Gratitude Journals-My grandchildren

Tyler and Lauren's Gratitude Journals

McKenna & Brooklynn's Gratitude Journals

A page from McKenna's journal.

A page from Tyler's journal.

I did a 30 day project with my grandchildren that were old enough to understand about being thankful for things. Each day for one month I had them write '3' things that they were grateful for. In turn each day I sent them '3' things that I was thankful for. If I were to do this again I would only ask them to write '2' things they were thankful for. It's kind of hard to think of '3' things everyday. It's not hard for an adult.

It was a fun project and I looked forward each day reading an email from them. Some have completed their 30 days and some it is a work in progress. I told their parents that I would type up all their entries and make up a journal for them and send it to them for a keepsake. I typed them just like they wrote them, no spell check or punctuation. They were precious the way they were! I hope they will save them and read them 5 years from now! That will be fun for them! :o)

Holy Mole Hills! :o0

This is a picture of Spearmint Gum with one stick outside the package. The package holds 15 pieces. On the left side of the box of gum is a very small mole hill. That is because the larger side is on my neighbor's side of our fence.


When we moved into our home last October there were two large mole hills along the dirt berm by the backyard fence. I never bothered them. The mounds would get large, but they didn't seem to multiply.

Over the winter the two mole hills went away. I flattened them and they didn't come back. However, this past week two new ones popped up. Hmmm. My neighbor said that he has not had moles in his front yard until recently. He thinks they came from his neighbor on the other side of his home. Well, I think they migrated into my backyard! This next door neighbor went away for 4 days and asked if I would take care of all their outside hanging plants, 22 of them. I was happy to serve!

My niece Angela Kenner said that using Spearmint gum helps get rid of moles; she had first hand experience with success. So I put a stick of gum in both mole holes. Well yesterday I went out to check on things and whoa! I had '8' new small mole mounds! Holy mole hills! I guess they didn't care for the Spearmint gum as they moved 10 feet farther down the fence line away from the gum! So I put a stick of gum in each of the 8 holes and covered them back up. I sort of flattened the dirt so if any new ones popped up I could tell which were the new ones.

Today I went out there and 'no new mounds.' However, I did notice that the neighbor had '2' that must be on his side of our fence and the small mounds crested onto our side. I will watch and see if they grow bigger on my side and put 'more gum' out there. I'm going to have to buy another pack of gum. I only have 5 sticks left! I sure hope I won't need anymore! I guess it is true...moles don't like Spearmint gum! :o)

Grandma Valdine's new picket fence!

Grandma Valdine's home with her new picket fence.

Another view of the fence.

One more view.

Kirsten's favorite place to be---in her Grandma's lap! :o)

We went down to Oregon for the 4th of July weekend. Jordan and Lisa had a special occasion. Jordan blessed Adelaide at church today. Adelaide was good for the most part. She is sooo sweet! Jordan gave her a beautiful blessing.

Kirsten always gets so excited whenever we go down to Oregon. Kirsten just loves her Grandma Valdine soooo much! It's her most favorite place to be! :o)

Grandma got a new picket fence! We had taken part of our picket fence out along one side of our backyard. The developer told Neil he could have the picket fence at the model home just across the street from us as he liked how we were having a taller backyard fence put in and he wanted them to match. Neil took out both lengths of picket fence and took them down to Oregon.

Out with the old rail fence and in with the almost new picket fence! It was only 6 months old.

Scott, Neil's brother, hired a college student working a summer job at PGE to install and paint the picket fence. When Neil took the fence out, it got a few scratches and where he dug out the posts, it needed repainting. The young man Scott hired didn't have quite enough fence to finish along the side yard and had to buy materials and build the last section. He installed and repainted the entire fence. He did a wonderful job! Grandma's fence is beautiful and she loves it! She's already had several people stop by and tell her how nice it looks. Grandma wanted the corner left with the ivy covered brick. When they had the other rail fence in several people had backed into that corner and Darrell used to have to repair it. He fixed that problem by putting brick there. I like the green colored ivy there. It looks nice.

If you notice, Grandma's roses and Rhodie plants looks so nice. Neil had cut the Rhodie's back quite far. They were just too huge. They are coming along nicely and next Spring she should have some beautiful blooming Rhodies! They will be much more manage to trim.

My Beautiful Roses!

This is the right side of the front entry. Everything has grown so nicely! In the middle is my small lilac tree. It is filling out and growing nicely. Next year everything will be even bigger!

This is the left side of the front entry. I love it! Three months ago everything was sparse. Now look at it! :o)

This is the varigated dark pink and white. It's grown a lot! It has over 30 roses to bloom! Yes, they all get Miracle Grow twice a month. :o)

When I bought my four roses bushes they weren't any bigger than 12 inches high. I took a picture with the gate so that you could see just how big this one bush has grown! It comes up to my chest! I'm 5'8" tall! It has over 50 roses to bloom! See what Miracle Grow can do?!

This is the cherry tree-amost 2 mos. later and it's bigger!

This is the peach tree-almost two months later. Much bigger!

Neil bought these two fruit trees back in March. This picture was take one month later. The one on the left is a cherry tree and the one of the right is a peach tree.

I love my front yard going up to the front door. Everything has filled out so nicely. It was so sparse when we first planted everything. I had taken almost everything out the development put in and gave it all to David and Angela. I have to admit my roses bushes are struggling with white mildew. Any suggestions? I've been trying the diluted soapy water spray and it's okay but it could be better. The blooms are gorgeous!

The grass is much greener now that I've fertilized both the front and back yard. The grass is baby soft under your feet. :o) The rain helped a lot. That wonderful nitrogen that only mother nature dispenses so nicely. Now were going into another hot spell and I've got to start watering again!

Dad and his Pole Peas

The finished product, or vegetable!

Finally ready to pick!


Growing taller!

Getting their first blooms.

This is the 'hard labor' of dad's pea patch!

We live in a housing development with strict covenants. You cannot have raised garden beds or garden beds in your yards. We have this one-foot wide dirt berm along the backyard fence. Dad put these cinder blocks in the low part of the corner of the yard. It was just a low spot and the fence was half a foot high over the low spot. He decided to plant peas in the blocks. He watered them and watched over them like a good farmer. He got excited when they started to grow above the bricks. After awhile he kind of lost interest.

I would report to him everyday their progress and have him look out the patio windows. When he mowed the back yard he would look at them. It came time for harvesting some of the pea pods. I picked 10 pea pods for him. His comment: "That's a lot of lot work for just a handful of peas. You'd have to grow a lot of plants to get a good harvest!"

Well, it was fun growing them. I doubt that dad will grow peas there next summer. :o)

Kirsten Goes Fishing! We got one!

This is the trout ready to go into the oven. It was yummy!


This is a trout that we caught. It was about 14 inches long. The head has been cut off. The U-Fish place cut off the head and gutted the fish for us.

They had a pen and this male peacock was 'protecting' his brood of hens! Stay away!

This is mom and Kirsten. Her friend Sammy is standing next to me. She is funny!

This is mom and Kirsten and I'm waiting to catch my fish. They had a small pond jammed full of trout! The biggest one was about the size I caught - 14 inches. They had bigger fish in other ponds but you had to pay for those! In the background next to that red building by the window is Miss Rice. She was Kirsten's tutor this winter. She is soo sweet!

The young man next to me works at the U-Fish and his name was Andy. He was helping me with my fish.

If you look really close down by my knees you can see my fish on the line! Kirsten was sooo excited!

Kirsten is looking down into the bucket watching her fish splashing around ! She loved watching it!

This is Kirsten smiling about her fish that is next to her. You can't see the fish, but it is in the bucket. I think this is a great picture of Kirsten. She is smiling so happy! It really captured her feelings about this outing!

We are getting ready to leave. I walked her around the pond where we caught her fish.

Kirsten's class went to a U-Fish about 5 minutes from where we live. It was free and the kids had a great time. They went fishing this past Monday, June 15th. Kirsten's teacher, Mrs. Cynthia Noser, took all the pictures. I forgot my camera at home. I had it sitting on the counter by my purse, but left it at home. Drats! The class had a great time. Kirsten really enjoyed herself! I was so glad I took her! :o)

Retraction - error in statement on Bates Sibling Reunion

OOOPS!
I made a side note that on June 5, 2009 was a special day for Doug and Jan Bates as it was their 41st anniversary. Well, I'm sitting here typing journal entries for a 30-day project I'm doing from June 12 to July 11th. I realize, hmmm, July 5th. Oops!

My retraction-
It was NOT Doug and Jan's anniversary after all, my mistake! It WILL BE their anniversary on July 5th. Gayle and Darlene's anniversary will be July 2nd. Sorry for the error! :o/