Life is precious

Sorry I've not been around much, either to update my blog or to visit yours. I have been a very busy girl lately.

Most recently I've been taking care of the two precious little ones you see pictured above and the my cousin's three older children. Luke was the youngest until we inherited little Gabby. She's a border collie, full of love and full of fun. She adores little Luke, who is 5 1/2 and has Cerebral Palsy.

Some day things will calm down and I will be able to visit the blogs I love so much and maybe even post a few more photos, but until then I wish you all a splendid November. I love you all.

"How simple it is to see that all the worry in the world cannot control the future. How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now. And that there will never be a time when it is not now."
~ Gerald Jampolsky

Hugs,
Laurie

Bear with me...OK?

I'm going away on business for a couple of days and I couldn't bear to leave you without a post to read (or more accurately, some photos to see).

My friend has a cabin in the mountains of Montana. He was there this weekend and took this photo from his living room window.

A few minutes later he took this series of photos out the window of his back door.

"You lookin' at me?"

"I'm nuts about this stuff..."

"I'll be bachhhh..."

My friend saw this relatively small bear several more times during the weekend and also encountered a much larger cinnamon colored bear. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get a photo of it.

And there you have it, dear friends, my bearly tolerable post for the day. Tomorrow, early morning, I leave for a tour of the beautiful Yellowstone River and then I'm going to my dad's to spend the long weekend.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, filled with friends, family and fun. Remember to hug the ones you love and be kind to one another.

It just doesn't get any better than this...

I just arrived home from Deadwood and I have to say that it was one of the best times I've had in so long I can't remember.

Some of my best friends in the world were there (Virginia and Denton, Ken and Cindy, Augie and Patsy, and Alvin and Rosie) and we enjoyed every minute of the stay.

My friend Cindy, from Billings, shown here modeling her Diva sunglasses and flashing us the peace sign. Virg and I also bought Diva sunglasses to go with the Diva purses that Virg bought for us all. My purse is blue, Virg's is white and Cindy's is pink. They are covered in rhinestones. We decided that we all looked "precious". I'm not so sure the men-folk agreed.

Denton, Ron and Virg (modeling her Diva sunglasses).

One of the most interesting stops was at Boondocks, which is a little mini-town that caters to the tourists that frequent the Deadwood area.

We had such a blast! In Deadwood I bought souvenirs for my family and even some clothes that fit my newly and nearly slimmed down body (I've lost a little over 100 pounds since August of last year).

On our trip we saw all kinds of cool cars and while I would have loved to take photos of each and every one of them, I ended up not taking many pictures at all. Once again I decided to live in the moment, rather than take photos of it.

I did manage to photograph our friend's cars.

This is Cindy and Ken's 1969 Camaro SS convertible.


Rosie and Alvin, riding in their friend's Amphicar


Our dear friend Denton's 1948 Ford Coupe. This car goes from a dead stop to blowing your socks off in about 3 seconds. What a ride!

Probably the highlight of the 4 day weekend was seeing the excitement on my dearest friend Virginia's face when her husband presented her with her sweet new ride.


Can you say gorgeous (the car and my friends Virg and Cindy)?

I am so loved...

I am the luckiest person on earth. I truly mean that. I have wonderful friends who love and support me. They love me for who I am, not what they think I should be. They love me unconditionally and there is nothing more wonderful than that, in my opinion. How did I get so lucky?

Bobbi, my dear friend and co-worker, who despite being several decades younger than me, treats me like a sister. She's kind and loving and one h*ll of a good friend. (She's single, just for the record...oh wait, never mind...so not a good idea there, forget I said anything--she'd kick my bum for even suggesting it)



Danae, Christine and Michelle are a mix of co-workers and friends and always there when I need them to help out. Here they are working at our fair booth last year. (Please don't club me to death, Danae)


And there's Larry, this is what we did to him last year when he went on vacation. ---->

Carol and Kelly are also dear friends of mine. Aren't they beautiful?

Then there's Ron, my dear friend and roommate. He's got a heart of gold and the man can even cook!

There are several other people I consider my dear friends, bloggers included, and then of course there are family members who I consider my closest of close friends, but this list will have to suffice for today. Blogger is giving me fits with the formatting and I want to get out and enjoy the day.

Thank you, dear friends, I'd be totally lost without you.

Community

UPDATE: Squirl talked to Nick and will be posting some information on his blogsite for him. He is doing alright, although things aren't going particularly well. Please keep him in your prayers!

I’m in a melancholy mood tonight. One of my favorite bloggers hasn’t posted on either of his blogs since Sunday. I’m worried about him. He had a case of the flu from hell and he posted every day to let us know how he was feeling. His mom was in the hospital and he posted religiously to let his faithful readers know her condition. I think if the Martians invaded the earth, he would manage to post from under his bed, telling us how to avoid their death rays. I can’t remember more than 2 days going by without a post from Nick. He’s that kind of faithful. And he’s not just a faithful blogger. He’s a man of faith. I have the utmost respect and admiration for him.

In the last several months, he’s had more than his share of trials and tribulations. His health isn’t good and he’s had other difficulties. Through it all, his posts have been inspirational and uplifting. He’s a wonderful human being, who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it.

Nick’s absence has led me to do some deep thinking. I know how hard that is for you to believe. I’m usually all about my cats or telling some silly story about dating my peripherals, but really, it has.

When I started blogging, it was to keep my family updated on my latest antics and show them the photos I’d taken. Then some of you commented and I realized that someone other than my family was reading the silly stuff I wrote, so I started reading your blogs. It was like being invited into your lives. Granted, it was just the part of your lives that you wanted me to see, but to a certain extent it was like being a guest in your home. Living in a rural area lends itself to a certain amount of isolation and loneliness and blogging helped to lessen that. I came to look forward to reading your blogs more and more. Now I spend at least a half an hour a night or more, visiting the friends in my new-found community.

So you see, I’ve found myself caring about people I’ve never met in real life. It’s been brought to my attention that I probably care more than I should, but I’m that kind of person. When I care, I open myself up, completely. In the past, it hasn’t always proven itself to be a good thing, but in this case, so far, it has.

So what happens when someone in the blog community disappears? I’ve known people who’ve given it up and closed down their blogs, but in my experience, they’ve made an announcement or proclamation of some sort before doing so. But I’ve never seen anyone vanish, especially not someone that I care about and feel that I know so well. I worry that he’s sick and can’t communicate that to those of us who care about him. I worry that his mom is failing, or worse. I worry. I do that well.

The friendship and companionship I have found within the blogging community has been a godsend to me. But this new development worries me, greatly. If I knew Nick in real life, I would know what was going on right now. I’d be with him through his time of trouble or driving him to see his mother in the hospital. I’d be taking care of Alex, the cat that owns him, while he took care of his obligations to his mother or to himself.

But here I sit, unable to do anything. I’m a “fixer” and I don’t know how to fix this.

Nick’s sudden departure from the blog world has shaken me up. I know his email address and his physical address and I’ve managed to track down his home phone number. I don’t want him to think I’m a stalker, so I haven’t called it, yet. Yet is the operative word. If I don’t hear something from him tomorrow, I’m going to call.

Does that make me crazy? I don’t know. It just seems like the right thing to do.