Thimble Thoughts: Fun, Fun, Fun!

Normally I clean my mother's house on Friday, but since we had plans Friday, she said I could come Thursday. Justin was working that day at the WWNTBM so I dropped him off first before heading to the park with Harrison and Hannah.

We met a couple of other families in our church that have smaller children and they had a lot of fun playing and having a picnic.

Caleb

Hannah and Nicole

Picnic time! On the right is Alanna, Haili, and Malachi

Check out Joseph's handful of bologna!

If you look on the table, you see where Joseph's brother, Isaac, was making quite the snack of one cracker and a ton of cheese.

Celine....always ready with a smile for the camera.

Carissa was ready to eat as soon as they arrived at the park. She enjoyed sipping her yoo-hoo

while waiting for her mommy to prepare her lunch. Amanda asked her, "Do you want ham or bologna?" Carissa said, "Bolobobee" which we assumed she meant bologna. It was so cute Amanda just had to ask her again. To which Carissa replied, "Bolobobee."

Nicole

Harrison, Haili and Malachi were running to the slides

Alanna was walking around just taking everything in.

I had to leave to clean mom's house and Mrs. Amanda offered to bring them to my parent's house if they wanted to play a little longer. Thank you, Mrs. Amanda, we appreciated that! I wasn't sure we would get to go to the park because Harrison was crying with his ear when we got home from church Wednesday night. I figured we would be in the doctor's office the next day, but he woke up feeling better Thursday morning. I went ahead and made a doctor's appointment for Friday morning, just in case. I'm glad I did too, because Thursday night he kept me up all night coughing and had trouble breathing because of his sinuses. He hadn't complained with his ears again, but the doctor said that both of his ears were infected.

I took Harry home and picked Bruce up. We stopped for lunch at Yamato's and then went to Wal Mart to get the prescription filled while we did a little shopping. We ran into our neighbor's daughter and also Brother and Mrs. Plank. Poor, Mrs. Plank...she was bitten by a stray cat when he was spooked by their dog. It was a BAD bite too. Fortunately, their dog killed the cat and they were able to have it sent off to be tested. Her hand looked very bad and very sore. She did go to the doctor and they gave her a shot and prescription. So pray everything comes back OK from the cat being tested. Very scary!

So anyway, we finished our shopping, picked up Harry's prescription (only after we forgot about it and had to drive back to get it lol), and then returned home to administer the medicine and get ready for our night with mom and dad and Brother RJ and Mrs. Liz. We were going to Bob Jones University to see the Living Gallery.

Me and my sweetie-pie...

Our first stop was to eat at California Dreaming. We had never been there before, but Mrs. Liz said it was really good and she was correct! I ordered the Knob Hill Chicken with loaded potato and house salad. And their croissants were delish!

Don't even ask about this one...it's too disturbing.

We finished supper and headed on to the campus. This is probably the best picture any of us were able to get as we entered BJU.

It's been a very long time since we've been down there. It was kind of exciting being on the campus and remembering all the fun times we had as children, running and playing while daddy attended school or worked as the assistant manager in the snack shop. There's been a lot of changes since then!

We stopped at the campus book store so Mrs. Liz could pick up some art chalk for Mrs. Janet. Bruce was looking at books. He was amazed to see their collection of fictional books by JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.

We wandered up to the social parlor where the students were found studying, reading, or playing games.

And then it was on to the Living Gallery. People were gathering to enter the Rodeheaver Auditorium.

I was not able to take one picture once inside the Living Gallery. I was so upset. It was driving me nuts! So I'll have to do my best to explain what they do. There was drama. An artist named Claire, was dying and struggling with the truth of life and death. Her Pastor (if you can call him that) asked her to do an illumination on the Gospel of John. During that time, she would read passages from John. After the passages were read, these paintings and many, many more, were brought to life with real people. The "players" of these live paintings were so very still. You couldn't even see them breathe. I can't tell you how close to the actual painting they looked. It was really amazing to see these works of art come to life as a quietness filled the auditorium and you were moved by the beautiful music playing as you viewed the live masterpiece before you. Like I said, they didn't allow pictures being taken, but you can view a few of the paintings they brought to life by clicking here. The Lord's Supper was my favorite. When you first see them, they're moving around for just a few seconds when the lights go out. After about five seconds, the lights came back on and they were in perfect position of the painting. It was just

breathtaking. And the live sculptures! They were my favorite. The live sculptor of Jesus washing Peter's feet was so beautiful. It was so tender. Again, you could not see these people breathing. It was just amazing. I wish I could have gotten just one picture, but I didn't. Maybe next time....yeah, next time. I hope to attend the Living Gallery again.

When we came out, it was dark and the campus was lit up, showing off these beautiful trees.

My mommy and daddy

Brother RJ and Mrs. Liz

Thank you, Brother RJ and Mrs. Liz for a most wonderful evening. Bruce and I had such a great time!

Brother RJ and Mrs. Liz have some great kids. They stayed with their Grandpa Sam and Grandma B while we were gone.

Baby Ashlyn was sleeping when we picked them up. She likes to have her face covered when she sleeps. Isn't that cute? She didn't stay asleep long though. She woke right up when we stopped at Dairy Queen for an ice cream!