Welcome To Holland

When you set the ultimate goals and plans for your life, it's like planning a fabulous trip to Italy.

You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangeo David. It's all very excititng.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?" you say. "What do you mean Holland? I signed up and planned my whole life for Italy. I'm suppose to be in Italy! All my life I've dreamt of going to Italy!"

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and you must stay.

The important thing is they haven't taken you to a horrible place. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you may have never met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced then Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while, and you catch your breath, you look around and begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandt.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy. And they're bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was suppose to go. That's what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, never, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.                 Author Unknown

The image is mine, taken on April 26, 2011 in Longwood Gardens. It was a beautiful day!!

Baby Love...

A Young Female Male Cardinal...

she he is absolutely precious.

Hopping around on the ground, trying to figure things out!!

Just starting to come in to her his own,
one day she he will be a real beauty.

Right now, she's just too darn cute!!

Many thanks to Theresa at Run*A*Round Ranch Report
for helping me out with the proper I.D.
But T, my story doesn't sound as good, now that I know it's a male!!

Sharing today with

World Bird Wednesday at The Pine River Review

Barn Charm #42

This will be the first picture in my 

Norwegian Barn Charm Series.

Norway, a country rich with barns.

I think the barn is lovely but the rolling hills in the

 background take my breath away.

I didn't take this picture, I have never been to Norway.

I have reconnected with a childhood friend Maggie who lives in Norway.

Maggie wrote a book, Fly Away Home,

she started a blog Fly Away Home Book,

and with the help of facebook, a friendship was rekindled.

Maggie follows my blog and appreciates my love of barns.

More then 500 barns call Norway home.

Many of those barns are along the path of Maggie's morning walk.

She is photographing them for me so I can share them with you.

Thanks Maggie, I am so excited to share your barns

with all my Barn Charm friends.

Sharing today with Tricia's Barn Charm

Please stop by Bluff Area Daily to see all the amazing,

charming barns from around the world.

Ashley's Scavenger Hunt #13

This week's prompts for Ashley's Scavenger Hunt photo challenge are,

Warped, Concentric Circles, Gear, Glazed & Marble

Warped

Concentric Circles

Gear

Glazed

Marble 

I don't like my marble image
but the sun is out and I want to go in the pool!

Sharing with Ashley Sisk' Scavenger Hunt Sunday
Thanks Ashley, I love being a part of this!

Your Sunday Best!!

It's been too hot to ride the bikes (enter a sad face)

but I miss my cute deer when I don't get to see them.

So the other night we drove the 4 wheels to Allaire,

just so I could see them,

and to be sure there were no "births" since we had last been there.

It was late, the fields were quiet...

this big guy was hanging around, alone.

He noticed us as soon as we stoped the car,

he kept an eye on us but did not run off.

I've never seen this deer before,

he had a large growth just under his mouth.

I was on foot here, this one let me get pretty close.

I'm not sure what it is about seeing these wild animals, wild.

There is just something about it that really makes my heart happy.

Sharing today's big guy with Nancy at A Rural Journal

Your SundayBest

I am open to all praise and comments that,

1. It's Saturday and I have my Your Sunday Best "ready"!

2. That's it's very early on Saturday and I posted my 

Your Sunday Best!

3. That if I had not had to use the ladies room (TMI??),

I might have been first!!

Baby Blues!!!

There not really babies,

but they are squealing like babies.

Mom looks a little bewildered here, I kinda know how she feels!!

There "tween" Blue Jays,

but when mom's not around, they act like little angels,

then the minute she gets close, they start acting up.

You have no idea how entertaining they are to watch.

You can always tell when she's coming back,

poor momma!!

They seem to be a bit "needy", don't they??

Now here's my confession, I enjoyed them immensely!!
But you guys already knew that!!

oooooohhhhhhh, it's been a little hot here,

and we have another drama queen Blue Jay this year.

This one's a riot also!!

A Rural Thursday Blog Hop #15

Showers of Love...
for my niece Dean-na and baby-to-be Adelina!!

Months of planing and preparation,
every detail was attented to,

making sure the day was "perfect"...and it was. 

A beautiful day, filled with sunshine, lot's of love and happiness.

I made the diaper cake...

this is what 90 rolled diapers can look like,
this is a lot of "fun"!!

A close up of the details!!

I also made this cute little carriage, more diapers, wraped with a recieving blanket.

It's amazing what you can do with those things, besides the obvious.

I was in charge of games, in addition to these, I had a

"Guess How Many Marshmallows Are In The Jar"

My gifts are wrapped in receiving blankets.
A beautiful scrapbook, a baby book,
dated baby's first Christmas Ornament
and a soft green handmade crochet blanket.
I love the gifts I selected, nothing from the registry.

And there's the cute little jar of marshmallows.
There were 425 marshmallows, the hubs counted them,
and separated out the pink and whites.

Pretty pink ribbons, soft little details...

her first ornament for the Christmas Tree.

I made 48 cupcakes,

we packed everything carefully and we were ready to go.

Everything was so beautiful,
lot's of food was eaten, presents were unwrapped
and funny stories of Dean-na's childhood were shared.

For me, it's about the love I have for this girl, she is one of my favorites.
Dean-na and I...
your going to be a wonderful mom!!

So this is what's happening in my neck of the woods.

I'm sharing today with

A Rural Thursday Blog Hop

Please visit Nancy at A Rural Journal

and Lisa at Two Bears Farm

Think about hoping in and hoping around!!

Some Love and Sunshine...

just when I needed it most!!

Many thanks to Jill at Chillin With Jill

for gifting me with these two amazing awards.

Jill has a wonderful spirit and a super kind soul.

She shares her real life stories every single day.

They are often funny, heart warming and always inspirational.

Stop by for a visit, I promise you won't be disappointed!

The awards say I have to answer a few questions,

I can do that...

Favorite Color: Do I really have to answer this,

Purple!!

Favorite Animal: Birds, boy there's a surprise!! 

Favorite Number: 6

Favorite Drink: Sweet Tea

Facebook or Twitter? Facebook, I don't "get" Twitter

but I love Pinterest!!

My passion: The Hubs, My Family

Giving or Getting Gifts? Ummm, Both!!

Favorite Day? Everyday

Favorite Flowers: Lilacs

Rub - A - Dub - Dub

Blue Jay in the Tub!!

The Blue Jays are so happy to reside here.

They come all day long.

If you put out peanuts, they come in droves.

If you don't put out peanuts they squeal, until you do.

I rarely see them in the bird bath.

They come for drinks but they don't bath.

It got pretty hot the other day and this one began acting up...

He hopped out to be sure I was watching...

 

 

 

 

 

haha, this one was my favorite!!

This is the order in which I took these pictures,
over the course of no more then one minute.
SOOC, the images are not cropped,
they were taken through the glass window in my kitchen.

Sharing today with

World Bird Wednesday at The Pine River Review