God's beauty

It snowed overnight (nothing new) and it stuck to the trees. It was so pretty this morning when I pulled into work. I had brought my camera so I pulled it out and took pictures as best I could considering it was still snowing and I didn't have time to put up the tripod and do it right.

We are at 93.7" of snow for the season. We are way above the average for the whole season.

An afternoon at the beach

Yah, I know, it is the middle of winter but the sun was shining and it was warm -- well relatively speaking. It was about 32 inland and probably about 5 degrees cooler over at Grand Haven. I love going over in the winter to see the ice mounds along the shore. I walked out to the first one but decided not to go down the other side. It was a high mound and a steep descent and I didn't have my ice cleats (DUH!). There were tons of people out there. I think cabin fever had gotten to everyone and they were all ready for a day at the beach. Lots of snow, some sand here and there, and really cool looking ice.





The top picture was taken as I was just coming up over a sand dune. The next picture was taken from the top of the dune. Where all the people are (except for the guy in the front) is ice.



The picture below is out in the lake showing the ice mounds. The picture gives you an idea of the height of the mounds.

The Bucket List

Friday night a friend and I went to see the movie The Bucket List. I don't think I have been to such a thought-provoking movie in a really long time, if ever. We ended up talking about our own bucket lists and what we consider a majestic sight for quite a while.

The bucket list is a list of things a person would like to do before they kick the bucket. The guys in the movie were dying of cancer. No granted, I am not dying of anything real soon (as far as I know) but it did start me to thinking about what mine would be. One of Carter's (played by Morgan Freeman) items was to see something majestic. That led us to another conversation.

So something for you to think about as I also work on this -- What would be on your bucket list and what would be the majestic thing you would like to see?

More fiber art items

I spent last Thursday evening and tonight doing one of my favorite things. I'm happy with the outcome. These things are so fun. The landscape is from a book I bought while on vacation. I can't decide how I want to finish it.

Tribute to my niece on her birthday

Twenty-one years ago today you were born over in Germany. (Her dad was stationed over there in the Air Force.) The first time I got to see you in 3-D was when you were 7 months old when your family arrived back in the States. You spent most of your life in Delaware and Virginia which were at least close enough so I got to see you at least a couple times a year. Then you came to Calvin. I was so happy. And now I get to see you much more than when you were growing up. I get to watch you play soccer, have dinner with you on occasion (tomorrow night we'll celebrate your day) and see you at other times too (although it never seems often enough). It has been fun watching you grow into a beautiful and sweet young lady. You bring much joy to my life. My prayer for you is that you will continue your walk with the Lord, graduate from college and find a job where you can help people with your chosen field of study, find a wonderful Christian man to spend the rest of your life with and hopefully have a family of your own. I love you very much, Juliana. Happy Birthday.

I've been tagged

Both Mar and Giz tagged me and I am not sure how to go about linking back to them but I'll try.
The Rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Here goes:
1. I'm a NASCAR fan and I'm playing in a fantasy racing league against 3 guys in my office.
2. I wish I could play the guitar. I've tried learning and I could remember the chords but I never knew when to change chords unless I had the music in front of me.
3. I did Karoake as a duet once and posted it on a Karaoke site on the internet.
4. I sprained my ankle in the jungles of Guyana a little over 12 years ago. I took a charter plane into the jungle and then we (a group of us) hiked deeper into the jungle to see Kaieteur Falls .
5. The longest bicycle ride I've ever done was 38 miles. I rode from Kalamazoo to South Haven on the Kalhaven Bike Trail with my brother on his 50th birthday. (I was a little older. ) There is a bike trail that runs from Grand Rapids to Cadillac (90 miles) that I would love to do sometime. I need to get in much better shape. I go to church with a guy that I know would ride it with me.
6. The photography bug has bitten me and now I want to enter a picture in the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts. I think I have the perfect picture. The entry blanks with the rules come out in the next couple weeks.
7. Even though the snow is beautiful, I'm really tired of winter this year.

Like Howdy, I'm not doing the tagging either for the same reason. But by all means, if you are so inclined to join in, follow the rules and have at it.

And now I better get to bed before it is time to get up again.

I'm tired of Winter

It's snowing and blowing and downright cold. This is the second Sunday this year I've stayed inside because the weather was so bad and cold. We had a bad storm on Wednesday. We are past our season average snowfall. That happened last week before the storm. I have no idea how much snow we got today because it has been blowing so hard. It got all the way up to 3 degrees today. BUT we did have some sunshine for a few minutes.

Vacation has come and gone. My 10 days in MA went by so quickly. We had great weather for all but one day. Learned some new techniques. Started from square one on a project I had been working on and it just was not satisfying me. Bought some new batiks, a landscape book, and lots of trim stuff for postcards, yarn and knitted it into a ski cap. A productive and FUN trip. But too short.