So, THIS is what it is like!

This is a picture of the sun going down in the mountains... we almost missed it! It was beautiful and fast! If you look very closely, you can see the reflection of the sunset and the mountains in the hood of the truck... really neat picture!

The entire time we have been here, we have heard that the weather we experienced was NOT normal. To me, it was normal. I am used to rainy summers with nice cool mornings.

At least, that's how I remember summer when I was growing up. We didn't have a/c. We had an attic fan. I loved the cool night breezes coming in through open windows and waking up to birds singing and crickets chirping. Don't get me wrong, in the middle of the day it was time to roast! (In the south, ladies did not sweat - we "glistened") It was not cool in the shade and the humidity was always high - which made it feel like steam heat. The attic fan did not help by bringing in more heat!

Here it has been in the 80's most of the summer. We have had rain almost every day. The grass has been green and the flowers lush.

Everyone told us not to get used to it. But, I did. We used our attic fan a good bit at night and even a few days.

During all that nice weather, my husband planned a church softball game with ice cream social afterwards. Even for 5 weeks of "advertising" it, it was nice and cool (relatively speaking). He LOVES sports and is good even at his age - which I won't mention is 61. I have not ever been a sports fan, much to his disappointment...(but HE is not a garage sale fan much to my disappointment!)

Then ... the weather decided to change. This week for the first time this summer we have been in the 100's!

That did not put a damper on the game though. We had a huge crowd show up in 104 degree weather! Enough to have 4 teams and the bleachers full! ... Never was heard a discouraging word and the skys were not cloudy all day! (seemed to fit here - and you can continue to sing..."home, home on the range...")

My "hugs'um" (as the kids called him when they were little) even caught a fly ball for an out and made some runs (that's him in the green shirt at bat) (or I think he did - my part in supporting the game was to find out as much from people as I could by carrying on conversations with whomever was close by - my sole purpose in going to games by the way is fellowship)

Everyone seems to be more comfortable now that "things" are the way they are supposed to be. Funny how we are such creatures of habit and we like things to fit our expectations.

Guess I'm the same way. I just believed that God gave me a nice easy summer for our first time. We fell in love with it here. We felt at home immediately! Of course, it was much more than the weather... and in spite of the VERY different landscape. It is just that we KNOW we are where we are supposed to be for this season of our lives. It feels good to be "home".