She Speaks

Since I have been keeping my little grandbaby this summer each day I find myself talking to her all day long. So far, for the most part, this is a one sided conversation. Oh, I get looks from time to time. Smiles and laughs and sometimes a few tantrums thrown in for fun. She is not fond of "no." But in the last few weeks she has really been a chatterbox. She just talks and garbles away. Often I will leave her in her room at my house and just watch her around the door as she carries on conversations with her toys. She sings with the radio and really, really loves her singing Easter bunny now. Ha-Ha, Erica!! She is getting so funny and I cannot wait until I can understand all her words. But, the minute I turn on my video camera...she clams up. Drives me crazy. I try to send a video or two each week to her other grandparents in Wilmington, NC. They do not get to see her often and I know they like to see her through video. So I tried again today to get her to say a few words. She will be one in a week and a half and I think she has great vocal skills. She can say mama, daddy, Megan, thank you, doggie, hey and a few other words that I am trying to figure out. I just know once she gets started she is going to talk her mommy's ears right off!! I just think she is the cutest thing ever!

Summer Sunset

We had a brief but loud summer storm last night. I was busy in my house making centerpieces for my niece's wedding when I noticed a pretty glow outside. The sunset was amazing. It just got prettier by the second so I ran and got my camera before it disappeared completely.



It started with some pinks and pale yellows

The outer woods got darker as the sun set lower into the horizon

This last shot was so electric! Oranges and reds backlit the woods for a touch of dark green. The handiwork of God is unbelievable. Who in their right mind could ever doubt His glory and power??

If God can and does paint sunsets like this one just for our pleasure just think what He can do four us if we only have faith and believe on His word and obey. Amazing.

reflecting

I just got home from my daughter's house.  I was taking a pair of work shorts to my son-in-law for him to wear tomorrow to work.  He has to work patrol at a local water park for ten hours and it is only going to 100 degrees tomorrow with 20054% humidity.  So my sweet mama hemmed a pair of work shorts for him so he won't die.  It is that hot, people.  While at Erica's we were looking on that "wonderful" social media...the book of faces...or Facebook as it is so known.  I, personally, do not have a facebook page.  i am the last American holdout.  A rogue.  Cowboy. Cowgirl?  Outlaw??  whatever...I really don't like facebook.  Too much information is posted on people's sites.  I mean there are people putting pictures of themselves doing every stupid thing in the world.  Look at me...I am putting on lipstick.  Look at me...I am getting the mail.  Look at me...I am looking at me in a mirror.  Do these people not have anything better to do???  I have seen way too much about lives on facebook that I have no reason to ever see or know.  Sometimes it can be a good thing.  A way to spread information pretty fast.  Anyway, I digress...Erica was showing me Blake's cousins new baby boy.  He is a doll!  While looking at this little week old baby I asked Erica, "Can you even remember Piper that small?"  I knew the answer before I even asked.  No.  How can we forget how tiny those hands were.  Or how fragile that little body was.  so small.  So sweet.  I remember my own babies but I need pictures to really remember.  I suppose that is why I take Piper's picture 10,000 times a week.  So I won't forget.  When she is 16 I would like to be able to show her what she looked liked at one year old.  What her expressions were.  Her smile.  Her monster face.  Which is hilarious.  How she examines every single blade of grass in the yard.  Every one.  How she holds her sippy cup upside down to drink out of it.  All these little things that I know I will forget.  Reflections...things to look back on and remember.  I want to be able to tell stories through pictures to all my grandchildren.  A collection of memories that reflect a happy childhood.  One full of love and lots of play.  Great things to reflect back and smile about when grown-up life gets too hard or too much.  Good stuff.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I expect any day now for Piper to just take off running. Just bypass the whole walking thing and just run. She is a busy, busy young lady. She can crawl like wild fire and she pulls up and cruises along everything like lightning. She is one fast baby! Or maybe I am just a slow, old granny!! I remember my own two little girls and watching this one has brought back so many memories of their babyness. Hands down my favorite time of my life was raising my babies. This is becoming my second favorite time. It is so precious to watch her explore and discover everything. How she lights up over flowers and dirt. Thank goodness she loves the outdoors and likes to play in the grass. I like outdoorsy babies. No little housemouses for me!!! This week has been very hot and humid so I have brought her in alot and what a fit she pitches to go back outside. So we have been spending a good deal of time in the big pool or in her baby pool. I am super glad she likes the water too. I am half fish I think because I could float in the pool all day, every day! There has been a ton of stuff going on around our small community this week. At my church we lost two precious people on the same day. One was an eighty something lady that I dearly loved. She was a real catbird! But so faithful and she loved coming to Bible study and kept up with her homework. Even the super hard ones that Kay Arthur and Beth Moore write. The other one was a sweet, young seventeen year old who had a double lung transplant that seemed to be going really great. The transplant lungs had a virus that just took over and destroyed these new lungs. Her parents are amazing though. They have the assurance that their baby is with Jesus and she is finally breathing deep, full breaths. Still, i have cried and cried over this tragic loss. Our poor youth group is just pitiful. They need lots of love and prayers at a time like this.

Here are a couple of pictures from this week.

My necklace is too long, Mimi!

Here, I picked a flower for you!

I am tired, hot and I need a nap!  Right now!!

I think I like just sitting around best.

And She's Off.....

Piper recently got a walker from my parents. This was so she could go on the the driveway while I water plants and just do stuff outside. At first she didn't quite get the mechanics of the whole walker thing. But not anymore. She has mastered the forward and backwards walk/run. She is very determined and hilarious at the same time. When she hits the end of the driveway she tries over and over to get across the gravel to get to my mama's house. So funny! She goes as fast as she can down the driveway and just doesn't get it as to why she can't go over the rocks.

Summer Cowboys

My girl, Megan, has a new horse.  After some fearful rides on Mr. Crackerjack, Megan decided to trade him to a more seasoned rider and get a calmer, older mare.  Well, she is a beautiful horse but has a little...attitude.  So Megan named her Beyonce'.  She is all that, too!  On the weekends Megan and her crew of summer cowboys ride through the woods and down some of our country roads.  Last week they came sauntering into my yard so I took some photos of the group.  The guys were upset with me because they had no shirts on because it was only about 128 degrees outside!  I do not know how they ride for hours with hot, sticky bluejeans on.  Ick!

Megan and Thad pulling up in the yard.

The Summertime Cowboy Gang!

                                        
These two are quite a pair!  I think they are pretty well-matched.



I am really glad that Megan has settled in a good routine this summer.  She loves her horse and she loves riding her and taking care of her.  She loves her lifeguarding job and just this week she got a real "grown-up" job.  She is so excited.  I am really proud of her and all her accomplishments.  She has a very bright future ahead of her I think!

Rain

In the last week or so we have had several rain showers. Some light, barely wetting the driveway and a couple that were torrential. Rain that flooded and washed away all kinds of stuff. This morning as I went ouside to get the paper I saw it had rained a little last night. It reminded me of the line in a song that goes, "His grace falls like rain." God's grace does fall like rain. I was talking with a good friend this past weekend about several situations or crisis, really that are going on in so many families we know and love. And how with almost each one we both thought, "I couldn't stand that!" Then it came to me like a fresh breeze... Oh, yes child, you could. With the grace of God we can stand "it". Crisis, disasters and just life come at us like showers, downpours and hurricanes at all facets of our lives. Sometime we even feel like we are actually drowning. I know I have. But the grace of God goes before us and covers us as needed. It is always just enough. Sometimes we need a small umbrella, sometimes we need galoshes to go with the umbrella. Then there are the times when we need a full out rainsuit. Then there are those times in our lives that the storm is pouring down, the thunder booming, the lightining flashing and we just lift our tear/rain streaked faces up towards the heavens and....suddenly there it is. A rainbow. God's grace...falls like rain. When calamity strikes my life or yours just know that God sees it, allows it and gives grace in abundance to deal with it. I think He desires that we not only learn from the storms but gather His wisdom that He sows in the grace to help others through storms too. I know that in dealing with the pressures and storms that have come my way in the past few years I know that I am stronger and hopefully wiser to help someone else going through a similar storm. One kind of storm I left out is one that has stricken me as of late. A dust storm. Drought. I have been feeling especially dry lately. I have been in need of reviving my dry bones. Not a new word from God. His word is the same...yesterday, today and tomorrow. But a refreshed word. One that will saturate my parched spirit. Yet, His grace will get me through this dryness too. No matter the "storm", His grace is enough.

Such a Blessing

A dear friend of mine became a "Mamaw" today to a precious baby girl. I asked her if she did not feel like the most blessed woman in the world! To be present for the birth of my own granddaughter was the most wonderful experience in the world. To be one of the first people to touch that little soul is priceless. I know that Tracy will cry precious tears over that little lady just like I did on my little Piper. The things she will whisper in her ear, the prayers she will lift up to God for this child, the dreams she will have for her...the list goes on and on. What a blessing it is to have a grandbaby. It is love in the thousand fold for sure. I cannot begin to tell Tracy what joy Baby Harper is going to bring her! How she is going to laugh at everything she does and oohh and aahh over her all the time. She, like me, will get the honor of helping to watch her when her mommy and daddy work. That in itself is a blessing for both the parents but for the baby and for Tracy. To have a hand in her upbringing is humbling and a gift that is hard to match. I know she will love every second of having her in her arms. I am so glad that for Tracy's birthday last month she got a new camera and soon she will get to take Harper's photo every day...like I do!

Eleven Months Old

Well, Piper you are officially eleven months old. I cannot believe it! time is just flying by too quick. Here are a few stats concerning you, Little Miss!

You weigh just at 22 pounds
You have four teeth. Two top and two bottom
You have mastered crawling and are now cruising along everything
You wave bye-bye so sweet and just stick your hand out with fingers spread for hello
You even say "hey" when you stick out your little hand
You can say mama, daddy, hey, uh-oh and doggie
You have the happiest disposition but can throw the occsional fit
You are very smart and understand much of what we say to you
You love dogs and stuffed animals
You take two good naps a day
You love to eat and are such a good eater
Your favorite place is outside and for that I am so glad!

Here are some pictures;



What's going on in here???




SSHHHH..Tyson! I am having a photo shoot for my eleventh month birthday!





Can you believe it Froggie? Another month has went by already!!





Hooray!! Next month I will be One Year Old!!!!