My busy day off:

Even though it is summer, I got up EARLY this morning because of all the things I gotta do! I'm taking a picnic for my husband and his family as we are going to watch his niece play in the softball tournament tonight, so here's the menu:

homemade chicken strips
pasta salad
bean salad
jello
sun chips
yellow cake with cream cheese frosting and blueberries

is that enough?
Then I need to run to the school...
Then i need to go to the doctor...
Then I need to go to Costco...
then come home and get dinner all packed up!

And here is my horoscope!
Your Horoscope for JUNE 19, 2008


Today is likely to prove a very busy day for you, ELLIE, full of interesting and unusual developments. You might find yourself having to run a lot of errands in your near neighborhood, perhaps also making a few short visits. A lot of letters and phone calls, some bringing intriguing news, could also be on your agenda at this time. It might take time for you to process all the information that's coming and to make sense of it all. (www.astrocenter.com)

Here's a pic my hubby took of a recent storm. We stood up on the rims and watched about 3 of them go by!

Have a good day, y'all!

My date with daughter, Megan!

When Megs is at work, I usually go visit her on her "lunch" break (around 4:30pm). Today was her day off, so we decided we'd go for for a picnic, but first, to an iris garden.

Here's Megs when I picked her up...We drove out to the iris garden. She wanted to show me how beautiful they are and she's right!

Here are just a few. Which one(s) do you like?




















We had fun looking. She thinks they smell good and differently. I think they smell like the dentist's gloves.



After we did all that, our appetite was worked up and so we took off to find a picnic spot.


It was under a giant cottonwood tree, down by the river.
Then we went to the Riverfront park to walk about the duck/goos pond. Here is quite a gaggle of geese!

And a picture of us, half way around the pond...we had to tiptoe through the goose poop most of the time!

Thanks, Megs, for a great day! Wished it would have lasted longer! Love ya!

Fathers Day

This day has stirred many meanings and feeling within. I only knew dad my first 17 years of my life, then he was gone at age 53, massive coronary. He was the core of our family of females and always on a pedestal in my eyes. Then there were years of bitterness for some actions he did that I resented. I loved him, I missed him, I hated him, and finally...I love him again. Here are a few "captions" of his life:

He entered into the marine corp at the end of World War II, stationed in Johnson Islands (south pacific).
Dad was an avid outdoors man and hunter, we grew up on wild game. He played guitar and sang beautifully, was a Deputy Game Warden then Supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish. Dad dearly loved his folks and family and the trio of his good buddies, Cliff and Jim.

The last photo is when he was young and had the mumps, can't hardly recognize him! He went through a lot personally and as a father. I still remember him in his red G&F shirt, taking us on outings and teaching us the names of the wild flowers, the trees, wildlife and to love and respect the mountains and no matter what time of year, TAKE A COAT!

Dad went through a lot, and those experiences hurt him deeply. His last words to mom were "Tell the girls I love 'em and take care of each other." Those words...no matter what we've gone through...are the perfect prescription, the most soothing salve to a wounded soul.

Happy Fathers Day, dad. I love and miss you, and now mom is with you so you can have a cup of coffee together and visit like you did every morning.We're still singing your songs, down here, and we'll always keep that tradition going.

Black Hills Part III: Headed Home

On our way home from camping in the Black Hills, we passed by this little cemetery and had to stop and look. How precious it is!
Not mowed, not trimmed, just resting in peace among the evergreens.

Some of the headstones are very old!

Most of the flowers were homegrown, in a makeshift vase.

If I'm buried or even where my ashes are spread, I want it to be in a place like this...natural.

Rather than going home the same way, we decided to drive to Devil's Tower (1st national monument in the US). They've had SO MUCH rain, the red hills shout out their colors! It looks like I photoshopped the colors here, but I didn't!

Another bad storm was obviously approaching. The sky started getting dark. On the left you see Devil's Tower and to the right are the Missouri Buttes.
More beautiful countryside! The Belle Fourche river meanders through the hills.

Here's the little town I went to school grades 9-11. I think the population at that time was 350!
More of the little town...
The Belle Fourche (pronounced bell foosh) is FULL!
It was cold and windy out, so we decided to take a different route, not go by Devil's Tower. We headed north. Here is "lover's leap". The small black specks mid right are wild turkeys.

We pulled off the highway and drove to the place mom and dad lived their retired life. Dad passed away after being there for 3 years, and mom lived there for 11 more years after that. They had this pond put in. The house was creme colored (mom and dad built it) and there wasn't the white outbuilding.


I remember when mom and dad planted these willow trees. They were just a limb, now look how big they are!

And there's momma's house. It was bitter sweet. Same structure, same local, different color, different vehicles by it and different inhabitants. I cried for quite a while this day, but they are tears that heal.
It was my favorite part of the whole trip. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Cemetary, all were great, but seeing mom and dad's place was the best.