SUNDAY

I Corinthians 2:9

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him."

The flowers are from my 85 year old mother's garden by her back door. These snapdragons are in their second year and were even fuller until one of our recent storms blew them over. She loves to be outside working in the garden and hoeing weeds. My grandparents were Germans that came from Russia in the early 1900's and had to work in the fields during the spring and summer. That work ethic came down through the generations and is still thriving everyday. My mom still lives on the farm where my dad, then my brother and I grew up (just a few years ago!!) Today she mostly has flower pots, while my brother and I take care of this area so my mom won't fall in the rock garden.

Stormy weather, AGAIN

No picture.

Ran to the basement for the first time ever. Living in Tornado Alley in Colorado is not usually that scary.

I was standing at the front door watching it rain and hail some, when, all of a sudden, the doors and windows started to howl like a banshee (they do howl, don't they?) and the trees were moving like crazy. Well, my chubby short legs moved quickly to the basement!! It only lasted a few minutes--whatever it was. The storm passed and I thought that was it.

The electricity went out and when I remembered to call REA, they said power would be back on in a little while. It sure was too dark in the house to do anything. That was at 4:30 in the afternoon!

In the meantime, ANOTHER rain storm dumped on us. Poor BooBoo is surrounded by water. And, I haven't had to water the lawn for a month. The paper said some parts of Morgan county have had 12 inches of rain this month. That's our YEARLY average.

Three days, three trips

These poppies are from Macedonia from a friend's spring hike. She's there on a Peace Corp mission and has been sending out her pictures on Face Book. The hillside was covered with flowers and simply amazing!

The other day I tried posting, but with internet problems, the post got lost in never, never land. I had a cute title and was so proud of it. Oh well. Quite tired this morning after taking Mr. T.G. to the ER in Greeley Wednesday. (Is today Thursday? I'm losing track!!) Colitis is a bad word! He is still in ICU this morning, but feels so much better...thanks to his opium pump, or did he say morphine. I'm not thinking-just doing chores to catch up around here. Thank goodness for those poppies. I'm sure they are the blue ones that don't grow around here.

Oh, I guess I should explain the title. I don't have to drive far to get to school or to Safeway in Fort Morgan. However, when I have to make a trip to Greeley, it just wears me out. I shouldn't complain about the drive because we have several teachers that drive that far every day. Picking up bottles for lab samples, taking them back, making a quick trip to see my mom, and going to the ER made for three long trips. I've sort of decided that my max time in the car for any traveling is only about 2 hours. Going to Greeley takes more than an hour one way, plus there's road construction in several places that adds to travel time. Done whining.

Happy Father's Day

I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to the great dad in our lives, Grandpa Joe. He's always been the best dad, father-in-law, and grandpa. Actually, he's the only father-in-law I've ever had!

And in memory of my great daddy, here's the verse we used on his program at his celebration of life in 2004.

"For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me." -- Acts 27:23

Both of these great men were farmers and we are proud to be their children.

Lazy Saturday

I should be outside working in the yard, but am being lazy. It's cloudy out, a perfect day for getting some grass out of the flower beds that were neglected last summer, and here I am. I've been mowing the pasture grass for an hour or two each day. It surrounds the house and yard and must be at least waist high in some places because of all the rain we've had so far this month. We try to get it mowed so it's not a fire hazard when it turns brown later in the summer. I'm thinking we need sheep, but there's not a fence around here to keep them in.

Fabulous Giveaway

I had nothing to blog about until I was visiting my favorite places this morning and found this giveaway. Of course I entered right away hoping to win. Here's a copy of the post from French Charming:

I'm doing my first Giveaway! I'm not celebrating a blog milestone or a store opening...I'm celebrating you, my wonderful blog pals! As you may know, I love all things French and I'm giving away this gorgeous French Limoges dresser set from the early 1900's.

The 6 piece set is the perfect shade of shabby chic blue with gorgeous pink hand painted roses. The set includes a vanity tray, hair receiver, trinket box, hat pin holder, vase and powder box. All pieces are in excellent condition and chip free.

BLUE and GREEN

These happy flax bloom every morning and are the only real blue flowers in my garden. They come up where ever they want to and I am happy to have them in among everything else. If the fog clears, they will be facing the morning sun.

It's foggy outside this morning and looking out our front window reminds me of the B &B we stayed in while we were in Wales on a Young Farmer's trip. The sky was as gray as it is this morning and we had a lovely field of green grain out the bedroom window. Now there is a turf farm right across the road that makes me think of that view. Of course, there was no gigantic sprinkler in the field across the pond!




VBS starts at church this morning and I did promise to help. I am not comfortable with leaving Wally, so I will find out how I can manage to slip away early. My heart just isn't in being away from him since he's come home from the hospital.

Meditation

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
Ephesians 2:8

Quite amazing!! Just believe.

Flying Fast

Ever heard of the saying "Don't drive faster than your angel can fly"? That's what came to mind when I saw this blurry picture I took. Even though I should delete it, I didn't because it reminded me of a Monet painting. (Well, maybe if I cross my eyes!) If there's an award for the worst picture on a blog, I should be winning with this one.

So I guess it's time to slow down and enjoy life as it is, even if things are out of focus.

Crazy, rainy weather

This picture was taken on June 7 in Aurora and is the scariest, best picture of a forming tornado. I got it from The Denver Channel (our channel 7) news taken and sent in by a viewer. Why someone would be standing under a tornado taking a picture is my question!!

With all this rain, the weeds are taking over! All those tumbleweeds that blew hither and yon left millions of seeds. Now those seeds are up and growing, well, like weeds! I think we need sheep for all the growing grass, too.

Colitis is still a huge problem for Wally. This is his most severe attack he's ever had.

Iris Time and He's Home!

The iris seem to be a little late this year, but I do have several very pretty colors. Some I got at Iris 4 U in Denver. They have so many varieties and colors it boggles my mind. Then a couple varieties I just picked up at the local discount store. I really need to work the iris this summer because they got NO attention last summer after I broke my arm. So, as Mr. TG is recovering, I will be going out early in the mornings to clean out grass, etc., and get some new space cleared to put in more plants. Looks like I need some darker colors now that I have lots of pastels.

After six LONG days, Wally is home. His back surgery seems to have gone well. It's the colitis that about killed him...had to have a blood transfusion after losing so much blood and the pain (not his back) is horrendous. Today he just slept most of the time and won't eat because it hurts too much.

Mr. "TG" is still in the hospital

We saw these pretty columbine blooming outside the Medical Center of the Rockies when we went to visit Wally today. Mr. Tough Guy isn't doing too well because he's having a colitis flareup. They said he lost a lot of blood, and if it doesn't improve, he may need a transfusion. Needless to say, he didn't come home today.

Doing Better

Mr. "Tough Guy" had his back surgery on Tuesday at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland. I was going to say near Loveland, but the city has moved the city limits way out east of I-25, so the new hospital is actually in town. Mr. TG is still healing, but his nerves have been so squashed, it will be a while before he's up and around. We'll just have to wait and see about WHEN he gets to come home!

Cynthia's Cottage Design Give Away

Found a great give away at Cynthia's Cottage Design. She's celebrating a year of blogging. And I'm wanting to win! Here's what Cynthia wrote:

"The Give Away consists of: A beautiful basket with an image of art work by Diane Knotts. A pink toile china plate ( yes, lol, I bought two of these knowing I'd be having a give away and kept one for myself ) a Cynthia's Cottage handmade Country Living image sign, Blue and white smaller china plate with red gingham bow for hanging, a sweet Vintage Apron from the 50's, and a handmade table cloth made of linen ( or table scarf ) embroidered in a fabulous red with a hint of black. Size: 33" x 33"....perfectly Vintage too :) All ready to get packaged up and delivered to the lucky winners doorstep!"

Prayers for Wally

Tomorrow is back surgery for Wally. Please pray for a successful operation that will remove spurs and scar tissue from his spine and relieve his constant pain. His quality of life on pain meds is about .5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

God just hasn't been ready for him and believe me, Wally's had multiple opportunities to get to meet Him! Even getting hit head-on by a semi hasn't sent him to the Promised Land, or having a 50% blockage in the V of his aorta. He has only two arteries in his heart, while most people have three! After the heart doctor came to explain the test results, we didn't go eat breakfast as planned. We waited for emergency heart surgery as soon as an operating room was available!

By the way, he's looking very good in the picture taken at his sweet sister's wedding this spring.