THE ROCK COLLECTOR

MY mom is a rock collector.  She doesn't know when or why she started collecting rocks, but one day she heard herself ask a friend who was going to Switzerland to bring her back a rock. Her friend looked at her like she was CRAZY but she brought her a rock back from some famous MOUNTAIN.  Then, another time her minister and his wife was going to Africa to visit and do some work, again she heard those strange words come out of her mouth about bring back a rock.  They brought her back a lovely piece of marble with the date written on it from a village they had visited. It was wonderful....so the tradition began.  Everytime people she knows goes somewhere she asks to a rock.  We have rocks from everywhere....we try to put them in special places around our yard, and in our house. We have a whole basketfull of rocks from Glacier Bay in Alaska, that Mom's brother brought back to her a few months ago.  Sometimes Mom even forgets where they come from. She asked her son in law to bring her back a rock from Iraq but that must have been a big no no cos he just brought himself back and that was a million trillion times better than a rock.

Mom really likes Geodes.  That is Iowa's Rock.  People come down to southeast IOwa where we live and try and find them. They are hard to find, unless you know a hunting spot...usually it is on someone's land and there is a big sign telling you this

Its really hard for mom when she see's Geodes laying in the Creek and this sign is posted....really really hard.
Anyway our yard is full of Geode's that her and dad have collected over the years, and she has them all around her flower beds.  Geode's hate weedeater string.....Mom uses alot of that string in the summertime.

The red one doesn't live at our house.  Anyway Murphy and Stanley went on vacation in Oregon so Mom asked them to bring her back a rock.  They sent her pictures instead although we are waiting on a really big rock that would need a UPS truck or maybe a SEMI to bring to our house.  They sent us this picture of these rocks they found when they were hiking....and they told me it reminded them of us.

Their Momma said a group of rocks is called a Cairns and are used to tell hikers which way to go...mysteriously though there was no trails around, um....maybe these little rock piles were just reminding Murphy and Stanley of the friends waiting for them once they got home.

Have a great day,
stella rose
ps everyone is slowly on the mend.