I'm Late for Aw.....Monday and Blue Monday

Aw...Mondays you should stop by and visit Sandee and everyone there. These four wanted to wish you a good week. Their cuteness made me smile.

Hello Blue Monday, you know it is never too early to think about Springtime and fresh flowers. These happen to be blue. Stop over and share some blue.

I think someone else is doing the Love is...selfies weren't around when Kim Casseli penned these cuties in the 1960's and 1970's.

Oh Maxine.....always making us laugh and giving us a daily smile too.

Have a terrific week.

REST IN PEACE OFFICER GUMM

Deputy Officer Heath Gumm was killed simply doing his job last night. I write this today because when it is so close to your own home, schools are closed, because two suspects are still at large. It sends a cold chill. I am sad reading that officers are gunned down. I despise politicians who offer thoughts and prayers and ban God the rest of the week.

My phamily is filled with law enforcement officers. Our own son is in the process of wanting to join one of the hundreds of local police departments. I pray for all of them daily.

To all my friends and relatives who serve, thank you and know you are prayed for each day.

We mourn at the loss of loved ones. My heart is broken for the widow and children and Deputy Officer Gumm. On New Years Eve Day Deputy Officer Zackari Parrish lost his life trying to simply help someone suffering from mental illness. Four colleagues were also gunned down in a brief moment yet three are dealing with the injuries and the fourth was still rehabbing, having suffered the most critical injuries.

Here is a google image of the DARE cards that were popular when our kids were in middle school. Our youngest son participated in a Cops and Kids Basketball game for two years. He had a big collection of Police cards because here in Northglenn, officers would hand those out to kids walking to and from school or simply seeing them on the playgrounds,

My friend Lyn has a daughter Stacey who serves in blue. My cousin Sissy and her sweetheart Felix serve the blue along with my cousins Lee and Vince in Pueblo. My husbands cousin Tom was a Chicago PD for many years.  My childhood friend Jacque's nephew is also an officer.  My cousin Ray served in Northern California.  I think people should pray for officers and they should remember, they are serving you. The media gets caught up on incidents, perhaps pertaining  to officer and suspect, both out of control. You never hear about the officers who, in Englewood, Colorado, befriended a young boy dying from cancer. The officer paid for the boys funeral as his family could not afford to do so.

Officer Larry DePrimo, NYPD bought a homeless man shoes on a bitter cold winter night. These heroes are everywhere, you just have to look past the mainstream media.

The 9-11 Memorial NYC.

The Oklahoma City Chairs Memorial.

Please never forget those first responders who are on the scene of many tragedies.

Aw....Mondays and Other Assorted Fun

Leo said he would sit still for a moment if I promised him two treats!  He sure drives a hard bargain! But his waistline is slim and trim so he can eat an extra treat. I think about his life before us. He spent most of his days in a crate while his owner worked, The day we let him out of that kennel and hauled it to the shed he trotted alongside as if to say, I am free at last! Stop by Aw...Mondays and tell Sandee and everyone hello.

Harrison loves M I C K E Y ! I have lots of LuLaRoe leggings and long tunic tops that feature Disney. He loves when I wear anything Mickey. It makes his day!

A blue snow day complete with glassy mirrored pond. I thought I would share with Blue Monday. I've missed a few weeks. But here are my own photo captures;

Our backyard is covered in deep snow plus the temps are low and the sun is having a hard time coming up. Everything is white around us. Leo said, no thank you, and made a fast clip through thr yard and back into the back door.

A view out the front door and up the street where Noelle is cooking up a storm for the new week. My next door neighbors are Seattle transplanets. They stay inside on days like this. My other neighbor, a Pennsylvania native, is like, eh, whatever! He and his sister are use to the snow.

In our youth this was fun stuff, snow skiing was anyway!

The snow today is wet and heavy like concrete. We didn't get our newspaper and I wanted to dig around the driveway to see but Nope! No paper! So now I feel like Maxine. Look at those teeth chatter.

I love a world globe and I wouldn't mind having this teapot. So sweet. We are enjoying some hot tea while taking a break.

Something you can always do for free, be kind. Somedays it is hard to do when people rush about and cut you off in traffic and pretend they don't see you there. But kindness is a better solution to any trouble.

Days like this make me want to watch baseball. Spring will be here, one day, after a long cold winter.

Have a wonderful week.!

TEN DAYS LATER

Let me share this beautiful sky dipping into the waters below showing off a glorious array of colors, pinks and lavenders, grays and speckled with blues. Art is a magnificent showing of one's talent. God has immeasurable talent noted by the scenes in this image. Come share some pink goodness with BEVERLY at Pink Saturday.

I have been missing for ten days. I can't really even put my finger on why I couldn't muster up the time and effort to blog. I L O V E it! I don't like missing it but here I am probably daydreaming while I should be organizing closets and cupboards. I am going to try harder to blog more often. It makes me feel better and I love the people who stop by and visit. It is such fun to catch up here.

Yesterday we had stew for lunch. Did I tell you we got an Insta Pot for CHRISTmas and the hubby is in love with it? He is also a better cook, or perhaps more adventuress so my lil and I enjoyed the yummy goodness of the homemade dish. My grand here told me I did not need the french bread and he should gladly eat it all. Five slices later....he needed a nap. He is a man with a mind of his own.

But even after a warm bath some guys need help with their hair. He likes using ""Grandfather's" special comb.

Love is the greatest gift anyone can offer. I love gratefulness and kindness too but the greatest of all of them is still L O V E.

Watching the ways of the world, I will keep my trust in the one who gave His life for me. My goodness, I miss the writings of Elisabeth Elliot. She was a champion for the Lord. She wrote from her heart and from the teachings of the bible. I remember being a young, single mother years ago, she was never judgmental, always trying to help younger people turn their lives around.

A favorite verse I like to keep close to me.

I WONDER IF BROKEN HEARTS WILL EVER MEND

I keep looking at this photo of my friend Vivian. I wonder why God took her home? As a child, my grandmother often said, when people passed away too young, it was because He always needed the "good ones". Well Lord, you have the very best in sweet Vivian. The girl was sassy, silly, sweet. I use to tell her, "Hey Vivian, want a little coffee to go with your cup of sugar?" She sipped that coffee filled with a lot of sugar! She got sick in her 40's and kicked ovarian cancers butt! Then she dropped kicked breast cancer out of her life!

Vivian loved the Lord. She also loved the current pope, Someone I'm not fond of at all. But we spent hours on the phone telling each other what we thought of lots of different things and why! In my lifetime I doubt I will ever have a friend like Vivian again. She was kind, always caring for a new feline friend and she could be trusted with classified information. I know, I told her a lot of that stuff, about my own life. But she had amazing parents, Joe and Jessie. They were Mr. & Mrs. Maestas to me when we were young.

Vivian loved her feline friends. She always had a kitten and she loved them and doted on them. She never married or had children so she loved those cats.

When we were young, Vivian had the most beautiful jet black hair, it was long and luxurious and she could have been a hair shampoo model! She could rock that big beautiful hair! She also took forever getting ready and many nights, I sat and visited with her folks while she finished "getting more beautiful". The funny thing about it was, I learned so much from her parents, they were simply wonderful and hard working people.  They were people you loved, when when we were young and reckless and silly. We were young and very silly long ago and sometimes reckless, egging a car that belonged to an old flame, crazy stuff like that, we should not have been doing.Vivian was very beautiful but she never was prissy about it. She was just solid and kind and honest. You don't find many people like her in your lifetime. She was a rare gem.

Vivian worked for many years in the laundry with her precious mom, at the Pueblo Holiday Inn. She retired, got sick and then went back to work as a teachers aide for the local HeadStart program in our hometown. My hometown Pueblo. Vivian was a "watermelon" girl, born in Rocky Ford, Colorado. It is the watermelon capital of the world producing the biggest and sweetest melons anywhere. HeadStart kids called her "GrandmaVivian" and she ate that stuff up with a spoon! She loved the little ones.

I have known my beautiful friend since we were young women. She proved to me she was the very best of the best and Vivian, girl I am going to miss you.

Rest in Peace my friend. I am going to miss our four hour long phone calls.

Vivian Maestas  March 7, 1955 to January 8, 2018

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM: ENJOYING HEAVEN

I am late being here today but I had a date with my lil sidekick Harrison and he wasn't feeling too good so we watching movies and did absolutely nothing else all day long. He slept a lot so I did not get anything else accomplished. I did think about my mom all day long. Today is her birthday. It is another one she celebrates in heaven.

Always beautiful.

Always silly

WEDNESDAY WONDERS

I love looking at old photos, and I love researching my phamily history but as far I go, personally, I do not like living in the past. I worked with many lonely hearts that could not get past their past! You have to let it go! I think you will become too bitter and miserable if you don't.

I like storing memories in my heart. I would never wish my folks or other loved ones back to this world filled with the unknown and hopelessness sometimes for many, but I treasure all the beautiful memories I have with them. I just hope I am doing them all justice being who I am.

I am going to sort through a box filled with black and white photos of those I love the best. I am researching my phamily at ancestry, a gift the kids gave me for my birthday. When I came across the maiden name of my paternal grandfathers mother, I sat down and cried many happy tears. There is not too much known about his parents but I do have their names and it fills me with hope.

Only our youngest daughter Hannah would buy me this card. When I opened it up, I knew, she was her father's daughter!

I am sorry I am so technically clueless! I am lucky I am able to save and share my photos.

While I hear others say they are downsizing because their kids don't want to deal with it, I am doing whatever I please.  I say tough luck when I am gone. I love what I love and at my age I enjoy loving and liking all the things that make me happy. That old saying here:

is so stinking true! It has been my phamily rule since we started having a phamily. Ha ha ha Ha ha ha! Which reminds me, hello William Sonoma, where in the heck is my new rolling pin?! Did you know you have choices when buying a rolling pin? Wow! My mom used the same old one and she was a fantastic woman of the kitchen! I saw a handmade in Germany rolling pin that sells for something like $150! I have too many LuLaRoe pieces to add to my bulging closet. I do not need a handmade rolling pin! I don'tcook as much as my sweet husband does!

Oh how we love Bruce Lee. One of the most fantastic people to ever walk this earth. I love this. It is quite true. You have to accept failure to believe you are one. I prefer this instead:

I hope you all have a terrific Wednesday and in the words of a Crazy Camel:

Same people prefer this message instead: