Meet Carlton. NBT 2008.

Meet Carlton.



Carlton Brett Farmer to be exact. :) He was a gift from one of the NBT boys that stayed with us for a week during Neighborhood Bible Time (our Bible school program). He had told the kids that if they had 200 kids for first through third grade that he would swallow a goldfish. We had 195 or so on the first day so it wasn't an impossible task but it didn't happen.




We traditionally have taken the NBT boys out to dinner on Friday night afterwards. We did again and went back to Cootie Brown's this year. We just like that restaurant - the excellent food, fun atmosphere and good prices. When we returned home, the one guy, Carlton, walked in with the goldfish. My kids and several others had asked what he was going to do with the fish. I had already asked him too and he has asked if he could give it to Elizabeth and Andrew. I was fine with it because Elizabeth had planned on getting some goldfish with her chore money. So he came in, sat down and they asked him again, "What are you going to do with the fish?" He answered, "Well, I have a special home for him." They then asked, "What's his name?" He said, "I thought I would name him Carlton. Carlton Brett. And his last name is Farmer. So where does that mean he needs to live?" I thought that was sweet. :) He played so well with the kids. I told them that one of these days he needs to have a house full.


We so enjoyed keeping Mr. Carlton and Mr. Brett at our house this year. They grew up together outside of Chicago. They made a great team. They were easy to get along with and joke around. Andrew and Elizabeth said they wanted the same boys to come back next year. They left them a note and Mr. Carlton wrote a sweet note back. "To Elizabeth and Andrew, I had a wonderful time with you this week. Thank you for sharing your home with me. Keep up the good work! Enjoy the balloons! Your friend, 'Mr.' Carlton Riffel." These are the balloons he left for them to find Saturday morning. A sky-diving monkey for Elizabeth and a motorcycle for Andrew. The monkey was holding a banana but Elizabeth popped it.



This was on Friday night when we got back from eating out. I had to take some photos of them with the kids. I did this last year and wish I had done it the year before with the first boys we kept. We had to do a crazy one, of course.



Mr. Carlton was showing the kids some magic tricks and Mr. Brett was showing Wade one - how he could make his watch stop working. :)



Here is a jet pack balloon complete with a laser gun that Andrew won during Rally Time one day. He was thrilled and played with it for days. It lasted until the air went out! Some of the workers thought that we had bribed Mr. Carlton to pick Andrew for the day. Welllllll, I did make him his favorite dessert the night before (warm brownies and ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream). Hee hee! Really, that's not why I had made it for them but maybe it did help. ;) You probably can't see the model for the camouflage, huh? Yes, it's still a regular occurrence around here and worn in all patterns and colors (together, unfortunately).



We got the letter the other day from church with the numbers from NBT this year. I just went to find the letter to report the numbers but I think my dear husband has already got ahold of it and thrown it away. We are purgeres here, let me tell ya! It was something like 660 registered kids and around 125 (I'm thinking it was higher) made professions of faith!


In sad news, since I first started this post, Carlton Brett Farmer has died. C.B. for short but really called Carlton for the all of week and a half of his life. I blame myself. I had set water out for over 24 hours to let the clorine evaporate but within an hour of cleaning his fish bowl, I found him floating. Thankfully, the kids weren't upset. (In fact, Andrew mentioned boiling him but we won't go into that. LOL) I told them after vacation in a week that we would buy another. Maybe we'll name him CB2.