Author: Launi

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Picture This…

Our sweet Jillian took a surprise trip to England last month to visit her dear friends Sarah and Hilda. It was pretty much a hush-hush sort of deal because she was planning to meet up with and totally surprise Dane in the airport in Georgia. We didn’t tell anyone that she was even taking this incredible trip to make sure that word didn’t accidentally slip back to Dane somehow and spoil the surprise.

Anyway–she took some amazing photos that I need–yes, need–to share with you guys. Remember how our family just got finished reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Well, our gal went to the actual place where some of the scariest stuff in the book actually happened…for real. No, I mean it.

Yes, yes. Sometimes I have a teeny, tiny bit of trouble distinguishing between reality and…fantasy. It’s a struggle.

In the book, one of the character–named Lucy, is being sucked in–ha ha–by the count himself. She starts wandering around in her sleep/trance, in the town of Whitby. These are the very stairs she climbed up in her creepy white  gown in the middle of the night. Can you just picture it?

Her dear friend, Mina Harker chased her up these very stairs to try to stop her from meeting the nasty old Count Dracula again. Oh, he got her anyway.

Are you getting chills yet?

This is the very seat that Mina and Lucy sit on–in the incredibly creepy cemetery–to rest and chat a bit. I know I’d certainly want to sit in a really spooky cemetery for some nice, relaxing girl talk.

Yikes.

This is the very path they walked on while Lucy–unbeknownced to Mina–was slowly being turned into a vampire.

View from the middle of the incredibly creepy cemetery. The very one.

Ooooooh-hoohh!

Now, I’m too scared to speak…

so I won’t.

Jillian says:

“Pointing out to my family just how cool this run down Whitby Abbey looks. It’s PERFECT for the Dracula city of Whitby. I highly recommend that book by the way. One good thriller!”

Go ahead. Read Dracula. It was fabulous and scared the heck out of me.  Then come back here and see if these beautiful pictures don’t just make you shake…like…

me…

the scary book wuss,

 

 

Click HERE to enter our Summer Readathon Giveaway!! You could win a copy of Dracula–and three other great titles for your very own!

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We Are Sowing

We are sowing, daily sowing
Countless seeds of good and ill,
Scattered on the level lowland,
Cast upon the windy hill;
Seeds that sink in rich, brown furrows,
Soft with heaven’s gracious rain;
Seeds that rest upon the surface
Of the dry, unyielding plain.Seeds that fall amid the stillness
Of the lonely mountain glen;
Seeds cast out in crowded places,
Trodden under foot of men;
Seeds by idle hearts forgotten,
Flung at random on the air;
Seeds by faithful souls remembered,
Sown in tears and love and prayer.

Seeds that lie unchanged, unquickened,
Lifeless on the teeming mold;
Seeds that live and grow and flourish
When the sower’s hand is cold.
By a whisper sow we blessings;
By a breath we scatter strife.
In our words and thoughts and actions
Lie the seeds of death and life.

Click HERE to enter our Summer Readathon Giveaway!!

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Olive Love

This moment…

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Have a good weekend!

Click HERE to enter our Summer Readathon Giveaway!!

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Summer “Readathon” Giveaway

In the summertime–there’s one thing you don’t want to be sitting around the pool, or the beach or laying back in the hammock without—and that, darlings, is…a really good book.

Speaking of which—the four books–pictured here–are just a few of the titles that we’ve been reading at our place, and positively loving.

Now everybody knows that the next best thing to experiencing a fabulous book, is sharing it with a friend. So that’s what we’re going to do…

share.

And since:

A) it’s been a while since we’ve had a giveaway, and

B) we totally have good books on our mind, and

C) we have a new Google Friend counter–on the right sidebar over there——>

we’ve decide to take this opportunity to…ahhhh…multi-task, let’s just say.

So, if you’d like to have our little Summer Readathon Collection for your very own–and who wouldn’t?–here’s what you need to do…

1) Go to the Google Friend Connect box on the right

2) Become a “friend” of Gracious Rain by clicking “join this site.” It’s quick and painless…I promise.

3) Come back here and leave a comment with the title(s) of your favorite book(s).

Simple as that. You’ll be entered in the giveaway and may just walk away with a Summer Readathon of your very own.

We’ll announce the winner on Friday July 16, 2010 at 10 am–one week from today.

Go. Run. Fly. Be our friend.

May the force be with you.

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Summer Fisheys

One summer, when I was little, my dad bought a swimming pool at Sears. Just like that. Came home one day and said, “Let’s set up the pool, shall we?” None of us kids had a clue what he meant but mom had us stay inside for a while–a long while, so he could set it up in peace. Then of course, once it was up, it still needed to be filled. I remember thinking, “How big of a deal will that be? Just fill it up!” Like maybe it would take twenty minutes or something. This pool was pretty big–as far as backyard pools went in those days, and it took about a day and a half to fill it with the garden hose. We kids kept running out side to see if it was full yet.

At one point my dad got annoyed and said, “Quit running outside every five minutes. It’ll be full sometime tomorrow.” But my mom said, “Oh, let ’em go. They aren’t hurting anything. They’re just excited.”

It was nearly full the next afternoon and then we learned that there had to be some kind of chlorine solution put in it for 24 hours before humans were suppose to poke a toe in the water. SHEESH!

It was complete and total torture for a 6 year old. Then finally, finally the day came when we got to climb the latter and plop down into our very own swimming pool. I don’t remember ever even getting out again. Suppose I must have. But it felt like all we did that summer was swim…and turn tan…and swim…and get very blond…and keep right on swimming.

One day momma came out and said, “If you don’t get out sometime, you’ll turn into a fish!”

From the looks of this picture–that was fine by me.

More on the magical pool.