JPC - June 10

June 10 - Road

This may sound silly, but I still pick up pennies or other coins when I find them in the road.  I don't do it for luck.  I don't believe in luck, per se, although I will use the term especially since I have a Chinese daughter whose culture believes greatly in luck.

I do pick them up for the four words that are printed on our money.

In God we trust.

A found coin in the street, the parking lot, the driveway are reminders to me that no matter what is bugging me on a given day (like going on 3 weeks of back PAIN for my husband), I have to put my trust in God, the One from whom all blessings flow.

He knows my name.
He watches over me.
He cares for me.
He hears me when I call.
He is near me when I'm brokenhearted.
He is my Father.

My list could go on and on just like His never-ending love.

When you walk down the road and find a coin, maybe next time you will pick it up, hold it tightly in your hand, smile and be reminded...

In God we trust.

JPC - June 9 and a BIG BONUS

June 9 - Lawn

You can't tell very well by this picture, but as I type this, we are getting another glorious rain here in San Antonio!  This is my front lawn soaking it all in.  Lightning is crashing and thunder is booming.  Oh, how I love a thunderstorm!  Send a few tornado warnings and I'm even more excited (a little secret about me -- I'd love to chase tornadoes!).

Texas always needs the rain.  We've been in a drought for years.  Lakes are dried up.  Lawns get burned out and brown (we have many brown spots).  Water bills rise as we get charged more and more for water.

It doesn't come often, but when it rains, it pours here in Texas and we'll take it!

Glorious rain!

PS…  This is totally off track from the June Photo Challenge, but my best friend is over in China RIGHT NOW and has her daughter in her arms!  She has fought so hard for this little one who was relinquished by birth parents and then rejected by a first set of "prospective adoptive parents."  After that disruption, that rejection, this child was labeled "unadoptable" and nearly lost the chance at the love of a family.  

But Hilary fought the system for this girl so that she would not be lost forever!

This sweet little girl is now safe in her forever mama's arms!

PRAISE GOD!

Thanks to all of you who helped raise funds to bring her home.  

Great is your reward for caring for the fatherless!

Now, PLEASE PRAY for this child as she grieves the loss of her old world.  The grief is awful, exhausting, tearful, fearful, excruciating.  But it is necessary as she leaves her past and clings to her future, even though to this sweet 3 year old, the future is scary!

Please, please, please pray!

My BEAUTIFUL friend Hilary and her GORGEOUS new daughter H.
I LOVE YOU, HIL!!!!
Congratulations on your new daughter!

JPC - June 8

June 8 -- Hair

I really wanted to get my haircut today just so I could blog about my hair and post a picture. After all, I get my hair cut only once or twice a year, so something new is always good.

Jay has his Summer Regional event coming up in a couple of weeks for work and a fresh haircut would feel and look good. Having just trimmed my bangs on my own last week before I started the Photo Challenge, I'm not ready for a haircut.  I'd rather go in with scraggly, long bangs so they trim everything perfectly.  I'll get it cut before we head to Austin, and in the meantime I'm looking at styles for long, stick straight, fine hair on Pinterest.  Feel free to send me suggestions!

Super C snapped this picture this morning.  My girl is always asking to brush my hair.  She's all girl.  I could sit for hours and have my hair brushed and combed.  It's so relaxing to me!  I'm typically more than happy to oblige my daughter's inner stylist.

I'm just sorry you have to see us in our pajamas and bed-head!

JPC - June 7

June 7 - Home

I cheated.  Today was supposed to be "Smile" but  I'm cheating on the photo challenge and swapping June 7th and June 19th.  You'll see why -- on the 19th!  I promise it will be worth it.

You've seen pictures of my home in previous posts when we first moved here.  No need to post new pictures.  After all, we haven't made any improvements to the home whatsoever.  We've kept our budget perfectly small as my husband builds his business.  We are now to the point that we'd better start thinking of some home improvements, especially if we start thinking about selling this house and moving up north, closer to Jay's office.

This is our House Wish List

I have no idea what it will take to do all these projects.  Certainly, we cannot complete them all at once, but we'll start pricing them all out and see when we can start knocking some of these off.

I think the least expensive will be painting our kitchen cabinets.  I want to get rid of the dark oak and paint them white.  My kitchen will look totally different and more open, I think!  My laminate countertops might be an eyesore after painting, but we'll see about that when we get to that point.  Painting inside might be a good activity for avoiding the summer heat outside!

Getting rid of our living room/dining room carpet also needs to be on the list.  We could consider extending that into the main floor guest bedroom too.  Laminate flooring would be cheaper, but wood might bring more resale value.  Whatever we choose needs to hold up relatively well from water when people come in from the pool out back, not that we come in dripping wet, but sometimes you can't trust kids.

One side of our fence could use replacing.  We live on a corner lot and I think that side really takes a beating when it's windy and stormy.  Our neighbor across the street replaced his before they moved.  I'm guessing ours is due next.  Every week we're nailing in a loose board or two and posts are shifting.  When we fix or replace, I'll need to re-stain and I might go with a dark grey/black stain and get rid of the red stain that we currently have from the previous owners.  I do miss my vinyl fence back in Nebraska, but I imagine that wouldn't hold up too well here.

We have a few loose deck boards too.  That should be cheap enough and we can probably do that on our own.  If I can figure out either stripping or sanding our deck, I'd like to change the color there too.  I'd like lighter deck flooring and dark rails to match a darker fence.  I've seen the look on Pinterest and I like it!  I'll wait for cooler, fall temps to work outside on the deck.  Our deck is 2 levels and is really large because it extends around half of our pool, so that would be quite the time consuming job!

One of the things we'd really like to have is a covered portion of our deck.  A neighbor one street over, with the same model home as ours, has his deck covered, complete with lighting and ceiling fan.  We'd really like that.  We'd be more apt to spend time out back if we had something covered with a ceiling fan to keep the air moving.  Those are probably pretty costly, but I'm going to get some estimates.

I could keep our list going and going.  

The list is daunting and probably expensive!  

But it would be fun.

The house would look new and fresh.

One thing at a time.

I'll post picture when/if we tackle any of these home projects.

JPC - June 6

June 6 - Work

I have recently started pet sitting for a friend of ours.  She's military and travels at least once a month and needs help with her 2 dogs Pono and Mocha Kai.  She used to board them at PetSmart but it became too costly, so I gave it a try at our home last month.  Our house became canine central with 2 dogs of my own and 2 boarders.  We had such a fun week in May with these dogs that I knew I'd offer to do it again.

Pono and Mocha were supposed to arrive tomorrow, staying the rest of the entire month, but our friend's trip got pushed back one week, so now they arrive on Father's Day and will stay until the 30th.   I'll also have them for a week in July too.

In the meantime, you can still enjoy a photo of my best buddy, Pono from his last time here.

Is it a Photo Challenge fail to post an old picture?

Maybe.  Probably.

Do I care?

Not so much.

Pono is a Catahoula Hound, also called a Mountain Cur.  It is the State dog of Louisiana.  He has the unique tiger stripes which make him the most handsome thing ever.  Our friend found him wandering her neighborhood when she moved in and took him into her home.  Strays are a big problem in San Antonio.  He is a pup at only about a year and a half old and he has puppy energy!  He is a strong, big lug too!    At first it was hard for Jay and I to control him because his owner had him in a harness which gave the dog all the power on leash.  I immediately put him into a slip lead like the Dog Whisperer uses and Pono submitted to my leadership immediately!  Talk about empowering for short, out of shape, little old me, to walk through the neighborhood with such a strong breed heeling nicely at my side!

Pono and my Mack get along so well!  They are constantly wrestling!  All day long!  Non stop!  At night, they both sleep like rocks, tired out from the day's activity.  With adults and kids alike, Pono is one big, giant, heavy, lapdog.  He is an absolute love!  He has tried to get onto my couches, which we don't allow but he has jumped into my bed which I am not so apt to stop.  More snuggle time for me and he eats it up!

I'll get a picture of Mocha Kai when she arrives.  She's a different breed.  I forget what mix.  She is an older dog and she's every bit a "female dog," if you know what I mean.  Don't worry, our friend was the one to warn me using those same words.  Mocha has a bad attitude and it's always directed at her brother Pono, never my dogs or my kids.  She also needs to be fed alone as she is very territorial with her food and the other dogs.  She is a good girl one-on-one though and she loves to be massaged as she takes supplements for aching joints.

My kids and I are having fun with our pet sitting job.  My boys do good work!  It is hard on my boys when the dogs leave though.  My boys attach to animals so naturally.  Our home is open to more friends' pets too, so if you know of anyone looking for a petsitter, let us know.  At some point, I'd love to have an acreage where I could have my own boarding facilities on our property and have a home-based business, if neighborhood covenants allow.

That would be a dream that my kids and I would love!

Anxious for Pono and Mocha to arrive next weekend!

JPC - June 5

June 5 - ???

According to my friend Sheri who started this Photo Challenge, today is supposed to be a picture of VBS.  Our church doesn't do VBS.  We do Backyard Bible Clubs and those aren't happening until later and I'm not sure if my kids will even attend.  We can't host one because our pool eats up most of our backyard, so there is no room for lots of kids to run around safely out back.

So, what to take a picture of today?

Hmmmmm...

I'm totally not feeling creative today, so I turned to our trusted pal, Google.  Enter:  "June Photo Challenge" and lots of results come up, surprisingly (seriously, why did that surprise me?).  All I had to do was choose one.  So I scrolled, I browsed and I chose.......

Sky

This is taken from my back door and that's my giant Live Oak tree and my backyard neighbor's house.  I woke up to dark clouds this morning!  A little cloud cover from the hot Texas sun is more than welcome!  And rain?  We'd love it to rain, yet it's not in the forecast today.  Winds are light today, from the south at about 10mph.  Humidity is high right now at 83%.  Temp will be a high of 94 according to The Weather Channel.

What's the weather like where you are today?

JPC - June 4

June 4 - Reading

Here is a snapshot of what we picked up on our last trip to the library.  It's the start of our summer reading but we haven't had much time for reading because we've been constantly running.

The Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz

This book is in high demand at our library!  I can never renew it because it's always on hold by someone else.  It's all about Sensory Processing Disorder, which we know our Quiet Tiger deals with daily.  I'm hoping this book will give me some insights as to why she does what she does and how we can cope.

Club Penguin Books

I happened upon these when I went in to get my reserved book above.  My boys are all about Disney Club Penguin these days.  It's an online game that you can play for free or pay to join for more fun.  I don't pay for games or apps or anything, so we just do the free version.  In fact, if any of your kids would like to "friend" my kids, let me know and we can exchange info.  I knew these paperbacks would excite my 10 year old!

Super E's Summer Reading

I need to keep Super E reading this summer.  He was a late reader and reading is not his favorite subject, so it will be easy for him to fall behind this summer if I don't keep him engaged.  I picked these books out for him:

Fly Guy and the Frankenfly by Tedd Arnold
A Monster is Coming by David L. Harrison
Great Groundhogs by Karen Gray Ruelle
Marly and the Runaway Pumpkin by Susan Hill

Teaching Quiet Tiger

Our girl is starting to learn her ABC's and 123's, so she got a couple of board books from the library too.  Thanks to her SPD, she likes to tear paper and I cannot quite trust her with paper books yet, so baby board books it will be for a while.

This should keep us busy for a couple weeks until the books are due at the library.

Happy summer reading, everyone!