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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Star Gazer

 Early last month before my ‘sick’ really knocked me down, Himself and I stopped by a yard sale in our area.  We don’t get many close yard sales because we are so far out… most people get with a friend in town and have a combined sale.
 
Anyway, this family was having the sale to prepare for moving out to California.  They were serious about getting rid of stuff.  One of the things they had was a nice refractor telescope that they wanted just $25 for!  (I looked it up once we got home and it goes for about $150!)  Needless to say, I jumped on it!
 
 
It sat waiting until one day I was feeling pretty good yet tired.  I decided that putting it together would be an easy task I could do from the couch.
 
 
Hmmmm…  Which way did that fit on?
 
 
There were a million parts!  Well, maybe not quite a million but enough to be confusing.
 
 
Let’s see… part B395 fits into part X4261…
 
 
What’s this darn thing supposed to look like again??
 
 
My poor fever-addled brain wasn’t taking it in very fast.  I should have taken a nap before tackling this…
 
 
THAT is supposed to help?!?!
 
 
Does that work…?
 
 
That project is finished at last!! 
 
A week or so later we had a chance to use it for the first time when Saturn put on a show.  We went up the hill to our favorite sky viewing spot by the cow pasture.  There we saw Jupiter and 4 moons, and Saturn with its rings facing out perfectly!  Fun!
 
I don’t have a camera attachment so I tried just holding my little point-and-shoot up to the eye piece.  Terrible pictures… but you get the idea.  We could see the planets WAY better than the photos show!
 
 
Jupiter is the big bright spot on the upper right and one of the moons is the little bright spot in the lower left.
 
 
Saturn.  You can kinda see the shape at the top part of the ‘blur’. 
 
 
(A thank you to Himself who happily snapped photos of his frustrated wife as she put this thing together!)
 
 

Friday, May 24, 2013

A Time To Praise

A few weeks ago our church had a fund raiser for the Relay for Life program.  It was a music show/concert type thing, with three acts.  There were also hot dogs and chips for a donation, and a bake sale too. 
 
 
First was our church’s praise band “All For One”…
 

Second was a church member…
 
 
And third was a local gospel group (I can’t remember their name). 
 
All was going well until the gospel group got started.  Halfway thru their first song our pastor walked up front and announced that we were under tornado warning, with a supercell approaching.  We headed off to the back part of the basement to take shelter.
 
Understandably everyone was very nervous (and this was before the OK tragedy).  Then a wonderful thing happened.  The young people in the gospel group started singing praise songs acapella. 
 
 
 
Our storm passed in ten minutes and we went back out to finish the evening. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Little Bird's Milestone

Back from another trip up to MO.  Not only am I working on planting beds at my home, while we were up there Himself and I helped with planting beds at both my parents and Sis’s homes too.  I’ll get some photos when they fill out a bit.
 
While we were there Little Bird passed a milestone.  She finished her first year of preschool.  What happened to the tiny baby girl?  She’s gotten so big.
 
 
That’s her in the big orange bow, with her teacher and classmates. 
 
 
The school raised butterflies for the children.  As part of the last day celebrations, the butterflies were released.  You can see one of them taking off if you follow the gaze of the teacher letting them go.  (I’d love to know what Little Bird was thinking!)
 
 
Little Bird showing off her certificate to her Mommy (my Sis), while Little Hoss gets a treat from his Grandma (my Mom).
 
 
Having some fun with the ‘balloon’ she made.
 
 
Chillin’ with Little Hoss. 
 
 
He loves my little tape measure.  It keeps him busy for quite a while. 
 
 
Grandma reading him a book keeps him occupied too. 
 
Once the ‘ceremony’ was over, all the kids present were able to play with a bunch of toys.  Fun times!!
 
It was love at first sight for Little Hoss and this Tonka truck.
 
 
Little Bird and the badminton racquet.
 
 
They need to work on their jump rope technique!
 
 
Looking for a play partner.

 
Trucks and balls… perfect playtime for a little boy!
 
 
Zooming off somewhere…
 
 
She loves to round-up the balls and have them in their ‘proper’ place.  
 
Himself caught a sweet sight on camera.  Little Bird and this baby girl played together for quite a while. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Aren’t they precious?
 
 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sorrows

 
 
 
 

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A Lovely 'Good Night'

Beautiful sunset from our deck.  Funny how earlier it was 'darker' then the clouds opened up and it got much brighter. 




The Bluebird of Happiness...

... is hanging out at our house...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
...and he wants to come inside!!
 
 
 
 
Lady Bluebird just sits and watches his silliness. 
 
 
 
(Oh...he's done this at the screen door too - where there's no reflection.)

Monday, April 22, 2013

Vicks VapoRub Cure?

I’ve been quiet this week because I came back from another visit to MO with the worst case of ‘baby crud’ ever.  From Thursday afternoon even to today, I have been hacking and gagging.  (I’ll spare you the gory details…)  The worst of it is the constant coughing that is making me sore like I’ve been doing crunches all day and breaks up my sleep at night. 
 
 
I’m sure you’ve seen the “Vicks VapoRub on the feet cures coughing in 15 minutes” all over Pinterest.  I took note of it mainly because I LOVE the smell of Vicks.  (As a child I had a little jar of it on my nightstand that I would sniff just because I liked it.)
 
Well, the time has come to put the folk lore to the test… 
 
 
Himself rubbed in the Vicks and I put on some thick socks.
 
 
And I started timing.  (Actually started at 6:15 but took a couple minutes to get myself ‘comfy’ for the wait).  I noticed my feet started to feel very warm. 
 
 
Fifteen minutes later…
 
 
…still coughing.  Feet are feeling tingly too. 
 
 
After waiting another 15 minutes, I get up and go amuse myself on the computer for an hour.  After a total of an hour and a half of waiting, I give up.  It did NOT work for me.  And I really, really wanted it to. 
 
However, once I pulled off the socks and wiped off the excess Vicks, I had fantastically soft and good smelling feet!