I guess it is time for me to brag about my family which includes my sister Marty, brother Dick, and his children.

Let's go first to my granddaughter Brie, who is studying at the Montserrat College of Arts in Beverly, Massachusetts. One of her projects this semester was to find pictures of older women - like me, of course! Then to do something with those pictures. Well, the results were quite stunning! Using 6' long by 4' wide plywood, and using her stencil copy of three women, and using a dremel tool, she cut out the following pictures...

Woman Number One

Woman Number Two

Woman Number Three

And then, after those, she sent me her stencil version of a Zombie - I guess it was my Happy Halloween card!

But, artwork is not the only thing that Brie has been doing. She also participated in Occupy Boston...

My granddaughter Rae participated in the Tough Mudder (can be found through Google), which is a race through a lot of different trials - she was with her gym team from Standardsville, VA, and her boyfriend Brian, also ran with his gym team from Fredericksburg, VA. The race took place at Evergreen Resort near Charlottesville, VA. It is a test of endurance - after looking at the You Tube Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIzWh4ICH0&noredirect=1), I couldn't believe what she went through. And she has already signed up for another one in Pennsylvania in the spring....She sent me a bunch of photos, but for some reason I can't find them in my emails, but here is a picture of Rae and Brian, probably before the race, as they are both clean!...

Kat just came back from Peru on a Fuller Build, and the official website has some great pictures, but I loved this one the best. Especially since I always told the kids that I didn't want them ever to ride motorcycles. In my teenage years and in college, I had, and, the last time I was with Peter Soule in Washington, DC, and he scared the hell out of me!!!

She was driving with the others holding on to the lumber for a house. There were probably a few hitchhikers too. Kat, along with some of the team, after the build, went to Cuzco, and from there trekked to Machu Pichu! And she made it!

My brother Dick turned 75 on October 26th, and his kids put on a birthday celebration for him. All the kids were able to come, but three of his four granddaughters were in school and couldn't make it. My sister Marty also went. She sent me these wonderful pictures...

Natalie and her dad, Bob, dressed as Mary Poppins and Bert (all made by her grandmother, Thea Green)...

My 75 year old brother, with his family, back row - Bob, Will, Casey (Bob's wife), John, and Chas; front row - Marty, Dick, Sarah, and Natalie (Bob and Casey's daughter.)

Dick's son, Bob, is an art professor at the University of Wisconsin - Stout - in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Here is the card Bob designed for the invitation and the copy inside the invitation. Of course, Dick was presented with the original art work to hang on his wall! Word of explanation: When Dick was much, much, much younger, as you can see in the invitation, he was the U.S. Marble Champion. Now days he is known as the Bicycle Man of Iowa, collecting bikes which are then picked up, taken to Chicago, repaired, and sent areas in the United State and other countries for adults to ride to work on...

Marty is an incredible artist, working in watercolors, pastel, collage, and usually somewhere within the art or around it, is a wonderful quote.This is a photo of Marty's birthday card to Dick. She designed and made it...

Phil just told me this afternoon that he is going to have two of his songs being played on two different television shows this Tuesday. One is NBC's Parenthood. The other is USA's Covert Affairs. As well as being a song writer, a great photographer, Phil also has a band called The Evil Twins. He also creates websites for people and businesses. You can go to his website: www.myeviltwins.com

Two of Dick's sons are on Etsy.com. Will creates furniture out of old wood and things, as well as mends great old frames and paints them. He makes great things.
John restores character watches (that is a story in itself about how he and Dick got them!) He has his own website, plus has watches on Etsy.com. You can see their work by going to Etsy and looking for "johnnyfeather" for watches; and "squarenail" for furniture. Great prices also!

Can anyone tell me what this is called? I picked it up at Lowe's on a trip, and I must have thrown away the name tag. It produces little purple flowers which pop out from the pink spikes or thingamajigs! I had been waiting and waiting for the first one to pop out, and it did, yesterday!!!!

Don't think I will make it to the Refuge today. It is getting late. I need to do my laundry tomorrow in Socorro, and will hop down to the Refuge after that. So look for more bird pics!!!

Taken by Edna Shirley on the boardwalk of the lagoon at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Life is good!
A hui hou,
I love you all,
Sally