Rain dance!

We don't get rain very often.  To be honest, I would call this a drizzle but Sarah's concept of rain is any moisture that comes from the sky.  We had a few moments of "rain" so Sarah did a little rain dance to celebrate.  I love to see these simple joyful moments!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

We missed a lot of birthdays before we moved to Las Vegas.  I sometimes think he would duck calls so he didn't have to acknowledge another year gone by before we moved close!

We are going to see my dad today.  I talk to my folks almost every day...less when I don't have a voice.  We owe so much to them.  They are the reason we made the move to Las Vegas.  I know, we don't love it now, but it has been a time of family bonding and reaching out.  That part of living here has been wonderful.  We are very blessed to have them so close. 

Mom is going to make BBQ ribs for the first time (I sent her the recipe and I know they will be great!), along with some potato salad and such.  I wonder what kind of cake he will have......I'll post pictures of the family when I get them!

Sick

I hate being sick.  There must be something in my personality that want to chose to give in or act as if I'm not sick.  This time I let myself be sick because I knew I'd be down longer if I chose to ignore it.  I actually took a day off work and hung out with Sarah.  My little helper went and got me otter pops and ice water whenever she noticed I was getting close to running down....I have to say I definitely stayed hydrated!  I'm lucky to have such a wonderful family.  Growing up all I remember about being sick was that it was inconvenient.  My mom, though a nice person, was not the "nurturing" sort.  She means well, says the right things, but you knew it would be good for you to get over it soon.  My dad, only missed a couple of days work in 30 odd years of teaching.  You had to almost dying to justify missing school or work.  So I guess I have fought myself in being or getting sick.

Unfortunately I get upper respiratory things easily.  Since moving to the desert Tracy will tell you that I'm always on decongestants.  We are neither one, comfortable with this but I'm not sure how it will change until we get out of here. 

I got my voice back yesterday.  I'm not sure if anyone would say this is a good thing or not!  Sarah has used my illness as a way to take herself over to all her friends "so that she won't get it too :)"  I know that I am ready to be done with it and get back to life!

Memorial Day and Beyond.....

We had a really nice weekend.  I love the three days that seems to give you just enough time to relax and recharge!  I can't say that we often spend times that are necessarily relaxing but for us accomplishment is a release!  Tracy and I found a "salvage" pile over at the abandoned house's and have been helping take down the pile by taking rocks and boulders.  This means, of couse, loading up the back of the truck with tons of rock, literally.  I'm not sure how many tons we moved in the first couple of days but I know it was at least a few.  I stopped us short on Sunday by dropping a large rock on my finger and cracking the nail in the middle.  I'm a wimp so after that, I was moving no more rock for the weekend.  We were also lucky enough to have dad call us to tell us that one of his neighbors was yanking out some small cactus type plants.  For the price of a little free labor we were able to lay down a dry river bed interspersed with a few plants. 

We invited a few folks over Monday for a barbecue potluck...nothing special, just hamburgers and hot dogs.  Everyone brought great food to add, so we ended up with a great meal. I think everyone enjoyed it...I know I did! 

It got a lot hotter than it has been so I had the bright idea of having the spinkler on so the kids could run through it.  You should know, if you don't already, that we don't have grass.  We do have a LOT of dirt.  Needless to say, dirt becomes mud when you turn on the water!  I wasn't sure the parents were going to go for it but thankfully everyone gave the go ahead!  We had 6 mud covered smiling kids by the end of it.  Definitely something they will not forget :)

A great family weekend....

This weekend was beautiful.  Tracy took off for one of those hikes that take all day and sound much better to him than to Sarah and I.  We took off for Old Navy to try to obtain their once a year $1 sale flip flops to start the summer.  Sarah, not much of a shopper, grew tired of waiting in line but after about 20 minutes we made it in to search for our illusive sizes.  I can't believe that she wears one size smaller than I do now!  It's amazing how fast little girls grow...at least in shoe size and height.  We then went off to try to find shorts and shirt...problem being Sarah is about an 8 or 10 around but I need the length to be more of a size 12 or 14.  Luckily we were able to find some 10's with the wonderful elastic pulls that made that possible!  By the time we got home, it was time for margarita's (virgin for Sarah of course), and tamales. 

 

 

Sunday, Tracy convinced me we really didn't have to spend all day cleaning the house to keep it up in case the realtor called, and we made off for the park.  I'm so happy I have a brilliant husband!  The day was turning rainy but we were able to spend a few beautiful hours in the grass.  We took Flash on his first adventure to Floyd Lamb.  He was joyful!  Sarah loved the geese and ducks and told us all about Canadian geese and their various habits :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Ghost "Peaches"

I woke up this morning to the ghost of a memory.  I must have been about 9 or 10 and was sleeping over at my "best friends" house.  I tried not to go to the bathroom after we went to bed but sometimes you just couldn't help it!  I tip toed quietly and made it successfully across the house....unfortunately, on the way back to her room their dog Peaches came flying at the back of my ankles, ready to protect her people.  I ran at an amazing speed to the door and quickly closed it on the crazed dog and hopped quickly back into the safety of our shared bed.

As I lay there this morning thinking about that moment, other memories came back.  I could close my eyes and remember clearly playing "Horse" in their neighbor’s makeshift basketball court in the driveway.  We, her younger brother and the two neighbor boy’s next door doing round after round.  I'm sure I never won a game. 

I thought those days would last forever.  I even thought we would all still know each other until we were as old as our parents were then. (They seemed so old then but now I realize I have gone past that and don't feel that old!)  It didn't last.  We slowly separated and went our way into our own lives.  Their parents have all passed now and I'm off on the other end of the country.  As I look back, I'm not even sure sometimes if I wasn't more of an annoyance than a friend sometimes...but those childhood years are still alive in my head and they are still friends there in that corner of my heart I tuck away for memories and dreams.

Long Somewhat Productive Weekend......

This weekend was a clean-up weekend!  We've been asking our realtor for a bit of input and she has finally told us that we have had a lot of people driving by but no one is requesting to see more.  It was apparent to her that we need to give a bit more "curb appeal".  Truthfully, our house has never been beautiful from the outside.  It is an old horse property in the middle of the desert.  I would guess there has never been a lot of "landscaping" here.  We have weeds...  This weekend Tracy rented a bobcat and we scraped the back "yard" of as many weeds as we could. 

I cleaned up the back patio as well as I could and painted a couple of old chairs we received from some friends 5 years ago, and put them on the front porch.  I wish I could say it's now beautiful...it's not.  It is improved. We are hoping that we can add a few bushes to the front of the house in boxes we plan to build around the front.  I hate to put a lot of money into this place considering how little we make from it...but we have to put that best foot forward. 

Life is a blessing...