What color would you like?

Let’s draw something! What would you draw?

Days of Summer

Before it turned chilly we ran up to Door County for a little exploration.

There were several gulls around but I thought this Herring Gull was pretty funny standing on a rock.

Scratching his itch while Lake Michigan waves crashed into his rock.

And his friend enjoyed the waves nearby. While many gulls migrate south for the winter a good many of the Herring Gulls stay along the Great Lake coasts.

I am not sure if this juvenile gull is a Herring Gull or a Ring-billed Gull since both were present and both juveniles look similar. It takes four years for a Herring Gull to attain his adult plumage and only three years for the Ring-billed.

Uh-oh, be careful Mr Ring-billed, don’t fall off your rock. Notice his yellowish legs? Did you notice the Herring’s are pink? Knowing that, which one do you think that is in the background?

Were you right?

The Ring-billed Gull can be found all over the state in the summer but during winter he returns to the lakeshores.

Bye-bye Gull! *waving*

Hello, sexy! *smooches*

You’re getting a little close now, maybe I should start backing up.  Run!

Macro Monday - Pink Magic

Fall is definitely falling all around me but I hope you don’t mind if I just hold onto summer a little longer.

I grew these from seed (and my son swears my thumb is brown since I killed a cactus), but I have no clue what they are.

I love the lines in the petals and the touch of blue in the centers.

Don’t you?

I can get lost in there. Notice that little bulb in the center, covered with many tiny balls?

A few days later and a sunnier day, that center dealy (technical I know) has sprotted nice frillies!

Nature is mystifyingly magical!

If you’d like to join in Macro Monday please let me know in the comments. The more the merrier. . .

• Keyhole Pictures


• Heaven in Belgium


• Soeurs Du Jour


• Picture this, at last!


• Menagerie


• Sweet Memories


• you?

Unconscious Mutterings

Every week I play along in Storyteller's comments with her "mutterings" and I thought I'd like to give Unconscious Mutterings a shot.  You can mutter along with me in the comments or on your own blog, if'n ya ahnt ta. ;)

1. Insight :: vision


2. Irksome :: annoying


3. Maybe :: might


4. Confirmation :: nod


5. Bib :: baby


6. Stop! :: Now!


7. Lobster :: ocean


8. Boys :: sons


9. Fire away :: shoot


10. Give up :: surrender

You don't have to give one word answers, you can have a longer response (it's encouraged) but I tend to just have one word. Your turn. :)

Fuzzy Wuzzy One

I really don’t know what this little fuzzy guy is but I found him fascinating. I know it’s some sort of worm or caterpillar, but check out his horns. He has black hair on his head and butt in shape of horns.

And he wiggles lots! Tons of tiny little legs with kinda suction cup feet. He scurries quickly, here and there and makes my head spin.

Can you see the ridge of longer hair along his back, starting about midway, and getting longer as nearing the butt? Notice how his head tucks in and pops out as he moves.

In fact that last group of hairs along the ridge almost remind me of a tail. And I think he’s wagging it at us.

Hi!

And he’s off again. I hope he enjoyed his little portrait session. Sometimes I wish my macro was more zoomy, but I think you’ll understand when you see this.

That’s my finger, and yes I took the photo one handed, but you see how little he is? Simply amazing, or I thought he was. I like how you can see some of the little ‘hairs’ on the leaf.

Released, back into the wild. Bye!

Frozen moments

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

These will be the last photos of Cole you’ll see for a while since I’m not sure when we’ll get to run down to Joplin again. These were taken a couple of weeks ago when he was one week old. But these were some of my favorites. I’m so proud of Marissa, looks like she’s going to be a good mom.  (BTW, Marissa's 18th birthday was yesterday - Happy Birthday Rissa!)

If you missed out on any of the photos of our newest grandson just poke right here and enjoy the set.

Cancer Sucks!

My week just has not been going well. You may remember, in August, I shared about a friend of mine being ill. So you don’t have to click back I will share that part of the post:

When my husband changed jobs last year he began working with a man who’s wife has multiple myeloma and for the last year I have been sending her cards and notes. Through our husbands I’ve tracked her progress through two stem-cell transplants. Finally, she was well enough that she gave me a call and we agreed to meet in the middle (Oshkosh) for lunch.

Three weeks ago, I drove an hour away to meet the lady who had been on my mind so much this past year. Upon meeting there was instant comfort, we had an ease of talking you don’t often find with someone. We spent several hours just sitting and talking, and I think I’m safe to say that we both left feeling mighty good inside. She is an absolute wonderful woman! We agreed to meet at least once more before Christmas and I decided to start calling her every week or two. In the mean time, I was scheduled to see the oncologist on Tuesday and she was scheduled to see hers on Wednesday so we set a time to talk after those appointments.

It’s pretty funny, because when we would talk on the phone, we always set up a time to talk in a few days. For awhile she had to see her oncologist every 3 days but she had worked up to going every 10 days and was so happy with that. She got permission to go on vacation and was really looking forward to going this September.

Then she told her oncologist that she had been having a little pain in her hip. He immediately scheduled an MRI and a tumor was found, a rather large tumor, 5-6 inches and it was decided she would start radiation and chemo, once again. I am still having a hard time grasping how she can go to meeting me over an hour’s drive away, to being hospitalized and time ticking, in just a few days.

I haven’t been able to talk to her for the last week, she’s just too weak, but our husbands talk every day or so and her prognosis isn’t good. The doctor’s were talking in weeks, now they are talking in possible months. So that’s a little bit of good news. But in amidst all of this, they have also found a tumor in the motor center of her brain, so for now, that is the tumor being attacked. She’s not strong enough for them to work on the hip tumor and the brain tumor so brain trumps hip.

Over the last couple of months we have talked many, many times and she has been in and out of the hospital several times, honestly spending more time in than out. She went through chemo a couple more times and she so wanted to be here for as long as possible.

I am heartbroken. She passed away Sunday, and my brain just does not want to function properly. I know my grief is nothing compared to her family’s. Her husband is so very lost without her; they were together nearly 40 years. Her son and daughter, in their twenties, should not have to be without their mom. Every time she spoke of her husband and children she called them, My 'J' or My 'S' or My 'T', she loved them so much.

One of my greatest fears was that I would not live long enough to meet my grandchildren. She did not have grandchildren yet. Her children are not yet married, she missed that too. It’s not fair and I want to scream and maybe hit a few things. But instead, this evening, I will going her funeral.

I know October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and she fought breast cancer and won in 1998. The breast cancer was not what took her and in no way related to the Multiple Myeloma. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. She will be missed by many.