am glad that the LORD orchestrated Nate's and my lives so that we married IN HIM!

And Babies. This includes all who I know have had in the last year their first baby or who are going to have their first.
Andy and Hannah (from church friends) pregnant with first.
Jonathan and Spring (from church) pregnant with first.
Chad and Jessica (from church) pregnant with first--twins!
Hong and Tami (from church) pregnant with first.
Josh and Heidi (from Maine) pregnant with first.
Dawn and Matt (church and Master's) first child born in ?March?
Danielle and Danny (Master's) first child born in July

...And I am sure there are more. CONGRATULATIONS, y'all!!

Update...

So, I "need to update my blog," eh? Well, let's see...today I watched two children (more like they came, they did schoolwork, we ate lunch, listened to "Adventures in Odyssey", played computer games (them), sorted out squabbles (me), listed more stuff on eBay (me), packaged up sold items to be mailed tomorrow (me). Then I hung out and checked out random websites and friend's blogs (What? Gabe and Rachel Powell have two kids? The Steinmeyer's have a baby?) and am waiting for my sweet husband to come home. His job has been keeping him away overnight a lot lately...he is probably getting a new one soon...I want to move to Maine...
Tomorrow I will watch two children, do some eBaying, cook dinner, maybe go to the pool...Saturday I might mix it up a little and go grocery shopping.

There's your update, folks!! Tonight I might get Nate to take a pic of me so all you curious Maine folks can see my short hair.

~By Aimee~

Hey! I found this cool place that I can write stuff online and my friends can read it...it is called a blog...I think I remember it from the distant past...
Ok, no need to say "I told you so." Wait...Hello? Anyone there? Yeah, it has been a while--sorry to all of those who lost interest and/or thought I didn't care. Fact is, folks, not much goes on here that I feel is worth sharing with the rest of the world. However, I do want to give a bow to all of the recent events...Nate and I are in that stage of life where many of our friends and siblings are either 1: getting married, or 2: having babies. So, to the weddings:







My brother is a married man! Girls, I am sorry, but it is true. Cameron joined the love of his life, Joanna, in marriage on December 3rd, 2005. That means they are just days past 7 months! Wow, I remember when... :o)








Next came the wedding of my best friend and "sister" Joanna, to Stephen. It was a fun time as Nate and I got to go to Maine for ten days and visit with friends and family. Speaking of weddings, it was fun to hang out with my cousin Zechariah and his wife Jennifer, who were married just about a month after Nate and I, and my other cousin Wesley and his wife Jessie, who were married last August (yes, it was a busy year for the grandparents!!)

Another reason for inconsistent blogging....it took me the better part of the morning to create and format this post...

~By Aimee~

Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise Him in the heights!

Praise Him all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts!

Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars!

Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord!

~Psalm 148:1-5a~

Alyssa has a project to make a banner illustrating these verses for AWANA, and I love it! It speaks of and to my life right now. Today the sun is shining, the wind is blowing leaves skittering past my open patio door, and my life is filled with blessings. Tomorrow...I may have to search for another Psalm, but I will still know the LORD is good!
Nate is away for work, driving to Mississippi, and I am at home managing my "online garage sale" selling off some of my unused (and much too large) wardrobe on eBay, as well as watching two young lives.
Next week is Missions Conference at church, and we get several opportunities to gather for teaching from God's Word as well as testimonies of His work and faithfulness in other places! D. A. Carson will be the keynote speaker, so I am really looking forward to being blessed and challenged! Be sure to check our church website!

Hodu l'Adonai ki tov, Ki le'olam chasdo! (Tehillim (Psalm) 136:1, our favorite song in Israel!)

...phi, chi, psi, omega!

~Posted by Aimee~

Yay! Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon...I can say (and write) the Greek alphabet! Last night was our first class with Dr. Zemek at church in "Baby Greek." Nate wants me to take the class to keep him accountable, and in the process, I think I might even learn something. Nate has already taken a year of Greek at college, but felt he needed a refresher before taking one of the more advanced classes. As long as he doesn't think I am taking those classes with him as well...;).
I am trying to avoid the temptation to treat this blog as an online diary--not much changes day-to-day here so mostly what I think about writing is internal. But if anything exciting or interesting happes, I will be sure to post it for our many admiring fans (that is you if you are reading this!) :-D.

armadillos, county courthouses, and a great lunch

Hey! This is Nate! The "N" part of the Chronicles. I figured the best way to introduce myself to the rest of the world (which, I'm certain, is very interested in knowing me), would be to talk a little bit about my current life in Arkansas. Three main strands inhabit my day to day activities. That would be Armadillos, County Courthouses, and the everlasting search for a great place to eat lunch. I am convinced that I have found the greatest job in the world. I work for a company that invests in property throughout most of the United States. When they are interested in purchasing vacant property in the area (like, all over Arkansas, and sometimes Mississippi), my job is to perform due dilligence by obtaining a plat map, talking to locals about the land, taking pictures of the land, and telling them more than they ever wanted to know about Arkansas (which, by the way, is the single greatest state in the union). My average assignment puts about 300 miles on my car, shows me 12 armadillos, and provides me with a sometimes great lunch; the best of which, so far, has been at the Fajita Hill Diner in Camden, Arkansas. I was fortunate enough to snap a quick photo of this armadillo just before it attacked me. At least, I thought it was attacking me. You see, armadillos don't run. They leap. I should have had my camera on video. The varmint (I know, and Armlydo is technically not a varmint) turned and started taking two and a half foot leaps straight toward me (the photo is from about 15 feet away zoomed in and cropped down). For a moment, I had images of a little armadillo gnawing into the shin of my levis, I mean, what would an armadillo attack really do to me? It turns out, the armadillo actually was running towards me because its home was in front of me. It dived under a rock about six feet in front of me and I never saw it again. I felt bad for scaring it. It should feel bad for scaring me. Or is that my fault? Anyway, if you know of a great place to eat lunch in Rural Arkansas, It'd be great to start compiling a list. Leave a comment and let me know where to eat!!!

a little update

It's snowing!! Pretty little white flakes...probably won't amount to anything...the 7-year-old I babysit is loving it!

That's what I get for bragging about the weather! And they say the same thing down here as in New England..."Don't like the weather? Just wait a while...it will change."

...didn't know I was living in the jungle...

Ah...Arknasas....This is for you Maine folk...It has been consistently 65 to 72 degrees out almost every day so far this "winter." And I am lovin' it! It is better than California, however...about as better as a lush tropical oasis is to the desert. Check out the bamboo growing within feet of my apartment! Lovely!

costume party green!

Since there is still some catching up to do, I am backing up a few months...(by the way, on the 28th of this month, I will have been married for 8 months! crazy! At church we are still "the newlyweds.") Our Bible study had a costume party around the end of October...this costume was my brainchild. Fun, but messy. And eating finger food with green fingers is not too fun! Can you guess who?

And don't forget to check out the link to my church's site, if you are one of the Maine folk! There is an excellent sermon by Dr. Bruce Ware of Southern Theological Seminary (he visited our church on Sunday) that you can download in Mp3 format there, as well as other excellent sermons by Lance Quinn, our pastor-teacher.

and I just realized

When we buy a house I can just post pictures of it on this site. A lot faster than emailing them...

sad tree story...

So...we were so excited (at least I was!) about our "first Christmas" that as soon as we got back from California, I made Nate rush out and buy a Christmas tree. Trying to save money, we bought it at Walmart. This was not a good idea. 20 days later we were taking down the tree, amid a shower of needles (which it had been shedding in abundance with the slightest touch for a week and a half). The sad part about taking down the tree?--It was Christmas Eve!!

Literally, there was a pile of needles so deep under the tree that we were scooping them up with the dustpan and throwing them away. Some of the presents were buried!

how fond I am of my wedding pictures

...just before "Announcing Mr. and Mrs."...I love my Maid of Honor!

Ok, so eveyone is driven crazy by Nana's "camera-craziness?!" This one shows it paid off...

new to this...

Welcome!! Surely I am not the first tentative blogger, my fingers taking those first baby steps into the world of ecommunication, to post a disclaimer. So, thus:
1. I am not sure that I will be aconsistent, somewhat consistent, or even semi-consistent blogger. I feel that there is not much in my life that the world at large will be too interested in...
2. All content in this blog is 100% free of any guarantees that it will be interesting, entertaining, amusing, or even enough to keep you awake...do not read late at night (if you have a laptop like I do, of which the sole aspiration is to become a space heater, you may awake with flaming sheets!).