Pregnant Mannequins and Hairless Dogs

Here are a few of the photos I've taken during the last couple of weeks with my iPhone.
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Ali and I spent the weekend with Grandma Rhonda a few weeks ago.  Ali and I met in Temple, Texas before Grandma Rhonda arrived to pick us up and we decided to browse the mall to spend some time.  We visited the food court, had some smoothies, and then we began to look in some department stores.

For some reason, Ali loves maternity clothes.  No worries: it's not like she actually buys and wears them.  She simply likes to look at them, admires them, and imagines wearing them a few years in the future when she gets married and starts her own family.

At the particular department store we visited, they seemed to be lacking some decent mannequins for their maternity department.  In fact, all of the "pregnant" models looked as if someone had simply stuffed a round pillow beneath their shirts.  Actually, for all I know, they could have stuffed a couple of sweaters under there.  The "baby bumps" weren't even a little round.

I wonder what these ladies' babies will look like after they're born.  I mean, imagine how misshapen they must be now to create such deformed stomachs.

Okay, okay, I know this isn't real... but Ali and I got a good laugh out of the "pregnant" mannequins.  I mean, look at them.
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Here is a new friend I made while visiting my grandma's house.  His name is Snickers and he is a Chinese Crested.  He's also the daddy of a brand new litter of puppies, but that's another story.

Snickers may be ugly, but he's also one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet.  He isn't happy unless he's snuggled in your lap or leaning against your shoulder.  His very attached to his mamma, Grandma Rhonda, but he quickly bonded with me and Ali as well.  By the end of the weekend, I could hardly bring myself to put Snickers down.  He was just too sweet and cuddly.  I could have carried him around forever.

Sweet dogs like Snickers sure make me miss Jack back home.

The way Snickers looked was extremely entertaining.  He's hairless other than his "mohawk" on the top of his head, a tuft of hair on his tail, and fuzzy socks on all four of his feet.  How fun is that?  Most of his skin is smooth like a baby's... in the winter, he'll need to wear thick sweaters to keep him warm, just like we have to do.  Snickers also has big green eyes, which look extremely unusual on a hairless dog.  Of course, everything looks unusual on a hairless dog.

However strange or ugly Snickers might have looked, his personality outshined it all.  By the end of the weekend, Ali and I both ended up kissing his little hairless face and saying, "You're just so cute!  You're just so cute!"
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The next two pictures are from the Japanese garden I wrote about yesterday.

These are some of the trees that have been affected by the drought.  While much of the garden still looked life-filled and green, occasionally we'd pass some trees that had lost most of their trees... or a big patch of flowers that were wilted and browned by the sun.  The drought in Texas has been so bad lately.  It's amazing that any plants have survived at all.

However sickly some of these plants might have been, they still contained beauty.  God sure knew what He was doing when He created them.

In the middle of the Japanese section of the garden was a little sanctuary of sorts.  Its walls were made of bamboo sticks and its ceiling was made of thatched grass.  The one-roomed building was peaceful and filled with beauty.  It also provided shade from a hot sun.  The picture you see below is of the bamboo walls, overlooking part of the garden outside.