December??

My boys have been giving me a hard time because I don't really care to hear or play Christmas music. At first, I had an issue with it, as two of our local radio stations started to play Christmas music on November 7th!! That is WAY too early. I typically start playing it on Thanksgiving. Which I did. I had an instrumental Christmas station playing on Pandora. I figured that would be the catalyst and I'd be in a Christmas mood after that. However, the next day, I tried to play some and it just didn't work for me. So I went back to my regular music.

I've played my Oh, For Joy! CD by David Crowder Band. I've played TSO. I'm still not there. I hear it in stores and other businesses, but it's just not happening for me. We don't yet have our tree up and I thought that perhaps that was part of it.

And then last week, it dawned on me. It's the weather. I'm pretty sure we've only had snow in town once this year. ONCE. In Colorado. And it's December 3rd! Not only is there no snow, but the temperatures have been in the lower 60s most days (as high as 65!). It's definitely the weather that's throwing me off. It just feels like a nice October fall day, not December, and definitely not nearing Christmas.

Now I realize that for some of you, the whole snow and cold weather thing is irrelevant (southern Cal, some Texas friends, Floridians, etc.), but living most of my life in Colorado, this is just not normal. It's very strange. And really very bad because we're experiencing record drought here. Given that we are already living in a semi-arid climate and the fires we've had over the past dozen of years, this is very bad.

So I'm going to pray like crazy for some moisture and SNOW. Our state needs the moisture desperately and I'd like to feel just a little more Christmasy.

On a funny side note, we watched White Christmas (I just love that movie!) last night and when they arrive in Vermont, the big draw is supposed to be all the glorious snow, but there's none. In fact, it's warm and lovely - kind of like Colorado. When Bob, Phil, Betty, and Judy step off the train, we commented that they must be in Colorado.

A Little Dusty

Wow. It's a little dusty over here at the old blog. I guess you could say I took a bit of a sabbatical. That sounds so much better than I just never got around to blogging for the past month, right? So, how about some random catching up? You know much I love the randomness of life.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

One of the bigger events is that my oldest, Caleb, turned 19!

He loves to jump off of things. Of course, I love to photograph it.

He's just a smidgen under 6' tall now. Not that you can tell from the pictures. I can't believe he's 19, though. Where on earth did the time go?

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

I took a trazillion, er, maybe 1800+ photos in October. Perhaps that's why I never blogged. I was behind the viewfinder much of the month. (So that's where I've been!) My niece is always a willing subject for my picture-taking madness.

But don't let this serene image fool you...

...she's really a wild child!

(Yes, that's a guinea pig on her shirt. They have 5 of them at their house. Not including the one on her shirt.)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

John had a birthday this month, too. But I won't tell you his age, since it's not polite after a certain point, right? But I will tell you that both the boys are taller than he is. Not that height has to do with age, either, but there it is. Zach's about 6'1-1/2". His goal is to be taller than his uncle, who is 6'3". Since he's just 17, I think he has a shot at it.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

We still had some beautiful fall colors, since the weather was so mild.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

We also had our first snow of the year.

I didn't say we had a LOT of snow. Just the first one.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

There were some amazing sunsets.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

We played with some long shutter speeds.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

We visited some friends at their barn. No, they're not llamas. But they've been friends for a long, long time now. We used to be next door neighbors, once upon a time.

These three were about 2, 6, and 4, respectively back in those days. And yes, they're all tall. Once again, the time it does fly.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Not that there weren't other happenings in October, but based upon a somewhat quick perusal of the 1800+ pictures I took, these were some highlights. Besides, I think this post has gotten long enough. I should save something for tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday - Snow Cherub

Okay, I know that wordless pretty much means without words. But I just have to say that I SUPER LOVE this photo. And not because I took it. Well, I love that I took it. But I also just LOVE it. Not sure that I can even explain why. But I do. So Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone. I hope you shot something you love!

Check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub for some more wordless goodness.

Snowy Night

There's a street light on the other side of our neighbor's house across the street. I love the way it lights up the trees and snow in the winter at night time.

But I couldn't decide if I liked the image brighter or a little darker. What do you think?

Colorado Weather

The weather is rarely boring in Colorado. It goes from one extreme to the next in short order.

Earlier this week - 70s, sunshine, gorgeous.

Today - 30s, snowy, still gorgeous.

Wordless Wednesday - Ice Drop

For more wordlessness, check out Gabriel's blog.

Wordless Wednesday - Snow Angel

For more wordlessness, go here, here, or here.

Wordless Wednesday - Road Trip

For more wordlessness, go here and here. Enjoy!

Frozen Fingers

...are worth this, right?

House (?) Cleaning & Snow, Snow, Snow

One of my email accounts has just been transfered by my ISP, so I figured it was a great time to start cleaning house on my computer. I have too many email accounts, member accounts with various websites, etc. I am also on WAY too many mailing lists, which means I don't read most of them anymore.

So I'm merrily going along and UNSUBSCRIBING like crazy. Then I can start fresh with just a FEW that I actually have the time and interest to read on a regular basis. Whew! I love email, the internet, IMing, blogs, etc., but it also provides an opportunity for me to add more STUFF in my life. Just as I have to be careful with allowing more to come into the house, I really need to be more diligent in not allowing so much information to enter my home through the computer! At least with housecleaning, I'm getting some sort of physical activity. With computer cleaning, I'm just stirring up my carpel tunnel problems, drying out my eyes (already switched to glasses), and causing a stiff back (sounds like I'm old, huh?)! I'm not very good at remembering to get up and stretch and blink and all those good things I'm supposed to do for myself!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's also snowing again today here in lovely Colorado. We've had more snow in the past few weeks than we've probably had in the past few winters! The boys and I got out and built snow forts. I also got to bury them! (They asked me to) Then it was time to come inside, warm up with some lunch, blankets, a fire, and a movie. Definitely a perfect Friday.

It's Snowing!

Not that it's the first day of snow this winter, but it's the first beautiful day of snow! Absolutely gorgeous! The boys' Scout meeting got cancelled, enabling us to enjoy an evening of Scattergories and fresh-baked cookies. While blog-hopping tonight, I came across this cool website where you can cut out your own virtual snowflake. That seemed rather fitting for today.

I made two snowflakes at Make-A-Flake, but since I barely know anything about html, web pages, and blogs, I have NO idea how to get the link from my snowflakes into this blog. Phooey! I did email them to myself, but there they sit.

I'll have to settle for a couple of amazing frost pictures from last winter. Looking at the detail is just so incredible! God is an awesome artist!!



"I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works." Psalm 146:5