My Movie Quiz!

All righty, this looked like so much fun I had to try it myself.

Rules: Leave a comment (by clicking on 'delightful comments' and typing in your answers) with the numbers of the pictures and your guess as to what movie they are from. DO NOT look at anyone else's comment before leaving yours, as they may have answers you don't. (No peeking!)

I promise I'll tell you what they are after at least a dozen people comment. :)

Here we go!

1)

2)
3) (sorry about this picture...her dress looks quite low-cut...it's not quite like that in the movie.)

4) this is actually two pictures of the same movie...
5)

6)7)8) (sorry about the size...look closely!) :) 9)

10)

11)

12)
13)

Have fun guessing!! ;)

Julia

I'm Home From North Carolina

Hi, fellow bloggers!

It's so nice to be back! A big hug for all of you reading this. :) My vacation was lovely but home is where the heart is! :) And there is no describing the difference of being comfortable in our house to living in a tent in the outdoors and using a bath house....ahhh, the comforts of home. :)

I promised pictures and pictures you shall have! I'll have you know that choosing pictures for this post from all my 500+ pictures of the trip was EXTREMELY difficult. But here goes. :)

First of all, guess who stowed away in the van?

Survivorman, of course!

Here he is seated on the picnic table in the middle of our campsite right next to a dish of cranberry jelly. In the background you can see my the tent that my brothers and I slept in. It divides down the middle and they had half of it and I had half of it.

Mama cooking over the gas stove, Daddy relaxing. The yellow tent was for my parents. (You can also see someone else's camper in the very back... they left after our first day there and so we had a bit more breathing room)

Here's my half of our tent, complete with Airbed, pillows, duffel bag, and Vera Bradley Purse! The gorgeous Vera Bradley purse was given to me by my very dear friend Joanna and I was absolutely delighted with it!! Thank you Joanna!!!

Here is my brother Mark in the middle of Deep Creek, which ran right past our campsite and made a lovely trickling sound to lull us to sleep at night.

Here are my dear parents on a hike in some very pretty woods.

We had to bundle up in the evenings and mornings when the temperature dropped.....

I was really cold!!

Here is a rare picture of Mark actually wearing some kind of coat...usually he sticks to a hoodie and insists he's not cold. Steven likes wearing his blue down coat, so that's not unusual. In this picture you can see how close the stream was to our campsite...

Here is a beautiful part of Deep Creek that we had a picnic lunch right next to...it was heavenly!

Here's Mama next to it...

Here is a beautiful trout that Daddy caught with his fly-rod...look at the pretty spots!

Here is Indian Creek Falls...a gorgeous waterfall. Daddy and I hiked to it one day and spent the afternoon fishing (Daddy) and photographing (me).

And the Smoky Mountains were beautiful!

I found a little mushroom along one of our hiking trails and I had to stop and take a picture. :)

Anyway, I have hundreds more pictures (literally) but that's all for now. I may post more in the future.

I'm glad to be back!

Julia

Heigh-Ho, Here We Go!!

Here we go A-Camping!!! Goodbye, air conditioning! :) We're headed for North Carolina to visit the Smoky Mountains and tent by a creek.
I look forward to catching up on all your posts when I return, fellow bloggers! :o) I'll be back on the 29th of September.

Farewell, Au Revoir, Adieu, Sayonara, Adios, Goodbye!

Julia

Meet Survivorman

This is Survivorman. ...So named because we found him outside, surviving the elements. Probably left here by our house's previous owners 3 years ago. We have a large yard so he was easily missed until one day when one of my brothers found him in a pile of leaves. We washed him off, gave him a new pair of pants stolen from a stuffed monkey, and Voila! Good as new.

My dad and brothers have taken to posing Survivorman around the house...usually when no one's looking...so you never know where you'll find him next. One day climbing the stairs, one day swinging on a rope in the carport...

I may be posting more pictures of Survivorman after we get back from camping... anyway, just wanted you to meet him and laugh. :)

Julia

Announcing My Intention To Live In A Tent For A Week...

Can you believe it?? We're going CAMPING!!

My family and I will be tenting for 8 days in North Carolina, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains! My brothers are very excited. :) We are camping at a privately owned campground called "Deep Creek", named for the river that runs through it. We'll be tenting right next to the river, yet we will have electricity and civilized water! :) And a bath house to visit. *Yay!*

We'll be leaving on Saturday, so excuse me if I don't post much. We have a lot to do to pack a family of 5, as you can well imagine! Fitting enough possessions into a medium-size minivan to sustain us for 8 days will be a feat indeed!

I'm getting another camera card for the trip, because the one I have now ONLY holds about 600 pictures, and I can fill that up in 2 days....we'll be gone for 8...and viewing amazing things every day that MUST be photographed for the blog!! :) You know how that is if you have a blog yourself. And you're crazy about pictures like I am. :)

So bear with me through the next 2 weeks, as I'll be quite busy!!

PICTURES COMING SOON. :)

Blessings,

Julia

A Day at Callaway Gardens

Yesterday, my Dad decided he wanted to take us to Callaway for a day of relaxation and just spending time together in the beautiful outdoors.
I love Callaway, and we hadn't been there in at least a month as it's been too warm for being outside for long periods of time... So I was very excited that we were going.

If you know me, you know what a dedicated amateur photographer I am, and there was no way I was leaving my camera behind on a trip to Callaway Gardens!
Here are some lovely Prunifolia Azaleas, luckily captured by me in a gorgeous sunny place.
While walking on the boardwalk outside the Discovery Center, I spotted this spotted blossom in a pot nearby
Remember my post on noticing the little things? I saw a little thing and took a picture of it...this mushroom couldn't have been more than three inches tall...and there was a tiny snail on top of it!
Then we arrived at the Ida Cason Memorial Chapel. It is so pretty, nestled in a darling little corner of the woods, overlooking a lake.
Now for the best part...here's what it looks like on the inside!
There are five huge stained-glass-windows in the walls of the chapel, two with pointed tops and four on the sides that depict the four seasons.This one has a pine-needle design etched into it...
This picture I think is my favorite, the section showing the Prunifolia Azalea blooms...

The light spilled through the window on the southern side and washed the floor in rainbow splashes of color...how breathtaking!

When we finally left Callaway we stopped at Dowdell Knob, the famous overlook where Franklin Delano Roosevelt loved to stop and picnic. My brothers and I are actually perched on his stone grill. (It's been filled in with concrete to preserve it)

All in all, it was such a relaxing, fun day! I love spending time with my family.

Julia

Well? What do you Think?

I'm looking for a new background for my blog. This purple-bluey striped and swirled one is called 'Sugar Shoppe, Plum" and I can't decide if I want to keep it or not! I like it, but...is there a better option?? Did you like the old one better?? I'm also considering a few other options...



1.



2.



3.



4.

So...which do you like the best? I couldn't really find one that was just perfect...although there are a LOT of cute backgrounds at the site I found... Anyway, please let me know what you think!

Blessings,

Julia

Update:

I think I'll stay with the one I have now for a while... and keep looking in the meantime. They're continually adding new ones over at "The Cutest Blog On The Block!" Check it out...it's so easy to use! Just copy and paste!

Happy Labor Day!

Goodbye, Summer and white shoes!! :) Down in Florida, where I was born, you can wear white shoes all year round, but in the normal states you can't wear white shoes after Labor day. (Why, I wonder?) :)

The results for the friend test so far are quite interesting! I'm not giving any hints out as to what the answers are (Except for the one in the previous paragraph)

Anyway... Time for the Simple Woman's Daybook post! By the way, if you want to participate, link here to the Simple Woman's blog every week and on your post add the sentences in bold and then your own answers.

For Today, September 1, 2008, Labor Day...

Outside my window... Here, let me show you!

Pretty, is it not? :)

I am thinking... That I am excited about our upcoming camping trip to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, in North Carolina.

From the learning rooms... We're taking the day off of school because my Dad is home for Labor Day and we love spending time with him.

I am thankful for...My Bath & Body works 'Warm Vanilla Sugar' shower gel that is oh-so-sweet and bubbly. (That sounds like a silly thing to be thankful for, but it's true, so there you have it) :)

From the kitchen... Quiet, since we devoured delicious hotdogs grilled by Daddy for lunch and then cleaned everything up.

I am wearing... Khaki shorts, red t-shirt, my very long hair up in a bun and my bare feet with light purple nail polish on the toes. And cubic zirconia earring studs. (I am usually wearing some kind of earrings)

I am reading... Sherlock Holmes aloud to my two 14 and 12 year old brothers. (Our family enjoys reading stories aloud) We just finished "The Hound of the Baskervilles", one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous stories. I'm also reading a book by T. Davis Bunn. (Not sure if I want to reccomend that yet...I have to see how it ends)

I am hoping...To finish some major schoolwork this week

I am creating... Well, I created earrings to sell at a Yard Sale last week, look here!

I am hearing... Mark and Steven are in Mark's room which adjoins our loft office, absorbed in and talking excitedly about a new computer game called "Civilizations" where you create your own empire...something they are very talented at, apparently! So far they've nearly conquered the world...(wait until they're all grown up!)

Around the house...The boys are in the next room, I'm here at the computer, My dad is outside, Mama's taking a well-deserved afternoon nap in her room.

One of my favorite things... my iPod, which comes in handy when working out...it's excellent motivation. (I like moving to music)

A few plans for the rest of the week... To download some songs to my iPod, keep up the habit of riding the excersise bike every day for 30 minutes, clean my room, do my school, the usual. :)

Some things I accompolished since last week... Making a habit of excersising every day for at least 30 minutes, blogging more often, reading stories to Mark and Steven, helping Mama run the Yard Sale last Saturday which was an immense success... the usual! :) (okay, the yard sale wasn't usual - that's the first time we've had one in 3 years!)

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

Baking cookies! Mmmmm... can't you just smell them...white chocolate chip, my favorite!!

Julia