Corona Snow

Can you imagine that? Snow in the Corona area? Well we were hit with 2 days of rain last Sunday and Monday and we woke up to freezing cold weather. Okay, maybe not freezing cold compared to some areas but freezing cold to us. I was taking Isaac to school looking at the beautiful snow to the north...Big Bear, Mount Baldy, Angeles Crest. And then when I turned south I saw all the snow that hit our mountains. Wow! These are the mountains that back up to Anaheim Hills and Tustin. I was totally surprised! Apparently snow was still on the ground from Tom's Farms down into Lake Elsinore. Kind of cool for the kids in our area to see. Some of my friends' houses got snowed on. We're suppose to have more rain tonight and tomorrow. Maybe some of us will have a white Christmas after all.

Sleeping Beauty

Happy Birthday Mom! Mom turned 82 on Sunday. We went to see her after Alex's performance in The Nutcracker. **No, Alex was not the nut. Hee hee.** We decided to take her to the emergency room that night. Nothing like going to the hospital on your birthday! We had forgot to bring her Maxine glasses to cut the glare of the overhead lights so we had to improvise with the baby blanket. Now these blankets are a family favorite. Our Aunt Marjory crochets a nice edging around the square of flannel and sells them at St. Joseph's hospital or gives them as gifts. I received all the lamb patterns that she had for Isaac when he was born. These blankets are perfect for us everywhere. They are just the right size to keep you warm in the car when the a/c is just a tad too cold. And Mom's ER nurse was asking Annette how to get a hold of some for herself.

Anyhow, she was actually talking more at this time while we were waiting for her diagnosis. After we found out about the brain tumor and let her know what was going on, she was able to understand that she was worse off than we had originally thought. So this last week we have been able to go see her as much as possible to keep her company and to just be with her during her last days. It's bittersweet but she has lived an amazingly good life.

World's Biggest Yard Sale

Well last Saturday, Tosha and I decided to have a yard sale to benefit mommies in need in our Mom2Mom group. Let me tell you...it was the biggest yard sale I have ever done. I'm sure Tosha's husband is never going to agree to have a yard sale there again if I am involved. We had at least half of my mom's house there along with numerous others' household items. So after 4 weeks of preparation, 10 tables of clothes, who knows how many toys and other odds and ends, God blessed us with $1050 in sales. This was the EXACT amount that we needed to give our mommies both food and Walmart gift cards. God is good.

After several people assumed this wonderful penguin was Tosha's yard art....we were able to get rid of it. Charlotte and I had found this a few years ago on the side of a trash can. Imagine that! A perfectly good penguin being tossed out. So every year we would bring her out of the attic and dress her up for the holidays. Funny thing is...Tosha about peed her pants when she walked into her courtyard one day and didn't know that she was there sitting on a filing cabinet. I told her not to feel bad...the thing always scared the life out of me at mom's house when I walked by it. I want to especially thank Andrea for calling her friend and for giving our penguin a new home. May she scare them just as well.

Can you tell we're tired? Here is the yard sale hat crew. These were a few of the hats that we were selling. Unfortunately none of them sold and Max ended up taking the reindeer hat home with us. I just don't understand why people don't like hats. They're fun!

I just want to personally thank all the people who made this yard sale a tremendous event. Your hard work, your prayers, and your hospitality are greatly appreciated!

Flat Isaac

Poor Flat Isaac got run over by Auntie Nette's car! A little history... Isaac made this in school last year after his class read the book Flat Stanley. He had to send him to another person in another state to have adventures with them. He chose to send him to Aunt Yvonne's. He came back with a broken leg, snow clothes on and a photo book of all his adventures.

Well Maxwell found Flat Isaac laying around the house and decided to take him to Thanksgiving with us at Auntie Dar's. The next day when we got to Grandma's house, Max dropped him out of Charlotte's car and left him in the street. When Annette and I came back from moving her stuff, we ran him over. Luckily for him he was flat already! Not like the mouse Charlotte ran over but that's another story.

You Can't Pick Your Family...

that's why Annette doesn't like hanging out with us for very long. Most of you know that I'm just plain nuts most of the time. I always enjoy having fun even if it is at someone else's expense. In this case it was with Annette. While cleaning out Mom's house I ran across the coon skin cap, the beanie, and swiped Cody's Pimp Daddy hat. We decided that we were going to wear them to the mall with Annette to do the "Shop til you drop" girls' night out. Lucky her!

The Orange County Zoo

We headed off on another Grandma Tour on Friday with my Mom2Mom group from church. This is really small zoo that houses animals that are indigenous to the southwestern United States. The most famous resident at the zoo is Nacho the black bear. The bears came out to see us and one even backed into the water pool to cool off his hind quarters. It was at least 80 degrees that day. I hope it cools down soon. We were quite fortunate to be able to go seeing how the Corona fire started the next day and closed all the freeways to the zoo.

One of the animals at the zoo was this guy, a mule deer. I have never seen a deer up close that was growing in his antlers. It was really neat! He had several velvety prongs growing in all in a cluster. I wish this photo came out better. The chain link was hard to shoot through.

After seeing the zoo animals we went to the duck pond to feed the ducks. While feeding them this beautiful boy came over for some food as well. He walked right up to me to get some. The kids were so excited to see a peacock up close that they were closing in on him and we had to get them to back away so he could get back to his friends. We were afraid that the kids would fall into the yucky duck water. That stuff is just nasty... and I know from experience unfortunately. Ewww! Grandma C seemed to have a good time and enjoyed watching all the kids having fun. And she was very thankful that I did not lose her into the pond while pushing her wheelchair down to the edge.

My Grannyman

This is my Grannyman, Haydn. Haydn has been with me since I've been married. He is a very sweet 16 year old siamese cat. He is my little ray of sunshine. I know he's getting old and I won't have him with me much longer so I savor each day I have. Haydn sleeps with me with his head on my cheek and an arm around my neck. When the weather is too warm he sleeps on my pillow and I use him as a pillow. He doesn't seem to mind as long as I am near him. I ran across a book called, The Grannyman by Judith Shachner, last year at the library. It totally reminded me of Haydn when we brought home Scooter, our other cat. It's about an old siamese cat that reflects on his life and prepares to die until a new kitten arrives in his home. He then teaches the kitten everything it needs to know about life. It is a really nice book. Haydn did that with Scooter until Scooter became the Alpha Cat in our home.

Here is our wonderful Scooter using Haydn as a pillow as well. I am so surprised that Haydn hasn't died due to the abuse that Scooter puts him through. That poor old cat never gets to leave a room without Scooter jumping him. Scooter is a beast but he's sweet in his own way too. Scooter loves to sleep under the covers by my feet and is good until you move too much and then he'll attack you. Should have had him declawed! Isaac and I went to the pound the other day to license our dog. We checked out the animals, which we do everytime we go there even though Jeff has said "no more cats!" Let me tell you...it took all the willpower in me to not adopt the blue point siamese kitten that was there. He was so cute and talkative! Isaac told me to get him and I told him that if I do I'd have to get rid of a kid...most likely him. He decided that we didn't need the kitten after all. Too bad...the kitten would have been a nice change.