Tag: God’s Handiwork (Page 5 of 5)

Mo Ranch

November 7, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Welcome to Mo Ranch

Mo Ranch is one of my favorite places to visit. I’ve told Mike that if he dies first that I am moving to Mo Ranch. We’ve been there as a family many times, met friends there, camped in the rain there, and have made many good memories there. A few years ago my mom came up with the idea of having a family reunion at Mo Ranch. We had our second family reunion there last August. We had a wonderful time.

Courtney prayed for rain and boy did we get it! We were all a little concerned about the Texas, August heat but she was the only one brave enough to pray a cold front in with rain. The rain didn’t last too long and we were still able to get in lots of time out doors, swimming, canoeing, rope climbing, playing and hiking. At Mo Ranch you can since the presence of God in the nature, take time to get alone, pray and walk, and be with God and at the same time there is tons of activities to keep you (and more importantly the kids) from getting bored.

The best thing about having a family reunion at Mo Ranch is that you get to hang out with your family. No one has to run off and be any where. You have lots of time to play games or if you don’t want to do that you can go swimming, or hiking, or read a book, or whatever. I loved getting to know and hang out with my niece and nephews again (and meeting the youngest), seeing what wonderful mothers and wives my sisters are becoming and just being with the family that I know loves me unconditionally.

So now I’ll get to my favorite part of blogging.. the pictures. My sisters, mom and dad all sent me copies of their photos (Thanks!) and I picked my favorites to share here.

Mo Nature

The Rain

We were a little worried when we first got there and it was a cold, rainy August day.

The Rainbow

The promise of sunny days to come.

The Sun Set

The Morning After the Rain

The flowers are happy.

The Lane

I should take more vacations with my family of photographers.

The Chapel.

I love this green house!

The Guadalupe River

This is where the a lot of the fun’s at as you will see in my next blog.

We’re hosting a youth movie night tomorrow night.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before I get to catch up on my bloging.

Love,

22nd Anniversary Trip

June 9, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

Mike planned a great anniversary trip for me

to DeSoto State Park up in Northeast AL.

He was speaking to me in my love language.

Taking me out doors to walk along a river is the best.

To top that he threw in some mountains and waterfalls

and a kiss by Queen Anne’s lace.

We stayed in this really nice little cabin in Mentone, AL

on top of Lookout Mountain.

It was fully equipped with everything from a kitchen to a hot tub.

Hubby and I talked about how it’d be nice to have money to invest

in a cabin like it, rent it when we could, and go up on long weekends to kayak, ski, golf etc. up in the mountain. We saw several for sale.

Mike made us some great big stakes on the gas grill.

It’s been so hot at home that we’ve started thinking twice before using our grill.

We are used to Florida’s milder weather.

It was a little cooler, much more bearable up in the mountains.

Water falls were easy to find a long Little River.

The park was really nice. It’s nestled in the mountains between a couple of little towns. To get from one town to the other you have to drive through the park, so there was no entrance fee. I like free.

I don’t know what it is about big rocks that are so impressive.

Mike gave me some cool, new jewelry that matched my top perfectly.

It’s not in this picture.. I got it later that day.

It’s my new favorite color.

Blue has been my favorite color since I can remember.

A few of years ago I discovered purple.

Now I am into this steely aqua color.

I’ve decided that I like changing my favorite color from time to time.

I still love sky blue and lavender.

I think my favorite, favorite color is a mixture of the two, periwinkle.

This rock was so cool that they built the road around it.

Once the morning started warming up, we decided to head down the

mountain to Fort Payne to find some air conditioning.

We stumbled across a big homecoming celebration for Alabama.

It took us a while to figure out that they meant

the country western band “Alabama”.

Turns out that they are from there originally.

For a little town of 12,ooo that’s a big deal.

We had chicken fried steak at the Santa Fe Cattle Co.

The food was good and we got ice water to go.

Our next stop was the Unclaimed Baggage Center.

It’s a in a little town called Scottsboro on the Tennessee River. Seeing all the stuff people had lost on planes was interesting. They had a Kirby vacuum cleaner just like mine that’s a steal at $300,

but most of the stuff wasn’t that great a deal for used stuff especially considering that they got the stuff for free. I guess that’s the law of supply and demand at work for you.

I found a Message Remix Bible for $10. I was thrilled. It’s practically new and I’ve been wanting one for months. Mike found some sun glasses and we also picked up some DVD’s; Felix the Cat, Home Alone, The Grinch, Skillet Worship and a few others. Most of them were around $4. A deal but non-returnable.. so we’ll see how well they play.

I wanted the Felix the Cat DVD because the kids have from time to time asked me what I did when I was a kid.. basically my answer is.. I watched TV and they have no idea what I am talking about when I tell them how I had a cat that looked just like Felix the Cat that I made watch the show with me everyday.

The kids survived the weekend.. new responsibility of driving and all.

We’ve got a busy week a head. Our creation scientist got his acceptance letter from AUM this weekend and has a lot to do before school starts.

Thanks for your prayers..

The Zoo

May 11, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

Mike and I went to the zoo a few months ago and purchased family passes. Its a smallish zoo (we were spoiled by the world class Saint Louis zoo) but it’s nice.

I’ve been wanting to take the kids to see what it’s like before it got too hot. I would go everyday just to walk and enjoy the scenery if I could only learn to make the time. It’s only a 10 minute drive but the zoo opens at 9 am which is right in the middle of school.

I had a rough couple of days this week and decided that Thursday would be the perfect day to take off, go to the zoo and take some pictures for myself for Mother’s Day. Friday went much better.. God’s grace was there to do all I needed to do.

Do I look like I had a rough couple of days?

My mathematician made me promise to make calzones to take with us. When we lived in San Antonio, I would often make these spinage and turkey pepperoni calzones and take visiting friends out for a picnic and a walk through a park. We wrap them in foil and pack them in an ice chest; we’re always surprised when they are still warm. The one thing I forgot was to first wrap them in a paper towel to help absorb the moisture. The red sauce is our spaghetti sauce for dipping. My Hungry Howie’s Pizza employee said I could put a thin layer of sauce in the calzone before baking them. I like a lot of sauce and when I put it all in it oozes out and makes a mess while it’s baking.

Although I love giraffes, I’ve learned that happiness in life comes when I am content like this zebra. Why does grass look greener in the neighboring lions den? I think I’d prefer to be too short to even see over the boundaries that the Lord has laid out for me. Since I am not, I try to keep focused on Him and on where I am at and enjoy the life He has given me.

God is good!

We thought this monkey with the handle bar mustache was really interesting.

Gifts from God.

The highlight of the show was this baby elephant and a baby rhino born this winter at the zoo. I was so stunned at how much the rhino had grown that I forgot to take any pictures of him.

It was starting to warm up. Baby is cooling down in the pile of dirt while dad is taking a splash.

Smile for the camera.

Finally a perfect pose.

Love you all,

Happy Mother’s Day!

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

May 4, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 4 Comments

We have been blessed with a beautiful new neighborhood.

The colors this spring have been gorgeous.

Princess J and I took our camera along with us on a walk through

our neighborhood so we could share it with you.

There is a least one house for sale that I know of ..”Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Don’t miss the big surprise we found near the end of our walk.

Here is our house.

Our brick color is “Old Chicago Brick”.

It’s red, orange, tan, brown, gray, yellow, green.. a bunch of colors.

I heard that it was really popular

when the house was built

and that people would go and take it off

old abandoned buildings to use on their new house.

I’ve always liked red brick. I like this color especially where the brick is in my house.

I’ll post more house pictures another day.

Here is the neighborhood park.. just down the street.

Here is the sidewalk that we took up though our neighborhood.

Here is an tabby cat enjoying the beautiful day.

Here is the cherry tree in blossom just up the street from us.

Here is some beautiful spring color.

Azaleas are the pride of Montgomery.

We are the proud owners of two azalea bushes ourselves.

Remember to watch for the surprise at the end.

There are so many different flowering trees here. I wish I knew their names.

One thing I like about our neighborhood is that you don’t get that cookie cutter feeling.

Princess J likes this one.

I like this one. It’s such a warm, cheerful color. When we walked by we saw

a lady with orange hair petting an orange cat.. no kidding.

I think she should buy this car from our other neighbor.. don’t you?

Doesn’t this one look like a bed and breakfast?

This is one of two log cabins we spotted. Hope no one minds that I am taking pictures.

Several houses were flying Easter flags.

We are so blessed to live in the land of the free.

Lots of houses here don’t have a garage.. I really miss having one.

This one has a car port for shade.

This is one of the few that do have a garage but as my parents said…

I would’nt want to try to have to park in it on an icy day.

I love stormy weather.

Every neighborhood should have trees like these.

What’s beyond our neighborhood?

Oooh.

It looks so inviting.. I wonder if we are allowed back there.

God is the original romantic. He thought of creating the flowers.

Surprise! You’d be surprised too if you found an elephant

on your first exploration of your neighborhood.

March Birthday Trip

April 19, 2008 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

For Mike’s birthday I talked him into taking us to Macon, GA to the International Cherry Blossom Festival. Knowing that the cherry blossoms wouldn’t be a big draw for him, I tried to emphasize the fact that we could eat dinner at Shakeys Pizza in Warner Robins, GA.

Shakeys brings back lots of happy memories of our first dates, fellowship with old church friends, a little bit of home in Thailand, and of course really good food. The Shakeys in our home town, San Angelo, was at one time the largest Shakeys in the world. Most everyone went there after church at least once a week – one of the best examples of what church should be like to us. Mike, Shanna (who had a big crush on him) and I went to Shakey’s after a football game my first time there and Mike slipped off his shoe and played footsie with me. It was only our third time seeing each other and I was only there because Shanna wasn’t allowed to single date. I was so embarrassed and afraid Shanna might look under the table and didn’t know how to get him to stop without making a scene. Boys. It was a while before I decided that I liked you, Sweetie, but I’d be up for a game of footsie anytime you’d like now.

The Shakeys in GA is the only Shakeys left outside of CA. We discovered it a couple of months ago when Mike had a class there. I love their fried mushrooms and Mike loves their rojos (battered and fried potato slices) and the pizza of course.

Back to the cherry blossoms.. Last year we planned our trip to Washington DC the week after their cherry blossom celebration and to our disappointment most of the cherry trees lost their blossoms by that time, so when I heard that Macon, GA claimed to be the cherry blossom capital of the world, I didn’t want to miss their cherry blossom festival. They have over 3000 cherry trees and lots of entertaining activities.

We took care of first things first and spent Friday night in an inn near Shakeys, ate too much and went to bed early. The next morning we got up early (6 AM GA time which translates into 5 AM AL time) to go to the air port to see the hot air ballon lift off. We were thankful later for the early start because we showed up at the wrong air port and a nice police officer had to give us directions to the right one across the county. I was very excited at our first site of the cherry blossoms along the road to the right air port.

The morning was gorgeous – cool and crisp. Some boy scouts had the right idea and camped the night on site. The atmosphere was very peaceful and we enjoyed guessing which hot air balloon would be the first to lift off.

The day before our neighbor, Marry Lou, related an experience she had of waking up one morning to the sound of dragons out side her window. Confused she thought, “But dragons don’t exist, do they?” When she looked out her window, she saw a bunch of hot air balloons flying low over her house. We enjoyed remembering her story while watching the balloons flying over head. Princess J didn’t think they would have been loud enough to wake her and I am sure she is right.

Our favorite balloon got lost in some trees but eventually made it out safely and over to the field where they were giving tethered rides.

After the hot air balloons we went to explore Macon’s Central City Park and found their pink pancake breakfast, Bengal tigers, art exhibit, craft show, and train exhibit with its pink cherry tree filled trains.

The park was beautiful. The cherry trees were decorated with Japanese lanterns. I really enjoyed the exhibit of photos from their photo contest and the quite peaceful atmosphere.

Around 10:30 we started getting hungry for lunch (change of time zone) and went down town to find a a parking space and a place to eat. The town is very well laid out with beautiful buildings. We ended up eating at Acapulco (best Mexican food I’ve had in a long time). It was right on the corner where they were holding the bed race and the professional riding lawn mower grand prix.

After lunch we found a great seat on some bleachers in the shade in plenty of time to see the bed race. So many people were wearing pink to celebrate the cherry blossoms that Judi and I wished we had worn our pink shirts from the day before the day of the celebration instead.

There were about 9 contestants in the bed race running to win money for their cause. Most of the beds were so modified that I wondered if they were ever beds to begin with. The slowest one was actually a hot tub on 5 inch wheels. The girls inside were dressed like Greeks in togas and the runners pushing it were dressed like the mob. The “beds” were pushed by 5 or so runners up a couple of blocks one at a time and timed. The most creative bed was the Flintstone bed racer complete with wooden wheels.. one of which fell off near the end of their run. I think that the ladies running for breast cancer won the $500.

The professional riding lawn mower grand prix looked a little scary.. they drove souped up lawn mowers while wearing helments but not seat belts. They were traveling pretty fast and two crashed as they went around cornner number 3. During the delay we decided to go a head and start traveling toward home. All the fun and excitement had worn us out.

On our way home with my new knowledge of what a cherry tree in blossom looks like I started thinking that I might have seen a cherry tree in my neighborhood. I was right! There is one down my street. Then last Thursday I spotted 8 of them conspicuously planted in the median of East Chase Parkway, the road that I take to Costco every week. I don’t think they blossomed until after our trip to GA. Next year I’ll know to watch for them.