(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday afternoon I decided to sit down and play piano. While I'm sitting on the bench getting my music together that I wanted to play, Stank decides he wants to climb into my lap and snuggle. Uh no. Not going to work. *sigh*

On that note, the past few days Stank has been unusually demanding of attention and getting up onto places he didn't use to get on (i.e. the ottoman, bathroom sink, and low bookshelf). I don't know that it's necessarily related to adding Seabass to our family, but it might be. But wouldn't he have started exhibiting weird behaviors shortly after getting a new cat? It's been over a month now. Any ideas why his behavior has suddenly changed? Any thoughts, tips, or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cindy

Fame For All the Wrong Reasons

Our little Seabass is famous!

While hanging out with our friend Megan one day I noticed a piece of paper with some interesting stats about her Greyhound sitting on the counter. When I asked her about it she told me about a site called Dog Shaming. It sounded pretty funny so I checked it out. Then she also told me there was a site for Cat Shaming. Basically the premise is to "shame" your pets when they've done something naughty. Well, since bringing Seabass to live with us he's been very naughty. But I suppose that comes with the territory of having a kitten... Anyway, we can tolerate most stuff but getting on the kitchen counter is not something we're just gonna shrug off. No way, no how. So, to try to deter him from getting on the counter, we've been putting strips of tape down so he'll get it stuck to him and learn his lesson. It's finally working (mostly) and he's getting on the counter less and less, that we can tell. Or if he is getting on the counter he's avoiding the tape but we've made that pretty impossible. Anyway, one day last week we came home and Seabass was frantically trying to get a piece of tape off his face. So, instead of removing it right away we decided he needed to be shamed... His photo went live on the Cat Shaming Tumblr this weekend! I'm so proud...

Cindy

It's the Place to Be

This past weekend was our annual county fair and it was a great fair weekend! The weather was so nice and it was sunny all weekend (with the exception of a freak downpour Saturday evening...)! I actually went to the fair every day it was open which is unusual for me! Normally I get to go once with Collin but this year since our book club had a booth I went on Thursday to work in the booth, Collin and I had our date night on Friday there, Saturday I went in the morning for the parade and to work the booth for a short bit, and then Sunday Collin and I went back because it was officially our turn to work the booth! I had a lot of fun the whole weekend! And I think our booth was very popular! We had balloons, tattoos, cross necklaces, button pins, seashells with Bible verses, a prayer box and candy! The kids seemed to especially like us because we gave out free tattoos and balloons. Unfortunately by the time it was mine and Collin's shift we only had about 8 balloons when we started and we quickly ran out. We also ran out of necklaces! But we still gave away tons of tattoos. =)

I told you guys on Friday I submitted five photos to the fair for judging and viewing and I actually won two ribbons! I won a second place and a third place ribbon on two of my photos! I was so shocked and yet so excited! I honestly was not thinking I'd win anything!

After our time was up working the booth Collin and I headed over to Solomon's Island and had dinner and I got some ice cream. It was so beautiful on the water and we made it there just in time for the sunset - my favorite! And we were even fortunate enough to be able to catch a band that was playing some praise music at the gazebo where we have played with our worship band before! They were pretty good, too!

My third place photo!

My second place photo!

We love to look around at all the exhibits of produce, flowers, and arts. This was a GIANT pumpkin. It weighed 334lbs... Most of the others were less than 200!




My high school's marching band in the parade.

Our county fair parade would not be complete without some tractors. Goes with the whole tractor pull event they have all weekend. =)

I do not know why they had a Porta Potty sewage truck though...

My friend Alexis was dancing with her dance group!

John Deere, the big name in tractors in our area.

The old cars!

Working at the booth on Sunday and showing off our new tattoos!



I love my sweet husband.

This balloon was slightly deflated but still had enough helium in it that it would stay semi-suspended. Collin thought it was so cool and was playing with it literally almost the entire afternoon! I even got a video of him having fun with this balloon! haha

He just looks so happy!

My favorite place to be. Solomon's Boardwalk at sunset!

Our nutritious dinner of 7-Eleven rollers...



The band, Seven-17, we listened to a little bit.

My delicious ice cream cone!

I would say it was quite a fantastic weekend! I love the county fair and I'm so glad that this year's fair was so fun and delightful! Plus, it was the perfect welcome weekend to autumn!

I hope you my dear friends had weekends that were as lovely as mine! Now to face the week and get ready for the month of October!

Cindy

Fill in the Blank Friday

Happy Friday to you my friends! This has been a REALLY long week for me. It has been my first 5 day work week in 4 weeks! Wow! Every day felt like the one after it for some reason and I would get sorely disappointed when I realized it was only Wednesday and not Thursday as I thought and so forth. =/ BUT... it is Friday now so that is wonderful! And even though I have no idea what we're doing this weekend (except for Sunday) I know it will be great because Collin and I always have fun together!

Now... let's get to some blanks courtesy of Lauren.

1. Something I am very proud of is having a college degree. Sure I may not be working in a field even remotely related to my degree but I have that thing! And it was hard work, too. And I am the first person in basically my entire family to have received a college degree. That was pretty big.

2. My favorite thing about myself is my compassion. Sometimes though it can be hard to be so compassionate.

3. My favorite color for fall is plum! And now mustard, too. I just think those two colors are the epitome of fall!

4. Something I've been learning lately is that a kitten is a lot of work and very exhausting. Oh my goodness I had totally forgotten how hard it is! It's like having a child in a way. You have to constantly watch him, kitten-proof the house, break up fights between the two cats, play with him a lot. Wow! I am exhausted lately because of Seabass. It's a good thing he found his way into my heart really quick or else it wouldn't be worth it. But it so is. I love that little booger.

5. A book I am reading now/have read recently is These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon and it's book 3 in The Mitford Series. I read both book 1 (At Home in Mitford) and 2 (A Light in the Window) last week and this week and now I'm on book 3. I had read this series as a teenager but I wanted to reread it again.

6. My favorite Pandora Station is possibly this one Collin created based on The Real McCoy. It's a whole bunch of 90's pop-style music. So fun! But I don't listen to Pandora very much.

7. This weekend I will watch my cousin march in the St. Mary's County Fair parade with the rest of his classmates, walk around the fair holding hands with my hubby and enjoy all the exhibits and animals, work at our book club's booth spreading the love of God to people, and just whatever else comes up.

So yeah... I think it will be a great weekend! I also entered 5 of my photos into the fair photography category. I doubt I got any ribbons but I just wanted to put myself out there. I hope you, my dear friends, will also have a great weekend! I will see you back here next week!

Cindy

There's Beauty Everywhere!

Today I'm going to share the last of my photos from our trip to Front Royal. On Saturday afternoon after we were done in Luray Caverns, Collin and I decided to trek up to Stephen's City to play some frisbee golf at a park we found. We only played 6 holes because the gnats were HORRIBLE! But anyway, where we parked the car there was a little memorial type area with lots of flowers including some gorgeous sunflowers! I just had to take some pictures of the beautiful blooming sunflowers!


They were actually pretty tall. I made Collin (who's 6'2") stand next to them for comparison!






This one is for sure my favorite!

I love that no matter where you go there is always beauty somewhere! It's so neat to be able to find it and capture the beauty with my camera. =)

Cindy

(Semi) Wordless Wednesday

I am so excited! Autumn starts on Saturday! My favorite season is almost here! And today I found the first bits of evidence of its arrival! Some of the trees outside our apartment are beginning to change colors and a few leaves have already begun dropping!! =D

Next week I'm sure I'll share some of my thoughts on why I love autumn so much! Hurray it's coming!

Cindy

Weekend Update

This past weekend was really good! I took a total of two pictures. haha! But we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My weekend started Friday because it was my CWS day. So Friday I did some stuff around the house and then had a dentist appointment. Blah... But I don't have any cavities so that's great! Friday evening Collin and I went to Agape Club at church which is a ministry for people with disabilities. Several months ago the couple that runs the ministry had asked if Collin and I would help with their music time so we've been going ever since! Afterwards we went and got some frozen yogurt which was a surprise to me! It was a good surprise, too! I love when my husband surprises me. It makes me feel very special and so loved!

Saturday I met my mom at Kohl's for some girl shopping time. We had a great time and both made out really well! I bought two pairs of pants and a really cute cardigan that was on clearance. I wore one of the pairs of pants yesterday and I totally should have taken a picture of my outfit because it was great! Collin got off work a little early on Saturday so that was spectacular! After we had lunch we ran errands and picked up the apartment a bit before Jeff and Jeannie came over for dinner. We had a really nice evening with them! Jeff and Collin even got to podcast together! I hope that it becomes a regular thing for the two of them because they did a great job! You can check out the latest episode here!

Sunday we had a great church service. Our regular drummer was away for the weekend so our substitute drummer played and I love it when Little Mike plays! (he's Little Mike because our regular drummer is also Mike and Little Mike is 16 and the other Mike is not. =P) Big Mike is a great drummer, there's no doubt about that and we are so blessed to have him but Little Mike just adds a certain flair to our songs. It's always so fun to have him! Plus, our pastor's sermon yesterday was wonderful! He talked about ways to stay in love with God and with others and one thing he said really stuck out to me. He said that something crucial for being in love is to touch. And that is so true. Touching your significant other really is important to your love. But how do we touch God? Our pastor said that Communion is a way in which we can touch God. How neat is that?? After church we had lunch with our friend Megan and then later that afternoon we met her again at Rita's for some end of the summer Italian Ice since yesterday was their last day for the season! It was SO delicious. I had pumpkin pie ice with chocolate/vanilla twist custard. So, so good. I wish I had of discovered that earlier this month and gotten it more than just the once because it was fantastic! Then we went back to Megan's apartment after our treat and played a game called Moods which was really quite funny! So that was our good weekend!

I was so surprised to see this! They may not be getting along too well but at least Stank is allowing Seabass to get close to him!

Such a funny video of Seabass from Friday afternoon!!

My delicious gelati!

How was your weekend? I hope it was as splendid as mine! Did you get to do anything fun and exciting? I'd love to hear about it!! Send me an e-mail or leave a comment below! Happy Monday friends!

Going Underground!

While on our camping trip over Labor Day weekend we decided to make the short journey to Luray, VA to explore Luray Caverns. I had been to the caverns when I was about 13 with my family when we were camping in Luray; but Collin had never been and quite frankly I didn't really remember too much nor did I appreciate it the way I do now! It was quite a sight! So spectacular and my pictures don't do it near justice. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the Luray Caverns, or any caverns really, do it! I don't think you will be disappointed one bit!

This was a relatively shallow pool of water, however it looks immensely deep and actually doesn't even look like water because of the clear reflection of the stalactites.




We were told that this looked like a big Shaggy dog. Collin said it looked like an AT-AT from Star Wars...






If you look closely enough at this picture you'll see a device about in the middle that releases a small mallet/hammer that makes the stone reverberate. A man named Leland Sprinkle discovered the tones of hundreds of stalactites and put these hammers on them with mini speakers and when you push a button the stones play "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" by Martin Luther. It was incredible to say the least. My husband stood with his mouth open the whole time just completely enthralled! I was too. =)


The organ was there just for a comparison. No sound comes from it when you are listening to the Great Stalacpipe Organ.




This was a wishing well. People could throw their coins into it and their money was donated to charity. The money gave it very interesting colors.

Fried eggs!

What a neat little adventure we were able to go on together! I love exploring with Collin and I love being with him when he gets to experience things for the first time. It's so wonderful!

Cindy