My Favorite Things

Iowa Skys

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:13:50 -0000

I took these shots one night when we had a storm move through, the colors and textures of the sky was awesome! If you click on the link at the bottom of this page and view this as a slideshow you will appreciate this so much more! It's times like these that God's beauty brings you to your knees! A humbling moment in time when one feels so small in such a huge wonderous world!

Introducing Jazzie our new Indian Ringneck Parakeet

Mon, 6 Aug 2007 02:45:17 -0000

Here are some pictures of Jazzie the first few days after we got her home. She is the blue mutation of the Indian Ringneck Parakeet. They are very intelligent birds and she has some pretty funny antics indeed. Their life expectancy is 25 to 30 years so she will be around a long while!

Christa's trip to Henry Doorly Zoo

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 23:32:44 -0000

My daughter works with developmentally disabled adults and she accompanied them to the zoo for their field trip at the end of June this year. She shared a few of her pictures that day so I am passing them on to all of you.The Henry Doorly's zoo in Omaha is awesome and if you ever get a chance to visit that zoo you will be amazed, if you can't then go to this website and take a tour via cyberspace... http://www.omahazoo.com/ Enjoy!

My Mom

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 23:20:43 -0000

Mom turned 84 this year and she looks pretty good if you ask me. She suffers with memory loss but she is pretty darn spunky. Recently my daughter and her hubby came to visit and the picture is taken with our 6'8" son in law with my mother on his lap. It was just to cute and I had to

Mississippi river valley

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 23:14:21 -0000

We recently took a mini-vacation to southern Wisconsin. We camped at Nelson Dewey State Park down by Cassville, Wisconsin. This was the view from the overlook there, which was totally awesome. There is alot to see in southern Wisconsin and the terrain is completely

jazzin it up.mov

Sun, 5 Aug 2007 21:54:34 -0000

This is my precious new Indian Ringneck Parakeet "Jazzie". She is just this years baby and was hand fed by a really sweet gal from Wisconsin that I had the pleasure to add to my list of "really neat people in my life". I bought her a new light up ball and she thinks that is cool but my camera was alot more fun to check out... have fun with this

Love that Classical Music!

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:02:14 -0000

The Chase

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:45:21 -0000

Here is my Shih Tzu, Mya and my Pot Belly Pig BJ playing. They love each other and constantly pick on each other, lick each other and lay together. Talk about the true "Odd Couple"!!! Be sure to turn up your sound because the noise coming from these two crazy critters is hilarious...near the end pay close attention to BJ because he goes "HOG WILD"! Hope you giggle at this as much as I

The Transformation

Wed, 4 Oct 2006 12:58:31 -0000

I took these pictures of a Luna Moth Caterpillar that was feeding on our Moon flowers. I guess he was preparing for his winter stay in Hotel Cocoon so he can transform into that beautiful Green Luna Moth at the bottom of the page. Isn't nature amazing??

My Mission Statement

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:48:42 -0000

Before you continue to read my statement, I urge you to read my first blog that contains the meaning and the development of a mission statement. One might think it is unnecessary to do this but I believe it can help to bring us out of the ruts we often fall into in our life. It helps to give us direction and meaning to our lives and when we get caught up with all the trials and tribulations we can reflect back to the mission we have set out to achieve and it helps to put things back into perspective again.

My Mission Statement

By Ruth Smith

My life’s Song

I want to live life honestly in my relationships, business and above all within myself. When I lay down to rest at night I may do so with complete satisfaction and a clear conscience that I have lived up to my most revered virtue.

As a wife and mother I want to prove to be faithful, dependable and have enduring strength without being over bearing or smothering in any way....

Mission Statements

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:24:06 -0000

When I was in college, one of the courses had a very interesting segment about mission statements. Mission statements are often done in the corporate world and serves as a guideline to the mission that a business hopes to acheive...but....it can also serve any of us on a personal basis. Why not plot a mission for your own life? I will share with you something I wrote that explains the value of a doing exactly that and then I will share with you my own personal "Mission Statement". I hope you can see the importance of this after reading how it is meant to effect your life.

Mission Statement Development

By Ruth Smith

When the class began talking about mission statements it all seemed a little overwhelming at first. Questions began to formulate in my mind about how I would go about finding out my purpose in life and what exactly my life was really all about…….. Just what was a mission?

&nbs...

Coming Soon

Wed, 6 Sep 2006 00:37:12 -0000

This is a picture of Sugar Gliders. This is the whole family... Mom, Dad and baby. This baby will come to live at the critter camp here at the end of September if all goes well. They are a very small marsupial that hail from Australia and Indonesia. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term marsupial...it means animals who raise their young in their pouches....critters like possom, kangaroos

The Plahn Experience by Ruth Smith

Tue, 5 Sep 2006 23:52:05 -0000

I wrote this for a college English course September 26^,1999. We were supposed to write a descriptive report of a character and their life. What better “character” then Harold Plahn? Harold might have seemed gruff and maybe even crotchety he was what he was…just Harold…nothing more and nothing less. A person took him the way he was or you just missed out! He meant well even though the consequences of his opinionated manner sometimes meant there were long spans when he didn’t talk to you if he disagreed with you but I accepted that about him and I loved him despite his strong minded ways. He was like family to me, so without further ado here is his story.

The Plahn Experience

Ruth Smith

Into our driveway creeps an old rusty pickup with a loud muffler after coming to a stop the motor sputters then reluctantly dies and a creaking door opens and loudly shuts.

“Anybody live here?” bellows our ...

hummingbird moves.mov

Tue, 5 Sep 2006 00:18:14 -0000

I thought it might be kinda neat to take some footage of our Hummingbirds at our feeders. Since I caught the Hummingbird Moths earlier this should be kinda of a neat comparison of two of Mother Nature's

Flight of the Hummingbird Moth.mov

Sun, 3 Sep 2006 02:04:34 -0000

We have an abundance of these due to all of our flowers.There are several species of this moth but this particular one is called the White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird moth. They are the neatest moth because they look like and fly a bit like a Hummingbird and some are even bigger then a Hummingbird. Enjoy the beauty of these gems in

Mr Beau-Jangles Moves

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:24:33 -0000

Here is a little movie of our newest addition to our menagerie...our 5 month old pot belly pig ...Mr Beau-Jangles or BJ for short, thanks to Susan H a very good pig loving friend of mine. This little guy has done some serious bonding with me over the course of the past two weeks and won't let me 10 feet away from him. He is very intelligent, very clean and is litter box trained without fail. He is enjoying himself at "HOG HEAVEN" and even Mr Marcus,who was dead set about NOT ever having one likes him. To know BJ is to love him!! SO without further ado .....presenting....drum roll Mr

Favorite Fuzzy FriendsO'Mine

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:17:10 -0000

Here are some of my furry friends I share my life with here at the "funny farm". Each one has their own unique personality and set of quirks to either drive you crazy or make you laugh insanely!! Who needs prozac when you have these 4 legged tension relievers around performing magic every single day?? If you click on each picture I have a short description of each little fuzzy..

Leapin' Lizards! LOL!!!

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:10:48 -0000

Here is a few of my favorite scaley critters that I adore. I know I know I am odd but what else is new?? God made em and I love

Trail Riding Songs

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 04:43:16 -0000

Desert skies will always remind me of watching the butt of our buckskin mare swaying to the music as we sang this song on the trail and Strawberry Roan reminded me of the love of a good bucking horse that my late brother had. He was a dare devil and loved bucking horses and riding bulls.

A Woman With No Face by Ruth Smith

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 03:32:17 -0000

A woman is born...

She fights for life and for breath....no one sees the struggle

She communicates with poetry....the words fall on deaf ears

She offers song...but they do not hear the music

She cries out to be understood...but she is misread

She reaches out...they pull away

She longs to be loved....but they abuse her

She speaks the truth....but they want lies

She shows deep emotions....but they see moods

She has strength....but they see stubbornness

Her eyes are soft but you can see the pain,

Her heart is full of love but is laden with sorrow,

Her lips long for joy but turn down with sadness.

She builds a wall...

The bricks are her pain and the mortar her tears..

They see the wall...

They understand its message...

The wall asks for no love

The wall has no poetry, no song, no truth, and no emotions

The wall is strong and unyielding.

The wall has no face… they know the meaning of the wall...why?

Behind the wall a longing woman beckons to God's creatures

She speaks ...

Mike's birthday

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:45:09 -0000

Our Son-in-law will be 29...this very fine day. He was a Christmas eve gift to his family and he has certainly been a gift in ours as well. We love him

Fourth of July Fun

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 06:49:44 -0000

We always go out to the kids near Seward Nebraska for the fourth and we have a ball! They don't restrict any fireworks much at all and we have way to much fun with that and of course we always love visiting with our

To anyone that has Dial up

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 05:51:36 -0000

You probably won't hear the music playing at the home page of my website nor will you be able to play back videos or music if you are blessed with the wonder of a dial up connection. Face it 56K is just OLD SCHOOL when it comes to internet fun these days. Well guys time to kick out the old and bring in the new....GET DSL...I am.

Wild Child days music LOL!

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 03:34:12 -0000

Love sly and ZZ Top.....well even Mike and Christa's Sun Conure parrot, Harley bobs his head to the music. YOU GO

Aone in the Night By Ruth Smith

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 02:59:02 -0000

Della sat in her rocker starring blankly into the dark beyond the window; her mirrored image in the glass reflected her favorite blue polka dotted cotton dress and her long white hair gathered at the top of her head in a neat bun. Her washed out blue eyes appeared sad and tired as she longed for years gone by when they were full of life and energy. Just like every lonely night her mind flooded with memories of him when they were young and so in love, she relished these memories but the pain of it was more then she could bare. She rose slowly to her feet and made her way to the door as she draped a blue sweater over her shoulders. The cool night air always seemed comforting and helped to ease the pain and clear her thoughts of him. Although it had been many years since he had been gone, the love she felt for him had never died over time. She walked quickly through the dark streets of downtown and noticed that the only lights illuminating the entire block were from ...

Our Daughter's Wedding Songs

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:30:28 -0000
June 28th, 2003 our daughter, Christa, married a very special man, Mike. "To Make You Feel My Love" was their Processional song. The Keeper of the Stars was played while they lit their Unity Candle... a moment we will never forget indeed and "I Believe In You" was the grand finale..the Recessional song. These songs hold so many precious memories of that beautiful country style marriage ceremony at Victoria Springs Recreational Park at New Helena, Nebraska.We dedicate these songs to our two very loving kids in memory of their very special day... We love you so much!! Mom and