June 2016

 It's mostly about me this month... which feels kind of weird... but! it is my birthday month and this year Jaime gave me a huge surprise and bought me a telescope (something I've been wanting for 10+ years, ever since I broke the one I had). Not only was it a telescope but an awesome one! The pictures aren't great because I was holding my phone up to the eye piece to take them but I've seen the planets with awesome detail, several nebulas and a few galaxies.  Galaxies!--My scope is off a little bit so the automatic alignment doesn't go precisely where it is supposed to, so I have to search the sky a bit to find what I'm looking for.  When I finally had the Andromeda galaxy in the eye piece I actually gasped out loud, it was truly breathtaking. (Sorry no pic of the galaxy, I couldn't get a good shot.)

The moon, obviously.

Blurry Jupiter but it was the best I could get.

Blurry Saturn but in the second picture I did manage to get some of Saturn's coloring. Through the eyepiece you can actually see a couple of the breaks in Saturn's rings.

I made this frame and map.  I saw this idea while cruising the internet and immediately I wanted to do it.  We have actually been to Arizona, New Mexico, Arkansas and Missouri but we neglected to take pictures in those states.  As you can see by the age of those in the photographs it has been a while since we visited Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Louisiana.  Time to go back!

My biggest accomplishment of the month? I built a fence! Yes, me, all by myself! (well, I had Cameron hold a few things in place here and there but he was such a butt about it that his help doesn't count).  It is gorgeous! 

My fence, Kaitlin, and Shanae Tay.

The fence is the biggest accomplishment of the month but I also replaced two of the pillars on the arbor swing and re-leveled the fire pit area.  Those weren't as much work as the fence but they still were a lot of work and time and now the backyard is lovely.

Not About Me:

Kaitlin's church teacher told me that she was filling out a Getting to Know You paper for church. It asked the question: "Where in the world would you like to go most?" Her answer?

"Wherever my Dad is."