I Finally Won Something!

I have entered every single contest I ever come across on blogs, and never won. Meanwhile other bloggers I read will post win after win. Am I jealous - yep. But finally, I WON SOMETHING!!

Remember the sampler I've been stitching? They offered 10 prizes for 10 winners. I won "an array of flosses including stranded, perle 8 and 12 plus rick rack and wool felt." I can't wait to get them! Anyway, had to share that as I've never won before. Maybe this will open the flood gates and make me able to win more - ha. Yeah right.

The weather has been so odd this year. I woke up yesterday morning to a bright orange glow and had to get out of bed just to see what it was. When I stepped outside, it was such an odd feeling - this bright cantaloupe colored sky with a rainbow - a very faint double. So of course I grabbed the camera.

Just as I was taking pictures of the rainbow, lightning struck, and amazingly, I got it on the picture. Cool, huh? It sort of looks like a string was stuck to my lens, but nevertheless, I think it's pretty cool. You can also barely make out the double rainbow in this picture - it was brighter in person.

I was too close (and the house was in the way) to get a picture of the full rainbow. So you'll have to just trust me that it was gorgeous. Of course with all the storm, there was tons of thunder, which woke the 2 year old ... at 5:50 am. (He normally sleeps until around 9, so you can imagine how badly he needed a nap later.) Anyway, he panics over everything, and with so many storms lately, we've had our hands full. Thankfully in the daylight he didn't notice the power outages as much.

We had yet another power outage last night. We've been having them so often now I can't even tell you how many we've had. Good thing I uploaded my picture of the embroidery before it was done. Only two squares had to be finished in order to qualify. I was really trying to get the whole thing done, but didn't quite get there. I would have missed out on the drawing if I hadn't uploaded early, as the power was out from last evening until 3:21 am. I know that because all the noises the power makes when it comes back on woke me up ... especially the angel care monitor which is supposed to beep when the baby stops moving or breathing for 20 seconds. It went off when the power came back on (I had fallen asleep nursing the baby in the chair, so no baby in the bed meant the alarm went off.) I did a pretty good job going around turning off everything I could think of having been on before the outage, but didn't think about the monitor. Oh well. I was able to put the baby down and sleep in the bed ;)

The evening power outage happened just as we were gathering in the living room for family devotions, making it pitch black. Mass panic. Oh, and I was in the middle of changing the two year old's diaper. I had just taken it off, and not having light made it pretty difficult to finish that job, especially when you factor in the panic, which made him want to jump up and cling to me. I finally got someone to grab a flashlight and managed to hold him down long enough to get the diaper back on him.

Little events like this sure make a person appreciate the modern conveniences we have. Just going around to turn off all the lights that were on made me think. I mean, really, do we have to have every single light on every evening? I'm going to try to reduce the amount of energy we are using. I've tried this before, but with seven people in the house, it's like trying to row a boat upstream. We did our devotions in the light of the camp lantern, then walked outside and saw how beautiful and plenteous the stars were - zillions of them. I wish we lived in the country - out of town and away from close neighbors - and that we spent more time outside enjoying nature. Maybe someday ...