Thunder & Lightening!

Yeah, so what, you might ask. Well, it is just extremely unusual for our area of Alaska to have thunder storms. We have seen 3 or 4 roll through since we came home from vacation. (What is Alaska trying to tell us?)

Out for my walk just before 6 a.m. this morning - didn't get far before it began to rain. A bit further and it was really coming down. But I did my 3.5 miles anyway. ;-) It felt good. I had just gotten home and was taking off my shoes when we heard the thunder. Glad I was home when that started.

Here are a couple more pictures.

looks like the Moose found a buddy . . . look closer:

Stone Mountain Georgia. Nope, didn't go in, but stopped for a picture.

Those of you whose addresses I had received postcards saying something like: Mr. Moose and I were joined by 50,000 of our closest friends in the Dome. Here are just a few of them. Too dark for a good shot.

And, this is my Aunt Barbie

We had a lovely visit with her and my Uncle George while in Ohio. I wish I could get back there more often to visit with them. She is the last of my mother's siblings, the baby of the family. ;-) She and Uncle George both celebrated their birthdays last week - AND - their anniversary, too! Happy Day, you two.

One last pic for tonight:

This was a harbinger of the weather to come. Lovely shot, though.

'night, friends.

Long time

We're home - we've been home since Sunday, but it has taken me this long to get back to "normal". Well, as normal as I can be. Heh.

I took Monday off to get re-acclimated. Got unpacked and some laundry done - saw my chiropractor and massage therapist (yay!!! much needed after long flights in cramped conditions)

Back to work on Tuesday and whoo-boy! Lots of stuff happening there - lots of catching up to do.

I promised to share photos with you. Probably the best of the best are the ones I'll share tonight. My first two days at the convention were spent in rehearsal - I took part in the chorus and we had to learn the music. The folks were so nice - they gave us presents and they fed us - to offset all of the work they were making us do.

During lunch the first day I looked up and got a bit of a shock. I turned to my companions and asked "What is my husband doing in the lunch line? He's not in the chorus or the band!" And then it hit me - that wasn't my husband. I had to do a double take. Check out the pics below and see if you do one, too.

They say everyone has a twin. These pics show that hubby has met his.

By the way, that is hubby in the second photo and on the left in the third photo. His "twin" has some weight on hubby, and has about 6 inches on him, too, although it doesn't look like it. His wife asked him to slouch so they would be closer in height.

They were amazed, too. Well, first they thought I was a crazy woman. I went up to Mark and said "I'm not crazy - which of course, means I probably am. But you look just like my husband!" And, then I introduced myself and asked permission to take his photo to show my hubby. That night I took hubby's pic and showed him Mark's. Took the camera back the next day and showed Mark my hubby's pic. It was the third day that we all met up "by accident" and were able to get the last shot.

So - the convention was awesome! We had a great time - filled the Georgia Dome with 50,000 plus of our closest friends. The temps were H-O-T!!! and we walked miles and miles in it.

After the convention we visited with some of hubby's family in the Atlanta area. Then we flew up to Ohio to visit with my aunt and uncle and some of our old friends. It was H-O-T in Columbus, too. It feels good to be back home where the temps are H-O-T when they hit 75 degrees. ;-)

That's it for tonight. I'll sift through the pics and see what else I can share with you over the next few days. Y'all have a wonderful evening, y'hear? (heh)

See ya . . .

While the Moose is away,
you all can play
check the links in the pics
you'll learn new tricks
just the facts, ma'am
yes, I am a ham

well, it's not much of a poem, but then, I'm not much of a poet this time of night. ;-) See you in a couple of weeks. You all be good now, you hear?

Today's shots

Spent most of today at the little league fields. Today is my last day to see any of the grands play. (We are getting ready to leave on a two week vacation.)

Thought I would share my favorite shots of the day:

The baby boy wearing a lot of the field.

taken on the sly under the bleachers

the source of the boy's fancy drawers decoration

the Little Ladybug hid behind mama
this shot was taken from behind mama's back
(well, actually, I guess it would be her front, but there you go.)

Posted by Purplemoose at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

Where there's a will

Got a phone call today from an extremely excited little boy . . . Nana, Nana . . . . and he was off to the races, excitedly telling me about his adventure.

It seems that TAT had a loose tooth and mama noticed a new tooth coming up behind it. She told him that it needed to come out, so he has been working it and working it, trying to get it out.

Do you have any idea just how tiny baby teeth are???

Kiddingly, Ladybug told him that they could tie some dental floss around the tooth, tie it to a door knob, slam the door and it would come out.

Do it, Mama, do it!!!

She tied the floss around his tooth and then went to complete a project - little thinking that soon she would hear

SLAM!! Waahhhh! Giggle, giggle, giggle. Mama! We did it!!

Where there's a will, there's a way - it took three of them, TAT, the little Ladybug (his sister), and Ms. Thang (his cousin). But they got the job done. The Ladybug was surprised. "I didn't think they'd do it, Mom." But they did.

Ladybug has some much better pics - should be posting them tonight, I'd imagine. My camera doesn't do such a great job on the extreme close-ups. ;-)

The tooth fairy will be making a stop for a TAT-tooth tonight, I'm sure.

Entirely too much fun.

The Missing Entry

Warm Fuzzies:

Thank you to Lessa, who arranged for me to get my hair cut as a Mother's Day gift. Accomplished Saturday. (hmmm must be time for a trip - I always seem to get it cut in time to take a trip "Outside")

On the way home from church Sunday - spotted in the field alongside the road:

what do you mean you can't see anything? Check below the purple lines:

Still can't see? Yup, guess you had to be there - three nice caribou foraging alongside the Kenai River.

Sadly, I was not able to get a picture of the mama moose and her babies as they whizzed by my window just a short time ago. ;-(

Kenai Little League Chic 2005

Lessa (in red) and I (in yellow) attempt to stay warm during a game the Boy was playing. Brrrr.

At Lessa's feet????

The Wild Child bundled up under her bunny blankie and took a quick nap on the bleachers below us.

Friday night I had the privilege of taking Ms. Thang to her game in Soldotna. The girls did a fine job. She told me they won.

On Saturday Lessa took Kinziebug and Ms. Thang to Homer for a game. They had a double header and won both games, I think.

Meanwhile, back here in our town, I was privileged to take the Boy to his game in Soldotna. (Meanwhile Ladybug was taking the three youngers to their coach pitch game.) The Red Sox made a great showing, taking the Soldotna team by a score of 18-6. Woot!

At church Sunday morning I found an envelope with my name on it. I tucked it into my Bible and didn't open it until after services. Someone had put some greenbacks into the envelope and placed my name on it. I have no clue who would do it. It is humbling to say the least. I can't even thank them since I don’t know who did it. I had shared at prayer meeting Wednesday that I was looking for a new job - one that would give me full time status because it was getting tough to make ends meet lately. What a blessing it is to be a part of this group of believers. They follow the Lord's prodding and that just turned out to be a blessing for me that day.

Praise the Lord! for Warm Fuzzies!

Weather or not

Left work at 2:30 today - headed over to a park to get some photos of Cook Inlet for you all. Instead I found some very interesting weather patterns.

Click here to view a composite image

That is made up of 8 different shots - slightly different angle on each so the seams aren't . . . well, seamless. But it gives you a great idea of what I was seeing. The sun was shining brightly to my right and as I turned to my left the clouds were just BLACK! It was actually kind of cool looking.

I think the city is probably wasting their water here - not gonna need it for much longer.

Here's a rustic little place. It is on the register of historic places, and - it belongs to one of my coworkers.

I was pretty sure I was going to be rained upon before I reached my house and sure enough:

SPALOOSH!

Tonight hubby and I took a drive out to Kasilof and on the way back the clouds were rolling in again. One in particular stuck out and we could both see somethig from our tv past:

Can you see Dino?

Remember Fred Flintstone's pet dinosaur?
Here's a closeup:

So, all in all, a really cool weather day. AND!!!! We even had one loooooonnnnngggg rolling peal of thunder this afternoon. We don't often hear thunder up here, so it was pretty cool.

One last picture - last night The Wild Child came for a short visit. Seems she had something to show us. Paw-Paw decided that he and she were twins now:

Hope your Tuesday is a great one. I had a post here last night - and it appeared a couple of times today also - Warm Fuzzies. Now it seems to be gone into the ethernet again. Bye bye entry! Not a big deal. The server apparently had some difficulties, but are all back up and hunky dory again.

Things that go bump

Actually, the title should rightfully be:

Things that quicken your steps

or something like that.

Out this morning for my walk - Fitness Walking - it's a grand thing. ;-) I have to watch where I am stepping on my road. It's a gravel road and when the city came through and graded it, then treated it for dust, they left some ruts and some large rocks - ankle grabbers.

It's about .1 of a mile to the paved road, so I walk with my head down and watch my step.

Near the end of the road I heard a crack, crackle, snap, pop, to my left. Took a few more steps and heard it again - looked up and OOPS!

Did a quick stutter step to my right and forced myself to breathe, moosie, breathe. Sort of watched out of the corner of my eye and kept walking, but watching to make sure I had a clear path to run and hide if need be.

What could cause my heart to pick up a beat? Wish I had a camera, but I don't carry it when I am fitness walking.

Mama moose with two new-born calves. Their little ears were straight up - so curious. Mama kept browsing, thankfully. And, they were all on my left - they hadn't crossed over the road so that I was in between mama and babies. That would be really dangerous.

Neighbor stepped out and took a picture. He had his (unleashed) dog with him and I motioned the dog back. Neighbor had him under voice control, but that is also dangerous. Dogs are one of the top killers of newborn calves. (Bears are right up there, too.)

I kept looking over my shoulder as I passed. It is an awesome sight - little red-headed babies - they are so cute. Sweet. But not if you are between them and their mama.

Yup - quickened step and quickened heart beat. That's a grand way to start the morning.

here is a photo on Dancing Crane Studios. Aren't they cute little critters?

You all have a glorious day.
>..<

LessaEDIT> Pictures of the moose in question, donated by the Ladybug. These twins were actually birthed behind her house. *g*

They've been roaming the neighborhood ever since.