Dd loves playing with her stuffed animals. Here she is with her Furr Real friend cat.

 (It really purrs and moves.)

Dd had been begging for a scooter. So I told her if she saved half the money I would pay the other half.

 It took her about a month to save it up. Here it is.

We have been going to the pool a few times a week during the summer. It is paying off now.

Both kids are learning to swim. They can both doggie paddle..They call it puppy paddling.

And they can both put their faces under water now. Last year they wouldn't.

Dh and I decided to take the boat out and go fishing together one night while the kids were in VBS.

Dh caught a nice size bass on a crankbait. And as he was trying to get him off the bait, the fish jumped and the hook flew out of the fish's mouth and into dh leg...through his jeans and hooked him.

He cut the hook off the bait and then rolled up his pants to get the hook out and it was gone. He tried unsuccessfully to get the hook to come back through the skin in his leg, but he couldn't. It was making me pretty sick to watch him.

So anyway we had to go to the emergency room. They had to take an x-ray to find the hook and then cut into him to get it out and then give him 7 stitches. He said the worst part was the shot to deaden the area. Oh and the 3 hours at the ER waiting....

He will have a scar forever now to show how hooked he really is on fishing.

It hasn't detered him though...The next night he was on the water again...Fishing!

My mother brought the kids this cute farm furniture set a few years ago.  They have really enjoyed eating on it over the years.  I felt it was due for a makeover and decided this week was the time to do it. Here are the before pictures. I lightly sanded the furniture down.

Here are the after pictures.

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing since we finished up our school year.

The kids have been fishing quite a bit with Daddy.

Our friend Gus, from Texas came to visit and he and Gary went fishing every night during his visit.

Here are some picture of one of my flower beds.  I had a couple of azaleas die over the last year.

I decided to replace them with  a kind I just found out about. It is called an Encore Azalea and it blooms spring to fall and then the leaves turn red in the winter.

They are the ones with the pretty purple blooms. 

Here DD is watering one.

I have been pre-occupied with the events from the burglary. If you have never had your home invaded while you slept through it be thankful. It is a personal violation. It is hard to believe that this man was in my home 15 feet from my son. (I imagine what might have happened if one of my children had woke up to go to the bathroom.) Thankfully nothing alarmed him and no violence occurred. But he did manage to get away with over $2000.00 worth of our stuff.

I am still not sleeping well at night.  Many times I will just come in the den and sleep. I know the house is secure but I cannot get over it, and least not yet.

Wednesday morning is his day in court. From what I understand now according to the Sherrif's Dept. he has been convicted in the past for theft. In fact in 2006 and 2007 on several occasions. So this is a repeated pattern. Evidentally the lighter punishments have not done much to change his behavior patterns. I also hope he can get help with his drug problem.

Please be in prayer for him to get the help he needs, but to also get a strong enough sentence to send a message to him that change must occur. If he were to get out and repeat this, I fear for his life and the lives of others he might harm.

Well I am very happy to report that the theif that broke into our house has been apprehended.

They were not able to release his name to me. But the detective personally came out tonight

to let me know that he was in custody and his bond was set to high for him to be released.

He is being charged with over 20 home robberies in the area. They were able to get a confession from him. He stated that he sold stuff for whatever amounts he could get fast. Trying to get money for Rx drugs. Oxy something. Some kind of Painkillers.

It is so sad to see how the enemy has been able to trap this young man, now he has stolen his life for the next few years as well, as he will be serving time. 

My prayer is that it won't be wasted and that he would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Just think, what if you did lose a little bit of stuff, but through it this man gained eternal life.

Talk about turning things around for the good. I ask others to join me in prayer for this person.

That he would experience the true life change that only Jesus can bring.

I am also greatful that we will finally be able to sleep tonight.

Romans 8:28

We know all things work together for good for those that love

 the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

It's easy to ask "Why, God?" when bad things seem to happen.

But this time I didn't ask. I knew that God had protected our family in the midst

of a home invasion and robbery.

That morning I awoke about 3 AM and went down the hall to use the bathroom.

(I did not want to use ours and wake my husband.) I did not enter the den, but I

was only feet away. (If he was in the house then or not, I am not sure.)

I remember thinking "I can't believe how loud those birds are chirping at 3 in the morning.

DH says it may have been because the back door was open at the time and the screen was

allowing the sound in louder.

It is scary to think about what might have happened if we had met face to face.

A person brazen enough to enter someone's home in the middle of the night, must

be desperate for money, perhaps even high.

I know that God allowed this to happen. But in the midst of it, He also protected us.

Perhaps he was giving us a warning to be more cautious and secure our home

better. We have taken many measures now to help prevent this sort of thing.

How do we know that God didn't allow this so we would be more on guard and

He could be saving us from something far worse down the road.

We also found out that there have been other home robberies in our area, 1 other in our neighborhood and 4 in the neighborhood across the highway from us.

We also learned that he took my dd's backpack (that was on the den sofa) with her Leapster, 4 game cartridges and the rechargeable battery pack.

And my van key was in my purse.

I pray that this person is apprehended and that the items be returned and that no

other families needlessly suffer. Also I hope that no one gets hurt.

Someone broke into our home last night while we were all in bed asleep.

When my dh got up this morning he walked into the den his computer (from work) was gone.

He came and woke me up and said my computer is gone.

We got up and began looking upstairs to see what happened. (At first we were still scared someone might be in the house, maybe downstairs, etc.)

We called the police, then I noticed my purse was gone.

(In my purse was my camera bag, and my cell phone was in it.)

They also got away with my dh billfold.

Funny they left my guitar which was right beside the door they went out of.

So they have all our ID's, Check card, etc. Which of course are of no more use since they have been reported stolen. But I did have $200.00 in grocery money in my purse.

But in the midst of this we are thanking God for our protection. This person was only feet away from my sleeping son. We heard nothing to alarm us and even the dog did not wake up.

(Which I am really thankful for, because if he had the burglar may have become alarmed and it could have caused sometihng really bad to happen.)

We are upset over this-mainly because it is scary to think someone was in our home, and

the things they took were many personal things.

But when you think about it, all that is just stuff. It is a hassle now to make all the phone calls and have to get new check cards and  new drivers liscense etc. But that is nothing compared to having us all safe and sound at home. He only got stuff and all that can be replaced.

Thank You God for watching over us and keeping us under your protection!

Well I promised I would get some photos up from my new camera.

I decided it would be easiest to just put them in the slide show format.

The squirrels, birds and bunnies are zoomed in on using around 40X.

Be sure to mute the sidebar first. You will notice a turn in the video. Well I just got my new camera and thought I would try holding it vertically. (I am still trying to figure out how to edit that part.)

Anyway, I love my new camera and it took the videos and the pictures.

So now I can share it.

My dh got me a new camera for my b-day. It is a Canon Powershot SX100 IS.  I just love this camera.

If you are on the lookout for a new camera, this might be a great one for you to consider. You can take a product tour by clicking on the link. Underneath it says product tour. Click the button and it will show you a video with more info.

4 or 5 years ago I received my first digital camera. I was glad to at least have digital. It was a Casio 4MP. Now, the Casio takes great outdoor pictures. But the indoor pictures were always full of red eye-even with the correction on. It also did not have much of a zoom on a 3X. So I was unable to capture great pictures at ball games etc.

So I went searching for the right camera. One small enough to fit in my purse at all times. I researched reviews for 7 days. And I would not even consider a camera that did not have many great reviews. I looked at reviews online from Wal-Mart and Circuit City. Dh ended up getting it at Circuit City. My local Wal-Mart had it marked down to $249.00 but they did not have it in stock. I waited a week hoping they would get it in. Then I went online to see if Circuit City actually had it and they did, and it was marked  down even further to $217.00  Dh also got me a 2GB SD card and I have rechargeable batteries. The battery life was the only negative review factor on this camera. The powerful zoom does eat through batteries quicker. (I also plan to keep some of the lithium on hand for emergencies.)

Another Feature that was important to me was a great zoom. (In fact this is the main reason I chose this camera over others. I even decided to stay with 8 MP and not go with cheaper cameras that offered 10 and 12MP.  It has a 10X optical zoom, and then can continue on with the digital zoom up to 40X. I can get close ups of the flowers or birds across the street in my neighbor's yard. It also has a great telephoto (wide angle) lens. So it would compare to a 35 mm camera as far as taking quality shots.

Also because we homeschool, we are always wanting to take pictures of nature. Birds, squirrels, bugs, etc. It also has an image stabilizer. Which helps steady the camera.  Over the weekend I took many indoor and outdoor pictures and red eye was minimal. (And even the few that contained red eye-were easily corrected with the computer software and the auto fix for red eye.)

What is really amazing about this camera is the cool video clips you can get. You can even hear the playback from the camera itself. You can add voice notes to pictures, etc.

Anyway I am not one to brag. I am just sharing my excitement to be able to leave the prehistoric times and get into some new technology!

I hope to be posting more pictures I have captured later this week.

Dd raced her car last week in Awanas. Everyone won a ribbon. 

On the Track

And of course the best part. The party and cupcakes following.