Halloween's a scream!

Halloween was a fun, especially for Sophie and I. Since Sophie only had half a day of school, I picked her up around noon and took her with me to knitting group. She loves to go with me whenever she can. Sophie ate her lunch while I crocheted, then she colored. Before we left, we looked for books in the used book room. Next, Sophie and I went to Michaels to pick up some items for my craft group next week.

Back at my house, I worked on creating a Halloween dinner. By the time Jackie, Dwayne, and Holden got to my house at 6:00, everything was ready. We ate Mummy Bread, Vampire Toes, Rattlesnake, Haunted Trees, and Graveyard Jello. The Mummy Bread was made by joining 2 crescent rolls to make a rectangle. Down the center of it, I put pieces of cooked meatballs, black olives, mushrooms, pizza sauce, and cheeses. Then I sliced the sides of the roll and braided it over the filling. They looked like little mummies! Everyone loved them, too! The Vampire Toes were black-eyed peas. Rattlesnake was really baked squash. Haunted Trees were broccoli crowns. The Graveyard Jello was a huge hit. It was a layered dessert of vanilla pudding on bottom, then cherry jello with a dollop of vanilla yogurt on top. I then inserted some little Halloween shortbread cookies.

After dinner the kids got on their costumes and went trick or treating in my neighborhood. Holden's pre-school teacher lives around the corner, so they went to that house first. How cool is that to go to your teacher's house!' To see more pictures of the kids in their costumes, click here.

It RAINED Last Night!

"Yeah, so what?" you're probably thinking. For us, it's a really big deal. We haven't had any rain since mid-August. That's almost 2 months ago! We're down over 12 inches of precipitation for the year. In fact, we have officially been labeled as in "extreme drought". There's only one level worse than that.

I was thrilled to see the wet ground when I got up this morning. The air was cool and refreshing. I swear that my lawn and plants were singing their happiness to me! Not that I haven't been watering them, because I have. It's just that water from the hose doesn't seem to make the plants as happy as rain water. I think I'd like to buy a rain barrel to collect the rain water.

We must have had a really good rain during the night, because here it is, a little after noon, and the ground is still wet. So is my wooden privacy fence. It's a sunny, breezy day and, YAHOO!!!, the ground is still wet!! And, it's only going to be in the upper 80's today! What a glorious day!! It's such a glorious day that I've decided to take some more pictures of things in my yard, even though I haven't finished my landscaping plans. I'm going to share with you what I have accomplished so far and what I still want to do. To see the pictures, click here.

Last Two Days Together

Vacation Days 7 and 8 - Family Time and Bowling

On Monday we took care of some more car business in the morning, then went bowling. Hailey and David bowled by rolling their bowling balls down a ramp onto the lane. They did fairly well until Hailey fell asleep. I thought that maybe all the time I've spent on the Wii playing the bowling game might help me, but it didn't. I couldn't find a bowling ball that fit me right. They were either too heavy for me or my fingers got stuck in them. As a result, I mostly got gutter balls although I did manage to get one strike. Everyone scored higher than me except George (who didn't bowl) and Hailey who only bowled 3 or 4 rounds. Christina won with a score of 99. I was able to take a few pictures of us in the bowling alley but had to stop because of the leagues that were playing. After bowling and eating lunch, we went back to Christina's motel. Click here to see pictures from bowling and the motel.

On Tuesday, we drove to San Diego late in the morning. We had lunch at a harbor restaurant, then headed to the airport. As usual, Ryan was very, very sad to see us go. (It always breaks my heart to see him so sad.) We had a wonderful time on our vacation!

USS Midway Museum

Vacation Day 6 - A Day in San Diego

Christina and family picked us up at our motel at 9 AM so that we could get to the USS Midway Museum when they opened at 10:00. The museum was something that George was very interested in seeing so I took a lot of pictures for him. It wasn't hard to do because the ship was huge! The USS Midway was a naval aircraft carrier commissioned from 1945 - 1992. Ryan and Joseph went in a flight simulator, the kind that doesn't move but lets you "fly" the plane. They loved it! While they were doing that, the rest of us toured the rest of the ship. Hailey and David thought it was a lot of fun to walk through the narrow corridors and climb on the beds. We had lunch at the restaurant on the ship, then toured the flight deck. We were able to sit in the cockpits in a few of the planes. You can see some of the pictures I took by clicking here.

Vacation Day 5

Fun at the Beach -

On Saturday we took care of some business, then drove around the Oceanside harbor looking for a place to park. We wanted to walk around to see the booths and attractions there for Harbor Days. Unfortunately, we couldn't find parking so we drove further south in Oceanside. We found a place to park near a beachside playground and picnic area. We had quite an interesting picnic lunch. A lot of squirrels came out of their burrows to beg for food. Ryan was afraid of them so he kept climbing up on the picnic bench. George kept stomping his foot to try to scare the squirrels away. In the meantime, Hailey kept waving to the squirrels and saying "Hi, squirrel!" and Joseph fed the squirrels chips. I found the whole scene funny. One side of the table was trying to attrat the squirrels and the other side was trying to get rid of them. After one squirrel tried to nibble on Hailey's toe, she didn't want them around any more. After lunch, the kids ran off to the playground and I went walking on the beach. The others stayed at the picnic table and watched the kids, cars, kites, and activities going on around the beach. To see a few pictures from the beach, click here. After our picnic, we dropped George off at the motel, then the rest of us went to Harbor Days. Later, we went back to our motel and took it easy for a while. When you click the link above, you'll see some of the pictures I took of the kids in our motel room.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Vacation Day 4 - A Trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park

What a glorious day! The kids and I all wore the camouflaged hats that I brought. This picture shows Ryan, David, and Hailey posing near the parking lot. To see a picture of me with the kids (all of us wearing our hats), click here. I took lots of pictures of the kids in the park, but only a few animal pictures. The highlight of the day was our tram ride to go on an "African Safari". The herbivores have large areas to roam. You can see more pictures of our trip to the Wild Animal Park by clicking here.

Vacation Day 3 -

George and I arrived in Oceanside in the afternoon. Christina and her family drove to our motel to see us. Everyone was so excited! The kids piled on our bed to be close to George and I. David (age 2) proceeded to jump on the bed  and said, "I jumping". Both David and Hailey had fun getting into the yarn I had brought along to work on a couple of my crocheting projects. Ryan and I worked on untangling the mess. I gave the kids the clothes and movies I brought them. Of course they liked everything. Christina and Hailey LOVED the matching purses I crocheted for them. We had dinner together at Red Lobster then took an evening walk on the Oceanside Pier.

To see pictures of the purses, click here.

To see pictures that Christina took in our motel room and on the pier, click here.

Vacation to CA

George and I are on our way to California to deliver our mini-van to Christina and Joseph. They REALLY need one. Rather than trade it in when we bought a Toyota Corolla, we negotiated with Christina & Joseph to buy it from us. We are all pleased that it has worked out for everyone. The problem is, I'm feeling a little sad about seeing the mini-van go. We've had it for 4 or 5 years and made many a trip in it. It's like part of the family.

Vacation Day 1 - We drove from Austin to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We saw some beautiful country as we drove. I didn't think we were EVER going to get out of Texas! It is one REALLY BIG state!

Vacation Day 2 - We drove from Las Cruces to Tucson, AZ. There was very little traffic on the interstate, so the drive wasn't stressful. The wildflowers and countryside in NM and AZ were beautiful. We took a side trip to Saguaro National Park just outside of Tucson. The cacti were gorgeous! I took a couple of short side hikes to see more of the park. Since it was in the afternoon and the temperature was over 90 degrees, I didn't do too much hiking. I didn't want to get overheated. You are welcome to see my pictures by clicking here.

Tomorrow we will leave Tucson and drive the remainder of the way to CA. I'm really excited about seeing Chris and her family! I'll try to post pictures of my time with them as we do things together.

Overdue blog

I am way overdue on blogging! My goal is to blog every month to keep you up-to-date on what is going on in our lives, but I guess I've been so busy doing stuff, that I let my April to July blogs slip by!! So, what have I been doing? LOTS of yardwork, watching the grandkids, working on photos, crocheting, reading, volunteer work, driving to St. Louis, and more. Let me tell you more about these events.

GRANDKIDS - Besides taking Sophie and Holden one day a week to "play" with me, we've had them overnight several times. I took some pictures of them playing in the dirt in the backyard while the workers were prepping the flower bed. (Click here to see them.) 

Another thing we've done with the kids is go to their preschool to see the little parade the school had in the parking lot. Each class had a theme. Sophie was so excited about us coming to the parade! Her face lit up when she saw us there! She was wearing the hat she made for the event and shaking the shaker that she made. Holden's class had a cowboy theme. The kids had on cowboy hats, brown paper bag vests, and bandanas and they were riding stick horses (also made out of brown paper bags). They were darling! Holden was the exception. He chose to put on a Snow White dress! Boy, was he proud! You can see pictures of the parade by clicking here.

     Sophie had her fifth birthday in July. We celebrated at our house with a special pancake dinner, just like last year. Sophie came over early and helped me set the table up pretty. After dinner we had cake and opened presents. You can see Sophie opening her gifts by clicking here. Sophie also had a "princess party" on the weekend after her birthday. It was so cute! I was the photographer for the party. You can see "Princess Sophie", "King Holden", and Sophie's princess friends by clicking here.

YARDWORK/LANDSCAPING - I worked with a designer/landscaper since Feb. on my backyard. I started by spraying (and respraying again and again) the entire backyard with Round Up. After that, we put in a flower bed and sod. All of that was done in May. I still don't have anything planted in the flower bed because it got really, really hot after that. Recently, Jackie, Dwayne, and the kids helped me work on putting down some rock in the area under the trees by our deck. I also planted some small bushes. I still have more work to do in that area: line it with larger rocks to delineate the trail/sitting area from the plantings, plant some other things, and do some mulching. My bench and water fountain are under the trees so it's my own little peaceful getaway. I have posted some pictures from when the workers and I were doing the flower bed prep work and laying the sod. If you'd like to see them, click here.

TRIPS TO ST. LOUIS AND GEORGIA - In early July, George and I made a quick trip to St. Louis to visit family. Christina's mother-in-law had passed away so they had to fly to St. Louis for the funeral. I watched the kids on the day of the visitation, funeral, and burial. I got to spend extra time with Ryan because he spent the night with us at my sister Sharon's house. We had such a great time together with the whole family!! I took pictures at our family gathering on the 4th of July. You can see them by clicking here.

     I also made a quick trip to Georgia to visit my son and his family. We took Katherine Grace to a little children's museum. She and I got along wonderfully after not seeing one another for two years. We got to spend time with my nephew Ryan and his wife, Catherine (aka Cat), and my brother Denis and sister-in-law Karen. I posted some of the pictures here. The purse in the pictures is one that I created and crocheted especially for Katherine. She helped in designing it.

OTHER STUFF - George is still taking ice skating lessons and doing karate one night a week. He also volunteers at the circulation desk at the library one afternoon a week, just like I do. George spent hours watching the Olympics and I would join him in the evenings. I've also been putting in volunteer hours by doing some data entry for the library and processing new books as they come in. One night each week I attend a yoga class which I absolutely LOVE! Today I am starting a little part time job at Super Suppers. (I'll have to tell you more about that next time.) I've also been spending a lot of time crocheting. I've made purses for Sophie, Anna (niece's daughter), Lexi (sister's granddaughter), Hailey, and an adult purse. In addition to that, I've made shopping/catch-all bags for myself, Jackie, a friend, and for gifts. Each purse and bag is entirely unique. I'll take some pictures and post them another time.

     

That's all for now, folks! Hope you are all doing well. I'll try to do better about blogging from now on!!

Holden's birthday party

Today Holden had a party to celebrate his 3rd birthday. A lot of his school and family friends came (more than 20 people). They played outside in the bouncy house, in the playhouse, on the seesaw, and on the playscape. The kids also played inside in the playroom, Sophie's room, and the family room. After playing, lunch was served. Of course, birthday cake was a part of the lunch. Opening presents came last, but Holden would've rather done that first.

Click here to see pictures from Holden's party. I didn't post all of the pictures, just some of them.

BIG NEWS!

Christina called this week to tell me that Joseph has received his orders to report to Camp Pendleton (near San Diego, CA) in mid-October. They will be leaving Hawaii in mid-September. First they will check in at Camp Pendleton, then begin their drive to visit family in Missouri and Texas. I am thrilled that they will be on the mainland again! Now I'll be able to see them more often!  Joseph will be a Marine Corps instructor at Pendleton. That means he will not be deployed again!! He will spend his last four years at Pendleton before he retires from the military.

What happened to February?

I'm sorry to say that I've been neglecting my blogsite which you probably figured out since I haven't posted anything new. I had a lot going on in late January and all of February.

Most of you know that I flew to Hawaii to be with Chris and her family. She posted pictures on her blogsite while I was there. I sent all of you the link to her site. Needless to say, I has an absolutely WONDERFUL time in Hawaii. I'm not sure who was happiest to see me - Chris or Ryan. Hailey and David didn't really know me since they are so young (H. is almost 3 and D will be 2 in June.) It didn't take long for them to warm up to me. We were good buddies all week. By the end of the week, David was trying to say "Grammy", but it sounded like Baba.

We did some sightseeing the first 3 days I was in Hawaii. After that, Chris was recovering from her oral surgery. In a couple of days she felt well enough to walk to the playground with me and the little ones. Click here to see some pictures of our fun time together.On my last day, Chris drove me to Kailua Beach and the Pali Highway lookout. You can see some of those pictures by clicking here.

When it was time for me to head home, Chris, Ryan, and I were all crying. It was really, really hard to leave! Thank goodness that Joseph drove me to the airport. It also helped that I had a late night flight out of Honolulu (midnight). After about an hour or so in the air, a flight attendant asked over the speaker if there was a doctor on board. (It was just like in the movies!) A few minutes later, the pilot announced that we were returning to Honolulu because of a medical emergency. The reason was because a teen girl was having difficulty breathing (very little respiration and heartbeat). She was on a "Make a Wish" trip to Hawaii with her family. After we landed, the EMT's took the girl off the plane and her family went with her. The flight attendant told me that she didn't think the girl would even live long enough to make it to the hospital. It was a very sad occurrence.

There was some question about whether our flight would be allowed to leave Honolulu. We weren't sure if the pilot had put in too many hours, plus we had to get a new flight plan. It took quite a while before we took off again. The whole ordeal made us about 4 hours late getting into Phoenix. When we landed, we were given boarding passes to our connecting flights. It sure felt good to be on land again! I was SO happy to walk the distance to my departure gate.

The second weekend in February, I attended a regional Creative Memories conference in Tulsa. George wasn't planning on going with me, but since I had been gone to Hawaii for a week, he decided to go with me. We drove up on Friday and came home on Sunday. The best part of the trip was seeing my friends Diane and Linda. We had coordinated our schedules so that we could attend the conference together. It was great to see them again! They asked some people to take pictures of the 3 of us. As soon as I get a copy of one, I'll post it. (hint, hint to Diane and Linda to email the pictures.)

A couple of days after I got back from Tulsa, I had surgery for trigger finger in my right thumb. I was really dreading having to do things left handed for a while. My left thumb still hurts me at times even though I had surgery on it in October. The good news is that my right thumb recovered a lot faster than my left one did. I can do just about everything now with my right thumb. Occasionally it hurts if I overdo things.

That leads me up to the end of February. My younger sister Cindy (along with her husband Patrick and grandson Bradlee) and my brother Denis (with his wife Karen) made arrangements to visit my brother Tony (and his wife Phoebe) in Brownsville, TX. They were all planning on attending the Sombrero Festival there. When I heard that they were coming to TX, I said that I would come too. Jackie and her family and Tony's son (and family) decided to also come. This had turned into a family reunion! The only one of the 5 siblings that wasn't going to be there was my sister Sharon. We worked it out so that she could be there, too!! What a blessing that was to have all of us together. We had a fantastic time being together for a day at the beach on South Padre Island and at the Sombrero Festival. We had some problems with our lodging, but I won't go into that. To see some pictures of our family gathering, click here.

A lot going on since Christmas

Christmas was only a month ago, but it seems a lot longer than that. I started feeling bad 2 or 3 days before Christmas, but I thought it was allergies. Jackie and her family came over late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. We let each of the kids open a present or two, then we had a nice dinner that I had prepared. The table looked so pretty. I regret that I didn't take any pictures of it. To see pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, click here. On Christmas morning, Holden called me bright and early to tell me that they were up. He was ready to open presents so I needed to come over. I was there within 15 minutes and brought more presents for everyone. George came over later. The kids rushed through opening their gifts. We opened our gifts along the way, then we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast - Holiday French Toast (baked in the oven). By the time I got home late in the morning, I knew that I was sick. I made phone calls to family members, then went to bed. It was at least 2 weeks before I started feeling like myself again.

On New Years Day, Jackie brought some dinner over for all of us. the kids took a bath in my big bathtub before they went home. They got to use the hooded towels I bought them for Christmas. You can see pictures of the two of them in their towels by clicking here.

Since then, I've set up one day a week when I have Holden and Sophie come over to spend time with me individually. Holden comes in the morning and Sophie comes in the afternoon. Holden and I mostly play with toys and puzzles, then have lunch. Sophie and I do crafts (as we watch one of the Disney movies Santa brought me) and play school. Before Christmas, I taught Sophie how to paint with acrylic paints on wood and plaster items. Like me, she is hooked on it! She always wants to come over and paint with me. I bought a workbook that we use to play kindergarten. Sophie loves it when I give her a star for doing good work!

Besides those things, I've been working some on my photo albums, knitting, crocheting, and reading. I pulled out an afghan that I started about 20 - 25 years ago. I finished crocheting it and now I'm working on fringing it. It has inspired me to get some books from the library on crocheting. I'd like to make a purse for myself and a shrug or shawl.

I have been reading constantly. One book that I highly recommend is Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. If you like David Baldacci, his latest book Stone Cold was full of twists and turns. I'm finding Barack Obama's book Dreams from my Father to be very interesting. Some books that I recently purchased are The Memory Keepers Daughter, While I was Gone, Big Stone Gap, and The Color of Water. I'll let you know how they are.

Last, but not least, I will be flying to Hawaii by myself to visit Christina and her family. It's sort of an emergency. Christina is having some dental work done next week. Joseph will be busy with a court martial hearing for one of his Marines. He won't be able to help Christina. She called me to see if I could help her. That's the main reason why I'm going, but I've wanted to visit her for quite some time. This just pushed me into doing it. I'm sure that I'll have a lot of pictures to share with you when I get back in early February.