Happy Fathers Day

Mike saved his birthday/fathers day tie to wear for fathers day and proudly announced for anyone that was interested exactly what was on the tie. Lots of people came up to look at it and didn't even have to have it explained before he even tried.

They, of course, all said, "AWWWW....." and commented on how clever it was and how cute the grandkids were. We had to agree even if we were a little biased.

All the little stamps of color are the same photograph of the the four grandkids taken together when the Websters went down to AL to visit with the Smiths. It was the very first time all the cousins had been all together. How precious to memorialize it in a gift that their grandpa can be proud to wear anytime! Great thinking! Two views to see - far away and up close to see how cool the tie really is (and how handsome their grandpa is!). Thanks kids!

New Stove & Kitchen Preparation

It all started with trying to clean the stove.

I should tell you that living in an old farm house can be adventurous. Upon our arrival, I discovered our stove was a cooktop, but the controls for it were on the vent hood and that they were push buttons. More than once I thought I had turned things off only to discover that I had instead turned them onto high (DUH!).

Anyway, I was lifting up my favorite big burner to clean underneath it when I discovered the insulation surrounding the wire from the control to the actual burner had some breaks in it and I was worrried that a breakage in the wire might be next.

We had a housing inspector come out and inspect all the farm houses and the stove got a grade of a "D". When we took the cooktop out of the wall we discovered that the wood around the two big burners had already started to burn under the tile countertop. SO glad we decided to replace the cooktop, eh?

In the meantime, new cooktops are pretty pricey, so we tried a different approach. Since I already HATED the wall oven that I had (it was too small, too high for short little me, and I had burned me several times using it already), how about a getting a regular range and putting my pots and pan cupboard where the old oven slot was. It might be a little more carpenter work, but everything would be updated and be more to my liking.

Well, it almost worked like a charm. As the general contractor said, "This is way remodels always go." I'll show what I mean in the pictures that follow.

This is with everything out.

The large circle is where it vents to the outside from the vent hood. The little circle is where it went through the cabinet to connect to the power source to make the vent hood/cooktop controls work.

The little circles at the bottom are the copper lines that were cut through when the cabinet was cut out. The line was the water line to the ice maker/cold water dispenser for the refrigerator. We miss it already. Hopefully it can get fixed soon.

The big circles at the top are where the burners had started burning through the wood under the tile.

This is the hole where the wall oven was. The contractor was too quick for me and got the cross piece (circled area) in before I was able to take a picture of just the hole.

The entire work area.

This is Eric Storm, the general contrator who did such a great job for us. One of the funny things about these shots is the color of his hair. From cutting the tile, the dust got in his hair and it makes him look like it's almost gray. He's really just a young whipper-snapper though. Even with the dust in his hair, he just kept right on working. Good Man!

And, finally, the pile of stuff that is to be hauled away.

So the next post will be the construction, its accompanying problems and the putting of everything back together. Should be much more exciting, I think.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Yup! This was the year Mike turned the big double nickel - 55!!!

Unfortunately for him, it was pretty much just another day. But I thought I'd take time out to celebrate what a cute little boy he was. He's still the best catch around and I was the lucky one to reel him in. I thank my lucky stars every day that whatever it was that turned his head my way, I hope He never forgets it or I never lose it. Although at this age, we're both getting a little absent minded, if not, broken down bodied. Good thing we've both forgotten what it was we were supposed to be looking for.

Oh , well. I love him just the same.

Isn't he a cute little feller?

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

Lake Tahoe!!! - Part 2

So, we got up to the top of the mountain - OR what we thought was the top of the mountain.

Not so! There was more to go! And, lots more fun in store.

Remember the Gondola? Well, we got back on and went further UP the mountain to the where the many, Many, MANY ski trails began. It was Heavenly! No, really. That's what the resort is called HEAVENLY! You ski off one side of the mountain and you're in Nevada and you ski off the other side of the mountain and you're in California. And, although I've never skied before, I got a real feel for it there. Mike was tutoring me through it and showing me what we'd be doing if we were there to ski it. "Fascinating!" As Dr. Spock would say. (For those of you who have done it - why?) Because there still was snow up there and we were unprepared and had to schlog through it in regular clothes (which was difficult enough). Could it be funner with all your gear on? CRAZY!!!

This is a picture of some of the snow-cat trails just off the decking on the lower level. We weren't allowed to play in the snow here, but it sure looked inviting. The snow playing came up on the higher level where it was beginning to melt and one could sink in it up to your knees if you weren't careful.

And, going through the snow turn out to be unavoidable, because..... we wanted to go on the ZIP LINE!!! Can you believe it??? Mike and I got the last couple of seats for the day on the longest zip line in the continental U.S. What a kick!!! We had to ride another lift up to a higher part on the mountain with the wind blowing a chill right through to the bone. (Remember, we hadn't planned to do any of these crazy things and we unprepared for all of this - Oh, well. You only live once!) We got into these seats with our knees against the doors, they strapped us in and then opened the doors. I went faster than Mike and hit the end pretty hard. It was a catapult catching system - pretty cool! These pictures are of the two guys that went just before us. See if you can track their progress. Watch the circles....

Getting loaded into the seats.

Down...

down...

The view from the top deck with the zip line, the snow and beautiful Lake Tahoe.

Here we are, being human projectiles! We were dropped from the altitude of 9,580 feet and got up to speeds of 55 mph! It was pretty fun and something that you probably only would do once. The landing was a pretty hard jolt and sort of hurt my arms. (I should have been holding on like Mike was, but I had to hold onto my purse (see picture). In comparison, the bungee ride at Lagoon was actually more scary than this was. Maybe we've just been riding motorcycles for too long and getting used to thrilling stuff already. I don't know... Still it was a pretty "heavenly" view and "heavenly" little zip run down the side of the mountain.
And, once again the circled picture shows the trailer and a little teeny bit of the back of the bike in the parking garage as we were coming back down the mountain in the gondola getting ready to head back to Chico. What a fun trip! (Especially for a couple of empty-nesters.) Mike said I couldn't say old, because we aren't yet. That is all....

Lake Tahoe!!! - Part 1

The little circled area is the bike and trailer in the parking structure (taken as we went by in the gondola).

A view from just getting on the gondola

Goodness! What fun this empty-nesting can be!

We took off after work on Friday on the Goldwing with the trailer behind. You couldn't even feel the trailer at all. It got a little cold going through the mountains and we had to be constantly on the look-out for deer (scarey!), but we got there safely. We stayed in a little rustic lodge on the north side of the lake. What a gorgeous view! Lots of reminders of bears around and lots of reminders of $$$ around, also (boats, tourist spots, expensive homes, etc.). Had a lovely breakfast at a lovely little spot called "Ye Old Post Office."

Then we got on the bike and stopped at a little arts and crafts fair. Went all the way through without being tempted once! We then saw a cute little Christmas store up on a hill and stopped in there. They had a yummy smelling Chocolate Candle there, but it would probably melt in the side bag, so we left it in the store.

Then we drove around to the south end of the lake where the REAL action is - the casinos and the major shops. Oh, brother! You need to bring BAGS of money when you come to Tahoe! Little did we know....

First of all, we parked the bike in a parking structure. You can see it by looking in the circle of the picture. This shot was taken while we were going up the mountain on a gondola. This car went all the way up the mountain and beyond - quite an amazing site. The pictures won't do it justice.
This is a picture of Mike in the Gondola and if you follow the cables all the way up the mountains, that where the gondola took us - way up to the top of the mountain and beyond! It was a fabulous ride for a magnificent view.

We went up, Up, UP!

This is the first level, where the gondola dropped you off to walk around the deck and get all your good photo shots. You got back on the gondola and went FURTHER UP if you wanted to ski and what-not. It's the what-not that always gets 'ya, you know?

This is the Tahoe airstrip from way far away.

This is part of Lake Tahoe.

This is also part of Lake Tahoe - The bottom of the hill that we left from.

All around the decking they have interesting facts about the lake. We used this to compare it to Utah Lake. Lake Tahoe holds much more water than Utah Lake.

Here's Mike up on the decking playing tourist. It was a lovely day, the wind was blowing, but there still was snow up at that elevation.

OK. So, there's more to come, but rather than bore you with this post, I'll cut this off and save it for our next installment. More Fun, MORE FUN in LAKE TAHOE with us!!! I'll bet you can hardly wait. (All right, so maybe you can...)

Life On The Farm - Part 3

It seems we're a happenin' place! this here farm! I no sooner get one blog post up about the farm, and I need to put up another one. So, here goes....

Remember the decomp smell in the garage?

Here comes MIKE to the rescue again! He says, "Aw, shucks. It twern't nuthin'," brushing his foot across the ground in front of hisself. "The little ole mouse jist up and died right there in the middle of the floor by my tools. I found his poor little dicrepit body a stinkin' up the place and thowed it in the trash all by myself, I did."

And the smell has magically gone away. Hurray!!! Guess the fabric (Mickelle) and scrapbook stuff (Emily) will be fine after all. Thank Goodness!

Now, the food in my pantry.... That's another story.

It seems we've become infested with moths in the pantry. How they got in there and why just the pantry, I don't know. EXCEPT, I did find a partially open bag of flavored almonds that had some webs and some ... um..... shall we say..... little wiggly.... creepy crawly worms that had made themselves at home. (Sorry, Laura)

Next project, going through the pantry and throwing out lots of foodstuffs and disinfecting shelves, walls, etc. Good thing the pantry isn't that big. Just what I wanted. Another project! Oh, well. Spring Cleaning is upon us, eh?

Life on the farm...... sigh...........

Life On The Farm - Part 2

I Know, I KNOW! Time for ANOTHER posting about "life on the farm" already?

As they say on the farm, "Gotta make hay while the sun shines!" So, here goes:

I was telling Laura about all the critters that we have that come to visit us here in our house. She's a wee bit squeamish about bugs, 'specially spiders and such. And, she just couldn't get it through her pretty little head how I dealt with all these elements of nature.

"Easy," I told her. "Just one critter at a time!"

Why, I've showered with yellow jackets, spiders, beetles and lady bugs. So, I always look IN the tub before I put the mat down in the bottom of the tub - just to make sure I don't squash anything under the mat. So, I got in this morning to take my shower before Church. Mike was on the computer in the family room working on his lesson. I turned on the shower and out of nowhere appeared one of our friendly little critters - a lizard with a very long tail. I guess I let out quite an exclamation because Mike quickly asked me if I needed a shoe. I told him no and that I needed a cup. He dashed about and rushed in with a paper plate and a disposable cup. The lizard was captured in no time and transported outside to be set free with the other lizards that love to run around outside our house.

I mention his long tail because the other day, I moved the garbage can in the same bathroom and found another friendly little critter - this lizard was quite large, but only had half of his tail. He preferred to run around the back of the toilet and hid, wrapped around the toilet plunger. Not a very clever lizard, I must say! I had to use the toilet brush and the empty garbage can to catch, transport and relocate him to the front porch. He was greeted by a group of crickets trying to get into the house that night. Sorry, crickets! Not tonight!

I did have one jump up onto the laptop (just to say hello) while I was up in the wee hours of the morning. Surprised the heck out of me because it came out of nowhere. The least it could have done was give me a little warning that he was coming up, Right?!?

We haven't seen any baby lizards yet this spring. I suppose I missed them while I was away with Emily's baby. The first spring we were here, they kept trying to scoot under the front door because there seemed to be a gap that was just right for them to squeeze in through. Some would make it all the way into the kitchen. I'd find them and have to escort them back outside onto the front porch where some of their siblings would be waiting for them.

Sad story, though. A couple of times I found some of their siblings inside the little blue and white watering pitcher that is on the porch. They'd be dead because they'd have fallen in and would not have been able to get out. I finally had to tip the pitcher over and leave the little corpses in there as a warning to the other ones for them not to go in there again. They finally learned their lesson and didn't go in there again. Of course, it never hurts to give them a good talkin' to, also. I think that even though they were in the bushes, they heard me scolding them. They knew I meant business and they stayed out of the water pitcher. We've not had any more sad instances.

Just one more sad instance to report. I'm afraid both Mike and I are smelling a bad smell in the garage. This means that there's a dead something in my lovely boxes of storage. Somewhere in my fabric, scrapbook stuff, Christmas decorations, etc. is probably ANOTHER little dead field mouse - at least it smells the same as the inside of the car when they died there (see previous stories). I only hope it decomposes quickly before I find it and that the smell serves as a warning to all other critters to stay out of there. I suppose it's a losing battle...

Oh, bless this life on the farm......

OH, Life on the Farm.....

They say life on the farm is kinda laid back....

EXCEPT when there's a smell in your car that you just can't get out. De-comp. The smell of something dead is not for the squeamish. A smell I'd never encountered UNTIL recently.

Over a month ago, there came this HORRIFIC smell in the car. Something had crawled inside the car and died. We suspected a little furry animal because there kept being little piles of insulation from between the trunk liner and the metal of the trunk inside the trunk. Later we even found some little seeds in one of the side pockets of the trunk wrapped up in some rags. All the signs were there, we just couldn't find the little varmint. We hunted the entire car over very carefully and finally gave up, thinking it was long gone, and had just left its smell behind. We put in a Yankee Car Jar Air Freshener in hopes that the smell would magically go away. For Mike, it did. All he could smell was the Air Freshener. Surely the smell would be long gone by the time I got back from Salt Lake, Right?

Wrong! It was almost as bad as before and Mike just couldn't smell it. So, I took out the Air Freshener. He smelled it then! He gave the car a really good cleaning and guess what he found?

Way up in the spare time compartment was the skeleton of a little field mouse and his nest. Hooray! The smell would now go away with our help of THREE boxes of baking soda in the car to continue to absorb the smell. IT WAS BAD I TELL YA!

Our Luck! Something else breaks on the car and we have to take it to the shop. The shop guys ask us if we had noticed a funny smell in the car (because they had smelled it and because they noticed the baking soda - sharp ones, they are!). They cleaned out the air conditioner filter - something that had to be mechanically taken apart to get into and guess what they found? ANOTHER little dead field mouse and its nest.

So, that's TWO dead mice in our car, making it stink. How they ever got into those tight spaces and what actually killed them, we'll never know. How do we keep them from getting in again? Who knows? But I now know what the smell is and I'll know not to have to put up with it again - No Sirree!!! I took one pregnant lady home from a singing practice and she almost died riding home with me. Poor thing!

Yes, Life on the Farm is kinda laid back EXCEPT when a dead mouse gets into my car! Look Out!!!

California REALLY is a Beautiful Place!

This is Mike and Buster Van Meter trying to figure out the route we'll be taking. They both have goldwings. Buster's is the white one and Mike's is the silver one. Even though both bikes have a navigation system on them, it's still best to check the map and be sure you're not going to be led down a dirt road-DANGEROUS and dusty to travel on. Look at all those beautiful pine trees. They smell so good, too.
Mike and I in our matching goldwing shirts up at the headwaters park of the Sacramento River. The day started out at 70 degrees, but went up to 102 degrees before we got home. Lovely, Lovely day..... As we were riding I was reminded of why I love living here. It's just really beautiful. We really saw some pretty country today.

This is Mike and Buster Van Meter having a chuckle over something during our break. Buster is the chief mechanic at work and a real nice guy. His wife JoAnn couldn't come today, but usually rides with him. They're a fun couple.

These are the pretty little violets that were planted up around the park where we stopped to look at the river. There were other flowers too with a sign that told us they were flowers. But, I already knew what these were.

This is the headwaters of the Sacramento River. It actually starts right here at this place - just a hole in the ground coming out of some rocks. People come here and fill up their jugs full of the clean, lovely, pristine water. While we were there we saw several people coming there to do just that very thing. It's part of a nice little park.

Branching Out

Be sure to check out my new exciting adventure. Go to this site:

http://caseytscreations.blogspot.com/

I'll be adding lots more as time permits.

Fun Times in Salt Lake

This video is of Mickelle playing with McKenna. We were up at the Thompsons' for a Sunday dinner. We were talking about calling dad for our regular Sunday night family conference call. McKenna is starting to verbalize and is also getting pretty good at sitting up. We're all getting pretty good at adoring her!

I was up in Salt Lake helping Jonathan for some special therapy sessions and got to spend quite a bit of time with family. It was great fun!

More Pics from the Trip

The many faces of Dylan Michael. Can't decide who he looks like here. Maybe he just looks like he doesn't like the taste of something?

A Loving Daddy had painted his little girl's fingernails and she just wanted to show them off to EVERYONE!!! Kari being proud of her blue fingernails that matched her mommy's toenails.

A little fairy princess trying to humor her grandma to let her take one more picture after all the others didn't turn out. Kari dressing up pre-breakfast, wearing her mom's maternity shirt to bed the night before.

"Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cow(girls)boys!"

Kaitlyn dressing up before breakfast.

FUNNY, FUNNY Mother! Can you just imagine what kind of little drama is happening here?

WHOA!!! Somethin's WAY too close! Gotta love those baby cross-eyed pictures.

Had to share these extra pictures with everyone. The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I took TONS of pictures of Justin with his girls and with Dylan. I couldn't find even one where somebody wasn't wiggling somehow to make something blurry. Besides the fact that the crummy autofocus was lousy on my camera. NOT impressed at all. Ask Emily! I took so many pictures that they had to call "Enough!" Guess I was just lucky enough to get the shots that I got. Even some of them were blurry. Maybe if you take off your glasses and squint, they'll suddenly appear clearer? Sorry about that. I either need to learn how to work the camera better or get a new one (not in the foreseeable future).

So, what you see is what you get. Enjoy!

ITALIAN SOUVENIR IS HERE

The Crib Card in Dylan's Bed overlooking Dylan's hairy little head.

Kari and Kaitlyn playing with the hospital curtain in Emily's Room.

Kari holding Dylan. Such a good big sister!

Dylan bundled in Emily's jacket at the airport because it was really raining when she went to drop me off for the flight back home.

I've just had the pleasure of being in the company of two totally charming toddlers. I know, I know. "Toddlers can be charming," you say? But these two definitely are! They are Cute as Ladybugs and So Very, Smart.

What a wonderful experience to see your own children raise their children and do it so magnificently. Makes you hope you taught her everything she'll need to know to continue doing her job so well. If not, you'll stay only a phone call away and wish the distance was only half as far between our two homes. Tears flow freely as we part, not knowing when we'll get to physically share our bonds of love, just promising to make it shorter next time.

Dylan was Justin and Emily's Treasure brought back from their cruise around the mediterranean while Justin was on his study abroad program last summer. He's such a good baby. He absolutely hates having his diaper changed and loves being cuddled. What a mellow little guy. He's got a gorgeous skin color with lots of matching dark hair and such a cute little face - very handsome from the start. His sisters Kari and Kaitlyn love him to pieces. Kari always wants to hold him. Kaitlyn always "want to see" then kisses him on his face. They have a hard time keeping their hands off of him, but then who wouldn't?

This one's for Kari

As I was walking out to check the mail and bring in the garbage can, I saw something that reminded me of the many times last summer that Kari and I took walks down the driveway to check the mail. She was always fascinated by a certain something on the ground. After a while that something seemed to "magically dissappear." (Thanks Grandpa!) This is because she always wanted to touch it and poke at it with her stick. EWWW!

I guess it's that time of year (because we've recently had a lot of rain) for the little critters to come back out again and sure enough, we got another one on the dirt driveway. In fact, in you look really closely, you'll probably see TWO of them.

Ah! Life in the country.....

GOLDWING FEVER

Nice Lookin' Bike, eh?

Another view....

Comin' at 'cha...

Goin' by ya....

Rear View.

Heal-Toe Shifter Floor Boards added after market.

These are the exact ones Dad would have added , but

the bike owner did it for himself - saving us the trouble.

It has ABS - Anti-lock Braking System. (Notice the symbol/insignia

on the wheel.)

Cruise Control .

Stubbings for a CB radio to talk to other bikes.

(A $600 addition for later) Radio/Speaker System

that is ready to hook up to Dad's Ipod.

Navigation system for getting us through towns.

Speedometer and Odometer showing just 4182 miles
on the bike. It's a 2007 year bike.

All the other controls. Heated Grips, Seat heater, Etc.

Side View.

Other side view.

So, Saturday we decided to take a lovely ride in the countryside. We tootled on down to Stockton. There just happened to be a Honda Goldwing Motorcycle for sale there at a gentleman's home. 'Twas a thing of beauty, she was! All silver and shiny, polished up, just waiting to be riden home. We decided to try her on for size and found her an very good fit indeed, not too intimidating for the Mike, the driver and very comfortable for me, the passenger. We just couldn't let anyone else have her. We put down a deposit, wrote up some paperwork and promised to come back for her the following week.

We thought you might like to see some of the pictures of our new addition. No drooling, please!