Goodbye Norma Jean....

Last night I was singing "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" and Ally started questioning me, saying that cats were a girl's best friend and not diamonds. I found the Marilyn Monroe rendition on YouTube to show Ally. There is also a video of footage taken before Marilyn Monroe died, with Paul Simon's song playing in the background. I was so inspired to write a "Goodbye Rooster Boys", as our roosters are no longer with us. I'll have to include a line or two about how Chip the dog licked Rooster Sam to death before he de-feathered him. And then for Rooster Agape, how my dad put him in a cat carrier and we agreed to not ask any questions upon his return as to the whereabouts of above said rooster. I'll work on the song a bit, and then get back to you.....

Katie is now a decade old!

On November 12th, Katie turned 10! And what better than to have 10 donuts with 10 candles! (Grams was in town, so donuts was the obvious choice!) That evening we went to The Cheesecake Factory and celebrated with mom and dad. It was so fun to have them here! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE!!!!

Yorba Linda Fires

This was the view from our house. At this point I got into the car to see how close it was, not knowing whether we needed to start packing things up. It was still a couple of miles away at this point. Scary times.

Look What We Found In Our Rose Garden...

It appears that the gardener (which we don't have anymore) planted a pumpkin seed in our rose garden and did it ever GROW!!! I never would have imagined that a pumpkin vine could have thrived in such conditions. But because of his kindness, we now have a really cool pumpkin on our doorstep...and two more on their way. Happy Harvest to YOU!

Family Fun Friday

Guess what my family is doing right now as we speak?  Ally talked Scott into setting up the tent tonight in our backyard.  So, we have a tent on our patio.  Scott also got the firepit out and the lot of them ate ooey gooey s'mores.  Ally wanted to brush her teeth outside, too, but we weren't willing to go that far.  So much for a good night's sleep in my own bed tonight.  Ahh, the great outdoors.  

First Day of School

Here they are...all ready for 4th and 2nd grade. It's so amazing that they're growing so. Sigh.

Just like on the rez...

It was all mom's idea. She said that on the rez, the people just take things that they're trying to get rid of and put them on the backs of their cars and drive off. We pulled out the carpet from our dining and livingroom. We just needed to get rid of it. Thankfully our neighbor is doing some construction on his house and he has a dumpster. He said that we could put some of the carpet inside. So....I suggested that we pile it on the van and then I would drive down the street very slowly. Success! (But we did get some concerned looks from the other neighbors!)

Happy 4th of July

Look at all of these lemons, just waiting for their turn to realize their reason for existence....Lemonade! We've got a whole lot of squeezing to do before the neighborhood bbq. I still am trying to figure out how to keep the tofu from falling through the slats of the grill. Oh, to be a vegetarian on the 4th of July!

We've got chicks!

We went to the feed store on Tuesday to get some chicken feed. We left with more than chicken feed. We left with a purchase of three baby chicks. The girls are so excited. So, please welcome Sammy, Sarah and Madeline. Oh...and the preschool teacher at school was giving away some chicks that they had hatched in class. We welcomed Agape and Blondie into the brood on Thursday. Yahoo for little chickies!

Ouch!

This is what happens when you go to the dermatologist because you have a spot on your chin that you're concerned with. I started a 4 week treatment with a topical cream that is supposed to destroy the precancerous cells. If the skin is normal, there is no reaction. I think that I had some bad cells. The bottom part looks worse because it started cracking today so I put some aloe vera on it to help relieve the pain. Aloe seems to make it a couple of shades darker. It's very painful. Sigh. I just wanted you to see what everyone else is seeing. :)

Ally has holes in her ears

Katie and I surprised Ally on the day before Easter and took her to get her ears pierced. She was soooo excited! She made it the 6 long weeks, and we got to put in different earrings last week. Woo-hoo!

She's a runner...

What more can I say? :)

Freckles and Teeth

What more can I say? :)

Ice Cream in Old Town Albuquerque

Just a cute pic of the ice cream sisters. The picture was yummier than the actual ice cream. I guess that New Mexicans aren't that big on eating ice cream in the dead of winter. Bizarre!

What's wrong with this picture?

Chip is a very smart dog. I'm not really sure exactly how he did it, but he did.