My Sweet Peas . . .

I WISH I could send all that read this blog a bouquet of my sweet peas. The sweetpeas I have pictured above are just what I picked this morning!! They are so beautiful and smell glorious ~ I wish I had smell-a-blog capability!!!

Thanks to my "Bill's Perfect Blend" fertilizer they've grown so tall and are just full of flowers. But I think that they are coming near the end of their beautiful growth pattern. It's starting to get hot here and they don't do well in the heat, so although it's a short amount of time that I've gotten to enjoy them, I have really loved finally seeing the result of the work I put into them. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can really see the beautiful colors of the sweet peas.


So, in a way I am sending you some of my sweet peas ~ I hope you enjoy them!!

NOW,

to my

Real, Real, Real, Real, Real, Real

Sweet Peas!!!!

How Lucky Am I!!!!!!

Cyrah, is a beautiful girl who will not smile in pictures until she gets her braces off!! She will be 14 in September and will also be starting high school. She's going to re-read all the Twilight books over the summer.

Matt, (he will always be Matty to me) is 10 and loves baseball right now and is very competitive.

Joe, is 8 and is very artistic and becoming quite the performer ~ dancing & impressions and he's good at baseball too.

Zach, is 6 and loves to jump into the pool, he has a great memory and loves family activities.

Chloe, will be 6 in July and loves Disneyland and dressing up and looking beautiful (which is pretty easy for her, because she already is). She also is a performer and loves to dance ~ ballet, hip hop, and interperative Chloe.

Benji, is 2 and loves the movie's Cars and Toy Story 2. He's a very funny little guy, talks alot and loves to give kisses and lovies. He loves chocolate and jumping off the ladder in the swimming pool to his Dad.

Our family, is a family because of these great kids. They keep us hoppin' and give us a reason to get up and get moving. Kenny and I make our plans based on what "the kids" are doing. They are very special to their Auntie and Uncles and of course their Mom's and Dad's too!

My thought to leave you with this time is: Count your blessings!!!

Until next time . . .

Happy 6th Birthday to Zachy!!

This is our little Zachy boy on his 6th birthday!!

I wish everyone could be as excited about their birthday

as a 6 year old can.

Zachy was excited the whole month of May and tells us

that he still has a few days left of his birthday month.

I can tell you, he has LOVED the prospect of turning 6,

having his birthday and being 6,

and being an official "big boy" now that he is 6.

Zachy is just finishing up his kindergarten year

and looking forward to being in 1st grade

at the same school with his 2 older brothers.

He loves swimming, helping Grandpa and is looking forward

to doing some camping this year.

Happy Birthday Zach!!!

My thought to leave with you this time is:

Find and remember the 6 year old in you and go out and do something silly!!!

Until next time . . .

43 years ago today . . .

For better or worse,

For richer or poorer,

In sickness and in health,

For as long as we both shall live.

These are the words the that Kenny and I vowed to each other 43 years ago today.

We were so young,

and it seemed like we could do anything together.

And for the most part we've made a good team.

I was 19 - he was 20 - what were we thinking!

In 1966 it wasn't that unusual to get married so young and he was making $2.65 an hour working at Speedspace and I was probably making $2.00 an hour working for my Dad at his flooring store.

We went to Los Angeles for our honeymoon. Dodger Stadium (we saw Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale & Juan Marischal pitch - Dodgers against the Giants).
We went to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.
We had a GREAT time.

We still have a great time where ever we go.

I always say I deserve a medal for being able to stand up to Kenny when I want him to listen to my point,

but the truth is,

he equally needs a medal for putting up with me and my

hypochondriac, bitchy, emotional, selfish and childish ways for all these years.

We have grown up together and somehow knew enough to not be attached at the hip and give each other enough space to enjoy other things besides being with each other.

I enjoy watching sports with him and know the players of most of the sports well enough to actually talk football, baseball, basketball and golf.

He on the other hand knows nothing about the things I'm interested in but I don't really need him in watching me sew or paint. I show him what I made and he says "Oh, that looks nice." That's all I need.

Our life has been centered around being with our original families (both sets of parents had long marriages and were examples for us), in the beginning of our marriage, then, the family we created - kids and grandkids, for the most part. We are family people. We also enjoy traveling together, listening to music as we travel and we are in sync with each other in our routines of our daily life.

Kenny is very good to me and because of him I am

and he is

I cannot imagine my life without him and I think we've done pretty good so far, so I think we'll keep going and see how long we can play this thing out.

Who knew when we went out on our first date 45 years ago that it would lead to falling in love with each other, marrying and having 4 super kids, 6 grandkids that have us wrapped around their fingers and a life that works for us.

We've had our ups and downs, everyone does, but when all is said and done,

we're still standing

- together -

My thought to leave you with today is: The way to happiness - keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry, live simply, expect little, give much.

Until next time . . .

Fooling Around with my Camera . . .

This is a photo stitched picture of our backyard. Not that my yard looks that great but I was able to stand in one spot and start at the trampoline and end over at the hot tub. I didn't even know I had this capability on my camera, I am terrible about reading the instruction books of anything (now that's funny don't you think - the previous blog was how I was oh so curious about stuff, but I don't bother learning how to use my camera to the best it's capabilities - hmmm, interesting, I'll have to think about the ying and yang of that) that I think I already know how to do.


The picture is kinda small but I just checked and if you click on it - it will enlarge. As you can see I should do a lot of work in this yard, but you know what, I've done a lot of work already and I like how it is. The tall green plants against the fence are some of my sweet peas and unfortunately they will die off probably by June. That will leave a lot of white fence but I have all sorts of stuff on the fence and it makes me almost as happy as the flowers do. I also have stuff in the dirt and I like that stuff too. In fact I'm going to go out and take a picture right now of some of my stuff and try to put the pictures on this post. I'm still figuring out how to do this - so let's see if I can get this to work. I obviously have a lot of time on my hands and should be out in that yard working - but, it's HOT out there right now!

Hey look, I did it!! The bunnies represent 5 of my grand-children, I'm still looking for a Cyrah bunny. The bunnies all stacked up on top of each other were all faded from years out in the sun, so I repainted them and added Benjamin Bunny to the top.

This picture is a closeup of some of the sweet peas a little of my new fountain (part of my generous gift from my friends at Cook Middle School), a lady bug rain guage. I'm a big fan of ladybugs. I'm going to try and add one more picture and then try and put a slideshow on the left hand side.

I have no illusions that anyone is reading this besides my daughter and my cousin Judy but that's okay with me because Tina would probably like to see how the yard is doing and Judy just likes me so she'll look just to make me happy. Oh wait, I think Judy's sisters Jani & Linda might take a look also, oh also my friend Linda Groobin might take a look, and I have my friends Sandi & Yolo who will probably stop by - look - some people are looking!!!

Thank you so much!!

This is a picture of a little lady bug on a rock. I can't figure out how to turn it so I'm just leaving it the way it is. (I just went back to turn it and it's the right way!) Every one is special to me.

I have to add one more - Erik has given me two little statues - one is of a little girl and is my Chloe girl to me hanging out in the garden and the other is a little boy sitting on a bench with his dog. Since all my grandsons are scared to death of dogs that just represents Erik being nice to his Mother. Oh look, my ladybug flag is in the picture ~ I told you I liked ladybugs.

Okay, I have just rambled on and on and learned some stuff along the way, I will be posting again on Thursday because it will be mine and Kenny's 43rd wedding anniversary. I wanted to put a picture of us at our wedding but so far I haven't found our album so we'll see what I come up with - for any of you that have stopped by - Thank You!

My thought to leave with you today is: Sometimes when you think you are wasting time you are actually doing something constructive - so - it's not wasting time!! That statement reflects something I learned long ago from my good friend Sandi - it's called "elaborative justification."

Until next time . . .

Curiosity . . .

The picture you see above is the picture I have on my computer as my desktop background. Although you can't see it very clearly, the woman sitting in the chair is surrounded by books. The books have titles that she's been yearning to learn about ~ birds, fish, painting, architechture, to name a few. It reminds me of me ~ curious about everything ~ books all around, waiting to give me answers to all my burning questions! Or, books to entertain me with a great story, or give me something else to think about! In addition to books, the internet is such a great resource to all the things I am curious about and have bumbling around in my brain.

In January my sister Connie and I took a trip to Disneyland to celebrate my retirement. But it could have been called the trip of "I wonder why . . . ?" We are both very observant and curious people, so the trip down Interstate 5 was full of things to look at and wonder at and ask questions to each other. Sometimes we had opinions of whatever we were looking at - might have been - could have been - was going to be in the future - or - what "it" was in the past. On the way home we decided we could write a book to explain the answers to all our many questions that we found interesting on highway 5. Actually not a bad idea - research - go ask questions of people - find out "why" - and write it all down so other people wouldn't have to wonder like we did.

Kenny and I just took a quick trip to Redding and saw all sorts of thing we were curious about - a new grove a trees that seemed to be planted to close to each other, fields we thought were probably rice fields, new crops starting to grow and wondering what they were. We decided it should be a law that "they" have to put signs up to show what kind of trees they were, that it was a rice field (or some other kind of field) and what were those crops that were just getting started. Habits we both learned from long trips in the car.

As a child my family spent a lot of time in the car. If Dad wasn't working, we were going somewhere. And on these trips we did all sorts of stuff to keep ourselves occupied. We would sing along with the radio, notice all sorts of stuff out the window that either we noticed and spoke up about or Mom and Dad pointed out to us. Of course there was always fighting with each other. But Dad wasn't going to put up with that for long. We played games - guessing games, counting games, you name it, we probably played it.

Kenny and I played the same kind of games with our kids. Actually his family played alot of car games that our family hadn't played, so I learned and played right along with the kids. The ABC game, how many miles to the next town game, how many whatever color car you picked game and of course the usual looking out the window and wondering - what's that? As our kids got older, walkman's became popular and although they could still hear what was going on their participation was less and less.

Today what I see is a generation of kids who are thoroughly entertained while riding in the car or RV but the interaction between parents or grandparents and the children seems to have dwindled. I am guilty of getting DVD players for both sets of my grandchildren and Nintendo DS systems for most of them. These types of entertainment the kids love watching and playing - and - for the most part - the games and movies keep them pretty quiet. But, they aren't noticing the cool trees and the big mountains and the pretty lake. They are not looking for signs and trying to win the ABC game, hoping somehow to find an x or a q. They are not looking out the window and wondering. I miss that interaction, the wondering of why something is the way it is.

So maybe this summer I'll try and declare a time of looking out the window with Grammy, finding some cool stuff we can talk and wonder about. In the motorhome we have it is hard to look out ahead of us so trying the ABC game might be hard but I think we can try something that gets us interacting and having fun at the same time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!!!

My thought to leave with you this time is: The world is filled with wonder, go out and look for it, find it, examine it and talk about it!!

Until next time . . .

Unconditional Love . . .

The picture above is a picture of my Mom and I. It was taken on the day my Mom and Dad brought my sister Cathy home from the hospital, I am 22 months old and my Mom is 24 years old. The picture is one of very few that I have of just my Mom and me. As Mother's Day approaches I honor her as my Mother, I also honor my children, for being blessed as their Mother has been my greatest joy.

My Mom grew up in a family of 9 children and she was one of the last ones born in the family so she grew up very close to her Mother. She always called her "Mama". I'm sure she learned most of her parenting skills from my Grandma as I learned mine from my Mother.

We were never alone, Mom was always there for us. I picture her as a Mother Hen with all her chicks gathered around her. Actually that's exactly how it was on many occasions, all of us standing in a dark kitchen, looking out the kitchen window towards the highway, gathered around Mom, waiting to see a car with a left hand blinker light blinking, then we would all heave a sigh of relief because Dad was going to be home in a minute. But really, we are all gathered around her, with her arms surrounding us, safe with Mom.

She had the great ability to make us all feel special. She was not a person to say I Love You with words, yet she said it in so many other ways. She was the glue that held all of us together, she was very powerful for such a little person.

I love my Mother so much, continue to talk her several times a day and feel her love, know that she looks down on me with love. At night, before I go to bed I tell her and Dad that I miss them and love them. I don't know how such an unassuming woman was able to inspire such love but somehow she did it and I thank God that she was my Mother. Thus the title, Unconditional Love - she was the only person who loved me unconditionally - just as, I, Love my children -

A Mother's Love - there is nothing else like it!

Now, as far as me being a Mother. It is a great joy and privilege that I brought these 4 wonderful people into the world. I know I wasn't the Mother that my Mom was, for one thing, I didn't know what in the heck I was doing. I had never held a baby until I held Mike for the first time. My mother and father would come over every night to make sure he was okay when he went to bed and be back the next morning to make sure he made it through the night. They did not want to trust the first boy in the family to me of all people! By the time I had Tina I was an old hand at this mothering thing and just about the time I thought, I can do this, I had Erik and Jeff! Life took a right turn!

I had 4 kids under 5 years old - Mike was 5 and Erik & Jeff were born on Tina's 3rd birthday! Life was a lot more interesting and I was thrilled to have all these little people to love. I'm sure they could give you a whole different take on it!

For a long time Mother's Day for me was always about my Mother, even after she had died. Then I figured out, hey I'm these kids Mother, maybe they love me like I loved my Mom. I don't think so, I really think I'm a little obsessive about my Mom and I also drive all my kids crazy. I drive them crazy in different ways for each kid but I do drive them nuts. I do tell them "I LOVE You" and I also remind them that "I gave you life!" to remind all of them they'd be nowhere without me but I can get a hug, a kiss and a smile out of each one of them, so that's all I need to make me happy.

~I am so PROUD of my kids ~

~PROUD of the people they've become ~

&

~PROUD to be their Mother !

Here is a picture of our family taken a few years ago

Kenny & I created beautiful children

So as we celebrate Mother's Day

I thank God for the Mother I had

and

I thank God for being given the blessing of being a Mother to

Michael, Tina, Erik & Jeff!

My thought to leave with you this time is: A mother's love is like a circle; it has no beginning and no ending.

Until next time . . .

Trying Something New . . .

The pictures to the right are of the "tipsy pot" I made. This was an idea I got out of a magazine and then went about finding the materials to create it. I was trying to show 2 angles and show the flowers a little bit more in the 2nd picture but it was in the shade and doesn't show the flowers so well. (I just discovered while editing this blog that if you click on the pictures you can see them really close up and personal - so give it a try! - I wish it worked on the pictures I have on the left hand side of the blog) The instructions said to take a 66" piece of rebar (metal bar used in construction) and pound it into the ground 2 feet. I couldn't find anyone who would cut a piece of rebar so I found a green stake that looked similar in the garden section of Lowe's and Home Depot. They were all different sizes, I chose the 6 ft. size and cut it to 66". I then pounded it into the ground 2 feet and then started placing my pots. I used a 12", 10", 8", 6" and ended with another 6" pot. I filled the bottom part way with potting soil then placed my 10" pot at an angle, put some flowers in the 12" pot, put some potting soil in the 10" pot and just continued like that. I wish the pictures showed the plants better, now that I've showed the main idea, next time I'll take a closer shot of the flowers. It looks very cute back by our swimming pool. I enjoyed seeing a picture in a magazine and creating it for myself. I guess that sort of describes me - possessed once I get an idea in my head (just ask my sister Connie!).

The picture above shows another idea I got out of a magazine. It suggested starting seeds in egg cartons, using the egg shell to hold the potting soil and seed. I planted these last Sunday (4/26) and in the carton that is opened you can see the plants are already shooting up. Those will be knee high sunflowers and the seeds were from Renee's Garden seeds. I have a link to her site on the left hand side of the blog. I bought my seeds locally, you don't have to buy off the site, but she has so much info on her site. She suggests you start seeds again in 2 weeks so you perpetually have flowers. Of course she suggests this, she sells seeds but I think I will start a different kind of flower. The other carton in the picture will hopefully be red, yellow and orange peppers. I eat them like crazy but they take forever to grow and ripen so we'll see about those.

I continue to work in the yard, I'm very slow at it though. I sit down at the patio table, drink some water, watch for my little finches to come eat some bird food, listen to my ipod and my little fountain, enjoy the fact that I'm not working (at a job anyway). We're really busy watching a lot of Little League baseball. I'm hoping to get down to San Francisco next weekend and watch my little Chloe girl play some T-Ball, then we'll have a picture of Chloe up there at the top of a blog. Chloe also is a beautiful little ballerina and we will be attending her recital in June - more photos to come!

My thought to leave with you for today is: Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the Life You've Imagined!

Until next time . . .