Never Say Never

Well,  I realized I needed to share with people far away what's been going on, so I guess I still am blogging, but its been five weeks and that will probably be more my norm. Maybe.

We've just gone through a once-in-a-lifetime week, I hope.

Last Tuesday I was at Cub Scout Day Camp, as our ward's rep. I had seven of my Webelos there, nine other boys from the Bears and Wolves, my youngest son, who was helping, and four other leaders from our ward, that I was responsible for. I also had equipment I had borrowed. During the morning all the boys went on a hike - Wolves 1hour, Bears 2hours, and Webelos 3hours. LittleBuddy led my Webelos on this 3 hour hike with boys from the other wards as I was assigned Command Post for the day -checking people in and out, sounding the fog horn for rotations, calling people to come to Command Post, etc.

After all the boys came back from their hikes, it was time for lunch. Then we had a nice presentation on Being Prepared, and using the Armor of God the Lord's given us by our high council rep, a policeman. Then it was on to rotations for the afternoon, with each age group doing different activities all surrounding this nice lodge we were using. About twenty minutes into the rotations I smelled smoke. I commented to my friend, the photographer, I hope the Webelos working on the Outdoorsman haven't caught the pine needles beneath  the camp stoves on fire. Then the stake counselor pointed above the trees, and said look and we all saw smoke. She quickly checked her phone, and said there's a fire in Canon City, an hour away. I looked at the fire, coming above the trees, and said, "There's no way thats coming from an hour away. That looks like its coming from Pine Creek High School, about 4-5 miles away." This was about 1:30 in the afternoon.

We continued to watch and smell it, and it continued to grow worse. About fifteen minutes later, feeling nervous, I went to find one of our Wolves who has really bad allergies and asthma, and told him he needed to come out of the smoky air and into the lodge, where I had the nurse there keep her eye on him.

Anothe fifteen minutes goes by and the Stake leaders have sent someone to check on things. "It looks like just a house fire," they report. "There are several fire trucks and they have everything under control." I have my doubts. The blue sky continues to fill up with more plumes of dark smoke, the air continues to be more smokey and it looks to me like its getting closer to us, with big gusts of wind helping to keep us cool on this 94 degree day, but I know, sending embers traveling too. Meanwhile, they've called 911, let them know there are 200 people here at the Lodge, and to let us know if things get more serious.

Finally, about 2:23, its almost time for me to sound the foghorn, and signal the next rotation, but by this time, I am downright worried. I heard two little boys coming back from the bathrooms, one saying, "I'm scared of fire." "Me too, " says his buddy. I thought to myself, me too. I say to the Stake Primary President, who is my good friend, I don't want to push the horn for rotations. I want to bring everyone in. She says, well, we only have an hour and half more to go, I don't want to the boys to miss it. I say, I don't feel good about this, but you're in charge. Tell me what you want to do. Everyone's kind of looking at each other. One mother comes to check her two children out early. My phone says 2:25, I'm supposed to sound for rotations but I can't make myself do it. I start to pray inside. Just then my friend's cell phone rings, and she answers it. She looks at her counselor next to me. "They want us to evacuate." Then she turns to me, sound the horn to bring everyone in. I start sounding long blasts. She calls to me, make them longer and don't stop til everyone's in.

Well, I don't think everyone knew what the long blasts were about, but that horn was so obnoxious, and as people gathered to the command post area, eventually everyone came together. We were given directions that we were going to have a closing prayer, we've been told to evacuate, each ward leader would make sure each boy had a ride home, and then turn that info over to the stake leaders. I used each of the four leaders with me, after the prayer, and divided them up quickly according to where they lived. I took the four boys that lived furthest away, as well as my own son and his buddy, the Stake Primary President's son, knowing she was going to be too busy to worry about her own son at that time.

I was parked in the back, by our canopy which Mike and I had come the night before to put securely in the ground. I knew I didn't have time to take it out, but I quickly had the older boys grab the 5 gallon jug, the water cooler, and our step stool next to it, and piled everyone into the car. Since we were parked towards the very back, we were among the last from our ward to leave. I note the time on my car's dash - 2:45 p.m.

I really didn't know the area very well, except for the way we had entered, and that way was now blocked off. I was told by the policeman, high-councilman, who had returned to block off the roads, to follow the cars in front and head towards Black Forest Rd. So, I followed the blue car in front of me. Everyone else was much further ahead. This is a very windy neighborhood, with million dollar homes on large lots. With all the trees surrounding us, in the middle of this forest, there was no way to get my bearings or sense of direction. As I followed this blue car in front of me, it kept turning onto streets that dead-ended. That was scary too, as I could feel the urgency that we needed to get out of there quickly. Eventually we came to a street that was out of this million-dollar neighborhood, called Holmes Road. The blue car turned left and I turned right, as I was not trusting him at all, since he had led me down so many wrong ways.

We go a little ways, and I see a police car pulled cross-ways across the street, with another couple of cars pulled over to the side, and a policeman telling the cars coming from the opposite way to stop. I don't understand what's going on. I see a man crouch down with something about 3 feet long, slender, and black, and in my adrenaline-filled straight. slam on my brakes, and tell the boys to duck, thinking to myself, this man has a gun. He's hidden from the policeman, and peering out towards him. . . it takes me couple of minutes and the policeman turning to me to signal me forward, before I can get close enough to see the side of his Ford Bronco says the name of one of the TV stations, and he's setting up a tri-pod. . . okay embarrassing. Anyhow, we start moving, and this street is longer than I wish it was, but eventually I end up on a street called Shoup. I know this street name. Its the street I came in on. I feel confused, but know it runs into Black Forest Rd., so I feel a little relieved. When I get to the intersection of Black Forest and Shoup, I know one of our church buildings is there, but its not on the corner I'm expecting it to be. In fact, I can't see it at first, but the light has turned red, so I keep on going straight. Then I see the church on the left, quickly signal to enter the parking lot, and realize I am all turned around. I do a U in the lot, and get back, and turn right onto Black Forest, and eventually make my way out of the forest and finally am somewhere I know. It takes me forty-five minutes to get to the first home of one of our boys. The traffic up Black Forest is long and slow. So is Hodgen Road. I see several homes of friends of mine's homes along the way. This area used to be our ward before it was split last fall. I just had sat by a friend who lives right there at a baby shower a month or two ago, I'm thinking as I drive by. I sure hope they're all going to be okay.

Eventually all the boys get delivered. I am barely in the house a couple of minutes before 4 o'clock, when the Stake Primary Pres. calls and asks me to make sure each of our drivers made it home safe. They all did. I call to report. Then I take a few more calls from parents and leaders wondering what about Cub Camp tomorrow. I tell them I'll send emails as soon as I know anything. I have no idea how bad this is. I'm just exhausted, feeling stressed, and go get myself a couple of big drinks. My throat is parched. The air is better by my house, but still thick with smoke.

I talk to my big kids, explain what's been going in, and a little before five we turn on the news. Mike had called when we were on the way home, concerned by the news he'd heard. I suggest he come home as soon as he can. By this time, all the roads I've just been on are all closed down. We start seeing warnings for evacuations posted on the TV screen. We don't know the difference between Voluntary and Pre-evacuation, but we do know that Mandatory means to go now. That's not us, but we start to gather things together. All those homes I'd just driven by were Mandatory.

It takes Mike over an hour to get home. He'd left at 3. The roads are clogged with people evacuating and people trying to get home from work. He sees the flames and realizes this is bad. Our home is not in the forest, but we can see the forest from our backyard. The edge of the Black Forest is only about 1/4 miles from our house. We hear the fire is spreading. We hear sirens. We see the huge black plumes of smoke behind the trees. We're nervous. We start packing the car.

I called to talk to my mom and dad who are out of town. I know they have valuables theyd want to, but I cant get hold of them. Just then my brother, Rich called. He's heard the news and asks how he can help. Get a hold of Mom and Dad, I ask. He does within a half hour. What a blessing he called when he did.  We are concerned for their home as well, so we start gathering their things. Its concerning for them as well as for us, but they feel more helpless. Every time we come home from my folks, we're parched and drink and drink. Just being outside is hard.  Cowgirl is concerned. We begin talking several times a day, sometimes on email, sometimes on the phone. At news conferences, we have to hang up, with the latest updates to share when we next talk. It all feels very surreal. We pray, and we feel calm. We watch the news and we feel our hearts race again, seeing how bad it is.

At 11pm we get a phone call from 911-Event. They are calling to let us know our evacuation status has changed from Voluntary to Pre-Evacuation. We don't know what that means. After some internet sleuthing, we realize its a downgrade. No one ever called us to tell us we had been at a higher level earlier in the day. We are still concerned, and so Mike and I take turns sleeping. The other one keeps their eye on the news and on the Sheriff's twitter updates, which we find to be highly reliable and updated regularly. The local news stations are on around the clock.

By the 2nd day, when my shift is on again at 5a.m. I can hardly breathe inside my house. The air is so thick my voice is scratchy and I can't get enough water. The kids all wake up and don particle masks I have in their 72 hours for times such as this. They help somewhat, but aren't very comfortable. Our eyes sting. We carry cold washcloths with us. At the first news conference of the day, 9a.m. each morning,  we feel more anxious. We find out over 300 homes have burned. This is so horrible. I then look on the mapquest on my computer, and trace my path home. I realize everywhere I got lost on a dead end cul-de-sac, that Holmes Road I took, Shoup and Black Forest, are all decimated. They show the burn zones on TV. They show the air support. We hear them over our house all day, reminding us we're not that far away from the destinations. The news lists the houses and addresses totally lost or saved. Large swaths of the streets I was on were burned up that first day. I feel sick inside. I probably had less than an hour to get lost and disoriented. What if I'd gotten more lost? What if those Webelos had been on their hike in the afternoon instead of the morning? What if the wind would have been blowing due North instead of West at first? I start counting my blessings.

We hear tales of people who thought they had half an hour and ended up having to leave immediately, just taking the clothes on their backs. We hear of a dog who woke up its owner in time for her to see her back deck on fire. As she ran out front one of her cars was on fire, so she took the other. . . too close. Then we hear the tragic news than two people didn't make it out. Their garage and car doors open, they had been in contact with someone and told them they were leaving, but they never made it out. Tragedy takes a new more heartsick turn. Not just houses, but people, loved ones belonging to someone.  We realize that could be anyone who didn't get out in time. My brother Steve calls that night. He tells me he's an amateur meteorologist, and thinks well be okay. We hope so. The fire has spread farther east and north than any of us expected.

The next morning the fire is still raging. Mike and I didn't sleep too well again. The winds are projected to turn our way today. Day three finds us more sad as the housing toll rises to over 400. This is worse than the Waldo Canyon Fire a year ago. We have to go back into the cars to get some of the things we need. I realize the kids have all packed their toothbrushes, so find more in the recesses of my food storage. We're using up the food in the house. We don't want to leave home.  We ask ourselves, why clean up, if the hosue is going to burn down, but we still do the dishes. The only time we do is when we go down to my folks. Every time we talk to them, they think of something else important. We start to add a few more things too. Not the essentials, but things that would be nice. We keep watching the big bushy plum tree in the back yard. When it leans West we get nervous. When it leans East we feel guilty, knowing it won't hurt us, but it will hurt someone else.

Between 2 and 4 each afternoon when the storms move over the mountains the winds kick up again. This time they're blowing West. They put our favorite park on Mandatory Evacuation. This is close to our home, the edge only 3 minutes from where we are. We can't understand why we're not Voluntary again. It feels too close. But we stay put, waiting for those dreaded words. We don't feel safe, as the fire blows to 1/4 mile from Highway 83. We know when it crosses that road, we are going to probably be a mandatory evacuation and much closer to danger. The forest across the road is continuous until the it reaches the West end which we see from our house. . . Still scary. Again we pray for peace, and feel it, but feel the nervousness and caution still too. When evening comes and the first stayed in place, we feel grateful.

The next morning they predict storms again. We pray for rain and it comes. We begin cleaning the house well and I make a grand dinner of salmon. Hope has sprung again. We think the worst is over, and it has. No more people lost. No more homes lost. The total is 483, almost 500 is unthinkable, but on this day it becomes stable. We start to feel more stable. We wish they would take us off pre-evacuation, but they don't. The hot spots are still there, they tell us. We wonder how long this will last. Finally, Saturday night, we come off. Four of the longest, more scary days our family has had in a long time.

Sunday comes and we go to church.We hear of miracles. We hear of blessings. The Black Forest church building is saved but things burned right up to the curb. Same with the Cathedral Pines Lodge. A friend tells me her daughter-in-law, on the Webelos hike with the boys, saw a man come out of the woods not long before the fire started from the direction it started. We see pictures from some who were allowed in. The boys' hike is black on both sides of the trail. We see devastation after devastation then a lone house standing. We don't understand things but we trust God has a greater plan for each of us. We realized we had each other and that's all that really mattered. The other stuff is stuff. Most of what we took just made it easier to deal with the world, but wasn't necessarily what mattered most to us. Mike had on the 3rd day encouraged me to go pack all the family scrapbooks. I was willing to leave them, and would if I only had 5 min. notice, but since I didn't they were coming if needed. I appreciated his concern for my years of recording our family history. I just can't unpack them yet. Perhaps I will need to cart them out fast again. Thank goodness for my big boys and their strong backs.

Afterwards, we put it all back, making note if each item was a 5 min. one, a half hour one, or a 12 hour one and wrote it all in a notebook. We hope we can be more prepared if we have to go through this again. Its hard to think with your mind racing in the heat of the moment. We gather in prayer again, in thanks, and in the spirit of faith. Its Father's Day. One of my Mia Maids from ten years ago has lost her 2nd child today, a two and a half week old baby. It doesn't fair to rejoice in our good fortune. Loss is still everywhere. Pain and sorrow are not over. Another dad doesn't get to hold his baby girl again. She's such a young mother. I pray for her to get through this. Life is hard. We've felt it this week. We've seen it too closely. We've been spared again. We have only thanks for this time, and hope our faith is strong enough to get us through next time.

Happy Mother's Day

Aloha! My mom is in Hawaii this week, on the garden isle of Kuaui.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom! 

I should be there too, but this just wasn't the year.

This photo was taken last time we went together in 2007. . . fun memories.

I am coming to another crossroads in my life again. I'm ready to give up blogging. Not that I do that much anymore, but it just feels like something hanging over my head.
Whenever I get that feeling, I know its time to make a change.

I still think its important to record our lives for those that come after us. I think its important for us to record our lives in any form, whether its journaling, scrapbooking, blogging. . . its all good. I guess for me its just overkill. I already have a scrapbook. I changed the way I do that to keep things simpler for me. I have been working with my children on setting goals lately and I realized blogging just isn't part of my goals. In some ways blogging is a distraction and looking at other people's blogs is the same. Do I love to keep in touch with people that I love and seldom see? Yes. But there are easier ways to do that. Its easy to send emails and attach photos. Perhaps I'll do that a couple of times a year besides Christmas. Perhaps I'll find an easier way to communicate as time moves on. Its important to me to connect but right now in my life it needs to be less public and less frequent. 

I have three church callings right now. Two keep me fairly busy. I have three children living at home right now. Even though two are adults, I find myself doing more cooking, more cleaning, more listening, and having to be more flexible because of their schedules. They all help, but with more at home there is more to do. Reduce and Simplify continues to be wise counsel I need to follow, and this is what has been crossing my mind at different times in the past month, and then this morning, it was clear. Time to be done. 

Its been four years. You've gotten a good glimpse into our life. The move was big. The creative projects along the way have been fun. I think, one of the most creative things we can do in our life, is to forge ahead in a new direction. That's what I feel like I am doing here. In good times and bad, I have continued to document. The children have all changed and grown up in so many ways. Yet, they are my biggest subjects and not always happy to be photographed. I respect that. Its their life.

I am grateful to my mother who taught me how to love unconditionally. I realize not all children have received that gift, and that I am most fortunate to have it in my life still. My mother taught me not to feel sorry for myself on Mother's Day.  I remember her clearly saying, its not about us, its about the gift of motherhood. We all have one. My grandfather lost his when he was ten. In the last year of his 89 year old life, he told me that was still the greatest tragedy of his life - losing her. I think of the new baby born this week to a mother who passed away giving him birth or the teenagers who were kidnapped and lost out on ten years of their lives with their mothers or those whose mothers never knew how to mother, and those who have passed on.  

Life isn't fair. It breaks our hearts sometimes, but there are different gifts that come to us along the way, and if you have a mother who loves you, who kissed your ouchies and got up with you in the middle of the night and told you as you were crying, that things would get better, or just listened and said, I'm sorry. I want to help you but I don't know what to do, you are most blessed. I know I am. 

Hiking at 9400 Feet

We live next to the Rocky Mountains. That puts great hiking within less than an hour of our house. A week ago Saturday, when Cowgirl was with us, we ventured to a place we'd never been before, Mueller State Park. Located just minutes from a town called Divide, because it is where the Continental Divide actually is, it was easy to access, and the views were spectacular. Usually we see Pike's Peak to the West of us, but here, the majestic mountain is East. As we are looking West in the photo below, those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains far away, but we literally felt like we were close to the top of the world.

 They had a lovely visitor center and we received some good maps. There were forty-four hikes available, and we selected two this Saturday, both based on the fact that herds of elk had recently been seen nearby. The first one was still somewhat snow-covered. Of course it had snowed by our house just the Tuesday before, but when its 72 degrees back home, we forget its still in the 40's and 50's in the mountains, and no, the snow hadn't all melted.

 We saw some deer or elk tracks in the snow on the other side of this pond, but none here. The boys climbed on top of some nearby rocks to get a better vantage point of the area. Because of the hike itself had been somewhat snow-covered, we opted for another trail back to our car, and definitely easier than going uphill where we had just come downhill.

 The second hike was called the Schoolhouse Pond Trail. We never saw the school house, though we did find this bench. Maybe in the wilderness all you need is a bench to start taking in all there is to learn. Still rather small, it was pretty and the hike much less snow-covered.

 As we walked all around it, Mike found the remains of a deer. Everyone was excited to see it, until they realized the other parts of the remains was a few feet away. Our guess is a mountain lion pounced upon it when it came for a drink. This hike was easier in some respects and more difficult in others. I am not used to hiking at this altitude nor am I as young as I used to be, so while the kids walked ahead Mike held my hand and a few times pulled me up some of the steeper parts of the trail but I made it.

 We were a little sad to have seen no wildlife on our hikes, but as soon as we got back onto the main road, we spotted a whole herd of elk back in the park. We parked the car and walked closer.

 By the time I got there, the elk were starting to head back over the hill, but I caught a few on camera. That made our day. Then our dad decided to stop on the way home to get steaks and ice cream. We started up the grill for the first time this season, made a salad, baked some french fries and finished off the day full and content. Its not often enough that all six of us are together, and we truly made great memories this day!

Three Recipes

Correction:  On my Post Easter post, I misspelled Kate Spade's last name twice. That has been corrected. She is not Kate Space or Kate Spain. She does work for Moda and I do love her fabric choices!

I keep getting requests for this frosting, so here goes. Thanks to my friend, Kristen, who brought some cookies to my house last February, with the best frosting on them. Last week, after MyGirl and I made 2 dozen pints of jam, we had some strawberries left, so I sent my friend an email and asked for the recipe, and she shared. Now I share with you. 

These are mini strawberry cupcakes, and notice they were disappearing quickly! The frosting I threw on super fast, so sorry it looks so messy, but they sure were tasty. They didn't last two hours at my house. Also, my cream cheese and butter weren't beaten until fluffy , but when my friend brought them over, they were lighter and fluffier, and I would do that next time. I was in a hurry to get them done before movie night, so that's how it went at our house, and they still tasted terrific!

Strawberry Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

8-9 strawberries, mashed with a fork

powdered sugar 

Beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and strawberries and mix well. Beat in enough powdered sugar to reach desired frosting consistency.

Variation: Fold in one tub of Cool Whip for a mousse-like frosting. (I didn't do that.)

Note: This makes a lot of frosting. I had enough to make 24 small cupcakes, frost a 9" cake, and still there was leftovers. My friend often halves it. 

The second recipe is the meal MyGirl requested for her birthday. 

I will tell you how I season it, but know that I don't measure anything except for baked goods, so I can't say with exactness what I've done. I cook to taste, and keep a tasting spoon next to the stove.  I use the spoon I'm cooking with to put a little on my tasting spoon as I'm going to see how the seasonings are working.

Mexican Haystacks. 

We served it as a buffet, and everyone helped themselves to the following:

Lime Rice (we mix brown and white together and squeeze half a lime on top) Can add cilantro here too.

Black Beans

Chicken or Steak, seasoned well 

     In the order of which spices I used the most:

          Chili powder, cumin, taco seasoning, salt, white pepper, garlic powder, chipotle pepper, juice of a    

           whole lime

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Cheese

Avocado

Cilantro

Salsa

Sour Cream

We had chips on the side, but they are not part of the Haystacks. It all sure was good.

 The last recipe I have no photo to share. Its a Creamed Spinach I served for Sunday dinner.

Creamed Spinach

2 pkgs. 10 oz. cut leaf spinach

1 T. olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 heaping tablespoon flour

2 T. butter

12 oz. can fat free or lowfat evaporated milk

1-2 Skinny Cow cheese wedges

handful part skim grated mozzarella cheese

garlic powder, salt, and pepper

Add a cup of water to the 2 packages of spinach and cook on stove top until hot and pliable.

Drain liquid in a colander and put back into pan on stove top. Add to the pan olive oil, yellow onion and garlic.Cook until onions are transluscent. Next add 1 heaping tablespoon of flour to the spinach mixture. Stir to blend throughout. Add butter and let it meld with the flour/spinach mixture. Add the evaporated milk and bring to medium-high heat, until it becomes thick. Add cheese wedges and a handful of part-skim grated mozzarella and let them meld with the thickened mixture. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Serves 8.

My Girl

My Girl is having her birthday today but yesterday we had our celebration. Cowgirl had to leave in the afternoon so MyGirl planned some fun activities we could all do before she left. Grandma and Grandpa came, Daddy took off work, and LittleBuddy even got to play hooky from school. Then after we dropped Cowgirl off at the airport, we came home for the dinner of choice, which was Mexican Haystacks, and this cake. For two weeks she kept on showing me this cake on Pinterest, so I gave it a go, and it turned out. Yeah! (I've not always been successful  - no more homemade ice cream cakes.)

 Lemon cake with raspberry jam filling, vanilla buttercream frosting and raspberries on top. Yum!

 We had three stops on our day's itinerary. Even though this brother didn't love this stop, he loves her a lot and still made the most of it too.

 One was the Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour up in Boulder. It lasts 45 minutes and they don't let you take pictures inside, so here are some outside pictures.

 Zinger Lane was cute. We learned that Sleeptime is their number one selling tea, with Chamomile and Peppermint coming in at 2nd and 3rd. The smells of peppermint was almost overwhelming. It has to be kept in its own double steel plated room so its smells don't contaminate the other teas. We saw how they mix the teas, package them, and wrap them for shipment.

 They give you these lovely hair nets right after they tell you no pictures on the tour, so this is as much as I could get inside. Like I say, the boys were good sports. . . haha. Afterwards there is a nice gift shop with boxes of tea that are much cheaper than at the grocery store, so we stocked up, and I was happy to be able to pick up some Gingerbread Spice, as that is usually only found at the holidays, but its wonderful for an upset stomach so I like to keep it around.

 Another of our stops was the National Center for Atmospheric Research - NCAR. It also has a free museum and was very interesting. Here Cowgirl shows us how clouds are formed.

 BigBuddy looking at how tornadoes are formed.

 I wish I would have taken a photo of the largest size hail they have found. It was larger than a grapefruit and quite jagged. . . fascinating . . . found in Kansas in 1970. We ate lunch at their cafeteria which was tasty before heading to our next adventure.

 In Westminster, Colorado, is a Butterfly Pavilion. However, they also have other areas. One is an aquarium. Clown fish are MyGirl's favorites.

She also enjoyed touching a starfish.

 Only the boys were brave enough to let a tarantula climb on them. Her name was Rosie.

 Both boys were excited for the opportunity. . . the girls on the other hand - no money would have convinced them it was a good idea, nor their mother!

Truly the highlight, though, was the butterflies, and we spent quite a while in this humid environment.

 They would land wherever they wanted, and crawl onto fingers or shirts.

 There were a large variety, some coming from as far as Sumatra and Malaysia.

 Of course, sometimes it wasn't too fun to have them land on your head, but others close-by would fan them away.

 BigBuddy managed to attract two at a time.

 I just love their colors and variety.

 MyMike giving one a free ride.

 This butterfly loved my mother. He would fly around her and then come right back to the same place.

 I also loved the beautiful vegetation.

 Not often we get to see a hibiscus in Colorado!

 Unique shapes.

 These ones were the largest and most prolific of all we saw.

These were my favorites. Loved the coloring and how nicely they posed for my pictures ;-)

My girl loved her day.  Hard to believe she has grown up so quickly! She went to Young Adults for the first time two Sundays ago. . . ready to make the bridge and find more friends her age. We wish her every happiness always!

Genetics

My mom and dad came over this afternoon. We were looking at some old video tapes they are going to convert to DVD's. It was fun to see all of my grandparents again in those tapes. We all started commenting on ourselves and particularly our hair colors.

This craft project was made in 2007, only six short years ago, but my hair is not this color anymore. Wasn't it a nice brunette color?

This picture was taken six months ago. . . how much more gray!

But as I looked at my grandparents on video I saw my relatives who were in their seventies and eighties. One had white hair, one had black hair, one had grey hair and one had more brown than gray left. So, I know which ones I will be more like. And you know what? I'm okay with gray hair. I loved them for who they were. MyMike has been gray for a long time. . .  now we match more. :-)

Honey Lemon Soother

My friend left the following at my front door last week:

this white mug, a whole lemon, a jar of honey, and some cough drops.

It was all wrapped up cute and had a tag attached.

 Here is what the directions said:
Boil water. Wash lemon and cut in half. Squeeze juice from lemon half into mug and place juiced peel into the mug. Pour a generous serving of honey over the peel. Carefully pour boiling water into the mug and allow to steep for ten minutes. Remove lemon peel and seeds. Stir to add honey to taste. Feel Better.

I made it twice last week and it was wonderful. What a sweet friend and I'm glad to be feeling much better this week than I was. Being compassionate is always a creative act, and this week I was the blessed recipient of a sweet friend's thoughtfulness. I'm going to remember this and do the same for someone else. The best creativity should be passed on, don't you think?

I wanted to add something else cute I saw from Pinterest . . . love that site a little too much, I do.
This sums up my entire quilting experience:
                        Keep Calm and Get The Seamripper

I'm working on the design for a new quilt this week. My mom doesn't understand why I don't want to use a pattern. I do have some patterns I really want to make, but this idea is just under my skin and I'm compelled to create it. . . . When I get the design finished and start the cutting and sewing I'll show you. First, though, I've got a zipper to put into a pair of capris that have been sitting in my basket for too long, and MyGirl's scrapbook to catch up on. . . so many projects, so little time, always! A creative mind is never really at rest.