Dress Shopping For Homecoming

Homecoming at the high school is almost here. We home school, but Kali is allowed to go to the homecoming dance if someone from the school invites her. A group of the girls are going together, so we went shopping yesterday for a new dress. We hit five different stores, looked at a ton of dresses, and Kali narrowed them down to the five shown here. We each had a different favorite. The one Kali picked is very beautiful. We had not gone intending to take photos, but since the camera was in the car - we took advantage of it. We had a lot of fun. I can't tell you which dress she chose. You will just have to wait for homecoming pictures :). She also got some silver heels and a beautiful drop necklace to wear with it.

We have two friends from church who like to go to the mall and take pictures of the ugliest something - in this case we decided to do the ugliest shoes. Here are a couple shots of the ones I thought were the worst. If you happen to own any of these, don't worry, I am SURE they look wonderful on you :).

The Toys That Make My Day (October, 2008 Trip)

Toys. What's so special about them? They make me feel good. They remind me of being young, carefree, and without responsibility. Everytime we go to Disney World, I want to look through the stores and enjoy the toys. They make me feel young again.

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that Tinkerbell is my absolute favorite!

Last March, the kids and I went to Pirates and Princesses at Disney World. It was the first time EVER that Tinkerbell made a personal appearance in Florida. She brought up the end of the parade. I was so excited!!! I took three photos of her and they were all blurry!!! I was so dissapointed when I saw them on my computer. I think that is really what got me interested in photography. And, here I am now, 4 cameras later :).

Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh,

Tubby little cubbie all stuffed with fluff ........ you get the idea :).

And, then there's Minnie.
Mark bought me a huge stuffed Minnie on our honeymoon. Somewhere along the way during these 25 years, she has vanished. Seeing all these Minnies brought back great memories :)

Star Wars was big when I was a young adult. Of course, we introduced our children to Star Wars when they were old enough to enjoy the movies. Jason's favorite character has always been Boba Fett. I took this shot for Jason.

And, of course, the King and Queen of the "World" - Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.

No, this is not a toy. It's a Tinkerbell wreath. Need I say more?

Could Someone Give Me A Hand Here?

Help! I'm addicted to Mountain Dew! Someone just left this perfectly good cup of Dew sitting here.

Can I get it open on this side?

Nope! What about on this side?

Nope! How about I just cut to the chase?

Bite a hole in the straw and suck the Dew out that way???

It might work.

This cute little squirrel kept us entertained for a few minutes at Downtown Disney this week. He never did get to the Dew :(. He finally gave up and went on his way.

Celebrating 128 Years Today

Built and established in 1880, the First Baptist Church of Citra celebrated 128 years today.

I stopped by this church on Friday to take some photos of the stained-glass windows. Caretaker Ron Carroll was working on the lawn and shrubs, as you can see in the first photo. The outside architecture is beautiful. If you enlarge the photos you will see that it is vintage work. Mr. Caroll walked over and told me the church was celebrating 128 years on Sunday (today) and asked if I wanted to see the inside. This is what I saw as my eyes adjusted to the darkness inside.

The day before this - I was thinking about my blog and the name I chose: The Shadow of the Cross. I started thinking about what the cross stands for and what it means to me as a Christian. One thought led to another and I decided I wanted to document crosses in some way. I thought about several little country churches locally, with their steeples and crosses, and decided to do some driving around and shoot some photos. First Baptist of Citra was the first place I wanted to go to. I never dreamed I would get to go inside the building.

Once inside, Mr. Carroll began to tell me the history of the church. This was the original building, built in 1880 and used by the black community of that area. It was soon taken over by the whites for their use in worship. Look at the photo of the interior. At the top of the photo, on the right-hand side, you see a couple open windows with a seating area behind them. There is a white cloth covering something in that area. When the whites began using the church, the black members were relegated to that sitting area and wall panels were pulled down from the attic to "hide" the blacks from the whites. They were able to hear but not be seen. You have to remember this was in the 1880's. The light fixtures you see hanging from the ceiling, replaced the oil lanterns that originially hung there. At some point, carpet was placed on the floor. It is threadbare now and in need of replacement.

The stain-glass windows replaced shutters that were over open windows. The shutters were opened to let in light and air flow during services, and closed to keep out animals, bugs, and dirt when there were no services. The stain-glass windows were designed, crafted, and donated by a current day member of the church. Aren't they beautiful? My photos do not do them justice.

I really appreciated Mr. Carroll taking time to show me around. He invited my family to homecoming services. He also invited us to Thanksgiving Dinner on the grounds - it's a service provided to the community. Last year they fed over 300 people - free. It's part of their outreach to the neighborhood. Hopefully you enjoy looking at the photos and learning the history of this awesome church in Citra.

Lifehouse's Everything Skit

The Cross Carved in Stone

This cross can be found on a hillside, next to the roadway, between Keystone and Palatka. Somewhere near Putnam Hall, I think. There must have been a lot of love that went into the making of this cross. Isn't it beautiful?

My First "Hunt"ing Venture

Last night, Mark took me on my first "hunting" trip. We went to his lease close to Cross Creek, where we came to a big, metal gate across the entrance. Mark unlocked it, then asked me to hold it for a minute. Just as I started to grab the gate, he said, "Oh, yeah, watch out for the spider." Real casual-like. Then I looked and this was the spider!!! Apparently he lives on the gate. He was about 4" tall and was truly awesome! Of course, I had to get a shot, or 4, of him :).

Then we started our trek into the property, not too far to our destination. I carried my glasses, a bottle of water, and my camera. Mark carried everything else. And, I snapped pictures along the way because that's what I do.

Mark walked on ahead while I photographed these flowers. I don't know what they are - they were growing wild in the woods. Then, I was like, "oh, look! A butterfly!" I totally missed it. There were all kind of booby traps to watch out for - like sticker bushes, spider webs, branches and twigs at face level, and tons of cow patties. Now I understand why they are called that :). And, no, I did not step in one.

When we reached our destination, Mark set up this ground blind for us to sit in and wait. He brought chairs for us to sit on as we waited.

It's bow season, so that's what we took. We never used it, though. I did all the shooting with my camera :).

While Mark got everything ready, I took pictures of what I could see from where we were going to watch.

Then, we went into the blind and waited. Mark was real particular about zipping the back of the tent all the way shut. I didn't understand why at that point, but I found out before we left.

Yes, I know I look thrilled here. We were sitting on 3-legged stools, which were great to have! However, due to my vertigo, I spent a lot of effort making sure I didn't fall off the stool, which explains the look on my face - lol.

This is one of the little windows we watched out of. We sat and waited, and listened, and took more pictures of the landscape as we waited.

We saw a red bird/cardinal. I did not get a good picture of it. Then, I spotted a turkey across the way, staring at me from behind a big bush. I did not get a picture of him either :(. Then, after awhile, one hog wandered into the area - on my right side. He got spooked and left before I could get a picture of him. We could hear him crashing around behind our blind, which is why Mark zipped the back up so tight - thank you, Mark! I love you! Then, all of a sudden a herd of "rampaging" hogs came storming into our camp in search of food. Thankfully, Mark's feeder had just thrown down a bunch of feed, so we were good. It was almost dark at this point, so the pictures aren't too good, but here are some.

There were 3 big boar hogs and about 12 little babies.

This guy did not like us being there. He growled at us and stared at us as the others ate their corn like good little hogs :).

Then, darkness came and we needed to leave. The only problem was - the hogs were all still there, especially Mr. Grumpypants who didn't like us being there in the first place. Mark told me to hit my camera flash, to see if that would scare them off. Not a chance. They didn't even seem to notice. I started coughing really loud, a leftover from my cold, and they didn't even notice that. Then, Mark stood up and unzipped the tent so he could try to chase them off. The sound of the zipper startled them and all the hogs went crashing off through the woods, in the same direction we came in through. Mark had to figure out a different path for us back to our car. And so went my very first "hunt"ing venture. LOL

Dancing Around the World