The Black Hills

Last week we took a little jaunt to the Black Hills of South Dakota for a little break before Hubby had back surgery. I'm glad we did, as he's scheduled for surgery next week!

We stayed in a cabin, and this is the view from the door when we got there Thursday evening.

We were excited upon hearing the Winter Storm Warning had been cancelled until we realized....


They changed it to a blizzard warning.

This is the same view from our cabin door the next morning.


Luckily my daughter and her boyfriend made it before the roads got too bad.





The snow kept up most of the day Friday, so we didn't make it to the Badlands like we had originally intended.

So, we played "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" to find out most of us weren't!








Here's me and Greatness in the snow later that day. We got to see lots of cool things like Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, which I didn't put pictures of here....huh. Well, check my Flickr stream.







We also saw lots of buffalo, pronghorn antelope, white tailed deer, mountain goats, birds, and prairie dogs. This pict was taken Sunday morning on out Jeep tour. No more snow!

Greatness and her boyfriend had to leave a bit early which was sad, but he got a great job and needed to be there for training. He's so responsible! And polite, and kind, and respectful, and responsible. Yeah, I said that.

Happy Mother's Day!

Here is my Mother's Day Card! Isn't that great!? There's my son, long hair, hat, skateboard and all. The inside reads: To the best mom in the world! Im so glad you are my mom you are always there for me you always care for me there is no other mom out there like you!

So sweet, better than any card he could have bought me. I think we need to work on the concept of run-on sentences, though, huh?

Crayons

One of my favorite small pleasures is crayons. They make me
happy. I needed to feel a little happiness yesterday.

What I like to do when they are all still nice and sharp is to dump them all out and 'organize' them. It's just what I do.

Of course, there's always the dilemmas. Do you do them rainbow fashion? If so, where do black, white, and the browns go? I'm sure there is an artist out there that can tell me how I'm 'supposed' to be doing this.

I like to start with black, then move to gray, white,
then to the browns.


This was a box of ninety-six! So I also ran into the problem of does Brick Red come before or after Maroon? What about Periwinkle? Is it purple or blue?

They have cool names now for some of them. Remember a few years ago when Crayola had the new crayon naming contest. So now we have Macaroni and Cheese and Purple Mountain's Majesty.

I'm Not Ready Yet

I keep thinking, OK, today I will post something on my blog and try to get out from under the black cloud of this week, but I can't.
Today are the funerals for our dear friends, and I know how heart wrenching it is going to be for our church family and friends in Georgia. I called Jenny this morning and could barely choke out a few words of love for her. I think she understood. She was very calm. Bless her heart.
Then there's poor Tye. What was he thinking or was he? Why? What was he possibly thinking of solving? Does he know that we all still love him and are praying for him? Does he realize the ripple effect of how many people's lives he has changed? Hundreds? More?
And we know that all things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose. Hard to see that it the middle of this tragedy.
Flowers and words are all for naught. There's nothing I can think to say....

Beautiful Jenny

This is my precious friend Jenny who is going through a horrible time right now. I love you, Jen!

I am Sad

I planned to come home this evening and regale you with stories and pictures of South Dakota. We had a lovely time, and it was great to see our daughter and her boyfriend. More to come on that.
But, plans changed when I heard about this. We knew this dear family when we lived in Georgia, and it is completely incomprehensible at any time, but especially when you know the family. Please pray for my friend and her husband that are left to deal with this terrible tragedy.

WHAT!?

Now what!? I'm checking in from our short jaunt to the Black Hills, and I see that the poll is 50/50!! What to do, what to do? Oh, go with the one I like you say? Ok, I will!