Tag: #happiness

My Weekly Smile; March 18, 2021

On By DianaIn weekly smile10 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekly smile! These pretty flowers sure make me SMILE!

We have flowers! This pretty bush has so many flowers and there are lots of bees. I like helping the bees! I also have geraniums blooming which I did not photograph. I will do that for my weekend coffee share. I am having a much better work week and have kept busy. I can’t believe its Friday but I am so happy the weekend is almost here as I am enjoying having the two days off each week. Working in the medical field I have worked my whole working life on the weekends. Yes, I have never had every weekend off EVER! I’ve always worked in 24/7 laboratories open and running samples 7 days a week. I am smiling as I found a job where I work Monday thru Friday in the lab, something I think I’ve earned after all these years!

  • Another baby on the way! Sending to a dear friend who is due in July!

My daughter’s best friend is due with her first baby in July. She is having a baby girl, so EXCITING! I will be sending another gift I’ll purchase online from her registry but I had these from last year when there were a ton of babies happening in my extended family. Many nieces and nephews had babies last year! My bestie girlfriend knitted the tiny booties and I knitted the baby hat from the same yarn. My bestie girlfriend and I just kept knitting and crocheting all these baby items and this is the last of our stash. It was FUN to make. We are such grandma’s knitting and crocheting to our hearts content! Haha, makes me smile

  • My sweet Dinah kitty! She is on my bed and I just love this quilt I had bought at our local craft fair last year!

I just couldn’t resist taking a photo of my pretty kitty she makes me smile too. I tried taking some photos of my dogs, maybe I’ll share but they didn’t come out that great. I’ve never taught them to pose, so the angles are funny or the photos are blurry! Haha, I’m surrounded by animals as there are more of them in my family than the people that live in our house!

I’ve enjoyed sharing what makes me smile this week. We had rain in the beginning of the week and as the week unfolded it has been perfect weather. It’s a beautiful day today and I am off to the barn. I will take care of Miss Chloe which will include a trail ride and lots of treats. She is very spoiled and loved, as we spoil and love all our animals! I hope you all found at least a few things that made you smile this week! Thanks to my friend Trent who hosts these weekly smiles! 😀

Happy Smiling Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; March 10, 2021

On By DianaIn Living life, weekly smile9 Comments
The morning sun in the clouds! Makes me smile! 😀

Welcome to my weekly smile and I finally got out for a morning walk. There are storms here this week and lots of cloudy skies. I love weather and this week my smile goes to winter rain and cloudy skies! It’s been nice and cool as well. I am enjoying the cool weather immensely. I will say that the hardest thing I am having trouble with is fitting in walking. I think I am a bit lazy and so procrastinating is part of the problem. I always feel better when I get in a morning walk, but I have been using excuses like its too cold out to walk. I’m a bad girl, but finally this week I told myself just go out and walk! And I got this cool photo which I thought I would share. What makes you smile this week? I have more to share!

I took this photo the other day on my ride because the clouds looked so cool!

One more photo of some clouds and I can tell you that we could probably count the cloudy days here as we get a ton of cloudless sunny days. So that is why I love it when some weather blows through our area. We don’t get snow here, only in the local mountains at higher elevation. I’m very grateful for this weather as outside activity is possible all year around. I like to make a big deal about the weather when it arrives. It rained like cats and dogs last night, even hailed a bit too. We have had so much water that the arena at the barn has a lake in the corner. I’ve shared many photos of this giant puddle (lake) is a better description. We will be getting more rain tomorrow, so its to rain most of this week which we really need. I hope this helps keep us from drought conditions. I think I’ll pull up an old photo and share here of the arena with my horses in the water. I have a fun upside down photo that my phone flipped after I took it.

Fun to reminisce and share this photo once more. I did not flip this photo but my phone did with the mirror image in the water! Pretty COOL!
Here’s a right side up photo. My horses Love the water. They will dig a trench to help drain this corner! The rest of the arena is usable. 😀

It is fun to reminisce and its great to have these wonderful shots full of memories!! I am so thankful I have a ton of great photos to have and to share. I have some fun smiling photos of my grand kids that my family sent that I want to share. I think I’ll just share with less explanation. Haha, I also have a time limit here to write trying to fit in this smile post today!

Teddy’s first visit to the playground! I think he is having a blast and I’m Smiling from ear to ear! Hi Alice and Teddy! 😀

With this last year being as crazy as ever the kids haven’t been to any playgrounds which is totally understandable. I am so happy they are able to get outside a bit now. YAY! and I always love to see them in action. I will end with one kitty that you can guess where he is in the photo that my son sent. It is a good ending to all the smiles I am thinking about this week. I hope you all are smiling or I hope what I share brings you a smile. Thank you for visiting!

How can you not SMILE! Silly kitty!!

Have a wonderful Smiling day!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; July 9, 2020

On By DianaIn Family is important, weekly smile19 Comments
  • Welcome to my smile post! What made you smile this week?

I usually write my smile post either on Tuesday or Wednesday but this week has gotten away from me, and here it is Thursday. My smile post this week goes to my big sister. We had the best sister chat this week and I wanted to dedicate this weeks smile to her as she made me smile and it was so GREAT catching up! I don’t want to offend any of my sister’s and some of my sisters read my blog posts – so sending LOVE to all and if I haven’t chatted with you, maybe we can catch up with each other this weekend! It’s never too late and always WELCOME! ❤ ❤ ❤

  • Talking to your sister is sometimes all the therapy you need!

We live in different states. I am one of 6 children and we occupy 5 states in the Western United States. We all moved away for one reason or another from Southern California where we grew up. I am the only one left here and miss my family so much. I actually had wanted to travel this year and was hoping to visit each sister and brother and along the way make it a celebration as this year I turn 60. BUT those plans got canceled and we all know the reason why. So I plan on phone chats more often and catching up with them all before to much more time passes. 😀

I just wanted to share how family can be so supportive and how much I miss everyone. Talking with my sister really put a huge smile on my face, and is I believe the best therapy especially when Mom and Dad are in heaven. My sister’s and brother are all a blessing, and I should reach out and connect more often. I am so thankful for the ones who keep in touch with me with my blogging as we actually exchange messages each week. I think this blog post will surprise them. SO I AM GOING TO TELL THEM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! HUGS! ❤

Happy Smiling Sister! 😀

Love, Diana

My Weekly Smile; June 30, 2020

On By DianaIn blogging, weekly smile15 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekly smile! What made you smile this week?

I can’t believe three weeks have passed and in my head it seems like maybe just a week maybe two at the most have gone by as I’ve been meaning to get my smile post written. I did take a bit of a blogging break, just needed to clear my head and before my eyes the weeks slip by. I mentioned I injured my knee in another post and I now know that it is most likely from riding my horses. I am having to take a break from riding the next few weeks as it heals, so I am working a lot on my crochet project. I am smiling as I see some good improvement on my knee. I think its just a ligament sprain.

I am also wanting to thank you all so very much for liking and following my blog! I received this the other day, I thought a rather random number but since I don’t look or track these things on my blog it was a nice surprise! 😀

  • Thank you for all the Likes!

This is the first time I have received this congratulations and again, it is ALL OF YOU that made this possible. I just think it’s a funny number! Why not wait until I hit 1,500 Likes? or give me a congrats at 1,000 Likes? BUT This put a HUGE SMILE on my face. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Ya’ll made my day! 😀 😀 😀

I am more than half way through this baby quilt. I thought I would share as it makes me smile. I think it looks pretty in pink for a sweet baby girl due in September. It is so fun to create these projects and I can do them pretty fast.

  • These are long gone, missing my roses blooming! They will bloom again one day!

These are very small tea roses. I have two tea rose bushes and this one finally bloomed like crazy this year. Its a much more vibrant pink than the other tea rose which is a lighter gentler pink. I do not have any more blooms, kind of missing my roses. I am waiting for my tomatoes to ripen. I will go check on them after I finish this post. I think they are just starting to turn red. I read that I can pick them before they are totally red and they will finish ripening on my counter. I don’t want a bunch of bugs to get them before I can pick them. I just have one tomato plant and I think I can manage eating all the tomatoes it provides! I am smiling all the way to my bounty of salads I will be eating in the near future! Haha, does that even make sense? 😀 What makes you smile? Thank you so much for visiting my smile post this week!

Feeling good about sharing and smiling!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; March 25, 2020

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, weekly smile13 Comments

I wasn’t sure what I was going to share this week for my weekly smile. And then my son was able to chat with me and I am so thankful for today’s technology. We video chatted and I was able to take some photos I want to share. I was so excited to chat with my grand daughter and see up close baby Teddy! I took a lot of photos, they are not the best but worth taking and I thought I would share. Today was so fun as it is amazing how it almost feels like you are there visiting, video chat is AMAZING! 😀

Baby Teddy was asleep and Mom picked him up and he just fell back to sleep in her arms!
Hi Alice! Grandma sure misses you, we had so much fun today!

My smile goes to this wonderful technology and to my beautiful family! I miss them so very much but this really brings us together. Baby Teddy will be one month old tomorrow! WHAT! Wait, it’s been a month already? I can’t believe it but he is doing great. I will share more photos. I was in grandma heaven today!!

We chatted for awhile, sharing and laughing together and then Teddy woke up!
I Love this photo of baby Teddy! ❤

We had so much fun and we got to catch up with everything. We have been painting the inside of our house, so I could show them with the video chat. We also showed each other the kitties as we made the kitty exchange back in the beginning of the year. Now I have the two sisters which are doing great. They have the two brothers which are also good. I’ll share a photo of one brother and one sister. 😀

Wolfie asleep in Arizona and Duchess on the couch at my house.

My son showed me how they have rearranged some furniture in the downstairs and they also showed me the Chore Chart they have for Alice. This is so good for young children and she really likes doing her chores and earning rewards. My son was explaining this to me when Alice asked him if he could have grandma watch her do a chore! She is just so adorable, so I was able to watch her as she loaded up the washing machine. Yay! Good job, well done! ❤

Alice showing me how she is doing her chore for today! So cute!

I just had the greatest time and was elated we were able to spend so much time together. Yes, we have done this many times before but the last few weeks have felt like months. It felt like a long time ago the last time we chatted. I think its just the overall craziness of what we all are going through that makes each day seem even more precious and since I can’t travel which breaks my heart, this all makes up for that. It definitely fills me up with happiness. Was there anything that made you smile today? I hear of many good deeds happening these days, people stepping up and helping elders in grocery stores and other wonderful things.

One last photo, HAHA! It was truly a blast to see these kids!! ❤

I really wanted to share and help bring a little smile to your day. Thank you for visiting my smile, and maybe this brought to you some cheer today! Take care of yourself and enjoy the rest of your week, the best you can. We are all doing our best!

Stay Safe, STAY STRONG!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Jan. 22, 2020

On By DianaIn blogging, Living life, Walking for Health and Well being, weekly smile10 Comments
An early rose bloom! 😀

I went out for my walk this morning and saw some early blooms on my roses and thought I would share. I have posted before my rose blooms and although I love how pretty they are what I love the most is the smell. Just LOVE rose, definitely one of my favorites. This put a huge smile on my face as it is still winter and yet some of my roses are blooming! They have loved the rain we have been getting and the cool weather. My smile today is just enjoying another day off. I so look forward to my days off, who doesn’t right? My days off are split which is okay with me as I work night shift so it works out working a few nights and then getting a day off to recharge. I’m happy with my schedule! What makes you smile? Is there anything special happening this week? or maybe just enjoying your day?

This is my tea rose which is getting a few blooms.

It’s been very cool the last few weeks with temps barely hitting 60 degrees. For us here in Southern California, it is nice and cold. It gets down into the 40’s at night with cloud cover and down in the 30’s when the clouds are gone. The morning dew is here and with all the clouds and rainy weather its such a nice relief from our many months of sun and heat. I took a few photos on my walk this morning. I love the clouds, haha, we do not get clouds as much as sun in this part of the world. 😀

This is heading down the hill to my house. So wintry out!
The sun rising and illuminating the clouds. So pretty and silvery grey!

I am enjoying my day off so much. I am seeing the sun shining in the front yard now that it is rising and that puts a smile on my face. The high today will be 65 degrees and I just looked at the 10 day forecast and starting tomorrow it will be in the 70’s and by the end of this month the high will be 80 so it is beginning to warm up.

I also wanted to post an update with the kitties as they are doing excellent! They are so happy and they have settled in so nicely. I am really happy about the transition and am very thankful they have adjusted and find us enjoyable to be around. They will follow me around the house, so cute. They play with the kitty toys and let us know it is time for breakfast or dinner! Their meows are so cute, and they rub on us and let us rub and scratch their chins. Happy kitties! 😀

Tried to get them to look at me, they are so adorable as they love laying and sleeping together!

I want to thank Trent for hosting the weekly smile! Thanks for visiting and smiling with me today! Have a wonderful rest of your week.

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 7, 2019

On By DianaIn Living life, Smiles, weekly smile16 Comments
What makes you smile? This is my weekly smile hosted by my blogging friend Trent! Thank you Trent as I just Love everyone’s Smile!

My weekly smile made me giggle as my husband came home and threw me a new hat. I LOVE hats of all kinds! Baseball caps, wide brim hats, there is just something about hats that I am a bit obsessed. I do not ask people to buy them for me, I usually do a good job buying them all by myself. But sometimes my husband (who has a large hat collection himself) sees something that he thinks I would like, or he likes and thinks I should have, which ever way you look at it this is what I got today! 😀

A new hat for my collection, and it will get well worn!

My hubby tossed me the hat and said here is a new hat for you and as I picked it up I thought why did he get me a camo hat? I actually just said thanks and set it aside. He told me it was new and that he took off the tag and he wanted me to look at it again?? Can you see what I didn’t see? Haha, it made me giggle as we looked over the hat. There are black, gray and white kitties all over this hat. This is my smile and giggle for this week!!

I also haven’t shared in a long while my pups. The shepherd mix we got as a puppy and has a good friend who I adopted from my daughter-in-law when my son got married and they had my granddaughter. So I lost my son but gained a wonderful friend, they are truly best friends these two lovable puppy dogs. ❤

What a funny angle, but she doesn’t sit still for a photo! Silly girl, very lovable and goofy!
He is such a sweety and is a bit older but doing great! They are BEST friends! ❤ ❤ ❤

This is my smile for this week. A new hat, some lovable pups and I am ready for my week. It is a busy week for me, but we always have time to smile, right? What makes you smile? Would love to hear from you, and thank you for visiting and sharing my smiles and giggles with me this week.

Happy crazy hat lady, loving her animal friends!

~Diana

It’s May, Staying Strong!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Goals and challenges, Living life7 Comments

I can’t believe it’s May! My how the weeks fly by and I keep meaning to write every week and the time slips by and I am so busy I’m finding it difficult to fit everything into my days. My motto for this month is to STAY STRONG! I need to keep centered, and not let my thoughts stray to far to the future for as everyone knows the future is hard to see. No matter how hard we try, and I was raised with the attitude that you can do anything you set your mind too, it isn’t always that easy to get to your goals – if you have set goals. How do you handle crazy busy days? do you stop and give yourself a break? Stop and smell the roses? Stop and rest and regroup your thoughts?

I need to regroup my thoughts, reorganize them and start having smaller goals. What I mean is to set goals for my days off. Then when I conquer one goal, move to the next and so on and so forth because I find myself not accomplishing anything, thinking too far into the future, feeling sad about the future not coming to fruition. Like I can make changes instantly, NOT, it takes planning and I am finding myself feeling sorry for myself and not moving forward. I’m finding myself in stagnation.Ugh, a terrible feeling! How do you stay focused, on track and moving forward? Or is it just me, overwhelmed and trying to find my path? Hmm… Writing this is helping me focus! 😀

My daughter’s guinea pig Rey, I am babysitting her piggy’s and they are adorable!
This is Jin, and she is a bit more shy and so beautiful with her curly coat!
Up close! I love their squeaks!
Hi girl! I see you as she is looking for more pea flakes! ❤

As I am sitting here writing this I am realizing that I have lost focus because I am putting others before me and worrying about these others has got me lost. I am talking about my grown children. I LOVE THEM so much that I want to live and be near all of them (which is impossible) and of course I want to be 100% available (which is impossible). I work a full-time job and of course have my own responsibilities and so how can I be available 100% of the time? It’s so crazy that I have gotten into this rut because I need to move forward and not be stagnant. I am realizing that I am there for my children and I am putting incredibly silly demands on my time! Oh dear, I need to realize there is only so much I can do, and only so many places I can be and still be HAPPY! AND that’s all I want for my children is HAPPINESS! ❤ ❤ ❤

How can you not SMILE at his handsome face! ADORABLE! 😀

STAYING STRONG is so important as I know how important my role as a mother, wife, co-worker and friend to others can be and I think setting smarter shorter achievable goals are not only more realistic but doable. I am going to try and cook more (I work crazy hours and so I don’t make dinners like I use to but I can use the crock pot and or plan and freeze meals to make life easier. Just takes planning). I need to plan and be more in the moment not only for my animals but my loved ones as well. I CAN DO THIS! My am I in a funk, haven’t felt this way in a long time. Holy smokes, maybe it’s just my age, I think they sometimes call this mid-life crisis?? Haha, maybe that’s what I am experiencing. I wouldn’t be surprised! I feel like I want to make a LIFE CHANGE, But how? Life is challenging, hard, fun, and I have always loved life to it’s fullest! I feel like I’m drowning a bit. My head is above water though and am feeling better by the minute!

It’s BIRTHDAY month for my son Harrison and is wife Amber! Here is Harrison from last year as he takes a selfie with Chloe, Alice is on her, I miss them so….

I am hoping to set a goal to write each week. I sometimes overthink this process, get overwhelmed and so I don’t write anything. I also want to focus on my house and it’s needs. Who likes housework? Not me, but I shouldn’t be so neglectful. Not that we live in a pig sty, haha, even though I now have piggy’s in my family room, but I can do more and help out more. I did rake the backyard last week to help my husband, so I am doing more each week. I don’t want to apologize for my blog post. I don’t feel like my sunny self, but it’s coming back I promise. But I am human, and want to be real. I don’t want anyone to think my life is perfect, far from it and I know sometimes reading things that may be sad isn’t fun, but I don’t think this is that sad just not my bubbly self. I’ll be back, and you know I LOVE my life, my family and all of you that take the time to read my posts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ❤

STAYING STRONG! Always,

-Diana