Prayers Needed

I come to you today with some prayer request, will you join me in praying for these people/families?

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Matthew 21:22

If you have been watching the weather channel at all, you may have heard about the massive amounts of rain North Florida is receiving. It's a lot of rain, y'all! Since this is my hometown and where all of my family lives, I have direct access to pictures and new updates. My mom has been texting me pictures over the past couple days and many of them are hard to believe so I thought I'd share on the blog.

Take a peek at these:

See anything missing this this photo? Only about half the road...yikes!

...unbelieveable!

This is the parking lots at the Orange Park Mall...I'd say those cars have some water damage!

This photo came from my Aunt Erin, and she normally lives nowhere near the creek or waterfront property. She does now! This is her driveway/front yard!

This picture and the picture below came from my Aunt Mary. Their backyard and garage is completely covered with water. According to her Facebook this morning, they are about a foot away from having water damage to their house and motor home. The deck below used to be part of their pool which has been gone for a couple years now. They still use the deck for outdoor living, only it's more like a dock this week then a backyard deck...

SO much water!

My Mom sent me this picture yesterday evening when her and my Dad were making rounds to see if any family members needed help or anything. I am not sure where this is exactly in Clay County, but you can see the street sign and all the water around it but you can't see the actual street. Not good! 

These are only a small fraction of the pictures that are visible on my Facebook newsfeed. In addition to the rain and floods, there is also a need for prayer requests on the opposite spectrum. Fires. My heart goes out to the people in Colorado who are being effected but these fires and who have lost their personal belongings. Please pray for the fires and floods that are taking place right now! God hears and answers prayers, so let's pray for relief in both situations! 

Do you have any prayer requests? Please message me because I would love to pray for you! 

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. 
 He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.
They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.

Psalm 107:28-30

  

Instagram and Photo Dump!

Thought I would take some time to share some pictures with your guys from my iPhone-mostly Instagram. Anyways, let's begin!

The above picture is summer salsa, I made it over the weekend and it was DELICIOUS. There is a very small amount left-we put a hurtin' on it y'all!

Last night the weather in Manchester was beautiful so we took the bikes out for a spin. It was a great night to ride! I really love evening bike rides with the hubs, especially when it is cool enough to breath outside. But wait, that cool weather won't last long...the high is 100* on Thursday. Ugh!

Our first stop on our bike ride was the birthplace of Thomas R. Marshall, the 28th Vice President of the United States. I wanted to stop because this location was part of this years garden walk (which we didn't do) and I wanted to see the pretty flowers. The pink hydrangeas did not disappoint. So beautiful!

We also rode around Manchester College a bit too...and took at break to read some historical signs near the chapel. Neither of us knew that Manchester College started out as a Bible School before becoming a Liberal Arts College-interesting!

This is the bell tower at the Peabody Retirement Community. They always have beautiful landscaping here and I love it. From the outside the facilities are beautiful and full of front porches with wicker chairs. I don't know that I would ever want to live in an assisted living type place, but if I had to pick Peabody might be the one. I promise it's so pretty!

Double Knock Out Roses @ The Peabody...see what I mean? Beautiful landscaping!

The above pictures were my craft project from last night. I can't say this idea was my own, but I am so pleased with how it looks already. I plan on distressing the edges a bit before hanging in our living room. Everyone needs some initial wall art, right?

Now I will leave you with some super cute Louie pictures and a sweet video. I took this video this morning while I was getting ready for work, he was cracking me up with him tongue. Oh how we love this puppy!

Have a great Tuesday!

Little bit of this, Little bit of that...

Hello again sweet blog friends and family! :)

How is your Monday going?

Mine is going pretty good...aside from having a rough night of sleep and a non functioning computer this morning. All is good now and I'm on a roll! We had a pretty low key weekend, which was just what we needed. We did some smaller projects around the house, baked, cleaned a little, played with Louie and floated in our little pool. In my opinion, it was PERFECT. I love my little family and the times we spend at home!

Heads up: this post is going to be pretty random.

We didn't take many pictures this weekend, but I did snap some pictures on my nightly "flower walk" Friday evening though! Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Have I mentioned that I love flowers? If not, well I really, really do. I am very thankful that we have someone staying at our house this coming week while we are on vacation so she can water and care for our flowers-and Louie of course. We leave for Florida on Friday evening...that's a whole 4 days away and I already feel nervous about leaving Louie. I know that he will be in good hands, but I am scared he is going to become depressed and not eat. We will only be gone for 5 days, so at least it's not longer...but still. I can't imagine leaving him because he is so our baby...but we have to do it on Friday!

Speaking of Florida vacation...I really, really hope that Debby doesn't ruin it. I have been looking forward to some fun in the sun and beach time...that won't be easy to accomplish is everything continues to flood. Come on Mother Nature...send that Florida rain to Indiana. It's beginning to look like we live in the desert for crying out loud!

Seriously, our grass is dead. Dead and crunchy. As in, it hurts when you walk on it bare foot. :-(

In other news this weekend, I think I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I am so excited! We have tried several recipes, but had not found the one yet...well friends, I think the search is over. Finally! We now have the perfect recipe for crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, delicious chocolate chip cookies. Stop by anytime!

Last but not least, I'll leave you with some adorable pictures of Louie:

He was so, so, SO cute swimming with me on Sunday. After swimming he would float on the raft and eventually go lay on his beach towel in the grass. I love his look when he start to dry and his fur looks all spiky. Agh, I just think he is the cutest!

My lunch break is officially over so it's back to work I go. Lot's to get done before Friday!

Have a good week everyone!

SUYL Dining Rooms

Happy Friday, friends! Today I am linking up with Kelly from Kelly's Korner for Show Us Your Life. This weeks topic is dining rooms :) Can I just say that we LOVE our dining room? Well, we do! It was one of the selling points for the house: it's centrally located and it was already red (our choice color!). I think it was meant to be! Oh and the wood floors...I can't forget to mention those beauties! Just some notes for those of you who may be new here or visiting from Kelly's blog: we bought our house in July 2011 and it was built in 1883. Yep, our house was built in the 1800s-cool, huh?

Without further adieu, welcome to our dining room:

We love the big bay window, and it's a perfect location for a beautiful Christmas tree!

This is the front door of the house, it opens directly into the dining room. The painting to the left was my Great-Grandmothers first oil painting. She was an amazing artist!

This is another one of our pride and joy's! We bought this from an antique market and refinished it last year. It was in pretty rough shape, but it is beautiful now. Inside is a display of my salt & pepper shaker collection.

Some shakers! :)

On top of the china cabinet is a little bit random right now. The vision in my head is all white table wear and maybe something hanging on the wall above...still working on it!

View from the stairs-here you are almost see our entire dining room. To the right is the living room and to the left is our kitchen!

This is looking at the dining room from the bay windows. The living room is to the left and kitchen to the right. The other doorway goes to the library!

I love, love, love our dining room light!

Stairs and console table...pretty self explanatory.

...and stairs again. One thing that we love about the stairs is the exposed brick. It adds so much charm and character to plain old stairs! This summer.fall we plan on painting the white wall too, so that will be a nice improvement!  :)

And that wraps up the tour of our dining room. Please let me now if you have any decorating ideas, tips or suggestions we could use. I am always looking for ways to spruce the place up a bit!

Weekend in Pictures...LOTS of pictures!

Happy Monday y'all!

 First off, lets talk about FRIDAY. We didn't have anything really planned, which was good because when I got home from work I really didn't feel too well. My ankles were both swollen and sore so I ended up taking a nap and drinking lots of water. I had some really, really salty teriyaki for lunch so that's what I am blaming the swollenness/bloat on. Anyways...after a nice nap I actually felt better and we went for a nice bike ride through town. I love riding our bikes and looking at the pretty houses!

Oh, we also came home to some beautiful blooms! You know I love flowers! Our pansies are so vibrant...I just love them! And then the zinnia's too-beautiful! Let's not forget our back yard bunny friend! I actually snapped a picture of him, though it is a little blurry because he was in motion. Those rabbits are FAST!

Saturday morning started off with puppy cuddles and belly rubs-Louie's favorite! After breakfast we got right to work: laundry, cutting the grass, some craft projects for me-including finishing the wreath I talked about last week, replanting some plants, and fertilizing the plants! After all that work it was pretty hot so we blew up the redneck pool and took a swim! I know it's just a little inflatable pool and I bet our neighbors don't love it, but I do. It is so nice to be able to cool off and soak up some sun. Even Louie likes the pool and floating on the raft...which I just think is the cutest thing EVER. Have I mentioned how much we love him? Well, it's an intense amount! In the afternoon I finished a craft project-painting an old cookie sheet to use as a tray on the front porch. I used spray paint that I had on hand so we didn't have to go to the store. It was so easy and I love the outcome. Can't beat that! In the evening we washed up to meet Stephen's family and his parents for dinner honoring his Dad for Father's Day. We had a delicious dinner at the restaurant of his choice and then went to Wal-Mart for some more solar garden lights (they were on sale and I wanted to add a few more around the house). Go me because we went for lights and that is all we bought! I don't know if it's just me or what, but that RARELY happens. ALSO, we walked through the garden center and looked at all the pretty flowers without buying any. Another victory!

Sunday after church we picked Louie up from the house and headed to Stephen's parents house for a Father's Day cook-out. Louie was excited to be in the car, he really likes car rides! However, we took country roads to his parents house and Louie got carsick-let me just say eww! Thankfully he seemed to feel better and was okay most of the time we were there! After filling our bellies we headed back to our house hoping to soak up some sunshine in the afternoon. The pool had been full since Friday evening, so the water was nice and warm...quite the contrast to the freezing temperature it could have been! I also got to FaceTime with my Mom, Dad and Grandma so that was special. I must say, I love FaceTime! Our nieces came over in the afternoon/evening and we had a blast with them. They impressed me with how many games they could come up with in such a tiny pool, and I think they loved it! Once they were water logged we ate mac-n-cheese on the porch and painted little finger nails-so much fun!

We also finished another craft project on Sunday. We had an old picture frame that had been turned into a dry erase board in the kitchen where we either post the menu for the week, write down things we need from the store, or jot down sweet notes to each other....well, I was tired of the dry erase board and wanted a chalkboard. A left over bottle of spray paint and an hour later...that's what we had. I love it! It sits in the kitchen above where we hang keys, jackets, cameras and purses. Fun!

...I almost forgot that we replanted our Basil into a mason jar, too. I like it's new look!

In the evening we relaxed on the porch...even Louie was enjoying the cool summer night. Love it!

And that was our weekend! Told you it was a lot of pictures! We hope you had a great weekend too, and a great Monday!

Did you do anything special for Father's Day?