Another angel in heaven

My Dad has passed from this earth to his heavenly home and is no longer suffering in the body in which his soul was trapped. His exit from this world took a long time and was very painful to watch. I mourn his loss but also know that he is in the arms of Jesus. Maybe he's getting to talk to his Mom and Dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and others who made in there before him. I will miss him, but I've really been missing him for a while now.

Can you hear me now?

These are a couple of atcs from a past swap that I think had a map theme? Long gone to someone and done when I had no functional scanner or a digital camera. Took some pics with my cellphone camera. The bottom one still represents our cell phone service oftentimes. Living in the country where we are, there are several dead spots that have been there even with 2 different companies. Just low areas between towers, I guess, where the signals are blocked. Still technology is amazing. I remember when we had party lines and you had to wait to be able to use the phone. Was watching a movie this week from the eighties where the main character stopped to use a payphone and it had a rotary dial and the computers they showed in the movie were huge. Now you can hold a computer in your hand and it's your phone, too(not that I have one like that, I wouldn't know how to use it anyway.) Funny also how the amount of time that a person spends reminiscing increases as they get older! I notice myself doing it more and more.

Words on Wednesday

Here are a few more photos from our trip, including one through the trees that shows the camper. The one of the water is part of the view from the overlook. Also a closeup of this really funky mushroom that was beside the pavement going into our campsite. It went from a rounded shape one day, an opened typical mushroom shape the next, and then this the 3rd day.



Went to see my Dad yesterday. They live about 45 miles from us. I went up with a couple of my aunts and my uncle. He is a lot worse than when I last saw him, though he was better than he was last week when he couldn't get out of bed. He was up in his wheelchair. Has lost a lot of weight and doesn't talk much anymore. When he does, he sounds very weak and you can hardly hear him. His skin looks old. Very, very sad, this disease.

Well, today begins another work week. I need to finish up my Christmas banners and get them ready to mail. I'll post when I get them completed, though they are almost done. I'm expecting a swap back in the mail of the Ancestor 4x4 pages, so I'm going to go ahead and post my page here. I used a photo of my maternal grandmother which also ended up being used in a page I made for the Fall swap I've already posted about. Sorry the scan is a little dark. It looked better that this. Printed it in black and white and then hand-colored with watercolor pencils. Used some text from a German bible page since she was German/Irish to make one of the leaves. The piece of fabric and the button represent her thriftiness and her talent at sewing. She was the one who taught me to embroider. Also made an extra page for the hostess of the swap that uses a pic of my dh when he was a little boy. It was a just for fun kind of page where I was trying to do a "Claudine Hellmuth" thing with a photo head and a cartoon body.

To everything a season

This past weekend was a time to rest. Very welcome after the way the work week ended. We totally enjoyed a few lovely days away in quietness at a nearby park. The peak of fall color had already passed, but still a little left to see here and there. Our campsite was right next to a paved path through the woods down to an overlook built at the top of bluffs by the water. I took several walks to take pictures and just commune with nature. The weather was not the most ideal, being rainy one day and pretty cool the rest of the time, but of course, I don't really mind the cold too much anyway.



I was able to watch a couple of movies, read 2 books I borrowed from a friend, and get 5 Christmas banners done for an art swap from the atc group. Dh sets up a satellite dish and is able to keep up with his ballgames, races, or tv. This keeps him happy. We cooked a little. Had roast and vegetables from the crockpot on the rainy Friday and then chili on Saturday after it turned cold. Thursday and Saturday evening we were able to have a fire in the firepit they have each camping spot.

Camping as a vacation has the advantage of being able to bring the doggies with us, so we don't have to worry about boarding them somewhere. Max took several walks with me and loves not being left behind. Whenever I leave home for work it is to a pouting Max laying with his head on his paws and giving me "sad eyes". Angel is so old she gets somewhat confused about where she is, but as long as we feed her and she gets treats and love she is ok.



While we enjoyed our time away, I found out right before we came home that my Dad, who has been battling Alzheimer's for several years now, has taken a turn for the worse. He & my Mom divorced over 27 years ago and he remarried not long after. He has been at home where his wife and one of my half brothers have been taking care of him. I helped some last year, but since Mom's stroke have not been able to. Hope to go see him tomorrow. Evidently he is entering the last phases where his body is going to start giving out. His mind has been pretty bad for awhile. I've not been able to speak to my "Dad" for some time. In a way it's like I've been having to let him go for years. When my parents divorced, there was a letting go of the idea of having a Dad and Mom as a couple. He became a husband to someone else and then a Dad to a new family. Then with the Alzheimer's there has been the gradual goodbye to the person who was my Father, reaching the point of where he was no longer really "there" for me to talk to. I miss him. He is such a sweet person. Even with this disease, he'll look at you and smile and tell you he's glad to see you. He just had a birthday last week and is now 69 years old. Still very young to be like he is now. Went from looking younger than his age at 60 to looking 20 years older than his age at 69.

To everything there is a season. A time to live and a time to die. Be sure you LIVE!

Time flies

when you're having fun? Didn't realize it had been so many days since I posted. Time does get away from me when I'm working especially if there are extra things to do. Mom only has Sara, the young lady who helps her coming once/week now instead of twice, so that means a little more for me to do. So I go by and check on her a couple of mornings during my work week. I'm about to go to bed, but thought I'd do a quick post.

Finally getting around to playing with some of my photos in one of my Adobe programs. This one is Adobe Photodeluxe Home Edition 4 that a friend at work found at a yard sale. I have a more complicated Adobe program but it's on my laptop cause it had a bigger memory than my desktop. I've not done much with it yet. I'm working my way up to that, lol. The one above is of a fan cover that I have hanging on the barn behind the house. Have several round things hanging there along with some tin signs. Don't even remember now what special effects I tried to get the picture to here, but it was all easy. Then below was one of my flower photos.

My dh and I plan to go camping this week when I get off for a few days. Hopefully it will work out this time. We've had this in mind several of my weeks off, but for one reason or another we've not made it yet. I wanted to go camping in the fall, but we've almost waited for winter. Of course we are not roughing it anyway, but going in our fifth wheel camper. I've some pics of it, but not on this computer. Hope to take some art supplies and several books. The place we hope to go to has fire pits so we can build a fire in the evening while sitting outside. I would hope the mosquitos are gone now. There is no computer access so once we are out there, I'll unable to check messages.

Be rich!

This is another altered book spread. I've not really felt that creative this week. I did finish up the pages and the book I showed previously and started on altering a wooden heart from a garland of them bought at the thrift store. Not sure where that is going yet though. I need to get started on some pendants for a swap but waiting on some question to be answered before I do.

These pages have a napkin as a background and were done a while ago. Also used a calendar image and some various magazine cutouts including the saying on the right page. To remind me that sometimes rich people are not really rich in what counts and that you can be rich in what is important while not having all that much money. So be careful of being envious or even critical of others cause you never know.

Fall chunky book

Used my Bind-it-all system for the first time to put the fall chunky pages together. This was the system I got with money from my Mom for my birthday. I have discovered I need more practice, especially with punching the holes. This system does a good job punching the holes on thicker pages but not so well on the thinner ones. Also found out it is really important to make sure you have the page seated squarely on the bottom to ensure the holes are in a straight line. Messed up on a few pages and had to fix them. My hat is off to all the hostesses that have sent me books bound up! I never realized what a pain punching the holes could be! So thanks to all of you!

I wasn't thinking when I sent my pages to Beth and didn't make one of my own to keep so I ended up making another one that uses an image of my maternal Grandma Koehler. I had these printed up for an ancestor swap just completed recently. This photo was taken by my Aunt Betty when my Grandma was out picking up hickory nuts. She was born to Irish/German parents and married my German grandfather, Gustav Koehler, so we have a lot of German in us. They were self-sufficient farmers for the most part raising everything they ate. Nuts from the trees on their farm were a gift and all were gathered to use. Nothing was wasted as my grandfather was a very frugal man. He actually kept a ledger(which my Mom still has) of every penny he ever spent. It is very interesting to read as there are notations about weather events like droughts and long periods of rain. Also visits by the doctor when the children were born are noted. It really is a chronology of their life.

Well, I have wandered down memory lane! Back to the present! The next to the bottom page is the inside of the back cover and then the bottom is the back of the cover I put together to finish up the booklet. I'm proud of myself for actually getting some pages put together and hope to move on to some previous swap pages I've never bound.

Fall and sunset

I know I've shown some similar pics before, but this is a new one, taken a couple of weeks ago at sunset. To me fall is like a beautiful sunset, lots of gorgeous color, cooling temperatures, and a prelude to the crisp, cool dark night of winter. The fall color is late getting to our area so I've no lovely pictures of autumn leaves or woods of orange, red, and yellow to share. I love this time of year just as I love sunsets. Only now realized that I've no photos of beautiful sunsets taken with my digital camera. Need to remember to take some of those.

We went down yesterday to see the dd's and their guys in Tuscaloosa. Dh went to the ballgame, meeting up with a friend of his there, and so did Holly and Chris. Emily and I took the opportunity to go to their thrift store and found some great deals. I should have my fill of thrifting for a while. My favorite find of the day were several old colored glass Christmas ornaments made in Poland unfortunately thrown in a bag with some other junky ornaments. It looked like at least 3 old ones had been broken so I just had to rescue these lovelies before any more were lost. I'll take pics soon so I can show you how pretty they are. Paid only $2 for the whole bag.

Had a lovely day. It was great to see all the "younguns". Took them their Halloween candy. Still doing that and stockings at Christmas. Some traditions are just too fun to break.