Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July Y'all!!!

 

I hope everyone had a safe, fantastical 4th of July. I did. To kick off the festivities my family, some friends, and I went to a fireworks show at Shiloh last night. It was truly awesome (Soon I'll try to post some of my brother's pictures from last night). Shiloh always has stupendous fireworks every year and they are coordinated to music, which makes it fun. One of my favorites things about their show is that they have giant fireball explosions. SO AWESOME!!!!!!! Then today when to an awesome service at Shiloh. It was filled with lots of fun and the Word was great. Part of what was said is that we have to be responsible for this country. WE decide how America is going to live and WE will change this nation by taking the Word over out lives and walking it out in the world. I totally agree, don't you? Then the rest of the day was just spent relaxing with family. So much fun (I read three books!!! lol)How did y'all spend this wonderful holiday?

Besides posting on what I did for the 4th, I wanted to take the time to thank and pray over all of our troops stationed overseas and here and their families. The men and women of our armed forces are so awesome; they risks their lives daily to fight for the freedom that so many of us take for granted everyday.

THEY are the reason we are able to sleep peacefully at night! 

 THEY are the reason we can worship God how we want!

THEY are the reason our country is great!

THEY stand on the lines saying, "nothing is going to happen tonight, not on my watch" (paraphrasing from A Few Good Men)!

THEY are the ones who miss out of so many family occasions, so they could defend America!

THEY are the ones who pay the ultimate sacrafice for our nation! 

For these reasons and many more I say thank you to everyone in the armed forces, those currently serving, those who previously served, those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and to all their family members: THANK YOU!!!!! I hold all of you in my prayers.

"Father, bless all of our troops. Be with them and cover them in everything that they are doing. May they feel our thanks and our love beaming towards them. Strengthen them and their family. Let them rest in Your presence. Amen."

"That's All Folks!"

The Conspiracy Theory of Pants

Hey Y'all! How is it going? That title has you hooked, doesn't it? I know everybody loves conspiracy theories (especially my brother Zach, but that's a whole different story :)), so here it goes...

Over the past couple of weeks I realized that somebody or better yet SOMETHING was out to get me. Cue the creepy music. It all started on that fateful Sunday two weeks ago, the same day I fell in love (view previous post to see the whole story). It was then I realized that PANTS WERE OUT TO GET ME. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Yes I said pants.

I was standing watching the air show when my brother Nathan said, "Hey Al, you have a hole in the back of your pants." I'm like, "Oh, really? Is it where the duct tape is?" (see my pair of knickers that I was wearing had got a small hole in them a couple of months ago and I had duct tape them on the inside. Voila! All good!) Nathan replied, "I don't know." Then I looked down and behind and saw/felt this GIANT hole in my knickers. IT WAS LIKE TWO INCHES LONG!!! The first thought that went through my head was, OH CRAP! Immediately I sat down to cover up the GIANT hole. A lady sitting close by gave me some safety pins and then a little later a her cover up, so I could wrap in around my waist. Then Zach bought a new shirt which I put on and it covered up the hole. Thankfully! :D The whole incident was EMBRASSING; the only good news about the whole incident is it happened in the Quad Cities and NOBODY KNEW ME. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!! lol.

The second incident occurred last week while working in Iowa City. Dad, Nathan, and I were taking our lunch break and I was getting up from sitting on the pile of tarps and felt a rip in the back of my pant!!!!!!!!!! This time I had duct tape on hand and just duct taped in up, but seriously this was the second time in the past three days that my pants ripped. I mean I know I eat a lot, but I don't really think I am getting much bigger. lol.

The third incident isn't that big of a deal. It happened today when I pulled the button off my work shorts and realized there were three small holes in the side of these shorts. Luckily my AWESOME Mommy is going to fix those shorts for me. However, this means in the past two weeks I've had to throw out two pairs of pants and have another pair repaired because of holes. AHHHHHHH!!

The only explanation I have for this craziness is that PANTS ARE OUT TO GET ME!!! And that is the story of my conspiracy theory of pants. I hope you y'all enjoyed it.

"That's All Folks!"

Love at First Sight

Sorry that I haven't posted anything lately. I either have been to busy painting with my family or to busy reading. I know my thousands and thousands of followers have missed me. NOT! lol. :)Y'all are probably telling me to hurry along because you want to know who I fell in love with right? First let me give you some background...

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (ok it actually took place in the Quad Cities, not that far away, nor was it that long ago, only last Sunday). Anyways, my two brothers (23 and 19) and I went to the Quad Cities Air Show. It was a clear, cool, crisp morning when we woke up early (6:30ish) and hit the road a little after seven. My brother Zachary and I were really, really excited. I couldn't wait to see my favorite helicopter the AH-64 Apache (pictured below).



The AWESOME AH-64 Apache (From Yahoo Images)



Zach was excited because fighter jets were on static display and the Navy's Blue Angels were performing. Half of the trip Zach was bouncing up and down on his seat and just being crazy (like normal). He kept singing this oldies song that was something like this, "Ground control to Major Tom blah blah blah. Ground control to Major Tom blah blah blah." And so it went. That was until Nathan got fed up with him and told him to settled down or he would turn around. :(

We arrived at the Air Show a little after eight, parked the car, and wondered around. First we saw some of the fighter jets on static display...

Nice right?

My brother Zachy!

My brother Nathan taking pictures.

Zach and missiles. :)

A gun(SAW) definitly bigger than Zach's guns!!!

Then we searched high and low until we found the perfect place to set our lawn chairs. However, the place we found was so perfect that a group of ninjas came and tried to steal it right from under our nose. We all pulled out our swords and dueled till the death. Nate came out unscratched, Zach had a scar on his right arm and I lost an eye!  Back to reality, we then decided to go search for the Apache since they knew I really, really, really wanted to see one. However, we looked far and wide all across the air field and could not spot the Apache. I was like, "WHERE IS MY APACHE. I WANT MY APACHE!!!!!!" And then BANG...

Are you ready? Here some the really good part. The part y'all have been waiting for. I spotted this totally gorgeous creature across the field. He was so tall and so handsome. It was definitely love at first sight. I pulled my brothers over to where he was towering over the crowd.  Nathan and I were standing behind him and I turned towards Nate and exclaimed, "I think I'm in love!" I took so many pictures of him.I even got a couple pictures with me and him. Wait, what's that? Do y'all want to see pictures of him? Well here it goes...

 

Me and the Hunk!

Isn't he awesome?



This is what he looked like when I left: blue. :D





So what do y'all think? Is that screaming I hear? Didn't you love my love story? I did! His name is Vanguard (not really, that was just wrote on his side. lol)and he is either a Sea Stallion or a Super Stallion. I'm not sure because they look a lot a like. Kind of like brothers. :)And then they all lived happily ever after! (Though the sad truth is even though I might love him, the Apache still has the #1 spot in my heart for helicopters.)

Well, I hope you liked my story of love at first sight. After that life-changing moment we enjoyed the rest of the air show, especially the Blue Angels and Fat Albert.



The Blue Angels



FA-18 Hornets

SWEET!!!!!!

Got to love 'em!

Can I do that?



Phew, no collision!




C-17: Fat Albert

Here are video clips of the Blue Angels



"That's All Folks!"

My love



The Ocean

As I previously mentioned,I LOVE the ocean. The ocean has such beauty, and power, and is filled with so many amazing, awe-inspiring creatures that is just makes me so glad that God created it. With that in mind, I thought I would share some pictures to show the awesomeness of the ocean.

Sunrise in Maine

                               Beautiful, right?

                               Saco river meets Atlantic Ocean    

                          Lobster Traps

                                      
                                                Acadia National Park

                                                   The ocean's power!

The pictures below are of the ocean's creatures. The animals are either in an aquarium or zoo. However, I still think they are fantastical!

                                  Baby Penguin

                                                Colorful Jellyfish

                                                       
                                                    More Jellyfish

Aren't they amazing?

                                                 Biolumninescence

                                                    Look it's Nemo!

                                  The extremely rare Blue Lobster!

                      One of my favorites: the Lion Fish

 

                                           Beluga Whale

                            They are so cute! :D

                            A Beluga Whale and Me

                    Can you guess? Seals or Sea Lions?

Hopefully the pictures made you fall in love with the ocean like I did. I think God is AWESOME for creating it, don't you?

"That's All Folks!"