Ten on Tuesday

1. Well, this has been One. Long Week. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Tuesday morning Drew calls on his way to work saying he thinks he’s having an appendicitis attack – but needs to work a few hours anyway…[Gotta love the work ethic; he lasted about two hours.] After many tests / scans, fast forward to 6:30 that evening and he’s being wheeled to a room after surgery… [He’s re-cooping well and actually went to work yesterday.] We have some photos – but I’ll refrain from sharing them here…I"m not even sure they will go on a scrapbook page...
2. After that long day we ran home to quickly pick up a few things for the overnight hospital stay [namely for Drew: some movies on his thumb drive to watch on his computer – yes, we love technology…]
3. And I was [sweetly] surprised to see a new [old] glider setting in the back yard – a real glider! LOVE IT. I walked up the hill to take a quick sit, but didn’t fully enjoy it until the weekend. [Plan to have it powder painted for luxurious smoothness.] Did I say I loved it? And my sweetie husband who found it for me?
4. While out and about in our yard the mosquitoes try to eat me alive – but never bother Craig – he did, however, have a HUGE horsefly on his back [at least two inches!!] I killed it [yes!] and was all smug thinking, “I’ll take the mosquitoes over THAT any day,” only to later realize IT DID BITE ME – TWICE.
5. And if you’ve ever had a horsefly bite you know exactly the kind of pain I was in [again, even though it was on Craig, he has no bite or resulting pain. Go figure.] Mine swelled to the size of ping pong balls [SERIOUSLY] and hurt like the devil. Thank goodness we hade some benadryl spray handy and after using it several times a day for several days - it’s over. The last time I had a horsefly bite it took A MONTH to go away…
6. Remember those muscadines we got in Georgia? I juiced them down one evening and made jelly [so easy with sure-jell] on a couple of other evenings. DONE – about three dozen pints. Yum. And so clear and pretty, if I might say so myself.
7. The weather has been in the mid 90*s with humidity below 90% and we all feel like it’s ‘fall’ when in reality THIS is what I think summer should feel like! It’s been a nice break from the 100*+ temps we’ve had for the last 60 days or so…
8. I still have tomatoes [& basil] in the garden and have enjoyed bacon and tomato sandwiches, bruschettta, and a caprese salad or two all week. Wonderful!
9. I also enjoyed an early morning drive to Montgomery on Friday. [I really do love driving early in the day – but the all day meetings, and then the drive back, leave me exhausted.]
10. And Matt is all settled in his new place at AU. Reports they pooled their money and bought a lawn mower. We know he’s going to have a great time living with guys he’s been good friends with since middle school.

fbp Monthly challenge - August

Okay! Here's my take on the August Challenge, found HERE.

[And if you've looked in the slide show lately you'll notice that I've tweaked it a bit since it was posted there. I don't know, I just kept looking at it and thinking it needed a little something - more. Have you every done that with a completed layout?]
Not a great photo of the layout - but my camera batteries are being re-charged

and I don't have time to wait on them.
[photo of our nephew's son, taken by his mother- ]
I hope you enjoyed the challenge - would love to see your work,
just link here in the comments or send me an email!

IMO & Comments on Comments

Thanks for all the comments! I’m afraid I’ve been so busy this week that I have no time to condense my opinions on recent happenings to share with you – except one: In my opinion - don’t take everything you read on the internet as God’s honest truth! I’ve been making muscadine jelly and have found several different recipes that differ drastically with the juice to sugar ratio – craziness that could result in a lot of wasted sugar / juice and TIME – not that I know, because fortunately I caught this discrepancy before I started mixing – and I now have 22 jars of jelly that’s yummy!

So onto the comments – really, THANKS!!- About my openly sharing my beliefs – I may have shared this before – but when I was young and just starting work I met a couple of women a few years older than me and we discussed witnessing at work and one of them said something that has always stuck with me – “If I have a relationship with God and He is my friend , then I just naturally share with others the things He does for me.” And it’s so true! If I have a daily relationship with my Lord then it’s only natural that THAT relationship will flow out in my conversations….
SIL made the cute duck party hats using her circuit and the band is made like a giant chewing gum chain [how fun is THAT?!?] – It’s going on a scrapbook page FOR SURE. She did a great job!

Hope – thanks for the comments on the devotional / quote posts. I’ve always loved Corrie ten Boon SO MUCH. Have any of you read her books? They’re wonderful!
I love my Sunflowers too, but I planted seeds saved from last year and they weren’t quite as big as I’d hoped – so next year? New seeds. I’d love to share with anyone who lives closer [tomatoes too! Oh, and banana peppers – I LOVE to grow them, but we don’t eat them so much.] Congrats on your first garden Jennifer! – so fun, isn’t it? The ‘I’m a Keeper’ Shirt is priceless, especially since I think the dude wearing it looks like kewpie doll.

Aah, Marianne – I’ve thought of rescuing a rabbit, but you see, I have some fox that live in my backyard [crazy, I know since we really are right in town – I could walk to my dentist, grocery store, vet, and a couple of places to eat -- ] and I know one would tear out the cage to eat it –
Thanks for the comments on the beach photos – We. Love. The. Gulf. And despite what you might hear, most of the beaches have been oil free since the end of June [I’ve been to Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, and Panama City since then and seen them personally.] Go on down and ENJOY! It’s the ecosystem that’s really hurting from the oil…

Kelly sas – that painting? I learned a little trick at Inspired last year – take tracing paper and trace out what you want to paint, flip it over and rub it on your canvas and then paint away! That flower was straight off Donna Downey’s site, with my own touches on it, of course.
Donna – LOVED what you shared about the fig tree – you should do a scrapbook page with this story – great memories! The cuttings we got from a friend’s house are budding out! I may have TOO MANY FIGS soon – ha.

I should show y’all the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the barn photo – it’s a little washed out in real life – but I always love to see it’s reflection in the pond on my early morning drives to Montgomery. [Just a quick 'picnik' pick me up did the trick!]

EVERYONE – PLEASE! If you complete a monthly challenge let me know where I can see it – or put it in the Flickr site – I love seeing how everyone has a different idea about how to do the same thing!!

And lastly, the slideshow of my layouts moves around a bit on the blog – and I try to update the content every month or so. I scrap A LOT, but then, I’m an empty-nester… and, it’s my therapy!

Ten on Tuesday

1. We’ve had lots of rain this week – with those great big billowing thunderclouds that let loose in the late afternoons. Very nice way to cut the heat of these 100*+ days, and also nice for the garden.
2. Dried tomatoes again this week – yum. LOVE THEM. I could eat them like raisins. My bigger tomatoes are finally making – but the stink-bugs like them as much as I do – so I had to pull out the 7-dust. [Whatever it takes to protect my tomatoes!]
3. Craig and I started our weekend with the Art Stroll on the Square downtown on Thursday evening. I did see some fun artsy things – but it was mostly jewelry this time ‘round. [I bought a pair of cute earrings -handmade for 6 bucks...]
4. Then we headed over to Atlanta for the weekend to celebrate our 27^th [YES!] anniversary. We enjoyed meals at Papadeaux and The Varsity, and ate at Top of the River in Anniston on our way home Saturday evening. Delish.
5. We shopped at Ikea [FUN!], Garden Ridge, and a few other places and Craig found some just-picked muscadines and a fig tree ready to plant in our yard. Yippee!
6. It was just so nice to be together, away from the every-dayness of life, to share and laugh and dream and reminisce. I’m blessed to be married to my best friend.
7. I also enjoyed a little scrapbook time when I met some friends to take a class with Debby Schuh. [She is so sweet and always – always—puts together the neatest classes. Good to see Becky and Gloria and it was nice to visit with Debby too! So glad she makes the effort to teach classes in the South. – Thanks Debby! And Sweet Memories!]
8. I’m trying so hard to get into a regular house-cleaning routine! I’m usually so organized, but now that I don’t have to keep up with school or sports schedules it seems I’ve just let things go nilly-willy. But I’m determined to Get. It. Together. The upstairs will be de-cluttered this week!
9. And I’ve been working on our next class over on the Yahoo Group FaithBasedPagesClasses; it’s called Faithbooking 101: The Basics; I’m looking forward to hearing everyone share together as we go through it. Class starts September 7^th.
10. The week was complete when we found an old metal glider [*vintage*, ya know] for only $25 [we’ve been pricing them for a few months now and this was a STEAL] so we jumped in the car and made the drive to pick it up! Can’t wait to have it all prettied and painted! Love it already!

Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway

Thanks so much for all of your comments throughout the month!
It's so fun to share together and
I love hearing your thoughts on some of things I put out there.
I appreciate each of you taking the time to stop by and visit!

I've subscribed to two monthly kits now
[and am getting a third one for the next few months with my 'winnings' - yippee!]
and try as I might to use it all,

I [still] have a bunch of stuff to give away!-
and I'm really tired of seeing the OMG abbreviation everywhere
[I try hard to make my mind read 'oh my goodness!]
So am hoping that we might also come to think of it as a

'Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway!

I plan to randomly draw a name from the comments on this post and send that person a little bag of [old stuff] goodies that hopefully they can use
[new to them and all, you know...]
And another little note - I've moved to the flat rate box
so I can pack it FULL each month!
[Just ask some of the previous recipients!]

- To enter -just browse through the blog and leave a comment about
your favorite post from AUGUST.
Comments will close on August 31st at midnight [central.]

The Winner for July is:
Karen AKA Soccerboyzmom
- send your mailing address to me: Judy@faithbasedpages.com

and I'll get a little box of goodies out to you soon!

Those who know me well know that I’m not ‘into’ theology. While I may have some peripheral beliefs about theological stuff – my strongest belief is that none of that matters if you have a relationship with Christ. You see, I’m not so much into knowing about God as I am into learning how to know God.

Where do you feel the Lord’s presence the strongest? Is it at church when singing praise songs to Him? Is it when sharing openly and deeply with others of how He carries us through the trials of life? Is it in the silence of your quiet place [wherever that might be]? Or is it when you’re out in the nature He so beautifully crafted for us, His people, to enjoy?

I believe that if we KNOW God – have a relationship with Him, then we will feel His presence in all those areas – and, in a crowded amusement park, rush-hour traffic, and scary [yet majestic] tornado weather. In work meetings, and hospitals, and airplanes with screaming babies.

He is everywhere – and if we know Him, truly have a relationship with Him, then we will feel His presence and share with Him as we go throughout our day-to-day. I love my extended alone time with my Lord – time when I have the luxury to just sit with Him for an hour or more, but I love sharing with Him – recognizing His presence – in the ‘little’ moments throughout the day.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Oops! I think Poly is really PAULy. Ha. [Took a little look-see when playing with him last week.] He’ll start spending afternoons outside this week.
2. Many know that I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED CATS, but few people know that as I’ve gotten older I’ve developed allergies to them [go zyrtec!] I’ve just about had all I can take with the cat hair in the upstairs part of our house.
3. We’re finishing up the fig season and I think Craig now appreciates having someone hold the ladder steady for him. – I’m just sayin’
4. I finally got the old manual lawn mower from Mama’s house and now our grass is mostly dead from the heat so I haven’t been able to use it. Dratz.
5. Jalapeño poppers [made by Drew with our home-grown peppers] + IBS = One. Long. Week. I only ate one and it was good, but not worth this.
6. We still have tomatoes.
7. Bacon and tomato sandwiches are one of my all-time favorite foods. Yum.
8. It was only in the high 80*s on Sunday and I almost got a sweater out – lol. So tired of these 100* + temps!
9. I am LOVING being a part of a scrapbook group that meets regularly right here in town [THANKS LORI!!] This collage is of pages I’ve completed in the last week [not all photos taken by me, I scrap extended family members on occasion to put in my heritage album.And you can see that I still do 3 'event' albums - hot air balloons- one for me, & one each for the boys.]
10. We enjoyed getting together with family again this weekend. Since none of us live in the same town it’s always nice when we all make the effort.

The tree on the mountain takes
whatever the weather brings.
If it has any choice at all,
it is in putting down roots as
deeply as possible.
from - "Each New Day"

fbp Monthly challenge - August

Title –Refreshment

Photo[s] – icecream or popsicles

Papers – your choice, but use at least one patterned paper

Colors - summer colors - what does that mean to YOU?

Embellishments – buttons and paper clips

Technique – use magic mesh / dry wall tape / produce bag as a 'mask' to paint on your paper [or use any of it directly ON your page]

Scripture / Inspirational Thought – True refreshment comes from the Lord. - Acts 3:19

Projects are due by the last day of the month. Please post your layout in our FBP Flickr Group and post a comment here to let me know where to see your completed layout.

A winner will be randomly chosen from those who complete the challenge.

If we have at least five participate the winner will receive their choice of a brand new mini album from My Mind’s Eye, a fiskars cutting system [opened, never used], or a cropidile [slightly used.]

Come on, Scissors Up! Scrap on –

Here’s little something we’ve had in our house for a while now. It’s a favorite of mine -

I love old windows – something about them reminds me of my grandmother’s back porch with removable windows where we would spend hours playing. So when I found this one I knew I wanted to use it in the house somehow – I cleaned it up a bit [no re-painting] and I love that I was able to take some “everyday” photos of my boys and have black and white copies enlarged to put in each area. [These were color photos and were done at copy store – before I had a scanner, for just a dollar or so per copy.] It hangs in the hallway between their bedrooms.

Directly over the sewing machine that I first learned to sew on [it belonged to my great – great grandmother & was in my grandmother’s home. Guess they thought I couldn’t sew over my fingers too much since there was no electricity involved.]

Ten on Tuesday

1. My cotton is blooming! And this isn’t just any old cotton; it’s BROWN. Meaning the cotton bolls will not be white. So fun! I planted some green too, but it’s not growing so well.
2. Simple things make me happy [or maybe little things can REALLY annoy me! Lol] So happy that Craig drilled two little holes in my lens cap so I can attach it my camera again [the little piece that was holding the strap broke sometime while we were at the beach - I’m so used to opening it up and letting it pop off without having to hold it…]
3. And so happy to have a new mouse for our computer upstairs [where I do most of my photo uploading / editing, and playing of solitaire - ha] that works THE WAY IT SHOULD.
4. Figs – FIGS everywhere! It’s been fun making FROG jam 5 / 7 days last week! And now that we’ve found a tree where we can pick our own, we plan to do a couple of more batches – I think I’m going to add some jalapeño to one batch – yum! [Think: fruity salsa, or pepper jelly.] Now I’m on the hunt for muscadines. And I may do a couple of little jars of pickles.
5. Okay – I’ve resisted talking about it because I know that back in January [with weeks & weeks of temps below 30*] I was wishing for it – but we’re having some oppressive heat here in the south, y’all. And, I’m. Tired. Of. It. Day after day of 103* zaps my energy level so fast.
6. We’re enjoying our house as much as we did 7 years ago when we first moved in. [Doesn’t the time fly by?] Love being right in the city, yet having an acre to hear the crickets and cicadas lull us to sleep. Fox and raccoons? Not so much -
7. And we HAVE noticed a significant decline in our lightening bugs. I miss seeing them fill the air each evening.
8. And there’s that little downstairs bathroom problem – hopefully you’ll be hearing more about this in the weeks to come. [Old house = old plumbing.]
9. Poly [our new kitty] likes us now [she REALLY likes us!] – but she’s still so very skittish of noises. And she keeps us up at night wanting to play in between her little ‘cat naps.’ We’ll both be happy when she moves out of our room.
10. Loved [[loved]] being with family this weekend as we celebrated Mk’s 2^nd birthday at her house with my family [and her other grandparents] and had lunch with Craig’s parents at a favorite place in Decatur [with HUGE stuffed potatoes!] We cherish our family time! I think MK looks so much Kelly! But [I think] she definitely has Joey's eyes - and didn't Kelly do a great job on the cake?!?

The Top Ten Lessons I Learned From Charlie Brown #8

8. Big dreams lead to big things!

Snoopy was the biggest dreamer of them all, but his wild imagination often led to even wilder, more fantastic adventures in real life. Snoopy knew that you must have a big dream if you are going to lead a big life.

Submitted by Jim Allen, a personal & business success coach, who can be reached at Jim@CoachJim.com, or visited on the web at http://www.CoachJim.com.Jim Allen wants you to know: Charles Schulz taught me much through his daily work. Now, I hope to return the favor in some small way.

Anyone who has driven south on I-65 from Huntsville to Birmingham has seen this beautiful barn at the Warrior exit. I finally took the time to snap a few photos on my way to work in Montgomery early one morning. It's been enhanced a bit [?!] with "picnik" and I really love how it turned out. -

A little joy for my early morning drives -

[This layout was created for the Amazing Scrap Race over on Life Preservers' site - using Tim Holtz new papers that I bought at Michael's]

Ten on Tuesday

1. Wow! I won the Amazing Scrap Race over on the Life Preserver’s Kit Club site. – With my busy schedule, my only goal was to complete the layout / photo challenge each week for the eight week ‘race.’ – eight weeks of ridiculous travel and summer fun, I might add. Being committed to something week after week is very difficult for me and I never expected to win. The prize I received was incredibly generous & I’m using it to get the alternate kit for the next few months. How fun is that?
2. I love scrapbook kits! I’m just so not a shopper and I love that someone else shops and coordinates it all before sending it to me each month. And I visited BOTH Michael's and Joann’s this week and couldn’t find anything I just had to have… because I get such wonderful stuff right in my mail box each month!
3. I had to work out / town on my birthday so it was so sweet of Craig to gather some friends for an impromptu dinner celebration before I left.
4. While I was gone I read contract proposals in very uncomfortable chairs for three days in Montgomery [wheee!] & I have a bruise on the back of my calf from the chair [seriously! – I’m not used to sitting without a break All. Day. Long.]
5. It’s harvest time! We pulled out the dehydrator and made “sun” dried tomatoes [yum-eee] and I also harvested a ton of basil and made a couple of batches of pesto – all in the freezer waiting to be used. [Except for the one little bag of tomatoes that Drew and I are munching on – and the bag of pesto in the fridge waiting for pasta tonight.]
6. Last year we bought a jar of FROG jam in South Carolina and I’ve loved it ever since. Craig ordered some on-line and we’ve devoured it – so I’ve decided we must make our own! He bought some figs from a lady with a sign outside her house [‘Figs for sale’ – ha.] And I’ve made a couple of batches already. Can you guess what the other ingredients might be?
7. Now we have a goal of propagating a fig ‘tree’ of our own. Wonder how long it would take to for it to produce figs?
8. Played with some photos this week and love [love] how well the clouds / beach photo turned out in the post below. Isn’t God’s creation awesome?!?
9. I’ve not mentioned it here, but my favorite cat [Cream – the yellow tabby seen in lots of photos in the past] disappeared [more than] a few months back – so I’ve been wanting a new kitten all summer. I was thrilled when a new friend [Mom to one of Matt’s good friends from Auburn] had some to adopt. She shared photos and Matt stopped by to pick up this little lump of sugar on his way back from AU Sunday night.
10. I could tell from the photos that at least one of the siblings had cRaZy feet [my term, of course – otherwise known as polydactyl – Hemingway cats] but hadn’t looked closely enough to see that she had them too. Seriously – looks like a baseball mitt. But I think she’s adorable! Any suggestions for a name?

I don’t walk around in a naïve little bubble of happiness.

But, a little about magic.

[If we look for it]

there it is,

there it can be,

in so many moments of our lives.

[And] I don’t want to miss out on any of it.

So, I pay attention.

I wait,

and I watch closely for it.

Discovering…

I talk about it when I see it…

when I feel it… because, I. Live. For. It.

Who doesn’t want to point out a rainbow when you see one? – Tara Whitney

----------------------------------------------

Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God!
Take the glory! the honor! the power!
You created it all;
It was created because you wanted it.

– Revelation 4:11 [The Message]

[Thank you Lord, for sharing the beauty of Your creation with me.

- photo taken in Panama City Beach July 24, 2010; edited with picnik]