Food Storage

With our economic crisis in this country I thought I'd bring up something very important. Food storage. Yes, it never hurts to be prepared. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have been told for decades to get a year's supply of food and other essentials such as you would need if hubby lost his job or in the event of a catastrophe. It's an excellent idea. I started doing this when I joined the church 15 years ago. Our food storage was destroyed in a flood in our house in the basement. It took me only a couple of months to replace it. I cannot tell you how we have been blessed for having this food. It is a promise from the Lord that if we are prepared we need not fear. It is a foundation of our church to be prepared spiritually and temporally. I am prepared temporally and working on the spiritual side.

This is a shelving system we recently purchased to help us rotate our canned foods better. It is called Shelf Reliance and they have these and dried foods and such for emergencies. Hubs and I have a 72 hour kit in our house for each of us in case we would need to evacuate our home in an emergency. If you doubt there can be an emergency in your area I'd remind you of the people in New Orleans for that devastating hurricane, Iowa for floods and the northeast and east with snow and ice storms. You just never know. Be prepared!

This is a new water storage tank that will hold 200 gallons of water. A man displayed the prototype at a Preparedness Fair our stake had last september. We ordered one and got it a couple of weeks ago. With all the snow we couldn't bring it in and fill it but we will soon. Cost: $180.00. Great deal. It's about 36" round and 6' tall. Easily stored and easy to fill, shows how much water is left and can get it out of the spout on the bottom.

These are two 50 gallon food grade drums we've used for several years for water storage. We'll sell these on Craigslist since we won't need them any more.

Okay, this was our food storage in our old house about 50 miles away from us now.

My "storage" included toilet tissue, toothpaste, shampoo, plastic wrap, laundry soap, bath soap, motor oil, fabric softener, oil for lamps, hard candy for times of stress, tuna in cans, rice-a-roni, vinegar, salt, pepper, olives, just about anything and everything you'd use in a year. Any and all the food we would normally eat. Those buckets have dried carrots, onions, flour, sugar and dried potatoes in them. We had 3 freezers with meat and frozen items in it but sold 1 freezer as we didn't need it any more. Our freezer is stocked with frozen food also.

Yeah, yeah, I overdid the canned tomatoes one year and have to give some to some needy families but I had it to give and was glad to help others.

Ooooh, and this picture??? I was practicing with my digital zoom and looked down at the grass. I zoomed in 15x and got this great pix of the new blades starting to shoot up. I'm jazzed, chicks!!

Friend's Home Tour #4

Update on son 4/12/09

Go here to read the latest on our son's situation. Thank you.
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This room belongs to my "scrapping buddy" and is adorable. She just got this room from her sister, who went to another room. You get a "peek" at another chandelier in this room also. Notice the shabby chic lamp. That floor lamp in the corner is one I gave her as I had no place for it. Tash even has a fluffy throw for her bed. I think she's one of us, chicks! *Smile* This is the lower level of the house.

Tash needed a valentine box in a hurry last month so her mom brought her over and we put this box together with fabric and crepe paper garland in under an hour. It was quickly done with glue but we got it done in record time! I guess Tash liked it so much she kept it. :-) Those are probably her baby shoes on the window sill. The curtains are also Rachel Ashwell.

These are Tasha's baby dresses. Aren't they adorable? Of course, having seen them in person I know it better than you do, but I do love the way she displays them like I do. Adorable!

Notice the shabby chic rug on the carpet, the little chenille chair and the vanity desk for her. How cute is that?!

There is only one boy at home now and he's 4 or 5 I think. Their sons are all married I believe and have kids of their own now. But the boy's area is just that: BOYS area! All patriotic and red, white and blue. They have plenty of room for all the grandkids when they come.

An extra bed for the toddlers that visit. This is a very patriotic family as you can see from all the flags. Love it!!

Phyllis had to close these drawers when I was doing the photoshoot. I told her it was fine but being an excellent housekeeper, she wanted it perfect. It was a cute gesture but she is a meticulous woman.

Is this cute or what?! Her hubby made this for their kids years ago and they can play on it with a real saddle. I have never seen another one like this. Just darling.

This is the media room. I didn't take a picture of the "television" because it's so big I wasn't sure if it was an actual television. It's behind a blue curtain that draws closed. Must be some kind of "media" this old chick isn't familiar with yet but it looked like a movie screen of some sort. I'm sooooo not in touch with "media" now except computers. Notice the blue wood burning stove.

A kid's room is just to the left of the media room. This could definitely be a bedroom but it houses all kinds of things for the kids and grandkids to play with, play on or dress up in. What a treat this is for little ones I'm sure. Horses to ride, kitchens to "cook" in, costumes to dress up in, chalk boards to write on, strollers and dollies to push, boxes and boxes of toys, phones and shelves of stuffed animals. This room is a child's dream play room!

I'll round this one up for today. Only one more blog post to show you of this lovely home.

Random Thoughts 4/11/09 and Pink Saturday

I found these darling little buttons the other day and thought I'd change my jackets and blazers out with these instead of the standard ones that come on them. It makes them unique and no one else in town will have one exactly like it! Not a good shot but these are medium pink background with little red roses painted on them. Really cute!

These are going on a beige blazer. You can't see them very well, but it is a little landscape with trees. Darling buttons!

Love bunny thinks I've gone overboard on making clip-ons, but I thought I'd try this "ruffled" pair. I think I need to shorten the ends though. AND maybe buy a new pink pair of shoes, huh?!?!?! There ya go!!! Another new pair of shoes. I get on a roll and don't know when to stop, chicks.....*Sigh*..........

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I like visiting new blogs from time to time when I see something interesting posted by a blogger I have never seen before or a post by a blogger seems particularly interesting. And I read their Profile Page if it is accessible. I come across many that are cute but some seem to stick out in my mind sometimes.

The other day a comment drew me to a blogger and her Profile Page had the ubiquitous question. Hers asked: In the dream where you show up to school naked, why do you never go swimming? Her answer was: What and ruin my hairdo? My kinda woman, chicks, and she is from the south, which answers the question the way most southern women would answer. Other than I'd rather bleed than sweat (uuuuuh, excuse me, I mean "glisten"), I'd rather die than get my DO wet!
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If you have an adult child in the 22-24 age range still living at home, you have a deadbeat! Tell him or her to get a life and move out and ON!
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Time for some eye candy: I made 7 of these little tissue paper pompoms. They're huge and I plan on hanging them in my office or craft room.
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To all bloggers: if you use the labels in your blog then you need to check your spelling because if you misspell a word then they won't find you when looking for that particular label or tag. Let's say you're doing a blog about "creating" and misspell it like "creatting" then they'll never find you. If you are not sure of the spelling or have any doubt at all then look it up or use "spell check" and it is the little abc with a check mark under it just above where you compose your blog post here. Click on that icon and it will highlight in yellow all the words that are misspelled or doesn't recognize as a word. Just for your information, chicks.
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Mothers who have all the craft supplies out and ready when kids come home from school are, in my opinion, profoundly disturbed! *Smile*
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This is a comment I found on another blog. This is pure and simple an advertisement! While I don't mind at all sending chicks to other blogs if they ask me to and it's not an advertisement, I do have a problem with "scammers and spammers" who try to post on my blog by posting something like this. I've obliterated this man's name and blog, which is a "business type of blog" and is done only to draw business to their blog. I didn't want to embarrass him by showing his name so left just enough to let you see what I'm talking about. I, also, got one recently for steel buildings and I'm now getting emails from this business! I'm not too keen on that. You can also tell they come from a foreign country by the use of their language - english is NOT their native language. BUT I can block anyone I don't want from my email with my Mac Mail with a rule. I don't receive any emails I don't want to receive at all now. Bottom line here: moderate your comments OR at least check them every once in a while to see that there are no "advertisements" in the form of comments because the gambling, p**no people use these a LOT to draw people to their site. And trust me, you don't want that! That is if you don't want them; if you don't care, they forget all of the above. ;-)
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When my daughter and granddaughter were here recently we watched a DVD on the tv that is still in that box and covered with a "cover" I made to disguise the box and the tv. Remember, we do NOT watch television at all. So I am so used to years ago when we actually did watch tv and "tapes." Well, when it ended I said to "rewind" it and everyone looked at me and just guffawed at my faux pas. Hey, it's been 25 years since we watched television! What do I know?!
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The heart is strange terrain sometimes.
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What my friend and I did last weekend. ;-) I'm the prettier one!!! *Laughing*....
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I try to lead a holy life and a spiritual life. It's not hard to do but I'm human and sometimes fall off the carousel.
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I made these little place mats from leftover fleece. Used pinking shears and cut them 14"x20" and they're perfect for using daily over my white table cloth to catch the spills from drinks and food. However, do NOT wash them with a load of fluffy white towels. Note the "fluff" I've been picking off now!
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I enjoy surfing the blogs everyday or just about every day and I find soooo many wonderful women who are creative and kind and resourceful. I sometimes just click on the names of women who have left a comment where I'm leaving one and voilà, a new blogger has caught my eye and I love it! It's just marvelous to me.
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Looking at some pictures in a popular magazine my daughter bought for reading on the airplane recently I noticed something. Our young women are trying to look s*xy beyond their years. What ever happened with sweet and innocent? Hmmmm??? I love the fresh look of clean skin and a sweet smile instead of those "here's kissin' ya" look they all try to come up with now. What has happened to our young people?
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Getting It Off My Chest

Update on our son for 4/12/09

Oh, and just in case you didn't realize this: his eyes are open in the photo of him after the beating.
I chatted with him last night and his voice was stronger but his headache will not subside. He now has vertigo (dizziness) and just can't stop the room from spinning. But he's getting better slowly. He neglected to tell me that the attackers punched his mouth and destroyed some front teeth so he now has 4 temporary caps in there until the permanent ones can be put in. Each day I learn something else that happened. I'll see him this coming week. I thank each and everyone of you who prayed for him and for your remarks. I know prayers work and especially those of a mother for her children. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! I just cannot thank you all in person but if I could I would. I also thank those who wanted to send him a personal note at his home. He'll get a kick out of that.
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Update on our son for 4/10/09

I am so ready for this season to bloom, aren't you?! A fresh awakening of mother nature. Ahhhh............... I don't think I could post without a picture of eye candy or glorious beauty even as it was singing its swan song last summer.

*

(Imagine my voice very soft and lovingly saying these following words as that is how it is meant and not harshly stated.) *Smile*

First of all I need to say something in response to Anonymous about her comments and I only wish she would have revealed herself so I could "sympathize" with her (and please, my fellow bloggers don't pick on her because I know she meant no harm or ill will and I certainly have taken none): You are absolutely correct and I apologize. There are absolutely, unequivocally good and bad in every race in this world and absolutely race has nothing to do with it. You would have to know me to know I am no racist and neither is my son. This is not said as a need to defend my beliefs or myself; it's just a simple statement of fact. I never said what ethnic or diverse group they were at all. To assume I meant the group you are mentioning is a great leap because there really is no hint as to which one it is. California is such a mix of different/diverse groups of people it could have been any number of them. As a matter of fact, we are part Mexican and Spanish through some great-grandparents. My grandsons are part Asian. I know it doesn't show in our appearance but it is absolutely there, just the Dutch side appears more prevalent. In my church, you will NEVER EVER hear a word about hate!!! It is all about love for our other brothers and sisters. Always!

You are right: as a people and a nation we are becoming divided. I feel profoundly sad at this. You have no idea how many days and nights hubs and I have talked about this as a family and what we can do on our part to help others come to this realization or the tears shed on pillows as we see these things take place in our beloved and wonderful country. It will not get any better however until there is a turn towards God and we learn to have love in our hearts. No amount of "legislation" can force us to love one another or treat one another equally. It has to come from the heart. This can only happen when we turn to the Almighty Superior Being. Do not argue with me because what I espouse is truth. Have you seen or heard any politician introduce any kind of legislation that makes us love one another more? No! It comes from the heart. No one can have any clue how many conversations, tears and stress this has brought to this family's life or how many pillows have been wet from tears or how many have rolled down my cheeks and dropped onto my shirt on how this glorious and wonderful country is being torn apart from this. Again, it will only get worse. But through all of it I'm persevering on being happy, funny, witty and humorous by following the teachings of my church in that regard.

I cringe when I hear the "apologists" apologize for being "American" or FOR America! Not this woman! This is a God given country to us from God. He is MY leader! Never apologize for ME for being American. I'm proud of the United States of America. All people are proud of their country and I am no different. It's the greatest country in the world I believe. I know people die trying to get into this country and my daughter-in-law was one of them who surmounted great odds to come here and she has a degree in business from her birth country's university. She's an educated, intelligent, bright and literate woman. Her family tells me that in the country she came from, there are hardly any of them that wouldn't give their lives to come here!! I speak from experience on this one so do NOT doubt me!!! I follow His teachings. I obey the laws of the land as instructed by the dictates of my church. I, for one silly little American woman, am PROUD to be American!! I don't love "races/groups"; I love people. Always have and always will. I look to their hearts. If I don't like you, it isn't because of your color or race or culture; it's because I don't like "you", trust me on this. Love for you? Yes, but not someone whom I might not find much to admire. The spewing of hate we are subject to from the articles I read turn my stomach and sicken me.

Now, since the education is woefully inadequate in this country (no disrespect to teachers at all here), let me clarify one thing: there are only 3 races in the world—caucasoid, negroid and mongoloid. That's it; there aren't any more. You would have to go back to anthropology books about 50 years ago to fully check it out. Mexicans are caucasoid and not negroid/black. This certainly isn't meant to belittle anyone; it's a fact. These "races" are NOT determined by skin color, well, not only and that's the last determination; it is determined by cranial measurements of the skull: forehead, nose and bone. There are "diverse" cultures and ethnic groups within each race. I think we should all be proud of what we are and who we are. Mostly we are all children of God. Be proud of whatever your heritage is. Enough said about this. Be proud to be born OR naturalized as an American citizen!!
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Now for the actual update on son. He doesn't need any surgery on face. Just many fractures in the face bones. We're happy for that. Of course, as his mother, I don't see how they could improve on that gorgeous face, which looks surprisingly like mine! But he can talk a bit better and ate some spaghetti, chocolate pudding and some donuts! He is, after all, his mother's son! (I keep my sense of humor through everything, chicks.) He also told his dad, Love Bunny, "they really whupped me, Dad." Still has his sense of humor.

Now I want to copy for you a letter I sent recently to Shelia at Note Songs blog and it is truly my own words and thoughts to her:

Actually, I feel peace at the moment about not hating. It's a very strange feeling because as a mother we all worry about our children and what we would do if someone hurt them. Well, I've been given the test and I think I've survived it well. We watched our church's General Conference this past weekend (it's always the first weekend in April and same in October) and there are always talks about forgiveness. But during this conference it must have settled into my heart silently and eagerly, honey. I can truly and honestly state that I felt not one moment of hate. Anger, yes, a tiny, tiny fraction, but it went away so fast it was almost unnoticeable! It's all very strange to me especially after looking at my baby's face and seeing it so brutalized and hearing him groaning over the phone and all of that. I can't explain it. One would have to experience it to feel it. But I'm at peace just knowing that [son] is alive.
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I'll leave you today with this statement in a sweet and loving email from Pat at Mille Fiori Favoriti:

We sometimes can only do small things, but we can do them with great love.
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Update on our son for 4/7/09 6:30 AM

Last night my daughter-in-law called and said the police got the surveillance tape and were able to identify 3 of those men who attacked our son and also got the license plate of the car. I'm very pleased.

Son will go to doctor today to see if he is going to need surgery on his face. Not sure why but we'll see. He is still not eating and nauseous even after getting medication for it. I think after an ordeal like that the body just wants to go into "sleep mode" to heal itself and he's doing that almost exclusively! He cannot talk or eat but is sipping water through a straw.

I still want to tell you that I'm feeling no hate for those men. I say this in all honesty. Yes, I cry—A LOT! I didn't know a face could hurt this bad from crying or eyes could be so tender also. But I still feel a little anger. Why not hate and only a little bit of anger when my baby's face and body is so beaten? I think the Lord has stepped in on this one, trust me. We are taught in our church to love every single person and to not hold grudges. I'm not perfect at this, believe me! But if I hold the hate and anger I'm the lower one. This has truly opened my eyes and heart beyond anything I can comprehend. But I tell you this with all the honesty I can muster at this point. I have feelings for their mothers who raised them. I truly want to hate these men but I just simply cannot do it. I sit here typing this with tears rolling down my eyes onto my chest knowing my son wouldn't want this either. We're a strongly LDS family and try to live by my church's teaching no matter how hard it is for the "natural man/woman" in me. l can only weep for those men also. I say these things not to sound "above the fray" but because this are truly and absolutely what is in my heart at the moment.

I want to thank all of you who have prayed for my baby and for your sweet kind words. I have a better insight into these things that happen now and maybe the lesson is for me and me only. I'll try and respond to each of you as soon as I can. Thank you, thank you; I know prayers work because my son is alive!
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Update Monday 4/6/09 11:15 am

My daughter and I were skyping today and she's been in touch with my DIL. We were both just sobbing on the video cam talking about this. My son had an MRI last night and there is absolutely no bleeding on his brain so that's an answer to our prayers last night. He is back home but cannot talk. They have a doctor's appointment to talk about surgery on his face. He is on so much pain killers at this point that I hope they are able to make it. My DIL is a very strong woman but her voice was so stressed out last night and I don't want all of us calling her so we're doing it in shifts. She needs to take care of her family at the moment. So we don't want to bombard her with too many calls.

The cops were at the hospital again last night and told them that 2 witnesses stood by and watched this and are willing to testify. (Let me say here I do NOT condemn them in anyway. This would have been terribly frightening if 5 guys were doing this to one man. No anger at those standing by at all.) The girl was terrified, but the others are certainly willing to talk. There were 2 cars and the first car had 5 "diverse/ethnic" men in it. They all jumped out to pound on my child. Witnesses say that he was knocked out for about half a minute and they went over and helped him up to his car. The manager of the convenience store/gas station was off for the weekend but when he comes in today they are going to get the tapes from him to view them and see if they can get some help that way.

My 20 year old grandson had a friend come over to stay with them and protect his mom, other grandmother and his 11 1/2 year old brother. The friend came with a gun because of the threats to our son's family. These are very mature trustworthy young men. My grandson is in college studying to be a pharmacist and is just a super young man. All my grandsons are actually! But when you get threatened in California you cannot depend on the police to protect you every minute. I love and adore any policeman but there is no way they can protect one small family. We've already scheduled to go down there next week and will wait until then unless there is a change in our son. But we have to go down there then so we'll see what happens this week. He's resting now and he needs that and said he doesn't want any visitors. I'm respecting that at the moment but reserving my rights as his mother to change at any given moment.

If you are interested you can look back as I'll be updating regularly as we know more. Thank all of you for your sweet prayers and comments. This has "ALMOST" devastated this family, but, as I said, we are strong!! And we'll NOT be beaten down. Sad for a season but NOT down and out. I've read the "Book" and know how it ends. The good people will persevere!!!!!!
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Update at 9 pm 4/5/09

This is his face tonight. I apologize if this offends anyone but this is my baby. I gave birth to him 46 years ago saturday 4/3. How can a mother stand this? His hands are bruised from trying to defend himself last night. Wife called about 6 pm pacific time and said ambulance had come to take him back to hospital. He's in pain: head, cheeks, eyes, ribs, arms and legs. We haven't heard anything for 2 hours now so I'll keep posting when I get updates. We certainly could use prayers. I've been praying my insides out all day. I can't seem to stop crying. I just keep crying and praying for him. When they hurt your baby it hurts you no matter how old they are. It's strange but I can't feel hate for those men, just anger. Is that close to hate? I don't know. Right now it's just an intense sadness welling up in my chest.

When talking to him today, which was difficult because he can hardly move his jaw and can't eat much less hardly talk, he said he's not even sure how many, maybe even 6 jumped out of those cars and that's all he remembers. Not sure if they hit him with something or their hands punched him at first. His memory is still foggy. They just kept kicking and beating him. He remembers them telling him that if he said anything about this they'd kill him and his family since they got his wallet and knew where he lived. His family is living in fear at this moment. My 2 grandsons, daughter-in-law and her mom also. This is just beyond our belief at the moment. Fortunately, all was caught on a surveillance tape at the gas station. Am I rambling and repeating myself? If so, it's understandable. I need sleep now.

We got a phone call last night that almost rocked our world. My son was beaten by 5 gang members while at a gas station in the California town he lives in. He was gassing up so he could meet his family at a restaurant for dinner–his birthday. My daughter-in-law finally called because he was so late and was told he was in the ER and she and the boys rushed to the hospital.

He was trying to defend a woman they were picking on and told the "men" (using this term loosely here for this trash because "real men" don't do this sort of thing) to leave her alone. Now, my son was on crutches from a knee operation last month, but these 5 wimps ganged up on him. Son is a former Marine and could have handled at least 2 of them if not on crutches but they seemed to think it took 5 of them to beat up a defenseless man on crutches. He has a broken nose, 2 black eyes, fractured cheek plus the numerous other aches and pains from being beaten up by 5 hoodlums. I hope their mothers are proud of them. What in the world is happening to our country today when things like this happen???? I'm proud of my son for trying to defend a woman! They also saw fit to steal his wallet. Wasn't that just super of them?? The police are on top of it. I'm just hoping they got a good look at them from the surveillance tape at the gas station.

Had to vent. I want our country to be safe but when we stop living a moral and Godly life this is what happens to our cities, states and country. I think I'll have to pray for those punks also. I don't want to but I think they probably need prayer more than my son at this point. Until we get some moral people in to make moral and Godly decisions this will not get better; it will get worse. Is this what you want our country to become - a place where thugs rule?

I Saw the Tears in Her Eyes...........

A few sundays ago in our relief society hour of church, there was a lesson on provident living—getting out of debt, living within your means, getting your food storage and making do with what you've got and not wasting it. The woman conducting it and giving the lesson is a cohort of mine into the foray of photography. After a short film by a church leader on the subject, she started to give the lesson. I stopped her by raising my hand. She gave the nod for me to speak and I motioned I needed to come up to the "front of the class." Shock registered on her face as I stood beside her; she asked what it was about very softly and I whispered into her ear, "the dress", as she had been aware of the frustration of mine in the making of said dress.

I then proceeded to subscribe my double-sided dress and the problems and frustration of making it. It was a good lesson in making lemonade from your lemons and also to not throw anything out.

As I looked into the faces of the women, about 30-40 of them, I noticed some smiles, some outright laughter and then something that quite astonished me. I saw "what in the heck is this chick talking about" look on some of the faces. Of course, since most of those women have never taken the time to get to know me or my humor and joie de vive they might have been stunned. But that's no matter as I plowed along in my own little world attempting to get my point across.

Later that day I sent an email to my friend about asking her how she could have allowed me to totally embarrass myself and I'll never ever open my mouth in that class again. It was much longer than this snippet but you get the idea.

Later that evening a knock on the door brought me and Love Bunny out of our sunday evening stupor. As I opened the door, there stood my young mommy friend. She sheepishly looked at me and asked if I was serious and was I angry with her. Stupified ME said, "of course not!" I didn't stop to think, since we are "partners in humor" and both eager "photographers in learning" sometimes, that it woud have affected her so. She wiped tears from her eyes for the 40-45 minutes she visited then. I truly thought the humor would have come through on the email, but it didn't and she spent the next few hours trying to chat with her hubby and kids, going to look at the email again, back to family, back to email and finally dashing out the door to see if she had offended me or what in the heck was going on.

I laughed and said, "no, nothing is wrong". I just thought I made a complete jackass out of myself in usurping her time and evidently astonishing some of the women. But the tears got to me in a way not much else could. I thought I fell flat that sunday but evidently there was more going on than I thought. But it assuaged her tender feelings and for that I'm certainly grateful.

And yes, those are her eyes in the photo.
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