In Memory of Pop Dixon

These pictures are posted in memory of Clarence Dixon, the Dad of my lifelong best girlfriend Janice. He passed from this world today and will be missed by many. I was so thankful that he was able to stay here long enough to see his three girls Janice, Ruth Ann and Laurie one last time. His soul flew away to join our Father in Heaven just 20 minutes after Janice and Ruthie arrived at his bedside. Blest be to God!

The roses were taken at sunset from my garden. At sunset, we can often see the most beautiful and colorful sky. Sunrise and sunset, the beginning and ending of each day are so touching to us. I think this is because like the beginning and end of life we are so close to touching God.

I love hummingbirds and love trying to capture their beauty on film. They come and go so fast. They seem to really enjoy zipping around their universe. Just look at those faces! They seem magical as they hover quietly in place or do aeronautical acrobatics while flying so fast that the human eye cannot follow their antics. Their colors change as they turn in and out of the sunshine. The sunshine turns a gray or brown into a brillant shimmering red.

Someone's always blinking

You know how hard it is to get a group shot and not have anyone blinking? Well I took about 6 or 7 group pictures and someone is blinking in each and every one! Everyone teased me about how long it takes me to take a picture. However, I wasn't the one blinking! I guess that tells us something about the futility of striving for perfection in anything. We had a small group for Christmas this year, which meant that we could throw some steaks on the barbie. We had a great time, laughing and telling stories about embarrassing moments. We talked to the extended family on the phone and enjoyed sharing the Christmas cheer long distance with Star in Salt Lake City, Julian and Camille as they were riding the bus into New York City, Mom and the extended Romey family in Askansas, Diane and Bill in California and Kirsten & Rob, Amy, Rowan and Dilly in Puerto Rico.

CC in Hiding

This is CC which stands for Crazy Cat, Carol's Cat, Cool Cat, Capricious Cat, Charming Cat, Chewing Cat, Coordinated Cat, Cocky Cat, Curious Cat and Cautious Cat. She came to us before Merlin, so even though she is much smaller consideres herself Numero Uno in our household. In this picture she is Cautious Cat in hiding when company are here.

What's for dinner?

What's for Dinner?

This is Merlin. He is about 19 pounds, one big dude!

His nick-names include: Merlin the Large, the Gentle Giant, Merlin the Magnificant. He thinks he is a person, greets all friends and strangers at the door, takes a shower each day, and follows me around like a dog.

These photos were taken when Julian and I were in Zion for one night on the way home from skiing a few years ago. We were surpised by a storm. We were amazed by the beauty around us shining through the snow storm. The first photo always reminds me of a hymn we would sing at Neighborhood Church each and every Thanksgiving. I often sing it in the shower because it makes me so happy. "The valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. Praise the Lord Oh Jerusalem. Praise thy God, Oh Zion. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord. Praise thy God Oh, Zion." The rest of them remind me of a SW winter wonderland with red and yellow mountains under a layer of white. I tried to learn how to use the slide show option to show you all these pictures, but couldn't quite get that up and going. Actually I haven't the foggest idea how I would get my pictures on such things called Picasa, Flickr or Photobucket.

This is one of my many Christmas presents in progress. I am making all our presents this year, so the house has piles everywhere. Making Christmas presents does get you in the spirit, but of course I should have started in July but didn't. Julian is afraid to move anything for fear he will mess up my messes. I have even been baking for Phoenix friends, imagine that! I'm sorta brain-dead because I spend every spare moment making all these creations. I hope you all enjoy my efforts.

This is Faye, Javier, Alli, Jeremy, Nathan, Niko and Maceo in front of the just decorated tree. A picture tells a thousand words, cute family if I do say so myself. We started out the evening with a call from Maceo on my cell phone. " Where are you, how close are you?" He talked to us until he waved us into the driveway. I am so glad cause we probably would have gotten lost otherwise. Then I said, "I'm going to hang up and give you a hug." He turns tail and runs (he's eight, need I say more). I have given Faye decorations we had when she was little, so they all brought back memories. "Remember making these clothes pin raindeer with the girl scouts? Did I draw a palm tree and a camping tent on this one? Remember Mrs. Fitzgerald made the beaded Ocotillos." We decorated the tree, the boys wrestled, were roudy and tried to scare Alli with a bug. I managed to get them to pose under the tree.

We live in the desert community of Phoenix. We don't get much rain. Our average rainfall is 6-7" each year. Well this year we've gotten almost nothing (in our part of town at least). However, last weekend and yesterday we got a total of 4" of rain. I know for sure because I have a rain gauge in my back yard. The rain has been just delightful! Having been born and raised in Phoenix, we natives are much like this bird, when it does rain we want to get out and stomp around in it a little, get our feet wet and do a little rain dance.

Christmas lights

Tis the advent season. Time to decorate the eves with light. Well, we have a new roof line since we doubled the carport and so my carefully maintained lights from previous years didn't work. also one plug in the center of the many connected strings doesn't work anymore (even though I checked them before I put them up). So, various strings burned out and I pretty much had to start over. Well, my husband, Jules came home halfway through the 1st day of the project, gave me many helpful pointers and some I told you so's and some I would have told you so's and we decided that we needed to get 2 new icicle strings. Of course, the one's I bought weren't the same length as the bad ones and I had tried to connect icicle strings to regular strings. So... I had to completely start over adding more little hooks which I had to find by digging in my miscellanous hardware drawers in our storage room. We finally finished up the project about 6pm on Monday and our house looks like a fairy land! Our cars look like they are on a car lot because all the lights reflect in them and sparkle. I plugged them in today before I left for the gym at 5am and really enjoyed coming home to our sparkling house!

Enjoy the season, try not to stress out and put up a few lights

We live in an old citrus grove. The smell of the juice in the air as I pick the 1st Az Sweet oranges of the season reminds me of growing up surrounded by citrus groves. Sometimes smells are more memorable than actual events. When the citrus blossums burst into the air in the spring they turn the air outside into a perfumed boutique.

My First Blog

The wild parrots in my yard crack me up each day. They are curious, chatty and love my sunflowers!