Happy Birthday Mom!!!

 Goodness Gracious where does the time go????

It's time for my Mother to have another birthday.

It's a good one.

Double digits.

That's fun!

It has been a busy year for them.

They have spent some time traveling.

And spent lots of time with family.

They moved.

Again.

They celebrated birthdays and anniversaries.

The BIG 70!!!

And through it all, through busy times and bored times,

through visits with family and friends and days

home alone with Dad,

she has always remained the upbeat, cheerful 

woman I have always known her to be.

She has been such an example to all.

I have leaned on her heavily during this year

and a half that I have served as a Relief Society President.

I valued her experience and wisdom in so

many instances when I just was lost.

She has done so much to enrich the lives of those

who are around her, whether they are long time

friends or just friends she hasn't met yet.

I love you Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

New Windows and Doors!

 I'm pretty sure I mentioned before that when Kyle

went to get his windows for his house he discovered

the size he planned for was only available in Florida!

Who does that???

Anyhow, today we went to THREE different Lowe's

and picked up all the windows and doors he

is going to need for his house.

There were several.

This was the last load from the store 30 miles north of us.

They only had 1 of the largest size in the local store,

but we were able to get all the medium

and small ones there.

The first load we got locally, and discovered they

BARELY fit in the back of the Ranger.

So we had to go to the airport and switch trucks

with Rod. Gave him the Ranger with the little

bitty bed and got the F250 with a much larger bed.

They just barely fit in that truck as well!

We finally got them all purchased and loaded

into the house. Guess we won't be opening

the front door again anytime soon...

Garden GONE

 Our garden was a MESS.

The wood on the raised beds was done.

(Rotting and needed to be replaced this year)

And the dirt had gone back to basically sand.

Needed to all be amended with new compost.

Obviously THAT wasn't going to happen...

So today Kyle and I got out there and using his

skidsteer (Cat) I chained up all the fence posts

and he pulled them out of the ground.

We are taking the posts with us.

We will need to make yards for the dogs

and of course fence in our new gardens...

so posts are going to be a hot commodity.

It definitely makes the yard look bigger!

Then we put down a heavy layer of grass seed.

Hopefully it will come up in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

(They didn't have any winter rye... that stuff comes up

in DAYS!)

And then I went into my office to teach my last 

zoom class for this month 

and Kyle went to the BEACH to watch a rocket.

I took a break so I could go outside and

watch it from the yard.

It was a beautiful one!

He said it was spectacular from the beach...

Anyhow.

Tomorrow we will be back at the packing, etc.

I'm done teaching zoom, so I'll pack up my

teaching stuff and I think we will paint

my office.

Jim had it painted a bright Yamaha Blue,

which was a GREAT background for zooming,

but probably NOT a great color for selling the house.

We bought some white Kilz that will cover

just about ANYTHING (including bright blue).

He wanted to paint it today, but I didn't want

to sit for 4 hours in a freshly painted room.

(And besides, I still needed the blue wall...)

He has a mulching job tomorrow and then we

all have tithing settlement.

And then we will come home and put on our

painting clothes and GET TO IT.

So Many Changes

 On Monday, Rod posted our piano on Facebook.

There are 5 or 6 pianos listed on marketplace for FREE and

about the same number for $250.00

I crossed my fingers and said $350.00.

It's in GREAT shape, (except for that spot on the bench...)

It will need to be tuned after they get it moved,

but I had it tuned about 6 years ago and it

still sounds really good. Holds a tune well.

About 30 minutes later Rod got a message from a member

family from Provo who now live in Kissimmee (over

by Orlando) who wanted to buy it.

(And wanted the Primary book too... lol. NOPE!)

So last night they rented a truck and headed over.

She's a big, heavy girl.

It took Rod, Kyle, Sam and Lucas (the buyers)

to get it up the ramp and into the truck.

Sam said he nearly bought a piano a month or two ago,

but the sale fell through and he forgot about it.

Decided on Monday that maybe he would take another shot.

And there it was!

Rod had JUST posted it!

Wrapped it up in quilts and strapped it down.

We waved goodbye and off they went.

I guess they got home ok.

Lucas was kind of shy,

but looks like he is happy with his new piano!

And now our living room looks MUCH emptier.

(I've already picked out a good electric piano

to have Amazon deliver to me when we get 

to the Walnut House....)

Thanks Nancy!!!

 Look what Nancy found!!!!!

Is that not the CUTEST???

Thanks Nanc!

What a great memory.

Sesame Bird

 Do you remember when Jimmy was a LITTLE guy.

We came to Tucson for a visit and y'all took

us down to Nogales (and I had my first buffalo burger. YUM!)

While there, we saw a piñata in the shape

of Big Bird from Sesame Street.

Jim always called him Sesame Bird.

So... we bought it.

With the plan to have a party when we got

back to Tucson.

And Jim was HORRIFIED!!!!!

We can't BEAT Sesame Bird to get candy!

That's TERRIBLE!

So.....

fast forward 30+ years.

Guess who has been hanging in Jim's closet all his life.

I propped him up in the hall way so I could take a picture.

Then Jim came by, and we had a good laugh.

I asked if he wanted him.

He said he was pretty sure he could now let him go.

Beau was CREEPED out by him and had NO problem

dismembering the scary creature.

It's the end of an era.

Boy Oh Boy!

 It RAINED and RAINED and RAINED.

Some estimates were 6"!

Typically there is NOT a lake in front of the barn.

And very rarely is there a lake on the other side of the yard.

I just realized I don't often take a picture of that side.

There's not much over there.

A pathetic peach tree and another pathetic avocado tree.

And 2 loquat trees that are doing pretty well.

Boy howdy it rained hard though!

Unfortunately that made both of Kyle's mulching jobs

have to reschedule.

Bummer!

But it made for a comfortable day to sit on the couch

and watch all the sessions of General Conference.

There was ZERO temptation to go and do anything else.

They were really good talks.

I can't wait for the printed versions.

I am going to enjoy re-reading these ones!

And I'm glad I don't have to try to only

pick 13 for our Elders Quorum and Relief Society

discussions for the next few months.

It's going to be hard!