Monday, June 27, 2011

Every Day Things - My Truck

The mundane things of life sometimes become the most interesting.

Something we often take for granted in our modern world is reliable transportation. Back in May, the Lord blessed me with just that! A 1987 Ford F-350. I'll post some pictures below.


Old Red

1987 Ford F-350, 6.9 litre International IDI Diesel, short bed, short cab, with a 4 / 60 A/C! (four windows at 60 mph!)

 Old style 4-speed Manual

One of the first "real" loads it has hauled, about 2,500 lbs of wood ...

 ...But this thing's suspension is made to haul!

It did put quite a strain on it, though! (Note the white tool box that one of my neighbors gave me).

Friday, June 24, 2011

Of Kittens, Flowers and Friends

On Wednesday, Caleb, Jaden and I went to our friends the W.'s. We hadn't seen most of them since March and last November, so, it was nice to visit with them again. :)


Elisha, Deborah, Jaden and I played a game called "Blokus" which is similar to "Chinese Checkers".-- Sort of. Kind of.

One of the three kittens the W.'s have. Is is not adorable? I'm afraid that I didn't take photos of the other kittens, but I took this one because this kitten reminded me of  Carson (our long-lost kitty). These kittens are about 7-weeks-old.


Contemplating

Milkweed



Greenfinch and Wendy

Stephen :)

My lil' bud

Deborah, wearing the headband I made for her

Bein' silly
Up close of the headband I made for Debs


Group portrait -- sorry this photo is a bit blurry; those kids have boundless energy! <3




Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dad's 50th Birthday!

Our dear Dad's birthday was just a couple of days ago, and it was his Golden Birthday: 50 years old!  He requested hamburgers for his birthday meal, which we had on Saturday for supper.  By the way, we got our hamburger patties from The Local Yocal, a store in Downtown McKinney, which you should go to if you live in the area.  They sell awesome tasting and good for you meat (beef, chicken, pork & lamb), and it's all local!  Check them out on Facebook also.  Anyway, we had delicious hamburgers for Saturday's supper.  I think I can say with confidence that they were THE BEST hamburgers I've ever had.   Maybe I'm biased.  =) 

Here it is: THE BEST HAMBURGER IN THE WORLD!!!  We used 7-grain sprouted English muffins 'buns'.  They worked great!
The table before everyone got a burger on their plate.
On Sunday (Father's Day), we had our Grandma and Great-Grandma (Dad's Mom & Grandma), and our Aunt & Uncle and cousins over for lunch.  Dad knew they were coming, but he didn't know what was happening later on that afternoon.  Around 3:30 some of the folks from our church started arriving, and he eventually found out that they came as a surprise for his birthday.  We served cake and ice cream, and had fun visiting with folks from church, as well as other friends and our family.  Good times don't last long enough, though, as everyone was gone by 8pm (yes, we would have loved to have them here till 10pm, at least!). =)  Dad seemed to enjoy the day, and we hope he was blessed and encouraged by his surprise 'party'.  We love you, Dad!!

ALDEN'S ICE CREAM!!!!  Yep, the best ice cream in the world!!  Try it out, you may wish you had... =)
Playing Apples-to-Apples.  Fun, fun, fun. 
  
Dad greets our friends, the P. family.

Dad saying goodbye to some church folks who came by for the party. 

The guys had some good conversation...
 
And here we see 4 smiling young ladies.  "Why are they smiling?'', you ask.  I answer,  "because they just had Alden's ice cream, of course!'' =)

Little Jordan enjoying his ice cream.  He smiled nicely for me while I took his picture.
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Father's Day!  We did, that's for sure! 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Timber!!

Sunday evening Mom prays that she will wake up early on Monday morning.  Well, God answered her prayer in a very unusual way.  Around 4:30 she and Dad were awakened by a very strange noise.  They looked out the window and saw a very peculiar sight indeed.



Yep.  That's right, one of our trees in our front yard came crashing down (one half of it).  Thankfully it was the half that was toward the street, and it missed hitting our old brown suburban by inches.  To say the least, we have plenty of work on our hands.  Caleb, our friend, Jaden & I worked for several hours on Monday morning/afternoon to get it cut off, as well as the other half of the tree.  Now our front yard is filled with limbs, sticks and huge logs.  More work to be done...









A Plea From Hosea

     "Come, and let us return to the LORD;
      For He has torn, but He will heal us;
      He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
      Let us know,
      Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.
      His going forth is established as the morning;
      He will come to us like the rain,
      Like the latter and former rain to the earth."

Hosea 6:1,3

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Photos from God's Creation

Of course, I had to take some more photos of our lovely zinnias... and other plants! :)

Lovely Birthday roses


 This was taken on our way back from the conference last weekend

Shamrocks I love the shape of them! --Three hearts attached to each other. :)

Dried roses from a bouquet Dad gave to Mom

Does anyone know the name of these flowers?



A new zinnia in our garden

Pretty 'n' pink

Corn

I love this shade pink!

Antiques

Stars




Jaden's grapevine


I used to know the name of this plant, but I forgot. Does anyone know the name of it? I really think it would be so pretty in a wedding bouquet! :)

Pole-beans

Calendula by our mailbox :)