Only in October ...

I love autumn ... once I'm convinced that summer is really over. Driving home from Minneapolis all day Monday, we had the prettiest drive ever I think. Saturday, we had awakened to SNOW on the ground that thankfully disappeared by noon. Snow will pretty much shake all thoughts of summer out of me! And the first few hours of our drive home to Michigan Monday morning was a drive through snow showers. But then the sky cleared and we had such a beautiful drive all the way to Michigan. I've been re-reading some of L.M. Montgomery's books and she describes it this way:

"October that year gathered up all the spilled sunshine of the summer and clad herself in it as a garment ... you may never know what scarlet and crimson really are until you see them in their perfection on an October hillside, under the unfathomable blue of an autumn sky. All the glow and radiance and joy at earth's heart seem to have broken loose in a splendid determination to express itself for once before the frost of winter chills her beating pulses."

(The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery) I wish I could write like that, because I wouldn't need my camera so much if I could paint such beautiful pictures with words.
Since none of my pictures on the road turned out, once we were home I took a walk through the woods close by our house and snapped a few pictures along the way.

We had an unusually cold summer ... and I think that's why the autumn colors are so vivid and amazing this year.

I love to wear these colors, don't you?

I can't even pick a favorite!

And I love to shop at outside markets and just drink in the joy of the harvest, don't you?

I bought the sweetest of sweet corn right here the other day and Mr. Jones and I have enjoyed roasting it in the oven like Aunt Kathie did when we were in Ohio ... delicious!

" ... it is the LORD God that gives you bountiful harvests
and blesses all your work." DEUT. 16:15

I am really thankful today that my computer survived being infected by no less than 106 viruses! How this can happen when I have anti-virus software on my computer is beyond me. Mr. Jones ran scans on it all morning and did his magic ... and I am now able to use my faithful old computer! Happiness! I'm going to get started on some cards that need designing. Have a happy October day!

A computer lament ...

Well, I've done it this time ... I guess I have broken my computer ... somehow. I don't know HOW it happened, but early yesterday when I was getting ready to upload some gorgeous autumn pictures to this blog, I got a security alert that my computer was infected and I needed to "protect" it by running a program, etc. I tried to exit out of that security alert screen, but wasn't allowed to ... that screen kept coming back! So since my personal computer guru (that would be Mr. Jones) was gone for the day, I got myself into big fat trouble!

Presently, I am sitting at the very old computer in our basement, on the opposite side of our playroom, by the train stuff. We actually have FIVE computers in this house but most of them belong to Mr. Jones. The computer I use in my office is really old, but I love it, and it was given to me first by Sabrina and then Adam gave me parts of his old computer, and Shane gave me some out of an old computer of his, and Dylan did too ... and Adam put those parts together and fashioned a homemade computer for me that I have gotten rather attached to and very dependent upon. I have somewhere in the area of 25,000 pictures on it that I cannot access right now. Actually, the only reason I use my computer is because it allows me to "play" with my photographs and fashion them into cards and posters and such. I do use the internet now and then, but not really very often. I don't have any financial software programs that I use, because quite frankly, I have never balanced my checkbook ... even once! I have an external hard drive on the computer, but I haven't really the faintest notion what that means! Most of the pictures I have taken in the last three years are stored there, not even half of which have been backed up onto CD's. I have beautiful lighthouse photographs and extremely precious grandchildren pictures ... and a copy of every single card I have ever made (practically) all on a computer that is NOT working!

I admit I am computer challenged. A few months ago, I got frustrated with the photo editing program I was using (Picnik) because it was so slow to access. I researched a different photo program that could be downloaded onto my PC for FREE, at least that's what it claimed. So I decided to go ahead and upload Photoscape, but somehow it ended up cosing me $55.37 (if I remember correctly) for three years. The program works wonderfully, and I'm happy with it, but I was a little bit miffed that it wasn't free. I told Mr. Jones about it, who then proceeded to upload Photoscape to every other computer in this house (show off!) and it didn't cost him one single cent. He said I uploaded it wrong (incorrectly interpreted the instructions), so that's why I ended up paying for a free program. He also says it is completely my fault that my computer is on the blink. He is in the middle of working on a solution to the problem, but he isn't promising anything. He says I've really done it this time and my computer is in serious trouble! Sigh.

I've said a little prayer for my computer. I know this is extreme, but my heart will ache a lot if it has crashed and cannot be repaired. Mr. Jones is reluctant to "allow" me access to any of the other computers, seeing as I am such a computer moron ~ I'm not quoting him, so don't have bad feelings towards him ~ and honestly, since I don't know what I did wrong on my computer, I can't really blame him for his caution.

I love my digital camera. It's just a point-and-shoot, but I get incredibly good pictures from it. I do best with nature photography, lighthouses, Lake Michigan, trees ... I don't have as much success with photographing people. But the entire beauty of digital photography is combining it with computer technology and photo editing ... without the computer, I'm afraid I won't be taking many pictures. I'm going to try not to panic about this, but I feel a little bit lost without my computer! Mr. Jones has a dentist appointment this afternoon and a train meeting tonight, but perhaps tomorrow he will be able to use his finely honed computer skills and save my poor computer. I will be very thankful if he can!

The Giver of life ...

I have just a few more pictures of Jeremiah to share with everyone from the past few days. He is such a beautiful little baby that I find it hard to take my eyes off him if he is in the room.

Grandpa Jones, kind of a big fellow and very warm to snuggle with, is amazingly good with infants ...

We told Adam and Emily to take a nice long rest during the afternoon yesterday and we would take care of baby Jeremiah. Emily had supplied us with enough milk to keep Jeremiah happy for a few hours, so we got to feed him his bottle ...

As I looked at this perfect little boy baby, I couldn't help but give praise to the great and awesome God who created him ... so exquisite and beautiful ... each tiny finger and toe so delicate and perfect ...

We got some very beautiful smiles from Jeremiah yesterday and kept trying to photograph those smiles as they happened ... which is difficult to do because babies don't stop and smile for the camera when asked ...

But see? Grandpa Jones captured this smile just perfectly!

"You formed me with Your hands and You made me ..." Job 10:8

"You guided my conception and formed me in the womb ..." Job 10:10a

"You gave me life and showed me Your unfailing love ..." Job 10:10c

So we praise God for the miracle of every single beautiful baby ... and specifically for this 10th grandchild of ours. We are standing in awe ...

It's Nathan Paul's 4th birthday!

It's seems difficult to believe, because time goes by SO quickly, but it's true ~ Nathan Paul is four today! He is 100% beautiful boy through and through!Nathan is very easy to connect with. He is interested in most everything. He loves a good story. He enjoys building. He loves to play outside or inside. He is very good with animals. I love to have a conversation with him because I am always pleasantly surprised with his obvious wit and ... he just says the funniest stuff sometimes!

For such a little boy, he has a gigantic personality ... look at that smile ... it can sweep you right off your feet if you're not careful! And aren't his dimples precious?

We celebrated Nathan's birthday last month while we were visiting him in Bandera. It was a little early, but no one was terribly concerned about it, and Nathan didn't care one bit! We hope you are enjoying building with your Lincoln Logs, Nathan, and your Curious George adventures that I'm sure your mom has been reading to you.

We are sending you TONS of love on your birthday, Nathan. HAPPY HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY!

Lots of pictures from our Thursday in Chaska ...

After our very long day of travel Wednesday, we needed a day just to quietly relax and enjoy our new baby grandson. We showed up over at their house at 10:00 and spent a comfortable day playing with and being near this little cutie ...We wanted to be whatever help we could be to Emily, so we passed Jeremiah around from lap to lap and just watched him as he slept ... and when he was awake, we talked to him and got to know him ...

I like this picture of Emily!

While Emily showered, Grandpa Jones and I got out some of Jeremiah's books and read to him. We read a lot of nursery rhymes and he really enjoyed it. He listened to our voices and was very attentive!

Aren't his little legs and feet so adorable?

Jeremiah is only three weeks ... he spends the majority of his time sleeping. It's a trick to keep him awake for any length of time.

He is so sweet and precious to watch while he is sleeping.

He still sleeps in that crunched up newborn position ... not quite used to being out of the womb yet ...

After Adam came home from work and we ate dinner (a yummy beef stroganoff that Emily made), it was time for Jeremiah's bath ... he looks like he is ready to punch the first person who gets him wet ... but he managed to survive a complete washing without doing any violence to anyone!

Bathtime was a joint project ... right in the kitchen sink in a very handy bathtub with a little netted hammock apparatus for Jeremiah to lay in ...

Jeremiah has several hooded bath towels. The one Aunt Peg gave him was being washed, so Emily used this pretty blue one ...

All clean and smelling sweet ...

Jeremiah is a real active little fellow ~ arms and legs moving about, almost rolling himself over! Emily said he was that way all throughout her pregnancy. We told her stories about how active Adam used to be as a little kid ...

The men having a chat ...

Father and son ...

We had a nice yesterday over at Jeremiah's house. This afternoon, we have plans to go to Adam's office so that he can introduce everyone to Jeremiah. It's a beautiful morning here, kind of chilly, but a least the sun is shining. They say that we will wake up to snow tomorrow morning, so we'd best enjoy the sun today!

We FINALLY meet Jeremiah!

Good morning! I wanted to run this post LAST night and show you all of the pictures we took of baby Jeremiah, but our computer was NOT behaving and we just ran out of steam and gave up! We are almost ready to drive over to Adam and Emily's and visit all day long with our new grandson ... isn't he just perfectly beautiful?

We were in our van for 13.5 hours yesterday and so we were pretty exhausted when we arrived over at Adam and Emily's last night at about 8:20 Minnesota time. We only stayed for about an hour because we didn't want to intrude on Adam's schedule. He has to get up really early for work, and like I said, we were tired too. We took quite a few pictures ...

The little ghost onesie Jeremiah is wearing is from his Aunt Brit, at least that's what I think Emily told me ... he is SO adorable!

It really wasn't fair to take so many pictures, flashing our rude cameras in his little face ... he had been soundly sleeping before we arrived, so in these first pictures, he is trying to wake up and was squirming around and trying to focus ...

But here he is fully awake, eyes wide open. It was wonderful to finally meet him.

We came bringing many gifts from many different folk. Grandma Theda hand embroidered this lovely little blanket for Jeremiah.

Aunt Peg purchased several cute gifts ... Jeremiah is holding a little frog "silkie" from Aunt Peg that are so nice for babies to cuddle with (Nia has 3 silkies!) ...

This is a hooded bath towel from Aunt Peg which will look completely hysterical when worn ...

Grandpa Jones held Jeremiah for a long time. This is a rather scary picture of Grandpa Jones. He is in the process of growing a beard for Festival of Lights this year ... this is how he looks with a three-day growth ... YIKES! Jeremiah didn't seem to mind ...

I love some of the phrases found in Psalm 139 about God's wonderful miracle of creating life and I'm just going to share a few ...

"Every moment You know where I am ... You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me SO wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous ... You watched me as I was being formed in utter secluson, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, You are still with me!"

Grandpa Jones and I brought some gifts too. Jeremiah's nursery is decorated with ... monkeys ... as well as other things. He has received many different kinds of stuffed monkeys so far and we added to his collection. We also gave him an activity center which will be fun for him to play with once he is able to sit up on his own.

And doesn't Emily look great? Jeremiah's delivery was three weeks ago now. It was quite a prolonged ordeal for Emily, but she has bounced back very nicely.

And yes! I did finally hold Jeremiah, but I've cropped myself out of this picture ~ I looked as scary as Grandpa Jones after being cooped up in the van all day!

This is Jeremiah's high-tech "swing." I've never seen anything like it in my life. It doesn't swing like a normal swing that little kids use at a park ... it actually sways back and forth just like a mother does when holding her baby. It plays beautiful music and other soothing sounds ~ plus, their infant car seat can hook into it as well so that when they travel, all they have to do is bring the base of this "swing" ... we thought it was pretty cool. And doesn't Jeremiah look comfy?

We're looking forward to our days here, getting to know Jeremiah, visiting with Adam and Emily, and just enjoying our precious little grandson! I'll try to show you more pictures later ...