The View from Here

Birthday Girl

Here is our birthday girl on her third birthday. If the cake looks strange to some of you, it's because it says "Tina". We called her that until she had a fit one day and told us she didn't like it! LOL She's been Katrina ever since. Maybe she just figured if her older sister didn't have a nickname, she didn't need one either. If you want to see what she looks like now you can link her blog.

Happy New Year!

The month is off to a great start. I'm back in school. The Iowa caucus is over. And tomorrow is my youngest daughter's birthday. I don't know why I had two winter children so close to Christmas- I'm usually late with gifts, and have to remember not to put them in red or green wrapping paper! I won't tell you how old my daughter will be, but all of my children are getting old enough to make me seem old. And you know I'm not...really. (Okay, twist my arm...she's 37!)

Beginning Monday we will celebrate the birthdays of my sister-in-law, my father, and another sister-in-law. In fact, for the first three months of the year I have marked my calendar with the birthdays of ten close family members and three dear friends. Better get those cards ready now! LOL

My father will be 78 next Tuesday. He never seems that old to me. He's always going somewhere, doing something, visiting with someone. He still loves to garden and fish. And I guess as I get older his age doesn't seem that far away! His mother and grandmother were both active women, so maybe I inherited some of their genes. He would say it's not genes- it's orneriness!

I hope everyone has a wonderful birthday! Just living to celebrate another one should make us all happy. (Remind me of that next month when I turn 58!)

Proof Positive

We just finished scanning over 1000 slides and it has been a reminder that my life has changed tremendously over the years. I used to be much more of an "outdoor" person. I guess I still am if you count gardening. After all, it is outdoors. However, Gary and I spent much of our first decade together walking, hiking, and driving all over the countryside. He even did some rock climbing and we explored a few caves. But mostly we just hiked and took photographs. Here is proof positive that I used to get out of the house: (If you click on the first photo it will enlarge and show you that I'm at 10,500 feet.)