Clouds...

You may or may not know this about Brent but he loves to take pictures of the sky and clouds. Here are some that he took tonight -

More work in the Garden!

Today Nolan and Elijah helped us gather cucumbers and squash from the garden. We are getting lots of cucumbers...if Brandon is lucky maybe I will can some pickles for him this summer! We may not get too many yellow squash...the plants are looking so great. That's disappointing because that's one of my favorite vegetables from the garden. We did get several zucchini squash tonight and I made some oven-fried breaded zucchini and they were great!

More Beach Pictures

So, we are now back from the beach and trying to get back into a routine. Here are some additional photos from our trip -

Ocean Lakes 2008

So, we are at the beach and having a great time. We have played in the ocean, built sandcastles, played putt putt, gone swimming, eaten ice cream and other great food, worked a puzzle, visited the arcade, and much more. We are having a great time and still have a couple more days left. Today we have to switch campsites but we don't have to move very far! Here are some pictures from the trip - (there are a lot more that I will post later...)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebolt

My friend Jenna loned me a book to read while here at the beach. The book is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This was a different kind of book than my usual read, but I did enjoy it. Jenna thought that I could gain something by reading this book and I think that I did. This book is about a girl that was murdered and killed. She is narrating the book from Heaven. It is about the way that her family deals with her death and learning to go on without her. It is about grief, coping, family, and growing. What I got out of it was that no one who knew the girl wanted to move forward from the time in their life when Susie was killed. They didn't want to go on with their lives because then they might forget about Susie. Eventually, life does go on and good things happen and that's okay. Even though life becomes less focused on the person lost, you can still remember the person together. There are several quotes from the book that I want to share but I don't have the book with me right now so I will share them later. I could talk about this book for awhile...so, if you read it, let me know and I would love to discuss it with you. Now, I am reading The Saving Graces and I am halfway through it. I hope to finish it on the beach today.

Haircut!

I took a poll at work this week about how I should get my hair cut - keep it long or cut it short. Here's the final decision (but it's really not fixed):

Here's before and after - which do you prefer??? I like it both ways!

Just a Country Girl

Yesterday my dad taught me how to do some new things - drive a tractor and bail straw! I'm really not very "girly" as far as wearing makeup and fixing my hair, etc, but I'm also not usually too much of a tomboy. My brother always got mad at me because I didn't want to go outside. Actually, I like to be outside, I just don't care for the hot weather. Yesterday my dad needed some help in the field and since my brother is gone and Brent wasn't available, I volunteered! And you know what - it was FUN! I probably went too fast, didn't pick up the straw in the right order (I kind of went everywhere!), and I did break a couple of bails and hit the trailer once, but I did have fun. I wonder if my dad will let me participate again?