A New Thing

As a knee jerk reaction to a less than lovely day, I deleted my blog. After an encouraging phone call from my daughter, I republished it, making it invitation only for a bit. Then I deleted the BlogHer Ads (sad news for Don because that was my knitting money and since I'm not planning to give up my knitting addiction he's going to have to make up the difference.)

There was a blessing in it all - a reminder of the graciousness of God, that in the midst of a rotten day, he used many of you to send cyber hugs, and requesting permission to continue to read what I write. Many of you that I had no clue ever visited here. And I feel bad not saying yes, so I opened it up again.

But really - why on earth you guys read it, I'm not sure - it's just the everyday stuff of my life. The good and the not so good, the serious and the ridiculous, all the stuff that puzzles me and hurts my heart and makes me wonder why on earth God doesn't just give up on us completely. But then God isn't anything like me. He's made of much more stout stuff. He doesn't do knee jerk stuff when I blow it, thank goodness!

I've tried several times to work on a 'theme' or tone for this blog, but I'm way too easily bored, and too random to pull that off, so it's a jumbled bunch of stuff - the sharing of a love for my husband and family and life itself that I can barely contain, and hopefully a very real look at my life and what it's made up of.

So I'm going to keep on going, with a bit of a change up of content - more family directed, because that's what's really, really, really important to me - my husband and my kids and their spouses and kids. We go fun places and do fun things and eat fattening food, and read good books, and celebrate fun holidays and knit and sew fun stuff, but sometimes less than lovely things happen in our family, we hurt, we fail, and the yuck of life seeps in. So that's what it'll be about, plus those times when I'm way too analytical, trying to figure it all out - what I'm supposed to be doing with this life He's given me, making it count for eternity, and such. And of course, I'm still studying Ancient Egypt (it's fascinating, seriously!) If any of that floats your boat - great!

Enough of that - on a lighter note, here are photos of a recent trip Leslie, Landon and I took to Texas (Janae will be proud of me - there are TWENTY!) - it started with a sleepover at Uncle D's and Aunt Nae-Nae's:

Truth be told I think Uncle D enjoyed making this fort quite a bit. The fact that he'd had two hours of sleep the night before probably came in handy for sleeping on the floor next to a three year old. They were both out cold in a matter of minutes.

Here's baby Jae! Conversation keeps going to who does she look like? Unanimous opinion that she has Dan's lips. Doubt she ends up as quiet as he is, unless she's an atypical female... do we have any quiet females in our family tree?

All the ladies after the sonogram and before we went to chow down at FuddRuckers - great burgers there. I'd never been. BTW Sarah, Dad commented on how skinny you look here :-)

This lovely photo is of our plumbing cleanout - after the main floor potty plunged up in the shower floor - thank you God for rubber gloves. The shower is VERY VERY VERY clean now after I cleaned it for all it was worth. $75 later the home warranty people sent us a plumber and I know a lot more about our plumbing and septic system, and it was probably worth the $75 to have the information. I could have lived without cleaning the shower floor though.

Caiden and I had a sleepover at the lake, and that boy loves board games. We played Dallasopoly and he was tickled to be the banker. We didn't get to finish but he really was winning fair and square when we ran out of time. We'll play again, Caiden, next time you come to see us, and maybe I'll beat you! (Note the jar of candy, and the soda - that's what trips to Grammy's place are all about!)
I think Dan took this photo - a windy day on the lake, and it was full - loved seeing that.

The lake is rockin' and rollin'. Happy, happy news.

Caiden never once argued with me about wearing a life jacket. I promised him the lake was deeper than any of us, even Uncle D. and I didn't want him to drown if he fell in. Sarah and Chris, remember when we went fishing and he threw out his fishing line and fell into the lake at the same time, and Chris had to reach down and grab him by his hair on his head? Me too - I didn't want that to happen, so he wore the life jacket every single time we were near the lake. Safety first - the Gibson motto.
This little guy apparently lives on the sunporch - he turns a mauve color when we scare him, and I tried to pet him but he ran. I'm trying to stretch my comfort zones and lizards are not in it yet. Since he's obviously not leaving I'm going to have to get used to him. Maybe we should name him - any suggestions?

One morning when we were at the lake it was just like a sheet of glass. Gorgeous. Mom, hurry and come see us - we'll have morning coffee there at the picnic table. It's the perfect place to start a day.

Caiden and I managed to kill six fishing rods and reels; I told Papa we've cleaned out all the old, crummy ones and please have Santa bring me a new, pink open reel of my own, with fishing lessons. I obviously need them. I am proud to say Caiden and I put live worms on the hooks and we got one good bite. I was thankful it got away because I had no idea how to get it off the hook if we caught it. Caiden says we're going to write a book about our fishing experience because it was so disastrous. All I know is I'm so, so glad we only used crummy poles and not any of Papa's $100 bait casters!

Two boathouses down we saw probably 50 swallow nests - funny because the guy had put half a dozen fake owls in the rafters to scare them away. I think he needs to find a new tactic.

Caiden and I watched this guy fish for his breakfast by looking through Papa's telescope - very fun. We looked him up in the bird book and learned all about him (a great egret). We saw a great blue heron on the seawall and checked him out too. When they lift their wings and fly off it takes your breath away at how ancient they look. We also watched the people across the lake eat their dinner and watch TV but I explained that was probably spying and we should not do that again.

The photo is blurry but I wanted to prove to Jer that Texas does have fall. We were just a couple of weeks early to see it in all it's glory - next year I'll take photos to post again, not that I expect we'll rival beautiful Pennsylvania, but a lake ringed with reds and golds and yellows will be awfully pretty I expect.

This was on the front door of the shower for Baby Jae - very sweet photos of Dan and Janae when they were little and chubby. I do believe Dan was chubbier.

Sarah and Miss Addie were looking lovely. Too bad you can't see Addie's fire engine red boots - they were S.A.S.S.Y.!

Lots of pretty southern women and one handsome daddy-to-be. Sarah's head is missing. Did you do that on purpose or is it because you're a runt?

Caiden and his beloved Ozma. Love this photo and this little boy!

Caiden let me pick an egg right out of the nest and it was pale blue!

Finally, I know the men want to see my latest knitting project - a red cap with my first cables. I gave it to Leslie to go with her red vest and because she's always cold and she has to stay here in cold PA. She had to pull it down hard on her head to make it fit, so possibly the next one I knit, in my favorite green, should be knit a bit larger?

That's it for now - Landon and I are taking Papa to the Ringling Brothers Circus this Friday night, and we're all so excited. We've already made plans for pink cotton candy -) I'll try to get photos of it up before we head to Mexico on Sunday, and there should also be photos of the first finished project our sewing group is doing.

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment here if you're interested in the give away (a knitting book). I'll draw a name Saturday afternoon before I leave.