Time for another Round Robin Photo Challenge. This time Kiva suggested anything wooden. I knew immediately what I wanted to share.

We bought these huge antique snowshoes at an auction about 4 years ago. They look nice on the wall.

This is a German sled we bought at an Antique Store when we were building the house. I had thoughts of suspending it from the ceiling above the island in the kitchen as a sort of pot rack.

Why wooden wheels aren’t so great.

I’m sure I could have come up with a few more wooden items but I have been really distracted by birds lately. I have seen a few that I had never seen before and even a few that I had only seen once before. . .You’ll see them soon, promise. Was that a teaser? ;)

I am such a Dummy! While photographing my “D” photos, I Dropped my camera! How Destructive! Luckily, for me, everything still works or it might be my ghost typing now. Also, luckily for me, it was the Xti with the macro lens and both are insured. Whew!

See my Dinky Dog, Daisy, Defending the Dime?

My Demanding Dog’s Dumb squeaky Duck being Dented by my Ditzy Duck.

Delightful Divided Dice in a Dingy Divot on a Date book.

Duck Diving in Dandelions.

Dancing Designer Ducks.

Demon ant Delving into Dandelion to Diagnose why it has Dandruff.

Dandy!

If you're unfamiliar with the site, people send in a secret on a postcard anonymously. Often there are cards that touch me, make me laugh, gasp, or feel less alone. This past Sunday one made me cry. I couldn’t even read it aloud to Dennis for my tears and I am tearing up as I write this now. Here’s what the card said:

I’m not going to try to cope when

my mom has lost her battle with cancer.

I’m going to kill myself.

I hope there is an afterlife.

Go to PostSecret to see the actual card. And maybe take a moment to pray, appeal to your higher power, send this person good vibes or whatever you believe. Let’s change her heart.

Cancer Sucks!

Bet you didn’t know hoods could be used for more than your head.

One brown eye, one blue.

I did not know pot belly pigs were born with their eyes open. The mama had three babies the morning of this photo.

This baby wallaby has not been out of the pouch yet, so we don’t know what sex it is yet.

My parents live in southwest Missouri and this time the tornado hit about a half mile from their house.  That's just a little too close for comfort.  And, from what I have heard on the weather channel that tornado has been classified as an f4, about a mile wide.  Scary stuff.

Mom and dad got lucky and the only damage they sustained was one down tree and a few branches.  Some of their very close neaighbors weren't so lucky.

This guy was trying to get his car a little protection from the golf ball sized hail.  Guess that didn't work, but he's ok.

These people lost 47 trees in a storm 5 years ago and now the remainder are gone.  But their house is still standing, which is actually saying a lot considering two of their immediate neighbors lost their homes.

Photos are courtesy of my mom and dad.

PS - Would you believe that I am still sick?!  Please tell me that the coughing will end soon and I will once again feel alive, cuz right now I feel like Picher Oklahoma.

Our Fun Monday hostess, Sauntering Soul, would like to know our dirty little secrets. How do we react to things, or people, who upset us. How are we jerks?

Well, I’m pretty passive aggressive. For the most part, things don’t get to me, but we are talking about when they do. I had to dig a little to come up with some things but here’s what I’ve got.

Waitresses bad service - I have been known to, on occasion, give my waitress tips on how to get better tips via a note on the check and a low tip. I only result to this if we have had the same crappy waitress several times so I know it’s not just a bad day. We tip very well and when I order a soda I probably want a refill or I would not pay the high cost of it in the first place.

Noisy people above us in a motel - My brain cannot handle repetitive noises, they drive me batty. And when on occasion we have had noisy people above us stomping, jumping on the bed and acting like they just purchased the entire motel, I have been known to thump back, even if I had to jump on my bed with a shoe on my hand in order to do so.

Which makes me think of those people in the movie theaters, the ones who think their ticket has bought them every seat around them and they kick my seat or put their feet on my seat, etc. I will begin to lean back as far as my seat will go, or sit up really tall so my head is in their way, or sometimes I just move to an area away from them.

Tailgaters - people who ride my butt, practically pushing me down the road. Yeah, I slow down to a safe speed about 5 mph under the speed limit and sometimes if I see their blinker turn on I will turn too.

Salespeople ringing our doorbell - I don’t answer. My kids always call before they come over so if I hear the doorbell ring and don’t know who it is, I don’t answer.

People who tell me I have to do something when I think it is my choice - I just don’t do it. For example, when the seatbelt law was passed, I stopped wearing my seatbelt because it ticked me off that I was told to. I do wear it now, but I rebelled for a while. Pretty much if I’m not given a choice, but am told, “You have to do this. . .”, I want to not do whatever it is.

I think I have spilled my guts enough, thank you very much. I hope to find that I am surrounded by people who can also be jerks from time to time. Leave me a comment, how are you a jerk?

As we were driving on a country road near the Dells we saw a "Historical Marker" sign.  We let our eyes follow the arrow, but couldn't read the marker from the road.  So we pulled over and walked up to the fence. Never let it be said that Wisconsinites don't have a sense of humor.

See the small words at the bottom, Trinacria Hist. Society?  No such thing exists.  Apparently, Trinacria means literally triangle, check out the Sicilian Folklore.  Now I'm just a little more than curious why that word was chosen.  This sign was moved from a place in NW Wisconsin a few years ago.  Will it's next placement create a triangle? 

Isn’t he beautiful! The males are SO bright right now.

I sat with my lens trained on the opening to the birdhouse waiting to see her peek out. There was no peeking this time, as she came out, he came down and I was so excited thinking I must have caught them terrifically. . .

Then so disappointed when I saw this on the computer. The focus remained on the opening, not the quickly moving birds. I’m thinking, if I had allowed the flash to go off I might have been able to freeze their wings, but then again I think they moved out of the area I had in focus so this is just it.

When she went back in, I tried again and she came out a little slower this time.

She’s doing a little house cleaning, but once again she moved out of my area of focus. Her little feet sure look good though, don’t they?

See, these last three photos all happened so fast I didn’t have the chance to move the camera.

She looks so sweetly curious, I just had to see what she was looking at. So, I moved the lens down, below her, and. . .

At this point I decided to go buy some nesting material to help encourage them to stay.

But this little Nuthatch caught my eye. I still thrill over the zany Nuthatches. I’ve only seen the white-breasted ones lately though and am kinda missing the itty bitty red-breasted ones. If you’re not familiar with Nuthatches, they are really fun to watch as the walk down trees eating insects from the bark. This guy had been digging around in some leaves prior to walking along the driveway.

This is a female Brown-headed Cowbird. These birds are new to me, but according to my bird book they are the only parasitic bird in the state, laying their eggs in host birds’ nests, leaving others to raise their young. So I guess they’re footloose and fancy free.

I was probably 20-30 feet away from the birds in these photos. That’s typically about as close as they’ll let me get. That’s my set-up there for birding. The 100-400mm on the Canon 40D, they are pretty much married, it’s rare for me to change the lens on that camera.

That’s the zoomiest lens we have and it can be used on any of our cameras. That being said, if it is put on the 5D, it would not be as zoomy. The 5D has a full frame sensor and the other cameras (Xti, 20D, 40D) have smaller sensors. Think of them like widescreen and full frame movies. When we bought the 5D, I almost got a 5D too, but I knew that I like to bird and the smaller sensor gives me more zoom. So I went with the 40D.

The 40D has a fast processor and many sports photographers choose it. It reacts quicker than the other cameras. It can shoot 5 frames per second compared with their 3 frames per second. This matters in birds. And when I saw the bird guy speak a couple of weeks ago, he says he uses the Canon 40D too, and he’s a pro.

I took this one a few days ago and I kinda like it.

These were taken last fall and are two of my favorite Chickadee photos.  If you would like to hear the Chickadee, click here.

The yellow bird posted a couple of days ago is an American Goldfinch. And he was still around the next day.

I hope to eventually get a decent shot of these colorful birds.  You can hear his song here.

Happy Fun Monday! Kitten wants to know about our heroes. I have told you about my hero many times before and I am on the verge of death. No? I hope in a couple of days I will be back up to my chipper self but for today, me and my fever are snuggled in bed.

 

 

1. express a feeling, maybe even let us guess what feeling you were trying to express.
2. show me the view from your shoe
3. unique mailboxes
4. cemetery tour
5. something that brought a smile to your face this week

 

So, have you seen Blogtations?  It reminds me a little of Post Secret.  Blogtations features blogger quotes.  One particular one has really struck a chord with me and has me boo-hooing amidst the a-chooing.

I shared these photos with you on Monday and while searching through my flickr for them I discovered that I had taken them on April 28th, 2007. So, one year plus one day later I decided to go back over.

Hubby had barely walked in the door from work when I asked him to come to the park with me. I grabbed my macro lens and tossed the honkin’ lens to him. The honkin’ lens gets very heavy. Imagine carrying your laptop on the trails, yeah it’s 3-5 lbs, at least. So, I really call it my honkin’ lens, or sometimes huge honkin’, you might know it better as the 100-400mm, my birding lens. And since my left arm is aching, I assume from carrying it too much, I was happy to give it to him in case we saw the owl again.

On the way to the area I needed I saw this cute little snowman left over from our snow a couple of days ago. He looks pretty out of place now.

What I found was that I was a little late for the skunk cabbage; it looks very sad now. That center bulb thing starts out kind of a creamy white.

There was plenty around but it’s past its prime.

Do you recognize this? It will be prettier soon.

Who do I see?

Who sees me?

Those were taken with my macro lens (100mm). But Dennis managed to make his arm ache and get a crick in his neck while taking the following, with the camera pointed nearly straight up. And he says he’s not a birder, ha!

Pooping owl.

Shake, shake. . .

Shake.

Yawn?

Sneeze?

So, the whole trip wasn’t a bust. I really enjoyed watching him and I think he enjoyed seeing us again. We weren’t totally surprised to see him because we own a cache (GC12FTW) nearby and often people say they have seen him. I’m just amazed that he stays in this area. I guess he must find plenty to eat or he wouldn’t stay. Maybe he helps keep the nearby golf course clean.

You probably thought I’d show you some Crayola Crayons,

Or Colorful Candy or Confections,

Or even a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

Maybe you thought I’d show a Church or a CD,

Or a Colorado Catalog,

Or even a Casino. (If I had waited a couple of seconds the lower portions said “Craps”.)

But instead I wanted to share with you Charlie the Constipated Cow and his Cornrows.

Charlie used the Crème de la Crème to make Cream style Corn.

Charlie’s Captive friends, Callie the Communicative Collie, Carina the Conscience Cat, Charlotte the Complex Chicken and Capri the Cranky Cub lived as a Commune in a Crumbling Cracker Castle.

Capri was Constantly Complaining.

So Charlie Crushed a Column so they could escape.

As they Cavorted a Cross-eyed Cobra Crept into the Clearing.

Soon, they were doing the Complicated Conga. But poor Charlotte was so Creeped out that she Crapped.

The Cobra Casually Consumed each Chunk.

Caution: Cattle Crossing!

Carl the Creative Cockatoo was busy using Cookie Cutters to make Costly Cookies on a Coaster. Cautiously, Colton the Catapulting Colt, came out of his Collapsible Coach Container Cave. He wanted some Chocolate Coffee, Combined with Coke, in a Cup.

Carl Called a Crazy Creature Celebrity on the Cell phone. (all photos taken with a Canon Camera and loaded onto a Computer)

Clarence the Crocodile was happy his Chemo was over and he could leave his Crock and enjoy his Cheese by the Crowned Cactus.

Chubby Cows Craving Cranberries.

Old photos for “C”

Christmas Ornament

Child in a Cemetery

Caching (and Compass and wooden Coin)

Chicago or City

As you can see, I had a lot of fun with "C", if you are interested in joining in our A-Z photo challenge pop over and say, "Hey!" to Martha.

6:26 am - Of course I ran and grabbed the camera for you guys.

7:45 am - All the little birdies were out running around. My son thinks they were preparing for another winter.

7:50 am

9:23 am

9:26 am

9:30 am - Update for yesterday’s Fun Monday post on trails and paths. PS - Those last three photos (up there) were taken with the fisheye on the 5D body and it has a full frame sensor unlike our other cameras. So it looks really funky, doesn’t it?! I just felt the need to see the difference.

11:30 am - JoZe’s angel has a halo.

11:30 am - Cute duck is carrying quite a load. I think he’s saying, “Spring is here!” while all the other birds are migrating back south again.

Mother Nature likes teeter-totters. Saturday 30s, Sunday low 50s, Monday 30s. . .We had huge honking flakes flying until the afternoon and got a few inches. The ground was white when I went to sleep. Today we’re supposed to get back up to the 50s.

This week’s Fun Monday assignment is to share our favorite path/walk. Well, probably my favorite area to walk near home would be Iverson Park. You’ve seen the park before if you’ve seen the photos we did of my kids last fall.

These photos were taken Dec 31st, 2006. It looks quite different than when we shot the kids’ photos, doesn’t it?

This bridge is also in Iverson Park and if you cross it, you can follow some animal trails and find Skunk Cabbage:

And maybe my owl friend.

(These were taken last year with my point and shoot)

But Wisconsin is full of great trails just about anywhere you go.

And even though it decided to spit snow (no accumulation thankfully) on us all day on Saturday, I took a few more photos for you with my new 15mm fisheye lens. It was in the low 30s all day, brrr!

And I took one last one Sunday, although I had the macro lens on. We had a semi-sunshiny day in the 50s.

Thanks for the fun assignment, Angela! Hope I didn’t overload you on too many pictures.

You may remember seeing this cake (DQ of course) a few days ago. We had thought we would take Haden camping for his birthday but with the weather we keep having we wussed out. We did however take him to the Archery Range to sight his new bow.

Dennis needed to sight his too. I guess this is when they adjust the little dealybobber to where they can hit the bull’s-eye.

Looks like they need a little more adjusting.

I quickly got bored and went in search of critters.

I found a singing sparrow.

Boring.

But then a tiny frog came hopping by. He stopped long enough to say hello!

And as Haden was doing this, I looked up and. . .

. . . a hawk soared above.

I’m not so sure Haden noticed.

While the ants busily built their home,

Haden practiced on. In fact we left him there, maybe we’ll pick him up next year.

Alison awarded me the Blog of Distinction. Do I have to start wearing formalwear now? Or maybe I don a smoking jacket, grab and pipe and meet you in the library. Thank you Alison! I would like to pass this on to:

• Dog’s Eye View is always a great place for wonderful photos. You might even find a kitty, food, flowers. . . Well, just about anything!
• Life through a Lens is another great spot for your daily photo requirement. She raises seeing eye dogs too, how fun!
• At Not a Stepford Wife you will find the very fickle Robinella. She made me feel a little foolish yesterday because I had no clue that Organic furniture or bedding even existed!

Sayre brought tears to my eyes with her kind words, and an “E” for Excellent! That’s better than an E for Effort, right? Oh no, I feel like I’m back in school. As I looked through all my bloggie friends I noticed many of you already have it.

And two more of you thought of me while passing it on. Thank you Swampangel and Sandcastle Momma! They are both fellow geocachers and if I ever make it to Florida I will ask them to give me the tour, alligators and all. This one was the toughest to pass along (since you guys are all Excellent) even though I feel like everyone of you deserves it, and I would take the time to list each one of you but my eys are now tired.  So, you are Excellent!

• The Dana Files is a blog I just recently discovered. She is right here in the same town with me! I am enjoying getting caught up with her goings on and, her doodlebug is just the cutest!
• What works for Us has been to Alaska and I wanna go someday. And even though she dislikes birds because they poop on her, she still visits my blog. (PS - The only concert I have ever been to was RATT, and I didn’t even know who they were nor care.)
• Anytime you need some fresh Prairie Air, just visit Jenni in KS. Just don’t make the same mistake I once made and tease her about how flat Kansas is. There are some hills there, she promises. I was already falling in love with her house when she just cinched the deal by showing her magnificent kitchen!
• Nicole B Photography will take you on a tour of the world. Germany, Hungary, Kuwait, Dubai, South Korea . . .well, everywhere! She’s a little hard to keep up with as she updates more than once a day typically.
• The Café at the end of the Universe is a great spot to stop. She has a bunch of photos from the filming in Oshkosh and more Johnny Depp - maybe even Christian Bale ;)
• Lady K has three active bike riding boys and a blogging hubby! How lucky is she?!
• Nikkipolani offers up a new view of the world everyday. If you like kitties, gardens and pretty food this is the place for you!
• At The Prytz Family, you’ll find a happily-married-for-a-million-years-hilarious couple of youngsters. Looking for a huge loving family, tea, books or recipes?
• If you’re really, really nice you might be able to go for a road trip with Jeanne. Or maybe she’ll teach you how to fabulous cards. I’m always in awe of her art! Yes, her card making is definitely art!
• Aims could use a huge hug. She is in the middle of telling a shortened version of the story of her life and she carefully places the words in a way that makes you feel like you are walking in her shoes.
• Karmyn is busy baking, not a cake but baby number three. I get so excited over babies. They so tiny and perfect and just absolutely loveable! I hope she still has time for us.
• I would love to say that I’m passing this to Holly because she is just the sweetest lil pumpkin pie I know, and she is, but really I’m trying to bribe her to not hold it against me forever that not only does my son have a December birthday but now my grandchild will too.
• I’m amazed that Leanne finds anytime to blog. She always has her nose in a canvas or sketchpad or camera. I am in awe of her talent!
• Teriana lived in Alaska for a while and I lived vicariously through her. Someday, I hope to cross over Lake Michigan and get to meet her and her sister, Jessica.
• Yes Jessica needs this too, when my daughter was having difficulty breastfeeding and baby Tristan was only a few days old Jessica gave us much needed support.

I love LOVE love sharing photos but occasionally I gotta throw in a post about what’s going on in my head. This one’s it, so if you came for photos just scroll down and you’ll find a posse of them.

I don’t think I can totally blame the weather, although we’re predicted more snow (probably nothing that will stick), but I have just had the blahs. You know I’m a chemo angel, well I lost my buddy a couple of weeks ago and I feel lost. I hope they give me a new buddy soon, but I just keep thinking about the one I lost and their family, how hard this must be on the family.

I also send cards to another person being touched by cancer, although not through the program. A lady I’ve never met, but a friend of a friend’s spouse kinda thing. She is doing great! Much better than expected and it’s awesome. She sent me a nice card a few days ago thanking me and hoping someday we’ll get to have lunch. I look forward to that.

I got another card last week from my Aunt (by marriage) that her mom was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and this whole cancer thing really gets me down. Sometimes I want to throw in the towel and say, “I give!” Sometimes, I just don’t want anymore tests and want to just keep living like everything’s fine and just forget all about fricking cancer. You know? Honestly, I don’t know what I’ll do if it comes back, I just figure I’ll cross that bridge when it gets here. And it totally burns my butt that even if you have insurance, the bills are so outrageous that if I think I want to prolong my life and go through chemo again or whatever, then I croak, my dear hubby is still stuck paying for those extra years I got out of it. That sucks! I ended up being much more expensive than he probably ever thought I was going to be. I wanna scream, “No fair!”

So these feelings about the cancer thing messes with my exercise routine. I wanna get in shape but there are moments, well, a lot of them actually, that I think, “Why?” Who cares if I’m exercising, it’s not gonna win the battle. Ok, enough pity party.

So, where was I? Ranting, oh yeah. I don’t want to go back to my oncologist. I wanna find a different doctor for my testing but hubby has been so busy I haven’t even had a chance to talk to him about that yet. Don’t you think a regular doctor could do any tests required to make sure things stay at bay?

For those of you with hormone issues, what have you found that helps? I know my hormones have always played a huge part in my moods and I have contemplated trying some herbs, but will they help when I have no ovaries?

My head keeps hurting and I’m afraid I’m working on a sinus infection. It sucks! And when the sun does manage to peek out I feel like a vampire trying to hide from its bright beauty!

Hubby has been gone working a lot lately and I will talk to him about the doctor thing eventually, but for now, the little time he’s had home has been spent celebrating Haden turning 16 years old, playing with the grandson and talking about all sorts of other trivial, household type stuff.

Where do all the hours of the day go?! I never have enough hours to get everything done that I want to get done and honestly there have been a few days here that I have just felt overwhelmed and crummy and spent an hour of the day just laying here. And when I get on my computer, I don’t feel like messing with photos, and it keeps giving me some troubles. I’ll be trying to read blogs and it will start acting goofy and sometimes when I’m commenting I’m not sure they are getting saved, or they end up going twice! Maybe I’m getting senile.

Khristiaan (18 yo) moved out last week. I seem to have a hard time with each one leaving. Yeah, it’s great to see them spread their wings but my nest is getting rather roomy. I spent so many years identifying myself as mom that I’ve been having to figure out who else I am. Khris only moved a little over a mile away, which makes me feel better, but I’m a mom, I worry. And he is following the same path as his older siblings, once they leave you don’t hear from them much for a while. But once they get settled you see them more, hope he follows that part too.

In amongst everything else you may have noticed my “buy photo” link is down right now. I’m looking at another way of doing things. That just seemed a little too impersonal and complicated so give me a few days and I should have it up. Thinking about trying the etsy thing, Whatcha think?

I’m still trying to get a photo of that Canadian train car with the kangaroo logo.

We’ll be making a trip to Missouri next month, and thought we’d have a little vacation along the way but not so sure that’s going to happen. We’ll be photographing a wedding in Missouri and visiting family. I’m really looking forward to see Marissa (my step-daughter), she should be getting pretty big with our grandson - yep, she found out today that it’s a boy. She texted me and said, “You were right, it’s a boy”; she’s due in September.

Then I got some awesome news yesterday. Tristan will be getting a baby brother or sister sometime in December. This one slipped by me, no dreams on it yet, but Britney said she told the baby to shhh until she told me. Now she’s given it permission to send me vibes and hopefully soon we’ll know the sex. So by the end of the year I will be a grandmommy times 3! Well, at least I ended on a happy note.

Really?  A dog humping a USB drive?  What will they think of next?!  And don't you love how they blurred the "parts"!  Oh if you feel you gotta have one I stumbled upon it over at The Coolest Gifts.

Can you believe I’m 41 and just went to my first baby shower? It’s not that I’ve never been invited, I just have never went.

We met Team Honeybunnies through geocaching and their first baby is due in May. I know the baby bunny is due around the same time as Karmyn’s and I am anxious to see if either baby decides to enter the world on May 24th, my anniversary.

There's a little photo contest going on over at Christine's, you better hurry, entry deadline is April 28th.