365 pictures 6 - 12 March

WOW!!!!  Where did this week go????  I didn't get every day, just a crazy week but here we go.

Sunday 6 March

Nice relaxing day.  Church in the morning, nap in the afternoon, kitties playing, church in the evening.  Grouchy playing with her favorite mouse.

Monday 7 March

Going back in time 21 years.  This is my nephew Elisha James, two days old.  He turned 21 today.  I was 4 months pregnant with my first son, so getting some "Mommy" practice in.

My son Wood is home from college.  He brought home his fish tank.  Wood started to remove the books from this bookcase so we could move it & put the fish tank here.  Grouchy had to help by being a live dust rag.  She had a blast rolling all over the empty shelves.  Thought she found a new play area.

Tuesday 8 March

A week ago, my husband & I went to a couple night at church & won a gift card to Red Lobster.  Tuesday is my husband's day off, so we drove to the city, St. Joseph, (an 1hr & 15 min. south west of us) did some shopping & then went out to eat at Red Lobster.  It was a great time & a wonderful date night.

Wednesday 9 March

 No picture, can't believe I forgot to take one.

Thursday 10 March

Put up the Woodpecker suet block & this cute little Downy (I think that is its name) pecker came immediately.

Friday 11 March

I had the privilege to go to a women retreat put on by our county Baptist association.  At 9:30pm we got into our pj's had a slumber party & played some games.  The them to the games was things we count, like we count grey/white hairs & worry about having them.  God knows the number of hairs on our head even the white/grey one we pluck out.  The object of the game was we were given a small box of spaghetti & we had to see which team to stuff all the spaghetti in the pony tail of a team mate head first.  My team came in third.

Saturday 12 March

The retreat was Friday evening to Saturday afternoon.  Started the morning with breakfast & praise time.  Angie Cox led us in praise.  She is a wonderful musician & writes some of the most beautiful praise songs.

That is my week.  Hope all of you had a great one!!

365 pictures 27 Feb - 5 March

Wow, another week gone & a new month has started.  Time is going by way to fast.  I was a good girl this week, stayed home & off my knee as much as possible.  Looking for pictures was a little challenging, but got it done.

Sunday 27 Feb.

This morning I made a batch of buttermilk bran muffins.  During the week, my husband & I eat these for breakfast because it is easy for him to take on the go & they taste great.  The recipe makes 2 1/2 dozen.  The recipe calls for adding nuts & dried fruit which is optional.  I like to add a dried fruit mixture of apples, cranberries, blueberries & cherries, I found at Cost co.  This batch also has pecans in it because that was the nuts I had in my freezer. 

Monday 28 Feb.

First of course this picture was not taken today, but wanted to post it to say "Happy Birthday to my brother Robert"  This was taken in 1969, Rob was 5 & I was 1.  Of course being Navy brats we were dress in Navy outfits.

Since the weather was nasty & I couldn't get outside plus didn't find anything interesting in the house to take a picture of; I decided to take a picture from our deer cam on our farm.  We have two set up, one at the corn feeder we set up to help feed the deer in winter & keep them coming back to our farm & a second one at a salt block.  Two pictures before this the deer were eating calmly then something spooked them & the took off.

Tuesday 1 March

My oldest son was home for a visit.  We gave him a new compound bow for Christmas because he out grew his old one.  He didn't have a chance to put it together or sight it in during Christmas.  Since the weather was nice today, he & my hubby worked on the bow, & sighted it in.

Wednesday 2 March

Every morning I get to go to therapy for my knee, which right now is being hooked up to a machine that send electric current to my muscle, while I sit there & do nothing.  This is my daily reading time which I'm enjoying.  I finished the last book I posted here & started this one today.  Luci Swindoll is Chuck Swindoll's sister & one of my favorite speakers at Women of Faith conference.  Her books are great too.

Thursday 3 March

We have three indoor cats who have cat toys & fake mice to play with.  Grouchy plays with them the most & get a little carried away to where the mice get hit under the stove in the kitchen, under the couch in the living room, buried in the coat closet, etc.  So when my husband sees our cat laying belly up looking under the stove, couch & other places for a couple of days in a row, this is a hint to please get my mice for me.  My husband went on a mouse hunt tonight & found all the mice & tiger toy for the cats.  Then lined them up on the shoe towel by the coat closet for the cats to find.

 AD (short for attention deficit, which she has a problem with doesn't think she gets enough attention) was the first to see what Daddy did & laid on the towel to guard them.  Her two favorite are the yellow ones because they rattle when she wacks them around the house.

Her sister Grouchy also realized what Daddy did, chased sissy away & took over controlling the mice.  If you notice she has separated her favorite mouse from the rest (laying in front of her).  By morning all of the mice were scattered through the house.

Friday 4 March

In the evening if we have nothing else to do, my husband & I will play Lego Star Wars on the Wii together.  Yes, this is MY game my boys gave me one year either for my birthday or Christmas.  This is a fun game, that we use to play with our boys.  We almost have this game beat then we will probably move on the Lego Batman, another one of my games.  I hoping to get the new Lego Star Wars Clone Wars Wii game for Mother's day.

Saturday 5 March

I ventured out with my husband & Fred (my crutch I have to use) to the Christian school (in a small town called New Hampton population 291) I use to teach at.  I left some things in my room & needed to bring them home.  Then we went to Bethany (where we do everything, population 3, 292) to do some shopping & ate lunch at Wendy's.  First time I have gone shopping in 4 weeks since messing up my knee.  Made the circle by coming home & as got close to turn into our town, we saw hundreds of geese landing on Stephen's 3rd cousin's farm.

Shot from where we were sitting in our car on the highway

Zoom shot of one of the many flocks of snow & Canadian geese landing.  A sign that spring is getting closer, yeah!!

365 Pictures Feb 20-26

Hello,
To continue from last week about my knee - I finally had my MRI done on Tuesday; couldn't get into the doc until Thursday to find out I have torn the meniscus in my left knee.  Monday I get to go to KC to see an orthopedic surgeon  about getting that fix.  Spent most of the week at home because I'm suppose to stay off my knee as much as possible, which I've been doing, which means a lot of kitty & bird pictures this week.  So let see what this week brought in pictures.

Sunday 20 Feb

This is Stripes or aka Grouchy - because of the look on her face, which is there most of the time.  When my husband sits in his recliner to watch TV at night, she comes running for her "cuddle time".  She stretches out & sleeps.  If my husband in not in the chair by 8:00pm she will start following him around the house waiting for him to go sit in his chair.  Some night she doesn't get cuddle time & she is not happy the next day.  Of course the thoughts I'm getting right now is - you are disturbing my time with daddy, take that thing away.

Monday 21 Feb

 As I headed to town for a Chiropractor appointment for my knee, this was the scene 2 blocks from my house at the stop sign to the highway on the edge of town.  Geese!!!  Snow geese mostly.  This is my husband's 3rd cousin's corn field.  I'm sitting at the stop sign looking straight ahead to the left

Still looking straight ahead but turning to the right

Looking straight ahead & zoomed in.

Tuesday 22 Feb

You know it is a cold evening when two of the cats need cuddle time.  Motor is up by Stephen's chest & Grouchy in her normal spot.  My husband is so sweet to let the cats do this to him.  The plus side, they do keep you warm.

Wednesday 23 Feb

No Picture, not sure why, was home all day, but I guess I just forgot.

Thursday 24 Feb

 Birdie TV.  It had started to snow & the birds came in swarms to my feeders.  I'm glad I have a digital cameras because I just start snapping the same scene several times then look to see what I have in pictures.  So I was surprise to see I took to birds in flight - An American Gold Finch in the top left corner & a house finch bottom right.

Gotcha!!!

I love this picture because you can see the snow falling (kept getting heavier & heavier) & the little house finch peeping out after getting a bite to eat.  This took several shots because it seems every time I snapped a picture this little finch would duct back in to eat or show me it tail feathers.

Friday 25 Feb

It snowed most of the night.  Woke up to 8 inches of snow on the ground.  With a bum knee, I'm not going anywhere unless absolutely necessary.  Took this picture off our front porch.  There is usually a 6 foot clearance under this cedar tree but not today.

Saturday 26 Feb

This picture wasn't taken today, but 10 March 2010 in Haiti.  That is the presidential palace behind me.  I went to Haiti two months after the earthquake to help with relief.  I post this picture because starting on Friday & most of the day Saturday I started working on my blog about my mission trip & posting it.  I plan to work on it each day until I'm finished.  It was a week long mission trip & one of the highlights of my life.  So if you want to know more about my trip just scroll down.  I have numbered the days so you can read in order. 
I was suppose to have gone back two weeks ago, but my surgery post pond that trip.  That is fine because I'm sign up to go in March 2012.  Can't wait!!

Haiti Trip - Day 2 (part 3) Port Au Prince

We left the airport to head to Hope Mission.  Since it was safe for us to go shopping in Port Au Prince, our bus driver drove us through the city so we could see it.

The next three picture are taken from as our bus drives through the capitol.  Just a small view of the damage done by the earth quake

The houses are built on hills & one on top of the other.  The houses on the hills reminded me of living in California & the house built on the hills there, except California had more spaces between their houses.



Or course we had to go see the presidential palace.  We were able to stop & get out to get a closer look up to the fence

I have an awesome zoom lens.

 This is me in front of the palace.  This was a close as we could get.

Haitian Military/Police.  They were at the palace watching people go by.  I took this picture from the bus.

These next two pictures were taken while we were at the palace.  The buildings are across the street from the palace.  I couldn't believe someone would sleep on top of a roof of a building with the chance of aftershocks or another earthquake.  Also how sturdy is that building after the earthquake?

This is one the people living in these tents.  What nationality? Who knows.



My Trip to Haiti - Day 2 (Part 2)

10 March, 2010

Our little group was on our way to Haiti.  I couldn't believe I was going to a third world country on a mission trip.  Something I wanted to do, but never had a chance until now.  Some of my friends couldn't believe I was going since a major earthquake had hit Haiti just two months prior & the country was still trying to recover.

Flying into the Port Au Prince

 Port Au Price, very crowded city

Customs - a huge tin hanger.  This is our luggage being piled up.  Bob & Sharon had hired some Haitians to grab our luggage & put it in a pile.  All of our luggage had a bright orange or pink yarn hair ribbon tied to it, so the Haitians would know which luggage to grab.  Of course Bob & some of the other guys on the team were helping them.

 Some of my team members coming through customs.  Just a little wooden, three wall partition, hand the person there your passport & other paper work, get stamped & walk through.  It went very fast.

 As we exited the airport the first thing we saw was this wall/fence.  It was pack on the outside of Haitians wanting to work, looking to carry your luggage or anything else they could do to earn money.

 This is a Haitian taxi or Tat Tat.  The bed of the pickup was packed with people & we even saw some with people riding on top and/or hanging on the outside.  I thought driving in L.A. was crazy, this was insane.  So glad I was not driving (I love to drive).

Vendors outside the airport

Outside the airport a food vendor, carrying his items on his head.

As we left the airport, the first thing we saw was the tent cities. These belong to the military United States & the United Nations

These belong to the people.  You can see more military tents in the background.  These were set up by the government & other organizations.

Then as they ran out of the regular tents, we started to see man made tent cities.  Tents made of what ever the people could find to make a tent.

My Trip to Haiti - Day 1 & Day 2 (part 1) Fort Lauderdale

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I went on my mission trip to Haiti.  This blog is about that trip.  It was an awesome experience.  I was suppose to go back Feb 2011, but God had some other plans.  If the Lord wills, my next mission trip to Haiti will be Feb or March 2012.  I can't wait.

The group I went with is Hope Mission Outreach founded by Bob & Sharon Johnson.  Bob & Sharon go to my church & own Miracle Hills Ranch here in Bethany, Missouri.  They started Mission of Hope Haiti, a Christian compound locate 12 miles north of Port Au Prince.  Their son Brad & his wife Vanessa run Mission of Hope.  They have an orphanage, school, small hospital (was a medical clinic before the earthquake.  If you would like more information go to  http://www.mohhaiti.org/  Bob & Sharon take teams of people to Haiti three times a year, once in the summer, once in the fall around October & once in the winter either Feb. or March.  I have known about this mission for some time, but never felt led to go.  Then Dec 2009, Sharon approached me at church asking me to go on the Feb. mission trip & be the team photographer.  I prayed about it and God opened all the doors for me to go, time off from my job (at the time I was teaching in a small christian school) & support.  Of course the earthquake of 12 Jan 2010 happened, but our team was still planning to go to Haiti.  Because of the earthquake, we could not get into Haiti until March. 

Our team consisted of 30 team members from 10 different states.  We met at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale on 9 March.

This is Bob & Sharon Johnson, our fearless leaders.  This was our debrief meeting at the hotel.  Next morning we would b heading to Haiti.

Day 2 - hanging out at the airport in For Lauderdale, getting to know each other.  Some of the team members had been to Haiti with the Johnsons before, some of us hadn't

365 pictures 13 - 19 Feb 2011

This has been an interesting, challenging & stressful week, but I know God is in complete control.  He has a plan & will take care of us.

13 Feb

Good morning, God.  Thank you for the beautiful painting to start my day out.  Sunrise out my back picture window

14 Feb

Valentine's Day.  On Thursday while in Des Moines, I went to Cost Co with my friend.  I found these three cheese heart shape ravioli.  I bought them in case my husband wanted to eat at home on Valentine's Day.  Sunday he took me out to lunch, so I made the ravioli for supper/dinner on Monday.  Of course add sauce, green beans & garlic crescent rolls (not pictured for to take a picture with them) & our meal was complete.

15 Feb

Miss Kate - Tuesday started a new project for me - tutoring.  Kate's family attends my church.  She & her brother Anderson are home school.  Kate is in my Sparks group & Anderson is in my 3rd/4th grade Sunday school class.  They have a little brother Parker who is 1.  Starting this week, I get to spend time at Kate's house 3 days a week, right now helping her get her school work done, while her mom teaches Anderson & keeps Parker entertained.  It has been a blessing to help my friend & get to do Mom things again, since my boys are gone to college.

16 Feb

This is what I did all morning & afternoon.  I'm the Sparks director for our Awana club at church.  We have 40 sparks that come every Wed. night.  Since I have been gone for two months, I needed to bring home the record books to record them in my computer & make sure they were up to date.

17 Feb

Thursday evening my husband & I went to Kansas City to see our oldest son at college.  While I waited for my husband & son to come out of the guys dorm, the sun was started to set.  The clouds over the dorm was so beautiful, I had to take a picture.

18 Feb

We brought home my son's KC Chiefs bean bag chair from college.  The cats were not to sure of it, but by Friday night Stripes was warming up to it.  This is also her way of letting us know the house is a little to warm for her taste, sleeping belly up.

19 Feb

This is the book I read for 1 hour & 20 min. waiting to get an MRI done on my left knee.  Awesome man & book.  Can't wait to finish it but on with the story.  Last week I went tromping in the snow at the farm & fell twice, but didn't feel like I hurt anything.  Monday I had a little popping in my left knee, but I have bad knees, surgery on both, so didn't think much of it.  Thursday brought pain & popping, so I thought maybe it might be out of place a little.  Went to the chiropractor, took x-rays, should everything looked good, a little fluid under the knee cap, so we started therapy on Thursday & Friday.  Friday night my left knee swelled to the size of a grapefruit, got really hot & red, so a trip to the ER.  More x-rays, more fluid under the knee, so an MRI was order for Saturday at 1:15pm.  Now you have to understand; our town of Gilman does not have a hospital, so we got to Bethany 20 min. down the road.  Bethany has a nice hospital/first aid station.  On the weekends the ER is manned by doctors from Kansas City, a special group that helps out rural hospitals.  The MRI machine is a portable one inside a semi-truck.  It would be in town again Saturday & Monday.  Well after waiting 1hour & 20 min (getting in some great reading time), I find out the ER doc (who I really didn't like in the first place) didn't know what he was doing when it came to insurance & didn't get pre-approval for my MRI, so I couldn't get it done on Saturday would have to wait until they could call the office on Monday & then come in on Tuesday when the machine is back in town (if they have an opening) to get my MRI.  So, I'm back on the couch, doing nothing but sitting which means more reading & sewing time.