It happened

Sorry, this just can't wait until Friday!!
Look what let loose during church time today!

There are 4 additional flowers on this stalk and 5 more on the next stalk and 4 more on the next and....you get my drift right???
Lots more where this came from!

Tomorrow...
...I have another lovely little wonder to show you!
It got my whole family out in the yard ooooohhhhhing and aaaaaahhhhhing.

I hope your weekend was a blessed as mine.
Blessed around here, usually means busy too!!
So, I am tired and off to get in my jammies to relax as long as I can keep my eyes open.

Food Love!

A huge portion of the "gift" that I gave to my son for his birthday yesterday was food.

While he has always had a proclivity for eating, the teenage years seem to really be highlighting this trait!

I am trying my best to train him out of the bad eating patterns I trained him into, back in the days of my ignorance.
While our sleepover birthday party menu was not what one might consider "healthy", it was still all homemade (with love) and as far away from processed yuck food as I could get, while still pleasing teen boys.


Our treat for this morning was cinnamon rolls!
Made from scratch from beginning to end cinnamon roll yumminess!!

I was not 100% satisfied with the results of this new recipe, but will try it again with a bit of alteration.
I had nothing but accolades from the hungry mob of boys, so I must have done something right!!

I woke up at 3:00a.m. realizing that I had used all of the powdered sugar in my cake icing and quickly composed a mental list of what I should get from the store when I woke back up in the morning.
Powdered Sugar
Milk
Hamburger Buns (for the chopped beef sandwiches to come later today)
I repeated this over and over again, hoping my poor little brain would keep track of it for me until morning!!
It did!

7:30 found me, coffee cup in hand as I stumbled through the grocery store, collecting the items on my mental list!

Luckily icing is a no brainer, so I whipped it up in a snap...while sipping my second cup of coffee!

I had my drooling middle son take hold of the icing spoon, so that I could get an action shot.
He got distracted by my efforts and glopped a big blob of icing on one roll.

He quickly claimed that roll as the one he was gonna get his lips on first!

I acquiesced...mainly because it wasn't the one in the center.
I like the center rolls best, how about you??
I hope you like the edge ones best, cause then we would get along just fine!
Guess what my husband likes?
(Actually I don't think he cares much, but he does know that I have an opinion and he takes what I don't choose. He is awesome like that!)


There is just nothing like homemade cinnamon rolls!
Nothing in all the cooking world!!

That is not actually a fact, in case you were wondering, just my professional opinion.


I figured it was the perfect way for my son to begin his first day as a 14 year old.


I think he agreed.

AIM time!

I present to you, for a limited time engagement....

...AIM Team Guadalajara!



Angel




Jordan




Luke




Landon


For just a few more days this band of brothers will be in my town, making an impact on people everywhere they go! Catch them if you can!

It is interesting what happens when you say to a group of boys...I mean...young men, to stop right there and don't move!
They look around, take a wide stance and settle into cool mode!!

I mean, come on...girls group together and turn their best side to the camera, usually getting as close to the next girl as possible.
Am I right, or am I right?

AIM stands for Adventures In Missions. Young people from all over the world travel to Lubbock, Texas to do biblical studies before heading out to the mission field for a time in an apprentice type position. It is a beautiful work, which allows people the opportunity to study the Bible, and then go on to get experience on the mission field in a way that is full of commitment and yet full of support.
Our Church sponsors a team building week each year for a group of eager young people.
This year, we got team Guadalajara!!
These fellows are from as far away as New Zealand and as close as Lubbock itself.

This post, really...is for them, and anyone they may send this way.
It is a little glimpse into what this looks like from where I stand.

I had the pleasure of spending much of the day with the team!
My Thursday Bible class had a field trip day, so they came along on the search for Wildflowers on the way up to Bluebell territory.
Anyone who has any amount of Texas running through their veins knows that Bluebell is a local, much loved ice cream brand!

We took a tour of the factory and enjoyed a reasonable bowl of ice cream at the end.
I was mildly opposed, as we were headed straight to lunch, but was persuaded by the call of the cream!!!
I will report that 3 of the 4 boys had an additional bowl of ice cream!!!
That was a hoot!
So many of the things they did reminded me of my own growing boy/man!

I have a friend who lives close to the ice cream factory so I called her up and requested a drive by!!
We arrived to her hearty, warm welcome and immediately set to making the goats try to faint.

Yes, you read that right.
These are the famous fainting goats!!!
I must tell you it is one of the most hilarious animal things you will ever see.
When they get frightened their legs stiffen, and if you can get 'em really good...then they do a face plant right into the grass.
It is momentary and they spring right back up and take off running.

We were very respectful, and saved the scaring for the big daddy goats.
The babies....well, they were held, and petted!



Our hostess then rushed us to the "back 40" and proceeded to show us just how to swing on her new rope swing.
I mean she personally showed us how it was done!!!
She is the coolest grandma around!
I wanted to maintain my cool factor too, seeing as how I am probably old enough to be the mama of any one of these boys!!
Soooooo, I said I would take the first turn on the swing.
I knew if I didn't go for it right then I may lose my courage.
I climbed the 8 or so step ladder up a tree and just about turned back when I got to the top!
I steeled myself and with quite a bit of encouragement and trust in the advice given, took a flying leap!

It was roller coaster, drop your stomach, then catch it on the way back fun!!

I think I pulled both of my shoulder muscles!!

They all got to take a nap while I drove the hour and a half back to my neck of the woods.
Snoring??? Uhhhh, Yes!
Our family was in charge of feeding this troop for the evening meal, so dinner preparations came right on the heels of our return.

It was such a joy to see my nice new, big kitchen holding all of us working side by side to get dinner prep done.

Boys are funny how they chop....did you ever notice?

I tried to teach them a thing or two, knowing that they will soon be all but on their own in a foreign country.
It was all a little overwhelming...the amount they would need to know, so I just let 'em go at it!

I couldn't believe how fast it all got done!

Can I just tell you...
...I found myself sitting at the head of our long table with all the leaves pulled out of storage and put in... just a grinnin'.
My heart was so happy to have made this enormous meal and to see it devoured by such a large group of loved and loving people right there all in one room.
12 of us, all right there eating and laughing and talking all at one table. It was a bit of an overwhelming blessing type moment.

And, they helped with clean up too!!!

Somebody raised those boys right!!

Next on the agenda...via my children...an Epic Nerf Battle.

I once again took on the role of the roving reporter!
It is hard not to point your weapon at a moving target!!


I only got shot a few times...some of which I do believe were on purpose!!!

Boys! Guns!! Running about wild shouting...dog cowering...ha ha ha.

Mucho fun was had by all.
Well, probably not Shelby, but we weren't really expecting her to have a good time.

Dude, can you even imagine what we did next? No, you couldn't possibly!!
It was awesome. I have this other cable that came with my camera, which hooks up to the xbox, so you can watch the pictures like a slide show!!!
Who knew this was possible??
Oh...that would be my husband. He is super tech-y like that.

The running commentary was better than any theme music could have ever been.
Oh, how we laughed!
Unfortunately my children did have to go to bed, it was a school night after all, so we said our goodbyes with promises to see them at church on Sunday.

These fellows are doing a bang up job of melding into a team, working together to get things accomplished, and having fun along the way.

I am very proud to know them and be able to wish them well, with prayers for their safety and success.
Thanks AIM Team Guadalajara for a super fun day, and some great memories.


P.S. My husband says that is no watermelon, it is a sunflower! He planted it in the watermelon box anyway and just shook his head at me!! Isn't it good to be loved so unconditionally?
Yes, yes it is.

Growth Update!

Happy Friday!!!

This will be the first annual Friday garden update.


Here is what is happening this week!
Stunning delicate green bean flowers accented by leaves unfurling their curls!

Serrated leaf edging on the squash and zucchini!

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny cutest little bell peppers you ever did see.


Tight, closely bound wisteria blooms which seem to be filled with pockets of air.



Gradual opening of what will be the new focal point of my backyard wonderland.


See...so much going on!!!

So many happy, happy plants relishing their new decadent homes where water arrives everyday before the sun comes across their bow.


Oh, ho...what do we have here????

I suspect a deserter.

Look how far this watermelon plant made it before I caught onto his game.

I will be sure to tell my husband about this!!!

Color Thursday!

Photo post

Sunshine...please come out and play tomorrow so I can wear these and take some sparkly wildflower pictures.

Consider that foreshadowing!!

Sigh!!!

I am here to report some hard news!

Yes, my friends disaster has struck, not once...but twice in the last few days of my posting!!

Now, I need you to just stay calm as I walk you through this, okay?

Two of my beloved readers gently informed me of some glaring mistakes I made in a few of my posts recently.

Here is how the first one went down.

Late Monday night I was snuggled up on the couch getting ready to enjoy a cooking show, which frankly I ended up not enjoying but that is a whole 'nother thing.
My dear husband enters the room and squeezes in beside me and just sits there staring at me with a crazy eyed look and a slight grin.
I know something is up, but I am not sure what it could possibly be...but, I do know he has come from time on the computer.
He grabs the remote, pauses my show and proceeds to tell me....
"That is not a yellow bougainvillea!" Here is that original post he is referring to.

I shuffle to the image in my brain and think uuuuuuuuhhhhhh yeah it is, I mean anyone can look at that and see that it is waaaayyyyy yellow. duh!!!!

He knows what is going through my brain and his evil eye gets more cunning and his grin gets a little bigger as he holds on to his next comment for ultimate timing.

And then he lets it crash.

"No, it is not yellow...it is California Gold!"

I BURST out laughing so hard!!!
Oh how many times in this 20 years of marriage have I corrected his wrongly named color, and here he was able to boldly get one in on me!!!
He savored that!
(He had also kept the plastic tag from the plant in case he should need hard physical evidence to support his case.)
I immediately responded "ohhhhhh, then it must really be a rare variety!!

I then quoted a little sentence from that same blog that knew he probably skimmed over...
..."he wouldn't accidentally throw it away", intimating that he would in fact do it on purpose!!!
HA! That got him!
We both broke into additional fits of laughter.
Thank you God for my dear husband, who I can laugh joyously with!!

Now, take a deep breath because our next mistake was another color doozy!!
Just look at me there saying "our", as if you were party to it in the least.

Remember those pink clovers from yesterday.
Mmmm, so lovely!
Well, hmmmmm how do I break this to you?

Apparently, they were in a state of chemically induced bluster and on the way out as weeds are want to do when treated with a certain get rid of weeds product.

Did that sentence even make sense?

They were not a lovely, new to me, pink variety... they were in the throws of their death march!

laughing. out. loud.
shaking head in disbelief and muttering "lovely pink clover"
laughing out loud again at myself

I do just love that I can see something I think is gorgeous, blame it on God and form a whole little world of thankfulness around it.
I think that is a good way to live, and I am gonna keep on living like that!!!

I do make my best effort to report only truth here and appreciate genuine and gentle feedback when I do make mistakes!
Thank you to those who read and know me well enough to share those times with me in a way that has always been easy to swallow.

I guess I will be seeing you again later today when I figure out what to photograph.

I do have these to share from yesterday with a bit of artistic conversation to go along with them.
(I do forget sometimes that I am an official artist and do have something to offer in that regard.)
I said to my family the other night at dinner that I was going to ask a particular person if I could take some pictures for her, to help her in some way.
My sweet daughter immediately piped up and said...
"I dunno know Mom, so many of your pictures are blurry and bad."
She is sooooo very right!
I told her I agreed, and that is why I take so many more pictures than everyone thinks I need to.
You all don't see MOST of the pictures I take! Now my computers trash can however, gets an uncensored dump every day!!
For instance...this picture did not make the cut.

Sure it is okay...but doesn't convey what I wanted it to and the focal point is not where I wanted it to be.
I am showing it to you to point out the group of iris flowers to the left.

If you get in closer you can see that there is one bold colored one among all the white.
See, here is another photo that got sent to the trash.

I was trying to capture that one purple among the white and it just didn't work out with focus or composition.
I took 4 from varied spots all trying for the same thing. It just didn't work!
I almost threw all of them into the trash, but something about one of them caught my eye.
Just because you have and original intent when taking a picture and you don't get that... doesn't mean you have to scrap it all together.

See....

I took one of those awful mostly blurred lacking in composition pictures...scaled it way down and arrived at this...which is no failure at all.

And that is our lesson for today friends.
Keep on looking about and loving what you see, remembering who made it all!