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Saturday, June 30, 2012

A Red, White and Blue Pink Saturday!

My previous post was sad, regarding the fires! I need an uplifting spirit today! Although these fires still rage, the kindnesses of people everywhere is amazing. Even Smokey the bear is sending care packages to kids who lost their homes in the devastating Waldo canyon fire near Colorado Springs. Google image here:


Today Colorado has a light heart! Missy Franklin, a recent graduate of Regis Jesuit HS  has earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic swim team! Go Missy! She is a beautiful, hard working dedicated young woman with a bright future ahead of her. Google image here:

Emma Coburn and team mate Shayla Kipp made the Olympic trials as well. They took 1st and 3rd place respectively in the steeplechase. They will head to London too. These ladies are CU Boulder runners!
Photo courtesy of the Denver Post News Agency.

I hope you stop by and visit Beverly who graciously hosts our Pink Saturday's each and every week.
To make sure you  know I love the pinkies, a google image share:

A blessed and beautiful Fourth of July to all of you! Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

"F" is for FIRE

My Alphabe Thursday post is sad today! Please stop by Ms. Jenny's and join this weekly meme! She is very dedicated to each one of us and everyone shares such wonderful posts. Many creative, funny, interesting,  and exciting posts showing off many different talents.

I am a Colorado native and I love my home state. We are currently surrounded by wildfires. The closest one the Flagstaff fire is burning 20 minutes away from us in Boulder. It is so frightening. We know many people who live near many of these fires and the devastation and destruction is unbelievably sad.


Take the Flying W Ranch. It wasn't just a tourist attraction. It was part of the history in the Pikes Peak region. It was a dude ranch and the entertainment and cowboy suppers were awesome. As a young child I always told my dad I wanted to go there. He would chuckle and ask me what I thought I would do there! I always had high aspirations to model after one of my favorite childhood heroines Annie Oakley! I figured we shared a first name and she was ultra cool with her fancy gun slinging and her most famous trick was being able to repeatedly split a playing card, edge on,  and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, using a 22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet!


So my fascination with cowboys and gals always lead me to fantasize about being a cowgirl like her! The Flying W Ranch burnt to the ground in the midst of the Waldo Canyon Fire. It was a very sad day for me when I heard it!


Fires raging all around us. The Waldo Canyon fire gained national attention because of its close proximity to Pikes Peak and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Our commander in chief will travel there on Friday to survey the damage.


The High Park fire is the second largest fire in Colorado history. As of Monday it has consumed 83.205 acres and destroyed 248 homes. My friend who lives in Loveland said it is eerie to go to your car in the morning and see it covered with black ash. She said she feels like we are living during the end of the world! This fire burns approximately fifty miles from my home.


The Waldo Canyon fire  is burning out of control. Currently it has destroyed 3,600 acres. It is very close to many wonderful Colorado tourist attractions. My favorite city of Manitou Springs was evacuated but many of those folks were able to return home. It is a quaint little town with many wonderful shoppes and lots of nearby tourist attractions like Santa's Workshop at the base of Pikes Peak and the Garden of the God's.Manitou Springs refuses to become a "gambling mecca" and the townspeople have stood their ground. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than towns giving up their charm for gambling! Ugh! On a side note I am pretty sure Native American Indians such as Chief Ouray of the Ute Tribe, Little BigHorn and Sitting Bull would certainly be saddened to see what today's culture has turned to. The F.B.I.is currently involved in this fire as there is suspicion that it was caused due to criminal activity! This area is home to NORAD, Peterson A  F Base, The Air Force Academy and Fort Carson and many tourist attractions as I previously mentioned.

 This Garden of the Gods photo was taken a few months ago. My niece Karla shot this photo.




The Little Sand fire is burning  in the San Juan National Forest. This one has been burning for more than one month and consumed 21,616 acres and is 31% contained. It is 13 miles northwest of Pagosa Springs and it is believed to have been started by lightening in the San Juan National Forest.


The Treasure fire has been burning since this past Saturday. It is near Leadville, Colorado  which is situated at 10,152 feet above sea level. It is way higher than where I live, in the Denver metro area which is merely only a mile high! This fire is ten percent contained and is believed to have been human caused .


The Springer fire is one hundred percent contained. It burned near Lake George and destroyed 1145 acres. No structures were burned and only two minor human injuries reported.


The CR102 fire was considered one hundred percent contained but currently it is only seventy five percent contained. It has burned 300 acres and firefighters have difficulty fighting this fire due to rugged terrain.


The State Line fire is burning near the Colorado and New Mexico border near Durango, Colorado. Durango is home to Fort Lewis College and is a lovely and very charming town surrounded by the beauty of majestic moutain ranges. This fire burns 350 acres and is fifteen percent contained.


The Weber fire near Mancos in the Four Corners region at the base of Mesa Verde National Park. It is rapidly tripling in size and 100 homes and a campground have been evacuated.


The Woodland Heights fire is currently one hundred percent contained. This is in Estes Park and it has destroyed 22 homes and two out buildings.


The Trout Creek fire was burning in the Pike National Forest. 155 pre evacuation notices were sent out on Sunday but reports claim it is not 100 percent contained.

This fabulous photo is a 1940 photo of the Trout Creek Pass Highway near Buena Vista, Colorado. The Trout Creek fire is about 159 miles from Pagosa Springs where the fire burned. I could not bear to post one more image of the fires but with friends so near the devastation here are a few others:

The fire from Mary's kitchen window, Colorado Springs, Colorado as they are packing to evacuate!

Some sad horses being evacuated at the Waldo Canyon fire. At the High Park fire fire fighters found an elk freaking out! They had to blindfold and sedate him and move him out of the fire zone. The sadness they see with many other wildlife is so heartbreaking. They saw bears literally running for their lives!

A view from Palmer Park while hiking. My friend Bridget that I have known since 1969 lives in Colorado Springs. She shot this photo on a hike Spring 2012 This is the Colorado I love to know!

All photos are google images unless otherwise stated!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Happy Pink Saturday!

Welcome to Pink Saturday! I received some good news today regarding my knee so now I can continue to dream and plan and grow a rose garden in my yard! I finally saw my Ortho doc. In the interim my primary care office gave me a Cortisone shot and it has made my knee feel better. Dr. Z, my Ortho specialist does not feel there is a tear or any serious damage other than osteo arthritis. So he wants me to contact him the moment my knee acts up and he can order the lubricating shot next time! I feel very confident in trusting him and I feel so good that I am going to try a nice slow walk tomorrow. I am also planning to get a bicycle t ride and will add some water therapy to my routine! I need to keep moving. I am not one to sit and vegetate! So my dream of planning a rose garden will finally come true. It may take me years to beautify our yard, front and back but I am so happy that I received the good knee news! Thanks for your prayers and  good thoughts here.

Now I am going to share some favorite roses with you (google images) and show you my own photos of a rose bush that was here when we moved it. Unfortunately the heat wilted the pretty blooms but it happened when I was nursing this knee so I am going to give it some TLC so it comes back stronger next year.

At my old house there was a climbing rose bush and I just trimmed it  and pruned it back each year and it bloomed like mad! I think it was a very hardy variety! Any advice anyone would like to offer me would be greatly appreciated regarding growing beautiful roses.

Please stop by Beverly's and thank her for sharing Pink Saturday with us each week. She does a tremendous job keeping everyone informed and shares her special pinks with us too.
My first photo is a collage of roses that I found along with these photos on the google image site.
The second photo is the rose named April in Paris. The third photo is a Peace rose. The fourth photo is the John F. Kennedy rose and the rest of the photos are mine. It is my rose bush growing on the side of our driveway.
I hope you enjoy these beauties and come visit often. I wish you love and a beautiful weekend. Our middle Rebekah is taking her teaching certification test tomorrow. She is very nervous and she would appreciate our prayers.Thank you.
"The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart." Unknown

"You can complain because a rose has thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns has roses." Unknown

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Enjoying My Summer Reading

I am enjoying my summer reading! Do you remember being a kid and having to do summer reading? It seemed so unfair that your school could force you to read all these classic books and interfere with your personal time! Ugh! I went to Catholic school and they actually force you to learn how to read!


I am very grateful that they did! I L O V E to read and I am enjoying my stack of summer books! I need to get into my overstuffed garage and pull out the classics. We have them all. I have War and Peace in case you need to reread that one! As a kid I had a hard time appreciating the reading. I loved to write and I wrote poetry and short stories. But I was never interested in reading until I started to study my bible and then I got into reading full time! I read every single thing I can get my hands on. I have a list of favorite authors but I also devour at least 6 magazines a week! I had a whole bunch of useless airline miles and they gave me year long subscriptions to a whole array of magazines.


I always read to all my kids. They are all good readers too. My hubby is into current events, politics and the bible. He is constantly reading something too!




I bought a Debbie Macomber book and I read it in 3 days! It was 365 pages long! I am ready to tackle the next one! Each individual book in this series has a story that carries into the next book. I already feel like I know the characters in this book! I eagerly await the next book!


I wish I had eagle eyes and could read even more! One of my personal favorites is "The Good  Earth" by Pearl B. Buck. I also love "To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I have owned at least half a dozen copies of that particular book and two of my daughters share my passion for it. Beryl, a bloggy friend from Alabama lives in the town where Harper Lee resides and sent me several postcards depicting the towns courthouse and other local favorites relating to the book! I really cherish those postcards!


I adore Nicholas Sparks and John Grisham. I am also a big fan of Jan Karon. Books will educate you, they will bring fantasy and travel to life right before your very eyes. They can send you on a journey or simply relax you after a hard day. You can indulge in poetry and even silliness! Have you ever read Dr. Seuss? He was one talented fellow. His books still bring a smile to my kids faces! I still read through my son Nick's collection of "Arthur" books. He is a PBS T.V. favorite character. The beloved aardvark and his family and friends are always learning new lessons about life.
Do you like wine? How about cooking? There are many enjoyable reads about these topics!
Reading is effortless. You can get books from the library. I belong to a Book of the Month Club 2,  go here to get great hardback books for $9.95 a month, including shipping! Buy them at the thrift stores.  But have an enjoyable summer and read like like me!
You can be very efficient and hop over to Ms. Jenny's to share  all your enjoyable reading materials with her too! Enjoy your summer and have a beautiful evening!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

BLUE MONDAY!

I hope you will not tire of my blues here!
Hannah and Jayden! He is wearing a blue shirt. He is getting so big!
Happy Father's Day to our guys! Roger, Andrew, Jayden and Avery. Lots of blue jeans and some blue in their shirts.
We had a perfect Father's Day. It was a Phamily Affair!

Come over to Sally's and join all the blue crew participates today!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY: IT'S PINK SATURDAY

My dad played semi pro baseball, long before I was born. I suppose that is why I love the game so much! I also love this photo of him decked out in his baseball uniform. He was the catcher. He is in the second photo wearing his favorite shirt. This was shortly before his first heart attack that changed his life so completely. He has been gone for 27 years and I still miss him very much. He was kind and humble, caring, faithful, unwavering in his faith. He was the best dad a girl could ever have and the most wonderful role model of a father. His love of the Book of James prompts me to share a verse he quoted often:
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:13-17


He always said "God willing, we will do this or that". I say it too! I miss you dad. You were the best earthly father anyone could have had.


Hunky hubby then and now:
With the phamily. We have had many wonderful years, lots of trials, tribulation and yet we still manage to smile. My Sweets is a good solid man. He is kind and loving and very hard working. He taught me to love the bible and read it for myself. I hope we spend many years togehter now that we are growing older.


Here is the Scripture verse that reminds me of him:

32  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven [a]you. Ephesians 4:32

I betcha thought I was not going to post pink! Ha! Rebekah had her birthday on the 13th and we are celebrating today. Here is her birthday cake courtesy of www.Childspatryshop.com/ Sigh
 Now please wish all the pinkies a beautiful pink weekend and stop by and thank Beverly for hosting each week. I wish all the dads out there a glorious day. 

"Father! To God Himself we cannot give a holier name!" William Wordsworth 

We have had a good Father's Day! As we were heading to a nice leisure breakfast, Nick called, he needed a ride from so far away! By the time we picked him up and got through the horrible traffic  it was lunch time! So the three of us has a wonderful lunch at Griff's. It is a burger joint near downtown and their old fashioned double cheeseburgers are the very best! Add some crispy french fries and hand made onion rings with a cold and icy Coca Cola and you have a filling lunch! I know it is not diet food but sometime you just gotta live a little!
Here is Griff's in downtown Denver. Here is Griffy:

 He is their logo or mascot if you will!


Eating that lunch made me feel like I won the lotto! It is the little things in life that makes us happiest. I hope you stop by and visit Marydon I wish you would all come over and join Love is...with us.