Back Home

I will be home again tomorrow afternoon. I was glad to help and will be glad to be home. I leave hoping the rest of my mother's healing process goes well.

If you are wondering I found the plane in the DandielionsDreams shop on Etsy.

My Month, My Flower

Do you think it is a coincidence that my birthday is in June and my favorite flower is the rose? I like simple daisies too but nothing to me is prettier than a rose, any type, any color.

A few years ago my birthday, roses and a trip to Portland all pleasantly came together when Jim and I got to visit Portland, Oregon during the rose festival. I always fall in love with cities with rivers and Portland certainly fits that. Two other trips and places I really enjoyed were Missoula, Montana and Nashville, Tennessee.

Enough of this let me show you some of the roses from the gardens of Portland. The photographer here was my husband. Although we did many things during our visit the rainy afternoon at the rose gardens was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Create A Thought

Life is too short to have boring things in your life,

welcome to my shop full of color and things for you to enjoy,

and make your life bright!

I love writing.

I love the swirl and swing of words

as they tangle with human emotions.

Above is part of the shop announcement greeting at Create A Thought on Etsy. I was so impressed by the phrase "words as they tangle with human emotions". What a concept. So well said. I think this is why people blog that is to tangle or maybe sometimes untangle emotions with words.
On to the shop. Look and of course click below to see these things and more.

Reading 2009- Harry Potter Series

Early this year I figured it was time to read the Harry Potter books. I found them all in the young adult section of the library and got started. I read one through four quickly and enjoyed them all. I am not an in depth literary critic so that is the best you will get from me most of the time. I read for enjoyment or to learn something new. I try not to over analyze anything and maybe that is just my lazy way of getting through life but frankly is saves me a lot of stress.

Anyway back to Harry. When I went to get the fifth book they were all checked out. On later visit I was able to get the last three books and read them all together. The story was wonderful and I enjoyed it from beginning to the very end. I have two thoughts to share with you about the whole thing. First as I was reading the books I felt that I was not only following the students of Hogwarts as they grew up but seeing the author becoming a better storyteller with each book. The one place I think she lost it a bit was at the very end. I am a bit confused about how Harry came back to life after his final conversation with Dumbledore. I don't know how it could have been done better though and that is why I only write on this little blog and not novels.

Have you read them all? Have you not bothered to read them? What do you think about the books versus the movies that have been made? I love comments so feel free to leave some.

Reading 2009- Divine Justice by David Baldacci

Another bit of fast paced reading by one of my favorite authors. You just know the bad guys will get it in the end but getting there keeps you turning the pages. John Carr has some pretty amazing friends in his Camel Club.

You can find out all about the author David Baldacci and his work at the David Baldacci website.

If you have been following this series of Reading 2009 posts this is the last of the books that I took back to the library on the 4th of May. I have spread out publishing the posts over a couple weeks. I don't want the blog to be all about one thing. I plan to post books from now on after I finish them but knowing me I will probably write them all up on library day just before I take them back and will mix the book posts in with others.

Reading 2009- Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva

This book fed my need for a spy thriller that was fast paced and entertaining. do you ever read these things and wonder if situations as presented in this kind of book ever really happen? Then again maybe we really never want to know.

Other books by this author, Daniel Silva are

• The Defector ( coming in July 2009)
  
• The Secret Servant
• The Messenger
• Prince of Fire
• A Death in Vienna

and more.....

If this kind of book is something you enjoy you can find out a lot more at Daniel Silva Books.

If you read spy thrillers is Silva one of your favorites? What other authors do you recommend?

Look Who Is 3 Now

She is not normally this serious. I liked capturing this moment during my last visit.
This is my granddaughter who turned 3 last weekend.
Happy Birthday Posie!

Getting Out The Door

brush teeth, floss teeth, rinse mouth, whiten teeth,shower or bath, shave, shampoo, condition, wash all your body parts, exfoliate, moisturize, pluck, deodorize, foundation, shadow, mascara, lipstick, perfume, comb out, blow dry, curl, put up or wear down, clothes, shoes, watch, rings, necklace, bracelets, purse, car keys, cell phone and on and on and on

I have decided it takes too many words to get out the door.

Reading 2009 - Eyes at the Window by Evie Yoder Miller

Evie Yoder Miller has created a story that follows a community and its families brought together and pulled apart by the murder of a small child. For fifty years the effects on the people involved are told in multiple character voices against a background of pioneer movement west and the Amish church at the time. The event was real but the next 50 years to the real ending are told in a way that puts you inside the lives of those affected.

If you enjoy historical fiction about American in the early 1800's you will want to find this book published in 2003.

The Long Way Home

View Larger Map
I hope you all had a pleasant weekend. I know I did. On Friday after Jim got off work we went to Payson and spent the night. Leaving Payson on Saturday we did something that is not so unusual for us. We decided to follow a road and just see where we ended up. Going north on the Beeline Highway (Highway 87) I lost track of how many climates we went through. The highest sign I remember was about 7500 feet elevation. It was beautiful among the pine trees. Going down toward I-40 we reentered desert and drove towards Flagstaff.

Along the way I saw the sign for the impact crater. Just because it was one of our wandering around to see what we can see, take the long way home trips we decided to stop. You can take a guided walk along the rim and learn more about what happened here. The walk is about 1 mile total and only goes part of the way around. If you go you will want to wear closed shoes for the gravel path and forget about your hair because it is usually windy.

After leaving there we went to the junction of I-17 and headed south. That really isn't such a pretty way to come back into Phoenix so we cut across on highway 260 back to Payson, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and came the rest of the way home. You can see on the map the trip we took. We left Payson before noon and got home about 7:30 that evening.
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Sunday was a nice quiet day. I got Jim to help me hang some curtains. He did some yard work. We actually watched a movies without going to sleep. We grilled some turkey burgers and had them with sweet potato fries. How is that for a summer time version of Thanksgiving?

Reading 2009- Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson

What a mix this book was! Cultural, historical, biography and autobiography all in one text about a wandering American who discovers New Zealand and finds a husband. I thoroughly enjoyed all parts of it.

The author, Christina Thompson for now lives in Boston with the discovered husband and 3 sons.

To learn more about this book in a much better way than I could ever do go to the Come On Shore webite. If you read this book let me know. I would love to hear from you.

Reading 2009 Dying to Live by Joseph Nevins

I have decided to try a post about all the books I read. The posts will be titled and tagged reading 2009. I am mainly doing this for myself. I am a big list maker and since I have this blog I thought the best way to make a book list for myself is to use it.

If you find a book here that you enjoy or makes you laugh, cry or think in a new way on my list that would thrill me. I read all kinds of things so what you find in my posts may be light entertainment, a mystery, a biography or who knows? If you have read anything I post about feel free to leave a comment after all that is what bloggers hope for with every post. We want to engage the audience (that is you) in some small way or at least I do. I guess I shouldn't speak for all bloggers, right?

Dying to Live is not the first book I read this year but is is the first book since I decided on this project. I don't buy many books so the early reads of 2009 are back at the library and I don't even want to try to remember them all. Written by Joseph Nevins it personalizes the story of the border between Mexico and the US. It makes me so sad to think that so many journeys started with hope end in tragedy.

If you have read this book please leave a comment. I would like to know how it affected you.

A Day Late

I am begging forgiveness from a grandson who had a birthday yesterday. When my grandkids have birthdays I usually put up a picture of them here to wish them a happy birthday on the blog.
I did talk to this grandson on the phone yesterday. His big excitement was about a Star Wars t shirt he got that glows in the dark. It sounds really cool to me.
So a day late but with a lot of love I say-

Happy Birthday Hunter!