Month: August 2019

My Weekly Smile; Aug 27, 2019

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, Smiles, weekly smile10 Comments

My weekly smile goes to my husband, Dave. He has been working so hard this last week (actually the last few weeks) going through his Mom’s apartment to get ready for her move to our house. You see, his Mom is 89 and will be turning 90 this coming October. She has dementia and unfortunately is in decline as she approaches 90. She can’t care for herself like her feisty self once could as she is as independent a woman that I have ever known. As the months have gone by, she has needed every day care and after researching assisted living (VERY expensive) we made the decision to have her move into our home. Bless his heart, he has made our guest room into her room hanging family photos and putting familiar items in the room to make her feel at home. ❤

Martha’s (Mom) new room, our guest room. ❤
He will hang more photos, but these photos were all at her apartment. Her family photos!

We want her to feel welcome and at home. She has not lived with anyone in probably 52 years as my hubby moved out when he was 18 and joined the Air Force. She was already living by herself at that point and to my knowledge she has not lived with anyone since that time. That is A LOT OF YEARS by yourself! I can’t imagine as I have NEVER lived alone and I am 58 years old. So this will definitely be an adventure of sorts figuring out all of us under one roof. She has pretty bad short term memory loss, so this will be interesting having her here 24/7. I know I am going on so, but that’s just because it is one thing to have a relative move in which I have no problem with, it’s more her care and what all will be involved with her. She has a doctor’s appointment first week of September, so we will be getting any extra care we need if we need to hire help to come to the house. We will see how this all goes…. CRAZY days! I feel like saying, what next??

This will now be our guest room, which is a nice area in our sun room. Bed is ready for guests!

Thank you hubby for making a new guest room in our back sun room. It is totally enclosed of course, and even has doors to close it all off for guests. My daughter often comes to stay with us so we wanted to make sure she has a nice place to sleep. Anyone else who wants to visit is more than welcome, we always make it work and I am hoping make everyone feel at home. I know my hubby makes every effort to make one happy, he just makes me SMILE! 😀

My Kiity LOVES sleeping in the sun room, because it is sunny back there!

I turned around after I took the photo of the bed and found my kitty sleeping. She woke up enough for this photo, meowed at me, I wonder what she said? she is getting old, my cute little kitty. But she always makes me smile. A double smile for today, haha, for my kitty and my hubby! What makes you smile? I really wanted to share a smile this week and this is close to my heart and my husband has been working so hard with this move. I LOVE him so much and he brings a huge giant smile to my face.

Smiling at family changes! 😀

~Diana

35 Years And Counting!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, Memories5 Comments
So this happened 35 years ago today, on this date August 19, on a Sunday afternoon!

I know it is not the best photo and as much as I love photography, I never got my wedding photos enlarged and framed. I am so bad, and I am very unconventional. I did not do what I should have done and printed up photos of our wedding. I have a wedding photo-album packed away somewhere, its too long ago to worry about it now. I can’t believe it has been 35 years! I say this all the time, how does time fly by so fast? I do not know all the ages of my readers and I think some are young and for those of you who are really young (for me really young is in your 20’s, and you think you have a million years ahead of you!) BEWARE; in the blink of an eye – you wonder what happened to the last 35 years. BUT they have been absolutely WONDERFUL YEARS! The good, the bad and the ugly, we have seen it all. I wonder what is next? What adventures will we be experiencing? it is fun to wonder! 😀

I walked into my kitchen to a surprise when I got home from work, I wonder what it is?
WOW! Jade Anniversary plate and Jade whale tail earrings and a beautiful, wonderful loving card from my hubby. He is such a sweetheart! ❤ ❤ ❤
We don’t share photos of ourselves very often. I asked him if I can share. I figure this kind of thing doesn’t happen every day, wow, 35 years!

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning and I took the opportunity to take a few photos to share on this special day. I wanted to say that the last 35 years have been amazing. We brought into this world 3 beautiful children who are all grown up and on their own. I talk a lot about my family so I won’t go into detail here, but they bring us much joy. We are having a blast being grandparents, oh my, I did not know how much joy this would bring to our lives. And we have had ups and downs, as any couple does, it hasn’t always been easy but we have made it through it all together. Here are a few more photos. They were fun to take, even though selfies are my nemesis. 😀 😀 😀

Selfies are not easy, and he wanted the hats to show up better. We are hat people!!
Haha, Now you can see his hat and mine too! He didn’t want me to use this photo but I really like it! ❤
Haha, hiding my little double chin. It sucks getting old, things can start to sag!

My husband has a very small digital footprint and so I told him I was going to blog today about our Anniversary. He was totally fine with this and with sharing our selfies. Isn’t he adorable? Okay, he’s a little scruffy looking but I am okay with the facial hair. He comes and goes with it, but the last time he was with a mustache only earlier this year, he told me he just got so sick and tired of shaving that he was going to grow out his beard again. Whatever you like dear! I Love him so….

My Anniversary card to my hubby, and YES! isn’t it just the best with the horses on it! He is the Love of my life. The most understanding hubby a horse crazy girl could ask for, I am truly blessed.

I can remember when I was 18 years old thinking how old 30 was. Oh dear, I am double that and will be 60 next year in 2020. I do not feel that old, I think its the new 60! I do get sore feet from work, and my joints in my hands ache a bit more than they use too. My goodness, it can’t be because I am getting old. Haha, they say you are as old as you feel, only sometimes I think, darn it all… I guess I am getting old.

I wanted to get my hubby something for our Anniversary something I am really, really terrible at because I never know what to buy for him and he texted me this ~ “Ha… don’t need to get me anything. I have you and that’s perfect!!” ~ I end with this as isn’t this the most sweetest thing anyone could ever say to someone, he melts my heart. I love him to the moon and back again.

Happy Anniversary Hubby!

~With Love, Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Great Trail Ride Today!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, Horse stories, Living life, weekend coffee share6 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time to share with friends and family. What are you up to this weekend? Are you staying home and relaxing or enjoying the great outdoors?

I decided to share what I am doing this weekend which is enjoying my time with my horses. I sometimes get so darn busy I have to slow down and savor my days off and really stop and smell the roses, or smell the horse stables and the horses!! What made this day so incredibly enjoyable was a beautiful cool summer morning. It was a cool 65 degrees this morning at 9am and it warmed up to the low 80’s a definite improvement from 100 degrees which it topped earlier this last week. The week coming up will climb up again to 102 but am thankful it cools off in the evenings. I feel very thankful it does cool off here in Southern California. It has been a hot summer but not as bad as some summers we have experienced so I can’t complain. It is going to be beautiful tomorrow as well. So LOVING this weekend weather! I forgot, since I am talking about all this weather I think a nice iced Latte with almond milk would hit the spot for me, what are you drinking today? 😀

Hi Chloe and Zack! looking for their treat after our ride today. I now take Zack every time I ride out by having him follow me with a lead rope on his halter. It is called ponying, it is what they do when they take pack horses on long trail rides. He is in heaven walking along side of Chloe!
Please can I have a treat? I only spoil them after my ride, they were GREAT today!
Silly photo, they LOVE their treats!!

I went on the trail with my girlfriend Sally and her horse Gracie which I have shared many photos of them here on my blog. The 3 horses are like their own little herd and so enjoy being together. I am learning to pony Zack and we did not know how Gracie would be with both Chloe and Zack walking along side and she was perfect. We turn them all out together so it makes sense that they were just fine walking along the trails here in my home town of Norco. Today as we rode, I was just feeling so relaxed and was so very happy that I had both my horses with me getting some good exercise and we got to chat and catch up riding with my girlfriend. I am so lucky and thankful for such a great day. I hope to have many more! How is your coffee or tea? or maybe you are drinking some juice? How is your weekend going for you, I hope it has been as nice as mine. ❤

Zack after a nice grooming after the trail ride. He is a happy boy!
Chloe after our ride today. So funny I manage to catch her as she is taking a bite of her hay!

I was going to talk about some of my other projects that I do at home. I so enjoy my crochet projects but I think I will write a separate blog about that and I can take a few more photos of my project before I share. So I will just stick with my coffee share this weekend and keep focused on these pretty ponies. 😀 😀 😀

I am feeling so accomplished by getting more and more confident in taking them both on the trails. I am getting better at figuring out what to do if things go awry (for instance; one of the horses could spook at something, or they both could spook, I am thankful they are not really spooky horses.) You never really know what you may come across while riding throughout the neighborhood. But I do feel like both horses give each other comfort and I also feel like Chloe’s experience with me holding the reins gives them confidence as well. They are VERY responsive and aren’t the type to panic and the few little things that have come up so far we have managed with perfection. I am so excited to be riding and training them together on the trails because some day if I am able to move to Arizona, they will be good to go together and will already have the trail miles on them to start right out trail riding together anywhere where move.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I am so happy that I take the time to slow down and enjoy what I can when I can on my days off. I’ve enjoyed sharing as always, these ponies bring me so much joy and I am so happy, grateful and blessed to be able to ride and care for these beautiful animals!!

Horse crazy Grandma, Mom and Wife!

~Diana

Weekend Coffee Share; Birthday Fun!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, weekend coffee share16 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share a cup of coffee or tea or whatever suites your fancy to drink. To friends or family I would like to share my recent activities as I didn’t share last weekend so I am going to share two weekends in one. You just have to do what you can to keep up with these busy days, right? That’s how I look at it anyways. Last weekend was my granddaughters 4th birthday, what? How did 4 years just fly by ? BUT it did and she is the cutest little 4 year old ever, okay, in my eyes she is but then I know I am prejudice. Haha, all little 4 year old children are adorable and it is so wonderful to see the world through their eyes!

Happy Birthday to you, cutie patutie! We had such FUN celebrating! ❤

My daughter and I flew to Arizona to celebrate with everyone and we enjoyed every minute. You can see in the photo above that she had to have a baby tooth removed recently because it had died and got infected after she had bumped it when she was I think 2 years old. The doctor said the permanent tooth is fine but won’t come in for another 2 years so she will have that little gap for awhile. She is so silly with her big “cheese” smile. Before I took this photo, she went and put on her My Little Pony head band and put it on a bit crooked, the photo I think is adorable. She just melts my heart! ❤ ❤ ❤

My son and his beautiful wife as we wait for a delicious breakfast! ❤
My daughter with her kitties brother, yup, they both got a kitten from the same litter! ❤

I could share so many photos, but am picking what I think are pertinent and fun. Can I get you more coffee or tea? I have to talk a little about my daughter and these cute kitties. My daughter absolutely LOVES cats but isn’t the biggest fan of kittens. Yes, sounds kind of crazy but kittens are more work and have way more energy than adult cats. These kitties are not scratching us any more like they did when we first brought them home, but they still bite – more like play bite – and are into everything. It can be a bit exhausting and thankfully they grow up fast. I hope my daughter’s kitten will start to behave himself and grow up fast so she can enjoy the purring sounds with out a kitty mouth biting at her hand. Silly kitties, are just so darn playful! 😀

OdySea Aquarium in AZ, fun to see the fish or sea turtles in the Sea!
Lots of sharks in this big giant tank!

On Sunday last weekend we were able to go the the OdySea Aquarium which was great fun. They have a butterfly museum there too which I will have to check out on my next visit to Arizona. I had to catch a flight home on Sunday so we didn’t have time to see both attractions, but I really enjoyed my time there and I also purchased a few souvenirs. My family there says they like the aquarium of the pacific better and I haven’t visited there yet, so I would like to do that one of these days. I was looking online and there are a few aquariums here on the West coast to visit, which makes sense since we are right on the ocean here in California. The aquarium in Arizona has some rescued sea turtles that would not be able to survive in the ocean. I am glad there is a place for displaced or injured animals to live out their lives once the injury has healed. Some of the injuries are from boats/boats motors, especially to the sea turtles.

I am home and this weekend am enjoying my horses! Zack and Chloe ❤
Two photos with Zack and his ears are forward! Only for a treat he says!! ❤

I have to say that the weekends go by much too fast. I was so excited to go to Arizona to see my family and spend time with my granddaughter. Oh how I miss them already. I have family in so many states here in the West and I miss them all! We try and stay in touch and I do know that with this blog and with the internet we all do stay connected pretty well. Certainly better than back in the day when all you could is talk on the phone or snail mail. I know you could print photos and send them to friends and relatives, nowadays you can share in an instant! It is truly amazing. I am amazed easily and am loving how I can share my weekend by just typing all of these words and then click on Publish and its done! SO COOL! I so enjoy sharing, what have you been doing this weekend? do you have any exciting places you are traveling too? or just working on things at home? Thanks for spending some time here with me as I reminisce and enjoy this weekend coffee share.

Traveling Grandma, Loving Family, Missing Family!

~Diana ❤