Lets Go Driving in an Automobile

It seems like we have a very excited driver on our hands these days.  She wants to practice practice practice every time we go someplace.  I know this will make her a better driver.  This song came to mind while thinking about it today.  Sesame Street and I go waaaaaay back.  It was my most favorite show in the entire world as a child.  I remember watching it when I was probably three years old or so.  Those songs have stuck in my head all these years.

Do you remember Mr. Hooper and Mr. Hooper's store?  Remember Big Bird used to go there and buy his birdseed?  Oh....I loved that show.

A Quilting I Will Go.....

I thought I would show you the fabrics that I choose for my "mystery quilt."  I have absolutely no idea what on earth this quilt is going to look like when it is finished.  That is the "mystery" part.

My quilting buddy Kathy and I are off for our big adventure.  I have been waiting for this day for a very long time.  I am sure there will be laughter and gnashing of teeth and diet coke and gnashing of teeth and laughter.  The laughter will be from Kathy.  The teeth thing and diet coke will be me.   I will show you how far I get when I return.  Prayers would be very much appreciated...for me that is.  :)

Quilting Buddies

I have been frantically lazily enjoying cutting out my fabric for the "Mystery Quilt Class" I am attending this weekend.  I am trying to enjoy the process of the cutting.  So far, I am not doing so well.  I like to get things done.  I tend to focus on the end instead of enjoying the beginning and the middle.  Sigh....  I am working on it though.  While working on my fabric cutting, I looked around this morning and this is what I saw. 

Pup dog at my feet.  She did not even care that my fabric was on top of her.

And, my fuzzy kitty.  He always likes to be where I am.  Even in the middle of my cutting table.  Kind of dangerous with that tail and my rotary cutter.  Eeks!  :)  I have to move him out of my way all the time.  He just loves to get that chocolate brown fur all over whatever it is I am making.  No quilt is complete with out blood, sweat, tears and cat hair.  Right?  (This one already has all four of those ingredients in it.)

And yes...in my world....M & M's can be your quilting buddy. 

Funny Sign

While out practicing driving with my daughter at our closest large empty parking lot (a church) ....I looked up and saw this sign.  I laughed and laughed.  Very appropriate for a church, don't you think?  :)

And away we go.....

Well, I am officially the mother of a daughter who is taking drivers training.  I can not believe I have a daughter that is driving.  I think I am in shock.  :)  She started on Monday of this week.  And today, she traveled on a couple of our most busiest streets in town.  Her very first time behind the wheel of an actual vehicle and not a go cart.  HA!  I hear she did fantastic.  She drove this fun little box on wheels.

We followed the cones to her first day of class.  What a clever idea to use cones to direct us. 

Tonight she begged her daddy and I to take her someplace to practice.  When we agreed to go, you should of seen that girl get those dinner dishes done so we could leave.  She went out and started the car.  And waited for us.  It was so cute.  She backed out of the driveway then I got in and drove to a church parking lot that was empty for her to practice.  Here she is all smiles ready to go.

She got in at the church and did a fantastic job!  Only a couple times did my head go forward quickly then backwards quickly.  :)  She apologized each time.  Very thoughtful of her. 

She knew which way to turn the turn signal on and we practiced parking and backing up.  She just drove round and round the empty lot.  I am thankful that the church was empty.  We let her drive for about 30 minutes then it was time to go home.  Only so much you can do in a parking lot.  The doggie went with us and little sister.  Who was offering her driving advice from the backseat.  You know...since a twelve year old has all the answers.  :)

We saw all these little fellows in the parking lot with us.  I believe they enjoyed the show.

Turkeys are such very unattractive birds.  They can run so quickly though.  It makes me laugh every time I see one sprinting away.   But I do enjoy the ones that end up on my table each Thanksgiving.  Just saying.  ;)

Fun in the Sun

We had some of our most favorite people come up this weekend again to visit us.  We had big plans this weekend.  We were taking ourselves to the beach!  My sissy has sand in her blood and she simply had to go at least one time this summer.  We both had been watching the forecast for days to see what the weather was going to do.  We could not of asked for a better day!  The sun was warm, there was a nice breeze blowing and the clouds were few.  How perfect!  Thank you Lord for that!!  We packed beach towels, cool refreshing drinks, sunscreen, sand toys, magazines to read and a picnic lunch and headed out.

Here is our spot.

 

A little later in the day more people came in.  It was so fun looking down the shore and seeing all the colored umbrellas in the white sand.  We definitely are going to invest in one of those for our next trip. 

 

It was fun watching the sailboats go by.  It still blows my mind that this is a lake!  I would just swear it was the ocean minus the sea shells.

 

Daddy and daughter taking a little dip.  The water was so nice!

 

I had to snap this photo of my sis and I.

 

The two younger ones were very busy making sand castles.  My nephew is a pro!  He got rocks and made a little moat for his castle.  Look at the waves coming in behind them.  The sounds the waves made were so relaxing. 

 

We did have some little visitors come by our beach blankets.  Especially when we were eating. 

 

Piggies covered with sand.

 

On our way home, we stopped by a U-Pick blueberry farm.  It was our first time picking our own but my sis and nephew had done it before.  We had a lot of fun doing it.

 

Can you see the berries on the bushes?  I think the people should of weighed us before we went into the patch and then again as we were leaving and charged us for the ones that "accidentally" got into our tummies while picking.  :)

 

What we brought home....ready to be frozen for cobblers, pies and muffins.  Yum!

 

She was a pro blueberry picker.  :)

 

After the berry farm, we stopped at a famous place for ice cream.  The blue cow greeted us from the road.  We really do love this place. 

 

No trip to the water is complete without driving by our most favorite house and dreaming that we could live there.  Her hydrangea bushes are absolutely breathtaking!  The colors and size are beyond what I could describe.  We had plans in the car to all move into that house together and combine our incomes.  We think it could work!  Except, my sis does not have a job up here and the house is not for sale.  Oh well......we sure had fun dreaming about it.

 

The pup who was so happy for us to return home to him.  Do you see my sisters knees?  They got so burnt!  She put sunscreen on but I am not quite sure what happened to it.  They were pretty sore.  Next time we go....more sunscreen!  :)

 

And lastly, my sis made me this little gift for me with her paper addiction love.  She sells her cute bingo cards in her Etsy shop.  She said it would remind me of our time together at the beach and how much fun we had together as a family.  And that we did.

 

Oh Deer!!

I was so excited to come home from our long weekend and find my sunflowers that my daughter and I had planted had grown about six inches taller than when I left and the leaves were huge and I just knew they would be beautiful when they bloomed.  Well....I woke up and looked out the window the next morning and all the leaves were gone.  Hum....what happened!!  I was so upset!  Upon further investigation, I went out and almost all the leaves were chewed off my sunflowers!  Drat!

In the mulch, I found these.  Did not look like doggie prints to me.  I believe those are hoofs!!  And, I don't believe it is time for Santa's sleigh.

Humph!  I guess I planted something that the deer thought looked like a salad bar and they helped themselves.  Lovely.

What's a girl to do when her backyard looks like this.  I would like to live here too if I were a deer I suppose.  Sigh.....

Friends, Fun and Awesome Music

We had a fantastic time this past weekend with our friends!  We left Thursday right after I got off work for Cincinnati Ohio to go to Kings Island Theme Park.  We also had tickets while there to see Spirit Song.  A concert with several AMAZING Christian artists that we love.  I have an insane amount of photos on this post...just to warn you.  But, how can I leave anything out?  I wanted to share our fun with you.  Despite the rain we had on Friday off an on...we had a great time.  Are you ready?  Here goes....

Probably the only Eiffel Tower I will ever see...but it was nice!  :)

Some of the smiles we all shared together.  This is before the heat and rain came.  Everyone is still looking fresh.  Man....we were not feeling fresh or looking fresh or smelling fresh by the end of that night.  HA!

Getting ready to climb onto Diamond Back.  Our first coaster of the day.  Now, I am a HUGE fan of coasters.  But this one scared me to death!  Liz said this ride makes you feel like you are going to meet Jesus.  I actually did think I was meeting Him!  I thought for sure I was going to perish on this one.  Needless to say...I only rode it once. 

Miss Lucy posing for me. 

Someone took a little nappie.  I loved how his arm was behind his head.

Here is another one of my famous going-up-the-roller-coaster-self-shot-of-the-people-behind-me shot.  It actually turned out awesome!  They were mostly all smiling for me to!  HAAAAA!!

Liz and I.  We said we looked like we were being squeezed to death by a python snake or something with those things around our necks.  HAAAA!!

Three pretty girls.

Ty had never ridden a BIG roller coaster before.  This was going to be the trip for him.  We encouraged him over and over that he could do it.  We picked a good one for him.  Fast but fun.  I had him pose for the camera for me.  Do you see the sign behind him?  No chickens allowed.  HAAAA!!!!

Here Benji and Ty are ready to climb aboard for Ty's first roller coaster ride.  Needless to say, he loved it.  We created a coaster monster with this fellow!!  He is hooked!!!  Way to go Ty!!!

I love this photo I took of the sweet family we went to see that lives in Ohio.  They are old friends of ours and I happen to think their son is the most precious thing I have ever seen.  I love him so much! 

Ok...this one had a lot of loops and we went on it....upside down and all around.  Wheeeee!!

My hubby showing us what he could do with a football.  He did throw the ball thru the hoop and won a little white animal.  We were not really sure what it was....a dog, a bull....not sure.  I am just thankful it was not one of those four foot tall dogs or monkeys that one of us would have to carry around with us all day long.

Mr. Brandon Heath.  He was fantastic!!

Mr. David Crowder....fantastic and so talented.  He sang to us in the rain in his orange shoes. 

Want to see what they were pointing for me to look at???

A rainbow to the right of the stage!  How funny for God to show us one of His promises while we were all worshiping Him! 

Sing Praise!!  Sing Praise!!  And you know what...God does not care that we did it in ponchos.  :)

Casting Crowns.  Gotta love them!  :) 

The massive crowd...

Saturday we went to the water park for awhile.  It was so hot and the water felt so good.

I enjoyed watching the little pumpkin play and splash about in the kids area.  He loved it!!  I think he is part fish.  :)

We ate lunch at this place.  The guy from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives has been there and taped a show there before.  I did not get a picture of the food.  We were all ravished and we had no time for pictures...just eating!

Taking a time out together back at the apartment.  Oh how I love all the people in this room.....

Mr. Chris Tomlin.  Let's just say...he was my favorite.  I love his voice and his songs.  I play them over and over and over and over. 

Mr. Toby Mac.  I really enjoyed him as well.  His music was a bit loud for me.  I can tell I am getting older.  I am not a spring chick anymore and even though the kids were jumping and singing....I needed Tylenol at the end of the night.  :)

Two girls that wish they were sisters.  They had the best time together.  I think they are both cute as can be!

Church on Sunday where we could all worship together one last time.

And lastly, the three amigos.  These boys had a nice time playing together.  It was such a good trip and I am so thankful God blessed us with these people.  My life is so much better with all of them in it.  I am holding onto the memories until we can make more.  Love you guys!!