Getting Ready

I don't know if you can see this map of Kentucky very clearly, but we're getting ready to go down to Letcher County, Ky. this coming week. It's all the way over in the southeast corner of Kentucky, bordering on Virginia and adjacent to Tennessee (colored in green, between Harlan and Pike Counties). We'll be visiting Eolia, a little town in the midst of coal-mining country, in the heart of the Applachian Mountains. It's a beautiful corner of Kentucky but very poor and with very many needs. We love the friends we've made there and can't wait to see them again.

My mind is swirling with all the things I need to do before we head out ... instructions for our pet-sitter, water plants, finish laundry, groceries we need to take, and for Pete's sake I can't forget to pack the earplugs and our medications. Not to mention sweat bands, cameras, cell phone chargers and GPS (though cell reception down there is very iffy). We've got an enormous pile of donated items to load onto the pickup truck tonight - our friends have given clothing, household items, toys, books, bedding and more - so we're praying for no rain overnight, since we'll be packing up 2 pick-ups with donations. (And we'll still have a lot left in our basement that won't fit this time - another trip later in the summer?)

We're praying for safe travels and a wonderful week! Pictures and posts will follow!

Wordless Wednesday (Pretty in Pink)

Butterflies, Bees, Baths

On a very warm summer Saturday I caught sight of this beautiful butterfly visiting every.single.one. of my coneflowers. So of course I had to take a couple of pictures - he was posing, I swear. I would too, if I were that pretty.

Nothing says "SUMMER!" like tiger lilies!

And bumble bees.

It was bath time for 2 itchy scratching dogs this evening. They don't love their baths but they manage to stand still for a good lathering and rinsing. The hardest part is waiting the 10 minutes for the medicated shampoo to do its work. Ten minutes is a loooong time to hold onto a slippery sudsed-up dog who wants nothing more than to SHAKE himself off. Ugh.

So now our house will smell like wet dog for the next day or so. Yummy.

Then we tackled Beanie, our 20 lb. cat, who also needed a good shampoo. Boy, can that cat put up a fight. He's strong and hates a bath (like any cat would) and will do anything he can to claw his way out of the laundry tub. It took 2 of us to wrangle him and get him bathed. That boy can yowl like he's being murdered - oh, he hates a bath. And so now he's skulking around the house looking like a drowned rat, trying to "wash off" the bath.

Now we're off to do some night time photography - we went out last evening to Devou Park which has an amazing view of downtown Cincinnati (looking from the Kentucky side of the river over into downtown). Who knows where we'll end up tonight??

Before, During and After

A local landmark for the past several years, visible just of I-75 near Monroe, Ohio, was struck by lightning on Monday evening during a thunderstorm. This enormous statue was often referred to as "Touchdown Jesus" and its fiery demise has created a lot of discussion and controversy. They're promising to re-build it "bigger and better" but many (including myself) think the hundreds of thousands of dollars could be better spent by serving the needs of the community.

Sweet Pea ~ Puppy Love ~ Wild Child

Not to mention Soul Mate and Baby Girl and For Ever.

This is what happens when my sweet tooth acts up and there are limited options. I'm eating leftover Valentine's Day candy from our break room at work. It may be 4 months old but fortunately, this kind of candy never goes bad. The blues ones are the BEST!

Losing Their Minds

I have two older sisers - twins - who are about 18 months older than I am. When we were younger, we would fuss and argue and fight and not always get along so well. In high school, they were in the popular crowd, had boyfriends, went to parties, all that. I was the geeky little sister, not so cute, not as popular, hung around with my friends in the band but still had fun in my own way. Thankfully, as we've grown up, we've become much closer and are in touch with each other all the time. We live in different parts of town, but there's always some reason we're talking or texting or visiting one another.

One of my favorite things to do in recent years is to tease them whenever I get the chance, that they're "becoming our mother." Now that's not a bad thing, no, not at all - we love our Mom to pieces and work together to take care of her and check up on her. It's just that there are times, you know, when all of a sudden you see a "Mom" expression on the face, or hear a "Mom" kind of comment - that kind of thing. And sometimes they're forgetful, or remember an event so differently than I do (seriously, sometimes you'd think we grew up in different houses, with different parents and vastly different childhood experiences) - so I tease them.

Here's a good example from sister Rose, this evening as we texted back and forth:

Rose: "What was the instumental group that Mom uswd to have their record? It was kind of a little bluesy ..." (She can't text very well either.)

Me: "No idea!!" (Complete blank - what could she be thinking of??)

Rose: (A while later) "Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Margy knew. :)"

Me: "OK First of all it was dad who liked that."

Me: "And 2nd that is Latin music. Not blues or jazzy! You are so confused!"

Rose: "Oh I didn't remember that part."

Rose: "That's me very confused about music!"

She cracks me up. Especially the part where Margy "remembered" and was just as confused as she was.

This is Margy. Rose looks just like her since they're identical. Execpt they both dye their hair from time to time, and can look different because of that. HA! They're so gray (and I'm not, na-na-na-na!)

Wordless Wednesday

** Photo by Emily **