Stop and smell the roses.......

Roses from my garden.......

I have been so busy lately and will be the next several days. I probably won't be back until sometime next week. We are hosting a family reunion here for my hubby's side of the family and we are having guests spend the night, so I am frantically trying to get a lot of things done. I have many things to share with all of you, but can't even find time to sit! I am on vacation next week and haven't planned too much to do, so I am hoping that I can get caught up with everything in my life and stop and smell the roses!


Hope you're enjoying your summer!

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Hugs, Sharon

How I spent my 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July! It was nice because we slept in and had a lazy morning drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, and then we headed down to main street to watch the parade. Hayden and I put out our lawn chairs the night before, so we had "reserved" seating in the shade! It was awesome!

Hayden, Grayson and Rachelle and Eric and I all sat together watching the parade.

Hayden enjoying the parade and all the candy!

I love our town's parade, it is so wholesome and old fashioned.

It's also very patriotic!

Even ol' Uncle Sam was there!

I took a picture of this for all my blogging buddies who adore pink! Isn't this just the cutest truck! I've never seen a pink one before!

After the parade we headed down to the park where there was a band playing great music. There also was a lot of food booths, lots of merchandise and game booths and tons of people! Grayson had to head to work and Hayden took off with his friends, so it was just Eric and I walking around together drinking iced coffees. He bought me a new cool handmade necklace at one of the booths! We had fun!

It is so fun to walk around and see so many people we know from our community. I absolutely love the way our town does up the 4th! It reminds me of the movie Pollyanna!

Hey, there's Hayden talking with his buddies!

After the gathering at the park Eric and I were invited to a neighbor's party. They served us a wonderful lunch and had a live band playing! We really enjoyed ourselves. When we got back home we were so happy because Cameron was there! He got off work early and wanted to hang out with us. Here's him and Hayden playing Marco Polo in the pool.

They were cracking me up! They were having lots of fun together.

After they were done playing Marco Polo Cameron said, "What should we do now?" and Hayden said with a giggle, "Lets play storm." I said, "What's storm?" and Cameron started laughing and said, "It's a lame game we made up when we were little and this is all it is......." Then they both started jumping up and down and made the water all wild like a storm! It cracks me up that when they were little that was actually a game that they played!

Eric was trying to cool Bailey off by tricking her to go in the sprinkler. If you look closely, you will see a small Frisbee in the grass. He made her stay right there and get showered a little and then he finally said, "Okay, go get it" and she ran through the sprinkler and got the Frisbee. It was really cute.

Cameron moved onto the trampoline after he was done swimming. He moved the sprinkler so that he was splashing on the tramp and I got this cool picture! It was a REALLY hot day. I love sitting in my chaise lounge on days like this with a glass of iced tea and watch all the family activities!

Eric barbecued up some ribs for dinner! I boiled up some corn and sliced up some cantaloupe. Yummy! What a great 4th of July dinner we had!

I didn't think to get a picture of everyone at the table until it was too late. Eric and Hayden had already gone in the house, but here's Cameron, Grayson and Rachelle finishing up their meals. Cameron is joking and putting his arm around the girlfriend that he doesn't have! LOL!

Grayson and Rachelle rode bikes down to the grade school to watch the big fireworks show that the city puts on with her family. We always stay at our house so the kids can do fireworks in the street and because we live so close to the school we have a great view of the show from our house. We like to get on our rooftop to see them even better! Rachelle had her face painted at the park earlier, it was so cute!

Cameron and Hayden had fun lighting fireworks.

I tried to lighten this picture as it is pretty dark, but it is a cool picture. Hayden is lighting a firework for Cameron. I just like how it turned out.

They had fun setting them off.

Here's a cool one. Do you see the blurry figure on the left? That's Hayden, he just jumped over that firework. Isn't that a cool picture!

Later Eric, Cameron and I got on the roof and watched from up there. It was really fun. It was such a beautiful warm summer evening!

Hayden opted to stay in the street and keep lighting fireworks. The neighbor boy came over to join him. I was on the roof when I took this picture of him and I like the angle!

What a great day I had! What a great day we all had together! We missed Mackenzie and Brittany though, they were in San Diego with her father. This was the first year I didn't have any plans or expectations. I really thought that Eric and I might be watching the parade by ourselves and spending the whole day and evening alone, but I was happily surprised when the boys and Rachelle were with us! Here I didn't fret and worry about where all my kids were going to be or that they wouldn't be with us, and you know what.....I liked how it all turned out! Could there be a lesson in this? I am thinking yes there is! I think that I need to stop trying to plan so much and have high expectations and just let things unfold and be okay with whatever happens!Maybe I need to let go and let God!!!

My computer seems to be faster, so I am thinking the problem must be with the Internet. I have lots to do today. I have an eye doctor appointment this morning, which I am so looking forward to, my vision has gotten so bad lately and I am hoping to get contacts. I am getting ready a family reunion with Eric's side of the family. We are having it here on Monday evening and we will be having a fish fry! I am preparing the guest room for Eric's brother, Mark, and his daughter, Michaela. We have busy plans this weekend too, so really today is the day for me to get things caught up! We also are having Mackenzie, Brittany and Cameron come tonight for dinner, which I am really looking forward to.

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer!

"The Lord merely spoke and the heavens were created. He breathed the word and all the stars were born!" Psalm 33:6

Love, Sharon

My new grandkitten!

My son, Cameron, just recently got a new kitty! Isn't she a doll! Her name is Ethel after Cam's great grandmother.

If you recall, Cameron moved back home in March and he just recently moved back out again. This is his new house that he shares with two other bachelors. He did have a neat orange cat named Wheeler, but Wheeler ran away. So Cameron got this new little adorable kitten.

The other day Grayson, Hayden and I went to the movies and then we went over to Cameron's house to visit the him and see his new kitten.

We all thought she was such a cutie pie!

Cameron just loves her. She's already potty trained and she is such a good kitty. All the guys in the house love her too. It was so nice to have Cameron home for a little while and I do miss him dearly, but I also understand that he is a grown man and needs his own place! I am really thankful that I have been able to see him a lot since he moved back out.

I had a few more pictures, but I could not upload them. Our computer is so slow. It took me about 45 minutes just to load these few pictures. I think I'll be taking a break until Mackenzie or Cameron can come over and work on it for me. I hope that you have a great week!

"I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify Thy name for evermore." Psalms 86:12

Hugs, Sharon

Vintage Homemaking and cook books.......

Look at what I scored at a garage sale recently! I found all these vintage cook books and homemaking booklets for only $2.00! Not $2.00 each, but $2.00 for the whole lot of them!
I have an addiction to vintage cookbooks and I don't know how to stop! The good thing is I don't spend much money on them, but when they are cheap like these ones, I just can turn them down.
There is something about these brightly colored pictures that just gives me warm fuzzies.
I love any old cookbook with pictures of a busy housewife. I love the picture above with the ladies heading to the church bake sale. I really don't think you would see a picture like this in a modern cookbook.
Here's another cute one with the busy homemaker making a pie and above her it says "The way to a man's heart"
This little booklet is called The Housewife's Almanac. I love the picture on the front and.......
.....on the back. I think I love these kind of colorful pictures of happy families because I learned how to read out of the Dick and Jane books and they were full of pictures like this. Also, I was raised like this, so they comfort me so much. I read once that they (whoever "they" are) decided sometime in the late 70s not to show the traditional nuclear family anymore in children's books because there were so many broken homes and it made kids feel bad. But I really feel like they give a great example of goals we should all have. I really love them.
This is a cute little cookbook put out by Kellogg's All-Bran.
Here's a darling little housewife proudly showing off the cake she just made.
This is one of my favorites, it has a cute picture of mother serving a chocolate pie to her little children. The graphics and colors are wonderful!
While I loved all the little cookbooks that I found and showed above, these were my big thrill for the day! They are old, old, old homemaking magazines! They are called Modern Homemaking.
I found four of them. I absolutely love the graphics on the covers! They are from 1928! I can't believe that they are in such great condition.
The tones are perfect for my house.
I LOVE this one! Look at the lady's gorgeous outfit and all the beautiful flowers she's watering!
I think this one is my favorite of all of them. I just love these little girls with their kitty in the baby stroller out in the gorgeous flower garden. It's so precious. I decided that I am going to frame them and hang them in my kitchen. So now I am on the hunt for four matching frames and I think I'll paint them red!
There are some really cute articles and advertisements in these magazines. Here are some patterns that you can order. It is so fun to see the cute styles from the roaring 20s!
In the entertainment section I found this wonderful picture of Marry Pickford! She's with her cousin Isabelle Sheridan on the set of "My Best Girl."
There also was this cute picture of eight children with this caption: Four sets of twins belonging to Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Dalton, who reside near Omaha, Neb. Besides the four sets of twins there are two other children in the family." Wow! Can you imagine having four sets of twins! They were so blessed! I love it that the two younger sets have one blond and one brunet. Also, the youngest set are boy and girl where the others are all the same sex. They are so cute!They would totally be on a reality show now days!
This ad cracks me up! It is talking about your loved one being indifferent towards you because you have halitosis! The ad actually makes the statement, "You can't be welcome if you have halitosis." Wow, they don't beat around the bush do they!!!
Here's an unbelievable add selling dresses for only $1.00 each!!! Can you believe it? They are all so cute too! The fashions are so fun to look at.
I love these old magazines because they take the role of wife and mother serious. Here's an article about rubbing talcum powder on the little ones.
There's also a "Food and Table" department with menu ideas. Wow, they really planned out big special meals every day for all three meals! No Top Ramon and Chicken strips for them!

I love all my new cookbooks and homemaking books. As I said, I'll be framing the magazines, but I still need to figure out a way to display my little booklets. Any suggestions? I already have a bunch of cookbooks on display above my kitchen cabinets click here to see pictures.

I hope that you have a great Friday and a happy weekend!

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Deuteronomy 6:5

Hugs, Sharon

Life is a bowl of cherries!

I picked these beautiful cherries off of our tree in the backyard!
Oh how I wish you could taste them, they are so delicious! We have two other varieties of trees in our little orchard. I think I'll be making a pie this weekend.

Do you like the cute little cherry bowl? I found this a few weeks ago at Goodwill when I was with the BAG Ladies at our girls getaway. Perfect for my fresh cherries! I am grateful to the Lord for giving us cherry trees and all the other fruit trees. I read a devotional recently that our prayers are often like fruit, sometimes God doesn't answer right away, we have to wait until the answer is "ripe". We don't want it answered if the timing is not right and it is too soon. We have to trust God that He will answer in the right time.

Hope you have a beautiful day!

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22

Love, Sharon

My Daddy's 80th birthday party!

On May 30th my Daddy turned 80 years old! He was born May 30, 1929! We wanted to have a big party for him, but due to schedule conflicts, we waited until last weekend to celebrate.

My two sisters, Kelli and Kathi and I planned the party. We held it at my Dad's church. Kathi designed the above invitation and sent them all out. We all pulled together and made this happen for our dear father. This is the guest book table that Kathi set up. Isn't it pretty! She cut all the gorgeous fresh flowers from her yard and we used them on all of the tables. She brought a pretty black and white table cloth, the topiaries and the pretty crystal candlesticks. We set his high school graduation picture next to the guest book.

Here's the cake table. I brought a bunch of my crystal candlesticks and bowls.

We used the church's crystal dishes and silverware.

I bought the paper products at the dollar store. We served nuts and mints along with the cake and punch. The punch was so good! It is easy to make too, it is 1 can frozen pink lemonade, 1 can frozen punch, 1 liter of 7-up, 12 oz crushed pineapple and a pint of frozen strawberries. You simply dump it all in a punch bowl and stir and it is so delicious!

Kelli ordered the cake. Actually we had two cakes and it was a good thing because we at almost all of it up! It was chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting! This is one of Dad's favorite cakes!

The granddaughters, Whitney, Victoria and Jessica made this cute sign. All the kids helped us decorate the room. It was nice to have the whole family involved!
We set up tables of old pictures and special little mementos of my Dad.

We had a whole table dedicated to just a small sampling of the neat toys that he made for the grandkids. He is such a talented woodworker.

He made every grandson a sling shot and made most of the kids one special treasure or another.

When my sisters and I were little girls he carved each of us a cute little trinket. He made Kelli a butterfly, which sadly broke, and he made me the two little owls sitting on a branch. He made the cute kitties you see above for Kathi. I always coveted these kitties! Aren't they so cute. I love how he made the kitten so fat and he made the mama cat such a good little mother by teaching her baby how to play and hunt! He is so talented!

This is how I always remember my Daddy. He was so handsome and so big and strong to me. This is a picture of him at work when he was about 59 years old. What a handsome man!

He was a truck driver all of his life. He loved driving that 18 wheeler! He drove many different trucks over the 49 years he worked for the same company, but his favorite was this one, ol' number 19! At the party one of his old co-workers stood up and was saying some nice things about my Dad and then he said, "Leonard always put me to shame though because he always kept his truck so nice and clean." Everyone laughed because they knew this was true. He really took pride in his truck and he took pride in being a very hard worker. Here's a cute picture of my two oldest boys, Mackenzie and Cameron. They both got to go to work with their grandpa Leonard one day! Oh how exciting that was for them! I laughed when I saws this picture of them helping Grandpa wash his truck. Mackenzie later said at the party in front of everyone, "Well, now we know how Grandpa kept his truck so clean, there's a picture over there of me and my brother washing it!" Everybody laughed!

We had about 50 people come to the party. It was so neat for all of us to see old friends!

Here's my Dad visiting with his cousins and his brother.

Me and my wonderful Dad! You know, my Dad has green eyes and I was the only child to get green eyes! I always felt special about that!

Here's some of the grandsons. Cameron, Grayson, Mackenzie, Hayden and Harrison.

Time to light the candles and sing happy birthday!

Make a wish!!! His wondering, "Hey, how come these candles aren't blowing out?" Well, I was a little naughty and I put a couple of trick candles on the cake! It was really cute and funny to watch him keep trying, then we told him what was going on.

My Mom and Dad enjoying the party!

It was really great for my Dad to catch up with all his friends and family!

The kiddie table! LOL! It's all of my boys plus Brittany, Whitney and Harrison. After we all ate cake we played a slide show that my son, Mackenzie, made for my parents for their 50th anniversary. It is such a great sampling of my Dad's life. After the slide show we passed around the microphone and about a dozen people said some nice things about my Dad. It was very touching.

Here's my Dad and five of his 8 siblings. They all love each other very much and all stay really close.

My mother with my aunt Josephine. They've known each other for over 50 years!

Look who's doing the dishes! It's my sweet husband, Eric! He has plenty of help though with my brother-in-law, Ralph, his daughter Whitney.

My Mom and Dad with Eric's Mom and Dad, Jim and Alice. These four have been friends for nearly 30 years since Eric and I started dating!

Here's one last shot of my Mom and Dad with us three girls. We sure had a great day! Our mission was accomplished, my Dad had a very special and memorable 80th birthday!

"Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God." Philippians 1:3

Love, Sharon

Look who got a haircut!!!

Bailey is our puppy dog. I guess she is still considered a puppy, she is 1-1/2 years old. She just got her very first haircut!
This is what she looked like before. She is a border collie and has thick long beautiful hair! This is great for the winter, but in the summertime she'll get hot, so we took her to the groomers and she got a nice haircut!
Isn't she cute!
The groomer said that Bailey was really sweet and handled the whole thing great! She sure seems to be happy with the lighter, cooler coat! She looks so much younger and smaller and it seems like she is even acting more like a younger puppy!

"I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high." Psalms 7:17

Hugs, Sharon

BAG Lady get away!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of having a girls get away with my BAG Lady friends! From left to right, Kathleen, Brenda, Eileen, me, Virginia and Lori. Our other friend, Gail, could not make it this year. BAG stands for Bargains At Goodwill. We all met at church and became fast friends and what really solidified the friendship was our love for thrifting and shopping at Goodwill! We started going to Sunriver near Bend, Oregon about seven years ago. We go every June and we just have a blast!
This was my room this year. It was so quiet,beautiful and serene and the mattress was really comfortable!
On the first day we got there at about 4:00. We unpacked and had a lovely meal. Brenda and I were in charge of the first dinner. A few weeks earlier we all met and decided the menu and we planned really easy, yet delicious meals. We warmed up rotisserie chicken, made Rice-A-Roni, green beans with bacon and dinner rolls.
We lounged around A LOT of the time and just visited, caught up, shared ups and downs over the past year and we laughed a TON!
It was so great to be able to relax and really not have any responsibilities!
The next day we jammed in my car and went to Bend to several thrift stores!
We had so much fun!
Here's Virginia with her goodies!
Eileen, me and Virginia at a cute thrift store. Look at the wonderful Hull vase that I found! Virginia found a gorgeous flower painting and the cute red hat!
Here's Lori being silly in front of the store.
One of our traditions is we all buy a pretty wine glass while we are there and we use them all weekend. Didn't we get pretty ones this year? Can you guess which one is mine? Yep, it's the red stemmed one; I just love it!
We made up a bunch of appetizers and set them by the hot tub.
We had such a fun and relaxing time chill'n out in the hot tub before dinner. Now that's what I call happy hour!
Another fabulous meal.
This time we had lasagna, green salad and garlic bread! Delicious!
The next day we made up a picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit.
We were heading out to go to a bunch of garage sales!
Time for dinner again! On this night it was barbecued steak, baked potatoes, broccoli and Hollandaise sauce! What a wonderful meal!
Another tradition we have is all during the year we are supposed to be on the hunt for a $10.00 gift from Goodwill to bring to our retreat and we do a gift exchange. These are the pretty things that were given this year. I drew the beautiful crystal bowl in the front of the picture and it came with two crystal candlesticks. We all look forward to this!
Here's a picture of us eating our picnic lunch in the car!
We were having so much fun!
Well, the trip is over and we are back at home sweet home. Here's four of the girls in front of a VERY crowded car! It was so crazy how much stuff we had packed in there!
I am so thankful for my BAG Lady girlfriends. I love this tradition of getting away together, it is all good! We not only have so much fun together and get some great R&R, but we also inspire one another, pray for one another, listen to each other and exchange great Godly advise. Also, it makes all of us really appreciate our husband, children and homes and we can't wait to get back to all of them!

"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:3

Love, Sharon

Happy Independence Day!

Just wanted to wish all of you a very happy 4th of July! We are so blessed to live in the United States of America!

The house is all decorated and we're ready to have a fun day. I used all the same decorations as I did last year and displayed things almost identical, click here to see last year's decorations. I am sitting here blogging and drinking from my stars and stripes coffee mug!

We will be celebrating much as we did last year click here and here to see what we did. We will attend the parade in the morning, then go to the park for the big town celebration and then we will attend a barbecue with our neighbors. They are having a big party with a band and lots of good food! We will probably just do our little fireworks in the street with our family and watch the big city fireworks from our rooftop. I am not sure exactly what family members will be here with us celebrating. Mackenzie and Brittany will not be with us this year because they are celebrating with her father. We will miss them. I think we'll have Cameron, Grayson and Hayden here with us, but nothing is in stone.

I would like to thank Pearl from Pearl's Sentimental Journey for these darling vintage pictures!

I hope you have a beautiful day!

God bless America!

"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free." Psalm 119:32

Hugs, Sharon

My new vintage table!

I have been looking for a round table for our office for about a year now and I finally found one! It is old fashioned looking and in the dark cherry wood that I wanted for that room. The best part.....it was only $12.00 at a thrift store!

It is not in the best shape and was sooooo dirty! I first cleaned it up with Windex and then I used Lemon Pledge to shine it up. It has some water stains on the top, so I will have to hide them with a lace doily.

It has another little problem too, it is missing one of it's decorative pieces on one of the legs. I just figured for that price, I'll take it and strategically place the broken leg against the wall where it's hidden.

This is the table that I had there before. It is too small and just doesn't have the feel that I wanted.

Here's the new table! I think it looks so much better. Now I need to find a lace topper. I first tried this one and didn't care for it too much.

Then I tried this one and I think I like it better. My grandmother, Ethel, made this! It is a round piece of old linen with crocheted lacy edge all the way around it. I just love it and am thrilled that I have it out on display again!

Here it is all decorated.

I "stole" these things from other parts of the house to see what it would look like. Those are pictures of my sons that are normally in the living room. Three of them are graduation pictures and Hayden's is his school picture from last year. Now I am on the hunt for some new silver antique looking frames to put here as well as a new planter and a new plant.

I'm pleased with how it turned out. As an added bonus, I was able to use the old little table too. Earlier this summer Eric bought us a new brown wicker patio set for our back porch. It looks beautiful and works great, but we needed a little stand for our CD player. The old table is made of wicker and works great out there, so it's a win-win situation!

I am just thrilled with my new table. Now when I walk by the office it looks like a room from the 40s. I think the table looks perfect there and I am so happy that it was only $12.00!

I have today off and I think we will just be staying home today. We have been so busy and playing a lot lately by going to the city pool, shopping, to the swimming holes, etc. so I think I need to stay home and get some organizing done. I am planning on making chicken, rice and a veggie for dinner and Eric said he'd like to go on a bike ride and get ice cream cones this evening after dinner! Hope you have a wonderful day!

"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart." Proverbs 3:3

Love, Sharon