Personalized gift from Jorja, Corbin and Azure Wallace. 2013

Our little French grandson Aymeric sent us a card 2013

Little Visitors. Eli and Everette Wouters.

one wants covers, the other doesn't.

He ended up in doorway around 6am...  This is one moving boy.  (Everette)

Done with breakfast..time for games.

Waiting for dad to come so he can sing Happy Birthday to him he told me..   He eats more than grown men.   lol

Mary Tom Logan LaKayla Julie and Ruddie Thanksgiving 2013

fire picture

I've been thinking I need to find a permanent home for the picture that tells a story.  I might give it to the beautiful church in Texas or Delta church.

Third Grader in Grand Junction

Different places in Grand Junction main street, these are displayed from kids.  Grand Junction is such a classy cultured city

Lost my Mother's rosary

I ask for prayers to find my Mother's rosary.  I misplaced it after my dad's funeral in Feb 2012 and still can not remember where I put it.  I truly miss it and wish I could find it again.  Thanks for your help.

My Dad

9/21/11

Tonight I sit here 1000 miles away from where my dad is in the hospital. He was given a pint of blood tonight as his hemoglobin was very low. Bleeding internally and blood pressure is very low, too.

He is going to be 87 years old on Sept 26, 2011. A long healthy life he has been blessed with. Last Saturday he fell crushing and fractured a vertebrae in his back (L-2). Painful and alone Saturday night he sat all night. He lost a 2nd wife in June 2011 to cancer. No matter the age of a parent it is always sad to know that their time in this world is nearing closure. Realizing that for him the sadness, aloneness and issues age brings will end and the peace we all long for is waiting; still doesn't make it easy to let go. Who knows he might be here in 10 years as his family history is for a very long life. But the sadness in my heart tonight seems to tell me different and distance makes it harder.

God Bless
Mary

He died Feb 16th, 2012 of pneumonia.  I miss you Dad.. Love you and give Mom and June a hug from me.

Million Dollar Hwy

Million Dollar Hwy on Dangerous Drives

Locket with rosary inside

I was searching for something on Ebay one day and came across someone selling this item. It is so much prettier in person. It is a locket with a little rosary inside.





I put my cell phone by it for comparison. My wedding ring is inside the rosary.

Happy Birthday Katie James our Princess

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR DEAR LITTLE KATIE JAMES SNYDER. Sunday January 2nd 2011 and you are now 3years old.





Katie and her family


Tell Santa that daddy is acting silly.


You felt his cuff because you said 'we matched'


You little jacket does look like Santa's cuffs. You are signing a card for Santa.


You are the Princess!

Piano Players at 16th St Mall in Denver

Michael Miller plays one of the pianos that will be on the mall until June 18 and return later in summer. (Lyn Alweis, The Denver Post)

 

Meagan Wagner plays one of about a dozen local-artist-decorated pianos placed along Denver's 16th Street Mall by the Downtown Denver Partnership. The pianos are creating musical moments along the city's pedestrian spine. (Lyn Alweis, The Denver Post)

Music has always played a part on Denver's 16th Street Mall, that tree-lined corridor of diamond-shaped granite slabs that has acted as downtown's pedestrian spine for nearly three decades.

But between the manufactured angst blaring from garish eateries like the Hard Rock Cafe, and the acoustic anthems of gutter-punk guitarists, drummers, saxophone players and other street performers, there's a relatively new sound: the plinking of piano keys.

"We're always looking for things that really give people some spontaneous enjoyment on the 16th Street Mall," said Susan Rogers-Kark, vice president of the Downtown Denver Partnership, "something they wouldn't normally see somewhere else."

The partnership has found it in
the "Your Keys to the City" program, which has rolled out nearly a dozen upright pianos and placed them every few blocks along the mall's 16-block span. Painted with bright, playful colors and natural motifs by local artists, the pianos (nine of which are active) invite anyone to approach, sit down and play.

And judging by the buzz the pianos have created along the mall and its businesses, the program is a success.

"I only saw the pianos recently, but I haven't had an opportunity to play because every one of them has been swamped," said Brandon Blair, a 24-year-old Community College of Denver student, who was tracing the notes to K-Ci & JoJo's "All My Life" on his way toward campus earlier this week. "I saw my chance, so I jumped on it."

Blair is just the type of person the partnership wants to attract, a casual observer magnetized by the novelty of a random piano sitting among the rivers of tourism and commerce along the mall.

Inspired by similar programs in London and elsewhere, "Your Keys to the City" was tested last winter and brought back for a May 21-June 18 spring season. After its current stint on the mall, the motley assortment of instruments (acquired through donations and on Craigslist) will be stored, repainted and retuned for a summer season in late July or early August.

"They're all about 100 years old, at least," said piano repairman Stu Puls, a 27-year-old music business major at the University of Colorado Denver. Puls was busy repairing a 1908 Walters Piano Co. model in front of the Denver Pavilions earlier this week, surrounded by a daunting assortment of tiny, multicolored wooden hammers. "I use a Pierce Piano Atlas to look up serial numbers and ages, although some of them are hard to find parts for," he said.

Moving and maintaining the pianos was a bit of a challenge, but the Downtown Denver Partnership spent less than $2,000 acquiring them. So far, they've resisted both weather and vandalism.

"I think people look at it and respect that someone did that work, and since it's public art, we want to make sure it stays accessible," said the partnership's Rogers-Kark. "We don't roll the pianos in every night. We want (people) to know they're out there, day after day."

The pianos provide a uniquely functional canvas for local artists who donate their talent and time in painting them.

"Denver is still kind of a sporty cowtown, but I love being in this city at this point, because things like this are really helping shift us to a much more savvy, cultural town," said artist Laurie Maves, who has so far painted two pianos for the program.

The mall's free shuttle buses ferry an average 47,000 people per weekday, and another 35,000 pedestrians stroll the mall daily, so it's no surprise the pianos attract classically trained virtuosos who bowl over visitors with their prowess.

But when artist Marcella Nordbeck went to check the piano she had painted, which was at 16th and Welton streets, she noticed a different kind of player.

"Probably half of the people playing were homeless, and that really moved me, because it made me wonder about their story and how they got to this point in life," she said. "Obviously it takes money and lessons to play, and it's not what you expect to see. We tend to have preconceived notions about who people are and how they've found themselves in that position. It was very humbling and enlightening."

For Paul Johnson and his wife Margaret — a retired couple visiting from Manchester, England — the pianos are a hint of Denver's character and soul.

"It's a bit of cliche, but it says to me, 'What a cool city!' " Johnson, 68, said as he picked out the notes to "God Save the Queen" in front of a Starbucks earlier this week. "I think it's just absolutely brilliant."

For the past two years, the Downtown Denver Partnership has been examining much larger, more expensive ways to revitalize the aging mall's transportation and infrastructure — with some estimates ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars — but it should remember the lessons a city is learning from these pianos.

Community is as simple as a group of people sharing something publicly. Commerce isn't the only reason to make public spaces more beautiful. And music — or least the desire to create and share it — is universal.

John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com

Laminin

A video well worth watching. Interesting this 'laminin' ....watch and learn. It will be explained 3 minutes into the video.

Louie Giglio - Laminin from thefacelesswarrior on GodTube.

or if you are too impatient to listen to the video go here:

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/laminin.asp