Where I spend my days!!

This is my new office this year. Its so much nicer than where I was last year. If you remember my pictures from a previous posting. I enjoy it and its alot easier to go to work every day when you have a nice place to work in.
Its been a rough week. Just trying to find all the kids who didn't show up this year. It will be a while before I can find them. Some have gone to other schools or moved out of state,,but I still have to try to find them.
I am ready for a long week-end. I want to play in my yard and do alot of art this week-end.
Speaking of playing in the yard,,,the temps are absolutely wonderful right now.
I came home yesterday and played in my flowers all evening. Its starting to feel Fallish now.
Daniel and I sat outside and listened to music and grilled out last night. Its hard to come home from work and go in my art room,,I just want to go outside when its this nice and I have been inside all day.
I did a deco page finished for a Fall deco swap that I am in. I just love "house Mouse",,,and these are some House Mouse sticker that I used on her page.
Aren't they just the cutest little guys? Here's a few more Fall greeting cards that I made this past week-end with my Mom. I will write more tomorrow or some time this week-end. I sure miss writing every day,,and I miss all my wonderful friends here in Bloggerville. So I will leave you will a Fallish treat!!

Monday's almost over!!!

The first day of the work week is over,,Thank Goodness! Monday's are tough,,hard to get back into the 5 a.m. wake up and commute, the working, then rushing home. When I get home on Mondays I feel so tired,,plus today I had to stop at Krogers for groceries, and had to lug them all in. So I laid down for a few,,lol.
I have been scanning my beautiful Toscano Book that all my wonderfully talented friends from one of my favorite art groups worked in. I started this little book last summer. I bought the little journal at Targets for a $1 and now it is priceless. I Love the art decor store called Toscanos. I sent for their catalogs and they have sent my several every month,,I Love the pictures in them and decided to start a glue book of sorts. So the first several pages are mine. Then I asked my friends in the group to please add to it,,and boy,,did they. I just love it! There are several blank pages left and I am talking other talented friends to work in it too. So if you reading this and want to work in it,,,PLEASE DO!!!!! Below is a pic of the first 2 pages that I started.

The rest of the book can be seen at my webshot's album that I made for it,,here is the link.

toscanobook

Sunday catch-up!

I am finally able to sit down and blog today! Its been a busy one trying to catch up around here. I spent the night with Mom on friday night and stayed up late making some awesome fall greeting cards, and then we went to our Rubber Stampers meeting yesterday. The meeting was really good,,we meet out in some very pretty country side in the little community center. Its not that far and just a pretty ride to get there. We only had 10 at our meeting yesterday,but it was the perfect size to really have a great time. We got so busy learning new techniques that we almost forgot to eat lunch,,lol. When the "Sassy Stampers" (our groups name) meet,,we bring lots of good food to munch on all day long. We learned the stamping on acetate technique and filling in with glue and glitter that I taught,,then another stamper taught us how to stamp on the acetate and then paint the image with glue and water and then daub on pearl ex powders with stiple brush,,let dry and then back the image on a dark piece of card stock,,that turned out really pretty too. We stayed busy until 3:30 in the afternoon,,then cleaned up and went home. But we really had a nice time.
I dropped Mom off and then headed home. The most I did last night was lay around and watch my home football team, The Titans, get beat by Atlanta in the last pre-season game. So sad,,I am a real big Titan fan,,and their stadium is downtown on the river bank. I have been to one of the games there and its a blast. They have not been playing well for the past few years and I was hoping that would change this year since we got a new Quarterback,,but its not looking too good.
I had some great mail yesterday too! My dearest friend Vicci sent me a wonderful package of some scrumptous wallpapers and other little goodies! She mailed them in a Pringles potatoe chip can,,so cool. I loved them,,they will be great for my collages!! Thank you Girlie!!!!
I also got my Tuscano Deco book back. It is a wonderful book that has been passed around to many of my very talented, artists friends this summer. It is a amazing book and I am in the process of scanning it. I will post a link to my webshots when I get it scanned and uploaded.
Oh and also when I got home,,I had to spend almost a hour on the phone with a really nice technician from our internet cable company. My computer was being stupid and the modem wasn't comuticating very well with it,,so after doing a zillion things trying to get them talking again,,the girl who was helping me and I talked about our lives,,and found out we were really alike,,lol. But it was nice having someone to help me that was friendly and fun and best of all spoke English,,lol.
Since I played yesterday,,I have had to do some cleaning today,,and getting some swaps scanned and ready to mail out. After I post my blog I am going to have to go out and do some watering,,my plants are so thirsty. The heat index was 99 today,,but rain is moving in and suppose to cool down some the rest of next week. Oh and we have a soon to be Hurricane Ernesto heading up towards from the gulf,,so every one down that way are getting pretty nervous. They think it will veer toward the panhandle of florida and then head back east toward Georgia and the Carolinas,,we might get some rain if it does go that way. They are all praying that it doesn't head toward New Orleans as they think it may be a Catagory 3,,which is what Katrina was when it hit a year ago this wednesday. Its still a real mess down there,,clean up has been very slow,,and the levees are still subject to breaking again if hit by another strong hurricane. Praying for those that will be in its path no matter where it goes.
So today I am posting some pics of some of my swaps that I am mailling out tomorrow.
Below is a pic of a laminate formica sample that I did. These are the ones that you can get at the home supply stores. I think these turned out so pretty.

The next pictures are of a coin holder that I turned into pins for a jewelry swap.

The last pics are of a postcard swap I did. The swap was based on what type of music groups we liked. The girl that I send to listed the band Chicago and Billy Joel.
Mom had to make 3 for me and she did some wonderful one of Bonnie Riatt whom I love and got to see in concert this past December.



I am going to try to post more art endeavors tonight,,but now I must go prepare a meatloaf for dinner,,then go out and water my precious dried out flowers. Keep hoping a stray shower will pop up and do that for me,,but not looking to promising. I hope every one is having a wonderful sunday!

Thursdays thoughts and pics

Just a hello tonite,,another long day,,but I did manage to go out and take some pictures when I got home. Don't you love the sedum,,on the left? It will turn orangish brownish soon,,so pretty in the fall. The little red wagon has been around for awhile,,Daniel had to refurbish it a couple of years ago,,I just love it. It had a beautiful petunia in it and the pretty impatient,,but the petunia isn't looking so great right now due to the long hot and dry weather we have had lately.
I am suffering with a bad case of Poison Oak right now,,due to me pulling a weed that I should not have pulled. I have been putting all kinds of cream on it,,but I think I have found a cure,,I looked on the internet for "old time cures" and also people at work have told me too,,,scrub it with bleach,,So when I came home from work,,I got the bottle of bleach and have been working on it and its not itching so bad. When I was little I would get it so bad that I would have to get shots for it. So,,I am trying to get rid of it before I have to go that route,,lol.
Its on my hand and my forehead,,and trying to go towards my eyes,,which I don't want to happen. So I will keep fighting it.
I am going to go up to Mom's tomorrow night and spend the night as we will be having a monthly meeting on Saturday with our Rubber Stamper's group. I am going to teach a technique on how to stamp on transparencies and then fill it in with clear drying glue and micro glitter. You can make some very pretty greeting cards and sun catchers with this technique. We always have a great time when we gather with our group members. All women like us that love to make wonderful art.
So glad tomorrow is TGIF,,its been a long week!!! I hope all my friends have had a great week and that all is well with them and their family. I will probably not post again until Sunday,,but here's a few pics until then.

Tired Tuesday

I am not sure if my body is ever going to get use to being back at work again,,lol. And its been non stop since I have been back. I have had to deal with alot of my students that were under court orders and who have not returned yet. So fustrating,,they just want to keep on vacationing,,lol. I recieved some very upsetting news yesterday that really brought me down.
In January of this year I had to take a young man to school for not attending school. At the time he was only 14 and was using drugs very heavily. Not just smoking Pot,,I am talking cocaine, ectasy and whatever else he could get his hands on. He was drug tested by the court and placed under a court order and sent to drug and alcohol classes,,that was it. Well he ended up transferring to another school in our system, then he got zero toleranced into a Alternative school because of drugs at school. I found out yesterday that he overdosed and died last friday. He had taken a large amount of very strong prescription pain medications,,he went to bed and never woke back up,,at the ripe old age of 15. It just make me sick and so sad. His mother was a single parent and had no control over him. Somewhere the system failed this boy,,and it fails so many of them. If you have not been in a Public Metropolitian High School in a while,,go and see what life is like in one. Its very different than when I was young,,and it is sometimes scary.
So,,I have been pretty bummed out about this boy this week.
I did a few more art projects last night,,just to try to get my mind off of this sad event. I finished my Quilt page for the Art Quilt page swap that I am in. This month's theme was "Summer and Dragonflys",,,I love dragonflys. This is the picture of it below.

The next picture is the cover for my 2nd deco book. I did Iris folding for the leaf,,I love to do Iris fold,,it looks complicated but it isn't. Mom and I took a class on it last year at a scrapbook convention.

I had to put an envelope and tag on the inside front cover with my name on it.

Now that helped to get me in the mood for Fall. It rained here some yesterday and the humidity has gone down some and also the temps are a little cooler too, so that is nice. Well am going to go visit some of my good blogging buddys wonderful blogs and then its off to bed for me. I hope that every one has a wonderful wednesday tomorrow.

Back to blogging!

So its been a few days since I have posted,,just been a little bit busy,,lol. Of course you know that I forgot the camera on thursday,,took it with me on friday,,but got so busy, I didn't take pics of my office. LOL! But,,,I did take a couple of pictures of the my morning commute and how awesome the sun looks on that ride into work. I live west of Nashville, when I leave at 6:15 in the mornings,,the sun is just starting to peek up over the hills. Its usually a big Orange Ball. It looks so cool! It doesn't look so big in these pics.











Well on friday we did a head count at school. Which means we counted how many students we had in school this week. Our numbers were good, 1200 students, which means we will not lose any of our teachers. That is good!
So,,friday afternoon,,I went and picked up Mom so she could spend the night with me. We had a great time! We worked on so many art projects!!! She stayed until 3 yesterday afternoon. We made some neat necklaces and bracelets yesterday. We made them out of paper beads! You would not believe how cool they look. I will post some pics of them later today or tomorrow.
Mom and I have so much fun together,,our creative input together is always great!
When I came back from taking Mom home, Daniel and I went out and watched our pet spider. We have named her Charlotte(Charlotte's web-my favorite childhood book). She is a wonderful spider,,and so pretty! It is amazing to watch her. When she gets a visitor to her web,,she immediatly goes straight to it and wraps it in silk,,so it will not be leaving her web. She will sometimes have as many as 3 or 4 "snacks" waiting for her in the web. OK,,so I found a hugh grasshopper dining on one of my petunias which I did not appreciate. Daniel helped escort it to Charlotte's house,,she was very appreciative of the big snack! I had to take a few more pics of her and her "hopper delight".


So how many people do you know that have spiders for pets? lol. She is just a special spider,,what can I say? She helps out with pest control!
Today I am going to try to go out and work in the yard for while. Its really humid and muggy outside. We are suppose to get some much needed thunderstorms by the afternoon. My flowers look terrible because of the heat and no rain. This time of year I don't fret about them too much,,but the weeds are starting to take over. Daniel is going to use the weed eater and help me out. After that I am going to work in the art room for the rest of the day.
Hope every one has a great sunday!!!

Today was a very busy day at work. As usually the beginning of the year is hectic at most schools. And I forgot to take my camera today too,,I have a note to remind me to take it tomorrow,,lol,,sad when you get old you have lists so you won't forget,lol.
So I came home this afternoon and laid down for a few. I find if I come home and stretch out at about 3ish,,then I feel better and can get up and do the chores,,and then play outside or do some art! So tonight I worked on several projects and that made me feel better too. Its so nice to come home and do my art because it helps me forget about the stress of the day.
So I made several ATCs tonight, and then also this card that I am sending to a friend. I used one of my own butterfly pics on it. Its was just a simple and fun little thing to make. I have used alot of my flower and butterfly pictures this summer to make some great cards. I was thinking the other day about how my love of photography was a great gift from my Father. He was a great photographer, he has some very nice cameras and his photographs were awesome. It was his favorite hobby! So I understand why it gives me so much pleasure to take pictures. I keep telling "Santa" how much I really want a new digital camera for Christmas,,lol. I really want the Cannon that has different lenses on it. I am worth it,,lol.
Well I better hit the bed,,5 a.m. is too dang early for this old girl,,lol.

Life at the Burro!

I am slowly but surely getting back into the swing of being a working woman again. Thats about the only thing bad about being off in the summer,,having to get use to getting up early and going to work. It just takes a while to get use to it,,I am old,,ok? lol.
Life is much better this year though,,and the reason being is I now have a new office!!! Last year the only place they had to put me at was a old book room. It was a really big book room,,but it was all concrete,,no windows,,very dark,,I did have company,,hugh cockroaches and mice,,eeek!!! I made do with it,,fixed it up the best I could,,even dragged my house plants up there and grow lights when the weather got cold enough to bring them inside. Most of them did ok,,dropped alot of leaves. It got very cold in there in the winter,,but I had some little heaters that helped,,so the plants and I survived,,lol.
Well,,last Thursday when I went back to work,,I found out that another really nice office was going to be empty. So of course I pleaded my case with my wonderful Principal,,and it helped that his secretary and alot of my other co-workers pleaded my case too,,so he let me have it. YAY!! Its a really pretty office,,carpeted and walls to hang pictures on. Bad part of it was the people that vacated the office were not very organized and pretty messy. So guess who had to clean it up? I did,,but I didn't mind. They left alot of stuff,,and I got rid of the old yucky stuff and kept the good stuff,,lol. I moved furniture, scrubbed furniture and walls,,and vacuumed the carpet(it didn't look like it had been vacuumed in years). The custodians were to busy to help,,since it was the openning day of school yesterday. They did bring my heavy file cabinets downstairs for me today. The rest of my office supplies I had to bring down and set up. But wow,,I am so happy now,,I actually don't mind going to work now.
I have worked for the school system for 22 years this month. You learn real quick how to beg and scrape for yourself,,lol. I will say this though,,this is the happiest I have ever been. I was moved to Hillsboro last year,,I went from having 7 schools, a secretary, and plush office to being
in-housed in a High School,,but it is the best High School in the city,,and I have a wonderful Principal and some excellent co-workers. So it makes it easier to go to work.
I am going to post some pics of my old office today,,and try to remember to take my camera tomorrow and take some pics of my new office. The old office doesn't look so bad in the pics ,,but you would have had to have been there to understand the difference,,lol.
I sure miss posting every day,,but I do faithfully read all my blogger friends post and comment if I can.
Have a lovely evening!

Lazy Sundays!!

A nice lazy Sunday,,thats what I need. Today seems like the perfect day for it. Its cloudy and overcast this morning, but suppose to clear off by the afternoon, but still not too hot, high of 88. A little warmer tomorrow but who cares,,I am at work then anyways.
Yesterday was a nice lazy day too. I did get some art work done during the morning hours,,then laid in bed and read my new Stampers Sampler and Rubber Stamping magazines. I had several Art Friends in the Stampler sampler Mag.,,,they did a feature on Shelly Hickox who is in our Tennessee Stampers group,,and is an awesome artist. She does alot of art using the Oxford Impressions stamps which I love! Suzanne Melvin the owner and designer for Oxford Impressions is also a member of our group too and a excellent artist also. There was also art from members in some of the other groups that I am in. One day I hope to be good enough to submit some of my art,,I just have to get brave enough to give it a try.
So after being some what sluggish yesterday,,I am going to try to be a little more productive today. I am very disappointed in my Football team that played a pre-season game here last night. I am a big Tennessee Titans fan,,but here lately they have not done very well. I am hoping with our new quarterback,Vince Young, that we will do much better this season,,but right off the bat, he sprained his ankle,,not good. Oh well just the first game and pre-season so that doesn't count. I know they will do better with each game they play!
So here is the cards that I did get done yesterday. The first card is for my Alphabet ATCs and it is the C card- for Cowgirl Calamity Jane,,I liked her alot,,very fiesty woman!

The next card is for the Alphabet ATC deck and it is the D card for Dancers.




The next card is for my Art Card Deck. It is the Three of Clubs- Repetition. I did this in Paintshop Pro,,I have started trying to do a few more digital pieces of art work.

The last card is also for my Art Card Deck, it is the King of Hearts- Windows. It is a Asian theme which I love to do as much as the Vintage look.

I have a few birthday ATCs to finish today,,and get my Quilt art page finished and mailed. I wish week-ends lasted for 4 days,,lol. Hope everyone has a restful sunday!

saturdays sentiments

Whew,,glad its Saturday!! Now that I am back at work I will be saying that every saturday,,well actually I will probably start on fridays by saying "whew, I am glad its friday",lol. But you gotta work if you want to buy art stuff,,and toys,,lol. Oh yeah,,and pay bills and buy food and the outragous gasoline!!
So I went back to school on Thursday,,here is a link to the school I work at. http://www.hillsborohs.com/index.htm We are the mighty "Burros", and might I add one of the better High Schools in Nashville,,and we were in the top 1000 schools this year in Newsweek magazine. We placed 474. We have advance placement courses and other specialty programs so alot of our kids are special tranfers. But we also have 37% of our population are on free lunchs,,which means low income,,and we were about the only High School on that list with that high of percentage of low income and to rank in the top thousand,,so that does say alot.
I have worked with the school system in Nashville for 22 years this Aug.,,(that long?). I hope that I can retire in another 10 years,,which will make me 55,,so that won't be too bad,,at least I hopefully will still have some good health left.
I have been at Hillsboro for the past 2 years,,and I really enjoy being at this school,,alot of really nice people and friends here.
So when I went back to work Thursday,,my husband's bestfriend and his wife rolled into town. My husband grew up with Flint,,did all their wild teen-age years together,,lol. Well Flint and his wife Cathy are a husband and wife 18 wheeler truck team. They stop in and visit when the run from Oregon to Florida. They live in Spokane, Wa.,,but seldom home,,in their truck most of the time. Not sure if Daniel could do this or not,,lol. But they seem to get along fine and enjoy driving. They headed out early this morning bringing O.J. back to Portland from Tampa, Fla. We have a nice truck stop at our exit on the interstate,,so they park their truck there and we pick them up and bring them here to rest and re-coup a few days. Then we rest and recoup after they leave,,lol. They are really very good friends and we really enjoy it when they visit.
I am posting a pic of my one of my really friendly pets,,lol. It is my garden spider that eats my pests on my flowers,,it is called a Golden Garden spider(argiope). It is a beautiful spider and harmless to all but insects,,here is a little link that you can read about it
http://www.infobreaks.com/pestguide/index7.html

I just think its a really cool spider,,that little zigzag is a thick lace of silk that he wraps his victims in. I also have a tunnel spider but I don't have a good picture of it. His web is made like a tunnel,,really cool. I think my friend Cathy thought I was nuts for having these spiders around,,but I would much rather eliminate my bug population this way than with poisonous pesticides. I also took a another great pic of a green butterfly/moth this week on a one of my zinnias,,but of course blogger will not let me up load it right now,,,so I will try later.

I hope every one has a great week-end,,I know I will but it will be too short,,lol.

Last day of vacation!

By this time tomorrow I will be back at work. Boooooooooooo!!!!! LOL. So today is a Beth day,,I will just have fun and pamper myself. I am thinking a nice pedicure in the massage chair,,that will work.
Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon in the pond area. Its nice and shady there during the middle of the day,,so I worked in the flower beds,,and just cleaned the pond area as it needed it. Even in the shade,,I was soaking wet,,thanks to the lovely humidity that we have here in the summer. It was 96 here yesterday,,same again today.
So I got the pond looking really good because I got 2 new chairs to match my new table that I got last week. I ordering them from Lowes and last night, I met Daniel there after he got off work so he could put them in his truck. They weren't very expensive,,and they match perfectly, as the table is kind of bronzish,,and so is the metal in the chairs. Now the pond looks so much nicer with the new furniture.

I just love this little area of my yard. I spend so much time out here,,its so peaceful and soothing. And when I get home from work,,I head out here in the evening to just relax and do some journaling. My office at my High School is a old book closet,,a really big book closet. All concrete and no windows,,and pretty cold in the winter,,but I have lots of floor heaters,,lol. It sounds pretty dreary,,and it is,,as there are no windows,,but I am tucked away upstairs and no one bothers me unless I want them too,,lol. I spend alot of my time down in the Guidance Office any way,,talking with kids and in meetings. Also I do go out and do home visits,,actually I will only stand on the porches and yards,,learned several years ago to not go inside,,you never know what could be happenning in a home, and you don't want any surprises. All I have for protection is a Cell phone,,so I am very cautious. But it is nice to get out of the office. But when I come home from work,,this is my comfort zone!

Here are is a pic of my Aloe Vera thats by the pond,,I just love it when surprise flowers pop up in my house plants. This has some impatients that found there way into the pot,,lol. I always wonder if a little bird just drops a seed in the pots,,lol.



I listen to the nice bubbling of the fountain.

Finally yesterday my other hibiscus finally bloomed. It was the second mystery hibiscus that came from the seed trade several years ago. This one came up in the pond flower beds this year,,but I moved it to the front flower bed where it could get more sun. This one is a very pale pink,,and the blooms are just as big as the white one that I showed pictures of last month. I am so happy that these lovely plants come back each year,,Hibiscuses are some of my favorite flowers.

Monday I decided that it was time for a back to school haircut. So I went to my stylist, Lee, to get a new do,,lol. I give Lee lots of flower seeds so he gives me a great cut,,lol. I told him that I was sick of the hot hair,,plus it was kind of fried from my last perm,,so he cut it pretty short. And I do love it. Even Daniel keeps saying how much he likes it,,and that I should have had it cut like this at the first of the summer,,lol. So here I am in my new do,,sitting in my new chair, at my new table, in my nice comfort zone!!!(Daniel took this last night) I will probably be here late this evening,,dreading the next morning,,lol. Hope every one has a wonderful day!!!

Monday already?

You know I want this week to go extremely slow. I am back at work on Thursday of this week. I can't believe this week is here. Why does summer have to fly,,and winter just creeps? Oh well,,at least I can access my blog from work,,lol. Its about the only place I can access,,the school Net Nanny doesn't let me go to my groups,,wah wah.
Well yesterday I finished a few Art Deck Cards, a deco page for a friends birthday, and a Alphabet ATC card. The Alphabet card is "B" this week,,so I made a "Baby Beth" card,,lol. Its a little blurry,,but I have always been blurry,,lol.
Hope everyone has a great Monday,,but please make it go slow!!!

Good Stories for a Sunday morning.

Today I though I would post some wonderful stories from here locally where I live. The first one is very special. Last April we had some really bad tornadoes hit the middle Tennessee area. Luckily were I live we did not get any damage, although I did see a funnel cloud right above the house across the street from me but it never touched down. Where just a little ways north of us in another county they got hit hard. 9 people died in Gallatin, TN. We were on the weather channel for several days as headlines. It was amazing because more people didn't get hurt,,but also because some of the houses where just wiped completely away from the foundations. I am talking big brick homes worth about a half a million dollars. Well in one of the neighborhood that got hit a tragic but a wonderfully heroic story happenned. A young mother of two young boys was at home alone with them. Her husband is a fire fighter in another county. He called and told her to take cover as a tornadoe was coming straight toward their house. She was already headed to the basement with the boys. As soon as she got them downstairs the tornadoe hit and she threw her body over them to protect them. The whole house came down on top of them. The boys had a few scrapes,but Amy, their Mom, had all of her ribs broken, her back broke and a severe head wound. She was very critical for several days and during that time her husband was told she was paralyzed from the waist down. She got out of intensive care and as soon as her head wound was better, she was sent to Atlanta for instense rehab to teach her how to do every thing from a wheelchair. She was the hero out of all the terrible tradgedy. Her husband started a blog about her progress on the site for people with life threatening injuries. The little boys and her husband were on the news and her little boy Jair who is 6 years old said "my mommys my hero, she saved me",,it really brought tear to your eyes. Well finally Amy got to come home to the house that they had been renting, she returned a little less than a month ago. During her stay in Atlanta, her family, friends, neighbors, and church family started passing around a petition to send to "Extreme Home Make-Overs" with Ty Pennington. They wanted them to build a new handicap friendly home for the Hawkins family as theirs was completely demolished by the tornadoe. You could even go on line and sign the petition which I did. They had to have like 50,000 signatures before they would even consider it. Well they got the signatures, and this week the Extreme Makeover team arrived here in Gallatin. They sent Amy, her husband, her mother and the boys to Disney World for the the week, and they built Amy her new wonderful home. In one week they built a very exclusive handicap friendly home,,it has so many extra amminitys for the wonderful family. Here is link for pictures and more on her story.
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060729/NEWS01/607290345
The extreme make-over story will be on sometime this fall, they have not given a date for it yet.

Another story is about a young war hero from our very own hometown of Kingston Springs. This young man graduated from High School with my son and they were friends. He was in the Army and in Iraq last August when a rocket hit his truck that was in a convoy over there. His 2 buddies from this area were killed instantly. He was still alive and came to finding he was on fire, and trying to pat the flames off of him. He was spared from death,,but was severly maimed. He lost both of his legs above the knees, one of his arm and hand is crippled, and he was burned over 60 % of his body.
Our little local paper has kept up with his story while he was in Texas at the Walter Reed Military Hospital. Every week they would talk to his father and on the front page of our paper that came on fridays, there would be a update. This young man has been through so many surgeries and has been in excrutating pain. But survived.
Well the week after July 4th, Kevin was finally well enough to come home. Everyone in Kingston Springs spread the news and most of the town came out at 5 p.m to line the main street into our town holding yellow ribbons and flags and posters to welcome him home. It was very thrilling and touching. He and his parents were in a van and they oppenned the side door and drove down the street so he could wave to every one. They have had several welcome home partys for him and he was awarded the purple heart last saturday.
Here is a link to his story.
http://www.ashlandcitytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060802/MTCN0101/308020035/1292/MTCN01

Kevin has to go back to Texas this week for more surgery and to get fitted for prosthestic legs. He stays in our prayers constantly. But he his a strong young man and has a plan for his future as he tells in this news story.

Thanks for letting me share these wonderful stories. They will warm your heart, and remind you that even though bad things happen, sometimes good does come from them.

Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!

Steamy Saturday!!!

Yesterday was a busy day. I went up to my Mom's and stayed with my step-dad while she went to the beauty shop and grocery store. He has been really unstable since his cataract surgery,,it messed up his blood sugar(he has diabetes), and she didn't want to leave him alone as he might could fall. So while I was there I cleaned up her house really good for her. Then Daniel took off early from work and he came up there.
Now I know that I have the best husband in the whole world,,and he proved it even more to me yesterday. My step-father had been working on some hand rails for their front porch steps before he had his eye surgery this week. They have some very steep steps that go up to their deck that they were using to go into the den. Well Mom has parkinsons and he is very unstable when he walks too. I was really worrying about them using those steps. Their front porch on has 2 steps but they needed hand rails to be able to use those steps. So,,,sweet Daniel took the day off and came up there to build the hand rails. Well we had the worse thunderstorms and heavy rain as soon as he got there,,but that didn't stop him. The front porch was covered and there are big trees that kept some of the rain off of him,,but he still got soaked. He worked his butt off on those rails and they turned out so nice. I stayed out there and helped him and kept him company,,but I stayed under the porch,,lol.
We got 3 inches of rain in 2 hours yesterday,,it was really nasty. And the best part of the whole story is,,I didn't even ask Daniel to come up there and do that,,he just wanted to do it as he didn't want my parents to fall and hurt themselves. So thats what really touched my heart! And they were so thankful for him doing that too!
I got home last night and I had recieved my "Shades of White" chunky book. It is absolutely gorgeous,,I will post pics of it later. Then today I got my Quilt Art page from my swap. And it is so beautiful too. I love it,,but it makes the page that I did look very amauter,,lol. I will post pics of it later too.
For now I will get off here and go do some artsy stuff,,having to rest my back as I did a little too much yesterday and its a little more sore today.
I will post later with pics! Have a great saturday!

My Babies!

Today I was looking at pictures that I have of my 2 babies that I have in a folder on the computer. I was taking a stroll down memory lane as I was thinking about them alot this morning,,of course I always think about them and Love them so very much!
As I looked at their pictures I thought about how very close they are. Even though they are brother and sister,,they are also great friends, and always have been. Oh yeah,,they have had many squabbles and fights through the years,,but they also have been conspirators in mischief too. Even now they still hang together and are very tight. And in their language,,"they have each others back".
Kalyn was born 2 weeks before Kyle was to turn 2 years old. At first he didn't think too much of this little bundle,,she was something that was getting alot of attention,,attention that he was use to getting all of,,lol. But as she got older he decided she was a pretty good playmate. Her very first word was "Ki",,meaning Kyle,,,every thing after that was "where Ki?" She was definetly his biggest fan,, and her most admired person. I am so glad that they are so close,,and I know that if anything ever happenned to me or everyone else in their lifes,,they will always be there for each other,,and for that I am so very Thankful to God for this close relationship that they have. Here are some of their pictures through the years.
This is their very first picture together,,I love the look on Kyle's face,,kind of like "ok,,what is this about?" his great-grandmother is holding him.







Guess who was the clown in alot of the pictures? I Love these,,as this was always my funny little boy!







And this is the team now days at 19 and 21 years old.



I Love these two "babies",,,and they will always be babies to me. And I am very proud of them! Thanks for letting me go down memory lane.