Desert Botanical Garden

The Desert Botanical Garden is located smack dab in the middle of Phoenix

and from the moment you enter you are captivated by the beauty, serenity and sounds that follow you as you make your way along the many winding trails.
It's almost overwhelming at times.

This time I experienced the Garden with my friend Anna

and together we spoke quiet words of encouragement and spiritual truths while capturing images that caught our eye. Anna would point out various birds singing, delightful sounds that I had never noticed before. I am forever awaken to those sounds. Thank you Anna.

We were also blessed with an overcast day. Perfect for photographers. I took 720 photos :)

I also experienced the Butterfly Exhibit for the first time. What a thrill! I even had two butterflies land on my shoulder and were perfectly content to sit there for what seemed an unusually long time. We would see them land on hats and jeans and camera straps, but never actual skin... so you can imagine my surprise!

I was like a little kid. Think about it ~ thousands of beautiful butterflies in this peacefully contained, environmentally controlled structure. True paradise.

Hope you enjoy viewing these intricate creatures. I don't have a fancy zoom lens, other than what came with my camera, so I was delighted they let me get this close and sat so still. They're not camera shy, that's for sure. ha!

I had hoped to post these by Mother's Day, so my dear Mother-in-law could enjoy them. She loves butterflies. God has used them over the years to comfort her during many painful losses. I will always think of her when I see a butterfly. 

I will be posting more Garden images tomorrow. Oh, and the twins were dedicated at church on Mother's Day. What a special morning. Planning to post those photos this week too!

Groopdealz necklace

How many of you wake up every morning to Groopdealz and VeryJane?

Oh my gosh, two of my favorite guilty pleasures. I've only ordered a few of their amazing deals, but I thoroughly enjoy viewing them every morning.

On February 5th Groopdealz featured this necklace ~ made by Your Spoiled Baby. I could hardly contain my excitement because that is what Emolyn says to her Mama & Daddy ~ "I love you to the moon & back". But there was a 25 space limit. And I'm thinking no way will all their names fit. Well that was the exact number of spaces I needed! Yes!

So before I showed Emolyn, to ask if she'd like to give this to her Mama when the twins were born, I asked her Daddy how sure they were that the boys would be named Nathan & Jonah. He said "pretty sure, but you never know". Well, that was good enough for me. Seriously, I got this beautiful necklace for $10.00! (retails $20.00) Love their awesome dealz!

Well get this ~ Emolyn kept the surprise a secret all this time! 

She was so excited when she could finally give it to her Mama! She made her a beautiful card and wrapped it in lots of purple and gave it to her last week. And as you can see, her Mama was so surprised! Emolyn is truly a treasure ~ and the best big sister!

a mantel & mason jars

My Scandinavian-inspired mantle makeover really got my creative juices flowing ~

in that I could hardly wait to do another. And what do you suppose was my inspiration this time? The huge metal letter "L" that I found at a yard sale for $2.00. I already had the copper "R", the metal mesh "&" and the iron "L"... but the large "L" enabled me to layer and stack.

(Oops, poor Mrs. McGillicutty is still sporting her Scandinavian wool sweater. She will surely need a spring makeover today... and I know just the dress.)

RANDY & LINDA

I also wanted to incorporate the vintage red level that I found in Wausau last October at a yard sale for $5.00. I adore levels, but to have Milwaukee, Wis. on it made it extra special. But get this, when I got to the Wausau airport, they had to get special clearance for me to take it on board as a carry-on. Yes, it's considered a "tool", so technically it should have gone in checked baggage. Seriously, this wooden level is of no threat to the crew. Some of the spiky/ platform shoes I see women wear could do more damage than this. ha!

I've had this old, vintage green tool box for years and just now realized that my smaller Mason jars fit inside perfectly... along with my vintage chalk boards, chalk and chalkboard eraser. Oh and two popper guns and my "Jesus Calling" book. I know, a rather strange combination.

Anyway, that got me thinking about the time we took those popper guns up north in our Cozy Cottage on Wheels and Emolyn had the best time popping them at our camp site on the Rim. You can see for yourself ~ HERE.

I'm linking up to my favorite link parties ~

SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY

May Day

Happy May Day!

What a perfect day to introduce you to my Hollyhocks!

They were late bloomers this year ~ but well worth the wait!

Hollyhocks grow so well in our neck-of-the-woods. Ok, so it's the desert... but who knew.

Speaking of the desert, I am itching for a roadtrip. Nothing calms me more than sitting in the van next to my favorite guy, and watching the scenery dramatically change as we make our way up north. I also get a better perspective on what I've left behind. It's like... taking myself out of my circumstances allows me to clearly see what God is doing... without all the distractions, without the burdens and the sin that so easily entangle us... that rob us of running with endurance the race set before us. (Hebrews 12)

And then I come home energized and focused... and peaceful. 

John Deere tractors

I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin ~ and my Dad drove John Deere tractors.
I guess it's true ~ 'Nothing runs like a Deere'.

So when the preschool I work at took a field trip to Tolmachoff Farms in West Phoenix,

I was tickled to see Shawn & Emolyn having so much fun on the old John Deere tractor.

Emolyn was so absorbed in pretending to drive this tractor, she was oblivious to my picture-taking... or trust me, she would have kindly asked me to stop taking so many pictures.

You can see the progression of John Deere tractors on the family farm in Wisconsin, in the YouTube video my husband & I made as a tribute to my Dad ~

So God Made a Farmer ~ A Wisconsin Farmer's Tribute

Emolyn's wedding

So... how does one follow up the birth of twins? Well, a wedding of course.

Yes, we had ourselves a wedding this week. Our 4 year old granddaughter Emolyn got married.
Hey, how else do you celebrate the birth of your twin baby brothers? Exactly! With a backyard wedding!

Actually, here's how it all came down ~ you know that yard sale we were suppose to have last Saturday? Well  my beautiful grandsons arrived instead... so we didn't have to endure 100+ temps, but rescheduled for this Saturday with much lower temps.

So this week I spent some time going through some of the boxes Miranda had dropped off for the yard sale, and found the bouquet that she caught at her cousins wedding a few years back. I knew that Emolyn would go wild over this white & purple beaded bouquet. And she did. She immediately wanted to get married. Well I was thrilled, because about a month ago I found the perfect flowergirl/ wedding dress for her at Goodwill for $5.00. But every time I would mention her trying it on, she would very politely reply "thank you for the dress Mimi, but not yet". But this time she was so excited to put it on, and then very politely told me she did not like the big puffy sleeves. So I cut them off and we had ourselves a wedding dress.

Oh my gosh, she was stunning!

Emolyn told me that I could cry at the wedding, 

because Mama's and Mimi's and Grandma's cry at weddings. So I did.

Emolyn also told me she wanted real food at the reception, 

along with the PlayDoh food that we had prepared. 

The reception was so fun! She danced and twirled and danced and swirled. And then she threw the bouquet and I caught it like a dozen times. And then I threw the bouquet and then she like took forever before she caught it. She's such a good sport.

Oh, and for those of you that are wondering, the groom was there. But as we all know, the wedding is all about the bride. Her "husband" is "Mike". He works at the Apple Store. And he was late getting to the wedding. But he finally made it. It's good thing he's a figment of our imagination... or else he'd have gotten an ear full from me. ha!

I can not believe how blessed I am to have such wonderful kids, a daughter-in-law, and now these precious grandchildren in my life. Wow.

Thank you, thank you Lord!

The twins birth story

Wouldn't you know, I'd plan a yard sale and the temps would soar to 100+. Needless to say, I was dragging my feet ~ but managed to do a tad bit sorting and paint a few sale signs on Friday. But when Shawn called late Friday afternoon saying Nicole was having contractions, everything came to a halt. They were going to the hospital to get her checked out. But when I hadn't heard from them by the next morning, I got up at 5:30 to get started on the yard sale. I had no more than got dressed when Shawn called telling us that Nicole's c-section was scheduled for 7am! I immediately jumped in the shower, Randy called Miranda, woke up Tyler and we were on the road in a half hour. We drove the 40 minutes to Thunderbird Banner and got there just in time to pray with everyone before Nicole was wheeled into surgery. Thank God Shawn called when he did, or an hour later we would have had everything set out and our driveway filled with customers. Whew!

Shortly after the twins were delivered at 7:18am ~ Shawn delivered the good news ~ along with the goods! ha! And this was our first glimpse at Jonah & Nathan. I can't tell you how ecstatic we were! Look at them! They are perfect and healthy and BIG!

Jonah was 5# 11oz. ~ Nathan was 4# 14oz.

And this was my first close-up of their sweet little faces and perfectly pink bodies. Oh my!

Jonah, on the left, is almost a pound bigger than Nathan, so it's been easy to tell them apart... so far. Yes, they're identical. So once Nathan catches up, it's going to be rather confusing. ha!

Every single birth is a miracle, but everything about these babies is pretty miraculous! 

Do you remember me sharing about how we found out about the twins, in the blog post about events that you vividly remember "where were you when you heard...". Here's their story ~

My twin grand-babies (2011) ~ how could I forget the day I heard that my son and daughter-in-law were expecting TWINS! Randy & I were at a Marriage Retreat up north and we had decided not to go out to dinner with the rest of the teaching team. We were at a new location and wanted to be on hand in case any of the couples arrived early. I will never forget, we were sitting out on this gorgeous deck overlooking this breathtaking scenery, when Randy's cell phone goes off. Mind you, in all the years of Marriage Retreats, this was going to be the first retreat that we would have cell phone coverage and would need to remind the couples that cell phones were off limit. So needless to say, I was a little startled to hear Randy's phone go off. He answered and immediately handed me the phone. It was Shawn, and he said Nicole had something to tell me... and she says ~
"We have something to tell you... we're pregnant... and we got pregnant with an IUD... and it will need to be surgically removed... and when I had an ultrasound to determine the location of the IUD, they saw that it was twins."
Oh my gosh! I could barely comprehend what I had just heard. I mean, that's a lot to hear! But I found myself saying out loud "This is totally a God thing! These babies are undeniably gifts from God!" And I was instantly flooded with peace and a whole lot of tears.

And now they're here! Our precious gifts from God are here and we're so grateful!

The next day on Sunday, April 22nd, we went back to the hospital with the yellow blanket.

The very yellow blanket that my husband Randy was swaddled in 58 years ago...

... and that our son Shawn was swaddled in almost 30 years ago.

You're looking at three generations that were wrapped in the yellow blanket.

Makes me cry every time I look at this.

That's me ~ Jonah & Nathan's overjoyed Mimi ~ and the yellow blanket heirloom.

I also blogged about the yellow blanket when each of our three kids, and then Emolyn & Elsie, came home from the hospital wrapped in the yellow blanket.

You can click HERE and HERE for those stories.

And for those of you on facebook ~ you can click HERE for more photos of the twins birth day.

And my yard sale is now this Saturday ~ with temps in the low 80's. Yes!