Sunday sightings

I have a bunch of things I want to blog about but none are earth shattering and of consequence by themselves. So here we go!

I really admire Erin and Mike for being open hearted and having 16 year old Manuel from Spain stay with them for the month of July. It's a big commitment to have an exchange student and, with all the other things that happen during the summer, what a wonderful experience and sacrifice they are making to welcome Manuel. I'm very impressed with our kids and can't wait to meet Manuel!

Both of the churches we attend, one Catholic and one Presbyterian, have done photo directories this past spring. The Catholic church used Olan Mills; the sales person was quite friendly until we made it very clear we were only interested in getting the free picture. Then he turned curt and we were outta there in a flash.

The Olan Mills picture

The Presbyterian church used LifeTouch and the seller was personable even after he got the message that we weren't getting anything but the freebie. The Olan Mills picture is OK but not great. The LifeTouch picture is actually pretty good of both of us, surprisingly. Of course I don't like the extra arm flesh on my forearm mocking me but otherwise it's an accurate, reasonably attractive snapshot of how we're looking these days.

The LifeTouch picture

I go into picture taking sessions with very low expectations, especially since I have looked like everything from Raymond Burr to Quasimodo on serious drugs in some shots. Johnnie? He looks great in every shot - it's in his family's genetic makeup to flash the famous permagrin whenever a camera is within 50 feet of them.

Almost the same clothes (same colors at least although it's hard to tell that my sweater is blue in the upper picture) and such different results. The pictures were taken about two months apart.

I think I'll take the picture of the girls off the blog for a while and put ours up. We'll be getting new shots of the kids taken for their birthdays in the next couple months but until then, we'll stand in for them.

I received a wonderful prize from Carmen's blog this past week: a case of V8 V-Fusion juice and a really great LL Bean tote bag. And not just little bottles - eight 46 ounce bottles, mind you! The juice flavor is Goji Raspberry and it is really good. We had tried the juice once before and both granddaughters (suspicious of anything different) liked it.

Yummy juice and awesome tote bag prize!

We opened a bottle of the juice when it arrived the other day and sampled it. Quite yummy and eight ounces contains a half cup serving of vegetables and fruit. Hard to beat. The only downside (if there is one) is that an eight ounce serving also has 24 grams of sugars, albeit natural sugars. Thanks, Carmen -- it's an awesome prize!