Sunday, August 16, 2009

A Decade of Joy

Today, August 16, 2009, I have been a mom for 10 years. Those years have gone by too fast for me! How can TEN YEARS have passed already since we brought our first child, a precious daughter, home from the hospital???

I am VERY sentimental, and am thankful to reminisce over these past 10 years with our daughter - remembering the day of her birth, her first weeks and months, her first step, first words, first birthday, first time drawing with Crayons, first tooth........

Tonight as I was putting our double-digit girl to bed, and as I was stroking her hair and face as she was saying her prayers - I was remembering how I stroked her precious little face in the hospital on the day of her birth. Priceless.

Thank you Lord for choosing us to bring up this precious life to learn of You - and to teach her that You love her and have a perfect plan for her life. We cherish each and every day with her.

Enjoy these pictures of our precious daughter!

Three months old. Refused to smile at all for the camera. :-)

9 months old - one of my most favorite pictures.
We were traveling back to NC from GA, and stopped at a rest stop for lunch.
That's squash on her face - her favorite veggie (but not today!)


3 years old - playing in the leaves

6 years old - lost her first tooth

6 years old - singing in the Christmas concert at church

8th birthday - received 'Molly', her favorite American Girl for her birthday


Taken recently - playing tennis and loving it

Happy Birthday, precious daughter.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Random Pics Around Our House


We're plugging along here. No big news to tell - well, out oldest did lose another tooth this past week - and the Tooth Fairy came to visit - found her all the way over here in Gabs. The TF left Pula for her, instead of US $ though. :-)

One of these days I AM going to remember to take my camera with me so I can take pics of the area. I've found myself thinking "if only I had a camera phone, then I'd always have a camera with me". However, I cannot justify buying a phone for that purpose. My current phone works just fine. So, until my phone dies - I won't be getting a camera phone anytime soon. Wonder if I could 'accidentally' drop the phone and bust it into a million pieces, or drop it in water - or something else that would be really careless? :-)

Since I don't have anything in particular to share - thought I'd just upload some recent pics I've taken - as in today - so I'd have something to blog about.

I, sadly, do not remember the name of the type of bird in the 1st picture. I can tell you they are cinnamon in color on their tummies (the remainder of the bird is gray), have a tuft of feathers on the head and very, very long tail feathers. The bird is a common sighting around here. They hang out in our trees and eat the berries and blossoms from the trees. The bird from head to tail feathers is approximately 12" long.





The bell-shaped nest is an interesting sight. Not your typical nest. The birds enter the nest from an opening in the bottom. We've only got the one nest in our tree...but when you are out on safaris it is common to see quite a lot of these in a single tree.





This is a picture of my sweet hubby. I don't have a nickname for him for the blog like some of my friends do. Was thinking of calling him 'biker dude'. He faithfully cleans/maintains his bike from week-to-week. With all the dust around here -have to keep the bike maintained. He tries to ride his bike to/from work for several reasons: 1. It is faster than waiting in traffic to get to/from work! 2. Good exercise. 3. Saves on the fuel bill. When he started riding to/from work, he kept getting flat tires. Every day! Fellow bikers told him to get 'tubeless tires' - otherwise he'd constantly be replacing flats. The thorns around here are like nails and puncture a tire in a second. The next photo is a plug for the tubeless tire system he uses. Works great!

















Told you I took random photos. This is of our 'handy dandy' generator. It is HUGE! I think it's been used about 4 times since installation. We don't have to do a thing - the generator comes on automatically after power has been off for about 10 seconds - then shuts itself off once power has been restored. I so appreciate this device.





The wall behind the sunflowers is about 8 feet tall - to give you an idea of how tall these plants are already - and they're still growing!! Can't wait for the sunflowers to bloom! (Mom - these are from the seeds you sent!)
Hope we can harvest some of the seeds to EAT - and to plant more sunflowers.










Something the gardener planted. Don't know what it is called - but the orange flowers are a treat to see. Love the color it adds around our house!













Calla lillies - also planted by the gardener. He's always surprising me with what he plants.

Yes - I do believe WINTER is over for us - and that spring is here!!! All the blossoming flowers and splashes of color are beautiful!

Have a great week!