End of the month

Wow, it is already the last day of February!  We are two weeks back from our trip and it seems we have crammed a lifetime in those two weeks.  Naturally, I had to spend several days getting "caught up" after our vacation.  I have always said, "We need a vacation from our vacation."  Last Saturday, 19th of February, we did just that.  We had lunch with Ian and the grandkids at Schlotsky's...that is an adventure in and of itself.  What a delightful time we had!  Erynn and Reid are the best--so well behaved (most of the time), and just plain fun.  Laurie was at a women's conference so she could not join us.  After lunch, Warren and I headed to the Roswell Museum because there was a photographic display that I wanted to see.  Thank goodness Warren loves to go to the Museum as much as I do.  As it turned out, there were other fun things on display as well as the photographs.  It was so worth the trip.

As we were driving home, Warren said, "I have a surprise for you!"  I love surprises--who doesn't.  He would not tell me what it was--only to wait and see.  When we pulled into the Doctor's parking lot at the Medical Center, I was confused.  He told me to wait in the car and he'd be right back.  I did.  He came back out with two little  cylinders in his hand a big smile on his face.  He had two Italian Ices which are kind of like a sorbet.  I was ecstatic. Anything resembling ice cream makes me happy.  We went home and ate them on our back porch.  Such fun!

Here are the Italian Ices...a great surprise!

Mmmm...so good!

Warren was still have horrible pains down his leg due to the herniated disc in his back.  He was scheduled for surgery on Thursday the 24th.  He was supposed to be in the operating room by 12:30, but nothing ever happens on time medically.  He did not go in until 2:15.  His procedure lasted 2 hours, but his recover took about 3 hours.  He just could not wake up, his oxygen sats were as low as 73 (normal is 99%), and he was nauseated horribly.  At one point, they considered keeping him over night.  The surgery seemed to have worked because he was at work the next day and in the February follies that night.  Thank you Jesus and praise God!

Warren in his non-emboli stockings...waiting.  We did a lot of waiting.

The February Follies costume 

Up close

More silliness

Happy 31st Birthday Zach

Happy Birthday to Zach who is 31 years old today.  There was never a dull moment when Zach was around.  He was a very busy little boy, but a good little boy, too.  A couple of things in particular stand out in my mind.  The first is that he talked very plainly and in complete sentences before the age of two.    He was  inquisitive about everything.  One time he was suppose to be taking his nap, only I did not know he was not.  He was playing around in his room.  We lived in an old house, so there were not many outlets, hence the need for extension cords.  I had a box fan plugged in with an extension cord.  Shortly after he was put down, I heard this horrible scream and loud crying coming from Zach.  I ran upstairs and found him crying with his lower lip swollen with two burn marks similar to slits in an outlet plug.  When asked what happened, he said he had unplugged the extension cord from the fan.  When he could not get it reconnected, he bit it to get it together and got quite an electrical shock.  Not knowing what to do, I took him to see Warren at his office just incase he needed to be treated medically.  Warren was not too shocked about the whole thing.  I guess he has seen just about everything in his medical career.

Zach 3 years

Zach today

So happy birthday to Zach.  May you have a great year.  We love you much.

Inspiration

After I posted yesterday, I went to several blog sites I check pretty regularly.  One of them was my daughter-in-law, Jordan's blog, http://lifethinking.livejournal.com/.  I love reading about what is going on in their lives and her writing is entertaining.  I think living with Luke automatically makes things entertaining.  I find out more there than in conversations, and old-fashioned letters which are out of style now and never get anyway.  I had to laugh at the comment Luke made about blogs: Jordan posted,
 Luke suggested last night that I need to start updating my blog again and when I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what to write about he said, “well, then, right about green beans.  That’s what blogs are for anyway, to write about piddley things like green beans and people love it.”  
Luke's statement does have an element of truth to it.  But most of all, I like to read about the relationship they have to each other and the Lord.  It does a mother's heart good to know someone loves your son as much as you do.  So even if it was about green beans I would like it.

This morning I was thinking about my picture for the 365 project, and what to write about on my blog, and decided what I was doing at that moment was perfect for both.  What was I doing...my quiet time and it was quite an appropriate scripture.  

We are called to worship the Lord.  Here the Psalmist says to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.  He is worthy of all our praise and worship.  Then, I decided to set up a photo with all my stuff I use each morning for my time with God.  I use colored pencils to mark repeated words in my reading, a journal to write what God speaks to me, a daily devotion, my Bible,  my glasses because I cannot see anything without them, and the cross is just for fun.  

For added fun, I took a picture of the spot where Luke was practicing writing his name.  At the time he did it, I was not too thrilled that he chose my Bible for his paper, but now I treasure it.  This is my piddley rantings for today. Go and be blessed in the name of the Lord.

365 project

I decided I wanted to do a 365 project.  I sort of keep up with something similar on my shutter calendar. (http://www.shuttercal.com/calendar/robmck), but they are not always taken on that particular day.  The goal for the 365 project is to take a picture a day, and journal about it. I have had a hard time deciding the format I want to use, but I think I have found one for week three.  Now I am wondering if I should go back and redo the other two weeks.  Here is week three for me.

Photo experiment

I found some beautiful frames at http://ilafrancephoto.blogspot.com/ and textures at http://www.chasingdreamsphotography.blogspot.com/ and decided to try them out on a picture of Reid and his Winnie the Pooh.  The quote is from the book, Winnie the Pooh.  If you look closely in his eyes, you will see my image.  I was wearing a hot pink fleece.  I thought everything came together so beautifully.  Of course, I had a great subject, too.

Past few days

I take the pictures for our new membership class at church.  We choose a different theme for each class.  The last classes' theme was Hollywood stars.  We decorated the church with a red carpet, lights, and we all dressed up or came a "star".  I enjoy getting into our themes very much.  With this one, I found some big, loop earrings, a cubic zirconium necklace, and a hat.  I rarely get my picture taken, since I am doing the picture taking, but Warren took this one for me.

My "movie star" outfit

As usual, we had the grandkids on Thursday and had a great time. This time Warren took the pictures. It is kind of nice being in some pictures.

Reid and Mimi having fun

Now it is Erynn's turn.  

All of us.  We had a great time.

Today, I finished the Christmas stockings I was making for Mark and Amber. I know, I know, they are kind of late, but I wanted Amber to pick out the material. Since they came after Christmas, I wasn't able to complete them this year. So, they are actually very early for next year. I think they turned out very nice.

The stockings for next year.

Some favorite pictures

I am in the process of putting together a 2010 memory album, and boy, am I having trouble picking out pictures to include since I think all of them need to be in it.  As I do each page, I think "oh, I just love these."  Then I do the next page and I like it equally well.  It is very satisfying to have such joy well up inside me as I complete each page.  It is like I am birthing something very precious to me.  I thought I would post some of a few of my favorite ones I have done today.

In looking at some of the photo galleries on my favorite website, http://jessicasprague.com, I have seen a lot of postings for a "project 365" which is just a matter of taking a photo every day of the year, journaling, and making a photo book.  I do something like that on shuttercal.com, but thought it would be fun to actually try to do the project photo book.  I was really inspired when I went to this blog, http://jamie-solorio.blogspot.com, and saw the examples of some of the daily photos Jamie took.  Her photos are amazing.  Maybe I will get some posted, but only after  I get my 2010 album completed.

Warren at McDonald's.  He was letting me practice
my indoor photography while the grandkids played.

Adi when she was here in June.  

Warren "tickling" a patient's tummy
 during a physical exam.

Great Verses

I have finally gotten my house cleaned up. Whew! I did have some distracted days. Now all I have is some laundry to do. Maybe the reason I got so motivated was the anticipation of starting some of my self-paced photography classes. I decided I would not start them until I had certain things done. Now they are done, and I am going to start one of the classes today.

I found several scriptures I thought would be great for 2011. These will be my year verses:

Let your heart hold fast my words;

Keep my commandments and live. Proverbs 4:4

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands. Psalms 78:72

Since I am one who needs help with scripture memorization (my grandkids put me to shame), I am doing Beth Moore's scripture memorization for 2011. For information regarding this go to January 1, 2011 at this website: http://blog.lproof.org/ I did her first scripture memorization and was blessed by doing it. Well, aren't we always blessed when we get into the word and the word in us. We are to hold fast to his words, keep them, and LIVE. We are not truly living until we live in the word.

One more verse...I got this on Beth Moore's blog. She is right, it is a good one to start the New Year with.

Psalms 65:11 You crown the year with Your good blessings, and You leave abundance in Your wake. The NET Bible