Be Prepared

Family, Family Fun, Life in Texas, Me, Memories
We're supposed to start getting bad weather about 11 AM our time, so the countdown is on. OK, people have been asking, so I'm going to detail what we've got stored, and what we're up to. I've got a pantry full of food, at least 70 cans of food, 10# of meat in my freezer (which will be getting grilled), plenty of veggies in the freezer 4 cases of bottled water, and we'll have a few more gallons stores of drinking water, and two tubs full for flushing and washing up by tonight, two giant bags of charcoal, two normal size ones, a bag of mesquite chips, a grill, a long burning log, three chaffing dish warmers (or whatever those little can cooking things are), matches, several lighters (the long…
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A little bit of Panic

Aiden, Baby Joey, Bella and Edward, Family, Family Fun, Humor, Kevin, Kevin and I, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, Pictures, The end is near, Twilight
The area that we used to live in, just twenty something miles away was evacuated this morning, but we've been told to "shelter in place," so unless there's some other mandate, we're sticking around.  When Allison was here 7 years ago our home was safe (we know the woman who lived here at the time) so that's somewhat comforting. Little Aiden is sick with a head cold.  He's not doing to well with that, I don't want to consider cramming him (and the rest of us) in the car for a long evacuation.  So gratefully we're hopefully not doing that. We were already well stocked and ready, but I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up just a few more things, a long burning fire log, another…
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Hayez; The Kiss

Dreams, Grief and Loss, Kevin and I, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near
Image from Wikipedia Moved?  I am. I LOVE this painting.  It means more to me than any image I've ever seen. It was painted in Italy by Francesco Hayez in 1859, as I understand, it portrays a goodbye kiss of two lovers as he leaves for war.  How passionate, loving, tense, sad, electric, and compelling.  What would it be like to kiss your husband knowing it may indeed be the last time you kiss, last time you touch, last time you see?  So sad, but you want sadness so badly not to be the memory of the moment.  The colors are just vibrant enough, yet subtle enough, the shadows deep yet well placed, the cloth and texture of the stones.  The shadow of a waiting soldier in the background. I…
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Updates.

Family, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Memories
Last I heard lastnight Grandpa still had not gone into surgery, he'd been continuously bumped out of the OR by more important procedures, but today he's at the top of the list, and they'd be informed with morning rounds today about when his surgery would take place, but it definitely should be today.  It's sad for him, he so wants to stay independent, and wants to keep doing so much but his body just won't let him anymore, that's got to be one of the most frustrating things we go through in this life. Update (early afternoon), surgery is scheduled for this afternoon, thankfully it now looks like instead of an entire hip replacement that they'll be able to just put a few pins or screws in and sew him…
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My Grandpa, My Parents, and My Brother

Aiden, Church, Family Fun, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near, To new beginnings
My 80 somthingish Grandpa broke his hip lastnight and fell, they're not sure what happened first.  He was carrying a BIG watermelon and Grandma seems to think it landed ON him and that's what broke it...  So I guess there's three options.  He was supposed to go into surgery earlier today but it kept getting knocked back.  So I'm not sure what's happened. My parents are currently at a neighborhood/stake (gotta love Utah) meeting concerning a woman in their neighborhood who was badly beaten this week in her home by a door to door magazine salesman, who'd been to my parents home earlier that day.  I'm not sure if it's so much concerning the actual incident, local emotional control, or information to help protect themselves.  The hazy details I have…
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My turn with Nifty #2

Baby Joey, Games, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, Pictures, Vacation
I'm on a Canon photography forum where we have a special lens that's being passed around the world from member to member.  After more than two years on the waiting list "he" arrived HERE Friday! It's a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II (on Amazon), they retail for about $80 (which is really cheap for a good lens).  It's called the Nifty Fifty or just Nifty because it's amazing sharp focus and soft bokeh (the out of focus blurry areas in the background and foreground) and is a tiny little things as lenses go.  It 's a good travel lens because it's compact and out of the way and inconspicuous to the unassuming average eye.  I have one and it's been my buddy and was my first SLR lens, even before…
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Finally Last Sunday’s “Session”

Aiden, Baby Joey, Family Fun, Humor, Me, Memories, Michael, Pictures
Rather play date, LOL!  The boys were having fun, and I was having fun.  Win/Win. :) This was a week and a half ago. We set up the boys indoor play tent and they quickly filled it with a toy stash and some left over boxes and set to work having fun, while I pulled out my camera and snapped some shots.  Even Joey got in on the fun towards the end. Silly Boys. Mom!  Watch this!!! A Mommy favorite. Another Mommy favorite. Nobody is silly here!! Joey getting in on the big boy fun. Hey!  What's this about??? Anything for you big brother. Baby toes.  Awww! I just love the back of his little head. Baby Kisses!!! Buddies and Brothers.
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Edouard Pics

Aiden, Family Fun, Kevin, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Pictures
These are some pics that Kevin snapped of me. This is how wet I got in about 1 minute in the rain when I went to go move the car to make sure it didn't have the tree fall on it if the storm really picked up. There were not many dry spots on my shirt.  It was totally salt water, my eyes stung so badly!  Me and my Cookie.  He loves rain just like his Mommy. Aiden ran into an open drawer in the kitchen lastnight! I'm so glad it didn't actually get his eye, but I felt so bad. As usual he didn't really care once the initial pain wore off. And one I took of the clouds after the storm.  Not much of an obvious pattern, but…
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Boring Storm

Family Fun, Humor, Life in Texas, Memories
We've had normal old rain storms that were more interesting than this, LOL!  Outside it's breezy, cool, and gray. The beginning of the storm is here, and Kevin's off work, they decided to close up the place today, so since he took yesterday off to have a family day, this is the 4th day of this weekend.  It's nice to have him here.  We got to sleep in too. Sadly it's too overcast to get any pictures of the cloud pattern, I can't really see a pattern.  In the past tropical storms and hurricanes have projected some awesome looking cloud patterns at night, so I was hoping that with this being a daylight tropical storm that I'd be able to get some good ones...  The rain falling off the roof…
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