Happy Halloween

Thought i would put all my favorite pumpkin and photos in a collage. Click on photo for larger size.
Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween. Would love to hear about what you did for Halloween?

Benefits of Struggling

BENEFITS OF STRUGGLING

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat
and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body
through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as
far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the
butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of
the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to
watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would
enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a
swollen body and shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the
restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through
the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the
butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved
its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us
to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would
not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly.

Hoover Dam

Take the tour
We didn't get to do that but maybe another time, check out the tour to see what you get to see,when you take the tour.



Jan of 06 we went across Hoover Dam in our motor home, at the time and i assume to this day all large rigs must be inspected before being allowed across. It was funny because we had our 23 ft motor home at the time. and the inspector said they will have to search it. So i said ok just let me make sure that the cats are not in the door way before you open the door, i said we have 10 cats in here, he came to the door and came in, and seen some of the cats and he said "How many cats did you say you had?" I said 10, he never looked at nothing else accept the cats petting them and telling us about his cats. I guess he figured anyone traveling with 10 cats was not likely to be hiding anything, Like explosives. Anyway here are a few photos of the dam. Rules for going across the dam if your planning on going.

Maryhill Museum the inside & white Peacock

Its amazing what you find on old disks, i knew i had at one time had some photos of the inside of the Museum, and as i was going thru my disks i found these. I thought i would try my hand at doing a collage and seeing how it would turn out so here it is.

This is some of the inside of the museum.You can go back to my other post of Maryhill Museum for some other inside information.I had never seen a white Peacock before so this was a real treat, i waited for him to open up but he never did.
The White Peacock is frequently mistaken for an albino, but it is a colour variety of Indian Blue Peacock. Its white colour makes it looks really magnificent and elegant.

Ione Ghost Town In Nevada

Since I don't have anything to add for today i thought i would go back on some of my floppy disks of photos that i have never taken off . So thought i would post some of them here.Jan of 2006 on our trip back from Quartzite AZ We saw the sign to Berlin and Ichthyosaur Which turned out to be closed, Just one of those side trips we do once in awhile. But after driving for sometime we came across this sign. And decided to take the road , being that it had snowed and didn't look like it had been cleared, decided to go for it anyways. In the spring of 1863 Silver was discovered and the camp of Ione was founded in the upper part of the Shamrock canyon. It had roughly forty to fifty buildings and because it was too far off the beaten path and distant from the mines in 1864 the present town site of Ione was plotted in the lower part of the canyon. Also in 1864 the State legislature designated Ione the County Seat for Nye County. After still another rush Ione grew to around 500 population.


Milling began around 1865, first at the Pioneer Mill, but the miners were unable to supply enough ore to keep it running, so it was soon to shut down . The same year easterners erected the $130,000 twenty-stamp Knickerbocker Mill just south of town which run for ten years milling ore from nearby districts. In 1866 mining was getting poor and the ore was running out so the county seat got moved to Belmont. Ione hasn't had a rush since 1880 and the Quicksilver operations in 1920 and 1930 help some, but the town never has been deserted.

If you are ever in that area in the summer time i think it would be a great place to visit, another time for us if we get that way. Not in the winter time however, i really don't recommend doing it in a motor home in the winter

Sky Watch Friday

I have decided to join Dots Sky Watch Friday but it was too late to do a day shot so i got this one of the moon.

Happy 1st Birthday Miss Princess Cocoa

I made her this nice Yogurt pie thinking she would like it because she likes yogurt, but Nope she wouldn't touch it.
Recipe for Yogurt Pie its really good

First - Completely dissolve a small pkg. of jello with 1/4 cup very hot water.This sets up the pie

Second -Combine the jello with two containers of flavored yogurt (I like to use Yoplait Light fat free)

Third- Fold in 8 oz container of Cool Whip ( I use fat free)

Last- Fold into graham crust and refrig. for a few hours to set up. ( You can get crusts that are low sugar in store. )

This is fast and easy!!!

Here is Jenny checking the pie out
Here is Precious with her mouth open not sure if she is saying yuck or just yawning LOL.Finally here come Casey checking the pie out, Nope he don't want it either, and they all like yogurt. Maybe its the color.

The cats

Well its been awhile since i put my boys on here, its amazing that the boys being brothers are so close, versus the girls being sisters. The boys are always so affectionate
towards each other. They sleep together, the clean each other, Oliver the one that is the largest laying there is like a really big brother and i am not sure what he meows to them, but whatever it is they listen. Casey is the one sort of laying under him, and then there is Smiley sort of hugging them both.
The girls rarely sleep together or even clean each other. I wonder why that is?
Yep here is Smiley and Casey hugging each other. And here they are again on there little couch, now don't you wish you could sleep like this?Casey's head in Smiley's chest. Oh life of a cat would be so nice.

Maryhill Museum

I was very pleased with my camera when we drove the Columbia Gorge and i was able to get a shot of the Maryhill Museum
We had gone there several yrs ago thinking it was a mansion that we could take a tour in, but when we got there we found that it was a art Museum.. we were a bit disappointed as we wanted to see it as it was with furniture and such. We are not into art, but it was ok. So for those that do like art well worth checking out if ever in Wash. he is some history about it. also click on the header and you will see some photos.

	MUSEUM HISTORY In 1907 Samuel Hill (1857–1931), a wealthy entrepreneur bought 6,000 acres of land overlooking the Columbia River with the intention of establishing a Quaker agricultural community. He chose the bluff which Maryhill Museum now occupies as the site for his own home, and in 1914 construction of his poured concrete mansion began. He named both his home and his land company Maryhill after his daughter, Mary. Among Hill's many personal friends, three exceptional women played key roles in the next chapter of Maryhill's history. Loie Fuller, an acclaimed Folies Bergere pioneer of modern dance, conceived the bold idea of creating a museum of art out of Sam Hill's mansion. Through Loie's friendships within Parisian art circles, Hill was able to acquire an extensive collection of original Auguste Rodin sculptures. In 1926, Hill invited Queen Marie of Romania to dedicate his still unfinished museum. Marie felt deep gratitude toward Hill, who had generously aided Romania after World War I. Thousands of people converged at Maryhill to witness the ceremony. After Hill's death in 1931, a third friend, Alma Spreckels, assumed responsibility for overseeing the completion of the museum. Together with her husband, Adolph Spreckels (of the San Francisco sugar family), she had already established the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Alma Spreckels became Maryhill's principal benefactor and donated to the museum much of her own art collection. Under her guidance, the museum opened to the public on Sam Hill's birthdate, May 13, 1940. Designed by the historic firm of Hornblower & Marshall, Maryhill is constructed of steel I-beams with interior steel studs. The walls, floors, and ceilings are of poured concrete reinforced with steel. No wood has been used in the structural parts of the building. The recessed windows are a distinctive trademark of the firm.
Samuel Hill, c. 1920
Queen Marie, c. 1910
Alma Sprekels, c. 1905

our first snow fall Sat 10-20-07

Well i got caught up with the grandkids this last weekend so never got to post our first snow of the yr. altho this isn't much but a skiff this is the earliest we have seen snow since we have lived in Bend, going on 15 yrs. Now makes us wonder if this is going to be the yr people have told us about, they said we have not seen snow here yet, meaning that they had some terrible winters here, yrs ago. We have been pretty lucky not having too harsh of a winter the last few yrs.

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The Builder

Thought this was worth reading and sharing, don't know who wrote it but so very true.

THE BUILDER

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor
of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely
life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck,
but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could
build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes,
but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He
resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an
unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the
house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This
is your house," he said, "my gift to you."

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own
house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the
home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather
than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we
do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the
situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we
have built. If we had realized, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you
hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the
only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more,
that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the
wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."

Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your
attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result
of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

Changing laundry room

Well we have decided to take the motel off the market for now, and since we did , Nevada has decided that things need to change in the laundry room, So him and son Jan started to tear down the walls , we have this little cubby hole that really served no purpose accept to throw stuff in that we weren't using. So he tore out the wall, Many yrs ago it was a restroom, don't know why they stopped using it but all the plumbing is still there accept of course the sink and the toilet.
So here is the wall that he took out and the beams also came out.
And here it is all open with no shelves in there and no wall, yesterday they got it all patched up, so now they have decided to move the washer and dryer there. So of course a small project has turned into something a little bit bigger.And more time consuming. Not saying that we don't have many other things to do before the weather gets so much colder. Will keep posting the new progress as they go, Oh yeh and they also had to replace the floor . Which they will have to do as they move things around.

Thailand and good manners

We've already lost count of the number of luxury hotels we've checked into in Thailand in the last 11 days, the signature spas treatments and massages we've enjoyed, and the sublime sunset vistas we've savored from spacious suites and private villas overlooking infinity pools, palm-covered islands and the sea. More on those potentially hedonistic experiences (if only we weren't working!) and the thoughts they're provoking about travel later. My husband Terry and I are here in Thailand to review hotels, spas and restaurants, and it's been hectic to say the least. What has struck us most so far (sorry for the silence, by the way) has been the genuine friendliness of the gentle Thai people. It never fails to put a smile on our faces. On our first day in Bangkok, Terry noticed a Thai woman struggling with a stroller with baby down the stairs of the Sky Train. He jumped over the railing and helped her the rest of the way down the two flights of stairs. When they made it to the bottom the lady let go of the stroller, clasped her hands in the traditional 'wai', and thanked him with a little bow and a smile. The gesture was performed with such elegance and beauty that it made us wonder what's happened to manners in other parts of the world. Terry said it made his day and I think he secretly spent the rest of the day looking for women with strollers to help out, like a boy scout on a mission!

Motorcyle Museum in Livermore Ca

The only place that we really visited in Livermore was the Arlen Ness Motorcycle Museum
Click on the website for his story and better photos,What a neat bunch of motorcycles.