I love photographs. I'm sure that I love them more than your average person. In my next life, I want to be a dancer and a photographer.
Mostly I love photographs of people I love. Then maybe of places that I love.

I have two of the most wonderful, beautiful daughters in the whole world. They are so much more beautiful than I could ever think of being. I love to look at them.

And even though they are beautiful to look at, they are even more beautiful inside. My girls are strong, determined, kind, gentle and in tune with their Heavenly Father.

The Flora

All the beautiful flowers I had in my yard are all gone! Kaput! Dried up and blown away. All those colorful photos I posted -- here's what's left.


Oh, there are some green leaves left, but a lot of them are brown. A lot of the green you see in the background is the grass or weeds that have grown up around the roses. Weeds grow very well in Arizona.
These photos are my hydrangea and my geranium. (If the photos end up where I think I am inserting them. Okay, so that didn't work. How in the heck do you get the photos placed where you want them or at least get the text near the photos you are commenting on????) I need blogging lessons. All the pictures I try to add go up by the other pictures. What am I doing wrong?
So the two photos of the pots with dried up, brown sticks are my hydrangea and my geranium (and for some reason the hydrangea is turned sideways). I am not sure what happened to my hydrangea. I was able to keep it alive all through last summer but I guess some kind of bug got to it. It just died. I have never been able to keep a geranium alive through a summer. I even buy the "Zonal" geraniums which are supposed to make it through the hot Arizona summers. NOT! At least for me. Goodbye green thumb, hello brown thumb.
Report Card:
Blogging grade . . . F

Deep Thoughts (By Jack Handy????)

Actually, my thoughts aren't all that deep. I just tend to think more in the early morning hours that I do during the rest of the day. Maybe that is why morning prayers are so important. Growing up, I was taught to say bedtime prayers. It wasn't until I was quite a bit older that I started saying evening prayers.

• Thought: I went out to water my few remaining (brown, scraggly, sick-looking) plants this morning while I was still barefoot, and I noticed that there were patches of my lawn that were very warm. I don't know why. At first, I thought that maybe a cat had been lying in that spot and warmed it up. . . but there were three or four spots (1 to 2 feet in diameter) that were warm and there aren't that many cats roaming the neighborhood right now, nor would four of them come lie on the same lawn at the same time and all run away when I came out. That is strange.

• Thought: I'm going to give up sugar. Well, sort of. I know I am addicted to sugar. I also feel that part of the reason that so many of the joints in my body are sore and ache all the time is because I eat too much sugar. Besides, even if that is not the reason I ache, overcoming my addiction to sugar is a good idea anyway. I think that after I have gone month or more without sugar, that maybe I can introduce it again into my diet in small, controlled amounts. (I just can't imagine a life totally devoid of ANY frozen yogurt.) I guess we'll see how that goes. We had a lesson in R.S. last Sunday on Self Discipline and how to put it into practice in our lives. I asked Edonna for a copy so I could bring it home and study it more.
• Thought: I am grateful for my son-in-laws who have been very good to me lately. It adds tremendously to my general well-being and enjoyment of life. I appreciate that Jason is willing to look at me and see who I am instead of who he thought I would be or expected me to be.
• Thought: I have had an "empty nest" for about seven years now and it is still hard for me. I miss family. I miss having children around. I miss the bustle and the noise. I am glad that Christian and Leslie and Cecily and Jason live close enough and will let me just "drop in" sometimes to partake of family life. I'm glad that Jen is willing to make the long drive. On the other hand, it is a good thing that I don't have children 24/7 because my body is just getting worn out. Mentally and emotionally I want that. Physically sometimes, I just can't do it.
  

The flowers are all DEAD!

They really are. The rose bushes are probably still alive, but everything else is dead except for my asparagus fern and the lantana. Even the hybrid, heat-resistant plants died. It just got too hot this summer.

So it's been three months since I last posted anything. But I've been gone. In May Jennie and Ken invited David and I to come stay with them in Las Vegas where they were taking Ryan and Britni for an extra wedding gift trip. We had fun being with Jennie and family and they weather was nice, but I really dislike Las Vegas. It just seems so sleazy and degenerate to me.

In June I went to New York. I bought a ticket to be there for Anna's jaw surgery and then the surgery got postponed. I missed Anna so much and was so stressed out about other unsettling things that I just decided to go anyway. Joel went too and we had a great time, but I was gone for 10 whole days!

Three days after returning from NYC, I left for Utah, driving up with the duPonts (all but Jason). We were gone the 7th of July through the 17th. David flew up the evening of the 10th and drove back to Arizona with us.

Anna came out to Arizona on July 21st and stayed until August 5th.
On August 6th we had planned to go to Las Vegas again for David's 46th year high school class reunion. David's mom, Eilene, had gone to stay in a private home where she could have companionship and nursing care (as needed) and no one was living in her house. Vicki said that we could come stay in her home. We asked her if it was okay if Jennie and Ken came and stayed with us while we were there and she said it was fine. So Jennie and Ken met us in Las Vegas for a quick four-day vacation without kids. (The first time Jennie left without Kasia since she was diagnosed with diabetes.)

Hey! This one never got posted. I guess because I never finished it. Oh well. I'll just post this much and tell you about the rest of my summer later. Let's see how these photos diplay.

Just Photos (mostly flowers)

So here are my photos of my flowers. I have no idea why this text is underlined. The older I get the less I know.

De-junking! Clean it out! Toss it!

The garage is about half-way done here. The dirt and junk doesn't really show up too well.

I still have a lot to do. I guess we are going to have a garage sale next Saturday. We are getting rid of lots of stuff. Stuff that has been sitting around gathering dust for 30 years or so. I appreciate the help received by Cecily, Leslie, Christian, Joel, Arinda, Britt, Annika, Kaisa and of course Sofia and Tressa who supplied the diversion and entertainment.

More pictures will follow.