Beading w/ the Girls

Five years ago at our last family reunion my Aunt Becky showed us girls how to bead.

We all enjoyed it so much and some continued to expand their beading abilities.

My sister-in-law Jen has even started her own little side business.

I wore the pieces that I had made to death, but have not made any more pieces. I guess my time gets occupied with everything else. Well, there was a little store by our favorite coffee shop called "Beadin of Eden." Finally on Friday morning I persuaded Jen, my mom and Ali to go to the shop with me.

As a result we were all reinspired to begin beading again. Jen and Ali served mostly as consultants for mom and I, but in the end they made several pieces as well.

Jen even made "beach bracelets" for all of the girls. Fun times!

Here she is -- my coach, Jennifer!

She even let me wear one of her necklaces with my "busy" top.

Now I have to make a long strand with black beads.

These were my creations of the day.

Mom and I both made short necklaces, earrings and bracelets that looked similar.

I am wearing the black/turquoise/maroon "ensemble" in the picture below.

Now I have the tools and the inspiration to create many more pieces of beauty!

Thanks, girls, for the memories!

Feasting at Mako Mike's

Although we ate excellent food all week long, Brian and I both agreed our last dinner on Friday night, July 4th was the best!! Delicious seafood -- shrimp, crab legs, scallops, flounder, calamari!!! You name it, it was on the table!! I love this picture because Aunt Judy and Dana are so intense on their menus -- Jake and John are obviously good with whatever will be served!!

Here are my parents who were the activity planners of the reunion. They found the beach houses we stayed in, scheduled our deep sea fishing trip, scouted out the fabulous restaurants, and were delightful hosts. Notice my dad wearing his father's day shirt -- Brian keeps him supplied with Polo shirts -- and my mom wearing her beautiful bright sweater set with matching jewelry. Several of us girls were making jewelry earlier in the day and she found supplies to make the earrings to match her necklace. Way to go, Mom! Anyway, thanks so much, Mom and Pop, for all of your work to make our trip so special and memorable! We had a blast!

Deap Sea Fishing Trip

One of our fun activities while on vacation was a fishing trip! This was the fishing crew that went -- Dana & Jake, Jen & Chad, Kristy & Brian. Now mind you one of the three girls is not by nature a fisherman, but I survived! My hairdresser told me she had gone deep sea fishing and the crew did everything for them, so that put my mind at ease. The day was beautiful and the scenery was fabulous!

Dana and Jake just moved to Virginia where Jake is a pastor. Dana is substitute teaching so we had much to talk about as we compared notes about teaching. What a blessing to spend time with Dana and Jake; they love the Lord so much. They also love fishing and did a great job spotting the lines that had fish that were biting.

Here is Jake with First Mate Nate (Dana stood by with the camera). Nate would bait all of the lines. Then when a line would start to bob, someone would have to reel it in. We took turns reeling in the fish. This time Jake brought one in. I even worked up enough courage to reel in two fish! As long as I didn't have to bait the hook or touch the fish it was fine.

When we weren't reeling in fish:), we were watching the scenery. I love the North Carolina shore with all of the lighthouses.

At the end of the day we were tired, but we had had a great time! Our boat was the "Jamesey Boy." The fish that we caught that we were able to eat were Silver Mackerel. Jake grilled them that evening for our dinner and everyone got to sample our catch of the day. All week we had good food and good times!

Good Times on the Outer Banks!

What a fantastic vacation we had on the Outer Banks in North Carolina! All of our immediate family members were there as well as all of the Brasks and Alison and Nathan. This picture was taken on the fishing pier which was just a block from our beach house. I am taking the picture. From left to right -- Brian, Jennifer, Timmy (Kirk's friend), Kirk, Mom, Pop, Chad.

We relaxed, ate, shopped and enjoyed visiting with everyone. These are the three couples that went on a charter fishing expedition one day. Fishing is definitely not my "thing," but this trip was definitely an adventure! We had a lot of fun and the weather and scenery were beautiful! Left to right - Jake & Dana, Jen & Chad, Kristy & Brian

I love this picture of us girl cousins! I hadn't seen Dana and Alison for 5 years so we had much to catch up on!!

When we weren't on the water or eating, Mom and I usually found time to shop in the quaint little stores! Kirk's cat is named "Roxie" so we couldn't resist this picture! I'll post more pictures throughout the week, but these were a few that show how much fun we had.

Golsons Visit

We were so excited to have company this week! Kristen and Phil Golson and their girls who live in Florida stopped by on their way to Wisconsin. Kristen and I worked at Northland together many years ago and have kept in touch. What fun to have their delightful family. Their twins will be 5 in August and little Erin is 3.

The girls loved the flowers as well as our neighborhood pool. They were well behaved, polite and so appreciative for everything. They so wanted to meet Essie the kitty, but as usual she was too shy to come out for so much company.

Kristen and I talked and talked. What a great friend she is! We were in each others' weddings. Although we don't see each other often, we always pick right up where we left off. Brian and Phil enjoyed getting reaquainted as well. Phil is on the music faculty at Clearwater and so he and Brian had a great time talking about dissertations and research!:) They are on a month long trip to various places for various reasons. What a wonderful encouragement and blessing they were to us. Thanks for coming, Kris & Phil!

Flowers = Happy Thoughts!

We have this wonderful lawn and garden shop right at the bottom of the hill at school called Holcomb Nursery. I had been meaning to stop for about the last two weeks of school to get my flowers. However, when the end of the day would come I would be exhausted and would drive on past. So last Saturday after I got my hair done, I stopped and had a wonderful time exploring. There is a lady named Susie who always helps me with fabulous ideas. She had me running all over the place putting colors and different arrangements together. I felt like I had a personal shopper at my disposal!

Anyway here are the things we came up with. You can see the porch on my side bar with the arrangements and hanging baskets. Just like any good fashion designer Susie taught me about combining colors and textures. She made me laugh as she reminded me that everything around the exterior of the house had to "go together." It sounded just like my friends at Talbots helping to coordinate an outfit! Everything must contribute to the "all- around" look! Anyway, I have had fun.

These Vincas are on the side of the house and have sun all day!!

This is a rosebush that the Mosley's who we bought our house from planted.

It is just starting to produced flowers!

These were some leftovers that I put in pots at the bottom of the rose bush in the back.

I'm back!

The last eight weeks of school are now only a blur! My mom sent me an email today encouraging me to update my blog now that things are settling down! So I took pictures of some of my flowers. I had so much fun over the weekend when I finally had time to work on them. I will spend the next few days catching up on the events of the last few weeks. But for now, I am so grateful we ended the year well and that summer vacation has arrived!