Hello Lovelies! I'm home now!

I'm sure that was stating the obvious, but...whatever.
Yeppers. Back in Dallas, and oh, so happy to be here.

Missouri was SO much fun! The Burks are pretty much the second-awesomest family to roam the earth. I love 'em!
Lets see....highlight reel? 'k...

Tuesday

Ashley arrives at SGF Airport and trips off to baggage claim.
Ashley sits and knits while waiting to meet Joanna and her mother. This will be the first time Ashley's ever met them.
Ashley is nervous.

Burks arrive and laugh at Ashley for knitting.

Mrs. Burks, Joanna, and Ashley head for a local Mexican restaurant, where a rude, simple, and too-old-for-her waiter hits on Joanna and makes tactless remarks about the size of our families. (yich.........yich²)
(props to anyone who appreciated that super-lame math joke.)

Burks and Ashley then hit the (almost laughably small) local mall, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club before heading to the church to pick up the kiddos, and then home.
It was somewhere between the restaurant and home that the "chick from Pasadena" comment occured.

That evening, Ashley meets whole family, plus family friends Quinn and Cory Hamp.
Quinn spends quite a bit of time transferring newly-acquired knowledge from his martial arts class to the kiddos.
Ashley takes pictures:








Wednesday

Not much is remembered much about Wednesday. It is here that the days begin to run together.
It *is* remembered that it was on this auspicious day that the first gray hairs of Ashley's life were extracted from her head. In the van, on her way to church.

*sigh*

Revival begins.
Ashley is impressed with the guest preachers, Jay Folk and Charlie Barkowski. Good guys that preached well.

Ashley is also thoroughly impressed with the scenery. Hilly and verdant, with trees everywhere. Trees that are already turning and "tithing". (Ethan...)
This was the view from the Burks' driveway...



Ashley is pleased with the chilly weather.

Ashley spends much of Wednesday knitting.


Thursday

Ashley teaches Samuel (5), Nathanael (8, I think), Jonnah (10), and Daniel (14) how to knit. She also refreshes the memory of Rachel (12), who had learned before, but forgot.

Says Jo in her blog that day,
"You should see everyone's faces. They are contorted into shapes I have never beheld."


Nathanael^ (yes, this pic was added later...)


Jonnah^


Rachel^

Kiddos take turns knitting lines on a practice scarf, which, somehow, gradually increased from 20 stitches across to....40. Made for a funny-looking scarf, so Ashley and kids bind it off and called it a "practice swatch" instead.

Ashley observes that someone is always playing an instrument. Violin, viola, cello, piano, guitar....someone is always practicing or performing.
Ashley decides she loves that. ;-)

Later, Ashley sits down on the living room floor with family, and fellow houseguests Pastor and Mrs. Folk, to watch PBS documentary "Okie Noodling". She decides she's glad she's never been to Oklahoma. Because people from Oklahoma are weird. Noodlers are fuh-reaks.

By revival time that evening, Ashley has already met several of the girls on the same board on which she met Joanna. By the week's end, she will have met BrittanyLee, Sarah B, Hilary, Meneseh, and raindrops_of_music.
Cool.

Ashley spends much of Thursday knitting.


Friday

Ashley, Aaron, and Jo wake up early-ish and trip off to Springfield for orchestra. Aaron teaches, Joanna plays piano, and Ashley knits, reads, journals, and listens.

Ashley is grateful for the van rides to and from Springfield, which afford an opportunity to converse with Aaron (18) and Joanna. Aaron is hilarious. Ashley is happy Aaron is chatty, because the commute is fun.

Ashley spends half of Friday knitting, then, at orchestra, asks Aaron to stand still and be a 6'3" measure. Aaron refuses, and instead gets friend Josiah--who is close enough to the required height--to stand still so Ashley can measure length of scarf. The scarf proves long enough, and elation ensues for Ashley as she (finally!) binds off 6' scarf, and begins thinking about adding fringe.

Ashley spends much of Friday night adding fringe.
She is dubbed "Knit-O-Matic" by Josh (20).


Saturday

Ashley is restless in the earlyish hours of the morning, as little Samuel goes in and out of Jo's room upwards of five times. (Joanna...Ashley doesn't mind!) LOL

Bunch of the boys go to the race thingy (see previous entry).
Josh takes Gold, Charlie takes Silver, Nate takes Lawn Chair.


^Josh on the left, Charlie on the right^

Jason (22) somehow hurts leg during run.
Jason hops on one leg for a tenth of a mile.
Jason says gray-headed man jogs up alongside him and says, "Yeah! You're doin' great! You ROCK!"
....then gray-headed man passes Jason.
Poor Jason.

Speaking of, Ashley observes to Joanna that Jason is, "so *very* brotherly. He, like, epitomizes everything I want in *my* brothers. He's just so very sweet. He's so loving toward his family..."
Ashley decides her opinion of Jason is favorable.

Ashley spends first half of Saturday finishing fringe. Ashley gives finished scarf--which she was hoping to finish before arriving in MO--to Joanna.
Ashley thinks scarf looks great on Joanna.


Sunday

Sunday morning kicks off with "family school"...Sunday school the whole family attends together, geared toward the younger set. That was cute.


(these are pictures from Charlie's illustration of a Christian's run in "the race", a la Hebrews 12)

Sunday afternoon, Ashley starts another knitting project.

Sunday evening, Mr. and Mrs. Burks go out to dinner with the other preachers and their wives.
Josh asks Ashley to show him how to use a capo. This sparks a rather fun evening of conversation with Josh and Jo. The first real convo with Josh since Ashley arrived. Ashley shows Josh a few things on the guitar, and Josh returns favor by teaching her to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the violin.


Jonnah tried to take pictures of the lesson, but she was trying to do so in secret. With the flash turned off. Under a table. So this is the best shot I have of the whole thing. :-)

Ashley decides Josh is fun when he's not being stoic. ;-) lol


Monday

Monday. Was. Fun.


If you're still paying attention (ha), you can tune in for the next installment....shouldn't take me too long to get it posted. ;-)