Mom's golfing debut! Ha! Ha!

WARNING!!! Lots of pictures!

David took me to our local driving range here in Orting. He was so sweet and so helpful!
David did very well! He said that he had not hit any golf balls for a few years. Really? They sure went flying!

He also hit some right off the green! He hit 200 yards!

He has good form, at least I think so!

I have to tell you that doing it with the Wii is nothing like holding an actual golf club!

Look at that form! Awesome! Ha! Ha! Trying to think about your form, looking at the ball and then swinging. Am I that coordinated???

This was the 'easy' part!

Concentrate! Concentrate!

And whoosh! I missed the ball! That happened several times!

I liked hitting it off the green! :o)

Great form! And....

Oh gee! Look where the 'tee' is and look at the newly dug hole to the right! Ha! Ha! Ha! I only did that once!

This is what the grass looked like when we arrived and pretty much the same when we left! I hit some balls that actually bounced off or ricocheted off some balls out there! I almost made it to the red flag! I had 2 that actually went between the red and yellow flags! :o)

My handsome son David! We enjoyed our hour of fun!

Thank you David for taking me! Thank you all for the great birthday gift!
That was a lot of fun and I think I will do that again. We brought 3 of Dad's irons, 1,3,5.

My high Wii golf score was 190! On the driving range...hmm...needs a lot of work!

A Surprise Visit! :o)

Guess who came to visit us this week?
They arrived in their 38-foot Class A motor home!

My brother Doug and his wife Jan! They loved getting reacquainted with Kirsten!

It was so great having them visit! We really enjoyed having them! They are on their way back to New Mexico where they live.

Birthdays! Celebrate!

Dad and I celebrated our birthdays this past week. Our clever kids gave us each a 'special and unique' gift! "THANKS!" :o)

Dad is going 'up, up and away!' He will come back! He gets to go on a 'hot air balloon ride! Woo hoo! (Mom is keeping her feet firmly 'on the ground' as she gets vertigo!)

Mom is going to go to the 'Driving Range'! Woo hoo! We'll see if all that Wii Golf did any good!
I justed turned the big '60'! Woo hoo! I feel terrific about it! :o)

Two great gifts from our very wonderful kids!

Mom got this for her birthday! Can't wait to read it!

Fall is in the air...around the house!

I recently purchased this tractor and scarecrow and 'repainted' it and the wagon as I was not fond of the blah color it was. I should have taken a 'before and after' picture but I didn't think of it!

I also got these cute tumbling scarecrows.

Both were birthday presents to myself! :o) I have some small ceramic pumpkins to add in the mix but I have to locate them!

A little more of the 'fall' around the house.

... and a little more fall!

... and just a bit more!

One more final shot at this recently finished manger. I'm still working on my photography skills, and ongoing process...forever!

Tah Dah! It's finished!

I painted this manger puzzle for Michelle. This past summer, in May and June, I was in Utah and Julie painted my manger pieces for me. I painted both the stables. We didn't have time to paint Michelle's pieces so I brought her manger set home to finish.

Julie is so good at painting! I felt a little nervous painting Michelle's pieces. I'm glad I had Julie's talents to lean on-the finished manger set she did for me. I would not have attempted painting Michelle's without having Julie's!

I don't take great pictures. It's not the camera. It's the 'me' behind the camera!

I hope Michelle won't be embarrassed to put this on display in her home.

I tried my best. I have arthritis in my fingers so I don't have the fine tuned motor skills I once had. I am getting new glasses this week, so I hope I saw the finer details on these figures. I did enjoy doing the project! I'll be sending it to her in a week or so. I want to be sure the pieces are cured and really dry!

I got a little more confident as I finished each piece. I hope she will enjoy it!

With love,

Mom ♥

...a funny thing happened...

This is Hamilton Beach's Immersion Blender. I LOVE IT! Since Kirsten no longer eats foods and everything goes through her G-tube this blender is a life saver! Chris and Michelle have one and use it all the time. I saw them use it this past summer while I was visiting there. I came home and bought one. I had it for a month before I used it. What was I waiting for?!!!
It's fabulous! I make Kirsten smoothies with it.

We think Kirsten is lactose and soy intolerant. No more Ensure Plus. I actually bought the Walmart brand Equate Plus, same exact ingredients as Ensure Plus and $3 cheaper! She's been on it for several years. A few months ago her seizure medication was bumped up and unfortunately she has a total of 700mg of seizure medication per day. Her neurologist thinks with the increased medication she's now taking it may be upsetting her stomach and may cause her to be lactose and soy intolerant. Well after all her other specialists ran thorough tests to see why she's always throwing up and found 'nothing' they still don't agree she's lactose and soy intolerant. Well I decided to side with the neurologist and took Kirsten off of all lactose and soy products, thus no more Equate Plus. Kirsten stopped throwing up! I won't go into the long dialogue of what we give her now.

A funny thing happened last night....it was funny!
Everyone knows how I 'hate messes'. Last night Kirsten was sitting next to her dad watching tv and I was giving Kirsten a g-tube feed with a smoothie that included liquified green beans. Sometimes the smoothies are thick and hard to push through the tube and so I really pushed hard on the syringe and 'pop' the side valve spurted a nice thick spray of light green juice onto Kirsten and onto Neil's glasses and face. Oops! On the flip side, I came out unscathed! :o) It was such a surprise to Neil he grinned through splotted glasses. Well I discovered I 'forgot' to open to clamp on the tube so naturally the built up pressure caused the side valve to open and 'sprayed' goop everywhere!

Today I walked by the hall and saw a large area of light green droplets all over the wall. Hmm, I thought, how in the world did that get there? Light bulb went on...oh, the accident from last night! I scrubbed the wall down and laughed while doing so. Just recalling the incident from last night made me laugh all over again! By the way, Neil and Kirsten had to change clothes due to the 'droplets' they received! Good times! Had to laugh! :o)

Cute little mommy! :o)

We just got this picture yesterday. This is Doug's wife Ashley. Their baby is due Nov 25th. She's ALL baby! Ashley is tiny and I hope she doesn't have to have a c-section, but if it's to be, that's okay. She's so cute with her cute little baby bump! This will grandchild #12 for grandpa and grandma.

Happy Roses & A Baker's Dozen!

Exciting news!!! David and Angela are 'expecting' a sweet babe May 2, 2011! This picture was taken at a recent family reunion this past July. This was totally 'unplanned' and quite a surprise to them and all of us! This will make a 'baker's dozen' for grandpa and I, grandchild #13! 13 has always been a lucky number for both David and myself! Congratulations to David and Angela! I asked if he was hoping for a boy or a girl, knowing they would be happy with either. He said that it really didn't matter, they were excited! Angela is feeling a little yucky these days, no fun there!

The next four pictures are of some of my 'yard friends' in my front yard.

I brought these raccoons from my other house we sold.

He reminds me of one of the 7 dwarfs.

This one is sitting on a ladybug and has a spring and can 'bob'.

This is a grandpa gnome and granddaughter.

My neighbor and friend down the street from us says that my roses are....'happy roses!' They almost reach the each of the roof! They are a little taller than Neil!

A front view of our house with the roses on the right and on the left.

This tree has tons of flowers that resemble a carnation. It starts blooming in July and goes to early October! Once in awhile a hummingbird visits the tree. One day I was looking out the window and a green hummingbird actually 'stopped' its wings and rested and drank from a flower for about 10 seconds! It's the first time I ever saw a hummingbird not moving its wings! About two weeks ago I was outside watering my plants and heard this low buzzing and I stopped knowing I better not move and slowly looked around and there was a hummingbird in mid-flight hovering for about 3 seconds and looked at me, since I was in front of his favorite flowering tree, then flew off! What a treat!

BEFORE - My little flowerbed. Taken in mid-June.

AFTER - taken in late August. This picture isn't the best. I should have taken this picture two weeks ago when the red and yellow snapdragons were big and gorgeous and the dahlia's on the right were loaded in flowers!