Visit from Aunt Amanda! - Letter from Russ

Last weekend Amanda came up to St. Louis for a weekend with Eliot. On Friday Katie was away for an overnight women's retreat at church and I had a show across town, so Amanda was excited to get there just in time for some quality baby sitting time with Eliot right away. Problem was, here flight was delayed. Laura had come over to spend the night at the house, to, and offered to pick Amanda up from the airport. I tried and tried to keep El awake until she got here, and just as he was dozing off Laura's car rolled up the street. I picked Eliot up and took him outside so Amanda could at least give him a good night kiss. We were all bummed that she wasn't gonna have any time with him on Friday night after all. But the minute she said hello he practically jumped out of my arms, cuddled up on her shoulder in a little ball and held on tight. We made our way into the house, and El slowly fell asleep on her shoulder. So although there wasn't a great amount of playtime on Friday night, it didn't seem to matter, because that was very special. Laura and her roommate spent the night, so it was a good time for them to catch up as well.

The next day was filled with going to the park, having lunch together, playing soccer in the front yard, etc. Eliot was turning on the charm and pulling out all his newest tricks for Aunt Amanda. It was like he knew that she needed to catch up! And of course,
she took TONS of pictures and video to share with everybody at home. So if you'd like to see all of the fun things they got to do together, just ask. She'd be more than happy to show him off!

Saturday evening Katie returned and the two girls did lots more playing and catching up, and then Sunday we all went to church and had a day full of hanging with friends. Amanda was here for the "shower" that Katie threw for her friend Sharon who lived with her in Guatemala. That night Amanda came to Damascus Road, the young adults ministry I lead worship for on Sunday nights. All in all it was a pretty busy weekend, but packed with lots of fun. We had a great time and Eliot LOVES his Aunt Amanda.

Mom comes up this week after Thanksgiving, so I'm sure she'll be ready to share even more photos and stories. Until then, I'm having Amanda post some pics on this blog so you can see how big and cute our boy is! Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Well I just couldn't stand it. I had to let everyone know that Christmas is here according to all the stores. With that being said Emma Lou and I have started decorating our house. We spent all afternoon Saturday and most of Sunday morning building our Christmas village. (We went to church Saturday night.) There are piles of wires everywhere that were organized in typical Bentley fashion. David, Sally, Emma Lou and myself are going to be in India The first 10 days of December so I felt like something need to be done.( Emma Lou said no to putting up the tree's).

CALLING ALL FAMILY MEMBERS...FAMILY PROJECT

I got this email from Laura Sims (Donny's oldest daughter). I think this is a great idea and all of us need to jump on board with this one.


Hello All!

I have an idea. I've been thinking about this for almost a year now. I have mentioned it to a few people already (Mom & Katie) and I really feel like this is something that needs to be done. Last year my roommate, Alyssa, and I got into a conversation about our families. We discussed how things have changed in the world we live in today, compared to what it was when our grandparents and great-grandparents were growing up. In our conversation, Alyssa came up with the idea of sitting down and interviewing both her grandparents and great-grandparents, asking them questions about their lives. I thought that it was such a great idea, but I never made time to put anything together. Today when I went to the Bentley Family News blog, I saw the pictures from Mammaw B's 97th Birthday party. She's 97...HOLY COW!!

When I realized this, it finally hit me. I need to do this interview. I think that getting her story on video would be just an amazing thing for all of us to have and share in (I know I would definitely enjoy having it). I wanted to email everyone and see what you think?! I would like to get the taping done at Christmas time, since that's when I'll be in NLR. I was planning on sending Mammaw B a letter, asking her if it's alright that we do that, once I got some feedback from everyone. In the letter I would probably need to give her a general idea of questions that would be asked. So here's where I need some help. If you have any questions that you think should be in this interview please let me know. I want to get a good number of questions so we can have some sort of direction when we're interviewing. I want this to be somewhat like an interview but also like a documentary style, with pictures and maybe even other people sharing stories of Mammaw B. Once all the video taping was finished I would bring it back to school and edit it together, putting it in a nice DVD format. Then every one can, if they wish, get a copy of it.

I guess just let me know what you all think of this idea? Give me any feedback you want. I will probably need help in arranging questions, getting pictures, etc. so maybe if anyone wants to help me with that, fantastic! I hope that this is something that everyone is interested in doing. I know that I, along with many others, would be blessed to have Mammaw B's story, especially if it's on a sweet DVD! (hehe) So let me know what you think, give me tips and/or ideas! Oh and I think I would eventually like to do it for Mammaw Berta as well, so be thinking on that too!

Love you all! Miss you bunches!!

oh...and if you know of anyone else to send this email to, then by all means...go for it!! (I, for some odd reason, don't have many family email addresses...bummer)

(here's a link I found with some questions. I'll probably use a lot of them, so if any stand out to you, please let me know. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm)

Thanks everyone!!
Laura

*If you have any questions or ideas to give to Laura you can either leave comments (which are always welcome) or you can send them to bentleyfamilynews@yahoo.com and I will pass them along.

I think this is a great idea Laura!!! We should have a great time pulling together to have something to pass down to the next generations.

You never know who you might run into

The other night Ike and I had to make a trip to Conway to visit someone in the hospital. Though is was a bit late when we got back to NLR, we had not had dinner yet and after some discussion (if you know what I mean), we decided to go to Applebees. We had just finished dinner and were sipping on our tea/Dr. Pepper when Ike saw Meaghan and Erick being seated across the restaurant. We picked up our drinks and sashayed (who knows if I spelled that one right?) across the room and caught them by surprise. We took a seat at their table and visited for a bit.

Their waiter was most patient as we kept delayed their ordering. It was so good to see them. I love to hear Erick tell a story and he didn't disappoint me!! He told us about one of his friend's wedding that he was to be in last week-end. We laughed and laughed as he told the details. We enjoyed the few minutes we shared with you Meaghan & Erick. You never know who you may run into....

That reminds me of the time we ran into David Bruce's family in Mexico, but that's another story altogether!

Holiday plans....

Hello to all. The holidays are quickly approaching and for most of us it is our favorite time of the year. We would love some input from you for the blog. Please consider sending some of the following share with the gang:
-your plans for the holidays
-your family traditions
-favorite stories from holidays past
-photos!!!!
We want to hear from all corners of the family. Send us your info for a blog entry to: bentleyfamilynews@yahoo.com

More on Wes...

Wes actually has two movies coming our right now. You can find trailers for both movies on the internet:

Weirdsville can be found at www.moviefone.com and at many other similar sites.
P2 can be found at www.P2theMovie.com and at other sites.

Weirdsville is a dark comedy. P2 is anything but a comedy.


David Bruce