Conversation

As I was driving home from serving Buckwheat Cakes at my church this evening I decided I wanted a little ice cream so I stopped at the local convenience store/laundromat/gas station.  I saw a young mother with her young daughter taking laundry in....and that's when the conversation began.

me:  Man, I'm so glad I don't have to do laundry here.

God:  Bless them.

me:  What?  How?

God:  Ice cream.

me:  What?  Just get them some ice cream?  They won't have spoons.

God:  Ask.

me (while checking out with my ice cream):  Do you have any spoons?

clerk:  Yeah, sure.  Over there.

me:  Oh.  Then I need to get another ice cream.

God:  See?  (God is a man of few words, isn't He?)

And I could just feel the smile on His face get bigger and bigger as I delivered the ice cream.

me (to the momma and child):  You should get to eat ice cream when you have to do laundry.

Momma and child:  Thanks!  (with big smiles...like God's!)

And I was wearing my church t-shirt that says Faith in Action...

I have been praying that God would help me be more aware of His nudges and brave enough to carry them out.  

It didn't even hurt.

Thank you, Lord.

Adopted!

I just spent a wondrous weekend...long weekend...with long lost family that I never knew I had or lost before this very weekend.
I have been blessed in this season of my life with friends who are family...friends who love me for me...friends who can hear my secrets and love me still...friends who trust me with their secrets.  I am quite sure that friendships like these are the stuff of God...the Heaven on earth part...

I met Kristen and Rachel (and Chazi) via blogs and Facebook.  We have been writing and reading and sharing with each other for a couple of years or so....sharing our lives.  When we finally got to be in the same physical space on the planet it was so very odd.

I was a nervous wreck, afraid that they wouldn't like me in real life.  The same thing happened when I met my little husband.  We got to know each other via emails before we ever got to 'meet' and I was scared.  In both cases they met me with hugs and we started talking like we had seen each other just yesterday....and we talked the rest of the visit!

We are such kindred spirits...lovers of God, creators of cuteness and completely crazy at times.  It was a coming home experience....coming home to a place I had never been and a family I had never met...adoption!

Hope you guys are OK with that.

You're stuck with me now!

So, that is the story and here are some pictures, even though I was bit out-camera-ed!
From before the beginning....

Skippy Jo thinking he might like to go along.

1st stop on the 1st leg of the trip, with Stevie, to Amy's.

Say what????

I LOVED the look of these pears in Kristen's back yard.

I LOVED the taste of the pears from Rachel's back yard.

And this sweet Tucker of a dog.

On our way to a Renaissance Faire.

Chazi is the costumer!  Hers was AMAZING.

Here you can see part of her belt accouterments.

And here you can see her ears!

And that's sweet Toby, brother to the Tucker.

Kristen lives on the Provo River and these are views from our morning walks....

look at those mountains!

Kristen and her horses: Dustin, Hickory, Zion and Sophie.

I didn't get to ride them, but I did get to love on them.

Saying good-bye to the boys....with lots of Tucker kisses.

A drive up one of the canyons to Sundance.

Sundance, Cloudance, Leafdance....

And the Temple in Salt Lake City, which is really

too big to even try to photograph.

I got to see where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs...wow.

The next 2 are my favorite 2 photos of the trip.

Rachel hanging out of the car window taking pictures while 

Kristen is zooming along up the canyon...

with me hanging out right behind Rachel...

but we weren't screaming at this point.

And Kristen on the back of Hickory...

ahh, the love.

I had a magical time...the entire time....every minute. ..with my adopted sisters.

Next year.

Again.

Creative Turn

For those of you have been following for awhile, you know what my Whimsical Woolies usually look like.  They are cute and whimsical and flat and framed...like these...

PeaceFall

Love Birds

Now, I am feeling an urge to create in a more 3D sort of way.  Do others of you have tales of your creativity taking a turn?  Kind of exciting and lots of new learning....
Here are a couple of my latest Woolie creations all puffed up.

Meet Stella.  

I love her.

Still learning the 3D thing...not a lot of shaping yet.

She sits up on her own, but can't stand.

I have a friend who lives at Fearington Village where they keep 

a herd of "Oreo" cows and "Oreo" goats.  They

really have some other less fun name...

belted something????

So, anyway, she sent me the fun t-shirt and I made her the cool

"Oreo" kitty pillow.  She likes cats and I do cats.  

Worked out well.  :-)

See the 3D-ness.  My friend at 

church told me this is a box stitch.

I thought I made it up.

I'm sure there are things I need to learn that will make the 3D-ness easier and 3D-ier.  But, you gotta start somewhere and I am liking my two starts so far.  

Another Good-Bye

You know when you bring them home it is for a limited time.  Becan's time was finished today.
I didn't know that today was going to be the day.  I took these pictures this morning and they are not very good at all...but, maybe they capture the emotions of the moment.

Already fading away....fuzzing into the next world.

Becan was being given away as a prize at the Buckwheat Festival about 14 years ago.  A little girl won her.  The little girl's mother said, "We are NOT taking that thing home, so just put it down."  Little girl is crying and I am there.  Here.  I will take the kitten.  Becan was about as big as a Beanie Baby toy, but it soon became clear that her personality was much bigger.

She never was really a sit on your lap kitty.  She liked to be petted, but when she was done, she was just as likely to slap your hand or bite  your fingers as to get up and move away.  Lately, though, she has allowed all the loving we wanted to give her.  Isn't that funny?

That look?

  I trust you.  

I'm ready.

Good-bye, Miss B.  

You were loved and you will be missed.

Tree Monkeys and Stuff

I mentioned this week that I had tree monkeys in my back yard cutting a few tall trees out of our tiny pine forest in the back yard.  After convincing my little husband that boards (probably painted white - I'll show you in a minute) would look really cool and cottage-y in our new house and then pricing some, he got the great idea to use some or our trees and our friend Bill's sawmill to make our own boards for the walls and floor and ceilings!
Here are the scary high tree monkeys:

Helllllooooo up there.  And how is that rope supposed to help him?

Can you see him?

Oh, there he is after he cut the top half off of the tree.

When all was said and done they cut down 5 trees and cut them into 9 foot lengths so we can make 8 foot boards.  Here are a couple of my inspiration photos from pinterest:

Nice, right?  Probably going to add color....somewhere.....

My little husband the math teacher figured out how big our scallops for window trim needed to be with his tursty compass way faster than I could sketch and try and sketch and try.  Handy being married to man who knows his way around a compass.

They will be painted white and built into a whole thing that is going to look sweet

 and old, if I have planned it correctly!

Our good dog, Mercy, started yelping when she moved certain ways last week so we took her to the vet fearing a problem with her shoulder or hip (she's a 90 pound baby girl).  Good news is that it is only arthritis (that's better than displasia, right?) and we are giving her some glucosimine.  The bad news is that she isn't to be jumping, like off the bed or out of the jeep.  So, the good news is that we had just gotten another super deal on an older Subaru (we are now a 2Baru family) so the jeep wasn't an issue.  The bad news is that now our bed is on the floor and it's a long way up in the morning and I can't reach the light to turn it off and the bedside table is too tall....waa waa waa.   It really isn't that big a deal and she hasn't yelped again so it is completely worth my inconvenience!  

I know.  We aren't wrapped right.  

But we found each other to wrap up with.

Life is good.