amongst friends #61

Edit~I finally did it. I've long worried that I would forget to include someone who sent in a picture. I did. Stacie sent in a Church picture last week and I forgot to pass it on to Kelly. I'm sorry Stacie. :(

She said "So John and I were driving back from seeing family, and I was debating on what church I should photo, but I was wanting something out of the box but not sure what. One exit before the one we had to get off at, this truck pulling a trailer behind it came onto the interstate in front of us and voila lol There was my pic..glad I had my camera with me :)"

It's a funny pic Stacie and I am so glad you reminded me. And I'm glad I got that out of my system. Hopefully I don't forget anyone again and if I do, be sure to let me know!  :)
Church~

Due to the Holidays and people being out of town or tied up with family and friends, we were a little late receiving (and posting) the collage. As you can see, we are down several participants from the last few weeks. We hope everyone gets a chance to join again next week :-)

Sheila took her picture on her way into the New Member's Orientation at the church she attends.

Sandy wasn't sure she would be able to get us a Church photo this week due to some ups and downs in her life currently. As it turned out the 19th was the week that the church, in the nursing home where her Dad is, scheduled church service there. She submitted a picture of her Mom and Dad at that service.

Justin said his picture is from his Mom's Christmas Village on her kitchen bar. "Every year she goes all out, and puts up a lit, populated department 56 village. Some of the little figures and buildings cost over a hundred dollars. As assanine as it may seem, everyone has their interests, and it brings her and my stepdad together!"

Renee took a picture of a Christmas card at her Mother's house a few weeks ago.

Realizing her picture was the same as Debbie's (they live in a small town :) Christie dug through some much older photos and found this picture of a retired priest from the same church. She says she always loved this photo. He was such a delightful man who had many stories to share. He was so incredibly proud of this cross he was given as a gift for such long service to the church.

I took mine of the Baptism Pool at my church. I have only witnessed 2 Baptism's since I have been going there, but I love the turquoise color of the water. It's very pretty and calming.

Rayma's picture is of a blanket her friend has. On it is the childhood school and church her friend's husband attended, originally built in the 1930's. He was laid to rest across the street from this spot in Oakhill, TN.

Karen's is a beautiful old church in downtown Tampa.

Debbie wrote "frosty but nestled in for the winter a multicultural view... Russian Orthodox Church, Kenai, Alaska".

Jocelyn stopped to take her picture of a church in her neighborhood that she has gone to a couple of times.

Make sure you have your cameras out for the new year!! This week is celebration. See you all in a 2011! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Be safe and enjoy!

After celebration, we have critters, relax and cold. Have fun, be creative. See you soon.

amongst friends #60

Nativity~

I (Kelly) am in charge of this week and next soooo, here it is... :-)

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we are running a little behind this week and a few were unable to send in a photo. Soon enough we will all be back on track. Until then, those who can will and the rest of us will look forward to the next week and theme.

Do all of you enjoy the Christmas season? I know I do! There are so many things to be grateful for!!

Christie's Mom started a nativity collection for her 3 girls years ago when her first child was born. Since then they have acquired many. This particular one is child friendly and stays out year-round. It's a favorite and being available all the time encourages lots of conversation about the birth of baby Jesus.

While spending some time at her Mom's house last week, Renee' took this picture of a nativity set on the table.

Sheila's picture is of a card that she received at work from the CEO's assistant.

Karen saw this piece of artwork in a store when she was out Christmas shopping.

Debbie's message was a simple one~...unto them a child was born.

Jerri visited an Annual Live Nativity just down the street from her home. I love that the star that will guide them is visible in the photo.

Mine is a very simple Nativity Scene. that was made by my Mother many, many years ago. My Father just recently made the Stable for me to display them in.

Janice says "We were told very early on in our marriage that we would never conceive. In our 22nd year of marriage, we were blessed with our very own miracle from Heaven. Valerie Marie."

Sandy sent this picture a couple of weeks ago, she said "I have the privilege of having 5 children in my Sunday School class whose families are from Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Here they are dressed for the nativity play."

There is a face in the background of Rayma's picture, do you see it? She took the photo through a window down the street from her office at a Christian bookstore. She said she doesn't think they planned for the face. :)

Jenny's picture is a Nativity scene that she has in her apartment to celebrate the season.

Jocelyn took hers through a store window while out shopping this past weekend.

Next week is Church, then Celebration, Critters and Relaxation.
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!!
 See you all next week.

amongst friends #59

~Sparkle~

Whew, here it is-Sparkle! FINALLY!

It’s been a hectic week, for more than just me evidently because it took an extra day or so to get all the pictures. Add that to my normal crazy schedule and all of a sudden it’s Wednesday and our amongst friends collage is just going up!

It certainly was worth the wait though. Just look at all the twinkling going on here!

I’ll start this off by telling you I took my picture a couple weeks ago. It was right after a warm spell and my children had taken the top layer of ice off of our Koi pond. They were using it as part of a snow sculpture. With the warmer weather it had started to melt and on that particular sunny day it was winking at me as I got into my car. I stopped, got out and snapped a few pictures. I didn’t realize the sparkles were in the photo until looking at them on the computer later. I more envisioned glittery things but with my lack of time, it turns out I was lucky I’d gotten this when I did. I works just fine! J

Kelly took a picture of Sparkle Barbie, a gift she donated to the Salvation Army Angel Tree program.

Karen’s sparkly bowtie is super cute. I wonder is she will wear it sometime through the holidays.

Jerri says her photo is just a pretty sparkly heart. That it is!

Rayma sent me a few photos. I chose this wizard because he was different from any other submission and something about him makes me think about my youth. I can’t quite make the connection but I like the photo and his sparkly pearl.

We have two newcomers this week. We are so glad you both are joining in and hope you will stick around. I must say I had several favorites this week and I really love both of their photos.

Stacie chose to photograph a bow on the front of her apartment. I love the composition of the picture and it is definitely sparkly. It’s also one of my favorite colors of the season. It’s not the traditional Christmas green but by far my favorite hue at Christmas time.

Janice said her husband was wrapping gifts one evening when she noticed the sparkly paper glistening under the tree. Again, I love the angle of the photo and how it shimmers.

Plus, I really need to find some of that paper ‘cause it’s so stinkin’ cute!

Renee’ gets the ‘makes me grin’ award because when I got her picture in my inbox, I kind of laughed out loud. Who knew there were sparkle paper towels? Great idea!

Butch took another picture of his Christmas tree this week. You may not think it sparkles much but when you enlarge this picture you will notice there is tinsel on it. This too makes me smile because I do not know one other person who still uses tinsel on their tree. In fact we struggle to find it year after year. I found on old box in my crawl space I’ll be passing on to him in a day or two so he can fill in his tree a little more.

Isn’t it funny how kids think of themselves in photos more often than any other subject? I was looking through some photos of the past year with Cassi and when we came upon this one, she claimed ‘this was the one’! No one can say she isn’t sparkly in this picture.

Cali wanted to enter this picture of herself in her Christmas dress. I found this dress on the day after Thanksgiving and fortunately she loved it. I happen to love this picture of her. She reminds me of Eloise at the Plaza or something like it.

Jenny submitted a jewelry box full of sparkles! Lovely!

Sheila staged a photo of Yoshi in her sparkling new year’s hat with her favorite sparkle bear.

Justin also submitted a photo of his dog in his sparkle bed.

Debbie said she is sneakin’ a little kinder-sparkle into the holidays. I LOVE this picture.

Joanne wasn’t sure her sparkly little lighted Christmas tree came through well in the picture. I love all of them actually and think the display is darling!

Jocelyn’s photo of the city lights is a great idea and if you look closer a really nice photo!

I am mentioning Sandy last- she sent her photo in weeks ago. Her Dad is ill and amazingly she thought ahead to send in three weeks of photos in case she didn’t get back in time to send them. Sandy, I hope your Dad is better and we all wish him well. Prayers go out to you and your family.

Her photo is of sparkly decorated motorbikes. One of the young ladies from her church goes on a ‘toy run’ with the Christian Biker Assc. the first Sunday in December. This photo was from a couple years ago when her husband went along. They decorate their bikes and take a toy for the children in Bernardos charity. There are usually about 2000 bikers. What a fabulous idea and a great way to spread the warmth of Christmas.

I hope you all are enjoying the Holiday-ish themes of late. Remember next week is Nativity, and then we have Church. After that we will move onto Celebration and then Critters. Have fun, be creative and we’ll see you in a few short days! J

All She Wants for Christmas is her Two Front Teeth

No really, I don't think she cares if they come in any time soon. She is happy to have lost them. Two in the last three days.

She lost the first one at school on Thursday, the 9th. I honestly can't believe it hung in there as long as it did. She was looking rather snaggly for quite some time. I really disliked it, however it stressed her for anyone to bother it so we let her be. I took her picture at the school lunch table and the second tooth is so tilted you can hardly tell she is missing one.

I hear it fell out completely on its own will. She picked it up, took it to the nurse and they gave her a great little treasure chest to pack it up in. (Honestly, I think she'd been praying it would fall out at school just to get that little chest!)

She wrote this great note to the tooth fairy. She let me take a picture of it before she put it under her pillow.
In case you can't read it, it says, Can you leave my tooth. Love Cali  There are also a lot of words. She is learning to read and spell so she writes words on EVERYTHING! I especially love the picture of the tooth!

The Tooth Fairy left a silver dollar to save and a one dollar bill to spend for her first tooth. She decided she was saving both! She carried her tooth and the silver dollar around school the entire next day and when she got home she said, "I proved you wrong Mom, I didn't lose either one!"

This morning she came to us crying that the second tooth was now a bit stuck in the sideways position. I gave her a wet towel and told her to work on it. A few minutes later she came to the kitchen to tell me it wasn't working and while she was talking the tooth hit the floor. It was slimy and she had a hard time picking it up. :)

She is putting it in the chest with the other and trying to figure out if she will get another silver dollar under her pillow tonight. :)  What do you think she'll get? I have a few guesses. :)

Here she is in her toothless glory. It took so long to lose them that the permanent ones are already poking through.

Traditions~

We finally decorated our tree last weekend.   WooHoo!

We love our tree. Although, I think we all agree that with our tall ceiling, we would like it to be larger.  We have decided we are going to watch those after-holidays sales and see if we can find a big one.  It won't be easy as we love the fiber-optic part of ours so...well, if you see one, let us know! :)

The one thing I didn't love while we were decorating, was losing Grandma's reindeer ornament. It wasn't actually lost as you can see, however for a short time, I thought it was. It really upset me and I found that I am quite attached to things of my past. Much more than items from my present.  This also applies to things that belonged to the girls when they were small too. I have most every toy they were ever given. (I figure I'm lining my self up to open a vintage toy shop someday!)

This ornament once belonged to me mother. In fact I can't even tell you how old it actually is, but I believe the story goes, that she bought it the year I was born for our first family Christmas tree. That makes it...well it's been around a while. Ha!

Anyway, I am not so deluded that I find these things more valuable than being together and the memories we are making when we are but I do love to hold and treasure the items from my past. They take me back to those times and remind me of my life, by touch.

Do you do this too? What do you have that is special to you?  This reindeer is one of my most treasured Christmas items. Some day I will share a few other favorites with you as well. I have many!

amongst friends #58

~Angels~

First let me ask, does it give you a warm feeling when you realize some things just happen at all the right times? It does me. It does my heart good!

Today is Kelly’s birthday. Happy Birthday Kidd! It’s funny that our ‘amongst friends’ week of Angels fell this when it did. I am sure I will never hear the end of it! J

Seriously though, Kelly is an Angel to me, the best-friend kind and I love her so! I hope it’s a beautiful day for you Kelly-Gayle, full of all the wonderfulness a girl should have!

As for the photo submissions this week; I expected lots of different views and we got them! I really did think there would be a few sentimental photos; maybe a few pretty ones and even one or two that were fun. The creativeness expressed here encompassed everything I thought of and so much more!

The three most sentimental photos took me aback. One is special to my own heart and even though I have no connection to the second one, the story is just as beautiful. And the third, well, it’s simple and clear.

Jerri found an old picture of her Dad. I heard the story something like this…the photo was taken in 1984, before he had become an angel. It’s possible he was testing his wings for the day in 1991, when he would watch over us all from Heaven. (This is Karen’s, Renee’s and Butch’s Dad too, and my Grandfather!)

Debbie says the swans are her angels, next in line after her kids! The year her Dad passed away, the swan came to visit her lake on his birthday. Then 5 years later, the year her mom died, the swan came to visit on her birthday. It seemed too coincidental to her! <3

By the way, this is Debbie’s first week here and we are glad you are joining in!

When I first got Scott’s photo I didn’t quite understand so I asked him to explain. When he did, I got it!  He says, “That is my heaven. I see it; I feel it when I am there, on the top of those mountains. If you can’t see it, then you won’t see the angels I see when I am there.”

There were several tree toppers and ornaments in our collage this week, all pretty cute in their own way.

Justin took his picture of his tree topper angel in his new apartment.

Rachel’s picture is her tree at home too!

Butch found the funniest angel ornament on his tree. It makes me giggle and is so like him to find something silly!

Karen didn’t tell me about her vintage little angel but she sure is sweet isn’t she?

Joanne took a picture in her angel themed bathroom.  All of those angels are quite beautiful there.

Kelly took a photo of an angel in her home that is out year ‘round.  She says, “My Aunt that passed away several years ago was very into Angels. This is one I inherited from her estate.”

Jenny has her own treasured collection of angels from her mom, who gave one to Jenny each year at Christmas, before she passed away. “The funnier the better”, says Jenny. This is one from the collection.

Cali approached the theme through a child’s eyes. She made the snow angel herself in the fresh Alaskan snow.

Cassi took a picture of a cookie we made the other day. They looked better than they tasted. I think we messed up the recipe but she sure nailed her photo! The cookies are called ‘angel wings’ and are also known as ‘Chrusciki’.

Sandy sent in a photo of a child at church. They were instructed to dress ‘Christmassy’ so she came dressed as an angel!  I think that child and Cali would be fast-friends!

My photo is an angel on the sun-visor in my car. A gift from my mom many years ago, meant to protect my family and me. It’s been in each car we have a time or two.

Sheila’s photo idea was pretty creative! I’m impressed. I thought I’d thought of most everything possible but I didn’t think of that!  Good timing for dessert.

Rayma says these dogs are her angels and I figure they must be because I can’t imagine any other way to get them all in one photo like that!

Jocelyn’s picture reminds us that we should remember the angels in need this holiday season too.  It’s the Salvation Army Angel tree in the lobby at her office.

Renee’ said she was looking all over for her angel picture then she stumbled upon this.

It’s a nice message for Angel week at amongst friends.

I just wanted to mention, if you’ve made it this far, that I really enjoy reading the stories behind the photos. Especially this week, when there were so many special stories to share. Also, I am thrilled that amongst friends continues to grow.  Invite your friends and let them know it’s fun, there is a lot of creativity here to share and see and they are always welcome.

Next week is Sparkle!

After that we have Nativity, Church, Celebration, then Critters.