Pictures speak louder than words...and another note of interest to some.

Most have heard the saying, "A picture speaks louder than words." Let me also mention that my quota of intelligent words has been exhausted for the day .Today I am going to show a couple pictures that hopefully will summarize the last few weeks of life.
And, the for a quick randomness: (that word pops up in all my posts, idk why.)
Next time somebody asks you the unoriginal "Whats up?" Dad, and I came up with some new replies instead of the equally non-original "The sky."
1. "Not the stock-market." ~Dad
2. "Not your IQ." ~Me
Dad's is probably better to use.
That's it. Have a happy day! <3

Me after a long day of school. Ava has the wiggles.

 Joiya braided Emma's hair

 After the braids are taken out. Peace, man.

 Will and his buddies

 The new kitty. Doesn't have a name yet. Suggestions?

Dad and Mom! Looking good. :)

 Studying ancient Egypt

Nose, goat and airplane. (and some other stuff)

First of all, thanks to all the people who prayed for Will's nose. Let me say, he is no longer Chief Big nose. He has resumed his earlier Indian name, Otter Tail. Watch out world, Otter Tail is back on the warpath. All other Curtis noses are doing fine as well, with the exception of a few stuffy ones. Now that the CN (Curtis Nose) situation is covered, let us move on.
I can't really remember what happened this week...I remember random stuff like Mom chasing the goat around the yard yelling, that was humorous. I've come to the conclusion: chasing goats is even more character building than chasing chickens. In other words, it is VERY annoying. On thing I know about last this week...it rained and rained and rained. All the locals are glad to be "outta that drought" but I'm like, "Helloooo people! It rained like a week ago! Don't you dare wish the sun away!" 
Today though was absolutely positively gorgeous. You know, one of those lovely days without a drop of humidity, the sun shining brilliantly and a few puffy clouds drift lazily along the sky. We, along with a group of other church people, hiked on the parkway. It is about a 6 mile hike, and a favorite for big groups due to the wide path. At the top is a 50 ft. tall fire tower which sports a panoramic view. Although you could easily fall off and die, the view is totally worth it. While we were up at the top, this little plane flew right by us. As Dad stated, "You coulda spit on it, it was so close!" We all waved enthusiastically and he came back around and did a loopty-loop spin in the air right above us. The response was animated whoops, hollers, big smiles and lots of waving. The pilot laughed, waved then zooooommed away. Within a couple minutes he was a white dot over by Mt. Jefferson in Wilkes County. Little moments like that create lasting memories. 

Photos and quick (and random, duh) update.

In the full swing of school, our crazy days are starting to find somewhat of a routine.  I've never had so much school to do in my life, but it's mostly interesting and I'm enjoying getting new wrinkles in my brain.
Today we went hiking and Will had a bad fall. His is poor nose is the size of Texas and black and blue, and he also has cuts and scrapes all over his face. He looks ferocious and extremely tough.
Here are some random photos of our past few days to end this completely random post.

 Harvesting squash!

 Bread-making buddies

 Ava is the bomb.

 Hannah and I: The unstoppable chicken wing clippers. This one IS alive.

 Poor Will. He is making a funny face FYI.

 "Oh yeah! We were supposed to knead the bread!"

Fierce Indian warrior: Chief of tribe Big Nose.

School, accidents and the year of the bee-stings.

Beestings, burns, near paralysis...there is never a dull moment at the Curtis house, but I'll attempt to sum up the past few days without rambling on forever.
School has officially started. Academically, I'll be very busy this year, but I'm excited to take on some new challenges and work some different areas of my brain. Our co-op met for the first time today, and I must say it is very educational. My brain felt slightly fried after discussing ancient literature, religion and philosophy; however, there is absolutely nothing wrong with brain stimulation x100 if I enjoy the topic. Oh and as far as math and chemistry...well...let's hope that goes OK.
Now. For the story of near paralysis. Saturday my family went down to the park. (I stayed home since I was really wanting some quiet time...like it was the first quiet time in a years for me) Mom was playing tag with the kids on the play-set and walking on top of the monkey bars attempting to escape from William, the tagger. You know where this is going. She fell. On her head/neck/back on sharp, hard playground equipment. Dad ran over and all the sudden Mom flopped over and started acting extremely drowsy and wanting to fall asleep. Her arms were tingling and she couldn't walk. Dad got her to the truck and drove her home. As the evening went on, she was doing better so they decided not to go to the hospital. (It's a general policy in our family to have a 106 fever or cut off a finger before going to the hospital :) haha well not always but we don't go very often) Sunday morning, I drove Mom to the E.R. Although she was feeling a little better, she was still in a lot of pain and did not want take risks if her neck was fractured. (If that was the case, her risks of being possibly paralyzed were high) Apparently, the Dr.'s were really worried when they heard her explain what happened and promptly helped her to a wheel-chair, fitted her with a neck-brace and ordered a CAT scan. Thankfully, everything came out fine. Mom thinks it was a miracle due to her wacky feelings of tingling and drowsiness right after the accident. All's well that ends well. Thank you everyone for prayers.
Other minor accidents in the past few days include: Emma spraining ankle (she was just reading over my shoulder and she wants me to specify her tendon not ankle), me burning my foot really bad (don't ask how haha it's kind of embarrassing) Hannah and William getting attacked by yellow-jackets (are we just bee-magnets of has it been the year of the bee-stings????) and of course Dad (bless his heart) is always limping for some reason. 
That's it for now.

Travels...

I've been completely slack about posting...but life is life and life has been so busy I haven't had time! (original excuse I know!) We just got home from a road trip up north to visit family. The actual road part of the trip was misery, since it was 100 degrees and we had no air-conditioning!! But, I won't talk about that...I'm sure no one wants to hear me gripe about no air-conditioning AGAIN.
The first few days we spent up in the D.C. area visiting my Dad's side of the family, and exploring the city with some friends. We went up the Washington monument, which was coolio since you could see the entire city from the top, including the White House and other historical landmarks. The Native American museum was slightly dull, but we didn't spend too much time there. Basically it was 20 billion exhibits of tribal beadwork. The air and space museum is always a must see, and we went to an amazing 3D Imax about the wonders of the universe, a reminder of how great God is to create such beautiful majesty in the sky.
After D.C. we resumed our journey heading up to N.J. where Mom's family all met together at my grandparents house. After getting over the initial culture shock, I had a splendid time! It was great seeing my cousins and meeting my new baby cousin, Alex, who was so adorable and fun. We played country basketball with the neighbors..."Where we come from we don't foul..." haha, spent two hot and sunny days at the beach, went fishing with my grandfather (I caught the cutest shark!!) and visited with the extended Italian relatives. Oh, and I got asked questions like, "Soooo, where you live....are you close to ANY people??? Do you ever see anyone???" "You all are HOMESCHOOLED?? How on earth does that work?" Of course, I had some strange and random encounters with strange and random people...but we won't go into that. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip, but I am glad to be HOME. It's really a relief to be back down south too.
The day we arrived home, we immediately got back in the swing of things. Last night was a super fun dance at Cherokee Cove, marking the end of summer.

Randomness from my week

Nothing monumental or particularly exciting has happened to me this week but "it ain't over 'till it's over" so who knows, maybe tomorrow will be incredible.

I have come to the conclusion on a few random things though:

1. Being a mechanic is NOT my calling. (Who else catches grass on fire while attempting to check the oil in the mower???)

2. I dreadfully miss our air-conditioning, which hasn't been working for the past week. (House and car! And YES, the weather has been awfully rain-foresty) 

3. Productivity is one of my favorite feelings. This week, although hum-drum has been satisfyingly productive.
Thanks to Emma, my life can never really be boring. Together we make the dullest jobs TOTALLY AWESOME! by doing things like composing wacko songs, getting in watermelon fights, and planning each others life. 

Peaches! AND...more peaches!

Today, with the generous help of some friends, we canned peaches! We had some pretty productive production lines going on and we had all 66 quarts in the hot-water bath within 1.5 or 2 hours. We are still in the process of making peach butter. (like apple butter but peaches instead...go figure!) After some mathematics computation (I was hiding under the table at this time...jk) they figured a quart of peaches cost about $1, which is considerably cheaper then the grocery store and tastes like the bomb. (grocery store peaches are...okayyyy not so swell) Our kitchen is already magically transformed back into a kitchen after being a sticky, peach place except for some golden, gleaming jars of yummy peachness.