Meeting The Grizzly Bear Cubs (Aww Mondays)

These two Grizzly bear cubs are new to the Cleveland Zoo. Gerard and I just visited them Saturday and got there just when they charged into the exhibit. I think they are SO cute and mentioned that several times in the video--sorry for repeating myself! They were very active: forging for food, getting a drink, walking the log down and up the hill, playing with the big ball and just lumbering around their exhibit. We were fortunate to have a zoo volunteer there at the time who was able to answer our questions about these two bears so if you turn up your volume, you can hear our questions and the answers on the video.

Find more Aww Mondays at Comedy Plus and feel free to link up a picture that will make us say "Aww."

Share this:

Our Favorite Reads for July: "Divergent" and "Faith" by Jennifer Haigh

Karen's favorite read for July was Divergent by Veronica Roth.

It was by far my favorite.  Usually, it's hard to choose but not this time. We both read this one! I loved Divergent by Veronica Roth because it is thought provoking. I kept thinking, “What would I do if in Beatrice’s position?” and it was fun to try guessing the background of different characters. It is a futuristic science fiction novel about value, ethics, choices, friendship and community. Although Beatrice was born into the selfless faction, she didn’t feel that she was selfless enough to stay and at 16 left her family to choose to join the dauntless. Her brother chose education and the other two choices were honest and peaceful.

Divergent is about control and manipulation, friendship, love, character and survival. When Beatrice was tested, she discovered she had a secret she had to keep to stay alive—she was divergent!

This book drew me in very quickly and I even quit reading another book to read this one sooner. Once I started this, it was difficult to put it down because it has lots of action, interesting characters, romance and some mystery with twists and surprises along the way that make it both a fun and interesting read. I can definitely recommend this one! (This was Gerard's favorite for last month!)

Gerard's Favorite was Faith by Jennifer Haigh

WOW! Double Wow! Faith by Jennifer Haigh is good! It is told by a sister who has two brothers. One brother is a priest, accused of molesting a child. I loved this book, especially enjoyed the family. A loving family, this is not. Brother vs. brother, sister vs. brother, husband vs. wife made for great reading. The last 75 pages are some of the best pages you will read all year! It was impossible to put down! The ending is a shocker! I highly recommend you put this on your TBR list--it's SO GOOD!

To read all our book reviews (and see cute pictures of our cats with the books), visit Grab A Book From Our Stack.

Share this:

When I Grow Up (Dare To Share)

This week's prompt over at The Lightening and The Lightening Bug is to share about your dream job, what you wanted to be when you grew up as a child...what you want to be now. Tell us about your dreams and how you're going to make them come true.  (click on the picture above to find more or link up yours)


For me, my dream as a kid was not to have to work but be a stay-at-home mom with nine boys (enough for a baseball team) and a pet for each!   I even made a floor plan of my dream house.  That dream went out the window once I found out what a woman went through to have a child. Forget it!

My next dream job was to be a gym teacher--getting paid for playing all day sounded good to me and having the summers off was also a plus. That dream bit the dust when I discovered I would probably have to teach health and take anatomy.

When I reached 9th grade and took typing, I thought that would be the best job ever! It looked so easy and the teacher got to have the whole summer off. All she taught all day long was typing classes, something of great value that was a very practical skill. (This was before computers entered the world.) I loved the timed speed tests and can still remember her shouting A-S-D-F-J-K-L-Semi.  I loved typing and really felt I could be a good teacher so I went for it.

I actually did do student teaching in some business classes and got certified to teach grades 7-12. I did some substitute teaching but didn't find a full-time teaching job which worked out for the best. I worked some jobs as a temp on my summers off and landed the secretarial job I currently have which has really been a very good fit for me and a wonderful place to work.

What about you? What was your dream job as a kid and are you doing it now?

Share this:

7 Things We Learned This Week 30 of 2011 (holidays, zoo, food, technology, NFL)

Thanksgiving and Pardoned Turkeys

Over at "We Give Books" I read Pardon That Turkey by Susan Sloate and learned that we have a national Thanksgiving Day because Sarah Halt wrote to five different presidents until finally Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November. President Bush started a tradition to pardon a turkey and let it live out it's days on a nearby pet farm.

New Bear Cubs

The Cleveland Zoo recently got two Grizzly bear cubs from a zoo in Montana to replace the two they had that died.

TV-Camcorder

I finally tried playing a video from my camcorder on our big screen HD TV and it worked! I plugged the cords into the back had to choose AV button on the remote to view the video I taped of the skit at VBS that our Pastor and his wife did. I still don't know how to get it loaded to the computer from the camcorder. Can anyone tell me how?

What's a Beignet?

Over at "The Canine Beignet Party" in West Africa, Sheba, a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback dog shared about this delicious treat. Beignets are bean donuts deep fried in peanut oil and served with chili powder. The pictures showed a lady making them and the dogs waiting anxiously for these treats!

Eating Tips

Source:  from an email

I got these tips from an email so can't say if they are actually true or not, but it said to eat fruit on any empty stomach or before your meal.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities. Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes--all these will NOT happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.

Another thing it said was not to drink cold water right after a meal. Warm water or hot soup is better. If you would like to see the whole email, let me know in a comment and I will forward it to you.

Crackle Nail Polish

There is actually nail polish called Crackle that is made to look like it's chipped. I saw someone wearing it this week.

NFL Lockout

I was so happy to hear the NFL Lockout is over and we will have football this fall. The Browns dumped one of the back up QBs, Jake Delhomme, this week but I really wasn't surprised.

Visit Half-Past Kissin' Time to find more Friday Fragments and to link up some of yours.

Share this:

Sonsurf Beach Blast VBS

Last week I took vacation to help in VBS at our church and had a great time, even though it was extremely hot. We used Gospel Light’s Sonsurf Beach Bash material. I always enjoy helping in this because it’s quite fun with so many kids attending (roughly 700 each day, most from the community!). The offering of $2400 for the week went to the Chain of Love orphanage in Brazil.

When I asked the boys in my 5th-6th grade group what part about VBS they liked best, I got a variety of answers that included recreation, crafts, and everything. For me, other than developing team spirit and a sense of belonging for my team (who came in 1st place), I enjoyed the skits done by our Pastor and his wife each day that taught the lesson. They write their own material and play well off each other while making the point of the lesson memorable with humor.

I wish I had videotaped them each day, but I plan to next year if they do skits again. I did get the last day taped with my camcorder and an edited version of Thursday’s with my digital camera. I was disappointed that I didn’t take the video right from the beginning on Thursday, because the beginning was really the funniest part when “Shark” didn’t follow directions and got the kids playing instead of teaching the lesson.  This is the shortened video that I did by inserting titles and still shots at the beginning:






Lessons for the week were:

Monday: Meet Up: Jesus is God’s Son and loves everyone!

I Jn. 4:9—This is how God showed his love for us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.

Tuesday: Look Up: You can trust Jesus all the time because He does what He says.
Psalm 56:3—When I am afraid, I will trust in you.

Wednesday: Join Up: We need Jesus because he is the only way to God the Father in heaven.

John 14:6—Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.

Thursday: Open Up: Confess our sin and be forgiven.

Daniel 9:9--The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.

Friday: Fire Up: Tell others about Jesus.

Matthew 28:19-20—Go into all nations and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always. 

What do you think of our VBS?  Does your church have a VBS week?      

You can see more pictures at 2011 Vacation Bible School Sunsurf Beach Bash and VBS 2011--More Great Pics on the Parma Heights Baptist Church blog.

(I tried posting this on our Always Looking Up blog but I couldn't get to the new post section so finally posted it over here.) 
Share this: