Not Much Happening

Yeah Right! We are going to be really busy until the middle of July. This weekend is our Regional Youth Convention. Sister Sharon Griffin will be the guest speaker. She will be speaking Friday night and Saturday. Our young people at Farmville will be on program Saturday morning. Please PRAY FOR US!!! We are working on a skit and a song. We want to be a blessing and not just entertainment. We want to let the Spirit of God work through us. Nine of our young people are going this year. Hopefully. Tonya and TJ will only be able to be there Friday night. Dawn and JJ are hopefully coming Saturday. Unless Dawn isn't able to get off work Saturday. Then of course all of our family is going. If it is just our family we will have to make some changes in our skit. We are going to the Shenandoah valley for a week and Daniel will get his school testing done while we are that close. Then we will be home for one week then I'll be heading out to Cleveland and BTI! Yay! I'm excited about BTI! Think of all the learning you can cram into two weeks! I'll probably have pics to share from our trip and from BTI. Then I'll be home one week after BTI and that Thursday or Friday we will be heading out to SC for a family reunion that Saturday. Then Sunday bright and early we'll be leaving for Palatka, FL. Hopefully we'll make it for Sunday evening service maybe. We'll be there for two weeks give or take a few days. The first week we'll be facillitating a Basic Seminar. The second week we will be doing a VBS. I'm still trying to get things organized for that. We'll be having my graduation either the Sunday I get back from BTI or the Sunday after we get home from FL. The last weekend of June we will be heading out to Roanoke for the Regional Convention. Bro. Smith will be the guest speaker. Then the first week of July the first grandchild in the Baldwin family will be getting married. By first I don't mean oldest I mean first to get married. So there is definitely excitement about that. The next week is VA/WV Youth Camp. Anyway just thinking about all that makes me excited and worn out! I have to be going now. ~Goodbye~

Pics

Zachary Playing Engineer at the railroad museum Micah taking a turn Micah, BJ, Adam, Me, Bethany, Zach, Nate, and Beau seeing how many we could fit on the couch during Tim, Critter, and Adam's visit Saturday.
Beau giving Zach a haircut on Saturday morning
Beau Preaching
Nathan just after arriving in Virginia
Brother Mike McDonald from Palatka Florida
Beau, Zach, Micah, and I at Crewe Railroad Museum
Beau playing engineer
Zach, Micah, Beau, and I sitting on the side of one of the engines

I have some pics from when Beau, Mike, and Nate were down for the youth revival at the beginning of the month. I figured I'd go ahead and try to put a few of the on here. It worked! Yay! The guys arrived on that Thursday afternoon. The pics of Nathan and Bro. Mike are from just after they arrived. On Friday Zach, Micah, and I showed Beau around town and then we went to the Crewe Railroad Museum (big name for little place). There are railroad cars there that you can climb all over and take pics of and on. We had a lot of fun and got a little camera happy there. On Saturday Tim, Critter, and Adam came over and we played football. We went to the Church after a late lunch and played basketball then we all got cleaned up and ready for church that night. After service we had supper and said goodbye to our Roanoke and Catawba visitors. The next day was Sunday. Some of our young people came home from church with us and we hung around until we left for service that night. My aunt and cousin drove over from the coast to surprise my mammaw. We had snacks after church and then we went to my Pappaw and Mammaw's to play a little bit of Rook before heading back to the house. Beau, Mike, and Nathan left to go home to Florida around five the next morning. We really enjoyed our visit with them and the revival that Brother Beau preached for us. I hadn't really said much about the revival earlier so I thought I'd talk about it some now that I had pics! Anyway I need to go. ~Goodbye~

Senior Pictures

Guess What! I got my senior pictures done today! Yay! Have I mentioned how excited I am about graduating? I am really excited!!! Like really really really excited! Not that I don't like school ( I mean how many other high schoolers dream about Trigonometry) but I will feel like I have accomplished something big when I graduate. I wanted to try and put a couple on here I'm going to try. It worked I can't believe it worked! I got some done dressed up and some done in a cap and gown and some done casual. This is two of them. I like the casual ones better than the dress ones. Mom likes the first one. She says my personality shows through. I'm hoping to be able to go to BTI this year. Everything looks good right now. I'm really excited about that too. Anyway Zach and Daniel bought that movie "Amazing Grace" while we were in Richmond today and they are watching it so I'm going to go. ~ Bye ~

A great revival!

I have been so busy lately. Two weekends ago we had our VA/WV Ladies retreat. It was wonderful. Sister Betsy Cox was our evangelist. She flew into Richmond airport so mom and I got to pick her up and take her to retreat and then take her to the airport after the retreat ended. We really enjoyed the extra fellowship time! My Aunt Kathy was able to come to the retreat this year and she had a good time. Mom, Sister Betsy, and Aunt Kathy roomed together and had a great time. I mainly hung out with them. They are so much fun for a bunch of OLD ladies!!! ;-p I love Ladies retreat because you can get away from everything and just concentrate on you and the Lord. My favorite time every year is probably hide-away time. The only thing is I have a favorite spot I go every year and it was wet so I had to find a new spot. This past weekend was our youth revival. We had ours a little early to kick off youth emphasis week. Beau Cox, or should I say Brother Buford Cox the third, was our evangelist. It was his first revival and he was really nervous but with God's help he did a wonderful job. Our young people liked him because he was a young person and our older folk liked him because they like just about everybody. Nathan and Brother Mike McDonald from the Palatka FL church drove up with him. Tim, Adam, and Critter came over on saturday and spent the whole day with us. We had a good time of fun and fellowship with them. I had to moderate the revival and you want to talk about nervous I think I was just as nervous as Beau was! God is good though and he helped both of us. Tomorrow we are going to Roanoke church for their youth revival. Brother Hawkins is the evangelist. I'm really working on the VBS stuff I want to have evrything done by the beginning of May so maybe I can go to BTI this year. We are praying about it. Anyway I probably need to go now. Later......

Hello Everyone!

Dopey title I know. Anyway how is everyone doing? I've been super busy lately. Mom fell and twisted her back and couldn't really do anything so I did a lot of extra cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Then we had District Convention. It was really good. The Lord was with us in the service. You could feel the Spirit in the singing, preaching, testifying, and boosting. Daniel and Bethany both had their birthdays. Daniel is 16 and Bethany is now 12. That means we now have one more VLB at Farmville. The weekend after the Convention the VLB's had a Brunswick Stew Fundraiser. We spent friday night cutting up potatoes and onions and cooking and cutting chicken. Saturday morning early we cooked and stirred the stew then we delivered it that afternoon. All this month we have been making candy eggs to sell. We got a late start this year and only made 700 and some. Our church has been doing it for years so it's kind of a tradition. We make peanutbutter and coconut eggs. They are 4 oz. eggs and then we dip them in chocolate and decorate them. We get $2.50 for each egg. It's a good fundraiser. Anyway it takes a lot of time and energy. Between everything that's going on I haven't had time to even check my e-mail much less blog! Anyway i know this is short but I do need to go. G'bye

I Hate Coming up with a Title!

I really do! I rack my brain for a title and come up with some dopey thing like, "I'm Posting again." How silly is that? Why is a title neccesary anyway. It's not like this is a book or something. It's a blog! If I wanted to write a book I'd write something more interesting than what I'm working on in school or how I'm doing in Piano! Actually nothing has really happened to inspire me to blog about it. I'm just trying to keep my rather late New Year's Resolution to be a better blogger. I'll even try to upload a picture this time! Keyword Try. Never mind once again I meet with failure. Does anybody know how to compress a picture so that it will actually upload? Anyway I have to go now. But at least I blogged even if I didn't have anything to say!!!

Hey!

I'm back again. Sorry I know I havn't posted in a while but I've been busy! I know that's no excuse but what can I say? Mom and Dad went to the VA/WV couples retreat that is gradually turning into everybody's couple retreat last week-end. They really enjoyed it. They ditched all of us kids at home alone for 3 whole days. No adult supervision! (I don't really count.) I guess they figured Zach and I are old enough to handle it. It wasn't bad at all. That Sunday morning Sister Betty Bowlin went home to be with Jesus. We will miss her greatly but we couldn't be too sad when we thought of all the pain and suffering she was in. Church was pretty much a memorial service for her that morning. After church a bunch of us young people went out for pizza. We had terrific winds that day and when we were ordering a guy and his son came to open the door. The little boy was trying to open the door for his dad but was having a lot of trouble pulling agaisnt the wind as he was. He finally managed to get the door opened when the wind switched directions and ripped the door out of his hand. The wind slammed the door into this flower pot sitting in front of the outside of the building. All the glass in the door was busted out then the wind caught the frame of the door and swung it around and tore it off it's hinges. It was Amazing I'd never seen anything like it in my life! The only thing connecting the door to the doorway was the hydraulic thingie on the top of the door! The kid who opened the door had this priceless expression on his face. When the door was ripped from his hand the force of the door cut his hand. I had my trust First aid stuff with me so I helped him bandage up his hand. He was pretty shook up. Monday and tuesday of last week were busy with the family night and funeral for sister Betty. Wednesday was VLB service and I did something on true love. Then my Uncle Donnie and his wife came up and spent a few days with my Grandparents. Dad and I went over friday night and we played ROOK. I love that game. I've been told I'm getting half-way decent at it too. Yesterday was our Valentine's dinner at church. We did Spaghetti which is becoming a tradition at our church for the Valentine's dinner anyway. Oh yeah Hey Alaena I saw your comments. I hadn't checked my blog in a while cause i figured no one really reads it. You and Beau are the only ones who really comment anymore and Beau hardly ever has the time. I'll have to be better at keeping on top of things. New Years Resolution (kind of late but who cares, if you do don't say so) To be a better blogger. (yeah right.) Anyway I have to go. I'll blog more later.

Happy Belated New Year!

Hey everyone Happy New Year! We really really enjoyed our day with the Cox's. We had a ton of fun. Tim decided to come over with them and he seemed to enjoy the fun almost as much as we did. Dad, Bro. Jerry, Tim, Zach, Daniel, Micah, Beau, Josh, Nate, and I played a lot of football. It was a blast. Beau, Josh, Zach, and I attempted to teach Tim how to play Dutch Blitz but Josh kept going too fast for Tim to catch on enough to actually enjoy it. Nevertheless I did enjoy playing. The next day we had our Baldwin family dinner. It was kind of sad this year. Aunt Diane had been gone just a month. We did a lot of laughing and a lot of crying. We had a small watch night service at church New Years Eve. A lot of our church folks were sick with that upper respiratory infection that was going around and could not come this year. This weekend was Men's Retreat all the boys and dad went this year. Bethany went and spent the week-end with Jenny Joyner from church. So it was just Mom and I this week-end it was nice and quiet. We went out to dinner with Mammom and Aunt Debbie last night. It was nice we went to a mexican restaurant in Blackstone. We had a good time. It's been really quiet though. I like quiet every now and then it's restful. Next Sunday night, not tomorrow, Tim is coming to Farmville for a special surprise for a certain person turning 36 and leaving the VLB's. That's all I'm saying except I'll tell everyone about it after it's over. Anyway I need to go. Goodbye.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday. Pappaw brought oyster stew over for breakfast yesterday morning and then about 5:00 Mammaw and Pappaw came over for dinner. Oyster stew is a Baldwin family tradition, we have it every Christmas. For dinner this year we had Roast Beef, (or as Bethany and Daniel call it, Roast Beast) mashed potatoes, Gravy, Salad, Rolls, and 2 kinds of Jello salad. We were going to have carrots and peas too but mom accidentally turned the wrong burner on the stove on and burned them. We had pumpkin pie for desert. We decided to skip the normal turkey and ham since we are having that with the whole family Saturday. After dinner Mammaw, Pappaw, Mom, Dad, Zach, and I played a few games of Rook. We had a good time. Mammaw kept getting bad hands so finally she switched seats with Dad and got a GREAT hand. I mean she got an excellent hand. Anyway we had a good time. Today we spent most of the day cleaning the house as the Cox's were supposed to be coming to visit tomorrow. Something came up and they will be coming Friday instead. So we will be doing our cooking for the family dinner tomorrow and our visiting with the Cox's Friday. We are so excited about their visit. Tomorrow I'll be at mammaw's cleaning house then I'll come back and do a little cooking for Friday and Saturday. Anyway I need to go. I should have a few stories and maybe Pictures if I can get them to work next time I blog. Goodbye.

Hey everyone I'M POSTING!!!!

Hey everyone, I'm back. Sorry I haven't written in such a long time but no one reads my posts anyway so who cares! Though this time I might actually come up with a pretty good excuse. (or excuses?!?) How were every one's Thanksgivings? (which brings me to my first excuse....) We went to Florida for Thanksgiving and had a great time with our dear friends the Cox family. It was a lot of fun except for the fact that Abby, Ruthie, Francie, Noah, and Caleb all got sick in one form or the other. Noah had it easy he only got a cold. The last night we were there, Beau, Josh, Zach, Daniel, and I finally succeeded in pulling our often futilely attempted all nighter!!! (ok so we stayed up till all dedicated farmers and hunters are up, 4:30) Oh yeah you know how I said all the little ones got sick while we were there? Well, Bro. Jerry and Josh were sick the day we left. Then Nathan was sick the following Sunday so everyone got sick except for Beau and Sis. Betsy. We arrived home 5:30 Tuesday morning. We tend to leave late and drive all night. We did school Wednesday then Mom and Dad and micah went to Richmond for an orthodontist appointment Thursday. The rest of us kids stayed home and did school. Mom and Dad got home fairly quick and my dad told us that he had just got a call from my pappaw. My dad's oldest sister, Diane, had just passed away around 11:30 that morning. That ended school for us for a few days. We went right over to my grandparent's house to be with them then Mom and dad and mammaw and pappaw went to Richmond to be with David and the kids. Friday the family all started coming in and the family night was saturday and the funeral sunday. We had family around till the following tuesday. (That's excuse number two) Tuesday we had to go to Richmond for another ortho appointment. We did school wednesday then Thursday everyone went to Richmond except for daniel and I. Neither one of us was feeling very good, in fact I was feeling down right sick! I still felt pretty bad friday. (that's excuse number three) I'm feeling better now except I'm congested. We have all been practicing for our church play. The play is Sunday evening. Our church Banquet is saturday afternoon. It's going to be different this year, we're having Fried chicken instead of turkey or ham! (you might be southern if...) Well i think that's a fairly nice, fairly long, fairly newsy post don't ya'll? well I'll post again later when I get a chance.