Peace of Mind

A little late, but better than never right? I shot this photo on Sunday as we drove to Anthony's Dad's. The fresh fallen snow made everything look fresh and soothing.

The next week or so is going to be full of chaos and adjustments for me as we welcome my first grandchild into this world. I do hear rumors that I am to be party to a "backwoods photo shoot" on Saturday though, so I may actually have a chance to post something for the next theme. I have temporarily put poetry writing on the back burner though as that requires much more thought process than I am capable of at the moment. My mind is currently filled to the brim with baby related agenda.

The majority of this week's submissions centered on the new fallen snow. Run on over to Photography139 and check them out!

Restaurant

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was 'Restaurant'. I have been eating on the go way too much lately with Sis still in the hospital, but somehow most of my meals were never eaten inside a restaurant this week. Save one, Friday Night Supper Club, where I didn't even think about pulling out my camera. In fact, it didn't even occur to me until the next day that Chris was working on his challenge project during our weekly ritual. You can check out his and the several other fun submissions over at Photography139.

At some point during the weekend I mentioned to Anthony that I hadn't given any consideration to this week's project. He had a few ideas that he thought I could be creative with so we set out on a little road trip around Greene County.

Why don't you venture along with us?

As we drove by I realized I had actually eaten breakfast at this little restaurant many sunrises ago. I was surprised that the birds hadn't picked these berries clean.

Most places along this route have been named after the old Lincoln Highway and painted in the familiar red white and blue instead of it's route number of Highway 30. The new highway now by passes the hearts of these small rural towns but reminders are plentiful.

Across the parking lot is an old rail station. Although it's not a restaurant these icicles caught my eye.

Although I am not sure exactly how long the Uptown Cafe has been in existance I know that it has resided in this building for quiet a long time.

Maggie, Sam, and Bug enjoyed the ride as well. When we returned home Maggie was ready to go again.

See Dad? I'm ready! Let's go kick up some snow!

Sam Sam on the other hand was ready to kick back and take it easy the rest of the afternoon.

Discover

Were you beginning to wonder if there was going to be a blog post this week, Dear Readers? Well, truthfully, it just about didn't happen. I took the opportunity to join a very old and dear friend (on very short notice) on a weekend road trip. Fitting to this week's Challenge theme I discovered a lot of things about myself thanks to my wonderful companion forcing me to confront myself.

This is one of the few pictures taken during our adventure. We had just finished a great Thanksgiving meal of smoked turkey and mashed potatoes.

I helped a friend celebrate his birthday shortly after I returned from our jaunt across Iowa. That didn't leave me much time to follow through with my thoughts on this week's Random Photo Challenge theme of Discover. There are much better interpretations over at Photography139. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to finish my composition for Impassioned Versifier this week.

We are currently dealing with some medical issues with Sis which means my blogging may be spotty over the next few weeks. Don't lose faith friends, I will be back on here as soon as I can!

Spiritual

Forgive my most recent disappearance from the blogging world. Life threw another curve ball at me, but I'm happy to say I'm still standing and now have new inspiration for several new writing projects.

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was spiritual. What a great subject to get me back in the groove again! This Seraphim Angel was purchased by my father within a few months of my mother's passing. He told me that the resemblance to her soothed his grief.

This week's theme was good to get me out of the self-centered apathy that I had been feeling. There is a poem posted over at Impassioned Versifier that follows part of that thought process.

Photography139 has this week's scant submissions posted. The photos that can be found there have finally produced a little excitement in me for the upcoming holiday season.

Sppoky Goblins

A few more Halloween photos of Bug and Sis

The finished project.

We did discover that the eye holes weren't big enough. As the evening grew darker Bug required assistance to find his way around.

Sis joined us for trick or treating. She wittingly claimed her costume to be the character Juno (from the movie). Here she is checking out Bug's mask.

It was a pleasant Hallow's Eve, with the only complaint coming from Bug that Beggar's Night just isn't long enough. I think our candy dish (and my tummy) would care to disagree.

Smoke Photography

This week's Random Photo Challenge was rather fun. I guess it was the tiny bit of firebug in me that took so easily to this project.

I have never really purposely tried to photograph smoke before, so it took a little experimentation before I could figure out how to make the smoke roll in a photogenic way over the back drop I had set up. Many a match burnt out in the process.

Once again the photo challenge mirrored a few of my thoughts through out the week and the two came together to form a poem. I had been thinking quite a bit about "smoke screens" and how we all have a tendency to mask our feelings from time to time. Sometimes good feelings and sometimes bad. And how sometimes it seems we do it only out of the fear of bruising our egos.

There weren't as many submissions for this week's challenge at Photography139. As we near the end of this experiment I can't help but hope that everyone joins back in next week in an effort to encourage the Random Theme Generator to keep inspiring us next year!

Halloween

Sometimes Bug's brilliance and creativity just astounds me. This week has been one of those times.

This year we just haven't had the time to visit our normal Halloween-time haunts. We have been overbooked with soccer, Cub Scouts, school activities, and working on the house in between. This actually gave Bug a little more free time than I had though.

For those of you that don't know, I'm kind of a scrooge when it comes to store bought Halloween costumes. I'm not sure if this is because of my penny-pinching side or my creative side, but I really don't see the point in spending upwards of $30 for a costume that will only be worn once, is a copy cat of every other kid at school, and will invariably rip before trick or treating is over with. So every year I encourage my kids to be creative and work with what we have on hand. I am willing to shell out a few bucks for clothing that they will wear again or a handful of supplies needed to complete their project.

It has been a lot of fun to watch their creativity grow. From their year as Harry Potter and Hermine or Sis's jaunt as an emo/Gothic rock star, to Bug sampling life as a hobo last year, these kid's have really proved that they can think outside the box and work with what they have. Bug really proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt with this year's costume.

He has been a little obsessive about playing Mario Cart on the Wii lately. He comes home from school and tells me about how he and his classmates pretended that they were characters from the game during recess. Everything around here lately seems to revolve around his favorite character Yoshi. So it came as no surprise when he decided a few weeks ago that he wanted to be the little green dinosaur for Halloween.

He begged for me to give in and order a $50 costume off the Internet for him. I just couldn't justify spending all that money though and helped him look up ideas on how to make his own costume. We found a site that offered a suggestion on making a paper mache head of the character. So after the purchase of a couple large balloons, Bug set to work with piles of old newspaper and a water/flour/glue concoction.

I did help him attach the two balloons together after they had dried and took over the spray painting in an effort to minimize the mess.

He took the reigns of his project back again after the green spray paint was dry.

There are peep holes cut out of the black parts of the eyes and nostrils so he can see where he is going. We purchased the camouflage fleece pants and green thermal shirt on sale at Target for only $15.

The tail came from an old stuffed alligator that he had slated to be given away to Goodwill with a belt looped through it. Sis was mildly disturbed to see us hack away at the stuffed toy but was pretty impressed with the outcome.

Today is Bug's big classroom Halloween party. I had to commission a friend to give him a ride to school with the big costume. I am excited to hear his recount of the event when he gets home.

Shadows

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme did not fit so easily into my daily life as it should have. It was a mostly bright sunshiny week that should have afforded many opportunities to shoot a shadow. I had a lot going on as usual though, and the vast majority of it was indoors. By the time I sat down to devote a little free time to my creative projects each night, it was too dark to make any use of the shadows that were lurking.

I was really hoping that Sunday would be the day I could venture out of doors to enjoy the lovely weather and feel inspired. That wasn't in the cards as Bug had an accident with his scooter and I spent the afternoon tending to him with his bruised leg and skinned elbow. He is fine now after a lot of ice and rest. I put myself to work baking his favorite snicker doodle cookies and Sis a chocolate Oreo cheesecake that she had been craving. I feel quite a bit more relaxed after an afternoon of baking, so maybe there were some perks to being stuck in the house.

Towards evening I realized that I still hadn't found my shadow shot for the week. Bug instantly perked up and began making shadow puppets on the wall. Great idea Bug!

I did work on my poem at the beginning of the week. You can find it over at Impassioned Versifier as usual.

I was very glad to see several fantastic outdoor shadows posted over at Photography139.

Dry

Is it really Monday again? I suppose it is. Although barely at this point!

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Dry. There are definitely not any dry spells in my busy schedule as of late!

This post is a little later than I planned since I had a busy evening watching Bug's last soccer game of the season with Grandma & Sis, visiting Bug's open house at school, and then dining out for supper with Grandma & Bug.

I am still plugging away at fixing up the house. Hopefully some big improvements will be made this week now that Bug is done with soccer until the Spring. Somehow I managed to fire off another photo in line with the theme and come up with a few lines of verse as well.

These beautiful golden stalks were part of a dried fall flower arrangement that once occupied a crock in my newly remodeled guest bath. Belzerz decided the flowers need a slight bit more arranging and took the task of doing so upon himself. By the time he was done I only had a few stalks of dried wheat and grass left. These were slated for the garbage, but luckily hadn't made it so far when the theme for the week was announced.

Following the nature and garden idea, I squeezed out a couple of verses relating to Dry and have published the resulting poem over at Impassioned Versifier.

The submissions over at Photography139 were rather sparse this week but very well done. Be sure to check them out! Next week's theme is an exciting one, but you will have to read his post to figure out what it is.

Odd Angle

Once again the Random Weekly Photo Experiment has chosen a theme that fits in perfectly with my week. This week's challenge theme was Odd Angle. I don't think there was much that seemed normal about my last week.

On Wednesday I had a bizzare encounter with a customer at work. There may eventually be a blog about that, but in the meantime I have promised someone close to me that I will use the incident to fuel the creative juices and create a short (fictional) story loosely based on the events.

On Saturday I drove to the lake to take possession of some hand-me downs from my Grandmother's recent move. That certainly put me in an odd frame of mind as I sorted through cupboards and boxes. I took a short trip down memory lane and then returned home motivated to commence de-cluttering my own abode.

With my busy week I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about my photo submission. As luck would have it our dear Belzerz was quite wound when we returned home. I only had to follow him with the camera for a short while before I caught him plotting an attack on poor Buster. Belzerz is a playful and rather ornery feline. He likes to stalk his pray and attack from un-thought of heights and angles.

Buster was not caught unaware, this time, as I gave away the feline's plan.

Photography139 has posted more than the usual number of submissions this week. All of them fantastic. Be sure to check them out! While you are there be sure to check out the photo project I helped out with Fun With Light. We had a lot of fun playing with the rope light until it broke! Photography139's wonderful photography skills have even earned me a compliment this week on my appearance! The fun we had definitely helped alleviate a little of my camera shyness and I got to learn a new camera technique!

This week's poem at Impassioned Versifier has everything to do with looking at life from a different angle. I hope you enjoy!

Fast

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Fast. It seemed very timely, as I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately on just how quickly time passes us by.

Given that thought process I could have easily gone a "traditional" route and photographed the hands of a clock (as my first inclination was). But instead I decided to take a fun turn with the theme. As those of you close to me know, I have a tendency to paint my nails at least once a week. I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for the "fast finish" products available.

I'm afraid that my poem at Impassioned Versifier this week did follow my thought process of time passing us by quickly. I would not consider it one of my great works, but merely a thought (and heartache) that needed release.

Photography139 has posted the rest of this week's great submissions. Be sure to check them out!

Hope

It has been another long week, and I'm afraid my blogging is falling behind. Hopefully I will have the house up for sale soon and be able to fall back into routine.

Hope.... ironic that would be this week's Random Photo Challenge.

Bug was wanting to take a photo of his friend Hope but sadly that didn't happen. I thought he had a terrific idea though.

Even though it has been a long, busy week I still found time to write a poem for the challenge and post it at Impassioned Versifier.

There are a lot of fantastic takes on Hope over at Photography139. Be sure to check them out!

Light Placement

I am happy to announce that my computer is back up and running. Now to try to get back into the swing of things. Once again life has been busy, busy, busy as I've been working hard on the house and Bug gets into the routine of school and activities again.

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Light Placement. I had the honor of assisting Chris with his project which allowed me to pick up a few tips.

Mine, of course, did not turn out nearly as good as his did. But I seem to be getting the general idea.

I submitted a second photo taking the theme literally.

Be sure to check out the fantastic submissions this week at Photography139. I have also posted a poem for this week's theme over at Impassioned Versifier.

Food

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Food. This should have been an easy assignment for me. We all know how much I enjoy food! But it wasn't easy for me this week.

My computer is on the fritz. I mean really, really on the fritz. Thank goodness my Cousin decided to get the extended warranty when he purchased my computer. I told him that it was silly at the time, but now I am very very grateful. Thanks Cousin!! The hard drive is going. And going fast. Causing the machine to crash at very inconvenient times.

Don't look for me on much of anything other than e-mail for the next week while it is diagnosed and repaired.

I managed to take this shot of my dinner early in the week just in case I couldn't get another one taken or uploaded. That turned out to be a wise decision.

The problem wasn't all my computer though.

I had some very delicious meals this last week, quite a few of them in restaurants. My favorite by far was the chicken cannelloni on Friday night. A beautiful presentation & fantastic company made for a wonderful evening. But alas, the camera on my phone no longer works due to a huge scratch on the touch screen. Only 3 more months until my upgrade & brand new phone!

I was able to come up with a fun little poem in honor of the theme. You can check it out over a Impassioned Versifier. As of this posting Photography139 has not posted this week's submissions as he is attending a funeral. I will let you know when he has the link up!

Silence

I think I may be back on track now. I'm still busy, busy, busy but some things seem less pressing now so I am able to take a little time out to enjoy the fun projects.

This week's Random Photo Challenge theme was Silence.

What could be more silent than a sleeping child?

I did manage to eek out a little bit of a poem on Impassioned Versifier. I also posted a poem for last week's theme of Silhouette.

Be sure to venture over to Photography139 to check out the rest of this week's submissions. There are some very impressive takes on this week's theme!

One Step at a Time

Day 6 in Yellowstone. It was our final full day in the glorious wilderness. Bug and I decided to make the most of it. We had labeled the previous day as Bug's day. This day was to be mine.

For our first activity Bug had helped me choose a Ranger hike. At 7:30 in the morning we met Rangers Rod and Linda, a sweet husband/wife team from Washington and California, as well as several other families to embark on our 7 mile hike to Lone Star Geyser.

Rangers Rod and Linda had been out the evening before to try to predict what time the geyser would erupt. They thought it would erupt around 9:00 so we hiked a hurried pace down the old service road in hopes to catch it.

The prediction was wrong, the people that had passed on the information to our dear Rangers the night before had apparently only witnessed a minor eruption. That meant we would have to wait about 2 hours to see the Lone Star's major eruption.

Lone Star is a geyser that is not predicted by the Park Service but there is a handy little log book available to help visitors predict when the scalding water would flow. Here Bug is checking the book for accuracy.

Ranger Rod led us further along the path while we passed time. We hiked to the beginning of a back country trail. Rod explained to us that the Park Service would not allow him to guide us any further due to liability concerns. The little bit of back country I could see was gorgeous and inviting. Our little trek took us past a back country camp site. I could picture myself camping in such a site someday, gazing at the stars and enjoying the peacefulness.

We were only back at Lone Star for a few minutes when the minor eruption started. We sat on a log watching as we grazed on snacks from our backpacks.

In the 20 minutes between the minor and major eruptions we found amusement in watching this inquisitive deer follow a raven around the thermal grounds.

Finally the major eruption started.

After we finished the Lone Star hike we stopped for a quick lunch along the banks of the Madison River. Then it was on to our next destination. We headed back to the Madison Junction Ranger Station so Bug could turn in his finished Jr Ranger Packet. Great job on earning your badge Bug!

The Ranger in Madison Junction suggested we check out the 1 mile back country hike to Harlequin Lake. She told us there was a good chance to see beavers at work as they had just built a dam on the far side of the lake.

The trail took us a half mile through a young Lodge Pole Pine forest up the side of a small mountain. It wasn't too steep, so we made the climb quickly.

As we emerged from the forest we were greeted by a beautiful view of the small lake.

As we waited for the beavers to emerge from their dam Bug paused to pose for a picture.

And he insisted I pose for one as well.

Alas, the beavers were in no mood to be photographed that day and not a single one emerged. We were investigated by this elk as we strolled down the trail though.

She was not afraid of us and seemed to startle us more than we did her. She actually turned down the trail to check us out and came as close as 7 feet from us. My heart was racing as I nudged Bug behind me, wondering what her next move would be.

Luckily she decided we were not a threat and turned back towards the lake.

The next trail we tackled was a little more strenuous. Purple Mountain is another back country trail that leads 3 miles up a semi-steep mountain. We only made it up 2 1/2 miles of the trail as the last half mile was a very thin and loose rock pass. A few steps out onto that rugged part of the terrain I decided it was not safe enough for an inexperienced 9 year old and a mom with dizzy legs.

We were still able to catch some beautiful views and racked up 5 more miles on our round trip.

After hiking 13 miles in one day it was hard to believe that Bug still had any energy left. After cleaning up and grabbing a quick bite to eat in West Yellowstone we once again attended the evening Ranger Program at Madison Junction. Tomorrow would begin our journey back home.

Day of the Rainbows

Our 5th day in the Yellowstone area was Bug's day. We each got to pick out one activity for him to enjoy that day. I choose an activity that would bring Bug out of his comfort zone. Bug doesn't always like to venture out of his comfort zone, but he knows that I will always make sure he is safe and if he doesn't enjoy it he won't ever have to try that activity again.

We drove to Gardner, Mt, and found the Wild West Rafting Company. I had done a little research prior to our vacation and knew that they offered just the right combination of class II and III rapids for a little boy's first white river rafting trip.

We weren't able to take the camera with us, so these are actually photographs of the pictures that I ordered later.

We donned our live vests and listened to the instructions and safety tips. Then we carried the raft down to the river.

Wave to the camera!

Up until shortly before this picture was taken Bug was sitting in the middle of the raft next to me. Logan, our guide, asked if anyone felt they hadn't gotten wet enough yet. Bug had enjoyed the bouncy ride but felt that he wasn't wet enough so he raised his hand. Logan tried to convince Bug to sit on the very front of the raft with his feet hanging over. Bug is a hard one to convince though, so he satisfied himself kneeling on the floor.

All forward!

We approached a rapid called Sleeping Giant. It looked fairly calm as we barreled through the water towards it. Bug certainly couldn't say that he didn't get wet enough when the wave engulfed the entire raft, completely covering him at one point.

I recently asked him what the underside of the tidal wave looked like. He said he couldn't tell me as he had his eyes closed.

Bug will always remember that the hungry Yellowstone River devoured his flip flops that day. We had pulled the raft up to feel a hot spring when we got caught in an eddy and thrown towards the rocky shore. The whole crew had to get out and carry the raft over small boulders downstream. Bug slipped as he was climbing out and his bright orange sandals rode the current swiftly past us. A tour guide in another raft did manage to rescue one but the other made it's way towards the gulf.

"Don't worry Mom, I didn't like those flip flops anyway," he told me as we boarded the bus later.

Bug requested that we visit a ghost town for his chosen activity. After we dried off, had a change of clothes, and a brief lunch we loaded up in the truck and drove toward Virgina City, a supposed ghost town. Along the way we drove through a terrible storm. The sight of this rainbow eased the whiteness in my knuckles.

The approach to Virginia City looked promising.

The post office looked authentic and old.

Unfortunately these weren't anything more than old store fronts on newer buildings. It was 7 pm when we pulled into town and almost everything was closed for the evening already.

The opera house was the only thing open and had unfortunately already started the evening program.

We decided to head back to West Yellowstone for some supper. We saw another beautiful rainbow from the Madison Valley overlook.

A short drive up a mountainside later, I realized why we had seen another rainbow.

The hail was coming down so hard that I had to pull over for fear of driving over the edge of the mountain. The road was completely white by the time the storm passed. Bug wanted to get out and save a piece of the gum-sized hail, but I convinced him that it was late and we should get going.

Later that night I sat outside our cabin and star gazed. This was such a relaxing perfect trip so far.