In Which I View the Rings of Saturn and Other Noteworthy Stuff



One evening after we put the kids to bed, Randy told me he was going to go out to find Saturn and wondered if I wanted to join him.  I told him that I would join him, if he just so happened to find it. Then I went on half-heartily sweeping the floor and folding the clothes piled high on the couch around me.  I think I may have even started feeling a little sorry for myself and my little earthly existence where laundry and daily chores often pull me down like gravity.     

Just a few minutes later, he came in to inform me that he had found it and wondered if I wanted to see it.  "Sure" I said.  I pulled on my jacket and followed him out into the chill night air.  It's always interesting to look at a little dot through the telescope.  Even if it is just a little dot of light, it usually shines a little brighter in the telescope than it does to the naked eye.  It's still just a little dot though-big deal, right?

He had to re-adjust the telescope for me because the earth had spun Saturn right out of our view.  This big old earth, it just keeps turning.  Finally he found it again and I looked into the lense.  I let my eyes adjust and prepared myself to be amazed...kinda, but not really.  Nice.  Then I gasped!  This was different!  Was it real?  I was actually seeing a beautiful round planet with rings around it!  The rings totally took me by surprise.  I wasn't expecting it.  My heart beat faster. WOW!  I stood there for a long time, feet on earth, gazing into the heavens, until the earth finally spun Saturn right out of my view again. 

A lot of old thoughts flooded back into my soul as I straitened up and stepped back from the telescope.  I looked up to Saturn again and just saw the light of the planet shining down on me.  I had viewed it for the first time and I asked myself how many times have I seen it in my life but not realized what I was seeing?  I wondered how many people in the history of the world have ever viewed this inspiring sight?  Not a picture but the real thing, rings and all, shining in the chill night sky. 

My steps felt a little lighter as I walked back to the warmth of my house, with my life and my laundry waiting for me. I silently thanking my husband for pulling me away for a minute and helping me to lift my eyes, my heart and my soul.



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In other news...


We went shoe shopping the other day.  All of the kids, without exception, are growing up.
  
The bunny still hasn't had any babies.  We're beginning to wonder if she's gonna have any at all.  We'll keep you posted.

I added a sidebar twitter gadget-thing to my blog.  It's not for social networking.  It's just for a tool to use when I want to give little updates (about baby bunnies, etc.) or write something on the blog but don't want to do a post about it until later or never... whichever is first. 

Sometimes I look at my better half and I know from the bottom of my heart that he is my "better" half.  No question.  Where would I be without him?  He encourages me in all the right things.  ♥♥♥





School is over in less than a month. {all together now}... YAY!!!!!!!

My 5th blogiversary came and went without my noticing it in April. After 5 years I guess I still find plenty of stuff to blog about. Crazy...

There is a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard from December.  I have now been chocolate-free for... 4 months, 7 days, 7 hours, 40 minutes, and 50-some seconds.  I don't even think about it much anymore. Honest.

If you have read this entire post, you deserve a BFF award.  It's true. 

I get the" BFF" from my daughter.  She's that age, you know.

All for now (until June 1st).

Check my side bar twitter for update stuff if you'rt interested in this "tale that is told".

Love, Alison


Flying Lessons


Randy bought another box and training cord so that the kids could learn how to fly the RC planes.  I think they are all getting the hang of it. Maya loves it in fact.  Colter too.  Kyla thinks it's pretty neat.  Lita and I have yet to try it.  Maybe someday. *smile*



Spring Chicks!

This time we got 12 red colored laying hens. They are changing fast, already sprouting thier first red feathers. We are looking forward to fresh eggs again... sometime in August!

Lita-One Year


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The sweet crocheted hat and sandles in these pictures were made by Auntie Aleta.
 Thankyou!

Spring Burning


Burning-April 2012

Springtime in our area usually means burning.  I loved seeing father and son working together burning all the tall dead grass across the road.  I remember worrying, while I snapped the pictures above, that the wild flowers would be damaged by the fire. 




It was only a couple weeks later that the kids came running in the house with their black covered fists filled with colorful flowers from across the road!  I didn't get a picture of them this year but it reminded me of this picture that I took last year of the bouquet of flowers that Colter brought in for me from across the road. 

Now the black is gone, replaced by bright green.  I really do enjoy these views "from this front porch".
Alison

A Morning at the Ranch

Thanks to Emma and Madison for showing us around the Ranch!  We loved seeing all the animals, especially the baby ones!  See the lamb peeking through the door? 
The goats were hilarious...

A beautiful spring morning in Northwest Montana!

Enjoying a day off from school.
We also got to see the new puppy and the old pig and hold the soft bunny.

We are looking forward to Kyla's bunny having babies any day now!

Just headed into Maya's class now for a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

I'm gonna try and keep updating here over the next couple days but if I don't get back until next week, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!
Alison

Easter 2012


We did our traditional decorating eggs and playing "egg-hide-and-seek". It's always fun to have an excuse to be creative and to play games together. That's what Melita thought anyway. 

And it was high time for a kiddo picture...



It's also a great time to enjoy ham dinner and yummy frosted cake.  Thanks for coming back early from your trip Grandpa and Grandma to join us...


I found these April pictures that I accidently skipped over earlier when I did my post about April. I found some other ones too. I'll get to those soon. I think you might enjoy them Cousin Laura! They happen to contain pictures of your two cute nieces!

Goodnight for now, Alison

P.S. Has everyone else found PicMonkey yet? It is the by far the best replacement for picnik! I would go as far to say it's even BETTER! Pure awesomeness if fact!  Let the fun continue... 

Hold That Thought!



Sometimes I fancy myself a writer. I would love to tell myself that I am and I can almost convince myself, at times.  But very little of what I ever write in my head ever makes it onto the paper.  I was reminded of this poem that I wrote in college and I had to find it this morning...


Writer's Block

Thoughts come to me, beautiful, fresh,
They drift and fall upon me like snowflakes,
I reach out to catch them on my fingertips, 
as I walk from class to class.

As I race from here to there, they come to me,
verses and lines, they swell and swirl like the snow,
Tis the unspoken poetry of my mind,
the unsung song of my lips,
the unwritten prose of my heart,
right there at my fingertips.

At last I sit down with a clean, white, lined sheet of paper,
pencil poised...
And on my fingertips,
the little flakes of snow melt away.

~ajq
Nov. 1996
(revised and edited-May 2012)



I've heard of people who carry a little notebook with them all the time so they can grab it and write down stuff when they think of it.  Sometimes I think I should try it.  So, please excuse me if I stop in the middle of the road...
 I hope your heart is swelling with beautiful thoughts today!
Alison

HAPPY MAY DAY!

Ahhh April!
where did you go?
I finally took some 1 year pictures of her

and we got some of these

and these girls made some of these

and we enjoyed some of this
and she played this in town
while they were doing this
and I did this
and we are taking turns doing this
and I mads some more of these
for this
and then we started this new project
and then we made these yesterday

Just this for now (perhaps more to come)...

A VERY HAPPY MAY DAY TO YOU!
Randy, Alison, Kyla, Colter, Maya and Melita