Family

I think in my last post, I had just returned from visiting some of my precious family in Pennsylvania. I was feeling poorly, and perhaps complaining just a teensy bit.

I'm happy to report that I am finally feeling fit as a fiddle. The last of my ailments was my poor aching tooth. I finally ended up with a root canal which was a tremendous relief. Today I had the permanent filling and it is almost perfect.

I've wanted to write about my aunts since my visit to Pennsylvania, but am still not completely in the groove of posting here. Anyway, about my aunts....and my cousin.

My dad was one of ten children: Tommy, Mildred, Dorothy, Norman, Elsie, Mary, Francis (my dad), Margaret, Edward and Betty. They are all deceased except for my Aunt Mary who is 91 years old and amazingly sharp. A few years back, she was on a step ladder washing her windows when she fell and injured her back. The result of that fall was that she went to live in a lovely adult care facility.

My dad's youngest sister, my Aunt Bets, is 82. She and I have so much fun together. Spending time with her is a joy to me. She was a talented seamstress, musician and artist. She has lost most of her sight and is no longer able to quilt and paint like she once did, but she doesn't let that keep her from having fun. I am so honored to have some of her quilts and paintings in my home. She is not only my aunt, but also my dear friend.

So those are my two surviving aunts. My cousin, Sally, is ten years older than me and was my idol when I was a young girl. She is still a beautiful woman and being around her makes me happy. Sally has been a widow for two years now, but lives near her children who adore her and try to take care of her....sometimes to her dismay. You can tell by her picture that she is still a bit of an imp.
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I love and enjoy these women. Sadly, I only see them, at the most, twice a year. And there were years where I was so involved in raising my own children and spending time with my immediate family that I didn't see much of them at all.

Last summer my cousin, Sandy, who is next oldest to me, passed away suddenly. She had just retired from the full time Methodist ministry and had only spent one night in her new home before she died.

My own brother and sister, both younger than me, are also gone. Now more than ever, my extended family is precious to me. So, whenever possible, I love to get together with these beautiful ladies and go to lunch. We always have a good time together. My Aunt Mary and Sally both love potato pancakes, so often we go to a little local bakery where they serve potato pancakes.

Being with these ladies brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood; family picnics, Sunday dinners, birthday celebrations, Christmas, Thanksgiving. I am so blessed to have had the privilege of growing up as part of a large, loving family.

I love you guys.

~Hippo Hugs~

"Where can a person be better

than in the bosom of their family."

~Marmontel Gretry~

Confessions

Have you ever been in a position where you know full well you need to do something, but just cannot seem to force yourself to get to it and do it. Well that's me. The last time I posted here was April 18, 2011. That was a long time ago. About that same time, I just plain quit visiting all the blogs of my dear friends. Just quit.

Now, here I am, trying to explain myself. And to be completely honest, I really have no explanation. We came back home from our winter trip to Nevada and I just did nothing. I've looked back over this past several months and tried to conger up a reason why I became so lethargic and unexcited about life. I certainly was not depressed in any usual sense. I just felt as if I was suspended in time and couldn't really move forward.

Admittedly, we were expecting to receive a call any time to go out to Chicago and help our daughter who was moving into a new (to her) house and due to red tape, the call didn't come until July. But that, in itself, shouldn't have kept me from posting on my blog....or for that matter, reading other blogs.

I did manage to weed, plant and mulch in my flower garden.

And wash the windows on my porch. But for the first time in my married life, I did not wash all the windows in my house this spring. And guess what? My house is still standing. I, however, don't look out the windows.

By the time I was just coming out of my stupor, both our girls came home for a few days. This was a real tread and I did spend some time preparing for that. They came specifically to pay tribute to their grandmother who passed away in February. Since neither of the girls could make it at that time, we planned a little memorial for her.

They made their favorite "Grandma W" cookie and toasted her with then. The brought bubbles and blew them into the wind.



Grandma always made little creatures called "rock babies" with them, so they made rock babies for her grave.



We had a short, but delightful, visit together before they each had to head back to their homes.

And I ended up with cellulitis. The doctor thinks I somehow got it in the cemetery. That led to antibiotics which led to a pretty ugly reaction, which led to some other problems that I am just now getting under control. On top of that I had a crown on one of my back teeth. It hurt from the beginning and we spent two weeks trying adjustments only to finally decide it is dying and I need a root canal. I have had a toothache for nearly a month.



I still believe none of the above reasons are why I haven't been writing. I'm still pondering the reasons, and may never have an answer. In the meantime, I am determined to get back to business. So, as I go off to read some of your blogs, I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me and begin to read my paltry postings once again.



~Hippo Hugs~

Raising Money for Camp Scholarships

We're on our way back to Upstate NY, but I wanted to share with you our last HURRAH in Las Vegas. Sometime last fall, our son in law, Brian, decided that there should be a fundraiser for their pet project, Potosi Pines Christian Camp. He put his head together with Tracy Brown, the camp administrator, and his wife, our daughter Gretchen, and came up with a great idea. Of course, Jim and I weren't about to be left out of this project, so we extended our Nevada stay by a few days so we could be involved. The evening was planned at a local United Methodist Church and called upon all the churches in the valley to participate. The evening included music by three wonderful groups. The first group to participate was a delightful Barbershop Quartet made up of two men and two women. What fun to listen to their wonderful harmony. That music was followed by a really cool group of young men who played a set of jazz tunes. I was disappointed that there wasn't a dance floor. The final group was a contemporary Christian group from Gretchen and Brian's church.

This is the group from Advent UMC warming up. This lively group had us clapping and tapping.

Believe it or not, this is a cake. This wonderful creation depicts a cabin at Potosi Pines Camp. I slept in one of these cabins with eight young women the first time I went "up the mountain" to camp.

Another part of the evening was a silent auction that netted $1,500.00.

This precious lady baked and donated 300 cupcakes, some of which are pictured below.

These peanut butter and jelly cupcakes were definitely my favorite.

Gretchen, Brian and Jim created 300 dessert shooters; cherry cheesecake, s'more and banana pudding. All I can say is "Yummy".

Jim worked hard in the kitchen all day long.

Gretchen and another volunteer putting finishing touches on the "Shooters".

One of my contributions to the gathering was to iron tablecloths. I ironed 40 cloths which I calculated was 8,000 swipes of my right arm.

The event was a success because of the hard work of many volunteers, raising $5,000 for camp scholarships. We are looking forward to next year and hoping to make even more money for kids.

It was a wonderful couple of days spent working with our "kids" on a project dear to their hearts. We've left them and are on our way home with hearts full of joy and love.

~Hippo Hugs~

Beautiful Day in Red Rock

As some of you have noticed, I tried to post something last week that did not come through. The problem being that I actually posted it on my blog, We Write for Ten, a project no longer in existence, and then tried to transfer it to this blogging page. It didn't work. So, today, I am going to try to duplicate that post.

Jim and I had decided we wanted to go out to Red Rock National Conservation area for one more day of hiking before our sojourn here in the desert comes to an end. We packed some water and a picnic lunch and took off for the canyon.

We chose wisely, for when we arrived at Red Rock we discovered, to our delight, that Mojave Max, the resident desert tortoise had just emerged from his winter home. We had never seen Max on previous trips to hike at Red Rock so we were, to say the least, delighted. We arrived in time to hear part of the talk of the turtle expert and discover that the desert tortoise is endangered. It seems that sometime in the 1980's, an ailing pet tortoise was released into the wild to die. Before it succumbed to its illness, 80 per cent of the desert tortoises contracted the germ and died also.

Max, therefore, is carefully watched over and kept safe from all possible harm.

After spending some time with Max, we headed out to the area of the park in which we had chosen to hike. We had heard that this part of the canyon was home to some long horned sheep, but had never had the good fortune to spot any. Well, this was really our lucky day because as we were parking the car, people told us that the sheep were out a little way up the trail. We hurriedly grabbed our water and hiking sticks and made off up the trail. Not only were the sheep out, they were as close to the trail as fifty feet away. I was so overwhelmed with seeing these magnificent creatures that I didn't count them. We were told later that there were fourteen in all in this group.

I think this one was posing just waiting for someone to take his picture.

We spent a lot of time watching them. Their surefootedness is amazing. They are elegant and dignified creatures. They didn't seem to notice us at all as they grazed and walked around on the rocks.

Here is just one of the gorgeous views from farther up the trail. This hike was a three mile loop. the gradual uphill climb wasn't obviously apparent to us as we hiked. The nice surprise was the easy downhill trek back to our car.

After a lovely picnic lunch, it was home to nap in the afternoon.

It's hikes and sights like this that will make it hard to start home in a little over a week.

~Hippo Hugs~

Friday at the Cactus Garden

Friday started off rather chilly here in the valley and almost convinced me that I should stay warm and cuddly in our little condo. Jim's wisdom prevailed and I got myself ready for an outing to Ethel M's Chocolates and Cactus Garden. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining brightly and I was soon feeling warm and happy. I guess the fact that I had just read the paper and found that the temperature back home in New York was 21 degrees, made the 60 degrees here in the desert seem much warmer.

Thanks to our friend, Gunther (Garmen) we soon arrived at Ethel M's. We were disappointed in the factory tour as they were done making candy for the day. We did, however, get the free chocolate samples....YUMMY! Jim had decided before we left the condo that he was buying some candy and purchased their chocolate covered brittle.

The Cactus garden is spectacular. I decided rather than post individual pictures of all the species of cactus I saw, I would do a collage. It was such fun looking at all these different cacti. I plan to make a cactus scrapbook....maybe as early as tomorrow.

As you can see, mixed in among the cactus were a few flowering plants. The color here and there added to the beauty of the cactus.

Prior to leaving for this fun tour, Jim had read in the newspaper that Herman's Hermits with Peter Noone would be appearing at a local casino tomorrow evening. We had seen Peter a few years ago and loved the show. So, off we went to the South Point to purchase tickets for tomorrow evening. The price was right and we are really looking forward to being highly entertained tomorrow.

Feeling so happy with ourselves, we decided to go out lunch at one of my favorites, Balboa's Pizza at the District in Green Valley. It was delicious, as usual.

To proved that we aren't all evil, we did take a two mile walk upon arriving back at the condo.

Jim has opted to stay at home tonight watching NCAA basketball while I grabbed Gretchen and went off to LUSH to shop for goodies. That is such a luscious store and it is so hard not to overspend. We don't have anything like it at home which makes it all the more tempting.

Gretchen made a wonderful pasta and squash dish for us for dinner. Now she's doing school work and I'm just having a wonderful time on my computer.

Until next time,

~Hippo Hugs~

P.S. Once again, Blogger won't allow me to double space between some of my paragraphs. Doesn anyone else have this problem?

Catching Up.....Again!

The last time I posted, we had just arrived here in the desert. I know I posted a couple of photos of our trip westward, but here are a few more. In Chicago, we had hoped to see our little buddy, Liam, wrestle, but alas, he was over weight. Now, I ask you, how can a little bean like him be over weight. We did, however, see the match and see him in his wrestling garb. As usual, we were welcomed by Boomer, the Great Dane who rules over their house. We played Bonanza in honor and memory Paige's dear grandmother. It was a short, but fun visit with our precious oldest daughter. Soon after our arrival here in Henderson Bruce and Shelly came for a short visit. It sure was great showing them some of our favorite places. They have been to Vegas many times, but we showed them some of our haunts. So good to see Bruce doing so much better.

We had a week in between their visit and the visit of Rick and Sandi. This was their first visit to Las Vegas, so we had a great time playing tour guide. I knew Sandi would love the flora of the desert, and I wasn't disappointed.

We did a lot of walking and hiking while they were here. Each day, we walked a mile to the Senior Center nearby, had coffee and a cookie and walked back to the condo. The weather cooperated fully so we could be outside and enjoy the warmth, sunshine and blue skies. We always managed to find some good coffee for Sandy and me.

We did the fountains at the Bellagio, the Flamingo gardens and the canal shops at the Venetian. The gelato at the Venetian was really yummy.

The time went so quickly we could hardly believe it was time for them to fly back to the cold and frozen tundra of Upstate NY.

This past few days were spent in California with Brian and Gretchen. It seems that last year while we were in San Diego, I said, "We should go to Disneyland." And being the spoiled creature that I am, my kids made that happen.

We left early Monday morning following Brian and Gretchen's tradition of breakfast at Jack in the Box, followed by my newly minted tradition of donuts from Dunkin's. Once again, because I am spoiled, we drove to the beach. It was a beautiful, sunny day, if a bit chilly. Jim helped Brian and Gretchen fly their kite while I just enjoyed the ocean. I especially enjoyed the pelican.

After checking into our hotel and having a short rest, we were off to explore the area of Anaheim around Disneyland. We found a cute little mall called Garden Walk where we had a most unique dinner at Fire and Ice Grille. It was a one price meal. There was a green salad bar and then a buffet where you could choose vegetables, pasta, meat or seafood and a sauce. You then took those things to a grill where the cooks put it all together and cooked it, adding the sauce at the very end. It was truly delicious. In my two visits to the buffet, I had a shrimp, scallop, veggie and bow tie pasta combo with an Alfredo sauce. The second was much the same except I switched the seafood for chicken and tried a lemon garlic sauce. It was good, but I think I liked the first the best.

Disneyland. What a fun, fun day. The park was very crowded, but with the help of the Fast Pass everyone was able to ride their favorites. Jim actually rode the Matterhorn and Thunder Mountain Railway with us. Let me tell you, it was way better than riding alone like I did six years ago.

We ended a beautiful day with watching the fabulous fireworks over the Magic Kingdom and pizza in Downtown Disney.

Wednesday found us in Disney's California Adventure Park. We started out at It's a Bug's Life, my favorite. I didn't ride much that day, but had a lot of fun people watching. Wednesday evening ended with Disney's World of Color, a water and laser light show in the Adventure park and then a quick run over to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks, once again.The laser light show was fabulous, but the fireworks are our all time favorite.

As the kids were staying in the park to ride the Tower of Terror, we went our separate ways for dinner. Jim and found a little steak restaurant on the way back to the hotel and had a quiet dinner after a fun-filled day.

I slept most of the way home from Anaheim, most of the evening at the condo, all night and had a morning nap. I think I may be rested. I don't think I mentioned that I had a cold and lived on DayQuil and NyQuil during the trip.

In between all our crazy comings and goings we have managed to walk quite a bit, read quite a bit, play a lot of Skip-Bo, relax and enjoy our surroundings.

In the next four weeks, we plan to do more of that along with seeing the kids, trying to eat sensibly and enjoy the beautiful desert weather.

If you are pray(ers) please pray for Gretchen who has made it through one interview in the process for a National Park Service job at Death Valley. This appears to be her dream job. We'll see what God has to say.

~Hippo Hugs~