Siblings

Uncle Don just sent me this picture of Aunt Nancy and Grandpa Roy from the anniversary party in December.  I love this pic of Roy and his little sis!

Family Crisis

I have not been blogging much lately because we have been knee deep in a family crisis. 

Eleven days ago, Grandpa Roy had a massive heart attack while driving his truck.  Luckily, a good samaritan noticed he was having trouble and called 911 as soon as he crashed his truck.  This allowed a fast response by emergency professionals who did CPR and transported him to the closest hospital.  Doctors did an emergency angioplasty and blew open a closed artery in his heart.

He was in very, very critical condition.  Because it was not known how long he had been without oxygen, they decided to do cooling therapy where they cooled his body temperature to about 92 degrees for 24 hours.  Then they warm his body back up for 24 hours.  This therapy is very successful in preserving as much brain function as possible in these types of situations.

After the warming phase, he was still on a ventilator for another 4 days while they stabilized him  After a week they removed the breathing tube and he was transferred to his home hospital where he remains in ICU.

We are seeing improvement everyday - to the point where he stood up for the first time today!  Doctors are calling him a miracle patient because no one expected him to be doing so well.

He still has a long way to go but as a friend pointed out: "progress is progress"!

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

I am sure I will have reflections on this experience as time passes by but for now, I am using all my energy just to move forward.  At some point I do want to be able to reflect because there are a lot of lessons learned thru this experience -

Lessons in devotion
Lessons in love
Lessons in karma
Lessons in friendships
Lessons in being a good person
Lessons in strength
Lessons in relationships

I do have to say that we are incredibly blessed to have a wonderful family and tremendous friends.  We feel the love and support every minute of the day.

Best Friends

This is a hilarious video that shows how Ahi and Murray get along.  Ahi is on the couch and Murray is sitting in front of it.....that makes them eye to eye.

Sick Mini

My mini is very sick!  The clutch went out and apparently you have to take EVERYTHING apart to fix it!  This is what it looks like in the shop.  

Winter Ball

Drew asked a girl named Kayla to Winter Ball yesterday.  But they don't ask the way they used to.  Now they do something elaborate.  Drew designed a scavenger hunt for Kayla. 

First she came to our house and Jim gave her an envelope with directions to Shade's house (one of Drew's buddies).  There she got a card that said...."Will You..." and gave her directions to the next spot, which was the card above.

That card said "go with".... and gave more directions.

Next card said "me to..." and gave directions to go home.

On her front door was a card that said "Winter Ball" and on the inside of the card it said "if you accept this invitation, open the front door".  And he was inside holding a dozen red roses.

Very sweet and very romantic.  Of course she said "yes".

The dance is in 2 weeks.  Stay tuned for pictures.

Healing

Here is Drew's eye, 4 days later.  It is healing really well.  Hope to get stitches out tomorrow or Tuesday.

Eye Injury

Drew got kicked on the face today during a soccer game.  Jim took him to the ER right away and I met them there.  CT scan came back clear so they stitched him up and sent him on his way.

3 stitches!

Fishing in Mexico

Jim went on a 4 day fishing trip last week to Mexico.  Here is one of the pics.

Sick Mini

The clutch went out on the mini when Drew was driving it on Friday nite.  He had it towed back to our house and today we had it towed to Paul to get it fixed.  A little sad to see it drive away.

Grandma Anna

This is a picture of Grandma Anna and Lois, Anna's stepmother.  Anna is on the left.

Home Sweet Home

Instead of "Rocking Boat"!

Jim is home from his 4 day fishing trip in Mexico.  He had a great time but it is not exactly the trip he was hoping for.  The weather was really blowing, the water rough and the water temp not exactly right for the big fish.  They did catch fish but not the "cows" that they wanted.

The whole things sounds like a total nightmare to me but they enjoyed it.

Brrrr

It has been really cold here the last few days (freezing temps at nite).  The house is getting down to 54 degrees over nite.  We are heat misers so when we turn the heat on, it's only set to 62 degrees.  I looked up from working this morning (while wearing a down jacket) and saw the dogs soaking up some sun coming thru the front window.  I think they were trying to tell me to turn up the heat!

And in this weather, Drew went off to school this morning wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Dope!

Sanborn Park Hike

Ahi and Daisy are digging and Murray lays down BEHIND them!  Dope!

Accidental geocache!

Geochache

Grace, Marty, Tina and I went for a hike today at Sanborn Park.  We were out about 2 1/2 hours and wore out the dogs.  It was cold enough that there was ice in puddles.   But not cold enough that the dogs didn't do some swimming in the pond. 

At one point Grace accidentally found a geocache!  We didn't even have a GPS with us, she just saw it off a trail.  She is a geocache magnet!

Cool green rock

Fluff

Murray got a new stuffed Beaver for xmas and last nite he brought it over for him and Daisy to play with....and this was the result!  They de-fluffed it and then we covered Murman with the fluff. 

Big Mutts

I love my new mug!  Marty gave it to me as an early birthday present because he saw it and decided I had to have it!

Ribbit

There is a frog outside my office window that croaks so loud during the day that it's a distraction in my second floor office!  It makes me wonder how big he is!

Yummy Quiche

I was having a serious issue with breakfast this morning.  I was STARVING and nothing sounded good.  So finally, I decided to throw together a quiche.  It was AMAZING!  It is a quick quiche recipe using bisquick and I added fresh steamed spinach and roasted onion gouda cheese.  Total gourmet - quick - delish breakfast. 

Quick Quiche
1 cup of eggs (or egg substitute)- I use five eggs
1/2 cup of Bisquick
1/3 cup melted butter  (I use a little less to cut calories)
1 1/2 cup nonfat milk
1/2 to 3/4 cup cheese (this time I used freshly grated roasted onion gouda)
Veggies, ham, bacon, etc. (about half a cup - this time I used fresh steamed spinach but I have also shredded zucchini)
Salt and pepper to taste

Other ideas: 
Use pepper jack cheese and a can of green chilis
Use cheddar cheese and steamed broccoli
Use Monterrey jack cheese, shredded zucchini and dill

quack quack

I set my new iphone to quack when a text comes in. So when it quacks, Ahi runs all around the house looking for a duck!  Hilarious!

Sloppy Joe Biscuit

Grace and I watched entirely too much tv today and saw the commercial for sloppy joe biscuits about 100 times!  So when it was time for dinner, Grace wanted to try them.  Basically you flatten out a Grands biscuit and fill it with sloppy joe meat (fake meat for us) and cheese and then bake it.  We served it with coleslaw and roasted cauliflower.  They were good but not outstanding.  But they were fun to make!  We both like the roasted cauliflower the best!

Merry Xmas to Me!

This my favorite xmas present!  I have been fighting with my hand held can opener, which is a total dud, for years!  So Jim got me the Cadillac of can openers.  You can put a can on this, turn it on and walk away.  When you come back it will be open and just hanging there and waiting for you.  Grace and I tried it tonite for the first time and stared at it while it worked!  Her exact words...."that is sick!"  I concur!

Double Blueberry Muffins

These blueberry muffins were amazing!

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin or line the cups with paper liners. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth. Add 1 cup of the sugar and mix. Add the eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt and mix. In a shallow bowl, mash 3/4 cup of the blueberries with the back of a fork. Add to the batter and mix.

With the mixer running at low speed, add 1/2 of the flour, then 1/2 of the milk, and mix. Repeat with remaining flour and milk. Fold in the remaining 1 3/4 cups whole blueberries by hand until well mixed. In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with the cinnamon. Use an ice-cream scoop or large spoon to fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Sprinkle the sugar over the muffins and bake until golden brown and risen, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan at least 30 minutes before turning out.

Red the Blue Fish

Red the blue fish is now....Red the dead fish!  May he rest in peace!

Happy 70th birthday

We had a Chinese food feast for my Dad's 70th birthday up at my folks house.  Attendees were us, Tina, Marty, Jeremy and Roy.  Anna had just had a procedure on her leg and was not feeling well and Uncle B was sick, so they did not come down from EDH.

We enjoyed our food and funny stories from Grandpa Roy about his time in the military - including accidentally shooting holes in the walls of the post office he worked in.

Anniversary favors

Anna got favors for the anniversary party - little honey pots and jars of honey, that said:

"Anna and Roy 

Meant to Bee"

Harrowing Ride

Yesterday we went into Sonora to get some supplies and see a movie.  On the way home, we decided to take a different route.  It was a beautiful drive through the country....until we got onto a road that was a single lane road on the edge of the world.  Right off the side of the road was a cliff that went hundreds of feet down into a river.  I was literally laying across the front seat with my eyes closed!  We will NEVER go that way again.

These are pics from the bridge at the bottom of the canyon.

More Geocaching

Here are some pics from a geocache trip that Jim, Grace, Marty and I did earlier this week.  We grabbed 4 caches all really close to the cabin.  Took the dogs and they loved it!

Pooped out!

This is what Daisy looks like after a day of geocaching!  She is an old, pooped out girlie!

A few more anniversary pics!

Brother and Sister

Red velvet fudge cake!

Happy 50th Anniversary!

On December 29, 2012, we had a 50th wedding anniversary party for Jim's folks at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite.  It was a wonderful day of celebration!  Jim took a group of folks early and did some sightseeing in Yosemite.  His crew consisted of Aunt Nancy, Uncle Don, Anna, Roy and Zena.

Our group went a little later in the day and met them at the Ahwahnee.  Our carload included:  Marty, Tina, Kathy, Tom, Drew, Grace, Chris, Pepper and Ahi.  (Ahi and Pepper waited in the car during dinner)

We met Rudy, Karen and Gary at the Ahwahnee.  They drove up from Sonora.

The food was amazing and we enjoyed looking at pictures from the last 50 years!

Waiting to be seated

Ordering a good bottle of wine!

Caching

Digging for a cache!

On January 1, 2013 we went out geocaching, on a beautiful afternoon, in the hills around the cabin.  Logged 4 caches!  Took some crazy 4 wheel drive roads.  Had lunch on top of Jack Ass ridge!

Bear poop on this cache!

A little brie and pepper jelly while caching

Full cache

This one was all wet inside

Custom paint job!

All smashed into the rig

Match box cache

Mur decided to lay on this one and chew on a stick!

Stache Cache Crew!