Friday's Fave Five #94

Hello, everyone!  I've had a busy two weeks and was unable to post a Friday's Favorite Five last week, so I definitely wanted to remember the highlights of the week today.

1. Two weeks ago Saturday, Jim and I decided to take a road trip and travel to Columbus Belmont Park.  This is a park in Kentucky situated on the Mississippi River.

On our way there, we came across this gorgeous scenic overlook:

This is a memorial cross honoring veterans overlooking the Mississippi River.  Isn't it gorgeous?

I love this shot of the afternoon sun over the Mississippi!

2.  Afterwards we went on to the park.  Columbus Belmont is a sweet little gem of a park that has some Civil War cannons and a Civil War museum.  It was a great day.  We enjoyed sitting under the shady trees feeling the cool breezes and looking at the river.  We enjoyed it so much that we went back the next week!  This time, we took family with us.  My mom, sister and nephew made a spontaneous trip up from Florida to visit. We convinced them it would be educational for my nephew to go to the Civil War Museum.

Here's my mom, sister and nephew in front of this ginormous anchor.

The story about the anchor is that the Confederate army had a huge chain, every link weighing 20 pounds, attached to the anchor and strung across the Mississippi. Their plan was to snare every Union ship long enough for their huge cannon to fire upon the boat.  The plan failed.

This picture is from an exhibit inside the museum.  This was a little Civil War Drummer Boy who probably was only 9 years old!  How sad!

Here is a line boat pushing barges down the Mississippi.

Here's an awesome gazebo on a bluff above the Mississippi.  A wedding party had reserved this gazebo the week before to take wedding photos.  I'm sure they were beautiful!

One of the smaller cannons preserved at the park.

Beautiful summer day!

3.  After our jaunt to the park, we traveled over to Sikeston, MO, to visit the world-famous Lambert's Restaurant, home of "throwed rolls."  (Ok, maybe it is only nationally-famous!)  Lambert's claim to fame is that they will toss you homemade yeast buns multiple times during your visit.  They also go around passing out samples of fried okra, fried potatoes and macaroni and tomatoes.  All of these goodies are in addition to what you order off the menu, so you are one butterball rolling home afterwards! Embarrassing for me, when I was tossed a roll, I missed and it rolled under the table ... I'm pretty sure there is plenty of wasted food in that joint!

4. Of course, after that big meal, we had to "walk it off," so we stopped at the outlet mall.  I went into one of my favorite stores, Kitchen Connection.  Much to the amusement of my Florida visitors, I picked out a white creamware pitcher in the shape of a cow!  I mean, come on, the milk pours out of his mouth, how could you resist such a purchase?

5.  Later on, that week, I tried again to catch a "blue hour" photo, this time a shot of a nearby levee.  However, it's still not the blue I was hoping to capture, but it's still a nice photo featuring one of my favorite things:  a road stretching into the horizon.

I love the romance of a "road" picture... you never know what's around the bend!

Let's hear about your week!  Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share your favorite five!

Friday's Fave Five #92

Ah, Friday ... How I love thee!

Friday is a good day to look back and reflect on the highlights of the week.

1.  Ever since I read about taking blue hour photos on Between Naps on the Porch, I've been wanting to try my hand at it.  Blue hour photos capture the sky in beautiful shades of blue during twilight.

Wikipedia defines the Blue Hour this way:

The blue hour comes from a French expression, l'heure bleue, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day.

You can go to this site, bluehoursite.com to learn the best time for blue hour photos in your region.

My dilemma is that I can never remember to go outside during those times and take a photo!  Here is one attempt on Sunday:

This is not really the "blue" I'm going for.  But I'll keep trying!

2. Backing up to Saturday, my daughter, Lissa, and I went yard saling with friends Glenda and Carrie.  We had a great time and found some great bargains.  I would share some of the funny things that happened but for some reason, they have a fear of being mentioned on my blog ...

Again, I found some great stuff - I've got to declutter to make room for my new treasures- and one thing in particular that I am excited about is finding a white creamware pitcher. Here is a photo of it included with some of last year's yard sale finds.  Everything (except for the table and chairs) came from yard sales ... even the fake lemon and limes!

3. Wednesday was a big day.  That is the day our baby girl turned 17.  You can read her birth story here.  Birthdays at my home call for ice cream cakes.  Malia insisted her cake had to have "Hello Kitty" on her cake.  She may be 17, but some things never change!

4. We took Malia out for her birthday dinner, and she chose my favorite place, O'Charley's.  I think that's only right ... after all, who did all the work to get her here???

5. Also, on Wednesday, it was my turn to speak at midweek service.  For me this is a highlight, because I would rather speak than lead song service.  I always know I can talk, but hitting the right note singing can be kind of iffy!

Bonus highlight:  Lissa has redone my blog background for me.  I love it!  The photos in the banner are all photos I have taken of places important to me.

How was your week?  I'd love to hear about it, and so would my friends at Friday's Fave Five.  You can link up with us at Susanne's Living to Tell The Story.  Go visit all the links, there are always great stories and photos shared there.

Sweet Seventeen

Today is my baby girl's birthday.  Seventeen years ago today, she completed our family.

I have to tell her birth story.  I like to relive it every year (well, except for the pain part ...)

I wanted her to be born on June 9 because that is my grandmother's birthday.  Her due date was a week later, but I was hoping that she'd come early.  My babies were usually late, not early. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask God to let her come on the ninth. Being pregnant for the third time, it was also my hope that my water would break to signal the start of labor, because I didn't enjoy having my water broken for me.

At 5 a.m. in the morning, I woke up with water drenching me.  I told my hubby, he called the doctor, and we dressed our two little girls to take to Grandma's. 

My contractions seemed to be coming pretty close (I don't remember now HOW close) and I decided to lay down in the back seat of the car.  I told Jim that I didn't think it would be long, and he nervously accelerated the car.  It seems almost like a sitcom story line now, but sure enough, a policeman stopped him for speeding. Jim told the officer that his wife was having a baby and that he was trying to get her to the hospital.  Skeptical, the officer said "I don't see your wife," but then shined his flashlight in the back seat.  I don't know what he saw on my face, but he told Jim to go ahead and hurry to the hospital.

I was really praying because, frankly, I thought I was going to give birth right there in that back seat.  It takes 45 minutes to get to the hospital normally, but having to take the girls to grandma's added roughly another 20 minutes to our drive time.

My other two pregnancies had been 12 hour labors.  I was really surprised how labor seemed so intense so early this time.

Once we arrived at the hospital, the nurses seemed to take their time getting me upstairs and checking me out.  Once I was examined, the nurse said "Oh my, this baby is coming NOW.  You seemed so calm I was thinking you had just started labor."  She left to go find a doctor on the floor to help, since my doctor had not yet arrived.

No matter how imminent birth is, it seems there is always time to do paperwork.  Another nurse came in to ask me all sorts of questions.   Answering between breathing short breaths, I had to laugh when she asked me how much my baby weighed!  I told her I didn't know yet, but was hoping for a 7 pounder.

No doctor in the room yet, but I had to push!  I remember thinking, "Oh no, I remember how much this hurts."  The nurse said "try not to push, a doctor will be here soon."  I thought, "try and stop me." I pushed again.  A doctor raced into the room in time to grab the baby as she was born with the third push!

And at 8 a.m., a scant three hours after labor started, there was baby Malia Jaclyn, 8 lbs 2 ounces, all beautiful and an answer to her mother's prayers.

Here she is at one year's old.

Here she is cast as Lucy in the play "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown." She was 16 in this picture. She loves performing on stage.  Recently, she was in the play High School Musical at the community college.

Here she is last Easter.  This is one of my favorite pictures.

Happy Birthday, Malia!  I thank God for you.  You were always a loving, affectionate child, and God knew we needed you in our lives.  You are a blessing!

Friday's Fave Five #91

TGIF!  Once again, the week flew by.  I didn't think I had any highlights of my week to share with you, but after thinking it over, I decided there is always something good to reflect on.

1.  On Saturday, my daughter, Lissa, went with me to the 100 mile yard sale held about 35 miles from where I live.  I was really pumped to go to it; however, it turned out to be a bust.  It was hard finding places to park, so you had to park in one spot and do a lot of walking from sale to sale.  The main disappointment was how high everyone priced their stuff!  I might as well went to WalMart and shopped and then I would have been in air conditioning. Lissa remarked that it seemed everyone had cleaned out their closet and dumped it on tables to sell for $10 apiece! I think I'll stick to regular yard sales from now on. The highlight of the day was getting a prayer answered.  I had parked uphill, so I thought it would be smart to turn my wheels all the way to the curb.  Later, when I tried to leave that parking space, I found that doing so had locked up my steering wheel.  I tried and tried and could not budge it. After praying, "Please Lord, help me!" I had the thought, start the van with the remote control.  I did, and then the steering wheel loosened up.  Whew! Thank you, Lord!

2.  Sunday rolled around and we had a guest speaker at church.  Now, our church is currently without a pastor so we've had a steady stream of supply speakers.  Some are interesting, some, not so much. This time, it was a very interesting speaker and I took tons of notes.  Later, he offered his outline to be copied so we could all have the scriptures he used. Yay!  It was an especially interesting sermon entitled 5 Doors of Destruction.  We can open five doors to let the devil in to wreak havoc on our lives.  Guess what one door is?  Unforgiveness.

3.  Later that night, we had our monthly All Church Fellowship where I had the first watermelon of the season.  Yum! I love watermelon.

4.  The next day, Monday, was the American holiday, Memorial Day.  A wonderful day to honor those in the military that had sacrificed their lives for our freedom, the holiday has now become a time to honor all those that have passed on before us.  We decorate their graves and take time to remember. Then, let's be honest, most of us enjoy the day off with cookouts and time with family and friends. I was excited because, for the first time ever, I managed to make awesome barbecued chicken!  (Somehow, I've never liked mine before.) This time I used the barbecued chicken recipe from Deep South Dish, a blog to which I've recently subscribed.  The internet.  It is a wondrous invention! (I've asked Mary for permission to link to her barbecued chicken.  As soon as I hear from her, I will share it.)

5.  Quote of the week:  "We're to seek for beauty... and refuse to see anything else."  ~Anne of Avonlea.  Here's hoping that you are seeking the beauty!

Consider linking up and sharing the beauty you found in your week.  Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is our Friday's Fave Five hostess.

Update:

Mary of Deep South Dish graciously consented permission to link to her awesome chicken recipe.

You may find it here.  Please visit Mary and see all of her wonderful southern recipes! Thanks, Mary, for sharing!