Taking a New Direction!

I am moving my blog to my own domain! Please bookmark my new site, and find me at:


http://bristolwood.net


Hope to see you there!

Funny How One Thing Leads to Another...

This morning, as I was "counting my blessings", I was feeling a little spoiled, as I was doing so while sitting in the hot tub. Mind you, the tub we have is a very *modest* model without lots of bells and whistles. However, the thought of being able to relax and enjoy the jets pounding against my spine made me feel somewhat spoiled....

And, while wallowing in the guilt of gluttony, I raised my left hand out of the water and looked admiringly at "the ring". This isn't the engagement ring that Mark gave me. Nope, it is a beautiful, almost "Victorian" looking ring. And, how did I acquire this ring?

My parents lived next door to a husband and wife who never had children. My mother has always been a very kind spirit, giving far more than she takes! So, when the woman next to her grew older and knew that she would need to move to a nursing home in not too many years, she gave my mom some jewelry.

In that jewelry was "the ring". When my mom showed me the ring, I was so envious. I didn't dream of the ring; neither did I think of ways to coerce my mom into giving it to me. Well, perhaps not wittingly...

Every time I saw my mom with "the ring" on her finger, I would make comments about how she could certainly "donate" it to me when she was done with it. Or, my birthday is.....Yes, I guess you could say that when I *saw* the ring, I was lusting after it. Sad, but true.

You cannot imagine my surprise, excitement, and ecstasy when I opened a birthday present from my parents a few years ago, and there it was! It was a little big, so I raced to the jeweler, where it remained in his possession for nearly a week! But, then, it was MINE!

I have worn that ring in lieu of my engagement ring and wedding band since, as they were cutting into my finger so, I was afraid they would sever it! This ring is so much more *me*, too.
And then, it hit me as the warm water splashed around me....my one clear remembrance of my maternal great-grandmother is "what little Lola wants, little Lola gets".

Talk about guilt literally washing over you! You see, my mom said that when I was a little baby, I climbed up onto the table to play with the silverware. This is when my great-grandmother uttered that now infamous quote that came to haunt me this morning.

As I sat, feeling rather repentant for my "get what I want" lot in life, a hummingbird came whizzing (very literally!) past my face! I quickly came to attention, jumping up and heading into the house. You see, when these hummingbirds *want* their feeder filled, one must HOP to attention right away! If you are the least bit familiar with hummingbirds, (weighing in at about the weight of a PENNY, mind you!) they are VERY demanding. They are territorial (dive-bombing any other hummer that might fly into *THEIR* zone) and demanding, in that if one doesn't keep their sugar water brimming in the feeder, they will leave and NOT return!

So, as I hopped out of the tub, I came to the glum realization that Lola (the human) was certainly reflected by the little birds that she so loves and admires!!!

So Many Mixed Emotions

I took this picture of a flower on my Fushia plant hanging on the front porch. I took it on Wednesday, during a brief downpour, when the sun suddenly poked through the clouds and cast a little "spotlight" on the dripping flower. It was just so beautiful!

I had company on Tuesday. A friend came with two of her daughters. Cindy is an amazing woman...mother of eight, yes eight!, children! She came with her second youngest, as well as an older daughter who is expecting her first baby! I met the older girl (only 23) at a luncheon we had for a bunch of us soap making friends a couple of years ago. (Emily had come with her mom.) I do have photos from our day and will hopefully blog about this when I get the new blog set up. (it is getting very close!)

Cindy and the girls left our house at about 7:15 on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, while listening to the news, I heard about a terrible accident that occurred Tuesday night at about 10 pm. Five young girls who just graduated from high school were in an suv, driving to a cottage on the lake. Apparently, the driver oversteered into the oncoming lane after passing another car. She crashed into an 18-wheeler and both vehicles were instantly engulfed in flames.
The driver of the semi was unhurt, and his attempt to try to save the girls in the suv was futile. All five girls were killed.

Mark and the kids and I had to go out today. On our way home, we could not miss the scene where the girls lost their lives....a car in the opposite lane had its headlights on a small memorial that has been made in tribute to the girls. An older man and woman were adding their own flowers. This had such an impact on Mark and me...a grim reminder of just how fragile this life is, no matter what our age is.

On a happy note, yesterday, Ben called to me up by the house as he was down near the road. He kept yelling something about "deer"! What in the world? I walked around the house, and I instantly saw what he was so excited about! A little fawn was walking along one of our paths. It looked so tiny! As I edged nearer and nearer, it looked quite tentative, then suddenly darted forth, springing as though it was "launched" into the woods. I did indeedy have my camera, but that fawn was F-A-S-T! I was sorry to miss the opportunity to capture the little one on the camera, but when one sees these little woodland creatures, there is a sense of having seen something almost "forbidden".....

Wordless Wednesday....

Well, I Knew it was Coming!

Yup. I have been blogging for almost one year now, and if you have seen my blog, you know that I love putting up pictures as much a writing.

Blogger offers 1024 MB of space for photos and I kept seeing my numbers edging closer and closer to that dreaded 1024....Last night, I was informed that in order to upload three photos, I was going "over the top".

I know that many bloggers have accounts with Snapfish, Flik'r, and Photo Bucket to store their photos. I will be looking into doing such, but I really like photos on the blog. ;o( I have found out that I do have an account that I already pay for that sponsors blogs, so I am going to have Mark look into that for me, too.

So....it looks like my Blogger account and I will be parting ways soon. It was nice while it lasted!
If I am not here for a day or two, I will be back. And yes, I will certainly leave my forwarding address here!

Everyday is a Celebration!

This morning, Mark and I were chatting and we both agreed that each day should be lived as though it is a celebration. Not one of us knows the number of our days, so we should live each day in joyous anticipation, celebrating another day of life with those we love!

Late this morning (too late, I might add!), I decided to begin making lunch. Well, time got away from me, so we had a very late lunch or early dinner!

Everyone thought that shish kabobs would be good *again*! Well, since I had everything in the fridge, why not? I cut up all of the chicken breasts a couple of nights ago, so I just placed them into a ziplock bag. Then I sliced all the veggies.....

Mark *loves* the Zesty Savory Marinade from Wegman's. It is kind of spicy/hot, but it really has a nice flavor. After cutting all of the veggies, I threw those into the ziplock bag with the chicken and let everything sit on the counter to meld flavors for an hour.

I had begun some rolls to serve with the shish kabobs, too.

When I made the shish kabobs for Father's Day, I placed the meat and veggies all on the skewer. Well, Mark informed me that on the cooking shows, the chefs always segregate the ingredients by the amount of time it takes to cook them. So, I placed the peppers, onions, and mushrooms on separate skewers.


This was pretty funny....

The other day, while at WalMart, I saw some tiny hummingbird feeders for 97 cents. I picked one up and got this idea....since I cannot photograph the hummers very well out front, I would hang these tiny feeders on the back side of the house and try to catch them through the window in the kitchen!

So, while the rolls were finishing up proofing in the oven, I sat on a chair, trying to "catch" a hummer....

(I ***love*** my new stove! To keep the rolls at a nice steady 100 degrees while they rise...what a tremendous feature!) So....anyway,

Yup! The hummers like the little feeders! Hurrah. It is so cool to be able to watch them as I wash dishes at the sink! First thing tomorrow, I need to refill this feeder, as they drank all of the sugar water!

Well, I had to get up off my chair after I placed the rolls in the oven to bake. I needed to run outside to the back deck to check the shish kabobs on the grill. And, when I came back to the kitchen...............

Uh huh! When I first walked into the kitchen, Angus's nose was up against the oven door, sniffing to see if he approved of the rolls! When we used to go to my father-in-law's apartment for the holidays, he always invited Angus to sit on one of these chairs as we ate! So, when Angus saw the empty chair in the kitchen, he must have thought it was for him!

And here is the ned product. How I wish I could send "smell" over the computer! These smelled so delicious, and this is all the family left for me!

We finished up the dishes and cleanup and my poor head was throbbing like crazy! It felt like someone was pressing the sides of my head together above my ears! I finally wound up taking an ibuprophen, and then headed for the hot tub. I sat in there for two cycles (each about 20 minutes) then just sat there in the water with no jets for about another half hour! It was fun being entertained by the little hummingbirds.....they whizzed past my head and made their cute little chirping noise!

I finally came into the house after 7! I decided a cup of Irish tea would be just the thing to end my day, so I brewed a cup!

Well, tomorrow, we are going to be doing testing for the kids for school. It seems so insane that we have to do achievement tests, but I guess the school district has to know we really are doing something here day after day! The kids are finishing up some little things on their school, and we should be completely done by next week. This is a first! We usually end up doing school work well into July!

Happy weekend, and remember to celebrate life!

Keeping Busy and Little Things!

The first order of the day today was to get rid of the wasp nests that they built under the rails of the swimming pool. Ugh! I am not sure why those wasps are so fond of building there, but it seems like every time I look, there are new nests. I ventured forth this morning, new can of wasp and hornet spray in hand. I found and sprayed nine nests.

About an hour later, I went out to remove the nests from the pool. Being lazy, I reached for a small stick on the ground to flick the nests off. I went around the perimeter of the pool, removing the nests, one by one. As I finished, I became keenly aware that the stick I was holding was.....*moving*! Eeeewwwwwww! As I looked down, there was this huge wiggling wormy looking thing crawling inside what appeared to be a cocoon. Rather than passing out on the ground, I raced to the woods, throwing the stick deeply into the thick greenery! Even now, as I think about it, I can feel my skin crawling!

After this, I needed something to relax my somewhat disturbed soul! As I looked around, I saw daisies everywhere! So, I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures. As I snapped photo after photo of beautiful flowers all around, my mind raced back a few years ago to when Michelle was a little toddler....Our neighbors have a daughter who is about a year younger than Michelle, and when the girls were little, we would fashion a daisy headpiece and ohhh and ahhh over our little princesses!

I set the camera down and went on a daisy picking expedition. I picked the largest daisies I could find, making sure to leave many daisies behind. I didn't want to take too many from any one spot. Then, I sat down and began braiding the daisies into a pretty headpiece. As I worked, I wondered if Michelle would even allow me to place the floral crown upon her brow! When the headpiece was done, I cut several of the pretty yellow daisies from the hanging basket on the back deck. Oh my! What a pretty headpiece this is!

I took several pictures of Miss M with the daisy crown on, but she asked me not to "display" them, so I will honor her request. So, here is a self-portrait with the daisy crown...

OK, so get up off the floor and quit laughing at me!

Let's see. I took a few pictures of wild roses, too! One of the flowers was so beautifully open, displaying the pretty yellow center. As I took photos, the petals began to fall off....one...by...one!

Here is a bud that was getting ready to open fully.....

And, a tiny bud...

I gave each of the little Scottie boys a bone to chew on; as they worked away, gnawing on their prizes, I uploaded pictures and fiddled around with both of my cameras. I took this picture of a hummingbird sitting on the feeder with my Olympus camera. I love my Nikon so much, but I have to admit, I would certainly miss my little Olympus if I didn't have it!

And, after all this serious work I was about today, I decided to paint my toenails. hehehe