From Rachel

"It was 7am on a Thursday morning as my phone sang its wake up call. After a moment of fumbling about, my hand discovered and silenced it. As my brain struggled to consciousness two thoughts dominated. One, sitting up past 1am to read Persuasion is not the wisest course of action - particularly when you have read said novel before and are fully aware of the outcome. And two? Geoff would arrive in 30 minutes and it was important that I look awake and organised....I was certain of one thing. I needed coffee.

My dear brother arrived 20 minutes later, laughed at my bed head and pjs, plopped his son into my arms, handed me a bag of clothes, and drove off. And so commenced my time Elijah.

One of my goals in life is to be a great auntie. The kind of auntie that the kids want to spend time with. The kind of auntie that they will think of fondly, even when they grow up. The kind of auntie who will induce happy memories, and so will still be visited, even if she turns into a crazy old lady with lots of cats (we all have to plan for worst case scenarios folks). With those cheerful thoughts in mind, I looked at my nephew and said "Hey Booger, you want cinnamon rolls for breakfast?" These words acted like magic, and he promptly went from snuggling against me half asleep, to bright eyed and wriggling, "Yeah!". Cinnamon rolls just out of the oven, and fresh coffee. Elijah giggling, slurping his milk and displaying an appetite to match his dad's. As I contemplated the scene before me, I decided that the day was off to a pretty good start.


I had also decided that we should go to the toy store - regardless of age, toy stores are fun. It was a big store, there was wide-eyed wonder at the rows upon rows of toys. Then I felt Elijah pull my hand 'Come on auntie'. Oh right, yes, we were here for the kid. We wandered up and down the aisles, checking out the race cars, confirming that anything pink is not for boys, and stocking up on toy swords. Because little boys need weapons of warfare. Since then much of our time has been spent in sword-fighting, and during these fights I am frequently required to die. After being informed that I was dead, I flopped to the ground and decided it was the perfect opportunity to rest. Elijah looked at me, poked me with his sword and ordered "Get up!". "I can't. I'm dead!" He looked at me for a moment, and moved closer. I braced myself, fully expecting that he was going to jump on me. But he didn't. He leaned down, gave me a kiss, and said "Now you can be awake again!" Who teaches them such cuteness??

Everyday we go through the alphabet, Elijah loves doing this - although I'm not entirely sure whether it's a love of learning or the opportunity to laugh at my British pronunciation! A danger of having me as an aunt is that I might decide that being three years old and American is no excuse for not learning the Hebrew alphabet. Elijah may not know which alphabet is his alphabet, but as long as it comes with flashcards, he's happy.

After a morning of cutting and sticking, Elijah looked at me quite seriously and declared that he had been working hard, and was done now. Work was done. It was time to play, the sun was shinning. It was time to play with water pistols. By lunch time, we were both wet and tired. Elijah was so tired, that he lay down on the ground! Definitely time to re-fuel!

So dear sister-in-law, this is how we have been spending our days! If I had more time I could tell you about the amazing things we have formed out of play-doh, the ciabatta bread that Elijah helped to make, the battles with pecking hens, hide-and-seek between the silage bales, and the search for Father's Day presents...but it's time for Elijah to get up from his nap - so all those things will have to wait :)"

He gets his little chair, and just sits. Watching.

The slide is still going strong after all these years
It started with bemused glances....
Slowly the pieces started coming together.
I was quite impressed.

'bout the Beers' Bunch!

Welcome Weary Traveler,

You've checked your email, your facebook, observed how the bidding is going over at ebay, and now you are attempting to work your way through the bloglist before life once again demands your attention. You'll never take it all in. So come, step off the information highway and rest here a while.

Oh. Wait. Before you settle down I ought to explain that if you came here expecting to see the beautiful photography of Melissa, you should look through the archives. Because today my friend, this blog has been hijacked. Well, now that you've come to terms with your favorite blog being held hostage, by all means, continue relaxing.

Over a week ago, I packed my bag, forced the zipper to submit to my will and close, ran around the house muttering "passport, passport - where is my passport?!", shouted "aha!" upon finding said passport, and eventually set off for the airport. My destination? Scotland. I was going to see my sister and her family - the Beers' clan. The clan consists of my lovely sister Alison, my brother-in-law Gavin, the twins - Isaac and Caleb (7), Nathanael (6), Benaiah (4) and my only niece thus far, Aletheia (2). Allow me to give you a little background on them all.

Alison. When she was 8 years old, Alison got a little sister (that would be me). Being quite a girly 8 year old she was thrilled at the thought of having a baby to play with. Unfortunately four years later that baby was increasingly bratty and loved nothing more than poking through her big sister's things and generally annoying her. Ten years and one attempted murder later, Alison had had enough, and in order to escape her sister married the man who made her heart throb - Gavin.

Gavin. Gavin is a decisive man, and when he met Alison he realised that she was the loveliest woman he had ever met and he wanted to marry her. That this decision was not retracted upon meeting me at 10 years old is a testimony to his strength of character and Alison's loveliness.


The kids. They're brilliant, and I love watching them grow up, seeing their crazes and being part of their games. The boys love to read and often whatever they're reading or having read to them becomes the focus of their games, so over the years I have been ordered to play Marianne (from Robin Hood), Stonewall Jackson's Wife, and various female characters from Lord of the Rings. On the latest visit the twins had been reading 'Remember the Alamo', Davey Crockett is the hero of the hour. I was Polly Crockett. When Nathanael informed me of this I asked what she was like, and did I have to do anything in particular. He replied that I had to be a good wife and then die. Charming.

When staying with the Beers' clan I sleep in my niece's room, and a typical morning tends to go something like this. I wake up, aware of conversation outside the door. I pull the covers higher and hope it goes away. It does not go away, and words like 'scare', 'jump' and 'tickle' are occurring with worrying frequency. The door handle is slowly pushed down, and as I lie there watching it, I realise that there is no escape from what comes next. Four boys come flying into the room with yells, one starts tickling my feet, another one bounces on me, and two of them struggle to get the best spot under the covers. This procedure is quickly followed up by the question "Did we scare you?" - normally asked by one of the older boys, because to their mind nothing is funnier than scaring your auntie. Why? Because Uncle Geoff does it. During this wake-up call Aletheia will make her way over to my bed, teddy in hand, and climb in beside me. Any brothers who get in her way will be sat upon and scolded until they concede the space to her. Aletheia has also been known to order her brothers to be quiet and go away. I'm convinced that it's a girl thing.


Normally when I'm with the kids, we get to have a fun night. A night when parents are out and we can play. Fun nights involve games, stories, shadow puppets and chocolate will probably feature somewhere. By now they have favourite games so there are requests to be dealt with - and if they can be taught a new game, it's always good. Last time I taught them 'Murder, Wink' - you know, where the murderer kills by winking and the detective tries to figure out who it is? Well, wee Benaiah was desperate to be the murderer and I decided it was only fair that he should get a go. His brother Nathanael was outside the room, waiting to be called in. I opened the door and the moment Nathanael entered the room Benaiah, presumably overwhelmed with excitement, declared "It's me! It's me! I'm IT this time!". Later in the game, he grasped the importance of secrecy and did very well. At another stage, Isaac who had been winking at Nathanael for sometime without producing a death, exclaimed with frustration "I WINKED at you - you have to die!!" It was their first time playing it...


But now it is time to go about your business. My tea is cold. I can tell you nothing amusing or witty with cold tea, staying any longer would be a waste of both our lives. So go, get back to your to-do list. But come back tomorrow with a cup of tea and a biccie - Melissa will have something great for you.*

*Melissa - make sure you have something great for tomorrow. No pressure.

The End.




(Note from Melissa: for those of you who don't know. Rachel is my sister in law.)

Life is Never Boring

By Rachel Gill

"My dear sister-in-law inquired when I intended to start my own blog, I replied that I was perfectly content to occasionally hijack her blog, and so, here I am ready to regale you with another action-packed, high-energy tale from my life. Which could probably be more accurately described as the dangers of an over-active imagination.

It was a Tuesday evening and I was home alone watching an old movie. I should probably explain that being home alone does not bother me, I do not jump at every creak or rattle of pipes and floorboards and imagine burglars coming in through the windows. In fact I'm actually more nervous when Geoff is staying with us. Why you may ask? Well dear reader, Geoff is not only a rose-buying, babysitting husband, he is also a brother. A brother who delights in scaring his little sister. When Geoff is staying in the house I check my room before I go to bed because more than likely, he is hiding somewhere waiting to jump out and scare the wits out of me. Husbands who merit posts like 'My husband rocks' can still be pesky big brothers. But I digress...

Half-way through the movie I realised that the cow shed had to be closed up, it was already dark outside and getting cool so I hit the pause button, donned my wellies and headed outside. Walking around outside in the dark doesn't cause me any worries and when I'm only going down the yard I rarely bother to put lights on or get a torch, Tuesday night was no exception to the norm and I happily meandered down the field in the dark. Suddenly instead of stepping on the solid ground, I stepped on something which insisted upon moving. My thoughts of Jane Austen heroine's, and the elegance and grace of former times were quickly dispelled as I found myself being pitched in the direction of the cold, hard ground. So much for grace and elegance! Grumbling, I reached for the offending object; it was a pitchfork. I wondered vaguely why my father would leave a pitchfork lying in the middle of the yard, and consolded myself with the knowledge that the only witnesses were the cows and they don't mind if I'm clumsy.

As I came closer to the shed I noticed something. A small, red glow. Much like a cigarette butt. Within half a minute I had formed the only logical explanation. Clearly, someone had been in our yard with the pitchfork while smoking. They had heard me coming, dropped the pitchfork, threw their cigarette down and were currently waiting around the side of the shed. But why would someone be in our yard having a smoke and weilding a pitchfork in the dark? It didn't make sense...unless the person was mad, you would have to be mad to do those things. That was it. The person was a lunatic. There was a nicotine deprived lunatic hiding round the side of our cow shed watching me!

Having formed that conclusion I was feeling quite nervous. What should I do? Should I march around the side of the barn and demand to know just what they thought they were doing playing with pitchforks in my yard? Dander round, comment on the pleasantness of the evening and offer them a cigarette...no that wouldn't work, I didn't have any cigarettes and I don't really approve of smoking. Maybe I should run as quickly as I could to the house, lock the doors and barricade myself in a room with a poker? No that wouldn't work either, after all, I was being watched by the madman, I didn't want him to know that I was scared. Besides, the shed still needed to be closed up. So I closed up the shed and walked, perhaps a little quicker than usual, up to the greenhouse - which also needed to be closed up. Before I went in I checked that there was no key in the door - I didn't want the crazy man to lock me up with the seedlings and spiders while he went off to play with a pitchfork. Jobs done, I hurried up to the house with my dog, locked the door - realised that the crazy man might be in the house and I had quite possibly locked myself up with a psychopath - I checked all the rooms downstairs and decided that I was probably the only crazy person in the area. I put the dog out, made a pot of tea and sat down to my movie. Buttons (my pint sized dog) kept barking at something, but I had realised a flaw in my theory (I know, it seemed so fool-proof) I didn't know of any lunatic asylums. There certainly weren't any in Killinchy. I rolled my eyes at my own silliness and determined to forget about it.

Dad got home late that night and asked if the barn was closed up, I replied that it was and neglected to mention my theory on the smoking mad man. Until dad commented on the cigarette butts he had seen lying around the shed. That was all the encouragement I needed to tell him my theory. 'So...a lunatic was smoking in our yard?'. He was skeptical. 'Well dad, they'd have to be a bit crazy to play with a pitchfork in the dark. It's just not the done thing' I reasoned. 'Right. You see, I thought the cigarette butts were probably from one of the workmen. You probably saw the embers of a fire I had going earlier.' 'You had a fire going earlier? Oh.'

We still have no idea how the pitchfork ended up in the middle of the yard - my lovely sisters sympathise with the idea that maybe someone was lurking around the place. I think I prefer the idea that I have an over-active imagination - either way, I'll be doing my work in daylight this week!"

The Miracle of Life

Ethan Gill is here!

Close to 11 p.m. last night, Jan. 15, Geoff, Melissa and Elijah Gill received a new family member: a 7-pound, 9-ounce miracle: Ethan. Wouldn't you know? He made it right on time, right on his due date! (Punctual. A kid after my own heart.)

I apologize for not posting until now. Once Ethan had arrived, all of us were distracted, looking at his cute self, taking photos, crying tears of joy, and explaining it all to Elijah, who was a real trooper and wonderful new big brother. Then, it was late-night drive-homes for the non-family members, so we were pooped., and Crystal, the wonderful aunt and mid-wife, had many more tasks to attend to.

Melissa will give you all the details herself. She should be discharged and driving back early afternoon, and since she's the woman who did all the work, we'll let her tell their story, complete with some sweet new family photos!

But it was beautiful, and Sherri, Jesse, Patrick and I were all so blessed to be there to witness it.

Thank you all your prayers. They were a truly wonderful gift to the Gills, and they were much appreciated.

Signing off for now (but not forever. Hopefully, I'll get to speak with you all soon),
Brittany (and the rest of Team Gill, who thank goodness, is probably still sleeping)

New Fingers at the Blog...

...and no, they are not the new ones we have all been waiting for, but they are mine!!! Hello, my name is Sherri, and I will be hanging around here for the next few weeks while Geoff and Melissa, (and Elijah too!), bring this new baby into our world. Melissa is a good friend of mine and has asked me to keep up "Elijah's Adventures", which I am very honored to do.

I am new at all this "blog stuff", so bare with me as I will be learning as I go.

I will be keeping you all up to date as the new Little Gill arrives by posting news

and hopefully even some pictures along the way.

In the meantime, here are some random thoughts
and pictures for you to better get to know me.

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart for my holy purpose. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."

This is Elijah and me when he was just a little man!WOW has he grown!

Until next time, Sherri