Itty, Bitty Shoes

Last weekend, I was visiting my niece and snapped this photo of my little great-niece's flowery sneakers...

There is something so endearing about little shoes... I have photographed, saved, scrapbooked and journaled about the little shoes of all of my grandchildren. I have pictures of their rainboots, their sandals, their snow boots, and their very first soft baby shoes. I boxed up and saved my granddaughter's little black suede boots she wore while she learned to walk in Greece! I have made complete layouts in their scrapbooks talking about how sweet their little shoes and feet are...

In reality, it goes beyond that...I haven't scrapped it yet, but I have a set of photos of my three grandchildren's shoes piled by the door, that I took the last time they all 3 came to visit for a weekend last month. (They are 21, 19, and 16 years old, now.) I have a couple of photos of my granddaughter's white Nikes that she purposely bought because they are just like her grandpa's. LOL...Larry's size 12 Nikes are huge next to her size 6 Nikes...Those photos are just priceless!

Our Little People grow up so fast. We are all so very busy with day to day life, that time passes by without us realizing all the small things that we may never see again. I think that is a big reason why I take snapshots of little shoes.

Oh...also, probably because I am myself, a real shoe person!

Yoga for Life

Somewhere around my 50th birthday, my daughter gave me a yoga mat and video. She assured me that yoga was something I needed for de-stressing and keeping my body limber. I took it to heart and have been practicing yoga fairly routinely ever since. I have had a couple of yoga instructors I really loved, a couple that were ok, and one I just could not forgive for replacing my Favorite Yoga Teacher, Brian. But I keep it up here at home, when I do not go to classes at the gym.

A few years ago, my brother (the Doctor--as opposed to the Dentist or the Teacher...lol) told me of an article he had read about the correlation between how easy or difficult it is for a person to get up off the floor and how long they can expect to live. As I intend to live to 109, I figured I had better get after it!

Although, as in any exercise routine, the first few weeks of yoga practice left me with a subtle all-over achiness, I have never, ever regretted it. Staying limber and pushing my body to bend and twist have been extremely beneficial for playing with little grandchildren and great nieces and nephews, as well as for gardening. I have to admit that in my late 40s, once I got down on the ground, I would look around to be sure there was not anything else I needed to accomplish while in that position! Not so much, anymore--even at my ripe old age!

When I began snowboarding at 40, my instructor assured me that I would hate it the first full season, but that after that, if I stuck with it, I would really love it....Yoga is kind of that way. Bending and stretching muscles that have been left to their own devices for years and years will be unpleasant for awhile, but you will be amazed at the difference in how you will feel if you keep at it.

I have various yoga dvds in my library and tried them all. But this is my favorite. It has an AM and PM practice; both of them I highly recommend.

The Owl

I went to visit my niece and my sister, Toni, in Conrad last week.

Toni was complaining that her pretty blue Subaru was getting pooped on by birds...and not just little pigeon poop...great big globs of bird poop. She was bound and determined to find out the culprit, and was fairly certain it was the owl she kept hearing hoot at night.

The last evening I was there, we had a picnic in their side yard. Toni suddenly got excited and pointed out to me (just in time to see his huge wingspread) that an owl had flown from the tree in their yard, to a neighbor's house across the street, and landed on a pole. He stayed there the remainder of our time outside, so we were able to get a good look at him, and lots of photos.

In all my years, although I have heard them many evenings, I had never seen an owl in the wild....it was very cool!