Links!

Nope. No golfing. Sorry. It's a beautiful day and all, and some people probably even have the day off, but that's not the purpose here.

Sometimes, (read: usually), there's just no point in saying anything when someone else has done it so much better than you ever could. Today is that day.

Pastor Jeremiah Gumm (see the link to The Shepherd's Study at the right) has posted an encore of last year's post from Veteran's Day, paying homage to his family members and generations who have served. Please read, and offer up a prayer for those who keep us safe and free.

http://shepherdstudy.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/thank-a-veteran-today-2/


Then, continue on, and read this post about his grandfather, and his love for his Savior. Now stick with me here! There's something for everyone in it, and it's a 'must read' to borrow a phrase. Furthermore, it's a 'must share', which is what I hope to accomplish here today.


http://shepherdstudy.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/a-man-named-george/


That's it. There's nothing to add. Except to say, now you know why I link this blog.

Unrelated

Just a jumble of loose ends lately (OK, always). That's what I'm dealing with. I sorely need to tie some of them up. Maybe that's why, when I went looking through the mess that is (are?) my photos today, I couldn't find two similar themed that were anywhere near the same timeframe either. So I won't even try!

This picture popped out at me in file however, I think for several reasons. First, I just plain like it! Second, I was really pleased that it turned out this well on my camera, considering it is a sunrise, and I don't own any filters, or quite honestly wouldn't know how to use them if I did! Thirdly, in the quiet of a dark morning, before the day had a chance to start taking its mental toll on me, the beauty of this photo of one of God's other beautiful mornings, made me stop and offer another prayer of thanksgiving that yesterday my mom came through another surgery very successfully and without incident! That was quite a far cry from the goings on of the summer, and I am very grateful.

Now for a completely unrelated card posting. Vicki made this for swapping awhile ago. I am very often an 'anti-typical Christmas color' type of person for card making. I really enjoy getting and making Christmas cards that are not red and green, and I particularly notice them. But for me, there is something so charming about this card! I just love it!

I think that it is the words. I feel the impact of the different fonts, different size of the "&" and the different colors of the cursive font just gives it just the right mix of punch and festivity! ::Or is it 'festivus'? Kidding! Can you tell I'm in Seinfeld mode?::





Time for me to get rolling and get outside. I'm going to try to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store this morning before banner making at church. If I don't get some food made around here soon, there's going to be a mutiny. :-)

Busy 'lil Beaver

Today I have the house to myself, it's a beautiful sunny day outside, and what am I doing???

Why, I'm sitting at the computer working, and in the stamp room (that's the one shining light in this), and doing some wash and cleaning other areas of the house. But you won't be able to see any difference, should you happen to stop in! Oh no. Will you see the lawn mowed because it's beautiful out? ::Nope:: Will you see the windows washed-because it's beautiful out? ::Nuh-uh:: Will you see the leaves cleaned up outside? ::Didn't we just have this discussion? Uh----no::

What you would see is me pounding down coffee to stay alert as I work for the umpteenth day at the computer. But if you want to see what I have accomplished lately, you'd have to move the furniture in my office. I've been digging, weeding throught piles of paper, squeezing in small spaces with vacuums, brushes, and rags, trying to eliminate some dust in that room. It was no small task. Especially for my sinuses! LOL! That's 'nuff said!

So, even as I might prefer to be outside today (Did I mention it's a beautiful day out?), raking, cutting, pulling, wiping etc. I'm stuck here, because next I have to prepare for tomorrow's Stamp-a-Stack. So.....

Pffflurrrrrrrrrrpbf! I guess it'll have to wait for another lovely day. I hope we don't run out of them before I get to it all.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!! Sometimes I just crack myself up!!

Simple Pleasures

It's been a little windy here lately. Up until yesterday it was a cold wind. Brrrrrr.

But it was very nice, because it took care of the majority of the leaves all at once! A few days ago, I stepped outside to find this! I had to watch my step because suddenly I wasn't sure how many steps we had. Or where the last one was.

Don't judge me. Yesterday I saw Oscar tear down the steps only to find out that he missed one and slid into the sidewalk, chin first. It wasn't pretty. But it was prettier than if I'd done it! :-) He doesn't have a far to fall.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Clean up the leaves and you won't have this problem, Karen!

Are you kidding me?! Cleaning up leaves in fall, on a farm, is about as high on the proverbial list as making sure you have at least 72 different colors of crayons in that box of stubs you keep for the grandchildren. It's just not gonna happen. This is when the rule of "Good Enough!" applies. But more about that another time.

Besides, if you wait a few days...

...they'll all blow around the corner and get stuck in the dead weeds at the base of the bushes. Problem solved.

And you also then wouldn't be able to walk from barn to barn whooshing your feet through the dry leaves like a kid walking home from school!

::Aaah memories (of earlier today).:: It's all about life's simple pleasures.

On another simple pleasure, last week was Halloween, Fall Harvest, or just plain Trick or Treating if that's what you like to call it.

Kathleen was going to participate in something they have at their church called "Trunk or Treat". She invited all the grandparents along for a look. As the photo above shows, the members park their cars, trunk side 'out' and hand out treats to kids! They call it their 'safe alternative' to trick or treating, but it is also an opportunity for outreach. Aside from the trunks and treats, you are welcome to go into the school where there is information available about the school, plus of course, the church, and if you follow the winding hallway, there is a hot dog and cup of hot chocolate waiting for you at the end! Someone also mentioned that it keeps them out of their house during those doorbell ringing hours! A definite side benefit....especially if you have a dog like my mom does. ::Ding-dong! Bark bark bark bark.....you get the picture.::

Kathleen's plans were to dress up as Dorothy and have Avery as Toto in the basket. She had to work earlier in the day and it turned out to be a bitter cold afternoon, so only Avery did a costume. She was OK with it outside where it was cold, but when brought in for pictures....a little attitude surfaced for a little while. ::I don't care how cranky Toto gets....she's still as cute as can be!:: Didn't Kathleen do a great job on her costume?!

It seems that Kathleen is perhaps unknowingly carrying on the tradition I started w/my kids and costumes. I've got boxes of them up in the attic! I dare say, some people still refer to them to this day.

I can't be sure, of course, but I think there's at least a strong possibility that Avery is praying for a reprieve from that tradition. ;-)

Encore! Encore!

Truthfully, I can't remember whether I posted this card already. I am thinking I did, but don't have time to double check today! Maybe if I did, you've forgotten it, and won't mind seeing it again.

This is Vicki's version of a card that is pictured in the Holiday Mini catalog. Nice, huh? See how a person can tweak a card they've seen and make it their own? Granted, there isn't much she changed, and what she did was mostly due to not having the exact supplies on hand, but it works well, doesn't it?!

I'd love to spend an entire day with my several computer messes around here and get to the bottom of just one of the things I have to accomplish in this office (Whoops...one actually did work out today, come to think of it....but it's Gary's insurance software....not my precious photos!), but I haven't yet had enough uninterrupted time where something just went off without a hitch....or seven. So hang in there until I put out all these little fires.

We got a new printer the day before yesterday and it's been sitting in the box in the hall. If you know anything about me, you know that is very unusual. I'm much more of a rip-it-open-right-when-it-arrives-and-get-it-set-up-for-goodness-sake (!) kind of person! What's holding me back? Prioritizing, yes, but mostly the fact that I haven't been able to finish any task since about August. I get to the point where I can't take it and kind of shut down. Yes, I know full well, I have to get this done, today preferably, but aside from taking most of the day thus far and only having 3 things accomplished (herd check, calves, and Gary's software)none of which was on my preference list for today, you can see where I'm spinning my wheels, and get a little frustrated. I did have off of calves tonight (because we're going to see Jerry Seinfeld!) but now the sub has the flu, so they're going to get done just a tad early instead. I hope she (the sub) is OK because she weighs about 98 lbs. soaking wet, as they say. Not exactly a 'hardy' type. As long as she doesn't bring it here! ;-)

Well, I'd best get that printer thing-a-majig set up. The only part that scares me is that in the reviews I was reading about, they were saying things like; "It was easy! I had it up and running in about an hour!" Oh my. An hour to attach a printer?!! I hope there's not something they're not telling me! Meh. I'm sure some good belly laughs tonight will take my mind off the computer issues. Maybe I'll be yelling, "Encore! Encore!" Ri-i-i-ight. Maybe Gary will be, because that will be the only supper he'll get tonight. Heh heh.

Pumpkin Time!

You may have already seen this on Facebook, but I did actually get a complaint that I haven't posted any pics of Avery in a long time, so I thought I'd bring it here too.

I made this little hat for Avery back when she was considerably smaller, and I was just getting out my overflowing basket of yarn to use up. I didn't know whether she'd fit in it for certain on Halloween or just fall in general, but I thought I had nothing to lose except some time. Then, when it did turn out quite well (after I re-sized it, and made my own style of stem and curlycues-because I didn't like the way the instructions turned out), and fit, I ended up spilling the beans to Adam. I figured since she couldn't trick or treat anyway this year, I'd give her something else. As it turned out, they were going to take some 3 mo. photos of her anyway, so he asked to have her hat early to use in the pics. That is why you might have seen it. Naturally since they were coming to get it, I had to take my own photo first. She was a little squirmy that day, so she was blurry on most, but this one was the best. Unfortunately, Nathan was dressed in (clean) barn clothes while holding her, so I had to crop him out as much as possible, so it's not a very good representation of how she's grown.

Then I had to take another photo of one of the things in our bag of tricks around here. When she was smaller, and had a day or evening that she simply didn't know what was bothering her, I'd take her into the bathroom to look into the tri-fold mirror. Of course, all babies like to see other babies, and at that time, at least, she didn't know she was seeing herself. But it was more fun in this mirror, because just as she got bored with one version of herself, she'd pick up on the fact that there was another one! And then, another one still! I just love those moments with the little ones, when they discover things in wonderment!

::Pay no attention to the open messy closet doors behind the lady taking the picture:: :-)

So, no cards today! I still have loads of computer work to do to get my system up to snuff, and I won't even get into the mess around here! Computer parts everywhere! ::Slight exaggeration. But not that slight!:: Miss Avery is coming here today, and although I ought to have been cleaning house, (and 98 other things) lately, I spent the better part of two days working on a Thanksgiving banner for/at church. We're in the home stretch now though....at least until we start on the Christmas banner.

Gary got the last of his corn off, the day before yesterday, so if you heard a big "sigh" coming from this direction, it was him. My sigh won't come until I can park in a put-together garage with lights on the outside of it, the brake-light on my van is fixed, the doorbell works, the kitchen clock is replaced, the west porch is done, the west sidewalk is 'installed', my bedroom and stamp room windows are finished, my bedroom ceiling is ripped out and re-drywalled plus new lighting, my kitchen ceiling is......oh never mind. This list has no end. Sigh. ::Oops. Was that me?:: At least I'll see Avery today! I'll get to give her a sweet baby hug.....::SIGH::

Catch-up time

Recently my mom had a birthday. It rather felt like my birthday, because I got to go out twice (yes, I said twice) to celebrate it! Here she is with the 'scoop of ice cream' they brought out as a birthday treat for her. It was a sundae fit for a queen! (I'm pretty sure it weighed as much as she did, especially since she'd been sick over summer!)

My sister from 'up nort' came down to celebrate too, with her daughter and two granddaughters (one which was brand-spankin' new and I'd never met before) so Andrea, my niece invited me to go along on their lunch out!

This was the card I made my mom. I figured since the whole world (Ok, most of it.) wants to feel young again, what better way than to give an, uh, older person, a 'kid card'. I was right. She got a big kick out of it.

This little girl, my great niece, was the one who shared great-grandma's 'scoop of ice cream'. Grandma was glad for the help, especially after a big meal, but really, I think grandma could've done it on her own! She sure polished off more than I ever thought she would! Oh to have her metabolism.

In keeping with my promise to eventually show more paper delights, I'll show three today! I've got some catching up to do, don't you think?

This was the card for baby Morgan, my other great niece that came that day. Lots of bright colors in this puppy!

Then I gave her this card for her baptism, which was about 2 weeks earlier.

Most of the supplies are Stampin' Up!, but sorry to say, I've owned the sentiment stamp for soooooo many years, I simply couldn't tell you whose it is. I really like this combination of Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede. I keep forgetting to use Soft Suede, but I just love it when I do! It's such a unique color!

As you can tell, Morgan was very impressed.

It was the first time in what seems like forever, that we had just mom 'n the girls together. It just happened to work out, and oddly it was the middle of a weekday, when normally everyone is working! I couldn't help thinking we were missing my SIL Bernie, however. She's one of the girls too. ::Whether she likes it or not. Hee hee:: As you can imagine, there was a lot of catching up going on. There'll be more to come as well! HB, Mom!