Happy Spring, Ya'll!!!

I have the day off today and so since it is springtime I am going to fill my day with lots of cleaning? Well, considering it is already past noon perhaps I will get a medium amount of cleaning done. My better half is out side cutting up 5 trees that he cut down on Saturday. We had a couple of pine trees that died the previous winter that needed to be cut down and he just kept on going. We have a little more than an acre of land here and the left side of the house (as you face the house) was bordered with several tall pine trees. I was sad that he cut the others down. He said he wants to plant fruit trees there. Those pine trees kept the unattractive view of the neighbors animal farm??some what blocked from our view. Now, thanks to Bob, we have a perfectly clear view of an unkempt farm??yard with more than 15 mini donkeys,2 llamas, sheep, 1 alpaca, and all their poo! Now ,I know what you are thinking. Mini donkeys!How cute!!How could she be so hateful. Let me tell you. They are cute to look at but to hear their braying at night is not cute. It sounds like someone is being beaten all night long. Even Bob,who is very hard of hearing, can't sleep with that noise. Also, have you ever heard a Llama or alpaca make noise? It is a very otherworldly sound that sound so scary.
Well, now that I have put my usual depressing spin on things, Happy Spring. Our tulips have started coming up and I look forward to their blooming soon.
enjoy your day. I'll be shampooing my carpet.

---I Have Gas------

I am a simple person. I went to the local mini mart to fill my gas tank and get a gallon of milk. I filled my tank and went into the mart to get the milk and pay for the gas. A man was at the counter a head of me. I heard the clerk ask him if the gas was his. The man said he didn't get gas and being the honest person that I am and not wanting a person to be eyed suspiciously on my account I speak up and say a bit too loudly " I have gas". The store gets quiet. Every eye is on me. My face turns bright red and I say a bit sheepishly "a...er...not literally,I have gas and milk, sir." I hear a few giggles. I pay for the gas and milk and walk out vowing to go to a different mini mart next time I need gas and milk.

Below Zero and Other Degrees

One day this week we awakened and it was 24 degrees below zero!!! Not wind chill temp but actual temp. I love it. The bad thing is that the water in the downstairs toilet was frozen. Also, the hot water wouldn't come on. Bob put a small electric heater near the water heater and voila!Hot water.

I just love cold weather. I love it as long as I am inside. I don't even mind it out side as long as the wind isn't blowing.

One day I was driving to work in the morning. I could see my breath (it was 10 degrees) in the car and perspiration was dripping down my face. It's just wrong I tell you.

Resolutions and Reminiscing

Every year for forty some odd years I have been writing down my New Year's Resolutions. Why should today be any different. I learned something a few years ago that I want to share with you. If you make a list of 10 or 2o or more resolutions you are setting yourself up to fail. Change is a process and not an event. It takes time to change old habits. The New Year's Eve before Hillary, Dustin, and Nathan left on their missions (that's the event that helps me to remember how long ago I made my discovery) I decided to put only one thing down on my list. I thought about what would be the best thing I could do to improve my life. I thought long and hard and tried to make sure I was up to the task. I felt I was and so the only thing I wrote down was this:

1. READ THE SCRIPTURES EVERY DAY.

Since that day I have never missed reading the Scriptures once. That was my 2002 resolution. I tell you this not to brag but to show that making a list of 10 or more things to change is making a list of what you will fail at in the coming year. Call me a pessimist if you want but I stand by these words. How many of you (all three of you that check my blog once in awhile) have honestly succeeded at every thing on your list of New Year's Resolutions? Be honest with yourselves. Let me show you a list of things I have had on lists previous to the year 2002:

1. GET CLOSER TO CHRIST
2. BE A BETTER WIFE (HA)
3. KEEP A CLEAN HOUSE (HA HA)
4. GET MY FOOD STORAGE
5. LOSE WEIGHT
6. BE MORE PREPARED FOR MY SUNDAY LESSONS
7. BE A BETTER MOTHER
8. EXERCISE EVERY DAY (HA HA HA)
9. QUIT PROCRASTINATING
10. GET MORE ORGANIZED

I think a list like the above is overwhelming. It also needs to be more detailed. For instance : I will get my food storage by buying 5 extra items each time I grocery shop and put them away for storage. ETC . Much too complicated for me to even know how to accomplish all of the above. With one simple item I can explore many ways to accomplish my "goal". I have brought my Book of Mormon on trips with me and read on the airplane, in the car,etc. It has become such a habit now that I cannot fall asleep until I have read from the scriptures. Some times I read only a few verses but I have read and that was my goal.

I want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I have noticed in the past several years that the "Christmas " season comes sooner and sooner each year. Does anyone remember when it was considered in bad taste to display Christmas items before Thanksgiving? I am speaking of stores. Not homes. Just wondering. In upstate New York, and most probably much of the northeast, people put up their out of doors Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. I think it must be because usually it is warmer and there is little or no snow on the ground. It makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense is that I often see Christmas wreaths and lawn decorations still out in May. It makes me smile. Not to be too harsh on people I do remember once (since moving here almost 12 yrs ago) that we didn't take down our fake Christmas tree until the last week of January or perhaps even the first week of February.
Speaking of fake Christmas trees.... I am usually a real tree kind of girl but since I am married to what (or is it who?) must have been the actual model of the "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" ,We have a fake tree. The afore mentioned "Grinch" won't let us put up a real tree until a week before Christmas and tries to take it down the second the gift opening is completed. So I have a fake tree so I can enjoy one of my favorite things about Christmas decor, the lighted tree. I do miss the scent of the real tree so I sometimes buy pine boughs or a pine wreath to enjoy that fragrance.
My other fave is the out of door lights. I find it nostalgic, festive, and get such joy out of seeing all the Christmas lights during the season. Does that mean I have out door lights to enjoy for the season. That would be a resounding yes. Do I get to enjoy them?? That would be a season deflating no. My Grinch will not put them up for me to enjoy. Last year I put them in the picture window in our living room though it looked a little tacky I enjoyed seeing them when I drove in my neighborhood on my way home from going places at night. I would put up the lights myself but we live in a two story house and have a two legged ladder. I am afraid of heights and I don't know how to use a two legged ladder. It's pathetic, I know. Also, If I start using that ladder I may as well learn how to run the lawn mower and the chainsaw.
Enjoy the upcoming Holidays!

Fall/Winter

Hey Ya'll.

It is going to snow tonite!!!I love the snow. Everything looks so pure and fresh(for a while). We are towards the end of the beautiful Fall colors. Pretty soon everything will be brown and then snow. I always wanted to live where it snows.Having grown up in southern California I never got to see snow on a regular basis. Living in upstate New York for 11 plus years now...I have never yet gotten tired of the winter wonderland. When everyone up here is sick and tired of the snowy conditions and complaining I truly believe I am the only one happy as a clam!!!! I get sad when I think it's going to be the last snow of the season.

Oh Vacation , Vacation...wherefore art thou oh Vacation

I am home and in a funk. I had such a wonderful vacation I just want to live in that mode forever. I loved seeing and being with my kids , grand baby, my two beautiful daughters-in-love and my sister. It just came and went "as if in a dream" to borrow a phrase from The Book of Mormon and Dustin. I forgot how much I loved California. It was much dryer than I remembered. I guess after living in Georgia and New York for 18 years any other place in the USA would seem brownish.I forgot about the abundance of Eucalyptus trees, the sandy beaches, the hilly, rocky landscapes. I forgot how much I enjoy being with Kellie,my little sister, and her sweet husband and children.

I loved every moment until we had to say good-bye. I so dearly wish we could all live closer to each other...physically as well as emotionally,spiritually.

I did miss my dear husband and Aramie,Aaron, and Kacey. The only thing that would have made the vacation better was if they and my sister, Susan could have been there. Otherwise it was a perfect vacation. One of the best I've ever had. Thank you Dustin and Jess for orchestrating the whole thing and thank you to all of my children for the sacrafices they made to be there.

I thank Aramie and Bob for taking care of my little doggy while I was away.

Haley pretty much filled you in on all the details and most of the pictures I have she has so I will try to post different ones. One thing I did that they did not do is go to the town I grew up in (Fallbrook) and look around at all the changes and see familiar land marks, our old house, and homes that my dad and Bob built together.It was nice to do that and spend the afternoon with my sister, Kellie.