May (mostly)

These pictures go back about six weeks now! Where does the time go?!

Natasha was ready for something different to look at, so she whipped up some different sculptures with the clay that formerly was the dragons. Then, once each dude had been formed, she made up a scene for them, as follows.

"I'll make sure that pesky human stays out of your way, Shark!"




(blurry.... sorry.....) Speech bubble says, "Ahh!" [A scared scream, not the sound one makes when a doctor says, "Open your throat and stick out your tongue," ... tho' either could be appropriate, considering this frog's pose, eh??! ;) ]


"Ooh ... lunch, big bird. Let us feast on the big frog."

Natasha made this bouquet to be a special decoration the night Emmit and Teresa & their family were here! These petite, pink blooms covered the bush right outside our back door, so Natasha just snipped a few stems & stuck them in this vase. I think it's breathtaking. Thank you God for such a variety of beautiful, lovely things!!!!!!!!!!!

Closer shot, trying to get a more accurate picture of the flowers' color.



I realized I left out a handful of pictures from Clint & Sydni's visit! :( I worked really hard to get a shot of Sayler watching the otter, one of her favorite zoo animals, I'm told. So once I figured out where I needed to be, and Mr. Swimming Otter's timing, of course in that instant is when Justus chose to walk through the camera's view. hahaha! :) Keepin' it real, keepin' it real....
This picture shows a bit of the engraving at the top of the front of the west side of the capitol. I also was glad to get the flags, AND the gold fleur-de-lis a the very top of the dome ... which, sadly, disappears into the sky. Bah.
View of downtown Des Moines (across the Des Moines River) from the steps of the capitol:
Standing directly under the center of the inside of the dome, looking up (verrrtigo!):
Trying to give some sense of the altitude....
And here, unveiled for the first time, is our new-to-us picnic table, for which we paid $5, and then promptly spent four times that much on paint, hahaha! Don't be at all surprised when, someday in the not-too-distant future, I post a picture of a beautiful LSU Tiger logo Jeremy's got in his head to pain in the center of the top!

I have needed new workout shoes for a llllong time. I had a tough time justifying the purchase (therefore postponing it long...) because my Merrills from six years ago are still servicable! The problem is, they have always been a half-size too short -- which I realized fully a couple weeks after I bought them, GRRRRRRRR. However, wearing my Merrills almost never wasn't helping them wear out, obviously, so it was a catch-22. I finally decided I simply HAD to buy new shoes for my poor abused feet, and started shopping and saving a couple months ago. The week before I bought these, in a family discussion about affording a new pair for not only me but also Natasha, Jeremy and Natasha had a lightbulb moment which never occurred to me but was SO PERFECT AND EXCITING!! NATASHA CAN WEAR MY MERRILLS!!!!!!! They are perfect for her!! AAAAAAH!! What a wonderful solution. And, here are my beautiful, sparkling new Saucony brand shoes. They are wwwwwwwwwwonderful. They put a spring in my step, yet I feel like I'm walking on clouds. AND, my foot pain has decreased quite a lot already.

Dianthus! Pretty, eh? Natasha and I especially like the curly-q stamens!! This is the flower Justus selected to give me, from the bedding plant flowers that Donna, Sunday a.m. teacher of the 3rd & 4th grade class, bought this year for the moms of her students, an annual tradition. :) I've never had dianthus before! VERY, VERY PRETTY! And, this is my first successful use of the "Foliage" setting on our camera! Win! :)

Well, haha. In backwards order of how I would have preferred them to post, the picture above and theone below are mostly for Mom, who wanted to see the craft I told her about from Ladies' Day on Sat. 5/7. The Hickman ladies did this same craft (one of two) at Ladies' Day last year as well. Immediately following their "Welcome" segment of the day, they had us go out onto the steps at the front of their building. One of the guys, who volunteers to prep this craft, takes a picture of all of us together [tho' about 20-25 more ladies arrived over the next few hours (One of the other congregations in town had a special breakfast event that same morning.)]. Then he develops the picture and makes a pile of copies. The schedule is set up for the crafts to be done at the end of Ladies' Day, and they provide sequins, ribbons, and glue, for each one to decorate the plastic frame as she wants. It has a big magnet on the back. This year they had both these hard plastic magnetic frames as well as simple plastic sleeves, with magnets on the back. I don't know if they can be purchased with magnets, or if the ladies attach the magnets beforehand. ~shrug~ Anyway, the sparkly sequin-y decorations, balloons, went with the decor, which correlated with their theme, "Up, Up, and Away" -- since joy was the topic of the event.

I have to say one more thing about these pictures. Okay, so ... I was one of the speakers for this Ladies' Day. UGGH. UNcomfortable, scary, difficult task for me. VERY. But, this wonderful group of ladies made my job much easier than it would have been had they been less warm, open, and encouraging. WHAT.A.WONDERFUL.AUDIENCE, wwwwwow.... I'm so thankful for each of them. Two of the ladies who arrived after this picture was taken had driven from Iowa City to attend (2 hr. drive); they are a daughter and her aged mother whom I'd never met before. The daughter approached me shortly after my presentation and gushed her appreciation. One of the things I remember her saying is, "Your lesson definitely made it worth the drive." Wwwwwow, I took that as such a big compliment ... 'cause ... I've driven that drive, Iowa City being the location of Elaine's surgery, remember? Then, when Ladies' Day was winding down, the clean-up of the craft time being all that was left, she came up to me holding this picture and said, "My mom, who is with me today, has dementia. Not only does she not know the ladies here, but she knows she won't remember them, or this day, really. But she enjoyed making the craft, and asked me to give you hers, since she noticed that you didn't get a chance to make one." Deeply touched I remain.
Oh, haha! This is the only picture that was taken when I hosted a Spa Day for Natasha, Katie, and Jo last month. :) Avocado. Wear it or eat it, that is the question!
I found Justus sleeping like this one night. His bedroom was, of course, perfectly dark; the flash lights it up like DAYLIGHT, for that one second in which the camera takes the picture....
Elaine's Mother's Day flowers from Jennifer & Todd, Jeremy & Sunny. So pretty!!
Some of you, I think, haven't yet seen this crazy-fun hat I knitted for Katie!

Also, here are some pictures of the scarf Natasha knitted on for ... all of the months of winter. :)


Isn't that a prrrrretty begonia??!! Gaylon & Ronnie Harrison brought it as a hostess gift when we had them over! AAH!! Begonias are amazing in the vibrancy of their colors!!!!!