Day 176

I love the ladies of our Small Group! We went out for dinner and then walked while the sun set behind the Tennessee River ~ lots of laughter and great conversation!

Day 175

Starting to read these wonderful words again ~ this time with my book club girls.  They loved the prologue and first chapter :-)  We had club at Anne's new home - cozy place on another night in the rain forest of Chattanooga!

Day 174

I love love love the new flower sculptures in the Sculpture Garden in Bluffview!

Day 173

Such a beautiful property! It will be fun to follow its development in the years to come!  Great time of worship with camp staff during the brief lull before another bunch of buses rolls into camp in the afternoon.  We left the kids after lunch and stopped by the Sliding Rock on the way home. I've always wanted to see it! We didn't slide down but stayed to take a few pics and people watch.

Day 172

So fun to spend a couple of days with Brea & Dan at beautiful Carolina Point! We left the Court at 5 AM Saturday morning and left camp on Sunday after lunch.  They were so busy but we managed to spend a good bit of time together.  Being at camp has reminded me of how much camp staff needs prayer and encouragement throughout the time of their assignment!  We stayed in the temporary Adult Guest Lodge and it was wonderful - a huge flower garden is in the front of it.  Great to see and hear David speak in the evening ~ such a small Young Life world!
  

Day 171

This was a treat!  The summer camp program at New City East Lake is doing this amazing music program with the kids and they had a concert at Miller Plaza today! It was awesome!  All of the songs were written, composed and performed by the kids and they did it all in a week!  They sang and played several instruments - a very joyful noise!

Day 170

For some reason the Lord is speaking to me more intimately than ever through Creation this Spring/Summer.  

Day 169

After dinner we went out to Greenway Farm for a hike! D.A. had never seen the quarry before and it was fun to share that with him.  A Red Bank high school kid had jumped off the cliff right before we go there! And later we found out that the friend that was with him had been at Carolina Point last week with our group - so fun!  Love this area and can't wait to take a picnic lunch down to the bottom of the quarry sometime!

Day 168

After a long day at work I stopped by the little bookstore to unwind before heading home. It brought a smile to my face when I rounded a corner and saw the resident bookstore dog and cat lounging in the Christian Fiction aisle :-)  

Day 167

After a busy day at work for both of us and then Bible Study for me and fishing for D.A., we met downtown for a late night walk.  Still really hot and humid out but felt good to move - definitely a 2 shower kind of day!

Day 166

Church and brunch and then it was time to head back to Chattanooga to spend the rest of Father's Day with D.A.  So thankful I could spend some time this sweet little family!

Day 165

Fun day! Birthday party for a sweet little 1 year old at Shelby Farms and then home to cool off in the pool. We grilled brats for dinner and then picked up Granny and went to Jerry's!

Day 164

Another great day in Southaven!  We ran a bunch of errands, had lunch at Sam's, surprised Joe with donuts, and after a yum dinner at home went to Aldi's and got Zoe a plastic pool and pool toys. We were at the little park by their house when Joe came home from work and he and Z had so much fun on the swings - they are so cute together!  So thankful to be here!

Day 163

 Great road trip to Mississippi and wonderful to see the kids and Zoe!  I arrived in time to go to their doctor's appointment and was able to go in for the ultrasound!  Baby boy was laying face down so the pics weren't as clear as on the last one.  Lots of fun hangout time, dinner at Dale's with Granny, and wishing D.A. was here to share it all with me!  I just love the times I'm able to be with my kids/grandkids and only be mom and grandma - two of my favorite roles in life!

Day 162

It was fun to watch these two bees circle around the Coneflower and eventually bump into each other -- I get so close and they could care less -- I am happy to host them!  After working in the garden I love to take the Nikon out there and see what I can see. I really scored some deals at Walmart today in their garden dept.  They take TERRIBLE care of their flowers which means they put them on super clearance - right place/right time for this Dutch gardener today!  Came home with an unusual rose colored Coreopsis, a peach colored Phlox and two yellow Tickseed - all for about 10 bucks!  I picked a big bucket of blooms to take to Joe & Ingrid's tomorrow!

Day 161

Another awesome shower this afternoon - everything looks so great!

Day 160

When we bought this Knockout Rose tree on Clearance at Lowes it looked so sad and pathetic - it's thriving now and really brightens up the corner of the deck - I love that I can see it from my kitchen window!

The Terpstras invited us over to help finish off some wedding leftovers along with some great chicken thighs that Gary grilled - he's got grilling down to an art!