Finally!

 Happy Flag Day!  I love this picture with the flag and the Bible because out country was founded on Biblical principals.

I am having trouble downloading pictures again but today I was able to download a couple...finally,.  This last one is the pretty Starbucks tumbler that Don got at Costco.  I have used it everyday for my Latte.  Don used the green one yesterday for iced coffee.  

The little boot picture is a planter I made up yesterday with Super Bells and the herb Thyme.  it's the last thing I'm going to make up.  We are done and Don is in the process of weeding the flower beds and mulching them.  He did the herb garden yesterday.

The second picture is of Cavan, Ryan's brother just before he headed out for Upper Peninsula Bible Camp to be on staff for eight weeks.  Good for him-he will love it and do a good job.  He was on staff last year also.  So Kristen has an almost empty house.

And finally Kristen heard from Ryan.  He called yesterday and today she got quite the letter from him.  He told some amusing stories.  One guy went AWOL already and got caught.  Another guy peed himself because he was afraid to ask the Drill Sargent if he could go to the latrine.  Our boy is tougher than that!!!

I stopped reading "The Last Jihad," it was too violent.  I am now reading "The Paris Wife."  It is about Ernest Hemingway.  So far I like it.  I am also reading  "Passion For Jesus"  by Mike Bickle.  It is for my book club at church.
Going to have my Latte now.  Enjoy your day!

One week

Well it's been one week since "The Day."  Kristen is still waiting to hear from Ryan.  Some of the other mothers on her Facebook group have heard from their people who deployed at the same time.  So Kristen waits...It's hard!

And it's been a week since I have blogged.  Lots going on I guess; it is hard to keep a daily log of your life.  

Mostly Don and I made pots last week and I made 11 fairy gardens. I think it is probably too many but I love to make them and they look so cute.

Yesterday our first rose of the season bloomed; It's called "Stairway to Heaven"  and I planted it years ago in memory of my mom.

Today we went to Barnes and Noble because Don had a gift card and he bought,what else?  A cookbook!  I looked around for good books I could get on my Kindle.

And today at Costco Don got me some tall plastic,insulated Starbucks drink cups in pink and green.  Two came in a a box.  I love them!

Currently I am reading "The Last Jihad" by Joel Rosenburg.  All I can say is his books are riveting.  

Hope you had a good week!

The Day

 I won't say I didn't cry, because I have several times today, especially when these pictures showed up on Facebook just after he was going to leave at 12:00 noon central time today.  I wonder how Kristen feels letting her first child leave after taking care of him for 18 years.  I think every mother grieves when letting a child go.

And of course I always think of my sister in this situation who can't see either of her boys. I'm not immune to that pain either because I have seen how it has hurt her.     

And here is the emotional grammy, who can't quite believe he actually left.  We won't be seeing him until after Christmas unless we go to Arizona where he does his intel training.  He goes there after his basic training in August.  I can write him while he is in basic training, and you can be sure I will.  He's planning to come to Florida in February or March when we are down there. 

I wonder, even though he chose this and is excited about it, does he really know if he is going to like it.  I guess he will find out soon!  He has strength of character and body that will help him through.  And I wrote in his journal "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might."  

And I am so proud of him and thankful that he is serving our country.  

Plants

  Now that the weather has cooled down a bit we are getting to the plants that we bought a couple of weeks ago.  We repotted the orange or lemon tree-I'm not sure which one it is but it was root-bound from being in the house all winter.  The roots were soaking up the water and turning the green leaves yellow.  Too much water is sometimes worse for a plant than not enough water. So we planted it in a bigger pot and gave it some more dirt and room to grow.  It is on the "injured" plant list, along with some Cana Lilies that need to rebloom.    

We potted the cana lilies (not shone here because we had to snip the dead blooms off).  We planted some Superbells around them in big pots.  I like to have tall plants and then smaller trailing plants around them.  So hopefully, the Cana Lilies will recover.  

The plants are loving the sunshine and the Superbells are just blooming away.  Tomorrow we have more plants to pot especially some fairy gardens.  Hopefully we can get them done.  
We put most of our plants on the deck now because the deer eat them out in the flower beds. 

This is why I love spring and summer.  I love flowers and wish I could plant more the way I used to.    

Why I Scrapbook

I think scrapbooking or crops as they used to be called started out as a social entity.  
Women got together and scrapbooked like they used to get together and quilt,  I belong to a group that meets at a Scrapbook Store once a month, although I must say, I haven't been there in a few months.  I love the social part of scrapbooking with friends but I do not like lugging all my stuff there.  I can scrapbook at home because I have a room, a closet and a table and all my supplies are withing reach.  

But why do I keep doing it?  I wonder myself sometimes and I wonder who is going to look at them all.  But I decided they give me pleasure in looking back at things and remembering what we did.  

It also appeals to the creative side of me that wants to put colors and shapes together.  I love the paper; it's like having a piece of material to work with.  I love the embellishments; it adds form and body to the page.  And lastly I like to do it because when I don't feel like doing anything else, I do it to have a sense of accomplishment; saying "at least I got something done today."  It's an easy way to put off something you probably should be doing,

Scrapbooking isn't for the faint of heart though.  You have to be in a good mood because if you aren't the ideas won't come.  I find once I start I am okay and can keep going for awhile.  

I have done it for about 19 years and when our first-born grandchild came around it really picked up because there were pictures galore. Now vacations also go into the books and the page about is from our time in Florida this winter.   

I have always liked taking pictures and what better thing to do with them but put them in a nice album.  So I keep plugging along all the time knowing I will never finish putting all the pictures I have in an album.  When I'm gone I'm sure they will go out in the trash with all the other things my children don't need.  

I am not being harsh just realistic, I think.