And now, for something a little serious.

This is cheesy, sort of, but sometimes I am in total awe of God and nature. It is nice to be reminded about the natural world we live in. Examples: (a) the hummingbirds in our yard. They are so territorial about our feeder. I love sitting out on the deck and hearing the buzz of their insanely fast little wings as they dive bomb each other. . . and I now can recognize their little teeny peeping chirps in the trees. The amazing tiny-ness of them just entirely fascinates me. (b) rain!!!! The weather has changed so much in the last week. We have had quite a bit of rain compared to the rest of the summer and every time it even looks rainy, we are all being a little nicer. I think it is because we are happy for the break. The best part of rain, which I haven't seen in a long time. . . rainbows. It is a terrible photo which doesn't do it justice at all. . . but considering that I was actually driving at the time - not condoning that, by the way - it turned out okay. Huge double rainbow. sigh.

c) Owls. I was just telling my mom the other day that we hear a lot of owls in our neighborhood. . .but haven't heard them in quite some time. Then, Tuesday night, I went out on our front porch and there was this owl in the trees maybe 50 feet away. Assuming it was a 'he' - you could hear him hooting to another owl way off in the distance. That sound is occasionally a little eerie late at night when it is very still, but Tuesday, it was almost like it was reminder that we share our neighborhood with them.