Our Honey Pie

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-11-30T18:26:00.001-08:00

Today my Dad turns 78. He is my hero. He has always been a hard worker, good provider for my mom and us 5 kids when we were growing up, and now that we are adults, he still takes care of us (like putting in all my new windows!) Thank you so very much, Dad! I love you tremendously!!!! I don’t even think of him as retired yet because from the minute he gets up until the end of the day, he is busy working. He putters around the house, my house, my sister’s house, his tenants houses, his truck yard and does appraising jobs for other housemovers (he owned his own housemoving business for over 40+ years).

I am very proud of my Dad!!

Last Tuesday morning Dad and Paul got 2 more windows in the office done.

Moving right along. The windows are looking so nice!

And then they hit a snag Tuesday late afternoon.

There are 6 windows on the south side of the house facing my parent’s house. They are smaller than the windows on the east and west sides of the room. Dad had to have the windows custom made in my house because the house was built in the 1920s and window sizes have changed through the years. The windows that came with the order for these 6 south facing windows all came 4 inches too wide – each of them! The fault apparently was in the measurements Dad gave the manufacturer.

So….. that means no returning, no refunding. Work on the windows ended on Tuesday to give Dad several days to rethink his strategy.

Wednesday I spent all day making 10 pies and getting ready for Thanksgiving day and my family all being here.

We had a wonderful time together on Thanksgiving day. I forgot to take any pictures, I was so busy all day, and in the evening I didn’t want to get out of my chair, I was so tired. We ate our large meal at 1 p.m., and had the pies at 5 p.m. I loved visiting with everyone.

Saturday was a very wonderful day!

We got rain! (Looking at my parent’s side yard from the office windows).

Glorious,

wonderful

RAIN!

I sat at the windows and just watched it for hours! We had the fireplace going and felt so cozy and warm. It rained steady all day.

This morning Dad and Paul were back over bright and early to tackle the south facing office windows.

They will be tearing out all the windows, in between the windows and the window ledge.

It will take several days, maybe even a couple of weeks,

and Dad said I will be living with plywood in the windows while they are working along the wall.

But I know when they are done, the windows will look great!

Bedroom Window and Pantry Shelves

2009-11-23T19:54:00.001-08:00

This weekend I spent one entire day pulling everything out of the glass doored pantry and the bookshelf I store food on in the laundry. I washed the shelves down with bleach and then organized all the food into groups, such as vegetables, fruit, rice, soups, canned meats, jams, condiments, etc.

I put all the boxed goods into ziploc-type plastic gallon baggies (as a precaution against bugs… a deep fear of mine! I remember my grandma showing me weevils in her flour when I was little – it has been a fear of mine since!)

I also wrote down everything we have on hand so that when I make menus I know exactly what I have and how much of it. We were recently blessed with a neighbor giving us bags and bags of canned and boxed food that her husband had overbought on. Yes, that is why we have so many cans of tomato sauce!

Tomorrow my goal is to do the pantry shelves in the kitchen where I keep all our baking goods.

Today Dad and Paul worked on the windows in our bedroom.

I hate those ugly evergreen bushes/trees outside our window. As soon as we get a good ground soaking rain, Dad is going to hook his wrench truck up to them and pull them out. I will be so happy to see them go. I have never been a fan of anything evergreen. I think it comes from when I was little, in the summer the rattlesnakes would always make a home under my mom’s evergreen bushes.

I am so happy with these windows. Since we have been here the window on the left would never open… I don’t know why, we thought it was painted shut, but that wasn’t the case. It will be nice to have the breeze coming through two windows now in this room!

Yesterday our friend Bruce came back from his one week vacation in Michigan. He called up this morning and asked if we wanted his chair he sat on in his living room. His wife bought him a new one while he was gone! Since one of our recliner rockers had seen better days, we said ‘sure!’ We have been told these are our ‘Mom and Pop’ chairs. Jerry sits in the one near the glassed bookshelf and I sit in the other. The chair I sit in is the ‘new’ one from Bruce.

Paul was done with our bedroom windows by 130 p.m. today. So he moved right into the office to start working on one of the eleven windows in there.

I love our office because of all the windows in it. But in the summer it sure can get hot and in the winter… well, it actually is nice in the winter because the sun shining in all those windows warms the room up!

Jerry had another doctor’s appointment today, with his diabetic doctor this time. By the time we got home, Paul had finished the first office window. Before, the old window was a solid window, now the new one can be opened up! I will be able to get more breeze in here in the summer evenings!

Higher Ground

2009-11-22T07:29:00.001-08:00

Higher Ground

I'm pressing on the upward way,

New heights I'm gaining ev'ry day;

Still praying as I onward bound,

"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on heaven's tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay

Where doubts arise and fears dismay;

Tho' some may dwell where these abound,

My prayer, my aim is higher ground.

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on heaven's tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to live above the world,

Tho' Satan's darts at me are hurled;

For faith has caught the joyful sound,

The song of saints on higher ground.

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on heaven's tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height

And catch a gleam of glory bright;

But still I'll pray till heav'n I've found,

"Lord, lead me on to higher ground."

Lord, lift me up and let me stand,

By faith, on heaven's tableland,

A higher plane than I have found;

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

By:

Johnson Oatman Jr. (1856-1922)

Charles H. Garriel (1856-1932)

New Kitchen Windows

2009-11-20T17:34:00.001-08:00

We are working our way around the house. Today Dad and Paul put in the new kitchen windows. I made a big crock pot of chili so we would not be in their way at all today.

I am amazed that we do not have a ton of flies in the house today seeing as they had lots of room to come into the kitchen by! In fact, I have not seen one fly at all in the house. Unlike in the Midwest when it gets too cold for them after a certain time of year, they are year round here in warm Southern California.

The dining room windows look great from the outside. We have so much work to do on the house…. little by little it is getting done. The big gray patch is where Dad had to tear out the wall to get to the kitchen pipes that needed replacing. Another project after painting the interior of the house will be to restucco the outside.

My Dad is going to be 78 years old at the end of this month and he gets up bright and early every morning and works all day still. He is my hero. He can run circles around me.

Yes! the new windows on the front half of the house are finished. Dad and Paul will take the weekend off and on Monday the goal is to put in our new bedroom windows. My goal this weekend is to get the living room, dining room and kitchen furniture and nic nacs put back into place!

I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Bonnie’s Birthday and Dining Room Windows

2009-11-19T19:39:00.001-08:00

Today Dad worked on the hall heater some more and he and Paul worked on the dining room windows. This is the big picture window before,

And these are the two other dining room windows before being replaced.

Paul had started to work on the two side windows yesterday afternoon.

So he was able to move onto the two other windows this afternoon.

He has about an hour’s worth of work left on them to do in the morning and then the dining room windows will be all done!

Hard to believe that 28 years ago today my miracle baby was born. Here she is in the Neonatal ICU. The last month of my pregnancy the sonogram picked up something was wrong with her. She hardly kicked and the doctor’s told me they thought her abdominal organs were on the outside of her body, they told me not to expect her to live.

When she was born she weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces. She ended up having her right ovary and right tube removed due to a cyst that was so large it had displaced her abdominal organs. She spent a week in the Neonatal ICU and then came home. Here she is at her baby shower at our church. My mom and Grandmom are with us in this picture.

I had to show this picture. You can see half of me in the red dress, my sister Cindy and my sister Lyn is holding Bonnie. And that lady, well, she is my wonderful Mother-In-Law. But at this time she did not know that she would one day be my mother-in-law. Jerry and I both miss his mother terribly. She was one special lady. The little girl in the front of the picture is my other daughter, Kym.

Here is Bonnie beginning her lifelong fascination with making oneself look beautiful. Hmmm… what are these funny looking things? Bonnie was always my little fashion model. My Aunt Irene is the one in the curlers and my Mom is holding Bonnie.

Bonnie on her first birthday. I always tied bells on my kid’s shoes from the time they started walking until they were about 3 years old. Do they even making walking shoes for babies anymore? I don’t think I have seen any for a long time.

I know this picture is a little dark, but that’s Bonnie and me on the Merry-Go-Round at Disneyland when she was 3 1/2 years old. I was 25 years old. It was nighttime.

When Bonnie was in 5th grade she wanted to play either the saxophone or the trombone for band. She didn’t have the ‘umph’ to play the sax (her son, Christopher is now taking saxophone lessons), and the music instructor didn’t think she would have the arm span to play the trombone. She just b-a-r-e-l-y made it. Here she is in the junior high marching band at the Wartburg College Homecoming Parade in Waverly, Iowa. She is the middle one in the front row looking at the camera.

Someone once said that Bonnie was born with the phone attached to her ear! She was a popular girl in school. She played volleyball when she was in junior high.

Bonnie and Kyle both had/have the biggest hearts when it came to animals. Bonnie found these two kittens abandoned in a box under a tree when they were barely a few weeks old. She brought them home and nursed them along until they grew up strong. These two were the best cats ever. She named them Alexander and Cossette (I am probably spelling that wrong). She took French in high school and Cossette was the name she chose for her classroom name. You can barely see the other kitty over by the table leg.

Bonnie played the trombone all through high school.

Bonnie and her friends relaxing after spending all day at marching band competitions. Bonnie is the second one from the right standing in the back row. Her friend, Julie, is leaning on her.

I love my Aunt Irene and Uncle Jim and when the kids and I lived in Iowa, every chance we got we would drive the 7 hours to visit them in Indiana. Here is Bonnie and Uncle Jim cutting up. Yep, as you can tell by the yellow line down the picture, this was taken at the end of the roll – I am glad the picture took!

Not only did Bonnie play volleyball in junior high, she played soccer and tennis in high school.

Bonnie was a wonderful teenager, she never gave me any problems, never gave me any lip or grief. As you can tell by the pictures here, she was always smiling. I think she had a teenage attitude only one time in her growing up years and here, I caught it on film… this is her ‘don’t you dare take my picture, mom’ look.

Bonnie also cheered in high school. She is the girl in the left hand corner (first girl in the back row).

When Bonnie ordered her wedding invitations, she and I were watching the old Spencer Tracy movie “Father of the Bride”. I cried through the whole movie. You know, I could not watch that movie for years… I think a few months ago is the first time I could force myself to watch it. Yes, I got a little choked up even 10 years later. Here, Kym and Bonnie are getting their hair ready for the wedding. Kym had blonde hair then. This was our kitchen in Iowa.

Mr. and Mrs. - Adam and Bonnie. Adam is a wonderful son-in-law. After 10 years of marriage, they still have a strong union. Adam’s sister, Kim, is the bridesmaid in blue. Bonnie’s sister, Kym, is the bridesmaid in green (blonde hair), and Bonnie and Adam’s two friends Nick and Nick (oops! I meant Jason!!) were the groomsmen.

Happy Birthday Bonnie… I am so proud of you. You were my miracle baby. God made you strong at 9 pounds, 4 ounces so you could breeze through your first surgery at 23 hours old. You have always worn a smile on your face. I love you very much!

New Windows in Living Room Part 2

2009-11-18T18:52:00.001-08:00

Today Dad and Paul worked on the two side windows of the living room’s big picture window (got that?).

These two windows were pretty well rotten. I haven’t opened them because they were so bad. The one Paul is working on in the above picture about disintegrated in his hands when he was taking it out.

Jerry had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon at the VA hospital (routine yearly eye checks). This is the picture I took as I was walking out the front door on our way to the appointment .

And this is the picture I took when I walked in the front door when we got home this evening. Don’t they look nice!

New Windows Over The Living Room Mantle

2009-11-17T17:33:00.001-08:00

You will probably get tired of my window posts! I am excited about them. I must admit at first I was not. I love old things, I honestly do. I hate replacing old things with new things if the old things are still workable.

But these windows…

The way the windows are positioned in this house, you get a very nice cross breeze in all the rooms when the windows are opened. That’s just one of the many things I love about this old house. I applaud the architect who designed the house so many years ago.

As you can see… this window got broke. I did it, I admit it. I was trying to shut the window and my hand slipped and went through the lower glass pane.

Through the years the pulley lines have become broken in most of the windows in this house. In order to have an open window, you have to prop it up with a piece of wood. But the windows are old and cranky and it is a major struggle with some of them to get them opened and then shut again at night. My weakened arms would feel like I had just fought a 10 round boxing match sometimes after trying to get the windows to paleeeeze just open/shut nicely for me. I never complained because I am so happy to be living in this house. It is old and charming, like I said yesterday. Alas, along with old comes crankiness and creakiness and parts decide they don’t want to work like they used to (almost like our human body!).

So when my Dad came over one day a month or so ago and said he was going to buy all new windows for the house, part of me was jumping for joy, and part of me was sad. Very, very sad.

After all, this house has a lot of history for me. I remember the Christmas Eve when we lived here in 1964. I was 4 years old and very much believed in Santa Claus. During the night, I remember getting up and wandering into the dining room where my Mom was sitting at her sewing machine putting the finishing touches on Christmas presents. She was working on the striped giraffe she was making for my brother when I wandered in. I remember thinking that Santa’s workshop was in our dining room for years after that! Thankfully my little mind did not put one and one together that it was MY Mom toiling away in Santa’s workshop!

I honestly worried about these new windows and how they would look in this old house. Would they look tacky? You know how some people ‘remuddle’ their old places instead of renovating them. One thing I absolutely hate is when gorgeously, big, old windows are removed to be replaced by small, modern windows. It totally ruins the charm and appearance of an older home, not to mention the homes value goes down. I asked my Dad if he planned on getting the same size windows. He said “Yes!”. Whew!

So then I started worrying about how modern, vinyl windows would cheapen the house.

I need not of worried….

I think they are looking right at home. Don’t you?

New Bathroom Window

2009-11-16T17:32:00.001-08:00

Boy, I really feel like I have fallen down on the job. I used to write every single day on this blog and then I went on a little vacation. Since then I am having the hardest time getting back into the groove of things. Not just posting on the blog, but in all areas of my life. I still have some of Bonnie’s visit to post, so stay tuned for that.

Last Monday the 9th, Kym came down with the grandkids and I babysat them while she and Jeff went to dinner at The Olive Garden for a little brother-sister yak time.

Miranda, David and I camped out in the bedroom so Grandpa could have the living room tv.

We had a fun time watching the Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs video on the bedroom tv. I had not seen that movie since my kids were little. After the movie I made sandwiches for supper, then Kym and Jeff returned so I visited with them. As always, I loved being with my grandbabies and the time flies by too quickly.

Yes, I know, lollipops on the bed. At least the bedspread is washable!

By the way, Kym’s foot is doing much better. She is not using crutches anymore, but still wearing the boot.

My Dad owns our house. I might of told this story before, but when I was 4 years old, my parents, siblings and I lived in this very house while my Dad (who is a housemover) moved my parents house on the lot next door. We moved into that house when I was 5.

I love this house and am so grateful for the opportunity to live in it. It is old and charming. Recently Dad decided to replace all the windows in this house and my parent’s house. He came over last Friday and told me he was going to start on Monday, today. Well, that is really great, but he plans on having all 27 windows replaced by Thanksgiving… which is next Thursday! Yikes! And everyone is coming here for Thanksgiving – double yikes!!

Today he started with the bathroom window. This was the leakiest of all the windows. Half the time those window slats did not want to stay put and they would fall a little bit. In the summer the hot air would seep around the window slats and on the side of the window where it attaches to the walls. In the winter, the cold air would make the bathroom feel like it was the deep freeze.

Early this morning I got all my nic nacs and things out of the bathroom to give my Dad and brother Paul room to work without ME being afraid they would knock something over.

I know these pictures are a little dark, but you can see the nice, beautiful, large, new bathroom window! Oh, how I love it!!

It took them all day to work on the window as they had to make it fit. Yes, that is my parent’s two-story house in the background. And yes, sigh, that is my brown grass. We need rain here in Southern California so we can get off the mandatory water rationing… and for it to fill up our lakes and reservoirs.

Oh, but doesn’t that window look just fantastic?! Paul even cleaned up all the sawdust and mess they made.

This evening after they left, I had the window shut and you know what? The bathroom was quiet inside. It used to be you could hear if someone was whispering next door. Oh, it will be so nice to not have a freezing bathroom in the mornings now. I know I am whining here – but it dipped to 42 degrees last night. That is cold for us. Funny thing is, I remember when it was 42 degrees in the winter in Iowa when we lived there and that was considered a hot day!

How do you like our new front screen door? We still have to stain it before it starts raining. I love it. Poor Honey, she has to stand on her tippy toes to see out the door now. Her eyes will be just barely peering through the bottom lattice holes at you, she is a cutie! At least she doesn’t go crazy about all the cats that go up and down the street like she used to. Now she only barks at them if they are sitting on the front porch.

New Blog Finally Up

2009-11-05T18:15:00.001-08:00

I have been neglecting this blog the past few days because I have been working on getting my new homemaking blog up that I have been promising to do for several months now. I am really excited about it’s look and what I will be posting on it -- all things to do with old-fashioned homemaking!

The link to the new blog is:

http://thehoneypiehomemaker.blogspot.com/

I also have it listed on the sidebar here under “Please visit my other blog”.

Thank you for being so patient with me in getting this done. I have been dreaming about doing something like this for at least 10 years!

I also want to take this minute and say how sad I am for the families whose military members were killed today at Ft. Hood, Texas. My husband was stationed at Ft. Hood for awhile after returning from Vietnam and today’s senseless rampage has saddened him a lot. Our prayers are with the families of the fallen and the wounded, and all our military personnel who do a brave job and who are much needed and respected by us.

Thank you for your service.

Bonnie and Chris’ Visit Part 2

2009-10-29T18:02:00.001-07:00

Kym, Bonnie and the grandkids all went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park one day of Bonnie’s visit. Jerry and I did not go with them because, sad to say, our unhealthy weight would have made it impossible to keep up with them. This will hopefully inspire us to really get to working on our health. It is sad to miss out on time with family because you are too obese and out of shape to keep up with the fun.

Kym buys the year passes to the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park every year. Miranda and David love going. Miranda talks about wanting to work at the zoo when she is older, or becoming a veterinarian. Bonnie and Chris enjoyed our Wild Animal park. Bonnie said there was so much walking that even she was exhausted at the end of the day and she trains to run marathons!

However, we did take Bonnie and Chris to Point Loma where our National Monument to Juan Cabrillo and our old lighthouse are. It was so foggy that morning. I wish I had taken more pictures than I did, but I was afraid they wouldn’t turn out. I did take several pictures below after the fog started lifting a bit.

These black and white pictures are from a visit to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse I made with Kym, Jeff and Bonnie when they were little on August 15,1982 (that is us sitting on the steps in the above picture. Jeff is turned around looking behind us. Bonnie is on my lap and Kym is talking to her). The lighthouse has changed as now they have built an auxiliary building next to it that holds the original light used to beacon the ships out on the sea. The lighthouse was one of the original 8 west coast lighthouses and was built in 1855. It operated for only 36 years due to the fact that it was so high up on the Point and most of the time was shrouded in fog that the ships could not see the life saving beam from the Fersnel lens. A new lighthouse was built at the base of the Point and is still in operation with the Coast Guard today.

As these pictures are black and white, you can’t really see the blue from the harbor in the background at the top of this picture (Kym and Jeff above. Kym was 6 and Jeff was 3, Bonnie was 9 months old and I was 22 years old). Another time, Jerry and I will make a trip to the lighthouse and I will get some current pictures. Back in 1982 you could take the stairs all the way to the top of the lighthouse where the lens used to be, they had a walk you could stand on and look out over the ocean on one side and the city of San Diego (clear to the Mexican border) on the other side.

Today you are still allowed to view the rooms on the first and second floors of the lighthouse, but can not go all the way to the top.

Also, years ago, you were able to park right near the lighthouse, nowadays you have to park in a lower parking lot and hike up the hill. I tell you, it is a real workout when you are out of shape. My hips sure felt it along with my legs. Jerry did not attempt the walk. There are several benches along the way up that you can stop and catch your breath at.

If you walk on past the lighthouse, there is an area where you can observe the grey whales as they migrate from mid-December through mid-March. There are also several walking/hiking trails around the Point from the tip of it to the bottom.

The above picture is looking down from the Point where we were standing to the tide pools parking lot where we ended our trip to Point Loma. Yes, those little specks in the parking lot are cars. Can you imagine having small children way back in 1855 and letting them out to play in the ‘yard’. I would worry the whole time that they would roll down the side of the mountain into the ocean!

Of course we thought it was chilly and cold that morning, but Bonnie and Chris thought the temperatures were wonderful seeing as they had just left Minneapolis where it was 38 degrees and snowing! What’s a little misty fog and a bite in the chilly wind to a couple of snowbirds?

On your way walking back down to the parking lot is an old World War 2 bunker that is opened as a little museum. It is really interesting to see the pictures of San Diego during WW2. My grandfather (my mother’s father), from Pennsylvania, was stationed here during the war.

On the parking level is the Cabrillo National Monument Visitor’s Center. Here you can learn the history of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo’s 1542 exploration and subsequently he was the first European to set foot on the West Coast. The Visitor’s Center is filled with books you can purchase on the lighthouse, history of San Diego, books on the gray whales, the animals and plants of the region, ships and much more. There are stuffed animals native to the Point on display and the rangers are very nice and will answer any questions you may have. You can also view short films in the auditorium. While we were there, the rangers were giving a presentation to a group of homeschoolers, so we got to listen in. We learned a lot!

If you follow the above road down past the new lighthouse at the base of the Point, it will take you to the tide pools where you can get out and see ocean life in action.

After driving around the Point and looking at the wonderful old houses, we met my parents at our favorite Mexican Restaurant.

Today, Thursday the 29th, Jerry and I drove up to Kym’s and visited with her for a bit. She broke her toe the other night. A wonderful couple from their church gave them a really nice dining table and chair set. They can sit an additional 3 people around their table now. Well, Mike told Kym to leave the table alone and not move it until he was home to help her. Uh, yeah. She didn’t listen and ended up dropping a 150 pound solid wood table on her left big toe. The colors may look pretty on her foot now, but it doesn’t feel pretty at all!

And Kyle, 20 years old, had his first experience serving on a jury today. We live in a great Republic that has been the envy of the world for 233 years. Oh how we need to be on our knees praying for that continued liberty now more than ever before.

Bonnie and Chris Came to Visit!

2009-10-26T16:21:00.001-07:00

I am sorry I slacked off on writing everyday these past several months. I took an extended vacation, I guess! It has been a busy last few months and now it is time to settle into a routine again. This time around a more healthful routine.

I can’t believe it has been two weeks now since my daughter Bonnie and my grandson Christopher flew in from Minneapolis for a fun-filled visit. The above picture is Bonnie and Chris arriving. My two other grandkids, Miranda and David, ran up to the escalator and escorted them to the baggage claim where Kym and I were waiting for them.

Bonnie is my second to youngest child, and Chris is my oldest grandchild. I wish they didn’t live so far away. I don’t know how mother’s did it before instant emails and cell phones. I could not imagine waving goodbye to your child as they road off across the prairies in a wagon and headed off west to parts unknown. Letters took weeks to arrive, if at all. Not knowing if your baby’s wagon train met up with danger from nature or other humans would have driven me crazy. Ask my kids, I am always calling them on their cell phones with the same questions - “Did you arrive ok?”. “How was your day/appointment/etc”, and so on.

After we left the airport, we visited San Diego’s Old Town and walked around the stores for a little bit. The grandkids got such delicacies as chocolate covered gummy worms to snack on. After lunch at The Sizzler, we arrived at my house where the grandkids immediately recognized the Wii controls sitting on the table between Grandma and Grandpa’s recliners.

They actually played quietly on the Wii for about 3 hours. This was probably the only time the cousins didn’t act like siblings during their visit. You know… “Mom, David is bothering us”, “Mom! They won’t let me sing at the top of my lungs”…

Kyle, Kym and Jeff manned the firing of the grill

Bonnie and I worked in the kitchen while Grandpa played Wii with the grandkids.

Honey loved the attention from everyone

and Bonnie made a fantastic salad. My parents, sisters and brothers all came over for the barbeque. It was the first time we have all been together in the same place in over 20+ years.

I love this picture of my four babies, left to right: Kyle - 20, Bonnie - 27, Jeff - 30 and Kym - 33.

with me

with my parents

and finally, Honey happy to have Jeff home to pay attention to her!

Bonnie had called me back in August to arrange her and Chris’ visit during Chris’ school break 2 weeks ago. It seemed like that week would never get here. Now it has been two weeks past. I boo hoo’d for several days after Bonnie and Chris left. The hardest part of being a mom is letting your kids grow up and have a life of their own. All you moms with your babies still underfoot…. enjoy it while you can. Time really does fly.

I am back

2009-10-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone:

I am just now getting back online after a long absence. It's been a busy past month or so and still not done being busy yet.

We have been out of town and back home. Sick with flu-like symptoms (thankfully not seriously as some people have been). And now we are busy getting ready for out-of-town company that is arriving at the beginning of this coming week.

It will probably be another week before I have time to write on the blog again. I just wanted to let my readers know that I did not give up on the blog or disappear from sight!

Our temperatures here have turned nice finally. We were at 107 degrees for several weeks. Now we are at around the mid 70s. I know so many others have had rain and more rain and now are receiving snow! You can send some of that rain our way, we sure could use it.

My daughter Bonnie and my grandson Chris will be our out of town visitors next week. They live in Minneapolis. Bonnie came out last January for a weekend because she just could not take the snow and cold a minute longer. It was 80 degrees while she visited that weekend. Guess what? Tomorrow she is supposed to be getting snow, and the weather is predicting snow several days next week in Minneapolis while she is here in sunny Southern California!! We have a lot of plans so we will be on the go alot. I will write about our adventures after she heads back to her home in cold country (oh, how I miss living in the Midwest, fall is one of the seasons I miss it the most).

Boo hoo... it makes me sad already to think of her having to leave again. Isn't that silly and she isn't even here yet! Mothers!

Not So Friendly Visitor

2009-09-02T09:46:00.001-07:00

On Monday morning I went into the kitchen, got a cup out of the kitchen cupboard, sat it down on the counter and immediately saw a black widow spider run across the web she was just beginning to spin from my counter top to the cupboard door.

I quickly grabbed the long barbeque fork off the top of the fridge and went in the hall and got a can of hairspray from the hall closet.

I spent a good hour poking all over that side of the counter and inside the cupboard with the fork, but no spider showed itself.

This morning I went into the kitchen and there was a messy web all over from the counter to the cupboard again. Black Widow Spiders do not make neat Charlotte Webb type of webs, you can tell them by their messy webs. Mrs. Spider must of had a busy night.

This time I went and got Jerry out of bed. He put a garden glove on and started moving the old glass coffee canisters, salt and pepper shakers and other nic nacs I have around on the counter. He finally caught a glimpse of her legs sticking out of the red fake flower I have stuck in the little wire birdcage sitting on top of the canister I keep my white flour in.

I handed him the can of hairspray and he lacquered her up. She has now left our house via the flushing of the toilet.

This is the 4th black widow I have found inside since November of last year. We even had under the house and around the outside of the house sprayed for spiders. I think it is time to have all the yard, flowers and shrubs sprayed, too.

I keep forgetting to fill my hugging Polar Bears up with baking soda and putting them back in the fridge. In the back of them is a little cup that holds the baking soda.

Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

2009-08-30T07:22:00.001-07:00

First Southern Baptist Church

Chula Vista, California

Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus

Stand Up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner, It must not suffer loss:

From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,

Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner,

It must not, it must not suffer loss.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, The trumpet call obey;

Forth to the mighty conflict, In this His glorious day:

Ye that are mennow serve Him against unnumbered foes;

Let courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner,

It must not, it must not suffer loss.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in His strength above;

The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own:

Put on the gospel armor, Each piece put on with prayer;

Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner,

It must not, it must not suffer loss.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, The strife will not be long;

This day the noise of battle, The next, the victor's song:

To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be;

He, with the King of glory, Shall reign eternally.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus,

Ye soldiers of the cross;

Lift high His royal banner,

It must not, it must not suffere loss.

by:

George Duffield, Jr. 1818-1888

Adam Geibel 1856 - 1933

My $50 Purse

2009-08-27T14:26:00.001-07:00

You know how I have been whining about my weight, my clothes, the rut I am in. I don’t usually go out and buy myself much of anything. It comes from being a single mom for so long and other things for little people being more important than what I wanted for me.

I have a really good husband who is very patient with me for yakking his ear off most of the time, and all my other faults (I have faults?? !!) Because I don’t ask for much 90% of the time, when I do finally ask, he rolls his eyes and tells me to get what makes me happy. Well, truthfully he didn’t roll his eyes until I came back from my shopping trip telling him how I saved $109 by spending $105!!

My purchases came to $89. If I spent over $100, I could save 25%. If I bought the Perks card, I could save an additional 10% today and 10% on every purchase for the next year, plus the first Tuesday of the month I can save 20% (and this will include the jeans which normally do not go on sale). So I added a few more things to my growing pile on the counter.

My spending spree on me started yesterday with the brooches and necklace and spilled over today with me going to Catherine’s. I found these earrings for $1.99. And oh, all the other jewelry they had in there. Sigh…. strands and strands of necklaces, bangly bracelets, claspy bracelets, dangly diamondy earrings, pearl earrings, and so much more. If I buy one piece a month…… sigh….

I went in to only get the “buy 2 and get 1 free” deal for my undergarments. While in there I went to their clearance rack. I found this really nice dressy shirt for $15. I love the puffed details in the design. I tried to get an up close of it (below) but the picture does not do it justice, it is so pretty. I have a navy cardigan already at home that I can wear it under, or a white silk blouse, too.

I also bought a black blouse that did not take a good picture.

The girl who helped me was so nice. My usual shopping experience is to Walmart or Target, grab something off the rack, pay for it and leave. I really have never been to a store where the salesclerk helped measure me, and then assist me in finding the right size and color.

I found out I am actually 2 sizes smaller than I thought I was.

Wow!

Which is a good thing, because trying on clothes in front of 3 mirrors where you get a good eyeful of every angle, you can’t pretend anymore. You can’t plead ignorance, either. All I can say is how sad. How very sad that I let myself get in this shape.

I have never owned a purse that cost me more than $10 at a discount store. 49 years old and so deprived. I saw this purse for $50 and sighed really big. The salesclerk said it was on clearance, and when she scanned it at the counter… it came up for $14. I could not let that deal get away from me.

I feel like I am a little more in vogue now!

I asked the salesclerk what their smallest size was at Catherine’s – size 14. So even after I lose a ton of weight, I can still go shopping there.

Good, because I am tired of looking like a fuddy duddy. And they have some really nice clothes with very helpful salesclerks. I will be having sweet dreams tonight!

Antique Jewelry P.S.

2009-08-27T07:04:00.001-07:00

When Jerry came home last evening, he teased me and said he wasn’t going to let me go out with my mom and sisters any more because I cost him money!

All kidding aside, he did like my new treasures and said I could still go and get the other things I wanted. My sister, Cindy, told me that at Marshall’s I can get 2 for $20. So think I will try there first to see if they have what I want. I need a front closing one because I am still having a lot of problems with my right upper arm and it is too hard and painful for me to reach behind me.

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the triple digits again, just like the past few days. We sure are happy with our two new portable air conditioners. What a difference in temperatures when you come in from outside.

Yesterday afternoon I sorted through the clothes in my closet and dresser. No, I didn’t toss anything. It was more of an exercise to reacquaint myself with the clothes I already have. I tend to get in a rut and wear the same couple of shirts and capris over and over and over….. Yet, my closet and drawers are crammed full with a variety of other clothes.

Stay cool, before we know it, winter will be here and we will be complaining about the cold!

Antique Jewelry

2009-08-26T14:12:00.001-07:00

I love antique jewelry. I love jewelry period, but there is just something timeless about a piece that is older than me. Isn’t this blue and silver necklace pretty?

Today my Mom and two sisters and I went out for lunch at a nice little restaurant called “The Downtown Cafe” here in town. It is in one of the original stores that was on Main Street here in El Cajon from way back in the early 1900s.

They have good food that is served to you in a large, flat, black metal basket. I had the Santa Fe Burger – with guacamole, green chili peppers and jalapeno peppers. You get a side of French Fries – the yummy, crunchy kind; and a side of perfect coleslaw for about $8.

After lunch, we walked to the corner antique store. Oh, drool, drool, drool. I loved the displays of table settings and dining furniture; quilts, patio pieces, and bathroom decor. They had several picture frames surrounding a cloth background with so many beautiful antique lapel pins attached to the cloth. Oh, decisions, decisions. I couldn’t pick just one, so I bought these 5 items. I paid $47 for all 5, and that included El Cajon’s 10% sales tax (ouch!)

Sorry the pictures are a bit fuzzy. I tried to get up close shots so you could see some of the fine details that I found so charming. This white pin is a tulip, really.

Jerry is gone for the day. I was supposed to be going to Catherine’s and buying a couple new ‘foundation’ items, buy 2, get 1 free type of deal. And a new blouse.

Oh, but I couldn’t pass these little lovelies up.

So, when he comes home this evening, I will begin with - “Since Mom paid for my lunch, and it would’ve cost me $50 for the two undergarments…. well… I decided since I am losing weight, I won’t be able to wear the two undergarments forever, but I could wear these jewelry pieces the rest of my life…. so I didn’t go to Catherine’s…..”

Jesus Loves Me

2009-08-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

El Cajon Church of the Nazarene

El Cajon, California

Jesus Loves Me

Jesus loves me! this I know,

for the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong;

They are weak, but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

Yes, Jesus love me,

The Bible tells me so.

Jesus loves me! He who died

Heaven's gates to open wide!

He will wash away my sin,

Let His little child come in.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so.

Jesus loves me! loves me still,

Tho' I'm very weak and ill;

From His shining throne on high,

Comes to watch me where I lie.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so.

Jesus loves me! He will stay

Close beside me all the way;

If I love Him, when I die

He will take me home on high.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

The Bible tells me so.

by:

Anna B. Warner, 1820 - 1915

William B. Bradbury, 1816 - 1868

Lost And Found

2009-08-20T16:48:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know we are both ok – sorry I haven’t been writing everyday again. I am taking the next few weeks to clean the house top to bottom - which is an all day project. (And no, that is not my house in the picture, but it is a really pretty house. I love their landscaping). By the time evening rolls around I am collapsing in the recliner in the living room.

For about 5 days I worked on unpacking 14 boxes still stacked in this office that I had not finished since we moved here. They were boxes full of paperwork – things that needed to be filed, magazines, etc. Little tiny pieces of paper, too.

Today I am working on sorting through all my sewing patterns – opening each one up and making sure all the pieces are in there. I am writing down any missing pieces on a post-it note and attaching it to the outside of the envelope. I have about 5 big boxes of patterns I am working through.

I almost had a cry a little bit ago. I finished the last of the children’s patterns and remembered I had not come across my favorite antique pattern. I had bought this pattern while living in Iowa, it was the first old pattern I ever bought. I loved it and made a pair of PJs from red and white striped flannel for Kyle when he was about a year and half old. I loved the little drop drawer in the back.

I was ready to start crying, when I found it in a different box of older kids patterns. Whew!

Honey, My Hero

2009-08-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

Today we got home from Jerry’s doctor’s appointment and Honey led me to the back door so I could let her out. I opened the door and she ran out. As she ran out, a lizard ran in. I screamed and Honey immediately turned around and ran to me with that “What’s wrong mom?” look on her face.

I yelled for Jerry and said there was a lizard that ran in and it was by the dryer. Honey instinctively ran to the other side of the door and chased that lizard clear back around the dryer. Sadly, the lizard ran under the dryer. She tried, though, she tried awfully hard to get under the dryer, also.

She is such a good doggie!

Whosoever Will

2009-08-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

Whosoever Will

Whosoever heareth shout, shout the sound!

Spread the blessed tidings all the world around;

Tell the joyful news wherever man is found,

Whosoever will may come.

Whosoever will, whosoever will!

Send the proclamation over vale and hill;

'Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home:

Whosoever will may come.

Whosoever cometh need not delay,

Now the door is open, enter while you may;

Jesus is the true, the only Living Way:

Whosoever will may come.

Whosoever will, whosoever will!

Send the proclamation over vale and hill;

'Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home:

Whososever will may come.

Whosoever will the promise is secure;

Whosoever will, forever must endure;

Whosoever will! 'tis life forevermore;

Whososever will may come.

Whososever will, whososever will!

Send the proclamation over vale and hill;

'Tis a loving Father calls the wanderer home:

Whososever will may come.

By:

Philip P. Bliss, 1838 - 1876

3 Types of Honey

2009-08-13T16:50:00.001-07:00

When I went to the doctor’s back in June she told me I had some pre-cancer spots on my face. I related this to my friend, Jane, who told me that she had some at one time, also, and a friend of hers had suggested to try putting honey on the spots with a q-tip 2 to 3 times a day. She did and within a couple of months those spots were gone and have never returned. That was several years ago.

So, I put some table honey in a small plastic container with a lid and put it in the bathroom medicine chest. Then I looked up “honey therapy” in a search online. The sites I visited said it had to be the non-heated kind of honey to work on the skin cancer. So I didn’t begin my honey treatments, I figured I would buy the raw honey first.

I went to the organic store and found the raw honey, at a little steeper price than the regular table honey. It was funny though, because I looked all through that store for the amber colored honey, the color we are used to honey being. Finally, I spotted the words ‘raw honey’ on a jar, and lo and behold, this is what real, non-heated, straight-from-bees honey looks like.

White.

Yesterday evening I burned myself really bad on my right index finger while I was making supper. It hurt excruciatingly bad – it brought tears to my eyes. I quickly stuck my finger under running cold water and knew instinctively that I would end up with a huge blister. So much for getting anything done for the next week seeing as I am right handed.

Just as quickly as I stuck my finger under the cold running water, I remembered reading that honey takes away the pain of burning and will prevent a burn blister. So I ran to the bathroom and popped the lid off the plastic container of table honey and stuck my finger in it. Instant relief. I kept my finger in the honey for about 2 minutes and took my finger out …. immediate horrible burning sensation again. So I stuck it back in the honey and kept my finger in there for about 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes, I took my finger out and I have not had even a smidgeon of burn pain since. My fingertip was really white and I figured I would wake up with a blister anyways this morning…. wrong. My finger still has a small white mark, but no blister and absolutely no pain or tenderness.

I also read online that honey is a great salve to put on scrapes and other skin lesions. Dab it on with a q-tip, put a bandaide over it and your cut will heal quicker than if you use store-bought ointments.

It goes to figure, since God’s plan for us humans is perfect, that He would make something in nature that would heal our skin wounds, as He knew we would get here on earth. Apparently honey has a natural anti-biotic in it that heals cuts much faster and with less scarring than anything man has made in a laboratory.

Honey is also supposed to take away the sting of insect bites.

This is my amber colored Honey who gives me so much puppy love.

She is another natural therapy…. pet owners reportedly have lower blood pressure than non-pet owners. As my son, Jeff, once said about Honey…. she was better than a girlfriend because she loves him unconditionally, and although she costs a lot of money to pamper and spoil, she never argues with anything he says.

A Hodge Podge Of Thoughts

2009-08-12T17:57:00.001-07:00

This is where I would like to be at today. This picture is looking from Silver Strand towards the San Diego skyline across the San Diego Harbor. The Strand is a sliver of land that runs from the mainland at Imperial Beach to Coronado Island (and got the name ‘Silver Strand’ from the silver colored shells laying on the beach on the ocean side of the strand). I wish I had that blue, blue water in a pool in my backyard right now!

Today was day 2 of running the new portable air conditioner. Boy, was it ever nice in the house. I kept the shades on the north side of the house closed all day for a change, Jerry said he thinks that helped a lot in keeping it cooler. I usually keep those shades open because I love having the view out my windows, I hate feeling enclosed inside the house – not that I am claustrophobic, I just love having my big windows open so I can enjoy the view outside from inside.

I have the a/c sitting in the dining room by the French doors between the living room and dining room. The kitchen, laundry, our bedroom and the spare bedroom (also known as the sewing room) all are staying cool, too. I have an oscillating fan going all the time in the bathroom, but I think some heat seeps in around the old fashioned window slats, so it feels a tad warmer in there.

A friend stopped by around lunch time and commented on how cool it was inside compared to outside. So… YES! That money we spent was well worth it. Now, the question is how much is it going to raise our gas and electric bill? While it is running we think it is well worth it. But I wonder if we will still feel that way when the bill arrives!

My mind keeps jumping all over the place today. We have been doing really well with eating our frozen dinners at home the past few days… and liking it. I have not done really well with recording our meals on my other blog, though. Part of that is because I have a direction I want to take that blog in and am working on organizing those thoughts onto paper right now. Give me a week or two more and hopefully I will have it in place and will begin posting on it again also. It won’t be just our menus from now on, either.

I am hoping to make it into a plethora of posts on homemaking, gardening, beauty tips, lots of recipes, ideas on how to make our marriages better, – in general, the kinds of things that interest us girls. Plus, I will keep a public accounting of mine and Jerry’s journey to better health on it. I am not trying to bore anyone with our weight loss, it just keeps me focused on being successful instead of giving up and staying in my rut by being public. Otherwise I am not accountable to anyone.

Don’t you hate it when you a song gets stuck in your head and it won’t leave??? This morning I had SOS by Abba, which isn’t bad, I do like that song. But this afternoon for some reason Call Me by Blondie entered my head and it will not leave. Not that Call Me is a song I can’t stand, it is just one of those songs that I could take or leave.

By the way, for you youngsters reading this – Abba and Blondie were groups that came out when I was a teenager in the mid to late 70s. I always roll on the floor laughing when they are referred to as ‘classic’ – wait a minute, I am not old enough for them to be considered that.

A couple of months ago, Jerry and I went to a business luncheon where they were giving out free MP3 players. As you can imagine, the word ‘free’ tells you right away that they are not ‘expensive’, ‘cheap’ is the better descriptive word. But, they work, and they were free. Jerry doesn’t care about using his, so I have kind of claimed both of them as mine. I have some old radio shows on both of them right now. One of them I am wanting to put some sermons on so I can listen to them in bed, or as I work around the house or wait in the car for Jerry or whatever. The other one I am going to use for the old radio shows and/or music.

Maybe some of that old ‘classic’ music will get my feet moving and my fingers snapping as I do my housework – burn those calories, Donna, use it or lose it…..

Training To Be An Athlete

2009-08-11T17:11:00.001-07:00

On our drive this past Saturday, we stumbled upon the Arco U.S.A. Olympic Training Center. It is set in a beautifully landscaped surrounding.

Just driving by, I felt in awe of the many people who have come here and their athletic abilities to be training to be on the Olympic teams. All the years of sacrifice and hard work seemed to ooze out into the air when you see the above entrance gate for the athletes.

I have never been an athletically coordinated person. A bench warmer and cheerleader, yes. I used to exercise and walk everyday just 3 short years ago. (Why oh why did I stop??) I loved the feel of my muscles in motion. Doing toe touches is not the same as jumping hurdles, though.

When I was in jr. high, we had Girls P.E. and Boys P.E. and never the two mixed. But when I started high school, our district began co-ed P.E. I flunked high school gym because I refused to dress out and make a fool of myself in front of those boys.

The above picture is heading towards the non-athletes entrance, I guess I qualify for that!

Both of my daughters were the opposite of me. Kym was very active in Little League and Girls Softball in high school. Bonnie was on the volleyball team, tennis team and played soccer with the parks and rec department.

One thing I have always wished I could’ve done all my life was ice skate. I love watching the ice skating competitions on tv. To me, ice skating equals grace. My dad used to call me “Grace” during my teen years, – because I was so much the opposite of that name!!

When Jerry was younger he loved to play baseball and was very actively involved in the game some way or another up until he was about 42. He would love to get on a senior team now.

One of the things Jerry and I will be buying is a Wii game unit. We both need to exercise very desperately bad. We both are so out of shape - so sadly so. A friend of mine mentioned that she and her husband played the Wii bowling game at her sister-in-laws and it gave them a good workout, plus she had a ton of fun. So Jerry and I got to talking and decided to buy one ourselves. We figure we can start with the cartoon sport package that comes with the unit and work our way up to the harder ‘virtual’ type games and finally hit real life playing tennis, bowling, golf, and so many other sports. Yes, I guess as you age you don’t really care so much what the boys think anymore!

The Wii will be our baby steps into getting our muscles working again, plus we will be in the comfort of our own home and no one can laugh at us but ourselves as we bounce off the walls like two overblown rubber balls! Just as long as we don’t let go of the controller (wand) and send it flying through the tv or picture window!

Yesterday while at Fry’s we scoped out the wall of Wii games. I found one that you can pretend to ice skate with. What??? Wow!!! Yes, I want that one. The same friend that told me about playing the Wii games also took up ballet in mid life. She is an inspiration to me. Ballet is another thing that would be fun to learn.

Jerry wants the “Big” league baseball one.

Together we would also like to learn ballroom dancing. We both grew up Southern Baptists and Southern Baptists do not dance. Well, at least we were told we weren’t supposed to. Jerry snuck off to dances as a teenager all the time, and I was allowed to go to my prom. But, remember, graceful I am not. Still, I think it would be fun to learn the foxtrot and other dances. It would be a blast to learn swing dancing, too.

Do I feel a second youth coming upon us?? I sure hope so!

I know we will be sore at first, but I am actually craving getting my body moving again.

We hooked up our new air conditioner this morning and it kept the house nice all day. Not chilly as it is not centrally pumped into each room, but nice and comfortable. Our thermometer outside the dining room window on the north of side of the house said it was 92 degrees about 2 p.m.

Shopping and Company

2009-08-10T17:30:00.001-07:00

I am so proud of myself. I just can’t quit patting myself on the back. One day about a month ago, my youngest baby, Kyle, came over and did some work on my computer. I grumbled and complained to myself after he left because he “fixed” some things. I am a traditionalist. I don’t take to change very well. Especially when it comes to technological stuff, and especially the technological stuff on my computer.

Well, he had changed the program I used for my pictures when I download them. Grumble, grumble, complain, complain.

Today when I was looking for a picture in my photo files of Kyle and Ashley, I found one that was taken at mine and Jerry’s wedding from June 18, 2007. It was very dark. I discovered today that I could actually crop the picture and brighten it up in the new program he had switched me to. I know it still needs more adjusting, but I amazed myself that I could get it to look like it does above.

Wow.

I am sorry I complained and grumbled and resisted the change, Kyle.

I like this new program. I like it I do. I like it Sam, I am. (Ok, Dr. Seuss I am not)….

Jerry had a meeting at the VA today, so afterwards we went to Fry’s to take a look at all the gadgets we might want to buy. Fry’s is a HUGE electronic store that has everything you could every imagine. Phones, cameras, computers, tvs, stereos, electronic games, – all of it. If you can think of it, they probably have it.

Jerry will be getting an increase in his VA benefits starting next month from a claim he had put in over a year and a half ago (due to being exposed to Agent Orange when in Vietnam – his diabetes is a result of that exposure). He had a partial approval, the rest of the claim is still pending. What the VA does is they back pay (or retro pay) from the date of your claim. So you get a big chunk of money when you get your increase. So…. we went dreaming today.

After getting caught up on the bills and other outstanding debt, we will have a little left to play with.

We have been looking at either putting in central heat and air or buying the newer portable heat/air conditioners. Today at Fry’s we found this. It is a combination heater, dehumidifier, and air conditioner. It was $100 more than the plain air conditioner at Lowe’s that looks just like it. We ended up paying $580, with tax.

For the air conditioner, you vent it out a window. Jerry said it should cool the kitchen, dining room and living room (and heat those rooms during the winter). When we came out of the store, on the radio it said that it will be getting into the upper 90s again mid week for us, so…….. we will definitely be seeing if it was a good buy here in a few days.

Like I said in a previous post, I love books. I collect all kinds, including old textbooks. One of the things I want to work on this coming fall is refreshing/re-teaching myself Spanish. I took Spanish in junior high and high school, but alas…. I can only remember the basic stuff. I love the Spanish language, it is one of the Romance Languages. I have about 10 old Spanish textbooks I have picked up at book sales, yard sales and thrift stores. I saw this at Fry’s and asked Jerry if we should get it, so… here it is. I am eager to start working on it.

This program is for beginners, intermediates, and advanced pupils. It comes with a DVD for your computer, CDs for the car and you can even download it to your MP3 player. If you have a headset with a microphone, you can even speak to the program and it plays your recording back to you so you can hear where you need improvement so you don’t sound like a common “tourist” as you learn the language.

Neat, huh?!!

Kyle and Ashley are coming over for grilled steak, corn on the cob, salad and pie tonight. Kyle said he wanted lemon meringue pie, so we stopped by CoCo’s Restaurant and Bakery and bought one. Then we ran (well, actually drove, we probably should’ve ran to help loosen up some of this excess adipose that has wrapped itself around our bodies) to Ralph’s grocery store because they had T-bone steaks on sale, but I couldn’t find any. Instead, I bought a package of porterhouse steaks that was marked $39, but I paid $14 for them on sale.

I usually don’t shop at Ralph’s. But as I walked through the freezer case section I saw that they have both sides of the frozen dinner aisle filled with selection after selection of frozen meals. Lots of variety!!!! Wow… I think I found my 300 selections! Guess where we will be shopping the next few weeks for our frozen dinner meals??? I know we will be sick of them by the end of this month, but it will help me have more time to spend on deep cleaning the house if I don’t have to stop and spend an hour cooking several times a day everyday.

Plus, it will be so easy to plan our calories for the day because everything is already figured out on the packaged meal.

Am I lazy or what???

Grace Greater Than Our Sin

2009-08-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

Christ Episcopal Church

Coronado, California

1896

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,

Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that is greater than all our sins.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,

What can avail to wash it away?

Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;

Whiter than snow you may be today.

Grace, grace, God's grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,

Freely bestowed on all who believe;

You that are longing to see His face,

Will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God's grace,

Grace that is greater than all our sin.

by:

Julia H. Johnston 1849 - 1919

Daniel B. Towner 1850 - 1919

1910

How We Spent Our Saturday

2009-08-08T18:43:00.001-07:00

Jerry finally got the car into the mechanic today to get the power steering thing fixed. We have a praise from that… he thought the whole power steering unit was going to have to be replaced, but it was only the hose! What a blessing, we ended up spending $330 less than we thought we were going to have to.

After he was done at the mechanic’s, he came back home and picked me up. He told me we were going to get the car washed and then who knows what after that. I love an adventure in the car. We just start driving, never knowing where we will end up.

Today we headed south on Hwy. 94. He turned on a street that when I was in my teen years, all the girls said “you don’t want to go out on that street at night. It is scary!” All the boys loved to go there.

I love the horse properties that have the white rail fences around them. They look so country.

Yes, this street is desolate when you get past the homes. Yes, I went out there one night when I was young, ….with a boy. I didn’t know that was where he was heading until we were there. It was dark. It was creepy. I made him turn around and get back into civilization really fast. No stopping and turning off the engine for even a second. I think under his macho attitude that he was happy I made him go back to town.

Every town probably has their scary country lane story. You know, the one where the boy and girl are making out in the car on a dark and windy night. Something happens to make the boy get out and see what’s up. The girl is left sitting in the car. The boy doesn’t return for a looooonnnnnngggggg time. Sometime during the night the girl begins to hear scratching on the car window. She is too afraid to get out of the car and spends a terrifying night in the car. Alone. When the morning light comes, she sees…….

No one ever finishes the story and says what she sees. But everybody with their eyes wide, soaks in this story and with a knowing nod and gulp says “Oh my!”

This particular scary country lane also supposedly had an insane asylum at the very end of the long, dark dirt road and people who went to the end of the lane, well….

-- they – never – came – back……..

Jerry and I always laugh over how the same stories were around when he was a teenager, 11 years before me.

After we got back on the main highway, we turned onto another two lane highway with a sign that read “9 miles to Otay Lakes”.

This is an RV campground called Thousand Trails. I love trees, especially when they have distinct characteristics of their own. God’s handiwork can be seen wherever you look in this beautiful world He made.

The history of San Diego is long and rich. We have so many interesting historical sites and as we visit them, I will share them with you in pictures and words here on this blog.

Most of San Diego county was divided into 29 rancheros in the early 1800s. A good many of the cities in the county got their names from the ranches that were originally on that land. Up until even the 1940s, a lot of the land was still owned by ranches. Huge ranches and small ranches.

Some of the ranches spread as far as the eye could see. I have such a vivid imagination. I love envisioning what things looked like from days gone past. Even if what I am trying to imagine took place only 40 years ago.

Here’s a glimpse of the backwaters of Otay Lake. Can you see it? See the white object in the center of the picture? The water is just below that.

In 1769, Father Junipero Serra (1713 – 1784) supposedly spent his first night in upper California near Otay Mesa. Father Serra is known as the founder of California, establishing 21 missions from San Diego to Sanoma (near San Francisco). These 600 miles are known as El Camino Real, which is Spanish for the Royal Road (also known as The King’s Highway).

After the Mexican Revolution in 1810, retired soldiers wanted to own land in this area and they complained that the missions owned all the good lands. The new Spanish government secularized the lands and Maria Magdalena Eustudillo became the owner of the 6,677 acres known as Otay Ranch.

Lots of people ride their bikes along this road. I wish I had that kind of energy! There is just something almost romantic about riding a bike on a two-lane scenic highway….. except with all the bends in the road and the narrow lane in some places, I had to keep reminding Jerry to go slow around the areas we could not see ahead of us. I would hate to run over someone.

When I was younger, I loved riding on the back of a motorcycle. Oh, to feel the wind in your hair (I wore a helmet, honest) and to feel like you were this close to nature was fun. I loved leaning into the curves on the road. It was like you were one with the world outside the confines of a car.

In the 1850s, after California became part of the United States, all land owners had to prove their claims. Many of them went bankrupt by the 1870s because they had to sell their cows and other property to pay for the legal fees in proving their ownership.

Otay Lakes is a 78 acre county park.

You can take your boat out on the lake and fish.

Or you can fish on land from the side of the lake.

Here is a neat webpage that tells all about the lake and has some really spectacular pictures:

http://www.miriameaglemon.com/San%20Diego%20Bird%20Pages/Sites/Otay%20Lakes.htm

There’s a picnic area with a playground and a horseshoe court, and a pretty hiking trail.

Aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery, made the world’s first controlled flight on August 28, 1883 in a fixed wing glider here in Otay Mesa. He flew 600 feet from the top of a hill.

Otay Mesa borders another city in San Diego County called Chula Vista. We saw this sign while we were stopped at a left turn light.

I loved it!

We found this wonderful outdoor mall on the old Otay Ranch. Another day we will go back to visit it and I will take more pictures. I had to take a picture of this store, though. Oh, just think about all the yummy treasures inside!

On towards the coast we drove, and stopped at Imperial Beach, known as the most southwesterly city in the continental United States. It is the host of the U.S. Open Sand Castle Building Contest each July. The Imperial Beach Pier opened November 23, 1963, the day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The pier extends 1491 feet into 20 feet deep water. At the end of it is a small cafe you can eat at. (It is that dome shape at the end of the pier in the picture above).

After driving around Imperial Beach we drove up the strand to Coronado Island, home of the famous Hotel Del Coronado (mentioned elsewhere in this blog).

I love Coronado Island. Some of the homes there are stunning mansions. Others, like this one, are just as gorgeous. I love the architecture of old homes. They have so much more character than the cookie cutter homes of the second of half the 1900s.

Another day we will revisit Coronado Island and I will post many pictures then. I did take tomorrow’s church picture for this blog on the island. I am always keeping my eyes open for beautiful churches to post with the hymns on Sunday.

What did you do for your Saturday?

I Am Sick Of Food

2009-08-07T18:19:00.001-07:00

Have you ever gotten to the point that if you ever see another piece of food you think you will scream? That is where I am at the past two days.

On one hand, this is a very good thing, maybe I will start losing weight now. But on the other hand, when I went to the store to get us food for the weekend today, everything looked disgusting.

I told Jerry last night that my plan for the coming week or two, possibly three, is to buy only frozen meals for our meals. This way, instead of turning the oven on and making the house hotter, I can just pop them in the microwave. They have the calorie counts on the back already, so I do not have to do any figuring. And since everything is already portioned out, there is no temptation to eat more than I need to.

He agreed. Since I plan on deep cleaning the house over the next 4 or 6 weeks, I won’t be tempted to beg for us to go out to eat since it will be faster just to nuke a frozen meal already here at the house. It will save time and money. And I won’t have to stop cleaning to make a meal from scratch.

Well, I walked into the store this afternoon and looked at the row of frozen meals I had to choose from. Each and every single one of them looked yucky.

Why is it when you see the advertisements for the frozen meals in the magazines, the small print will say “we offer over 300 different meals you can choose from” and you look in the freezer case at the store and you have the same boring 10 choices made by 8 different companies???? Where are my 300 selections?

I am sick of eating out. I am sick of fast food. I am too lazy to do a lot of cooking from scratch right now.

What I am craving is fresh fruit. Peaches, oranges, strawberries, melons, plums, bananas, and so much more. We will have to go to the produce store on Monday, I am not tackling the crowds this weekend.

I do have some canned fruit here at the house…. yummy fruit cocktail sounds good! How about just a dollop of whipped cream on some cold fruit cocktail?

Oh yea… now that sounds good.

Smokey The Bear Says….

2009-08-06T20:13:00.001-07:00

I love living in San Diego County. I love the ocean and the mountains and the desert and all the cities in between. When I lived in Iowa for 12 years I loved the Midwest, but I sure missed the land I had grown up in at the same time.

San Diego is beautiful. In one day you can spend an hour or two at the beach; drive an hour to the tall peaks of the Laguna Mountains (6000 ft tall) and visit a quaint old town that started as a goldmine town, called Julian, for another couple of hours; drive down onto the desert floor and race your dirt bikes for the rest of the afternoon; and still go back to your home in the evening and fall asleep on your own bed.

San Diego County isn’t known for getting a lot of rain. And for the past 10 years or so, we have been in a drought. Right now we are on water rationing. With all the dryness, field fires are common.

I live next door to my parents, and I actually live in the house my family lived in when I was four. We moved next door when I was 5. When I was a little girl, we were surrounded by empty fields. Every summer we had small fires in the field, we think the twins down the street always set them off. Amazingly, once they grew up, the fires quit.

When I was 10, there was a huge fire in the Laguna mountains caused by a power line that fell. That was on September 26, 1970. The fire raged until October 4. It burned 175,425 acres. I remember the skies covered with smoke and standing in the backyard eating watermelon and trying to keep the ashes swept off it before my next bite. We could see the fire from our house as it climbed over the peaks of the hills east of us. After the fire, my Dad packed the family up in the station wagon and I will never forget the charred ruins of the forests and where homes once stood there were only stone fireplaces.

The thing about forest fires is that they have been happening for as long as God made the earth. A fire actually cleans out all the dead, built up growth and as soon as the next spring arrives, new green growth starts the life of the forest all over again. Prairie fires on the Great Plains were the same way.

In October 2003, I woke up on a Sunday morning and noticed the telltale sign of a fire --- the sunlight appearing very orange as it streams through the windows and lands on the floor. I went outside and the air was eerie. I could only hear muffled sounds, there was a smoke cloud slowly moving across the sky and the air smelled of fire. Two days later the air was so thick with smoke it was like fog. You couldn’t see the houses across the street. People had to wear surgical masks because the ash was so thick. This ash and smoke/fog lasted for 3 full weeks.

I remember heading up to my daughter’s in Vista for Thanksgiving 3 weeks after the fire started and seeing the devastation from the burn in some open fields on our way north. Amazingly, once we got past the valley I live in, the cloud of smoke disappeared and was replaced with beautiful sunny skies.

This picture is of the valley where I live during the 2003 fires. I would stand out in my front yard and see the flames at night and pray the fire did not sweep into the city. After the fires, we had an infestation of mice and other varmints who had run ahead of the fires into the populated areas. Many mountain lions moved into neighborhoods at the foothills of the mountains. We still have a family of coyotes that live in the ditch near our house.

What turned my thoughts to the fires of past today was on Sunday Jerry and I took a leisurely drive through the area where his family lived when he was in 5th grade called Eucalyptus Hills. It is a really pretty area about a 10 minute drive from where we live now. Lots of horses and country scenery.

They had a fire today, thankfully it was contained right away and limited to a half acre or so.

This picture looks towards the valley where we live.

So, as the last days of summer roll past, remember what Smokey the Bear says… “Only YOU can prevent forest fires”!!. (By the way, Smokey was born 65 years ago, August 1944, as a public relation mascot for the United States Forest Service).

August Dog Days

2009-08-05T16:46:00.001-07:00

Yes, it was hot here again today. I know other people in the desert and other Southern and Southwest states probably have it worse because they are either in the 100s or suffering with humidity. At least we had no humidity today with mid 90s.

We bought a new screen door at Lowe’s the other day and Jerry and my Dad went to pick it up today. I don’t know all the details, but somehow the door was damaged while the store worker was bringing it to them. So….. we have to wait a couple of weeks while the new one they ordered comes in. Sigh.

So we took my parents out to lunch today. It’s been a few weeks since we all went to Hometown Buffet. Dad has been helping move school buildings the past few days in San Diego. It was nice to sit and visit with him and Mom for a couple of hours today – inside with air conditioning. I sat on Mom’s front porch the other evening and we had a nice visit, but it was muggy that night. Funny thing about here in the East County of San Diego, it rains in the mountains just a hop, skip and a jump east of us, but all we get is the mugginess! November through February is our rainy months – if we get rain, we are in a 10 year drought I think the news was saying.

This evening we are meeting our friends, Bruce and Lawren, at the Red Lobster for dinner. One thing I know for sure that I am having is at least one of their cheese biscuits. Yum!

The picture above was taken at Spanish Landing here in San Diego on Memorial Day when we had a picnic there with Bruce, Lawren and another friend, Randy. Doesn’t that water look so refreshing, like you just want to jump in and get cooled down. I remember when we went that day it was really cool and I forgot to bring a jacket, brrrr.

Silly me…. I forgot to bottle that cool air and keep it to open on a day like today.

Oh! The Pain And Agony Of It

2009-08-04T17:15:00.001-07:00

Poor, poor Jerry. His day started off really good. At 8 a.m. he took the car to the mechanic to have the steering fluid thing fixed. No sooner did he get there than he doubled over in excruciating pain and horrible nausea. He was back home 10 minutes after he left.

For the next 4 hours he laid on the bed sicker than a dog (boy! that dog must have been really sick to give us that cliche). And so much pain. He knew right away it was a kidney stone. He’s had one before. He felt it travel from his back to his front and then the pain disappeared, to be replaced by a new pain in his back – a second stone. That stone did not take as long to pass through him.

About 3:00 p.m. he was asking for something to eat. I gave him chicken noodle soup and so far so good, it has stayed with him.

He didn’t want to go to the emergency room because he knew they would not do anything for him. I kept him drinking water to move the stones along.

We are praising God this evening that he is doing so good now. I had read that once a stone passes you feel 100% better instantly. And he did. The stone he had several years ago took him 3 days to pass.

One thing I read today about kidney stones is that they are more frequent in the summertime because people allow themselves to get dehydrated. So keep drinking that water. Also, people who consume calcium everyday tend NOT to get stones, so drink your milk, eat your yogurt and gobble up that spinach!

Visitors from Utah

2009-08-03T17:37:00.001-07:00

I can’t believe it has already been two weeks since (left to right) Christina, Jennifer and Linsey came down from Utah to visit us! Where has the time gone?

These are Jerry’s two daughters and granddaughter. We love them immensely. We had such a fun time!! We spent the day at Oceanside Harbor because it was just too stinking hot in El Cajon that day. The beach was cool, even though my daughter, Kym, who lives in near Oceanside thought it was hot there!! Oh, but it wasn’t to us. 80 degrees feels nice with an ocean breeze blowing on you, while 107 degrees with humidity never feels cool!

I didn’t get any pictures taken while we were at the beach and I truly regret that. I left my camera in the car and it was too much a of a pain to walk back and get it.

Kym and my two grandkids, Miranda and David, and Miranda’s friend Aleyna, went to the beach with us. So that made 9 of us.

We brought fixin’s for hoagie sandwiches – turkey and ham lunchmeat; French rolls; Klausin sandwich pickles; mayo; American, Swiss and cheddar cheese slices; baby carrots; bananas; green and red grapes; several different varieties of Mott’s individual applesauce containers; root beer and orange sodas; salt and pepper potato chips; jalepeno potato chips; and salt and vinegar potato chips.

Jerry and I sat under the shade of the shelter our picnic table was at while everyone else got in the water. I was afraid Jennifer was getting a little too pink, even with sunscreen on, around 2 p.m., so she came and sat with us in the shade. She is fair like me, all the others have the blessed ability to tan even with sunscreen on.

While the kids were all in the water, Jerry and I met two couples we enjoyed talking to. One couple had immigrated here from Russia 25 years ago to escape the socialist government over there. What an eye opener from two people who knew what it was like to live in that environment to tell us that with all the things going on in our government here now, it looks to be getting the same as what they ran from years ago. I don’t want to make this a political blog, but I do have to state right here and now – I am very alarmed myself with what is going on. We Christians, and even non-Christian, conservatives who are paying attention to what is happening in our country need to make our voices heard and loudly. If we don’t right now, we will have a much bigger giant to fight.

After they left, we had another couple come and sit near us who inspired me so much. Very strong Christians also, in their mid 70s, who are very active for their age. When I am that age, I, too, want to be able to ride a bike around town with no physical problems.

Kym had to leave at 3 to get to a doctor’s appointment. As always, I was sad to see her and the kids go. (They came to visit us on Wednesday this past week, so it was great to see them again!).

The rest of us left the beach about 6 p.m. and we went to a nice little restaurant that Jerry and I have taken Miranda and David to every time we babysit them. Jennifer, Christina and Linsey liked it. We had yummy food, great conversation and the waitress took our picture for us!

And it was really sad when we had to part and say goodbye. If we don’t get to see them again at Christmas, it may be another year before we are able to see them again. They drove north to San Bernardino County where they were visiting their mom and we headed south to El Cajon about 730 p.m.

They are now safely back home in Utah. Jennifer is back home with her husband and has returned to work. Christina and Linsey are back at their home and Linsey is already in school again (she has year round school). We are hoping that maybe we can drive up before next summer to see them.

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Since Jesus Came Into My Heart

2009-08-02T15:41:00.001-07:00

Grace Episcopal Church, San Marcos, California

SINCE JESUS CAME INTO MY HEART

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, Since Jesus came into my heart! I have light in my soul for which long I had sought, Since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart, Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o’er my soul like sea billows roll, Since Jesus came into my heart.

I have ceased from my wand’ring and going astray, Since Jesus came into my heart! And my sins which were many are all washed away, Since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart, Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o’er my soul like sea billows roll, Since Jesus came into my heart!

I’m possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure, Since Jesus came into my heart! And no dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure, Since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart, Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o’er my soul like sea billows roll, Since Jesus came into my heart.

I shall go there to dwell in that city, I know, Since Jesus came into my heart! And I’m happy, so happy, as onward I go, Since Jesus came into my heart!

Since Jesus came into my heart, Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o’er my soul like sea billows roll, Since Jesus came into my heart!

By: Rufus H. McDaniel, 1850 – 1940 and Charles H. Gabriel, 1856 - 1932

Happy Birthday Kym and Jeff

2009-07-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

Two of my babies had their birthdays this week. I didn’t get Kym’s posted on her special day on Tuesday, I am sorry!!! Please forgive me, Kym! So I am posting her and Jeff’s pictures together on Jeff’s birthday today. Which is kind of natural seeing as the two of them have been close their whole lives! Kym is 3 years and 5 days older than Jeff. I hope you enjoy a stroll back on Memory Lane with me for a few minutes! I sure enjoyed looking through the photo albums finding pictures for this post. Where has the time gone???

Kym on her way home from the hospital. That is me with the long hair and the nurse.

Kym on her 3rd birthday. Yes, this is when I could dress her in foo-foo dresses without her complaining!

Kym on her 6th birthday. Notice she still has a dress on.

Kym 9 years old playing with our dog Odie.

Kym is my tomboy. She didn’t want to play softball with the girls. She wanted to play Little League. She was the first girl to play on the Little League teams in our town. The first day of practice all the boys groaned when Kym was introduced. By the end of the season, she was their favorite player and they all adored her. She is the one with the cool shades on 7 down from the right.

One of the reasons the boys adored her is she taught them all to steal bases. This picture is of her and a boy she had a crush on from her school named Andy. He was on the opposing team, and because of Kym’s aggressive baseball skills, her team walloped his team. They still liked each other anyways.

Kym resting on the three wheeler after a long day of riding.

Jeff 4 days old. He was 22 1/2 inches when he was born. His first word was “orange” – not Dadda or Momma, yes, orange. I wonder if it was because of the orange in his crib bumper pad???

I made this suit for him when he was 2 years old. I think he looks so sharp. We were on our way to church.

Jeff playing Little League. He wasn’t too enthused about playing ball most of the time. Jeff was always more into making movies with the video camera with him and his friends staring in them than sports.

At the end of the season party with his friend James. Jeff is the one in the baseball hat. He sure looks good in blue, even to this day.

Ah, the summer fun of getting wet when it is hot outside. Remember Slip ‘n Slides? The kids always had a blast on them.

From the hot days of summer, to the cold days of winter! Oh the joy of being a kid. I always loved Jeff’s smile and laugh.

How’s this for a pose? We were camping and he found these remains of a tree. What a good picture!

Kym has always been a good big sister to her brother Jeff. He was fussing a little bit while I was trying to clean my bedroom one day and the two of them were on the bed. Kym mothered him by giving him her baby doll’s bottle.

Jeff’s first birthday.

Kym is 4 years old in this picture and Jeff is 20 months old. Look how much hair he has grown in 8 months since his 1st birthday picture above!

Jeff loved Batman when he was little. So Christmas of 1982 when he was 3, I made him a Batman cape, ears and armbands for a present. He wore that Batman outfit each and everyday for a full year. Kym is in the pink dress (age 6) and Bonnie is 1 year old.

Disneyland! The kids with Minnie Mouse. Kym age 9, Jeff 6 and Bonnie 3.

Kym throwing Jeff out with the trash! I think she is glad we kept him after all!

Kym age 31, Jeff age 28, Me age 47, Bonnie age 25, Kyle age 18

The Dog Days Of Summer

2009-07-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

It has been hot here. We live in the valley east of San Diego City, just before the mountain range you head over to get to the desert. In the winter time we typically run about 10 degrees cooler than San Diego city temperature, but in the summer… it can be as much as 25 degrees warmer here in the East County.

These past 10 days have been between 100 and 110 degrees. Poor Honey. For some reason she thinks under the piano is the coolest spot in the house. You can’t see it in the top picture, but in the bottom one you can…. when she lays under the piano, she rests her head on the antique skates I have there. Like a pillow. (In the blue suitcase is some of my piano music).

We have been on the go a lot the past 10 days. Company from out of state visiting. Us going out of town. Going to birthday parties. And doctor appointments.

One day we were gone for 2 hours. When we came back poor Honey had been sick. Jerry says she just overheated. We keep the portable swamp cooler going in the living room and I have about 2 fans per room that I keep going 24 hours a day. But it wasn’t enough that particular day to keep Honey cool. Jeff said he is going to come over and shave/or trim her soon. That will be good seeing as August typically is even warmer.

Today it was cloudy when we got up. There was a cool breeze blowing all day so I didn’t shut the house up and close the shades at all. The thermometer outside the dining room window said it was about 94 degrees at 2 p.m.

I am watering the lawns right now (I have my kitchen timer sitting next to me and every 20 minutes I am running out to move the sprinklers to different positions in the front and back yards). Remember when we were kids on our summer breaks and we would run through the water sprinklers on those hot summer evenings? Don’t you wish you were a kid again? I am getting my legs wet when I move the hoses, it sure feels good!!! No complaints here.

Do You Want To Be A Stay At Home Mom?

2009-07-14T12:21:00.001-07:00

I usually try and stay out of the debate of career vs. at home moms. When I was a single mom, I didn’t want to work outside my home, so I found a job that I was able to do in my home. The kids and I were not rich by any means, but the bills were paid, I was able to make all our meals from scratch, and I was always available for my kids day or night. One time when Bonnie was in junior high, she came home and gave me a hug and said “I am so glad you don’t work outside the home. Most of my friends never know what their moms are doing during the day. When I think of you while I am at school, I know you are at home and I can call you any time I want to.” That made me feel so good.

I know there are tons of women who wish like anything they could stay at home, but they can’t. My heart really goes out to them. I encourage them to keep looking for something they can do to make money from home. A big pay cut is well worth it, in my opinion. Besides, my daughter, Kym, sat down and figured out the expenses of her working vs. the expenses of her staying home and they actually save money with her staying home taking care of their 2 kids.

There are also women who really have no desire to stay at home. They are career minded and thrive on the pressure of working in the office world. I think it is great when these women have a husband that decides to work from home so one of the parents is home with the kids. I do believe one parent should be a stay at home parent when there are kids in the home.

What really angers me is when a feminist insists that any woman who stays at home is being held in a prison. They can not believe that there are women who actually love being full time moms/wives. They act like those of us who do enjoy being home have something wrong with us or we are stupid. This just grates me.

I loved being a full time mom. I went through the empty nest syndrome when my last child turned 16, I started crying over the day he was going to be moving out on his own 2 years before he did! I enjoyed every minute I had with my kids at home.

And now that I have an empty nest here, I love finally taking care of me – just me. I love the freedom of coming and going as we want, when we want. My life is centered around only us now and our needs, not little league practice schedules, youth group outings, or sitting up at night worrying about a teenager being on the dark roads with all the lunatic drivers out there. (Well, scratch that, I still ask my kids to call me when they make it to their home no matter the hour when I know they will be out on the roads at night!)

I am still a stay at home wife. I love being old fashioned in my homemaking. I don’t feel like I have missed anything from the business/work world by being home all these years.

When I got divorced 17 years ago, after being a stay at home mom for basically 14 years, I went to work in a doctor’s office. There I felt smothered, controlled, and a slave to the time clock and the office manager’s tantrums. It was horrible. I felt like I was in a prison all day because I could not even go outside to take a walk anytime I wanted. Office politics and I do not get along well at all. I am definitely an independent person. I am not a follower. I did not like being someone’s puppet, being told where I had to sit, what I had to do, when I had to be there, when I could eat, and even when I could go potty.

6 weeks into the job, one Saturday I marched in and handed over my uniforms and said “I’m done. Don’t call me, and I certainly won’t be calling you”. And I left. I know, I know… not a good thing should I need a job reference later on. But I did not plan to ever need a job reference again. I determined I would do whatever it took to earn an income from my home with me in charge. I didn’t even have a plan on what I was going to do, all I knew was working for someone else away from my home was not my cup of tea.

So I ran a daycare in my home next. The only good thing about that was - I was at home. I was still a slave to someone else though. I couldn’t believe the parents. I had only one good lady out of 5 parents. Everyone else thought they should be able to tell me what to do in my own home. One thought she shouldn’t pay a dime extra for stopping at the bar for a couple of hours after work before coming to get her kids. Another father developed a crush on me – and he had a wife, he was not single. The day he showed up at my door on a Sunday, alone, was the day I told him to find someone else to watch his kids. Yes, I do have a history of giving no notice it seems, but that is me. When I am done, I am done.

After 6 months of that I told all of them, except the good lady, to find another babysitter within 2 weeks. I kept watching Cody for a few more months and then Bonnie, my daughter, began watching him at his own home for about a year.

Next I hit the pavement looking for at home work. I thought about what skills I had and looked in those areas. I found a job sewing at home for a company that was in a town 45 minutes north of where I lived. I found out I loved that independence. Once a week I went to the company and returned the work I completed and picked up new orders and got my paycheck!! I worked at my own pace, my own hours - whenever I wanted. I fit my job around my kid’s and my life. All I had to do was get the work done before the next week rolled around.

The honeymoon with that job ended when I found out the owner was telling everyone he was seeing me. He wasn’t. I confronted him and of course he denied he had said that, then proceeded to tell me he had a twin brother and yadda, yadda, yadda. I remember thinking “Oh, great, there are two of you”!! I quit on the spot and told him to stay far away from me. Why me? I never asked for this. I never did anything to make him think I was even interested in him. It made me mad.

A few days later, I was at my eye doctor. The receptionist told me about another patient who had been there that morning. She managed a company that needed someone who could sew from home as the one they had needed to quit. I called her and I ended up working for that company for 7 years. I loved every minute of it. I quit when I moved from Iowa back to Southern California, and if there had been any way possible, I would’ve brought that job with me.

I want to encourage any mom who wants to be home instead of working to examine your budget. Many couples find that they are not making any more money with both working than if the wife stayed home full time. In fact, more often than not, they find it costs them more for the wife to work outside the home.

Happiness does not come from the things you can buy with a paycheck. It comes from contentment with what you are doing.

No More Free Refills? and Other Ponderings

2009-07-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

Now that the economic crisis is here, have you noticed that your restaurant bill is a little more than you figured when you tallied up your order in your head while making your menu selections? We have run into this several times. Jerry could not figure out why our bill has been running us anywhere from $5 to $10 more than he thought it would. Today it finally hit us why. Not all eateries are giving free refills on their soda beverages anymore.

We stopped at a pizza place for lunch today and made our order. I was thirsty so I had already finished one glass of root beer and asked the waitress for another while we were waiting for our food. Jerry decided he wanted a salad with our meal and asked the waitress to see the menu again, which she had already taken away. Something caught Jerry’s eye in the beverage section and there in fine print it said “only one free refill”.

Most times we don’t even look at the beverages on the menu. When the hostess sits you at the table she asks what you would like to drink. Jerry usually gets iced tea and I get an orange soda or root beer since I am not drinking caffeinated drinks anymore. And I was only getting them for the free refills. I would much rather drink milk with my meals.

From now on I am just going to ask for a glass of water when we are seated, and order milk with my meal. I don’t need all the calories from the sodas anyways.

Is it just me because I am getting older, or are the summer days shorter this year? I remember when I was a child clear into my late 20s that the summer days seemed l—o—n—g. I had plenty of time to read a book, work on a puzzle, etc.

I know the summer days were longer in Iowa than in San Diego. In Iowa the sun gets up around 430 a.m. and sets after 945 p.m. Here in San Diego it doesn’t get light until after 5 a.m. and it is dark by 830 p.m. But even then, I have been back in Southern California for 9 years now. Before I went to help Jerry take care of his dad, my summer days were long and lazy still.

This summer I don’t know where the time is going. I am not getting anything done like I want. Maybe it is because Jerry and I have been on the go a lot. Maybe that is why I don’t seem to have the relaxing time at home like I used to. I get my daily homemaking chores done and off we go. When we get home I do some more things I want to accomplish in the day. I don’t have the few hours to sit and relax with a fan blowing on me while I read or do a jigsaw puzzle or some hand sewing.

The summer heat finally arrived today. At least for me it did. I guess we had one day of 100 degree weather when I was in the hospital. I was in a nice air conditioned room so I didn’t notice. This weekend is supposed to be hot. Yesterday we put the window fans in and I brought the last couple of floor fans in from the garage. I shut the windows and pulled the shades before we left mid morning today so that the house would stay cool.

My mom taught me to play the ‘shade’ game many years ago. You open the windows in the early, early morning hours (which means you get up with the sun or before), and long about 8 or 9 a.m. you shut the shades and windows on the east side of the house. By 10 you have all the windows and shades shut on the west side of the house, too. It really does make a big difference on the days it is over 85 degrees. I usually start opening the house up again about 5 or 6 p.m. when the breeze blowing in from the ocean hits the valley.

No, we don’t have air conditioning.

Green-eyed Monster

2009-07-09T15:51:00.001-07:00

Today my friend, Jane, and her family took off for their trip from Southern California to New York. Clear across the country. Driving. Oh, my eyes are so green with envy! I was born with a long distant traveling gene that has a thirst that has not been quenched for years, ever since I moved back to Southern California in 2000.

There is just something about hitting the road outta town. I have been to every state west of the Mississippi and a handful east of it. Every state has it’s beauty. I love the history in each place too. While traveling, not only do I absorb all the sights, sounds and smells of being there, but I also like to imagine what it was like years ago.

Like when you are driving across the open country of Nebraska, it is fun to imagine what it was like for the pioneers to come across in their wagons. It is almost impossible to comprehend only traveling about 12 or so miles a day. We are so used to covering 100s in a day.

I am looking forward to the day Jerry and I can get in the car and travel to the other side of this great country of our. Just taking our leisurely time, spending as long as we want wherever we want.

Right now, though, I settle for traveling via the computer.. I love to pick a city out of the Rand McNally map book and go there on Google Earth. It is fun to see what other parts of the country really look like. The only thing is you do not really get a feel for the 3d-ness effect of going over the mountains, which in my case might be the best since I am terrified of heights!

While traveling to that city with my imagination and the computer, I also google search the city and read their website and any links they have. It is fun to research like this. It is also very cheap!

But it still doesn’t beat being there in person.

Sigh, lucky you, Jane….

Is That Really Me? Where Did I Go?

2009-07-08T15:04:00.001-07:00

On Sunday when Kym was here visiting, we looked through the family photo albums. I came across my prom picture. Can you believe I actually thought I was fat in this picture?? I honestly felt like burning it up I was so ashamed of my weight!!! What in the world was I ever thinking??!! Lucky for me, I am a pack rat and have a hard time parting with even the things I don’t like.

Yep, that was me in May of 1978. We had our prom at The Hotel Del Coronado in the Crown Room. Very elegant. I loved it. I felt like a princess that night. We had the first fancy dinner I had ever been to in my young life. We also strolled along the beach on that dreamy night of long ago. I can still hear the sound of the waves. To this day, Coronado Beach is my favorite beach to go to. And, oh, you should see the homes on Coronado Island!! I actually did private nursing duty in one of them for a retired admiral’s wife when I was 19.

The picture below was taken from heading north on Silver Strand (a long, narrow isthmus that connects the mainland near Imperial Beach with Coronado “Island”, which is actually the north end of the isthmus. Silver Strand got it’s name from all the silver shells that decorate 2 1/2 miles of the coastline side of the isthmus). See the Hotel Del Coronado straight ahead? It is a big hotel with a lot of history. Here is the website: http://www.hoteldel.com/

Today when I got up I didn’t feel so good. Just general ickyness. You know – tired and sick. Well, I am sick and tired of feeling tired and sick, as the saying goes. So this morning I went online and looked up my health issues (mitral valve prolapse, irregular heartbeat, my back and neck injury, etc) to figure out the best plan of action to get myself out of this pitiful slump I am in.

I am tired of making excuses for myself to myself (yes, I meant to say it like that!). I am tired of moaning “Oh my back” to myself all day long because I moved the wrong way. It is time to say goodbye to the deadbeats that have moved into my brain convincing my body that there is no hope for it.

So today I have been working on an overhaul plan – mental, physical and emotional. I would love to get up in the morning and be my old, busy, energetic self again. But I know it will take time to build my stamina up to that. I am going to take baby steps, though, and everyday get better and better.

Sigh, I know I will never look like the above picture again… oh youth is wasted on the young isn’t it? What I took for granted!

But, I can look better than I do right now by a long shot. It will take work, it will take patience and it will take effort everyday. But I am determined that in a year, you will see a much nicer picture of me posted on this blog site!

Goal #1 – find something everyday to be positive about my life and my surroundings. I am so lucky to live in San Diego County. It is such a beautiful area. We have the mountains, the desert, the beaches and the valleys. One minute you are in the country, 20 minutes later you are in a downtown metropolis. I love it. Tons of parks. Miles and miles of beaches. Stores and shops and more stores. So much history everywhere. You can be in a crowd of people at an amusement park or find a quiet place in the mountains to listen to the wind blow through the tall pine trees.

Oh, San Diego, I missed you so much when I lived in Iowa! (and now I miss the Midwest since I am back on the West Coast…. go figure!)

Are You Ready?

2009-07-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

The news media and lots of folks have been really abuzzing about the recent passing of Michael Jackson. No matter what your opinion of him was, it was a sudden death at a young age. Kind of food for thought, isn't it? The Bible tells us that none of us know how long we have here on earth. We do know that time is like a blink of an eye to God.

The one thing we are certain of in life is that someday we, too, will stand in front of God, never to return to earth. The number one thing we must do in our life is to be prepared for that hour. Do you have a personal relationship with Christ? Have you accepted Christ as the Son of God? Have you asked Him into your heart to change your life, to be your Saviour? That is all that is needed. Believe who He is, ask for forgiveness for the things you have done wrong, accept Him into your heart and life, and then confess Him with your mouth and by your actions to those you meet through life from now on.

The Bible clearly tells us that we won't make it into Heaven by doing good works. The only thing that will get us into Heaven is believing and accepting Christ as the Son of God. That is it. Very simple. Asking Him to come into your heart. That is not complicated in the least bit, a few simple and meaningful words spoken from your heart. Believe in your heart, ask Him into your life, ask Him to change you into what He wants you to be.

Once we have asked Christ into our lives, then we have the desire to change all the wrong things we are doing. Sometimes it might take years before we feel like we finally are getting it right, but as long as we continue to make the effort to do as God wants us to do, we are on the right road. When we become a Christian, someone who believes and trusts in Christ, the Holy Spirit helps us through our life to change, to live the life that God wants for us.

Loving your fellow mankind is an honorable mission. God even tells us that is what we are to do. Simply loving your fellow mankind but denying or ignoring who Christ is - that is not going to win you a place in Heaven. Acknowledging Christ is the key to eternity with Him.

Having a deep appreciation and respect for nature is also a good thing. God created it all for us to enjoy. We need to keep care of the earth, that is part of being a good steward. A steward is someone who manages the affairs or property of another. God created the earth and He placed us on it to keep care of it. But just having a fondness for nature is not going to get you into Heaven. You have to ask Christ to come into your heart, that is all you need to do to get to Heaven.

Sitting by the ocean and clearing your mind to meditate only on good, peaceful thoughts is a good way to relieve stress from your life. The only peaceful thought that is going to get you into Heaven, though, is knowing Christ as the Master of your heart, mind, body and soul. The Bible tells us to meditate on the words of God that He has given us in the Bible. We are to think about them and contemplate them all our waking hours. It is good to sit peacefully and reflect and meditate on various Biblical verses, the Holy Spirit will give you an understanding that only comes from knowing Christ personally. Without Him in your heart and soul, meditation alone will not save you.

Volunteering to humble yourself by serving the homeless on holidays is a great way to put others before yourself. But just being a giving person is not going to assure you eternity in Heaven. God tells us to love one another, to help the less fortunate, to give of our time and talents to those in need. But this alone is not going to save you. You must ask Christ into your heart.

You must acknowledge that He is the only Son of God. That God chose Mary, who was a virgin, to give birth to Jesus. That Jesus walked through His life here on earth never sinning. That the third day after He publically died on the cross He left the sealed tomb the soilders had laid his lifeless body in -- alive, flesh and blood. He ate food with the disciples, He appeared to over 500 people who talked with Him, touched His arm and knew that He was alive. That He now sits on the right hand side of God and that someday, either very soon or in the distant future, He will return to earth and claim all those that have believed and trusted these things about Him.

I want to be in Heaven for sure. For sure I will be because I asked Christ into my heart years ago as a child. I prayed a simple prayer as a 5 year old child "Dear Jesus, come live in my heart. Forgive me for being bad. I love you Jesus." As I grew older I have had my ups and downs in life. I have made bad decisions at times that I regreted. But I know that I am human and I will make mistakes. Just as our parents love us, with our good and bad points, God loves us. His heart breaks when we make wrong choices, but He is always there to help us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and move forward in our lives. God will never leave us or turn His back on us once we have accepted the gift of salvation He gave us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

And my simple belief and acceptance of Him is the reason I have all the assurance in the world that when it is my hour to stand in front of God when I pass from this earthly life to eternity, I know I will enter Heaven then.

How about you? Do you have that assurance for yourself, too?

The First Day of My New Year

2009-07-06T19:28:00.001-07:00

This morning I had a conversation with Kyle about not being happy with the direction of one’s present life. Seems he and Ashley are feeling too old, around 30ish, when they are only 20 years old. Wait a minute….. that is how I have been feeling… too old for my age. A few years ago my mind would not accept that I was 45 years old, I kept thinking I was still in my 20s. I was mature, but did not see myself as my real age. But now, I feel like I am 80 instead of 49. I am moving slow, my joints are creaking and groaning like an old, rusty hinge and I have absolutely no energy… and I can’t blame all that on my new meds. I used to always spend time on my hair and makeup and use creams and body lotions. Now I do nothing, I haven’t even painted my nails in ions.

It is time for some serious changing in my life. I mentioned last week about starting another blog, well today is the day I said I would start it. On the new blog I will post our daily menus; recipes; homemaking ideas and tips; and beauty tips. I love being a female and feeling like a pampered princess. I will also post our monthly weight loss progress. I am hoping that being brutally open and honest about what we are eating and what we are doing for exercise will keep us more on task because we have not been working on it at all. We just keep expanding instead of deflating.

This blog here will be our daily journal of what we are doing and my thoughts, etc.

Today we stayed home. Jerry worked on a client file. I cleaned house and organized my thoughts for the new blog. I also talked to my daughter Bonnie in Minneapolis. She is running a 5K this Saturday. Both my daughters inspire me to get serious about getting healthy. Kym and I spent time looking at her photo albums at her house on Saturday and mine here yesterday when she and the kids came down to visit me for my birthday. She looks incredible with the weight she has lost. Me --- I have steadily gotten bigger. Oh! The shame of it.

Time to quit wallowing in the pity pool and do something about it.

Here is the link to my new blog site: http://ourhoneypiepage2.blogspot.com/

I love the ocean and tropical scenes. They put me in the frame of mind to get active. The picture below is of the marina at Shelter Island here in San Diego.

How We Spent the 4th of July 2009

2009-07-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to my daughter Kym's to celebrate the 4th of July. As always, we had a really fun time. I love the area of San Diego County that she lives in... rolling hills and tall mountains, a short drive from the ocean and a few blocks from the agricultural areas in North County.

At noon we went to her church's annual 4th of July barbeque picnic. That is Kym and her husband Mike standing by Jerry and I. Mike is the leader in their church's men's group.

What do you have in that container David?

My grandson, David is not afraid of anything that creeps or crawls. He wasn't too happy when his mom said he couldn't bring this new pet home. There was no where to keep it at home.

My granddaughter, Miranda, and her friend Rachel. It wasn't so long ago that these two young ladies were only 2 years old running around in their frilly little toddler dresses together.

It was a really nice day for a picnic. There was a nice ocean breeze blowing in. The tables were set up under the trees and we had plenty of shade. Good food. Good company. Good conversation. The youth group elected to sit in the playground - away from us old people! Wasn't it just yesterday that we were in that group too?!

Kym with her guitar. In the morning she had gotten up and figured out how to play the National Anthem without having any musical notes to guide her. Kym has always loved music. She had her own band once when she was in her early 20s - before marriage and kids. We all remember our before marriage and kids days, don't we?!

Ummmmmm -- this cake was yummy, even if the icing did leave David with a blue tongue!

Kym's church has a nice size youth group. It is always so wonderful to see young people on fire for the Lord. Most of these kids here have been homeschooled. They are great bunch.

Back to Kym's house about 4:30 p.m. Mike and Jerry both took naps and the kids played quietly while Kym and I had a good time visiting. I love going to Kym's house, I always come back to my own feeling refreshed.

In the evening, about 6:30 p.m., Kym and I made up the fixings for kabobs.

Kym and Mike are both good cooks. We had kabobs, corn on the cob, pear cake and fresh lemonade.

On the kabobs there was shrimp, pork, or chicken; red, yellow and green peppers; onions; pineapple; Mexican squash; roasted garlic and grape tomatoes.

Mike and the kids grilled them for us and they were done to perfection. So delicious!

David is 4 years old and he has never been able to sit through the fireworks without his daddy taking him indoors. This year, he informed us, he was a big boy and could sit through them. He was telling Grandpa Jerry he was a little nervous, though.

Kym and the kids had fun with some small pop rocks before the real show began! I've been trying to upload the videos Kym took of the fireworks all day and they are sooooooo slow. I will try again to upload them tomorrow.

And guess who is celebrating the 29th anniversary of her 20th birthday today? Yep, that is me in the photo above when I was 11 months old. Seems like it was just yesterday doesn't it?!!

Happy Birthday America!!

2009-07-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say, does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home

of the brave?

Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,

Oe'r the land of the free and the home

of the brave.

By Francis Scott Key, 1779 - 1843

Honey Loves Her Jeff

2009-07-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

My son Jeff stopped by after getting off work today and Honey just loved him up. In her mind, he is her boyfriend. No one else in the world matters to her but Jeff when he is around.

I was given Honey as a birthday present on July 5, 2003. Jeff was still living in Iowa at that time. On August 29, 2003 he moved to El Cajon. The minute he showed up at the door Honey fell in love with him and that was that! Jeff moved in with us and she followed him around like a.... well, puppy dog. Literally.

As soon as it got to be 15 minutes before he would be driving up after work, she would be perched on the chair by the living room window waiting for him. And she would give him a ton of kisses the minute he walked through that door!

Jeff moved into his own apartment this past February, so she doesn't get to see him everyday like she used to. So when she does, she has to sit on his lap and get spoiled by him! He misses her, too.

We always look forward to Jeff's visits, come and see us again real soon, Jeff!

I Paid The Hospital A Visit

2009-06-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

1930s modern hospital room

I am sorry I missed a couple of days writing on the blog. I was in the hospital with symptoms that mocked a TIA. Praise God, it wasn't. But now I do have a photo imagery of my brain and the doctor's say it is perfectly normal.... so there you go children of mine - it is confirmed - your mother has a normal brain!!

Saturday I experienced high blood pressure, nausea and dizziness all day. I also had an episode that when I was walking into the kitchen, my hearing completely shut down, my head felt like it all of a sudden became stuffed and was ready to pop and I had some disorientation. No headache though. Within a minute, at the longest, my ears suddenly popped like they do when you come out of a mountain pass. After 2 days in the hospital and numerous heart and head scans, the only conclusion is it probably was something called a stone in my ears that shook loose and caused the dizziness. That and my heart rhythm is still very irregular so the doctor has now put me on a second heart medication along with another new beta blocker in a higher dose.

I was advised to try and have a stress free life. Hmmmmm. As soon as I got home, we turned around and took Jerry to the VA emergency room because he had an abscess come up between his bottom gum and lip that was swelling. They gave him some Tylenol #3, antibiotics and Lidocain to numb the area and told him as soon as the infection goes down for him to see his dentist. That wasn't so stressful as the doctors and nurses at the VA hospital have always been really good to us.

The stressful part came when we got home about 1130 at night and Jerry informed me he had lost the tv remote in the bedroom somewhere and was totally lost without his nighttime tv while I spent two nights in the hospital and could I please find it for him??? So at 1130 at night, super tired, and fatigued, I was pulling the bed completely apart, and the mattresses off the boxsprings and away from the wall muttering loud enough for Jerry to hear over and over "And Donna, you need to make sure you avoid any unnecessary stress while we work with getting your heartbeat into a normal rhythm". I love my husband, but I do not know how he manages to do these kinds of things only when I am gone. I spent the weekend with my daughter in January and came home to the same lost remote problem. I asked him how he ever managed to function without me all these years.... he didn't, he just existed, that's all.

It is good to be home. Thank you to my nursing staff and doctors for taking such good care of me. I feel like a young child again, eager for life. I have a second lease on life. Thank you, God!!!

Hungry Yet?

2009-06-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Today I have been reading up on nutrition, diabetes, irregular heartbeat, weightloss, exercise and menu planning. Alot of pieces of information to sift through. There is so much information out there in cyberland and also in books that I have here in the house. Some I have checked out of the library and some I have bought. The ones I have bought, of course, are up to 100 years old. Yes, I do own a weightloss book with calorie counts and food exchanges from the turn of the century. What is that saying? -- 'everything old is new again'.

I have been toying with the idea of adding another blog along with this one. The new one I will use to record our daily food/calories, exercises we accomplish each day and tidbits on homemaking, beauty and other interests of mine and many other woman out there. I will keep this blog for our journal of our daily life. Yesterday I took these pictures of our lunch meal. I couldn't decide which pictures I liked better to post on the blog... the table set for the meal, an upclose of the whole meal, or an upclose of just the plate of food. I am hoping to start the blog in another week, so I was playing with the meal pictures trying to decide which type I would use to post with our daily food/calories.

We eat our big meal at lunchtime for a couple of reasons. Although it has not been proven scientifically, I feel like I burn more calories off the big meal if I have more daylight hours to run them off in. The second reason is if I have a large meal anytime after 5 p.m., I am awake all night with indigestion. Something that only started when I got excessively overweight. It works better for me to just eat something light at the end of the day. Besides, by 4 p.m. I am done and exhausted for the day and making a big meal with a ton of dishes to wash and dry before I go to bed is not exactly fun in my book.

Yesterday's lunch was fish sprinkled with Old Bay Seasoning and then baked. Boiled potatoes garnished with butter and parsley flakes, asparagus with butter and I simmered one medium sliced red pepper and 2 nectarines in about 1/4 inch of water in a frying pan. Next time I will cut the red pepper up into smaller pieces and add the nectarine just before taking the pan off the heat. Jerry liked the meal. The butter we use is the new half butter - half canola oil spread - it has half the calories of regular butter, I use the Land 'O Lakes brand. It is so light and whipped just enough that you do not need a lot to spread on your bread or other food. We drank raspberry Crystal Lite yesterday. We usually drink Kool-aide made with splenda and I think we will be sticking to the Kool-aide as it has more taste -- at least that is the opinion of my taste buds. Jerry liked the Crystal Lite. We drink milk with our breakfast and supper. I love milk with ice cubes in it --- nice and cold milk - Yum!

This coming week I will be getting our new lifestyle eating plan worked out. I will be doing a lot of reading and thinking and planning. I am hoping that by going totally online everyday with our weightloss efforts, reporting exactly what we are eating and doing, that it will keep us more responsible and on track. I will begin posting on the new blog site Monday, July 6th - I will give you the new weblink then. Both mine (the 5th) and Jerry's (the 16th) birthdays will be around that date, so it will be really appropriate to start our new 'year' of life heading in the right direction of health! Won't you join us?!

The Case of The Missing Library Card

2009-06-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today is the day my library books are due. Except, I am not ready to return them yet. I am still reading and going back and looking at some pictures in others. And a few I need to copy down a couple of recipes yet. So, I went to my wallet to pull out my trusty library card to go online and renew my books. My card was not there. I looked on the floor by my purse. No card. I gathered up the library books and went through all of them, page by page. My card was not in any of them. I came into the office and moved everything around on my desk. Still no card.

By now I am panicking. How can I renew my books without my card? I will have to turn all my books in today and I didn't want to do that. Did somebody find my card laying on the ground at the library and use it? Did they turn it in? I remember when I was checking out the last time at that self-serve machine, there was a lady behind me in line and I didn't want to hold her up, so instead of taking the extra minute to return my card into my wallet, I quickly stuck in one of the books along with the printout slip of the books I had just checked out. So I went through each of the books again, so slowly. No card. I grabbed every purse in the house that I have used within the last month and dumped everything out of them. Where or where could that card be? Then I came back into the office and removed everything from my desk. Why or why did I not just take the few extra seconds to put my card in my wallet? How am I going to live without a library card???? I know, they are only $2 to get a replacement, but I hate standing in lines and there is always a line at the librarian counter.

Every since I was a little girl, I have loved to read. I loved library day at school. I read all of the Mrs. Goose chapter books. Maybe those books are what made me fall in love with barnyard animals. A few of the books I loved reading were Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Meg series, The Bobbsey Twins, the Little House in the Big Woods series, and many more books like those. My favorite chapter series books were Cherry Ames. She was a nurse and the series started out with her nursing school days and then she got to work in every field of nursing imaginable. It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized her books were written during WW2 - my most favorite time period in history.

There are many books I remember reading as a kid that have stuck in my mind for all these years, and I will be 49 next weekend. That is a long time for a book to remain vivid in your imagination. One book in particular I remember is Gilda. The story was about a young girl and her migratory farm working family. The story took place during the summertime and it was the summertime that I read it. When I think of summers, I think of the hot days her family stayed in places with no air conditioning. My parents did not have air conditioning while I was growing up (and still don't), so it wasn't too hard for me to get my imagination wrapped up in that book!

This is the book currently sitting on the table by my chair in the living roon:

As I grew older I fell in love with history and biographies of famous leaders of this country. Our junior high library had a whole wall of biographies of great people such as Benjamine Franklin and John Adams. I think I read every book they had on our founding fathers. Bits and pieces of those books pop out of the cobwebby recesses of my brain whenever I watch or read something today on those long ago patriots.

I can't remember if I have told this story yet or not, bare with me if I am repeating myself! When I was 17 I watched Gone With The Wind for the first time. They ran the movie over two days and my sister Lyn and I got to stay up to watch it. That movie scared me and thrilled me all at the same time. A few months after watching the movie, I read the book. The book was much better than the movie. So much of the book was left out of the movie. One day I had stayed home from school sick and I was sitting downstairs in the rocking chair reading that book. I was at the place where Sherman was entering Atlanta and burning the city down. Melanie was in the throes of childbirth and Scarlet was trying to do her best to be a midwife and get them packed up and outta there. My mom came into the room to let me know that she was on her way to pick up my brother, Paul, from school. She said "I'm going to get Paul now." I jumped and said "No, Mom, you can't go out there, they're burning the city already! The yankees are here!" She started laughing at me.

Yes, I do have a very vivid imagination.

All through the years I have fond memories of lying on the cool, playroom floor reading away on the hottest of summer days. When I was in junior high, my mom's foster mom lived behind us. I have a very clear memory of showing her the new book I was reading while we stood at the back chain link fence talking on a summer day that was dreary and muggy, off in the distance there was rumbling thunder. I even remember the book I showed her. Meg and the Disappearing Diamonds.

To this day I love to read. I would rather read a book than watch tv or go to the movies. I love using my imagination and getting lost in a book. I keep thinking I prefer to read non-fiction such as any book on homemaking, sewing and other crafts, gardening, cookbooks, books on history or people of days gone by. But that really isn't so. I love reading Grace Livingston Hill books. I have collected a ton of old fiction books that were written at the turn of the century or later that I read over and over. And, I confess, I have been known to go to the children's section of the library and check out chapter books or even younger children's books to read at night before I go to sleep. When you come to my house you will always see 5 or 6 books scattered around that are in the process of being read.

I collect old textbooks from grade school through college. I buy books at garage sales, thrift stores, on ebay and Amazon, at the Friend's of the Library booksales. Very rarely do I buy a book that was just published.

This is the book currently on my nightstand that I am reading when I crawl into bed:

Our daughter, Jennifer, sent me an email this morning to let me know that she has my car candles to send me. She sells Scentsy candles and I ordered some nice smelling freshners for our car. Poor girl, I lamented about how I could not find my library card. The world had stopped as I knew it. Is life worth living without a library card to check out more books to read??? Hardly, I just don't think I can go through these withdrawals... sniffle.... sob.

I finished my email to her and slowly drug myself into the living room. On the table near Jerry's chair was the book I had checked out for him. I had forgotten about that book. Could it be.... I wonder... Oh! Happy days are here again!! I found my card. I had tucked it in the card pocket inside of the book I got for Jerry. Oh, life is good again. Life is so very good again!!!

I am almost done with the book about the history of Betty Crocker. I think I will read this book next as I am falling asleep at night:

I could use a good story from the days when life was more slower without computers and tvs. A story set in a small, East Coast town back during the turn of the century. My imagination is ready to reread Anne of Green Gables again. Have you ever seen the movie? You should, it will definitely give you pleasant dreams about open fields and life as it used to be lived and modest dresses and old fashioned church socials. Better yet, go to your local library and check out the book.

Boys And Their Racing Machines

2009-06-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

When I lived in Iowa we used to like to drive out to the Amish Country near Waterloo. One Sunday afternoon I was so surprised to see two teenage boys racing their buggies on the dirt road. Why was I so amazed at that? Boys have been racing the family vehicle when Mom and Dad weren't looking since the beginning of time, haven't they? No matter what generation or what mode of travel, boys have always loved to challange each other. It is something God ingrained in the male gene when He created Adam. Whether they are challanging each other in a race, in sports, or pitting brain against brain, our men never outgrow this aspect of their childhood. Jerry and his friend Bruce have been friends since they were 9 years old, over 50 years now. And they are still challanging each other. I know, I just spent lunch with them at Black Angus today.

Solar's 1946 Midget Racer

2009-06-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here is another hot rod from the vintage hot rod collection being shown currently at the San Diego Auto Museum in Balboa Park. It was built by Solar Aircraft Company in San Diego in 1945 - 1946. Once again, sorry for the dark pictures.

The yellow plaque in the lower right hand corner of the above picture states: "This car is one of approximately 116 kit cars that were built during this time period and sold through a distributor. The new owner selected the engine and running gear. This particular car was assembled by Shorty Sorenson, a member of the rough and tumble 'Chicago Gang'. It was raced by Shorty throughout the Midwest until a bad accident in 1947 at the Raceway Park, Blue Island, Illinois. Shorty broke his back and stopped racing. It was owned and raced out of Omaha and Des Moines for years until it was parked in a chicken shed in Iowa and forgotten. The Solar Car Club purchased the car in Febuary 1993 and spent over 2500 volunteer hours restoring the car for it's 50th anniversary. The number '46' was chosen for the year it was created."

Wikipedia online says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Midget_Race_Car): "In November 1944 Solar Aircraft held its annual Craftsmanship Contest which usually produced a number of small inventions. Elmer Ross, a member of the Research Department submitted a midget race car that he had built and was racing in the Southwest. In October, 1945 approval was given for the production of twelve pilot kits to test the manufacturing process. Four of the kits were made of aluminum, four of stainless steel, and four of auto body steel. The pilot kits were completed in 1945 and all twelve were sold prior to production to enthusiasts in the San Diego area."

"Approximately 100 of these kits were made in 1946 and sold through a distributor. Most of the cars were powered by a Ford V8-60, with some running with Drake or Offenhauser engines. The entire production period lasted six months and there were only two changes to the body kit...elimination of the stainless steel wheels and replacement of the handmade wire grill with a cast aluminum unit."

"The production of the Solar midget race car was stopped for several reasons. The introduction of the Kurtis Kraft Midgets by Frank Curtis with their tube frames and torsion bar suspension were light years beyond other midget cars built at that time including the Solar midget. America was on the verge of space exploration and Solar executives were ready to get back into the business they really knew ... aircraft components. The Solar midget played its part in helping to keep Solar alive during the early post World War II years. Today an original Solar midget is a rare find."

http://www.sdautomuseum.org/

http://www.balboapark.org/

1937 Studebaker Hot Rod

2009-06-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Today is the 4th Tuesday of the month. That means that the San Diego Auto Museum at Balboa Park has free admission to all residence of San Diego County!! Since January, the museum has had vintage hot rods on display, which will end on July 1st. I wish I had paid attention earlier because we could've gone a few times to see this exhibit. We started getting the newspaper last weekend and there was a paragraph in the "What to do" section about the display. I am now going to be investigating all kinds of different things to find what else is going on around our county that we can go to for free or a small charge. And as usual, my camera did not take good indoor pictures. These pictures of the Studebaker did show up semi-ok, I hope you can see them on your screen.

John Studebaker, whose family was from Germany and worked as blacksmiths, lived in Ohio in 1835. He had 5 sons that he taught wagon making to. The Studebaker wagon business grew along with the country. In 1852, in South Bend, Indiana, brothers Henry and Clement made metal parts for freight wagons, and later expanded to make the whole wagon. Brother John had been living in Placerville, California making wheelbarrows for the gold minors when he moved to South Bend in 1858. The brothers built their first carriage in 1857. They continued making farm wagons, but became the top producer for the covered wagons heading west with the pioneers with half of the wagons heading that direction carrying the Studebaker name.

Brother Peter had become a successful owner of a general store in Goshen, Indiana. In 1860 he began to sell wagons at his store, becoming the first Studebaker 'dealership'. In 1861 - 1868, the brother's business really boomed when they begain making wagons for the Union Army during the Civil War. Brother Henry sold his share of the business to John, as Henry did not believe in war due to religious convictions. Henry returned to farming. In 1868 the 3 remaining brothers formed the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. In 1875 the youngest brother, Jacob, entered the brother's business and was in charge of making sulkies and five-glass landaus. He had impressive wealthy clientele. In 1889 President Harrison ordered a full set of Studebaker carriages and harnesses for the White House.

The sons and sons-in-law of the Studebaker brothers joined in on the family business and had input on the brother's beginning to make the horseless carriage. At first the brother's wanted to only make electric horseless carriages, but these were slow and in order to keep up with competition they began making gasoline powered carriages in 1904. By 1917, all 5 original Studebaker brothers had passed away. In 1954, Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, merged with Studebaker. This was the beginning of many mergers with other companies. By 1979 McGraw-Edison purchased what was then Studebaker-Worthington and eliminated the Studebaker name from the corporate world.

Studebaker Commanders began being produced in 1927 and were 6 cylinder engines. It was a mid-price range car with a 226 cubic inch engine. They were tough and durable, built to withstand the poor road conditions of the time. In 1935, the Commander was discontinued. The Studebaker Dictator was manufactured from 1927 to 1938. These were the low-end priced vehicles of the company. An 8 cylinder engine for the Dictator Series began in 1929. The name Dictator was chosen by the company for the model to imply that all other cars would follow it's standard, but with the rise of Adolf Hitler and his violent march across Europe in the late 30s, the name Dictator left a bad taste in one's mouth. In 1937 the Dictator disappeared without much noise and was replaced by the name 'Commander'.

The Studebaker is not usually know as being a hot rod, it's more of a street car. There was a plaque with this car at the museum which said: "A person builds a hot rod as an act of self expression. Any car that has been modified in appearance and lightened to enhance performance could be called a 'hot rod'. But a car that has been modified for appearance only would be called a 'street rod'. This Studebaker is a street rod - a very attractive street rod." This car is absolutely beautiful. I love the white and red paint job.

University of San Diego

2009-06-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university located 2 miles (about a 15 minute drive) north of downtown San Diego.

This 180 acre campus encompasses more than 2 million square feet where it sits on a mesa that overlooks

Linda Vista as well as distance glimpses of other parts of San Diego County,

and Tecolote Canyon and Mission Bay.

USD offers more than 60 degrees at bachelor's, mastor's and doctoral levels.

The college consists of 6 schools: School of Nursing and Health; The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies (before she and her husband passed away they owned the Padres Baseball Franchise. Her husband was also the founder of the fast food chain - MacDonald's Corporation); School of Business Administration; College of Arts and Sciences; School of Law; and School of Leadership and Education Sciences.

The University sits in an area of land known as Alcala Park. The park is named after San Diego de Alcala, a Franciscan lay brother who was from Alcala de Henares, a town near Madrid, Spain.

Saint Didacus of Alcala, Saint Diego - or more familiarly San Diego, was in the order of Friars Minor.

He was born to poor parents who, when he was a small child, gave him to a hermit who lived near San Nicolas del Puerto, where he was born. He spent his life serving God.

He died at Alcala de Henares, Spain, on November 12, 1463 and was canonized in 1588.

In 1945, The Most Reverand Charles F. Buddy, the First Biship of the Diocese of San Diego and Mother Rosalie Hill, Superior Vicar of the Society of the Sacred Heart, envisioned building two institutions of higher education on this beautiful hilltop of Alcala Park.

The school was chartered in 1949.

The first students arrived in February 1952 to attend the San Diego College for Women. There were 50 female students.

The School of Law with 60 men in attendance and The San Diego College for Men, with 39 students, opened it's doors in September of 1954.

These two schools merged together in 1972 to become the University of San Diego.

The Univerisidad De Alcala de Henares in Spain was the architectural model that the founders chose to use for the University of San Diego.

The buildings on the campus of USD are designed in 16th century Spanish Renaissance.

They are very amazing, breathtaking, stunning architecture. A very beautiful campus.

The university is no longer goverened directly by the Diocese of San Diego although the Bishop of San Diego has a seat as a permanent member of the trustees and the school is still designated as Catholic.

The Immaculate Church still serves the college and the surrounding neighborhood.

The campus contains educational, residential, athletic, dining, administrative, support and athletic services in it's buildings.

Students as well as professors alike choose to live on campus.

The college is grounded in it's Catholic traditions of faith, thought and action.

However, all faiths may attend.

For more information please see the university's web page:

http://www.sandiego.edu/

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

August 1, 1976

Dad age 44, me age 16 and my daughter Kym 1-1/2 weeks old

My dad is a wonderful man. All of my life he has been my hero. Dad was an only child and grew up on a farm while living in Pennsylvania, and after he and my grandparents moved to Washington state. Dad joined the Air Force while he was in college during the Korean conflict and spent the war in Japan as an airplane mechanic. All of his life he loved airplanes and instilled that love in me, too.

When I was a little girl I used to take turns with my siblings taking my dad's work boots off after he came home in the evening. I remember him sitting in his chair with the newspaper after dinner. Dad worked long hours. He was self-employed as a house mover. Whenever he would be moving a house by my school, my teacher would let my class go stand in front of the school and watch as he moved the house by. I was so proud of my dad!!

My parents were active in my church when I was growing up. Mom taught Sunday School and helped with Vacation Bible School. Dad was an usher and drove one of the church buses. He did all the maintenance on the both buses also. Dad worked long hours and he would get up about 4 in the morning and sometimes come home for dinner and go back to the shop to work on a truck as needed. Some early mornings I would slip downstairs and sit quietly with him at the kitchen table as he read his Bible and prayed before starting his day. To this day, I enjoy getting up about 5 in the morning to do my devotions, too.

July 4, 1982

My sister Lyn putting an icecube down my dad's shirt.

Dad has a sense of humor and unless he is mad, he is usually smiling and laughing at something. He has a very soft and kind heart and helps everyone he can. He can take a joke, too. In the above picture it was so hot that 4th of July, the icecube down his back was actually welcomed! Note the bow on Dad's forehead in the picture below.

December 24, 1986

My sister Lyn age 27, brother Les age 22 and Dad age 55

When we were growing up, Dad would often play Bible Drill with my sister Lyn and I. He would call out a Bible book, chapter and verse and Lyn and I would race to see who could find it the fastest in our Bibles. Whoever found it first got to read the verse.

I love my dad and he is one of the reasons I moved back to California from Iowa 9 years ago. I wanted to be near my parents. I love our talks over the back fence, or when they come over to visit us or we go over to visit them. Mom and Dad have been married 52 years. My mom stayed at home and took care of us 5 kids while Dad worked. He was a fantastic provider (and Mom a great budgeter!). We never went without anything we needed and we had plenty of toys, books, and such to keep us busy while growing up. We always ate at the kitchen table for our meals during the week, and the dining room table for our Sunday after church meals with Dad present at all meals (except, of course when he was moving a house during the weekdays!).

Now that Dad is 'retired', I am glad that I get to live near him and see him more often. My dad is very active at the age of 77. He still gets up early every morning and either works in his shop, around the house or still helps move houses with another housemover here in the county. My dad is a young 77 and last year told me that he couldn't be 76 because in his head and heart he still felt 26.

August 1988

Dad and Mom

I LOVE YOU DAD!

Laughter Really is The Best Medicine

2009-06-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

1979

My Mom age 42 and my son Jeff age 4 months

A day without laughter is a day wasted

Charlie Chaplin

What makes you laugh? What causes you to lose it, and just laugh so hard you are glad you didn't drink a bunch of water earlier?

Laughter is good exercise for the soul and for the body. When you have a real good belly laugh, it releases tension and stress in your body. I read that the average person laughs 17 times a day. How about you? Did you know that the act of laughing uses the same kind of skills that are used in solving problems? For humans, laughter is a natural thing. Laughter increases blood flow to the heart by expanding the tissues to the heart which reduces the risk of heart disease.

1982
my daughter Bonnie age 7 months

Stress reduces the body's ability to fight disease. When you laugh, your body releases chemicals similar to those released when you exercise. Anyone who has been under stress knows that if they take a walk they feel better, the stress seems to be left outside in the dust when they return home.

I have a friend that when she calls me we just roll on the floor laughing so hard over the corniest things. It helps to make whatever drama is going on in either of our lives less of a headache. Thank you, Jane!

As Christians, we sometimes take life way to seriously. God gave us humor. He gave us funny bones. And He gave us muscles in our face that produce a gorgeous smile. I don't believe God wants us to walk around like we just ate the most sourest lemon on the tree.

1979
Jeff age 4 months

My son Jeff has the most wonderful laugh. When he was a baby he would get such a belly laugh going you couldn't help but join in. I love to hear him laugh even today.

While you are counting how many glasses of water you drink each day

- be sure to get in your 17 moments of laughing, too!!!

1981

My sister Cindy age 19, Bonnie 1 month and Jeff age 2

Yesterday was my sister Cindy's birthday. Jerry sang 'Happy Birthday' to her and we wished her a great day. I was going to post it on the blog yesturday, but by the time we got home from the doctor's office, I was in a state of shock over my own health!

Happy belated Birthday

Cindy!

Went To The Doctor

2009-06-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Jerry had a doctor's appointment this morning and he is doing really well. I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and got scared into reality. I switched doctor's to my sister's doctor and so far I am pleased with her.

My blood pressure was way high and due to my mytral valve problems my heart is being very erratic. With all this weight my doctor said I am a heart attack waiting to happen. She gave me a different heart medication and told me to really get serious about getting this weight off of me. She is very concerned.

She also gave me medication to treat my back and arm pain I am having due to a traumatic injury I received in September of 2007. She said it has affected my neck and my nerve endings. She has me starting some specific arm exercises to try and get the soreness out of them. It's been almost two years of this pain and I am glad to finally MAYBE get some relief.

It was a pretty day here in San Diego county, sunny and mild temperatures.

The Road We Travel

2009-06-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

There are days when it seems the road we have to travel in life is long with no end in sight. The storm clouds hanging over us make our life seem grey and dreary, full of misery. We feel weighed down, heavy, with no energy to even take care of ourselves.

When we are down in that valley with those tall mountains surrounding us, sometimes it can feel like there is no way out. That all we are ever going to do is run into obstacles to keep us from being happy. The road seems long and lonely. Off in the distance we may see hope, yet the motivation to put one foot in front of the other to reach the oasis takes more than what we have inside of us at that moment.

When we were young we had our dreams and life seemed like it could never do us wrong. Nothing was impossible for us. The feeling of newness was riding with us and we felt the adventure of life was exciting. All of us experience curvy roads. Sometimes those curves can be sharp and painful when they are caused by others or situations we have no control over.

Sometimes we see a different road that we want to take and we jump to it, only to become lost or find a lot more potholes than the one we were originally on. We all make decisions we regret. There isn't a person who has walked this earth since Adam and Eve who has not had their regrets. We have the choice of letting those regrets break us down, or for us to go past them and continue on the road of life.

When a bend in our road lies in front of us,

we must remember that there is a guard rail to protect us. If we have asked Jesus into our hearts to be our Lord and Saviour, He is always there protecting us from falling off our road no matter what lies around the corner that we cannot see.

The long road doesn't seem so lonely anymore, nor do the mountains seem so desolate around us when we remember Who has us in the palm of His hand. Being in the valley can be a time of growth and renewal. Take the time to see the beauty around you, look for the positive. Even barren land has it's own form of beauty.

Lean on Jesus, spend time in prayer, sing songs of praise and worship in your heart when the road gets tough. As you do this, you will feel you are rising above the valley. As we climb up the mountain, what lies in the valley becomes more clear to us, our direction becomes more obvious, the road we traveled through the valley does not seem as bad as it appeared.

We all crave the comfort of home. Home is where God has put us for that moment. It is up to us to make that home inviting, loving, nuturing, peaceful - even when the road is rocky.

I am telling you this, but it is not because I need anything.

I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens.

I know how to live when I am poor.

And I know how to live when I have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens.

I have learned to be happy when I have enough to eat

and when I do not have enough to eat.

I have learned to be happy when I have all that I need

and when I do not have the things I need.

I can do all things through Christ because He gives me strength.

Philippians 4: 11-13

(The Everyday Bible translation)

Our Second Wedding Anniversary!

2009-06-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe it has been 2 years already since we exchanged our vows. I have known Jerry since the day I was born. He knew my parents before they were married. He was 5 years old when my Mom started teaching him in Sunday School. He was a handful and she would ask Jerry's Mom what to do, his mom would reply "Just smack him"!!

Yes, my husband was a handful. He is 11 years older than me and all my life his two younger sisters were my closest friends. I grew up hearing about his wild and crazy antics. His poor parents. But I admired him from a distance anyways and always wished he would notice me.

Oh, he probably noticed me alright, but only as the bratty little kid that hung out with his bratty little sisters! When we were small enough to fit under the bed, Rhonda and I would spy on his phone conversations with his girlfriends when he was a teenager.

All through my 20s and 30s while Jerry and I had our seperate lives and own set of problems, my ears would perk up each time I heard his name spoken. Of course, all those years I hid my secret admiration in my heart, not even his sisters knew about it. Occasionally we would see each other at his parent's house after we became adults and my heart would flutter. I even caught his eyes following me around the room. I was too shy to let him know about the butterflies he caused my tummy to feel, and he treated me like a kid sister all those years. Sigh.....

Then one day he did let me know that he noticed me and asked me for my phone number because he would like to take me out to dinner one time when he came into San Diego to visit. He was living 6 hours north, in central California at that time. Would it be ok if he called me??? Would it?? I about shouted YES!!!!

And now here we are 3 years later, happily married and wondering why we didn't do this much sooner? It would have saved both of us a ton of headaches and heartaches all those years. We really are a good match if we must say so ourselves, and it feels so right, so comfortable, so natural. You really do know when it's true love and meant to be.

Here are some pictures from our wedding day. I am sorry some of them are so dark. We had a wedding breakfast with the family in the morning: the table with the trying-to-look-angelic little girl are my grandkids - Christopher, Miranda and David. Yes, Miranda really is an angel although her mom might dispute that on some days!

If you look way in the back of this picture, that is us exchanging our vows. My son, Kyle, officiated our wedding ceremony. Here in San Diego County you pay $50 and you can have anyone you choose to officiate your ceremony legally for that day only.

I know, super dark picture. I am posting it only to show you what I mean about how dark most of the pictures came out. We had a very nice lunch following our ceremony. Jerry's sister Rhonda and her husband Bill did the cooking and serving. They were wonderful, I don't know what we would've done without all their help, talent and time (and they paid for most of the luncheon ingredients, too)! We can never thank them enough!

My youngest baby, Kyle and his Ashley, no, our Ashley. Jerry and I call her "our little Ashley". They are another great couple together. Ashley is really sweet and Kyle just adores her. They are just beginning their adult life and have so many plans. They have their heads on straight, much better than Jerry or I did at their age.

Miranda is going to be a great fund raiser. She has no fear about approaching anyone to donate money. She thought up this money tree all by herself and went around with it to our guests.

Ah, yes, the cake. It was so good. There is just something about wedding cake that makes it taste better than any other cake out there!

All of our wedding pictures turned out dark. There were many others I would've liked to have posted here of all the family and friends, but only we can see who is in the pictures because we know who they are. This picture is of Jerry and his baby, Jennifer. She is such a blessing to have as a daughter. Jerry's childhood friend, who I mention often in this blog, Bruce, is sitting next to Jerry in the green shirt.

My son Jeff and his girlfriend Kayty. Jeff is a wonderful son, he is my baby #2. I like the political conversations we have, he is very intelligent! He has always had that sunny smile! Jeff is the kind of cook I wish I could be. He can go to a restaurant and taste their food, and know exactly what kind of spices were used, go home and make an almost perfect copy of that dish. He is a very caring young man, and hard working. His boss did everything to hold on to him as an employee. Jeff is very respectful and very much respected.

My babies #1 and #3... Kym and Bonnie. It was hot the day we were married. Jerry had moved from Central California to the High Desert region to take care of his dad. We were married at the mobile home club house where his dad lived at that time.

Rhonda's husband Bill, a fantastic brother-in-law to Jerry and I. And my son-in-law, Adam, Bonnie's husband. He is a great guy, too. He takes good care of my daughter and their son, Chris.

Adam is very smart, has tons of manners and dresses sharply, too! His parents did a great job raising him and his sister.

Standing with my grandson David on her feet, is Rhonda's daughter Becki. She graduated from high school this year and she is a very sweet young lady, very together, too. We are very proud of her! Sitting in the chair is Jerry's daughter Christina. Her daughter Linsay has her back to the camera. Christina and Linsay are two gorgeous gals. Christina is a strong young lady, both mentally and emotionally. Linsay is so sweet you could just gobble her up, she is a very kind and giving young lady, also. Christina is doing a wonderful job raising her. The picture I have of Jerry's son, Troy, and his family is so dark you would not be able to see it. Troy is a great father to his 6 kids, he and his wife, Rachelle, are both amazing individuals. We are proud of them.

My daughter Bonnie, with her brother-in-law Mike. Mike is Kym's husband and he is an excellent daddy also. He has so much energy it wears me out!!! He takes good care of Kym and is the kind of husband other women wish they had -- he tells her to go have the day for herself while he watches the kids!! Very true.... and he enjoys his time with them, too. He's also an excellent cook.

My grandkids outside enjoying a cool treat. Left to right: Chris, David and Miranda. The outside pictures turned out so much nicer... we should have had an outdoor wedding!!!

My sister-in-law Rhonda. I can't say enough positive things about this wonderful girl. She taught me to ride a ten speed bike when we were younger. Rhonda and I spent a lot of time as young kids talking, laughing, and sharing life's ups and downs. She and I used to play duets for special music at church as teenagers, she on the organ, me on the piano. She has so many talents it would take a volume of books to write them all down. I may be 9 months older than her, but she is tops in intelligence and go-get-'em-ness. A real inspiration to me!

And finally, there was not enough room in the refrigerator with all the luncheon leftovers for the cake leftovers, too. My kids gladly volunteered to help this situation by reducing the amount of cake that needed to be stored! From left to right: Jeff in the striped shirt, Mike sitting in the chair, Kyle in the orange shirt, Kym looking like she is guilty of blowing her diet (she looks wonderful weightwise - what a motivator she is to me!), and Bonnie who inspires me and Jerry both, especially since she has now been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I am so proud of them all.

Old Time Radio

2009-06-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

I love all the old time radio. Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Lone Ranger, The Bell Telephone Hour, Lux Radio Theater, My Favorite Husband, Calling All Cars, The Chesterfield Supper Club, Abbot and Castello, The Jack Benny Show, Command Performance and so many more. I love to hear the recordings of events happening like baseball games with Babe Ruth in them or the news accounts of World War 2.

My grandmother told me that when my Dad was a young boy back in the mid and late 30s/early 40s, he would hurry up and get done with his farm chores so he could come in the house and listen to The Lone Ranger. That was his favorite program. He would be so upset if he had to miss the show.

Years ago comedy was actually funny. You didn’t need foul language, sexual content, or malicious criticism of others – those things are not funny I don’t care who says them. Funny is laughing at ourselves through the antics of Jack Benny or Fibber McGee. I know Bob Hope’s jokes could be a tad on the ‘racy’ side if you read between the lines, but that is just it. You had to read between the lines, he didn’t explicitly say it in descriptive detail. So your mind could take the more innocent approach and not even have to go all the way with it.

I love how the sound effects make your mind actually imagine what is happening. It is almost like reading a book. The imagination is a wonderful thing, but it has to be exercised just like the rest of our muscles to keep functioning properly. Tv does all our thinking for us, it tells us what to imagine, how to dress, how to act, etc. How to be a carbon copy clone of the people you are looking at on the screen in front of you. Do you really want to emulate today's Hollywood? I sure don't. Give me someone with class and style like Jane Wyman or Audrey Hepburn - you sure can't find those type of actresses anymore.

With Tv, your eyes soak in what is being shown, you don’t even have to think if you don’t want to. If you don’t pay attention with your eyes, you might miss an important 1 second gesture or camera pan that could be the whole story line. With radio, you can be doing a hobby like sewing or scrapbooking and listen with your ears and not miss a beat in the plot. Jerry gets upset with me because I crochet or do other busy work so he says I am not really watching Tv. I tell him that I am 'listening'.

To be honest, 2 hours of Tv is all I can handle before I go bonkers. I prefer to download the old radio shows onto my MP3 player, then I can listen while I get my chores done in the house, in the yard or in the evening when I sit down to sew or put a jigsaw puzzle together. I have some old shows on cds so I can play them on the stereo so both Jerry and I can enjoy them, or listen to them in the car as we cruise around town. There are some really neat websites out there that you can listen to the old shows on. Here are a few:

http://www.radiolovers.com/

http://www.otr.net/

http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

http://journeys.libsyn.com/index.php?post_year=2005&post_month=08

http://boxcars711.libsyn.com/index.php?post_year=2008&post_month=04

http://calfkiller.googlepages.com/oldtimeradiodownloads

enjoy listening!!!!

Vintage Horseless Carriages

2009-06-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the airshow from earlier this month called Wings Over Gillespie? They had some very nice vintage automobiles from the 1910s or 1920s. I am sorry, I don't know the makers of the cars or their exact years. I sure enjoy looking at them, though. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed seeing them in real life! (I didn't realize that I had not taken any pictures of the classic truck other than the rearview of it 3 pictures below, please forgive me!). When my father-in-law was a young boy back in the late 1910s, early 20s, they used to have oil cloth hanging in their cars for windows to protect a person from the cold and wind. Cars had no heaters back then, it just amazes me to think what we would consider an inconvenience, during our great grandparents and grandparents time was considered a luxury.

Here is a link to the Smithsonian Automobile Collection:

http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/themes/story_78_1.html

If you click on the pictures of the cars, you can read a detailed discription of the car, the maker, when it was made, the history of the car and view other pictures of it. The collection begins with the 1866 Dudgeon Steam Wagon. If you click on Next Page at the bottom of each successive page, the collection takes you all the way to the 1997 EV1 Electric Car.

Standing On The Promises

2009-06-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

STANDING ON THE PROMISES

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Thro’ eternal ages let His praises ring;
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Saviour;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Saviour;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s Sword
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Saviour
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call,
Resting in my Saviour as my all in all,
Standing on the promises of God.

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Saviour,
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Words and Music by R. Kelso Carter, 1849-1928

Thank You For Mowing Our Yards Kyle!

2009-06-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today Kyle came over and mowed our grass and weed wacked for us, and we finally used Round Up on the backyard patio. We are so thankful for Kyle's help!! We will be Weeding and Feeding the lawns on Tuesday if everything goes according to plan. My next outside project is to scrub all the patio furniture and the trash cans down, that is why everything is stacked on the patio in the picture below and not arranged nicely. Here are the before and after pictures. Everything looks so neat when it is first mowed and I love the smell of the freshly cut grass!

Almost can't find Honey!

The plum and peach trees need to be pruned badly to get all the old, dead growth off. We are hoping that by doing so, the trees will make a come back.

Yep, all of that is going on the patio until I get the trash cans and patio furniture scrubbed down. I am afraid to sit on the patio chairs because of spiders and spider eggs - note -- Jerry is NOT afraid to sit on them!

What a differenece -- Thank you Kyle!

Next is also to trim that big bush in the corner of the house w -a - y back.

Another project on the to-do list is to sand down the wooden shed and repaint it.

Now for the front yard. This is the entrance door into our home office.

I am almost embarrassed to post these pictures on the internet. There is so much work to be done on the outside and the inside of the house. It will get there.... eventually.

Wow - it's looking good. One of my goals is when there is some extra money to buy some of those already planned flower bed bulbs from a seed company.

Once again... Thank you Kyle! The yards looks really good.

Just Taking a Leisurely Drive

2009-06-12T15:41:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love doing is going for drives. I am lucky to have a husband who likes to do the same thing. We just get in the car and go wherever the car takes us. Most women I know are looky-loos like me. We like to see how other people have their yards and houses fixed up. If it is dusk and someone forgot to draw their shades or curtains we are even more happier because we get to peek inside to see how others decorate their houses. Call it nosey, call it being a woman. Our husbands should be happy we are so easily entertained. Other than the price of gas and us repeatedly saying "Slow down so I can see..." - at least we are not asking for anything expensive!

I also love looking at other people's blogs when they post pictures of houses, street views, their family photos, barnyard photos, and garden photos. I love to see what the scenary looks like in other places here in the U.S. It helps to satisfy my traveling gene.

Today Jerry had a client he had to do some paperwork for, so I tagged along. Afterwards we went for a drive around several neighborhoods near where we were. I took quite a few pictures of street scenes and some beautiful houses. I will be posting them off and on in the future. I hope you enjoy being nosey as much as I do!

There is nothing like driving down a quiet street that has lots of trees and well kept yards. We rolled down the windows in the car and inhaled the luscious smells of the blooming flowers. You know how the thought of a mug of hot soup while you are curled up in a overstuffed chair with a soft glowing lamp on is comforting in the wintertime?... driving around hearing the birds chirping, smelling the flowers and seeing yards that have been loved gives me the same kind of comfortable feeling in the spring.

Don't you just love this purple tree? I don't know what it is called, but I see alot of them around here. As it loses the purple flowers it begins to turn green. Oh if only we were still using horse and buggies, we could even go slower and take all the views in more leisurely! If I wasn't so afraid of dogs I wouldn't mind strolling through different neighborhoods all over the county. Now that would make walking not a chore but a pleasure if you got to visit different areas everyday.

Sisters

2009-06-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

My parents had 6 children altogether. My oldest brother, Bobby, passed away when he was 6 hours old due to a hole in his heart. My sister Lyn came next, then me, then my sister Cindy, followed by my two brothers, Les and Paul.

Lyn is a year and half older than me. She suffered from asthma really bad as a child (still does today) and spent so much time in the hospital. She was held back a year in school because of this illness. By the time we reached high school, everyone thought we were twins. In the picture above we are almost the same height! This picture was taken in May of 1969, I was 8 years old. I had to write a report and did mine on the tuna boat industry that was in San Diego at that time. My dad took the family down to the docks and the city of San Diego, and took all the pictures for my report. This was in the day prior to computers and typing reports to print them out nice and neat. My handwritten (in cursive at that!) report is in a box out in the garage somewhere right now, but I found this picture in my suitcase full of family photos that I am slowly organizing into family albums.

Lyn always looked out for me as a kid. Once, this very same year of the above picture in fact, we were visitng with a classmate at her house playing in her pool. I did not know how to swim so I was making sure I stayed on the shallow end. I got a little brave and instead of jumping in the pool where I safely knew it was the shallow end, I got a little too close to the middle and jumped into the deep end. I very vividly remember panicking and almost drowning. Lyn held onto the edge of that pool and inched her way over to where I was fighting for my life and reached out and grabbed me and drug me out of the pool. I literally owe her my life.

It was mine and Lyn's job to do the dishes as we were growing up. She washed, I dried. Oh, all the conversations we would have! And we used to sing while we did the dishes, too. One time we were cutting up instead of doing the dishes and I threw the sugar bowl at her and missed just as our Dad came in the kitchen. The sugar bowl missed him, too! Dad laughed and told me to clean up the mess before Mom found out.

We had a big upright freezer in the playroom and at night if I knew Lyn was coming around the corner, I would hide on the side of it and jump out and say Boo! Each and every time I would scare the daylights out of her.

And the grandaddy of all mischief - one day my parents were gone and Lyn and I were chasing each other around the house, we were teenagers this time. The downstairs bathroom door had a knob that if you unscrewed the outside knob you could go in the bathroom and not be bothered. So she was chasing after me and I ran for the bathroom. I quickly unscrewed the doorknob and got into the bathroom just as she was almost able to get me. I slammed the bathroom door shut..... and there was absolute silence. All I remember is seeing stars. About 5 minutes later I came to with Lyn pounding on the bathroom door frantically. When I had slammed the door it made the ceiling fall down and it knocked me out. Lyn and I cleaned up the mess and I don't remember where we stashed the evidence, it couldn't of been in the trash can because our parents would definitely know that plaster was an odd thing in their trash can. We didn't say a word to our parents and about 3 days later Dad was sitting in the bathroom and for some reason looked up. The next thing we heard was "Alice! What happened to the bathroom ceiling?????"

Oh so many memories!!!

I tried to enlarge the above picture so that Lyn and I are more easily seen. I hope it isn't too fuzzy. I have on the white shirt.

Rearranged The Bedroom

2009-06-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today we got our new mattresses, so since the bed was torn apart already, I decided to rearrange our bedroom. Whenever you rearrange it gives the house a new look and it is a lot cheaper to do than to go out and buy all new furniture. At least twice a year I get in the mood to rearrange the whole house. I don't think I will be doing the whole house this time, I am planning on painting the entire interior of the house probably in the fall, so I will be ready to rearrange again then! Here is how it looked before. These pictures were taken right after we moved in.

I haven't hung any pictures yet since I still need to paint. I also want to strip the floors and rewax them, or at least give them a vinegar bath. But I did get the lace curtains up a few months ago, although I haven't decided what window treatments I want to make for any of the windows in the house yet. I am sorry the first picture turned out so dark... I even turned the lights on to brighten up the room since it is past 6 p.m., but the picture still turned out dark. The quilt on the wall my mom made for me about 10 years ago out of scraps from the fabric she made us girls dresses out of when we were little. I love it! I need to rehang it, I just stuck it up there so that it was not on the floor getting dirty.

My sister Lyn is still suffering. Please keep her in your prayers! Thank you.