What a Lovely Spring!

I'll bet you are thinking I posted the wrong picture. Nope! This is what spring looks like at my house about once a week since March 1. The daffodils have bloomed and my apricot tree has blossomed despite being tricked by Mother Nature. Fortunately, it melts by the next day. I really should just enjoy these days for soon it will be summer and I'll be wishing for cooler weather like this. Ever since I've gone back to work I seem to be busier than ever. There's so many things that I don't get done like I used to like housecleaning, shopping, organizing, exercising, etc. All you working people probably are thinking, "Duh, welcome to the real world!" All right, all right--I get it! Anyway, besides the benefit of a paycheck, it has been rewarding to be employed. Despite having a brain that doesn't work as fast as my co-workers, they still put up with me. Maybe they are just hard up. Onto to other things. See that kid making the shot...that's Jordan, or JJ as his coach calls him. He's a good basketball player. The older he gets the more fun the games are to attend. Especially if the score is close. I hated to see the season end.

One Sunday we had nice weather so Jord and Ben played a little one-on-one. If I were rich, I'd tear out most of the yard and put a basketball court in. However, since I'm NOT, it will stay the way it is.

For the past 5 years I've been saying I was going to replace the carpet on the main level. Finally the time has come. I've paid attention to what others have in their homes and decided to go with laminate flooring instead of carpeting. Some people have asked why. Well, because #1) Maisey and Cohen; #2) Easier to clean up mud, grease, etc., that gets tracked into the house since I haven't done a very good job of training my family to remove their shoes before entering (that includes me.) Thanks to the magic of photoshop, I was able to use pictures of the samples to give me a better idea of what it will look like:

And here's the same flooring in the kitchen. In a couple of weeks I'll be able to post pictures of the real thing!

Here's my little angel and little devil. Yes, the one with glowing eyes is our devil-dog; son of Satan, Cohen. He appears to be so cute and cuddly but looks are deceiving. I have lots of stories to back me up.

This is what happens when you fall asleep with your big sister around. Ah, love at home!

Good Bye February!

I must say I'm glad for February to be over with. Winter has been long enough. I'm ready for spring. We consider ourselves lucky, blessed, whatever you want to call it. In the first part of Feb. our water pipes completely froze. As soon as I noticed it I got heat on the pipes by running space heaters and our fireplace in the basement. After about 6 hours the water finally flowed. Thank goodness no burst pipes.

In the beginning of the month I was hired as a part-time temporary office worker. I had been applying for some jobs here and there and was pleasantly surprised when I got called for this one. After all, I haven't worked in an office for 25 years or so. I work for an HR company. Right now I am mostly reconciling bills and getting a lot of computer experience, which is very good. I'm just glad they felt like they would give this old lady a chance!

Mark got out a couple of times to go ice fishing. He and the boys had some "guy time." One day they all came home looking like they'd spent the day at the beach. Each one of them said it was too nice out to put sunscreen. Yes, you can get a sunburn in the winter!

One project that needed to get done was replacing our patio door. The old one was giving us problems. We thought a repairman could fix it but after he looked at the door he discovered it was rotting away on the bottom of the door frame. And we thought the house was settling! It was determined our best course of action was to replace the door. So here it is...the before...

and the after. We decided to go with a swinging door instead of a slider. Ahhh, it's nice to have it done. Of course, this gets the wheels in motion to continue replacing other things in the house that are wearing out...carpeting, flooring, etc. Ka-ching, Ka-ching! I can already hear my hard earned money being spent!

Greatest Snow on Earth

Winter is here whether we like it or not. Our mountains have gotten lots of that fluffy, white stuff. It's very pretty--prettier than the gunky inversion that hangs out in the valley. Our church group took a bunch of the youth into the mountains for a day of sledding. They were able to sled down a
1 -1/2 mile snow packed road, which was like a luge track. One of the kids got clocked at 35 mph!! They all had a great time.

Mark was able to play in the snow with his new truck. I guess boys like to play in the snow!

Best of all, we had a day full of sunshine. It was absolutely gorgeous! And if you kept moving you actually got warm enough to take off your coat.

Jordan had a wonderful day with his buddies.

Zoom, zoom!

Mark and I brushed off the dust from our snow shoes and trekked around for a while in the pristine wilderness. This was so much better than sitting in the house. Which reminds us...why don't we do this more often?

Hello Sunshine!

The normal winter inversion has been with us for a few weeks. We've been SO lucky to enjoy the smog, fog, frost, and clouds. There's only one way to cure the winter time blues--get out of town! Mark and I found fantastic air fares to San Diego to celebrate our 29th anniversary. We have not been disappointed!
First on our list was to go to Pt. Loma. We had a beautiful view of the city and the bay. We also got to see some gray whales off the coast as they migrated south. Mark's not pointing to a whale, only a whale of a huge cruise ship.
The only way we could see the whales well was with binoculars. It was very impressive. Equally impressive was the Ft. Rosecrans military cemetery near Pt. Loma.

We've spent a lot of time just hanging out at the beach and fortunately the weather cooperated with 70 temperatures. We discovered some star fish in the tidal pools near the jetty.

It seems everytime we come here we eat well. Needless to say, we have to work some of it off. So we took our walk along the beach and on the pier.

We never tire of this place!

Mark found a photo op with one of the locals. Yes, it is a real pelican.

Merry Christmas!!

Ho, ho, ho. On Wednesday, Dec. 23, out on the driveway there arose such a clatter. I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes did appear. But a red 4-wheeled sleigh without the reindeer! With a little old driver with a humongous smile, I knew it was Mark ready to put on the miles!!!
Yes, Mark has been a good boy all this year. He has been looking for a bigger truck to pull his boat for quite some time and happened to find this one just in time for Christmas.

Christmas hasn't changed much at our house. Our kids still love to get up early and open presents. Becki is showing off her gift that Dan made ALL BY HIM SELF! Very, very clever, I must say.

Becki's husband, Ben, patiently waited until it was his turn to open his present.

Dan wanted to "see" how his present worked! Hahahaha! We all had a wonderful Christmas morning. Everyone must have been nice this year.

As for who has been naughty, well, who else....

Yep, Cohen. We couldn't put any presents under the tree until Christmas eve. They were just too tempting for him. My, he couldn't hardly keep his paws off the tree!

We feel very blessed at this time of year. Merry Christmas everyone.

Oside in October

I have determined that our family is like a pod of gray whales. Yes, some of us may be packing a few more lbs. than necessary, but that's not the reason. We are like gray whales in that we are seen near the beach in Calif. almost every October. Usually, the weather is pretty spectacular without the crowds. As a matter of fact, I was gloating to some of my friends about how I was going to be sitting on the beach soaking up the sun. The joke was on me. As you can see from the pictures, our weather was anything but spectacular. Clearly, I did not get my requestition for lovely weather into the weather man soon enough! Still, it was great to get away. As you can see, JJJ has been growing like a weed. He's tall enough to pat me on the head and hopes to soon to that to his Dad! We spent one day in SD and went to Point Loma.

Becki's husband claims he has the patience of Job. He must, to go on vacation with us!

The teenager.

It looks like he's holding up pegleg boy...hahahaha.

Becki is very supportive of Ben.

The guys liked seeing the navy ships coming and going thru the harbor. We even saw a submarine.

Like 2 ships passing in the night.....except it was day.

Got any idea what this is? It's the stairway in the lighthouse, duh.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother. (Only old people would get that one.)

Here's to our little buddy who isn't so little any more. He's so much fun.

Life is not all fun and games, however. Jordan had to invent something out of rubber bands. He came up with the idea of a sling. Thank goodness he has a dad with an engineering mind. I was no help whatsoever.

Savoring September

September has to be one of my most favorite months of the year. The weather is delightful--not too hot, not too cold; the leaves are just beginning to change; peaches, nectarines and raspberries are plentiful from my garden; and school starts. We have tried to squeeze in the last little bit of summer from these early September days.

Earlier this summer all our kids kept telling Mark, "You should get a boat...we'd have so much fun...etc." Once Mark got permission from the CEO around our house (that would be moi) he earnestly began to search for a used one. Naturally, if you look hard enough, you'll find one. So in late August he bought a 21'. Now Mark has a new toy to play with. :) We took it out one afternoon, letting the young guys try out the tube.

Over Labor Day weekend Mark, Jord and I went on a hike to one of the mountain tops in the area. It was the perfect day--clear skies, in the 80s. We hiked 2.5 mi. up to the top. Jord is such a trooper going hiking with 2 old people.
We got a great view of the valley...

and the ski resort, where we parked our car.

Then 2.5 miles back down. Wow, we did 5 miles in 2-1/2 hours. Of course, it's much faster coming down. I love hiking.
Here's a few pictures I never got posted from one of our camping trips during the summer. We had a 3 day outing over the 24th of July. I stayed at the camp and relaxed while the others went to the lake to go fishing. Adam
Jordan
Becki

Ben

Adam & Jordan

What a great way to end the day!