WHY must all good things come to an end?!

I woke up Wednesday morning knowing that this was the last full day of being with Ruthanne and enjoying time with her. Even though we haven't lived nearby each other in almost 40 years, we are a lot alike! Both of us are awed and blessed by the marvelous creations of God. We had a great time visiting new places Wednesday.
We drove over to see Point Betsie Lighthouse. I'm so glad we did! This was my favorite light of the trip. I couldn't take a bad picture of it!
The lighthouse is only open for public tours on the weekends ... the gate was locked! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get close enough to get the angles I wanted for my photographs ... but I needn't have worried ...
It was a bit overcast Wednesday, but I like the mood it gives to these pictures ... a bit desolate and forlorn ...
" ... you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the LORD." Ephesians 5:8 NIV
I love the stonework on the front porch of the lighthouse ... isn't it beautiful?

We spent about an hour at Point Betsie. I loved every single minute of it ~ except Ruthanne had accidently left her camera back at the hotel, so I was sad that she wasn't able to take pictures here at this lovely spot.

From here, we drove up to Glen Haven and ended up at Glen Arbor to eat lunch and to do some shopping. I just have to show you the gorgeous flowers that were EVERYWHERE in Glen Arbor!

We drove for awhile back through the Sleeping Bear Dunes trying to find Pyramid Point ~ but it seems that there are no roads there ... only hiking trails ... very very steep ones! So we declined that and decided to find a beach instead!

We ended up back at Glen Arbor and just enjoyed some quiet time down by the water. It wasn't the best beach, however ... a little bit too stony.

Glen Arbor is a magnificently beautiful little town! There are a few bed and breakfasts that were so beautiful, they almost took our breath away!

Wouldn't you love to stay at a beautiful place like this? I know. It would probably cost an arm and a leg! But it's fun to look and dream ...

We drove back to Traverse City to enjoy the evening there. We walked down to the Bay and watched the boats for a little while ...

"LORD, you have brought light to my life; my God, you light up my darkness!" PSALM 18:28 NLT

After dark, we went back to the hotel and watched the Oympics for awhile. We played a few rounds of Quiddler, a short word game (cards) ~ neither of us had ever played before, so we learned to play it together. What a fun little game!

Since we hadn't really shopped very much in Traverse City, we decided to do that Thursday morning on our way out of town. What a great place to shop!

We ate lunch at a little green restaurant downtown that I can't for the life of me remember the name of! And then we shopped some more and then said good-bye to beautiful Lake Michigan. We were home in Grand Rapids by 4:00 and together with Mr. Jones, met mom and Roy for dinner. Whew! I'm exhausted from all of this vacationing! I'm very sorry to see it end. Sister time is wonderful and a bit of an adventure every time! Thanks, Ruthanne, for all of the great fellowship and the encouragement you are to me.

I wonder where we will go next year!?

Twenty-nine looks good on her!

She is a natural leader ... strong ... a visionary kind of a person. If there is a job to do, you can count on her to get it done. She is resourceful and responsible. You can rely on her. She can assemble a playscape in her backyard, without instructions! She is very smart.
She is a bubbly kind of person ... FUN ... full of sunshine and joy, kindness too. She is very giving and generous with her time and resources. I love to hear her laugh.
She creates cards and scrapbooks ... takes amazing photographs and makes tiny memory books for folk. We can share a sunset together and get the same kind of thrill. She is a loving, caring and thoughtful young woman. She is my daughter and she is my friend ... she is beautiful!

WITH LOVE FOR YOU ON YOUR 29TH BIRTHDAY, SABRINA!

Traverse City here we come!

It's time for our 5th annual sister's retreat and Ruthanne is on her way from Detroit to pick me up! We are driving up to Traverse City for several days of relaxation, sister-talk, lighthouse photographs, getting lost on our way to places, beaches, sand dunes etc. I've looked forward to this all summer long! The first year we went north to Frankfort, then two years in a row to Charlevoix (it's SO beautiful there!), and then last year to Manistee ... and now Traverse!

There are three lighthouses in the area that we hope to see, none of which I have ever photographed. I'm so excited! I will then have pictures of 15 Michigan lighthouses! The weather is forecasted to be practically perfect. I'll post pictures when we return. Talk to you later ...

Oops ... OUCH!

This is our Thomas cat. He is in big fat trouble here at the Jones Junction. Hard to believe (!) when you look at this sweet picture for which he so nicely posed so that I could make a card for Shane's birthday a few days ago. Thomas usually isn't any problem at all, especially during the summer months ~ we hardly see him! He doesn't require much of any of us, other than his cream first thing in the morning and right around dinner time. He doesn't even soil his litterbox since he is outside most of the time!

Having said all of that good stuff about Thomas, he does have his faults. Would you like to hear what happened that has put Thomas K in the dog house? First of all, Tommy doesn't usually attack folk unless his tail has been stepped on ~ or ~ you play a bit too rough with him ~ or ~ he sees an enemy cat; or worse, a dog close by! While I was in the office coincidently proofreading my typing of a paper entitled, "The Feline Basic Type" (for a biologist friend of ours), it seems that our unfortunate Mr. Jones innocently answered the doorbell early this afternoon to find a young gentleman and a very large black dog (oops!) on our front porch inquiring as to our wireless internet access. Thomas K was inside the house and smelled dog (evidently) and leaped upon Mr. Jones's lower leg, leaving very unsightly, as well as painful, claw marks ~ too numerous to count (OUCH!). I was summoned to the front hallway too late to do anybody any good at all, got rid of the fellow on the porch and gave up trying to settle Tommy down (he was making quite an unearthly sound deep in his throat). When the dog was a safe distance away, I opened the door and pitched Tommy out! I wish I could make Sir Thomas understand that despite his regal name, his residency at our home is at best precarious (given his reputation in the neighborhood and his ungentlemanly behavior to many family members), but he doesn't seem to understand people-talk very well. And you should see him when he encounters the little dog next door, Sophie ~ she runs for her very life!

Poor Mr. Jones has applied soap, some awful-smelling antiseptic cream and other disinfectants to his mauled leg with threats that if "that mangy cat" ever behaves in such a manner again ... OUT WITH HIM! Are you listening, Tommy?!

P.S. If you leave kind condolences regarding Mr. Jones's wounds, it might help sooth his rather ruffled demeanor ... I don't think Tommy has any intention of making an elaborate apology.

What's been growing around here ...

I love the month of August, don't you? It's so green and lush and wonderfully SUMMER, isn't it? Except that it is the last month of summer, and I don't want it to end! We neglected our yard pitifully while the grandchildren were in town, so I've started weeding one flower bed per day to try to bring order back into chaos around here.

These are the firstfruits of Grandpa Jones's tomato plants. He picked and ate a couple of these ripe ones two days ago. We have six tomato plants, but not all are doing this well. It's been a really dry summer in West Michigan and we've been a bit stingy with our watering!
These are some of the wildflowers that are finally blooming in the backyard by the south fence. I planted these from seed about 10 weeks ago, hoping they would be as beautiful as the ones from the Tetons that I planted all those summers ago ... I've been a bit let down by these. And the black-eyed Susans I planted are barely blooming yet! Cookie says I can transplant some of his in my yard next year. He has a wonderful green thumb and there are wildflowers like crazy growing all throughout their back yard.
These are Mr. Jones's zinnias that he planted from seed at the same time I planted my wildflowers. Aren't they beautiful?
I just love to walk to the side of our garage and admire God's handiwork ... such an array of color!
And these are the cone flowers that our friend, Judy, gave us to transplant in our front flowerbed. She said they were a nice sturdy flower that a person could not possibly kill, so I knew they would be safe from me! And they have really thrived ~ there is a ton of them in between our tall beach grasses ... and they are huge! I get so much joy from just messing around outside in our yard and wanted to share some of this beauty with you today.

Celebrating #61 with Mr. Jones!

Tomorrow (Sunday) is Mr. Jones' birthday. I've been a Jones now for 11+ years and I still don't know how to do the proper English possession of the name Jones. Is it Jones' or is it Joneses? I think it's the apostrophe because the "eses" should mean there is more than one Jones ... and let me tell you, there is only ONE Mr. Jones! Anyway, last night we were invited to ride the White Creek Railroad out in Cedar Springs ...
Look how happy Mr. Jones is to be on this train! Here is a close-up of that huge smile of his!
White Creek Railroad (established in 1994) is a 1:8 scale railroad on almost 120 acres of private property which includes a very nicely-kept trailer park ...
This was our train (the rear of it) ...

I've been trying to upload a nice map of the entire railroad that they have on their website, but I've been unsuccessful. If you go to www.whitecreekrr.com you can see it for yourself.
This was the engine that pulled our train ...
This very elaborate railroad winds in and out of the most beautiful places ...
alongside wide-open fields ...
... through deep and dense woods ...

... over rivers, swamps and bogs ...
... completely surrounds two small lakes (Reed Lake and Mirror Lake) ...
There are a couple of tunnels, very close and dark ~ this one was just a short one, but there was one that I got a little edgy inside of ...
I would have loved to have brought the grandchildren to ride a train out here, but it is by invitation only. I asked Mr. Jones about this before the children arrived and he told me it just wasn't allowed! Train club folk get special invites, and this weekend was one of those times when many people from train clubs were out here camping and riding the rails. It's not a short ride ~ ours was close to an hour ~ and there are no seat belts! You sit on wooden crates and hope you don't fall off on the curves!
This is inside the engine and car garage. The owner has about a dozen engines, all diesel. Other train folk come and bring their own steam engines and other cars to run on this railroad.

We met up with Mr. Jones' friend, Thom and wife (Barb) and two of their grandsons (ages 10 and 11). Other than those two boys, I was practically the next youngest person there! We all went out to dinner at Kelly's Family Restaurant in Cedar Springs after our train ride, ate way too much food, and enjoyed ourselves very much.

Tomorrow after church, my mom and Roy are taking Mr. Jones (and me!) out to eat at The Red Lobster ~ I wonder WHO decided we would eat at MY favorite restaurant?! :)

Happy birthday, dear Mr. Jones ... may your year be filled with multitudes of blessings and joy!

I see them everywhere ...

I put their straw cups and name mugs away
as I emptied the dishwasher this morning
On the countertop, there is Kool-aid and unopened drink boxes

In the family room,
I hear the train clock announcing the next arrival
but no one is listening
We’ve pushed the train table back against the wall
Thomas, Percy, Molly, Donald and Harold have been quiet all day.
The toys and books on the shelf have not been straightened …

I sliced up watermelon for dinner last night
they like theirs cut up in little chunks, no seeds please
lots of strawberries and especially purple grapes
remnants of pop tarts remain underneath the dining room table
and crayons, markers and colored pages still adorn the high chair ...

I listened again to our lullaby CD
such tender songs, so soft and precious
as I got the tumbled-up blankets in the spare room ready for laundry ...

Outside, I did some weeding this morning
right next to Emma’s unfinished giant turtle drawing
and the sidewalk chalk
my tools are near the children’s rakes inside the garage
tire tracks of toy trucks are in the driveway sand
an empty bottle of bubbles is outside on the back deck

Our step stool and potty seat are still in the corner of the bathroom
but no Matthew to stand or sit upon …
and three extra toothbrushes are in the holder by the sink
towels, still disheveled hang, but no little hands will use them today.

Three pair of flip flops, all in a row
on the rug in the front hallway
forgotten in all the packing …
I’ll mail them with Emma’s birthday box next week.
Perhaps in a few days the color will return to life
but for now, my heart is rather sad and a little bit bleak.

Kind Father, watch over my little ones
give them hearts to know You
as their Shepherd and Savior, Lord over everything they are
and comfort me today ...