WHILE YOU WERE CHATTING (I was sleeping)...

My family "chats" every Sunday night. I usually remember, but sometimes, I forget. Since this was my first Sunday back in Ireland, I forgot. I've been suffering from jet lag - not really tired so much during the day, just can't go to sleep at night so I lay awake. My husband had a very long day so we just decided to just go to bed early and get some much needed sleep. If I would have remembered that it was "Chat Night", I would have set my alarm to get up at 2:45 (Ireland time) to get on chat with my brothers and sisters. Sorry everyone! Next time I'll remember!

CONDOR 119

I did a google and found this picture of the stuffed animal condor I bought at the Navajo Bridge visitors' center. This stuffed condor was made to honor Condor #119 which wore the patch #19 on her wing. Condor #119 was mated to Condor #122 and lived in the Grand Canyon area and had the first confirmed condor baby in over a century - Condor #350. Many other eggs were laid, but none survived. This condor family were favorites in the Grand Canyon area for several years. In 1997, Condor #119 was found dead, with lead in her body. Condors are an endangered species.

NAVAJO BRIDGE - ARIZONA

The Navajo Bridge is one of my favorite places to stop when I'm driving out to my parent's for a visit. Even though it's always hotter than you know what and the rest stop bathrooms are more like sanitary outhouses, I always have to stop. I love to go into the visitors center and usually end up buying something. I have a "weird stuffed animal" collection, and this year I bought a stuffed toy Condor. :0) I couldn't bring it to Ireland with me, so I don't have a picture of it.
After looking at this picture, I realized that even though I stop there every year and every time I stop I go to the outhouse restroom and the visitors' center, I have never walked out on the old bridge to look at the new bridge. Probably because for so many years my knees were so bad. In the picture the old bridge is on the left and the new bridge is on the right. Next year, that's my plan! :0)
Below is a picture of the visitors' center:

GETTING BACK UP

I have a little granddaughter who will be a year old in about a week. She has been walking since she was about 9 months old. She walks pretty good, but sometimes she looses her balance and falls down. Whenever she falls down, she will start to cry and then one or both of her parents will say, "Ta-da!" She will immediately stop crying and get a grin on her face. Wouldn't it be great if every time we fell down or made a mistake, instead of crying about it we could just exclaim, "Ta-da!!"

LIKE MUSIC TO MY EARS

I just got back from spending 3 days and 4 nights at my parent's house. My brother Twist drove out with me. My other brother, Mr. Giggles (Choral Responses) came the night we got there but had to leave the next afternoon. My sister, Inklings came the morning after we got there and stayed until we left. It was great to be able to spend time with all of them, including my parents. My mom is doing lots better since her surgery, and I think she even tried to "show out" to us by trying to act even better than she actually really was.

It always seems like whenever I'm with family that I want to close my eyes and record every bit of conversation so I can play it back later. It seems we can sit for hours (and we do) and just talk and talk. (And joke, and laugh, and tell stories and cry.) Even Mom seemed to be more "chatty" than usual. I figured it was either because she was feeling so much better, because she was trying to make us believe she was feeling so much better, or because Dad just sits and watches tv and doesn't talk to her that much.

When Twist and I were driving out, we would get so busy talking that when we got to a big town, we could hardly believe we were already to that town. We had never registered the other towns that we had passed, because we were so busy talking.

When I was a kid I used to play the piano ALL the time. I loved to just sit and play song after song. I even used to make up songs I didn't have music for. After I got married, and would come back to the house, I would sit and play the piano because I didn't have a piano at first. Mom would tell me how much she missed hearing me play the piano while she went around and did her work. That is what it is like for me when my kids come over to my house for a family dinner. When I am in the kitchen getting the meal ready, I love to listen to all of them sitting around the house talking to each other. I don't know if they enjoy it the same way I do when I get around my brothers and sisters and parents. My kids all live in the same town except my oldest daughter. I hear them all talking and laughing with each other, and it is like music to my ears.

PURPLE PURSES

Well, I wasn't able to get the purple purses below, simply because I didn't get online and order them in time to get them before I have to leave to go back to Ireland, but I did go shopping at Dillards today and got this one. This is called, "The Sak". Inklings, you should check into this brand of purse, because they have several crocheted purses. I remember you used to carry one.

THE COLOR PURPLE

I've been looking at purses online for about a month now, trying to find a new one, as mine is about to "bite the dust". I just love these 2 purses, but what I am REALLY loving, is that both of them come in PURPLE! Why I want a purple purse, I don't know, but I'm really liking it right now. Even though I wasn't able to copy the black purse in the purple color, just know that it does come in the same color purple as the other purse. These are both Fossil purses. Problem is, they don't have either one in the Macy's here, so I'd have to order them online. Decisions, decisions.....