Summer forget-me-not...Alberta Rocky Mountain High

Sometimes the greatest beauty is closest to home. Sometimes it takes moving away to make you appreciate it much more...

Why would I want to live anywhere else in the world?

Lake Louise, Alberta Canada

Taking a break along the way.

My wonderful parents who still keep up pretty good with the rest of us!

Building an inukshuk...attempt number three....

Mom loved that the boys were sitting on the edge of a cliff... :/

Summer forget-me-not...Wedding Guests

Along with Josh and Julie's special day came a lot of other special people to celebrate. It had been 3 years since we'd seen many of these same people and 3 years ago the occasion was our very own wedding; which, although it was a very fun and special day, the opportunity to visit with guests was slightly overwhelmed by the busyness of it all. This time we LOVED that we had nothing better to do than spend time with them all over the wedding weekend. 

Unfortunately, neither Mike or I took many pictures; but I managed to hunt down a couple from Jim & Les. :)

FW Symphony Orchestra

It's hard to overlook Bass Performance Hall when you're walking downtown Fort Worth. It demands attention from every passer-by; it's an incredibly unique & beautiful building. I'm pretty sure we noticed it the first time ended up down there. And since that time finding an opportunity to go inside was added to our Fort Worth bucket list.... Final semester and we were finally able to check it off.

Being a student has it's advantages...yes, you're poor but they give you a student card with an extremely attractive photo of yourself (sarcasm!) that occasionally helps you score some awesome deals! Along with friends we enjoyed a night out at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and our $10 seats cost everyone around us $60...hard to beat that one!

Summer Forget-me-not...June Wedding ♥

♥ ♥ ♥

---- ♥ ----  Josh & Julie  ---- ♥ ----

Married June 9, 2012

♥ ♥ ♥

Summer Forget-me-not...House Building

When Mike tells people that he built a house this summer his friends think it's cool. When I tell people that I worked construction this summer they stare at me in disbelief. But build a house we did, whether you think that's cool or you're wondering how in the world.... ;) (I will admit that I wasn't always the most valuable worker on the site...:/)

This is actually the second summer my family has done this together. It was my first summer doing it with the rest of them. And who knew such hard work could be so much fun!?!

It was a blessing having work lined up before Mike and I even arrived back in Canada. And it was such a blessing to get to spend the summer working alongside my husband and my family.

Filling the Gap...

Well, we did do something(s) besides that one rednek picnic this summer...but you wouldn't know that from here now, would ya? Yes, this blog got the rare thought and pretty much no attention over the last few months. That was partly because of busyness, partly because I was hanging out with my blog fan club (aka. my family) pretty much most of the time, and partly because I just didn't get on top of it. But now that I do have more time I'm finding that the organizational, detail-oriented part of me is slightly annoyed :/. I'm annoyed that this blog has a gap! It's a big gap where it looks like nothing exciting in life happened. Except that's not true. I'm so annoyed that I can't seemed to just move on from here when I think about it...so I'm going to backtrack...mostly for myself and for the fan club members who like to see pictures of themselves and the adventures we shared this summer (and because I do view this as a kind of online "memory book" for us). This may take a while...but at least there won't be any more gap (well, kinda no gap, anyway).

Rednek Piknik

This is what we do for fun around here. :) A little strange? Don't judge until you try a little bit of redneck yourself!

Credit for the planning of this party goes to Mitch who {very impressively} baked us chocolate cobbler {by himself & from scratch} just so we would all agree to get into Yoda {the much abused Toyota} and drive across the field to have a picnic by our own private lake {aka. the dugout}.

Some Thoughts I've Been Trying To Work Out

Dispensational Christ & Culture

Texas Ranger's Fun

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Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Ranger's Ballpark - Arlington, TX

Friday April 27, 2012

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Over 47 000 fans.

Shared with wonderful friends.

The Ranger's lost :( 

But there were fireworks to follow :)

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Texas - Spring

----- Texas in the Spring -----

HOME

As another semester is coming to a close, my mind has become, once again, preoccupied with the packing up of our home and with the preparations of a move back to Alberta for the summer months. And to be honest, as excited as I am to be with family and friends there again, I am weary - weary of packing, weary of transition, weary of settling temporarily, anxious to have a place to more permanently call home.

HOME

This word has been on my mind a lot lately. 

What is home? Where is home?

In this transitional and temporary stage in our life, there are many places in our vocabulary that we describe as home. Home is here, in Texas, where we have been blessed to make memories, to build friendships, and to spend the majority of our life over these past two years. Home is Alberta where we spent our first year of marriage and have been blessed to escape for our summer months to work and enjoy family and friends. Home is Ontario where we have invested many wonderful weeks visiting more family and friends.

"Home is where your heart is." --- Pliny the Elder ---

"My home is not a place, it is people." --- Lois McMaster Bujold ---

"Where thou art, that is home." --- Emily Dickinson ---

But there are some things that all of these "homes" lack that my heart often longs after; there are things that another move is deepening a longing for: consistency, stability, permanence. When will I have such a place to call my home?

And then, in this longing, the Holy Spirit has been quietly reminding my heart:

THIS EARTHLY TENT IS A TEMPORARY HOME

"For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

--- 2 Corinthians 5: 1 ---

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." 

--- Philippians 3: 20 ---

"They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them."

--- Hebrews 11: 16 ---

"In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

--- John 14: 2,3 ---

"Life's a voyage that's homeward bound"

--- Herman Melville ---

Conclusion to the Summer Building Project

Ten months & a lot of fond building memories later, that family project 

(mentioned in previous posts here, here, & here) is completed...

And what sweetens it all is that it is...

Here are some finished-project pictures:

*Photo Credits go to Mandy

The Front Entry

The Front Entry Railing

The Kitchen

The Fireplace in the Main Area

The Den

One of the Bathrooms

The Main Area in the Basement

The Outside (taken back in October)

One Big Happy Family, Texas - Style

There is a reason that there has been a lack of activity on this blog over the last month. We were invaded (in the very best sense of that term, of course). For 2 1/2 weeks we had the privilege of hosting family on the little corner of Texas that we call home. They came in waves: Sarah & Sophia first; Mom & Mandy a week later; and Dad & Mitch a day later.

We shopped; we rodeoed; we visited with friends; we explored the school campus & the popular sights of the city; we got stuck in traffic (too many times :/); we missed the train; and we ate a little bit of chicken-fried steak, some cajun, a whole lot of BBQ, some fresh salsa, and Tex-Mex too. (Notice the attention given to food in that list. Everything's bigger in Texas, including us, as Sophia put it (referring to all the eating we were doing).) We taught them how to say yee-haw and y'all and by the end I think we were plain ol' successful at tuckerin' them all out.

Reunion with the Thomas clan.

Birthday Boys!

Look!

One of the many turtles that entertained us for a good while.

Sophia took the entertainment to another level.

Texas Wildlife

Trying on a little bit of "cowgirl" @ Justin Boots. 

Fried Pickles @ Razoo's Cafe...fried everything down here!

Stockyards Rodeo

Main-street, Grapevine

"What will you trade me for this nickel I made into a cowboy hat?"

Happy family...even though we missed the "real" train...