This Is So Sad...

This is so sad.  Mr, Cruise, I hope you haven't caused women and babies their lives by your lack of knowlege.  When you choose to speak up about something, please KNOW what you are talking about!  Let's hope this does the reverse as Ms. Shields hopes.

Kids and The Moon...

Madman Michael wrote a wonderful and informative entry about the moon and asked us if we had any "moon stories".  That got me thinking.  And reminiscing and laughing....

    

When Matt was young he had an active imagination.  One morning when he was about 20 months old Chelsea, Matt and I went behind my home onto a playground to play.  It was early enough in the morning where you could still see the moon.  It was big and bright and very, very close to the earth.  When Matt saw it his eyes got as big as saucers and he said, "Moooommmmmy!  A ball!"  Then he tried really hard to reach out and touch the moon!  Then he looked at me and asked me to get it.  He kept saying, "A ball!  A ball!"  Poor thing wanted to play with that ol' moon!  LOL  I had to try to explain to him as best as I could that the moon could not come down to the earth and play with us.  He was getting frustrated!  He wanted ME to pull it in!!  Ah, memories!  I laugh about that one alot still.

Another moon memory I have is when Chelsea and I and her father were driving in a car and Chels was in the back seat and she saw the moon or recognized it for the first time anyway.  She was just a tiny thing.  She looked back at it.  She was amazed.  Then wherever we went that night she kept commenting on how it was following us.  She became VERY upset that it wouldn't go away.  She was despondent that the moon kept following her!  Awww, poor thing.  She started to cry.  I guess it was hard for me to explain the moon to my kids at such an early age.

Do you guys have any moon stories when your kids were tiny?

I am off to see my Matteo...he just awoke!  Love to all! xox

And The Winner Is..And Matt!!...

Yay!!  Matt is here!!!  Matt is here!!!  Matt is here!!!  I am so happy and excited that Matt is here!!  He got here at 11 o'clock this morning!!  He will be here for twelve days!!  I may be away a bit from journals, but not totally.  So don't be worried :-)

The picture for "Up Close With Val" yesterday was my Baby's paw!!!  See...

   It is easier to see that it is a paw when it is smaller, right?  It kind of looks like a paw now, huh?  I think so.  Anyway, I got it from a larger picture of Baby.  I was taking pictures of him yesterday.  It's funny...Baby is like a toddler when I pull out my camera - he gets so excited! LOL  He meows and purrs and runs to it and then he poses!  It is the funniest thing...    

 

Here he is posing!  See his tail wagging?  Up and down, up and down!  And he is kneading his paws!!  See how they are curling?  Too funny!  The paw you see there is the one I zoomed in on and cropped for the guessing game.

Oh, the correct guesser?!  It was Krissy.  Here is your blue ribbon, Krissy!:

             

Amy, who has a brand new journal, also guessed the cat's paw correctly.  Go check out her journal and support her!  Oh, and one more, Sara!!  She guessed correctly on her third guess...LOL  So, thanks everyone for playing!  It was fun!

Now I am off to go find Matt and have some dinner.  Yep, did I tell you he likes to cook :-)   Oh, and he cleans the dishes as he goes!  Aren't I lucky!!  Toodles, all!! xox

         

"Up Close With Val"!...

Howdy and happy Wednesday!!  I have an "Up Close With Val" for you today!  I haven't done one for awhile!  I've been so preoccupied!  What do you think this picture is??  Put your guess in the comment's section or send your guess to valphish@aol.com 

                    

Have a super day everyone and enjoy!!! xox

Okay...

So, I just posted an entry and it RAN ALL TOGETHER and now it won't let me press the EDIT button, WHAT IS UP??  Sorry if you guys can't read my entry...

Odds and Ends...

Dear God, so far today, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, and I haven't lost my temper.

I haven't been grumpy, nasty or selfish, and I'm really glad of that!

But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed, and from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot of help.

Thank you! Amen.  

 ____ 

Do you ever feel like this when you get up?  It sure was hard for me to get up today!  I tried to stay up all night last night.  It felt so, so strange without Chelsea here.  I finally heard from here around 2:30am.  They cancelled her flight yesterday and she and her friends (she went home with two friends) had to spend hours scrambling for a flight.  To top it off, their luggage was mis-placed!  I hope it is returned today!  Yes, it IS mighty quiet here today!  I miss you, Chels!!  It really hasn't sunk in that she is gone.  I imagine it will in a few days.   I have a couple of interesting photos to show you.  I want to warn you that they have rats in them.  We had two rats here this week.  Not in the house, but in a cage.  Chelsea was watching them for a friend who is on vacation.  Now they are on my charge.  I DON'T like rats, but I won't neglect them.  The pics I have for you are of my kitties playing with the rats.  One of the rats look astonishingly like my Baby.  Now, I didn't like that!  I was picturing Baby all week as a 12 pound rat!!! LOL  So, here are the pics...   

           

See, THEY DO look alike!!  The rat is to the left...See! 
           

             

Look how BIG Honey's eyes are! LOL  She looks transfixed! LOL  Baby is playing with the one that looks like him.  His name is Tito.  Mona, the other rat was not very social.  It was very interesting to see how the cats reacted to them.  Baby rolled on the floor and purred and purred and meowed.  Honey just stared! LOL  That is the last you will see of the rats.  I promise.   Are you all still here?  No one has fainted, right?  Sorry if that bothered anyone.  Rats aren't, like I said, my favorite either.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend!  It has been so, so hot in my neck of the woods.  No one is really venturing out very much.  It has peaked near 100 degrees.  And it is so muggy!  It is 93 degrees right now.  Yuck.  

I wanted to share with you all a couple of journals and journalers that I have recently met and think are very special.   

 Kellen is in high-school and is so inspirational.  He shares his Roman Catholic faith so eloquently in his journal at this address:  

Faith In Roman Catholicism  

He is a MUST read for any Catholic and is inspirational for anyone and has wisdom beyond his years!!  

Mark lives with chronic pain and is a tremendous artist.  He is super-intelligent and is very kind.  He is inspirational for those of us who are living with day-to-day struggles.  His address is here:  

Mark's Daily Journal   Mark also has a separate journal he keeps just for his artwork and photography.  It is incredible!!  Go see!:  

Landscape Artwork   Pay them both a visit if you can, it will bless you, I promise!!  

Hey, did you feed the hungry today?  

Ooops, sorry about all the links...I haven't written in awhile.  I wanted to save up all my time for Chelsea.  I have about ten journal entries stored up in my head!!  I hope to get them down soon!  Have a wonderful Sunday, all!!  Sending out love and joy! xox

One Word...

Please leave a one word comment (with your journal addy) that you think best describes me.  It can only be one word.  No more.

Then copy and paste this into your journal so that I may leave a word about you... (Stolen from Christina at My Journey With Multiple Sclerosis)