More From My Mom's Residence

More shots from my mom's home. The grounds are really beautiful there and well taken care of. There are several sitting areas with lovely landscaping. I enjoy taking pictures of the statues and flowers, as you can tell by this and other recent postings :). I am glad that she has such beautiful things to enjoy every day. She walks and walks through the building, she sits in the rockers and enjoys the geese and the little ponds, she watches the flowers bloom and the trees bud, and she shares it with anyone who will stop and enjoy it with her. What a great way to spend your day!

As most of you already know, Tropical Storm Fay rolled through Florida last week. After the storm, we were surprised to see a local church's steeple laying in their parking lot. Many people in the area have taken photos of the steeple. Not to be outdone :) , my daughter and I stopped by the church a couple nights ago and took our own pictures.

At the top of the church you can actually see a cable hanging down. My guess is that this cable was somehow attached to the steeple. The top end of the steeple is cracked open, with the tip totally broken off.

I thought this was an interesting angle for a picture. Then Kali had this great idea:

Now we sit and wait to see what Gustaf and Hannah are going to do.

Praise Team Gets Ready For New Year

The new school year has begun. With that, comes a new year of planning. On Wednesday nights, our sessions are usually opened with music led by the Praise Team. They met with Mr. Owen a couple nights ago and started preparing music for the new year. We have a lead guitar player, a bass player, a drummer, Mr. Owen plays keyboards, and we have three vocalists at this time.

They started out with pizza and sodas. Of course :) .

Then they started discussing what songs they wanted to work on this year. Mr. Owen looked music up on his laptop and the young man above looked favorite songs up on his ipod. He is one of our vocalists.

I do not post names of other people's children here on my blog, sorry. As a retired law enforcement officer it goes against the grain to do so. You will find the name of my daughter on here from time to time, but not the names of anyone else's children. With that said, the young man above is our lead guitar player and he is really doing a great job. Over the last year he has learned a lot and is really developing his skills. You should hear him and the drummer jamming when they have time. They are really quite good.


Everyone was suggesting songs for the year. The fellow on the right is the awesome drummer.

These shots were taken inside our cafe. On Wednesdays, the youth have access to the Legacy Cafe before and after the service.

Listening to instruction.

These are the vocalists. My daughter is on the right :) They did a great job practicing some new songs. They really picked out some good praise and worship material for the year. Their first session leading worship will be in two weeks. I will try to post some new shots of them then.

I hadn't posted anything in a couple days, and this cartoon really made me laugh. So, I am sharing it with you :-D~ . The day hasn't gotten off to a good start, so I've taken a minute to sit at the computer and just forget about all the rest. I get Garfield everyday in my email. Today, I get to share it with you.

Fay is Gone :-D~

We lost power within minutes of my last posting. At our house, that also means we have no water. By nighttime, it was unbelievably hot in the house and Jason was feeling sick. Mark elected to stay home and take care of animals (19 total), and sent the kids and me off to a local hotel. After being at the hotel a couple days, we got bored and Kali started shooting pictures. Here are a couple:

Some really unpleasant color of paint on the walls.


At least my camera is entertaining.

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

We came home this morning and there are leaves, twigs, branches, sand, and dirt everywhere. No damage, thankfully. I mentioned the kittens in my last post. When we got home, all the kittens were here and well. Here are some pictures of them.

Waiting to jump on a brother or sister...

...only to get jumped on herself :-D~

You've heard the term, "a face only a mother could love?" Well, here you go :-D~

This was my favorite shot. Two weeks old.

Tropical Storm Fay, Day Two

I took this shot from the porch at about 12:30 PM, today. It's really dark, dreary, and it's raining constantly. There is a bit of wind and lots of blowing water.

The rain pouring off the top of the house. Thankfully we don't have the winds we had a couple years ago with Hurricane Irene. We got a new roof and a new ceiling in part of our house out of the back-to-back hurricanes that year.

This is Zim, one of our indoor cats. He seems to love the rain. Zim just curls up in the window and snoozes the day away. You'd have to know Zim to know what to look for - he has his head upside down (to the left) and you can just see an ear sticking out. Also, you can see the rain splashing on the deck railing.

These guys are my real concern right now. The gray kitten is about 4 months old. She is going to a new home as soon as Fay is gone. The little black kitten behind her is 2 weeks old. There should be 3 more kittens hiding in this bookcase on the front porch. As the weather started showing promise of being bad, their mom, Meeko, moved all the kittens into this bookcase so they would be better protected. When I went to take these shots, the mom was gone, as were the other 3 kittens. Hopefully Meeko has them somewhere dry.

Tropical Storm Fay

Tropical Storm Fay is knocking on my door. I don't do storms well. The last big hurricane season we had here saw us lose part of our roof, our dining room ceiling collapsed, and we were without power for quite awhile. Anyway, I digress. This afternoon, as it stormed outside, I sat here at the computer doing google searches and playing with photos, trying to keep entertained. Here are a couple of my photos that I altered.

Everyone has been watching the olympics currently taking place in Beijing. I always marvel at the way the advertizers and all the various businesses in the market pick up the current "big thing" of the day and run with it. This even includes the comics :). My favorite comics of all time are BC and Garfield. This is my favorite BC olympic strip so far. It really makes me laugh. Be sure to read the disclaimer at the very bottom of the strip.

Student Night at Trinity

We have a very active youth group at our church. Over the summer, they had the opportunity to get involved in a number of events. During the evening service tonight, several of them had theopportunity to speak to the membership about what they had learned on their various trips.

Brother Jeff, our youth pastor, introducing the program.

My daughter, Kali, spoke about her Student Leadership University 201 trip. This group spent six days in Washington, D.C. learning about the birth, and history, of our country and about the men and women of God who fought to make our nation a home for God.

A. gave an overview of SLU 201.

C. also spoke about SLU 201.

J. talked about SLU 201.

J. - SLU 201.

R. went to Worldview Academy for her third year. She explained this program and talked about her experiences there.

S. was part of the SLU 301 trip to London, Paris, Oxford, and Normandy. He talked about the things he learned there.


R. also went on SLU 301. She spoke about what the trip meant to her and about what she learned there. Brother Jeff also went on this trip and showed us some great photos of the various places they visited.

Many of our students have taken this step of leadership within the youth group, within the church, their school, and the community. We are so proud of them. School starts back in session tomorrow and, for many of them, this simply means another opportunity to tell someone about God.

School is Starting

For all the Trinity students that start back to school tomorrow - here's a picture for you. I got it from a new blogfriend in Canada - I thought it was awesome! Now, I'm posting it for you - so you can remember that I think you guys "rock"!!!

I'll be praying for you this school year. Praying that you will be bold enough, brave enough, and courageous enough to stand strong in your faith, stand strong for Christ, and that He will use you to make a difference in our community. Love you, guys :-D~