If a Picture's Worth 1,000 Words....

I am late in getting around to posting today; it's been hectic in general in my life. First of all, I want to say that we got the news today that my sister-in-law, Kay, does have breast cancer. However, right now they are saying the outlook seems pretty optimistic.

They will remove the breast on Monday, but they feel that since everything was caught early, she should not need chemo. She is a very little woman at age 42. In fact, she looks like a teenager from a distance. She's about 4'10 and 85 pounds. I think they'd like to avoid chemo if possible with her.

She's pretty nervous about everything, so again, prayers and positive thoughts, please, all!

No word yet on my brother-in-law's condition.

I have been taking pictures lately. Seems theraputic to me these days. I haven't really felt like writing poetry. I've really smiled a lot at some of my extra cute subjects. I would like to share some of my photos with you today. So, here they are:

The first two are my Tazzy relaxing on his bean bag chair:

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We've had him a year this month! He's such a blessing to us!



The next two are of our neighbor's kitten, Freckles. She is so adorable and ornery! I had to get a picture or two of her while she is still a little girl:

Here's another Freckles portrait:

Finally, while I was taking a picture of Freckles, a hummingbird flew up and decided to hang out at the flower box. It was kind enough to let me take some great pictures:




So, that's it for my picture parade for now.

On a good note, I have decided to take a bus to Atlanta to see my Uncle Ron. I've mentioned him rather frequently in the past. He's my favorite uncle. He is to me as Aunt Marlene is to my Mom's side of the family. We just have so much fun when we hang out.

Anyway, I'll be gone Labor Day weekend. I'm hopping the bus on Thursday night. I won't get into Atlanta until 1:00ish on Friday afternoon, and I will leave Sunday afternoon to be home Labor Day by 7 in the morning. This will be my first interstate bus trip. When I was 18, Rob and I lived in Columbia, SC, for several months. We used to take the bus throughout the city to the malls and shopping venues. We became quite adept at knowing where we needed to be and when. However, all of my traveling from state to state has been by car.

We were talking yesterday about me perhaps driving down by myself. The kids will be in school and Rob will have to work the shop over the weekend. So, we were discussing how I could get down there...just myself. Flying was talked about, but driving was something neither of us were real comfortable with, since there is so much wear and tear on vehicles involved. When I got online and researched it, a round trip airfare wasn't really something I could budget in.

I started thinking about what I could do, and then I started staring at the Yahoo front page, which is my home page. The headline read, "Students Combat Gas Prices By Utilizing Bus Systems," or something like that. Not thinking, I read it out loud. I hadn't even considered it as an option for going to Georgia. Rob, who was sitting nearby, said, "That's a great idea! You could take a bus!" The idea just kinda fell into our laps.

Uncle Ron and I have been saying that when God's timing is right, the door will be opened for me to come down. I've tried numerous times to go see him, but stuff kept coming up. From Hurricane Katrina, to school events, it seemed like I was never going to make it back down. We'd visited on Labor Day weekend of 2004, all five of us. Then Uncle Ron was in for four days in January 2005 for Grandma's funeral. Since then, it's just been one failed plan after another. But I do believe that God's timing is better than ours.

Uncle Ron's been battling poor health, so what I want more than anything is to just be able to give him a big hug and spend some time with he and my Aunt Pat. They're such sweet people, and getting away from Ohio right now seems like a welcome break.

Other than that trip, there isn't a whole lot of exciting going on. Today I did bring Jo-Jo to work with me. I do that once or twice a month. He's very sweet and doesn't give me any trouble at all while he's here. I enjoy having him with me. My boss doesn't care as long as I don't make it a daily event.

We have a conference room in the back that we don't use very often. It's equipped with a t.v., vcr, dvd player, desk, couch, chairs, etc. He sits back there and colors, snacks, watches t.v, plays toys, and reads. Today I took a lunch break and took him to the library. They had a lot of used books for sale, many of them kids books. They were selling hard cover books for .25 and softcover for .10. We got those, checked out some "Learn Spanish" VHS and cassette tapes, and Jo checked out two books as well. We stopped by Rob's job on his lunch break, then finished off the hour by grabbing a bite to eat. It was refreshing to take a lunch break, since I seldom do.

So, that's about all that is noteworthy at this time. My post has now become a novel, but it will make up for my lack of posts on Thursday and Monday on the weekend I leave. :)

Hope you are having a great day where you are! Thanks for stopping by!