Time With Dad

I had the most excellent day today! I spent the afternoon giving my dad computer lessons. :o) He's had a computer since March but he doesn't know what to do with it. He can turn it on and play Freecell. He can log onto the internet and do a search. But that was it. He didn't even know how to turn up the volume!

He's such a good learner and so very cute! haha I had a hard time not giggling at how amazed he was at what he is now able to do. He may forget it all by tomorrow, but that's okay. At least he's trying and I told him I'll come up every day till he feels like he's learned enough.

He sent his first e-mail (to me!) and was so tickled about it. My step-mom is out of town so she has no idea that he's even trying. He sent her an e-mail at work so she'll be surprised when she comes back home. He was SO cute! He kept saying, "I want to do this right. Do I need a comma here?" hehehe

An hour and a half of explaining how to open and close windows, left and right clicking, even how to use the scroll wheel thingy on the mouse! Tomorrow we're going to review what he learned today and learn how to save Favorites in IE. haha I can't wait!

Birds, Nests, and Eggs

Michael's job is eventually going to be installing sewer pipes at a part of town that still uses septic tanks. Before they can do that, though, they have to clear the brush to make room to dig. This has let to the discovery of nests and eggs.

The first nest they found, was so high up that they didn't see it until it was too late. One of them accidentally touched the nest and the eggs inside so it was abandoned by the bird. :o( They felt so bad about it.

A few days later, they spotted another nest. This one was lower to the ground, so was easy to see. Even I could see it with no problem, without even getting out of the truck! I did, though, because I was curious. Without touching, I was able to see 4 little eggs. They were light green and reminded me of Easter candy! I knew all birds couldn't lay eggs as big as chickens...but didn't know they came already dyed. hehehe

Michael and George were so excited about the 2nd nest. They purposely left the tree it was in and some surrounding bush so the bird would stay and feel safe enough to hatch her eggs. It worked. The bird even started to trust them and started to stay in her nest while they were working close by.

Their one mistake was to let the boss know. As soon as he was told, he grabbed a saw and cut down the tree! I was SO upset when Michael told me. The boss is my cousin and I wanted so much to give him a piece of my mind. Michael said that the nest was where they wouldn't reach it until well after the eggs had hatched...possibly not even until next spring or summer. There was no reason to cut down the tree. It was a senseless, very cruel thing to do and the next time I see my cousin, I will tell him how disappointed I am.

A few days later, Michael was driving toward the dump site to dump a load of brush they had cut. He noticed what looked like a bird in the road. It didn't move when he drove by and that seemed strange to him. He backed up and realized that it was still alive. Just like last time, he put his gloves on, picked it up, and put it in the grass along-side the road. He figures it must have been stunned by being bumped by a car or something. He stopped to check on it when he came back but the bird was gone. So at least we know he wasn't seriously injured.

God Works in Amazing Ways...

Even through MySpace! After having a long day with way too much quiet time to think, I started to feel down. I was feeling sad and alone. Then I decided to check my pages. I have a MySpace page and received the following in a bulletin:

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Pass this on right now. This very moment, someone needs to know that God is watching over them. And, whatever they're going through, they'll be a better person in the end.



"Life is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once."

Independence Day

Being a native village, I always found it odd how we make such a big deal out of Independce Day. Why would we celebrate when the whole reason the forefathers had land to claim was because they took it from natives? We don't look it at that way, though. The majority of our men, and some of our women, have grown up to serve in the military. We've lost some good men to war over the years and we are proud of each and every one of them. That's what we celebrate. The pride we have in our own to stand up for their country and give their lives so that those left behind can live happy and free.

When it comes to celebrating, we sure know how to throw a party! The entire town pulls together and we have a huge celebration that lasts all day long. At least a dozen booths are set up by people who sell food and toys. You can buy anything from a whoopie cushion to a shish-ka-bob to a deep-fried Snickers bar. There are races and contests for all ages. Here's Mykayla running in her race. You gotta love her curly hair! :o)

Here's Lucione waiting for them to say "GO!" so she can dive into her watermelon. She didn't place but she had a lot of fun trying and got a free watermelon out of the deal, too! One thing our town does, is give a dollar to everyone who enters a contest. Just for standing on the starting line, you get a dollar. Winners get ten, second place gets seven, and third place gets five dollars. I think that's pretty cool. To some of these kids, the one little dollar means a lot!

Here's Theodore in the orange shirt. This race is called the Duck Walk. Other races and contests included: a slow bike race (where the last person to cross the finish line was the winner), tug-of-war, the sand pit (where the littlest kids get to dig in the sand and whatever coins they find, they keep), the egg-in-spoon race (where you carry a raw egg in a plastic spoon...first one to cross the finish line with their egg still intact wins), the egg toss (play catch and get further apart after each toss...last one to break their egg wins), an apple peeling contest for the guys, a nail driving contest for the gals, and a three-legged race.

Here's Alexys in her three-legged race. Her friend's name is Hannah. They've entered as partners since they were old enough for the race and they win every year. I don't have any pictures of Lindsey in races because she got side-tracked by the water and spent her day swimming. She tries to blame it on the other kids saying, "They threw me in 7 times!" But I just told her, "Well, you must have enjoyed it because you stuck around and kept going back for more!" haha I'm glad she enjoyed herself. Normally she's pretty competetive so it was good for her to just hang out and have fun for a change.

Once all the contests are completed, we take a little break and then gather at the breakwater for a fireworks display. This years were really good. The VFD did an excellent job with thim this year (and I'm not just saying that 'cause the majority of them are family!). Everyone was pleased. Once the town fireworks were done, Michael and I followed our nephew John (Mykayla and Craig's dad) out to the other end of the island and he let us watch him light his own. There were a lot of people out there and we could see all of their fireworks as well. We had a lot of fun. So much, that we didn't stop till nearly 2AM! When we finally gave up, we cleaned up our area and stopped at the dump on the way back into town to get rid of the garbage. We pulled into our driveway at 2:10 AM. It was a long, exhausting, but totally fun day!

I can't wait till August 7th to do it all over again. :o)

My Saturday

We went to Town yesterday. We brought the puppies for their 3rd vaccination. They are now fully vaccinated until next summer.

It was a gorgeous, warm, summer day. We did a little shopping and drove all over the island just enjoying the day and each other. It was so nice to have a change of scenery for a few hours. hehe

I don't know how many of you remember the posts I wrote about being a foster mother. I had my cousins kids for 5 months when they were 1 yr. old and 5 wks. old.

They live in Town now, and I hadn't seen them since December. Yesterday while shopping for groceries, I ran into my cousin and she had her kids with her. Lexi, the older of the two, crawled out of the cart and came to give me a big hug. When we left, she yelled "See you! Love you!" as we were crossing the parking lot. It was SO good to see them. Brady wouldn't stop smiling, but didn't say a whole lot. That's fine, though. I'm just glad to see that they looked happy and well. I wanted to take them home for the 4th of July but Carmen wasn't up to a visit and wouldn't let the kids come alone. :o(

That was my excitement for the day. Other than practicing my text message skills on my cell phone. hehe That was a lot of fun.

Today I think we're going to cut some firewood for the smoke house. Tomorrow is Michael's birthday. He's requested spaghetti and chocolate cake. Every year he tells me he doesn't want a party and every year I get pressured into having one. Nobody's said anything yet so hopefully, he'll have a quiet, peaceful birthday for a change.

That's it for now. You all take care and if I don't post again before then, have a happy and safe 4th of July!