{change purse} giveaway

*share a recent good book you read...for a chance to win this cute little {change purse} handmade by me

On these hot and quite humid days, I get so tired (we do not have air conditioning) and tend to read more than do anything physical. So far this month, I've read:

• The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan (good book about an Arab and a Jew...I kept hoping they'd get married, non-fiction)
• Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra (wow, great book, emotional, just wish the ending were happier, but I think it's realistic)
• Addition by Toni Jordan (funny book about a girl who is addicted to counting everything)
• Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center (such a REAL book, I felt myself connecting to the main character)
• Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope (honestly I got this book from the library, because I liked the cover...silverware, but it was okay, good ending)
• What Matters Most by Luane Rice (reading currently, recommended from a friend)

There are a few books I have on "hold" at the library:

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Mermaid's Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (I really liked Secret Life of Bees)
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Russian Fest

September 5, 2009

Nisbet Park, Loveland

11-5pm

* I'll be there...hope to see you! Here is a link to our church website.

Last night we met up at church and my sister got supplies to make these cute eggs...it was lots of fun. I am also sewing little change purses...very simple.

* check back soon for a giveaway (especially if you want a magenta corduroy change purse)!




On the way to Mt. Rushmore, in the Blackhills of South Dakota, we stopped to take a photo. I used the hood of the car to prop the camera and used the timer to take quite a few family photos while on our trip out west.



Last week, my little nephew, Isaac, was baptised...we were on vacation, but are blessed to see him much more often than my sister Mary and her husband Andrey (who was the Godfather) who live in Canada. They had a 3 day weekend and went to a friends wedding...that's where that nice photo of the two of them was taken! That turquoise necklace used to be our grandmothers.

We went to Yellow Springs yesterday and thought the brick work on the front of this gift shop was amazing! Of course, we went to Young's dairy and got ice cream cones. We met up with Zoya and little Harriett there...it was a nice get-together, the weather was great and only until we headed home did it start to rain!

Yellowstone

It feels so good to be back home again (isn't that a song by John Denver?)...well after 2 weeks on the road, camping 13 nights...I really missed my comfy bed, and the luxury of having a washer/dryer, a sink, flush toilet, hot shower, etc. While we were in Yellowstone, the campsite was just $12 a night, but that's primitive!

I added photos to Facebook...click here to see the Yellowstone album! We drove from OH, through IN, IL, IA, MN on I-90, to SD, WY, then on the way home through NE on I-80, which was quite boring, but saved us a few hours.

Yes, that's snow on the Tetons...it was in the 80s down by the lake, though! We got to see bison, pronghorn (deer that can actually outrun a cheetah!), a grizzly bear eating yellow flowers on a hillside, osprey, a bald eagle, a black bear, a Clark's nutcracker, ground squirrels...so much nature, it was amazing.

Adventure...

My parents with all 5 of their grandchildren, so far...we met up with them at Graeter's for ice cream (click on the photo to see the large version, I know you want to, Mom).

We're off on our next adventure (ultimate destination: Yellowstone National Park)...see ya'll in 2 weeks!

Frugal

...or stingy...I like to reuse things, but sometimes I wonder when it's too much. I have a collection of used, clean, but cloudy plastic bags. I don't want to buy anymore. I am a pack-rat, save everything that I can't recycle or compost, because the kids might want to use it in their sandbox or I could use it again.This is the first time I've used squash blossoms...stuffed them with goat cheese (mixed in garlic, rosemary and green onion). Yummy. Most recipes I found are fried, but they are edible raw, so that's how I ate them.
I wish I had used cloth diapers...didn't even try. Olivia was very happy to have a turn holding her little cousin, Isaac...he's getting so big already. That's the card I made for his baptism. A birdbath...it's like a baptismal font, right?
Our girls loved Emma's slip and slide...
We roasted marshmallows over my sister's fire pit...so much fun!

I love colors...

Rob bought an external hard drive, so now I have lots of storage for all the photos I take...the computer was full...and I didn't have any more CDs to burn.

I dyed a shirt of mine and one of Hannah's dresses (it was white, she got blue marker on it...dye was the perfect coverup) with Dylon dyes, available at Joann's right now, on SALE I might add!

Do you like that little flower I crocheted? I am hoping to meet up with my friend Kristina today...I've crocheted some for her!

Yesterday was my little niece Emma's 2nd birthday...isn't she co cute with her pigtails?

Shelling freshly picked peas from our garden...which I mixed with walnuts, raw chopped broccoli, cooked crumbled bacon, red onions and mayonnaise for dinner last night. Yum.

Me...with my nephew, Isaac, who is officially one month old today!

I just read my old friend Christina's blog and was so happy to see they are ready to start building a new church! We have a small church and have been planning for years to build a bigger church to the glory of God, but we have been set back about 2 years...the initial plot of land would need a retaining wall that was outrageous, so we are buying a new piece of land!

Fairy Caravan

I picked up a book written by Beatrix Potter in 1929 called Fairy Caravan, about a guinea-pig whose hair grew amazingly long after trying some new elixir and ran away to join a circus. Such imagination!

It's good to be back home again, but we had a great vacation. Here we are on West Rattlesnake overlooking Squam Lake, NH. The girls took to kayaking immediately...so we're thinking of looking to buy some old ones, maybe on Ebay or Craigslist?

I zoomed into the field to take a photo of this Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly on the Purple Milkweed blossoms.

Aunt Ellen and Uncle Jim invited us...and we also saw my sister, Mary and her husband, Andrey, who came down from Canada for a few days...and my cousin, Zoya and her 3 year old daughter Harriett. I have lots more photos to share...maybe later, my computer doesn't have any extra space, so I have to keep the rest on my memory card for now! Yikes.
Rob and Olivia brave the cold Atlantic waters...

We ate scrumptious lobsters...I was thrilled to see Hannah get into it, as she is usually picking everything apart, not a seafood-lover like the rest of us!