January Ramblings....

For those of you who think I can only post pictures of grandchildren.....

AAAHHH! Is this really January? Or did we miss 4 months and it's really April... I noticed my friends haven't posted since Christmas so I thought I'd let you know they're still alive and well....and moving to another site! 

Here's Garys new home -the shed on site#529! Nice digs, Gary

This is what it looks like when you're moving. You have to really, really, want that new site...

Of course, moving also means thinning out, getting rid of, and shifting a whole bunch of stuff.  

And here's why they're moving..

This will be their view outside their living room..beautiful, yes?

This will be Mittens' new hunting grounds...

Possible deck here....

Who knows why I took this...

My friend, Jeanne, came down from WA to get some seratonin... She's a former member of Park Sierra and moved north to be closer to her daughter and granddaughter. But sunny California is something you don't get out of your system easily. She's lapping up the rays on a late afternoon-in short sleeves, on my deck IN JANUARY!!

We played cards for hours, reminisced, and promised to meet up in the desert in March. Hope my hands are in shape for another marathon Minnesota Canasta!

Construction Day

The man team, John and JH

weather stripping on the steps to no one will slip...

Beautiful low voltage lights around the deck and down the ramp....

The Piece de Resistance! My new sink...I'm going to organize a dishwashing party-bring your own and wash your own dishes

The girl team-Kris and C

JH and C were invited to my neighbors'  house for cookies and See's suckers..

JH likes my neighbors

No rest for the construction team...

Of course, emptying the truck was a full team job!

I always have a "to do" list for Kris, and this goes back to forever! I wanted to change the kind of sink I had in the park trailer. She wanted to confer with her boss/partner John for the best approach and that was the perfect excuse to invite the whole family up to visit. While they were here he and Kris conferred about other tasks and arranged their schedules so they could come and spend a whole day doing various jobs. JC and C came, too. The results? A new sink (I LOVE it!) ambient, low voltage lighting around the deck and down the ramp (no excuse for tripping now!), weather stripping for the steps to the deck and better lighting in the shed. These guys are so awesome-that list was completed in one day! i'm so blessed....

The Grandmother's Club

One of my goals this year is to get more involved in my community-expanding outside of Park Sierra. The Grandmothers Club was formed in the late 1940s, probably to have a place for women to meet and socialize. later, a mobile home park was developed (in Arroyo Grande) and an apartment complex right here in Coarsegold. The Grandmothers' Village has a lovely clubhouse where the Coarsegold chapter meet. This Chapter has been working on reducing their debt and will have paid the mortgage off by June this year. They are a lovely group of women (and some honorary men and angels who might not have grand children)  who invited me to join. I will be "installed" next month.  There are many chapters around CA, all having local projects and social activities. I'm looking forward to participating!

Opening the meeting includes the Pledge of Allegiance, Officer roll call, and a short prayer

Of course, after the business meeting, lunch is served!

Some folks stay and play cards after lunch.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All! Patterson was filled with joy and excitement-especially when viewed from the eyes of a three year old. 

This is our Holiday table..Kris prepares her  now famous prime rib and all the family attends. 

The scarf story-everybody-even Allyson and Kennedy- had a new scarf made by Grammy

The best present for Sandi and Kris  was their new carpeting-installed on Christmas Eve Day!

One of C's best gifts from Santa was a whole box of otter pops! The top two gifts that brought the most excitement were an electric toothbrush and play dough.

New jammies and favorite patent leather shoes made a perfect Christmas!

Christmas Cookies!

It's that time of year-the annual cookie decorating party. Little C was so excited she just stood and screamed-she told her Oma  (that's grandma in German) on the phone that her friends were coming to her party-and they were going to decorate cookies!  

Here's phase one-all the decorations were laid out in the middle of the table so the dogs couldn't get them.

Grammy showed how to outline

That's JH on little C's left, and C on the right

K is the best Santa's helper you could find! She's getting the sugar cookies ready to put in the oven.

And here's the superb results-bet you can't eat just one! 

So, there were so many choices....colored icing, candies, and piping.

This is K-she has many talents besides cooking the cookies.

And after hours of decorating, a lunch of  clam chowder in a bread bowl, we all settled down for a movie. It was a great day and we all agreed to do it again next year!

Road Trip

I had the task and privilege of delivering the crazy quilt to Cecile (for details and pictures of the quilt go to tolewoman.blogspot.com). Barb Ely and I met Cecile at the Fresh Choice in Gilroy, had a great lunch lots of chatter and caught up on the news before we parted ways. It was great to Cecile-the Thompsons will be back home around the 28th. 

Cecile, Barb and me-we're all smiling 'cause we're full!

Barb doesn't have redeye from the camera-she blew a blood vessell, maybe from reading.

Cecile is tired and sore-doing box office business selling trees. Prices range from $40.00 (table model) to $299.00! What recession? 

I had the Thompson's mail and a goodie bag for Christmas as well as the quilt, and brought some P&J boards and special delivery to Janice, the co-quilter.

Happy Thanksgiving

C is always happy but especially so when she's looking for quail. She and mommy were riding in the back-a new experience for C. 

C has her own toothbrush and paste at grammys house.

 Best part is brushing her tongue and spitting

And the fish was this big! She's so chatty it's hard to believe we were worried about her speech.

C had a lot to say to my friends Ann and Debby. Of course it was safest when close to mamma

There always seems to be chores..C didn't like the noise the blower made so she picked up leaves with the reacher.

It was a good lesson in eye hand coordination.

Mommy helped blow the leaves off the deck 

Naturally, we had to have corn dogs after all that work! C is sharing hers with me. I had to save myself for all that leftover turkey in the fridge. 

It was a beautiful afternoon so we all ate outside

Thanksgiving week was a busy one for me...First my friends Scott and Debby came down from Camano Island, WA to celebrate the feast with their son Jeremy who had a big announcement-he's engaged! S&D are very excited for them. I'm excited because they might  be living here within a couple of years, and I can hardly wait! 

Then, I went to dinner with my friends the Rogers and the Aitkens. We had a fine meal and left stuffed-shared a lot of good jokes, too.

Then Kris, Sandi and C came for a second day of Thanksgiving. Again, more food of course!