Family Time Coming Up

It won't be long now until I will get to see Sue. I know all of you are very much aware of the fact that she is my second daughter, ----you know, the one with the talent to write interesting books, stories and all those countless poems. I can just imagine how Sue feels reading this opening sentence. How she hates me to brag about her, but I ask you, how can I not brag about her extraordinary abilities? I'd better stop right now, or I know what I can expect when I see her, which will be either tomorrow or Thursday. I'll know before the night is over. It is especially exciting because I had no idea that I would be seeing her soon. She just decided at the last moment to come, and I am so glad she wasn't about to ignore a special invitation to come and stay with Heather while Matt is away on business. Lucky for us all that Heather thought it would be a good idea for her to come.

I had a very interesting day today. I went to the dental specialist and he gave me a brand new way of making a new bridge to go on the three implants I have left. He will put a titanium ring that will fit over the implants which will give them support and stability. Then he will make a new denture supported implant that will snap on to the ring and hopefully it will be a lot better than what I now have. I hate to spend the money because of my age, but I am going to take the chance anyway because I think it will be so much better. For one thing, the teeth will be porcelain instead of plastic, which is what these are, so the whole thing will be much slimmer. This thing I have now is so fat that it hides a lot of my taste buds and I don't get the full flavor of the food I eat. I hope I am making a good decision.

I am so darned mad at myself because I can't remember a darned thing about how to transfer pictures onto my blog from my online album. I seem to be so stupid. It was as if Dick didn't spend a lot of time trying to teach me either. I think I tried to write directions down but I can't find the directions. I am a hopeless case. I will try again, because I do think it makes posts a lot more interesting if you have pictures to show about what you are writing. Still, I'm not sure what kind of a picture I would have posted anyway with this particular blog, so I guess it is okay. I will be taking some pictures tomorrow, or Thursday, so maybe you will get to see some more pictures of the Matt Anderson family and me. (As if you haven't already seen countless pictures of my darling great grandchildren.)

Not very interesting tonight..........pretty uneventful week, actually. Sorry. I will try to do better next week. If anything of interest happens in the meantime, I might even blog before next Tuesday.

San Diego Experience

Yesterday we went to San Diego to re-connect with a friend that I worked with 28 years ago in Orlando Florida. We went there in 1983/84 when Dick went through mid-life crisis when he was in his 40's. His so called "best friend" that he went to college with decided to take advantage of getting the right to build British hovercraft, which is a pleasure boat seating two people, that rides on top of the water. He talked Dick into going into business with him and they truly started from scratch. They had to find a big plant where they could manufacture these boats, and all the things that go with starting a new business kept the two of them busy for quite a while. Unfortunately Dick only had a 10% interest so he didn't have a whole lot to say. The whole mess was a bad decision that I may blog about later, but it is a long story. I just wanted to explain why we were in Florida to begin with. We were there 11 months and during this time I was the sole bread winner. We bought a home thinking we would be there for a long time. Dick didn't take any salary, so it was up to me. We also had a daughter in college that we had to send money to each month.





I got a job working for a CPA company and Ivette Rivera was the girl I met in that office. She was from Puerto Rico. We really hit it off even though she was lots younger than I, having recently graduated from college with a degree in Accounting. I was 54 so there was at least 20 or 22 years difference in our ages. That didn't seem to matter though as we really got along well.

I got an Email from her recently telling me she was going to be in San Diego this week, starting on Sunday. She was here for a conference that her company sent her to. She is a CPA now and tomorrow she gets her certificate for financial planning. Since she has been living in Puerto Rico for the last 20 years, needless to say we haven't been able to see each other although she has invited us to come and see her for many of the last few years. That is why we were so eager to see her in San Diego. The convention was in downtown S.D. and neither Dick nor I had ever been there. We had been in Oldtown San Diego, but this was like a maiden journey to a place we had never been before. We were so happy to have our GPS. She was staying at the Hyatt Manchester, which is a beautiful hotel with two very high towers. She was on the 5th floor so we got a beautiful picture of the harbor from her window.

Ivette was staying in the Seaport Tower . The other tower is called Harbor Tower. These two towers are more than the length of a football field from one to the other, which gives you the idea of how far it was between the two towers. Unfortunately, I had to do so much walking. There wasn't any place I could sit between towers so just had to do it without so much as a minutes rest. When Ivette arrived on the airport shuttle, she went up to her room and then she came looking for us. It was so great to see her again. She took us up to her room and wouldn't you know, hers was the last room on the floor so we had to walk about 50 yards to get to her room. We visited until it was time to get something to eat. We decided that it would be best to eat in or near the hotel as we didn't want to take the car out of the garage. Dick had been looking the place over before Ivette got there and he found a village that had pretty much started out one of the doors to the Hotel, so we walked all the way through it. It would have been fun to browse, but my feet and legs were bothering me so much. I wished I had brought my wheel chair, because it was all cobble stone and it really made it harder for me to walk. Fortunately there were many places to sit down though so it was okay. We had dinner in a very nice restaurant. Then we bought warm cookies right out of the oven on our walk back to the hotel. We went up to Ivettes room and visited a bit more and left about 8:30p.m. so that we wouldn't get home so late and Ivette could get some sleep. We actually made pretty good time and got home about 11:00 so that wasn't too bad. The shocker was that for the six hours our car sat in the parking garage, it cost us $28.00

We figured with all the walking we did, I had walked the length of a football field 8 times plus the circle around the village. I'm so glad we did that circle though because on the other side was the harbor and there were a lot of ships and sail boats, such a pretty sight. I wish we had taken more pictures. Dick left the camera in the car so we had to take these with the I -phone, but I think they turned out better than the camera, so next time we go somewhere, I will definitely take more pictures. I did this earlier tonight because I really needed Dick to help me with the pictures. He let me do it, so maybe next time I can do it myself......just maybe though, because I still may need Dick.

Random thoughts

I'm a bit late in posting this week. I had a pretty hard day yesterday. It seemed like there was just so much running around to do, things to shop for etc. We didn't get home until late late afternoon and I only had a short time to recover before we had to be off to celebrate one of our good friends 90th birthday!! His wife hosted it and believe me it was super nice. We had a beautiful prime rib dinner with all the fixings at a very nice restaurant. Needless to say, we had a great portion of it left over so had the same dinner tonight, compliments of Dick and his warming up skills.

I was so happy to get to bed last night and I told Dick not to wake me this morning unless I was still in bed at noon. He agreed, but wouldn't you know, I woke up about 7:00a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. It has been a pretty busy week for me and he has had to wake me up each morning (which I hate, since it is so much nicer if I can wake up on my own.) Oh well, I got up and told him not to expect me to do one darned thing today so he promised to pamper me.

I was reading some blogs when he brought me my dinner and I am a very slow eater so it took me quite long to eat. He left for his meeting over an hour ago, and I just finished my dinner not too long ago. I was going to do my blog immediately after, but went in the kitchen to take my dishes and what a mess I encountered. I just couldn't leave it for him to clean up, so had to do it before starting this.

Now what to blog about? Not too much of interest happens to me lately, so I'm sure I can't say anything that interesting. I guess I will tell you a few of my plans for tomorrow. First of all, I am going to my periodontist's office to cancel my bone scan. I think I told you about him sending me to a maxillofacial specialist. He arranged for me to have this bone scan at my periodontists office next week so have an appointment. I know he wants to start from scratch and do a permanent bridge. It sounds lovely, but I know that my bone is just not viable to hold any more implants. My periodontist, who did them all in the first place, told me it couldn't be done and I believe him. Even if it were possible to do it, I am just not willing to take the chance, plus all the pain I would likely have to go through. Added to that would be so much more expense after already putting so many thousands of dollars in this mouth. It would likely cost me another $20,000 to $25,000 more as he certainly wouldn't give me the discounts the other guys did, so forget it. I just don't want to tap our savings any more for this 84 year old mouth. I feel good about this decision.

I am also going shopping for some more pillows for my den. It is looking pretty darned good, but need to get the maroonish color in the small rug onto the daybed. Then I will take some pictures of it and have Dick post it for me. (If I don't learn how to do it myself by then, which I am hoping I will.)

At least I don't have to go shopping for a white A -line skirt anymore because Sue sent my one from a place she found online. I have only been looking for one for about three years. I'll have to stop moaning and groaning about things I want and can't find, or she will buy them for me. She is a great daughter, but I hate for her to spend so much money on me. I know, a lot of you will think I'm crazy, but that's just the way I am.

Darn! This is getting too long again. Sorry, will try to do better next time. My good thoughts go out to all of you..........

Darlene

Uneventful Week

It was 116 degrees today! I thought it seemed a little bit warmer when we went in the pool to do our 40 minute exercise routine. I sure don't mind it, but hey, we are in the house the rest of the time. Isn't air conditioning wonderful? Sue would have hated it for sure. She can't stand it here when it is only 80 degrees. When she does come here, we turn down the air conditioner to about 74 and she is still too hot. But whenever go up there, I freeze.

We will be going north to Sue's for Christmas. Every other holiday we go up there for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. The other times, we go to Huntington Beach to our daughter, Nancy's. I guess we will keep doing this as long as I am able. One year I was sick at Christmas and we had to stay at home and it was awful having to spend it without family. I never want to do that again!

I am geting so tan! I have never been this tan before in my whole life. I look like a foreigner or something. I will have to post a picture of me before I lose it. However, I do think I will stay this way for awhile longer. Our weather doesn't start to cool off until October. We will be going in the pool every day for exercise until it is too cool for me. I don't dare get chilled as then I get asthma.

I promised myself that I would make my posts lots shorter. I can't believe how long they have been. I tend to ramble a bit. Our week has been pretty uneventful......just trying to rest up from out Tahoe trip. I'm catching up on all my reading, back to my kindle. I'll soon have to have Sue transfer some more books over to mine as I'm about to run out. I prefer reading books than magazines, so the ones I have just pile up. I'm almost to the bottom of them too. I should be reading my scriptures more also. Once I start a book, I want to finish it quickly. Maybe that's not a good thing. I will say though, that I won't let myself start until after dinner at night.

There I go rambling again. I'm going to say goodnight...........I'll be off to bed earlier tonight. For some reason, I am really sleepy. Take care all.................My love

Darlene

A Few Pictures

View of oue lake front

The front of the main house

Our little cabin

















Dick, Stacy and me, in the blowing wind

















Rich and Stacy, with our pier to the right

Lake Tahoe Wedding

We did have a wonderful time in Tahoe. The lake is indescribably beautiful. I am going to have Dick try to put some pictures of it and some of the shots he took after the wedding and during the party that was held the night before the wedding on when he gets home. Stacy (the bride) knows everyone in Lake Tahoe so it was very difficult for her to choose whom she would invite for the actual ceremony. She had to leave an awful lot of her friends out, so she invited them to a big party the night before. It was also a very nice celebration and the food for both the party and the wedding was incredible. They were both buffet style and I ate way too much, I'm afraid. They had prime rib Friday evening, with all kinds of salads and side dishes. Saturday evening was unbelievable. I have never in all my life of going to weddings and other parties had such food........and there was so much of it. They served all you could eat of filet mignon, rack of lamb, lobster tails, some kind of a chicken thing and fresh sea bass, that was out of this world, and all kinds of fruit and salad. The cake was so delicious too. One of my nephews ate five lobster tails and he also had eaten a lot of hors d' oeuvres beforehand. The amazing thing was that it was all so fresh and good that it didn't even seem like a buffet.

But enough about food. We were so glad that we went on Thursday because it gave us such a lot of time to get acquainted with Stacy's family. We had a pretty good trip up Highway 395. It is just a two lane highway for a good part of the way and we were so afraid that we would have traffic problems. So much of it was through mountains and unless there were frequent passing lanes, it could be awful if you got behind a slow moving vehicle and there were plenty of R.V.'s and trucks pulling boats behind because, after all, it is a great place to spend a vacation. There are so many water sports and quite a few lakes too. We were very lucky as we were able to make very good time and we got there at exactly 3:00 p.m. which was our target goal. It took us 9 hours to drive there including one stop for lunch and gas.

We went immediately to the beach. Lake Tahoe is such a big lake that it is just like the beach. It was fun to sit there and watch the activities on the water, para sailing, water skiing, boating, canoeing, and swimming. We had a private beach and our own pier. The kids were diving off the pier and having a great time. Rich's new step children are Trent, Troy and Lily. The oldest is about 10, the younges is almost six. Troy is somewhere inbetween. They are the cutest, sweetest kids you could ever have and they seemed happy enough to call us Grandpa and Grandma. The great thing is that Rich's kids get along so well with them. Two of his boys are still living at home and they are so good with the little ones. Altogether, the families blended very well.

It was great to have so much time to visit with Stacy's family. She, like Rich, has four siblings. Her parents had four girls and one boy. The difference is that their boy is their oldest, while our boy is our youngest. Her parents are from New York State and one sister lives close to them, while the rest are scattered all over from Texas to Minnesota. We are fortunate to only have one daughter, Jayne, living out of State. She lives in Salt Lake so we do get to see her a couple of times a year. All the rest of ours are in California, except for Rich and it is hard for me to remember that he lives in Nevada. The California/Nevada border is right in the middle of Lake Tahoe, the town, so it is hard to know whether you are in Nevada or California.

We stayed in a cabin behind the main house. Our bed was upstairs and other than the bed was pretty bad (the bed from hell) it was really nice. It had a huge closet, nice bath, and downstairs it had a kitchen and table, and a living room with a pull down couch. Jayne slept there, but she just slept on the couch without pulling it down. The main house, which was right in front of our cabin, is very large. It had six or seven bedrooms and a huge kitchen. Stacy's family stayed there and all of our children stayed at the Lakeside Inn, which is a hotel casino and also where Stacy works. They all tell me that their accomodations were great! We spent most of our time in the front yard. They had so many comfortable chairs out there and we were right on the water. I was surprised how close the beach was. The wedding was held out there on the lawn, with the gorgeous lake behind. They were married at 6:30, so it wasn't quite dark, but was pretty dark by the time we were finished eating.

We had planned to stay four days and come home on Monday but Dick was really having trouble with his blood pressure. It seemed to go up and his head was really hurting him. Sue, our daughter, had the same problem, so we decided we had better get him off the mountain, so we left Sunday about noon and got home about 9 hours later. It was really good to be able to sleep in our own bed Sunday night.

We are pretty well rested now. The funny thing is that I took my huge bottle of biofreeze with me so that I could use it on all of my painful parts and it was amazing but I didn't have to use it at all. I didn't have any pain!!! I just couldn't understand it! As soon as we got home though, all the pain came back. Can anyone explain how this could possibly have happened? I didn't even have much trouble with my breathing, which so many thought I would. We were about 6500 altitude. I did get a little more tired when I did anything, like making the bed, or anything that required a little bit of energy. I noticed then that I wan't breathing quite as well and I tired very quickly, but as for pain, it was super neat not having any.

I'm about ready to stop now, even though I don't have my pictures yet. Dick will have to post them later when he gets home from his meeting.

Love to all

Darlene

It was a very interesting weekend we had. We were both so happy that we got to go to our grandson Todd's White Coat Ceremony. What a lovely program it was. All the speakers were so good.

Since I had Dick put this article that was in our paper on the blog for me, I should probably write about it first, even though it is kind of going backwards. We did stay overnight and came home on Saturday. We left Irvine about 2:30 because we wanted to get home before the late afternoon traffic. We have to go through a valley about a half hour from Irvine called Moreno Valley before we can get home. There are some montains on each side of the two lane highway and lots of curves which I hate traveling through at night. As we were leaving the town of Moreno Valley we could see smoke and it looked to be quite close and not very close to the freeway. We never thought too much about it because we thought we would pass it within minutes, but as we traveled, the fire didn't seem to get much closer. We were going pretty slowly and then finally stopped on the freeway. Since it was only two lanes, we were pretty well trapped and we stayed that way for quite a while. It was pretty interesting though because there were helicopters which looked like they were close to the fire and all of a sudden we heard fire engines. At that time our side of the freeway was the only side blocked. The traffic on the other side was still moving so we thought it shouldn't be long before they would let our side through. The fire engines couldn't get through and they had fire fighters out there trying to get both lanes to try to double park as close as they could get to the side of the mountain. It took some doing but we finally got over close enough so the engines could barely make it through. We couldn't actually see the fire from where we were, only billows of smoke that seemed to be going straight up. That was becaue we were around the curve from the flames. Some time after the fire engines got through we noticed that the other side of the freeway was closed and the only vehicles that were coming up that side were more fire engines coming from the other direction. Finally, after another wait, they started to let cars go slowly through and as we turned the curve we could see all the fire up close and personal. It was right down to the freeway in some places and little fires were still going, while up higher it was full flames going way back. Those brush fires travel so quickly. The smoke was getting a bit thick too and the only thing I was worried about was that my asthma might kick in because smoke will do that to me. We did get beyond it though, but I was so busy looking at the fire and all the goings on to fight it that I was too interested to even get frightened. I guess there were some people who were pretty scared, but I didn't know that until after I read about it. That area was about an hour from where we live. We did get home finally but we lost an hour or so being totally trapped. Enough about the fire.

I will have to back track now to the White Coat Ceremony. It was really touching to see all of the med students go up to get their white coats and I was so thrilled when Todd got his. He was the last to get his. Obviously they didn't do it alphabetically. After they got their coats, they all had to recite in unison an oath, which in itself was very interesting.

I was so suprised that they gave all of the students an I pad which will have all four years of their books and lectures on it and they will even be able to do all their notes on it, so won't have to keep track of copious notes. It will all be right there for them in that one little pad. How things have changed. This is just the second year that they have been doing this at Irvine Medical School.

After the main ceremoney we all went out onto the patio area where they had a very nice place with tables and chairs and lots of good things to eat. All the families were there taking pictures of their students and we did get a few. I am so sorry that Dick had to leave for his church meetings because he would have posted some of those pictures for you to see. I wish I could keep this open until he returns, but I am so afraid that if I try it, this whole thing might go away. Maybe I will get him to do it as a separate post. Unfortunately if he does that, this whole thing is going to be even more disconnected so maybe I should wait until we get back from the wedding before we do that. I think I will wait.

I was glad that we stayed overnight though because that way, we were able to join Sue and Dave at Todd's condo that he is renting to help get it set up. The furniture had been delivered, but Todd hadn't had time to do more than just get all of his things put in the condo, so we had quite a busy time, actually. I put together some shelves for his shoes, Dick put together three lamps and helped Dave hang pictures, posters and other things that went on his walls. Sue was busy setting up his kitchen and washing tons of dishes that had been stored. It was a busy time for all. We didn't even stop for lunch. We left at 2:30 to avoid traffic (ha ha) and Sue and Dave had to leave at 3:00 to catch their plane.

We are starting to get everything ready to load the car early tomorrow so that we won't have to do it late in the evening. We are planning to leave at 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning and I don't want Dick to get too tired tomorrow as it is about a nine hour drive, plus we will want to stop a couple of times. I am getting pretty excited about the wedding and it will be so fun to have all of my children together in one place. I will want to take some family pictures for sure. The last time we were all together was at my 80th birthday. A lot of my grandchildren will be there too. Not all though, sad to say.

Sorry this is so disconnected but I'm sure you will be able to make head and tails out of this rambling post. (Most of mine are like that, anyway.)

Love you all,

Darlene