God's canvas...

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." -Pablo Picasso

Beautiful and glorious Reds...    

The look of fall... oranges, and browns...

...with a sprinkling of silver bells...

Warren has gone to Dallas for a check up on his back, so I have had the day to do what I want.  I spent it trying to get caught up with my Family photo album for 2012.  I am on the month of July and am already at page 50.  Too many things happened this year.  My book is going to be huge.   Since I have the color of red at the beginning of this blog, I am closing with the same color scheme and a sneak preview of one of my July pages.

Proud to be an American...

Anniversary and Thanksgiving...

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...And be thankful."  -Colossians 3:15

"A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles." -Sarah Young, Jesus Calling

It is in the living out of an ordinary life that our lives become extra ordinary--if you choose to find the joy in living the ordinary.  My everyday life is nothing extra ordinary.  In fact, it is pretty mundane, filled with routine, and not much to write about.  But, I find so much joy in every day, because invariably God throws in little blessings that take it to the extra ordinary.  This year found Warren and me traveling on our anniversary.  Let me count our anniversary and Thanksgiving blessings one by one to show how God made our little trip extra ordinary.

1.  All our planes were on time. A miracle in itself. And our luggage made it to the final destinations.
2.  Being in the heavens and seeing all the wonderful cloud formations.
3.  Luke picking us up, and going to Chipotle's for dinner.
4.  A surprise anniversary cake.  Three layers of delicious lemon cake, and the best lemon butter-cream frosting ever.  

5.  Luke made us cut the cake like we were newly weds.   He even got out the fancy knife they used to cut their wedding cake.  It was so much fun.  Better yet was eating this fantastic cake.

6.  Thanksgiving with family.  Luke got up early Thursday morning to put the turkey in his smoker. (I am so glad that it was him getting up early and not me).  There was no way we were going to eat up a 20# turkey, so Luke had one of his friends come over to take half of it home for their Thanksgiving.  I thought that was an excellent idea.   I did the rolls, and Warren made the dressing.  We truly are thankful for all the Lord has given us.

This turkey was so moist, and great tasting.  I think it has to be the best turkey I have ever eaten!

Luke the master griller.  

7.  Sawyer and Tate.  We got to babysit the boys, who were on their very best behavior.  Their routine is: eat, play, poop, sleep, and repeat.

Look at that hair.  This was the before hair.  I am not too sure about that face.  

Isn't his Christmas shirt cute?  He's pretty cute, too.

Tate is concentrating hard on something.  He is the analyzer.

Some more cuteness.  

Sawyer's baby blue eyes.  

More cuteness.

On the go!

The boys do a lot together.  When one finds something interesting, it is not long before the other one joins in to investigate.

They have found something interesting here.

The morning bottle.  If you have been reading Jordan's blog, you know that neither one is too keen on their bottles.   They like their solid food much better.  

Mimi is feeding the boys their morning cereal.  They do like this.

Sawyer in his crib.  I think this one is out of order. 

8.  I give both boys hair a slight trim.  I am so thankful I got it done without injuring either one.  Of the two, Tate was the most cooperative.  Sawyer is just a busy little boy, and hardly holds still for any thing.  His hair was the hardest to cut, because it shows every wrong nick.

Here are the boys after their trim job on their hair.    They are having fun on Pawpaw's lap.

Now it is my turn.  You can see their hair a little better here.

See, Sawyer's hair is a little more tame.

9.  Christmas.  I am thankful for Christmas, and all the fun of getting ready for it.  Well, mostly I am glad for it.  Sometimes, it can get a little stressful.  Luke  went to pick out their tree at a Christmas tree farm on their way home from their overnighter.  Oh, the smell of the freshly cut evergreen tree is so amazing.  I think if I lived where we could get trees like these, I would opt for a fresh one too.  The shape, smell, and beauty of the tree can't help but put you in the Christmas spirit.

The Frasier Fur Christmas tree.  

10.  Ruth Chris' Steakhouse.  On Saturday, Warren and I officially celebrated our 31st anniversary with a dinner at Ruth Chris's Steakhouse in Asheville.  We both got the Beef tenderloin, some sides, and finished it off with the most spectacular Bread Pudding--with whiskey sauce.  Can I say, died and gone to heaven here!  Oh it was so good.  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get through the meal.

This is the best bread pudding around.  

The main dining room at Ruth Chris Steakhouse.

11.  Luke...he's a great son!  Even though he drives me crazy sometimes.

Awesome Luke

12.  Zach.  He was just getting off work, so he met us before we had to get on our flight for the last leg home.  We are thankful we got to spend some time with him.

Warren and Zub.  Zub has a new do...a Mohawk haircut.  I should have taken a picture of the back so you could see the whole effect.  What handsome guys!

13. Starbucks.  We decided our last hoorah for our anniversary would be to treat ourselves to a Chai tea at Starbucks.  Yum!

My man in the Starbucks store.  Yes, he is the greatest. 

Me in the Starbucks store...I look like the Michelin man!

14.  Us.  Yes, I am thankful for us.  It is a blessing to know that I am his (Warren's), and he is mine.  I am more thankful that God has been faithful to fill in the cracks of our lives, and mesh us together so we truly have become one.  God's plan for marriage is so much better than what we could have done on our own.  My cup does run over!

Us...a little older, a little heavier, a little grayer, but so happy after all these years!

Happy Anniversary to us...

Piglet: "How do you spell love?"
Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it."

Happy 31st anniversary to us!  "An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow."unknown

On the home front...

"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.  Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.  If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." -Tecumseh

Yesterday morning we were greeted with a nice blanket of fog, or as Mark called it when he was a little boy, a "hog." There is nothing that makes a more beautiful, and some what mysterious picture than fog.  This was especially beautiful because of the way the light was coming through: it was gorgeous with its nice golden tones.  I quickly threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera, and headed to the bird sanctuary.  The bad news was that the fog had lifted in this particular area by the time I got there.  Since I was out, I took pictures anyway, got a ton of mud on my boots since it had rained the night before, but was happy with my shots.   The only thing that could have made them better would have been to have people in them.  I prefer people in my landscapes.  

I was trying to get the rain droplets here.  I like the softness of the picture.

Some nice grasses with light reflecting in the raindrops.

Look at the nice golden tones.  Absolutely gorgeous.  

More beauty.  

Here Comes the Sun!

These three trees reflected in the water, show that fall is really here... most of the leaves have fallen.  

This duck took off as I came closer.  I love him in flight.

My cousin, Stephen Macintosh and part of his family, came for a brief visit to look at ENMU for his son, Lucas.  They came, they saw, and they went.  We did get to have a great visit over some meals and the last night they were here, we talked about old times, and genealogy.   I have a pretty complete family history of the Norcross side of the family going back to the 1500's.  What I learned from Steve was about the family history of the time they spent in Cuba.  My grandfather was a mining engineer in El Cristo, Cuba, hence much of my father's childhood was spent living there.  They left when Castro came into power.  It was all very interesting.  

Steve and his wife, Mary.  

I finished the last week of my Advanced Composition class.  Our last lesson was on "Still life" and it was the hardest lesson for me.  I spent about 4 hours on Saturday trying to get a good still life.  (And 169 shots later, had one I thought would do).

This is the one I submitted.

Here I wanted the lights to represent the steam from a cup of tea.  Warren did not think it looked like steam, and I liked my caterpillar cupcake better.  

Lastly, I had a coupon for 20% off cosmetics at BEALLs, so I went to see what I could find.  I always need anything that will help stave off wrinkles and old age.  I found a kit of "dark spot" deminisher.  Alas, my coupon was no good.  It had to be BEALLS brand.  This was Clinique.  I bought it anyway.  It was expensive.  I hope it works.  

Hope this stuff works...stay tuned.

That is about all that is happening around here.  One last picture...of Maggie. 

Sleeping Beauty!

It is late, and sleeping looks like a good idea.  Good-night.