Sunday, March 15, 2015

Hi everyone,

I did something this past week that I haven’t done in probably two months!

“What’s that?” you ask.

I went for a run. And that is where and when I took this photo of Bagnell Dam which is my current desktop photo.

I’ll tell you what. The day after my run I was so sore I could hardly move.

“You want some aspirin?” Mike asked when I whined about it.

“Naw. I’ll be okay,” I said.

A little while later I get up and moan and groan as my muscles complain.

“Take some aspirin,” Mike said. “Or do you just want to suffer and complain about it?”

I laughed. This conversation normally happens in the reverse. Then I went and got some aspirin.

<<<<<>>>>>

Hey! Check this photo out. Mike and I had gone to a flea market in Jeff City and if you didn’t know this about me already, know it now. I have a bit of a glass fetish. I love glass. So when I spot these, I had to stop and check them out.

Can you see what it is?

Back behind the antique butter churns are three towering towers of glass towers. My eyes are glued to them so hard and fast that it takes me a while to see the sign declaring them as “Yard Ornaments”.

I don’t care what you call them, they are just plain cool! And clever! Someone has found a very creative and artistic way of using all those glass plates and bowls and vases that litter flea market booths every where across the country.

I touched one, out of curiosity, to see how well they were stuck together and they seemed pretty solid to me. I’d love to know what was used.

The price? Are you asking if I looked at the price tags?

I did! And I thought they were pretty reasonable too. Twenty dollars for an original piece of art. Twenty dollars for all the time and materials and talent that went into it. What a deal, what a deal!

“Did you buy one?” you ask.

No I didn’t. I love them. But you know what? I have enough stuff.

<<<<<>>>>>

I think spring is my most favorite time of the year. After spending a couple of months taking photos of Winter Flowers it’s nice to take photos of live things again.

Sometimes, out of nowhere, a bird dives past me and sits so pretty - and close - to me, it’s almost like they are asking me to take their pictures. I know, I’m silly. A fluffy little black capped chickadee did just that. He swooped past me, sat a few feet away from me, looked at me, preened himself a little, then went on his way.

We came across an armadillo foraging. I couldn’t get very close before Itsy and Ginger barked and scared him away.

The same thing happened when we saw this whistle pig too.

 Itsy and Ginger started barking and scared him away. So when I reached the site where he had been, I left him a little present. I dug around in my Dog Poop Bag and came up with the little baggie of cat food that I carry with me and left a handful for him.

Oh my gosh! That reminds me of a funny story I heard this past week!

Ellie Lofaro was guest speaker on Focus on the Family, one of the programs on the Christian radio station I listen to at night. This particular episode was geared towards raising kids in a Biblical way.

The teenage kids went to their father and said, “Dad, we know you have a rule against R rated movies, but we really want you to make an exception just this one time. We really want to see this new movie that just came out and everyone at church says it’s not too bad. There are lots of good things about this movie and a few bad things. It’s got all the biggest names in the movie industry in it and it’s got a good story line and an uplifting ending. There are a few bad words in it and there is a sex scene but it’s mostly off camera.”

Dad says, “Well, I can tell you’ve given this a lot of thought. Give me a day to think about it and I’ll let you know my decision.”

So the kids go out of the room high-fiven each other and they’re just sure they talked their dad into letting them see this movie.

The next night they go and find their dad and ask what he decided.

“You can go see the movie,” he said, “after you eat one of these brownies. Now there’s good things about these brownies and there’s bad things. I made these brownies special for you. They are rich and moist and there’s frosting on the top. I used the finest chocolate and the freshest ingredients. But here’s the bad thing. I mixed in a spoonful of dog poop. But I’m sure I baked them long enough to kill any germs.”

The kids walked out of the room.

I laughed and laughed. What a good analogy.

But I got sidetracked.

My Dog Poop Bag isn’t for carrying dog poop. It’s for carrying the things I need when I walk my dogs. It’s ninety percent plastic bags that I recycle for use in picking up dog poop.

The mailbox is still sitting halfway down the hillside with it’s flag still up. I’m sure I first photographed and showed it to you a couple of years ago.

The catkins are blooming.

I was really surprised to see them because one time I walk past and there is nothing there. No leaves, no blossoms, not buds, nothing. And the next time I walk past I see this.

Most of the catkins are long and straight, but once in a while you get one guy that is totally screwy. You know what I mean?

　

A young squirrel sits and watches us pass.

Well, I don’t know if he was young or not, but he didn’t appear to be very large, so I got the idea he might just be a young squirrel.

There were two turtles on the turtle log at the pond sunning themselves, but I only got one shot of the two of them together before one took off. This guy hung around a little longer and because he let me get a little closer, it’s the better photo. But trust me, he was keeping an eye on us and soon dived into the water too.

And I got my first shot of purple this spring! The henbit is in bloom. I can’t wait for the plums to blossom.

<<<<<>>>>>

Miss Helen had her 94th birthday this past Friday. We all got together and took her to Golden Corral for her birthday dinner.

In the picture from left to right is Mike, me, Margaret, Marsha (Miss Helen’s daughter) and Miss Helen. Isn’t she just beautiful!

Even though taking Miss Helen to dinner was our gift to her, I got her a card and decided to make her another homemade dish rag.

I don’t really need an excuse to give Miss Helen a homemade dishrag, I’d already given her three of them before. But I started making round ones and this one, believe it or not, is my first attempt at a scalloped edge. (Yah You Tube!) And her birthday was just the excuse I needed to give it to her.

“It’s pretty enough to just hang in the kitchen,” Miss Helen said.

“Don’t you dare!” I told her. “I made it for you to use.”

“It’s a good size,” Marsha said admiring my work. “Not too big.”

<<<<<>>>>>

I have two more stories for you and less than half a page left of a six page letter. Oh wait, I have three more stories for you!

Sigh.

Next time then.

Let’s do April birthdays.

Katrina Kraft, 2nd; Jesse Adam Herold, 3rd; Leonard McDonald, 10th; Mark Zabitz, 10th; Tylar James Kraft, 12th; Joyce Franklin, 13th; Alexis Marie Bowers, 15th; Yvette Enders, 18th; Della Franklin, 18th; Justin Michael Bowers, 20th; Mary Agnes Smith, 22nd; Barbra Marie Milne Fenske, 24th; Beverly and Allan Shedd, 28^th. The Shedd’s not only had the same birth date, they also made it their anniversary date.

Please you guys, if I missed someone (I don’t always remember to add them to my birthday book-I even missed my own grandson once!) tell me. If you want to add information to the list, like middle names or maiden names, tell me. If I spelled a name wrong, for heavens sake, tell me!

Lots of love,

Peg and Mike

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Sometime last week, after I wrote you about our doctors diagnosis of bronchitis for Mike and me, I Googled it. Bronchitis and flu are both respiratory illnesses but the symptoms we had were closer to flu than bronchitis. Especially or specifically the symptoms of body aches, eye pain and “shaking chills”, symptoms of flu and not bronchitis. Our doctor didn’t really ask about all our symptoms, he just listened to Mike’s lungs and looked in his ears and throat. But heck, as long as the treatment is the same, who cares what he calls it.

Have you ever experienced the shaking chills? I’ve had the flu once before but I never experienced shaking chills before this. Your whole body shakes and your teeth chatter and even if you are under your electric blanket turned as high as it will go-you can’t stop shaking! Being so out of control of my body was the strangest feeling! Thankfully it didn’t last more than a few minutes for me. Then it was gone!

With my body fighting off the flu or bronchitis or whatever it was, and my immunity being so low, I had a fever blister make an appearance on my lower lip. I can’t remember the last time I had a fever blister and Mike says he doesn’t remember me ever having one, but I know I’ve had one or two in my life.

I was visiting with Miss Helen one day last month and she was telling me a story and couldn’t quite reach a word she was looking for. “Oh my,” she said, “I’ve been more forgetful lately.”

I hadn’t thought about helping Miss Helen with her memory before this because she always seemed so sharp, but it occurred to me that a game day might just be the perfect thing for us. We could spend a few hours together every week, chatting and sipping tea and the games would help her mind. Maybe not improve but certainly help to maintain. I pitched my game day idea to Miss Helen and she readily agreed.

The first and only game I’ve taught her to play so far is dominos. A game I learned from Miss Dorothy, another older lady that I used to take care of. Because you score points with multiples of five, it makes you count. And if you play dominos with me, when you play a tile, you have to sing out the count. That makes you count every time you play. Good for the mind, right?

Miss Helen is doing fabulous! She has picked up on the game pretty quick and hasn’t made any mistakes that I haven’t made before. There is a bit of a learning curve, don’t you know.

If we get tired of dominos I have it in mind to switch to cards. Double Solitaire, Gin, Rummy or Go Fish even.

I had to miss our game day this past week because I didn’t want to take a chance on making Miss Helen sick but I’ll see her next week.

We just came through a really cold patch of weather but yesterday was bright and sunny with the temps in the mid 60’s. A day just perfect to make the heart rejoice with the promise of spring. The robins have been back in Missouri for a couple of weeks now, although I haven’t taken any photos of them yet. In fact it seems like I haven’t been out to take any photos in months!

So I go and check.

Just now I go over to my photos library and check. The longest gap I find is five days. Not even a whole week! Funny how it seems so much longer than that.

Yesterday I welcomed a chance to go on a walkabout with my little girls Itsy and Ginger.

As I made my way towards the dam, I stood on the banks of the Lake and watched the sea gulls swoop and dive for quite a while. I even managed to get a shot of one of these so-called Sky Rats as he came up with a fish in his bill.

It’s much too early for new leaves and blossoms to be poking their noses out yet but as I studied the ends of the branches as I walk past I note that whatever lived inside these things have made their escape.

I saw Pooh Bear and Tigger too. Best friends forever. Lost and far from the yard of any little boy or girl.

And my first butterfly of the year!

　

I spot some fungus growing on a piece of old and dried tree, long fallen and half hidden among the leaf litter. I tried to capture the fuzzy texture and delicate shades of cream and gray and brown -- and fear I’ve failed.

I step across the log to get a different angle and the sight that awaited me there took my breath away. For just an instant I thought I was looking at stalactites dripping from the roof of a tiny cave. I quickly glanced away wanting to preserve the illusion a little longer. Then I looked back and knew I was looking at the dried and winter worn gills of the fully mature fungus.

 

 

 

After way too many shots of the fungus and Ginger having waited so patiently for me, we make our way to the pond at the campground. I can see from a distance that there are no turtles out sunning themselves on a dead tree they use for just that purpose, so we turn and head up the hill.

All of a sudden Ginger pulls, wanting to go in a different direction. There was a gate there so we couldn’t go far, and normally I make her do what I want to do but in this instance, I decided to humor her. After a few steps I hear a critter go scampering through the dried leaves. Ginger must have known he was there and after another rustling burst, I spot him. He sat there listening, watching maybe, and was very cooperative as I not only got a few quick shots of him, but changed position to achieve a better angle and a few more shots.

I turned my attention back to Ginger and see she is sniffing around in a patch of dark, rich and freshly turned soil. I sigh a sigh of relief. I am glad it is not any of the wild nuggets that she so covets.

It wasn’t until I look at my photos on the computer that I realize the chipmunk or ground squirrel as some people call them, had a dirty face.

I know! I know! I bet you guys had it put together long before me! Now I don’t know if Ginger heard him scratching around or if she scented him. And it doesn’t even matter. But I am thankful that I listened to her and had a chance to see and photograph this little guy. Signs that the earth and it’s denizens are waking after a long and brutal winter.

A feather, abandoned by it’s owner, was caught up in the grass and weeds of the roadside.

Some of these photos were up as a desktop photo for me this week, and one of them still is.

Let’s call this one done!

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Hello my loves,

I hope this letter finds you happy and healthy.

My current desktop is an old photo, one I found while searching through old photos.

Dang!

I have taken so many photos through the years! And there isn’t very much organization to them either. My photos are stored by date taken. I used to have a file called “Desktop Photos”. If I used it for a desktop photo, I put it in that file. I used to think that I would, at some point, make a compact disk of them as a gift but someplace along the line, I stopped doing that.

I also have another file called “Reduced Size” and all the photos that I use in my letters or post online are in that file.

Why is it called “Reduced Size”?

Because I have reduced the size of the photos. My photos are taken at a very large size. Five and six gigabytes. That means you can blow my photos up and not lose resolution. The biggest I’ve ever had one printed was 36x24 and it is still very sharp. Photos this size are much, much too large to send over the internet so I use a program called Paint and resize them. I like my photos to be around 100 Kilobytes when I send them.

“Kilobytes, megabytes, what’s the difference?” you ask.

I’m so glad you asked! So here it is, straight from the internet.

1 Byte = 8 Bit
1 Kilobyte = 1,024 Bytes
1 Megabyte = 1,048,576 Bytes
1 Gigabyte = 1,073,741,824 Bytes
1 Terabyte = 1,099,511,627,776

“Peg! All this kilobyte and megabyte stuff gives me a headache!”

I know, right! Me too!

I wasn’t looking at old photos to take a trip down Memory Lane. I was looking at old photos to make Kevin a gift for his birthday.

Once, a long time ago, Kevin told me that my shots of the blue herons would make a good sequence grouping. I hadn’t started out with the thought of framing some of my photos for Kevin. Truth be known, I probably wasn’t going to do anything for Kevin beyond what Mike and I had already planned. But there I was, walking around a store and came across these three frames at a good price. From there it was a short leap to framing the herons for him. What was I going to do with the other two frames? I didn’t know.

“Peg, you have enough photos that you could do three frames for him.”

I know, right! I’m a slow thinker and you guys got there long before I did! I’ll get there, it will just take me longer. But at the time, I only needed one frame so I am doubly surprised (and grateful) that I picked all three of them up.

So, since we live here at the dam I decided to use a second frame to make a grouping of Bagnell Dam photos. It was only at this point that I decided to do all three as a gift for Kevin.

That decided, what was I going to do for the third frame?

I was looking through the old photos finding the dam pictures and I started picking out other photos that I thought would make good groupings.

I had a grouping of red things, purple things, green things, old buildings, spider webs, butterflies, birds and flowers. How in the world was I ever going to decide? It’s like being asked to pick your favorite child. I love them all and couldn’t decide on one. The task was too daunting for me.

“You could give him extra photos and he could change them out as he got tired of looking at them,” you say.

That was one of my ideas too! And as I looked at photos and my groupings grew and grew-I was drowning. It was all too much for me and I stopped. I put the brakes on. I decided I really had to ask for help.

Well, they will most likely be hung in their house, I thought. Kandyce should have a say in it.

Kandyce is a really good secret keeper. I knew I could ask for her help and she wouldn’t tell Kevin. I texted her and she said she would help.

Three days before Kevin’s birthday rolls around and I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Kandyce. I was starting to panic. I called Kevin.

“When are you guys gonna stop by? Kandyce promised to help me with a project I’m doing,” I told him. Although I don’t really think she promised.

“I think we can stop tonight, for a few minutes,” Kevin told me.

When they showed up I sat Kandyce in front of my computer and showed her how I had things grouped but she could pick whatever she wanted. Then I left her to help with Andrew and keep Kevin distracted.

Whew! Am I ever glad I asked for help. There was not a single spider web, butterfly or flower among the groupings that Kandyce picked.

She agreed with the heron photos.

She picked three from the dam photos. One in the spring with all 12 flood gates open-which doesn’t happen very often, one from the overlook in the summer and my winter photo with the fog and the bird flying over the roadway.

For the last grouping Kandyce picked from the old buildings file.

I didn’t have to do anything at all with the heron or the dam photos but the old building photos needed some help. The cabin had a dent in the roof where a tree fell on it. I took it out. Easy breezy, lemon squeezy. The train depot in Dushore had a height restriction sign right by the front corner. I took it out. In the photo with the train car was the back side of a diamond shaped sign. That one was harder to do. After fooling with it for a long time, I planted a bush and took care of it! If you took the photos that I fixed and blew them up, you would probably see where I fixed them. But because they were only 4x6 they came out fabulous!

<<<<<>>>>>

This weekend finds almost half our household sick, if you count the critters. Mike has bronchitis. Let me tell you something. Bronchitis is like hemorrhoids. You don’t appreciate how painful it is until you experience it for yourself. Two days after Mike started with the symptoms I started. Luckily when Mike went to the doctor, the doctor gave me a prescription too.

Ginger gave me a scare. She started vomiting and vomited every couple of hours for the next 24 hours. What a rough night that was. I would wake from sleep, locate her and get her to the linoleum floor so she wouldn’t heave on the carpet. I was up at least three times with her.

“What did she get into?” Mike asked me, but I didn’t know if she had gotten into anything or not. She tends to run ahead of me so if she finds some tempting morsel, she could snatch it up and swallow it before I even knew she found anything.

There is-was a mess in the parking lot. It looked like a puddle of hot chocolate with a napkin stuck in it, but I didn’t look at it very close. I didn’t really want to know. But I knew whatever it was it wasn’t good for the girls, so I steered them away from it. For days I had been keeping Itsy and Ginger away from it. Then I glance up and see Ginger nosing in the snow bank.

“GIT OUTTA THERE!” I said in my mean mommy voice and Ginger took off. I checked out the spot where she was and there was something there. I couldn’t decide if the remnants looked like napkin or bird poop and I didn’t have a clue if she had ingested any of it or not. It was later that afternoon that the vomiting started. I was worried that she may have gotten something and she couldn’t get it up. I was worried about blockage.

We took her to the vet and they took x-rays. No blockage. They gave her a shot to stop the vomiting and gave me three different medications to give her over the next few days.

Hey!

I found out the best way to give a dog a pill is to coat it in some liverwurst. That stuff has such a strong smell that it covers up any smell they could possibly pick up from the pill.

<<<<<>>>>>

That cat!

That darn cat!

Yeah, Baby Blue. I caught her all snuggled down in my carry bag last week. I really don’t like having my bag full of cat hair and after I snapped the photo, I chased her out. She is a rascal!

<<<<<>>>>>

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Hi everyone,

My current desktop, although quite dark, I find quite interesting.

I have a couple of things about my last letter that I just want to mention to you.

First the good news…

Momma liked my story of David and Dolores.

Next, the bad news…

Mike, while proofreading my last letter, was quite upset at me for talking to strangers. I don’t think he stayed upset too long when he saw what a wonderful story I made, but it has been an ongoing issue with us. He is often afraid for me. “You’re going to meet someone who isn’t so nice one of these days.”

Sigh.

This is something I have talked about many times over the years. When your number is up, your number is up, to put it quite crudely. And it isn’t what I said to him. What I said to him was, “On the appointed day, at the appointed hour of my death, I will be there. And nothing can change that.” I paused and put an end cap on that statement. “I trust God.”

I’ve thought about this quite a lot. I do trust God to keep me safe until my appointed time. That doesn’t mean I’m going to throw myself off a mountain and expect God will save me. I know better than that.

I am not going to rehash all of the things I’ve said on this subject before. If you have been reading me through the years then you have already read about the movie I saw about a man who lost his love just before they were to be married. He built a time machine and went back in time and tried to change things but no matter what he did, he couldn’t change the outcome. He only managed to change the way she died.

If you have been reading me through the years then you have already read about a branch falling off a tree to kill the woman who had been posing for a photograph underneath it.

If you have been reading me through the years then you have already read about a rock falling from a hillside, smashing through the windshield of a car to kill the young Microsoft exec who was driving and sparing his family.

Pretty much guys, when it is time for you to die, you will die. God doesn’t make any mistakes and something good can come from something bad.

“If our destiny is predetermined what is the point in living?” you ask.

While it is true that God is sovereign, He has given us free will. We can choose the path we take and it all works out to God’s plan.

Anything you do, He can use.

You just have to seek God…

And trust God.

And I know that I have a long way to go but I think I am on the right path. I just need to shut up and listen, you know what I’m sayin’?

<<<<<>>>>>

There isn’t much that happens in the parking lot here at Luby’s that Mike doesn’t know about. There are cameras all over the place. Even Itsy will sit and watch the monitors, especially if her daddy’s outside. You can see her little head swivel from monitor to monitor as she watches for him. She knows which monitor he will appear in next and when she sees him coming up the stairs. she’ll run to the door and be there when it opens. If she’s not then chances are she was sleeping too hard and only woke when the door opened.

“Ginger?” you ask.

Ginger just follows Itsy’s lead.

But anyway…

Winter months there isn’t as much traffic going in and out of Luby’s as in the summertime. About a month ago we notice this little sports car pull into the parking lot and park in the back of the lot. He wasn’t close to the dumpster so we didn’t think he was trying to dump his garbage. That’s called Theft Of Service, in case you didn’t know. So Mike watched as he got out of his car, locking it behind him. The lights flashed. Then he walked across the parking lot and we tried to guess where he was going. Wise Guys? Wok & Roll? The ATM?

No. He kept going right up the street. A few hours later a car pulls in the lot and parks beside the little sports car. The man gets out of the passenger seat and gets back in his car and they leave, going in different directions.

At first it was only once in a while then it got to be more and more often.

Now she picks him up here and they have even shared a meal or three together at the Mexican Restaurant before their tryst.

“If that guy put half as much energy into saving his marriage as he was into having this affair, it would make his marriage better.”

“How do you know it’s his fault? It might be his wife’s.”

Yeah, it’s always the wife’s fault.

“What if she is the married one?”

Yeah, there’s always that too. In which case I would say, “If that gal put half as much energy into saving her marriage as she puts into having this affair…” you get it.

<<<<<>>>>>

We have a new addition to our family. Hello! Hello! Welcome to our world Bramzen (Bram) Gatlin Harrison! This big boy arrived on 2-12-15 and weighed in at 12 pounds and 8 ounces.

If you knew his mama you would be filled with wonder that such a tiny little woman could have such a big baby! Truly a gift from God.

<<<<<>>>>>

This glowing, beautiful woman is my granddaughter Julie. She will give me my first great-grandchild. Bristol Ann Renee Johnson is due sometime in May.

<<<<<>>>>>

I have been wanting to ask you if you have tried something called Refrigerator Oatmeal. I know, right! It sounds crazy but it isn’t bad, once you get used to it.

“What is it?” you ask.

Well, if you Google it there are all kinds of recipes but what I do is I take 1/3 cup oatmeal and I use the old fashion kind but if you want to try the quick cooking-go for it. But I take 1/3 cup oatmeal, a 4 ounce container of Activia yogurt then I use my empty Activia container to measure my fairlife milk, mix it up, cover and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning you have a quick and creamy breakfast.

There are lots of things that you can do with this recipe and I switch it up depending on the flavor Activia I’m using, but you could put cinnamon in it. Cinnamon is good for you. And chia seeds are good for you too. They are gluten free, a complete plant-based protein, have omega-3 and 6 fatty acids as well as antioxidants which we all know are good cancer fighters. Oh. And they are not that expensive. I got a 12 ounce bag at Hy-Vee for $7. Using a tablespoon at a time makes that bag last a long time.

I also have learned how to toast unsweetened coconut in my iron skillet. Coconut doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value, just a little bit of iron, but I like toasted coconut. Toasting really brings out the flavor.

So there you have it my friends and family. If you do decide to try this, especially for a cool breakfast in the hot summer months, don’t expect to like it right off. I didn’t hate it but oatmeal that has been soaked to soften rather than cooked is different. Not bad, just different. And you might look for more recipes online or simply play with it according to what’s in your house.

And a piece of advice, if you would allow me. I first saw and made this recipe using Greek yogurt. It might be thicker than the yogurt you choose to use so just be aware that if you use too much milk, it could get a little soupy on you. Use less and you can always add to it. I had to do that and discovered that with my fairlife, I like 4 ounces of milk, the size of my yogurt container.

<<<<<>>>>>

Butter.

You want to talk about butter again? And fridge odors?

I’m not going to go back and look to see if I told you something or not, but just let me say that I did have baking soda in my fridge. It’s spent, is what I thought at first, took it out and threw it away. I took a coffee filter, put a fair amount of baking soda in it and pulled up the edges to form a pouch. I secured it with a twist tie, leaving one end a little longer and I used that to hook over the wire rack in the fridge. I made my own fridge deodorizer. But the apples were just too strong and now, with the apples gone, my fridge smells all sparkly and clean again!

Butter.

“By smaller portions,” my beautiful Momma said to me. “Wrap the quarters in plastic before you put them in the fridge.” And, “Butter doesn’t have to be refrigerated.” I knew that but you have to use it in a good amount of time if you leave it out.

“You can’t replace butter!” that cute little red-haired sister of mine says. “Try freezing your extra butter.”

I love my freezer and I use it lots. I love to make big pots of soup and freeze portions for a quick and easy meal. But unfortunately the freezer is right above the fridge and if I can see the light from the fridge below, I’m pretty sure the odor can get up there too.

I did buy a tub of Parkay.

I could get used to the flavor but after eating it I felt like I had a lump of plastic in my belly and I kept burping it.

“Plastic?” you ask incredulously.

I think I thought that because I saw stuff about fake butters before. About how even flies wouldn’t eat it or it won’t melt even in the hot sun. Oh wait. That might have been McDonalds ice cream.

Apples!

Who knew apples could cause so much trouble!

<<<<<>>>>>

Now here’s a question for you. If you don’t want to use plastic anymore, what would you use instead?

Oh, wait. I can almost hear you. Let’s say I like to keep some air popped pop corn on hand and I keep it in a plastic zip-top storage bag. The next day or two days later I open it and I think I taste the plastic. Is that possible?

If you can taste something doesn’t that mean it contains molecules of whatever you are tasting?

Isn’t plastic made from petroleum?

Is that good for you-me-us?

This young lady, although beautiful enough to be a super model, is my niece Alex. She got accepted to an internship at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory this summer on a full scholarship.

You go girl! We are all very proud of you! Don’t forget us peons when you are rich and famous, okay?

<<<<<>>>>>

Let’s do March birthdays.

Candy Wilson, 2^nd; Horace Smith, 7^th; Helen Louis Henderson Mangold, 13^th; Lorraine Soden Zabitz, 14^th; Elwood Franklin, 14^th; Sara Lynn and Rachel Marie Bowers, 19^th; Miles Smith, 22^nd; Colton Francis Ammerman, 23^rd; Rexford Soden 26^th; Richard Anthony Bowers, 27^th; Howard Richard Bowers, 27^th; Ean James Ammerman, 29^th.

Happy birthday!

If I have forgotten anyone or gotten spellings wrong, please forgive me--then correct me!

Let’s call this one done!

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Hello my loves,

I’ve had two desktops this past week. The first one was just some kind of red berry. I like the red tips left behind when the berry is plucked off or has fallen off or whatever happens to them and I love the background.

My current desktop photo is a feather floating in shallow water with a leaf.

I laughed when I saw this next photo pop up on my screen as I was scrolling through some freshly taken photos. Is that Godzilla?

You know something? Some of the most interesting things have appeared in what I thought would be boring photos at the time that I took them…

“You take photos that you think will be boring?” you scratch your head in wonderment.

I know, right! I was hoping to sneak that one past you but you guys are just too smart for me!

I was going to say…and yet I take them anyway. I just can’t help it. I have to photograph something!

I had Itsy and Ginger out for a walk on this past beautiful Tuesday afternoon and I was looking for things to photograph. A flock of pelicans circle overhead.　
　

　
　
　

　

　
An abandoned and colorful candy box adorns the roadside.

“Whatever were you going to do with a photo of that!”

Don’t ask, but there it is anyway.

An acorn cap cradled in the divot of a rock.

We get down to the pond at the campground and as we walked along the edge we scared the little minnows that had been sunning themselves in the shallows. You should have seen them all! I was just shooting these little minnows and never saw Godzilla standing there with his head thrown back and his sharp white teeth gleaming in the sunlight until I saw it on the computer. And look at that shadow would ya? It adds to the illusion, don’t you think?

The girls and I turned around and were headed out of the campground when this old clunker of a van stopped at the road head. If they come down this way, I’m going to ask for a picture and a comment for my HIM webpage. The van did turn and drive slowly down my way. As it approached I smiled and waved. The sun reflected off the dirt on the windows preventing me from seeing them very clearly until they were pretty close to me. I could tell the driver was a grizzled old mountain-man looking kind of guy and I couldn’t tell anything about the passenger, but they did wave as they rolled on past me.

Doggone it!

“What happened Peg?” you ask. “Why didn’t you stop him? And I thought you were going to change the name of your page!”

I know, right! But I couldn’t decide if I should change the name or not, then I couldn’t decide on a new name if I did change it. So what I do, when I don’t know what to do, is I don’t do anything. How’s that for a philosophy?

And why didn’t I stop them?

I had it in my mind that they would say howdy to me as they went past and I would ask then. The window was up. They didn’t say howdy and I didn’t have a backup plan.

I walked on feeling like I missed my chance.

The girls and I headed up the hill towards the dam, me looking for things to photograph, the girls sniffing the roadside. Are those deer bones? They’re down in the woods and I can’t see them very well. I snap a photo so I can look at it a little closer on my computer later. A trick I learned from my dad.

“So what do you care if they are deer bones?”

I was really hoping you wouldn’t ask me that question.

Boy! I can’t get anything past you guys today!

If you have to ask then I’ll have to admit that I am collecting a few things like that. A deer rib. A bleached out turtle shell. An armadillo claw and a piece of his shell...

Hey!

Is that an armadillo egg?

Just kidding.

And I can hear you asking, “What are you doing that for?”

So I’ll just tell you right now. I have an idea rattling around in my head. I don’t know all the particulars yet but what I want to do is honor these creatures that were once living, feeling beings created by our Lord and God.

I walk on and snap photos of the insulators on the power lines. And winter flowers.

Then I hear it. I stop. I hear the rattletrap coming out of the campground. If they come this way I’m going to step out in the road and wave them down. I listen and I can follow the sound of the van as it makes its approach to the turn onto Valley Road. But which way will they turn? I hear the acceleration and for a few anxious seconds I can’t tell which way they turned. But I didn’t have long to wait before I could tell the sound was getting louder. They were coming my way!

There are no sidewalks on these back roads that I walk on so I step a little further into the road and wave at them. They slow and I expected the window to go down. Instead, the door opens.

 
“Hi!” I cheerfully exclaim. “How about a photo and a comment for my Facebook Page,” I asked.

“Sure.” No hesitation there at all.

“Great! Let’s pull off at the top of the hill and we’ll chat.”

They drove up to the top of the hill, pulled in and waited for me to make the walk.

I talked with this couple for almost half an hour and I have to tell you. There are times when I think people deserve more than one or two lines on a Facebook Page.

What I put up on Facebook was, "She's as beautiful to me today as she was 46 years ago when I married her." And I posted a photo of a kiss they shared for my camera.

Just like a true gentleman, he removed his hat before he went in for the kiss and I love the look on their faces after the kiss.

David and Dolores have an awesome love story to tell. They shared their first kiss when she was 14 and he 15. He was from the wrong side of the tracks and once trekked through a snow storm to see her.

“The cold never bothered me,” he said in wonderment. “It was midnight when she chased me out of there and I never felt the cold. I felt like I was on Cloud 9 the whole time I was walking home because I had just been with her.”

As we chatted they bounced around in their story and I didn’t get all the holes filled in but one thing that really sticks out in my mind is this.

“I’m so proud of the fact that I got a chance to serve my country and had all the excitement and adventure that a young man could have,” David said.

And his pride was evident.

Then there’s one more thing. They told me that one of their favorite things to do is to just be together. They had errands to run the morning I met them and afterward they decided to go for a ride.

“I just follow my nose. Whatever strikes my fancy is where we go. We don’t come down here very often, but I wanted to see what was going on on the Strip and for some reason I went down to the campground.”

And because of that I got to meet them.

Enough said.

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Have you tried that new milk? They’re calling it Milka-Cola because it’s backed by Coca-Cola, but it’s name is fairlife with the i in fair being upside down, no capital letters and all one word. It’s twice the cost of other milk. A half gallon set us back almost four dollars here in Missouri.

“Why would you buy it?” I hear you ask.

Well, they say they take “extraordinary” care of their cows and I like that. “Cows that are happy and well taken care of produce more milk,” they say. They say they have the highest milk quality standards. They say they have from grass to glass traceability back to their own farms. They say they are in pursuit of sustainable farming. They say their cows are not treated with rBST growth hormone.

“Is that important?” you ask.

Well, I’m all for as close to whole and natural as I can get. The less chemicals and processing-the better I like it. But there is a disclaimer on the milk label saying, “FDA states: no significant difference has been shown between milk from cows treated and not treated with rBST growth hormones.” And if you Google it you will get more information than I can wrap my head around! But I’ll tell you a few things about it that stick out in my mind.

The milk may be the same and we may not be affected by the hormone but cows treated with it suffer more pain and health problems.

Notice that I used the word may? May is a funny word. It’s not a definitive word. It doesn’t mean can’t or won’t, it means both may and may not.

The web site Wikipedia reports that in 1993, the rBST growth hormone was approved for use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration and is safe for human consumption. But how many times have you heard that before? How many times have we seen studies and reports come out saying something is safe or non-harmful only to be found false or erroneous years later? The most recent one that comes to mind is the cholesterol debate. It made the news this past week. There is no link between the cholesterol in the foods we eat and blood cholesterol. Eggs are safe again! Yay!
This hormone is banned in other countries but only because it increases health risks to the cows. One of those things being an overall increase of mastitis by 53%.

Mastitis, I can tell you from personal experience, is painful.

“Peg, do you believe everything you read on the internet?” you ask.

Well, let’s just refer back to my statement about whole and natural to answer that.

I haven’t drank milk in years and now if I drink it, I get a tummy ache. I could probably suffer through it and build my enzymes back up to where I can digest the lactose in milk again but I didn’t miss it enough to do that. This milk, this fairlife, has 50% more protein, 30% more calcium, 50% less sugar and no lactose! How about that?

“How’s it taste?” you wonder.

I like it. The 2% is rich and creamy tasting.

Mike found the web site for one of the farms that produce this milk. It’s in Fair Oaks, Indiana and it is quite an impressive operation. So much so that Mike, in fact, would like to go and see it.

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More stories and no more room! I’m at the bottom of page eight and I don’t want to start a page nine.

Do you know why?

“Why,” you answer.

Because if I start a page nine I have to make a page ten and even though I have a few more things to talk about, I don’t know that it’s enough for two more pages! So! We shall save it for seed.

Until next time,

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Hi everyone,

My desktop photo this week is Andrew, aka, The Star Of My Show, aka, My Little Heart.

I love the expression on his face as he peeled one of the trees from the cabinet door and stuck it on his arm.

I laughed. If you ever want a kid do something again, just laugh at him.

 Pretty soon we were all wearing trees. First Mommy got one and then Daddy got a pink one on his hand,

then I got four of them across my shirt front.

By the way, Andrew took this photo. I was helping him hold the camera while I tried to stay far enough away for it to focus but he snapped it. So don’t look at my wrinkles, okay?

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

“Wrinkles?” you ask.

Yeah, there’s that too, but no, I was speaking of Andrew wanting my camera. His whole life he has seen me taking tons of photos of him. And it’s a wonder he recognizes me without a camera stuck to my face, but it was only a matter of time until he asked to try the camera.

Guys, he was so stinkin’ cute! And here’s the photo to prove it. This is Andrew asking if he can try my camera. He still doesn’t talk much but he doesn’t have to. We all understand him perfectly!

I took the strap off my neck and handed my $600 camera to a two-year old.

“Are you crazy!”

I know, right! I thought the same thing myself after I handed it over but what could I do? I’m putty in this kid’s hands.

Andrew sat on my bed and handled my camera as if he had been handling a camera his whole life. He knew how to hold it (one hand on each side) and he knew he had to have it up to his eye. He even knew he had to push a button and I watched as his little fingers searched for the shutter button.

“It’s right here,” I told him showing him which button to push. Then I sat back and watched as he wrestled with a camera that was much too big and much too heavy for him to handle.

 

At first I thought Andrew was looking through the view finder than I saw he was peaking over the top of the camera, so he hasn’t yet gotten the idea that he needs to look through it, but he had everything pointed in the right direction.

 

That cat!

That darn cat!

Yeah! Baby Blue. She loves to be close to Mike and sometimes she has to lay on the corner of his computer to accomplish that. Most times it’s not a problem but this past week she laid on a button and opened 141 windows!

 

Our poor little Baby Blue…

I say that but despite her slow start in life she’s not little anymore. At eight pounds she is pretty much a normal size cat. She does, however, continue to have respiratory problems. In plain English, she’s a snotty cat. She sneezes snot all over the place! But when you love something, like we do Baby Blue, you put up with their problems.

Monday morning we were sitting at the table doing…what else?…playing Skip-Bo with Gary when Baby Blue sneezed. I turned and looked and here she had snotted a blob of bloody snot on my kitchen floor.

“Her nose is probably just dry, like ours gets and sometimes when you blow it, it’s bloody,” Mike said.

I wasn’t convinced. “What if she has pneumonia?” Seeing blood where you don’t expect to see blood is cause for investigation-in my book.

I called the vet and we got her right in that day. It turns out that Mike was more right than I was. It probably was just blood from dry nasal passages. She had no temperature and the vet couldn’t hear anything in her lungs. Nonetheless we still came home with three medications for Baby Blue and a hundred dollars less in our wallet.

 

“Three medications for dry nasal passages?” I know right!

The vet found something going on with one ear and I have to put drops in it twice a day. She also gave us two medications to try to make her less snotty. One was a liquid and one was a pill.

“But you have to make sure that the pill gets into the stomach.” The vet cautioned us. “Follow with a syringe full of water or make sure she eats a full meal.”

The liquid is easy to get into Baby Blue but the pill turned out to be a real challenge and I have the scratches and bites to prove it! Yeah. That happened with the second pill I gave her then I decided I had to find a better pill delivery system.

Baby Blue likes Pup-Peroni. As I sat there giving our critters their after dinner treat it occurred to me that I could hide the pill in a piece of that. I didn’t know if she would find it or not and I had to make sure the dogs didn’t steal it from her, but it worked like a charm. Down the pill went, no fuss, no muss. Follow with a third of a can of cat food and Baby Blue is happy. Despite her love of the wet stinky stuff, I don’t normally feed her canned food. I like our animals to be on hard food because it’s better for their teeth.

Baby Blue has been on her medications since Tuesday and she is doing so much better. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve heard her sneeze at all in the last couple of days. I’ll have to pay better attention. And we were told (three years ago) that this may be something she will always have. So at that time, when the meds were gone and the sneezing and snotting returned, we just lived with it and have been living with it every since then.

I’m afraid to get my hopes up this time.



We are planning on being in Pennsylvania sometime around the first of May. If you don’t know already, let me tell you that my mom (our mom) is moving to Arizona to live with Patti, my oldest and much adored sister.

Momma has never wanted to go to a nursing home but at this stage in her life she needs more care than she is currently getting so something needed to happen and this was decided as being best for all concerned. I am not sure of her move date, I just know that it will happen in May.

Let’s call this one done!

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike