My Sister Marilyn

My sister Marilyn turned 84 on April 5 and this week she had her granddaughter Meagan, her husband and baby Maddie visiting them in Golden, CO.

Catching Up

I am huffing and puffing, I just went over to my neighbors fenced in yard and lifted Sadie out again.  I do not know how she is getting in but she acts like she can't get out, so I will have to put her on her leash.  I can't trust her.  I can hardly carry her, she is heavy.  Here she is doing her favorite thing, finding a sunny place to sit and peruse her little kingdom.

 

This is probably the first time since I started blogging that I have gotten so far behind in my writing.  Since I came back in late January I have been very busy cleaning up.  We had a huge wind storm and probably every inch of the yard was filled with broken branches, twigs and needles. 

 

Amazingly I was able to rake it all in piles but I had to call on Clark, the snowblower man, to put all the piles into his truck and haul them away.  It took him all day and two truck loads.  He came back another day and hauled away the big Sony TV I bought in 1997 when I was living at James' home.  It died shortly after I returned.  He also hauled away Mike's old TV that was in my bedroom.  I am keeping up the yard by doing just a little bit each day.  It is in great shape now.  I still have a lot of the branches I saved for cutting.  I need Matt to bring his chainsaw someday.  But amazingly everything is being kept up by me.

 

I replaced Mike's TV with a Samsung HD--only $200--in December.  Then I had to replace the Sony.  I took my time but had to order a stand and got a corner wooden one from Wayfair and then I eventually bought  a 46 inch from Walmart.  It looks good and I do enjoy the HD!!!

 

 

 

Then I got very interested in doing the new Family Search and was having so much trouble with the laptop I bought in 2009 I decided not to put any more money in it.  Instead I bought a desktop from Walmart.  I replaced the mouse and keyboard with Logitech and am very happy with the whole arrangement.

 

It has been a huge investment of time and brains though transferring data from one computer to the other.  I am still not finished.  I had upgraded my Microsoft Office and have been loving that.  It costs a lot of money with printer cartridges, updated equipment, etc but I am organized to where I think I can finish my projects.

 

The first project I did was to do a Mother's Day Remembrance for my Mom.  I did put it in plastic covers but the recipients will have to get their own notebooks to put it in if they want.  Here is my little office.  I try to keep it neat but it soon fills with all the different books, pictures, and files I am using until I can organize it again.

 

The last big purchase I did was to replace my mattress of 40+ years.  Thanks to a generous gift I was able to do this and pay off the other things I purchased besides.  It has been a very expensive year with the trees being felled and needing a new garage door and important things giving up and dying.  Hopefully this is the end of needing things.

I have been having such a restless time trying to sleep and I guess an advertisement made me think that my mattress could be a lot of the problem.  I first called Niagara as our bed is an adjustable bed from Niagara.  We bought it in the 70's when I was having so much problem with my back.  We bought it at the Del Mar Fair.  It was always a great place for us to listen to the pitch and take whatever great deal they were offering.  Anyway it has been a great bed but...anyway to have just one of the mattresses replaced would cost over $1000 from them.  I called Zaegles in Susanville and they have "adjustable friendly" mattresses.  The interesting thing is I replaced the two twins with one King and I love it.  The adjustable does work though I wish I had the metal restraints to hold the bottom of the mattress from slipping.  Who knows when I lost those. 

 

 

The first day Sadie and I napped for 1 1/2 hours and I did not move at all, it was so comfortable.  I have been sleeping wonderfully each night and today I napped for 3 hours as well!!! 

 

So hopefully I do not have to buy any other "biggies" and will be totally out of debt by the end of the year,  I hope.  I am not traveling, etc so should be able to do it.

My biggest problems at this time of my life is my mind not always being able to remember procedures I use in my projects and then I get so frustrated and stressed.  Also my body not being able to do the things I want to without so much fatigue or I just do not have the strength.  And not being able to eat anything and everything without paying the consequences!!  Old age is not fun.

But at least at the moment everything is "caught up" and Mary Anne and I are going to a movie tomorrow--so all is well.  Strangely, up here it is cheaper to go to the movies than to rent one from your Satellite company.

Now that my life is "caught up" I will be able to go back and finish blogging my birthday week events and catch up on the grand and great grands...
 

 

Kelsi turns 9!!!

 

The pictures say it all, Kelsi is a busy, happy, beautiful girl!!!  I used to love it when I was in RSF and little Kelsi would come and keep me company.  Such a fun girl.

 

Glendive Football Field

The new Dawson County High School football field which cost 1.3 million was featured in USA Today.  It was funded by the nephew of Carole's friend Carole Oakland.  The Oaklands own a farm on the east side of Glendive, close to the North Dakota border and evidently make millions by allowing the ND Oil companies to bury toxic waste on their land. 

 

The city needed to upgrade the track if they were going to host a special state track meet and the Oaklands volunteered to get it all ready and indeed they did.  It is beautiful.

 

I have many happy memories of that place.  It is just a block from my home in Glendive.  Carole said they do not have champion football teams like they did when I was in high school.  Coach Forest Wilson had Championship teams for many years.

New Ancestor Pictures

Recently loaded on to Family Search is the pictures of Carl Jonsson 1814 and Maria Pettersdotter 1816.  They are the parents of Fredrika Carlsdotter, wife of Carl August Anderson (my Dad's Grandfather). 

Since the temple work was originally done on them and documents are being found and submitted, there have been additionally children added who they evidently had before they were married?  Oh, if only everyone had kept journals!!!

John Gets a Puppy?

Hard to believe it has been 11 years since John passed away.  This is a picture from his 2nd Birthday but neither my sister Carole (who was there) or I can remember anything about this puppy, who brought it?, did we keep it? (I can't remember having a puppy in the UC house).  But this is a darling picture and a precious moment.  John was such an interesting and sparkly child.  Everything was fun for him.  I think at that age though trucks and such interested him more than animals.

Melissa turns 26?

Happy Birthday to Melissa on April 4th, 26???!!!  I missed it in here but sent her a birthday card!

Melissa is loving her new job at the Community college near her house.  She goes to work at 7:30 and is finished by 4:30 and knows exactly what her job is and works with lots of people and busy all the day.  So happy she is not working at home anymore!!!

She also thinks Asheville is such a great place to live, very much alive with lots of eating places and activities going on...and so beautiful.   So happy she is happy there!

Melissa is always fun to talk to and just calls to chat.  I was just looking on Instagram at her crazy cat making noises on the mirror with his paws while standing up like a person and I was laughing when she called, I told her that I think her cat needs something, not sure what, so funny.  Evidently it is his way of trying to get her attention?

She is also my go-to person for questions about my music, my computer, all that techy stuff she knows so well.

Maria and Johnny Anniversary

 

How time flies, Maria and Johnny are old married folks by now but they surely take cute pictures.  Johnny has a motorcycle and they have been driving to interesting places on the weekend, like the house behind them.

 I especially like the black and white below.

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Matt, my rock, my friend, my grandson, how I love it that Matt lives near and can  come see me sometimes.  Not a boy anymore, Matt is a man, and such a hard worker and so dependable.  We all count on Matt.  I loved that he took me back and forth and spent so much time with me on my birthday week and was always so kind to me.  Thanks, Matt for being so patient and Happy Birthday!

 

!!

 

Lea Turns 15

Such a beautiful girl, inside and out, Lea is really a treasure.  It is exciting to watch her grow up and become lovelier every day.  What does the future hold in store, where will she go, what will she do?   So many possibilities for lovely Lea.  Happy Birthday to Lea and how I wished I had looked like that at 15...wow.

 

Eden Turns One

How I love pictures of little Eden with her reddish hair, happy smile, cute little body.  She is a delight.

 

She is excited, evidently.

 

 Meagan says that Eden loves Keira so much she not only wants to sit by her, she wants to sit on her, so cute.

 

I especially love this picture, so relaxed and enjoying Life, the way we all should be.

Keira Turns Four!!!

Living up here means I miss out on most everything so I live for seeing pictures of everything that happens.

Keira looks like she had a grand 4th birthday with parties at school, friend party and party at Grandma's--

Although I do not know all the dates of when these things happened, I do know Keira turned four on February 11th so that is the date I am putting all the pictures, even if they did not exactly all happen on that day!!

A picture is worth a thousand words, it is almost like I am there!!!