Does anyone know where these are sold?

There is a moral to this story.....read on.

What a wonderful Summer Time event. Jeff, Suzy, Laney, and Cameron Kyle swung into my place on their was to Southern California for their "first ever, Big Road Trip Vacation". I was so excited when they called and said they were about 30 minutes away and they had driven it in 13 hours. Jeff Kyle "You are THE MAN". But more about that in a few minutes.
We hugged and hugged, I almost fell over when I saw how much Laney had grown since the last time I saw her. I pinched Cameron's cheeks, which I must say, nearly embarrassed him to death because he barely remembered me.
(Jeff, please note I got your business number in the photo. So folks, for all your insurance and financial planning needs, call Jeff)


Next morning we headed for Marin County to see Mark and his family. We have all known each other for years but because of distance we haven't visited much in recent years.What a great visit we had. Laney rode with me and we chatted like crazy.



The little boys bonded and played...................

And the big boys bonded and played................

When all of a sudden there was screaming from the back yard...."HELP!!, there's a SPIDER in the play car.....HELP!!! I think it's a black widow SPIDER....HELP US!!!!" The kids were freaking out.


Dianna hollers at Mark....."eewwww...will you go and see? I hate spiders and you are the Dad." But alas, Mark was busy cooking breakfast.


Jeff hollers from the living room, "I am 'the manly man' and I will go and see". He runs out back to the yard, singing the Mighty Mouse song, "Here I come to save the day"....
"QUICK! Somebody get me a jar! I want to save it and look at it", he yells into the house from the back yard. After a tense struggle with various instruments, he yells, "CAPTURED!!!!! Victory is mine!!! It is MY kill."
(Personally I thought those phrases were saved for shooting big game in Africa, but whatever)


Let's look at it and see if it really is a black widow..........


"Let me in, let me see," squeals Suzy.



"Eeewwww. That really freaks me out," Jaylin snarled. "Sure, you are the hero now Jeff, and THAT spider is dead, but what about the spider's family that probably still lives in my back yard." "That really troubles me."


Jeff proudly displays the spider which he now refers to as "MY CAPTURE."

The parents announce, "Let's all go to the pool, and cool off and forget about all this spider business. We will have such a good time!!! Come on kids, get your suits and towels and let's get in the car. Hurry up!"



"Here we are having such a wonderful time with our friends." "See, we are
swimming and laughing and taking pictures and laying out in the sun." Well most of the family is, but notice on the right hand side of this photo... ...."Hmmmm, I may be little but don't try to cheer ME up Folks, cuz I know those darn spiders are probably waiting for me to come home again....."

MORAL TO THIS STORY:
So there ARE spiders as well as fun when you are on vacation.

I WON! I WON! I WON!.....

I have never won anything in my life and I was just notified that I won a random drawing for a quilting book. It is the newest book called Hop To It by Edyta Sitar, a very popular speaker and quilt maker.
Below see some of her work and also the link to the blog where I commented and won. It pays to read blogs and comment. At least it did me.





http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2009/07/13/hop-to-it/

Soooo, you think you're too old and can't exercise

I guess it's never too late to start.....


Check out this little sweetie....he's adorable.
http://inspirationmanifestation.com/206/100-year-old-amazing-tennis-player.php

A good way to spend a Friday afternoon....

The phone rang around 11:00 and it was Dianna, my daughter-in-law, and she was on her way to Santa Rosa with her mother, Irene, and her oldest son, Tobin. They wanted to know if I would like to join them on a little trip to Healdsburg to pick up some wine for a friend of theirs.
Armida is snuggled away at the edge of Healdsburg and some of the initial directions even confused Irene's GPS system. We drove up and up a winding road to the top of a hill and there it was. Beautiful!!! I took this picture from the deck where we sat and ate the lunch that Dianna had packed and surprised us with..........


It is a given with this family, outing = camera........


See what I mean........



Amazing how green and beautiful it is since this is such a warm climate....



As Dianna stalks another victim to shoot.....with the camera....


Checking out the pictures taken.......see, it's all about the pictures!!!!



Ahhhhh......our ride is here and it's time to go. What a lovely little surprise for me.


NO ! ! !......not our ride, but that's how they do it around here. You join a Wine Country Tour and go from winery to winery in style, letting someone else drive.

1953

Were you a kid in the Fifties or earlier? Everybody makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker. Twenty-somethings shudder and say "Eeeew!" But was our childhood really all that bad?

Judge for yourself:

In 1953:

The US population was less than 150 million ... Yet you knew more people then, and knew them better ...And that was good.

The average annual salary was under $3,000 ... Yet our parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and still live a decent life ...And that was good.

A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents ... But it was safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and buy one ...And that was good.

Prime-time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriett, and Lassie ... So nobody'd ever heard of ratings or filters ... And that was good.

We didn't have air-conditioning ... So the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when you fell off your bike ...And that was good.

Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr. Adkins...But not Ms Becky or Mr. Dan ... And that was good.

The only hazardous material you knew about ... Was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner ... And that was good.

Most families needed only one job ... Meaning Mom was home when school let out ...And that was good.

You loved to climb into a fresh bed ... Because sheets were dried on the clothesline ...And that was good.

People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives ...So "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles ...And that was good.

TV was in black-and-white, if you had TV at all ... But all outdoors was in glorious color... And that was certainly good.

Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor ... And the Dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs ... And that was very good.

Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard ... And chickens behind the garage ... And that was definitely good.

And just when you were about to do something really bad ... Chances were you'd run into your Dad's high school coach ... Or the nosy old lady from up the street ... Or your little sister's piano teacher ...Or somebody from church ... ALL of whom knew your parents' phone number...and YOUR first name....and even that was good.

Through the Knothole

What could have possibly been behind that fence that could have sent all those mature women, scrambling, climbing, lifting someone up, risking injury, possibly breaking the law.....................

Here it is.........a house!!! Was it a celebrities house? No.....just a house.
Albeit a nice house......it's just a house. Girls, we need to get a life again.