Oh, No, Not Another Moon Post!

LOL!
Yup!

I thought this was really cool the other night: the moon above the setting sun!



And, last night, I set up my mini tripod and caught the moon as it emerged from the trees.



Then I decided to fool around with them. Here they are using the TangledFX app:









These were Glazed:








Fun, you bet!

My Cousin's Visit

Donna is a year younger than me so when we were growing up, we spent a good amount of time together in 4-H club, camping, and working together at Baker Brook.



On Sunday we boated to the beach with her, her husband, Court, their son, Roth, and Court's sister and her husband. Roth's wife, Elaine, is 6 months pregnant with their first child, a boy, so she stayed at their rental house. Smart move as you will see!




We enjoyed a walk to the other side of Cayo Costa.




Hurricane Charley devastated so many trees.








But, they are beautiful in their own way. I gave this one a slight Glaze to make it look more like a painting.




Roth had his own boat but ran into engine problems on the way home so we ended up towing him back to the house they were renting. It was slow going but gave Donna and I a chance to chat and catch up. 😊

Nay and Danielle's Visit

It was so nice to see Nay and Danielle last week. It's the longest I've ever gone without seeing my son. They both looked great!









Nathan and his grandfather making faces at Bert's Bar and Grill.



Danielle smearing sun screen on her arms at the beach. She still got pretty burnt, though.



It was cold one day as we boated back home. Good thing we had jackets and quilts!



All bundled up and sitting out of the wind.



I used the Momentsia app for this collage. We had a baby back rib feed for friends and family. Clockwise from top left: Michelle and my brother-in-law Bill, my sister Nancy, my sister Sally, and Bob's caretaker Sandy.



Before heading to the airport, we met Bob and Sandy for lunch at Harpoon Harry's.












I can't believe how much I like having an iPhone to take pictures. A few years ago I didn't even want a cell phone. Now, I can't imagine my life without it.



And one last picture of the outside of the restaurant given a bit of post processing with the TangledFX app.

We had a fantastic week with lots of laughs. Now, I'm looking forward to summer when we'll see them more often!

Another Stroll Down Memory Lane

Look what we're missing by living in Florida in the winters, now! Yup, sixty-two years of snow. Enough!



I was going to do more doodling like in the lower left side but, guess what! I don't like doodling! I like the looks of it but I don't like doing it.



Another of Michelle's designs. She and her friend, Alyssa, painted the background and added pictures and quotes and tape. Love when they do this!

They came up a couple days before my birthday with Michelle's parents to celebrate with me. Fun time!

More Journal Pages

This is my one little word for the year. It's wicked powerful! No more looking back or looking ahead. This word grounds me in the present and helps me feel grateful for it. I found a slim little stone, wrote "now" on it and keep it in my pocket to remind me to find beauty and contentment in every moment.



That's my high school graduation picture. I tried so hard to straighten my hair. You can even see an indentation on my bangs where I'd had a bobby pin to hold them down. Oh, the things I did to get rid of my curls...ironing...huge rollers...U.N.C.U.R.L....all ineffective!



Kylie's picture from our Christmas tree. She was about three, I think.



I kind of goofed on this one. Tried to use gesso as a white wash over the pictures on the left but it wasn't watered down enough. I quickly grabbed a paper towel but it was too late.

Alissa looked so happy when they were down here in January. She's pregnant, due in July. Maybe a girl this time? We'll find out soon. She had an ultrasound and no male genitals could be seen but it was kind of early so the doctor couldn't verify the sex yet. The picture on the right is from her wedding in September with her husband, Ian, and her two boys, James and River.

A bunch of Journal Pages

Not crazy about the background color of this one. Kind of yucky!



For our Christmas tree this year I printed out family pictures and used clothespins to attach them to the tree. Once I took the tree down, I figured I'd use the photos in my journal whenever they'd match. This is one of the last pictures I have of my mom. She was so beautiful even in her 80s. I should be so lucky!



It was a very quiet Christmas this year with no kids around at all. I made the date and Michelle made the X-mas designs using an app called Paper. I just printed them out to use in here.



More fun with apps. Paper for the dates and Momentsia for the funny pics. It's really cool. It gives you a choice of layouts then all you have to do is tap on the spaces and it automatically takes a picture. As you can see, no one was happy with me! LOL!

Bert's Bar and Grill

All Gary's father wants to do is sleep.

When Gary wakes him up in the morning, the first thing he says is, "When can I go back to bed?"

If I ask him if he'd like a glass of iced tea, his response is, "What I'd like is a nap."

And he's always asking, "When is someone going to pour me into bed?"

So, to keep him awake, we went for a boat ride on Wednesday.
We saw:



A biplane passing overhead.



A dolphin chasing his supper in the canal.



Colorful flowers.



Lots of reflections.


Ducks.



Birds.


Purple and turquoise houses.



Calm seas.

We all ordered shrimp and they were plump and juicy. I had mine with buffalo sauce and remembered to take a picture when I had two left.







Gary took this one of me.

On the way home I fooled around with my camera and caught this bokeh with my zoom lens on.






And spied the old moon keeping an eye on us.


Here's an awake Bob! His first words when we got to our table were, "Can I lie down on this bench?"

He might have dozed on the boat a bit but, overall, I'd say we were successful in keeping him awake for the afternoon.