I've A Question

How often do you take God's creation for granted?

For me, I know I do not appreciate the beautiful colors, designs and sounds of creation nearly as much as I ought to. Sometimes, I think/treat it as a brick wall--nothing exciting, nor beautiful.

But, as I sit here today, I can hear the rain falling down the leaves and roof tops. It is so peaceful, so beautiful!

I realize how many times I take this wonderful pleasure for granted. How I seem to think everywhere, everyone is able to hear the soft pitter-patter of the rain hitting the ground, and that it is nothing all that wonderful.

This time, I'm thanking God, from the bottom of my heart, for his generous gift of flowers, of trees, of rain.

God is so good!

The Moon :)

Please don't mind my continuous posting all of a sudden. It seems I just discovered how Lightroom makes you want to take and fix pictures continuously. Once I fix them, I feel like showing them to everyone.

(If you double click you'll be able to see it better)
A couple years ago I knelt outside, in the snow, in my pajamas, with the camera and the tripod...trying my hardest to get a good picture of the moon. My persistence payed off when I finally snapped THE picture. Actually I hadn't known that it was that picture that I would like. But a trip into Lightroom and now you can see it's features just fine.

It just so happened that I was studying the moon in science that year, so I was able to label it the best I could.

Bean and Corn Salad

Now, what was the first word that came to your mind when you saw this picture? Yum? or Yuck? For me, well I would have thought yuck, because I really don't care for peppers and onions. But after a quick taste, I would regret what I had said, and change it to a "Yum". I made this today, so we could have it for supper. It was the first time I made it myself, and while getting all the ingredients out I thought, "This looks really disgusting! But it tastes soo good!" I really think you should try it, if you've not already!

You'll need:
2 cans whole kernel corn
(actually I just used a bag of frozen corn)
2 cans black beans
1 small chopped onion
1 red pepper and 1 green pepper, chopped
(we didn't have any red, just green)

Dressing:
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. cumin

Heat the dressing thoroughly and pour over vegetables.
It is best to make the day before, and it can keep for several days.

Remember...it's REALLY good!!!

One Sign

Several days ago I sat down on our back deck and looked around the yard. I couldn't help the sigh that escaped from within...the dogwood's berries had come and its leaves were starting to turn red. A sure sign that fall is right around the corner.

And I had to share these beautiful flowers that made me smile.

Two Out of Three

We have three cats, but only two are present in this post. Maybe because the third wasn't around, or maybe because I refuse to call her mine. Not that Sammy isn't, or hasn't been apart of our family, she's just very...female (grouchy, mean, grouchy, mean, happy, grouchy, mean, etc.)

Here are the other two however.

Meet Mila
(pronounced "Meelah")

Actually as you can tell she is still only a kitten. She was born earlier this year (in the spring sometime). We were suppose to give her away, but no one took her and then they stopped calling. She's actually one of Sammy's kittens.

Then one day, she ran out in front of our car and got herself run over. We thought for sure she wouldn't make it, especially since she disappeared the next day. Her leg was unusable for the first day, but then she learned to hobble on it. Now she walks perfectly fine, like nothing ever happened. She's as spunky as any ol' kitten...maybe even more so. Because we all thought she was a goner and now she's just fine, we thought to call her Miracle...in Spanish! In Spanish it is milagro. We really didn't like the sound of that, so we shortened it to Mila.


Next we have
Molly

She is now a couple years (at least) and she is also one of Sammy's. I consider Molly mine. She has her grouchy moments, but for the most part is quite happy. :)

She's also very lazy...sitting around all day...yawning.

And almost always has this look of annoyance on her face. Well, she didn't particularly like me sticking the camera in her face, ordering her not to move so much.

Mila is so wild, it was hard to get a picture of her. I can't believe I got this many!

I Never Knew Shopping Could Be So Fun!

Tuesday we gathered up all the girls and went...shopping (of course!). We had so much fun, trying on silly clothes, prom dresses, and things that we seriously wanted buy...we had lots of laughs.Trying on different clothes...some silly and others not so much. I love Megan's skirt...it makes me smile! :)

And, sunglasses of course, are always fun to try on!

We went to JC Penny's and just had to try on their prom dresses.

Necklaces...oh so many to choose!

What girl wouldn't like Bath & Body Works. It seemed like we spent hours in there sniffing, spraying, testing...

...until we finally bought those things that we love smelling and had to pose for another picture!

Then over to JoAnns where we played with the flowers a bit. :)

Trying on scarfs and high heeled shoes

We finished our shopping with dinner at Panera Bread

This is my lovely meal. Broccoli Chedder in a bread bowl. :)

We finished the day with a stop at the beach. Unfortunately my camera died just then, only allowing me to get just a couple pictures.

A Picture From This Summer

Earlier this month us high school girls got to have a sleep over with our pastors wife at one of the ladies (from church) home. We all had a very fun, giggly girl time eating pizza, watching Sense and Sensibility and staying up to nearly 2:00 am. I didn't take very many pictures...actually hardly any...but I was able to get this one of Em and I just love it!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Friends Visit

The Bennetts came to visit us on Thursday!

Heather, me
Sarah and Aaron

We played Apples to Apples and another game shown below.

They bought some beautiful Gladiolas!!

I love purple and yellow together, just like I do blue and yellow. :)

Now here is the other game we played, a game that we are not sure of the name. But it was a lot of fun and brought a lot of laughter!
What you had to do was a write a sentence on a piece of paper (like the one above) and then pass to the person beside you.

That person would read the sentence and then draw it.

The third person is only able to see the drawing, and then must write what he sees.

It kind of goes on like that, so that the fourth person sees only the sentence and draws that.

Many times you will end with something totally off from the first sentence. :) I would highly recommend playing this game...especially with a lot of people (the more people the funnier they are at the end). We played with 5 people this time.

Summer Fun!

I brought the camera to church last night...it was fun taking pictures of the girls. :)Marjorie, Heather, Bonnie and Lydia

Here's a message for you!!!

Heather and Sophie aren't they so sweet!