Politics

Did you watch the Saddleback Debate? It was during the Olympics, so some people may have not tuned in. Rick Warren from Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California invited both candidates to come and answer questions that he prepared from e-mails he received and his staff and congregation. Each candidate took a turn sitting on the stage with Rev. Warren and answering the same questions posed to them in front of the same audience.

I really enjoyed the format and this show really helped me feel more comfortable about what the candidates believe and their stance on certain issues. Some stations have been reshowing in the late night. If you missed it, you might catch it on a rebroadcast. It is worth your time to watch. The different media outlets are rehashing it bit by bit ... but it would be much better for you to just watch it for yourself and not every one's interpretation.

My Baby

Happy Birthday Kate! - Love You -

The day you were born was one of the best days of my life! (tearing up!).

Weekend Fun!

Looking forward to the weekend! We have a family reunion (my side of the family). My husband's family has family reunions every year for two sides of his family but my family has one about every 10 years! I helped coordinate this event and hope that many show up so we can reconnect with each other.

After the reunion, I am taking home my sweet granddaughter with me to babysit for a few days while her mom and dad go to Memphis. I can't wait! We are going to have soooo much fun! She is 7 months old now and is sitting up and reaching for everything. She is a lot of fun. I have a babybed for her now and many toys that I will get out for her to play with. She will also go to church with me on Sunday ... so proud grandma gets to show her off! This is her first overnight visit with me without mom or dad. Who knows what trouble we can get into!

Olympics

Love the Olympics! USA is doing fabulous. Swimming with Michael Phelps as been fantastic. The relay win was a thriller (check out story on CNN). Beach volleyball, gymnastics, men and women's basketball, and women's swimming has been exciting to watch. I'm very excited about the 41 year old woman swimmer for USA, Dara Torres. What a story!

I've been changing channels back and forth trying to catch all the different events. The Olympics are showing on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and USA (that's all I've seen so far anyway). Go Team USA!

Week's Events

I've gotten a little bit behind on blogging. Fairly eventful week so far. Last weekend I was busy helping get flowers ready for a friend's wedding. I hope to have pictures soon.

I managed to work in a little bit of garage sales and found this really cute purse. It has really nice pocket areas inside and out and also will carry quite a bit. Love it!

We've been picking blackberries as fast as we can since the 2nd week of July. I've made a blackberry crumble and just this week made a blackberry cobbler. My husband wanted the cobbler and we ended up taking it to a birthday party last night and it was very popular. Not very much left.

Here is the recipe:

Blackberry Cobbler

2 1/2 qt fresh blackberries, washed

3 c sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/4 to 1/2 c flour

Make pie crust for 2-3 pies. Mix berries, sugar, juice and flour well. Let set until the berries form their own juice.

Line a cake pan with pie crust. Pour in berry mixture. Cut remaining pie crust into strips and crisscross on top of cobbler. Drop slices of butter in lattice squares. Bake at 425 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Very popular. Found the recipe on Cooks.com

Our garden this year has done just so-so. A little bit of corn, some squash and now a few tomatoes. The rain just flooded out our garden. Our fruit did fabulous, but the veggies, not so good. Can't have everything!

I'm on the countdown for babysitting my granddaughter. Two more days! I'm traveling to her and watching her while her mom and dad have an evening out. Can't wait.

Family Blogs

More and more of our family have created blogs and this is a great way to stay in touch with each other. Check out these blogs:

Continue the Conversation - my daughter and SIL both post on this one

MBC KidsHeart - my brother and SIL post about their preparations and current mission trip to Africa

FinallyBaby! - my niece blogs about her pregnancy

Aubslife - my niece blogs about her recent mission trip to Africa

A Saint Sleeps Not on a Soft Bed - this is my SIL's sister (I know not really a relative--but close!) and she and her new husband is blogging about their experiences as a new couple

I also keep up with all of the above people on Facebook. I'm pretty new on Facebook but I am enjoying figuring it out and adding friends to my internet community. I love the internet! I very seldom watch the news on the TV or read an actual newspaper -- I read all of my news online (Fox, MSNBC, CNN, ABCNews, CBSNews, USAToday and our local state papers).

I've reconnected with past classmates and childhood friends and that has been really great. I'm still searching for some past friends and hope I can find them somewhere on the net. The world is definitely getting smaller for me through technology.

Entertaining

Very busy weekend. Saturday evening we went to the Muny in St. Louis and saw "Miss Siagon". We went with my brother and his wife and had a great evening. Our daughter and SIL even joined us for dinner -- so I held and played with my grandbaby again! The play was interesting and they even had a helicopter hover over the crowd as part of the story. The story is haunting. A Vietnam war love story.

Sunday evening we invited two couples over for blackberry picking and homemade icecream. This is my table setting above. We had oreos, chocolate syrup, blackberries and raspberry jam as icecream toppings. We had a fun evening of catching up with each other. We all had been busy traveling and vacationing and hadn't visited in awhile. We have been doing a lot of redecorating in our home lately, so it was nice to have friends over to see our changes.

Our next project in our home is to to finish a playroom for our granddaughter. I have a small room downstairs that has many toys from my past and my children's past that needs organizing and decorated. We need to hurry up and have ready because it won't be long before Cora will want to play in grandma's toy room!