God's enduring promise

One day last week we had some storms come through our area. They actually missed our town by about 5 miles. We live on the far south west end of town and could stand in our yard and watch these huge black clouds move through the area. Massive ligtening & thunder was produced & we watched in awe.

When it was all said & done this beautiful double rainbow was produced. It was also a full rainbow. Such a beauty can only make me reflect on one thing: God.

Happy Birthday Mandy!

YIKES! I now have 2 children with double digits for their age. Yes.... yes.... I am getting "old". Anyway, this post is not about me, but Mandy.

10 years ago I was 5 days overdue with child number 2. We knew she was a girl & we knew we would name her Mandy after my childhood & best friend Mandy. My mom & I went shopping at Shop Ko when I first felt labor pains. Since I was induced with Angel I wasn't sure if what I was feeling were really contractions. We kept shopping.

I knew that if indeed I was in labor & would be going to the hospital that once I got there they would not let me eat. So I insisted we go to lunch & we stopped at Fazoli's. I kept having my contractions, noting each one to my mom. They were getting a lot more noticable. FOOD, though was more important at the time. As we are finishing we decide we better go home, get my bags & head to the hospital. On our way out of the restaurant I had a big contraction that stopped me dead in my tracks, right there in the parking lot. Phew!

Once at the hospital I labored on my own just fine. It turns out that was to be the only time I labored on my own without the aid of any meds. At about 6 p.m. it was time to be pushing. I assured Jim that there was plenty of video on the camera for the event. But in an instant I let out a blood curling scream & the camera clicked off. God knew, what was going to happen. It was awful. She was stuck. Medically known as shoulder dystocia. Look it up, it will make you squirm.

I'll leave out the other gory details & jump ahead to 6 minutes later & Mandy was born. Any dr. or medical person I know who has heard the full story & details tells me, it's a miracle that Mandy is not only alive, but that she also survived the event with no ill effects.

I always say that from the minute Mandy tried to come out she was all about drama, my little drama queen that she is today. She's our spunky gal. We love her so much! Happy birthday Mandy!

garden

I have a garden. Let me stress the I since I do about 99.9% of the work. I do on occasion send the kids out to weed. Being a bit of a controll freak though, I'd rather just do it myself. It's not a very big garden, about 15 feet long by 7 wide. A kitchen garden is what it's referred to. Just enough produce for our family & maybe some to give away. I've never canned anything before. This year we have rhubarb, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, green pepper, jalepeno peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantalope & watermelon.

So far I've picked 3 big cucumbers from the garden. They were perfect! I also brought in all the rhubarb & made a delicious dessert with some strawberries too. There is a lot of other stuff coming in, but not ready to be picked. In the next few weeks I think we'll have produce coming out of our ears. I'll give away what I don't use for ourselves. And there will be plenty of things I won't need to buy from the store for awhile.

This cucumber is from my garden. Taken right before I plucked it & ate it up.

A new roof

We are sporting a new roof on our house. We've been home owners for many years to more than one house, but have never taken on such a big home improvement project. Voorhees Siding & Window was the company we used. All we know of the actual roofing crew was Salvador, the leader. We are highly satisfied with both the company and the workers. They did an excellent job and did many things to make the whole process go very smoothly. Below you will find a slide show of all the pics I took in the process.

friends

We got together recently to bid farewell to some long time friends, Doug & Jen Schneider. We hosted them along with Bill & Mary Spillman. We had a great night of food & fun. The kids greatly outnumbered the adults and ran all over the house & in the yard. We are blessed to have such good friends.