On my recent trip to Indiana, I had one opportunity to stroll and take a few pictures. Imagine my surprise as this huge rodent entered into my world!

The groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, or whistlepig, is a rodent, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. They follow me and they keep getting bigger! This woodchuck was about two-foot long and weighed about eight pounds. It was bigger than a lot of dogs!

I'll keep my Texas squirrels! LOL

Remember this tongue-twister we learned as kids?

Fresh Find: Love this "glove" bag!!! I need a bigger bank account!

I have been in South Bend, Indiana for the last eight days at the America's Youth on Parade at Notre Dame University for two of our grand-sister's baton twirling competition.

It is a week long competition of twirlers of all ages from all states and foreign countries. The divisions are novice, beginner, and advanced depending on your number of wins in the categories like solo and x-strut.

Here are a few pictures of our week. We started in Chicago for an overnight stay. We stayed at the new Hotel EMC2, and we loved its technology...especially Cleo, who delivered us some Q-tips to the room.

We enjoyed the pier and its rides...

and a Chicago architecture boat tour...

Then, we were in South Bend and practice time...

Some of the Texas twirlers representing our awesome state!

She survived the "blue curtain." It's an advanced thing...

It is about doing your best and enjoying friends!

Miss D picks up some of her Top 10 medals.

Our "Fighting Irish."

Miss A outside of the Monogram Room.

Miss D and the monogram!

Vick's Chicks minus one.

A great week under the gold dome!

Fresh Find: It's going to rain. Umbrellas can be pretty!

Our daughter qualified to compete at AYOP for many years. Now, her daughters compete there, as well.

AYOP is America's Youth on Parade. It has been coined the Superbowl of baton twirling. It is a week long competition held on the University of Notre Dame campus. We know the campus well. As long as we have been around twirling it has been at South Bend on the Notre Dame campus.

Fresh Find: Fun Notre Dame Fighting Irish string art.

I remember my grandparents playing 42 every week with their friends, Doris & Bill Stockton. 

In 1981, our son was four, and our daughter was one. This was thirty-six years ago. WOW! I remember these times like they were yesterday. Precious memories!

Fresh Find: Look at these great Bulldog shirts!

Everything in our home is my favorite thing! Our home makes me happy. I am surrounded by precious memories from those who came before me and those special lives God has blessed my life through. There are even a few pieces that we have that came from a valley time in certain relationships that remind me of how faithful my God is. My God is not dead. My God is alive through the Holy Spirit within me. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way!

Anywhoo, as I was putting something away this evening, these things popped into my "favorite things" thoughts.

We DO have a dog!!! She is very quiet and does not shed! Her name is Drooples.

Tie One On...a reminder to dress for success!

What a fun, cheap, old vintage poster in its original frame. You go, girl!

Our home is definitely filled with eclecticism!!!

My grandfather's old guns, that my father inherited, and then my mother gave them to me to hang on to.

Love this artist's metal creations. They make me smile.

Bunches of vintage bottles from a day not so very long ago!

Fresh Find: It is Wayland football season soon. We can purchase or 2017 shirt here!!!

Unless we walk the walk of someone else, it is hard for us to understand their emotions. And, since God created each of us with our own set of unique characteristics, we will never be able to walk another's walk. We can get close by experiencing similar circumstances, but behind the circumstances are a completely different upbringing, lifestyle, and emotional baggage.

It is why we must be a people of encouragement. Sometimes the scar runs deep. We can't understand why something trivial can throw another in a downward spiral faster than a mosquito can make us itch. Or why some can handle criticism, and other thrive on drama. We must encourage the downtrodden. If someone is annoying, love them anyway. If they talk about their ailments, encourage them anyway. If we see someone who looks different, smells different, or dresses differently than what society has fed our brains to accept, don't deny them encouragement.

The people we least expect to need encouragement are often the ones we would never guess need a verbal hug.

When we are too busy with whatever it is we have decided is important in this life and we don't take the time to really see people or try to understand people, then we have missed the purpose of why God created "his people."

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers … what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4

God is mindful of us, and we should be mindful of others.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Our purpose is to join others into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. To do this, it sure helps when we are encouragers of each other.

Fresh Find: Thinking Fall and cooler weather. Love these boots!

Sometimes I find something that I enjoy so much that I will purchase it. Several years ago, I found this forest fire lamp. It serves as a reminder that fire can be extremely dangerous and as people, we must use caution to protect ourselves and all creation!

Here it is unlit.

Here it is turned on.

Here is a little video.  

Fresh Find: Remember Smokey the Bear? 

Even in 1960, I did not like to have my picture made! I pouted then and I still pout! Hahaha! True though! More than likely my parents made me stop doing whatever I was doing to take a picture. There aren't a whole lot of them! I was a busy child. Oh right, I remember. I had just gotten that cast off of my arm. That's why the funny stick-out arm!

Fresh Find: ADORABLE backpacks & lunch boxes! Personalizing available, too!

If we own something chances are we know more about it than anyone else. Our car, we know how it works. Our business, we know all about the best practices there. Our home, yup, we know when it makes a sound that isn't in harmony with our ears. In other words, if we own it, we are responsible for it. We know it, and we care for it.

When I asked Jesus into my life at age six, I felt a deep desire to have a relationship with God. I wanted to have Jesus as my best friend. Having since discovered my Asperger's wiring gift at age 62, I understand just how precious His love for me has been. Because of how he created me, I needed him very much to become the person I am today.

At age 16, on a youth choir trip, I confessed God's complete ownership of my life. It has been a struggle at times because I am a fixer, an organizer, a planner, a controller. If God owns me, I do not. This is actually the most freeing place in my relationship with Christ. Total submission.

There is nothing like experiencing God. When we have confessed God as Adonai, the relationship flows instead of drips. To know Jehovah revealed, we must submit to Adonai.

We don't qualify. We are not good enough. We will always have some insecurity that we try and use, but God says, I'll be with you. I've gone before you. You will not fail.

If we question God at work in our lives, then we must ask ourselves, Is God our Adonai?

If in fact, we have declared him the owner, then we have specific responsibilities. 

We are all at different places in our spiritual journey. Like the flowers that he directs to bloom at different times to constantly remind us of his beauty through his creation.

Colossians 2:9-10  “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”

Fresh Find: Cute shoe!

This is my family tree if you look back into years past. Now, it is just me. Some might find this sad, but God has filled my tree with beautiful, kind, and loving people. Like leaves of color, they come each season. In cold times the leaves may not be visible, but they are alive and waiting to join me. The leaves are not connected by lineage but through God's weaving. It is quite the journey that God has me on. I trust him, and he delivers the most amazing blessings into my life.

Of course, if we look forward from me in my tree, I have an awesome husband, son, daughter-in-law, daughter, son-in-law, and four beyond beautiful grand-daughters!

Luke 12:31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

Truth!

Fresh Find: Like this jogger pant!