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!

4 Days In

Well, we are now 4 days into our trip and we are having such a wonderful time! I can't get over how beautiful my 5 little nieces are! Two of the girls have LONG, curly hair just like my girls have. My sister in law and I were always pregnant at the same time, so 3 of our kids are the same age..just a couple months apart. It is soooo cute to see the girls together. They just love playing with someone their own age. I will show pictures on my other blog later of my 5 year old and her five year old together. It just melted my heart. They are the same age, same height, same long curly hair, walking hand in hand everywhere they go! Today is our last day here with them, and it is going to break my heart to split them up. We have been so busy from the moment we got here, and very little time to breathe. We've been swimming and playing at the lake, eating dinner with friends, swimming at the motel, driving around town and seeing what's changed...so fun. We are late for meeting hubby's brother again, so I had better get off of here! More soon!

Arrival

Well, we are here in Topeka, KS and very, very tired! I can't wait to get some good sleep and a nice hot breakfast in the morning. We will take hubby's aunt and uncle out to dinner, and then we will drive another hour up to see his parents and his brother's family. I can't wait to see all 5 of my nieces...I bet they are so big! So tired, and it's almost three in the morning, so I'm going to bed. Thanks for all your prayers!

Thankful Thursday

I just can't seem to get enough done fast enough! I can't believe we are leaving in two days...I really need to get with it. There is still so much to be done. Of course though, for today's post....I would have to say that I am thankful that we are going on this trip! We haven't been back to Kansas since the day we moved out of it, 2 years and 11 months ago. I will get to see my 5 nieces who have to be SOOO big by now. I haven't even seen a picture of them in all this time. Grandma will get to see her grand kids that she adores so much, and misses terribly. She started tearing up when I finally told her that we were coming for sure! We will get to see old church family and what I am excited the most for.....NO TRAFFIC and being able to look up in the sky and seeing as far as the eye can see! I know that may seem silly to you, but when you move from corn fields to a city like Atlanta, it's quite an adjustment. Plus, we live just outside Atlanta and there are sooooo many REALLY TALL trees here, that you are lucky if you get to see down the street, much less far away. In Kansas, you can see the horizon from almost anywhere you may be standing. I miss that! Just a never ending blue sky, fields of sunflowers, cows, and green, green pastures! And if that isn't good enough, then we get to go over to God's country....

My Rocky Mountains! I haven't seen them in over 6 years and I haven't seen my entire family on my dads side in that long either. What a blessing! I couldn't be much more thankful than I am right now! God has worked EVERYTHING out and has shown his majesty and power! Where we failed, or couldn't go any further, He carried things through, and provided us with the many things we needed to make this trip. Hallelujah, Praise His Name! I probably won't post again for a while, but I'll have the camera and computer with me on the trip and will post pictures periodically as I can! Thank you all for your prayers for us and this trip...THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Thankful Thursday is being hosted by Women Taking A Stand this month. Hop over to read more thankful posts, or link up one of your own!

Hmmm...

Well, I don't have time for a daybook today, but I don't want to be silent either. Hmmm... I guess a misc. post today?! There's lots going on here, that's for sure.

I started school for the kids yesterday. It seems crazy and I would of loved to of had more of a structured first day, but oh well. Our district started back yesterday and we have several public school families who watch us closely, and I want to be a good testimony for homeschooling. Their opinion is ultimately their opinion, but I need to do what I can to try and influence them for the good! Our kids play with some of them occasionally since they are neighbors, and I don't want their kids telling mine how spoiled they are, or how their school isn't "real"...we've heard that one before...so we got started anyhow. I am excited though, I've been excited for this year even before last year ended! Little Princess starts Kindergarten this year, and both of the boys have new subjects this year. Very cool. We are going to take it with us on our trip, and that will give them something to do on the slow days and LONG car rides. There are some long, straight highway stretches that should be great for doing some schoolwork!

I am doing laundry like crazy and pulling out suitcases to start getting them packed. Today we are going to focus on the clothes we want to take, and get them clean and packed before anyone can wear them again! lol I just can't believe we are down to 4 days until we leave! I've bought all the snacks and have put them into snack bags for easy distribution in the van. Now, I just have to buy the small totes to put them in. My back is better, but not all the way yet. I may have to have another adjustment tomorrow. I'm hoping it will hold up to laundry and a trip to Inlges to get tubs for the snacks! I'm also going to start on the first aid and medicine box today. That's a MUST_NOT_FORGET. Those items are very expensive to replace on the road. Convenient stores charge a fortune for those things...well anything, really! Plus, Mr. Pure at Heart needs all his allergy and asthma meds. I am praying that we all stay healthy and don't get sick before we leave or while we are gone! We've been waiting years for this trip, and I pray the Lord will allow us to have a real nice one!

You all enjoy your day, wherever you are, whatever you are doing..and thanks for stopping by my world today!

Move It Monday

Well, my only goal for today was just to be able to move period. I woke up at 6am yesterday morning feeling like I was having a heart attack. After getting out of bed and walking to the living room, I realized it was my upper back. Somehow, I had slept on it wrong and it was not only out, but pinching some nerves! It was worse on the left side, and went into my left arm a little and all the way up my neck into the base of my head even. Yesterday was one of the longest days of my life. Getting through it was so hard. I was in tears most the day. Thankfully, my chiropractor saw me first thing this morning, and got me to where I can move without tears! Praise God! I still can't move quick, or turn my head all the way to either side...full range of motion is going to take a few days, but today is DRASTICALLY different from yesterday!

Hubby stayed home because he was sure I wouldn't be able to drive myself to the chiro today, and he's taken care of the kids for me today. What a blessing he is to me! He also knew that I wanted to get my hair done before the trip, but we didn't know if we would have the time or money. He wound up getting the money, and we had the time today since he stayed home. He told me not to do housework today, and just ice my back again and go get my hair done. The hairdresser was so good too..she really adjusted to be nice on my back! Real sweet. So, now I am going to lay down and ice my back again, and praise God for my wonderful husband and great looking hair! There is so much to do, but it will have to wait until tomorrow!