My Life Today

So I notice a San Paulo charge of 33 cents on my charge card and six days later a credit of 32 cents. What would you think?  I thought, aha, someone is testing my card and may charge more the next time since it worked.

However, the credit card employee online says it just means that a merchant made a mistake when hand inputting a number on a card and corrects it when it is noticed.  The penny difference is because of currency differences.  What?????

The fraud unit did not consider it significant enough to be fraud so....I lose a penny!!!

Strange world we live in, like many others of the 40s and 50s I often yearn for the simple life of yesteryear.

Other than that, the cleanup is going better than expected.  It is because of the dampness of the area you can rake the branches, etc up fairly easy without a lot of other dirt etc.  The hard part for me is the gathering of the piles.  I could hire someone to take it to the Chester landfill or I can bag it and let it go for free one bag a week, so that is probably what I will do.

The real problem is getting all the dirt out of my sand river rock patio, that does take time.   I can't scrape it when neighbors are home so it is going slowly and it is hard work to push away all the collected dirt around the edges, very hard work.  Where is a good man when you need one? Then I have to clean the dirt out of individual openings.  It would be good if I redid certain low area but that is way too much work.

Thankfully Maryanne was in Chico yesterday and bought me cheaper sand than I can get here, so hopefully by the end of the week, the work will be done.  So far I have raked most all of the yard and blown the front drive and deck and do not feel too bad.  My health regime must be working.

Sunday we had a chapel overflowing.  It is fun to have all the visitors in the summer.  And especially on Fast Day we can hear their stories.  Lots of great testimonies, mostly from men.  Kathy gave an especially great lesson, she is a gifted teacher though her husband says she always worries about it.

Margaret say her husband is doing well, riding his exercise bike and up on the v machine which she says helps him so much.  She is able to walk him around quite well by holding on to his belt.  Bless her heart, I know she is not getting too much help but she is a saint and never complains.

My rest from raking etc is to come in and work on a puzzle while resting.  It is another hard one so quite a challenge.

I talked to Jeanne and she sounds very good, spent the day and night with Brian and Norma in Midway and Jenny and her children were there so really enjoyed it.  She is very healthy with no physical problems.  Marilyn continues to struggle with Arky's anemic condition and has to go in to the hospital for transfusions.  It is hard for her.  Carole and family are at the cabin so haven't heard about her 4th.  I enjoy seeing Keira and Eden on Instagram and You Tube and Kristi had uploaded some new videos, too.  So fun to watch.  She and Mike had a wonderful trip in Costa Rica it looked like, so adventurous!!!

Last week we saw the movie "Max" which was so good.  Wonderful to have such a smart dog.  Sadie is so cute and sweet and smart.  When the dog and neighbor start their walk the dog usually runs over here and Sadie cries to go out, she won't bark, just cries.  I let her out and zooms off.  I notice she never jumps on my neighbor but just stands beside him for a minute before getting greeted and running off with her friend.  After their walk she comes right back.  Good dog.

The birds are still going in and out of their house but today I saw two cute smaller birds on the run line.  Were they the babies emerged?  I can';t tell!!!

Unfortunately the swimming area at Rec 1 is contaminated from the storm and they don't know when it will be ok to swim in the lake there.  Boo hoo...

Two more days to being able to wash again!!!!  What next will go wrong, sooner or later the water heater will give I am afraid...hope the roof doesn't leak and of course, there is the tile on the kitchen conter that gets worse and worse.   So many things that can go wrong...

In the meantime I love being able to listen good music at any time in so many ways...

July 4th

My yard needs lots of work but I am going to put on my makeup and perfume and white pants and spend a lovely day watching the History Channel (free this weekend) and any other thing I choose to watch about Dec of Ind and July 4th and do my puzzle and have a lazy day.  I could go to the parade but I choose not to be in the heat at all today...staying cool and not looking at my mess!!!

I caught up on my blog and then slept late and now I am watching "Sons of  Liberty"--it is good!!!

I ended up watching for 9 hours programs about the birth of our nation and the Constitution..enjoyed the day.

Ever Learning

Here I have tried to hard so figure out how to get the phone pictures to my blog and today I found there is button in my images in picasa and voila there are all my phone pictures.  What a ditz!!!

Here are some cute ones from Meagan!!

 "Annie"

 Goldfish and cotten candy from the fair.

Eden helps tend her auntie's puppy.

Beans from the garden!

A creation by Keira.


Here are some pictures from the Pulsifer trip to the Stewart Ranch.

Tanner and Marissa get engaged!

The Ranch!!

The cutie Stewarts,,,

Looks like a fun trip.

Picture from Melissa...looking good!!

After the Storm

A few made it through the storm..

I think I will wait till all the debris in the yard dries and then blow as much as I can to the side like I did when we had massive needle fall.

How to clean the river rock patio?  Clean the mud or wait till it is dirt?

I think the storm probably cleaned off the hammock better than I could have....all the sticky sap and dirt...now to just brush it off!

Happy to see mother bird saw it through the storm....

Flash Flooding and Hail on July 3

"Yesterday was just awful"--from ANNIE which I watched yesterday and I was in the middle of "Days of Thunder" when it started thundering and lightening and raining hard and then hailing violently and mud was rushing to the patio and down both sides of the yard and I was like a crazy person trying to decide whether it was safe and trying to take pictures and the wi fi on my phone wasn't working and I could not reach anyone.

I finally reached Maryanne and the rain had not hit Chester yet and she was on her bicycle when it did.  I did not realize my phone was not working right.  She could not get me back till a little later but she had not heard about the flood warning either.

I have never seen the water flood quite so violently and fast.  I had seen a note earlier about a flood watch in Plumas County and I discounted it as how could it flood where  I was?  Now I know.  I ruined a lot of pix trying to take them through the window or screen as it was too scary to open the door.

What a mess.  All my plants pretty much ruined, for the moment anyone, if not the whole summer. The lilies were just ready to bloom, bloom, bloom, now it is a lot on the ground.



The yard was looking it's best in years and now is just a big mess to rake up.  What a bummer, life is not fair, I was keeping it up and it was so clean,  but I am safe, so that is what is important right, yeah right.  Scared to death for a few moments though.


I thought the windows were going to break for sure and the roof sounded like it could come through.  Just glad the damage was all in the yard and in the plants, there goes a few bucks down the tubes or I should say street...

Making Peach Frozen Yogurt

My favorite thing to keep in the freezer since the rich ice cream is not on my dietary menu are these yogurt sticks.

I use 1 cup pureed fruit to 1 -2 yogurt plus honey to taste.  This batch had 6 peaches or 2 1/2 cups puree and 4 cups yogurt and about 3-4 t honey.  I then put them in my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker for about 15 minutes and in the cups, put in the sticks, cover with foil and put in freezer bags and put in freezer.  Yummy good.

Sadie is Looking Fine and Lily Time

Sadie gets groomed at "Kritter Klips" in Susanville and is looking so fine.  I should keep it up!  Last week when the Hardys were here there was this sticky sap coming down and Sadie would run off to play with her friends and come back with needles and dirt stuck to her, I gave her three baths so now she has to stay on her leash, at least until the sap is gone!

Love Lily time!

Oh, No, Not the Washer!!!

So as soon as the Hardys leave I start washing and what?, water on the floor, all around the washer and dryer?

After draining the tub and hanging very wet towels on Sadie's runline (it is hot and they will dry fast) I start cleaning out all the stuff on each side of the appliances and then clean everything in there.

Through detective work I determine the washer is leaking from the tub and not the hose and make the executive decision it is better to replace the 16 year old machine than pay $200 for repair especially when I see Sears has a 40% off the machine my size and it is only $299!!

Negotiations on line and a good deal is made but cannot install till July 9th--yes they gave me more off to quit trying to get it sooner and be happy.  Yea, but...no washer for two weeks!!!!

It's always something, can't life ever just coast along without something going wrong?...plus I didn't send my brother Dave (who I called yesterday and wished a happy birthday) or James, whose birthday is tomorrow or Linda, whose birthday is Sunday birthday cards.  What is happening to me???  Where is my mind???  What ekse have I forgotten to do?

The Hardys are Here!!

James called early Sunday the 21 and said they were in Yuba City and would be coming straight to church and how to get there.  They had sent some pictures from their trip up the coast earlier.

He had a meeting in San Jose on Saturday and talked about coming late.  I told Camber it was a very dark road and there had been a lot of deer hit and they should wait till morning but they stayed at a little motel on  the way.


Anyway they got there just as the first song was started and we left after Sacrament Meeting and talking to a Jean, Ann, Maryanne and Ron.  I put chicken enchiladas in the oven and the vacation began.

 

Jimmy got in a lot of computer time while he was here.  This is how we saw him most of the time except when gone or playing games.

They rented a boat a couple of days

 

Jacob fixed one of the skateboards and got a few runs in down the street.

Lea liked listening to her music and watching movies in her room part of the time and the hammock is always fun.

It was so fun having them here.  They boated twice, played golf, and played a lot of monopoly, chinese checkers and cards.

Even Lea and Kelsi played golf.

James was getting up early every morning and doing business calls on the hammock.  One day he accidently broke one of the supports.  Without missing a moment on the phone he finds a board and tools in the garage and fixes it still talking on the phone.  How does he do that?

Jacob did some cutting of weeds and Lea collected a lot of the branches in the wagon.

And here is where Jimmy was a good part of the time!

 James had a meeting Thursday night in San Jose so they left in the morning and headed to visit friends in Reno and then on to San Jose.  So glad they could come after nine years!!  The children all wrote in my book about the good food and fun they had had!