My Crayon Color is Yellow...

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors.You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius.Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way.While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

http://blogthings.com/whatcolorcrayonareyouquiz/">What Color Crayon Are You?

Look what I found.....

Today when I was rummaging through an old box of pictures, I came across these three pages. My niece Megan is now 22 years old and I am not sure how old she was when she drew them. I think she was about 5. Maybe Ms. Creek will be able to tell.

I love you Megan; you are a woman now!

Love,

Aunt Jo Jo

Remembering my vacation 2007.....

Anna Jo and Rick are such a cute couple! They were kind enough to host our Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Many hands helped prepare the food and many hands helped to cleanup the mess! Thanks AJ and Rick for opening your home to all of us! I love you and your family very much!

This is Ilya, Anzhela's son. His basketball team from Maryland Jr. High had just won their first game. Anzhela is on the right. Oh, Anzhela is my son Bryan's girlfriend.

Ilya and Anzhela.

My son Bryan and my daughter Laura; I am so thankful and proud of both of them! I could not ask for better children!

Bryan and me. He takes after his mom in more ways than one! :o)

My sister Rubye and Chuck on our way home from Yarnell. I will be posting more pictures of Yarnell in a later post.

I love the weather in Arizona this time of year! I hated to come home to Wyoming where there is snow on the ground! As I look out the window at the brown grass and leafless trees, I yearn for springtime!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Jolene

Thanksgiving....

Most of you know of my losses, disappointments and heartbreaks over the last two years and that I have not dwelled on them but have always taken an optimistic stand. Even though the tears have flowed, I have come out on top because I am a survivor. I have many things to be thankful for:

1) My health
2) My children and grandchildren
3) My two supportive sisters and other supportive relations
4) My job
5) My home
6) My automobile
7) Living in Wyoming
8) Above all, my Faith and Savior

For Thanksgiving, we are going to light candles for those we have loved and lost as Chewy suggested in one of her comments and we are going to pass around the bean pot. This is a tradition I started many years ago (some aren't especially fond of it). Each person at the table has 3 beans. As we eat we pass around the bean pot and each person puts a bean into the pot and tells of something they are thankful for without duplicating what someone else has already said and there are no "ditto's" allowed. The bigger the table of people, the more beans go into the pot. The next day you make a pot of bean soup or some other dish with beans and remember all of the chatter and laughter that went with the blessing bean pot.

I love Thanksgiving and being with my family and remembering those who have gone on but, I am thankful everyday for the blessing I receive!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Jolene

My horoscope for today...

Are you investing all your resources in a particular person or situation and receiving nothing back? You've reached the point of diminishing returns. It's time to cut your losses and move on, especially if you're dealing with a love interest.

Bye, bye now Gary....

Tag...You're It!

This was on Chewy's blog this morning and I decided to play along since I can't blog pictures at the moment. I hope everyone that reads my blog will join in the fun and play along. Please let me know if you do so I can go read and learn about you!

Two names you go by (besides your given name):
1. Jo, Jo Jo, Aunt Bo Bo and variations thereof
2. Big Ditty

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Night gown
2. Reading Glasses

Two longest car rides:
1. When I was pregnant with my daughter I rode to Appleton, WI with Jim & Nancy Hall then flew to NJ to meet my childhood penpal, Janet.
2. To Stamford, TX where we lived for almost 3 years; it was a long way home!

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Read, paint, fish & camp
2. Blog

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To get my strength back and not be in so much pain
2. For RJ to be healthy

Three animals you have or have had:
1. Cat - Sparky
2. Black lab - Sam
3. Cat - Baby

Three Things you ate today:
1. coffee - two cups
2. pumpkin pie
3.

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. Staying with RJ
2. Playing with A. Bannana's kids

Two favorite holidays:
1. Easter
2. Valentine's Day

Two favorite beverages:
1. Coffee with cream
2. diet Coke

Three people I tag:
1. A. Bannana
2. Lynetta
3. Lolly

Tag! You're it! Your turn!
Invitation open to anyone else who wants to play.

You are not alone...

This is a song on the Eagles "Long Road Out of Eden" Album ~ You Are Not Alone. Written by Glenn Frey, published by Red Cloud Music (BMI)

I dedicate this song to those who are in sorrow and mourning:

Say goodbye to all your pain and sorrow
Say goodbye to all those lonely nights
Say goodbye to all your blue tomorrows
Now you're standing in the light

I know sometimes you feel so helpless
Sometimes you feel like you can't win
Sometimes you feel so isolated
You never have to feel that way again

You are not alone, you're not alone

Never thought I'd find the road to freedom
Never thought I's see you smile again
Never thought I'd have the chance to tell you
that I will always be your friend.

You are not alone, you're not alone.

Vacation Time!

Chuck and I are anxious for our Arizona vacation; we are leaving Saturday. First we will be in Phoenix, AZ for a week then we will go stay with my sister in Wickenburg and will travel home after Thanksgiving. This will be my first vacation since my three week stay in the hospital (if you can call it that) this spring after the automobile accident. I am not taking my laptop with me but I will have access to my son's computer so I will be checking in from time to time. See you all on the flip side!

Jolene

Waiting in the Weeds...

"I don't know when I realized the dream was over,

there was no particular hour, no given day,

You know it didn't go down in flame.

There was no final scene, no frozen frame,

I just watched it slowly fade away.

And I've been waiting in the weeds,

waiting for my time to come around again.

Hope is floating on the breeze,

carrying my soul high up above the ground.

I've been keeping to myself,

knowing the seasons are slowly changing you.

...And I've been waiting in the weeds,

waiting for the dust to settle down along the back roads,

running through the fields,

lying on the outskirts of this lonesome town..."

from: Waiting in the Weeds - Eagles~Long Road Out of Eden Album

Tinker Bell

Lately, I have had a fascination with Tinker Bell. She has always been a whimsical character for me; just out of reach. In the movie Peter Pan where everyone has to clap to show you believe I have been able to relate to that. I am a person who needs approval not only from others but by myself. It has been the hardest life lesson that I have had so far is to learn to have approval for myself and tell myself that I have done good. So, I am clapping loud and strong because I know I have done good and I finally believe in myself!

A lesson from trees.....

A very old cottonwood tree growing along the Green River in Brown's Park, Utah.

A couple of more trees in all their glory at Brown's Park.

A douglas fir tree growing out of a crevice at Red Canyon lookout along the Flaming Gorge in Utah.

Quaking Aspen trees in my yard in Wyoming.

I don't know why I have been so fascinated with trees lately. It is amazing to me how and where they grow. Some trees are nurtured and groomed while others grow without any nurturing or care and still reach their potential. In some ways, people are like trees. Some are raised with care while others never really have received any nurturing but still grow up to be amazing adults.

I read a quote lately and not sure where I read it but, it went something like this: "Suburbia is where humans plow down trees to make room for houses then name the streets after them."

Hope everyone is having a treeific day!

Jolene

A leaf in the wind....

This is a lone leaf on a tree outside my condo. While observing this leaf, I was reminded of a life lesson I learned many years ago while living in a small community in western Wyoming in the mid 1980's.

From the late 70's through the 80's I was in a very unhappy abusive marriage and I thought I had no alternatives to my situation. My two children were still young, I was uneducated and had very low self-esteem. In the mid 80's we lived in an old country farm house which was drafty and cold. One of my few luxuries was a washing machine but since I didn't have a dryer I had to hang the clothes outside, even in the winter.

It was in one of those winters when I was hanging out clothes to dry in the sub-zero temperatures that I noticed one lone leaf on a limb near the clothes line. Everyday, I looked at that leaf to see if it had blown away and wondered why and how it hung on so long. Through the winter when the cold winds blew at night, I would wonder if my leaf would still be there the next day. To my surprise, every morning, it was still there. I thought that if that leaf could hang on through terrible storms, then I could hang on and never give up hope that one day something better would happen with me.

Then one spring morning while hanging out clothes, I noticed that the leaf was gone; my leaf of hope was gone! I was sad unti I noticed that in its place was a sprout of a new leaf. That new life got me to thinking about my own.

As long as we hang onto the old, new growth cannot sprout. I had to learn to let go of the old feelings and attitudes, I had to let go in order to grow and become a better person, a better mother and provider for myself and children so that I did not have to depend on anyone for my survival.

It took me several years after this lesson in order for me to gain enough strength to leave but I did! Many leaves have blown through my life since then, but I will never forget my leaf of hope.

Jolene