I am "Making a Wish" at Milliande's Art Community

Milliande's is a wonderfully diversified group of artists (or artists in training)and is full of creative inspiration.

This Christmas Eve, Milliande is granting Christmas Wishes!

Click here to see all the wishes fellow artists have...

Something I want to remember forever

This was so funny!

Angel had a little friend over Sunday afternoon, and they were going to sneak into Poppa's room above the garage (affectionately called "Manland") to read the (extremely organized) list of Christmas presents and where they were hidden that Angel had discovered just the day before - and hadn't had a chance to open it to read yet!!! BUT, the girls had to change out of church clothes to play clothes, and that gave Poppa JUST ENOUGH TIME to run up there AND....instead of hiding the list or deleting it (because believe me, he keeps multiple copies of these sorts of things!) he just changed the present name...so the girls could read a revised list...this is a copy of the list they read:

1. Slingshot Flying Chicken With Cockadoodle Scream Sound (Opened 8 Dec ‘09)
2. Wii (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
3. Memory of a sweet childhood (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
4. Memories of fun and happiness (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
5. Love (Hidden in Mike’s Room)

6. Hugs (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
7. Kisses (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
8. Safety (Hidden in Mike’s Room)
9. Security (Hidden in Man-Land)
10. Knowledge (Hidden in Man-Land)
11. Sweets (Hidden in Man-Land)
12. Warmth (Hidden in Man-Land)
13. Clothes (Hidden in Man-Land)
14. Book of Lifesavers (Hidden in Man-Land)
15. Friends (Hidden in Man-Land)
16. Adventure (Not delivered yet)
17. Happiness (Not delivered yet)
18. Games (Not delivered yet)
19. Skills
20. Education
21. Responsibility
22. Maturity
23. Kindness
24. Awareness
25. Wisdom
26. You can’t love enough not to have problems. You can’t ignore a problem and just hope it goes away.
27. The only way out is through.
28. Integrity isn’t a guarantee against hardship and heartache, but true contentment cannot exist without it.
29. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger
30. Talk low, talk slow and never miss an opportunity to keep your mouth shut. Even a fool looks wise until he speaks.
31. Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while


I guess Poppa was feeling particularly wise, and had to add those last 6 lines!!! The girls didn't even mind not finding the "real" list!

A little something from the Home State!

I found this incredible post at Darla's beautiful blog - go see her sometime! But why I wanted to share this with you is 1) so I could always find it again, and 2) I grew up with John Deere tractors in the good old mid-west - Iowa in fact - on a farm near "the Limestone Capital of the World"! How's that for famous! LOL!

This incredible machine was built at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. Yes, farm equipment.

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see, it was WELL worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.