Fourth of July Fun!!

This is Faith and her friend Gabe who we bumped into on the bluff by our house when we went on it to watch the fireworks. They were so cute together. They oooohed and ahhhhed it was PRICELESS!

Check out these balloons! LOL

The 4th was a beautiful day this year and we did water balloons and Faith had such a great time!

Joe and I at Al Quaal

Carol and Ken enjoying the picnic at Al Quaal, boy was it quiet out there this year!

Look at this movie star pose~

Some of the parade watchers

I love this picture of Bob and Faith

Faith getting ready to catch some candy..... She was a little shy this year and sat in Nana's lap a lot with all of the sirens. But everyone still threw her candy. Lindsey and I were the ones who had to pick it up! Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th like we did!!

Sweet!

Prayers please...

My wonderful friend Marcia Solberg, who many of you know and who is now a pastor in Negaunee needs your prayers. Today she had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst and received a cancer diagnosis. I don't have much more information than that for now. I'll be visiting her tomorrow ... she's at a hospital in Green Bay ... and I hope to find out more info. Marcia is one of the most amazing people I know. She was my mom's dearest friend and has been such a source of strength for me and is a loving friend. Her faith is amazing and when I spoke to her the night before her surgery she, as usual, was concerned for me and how I was handling this. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.
Love, Joy

The Icebox

I'm in Atlanta right now with Mom & Dad but Carrie sent this picture via text message to me yesterday! The Icebox has arrived! From what I can tell it was probably best that I wasn't there to witness this great event as it took several hours for the delivery men to get it in. They had to disassemble the whole thing after my contractor insisted that it was not going back. We've waited since mid May for this fridge to arrive (It is the MOST popular model of fridge right now)! Yeah! It's finally here. By the way - it's not blue - that's just the protective coating that gets peeled off after final installation. I love peeling it off - very satisfying!!

Successful Surgery!

Dad in his paper gown! Ready to go - let's get this knee surgery over.

Yes, this is the leg to operate on!

Happy as a clam - it's all over!

Dad was able to walk on his leg without crutches. He is recuperating at home now for a couple of days. Right now he is getting a healthy does of People's Court. Who knew?

Smile!

Adam is a happy boy today! He got his braces! He's missing one of his "grown-up" front teeth so he has two big gaps which he is a bit self conscious of. He's been looking forward to today for months and counting down the days. He has such a fantastic smile and I'm excited that he's happy to show it off!

The grande finale...Happy Birthday, Linda!

More Birthday pictures

Saving Grace

It is plain ol' hot here in Detroit. This has been my saving grace! Yes, I am not ashamed to have a blow up pool in my backyard. Furthermore, I am not ashamed to invite people over to enjoy the pool with me! It's been delightfully refreshing.

free-duhm

free-duhm –noun (1) the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

The Detroit Zoological Society

I had a really fun day on Friday with my friends' two girls.  We went to the Detroit Zoo to see the animals.  It was a hot hot hot day so I wasn't sure it we would have too much activity but much to my surprise we had some great up-close glimpses!  First we rode the train to the back of the Zoo.  We had a picnic lunch (apples, bananas, yogurt, pbj's, and jelly lifesavers)

   I thought the back end looked just as cool as the front end!

We saw the hippo really close up.  He was just wading under water trying to keep cool!  What a crazy looking animal.

The rhinos slept in the shade.

I think this zebra's stripes are very beautiful.  It is definitely a different species from the ones I see in Africa.

 This Gorilla came right up to the window and looked

at the beautiful human exhibit on the other side.

The girls were pretty intrigued. 

The original train engine hearty All-American Chevy!!

Happy Birthday Linda!!

We all had a wonderful time at Linda's Birthday yesterday at Al Qual! We did have a few rain drops but we are all troopers!

mmmmm yummy cake

Carol made a homemade Red Velvet cake and it was soooooo good!!

We were singing Happy Birthday!

What a wonderful picnic we had yesterday. Yummy hot dogs, salads, chips, homemade lemonaide, and the cake. Hope you had a wonderful Birthday Linda! We sure had fun!!

Happy Birthday Lovely Linda!

L: Lovely Librarian

I: Intelligent Industrious

N: Noble Nurturer

D: Doll & Dahl

A: Angelic Admirable

June 31st Declaration

I'm declaring today June 31st which means that there is one extra day of summer and we are not getting any closer to *c*o*l.  I don't say s*h*o* during the summer.  Anyone found saying *c*o*l will pay a severe penalty. 

Here are the girls in front of the pine tree. I took a picture of them when they were much younger in front of this tree and the tree was much smaller too. The tree is getting too big for the space so it will have to be cut down. The tree was a seedling that Lindsey had gotten from school in 5th grade.


This is the finished denim quilt I made for Pete. It is very warm!

Wishing everyone a very HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! We will miss you all!

Love, Debbie

I Love Picasa - It's How I Make My Collages!

Joy & Carol asked how I make my collages.  Good Question!!  I use Picasa which is a free picture management system from google.  It has so many great features:

1. Picture Management:  sorting, cataloging, etc.
2. Face Recognition:  You can identify a face and Picasa will search your photos for other instances of these faces.  So far, Alaina has won the "most pictures" award in my stash of photos.  Impressive for only being 2 years old!! 
3. Collaborative Albums:  We can share albums, embed albums, e-mail albums, etc.
4. Geotagging:  You can map out where your photos were taken.
5. Photo Album Synchronization:  Always keep on online back up of your photos.  I do pay for extra space every year for our blog and for my mountain of photos.
6. Tags:  You can tag, sort, and search your photos
7. Photo Editing:  Enhance all of your photos.
8. Photo Collaging:  Make several different type of photo collages (picture pile, mosaic, blocked, etc.)

Here is a quick tutorial I found on YouTube on how the collages are made!

Yogi Baby

Addison's new moniker:  Yogi Baby
Turns out this is a real yoga pose called none other than "Happy Baby!"
See for yourself:

Uncovering June's Last Blooms

After being in Chicago and then Toronto my garden was in much disarray.  Weeds were climbing everywhere and the grass was out of control.  It took a full day of work to get it back into some order.  It still needs some more attention but it is on the mend.  My "Mr. Stripey" heirloom tomato is seriously ill.  It is my absolutely favorite type of tomato so I will do everything I can to nurse it back to health.  There were some new blooms, though, when I arrived.  It was exciting to uncover them.

Red Hot Fire Poker/Torch Lilly
Family: Asphodelaceae (as-foh-del-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Kniphofia (nip-HOFF-ee-uh)
Species: uvaria (oo-VAR-ee-uh)

 

Shasta Daisy
Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)
Genus: Leucanthemum (lew-KANTH-ih-mum)
Species: x superbum (soo-PER-bum)

Balloon Flower

Family: Campanulaceae (kam-pan-yew-LAY-see-ee)

Genus: Platycodon (plat-ee-KO-don)

Species: grandiflorus (gran-dih-FLOR-us)

Purple Cone Flower

Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee)

Genus: Echinacea (ek-in-AY-shee-a)

Species: purpurea (pur-PUR-ee-uh)

Plant Classification credit to Dave's Garden

Happy Campers!

Today we dropped the boys off at Crossways Camp ... our church camp. They were so excited to go and also brought their buddy Erick along. Can you believe he's Isaac's age? He's such a great kid!

Crossways has a very special place in my heart as it is the camp that I went to every year from the summer I turned 10 though high school and then I spent three amazing summers on staff there during college. My camp counselors had a huge impact on my faith journey and who I am today. It feels like going home each time I go.

The house is too quiet tonight but I know the boys are having a wonderful time! I can't wait to hear all their stories and am looking forward to them teaching me some great new camp songs to use in Sunday School this year!