~Photo-a-day~ April 22-29

Last week I had the flu…not a cold like I thought, so now I have that nasty cough – that’s very persistent. I had to cancel my marathon training last Thursday and Saturday…something I’ve not done since my training began 10 weeks ago…but then again I haven’t been sick at all during those weeks. Something I barely even noticed but should be so thankful to God for. I was completely out of commission on Thursday and Friday, I worked my normal 9 hour days anyway, but I was miserable. On Sunday I enjoyed a four mile walk with Christina and felt a bit weak afterwards…but I felt great yesterday so I worked out with my brother last night and I feel so well today I’m going to run 6 miles tonight.

My marathon is this Saturday!!!! MAY 3 is the big day! I’m super excited and secretly scared all mixed together. It should be a great experience for me and one that I will never forget.

Day 113

~tasty~

Day 114

~grateful for…~

I’m grateful for the garden dirt, so I can watch the miracle of growth again this year.

Day 115

~hidden~

I’m so embarrassed about this photo. I was so sick that day and couldn’t think of anything to go with the word hidden. So I took a picture of Victoria’s yogurt hidden (not really) in the back of the fridge. Now that I feel 100% I can think of a million things to take a picture of that would describe that word perfectly. Whatever lets just act like this never happened…=I yeah thanks guys=)

Day 116

~unique~

Every flower is unique and different from all the other flowers, just like us humans.

Day 117

~a talent~

Isaac is really really good at basketball…and I’m not just saying that because I’m his sister…he can dunk! (if that doesn’t help prove my point) He’s got raw talent and plays a very intense game, that’s very enjoyable to watch.

Day 118

~relax~

my dad was relaxing last evening, drinking tea and talking to my mom.

Day 119

~11:00 am~

At 11:00 am I was entering the employee hours into this book.

Being sick kinda destroyed my weekend plans and made my week very uneventful. But I I’m better now!

Happy Wednesday!

Easter 2014=)

Who doesn’t enjoy Easter?!?!?…its kinda a laid back Thanksgiving or Christmas for my family. We still celebrate like these two holidays, but with less intensity. I love the celebration of new life, the church services, the light colors, the dresses, and dare I say the guys looking so sharp. for once=)

I put together a “photo” scavenger hunt for everyone to do that afternoon…and it was so fun! Everyone running everywhere and quickly posing for a ridiculous shot. The laughter coming from all corners of the yard and house as everyone hurried to complete their list.

The we had to find our Easter bags…are we too old for this?!?!?

NO!!!!! Absolutely not! While running to find where my parents had put my bag of goodies I couldn’t help but feel like a kid, not a twenty year old girl acting like a child=)

After we got home from church that morning I encouraged everyone to join me out on the lawn for a quick family photo (I mean my dad was in a suit, come on!) As you can see what started out as a short family shoot turned into. “Olivia, can you just take one of me, ….oh and one of me and him/her”. I guess that’s what it’s like living in a family of ten and being the only photographer of the bunch…cause if you didn’t notice I didn’t get a single shot alone….ummmm.

Yeah my idea=) So this is my personal favorite…just thought you’d like to know.

I believe he had just stepped out of a designer magazine…=)

My wonderful parents…still sweethearts after 41 years together=)

Let me know what you think! And which one is your personal favorite=)

Happy Friday and please enjoy your weekend for me=)

~Photo-a-day~ April 16-22

I’m sick today…I have a pretty nasty cold. But other than having a head ache, coughing, nose running and wanting to sleep….anywhere… I’m good! Today should be fun… I really hope it doesn’t hang on long.

I went and watched “Heaven is for Real” last week one of the best films I’ve seen on the subject and I highly recommend it, if not for the message – just for a good watch. I had read the book several years ago so that helped me already have a grasp on where the story was going.

On Saturday I ran my first 11 miles in preparation for the mini marathon, I plan to run come May 3rd. It took me a little under two hours. Isaac joined me, on his bike, for the last five miles. I’ve never run this much before. All my training will pay off…finally…in two weeks.

Easter was wonderful! Pictures will be up later that I took of the family that day…

Day 106

~my sky~

laying on the ground under this tree, on the cool grass, I was reminded of how very blessed I am to be living here. In spring, with everything turning green and new life beginning, how can you help but not be thankful?!?!? Not to mention we’re welcoming this weather with open arms after the hard, cold winter we experienced. 

Day 107

~I am reading…~

I am reading “Bookkeeping for Dummies” – I don’t like the title=) but the book is very informative.

Day 108

~special~

This is a special flower – dutchman's breeches – one of the first woodland flowers to appear every spring. I remember picking many bouquet of these for my mom each year…as a little girl.

Day 109

~I feel…~

I feel exhausted!

Day 110

~In my town…~

In my town this is normal…

Day 111

~a daily habit~

A daily habit…I take these pills everyday in the morning with my breakfast

Day 112

~something I enjoy~

I enjoy feeding our horses…

Remember to let me know which one you like best..=)

Happy Wednesday!

Oscar…the turtle

Found this little guy on the edge of the road on my way home from work last week. I wrote some about him in this post. And since I got an over whelming response for that picture I took the liberty to post a few more…and include one of myself with him=)

Most of the time he was all tightly pulled up into his shell…poor little guy I must have scared him pretty bad.

I was reading some on turtles and found that you can actually pet them…ya I know right?! And I guess they like it

Have any of you caught a turtle before…or maybe have a pet one?

Bahamas Cruise (part 5)…what we saw=)

So this is the fifth and final post on/about my Bahamas Cruise…this is about all the site seeing we did in the cities we ported at. I wish we could have done more this was while there.

A few cool facts about life on this island. They don’t have mail boxes, at all. Only a few post offices per island. And all the government personals have a different color of license plate.

 

In Miami the driving was completely crazy, These people honk at each other, you, and everything else. Insane…literally! Just walking down the street to the drug store and I was honked out like four times. And once when I was crossing the road…I had the ride-away…and still this guy wanted to go and honked at me (I was in the middle of the road) I stopped and he few by. He could have hit me! Lessoned learned I won’t ever go back to Miami=)

The Bahamians paint everything such bright, happy colors!

For sale in the local market, I would love to have my Christmas tree decorated with these, wouldn’t you?!?!

Some kind of festival was going on and our guide pushed us into doing this. You can tell we were very uncomfortable and embarrassed…I don’t know why who was looking? haha

A memorial to all the soldiers, from the Bahamas, that died in WWII

This is one of the first buildings built on Nassau, and it was originally a bakery.

Fort Fincastle (located also on Nassau) read more about it (here)

The Queen’s Staircase. This was by far the coolest thing we saw. Here's so more on this cool site

See the lady in the pink pants sitting in the corner? She was a nurse and on her lunch break. She had brought this paralyzed child with her. We couldn’t help but over hear her phone conversation…while standing there. She was telling the person on the other end, how she sometimes brings this girl out with her on her breaks because she was just so much calmer out there. She told how she would just cry sometimes and she went on to explain that she had been abandoned on their steps (I’m not sure if it was an orphanage or not) as a baby. Christina sat there with tears in her eyes (she’s a CNA) listening as she began to sing a hymn to this beautiful child.

These glass sculptures were hand blown (located in the largest Casino in the Bahamas) worth about 1 million dollars a piece. This Casino was located on Paradise island. 

Christina in the famous “king and queen’s chair”.

This was the bathroom, I don’t believe I have ever been in this nice of a bathroom before. The sign on the door indicating what gender’s room it was, was of a mermaid…and yes I took pictures of it.

The coolest light in the entire world=)

The Casino and all that beautiful stuff was in this pink building. Now I would go back to Paradise Island in a heart beat.

Fort Montagu…it was closed so we couldn’t go in, but we got our picture=)

Bahamian police officers…gotta love the skirt.

Look at all this color…what if we painted our streets in America like this=)

Classic telephone booth photo

There are probably three questions still remaining after you’ve seen all five of my post on this cruise

1. Would I ever go on a cruise again?

2. Would I ever visit the Bahamas again?

3. Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas?

Ummm…would I ever go on a cruise again?????…well I will never say never but would I go again in the near future? Probably not. It was a fantastic experience and I will even venture to say that I would do it over knowing what I know now in a heart beat. I learned so much. But I’m definitely a country girl and am most comfortable in a small town=)

Would I ever visit again????? Probably not. I’ve seen it and that’s checked off my list of places to see in my life time and I will probably never go back. The main reason because there are so many places to see in this world and life is too short to only revisit the same places over and over again.

And lastly “Would I recommend you going to the Bahamas”? And that would be a huge YES!!! but only if you were cruising=) It was very different than I expected, but worth the time…and the cruise ships are SO much fun!

So that wraps up my vacation…hope you enjoyed the pictures <3