A Dream Come True

What do you think?

A dream come true?

For sure.



A few extras thrown in just to be sure.


That's a happy face! Make that 2 happy faces :).

Can There Be Such a Thing as Too Much Rain?

Here you have Gus, Sawyer, and Rascal . . .

. . . all but standing in mud.

You ask why? Why are they 'all but standing in mud?'

This would be why.

And this.

And this.

And, yes, even this!

Too much rain.

Rain that flowed like a river down our street.

Rain that stood in massive puddles in our fields.

Rain that flooded our parking area and grooming area.

(I just thought the reflection of the trees in the rain puddles was cool!)

Rain that stands in the horses' main field and surrounds their hay bale.

Rain that is starting to dry up a little at a time, but rain that has turned the path in and out of the barn into a mucky, muddy, boot-eating mess!

Mud that makes it difficult to get to my babies.

That makes them have to poke their noses out through the railing to try to get my attention!

That makes Mark and me have to traipse in through the mud-sucking mess to get to them.

Boot-sucking muck!

Sawyer staying high and dry so he can be fed.

A mud-sucking hole that all but pulled Mark's boot off his foot. You know that sucking sound mud makes as it pulls? Yep! That one!

And then we get a little respite, long enough for the animals to get to the hay bale and enjoy a snack.

What's that you say? You heard it's going to rain again tomorrow? Are you serious!?!

Stay tuned for the next episode of The Rain Mucking, Boot-Sucking Mud Miasma. (hehehe)

Three Beautiful Ladies :)

My favorite shot of the week. Second photo is after editing with the Pioneer Woman's free action #1 set.

I am making this my You Capture entry on "faces" for this week.

To check out a whole bunch of other faces head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry and join the fun!

Great Falls Mill, Rockingham, North Carolina

Last week I posted this photo from Rockingham, North Carolina. I wasn't sure what the original structure was, I just really liked the ruins. Curiosity and questions between myself, a speech and debate friend originally from that area, and a blog reader in the United Kingdom garnered the information that this was probably some type of textile mill.

From there I did a Google search (thank you Daniel Gollahon) for textile mills in Rockingham, and ran down this next photo. I can't figure out how to make it any larger, sorry.

The photo appears to be taken from across the road - about in the same spot where I parked my truck. To the left forefront of the photo you can see the roof of the small room you can see in the ruins shot above. And I was right thinking there were five floors. In another one the photos I found, you could clearly see five stories.

My photo.

Archive photo.

And this is the story behind this building. It was originally built in 1838 and was simply called the Rockingham Mill. It was a cotton mill. They spun cotton into yarn at the cost of 2 cents a pound.

In 1865, the Rockingham Mill was burned to the ground by Sherman's troops.

In 1869, the mill was rebuilt and named the Great Falls Mill, due to a water supply that runs behind the building. (I noticed a small water fall in the bushes at one end of the ruins.) Yarn production was continued. They had a total of 2,000 spindles in place spinning cotton into yarn. This continued for many years, until the building eventually was used simply to store cotton. The facility again caught fire and burned in 1972, leaving behind the ruins you see in my photos.

And there you go. Mystery solved :).

Sally and Her Crew

Recently, I spent an hour with Sally and her beautiful children. I've started taking balloons with me on photo shoots now. Still trying to figure out what to do with them - lol!

And I've started playing around with the Pioneer Woman's editing actions, thus the pastel softness to some of these photos.

Seriously. Could she be any cuter?

Here's the whole gang - minus Dad!

Sally and her oldest son. I loved his curls!



I love the colors in this collage! This would be Sally's smallest one :).


As you can tell, the youngest son was having fun messing with me - lol! All her kids are so photogenic!



Isn't she beautiful? Kali works with Sally and we just love her! (For those of you have commented on my tournament and conference jewelry - Sally is now my Premiere representative and she can hook you up!)

They didn't know I was taking this picture. I loved the way she couldn't decide which bouquet she wanted to use, and she was willing to share. Then - off she ran! Photo shoot done, over, and out of there! I never did get a simple shot of her with a bouquet like I wanted - lol!

What a sweet, loving family! Sally is so blessed. And I really think these kids are blessed to have Sally for a mom! Thanks for letting me spend the afternoon with you! Let's do it again sometime :).

Ruins of Hamlet, North Carolina

To be perfectly honest, I don't know if this was in Hamlet or Rockingham, North Carolina. I just know that I saw it the first morning as I drove from the hotel in Rockingham to the church in Hamlet where Masters was being set up.

I was really intrigued by what I saw, so I turned Mark's big truck around in the middle of the highway and drove back. I wanted to get a closer look and maybe a few pictures - you know how I am. Always wanting one more photograph - lol!

You can tell from the other pictures that there were at least four or five stories to the wall in the background. I can't imagine what this might have been with the windows so close together. And I couldn't see this room at all from the highway itself. There wasn't anywhere on this side of the street to put the truck, so I pulled off across the highway and parked in a vacant lot. Then I carefully scurried across the highway, climbed over the guardrail (not so easy at my age and lack of agility), and that was when I spotted the open room.

I got a bit nervous as I shot pictures. I noticed several drivers slowing down to watch what I was doing. So, I got these shots, ran back across the highway, jumped in, locked the doors, and took off.

I have no idea what this structure used to be. I liked the way the earth was growing back up over the walls. Almost like it was trying to reclaim the land - lol!

I thought of two things: 1) I thought of Stephanie, my friend at church who loves architecture and wished she was there with me to admire this fine work; and 2) I thought about the new theme for ICC this year: Awakening. rise up, reach out. I think this was probably a beautiful building in its day. I think there is a story here that I will never know. But as I looked at the weeds and vines growing up and over the walls, I thought about the new life I have in Christ. The new awakening I have every morning - that He gives me - to live my life for Him and to do the things He wants me to.

I thought about the Awakening coming to Hamlet, with our 160 students converging on the town, and praying that Hamlet would never be the same again. That somehow our students would leave their impact upon the people of Hamlet. For the glory of God, the all-time Master. And I believe that happened.