Category Archives: With Gratitude

February 6, 2013 · 2:22 pm

Happy 2nd Birthday Simplywe!

I’m supposed to be doing my homework, so naturally I am using this time to check my email, fb and simplywe. And though I wish I was still doing my homework and didn’t have the attention span of a gnat, I’m glad I checked because I almost missed Simplywe’s birthday! SW came to be 2 years ago today!

I have been so busy with everything else in my life, I didn’t plan anything. This should be where I put a montage of some of my favorite photos, but if I get lost in looking at old photos now, I’ll never do my homework. I must fight the procrastination…clearly I am not as successful as I would like.

So instead I will share hiking photos, and a few from my solo trip to Prescott.

I took all of these with my iPhone, as I sent my Canon to Keegan in Germany. I think he will get more use out of it than I will, since I haven’t used it in months. The iPhone is so much more convenient.

These 1st 3 are from my trip to Prescott.

It rained and rained and rained the whole time I was there, mostly misty rain. It was beautiful. The fog was intense. This fog was at 4 in the afternoon.

This one is from the hike we took at orientation. How many colleges go on a hike as part of orientation? I think I have chosen wisely.

The other weekend Der and I took a 5.2 mile hike in Tucson Mountain Park.

These are from our new favorite part of the park.

I don’t know why this one is so grainy, but I sure do love that guy!

The small upcropping of buildings, in the far off distance, is downtown Tucson.

Der and I make a good hiking team.

The rest of these are from various hiking trips.

Bug loves her hikes.

I’ve painted several batches of rocks and left them in random places on the trail.

I like to imagine the finders curious smile when they wonder who did that.

Happy Birthday Simplywe!

I heart Tucson!

5 Comments

Filed under Adventures, Amazeballs, Celebrate, Everything else, Making Memories, Natural Happenings, Petz on Parade, With Gratitude

Tagged as adventures, art, blog birthday, happiness, Hiking, joy, kindness rocks, Nature, Tucson

January 10, 2013 · 10:00 pm

Simple Kindness

Back in October I got a lovely email from a woman, Celeste, who had just discovered Simplywe. She said she shared a love of heart rocks and wanted to send me a little something. I shared my address with her and eagerly awaited my mail. I love getting fun mail!…who doesn’t?! Shortly after I got a small package and was thrilled to see the most beautiful gifts.

The boys and I investigated and discussed these gorgeous shells for a long time. My favorite is the orange one.

Apparently where Celeste and her family live there is a beach that is covered with sharks teeth. They have jars of them! The boys were thrilled we could add these to our “natural oddities” collection.

And finally, she added these beauties to my heart rock collection. I love them so!

Do yourself a favor and go check out Celeste’s super cool, fun, and beautiful blog www.thewelchfamily.org you’ll be glad you did! She home-schools and does fantastic things with her kids…like the other day they dissected sharks! I want to go to that school!

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Natural Happenings, With Gratitude

Tagged as amazing, gifts, heart rocks, kindness, shark teeth, shells

November 6, 2012 · 1:18 pm

Sunflowers, Cornbread, and Apple Pie…Oh My

Sunflowers!

Sunflowers and cornbread!!

Derek made his first apple pie from scratch! YUM!!! Just one of the MANY reasons we’ve been married for so long…he bakes! I don’t bake, I cook. We make the perfect pair.

Seriously delicious!

3 Comments

Filed under Amazeballs, Get In My Belly, Natural Happenings, With Gratitude

Tagged as america, apple pie, apple pie from scratch, corn bread, cornbread, I love my husband, perfect pair, sunflowers, yeehaw, YUM

October 15, 2012 · 11:09 pm

Hidden Hearts

I love hearts, more specifically, I love finding hearts.

Here’s a heart I found in my sandwich a few weeks ago.

Thanks to Instagram for helping me commemorate the awesome pepper!

A while back I discovered that dried out Yucca seed pods look like hearts when separated, so I took to fiddling with them.

The one in the middle is my favorite by far. Not pictured are the 20 others that I varnished and glittered and one that I turned into a necklace. I know I’ve said it repeatedly, but there just isn’t enough time to experiment and create all of the things that are bouncing around in my head.

Finding “hidden” hearts make me positively giddy and I have been known to squeal like a little girl, when I see one. It has caught on with Der and the boys, for whenever they see one they point it out, because they know it will make my day.

2 Comments

Filed under Feeling Fartsy, Natural Happenings, With Gratitude

Tagged as art, create, hearts, hidden hearts, Nature, seed pods, things that make me happy

August 20, 2012 · 8:54 pm

Another Teenager! Oh My!

Today is Jeremia’s 13th birthday. Derek took Jeremia and one of his friends from school go-cart racing, laser tagging, and arcading, yesterday. He got an evening away from his younger brothers. That was a priceless gift, but also meant I stayed home with the young’ns, and so no photos.

Today he took munchkin donuts to share at school, picked what was for dinner (steak, green beans and angel hair pasta), opened presents, and had homemade carrot cake. Der drew a Halo character on it for him.

I was too lazy to take a proper photo of the cake so now we have this weird photo and it looks like the cake is about to fall.

The reflection of the candles gives his hair frosted tips.

Happy Birthday Jeremia!

We love you madly and can’t imagine life without you! Thanks for being such a great kid!

1 Comment

Filed under Celebrate, Family, Rodents aka kids, With Gratitude

Tagged as 13, angel hair pasta, Birthday, carrot cake, great kid, halo, happy birthday jeremia, teen, teenager

August 3, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Organize Me Happy

Our friends, Lynda and Graham, are off having adventures, on the other side of the world. Before they left, they liquidated everything, with several moving sales.

On our first visit, I saw this wood tool chest and immediately wanted it. I had no idea where I would put it though, so we decided to think on it.

Der and I walked through the house, contemplating where we could put it, and what function it would serve. Finally, my brain clicked and all things fell into order.

We had been looking for the perfect microwave cart. Our microwave had been on top of the fridge which was kind of a pain. Having it so high up made it a challenge to get things in and out of it. This chest would bring the microwave down to a better level, PLUS give us tons of utensil storage, and do it all with style. SOLD!!!

It’s so nice not to have to dig through a pile to get whatever tool I need.

Good, straight forward organization is something that calms my nerves. Disorganization gives me ulcers. True story.

Thanks, Lynda, and Graham, for giving us deals galore on some really great stuff, stuff I didn’t know I was missing, until we brought it home.

Loveliness

The heavens opened up, in just that one spot, and I was lucky enough to see it.

Big fluffy clouds.

Sunshine in the clouds and flowers…sighhhh.

Picacho Peak, I love you so.

Lovely sunset as seen from our backyard.

I smile every time I see that red and white tower near Nogales Highway. I am reminded of Benny and Jeremia exclaiming “look it’s dad’s work” whenever we drove by. Just for the record, we pass it on the way to Der’s work, but it’s not really close to it, so why they thought it’s where he worked is beyond me. I do so appreciate the memory and the warm happy feeling it fills me with though.

5 Comments

Filed under Making Memories, Natural Happenings, With Gratitude

Tagged as clouds, fluffy clouds, gorgeous, heavens, memories, Nature, nogales highway, outdoors, skies, sunset, sunshine

July 4, 2012 · 12:43 am

Tape Thank You Cards

With Ami’s birthday in June we had some thank you cards to send out.

We worked on them in shifts over a 3 day period.

Ami gets super whiny if he has to write more than 2 sentences in 1 sitting. He’s in for a rude awakening, when he starts first grade, but for now, I’m choosing to pick my battles. I want him to think of writing thank you cards as something fun, not a chore.

I had him write his thank yous on lined paper.

Later I cut them out and we used glue stick to attach them to the inside of each card.

The cards were different colors of card stock folded in half.

I found this cute rainbow duct tape in a half roll. We still have tons left.

Ami absolutely loved the taping part.

I made him a sample one for reference. Then I cut off pieces of tape and handed them to him for him to stick down.

Also pictured is Conrad’s page of practice words from our weekly spelling test.

Please forgive the bad flash photography. I definitely prefer taking photos in natural light, but we’ve been so busy nighttime was the only time we had to do this.

He was super proud of the finished product!

I could gobble him up, he’s so cute!

The finished cards fit perfectly in half size manilla envelopes. I found a package of 6 in white at the dollar store.

2 Comments

Filed under Feeling Fartsy, On The Cheap, Rodents aka kids, With Gratitude

Tagged as Birthday, card stock, duct tape, gratitude, thank you cards

June 29, 2012 · 1:26 am

6 Years

My friend Darci has once again surprised us with a priceless gift. Today she emailed me 3 photos of Benny that she found buried in her computer files. Gratitude isn’t a big enough word to describe what I feel towards her. She holds a very special place in my heart and is just a good for the soul kind of person.

Benny was such a joy. There is a purple pony nestled in the green purse he’s holding as he catches a ride on his IV pole.

Here he was getting to pick toys out of a special cabinet that was created in memory of another little boy whose life was stolen by cancer. Benny didn’t want a toy so he picked some out for Jeremia and Conrad. He was such a sweet brother.

I love that face. I want to take it in my hands and cover every inch of it with kisses.

I want to hold him and caress his head and whisper in his ear. I used to sniff in his ear like a dog and make him laugh. I also used to sit and rub my lips back and forth over the top of his head, when he was sitting in my lap. I can still feel that feeling.

I want to stare into his big brown pools and hold his hand and hear his sweet voice.

Instead, I am left to endure the slow ache of insatiable longing.

Where Benny’s life should be happening there are just dates to be remembered and honored.

Yesterday marked 6 years since Benny’s departure. It’s barely conceivable that he’s been gone longer than he was here.

He was robbed, we were robbed and there is not a damn thing we can do about it.

Cancer is an asshole!

It would be easy to get lost in my hatred for the disease that stole my beautiful boy from me, but I try instead to fight the hate and focus on all of the wonderful things that came from my greatest loss. Most days it’s works, some days I just have to let myself feel what I need to feel.

Seeing new photos of Benny is bittersweet. I love them and cherish them and wish I had a new one everyday, but it still hurts a little to look at them.

I want to say it’s a painful reminder of all that we’ve lost, but that would suggest that we’d forgotten, and we will never forget.

4 Comments

Filed under Everything else, Family, Rodents aka kids, With Gratitude

Tagged as Benny, cancer is an asshole, child death, great love, loss of a child, moonman, motherhood, neuroblastoma, peanut, pediatric cancer, purple pony, sweet brother