Little House on the Prairie

One of my favorite collections of books from my childhood is the "Little House on the Prairie" collection. I can remember reading those for the first time when I was a little girl. And then I can remember watching Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingles on the television series. It was a family affair.

Recently, the national tour of the "Little House on the Prairie- The Musical" has been making the rounds. It was in Memphis at the beginning of December, and mom made the comment she would love to see it. Especially since Melissa Gilbert is playing the role of "Ma."

So, I got two tickets for her and me as a Christmas present. It was kind of a coup! She had no clue I had even remembered she said anything about it. We are staying with my aunt and uncle in Siloam Springs and going to the show Saturday afternoon. (It also gave me a good chance to test out my new car on the highway!)

I really can't wait to see this production. I've only heard good things about it, and I get to see MELISSA GILBERT!!!!

Merry Christmas and Ho Ho Ho...

Christmas was really fun. Got lots of good stuff, gave some great stuff too! But the best thing I got was a present I bought myself...

A 2007 Ford Edge!

I'm Alive I Swear! Just Really Busy!

So I haven't blogged since the first of October. So what? You're still checking to see if I posted, right?

Alright, here's the update. And pictures will follow soon.

October flew by. I had several students compete in the State Fair Youth Talent Show. One act, Alli and Lucas, won their regional and got to compete in the finals. They didn't win, but totally should have. Aladdin and Princess Jasmine totally didn't deserve to win!

Halloween was fun. Landon wore his monkey costume again and was just as cute, if not cuter, this year than last year. I decided to stay home, hand out goodies, and watch the Razorbacks kill some random team for Homecoming.

November was rather busy. Lots of rehearsals for the Community Theater. Thanksgiving was fun, and Nana made some excellent turkey and dressing!

This last weekend was the ICFCT's production of "A Little More Off Broadway." It was so much fun! I have forgotten how much I like doing plays and things. We just put a whole bunch of songs together as a revue, and had a blast doing it. I made some great friends and can't wait to do it again, and maybe get paid for it!

My Christmas Concerts for school are scheduled for the 14th and the 17th. Right now, I'm supposed to be working on programs for the concerts, but as you can see, I'm blogging! School ends on the 18th and then it's two weeks off for the holidays. Gosh, that sure can't come soon enough. Well, got to get to work. I've procrastinated enough between blogging and Facebook!

Procrastination is the New Trend

Holy cow, it's almost the middle of October! Sorry that I haven't written anything in a while. I've been a little busy. I know, no excuse- every one's busy.


School is going very well. We are almost through the first nine weeks, if you can believe that. Nine weeks tests are next week, and parent teacher conferences the week after that. The choirs are working very hard. We've already started some Christmas music, and "Carol of the Bells" is progressing along at a very nice pace if I say so! Chamber Choir is currently working on the Cactus Cuties arrangement of "The Star Spangled Banner." We're going to record it tomorrow, so I can let you all hear how well they are sounding. I'm super proud of all my groups this year.


Braden has been home sick all this week. He's been running a really high temperature that we can't seem to stop from coming back. No swine flu, though, just some kind of bug!


Landon is growing by leaps and bounds. He will be three at the end of the month, if you can believe that. I just hope he fits into his monkey costume!

I've started the search for a new car. I have my choices narrowed down to a Ford Edge, a Nissan Murano, or a Chevy Equinox. Yes, I'm looking at crossover SUVs. Nothing is wrong with my car, except that it's twelve years old and has over 160,000 miles on it. But, I've got to have something I can haul around a piano and four kids, not to mention store the car seat and the booster seat for the nephews.

I don't know if all of you know, but I auditioned for the Izard County Community Theater in August. We are rehearsing for a Broadway revue that will include songs from Rent, South Pacific, West Side Story, The Pajama Game, The Sound of Music, and a lot of other musicals I can't remember off the top of my head. Our only problem is our director is in Little Rock at Children's Hospital with his son. His appendix burst last week, and he's still having a lot of problems. Keep them in prayers!


And, yesterday I received my school picture. Does this bring back horrible memories or what?!!

A New Normal

Things seem to be getting back to normal around here. I don't know about the rest of the family, but every once and a while I get these sudden urges to cry- for the boys growing up without a mother, for the way Melanie and her mother and grandmother were unable to patch things up, for Melanie's eleven year old brother Christopher. All these things and more just hit me at odd times during the day, and I usually end up crying for a minute or two.

We did find something interesting in the house last night. Jonathan decided to help Janine (she and two other people are helping clean and pack Jonathan and Melanie's house to get it ready to sell) by starting to clean the basement. Jonathan's had some trouble with the basement flooding, and apparently it flooded pretty badly over the summer and Melanie didn't tell Jonathan about it for one reason or another- probably because he was lying in the bed with a new hip. Well, a lot of the items in the basement were ruined because of water damage. As we started going through some of the water damaged items, we found a certificate of baptism from the First Assembly of God in Bagdad, Florida. It was dated August 24, 1997 and it was Melanie's! I felt such a relief after seeing that.

Some people have been asking what they can do to help us. Mostly we just need your prayers. Especially the boys. But if you feel like you want to do more, we've set up an account for donations to help Braden and Landon. If you would like to send a donation, please use the following information:

Citizens Bank

Jonathan Brown & Family

PO Box 2156

Batesville, AR 72503

Account Number: 6980260

Any amount you can donate will help them. We've been asking people to donate to the account rather than buying flowers or food. At least this way, the boys will have something good come out of this horrible tragedy.

Keep praying for us. And thank you.

We buried Melanie today.

Today was a very hard day. We buried Melanie this morning. All week long I've been trying my best to hold it together, for the sake of my brother, the boys and my mom and dad. I just wanted to be there to help them as much as I could.

But this morning, I had to dress Landon and Braden for their mother's funeral. Nana, Melanie's grandmother, bought them a new outfit to wear for the service. Landon loved his and wanted to put it on because he knew how much his mom would have liked it. Braden on the other hand, did not even want to look at it. The day Janine brought it over for him to try on, he basically ran out of the room and wouldn't even look at it. I eventually got it on him, and as I started to get ready, my heart broke for my two boys. I've never in my life had to do something as hard as holding on to Braden's hand as we sat through the funeral for his mother. How can you help a five year old understand why things like this happen when it's so hard to understand yourself?

The boys did really well. Landon even went up and gave his mom a small little puppy to keep with her. She had given a similar one to Braden about six months ago that he hasn't let go of. Last night Landon wanted to watch the video we were showing at the visitation. Braden had not up to that moment wanted to even look at a picture. But I guess he decided it would be alright because he climbed up on my lap and watched the video with us.

I think everyone was ready for the funeral. We had to wait so long because some of her family was coming from France and Canada. The service was beautiful. Pastor Tony officiated and did such a good job. Melanie's sister Megan gave a eulogy that just about ripped my heart out. But the thing that still makes me cry is watching my brother as the grief started settling in on him, and the tears running down his face, and the sob coming from his chest. I love him so much and to see my little brother in so much pain tears me apart.

Melanie was buried in the family mausoleum at Janine's farm. It's a beautiful spot, looking over a valley and very close to her farm. Some of Mel's family is buried there. And the chapel connected to the mausoleum is absolutely beautiful- very reminiscent of the small family chapels you would see in the countryside in France.

After they had sealed her crypt, I walked Landon over to say goodbye. He wanted to pull her back out to look at her one more time. It about broke my heart when he blew her kisses as we walked away. I couldn't ever get Braden to go over to her grave to see her. But, he had his eleven year old uncle to keep him company, so he was dealing with things in his own way.

Please keep all of us in your prayers, especially Jonathan and the boys. This is going to be a difficult next few months for them. And thank you to everyone who came by, called, or just thought about us over the last six days. The scripture I picked out for her program still brings me hope:

"... in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

Melanie's Story