Miracles Do Happen...

Today I watched a heartwarming video about a woman in Tuscaloosa, Alabama who lost her home in a tornado on April 27, 2011.  She and her three cats were running into the hallway when the roof of her house blew off.  When the roof detached, the walls fell upon Miss Judy and pinned her beneath it with two of her cats. 

Her cat, Cadie, who she had for ten years was missing.  Cadie is a long haired, white cat with one blue eye and one green eye.  The cat had been missing for over three weeks.  While being interviewed by a reporter in front of what is left of her house, Cadie, the missing cat, walked up to her on camera...

Talk about getting a lump in my throat...what a touching story...see for yourself... click on link below:

Miracles do happen...

Don't Fence Me In...

Photograph from Pat from A View from the Edge

I want to jump the fence

and run free in a full on gallop!

Racing against the wind

into wide open spaces;

kicking, bucking, spinning,
screaming my will,

until my legs won't carry me...

Panting joyfully from spent energy

caressing the freedom enveloping me...

Sun on my back,
nostrils flared, pawing the earth,
excited from the experience...
knowing
I followed my heart.
This is my vow-

bent up restraint

will not fence me in...

~dkb~

Magpie #66: Temptation In The Library...

Photography byTess Kincaid

Writing Challenge, Hostessed by Magpie Tales

he stared at his potential porthole

of leather bound editions...

gathering his wits

he wondered if anyone

could hear the pounding of his heart...

despite the thunder

in his ears

he swallowed twice

hearing the hushed whispers

and muffled, seductive, giggles

from the isle

on the other side of him...

was he prepared to see for himself?

red handed proof,

the rumors were true?

his hand trembled

as he reached for

a handful of books....

~dkb~

Six Word Saturday...

Join us: Six word Saturday

Limpin' from blister on my foot.

Mappie #65: Prayer of Protection...

Photography by Tess Kincaid

Writing/Poetry challenge Hostess Magpie Tales

a mother's quest

to teach her children,

like baby birds, to fly high and strong

once they leave the nest...

we do our best

as mothers

to teach, to share, to caution...

some lessons

must be learned

by living one's life...

 there are times

when due to experience

and living longer,

a parent can only hope

their children will heed

their advice...

St. Francis,

the rest of the Saints,

 dear Lord above,

all the positive and protective energy...

PLEASE

PROTECT

OUR CHILDREN

and GRAND CHILDREN

amen

~dkb~

Magpie #64: A Dream Fulfilled...

Photograph by Tess Kincaid at Willow Manor

Challenge hosted by Magpie Tales

She wanted a child

and she yearned to live

in the lush tropics

She sold everything

and worked as a cook

on a one way sail.

She was a plain looking

woman, with a strong back

and determined nature.

She secured work

as a food server

and part time cook

She loved the smell of

the earth, planting in

abundance

she grew her own food

and flowers for the table

She found an abandoned shack

close to Haleakala

The owner compensated her

for fixing up the place

and sharing her fresh vegetables and fruit.
Not long, he began
to notice more than
how hard she worked.
He had ancestors of royal Mauian blood
and he too longed for children...
His admiration would only allow
him to ask for her hand
and lucky for him,
she accepted.
She and the earth
had much in common
She gave birth in the spring
to fine, strong son.
The couple went on to share
several more children
and she loved her family
and her home above the volcano...

~dkb~

How To Squeeze Every Possible Nano Second Into A Creative Weekend...

While walking Izzy on Monday, after the girls left for California, Izzy charged a dog, pulling unexpectedly on the leash, which was wrapped around my left middle finger and thumb.  When she lunged, it bent my finger back, strangling my finger and spun me around.  My left middle finger is swollen and bruised, better today than yesterday, but still sore...so I will not be typing a lot on this post...but wanted to share some photos from the weekend...

Above is our itinerary for the weekend. My sister Holly and girlfriend Bonnie arrived around 10:30am.  We chatted and ate our lunch, waiting for Barbs to get home from work.  When Barbs called on her way home, I made her some lunch and we packed up to go to her house.

From left to right, Holly, Bonnie and Barbs.  We gathered at Barb's dining room table and began to work on our tile photos.  Basically, we took photographs printed professionally by photo processing and Hodge Podge them to tiles in varying sizes.  I misunderstood and brought photos I printed off my computer, so the colors faded. 

From left to right, Holly, me and Barbs.  Below are pics of what they did...

These are Bonnie's picture tiles drying in a CD holder...

This is Barb's 12 x 12 tile project....in progress....

Sorry, TOP SECRET, can't show you Holly's.....yet...

Since I had stayed up all night watching the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate, I passed out, exhausted.  Of course my friends took the opportunity to take pictures of me and laugh at my snoring... They continued on without me and made some other crafts....

A wine bottle lamp, filled with a white super bright mini light set, with a small lampshade resting on the lip of the wine bottle...

Another lamp...

And another creative masterpiece by Barbs...

Paper flowers to be glued to flip flops for Bonnie and Barbs' grand daughters...

Saturday morning, Holly and I set off for the community yard sale up at our community center.  My sister found an awesome decorative drawered table, an antique frame

I got a footstool for $15, a Microfleur kit (brand new) for $2, a light weight, rose bathrobe for $2, a black Vera Bradley purse for $1, a thick "candy striped" apron for $1 (to use when I bathe Izzy), and my best deal, a sterling silver six piece set of baby silverware for $1.

$15 rosy beige, hinged storage foot stool

$2 Microfleur flower drying kit

$1 striped heavy apron

$1 black, quilted, designer lined, Vera Bradley purse

$2 light weight, rose patterned bathrobe...

$1 sterling silver six piece baby's silverware...

Then we hit a few thrift stores.  We were searching for small easels to display the tile photos...like these...

We all loved this sign...

We we out longer than we planned.  We told Barbs and Bonnie to eat breakfast.  They wanted to go to Hobby Lobby for more supplies, so we told them to go ahead and we would meet them there.  Afterwards, we all went to Mimi's for lunch.

When we arrived back at Barb's house...our trunk looked like this from our shopping expedition...

We left our laptops each night so we don't have to lug them back and forth.  The red and white polka dot bag holds our sweat pants and slippers, for later on...the rest are our "found treasures".

This is the drawered table (upside down) in my back seat...with the antique frame leaning against it.

Our project for Saturday night was to make Bakerella's cake pops.  Click on the link to view her video:  ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpIifr0VOxY

There was a beautiful sunset Saturday night...

Laughing and joking around rolling our cake balls....

It takes tremendous concentration to laugh and roll at the same time...

Admire our work...

Here is our melted pink chocolate peculating upon the stove...

We dip a stick into the hot pink chocolate and stick it into the cake ball to glue the stick to the cake ball...

We did plenty of "quality control"...to ensure tastiness...

Improvised when the balls fell apart... as you can see, the dipping part was pretty tricky..making sure the excess is "gently tapped" back into the heating pan. 

Holly researched the dipping technique...

Into the sprinkles...and then into the bucket to harden...

Wrap all up...

Into the buckets to look pretty...

Celebrated with fruit and champagne...

While the dogs slept...

It was late, so Holly and I left and drove back to my house.  I had wanted her to help me hang a quote above our dining room slider, leading into the back patio...  I was tired, but my wonderful sister insisted we do it, despite the late hour... What do you think?  She printed out three vinyl red hearts for accent...but I have not put them up yet...

I think we hit the sack at 2am....

Sunday morning, we were up, dressed and arrived at Barb's house around 9am.  Barbs and Bonnie were still in their pajamas.  Immediately, Barbs went to my sister and hugged her...telling her she was sorry and she would pay to have it fixed.  My sister and I kind of looked perplexed, not quite sure if it was one of her normal pranks...

Turns out this time she was serious.  Her dog got tangled in the computer cords and pulled Holly's laptop off the kitchen table, onto the area rug and then onto the tile floor... They had been working on it since they got up.  Impressively, my sister was calm and immediately began to trouble shoot with Bonnie to see if they could get it to boot up...

Holly pressed and poked and between her logical approach to resolve and Bonnie's instructions via the Internet, they were able to boot it up and get it working.  Talk about celebrating with tears of joy and relief!

We were happy!

We had planned a trip to the Apple store, as all of us have Apple laptops except my sister who has a Dell.  I needed to upgrade my operating system to Snow Leopard, and all of us wanted to update iWorks and iLife.  We also wanted to stop by Michaels for iTunes cards, more supplies and a stop at Borders...

My sister decided to stay behind as she wanted to do a project in one of our craft magazines, do some updating on her laptop and to make some stick on's for the tile photos with the Cricut.

When we returned, a few hours later, we walked in ready to cook dinner, when Holly announced her computer crashed right after we left.  We tried looking on line again for other options, but she assured us, she had been trying and it would not boot up.  All she had was a blue screen...  Our computers are such a part of our lives, it really put a damper on our spirits.  She was a trooper, watching her Sunday shows while we loaded up our family pack of upgrades...

Right in the midst of her show, we got the news on the death of Osama bin Laden!  We all stood and cheered....then back to work, listening with one ear... It was after midnight by the time we finished.

When Holly and I drove home, I could tell she was bummed.  We stayed up talking about solutions.  I offered her my mac book to borrow, but she decided to ask Mom if she could borrow her Dell laptop.  We determined it would be best to call Dell in the morning, rather than some regular computer repair.

We went to sleep with a plan of attack in the morning...

The first thing we did Monday morning, was call Dell.  We were shocked to find out the minimum would be only $159 if it was the memory or circuit board and $358 if it was the motherboard!  We all were thinking she would need a new computer.  Dell will ship her a UPS box with label and she returns it to them.  They will communicate with her via email on the progress and she should have her repaired laptop and power cord back in 7-10 days.  AWESOME!

Mom confirmed she would loan Holly her laptop.  It was a huge relief for both of us, and especially to Barbs, whose dog got tangled in the power cord and pulled it off the table.  When we all met for breakfast, Barbs handed Holly a check and we all celebrated it would not be as much money as we all thought.

Other than the computer mishap, it was a great weekend...

Tomorrow I leave for California for five days.  My husband is staying home and having two of his friends visit.  They will be ON THE GO the entire time, so poor Izzy will have to go to boarding camp...

Thursday and Friday I will stay with my oldest daughter Holly and my grandsons, the 8 year old and the 6 year old.  My younger daughter Jodee will come up one of those days with little Jacob so we can have our Mother's Day celebration.

Saturday, the 6 year old has a baseball game and then I will drive to Mom's house.  Most likely, my sister, Mom and I will get together for dinner and a show.  Sunday, we all will meet at my second the oldest brother's for a BBQ and celebrate Mother's Day there.  It will be good to see the family.  Monday, Mom and I will attend Dad's Care Conference and probably go out to lunch.  I return home on Tuesday....

My step daughter and a girlfriend arrive the following Saturday for one night...so our guest bed sheets will have been changed four times this past month!

Best be finishing my packing...talk with you all soon....