Entirely too long

It has been entirely too long since I have posted anything online, so rather than writing, I am going to post pictures since a picture is worth a thousand words.

We all got together for fun and food at Ian's.

Luke calls Jordan 

Father and son at the table.  They did not want a picture taken.  I took it anyway.

Luke being silly.  His "YO" comment.

Luke going to hunt birds or squirrels.

The men are cooking tonight...Allen Brother Steaks.  Yum!

Luke came to Roswell the first week in April to visit his wonderful parents, but mostly to follow up on some of his clients.

I kept the grandkids while Laurie attended a homeschool conference.  Here are some things we did.

Decorated an Easter tree.  They decorated it all by themselves with a little instruction from me.

Erynn by the tree

Erynn with the dead squirrel

close up now

Notice the face

Disposal

We made bread and ate most of it.  One loaf went home with them.

Reid and his Mimi

My Easter card

Sunset at Bitterlakes.  My photography class went as a group to do this assignment.

Warren and me Easter morning

Little Miss Erynn

She is 6 years old!

Annie looking regal

Reid

Such a handsome lad!

Contentment

I have really enjoyed the blooming of spring this year.  Maybe it is because I am looking for it to capture it with my camera...looking for that picture that takes your breath away.  Believe me, I have not captured it yet, on paper, but it is out there and I will get it one day.  Spring is one of the mysteries of God's universe--how does the plant kingdom know when to wake up and put out its new growth?  Spring brings Luke to visit-- he is doing some follow up work with his clients.  This provides us great opportunity for  the whole family to get together.  Yesterday, Ian's family joined us for lunch--Reid's suggestion.  He wanted to eat lunch at Pawpaw and Mimi's so he could see Luke because he is so "punny" (funny).  It was a grand idea.  I am glad Reid mentioned it and Ian pursued it.  Nothing makes life better than family.  Family is the spice of life.  Believe me, with Luke around there is a lot of spice to life.  He is being true to his boyhood fiddling ways and has taken great joy in using the remote to our new bed to raise the feet to its highest level and trying out all the speeds of massage.  Along with the bed fiddling,  there was great discussion and antics about the proper fit for bike wear.  Luke likes his to fit baggy, while Warren likes his to fit--quoting Luke, "like a sausage." What followed was a fashion show while both tried on various bike shirts.  Warren was going to give Luke one of his shirts, but Luke declined the sausage wear and said maybe later.
Needless to say, I am working on another project, and yes, it involves pictures.  I am glad my grandkids let me take countless pictures of them.  I found a picture that seemed to scream contentment and decided to see what I could do with it since I am learning about "clean and fresh" photo editing.  I thought this picture would be a perfect practice picture.

Paul says in Philippians 4:11-12, "For I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want."  Doesn't Reid look content?

McKelvy photo album 2010

I have finally completed the 2010 photo album.  It was so much fun putting it together, but hard to limit the photos to the few I have included here.  The book would be forever long if I included all the photos I wanted.  Oh the restraint.  Enjoy.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Gigi's graduation photobook

Here is the completed photobook of Gigi.  All the pictures and page designs were done by me.  I thought it turned out great.

Click here to view this photo book larger

God Stop

Have you ever had one of those moments when you know God is giving you a glimpse of His Glory?  Beth Moore calls it a "God Stop"--when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is revealing Himself to you.  It can be an answered prayer, a warning, a glorious sunrise or sunset, protection, or just about anything.  But you know.  This morning I had a God stop.  Our cat, Annie, wanted to go outside, so I went to the backdoor to let her out when all of a sudden a glorious light came in the room.  It was really strange, because it happened all of a sudden.   I turned around to see what it was.  My living room was filled with the most spectacular, warm light!  It was beautiful and I wanted to capture it.  Of course, nothing can do justice to what I saw, but I think I got pretty close to it in the picture I took.

My "living" room light

This experience made my quiet time so much more glorious this morning!  Interestingly enough my New Testament reading was about Jesus' crucifixion.  As I read, "and when the sixth hour had come, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,"(Mark 15:33), I thought about the light in my living room.  Jesus is our living light.  Without Jesus, there is darkness.  I think when the earth went dark, it was a prelude of what it is like to be without Jesus.  We are to be a reflection of Jesus' light in this dark world, and even though I know all this, I think it was God's way of reminding me to be about His business.  To God be the glory!

Earthquake, March 11

At 2:45 a.m., I heard my phone tone alerting me I had a text message.  I did not bother to get up to check it, thinking I could do so when I started my day in a few hours.  I got another text message at 6 a.m.  This was very unusual for me, and it bothered me that both came so early in the morning.  I decided I had better check things out.  My 6:00 message was from Jordan asking when Mark and Amber were coming home from their honeymoon.  I replied on March 12.  Then I noticed my message from 2:45--it was from Amber saying, "evacuating Kauai."  Hmmm.  Obviously something had happened and I did not know what.  Since I am electronically challenged and cannot turn on the TV in our bedroom, I asked Warren to turn it on for me.  There it was, an 8.9 earthquake in Japan.  It was the 5th strongest earthquake in history.  The evacuation Amber had texted me about was because of a possible tsunami expected to hit in their area.  I am sure Mark was thrilled to be evacuated from their nice hotel--not something you want to happen on your honeymoon.  They spent the night in their rented Jeep in the evacuation area.  Fortunately, the tsunami was very small and they were able to return to their hotel a short time later.  I am glad they did not choose Japan for their honeymoon.  The devastation is incredible.

The aftermath of the earthquake in Japan

On a cheerier note:  I have finally caught up on my 365 project--I take a picture a day and do a weekly page for the pictures.  I was behind because of our trip to California.  Rather than post all the weeks, I  will only do the one I just finished.  It is not altogether accurate, because some of the pictures were taken all in one day.  I figure, "hey, it is my project and I can do what I want."

Week 10 of my 365 project

Pillows, pillows, pillows everywhere!

We have a pillow graveyard at our house.  Warren has always had trouble finding the perfect pillow, but his obsession has escalated to greater heights.  I think his back surgery is what triggered this episode.  Last Monday night, February 28th, he had an unusually bad time getting comfortable in our bed.  In fact, when he got up, he made the announcement that we were getting rid of our present bed and would be getting a new one--today if possible.   I had been telling him for several years, I  would like a tempurpedic bed, but he said he felt like he was in a hole and had to crawl out of it before he could turn over and nixed the idea.  (He wanted a sleep number bed, which we found out, could not be delivered in our area.) Desperation made him surrender to even considering this type of bed.  He managed to get home early from work, so we went to "All about Spas" to try out the beds.  We were there for two hours, and finally decided on a bed... to be delivered the next day.  Included with the bed were tempurpedic pillows.  Warren seemed to like them, and I was shouting for joy on the inside thinking our search for the perfect pillow was over at last.  My celebration was too early.  After two days of trying out the pillow, he took it back and got a different tempurpedic pillow.  He didn't like that one either and got up in the middle of the night to change to a down pillow he had recently purchased from Target.  He says he's still going to work on the tempurpedic pillow to try to make it soft. (Tempurpedics have to be "excercised" to make them softer, so we walk on our mattress and pillows to break them in.  It is a sight to see us walking on our bed, plus it really is quite a workout for us.)  Now I know where Ian gets his obsession with "uncomfortable" car seats and mattresses--from his father.  It must be in the genes.  I wonder if he has trouble with pillows as well.  Watch out Laurie, if he doesn't have this problem now, it might be just around the corner.  Here's what you might be looking at as well.

These are the pillows by Warren's bed.  He's trying them out.

These are his rejects and are in a closet. 

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 

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More silliness