International Fame

Brian has been corresponding with a Belarussian brother in Christ, Alexander Z. In his last email he attached these photos of two supermarkets in Minsk. Funny! We can now add this to our collection of estates. Thanks Alexander!

Brassia

This is the new addition to my windowsill garden. What a beauty!




















My phal has bloomed again too! It has eleven buds, four of which have opened.

Battery Operated Plane

OKEGAWA, Japan (AFP) July 16, 2006- The world's first manned plane powered by conventional dry-cell batteries soared five meters (16 feet) above the ground in a demonstration flight. The glider-like plane with a single-seat gondola and a 31 meter (102 feet) wingspan was powered by 160 AA "Oxyride" batteries which have been produced by Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. since April 2004. It soared as high as 5.2 meters, stayed in the air for 59 seconds and covered a distance of 391 meters (428 yards) at a private airport owned by Honda Motor Co. Kamiya weighs 53 kilograms (117 pounds), almost as much as the plane itself. Sunday's flight was the first in the presence of officials from the Japan Aeronautic Association. "This was officially the world's first manned flight powered by dry-cell batteries," Zushi said. The Oxyride battery is a long-lasting battery said to be 1.5 times as powerful as a regular alkaline battery.

Cave Hill Cemetery

We drove through Cave Hill Cemetery this morning after church. We were surprised when we came upon this grave site; supposedly Sander's daughter created this sculpture of the Colonel. I will try to go back and take more pictures from this cemetery, the stones are quite elaborate.

It Is Finished

Brian finished his Greek class today with a thumbs up from his professor! He is so glad it is over. Below is a picture of his class. The guy to Brian's right is our new neighbor across the hall, Chad. The writing on the board says 'It is Finished' in Greek.

World Cup

I didn't watch any of the world cup - but lots of other people did. Italy's Materazzi must have said something seriously disturbing to France's Zidane in order for him to react the way he did. Watch the clip below to see why France lost the World Cup.

Mr Grass Head

VBS starts next Monday, I am looking forward to it. The theme of our week is 'Things Hidden'. Each lesson will be from one of the parables - with a corresponding craft. I am responsible for creating the craft for the Sower and the Seed lesson (Luke 8:4-15, Mark 4:3-9 or Matthew 13:3-9). We are going to make grass heads, and I sure hope they grow. Here are a couple of pictures of what they should/might look like.












Here is mine, undecorated. I am hoping it will sprout a little by mid-next week.














Here are a couple of impressive grass heads in England.

Real Simple Ideas

These are all ideas from my favorite magazine Real Simple.

New Uses for Mismatched Dishware: Transform neglected dinnerware from useless to useful in a few easy steps

Steel This Idea
Turn a baking sheet into a magnetic task board by setting it inside a 16-inch plate hanger mounted to the wall. Make sure the sheet is magnetic — so good ideas will stick.














Au Bon Pan
Let them eat cake…then use the covered sheet pan to store stationery or other items that might get crumpled in a drawer.














Toast of the Room
If you find yourself with a mismatched collection or without bubbly, flip thick-walled Champagne flutes upside down to create a beautiful grouping of candle stands for a shelf or a mantel. Use heavy wineglasses for table centerpieces, as the wider mouths will provide more stability to withstand bumping.

Still Here.

Well, here it is the last day of the month, and I have only posted three times; so sorry. We have had quite a busy month. My parents were here for a week at the beginning and Brian's parents were here earlier in the week - probably will come back again today on their way home. Brian is doing well in his Greek class this semester, he only has two weeks left! Hope everyone has a wonderful Fourth of July holiday. I will be back soon with more to say. :-) Fireworks picture is from the Derby Festival in May.

The Prestons are Here!

We are happy to have the Prestons here with us for a visit/ genealogy people hunt. We went downtown this afternoon. Here are a couple of pictures.

Gnomes and more

Sorry for the lack of posts. I thought I would put something up for Jillian so we don't lose our vast readership. These were taken at a recent visit to a statue company - so I'm told. Every one should have something this fun in their yard.











And a gaggle of gnomes. Can anyone guess what the gnomes are holding under their arms?

Happy Belated Birthday!

Blogger was down most of the day yesterday. So....

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY MOM PRESTON!!




We love you and hope you had a wonderful day!

Good Morning

Brian began school yesterday. He is taking Greek - last summer he took Hebrew. Hopefully Greek will be a little easier for him since he has some experience in the languages now. He told me last night his teacher suggested they study about four hours everyday!

My parents are coming next week for a short visit. My dad has business in Nashville midweek; he is going to drop mama off here, so we will have some time together. B's parents will also be here sometime at the end of the month; we are looking forward to their visit.

As for the art this week (I use the word 'art' very loosely :-) - I got out my sewing machine on Sunday and started practicing a little. - I will post on that a little later. I have been inspired by this website - all handmade items being sold by their makers. There are a couple very talented people here. - more later. ~J

Wednesday's Art

I want to begin making time to make something creative every week. So I am going to make Wednesdays the day to post something I am working on. Since I just thought of this, I drew a quick picture in microsoft paint. <Hopefully creativity will improve>

Recipe for Child Raising

I ran across this in my reading today.

1 cup of Proverbs 22:6
2 Tablespoons of Proverbs 19:13
1 Dash of Proverbs 23:13
1 Teaspoon of Proverbs 3:5
1/2 cup of Titus 2:3 through 7
Mix all the ingredients, add a pound of persistence, one cup of love, and whip until right consistency. This recipe is recommended by the Creator of Mankind. Please add a pinch of Ephesians 6:4

—The Bible Friend
Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX: Bible Communications.

-B

Crock

A couple of months ago I was taking a crock pot full of hot maccaroni and cheese to a church potluck - both of the handles broke off in the process, thankfully I was not hurt. I did a quick search online for the model number and found out there had been a recall several years ago. Anyway, I had to cut the cord off the old one, mail it in, and they sent me a brand new base. If you carry a crock pot around to different places, it might not hurt to check your model number online - this could have been bad if there were a child near.

At the Beach

Florida had not received rain for 95 days..until we arrived. It rained the first couple of days we were there, once it cleared up we enjoyed the rest of the time at the beach. Pictures below - click on the picture if you would like to see it larger.

Florida Everglades

We took a boat ride in the Everglades and learned a little about alligators.

- Their taste buds are on the outside of their mouth, so they know what their prey will taste like before they even bite.

- Their mouth has an opening power of about 10-15 pounds, so you could actually hold it's mouth shut with your hands.

- Their mouth has a closing power of about 2200 pounds. We were able to hear the alligator close his mouth, it sounded a lot like a champagne bottle popping open.

Here are a couple of pictures Brian took during our ride.

We're home.

Posting will resume - we are back from our summer vacation to Florida. We had a wonderful time. I will be posting pictures over the next couple of days.

Brian and I went to see the Da Vinci Code movie Saturday afternoon. I think that the hype created from the various religious communities is paying off, literally, in dollars for the movie makers. This was not a good movie, and without the all the publicity I don't think it would have done very well at all. We listened to the audio book last year, besides the fact that it is filled with a lot of historical fiction, since it is a fiction book after all, it was a an interesting read (um..listen). You could quite possibly read this book in the amount of time it took to watch it, two and a half hours. Anyway, an hour of Tom Hanks on the beach alone with a volleyball was much better than two hours of him at the Louvre.

Semester's Over!

Amen!

-B