Heaven, Absolutely Heaven!

After work today, I headed up the road for a service project.  For an hour, I, along with others, hauled and stacked wood.  As we were getting ready to finish, my friend said, "Marsha, where's your camera?"  I came out of the shed and looked where she was looking and the sky was beautiful.  I went straight to my car and got my camera.  As I have learned, if you don't take the moment right when you see it, sunsets disappear fast.  I started shooting away, as fast as I could.  The opposite side of the sky was such a pretty color of pink but by the time I had gotten these pictures, the pink had all faded out.  I feel so blessed to live in such a place where the views of God's beauty are not obstructed.  Ah, what a beautiful way to close my day.  Heaven, it's absolutely heaven!

Happy Little Home???

 As I was driving around yesterday, looking for my awe shot (that photo I'm waiting to come across that is just going to knock my socks off), I came across this little, old abandoned building.  In the 31 years I've lived in this little valley, I've never noticed this place.  I started to wonder if it was a home, a shed, a storage building, or what it once was.  Then I took notice of the water pump in the front of the place and what looked to be address numbers on the side.  From those clues, and I could be wrong, but I'm guessing a family lived there at some time.  I tried to imagine who lived there.......what type of family it was.  I'm choosing to believe that it was a happy little family with children helping their mother during the day and waiting for their daddy to come home from work at night, with excited anticipation.  Then, I see the father picking up the children and giving them a little toss into the air and seeing their smiling little faces as they giggle with glee.  I'd much rather see this little place as a happy home than just an old abandoned shed.  But, then again, I thought the little building found in this blog was much more than the answer I was told about what it was, too.  Oh well, I'm still choosing to believe in the best and I hope I never hear any different.

Mr. Gordon

Some blog posts are much more difficult to write than others.  This is one of the difficult.  I had the privilege and opportunity to work with one of the finest young men you would every know.  His name, Mr. Gordon, known by all students and faculty at Mackay Elementary School.  On a daily basis, we would find something to laugh about.  He truly made me a better person just by being in his presence.  He has changed my way of thinking about many situations and how I handle them.  He was always cheerful and had a positive outlook on everything.  On Tuesday, our dear Mr. Gordon passed away, at the young age of 27.  I took a few pictures of him last year in the classroom setting and wanted to share.  He was one-of-a-kind!  In this first picture, he was trying to blow the insides out of an egg.  Look how red his face was........he could not get the insides to come out, even after bending a paperclip out straight, sticking it in the hole and stirring up the white and yolk together.  Some of his remarks on this were hilarious and we laughed forever.

He was a gentle, caring man.  The children really love him.  Not just the Kinders, but all grades knew Mr. Gordon.  Each morning, our little classroom was filled with children of all ages playing and visiting until the bell rang for school to start.

With Mr. Gordon, you never knew what to expect.  He literally was a man of many hats.  Whether it be his talents or his comical side, he wore the hats.

 Here he is speaking at his first graduation of the Kinder class.  The graduating class of 2011.  He was so proud!

I can't put in to words all this young man was.  As an example, he brought an old chair into the room at the beginning of the year for me to use.  He actually set up my own space to use with a desk, computer, and everything I needed to feel like I had my own space and I was someone.  He always thanked me, daily for the things I did.  Now, back to the chair..............I love this old, blue chair and I always asked Mr. Gordon to talk to his brother and his wife (owners of the blue chair) and see if they would sell it to me because the one I have at home, well, lets just say it's seen its day.  We've joked about this chair ever since the beginning of the school year.  Last evening, just one day after his passing, his mother called and asked if she could come over.  When they (Gordon's mother and her husband) got to our home and I opened the door to invite them in, they presented me with a brand new computer chair.  She said Gordon had bought this for me on one of his trips to the doctor.  She said he really wanted to get me a chair and when they went to the store, and in his weakened state, they wheeled the chairs to the front of the store for him to try out, picking the one pictured below, just for me. Even in his passing, Mr. Gordon is here, taking care of  me, Mrs. Sayer.  No matter how old and feeble I get or how old and tattered this chair may become, it will always be a part of my life.

Northern (Red Shafted) Flicker Woodpecker

I have tried many times in the past few years to get a photo of a woodpecker on one of our white birch trees on our yard.  Every time I would try to get a picture, the woodpecker would scramble around the trunk, not giving me a clear view to get a photo.  Well, today I went to the Christmas Bazaar with a friend and after I took her home and was headed home myself, I spotted this Northern (Red-Shafted) Flicker (male) on a tree in town.  I immediately pulled off to the side of the road, hoping to finally get my woodpecker photo.  I was a ways from him but low and behold, he stayed on the trunk and let me shoot away.  As I drove off, I thought to myself....he didn't seem too afraid so I circled around the block to see if I could get a better shot.  This time he wasn't impressed and flew away.  At least I did get my woodpecker photos, albeit, not the best photos but........................!