Tears in my eyes- Thank you

♥♥♥thank you, thank you, thank you ♥♥♥  
(See my last post)  This morning I got up and decided to check on Laura's wish list.  Surprise, surprise, pick myself up from the floor, more than half her list has been purchased and sent.  I have such wonderful family and friends.  It truly brought tears of gratitude to my eyes.  I don't know who sent what, but Laura will when her packages arrive and I'm sure she will tell me.  In the meantime you know who you are and I am humbled and thankful for your generosity. 
Love to all
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Happy 30th Laura

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    This is my little, middle girl a long time ago.  Whenever my babies have a major point in their lives, it always makes for mixed emotions on my part.  It is wonderful to see your children grow into adulthood as fine, decent persons. To see them take new challenges and responsibilities. However I now have 4 of 6 over the age of 30.  Oh, how it makes me feel so old. Laura has always had her own special beauty.  She is very artistic and musically inclined and has a beautiful singing voice.  She has also had her own sense of style, much to the chagrin of her older sister.  It's hard to be the middle child.  She is turning into a wonderful mother.  Both her boys are autistic and are a challenge; to which she is trying to rise to.

Right now she is going through a particularly hard time.  She just had to move into an apartment with next to nothing.  Starting all over from scratch is never easy and unlike when there is a new marriage or an new baby where you receive gifts to get you started; she has had family and friends help but it is not the same.  We have helped as much as we can, but there is so much to reestablishing a household it is amazing what you miss.  Her brothers took up some furniture last weekend and went to throw away some trash and realized she did not have a garbage can, just a trash bag in the cabinet (so the boys couldn't get into it).  Needless to say a trip to Walmart was made.

Today on her 30th birthday she decided to spurge and get a cake mix to make her own cake, but had to buy a $5 dollar mixer to make it with.  She has had a really good attitude about it though and is delighted to have a mixer.  She got cookware from us.  She is learning to appreciate what most of us take for granted.  She even considers them splurges and treats.  If you would like to help her out and make her birthday and her life a little easier she does have an Amazon wish list under Laura Frazier but there are lots of them so click here to go directly to her Wish list.  Love Amazon because she can have a wish list and have things sent to her without giving out her address.  Amazon takes care of the shipping.  Remember any orders that goes through my blog; I earn money from.  This also helps me to help Laura more.  So if you have a personal order go to the amazon icon on the top right hand side of my post and click GO.  This takes you to the Amazon home page; then you place your order as you usually do

Check out these eyes, They belong to Laura's youngest, Wyatt.  Then check out Laura's baby picture at the top of this post. Amazing 
Enjoy your evening
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Blessed to be busy

Busy, busy, busy.  In the last week or so I have accomplished more than I would normally get done in an entire month (if I was feeling good that is).  Sometimes in the pressure of having lots to do in a little time we forget to remember the joy of service and the blessing of  having the stamina to accomplice what needs to be done.  I captured some of what I have done on my camera, but most of what I have done just doesn't show. 

 I've been washing the dog every 2-3 days due to his skin infection coming back.  This is done on a 70# dog with a water resistant coat.  Since it is medicated shampoo; it stays on for an minimum of 10 minutes.  then it is rinsed and lotion applied while he is still wet.  I then I have to bleach all his bedding and his harness.  It really is a big deal and a lot of work

Then Laura had to move with her family and start all over, so I went through all of my basic things (towels, dishes, beds, bedding, dressers, shelves and just about anything and everything you could possibly need). I found what i could but that also meant the dresser, desk and shelves had to be emptied and those things contained therein had to find new homes around our  house.  Her boys now are sleeping on the beds Laura used when she was little and they have a dresser and desk that Laura also used.  I then looked at thrift shops to gather what I could there.  Next came Wal-mart  and Amazon.  Her brothers drove up to her new home and delivered what we had gathered.  I've also been gardening in the morning while it is cool.  Since Laura wants some houseplants, I have been trimming my container gardens and rooting the trimmings on my kitchen window sill.  I also got my winter greens area of my garden ready to plant tomorrow.  I've also replanted some of my herbs so they are ready to come inside when we start to get frosts.

I also made up some photos and printed them on magnetic paper to send to the people who I visit from church.  I put my name and phone # on them so, if they ever wanted or needs to call me, it would be right there on their fridge.The thing i am most proud of is on the collage at the top.  Last year our church's women's organization made totes and filled them with personal products for the local women's shelter.  I found then that I really loved making totes and designing not just the look but designing them to suit a specific purpose.  When I saw a swap of A Tote and a Note on Swapbot; I jumped at the chance to participate.  I really enjoyed this swap and designed this just for my assigned swap buddy.  She does cross stitch so I designed the tote to fit.  It was large enough to hold a good sized hoop and project book or magazine, but was narrow enough to hold it upright.  I included pockets on the inside and out with some long enough for scissors and rulers.  I added a clear pencil case so that the threads could be stored and seen there.  I also added hooks so the case could easily be taken out and some other hooks to hang things like things like keys on.  All this was done with scraps and leftovers from other projects.

Swapbot has been real good for me, allowing me to be creative in multiple ways and I am learning to meet deadlines.  If I am ever to go back to school or start my own business this is definitely a skill I need to develop.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have been up to.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Washington's Waterloo

You might be wondering why my post titled Washington's Waterloo starts out with a photo of my daughter Emily.  Well, Washington's last battle that he lost was a throat infection from which he died.  Well Emily has the same kind of infection  that he did.  She has been in and out of the hospital since last Thurs.  The doctor told her that if it wasn't for modern antibiotics she probably would have died.  Personally I think prayers and the well wishes of her friends and mine and a priesthood blessing had much to do with her getting better.

  She was extra ordinarily sick and it came on strong and hard and fast.  What started out as a sore throat at the beginning of the week and turned into a life-threatening infection by Thurs.  She went to urgent care who sent her to the ER.  They admitted her put her on antibiotics, steroids, and morphine and put her in isolation and the waiting game began.  Where they going to do dangerous and possibly life changing surgery, see if just the antibiotics worked or something in between?  She did improve on the antibiotics and they sent here home Sunday morning only for her to deteriorate and end up back in the ER that night.  Different hospital- different doctor who lanced the abscess and drained it.  Emily said it was really gross all that pus being pulled out of the abscess in her throat, but she is now on the mend and home again.  Her cousin John turned into an angel as far as she is concerned for his concern and help even though he had many kids at his house including a six week old baby.  She has had many people help her and pray for her including people she did not even know.

  As her Mom and  being a continent away (she lives and goes to school in Utah and we live in Georgia) I can't think of words of thanks for her recovery and those who helped make it happen.  She is still going to need help for awhile and I would again ask for prayers on her behalf, prayers of thanks and prayers for those who are helping her so they will not get sick and they will know the spirit of joy in her service.

As her mother I have once again learned that you can't ever take for granted the ones you love.

Lolit posted this on her facebook wall and how true it is:

'There are 5 things in life you cannot recover:

A stone... after it's thrown. A word... after it is said.

An occasion... after it's missed.

...The time... after it's gone. A person... after they die.
Life is short. Break the rules. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.
Enjoy Life!!!!'

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Coping

Learning how to cope with major medical problems is not easy and sometimes it can just about overwhelm me.  I do cope and learn to deal with my situation and try real hard to look for the good , there is always a reason for our trials and things to learn from it.  I think of all the wonderful people I would never have met without my medical problems, the compassion and tolerance I have learned and of course the persistence that I have developed.

At one of the mother- daughter get togethers at church when Emily was a teenager, we played a game kind of like the newlywed game from tv where we were asked questions and tried to guess what the other said.  Anyway one of the questions was what has your mother taught you.  All the other girls answered something like mom taught me to bake cookies or some such thing but Emily answered that I taught her persistence.  How much better is it to have taught my daughter a character trait like persistence than baking cookies; which I would have liked to have done more of but was limited by my body.

Anyway I am learning to cope in new ways, healthier ways hence the picture of the shoes as they illustrate my healthier way to cope.  Because of the medication I take causes my tendons to weaken and not heal after injury so now I have a permantly sprained ankle.  It swells to various degrees and makes shoes a challenge.  For the most part lace up tennis shoes fit the bill but sometimes only slippers will fit.  This is not so bad a home but going out is another thing altogether.  Church was a special problem in that I think one should look their best and I always wear a dress as does most everyone else.  I learned to ignore the fact that I had sport shoes on sometimes, but now I think deep down it still bothered me.  I never got the nerve to wear slippers to church.  Tom wanted me to wear a nice dress that I have and had not worn in a long time due to the shoe problem so Tom took me shoe shopping, what a pain, will the shoes fit if my feet swell, which foot would be the most swollen or would both be swollen or neither of them swollen.  Royal pain and frustration one shoe would fit and the other didn’t.  This time however the problem was solved by Tom’s suggestion that we buy two pairs in two sizes.  It worked real well, I wore one shoe of one size and the other of the other size and nobody knew the difference.  It was great, so much better for my ego and my spirits.  Coping better and better  all the time.

I keep on keeping on.

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

We belong to each other

     “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

~Mother Teresa~

These snapshots were taken while we had most of the family here as we celebrated Benn and Amanda being joined together.  The family enjoyed being together and talking of our memories of growing together and the younger ones enjoyed getting to know each our and all their extended family just strengthening the bonds between all of us.  There is nothing quite like growing together and having life long memories for bringing out our love for each other and knowing we belong to each other.

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Sunday afternoon snooze

Hope you're having a great, relaxing day

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺ 

PS: This is my son Jeremy and his girlfriend Emily Graves, the daughter of my heart. 

Wisdom

Check out this post for a bit of wisdom from my daughter; I am so proud of her and wish I had her kind of wisdom at her age.
http://snarkandart.blogspot.com/2011/03/sunday-school-burdens.html

Pleasures of living in Georgia

My life has kind of gotten in the way of my blogging.  Sunday was actually kind of wonderful.  I got to go to church, counsel with my bishop to get my head back on straight, and spend the rest of the day with my family setting wedding plans.  Just one of those pleasant days. Until.... late that night and Felicity started throwing up what she ate the night before. OH YUK!!  That wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't continued till noon Monday.  They say having a dog is like having a 2 year old and that's what it felt like.  Sleeping lightly listening for her. Getting up when I heard her, cleaning up, checking her to see if she was still hydrated.  Like most 2 year olds it's the mommy who gets to do this but unlike most 2 year olds Felicity weighs 100#.  We've had dogs with stomach problems (Akita's are notorious for it) for so long our family cookbook has a recipe in it called Dog Soup and when those outside our family see it they think it is a joke, but it is not it is what we feed our dogs when they get sick. Anyway I am no longer a young mother so the rest of Monday was shot,  I was one tired Grammie.  Tuesday I had cataract surgery, for a secondary cataract which is only a short office surgery, but still requires some recoup time.  Wow Wednesday I got up and what a difference the surgery made, everything was so much more detailed.

On the way to the pharmacy I was reminded of one of the many pleasures of living in Georgia.  I quite often make fun of living in Georgia and having a sense of humor does help no matter where you live as each place has it's own idiosyncrasies.  Every place also has it's own pleasures.  In Georgia being a temperate rain forest there are flowers and trees everywhere.  There are wild spaces and some surprising cultivated spaces.  I take an alley to the pharmacy and the back doors to the stores are landscaped.  There is even a couple of small parks and sitting areas right there on the alley.  All the photos today are from that alley yesterday.  Parking lots tend to be landscaped also.  Almost everywhere you go in Georgia there are flowers, trees, birds, and little critters.  And gardeners abound.  There are garden tours and shows.  Georgia is a beautiful place to live.

ENJOY

☺☺☺Johnina ☺☺☺

Hooray ! Hooray!

It's time to 

CELEBRATE

HOORAY  Emily just got accepted to graduate school for next year.  HOORAY

-and a great big sigh of relief for all concerned.  She will still be at Brigham Young University were she is familiar with the professors even friends with some which will make settling in easier.  But even better she is going to be a teaching assistant, which pays her tuition and a stipend.  Hooray no more worrying about how she was going to pay tuition.  She has been pretty well paying for her own tuition through her jobs and loans and grants, but it was taking about 2/3 of her income.  Even though the stipend is not much, it is about what  she makes now but without tuition coming out she's going to think she's rich.  It's amazing how perception can change cuz she's still pretty much on the poor side.

 

Emily has always been a delightful child, but one with a very determined streak as seen in the family photo way below.

This silly little girl always had high goals.  When she was in second grade for Martin Luther King day their class did a presentation call 'I Have a Dream'  Most of the kids said they wanted to grow up to be baseball or football players or a beautician like their mom or something like that.  And then there was this tall, skinny, buck-toothed child in the back row, my Emily, one of the last to go up to tell of her dream of what she wanted to be as an adult, and she says 'I want to be the first woman President of the United States'.  Where the other kids got clapping from the crowd; she got a standing ovation.

She still works hard to make her dreams come true, She won't be walking with her class at graduation for her BA, because she will be in Arizona presenting a presentation on Jane Austen at a professional conference.  When she finishes there she is part of a research team that has a grant to do research in England.  One of her BIG TIME dreams has been to visit England.  Then she gets to teach college age students, yet another dream.

This is the only picture we have of the whole family.even though right now Emily is getting the attention and Benn will be getting married in Apr so he'll be getting a lot of attention at that time; I am very proud of all my children even if they do not currently have a milestone to celebrate or ever have one. 

My oldest son, Jonathan was never cut out for college and not everybody is, so he went into construction and even though the construction business is bad now; he does not whine and live off unemployment and welfare; he gets out there and takes whatever job he can find to support himself and his family.  Good job. 

My eldest daughter, Sarah has built herself a thriving Internet doll business. She is very artistically talented and designs her dolls and their outfits  She has worked at it diligently for several years now all the time being there for her three little ones (not real little anymore) and they are delightful children.  She also did a good job of picking out a husband who loves and supports her. Kudos to her.

My middle son, Benn has a masters degree in accounting, a good steady job, served a two year mission for the church, and is getting married in Apr to a beautiful delightful young women who I enjoy being with.

My middle daughter, Laura has always been a free spirit and incredibly talented both musically (she has played at least 4 different instruments) and has a beautiful signing voice.  She is also very artistically talented.  When her boys were born and diagnosed with autism she tamed her wild free spirit and works hard to see that they have every advantage available to a child with autism.  Her children's teachers are very impressed with her efforts and the boys progress.  When she visited last summer, her oldest was very shy but would sit on grandpa's lap, but he covered his eyes.  At Christmas we had visitors (strangers to him) show up at about the same time he did and he walked right up to them and started talking to them.  Astounding changes.  I am so proud of all the research and work she does with her boys.  She's bettering another generation.

Next is Emily.

Than there is my youngest son, Jeremy.  He did exceptionally well in high school, but found that college was just not for him.  He has been working while he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. Went to trade school only to find a lack of jobs in that field.  He is about to start with computer training which I think will be a perfect match for him.  I am very proud that he has continued to work as he has tried to figure out what direction he wants to take in life and I see signs of his growing maturity all the time.  He is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (that was quite the celebration) and is currently volunteering with the scouting program.

As you can see I have much to be proud of in my children.  They are all unique with their own special talents and personalities and it has been a delight and a privilege to watch them grow into the wonderful adults that they have become.

Celebrate

Everyone !!

Johnina ☺☺☺☺☺ 

New Year news

A couple of days after new years Benjamin brought his girlfriend Amanda over to the house; unfortunately he had put on Facebook that he was engaged thinking that he would be able to tell all his family before before they saw it. Now my kids are Facebook users and within a couple of minutes they were hot on the phone calling Benjamin saying 'what? what?'. Jeremy had to run interference so that I wouldn't get to the computer and see it on Facebook before Benjamin had a chance to drive over here and tell us. So since I wasn't a real good I went to bed. When they got here they had any up out of bed to give me the announcement that they were engaged and planning to get married sometime this spring. Tom and I  and the whole family really like Amanda and are looking forward to this wedding. Amanda has always acted like one of the family since the first time she came over and we have enjoyed her presence.they have not gotten their rings yet because Benjamin wanted her to be able to pick out her ring.

Tomorrow she and I are going to the Salvador Dali exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta. I've gone with Laura and Emily, but I look forward to seeing the exhibit again and seeing it with Amanda ought to be a lot of fun. Planning the wedding while it will be a lot of work with Amanda I think it will be a lot of fun to.

Wish us all luck Johnina ☺☺☺☺☺

P. S. This is the first time I've used Dragon voice recognition program for my blog. I think it's going to help me a lot. 

Posters for grandchildren

I've been wracking my brain as to what to send  to my grand kids for Christmas.  I've been the book grandma, but as they get older not all of them have developed a love of reading.  Big SIGH!!! Some have developed a love of drawing which is almost as good and I have sent drawing supplies to some.  I don't like to send toys especially trendy toys because I want to send something personal that can help us relate to each other. All books get read by me before they get given as gifts so I know they are appropriate and we can discuss them.  Of course with drawing we can share our current projects but I still have a couple of kids that kind of baffled me this Christmas.  Then I came up with the idea of the zoo collage.  I do not live close enough to take them to the zoo in person but I can take them to the zoo through my photos.  I am going to have this blown up to poster size so they can put it up on their wall and remember me.  I find it hard to be a long distance grandma and any ideas would be appreciated.
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Veterans Day

This photo was taken by my daughter of her kids at their great-grandfathers grave at Arlington National Cemetary.  Sometime today pay tribute to those who service your country.

This is why

I am not afraid or lonely when I am all by myself.  This is Felicity and she is the reason that the UPS man hesitates to come up to the door.  She is very big; 100# and has a very deep voice.

 This is Rascal  and though he is smaller about 65#;  he still intimidates with his loud deep voice.  Between the two of them they make an excellent alarm system.  It is a very loud alarm system.  At this point I am very glad they are learning to distinguish and ignore; the mailman, the garbage truck, and most of the neighbors.  They only bark at the next door neighbor when he comes in with the windows down and the music blaring; can't blame them for that, the music most definitely covers up the sound of the car.  They also recognize our cars but the alarm goes off anyway; I guess it's their way of greeting us.

We also walk the dogs several times a day so the whole neighborhood knows we have large dogs.  Nobody bothers our house.  In fact some people have a hard time visiting and we have to put up the dogs although once introduced there is no problem, but they have to be introduced.  My biggest fear is getting sick and having to call 911(I keep my cell phone on me all the time just in case)and not being able to get the dogs put up and the dogs being so protective that the EMT's can't get to me.  I guess all things have good and not so good points.   

Felicity is an Akita and I do believe that when one gets a dog one needs to look into the breed or breeds of the dog that one is getting.  I have seen enough pure breeds and mixed breeds where I knew the breeds that I have come to realize how important knowing about the breed is.  

Akitas are big, strong, intelligent, independent dogs.  They are not dogs for first time dog owners.  They kind of remind me of cats in big dog clothing.  The vet loves Felicity, the only Akita in her practice that she was not afraid of, because she is so well socialized but in discussing obedience training she said Good luck Akitas are very hard to obedience train, but a well socialized Akita makes for a real nice dog.  They tend to be independent like a cat and sometimes I have to go look to see where she has settled herself.  They also tend to be a one person dog and unfortunately Emily is Felicity's person.  She tolerates and socializes with us but when Emily is here she sticks to Emily like glue.  We owe Felicity a great deal as she got Emily through her sister's teen years and her own teen years.  I really wish we could find a way to get those two together again, but circumstances change and Emily would not be able to care for her.  I would like to always have a big protective dog but like I said circumstances change and I am no longer able to train and take care of a large dog.  Felicity is getting old especially for an Akita and when she is gone that will be the last of the large dogs for us.  SIGH :^C

Rascal is my constant companion; unlike Felicity that I have to go look for; Rascal is always in the same room as me and he's kind of like having a clingy toddler and follows me to the bathroom and waits for me outside.  Once again I can't even go to the bathroom without being followed.  We rescued him but payed attention to his breeding.  He is part Australian Shepard and part Lab.  I wanted to train him for a service dog.  I needed the build, size, friendliness and soft mouth of the Lab and the herding instincts of the Shepard.  Once again circumstances changed, the kids who promised and were in their late teens and capable, fell through on the training.  Rascal never got big enough and has also had many health issues which has kept us from taking him out in public.  Even though he did not turn out to be as useful as we had hoped; he has turned out to be a terrific companion for me.  Very helpful since I spend a lot of time by myself.  Even if Jeremy is here, he holes up in his room and I would still feel alone.  With my dogs I never have to feel lonely.

 

This is a photo from Wikipedia one of the places you can go to get info on dog breeds or go to bing and you will get several options. These are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.  I would always like to have a dog; I think having a dog is good for me, but circumstances do change and I'm not sure I'll always be able to take care of a dog.  However due to the change of circumstances my choice of dog breed has already changed. No more big dogs.  These are little guys around 15#.   A size that I could easily take care of now.  They are lap dogs and right now a lap dog for company sounds good.  Rascal is too big for a lap dog which is too bad and he never got big enough to be a service dog. But even with the change of circumstances I still love Rascal and plan on keeping him.  These little dogs are also good with other dogs, friendly with strangers although they do bark at strangers.  They are very good with children of all ages and with 10 grandchildren that is very important, especially since one has autism.  They can also be trained to lay still up next to you which in effect makes them a living, breathing, hot water bottle.  With fibromyalsia that sounds good to me.  We'll see if this kind of dog might someday join our family.

 

Spiders, spiders everywhere

This year we seem to have lots of spiders everywhere if you remember a couple of posts ago the forest pics with all the webs going across the floor of the woods there were certainly a multitude of webs.  I took a photo of this blade of grass and I saw the white on it but didn't know what it was till I saw the photo on the computer and saw that it was a web complete with spider.

This little beauty showed up when the boys were cleaning out my garden and went to put the plants they pulled up into the garbage can composer.  They came and got me (I have my family well trained) I took the photos and then they killed it.  It was actually a little scary taking this photo cuz I had to clear out some of his web to get close enough to get a good portrait of him.

This little guy was indeed a little guy.  He was smaller than the eraser on a pencil.  The shiny spots in the background are dew drops.  I couldn't get a real clear picture of him because I don't have a camera with interchangeable lens, but he was so cool looking that I just had to try and then include him with the other spiders.  I have been working on learning to use the aperture settings to get good clear images in the foreground and a very softened background.  I think it is helping to improve my photos and it will help when I get my DSLR.

Johnina  :^A

Last Hot Night in August

We have had such a horribly hot, high humidity summer and it has has been tough to suffer though it.  It does things to one.  It makes one tired and grouchy, like one's energy is being sucked right out.  No one ever looks their best. What with the sweat dripping off the tip of your nose and one's hair, well frizzy is an understatement, but I didn't know it caused cameras to hallucinate.  The above photo is shown as it was taken by the camera, no touch ups or computer programs used.  It certainly looks like a flying saucer floating over a forest to me.  In reality it is caused by the lens fogging up from the heat and humidity of the night.  This photo was taken at around 11 PM and the temperature was still about 90* outside and this was just last week after many weeks of such weather.  I had to wipe the lens of my camera after every shot to keep it from fogging up to much and even then if I took too long to set up the shot it would fog up the lens and give that eerie look to my shot.  The picture was taken with just the light from the  the back porch light using my shutter speed priority setting on my camera.  I am really trying to learn to use my camera to a much fuller extent and having fun learning more.
Once again this is a photo op I would have missed without my husband Tom.  He was walking the dogs when he saw the mushroom and told me about it so I could go out to photograph it.  He's always on the look out for interesting things for me to photograph, although I don't think he or I expected the results I got when the mushroom was first spotted.  Thanks, Tom.
Below is a close up of the mushroom as it should look and if one looks at the blades of grass one can see how wet everything is even without any rain.  I am certainly glad that we have had a break from that awful heat, Maybe I'll be able to go through my day without the heat sucking all the energy out of me.

From one generation to the next

Hayden checking out Juliette

I sorry it's been so long since I've posted here.  Laura came down to help me out while her family was down here taking their vacation. She did join her husband and that side of her family fora couple of days, but for the most part she was with me with her boys.  I have been amazed at hard this recuperation has been.  The pain and pain meds have made for great distraction.  Laura was an amazing amount of help especially since she had both her boys with her.  I am amazed at how well Laura has done in helping her boys learn to obey and be helpful too.  I'm so proud of her and her kids.  Although the behavior did deteriorate as the week went by but that is to be expected with any kids away from their normal routines.  The boys got used to being left with Tom and I and coming into the house without clinging to their Mom.  It was so nice to see the boys being comfortable with us.  Since Hayden has Autism that is quite an improvement.

Juliette, Flo, Zack

One thing I noticed when the boys where here was that there were interests that seem to be passed down through the generations of our family.  We all seem to have an intense interest in nature with very little fear that would be present in other children. When we saw the spider in the window and let Hayden know about it; he came a running and if you look at the first photo; if you look where he is is looking you can see the spider. Emily is my only child with a fear of spiders but that did not develop till she was well into her teens, but she does have a great love of nature and with the exception of spiders shares that love with the rest of us.

Sebastian, you make me feel like dancing

We have found that sometime spiders even show personalities.  This one likes to stay closer to the ground and dance on his web.

Juliette, Flo 

I didn't realize that this particular kind of spider would build webs together like this.  This is a kind of spider that shows up in our yard every year and I have never seen them build webs together like this.  Strange...

Henry

We do not kill these spiders as they are basically harmless and are natural insect control.  Most of the time we name them and can tell them apart by location, size, and in this case Henry is missing part of his leg.  We almost always have a Henry and since Laura named most of them, we have one this year, too.