Rockin' Box 33

Another incredible house concert...this time the musician was

Rupert Wates, a troubadour of the highest order.

It was a beautiful evening!

For an encore, he played the theme song

from Midnight Cowboy.

(for Rob, of course!)

Rupert Wates - PRAYER - Theta Sound Studio LIVE! - 7/25/14

Brain-Busters!

The Dennis Girls +

 I was invited to join the Dennis Girls at La Madeleine today

(l to r:  Kelly Randles; Shayna White, Peggy's D-in-L; Peggy White; 

Nancy Moran; Barbara Dennis, Queen Mother; & Jane Hager) 

to celebrate Peggy's birthday.

What fun we had passing around our cell phones 
with photos...sweet, sweet time!

Hello

RATON, NM!

Karla came from Denver. I came from Lubbock.
We met in the almost-middle--Raton, New Mexico,

where we dedicated two days and nights to reviving 
our passion for creating altered books.

Rains came & went...

Best chicken-fried steak I've ever eaten!
In Channing, TX...don't blink.

Blue Sky Welcome

Welcome from L.T.

 Inspirations

Altered Book Art Studio

A couple of Joyful Techno-tards...

Other inspirational books for 
reading-eaters at El Matador

Ooops, sorry...wrong room!

Tools of the trade and the finished products...

Accidental Art!

 The Road to Home

Intentional

Unintentional

Love it when that happens!

Fyi

I dreamed I could fly.

I was flapping my arms, elbows out, and I flew, 

not real high but I was flying.

It felt great.

Really!

Remains of the day...

 The Family

 (With Emmy waiting in the wings...)

Berries

Gone

Wild

From 

Now & Then

by Frederick Buechner

"Listen to your life.  

See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. 

In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:  

touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it 

because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, 

and life itself is grace."

Tee-HEE!

Thanks...

I needed that!

Amazing

"This is it...everything fits...all I ever hoped for is here."

From BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY

Henri Nouwen

I found that quote from a blogpost I wrote way back

in December of 2010 when I was writing about "soul-feeling happiness" 

and was experiencing AND noticing it at every turn.

That quote describes exactly how I feel today.

And yet, when I think about it, everything is not perfect, 
settled, easy, going our way, turning out the way we 
would have chosen it to be...at all!

In fact, much is "up in the air", unsettled, challenging, truly not 
going the way we perhaps would have wished.  

Life is not perfect!

And yet, those words are absolutely true!

WOW

Nouwen goes on to say,
"These moments are given to us 
so that we can remember them when God seems far away 
and everything appears empty and useless.  
These experiences are true 
moments of grace." 

HOORAY!

Caleb is here!

And he just gets longer and longer AND cuter and cuter!!

 Time for Bro-Pho-To...oh, Weston!

 Yoo-hoo...Weston!

Okay, we got Weston...where's Sawyer?

(The BLUR in the background, of course!)

Let the games begin!

The bird won.

Later...so sweet.
And then...

Emmy found these cool buttons on her new phone, and she went wild with photo "enhancements". Here are but 2 of many.

 Typical day at the Mulkey-House...

THE AMAZING MULKINIS

RUIDOSO!

I just returned from a grand adventure with my travelling buddy, Marsha. We made our reservations for a week when we both were available, and it was only much later that we realized there was absolutely NOTHING going on in Ruidoso. The races, the theatre, and most of the other Ruidoso "features" don't really get going until Memorial Day weekend. As it turns out, it was the best week possible to enjoy a crowd-free,low-key Ruidoso...just what we needed. As we were heading back to Texas today, with very few vehicles on our side of the road and long processions of Ruidoso-bound folks creeping along on the other side, we congratulated ourselves on such excellent planning. LOL!

Now, here are some Ruidoso highlights, interspersed with 

"Signs & Wonders" from our trip:

 Cottage #7

 at the beautiful Ruidoso Cabins

 Shopping here...

 and eating here

 at Sacred Grounds

Time-out for Signs & Wonders

An amazing afternoon encounter with artist, Pam Reeder:

 (She's the dear friend of a dear friend of mine,

right here in Lubbock...go figure!!)

Then back to Sacred Grounds for this

 and this!

Four decks, rolling river, gorgeous forest view~

INDEED!

Day #2 Cloudcroft

(The Cloud)

 Best Green Chili Cheeseburger ever!

I had eaten one here at Dave's at least six years ago when Rob and I were vacationing in Ruidoso, and I remembered how yummy it was. The burger was still as good, but the original Dave's (truly a little hole-in-the-wall back then) had burned down in 2010, along with the entire strip of shops in which it had stood for many years.

The new version was very nice!

More Signs & Wonders:

 Our "Little Lulu's"

 Thursday morning breakfast at Pena's...
Do not pass up an opportunity to eat at this superb little
restaurant on the way to the Upper Canyon!

 Fran & David Adkins' gorgeous home in the mountains...

"Farkle Fest": We played at least 30 hands of Farkle, and ended up with identical scores! (We plan to submit this amazing feat to "Believe It or Not".)

Our scores for the next round of Farkle were so incredibly high that we had to bring out our calculators!

Aw...the Dan Dee Cabins...where Rob and I stayed on several occasions when we vacationed in Ruidoso. It was so good to be here again and have nothing but lovely memories of our Dan Dee times together. I miss him.

We made friends all over the place...Cindy at Ruidoso Cabins, Cindy at Sacred Grounds, Cassandra at 22 Bath & Body, Pam, the artist and Sarah's new BFF, Alex at Instant Karma, Donna, the ex-educator, jewelry artiste in Cloudcroft,Helen at Michelle's, Kathy at CC's, Sara at Dave's, Alice at Walgreen's, and the nice young Hispanic painter who assisted us with our RedBox endeavors! (We failed to get his name.)

Bye for now...we will be back!