Potted Frog

Last week I showed you some of the rides at Silver Dollar City, an 1880’s Craft Village. The next time I go (which could be years from now, but I hope not), I will leave the kids with  someone else and attend to the crafts which to me would make a much more interesting post. However, on the way out, I saw something I had to show my girls.

It was the Wilderness Church. This church has been part of Silver Dollar City as long as I have been going (at least 40 years), and if it has changed at all, it is not much.

It is built of rough-hewn logs and even has rough-hewn log pews.

Every  Sunday they have a church service in here. I will admit I have never been to that. I prefer to go in when it is more empty and quiet.

I do not remember the picture window at the front when I was little, but it may have been there. I could easily find out if I could go through my dad’s enormous slide collection because when I was six, I was the flower girl in a wedding in this church. I felt SO important because I got to be in a wedding in SILVER DOLLAR CITY! I wore a red cotton dress that had white hearts and “I love you”‘s printed all over it. I was also missing two front teeth and made sure that was noticeable in every picture. I wish I had the first idea where to find those pictures. Someday I will.

This was the view out the picture window when we were there. But if you were sitting in the pew, you would only see green trees.

Whether or not the picture window is original (the text plaque above it is; I remember that distinctly), it is good for it to be there. There is a pretty view out it. And if I were sitting in church there, it would be nice to see the green woods behind the minister. (Or imagine the rich colors of autumn–a fabulous time to visit.)  Of course I would be looking out the window and not at the minister, but at least it would be in the right direction.

Silver Dollar City celebrates Christmas in November and December. I have not been to that in many years, but they used to have a live nativity scene, and at least a year or two, that was visible from that big picture window in the church. And the sun would set behind it. I wish I visited Missouri at Christmas just for the chance to go to Silver Dollar City then. (And instead of giant snow cones, hot cider is my refreshment of choice.)

My World is a weekly meme in which participants are virtual tour guides. Go check it out and see the worlds of others. Or better yet, take a look at the guidelines, and do your own My World Post!

This post is for Daryl at Out and About in New York City. No, Daryl, I am not gloating, but I always (and likely forever) will think of you when I see a rainbow. (For the rest of you, Daryl has never seen a rainbow.) You know how when you collect something and for no reason people bring you a variety of said thing you collect and say, “I just had to get it. I always think of you when I see X.” Well I always think of Daryl when I see a rainbow. So Daryl, lately I have been thinking of  you a lot!

Maybe I should have saved this for a Skywatch post, but I did not want to. (And if you are here for SkyWatch, it is the next post. But this is the sky, too, so it doesn’t really matter.)

This week was Vacation Bible School. I thought about doing a post for that, but then I decided there was no point. What this meant to us is that we were driving to church around 6 p.m. every evening this past week. (And driving home around 9:30 p.m., but that has nothing to do with the sky, except there was some cool lightning one night way in the distance.)

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we saw rainbows on the way to church. I did not have my camera Tuesday, and it was not a stellar one anyway, but the fact that it was there was nice.

This Wednesday rainbow (previous two photos) reminded me of the Northern Lights. Not the color or anything like that; I have only seen them in Iceland and they were a greenish color. But the colors in this rainbow danced and shimmered like Northern Lights.  It seems that would make sense because the color is coming from moving rain, but I have never seen such movement before. If I had not had to be at VBS for the opening program, I would have stayed to watch until it went away.

The Thursday rainbow (next two photos) was not big on the way to church, but after my part of the program, I went to do some repair to a letterbox. This is what I saw when I got there.

It was too good to not use the windmill as a model for photos. The rainbow is still there, pale and low.

On Friday, there was no rainbow on the way, but there was one during VBS. (My participation in this endeavor is to be the leader for the opening part which means I talk to the kids and introduce songs for 25 minutes–then I am finished–so I go outside and look around.)

I only got a tiny bit of the Friday rainbow. I know it was bigger while I was inside. It is difficult to see in this picture, but it’s the pink near the middle. And I can tell it’s a rainbow and not sunset because I can see green to the left of it. OK, I did not see the best of Friday’s rainbow, but my point is that there WAS a rainbow four days in a row. It makes me wonder how many other times there are rainbows that I do not see.

So that covers Tuesday through Friday, the four rainbows.

On Monday there was a sundog. First, I have NEVER seen a sundog in warm weather. I have seen more here than I have seen in my life (I see more here in a year than I saw in my life previously), but summer? Never! Not even here. The day I saw it, my car said the temperature got up to 99 degrees F. At the time I spotted it, it was still 97 degrees F. (36ish C.) I realize the sky is much colder than the ground, but it still amazed me to see one in summer.

And the funny thing was that usually when I see a sundog here in New Mexico, I see two sections–the ones 180 degrees from each other. This time there was only one. On the other side of the sun, there were stormy clouds.

And later, when I was driving, storm clouds covered it up. I am continually in awe of New Mexico skies!

So there you have it. Four rainbows and a sundog in one week.

I did this post for Daryl, but I would also like to recognize Mrs. Chili who is going through some tough times right now with taking care of her lovely mother who has terminal cancer. I know Mrs. Chili has seen rainbows, but I want her to know I am thinking of her.

View to the west with setting sun. Click photo to enlarge.

At the end of my Missouri stay, there were two evenings in a row with tornado warnings just north of where we were. This is where I grew up–right on the edge of “tornado alley,” but not quite in it. In fact, in all my life I have never actually seen a tornado, though I have seen much damage for them and many storms that produced them.

View to the north. This is where all the activity and tornadoes were. Click photo to enlarge.

I miss Midwestern storms. Not the damage, but the thunder and lightning and excitement. And being on the edge of this one gave some interesting skyscapes.

View to the southeast. Click photo to enlarge.

To see LOTS more terrific sky pictures or to find out how to participate in this meme, head to the SkyWatch blog.

Two days ago it was my “Blogiversary.” There was another post scheduled for that day, and I do not get terribly wrapped up in these things, so I did not say anything. But I want to say something now because I will do a giveaway, and I LOVE to do giveaways!

But first, you must endure some of my chatter mostly about our trip. It will be a hodgepodge as this blog has seemed to be over the past year. (Or you can skip to the giveaway stuff at the end!)

Chic found a turtle just as we were headed to church. Since turtles are not common in our world, I HAD to let her play with it a few minutes. (We were late to church.)

We were almost 2 weeks in Missouri. (It WAS two weeks if we count the travel days.) When I make these trips, the purpose for them is for my business, but that only takes a day. The rest of the time I visit family and friends, shop (I hate shopping and rarely do it here, but there are necessities so I do it in Missouri where I have more time, and the stores I like are closer) and maybe spend a day or two in Branson. (My dad loves to take us to Branson.) But this trip was a little different.

Remember Grandma D and on her birthday she was in the hospital after a botched surgery? Well, that has not gone well. She almost died three separate times since that surgery. (Needless to say, they are not paying any of the medical bills.) I realized right away that it was going to be a burden for us to be there so long, so I decided to do the cooking and some cleaning. Prince Charming scanned some of my recipes, e-mailed them to me and that’s what I did most of the time. I did not cook EVERY day, but quite a bit, and made enough that they should have had plenty for at least a week after we left. We did not go shopping the entire time. That was fine, but there were a few things I needed.

Scissortail Flycatcher on wire--click photo to enlarge

The girls and I drove to Missouri not long after school was out, then Prince Charming flew in after two weeks. He was there one full day, but we had lunch with a former professor of his that day and planted two letterboxes. One is in honor of the Scissortail Flycatcher that we always used to see on a road on which we lived. I took my bike on this trip in hopes for some exercise (moderately successful) and found the bird in two other areas I had never seen before. My camera lens is not made to get good bird shots, but these are not bad. I like the still one, and the other one is a bit blurry, but you can at least see the tail action. It is so interesting to watch them fly.

Scissortail Flycatcher in flight -- click photo to enlarge.

It also must be noted that I have wonderful friends in Missouri. During the two weeks I was there, my children were whisked away from me four times (in addition to the two times I needed babysitting), and three of those times included overnight stays. (It gives a parent pause to think about the advantages of moving back to the land of heat and humidity–and no job for my husband!)

My brother and his wife also live there. His wife is who went to Silver Dollar City with us. We could not have survived the day without her! But since my girls are never in Missouri on their birthdays, they decided to have a birthday party for them. The girls were so excited, and it turned out to be a surprise for yours truly as well, since MY birthday is never when we visit! Wasn’t that thoughtful?

During all the cooking I sliced my finger with a very. sharp. vegetable peeler. I am no wimp, but this was a bad cut. WARNING! GORY PHOTO AHEAD. I’LL LEAVE SOME SPACE SO YOU CAN SKIP IT IF YOU WANT. It was about 3/4″ long, 3/16″ wide and 1/8″ deep. It bled like crazy. I finally managed a bandage and antibiotic cream, and the picture is of it after two days of this. There was barely any healing at this point.

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The reason I am even telling you this is because Grandma D had a liquid bandage which I put applied on the 3rd day. I did not take pictures of the healing progression (I really am not a very good blogger, but I will say that I have other things going on all of the time), but in ONE day the cut had reduced in size by more than half. Three days later, it was all but healed. Now I can just barely see where it was, and I do not even think it is going to leave an ugly scar. (Bump. I really don’t care about scars, but I have a bump on a finger from a childhood cut.) This blog is NOT about product endorsements, but if you have never tried this stuff, it is SO worth it! I made Prince Charming buy some. I think it will also be great in our dry, dry winters when our fingers have big, ugly cracks in them. Oh, it hurts like the dickens to put it on if the wound is as bad as mine was, but if you do a little Lamaze breathing, you can survive, and it will be well in no time. (I know this is not a new item, and I had heard of it but never tried it because I had no idea how well it worked.)

Time for the giveaway information!

First, I do not like to do this to get more traffic or comments, so you are required to E-MAIL ME if you want to be entered! Just e-mail louisestamps at aol dot com and let me know you want to enter. (Please put “giveaway” in the subject line.)  There will be two winners. Prince Charming will draw names, and the first one has first choice of what s/he wants.  The other person will get what is left. (But I do not make slouchy things, so I think that is OK, and it is free, OK?)

Here is an idea of the prizes:

1) Handmade cards. There will be these four, but I will probably throw in a couple of others for which I did not immediately have samples.

2) A Banner. But not this one or one even like it, but you get the idea. I have not made it yet, and I decided to wait because the winner can pick the colors (within reason). It will be a “SUMMER” banner (NOT “MERRY”). It is a home decor item–large enough to fit over a double window or in a hallway. Each pennant is about 6″ wide and 9″ long. (I did not measure, but am doing this from a memory. I am too lazy at the moment to get out something to measure.)

You have a week, through Wednesday, July 1, to e-mail me. If these things do not interest you, but you think they might interest someone you know, consider entering to give as a gift.

I am also thinking of adding a third prize, but you can tell me if you would be interested. I am not a great photographer. I take some very good pictures, but I do not edit them (other than occasional cropping when I am not too lazy) and I have still not figured out all the manual settings on my camera. I hesitate to do this one because I am so small in a big photography world. But I know a few have really liked some of my pictures. So I could also make a set of cards from my pictures. If you want to enter and that interests you, let me know. It could be a “Louise’s choice” thing, or the winner could choose from pictures I have posted.

OK, I think that’s it for today. But I forgot to tell you THANK YOU for hanging with me for a year. I went back and read a few of my first posts, and many of my readers are the same. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that you come and read the drivel things I write and look at my photos. If it were not for you, I know I would have quit blogging entirely the couple of times I have had to take extended breaks due to my crazy schedule. YOU keep me coming back! Thank you.

I grew up near Silver Dollar City, an “1880’s Craft Village.” We went there ALL the time when I was a kid. There were barely any rides then; it was more of a place to walk around and look at things. I specifically remember the glass-blowing, candy-making, soap-making and blacksmith shop as a child. My favorite thing was the candle store where there were two small white taper candles attached by a long wick, and we could dip them in different colors of wax to make our own candles. I am sure I never burned one single candle, but we absolutely could  not leave the place without “making candles.”

the Tea Cups. They were beautiful, but I would not even dream of going on these.

On my recent trip to Missouri, we took an impromptu trip to Silver Dollar City. I had not been there since I moved to New Mexico, and it has changed much in six years. There are more rides (they were building up the rides before I left) and an entire area devoted to children’s rides (most of which would make me sick). They still have all the crafting, but I was visiting with 5- and 7-year-old girls, so we mostly did the rides. (It was cheaper for me that way anyway; I was not tempted by the wonderful things in the shops!)

This was a big "V" shaped track--with a rounded bottom--that had a big spinning saucer on it. It made me sick to look at it, but Chic LOVED it.

These are all pictures of rides that did/would make me sick. I got a little sick right after lunch on a roller coaster that went in circles rather than going up and down hills. (Spinning makes me sick.) My youngest was NOT enthused with the rides, though she bravely endured many before saying she would  not do anymore. So she and I sat out while my oldest and my sister-in-law went on the rides in the kids’ section, almost all of which had some sort of spinning motion.

After more than an hour of watching her sister and aunt go on rides while she sat with me, Chicklet decided she could go on the big galleon swing. Those rides have never made me sick, so I went with her. She only BARELY made the height requirement, but we did it.

Chicklet watching and deciding she might be able to handle this ride.

She hated it. I got REALLY sick. I rarely throw up (I would probably feel better if I did), but I was so sick immediately when I got off I walked quickly to a snow cone stand to get something wet and cold. (It was extremely hot and humid that day.) I was sick the rest of the day and somewhat sick the next. Must be age.

This is the biggest snow cone I have ever seen!

Before we left, I had to stop at the candle shop. The girls were as enchanted with making candles as I had been. It was worth the whole experience (even with being sick) just to see  how much they loved this. Next time we’ll take in more of the crafting.

Chicket dipping candles in colored wax. (There were no butterflies when I was a little girl!)

My World is a weekly meme in which participants are virtual tour guides. Go check it out and see the worlds of others. Or better yet, take a look at the guidelines, and do your own My World Post!

Prince Charming at Mt. Rushmore last week.

I missed Prince Charming’s birthday. OK, I did not really miss it, like skip it. I did acknowledge it, but not here. Late last fall I went through a 10-day period in which I had a tribute of some sort five of those days. But Prince Charming’s birthday is January 4. By then I am finished. Not only did he likely get gypped as a kid because his birthday was so close to the holidays, but his own wife gyps him now. It is a good thing he is Prince Charming, or he would probably not be so gracious about it. I did not have time to write something worthwhile for his birthday, so I did not write anything at all.  I will try to make up for it now… try.

But first, I must wish all of you father’s, grandfathers, surrogate fathers, all men who make a positive difference in someone’s life a very HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! And also a nice wish for my dad (even though he doesn’t read this or even know about this blog) whom you can read about here if you would like.

So here are some of the things that make my husband Prince Charming to me:

-He loves me. Honestly, I am not always sure why. I am no picnic to live with.

-He is the most amazing father. Since beginning blogging about a year ago (I need to check on that to do a giveaway or something for my Blogiversary. (Disturbing note: “Blogiversary” did not come up as a misspelled word on my spell-check.)) I know there are other amazing fathers out there, but I am proud that my Prince Charming is one of them. He is the firstborn son of a firstborn son of a firstborn son… (I do not even know how far back that goes.) He was SURE our first child would be a son. (I was, too, for that matter. I am so “girly” that I was pretty sure I would never have daughters.) When he found out we were having a girl, he was not disappointed (like I feared he might be), but elated. The second girl was the same.  He has embraced being the father of girls and is the best one I can imagine. They both love him so much. I love to watch them together.

-Not only is he a wonderful and caring father, but he shares more of the responsibility of tending to our young children than do most fathers I know. When he gets home from work, the burden of parenting is all but released from me.

-He understands the demands on my life. One reason it is not easy living with me is that I am somewhat of an overachiever. My interests are many, and I do many of the things in which I am interested. (Stamping, gardening, sewing, cooking, reading, biking, letterboxing, photography… this list truthfully goes on and on.) On top of this, my type of personality tends to be sucked into other responsibilities… LOTS of them. This is the reason I did not blog for so long. Those things take a toll on my family time as well, but Prince Charming not only endures these things, but does everything he can think of to help me and make it easier. I cannot count how many times I have accepted just a little too much responsibility, and he has dropped everything to help me get everything accomplished. (As if he had nothing going on in his own world.)

-He brings home flowers more than necessary and rarely for a reason other than no reason.

never would they be all-red, and usually not even roses

-He is on intimate terms with the Godiva Chocolatier in town. (The benefits of this are mine.)

-He does the grocery shopping.

-He takes out the kitchen trash every morning without my ever having to ask him to do it. (This has proved useful on more than one occasion.)

-He puts the seat down.

-He does everything in his power to make sure I get my Friday Night Bath. (Last night he found a way to make a table over the tub so I could take my computer and do a little catch-up with blog reading.)

-He cooks on the weekends.

-He watches movies with me, including all my favorite Chic Flicks, over and over. (He even says he likes most of the ones I like!)

-He loves to travel.

-He is unbelievably smart. Crazy smart.

-He looks fabulous in a tuxedo.

-He makes plans for our lives when we are old. I love to listen to his plans and talk with him about them.

-He provides well for our family, he believes in our family, he puts all his effort into keeping our family strong. He is everything a father (and husband) should be.

Prince Charming, thanks for being who you are and all you are to us. The girls in this house adore you!

Just returned from a 3-week “vacation.” (More on that in a future post to my regular readers.) The first two weeks were spent in southwest Missouri, and this photo was taken near Branson, Missouri, at Silver Dollar City. It was not typical of a Missouri sky to me, and I loved the blueness of it which was unusual for the extreme humidity of the day.

click photo to enlarge

It did not rain. It did shower just a few drops, but not the rain that the later-black-sky threatened.

To see LOTS more terrific sky pictures or to find out how to participate in this meme, head to the SkyWatch blog.