Nice Day For a Picnic!

We started out this morning after breakfast with planting seeds in a little clay pot with Paige and put them on the porch to grow and keep watered. Then I painted her toenails blue and massaged her feet with lotion which she loved. Then she was so sweet. She wanted to put lotion on my feet and massage them. :)

Then I packed us a picnic lunch and we headed out for Shakespeare Park for a picnic. We spread a blanket under a shade tree by the water and were in the middle of our picnic when I spotted across the other side of the water a young lady with a nice-looking camera taking photos and pointing our way. I really didn't think very much about it, just thinking it was someone like me enjoying the beautiful weather and taking photos at this beautiful park. In fact, it even crossed my mind that I hated that we were in her way and she might be trying to get a good landscape photo. In just a few minutes, she walked over to us ( a pretty good little walk ) and asked if she could have our names explaining that she was with the local paper and just taking photos of people enjoying the beautiful weather in different locations around the city. So I told her our names and she asked where we were from and I told her. Then we had a wonderful conversation about mother/daughter relationships, photography, Photoshop, and a lot of different subjects.

Paige was just in the paper a few weeks ago and now I wonder if this one will be in the paper one day this week or maybe even tomorrow. I checked the website when I got home and nothing had been posted for the day. I'll check again tonight and tomorrow.

After the park, we went to Books A Million and enjoyed reading a few books and Paige played with the big train set and looked at a few toys. Then we went next door to the pet store and looked around.

It was a wonderful day. We enjoyed the weather and our activities. Paige took a nap on the way home and on the couch after we got home which gave me time to finish our dinner and we ate with her daddy and sent her mother a plate. Paw Paw is eating now. It was a full day and, again, I am so tired but it is a good tired feeling like I helped people who appreciated it.

I do have to say that these vitamins I'm taking are doing wonders for me. I have so much more energy and a better and more positive outlook on life. I am so thankful I found out about them.

Oh, and by the way, the photo above is of Paige at the Shakespeare Park, a beautiful, beautiful place.

Isn't It A Lovely Ride?

About a week ago, I decided to go back to my very first post of this year and read it. It was really a strange sensation reading it. I felt the very same excitement as I did that day beginning this blog and something very new for me. If you want to read it, go here to read it again. I love James Taylor's words - sliding down and gliding down, try not to try too hard, it's just a lovely ride.

I think I've been trying too hard lately and worried about a lot of things I had no control over. But I guess that's just the human condition. I did the best I could and didn't expect the unexpected. Who know what the rest of this year that I turned 60 will hold?

I love the photo above. I think it illustrates the lyrics to the song. Here is Paige, with a cast on her arm, and she's just holding both arms high up in the sky, sliding down and gliding down. She's trying not to try too hard and just having a lovely ride. :)

Feline College Kitties

I just went through a long post about these kitties and blogger didn't accept it. I don't know what went wrong and it's after 1 am here so I'm going to shorten this post.

These cats were feline college buddies. The one in the top photo that you see the best is Rudi, my youngest daughter's cat, that she nursed and saved his life. He was found as an orphan. She even got up during the night while she was going to nursing school to feed him.

The next picture, bottom one, was my oldest daughter's cat. She was rescued, too, and almost died in the very beginning. When my daughter got married, her husband was allergic to cats so we got her. She is a hunter. She caught a hummingbird once. That's how fast she is.

We love them both even though we had just gotten a new dog and cat and didn't expect to have any more pets - just a dog and a cat. :) But these two new additions have made our life interesting and more loving. We love our pets, one dog and 3 cats!

Strange Photo!

Is this not the strangest photo you've ever seen?!? ha!

I went to help my daughter today. She's been a little under the weather and I helped her clean out her room she's trying to make into an office so it can be painted and refurbished. The walls have already been primed and we cleaned it up enough so that the baseboard can be finished and we can paint.

While we were cleaning and going through things in there, we came across a couple of cameras. One was a digital camera that used the same card as mine and since my daughter's digital camera used a different type card, she gave it to me. Naturally, curiosity was getting the best of me so almost as soon as I got home (after I unloaded the car), I put this card into the computer and there were 27 pics on there. Some were from a cruise they went on back in 2005 and this particular photo above was the strangest-looking photo! I don't know what happened but it reminds me of one of those children's books where you have three columns and you can change the top, middle and bottom to get a different picture. haha! The rest of the photos were ok.

We got a lot accomplished and I'm tired but it's a good tired of knowing that I helped someone today and they appreciated it. :)

Sentimental

Why in the world would I post a picture of this old dishpan on my blog? This was the very last thing that I lovingly brought home from my mother's house. All the family had already pored over all of her "things" and had carefully chosen what they wanted to keep. I think we all did this over and over. Some of us even brought things home and would take them back again. Then my sister-in-law had a yard sale and included some of Mama's "things" in it. Some of them sold. Some didn't. Then we called a mission to come get some things. Then Habitat for Humanity. Some things were taken to the curb for garbage pick-up. When all was gone, my brother and I were looking in her old shed in her back yard to see if anything was left and there was this old dishpan. Nobody wanted it. I looked at it and memories came flooding back of seeing that old dishpan in my mother's hands for different reasons. I slowly bent over and picked it up and just gave my brother this look that he completely understood (and I'm sure my sisters would, too) and said, "I can't leave this here. I'm taking this home to shell peas in or something." He just gave me an understanding smile and shook his head as if to say, "go ahead. I understand."

Today I spent the whole day in my kitchen cleaning out and rearranging which gave me such a sense of accomplishment. The last thing I did in the kitchen tonight was give that old dishpan a good scrubbing with a feeling that I was so glad that I kept it. My husband and I will put it to good use. Mama would be so proud. :) She did not like to waste anything and liked to put things to good use. We will Mama. You'll be proud of us.

I looked up the word sentimental in the dictionary before I decided to post this. My dictionary gives the definition as: easily affected by emotions such as love, sympathy, sadness, etc., often in a way that seems silly to other people. That's me! It may seem silly to some other people to keep that old dishpan but I guess I'm just sentimental. :)

Busy Day

It doesn't look like much but it took a long time! My day started with freezing okra from the Farmer's Market. It was a labor of love because I only like okra breaded and fried (or maybe you could bake it? I'll have to check into that!) but my husband loves it boiled and now my grandchild does so I froze it in the whole pods. Anyway, that's done.

Next my husband starts complaining about not being able to find a lid for a certain "Tupperware" container so I pull out all those type containers and start trying to match the tops. I have about 50% success. ha! It's all still sitting on the counter. I left. I took him with me and went to Target to shop. That was more fun. Then we went to an hour and a half choir practice, came home to eat and I've been on the computer watching TV. The tupperware is still on the counter. I'll tackle it tomorrow.

I'm trying to do a little cleaning out for a yard sale, hopefully in the fall, as I go everyday anyway. So I just looked at it as an opportunity to clean out for the yard sale instead of getting upset about the complaining. Now he's complaining that the counters are full of tupperware. ha! Can't win. But I will stay positive and will finish that little job tomorrow morning.

I also enjoyed talking to one of my mother's sisters and packaged up some goodies to send her that I know she'll enjoy.

It doesn't sound like a lot but the day's gone. They sure do go by fast nowadays. As I said in my very first post, you might as well enjoy the ride, right? Thank you, James Taylor!

Paw Paw Day, Ducks in a Row, and Composition Mistakes

Today was "Paw Paw Day"! We had Paige today and had our day planned. First thing in the morning, we played golf and, of course, Paw Paw was everything. Then we had lunch and went to get my mother-in-law to help her with some banking and then on to the park to play and feed the ducks. She would not let anyone do anything for her or with her except Paw Paw. It was so funny. But we had a wonderful time.

Here are my "ducks in a row"! ha! I didn't realize they were in a row like this until I imported them onto the computer and looked at them. I took probably a half dozen shots of these cute little baby ducks and as I was looking at them tonight, I realized it all was just point and shoot and wanted to point out a couple of mistakes. Paige really brought my attention to this one above. She wanted to see the pictures I took of the ducks and when she saw this one, she said, "you cut the Mama's tail off, Bear Bear"! And I did! But I do love the three little ducks in a row!

Here's the second mistake I found. Since I was shooting in a hurry and not paying attention to any details or composition or anything, I saw this mistake later. You can see the shadow of my head reflected in the water. Of course, with today's cropping tools, etc., a duck or two could be cropped into an ok photo.

Another "fresh", positive day!