Blessings in my life today

A fantastic job offer for a wonderful college graduate

Sunshine on my face

Warm air to breathe

Small town library ~ they call when they get a book in you might like

Long telephone conversations where you laugh more than talk

A sermon that hits you hard while opening your heart

Finished projects that have gone on far too long

A list that has more things crossed off than remaining to be done

Fly Eyes

Insects have compound eyes. Instead of one lens they see through two
spheres with many lenses. But apart from that they also often have extra single
lens eye on the front of the head. Each lens of the compound eye catches it's
own image. The final image an insect sees is like a mosaic. The more
lenses the compound eye bears the higher the resolution of the image. The
two large spherical eyes of a fly give an almost complete 360 degree vision.

While having breakfast in a quaint little coast town last spring, we noticed a ziplock baggie full of water hanging above the open door. Strange....Interesting....Off the Wall. There was also a sign posted next to it on the door frame. We looked at it, stared at it then I could take it no more...had to get up and see what it was all about.

Seems when a fly sees the bag of water his eyes mulitply the bags and gives the flies the impression that there is a wall of water in front of them and they will not cross it. So...this resturant hung a bag of water above the door. We did not see any flies in the place so figured there must be something to this. When we got home I filled a quart ziplock bag with water and tacked it above the sliding door.

Our grandkids are in and out the patio door, the adults are in and out the patio door, the cat is in and out the patio door. All last summer our patio door was open. We had exactly 2 flies enter out house all summer long.

Last wknd I filled another quart ziplock baggie and found a large pushpin and hung up our "fly screendoor". If you try this, let me know if it works as good at your house as it does at ours. I love these natural, no chemical solutions to pesky issues.

Truly Random Thoughts

My brain is full...bursting at the seams with several issues bouncing here and there and there and here. While at work I think of something I need to write about, then I get home and there are 10 things that have to be done ASAP and 20 things that have to be done by bed time and 30 things that don't get done no matter what. Three days a wk I am with my mom, which means a one hr drive on top of time with momma...not complaining just trying to tell myself that there really is not enough time to do all that needs to be done so I might as well realize it, accept it, and move on.

Saturday was a girls day out. We left home at 8:00 a.m., arrived back in town just as the clock struck midnight. LONG LONG day. Angela, Katie and I went to Eugene armed with shopping lists! This that and something else to pick up in the valley, things we could NEVER find here on the coast. A friend from Portland meet us for lunch to hand over 29 quilts that will be going with us to Mexico. We shopped until we dropped and then shopped some more. The one thing I learned while on this trip...I am NOT ready to be on my feet day after day while on vacation. UGH UGH UGH...my feet really hurt and I was thrilled to get in the van and give my feet a 2.5 hr rest on the way home. This girls day out was way long over due, gotta remember to get another one in soon after vacation, or maybe have part of a girls day while we are on vacation, the guys will undoubtly want to do some wild and crazy ride and maybe we can run off and find Snow White or Cinderella while the guys are busy elsewhere.

Sunday was beautiful and warm. Ed did an awesome job BBQing chicken. The kids are excited about vacation so they yabbered nonstop. My dear pal Diana joined us, it has been so long since she has been over. When we went to bed I told Ed that there was not one second of the weekend that I would have changed, a wonderful Mother's Day wknd.

I saw my mom on Sunday evening...she was in a fairly good mood, which I did not expect since she had spent the day alone. She knew we would not be visiting her until the evening so we could watch the final Survivor show but I was a bit leary about our reception none the less. I saw here again today, again she was in a fairly good mood...2 visits in a row...wow...how nice! Today I messaged her hands and up to just above her elbows. She always oohs and aahs, especially when I message the palms of her hands. Afterwards she got a fresh coat of purple nail polish.

BLESSINGS

good things going on in our sons life

beautifully colored Koi who are no longer staying at the bottom of the pond

homemade strawberry lemonade deemed "better than Red Robin's"

vacation anticipation

John McPherson...come out come out where every you are

I read several comics each day at work, one of my favorites is Close to Home ...they crack me up and some days they are so very dead-on that I have to wonder if John McPherson is regularly peeking in on my life....as was the case with this cartoon....it was yesterday's cartoon.... I printed it off and was going to send it to our son who has a great sense of humor and loves his declawed kitty... When I got home from work I was delighted to see that our youngest son had sent us an email, and was thrilled to see there were attachments ....photos...I love photos...here are the photos he sent...

We interupt this pleasant evening to bring you....

I just finished a rant....a big rant....but before posting it I read it again...I feel much better just having wrote it all out...got it all off my chest...now it is not the rant it was...just I am still frustrated by events that took place, but it really isn't worth posting about...

Good night blog land...sleep well

Happy May Day

When our oldest son, Roy, went off to kindergarten back in 1984, May Day was still celebrated in a big way. The kids made little baskets out of construction paper and glue, complete with a handle. His teacher and a couple of the room mothers brought in cut flowers which the kids then put in their precious little baskets. They were then instructed to hang them on the door knob of a neighbor, a grandmother, a friend...His teacher must have suggested "an older lady"....Then "run and hide where you can see their surprise when they open the door."

My kids did not grow up in the same town as their grandparents and infact the closest family member we had was a 5 hr drive away, a little difficult to do an after school drive-by-flower-drop. We adopted grandparents, aunties and uncles, cousins...we created our own family here in our little town. So, when Roy came home that first May Day of his school career, we totally expected him to want to take his newly made, and very treasured, May Basket to a sweet woman who doted on Roy as if he alone was the reason for the sun rising and setting each day. But Roy decided that "Grandma Lorraine" was not an (and I quote his little man reasoning and can still his his sweet little voice) "Grandma Lorraine isn't an old lady yet". I was informed by that same sweet little voice that our neighbor would be the receiver of his precious basket (I will not reveal his reasoning)...and off he went with his little brother in tow. The two of them walked down our steps, over to the neighbors house...up her steps...hung the basket on the door...rang the doorbell...then leaped off the porch and ran home as fast as their little legs would carry them. I can still hear him encouraging his little brother "Come on Ryan, run fast!!" and all the giggling that went along with it. I was waiting on our porch with open arms for my two little guys with giving hearts as big as the world.

Together the 3 of us waited to hear the neighbors door open...and bless her heart, she wondered out loud (talking loudly just so the boys could hear) "Oh my, Russell, someone has left a beautiful May Basket on our door, I wonder who that might be." Roy was mortified...after all the gift and the giver must never be linked. Of course he did not confess....and Ryan did not spill the beans...both denying they had been anywhere but on the porch with me. Little did those two rosey cheeked little men know that the sparkle in their eyes, and Ryan's wheezing, had totally given them both away....and although it was not spoken, they were caught red handed.

The next year the story was pretty much the same...and the following year and so on and so forth...all the way through our boys' school years...yes all the way through our youngest sons' senior year in High School. After a few years those carefully hand crafted construction paper baskets were replaced by store bought pots in which the boys planted flowers in, and a few years later, when the boys were employed mowing lawns and doing other various for-pay tasks....they would split the cost of buying a beautiful hanging basket for our neighbor.

In 2000 our youngest son granduated from High School and moved to Seattle where his brother had moved a couple of years before of him. May Day 2001 rolled around and we got a call, "Mom, it's May Day, can you order Frances flowers? She needs to know we are thinking of her." I cried then...I am teary eyed now...thinking about that phone call.

No one rings the door and runs anymore...no one stands behind the hedge and giggles when the door is opened...no one stands on the porch exclaiming "Russell, someone left some beautiful flowers out here."

Russell passed away many years ago, Frances uses a walked to get to the front door. One son lives in San Diego, the other is a fisherman out in the Berring Sea. I am happy to say, none of that changes the fact that each May Day Frances is still greeted with flowers from 2 little guys (in their mid 20's) who want to bless a "older neighbor lady."

Roy and Ryan....you are both so precious to me. A couple of Sunday's ago the sermon text was Matthew 25:31-40. You both live that in so many ways....Thank you for being who you are, for knowing what you know, and for doing what you do. You both make my heart sing.