Photo Challenge #18 - Bridges

Ok, now you have to be kind! Please remember that we live in a rather rural part of Colorado.....no city scapes here with big, beautiful bridges like you would find in Melbourne, Australia or San Fransisco, California!! We like to think we have our own kind of charm, which at times might not be quite as obvious! I'm really trying hard to share those parts of why we like living here, through the pictures I post on this blog.

So when I set out to look for bridges to photograph this weekend, it wasn't quite as easy to come up with ideas right off the bat, but we did manage some!

The first two pictures were taken just across the road from where we live. A few years ago, some people put in a private campground. It's very nice and many people (with big, expensive motor homes) come and spend months on end there! They have a little pond with a water wheel and a foot bridge......

And this one is a repeat of several weeks ago! I also used it for the "Symmetry" challenge! Hey, let's recycle when we can, right? This bridge is at a lake about 10 miles to the north of where we live.
As we were out traveling the backroads today, we came upon this cute little footbridge. The people who own the house had put it in to access the road, from their yard, across the irrigation ditch!! Their driveway was just a boring culvert "bridge" crossing the ditch....certainly without the charm that this bridge has!!

Thanks for having a peek! I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with!! Have a great week!!

You Make the Difference!

James and Mikey

Today was James' second cub scout meeting. When he got in the car after the meeting he said, "Guess what I got tonight? Guess what Miss Cindy (the cubmaster) gave me?" Well, being as new as I am to scouting, I hadn't any idea and when James pulled a pretty coin out of his pocket, I was as thrilled as he was! He explained to me that it was a "You Make the Difference" coin and Miss Cindy had awarded it to him for being an outstanding scout and friend at Friday night's tailgate party/football game!

Let me backtrack a bit.....at the game, I had given James some money so that he and his friend, Mikey, could go and get the three of us drinks. A little while later, the boys came back with the news that James had lost the money on the way to the snack bar (high school football stadium+lots of people= money gone!) While I wasn't terribly upset, (he IS only almost 8!!) I had to tell the boys that I didn't have anymore money with me, so we'd have to forgo our drinks. A few minutes later, Mikey was in tears thinking that HE was in trouble. James was upset that Mikey was crying and put his arm around him and talked to him, to reassure him that he wasn't in trouble.....that Mikey had only been with James when HE had lost the money! Miss Cindy witnessed all of this and quickly came to the rescue, giving the boys some more money to go get drinks.

A few lessons were learned that evening......James learned a good lesson about holding on to money (and I think so did Mikey, through James) even though he thought it was in his pocket! But more importantly, James took the time to think about a friend who was upset and helped to make him feel better! The fact that Cindy caught all of that in the chaos of the evening, while trying to keep an eye on 21 little boys, truly amazed me. After only one week plus, I'm already impressed with her scoutleading abilities and the way she makes the boys feel so good about what they are doing! As James finished telling me about tonight's meeting he looked at me, with a huge smile on his face and said, "I love Cub Scouts, Mom!!" Yippee!!

The Week That Got Away....

Well, I lost track of time. Too much going on and lack of organization I suppose, but I've missed the "posting window" for this week's photo challenge. I was only able to come up with a couple of pictures this week (this week's theme was "Mornings"), but when came to my computer to post them this evening, I found that Helen's collage was already complete. That's what I get, thinking that I could "stretch" it into the work-week. I know I really need to get my pictures posted here by Sunday evening and that'll be my rule from now on! My hat is off to all the ladies who did such a terrific job with their photos this week......it wasn't an easy challenge! You all did a great job!!

I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next week!! See you then!!!

A New Chapter

James started second grade on August 20th. He's settling well into the school routine. He is also enrolled in the afterschool program (a wonderful program of extra-curricular activities), hanging out there until I can pick him up when I get off from work, now that Dusty is working for the school district as an evening (2pm-11pm) custodian.

After the first week of school, James decided that he also wanted to join the Cub Scouts, so we've jumped in with both feet. Yesterday was his first meeting and this evening I finished sewing all the patches on his new uniform! I took these pictures this evening as he tested it all out! Tomorrow night is their first "event", when they have a tailgate party at the Olathe High School Homecoming Football Game! We will all be in attendance to root on those Pirates!!

James is pretty excited about being a Cub Scout and Dusty and I are excited for him and are looking to all he will gain from the experience!!

I couldn't get over how grown up James looks. I know, in part, it's the uniform (don't you love a man in a uniform?? LOL) but he just looks so much older to me all of the sudden. The boy certainly has blossomed and I'm very happy that he has chosen the scouting path. I hope he'll stick with it for awhile. The group of scouts at his school is a good group of boys, many of whom he already knows. I like the things that scouting stresses.....the leadership and that especially when they are wearing their uniforms they are setting an example for the others in the school.


James has really enjoyed knowing that both Dusty and my Dad were Boy Scouts! Dusty dug out his old handbook from when he was James' age.....it was copywritten 1964!! It's a wonderful book, even though it's "a little" outdated, and James quickly emersed himself in learning the "secret code" and wrote us both letters in it!! Too funny!!

So here's to the world of scouting as we delve into it as a family!! Beware.....there are many more scouting pictures to come!!

Photo Challenge #16 - ANIMALS

Better late than never.....and I think (and hope!) that I made it before Helen's weekly cutoff for putting together the photo challenge collage that she does so well!!

Here are my contributions for this week......

Our puppy, Lacey, who is now 9 months old. She's on my *%#@ list this evening as she got into trouble while in her kennel today. She broke the bottom tray and distroyed the carpeting underneath.....in the corner of James' room! Just when you want to throttle them they do something cute or endearing. Kinda like kids, eh??!!! LOL She'll always be loved and well cared for in this family and this is the first real damage she's ever done. The human element was definitely involved there, too, as she wasn't left with a bone to chew on. Hopefully, we've ALL learned from this experience!! Oh well, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent.....just a bit frustrated tonight!!

Moving on, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to include a picture of "the girls" from the dairy up the road, enjoying their evening meal!!
And my friend, Debbie, currently has a whole bunch (flock?) of goats on her pasture and she invited us up to have a look. I think there are around 60 goats in total.

We got there at feeding time and had a great time watching them. They are difficult to photograph, thought, as they are in constant motion. James fell in love with a month-old baby, that they've named "Bart", who is blind. He is so sweet and is really struggling.....he really tugs at the heartstrings!! James can't wait to go back!

These were my two favorite pictures from this afternoon's adventure with the goats.

Photo Challenge #15 - ABSTRACT

I took a walk around my neighborhood, to take pictures for this week's challenge.

This one is a look into the world of the Russian Sage! This plant is in the corner of our yard and is beautiful at this time of year, with it's purple flowers! The honeybees love it too!
A close up of a sunflower, grown to feed the birds this coming winter. This flower has seen it's prime, but is still pretty in it's own way.
I caught my neighbor watering her yard, and she was glad to help me with this shot! I thought that the water droplets looked pretty cool with the tree leaves in the background!
This one was a last minute thought. Dusty has just finished painting out livingroom. He's painted 3 of the walls a mocha color. The 4th wall is painted this "burgandy texture"......I took a closeup picture of it and it looks kinda weird here. Guess sometime soon I'll have to post a picture of the whole wall so you can see how nice it really does look!! In the evenings, with the lighting low it looks like fabric on the wall! But anyway, I thought that the picture was interesting!!

Thanks for a fun challenge Lotti!! What's next girls?? I'm ready and waiting with camera in hand!! Have a great week!!

Photo Challenge #14 - SYMMETRY

The pickings for my contributions to this week's challenge were mighty slim. We just didn't do much over this long holiday weekend.....just hung out around the house and relaxed. The only reason we left the house was when we realized that my car had a dead battery at 4:30 this afternoon and we had to hightail it to WalMart for a replacement battery! These pictures were taken while we waited for the new battery to be installed! We had driven separate vehicles so we wouldn't be stuck at WalMart and could go for a walk around the lake while we waiting.....a good idea in theory, except a big rain storm blew in and we never were able to get out of the truck!! Ever have "one of those weekends"??!!!?? So these couple of pictures were taken from inside the truck!!

The bridge over the creek that feeds into the lake.


The grain silos across the road from the lake.
This picture was taken on our camping trip a few weeks back. An okay illustration of symmetry, I guess. Looking back through old pictures, I found I've posted much better examples of symmetry, even in the last few weeks, and those pictures were supposed to be demonstrating OTHER things!! Oh well, next week will be better and I'm already looking forward to seeing what you have up your sleeves for us!!

Have a wonderful week everyone!!