Just a quick post to share the sweet jewelry on Laurel's blog... 
Chipping with Charm. 

Scoot over and join the give away!

Talk to you real soon...promise!!

FOLK MAGAZINE, A CONTEST, AND DONNA'S GOT A JOB!

There's a new magazine about to hit

the streets in the next few weeks! 

A few days ago, Donna, at Funky Junk Interiors...come on you know her...sent out a request. She asked that her Facebook, and blogging friends go over to the new FOLK magazine page and LIKE the page so that she and one friend could win a free year's subscription to this new highly anticipated magazine.

I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...

So guess what? 

Sweet little Donna won! 

And now because she won, 

she is having a contest 

for the other free subscription!

I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...

They also asked Donna 

to be a contributor for the magazine...

smart folks at 

FOLK!

So head on over to Donna's and join in the contest but just so you'll know...

               I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...

           I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...I'm winning...
   

 All in fun Y'all!

Vicki

Before I close this post, I want to ask you to please pray for Aden. He is a former student of mine, and he is having emergency surgery tonight for a brain hemorrhage or aneurysm. He's only 9 years old, and I teach with his mother. Our lives can change in an instant! Please pray! 

PORCH GUESTS

                                              THAT FACE, THAT FACE, 

                                            THAT BEAUTIFUL FACE!

I feed my sweet cats on my screened in porch,

knowing full well that I am offering up a feast to any creature

that wants to come in through the pet door. 

It's not unusual for other neighborhood cats to stop by for a treat,

after all it is there in the two huge feeders,

sitting right next to the fresh water...free for the taking.

We are also visited by raccoons, probably more than we realize.

I have to keep the Koi food in a galvanized can with bricks on top or the raccoons would dine on fish food caviar.

A few years ago we had two raccoons that would come in through the pet door, and devour all the cats' food. 

That's why I started putting the cat food in the huge feeders. 

Their water, also, is in a huge bottle 

that lets out fresh water each time they drink. 

Duncan and Violet are two pampered cats.

They have free run of the screened porch and the entire yard. 

They do come in the house, but only when it's their decision.

When the raccoons used to visit,

they would watch us through the big glass windows and doors,

that go out to the porch. 

They would pose for us to video them, 

stand up on their back legs, 

and really put on a show...almost mocking or taunting us.

I guess they felt safe as long as we were on the inside looking out.

We'd laugh and say they were probably laughing at us 

like we were monkeys in a zoo.

We were probably entertaining them as much as they were entertaining us.

 Though we stopped seeing them at night,

we knew they still visited us from time to time. 

 We saw their tiny footprints 

in the snow covered steps 

leading up to the porch. 

 We are also having to buy cat food more often.

We have not seen them in probably a year,

heard them yes, 

but not seen them.

UNTIL...

 Bark, bark, bark 

around 5 a.m. Saturday morning. 

Gypsy and Zoey, out taking care of business,

discovered the raccoons at the cat food buffet, 

and were sounding the alarm.

 Up to the porch rafters went the raccoons, 

and into the corner they squeezed.

I can just hear this one saying, 

"Get that little yapping rat away from me!"

He was twice Gypsy's size, but she takes on the neighborhood Labs, and deer that live in the edge of our yard, 
she surely ain't scared of no stinking raccoons.

Aren't they beautiful?

 Hope he got all the cobwebs up there!

 Do you think raccoons pray?

                                                 
                                           Vicki

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY 2011!

 

From Georgia to Maine, 

and back, 

flags we saw along the way...

             God bless the USA!

              HAPPY  4TH  Y'ALL!

              VICKI

DETOURS, MAINE and BLESSINGS

 In God there are never any dead-ends, only detours. Don’t ever give up. Just keep trying until you succeed. -Joyce Meyers

So did they do a good job on my car or what?

God hands us detours in life. Sometimes the detour is simply an alarm clock that wakes us up late, thus making us rush. Sometimes, however, it is something that wakes us up to what is important, and brings to light how we react to certain events and others. 

Having our car broken into was not at all in our plans of things to do while traveling to Maine. It happened, we can't change it, but we can control how we feel about it.

It's not that they took all my clothes and jewelry, or that they damaged my car, it can be fixed. It's not that they took my son's body wash, or my video camera that still had the shots of last year's Maine moose on it. What breaks my heart more than anything is the trust they took away from me. The person who did this did not need our things, they wanted to destroy. They saw us arrive at the Schenectady, New York, Holiday Inn, 

and they decided to crush our world.  

Well...not this time!

This detour has helped us to put things in perspective, it's helped to strengthen our faith and it has awakened a determination in us to not let the actions of others affect how we live. Others will not put a damper on things for us, they will not rain on our parade.  In other words, others will not keep us from living and enjoying our lives. That's exactly what they were trying to do. 

Again...not this time! Oh no! Not this time!

We traveled the rest of our trip looking like this...

We had a wonderful time, in spite of their attempt to destroy our fun. 

We felt God's presence along the way, and knew He had a plan for us through it all. 

Maybe He wanted to show us that we have too much, or to appreciate what we have more. Or maybe He just wants us to pray for others more...I've prayed for the thieves, but my whole heart was not in it...yet. So, I'm working on that.

I've tried to make jokes about it...

told my relatives and friends on Facebook that I was naked in Maine...

boy did that bring on the comments...

really stirred them up!

My relatives are a bunch of jokers...sarcastic humor is our specialty and they really brought it on.

So how about some pictures to show that the beauty of this trip far out weighed the ugliness?

                        View from the bridge in Wilmington, Vermont

              The neatest Pergola I have ever seen...Wilmington, Vermont

    Baptist Church in Wilmington...one Methodist standing on the porch.

   Found my bridge again...Route 9, Keene, New Hampshire...I do love Rust!
                                                                                                       
View from our cabin, on a lake surrounded by woods...doesn't get any better!

                     

Covered bridge near North Conway, Maine. Discovered during a detour:-)

                                              A Tourist!

                           See I told you I was naked in Maine!

The reason for the trip...he's such a blessing.

Do you ever let others rain on your parade?