Special Award

I was so surprised and pleased to receive this award from A Hint of Home a couple of days ago. This is a beautiful blog and I recommend that you visit there if you have not already done so. This is one of the blogs I visit regularly. Thank you my blogging friend for this lovely award. 

Here are the rules to pass this award on to someone you think is deserving:

1. Display logo and link to who gave it to you.
2. Nominate at least 7 blogs.
3. Add links to those 7 blogs.
4. Leave the nominees a message that they received the award.

I would like to pass this award on to the following:

• Enchanting Cottage
• Just Ruthie
• Justabeachkat
• Susie's Space
• Betty's This and That
• Terrie's Lil' Piece of Serenity
• The Penless Writer

There are so many other bloggers that I would like to pass this award on to, but the rules say 7. Who makes the rules? I don't know. I suppose the originator of the award does.

So many of you make my day every day by the lovely comments you leave on my blog and by the interesting posts on your blogs. 

Sundays in Belgium

I spent one night in Brugge, Belgium in 1999 and fell in love with the place. We got there late in the afternoon. The tour was delayed. We were suppose to arrive early in the day. Anyway, I didn't get to take hardly any pictures there but I did take the one below from the tour bus through the front window as we were leaving and the one below that is a picture of the hotel where we stayed. 

Now - why am I talking about Belgium this morning? When I looked on my computer this morning, the first thing I saw was a comment from a dear lady that lives in Belgium on my blog yesterday. She said she noticed since she's been blogging that people in America go to church on Sundays. She said they don't do that in Belgium. In fact, she said she personally knows no one who goes to church. That is so sad. Since I've been going to church regularly, sometimes several times a week, since I was 10 years old, it is hard for me to imagine. I think Belgium is not that different from the rest of Europe. They have all those gorgeous cathedrals there that are basically just museums now. 

Many churches in America are thriving today. At the church we attend now about 2000 attend the service we go to. There are three other services besides the one we attend. The police direct traffic in and out of the parking lot there. Every Sunday is a wonderful spiritual experience. The music is great and the preaching even better. Our regular preacher was out of town yesterday so Tim Kimmel delivered the message. You may be familiar with Dr. Kimmel as he has written a lot of books. He is a member of our church. What a wonderful sermon he gave. I would love to hear him every Sunday.

Although Christianity seems to be thriving in America today, I am very concerned about the future of this nation. It seems to me the government is doing everything it can to keep God out of everything. They totally overlook the fact that this nation was founded on God's laws. They totally misinterpret the phrase "separation of church and state" and as a result, we are becoming more and more a secular nation. Big mistake!!! I pray that we will wake up before it is too late. We need to pray for Europe, the United States, and the whole world.

I have a picture of some flamingos that I intended to write about today, but that will have to wait. I thought this was more important.

Have a great week!

Sunday Thoughts

We are ready to go to church, but it is not quite time to go. We are always ready early anytime we go anywhere. Maybe it had something to do with Hubby always wanting to arrive at the church early in his preaching days. I have noticed that not all preachers follow this pattern however. Most of the time my preacher Hubby was either the first one there to open the doors or in the case of where someone else was in charge of opening the doors, he was the 2nd or 3rd one there. Anyway, this morning I had a little time on my hands so decided to write a post. 

We enjoyed our week of just "hanging out" and eating out, but guess what? Yep, we gained a little weight, so this week, we're cutting way down. But we're not going to cut down today. After church this morning, we will be coming back by a new BBQ place that has recently opened up and having lunch there - no cutting down today. The daughter will be joining us there as she goes to the same church we do. The son still is loyal to the last church where his Dad preached so we don't get to see him every Sunday anymore. 

God has been so good to us. These 50 years have not always been easy, but God has been in our plans and we feel has led us all the way. Now we're expecting him to continue leading us all the way home, but not quite yet. Maybe in another 50 years. 

Have a great Sunday!

The Horny Toad Restaurant

This is not the "swankiest" place we ate at this week, but it is one of our favorites. It's out in the desert at Cave Creek. They serve a whole fried chicken (broasted actually) with french fries, cole slaw and rolls for only $15.95. It is plenty for two with some chicken left over to take home.

We always like to go early to beat the crowd.

Here's Hubby on the way out reading the sign and holding our box of left over chicken.

Hope you are all having a super weekend.

Golden Orchids

We are enjoying our anniversary week. We were out all morning, and soon after we got back home, these gorgeous orchids were delivered to our front door. They were sent by our long time good friends from Stockton, California. Thank you Paul and Bobbie. 

Swedish Pancakes

Here's my Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce. I guess this is my favorite breakfast menu - with a cup of coffee, of course. We're enjoying our Anniversary week. Going out for breakfast every morning, pretty neat. And then, not just breakfast, but lunch and dinner as well. We may just go ahead and celebrate the rest of the year. Although, we do eat out quite a lot anyway - not just this week. 

Our Wedding - 50 Years Ago

Thought I would share some of our wedding photos with you today. I've already shared our Hawaiian 50th Anniversary celebration back in May. Friday will be our official 50th Wedding Anniversary. We have been celebrating it for months now but the actual date is July 11. We thought about going to San Diego. We thought about going to Carmel. We thought about a lot of things, but decided we would spend this anniversary week doing some special things together closer to home, therefore, I will not be spending as much time this week on the computer.  I told Hubby the first special thing I want to do is go to Butterfield's for breakfast and have some of their delicious Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce. That should be a good starting place. 

Another Anniversary Gift

The kids surprised us with another anniversary gift when they came over on Friday. They had this wonderful book made with pictures of our Hawaii trip. I'll share a few of the pages with you. The daughter made the book cover for it. 

Here is the front of the book with the cover she made on it.

We will continue celebrating our 50th all this week, but the highlight, of course, was our trip to Hawaii, and now this wonderful book. Thanks again, children.

July 4th Trivia

Have you ever played this marble solitaire game? I've tried to many times. The only way I can do it is to follow the instructions, move one marble and then look at the instructions to see which marble to move next, and so on. It's very slow and tedious, but it can be done. Yesterday while our kids were at our house, our son decided he was going to memorize it so that he could do it without looking at the instructions. It took him a little over an hour, but now he can move those marbles very fast, and end up with just one marble in the middle which is the object of the game. 

Thought I'd also show you this plaque we bought at Steinmart. We put it on the wall (fence) behind our pool.  

I was a little reluctant to get in the pool yesterday. It was exactly one year ago that I slipped on the top step getting in and twisted my knee that started my knee problem that now one year later still is a major problem. It is a lot better than it was, but I don't think it will ever be completely pain free again unless I have knee replacement surgery which my doctor says I will need eventually. One thing for sure, I took my flip flops off before I stepped in. That's what caused me to fall last year.

 

A New Pot

Here's the old one. Obviously we didn't replace it any too soon.

Patriotic Stuff

At our last former church, the ladies had a craft night once a quarter. Here is a picture of the leaders of the group working on the current project for the 4th of July of that year.

Here is the one I made hanging under the flag.

This was a project for another year.

And still another year.

These craft nights were a lot of fun. Fellowship was great and it was nice to take a project home to display for whatever occasion was coming up.

I have always liked the 4th of July. When I was young I always enjoyed the fireworks. Now I enjoy the day because we always have our children over for a pool party, grilled burgers and homemade strawberry ice cream.

About Yesterday

Hubby's eye doctor report - EXCELLENT! He can resume doing all activities. He is one ambitious man. He is making plans to clean the carpet in our bedroom and bathroom. (No, Connie, you still can't have him.)

About the ice cream. We were both a little disappointed. First off they didn't have the flavor Hubby wanted (pineapple coconut) so he got Kauai Pie flavor, which is their most popular flavor. I had my heart set on coconut macadamia nut and they didn't have that either, so I settled for date caramel fudge which was good, but not what I wanted. And then - we neither one thought the quality was as good as what we got in Hawaii. The texture wasn't the same. Maybe it's because we were not in Hawaii? No, we thought about that. It definitely just wasn't as good.

Guess we'll have to go back to Hawaii to get the real thing. Maybe for our 75th wedding anniversary. Ha Ha. That is a laugh in so many ways.