The Season of Thanksgiving and Blessings to Share . . .

As we near Thanksgiving I am finally getting back to my blog and catching up with the blessings that we have been given. I last wrote on our anniversary in May and then blogging seemed pretty low on my priority list.

In June we learned that my husband, Kenny, needed to have heart surgery. His aortic valve needed to be replaced. I, needed to have arthroscopic surgery on my knee. We had already planned on going camping at Richardson's Grove in June, so after alot of discussion, we did go camping and had fun. The weather wasn't very good (cold)

but I think it adds to our memory bank of family time together.

Our daughter Tina (above with Mike, Benji & Joe) came home from Mississippi to help us out and we are so glad she did. My surgery was on July 12th and then a week later on July 20th, Kenny had his surgery. Tina and I stayed in a hotel not too far from the hospital in Japantown in San Francisco. Now, that was a good decision. Kenny's surgery went very well but it was a major, major surgery and he is still in the process of being 100% well. At this point, he feels that he might be at 50%. When we first started walking together after our surgeries we could hardly make it across the street, now, Kenny is walking 3 miles up the hills around us and he's left me in the dust. Here's a picture of his first attempt at hitting golf balls, I can tell you, it wore him out, but now he's able to play 9 holes of golf and walk the course.
We managed to celebrate birthdays and keep up with all the kids getting back to school and then we just sat around and waited for our newest little blessing to arrive. And on 10/15/10 here he came, Rhone Lockhart Richmond. Today he is 1 month old.He's a very cute little guy and seems very mellow. Well, this week he was sort of colicky so I guess mellow wouldn't describe this week, but all in all, he's a keeper!!!

That's about it for us, we are still waiting for our car that we ordered in June. I am in daily contact with Connie, checking on the progress of her remodeling project (it looks beautiful, but it's still not done), my knee still hurts but I think I need to do some exercises for it and I haven't done them, I need to get busy with some projects I'm thinking of for Christmas and most importantly everyday counting the blessings that surround us!!!

And here are some of our blessings, on Memorial Day. They are all getting so big, Cyrah is 15, Chloe is 7, Matt is 11, Benji is 3, Joe is 10 and Zachy is 7. Hopefully we'll get a picture on Christmas with Rhone in the picture also.

I'm glad I finally took the time to get this blog up to date. I have a lot of important things I'd like to share - like what my favorite song is right now - and my thoughts on how some people on the Biggest Loser have really messed that show up this year - like I said IMPORTANT things!!!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and concern coming our way throughout Kenny's surgery and recovery! And a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there in cyber space who reads this - and - remember to count your BLESSINGS!!!

My message to leave you with today is: Humor is mankind's greatest blessing!!

Until next time . . .

I Wonder If I'll Ever Grow Up!!! . . .

As the title suggests, I still love rock 'n roll, turning the radio on loud in the car, rolling (well, pushing a button) down the windows, singing and dancing in my seat to the music. I love all kinds of music but as they used to say on American Bandstand - "I like it, it's got a good beat, good to dance to." I often wonder what people must think when they see this white hair, old lady, boppin' in her seat, singing along to something. I hope they think, wow, she looks like she's still having fun!!

Today, May 14th, is mine and Kenny's 44th wedding anniversary. Wow, that is such a long time but it seems like the time has flown by. We actually went out for 2 years before we got married so we've been "hanging out" together for 46 years. If I were to wish for something for us, I'd wish for a car with a bench seat in the front, not bucket seats. I LOVED sitting right next to Kenny, in the "middle" part of the seat. I remember reading that James Brolin had a bench seat put into his truck when he married Barbra Streisand so that they could sit right next to each other. So, we will be celebrating by taking a little trip up to Reno this weekend for a few days. We're going to gamble a little bit, go see the new Robin Hood movie, test drive a new car we're thinking of getting and wouldn't it be nice if we won a lot of money!!! We always have fun, we've grown up together, at times drive each other completely crazy but in the end, here we are, hopefully having fun for a really long time in the future.

Here's a picture that my niece Gena just gave me. It's a picture of our son Mike and his 3 baseball playing boys. Matt is 11, Joe is 9 and Zachy is 7 next week. Isn't it such a cute picture??? Benji isn't in the picture. We haven't taken him out to many games this year. He likes to run all over the place and I can barely walk most of the time. Quite a bit different that when I had my 3 year old twins out there and I was 29 years old!! It's kind of a strange feeling being back out at the same ballpark where we watched our own kids play baseball. I like the continuity of it. We spent and spend a lot of time out there.

I've been working on my yard and garden alot. Haven't got anything done enough to post pictures but I'm working on getting a few projects done and then will post. I've actually got some sweet peas getting ready to bloom, nothing like last year, but it will make me appreciate the ones that I do have this year. Kenny has fixed us up with drip systems that will really help when we go away for camping or when we leave for 3 weeks for our retirement trip. We are still having cloudy, rainy days but we've had a little more sun this week so I'm enjoying being outside. We put the cover on the pool on one of those sunny days and the kids jumped in (and out pretty quick) for a quick swim. The water was 72 degrees but they love that swimming pool and all 4 of the boys were thrilled to go swimming.

Stopping now, will add more later.

Happy 11th Birthday to my Matty Boy!!!

Here is a picture of my Matty boy (Matthew Jerick Richmond) on the day of his birth - April 7, 1999. Grammy is holding this little piece of love for the first time.

And here we are, exactly 11 years later, Grammy still holding her wonderful piece of love, this morning, before he went off to school, where he is a 5th grader.

The LOVE that I feel for this beautiful boy cannot be measured, look at him holding my hand, snuggling up to me. He's a boy who shows his love, hugs, not so many kisses anymore, but a boy with a beautiful smile, a silly giggle when something tickles him, and a boy who loves his family.

Our family is blessed to have him and it will be a joy to follow his journey in this game called life!!

My thought to leave with you today is: Joy, oh, Joy!!! The birth of a new baby brings a family to a new level of the wonder of life!

Until next time . . .

A Little of This . . . A Little of That . . .

March is almost over and we'll be on to April in just a few days. My husband Kenny started working 6 hour days yesterday and he's very happy about it. He's out at the golf course as I'm writing this. I finally got a big "to do" off my list last week. Our daughter-in-law, Seni, has a sister named Violet that we've gotten to know a little bit over the years and she had a beautiful little girl named Audrey in November. I wanted to make her something with Audrey's name on it and was able to get a bib made before I started having all my computer issues. But I'm back on track now and finally finished the little bibs I made for Audrey and got them sent off. Here's a picture of the 5 of them

I think they turned out pretty cute.

I have a few new pictures to show you. Chloe came up on Sunday so I got a couple new pictures of her and Benji was over for his "Wednesday's with Grammy" so I got some new ones of him also.

Spring is offically here but I'm a little uneasy about getting started on planting some new flowers. We've had some mornings that we wake up and there is frost everywhere. I go to the nursery's and get excited about the possibilities of planting those beautiful flowers, I'm not ready to plunk my money down yet. I'm retired now you know!! How you spend your money seems a little bit more important, well, I guess I should clarify that and say if I really, really want something . . . I'm gonna get it!

All our grandson's will be on spring break this next week, so maybe we'll have a couple of adventures coming up, although rain is in the forecast. Matt will be having his 11th birthday soon and Little League will be starting for Matt, Joe and Zach that same week. It gets pretty busy getting to all those games and watching all of them play. Joe and Matt have both been practicing pitching on their teams, so that always makes me nervous to watch. Our son Erik was a pitcher, I speak from experience!!

I've read quite a few books on my Kindle lately. I am really enjoying it. The only gripe I have about it is that you can't turn the books back in to get credit like I have always done at our local used book store. I'm hoping that Amazon figures out a way to do this, but realistically I bought it knowing that not being able to do anything with the books was one of it's features, why would Amazon throw that money away? So right now while I can afford the books I will continue to enjoy them using my Kindle. I will update by list and let you know which books I recommend.

A little update on our Can We Do It ~ Yes We Can!!! group site. We've all lost a little bit of weight and are hoping for more but what makes me happy about our group is that we are supportive to each other, exercise has become a much more important part of our daily lives, as has drinking water, we are aware of portion sizes and try to eat the right amount (which doesn't always happen, but we are aware!) and if we have an idea or suggestion that might help 1 or more of us we throw it out on our site. In short, we are making a difference in our health, even if being more aware is the difference.

My thought to leave you with this time is: Stop and smell the roses, they are starting to bloom right now and put on your sunscreen and go out and sit in the sun and soak up some nice warm vitamin D in it's purest form - SUNSHINE!

Until next time . . .

Benji is 3 !!!

Here is our little Benji boy on his 3rd birthday. He still is the sweetest little boy, but I see signs of him becoming a BOY (in between big and little). As you watch the little clip above you will see he has now become fascinated by Ben 10 (a cartoon) which has a lot of aliens. And he has different voices for all of them. But, he still likes to watch Dora, Diego, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, so the "little" cartoons are still fun for him to watch. He sits with his toys and interacts and plays, he wants to be right in the middle of whatever his big brothers are doing, and still he's my little lovable Benji, who wants to gives kisses on my "nosie", say "I Love You" just out of the blue, and still say "Awesome!!!!" when anything makes him happy. He's a joy to have around - I think we'll keep him!! (Along with all the rest!) If you look over to the left side you see a link to some more of this little video I made. Click on the Benji 3 of 4 link and you'll see more!

My thought to leave you with today is: Remember that little part of you that is child like and find some things in you life to make you feel compelled to shout out "AWESOME"!!!!

Until next time . . .

Computers, can't live with them, can't live without them!

As you know I got a new computer and it's wonderful to work on (and play on) - I continue to learn new things every day.  The frustrating part is when I try to use my old programs and continue to get stopped at every point.  I just had to buy a new printer because my old one wasn't working very well with the new computer.  Yesterday I had to buy an external floppy disk drive because my sewing program needs a floppy disk in order for me to sew out the designs I've created.  New computers don't come with floppy disk drives anymore, so, an external disk drive, thank goodness they make them!!

I've been trying to finish some bibs I started before I got my new computer.  My plan of hooking up my old computer was a royal bust.  Great idea that didn't work.  By the time I finish these bibs the baby I'm making them for will probably be too big for the bibs I've made.  Oh well, I'll send them anyway.  It's the thought that counts.  I like to make gifts for people with my sewing projects and the people that receive them seem to like them.

Today was my first trip to the local nursery that I love to go to.  The day was grey, cold and very cloudy but the sight of the spring flowers blooming in that nursery would make anyone feel happy, content with the knowledge that spring is right around the corner.  I broke down and bought some sweet pea plants.  Small ones, probably don't have much of a chance of blooming, but I need to have some sweet peas in my yard!  I know, I said I would have to live without them this year, but I can't do it!!  So, here's some pictures of my sweet peas from last year.  I won't have nearly as many this year, but the few I have I will LOVE!!!

"They" (Google) has changed the format of the way people now do their blogs.  I like some of the changes and am not thrilled with others.  So, I have no idea how this will look when I actually post it.  I still like doing it, I wish I could be more creative with the page layout but I guess I have plenty of ways to be creative.  In the last post I mentioned I was making a dvd of my granddaughter Chloe.  I was unable to post it on this site, even though I trimmed it down to just a small amount the file was too big for this site.  When I finish it I can post it on another site and if anyone is interested in seeing it that's what I'll try to do.

I guess that's it for today, I wanted to get the calendar changed and add some more books I have read.  I've actually read more books than I had remembered (big shock there)!  I will be checking in again on Tuesday, March 9th - our little Benji boy's 3rd birthday.

My thought to leave you with today is:  Spring is such a wonderful season, go outside, be observant, notice the landscape as you walk or drive and enjoy the bounty that God gives us on a daily basis!!

Until next time . . .

I Can't Keep Up!

Here's a picture of Zach & Benji - aren't they so cute!

I am astonished that February only has a couple more days left in it and I have neglected to write on my blog - I made a point of writing February 1st and didn't even finish it, I left it hanging - so for those of you who visit and read it, I'm sorry.

I am getting used to my new computer and have installed programs to help me make better dvd's. Quite a learning process but the results so far are great. I'm starting off by making a dvd for Chloe. Chloe is 6 and her Dad, Erik, has been great about sending me photos of her throughout her 6 years. Of course I have a bunch of pictures I've taken myself but added to the pictures from Erik, I have quite a selection of pictures to choose to put into the dvd. I add music and comments and I'll try and put a little bit on here so you can see what I'm doing. Of course if Chloe is first - the other 5 should not be far behind!

In January, my cousin Judy and I were bemoaning the fact that we need to lose weight and get healthier. It's amazing how when you get in your 60's you think, whoa, I want to live a lot longer and be able to involved with the activities my family is involved in - and - watch all these people grow into the people they are going to become - I WANT TO BE PART OF ALL THAT!! So Judy and I talked about giving each other support to try and get healthier. I said I would try to get something started so we could invite other people and communicate with each other online. I was able to create a private group for us and I called it "Can We Do It ~ YES WE CAN!!!" This is the little logo I found for our site - I like it, it looks Happy, Positive and says everything our group feels - we can do this with each other's help! So far, it's been a really big success. Our group consists of my cousins - Judy, Jani, Linda, Jani's daughter Emily, Judy's daughter-in-law Judy,
my sister Connie, Connie's daughter Gena, my daughter Tina and me. We started with changing a few habits - drinking 6 - 8 glasses of water a day and doing 15 minutes of exercise a day. Those don't sound like big changes but they've been difficult to do on a daily basis - so we continue to work on changes - it took years to get in this shape and any and all positive changes we make are all for our own good. I think the best part is the encouragement and support we have all given to each other. We know someone is out there checking in on our group and will hopefully write a few words for discussion, being able to vent our frustrations and always send words of encouragement and inspiration. The weight loss is a slow process but the changes that I've hear about from all of us are amazing. Portion control, reading labels, getting up and exercising when we don't feel like it, drinking yet another glass of water - sharing with each other - I'm so happy we are doing it together!

I'm so busy with my computer stuff that I've neglected other things I love to do - reading - I have read quite a few books, both with my Kindle and books in my stash, but not the amount that I would normally do in the winter. Sewing - I'm kind of in a stuck position right now - my new computer doesn't work with my sewing program and my old computer isn't acting too good right now, so I haven't been too creative and I miss that process - but - I am working on getting the old computer working again so I can sew. Gardening - woe is me!! In an earlier post I told you my sweet pea seeds didn't grow and I wouldn't be having any sweet peas this year - I am so sad about that!!! I'm thinking I might go down to my GREAT local nursery - King's - and buy a couple of 6 packs and plant some and hope they grow. The yard is kind of a mess but I always am amazed at the little plants that live through the winter to give me beautiful flowers again and again. This year I actually pruned my roses and I'm looking forward to how they will do this year. So it seems that Spring is on it's way and I better get with it and get back to these all these activities.

As Spring starts it seems the whole family comes alive with all sorts of stuff to do - for our grandsons - Little League is just getting started - Benji will be turning 3 on March 9th - Matt (he's getting older I'm trying not to call him Matty - No - he'll always be Matty to me) is turning 11 in April - Zach will be 7 in May - Our little Chloe girl has pneumonia again, for the 3rd time in her little life but is back to school and feeling a little better, Cyrah is almost finished with her 1st year of high school and hoping to get an internship at a place in San Francisco to learn about marine biology and my Joe Joe will be playing Little League in the farm system this year. Kenny is always hopeful the Dodger's will do well this year and is counting the days until retirement is a reality for him. Mike, Tina, Erik & Jeff all seem to be doing well and we'll all start looking forward to our camping trip in June up to Richardson's Grove in the redwoods.

Chloe on New Year's Day Matty getting ready to start building his biggest Lego project "The Death Star".

Cyrah, Joe, Tina and Erik playing a game on New Year's Day.

Okay, time to close for today, as I write it's storming out-

side and getting ready to dump a ton of rain on us. I hope that everyone reading this is in a good place in their

lives, getting ready for a wonderful Spring & Summer. I continue to LOVE retirement and look forward to the time when Kenny will be retired (the very near future) and we'll see where that next section of our lives leads us. In March, we have been together 46 years - in May, married 44 years, so retirement for both of us will be a whole new world!

My thought to leave you with today is: Change can be a very good thing, embrace it, enjoy it and live it!

Until next time . . .

This New Year is Already Speeding By . . .

My gosh, today is already February 1st, January just zipped on by. Well, I'm typing this post on my new computer. I ordered it from Dell at the beginning of January and it just got here last Thursday. And let me tell you, Windows 7 is so confusing!
Learning how to use this computer is going to be a real test of my persistent nature. In addition to the new computer I also got a new photo program to use with my program that let's me make dvd's out of our photos. None of it makes sense to me at this point but I'm going to try and make some little movie that I can either put here or on YouTube so you can see what I'm trying to learn.

Speaking of my persistent nature, I called Connie the other night to tell her I was, Oh so Proud of myself. Connie and I both just have a gene that makes us keep trying to do some things (not exercising, or cleaning and especially not losing weight) until we finally have figured something out and end up being successful, where a lot of people just say "Why do you insist on keep trying to do that?" I'm talking mostly about computer stuff but for Connie it's also house stuff and for me it's usually some sort of craft/sewing thing. Anyway, getting back to me being oh, so proud!! My old computer has my sewing stuff on it but it turns out those files cannot be used on the new computer, which really screws me up because it's a very long process in the first place and this problem just made it a lot worse. Well, I kept trying and trying to figure out how to print my designs from where my old computer is at in the other room and I finally did it!! I created a network and pushed the print button on one of my designs and it came out of the printer in my craft room just like I had planned it. I really don't know how I did it to tell you the truth. But basically that's how my whole computer learning process has gone, I don't do anything the right way, I just figure out a way and keep doing it like that.

I'm going to stop for right now, I'm not finished, I'll finish up tomorrow but I wanted to get started on this. So if anyone is reading this, check back later tomorrow for the rest, it's so facinating isn't it?

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Yes, it's true, today is my birthday ~ 63 years old today! I am a person who loves her birthday, always have, but I don't have many people surrounding me who feel the same way. I don't know how I did it, I raised 4 children who are not thrilled by their birthdays. As a Mom I always tried to make it a special day but they just never seem to feel the same way. It might be because 3 of them are born on the same day. But still, there's 1 on his own day and he doesn't seem to care much either. My husband actually does care about his birthday, not a big deal kind of guy but a "let's go somewhere" person.

So, let me again wish myself a big ~ huge ~ stupendous ~ birthday ~ and get on with this blog.

I haven't written in so long. So this will be "catch up" with tidbits of how the last month or so have been going. First, of all, it has now been 1 year since I retired. Talk about time flying . . . do I like retirement? No, I LOVE RETIREMENT!!! After a year I cannot even imagine getting up every morning and going to work. In fact, I wonder how on earth I did it for as long as I did. Really, that's not true, I had to do it, but sleeping in is much better. My husband is retiring in September, on the 3rd of the month. He's, of course, very excited. He has it all planned out. He started working at Conklin Bros. 42 years ago on September 3rd and will exit on the same day. Talk about someone who has worked hard for a lot more years than me, Kent has done it. But he's ready to retire, he has to get up at 6:00 every morning, so he's ready for the sleeping in thing!!

Our daughter, Tina, came for a visit on December 2nd and stayed until January 6th. She was here from Mississippi and was able to see "the kids" and do some things with all of them. But she was captivated by the little Benji boy. He's a heartbreaker that one. He is such a sweet boy and he fell madly in love with "Auntie". It was a good visit and now she's back home in the frozen south. We will take up "skyping" so we can continue to see each other and Benji can talk to Auntie.

Christmas was a bit different for us this year. The boys came over about 12:30 p.m. on Christmas day. We were a family that opens our presents on Christmas morning, but of course we were going to wait for the kids on this Christmas. It seemed like such a long wait, but once they all got here, it got crazy really fast. For Christmas I made our son Jeff a quilt made out of his old rock shirts. I've been hanging onto these old rock shirts for 20 years or so, always with the promise "Someday I'm going to make you a quilt out of your old rock shirts" ~ it was a family joke. But I finally did it this year and it turned out really cool. It was one of the many things that made Christmas special for me this year.

For Christmas, Kenny got me a Kindle. A Kindle is a electronic device that you can download and read books on. I had bought myself one a couple of years ago but wasn't thrilled with it. They had created a new version of it and I was sort of interested in it and the changes they had made. So, I've read a few books on it and I've decided I like it much better this time. I will update my reading section soon but my plan is to read a Kindle book then a regular book, I have such a stash of books still to read.

One of the little things I want to comment on is that with all the beautiful Christmas music we hear during the Christmas season, I always get a little sad when I hear any song by The Carpenters. Karen Carpenter had a beautiful voice and died much to soon but her music still is part of our annual Christmas music experience and I guess maybe I should be happy about that instead of sad. We had a big night out to go see a Christmas concert. Connie, Tina, Gena & Katie (Connie's daughters) and Haley (Connie's son's girlfriend) and I all went out to dinner and then to a Christmas jazz concert. Dave Koz and some very famous jazz musician friends played here in Santa Rosa and we had a night of it. It was really fun and I think everyone had a great time.

Right now, I'm sitting here typing this and my face hurts so bad. I'm being treated for some pre-cancerous spots on my face that basically cover my whole face. I look like I have leprosy. I'm a mess and at this point I don't know when it will all be cleared up, but I'm hopeful and will definitely start wearing sunscreen!!

Okay, this where I will end this little post. Hope everyone that reads it had a Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year!! Think positive, it's got to be better than last year!

My thought to leave you with is this: An old Mickey Mantle saying - "If I would've known I was going to live this long I would've taken better care of myself!"

Until next time . . .