Today's Lunch Brought to You by the Letter "T"

Tomato Soup

BLT

Sweet Tea

If you have my church's new cookbook, the recipe for my tomato soup and sweet tea are in there along with lots of other really good recipes.

Dog Care

We have a shelty, Missy, who is about seven and a half years old. For the last couple of vacations, Missy has gone to my in-laws farm to stay. She loves it there where she can run around all day outside and chase all the barn cats. But she always comes home dirty, dusty, smelly, and sometimes full of burs and other disgusting things. Normally, we take her to a groomer about four times each year for a good bath and trim. But we've neglected that duty for awhile and Missy was getting really, really, dirty. After picking her up from the farm two weeks ago, her hair was so matted and thick, I called our groomer and she said bring her in right away as she had an opening right then (a super nice benefit of living in a small town). Now she looks like this:

This is after two weeks of growth. When I first picked her up there was no color on her body, it was all white. She looked liked a sheared sheep. It has grown on us and now we love it. She is soft, we don't mind her sitting on our laps, and she doesn't shed! Missy, we think, loves it too. She has been more puppy-like in her play and prances, plays more than she had for a long time. It'll be fun to see how her hair grows out and maybe one day she'll look like this

again:

Birthday Girl

I'm 8 now!

Her meal choices for her special day:

Breakfast: Pancakes, including mickey mouse faces and one plate-size

Dinner: Spaghetti with garlic toast

Supper: Homemade Pizza

And of course we can't forget homemade ice-cream (vanilla) and:

(baked, designed, and decorated by her older sisters)

This made me laugh

(I first saw this on Pr. Koch's FB page)

The Seed is Sown

This young man in our congregation, Ethan, went off to Marine Basic training in May. Nathan wrote to him a couple of times while he was there and Ethan wrote back. Ethan's Dad, gave to Nathan the Marine recruitment books and video (boy do they know how to put on a fantastic recruitment video) which he dutifully looked through day in and day out. After graduating from basic training Ethan was home for the last weekend in July and after worship, he gave Nathan a souvenir, which despite his expression, made him glow and stand tall.

Ebb and Flow, Highs and Lows, Ups and Downs

In life there are all of these, and I'm going through the downturns.

I'm tired of my email lists.

I'm tired of blogging.

I'm ready to just ditch both, but the only thing holding me back are missing friends. But I do know that my time is needed elsewhere, and I don't have the time to participate in discussions (and frankly most of them seem to just irritate me anyway) like I should. I have no answers, only feelings, guilt being the primary one. I hate trying to make a decision and all the time I'm torn because I constantly think, "what about this?"

Laughing till Tears Stream Down

Last night, our last night with our friends, we set up our iMac in the living room to watch a little video. Afterwards we went to You Tube and watched a few Brian Regan comedic spots. One of the suggestions on the side was for Jim Gaffigan; David clicked on it and boy did we laugh. We kept clicking on the various Gaffigan videos, and one of my favorites was this one.

If you have yet to see or hear of this comedian, go search on You Tube and be sure to watch the one on Hot Pockets.

Isn't He Cute?

Look who I am playing with this week.

It is tough work, but I'll suffer through it.

Joseph turned 2 months on the 10th, and I love holding this little boy.

Wordless Wednesday

A New Cleaning Trick I Learned

While in Wittenberg, Germany two years ago, we bought:

It has graced either our table or piano top ever since. We use it and therefore, wax has dripped on the sides. I was never sure how to get it off and therefore just left it. But finally I decided I had better do something. Google to the rescue. Hair dryer and a soft cloth was all I needed. I blew hot air (with the hair dryer) on the wax to soften/melt it and then wiped it off with the soft cloth (that is what cloth diapers are best for!). Wow did it work great and shined up the candelabra so nicely.

Fishy fishy in the lake

A retired pastor in our congregation loves to fish and has graciously taken our children out for an afternoon of fishing. This past week it was Hannah and Sam, along with dad who went. Look at how well they did!

We counted them and there were 43 sunnies. Yee haw! That meant I was able to fix these delicious fish for our good friends who our visiting us this week.

Smoke

That is who I'm posing with in the picture of Wordless Wednesday, Smoke, aka Tony Stewart, the driver of:

Last weekend was our 20th high school reunion. Tony flew in and was there for most of the night. It was great to see him once again and visit with him. I first met him back in junior high, and it is so fun that he is so successful at what he has always loved to do.

Tomorrow he'll be at Watkin's Glen, a road course race, and one of our favorites to watch. He's having a great year and we hope for it to continue.

Wondering

I'm curious as to who of my readers know who I'm posing with in yesterday's Wordless Wednesday post. So leave me a message and simply say, "I know," or some such variation, without revealing who it is. I'll post who it is tomorrow or the next day for those who don't know. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday