Our newest family member!

This little twinkle toes is the newest member of our family. Hubby brought her home one night, and left the next day for a week long business trip. I was not a happy camper. Kitty meowing all hours of the night, Kitty scratching my new leather chairs. Cleaning out kitty box... and the list goes on and on. Anyway the little stinker has won her way into all our hearts. She has become an outside kitty though. She has a perch on the porch, a kitty condo, and sleeps in the laundry room at night. She has such a sweet personality, and a ton of charm. My favorite part about kitty is that she joins me in the garden and loves to follow me and help in the flower beds. She actually caught her first itty bitty mouse, at 10 weeks. It really was cute. Her name by the way is Bella. Our beautiful little kitten…ahhhh :>)

Monet

I was visiting with a new neighbor the other day and we were talking about travel, gardens, painting...all sorts of things really. It occurred to me that I haven't shared many of my garden travel pic's with my blog land buddies. So today I thought I would share my trip with you to Monet’s garden in Giverny, where all three elements come alive.

Enjoy!




This is Giverny, going through the village on the way to Monet's house, how quaint is that!

Entrance into the Lily Ponds

Coming into the main garden, from the back.


It is like standing in the middle of a giant bouquet!
Monet's charming home

Leaving the village, and a peek at the hotel all the visiting American artisit stayed at. Building with window boxes.

Come be the Fire inside of me!

The Call

On 7/7/2007 and estimated 55,000 young people gathered to fast and pray for our nation. This is Misty Edwards, leading the group in worship/prayer. Tonight two of those young people that went from our town, shared with me the impact and the revelation of God's heart that they experienced in calling our Nation back to God.

(watch for three gals as the crowd is scanned almost half way through, the green shirt is Rochell, red shirt Jen, and the blue shirt is Ashley)

This is a bit long, but if you have the time worth it!

SNAP!

I just had my favorite Tri City summer night moment thus far 2007. After a fun dinner at a local pub with friends, we were invited to go for a boat ride on a hot summer Tri City night on the Columbia River. It has been a looong time since I have been on the river to watch one of our fabulous sunsets. We jetted down river to the perfect quiet spot, cut the engine, broke out the wine and chocolate, floating down the river accompanied by some light jazz, and great conversation. Finished the evening off with a trip under the Blue Bridge, and the Cable Bridge, by now all lit up. Then on our way back to the dock, the sky began to light up with fireworks going off at the Trac for the end of a baseball game. We cut the engine again and watched.

Hot night, cool water, amazing sunset, fireworks, Barnard Griffin Cab/Merlot, stars and great friends, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect night.

I think God was reading my blog wishes for "Summertime"

Yeah God, thanks!

Summertime

We have been making some progress around here. This is the view from the back porch this spring.

This is the view this summer, as I write.

This is the cutest thing. One of the builders in the neighborhood was very gracious to build us a shed for our little garden. He built it on the second story of a house he was framing. Then he moved it down the street with his lift thingy and plunked it down in our backyard.

This is the semi finished shed. We still need to paint it, and put up shutters and window boxes.

I have really appreciated hearing from many of you, even though I have not been blogging much these days. I feel like summer may just be around the corner for me though, and I can have time to check out my blog buddies. We have had lots of life going on. Just keeping up at times has been a bit much. We spent a lovely 4th with my sister and family here. Grilled lamb for the 4th and salmon last night. There was a lot of visiting, laughter and fun. We had a crowd, but not as big as usual, and that was nice.

I am craving summertime. You know when everything slows down, and life can be slower paced. Hot sun, cool water, iced tea, barbequed meals, visits on the porch, quiet mornings, fires, toasted marshmallows, stars, and my favorite, the beach. I just spent the morning finding a really quaint B&B on Cannon Beach for my hubby and I this August. Which I am looking so forward too!

So what is summertime to you?