I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!  

Since it has been my responsibility for 26 years to get the cards and or letters out I accept all the blame for not getting it done for Christmas or New Years.

I can explain, honest!

After begging and begging for a 'kitty' for all the years we have been married. Luther just resisted it firmly. It wasn't worth breaking up our marriage over it but in  my heart of hearts I really, really,  wanted one!  On Dec.6th it was our 26th wedding anniversary and he asked me what I wanted.  I said something alive!  Now there is the pitter patter of LOTS of feet around here but I knew that he knew I meant a kitty.

On Dec. 6th he went down to the Humane Society and picked out the most perfect little ball of fluff! (Amen, prayers answered!)  It is a little female that is ginger and white....mostly white with red on her head and tail and a few little spots of it on her body. She has peridot green eyes and did I say she is Perfect?  Her name is "Rosey Toesy". (Because of her coloring and the fact that she is polydactyl. This girl has so many extra toes! She looks like she has catchers mitts on the end of her legs.)  Well the reason I am late is because I have not been able to think of anything else since she arrived.  Don't get me wrong, I adore my dogs but the ones we have just aren't really cuddly and the one we do have that is very cuddly is a 84 pound yellow lab and she crushes the stuffin's out of us.  So I have been fully engaged in being a new mommy to a precious kitty and journaling all about it.

I was going to get 'round to it  in doing cards and letters.  Well, obviously I didn't and I am sorry I failed in my duties as a wife but I am a happy new mom and hope you will forgive me.  

Not too much going on with us. We have slowed down a bit.  I do art all day and night and Luther works when he can and when he isn't I have a long list of 'Honey Do's' on a list.

For his 67th birthday we went on a cruise to St. Thomas, St Martin and on to the Bahama's.  I didn't really enjoy it because it was too hot and humid. I am a Minnesota gal after all these years and frankly I like it nice and cold. (Who would have thunk it??) :-)

Luther liked all the heat so he was good to go but he had to drag me off to places. What I really did enjoy was Magen's Beach in St Thomas.  I floated in that gorgeous water for 2 hours. We both enjoyed that. You can't sweat and suffer the heat if you are in gorgeous water. 

Luther had surgery on both of his eyes due to cataracts.  I am really squeamish when it comes to eyes and I a begged him not to have them done if he didn't really need to but he was determined. He said it was painless and didn't complain at all and I was able to put the drops in his eyes  without falling into a dead faint. His big blue eyes are as gorgeous as ever.  I feared he would look so different with plastic lens in them. Like I said I have always been a bit squeamish on all things eye related that is why I still wear glasses.

And.................

After going a full year on a meatless diet and our blood work proving the advantages of such,  I went off the wagon with a bite of hotdog and took him with me (shades of Adam and Eve,yes?)  and we ate hotdogs every dang day for 2 weeks.  It was the only meat I craved the whole time. (A hotdog for gosh sake!)  We are both back on meat and both scared to go in for our physicals. I know our cholesterol has shot through the roof.............Well we both love the Lord with all of our heart and we know we are not getting out of here alive so there you have it. I for one am not leaving this planet eating like a rabbit!!  :-)

Gypsy

First Gypsy face

This is my first prisma  pencil / blender face drawing that will be applied to a canvas and then the details put in so that she becomes a gypsy. :-)  I used layer upon layer very slowly. This is for my mixed media class.

Introducing……..

Introducing…….

This is Mrs. Fortesque……or Miss Puss….or sometimes CAT!!     For our 26th Wedding Anniversary my sweet husband went an adopted a precious kitty for us.  He outdid himself he did!  She is a Ginger and white kitty just as I have longed for for over 30 years.  Prayer to God worked, (In His own time, of course!!) because the hubby's heart softened and on his own went down to the Humane Society and filled out the paperwork and the next day brought her home to my hopeful, waiting arms.  I loved her at first sight and we are bosom buddies.  She sleeps right beside me all night long.  Her hobbies? Sitting up in the loft area looking down upon the 7 dogs and driving them into a frenzy.  When she gets bored with them, she runs down the staircase and through the bars of the baby gate and straight to her mommy's arms. My hobby?  Kissin' her on her punkin head.   She is such a JOY to me and Lord knows Luther made me wait a lonnnnng time for her.

Amen, I have everything my old heart could desire.
Happy, Happy 26th Anniversary.
P.S. Her name has been changed to "Toesy" because she is polydactyl.  So she is my "rosie toesy"

It is well with my soul…..

NO MORE CRUISES…………..at least for a while.  I was miserable due to wonky foot and strained muscles in my back. Everything I attempted to do was SUCH an effort.

The ship was too crowded, unorganized, room was crazy!!, and the bed so hard the floor would have been softer! I so wish I was kidding.

Been to St. Thomas (my fav. island) 3 or 4 times but the ship took so long to get there that I do believe I could have walked the distance faster….even with my still achey foot.

The food was o.k. but I didn't eat much.  What's that you say? You don't believe me?  Well my friend I came home 3 pounds lighter!   I love to eat but I simply lost interest while I wallowed in my pain.

Just not used to the heat and the humidity any more since I have been Minnesota acclimized. The Caribbean is HOT and HUMID. Next trip will be to Alaska. I am ready to see the blue ice. Never had a desire to go until a fellow traveler told me of her trip and how close to God you will feel. Well sign me up cuz that is all I long for, to feel closer and closer to God my Father.

I appreciate the opportunity to travel but I really feel more like I am having a vacation right here at home. Home is where my heart is. Who'd a thunk??? Color me surprised.

They're Here...................!!!

The day has arrived. The Cedar Waxwings are passing through on their way south. They are in a Cedar tree right outside my bedroom window.  I have a ringside seat for all the shenanigans going on out there.  First they land and sit there resting for a long time. Next they commence to eating the fermented berries thus getting drunk as skunks and flying into my huge bedroom window!

I am usually here to witness this spectacle but if I should be gone and miss them, I know they were here by the butt feathers smeared on my window. Usually they fly away safely but now and again I need to go out and rescue them and wrap them in a blanket to warm them up and give them a chance to sober up and get steady on their feet again.  I have held some as they have gone on to 'meet their maker' and then they are all given a proper burial.

I learned the first year that we were in this house not to 'pray to hold one in my hands'.  God is so anxious to give me my hearts desire that I have held way more than I wanted to.

As I write, another batch are eating  and getting snockered so I am in for another long day of search and rescue.

I have computer paper taped up in my windows to discourage them but it just doesn't phase a drunken bird. I tap on the window to get their attention but they are busy and can't be bothered to pay attention to me.  Oh boy, this is going to be A DAY!

YES, I mark the arrival date in my bird journal and as you must have guessed, they come on a different dang day every year.  (Figures, right?)  I do paste up my windows the middle of September to get ready for them.  I guess folks wonder what is wrong with me but they are not my concern.

I am thrilled to see them again because it reminds me that God in his infinite wisdom is indeed in control and they follow what He has instilled in them.  They are awfully cute with those little waxy wing tips.  This will only last for a day or two and then once again they will be winging their way down south, but while they are here their presence is duly noted!

I have a huge window in my bedroom and everyday the scene out of it changes. Some days it is sun-shiny and some days black with clouds. I watch the leaves turn colors and then fall to the ground.  I see the trees all skeleton-like........yet with their bare branches reaching Heavenward knowing that they will leaf out again one day soon and be green once again. Returning from the grave, so to speak.

I watch the birds a few at a time flying in and out and I wonder what they are saying as I hear them chattering.

When Luther's mom passed away, after the funeral, I was lying next to him in a state of  total exhaustion trying to think of something to say that would bring him some comfort. All of a sudden I noticed that big tree across from me.  There sat 2 huge Eagles sitting there seemingly peering into our bedroom window. It was as tho' his mom was saying to him that she was once again with his father and they were happily together again. Eagles never come and roost in the city!!  This was a miracle as far as we are concerned.  They sat there for  at least  an hour and were such a comfort and yet a mysterious 'happening' for us.

This morning  we were watching one of our favorite ministers on T.V. and frankly, I was getting very little from it as it was way way over my level of understanding. Then I looked out at my favorite tree.  Just at that moment 1000's of birds flew out of it and right over our bedroom. It was such an awesome site....looked like a bit of vortex.  How one bird knew what the other bird was going to do is just so wonderful to ponder! We ooh-ed and aah-ed and got all excited watching the goings on then it died down........... only to start all over again!  How did that one tree hold all those 1000's of birds?  The sky was black with birds.

 For sure, one of the most breath taking things I have ever experienced!