Sunrise and Daisies

The sunset this morning was so beautiful. I happened to notice it out of my bedroom window...so I got myself out of bed, grabbed the camera and headed out to the back yard to see if I could get a picture of it. That's when I realized that not much of the Eastern sky is visible from my backyard. That's when I also realized I was outside in my night gown...and I wasn't in the country any more. Whoops. But not much is happening at 5:30 a.m. or whatever time it was in the suburbs....so it's ok. I did catch some of it from between the trees.

I decided that I'd rather watch the sunrise from the comfort of my bed. Here is the view out my window, over my nightstand and through the lamp. I know it's blurry. I almost didn't post it, but then I figured that it was probably the most true to what I was seeing without my glasses on and sleep in my eyes. Blurry, fuzzy....until I'm a little more awake and the coffee is abrewing.

Here's a closer view of my lamp...I love the little beads hanging on the lampshade. I have beads on curtains, beads on lampshades, beads on some shoes....someday I'll have a post about beads. Maybe not. Probably not.

But aren't they cool?

I have a little sculpted horse on my nightstand too. It came from Coldwater Creek. One of my favorite stores. It is attached to a small dish that I put my earrings in when I'm too lazy to put them away. I thought it made a pretty cool silhouette.

I'll end my post with daisies....not for the sake of daisies, but because a little something came in the mail today and I'm celebrating.

I got my camera back today! Hurray! The folks at Canon fixed it and cleaned it and sent it back to me in 18 short days....that's UPS shipping time there, fixing time, time off for the 4th of July holiday, and shipping it back time. I think that's awesome. Everything was under warranty, so our only cost was shipping it to them for $17.01. :-) Their description said that an internal electrical component was maladjusted or something like that, so they fixed that. And cleaned it. Sort of vague...I think it was the sensor...but I don't care, it's back and appears to be working. The daisies on the top were from the old camera, the ones on the bottom from the new and repaired camera.

Not a huge difference, but enough that it matters to me. And the newer camera just feels better to me, I'm more used to where the controls are and how to adjust things, the shutter sounds better somehow, it's lighter. Hard to explain the differences, but I'm so happy that my camera is back. Welcome home baby!

The 4th of July

It's a little late for me to be blogging about the 4th of July...but I'm going to do it anyway. What a wonderful day. Perfect weather, no bugs, surrounded by family enjoying the height of summer. Billy coerced us to go to the fireworks store and buy some fireworks. He had a lot of fun shooting off bottle rockets. The boy loves all things related to fire.

After spending part of the day walking the fence line and fixing what we could, we headed to a local historic home for an ice cream social. The house was built in 1855 by WHC Folsum. It was one of the first homes in our home town. It's a beautiful old home, I worked there as a tour guide when I was about 17. The ice cream social was held in the back yard. This is the back of the house with the pretty blue sky shining above.

Eric's mom and dad are a big part of the Historical Society and are quick to volunteer to help. They are two of the most generous people I know. For the ice cream social they were in charge of the hot dog meal....Bill, on the right, was grilling and Barb serving up the plates on the left.

My mom joined us, she donated a wonderful blueberry pie to add to the dessert table. She and my dad have been attending the ice cream social since they started it about 4 years ago. We feel his loss at every event...there should be one more chair filled.

The boys weren't too eager to go, but they had fun with the old fashioned games....especially the stilts. Well that, and talking to the young girl that was helping with the event.

This little cutie is my cousins boy Ethan, he was so cute playing peek-a-boo! I remember when his daddy was a little boy...fun to see how much Ethan looks like him! Peek!!

After the hot dogs and the pie and the raffle drawing one of the local men shot off his canon. Actually Brian was the one to pull the string that was attached to the hammer to make the canon fire. Boy it was loud! The man that has the canon had been our High School Superintendent back in my school days.

Boom! I jumped when the canon fired, so I didn't get a good shot of the actual blast....but I like this one of the smoke and the aftermath of the blast.

Last year the canon owner stopped by the cabin with his canon to show everyone how it all worked. That time I did get a good shot of it.....ready......aim.....

..... FIRE!!!! I made a copy of it for the owner. He was quite surprised to see the flames shooting out the hole on the top. It blasts so fast you don't really notice it. The picture looks fake...but I promise, no photo shopping was involved. :-)

The ice cream social was a lot of fun. Here's my view across the table. The man doesn't age.

Here's Eric's view from across the table. I've aged enough for the both of us.

We went to a fireworks display in the little town of Amery Wisconsin. They put on a spectacular show! Boom, bang...ooohhh, aaaaahhhh......

My fireworks photos aren't much to look at, but it was fun to try to take some.

The funny thing is, it's the ones that didn't turn out that I like the best. This one looks like a bunch of "d's". Cool.

And this one......hummm....I think I should have brought my tripod....what do you think? Wild.

The show was a perfect length, followed by a wonderful grand finale. And the most amazing part was that there wasn't a mosquito to be found. One benefit of the near drought.

We had a wonderful time getting away for a few days. I hope that you had an enjoyable 4th of July too. Now, onto the laundry. I'm not sure which smelled worse, that or the wet dog. :-)

July 4th and another birthday

Happy 4th of July! When I was a little girl the 4th of July always meant a picnic with my grandma Dibble....my dad's mom. July 4th was her birthday. She was born in 1908. She's been gone since 1997. Where did that time go?
This is a picture of her with my grandpa and my dad. I think that it was taken on Easter in the spring of 1932. She's wearing her wedding dress and they are standing in front of the home where she grew up....which is also the house where I grew up. Aren't they dapper?

This picture of me sitting on her lap was probably taken on her birthday in 1962....her sister and brother-in-law Henrietta and Dan are standing behind us with their daughter Diane. My grandma always looked the same to me... from the time I was a little girl....

...to the day I got married....she looked the same. I love this picture of her from my wedding day, she looks so happy....and so dressed up!

My grandma loved babies and little ones. She had a way about her that would make you feel so important and useful....we always wanted to help with chores because it was so fun! From shelling corn to feed the chickens to gathering eggs, to bringing in snow to melt in the reservoir of the wood stove, every little thing we did she made us feel like it was big. She would light up when she got to see her grand kids. She called Brian her little dolly.

One of the best things about the farm were the raspberries. She had so many bushes! The biggest juiciest berries were down low, where the dogs had paths under the bushes because it was cool. Grandma left those for us to pick. She insisted on picking until she had to move into the nursing home. She could barely walk, but she could pick berries.

Brian getting sweet kisses from his great-grandma. July 4th will always be her day.

Last year for the 4th we went to one of the neighbors houses up in the country...they put on quite the fireworks display. I'll end my post with a few shots of those fireworks.

I hope that you've spent your holiday surrounded by family and friends....

...because the ooohs and aaaaahs of fireworks just aren't the same if you don't have someone to share them with.

Happy 4th of July everyone! And happy birthday to grandma....the raspberries should be getting ripe soon!

A birthday today

Do you see this cute little bunny? She's having a birthday today. Happy birthday Steph! She was all dressed up for the local kiddie parade.

She's my brother's oldest daughter. She was a beautiful graduate about 12 years ago....

...and she's grown into an even more beautiful young woman. Some people just bring sunshine and joy into your lives...Steph is one of those special people. This last picture was taken last winter. Brian and Billy are in the back...Danielle, Grandma Janet and Steph in the front.

Happy Birthday Steph...I hope you have a wonderful day!

Randomness...

My blog today is going to be more random than usual...is randomness a word? Today I was taking a few pictures in my garden in the front yard when this sweet little bird hopped up for a visit. It wasn't nervous at all. Hop hop, peep peep. If you are interested in birds you would know that it's a little chipping sparrow...if you're not interested in birds you don't want to have me telling you what it is...so I shouldn't. But I did. Random.

The next two photos have nothing to do with my text. Because I'm being random today. We've been trying to get some things done before going out of town...one of those things included a trip to Walmart. I haven't been to our local Walmart for a while, I was startled to see some of the changes. The most noticeable thing was that the aisles weren't filled with pallets of stuff to sell. They were wide open and barren. I'm not sure if they were getting ready to wax the floors or if they have cut back on their merchandise by a lot. It was nicer for shopping, but there was a lot of wasted space. Don't you just love daisies?

There are always interesting things to see at Walmart....some weird, some disturbing, some pretty special.

I had decided to quickly look for a book to take with me this weekend. There were slim pickings....but one of the weird things I saw was a fluffy yellow feather on one of the shelves that held "romance" novels. One stop shopping? Weird. Speaking randomly about books....don't you hate it when they re-release books with a new cover so you can't be sure if you've read it or not? I'm such a visual person I remember covers more than anything....add that to the plots that all start sounding the same and I'm really confused.

There was one disturbing thing I saw at Walmart. On the top of the paper towels in the garbage can in the ladies room there was an empty early pregnancy test kit box. I couldn't help but wonder about the test taker and how bad her situation must be if she was taking a pregnancy test in the Walmart rest room. Babies can bring the greatest joy when the situation is right but such great pain when it's not. I said a quick prayer that all will be ok for her.

On a much better note, there was a family there with an elderly woman...she was in a wheel chair. They were patiently loading her into their van, smiling at one another. There was so much compassion there, you could feel it. It would have been easier for them to take her shopping list and run in and get it done quickly...but you could tell that it meant a lot to her to be out enjoying her shopping day....and the best part was that they were enjoying giving it to her. It was a good reminder to me that the easiest isn't always the best. I need to remember to take the time to smell the flowers.

This is my boy...

Can you see Brian? I know, it's hard, he's wearing camo. Why in the world would my boy be wearing camo?

Well, he's wearing camo because it's a part of his new uniform. The uniform he needs for being a member of the Civil Air Patrol. He doesn't have all the pieces for it yet, but soon he will be a fully outfitted member of CAP. He goes to meetings once a week, and there will be some Saturday volunteering opportunities too.

The highlight of joining for him so far was that last night he got to go up in a Chinook helicopter. He wasn't too sure about bringing the camera, but we talked him into bringing the little one along....here are a few of his shots. The Chinook on the tarmac.

This one is a little blurry but it shows how big the helicopter is compared to the man that is heading into the back.

No one told me that they would leave the back door opened! Hey...that's my boy you have in there...be careful! Shut the door!! Ack!

I'm proud of him for taking steps to follow one of his dreams. I'm proud of the man he's quickly becoming. I'm proud that he's kind and compassionate. But you know what else...I'm especially proud that he noticed the sunset....and that he thought to take a picture of it. Maybe a little bit of his mama has rubbed off on him after all.

This is my boy...he's handsome and strong and now he's a member of the Civil Air Patrol.

He's growing up way too fast. Hey Brian....I think you might need a shave. Have I mentioned that I'm proud of this guy?