The Collier EIGHT Blogspot

Rollercoaster

2012-01-29T20:34:00.000-06:00

God is teaching me more than I ever really wanted to know about grief. And, I'm still learning.

I have learned that it does not follow a straight path or have a graceful arc to it. It's more like a rollercoaster in the dark. I have never liked rollercoasters. Our grief counselor told us last week that we, as human beings, will go to great and various lengths to go around pain and he told us what those ways were so we would avoid them. Pain is a warning system. When we feel pain, we look for the source and deal with it. We have to go through this pain and deal with it. I'm still unclear how we're supposed to do that.

I've learned that grief is exhausting and stressful, both emotionally and physically. My appetite is sometimes ok and sometimes bad. I'm using a combination of ibuprofen, muscle rub and a percussion massager to try and relieve the pain in my neck, shoulders and back. I should do something more; I just don't have the energy for it. For the emotional pain, I cry, pray and/or distract. I find that there's only so much of the emotional pain that I can stand in one day before I become somewhat numb.

Grief is not always an active thing. Even when I'm not thinking about anything in particular, I have what I'd call a cloak of melancholy. It just surrounds me most of the time. Occasionally I break through and enjoy a moment- I smile and laugh- and then it settles around me again.

On the other hand, I've also learned that I believe what I say I do. Though I grieve, it's not a hopeless grief. Mary Beth Chapman quotes C.S. Lewis in her book Choosing to See. Tartan posted that quote as his Facebook status the other night.

"We're not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."

His best has turned out to be very painful indeed, but as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians v 17, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." I know Paul was speaking about persecution, but any trouble we have during our life is momentary when seen from an eternal perspective. And what is unseen - Aimee blissfully enjoying her Jesus in heaven - is eternal.

Still trusting,
Naomi

Our heartfelt thanks

2012-01-23T09:51:00.000-06:00

We want to take this opportunity to let everyone know how very deeply we appreciate all that has been done to support our family during this painful time. We have been so incredibly surrounded by thoughts and prayers, by those who sent cards, flowers, and gifts, who worked on all the funeral details, and attended the funeral. We appreciate all those who have donated to Aimee's memorial fund. We are thankful for everything that has been done for us, from providing meals, groceries and rides to staying in our home and serving us while it's been hard for us to do even the everyday things. We are particularly thankful for God's provision of dear friends and family who will continue walking with us and praying for us through this ongoing process, even when to the outside it may appear that life is returning to a semblance of "normal". As we grieve so deeply, we also are experiencing the truth of God's promise: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:19)

Tartan & Naomi

Even a Crossword

2012-01-11T09:01:00.000-06:00

I received an e-mail from a very good friend sharing an experience she and her family had on Friday after the funeral. It was what we refer to as a "God sighting". She related to me that the family was just sitting quietly at home after the service and her husband picked up the Friday crossword as he usually did the crossword in the Chronicle. The clue for 5 Down was "Name meaning Beloved". He asked my friend if she she could think of a possible answer. Based on a couple of clues already filled in, she asked if "Aimee" would fit. It did. They checked the solution the next day and there was her name.

I don't know if the puzzle maker was aware of our story and intentionally incorporated her name. Regardless, it was one more God-filled small detail, one more reminder, that she was and is Beloved.

Being Comforted

2012-01-10T13:52:00.000-06:00

It is not my intention to write consistently to our blog, but a couple of days ago Tartan said I should write again. And when I say that I will write, I have to mention that it's often a joint effort. I typically throw thoughts down in a mostly coherent fashion, but Tartan then takes it and cleans it up. In the months ahead I (we) will try to write from time to time so that all those who are praying now and especially those who will continue to pray will see that God has heard them.

It was one thing to know that getting past the funeral would not mean things would be instantly easier and in fact hard days would be ahead and another to experience it. Just like it's one thing to know where Aimee is, the joy and peace she has, and that really the time apart in the grand scheme of things will be short - but quite another to not be able to touch and see and hold right now. Yesterday I had posted to Facebook that it was a hard day; I had seen a number of reminders that would suddenly jump out at me. Even before I saw the responses, I had felt the calming and the peace of friends' prayers. Last night at nearly the same time, though we were not in the same room, that painful missing hit us both again. I'm not sure what it was like for Tartan, but I felt almost hollow inside. All I could do was cry to God for His mercy and comfort which I gradually received. Your prayers are being heard, and the Spirit also prays for us. "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26

There are some people who read this who will assume that I can say these things because I'm "super spiritual" or "really religious". Not so. I struggle with finding time to pray and study God's Word, I do not lead any ministries, I have not been on mission trips, I don't have a YouTube channel, I have not written books. I watch some TV and movies and play games on my iPad. I get angry and impatient with my kids. I'm not saying these things to tell you, "sure, go live your life however you want", I'm saying that it's not the things we do, it's Whom we have a relationship with. Tartan and I have been walking on His path for some time now; sometimes stumbling, sometimes pulling back, undoubtedly sometimes just standing still but Jesus has always been there to pick us up or push us gently along. He has given us the teaching and the people and everything else we need to be able to continue walking with Him even closer now. He can do that with you, too; He is very, very patient. Though I hope none of you ever have to go through this kind of pain, the reality is that we all will suffer to some degree at varying times until our time here ends because this is a fallen world. Let Him be there for you, accept the gift He hands out to you from the cross, give Him your life because He will hand it back to you as something so much more.

In His arms,
Naomi

Leaves

2012-01-09T19:45:00.002-06:00

Walking by the lazy Colorado River after feasting on Thanksgiving dinner at the RV park in Kerrville. Hand in hand alternately with my wife… my daughter… both of them… Watching Aimee run ahead, then drop back to grab our hands and command: "One, Two, THREE!" expecting to be lifted off her feet and propelled forward, swung by our lifted hands.

Aimee spying a giant oak tree leaf, brown and discarded beside the path. Soon a dried oak leaf bouquet begins to form. "Here, Daddy - this one is for you!" as she holds out one particularly large leaf. I take it and put it over my heart where it stays in place, somehow magically adhering to my fleece jacket. Aimee smiling, then skipping away again - off on her quest to find more fallen leaves, more wondrous beauty hidden in plain sight.

As I gaze outside, at the rain and pools of water and fallen leaves littering the ground, my thoughts wander to heaven: Images of long walks beside streams of living water, gathering crisp, exquisite leaves of gold and silver on a beautiful, perfect autumn day that isn't really autumn at all; each leaf an infinite, priceless treasure extravagantly given from one heart to another.

Aimee

2012-01-06T09:39:00.002-06:00

I have left the shadows for the light

Bright, glorious, sparkly day

Leaving behind the ones who love me most

For the One who loves me most

Come see My Jesus!

Aimee Katherine Collier

2008-2012

A long, slow, difficult process

2012-01-05T08:10:00.000-06:00

Friends, we made it through another day without our beloved Aimee yesterday. I don't know how long we'll be counting days, and sometimes even hours, of moving forward with our lives. I want to thank all of you who have been praying and asking others to pray, to those who have spoken or written condolences, for our very closest friends and family that have served us here at home- cleaning, answering calls and doors, making arrangements, taking the children out, and doing anything else that needed to be done. Thank you for all the offers of help.

Unless you've experienced this, you can not imagine what this is like, and should not even try. The service on Friday will be powerful and give us some sense of closure, but a large part of me is dreading the flood of emotion and having to say goodbye again. I am also dreading having to move on to "normal" life, because it feels like it won't ever be normal again without Aimee. Everywhere I go there will be reminders that she is not here. On the other hand, I know God is walking with me and my family both spiritually and through the hands and feet of all those he has put around us. Yesterday, He enabled us to go with our pastor and speak with the family of the young woman who was the driver. They are also deeply grieving, but they too share our faith in Jesus as Lord. Please, please pray for Elizabeth. She was not emotionally capable of meeting with us herself, which we completely understood. But we were able to speak to her parents, and they will pass on our words to her. Elizabeth has, God willing, a long life ahead of her and my prayer is that Satan will not even get a toehold on her through this, but that God will redeem this to His glory. We can't (in this life) fully understand how that works, but we've seen abundant evidence of His mercy and grace. If you know me at all, you know that I am not comfortable with strangers and am quiet around those I don't know but God enabled me to speak with these people I only barely knew and to not fall to pieces in front of them. He had strongly placed on my heart that it needed to be done and He provided all we needed to be able to do it.

One thing I have not yet been able to do is walk to the end of the drive to the little memorial that people have lovingly set up there near where the accident happened. Maybe today. I don't know how I'm going to be able to drive past and over where it happened. The thought paralyzes me. Please pray.

Pray also that God will block out the tragic images as well as the "if-onlys" and "what-ifs" that keep coming to plague us- especially the children and most especially Aidan, Kayleigh and, of course, Elizabeth. Tartan has explained to Aidan more than once that God knew of Monday's events even before the world began; that he had measured Aimee's life before life even came into existence; that she has the great joy that Paul said he longed for when he said in Philippians 1:21 "'For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.'" After serving God by pouring out her joy to everyone she encountered, she has been given the far better.

How am I going to move on past Friday? How am I going to pick up the school books, drive to the dance studio, grocery shop? I think maybe I understand Elijah better, who could in faith call down fire to the altar of God and yet ran away and hid in terror from an angry Jezebel. I know that many friends are willing to help do anything and everything we need done, however I don't want to just become a hermit- as appealing as that actually looks to me right now. I suppose it will have to be a process. A couple of days ago I was wondering how I was ever going to stop crying. The tears have slowed.

I will bring this post to an end with the verse that has been hanging on our wall for years, but that suddenly caught Tartan's eye last night. "But we know that for those who love Him, for those called in agreement with His purpose, God makes all things work together for good" Romans 8:28

Amen.

Naomi

2012-01-05T06:02:00.000-06:00

We have now set up a charitable trust fund in Aimee's name for any gifts that people would like to make. While the specific charities that the fund will support have not yet been selected, I we expect it to include Compassion International, Pregnancy Assistance Center North, Samaritan's Purse, and others.

To make a charitable gift, please address it to:

Aimee Katherine Collier Memorial Fund
Amegy Bank

(Any Amegy Bank will be able to ensure the contributions are directed to the right account.)

Thank you for your continued prayerful support.

Tartan and Naomi

2012-01-03T15:20:00.000-06:00

Thank you to all of our friends here in Houston and around the world who have been upholding us in prayer in this incredibly difficult time. A funeral service for Aimee Katherine has been scheduled for 2:30 pm this Friday (January 6) at Faith Bible Church (5505 Research Forest Drive Spring, TX 77381), with a reception following. Public viewing will be before the service, between 1:30 and 2:00 pm.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to know God's peace and comfort amid the overwhelming sorrow and tears.

Rest in Joy with Jesus

2012-01-03T06:15:00.000-06:00

It is with great sadness that we have to tell you that our youngest daughter, sweet Aimee Katherine, has been called home to the Lord after an accident in front of our house. She slipped away from us and into the loving arms of her Jesus yesterday afternoon. Kyrie often wrote "Jesus Loves Me" on Aimee's hand, much to her delight. She would always be sad when it washed away and she'd say sorrowfully, "My Jesus is gone." We always told her that He was never gone and now she will be in His wonderful presence forever and she knows that He was never gone, but always with her.

She brought such joy to us and everyone she met in her three short years. We are so thankful for every moment we had with her. Please pray for us, and especially her brothers and sisters, as we walk through the long grieving process. We do not grieve as the world does, without hope, but we do grieve. I cannot imagine going through this without God beside us, giving us the strength we do not have- but it is still very, very hard.

We love you, Aimee, and we miss you so much. Until we meet again.

2008 - 2012

Eagle Scout Speech

2011-10-04T22:59:00.003-05:00

Well, as most of you should know, the oldest son of the Collier family received his Eagle Scout Award this summer. Yes, it was the greatest day of my young life! Since then, I've received several requests to post the speech I gave at my award ceremony, and I dealt with them maturely and decisively by procrastinating on the matter for months. Because that is apparently what I do.

But no longer! Here, for the first time in print, is my speech.

As a very young boy, I read my father's old Scout handbooks, and I learned that he was an Eagle Scout, and I said to myself, I wish I could be an Eagle. When I joined Scouting as a young Webelos, that was the shining, far-off goal that I aspired to, and I had the luck of meeting some amazing young Eagles when I was only a Tenderfoot. They acted as inspirations for me as I continued on, earning merit badges and advancing through the ranks of Scouting. Over the years, my goal became less of an abstraction and more of a reality, and I got the chance to really understand the ideals of Scouting as I sought to achieve the pinnacle of Scouting. Looking back to those old Scout handbooks, I can see that the ideals of Scouting are visible through all of them, from the oldest to the newest. Be prepared, do a good turn daily, respect the outdoors, and make the most of yourself that you can. I've learned, through Scouting, on my Trail to Eagle, that there's a difference between saying that you believe in something and actually acting it out through service to others. I learned that there's more to people than first meets the eye, and I've learned that I'm more capable in the outdoors than I thought I would be. I've learned about leadership, and that the best leader is not self-serving but a servant who helps everyone around him; I've learned that procrastination is evil, which is why I had this speech written before today, and I've learned that cheerful service to others is much more rewarding than it first seems. I've learned that, through personal diligence and the support of my loved ones, I can achieve my dreams. Because that's what this award is, to me. Most of all, I've learned that becoming an Eagle isn't only an honor, it's a responsibility. It's a promise to myself, to everyone who's helped me, that I won't forget everything I've learned here in Scouting. That I will live by the Scout Oath and Law. That I will do my best to do my duty, to God and my country. That's what being an Eagle means to me. Thank you.

- Tartan A. Collier

Tartan's Birthday

2011-08-06T19:27:00.001-05:00

Can you guess his age?

Alex & Kyrie's Baptisms

2011-08-06T19:20:00.002-05:00

This took place back in June. The day after the Eagle ceremony, actually.

Baptisms

Kayleigh's 6th Birthday

2011-08-06T19:00:00.001-05:00

Kayleigh had a fun time turning six. She had a cooking-themed party and she also got to go to Build-A-Bear and get her own bear (Strawberry).

(I haven't included many pictures from the party because I know some people don't like pictures of their children online.)

Eagle Ceremony

2011-08-06T18:54:00.002-05:00

I think I posted this to FB, but obviously not here. These are pictures from Alex's Eagle Scout ceremony in June.

Eagle Ceremony

Antshillvania Pics (finally)

2011-06-21T21:47:00.002-05:00

These pictures are mostly from dress rehearsals. A few are after-performance shots. Sorry Aidan's are all fuzzy, but those were the best of the blurry ones. It was too dark on the stage to capture motion.

Antshillvania

It's February

2011-02-04T20:15:00.002-06:00

And I haven't blogged at all in the new year. Don't have much to add at the moment, but I am in the process of uploading a slideshow with a few of our pictures from Disney. It will be playing at the top the blog once I have it all set up. Then I'll need to add some more photos to it.

From our busy household to yours!
>Naomi for the Colliers

-- Trust in the Lord, for He is good.

Christmas 2010 Photos (1)

2010-12-28T12:35:00.001-06:00

Wii fun time!

Alex, our TVTroper.

What animal is that behind you, Aidan?

A bug for Bug.

Christmas 2010 Photos (2)

2010-12-28T12:33:00.005-06:00

Kyrie on pointe with her new ballet calendar.

The kids listening to the Christmas story before opening presents.

Abi's new jacket matches her new pjs!

Aimee singing in her Dora microphone.

Christmas Letter

2010-12-15T19:14:00.002-06:00

Yay! We have our Christmas letter done before Christmas! We are posting the link here on the blog, linking to it through Facebook, and also sending the pdf file as an attachment through e-mail. One way or another, everyone that wants to see our letter should get the opportunity (as well as some who aren't interested at all). :)

Oh, Firefox keeps opening it up at 116% which makes the pictures pixelated. Turn it down to 100% and the pictures should be clear.

Collier Christmas letter

Merry Christmas all!

Love in Christ,
Naomi for the Colliers

2010 Webelos Woods

2010-11-14T14:38:00.004-06:00

Well, the Tall Timbers 2010 Webelos Woods is done and in the record books now; over 600 scouts and cubs from the Woodlands/Spring area enjoyed a great weekend with wonderfully cool weather and lots of opportunity for the cubs to visit with the various troops and decide which they would like to join.

A handful of dedicated scouts from the Mato OA (Order of the Arrow) chapter worked tirelessly all weekend to make it all happen: Seth Whitaker, Alex Gumm, Alex Collier and Kevin Dunnican were everywhere -- helping with registration, check-in/check-out and parking, staffing the "Colonneh Cafe" trading post, building and running the campfire, performing an OA call out, and even conducting their first OA Brotherhood ceremony! Without their help, Webelos Woods would not have been possible.

Several OA Advisors were also key to making the weekend work: Chris Jones was the overall coordinator of Webelos Woods this year, and kept things moving -- making sure the camp was prepared and all the campsites assigned, working with the OA ceremonies team on the campfire, call out and Brotherhood ceremony, and pretty much everything else as well. Bryant Dunnican was our camp medic for the weekend, I spent nearly all the weekend in the registration office handling all the paperwork, and newlywed Bobby Warren was our weekend chef (the fajitas were great!).

A number of other scout leaders, parents, and arrowmen pitched in to help at various points during the weekend, and the help was very much needed and appreciated. It's weekends like this when we see scouting at it's best, and I'm proud to be associated with such a great organization!

WWW,

Tartan

I wish Tartan had been there

2010-10-10T20:21:00.005-05:00

I'm sitting at Whataburger, taking up a whole corner with my tribe of six- most of us wearing our AWANA shirts. A gentleman passes by on his way out wearing skull cap and shawl; he smiles slightly at us and I incline my head in acknowledgment. A couple of minutes later he returns with a set of toy fairy\butterfly wings and wand and offers them to me for my little ones. I accept, wondering where this will go and he tells us he is a missionary and asks my name and where I am from. I briefly explain and ask where he's from- Wisconsin. Did I ask his name? No- I'm an awful conversationalist with strangers. He asks how many kids I have and I claim all six and then he asks what their giftings are. Um, I'm not sure what he's looking for and say so but I can't find the words to explain that while my husband and I are always trying to discern the gifts God has blessed our children with- I don't like to discuss them lest they feel like their being compared or compartmentalized. (We talk about them one-on-one or as a family, but I *try* not to say "this is the organized one, this one is the people-person" in front of them to others) Aimee pipes up with a wave and "hello" and he delightedly says she's a greeter. Well, that sounds ok. Then he goes on to explain we must give wings to our children and how the butterfly starts off as a gentle, crawling creature that becomes a beautiful butterfly. Okay... I just sit there smiling and nodding my head- and not thinking of anything to say. He finishes off by thanking me for blessing the world with my children; I smile and nod and thank him for the wings\wand. He says "blessings to you" and Alex pipes up with "God bless you" as he walks out the door.

I'm sitting there thinking- I wish Tartan had been here! He would have continued the conversation and asked questions and at least found out who he was a missionary for.

Alex steps away from the table for a moment and then I notice the man's keys sitting on my table. Without really thinking, I send Aidan outside with them thinking that the man must be out in the parking lot and has not realized yet that he's missing his keys. Aidan starts across the lot and I have a moment of panic- I have no idea if this guy is who he presents himself as and I just sent my son out there alone. Fortunately I can see them clearly from where I'm sitting and it's obvious I'm watching intently. As Aidan hands over the keys, they speak briefly and then he walks off. According to Aidan, he was parked at the car wash and was searching the ground around his car when he came out. Aidan says he was told to help his mom, do his chores and be an example to his sisters.

So *now* I'm wondering- was he a Jew, a messianic Jew, or none of the above? Did he recognize our AWANA shirts or did he just guess that since Alex and Aidan's shirts said "Truth and Training", we believed there is such a thing as truth and it's worth training our children to know? Considering the size of our family, did he think we were Mormon or Catholic? *sigh* Wish Tartan had been there.

Tongue-tied,
Naomi for the Colliers

Disney Movie Shoot at Hollywood Studios

2010-10-10T13:50:00.003-05:00

I know! I still haven't posted pictures from our Disney adventure. However, I'm posting the 2 videos we took of Tartan and me participating in a "movie shoot" at Hollywood Studios. The first one is about 12 minutes and the second one is about 3 minutes. I recently got the PhotoPass pictures from Disney, so hopefully I'll find some time to put together a slide show.

Swim Lessons

2010-07-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

Pictures from swim lessons at the Y from the beginning of July.

Awaken (Ballet performance 2010)

2010-06-14T13:57:00.001-05:00

Click on the photo to be taken to the photo album

Aimee Report

2010-04-30T14:02:00.002-05:00

Aimee is growing like a weed and it's no wonder because she's much more interested in eating than any of her sisters or brothers. She is the queen of snack. She knows how to sign "more" and "please" and sometimes she'll do "eat". Since I didn't teach any signs to the others, I'm wondering if her increased ability to communicate is the reason. I believe her favorite food is Goldfish crackers followed closely by cheese. She also likes to drink milk, juice and water. She's still nursing but I need to think about weening soon.

Her vocabulary continues to grow. She can say "mama" and "dada", of course. She also says "cheese", "out" (as in "take me out of my crib\play pen\high chair\car seat\stroller,etc.), "up" (as in "pick me up"), "shoes", "cat" (as in any non-human creature, including horses and fish), and others I can't think of at the moment, some of which we've only heard once or twice.

She says "Abi" to mean not just Abigail, but I think any of her siblings whose attention she wants to attract. We have heard something close to "Alex". And, the one that makes us all giggle, even me, is how she attempts to say "Bug". She can't get the g sound so it comes out as "But".

She is very social, rather like Abigail. She walks up to people and waves and says "hi!" That reminds me: she can say "hi" as well as "bye". So far she seems to reserve blowing kisses for family. She really does like to wave at people and passing cars though. Tartan and I take an evening walk around the block most nights and he'll carry her in the backpack carrier. She loves the view of the world she gets way up there. One evening we were out walking and though there was no one around, she started waving and saying "hi!" We figure that she wants to be a parade float queen one day and she was practicing.

Her difficulties with sleeping appear to be over. I have even been able to set her down while she is still awake and get only a token amount of fussing about it. Most nights I don't hear any sound from her at all. She really hated being set down in her crib, even for a daytime nap, so it's a big relief that she's learned to accept that sleep is necessary.

Well, I have a lot of other things to post like: Easter, homeschool PE field day, butterfly and ladybug release, and other things that I've probably forgotten. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up soon.

Trusting in the Lord who works all things for good to those who love Him,
>Naomi

Blue and Gold Banquet

2010-03-03T11:28:00.005-06:00

Aidan had his last, and I guess our last, Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme was knights, so each den decorated their table with that theme. Though Aidan's den had already had their Arrow of Light ceremony at Camp Strake a month ago, they had another ceremony in front of the pack. They take each Webelos cub's neckerchief to see if he's "worthy". It's soaked in- oh I can't remember what, but basically when they set it on fire it doesn't damage the neckerchief. It makes an impressive flash of fire. Aidan has joined Troop 895 and his brother is the troop guide for the new patrol. Alex has been the den chief for his brother's dens since Aidan started as a Tiger cub.

While it's a little sad that we're done with Cubs, it's also a bit of a relief. Now the two boys have meetings at the same time and place.

>Naomi

The Reason I Should Avoid Going to Sam's with Just the Girls

2010-03-02T12:22:00.003-06:00

We come home with four huge stuffed animals. I'm such a pushover. :)

>Naomi for the Colliers (real and plush)

Kyrie's Silver Award Project

2010-02-17T21:20:00.005-06:00

Kyrie, Abigail and several of Kyrie's buddies made felt blankets and chew toys for homeless animals and ear warmers and scarves for homeless people for Kyrie's Girl Scout Silver Award Project.

The items were given to the Conroe Animal Shelter and to Star of Hope Houston.

Aidan's Arrow of Light

2010-02-02T16:17:00.007-06:00

Aidan's arrow was found to be worthy at the Boy Scout Arrow of Light ceremony on Friday night. His big brother was part of the OA team that planned and put on the ceremony. It was done along the lake at Camp Strake and the only lighting was the bonfire on Ceremony Island, which is just a short bridge length away from shore. The Cubs enter crossing one bridge and after they receive their arrow, they depart on another- symbolically crossing over to Boy Scouts. It was very nicely done, but no flash photography was allowed and I think non-flash photography wouldn't have caught a thing. I'm including photos of Aidan before and after the ceremony and also with the OA team afterwards. Alex got to experience what celebrities do all the time- lots of flash photography. He had to stand there while individuals and sometimes groups of boys had their pictures taken with them. The groups were harder because then he had a bunch of flashes going off at once and repeatedly. He was a good sport about it, of course.

"I'm a baby, not stupid"

2010-01-21T08:20:00.000-06:00

Last night, Alex set Aimee down on my bedroom floor quite a distance from me in the hopes that she'd do some walking practice like she'd done at the library earlier in the day. Instead she sat on her knees, reached for one of the two-way radios plugged in near where she was and started playing with it. Alex called to her to go to Mom, but to no avail. So he took the radio away, moved himself away, and held the radio out like the proverbial carrot. She looked at him, swung her arms around for a moment, then stopped... and reached for the second radio in the charger. For some reason that caught us both completely off guard and we laughed heartily.

While at the library, Aidan and Abigail participated in the Homewood spelling bee. Homewood is the homeschool association we belong to. They didn't win, but they each survived a few rounds, did their best and were very good sports when they finally misspelled a word. It was a good, low-key way for them to be in a competition. I'm proud of them.

Trusting in the Lord this day and every day,
Naomi for the Colliers

Christmas Eve

2010-01-01T17:39:00.005-06:00

Singing Christmas carols together
Aimee up close and personal
Kyrie, Kayleigh, and Abigail
Alex & Chihiro
The kids in front of the tree

It's our tradition to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It's usually pjs.
Kayleigh got a reindeer with hers
Abigail seems to like hers

Aidan can hardly wait ... Wii pjs!

The biggest sister (is that a reality show?); Tartan for T. Alex

Christmas Greetings

2009-12-17T08:42:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Brilliance of Babies

2009-11-13T12:14:00.002-06:00

Kyrie just related this story to me:

She was putting together her lunch when Aimee crawled over and pulled on her leg. Kyrie looked down and said, "No, Aimee, I can't pick you up." Aimee frowned and dropped down. Then she crawled over to an oat "o" on the floor, picked it up, and looked impishly at Kyrie. When she knew Kyrie had seen, she took off crawling. Since Kyrie knows I'm trying to discourage Aimee from eating off the floor, she swooped down and picked her up to take it away. Aimee promptly dropped the "o" and happily grabbed onto Kyrie. Kyrie says that Aimee is going to grow up to be like her. Hey, wait a moment, what does that mean??

Thankful for my daughters,
(and my sons!),

Naomi

Deep Thoughts with Alex Collier

2009-11-09T09:26:00.003-06:00

By Naomi

I was getting ready to nurse Aimee and she was doing what Alex refers to her as her "maniacal" laugh because Mom had finally gotten a clue and was going to let her eat. Alex was passing by and had a sudden insight. He said, "Shouldn't we be like that every time we have the opportunity to study our Bible and get spiritual nourishment?" I wasn't too sure about that, but then he went on. "Of course, we need more than just spiritual milk.... we need to move on to spiritual pizza." It really went downhill from there.

I can do that!

2009-10-27T08:25:00.003-06:00

Aimee is in mimic mode now. I realized just last night that she can clap. It's the first time I've seen her clap more than once at a time. She looked pretty pleased with herself. That evening I was looking in the mirror with her and Tartan came up and started scrunching up his face at her. After a moment, she started doing it, too. They played this game for several minutes. Then he stuck his tongue out. She scrunched up her face and then, with an effort, she managed to stick out her tongue for a moment, too. Kyrie tells me that she stuck out her arms for a hug from Aimee and when she put them down, Aimee came over and put her arms out. When Kyrie patted her back during the hug, Aimee patted her back. This is definitely a fun time.

She's crawling around like a little demon. We have a gate for the bottom of the stairs that I've borrowed from a friend. Our own should be delivered today or tomorrow. There's a bit of a gap that she'll figure out soon so hopefully Tartan will jury-rig something before then. She can pull up to standing, but she's not cruising around things yet. That will come before long though.

The thought just came to me that she is 10 months old today! In just 2 months she'll be a year old!! On Saturday, Abigail will be 8. She's having a 50's style sock hop themed party. I'm still not entirely certain how that's all going to look. She's invited a number of girls and a couple of boys she's friends with- and I have no idea how many are going to show up. Should be interesting.

Ok, next cute trick. Alex came over to get her to do her repertoire. He then stuck his tongue out, but she couldn't quite get it. She reached out to try and grab his tongue. Then, she put her hand up to her mouth until her tongue came out to touch it, then she put her hand down. Ta da! She was sticking out her tongue! She did this a couple of times. Very funny!

All I have time for for now!

In Him,
>Naomi for the Colliers

Cooler temps\higher temps

2009-10-02T10:06:00.003-05:00

We had a sizable thunderstorm pass through our area last night around 2:30am. It brought cooler temperatures along behind it. It's only about 70 degrees F right now and the high should only be around 80. Unfortunately, I was already awake at the time because Aimee woke up feverish. We fell back asleep, though fitfully, and I finally gave her Calpol (UK Tylenol) at 5:30.

We've pretty well gotten into a routine for school and activities. We've made some adjustments and will probably have to make more, but overall it's working pretty well. We're actually keeping on track with school work! Kyrie is doing very well with her busy dance schedule. She's getting her school work done and really enjoying her four ballet classes, plus turns and jumps, modern and hip hop. She'll be dancing in a benefit show for Ballet Excelsior (www.balletexcelsior.org) called Dessert with a Purpose at the end of October.

Alex went out around the neighborhood twice in the last few weeks to sell wreaths for Scouts. It took him 2 hours the last time. His knuckles were sore, but his persistence paid off. In school, he's taking a literary analysis class at The Bridge Classes and likes it so far. Hopefully it'll challenge him to think a little deeper about what he reads and then be able to write about it. For science, he's taking chemistry with ApologiaOnline. We hope he'll understand it better this time. He and Aidan continue to take piano lessons though we had to find a new instructor. The nice thing is that she comes to our house on Tuesdays so that's one less trip out of the house. I've noticed that from about the end of last spring and over the summer Aidan has been much more consistent and enthusiastic about piano. The same has been true about learning his AWANA verses. That's been great to see. He's in his last year of Cub Scouts and will join Alex in Boy Scouts in February, I think.

Abigail is now in grade 1 ballet and she's found it to be a little more challenging. She really has to keep quiet now. She has voiced a preference for her tap class and is also enjoying hip hop with her big sister. Kayleigh has loved going to her own tap\ballet class, especially since a friend from church is in class with her. The little ones are SO CUTE in their class. All the kids (except Aimee) are again taking PE at the Y.

Aimee is a little over nine months old now! She eats baby food, crackers and oat o's and has started drinking water from a sippy cup. I haven't given her juice yet- maybe because Kayleigh has been such a juice addict.

It's taken all day, a little at a time, to get this written. We've done school work, had lunch, tidied the house for small group tonight, gone to the park with some other homeschoolers, and the kids have had pizza for dinner. My GF pizza is in the oven now.

Hope you're enjoying autumn wherever you are!

Trusting in Jesus!
>Naomi for the Colliers

Amphibian Adventures

2009-09-05T23:08:00.003-05:00

Here's a picture of Fon. We never had an actual vote, but I've heard Alex calling it Fon, so I've gone with that. He was correct about one thing... Fon was still a polliwog at this stage. It (don't know if it's male or female) has since lost the tail. I always thought they lost it before leaving the water, but Fon was found next to Tartan's truck tire. Learned something new! It is also a frog and not a toad like Lugh. The unnamed toad turned out to be a red shirt. We found it dead about a week ago.

Lugh has become somewhat more relaxed in the tank- not so quick to jump away and hide. Fon, on the other hand, leaps across the tank if someone walks by (and it's not already hiding somewhere). Wonder if it too will become blase eventually.

If they live long enough, they'll add atmosphere when Abigail has to read Frog and Toad Are Friends for school.

>Naomi for the Colliers

Toads

2009-08-22T22:16:00.002-05:00

It's not quite a plague, but the number of amphibians in this house has increased recently. First we had Lugh (pronounced lou) to replace the late Lucky. Then Tartan found another toad on the patio last weekend and since he didn't want to kill it with the mosquito fogger- he dropped it in the tank, too. I don't think he even has a name yet. Finally, today, Abigail found an oddity. A toad with a tail. Yes, it looks freaky. No, I don't have a photo yet. We haven't decided on a name for it; don't know if it's male or female. Our expert, Alex, is away at his Pursuit Team's "Genesis Weekend" until tomorrow. I wonder if he'll be able to tell. Anyway, I suggested Genny Anne, short for Genetic Anomaly. Tartan suggested Fon (pronounced fawn) for "Freak of Nature".

This newest addition seems to be noisier than the other two. I'm assuming it's the one since I haven't heard anything before tonight. It sounds like a light rapping or knocking sound. They all seem to be quite happy hiding in the hollow plastic log in the tank.

Actually, I think it may be Lugh vocalising. Maybe he's trying to say he's top toad.

Ribbit,
Naomi for the Colliers

Messy Baby Contest

2009-07-29T15:51:00.003-05:00

Please go to
http://family.go.com/messy-baby-contest/messy-baby-girls/more-carrots--please--10394/
to vote for Aimee!

Thanks!
>Naomi

Wicked; Party Time; RAIN

2009-07-18T23:28:00.009-05:00

Kyrie's CYT showcase on Friday was a lot of fun. They manage to learn a lot in just one week! She loved it.

Kayleigh's puppy party was a big hit, too. She had a wonderful time with her friends. Kyrie added the features for our puppy cupcakes and did most of the interior decorating. Abigail organized the game time. They played a puppy bean bag toss (Kyrie drew a big puppy that she taped to a box and then cut out the mouth); dog, dog, cat (just like duck, duck, goose) and a bone hunt (paper cut-out bones that they exchanged for a prize).

Finally, after the party was all done and I'd had a nap, a sizable thunderstorm swept through. The girls ran around for a little bit, but then we called them back onto the patio. The only unfortunate thing is that the wind managed to knock over the portable awning we had over the lower patio. We had anchors on it, but they couldn't do the job. It wasn't enough to dampen (pun not intended) our enthusiasm though: we were all so glad to see the rain pouring down!

Thankful in all things,
Naomi for the Colliers

Praying for rain

2009-07-16T12:19:00.003-05:00

It's been extremely hot and dry this summer! We've lost one pine tree to beetles and another one may die. We've had the rest of our trees sprayed and fertilised so we're hoping that will be the extent of the damage.

Quick update:

Kyrie has been having a fun time at CYT day camp all week. They are doing a showcase of songs from Wicked on Friday. She has a dance solo and we're looking forward to seeing the show. Next week is Abigail's turn at the Newsies camp.

Alex has been to summer camp and at the end of this month he and Tartan head to Indiana for the National Order of the Arrow Conference. Next week Tartan and Aidan go camping at Cub Scout Webelos camp.

Aidan, Kayleigh, Abigail and Kyrie took swim lessons at the Y in June. Aidan can move up to the next level, but all showed improvement from last year. This was the first time for Bug to take lessons so it was big for her to be able to blow bubbles, put her face in the water and to jump in without holding the instructor's hands. She did all three by the end of the week.

Kyrie dances modern and hip hop and Abigail joins her for hip hop all this month. Kyrie had to miss this week, but Abi goes to hip hop this afternoon. She's the smallest person in the class but she has plenty of energy (and attitude) for it.

Alex and Aidan continue taking piano lessons over the summer. It's great to hear their playing steadily improving.

We finally set up a crib for Aimee, but she doesn't like it much. I'm trying to get her used to it, but it's not been a happy process. I have a feeling this is going to take a while. Otherwise she's a healthy, happy, plump little baby. People comment on 2 things: her abundance of hair and her chunky legs.

Bug gets to celebrate her birthday with a party this coming Saturday. For various reasons, it's the earliest date we could do it. Last year, Kyrie and Aidan both had their parties a month late so this is not really all that unusual for us. :)

That's enough for now. Time for my lunch!

>Naomi for the Colliers

Aimee iPhone & Aimee with carrots

2009-06-25T14:47:00.006-05:00

iPhone? What iPhone?

Ok, you got me. Maybe if I grin really big and cute then you'll let me keep it.

Aimee experiences carrots for the first time. She wanted to get every last bit off the spoon before I could take it away and give her more. I stepped away for a moment to do something else in the kitchen and when I turned around I discovered she had taken matters into her own hands. Literally. She REALLY likes carrots obviously. She finished the whole container easily.

Living day by day in Him,
Naomi for the Colliers

Deliver Us!

2009-06-15T20:36:00.007-05:00

Kayleigh & Abigail at rehearsals. Now Bug is saying she wants to dance! Kyrie & Abi after the show.

Alex & Aidan
Tartan and Alex served as ushers. All the following pictures are from dress rehearsals.

2009-05-30T09:05:00.002-05:00

In just a couple of weeks, Kyrie and Abigail will be performing in the ballet "Deliver Us". I will post pics of them in costume after the shows. It will be a fantastic show; I can hardly wait.

>Naomi

Aimee Video

2009-05-23T21:49:00.001-05:00

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGB57ey5JAI

Aimee's Song

2009-05-22T12:35:00.003-05:00

There's a scout song that Alex knows that goes like this:

Froggy!
Itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, little bitty froggy
Jump, jump
Jump little froggy
Fleas and flies are scrumpdilyicious
Froggy!

He made a new version for his sister that we all sing, often repeating lines before continuing....

Aimee!
Itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, little bitty Aimee
Jump, jump,
Jump little Aimee
Mama's milk is scrumpdilyicious
Aimee!

>Mom

Notebooking Contest

2009-05-20T13:03:00.002-05:00

I've just started looking into notebooking to help the kids think about and remember what they're learning. Here's a contest for a couple of ready-to-be-used (rather than having to print it all out yourself) notebooks.

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available.

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:

A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
Review Questions
Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:

Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128

and

Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Hoping I win!
>Naomi for the Colliers

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-09T22:56:00.003-05:00

Since today is Mother's Day, we thought we'd try something different -- so (hopefully) here is a video mother's day card for an amazingly wonderful homeschooling mother of six terrific kids!

May Day!

2009-05-01T16:57:00.004-05:00

No, not really. It's just I can't believe it's the 1st of May. It's already May!! My last post was at the beginning of April and a whole month has passed by. The girls have had ballet pre-exam classes the past few Saturdays and the boys just had guild performances a week ago. Tomorrow are the actual ballet exams and the boys have their piano recital. And then we're going out to dinner with Michelle, Mark and Dad\Grandpa. Then on Sunday is church, then a baby shower, then the AWANA end of year ceremony and Alex has PTeam. I guess that's how a whole month passes by without my making a blog entry. In fact, I have to finish this one up to take Abigail her regular clothes. She had a practice for an extra part she has with her friend, Emma, in the ballet performance in June. So, every Friday she'll be there at 3:30. Anyway, she forgot to take non-ballet clothing for drama class at 5:30.

Sorry no pictures this time. I was going to post some of the flood on Tuesday. It was incredible how much water was coming out of the sky, non-stop.

Gotta run!
>Naomi for the movin' & shakin' Colliers

Family picture

2009-04-05T17:47:00.002-05:00

For the first time in at least a couple of years

Pictures of some of us

2009-03-28T14:50:00.005-06:00

Kyrie with her hair up in a ballet bun.

Aidan with a big grin.

Abigail and Kayleigh like to pose.

I took all the pictures with the tripod. The one of me I set up using Kyrie as a stand in (she's nearly as tall as me) and then had her take the photo. I had to do some adjusting of color and contrast afterwards. No pictures of Tartan and Alex because they're away at the moment. Aimee is sleeping, otherwise I probably couldn't have taken these pics.

15 years old

2009-03-28T14:36:00.006-06:00

Alex making a wish and getting ready to blow out his 15 candles.

Did he get them all?

How did he miss that one?

Ah, Mom snuck in a reigniting candle (not intentionally though).

Hong Kong Market

2009-03-10T15:15:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, the Collier family all went into Houston and visited the Hong Kong Market. Tartan wanted to share mangosteens with us. They're a fruit from Thailand and their nickname is "monkeybrains." I don't have a picture yet, but I'll be sure to get one before we eat them all. Despite the name and how they look, they have a very pleasant, mildly sweet taste. We also saw, but fortunately didn't smell, durian. It's a huge fruit and the inside part apparently smells like rotting meat. Yummy, huh? We also saw jackfruit which is a large, spiky looking fruit. Tartan brought some dried jackfruit home to us. We bought finger bananas- basically miniature bananas. They taste the same as the big version.

The kids got pandan flavoured Swiss rolls. I can't tell you what that tastes like because the rolls are made from wheat, but they say it tastes good. We picked up pineapple wafers, too. We could have got them in guava flavour but decided against it. I could eat the Mochi choco balls because they're made with glutinous rice. The "glutinous" part of the name just refers to the fact that it's sticky rice and doesn't have anything to do with the gluten that I can't eat. They were okay.

No one found the fish market very appetising though I tried to keep the children from expressing their reactions out loud. A brief introduction to cultural sensitivity.

Pictures later!
>Naomi for the Colliers

Have laptop, will travel

2009-03-05T17:14:00.005-06:00

Well, will travel out to the patio with Aimee in her pink bouncy seat. The picture on the left is of her the day before she turned 2 months old. On Saturday she'll be 10 weeks old. She's getting bigger all the time. I love the nice chubby cheeks. She also vocalises quite a bit: goos and ah-goos.

Right now it's a lovely 81F with a pleasant cool breeze. I can't spend too much time out here- pretty soon I'll have to go load the dryer and then make dinner. The rest of the kids are supposed to be tidying up upstairs. Apparently they've finished that and are now watching The Black Cauldron that we just rented from Blockbuster.

Abigail and Kayleigh have both had a bout of stomach bug. Kyrie felt ill Sunday late afternoon, but was feeling better later in the evening. No one else has succumbed so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Ugh, writer's block. I'm sure there's some cute story or important update that I could be relating but it's just not coming to me. So, enjoy the pictures and maybe the next post will have some kind of substance.

Trusting in Jesus because nothing else makes as much sense,
Naomi for the Colliers

Alex

2009-02-13T16:07:00.008-06:00

Haven't had many pictures of Alex lately, and none with him and Aimee. So here are a few.

Alex and Tartan at the last Scout Court of Honor

Alex & Aimee

Alex and his grandpa

Found a few more photos

2009-01-31T17:52:00.005-06:00

I forgot about these- they were still on the SD card. The one with Kayleigh and Aimee is from 3 weeks ago and the other two are from about 2 weeks ago.

We're sticking with the cat & the toad

2009-01-30T14:03:00.004-06:00

If the kids had their way, we would have:

a rabbit (Abigail),
a small, fluffy dog (Kyrie),
a ferret (Alex),
and a lizard and/or a bird and/or a German Shepherd (Aidan).

Bug has not expressed an opinion, but it would probably be "yes".

>Naomi

Aimee is 1 month old

2009-01-27T17:06:00.005-06:00

It's difficult to type while nursing a baby, but it's now or later- and at this rate she'd be one year old before I added to the blog again! Fortunately I have pictures to show so I don't have to write as much. She's eating well, but Alex calls her the "spitting Kat" and for good reason. The kids are a little squeamish about that. So far my best Aimee holders are Alex and Abigail though Aidan and Kyrie do their share as well. She sleeps at night with one 4 hour stretch- I think. I don't always remember to look at the clock and sometimes I don't remember what the clock said. :) During the day there's no schedule yet but that'll happen eventually.

Basically, we're all doing well. The kids are adjusting to yet another little person in the house. Bug seems pleased to be a big sister.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

She's here!

2008-12-31T13:20:00.013-06:00

After roughly 5 1/2 hours of labor (we're not so sure this time because for a while I was in denial), Aimee Katherine Collier made her appearance on 27 December 2008 at 3:26pm. She was born at the Nativiti Birth Center in The Woodlands. Especially considering she was born 2 1/2 weeks early, she is a good size baby: 7lbs 5oz and 19 3/4" long. The last child we had that was this early was Kyrie and she's 11 now! No pictures with Alex yet because he's been away at youth leader training camp since Boxing Day. We were able to get a message to him though and we know he's very anxious to be home and meet his newest baby sister. We've been wondering why labor triggered so early. It's been speculated that I was on my feet quite a bit Christmas day when we had some of my extended family over and on the 26th, Tartan and I went looking and test driving Ford Expeditions. Personally I think it's because Tartan got me a beautiful birthstone necklace with a stone for each of the children- including Aimee. Now he'll have to take it back and have a December stone put in instead!
We had only just decided on the name Aimee a few days beforehand. Kyrie suggested Aimee, and Tartan came up with the alternate spelling. We were going to have Elizabeth as the middle name, but Tartan lobbied for Katherine while I was in labor and our midwife added her vote (her name is Katherine, too).
We are very thankful that she is here safe and sound and that I'm recovering very well. Praise God!

Trusting in Him and His timing in all things!
>Naomi for the Colliers

We had snow

2008-12-13T11:12:00.002-06:00

On Wednesday, it actually snowed here in Houston. Not a lot, but the kids were excited and went out and played for a while. They made mini snowballs by piling it up off the bumpers of my truck. I didn't get any pictures unfortunately because by the time I got off the phone telling Tartan about it- the snow had dwindled and then it got dark.

It's been officially announced so now I can make it public- Tartan has been promoted to a new position at work, effective 1 January. The downside is that he'll have to drive farther to get there and home again, which makes him very nervous about the upcoming baby delivery. He's trying to figure out if he can work from home that week leading up to the due date. If not, we'll find someone who can be with me during those times he can't be here. He'll be the manager of Planning and Stewardship for business side applications. Previously he's only been in the upstream side. If you're not involved with the oil industry, just know that it means it'll be experience broadening. We can look back at his career so far and see how God has placed him where he needs to be- even those times where it may not have looked like it. :)

I'm sitting here trying to think of what else I can say. The kids got the tree up and decorated- they did it all this year, including bringing it down from the attic and setting it up, Tartan got the lights up outside, and I put the stockings along the fireplace mantle. Next week is our last week of school until January. We may or may not have a week or two of school in January before baby arrives. We still haven't decided on the name and this is definitely the longest we've gone without one. I'm sure we'll decide before she appears.

We wish you all a merry Christmas; may it be filled with His peace, love and joy!
>Naomi for the Colliers

PS Tartan, Alex and I are on Facebook now.

November update

2008-11-24T09:41:00.004-06:00

I can't believe I don't have any posts for November and it's already the 23rd. My excuse is that I'm tired. I barely have enough energy for the everyday things and some of those things go by the wayside sometimes, too.

We had a party for Abigail on her birthday: the 31st of October. It was a dress-up, Halloween themed party (no surprise)- though nothing scary.

Our weekends have been a little busy this month. We've had a campout the last 3 weekends, though last week, it was just the guys who went. First up was our church's first family campout which we had at Wolf Creek campground. It was organized by my dh (dear hubby). The big activity was fishing and I think all the kids who went fishing caught at least one. It was catch and release. They were mostly perch, but at least one bass was caught and one catfish. One of our experienced fishermen showed the catfish to all the kids and explained how to carefully remove one from the hook.

Last weekend was Webelos Woods where area Scout troops set up activities for all the Webelos dens in the area and advertised themselves so the Webelos can decide what troop they want to join when they leave Cub scouts. Alex was with his troop and as senior patrol leader he spent quite a bit of time making sure his patrols were ready for the Webelos scouts.

This past weekend was the Cub scout family campout at Cubworld at Camp Strake. We were able to take the camper, otherwise I think I would have stayed home. :) We didn't stay Saturday night: I think we were all a little camped out.

This week is a short school week since Thursday is Thanksgiving. We'll be staying home all weekend!

I have a little less than 2 months left before baby 6 makes her appearance. Believe me, I can hardly wait. :)

Giving thanks to God for everything!
>Naomi for the Colliers

A fun week

2008-10-20T20:37:00.007-05:00

This past Tuesday we had the opportunity to have a mini Banchory reunion. Two families from Scotland and two families who previously lived there but now live in the Houston area all came over and had dinner and a great time visiting with each other. We had fifteen kids in the house plus the adults and it all went smoothly! It did make us a little homesick for Scotland.

Wednesday was our family small group. In comparison, the child count seemed small, though actually not really. We currently have three families besides our own coming and hopefully another will be joining us as well.

On Saturday we (finally) had a birthday party for Aidan. We had a good turnout to his Greek mythology themed party. The obvious highlight was the trip across the river Styx (our pond) with Charon (Alex in costume). Each of the boys was a hero in armor (life vest) and after paying the ferryman with a penny, each had to bring back water from the fountain of life (ok, not Greek mythology, but they didn't care) to be able to return to the land of the living. They all got wet and some got soaked- hence it was a hit. The weather was perfect; couldn't have asked for better.
Today was the Cub scout pack meeting. It was a halloween carnival with games, candy and the kids dressed up. Aidan decided not to dress up and was the only one in uniform- so he rather stood out.

For all the Colliers,
Naomi

Hook 'em!

2008-10-11T21:14:00.002-05:00

I was really tired today, but I couldn't sleep during the Longhorn\Sooner game. It was an incredible game; both teams played very well, but the Horns came out on top! 45-35

We're thrilled; Oklahoma are big rivals and they were ranked #1. We're currently ranked #5, so we'll move up at least one.

(Background: American college football. The Longhorns are our university's team; they wear burnt orange, hence the banner color for our blog)

Go Horns!

>Naomi

2008-10-06T22:28:00.003-05:00

Well, we've had power now for a little over a week and last Thursday we got word that we didn't have to boil our water anymore to be sure it was safe to drink. Our extended deck with pergola is now complete (except for 2 of the fans that Tartan is going to put in himself) and we're very pleased with it.

It's really pretty at night, but I haven't tried to take a picture of that yet.

Life is pretty much back on schedule now. We're still waiting for AT&T to finish installing TV and internet. There were some issues with signal degradation and we're not sure whether they've been able to fully address that or not. Hopefully we'll find out soon and the answer will be "yes".

Sometime in the near future I'm going to have to take my Sequoia into the shop for what will hopefully be only cosmetic work. I was taking the kids to AWANA two Sundays ago and a teenager who wasn't paying as much attention as he should have changed lanes not realising I was already there. No one hurt, his car had been stopped before he started to change lanes, and I was traveling fairly slowly. We're thankful that he did the right thing and described the incident truthfully to his insurance company.

We are looking forward to seeing some more friends from Scotland! I hope they have as an enjoyable time as the Richardsons so even more of our friends will come to visit.

According to the little ticker attached to all my outgoing e-mail, I now have 100 days to go before baby girl 6's due date. That's how long we have to figure out a name. I hope it's long enough. :)

Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers

We have POWER

2008-09-26T16:48:00.002-05:00

Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord!

What else is there to say? (well, thanks to the Centerpoint workers for all their hard work to get electricity restored!)

>Naomi

25 September 2008, 2:00pm

2008-09-25T13:49:00.002-05:00

The waiting game continues.

We're on a reduced schedule for school. Kyrie's band class is the only activity left that has not restarted. The past several days Alex has spent a couple of hours at the FEMA POD (point of distribution) at Gateway Baptist church where his Scout troop meets. Today Kyrie wanted to be able to help too, so I dropped both of them off. I will pick them up in about an hour and then drop the boys off for piano lessons. Hopefully we'll also be able to pick up crickets for Lucky.

The last couple of late afternoons and evenings have been uncomfortably warm in the house. During the morning and early afternoon though it's been just fine. I don't know what it's like upstairs (there is one fan up there), but the kids haven't been complaining so I guess they're coping just fine. I tend to stay near a ceiling fan as much as possible. :)

Aidan and Abigail are still stuffy and sometimes coughing. Hopefully they'll be over the colds soon. Alex thought maybe he felt a little stuffy this morning, but I'm hopeful it's not the start of a cold for him.

Really nothing else new to report so I'll close for now.

Trusting in the Lord (and that the electricity will be back sometime soon),
Naomi for the Colliers

22 September 2008, 4:00pm

2008-09-22T15:56:00.002-05:00

Happy 9th birthday to Aidan!

We just got our internet connection back last night, so I've posted all the entries I made in MS Word over the last several days. You have more than enough to read now about our adventures post-Ike. I'll try to add a few pictures later.

Alex and Kyrie had Bridge classes today and the girls are currently at ballet. Alex went to the church where his scout troop meets to be a volunteer handing out ice and water from FEMA. He'll go back there this evening for patrol leaders' council meeting.

Oh, and no, we don't have power yet.

In the midst of it all, we give thanks and praise to God for helping us get through this time.

>Naomi for the Colliers

20 September 2008, 7:30pm

2008-09-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

It’s Saturday; no power. It had been reported that our area should have power by Monday evening, but I have since heard and Tartan also heard from someone else that it’s been moved off to Thursday. Sigh.

On the up side, we have water pressure again! With our HE washer, I can wash clothes with power from the generator and since we have a gas dryer we can use that, too. I can also have washed children again. I had used the camper tub\shower with the girls, but I hadn’t gotten to the boys yet. Now they’re squeaky clean- well, at least clean.

Today we had Kyrie’s long overdue birthday party. We had ten girls here besides Collier girls. Fortunately the weather held nice and we spent most of it out on the new deck. They bobbed for apples, played musical chairs and smashed a disco ball piñata. I think they all had a fun time; I know Kyrie had a wonderful time.

18 September 2008, 6:00pm

2008-09-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

Electricity has yet to be restored and the water pressure is so low, it’s pathetic. Today we discovered that the toilets upstairs can’t flush effectively so they’ve been closed off for now. I gave Bug and Abi baths in the camper, but I couldn’t move on to the others because the grey water tank was full. Of course, they’re both adding new layers of grime already. We purchased a 55-gal barrel of petrol from a co-worker today. He met a relative halfway between here and Dallas to get it, and as he pulled into his driveway he saw that their electricity was back on, so since it’s likely to be at least next Monday before we get power, we took it off his hands.

Some good things about the after effects of the storm:
-> Monday morning Abigail found a small, tailless perch on our front porch (no idea how it turned up there- probably involves the cat). Aidan wanted to dissect it, so Tartan pulled out the dissecting tools and remembering what he and Alex had learned last year when they dissected a fish, was able to point out various parts. Spontaneous science lesson.

->Aidan and Kayleigh went on a trip across the US. Aidan sat in the tractor mower and Bug sat in the cart behind it and they pretended to be driving to different states. Occasionally, he would come in and give Tartan a verbal postcard about where they’d been. Aidan eventually pulled out our huge atlas and set it in the cart for reference as they traveled.

->The kids have been outside a lot getting to know some of the neighborhood kids better. Even Aidan, who never goes out to play, has in the past couple of days gone out. I think partly because the weather has been cool (he hates heat), but mostly because he doesn’t have schoolwork to catch up on or the computer or the Wii to play on.

->The kids have done some real, manual labor. They have picked up sticks and branches and raked up leaves and the smaller debris. They have loaded the tractor cart and Alex has even driven the tractor to dump everything onto the burn pile. The usually sedentary Alex even spent a large part of one afternoon out back by himself raking and driving the piles to the back.

->Hopefully this will be a good thing: we’re switching our cable TV and internet service to AT&T. We’ve been thinking about this for a while and lack of responsiveness from Comcast was the last straw.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We did have the ultrasound yesterday and were able to see that I’m carrying a girl. Her measurements show her to be at 23 weeks of development which is exactly where we’re at. Everything that can be seen by ultrasound looked perfect. We don’t have a name picked out yet and that may take us a while. Probably an “A” name since Abigail is the only female “A”.

Oh, and I turned 40 today, too.

16 September 2008, 8:30pm

2008-09-22T15:51:00.000-05:00

Still no power- except just now Tartan discovered an electrician; I haven’t asked him the details yet. He tied our large generator into the house so now we have fans and lights. We can’t run the AC or any of the big appliances, but this is certainly an improvement.

Today Tartan and the kids got most of the yard rubbish picked up and we had quite the bonfire. I didn’t feel particularly well today so I opted out. Nothing to be concerned about; just that ill feeling that won’t completely go away. I did call the birth center and we’re still on for the ultrasound tomorrow. Yea!

Last night we finished watching The Fellowship of the Rings and tonight we’re starting The Two Towers.

15 September 2008, 8:30pm

2008-09-22T15:49:00.000-05:00

Still no power. Saturday night before the front it was uncomfortably warm and it was hard to get to sleep. Fortunately, the cold front did come through early Sunday with a noisy thunderstorm so the temperatures have been very nice since then. I’m not sure how long it will last and of course we have no idea when we get electricity back. Today we cleared up most of the yard and tomorrow we’ll hopefully finish it up and have a huge bonfire.

We were running low on fuel so Tartan went off in search. He got into the huge line for the Texaco on the 45 feeder road and 3 hours later he filled up our gas cans. The irritating thing is if he had turned left he would have had a much shorter wait at the Chevron station just around the corner. Or if he had waited at the Kroger gas station, they apparently had a truck deliver petrol not too long after he passed it by. Oh well, we have a good supply now. I hope it’ll last until power is restored.

With preparations for the storm, we didn’t get to the pet store to get crickets for Lucky and she was looking hungry, but Alex found an injured moth today and was able to feed her.

No internet so no phone. Cell signal continues to be poor. Tartan did bring home the camper so we’ll have air conditioning when\if we need it and he started up the water pump so we could take showers (yea!). It’s rather like camping out, but with some of the comforts of home, and of course, we’re actually at home.

6:30pm, 13 September 2008

2008-09-22T15:47:00.001-05:00

No power yet. My sister and brother-in-law in Pearland got theirs back earlier this afternoon which makes us hopeful. At least we know that some people are getting back on the grid. Tartan put the Sequoia into 4 wheel drive mode and went to get the camper to bring back to the house. He was able to get out and back in again, but he decided to try tomorrow morning. The water is still a bit high in some places and he hopes it’ll be easier to tow the camper after the water goes down a little more. The rain has stopped which is good. The breeze has died down which is not as good. Since it’s getting to be evening, the temperature is bearable but I do wish a little bit of wind was blowing.

The last weather forecast I heard says it’ll get hot tomorrow, but in the afternoon or evening a cold front will start to push through. The down side is it’ll probably bring some more rain but on the plus side it should bring down the temperatures. I really hope Tartan will be able to bring home the camper because then we can hook it up to the generator and have air conditioning! Another nice discovery is that we don’t have to use the big generator for the refrigerators and the freezer. Tartan hooked them up to the little generator and even in “eco” mode, it’s running them, a halogen light, and my laptop just fine. We’re using up a lot less fuel this way.

The drainage ditch is gradually emptying out. What I didn’t know was that there was a branch clogging the outlet; Tartan spied it and fished it out of the way. That’s why even with the continued rain, the level went down and our yard didn’t look so flooded. Way to go, hubby!

The kids and I picked up the various branches littering the front yard and put them into one big pile. We’ll eventually have to move that pile and also pick up all the mess in the backyard, but at least we got a start while it was still cool outside.

1:00pm Sat, 13 September 2008

2008-09-22T14:58:00.001-05:00

We lost power sometime between midnight and 3am. We hear on the radio that it could be 2 weeks before power is restored. I’m just recording some thoughts and observations to post to the blog once there is power and internet. Tartan did try plugging in the cable modem to the generator, but Comcast is apparently down. We’re very happy that we have the wrap around porch out front since Tartan has been able to put the generator out there and it’s under cover.

We had cell phone to begin with this morning, but now the networks are overloaded and we can’t get a signal. We made it through the storm with minimal damage. A couple of our bottlebrush bushes were uprooted, several branches are down, and right now we’re watching our front yard get flooded as the drainage ditch has reached its capacity. Amazingly, the only problem we have with the windows is a compromised seal in one window over the master bathtub. Also amazing is the fact that we managed to place our paddle boat and its tarp cover in a somewhat protected spot. When we saw how strong the wind was blowing, we thought that at the very least the tarp would blow away and the boat not stay in its original spot.

We think some of the eye passed over us as the wind died down for a while before suddenly picking up again from the south whereas it had been from a northerly direction all night. We looked out the windows several times through the night and it was incredible seeing the power of the wind whipping the trees and rain. The children slept well for the most part though the girls all woke up around 5am and it took them awhile to get back to sleep.

Though it’s inconvenient not having power, at least it’s still cool outside and we can open some of the windows to let in the nice breeze. Now we’re just waiting for the rain to stop.

Settling down for the night.

2008-09-12T22:29:00.003-05:00

We can hear the wind blowing out there, but our bedroom is currently on the leeward side. No rain as of yet. The picture is of the kids settling down in our room for the night. Bug is already asleep.

Hurricane Ike - report #3

2008-09-12T20:54:00.003-05:00

Last update for Friday evening (9pm).

Hurricane Ike - report #2

2008-09-12T18:22:00.005-05:00

Update on Hurricane Ike's progress, from Spring, Texas. (6:25 p.m. on Sept 12).

Hurricane Ike - report #1

2008-09-12T11:54:00.003-05:00

Aidan Collier reports on Hurricane Ike from Spring, Texas.

We will make an effort to continue updates throughout the storm, depending on whether we have power and internet access.

18 years; 11 years

2008-08-25T19:21:00.002-05:00

Today is our 18th wedding anniversary. What a day. Alex and Kyrie's outside classes and Kyrie and Abigail's ballet classes started today. We also had our 2nd week of band.

I had intended to drop Alex and Kyrie off and come home to work with Aidan and Abigail. Kyrie did not bring her art materials, so I had to drive home and get them. I decided not to drive all the way home again so I tried working on math with Abigail and Aidan in the truck. I turned the truck on to just have the fan on- not thinking about the fact that I was draining my battery. About 20 minutes before their classes were over it was so hot, I tried to turn on the truck: no go. I called Tartan, who took the day off thinking originally he'd take me to a movie and then when realising I would have absolutely no time that he'd get some things done. He drove out to jumpstart my car. We went home, having to stop for petrol because I was perilously close to being out, and I tried to hurry everyone through lunch. That didn't work well and we were 10 minutes late to band. A little (very little) schoolwork got done and then I had to deal with Kayleigh having an "accident"- I won't go into the gory details.

I took the girls to ballet and was very blessed to have someone watch Abigail for me when she got out of class and someone else brought both girls home for me. I thought I was going to have to stay there for 2 hours until they were done.

Now I need to round up the younger kids so we can go to the mandatory parents' meeting for boy scouts. Tartan and Alex are already there.

Enough about today. On Saturday, I took Kyrie to get her ears pierced. The two girls from next door and Abigail came along to watch. Kyrie picked out 14K gold studs with her birthstone (peridot). That all went well. The only thing she said was, "Ow. That hurts," after the first one was done. I would have liked both ears to be done at once, but there was only one person in the store. They look very good on her.

Tomorrow she's eleven years old! Happy birthday, Kyrie!

Trying to remember that God is with us in everything that happens,
Naomi for the Colliers

It's August: time for school!

2008-08-11T12:06:00.003-05:00

At the end of July, we hitched up the camper and went to Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. We had three free tickets from the Read to Succeed program, so we *only* had to buy four more. It was fun, but very hot and the lines for the popular rides were r-e-a-l-l-y long. I prefer to go off-season, but Tartan points out that usually they're closed on Fridays during that time. It was nice to leave Thursday afternoon, go on Friday and come back home on Saturday so we could be at church on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, Kyrie met up with her girl scout troop and they headed to Galveston for a short campout. They came back Monday evening- well before Eduard made his appearance.

Speaking of tropical storm Eduard, it brought us a full day of rain and that's about it.

The rest of us eased into school on Monday and Kyrie got started on Tuesday. This week Kyrie and Aidan actually got schedule print outs. I'm still working on Alex's. Since most of our outside activities have not started yet, it's been hard to develop a routine. I also needed to take in Fluffy for her shots and check up and that threw things off this morning. But, we are making progress. Alex is about ready to take his first geometry test.

Gotta eat my lunch!
>Naomi for the Colliers

July update

2008-07-24T12:51:00.003-05:00

It's nearly the end of July. What have we been doing all month? Not really much, but I don't do a lot in a day right now anyway.

We took the camper down over 4th of July to Corpus Christi and visited Grandpa. It was a very relaxing visit- at least for us. We took the kids to see Wall-E and we all enjoyed it. Kayleigh in particular was really excited about seeing it. When we went to see Prince Caspian, the trailer for Wall-E started but it was quiet in the theater so everyone heard her yell out "Wall-E!" I guess I'd been letting them watch too much TV. Tartan and I went out to dinner and saw Get Smart to celebrate his birthday.

Alex has his bottom set of braces in. It took him a few days to get used to them, but they don't seem to be bothering him now.

We've been to a couple of pool parties as a family. That's been fun. Thankfully I still have a maternity swimsuit. Aidan and Abigail showed they had learned a little from their lessons and Kyrie was swimming like a fish. Thankfully Kayleigh enjoys being in the water. A couple of our kids were very fussy about getting in the water when they were little.

Last Friday, Tartan and I went to see Agatha Christie's play The Unexpected Guest. It was sponsored by ExxonMobil so we had access to discounted prices on excellent seats. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Alex did the babysitting and managed everything smoothly. He had a list of numbers of people to try calling if anything unexpected came up- but fortunately that was only in the play. Speaking of which, Tartan figured it out, so we're one and one in solving her plays. I solved The Mousetrap which we saw in London.

We listened to the soundtrack for the musical Wicked (which Tartan got to see in London a few months ago) on the way to and from Corpus Christi. The kids, particularly the girls, are hooked. Now we hear them around the house (even Kayleigh!) singing "What is this Feeling?"

This week the middle children have been going to VBS (vacation Bible school) at our old church in The Woodlands, Faith Bible church. Today, however, only the girls went as Aidan and Tartan went off to Webelos camp until Saturday. Alex collected some service hours helping out on an Eagle scout project so it was just Kayleigh and me at home for a couple of hours. We watched Blue's Clues, Teletubbies, Angelina Ballerina, and Diego- until I fell asleep. I woke up a little late, but not by much.

Time for my lunch!

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

Kayleigh Bug is 3!

2008-06-30T11:40:00.001-05:00

The Bug turned 3 years old on Thursday. We didn't do a full birthday party since I just didn't feel up to it. She got a couple of presents on the day and we had cupcakes with the triplets from next door the following day. Her "real" gift from us, the new Leapster2, doesn't release until July 1. Hopefully it'll get here before our road trip over 4th of July and she can have her own "Gameboy" like the older siblings.

June has been moderately busy, though I've found a lot of time for naps. Abigail went to CYT (Christian Youth Theater) day camp for a week and enjoyed it a great deal. They had a little show the evening of the last day and it was pretty good considering they'd only had a week to learn it all. The following week, Alex and Tartan went to boy scout camp and Kyrie went to girl scout camp. Alex really enjoyed the environmental science class and he ended up helping out a lot in teaching the Weather merit badge. He and Tartan also survived the Death March, a grueling evening hike. Tartan got roped into taking over the archery range- so much for his being able to just sit around and do nothing! Kyrie enjoyed her first week long camp away from home, though she admits to suffering some homesickness. She enjoyed swimming, archery and drama class.

The big activity for last week and this is swimming lessons at the Y for the middle three children. Today I took everyone and Kayleigh got to splash around in the kiddie pool which she seemed to enjoy immensely. Alex looked extremely bored, but that happens sometimes.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

Got a heartbeat!

2008-06-04T13:09:00.004-05:00

We have already told a few people, but now we want to make our big announcement. I'm eight weeks pregnant! I saw an ob today and the ultrasound showed one baby and a nice fast heartbeat. The baby's size is right on target for the number of weeks. This was the same ob who saw me during the miscarriage, so he was really pleased to be able to give me such good news this time.

I'm feeling green and a bit tired, but really excited. And, Tartan is too- well, excited not green or tired. I also got a prescription for some anti-nausea medication so I'm optimistic. The worst part of pregnancy for me is the nausea- not the increasing size or the tiredness or even delivery.

Now we're going to be thinking and praying about whether to continue with the ob, go with a birth center, or stick with home birth like we've done with the other five children.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi

What about Bug?

2008-06-03T18:39:00.003-05:00

In case anyone thinks we've forgotten all about Bug and she's been tucked away in a corner all month- here's a picture of our almost 3 year old. Her verbal skills continue to grow and she's pretty much potty trained. I don't know if she and Abi were just easier than the others to train or whether I've gotten better at the process. Likely it all has to do with the girls themselves. She still wears a pull-up at night though last night her sisters forgot to put her in one- and she managed to stay dry! This is a picture her dad took while she was watching her brothers dissect a frog.

Where did May go?

2008-06-03T12:36:00.015-05:00

It was a busy month, I guess. I knew I'd gotten behind on blogging, but I hadn't realized how far! So, here's some of the things we've been doing....

Tartan was away in Europe for a week and a half at the beginning of the month, so I got to be single mom. Not really that hard since the kids are used to doing as much as possible on their own. I even have Kyrie get Bug ready for bed most evenings (and sometimes even Abigail does it!). We had a movie night (The Water Horse) and the girls had a couple of sleepovers with Mom.

The boys had their piano recital, which went very well. Family members had the opportunity to see their performances on Youtube. To Alex's great relief, I placed them on there privately so he doesn't feel like the whole world could tune-in. This was our first foray into posting on Youtube.

Alex, Kyrie, Aidan, and Abigail all got back into AWANA after Christmas break. Abigail got to finish her book that she started in Scotland, and Aidan and Kyrie made good progress in their new books. Kyrie made it through nearly 5 of the the 8 achievements in that short time! Alex's Trek group was more of a study group than the memorizing and doing activities for points that the younger ones do. He enjoyed it as well as volunteering with both the Sparks and the T&T boys. Next year, Kayleigh will be old enough to start Cubbies- so all the kids will be able to be involved with AWANA!

Aidan graduated from Bears to Webelos in Cub Scouts. It's hard to believe that he's so close to being done with Cubs. Webelos is a two year transition period that prepares him for becoming a Boy Scout. In the first picture he's got his new neckerchief on and is having his face painted as a symbol of his having completed one step and moving on to the next in Cubs.

What have the girls been doing? Well, they had ballet exams so they could move up to the next level in the fall. Abigail goes from Pre-Primary to Primary and Kyrie moves from Grade 2 to Grade 3. Below are pictures of the girls with their post-exam roses. A friend took Abigail's picture with her exam group and I took the picture of Kyrie at home right after her exam.

Kyrie also rejoined Girl Scouts this spring. We were bicycling home from church one Sunday and decided to go through Imperial Oaks park where Tartan spied a bunch of girls who looked about Kyrie's age pulling camping gear out of a car. He knew Kyrie missed scouts so they went over and found out they were a 5th grade troop who had just returned from an overnight trip. There were only a few meetings left in the year, but Kyrie attended almost all of them and also went on a weekend trip to Camp Agnes Arnold. This summer will be her first time to go to summer camp for a week and it'll be at Camp Agnes Arnold, so I'm glad she got a chance to experience it for a shorter period of time.

And, Kyrie managed another achievement through the homeschool PE class at the YMCA. She earned the Presidential Fitness Award which means she achieved at least the 85th percentile in 5 different physical activities.

Finally, the last week of May was really tiring. The girls had dress rehearsal for the Excelsior Ballet production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Tuesday. Kyrie was there at 4 and Abigail from 6 until 11pm. On Friday was the performance they were both in which lasted until nearly 11, and Kyrie had to perform again on Saturday night. I'm not sure we've fully caught back up on sleep yet, but the production was marvelous. Abigail's class portrayed the flowers of spring after the White Witch's power begins to wane. Kyrie's class were the mice who remove Aslan's ropes after his sacrifice.

And now it's June and we're pretty much finished with school. Alex has a few things to wrap up and Kyrie is not quite finished with her math book, but otherwise we're ready for a break.

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

Some fun school pics

2008-05-05T17:11:00.010-05:00

PE in the rain. You don't normally get the chance to do that in school. I initially was just going to let them outside to enjoy watching the rain for a moment, but before long they were begging to go run in it. It didn't really take very long to dry off and get changed either.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I've been reading to Abigail from a book called Living Long Ago. The first section is about clothing, so you can bet she's been pretty interested. After we read about ancient Egyptian clothing, she used the suggestion for making an Egyptian style necklace to make one and put it on her sister. She's also made a medieval pouch (because they didn't have pockets) and an Elizabethan ruff. I don't have pictures of those yet.

It's a little hard to see, but that's a ladybug (ladybird) on the butterfly enclosure. I decided we could watch ladybugs and butterflies go through their amazing changes this year. We've done the butterflies for a few years, but this is the first time we saw one newly out of the chrysalis. It's wings were still crumpled up. It was a really cool thing to watch. Sorry, didn't think to take pictures of that. Below are pics of the girls releasing butterflies into the garden. Aidan released one, too.

And, I just had to include this one, though I'm sorry if you're squeamish. Just think crawfish boil and maybe that'll help. At least I didn't include the earthworm! Alex and Tartan dissected a preserved crawfish and also took apart one Aidan brought home from the church crawfish boil. It was good that he did because some things were easier to identify on the cooked version.

Just a peek into our homeschool- the interesting bits. :)

Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers

whew

2008-04-22T20:53:00.002-05:00

In case anyone was wondering, we survived the Monday madness. We only missed one activity, which was band, but Kyrie made it to the concert rehearsal in the evening, so I don't feel too bad about it. The kids felt the testing went well, Tartan got to hear the boys play at their guild audition, and the day overall didn't feel too stressful. Praise God!

Tonight I went to the homeschool information night put on by a group I belong to. There were quite a number of organizations advertising their co-ops, academies, extracurricular activities, etc. I saw a few possibilities for our family for next year, but we'll have to think and pray about it because there's only so much of even good/great stuff that we can do without burning out. Well, without my burning out (have to be truthful here).

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi

PS One of these days I'm going to post more photos.

Getting ready for extra busyness

2008-04-15T21:40:00.002-05:00

The girls have been having extra pre-exam classes for ballet for the last few Saturdays and will for two more. Next Monday, the oldest three are taking the Stanford Achievement Tests (part 1), Kyrie has band, the boys have Guild performances for piano, the girls have ballet, Alex has Scouts, and Kyrie has band concert rehearsal. Do you feel tired just reading that? I do. Fortunately, Tartan is taking time off to take the boys to Guild. This weekend the guys are on the AWANA campout. The last week of April is ballet exams. In May there's piano recital, band concert, ballet rehearsals for performances of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- and of the course the actual performances. And then, there's still school. On the other hand, PE and AWANA will soon come to an end. God willing it will all balance out.

I'm ready for summer. :)

We watched the Arsenal \ Man United game. It was quite the game. We did wish that the Gunners could have pulled a win, but at least it was a close contest. They played well, just not well enough.

>Naomi for the Colliers

A wee bit of Scotland

2008-04-09T21:18:00.002-05:00

If we can't be in Scotland, then the next best thing is to have friends from Scotland visiting. It's been wonderful seeing the Richardsons and the Farmers and getting all the news. I don't like to put up pictures unless I've asked permission- and I didn't think of it. If I remember to, then I'll post a pic or two.

I like listening to their perspectives and impressions of Americans, and Texans in particular. I'm a native Texan (lack of accent notwithstanding) so I really do like to hear what they think. I hope they go back and have such glowing reports of what a great place it is that we get to see even more of our Banchory friends in the future! And, if the Pletchers are not available, we'd be more than happy to host, though we have to admit the accommodations are a bit tighter. :)

Though I miss Scotland, I do love Texas and one of the best things about living here is being closer to family again. We got to visit with Michelle and Mark this past weekend and just have a fun time together and catch up. Bianca and Jay had to bow out, but that's okay because we can just arrange another time to see them. Besides, they're babysitting for us this coming weekend. :)

Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers

Correction

2008-03-30T20:13:00.003-06:00

Arsenal played Bolton this weekend (not Liverpool)- and we didn't get the game here. We did get to see the highlights; made us wish we could have seen the game. What a comeback! We saw the highlights for ManU vs Aston Villa, too. Yikes! They walked all over Aston Villa. Ronaldo, Rooney, and I can't think of the other fellow's name, but they're quite the force.

Enough football.

The Cub Scout campout was a lot of fun. The weather was mostly very nice- especially Saturday. Abigail fished, the boys ran around with friends or just relaxed, and Kyrie went to be "caddy" for her Dad at the nearby golf course. They all also had fun riding their bikes around the loop where our campsites were. I enjoyed not having to do laundry or cook and Kayleigh was pleased to be able to sleep in a tent with her sisters. Saturday night was movie night and the scout pack and families sat out under the stars watching Enchanted on a large sheet. Very entertaining. We'll likely get a copy one of these days. Sunday morning is when Abigail finally caught a white bass. Too small to keep, but she was chuffed. I did get a picture. We had almost finished packing up when the rain let loose and came pouring down. Fortunately, everything dried out very quickly at home. All in all, a terrific campout.

For the Colliers,
Naomi

Go Gunners!

2008-03-27T06:51:00.002-06:00

Out of curiosity, if you understand what the title means- could you leave a comment? I'm not sure who stops by on a regular (semi-regular, occassional) basis. Some of you must know what it means and are probably aghast.

Tartan was just channel surfing I think and we came upon an Arsenal football (soccer) game. I can't remember who they were playing; it was English Premier, but they weren't one of the top teams. We were really impressed with Arsenal's level of play. Another time the match was a little more even, but Arsenal pulled out on top. We were disappointed this weekend when they lost to Chelsea, but I think we're hooked. I believe they play Liverpool this weekend so we'll have to record because we're off to the Cub Scout family campout. We have not seen ManU play yet. It's funny but we rarely watched football when we were in Scotland. We did watch the World Cup, at least the last few games, but that was mostly it. I think we're watching it now because it reminds us of our time in Scotland and because we have to hunt for it now. It's also nice to be able to watch a sporting event without commercials.

I still find it strange that football jerseys don't have the team name on them, but the sponsor- which can change. Apparently for years, Arsenal wore O2 but now they're sponsored by Emirates Airlines and their jerseys say "Fly Emirates". We've seen them play at Emirates stadium- is that their home stadium and did it used to be called O2 stadium?? Chelsea is Samsung and ManU is AIG. Does anyone have the Gecko on their jerseys?

Speaking of the Gecko, Geico is sponsoring an exhibit at the Houston Zoo. We went this past Saturday, but we missed seeing the Gecko who is available for photos and supposedly speaks with what the brochure called "that cute British accent". I never really thought about his accent before because I first saw the commercials in Scotland. He just sounds normal. :)

I've rambled on long enough. Time for school.

Hope you had a happy Easter. He is Risen!!

Trusting in the Risen Saviour,
Naomi for the Colliers

Alex is 14!

2008-03-18T09:58:00.004-06:00

Alex is excited to get the soundtrack to The Return of the King from his grandpa and (on the right) he's pleased to receive Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii. His siblings were even more excited that he got Brawl. He's been hyping it up with them for months. So far it seems to be a hit.

Hard to believe it's been 14 years!
>Naomi for the Colliers

March madness

2008-03-08T21:24:00.002-06:00

I'm not talking about the college basketball championship series. I'm talking about "Ah! It's March! Are getting anywhere with school!?!" The answer is, yes, we are- but a moment of panic still comes. I won't bore you with the details of our homeschool, though.

Instead, I'll tell you about our latest family trip.

Last weekend we hooked up the camper and drove to Austin. We stayed at McKinney Falls state park. We didn't see much of the park, so I think we'll try and stay there again sometime. The reason for the visit, besides seeing my brother and his wonderful family, was Explore UT. Our alma mater has a campus-wide open house every year and we decided to check it out. It was a lot of fun: we got to see our old school and we and the kids enjoyed everything from scenes from Shakespeare acted out to a lecture on medieval weapons. The girls and I watched Shakespeare- the boys went to the lecture. We saw demonstrations at the engineering schools, made shields and crowns in the South Mall, ate lunch at our old dorm, Jester Center (the cafeterias look a LOT nicer now), and learned to march like the Showband of the Southwest in the "Bubble"- an enclosed playing field.

We enjoyed having dinner with my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nephew, who is a couple of months younger than Bug. Abigail showered him with affection and he loved it. He was more reserved with myself and Tartan, but he seemed quite happy with all the cousins.

Sunday morning before we headed back home, we visited the church where the pastor who married us is now the senior associate pastor. We don't know if he knew to be looking for us, or maybe it's just that a family with five kids just naturally sticks out, but he did see us and came over to give us a warm welcome. We haven't had the opportunity to see him since Aidan was traveling in a car seat, though we've kept in touch by e-mail - mostly at Christmas. He looked a little older (I'm sure we did, too!), but he had the same energy, good humor, and obvious love for his job and his Boss. :) We also met both sets of parents of friends of ours who were ex-pats in Norway while we were in Scotland. They treated us like they'd known us for years rather than meeting us for the first time.

Since Alex will be 14(!) as of March 18th, we might soon find ourselves making more family trips centered around possible college choices. Wow, what a thought. I won't say what he's getting for his birthday {bag of coal} since he might read this beforehand. Just kidding, son.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

The Mouser

2008-02-25T21:11:00.002-06:00

Y'all have heard it a million times, right? Cats chase mice. "An American Tail", "Stuart Little", "Redwall"... we are told that cats chase and eat mice. And I started to get skeptical. Maybe in the Middle Ages, sure. But we are in the Modern Era now, and that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore.
Then I got back from a Boy Scout meeting to find our cat Fluffy chasing a rock. A rock with a tail. It turns out she was hounding an unidentified rodent - either a really fat mouse or someone's pet gerbil - and having a really good time of it. She would sit and wait for it and then at some non-determined time she would leap out and tackle it. Then she would bat it around - once I saw her throw it up then slam it down - and then she would sit and wait again. I might post pictures I took. >:)

Don't look away, don't turn around, and don't blink... Good luck.

Trusting in the Lord,
Alex for the Colliers.

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-13T14:58:00.003-06:00

A little early. Just wanted to warn anyone who might actually stop by to not open Valentine card e-mails from anyone you don't know. The Storm Worm virus uses an embedded link to install itself and make your computer part of a botnet. A single user then has access to all the machines in the botnet.

Actually whenever you receive an e-card from anyone you don't know- just delete it.

An article about this is at http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=283&z=1.

I subscribe to emergencymail.org, so it's legitimate. I mostly get weather warnings from them. It does have ads which may or may not be helpful.

Love,
Naomi for the Colliers

Just another busy week

2008-02-09T14:01:00.000-06:00

Alex was elected patrol leader for his patrol. Someone nominated him for senior patrol leader, but he respectfully declined. He wants to get a better feel for leading just a patrol before taking on the whole troop. His dad thought he should have left his name in, but I think it's fine for him to take a little time until he feels more comfortable with the idea. He has four years of scouts (as a boy) ahead of him.

Kyrie's ballet class are going to be mice in the spring production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that Excelsior is going to put on. Abigail's class are going to be flowers. They're both working hard to learn all they need to know for that and for ballet exams in May. They both have expressed interest in taking drama class, as well as ballet, at Excelsior next fall.

Aidan is about finished with his Bear requirements and should be ready for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet next month. He enjoys piano- but not practicing. We're really having to work on that. He got his orthotics and seems to be adjusting to them very well. He hasn't complained about them other than to say they were just a bit uncomfortable after having worn them for an extended time.

Kayleigh continues to be our cute little Bug- sometimes with attitude, but still cute.

We're having friends over tonight. That always makes for an enjoyable evening, but I should probably put the kids to work for a little while tidying up. I think I need to go take care of their wet things. They've been out in the yard running in the sprinklers, but I hear their voices now.

Blessings to you and yours!
>Naomi for the Colliers

Last day of January

2008-01-31T10:57:00.000-06:00

Wow- where did January go? Anyone else feel that way?

On Monday, Alex received recognition for having achieved the rank of Star in the Boy Scouts. We're very proud of him. He managed to get his requirements done in good time without much prodding from Mom and Dad. Good job, Alex!

This week has been frustrating electronically speaking. Monday I went to print the kids' school schedules and it wouldn't work. I've printed from this computer with no problem since we got our wireless HP printer. I installed (not without difficulty) the printer software on the Vista machine that Alex primarily uses. It had the same problem. The only machine I could print from was my laptop. Finally Tartan told me to find a USB cable and link to it directly. That does work and suddenly Alex's machine started being able to print- without my doing anything else to it. Then, last night my laptop suddenly went blank. I have no idea what's happened to it. I don't think there's anything we can do with it except take it to be repaired. It's probably out of warranty by now. I've also been unable to load Olive Tree's Bible reader on my ipaq. The install keeps giving me a runtime error.

I think I'm the Empire State building of the house. We recently read an article reporting on the odd occurrence of dozens of cars daily shutting down within a few blocks of the building. Apparently once they're towed a few more blocks away, they work just fine again. We think it's the Daleks. If you haven't seen "Daleks in Manhattan"- then never mind.

Abigail lost her second tooth, finally, yesterday evening. Hopefully the tooth fairy will show up sooner than last time. But she didn't last night.

Hoping you're all avoiding most of the cold and flu bugs out there,
Naomi for the Colliers
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." Pr 3:5

Orthodontics & orthopedics

2008-01-16T15:22:00.000-06:00

What they have in common besides the "ortho" is that they're expensive. :)

Alex just had braces attached to his top set of teeth. At some point they will be joined by a set on the bottom. He decided to have the plastic parts in a plain clear rather than some neon color. Kyrie has already stated that when she has to have hers she wants color. Unfortunately, she almost certainly will have a turn.

To try and fix Aidan's in-toeing, the orthopedist has ordered orthotics to put in his shoes. They cost $300.... each. We were a little stunned, but hope that it'll make it easier for Aidan to run and participate in sporty activities.

Sorry this is so short. I'm coming up blank on anything else remotely interesting to share.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

A new talent.

2008-01-11T12:07:00.000-06:00

We have a prodigy in the family. An artist who - before now - never seriously painted. She has an eye for detail, fine motor skills and patience. Surely all the marks of a great artist. Who is this mysterious master painter?
Kyrie. Really! She wanted to try her hand at painting yesterday, so I decided to let her try painting a few of my Warhammer and D&D miniatures. And she did better than I ever could. When I saw her paint that well, I gave her an unpainted miniature. It took her two hours to paint it to masterwork quality. All it needs now is a bit of touch-up (perhaps later this afternoon) and maybe we can post pictures of it.
One might think that I might be envious of my little sister, but I'm actually very important in the painting. I supply the miniatures, the paints and paintbrushes, and my experience in painting. Kyrie's got the talent, I've got the know-how.
Kyrie says she really enjoys painting, so I've pulled out every miniature I've got. I seriously think I saw a gleam in her eye when I showed her the minis. I think my long-waiting Gondorian army won't lack paint much longer...

Trusting in the Lord (to bless our lives),
Alex for the Colliers.

John 3:16

2007-12-20T08:53:00.000-06:00

ALL THE GREATEST

John 3:16

God . . . the greatest Lover
So loved . . . the greatest degree
The World . . . the greatest number
That He gave . . . the greatest act
His only Son . . . the greatest gift
So that everyone . . . the greatest invitation
Who believes . . . the greatest simplicity
In Him . . . the greatest person
Will not perish . . . the greatest escape
But . . . the greatest difference
Have . . . the greatest certainty
Eternal life . . . the greatest destiny

- J. Edwin Hortell

Thanks to the Prebishes for including this in their Christmas letter.

Trusting in The Gift,

Naomi for the Colliers