I've been lucky enough to have a very talented Father whom has made many artistic creations.

In my home hang four of his works of art.

I always looked forward to the things that my Dad made for me. He painted a table with strawberries all over it when I was a little girl. I don't know what happened to that table, I think it was given away. :-( I would love to have been able to give that to my little girl. He also painted a doll crib for me with a little girl that wore a bonnet. Same as the table, I don't know what happened to my little doll crib.

When I was in elementary school, I remember watching my Dad create oil paintings. This is one of them. This particular painting doesn't have a good history, as it was an object that my parents fought over in their divorce. My Dad won.

For a long time, Dad would offer this painting to me to take home. I would pass on the opportunity to take it because of the symbolic nature that the picture held for me.

I didn't want my Mother to come to my home and see the painting hanging in my home, especially after the energy she spent on trying to keep it! I eventually got over that hang up and am very proud to have this painting hanging in my home.

One of the things that my Dad really loves to draw, in this case paint, are columbines. I've had this painting for a very long time, and I honestly cannot recall when I took possession of it! I know it was after I was married. It was hanging in the stairwell to my basement and one day I realized that NO ONE besides myself and my family were able to enjoy the painting because of its location. I decided to hang it in my living room! I think it goes great in there!

I love the round frame this painting rests in. It's old and interesting, to me!

This plaque painting has companion paintings that went with it! There was a plaque with the name VANCE on it which had a few black ribbons that hung down with additional owls painted on them. I believe that my brother may have the other piece to this plaque. I wish that it could stay together, but at the same time, I'm glad that both my brother and I have these pieces. They tie us to our childhood with good memories of those times!

Phobia of Choppers

For the last ten or so years, I’ve developed a phobia of helicopters.

When I was a little girl, I would have this reoccurring dream where I step out of my home on Montrose Avenue and look up at the night sky to hear the neighbors screaming look at all of those helicopters, which turned out NOT to be helicopters. It was a terrifying dream, and I would have to say that I probably had the dream at the least 10 times, if not more and I’ve had it as an adult as well.

I’ve had other dreams where there are modified single-man choppers that have landed in the neighborhood where I live now. They are always searching for ME. I immediately drew the vessel upon waking up on a piece of paper. In this same dream a large military helicopter crashes behind my house in the ally and I’m screaming as I run and grab my children and head for the house for safety.

I believe these dreams have lead to my phobia of helicopters. Along with the fact that I feel every single medical, traffic, passenger, crop-duster, and military chopper flies LOW over my house.

About three years ago, Ashleigh wanted go to a function at her pre-school. She kept telling me that there would be a helicopter there. At the time, her communication skills weren’t the best, so when we go to the school and the helicopter wasn’t there, she wasn’t very happy. We went to the different stations they had set up for the kids, and then finally an emergency medical helicopter flew in and landed in the school yard.

I was having quit a hard time being that close to a landing helicopter. Once it landed and turned its blades off we stood in line so that she could see the inside of the chopper. It was pretty cool and I would love to one day ride in a chopper, but I still hold the fear of them.

On October 25 I was outside in the yard doing the first round of leave raking. For about 20 minutes I heard the deep sound of the familiar military helicopter blades chopping the sky above. I couldn’t seem to see where they were. Finally, I walked to the back yard and saw the triangular formation of the military choppers as they approached my house. Another ten minutes went buy before they finally flew over head,
heading north to Cheyenne. These guys were thundermakers!!!

I would love to be rid of this phobia!!!

Sunsets in Review 2008

Today is a NEW day.
I celabrate the opportunity for CHANGE!
I'm saddened by the FEAR most feel about the future we hold in OUR hands.
I'm disgusted that RACE still holds a very large part of the FEAR of this country.
FEAR breeds HATE!

I'm saddened and disgusted by this video:

Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves!

A blanket of leaves covers the lawn, smothering the green to a sea of yellow. The weather has been so nice for the past week. The day of this shot the temperature was in the mid 70s. This shot is looking to the West in the front yard that faces North. My Cottonwood is really the only one leaving this mess behind.

This shot is looking to the South from the NorthEast tip of my front yard. As you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I didn't have Luke out helping me rake because he was with his Dad for his birthday weekend. Otherwise he would have been working off debt.

As I raked I made many piles. This one is just one of five piles I made in the front yard and was the largest!!

I loaded my wheelbarrow several times as full as it would let me fill it without leaving a trail of leaves behind to have to re-rake and deposit back into the wheelbarrow.

As fast as I filled the wheelbarrow, the leaves rained from the sky. Well, actually, they rained from the tree above and the tree itself still had quite a bit of leaves to fall and basically I was raking for no good reason because I'd have to do it again!

I hauled leaves to the back yard to my garden area. The leaves went from being a pile to a mound and what seemed like a mountain! There was a huge hole in the garden where Luke decided to dig what looked like a burial plot and I used garden dirt to fill a hole that my dog Bertha dug back in 2004 so the leaves filled these holes and still made a large mound.

After getting the huge pile of leaves in the front yard, I had a pile of leaves in the side yard that begged to be moved before I could quit.

Mika waited patiently as I raked, loaded, hauled, dumped, raked, loaded, hauled, dumped and repositioned my piles for another load to be loaded, hauled, and dumped in the back yard. I left the side gate open and even forgot that I left the gate open and she only ran after a neighborhood cat when I had stopped to get a drink of water and forgot about her being outside with the gate open.

Once I finished with the majority of the raking of the leaves and hauling of the same to the garden, I sat on my back porch and enjoyed the late afternoon light just as it hit the pumkins that the kids didn't take to carve with their Dad. I thought they made the most beautiful orange glow. You really cannot get that effect with my cell phone camera, but you get the idea.

After all that hard work, it was nice to be able to sit on the back porch and watch the sun setting behind the clouds, soon to the be mountains and then the entire earth as nights shadow settled upon the land.

Yeah, I'm cheesy. The next morning was Monday and after Matthew returned home from school he sent me a text to let me know that our neighbors to the East had blown all the leaves that gathered again on the lawn to the other side of the yard, completely blanketing my NorthWest lawn again!!! I have to work this evening after getting home to get the leaves hauled to the back before the weather changes tomorrow into Thursday!