Toby Needs a Home

Please pray that we can find a home for Toby. This is Teena and Mikes dog. They are getting a divorce and Toby is caught in the middle. Teena can't have pets at the house she is renting. Mike is moving out this weekend into a one bedroom.
I posted Toby on Craigslist. So I need everyone to start praying that a loving family will call Teena and want the dog. He is great with kids and is very loving, not to mention he is a great watch dog.
Okay saints....start praying.

The Heavenly Spa

For Mothers Day, Corey, as of today, is my favorite, his gift to me was an hour massage and half hour facial. He got online and found a place called "The Heavenly Spa" and it was heavenly. I was a little apprehensive about letting a guy do my massage, but I wanted someone with strength. I have been to some that are a little whimpy for me. So, here is a picture of Jose. He was great. He lives in a neighboring city. We got to talking about restaurants, come to find out his favorite is our favorite here in town. The Taqueria place, which we refer to as Big Bob's.
So, was it worth laying there for an hour letting someone rub my sore muscles, OH YEA.

Along with the massage, I got a half an hour facial. Here I am laying down while she is plastering something all over my face. At one point, she rubbed and pressed on my sinuses and blocked my passage way to breath. Instantly my mouth popped open to take in some air. I wasn't to sure about that one.

Okay, she finished the goop on my face.

I'm finished. Now it looks like I better find a good hair salon shop.

Strawberry Fields Forever!!

No, I am not talking about the Beatles. It is strawberry season here in Cali. We are fortunate to have some of the best, biggest, sweetest berries grown and picked here locally. The season started this month and will go through June. I like to take advantage of the fresh ones, not the ones sold in the supermarkets. They just don't compare.
Someone told us that your sweetest berries are the ones that grow when the weather is consistantly 80 degrees and above. (There is no symbol for degrees on my computer, go figure.) Anyway, we haven't had real hot weather, only this last week was hot, but they are delicious. Don't they look yummy.

I filled two 1 gallon baggies with strawberries. Will freeze them for this winter. This isn't all I am going to do. I plan on going to the stand weekly to get more.

Guess you know what I had for dessert tonight.

I haven't had much time to keep up with blogging, so I am going to get this pic in now.
Ryan came home for Mothers Day, all the way from Texas on a train. It took 2 1/2 days to get here in Cali. He was so tired and hungry. I guess the food in the diner is a little pricey,so he packed some snackes. Not enough snacks to fill him up for 2 1/2 days. The first thing we did was headed to In N Out for a burger and fries.

Loma Linda Here They Come!

Here is a picture of the place Ryan got to rent for him and Shelly. They are moving back to Cali next month. It's a two bedroom, 1 bath. I think the extra bedroom is for Shelly's mother-in-law??????
I am so excited to have my baby boy (Baby Dino) so close to me again.
He starts the P.T. program in June. They will be living here for a few years.
Ryan has been sick with the flu but managed to hunt for a home. Praise God he found something so soon. He was only there for a few days. He is heading back to Texas tomorrow.
As soon as they both get out here, I am taking a trip down south and we are all going to my favorite place in the world...you guessed it...Disneyland!

Here is a pic of the master bedroom. I would add more pics but they are kind of fuzzy.

Busy Busy Busy

Mothers Day was great. All four of our kids were home, including the two grandchildren. I regret to say that I didn't take any pictures but I did buy me a new cell phone that takes pictures. So, after taking one son to the train station, another one to the airport, I am back at work and having fun with my new phone. I know, I should be working, but I have to take advantage of the time I am with Melissa, she is a master at all of this technical stuff. I am not that good, just ask any one of my kids.
So, I thought I would try it out and see if I could get a picture from my phone to my computer, wallah, it worked. Helen Ida was getting tired of looking at baby Eric, so I did this for her too. Sorry about the messy hair, it was real windy at the train station. Okay, I am getting back to work.

Eric Michael is here.

Lisa McClellan is a Grandma. Amber McClellan is an Auntie...oh yea, and don't forget Dave McClellan, he is now officially a Grandpa.
Eric was born today, three weeks early. To those of you who know Stephanie, Lisa's oldest, she and hubby Cory,(not my Corey) had a baby boy. This pic was sent to me via email with Ambers cell phone...today's technology...ain't it great.

If anyone would like to check out the McClellan clan...her web page is www.Mcclownan.com. I am trying to get her to create a blog.

Need Vitamin C

Tom and I have been talking for some time now about getting an orange tree. We have plenty of room in our back yard for trees.
I was given two little voluntary starter twigs, from Dr.Davis' Campher tree, about 10 years ago. They grew into beautiful full shade trees, which is needed during the summertime. Well, they are now beginning to cause some havoc in our backyard, especially in our pool. Tom finally cut one of them down, stump and all. I think that contributed to a hernia he is now dealing with.
So, we were at Costco a while back and saw orange trees for cheap. We decided to get one and plant it where one of the Campher trees were. It looks so small and out of place, but in a few years it will be producing some juicy oranges. I go crazy when I see someone with a tree full of oranges and they just let them lay on the ground and rot. I won't do that, I will me making us some fresh squeezed orange juice.
Here is a picture of the size of tree Tom removed.

Believe me, this is not much fun to clean when you don't have a sweeper and your kids have left home. We really miss them. Not only do we have dirt and leaves from our yard but we get leaves from our neighbors yard when it is windy.

Here is a picture of the cute little orange tree we got at Costco for only $17.00. A huge Campher tree use to be planted here. It has been replaced by the orange tree. I can't wait for it to mature and start producing some juicy oranges.

If you have sound on your computer and can hear the music on my blog, you will notice that I changed songs at Helen Ida's request. She didn't like my country western pick.

No Egg on My Face!

Just received these pictures from my daughter. She decided to let Lawren eat spaghetti all by herself. It must have been good or she wouldn't have touched it.


It is close to lunch time now and I am getting hungry just looking at her. I wonder what I will have for lunch?

I don't see any french bread. You have to have bread with spaghetti.

Off to Grandma's!

Here is a picture of Keiran, my five year old grandson, in his Sabbath suit. I don't have to many pics of him, so I have to post the ones I get. He is coming to my house this weekend. We are going to spend the whole day together. His parents are going to alumni in Modesto, so he gets to hang out with grandma and grandpa. I already know what we will be doing. First we will go to Sabbath School and Church. Next, we will come home and have his favorite food, beans and rice. Although, he likes a few other dishes, but the beans and rice are always a hit. Then, I am sure he will want to go to the park. He could spend all day there, he loves it outdoors. He will probably bring his scooter, so I will hop on my bike to be able to keep up with him.
I am hoping that his little cousin, Lawren, comes too. She loves the outdoors too.
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
I am in seventh heaven when my grandkids are around. I only have the two, for now. Just think what it is going to be like when Ryan and Shelly decide to have some. Oh, and don't forget Uncle Corey, he has always wanted a basketball team, that would be at least 10, I am sure he meant half a team.

She's Back!!!!

Today I spent the whole day in bed. I have a terrible cold. My sinuses are plugged and when I swallow, it feels like pins sticking me. I wish I could say I am back from bad health. I have gone from two and a half weeks of itchiness from the poison oak to a head cold. My first day of not scratching was Saturday, Sunday I came down with this miserable cold. My back side was covered with poison oak, now, after drying up, my left leg and buttocks looks like I have chaps on. I could ride a horse. It feels like, you know, one of those kids "feel and scratch" books, when you feel the page for a snake or elephants ear. Only this is my leg were talking about. It's real, not in a book.
Anyway, Teena left for Delaware last week and arrived home late last night. She brought back gifts for us. She got Tom a T Shirt from Delaware and me a cute wind chime.
She just brought over a can of pineapple juice for me to drink. I drink hot pineapple juice when I have a sore throat. It is really soothing. Tom and I know that we are very fortunate to have a friend like her. She takes good care of us along with her five children she has to manage. We love you Teena!

Teena brought this little hummingbird wind chime back from Delaware for me. She knows I love those little creatures. Notice the gray skies, no sunshine here in Cali. But, the tulips, daffodils and other flowers are popping up ushering in Spring regardless of the weather.While I was outside taking a picture of the wind chime, I noticed our gorgeous Wisteria plant wondering all over the Apple tree. It does every year. I love how it covers the whole area making shade for the ground.

The Littlest Cowgirl

I finally figured out a way to get these pictures on my blog. I have been working on this since I got home from work, around 5:15. I decided to hook up my printer, copier, scanner I purchased in January when I bought my new computer. I have to admit I am not the sharpest when it comes to electronics,I know the Geek quad would not hire me. But, low and behold, I got the printer working. When I scanned a picture, it went onto my computer but the pic is so small and I can't figure out how to enlarge a pic. I have tried several ways but nothing is working. So if anyone has an insight as to how to enlarge a photo, please let me know. I finally just took a photo of each photo, does that make sense??? with my camera and loaded it onto my computer. If, and I say if, I ever figure out how to work the scanner, the pictures will be clearer. Until then, I will use my camera.
Anyway, here is some pics of Lawren when she went to Madilyn's birthday party a few weeks ago. As soon as she hopped up on that saddle she was rocking back and forth and ready to go. She has had some experience from riding her rocking horse we got her for Christmas. She just needed some spurs.

Out n About on the Townie!

It was such a beautiful day today, even tho we had some gray skies, Tom and I decided to go for a bike ride after lunch. So, we headed down the bike path and headed toward John and Sylvia's cottage.
They just returned from a week's vacation in China. We rode over there and they shared their photos' with us. The neat thing about it is they have a 42" screen TV that their camera was hooked up to. We got to view the photo's on the big screen. They went to Beijing and Shanghai. They were there for a week on tour. Hopefully, someday, Tom and I will get to travel there. I would love to see the Great Wall, Tiena men Square and ride a Rickshaw. Did you know that Shanghai is the second largest city in the world? 18 million

Tom on his Townie. Last year, Tom and I bought each other new Townie bikes for our anniversary. We haven't been able to ride much, we did go to San Francisco and road along the beach. Next month we are planning to ride along the American River in Sacramento. We enjoy just getting out and about.

Me on my Townie. I guess I should have wore my bike pants...oh yea, I don't have any.

John and Sylvia on their front porch.

Fun and Family

If you should happen to notice the time of this blog, yea, I am at work. Kathleen emailed me some pics of this last weekend and I couldn't wait to get them posted. Not to worry, I am on my 15 minute break.
These pictures are from the other day when we went to park.
Tom and I are so blessed to have such adorable grandkids.


Lawren is at a park where she lives. She loves to be outdoors and being with her little friends.

Keiran got to choose which park we went to, he loves this one because it has a shovel you can dig with. He has so much fun when we go.

Lawren with her daddy going down the slide. The first time she went down the slide, she went a little to fast, so after that, she had to go with someone. Daddy was the most fun to ride with. Actually, he was the only one who fit. Uncle Corey made an attempt to go down the slide and made it half way. There was no way I was going to try it.

Happy Ishtar!

I know it's late, I have to work in the morning, but this poison oak is making me nuts. If anyone has a secret tonic for relieving the itch, please leave me a message. So, since I am awake, I thought I would blog.
When my kid's were little, we never got to involved in the Easter thing but we did dye eggs and hide them around the yard and house. If my memory serves me right, we hid them about 20 to 30 times. Corey loved hunting for them and hiding them from his younger brother. We hid them in the house one year, he and Ryan found all but one, I never kept track of the exact amount, so a missing egg went unnoticed and did not surface for a week or two when we all started smelling an unpleasant aroma. We were able to zero in on the location after two weeks, it was hidden under one of the cushions on the couch, which was a hide a bed, and fell down onto the bed. Oh the memories of it all.
Well, since Lawren is walking, I thought she would enjoy hunting for eggs this year. Only, I bought the plastic ones, no more using the real deal. We filled them with fish crackers, didn't want to corrupt her taste buds. She had no problem knowing exactly what to do.


As you can see it didn't take Lawren long to figure out to put the eggs in the basket. I am telling you she is advanced.

Most of the pictures I have taken recently of Corey are supine, on the couch with a remote in hand. He was sitting up, so I had to get in on camera.

Family Day

We have had all of our children home this weekend except for Ryan. We are missing him too. Everyone is taking advantage of the warm nice weather. Earlier Grandpa Murphy and Lawren went for a bike ride on the three wheeler.
Uncle Corey is attempting to ride Keiran's scooter. It only holds up to 150 lbs. and we are quite sure Corey weigh's more than that. He has always been one to never listen or obey.
Keiran and Auntie out on their bikes getting some sun and exercise. Keiran is quite a good bike rider.
Here is Grandpa sitting out on the front porch in the rocker taking it all in.
Lawren is taking a nap after a very busy day. She rode her first horse today. A friend of mine's granddaughter had her first birthday today and Lawren was invited. They had a big event, a bouncy house, face painting, and horse back riding with a professional photographer. As soon as we get the pics, I will post one.
Sean and Jeff were feeling a little left out of the family fun so they decided to have their own fun. A little silly don't you think?
Everyone took a little break and decided to come in for dessert, we had strawberry shortcake. Strawberries won't be in season here for another few months but these were good with a little help of some sugar and whipped cream.
There is still some daylight left so we are off to the park.