2012 Project 365 – Week Twenty-Three

It was a GORGEOUS week! I walked with a coworker every morning at work and sat outside with Dr. M most of the evenings he was home. Can we have this weather until September please?

Saturday, June 2^nd  

One of two weekly squirrels :)

We never did anything with our mums at the end of fall – so they all came back & a couple of them are just about ready to bloom.

Sunday, June 3^rd

After church we decided to take a hike at Clifton Gorge. The path we took just runs along the top, so not too strenuous. It was a beautiful day & we enjoyed it quite a lot.

Later in the day we got a new hanging basket for the front yard.

The moon!

Monday, June 4^th     

Went to dinner with a friend. You can read all about it here.

Dr. M teaches late on Mondays & Wednesdays this summer. He saw part of the campus herd on his way home. Someone on Facebook commented that the one deer obviously hadn’t read the sign – ha!

Tuesday, June 5^th   

Dr. M wanted to make sure that we had some more pictures of cows this week.              

Robin.

He also took a lot of cloud pictures. This one is my favorite.

Wednesday, June 6^th   

Dr. M put out the poppy flag. Daddy & Amy were flying theirs while we were in NC, but obviously our poppy flag season is a few weeks later than theirs.

I mowed the front lawn as a surprise for Dr. M. Boy was that a nice workout! (That's the neighbor's dog who likes to run free every opportunity he gets)

The State of the Bug – a sweaty mess (who looks a LOT like her mother in this picture).

Thursday, June 7^th      

Our neighbor gave us this grill that they never used. Dr. M grilled chicken for dinner tonight – it was excellent. Thanks Mr. Ken!

Another Weekly Squirrel.

Dr. M tried to get a picture of Mrs. Cardinal, but all he got were her tail feathers.

Robin on the roof.

Friday, June 8^th      

Our first daylily bloom!

Some bird action.

Our lovely yarrow.

We’re almost positive that this is volunteer corn in front of our volunteer tomato plant.

Bee in the hanging basket.

When I hit my 10 year anniversary at work I got to choose a gift. I decided to pick something I would probably never buy myself. Dr. M & I spent a lovely couple of hours enjoying my choice.

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

Some Random on a Wednesday

Coincidentally, right as I rejoined Weight Watchers, my work has started a health plan. We’ve all formed teams & set goals & been issued new pedometers. Our team is going to work on increasing our number of steps each day, and weight loss. The program officially starts June 25, but of course I’m not waiting until then to implement changes. I’ve already been walking every day & watching what I eat.

Speaking of walking – my hip does not hurt when I walk. However, my legs each weigh 400 pounds & everything else hurts (ok, really just my right calf, but I’m doing stretches to help with that). But anyway, My Hip Does Not Hurt. Hallelujah and Amen.

It’s felt like there’s been a lot of bad news lately – a friend’s mom is in critical condition with an infection, another friend’s dad has prostate cancer, another friend is going through an unknown crisis. I don’t live anywhere near these folks, so I feel helpless to do more than just pray for them. But I guess that’s something.

Dr. M & I surveyed our kingdom yesterday. Our hanging baskets are gorgeous. We have daisies, mums & lilies about to bloom. There are blossoms on the volunteer tomato plant. The yarrow is out of control. AND he bought me new gardening tools the other day – I’m planning on planting some more flowers. That way I’m adding an upper body workout to my regimen.

I am bereft of poetry lately. Every time I try to write something the words are just not there. I think that I’ll enjoy the quietness in my head & watch the world in our back yard for a while.

Sweet Temptation...

I've started Weight Watchers again (funny how vacation pictures can ramp up your enthusiasm for healthy eating!). Today was my first weigh in and I'm down over 3 pounds. Woot! 


Anyway, I went to dinner with my friend Joanne tonight - our almost weekly date. She picked Frisch's and I frantically searched in my head for what would be "safe" to eat there. We got our menus...

Isn't he cute & innocent looking?

I opened mine & this is the first thing I saw:

Not cool Big Boy. Not cool at all. Oh hot fudge cake how I love you so! 


You'll be glad to know that I resisted temptation - I had the soup & salad bar. And it was good people. That salad was as good as hot fudge cake! 


OK, maybe it wasn't, but it was definitely better for me. I can live with that.

Sundays in Zambia - Church

This post originally appeared in November 2009. 

I decided to save the story of my airplane trip to Zambia for another day (maybe someone will have a meme about terribly traumatic travel experiences & I’ll tell it then). Suffice it to say that there were canceled flights, icy airports, lost luggage, coin operated showers, and sleeping on top of carry-on bags involved. I thought that perhaps you might be wondering when is she ever going to post some pictures of Zambia? Is this, or is this not, supposed to be a Sunday in Zambia? Okay, okay, here you go!

One of the first things I had to do once I arrived (other than learn my actual job & borrow clothes from my house-mate Rebecca until my luggage arrived) was to find a church. I know! I was amazed that I wouldn’t be able to sleep in on Sundays too! I visited a lot of different churches, or maybe two. There was the bigger congregation where the pastor was one of the missionaries. It had a lot of diversity – missionary families and Zambians. But it reminded me too much of the churches back home. I wanted something different. And there was the church where Rebecca taught Sunday School – a tiny concrete block with a dirt floor. There was a lot of joy in that church, but they didn’t really need me.

I ended up going to the small informal Bible study that the campus ministry missionary had for the University of Zambia students. They wanted me to play piano. I was adequate not too bad TERRIBLE. And I wasn’t very good at teaching or leading Bible studies either. Really, what I was good at, was my job. Witnessing & what one would consider to be traditional mission work? Not so much. I’ve always wondered what strange magic made the Foreign Mission Board pick me for this work. Perhaps that magic was God.

I didn’t take any pictures at the student center (what the heck!), so here are some pictures from the church where Rebecca taught.

2012 Project 365 – Week Twenty-Two

Since I’m doing my Zambia posts on Sundays now, I’m going to start posting my pictures Saturday – Friday. That way I get the post up in a timely manner on Saturday & can use that day’s pictures the next week.

Sunday, May 27^th

We drove home from NC on Sunday. Before we left, Dr. M took more flower pictures – just to tide us over until we have some flowers of our own.

Monday, May 28^th     

We were visited by the white squirrel again! He’s cute in a rodent sort of way…

The moon!

Tuesday, May 29^th   

We love the downy woodpecker who visits our suet cake.

I think we might have a daisy or 40 this summer.

Our volunteer tomato plant. We’re leaving those corn looking plants just to see if maybe they are corn. Or maybe garlic. Or, you know, just weeds. You can see our yarrow patch in the back – it’s almost as out of control as the daisies!             

More yarrow pictures – love all the different colors.

I LOVE this cardinal! Singing his fool head off. He looks kind of like a punk rocker to me. Heh.

Wednesday, May 30^th   

Dr. M took pictures of roses today – so lovely.

I had this post about cows on Thursday so you can go there to see the rest of the cow pictures. Here’s my favorite.

Dr. M got me this lovely hanging basket – thanks sweetie, it’s gorgeous!

The Tax Time Pig.

The moon!

Thursday, May 31^st      

We sat out back this evening & took a ton of pictures, but the light was kind of low. Here are the ones I liked best. This little hummingbird just sat on the fence for the longest time. So cute!

Dr. M snapped this just as the bird flew away from the cement pond. I think it’s a cool shot.

Friday, June 1^st      

The State of the Bug. Guess where I am? The poster in the back might give you a clue. I’m happy to report that everything looks normal. Ha! A lot they know…

I’m trying to walk around the neighborhood every day. This is one of the yards I pass. I just love the flowers in front. The picture isn’t great because of low light, but it gives me an idea of what I might like my yard to look like someday.

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask!