ordinary days

These days in my life are simple.  Most of the time.  There has been a lot of chaos the last month or so... 

My brother, Josh, turned thirteen!  He has been through so much in his life and has overcome a lot.  He still has many struggles to work through and there have arisen a whole new set of them with him becoming a teenager.  BUT he is one awesome guy.  Despite his special needs, he is a sweet young man who really does try to do what is right.  And, when he messes up, he goes to God for help and gives wonderful make-up hugs.  :-)

Andrew and I have had lots of fun at a new fishing spot.  I've never been the super-outdoorsy-hunting-fishing type, so this is a fun experience for me.

Andrew had a birthday this last month too and one of his gifts was a new tackle box (plus gift cards to help fill it!).

*happy sigh*  I love my state.  It is wonderful that when I took these pictures we were only five minutes outside of the big city we live in!

Andrew and I have had several chances to have my family over in our nice, new apartment.  We also had my two oldest sisters over for a couple of days.  We took them out for a picnic and fishing!

Natalie, Jessie, and Andrew all really "hooked on fishing" (one of the lame jokes I cracked that  day).  ;-)

Andrew also does a bit of fishing at the pond near our apartment.

Jessie, Natalie, and I in our Sunday shoes!  I just love having sisters close to my age... they (along with my Mom) are truly my closest friends.

Jessie and her dear friend, Ginny, both graduated this year!  We had a sweet ceremony at our church to celebrate them and several other graduates.

One thing I love about our new home is that it is surrounded by pretty places to walk.

This reminds me of a snowflake...  :-)

When I'm not fishing with Andrew, I'm usually babysitting the container of worms while sitting on the occasional bench that can be found alongside the pond.

Last weekend was a festival in the town where my parents live (and where my church is).  Our church ran a bunch of games and did face painting.  Andrew and several other young men from our church took part in a tractor pull!  It was so much fun to watch!

Andrew and I both got a bit sunburnt (again!)... so now we have tan lines on our tan lines.  :-)

I've been doing some finger painting... okay, not really.  I have been trying to eat healthier (not always successfully, but still doing pretty well from day to day).  This paper plate's wild design is the result of once-frozen-then-slightly-melted berries that I ate for dessert the other night.  :-)

One addition to our house is this fish.  Like my two others, this is also a betta fish.  I've named this newest addition, Luthien (after the elf mention in the song "The Lay of Leithian", which is sung by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings films).  I know, boy fish with a girl name???  My thoughts on this is, well, he doesn't even know that I've given him a name (he is a fish) AND he looks like an elf!  I also couldn't bring myself to call him Legolas... I wanted a less common elven name and Luthien ended up being my favorite.  :-)

Isn't he gorgeous though???  I mean... for a boy fish...

This week some huge storms swept through our area.  The lightening was majestic...  as you can see, it was pitch dark one second, bright as day the next, then faded quite quickly.  So thankful for God's protection and also in awe of His power and creativity.  I definitely inherited my love of storms from my Mom.

Well friends, that has been the end of May and the first half of June for me.  Tomorrow and Saturday is our church's VBS.  Andrew will be leading music and I have been in charge of the skits (which Andrew and I are both acting in!).  We still have some work to do before we are completely ready, but I'm really excited to see how God works through us this weekend.

By the way, I've kind-of-recently started a Facebook page for my blog and also now have a personal  Pinterest page.  If you would like to follow me, you would be most welcome!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful remainder of your week!

God bless!

PS. I've recently been making my pictures extra large in my posts... I decided to go with just large on this post and ask what ya'll preferred.  I feel you can see the details of pictures better with the bigger ones... but are the smaller ones easier for you when uploading the page???  X-Large or just Large???