Tag: #familymoving

Weekend Coffee Share; Reflecting, Family and My Loves!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, Memories, weekend coffee share26 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? any weekend plans?

Welcome to my coffee share and I am enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee with my sweet Italian cream. I looked back and I have missed a few weeks as they just fly by at record speed these days. Here it is the middle of October and my birthday is right around the corner, another year gone and Wow, turning 29 again and again suites me fine! Haha, 29 as I reflect back I had 2 new babies only a year apart back then. The memories, but I digress. Can I get you a cup of coffee, hot or iced? or maybe tea or orange juice?

I wanted to thank you all today. I can’t tell you how much my life has changed when I joined WordPress and started blogging. I look forward to reading as many blogs as I can and respond in kind when I can and I am learning so much through blogging. I have had such great advice from you all in one way or another and I also have grown so very fond of all of you and enjoy all our interactions with one another, AMAZING!!

I had no idea what I was doing but I strive to be here one way or another trying to write interesting posts but find I am just sharing what I LOVE and with an audience that I never knew would be so warm, caring, sweet, heartfelt, compassionate – I am running out of words but I think you get the idea. I can say from the bottom of my heart I am humbled and thankful for my blogging friends, and may I meet many more! ❤ As I reflect this morning, I can’t tell you how much I look forward to sharing and writing my blog! I’m thinking of joining the 100 word count writing prompts. I love the imagination and writings of these posts!

My son sent me this photo of Miss Alice in Montana! They visited there a couple weeks back and it snowed! Her first time seeing snow! ADORABLE! My new home screen photo, of course! ❤

Family is just so important to me, so much so that my youngest son and I had a conversation about where we should live. I have really good friends and family that have had life long dream places they wanted to live, and they’ve made those dreams come true and have moved away from family to live at those destinations. I however do not have that “favorite” or “dream” place. I can’t think of one place I would die to live, and the thought of moving further away from family is just not going to happen and too sad to think about. That’s when my son said your destination is your family. You will live anywhere close to them, at least one of them since I can’t be by all of them all at the same time.

It made me think about my future plans, which are on track still to move to Arizona. I will be visiting there to help my family move from a house they’ve been renting, to a townhouse they will rent. They will be able to save money for a house by moving into the townhouse in November. I LOVE seeing Alice’s face every day on my phone! She makes me smile! 😀

My LOVES as I enjoy a day at the barn. I can’t share enough of my horses!
My girlfriends redhead mare! They have a reputation these chestnut mares of being a handful and she lives up to this reputation! Gracie is 27 years old and going strong!
Chloe and Zack. I so love this photo of these pretty ponies!

I want to be true to me and so I will always continue to share these pretty ponies. I try and share different sides of them both in photo and in the written word. I have so many posts about them, the history of us together and how I got into horses. I have loved horses since I was born, how can you say that you think? I truly believe there is something we are born with that is hard to explain, probably in our DNA. My Mom and Dad found me loving the rocking horses at Sears. They surprised me for Christmas when I was 2 years old. They said I knew what was in the box, jumping up and down and once opened and assembled I rode that pony every single day singing, “A horsie, a horsie” as I rocked back and forth. The perfect babysitter I was told! Haha, here I go digressing again. I guess I am in a reminiscing mood this morning.

I so enjoyed sharing coffee with you this weekend. I keep forgetting to share that the weekend coffee share is hosted by eclectic alli – oh gosh, I struggle with links but I want to give her credit for hosting this wonderful share each week! If you visit her sight you can find the link to where you can share your weekend coffee share if you are blogging one. Thank you for visiting and I SO ENJOYED having coffee with you this weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Diana

Happy New Year – 2019!

On By dprastkaIn Living life, Love being Grandma2 Comments
Visiting Cave Creek Arizona with my family for Christmas!

I Can’t believe it’s 2019! HAPPY NEW YEAR to each and everyone of you and I hope this will be a great year for all and as I look towards the future I need to get into the groove of all the changes that lie ahead. That is one of my New Year’s resolutions, HELPING my family make this huge move to Arizona. I know I am making a big deal about the helping part. See, I have been talking about moving and have helped make this decision and get the ball rolling with my job but mentally I have felt like it isn’t really happening. Well, it’s more like I come home from my full time job spend a few hours at the stables and then just continue to do my crafts (I LOVE to crochet and am rather obsessed with it to be honest, and other crafts too, but crochet is my zen time and I need to cut back and start packing). Part of the job of packing is to go through stuff and DONATE! We have accumulated WAY too much stuff or held on to things that need to go, I wish I had that minimalist mindset, or minimalist gene, could it be a gene? I so envy those who don’t form attachments to “things” as we are awful at living a life in a minimal way holding on to things from the past (especially hard when it is something your mom or dad had or family heirlooms) basically things that are stored and not seen. Oh my, I could write a whole novel about being a pack rat and needing to de-clutter our lives! 😀

I can’t wait for her to see a real snowman someday!
My daughter and hubby with Alice and the snowman!
Alice and her Mom, love them so! ❤

As I am contemplating my loosely put together list of New Year’s resolution’s, exercise at least 4 days a week, write one blog a week, eat healthier foods by cooking more often which I love but get busy and don’t do often enough. Since the beginning of this year will be focused on moving to Arizona that’s about all I can handle for a list of things to improve my life style. I find it invigorating to start this New Year by being as helpful as I can in all the hours of the day I can dedicate towards the house and what I need to do to help my husband get it ready to be sold. He is going to see a new ME. He will say to himself who is this person I’m married to as I hustle and bustle around the house packing up donation boxes full of old clothes, books and other items. Yes, I feel like this is really a new start to a new chapter for us for 2019, HOW EXCITING! I hope you will enjoy following my journey as this year has started and I will keep you update on my progress. It will help me to stay focused on my plan of action. I can’t wait to get things moving!

One of my Christmas presents my family got for me is this pillow laptop table and a mouse! I got this laptop as a anniversary gift over a year ago and this is what has propelled me 
into this journey of blogging. I am loving every minute!
My attempt at a selfie with new jammies, haha! Thank you family for the new pajamas, I love both sets!
Love this little stinker, my inspiration, my motivation!

I feel excited, and a wee bit scared at what the future holds. I have gotten nothing but the MOST POSITIVE feedback from everyone in my life that I do not know why I should feel scared. I guess because I have never moved to another state. I want to thank all of our military out there including my daughter as their lives are full of change as they move all the time. I talk to my daughter often, she is my support, my pillar of strength as someone I can lean on when I feel anxious or afraid. Since my Mom and Dad can only support me from above I’m so thankful for my sweet daughter helping me get through some of these tough decisions we have made. My sons are also so supportive and are excellent listener’s and I also need to thank my sister’s as I have called and gotten HUGE support from them as well. My friends have been awesome too, you all have been great and so hears a huge giant thank you from the bottom of my heart as we step into this year full of changes! It’s hard to describe the feelings but I need to take one day at a time and get things done.

Since I was trying to center this blog around the future and New Year’s resolutions do you have any resolutions? I know people say why bother and who can stick to them, but I think of them as a way to start anew, try to fit a new routine in your life or just trying to stay focused on a goal. Goals are wonderful, my daughter is going to go vegan and I applaud her and am trying to eat more vegetarian and have enjoyed trying new recipes on this quest of healthy eating. I know it is in our best interest. My daughter also loves to bake, so do I and I’m rather obsessed at watching cooking shows! All kinds of cooking shows, but the baking shows are my favorite.

I digress, I hope you all have a great start to the New Year. It is windy and cold here and believe it or not I have to work today, yes, New Years day. Our holiday at our veterinary laboratory is New Years Eve so all the blood and other things that were drawn in the animal hospitals yesterday will be waiting at work this morning for us to process and test. So I wanted to get this blog out today before I go to work to help all those animals out there who need blood test results. It’s my job, I do love my job. ❤

Happy New Year!

Diana

Weekend Coffee Share; Dreaming

On By dprastkaIn Living life, weekend coffee share2 Comments 
Enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee, I love the smell and taste of coffee!

I am enjoying a cup of coffee and am hoping you are having a good start to your weekend. It has been a busy week and I can’t believe in just over a week it will be Christmas. I have been wanting to write about dreaming, mostly because I do believe dreams do come true! Maybe not all of them as what would life be if ALL your dreams ALWAYS came true? We all should dream, and even as one dream may be full-filled you should replace that one with a new one, it should never end as that is what keeps you moving towards your goals. I guess goals and dreams are two different things, but are they really? I think they are intertwined, as without dreams your goals would be boring. At least that is how I think of it as I dream about our future!

I am glad I have the time to dream and I know our move to Arizona will come to fruition it is just going to take time to get there and as I think and dream it seems like I am thinking and dreaming of someone else in my family moving, not me as I go through my day to day schedule working and doing all the scheduled things in my life. I work full-time and so I go through each day, week, even month and am not really worrying about the move. I know things will eventually sink in and get hectic as we move closer to our goal, it takes time, seems like forever! I hope you are enjoying your coffee I am all done and have a kitty on my lap making it difficult to write. I think she is a distraction, she can be a very needy kitty wanting all kinds of pets, silly kitty! 😀

She is on my lap not letting me type, silly kitty!

I love my kitty Mara! she weighs about 7 pounds, a small female cat the smallest kitty I’ve ever had and she is so attached to me which is really cool unless I am trying to do something like use my laptop and she wants to be petted. It makes things difficult. She also has a knack of wanting pets right when I pick up my crocheting. I crochet a lot of things, I find it really relaxing and it seems that right when I want to continue with my project here comes kitty! Haha, I always stop and give her the pets she needs and then she will curl up next to me and sleep. I shouldn’t complain because cats sleep a lot and I do appreciate the attention she gives me as I have owned cats in the past that never gave me the time of day! 

Its hard to get a good photo, the last I will share as the other ones I took are blurry. She doesn’t sit still as she wants me to pet her as she sniffs my arm! She is really loving and very spoiled!

As I sit and enjoy my coffee, I got another cup if you were wondering, I am thinking that life is definitely complicated. I think the holidays can be crazy but I am really excited about this Christmas because my whole family will be traveling to Arizona next weekend to be together for Christmas at my son’s house. SO I am excited as I will be seeing my son, daughter-in-law and my granddaughter!! I can’t wait to see them and my daughter and son-in-law will be flying in and staying too with my youngest son traveling with us by car. We will be there for 5 days and we will have a grand time, I can hardly wait!  This is truly one dream of mine to have my whole family together for Christmas and this dream will come true next week. I am a lucky Mom, Grandma and wife – no doubt about that!!  ❤ ❤ ❤

I think or dream about the future as I do not know what the future holds for me. It is scary not knowing where I will be working or if I will have a job once I move to Arizona. I do believe my current job is going to keep me in the company and provide me with a job at our Phoenix Lab location, but it is not set up, or more like there is no opening at that lab so I don’t know if a position will open up in a few months?  I believe they want me to stay in the company as I bring a lot of experience to the company and my job and so I know I have value. But it still is disconcerting to not know what exactly I will be doing for my job or how much money I will be making. I am just having faith that this will all work out for not only me, but for everyone involved. Praying for a wonderful outcome! I also dream about other possibilities, working with horses maybe?  Maybe that won’t be full-time but it would be awesome to find some part-time work with horses or I can expand with the horses I own, lessons maybe? It’s a thought! Definitely a dream, dream big right? 

Although this photo was from the last time I was in Arizona it will one day next year be what I will see every day. That is so strange to me, its like pinch me, are we really moving? I am watching my husband go through our stuff and donate things we don’t need and packing other things. What a job, we have lived here for 15 years and when we moved here we did not go through things like we should have and a lot of what we have were my parents and so we really need to figure out what to keep, what to donate or what sister or brother may want some of my parents keepsakes. It can be a difficult task but it needs to be done and so I do dream of less clutter and of less things. It’s amazing what you can collect after 34 years of marriage! YIKES! 😀  I am totally enjoying my coffee and I hope you enjoy my weekend coffee share. I am not very good at providing links something I need to learn one of these days! 

Dreaming of Arizona! dreaming of the future!

Diana

Weekend Coffee share; Arizona Fun

On By dprastkaIn Horse stories, Living life, weekend coffee share11 Comments

20170220_101917.jpg

I am enjoying an excellent cup of coffee and am reminiscing about driving to Arizona in my sons car with his kitties helping them move to Arizona! How exciting and below is a photo of a house for sale in Arizona that is in a beautiful town not far from where my son and family are living. Just up over the hill is a town called Cave Creek, Horse town. Wait, what? did you say horse town? YES, now this is my kind of town! I took so many photos of this beautiful place. I love the area, the elevation is 2,126 ft and its about 30 miles from Phoenix and is where we want to move with my horses. My husband and I have talked it over and this is our plan which will take some months to come to fruition and we have a family of animals, not just horses and my youngest son will move with us as well! I am SO EXCITED! I am so enjoying my coffee today! Would you like a cup? or tea?

20181020_120100.jpg

This is a house for sale like I’ve mentioned. It really has that Arizona character and it is horse property but does not have any stalls or barns. We would like to find one with those amenities if possible, as buying pipe corals and the like can be expensive. I know, I have an expensive LOVE and hobby and we have seen property turn-key with stalls and even small arenas for sale. We are not ready to buy, so we must wait until next year when we get our house in escrow, basically sold to buy in Arizona. ❤

We were able to drive around while we were there and drove to Cave Creek and what a gem. It is so beautiful there with lots of trees and vegetation. With it located further north the temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix which is fine with me and even though it gets hot in the summer months, it is the same heat as where I am currently living in southern California. The only exception to this is I have found photos and videos of snow there and I am sure it melts fast and doesn’t snow often, but how cool is that? I think that is awesome to actually get some weather now and then! I also think it will be drier there and so I am hoping will be better in the winter for my horses with arthritis and for my healed but once injured arm. I already feel the ache of the cold nights here, and it isn’t even that cold, but there is moisture and coolness and the ache in my wrist is present this winter. If not, the winters should not be worse than where we are so I am not worried. I just have to share more photos!! Here are some cool iron horses on a corner in Cave Creek!

20181020_123905.jpg

20181020_123911.jpg

This middle photo is my favorite! It’s quite a big scene, such amazing art work with this medium.

20181020_123914.jpg

I just love these iron horses depicting a battle of yesteryear. I have to be honest and say I’m glad I didn’t have to go through these times in our history. All very scary I would think, but to put this scene all together is AMAZING! AND I love the sky in the photos, the blue with the beautiful white billowy clouds, what a gorgeous day!  I think I’ll pour myself another cup of coffee to have with my toast. I hope you are having a great start to your weekend!  What are your plans? resting? or are you adventurous? I am going to spend time with family and my horses! 😀

There are many stables in Cave Creek and these are photos of two ranches we drove by. The one on the left is a boarding stables that I might board at until we buy a house. The photo on the right is a stable that breeds Arabians. I am not sure if they board, but it is beautiful. Maybe I might buy an Arabian someday from this barn, and then I can do endurance riding right? Cave Creek is right next to a National forest so there are trails everywhere! It’s just a thought……

20181019_105954.jpg

AWE, Miss Alice my granddaughter on our drive to Arizona. We were chatting while her Mom and Dad were in the food mart getting drinks and a snack. I told her I wanted to take her photo, she is so cute usually saying cheese before I ask and I don’t always ask. Lol – She doesn’t sit still long enough to snap a decent photo half the time but this turned out cute I think!  ❤

I’m enjoying my Weekend Coffee share’s, this is my second one. I find myself thinking about how hard decisions are in this life we lead. I am praying we are making the right decision, which I believe in my gut that we are on the right track moving to Arizona. We have been wanting to move for many years, towards family or in a state where family is living. So the decision doesn’t surprise me, and we have moved many times over the years just not to another state. Just different cities or counties not more than 80 miles from one area to another.

We are in our 6th house in our 34 years of marriage, but this will be our first move to another state! Pretty exciting, but scary and stressful too. I do not have a job yet in Arizona, something I’ll talk about at a later date as it will become extremely important in the coming months. My work knows we will be moving and so I am hoping they will keep me in the “family” and be able to offer me a job in our Phoenix location. Fingers and toes crossed, prayers said, all I can do is to continue to work hard and take one day at a time. I wanted to touch upon this decision-making process as we all have to make decisions, big and small. I know this decision affects many folks, friends and co-workers; my love to all. ❤  (if I could I would make this heart bigger!) Thank you for sharing coffee with me today. Here are a few more hearts. ❤ ❤ ❤

Loving Life, praying for good things to come!

-DIANA

Moving in the Air!

On By dprastkaIn Living life, Memories, My Life as Grammy5 Comments

I am home alone! I don’t know when the last time I was home alone, I can’t remember. It’s so strange, I am always with someone and have never lived on my own and alone. I know there are many people who live alone and I have to say I have never experienced this and have always been surrounded by family of some sort. I have never thought about that until now. The reason I am home alone is because my husband and youngest son left today to drive to Santa Maria, CA to help my daughter and her husband move from there to a city to the south called Lompoc. They decided to rent a newer house on the other side of town, so they are moving this week. They already picked up the truck this afternoon! I’m so excited for them as even though it’s a pain to move, I know they will love a newer house with a nice big kitchen. My daughter loves to cook and especially bake, so this will be so nice for them! 😀

I can’t wait to visit too! I will be here for another day and leave Thursday morning to drive up there to help her unpack. My hubby and son there will spend one more night so we will be together and then they will come home Friday and I will stay til Sunday.  It will be so nice to get away and spend some time with my daughter, I wish I could take more days off but at least I will have a good three days or so. It is about a three and a half hour drive up to Lompoc with no traffic so more like a four-hour drive as there is usually some traffic, but we do try to travel during less traffic times which is usually the middle of the day or later in the evening. We will be doing day driving.

20180616_185654.jpg

This is my daughter Linea and her husband James who we are helping move this week/weekend. This photo is a few months old as we see each other about every other month, I need to take more photos!! I have to tell you that this week is busy and FUN and in two weeks from now my son Harrison and his family is moving to Scottsdale, Arizona! I am a proud Mama as he has been hired at the Mayo Clinic as a Medical Physicist Assistant. It is a bit stressful for them as they are waiting to hear if they are able to rent or lease a house that they put a deposit on as they were out there last week looking for housing. He reports to work there October 22 and his wife was able to get her job transferred out there in Phoenix too, which is great news. My husband will be helping them move including driving there in two weeks! Such a busy month for everyone, crazy days. I pray all goes smooth for them as there is so much to be done for their move to Arizona. I have a photo that I actually LOVE of them and I hope they do not mind me sharing on my blog. They are such a great family! ❤ ❤ ❤

FB_IMG_1498883422173

Life is full of changes and changes I have to accept no matter how hard they may be and one of the biggest things I am going to miss is this cutie-patutie there sticking her tongue out! Her HUGS, her LAUGHTER, her stories, her innocence and seeing the world through her eyes. I am so VERY THANKFUL for the last three years. I have been able to spend so much time with her and hope to be close to them in the future, just need to figure everything out here before we get things moving into the direction of moving. But they are only an hours flight away and I know I will be visiting often. It is a five-hour drive which isn’t bad, but there are many flights almost every hour to Phoenix so I will probably fly mostly.  I have to share a few more photos, I may have shared before but it is worth sharing again. So darn cute! ❤

20180807_105957-1.jpg

Haha, up close and personal!! She is so funny as I try to do a selfie and she was being so silly. OH, HOW SHE IS GOING TO MISS THE HORSES!! I am hoping that one day next year some time we can make the move to Phoenix. I worry about Chloe as she has a bad back leg and am not sure if she can make the trailer ride for five hours to Phoenix. I will have my vet check her out and see what he thinks of her situation but I can’t stress out about all the details. We need to just make sure we get this young family safely moved and then we will see what will happen next year. Love my family, love my life, lots of changes. It will all work out and I know everyone will love their new digs!! 😀 😀 😀

 

Crazy moving family days!

-Diana