Fun Times Down at the Ranch

All ready to stuff them eggs!

Cuddling up to Tut and Jasmine I'm so relieved that I got my Spring swap package completed and mailed, and I'm excited to get my own package! That was a remarkable experience - it made me really see all the beautiful things that represent Spring. Thanks, Megan, for helping me shop. That doubled the fun! Aiden and Audrey came over for visits with Grandma last week. I always enjoy visits with the grandkids. Tristan came over one day, too. With all the kids, we played with toys and ate, and we made Easter cards, and we stuffed plastic Easter eggs, played with the kitties, found hidden objects, and we got on our big, comfy bed and watched Kiki's Delivery Service, Monsters, Inc., Popeye cartoons, Finding Nemo, and My Neighbor, Totoro. I loooove kids' movies, and wish we could buy all of them on DVD, but we're way behind the curve on that one. At least we have my favorites, which are H. Miyasaki's animated features. They usually have very quiet and imaginative parts that children (and adults) become absorbed with. That makes a nice break from all the busyness of life. Mark and I celebrated our wedding anniversary yesterday. The actual date was the 29th, but we celebrated by going to the store and buying 2 Ann Rule books and 2 Harry Potter DVDs. Yay! And, of course, we said, "I love you," and all that romantic, gushy stuff. ;) It's the last day of March! We've had snow, sleet, and tremendous winds lately. But that didn't stop us from taking Leto and meeting up with the whole family, including Danny's folks, at Bancroft, on Linda's folks' (the Johnsons) big ranch. It was great, even with the weather! I can't find my pictures right now, but Megan put some great ones up on her blog (bakedasia). When I find more I'll post them, but anyway... I didn't know that their place was on the Oregon Trail, and was known as 10-mile spring! They have a natural spring that flows at 55 degrees year-round. The universities come there to look for artifacts, and there are wild geese, ducks, and bald eagles! We all wrapped up and went on a hayride, pulled by a pair of the Johnson's huge draft horses. We didn't go far, but we saw the lay of the land and stopped at their humongous riding arena. Besides stalls, there is a dirt arena that is all inside this enormous building on their property. I could hardly believe it. Later we rode Buddy, Jewel, and Misty around inside. The kids were led around on Misty, an older mare that's very gentle. I rode all three horses, and I rode Buddy by myself for a short while. That was so satisfying! Dallin rode Jewel, the greenest horse, and he had never ridden a horse before in his life! He was relaxed and a natural rider. Jewel was quite good for him; she was even better for Mr. Johnson, when he worked with her. Her expression was one of respect towards him, and he had her working on her neck reining. He intends for her to be his cow horse. Those horses and cattle are so lucky to live there! They have huge pastures with fresh water running through them. It's just beautiful. We all brought food, such as hoagie sandwich ingredients, relish trays, macaroni salad, fancy baked beans, chips, fruit, and homemade cookies. Linda's mom made delicious chicken soup, a cake, and ice cream with sliced strawberries. Wow! After our potluck lunch, we went downstairs and had two Easter egg hunts, one for the kids and one for the grownups. The latter was a "Take No Prisoners" hunt. We all cashed in on the candy, and they had some prizes for the children. Everyone shared and we had a great time. Then we went upstairs for pictures. All of my kids except Phillip were there, and I hope I can put him in somehow. I'll figure it out, and it will be thrilling to have a picture to frame, with all of them there! We wanted a picture of the grandkids together, but they were too excited to round up. We got to know the Johnsons so much better, and we got to see Haley and Linda with their cute pregnant tummies. Also, I was inspired by the pictures of family ancestors in the beautiful rooms. Everything was fascinating, and as soon as I got home, I looked up their location on the Oregon Trail. Thanks so much to the Johnsons for their warm hospitality. Justin stayed overnight and went to church with us Sunday a.m. He and Seth talked a lot, and Justin fixed some things on Seth's computer. They share many of their interests, and they watched our Twilight movie (thank you, Mark and Seth!) - which has been viewed by so many people in the past week, it's almost all I've thought about...but that is another post. I went to the drs.' yesterday, because I've been feeling soooo tired, and it was good, anyway, to followup everything from my last hospitalization. We got some medications straightened out and some tests scheduled. I'm lucky to have such a quick-on-the-uptake doctor. He's still a resident, but he'll be staying in the area and I'm going to stay on with him as a patient. Leto was barking at the UPS man this a.m. I didn't know he was still out there, so I opened the door to get the box (they always just leave them on our porch), and he was standing over to the side of the porch. Leto ran out and barked a couple of times, then ran on into the yard. Let me tell you, the guy looked like he was going to faint! I felt so bad when I understood how frightened he'd been of Leto. He was not a happy camper! I want to try to make it up to him. I want to bake him a pie, but I'll have to think of something better than that. Hmmm...Well, anyway, we will be putting Leto in a back room when the UPS guy comes after this. We have to keep the package people happy! Having thought so much about our anniversary this past couple of days, I feel so blessed and grateful for all God has given me through Mark - I've known the great love and romance that I yearned for and dreamed of, and it is a miracle. I hope everyone will have the opportunity to experience a great, life-changing romance. I can't think of anything better! Hugs!

Digging In and Digging Out

Well, I've started on my first room, and it sure feels good. I took before pictures, and Seth helped me move the furniture around. I'm wanting to finish it before I show before and afters, but I can tell you that it's waaay better now. Our bedroom seems huge now, and way more accessible! The French doors swing wide open now, and I can see the tv from the computer, which is convenient (if we have to have a tv in the bedroom - I'd prefer not). I can get to all of the drawers in my chest now, and I can reach my oxygen, my jewelry box, and my c-pap machine. I slept so well last night, dreaming about my parents and my grandmother on my mom's side, all passed away, plus my sister and her husband and kids. And cars that don't work properly! That's the dreaming twist. Phones and cars never work, I can't see where I'm driving, and I always have small children, babies, or kittens to watch. Sometimes I shop or visit museums and antique stores. Other times I go for walks in the woods and I try and fish. Often there are horses in my dreams. Oh, I forgot. I want to thank Megan of bakedasia for her help getting my blog words up top the right color, and also for her tutorial which showed me where to go to get elements to combine with my own illustrations or photos. I loved having the choice and the flexibility to make my header uniquely my own. It was fun to do, and now the whole world can view a little window into my heart. :)

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I'm so excited! Ever since we moved into our home last April, we haven't even unpacked completely - the garage is full of boxes, and thing basically sit where they were sat. It's hard to clean and organize around things this way, and I've been here long enough that I've lost my perspective and I feel overwhelmed. Enter my friend, Bazie. She's my aide, and she comes for 2 hours every week day to help with some things I cannot do. So I finally got up the gumption to ask her to abandon those things and just help me with ideas for one room at a time. I was so grateful when she said yes! She suggested we go through and make a list of what we want to do in each room. This is something I've done before, but I don't have the ideas that truly inspire me to do the work. Bazie was a fount of ideas! We are going to start on some things tomorrow, and it will help me have the oomph to clean what I can, as we're decorating (I always told my girls, "We're not cleaning - we're making it pretty." That was sooo much more motivating! Also, when she can, Haley (my youngest daughter) is coming down here for a day to help me clean. I'm so excited for that, because all of my daughters are MASTER cleaners! Yay! I will be sure and take before and after pictures, so that you can see the changes. And I plan on incorporating all of your good ideas, too, so don't be surprised if you see that I've put them to good use. :) Update on Resolutions: I've really been trying to keep them, because I picked simple ones that I truly wanted to follow. I must say, the "experiment" method I was inspired to think of has been a major influence in any success I've experienced. I've been better about blood sugar testing, although I could improve on it still, and we've had several family home evenings (would have been more, but there were unforseen circumstances - need to have a backup plan). I haven't done so well on writing regular snail-mail letters. Still want to. I'll have to check what the other one was - how's that for goal keeping? I can't even remember what it was! Anyway, that's my progress thus far. Wish me luck on the house, 'cause I'll need it! PS The other resolution was to create glorious windowboxes for our porch railings - and I've been researching that, so I'm fine on that front. Naturally, I picked most of my resolutions from things I enjoy doing (tee hee).

Camille Giveaway!

Over at camilleroskelley.typepad.com, Camille is having a fantastic giveaway of jelly rolls, charm packs, honey buns, and turnovers. If you don't know what these terms mean, or even if you do, you'd better head on over there to investigate! More Later...

More Alana pictures and Some Tut-Play

I love this bright-eyed picture of Alana

with party ribbon in her mouth

This one shows her cute head shape

and chin dimple

This one is just funny

Like, "What in the heck are you doing?" And here she is with Alex and her parents Danny and Melinda Okay now, here are some pictures Of Mark playing with Tut In the last one, Mark is flipping Tut So it looks like Tut is doing a 'Paw-Stand'

What you can't see in these pictures

Is that Tut is purring the whole time!

Linda's Birthday

Last Saturday we went to Linda's birthday party!

It was the first time we've been to Ben and Linda's house

They have made it Really nice! I mean Really.

Melinda and Danny were there with their children

and

Megan and Brooks came with their children too

Seth carried me downstairs

where they had a cozy fire burning

We had presents

and

cake and ice cream

and Linda played the guitar for us

and sang!

We also held up a quilt and did photo sessions

with

Anya and Alana

Warning: The following photos are jumbled, but self-explanatory

(Maybe Megan or someone can come over and help me put them in order?)

Happy Birthday, Linda!!

A Little Bit O' This, A Whole Lotta That

Who's hiding behind this clever clover?

Is it a Leprechaun?

Is it Spiderman?

We'll have to see...

Meanwhile, here's a better picture of the etched dome I got on our trip

I like it by the lanterns!

And I have to include this picture of Seth at just-barely sixteen!

It shows how tall he's become

See his head almost hitting the top of the doorway?

Here's Aiden, doing his homework, right by our laundry basket

He came over for the afternoon this week

Fun!

Here he's having some down time With Jasmine And here we reveal the man behind the shamrock!

Aiden made this beautiful clover for school, all by himself (with just an eensy bit of help with the fancy scissors from Grandma) He was very pleased with the result And we had a great time browsing through all the stickers and shiney stuff together Thanks for coming, Aiden! And to everyone: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!