Warren's new toy

Today a package came in the mail addressed to Warren which is nothing new because he orders a lot of bike stuff. I have gotten accustomed to unknown packages showing up at our door step. I did not open it since it was not addressed to me. I asked him if this was Ian's present. (he took care of the gifts for Luke and Ian this year). He said it was not. We had lunch, then he opened the package--it was an iPad. He said we could use it on our trip to watch movies instead of watching them on our little iPod nanos. I am looking forward to seeing all the iPad does. Hopefully we will have time to sync it tonight. He did tell me it was a gift for the both of us and he did get an adaptor so we could use it for photos as well.

And I got my new glasses today. They have a little different prescription so they will take some getting use to.

Another one bites the dust

Recently we had quite a thunderstorm and I did not realize it had done any damage until I went out to put new juice in our hummingbird feeders. It was then that I noticed our Russian Olive tree was crushing the plant stand underneath it. Looking further, I gasped as I saw the tree had fallen on our porch roof. Thankfully, the plant stand kept the tree from falling too hard, and our damage to the porch was only minor. We will have to replace some shingles, but structurally there seems to be no damage.


Thank goodness for the plant stand

The tree on our porch roof

Warren called our yard man who sent over his uncle to cut down the tree. It took two days to take out the tree. I am so thankful Warren did not have to do this, because it would have taken twice as long, and I would be the one having to help him haul away those heavy branches and logs. Besides we do not have a pick up to haul them off to the dump since there was too much to stack in our alley.

First set of logs from one trunk

We now have no more Russian Olive trees and I have mixed emotions about it. I loved the look of the Russian Olive because the trunks were not upright. I liked the way they slanted. It was a pleasing artistic look. What I will not miss is all the pollen and berries the tree dumped on our yard. I swept up loads of its debris. Another good thing is that I will no longer have to try to save the tree from our bark eating squirrels. So our trash tree is now trash. Warren wanted to plant another tree where the Russian Olive stood, but with all the roots, I do not think we will be able to do so. I will use one stump for a plant stand, and the other (since it is at an angle) I will paint something fun on it. Erynn wanted to know if she could paint it; and I just might let her and Reid add their artistic skills to the stump.

The tree was not the only thing that bit the dust. My cell phone which is very old-- I got it when the boys were in high school--started beeping constantly and would not keep a charge. I could have gotten a new battery for it, but a new phone was not much more. So I now have a new cell phone with a keypad for texting and it only cost $20.00. The Sprint people told me they could transfer the information from my old phone to the new one, but it would not transfer. My phone was too old. So I spent a long time entering in all the phone numbers. It has a lot of nice features which I hope to learn how to do someday. Since I have gotten my phone, I have only had one call, and that has been from Warren. My new phone announces who is calling and then it rings. I thought that was interesting. I haven't decided if that is a good or bad thing yet.

This past Thursday, Warren joined the grandkids and I in the swimming pool. Well, Warren is pretty hairy and his chest hair has turned gray. He had on a pair of goggles and was catching Erynn as she jumped from the side of the pool. Reid was studying his Pawpaw, and then said, "Pawpaw, you look like a wolf." I thought that was a pretty good observation and description.

Well, Warren, aka the wolf, was drafted by me to be another photo experiment. I saw this great window display at one of the stores on Main Street. I would like to get a photo with the person and their reflection in the window, plus the window display. I was trying to figure out if it would work, hence Warren became my subject. So far all my shots have been failures. I have yet to get the effect I want, but I did get a pretty nice photo of Warren and Marilyn Monroe. He looks real thrilled about the adventure.

Warren and Marilyn

Busy, busy, busy

Busy, busy, busy. That is how my life has been. I seem to go from one activity to another and there is never enough hours in the day to get all the things done I would like to do. I am reading some great books. One is called the "19th Wife" which is a book about the Mormons (historical fiction) and of course, I have several photography books I am trying to work through. I finally found me a subject who is willing to endure all my photographic sessions and experiments. I must say I have had an equal number of amazingly good and bad photos. I am taking some online photo editing classes as well, so this gives me a great opportunity to try out my new skills. Here are a couple of photos from some of my experiments. I will not post my disasters.

Isn't she beautiful

Gigi is my wonderful subject

The last couple of times the grandkids have come over, we have been busy...painting and picking. Erynn painted a birdhouse, and Reid wanted to paint a plate. What can I say, I tried to get him to paint something a little more exciting, but he had his heart set on the plate.

Reid in his sunglasses. And not very clean ones.

Reid and his artwork

Erynn and her birdhouse

This year our apple tree was loaded with apples. We spent one afternoon picking the apples. The next week Erynn and Reid each made an apple pie. They took one home and Warren and I enjoyed the other one. It was delicious both households agreed.


Pawpaw helps Erynn pick the apples. They are having fun.

Now it is Reid's turn. Such concentration.

Tasting the bounty. A little sour at first bite.

My grass I so carefully planted and staked to protect is now a nice patch of dirt and dead grass. What is so bad is that it seems to be spreading. I thought maybe it had a fungus, so I sprayed for that. It did no good. Then I decided it maybe grubs, so I dug up a spot and no grubs. The skunks seem to be digging for them as well. I see divets where they have been digging. I have trapped one more skunk and two dove. Smiggley was parked right beside the cage waiting for the birds to escape. (I trapped the birds on separate occasions). I let the birds go, but the skunk was toast. Animal control took care of him, but I think I still have another one I need to trap.

My times are in Your hands

Psalm 31: 15 reads, " My times are in your hands." These six words are the affirmation I need to stand on in our current time. Despite disasters, difficulties, and democrats, I am under the care of Almighty God. America is in trouble, big trouble. I remember people being amazed at how quickly the Berlin Wall fell after Ronald Reagan said, "Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Well, I am amazed at how quickly Obama and his cronies have proceeded in destroying our nation. In the past several weeks there have been three separate rulings by Federal judges on different matters. Two have taken their own view and ruled against the will of the people. On July 28th, judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, ruled against the illegal immigration law passed in Arizona which essentially enforces our present Federal immigration laws. Illegals now have more rights than American citizens. It is beyond comprehension and belief.

On August 4th, judge Vaughn Walker, who by the way is homosexual, overturned proposition 8 (prohibiting gay marriage) passed by California voters in November of 2008. One judge voids 7,000,000 voters.

The good news happened on August 2nd when U.S. District judge Henry Hudson rejected the Federal government's motion to dismiss Virginia's suit challenging the constitutionality of Obama's healthcare reform law. Yeah for him! Boo for the other two judges. Thank goodness we have a God who sees and is just. He has the best judgment of all. It is this that brings equilibrium to us in the span of events that would crush our souls. Indeed, my times are in His hands.