Of Butter beans and Swimming pools...

After picking and shelling butter beans this morning, we were all excited to go swimming to cool off and relax.

Granite Falls Swim and Athletic Club just opened in Rolesville on July 4th. And the pools are salt water! Knowing how bad chlorine is for you we were excited. We went over there on July 4th, ready to swim at their Grand Opening... only to find out that it was for people who were already members. Silly us, we thought they'd let us try it out first! But the lady there told us that once the indoor pool opened (there's an indoor competition pool, two outdoor pools and the exercising room) that they would offer day passes. So today, we called to find out how much the day passes were, only to be told that to visit, you have to be the guest of a member. Fine! Forget that! We're not going to pay $400 (a one-time fee) and THEN $88 a month without even getting to try it out first! That is a ridiculous cost.

We were so disappointed, but still determined to swim, because we all had our hearts set on it. We decided to go over to Optimist. When we arrived, we saw the results of the "renovations" they'd been doing. It was supposed to be all glass, with removable panels. Instead, a permanent tent-like "bubble" is over the pool, which used to be an outdoor pool. So we didn't get any sun. There were garage doors open on the side, I guess in an attempt to let in fresh air. It still smelled like chlorine, and the water tasted funny.

After hardly any time swimming, it started to rain. And apparently it thundered, because they cleared the pool. Since the wait to get back in was a half an hour, we decided to just leave. We went in the locker rooms to shower, and in the middle of our showers, a life guard came in and said, "No showers! Clear the pool deck!"
"This is the pool deck?" I finished my shower anyway. (I know, I'm such a bad girl.)

As we were getting into our cars, the sun came back out.

~Lizzie

It's FRIDAY!

Here comes the weekend! Only, it's still a weekday, and I still have school. :( So this is a random post that I'm doing instead of school. (Don't worry, I'll get around to school eventually.)

This is my current desktop. It's a picture I took last week when we had all that rain... I like that it's focused on the water drops, but you still get the effect of the the clouds and the color of the sky. I didn't mean for it to focus on the window, but I'm very happy that it did.


Here's the rainbow that appeared on the same day. Unfortunately, it's pretty faint. I wonder if all those pictures of sharp, bright rainbows are photoshopped or if some rainbows really do look that way... this was the second rainbow, we saw another one a couple of days earlier, but I couldn't get a good picture. This is actually a double rainbow...


In this picture the rainbow appears to be ending right at our house. Unfortunately, we did not get home and find a pot of gold.


This was later in the evening, Mom and I went out grocery shopping. Still same day. It was a great day for sky pictures. I love clouds, and I really love it when there are rays shooting out from behind dark clouds. This might be my favorite ray picture ever... were it not for the telephone pole and lines. :|


This one makes me think of the Brandon Heath song, "Give Me Your Eyes" specifically the line: "All those people going somewhere, why have I never cared?"

This picture, to me, is really interesting. I see the clouds and the gold representing the beauty of God's creation, the American flag representing the principles that on which our country was originally founded, and the power lines a harsh reminder of what we have become: a technologically crazed and idol-worshipping nation, with leadership trying to separate us and our country as far as possible from God.


Yeah, I realize that sounds kind of cheesy. You could just say that this would be a great picture without the power lines.

And now I'll get off to something productive.

~Lizzie

P.S. So I realized that my theme messes up the pictures... you can click on them and see a big version. Sorry I don't have time to change my theme now, but I'll try to get around to it later.

Caroling and Cold Cider

Despite my visions of shotguns and dogs that merit more than a "beware of dog" sign, I actually set off caroling with our group with high spirits. Yes, it felt like summer, and it felt kinda strange, like maybe we were over-obsessed Christmas-in-July carolers. But it was fun, and there were no shotguns, although there were people peeking out windows and then ignoring us. For them we have an altered version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".....

It was great fun until it began to rain. It sprinkled, and then when we started singing it would pour, and then we would head back to the clubhouse, so it would go back to just a mist, and then we would decide to keep going since it stopped raining and then it would start pouring again. We finally gave up and went back to the clubhouse very damp. We were hoping for some hot cider, but we didn't spend enough time caroling, so it was in the crock-pot, not-so-warm.

We had some dessert and barely warm cider, prayed a few minutes and then went home to get into dry clothes. It really was fun, and I hope we'll do it again next week... hopefully without rain.

The games yesterday were really fun, all the way in Greensboro. We spent about 4 hours driving. And we have to go almost all the way back for the games Friday...

Tomorrow is our swim meet with NRCA, Cary Christian and Grace Christian. And Sarah's band concert. It's going to be crazy, and I just hope that the meet is over soon enough that we'll see some of the concert. I'm terrified that we're going to miss the whole thing, and I so want to see it.

~Lizzie