Memorial Day...

Today is Memorial Day.  It is a day that means more than a day off from work or BBQ's to me.  It is a day of reflection and a day of gratitude.  It is a day to pray for our country and a day to thank or hug a vet.  I spent an hour this morning talking to a vet online.  He is missing one eye and one leg.  He is NOT missing his spirit.  He is a wonderful person and I love him dearly.  You know who you are!  Thanks for the chat!  I LOVE YOU!!!

        

Over the past century, more than 35 million men and women answered the call to arms in World War 1, World War 11, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and countless unnamed military engagements.  More than half a milliion of them never came home.  Some died in battle, others in captivity; all died too soon. 

from beliefnet.com

A half a million is a staggering number to me!  Wow!  If you would like to "celebrate" or "honor" this day I suggest the following:  thank a vet, hug a vet, visit a vet, visit a memorial or grave, learn more about this day, create a memorial for a loved one or friend or leave a prayer for a soldier, learn about the vets in your family.

Thank you each and every vet out there!  We appreciate you!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day, dear friends! xox

Photo Scavanger Hunt...

The subject of this week's Photo Scavanger Hunt brought to you by Krissy at Sometimes I Think is pets.  Do you guys think you have seen enough pictures of my kitties?  Oh my!  So, I think I will show you what they are doing today!  Here are a couple of shots of JoJo, a.k.a. Baby...

      

Baby has a fondness for this monkey and carries it around the house in his mouth everywhere he goes and bats it around like it is a soccer ball!  Remember this monkey?  Sheila The He Monkey?  Well, it belongs to Baby now!

Here is Baby getting all excited and wanting to grab the camera once he realizes that I am taking pictures...

    

Now, I had to go find Honey.  Where could she be?  Her favorite spot for a few hours every afternoon is in my closet.  My messy closet full of boxes of stuf!.  Is she there?  Yes she is!  Wake up, Honey, and get your picture taken!

    

Oh, she was NOT happy about that!  Sorry, Honey!  She went right back to sleep, though, see...

    

Hope you enjoyed today's shots of my kitty cats!  Have a good Memorial Day weekend everyone!  We are going on a picnic!  Chelsea and I and Krissy and John.  It should be fun!  I am late getting in the shower, so off I go...Toodles, all! xox

ooops...

 I forgot to mention that the iris I posted below was cross-bred by my sister, Therese!  Therese, Therese, sorry Therese!!  It is like not signing a beautiful painting!  Oh my!  Oh, and she is cross-breeding the blue ones you see in the picture (she didn't create those) with the new yellow one.  She is hoping to get a blue bottom and yellow top.  Who knows what she will get.  She got a yellow from a white and burgundy!  If you haven't given your suggestion for a name for the stunning yellow iris go ahead and give it a go!  Gorgeous flower, Therese!  Take care all! xox

A Contest!...

Happy Monday, readers!!  I had a busy, busy week last week and have still been feeling very fatigued.  I am not sure what that is all about, but it is keeping me from being able to journal as much as I would like to.  I got a new dishwasher a few weeks ago!  Did I tell you guys this yet?  Oh my, it is making my life so much easier!  I LOVE my dishwasher!!  Love it, love it, love it!!

Chelsea and I had a yard sale on Saturday.  We made $4 dollars.  We were having a borough-wide yard sale and we thought that perhaps if we set some stuff out in our yard people might come up our side street.  It didn't happen.  They stayed on the main streets.  It wasn't a total disaster as I got to round up all the stuff I need to get rid of and I got to spend the day with Chelsea and my next-door neighbor and pal, Roger.  He didn't make any real money, either.  The lady across the street set out stuff as well.  No one came to her sale either.  I got a bit of a sunburn.  Ah, but I guess it was all worth it in the end.  It really was good to round up all of our un-needed items in our home.

Matt (my son) got his driver's license last Thursday!!  Congratulations, Matt!  I know how important that is for a young man!!  My, he is lucky because he has a car to drive!  He got a job last week as well!  His last day of school is Wednesday!  Gee, he is having a good couple of weeks!  He is coming for a visit on June 29 for a few weeks.  Chelsea's last day here is June 25, I believe it is.  So, only one more month of Chelsea living here :-( .  Not so good.  It will be nice to have Matt visiting right after Chelsea leaves.

My sister has a contest going.  She needs a name for a hybrid iris she created.  She has a real green thumb!  She grew this wonderful hybrid from a white and a burgundy iris.  Hmm.. makes you wonder about recessive and dominate genes.  When she sent me this picture, the flower was five feet tall already!!  The submitter of the winning name she chooses will receive seeds from the hybrid she created, plus some of the wonderful blue irises you see in this picture.  Isn't the yellow one grand!!?!!  The blue ones are pretty awesome as well!  Go ahead and leave a guess in my comment's section!  Hey, send your friends here, too!  This will be lots of fun!

                  I haven't come up with a name yet.  My Dad submitted "YangTze" which means "Yellow River" and my Mom submitted "Scutterbotch".  My creative juices really aren't running these days.  I will try, though.  Go ahead, give it a go!

Hey, have you done Krissy's Monday Morning Question lately?  They are alot of fun!  If you haven't answered today's go on over!  If you never have, well, they are fun!  Yes, shameless promotion for my newly-married sister :-)!

I weighed Baby yesterday.  He is now ten pounds.  Seven-months old and ten pounds!  He has really calmed down since he was neutered a couple of weeks ago.  Now he and Honey can co-exist in the same room.  They couldn't before the neutering.  Sometimes they even co-exist on the same couch even!

Well, I guess I am going to get off here and get ready for my day.  Lots to do!  Lots to do all week!  I am hoping that I can step up on my number of entries.  We will see.  Wish me luck!  Hey, you have a good day! xox

And The Winner Is...

Congrats to The Fair Colleen who guessed Sunday's picture of "Up Close With Val"!  She has guessed correctly before and has a very good eye!  Here is your blue ribbon, Colleen!!...

                        

The picture was actually guessed correctly by a few of you!  Colleen was the first to guess it correctly.  It was a picture peering into a tulip!  The tulip was very beautiful.  Here is a small picture of the original.  Neat, huh?!

         

Have a good day, everyone!  I will be back soon! xox

"Up Close With Val"...

I have enjoyed my digital camera immensely since I have gotten it, and although my photography program is very basic, I still like playing with the pictures and seeing what I can come up with.  I am very excited because my sister, Therese, is sending me a new program in the mail tomorrow!!  Yay!!  So, here is the newest installment of "Up Close With Val".  Take a guess!...

               

A Funny and More Pics!...

Hidey-ho all!  So, I have a joke for you all today.  I think it is very funny.  I got it off of beliefnet.com which I go to every day. 

A couple had two little boys who were always getting into trouble.  Their parents knew that if any mischief occurred in their village, their sons were probably involved.

The boys' mother heard that an elder in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her sons.  The elder agreed to see them separately.
So, the mother sent her youngest son first, in the morning.  The elder, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?"  The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response.  So the elder repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?"  Again the wide-eyed boy made no attempt to answer.

The elder raised his voice and bellowed, "WHERE IS GOD!!?"  The boy screamed and bolted from the room, ran directly home and dove into a closet, slamming the door behind him.

When his older brother found him hiding, he asked, "What happened?"

The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time.  God is missing, and they think WE did it!"

Ah, I thought that was very, very funny!  So, I have some more pictures for you all that I wanted to share.  The first one I wanted to share was of Krissy and our parents.

      

I really like this shot because Krissy looks very relaxed in it..

The next pic I call "Four Sisters"...

    

There are five sisters in our family.  Four are pictured here.  The youngest could not make it to the wedding.  I love this shot!  Pictured here from the left is...me, Krissy, Therese and Grace.  The four of us are actually only five years and five days apart!

The next picture is of Chelsea, me and Matt.  I have not posted a recent picture of Matt in this journal since I started writing it.  So, here are me and my kiddeeoos!

    

The last picture I wanted to share is of my brother, Carl, and my Dad and my brother's son, Jacob.  Here are three generations!  I don't know if I ever even shared in my journal that I had a brother.  Here he is with his son.  His other son, Timothy, could not make it.

    

Have a good day, everyone!! xox

They Really Did!...

What a wonderful and joyful day it was!!  We had a beautiful time!  I have a zillion pictures, but I will share two with you right now to show you that they really did, they really, really did GET MARRIED!!!  Here is John kissing his bride...

         

And here are Mr. and Mrs. Kristina and John Knox!!!...

         

More to come soon!  Silly Krissy called me last night around midnight on her honeymoon to tell me she was doing well.  She sounded wonderful.  We gabbed for quite awhile and then I told her to go back to her husband!  LOL  Have a great day everyone!  I will be back after I recuperate in a few days from the wonderful weekend of activity I had!  Take care, all! xox

    Congratulations Krissy and John!!!!!

Having Fun With The Camera...

Hidey-ho all!  We're gettin' ready for a wedding in our house!  Yay!!  Matthew, my newly-turned 17-year old will be getting into town late Thursday night so I am very, very excited!!  He will be staying until Sunday afternoon!  I haven't seen him since last summer!  Wow, it should be so, so nice to see him!  My nephew, Joe, might come stay with me as well, so I may have a full house!  Joe is my younger sister, Deirdre's, son.  He lives in Virginia and is 21, I believe.  I am losing track of everyone's age because we are becoming such a large family.

So, today is my Daddeeoo's birthday!!  Happy Birthday,Daddy!!!  I love you!!  Oh, I wanted to tell everyone something from my Dad...I am so late on this.  Bad memory, bad!!  He wanted to thank everyone who signed the Journaler's Father Of The Year award for him!  He really loved it and thought it was so, so nice!!  He asked me to thank you all and I have been doing so few entries and have forgotten.  So, he thanks you one and all!!  The award prepared by Sylvia is so very nice and has each of your names placed on it!!  Thank you!!

I have been playing with my camera the last couple of days and came up with some fun pictures.  The first one is of Chelsea.  This was a photo I shot and then I turned it into a drawing.  Do you like it?

           

I really like how this turned out.  It is kind of artsy.  Cool, huh?  I also took some pictures of myself.  I HATE having pictures of myself taken.  There are very, very few pictures of me in this world.  I do NOT like cameras pointed in MY direction.  I decided that I was going to try and overcome this fear and take a few shots of myself.  You guys have been special friends and well, you really haven't seen much of me, so I am going to show you a few shots.  Wow, I am really going to do this! LOL

This first one is in my All About Me section.  You may have seen it appear there the last couple of days.  Here it is a little bit larger.  I think it shows my basic personality which is probably playful and friendly.  

           The second one is of me being thoughtful or "prayerful".  I liked this shot.

        The third is what my son called "angry".  I don't think I looked angry in this picture.  I don't like staged, smiley pictures all the time.  I like pictures that are taken when someone is off guard....

        And here is the last one I am going to show.  It is just a side-shot.  You can see my big nose. LOL 

        I am not sure why I should allow all of these pics of me to be in this journal, to be in cyber-space, hmmm....should I press Save?  Should I?  LOL  Actually, this is a way for me to say hello to everyone and to say thank-you for being there for me.  Sometimes I wonder what you all look like and wish I could peak even a little more into your lives...

I will be back soon!  Take care of one another! xox