It's a Challenge!!

Those of you who know me, know that occasionally, I enjoy a challenge or two, except when it comes to losing weight 'cause I never can stick to a weight loss challenge very long before some type of food starts calling my name! Well, in the past few days I saw thru Insta-gram a new kind of challenge that I thought would be neat to try. It's called the 31 Day Photo Challenge. Each day, you are given a "topic" and each day you are to take a picture that coincides with that topic and post to Insta-gram. Well, while that is a really neat idea, I thought it would also be cool to share those pictures on my blog with a little bit of a more indepth explanation pertaining to each picture. Rather than doing all 31 at a time or one per day, I figured I would do them in segments of fives...so here goes!

Day One - Your View Today -- Saturday, December 1st, my Dad & I went on an adventure through our woods and ventured over into the neighbors' properties. One of our neighbors has started selling a lot of their timber, and beside them the neighbors just sold their land altogether so now there is a Walgreens and Sheetz popping up. But while we were venturing into the area where the timber was cut down, we found the remains of this old car. The engine and everything is still intact; it was quite a spectacle. I told Dad it would be a nice restoration, but buddy it would take the work and Lord knows that he & I are not "restoration material". So we let it be, but I thought it was a very nice "view" for the day; at least compared to all the chopped down trees that looked like the aftermath of a tornado!

Day Two - Favorite Holiday Movie -- Wow, I love all sorts of Christmas movies and TV shows. But overall, even though it may not specifically be a movie about Christmas per se, it always comes on Christmas Eve or even Christmas Day, and it has been a favorite of mine since I was a child -- The Sound of Music. There's just something about Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" that keeps the spirit of Christmas flowing. When I was little, I did not ever realize the true love story that the movie told; I just was carried away with all the kids, how they could sing and the huge house they lived in. To this day, I still cry when Maria leaves and returns to the convent and cry again when she returns. It is such a shame that movies of this calibre aren't even produced anymore. The Sound of Music is one classic that I will always watch at Christmastime and many other times throughout the year.

Day Three - Red -- How appropriate that one of the topics of the challenge also coincides with one of my favorite colors, RED! All things red, right? Not necessarily, ha! Why do I like red so much? Hmm...I don't know. My Granny, Louise Foster, always said red was her favorite color; she always wore red polo-like shirts, I can remember them so vividly, and as a child, I decided if Granny liked red, then it must be a good color! Of course, NC State's color is also red and it never hurts to occasionally be team-spirited and wear your colors! Just like Vanilla & I are doing in this picture -- wearing our red! But overall, I just like red -- it symbolizes love but more importantly it symbolizes the blood that was shed for us on Calvary's cross. That in and of itself is the greatest love gift to us all.

Day Four - Joyous -- Hmm...we have plenty of things to be joyful about, and we all have joyous occasions that we celebrate in our lives. Initially I thought about finding a really cute decorative "joy" saying and then handwrite a note of "ous" to add to the end, but in the end, I elected to go with this picture. Sure it was taken back in October, but what a joyous memory that I like to replay. I have always dreamed of having a blue ribbon from the NC State Fair, and when I walked into the Hobbies & Crafts Building that day and saw that I had won one, I could not believe it. I had to leave the building and come back in as tears were welling up in my eyes. Later, the reality hit me and I not only realized that I won a blue ribbon, but I won it on a very special tribute piece for my Granddad, Bill Foster. He was one of the most humble and sincere men you would have ever met. I never recall him ever having an angry word or negative thing to say. He would greet you with that special small smile and you just felt that everything was going to be okay. I always wanted to help him "fix things"; I used to think of him as Mr. Fix-It-Man, so I was Fix-It-Jr. My Granny & Aunt were always applauded for their cooking and things they did in the community; whereas Granddad was always doing things under-the-radar. So I decided to do a scrapbook tribute page for his military career and enter it in the Fair. Little did I know I would win, muchless win First Place. Such an honor, he would be so excited, and what a joyous celebration!

Day Five - Today's Temperature -- What a rollercoaster range of temperatures we are having here in "Sweet Caroline". One week it's highs in the 40s, then the 50s, then maybe up to the 60s and drops immediately back. This week we have had some abnormal temperatures with highs well into the 70s -- that's my kind of weather! Yesterday, Wednesday, December 5th, we had temperatures in the mid 60s. I took this screencap on my phone during the early morning when we were already in the 60s before noon! I wanted to be creative and find one of those bank signs that broadcasts the current temperature, but sadly those seem to be vanishing from our landscapes. This weather is not helping those who are currently fighting bugs -- yesterday in the 60s, today in the 40s. The temperatures sure are flip-flopping, but it's not the day to wear flip-flops!