I Got a New Camera!

My DH did some extra work and got extra $$, and spent it on a new camera for me! I am SO blessed with a wonderful husband. : ) (I especially like him when he's generous. lol)

I took a couple pictures of Oscar (Although I wasn't sure what I was doing at first and might have done a video instead. lol) But I was SO tired after an all-day shopping trip (HOW did I ever used to shop from morning to night without tiring?) I took a nap and it was too dark when I woke up to try it outside....I may try to take a couple pics of the squirrels in a bit, though. SO, I still don't have any pictures to load ~YET~ but I bet I'll have some tomorrow! ; )

I just need to figure out how to load them.....new cameras kinda scare me. ; )

We went to the river yesterday, and wandered around a bit. Emma found some flowers to try transplant, and I helped her dig them....talk about DEEP bulbs! I am surprised they had made it above ground, I bet we dug almost a foot! I found a tiny magnolia tree, which she brought home, too, and some flowers that *if* they bloom, they have tiny white flowers. I have some of those in the backyard, and sometimes they bloom and sometimes they don't. They're pretty when they do, though. She got one other kind, too, but I wasn't sure what they were, a day lily or an iris...they were just barely above the ground. We also both got a nice case of poison ivy......she has it on her face and ears, and I have it on both wrists and my chin.

While we were digging flowers Anna was identifying tracks, picking up shells, and collecting beeved sticks. She also picked up a cool twisted piece of driftwood.

We went to my mom's after that, and they played with their favourite cousin...they went through the woods and over a fence and under a fence....their clothes were torn and they were filthy when they came in, and I suspect Emma got in a bit more poison ivy. Take away the poison ivy, and it sounds like a great time. ; )

This evening Emma planted her new plants, and they've spent the rest of the evening watching Star Trek:Next Generation. Emma is reading a book about perennials...she asked me for recommendations on books about flowers, so I picked her out a few I thought would have the info she needed....I hadn't realized I had THAT many gardening books! lol I also found two animal tracks books for Anna...she's been browsing through them off and on this evening. She's getting out the Fisher Price people now....we stopped by a thrift store yesterday and she found me a new (old, and probably *illegal*) train engine for them. I'll have to be on the lookout for the cars.


(I borrowed the picture from e-bay.)

This is What my Husband....

...and kids do for fun.....

I think this one was made in 2005 or 2006.



And this one was made in 2007.

Ghosts!

We had a ghostly visitor tonight.

We live in Daddy's grandmother's house, and she died here, so we believe it's her. Daddy has *felt* her about several times, but it's always been when I was either not home or asleep. Tonight I actually got to see "something". lol

We were all watching tv, Daddy in front of the computer, Emma beside him in the recliner, me and Anna on the couch. Oscar was in the other chair, and the cats were in the girl's room.

The curtain over the door window moved. It flipped back, like someone lifted it to look outside, then dropped back down.

From where I was sitting I had a perfect view of it moving, and Daddy saw it move, too.

Freaky!

In My Own Little Corner

In my Own Little Corner, from Cinderella

In my own little corner in my own little chair
I can be whatever I want to be.
On the wings of my fancy I can fly anywhere
And the world will open its arms to me.




One of my all-time favorite musical songs!

And what I'm feeling right now....I'm SO glad I'm in my own little corner. My life is quiet and calm, and I like it this way. : )

I really dislike stress...so I do my best to avoid it. I don't watch suspenseful movies, I don't read mysteries, I avoid annoying people.

IOW, I stay in my own little corner, and I'm happy.

Sometimes, though, I venture out. And come running back!

It takes this,



four or five times to get me back to the place where I'm happy.

So I try not to leave very often. lol

We Had Another BLAST, Yesterday and Today!

And I don't have pictures yet! (Daddy did take his camera, but he hasn't loaded them.)

Yesterday We meant to simply run up to a store I've been wanting to check out. We did that, then stopped by a park, there was a cemetery next to it, so we went over to meander through it, and DH did some rubbings of a few stones. Then I remembered another park, so we were heading to there, but hubby missed the turn, and we just kept on going. lol

We came upon a riverside trail, so we decided to walk a bit, and it was AMAZING!! There were the hugest rocks I've ever seen, lots of beaver tracks and gnawed trees, a tunnel to walk through, a bridge to walk over....a HIGH bridge; the kind that gives you the willies.....deer tracks, raccoon tracks, fox tracks, and the wonderful river beside us the whole way.

We only passed 6 other people the whole time, and by the time we finished exploring it was getting dark. We want to go back soon, though, we didn't even make it a mile on the trail, we took so many side trails! lol

The girls and I were pretending to be explorers from early U.S. history, I was William Clark, Anna was Daniel Boone, and Emma was Squire Boone. We were heading back toward the van and I called Blitz! Emma said (as Squire), "What is a Blitz!?"... "What would they have yelled to get them running?" She thought a few minutes, then yelled, "Bear!" lol I laughed so hard I couldn't run...it's a good thing it wasn't *really* a bear. ; )

Emma was cracking jokes right and left.....I was climbing back up to the trail from the river, and both girls were already on the trail. I said, "It's not nice to leave your mother down over a cliff." Emma came back with, "Well, you were already over the hill." lol

Today we went back in the same direction, but took a side road and found a lovely trail with beautiful waterfalls! There was a bridge over the river, right above the first waterfall, then steps down to the base of the waterfall. It was cool and misty at the bottom of the waterfall, and SO beautiful!

We stopped on the way up several times to check out different sorts of geologic formations, and look for fossils. Anna found a rock with three lovely shells, and I found a small leaf and one shell. We also stopped where some red clay had slid down, and the girls played in it and Daddy brought some home with us.

We stopped at a spot where a fort was in pioneer days and looked around trying to see if we could tell where it had been. With a railroad and two bridges now it's hard to tell where it could be. I suspect it's under where the railroad is now.

It started raining while we were there, so we came home. It rained harder and the girls went out to enjoy the rain. (I confess, I went out a time or two, myself. lol)

This evening we went to my Mom's for supper and visiting with my sister.

When we got home, Anna turned her ankle. She's on the couch now watching The Lucy Show, and Emma is with Daddy watching Batman. I'm going to get off the computer and read......I'm reading two interesting books,1421 and The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox

They're both good reads...a bit much reading both at once, though, while thinking about local history, too. ; )

*Such* a Fun Day!

We had a BLAST today...and I don't have a single picture to help me remember!

First the camera wouldn't come on, and when my husband picked it up to poke at it and see if he could get it to work, one of the batteries fell out and fell INTO THE VAN MOTOR!!! So I'm camera-less until either we buy new batteries or he lets me borrow his. (haha)

Anyway, today was SO much fun! It was warm...almost hot, even...and we decided to go for a picnic. We couldn't quiet decide where to go to picnic...DH wanted to go somewhere he could do some hunting with his metal detector, and I wanted to be near water, so we ended up driving down to the river and parking beside it.

We parked not far from an old grist mill, and the girls and I walked up and peeked around it a little. There was an old house across the road from it, with the coolest lightning rods on the roof.

We climbed down the bank and walked along the river and Anna found two deer skulls, and both Emma and Anna found beaver-chewed sticks which they brought home for walking sticks.

Anna picked up another stick, too, and stuck her deer skulls on it, through their eyes. It was SO freaky-looking. We were walking back to Emma with the deer-skull stick, and a truck passed us, and Anna said, "This looks casual, doesn't it?" lol

Farther down the road she spotted a hawk hanging dead in a bush....that's the second predatory bird we've found dead in just a couple days! So, of course we bagged it up and brought it home. (My husband pointed out it's illegal to have certain kinds of birds around, so we'll look at it, try to identify it, and then bury it with the owl we found the other day, which is STILL sitting on the porch.)

We drove up to another part of the river, and drove farther on that road than I'd ever been. On that streach we saw a blue heron and several Canada geese. Actually, the girls saw 2 herons...I only saw a glimpse of one, but the other was standing in the river, looking chilled. lol

We stopped for pizza on the way home, and now that we're here everyone except me is in the bedroom watching a new Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D (I can't watch because of my eyes.).

Screech Owl

Anna found this poor little fellow in the yard this morning. We tossed around several thoughts about what could have happened to it, but couldn't agree. Some thought the limb it was sitting on in the tree broke and it fell, some thought it froze to death, and some thought it might have starved. I suppose we'll never know for sure...but it is a shame that such a lovely bird had to die. : ( He was SO pretty and owl-like.

Kinda predatory, though...

Decluttering...AKA "Want some books?"

We went through the girl's bookshelves tonight. Even with this huge pile gone it doesn't look that much different. First I went through and picked out the ones I wanted to keep, then Anna went through the ones I discarded and picked the ones she wanted to keep, then Emma went through the ones we'd discarded and decided which ones she wanted to keep, then Daddy came and browsed through them and said things like, "You're not REALLY getting rid of this, are you?" He kept a pile, too. lol

I couldn't get a very good picture of the ones we're getting rid of....they're stacked knee-high on the floor from one end of the coffee table to the other, then several stacks on the coffee table...

One thing I *didn't* find, and now feel like I have to search for, is my copy of A Little Old Man. It's one of the cutest books ever (you can read it here in pdf with Hindi translations added), and I *REALLY REALLY* don't want to accidentally get rid of it. It was one of my favourites when I was a child.

Riley

The little puppy we've been puppysitting died last night. : ( He was only 2 weeks old...I told the girls it's *really* hard to get tiny animals without mommas to live...and at least they took good care of him and loved him while he was with us. I guarantee there wasn't a more snuggled puppy anywhere!)

The girls have been crying for the better part of an hour, and we're getting ready to take them out for ice cream to make it better.

Is it just me, or does that seem wrong?

2-2-09

We're babysitting Riley again today. (He's the black dot.) I rigged up a sling to carry him in, from a scarf, and he's happy as a clam. I keep checking to make sure he's still breathing, though, it's hard to tell down in there. ; ) Oscar is watching it snow. We've got about an inch or so. (He acts SO embarassed when I take his picture. He's so funny.)

Anna found a bent-up paper clip in the floor, with her foot. She took her foot outside in the snow to numb it so it wouldn't hurt when she pulled it out, then came back inside and moaned. I asked if it was really hurting that much and she said, "Nah." lol