Recent Cards

June seems to be a month full of birthdays and anniversaries - just lots of occasions for making and sending cards.  This is the last graduation card I made.  It's simple with just lots of layering.  The words are from the Stampin' Up! stamp set, Word Play.   I like being able to make the grad cards in the graduate's school colors! 

This card uses the new doily Sizzlet die which has 3 sizes of doilies.  I used the Rose Red Designer paper layered on pretty in pink card stock.  The Happy Birthday stamp is from the Perfectly Penned stamp set.  

To order any of these products or more, click on my web site (top right) to go to my Stampin' Up! web site and then Shop Now. 

Happy Birthday Suetta and Happy Anniversary Kathy & Ron and Dave & Karen!  (popular day!)  I think Kathy & Ron and Karen & Dave were married on the same day!   So I was in Kathy's wedding the same day that Bill was in Karen's wedding. 

Back to the Bridges

Wagon Wheel Bridge

After finding the amazing Kate Shelley High Bridge, I also found these two.  After Googling them, I found that the Wagon Wheel Bridge has been closed since 2007 while the county decides whether they want to replace it for the 20 area people who need to use it or make it part of a recreational trail.  

 

 

  

 

 

This Humpback Bridge was much scarier than it looks in the pictures!  The hump seemed kind of steep as you're driving up on it and then it was . . . well, look at the floor of it.  At first I wasn't going to go over it but knew I would be blogging about it so decided I had to drive over! 

Humpback Bridge

View from the top.

Unusual Sight!

Like I said last post, you never know what you're going to see!  Yesterday I looked out one of our north windows and saw a building going down the road by the cemetery!  We knew this building was going to be moved to Peggy's neighbor's house but didn't know when!  


I was on my way to her house to get the mower anyway so grabbed my camera and took off to watch and get some pictures!

There was a guy on foot a lot of the time to take down road signs and in Peggy's case, her mailbox which luckily came apart easily.  There was a truck that went ahead to the next intersection to block any traffic.    

These guys have been moving houses and buildings for many years - Vote House Moving in nearby Bradgate.  They sure moved down the road quick and quietly, and it was amazing to watch them turn the corner.  Very impressive. 

Reminder that you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

Near our house & the cemetery.

Going over a little bridge (headed east).

Coming north up the road, over a bridge and past Peggy's house.

They had to get way over to miss the mailbox that they did take down.

About to turn the corner.

Turning the corner to go to its new home.

Almost there.

WOW!!

I have been on some adventures this week and it's only Thursday!  I have several good pictures to share over the new few days!  

Mon. I went to Ft. Dodge.   Then we got the call that the parts at Heartland Ag  in Boone were in, so Tues. I went there.  Remember this was where I went a year ago and ended up not coming home for two days!  

This time I did go to Lowe's (the closest one to us is the Boone/Ames one) to check on something, to Sam's Club, and had lunch at Hickory Park which Mom &  I found last trip.

Near Boone it gets pretty hilly and there are lots of trees.  On the way there I saw some brown road signs re: landmarks to drive to and they were on those pretty kind of roads.  You know - the ones you see from the highway that curve and maybe go uphill or downhill and you just want to go see the pretty scenery down that road.  Sometimes if you do it's disappointing, but other times you find some really neat scenery like I did!

On the way home, I decided to check out the back roads off of Highway 30 and turned at the sign that mentioned some bridges.  Water and bridges are usually in pretty areas.

I rounded a corner, going downhill and WOW!!!  A HUGE bridge was in front of me - with a train going across it!  I thought this must be the high bridge we went over when we did the Boone Scenic Railroad trip this time last year!  It turns out that this is a different high bridge - the Kate Shelley High Bridge - one of the highest double tracks in the U.S. and built in 1899 and was 185' high and 2685' long.  Then a new one was built next to it which was finished in 2009 and is 190' high and 2813' long!  If you Google it, there is a lot more information and lots more pictures or click HERE to read a little about it.  Kate Shelley, 17, saved many lives when she warned an oncoming passenger train of a washed out bridge during a stormy night in 1881.  The interesting story is HERE.


I sure wasn't expecting to find a bridge like this!!  Come back to visit to see what else I came across this day.

The Kate Shelley High Bridge

The bridge from a distance

The old and new bridges

 

The Iowa landscape has turned GREEN!

 

Bill had me take pictures of some of the trees and e mail the guy we bought them from.  See the brown spots?  This is happening on just some of the Norway Spruces.  Kevin at Kelly Tree Farm said that this is due to the hot, windy days we've had lately with not enough rain.  He had told us not to over water them which he says a lot of people do.  He says they should be ok if we water every 7-10 days unless we get rain.  Otherwise they look great and have grown a lot already!
  

We have a gas tank problem with our Enclave and it's going in Wed. for repair under warranty.   (this is the 2nd time for this problem - should've stayed with Hondas!)  We have to take it in with an almost empty tank so yesterday I went to Ft. Dodge to get some parts for Bill.  While I was gone he got the call that parts are in at Heartland Ag in Boone - could've done both of these things in the same trip if we would've known a few hours sooner!  So I'll go to Boone today - and we plan to water the trees.

New Stampin' Up! Catalog!

This is a picture I took a few mornings ago.  

Our new Stampin' Up! catalog went live yesterday which is an exciting time for us demonstrators and our customers!  Some of the new and exciting things are a new and improved Stampin' Scrub, a better paper piercing mat, 5 new In Colors, new style firm foam ink pads, some new Big Shot embossing folders and dies, all new double sided 12 x 12 designer papers and lots of new stamp sets!  If you don't already have the new catalog, you can view it on my web site (above) and always shop 24/7 there.

I made 3 of these birthday cards for the triplets' birthday which was yesterday.

I'm babysitting Diane's almost 2 year old last night and today.  It sounds like she's waking up already.  This time she's calling Uncle Bill "papa".  Last night she wanted him to rock her before bed.