Marauding Halloween-Costumed Grandsons came Trick or Treating

Guess what showed up on our doorstep tonite! A Star Wars Boba-Fett type character, a baby monkey, and a banana! *L* The grandsons came a day early so they could enjoy their own town's Halloween activities tomorrow night.





I had found some really cool special candy treats for them too! Something that boys seem to enjoy more-so than girls do... Some gummy bats and roaches, some candy snot, Dracula mouth pops, and eyeball candy! YUMMMMM


The boys had fun sampling some of them while they visited for awhile...and then it was off to visit other relatives in town.

My daughter, Kasey's latest painting.....

Here's a little "Mom bragging" on my daughter's talents...Kasey has been having some inspired painting time lately... this one I really like...called A Moment of Embrace.

Can't wait to see it "in person".

LOVE this one Kasey!!! xoxoxoxo

Membership Privileges (wine cork assemblage)

This is a fun one.... I found some wine corks that were in a frame, some were missing from it... I had found a small sculpture of the Last Supper a year or more ago, and had been collecting some items that would go with it, so when this frame fit the sculpture I knew it HAD to be done... *L*

Membership Privileges is a light-hearted look at the sacrament of Holy Communion, aka Holy Eucharist (Eucharist meaning thanksgiving) and being a part of the Body of Christ - the Church. Of course there is much more to being a Christian, and God's blessings are way too many to try to expound on.



The letters are a bit hard to read because of the glare, they say, "Wine Tasting" on the top, and "All Welcome" on the bottom. At the top is a corkscrew, along side miniature bottles of wine with glass grapes attached.

New & Improved "Step 9 Right Foot Conversion" Assemblage

As I sat and looked at the latest assemblage I had posted here the other day, I decided it needed more.. so, here it is..with added improvements. I think it's done now.



Incase you didn't notice the changes... I added another arm on the side, and the base parts, which look like legs.

Step 9 - the Right Foot - A Conversion

Here is another of those right feet I bought a few weeks ago, which I've put into an assemblage piece.

Also in this piece is a # 7 billard ball (7 is considered to be a holy number in scripture) with a crucifix hanging from it. A key hangs on one wall which says, "Pray one for another" and "Prayer is the answer".

On the opposite wall is a framed Chi Rho Cross, a monogram and symbol for Christ, consisting of the superimposed Greek letters chi (Χ) and rho (Ρ), this particular one uses an anchor at the bottom, which symbolizes Hope, hence Christ is our Hope.

At the top is a head of buddha with a fleur de lis symbol, often associated with The Holy Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit), a hand reaching for God, with a heart/cross held in it denotes Christ's love and sacrifice for all has been grasped and realized, surely a conversion experience.

Jesus, Light of the World Assemblage

Here is something I'm sending in for a Call to Artists at The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts site. There is still time for others to send in an entry...check it out!! Nov. 1st is the deadline for entries.

"The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." Isaiah 9: 2 and Matthew 4:16 have held a special place in my heart. Many years ago, just before Christmas, my husband's step-father took his life. As I mourned his death, and what must have been the agony he had been in, God's words in those passages comforted me. Louie was a Christian, but he was in the dark despair of depression. God seemed to be reminding me that Louie knew Jesus as his Lord, his Savior, as the Light and somehow I knew that I would see Louie again in heaven.

This piece reflects Jesus as The Light, that came into the world, FOR the world ...who came to die, so we can live.... lighting the way for those who reach out to Him, out of our own personal darkness, whatever it may be.

Getting off on the Right Foot....

FINALLY, I have a new assemblage done... I had purchased about 10 - 12 of these right feet a few weeks ago, and have finally finished doing something with ONE of them. I am just calling this one, for now, Right Foot. I have a lot of symbolism in this one, but it's meant for me, my experiences... I'd love to hear what others "see" in it. Please post a comment, tell me what you see. Thanks.

Click on the pictures for a closer view.

ChOmP, ChOmP, ChOmP!!

It's Friday and that means it's grandson day!! I have just one of the grandsons today, Jeff, since the others are in school now. After breakfast we headed to church so I could drop off some work, pick up mail, check messages...and then we headed to "the scary Good Will store". This time of year the Good Will is all decorated with Halloween stuff..the one in our town has spiders as the theme, and Jeff loves to look at all the spooky stuff hanging in the entry...although he sticks close to me too incase one of those spiders "jumps down and bites him"..*L*

Today's great find was a shark tent ... one of the games my kids, and now my grandkids love to play is to pretend that the floor is the ocean, and all the chairs, footstools and rugs are either islands or boats, and are safe spots. When they want to go from one area to the other, if they hear the "shark is near" warning music... usually chanted by me... you know the chant...Daaaaah Daaa...Daaah Da...DaaDa-DaaDa...dada-dada-dada-dada...CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!!! When they hear that, they run like crazy to get to the safe spot before they hear "Chomp!", because when they hear that, it means a part of their leg or foot or hand has just been biten off by that imaginary shark! hee hee. My oldest grandson, when he was little would start to cry if I just hummed that chant..*L*...mean gramma Berta! ha!

This shark tent is pretty cool... the older boys would love to have their safe spot be INSIDE of a shark..*L* Jeff just thinks it's fun to scramble in and out of it's mouth as fast as he can before it may bite him, or else throw in a token monkey or other toy for the shark to feed on!
Ahh yes, yet another fun toy to spoil the grandkids with...*G*

Dali-ish Finds....

I found this child's desk/table, already decorated with some pictures from one of Salvadore Dali's paintings on it. I have also had "The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory" picture for a few months... other things I found at Good Will too...old clock, eyeball, fish... Now to actually USE these in an art piece...that will be the feat!

Sunday wasn't a day of rest....

Today I worshipped, then celebrated a wedding feast with my Sunday School kids, picked up other ladies who were doing the CROP WALK representing our church and helping that worthy cause,
after a delayed time of getting back from that (another story for real time telling), I was suppose to make apple crisp for a dinner party we were going to at a friends home, but since there was only 30 minutes before we were to be there, by the time I returned home, it was pumpkin bars from the local grocery bakery. But we DID have a good time eating ribs, prawns and enjoying our friends before heading home and crashing on the couch! It was a good day!

Diocesan Convention....

Friday and Saturday was our Diocesan Convention... since I had screwed up my back, I missed Friday's workshops and banquet... heard that it was a good day from others however, and I was sorry to miss it.
Saturday was the continuation of Convention, which I DID make it to. The business end of Convention are things that need to be taken care of... I suppose... however for the most part, it seemed to be a lesson on "Rules of Order", and in some aspects it's good to have order...but at times it seems to me, to get a bit ridiculous. Maybe other churches need to have such strict rules, I'm glad our church members at Christ Church, can get along and are able to rely on caring for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and good manners, rather than strict rules to "keep us in line".

It seemed we debated, voted and discussed some issues ad nauseam... and others that I thought would have some debate zipped through passage immediately....go figure?

I can't recall exactly how many Conventions I've been a part of, but I think it's been about 25... and to the best of my memory, this one ended earlier than any of the previous ones... I was on the road by 2 p.m. Thanks be to God!

Another Trip Upnorth to the Son's Apartment...

I spent the afternoon and evening at my son's place today. I had been looking and found some great deals on things for Kaine's apartment. A very sturdy wood coffee table, which needed a bit of refinishing on the top, which I did and it looks good as new! Also a brand new sofa I got for only $52.50, it was damaged, the side board was cracked and bent in with an inch rip in the bottom of the material. I bought it anyway, brought it home and John fixed it in less than an hour. I also got some material to use as a cover over the top, it's a pretty light colored sofa, and if it were in my daughter's apartment, I'm sure she'd like it just as it is, but for a young man's apartment, the covering looks good and will protect it more when he comes home from work and flops on the couch before changing out of his work clothes.





I also found a nice new round rug for his kitchen, and a shelf thing I spray painted tan for his bathroom.

Kaine and I also spent some time hanging some of the curtains that he hadn't gotten around to doing yet, and some of his wall decorations, which involved many signs he's collected or I've found at a sale.
He still needs a bed (right now he has a mattress on the floor), and he could use a chair as well in his bedroom, and he needs to finish setting up his spare bedroom, but it's looking really GREAT!


While I was there I also got to see Jorden and Erin for a little while, which was a wonderful treat as well!! Jorden wasn't too happy about leaving and being in her infant seat in this pic.

The Hunters are home!!

John and his hunting buddies came home a couple of days early... John walked in the door early this morning at 12:20 a.m. They had a good time in Northern Ontario, bagged 2 bull moose, and enjoyed their time away.

I'm sure I'll hear more stories galore, but for now John was up early, heading out to unload the trailer and take the moose to the meat packing plant... looks like our freezers will be full of corned moose, moose sausage, hamburger and roasts for the winter...yum!!
Oh yeah, and I will probably have to clear a space on one of the walls for a new set of moose horns. (Why do I feel like I'm married to Mr. Sarah Palin?? ..*L*)

The Excellent Adventure Ends - Day 4 - Back Home

Today was the last day of our Road Trip. It was a LOT of driving, we started out at 8:30 a.m. and arrived home in WI by 8:30 p.m...and Kasey still had to drive about 2 hours further, back to her place in IL. Because of that, we didn't stop at many places, but we still had a nice day, good weather, and a safe trip. (Thank you God!)
Had we known that the rest area an hour or so from where we stopped for the night had FREE accommodations we would have slept there for the night... Kasey tried out the "luxury suite".


Kasey also drove part of the way home....



BUT, while I was sleeping, I think she took a wrong turn, and we almost ended up in Houston!!

(no, NOT Houston, TX)

It was good to finally cross the Mississippi and get back into good ole WISCONSIN!


Along the way, we found roadside sites which offered us cheese to eat, so we parked and had a small snack.


It was a very, very great adventure, and something I hope that any, or all, of our kids would be able to come along on again sometime soon!

The Adventure Continues....Day 3

We caught up on some sleep this morning, sleeping in and lolly gagging around until after 10 a.m. But then we were on the road, ready for adventure!
Our first stop of the day was Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, burial place of several famous people... two being Wild Bill Hickok, (James Butler Hickok) and Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke).

Then we headed down to Main St. to the Saloon #10, the place that Wild Bill was gunned down. The bar was pretty cool, it had sawdust on the floor... the reason being, because drinks and food were paid for with gold...gold dust often, and it would fall on the floor at times, so putting saw dust down was beneficial for the saloon owners because the gold dust would be hard to detect when dropped. At the end of the day, when the owner swept up, they would separate the gold from the sawdust and have a tidy profit in gold dust for themselves.

While we were there for a drink, Wild Bill, himself showed up and invited us to his show. It was fun, interesting and informative, as Wild Bill told us about his life and that fateful day back in 1876 when he was gunned down at that very spot.

Go EAST young woman (and old woman), Go EAST! So we headed out from Deadwood, to the Badlands. At a stop just before entering the national park, we were attacked by an irate chicken who tried to peck my car! (Actually the chicken was trying to eat all the dead bugs on the license plate *lol*) And we photographed a giant rodent...well, not sure if a prairie dog is part rodent or not? They sure grow animals giant size around SD. *L*

The Badlands National Park is WONDERFUL!! Beautiful and awesome sites! But there are things to beware of as well.










Kasey getting badass in the badlands..*G* She thought it would be fun to have a photo of a breakdance move with the background scenery.









It was another great day of seeing really fun and cool things...with some fun and cool company...my daughter, Kasey!
We have had a lot of fun together... and enjoy each other's company... here we are enjoying a pretzel stoogie as we head on down the road to a motel for the night. We made it to Murdo, SD, so we have quite a way to go tomorrow yet before we get home.... Thank you Lord for the fun times, and safe travels so far, we ask for continued good and safe times as we head home tomorrow..in Jesus Name. Amen.

More to come....

Roberta & Kasey's EXcellent Adventure - Day 2

Here are some pictures from our road trip to South Dakota, which today extended into Wyoming even.. *L* We have an extra day too! Kasey was able to take off Wednesday, so we don't have to be back as early. We can take it easier coming back and see more things along the way too!

So, here is where our adventures took us today... This was a funny iron statue off in a field nearby an old 1880's Ghost Town... I think it was about 2 stories tall.

Here we are just outside of Wall Drug in Wall, SD. A tourist town that reminded us a lot of WI Dells. This DrugStore had lots of places you could pose for pictures... so we DID!

Me and an old cowboy who Kasey and I thought had a strong resemblance to John...*L*


I must have a thing for guys with white beards?? *L* This old prospector and I had a thang going on... haha..or maybe I was just after his gold??

Eye to eye with a buffalo...eek!! *L*


Kasey decided to try on the Indian Chief's outfit, and I was trying on the squaw outfit (again)..*L*
These same cutout things were here 36 years ago when John and I traveled here with 4 other couples and 1 single guy in our hippy van..*L*

We found another GIANT jackalope, so this time I tried to ride one.

They have jackalopes that come in ALL sizes...here are some on the wall inside the store.
And here's something I bet you didn't know.. you have to beware of dinosaurs out in South Dakota, as Kasey and I found out!






Mt. Rushmore was one of our next stops .. it's bigger and more awesome then I remembered! Here is a photo also that shows Kasey and I taking a picture of the reflection in the windows ...(see us down below the monument in the window too!- double click on the pic for a larger one)

The Crazy Horse Monument was a short distance from Mt. Rushmore, so we stopped there. This monument is far from being finished, but they have a nice museum, art gallery, shops, video presentation, and models of what the finished monument is going to look like, as well as many old indian artifacts, pictures and interesting displays.
They gave away free rocks from the mountain where they have carved part of the monument, along with a card explaining what minerals were found in the rocks.

Kasey found she resembled one of the indian statues... since we DO have some Cree Indian in our heritage, I suppose it could be true..*G*



An interesting sign along the way through the mountains (oops, guess they call them HILLS, Black Hills)...but shouldn't this arrow be pointing DOWN? (re: where we typically think of hell's location and all? *L*)

We found that we weren't too far from the Wyoming border, so we decided we HAD to go the distance.


We stopped at a look-out point where we were featured as the Wyoming Wildlife..*L*


There sure is a lot of pretty scenery, (we have hundreds of photos, too many to put here). We had a LOOOONG drive through the mountains to get to someplace where there was civilization, or at least a hotel with wireless internet..*L*.. tonite we are in Deadwood, SD...and we are ready to drop dead...*L* Not really, but it's good to be someplace where we can just lay down and relax.

Tomorrow we start again... sure to be an interesting day!