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)

Garden pics

Well, as I don't have a good place at my house for a garden, my parent's have graciously allowed me to put a garden in at their new house. I took some pics right after planting and thought I would post them. I have sprouts now so it looks a little different right now.There are still many plans in place that will improve my little garden once I am able to complete them......
Here is the main garden, it is 30X30 and will have trellis/fencing around 3 sides for my cukes and peas. It will also have chipped wood pathways between the squares, if they ever deliver it to me! It was supposed to be delivered a week ago but I still haven't seen it......
In the greenhouse that you can see in the background of the above pic I have a large raised bed of tomatoes and below is my outdoor raised bed for herbs.
I am trying a method of gardening called companion planting. I have a book and it gives examples of plants that thrive together and plants that thwart one anothers growth. It is an interesting theory and so I am trying it out. I am excited to see how my garden grows! :o) I will post more pics as my garden looks more gardenly! ;o) My garden may not be cute, whimsical, showy, etc.... but it should be practical (if I can keep the wildlife out!).