november through january

I was browsing through my photos over the weekend, looking for something that might be of interest to feature here on this neglected blog of mine. There were a few that brought a smile to my face and so I thought I would share them with you, my faithful readers. 

My Mom. (Hi Mom-I know you are one of my faithful readers!) This photo was taken in November when I was visiting her. She is still proudly wearing the sweatshirt that the kiddos and I made her. A Christmas tree of painted hand prints made in 1994. Leah, the little hand on top, was 8 months old. Rachel, the middle hands, was 2 years old. Austin was 6.  

A hike with my favorite son while he was here for Christmas. He is tall. I am standing on a rock. My water bottle matched my vest, but I dropped it and now I don't have it anymore.

A Christmas tree lighting event in Anthem, Arizona. Rachel and I went so we could see Phillip Phillips (that is his real name) play. He was last season's American Idol winner. I rather like his music. I'm sure you will recognize this song from tv commercials. If I were 15, I would probably have a teen crush on him.

 This bird managed to squeeze itself through the small gap at the top of our outdoor fire pit. It was like a giant bird cage. We did open the door so he could happily fly away. The nice green bushes in the background are now frozen with the temperatures last week. We covered many things, but forgot about those. Darn.

 Leah and I spotted this cute little thing wanting a new family. I came very close to taking it home with me.

 We spotted this amazing sky during a rain storm. I had to pull over and get out of the car to snap a few photos. Wow.

While in Colorado, I went to visit a home that my friend's husband is building. The homeowners have a camel. A camel in Colorado!

 His name is Carlos.

While driving home from Colorado, I came upon this accident. We sat in a line of traffic for about 30 minutes. This is on a very remote stretch of highway and no emergency vehicles arrived during the time we sat and waited. The men that got out of their cars to help, eventually started to direct the traffic to do a little "off road" driving to go around the wreckage. Nobody was hurt.

 I found this girl in a comfortable spot playing her guitar one night. Yes, I like tulips on my table even in the winter. And yes, we like to hear her play and sing.

These less-than-cute creatures were the culprits that made a huge mess of our trash cans New Year's Eve day. We had gone to take some pictures for our holiday card and came home to a big, stinky, 

yuck-o mess. The Javelinas are really stinky. The trash was yuck-o. And they can be a little vicious.

This is why the most adorable little puppy that kinda captured my heart had to stay where it was.

And finally, an out-take from our holiday card photo shoot. 

Oh, what is that you ask? ... "Norma, have you not had any scary encounters of creepy things other than the trash eating Javelinas lately?" Other than the SIX INCH MILLIPEDE that was crawling across the floor in our bedroom last night when I was going to get in bed and had to calmly call the Reptile Wrangler in to find it after it crawled between some frames I had sitting on the floor thank you very much, why no...it's been a little quiet around here. I guess it has been too cold out for even the creepy creatures.

So wait...does that mean they are all doing like the half-foot-long millipede and coming indoors?

Now I feel that I am caught up and can get on with some regular posting.