The Lilly Pad

Friday, September 18, 2009

I'm in LOVE...

I have fallen in love all over again. It's a different kind of love. Michael has nothing to do with it. You might be wondering what in the WORLD could make me feel this way. I am in love with this gas furnace. Its cold up here and the Lord is good!

Please, let me explain. While living in N.C. we had some cold days. We also had a heat pump. While it would slowly warm the house up, the heat coming out of the vent wasn't anything to brag about. I was often cold.

When I was a child, I vividly remember wadding up paper as my dad started a fire in the wood stove. I would sit close by the fire. That heat put a smile on my face every morning.

This morning as I stood directly in front of this gas furnace I was grinning from ear to ear!

A lot of people say they love the 'But God's of the Bible. I do too. I also love the 'But God's of life. I am living up here in this frigid climate. But God gave me this WONDERFUL gas furnace! Thank you, Lord.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Play Ground

We spent our afternoon yesterday, after church, at the play ground. The rain stopped and it was dry.

I know everyone wonders what the play ground is like. I keep mentioning that the girls BEG to go to the play ground every day. Now you will know why.

This is Cari riding her bike to the play ground from our cabin.

This is Hannah on the 'swing' at the play ground. She climbs up the slide and then to the monkey bars and then onto the swing. (Just like a monkey.)

The girls on the tire swing. We all love this one. They mostly twist it up and then let it spin them around and around. It makes me sick to watch them do this.

This is a scene of the play ground. All of the climb on things and swings.

This is the putt-putt course.

The basket ball court and tennis court.

And, carpet ball.

For all of those back home who have never seen capet ball, let me explain. You set up pool balls at your end and then you take the Q ball and roll it down towards the other end and try to knock the other person's balls down into the big opening on their end. This is a SUPER fun game. All of us have enjoyed playing it. The girls are really good at it. This set up is so that four sets of people can play. So, while I am beating Michael during our game, the girls can play their own game.

First Rainy Day

On our day out trying to find the Cold Stone, we drove through Lake George. They were having a HUGE car show this weekend. The streets were lined with cars and people were everywhere. There were more, old vintage restore cars and trucks here than I have ever seen at one time. The one person that was on my mind was J.C. He was dear friend to Michael. During his years as a teenager he taught Michael about restoring old cars and trucks. He had several and I remember the day when Michael came to pick me up in one of J.C.'s cars. It was a 69 Camaro, convertible with white interior. Later on, after Michael and I had dated for a while, J.C. gave me the privilege of driving that 69 Camaro to a car show. We miss you J.C.

Also, I think we found the 'Boardwalk' of upstate N.Y. They had an arcade, a haunted house and several putt-putt courses and all kinds of places to eat. I saw one man with some cotton candy. They also have boat rides to tour the lake. It was rainy, but it was fun to see all the cars and that town.

In the same city that we found the Cold Stone, there were painted horses everywhere along the streets. It reminded me of the painted pigs in Lexington because of all the BBQ. I told Michael, “They must have something for horses in this town.” During our exploration, we found a horse race track and all the stables for the horses. They must have over a hundred horses that stay there. There was A LOT of stables.

We also saw a Civil War Encampment park. But, since it was raining again by then, we didn’t get out and walk around there.

Exploring

This weekend, we decided to explore our surroundings. It might have something to do with the ice-cream shop, without warning, shut down!!! We drove by a couple days and noticed that the place was empty of cars and finally decided to stop to check out their hours. The sign that was taped to their window read, "Thanks for a great season. See you next June." NEXT JUNE!!!! WHAT, NEXT JUNE????!!!!! What are they thinking? Don't they know that ice-cream is just as good in the winter as in the summer????????? That would be the perfect time to eat them, they wouldn't melt so fast. The girls started asking if there was a Cold Stone near us. So, in our fleshly desire, we drove the streets in search of the nearest Cold Stone Creamery. We told the girls we were just driving around checking out our surroundings. We wanted to ride around and check out the town, but we also wanted to keep Cold Stone a suprise.

For Michael's birthday, a couple people so generously contributed to the purchase of a GPS. I am so thankful that he picked that gift for himself. He knew how much we would use it on this journey. It helped us navigate the roads all the way from our home in N.C. to our cabin in N.Y.. However, this GPS has been known to not take us exactly to the place we were trying to go. So, we weren't sure if we would be able to find the Cold Stone once we entered the town. We had plugged in the destination. We were about a mile away when the lady on the GPS announced, "Travel .8 miles and arrive at Cold Stone Creamery on the right." Hannah's mouth dropped to the floor and she said, "Are we going to Cold Stone?" Michael started grinning. Then the girls started chanting, "Cold Stone... Cold Stone... Cold Stone...". We all were VERY happy.