The Climatis

This summer I bought a flowering vine for my backyard. It is supposed to be tough enough to last through the winter, and it even came with a one-year warranty.

About a week after I transplanted it from the store-bought pot to the yard, it began to slowly wither away. The one flower soon dried up and each day more leaves were brown and dead. I was really beginning to get disheartened. I kept it watered, following the directions on the label, but nothing I did seemed to work.

Finally, I decided to stop worrying over it and watch it from a distance for awhile. After all, if I killed it, I could take it back for a refund, right? =)

Well, after coming back home from one of our summer vacations I noticed some life coming back. New leafy vines were starting to wrap itself around the trellis.

Then, yesterday morning I looked out and saw that two beautiful new flowers had bloomed. I was so excited I had to run upstairs for the camera.

I just love watching God's creation at work. Whether it's flowers blooming on a dying vine or tiny sprouts peaking out of the soil from a seed, the wonder of God's creative power never ceases to amaze, or excite, me.

Summer Fun

David and I have had a full summer! The pictures tell of the highlights.

July 26-30

Suckut Family Reunion at Northern Lights Camp, ND

The lovebirds that started it all:

The Randi Suckut Family:

The Whole Bunch:

Ladder Golf:

Bocci Ball:

Camp Fires:

Live Music:

Biking:

Wedding Celebrations (it's helpful to have a pastor in the family):

We also had fun with water sports, bubble blowing, musical hats, round robin ping pong, softball, a scavenger hunt, and some wonderful German food! There is nothing like knephla and kuchen!

July 16-20

Shin Family Visit

David's parents visited us for a long weekend and it was so wonderful!

Of course, we had to take them to the same place we take all of our visitors. :)

Do these pictures look a little familiar?

Appa, Umma, Ellen White, David & Me:

The Adventist Heritage Village, Battle Creek, MI

Now, just for fun.

The spoiled one:

Lilly is the baby of the family, can you tell?

The naughty one:

George likes to break out of his "area" when we're not looking.

He acts likes nothing is wrong.

Daily alpha-dogging helps curve the behaviors pictured here.

And lastly, here is my little modest garden!

Ruhbarb, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, zucchini and not pictured are lima beans, beef-steak tomatoes, pees, and yellow tomatoes. (Do you think we like tomatoes?)

My first fruits!

Because we live in a condo, we don't have much room for a garden, though I'm happy for this small area around our house. We tore up some dead bushes to plant this, later learning that we were supposed to run that by our condo association. Oops. Good thing we're friends with our neighbor who is also the association treasurer!

In reality, we have WAY too many tomatoes to know what to do with. But it has given me the opportunity to try new things. I've made bruschetta, spaghetti sauce and fresh tomato soup!

Also thrown into our summer was two weeks of Camp Pitch/Meeting, 4th of July drama from losing Lilly in another Michigan city (we found her two days later), two weeks of VBS, and a Ministerial Retreat.

A nice summer, but I'm glad for things to slow down a little bit... :)