Rainy Day and Sheets

It's a dreary, rainy day in our part of Idaho today, but I had to get a couple of photos of the trees budding out. I think this means spring is right around the corner!

This is our apple tree. I sure hope we don't get any blight or worms on it this year. Being a "fruit grower" can certainly be frustrating!

This is our quaking aspen tree and my favorite tree in the world. I love to see it quake in a very gentle breeze.

This tree is a Navajo willow in our neighbor's yard and is only 6 years old. It grows faster and looks like it'd be hard to kill also. Several grow in our neighborhood because they're fast growing and we need shade here badly in the summer time.

Now, what do sheets have to do with this post? Well, I'm gonna tell ya, chicks.

On my granddaughter's Facebook page she talked about how I cleaned her stove top on the last visit and how she didn't even know the knobs came off for cleaning. Her mother—my daughter—was amazed at what she didn't know. That got on the subject of folding fitted sheets. Daughter said she was the best fitted sheet folder in the world. I said, "Au contraire, I am the best." So here I am to prove it to people on her Facebook page and I'll be directing them here to prove it. And yes, I do buy French sheets for our bed! I love soft linens to sleep on.

*

And speaking of the French, I read an article recently that a mayor in France had a bust of Marianne in a traditional Phrygian cap removed because her breasts were too large. I take exception to that. As a well-endowed woman I believe I speak for many women when I say: at least ours are real. How could he be so judgmental about something like that? We who are born that way rarely ever flaunt our chests. I certainly don't! Ridiculous man.
~*~

Pink Saturday 4/2/2011

It's another Pink Saturday for all you great bloggers. Just click on the logo below and visit with Beverly to see pink things.

*

Okay, let's visit Mexico, Puerto Vallarta to be exact. I love Mexico. I've been there many times but my favorite place is Los Tules Resort in PV. We would rent a condo and usually have the pool to ourselves. There are actually 7 pools on the property but the area we usually requested was near the largest of the pools.

This is that pool. Once our condo was in that building to the right, but we'd get different rooms around that same pool. I absolutely loved it there. I prefer the west coast of Mexico of course since we're in the West. The end of May was the season we always went. It was almost deserted then so for us that was perfect.

This is one of the restaurants in the hotel Fiesta Americana, which is next door to Los Tules. It's outdoors so it's very casual if you wanted to eat there with your swimming suit on. That could be the exact table where I fainted into my plate of food. I'm very familiar with that outdoor restaurant and it's small. Since we've eaten there many times I know it well so, yep, that is the exact spot.

This is the Fiesta Americana next to Los Tules. You can just see the top of the condos in the middle part of the picture just above the palm trees. It's absolutely gorgeous!

BTW, my photos of the place are not digital and horrendous so I'm using the pictures from the website.
*

I went shoe shopping last week and was in Dillards looking for some proper shoes. Since I'm having surgery on my heel next week. (Nuuuu, don't cry; it ain't serious, chicks. Just separating my achilles tendon from my heel, scraping away some bone, be in a "non-load bearing" position for a week and a month in a boot. Piece of cake!)

Anyway, a month ago I bought a pair of SAS shoes. Those aren't cheap but supposed to be good walking shoes. One hundred and forty-eight dollars worth of "good walking shoe." It didn't solve my problem with pain.

So then to the Boise Mall and Dillards. The salesclerk measured me for a completely different size from the SAS store lady and showed me these shoes. They are among the ugliest shoes I've ever seen. BUT they are the shoe that the salespeople were wearing because it "rocks" your foot forward and does NOT bend. It's not padded in there, but that really didn't matter. They just feel good to walk in. I'm still getting used to them. One hundred and forty dollars worth of "getting used to"! And to tell you the truth, while I was out running errands yesterday people kept looking at my feet and 2 women said they were cute and asked me where I got them and what they cost. The shoe does NOT flex. I can't remember the concept the salesman described but I really like them. I feel steadier on my feet and am about 2" higher, which is great when you're only 5'4" tall. And they make your feet look small. AND they're a size 9, not a 10 like the SAS lady told me. I wondered why my right foot kept slipping in the other shoes. One foot is 1/2 size smaller but it was enough to make it not feel right. These aren't a problem because your foot is supposed to slip in there. Just weird but it works.

They're called Dansko and truly darling on the feet.

*

And Some Random Thoughts:

When reading a story the other day, one of the characters said something was "just across the way." It started me wondering just what is "the way." No practical explanation I think.
*

I got a "heads up" from a friend on the website Spokeo. If you haven't heard of it, go there and put in your name. It can be frightening what they know about you. I immediately requested my name be unsubscribed. People already know too much about us. I try to be as anonymous as possible but it's becoming less and less possible in this age of computers. Please take care of your identities. We belong to LifeLock and already they've alerted us to things going on.

Which brings me to Great Britain. Did you know they have cameras on every corner of London to help with security? They can track you no matter where you are. Even your car license plates. It hasn't deterred crime a bit, but I'm truly shocked the British, who are our forefathers, would give up their privacy in that manner. I don't want people knowing my every move! I want my rights to privacy. I'm a rider who likes to keep tight reins on my own life, not have someone else do it for me.
*

I sometimes listen to radio if I'm working around the house. I love talk radio. But it's truly seldom that I listen to very much otherwise. Anyway, I kept hearing one announcer say this about one host: He's Idaho's #1 Taco. I kept wondering what that meant until one day after several months I caught it. He was saying Idaho's #1 talk host. But it sure sounded like taco! We need to slow down and enunciate our speech more clearly. And don't even get me started on the teen talk of today!
*

Okay, you've had enough of me for one day. More in a few days. Opinions, that is. ;-)
~*~

Putting Things Into Perspective

Just checking in today, but I'll have more for Pink Saturday tomorrow. Is it spring yet?????? Trying to think positive about it.

I've been busy reevaluating things in my life recently: what's important, what's not and the in-between things. It just feels like something is missing. I think most of you will understand this since most of us experience this at one time or another. We sometimes don't even recognize it when there is something amiss. But I've figured out one thing I need: more challenges. I say this with my heart in my throat because I'm not sure what God will throw my way now. Sigh. But I've gotten a missionary call to help with genealogy. I won't have to travel to far away countries, which I don't want to do anymore, especially with the travel regulations such as they are now. I can do it right from my home computer with a headset (which I have), Skype (which I've been using for many years) and a telephone. Qualified!

I think this comes because I'm feeling useless in the scheme of things right now. But anyway, I'm going to do it.

The other thing is I got food poisoning Sunday night. After fasting for 24 hours, which we do once a month and then give the money we would have spent on 2 nice meals at a restaurant to our bishop to use for needy families in our ward. I broke the fast with a frozen cashew chicken (Sundays are easy meals for us since we try to keep "work" to a minimum) and within a couple of hours I started feeling very, very nauseous. At 9:30 pm I told hubs we need to go to bed. I lay there for over 4 hours trying to squelch the nausea but to no avail. At almost 2 am I awoke and rushed to the bathroom. So I spent the night on the toilet with a plastic lined trash can in my lap. Not fun! I didn't get out of the house until last night when hubs took me to Jack in the Box for a salad. I'm feeling 95% better but still tired.

But I went to the doctor today for a visit I've had for a month and I'm in fine shape. Blood pressure is 118/65. Not bad for an old lady. My doctor was impressed and so was I.

So I'll stop rambling now and have a better post for y'all tomorrow! :-)
~*~

Pink Saturday 3/26/2011

Happy Pink Saturday to all of you. To view the other participants, please click on Beverly's logo below and you can see all the pinkness your eyes can stand!
*

The story began yesterday when hubs was out of town for the day and I got the bug to "fluff up" again. It wasn't so much "fluff up" as it was clearing space on the walls. I wanted more of the pink walls to show through to give the eye a rest. I'd been thinking about this for a long time. (Okay, you know where this is leading, right? More stuff to get rid of of course!) I put one of the pictures out in the garage for hubs to put in the garbage but he thought it should go to Goodwill or D.I. I hadn't thought of it but he was right. Someone else might love having it. Plus we'll get the tax deduction.

I love this limited edition print, which is my favorite one, so it went back into the family room. Originally, I worried about the southern sun coming in and deteriorating it but if I can't enjoy it where I want then why have it? I moved a little footstool next to a big one for my family's or guest's comfort. The big one can be used as a table for snacks also.

All the artwork came off the wall and is now on the floor to the right of the sofa awaiting my decision on what to do with it as you can see partially in this photo and in the one above. Sell, give it to charity or keep? I don't know yet. Big sigh. That bookcase on the left is going into my office as soon as I get rid of another old bookcase in there. Hubs likes this one better than the gold wrought iron one in there now and it's at least 35 years old. Craigslist? Probably.

So here is the living room so far. More tweaking will be required as I want to get rid of some of the birdhouses or find another use for them somewhere else.

Next week the new solar tubes go in so I can get the lighting on this room better. I can hardly wait!

Yep, a stack on old magazines I plan on giving to a friend and then selling some of the very old ones on ebay.

The coffee table sits with much I have taken off the sofa table on the wall and will determine what to do with it at a later date. My mind is frazzled at this point.

These little blocks I bought a few years ago, painted and decaled and put up there. Just needed something above the archway and I didn't want something that might fall off on someone's head—namely mine.

Something's missing from my "C" but I have no clue where it went. You'd have thought it would be on the floor somewhere but I haven't found it yet. The little cottage sign just changed its place on that wall by a few feet.

Some lucky little girl is getting this lamp that was on the sofa table. ;-)

Another view of the wall. I put my original wedding bouquet (filled in with paper roses) on the wall and a little shelf from the family room was brought in to this wall to hold our wedding cake toppers. They are the originals from the 2 receptions we had so that'd make them 50 years old. I'd say that's vintage, wouldn't you?

Ohmygosh, how did Caroline get in here? :-) I love the fact that she just loves wearing her sunglasses like the rest of the women in this family.

~*~

Fluffing Up the Living Room

While the hubs' away, the chick will play. Or in this instance I'll redo the living room and family room walls. Yep, Love Bunny is away most of the day, will come home to eat dinner and go up north to teach a class about 3 hrs away from here and be back tomorrow evening. I've been waiting for him to leave to give the house a good cleaning—which in my case means dusting. I hate dusting and don't do it regularly enough to the embarrassment of hubs, but I don't care. Really, I don't. This is a dusty area with all the farms around us so we're gonna get dust!

This morning I was shaking rugs out back and saw this little clump of moss. I hope it grows and fills in around the grapes, but I love moss!

Now, these pictures are for the sky but the little lanterns I made (and are so dirty from the winter!) were hanging there and thought I'd show you our cloudy sky beyond the hanging jars. Cloudy and rain today and tomorrow.

So, one thing leads to another and here I am rearranging some wall decor around the living room. It's times like this I wish more devotees of romantic shabby chic decor lived around here because I've much to give away.

I'll post more pix tomorrow for Pink Saturday to show what it looks like now...if I finish in time. Sigh...

~*~