Tuesday was technically the longest day of the year. Also known as the summer solstice. Ironically though the day with the most amount of daylight is also the day that the Earth is furthest away from the sun. In the same way the shortest day of the year, the one with least daylight is when the Earth is closest to the Sun. I think we humans are much the same way. When things are going great, we feel pretty good about ourselves and have a tendency to get away from the one who is The Light. But when the days are dark and cold and we feel all alone is when we get close to the Son .

Smile!

Today I read that my beautiful niece Jasmine is leaving middle school and all it's crazy awkwardness behind. I'm so happy for her and blessed to have such a role model for daughter to look up to. Anybody who has seen Jaz knows that she has one of the best smiles in the world. If seeing her smile, doesn't make you smile than there is something seriously wrong with you.

Ever since I was born I have had crazy chubby cheeks. When I smile, they about triple in size. For some weird reason I have always been self conscious about my smile because of my chubby cheeks. Today though I saw my smile differently than I usually do. A friend of mine told me I should smile more and for some reason it clicked (for tonight at least) that this is the smile that God gave to me to share with the world. So I'm going to try and smile more often and not think about my chubby cheeks.

friends

Once in a while in this wonderful life, you'll make a friend, and that friendship will grow. When that friend says "Hi" it turns a bad day into a great day.

On a grey summer day ... take pictures

Today was supposed to be sunny (according to the weather report on Friday that is). Something strange is happening here in Germany. It seems that spring and summer have done a flip-flop! Today turned out to be a grey drizzly day, but I have lived in the NW long enough to learn to love these grey drizzly days because they make the sunny days that much better. So I went ahead with my plans and went downtown to take some pictures. A couple are from Friday.

https://picasaweb.google.com/314twin/OneGreySummerDayInGermany