Paul’s Blogging

Alright this is going to be one short entry!

I just wanted you to know that I’m going to be leaving at 6am tomorrow (with a fully charged phone this time - AND the camera, Mom says!).

We’ll be seeing the Badgleys and the Dixons (sorry I don’t have time to link to anyone; I’m in a real rush)!

But let me leave you with:

What do you think I should have as my avatar?

The orginal happy-go-lucky Tux (I’m not sure why he’s got purple on him)?

Or the new “Dancin’ Groovin’ I’ve got a headache” Tux?

Does the new one make you a bit sick? Is he kind of anoying?

Please post your thoughts!

Vote!!!

:D

See you when I get back!

Please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

Ok, I’ve got quite a few pictures for you guys!

So, this might take a while to load but it’s well worth it. Just open the page and then go about commenting on my other blogs and when you come back, it should all be loaded. :D!!!

It was really cool seeing them hook up the engine.

The trip was beautiful!

That’s Julia’s fingure. :D

We followed this river most of the time, there and back.

From the very back of the train…

That would look cool in black and white.

More of the river

You guessed it, a bridge!

Same bridge

A cool dock/look-out thing/deck.

That’s Julia making her way through the train. They let us go from car to car.

I got a lot of really cool river shots

part of a train that is no longer used

These rail-road ties were laying along the track most of the ride.

Sorry I got so many pictures of the same area. The train was going slow and it was just too cool!

They had a few farms scattered throughout the hills.

Over a bridge we go.

That is so cool.

Lots of hills.

Once we got to the end of the line they let us get out for an hour and a half.

We had lunch there. It was really good!

They pulled the engine off what was the front of the train and stuck it on the “new” front.

See the little guy? Mom is almost 4 MONTHS! This picture is kinda funny to me. It reminds me of the Cingular ad campain “Raising the Bars.” Tallest to shortest. Almost
in a perfect line! LOL! :D

Mr. and Mrs. Marcum (and Luke and Dad).

At the rest stop, they had a museum. And it had this really neat model of a rail-road station.

Ok, now we’re heading back to the beginning.

Over the bridge we go …again!

That’s a great picture!

This tunnel was so cool. I was amazingly dark in there!

up high, on another bridge

The “junkyard”. (Why did they bring us through here?) That would look so good in black and white.

That too!

Mr. Marcum

I call this masterpiece, “The Speed”!

Julia.

Water.

More “Speed”!

Ok, that’s it for now!

We’ll be driving home tomorrow. So pray that we’ll have a safe trip!

-Paulie

BTW, please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

…for a little bit.

We got home last night around 8pm (I think). But we’re leaving in about two hours for Asheville, NC. So, I can’t talk long.

I just wanted to update you all on our travels.

Two days ago (a day after my last post) we went to an Amish horse action! It was so COOL! And right outside of the building they had all these booths set up selling Amish “goods”!

It was so cool to see all the stuff they make. There was one guy there selling leather…and at such an awesome price! He was selling a good size roll of thick leather for $5 and an assorted roll of all different sized leather cord for $3! I bought both and a pair of leather punch pliers. All the way home from like 11am to 8pm I work edon a sheath for my throwing knife. I cut out the pieces and punched out all the holes and threaded it all together with the leather cord. At the end of the day my hands were SO sore from squeezing the pliers that they were throbbing. But it was well worth it! Now I have a really well-made. quality throwing knife sheath. I finished it just as we were pulling into our neighborhood. It cost me nine hours of work, $12 worth of material, and a throbbing hand. That was well worth it!

:D

I’ll post pictures of it later.

Anyhow, we’re off to NC and after that MAYBE we’ll go up and see the Dixons!

Last time I was there, Jocelyn painted me a REALLY cool picture of Tux and a really cool window. I’ll post a picture of it as soon as I get back!

And Joe, I have not forgotten about the geocentric post. I will get to it.

:D

Mrs. Novak, I’m sorry I never got around to reading that entry. I’ll read it on my way down (sorry).

If anyone NEEDS to get a hold of me while I’m gone, (Eric!) I’ll have my cell. Email me for the number: pauljr@thehomeschoolmagazine.com

 

And Benjamin, you can call me tonight if you want.

You too, Joe.

 

I’ll post about NC when I get back!. And I’m NOT forgetting the camera this time!

:D

Thanks, guys for commenting on my blog even though I haven’t had much of a chance to comment back on all of yours. Your comments are well appreciated!

-Paulie

Please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads! Especially mine! He is a great dad! He knows the Word very well. He really wants to be a part of our hobbies and interests. He plays chess with Luke multiple times a day some days. He’ll listen to me speak “geek” and most the time I know he doesn’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about.
:D
That really is the coolest thing about homeschooling. We don’t homeschool because we think we’re going to get smarter than our public school peers. We homeschool because of the relationships!

But today is *better* than just “Father’s Day” because today is also my parents’ 18th anniversary. 18 years is a great accomplishment! In my personal opinion, they are the best parents ever!
:D

YAY, Mom and Dad!
Thank you for getting married 18 years ago!
(‘Cause I wouldn’t be here)
:D

Anyhow, have a great day and HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

We just got back from the Amish Country!
It was beautiful! We spent all day out and about with Mrs. Bullivant. It is SO funny to listen to her boys fake an American accent. They sounded like robots. :D And then they wanted me to fake an English accent. I thought I did quite well but the only response I got from them all was endless laughter!

LOL

I guess I’m not all that good at it. Oh well. :D

I wish I would have remembered the camera. Mrs. Bullivant brought hers. So, I’ll have to wait ’til she gets back home for her to email them to us (then I can post them)!

Swing by my mom’s blog. She wrote a post about some of the many the people we’ve met.

We’re now in our bed-and-breakfast. So, we are going to get some sleep and hit the road for home tomorrow. We’ll be home for few days (2?) but then we are going to Asheville, NC for almost a week with the Marcums (my siblings’ best friend is Mr. Marcum!! He is so funny) - can’t wait.

I am now on the first page of HSGold!!!!

YAY!

:D

I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond to your comments.
I really appreciate you all commenting and I’ll respond as soon as I get the chance.
I thought I’d post a quick entry, however, to keep you up-to-date.

We JUST got back from the PA SEARCH Convention. It was fun but a LOT of work! So I’m a bit tired.

We have had a wonderful time with Jane Bullivant. We met her in England last time we went over there. And now she’s here in the States! She got here Weds. and will be leaving Thurs.
So, we are going to spend as much time with her and her two boys as possible.

Tomorrow is, “rest and go have fun” day. We are going to Lancaster for the day - Amish country!
So that’ll be fun …and interesting.
:D

Ok, I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you all later!

Thanks for your comments!

Please visit my website at www.ShatteringWindows.com

Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog!!!

I topped out at 162 unique visitors the other day. THANK YOU!!!

:D

Well, I’m here in PA right now and I’m SO bummed that I forgot the camera!

Mom wants us all to go to bed now. So I’ll write all about it when I get back.
:D

Leave me lots of comments!

And please pray for Mom! She ate a weird stuffed pork thing and is now regretting it.

I am about to become a big brother - for the fourth time! No - Seriously! My mom is having another baby. We refer to him/her as “The Little Guy” right now. Everyone’s sorta hoping for a girl (except Luke and Levi). I’m going to be 18 years older than him/her. It’s amazing how Mom is having another one after 11 years and my parents are thinking about having even MORE beyond this one! I am really excited that we’re all having another baby. You know….Mom’s been having STRANGE cravings lately. She jumps around from ice cream to pickles to Taco Bell burritos. Her latest thing is BANANAS. Soon she’ll grow sick of those, too and start craving some new, random food. Things are going to be very different once the baby comes along. Just having a little one crawling around the house. We haven’t had a carseat in our car for years or purchased any baby items in a very long time. So this is very exciting!

He or she will be arriving December 15th, just before Christmas. It’s definitely a great Christmas present! And it’s a good thing we have one more space in our van - we’ll need it. We’re really really hoping for twins or triplets (Mom gets an ultrasound hopefully in Aug) which means we’d need a bigger van - or strictly bench seats rather than the buckets. Wouldn’t that be exciting if we actually had twins?

We’re leaving for PA tomorrow - will be gone for almost a week. Pray please that we will have a safe trip. I’ll post an entry when I get back.

We went to Holy Land Experience. (Orlando)

They had a number of re-enactments.

Which was kinda cool.

It was a really nice place. They had a LOT of the same plants that you’d fine in Israel.

Now this is cool!

This is a model of what Jerusalem looked like back in 69 AD.

There’s the Temple!

It was very well built as you can see.

Lots of detail!

And the instructor told us all about everything.

Here’s the Temple again with all the little people.

And then this guy gave a talk. My mom kept getting bumped by the people behind her which made her want to pull all her hair out.

Here is “The Temple”!

Oh and, back to the model…

They had the tomb on the model. See the stone?

Luke saw this guy and decided to ask him to play that horn for him. Looks like he’s about to get his head lopped off, huh?

After the guy gave Luke a history lesson.

He played it! Luke looks bored but I assure you he was not. That’s a normal “Lukey look.”

Oh and of course they HAD to try the rock climbing! Notice my sister shimmying up that rock faster than those two boys. GO, Julia!!

Julia got to go first…

While the boys waited patiently….

YAY! She made it to the top!

Now they all get to do it. And Julia is beating the boys as Levi tries frantically to beat her.

Beaver is catching up!

Yes! The ocean again! This time, DAYTONA BEACH!

Mr. Marcum Is REALLY good at body surfing! So, he gave us a few tips!

He used to surf ALL THE TIME back in Ca!

My sunburns were so severe from the last beach that my skin was super sensitive to light. So, I had to leave my shirt on. Oh well.

Luke’s having a great time!

The waves were WAY bigger here than at the last beach.

So after all that we went to GA. Not much to say on that for we were only there a few days (and I didn’t get any pictures).

:D

Yesterday we had the coolest storm come by!

And I got some REALLY good shots!

I took every one of these pictures! Sorry they’re so small.

I’m slightly disappointed by the lack of comments on my last entry (yes, I am whining for those who are wondering, particularly my mother). I mean, I went through all the trouble of posting a million pictures. The least thing you could do is pummel me with comments!

:D

It wasn’t even a mile away from the first one.

This beach house was far nicer than the other one.

It had a pool for Luke to jump over!

Very comfortable

…and messy!

Very nice kitchen!

Dad and Levi unpacking or something.

This is where Levi and I slept.

The next day we went to GATORLAND!

Oooh, a gobbler!

The animals were so tame!

They had a few really neat shows!

And they called Dad down for one of them!!!

“Look down…

put your arms out…

and close your eyes!”

Oh, nasty!

Dad’s cheating!

He won’t even touch it!

Look at its pink legs. Man, that’s weird.

He’s got his mouth open!

That’s Levi feeding the birds.

Sorry, no more food.

These guys are just waiting ’til one of us falls in!

Is it just me, or do they all look like they have really dumb expressions on their faces?

I like this shot.

And this one too. Even though it’s kinda blurry.

Man, they’re so weird lookin’.

That’s a good one.

See the little fishies?

Still waiting.

It’s trying to jump out of the water for the chicken.

Yay, he got it!

These turtles are HUGE!

This is supposed to be their largest alligator.

Another very big turtle.

And another.

Don’t worry; there’s a layer of glass in between Julia’s finger and the deadly man-eating snake.

I think these are copperheads.

And I think this is a cottonmouth.

And, no, not a tire, but a rattle snake.

He just stood there, staring at me. So I guessed he must want his picture taken.

Mr. Marcum likes animals, as you’re about to see…

ESPECIALLY llamas!

I think they’re hungry.

Mr. Marcum is having fun.

A little too much fun!

Uuuh, Mr. Marcum? You’re not supposed to eat those. They’re for the animals.

….

No, really! That’s not people food! I’ll take you to burger king after we’re done if you’re that hungry.

OH, NO! Don’t do it!

Is that goat looking at me?

Dad has to show it who’s boss!

Good little goat. Submit to me.

That is disgusting!

Oooo, that’s pretty!

Come on, fan those feathers out!

Oh, well!

OH CROCKY! Look at the tough crocodile wrestler!

It actually almost bit his finger. He was kinda freaked ’cause it just snapped really fast at him.

Oooooo, ahhhhhh!

Wow, he’s brave! …(or really dumb - j/k)

You choose.

Uhhhh, that’s just crazy.

Hmmm, you don’t like crackers, huh?

(Disclaimer: I did not break the rules by feeding it.. However, (Ahem) Mr. Marcum did.)

Hey, Dude! We share the same name!

This little guy has quite the temper.

But they’re kinda cute!

Then he looked up at me and demanded my Cherry Coke!

He leaped on me and started running down my arm to my cup. And no, I’m not about to punch him!

He would not give up!

Every time I took the cup away from him, HE’D PECK ME!

Oh, please don’t “go” on me.

See? I took him away from my cup and stuck him on my shoulder and he PECKED ME!

Ok, fine! You win.

Golly, leave some for me.

Selfish!

Ok, I think you’ve had your fill!

Don’t eat me.

Mr. Marcum kept throwing crackers down at them.

They liked it and I got some cool shots!

That is cool!

See him landing?

They have a very large wingspan!

These guys were fighting!

It was fun to watch!

Wow! Look at Julia hold the mouth up from snapping Beav!

Man, look at Julia’s muscles!

Alright Mr. Marcum, you can get in there and pose too.

LOL! He is so funny!

That was a very fun day!

I will be posting about our stay over at the Dixons’ house when I get back. I’m leaving tomorrow for Atlanta, GA. I’ll post about it too.

Ok, so, I went through all the trouble of posting all these pictures! The least you can do is leave me a TON of comments!

And tell other people to come and leave me comments too!