How Great Thou Art

I love American Idol...and the year Carrie Underwood was a contestant, I was a fan of hers from the beginning.

I just saw and watched this, her rendition of 'How Great Thou Art'...and it made me cry! Wow!

Word Art

I learned to do a form of 'word art' tonight! How fun this was. I can see that Emerson's name shows up better since it is light behind the letters...but I love the primary colors in Benjamin's jacket...

First I did them separately....
I need to branch out with my picture-taking...

or

I need to see my little men more so I can get more photos!

Creatures of habit

In July of 2003, we bought a 2003 Silver Honda Accord with black interior and a 5-speed manual transmission.

In April, 2011, we bought a 2011 Silver Honda Accord with black interior and a 5-speed manual transmission.

Creatures of habit...

GRITS

Emily became 'GRITS' to me during this trip to California. She came to visit with her mama (Patti, my cousin) and her sister (Elizabeth). We, of course, went to San Francisco, which is where this photo was taken. Why GRITS? Emily constantly wore this baby-blue baseball cap that said Girls Raised In The South...GRITS!
She's grown up a little bit...and now she's the Prom Queen in her Texas town...My sweetheart youngest niece is a beauty from the inside out...
I don't have a clue what this lucky guys name is...but I'm sure he knows he struck gold taking my niece to the prom!
Stunning.....
I know my cousin, Patti, is a bit proud of her baby girl!

She was proud of her before she became the prom queen and got a 2 year scholarship to the junior college of her choice!!! GRITS and Patti were here at Christmas...which is when this photo was taken.
Elizabeth, Patti, and GRITS

Elizabeth, Patti, and GRITS (I don't think I need to say where this picture was taken.)
This lucky guy better not have driven fast...He has precious cargo in the passenger seat!
Ahhh, GRITS and her Aunt Judy, that's me.

I love you, GRITS!

Little Bonnalou turns 84!

My mom...turns 84 years young today! April 12, 1927 Lil Bonnalou came into this world... On April 12, 1928, her first birthday, she was given this rocking chair...which had been given to her father, my grandfather, on his first birthday in 1902! I have this chair now...never refinished...by choice. I look at all the worn places and know my mom and my grandfather wore that paint off...
Mom and Bear... Um? Does this have something to do with why Lindsey and Donnie call each other 'Bear'?
The King Family! I think this was in 1944, sitting on Mimi and Granddad's back porch in Texas. That's my Aunt Jane sitting next to my mom... I didn't know they ever had a cat? Mom, what's the story with the cat????
Lil Bonnalou grew up and married one of the best men on the planet, my dad...John R. My dad had the patience of Job...which, I might whisper, he needed since the grown up Bonnie Lou didn't have an abundance of. Actually, even at 84, she still a might bit impatient!
Little Jane Lee always loved John R...who was going to become my Daddy! He loved 'Slim' too...
This has always been one of my favorite pictures of my parents...only they weren't my parents - yet.
Married life brought dreams of being a cowboy and a cowgirl...just kidding. I have no idea. But they both loved westerns. My dad even wrote a book, which was rejected at the time, and now I'm starting to re-type it so we can resubmit it ... to see if it can be published.
I came along in 1954...

John David came along 5 1/2 years later...

In 1976, Joshua came into his Saddie's life as her first grandchild. She was so happy to have a grandson, but she did NOT want to be called 'Grandma', 'Grandmother', or anything of the sort. She said it sounded too old? She decided to be Sad Sack, which was her CB handle. Along the way, Sad Sack got shortened to Saddie by her granddaughter, Lindsey!

You readers of the JohnstonChronicles may notice that Saddie is trying to fit into the rocking chair she received as a 1 year old. I didn't have the heart to tell her she didn't fit. But...take note of how strong the little rocking chair is!
This would probably be in the summer of 1981. Lindsey was born in February of 1981. Here are 4 generations... Mimi, Saddie, Me (the new Mimi), and Lindsey!
Gabrial came along in 1978... He was Saddie's second grandchild and her second grandson.
Even when they had chicken-pox, she loved to hold them and play games with them...
You can really see Gabe's chicken-pox here!
I'm not sure when this was...or even if I was there... Did I take this picture? Here's Uncle Charlie, Saddie, Aunt Jane, John David...and on the floor is Becky and Patti!
Time passed and Saddie entered the computer age... especially loving to play games....
She came to visit when we had our foreign exchange student from Japan, Misuzu. Misuzu was a beautiful singer and pianist...and Saddie and I met in southern California to hear Misuzu sing in a choir.
Saddie came with her little sister, my Aunt Jane....We went to San Francisco and played the part of some great tourists!
Fast forward... 2003...Lindsey and Donnie got married in January... Gabrial and Emily got married in March...and Saddie made them both. In 2005, Joshua and Erica got married...and, of course, Saddie was there. Thalia became Saddie's first great-grandchild....her first great-granddaughter! "Mercy!"
Ahhh... Saddie the drill sergeant! Just kidding! She was supervising wood-splitting, I think.
On this trip to California, all the ladies went out one day for Japanese food. Now, Saddie is a...well, she's a creature of habit to the nth degree...so I was proud of her for trying Japanese food. She decided to show Thalia how she could use chop sticks...only she had to have a little 'do-hickey' to hold them together.

"Oh, mercy!" thought Thalia.
A group shot of the ladies :)
I don't remember when this was...must be Christmas since I have on a sweater...and Saddie, a sweatshirt... She always loves it when she has my brother and I together... I totally understand!
Fast forward to this Christmas....Christmas, 2010. John David and Becky surprised her...and everyone else (except for my guy and I) by flying in to join the gang.
Now that she's the proud great grandmother of 3, she enjoyed watching her little men run around...play... and have a squabble or two!
Benjamin was eager to give her kisses...
and let her rock him to sleep...

84 years young!

I love you!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Baseball cards

My little men are almost 2 years old! I cannot imagine what life was like without them, but at the same time I think, "HOW can they already be 2?"

Lindsey is thinking about having a baseball theme for Benjamin...and asked me about making baseball cards. What a great excuse for experimenting with PSE9! I found an old football card of Gabe's..from when he was in PEE WEE football...and just copied the design. I need to do some tweaking on it...the baseball, for example, has a white border which I want to get rid of... but I was happy!
I could also do a little different design with a name at the bottom...

I'm loving this!

Totti

We have a new family member...a canine...

He lives in Korea...

with Master Addison!

Totti... he's about 180 degree different dog than his predecessor, Vito. I'm sure Addison thought about his poor Uncle Ron who Vito bit...and decided he needed a totally different type of dog.

I haven't personally met Totti, seeing as he's in Korea, and I'm here in California...but I'm wondering...

Is he a labradoodle?

He sure looks sweet...

Another collage

My guy is coming home from Texas tonight:) He and Joshua have had a great time and I know our Moms have loved having them there.

This morning, I sat around drinking some coffee and learned about 'clipping masks'...which is basically how I did this collage... I realized the possibilities are endless knowing how to do this! Just thought I'd post it!

PSE9 said this was a 5 x 7 size, but when I sent it to Costco to develop...and put it a 5 x 7, part of it would be cut off...so I'm not printing it! Oh well...definitely blogworthy!

Easter Cards

Here it is...April!

Soon it will be Easter...and as I was looking around at some of my Photoshop sites today, one of them had these Easter card templates. So... I thought, "I should try that!"

I had edited this photo of the boys...what you can't see is that they're both sitting on little potty seats...outside...in the driveway! Benjamin was truly sitting on his...nothing stopping him from actually using it...but Emerson was just sitting on it so his Mimi could try and take a picture of her two little men!

Back to the Easter card...I decided to put this photo on the card...
This card was best suited for a single shot...so, being an equal opportunity Mimi, I did one of each! I was limited in which photos I could use because of the color...
My little men are such great subjects!

I wish I could see them.................

Happy Easter...before too long!

Early Saturday morning

My guy is enroute to LAX where he'll meet up with our eldest baby boy...then they're off to Texas together. I know they've both been looking forward to it!

My guy's plane left at 6 a.m., so I was back home from the airport by 5:30...couldn't decide what to do at such an early hour on a Saturday...so I pulled out PSE9. Surprised?

I just downloaded some 'storyboards' which is what all these are done on - except the single photo of Benjamin... but this is what I've been doing for the past 2 hours...it's only 7:23 a.m. right now.
Benjamin and his mama...
I don't think I need to say who this is since his name is on the photo! I just learned how to turn the type this way....
The Emerson King...in his guitar shirt. I had dressed him this day...and was pulling out a different shirt for him to wear. NO, he wanted his guitar shirt...I tried to convince him to wear the other, but it wasn't going to happen without a battle...so the guitar shirt it was!

I have a feeling I'll spend a bit too much time on PSE9 while my guy and my baby boy are playing cowboys!