P.L.A...

Back when I used to watch the tv show Friends, one of my favorite episodes was when Pheobe, Rachel and Monica talked about not having a plan, and Pheobe said, "I don't even have a pla!" I feel like that's where I'm at. I figured up a great schedule for how our day should run, but didn't come up with how I was going to follow through with it! What's a PLAN without follow-through? It's a P.L.A.... So, I will be working on my steps for successful follow through for the next two days! Hubby is out of town doing a two day install in Alabama. I'm going to do some cleaning and organizing while he's gone, and some really good reading since I'll be alone at night after the kids go to bed. I have no schedule for the next two days..we're just going to wing-it and enjoy each other until Daddy comes back home. But, I will in the back of my mind, be coming up with a P.L.A...N! for how we will make our new schedule work when he returns!

Oh, and FYI, please pray for us...the dryer isn't working for some reason. There's only 110 volts going into my 210 outlet, so it's not enough power to run the dryer. I really needed to do laundry today. (sniff, sniff) May the Lord provide the answer and solution we need when hubby returns!

Move It Monday

Here it is Monday again! I have to admit, I had great plans for today, and most of them aren't going to followed through. Hubby couldn't sleep last night, so we stayed up late playing that Frontier game of facebook! How silly! So, I didn't get up on time, and I'm already really behind in the new schedule I layed out. Here's what it was supposed to look like:

7:00am-wake up, start coffee and breakfast
bible reading and prayer time

8:00-8:30-kids breakfast

9:00-Mr. Pure at Heart starts school
Girls watch cartoons
Mr. Know it All starts SOS subjects
Mommy takes shower

11:00-girls start school
Mr. Know it All starts Paces

12:30-lunch

1:00-finish all schoolwork

?-4:00-freetime w/ snack time at 3:00

4:05-cleanup and chores

6:00-dinner

I can't schedule anything after that, because there's no telling what hubby will want to do every night, and I never be able to stick a schedule. That would just frustrate us all, I think! But, since how I didn't wake up until 9:00!(I guess I really needed my sleep) my day is going to have to be adjusted! Plus, hubby just scared my half to death while I was in the middle of this post...he's still home! His work van wouldn't start, so he's at home working on it today. Praise God, he'll get paid for it. But with him home, who knows what my day will really look like?! All I can say is that I will try to keep it moving and have a productive day none-the-less! I wish a wonderful start of the week to you!

Facebook

Okay, so I've never been a fan of facebook. I just feel like they have way too many open doors and am so scared of the lack of privacy. However, I am going to be joining a bible study accountability group, and will need to be on Facebook. So, I am creating my account, and if any of you are already on and want to link up as friends, let me know! It's going to take me a while to figure out how it all works, but I'm hoping it will go smoothly!

Project Organized Home-A Little Help For Autumn

Well, today's post is all about how I'm trying to encourage autumn to make it's way here! Now, I know full well that since we are in the south, we aren't going to enjoy true autumn for a couple more months, but it has been sooooo hot here (and most of the country) this summer. We are ready for a break in these temperatures! I do see some signs of cooler weather on the horizon...

My Kousa Dogwood has beautiful orange fruit now ripening and dropping to the ground! When we came home from our trip, most of my outdoor flowers had died since we weren't there to water them twice a day. They had to be cut down or pulled out completely, so I felt it was time to go ahead and put out the fall flowers!

Every year I put out fake fall flowers in place of where my annuals were. It adds beautiful autumn color that needs no maintenance. They usually last 3-4 years depending upon how much sun they are exposed to. A great investment, really. This year, I'm just putting them out a little early in hopes that I can encourage autumn temperatures to follow!

Every time I take a picture of this area, I realize how badly I need to clean up that brick mailbox! I have done a great job of keeping it weeded though, and it's one of my favorite parts of the yard. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing my color-changing solar lights until we came home and saw them again. They are so beautiful!

This ivy will live through the winter again...it's about 3 years old now. I think next year, I may have to transplant it, instead of just cutting it back. I love it in this pot though. I've had an amber colored solar light in it for a few months, and I just LOVE IT! Now, we have some fall color in it, instead of a spring dogeared begonia!

These sunflowers were left over, so they went at the corner of the ivy bed! It needed some color. One day, I hope to dig up all this ivy and have a nice flower bed here. This is the round brick bed next to the porch. I know it's really going to be a task though to kill all the ivy and keep it from coming back. Well, that was this weeks project for a more beautiful and organized home! Have a great weekend!

Summit Pictures

So, we finally reach the summit of Rocky Mountain National Park and we climb up the tundra trail, and this is what we see!...

The female elk were just sitting there, 20 ft from us at the top of the mountains...just amazing!

It was cold too! I was the only one who was comfortable up there in a short sleeve shirt. Everyone else was freezing or had coats on! I'm thankful that God allowed me to not be cold, and enjoy the experience. I think I got so overheated in Kansas, that nothing was going to make me cold! Plus, I did spend over half my life hiking in these mountains!

It's so cool seeing giant rock formations come out of nowhere at the top of a mountain! They were HUGE too! You know, sometimes when you remember things as a child as being big, when you see them again as an adult, you're a little disappointed, but that sure isn't the case with these rock formations and the mountains as a whole!

There are no trees up this high, just rocks and grass...

This is the closeup picture below...

And here's the one from a distance to give you scale. Can you see the lake in the middle of the picture? Just beautiful to see a little lake just sitting on the side of a mountain! I don't care how beautiful it is, I wouldn't get in it even if you could access it. Do you know how cold that water hast to be? There is still snow on most of these mountains! They just recently opened the road to the summit. It was impassable before.

One last picture for you. People in Southern climates are just amazed that all the snow still isn't melted off in the middle of August up here. The elevation is just so high. This particular mountain was even taller than us, so it stands at least 13,000ft tall! I believe the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park is over 14,000ft tall. God's beauty is found everywhere and it's all just spectacular, but I will always be partial to the mountains. My mother and I both, just feel so close to God when we are up here! The beauty of His creation in these mountains is absolutely breathtaking and leaves you speechless for a while...just standing there enjoying it, and trying to take it all in!

I also ended up with three beautiful panoramic pictures that won't load onto here, but they turned out great, and will be on my bedroom wall! I was able to get 5 mountains in one panoramic picture! Thank you for looking and letting me share my homecoming with you!

More Mountain Pics

After the picnic, we drove through Estes Park.

I love seeing all the shops there, and watching the wide range of people there!
This fella was standing outside an Indian shop. I don't know if he's a real Indian, or just trying to make more sales, but it was funny to watch him interact with everyone!

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Then we went on to the Rocky Mountain National Park. These two pictures are from about half way up the mountains. I love the shadows from the clouds!

I really had to zoom in to get the detail on this little river from so high up. I love how curvy it is!

Summit pictures next!

Move It Monday

Well, I'm supposed to me moving it today, but we're a little on the slow side. My back just isn't holding up well to all the hotel beds, and all the time we spent sitting in the van. I accomplished so much yesterday, and I am very thankful for that! Hubby told me to take it easy today though. We don't want to have to pay for a chiropractor visit right now!

I've almost got all our laundry done from the trip, and I've emptied all the suitcases. I just need to put them back in the closets now. All 6 of us tackled the girl's bedroom on Saturday and got it looking great again! They are both finally sleeping back in their own beds now. And of course, with the room looking neat and organized, they are actually playing in there again as well! I thoroughly cleaned the dinning room yesterday but didn't get all the dishes done. I would have, but my darling little 3 year old spilled a whole jug of coffee creamer on the kitchen floor, so I spent that time trying to clean that up...not very fun. So, today I think I'll keep it light and between times of icing my back, I will:

Wash Dishes

Write up boy's school schedule for the week

Schedule Bills

Mop Kitchen Floor Again

Put Away All Clean Clothes

That's all I'm going to try and accomplish. I have some more yard work I want to do. I only got a few weeds pulled yesterday, but that is soooo hard on my lower back. It will have to wait at least a few days. It would be nice to wait for some cooler weather as well! I have a lot of fall landscaping projects that I'd like to do this year. We'll just see if we can get the money for them all! Have a wonderful week everyone!

Mountain Picnic

On Saturday, the whole family got together for a picnic at the base of the mountains. This park is maintained by the city of Loveland and is a great historical park. It used to be a power plant but was ruined by a flood. It now has picnic tables, playground equipment, walking paths over bridges and so much more! They have two spots that you can reserve for things to, but we were just doing the "FREE" casual thing! The picture above is the view up the mountain from the park, and below is the sign placed in front of the old generators.
These are the old generators which they have left here in the park. I think it's cool to look at them and think of what was once here. It's amazing what kind of damage water can do...especially when it's running down the mountains at great speed!

This is a neat little nature building. Inside they have glass covered shelves that show local wildlife, insects, trees and etc. They also teach the differences between the North and South facing slopes. Pretty cool stuff!

And, my favorite part of the park is the Big Thompson River that flows right through it! The sound of the water rushing through is so beautiful! If that was right out my bedroom window, I would sleep like a baby every night! The water is so crystal clear and beautiful! Our picnic table was just above this spot on the river, and it was such a lovely lunch!

I can't tell you how hard it was to leave the park, but we were going up to Estes Park and the Summit of the Rocky Mountain National Park, so I was looking forward to that. Those pictures will come soon!

Rocky Mountain Wildlife

We saw loads and loads of elk while we were in the national park. They love being there, because they can't be hunted within the park. I love it because they will get close enough to you to get some great shots with the camera! These bulls were obviously distracted by something, but we had a whole group of cows (female elk) that were sitting 20 ft from us and were staring right at us! It was great.
My husband obviously missed the sign that says "don't feed the wildlife" but apparently so did a lot of other people since these little critters ate right of his hand! They won't do this on a first time encounter! It was pretty neat though, I must say.

These birds didn't like all the attention the squirrels and chipmunks were getting and they pushed their way in! They were really beautiful though, and to see them up close was great! The kids could of stayed there all day, but the sun wasn't going to stay with us!

Fields of Yellow

Remember those fields of sunflowers I told you I was looking forward to seeing? Well, I wasn't disappointed and now I get to share them with you! I'm going to blow up one of these pictures to a 16x20 and hang it on my bedroom wall. I'm going to do that with some of my mountain pictures as well.

God's beauty never ceases to stop me in my tracks! I think having all these beautiful pictures on my wall will help me to get through the cold winter that will be here before you know it!

Garden Spider

How would you like to go to turn on the hose spicket and find these two fellas in your way?! After freaking out a little bit, I realized they would make for some good pictures. As far as I know, garden spiders are the only ones who make that zig-zag pattern in the middle of the web. They are bigger than a silver dollar and so beautiful as far as colors go. I'm EXTREMELY afraid of spiders though, so I had to use the zoom to take the pictures from a safe distance! Hubby had to turn on the spicket so I could rinse out some buckets..I wasn't going any closer!

Rain Rain Go Away

We got home at 6:00am Friday morning and it had already starting raining. It hasn't stopped for long since. The flooding is getting bad in the low areas of town. Our local Goodwill, Rite Aid, Rent-A-Center and other stores in this shopping center, got covered in a foot of water and they had to close down. The fire trucks and police were there to make sure everyone got out safe and that no electrical fires started from the water rushing in the stores. You can see in the picture below where the water line was before the water receded to where it's at now. I hope we don't get too much more rain in the next couple days.
Some of the workers in the stores had their cars get stuck in the water before they even realized it. So unfortunate.

This is another low part of town. At least they got the guys out of the truck, when I drove by the first time, they were both still in it. I'm glad the police came to block the road of because some foolish people were still trying to cross the road.

So, tonight I will be praying for the rain to stop for a while!

Hand In Hand

This is my 5 year old daughter on the left, and her 5 year old cousin on the right. They are so cute together! I'll put a front picture on my other blog. Those of you who regularly make comments, and don't have access, please e-mail me or leave a comment with your e-mail address and I won't publish it. I'd love for you to be able to see all the other pictures as well!

The shipping company delivered all of the HVAC supplies to the wrong place, so hubby won't be able to install them in South Kansas today. It messes up our plans a little bit, but it will give us two extra days with his family, so that was a real blessing! We won't have to split up the girls yet. No matter what, we have to leave Friday morning to head for Colorado, so I guess he'll have to install the heating and air conditioners on our way back from Colorado. That will put us back home later than thought, but I know the Lord does everything for a reason, and right now we are thankful that we will be with family again today instead of in South Kansas!

My back is still giving me trouble, so I'm off to the pool again to loosen it up for the day! My 3 year old woke up with her neck hurting yesterday...so bad that she would scream and cry every time she moved it wrong. I took her to her old doctors office, and they thought it was just a pulled muscle or something like that. I get it all the time from sleeping wrong, but you don't hear it in 3 year olds. We gave her ibuprofen all day and night, and kept one of those thermawraps on it, and she seems much better today so far. I praise God for that! Please keep her in your prayers. If she can't go swimming again soon, she'll be one very unhappy little girl. It was hard yesterday seeing her not able to play with all the other kids at the park. She wants all the time with her cousins that she can get too!