The buy of the century!

What's all that you say? Well how about 11 polo shirts, most of them well-known name brands and 3 pairs of dress slacks all for a whopping $11... yes, that's eleven dollars!!! Woohoo! They were having a special, all the clothes you could fit in a paper sack for $11. So what if someone else wore them first, call them previously loved, broken in but not tattered (and if you saw my husband's clothes you'd understand about tattered!) So he's pretty much set up for another year of teaching. Oh yeah, we found these at a Salvation Army in Wichita, Kansas while visiting family. Below is a couple of pics of my finds. We've somehow given away most of our spare sheets for anything besides our king-sized bed, so when we discovered that our new futon used a full sheet and that twins fit our couch perfectly I began my quest for good deals on sheets. Well, below you'll see a pile of sheets, pillow cases and pillow shams in various sizes. There's even a brand new twin fitted sheet still in the package! How much did they set me back? Eight bucks for all I could stuff in a paper grocery sack!

Here's a close-up of a small dog blanket that actually got me started on my quest to fill the bag.

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Plum violets bloomed!

Memorial Day with Matt and Emily

Happy Memorial Day

This seemed like a good time to tell you about my military background. There's a lot to tell, but I'll limit today's post to the piece about my Dad and I serving in the Army together in Goeppingen, Germany. You see, after a life as a military brat I just couldn't get it out of my blood, so quite literally followed in my father's footsteps. The newspaper article and picture below are documenting possibly the first father-daughter team assigned to an Army base together, or at least this one. If you could have seen his face you would see the pride and honor, as you would have also seen on mine.

This is me home on leave all dressed up in my uniform and there's my Dad.

Above with my Mom and grandparents.

Below is a picture of my baptism in the Jordan River in Israel during the time I was stationed in Germany. More about that later.

More flowers

Here are more pictures of the flowers in my garden. They are really loving the rain the cool temperatures we were having here for a little while. {oops I just realized these are the same pictures as the ones on the previous post, but for those who would rather look at stills instead of a slide show, here they are!}

My Spring Garden

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Azalea's in full bloom and Hostas growing

Aren't these Azaleas just the most perfect and awesome flowers on God's green earth? They were here when we bought the house five years ago and I think this year is the best yet. If there were only some way to keep them blooming year-round I believe I'd be in Flower Heaven!

The red in contrast with the perfectly formed green leaves reminds me of Christmas. As I zoomed in on the pictures and noticed the tiny hairs on each leaf it reminded me of that scripture in Matthew, Chapter 10 verse 30. Since I've already posted a picture of the robin that died on the chair on my front porch, even though it wasn't a sparrow I thought I'd include the verses that come right before and after, just seems appropriate.

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

The hostas are looking really good too. They really like the cool, damp weather we've been having lately. I'll post pics of them again when they bloom.

That bluish green hosta in the corner will eventually get quite large, maybe 3 or 4 feet in diameter. I've never been one to label all my plants or keep track of their names, but if I ever remember what it's called I'll post an edit. I think the grassy plants are some kind of lilies. Yeah, you wouldn't believe that I was once a Master Gardener, huh? lol!