Wednesday, September 30, 2009

One in a Million

I hope Priscilla Shirer won't mind if I use the title of her Bible study for the title of this post. A group of women from our church is doing this study at our house on Monday nights. I just have to say that I absolutely love this new study. We've never done one of her books, but I suggest if you have a chance to be a part of one of her studies you GO FOR IT! This one is comparing our lives today to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness and the part I like so much is the practical application. I took some pictures of our group this week. It's a wonderful time of fellowship as well as valuable and meaningful Bible study.





Sunday, September 27, 2009

Smocking 101

Several years ago we were blessed with three granddaughters in one year. So, I decided I'd enjoy learning to smock for them. I smocked and smocked and smocked and loved it. It helped me feel connected to them. Then, we had a grandson and I smocked a few things for him as well. Our son and daughter-in-law were sweet enough to let him wear a gown home from the hospital that I had smocked for him. Although I enjoyed smocking for him, there aren't nearly as many things to smock for a little boy as for the little girls. They all eventually outgrew wearing smocked outfits so my smocking stopped. However, now that we're having another little granddaughter, I thought that called for pulling out all the packed away smocking plates and needles and embroidery threads. It's been so much fun to go into the smocking shop and see all the beautiful material available. Here's a picture of the little day gown that I'm about to begin smocking. I've also included a picture of what the finished product is SUPPOSED to look like. I can't wait to get started on this little day gown for our little Miss A!!


Saturday, September 26, 2009

Number One

Auburn is number one in the hearts and minds of our granddaughters (as well as the rest of our family)!! Here they are before the game tonight.

Auburn won 54-30. War-r-r-r-r Eagle!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

God's Promise

Genesis 9:12-16 (New International Version)
And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

Recently we were on the causeway which crosses the bay near our city. We were in heavy traffic but I looked out over the bay and said to my hubby, "Look at that!!" I had my camera with me because I rarely travel without it for just such occasions as this. He managed to pull over to the side of the road long enough for me to snap a couple of pictures of the most unusual rainbow I had ever seen. It almost looked like it was dipping down into the water. I hope you enjoy these pictures of God's reminder to us of His promises.



Be sure to stop by Susan's blog, A Southern Daydreamer, to see many more outdoor pictures. I doubt I'll be able to ever share beautiful fall pictures from our area as Susan did but we do have other outdoor beauty to share. God's handiwork is ever-present!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A Beautiful Metamorphosis

What a nice surprise today when I got home and my hubby told me that a chrysalis had hatched and a butterfly was fluttering around inside the netted cage. One reason it was such a surprise is that it had been months since those caterpillars made their chrysalises. Several had hatched shortly after they formed a chrysalis but I had given up on any of the ones that were left ever hatching. But, there it was--a gorgeous swallowtail butterfly. Immediately after being released, that butterfly went directly to our rose bush and spent quite a bit of time there drinking from the blooms. God has taken care of every detail of this world and all the creatures. Instinctively, that butterfly knew exactly where to go to get the liquid it needed. After quite a few minutes of drinking from those flowers, it flew away to points unknown to me, but apparently it knew exactly what it needed to do to survive.


Be sure to visit Susan at a Southern Daydreamer for more outdoor pictures.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A Celebrity on the Sidelines

Well, the term celebrity is relative, but, to our family, he's a celebrity. Our nephew is a sophomore at Auburn University following the long-standing tradition of Auburn people in our family. Both of his grandfathers, his mom and dad, aunts and uncles, and cousins and their wives all graduated from Auburn. BUT, Drew had a chance to do something really exciting for a college sophomore who loves Auburn and loves Auburn football---something none of the rest of us has ever done as far as I know. He's a volunteer manager for the football team and it was his Saturday to actually be on the field. He held the wire for one of the sideline officials and had to walk wherever that man walked. He said it was lots of fun and he got to be right down there where all the action was---a totally different view than any of us have from our seats in the stadium. We were excited to watch him through the binoculars and I tried to take some pictures--very difficult because they were constantly moving to follow the game on the field. I also took a few other shots of the activities at Jordan-Hare Stadium that night. We won which makes it even more fun, by the way!! War Eagle!!

Before the game----The AU marching band and the national anthem


The team coming onto the field led by Coach Chizik


Drew on the sidelines





It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

Friends------

are a gift from God. Some of our best friends are staying at the beach for a week. We became close friends many years ago when we went to church together. They were new to the area and we hadn't been here long after graduating from college. We both had little boys at the time---a year apart. We stil joke that the first time we had them over to eat, we had leftover sandwiches from a party we had had (little party sandwiches.) The invitation went something like this, "Come over and eat stale sandwiches with us." So, they did, and the rest is history. When we met, each family had one little boy and a few years laters each family had two little boys. A job transfer took them away when our children were still young, but we haven't stopped visiting since then. We went from hand-written letters and an occasional long distance phone call to now email, Facebook, and text messages. Their younger son and his family have been visiting them at the beach so we got to visit with them--we had never seen the grandchilren. How fun it was to visit. Everytime we're together, it's like we haven't missed a beat and we pick up right where we left off. Here are some pictures of our fun time together.

Their first crabbing adventure--

Ready to catch a crab on a weiner and a string--

The cabinets in the beach condo are so much fun!

Surely we haven't aged much since we first met---


In a few weeks, their older son and his family will be coming for a visit so we're looking forward to seeing them.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

A New Chapter

Yesterday was the kick-off for college football 2009. We have six season tickets to Auburn games which we enjoy with our family. Last night in Jordan-Hare Stadium a new chapter of Auburn football began. It was Coach Chizik's first game as our new head coach. As always the stadium in all its grandeur and tradition looked stunning under the lights. I know we're biased but I do believe we have the best pre-game tradition in college football with the eagle circling the stadium and landing as 85,000 people join in a rendition of War-r-r-r-r-r Eagle!! If that doesn't give an Auburn person chill bumps, I don't know what will. Last night's game was a fun one with Auburn winning 37-13---a good start to the Gene Chizik era. But, to our family, Auburn is about much more than football. It's about a place that holds a special place in the hearts of our family and has now for four generations-----Auburn University. We believe in Auburn and love it!!


Tuesday, September 01, 2009

A Bird's Eye View

For quite a while now, two of our dear friends (our very young friends---much younger than we are anyway), Andy and Katie, and I have been talking about going parasailing. For one reason or another we haven't actually gone so we decided if we were going to go before the summer season ends, we better go now. SO, today we all met at the beach and went parasailing. It was a perfect day---very calm water and clear skies. I'm posting some pictures from our trip. My hubby took some of the pictures from the boat and then some of the pictures were taken by one of us up on the parasail so we could get both perspectives. Hope you enjoy our outdoor pictures! For a variety of outdoor pictures, visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer and see all the blogs posted on her Outdoor Wednesday.












What a fun way to end our fun summer!! And, to top it off, we went to Peg Leg Pete's for a grouper sandwich. Yummy!