Another Photo Scavenger Hunt

For the month of June, I joined Kristi’s PSH again and here’s my take on her list.  This one was fun.  To see the other participants’ photos, go here.

1. A View from Above (looking down)
 
(From the top of the Ferris Wheel at Tweetsie Railroad – June 11, 09)

2. A Macro Shot
 
(Seriously, I took this.  KC didn’t believe me when I told him that.  LOL!  It was on the side of the gas pump at Ingles the other day.  I have no idea what it is, except that I got out to pump gas and thought…HUM…that would make an INTERESTING macro shot for the photo hunt!  Then I grabbed the camera and even though it wasn’t my big camera, I think it turned out rather fine…YAY!)

3. Laughter
 
(I just LOVE posting pictures that people will want to kill me over!  Sorry, CV, it’s really the best laughter shot I got all month!  And maybe it doesn’t work this way for you, but every time I see it, I giggle!)

4. Relaxation 

(Well, he wasn’t doing MUCH relaxing…but at this particular moment he looked a little relaxed…LOL!)

5. A Celebration
 
(The Munchkin graduated preschool.  On to Kindergarten this fall…my how time does fly!)

6. A Sunset

(Grabbed this shot as we were leaving the parking lot at church the other night.)

7. Sun/Lens Flare
 
(That is the tall round ride at Carowinds that just goes around the pole and views the whole park.  In all the times I’ve been to Carowinds, I have never ever rode that one.  But I thought it looked cool in the sunset as we were leaving!  And there is DEFINITELY some sun/lens flare going on!)

8.  A Bridge 

(A few boards nailed across a creek in the middle of a pasture.  And occasionally, there will be a cow underneath that bridge.  Maybe someday I’ll take a hike INTO the pasture to get that shot.  LOL!)

9.  A Shadow
 
(Also at Carowinds.  This was one I found as I was going through my pics looking for anything with a shadow.  If I’d taken this shot for the shadows intentionally, I’d have cleared the area for the shadows.  OH WELL.  A shadow’s a shadow, right?  And as I went through said pics, I realized that I don’t think I posted any Carowinds pics from our trip at the beginning of this month.  HUM.  I shall have to remedy that sometime soon.)

10.  A Garden
 
(My neighbor’s flower garden.  I took a picture of MY vegetable garden but this flower garden is much prettier, so I’m going to use it.)

11.  A Park
 
(Well, it’s not TECHNICALLY a park, since it’s in our backyard, but it has all the same features.  Woods, playground, swings, slides, a water fountain -- okay, so the water comes out of the fridge, but whatever, okay? LOL!)

12.  A Street Scene
 
(This fire truck was following a funeral procession – hence the reason I was stopped and taking pictures from the middle of the road.  I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that perhaps the deceased may have been involved with the fire department…or else there was a fire that was going to be completely burned out by the time the fire truck got out of the funeral procession.)

13.  Signage

(Hey look!  It’s another red barn.  With a cool looking old sign painted on it.  Doesn’t get any cooler than that!)

14.  A Summer Activity

(Well, okay, maybe THIS would be cooler than that.  This is a FAVORITE summer activity!)

15.  A Summer Treat

(Home made kool-aid popsicles)

16.  Earth

(Well, this isn’t exactly a globe or planet looking photo, but it technically could qualify as “earth” albeit just a few small particles of it….LOL!)

17.  Air/Wind

(Air/Wind is a lot harder to capture than you’d think.  I mean, how do you picture air?  ANYWAY, this is the wind blowing some flags at a church I used to pass on the way to work every day.  I happened to be down that way again, and grabbed a shot of it.  Okay, so I took about 10 shots trying to get the wind blowing it at a pretty angle, but never mind that.)

18.  Fire

(Grilling out on the back deck.  This was AFTER I tried to blow the thing up!)

19.  Water

(In the car again.  This time on the way to church in a crazy downpour that made it hard to see anything past 5 feet in front of your windshield.  Focused on the window with F stop of f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO 400 and a sharpening pass in PS3 to catch the water running across the window.)

20.  Something Vintage (pre-1980)
 
(My dad recently freshened up Mr. Rooster’s paint job, but that doesn’t change his vintage-ness.  This dude has been around as long as I can remember.  It sat in Grandma’s yard back in the old home place and my mom said it was there as far back as she can remember.  I’m not saying how old that makes it, but it’s definitely older than 1980.  Anyways, it got passed down to mom after Grandma died and now sits outside on mom’s porch.)

21.  Something Made of Glass

(Munchkin’s VBS Sand Art in a glass baby food jar with gold spray-painted lids.  VBS Theme was Truth Trek and more specifically: Joseph – this craft was on the night of the coat of many colors)

22.  Something Made of Wood

(Wood burned wall plaques…VBS crafts…the older groups got to wood burn their names in Egyptian Hieroglyphics.  With all it’s difficulties, this project turned out pretty well and the kids seemed to really enjoy making something besides paper crosses and plastic mugs.  *Grin*)

23.  Something that Floats
 
(Let’s just say the little FLOATIE RING floats.  The little kid inside it hasn’t quite got the hang of the float yet.)

24.  Something Railroad Related
 
(A train going through the city up the hill.  I passed right in front of it a minute before the gates went down and didn’t even see it coming and as I was on the tracks, looked over and saw it and about had a heart attack.  Thank goodness it was slow moving.  HA.)

25.  Something Round
 
(Hay bales…but the tree has a nice round shape, as well.)

Well, that’s it.  So fun.  A couple of them I couldn’t decide which pic to use, so I put a few of my second choices on the photography blog.

I Need Help

No really.  In so many ways, I can’t even begin to tell you!  LOL!  But seriously, I really need someone to tell me what my kid is saying and where in the WORLD it may have come from. 

He says (and I’m typing it exactly the way he sounds):
”Listen, Poo-Jo!  Do NOT dees ba boys!”

K-man is very emphatic when he says it and I’ve googled it…and I don’t know how to spell it, but I’ve tried all kinds of spellings and can’t find ANYTHING.  So does anyone have any ideas? 

I’m guessing it is from a movie since he loves quoting movies, and I’m also guessing it’s probably a little warped from the original line, but does it sound familiar to anyone?  He sounds hilarious when he says it but I’m just can’t quite figure it out. 

Also falling in the category of reasons I need help, would be my little pyrotechnic stunt that I pulled with the grill tonight. 

You know.  I have never lit a grill before.  A gas grill.  Like the one on our back deck.  KC tells me to get it started so it will be hot for him when he gets home.  So he’s on the phone and he’s going to “WALK ME THROUGH IT” right? 

So he does.  Turn all the knobs on high.  And push the light button. 

He neglected to tell me that I should open the lid before doing that.  There was a BIG boom.  My arm hairs are singed off.  I’m lucky my shirt didn’t catch on fire because the flames came out as far as I was standing.  The neighbor came over to see what was wrong because “that didn’t sound like fireworks.”  He proceeded to kindly explain why the grill exploded and then calmly started it the correct way.  Thankfully it still worked!

KC says he didn’t tell me because he figured it was common sense to open the lid before cranking the grill.  I say, as long as you’ve been married to me, how is it that you are still under the delusion that I am in possession of the minutest ounce of common sense?  

I walked around for a good half hour smelling something odd before I realized that all my arm hairs on my right arm (the one that was hitting the start button) were white and curled and if you touched them, they fell off.  That’s when I figured out that I was smelling my roasted arm hairs. 

Yummy. 

FYI, hamburgers and hotdogs smell much better on the grill than my arm hairs. 

PS Perhaps I’m stating the obvious, but The Grill Master working the grill in these pictures…was not me!

PPS Don’t forget, if you have any ideas on what the kid might be saying…  Please fill me in! 

The VBS

Is finally finished.  Here’s the cleaned up craft department…all the crafts sorted by class and nearly ready for pickup on Sunday.

What a JOB! 

It was more than reward enough to hear some of the kids saying that they’d been to the church across the street and they liked THIS one better!  And one kid was not feeling well at all but when her mom told her she could stay home and rest, refused because she didn’t want to miss a night of VBS.  That was sweet! 

And we had a LOT of new kids.  I’m not sure how the count wasn’t over 50 total because I thought I had over 50 craft sets made up, but somehow we still ran out of things in crafts and had to do some quick improv!  Yay to K on most of that!  She was the bomb in all the VBS stuff. 

Actually, M&K rocked the whole week…in spite of all the last minute changes that got thrown their way. 

Like the night I had to fill in for rehearsal as Potiphar’s (played by Robert) wife and be the wicked conniving woman who tried to get Joseph (played by Jake) to…well, ya’ll know your Bible stories…ANYWAYS!  I was blushing worse than K, I think, so they put KC in as Joseph (which made TWO Joseph’s but I only had eyes for one…LOL).  Well, I guess I surprised people because I keep hearing about it.  LOL!  I think I’m happy though that people are surprised that I can be so good at “wicked and conniving.”  ROFL!  Unfortunately, I don’t think they were surprised at that part, since it seems to be more about my convincing screams that shocked them.  Teeehehe.  Oh well.  It was definitely good for a laugh.  Most of my “crying” was actually giggles, especially after my “husband (Potiphar)” came running back with the “guards” to see why I was screaming and said, “Honey! What’s wrong?!?”  HILARIOUS!  And then when Bro K (who was one of the guards who brought the Jake/Joseph to Potiphar to be condemned to jail) got really into the role and started fake beating up the prisoner as he was taking him away….TOO FUNNY!!!  I was really glad that the original actress for Potiphar’s wife (Stacy) showed up for the actual skit though because while I was giving it my best shot for K in rehearsal, I was very much hoping I wouldn’t have to do it for the actual skit.  Because, you know, I’m better at funny than serious, and the whole Potiphar’s wife scene is totally not supposed to be that funny!  But I would have done it if I’d had to…cuz I love K like that. 

Anyways, I gots to get up in the morning and get some cooking done to take up to the church for after the VBS program in the morning.  I hope all our kids show up again and bring their families.  It could be awesome.  Quite a few say they’re going to start coming all the time. 

Well, time for bed!

Later!

I Wonder

(Sorry, this is deep…you may or may not want to skip on by)

If Michael Jackson had one more day to live, what he would do differently before he died. 

I wasn’t a huge MJ fan, but I know some of the things he did that made him popular and I’m fairly certain they could not be classified in any way as glorifying Christ.  I’m not his judge, and I can’t say where he’s at tonight, but, in all seriousness, I am fairly certain that he’s probably not resting in peace. 

And like him or dislike him, that is a sad thought.

People enter eternity everyday, and if you stop and think about it, it’s a very sobering thought, but not knowing (or knowing OF) those people or how they lived, it’s easy to have hope that they ARE resting in peace. 

But when you hear of the death of people you know (or know OF) and you know how they lived and what spirit was evident in their lives, and that the spirit of God was, just as clearly, NOT evident in their lives, there are some tough conclusions to those scenarios.  Very sad. 

Years ago, the dad of an acquaintance of mine got sick.  I knew (of) what kind of life the man was living and when I saw him, I didn’t say anything about God, or death, or even exhibit the spirit of God before him in my life, because I wasn’t where I should have been and I didn’t feel right about telling someone else what they should do when I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing.  The next week, he died.  I didn’t know him that well, and according to the acquaintance, he wasn’t someone you’d really want to be around much, but I have never stopped regretting that I might have been his last chance and I blew it because I was being a jerk.  Nice guy or not, he still had a soul, and it’s a terrible thing to think that you might have had a large part of the responsibility on where that soul ended up.

I am quite sure I have never had any kind of opportunity to have any influence on MJ’s soul, but every time I hear of someone dying and I have little hope of their having a peaceful eternity, my mind always goes back to that man that I wasn’t a witness to and I am sad all over again. 

Lesson learned though, and by the grace of God, I’ll not repeat that mistake again. 

I saw a few comments of people saying they were glad MJ was dead because of whatever reason, but yah know, that kind of bothers me a little. 

Personally, I only like it when bad guys die in movies.  Because in the movies, they’re not really dead.  It’s not eternity we’re talking about.  In real life, when the bad guys die, it’s sad.  Yeah, the world has one less bad guy walking around, but if the bad guys found Jesus, the world would have one less bad guy walking around AND when he died, hell would have one less soul to claim.  It’s a win-win situation. 

Anyway.  Just what’s on my mind tonight. 

Reason #42811…

Why, when using sites like Craigslist, you should be extremely cautious and/or don’t commit to buying something sight unseen:

View Larger Map

Still not sure what I’m talking about?  Well, when you pull up into what looks like a 1940’s junkyard and the kids are running around in a sprinkler that is about 9 feet tall and made of PVC pipe with a pump handle to turn it off and on, you kinda start wondering.  Call me clueless, but I wasn’t aware that you could find this kind of place so close to metropolitan areas. 

I didn’t buy what I went there to look at. 

That picture up there?  That’s the place.  And see how the bottom says Map data 2009??  No joke.  If it hadn’t been for the kids running around, I’d have had serious worries of never being heard from again.  Actually, if it hadn’t been for the kids running around the yard, I would probably have turned my car around and hightailed it out of there because I was having serious doubts.  Those two metal roof buildings….those are the houses.  I’m no snob and honestly the people were as nice as can be.  But when they take you to look at what you are there to look at and they take you to a car with knee high grass growing up through the wheels and open the back door and start pulling it out, you start to have second thoughts.  Especially when we’re talking a decent chunk of money.  We kinda did that whole thing with the playground…and I didn’t want to end up with that kind of “looks good on the outside but then you pay for it and get it home and OH…it isn’t in as good of shape as it looked” deal again. 

I’m not one to judge a book by it’s cover, and just talking to them, they seemed like very nice folks, but there’s a line between very nice folks and buying something from them.  Know what I mean? 

My Ears…

Are itching like fire.  So what else would I do but sit here and wonder who in the world is talking about me?? 

Could it be my MIL who might have discovered that last post by now?  (teehehe)  I’m not dead yet, so perhaps she hasn’t.  And by the way…her son said, when he saw the post…and I quote: “(INSERT KC’S CHARACTERISTIC EVIL LAUGH HERE) Oh, that’s PERFECT! (INSERT EVIL LAUGH AGAIN).”  Now we’re both dead.  ROFL.  Nah…I kid.  ;-)

Or maybe somebody is talking about the crazy craft leader that was in charge of VBS crafts tonight at church.  Uh.  That would be me.  And I just hope it’s good.  LOL.  Although I did my best, there’s always the possibility that it’s not. 

Too bad there aren’t different kinds of itches so we could know if the things that were being said about us were good or bad.  HA. 

I find it interesting to note that we really can’t control if people talk good or bad about us.  We can always do our best NOT to give them anything bad to say, but there are some people who, if there is nothing bad to say about someone, can always make something up.  And then there’s always that little detail that God told us about…beware if all men speak well of you….

And I should also note that, while I acknowledge the possibility, I don’t really think the previous paragraph applies to anyone who might be talking about me (at least not today). 

I’m just gonna hope it’s good.  Cuz they are itching worse than they’ve itched in a LONG time. 

I think I’m gonna go find a Q-tip!

The mil is getting her cast off. Teehehehe...she is gonna kill me. She doesnt know I'm blogging from my phone while shes getting her cast off...lol!!!

Just checking...

Just checking out the blog from my phone option.

If this works, I think I could blog while driving.

Ha! JUST KIDDING, Mom!!

Cheese And Crackers

I am whooped.  Another 2am night…but this time it wasn’t my fault.  There was no good book involved.  Well…I mean, technically there WAS a Good Book involved but that was about 8:15-9:20pm during the preaching part of the campmeeting service.  LOL.  And we left TN around 11:30pm.  OUCH.  We were all dead this morning. 

What am I saying?  I’m STILL dead.  The kids, on the other hand, are wired like they got 12 solid hours of sleep last night. 

By the way, no cheese and crackers are involved in the making of this post except they sounded better in the title than “GOOD GRIEF, I’M BEAT” (LOL). 

And my hands are in permanent cramp status thanks to all the felt cutting I’ve been doing to put together the VBS craft kits.  I think I’m going on around 5 hours of cutting altogether now, and I’m still not finished.  (Holding my head)  Can’t blame no one but myself though…it’s my own fault for procrastinating like this.  LOL.  It’s gonna get done though…I feel like I’m in the home stretch finally…so now just to finish it. 

A little difficult to think about everything that *NEEDS* to be done right now when all I wanna do is find a pool and jump in. 

Well, I’m only here to say I’m insanely busy (again), I’m alive, and I’m making myself take the time to at least say SOMETHING on the blog, and now that I’ve said all that (plus some), I’m going to end this boring post right here. 

How To:

Create a “stamp” to use in picture editing…or whatever else you want to use it for… (USING ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS3)

*disclaimer: I’m not an expert, but for the person who asked me how I do it…this is how.  LOL!*

1. >File >NEW (Width: 8 in; Height: 5 in; Resolution: 300 pixel/in; Color: RGB; Background: Transparent)

2. Hit the T in the toolbox and create a text box.  COLOR: Black.  Type in whatever you want in the first…if you want different text on a different line, create a new text box.  This is also cool (and easier) if you want your text to look layered instead of on the typical lines.  When you finish arranging them like you want, move on to the next step.

*NOTE: My image is flattened to show on here, and you can’t see the transparent background…yours should be the gray/white checkered background otherwise this won’t work. 

*NOTE 2: You don’t have to fill the entire space…or even use the same dimensions as I did…I just like to have plenty of room to work with and if your brush turns out large (max size is 2500 pixels though, so you do have to stay within that range), but you always have the option to scale down.  It doesn’t look good if you make it small and then try to scale up. 

3. Hit (M) for the Rectangular Marque Tool and select what you want in the brush.  If you really want to get fancy, you can even put some clip art in this image behind or around your text…  Anyways, so you’ve got your selection, right?

4. >Edit >Define Brush Preset – Name your brush and hit okay.

5. Open a picture and then hit (B) for brush.  Up at the top where it shows the brush tip and size, click the down button next to that and scroll to the bottom of the brushes…your new one should be there.  Click on it and you’ll probably need to size it down a bit and then just click your button ONE time to stamp the image on your picture.  You could paint with it but it’d look funny.  You can also tweak the opacity to make it like a watermark, or if you want it in color, you can change the color as well.  So much fun!

 

 

See this is what I mean by getting fancy:  

Also, there is much better tutorial on creating brushes HERE.  Complete with lots of technical information.  But whatever…ya’ll know I ain’t technical.  Although I occasionally try!  Anyway.  Go make brushes.  Have fun.  =) 

An Unpremeditated Day

Yeah.  I just wanted to use a long word that meant “random.”

And also because today just kinda….well…it was definitely unpremeditated. 

I started out running late.  I did have two appointments (get the cats to the groomers at 9 and a birthday party at 6) and I had a general idea of things that needed to be done in between those appointments (most of which DIDN’T). 

Then.  Despite my BEST effort to not give ANY indication of the first appointment, SOMEHOW, Snowball was NOWHERE to be found.  I swan…that cat has a sixth sense somehow.  I didn’t have to chase her like usual, but I couldn’t FIND her.  Took me about half an hour (on top of already running late) and I finally found her (she had crawled up INSIDE the recliner).  Dumb cat.  So I get the cats in their boxes finally and the kids herded out the door….and hum.  My car keys are not in their spot.  OH YES, KC drove the car to the store last night. 

Had a moment of panic in which I thought the keys might still be in his pocket and now a half hour AWAY, then I searched the living room kitchen area a SECOND time, panicked again, and called him.  Check the tables, he says.  Finally found them under a pile of papers on his NIGHTSTAND.  Such a logical location.  (Love ya, honey)

Finally got everything and everyone to their locations.  The cat groomer is about half an hour away so I really didn’t want to take the cats, come home, and then turn around and get them, so I decided to hit the thrift stores in that particular town and see if that would kill enough time.  Okay, and really…any excuse to go thrifting, right? 

Found some pieces we can use for VBS along with a couple of other neat little things.

Went to a couple of other stores. 

Munchkin saw a little frog sitting on the sidewalk outside this one store we were coming out of and when I looked around and realized it had somehow gotten into the middle of this concrete and glass Shopping Center and had nowhere to go that wouldn’t result in death, I had to rescue it.  I didn’t kiss it though.  I already found my prince.  Besides, I looked humorous enough just trying to catch the crazy thing.  I finally caught it, and the Munchkin and I returned it to the grassy field at the far end of the shopping center.  We wished it a happy, non-squished life and went to the car to squirt up with anti-bacterial gel. 

Then it was close to lunchtime and the groomer said about 45 more minutes.  So I drove around the little town trying to get to McDonalds.  Got lost, and ended up finding a park before I found my way back out of the little dead end street maze I got stuck in, so I noted it and then after we went to McD’s we took our food back to that park and ate and Munchkin played for a bit. 

While I was out, I got the call from DSS…our case for K-man that bio-mom appealed to the state level was overturned on a technicality (not because she should get another chance to get him back).  The TPR hearing somehow wasn’t approved in court and was amended instead of going through court again to be approved like it should have, so basically that means that we have to go through the termination hearing at the local level all over again.  If she hadn’t appealed, it would have stood and been fine, but the local decision was overturned by the state because they saw the paperwork wasn’t quite straight.  It is a bit frustrating but they said that nothing changes, she doesn’t get visits or anything, we just have to do it again and hope that this time she won’t appeal.  They said they are going to throw everything they have into the case this time (which I’m guessing they don’t generally do, they must only put the bare minimum of information…just enough to prove the child doesn’t need to return) and I’m hoping if they put down EVERYTHING, hopefully she won’t even try to appeal it.  So aggravating. 

Anyways….fast forward. 

Went to the big town in the OTHER direction for the party this evening…the Munchkin and I picked up the K-man and went early so I could get the rest of the stuff for VBS picked up.  Was in the Hobby Lobby and smelled something.  Rank.  “Munchkin tooted,” he says.  Sure, okay, whatever.  But I KEEP smelling it.  So I check.  OH PEACHY.  Munchkin tooted, my foot! 

So we went to the bathroom to clean up…and it just wasn’t happenin’.  Let’s just put it this way…he went commando for the rest of the evening.  Side note to the Hobby Lobby, just hold your nose when you take out the trash, kay?  K-man left you a little buried treasure.

Did the whole birthday party thing and came home to finish vacuuming up the carpet powder I left on there when I left for the big town… and forgot that our LAST vacuum cleaner blitzed after using that same powder a few months ago.  Double Oops.  Currently has no suction.  And carpet powder dust is floating in the air.  PHOOEY.  So on my list for tomorrow is to attempt to take vacuum cleaner apart and see if wiping all the dust out would help.  PHOO---EEY.

My day.  Totally unpremeditated. 

Dear God, thank you for watering the flowers and garden for me tonight.  After the day I’ve had, I needed a little help with my chores.  Do you think if I stuck my hampers on the porch, you could do my laundry, too???  Oh. Probably not?  Alright then.  Well.  I’m still grateful anyway.  =)

Tweetsie Pics

 

Click on any of them to see them larger.  Also, a few shots with the K-man’s face are over on the private blog. 

Picture commentary:
1. AHHH…I’m in jail.
2. Cowboys ‘N Injuns {corniest quote from the train shows: I think that engine (pointing at Thomas) is talking to THEM Injuns (gesturing at the Indians)}. 
3. Nonna and K-man in the cars (I’m sorry, but these bumper cars make the typical bumper cars look cheesy.  I LOVE these bumper cars…you actually have to drive on a “ROAD.”)
4. Munchkin and Poppa – Munchkin puts the BUMPER into these bumper cars.  Poppa was having flashbacks to MY early driving days.  HAHA!!!
5. My feet on the ferris wheel. 
6. The view from the top of the ferris wheel.  Long way down!  See our car in the little white box (bottom center)?
7. Munchkin and Sir Topham Hatt.  K-man freaked out and was climbing up my head trying to get away when I tried to put him in the picture.  So he stayed with me.  He did later wave when we went by again, but he would not go near.  LOL!
8. Bouncin on the Giant Inflatable Thomas.  I laughed at the mid-air shot. 
9. Awww…getting ready to leave…they decided to walk together. 
10. The Official Tweetsie Train
11. Thomas: close up
12. Thomas coming back into the station…as we were getting ready to ride a second time before leaving.

Most notable quote:
"I guess Thomas really IS real.” *awestruck sigh* (overheard Munchkin talking to herself on the way home)

We missed KC on this trip.  We went in the middle of the week (6/11) to avoid some of the crowds and he didn’t have any spare vacation days that weren’t already scheduled, so I took my parents to help me with the kids.  Actually my dad really wanted to go just because we hadn’t been since I was Munchkin’s age and he has a bit of free time right now, so I decided that would be a nice thank you for all his hard work on the playground out back.  *grin*  It was funny though because when the train leaves the station, the conductor on the train says, “LET’S RIDE, KC!” And the kids were like, “WHERE?  Daddy’s up there?  I don’t see him!?!”  We laughed. 

Except for the rain, it was a fun trip.  I didn’t take pictures of the giant emergency ponchos that dad bought (because it was such a downpour and we were on top of the mountain with no decent indoor places to hide out in to wait out the rain).  I thought about taking a picture of them but decided I didn’t want to remember that part.  I looked like a giant yellow thing and you could have easily fit me, the two kids, AND THE DOUBLE STROLLER inside it….and the hood wouldn’t stay on my head, which rather defeated the purpose.  And then the rain stopped.  But aside from being a fashion disaster, it did prevent me from getting wet even after the rain stopped (cuz you know, there were still wet seats from the rain).  Ah well.  I say I don’t want to remember it, and then I blog about it.  Oops. 

Kay, I’m done with this topic.  We went to Tweetsie.  We had fun.  The End.

Gardens, Consistency, Love…

And other random thoughts…

I just picked the first cuke off my cucumber plant.  It is officially the first fruit of my little bed of plants.  I would take a picture, but in a rare turn of events, this blog has been picture heavy lately, so I think I’ll skip it.  It’s just an average size cucumber that is nothing extraordinary, so I’m sure I don’t need to document it. 

I will say that Munchkin was super ecstatic when we picked it though!  “WOW, mom, that growed FAST,” she says.  Well…I guess so, if your definition of fast is 2 months.  HAH.  LOL.  But she didn’t plant it, so I guess in her mind, we have cucumbers as of today.  That’s fast. 

I went up to my garden spot after church tonight.  Life is crazy busy these days and the house/yard is suffering (well, suffering as in: progress is halted, not as in it’s getting worse, laundry pile excluded).  But I haven’t had time to get up there and check the plants in a few days.  Thankfully it’s rained, so I haven’t worried about that so much, but I haven’t checked them either.  Anyways my neighbor went out of town for a couple of days so she wanted me to pick her blueberry bush every day to keep the birds from getting them.  Well, I missed doing that yesterday so that’s why I went up there tonight and I checked my little garden on the way back down the hill.

All I know is it is amazing what a couple of days will do.  I weeded on Thursday and there were weeds up there that were almost as big as the plants (And the plants; OH MY.  The tomatoes DEFINITELY need some more tying up…they’ve totally outgrown the last ties).  I was thinking, surely I didn’t miss a weed that big on Thursday…but how in the world could it have grown that large in three days, so I must HAVE missed it.  I’m sure on Thursday I did see it and it was probably small, so I thought…well, that’s not a big one, I’ll get it later. 

How like life that is.  We weed things out of our life, but we don’t get every last root, even the small ones.  Then we look away for a few days and we turn around and we can’t understand where that LARGE UGLY WEED that is cluttering up our garden came from.  And when you pull that large ugly weed out, it disturbs a large clump of soil that if you had only pulled it when it was small, would never have been disturbed at all. 

And that is a perfect segue into tonight’s message at church.  Consistency Vs The Up and Down coaster.  I won’t even put it on anyone but myself. 

I get all ambitious and pull all the weeds out of my life, then get busy and miss a day or two of Bible reading (or do/not do something else that is equally important, like letting a thought slip through and rest in your mind for awhile, or having a bad attitude…whatever the case may be) and next thing you know, you turn around and think.  OH MY.  I thought I pulled these weeds.  Where did that come from? 

And like Bro K preached tonight (although he didn’t liken it to weeds and I may have totally missed the point – things get a little scattered when you have two little ones distracting you in church – it’s just what I got out of it) instead of being consistent, you’re on one day and off the next.  And that affects people’s view of your garden.  One day they see your garden and the weeds are competing with your fruit and the next, you’re getting rid of all the weeds, and the next, HEY…all the weeds are back…….hum.  Can people see my fruit through the weeds?  Or are they confused as to what my garden is supposed to be growing because one day they see fruit and the next week it’s weeds?  It’s a challenging thought. 

Also on challenging thoughts, Bro R preached on the Love of God this morning and while it’s hard to sum it up in a few sentences, I’ll just put it this way.  I was challenged. 

Taking the love God has for us is one thing (you know, the part where He loved us so much that He sacrificed His BEST to save us)…but turning around and showing that kind of Love to others is another thing entirely.  Because I like to think I LOVE everybody, but I sometimes don’t LIKE some of them very much.  Just being honest.  But the scripture that Bro R. used this morning was in 1 John I think, about he who loveth not, KNOWETH NOT GOD.  I am the type of person who tries to get along with everybody, even those who don’t like me, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who drive me nuts. 

I’ll just confess my faults and say that there are times when I DO the right thing and do my best to show the Love of God, but then gripe privately about it.  I’m  sure that probably negates the whole Love thing, but at least the LOVE chapter in the Bible doesn’t say anything about “charity never complains” it just says that love has to endure, hope, believe, suffer long, and not be easily provoked (among other things).  I’m sure it’s a good thing for me that it doesn’t say love CAN’T be provoked, it just isn’t EASILY provoked.  HAHA. 

Seriously though…one other thing in this morning’s message that struck me was what he said about how it’s not having the Love of God when you refuse to speak to someone over whatever the matter or whosever fault.  It’s not even if you bite your tongue and be polite when you run into them.  The Love of God reaches past all that and says, “how can I sacrifice myself?”  I know people who say they have the Love of God and…well…I can’t see the heart, but I never saw any evidence that they had what they claimed.  But one thing I do know for sure, I don’t want to find myself in that category of people.  Help me, Lord.

Just some thoughts I’ve been pondering today. 

PS Thank you, Lord, that the headsplitting throbbing has finally subsided and I can think straight again.  Not that anyone would ever think THIS was thinking straight…since my most straightest (ha) thinking is still absolutely scattered and random, but thanks, Lord, that I can now THINK that I’m thinking straight.  =)

I Have

Lots of things…LIKE….

• An extremely obese feline!
  This picture does not do his excess weight justice…really.  He is sunk into the couch here and all of his back legs that are sticking out 
  are his paws.  That. Is. Fat.  And he is totally giving me the drop dead glare. 

 

• An infatuation with objects in the clouds:

        Disney princess anyone???          And what would you see in this one???
         Give up?  Well…how bout a flying duck on a surfboard.  HA.  Or a flying
         funny looking dragon?  Bwahaha

         This one was easy…could be a plane OR a rocket ship…I decided on the
         rocket since you couldn’t really see wings….lol.

• A really really cool find from the thrift store this week.  But I’ll share that later.  =)
• A lot of pictures from our day trip to Tweetsie this past week.  Gotta get those edited but here’s one:My feet high up on the ferris wheel.  I rode with both kids…they did good.  On the very last spin around, K-man and Munchkin finally let go of the deathgrip on my arm and I actually heard a “Yeehaw” from K-man.  Hahah!More on the Tweetsie trip later.

• SUNTAN LINES!

        Here’s my clean (even if they might not appear to be…lol) and slightly 
        glowy feet in my coca-cola pajamas.  It’s outside on the deck and it’s
        almost dark, which may have helped the increased brilliance of the
        white flip-flop-hidden area of my feet.

• And of course, a million other things that I have been abundantly blessed with, but I’ll end here for this post.  *grin*