A little bit of r & r

Dad bought me a great little Nikon "Cool Pix" camera for my recovery, but then quickly put me to work while he installed new lights in our kitchen. I wanted to play with the camera, he wanted me to hold the ladder, so I did both. Here is one shot of him resting (I had to immediately try out the black and white feature, a favorite on my old camera), and of him working. Of course the picture of the kitchen is the two very nice new set of lights he installed. Now we can see the dirt better, so we are cleaning more!

Mike and Diana O'Hara came for a long overdue visit. We sat up talking and laughing, (and drinking wine), until late at night, or early morning, how ever you wish to describe it. We had a great visit, and know we need to get together more often with our dear friends.

Birds

We had several Evening Grosbeaks hanging out at our feeders, entertaining us since they are not a bird we often see.

Quilt for my mom

Here is a quilt for my mom. After seeing how I did not like how the quilting came out on the baby quilt, it was a pantograph, I decided to go back to my free motion quilting. I like to quilt heavy, and do my own thing. Much better in my book.

Baby Quilt

There was a couple I sent a Quilt for Heroes to (formally my QOV group), and they are expecting a baby. Well, he had to go back to Iraq after his gunshot wound healed, but is home now and fine, and she is expecting in a few weeks. So here is a quilt I am surprising them with.

Pictures in Helena

Jorge and I decided that going for a quick trip to Lowes and then to see Indiana Jones, was something I could handle three days post op. I am not on any meds for pain, so I figure it was time I got out and about. But whew, it did tire me, not much pain though.
Here Jorge is starting the grill for our marinated flank steak, and me, I just help with the little things right now. He has been a wonderful care taker, and I'm so happy to have him here with me.
For those who didn't know what I decided to do, I decided I was going to lose 15 - 20 lbs (lost 15 so far), and let my hair grow out, to it's natural color, and I haven't touched the color in over a year! So this is my color, and you can see all the grey ready to follow up and erase all my remnants of my natural blond. I'm glad I did, otherwise I would have not known what my natural color was before it all turns grey! I like it better, I figure at 52 I should be happy with who I am, and so far I love it.
I am just looking forward to feeling better after three years of all these problems, and not paying the hairdresser a fortune!

We do clean up well

Before we went to dinner to celebrate our 29th anniversary. It was a fun time at the Silver Star, a good meal, and for dessert we, of course, stopped at DQ!

SPRING RUNOFF

Warm temperatures have precipated warnings of massive Spring runoffs and possible flooding. But it's only May and, as usually happens in Montana, temperatures are going to plummet on Wednesday, Mother Nature's way of reassuring us everything will be OK. In the meantime, wild and cultivated flowers bloom, as the busy bees enjoy their energizing nectar. JIR

Okay, so we've had better days....

We took a great hike up Mt. Acension on Sunday morning, and enjoyed having a new place to hike. Check out Linda's shorts - they used to be toooooo tight....:)
It was a beautiful day, warm, but slightly over cast, and very windy at the top, which after all that work, we were sweating and needed to put our jackets on to keep the chill off.
Thanks Chicky and Steve for the map of all the new trails around town. It is nice to know we have many more hikes to do without driving to far to get there.