Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley is a character in a children's book. A bulletin board falls on him and he stays "flat". At first he thinks it is very fun - only realizing later that he wants to be normal again. Luckily he pumps himself up in the end.

As part of a school project for Sarah Grace, Flat Stanley went to work with me at Lander University today. Here are some of the pictures of what he did....

First he rode the elevator to class

Flat Stanley studying hard for class.

Flat Stanley taking notes in my Essentials of the Legal Environment class.

Flat Stanley taking notes in my Income Tax class.

Flat Stanley is so crazy - here he is posing with a pumpkin on my friend's desk.

We sure had a fun day together. I'm sure Flat Stanley is ready to go home and take a nap!

Boxes, Boxes everywhere...

MOVING DAY IS SCHEDULED FOR THE WEEKEND OF OCTOBER 25TH! Can you believe it. I'm so happy. I'll post pictures of the finished new house soon - it's so great!



As you can see, we've started packing. Good news - the Slurpee Machine and Ice Cream Maker are safely packed up. I've packed up some of the kitchen, and some of the living room. As you know, I can live without my kitchen stuff - it is on the list of items that can get packed early.







These shelves are in our living room. Most of you know they are usually crammed with toys and books and movies. Now, just a few sad leftovers.






Living room boxes - what kind of boxes would we pack in? Dell computer boxes and diaper boxes, of course! I've gone through our bedrooms and cleaned out, but not really packed up - I guess that is a job for another day.



I will keep you all posted on our progress. Hopefully you can come and see our new house, soon!

The Deer Hunter

Yesterday was the last day of Muzzleloader Deer Season here. John explained to me what a Muzzleloader gun was - you actually load it from the barrel.

Anyway, John and his Poppy Derek went hunting last night. As you can see, they were successful. John was thrilled because he got to take along his BB Gun last night. After the hunt, they took the deer to the processing center. It was quite a night. (sorry for the grainy pic - it was late last night).

I'm not sure how my children came to love the great outdoors, camping, hunting and fishing so much - they must get that from their Daddy. I was happy for John because he was so excited and grateful to Poppy Derek for taking him along and teaching him all about gun safety, the woods and hunting.

Regular rifle season opens today. John says he had a great time last night and he is really looking forward to more hunting. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post soon (John says I definitely will).

The NC Trip

This weekend we (all 6 of us, plus Nana and Poppy) went to the North Carolina Transportion Museum http://www.nctrans.org/ in Spencer, NC to ride Thomas the Tank Engine. We went for a train ride, rode on the turntable at the roundhouse, and checked out the museum exhibits. The museum itself, without Thomas is really neat, so with Thomas it was just too much fun. Poppy Derek took some pictures for me (you know I just carry a camera, but never take any pictures). Here are a few.

Brian and Will enjoying a ride on the Trolley - Will said is it "Charlie" we said no, its a Trolley. So he named it Charlie to Trolley, although that was sort of confusing for him since the Trolley in the Thomas series is named Bertie.

Will is playing in a Thomas the Tank Engine made out of Legos.

This is the actual Coach Car we road in. Ours had air-conditioning...

Nana and John and Mags riding along.

SGM - note the tattoo of Thomas on her forehead. She proudly wore that to school today.

Riding the turntable on the roundhouse. I was a bit worried I might get sick since it just spins around (3 times), but I stayed focused and didn't. It was really neat. That's how they turn the trains around, so they don't have to go backwards.

An old train at the museum - ready to go into the roundhouse. Fun for exploring.

On Sunday, for even more fun, we stopped at the Kings Mountain Revolutionary War Military Park http://www.nps.gov/kimo/ in Kings Mountain, NC (although the park is really in SC, right over the border). It was really neat. The park was very nice and this weekend was the 228th anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain. The battle was a turning point in the Revolutionary War - we won, by the way.

Re-enactors doing a shooting demonstration. They explained their weapons and their clothing.

Summer Memories

Sometimes it's the "little things" that we enjoy the most. Brian downloaded all of the pictures off of Poppy Derek's camera a few days ago. We have enjoyed looking at all of the pictures. Here are a few of our Summer Memories...

Will and Mags playing together at the beach.

John playing baseball

Will at the ballpark - I think he looks like me here...

SG and "cookie", Nana's new cat

SG at Fort Sumter this summer - isn't she cute!

John, looking cool at Fort Sumter

Mags playing on the swing on Nana's back porch

Baby Mags - look at her, so smiley...she's a walking, talking (OK, talking her language) little person now.

Happy Birthday John

Our Sweet Johnny turned 9 yesterday. Wow! I can't believe that sweet little baby staring up at me from his hospital bed is 9. Brian and I are experienced parents now, but I remember thinking "wow, we get to take this baby home, alone" at the time. Here are some pics of John then and now. He is maturing into such a great young man.

John age 2, playing with SG, age 8 mos

John age 2, playing in the front yard sprinkler - he has his swimmies on, just in case...

John and Mamaw Goldie - Such good friends

John and his Daddy on the night of his birthday - wow! John is so grown up - his last year in single digits.

John playing Ode to Joy at Grandparents Day at Palmetto Christian Academy last week. He did such a great job - note he has no music - he plays from memory.

I was very nervous for him - he was completely calm.

John's birthday cakes. One is a train because we are going to the NC Train Museum for his birthday. The other is a Revolutionary War battlefield, because on the way to the train museum, we are going to visit Kings Mountain Revolutionary War National Park and see a re-enactment. Fun stuff!

Our Busy Week

This week was a pretty busy week for the Moore's. We had Will's final soccer game, work, school and Grandparents Day yesterday. Today is John's last day as an 8 year old - tomorrow he turns 9! We are going out to dinner tonight for his birthday, because tomorrow night we are going to the Carolina Game.

John is going golfing on Sunday. Sunday is also Sweet Magpie's 15th month birthday. She is walking (really running) everywhere now.

Here are a few pictures from our busy week.

Above are a few pictures from Grandparents Day - Poppy Derek and the kids, our friends the Austins, and Poppy Lee and Mimi with John.

Our teacher, Mr. Moss with his grandmother.

Will with his soccer trophy

Maggie, about to turn 15 months

Will and john playing together