Tribute To My Parents ~

From my garden! ❤

I have been thinking a lot about my parents. I do not talk about them often and to be completely honest I do not think about them like you would normally think about your parents because it can be painful to think about, I miss them so. I am being brutally honest as I think it is time to chat about them, to remember all the good times and remember how much I LOVE them as they made me who I am today. I often see me doing or saying something either one of them would say. I know I have sayings that I learned from them that my children wonder where did that come from? But we are what we grew up with, and I want to remember the good times! So this is to my parents and everyone’s parents in the here and now or up in heaven as it were. I am hoping they are looking down and smiling! ❤

This year in particular has made me realize I should and could do more to celebrate my parents. I think through this blog and reading other blogs has made me want to put my emotions and thoughts on paper ~ or type on my computer how wonderful my parents were, such truly special people, they taught me so much. I have always thought that having a big heart is so important and I got that from them. Such heartfelt human beings that would give their shirts off their back to those in need. I am humbled by my parents and all they accomplished. I could write a novel about their life, hmm…. For now I will just write this blog. 😀

This photo was in my father’s wallet. It has a scratch on it, but still worth sharing. Hi Mom and Dad! I Love you to the moon and back! ❤ ❤ ❤

There is so much I can write about my Mom and Dad. But as my thoughts wander the reason I decided to write about them now is because on June 25th my Mom would have turned 91, my Dad would have been 87 this year. They have been gone 16 years now and of course I think about them every Mother’s day and Father’s day. My Dad’s birthday was in March so through the Spring they are always in my mind. My Mom loved to garden and I can remember her talking about one day wanting a big garden. She would have loved to have had a green house to grow many things, she never got the green house she wanted but she did have a green thumb. Awe, memories are so wonderful. I remember the artichokes in our backyard and my favorite, gardenia! I have been wanting to plant gardenia to grow in my garden, I must do that this year! ❤

My Dad bless his heart was always by my Moms side. He worked up to the very end to help make ends meet but the two of them were inseparable, the way it should be I think. He was a Psychiatrist and an accomplished pianist. I am not a doctor but work in the medical field and I am an accomplished pianist as well but not as good as my Dad. He was so inspirational, we were so very close and I think I was one if not the one, his favorite. Thinking about him now brings tears to my eyes, awe Dad….. I just miss them so…. (See how hard this is to write and think about them? Ugh, but it’s all good. I want to honor them with this post. They deserve to be remembered with ALL MY HEART! And hopefully I will write more about them, it’s my plan.)

In honor of my parents, my Mom loved gardens and flowers!!

I had a vision of what I was going to write and now that I am writing it has morphed into something a little different but I am loving this post. I am loving feeling the LOVE of my parents, to think about them in a positive way and not the sad, I miss you so much way. I know that last sentence was rather goofy, but I think you get the jest of what I am trying to say. To shine a light on my overpowering emotions, here’s a little back story.

When I was growing up I would freak out whenever my parents went on a trip. It didn’t matter if they were going to be gone the weekend or a week or two. I, as a child thought I would never see them again. I thought the plane would crash or something terrible would happen to them. In other words, I was dreadfully attached to my parents missing them more than a normal person should. Then once I met my husband and we started having children I ended up asking my parents if they could be my babysitter as I needed help working full-time. They landed on hard times and needed a place to live (a very long story) and so they lived with me and my family for almost 20 years. SO That is why I am so emotional. This is so cathartic and thank you for reading my story about my parents. I am feeling warm fuzzy feelings with every word I type.

From my garden to yours Mom!

I am hoping to share more in the future and to celebrate my parents and remember them. I hope you all have the best parents too. I know this isn’t true for all and pray for all who don’t have that special relationship. My husband is taking care of his Mom who will turn 90 this October. She has some dementia, but is still living by herself. He is an amazing man taking such good care of her, he is her only child. We have had such different lives growing up him and I, but that is for another blog post. Thank you for celebrating with me. I wish you could have met my parents, they were amazing people!!

With all my Love, to you Mom and Dad!

~Diana

The Weekly smile

My friend Trent hosts a weekly smile and I decided it’s about time I share my weekly smile! I am so HAPPY about this as I truly believe that a smile to share is so important to us all. I try and smile to everyone I see each day, it’s so contagious and it makes you feel so good. I find it so helpful to stay positive so here is what makes me smile this week. 😀

Flowers of all kinds make me smile! This is in my front yard. 😀
I don’t have a special camera, but am thankful for the Live Focus on my phone camera!

I have shared many times how much I love photography. Photos just make me SMILE. I love the beauty that you can attain whether it be black and white photos, still shots, close up shots, I can stare at beautiful photos all day! Some day I will have to start saving for a nice camera but for now I am so happy I can take decent photos and share for my smile this week! To be honest, my weekly smiles will probably always contain photos – I’m just that addicted to them!! ❤

This is a small sized palm that is in my front yard and I thought this an interesting photo.

I was enjoying my flowers today as I watered in the front yard. They all just make me smile so I thought I would share. Today or last night was my night off so I am enjoying this day outside not only at the barn with my horses earlier but with my flowers in my yard. Oh yes, and I am enjoying the day with my hubby, my best friend, my companion for life. Thankful for these smiles. What made you smile today?

My tea rose up close!

Thank you for the SMILES!

-Diana 😀

Weekend Coffee Share; Middle of June ~

My smiling rose! Because it makes me smile!

Welcome to my coffee share where we share coffee with new friends and old. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am having a cup of mango tea, so very sweet but good. It is already the middle of June, can you believe the year is half gone? The time flies so fast these days, and so much has happened in these last 6 months. It always amazes me how time flies. I know I have written about this often and they say the older you get the faster it seems to go. I think I have to agree! do you? I am enjoying a short visit with my family in Arizona. I have to say this has been a wonderful trip and it has helped me see my vision of moving here someday in the future. I am thinking maybe sometime next year, we will see! 😀

We went in some model homes. This is a view from one of the new homes, wouldn’t it be fun to buy a new house? My son and family are hoping to buy one next year!
My son in the model home! How fun to look right?
Little Alice fell asleep in the car, we are going to get lunch!

We are having a great time together and we went out looking at some open houses and model homes. It sure is fun to look and my family here is planning on buying a house early next year. It makes me think about what we would like to buy someday once we get everything taken care of where we are living in California. I have talked about this before. I had set in motion moving here earlier this year, but we had to set our plans aside because I did not have a job to go to in AZ. I am going to have to work on that and we need to work on our house to sell in CA so we have plenty of time and do not need to rush. In the meantime, it means visits here which even in the heat is totally enjoyable with this lovely family of mine. I am super blessed, and I am going to share some photos of this cute patutie, my granddaughter! ❤ ❤ ❤

She is so beautiful, like a little angel to me!
Having fun blowing bubbles as she pops them! Haha!!

We have so much FUN together! She asked me to blow bubbles as she watches and pops them. She is so silly and a little to young yet to teach how to blow herself. One day I will teach her how to blow bubbles! It will be so fun. She was so excited asking every day when I was arriving. She then asks me every day what day I am leaving. It is definitely hard to live so far away and I know I am not alone in this world having to live miles apart from family. It does tug super hard on my heart as she is my only granddaughter. She is such a special little girl and definitely a driving force for me wanting to move. I also do consider the change as we have always lived in California. I think a new beginnings would be great fun even though saying good bye to what we know will be sad, exciting to say hello to the new chapter. I am writing about this because I want to keep the dream alive! I think that makes sense. Can I get you more coffee or tea? I have one more photo to share. 😀

Love her smile! I say this often, she melts my heart! ❤

She sure makes me laugh, such a bright shining star! I hope you all are having a great weekend. I know this is Father’s day weekend so Happy Father’s day to all those father’s out there. Mine is up in heaven, I love him so and I am thankful I was able to be here for my son in wishing him a wonderful Father’s day. ❤

Love being Grandma! Blessed and Happy!

-Diana

Weekend Coffee Share: My Ponies Today!

My smiling Rose for coffee share!

Welcome to coffee share, a time for us to share with new friends and old and I am enjoying my coffee this morning and this rose I will be using for a little while since it just makes me smile. Hence it’s name, My smiling Rose! I can’t believe I made it for a second week for coffee share as I often get busy and then miss the whole weekend. I think the weeks coming my way will be challenging to keep up with my blog because I have someone quitting at work, so we will be short handed until I can hire a new employee. I will try and keep up with everything. All part of the job. I forgot, would you like a barista style coffee today? or tea, hot or cold? How is your weekend going? It is warming up, summer is almost here! 😀

If you haven’t figured out yet I believe I am honestly an incurable horse crazy girl. I am completely and hopelessly lost without seeing and taking care of my ponies. Not only are they FUN just hanging around them, grooming them, exercising them in the arena and watching them groom each other. My favorite is riding them, which most horse crazy girls and okay, boys enjoy too (but there are waayyy more girls than boys at my stables). I say girls, but at my stables we are all mostly older women riding and caring for our horses. There is only one man out of almost 30 horses that boards where I ride. So what am I writing about today? Haha, my ponies! ❤ ❤ ❤

I am trying to get them to look at me with their ears up, please? pretty please??
Ah, I got one to look at me, Hi Chloe! ZACK, please pay attention. Haha, he’s so silly!
It looks like Chloe is talking to Zack, “LOOK AT MOM ZACK! Please???
No way man, the flies are bugging me and I am not putting my ears forward, NOPE!
AWE! I am giving up on Zack, he’s silly today. Chloe is always looking at me – probably for a treat or something! LOVE HER SO MUCH! ❤ okay, Love them both!
One more try, I got one ear forward, he’s listening! YAY! FUN Sunny day today!

My photo series in the round pen today. If I have treats in my pocket they are a lot more cooperative at looking straight at me with ears forward. Funny how that’s the way I like to photograph them. It just looks like they are looking into my soul. I do take photos of them just being horses, and if they are grazing and/or eating of course I don’t expect them to have their ears forward and looking at me but when they are looking at me, the desire is for them to be staring at me with their ears forward. It’s just a thing I guess with horse people. I bet non horse people don’t care, or notice. Never thought about that before. And it is crazy that I can write a whole paragraph about how to photograph a horse, or how I like to see photos of horses!! Who knew, but it is a passion of mine, photography and horses! 😀 😀 😀

How is your coffee or tea, need a refill? This is going to be a shorter coffee share as I need to finish so I can head to sleep. I work tonight so I need to get some sleep before work. Yes, I work weekends. I work at a reference laboratory which is open 24/7 and so I have a crazy work schedule. And since I am the supervisor I have to cover shifts so my schedule can be crazy. I try and keep it as consistent as I can but for the most part I work night shift, with rotating days off. It is a veterinary laboratory so we are helping all those sick animals out there. I Love my job and hope we are there to save a life now and again. I know there are losses too, and then there is the wellness checks where everything is A-Okay! I enjoyed sharing today. I hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend! I know I am having a fun weekend with my friends at the stables and my ponies! 😀

Horse Gal Always and Forever,

-Diana

Weekend Coffee Share: It’s June 1st!

My roses LOVE the cool weather! Summer is almost here….

It is afternoon and I don’t have a photo of tea only coffee. So I decided to share my rose photo instead! I know rather random but it sure puts a smile on my face as I have some ice tea with some kettle corn as my afternoon snack. What are you doing this weekend? Would you like some ice coffee? tea? hot or cold? Weekend coffee share is to share what we are doing on our weekend, to share with friends old and new. I so enjoy sharing, my photos are all rather random as I don’t have a theme this weekend. I have been busy, so my photos show all that I have been doing these last few days! 😀

I am at the end of my walk up to my house. This is the side view as we live on a corner, our driveway leads to one street and our address is the other street along the front of the house!

I try and walk at least twice a week, I should walk more often but walk a fair amount at work and at the stables. It has been very gloomy in the mornings, the temps in the 50’s which is great walking weather! I wish I walked today, this is my walk from yesterday. The sun has not come out until noon this last week which is A-okay with me as the summer heat I know is right around the corner. I was scheduled with 2 days off in a row. The next photos are all the things I have been working on the last few days on my days off. I felt very productive, what do you do on your days off?

My daughter’s guinea pigs, time to clean their cage! So they are out getting some exercise, or maybe just eating! Haha! Love them! ❤
I have been working on these crochet zoo animals! I am almost done, there is still some detail work to finish up on the Hippo. They aren’t difficult but it has taken me awhile to get them done!
My days off include trail riding! These beautiful purple Jacaranda trees are in full bloom!
I know I’ve shared these blooms before, but they are going crazy! Pomegranate trees at the stables with TONS of blooms!

I have been wanting to try and start a garden but I had so much trouble last year that I haven’t gotten up the energy to give it another try and I probably should have put my energy into it because this year I think our weather would be so good for gardening. This time last year we were battling heat. It was a very hot year last year and even though I know I would still have to water a lot, the cooler weather I think is kinder to growing plants. I know it isn’t too late if I investigate and find what is good to start growing this time of year. I also could buy some starters instead of starting from seed. Hmm… just writing about this is making me think I will give it a try and grow just a little garden. I had gopher problems last year, but I could just stick with my containers. Okay, I think I’ve convinced myself, thanks for listening or reading my ramblings! Haha, writing is so cathartic, I hope I’m not boring!

I found the trick to photograph her sticking her tongue out! Feed her a treat, stand back to take a photo and here you go! Haha, She’s adorable!

I sure am enjoying sharing my tea with you today! I also did some house work, laundry, you know all the usual stuff. Its funny, I am so busy and since I have the horses and my family is busy with their responsibilities we do not plan on very many outings. I did when my kids were young children but since my grown children live in far away places I just plan my outings there, visiting in their towns or cities. So in two weeks I will be driving to Arizona to see my son and family, so excited as I can’t wait to see my granddaughter!! Since I trail ride so much and am outdoors with my horses, my other relaxing outlet is my crochet projects. What do you do to relax? I use to read but have been really bad about reading. I blame that on my horses! ❤ ❤ ❤

Feeling relaxed, weekend FUN,

-Diana