Discoveries On My Camera

Here are more fun photos the girls took. Stopping to smell the flowers. Something we all should do.

I don't think I would have thought to take a picture like this.

Reminds me of a clothing catalog.

Young and Carefree

I found some fun photos on my camera that I did not take. Alicia and Audra had a little fun with the camera.
I just love these pictures of Audra. She looks so carefree.

They are growing up so fast!

A Project

Today I decided it was time to do a little project. I decided to paint this lovely bed black. It looked good white...as long as it was going to end up in a girl's room. You know that shabby chic look that's in? But the truth is, this bed wasn't going to work in my 13 year old son's room. Way too girly. So Allen and I went to Lowe's and bought primer and black spray paint.

It's still drying, but here it is so far. We also bought new drawer handles for a little desk that I am also going to paint black for his room. More on that another time!

Hard at Work

There are lots of things I should be doing right now. But I'm not. I'm just sitting here on my butt in front of a computer. Wasting valuable time, accomplishing little. I could be folding laundry, doing dishes, vaccuuming, dusting...picking up clutter. I could be reading my Bible. I could be sorting yard sale items and pricing things. I could be baking cookies or painting. I could be hanging up that picture I've been meaning to hang. Yup. I'm being pretty useless.

This, by the way, is a picture of Mukles (pronounced Moo-klees). He's relaxing with a beer. He deserves to relax because he has been hard at work in his garden, and serving chicken that he grilled himself to a myriad of guests. (Mukles is from the country of Jordan...in case you are wondering about the foreign name)

My washing maching has just indicated that it is done. That is my cue that I should get moving.

S'mores and Sparklers

After we hiked the gorge on Friday, we went over to Jamie's sister's house, had dinner with them and then did a bon fire in their fire pit.

Kevin had some sparklers for the kids. Audra and Allen had fun with them. Alicia thought they were too risky...and refused to take part.

Of course where there is a fire going, there is an abundance of marshmellows, chocolate and graham crackers. Yum!

Amish Tourists

So you think the life of the Amish is all work and no play, huh? Nope. Sometimes they tour waterfalls.

Just before this pic was taken, a group of Amish teens came down with all the typical energy of kids that age...way ahead of the old folks! LOL!

Pretty Girls at Watkins Glen

This sure beats those photo studios where you sit in front of a screen with a picture of a water fall. They were sitting in front of the real thing! My husband took the picture. I think I will get a print and frame it.

Watkins Glen

We went to Watkins Glen State Park on Friday. Just an incredibly beautiful place! Our Lord is the most amazing sculptor. I would highly suggest that anyone visiting NY state go to see this incredible natural wonder!

The hike up the gorge trail is not for the weary as there are many steps to climb. It is well worth it. There were quite a few tourists on the trail. I think I heard about four different languages being spoken.

This is Rainbow Falls. At just the right time of day, when you are hiking down the trail, you can see a perfect rainbow. I saw it on the way down. I had handed the camera to my husband (who was hiking slower a ways up). I trusted that he would certainly get a photo as he passed it. He didn't. (I really have forgiven him of the oversight)

There is just no way to capture the beauty of this place on film. You just have to go there. I hope to go again this fall when the colors of the foliage are amazing. You may join me if you promise not to mind stopping at antique stores on the way down.

Here is a photo taken while standing undernieth Rainbow Falls while looking up.

Are you ready for a trip to NY state yet? It is much more than that big city everyone hears about.

Shiela and Mukles' Garden

We went down and visited Jamie's cousin and her family. She and her husband are hobby gardners. The place is beautiful.

They live close to Taughannock Falls State Park and are blessed to have their own little rocky stream running through their yard.
The picture here is NOT a cement slab. This is natural bedrock that is found here in the Finger Lakes Region. There are many waterfalls in this area. Tomorrow, I will post some.



I think it would be wonderful to have a beautiful garden in my yard. Unfortunately I seem to kill plants. Is there hope for me?

Here is one of my own beautfiul flowers walking on the foot bridge that Mukles built.

A Little Baby

Look at this little baby! He is only 10 weeks old. His name is Pickles and he is a pure-bred pug who belongs to Jamie's cousin's son and daughter-in-law.

Here he is cuddling with Allen.

Up to My Neck

Lately I feel like I am up to my neck in stuff. The stuff is both figurative and physical...and perhaps even imaginative. There is the physical stuff of my house. Time to have a yard sale? Or clean? Or lock my children up? And then there is the calendar clutter. Birthday invitations, soccer invitationals, doctor appointments, work, good-bye parties, running here and there. Is it time to just say no? Or hang it all up? Or just get through it? Then there is stuff to remember. Dr's appointments. Picking up the perscriptions. Call the UB med insurance office. The important information my husband told me. Time to get a day planner? Or a personal secretary? Or a test for Alzheimer's? ....Can anyone relate?

Too Cool

Here are 2 very cool uncles to that beautiful baby.

Play Pen

I just love this picture of Josh and his mommy playing.

Precious Piggies

I have always regretted that I did not take a picture of my own children's little baby feet. There is something so sweet about them.

Reminiscing a Hot and Sunny Day

Today it is kind of dull outside. Clouds and rain. This was not the case last week. These pictures are from Friday when I took the kids to our local beach at the lake.

As you can see from this picture, it was pretty busy there. This is my next door neighbor getting a cup full of water....

to help with the construction of this project he and Alicia are working on.

It was a really hot day. The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves in the sand and water.

Fun and Games

"Don't take my picture, Mommy!"

"I will have to tickle you, if you don't cooperate, Alicia."

............

"Ok, you have forced my hand."

*giggles*

"Cramping"

Jamie has completed yet another triathlon. This is NOT a picture of that day. This was one taken on a day that he rode his bike from our town to my inlaw's house. About 35 miles. It was not his best ride. He was suffering from some cramping.
He has just gone to Quebec on a business trip. Too bad he does not speak French. I wish I could go on a trip to Quebec. I think Jamie and I could use a trip away together. Our relationship is suffering from "cramping" too. Too many mundane activities and daily worries cramping us.

The Mohawk Gang

This picture is from a few years ago. Getting a little dated, but I wanted to post it because it makes me happy. Growing up on Mohawk Street was wonderful...(most of the time). These are my sisters and a few "kids" from Mohawk St. Martha even ended up marrying one of the "kids." He was new in the neighborhood during our teens. From left to right: Rachel, me, Ruth, Adam, James, Martha. This was taken at Martha and James' house on the day we celebrated my parent's 50th wedding anniversary!

Good News

The good news is that I have gotten an A in both of the classes I took! Yippee! Other good news is that we are all healthy and happy. We are enjoying our summer so far. Hopefully it won't go by too fast. Here are my kids on my mother-in-law's swing on my inlaw's farm. Note my father-in-law's beloved tractor in the background.

A Pretty View

I thought you might enjoy seeing the view from my inlaw's place. This is their driveway and straight ahead is another of the Finger Lakes. This one is Seneca Lake. There still is a lot of open farm country as you can see. If you go down this driveway and turn right...you will see a farm with a lot of black angus cattle. Down a little more, and you will see a neat and tidy Amish dairy farm. This was taken on Father's Day.
My paper is done and handed in!!!! Yeah!

Heads up!

Thank you for your patience reading my blog while I've been in school. I know not much has been happening on it. The good news is: 6 weeks of classes are done. I am not quite finished with school though because I am still in the process of writing the second paper. In a few days I will be done after I send it electronically to my professor. Then I will be free until the end of August whenI start again. I really enjoyed my classes. I met a lot of wonderful people and will miss seeing them regularly.

This picture doesn't have much to do with grad school, but I thought it was a pretty good representation of keeping my head above water! (even though it is really a picture of Audra)

Out for a Sunday Drive

This afternoon, I saw an Amish buggy coming up our street. I've only seen that one other time in the 8 years we have lived here. Some usually come into town on Saturdays for the farmer's market...but on a Sunday? And on our street? There was a man and a woman. Two little Amish girls in the cart and two boys about 10 or 11 years of age on bicycles. They went slowly by and waved and smiled at us. I waved and smiled back. During the entire thing, my camera was just an arm's length away. I could have gotten a nice shot of all of their smiling faces...but I just couldn't do it. I can't treat them like they are part of an odd exhibit. Allen was sitting next to me. We finally felt comfortable with Allen taking this shot of them from the back after they had passed.

Come on down, Brendan!

Check it out. This is Monday's show. Brendan is my niece's husband.
the price is right You can see my niece, Danielle holding up 2 fingers to advise Brendan to guess on item #2 during one of the games.

Under the Gun!

I'm sorry that I haven't written. I am under the gun here with 2 weeks of grad classes left for this summer session. I have to submit a paper that is almost finished, interview a librarian, write a second paper, and finish designing an html webpage.

I'm really loving it so far. I feel very confident that I am studying the right thing and heading in the right direction. Everyone I have met in my classes is really nice. Since we are all new students, we have become a pretty tight knit group. After dinner yesterday, about 10 of us walked down to these impressive marble columns located on campus. These pilars are from an old building that was taken down in the city of Buffalo. One girl did have a camera and we stood around and posed for pics. (From l-r in this picture: Bridget, Kaitlyn, Josh, Johanna, Jeremy, Libby, Lena, me) It is scary how old I look here!

Picture by Cathy.

March of the Librarians

This is for your own amusement.

A New Computer

With some of my loan money for grad school, I bought a new computer. I've never had a new computer before. All I've ever had are old, hand-me-down computers. Jamie thought I should get a new computer because of the grad work I'm doing. I don't know much about computers except for blogging, e-mails, doing simple web-searches and more recently Facebook. Computers are used a lot in the library industry.

I worked at a public library as a teenager, but back then most of the work was done manually. We still used card-catalogs with drawers and library cards were paper that we typed up and had patrons sign. We stamped things, and put the due dates on cards that were inserted into pockets inside of the books. No bar-codes back then. A lot of cool changes have taken place.

I'm a grad student

I have started grad work this week. So far, so good. I really like the people I've met. I like my professor. He is teaching both of the classes that I am taking. In fact it is almost the same exact students in the 2 classes. We all go to one class, go out to eat together and then come back to the 2nd class. Almost all of us are new students. Several of us commute from Rochester. Three of us are carpooling together. I am definitely an older student...but luckily not alone. There is another girl my age. She's one of my carpooling buddies.

My professor is very entertaining to listen to. I'm glad because it would be a much loooonnnnggggerrrr day if he wasn't. University of Buffalo is very close to the Canadian border. My professor actually lives in Canada and just commutes every day to the USA where his job is. I think that's interesting.

Right now I am working on wrapping my brain around a whole new language of librarianship. There are a lot of unfamiliar words to learn and understand. I've been reading a lot and need to visit a variety of different libraries and talk to librarians. Then I need to write a 5 page paper on something. (to be determined)

I can't wait to do laundry!!!!

This was something that I did not blog about before, but my washing machine busted. I have either been carting my laundry to other places to wash for the past 2 weeks, or been using my broken machine. Last night I did a small load in my broken machine. The spin cycle finally didn't work at all...instead of working somewhat. I could actually ring out the clothes. They took quite a while to dry in my dryer.

Today Jamie and I took Alicia with us to look for a new machine. Luckily, there is a store right around the corner from us. Gudrun, you will be pleased to know that we purchased a Bosch! (Bosch is manufactured in Germany)

They are delivering it on Monday. I can't wait!

Changes

Our crab-apple tree is past it's peak as far as blossoms. I took this picture last week. We are seeing more green on the trees and less pink, white, yellow and purple. The blossoms are beautiful...but I suppose it is necessary for the trees to lose those in order to bear fruit eventually.
Change is in the air. Not only on the trees, but in life. Tomorrow I will go to my orientation for classes at UB and on Tuesday, I will start my first graduate class towards my Master's in Library Science. It is exciting and a little scary.

Thirteen Things About Being a Mother

1. It is a big responsibility.


2. Sometimes it makes you feel like the world is on your shoulders.


3. It can make you laugh.


4. It can embarrass your kids.


5. It can be exasperating.


6. It brings joy.


7. It can bring sorrow too.


8. It gives you a good excuse to act like a kid.


9. It can also force you to be an adult.


10. It can bring you to your knees in prayer.


11. Sometimes it can bring out a fierce protectiveness inside of you.


12. It can also make you tired.


13. It fills my heart with love.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Little Maestro

Alicia is getting better and better on her viola all the time. This is her first year taking this instrument and I am very pleased with how much she has progressed. She has figured out how to play "Jesus Loves Me" and is planning on playing it for her teacher on Friday. Songs like that are never taught in the public schools. I hope Mr. I is cool about it.

Here to celebrate

We had a few friends come for Alicia's birthday celebration. Everyone loves a party!

Pretty in Pink

I thought I would show you my neighbor's tree today. Isn't it pretty? There are all sorts of flowering trees all over town lately. They flower for such a short time. I'm glad I took this picture before it is too late.

Alicia is 9!

Today is my youngest daughter's birthday. She has turned 9 years old! We love her so much! "Happy Birthday, Lishey!"

Grab a Good Book

Audra has found a new favorite place to read.

Cheery project

Last week when it was warm Audra decided that her stilts needed painting. Alicia helped. I admit that they turned out to be quite cheery. Now I need to get a picture of her walking on them. She's pretty good at it.