Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

5/11/12

This & That

The weather is finally turning nice and the sun is shining bright each morning. It really makes for great photo opportunities. The first being spiderwebs still covered in morning dew.





Then there's Red running around and playing after his morning business is taken care of.



The sun and a close up angle can even make my dusty gravel driveway  look pretty.




As I turned from taking the photos of the gravel I found a very nice surprise. 


A birds nest on the sewer pipe under the camper. What kind of nest you ask? That's right, a robins nest.


Such a pretty blue isn't it? Reminds me of another pretty blue, usually in box form ;)
Hopefully this little guy will hatch and grow before we go camping, otherwise... bye bye birdy!!


Lastly a couple of more photos I took and really liked.



This last photo is my favorite out of the ones I took yesterday morning right after the ones of the gravel.

Overall it was a good day and very beautiful. I hope your day is beautiful and your weekend loads of fun.

Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo




5/6/12

A day in the life...

A beautiful sunrise always makes getting out of bed a little easier.



Even though they are weeds, flowers can still be beautiful..



Looking one way you get a magical Rainbow...



Looking the other, you get an amazing sunset...


A day in the life isn't so bad after all...


Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo


3/28/12

Spring Time...

I'm happy to report this is the second post in a row with no tissue alert attached to the top!! Yay!!

Today's post is about my nature and the camera on my phone. I'm still not sure about the camera on my new Droid Razr. It takes amazing photos but when comes to getting the close ups of nature and sunsets & sunrises... it's just really hard to beat my Kodak. As persnickety as my Kodak is, it truly has taken the absolute best color photos I have. Especially the ones that are close up. I'm not giving up hope on my Razr though. So far indoors it's done magnificent. It's the outdoor photos that give me pause. I can't tell you how many photos I took of the daffodils before I got any that were in focus. Even though I was trying to focus on the main bloom of the flower the background was always the clearest leaving the bloom slightly out of focus. The fact that the wind was blowing the flowers all over didn't help much. All the photos for today, minus the sunrise's at the end (taken with the Kodak), were all taken with my Razr.








These are the cat tails in the ditch fluffing out for Spring.



Here's my new flower box the Sailor and his brother built for me. I haven't planted anything in it yet because the stores don't have any plants yet! No I won't be doing any vegetables or plants from seeds. If I can manage to keep this box alive this year who knows what I'll do next year.




This is the non fruit bearing Cleveland Flowering Pear tree that we planted for Maggie on her birthday in 2010. Almost one year after she passed. When we planted her tree we spread some of her ashes in with the dirt. To us and all that know us this is "Maggie's Tree". This is the first year it's bloomed. We were all so excited to see it flowering. Isn't it just beautiful!! 






Lastly here are the sunrise photos from yesterday morning. These two are for my new friend and fellow blogger Robin whom you can find at Life in Queue.




I hope you've enjoyed the first tour of the Spring season.  Hopefully there will be lots more to come....once the stores stock their green houses!!  Since I don't have any idea yet of what I want to plant why don't all of you leave a comment and let me know what your favorite Full Sun garden plant is. This way I'll have some ideas of what to look for when I do buy some plants.

Thanks again for stopping in and sticking around long enough to read this far. I'm off to have breakfast with Kiera for National Reading Month. Speaking of which, Congrats to Kiera for meeting her goal of 20 books read in the month of March! Way to go Cletus!!

Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo

11/2/11

Tissue Time...

Grab a tissue, your coffee and a bun or muffin, and pull up a seat for today's ride down emotional lane.

It's been a tough couple of weeks emotionally. I wouldn't have made it through this tough time had it not been for   my family and friends.   I have the best friends a woman could ask for. Whenever I needed a shoulder to cry on there were many to choose from. Whenever I needed a kick in the arse there were many a feet willing. Most of all whenever I needed someone to just listen there was always an ear to listen accompanied with a hug. A few of those friends went the extra mile to comfort me. With pokes, pinches, huggs & kisses some made me smile and feel the warmth of friendship. Some with just their company, or a bottle (or three) of wine & laughter. Others were practical and reminded me that it's okay to feel this way. It's okay to still need to cry and scream once in a while over the pain of the void in my life. One said friend also reminded me of this:

"Little Maggie came and brought a lot of joy and hapiness. She has become a little light that brings people together to share friendship and love in the name of her sweet personality. She came to give all of us a message. She came to remind us something we were not really paying attention to anymore. Once her job was done, it was time for her to go!"

I must never forget this, thank you for not letting me forget.  

Maggie loved in such a complete and unconditional way that anyone who met her was a better person for having done so. I believe she came into our lives to teach us how to love, and to remember what's important in life. I also believe that her death, and the pain felt because of it, were necessary for me/us to learn from her. She taught me that the way we treat others directly affects the way in which we are treated. That life is too short to not enjoy each day, and each person to the fullest. Also that just because the odds are against you doesn't mean that you can't overcome an obstacle or situation. She taught me what Love was really about. Because of her I've learned how to love my husband, my children, family & friends in a way I didn't, or couldn't, before her. I owe to her my ability to appreciate life and my ability to love all of you unconditionally.

Another friend wrote a poem for me about Maggie. He claims they are my words as I described them to him. I may have told him the stories of fading giggles and blurred glimpses out of the corner of my eyes, but he made my musings into magic. My sister, Valisatie said this to him:

 "Yes my sister can paint a picture with her words - be it good or bad. (Love ya Sis & you know it to be true)
With that being said, for you to turn what she described into poetry so beautiful & accurate that it cannot be described with mere words, only felt with the heart, is a talent all its own."

I agree whole heartedly. I would like to share with you his words. My dear friend Rafa left me this poem as his comment on a previous post.

Margaret Alice:

Pitter patter, through the halls
Pitter patter, I hear your calls
A giggle here
A whisper there
Search the house, you're EVERYWHERE!

I feel you when I lay me down
I touch you when I sleep
Yet when I wake with morning's light
I try and try with all my might
To hear your pitter patter
To track where you once were
To find that bit of glimmer
That once shone in my eyes

I know you're all around me
Shining bright and strong
I feel you tugging at me
Wanting to bring me near
So you can whisper something
Before you disappear

I try to hold you tight
You slip right through my fingers
Then off with pitter patter everywhere you go

RafaDe



Still the words escape me to fully express my feelings about this poem other than Simply Magic. I will treasure and cherish this for the rest of my days. Thank you my Darling Rafa.


It's amazing what my life is like. Growing up I never pictured myself having a family and being a stay at home mom. Sure I planned on getting married. After feeling so alone for most of my life I knew I wanted someone who would love me for me, Not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Someone I could trust to always be there for me. I thought maybe I'll have a kid in my mid 30's. Never did I imagine I would meet and fall in love, to the point of no return, at the age of 22 and start a family at 23. I'm about to turn 34 here soon and I look at my life with wonder & amazment. I'm simply amazed at the path my life has taken and think to myself would I do it differently, any of it?  No, I wouldn't. If I did I might not have gotten the chance to snag the most wonderful man in the world. I might not have had my children. I might not have made friends with the many people whom I'm proud to call my friends. I might not have had the honor to have my life blessed by the most precious Angel ever. It's because of the love that Maggie taught me that I am able to look at my life and be able to appreciate what it was, what it is, and what it may become.

It's because of Maggie that I met Rafa, and in turn became a fellow blogger & devoted follower of my online friends and their blogs. It's because of the dinners, emails, phone calls, pinches & pokes, visits, and words of encouragement & sympathy from all of my friends and family, off line and online that I have been able to cope with the many pitfalls life has put in my path the last couple of years. It's to all of you that I send my gratitude and many Thanks. Without all of you in my life to keep me grounded I probably would have lost touch with reality a long time ago.

I wasn't exactly sure which direction this post was going to go when I started it. I knew I wanted to give my many thanks and show my appreciation to my family and friends, the rest just sort of came pouring out. I know it's hard to follow my wandering mind sometimes, so if you're still here, I thank you.  Hopefully now with Maggie's birthday and the anniversary of her death behind us for the next year things will get back to normal in my life and on the blog. However with Jason on nights for the next month who knows what's going to happen.

Again thank you all, for everything, and now for some photos. I know I kind of missed the fall colors this year. Sorry about that. Here is another photo of the maple tree in my front yard. It was a Mothers day gift from all three girls 3 years ago. Here it's about half way turned, in color.



Thanks to my friend, Amber, who is always thinking of me. I have a photo of what my tree would have looked like in full color if I had remembered to take a picture. This is her tree, but it's the same kind as mine I do believe.



Here's the sunrise from yesterday. Very golden, made me think of India. The sultry weather and all of the beautiful gold jewelry the people wear.




When I took the sunrise photos I noticed all the frost on the ground and decided to go check out the back yard. The first photo is of the neighbors tree frosted over with the sunrise lighting it up. The second photo is of our back yard. The sun is only touching the trees, it hasn't yet risen high enough to touch the ground.



There was one last rose that was trying desperately to hang onto life.


Everything was so beautiful with it's layer of frost.




Today's sunrise was incredible. It started out with an orange horizon and deep purple clouds above. My camera today just didn't want to co-operate so forgive me for any blurriness in the photos. It also wouldn't capture the colors until they had changed to the following.


It was the coolest thing ever. The sky was full of all these brilliant colors and the whole time they changed and transformed, as the sun rose, you could see this beam of light shooting straight up from where the sun was hiding just below the horizon.


It's mornings like these that I wonder what my friend, TICKLEBEAR , is going to capture with his camera. That and it's an amazing way to start a day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, it's Hump Day!! Half way to the weekend. Enjoy the day and be happy.

Huggs ♥ Love
CoreyJo

10/26/11

Life in General...

Well, I survived the dentist. It still hurts to yawn, mainly from the shots, and then some from having to have my mouth open for almost 2 hours. Yes, yes I know! "But Corey, you can talk FOREVER and don't complain about your mouth hurting." Well I can do a lot of things with my mouth that don't make it hurt, but then again I'm not getting shots then either, now am I? lol

Saturday's party had my house over run with more kids than ever before. The girls went to bed super late, which of course meant they awoke at the butt crack of dawn. As a matter of fact they were up Before dawn!! I of course slept until...well, I don't even know when I got out of bed. When I did get up this is what I found. Usually they are going at each others throat, as sisters are known to do. Thankfully for my sanity, that day they were best friends


I made the girls lunch and we watched some t.v. It was only a matter of time before one of them lost the battle. As usual it was Kiera. For those of you who don't know, Kiera has an innate ability to pass out anywhere, at any time and in any position.


Needless to say it was a pajama day for us girls while Jason, poor guy, had to work on a Sunday.


Even though there doesn't seem to be much color exploding in the sky each morning around here right now I was still able to get a really beautiful picture of the sunrise and the morning fog.


I went on the back deck to take some photos and realized that Jason had moved the camper out of the driveway, for the winter, only to block part of my view. Damn it!


At least I'm still able to see the beautiful tree in the neighbors yard, and the trees of our back yard.





Lastly today is a photo just for my friend TICKLEBEAR.  I mentioned getting a tattoo last week and with the emotions of the week & weekend I forgot about posting the photo on the blog. So this one's for you TeeBee.


The tattoo wraps all the way around my right arm from wrist to elbow. The top photo is the inside of my forearm, and the bottom is the outside.  If you look really close you can see a Heart and a Pacifier in the angel wings.



This is of course not my first tattoo. It is only the latest. I have hodge podge tattoos in various places, each one with it's own meaning and/or reason. This one is the most special one outside of the flowers on my back that represent each one of my girls. Originally this particular one started out as just the wings. Then as time went on I became restless and wanted to add to it. I went to my ink man, whom I used to work for back when I had a job, and asked him to do something with my arm. I told him what I liked and didn't like and asked him to come up with something. He knows me well and was a great support through all the issues we had with Maggie. I was blown away with what he designed. Not only because it was beautiful, and "So Me", but because he sat there and drew it on my arm right in front of me. He truly is an amazing tattoo artist, and a great friend.

Anyways enough blathering on. I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo


10/24/11

...

This weekend went well. Chinese for dinner on Friday, and cupcakes for Maggie's birthday.  We released balloons on Saturday morning with messages of love and birthday wishes from all of us written on them. Company came over Saturday afternoon. All in all it was a good weekend with good food, delicious wine (lots of it), and the best friends a girl could ask for. Thanks everyone for helping to make our weekend wonderful, and for celebrating the beautiful Soul that is Maggie Alice. Love you Monkey♥





As you can see by the first photo I did not make this years cupcakes. It was too hard last year and I really wanted to avoid crying into cake batter this year. I wasn't all that impressed by these so next year I'm either finding a better bakery or I'm going to make my own sans the tears.

Because it was raining so much last week I really don't have very many nice photos to show you so here are some taken in Iowa by my sister in-law on the theie way home from our house to theirs in Nebraska.




I can't remember if this next one was from Kristen, or my friend Melissa. I do believe it's one of Mel's photos from here in Michigan. I know the fall colors is Mel's though.



Lastly since I don't have any new pretty flower photos from my yard here are some photos a friend sent to me not too long ago. Thank you Pat. You're a wonderful friend and person. You always know just how to brighten my day. ♥






Thank you to everyone who left comments on the last post and who wrote emails. Your love was much needed and much appreciated.

Hopefully I'll have more to blog about this week. For now, I'm off to the dentist to get some repair work done on the work that the last dentist messed up. Wish me Luck!!

Wishing all of you a wonderful week.

Love ♥ Huggs
CoreyJo