Update

Just wanted to thank you all for your prayers. Yesterdays visit went very well! I can't tell you how much we liked the new Dr. and how encouraging the visit was. The Dr was so willing to work with our budget and is so knowledgeable. It was so nice to list off my symptoms and, instead of getting a sympathetic "I don't know but can run more tests", get the impression the guy has seen this before and knows just what to do and just what tests are necessary. Umpteen thousands of dollars in random tests are not necessary! Granted it would be nice if I could afford all of the tests up front ( he did not recommend umpteen thousands) but we were able to prioritize and I think that it will work great this way. If nothing else this Dr gave me a big shot of hope and that, in and of itself, is priceless. To make it better, he did not roll his eyes at the fact that I do a lot of research on my families health problems but instead seemed pleased. How great is that?!?!?! :o) Anyhow, thank you again for your prayers yesterday!

Prayer Request

I always wonder how much info to put out on the web, but I would really appreciate your prayers. On Monday morning I have a Dr appt with a new dr. I am praying that the dr would have wisdom and will be able to quickly and inexpensively diagnose my health problems. If you would join me in this I would be very grateful. I know that God hears and answers our prayers and I am looking forward to seeing how He does it. In the mean time I am trying to be hopeful and not worry. I am, unfortunately, a worrier...... :oP

Also, there is a stomach bug going around and tonight my hubby feels like he is coming down with it. I would really appreciate prayers that we will all be healthy so we don't have to reschedule the appt. It took 6wks to get in with this Dr. and I don't want to have to wait another 6 wks! Thank you so much!!!

Berrylicious Day

This afternoon I went to my folks to babysit my nephew and got a real surprise.... We had the opportunity to treat our taste buds to 3 different types of berries! First, while exploring, we found our first huckleberries of the season!!! I don't think my kids have ever eaten huckleberries before so it was fun to get to share a new experience with them. They all loved them! Later in our roaming we ate salmonberries, which has been a favorite this year (primarily because they can find, pick, and eat them themselves :o) . We then picked and ate the first 4 raspberries off of Papa and Grandma's bushes (with permission of course) and when Mom got home she brought home raspberries and let us each eat a few! They were so good, I don't think there is anything that beats the flavor of fresh sun ripened raspberries! And, as the perfect end to such a berrylicious day Mom sent me home with 2 baskets of raspberries and a 5 gallon bucket of cleaned, stemmed, frozen strawberries to make jam out of! I am so excited!!! She got the strawberries and raspberries from some people they know who have a big berry farm in the valley. Mmm! I think that I need more berry days in my year! :o)

Harvest!

A few days ago we tasted the first fruits from our garden....... Radishes! Um, I forgot just how STRONG radishes are by themselves! I took a big bite and the burn started, I had to fight the urge to spit it out because my children were all watching. The burn of that radish was as bad as a strong clove of garlic. It was INTENSE. My kids all ate there's with a slight "whew, that was hot. No thank you I don't want any more" while I tried to resist the urge to swallow it without chewing and then rapidly consume grass to try and neutralize the burn! :oP I am positive that mine was just a shockingly strong one and that there's must have been mild, I just know that I am not that wimpy! Last night for dinner I went up and thinned my amazing crop of turnips and we ate the greens from all the plants that I thinned. I had no idea that radish and turnip greens are edible until yesterday (when I googled it) and, though I have not yet tried the radish greens, I can tell you that the turnip greens were quite tasty in my G.F. pasta dish. I am looking forward to thinning another row so we can eat more, they were that good! :o) As a bonus they are highly nutritious and my kids liked them too!

There is something so very satisfying about eating the fruits of your labor! :o)

Warning, TMI parenting post!

Today my 25 month old son went potty on the toilet for the first time!!! We have been working with him to recognize when he goes but he has had no interest whatsoever. Well this morning, when my sweet hubby changed our little mans diaper, he left it off for a little while. Well, little man was laying on my bed waiting for daddy to come back with a diaper when he looks at me and says "oh, poop!" Daddy had just come back so quickly transported him to the bathroom where he proceeded to pee! Great was the excitement in our household!!! lol! Only another parent can understand this excitement over bodily fluids........ Anyhow, later today (just before his nap) we put him on to try again and he not only peed but he had a b/m too! Talk about excitement! He was slightly horrified at first but thought it great fun to yell "bye" and flush it. Chocolate chips as "positive reinforcement" were a big hit too..... I now have hope that he will not be heading off to college in diapers! LOL!!!

(won't he hate it someday when he finds that I blogged about this!)

Why?

Today I am wondering why.........
Why do I have this blog?
What is my intent for it?
Will it be mostly family stuff?
Will it be for deep thinking and sharing my soul?
How open will I be?
How much sharing is too much?
Should I have thought all this through sooner? ;o)
Should I quit?


I am curious............. for those of you who blog, why do you blog? How did you determine whether your blog was for family, for sharing your thoughts, or a combination there of?

Random Nonsense

Hi, I am Gomer. I am a rather dumpy, old basset hound. Well, not old really, just rather infirm from an illness that left me permanently damaged. My owner has many dogs and, to my heavy lidded eyes, they all appear to be sleek, graceful, young foxhounds. My place is by the fire where I warm my aching body and dream of days gone by....... my glory days, when I was able to leave my place on the hearth and be of some value to the world. I was never one of the elite, my nose was, not really any better or worse than any other but is significantly below par for a basset, my short, crooked legs just couldn't keep up with the pack, and my big floppy ears always seemed to get into the brambles. My poor Master had to spend many an hour picking thorns and nettles out of them. My once shiny coat is rough and dull and my head rests between my paws as I watch my surroundings with eyes dim and weak.
My Master has always loved me, though when I look at the other dogs I can't see why! He pets me, and talks with me, and he never expects more of me than I am able to do. He still asks me to do certain jobs and expects prompt obedience. Sometimes I get to fetch his slippers and sometimes I warm his feet. These menial tasks are about all that I can accomplish and sometimes even they are almost more than I can do, but I am so happy that my Master still wants me. Sometimes it seems as if the other dogs scorn me for what they see as idleness, sometimes they appear to pity me. Sometimes, in their desire to help me get stronger and do better, they make my jobs harder. Like the time that Lady hid our Master's slippers and I had to hunt longer for them, she meant well but it was so hard on me and it took me days to recover. Usually though, they just go about their business and forget about me. They don't realize that I still love to hear about the days work, that I long for the thrill of the chase, or even just a little companionship by the fire. It gets so lonely here, just me and my dreams.
The rest of the pack are living lives of purpose and energetic excitement. They seems so very useful and necessary, but me? I can't even keep the fire going and I hardly see my meager efforts as necessary. Though my life lacks the excitement and glory of the others, I am trying to be content with my lot in life and am learning no to wander too far from the fire, no matter what rabbit trail I may smell.

Knock-knock

Though it is not my habit to post twice in a day I had to share this with you! :o)

Tonight my kids discovered knock-knock jokes........ yes, you can pity me. lol!
J started it with "knock-knock"
me: who's there
J: Apple
me: Apple who?
J: um, um, Apple, um, Apple Dante!

J: Knock-knock
B: who's there
J: Pear
B:doesn't quite have this part down so just looks with expectation at her clever older sister
me: pear who?
J: Pear pie!

2 year old son I: Bah-Bah (knock- knock for those of you that need translation for 2 yearoldese)
me laughing: who's there?
I in DEEP growly voice: Bree
me, still laughing: Bree who?
I (with HUGE smile and same DEEP voice): Bree bee

So there you have it. The fantastical world of nonsensical jokes has officially been entered by my family. And I thought life was crazy before! :o)

Heaven Bound

We have always had a lot of discussions about heaven at our house. When our Pastor V. went to heaven unexpectedly (o.k. so I realize that God was not surprised be we down here sure were and not in a good way!) about 1 1/2 yrs ago the conversations intensified. My kids were desperate to know why he got to go and why we couldn't right now and when we could. We had a lot of interesting talks about this, even mass suicide (then we could go right away, we wouldn't have to wait!), don't worry I talked J out of this one real quick! :o) Thinking I was being ever so smart I explained that Jesus had said He was going to heaven to prepare a place for us and so we needed to wait until our house was ready. This went over real well and when the daily question of "Can we go today?" came up I could gently remind them that evidently our house wasn't ready. I must have been feeling a bit smug about my parenting prowess because that phase didn't last long! When my brother Nathan died 8 1/2 months ago (followed in about a 3 month period by 2 adopted Grandmas and my Great-Grandma) our discussions on heaven and all things death related intensified again. Though my cute little answer about our house still being "in the works" went over for a little while it wasn't long before J (my super thinker) said "it's o.k. if it's not ready Mom. I'll just live with Jesus or Uncle Nathan til it is!" Poor mommy! Now I have to think of a new explanation! So, my current "speech" is that God has special jobs that He wants us to finish BEFORE we can go to heaven and evidently we haven't done them all yet! Hopefully this answer will bide me a bit more time! LOL!
So, the other night during our devotions, I was reading the story of God showing Moses His glory, how he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and only let him see his back. To see God's face would be too much for Moses and he would die. We sort of acted out part of the story so that hopefully it would stick with them and as we were doing that the questions started. "Would I die if I saw God's face?" When I go to heaven will I die if I see God's face?" "Why will seeing Him here kill us but not in heaven?", etc........ We then had the following conversation:
B: "We have to die to go to heaven"
J: "Yes, wait no, remember there was that man Elijah and God sent down ponies and a chariot wagon thingy? He didn't have to die, did he?"
Me (in utter shock that she remembered this story. We havn't gone over it in a long time, maybe she's paying more attention to the sermons than I realized! Our Pastor recently went through this story at church): "No, he didn't die. Good job remembering!"
J: "I am going to pray that God will send ponies and a chariot thingy tonight that's big enough for all 5 of us because I don't want any of us to be left here and all lonely"
B: "Yeah, I like ponies!"
Me (Inwardly - AMEN SISTER! I AM WITH YOU ON THIS ONE!!!) Outwardly: Well, that would be great.......
J interupts: Good then we can go to heaven tonight without dieing!
Me: Well, God could do that but He might not. He might say that He has a better plan.
J: Why? What?
Me: Well, maybe there are more jobs for us to do here. Maybe there is someone that we need to tell about Jesus first.
J: Oh, o.k., can still pray about it?
Me: Of course!

So if we disappear it may just be because we went to heaven in a chariot thingy made for 5 that is being pulled by ponies! :o)

Speaking of dieing....... my posts may not have pics for a long time as my camera died yesterday. It has been my almost constant companion for 4-5 years and I am very sad that it is gone. I don't know if it is repairable or even where I could go to get it fixed! It was a Nikon coolpix 4500 that my sweet hubby got me as a gift....... yesterday was a bad day!

Hydrangea Love

I have discovered that I really enjoy taking pictures of hydrangea, so was delighted to discover that though most of my plant look like this:



There was 1 like this:


1 like this:


And, 1 little cluster like this! :o)

Raindrops 2

I finished planting my garden today (finally!) and while there took the opportunity to try a few more raindrop pics..... The lighting was much better but my battery died after just a few shots. I hadn't expected to have an opportunity to take pics so I had not packed my spare. :o(

1- I like how the drops look silvery in this one, just wish it was better focused


2- This is one of the closest drop pics I've got yet! :o)

3- The angle on this one was kind of fun

4- I just LOVE this clematis plant at my folks place. I have had more fun photographing it and have got more good pics from it than any other single plant. I wish you could see better but, if you were to zoom in, there are the tiniest drops on the tips of some of the petals and stamen (?).

5- This is a grape leaf. The underside was up and the curve was difficult to capture without too much being out of focus

6- Grape leaf again. This time it focused on a very small area because of the curve of the leaf. Not necessarily a great photo but I found it rather interesting.

7- I am finding that I love to photograph white flowers....... they are so stunningly simple and elegant.

8- Simple beauty

9- Last pic. Just drops............ :o) Well, there they are. I would love to get feedback if you have particular fav's or not from my pics and why. I am always intrigued to hear what does or does not connect with people photographically. :o)

New Glasses

May was the last month that we had insurance so I went in and took advantage of my vision benefits. I thought I would go with something really different than what I had but was unable to find anything that I really loved. I was particularly interested in some of the rimless ones that look so cute on everyone (except me that is! LOL! :o). I ended up with a pair that is similar in shape to my old ones but have a few differences. I think they are pretty cute....... though I will admit that picking them was traumatic as my sweet Hubby wasn't there to encourage me. I HATE making decisions and he is always so sweet to help and encourage me, I really missed having him there. Anyhow, without further ado, here are the pics. Please excuse the grainy cell phone images....

The old:


The new:

After the rain............

Yesterday we had a beautiful, gentle rain. You know, the kind that leaves the earth fresh and clean smelling, that makes the colors more vivid, and is just sweet somehow? Maybe it only seemed that way to me because I was up at my folks' new place and it seems like a total refuge for me. Anyhow, after the rain I did something new.......... I went out and tried to capture raindrops with my camera. I came back with over 100 pics but sadly less than a 1/3 of those were worth keeping and only that many because I was not being overly critical. The evening light was too dim but it was fun to try something new! Here are a few shots that I got..........

A grape leaf...
Some Rhododendrons........


Clematis:

A small white flower:

Greenery:



Well, hopefully I didn't bore you :o)