Big Bear

When a 15 year old boy goes to NYC for the first time, it is a cool experience. This trip with Mason's high school choir was exceptionally well planned. they were there to perform, but he also got to see and do quite a bit. There are lots of good pictures, so why did I choose this one to be the first I show you? Well it is like this. The big bear just popped up and said to me, do a page.  So I did. I have included his schedule for the day on the layout, hoping it would explain where he was when It was taken. But, the only thing I came up with was NYC.  It was taken after he was to have gone to the hotel for the night. We can relax though, because his dad was with him and it wasn't that long after they were to leave for the hotel. And, of course, when I talk to him, I will bet he will be able to tell me where he found this big old bear. 

I'm still not up to snuff, as I heard quite a bit as a young child, living with 'southern' parents. Of course, I'm not sure it was a southern thing, but it certainly was a saying in the older generations.

I'm not exactly sure what it means, but I got the idea it meant you didn't feel well, but were not terribly sick. Guess I should look it up some time. Everything can be googled.

Looking forward to a better day tomorrow as we celebrate that our Lord is risen from the dead...

Blue Sky and Cool Stream

It's great to be back. I've been sick a couple of weeks and unlike other times, I haven't really been scrapbooking.  I've been working logic puzzles instead. It is very encouraging to me. Glad I still have my faculties at this age and when  I'm really not feeling up to anything physical.  

This page goes right along with where we were when I disappeared from  this blog for a while. We are back at the Colorado Tae Environmental Learning Center in the beautiful state of Colorado.

Caleb was on spring break the week these photos were taken and Julia and Oliver were very happy to have him home with them for a change. They really enjoy being together. I can really not think of something more pleasant to do in spring weather than just what they have done. They have shed their shoes and gone wading in the stream of cool water.  And of course, I have always been enamored by stones. Yes, I'm easily occupied. I have a small collection. So it doesn't surprise me a bit to see them interested as well. 

Look at that beautiful blue sky...one of the things I really like about Colorado. As much as I love my own state...we just don't have as many blue sky days here. 

Environmental Learning

Caleb was on spring break this week. It is over for now, but he enjoyed it while he could. These pictures were some of the ones taken while they were exploring the grounds of this center.

It is beautiful now, in my eye anyway. It will be interesting to see how things change as spring arrives and things come alive. It actually looks like a lot of this is fallen timber and it will keep its look. I wish I could think of some adjectives to describe the reasons it is beautiful to me, but as usual, I'm doing this right before bed and I'm almost brain dead. 

We were able to FaceTime these sweeties this evening. As you read in yesterday's post, it is Julia's birthday  today, March 16.  Of course by the time you read this it will no longer be her birthday.  But it will be back next year at this time.  As my father used to say to me when I was chattering away, "You are just talking to hear your head rattle." Tonight it is true.

Good night all. Please pray for this nation, that our freedom of and not from religion will be saved from those who are trying so hard to take it away from us. God Bless America!

Birthday Girl

First of all. The date of this post should say March 16, 2018. I hit post 1/2 minute early. So sorry about that...

I don't know that I've ever seen a little one so eager for her birthday. She has been excited for months. They celebrated her brother Oliver's birthday in December, her daddy's in January and then her other brother, Caleb's in February. Now it is time for JULIA.  This time, you will hear her say MINE!
This is the little one year old who has hiked with the boys and kept up just fine. She was a real trooper on their trip to Bulgaria and then to Ohio for Christmas. She had to make sure that everyone knew that the photo over the fireplace was MINE!...as in hers!  It was a picture of her catching up to the boys on a hike.  Below is one of my favorite pictures of her (and there are many) so far. It was taken in Bulgaria in September of last year.

Here  she is at our house at Christmas with her very own Christmas stocking:

And here she is with the picture of her and her brothers above the mantle.

This is for YOU, JULIA! It is your birthday today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR  JULIA,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

The World of Imagination

I know this is a stretch, but it tickled me when I saw that little 'rainbow' shoot right out there at me in my kitchen. Of course I had my phone and grabbed some shots. Later I found this song by Nat  King Cole. It was just right  for making a layout.

If it is too small to read there, here it is:

Nat King Cole sang it:

At the end of a rainbow, 

You´ll find a pot of gold 

At the end of a story, 

You´ll find it´s all been told.

The end of the rainbow found me,

but there was no pot of gold.

Just me and my phone camera.

And I'm still trying to come up with the end of the story. It must have something to do with getting the Christmas decorations down and put away for another year.

'By the way...I did that the same week. 

It isn't still up! Even though one year we did leave it up until July when our triplet grandchildren, who could never be here at Christmas, were coming for their birthday.  After they were gone, I thought, why take it down now? It was just another 5 months until Christmas. Yes, it was up all year! It sure felt good to put it away that December!

Ready to Go

This picture of Ava was taken in January. It warmed up since then,  but we' are back to cold weather again recently as well. Ava is a beautiful girl and these bright colors look very good on her.

If you like all the hearts, so do I. I guess that is the closest  I got to Valentine's Day this year. We did have a little party at Curves. At least they did. I was not feeling well for a couple of days and missed it.

Hopefully things will be more stable next year and it will feel a little more like Valentines come February  2019. Until then, make the most of every day, every hour, every minute. Once they are gone, that is it. They won't be back.

Jeep

I am copying here the text on this page, "John truly misses his ‘big’brother, Mark. They had gotten close since John’s works sends him to CA fairly often. They have enjoyed the time together.  It hasn’t been long since Mark enjoyed a little vacation with John and his family in Colorado. Now John is the caretaker of ‘Marks’ jeep, his Toyota Land Cruiser, which he loved. Keeping it in the family.        2018/2/18"

While John is enjoying driving around his neighborhood, the children are having fun as well. 

Mark and John loved to meet up whenever John had to be to CA on business. Sometimes John would spend time in Long Beach.  Other times, Mark would drive to whatever place John was working in various locations in CA and stay with him at the hotel. That seemed to be a special treat.

Some day we will all meet up with him up in heaven and have a big reunion.

He Did It

I have a to admit that this hurts my brain just to think of it. Solving a Rubik's Cube is hard enough, so hard that I don't even try any more. I can't imagine, picking up a thoroughly mixed up cube, solving it, memorizing the moves, then solving it blind-folded.  Well God made everyone different. No two alike...unless identical twins are exactly alike and I know they at least have different finger prints.

Aussie has the right kind of brain! As it says above,  'It is really hard and not many people can do it, even in competitions.'

Thankfully, he is not limited to cube solving. He's very good at many things...and what he can't do, there are two more of the triplets who can fill in the blanks with their own talents. It is a busy household.

Please stay in touch with what your children are learning and doing in school and seeing on TV. You might be surprised to know that school can be a dangerous place to be in these times, not only from the mentally deranged, but also from brainwashing.

May God bless you all with the stamina to hold the faith and do what is right at this challenging time in history. We need to read the word, think for ourselves and teach our children to do likewise. 

Adventurous

I love to  get pictures of our grandchildren while they are out exploring. So glad to see them enjoying God's creation. 

Of course it has been another long day for me and I'm about to nod off. Glad I have these pages to post, even though I can't think of anything to say tonight. 

I'm pretty anxious to crawl into bed BEFORE  I go to sleep.  Good night and as Red Skelton used to say, God Bless.

April's New Truck

Now that April is contracting the work  done on their house and she has asked to borrow her husband's truck repeatedly, he bought her one of her own, a nice bright red one.  

She is not only overseeing the construction angle, but doing the decorating at the same time.  She goes all over purchasing this or that  and driving it back to her home state.  Today she dropped by here to pick up a door she had bought a couple of months ago and left in our care until she had enough room to take it home.

Even though she is a beautiful girl, she has become pretty handy at getting a man's work done. Watch her climb up on her truck. 

Our little dog, Maggie is a Tom Boy herself, wanting to do anything her daddy is doing, especially if it has to do with tractors or trucks. So she is excited to see April and her vehicle.

Modeling T-Shirts

I'm in a hurry to get to bed tonight and I just realize that these are not t-shirts, but tank tops. Oh well, I"ll correct that later.  Like I said, I'm in a hurry to get to bed before I fall asleep at the computer.

On your right is our granddaughter who works out at CrossFit.   She spends quite a bit of time there and her muscles show it. Go Girl!

Jubilant Birthday

This was taken back on January the 19th.   Our youngest son turned 38.  I love this picture of their celebration. What a party! ;) You can tell the boys were enjoying it.

Little sister Julia will turn two on the 16th of this month. She has become very excited by birthdays and on Oliver's, her dad's and on Caleb's she wanted, "MY BIRTHDAY".  She is beside herself that hers is coming up. I wish I could be there to watch her.

Sweet Tea Party Memories

I love to scrapbook because I know how valuable it is to have pictures of our family as they grow from year to year. As one gets older, sometimes his or her memory will slip a little. Pictures help us to  remember people, places and things accurately.

As one who has many pictures of when I was a little child, I can say that I would have never known much about the time I was little, because I have no brothers or sisters to tell me. My mother and father have both gone on to their heavenly home, so I can no longer ask them.

Sometimes people with very good memories, lose their mental capacity over time. They will remember the past better than the present. Pictures are a comfort to them, because the pictures  are familiar to them when they are no longer capable of understanding the present, sometimes forgetting even names of loved ones.

Well, the heavy winds that were predicted did come through. We had lots of branches torn off our trees, but there were no very large ones affected, thank God.  Some parts of the country are suffering very much from heavy storm damage.

Let's pray for those who are affected by loss of power and more.

On the Marsh

When the marsh near them freezes, it is a great place to have a little fun and to take some pretty 'cool' pictures.  On the first layout are the boys, Caleb and Oliver, slipping and sliding on the ice, then Mom and Julia join them with a little sled.

Warmed weather has passed through and cold snowy weather is back. It is coming at us from both the east and the west. Heavy winds have been forecasted.