Random Thoughts Vol. 11

Hi again! Time for more random thoughts, and what will probably be my last post before leaving for vacation on Monday. Please try to survive without me. I know I will be trying to survive without internet access for a week. It's good for me!

Well, one of my two favorite contestants won American Idol. Congrats to David Cook! I truly feel he was the best over the entire competition. I missed most of the finale, but caught the stuff I missed on Youtube. All I can say is, why have George Michael sing a song that Carrie Underwood conquered on Idol Gives Back night? He had no hope of singing it as well as her, especially with the "cold" he mentioned that he had. Also, I laughed out loud when David Hernandez whispered "naked". Too funny! Oh, and one more thing, I'm glad Amanda Overmeyer won't be on the tour this summer. All those group sings might kill her!

Yesterday was our last day of school. We are all so excited! Our trip to Lincoln Park Zoo was fabulous, and I highly recommend it, especially if you're a big zoo person. The weather was great (a little cool for Madison, of course), and Michael loved getting a chance to be in downtown Chicago. It was a great way to finish off the school year. The picture above is of the kids in front of a cool building with a rainforest area.

The reason I missed the American Idol finale was because we were at the AWANA awards night. Our kids did a great job. They all completed their books, which is exciting. At the awards, Michael recited John 3:16 in front of everyone, and Madison received an award for good sportsmanship, since she's always smiling. Ryan and I were, of course, very proud. Way to go, kids!

Finally, I wanted to post one more picture. It is the wild flowers that I wrote about in my post "Potential". I thought you would like to see them. I call it "Beauty Realized". Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and week, and I'll fill you in on our vacation when we get back!

Random Thoughts Vol. 10

Welcome to random thoughts, where the post lives up to its title. I'm having trouble realizing that the end of May is approaching, probably because it's been so cold here. I'm ready for warmer weather, but not the summer humidity. I can be as fickle as the weather, I suppose.

Behold the picture - a Cricut machine, which is what I received as a gift for Mother's Day. It's fabulous! I'm excited for the next time I have lots of pages to scrapbook so that I can use this little beauty. A nice bonus is that one of my friends also has the Cricut, and she has several different fonts that I can borrow and use with it. To that all I can say is, "Shazam!"

My American Idol thoughts are that I'm way more likely to buy a David Cook album in the future than a Little David album, so I guess it doesn't matter who wins. I think Cook has consistently been the best, and deserves to be declared the winner, but I think he'll do just fine without the title. I'll miss American Idol when it's over, mostly because I'll miss the fun videos done by EW.com.

Lost isn't on this week. The 2-hour finale is on next week. What in the world? How are the Oceanic 6 all going to end up rescued together since they are all separated? Is Claire dead? How can the island be moved? Is Ben one of the best characters ever, and is that actor one of the best as well? If the freighter blows up and takes Desmond and Jin out, I will not be happy, because Desmond is one of my favorite characters.

Tomorrow is our last day of school. We plan on spending our last day at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. We are all excited to go, and very excited to be finished with this school year. We've never been there, so I'll let you know my thoughts when I get back.

Potential

Barren field, fallow and dry
Thistle bush, weeds, and dead, brittle branches
Scanning across, it all looks the same
Till my eyes land on that one isolated spot
Where life is emerging, ready to burst
A cluster of wild flowers-to-be
Anticipating their moment to arrive
I see it and one word fills my mind
POTENTIAL
I see the possibility
The hope
The inevitable
Beauty is coming
And because it is in the middle of this wasteland
It will stand out even more
In this place where only God could have placed it
In this dry, brittle place
There will be life
There will be beauty
And because of what will be,
For now, there is hope

Taste Of Summer - Part Two

I took a picture of this hanging basket in the backyard because inevitably, deer will come and eat whatever flowers are in it.

My dad gave me this hosta a couple of years ago when he dug up some hostas at his house. It was being suffocated by the bush in the front yard, so I moved it to the flower garden in back. I love that we dug up this plant, chopped it into three parts, and put one third of it in a plastic bag, then drove it 25 minutes to our house, stuck it in the ground, and yet it lives! It also makes me think of Dad, and how we plant seeds in people's lives and we never really know what will grow, and we're sometimes surprised by the strength and beauty.

I took this picture because our kids have been playing with this empty paint rollers for weeks. Why do we ever buy toys?

Big Lots had these sidewalk paints on clearance for 50 cents a piece awhile back. Today we got them out with some old paint sponges and enjoyed painting the sidewalk and driveway.

I bought my hanging baskets for the porch at the Farmer's Market in Elkhart. They were 2 for $30 - about $20 cheaper than if I had bought something similar at Lowe's. You've gotta love flowers from the Amish (or were they Mennonite?). I thought I better take a picture since nearly every year a bird builds a nest in one of the baskets and the flowers end of dying because I can't water it enough with the bird in there.

Taste Of Summer - Part One

We finally had a decent day here in the "Michiana" area. The timing was perfect since I went and bought flowers to plant in our yard, and that is always a more fun time when the sun is out and it is warm. I'm always excited to get the flowers and see all the fresh life and beauty. I also am grateful to God for creating perennial flowers. It's fun to have these wonderful plants come up year after year. One of my favorites is the bleeding heart. They bloom early and get you ready for summer. They don't last very long, but they are hardy plants. The ones in this picture came up after I had dug up the plants and moved them to a different spot.

Usually I buy geraniums for my whiskey barrel, but this year I saw these great gerbera daisies and I loved the colors.

I bought this "hen and chicks" plant. Supposedly, it will produce a lot of offshoots. I just thought it looked cool!

One day a few years ago, I was at my sister Chris' house, and she had a plant she wanted to give me. So she went into a random shed on their farm and came out with this cast iron pot. She transplanted the flower into and sent it home with me. This pot always reminds me of that day, and how cool it was to have a random shed to pull a unique pot out of, and how sweet it was that my sister did it for me.

I also opted for zinnias around our lamp post, instead of my standard petunias.

Keep Praying

We got a little bit of news last week from Guatemala. It's hard sometimes to update people because there are so many different things and details, but I'll try to just sum up everything. We're encouraged that Guatemala is working on getting a new process in place. We're also encouraged that they appear to be developing more children's services in their country on a whole. The time frame for the new process being in place is still far out. Also, the adoption law right now states that only the government can place children, not children's homes. We would like to see that changed so that the children's homes can continue to function, and we have desired all along for our daughter's mother to live at the promise of life house and our daughter to live at Hannah's Hope and be referred to us from that program. So, it's encouraging to see stuff happening, but there is still plenty to keep praying about. Thanks to all of you who continue to remember us while we "be still and know that He is God".

Random Thoughts Vol. 9

Welcome again to random thoughts, a post filled with a string of thoughts that really don't have anything to do with each other, or any sort of significance on a whole. I'm excited that we only have 13 days of school left before summer vacation. Needless to say the kids are excited about that as well. Now that better weather has come to Indiana (at least for today, you know how the weather is here!), it's especially hard to keep doing our school work.

I haven't commented on American Idol for a while. Since David Cook and Jason are my favorites, I've been pretty happy. I wish Carly was the last girl standing instead of Syesha, but that's a personal preference. I think it would be more interesting to have her and Michael Johns still in at this point versus Little David and Syesha, but whatever. I was disappointed in Neil Diamond night, because I love Neil Diamond. But maybe that's the problem: there's only one Neil. But you know, there are 2 kinds of people in this world - those who love Neil Diamond and those who don't. Anyone know what movie that quote is from?

For those of you LOST watchers, I read a theory on EW.com after last week's episode that I think blows my mind. That theory is: Claire is a ghost. Discuss! All I can say, is this show both confounds and entertains me. The only bad thing about summer - no new LOST. Or American Idol. Or Survivor. Or The Office. Maybe ABC will run another season of Will Traveler, like last summer. Did anyone catch that? Or how about they restart the beautiful tradition of the Battle of the Network Stars? I used to LIVE for when that was on - that and Circus of the Stars. Here's a taste of Battle of the Network Stars, 1980. Go Chachi!