Sentimental Photos...

The subject for Krissy's Photo Scavenger this week is "a photo of sentimental value or special meaning".  I searched quite awhile through my photos looking for what I wanted to choose.  Quite a few of them are sentimental to me.  It was hard to settle on just one.  I am posting two for you.  There I go again not following the rules.  One is very recent.  Most of you have seen it.  It is the first moment I held my grandson, Josiah...

              

The second is a picture I posted a long time ago - perhaps about two years ago.  It's me and my siblings.  My youngest sister is left out.  I asked my mom where my sister, Deirdre, was.  She said she was probably getting her diaper changed.  LOL   Take a guess which one is me and which one is Krissy in the comments section.  I'll let you know in a day or two!

    

My brother, Carl, is visiting from Virginia today.  He is not feeling well so I don't even know if I get to see him.  I don't want to catch a flu or virus.  Feel better soon, Carl!!

If you want to play along with Krissy's Photo Scavenger Hunt pay her a visit.  She announces a new subject every Monday.  Hope your weekend is treating you well and you are keeping warm! xox

Tags: Photo Scavenger Hunt, photography

"Wordplay"!...

     "Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing.  It's the
      difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting.  As a writer,
      words are your paint.  Use all the colors."
                                                                       -Rhys Alexander


I'm sitting here watching Baby.  It's interesting that anytime I watch Honey or Baby more than five seconds while they are sleeping they open their eyes.  They instinctively know I am watching them!  How do animals know this?  It happens every time!  Wow!  They have an extra sense.  My cats are little children of sorts to me.  They can communicate their needs.  When Honey wants fed she comes up and kisses me on the lips.  She and Baby both can meow, "yes and no."  and Baby can say, "Huh?"  when I call him.  This makes people laugh.  I taught them yes and no so I would know if they truly wanted something.  Before I ask them if they want something, I say for example, "Do you want brushed, yes? no?"  They really answer me.  Their yes is like a "myeah" and their no is like a "myoooh".  Both of them.  Honey taught Baby how to talk because she is very vocal.  I tell them what I am doing during the day so that they understand.  They do understand a lot of English - words and phrases like - I'm opening the window, treat, eat, bed, I love you, night-night, brush, I have to go out now, tuna fish, cat nip, etc.  I think it's amazing what pets can comprehend and how much happier they can be when you spend time with them.  They give you so much love in return.

I wanted to thank everyone so much for all the "Happy Birthdays" I received yesterday!!  It was wonderful to open up my email box and have it full of e-cards!!  Aww, thanks, guys!!  J-Land is THE BEST!!!  Thanks for making my birthday full of smiles all day long!!  I had a good birthday.  I had a quiet day with my boyfriend.  He gave me a dozen red roses.  Now wasn't that sweet?!!  He gets a lot of points for that!

                                       

It's Saturday and time for "Wordplay!"  The idea for this "Wordplay" was given to me by Krissy's husband, John.   I wanted to discuss our favorite colors and what words come to mind when we think of them.

What is/are your favorite color(s)?  What words come to mind when you think of this/these color(s)?  Do these words describe you?  and, do you seek to surround yourself with these adjectives?

My answer:  Actually my favorite color changes from day to day.  My favorite colors are usually red and blue tones.  Sometimes I am in a green mood, too.  I like muted colors.  Today I like blue.  How does blue make me feel?  Calm, serene, centered, meditative,  spiritual.  I DO try to be calm and centered.  If I'm not, then I try to do everything I can to center myself.  I try to find a spot to be by myself and relax and meditate.  I sometimes even think of the color blue or the ocean or put myself at the beach. a lake, or in the sky in my mind visually.  When I am in a red mood I am feeling more passionate about life and more loving.  I have more confidence and want to tackle more of life and be more assertive.  Today I am in a blue mood.  A happy, blue mood.  What about you?

Have a good weekend and hope you are having a happy one! xox

Tags: Wordplay with Val , cats

Please read...

Our California friends need our prayers.  Please read this.  Thank you!

Happy Birthday and more fun!...

    
      "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday
      but never remembers her age."
                                                                -Robert Frost


I wanted to wish my sister, Therese, a happy belated birthday, as well as my brother, Carl!!  They had their birthdays on Sunday and Tuesday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, you two!!  Therese and Carl were born 363 days apart and are the same age for two days.  Oh, and someone else special has a birthday tomorrow!  Guess who?  The writer of this blog!  Now, it's interesting that my momma had three children born during the same calendar week.  Within five days in fact.  I wonder what the odds for that are?  I know I didn't like it growing up, as I got a little older, because we had a "group birthday" at the beginning of "the birthdays" and I felt a little slighted.  I had my birthday last and everyone was done celebrating.  I sort of felt like no one wanted to celebrate my birthday by the time it rolled around.  Sounds a little selfish.  Now I think it is really neat!  Happy Birthday to the three of us!!

For your Halloween and Thanksgiving delight, here is some virtual carving fun!  I spent quite a bit of time on this site.  I thought you all might like to try and see what you can create.  If you have a creation you are proud of (or not... LOL) take a screen shot of it and put it in your journals and send me the entry URL!  I would love to see it!  If you don't know how to take a screen shot (Ctrl + print screen, then paste in email) send me an email and I will explain it to you.  Have a lovely evening all!  I'm off to eat lunch.  Take care! xox
                                  

Play along!

This is an interesting tag going around blogs recently.  I want to see what you guys are reading!!  Go ahead and try this!!  Here are the instructions...

     1.  Grab the nearest  book.
     2.  Open to page 123.
     3.  Find the fifth sentence.
     4.  Post the text of the next four sentences along with these instructions.
     5.  Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in the back
          of your closet!  I know that is what you are thinking!
     6.  Tag four or five people.

                        

This comes from "The Parables of Peanuts" by Robert L. Short

It is implicit in the New Testament statement concerning the incarnation of God in Christ that all men are taken up, enclosed and borne within the body of Christ and that this is just what the congregation of the faithful are to make known to the world by their words and by their lives.  What is intended here is... the summoning of the world into the fellowship of this body of Christ, to which in truth it already belongs.

                        -Bonhoeffer, Ethics

     "Karamazov," cried Kolya, "can it be true what's taught us in religion, that we shall all rise again from the dead and shall live and see each other again, all . . . ?"

     "Certainly we shall all rise again, certainly we shall see each other and shall tell each other with joy and gladness all that has happened !"

Alyosha answered half laughing, half enthusiastic.

                                     

Those are four long sentences!  Interesting, I have an appropriate graphic of Snoopy reading a book.  That was totally by accident.  My wonderful friend, Cathy, gave me that about a month ago.  So, I won't tag anyone for this, but I do hope some of you will do this and leave your entry URLs so I can go and read what you are reading!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!!  Hugs!! xox

Hunt Participants and Monday Morning Question...

Photo Scavenger Hunt #93

The subject this week is:  "broken, torn, or run-down"

I wanted to thank Krissy for allowing me to run her Photo Scavenger Hunt and Monday Morning Question the past few weeks while she has been doing a higher task.  Krissy, thank you!  I hope I made you proud!!  Krissy is asking a Monday Morning Question this morning in her journal and will be posting a subject for this week's Photo Hunt later on today so please visit her!  Thanks so much to everyone who continued to participate in my journal!  This week's photos were particularly poignant.  Please visit them if you can!  The participating journals are:

     Photo Trek
     Nancyluvspix
     My Photo Journey
     Ye Olde English Posy
     Holiday Photos
     Linda's World
    
Don't forget to visit Krissy's journal for next week's Hunt subject!  Have a lovely day, everyone and keep shooting! xox

 

Tags: Monday Morning Question, Photo Scavenger Hunt, photography

"Wordplay" and kitties!...

     
     "It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert,
      gentle, discriminating, little friends, who give us just enough
      of their regard and compliance to make us hunger for more."
                                                                               - Agnes Repplier

Good Saturday morning, everyone!!  Well how are you doing?  Yes, you !!  I wanted to thank all my journal peers for my VIVI nomination in the Best Entertainment category.  What a pleasant surprise to get a positive affirmation from my peers!  I humbly accept the nomination and wish all of the fellow nominees in these Awards good luck!!  Oh, and Krissy, congratulations on your nominations!!  She got five!  You DO deserve yours!!  Krissy got nominated for Journal of The Year!  That's my sissy!

Baby is almost two.  Wow, he is growing up quickly.  Baby and Honey still aren't friends.  I thought that they would be friends by now.  Nope.  Baby still stalks Honey.  Honey DOES NOT want to be friends with Baby.  Honey is six now.  She is the most gentle cat in the world and oh-so-sweet.  Baby is a moose - a dog.  He doesn't know he is a cat.  Something very interesting happened a couple of nights ago.  It had me smiling so wide.  Honey was hidden somewhere in the bedroom.  Baby came chirping, looking for her.  He does this a lot.  Baby has adopted the Maine Coon chirp from Honey(she is one-half Maine Coon).  Honey leapt from her hiding place in the closet onto Baby.  Honey then backed out of the room into the living room and waited for Baby to hide.  A game ensued... Baby hid.  Honey went looking for him.  When she couldn't find him he pounced out onto her.  They did this for about eight rounds.  A game of hide-and-seek!  It was the coolest thing I had ever seen!!  Not only were they cooperating, they were having fun!!  I laughed and laughed!!  The first time they have had organized play.  I am hoping not the last.

                                       

Time for "Wordplay"!  Since most if not all of us blog and many of us consider ourselves writers, I thought this might be a good question to ask for "Wordplay".  If you were given the chance to successfully write and publish any book, what would it be about and what would the title be?

I think that I would write something semi-autobiographical.  I would try and fill up the pages with humor and wit and inspiration.  That is kind of vague.  I do have some of a book in my head, but it isn't tied together yet.  As for the title, I am not sure either.  That is a hard one.  I have to think about that and get back to you.  I would love to write a children's book and illustrate it, too, someday.   What about you?  Let us know in the comments section.  If you want to answer this in your own journal, please come back and leave the URL to your entry in the comments section so that we can read your entry.  Thanks!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! xox

Tags: Wordplay with Val, VIVI Awards, cats

Scavenger Hunt #93 subject...

    
       


Photo Scavenger Hunt #93 will be due on Sunday. October 22, at 11:00 PM EST.


The subject this week is:  "broken, torn, or run-down"

Please place links to your entry submissions in the comments section, including the full entry URL.  If you have any questions, please email me.  Interpret the subject any way you would like and have fun!!  Thanks for playing!

Tags: Photo Scavenger Hunt, photography

Photo Scavenger Hunt #92 Participants...

Photo Scavenger Hunt #92

The subject this week is: "Trees, leaves, and anything
                                                changing!"


The entries were stunning again this week!  I apologize to the participants for being a day late posting this.  I had way too many appointments yesterday.  Thanks to the following journals that participated!:

     My Photo Journey
     Footprints in the Sand
     Photo Trek
     Holiday Photos
     Gina's Space
     Ye Olde English Posy

...and Mark from Mark's Daily Journal had a late posting from last week here.

Thanks, everyone!

Tags: Photo Scavenger Hunt, photography

Monday Morning Question!

      


What is your favorite chore to  do?  Least favorite?

The idea for this question comes from Merry, who, apparently, LIKES to do a lot of chores.  LOL  Why, Merry, why??  LOL  Thanks, Merry!

My answer:  I think that I don't mind dusting.  I can't say I like it.  LOL  It is kind of neat to see things a bit dusty and then see them neat and shiny.  My list of least favorite chores is rather long.  I don't like to do anything that makes me stand still because it really hurts my muscles.  I don't like doing dishes and laundry and I never iron.  If something needs ironing it almost never gets worn.  What about you?


This may be the last week I have Monday Morning Question, so thanks so much Krissy for allowing me to take care of these games for you!!  It's been an honor and
a good time!  Hopefully, with better health for John and time allowed, Krissy can take her games back!  I will be announcing this week's Hunt subject.  Stay tuned!

Tags: Monday Morning Question

"Wordplay"!...

   
           "A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language,
            of language, and for language. "  
                                                                - Gaston Bachelard


                                  

Good morning, my journal pals!!  It's Saturday morning and time for "Wordplay"!   Names are intriguing to me.  When I named my children I wanted them to have a common enough name so they wouldn't be teased, but not too common, so it would be distinct.  While visiting this site, I found out that my daughter was the only one in the country with her  name!!  Cool, Chelsea!!  Also, her son, Josiah, has only 2 other people with his first and last name!

According to the site How Many of Me, there are almost 300,000,000 people in the U.S.  I'm not sure when this census was taken, so maybe it has passed this number already.  The site claims there are 88,799 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use in this country. 

There are 172 people with my name.  That doesn't surprise me too much because my last name is pretty common and I went to school with quite a few Valeries.

Visit the site and let me know how many of YOU there are!  You DO NOT have to tell me your last name, or even your first name, just how many of you there are.  Mind you, this only works in the U.S.  For those of you outside of the U.S., see if there is anyone with your name in our country and let us know how many!!

I had a lot of fun with this one!  If you want to, after you let us know how many of YOU there are, you can let us know how many of your mate and kids there are and leave a story in the comments section how your kid(s) were named!  Thanks for playing!!  Have a good weekend and don't forget that VIVI nominations begin tomorrow at midnight!  Have a lovely weekend, everyone!  xox

Tags: Wordplay with Val

VIVI nominations begin tomorrow!...

                                
                                         

This is a reminder to everyone that official nominations for the VIVIS Awards begin tonight at midnight P.S.T. and end midnight, Tuesday.  There will be only three days of voting!  If you want your nominations to count click this link - 2006 VIVI Award Journal and put them on your alerts, or visit them after midnight tonight to find out what you need to do!!  You are only allowed one vote per category, you can leave some blank, and you can vote for the same journal for more than one category.  All of your questions will be explained in this journal.  Let's make this FUN!!

                                       

 

Tags: VIVI Awards

Photo Scavenger Hunt #92...

       

Photo Scavenger Hunt #92 will be due on Sunday. October 15, at 11:00 PM EST.


The subject this week is:  "Trees, leaves, and anything
                                                changing!"


I know we already had "Autumn", but I think I introduced it a bit too early.  I think we can get some wonderful shots this week!!  Hope you all have some fun with this!  And, yes, Raven, you can have the leaves blowin' in the wind!

Photo Scavenger Hunt #91 Particpants, etc...

Photo Scavenger Hunt #91

The subject this week is:  sunrises and sunsets

We got some of the most beautiful and stunning pictures I have ever seen and they are worth taking the time to be viewed!  You won't be disappointed!!  I wanted to thank Greg at Photo Trek for the subject idea!  Thanks to the following journals that participated!:

     Photo Trek
     Linda's World
     Confessions of an Angel Waitress
     Sassy's EYE
     Ye Olde English Posy
     Jeannette's Holiday Photos
     The Light's On... But No One's Home
     A Little Left of Center
     Footprints in the Sand
     Northern Trip
     Tammy's Scavenger Hunt Journal
     Gina's Space


I wanted to congratulate Greg, who received first and third place, in a recent professional photography contest.  You can read about it here and view his pictures.  Yes, Greg, you ARE NOT an amateur anymore!!  Greg has a couple photography sites if you want to check them out!

I wanted to thank Paul for including my entries showing my pictures of Josiah in CarnivAOL this week, too!  Thanks, Paul!!  If you want a special entry of yours highlighted in his special journal, visit CarnivAOL.  I will be back a little later to post next week's Photo Hunt subject.  If you have a request, leave it in the comments section.  Have a lovely day! xox

Monday Morning Question!...

 

         


If you could wake up tomorrow morning being suddenly proficient in any musical instrument, which would you pick?


my answer:  I have wanted to play the wooden recorder for some time, so I think I'll pick that.  I have wanted to find a good one for some time and teach myself.  I just haven't done it.  I think the learning is the fun part, too.  I wonder how much one costs?  Anyone know?  What about you?  What would you like to play?

I wanted to thank Krissy for allowing me to continue the Monday Morning Question and the Photo Scavenger Hunt while she has been away and has been busy caring for her husband John.  I am honored that she has given her games over to me for this short time.  Thanks, Krissy!  I will probably be doing them this week and next, and if all is well, Krissy will be taking them back in 14 days.  My prayer is that your lives slow down enough so that you can do this, Krissy!  Thanks for stopping by, everyone, and keeping the games alive! xox

P.S.  I realized that I forgot to do "Wordplay" Saturday morning.  It totally slipped this fibromyalgia-fogged brain.  I will try to do it sometime this week, or pick it back up on Saturday.  Sorry if you came by Saturday morning looking for it.

Six weird things about me...

      
      "I used to think that anyone doing anything weird  
       was weird.  I suddenly realized that anyone doing   
       anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the  
       people saying they were weird that was weird."
                                                          -Paul McCartney



Krissy tagged me with the "six weird things about me" game that is going around.  I, like her, couldn't think of anything right away.  Then it was hard to narrow it down.  LOL  Aren't we ALL weird?!  So here is my list:

     1.  I type with my toes (in my imagination) in the air when I am in bed at night.
        
     2.  I take tags off of everything I wear - shirts, pants, underwear, even shoes,
          before I wear them the first time, so the tag won't bother me.  I don't even
          give the tags a chance to be a nuisance.

     3.  I walk barefoot every chance I can get - even in the winter and even outside
          and am often seen without a coat in the winter.

     4.  I don't like sitting in chairs.  I sit and lie on the floor a lot.

     5.  I don't like pizza very much.  I eat it if it is the only thing available to eat. 
          I would rather eat liver and onions.

     6.  When I am reading journals from U.K. writers, I very often read them with
          a British accent in my head.


Okay, now I tag anyone who dares to be weird also!!  Have a good day and STOP laughing at me!! LOL  xox

                                                    

Photo Scavenger Hunt #91...

              


Photo Scavenger Hunt #91 will be due on Sunday. October 8, at 11:00 PM EST.


The subject this week is:  sunrises and sunsets

This idea came from Greg at Photo Trek.  If you can't get a sunrise picture because you are not an early riser and can't seem to get a good sunset shot, how about any skyshot?!   Let's see the sky in all it's glory this week!   Thanks for the idea, Greg!!

Photo Scavenger Hunt #90 Participants...

Photo Scavenger Hunt #90

The subject this week is:  "Autumn"

The following journals participated in this week's Hunt.   Thanks to all who participated!:


     Northern Trip
     Photo Trek
     Holiday Photos
     Sassy's EYE
     My Photo Journey
     Ye Olde English Posy
     In Quest Of
     Footprints in the Sand
     Linda's World
     My Spot
     Gina's Space


I hope you all take the time to visit and enjoy these links!  I will be back later on today with next week's Hunt subject.  If anyone has a request or suggestion for a subject,  please put it in the comments section.  Thanks! xox
    

Monday Morning Question and a reminder...

         

Where is your dream retirement home?

my answer:  I think I would like to have a home somewhere close to the ocean, but still be close to family and friends.  That, or maybe nestled in a small home in the mountains, away from everyone but close enough to civilization that I can still visit family and friends. Anyone want to buy me a house?  LOL   How about you?


I wanted to remind everyone to keep watch on The Gazette.  Krissy is commenting in there on your submissions!  Thanks!!  I will be back shortly with the Photo Scavenger Hunt participants.  Hope you all are having a lovely Monday morning! xox