Someone Special

This is my friend Sandy, we've been friends for more than 30 years, she knows everything about me, and still finds it in her heart to love me. She loves and cares enough about me to tell me when my pants make me look fat. LOL..She helps me weigh out things when my burden is heavy; and yes, even to tell me, in love, when I am wrong..she has even "taken a bullet" for me when I have been unjustly accused or wronged..She is a true friend. I love her very much and pray everyday that I can be the kind of friend she deserves. I just could not leave this lady out. For so many reasons! Always so stylish and proper. Love her dearly.

*************************

But this is my special someone ....
I have watched her handle herself with grace, integrity and determination over the last few years.

Always, Always...saying
"Me and God, we got this, Mom".
Most recently, I've watched her battle the United States Army with bulldog tenacity.. searching out what is right and fair for her husband, who has given so much in the last 4 years.
She has handled this on her own...no need to rally troops, heck there aren't any..."I got this mom, me and God we got it" She and Shane are literally beating a path for other wounded soldiers and their families..I think the Army calls it the "Matthews Path", and rightly so. They have been the "first" to do so many things..and being first has been tough. She said last night she felt like she had ran into a brick wall and that even the wall wanted to fight her...then she said "I read in Isaiah, the walls are Gods, He will move the walls, God always gives me the encouragement I need in all my trials" such faith. I look around and see so many people with such pity gripes... that mostly center around themselves. Waaawaaa...is not in this girls vocabulary.
Fighting for truth, fairness and letting trials make her a better person have been her call signs.
Never listening to the nay Sayer's, no time for that. Faults? sure she's got some...lets see....you can not rush her...she gets that from her dad (now Jacob has begun to exhibit the trait, grin ) but here again I see the Lord.. The Lord says we are like sheep and sheep; you can not drive you must lead them. So if you are going her way she'll follow...but she knows if you are leading her astray..and that's not gonna happen. (is that a fault?) I like how Shane says it..She "Woman's up" Meaning she takes the lead, and the responsibility, how many people do you know who are taking responsibility these days.

She is a beautiful child of God's ,inside and out.
J - Jesus first
O - others second
Y- yourself last

Can't you just see the joy on her face????

A lot of people have said we have done a good job raising our kids...well, we only had them for a season...the rest they have done on their own...We're very proud of both of them.

Solemn Rows-Revelation-Sweet Hope

Solemn Rows, trees and markers. The National Cemetery
This is a view of the main entrance of the NC, with a monument at the rear.

These dear sweet men and women who died in the line of duty knew what they were fighting for..some Americans have lost sight of "One Nation Under God"

Whenever I finally get to talk to Jeff for a minute I ask him a million questions...I'm sure he is thrilled, bless his heart he is always saying "gotta go, love you" and I keep asking questions and tell him to hang up first and he says I've hung three times and you keep poppin' back up...Oh well. I ask him about the Afghan people. He said they are, for the most part, regular people..very poor..He also said they think of themselves as Afghans, like we think of ourselves as Americans. That is not the case in Iraq however. They are not a "Nation" they are lots of "small nations and tribes" trying to wipe each other out. But what can we expect? As we go deeper into our study of Revelation (in our SS class)...and learn about Babylon (Iraq), the seat of the Anti-Christ, the pit of hell ...I am so sure that the earths time is short. And these who are dead in Christ will rise first...Then those that remain will be caught away in the twinkling of an eye.

"I come quickly"

Our Sweet Hope

Silhouette

The yellow silhouette wings in behind this sulfur butterfly is actually another sulfur butterfly.

They are very fast, kinda like kids who will not sit still to have their picture made. I keep trying to get a good photo of one with his wings opened. So stay tuned.

I have so many "flying things" in my backyard...and that's all I've had time photograph lately.

Coming in for a Landing

I know, wings...but I thought this was so neat.

It looks like he's putting on the brakes.

The Tabernacle Baptist Church on Craven Street

While working on our blog challenge "Faith", I took some pictures that I really like in BW. These are the windows on the left side of this beautiful old church.
This is a decorative piece on top of the church.
The bell tower of the Tabernacle Baptist Church.

My other friend Amy (Amy P.) sneaks a peek at our blogs and she loves BWs of Beaufort too.

Wha'd ya think Amy? I don't have the crispness that my other Amy gets..but I liked them.

Fit for a Queen

We had a very special day for a very special person today at our Church.Her throne for the day.
Our Princess and her Prince with Pastor Danny
She is our busy Bee!

She is such a good sport and good support for all of us; Loves her Lord

her Family and Church family....

And today we got to show her in a small way we love and appreciate her.

Thank you Jan.

Happy Birthday, Wayna

This is the box his present came in..Drum roll, please....
This is his present...42" of, soon to be hangin' on the wall,

Braves, Cowboys, and Sci Fi action.

Oh, yes he is smiling...but not for the camera.

When asked what speed limit he was this year, he said

He was headed to Interstate....

He had all kinds of calls, and cards, songs and..a special delivery of

homemade Peanut Butter cookies...I gotta talk to the girl who signed his

card "your girl friend".

My Faith Looks up to Thee...

Hebrews 11:1

"Now, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"

So I was wondering...How can I take a picture of something you can not see??

Then I thought; to me my faith is like a rock, something that when all around me is shaky and unstable I can stand on my faith in Christ. My faith is that solid Rock. There are people who have more faith in what the news paper says than what God's word says, they can believe there is life on another planet and cannot believe God created the universe. I have seen some miserable people in my life time, I've work for a few, so mad at the world; and even they can not tell you what they are mad at. I use to be mad too, then Christ began to show me what I was missing....Him! Has my life gotten perfect..no...but can I see my faith work? Oh, yes.

Romans 5:1

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" Something..no $, no title, no fame, have ever produced. Sweet Peace.

Ever since we got this assignment I have not been able to get this song out of my head.
"My faith looks up the Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine!"

I pray that you all have His peace. And that your faith looks up....not around.

PS. This what you get when you give a Sunday School teacher an assignment like this!

pss: My cousin Val has got her post up and running check it out..you can link from me or Jamie.

Corny

I just realized.... somehow I've gotten a day behind...Bags and Bags of corn under the barn.
For the deer of course
But the birds and the squirrels have a ball too.

Yellow Ice Plant

As promised...no wings!!

Yellow Ice Plant (which looks pink to me) is a succulent. It also comes in a beautiful fuchsia color. The fuchsia plant blooms like crazy..this one does not bloom as much..so when it does it's special.I have always thought the "leaves" look like lizard skin.

Hawks

I know that you all are sick of flying things..but these guys was circling over head this afternoon. I was spinning around and around trying to get a picture. I got dizzy.All the little birds were dashing around and singing at the top of the little beaks.
Then, I saw them...two beautiful hawks,

(Wayne would disagree, hawks eat quail and he doesn't get to shoot them so the hawk is not pretty to him..go figure!)

Still blurry...but I just could not resist..they were very hard to catch up with, with the camera.
I promise, no critters tomorrow.

Hummm

Well, I finally caught him...I know it is blurry

but I was so happy to finally get his picture. I suppose this is the best one...

The wind was blowing so the flower was moving too.
I was having a hard time getting close even with the big honkin lens.
Oh, how I wish these were better quality...next time??

I Better hurry they will gone soon.

Ahhh

I like to take pictures outside mostly.

I was out trying to get a picture of a hummingbird,

more on that later. When this guy caught my eye.I was watching him and he wasn't acting like the usual butterfly.

He seemed more like an acrobat doing a tumbling routine.

Then I saw it...he has a broken wing. As I continued to watch him I realized that the broken wing is why he was so "out of balance". The usually graceful flutters were gone and life now seemed such a struggle. But he kept right on going, albeit head over heels.

I think there is a lesson in here for us somewhere.

Anyway, that's what won him a spot on the blog today.

ps..can you see something hiding in the first pic? I just saw it myself...

Dragonfly

I caught this dragonfly sitting on a dead stem out by the pool.I added a little color effect here..I love that you can see the spiderweb.
How did I get a different back ground color (green here)

when taking a pic of the same

dragonfly???

Blue background here?? No color effect tricks I promise.

It surprised me too.

At least he was still.

She sells sea shells down by the sea..

She also has some "change"

and may post a couple more of these pics tomorrow, LOL.

My brother used to own a shrimp boat..

I got a few of these from him

and then of course the kids have found a few over the years..

I have noticed that they are harder to find now

than when I was a kid.It never ceases to amaze me what God does everyday
If we could just slow down a moment..we'd see more of His beauty
I bet I've walked by these shells a hundred times

and never stopped to admire them as I did today,

through the eye of the camera.

Thank you Amy..for my sweet addiction

Sunflowers..

This is Nita's fault...After seeing her beautiful field of sunflowers,

I had to have some..I love flowers anyway,

These have lasted for a while and have made me

smile every time I look at them..

Thanks Nita!

Do Over

To get flower out of center of pic...wasn't thinking 1/3s rule...

thanks for the reminder, Nancy aka Amy???LOLHeard from Jeff this morning...Pray for him...he thinks he has a kidney stone, his first ever. He said the Doc has promised him some

morphine and a helicopter ride, if he is not better soon.

Blue and Yellow

From the file...why from the file?

Because I took the card out of my camera,

and now I can not find it. There goes the pictures

I took over the past couple of days.I'll keep looking for the card.

Better...

I tried again and did a little better... more focused anyway.

Wayne and I had the most wonderful thing happen tonight....Our church family had a special time of prayer for Jamie, Shane, the kids and us..Jamie (and Mack) were with us VIA speaker phone. Such powerful prayers. God is at work and we are so blessed to have such loving and caring friends..and God is so good. Our hearts are full and we love you all very much.

Chasing Butterflies....

Literally!... these were the hardest little guys to catch up with,

I'd try to find them in the view finder and they would be gone.

They were so thin when they put their wings together;

you could only see them from the side.

I'm a little out of focus here but, I really was proud to get a profile.
I'm going to try again later to see if I can do better later catching up with these fast flyer's.

Put that Camera up, now!

I was out trying to get a picture of a butterfly today. However, it was

supper time for someone...well at least that's what he thought.

So I started trying to take his picture...he would not even look at me.

The cold shoulder.
Here we have him Cutting his eye at me...,

with a "I've had enough of the camera look ,

lets get supper in the trough...

get out in that barn and start rattling those buckets".
Here's my favorite....

"Did you not hear me??? Knock it off with the camera, already, I am starving.., I'll be wasted away to only a 1000 pounds soon"

Yes, we have pink Bananas!

I saw this small banana tree at a nursery a few years ago.

I thought it was pretty neat, pink bananas and all.

I planted it in a large pot and put it out on the pool deck.

It immediately out grew the pot..

so I took most of it and planted it in the ground

and left a small piece in the pot...

It immediately out grew the pot again,

so I planted the entire plant in the ground, it now covers the whole end

of the house. I have given lots of it away.

It will die back in the winter and come roaring back in the spring.

Most of the time there are lots of the pink bananas...they are usually small.

This year there seems to be even more and they also seem bigger.

But alas, they are ornamental taste yucky..very hard, starchy and sticky.

unique anyway.

PS: I can save some seeds or you can dig up a plant.

Relax..

Front Porch Swing..I have a morning porch..

meaning it is best enjoyed in the morning or late afternoon.

Well, after I looked up "Relaxation" in the dictionary..and figured out what it meant.

Here is how I translated it...

You get to do, what you would do, if you didn't have to do, all you have to do...right??

Anyway, If I could I would love to sit in the swing early in the morning..

do my daily devotion and pray. It has been way to hot lately for that...so opted for this..

Nothing says relax to me like a good book, a cup of coffee,

and a comfy place to sit back and read

SSSHHH..Listen...

what is that...no one is calling my name..now that is truly relaxing.