Decorating

I have to put this up today. We finally got our tree done last week. Keith and Liz decorated it with us. I did mention not to put to many ornaments near the bottom of the tree. BECAUSE Chloe thinks it is her personal play area.

The pictures aren't in order. We found Jonah laying on a rather bumpy quilt. When I lifted the quilt there was Jade. He crawls under the quilt during the night, to stay warm I believe. He looks a little scrunched here, but doesn't seem to mind.
Here is Chloe, she bats at the tree and knocks down the ornaments, garland and what lights are there. So we now leave the bottom of the tree bare. She is in her own "personal" space, even with the presents under (which are not in this photo).

Really!!

Shame on me. IT has been 2 months since I blogged. Not that I don't have anything to say, I do. I just haven't. There is so much going on here, just trying to go through things and the time it takes. When Dan starts going through things in the garage I feel i should help him. It goes so much faster with 2 of us. But alas, things in the house do not get accomplished, and then my energy runs out. I really need to get rid of things in the house, also. Thin things out a bit, and life is much more enjoyable. I have made it my goal not to clutter 2 of the bedrooms, so they are available for company. The third room I use for my crafts, but also need to keep it clear enough to put down some airbeds for company. Soooooooo, I am also arranging that room.. But as we have gone through some of my mom's boxes, we are finding a wealth of photos from my dad's side of the family, my childhood and many others, so I cannot just get rid of those, that is creating another issue of where to put them. I just continue to arrange and get rid of things. Little by little we are getting there. Getting the car in the garage was a major feat, it was my idea and we did it!!! Yeah!
Dan has been working in the part that is his little shop area and rearranging it so it is more useful to him.

Well time to get to some sewing. I have so much I want to blog about, maybe later today I can, we'll see how the day goes.

Today

Today is Friday, Oct. 15. We have been gone since the 1st and will not be home until Tue. or Wed. We are thankful that a neighbor was a good friend before he was a neighbor, as he is going in and taking care of our cats and keeping an eye on our place. Keith was there last week-end so he checked things out.
We are on the last leg of our journey, at my sisters in Oregon. Sunday we will go to our place at the lake, and then either Tue. or Wed. we will go home and it is time.

We enjoyed our stay in Victoria. The last day we were there it rained in the evening. We watched whales, while standing in front of the ferry, on the way to Port Angeles. Stayed in and B&B there. I am afriad that B&B's are a little pricey for us
We enjoyed the sight seeing and will post pics when we return home.

The beach was nice and we enjoyed early morning walks at low tide. That is Dan and I enjoyed the walks, while the others slept.
Even though fun, I am ready to be home again.

God Bless

Yikes!

It has been a while since my last post.
We were busy while Ryan and Elizabeth were home. We did some boating and had a BBQ here for them and their friends, which was nice. It was good that his family also lives in same town so they could visit with them without going out of town. I let them use my cell phone while they were here and while at home they also used our car. It made life a little easier for them.

We have been sorting through things we still have. I sometimes just want to chuck it all, but over 20 years of school supplies are good for someone else, sooooooooooo~~ I will do another yard sale. When I do this one I will send a flier to my former supervisor and she will send it out to the prek supers in the district, who in turn will pass it on to their staff. I have big books ( the 3 ft x 2 ft ones), books with tapes/cd's for the listening centers and some games and puzzles. Of course, I will be saving somethings for when the grandkids are here.

I finished my quilt top, got the batting and backing. One thing left, I need to go in and find out had to do the final boarder. The instructor has given me her number so I can call and go to her house. When the quilt is done it will be for my grandson to use when they come to visit. I have a kitty fleece for my granddaughter, that she really likes. That way they both have something to use when they come to visit.

We had the dog put to sleep. Even though she was old (15 1/2 years) and not doing very well~~ it still was a bit emotional for us. At one time I would have put her down with no reservations. Kandy was my folks dog and she would have made a great junk yard dog. She could be rather mean. I believe she may have been that way because my parents were elderly and she felt protective. Living here for over 10 years mellowed her, though I still would never trust her around the grandkids. When our youngest two kids were in high school there always were lots of kids here, plus parties (well supervised of course.) The kids were involved in leading cell groups as were many of their friends in high school~~ so we also hosted cell groups here. For those who don't know: Cell groups are individual Bible Study groups led by high schoolers , with an adult advisor from our church. The kids also had a once a week meeting for all the cell leaders for training sessions (not here).
So the dog just got used to people being here.

We now are getting ready to head up north to Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island. Dan and I are going on vacation with his sister and her husband. On the way home we will visit with my sister and then spend a couple days at our place at the lake, then home we will come. We will have lots of pictures to share. And I am so looking forward to some cooler weather. We will do a little shopping tomorrow. There is a new Kohl's in town and we went there today to check it out. Tomorrow is the big grand opening, so we have picked out a couple things we want. One being a tote I can carry that will be big enough for the camera's~ icluding the video camera, plus my wallet. I need a nice black sweater to wear and we found one, plus a couple shirts Dan picked out (for him). We will use the discount coupon's we received in the mail. An extra 30% off of everything, after the early bird discount sounds pretty good to us. We have picked out what we want so it will be easy to go in and get the items.

In the states

I posted the web of the event we went to for Ryan. It is a broadcast of the event so it is 144 minutes long. Just watch the first several minutes for the entertainment part. The aeriel acrobats are spectacular. After the ceremony there was a reception and some book signing. I will write more later and post some photos when I have more time, on the event. His parents and 2 of his sisters also were there. I will say that Hollywood is really overrated. The website also has some other info on it about the event and the contests they sponser.



http://www.writersofthefuture.com/



The most exciting part was getting to see Elizabeth and Ryan for the first time in a little over the year. We were and are excited for Ryan winning (he didn't win the grand prize) last year and being eligible to attend the conference. It should be a huge boost for his career in illustration. He is now published and did a book signing at the reception and at Boarders (Sun.) in Pasadena.



After we met them at the hotel (Hollywood Roosevelt), Ryan got settled, took them out to eat, etc. We then drove Elizabeth to Santa Barbara to stay with her brother (they went to an event BBQ in Hollywood on

Thurs.) We spent the night in Santa Barbara and spent most of the next day with Elizabeth. Even though the weather was a little on the chilly side, we (Dan & I) enjoyed it as it was 110 at home and we weren't looking forward to going back to that!

We went back on Sat. to get Elizabeth and then on to Hollywood until Monday.

Today we will be getting things for a BBQ here on Thurs. and food/gas for boating on Wed. I will write more later. It is going to be a full week. They leave next Tue. for Korea again. We will take them to San Francisco airport instead of L.A. It will be an easier commute. L.A. traffic, I have nothing good to say about it.

June & July madness

I haven't had much time to blog the last few weeks, having company for much of the time. I have posted some photos of the goings on here. Click view all images for a better look.
Our oldest daughter came out from Colorado for a week long visit, with the kids. We enjoyed the visit very much as were sad when it was time for them to go home. While here we had fun. The kids played in the little blow up pool outside when it was hot, and met the neighbor kids (close in age) and had fun playing with them. We went boating, which was good for the the kids this time. We found a beach at which to stop and play: we also took along food for lunch. Brandon busied himself making a fort by dragging long branches from the beach to the tree we sat under. Needless to say that just a couple weeks later his fort was under 6-8 feet of water (the lake fills up from some upper reservoirs that fill from the snow melt). Caitlin was busy playing in the water and having grandpa bury her in the sand. It was a great time.

The day after the kids went home, our niece from Ohio came out for a 4 week visit. Just 19 and just graduated from high school. While here we did some shopping and she got a new hair do. We went to Santa Barbara to visit with Keith and she loves the ocean. Now she lives close to Lake Erie so it isn't as if she never sees large waters, she does, but then the ocean is different. Shortly after getting to SB we went to the beach and she found a shark's tooth (which we made a necklace she designed, after we got home). We went to the Santa Barbara zoo, which is right there with an oceans view. Saw a school of porpoises outside the jetty and a 'Sailing 101" class in the harbor. She got to do a few things for the 1st time, (due to economic reasons) like eating dinner on the wharf at a seafood resturant that we like. We visited a maritime museum and just hung out and had fun. At the beach park, where Keith works, is some natural flowing oil/tar, coming from the sides of the cliffs. There is quite a history with the tar and the native Americans that lived there.

She went to our youth group one night, and had a blast. There was a big 4th of July picnic at church and while it was a long day, later she was able to have some fun with the youth there and loves to play volleyball.

Some of Keith's friends came over and they went to a teahouse, and that was also enjoyable for here. At home, we took her boating.

Keith came down and we went boating again and he did some kneeboarding, she just wanted to swim~~ having dome some tubing the week before. The also went out and hung out with some of his friends.

We went to Kings Canyon National Park so she could see some of the 'big trees' and we also went to Boyden Caves. That was something we hadn't done and it was time well spent. Though I must say that the hike to the caves does have a short but very steep part, and I did have to stop to catch my breath. It was a guided tour and the caverns were amazing.

We took her to San Francisco Airport for her flight back to Ohio last Wednesday. We missed her soon afterwards. Stopped at IKEA on the way home for a few things. We then stopped to visit with oldest son, in Morgan Hill. It was a hard day for him, his cat of 15 years had kidney failure and he was having her put down. She was the sweetest cat, so friendly and loving. We will all miss her.

While doing all this I started a quilting class. I missed the 1st class (vacation) and the last class (Santa Barbara) but will be able to make them up. The instructor has as afternoon class also, and the next 3 weeks there is class. I talked with her, and if I am unable to make those classes (which I will do 2) I have the option of setting up a time and going to her house to finish. Which may be the case as the week of the last class I have jury duty, so that is a wait and see case. I will get my sewing done up to where I am suppose to be, having the center of my quilt pieced together, the next classes will be doing the boarders adding the backing (& batting) and edging.

Now that I have done an update, I will spend a little time catching up on other friends blogs. Having company was great, but my niece can spend hours on the computer~~

It has been and busy but fun time, and now it is just us 2 again and that is ok also!

Will write more about this trip later. It was fun.

Clearing oout.

We cleared out my mom's storage, finally. She has been gone for 4 1/2 years now, it was time. I also figured it was time for me to start thinning out some of my school supplies. This corner, near our garage, is what it looked like the day before the yard sale. Boxes of things! Some were my mom's, not important heirlooms or anything like that, just stuff. Some of it my school supplies. Things I wasn't going to use again. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate teaching for some 22 years. Some of the books I had multiple copies of for my listening center. Yes the district does give you money for supplies, but somethings you just buy out of your own pocket because they don't have purchase orders for those stores. It isn't like you spend it all at one time, it is an accumulation of years of collecting.

We set up the storage when my dad passed away so the 11 1/2 years of dust kicked my asthma up real bad, to the worst it has ever been. It has been very windy here so with the dust and pollen I am looking forward to some cleaner air for a week.

This is the day before the yard sale, setting up. Dan took the (one day a week he works) day off to help me set up and it did take most of the day. The tall book shelf ended up full of some of my curriculum books and children's books I have collected over the years for my classroom. I sent a flier to my former supervisor and she e-mailed it to staff, etc. in the program. Many teachers came out and went through the books, one stayed for 3 hours going through everything. I made a good amount, and that at selling the children's books for .25 cents each. That wasn't half my books. I need to finish going through things and will repeat this in the fall, a couple weeks after school has started. After the initial set up of the classrooms and meeting parents, etc. All the things that go on when school resumes. Except for the curriculum books that didn't sell, everything went to the Salvation Army after the yard sale (the same day). The curriculum books I will sell for $10.00 to a friend of my son's who is studing Child Development.

We cleaned out the shelves in my son's former room and took out the wall to wall shelves and hung them in the garage. Of course that meant cleaning out the going through what was there. Looks much better. Found his legos and washed them in the bathtub. Along with the legos, we found the binder with all the instructions for every set he received. That was a pleasant find as I had forgotten we had set that up for him. It will make it nice for our grandson to be able to reconstruct legos as he can look at the instructions.I still have so much to do, it seems unreal. However, we take a little at a time, and it will get done.

I subbed last week, and when I got home I told my husband I didn't want to do it anymore. Of course, I had decided when I retired last year, that one year of subbing was all I was going to do. I will always miss the children, but I am done with teaching and so far don't really miss much of it. Just the fun parts of activities with the kids.

We now are ready to leave for a weeks vacation tomorrow. We have the boat all hooked up to the truck, the truck is loaded with some of my mom's furniture that will go to my brother. I am looking forward to some boating and relaxing and catching up on some reading. We have no internet or tv at the lake. I can't see paying for cable when we aren't there all the time. We use our cell phones and don't have a landline connection anymore.

It is late and I am still not sleepy so I guess I had better go double check my last minute list.

God Bless I will post some fun pictures when we return.

Kings Canyon

Went to Kings Canyon Nation Park the other day. I have never been there before, and after living here since 1993 it is about time. We took a picnic lunch and just enjoyed the day. However, I must say that if I am going to do any hiking where there is still snow (packed by tourists) I am going to have to get some boots that have traction. I really don't like sliding when I didn't intend to. The first is a view from the road. We went to "Roads End", which is the name of the end of the park. Beyond that is hiking and you need a permit for many of the areas. Below is the Kings River.

I took this one of Dan, while I was inside a fallen tree.

He wanted to get close to the river for some good shots. I need to download his pics now. You can see how treacherous the river is, and this is not the worst we saw of the white water.

Saw lots of the bear signs.

This is the famous "General Grant" tree. The trees were impressive, but after living in and amongst the 'Big Tree's in the sierras, they are just as impressive. I can honestly say I have seen the largest trees in the world, and my family also.
Grizzley Falls.

All in all it was a great day. The caverns opened the weekend after we were there, so we are thinking when my niece comes out this summer (from Ohio) we may just take a trip there a explore the caverns.

Garden items

Planted some carrot seeds earlier in the year. Thought it might be time to pull some. We have been using them, and they are good. However, since we haven't planted carrots before we did not realize they need to be thinned in the garden. You can see the results. We even got a white carrot (albino). Needless to say as it is void of color, it is also void of any kind of flavor, totally tasteless, not even a hint of any flavor. That is a first for us. I will get a little more ambitious next week and pull some more.

This is one of my favorite roses. The blossoms are big, when fully opened. This one is about half way open. I heard a knock on my door last weekend. A gentleman and his young son were driving by and saw the roses, he asked if he could cut one for a bouquet he was putting together for his mother-in-law as it was her birthday. That was admirable of him since most people just take one as they walk by. He was, also, teaching his son a lesson about asking (the boy was around 7). The rose is on the corner, next to the street.




On a more somber note.
We were going downtown to purchase a book. It had rained quite a lot on Tuesday so I didn't want to go out, it was quite a storm. Wednesday they said more rain, but we weren't expecting the same. As we left the house it was beginning to shower some, but not to heavy. By the time we got to the freeway it was a very heavy downpour. Fortunately for us the traffic was light as the shock we were about to get was incrediable. Shortly after entering the freeway Dan made a commet and started to slow down, I looked up and saw this car coming right at us as it was spinning on the freeway. I just knew it was going to hit us, but it didn't it went right by us by a foot and hit the guardrail then bounced back into the middle of the freeway. We had stopped by now, and waited a minute or 2, the car slowly drove to the side of the road. Dan got out to see if she was ok, another truck stopped behind us to see also. I told him I didn't know and that I was calling 911. We were near another exit, I stayed on the phone with 911 as we followed her to a gas station where she pulled in. The dispatcher said there would be an emergency vehicle going to the gas station to make sure she was alright. The car was a mess, the rear end completly smashed in on the left side where she hit. People need to realize when driving in rain like that, slow down. I remember seeing cars going off the road left and right when I lived in snow country. Sometimes even a 4-wheel drive won't help. Caution is very real and senses need to be used. As we drove away from the gas station (after D. got out and talked with her again) D. said "Praise the Lord!" amen to that. God is good!

Rain storm

We had quite a rain storm on Monday. We didn't get any hail, however many surrounding areas did. It was quite a down pour with lots of thunder. You can see the rain on one side of our house, and an amazing rainbow on the otherside of the house. Because the sky was still very gray you cannot see the vivid colors.

Whenever I see the rainbows it reminds me of Gods promises!

Fun, random pictures

I think this is a fun picture of the truck in front of the "Calistoga" bottling plant in Calistoga. They don't have it on, but in the past the 'radiator' had a large spray of water coming out of it. {If you click or double click on any of the pictures they will enlarge} We had a good time at the lake (last week), my brother and his son were there. It rained Sunday night and into Monday. We then had a real good rain early Tuesday morning. Sat. thru Tues. without TV or internet, we did get some radio. We got some reading in, went to see "How to Train Your Dragon" (real cute), drove around and got some work done around the place. It was relaxing. The lake level is up, this is at the county park where we launch the boat.

This at Lakeport park, and this goose isn't just talking, he was going up and really hissing at any and everything that walked by him. Maybe he was protecting his female, there were several other geese around him, plus many ducks in pairs~~ probably mating season.

This gnarly old tree is in the State Park. When my older children were little it was a nice full tree that I used to place the playpen and blanket under and we could enjoy the shade as we played in the water. I believe that many of my family, kids, cousins, parent, grandparents, etc. have memories of being under this tree in the summer. Sad to say it sure doesn't look like it produces much shade anymore, it looks hacked (probably because the large branches were dead and it was a safety issue).

In my front yard the pigeons come to the bird feeder. This is a first ~~ an albino pigeon.