Jordan, Martha and Lydia

We have really been enjoying strawberries, and Jordan loves salads so I decided to put together a nice salad with strawberries, pears and feta cheese over a salad blend. It’s not Panera but it was good!

Here is Lydia enjoying a strawberry before she discovers she is caught on camera. 🙂

Yes…a SNAKE on my front porch!

I don’t like those things! At least it wasn’t a rattlesnake.

It still freaked me out. I looked up from what I was doing and saw it slithering across my porch. First snake sighting here.

We stayed for service on Sunday down in Sarasota (Reuben and Candace stayed as well), and after a really nice service, we stayed for leftovers (at the request of the Doucettes), and enjoyed a couple more hours of fellowship with our dear friends.

Afterwards, we headed back up to Ocala for the night, as that was our last night in Florida, and Grandpa Phillips was in town, something we didn’t know was going to happen until after he had already flown in! Dad arranged for grilling steaks with baked potatoes, and when we showed up, we found that Grandpa Phillips was there!

A short bit later, Reuben and Candace showed up with their two dogs. The dogs had been cooped up for a while, and they don’t have much of a yard, so when they were let loose in the roomy fenced in yard of my parents, they let loose and ran all over. It was so much fun to watch them.

Lydia, being more their size, was a bit inclined to either be jumped on or ran over. 😀 She had fun chasing the dogs…

… as us *cough* adults sat around and talked and watched them having fun.

Lydia here with Great Grandpa Phillips (L) and Grandpa Tamblingson (R).

Later, Dad started a bad habit with Lydia. 😀 He showed her the “flying bear”. She lays on the bear and is flown through the air by the Father figure. 😀 (aka…when Grandpa Tamblingson isn’t around, Daddy Jordan gets to do it.)

Needless to say, she thoroughly enjoyed herself!

We really enjoyed getting to spend some time with my parents, Grandpa Phillips, Abigail, Reuben and Candace. Alas and alack, to the airport the next day to fly home.

Jordan, Lydia and I met Reuben and Candace (Brother and Sister in law for those of you who don’t know) down near the Gulf of Mexico for a few hours of jet skiing before whisking off to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. It was lots of fun, but then we had to get all serious and be grown up.

After getting ready to go, we headed to the beautiful church where the wedding was to take place. As it had been a long time since I had been around the Sarasota church group, it was a lot of silent “HI! I Didn’t know you were going to be here!” and “Good to see you!” exchanges while the pre-ceremony music was playing.

Looking around, I was impressed with the beauty of the church. Chandeliers…

…Stained glass windows…

…And beautiful young lady playing a beautiful grand piano. I wish I could have gotten a good recording of it. The acoustics in the church paired with the lovely playing just made the event very elegant and wonderful.

Aahh…the moment we all waited for. The Beautiful Bride on her father’s arm.

Leah and Jonathan. Leah had told me that she wouldn’t be the emotional one, but Jonathan would be. Sure looks like it to me!

The beautiful bridesmaids. Left to right, Hope Doucette, Hannah Doucette, Becki Doucette, and Kira Prentiss.

Leah and Jonathan join Bro Tedd Doucette in prayer.

The kiss!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Mayl!

Lydia had been such a good girl up to that point, so while we were waiting to be dismissed, Jordan took Lydia out of the pew and let her stand and stretch and wander within arms reach.

We spent the rest of the evening at the reception (where Jordan and I had our reception) enjoying ourselves with Reuben, Candace, and whomever happened to wander near our table. The reception was beautiful, and the food was delicious! The company was very fine, and the hosts were most gracious. Thank you so much to Bro Tedd and Sis Suzanne Doucette! You did a fine job. The Cake turned out wonderful! Everyone enjoyed themselves! I look forward to seeing you all again sometime soon! 🙂 God bless you all!

Jordan, Lydia and I took a trip to Florida to see a friend get married. We flew into Tampa, drove up to Ocala and stayed at my parents house until we headed down to where we would be staying in Tampa. Lydia had found something under the bed, and next thing I know, she crawled under to get it!

That was the first time she had ever done anything like that, so I was highly amused. Besides, I used to crawl under that bed myself…that is until I got too big. :p

Now I need to make sure I don’t keep anything desirable to a small toddler under my bed!

Lydia is shown here helping me mop the floor.

I love it when she helps me with little things like that. Sure, she’s not able to handle the adult sized tools, but she’s getting a joy out of doing something like this. May I always encourage her help with things around the house, and may she always grow up accustomed to helping me out. 🙂

My sister Sarah sent me a newsletter back around Christmas time, telling of how she had been making ice cream that previous year, and that inspired me to make some of my own. It just sounded so yummy and refreshing. I checked out the various ice cream books at the library, and I had picked up the Ben & Jerry’s official recipe book for their ice creams. I wanted to share it with Jordan’s family, where we usually eat between services on Sundays. So, taking inventory of my ingredients, I decided on Ben & Jerry’s Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream.

Boy was that good! I sweetened the peanut butter with honey, and I used a raw cane sugar for sweetener. I know, I just made all you food junkies groan, but one can have health and sweets intertwined.

So the ice cream was going to be my project, but Jordan decided he’d better lend his expertise to the event, so I was more than happy to hand him the ice and the rock salt. (Mental note: never give a man ice and rock salt, especially large quantities of rock salt, especially around an ice cream machine.)

Lydia was quite interested in the whole deal (plus she got to be outside), and this strange thing that made a lot of noise and moved around had its intrigue.

We used up all of the ice in my ice maker, which I had been stocking up on as I knew I had wanted to make ice cream sometime in a short period of time.

Lydia stole what ice she could (and what ice that wasn’t salty), and made off with it, usually throwing it down on the ground because it was cold, regardless of the fact that she had a cup she could have put it in.

Then came the inevitable picking up of the ice that was thrown down. *sigh* Oh well, as my dad has pointed out to me, ice cleans itself.

MMmmm…ice cream!

Here we have a delightful looking rainstorm that looks like it is headed our way. We just love how much rain we get here! It is green.

I also like how defined the rain is…you can actually see where it is raining.

Lydia decided to help me with clearing the bed. She removed Daddy’s shirt…

Then decided she didn’t want her stuff on there either!

Sorry about the sudden movement of the video. I thought she was going to fall off the bed.

Here I am planning what I shall plant in my garden, and how much.

My notes.

I’m getting excited! 😀