somewhere over the rainbow

Can you see it? Actually, can you see both of them? We were all standing on the pier at Four Seasons and looked up to see a huge rainbow. Of course, I had my camera and snapped a shot. You can see the big rainbow (just not the color variations) and if you squint and look just to the right, you can see the second rainbow. What you can't see in this picture is that the rainbow's colors were reversed. It was so cool. The big rainbow ended with one color and the little rainbow started with that color. God's creation is awesome!!

My "boy"

Glenn was home for just a few days . . .he graduated from Auburn in August and has now moved to Mobile. Anyone have any job opportunities in Mobile? (Master's in Exercise Science) He is fast and furiously looking for a job and LOVING the fact that he is 35 minutes from the gulf. Glenn's great uncle John sent him a funny card (with a treat inside) and I told Uncle John that I would snap a picture as Glenn opened the card . . .so here it is. (Of course, Uncle John does not read my blog so he's not going to see this picture!) I feel so blessed to be the mom of two wonderful young adults. Now that Glenn is getting married, I can't believe that I'll be "mom" to three!

This and That

Since I'm off on Fridays, that is my day to run all of my errands. You can see that I had my priorities in order by my first stop . . .the ABC store (for those of you not in Alabama . . .Alabama Beverage Control ... liquor store). I actually don't go to the liquor store very often - we don't keep "hard" liquor in the house much - don't know why - just never have. So for me, it is kind of a fun thing to look at all the stuff. The guys who work in the store were really nice and helpful. My car was parked in front of the store and the guy who rang up my purchase said, "Is that your car with the Auburn tag"? I answered, "Yes, we have twins who recently graduated from Auburn". He then proceeded to tell me with much glee that when he was handed the work schedule for the weekend, he was scheduled to be off on Saturday and could watch the game. He was so excited. I love living in the south. We have more conversations with total strangers. (or maybe I am the only one who has these conversations). Back to the Margarita mix . . .I had to run a few more errands so it was about 2:00 before I got back home. The instructions on the bucket said to mix and freeze for 8 hours . . .I only had 4 1/2 hours until our guests were arriving. I had a brilliant thought. I have an old margarita bucket (from the last liquor store run) in the freezer. I'll divide the mix and liquor in half. Surely it will freeze in half the time. Right? Wrong! It was good and cold and slightly slushy but not frozen at 6:30. It was still good enough for me to drink two . . . which is a lot for me. I sure was relaxed the rest of the evening. I also made a Costco run. I love that store. This day's trip included a purchase of a giant bag of chicken breasts to cook for the young adult study on Tuesday night. I also bought a giant bag of shredded cheese. (everything is giant at Costco) I wanted to buy the newest Janet Evanovich book but decided that I didn't need to spend any extra money. I also bought disposable pans - I use those big ones on Tuesday nights and the ones from Costco seem sturdier than the ones from the grocery store . . .plus I don't have to buy them every week since it is a giant pack (once again GIANT).

When I came out of Costco, my car thermometer said it was 97 degrees. It was a very hot but gorgeous day (look at that blue sky). My next stop was Walmart. It is nice that all three of these stores are within 5 miles of my house and they are all within a short distance of each other. Now the reason I have these pictures at all is because of Walmart. Yesterday, I received one of those Walmart photo emails where people have taken actual pictures of people in Walmart and submitted them. There was this large woman in a pink mini skirt whose cheeks (not the ones on her face) were showing . . .in our town!! I saw that woman. I saw her coming out of Walmart that day and I think I actually gasped out loud. Someone needed to tell her, "NO YOU MAY NOT WEAR THAT IN PUBLIC OR EVEN IN PRIVATE." So I grabbed my camera thinking that maybe just maybe I would see someone interesting enough to sneak and take a picture (of course, my camera is too big to sneak anywhere - I assume that most of those pictures are taken on someone's phone). But did I see anyone interesting at all? No - just regular folks. You can just barely see a lady next to that car. She saw me with my camera and I think she thought I was taking her picture. . . of course, then I made up all sorts of reasons for that look on her face - witness protection; private investigator - I know I have read too many mystery novels.

All of those errands ended in a nice evening at home spent with food (steaks on the grill), friends, good drinks (even the ones that weren't frozen) and pleasant conversation.

We have a really nice stainless steel gas grill but we've been using the old charcoal grill (which we "inherited" from our friends, Hayden and Jan, when they moved). Meat just tastes so good when cooked on a charcoal grill.

What are your weekend plans? Hope you are doing something fun!!

Why in the world did I wake at 4:30 a.m.???

I've had an incredibly busy week - three 12 hour days and a regular 8 hour day and since Friday is my day off . . .I had planned to sleep until at least 6 :-) At 4:30 a.m. my eyes popped open and would not close. I finally crawled out of bed and fed the cat and grabbed a diet Pepsi and my bible and two study books and started to read. We are starting a new study in the John Wesley Sunday School class this week and it is the newest Max Lucado book, "Out Live Your Life." I am also taking the Beth Moore class at our church - Jesus the One and Only. The two combined is a lot of reading. (that doesn't count two more weeks of facilitating the young adult study but it is DVD driven and not as much reading plus we just finished it in our Sunday School class so I am a little more familiar with the material)

That is my Bible in the Discovery 2004 book cover. My mother-in-law (or should I say mother-in-love) gave that Bible to me for a Christmas gift in 1994. It is literally held together by that book cover. I don't want a new Bible. I love this Bible. There are dates written in the margin and things are underlined and highlighted.

ok - back to 4:30 - it is still really dark outside!! I usually get up at 5:15 on work days and I've noticed in the last few weeks that it is dark outside for a long time. I love days where we have daylight from about 5:00 a.m. until after 8:00 p.m.

Anyway, this morning Beth Moore challenged us to find a NEW word from God in an old familiar passage. Luke 1:26-38 You know this story - a virgin pledged to be married . . . and a visit from the angel. I never noticed this before - the angel didn't leave until Mary agreed. Beth Moore also compared/contrasted this scripture to the scripture where the angel appears to Zechariah. Both Mary and Zechariah "questioned" the angel . . .but Zechariah was unable to speak after the visitation. I never thought about that before. Was Mary's just the questioning of a young girl - explain it better to me? How can this be? Was Zechariah's question, "How can I be sure of this?" more of a statement of disbelief. I've been pondering that all morning.

Then I continued (had started earlier in the week) reading the new Max Lucado book. It is good. I hope that God will give me the words on Sunday to express my excitement and my "ah ha" moments to the class. Look at the picture. See all those little purple sticky notes - those are things that I've marked that I think are important. I'm doing the little Bible Study along with it. Max (sounds like I know him, doesn't it? I would like to - he seems like a neat man) starts the lesson for day two with this question. "How do most people around you define success? What is your personal definition of success?" Those are two pretty powerful questions. Success from a worldly stand-point . . .a job with a six figure income (or more); a big preferably new or remodeled house decorated beautifully; two new cars and a pick-up truck for hauling stuff (sorry - the southern girl in me); a lake or beach house or maybe both (also decorated beautifully); owning your own prosperous business; being able to buy anything we want. What else? How does the world define success? Now how do I define success? One side of me says all of the above. Yes, I won't lie. I want all of those things. Not on a daily basis but sometimes. Sometimes the "jealous Lisa" wants those things (but I don't really want all that upkeep). But in my heart of hearts - in that place where Jesus resides - that part of me that hungers for God's word . . .I know that is not the definition of success. Success for me would be knowing (or maybe not even knowing) that I have helped one person find Jesus . . .that maybe I have been instrumental in leading one person into a closer relationship with Jesus. Success means that each day I get up and I fail miserably at many things BUT that I count on Jesus. Success means that I am surrounded by friends who love me for who I am, not who they want me to be. Success means going to Mouat Chapel and spending half an hour in prayer yesterday for the ministries of our church and for the folks on our prayer list and for my own friends and family. Success means spending over an hour in Bible study this morning. Success means making a whole BUNCH of teeny tiny diaper shirts for those babies in the NICU. Success means starting a ministry for young adults in our home and that folks are still coming and we are now on our third session. These things that I call success have nothing to do with me. Nothing at all. The true success in life comes from Jesus Christ himself. Today I know this. Today I am confident in the grace of Jesus Christ. You might need to remind me of this on another day :-)


****This addition . . .came to me just now in the shower so I had to jump back on here and add . . .I do have much for which I am grateful (and these things fit into those worldly successes) - we have a home that is just right; we both are gainfully employed (and I LOVE my job no matter the salary), we (actually Mark and his family) have a farm that includes a lake for fishing; I can buy all the groceries I want - even enough to feed others, etc. etc. - but my definition of success above still stands ******

So how do you define success? I would love to know.

Up Up and Away

Last Sunday, I missed the coolest thing!! I was in the shower getting ready to go to church. As soon as I stepped out of the shower, Mark said, "I went out to get the newspaper and I heard the strangest noise. It kept getting louder and louder." I was thinking that maybe he had seen a coyote or some other strange creature but this is what he saw. He actually ran into the house and grabbed the camera because he knew that I would love the pictures!! (I think that is one of the sweetest things he has ever done!!) This balloon passed right over our street. When you see the pictures (not the tiny ones in the blog) you can actually see the people (or person) in the balloon!!

Chocolate chip cookies . . .oh my!

I have had too many of these tonight so I am wide awake!! Tonight was the young adult Bible/book study at our house. We had a delicious dinner - an old recipe called "Husbands Delight." My friend, Margaret Morrow, gave this recipe to me at least 30 years ago!! I believe it is a recipe from the 50's. We also had salad and garlic bread. Each week, a different friend has been making dessert for us. We have had some yummy surprises. Tonight's dessert was provided by Donna Nelson. She made double doozie cookies - cake mix cookies with icing in between. She also made tiny brownies and they had coconut in them. As we were cleaning up the kitchen, I lifted the foil in one of the pans and found a whole layer of these:We didn't know that there were chocolate chip cookies hiding under that foil. Donna makes wonderful chocolate chip cookies. Several of the young adults were still here visiting and talking so I took the pan into the living room and they were excited (especially our daughter, Laura). She actually squealed!! While we were cleaning up the kitchen, I ate three of these cookies. Now I'm wired!! (you have to understand that my brain shuts down around 8 p.m. normally!) Oh well . . .I wonder how many Weight Watchers points were in these cookies????

Ballgames, venison, friends and fun

Saturday night was the first Auburn football game. We invited friends over for dinner. Mark and I both love to entertain. Entertaining is one thing that we do well together. Now what does this tree stand have to do with entertaining? (no - we didn't make everyone climb up into the treestand) Before everyone arrived, I was walking around in the backyard with my new camera and thought it would make an interesting picture!! Yes, this is in our backyard in the middle of suburbia. Mark used to practice shooting his bow from this perch. Back to the evening. This is the game that was on our tv. Mark, Glenn and Laura all graduated from Auburn University so Auburn is our team. (we won!)
Here are the lovely ladies - Rhonda, Lynn (who moved to Texas yesterday- we are going to miss you- come home soon!!), Phella, Butch and another Lynn. Husbands were glued to the game - they were all sitting in the other room! If they weren't watching the game, they were talking aboug guy stuff!!

This bucket was on the porch with Mark . . .a few cold drinks on ice.

One of my top two allergies is oak. Look what I found in the grocery store. Oak free wine!! It tasted ok - as I told someone, it tasted like house wine at a medium price restaurant!! My all time favorite wine is on the left. Our friends, Melinda and Jeff, taught me about this wine. They gave a bottle to me last year for a gift . . .and I've been hooked ever since. They order it by the case and were kind enough to let me purchase half a case. We are down to our last bottle.

Mark had two grills going in the backyard. He was cooking venison steaks wrapped in bacon on the gas grill and he was cooking London Broil and a pork tenderloin on the charcoal grill. It was all delicious.

Here is the cook!! This was why I walked out into the yard in the first place. Mark brought this chiminea home several years ago. We tried putting it on the deck and various other places and didn't like the way it looked so it has been "living" in the basement for years. We had this giant tree cut back in January and we placed pots of flowers on the stump all summer (which kept dying because we didn't water them enough and we didn't have any rain). Mark decided that the chiminea would look great on the stump and I think he is right. It looks great! He put some charcoal in it so there were wisps of smoke billowing out. We enjoyed good food, good fellowship, good conversation (and a football win!). Mark and I are as different as night and day - he chooses an outside activity/I choose an indoor activity (partly because of allergies). He chooses to never ever ever sit still/I love to read a good book every once in a while. He loves to watch survivor type shows (which I often watch with him/I prefer Glee or the Sound of Music or NCIS. The list of differences is actually quite long BUT one of the things that we do really well together is entertain. Our house is not fancy but comfortable. Our dining room is large - 12 folks can sit fairly easily around our table (14 is a real squeeze). Mark and I both have the gift of hospitality (a gift from God!!) and we enjoy using that gift.

Someone asked me about entertaining recently and as I was talking I realized something - almost every single one of our friends goes to church with us. Mark has a couple of friends from work that he enjoys eating lunch with and talking to and spending time with and we've been out to dinner with them once or twice over all these years. I have friends at work (but remember I work at our church - I do love all of you and LOVE eating lunch with you every day and having great conversations!!). There are a few of my high school friends that I keep in touch with and I have had dinner with some of them recently (but we are talking once or twice a year-which we should do more often - and usually I go by myself with them - we don't go out with them as a couple). I am thankful for those friends from high school - pretty much my only connection with the past. We have friends through the Emmaus community (but once again - they are sort of "church related" friends-we are so thankful for each one of you and how you have blessed our lives-we should hang out with you more often - come on over for dinner soon!!). The people that we hang out with on a weekly basis - the people that we would invite over for dinner (or send out an email and say - "hey- want to meeet us at Dale's?") - are our church - mostly our Sunday School friends. I am thankful for our friends!! I am thankful to be part of such an incredible Sunday School class. Each one of you enriches our lives. Thanks be to God for each one of you!!
(yes, I know that this post started out as one thing and ended up as something else - but I guess since it is my blog that is ok :-)