Face behind the blog!

This is the face behind this blog!

MaryAnne from A Place I Call Home tagged me for this meme quite some time ago and I am just now getting to it. Sorry MaryAnne. It's called Face behind the Blog. The idea is, I tell you a little something about myself and show you a picture of me...I then get added to a blog roll......I pick some bloggers to participate there it goes. Please check out Dreams of border collies for more information as to how to play along. Like I said, it's been quite a while so you may have to search her archives to find it. Sorry 'bout that!



Most of my regular visitors know what I look like and a lot of the things I do. This picture was taken back in June of 2006 near Denver when I went to visit my sister for my nephew's wedding reception. With me are my baby sister and a cousin.



My garden......I love my flowers.
And the last photo is of the entire group, or as many of them as we could get together at one time (only 2 are missing) on July 4, 2007 after the parade.

I'm not going to tag anyone for this since I was tagged back on August 15 and am just now getting around to doing it. But if you want to join in anyway, feel free and let me know so I can see the 'Face Behind the Blog'.

Lunar Eclipse - August 28, 2007

This is what I saw at 5:20 AM today! Last night as I watched the clouds moving in, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to see it. But the clouds cleared and I could see just fine until shortly before the moon was getting ready to set and then the trees obstructed my view. Still, at least I got to see some of it and that's better than nothin'!

Middle Name Meme

Okay, I've been tagged by Rodeo With A Twist of Suspense and played along. Now it's your turn.....see the bottom of this page to see who has been tagged and please play along. And after you play, be sure and notify the person who tagged you so they can read your answers!

What's in a name?

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

L -- Loyal! I'll stick by my friends through thick and thin. Once I know I can really count on you if I need you and you feel the same, we will remain friends forever.

O -- Olive Branch! I will more likely than not, be the first one to try and make peace after a disagreement or altercation with a family member or good friend.

U -- Understanding! Doesn't mean I will always agree with where you are coming from, but I will try my hardest to understand and I usually can accomplish that.

I tag:

MaryAnn

Janet C

Rebecca

Well, this is probably one of the last photos I will take of Amber this summer. This one was just before she left to go to the beach with her dad! We took her back to her moms on August 11Th and haven't seen her since then. She called me yesterday and invited us to meet her in Muskegon for her first time as a cheerleader at her game for Hart Middle School. So, we are going to try and make it. That's a lot closer than driving all the way to her house.....not that she isn't worth it! Hubby has to work tomorrow, so I'm hoping her dad doesn't and is free to go along. I hate going alone and trying to find a new place without a navigator with me! But, if he can't make it, I will still go.....I need to see her!

I'm starting to make the adjustment to hubby working a 2ND shift although it has been difficult. I think the silver lining (if there is one) in this is that we now have our big meal in the middle of the day so I have time to burn off more calories and eat much lighter at supper time! The evenings do seem awfully long and to drag on though and I'm sure they will seem even longer once fall and winter arrive and it gets dark much earlier than it does now. But, I'm sure I will find something to occupy my evenings with.....I can always sit by the fireplace and stay toasty warm and read some good books or do my counted cross stitch.

Okay, I can't believe it's been a year already since I went for my........... "mammy mashing"! But it has been that long and my doctors office called me last week and told me that they have scheduled my mammogram for Aug. 20Th at 10:30 AM.

But I'll bite the bullet so to speak, pull up my big girl pants, and once more do what I know is good for me! Do you see the picture of the machine at the upper right? That's what they look like. The clear plastic tray is the one that the breast is placed on while the smaller box jutting out on the front comes in contact with the breast, flattening it and takes the pictures. And they aren't happy until your breast is almost totally flat on the tray! I wish there were other ways to check on this stuff than putting women through this torture machine! I bet it was invented by a man!

And as if that isn't bad enough, they have also scheduled my 12-hour fasting cholesterol blood work for a ½ hour before that. Which means that as of now, I am done eating, snacking and/or having anything wonderful to drink until after the blood is drawn tomorrow morning. I must once again go without my COFFEE! That makes for a very cranky ME!

I'm thirsty so I'm off to get a bottled water.....hey, it's better than nothing!

This is what I saw as I opened the blinds this morning and looked out into the back yard. I love morning glories........they are bright and beautiful and can almost certainly bring a smile to my face as I look at the delicate way they flutter in the slightest breeze.
The only colors that were opened this morning are the pink and the purple, but I have a blue variety too. They are all pretty much planted in one area so they can grow and curl up the trellis as they reach for the sunlight. A much cheerier picture than the clouds of yesterday!

The sky reflects our mood!

I don't mean to complain but............today is hub's first day on 2nd shift! He hates 2nd shift! Me too! But, we need to be thankful that at least he didn't get laid off. And with 2nd shift comes more pay.....night premium always bumps his pay up and he is due for a cost of living raise in September too. I guess that may be our silver lining....more money coming in! Still, when all is said and done, I'm not sure the little extra money he will bring home each week is worth it! Although he had no choice in the matter, he was pretty unhappy when he had to leave for work this afternoon just a couple hours earlier than he would be getting home if he were still on 1st shift.

We took Amber home on Saturday. I had originally thought that where she had moved to was just a little over 80 miles one way. We checked our trip mileage and it is exactly 103.1 miles from our house to her house, so round trip is 206.2 miles. I'm not sure I'll be driving that very often with the price of gas and Michigan winters now that hub is on 2nd shift. He wouldn't get home from work until about 1:30 AM if he is on overtime on Friday night so he would have to sleep in Saturday. If we left at noon on Saturday, we wouldn't get home until around 4 PM and we would have to take her back on Sunday so she could go to school on Monday. Not very practical to pick her up for one afternoon and have to return her right away.

Okay, gotta go now before this turns into a total rant and rave and vent session!

Contests.....

Hey, I found this on a friend's site. You can enter this contest too by visiting Ashwin's Blog


Over at Ashwin's Blog you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Check out my friend's site too, as she has links to more contests. Besides, her site is great!

Night flowers.

I think I may have posted a photo last year of my 'Moon Flowers'. I couldn't find it, so if I did, then I apologize for repeating this years photo.

I have no idea what the real name is for these flowers. They look like a giant morning glory, only white, and they only open in the evening. They remain open all night long, close in the morning, and then curl up and fall off within a day or two. But when they are open, they are beautiful. They are especially pretty when a lot of them open on the same evening. This picture shows three of them open when I took it, but as the night went on, more opened. I missed them.....I only knew that they did when the next morning I saw about eight of them closed and curling. That's probably the most that I have ever had open at the same time.....and I missed it!

The seed pod on this baby is WICKED. It reminds me of the size and shape of a chestnut inside it's protective covering, but the spikes on this seed pod even frighten the grown men in our family! If you enlarge the photo and scroll down, you can get a peek at the seed pods hiding under the leaves.