Wild Flowers

We went looking for wildflowers and found this field on Shell Creek Rd. I shot quite a few pictures of the flowers but they really don't show the absolute beauty. It was so quiet you could hear the birds singing. Ken got some close up pictures with his telephoto lens and I got one of him too. ha ha.

There were some people who had brought lawn chairs and set them out in the middle of all the flowers. Some were having lunch and others were just enjoying the beauty. Mom is showing off her flower in the photo above. As you can se it was a beautiul day. Temp around 72 degrees with a slight wind blowing.

Mom took this picture of me standing in the field of yellow flowers. (I shouldn't have been standing sideways. LOL)

I can't help but think of the wonder of creation. God created this beauty for us to enjoy. In Isaiah 40:8 the Bible asys that "The grass withers, the flowers fade but the word of our God remains forever."

In a few weeks the flowers in these fields will be gone, but Gods words are with us forever.

It's Been Too Long

Hello friends, I think there are one or two of you that read my blog and I have been soooo very bad about posting stuff. I thought I would start up again and see if anyone notices.
In a few days Ken's Mom will be visiting us for about 12 days. This will include both Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. We are looking forward to her visit. I will let you know what kind of mischief we get into while she is here.

Happy Birthday - to you and you and you

Wow....September has lots of Birthdays. Today September 10th is Christy's Birthday. Can't believe I am that old. (ha ha ha) Tomorrow is Grace's Birthday and the 24th is Nathanael's Birthday. We will be heading down to Hemet on the 18th to celebrate with Nathanael and Grace. Since Christy will be there I can celebrate her B-Day then too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! ! ! ! ! !

I'm Back

Well that was a silly title for a post. Of course you know I'm back. I wouldn't be writing and you wouldn't be reading if I weren't back. Oh well next time I will have to come up with a better title for my post.
Anyway I wanted to let you know how much fun our vacation was. Spending time with Grand kids is precious time indeed. I love their excitement and enthusiasm. Nathanael knows where all the Hidden Micky's are on the rides. Matthew likes rides that don't go too fast. Jonathan will ride anything as long as he is tall enough. Grace loves the characters and having her picture taken with them.
I got to go on Screaming over California with Jason and it was soooooo much fun. I loved it and if the line hadn't been so long I would have gone again. Jason and I also went on Splash Mountain together and got soaked. Wow that was fun. Ken got to take turns riding with each of the Grand kids I don't think he had a most favorite ride, but over all just enjoyed being with them. Karyn, Matthew and I closed down California Adventure one night. (they close at 9pm) What fun that was.
Saying goodbye to the kids and parents was hard. I miss being close to our Kids and their families. On our way home on Friday we stopped at Northridge to have dinner with Christy, Mark and Tim. It was great to talk to them. Tim was packed and ready to head off to Sea Camp the next day. I need to find out how that went. He was real excited about it and I know he must have had fun.
Saturday Ken and I drove to the Pinnacles National Park and did some strenuous hiking. We have decided that we would like to go back when the weather is cooler. On Sunday we spent part of the day in Morro Bay and Cambria. Unfortunately I came down with some bug and started feeling not so well so we came back home so I could rest.
I know this is a long post, and I haven't really told you much so you will have to read between the lines for the rest. I need to go get my cup of coffee now.

It's Official now............I'm on vacation! ! ! ! !

For the next week there will be no work. No traveling to one office and then getting an e mail telling me to go to another one. There are 7 of them that I am assigned to. For the next week we will get up when we want. . .. and go to bed late if we choose. . . .and not worry tht we have to be somewhere at a particular time. We are going to Disneyland tomorrow morning (it's about 4 hours away) and staying for 4 days. After that I don't know what our plans are. Jason, Karyn, and the kids have been here since late Saturday night and are going to D Land too. So that means we will get to spend time with 4 of our 5 Grandkids. What a good time we are going to have. I was hoping that Tim would get to come spend a day at D'land but his summer plans don't allow for that to happen.

What's New?

It has been so long since I last wrote I should have lots to write about.

My arm is still bruised but I won't post any pictures of it. (I caught some flack over the last ones)The Dr said it might take 6 months or more for it to be completly gone.
I have a web site that you should check out. If you do, you might find some $$$$ that belongs to you or someone you love. A couple of months ago I had some time and went to this site and started typing in names. Imagine my surprise when I found that my Dad has unclaimed property that is being held by the State of California. Try it for yourself just go to www.ca.gov, find the link for unclaimed property , then on the right hand side click on the link to the unclaimed property search page. It doesn't take long and you might just find money like I did. Did I mention that my Dad has been gone 40 years and we had no idea that there was anything else out there. My Brother and Sister were as shocked as I was.
I will try to be better about posting in the future, so check back from time to time and see what's going on at Grandma Mary's Place.

A Christmas Open House to Remember

In my last post I told you about our Annual Christmas Open House. Well this year was one for the books.

I am having to type this pretty much one handed you see because I fell and sustained a badly bruised left arm and hand. It happened on the morning of the Open House. I was letting Samantha (our Black Lab/Border Collie) out the back door when she smelled Missy's (Our Son & Daughter-in-law's dog) Dog food and lunged toward it catching me off balance and throwing me into the doorway. I ended up on the floor of the laundry room on all fours crying ow, ow, ow. That was at 6:00 am on the morning of the open house. Being the stubborn person that I am, I refused to go to the ER stating that I had way too much to do to get ready for the afternoons activities.
By 9:00 am I decided that everyone else, my Husband, Son, Daughter, Son-in-law, Daughter-in-law and probably the Grand kids as well, were right and Jason and I made a trip to Twin Cities Hospital ER. The rest stayed behind to do all the things that I SHOULD have been doing to get ready. Two and a half hours later I was back home with the good news that my arm was not broken, just very badly bruised. (Thank you Lord for your Mercy) The pictures above were taken just before I started to type this post. The swelling has gone down about 50% or more and I can now extend my arm all the way for a short period of time.
The Open House went on as planned thanks to all the family pitching in and helping. I sat in a comfy chair and greeted guests as they came through the door. Whenever I tried to get up everyone told me to sit down and they would get me what I needed.

Merry Christmas to all and watch out for the Dog!!!!

Christmas Cookies

Every year on the Saturday before Christmas Ken and I have an Open House. Now if Christmas is on a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday we usually push it back another week so as not to interfere with Holiday plans others may have. I was asked the other day by a co-worker how long I had been doing this and why I continue to do this year after year. I had to stop and think about how long I have been doing this but not the reason why we started this "Tradition".
We moved from California to Kansas in 1971 and in 1972 we lived in McLouth, Kansas. Since we did not have any family close by other than Ken's brother Jim who lived in Topeka, we thought about inviting the Church members who were in town to stop by for some cookies and punch on the Saturday before Christmas. I don't remember how many people dropped by that afternoon, but it sure was cute to see Christy in her fancy Christmas skirt I had made running to the door and crying out "Merry Kissmas and Happy You Near" to each of the guests as they arrived. The next May our family grew by one with the birth of Jason. Once he got old enough, he would race Christy to the door to welcome the visitors.
In the years since then, there have only been two or three times when we have not had our open house. The menu has changed from just cookies and punch to include such regulars as Meatballs & Summer Sausage, Cheese Wreaths, Chocolate Peanutbutter Balls, and of course Cookies and punch. I usually over prepare and have tons of left overs.
Each year I try to find at least one new receipe to try out. Some have been huge successes and some. . .well no one actually got to try those. . .they were a total disaster. Last year I made Christmas Eve Mice. Huge success! ! Except that they were so cute no one wanted to eat them. They all asked for a napkin to wrap it up in so they could take it home and show it to their friends.
This year both Christy and Jason will once again be back home on the Saturday before Christmas. Once again we have invited friends and family to drop by for some home made goodies. This time, no doubt, some of their children may race to the door to welcome our guests and wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
In the 36 years that we have been holding our Open House we have been blessed to have many friends and family share in our Christmas Tradition. The one thing that we try to share with those who come to our house is that the reason we celebrate Christmas is NOT about the presents we give and receive from our friends and family. The reason we celebrate and open our house is to share the greatist Gift ever given, The Lord Jesus.
So if you are in the area between 1 and 5"ish" on the 20th of Dec. stop on by and share some Christmas joy with us as we celebrate the Reason for the Season.

Back to the Real World

Well. . . Vacation is over and it is back to the real world for me.

I had a great time with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew, and Sharon. I missed having my Hubby Ken with me though. I would have loved to see him Parasail with the rest of us. That experience was the highlight of our Cruise for me. We have Cruised to Mexico before but have never parasailed. I thought I would be scared since I have a fear of heights but that was not the case in the least.

When we got back to San Diego on Saturday, I called Ken to let him know we would be getting off the Ship in one of the first groups. That way we could get to the Santa Fe Train Station and get our tickets for Amtrack and make our way to Irvine. (That was the original plan) Ken told me that Southern California was experiencing major fires in numerous places and that we needed to try to change our (Mine and Sharon's) Train to the earliest possible train because the Freeways were being closed and it might take us longer to get home.
We went to breakfast and after we had eaten we started to make our way to the waiting area for debarcation. I spotted one of the Cruise Directors and decided to talk to her about our delima. She was able to move us up to the first ones off after VIP. We were in the group of passengers who had early "Flights" to catch. Thank You Weezey! ! ! I called Ken to up date him on our progress and he said to try to get the ticket changed to take us all the way to Santa Barbara and they would meet us there.
Getting off the Ship was quick and easy compared to some of our other experiences. We then made our way to the Train Station and stood in line for about 10 minutes. We were able to change our tickets and take the next train (it was waiting on the track) and we were able to take it all the way to Santa Barbara.
Let's see Car-Ship-Boat-ParaSail-Train-Car. . . .yep, that pretty much says it all.

Not packed yet

I guess I SHOULD be getting my stuff together so that I can start packing my bags. I am going on vacation but I haven't started to pack yet.

I guess I SHOULD be thinking about what I want to take with me, so that I can start getting my stuff together so that I can start packing.

I did make a packing list. So. . .I guess I SHOULD go print it off so that I can start thinking about what I want to take and I can start getting my stuff together and start packing.

If I keep this up much longer, I will have to start un-packing. . .so. . .good-by for now. I will let you know later how wonderful my vacation was.

Did I tell you I am going on a cruise with Two of my Grandsons?

I'm such a lucky Grandma. ;-0

Near Catastrophy - Times Two

Yesterday I worked at our office in Cambria. It was a pretty UN-eventful day until about 15 minutes till closing time.

It had been a relatively warm day in Cambria and one of the employees had oppened the front door and the back door in order to let the nice ocean breeze blow through. Unfortunatly a humming bird flew in the back door and couldn't find his way back outside. He kept flying in big circles close to the ceiling and weaving in and out of all the halloween decorations that they have hanging from the ceiling. It was wierd watching him go around ghosts, bats, spiders and pumpkins. It was also very dizzing because humming birds fly very fast.

Add to the equasion that there is one of the staff that is petrified of birds, and you can just imagine the site. Here I was trying to swat at the humming bird as it sped past me and then losing my balance due to the fact that I was spinning around trying to keep my eyes on him. Finally two of us were able to shoo him out the back door and lock him outside.

Then it was time for me to balance my cash and secure it in the vault. Without revealing too much about the workings and layout of the vault, let me just say that I was not visable to the other staff members at that time. I heard someone yell "Don't shut the vault yet. Mary's still in there!!!!" Whew. . .that was close. . . .if that person hadn't seen me walk into the vault, I might still be in there. HA HA HA

Sunday Morning Special Music

Have you ever practiced something and were confident that you had everything just right only to have something go terribly wrong? Well that is what sort of happened to me this past Sunday. I got to Church early and went over the song that I was going to sing that morning. We got the volume just right and I knew the words by heart. This was a song I had sung many times before and I was ready.

By way of introduction I mentioned a time in 1969 when someone at work asked me what song I was humming and I said "He Touched Me". The person then said with a very "worldly" tone, "that sounds like fun" . I was too shy at that time to reply that the Song was about God's Touch on our lives and not about man's touch. Then I nodded to Ken (he was running the sound board) to let him know I was ready for the music. And then. . . . . . nothing happened. I told him "Trac 4" He said "Nothing is happening". . . so I said. . . "Well, I think I know this song well enough to sing it without the music. . . . .I began to hum the intro to get the key, and then I sang the song a capella.

It went very well, and it just proves that God's Hand truly is on us when we trust in His power to accomplish things for His Glory and not our own.

Looking Forward To. . . . . . .

Vacation. . . . .

In November while Ken is at the State Convention in San Diego, I will be taking a Cruise with Jason, Karyn, Nathanael and Matthew. Oh yeah, and my BFF Sharon is going to be my room-mate. Yippee, Yay, Hoorah!!! Sharon's hubby Dewey gets to spend the week with Ken. (Will they go to the convention or play hookey????)

To get to the Ship we will be driving down the night before and staying at Jason & Karyns house. Then we will caravan to the port, say goodby to the two guys and board the Carnival Elation. I will have to fill you in later on details of our trip but once it is over Sharon and I have to get from San Diego to Irvine because while we were gone our Husbands will have attended the afore mentioned Convention and will have traveled to Irvine for a 3 day (?) training class. My wonderful Husband got on line and booked us on AmTrac from San Diego to Irvine so that we will arrive close to the time they will be finished with their training.

In the span of one week we will have traveled by Car, Ship and Train.

I think I will need a vacation from my vacation once I get back home.

Right & Left Grand then Prominade Home

Well here I am in my finest shirt , fancy pants and red bandana, doing my best to keep up with the caller.
This was taken at the Mother-Daughter Retreat that Christy and I went to this month. She is in the center of the picture on the far side also wearing a white shirt and fancy pants. Someone in red is blocking her.
We had loads of fun even though it rained all day on Saturday.

On being a Grandma

Nathanael will turn ten this month on September 24th. He was the first of our 5 Grandchildren. His little sister Grace is our last Grandchild. We will now have to wait for the Great-Grands to start arriving, but that will be sometime in the distant future. In between numbers 1 and 5, we were blessed with 3 more boys.

Nathanael was and is a huge blessing to us. I was sooo ready to be a Grandma. I love being able to buy things for my Grand kids and just spending time with them. Nathanael and I share a love of Giraffes partly due to the fact that I gave him a toy Giraffe as soon as he came home from the hospital. He is such a wonderful big brother and a good helper to his Mom and Dad.

Our second Grandson was born a little more than three months later on January 7th. Timothy made his grand appearance on our Wedding Anniversary. Wow Christy and Mark, thanks for that gift. Tim is the deep thinker in our family. He sometimes appears older than his 9 1/2 years. What a joy he too has been to our family.

Number 3 on the list is Matthew. Matthew is the second Son of Our Son Jason and our Daughter in Law Karyn. Matthew is a tender heart and very considerate of others. I love the story that Karyn told about the time when Matthew sat at the table without eating until someone asked if something was wrong with his food. Then he said "No, but we didn't pray."

Our Fourth Grandson Jonathan is just a tad bit stubborn. He must get that from his Auntie Christy. ha ha ha I love that little boy! As I love all of them, but Jonathan has his own mind and knows very well how to make is presence known.

And then we were blessed with Grace. Wow! What a way to wrap up our years of welcoming new Grandchildren. Grace will be the last one unless something changes some one's mind. hint hint. But that us OK with Papa Ken and Grandma Mary. We love to watch the antics of Grace and look forward later this month to see all of the Grandkids when we travel to Southern California for Birthday Party's.

I thank God for each and every one of our Grand Children and I pray for them daily. I also pray for the girls that I will one day call my Granddaughters. . . the girls that marry my Grandsons. And I pray for the young man that will some day ask my Granddaughter to marry him. God knows the plans He has for my Grandchildren. All we need to do is to follow His plan and not our own plan.

Phobias

My daughter got me thinking about phobias and why we have them. I don't like ants. They creep me out. I have this little dance I do if I see lots of them at one time in one place. I sort of raise up on my toes and turn around in a circle and switch from foot to foot as if I were walking on hot coals. And while doing that little dance, my hands are reaching out in front of me with fingers moving about like I am typing 598 words per minute. In addition to that I am usually muttering something like. . . .Oh! Oh! Oh! No! No! oooooooo.KENNNNNNNNNNNNNN there are ANT'S in here.
Well it is time that I tell you just why I have this reaction. A long time ago in a galaxy. . . .oops wrong intro. When I was a young girl 5 or 6 years old, I went down the street where we lived to a friends house to play JAX. We sat down on the sidewalk in front of her house and began to play. It didn't take too long for me to realize that something was crawling on my legs. I looked down and I had red ants all over my legs and they were beginning to sting me. I screamed loud enough for my Mom and Dad to hear me two houses away. I ran home, they ran out of the house to meet me, and there in the front yard my Dad took the garden hose and washed all the ants off my body. I had red bites all over me.
Think that is bad???? It doesn't stop there.
I think it was the year I was in 1st grade or perhaps 2nd grade that the next memorable moment happened.
I took my lunch to school and put it in my "cubby" until lunch time then I got it out and started to eat my peanut butter and Grape jelly sandwich. I got this funny tickling feeling on my hands and when I looked at my sandwich it was black. . .yuck. . . .it was covered in little tiny black ants. eeeewwwwweeeeee.
Right now if you could see me, you would notice that my feet are now raised up off the ground and are sticking out at right angles from my legs. Just in the off chance that there might be a ant on the floor..

enough said.

Christmas in August

Well I went into Long's Drug Store this weekend and what do you think I saw. Hallmark Christmas Orniments. Now as most of you know I absolutly LOVE Christmas. It is my most favorite time of the year. I decorate every room in the house including the bathrooms. Guests are welcomed to our house with lights and garlands. Every year I am on the lookout for new decorations but AUGUST. . . .come on the kids aren't even back in school yet.

I think I will wait a while before pulling out all the decorations and taking stock of what we have and what we still need. I'm just not READY for Christmas in August!!

On Being "The Boss"

I have the most wonderful job. I work for a local bank as a Branch Support Specialist. What that means is that if one of the seven Branch Offices that I am assigned to needs help my "Bosses" send me. I am quailfied to fill the positions of Teller, New Accounts Representative, Assistant Manager and Branch Manager.

On Monday I was at one of my Branches when a call came in that I was needed after lunch at another Office because they had an emergency. The Branch Manager was on Vacation and the Assistant Manager had a family emergency that resulted in her not coming into work. (In fact she will probably be out for three weeks.) Anyway. . .After Lunch I went to the other office and began my duties as "The Boss".
Monday Afternoon:
Shortly after I arrived (10 minutes or less) one of the tellers asked if she could talk to me. I said. . sure. She said. . .in private. I said. . .sure??? After going into the Managers Office she shut the door and gave me her verbal resignation..... Gulp! OK so for the next hour I contacted the HR Department and the vacationing Manager and sent multiple e mails and faxes to them.
Monday End of Day:
Everything was going pretty smoothly until one of the tellers told me she was out of balance $739.00. She looked for it, couldn't find it, and had to accept the shortage. Grr.
Tuesday Morning:
Same teller that was short, recounted her money and found the difference. Now she is out of balance the other way.
Tuesday Afternoon:
Had a teller come back from lunch and announce that he had "forgotten" his bank issued keys at the resturant where he had his lunch. Asked if he could go back to get them. ???Duh YES!!!
Wednesday Morning:
I'm getting the hang of this Manager Stuff. I have approved, rejected, signed and notarized stuff and I am feeling pretty good this morning. Twenty minutes later one of the tellers stops by my desk and says "I guess you are the person I need to give this to since you are The Boss." What did she give me you ask???? You guessed it. . .her resignation. Yikes. . .I've only been in charge for 2 1/2 days and we are down 2 tellers.

I DON"T WANT TO BE THE BOSS ANY MORE ! ! ! !

Going on An Adventure With Sharon

I got nagged today. I felt great pressure from my Friend Sharon. But you must understand that since she is such a good friend she did not pressure me directly. Oh No! she went through my own Daughter. Darling Christy sent me an e mail with the words . . .nag nag nag nag nag nag nag. . . .there you have been nagged. Scrolling down through the e mail I read the messages back and forth between Sharon and Christy and soon understood that I have been remiss in writing on my Blog.

When I first sat down this evening to write something I thought I would continue the story Sharon started about Friends and Family. I quickly discarded that idea because I felt I "SHOULD" let Sharon finish her story in her way.

Next I thought about sharing about all the blessings I have received and am still receiving. That idea too was scrapped, at least for now. Soooo what to write about. . . . OF COURSE . .Going on an adventure with Sharon.

We have had several adventures over the years. We went to Washington DC together and experienced the underground train system there. We have gone camping together and sat on the side of the mountain road in lawn chairs with the kids while our hubby's went in search of a mechanic who could fix Dewy and Sharon's vehicle.

But the one I want to tell you about is another time we went to the Minister's Wife Retreat at Jenness Park. (see Sharon's blog for the story about the first time)

I flew up to San Jose from the Los Angeles area so that Sharon and I could drive to the Retreat from her house together. She said "We can take my car, I know the way!" We got up early that morning and got our suitcases in the car and took off. Sharon and Dewey hadn't been in San Jose very long, and she was so excited showing me this landmark and that one. Telling me that over there in that direction is where the airport is. . .yada yada yada. At some point, Sharon told me to keep an eye out for Highway 108 because we would need to take that to get to Jenness Park. The trip should take about 3 hours.

Somewhere, beyond the turn off for Highway 108, Sharon exclaimed "Oh Look there's the (San Francisco) Delta!" "Oh No! we're not supposed to see the Delta Mary!" Oh no! we took a wrong turn, or we missed the turn." Oh no I don't know where we are!

So we pulled off the freeway and stopped along side the road and consulted the map. We could go back about 45 minutes worth of driving, or continue on a little bit and cut back over, down, and around and get back on track. The second option is the one we chose and off we went. Two women who didn't know where they were and weren't real sure they could find their way to their final destination. Off on An Adventure!!

I don't remember the name of the little town we passed through, but I remember seeing a bunch of antique cars in a lot and as Sharon drove past I told her "One of those cars back there has a for sale sign and they only want $1,500.00 for it." I make her turn around and go back so we could look at it. I thought I would just whip out my Credit Card and buy it for my Wonderful Hubby and wouldn't he be so pleased with me. Well I never did buy that car because the price was actually $15,000.00. We did make it to the retreat but the trip took about 4 1/2 hours.

If you're ever in the mood for an adventure, you might want to call Sharon up. Just don't let her drive.

The Power Is Out - Oh NO!!

So this morning shortly after 6:30 am the power went off at our house. Since today is Sunday I had planned on washing my hair, blowing it dry and then using the curling iron to put some curl into my otherwise very straight hair.

It was obvious that I would not be able to blow dry my hair since there was no electricity to power my hair dryer. So I told my ever so smart and loving husband. . . Well I guess I won't be washing my hair today since I have no way to dry it. I'll just have to settle for curling it and hope for the best. . . . . to which he answered. . . well if the power is off for the blow dryer, I don't think it will be back on for the curling iron. OOps. . .what was I thinking????