Mom's turn: Young Eagles Association

TOTALLY cool – Teeny got to fly a plane courtesy of YEA!!! What a glorious day it was for flying, too!!! The sky was crystal clear and the temperature was a crisp 68 degrees. She flew in a Cessna with Mr. Will and got to see Baton Rouge from up high during a 20 minute flight. On the return flight to the runway Mr. Will let her take the controls…WOW! She was amazed that the slightest shift of the control stick had a big affect on the plane’s movement. She landed and came out of the plane grinning like the Cheshire cat! We asked if she wanted to take lessons now, but she said not yet.

Waiting her turn

Introduction to the plane and pilot

are you ready????

THAT WAS AWESOME MOM!!!!!!!!!!

Ikebana

Recently my mom bought an ikebana vase in Colorado. I decided to surprise her one day and make an arrangement, and it was fun!

Ikebana is a flower arrangement that the Japanese do, and take very seriously. They even have ceremonies over it.

Here are some arrangements I have done. In the last one I used the shampoo ginger I previously wrote about.

Mom's turn: Back in the Saddle Again

Christina was excited to be riding again…all girls seem to love horses! She has returned to Mrs. Marjorie, where she previously took lessons before we moved out of state two years ago. There, she rides American Saddlebred horses focusing on the Saddle seat style of riding – favoring the three-gaited horse showing in walk, trot, and canter. Here she is on Charlie – a new addition to the barn since we were here last.

Mom's turn: My boys

Caught all three of my "boys" soaking in the sun...too precious! Definitely one of those "awe" moments in my life - to realize the amount of happiness on one couch! How blessed am I!!!

Mom's turn: Scrap-mania

WELL - I was finally able to get in my new scrapping room and utilize it! How exciting - so here are a couple of the results. The "Easter" layout took hours...although somehow the effort does not come across in the picture. But it was worth it! I even got to use my beloved Cricut that's been collecting dust...
The second is the beginning of a Christmas idea...can't share the whole thing or it might spoil the surprise for a few ;-)

Thanks to my many gifted friends for sharing ideas and helping me out of a slump :-D

Mom's turn: This little piggy...

Okay - well I'm still on the mend and recovery has not been nearly as fast as I had hoped for. It's been almost five weeks and I'm still a bit gimpy and unable to run or bike. There is a fair amount of bruising left and quite a bit of tenderness both on top and bottom - which was surprising to me considering how well I've behaved...well almost :-DAs my girlfriend said "OH NO YOU DIDN"T!" Oh yes I did *grin* Somehow the gimpy walk took away all the "sexy" that the shoes might have brought to the outfit! HAHA And then I came down with severe food poisoning as a direct result of my night out...serves me right I guess! I wasn't able to get on my feet for another 4 days afterwards!!!! ARGH!

Shampoo Ginger

Does shampoo ginger work as well as factory shampoo?? This was my science project -

The shampoo ginger is a wild plant originating from India that grows a slimy shampoo substance. It starts off as a green pod producing small white flowers, almost like a pineapple. As it grows it gets taller and starts to turn red. The juice inside thickens up a little but not much.

The viscosity of the shampoo ginger when the pod was green was like water. When we squeezed it we got about ¼ of a cup. The juice did not smell strong. Then we squeezed the pod when it was red. The viscosity during this time was more like honey water. We also got more. About a 1 cup.
I found out many things from experimenting with the shampoo ginger. One is that they make real shampoo for a reason! The shampoo ginger smells nice, but it was not strong enough for my hair. When you use the shampoo ginger it doesn’t lather or anything; it is just silky. To get the shampoo you have to squeeze the pods until all the juice comes out. You end up getting about a half of cup and the pod is withered afterward.

Based on everything I have done I have concluded that factory shampoo is over all better. The factory shampoo cuts threw natural grease a lot better and makes your hair shinier. Shampoo Ginger works well for making an ikebana arrangement instead.

For more information, check out LSU's Ag site for a short video.

My pastime. My passion!

Arts & crafts have been one of my favorite hobbies for a while now! My first professional art lessons were given to me for my 11th birthday with Mr. Larry Casso at BRFA. I draw all kinds of stuff, but my favorite type of drawing is Manga. Out of all of the art mediums I’ve tried, acrylic, pastel, water color, and sketching, sketching is by far my favorite.

My dream horse!

Magnolia - our state flower

"I DO believe in Fairies...I DO!"

My dog, Samson...yes, he really smiles.

Spider lilly

Mom's turn:Baby it's cold outside!

We had our first cold spell last week…it got all the way down to 44 degrees! BRRRR!! Okay, by Southern standards, that’s cold! It was good enough to light the fire

Don't let the gas fool you - it's still very toasty!

and drink a cup of hot tea…my favorite, African Orange Mango.

An awesome Rooibos tea (red)

My husband says I only like it because it has an African elephant on the front – this is not true…okay, it may have helped persuade me to buy it initially, but it really is delicious! Of course it being in a Swedish mug

Swedish Dala horse

and me in my brand new Santa Baby flannel pajamas, with matching footies of course,while drinking it made the night perfect. Samson was not convinced it was snuggle time…he still wanted to play!