New free to use images on Flickr

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Originally uploaded by Theresa in MS

Posted some new images on Flickr today. If you use them to create something I'd love to see what you came up with. I'll be glad to link it from here as well.

Heard from Blake (my Air Force son) yesterday. He found out where his first duty station will be. He said 'It's in the mountains'. I said 'OK'. He said 'of JAPAN'!!! I'm glad he'll be going somewhere he's always wanted to go but as his Mom it certainly causes me some concern. He's a grown-up now though and getting on with his life. I'm so proud of both my boys.

Cleaned up in my craft room today and can actually see the work-table. Now I have no excuse not to get in there and actually complete a project. Too many 'started' pieces with no finished items. With the first of the month coming up it's doubtful anything will be finished soon though. Will be too busy at work to have any energy left at night.

Enjoy the images and God Bless You!

A few photos to post

Posting a few photos from Blake's Air Force Boot Camp graduation held earlier this month and then a couple from our grandson Sam's birthday  party today. He's 2 and never stops moving :-) We all had a good time though and I bet he took a loooong nap when everyone left LOL

Blogger has me so confused on how to get the spacing to work out correctly when I post pictures. Sorry for the empty space haha
Have a wonderful weekend and God Bless You!

Yearly spider visitor

This 8-legged creature has spun his/her web every year for the past few years at our house. I've never seen one like it before I noticed him/her here. Very large and colorful. The body itself is about 2 inches long and counting the legs, it's about 5 inches long. I'm not terribly scared of spiders but big ones do cause me some concern. My husband who really isn't scared of much of anything HATES spiders. No matter what size they are he would rather not deal with them.


 All is well at our house but there's been too much going on to get any blogging done. Nelson and I went to San Antonio to see our youngest graduate from Air Force Basic Training. It was a wonderful experience and very emotional. I am so proud of him for sticking with it when I know it had to be the hardest thing he's had to do so far in his young life. He did have a rough time but he made it through. He's in his technical training now and then he'll get his first permanent duty station. And we have no idea where that will be. We're hoping for Little Rock, AR so he'll be close enough to come home or for us to visit fairly often.

I'm hoping I'll have a quiet weekend and have some fun in the craft room. I've also got some old photographs to go through and see if I can use them in some projects. My to-do list is so long I'll never get all of it accomplished.

God Bless You!

Quick post

Popping in to prove I'm still around. All is well, just haven't felt like blogging anything lately. Been doing a little bit of everything, mainly housework. I got the below 'funny' in my email from my dear cousin Laverne and just wanted to share it here. Click on the image to see it full size. Enjoy :-)

#2 son has officially left home

Our youngest, Blake, graduates from Air Force Basic Training this coming Friday in San Antonio, TX. He had some rough times with it and it was questionable for a while if he would actually graduate. But, he pulled it off and is so excited to be getting away from Lackland AFB and on to the next phase of his training. He's going into Intelligence and will be in schooling for that, also in Texas, for about 6 months. I am so proud of him and at the same time adjusting to ALL the kids being gone out on their own. It was questionable whether this youngest one would ever get out on his own but he's done it now. Bittersweet feeling, for sure.

When the oldest one left for Marine Basic Training, it was tough but the youngest was still home so it didn't hit quite as hard as this one leaving has. It's a huge change for him and one for me as well. I always call Blake my 'talker' because he and I could get into conversations about anything and everything under the sun. DH is not much of a talker but he may have to become more so now so I won't go nuts having no one to talk to LOL!

We had a quiet 4th of July. I turned a year older (quietly) and we mostly hung out at the house. We did go visit the grandkids who live here in MS and had a great time spending time with them and their parents. I am so lucky to have a loving daughter-in-law and step-daughter. They are both fantastic mothers and it shows in how their children behave.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too. It was tough to get back in the swing of things at work this morning but I finally managed to get something done. Why do I always feel like I need a day off to get over the holiday? Lazy, I guess :-)

God Bless You!

North Carolina vacation

Home from our trip to North Carolina to see Brad and his family. We had a great time and it was good to get back home too. We were blessed with good weather for our entire trip and only got caught in one traffic jam. That was in Atlanta, GA where it's expected to get held up. Only got stuck for about 45 minutes which is a short wait in that area. I'll post a few pics below:

Busy weekend

Finally got a phone call from Blake. He says AF boot camp is going well. The recruits are all tired but getting into the groove of things. It was so good to hear from him, even if the phone call was limited to 5 minutes.

Husband and I had to make a trip to Lowe's today to get a new hot water heater. Ours was fried after just being worked on about a week ago. That repair was a total waste of money as it turns out. Apparently the heater had developed a leak that dripped onto the wiring and shorted it out. When we got in from our grocery buying trip, we both smelled a 'burning electrical' smell. God was certainly with us because it could have been alot worse. So now we have a new hot water heater and can't complain too much. The fried one lasted us 12 years.

Husband took me out riding around the countryside today so I could try out my new telephoto lens for my Canon Digital XT. I love this camera and the new lens is fantastic. I took a few shots just to get the feel of it. Some of these below are from a local garden center. Who knew they didn't 'allow' people to take photos of their flower inventory?! Now I know but I did get a few shots before I got 'warned'.

God Bless You and have a wonderful week!!

Finally have some pics to post

Got busy today and snapped some pics in the yard. Most all my flowers have already bloomed and are past their prime but I managed to get a few nice shots. I am SO badly wanting a telephoto lens but do not know enough about them to know which one to buy. I'm going to do alot of research before buying anything. Here are some pics:

I guess I never noticed how beautiful a clover really is if you look at it up close. All those colors just work perfectly together.

Same thing with a dandelion. I don't think I'd ever examined one really closely until today. Amazing invention.





 When I study things like clover and dandelions, anything in nature really, I can't imagine not believing in my Heavenly Father who created all this. Awesome!

This is a 'Therese' hydrangea. Of course, I had to have it when I saw the name :-) The blooms start out a light green and turn to white as seen below.

White 'Therese' hydrangea in early stages.

A Mr. Lincoln rose that's past its' prime bloom but still lovely.

A lollipop lily. I have a large number of these and will have to divide them this fall. Luckily I have a good deal of room to spread them out.


 I also have 2 or 3 close friends who love flower gardening as much as I do. No shortage of people to trade flowers with around here.

Last image for today; a 'Happy Returns' Daylily. These were a happy surprise for me because they have multiplied well and bloom for months. We had a big rainstorm that beat everything up a bit but the yard still looks pretty good.

 Very quiet at my house these days. Our youngest son joined the Air Force and is now at boot camp in Texas. I miss him terribly but am so proud he's chosen the military. I'm also excited about him getting on with his life after having trouble deciding what he wanted to do for a vocation. I hope he enjoys what he's chosen and makes a career of it. I definitely miss him and his older brother (in the Marines) but am very satisfied with how they've grown into responsible young men. I supposed I helped them along the way but it was definitely prayer that got us all through this far.

Have a wonderful weekend and God Bless You!

Still around...

I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged last. Nelson's heart bypass surgery got us out of our regular routines and I guess I've yet to get back to 'normal'. Nelson is doing great. He's been back at work for about a month and has had no problems at all. He and I have been incredibly blessed with his recovery and the support we received from everyone.

My youngest son, Blake, has joined the U.S. Air Force and will be leaving for boot camp in mid-May so I've been spending a lot of time with him. Nelson and I are planning a short visit to see our 'Marine' son and his family in North Carolina.

Blake and I had a 'junking' afternoon. We visited 2 local treasure (read 'junk') shops but didn't find much of interest. I've got plenty of inspiration already in my craft room. I just need to make time to do something with it. Tomorrow will be mostly filled with laundry; tons of that waiting for me.

I'll post the latest pic I have of the 3 grandkids in North Carolina. Their mom is a photographer so I'm very spoiled to having fantastic shots of those three grands. I found this candid shot on their Mom's facebook page and I hope she doesn't mind that I'm borrowing it to show them off here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

No photos to share today. I know, this blog is getting so dull! Gotta work on that soon. So glad to have another Valentine's Day to share with my husband. Especially after his recent heart bypass surgery. We didn't even know he was 'sick' so the bypass caught us both totally off guard. I am so grateful for the way things worked out and we are both blessed to have him on the road to recovery. I thank God every single day for the gift of each day we're given to share with those we love. That's what Valentine's Day means to me and I try to live it every day.

We didn't get any of the snow that some in MS got this past Friday. Suits me fine. I don't like the icy aftermath of that snow. Yes, it's gorgeous at first and you can get some really cool pictures. Like Elizabeth at Last Door Down the Hall. She has some beautiful shots of snow in North Carolina. Go check them out. She's a fantastic photographer as well as a gifted mixed-media artist. Great person too.

Nelson and I went to visit the grandkids in Cleveland yesterday and we had a great time. Sam is growing like a weed and so funny. He adores his sister, Sara, and they get along so well. At least while we were there. I guess Sam's still too small for him to get on Sara's nerves too badly yet. That day will come though, no doubt about that. Nicole, their Mom, is such a great mother. I am so proud and filled with love for all our children, whether they're technically my step-children or the ones I carried in my own body. That's another thing I'm thankful for this Valentine's Day.  Nelson and I have shared our children, and now their children without reservation. There's no greater gift to give your life partner than to share ALL of your loves and passions.

Now that Nelson's on the road to recovery it seems that I've come down with a cold/flu or something that's got me sneezing, coughing and generally feeling crappy. It started Saturday morning as soon as I got out of bed. Before I even got my houseshoes on I was sneezing. Those multiple sneezes that come out of nowhere. The ones that have our skittish dog running for cover. Then I heard Nelson doing the same thing. Oh No! Not him too.  I cannot imagine how it feels to sneeze those violent sneezes when your breastbone was cut apart and literally wired back together less than 3 weeks ago. He says it doesn't hurt. It hurts me just to think about it. Anyways, he and I both are still sneezing but now I've started coughing as well. Seems I catch every blooming bug that goes around lately.

I am blogging this at the optimum stretch of the Day Quil tablets working. I thought that'd be a good time to update this blog and now I'm off to just read my list of blogs I follow. I hope all of you have a great week and don't catch any of the stomach virus or flu bugs floating around. Tell your Valentines you love them and God Bless You!

And now we're back home...again!

Had a bit of trouble with an erratic heartbeat so Nelson had to go back into the hospital the same day we came home (the 1st time). We've been back home about a week and a half now and all is going relatively well. Still some problems with medications to work out but he's doing very well overall. Advice for anyone who faces heart bypass surgery or helping care for someone who has the surgery: this surgery affects your entire body and mind, not just your heart. I don't know how it does it but it does.

I am back working and he's recuperating at home for a few more weeks. I wish I could be with him 24/7 but that's just not feasible for us. He wouldn't want it anyway. He's very self-sufficient and does not want to be fussed over. Not the ideal patient but we've worked out a system that works. I don't smother him and he tries to show his appreciation for what we do for him.

I'm looking forward to life returning to normal and getting back to my regular blogging/visiting schedule. I'm having trouble focusing on anything other than Nelson's recovery at this point. He doesn't sleep well which affects my sleep too.

Enough rambling for tonight; thanks to everyone for all the prayers and good wishes. They really do mean so much to us. Have a great week and God Bless You!

Back home...again!

A quick pop-in to post the latest on Nelson's recovery from heart bypass surgery. We came home this past Saturday. After only 4 or 5 hours, his heart rate accelerated and I took him to our local emergency room. His heart rate registered at 160 beats per minute. They ended up taking him back to Oxford by ambulance. He stayed until today and is now doing very well. His leg with the graft incisions is swollen but other than that, he feels good.

It's been a wild couple of weeks and on top of Nelson's health crisis, my youngest son joined the Air Force. He's been talking about it for awhile but I really figured he'd talk himself out of it. He didn't and actually signed and took the pledge yesterday (Monday). I am so proud of him and for him; I have always believed that a  military career is a wonderful choice for a young man or woman. So now I have a Marine and an Airman in my list of achievements :-) I guess I'm a 'double military Mom' now haha

I'll be back blogging regularly soon. Hopefully I'll have some art to show too. It feels like I haven't touched my craft room in ages.

Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. Nelson and I are so incredibly blessed to have family and friends who care enough to remember us in their prayers. We've been showered with love and offers of help from all around us. It's a humbling experience to know we've had an impact on so many lives. And in such a positive way.

God Bless You and have a wonderful week!!

Nelson now in regular room

Nelson has moved out of ICU into a regular room and is doing so well. His pain has been very easily managed today. He even went 2 hours past the 'allowed' time tonight. He could have had a pain shot at 7 p.m. and didn't ask for it until 9 p.m.   I take that as a good sign.  I am so proud of how well he's handled everything so far. He had a really rough first night (last night) but has made a remarkable turn-around today. He said when they got the drain tube and packing out, it was the best pain relief he's ever felt.

He's been walking down the hall and even that was before the pain shot. He had to go find his favorite nurse that we met last weekend. Tonya is her name and she is working on the other side of this floor. Not one that we'll see much of while we're here. She's an LPN studying for her RN degree and she will make a top-notch employee at whatever she wants to do. She is caring, sympathetic and being very pretty doesn't hurt either haha

The quality of care at this hospital is fantastic. Everyone from every department has been very kind and caring. Room 344 could use some decor additions but otherwise, it's a great place LOL!

Thank you all for the prayers, support and love that you've shown us. I am overwhelmed by how many people have responded to my requests for prayers. My Facebook, email and cell phone have all gotten a good workout this week. I hate to see my cell phone text message bill. I have a limited plan because I rarely use the texting feature. This week, however, I've been on it several times a day and sending to several people at once. Wonder if Nelson's medical insurance will cover that? LOL

God Bless You and please continue to pray for us; prayer WORKS!

Bypass update-Day 2

Nelson ended up having 5 bypasses. Ignorant me thought there were only 4 possibles so I definitely need to do some research on that. He's doing great now and they even pulled the breathing tube several hours early. He was 'over-breathing' on top of the respirator so they were able to get that tube out early. He says that tube is no fun at all.

I saw him about 1 hour ago (he's in ICU) and he's doing good. His pain is under control for the moment. They have him doing breathing exercises and he said he feels like he has a ton of bricks on his chest. He's still groggy but alert for the most part. He was able to tell me he loved me which, as you can imagine, made me feel TONS better. I hope they move him to a regular room by tomorrow morning... and if we're really lucky, later today.

I'll update later today. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. The support and encouragement we've received is so appreciated. I'll never be able to say thank you enough for what it's meant to me to feel so much love from so many people. God is truly good and is blessing us daily in so many ways.

Thanks again for everything and I'll be back later with any further news. God Bless You!!!

Quick update on Nelson's surgery

Had a whirlwind weekend. Nelson had a heart cath scheduled for this past Friday. We 'thought' we'd be home Friday night either with a clean bill of health or with stents. Nope. He will be having bypass surgery this Wednesday, the 27th, at the Baptist Hospital in Oxford, Mississippi. A great heart doctor, Dr. Purden, and gifted surgeon, Dr. Deese, will be taking care of him. Of course, we're nervous and a little scared but our faith is unshakeable. God is good and is The Great Healer!

Nelson is not hurting at all. We're told he's an ideal candidate for this procedure since he's in such great health and has no heart damage from prior heart attacks. 

He and I both ask for your prayers as we go through this next few weeks. I'll be in and out checking emails from time to time for the next week or so. I hope to be able to get online from the hospital but am not sure of that. We're definitely taking the laptop for him to have the DVD player at least.

I told Nelson he was only carrying 'MY' heart in his body anyway so he better get it repaired and keep it that way :-)

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them more than we're able to express. God Bless You!

Still here...

Weekend was too short but my oldest son (my Marine) was here for a visit that we definitely enjoyed. My fibromyalgia was flaring a bit too much for me to get any fun stuff, i.e. art, done so that was a bummer. I just didn't have the energy to get much of anything done. The fatigue is slowly getting better but still have the stiff, achy feeling. Not the worst flare I've ever had and for that I'm thankful. I did go to the dr. today and get my meds going again. Anyway, enough of that.

Work has been really busy and we're glad of that. It was so slow in the car business for so long that this upswing has us very encouraged that the economy is on the mend.

My youngest son, Blake, is 25 years old and has not been able to find anything as far as a job goes and it's past time he was out on his own. He's thinking of joining the Air Force and we've done a lot of talking about that. I'm certainly not against it; I think any young person who feels led to join the military is serving a higher calling than many of us are ever called to do. Of course, I'm concerned about the chance for them to be in combat but when it's all said and done, I just want them to be happy and fulfilled in their life's choices.

Hopefully my next post will have proof that I really  have been working in my craft room and have accomplished something besides a pretty good-looking background on a canvas board. Which is all I have now :-)

Have a great week and God Bless You

More free images from the Dumas book

Still bitterly cold here in Mississippi but we're hanging in there. Got the gas logs blazing as well as the central heating unit. Got a small fan placed to pull heat from the logs to the other end of the house where I'm sitting now. One end of this house is just harder to heat or cool than the other end. And this end has the central unit in it. Oh well, I'm no engineer so I sure can't figure out that anomaly.

We had lots of snow today but none of it stuck to the ground. It was pretty coming down but I only saw it in momentary bits of time when I went to the front of the dealership for work reasons. The main office is in the middle area of the building where there are no windows. No wonder we get so cranky sometimes LOL!

Here are four more images from the Dumas book mentioned in a couple of posts back. Remember to click on the image here to bring it up in full-size. They are a little over 1 MB in size each.  Have fun with them and if you create something using them, I'd love to see it. Stay warm and safe and God Bless You!

Mississippi Weather Update

It's danged cold! My gosh, we are not used to prolonged periods of frigid temps like this. We've seen a few snowflakes around here and a little ice. As long as the ice doesn't bring down power lines and all the other horrible things it can bring I'm fine with the snow. But pipes are freezing all over town. Luckily we're old enough to know better and have prepared for that as best we can. There is a winter freeze warning and severe winter weather advisory in effect.

We have no neighbors that need us to check on them but sadly, there have been deaths in Mississippi due to the freezing temps. If any of you are dealing with cold weather (and most of us are) please, please check on any elderly neighbors or anyone else you can think of that might need it. Alot of people are just not equipped to handle weather like this.

No images to share tonight; I'm cuddled up staying warm and about to head for bed. Seems I'm an early-to-bed type more and more often lately. My plan for this cold weekend is to play in my craft room and post more of the images from the Dumas book.

Everyone stay safe and warm; God Bless You!

Free images 1 & 2 of Dumas' book illustrations

Free for personal use. Scan of page from 'Works of Alexandre Dumas'. No copyright information available.

Free image of Dumas book cover

This is the scanned cover of a book titled 'Works of Alexandre Dumas'. The book is falling apart and I will be tearing the pages out to use in collage work. I'm scanning the illustrations that are in the book as well and will share them on here as well. Not all at one time though; I'll space it out. It'll give me something to actually blog about rather than just rambling LOL!

I do not know any of the details regarding the publisher or the copyright information as the first few pages of the book are missing. I found this book in a local 'antique' (pronounced as 'junk') shop a while back. I LOVE going in there because you never know what you will find. I don't know how often they actually get anything different but they move things around often enough that I always 'see' something not yet discovered. For personal use only since the copyright info is unavailable. Or if you know more about it, please let me know and I'll post it here. I'll probably use the book covers someday when I decide to try my hand at an altered book. In the meantime, I'll be using the pages of text and the images for collage work. There are enough pages here to keep me busy for a long, long time haha!  While flipping through the book tonight making sure I got all the illustrations, I decided it would be fun to just randomly choose a page spread and find a phrase that leaps out at me. Then create a collage around that. The first phrase that jumped at me is on pg. 237 'Excuse me, but there are some moments when I am half mad.' If that doesn't beg to be turned into artwork, I don't know what will! It describes me so well too :-)

We went shopping in Jackson yesterday and I found a few things at Hobby Lobby (of course). I LOVE Hobby Lobby's clearance racks. I never miss out on finding something there. Plus had a good selection of stamps on sale as well as their scrapbook paper. We went to a new shopping center that we'd heard about at Flowood. It's really nice and filled with interesting shops. Some weren't open for the New Year's Day holiday but most were. Nelson had LOTS of fun at Bass Pro Shop and bought mostly clothes rather than fishing goodies. Strange but true :-) And of course, I found a bookstore. This time it was Barnes & Noble at some fancy-schmancy shopping center north of Jackson. I told Nelson we didn't come close to looking like we belonged in that ritzy-looking place. Found out green money was all they really cared about anyway :-)

Enjoy using the image if you like and please let me know if you do. I'd love to see what you do with it. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and God Bless You!

Happy New Year!!

Just a quick post to wish all of you a happy New Year. I hope 2010 is filled with blessings, love and laughter for you and your loved ones. My family is so blessed and we are grateful to our Lord for all the wonderful gifts He has seen fit to give us.

We are planning to  go shopping later today and just enjoy being off work and spend time together. Hope your weekend is loaded with all good things!!!

God Bless You...