So yesterday

I planned to chronicle my 63 years with pictures of me down through the ages. Did not actually have 63 I could post, but could have come pretty close. A couple of things made that impossible.
#1. I was doing my shift with my mother when she began acting oddly. I called my sister to tell her and she suggested I take her BP. It was much higher than normal and her pulse rate was high too. I called the Aid Car and they made the decision she needed to be transported. All the while we are thinking dehydration cause it has been terribly hot here in the Pacific Northwest. We have been pumping her full of water and I had bought Gator Aide so she would have the electrolytes she needed too. It turns out after spending the day in the ER and millions of tests later, she had had a small stroke. Apparently she has had others, but we were not aware of them. I am so thankful "O" care has not been instituted yet, cause we would have probably been told to take her home and let her die cause after all she is 88 years old. As it is, she is at her primary care Dr. right now having other tests done. Will let you know results once we get them.
#2. My desk top computer is dead!!! I cannot post from there now, but fortunately, I can post from my lovely lap top birthday computer. But............all of my pictures are on my desk top. I can still get on it to take my pictures off, I just cannot get online from there.
I do want to thank all of you for your kind Birthday wishes. It makes me feel so loved:) Sorry about the pictures though. I know you would have loved seeing me in my bell bottom pants and my cat eye glasses!

Happy Birthday to me!!

It is the Happiest Place on Earth, it really is!!!

So, they are backwards and I do not want to reload. For some reason, I cannot get them to move position once they are posted so here they are from the bottom up.

Our first day entering the park. Do we all look excited?

Meeting the characters is really what it is about.
Entering California Adventure, under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Baking a cake with Goofy in his kitchen. Breakfast is good, but if you do it, be prepared to separate yourself and your wallet of $100.00 plus for four.

Abby and Elizabeth standing in the center of the courtyard between Disney Land and California Adventure.

It truly is a happy place. Sometimes overwhelming to the little ones, but they even love all of the fantasy of it. It is a day of walking and watching. Lines and fun rides or great autographs, coming back to our condo for lunch, a dip in the pool, and a nap before we attack the park again for the afternoon and then returning to the condo at 11:30 or 12:00, grabbing a quick eat and falling into bed to wake and repeat the next day.

This year the park was not as full as in previous years. Good for us because the lines were not to long. The longest one was Splash Mountain.

Gotta go get some money into the bank for 2012, I am sure it will cost much more by then. I saved all of my receipts so I can compare.

I feel like a contest

Where am I

I will decide later how to choose a winner:)
And what the wonderful homemade prize will be!

Down Hwy 1 in California

After we left San Francisco, we caught Highway 1 in Monterey. I had been down it years ago, but did not remember what a twisty windy road it was. It is full of drop offs and hairpin turns. Breathtaking and beautiful as well as frightening. Sometimes compounded by some woman who crept down the road at 25mph and all but stopped to inch her way around the curves in the road. After following her for a good half hour with no safe opportunity to pass her, she must have finally looked in her rearview mirror and saw the line of cars behind her because she finally inched her way into one of the pull outs along the road.
The Elephant Seals were some of the most grotesque animals I have ever laid eyes on. They stank too.

Shortly after this, we headed east and caught 101 so we could travel a little faster. What we saw on 1 was amazing and beautiful though. We arrived in Anaheim that evening at about nine P.M. It was shower and straight to bed sw we could rise bright and early to visit the Happiest Place on Earth in the morning.

My New Blog.

A year ago, I began blogging. Just fluff and family fun. In the interim, our world began to go to hell in a handbasket. There were so many issues I could not avoid confronting, that I began making that the focus of my blog. I think there are people who are only interested in fluff, they will let the world explode around them and then pick up the pieces and ask what happened. I cannot do that, I must have a forum for what is happening. In that vein, I made the decision to begin my new blog, Gramma's Right Again. It is here that I will post all of my rants and on my other blog, I will dedicate it to the fluff of life.I hope that some of my readers will be willing to follow me on both of my blogs, but if you choose to read only one or the other, I hope to see you at at least one of them.

A destination on our trip

Both on the way South and North, is Ashland Oregon. It is the very last town before you cross over into California or the first town coming north. There is a park in the very heart of the town called Lithia Springs park. It is clean shady and very restful. I always time my trip so we can stop for a rest and lunch as we travel south, usually dinner on the way north. The biggest draw though is the stream. It is shallow, clean and oh so much fun!
One of the highlights of the trip. You see it is not all about Disneyland. We will get there eventually though.

The 10 Commandments According to

By Patriot Update

© 2009 The Patriot Update. Feel free to circulate this article, but please link / give credit to The Patriot Update.
After observing Obama on the campaign trail and during his first six months in office, we have concluded that our President lives and governs according to his own set of “Ten Commandments.” They’re certainly NOT the Ten Commandments you learned in Sunday School. In fact, many are the direct opposite! To prove that our conclusions are correct, you will find a link to source documentation for each commandment on the Patriot Update web site.
I. Thou shalt have no God in America, except for me. For we are no longer a Christian nation and, after all, I am the chosen One. (And like God, I do not have a birth certificate.) SOURCE
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, unless it is my face carved on Mt. Rushmore. SOURCE
III. Thou shalt not utter my middle name in vain (or in public). Only I can say Barack Hussein Obama. SOURCE
IV. Remember tax day, April 15th, to keep it holy. SOURCE
V. Honour thy father and thy mother until they are too old and sick to care for. They will cost our public-funded health-care system too much money. SOURCE
VI. Thou shalt not kill, unless you have an unwanted, unborn baby. For it would be an abomination to punish your daughter with a baby. SOURCE
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery if you are conservative or a Republican. Liberals and Democrats are hereby forgiven for all of their infidelity and immorality, but the careers of conservatives will be forever destroyed. SOURCE
VIII. Thou shalt not steal, until you've been elected to public office. Only then is it acceptable to take money from hard-working, successful citizens and give it to those who do not work, illegal immigrants, or those who do not have the motivation to better their own lives. SOURCE
IX. Thou shalt not discriminate against thy neighbor unless they are conservative, Caucasian, or Christian. SOURCE
X. Thou shalt not covet because it is simply unnecessary. I will place such a heavy tax burden on those that have achieved the American Dream that, by the end of my term as President, nobody will have any wealth o

Asked

to carry a

to the

Do you suppose because he knows he is dying, he was asking for absolution for murdering Mary Jo K? After so many years, I think he would need it from the Pope.

Speaking of dying, why doesn't he just follow the example they want all of us to follow and quit seeking further medical care and just go die?

Didn't he whose name I will not repeat just make a statement saying we have to know when to pull the plug and not be a drain on society? Not verbatum, but the idea. Kennedy could just be an example for us.

It is part of the Disney Tradition

I have a picture of us doing Splash Mountain every year except one. That year we put it off to long and everyone was tired and cranky. When we got there, the line was to long also. I am very sorry I do not have that one to fill in my album now. On the very first ride, second and third too, I had my eyes closed and I truly thought I had screamed my last scream and breathed my last breath. Even though it doesn't look like it, I am able to keep my eyes open now.

In this picture, Gina is stooped over because Elizabeth wanted to be in the front to get wet, she was to small. I know I have pictures of small children in the front other years. Must be a new rule. Abby was terrified and insisted I hold on to her. My left arm is around her waist. I wanted to go again to try to get a better picture, but Abby would not even talk about it.

s

ObamaHandshakeSnubbed

What gives here. Is it overt racism or is there something more sinister afoot?

The Salad we had with Julie and her family

The Ingredients

The finished product.

Inspiration from Taste of Home 2009 Annual Recipes. Page 255

Cherry Chicken Salad on Croissants.

2 1/2 Cup cubed cooked chicken breast.

I cooked 4 halves. Made 3 cups, oh well, add it all. Waste not want not.

2/3 cup dried cherries.

Used cherries when I made the recipe in Cali. Did not have any here at home so substituted dried cranberries. Fresh grapes would probably be good too. I actually liked the cherries better than the cranberries.

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/3 cup chopped tart apple

I used Pink Lady. 1/2 of an apple = 1/2 cup Used it.

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

I do not like pecans, substituted almonds.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Since I used larger portions of ingredients, I used a little more mayonnaise.

4 teaspoons buttermilk

Who keeps buttermilk in their house? Not me and I was not about to buy any for 4 teaspoons. Omitted it.

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

7 croissants, split

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, dried cherries, celery apple and pecans. In another bowl, combine the mayonnaise, buttermilk, salt and pepper; add to the chicken mixture and mix well. Spoon 1/2 cup chicken salad onto each croissant. Yield, 7 servings.

Los Angeles (Anaheim) here we come.

One of the highlights of our trip was stopping in Sacramento and meeting Frizzy and her family, Bird and Yaya as well as her parents. We had pizza and swam in her parents swimming pool. Had to drag the girls from it so we could get back on the road. Frizzy and Bird just returned from a trip to Europe. You can read all about it on her blog.

In Anaheim, we also met another blog family. This time it was Julie and her husband Marshall and their children. We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool at the condo and then came in for Chicken Salad sandwhiches. So good, will have to share the recipe sometime soon. Sorry I did not get any good pool pictures of this afternoon, but everyone had a good time. Sadly, Ginas' camera was stolen while we were at the pool. How can anyone be so cruel? And if it was taken accidentely, why was it not turned in once they realized it was not theirs. I just do not understand.

What fun to put faces and personalities to the people you talk to on a daily basis.

Gina, the girls and I truly enjoyed ourselves. Hope the experience was as good for the others.
Hope we are able to connect again. Our home is always open if you are up this way.

COUCH IN THE ROAD The final chapter

The damage.

The repair.

The end.

I promise an update on my trip, but I could not let this pass When will it ever end?

here we go again!In health bill, billions for parks, pathsWASHINGTON - Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. Tucked within is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets.The add-ons - characterized as part of a broad effort to improve the nation’s health “infrastructure’’ - appear in House and Senate versions of the bill.Critics argue the provision is a thinly disguised effort to insert pork-barrel spending into a bill that has been widely portrayed to the public as dealing with expanding health coverage and cutting medical costs. A leading critic, Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, ridicules the local projects, asking: “How can Democrats justify the wasteful spending in this bill?’’But advocates, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, defend the proposed spending as a necessary way to promote healthier lives and, in the long run, cut medical costs. “These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants,’’ said Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee whose healthcare bill includes the projects.“If improving the lighting in a playground or clearing a walking path or a bike path or restoring a park are determined as needed by a community to create more opportunities for physical activity, we should not prohibit this from happening,’’ Coley said in a statement.Continue reading. <http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/07/09/in_health_bill_billions_for_parks_paths/> There was no word as to whether Sen Kennedy's spokesman was actually able to keep a straight face while making this statement.

One last thought!

Sorry Mom, I just couldn't help myself! Hey fairy followers head on over to Candarbrygarden.blogspot.com to see what is happening next!

Fairies, NOT Angels!

Tonight started out innocent enough. Sis and I were having dinner in the garden.

The neighbor boys came out and asked if they could join us.

So we moved the table to the common area of Evy's yard.

Then more neighbors came out and joined us.

And then a few more. Everyone brought food, and we were having a good old time.

Someone brought beers... And then the hard stuff came out!

Every one was feeling pretty good.

One of the guys ran home and got his guitar, so we all started singing.

Some better than others!

And some worse than others! By the end of the evening, everyone was feeling pretty happy.

BUT THEN....
...

...

...

...

I think it is time for this party to end.

Don't worry, Evy we will have it all cleaned up before you get home.

Drive safe, and this time, watch out for these!

COUCH IN THE ROAD!

Tee. hee.hee.

Tee Hee Hee!

Oops! Sorry, guess our warning was too late!

Very Busy Days

Friday, my sis and I found all kinds of reasons to be outside.
We worked in the flower beds, we finished the laundry, we even washed the car again.

When the new neighbors came out to work in thier yard, we introduced ourselves.
We made plans to show them around town on Saturday.

Saturday morning, we took them to a farmers market. This one has the freshest fruits.

A little shopping for household items, We loved the store called

"Favorite Pasttimes". It is owned by Evy's friend Marian Ferguson.

We found all kinds of pretty things for our own cottage.

More shopping, the parade was about to start, so we went and wandered through the town.

The guys were pretty impressed by the John Deere club.

There were tractors from the early 1900's.

Only in a small town does the parade include tractors, fire trucks,

and the high school football team!

This one caught sissy's Eye!

It is Independence day after all.

You ARE supposed to thank those who dedicate thier lives to protecting our freedoms!

We met these girls at the pizza picnic. They are the children of the pastor of THE COMMONS.

We found a great seat to watch the parade! Now, if only they served chips and salsa out here!

It was really hot and we stood in the street watching the parade for hours! So of course we had to stop for a drink at "Three Peas In A Pod". (I am the designated driver).


After the parade, we relaxed until the sun went down. We were able to watch the fireworks from Evy's neighborhood. Many of her neighbors were lighting them off, and we did get a little worried because of all the bottle rockets landing near our houses. But everything survived!

OOH! WOW! COOL!

Oh, and Gina and Evy, Couch In The Road!