Simpler Times

I knew when we went on vacation to Pinetop, Arizona, I would find a different stamp than I usually see. I love the details of this stamp, and the rural setting which reminds me of Pennsylvania. This would have made a perfect stamp for a Father's Day Card for my dad if he were still with us. This stamp just brings back memories of the simplicity of my childhood which is another reason that I liked it so much. Simple. It is hard these days to lead simple lives and it seems that we are hit every day with something new to think or be concerned about and sometimes we just need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and place our faith in our Heavenly Father.

With all of that said, let me tell you a little more about this stamp. We strived on our recent vacation to relax (and that doesn't come easy with 3 young children). However, the goal was to enjoy the resort with the indoor pool, racquetball court, basketball court, pool tables, and ping pong. On some down time I planned on working with my inks but b/c space was limited I tried, really tried to think about what I might need. Paper and inks and that is where I stopped. I didn't bring Stickles with me (unless a couple of bottles accidentally fell into my container - oops) . I didn't bring glitter because I honestly didn't want to deal with embossing and that also would have meant that I would have needed to bring my heating tool so it was really right down to the basic.

I first stamped the image and then with a paint brush I "painted" by dabbing the brush in blue color the sky line. I also did that with the green grass using Peeled Paint. The leaves on the tree were made using a Tim Holtz Refillable Pen and Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I was nervous about bringing my alcohol ink bottles with me b/c of the mess that could be made so I only brought my pens with ink in them. That, I must say worked out perfectly.

An Ode to Max

Well, no pictures today. I don't have any current pictures of our 13 year old dog, Max. Max was a lab, golden retriever, husky mix. I took one look at Max and said, "he is going to be a big dog". But he was so loveable and furry. He was more like a great big cub bear than a puppy. However, we took that great big fur ball puppy home. He was so cute! Having a dog prepares you a little for having children. I knew with how my husband treated Max that our children were going to be well spoiled. Once when my husband was gone for the weekend, I had to go outside with curlers in my hair because he refused to go outside without being on the leash.

And then we had one, two, and three children and yet there was a fourth, Max. After we would get the children down for the evening and think, ok, now we can relax but no there was Max ready for his turn to have some attention. Can you blame the poor baby? Where does an 80 pound dog fit in with three young children? Well, he did and we made it through and so the family was growing up and some growing old.

We had him for six months when he ran through the snow one day and hurt his hip and at nine months of age we were told that he had hip problem and we were told he would need surgery. Other than that, he was in pretty good shape throughout his life.

Well the past year has been difficult. He started having trouble walking and some other issues. We recently went on vacation and when we picked him up he had had issues while at the vet/kennel. We thought he was doing better but this morning when I came downstairs I noticed he was really sick. Well, had places to go and then came home to check on him and he was gone.So that was that. We said our good-byes and took care of what needed to be done and here we are back home trying to forget the day that is thankfully behind us.


Linda