5.31.2009

GUESS WHERE I AM?

I was supposed to fly home this morning from my long weekend with the kids and Grace. But I came down with a nasty stomach virus late last night and was up all night sick as a dog...so Bruce changed my flight to tomorrow and I spent the day in bed. The kids got me some Sprite and crackers and soup and I am finally feeling like I can make the flight as scheduled! That is an answer to prayer, for certain!

I will blog more about my wonderful visit, but I just have to share this snapshot of Grace that I took with my phone on Friday when we went to the park for a picnic.


She has just about mastered sitting up already! She always has a hand or finger in her mouth and jabbers and jabbers. She amazes me with her dexterity already! And she is the happiest, smiling baby. I just love her to pieces!

I'm still trying to figure out a way to get her in my carry-on bag tomorrow. Yeah, right. Keep dreamin' Memaw.

5.26.2009

THE "NEW" NEW BED

Once upon a time.....no, wait, that is not how this story should start. Let me try that again.

After over 10 years, our mattress was ready for replacement.

Yeah, that's better. After all, this is not a fairy tale. It's 100% true.

Yep, it was time to retire the old Simmons Beautyrest Worldclass mattress to the junkyard.

It had been a good bed, for a long time. But, even after putting a 3 inch memory foam topper on top 9 months ago to get us through till our move (since we really thought we'd be packing up and moving on to Tennessee by now), we realized that the valleys in the mattress were no longer camoflauged by the memory foam and we admitted it was time to get a new bed!

Plus, Bruce was waking with a backache every morning and I was finding it nearly impossible to turn over in a hole.

So, on a Friday night, after eating some dinner out, we headed over to the Sleep Train near us and talked to a super nice young man, Daniel (who reminded us so much of T) about replacing our Beautyrest with the same class of mattress. We laid on each one of the four Beautyrest Worldclass mattresses and decided on a Pillowtop Firm. I felt like Goldilocks.

Fast forward to Tuesday (delivery day). Our much anticipated new Beautyrest mattress arrived and we got a good night's sleep. No more backache for Bruce. No valleys.

But... (you had to know that was coming)...the second through tenth night was hell for me. I hated it. My back ached every morning. In fact, after a week, my whole body hurt. I felt bruised. I tossed and turned. I dreaded bedtime.

It was time to go back and look at beds again.

So, we went back to Sleep Train on the following Friday night and talked to Daniel and tested a Sleep Number (SN) bed. I originally had considered a SN bed but we didn't try it out on our first bed shopping adventure. We laid down on the mattress, found our numbers and rolled around the bed finally deciding that this would be the bed to replace our 'new' Beautyrest mattress. One that would give me the softer mattress I wanted and Bruce the firmness he wanted. SOLD.

So, now we are in day three of the SN bed. So far, so good. Better than the first 'new' bed. We think there is a glitch with firmness control (which we may have to get exchanged) ..but it has not deterred us from sleeping good.

Kona has given our SN bed a thumbs up. Last night, she jumped up with us, but, instead of spending her usual few minutes with us before hopping off to curl up on her own bed (which by the way is a new, comfy Costco dog bed), she instead laid down between us, and flopped to her side, stretched out and immediately began snoring.

She had obviously found HER sleep number, which was MY sleep number. She was hogging most of my side of the bed. And she was dead asleep. Her legs outstretched. Her body heavy. I nudged her with my foot, rooted it underneath her and pushed. I patted her, scratched her back and even touched her feet, which will usually wake her right up. No response. Nada. She only snored louder, deeper, sounder. I finally had to get up out of bed and all but drag her her off the bed.

Well, really, I just used my loud whisper voice to call her off the bed. Her sleepy eyes opened and stared at me. I continued to whisper forcefully (trying not to wake Bruce) and finally she slowly stood up and even slower, made her way down off the bed.

I hopped back in and reclaimed my side of the bed...found a comfy position and slept almost as good as Kona was.

Stay tuned for the rest of the "new" new bed story. I'm hopeful that the story will end "happily ever after".

5.25.2009

QUIET MONDAY BREAK

We've had a busy weekend and are ending it with a laid-back Monday at home. We're watching NASCAR (the Coca-Cola 600) and sipping a Bloody Mary. I am blogging and Bruce is going through old photos to scan. Just so nice to not really have a schedule to follow today. Life is good.

Shane spent the night last night after our barbeque celebrating his birthday (early). I'll be in Salt Lake to visit Gracie and the kids on Shane's actual birthday (the 28th), so we planned to have a small family celebration this weekend.

The weather was perfect...76 degrees and so we all sat on the patio and visited. Bruce barbequed baby-back ribs, and we had white corn-on-the-cob and homemade coleslaw. I baked a chocolate Kahlua cake with homemade fudge glaze and served it with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Bruce and I slept in (a rarity for us). We woke at 7:40 a.m. Given that we wake between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. during the week, sleeping in for us is usually 6:30 a.m. So today was a real luxury for us.

Started the coffee...fed the animals....and watched some Animal Planet shows while we sipped two mugs of coffee. By 9:00 we were in the kitchen to make breakfast (pancakes, bacon and orange juice). Just a wonderful quiet morning.

We are enjoying the race on the new flatscreen TV. (46" Samsung A550). We are a little slow in joining the flatscreen world. But we love it! We had a 27" Sony that we bought almost 8 years ago. The sound was starting to have problems..or we were going deaf...which is NOT the case.

Honest....

I don't plan to do much for the rest of my day. We're going to grill steaks tonight. We will probably have some grilled veggies with them. And some wine.

And get my second good night's sleep on our New...'new bed'. It's been a long 12 days...Yeah, there is a story with that too. Now I know why I waited so long to make a change.

More on that later.

5.24.2009

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

Memorial Day weekend. A beautiful spring night. Baseball. Padres. Win.

There is not a bad seat at Petco Park. The setting is intimate (as far as ballparks go) and the view of the cityscape is a bonus.
Last night was a packed house. With Padres coming into their 8th game after seven straight wins, it was promising to be a great game against the Cubs. And there were a lot of Cubs fans packed into Petco last night. But that did not deter the Pads fans.


And our guys did not let us down. Tony Gwynn Jr. was playing. His father is a San Diego Baseball Hometown Hero. My son, C and Little Tony played Little League together in Poway. They were 7 years old. Big Tony is such a down to earth, nice guy. He was right there at all the games and cheered his son on with all the rest of us parents. At the end of the season party, Big Tony gave all the boys an autographed ball. That was cool.

It was a good night. Great seats, peanuts, singing during the 7th inning stretch....take me out to the ballgame...and the Padres 8th win in a row. Yep, it was a good night.

5.23.2009

AMERICAN FIDO

It's been a fun week here.

My youngest daughter, M, and her smart Lab mix, Bryant just won 2nd place in a local "American Fido" video talent contest on our Fox News station.

Here is photo of Bryant just hanging out, looking his cool, laid-back self.

He loves to swim. Makes sense for a Lab doesn't it? But Bryant's unique talent is that he will just jump in the pool and begin splashing the water with his paws so that he can then bite at the water. It is so smart of him that he can entertain himself! He doesn't need anyone else in the pool. He will just swim by himself and get out and start all over again.


What did Bryant win, you ask? A $250 gift certificate to Muttropolis --a Utopia for Pets and their Parents. Wow, I'll say. There are lots of great goodies and supplies for your beloved pet. You can shop online and they have some locations. We have a store here in San Diego--well, in La Jolla, to be exact.

I wonder what Bryant will choose?

5.19.2009

BIG SISTER AND LITTLE BROTHER 1959

Here is a photo I came across of me with one of my brothers when I was three and he was just 5 months old.
Isn't this a cute picture of the two of us? I will also scan and share some of me with my "baby" (youngest) brother and a few of the three of us!

5.17.2009

MOTHER DAUGHTER

This morning, as I was going through a box of old photos my parents had given me, I came across the photo of A at 4 months old--the age Gracie is now. Here she is Christmas morning 1979.

And here is her darling baby girl at the same age. I can see where Gracie got those baby blues!

I have been scanning some older photos and will post some glimpses of me as a little one too...it's been fun to walk down memory lane.

5.11.2009

MOTHER'S DAY-- UPDATED

Just a couple of updated pictures of M and C...

This one was taken of M at our house a couple of weeks ago...I just love this pic of her.

And this cute shot was taken Mother's Day of both C and M together...awwww. I can't wait to have all my kids together and I can get a picture of all of them.
Hey, T! I need an updated good pic of you, too! (hint, hint)

MOTHER'S DAY

I had the most marvelous Mother's Day weekend.

First, I got to spend Saturday evening with my own wonderful, beautiful mama (and Daddy). We went to the Saturday evening church service and out to dinner afterwards at Anthony's (a family favorite). My youngest daughter, Miss M and my baby brother David joined Bruce and I and Mom and Dad and it was a really nice evening together. This is a photo of MY mama with Gracie when A & K were here two months ago.
My eldest daughter, A, called me and we chatted about our morning...she and Gracie and hubby were on their way from breakfast at Mimi's Cafe and off to enjoy the rest of their day! Great to talk to her--she sent me beautiful flowers on Friday! Just beaming with pride at how she manages her mommying, working, pumping, and treadmilling...and makes it look easy!
Next, my Navy boy, T, called me and we chatted away and caught up on what our week had held. He is still in JAX in school and keeping busy with studying, flying and balancing his free time! Gosh, he really has a lot on his plate right now...and I am proud of how well he is doing with it all!
My eldest son, C, came by for a visit in the early afternoon before he had to get home to study both for a trigonometry test as well as studying for a fire safety system he is installing with work! We had a nice long visit. It was so good to see him! I am very proud of him!

Miss M, came over to hang and BBQ with us--and arrived before her brother, C, had to leave, so we got some pics of us and them together...but of course those are still on my camera. I promise to post those tonight or tomorrow...so I apologize for the dated photos I have here.
M is such a joy to have around. She makes me laugh outloud with her cute and crazy stories and way of telling things! Love that "muffin girl" and how well she manages her work and school and has it so together at 21.
It was so nice out on our patio. The weather was 74 degrees and sunny. We all sat outside visiting, and scarfed down shrimp cocktail that my sweet, hubby, Bruce got for us to have. So good! I made a pitcher (or two) of blended pina coladas and we feasted on grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and potato salad! YUM!
M's, good friend Oliva joined us for dinner after she finished with work and it was good to see her again too!
I was the grateful recipient of lots of goodies: two beautiful flower bouquets, a gorgeous mini rose plant, The "Not So Big Life" book, Jamey Johnson CD, Starbuck's gift card and a Visa gift card. (Thank you kids!!) and a flight to Utah to see lil Gracie (and A & K) in two weeks! (Thank you, Baby!)
Yes, it was a wonderful, memorable Mother's Day weekend of celebrating and spending time with loved ones! I am blessed.

5.03.2009

PICTURE THIS

Beautiful Baby! Her mama, A (also known as "Summer Girl" in her own recently crafted blog), snapped this photo of Gracie last week. She is already 16 weeks old. Stop the clock. She is growing up too fast for me. Look at those blue eyes!

5.02.2009

THE BEST OF TIMES

I have no idea why I could not get these pics to upload two weeks ago...but I was finally able to get them uploaded to my blog.

Here are some photos of our afternoon with our friends, Larry and Debbie. Playing darts, listening to music, barbequed burgers and drinks, and lots of laughs.


Here are Kona's pals, Hannah and Lizzie in the back of Larry's Jeep...perfect photo opportunity.

A few games of darts is always part of a great day with friends. We usually have to go for two out of three games to determine the winners.
An afternoon full of smiles and laughter, good conversation, great music and sometimes a game on the big screen. Depending on the season...football, hockey or baseball.


It is true that the best things in life are free. Friendships are treasures.