Thank You

I'd like to shout out a thank you to our dear friend, Fay. She finally came through with some wonderful soaking rains for us. We had about 3/4" of rain on Sunday afternoon and evening, another 3/4" overnight on Monday and yesterday was the most wonderful all-day rainy day we've had in memory! I worked at the shop and business was brisk and not one person complained about having to go out in the rain. We all thought it was a very beautiful day. Jodi said the kids had a ball playing in it. There was no wind or lightning or thunder...just rain. At times it would come down very heavy, but just straight down. You could almost hear the earth sighing with relief.

High and Dry

I'm sure you've heard of Tropical Storm Fay. She's been in the news for over a week pouring record-breaking amounts of water on all parts of Florida and the south east. If you've seen pictures on TV of her large, swirling swath of orange, you would think we were getting a good soaking, too. You would think that...and you would be wrong. I've been waiting for days for the raining to start here. But on the radar, the rain was only getting as far as Macon -- about an hour south of us. But I kept looking...and looking...and looking. Yesterday it was inching a little closer, but was very spotty. I was just sure today would be the day. But I awoke to only more gray skies. I looked at the local Doppler radar and thought, "Hey! What do you call that????" How did all that rain get from the southeast of us to the northwest of us -- and MISS us completely??? So as I was getting ready for church, I was being mentally grumpy and thinking, "According to Matthew 5:45 'the rain falls on the just and the unjust'...but it just doesn't fall on us!"

But it's been a weird day, weather-wise. We've been mostly cloudy, but every once in a while it would pour straight down -- a nice, heavy rain -- that lasts for about a minute and a half. Then the sun would come out and it would get very steamy and humid...and we'd have mostly blue skies. It did that several times. Very strange. But I think if you add all those little intervals of showers together, we may have actually accumulated about 1/2". We'll take it. But I'm watching the radar still, because now Fay may be forced back over us from the west this time and maybe she'll be a little more generous in the next few days. We can only hope.

Going fo the Gold

Well, we had our Olympic extravaganza in the pool on Sunday as planned. Good thing we don't get rain -- ever -- in Georgia so we can pretty much plan on doing our outdoor activities. The official part of the program here at "Beijing South" began with the performers waiting patiently behind the scenes to be introduced. (No...we did not have "opening ceremonies")

In their excitement to perform, we had a few false starts and the synchronized backward free fall wasn't quite as "synchronized" as we had practiced. But they had a wonderful time showing off for their audience. Since watching the Olympics on TV, Emery has decided he likes someone (or everyone) to chant "USA...USA...USA" while he swims now.

Savannah was awarded the gold medal...for bravery more than anything else. While Emery has had courage enough to put on the "super suit" and jump off the diving board repeatedly, she needed the lure of the gold to make her try that. But she did it...stopping on her way while swimming the length of the pool to announce: "I'm going for my medal!"

Our version of closing ceremonies was a hot dog, potato salad and baked beans cookout. Okay...a little less than what they'll be doing in Beijing...but worth every penny of the price of admission!

Olympic Fever -- Catch It!

A few weeks ago I was playing in the pool with the grand kids and they were saying their usual, "Look at me!", "Look, Nanny!", "Lookit...lookit...lookit!". But I only have two eyeballs and no matter how hard I try, I can't "lookit" in two directions at the same time! I thought to myself, "what these kids need is an audience". Now picture a light bulb above my head. I had them sit down and focus for a minute (no easy task) and I started to tell them that in a few more days there would be something on TV called "The Olympics". They are both very competitive (you can't walk down the hallway in the house without a "line leader") and so their little eyes danced when I told them it was a big, huge contest to see who could run the fastest, throw the farthest, swim the fastest, dive the best, etc. I told them lots of people would be watching. Then I told them we should put on an Olympic-type water show. They got excited about that. They have learned SOOO much in the pool this summer. So they started practicing some of the things they want to show their audience. Such daring and death (by drowning)-defying feats as "cartwheel diving", "the human airplane", "the spiral corkscrew" and the "synchronized backward freefall" to name a few. After swimming that day, while Emery took his nap, Savannah and I made up invitations to this show starring The Amazing Savannah and The Incredible Emery. She addressed envelopes to mommy, daddy, Grandpa and Aunt Jessica. They were then sealed with a lot of stickers.

This extravaganza will be held this coming Sunday afternoon at 4:30. Since I figure the show will last approximately 12 to 16 minutes, I've included a cook out and pool party following.

I'm So Proud

When your daughter announces to you that she is a slob...that she has, in fact, been "named SLOB of the month for August"...how can a mother not swell with pride?

As you've probably noticed by now, I use my blog just to ramble on about whatever happens to be on my mind. But my girls are more into it than I am. They actually network with other bloggers all over the country and check on each other on a regular basis. One of Jessica's favorite blog sites is by the guys in the Christian band called Mercy Me. She gets a kick out of the videos they play and she even has taught Savannah how to get to their web site and she has her own favorites that she plays.

A little while back, the Mercy Me guys started what they called SLOBs (stands for "Spectacular League of Bloggers"). They were having a lot of fun with it and getting people to write in suggesting logos for tee shirts, etc. Last week they announced they were starting a new feature: SLOB of the month. They wanted to celebrate the individual that sent the most people over to them from their own blog...and they named Jessica as the first SLOB of the month. You can check them out at http://www.mercyme.org/ and then click on their blog and see some fun videos.

Congratulations, Jess.

God is Good

Due to the ongoing drought...and especially the past few years...we have several large, dead pine trees around the property. A few seem rather threatening to the house, the pool, etc. We had been looking at one very big one in particular. I say "had been" because God took it down for us the other night during a brief but very windy thunder storm.

I had been at a scrapbook retreat over night and had gone with my friend, Mellie. I drove, so when we got back here I pulled my car up into the back yard and we unloaded her things. Then I pulled my car into the garage and unloaded my stuff. I was tired and it would not have been out of the realm of possibility to leave my car where it was and deal with the "stuff" in the morning. If I had done that, my car would have been sitting on the left side of the yard...right where the trunk of the tree fell. And Jerry said that just about 1/2 hour earlier, he had pulled his truck into the back yard -- as he sometimes does -- and it would have been just to the right of that...where the top of the tree hit. But then he had moved it over by the shed.

Also...God "pruned" it for us. It broke off about 8 feet up. If it had fallen over at the very bottom, it would have smashed through the fence around the pool. As it was, it came within a few feet of touching it.

Usually I ask Jerry every morning, "What are you going to do today?" or "What's on your agenda for the day?". Yesterday morning when I asked, "Gee...what are you going to do today?" he looked at me funny. Well...you know...not funny "ha-ha" more like funny "you're not very funny". He worked all day in the 95-degree heat, bless his heart, and got it all cleaned up. Today he is hauling it away. What would I do without him?

What some people might see as a series of fortunate events and decisions, I choose to see as the hand of God...blessing us and providing us with constant little (and not so little) miracles. Thank you, God, for your constant care.