Very Interesting Picture:

The picture below is one that was posted on the Northwest Cable News Facebook page of the Oso, Washington mudslide.  It was taken a day or so after the tragic even happened in late March.  Rescuers are still working on finding the bodies of people, and my heart goes out to those who live in the area of the disaster and who have lost so many and so much.

When I saw this photo, I wondered what the green spot was in the middle, halfway down.  So, I enlarged the image and was amazed at what I saw.  This is as big as I could get it, and it really stirred my imagination.  What do you guys see in these pictures?

I'll be continuing to post about our trip soon.  The post below is about pretty cactus flowers in Arizona.

Hugs,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Desert Flowerbed:

Hello, Friends!

It has been so long since I have been on my blog.  I am going to try and revive it and work it back into my schedule if I can.  I am a morning person and begin work teaching pre-school at 7:00 each day, and by the time evening hits I'm not much motivated for blogging, or even for making dinner.

I have been at my job for a year now, and it was time for a much needed vacation.  While on my little break, I had time to think and there was a lot of peace and quiet with no responsibility.  I didn't even need to worry about letting the dogs in and out.  I didn't think about work, and I realized how much I have missed my old life, where I had time and energy for writing, blogging and travel.  I had tons of story ideas that were flowing by the end of the week, so I know that though they might be buried, they are not gone.

This past week, we went to Laughlin, Nevada for a vacation/visit with my Dad and step-mom.  We had a great time, and it was fun to take some photos.  The ones below are of the flower garden at the RV park where Dad and Jill live.  We had a nice time meeting their friends and neighbors at the monthly potluck in the community room.

My sister-in-law, Maria, pictured above, was a great traveling companion, as were Cary and my bro.  

Here are some different flowering cactus located next to the pool at the RV park.  It was really warm outside the whole week, mostly in the high 90's.  I didn't mind that warmth one bit!

I'll be posting more pictures of the trip soon.  If I can spread out the posts,  maybe I can get back into the blogging groove.  

I've missed you guys, and will begin my visits with those who leave comments.

Hugs,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Lots of Snow This Weekend:

Cary works hard to clean up the snow.  He had to plow a foot on Friday and another foot on Saturday:

Hope that you guys are all doing well, and that the weather isn't bringing you down.  It is warming up here and will probably begin melting soon.

Hugs,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Busy, Busy, Busy! Boon Richter, and Crescent Lake in January 2014:

It has been a very busy past 30 days around this joint.  Besides the usual hectic time of Christmas, I changed classes and classrooms at work.  

Christmas was fun, despite the fact that I didn't buy any gifts until three days before we went to Eugene to spend it with my side of the family.  I went to Bi-Mart and knocked it all out within an hour.  Everybody seemed very pleased with their gifts, and I was very pleased with Bi-Mart's selection and prices.  I didn't even have to go into Bend.  I ordered a book for my son Nigel off of Amazon.com and that was it.  Easy-peasy!

I gave Kristin my shotgun and Kari my two dining room chairs that I had inherited from my great-uncle John.  (Kari had just gotten Grandma T.'s table and four chairs from our cousin Mike.) Now Grandma T. and Uncle John (brother and sister) are back together on a daily basis.  It makes my heart feel good.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day over at Cary's Mom's house and that was a lot of fun.  

On the Wednesday before Christmas, it was decided that instead of me teaching the 2's/3's class that I would be teaching the 3's/4's class.  The next morning, we began setting up my new room.  Here are a few of pictures of it:

There is more that you can't see here, and soon I'll do a photo-shoot with my real camera and do a post on it.  In addition to designing the room and figuring out my curriculum, I set up a Facebook page for our child development center and continue to work on our website.  

This weekend, I decided to take time for myself (hence these two blog posts) and to finally take down our Christmas tree.

Now, here is some real news!  Do you remember earlier videos that I have put on here about the young dancer Boon Richter?  (Boon is my sister's boyfriend's kiddo).  Well, he is in first place an online dance contest where if he wins he will be able to meet his idol.  In addition, Boon was featured on the local news last night "Music is moving you, rather than you moving to the music."  This morning, Boon made the front page of the Eugene Register Guard, "Please click here to read that article."

If you have the chance, please check out his video on You Tube and vote by giving him a thumbs up.

Well, that is a summary/excuse on why I haven't been on my blog or visiting yours.  I'm going to do my best to get caught up with that.

This post is already long and full of a lot of links, but please be sure to scroll down to the other post that I made this morning about my friends who are busy getting published.

I'll leave you with some pretty pictures that I took last weekend at Crescent Lake, in the Oregon Cascades.  Notice the lack of snow:

Hugs, my friends!!!  By the way, this is post number 2019, and I began blogging in November 2008.  Wow.

~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.