Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

I can't keep up with these weeks flying by so quickly! They say that is what happens when we get older...the days and weeks and years just fly!  Do you remember when you were a child in school, and it seemed like that 3:00 bell would NEVER ring? (or whatever time you were let out of school for the day). I remember watching the clock for the last half hour or so, and thinking 3:00 would never get there!! But now, here it is 3:00 today, and I have no idea how this day flew by so quickly! LOL.  

Well, really, I do know...let's see, we took a ride this morning just to get out of the house for a while. Once in a while we like to drive the 30 mile drive back down to the community where we used to live in the Ocala National Forest.  There's a lake and a boat ramp/park where we like to go and see the water...today when we arrived there was a couple letting their dog run free and frolic in the water since no one else was around, and so we decided to drive on through the woods/town and come back by there later on our way back.  Dogs running loose are not one of my favorite things when I don't know them or their owners.   

However, we did stop back by there on our way back out, (and the people with their dogs were gone) and this was what I took a picture of...Isn't she a beauty?

Actually there were two butterflies flitting around, but I couldn't get them both to be still long enough to get a really good picture, so this one will have to do:

I also managed to get a picture of this little Bluegill down in the water! They were swimming around so fast I was fortunate to get this picture!

But I digress...

We decided to drive by our old house and see if anyone has purchased it yet.  It has been on the market for at least this whole year.  The people who bought it from us 4 years ago sold it to some investor, who has totally renovated it inside, but they are letting the outside be taken over by nature! According to "Zillow", it still has not been sold, and the price is still set much too high, in my humble opinion.

 Click HERE for a previous post showing some pictures from this house earlier this year, when our son stopped by to see what was going on there.  

And this is a picture from our last visit there, which was in February.  I wrote about that visit HERE.

The big sycamore trees were still bare, as was a lot of the other foliage...

Here I am, back in February,  sitting in the little pergola that we built in memory of our son:

That looked pretty good compared to what we saw there today.

These are the pictures from today:

It was so overgrown with wild grapevines and other wild growth that I couldn't even step inside to sit on the benches.

These are some of the trees we planted in the back yard about 6 years ago:

These are two Drake Elm trees that we planted in memory of our fathers, one for each of them on their 100th birthdays.

They have grown so much they may need to be trimmed back!

There are several Crape Myrtle trees in there, struggling to survive as they are being trapped under the many wild grape vines, which are, by the way, loaded with wild grapes right now! I did make grape jelly one year with the wild grapes that grew next to our yard, but this area we always kept trimmed back and neat and pretty...

It's like a jungle there...and if they don't start taking better care of it the  house will soon be returned back to nature.

This is what the front of the house looks like with the trees all full of leaves:

I know it's not my problem anymore, but it does make me kind of sad to see it so overgrown and neglected. We had so many happy memories at this house during the 7 years that we lived there. I do hope someone will purchase this house soon and rescue it before it is too late. They'd better have strong arms and backs so they can maintain all that yard work! That's one of the reasons we left there...we just couldn't keep up with all of the yard work by ourselves.  

So those are the photos for the Friday Foto Friends post.  Now, what am I thankful for? 

Well, I am thankful for our current home and the blessings of where we are, near our kids and church and friends...and not quite as much yard work as before.  Hubby and I did go out and do some weed-whacking with the new weed eater he got for Father's Day. I used it for quite a while and appreciated the fact that it is light weight and easy to use, but my arms are still hurting today because I am terribly out of shape (among other issues!) LOL.  I am thankful we got it done, however.

I am thankful for the fact that this home overlooks Still Waters Pond, and we are able to enjoy so much beauty here, watching the birds and any other wildlife God brings our way. We currently have been seeing a lot of Cardinals...there are some young ones as well as the parents, and they enjoy dining at the bird feeders:

Do you see both of the birds in this picture above?

And here's either Mom and Dad, or it could be Dad and one of the youngsters...

I am happy they enjoy these fancy bird feeders!

I am thankful for my new cell phone...(this picture was from the other day, when it was 87 and raining. Today it is 96 and bright and sunny...very HOT!

I ordered this phone to replace my old one because it was dying. It wouldn't keep a charge for very long at all.  This new phone is actually reconditioned, but it is a newer version than the iPhone I had before. You can get some very good deals online for reconditioned phones if you aren't locked into a phone contract.  It works great and I am very happy with it. However, getting it set up and ready to use, transferring data, etc., was very challenging.  I called the customer service people to help me, and, well, let's just say it was an extremely exasperating experience trying to understand people who do not speak English very well, and just when I thought we had something figured out the call would drop, and I'd have to call back again and start all over again with a new person. This took over an hour to accomplish, (and SEVERAL phone calls!) and by the time I was done, I was really done!! I hope I don't have to go through that again! But everything is fine now, and I am VERY thankful for that!

I am also thankful that my brother called the other night just to chat. He lives in N.C., and we don't get to talk very often, so it was a real treat and joy to hear from him. Our family is planning reunion up at their place in September, and I hope and pray we will be able to attend.  

There are some other things I am thankful about...some medical appointments that we were able to schedule sooner than first thought, and answers to prayer about several things.

Oh, this one is a big thing...last evening we were pulling out of our driveway, planning to go to our walking place on the other side of town and take a walk, even though it was still about 90 degrees, but we needed some exercise. Anyway, just as we were pulling out, there was a man walking down the middle of our street, no shirt, and his jeans kept falling down around his behind, and he was carrying a plastic gallon jug that looked empty, and he was acting VERY strange. We took one look at him and thought he had to be very high on drugs or drunk or something.  We decided not to leave our neighborhood, but stayed in our car and I called 9-1-1 and reported this man and his strange behavior. We drove around the block and kept an eye on him to make sure he didn't go up to our house or any of our neighbors, and we kept talking to the dispatcher for a few minutes. She assured us someone was on the way. Well, we drove around the block several times, not wanting him to notice us as we didn't want him coming up to our car. He wandered down the street, still in the middle of the street as other cars passed him. He was definitely out of his head high.  Finally we saw the deputy car come into the neighborhood and we watched to see what would happen. The man started to run into the woods, and then we decided to go back home and stay out the way.  Shortly after we saw an ambulance come. Apparently they did take him away, and we don't know anything more.  It left us feeling rather unnerved throughout the evening. Our neighborhood isn't perfect by any means, but this was not the norm. I am thankful that there was no harm to anyone in the neighborhood, and we prayed for this man that he would get the help that he needed. God knows who he is and exactly what was wrong. 

So on that note, I will say that I am thankful to God for His watchcare over our home and family...and am thankful that we know we can depend on Him to keep us safe.

Psalm 91:9-12

9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,

Even the Most High, your dwelling place,

10 No evil shall befall you,

Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.

12 In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Thank you, Lord!

Amen.