End of June

Wow I can't believe June has flown by. The year is half over and I don't know what happened to it all. When I was little the school year dragged on so long and now that I'm older time just flies by.

I've been lucky not to have killed off a few of the plants that Grandma left when she moved out of the house. I remember always seeing this plant / cactus growing up in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard and thinking that it just seemed an odd plant. To me, a cactus has thorns that poke you and this was just always green and didn't seem to do very much. Well guess what???


It's a night blooming Cereus and because it's night blooming I never knew that it would have such pretty blossoms.


On the night that I took the pictures, there were two flowers blooming. All in all there have been about 6 blossoms this year so far and it looks like at least one more to go.


This in Junior the cat. I caught him not realizing that someone was home. I love it when they think nobody is watching them.


And this is Desmond - aka Lil' man. He lays by my feet while I'm at the computer and bites my ankle if I accidentally kick him. You got love the orange eyes!!!

I DID IT...and Michael Did it too!!!

I'm a week late posting about this but on Saturday May 30, 2009, Michael and I went and took our Ham radio test and both of us passed. I thought I would do much better then I did, but hey I still passed and that is all that counts. Last Friday afternoon, the 5th of June, our call signs finally came through.

I'm KI6ZXL and Michael is KI6ZXK. Yeah for us! I called Mom when we were through and told her since she was babysitting Summer for us. We then headed over to see Dad and surprised him with out paperwork. I think he even did a little jump for joy!! It only took almost 30 years for Dad to get another one of his children to get a HAM radio license. Now that I have it - I don't know why it took me so long to do it, it was pretty easy. I only grew up with it all my life. Guess it goes to show I did pay some attention in the car while Dad tried to teach us this stuff.

Pictures from May

Meet my little friend!!!

Somebody asked me if I liked having squirrels in my yard a couple of weeks ago. My answer is I prefer them over people. I don't think they cared for my answer.

This little guy has gotten to the point of not being too afraid of us. He has his own squirrel feeder on the opposite side of the house from the bird feeder, but I guess he prefers bird food. I have caught them using the bird bath once, but I haven't put water in it since.

Last year Mom and I went to a nursery looking for some vegetables and stuff to plant. Mom found these flowers and was happy because her Grandmother always planted them in Etna in her window. I had never heard of Columbines before and didn't have anyplace for them at the time. This year I was at Osh's getting some dirt to plant my herbs and they had Columbine's. So I bought one and planted it and it seems to like living on the porch. We have had great blossoms all spring. I don't know how it will survive in the summer but at least I know what I want each spring.

I forgot I had these on the camera since it died during out trip to the tulip festival. There was this big hill that kids could roll down. It would be perfect to go ice blocking on by the way. Mason was really wanting to roll down the hill.









He was so happy that he got to roll like the big kids. Next time we are going to have to get me (the cool Aunt) to roll with him.

I just really like this picture. I want to have a little creek running through my yard one day. It almost makes me want to go outside and do some yard work right now.

My Brother the Snake Charmer

Here is Carl's little friend that they found on Tuesday morning. Actually Bailey the dog spotted it and started barking. There was a hole that goes under the house that the snake had found and slithered back into, so they had to wait for the snake to come back out.

Mr. Snake came back out and wasn't to thrilled about Carl blocking his way back to safety. So not able to get a clear shot of the head, Carl managed to get a shovel shot to the body.

I don't think they were planning on having any snake soup or anything like that, but he says that sharpened shovels are now placed around the yard in case of any other little friends that want to visit.

Side note: the news today had a story about a guy that got bit by a snake on the hand as he was trying to shoo a rattle snake away from his family while they were visiting a grave site at Rose Hills, which happens to be on the other side of the mountain were Carl and Francine live. I don't think I'll be hiking or wandering around there till next winter when they are all sleeping.

LOTS OF WICKEDLY TULIPS

So after a wickedly fun Sunday and a fairly busy Monday morning/afternoon spent shopping, we all met up back at Thalea's house to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I like tulips - they definitely mean springtime. But in California you just don't see them growing anywhere other then the grocery stores and those ones are the expensive kind. Evidently they need COLD weather to grow in and it's just not cold enough for them to grow in LB unless they live in your refrigerator. Well I have enough problems with things growing in my refrigerator that I don't know about let alone trying to remember that I might have tulips in there, so I just don't see tulips growing in my flower beds in the all too near future. It was amazing to see 250,000 tulips. Here I am trying to pose like the statue. Thalea was afraid I was going to fall in the water. They have a really fun children's area. Here I am with Mason and Sam posing with the bear. The bear was a little shaky about the boys being on him, so I was holding both of them tight. They have this really cool water fall area. I blogged stalked Deb's or Sandie's and they said it was the world's largest man-made falls. Who knew??? Here is Mason with me in the tulips - he tells me I'm his favorite auntie! I believe him too! Poor Sam was riding in the stroller the whole time and he wanted out to touch the flowers. So again I'm the cool aunt who stole him from his stroller and let him touch!!! I saw this fountain /waterfall thing . . . ummm - not sure what to call it, but it's definitely cool. We hurried and took pictures. There was a bride and groom that weren't getting married till June but wanted to get wedding pictures with the tulips. Here's a nice picture of Thalea and I, or to be grammatically correct, me and Thalea. Man you could never tell that in a couple of months we will both be in our 40's. Yes - I'll still always be younger and prettier, but I'll give her smarter!!! Love ya Sis!!! They have this really big pond with a TON of Koi fish in it. I was busy taking pictures before my battery died so I was the last of our group on the pier thingy. Being the COOL Auntie . . . I happened to have one quarter in my pocket - not sure how or why it was there. But it was enough to buy a handful of fish food so Mason could feed the fish!!! I'm laughing or smiling here because my life is being threatened if I dropped Mason into the pond. I personally think he would have had a blast swimming with all the fish, but I don't think his parents would have been happy about that . . . and it was a little chilly, so I held him tight. One last shot of me with Thalea and the boys. So Sam's 1st birthday was going to be a week after I left so I got to do a little early celebrating with him. He kinda liked me or at least thought I was pretty cool. Mason will have to do a little talking me up to him, but he can't help liking his cool but silly Auntie.

WICKED!!!

We were off to see the wizard . . . oops I mean WICKED! It was super fantastical! Merry Christmas Thalea. I loved participating in the Christmas present I got you!

After the show, we went and had an amazing dinner at "The Melting Pot"- delicious! But we forgot to take a picture at the restaraunt. Take my word for it - the dessert was the best!

Obama's visit to Long Beach

Ok, so I'm not a fan - but still how many people can say that Air Force I has flown over your house. I don't even remember what day it was last month that he was here. All I know is that I watched him land on TV and talked to Carl that afternoon. Carl was bummed that he had to drive to Torrance instead of fly his helicopter that day because all flights were grounded due to the President flying in. It wasn't until after I talked to Carl that I had realized what a quiet afternoon it had been with no airplanes flying over head. It's amazing how you can tune them out after a life time of hearing them. So anyway I made a mental note that it would be cool to take a picture of Air Force I flying over the house when Obama left Long Beach. So I watched the news all afternoon and heard that he was suppose to leave Long Beach at 6:00 PM. It had been quiet for awhile with no planes flying over the house again - when I heard a loud noise outside. I could see the helicopters heading to the airport after Obama's Leno appearance. I went inside saw the news, got the camera with the long lens and sat out on the front porch like the big geek that I am and waited and waited and waited and this is what I got a picture of!!!



Who knew Obama flew Jet Blue!!! Ok - so evidently I had gone inside for one second too long and missed the WHOLE THING!! I never heard it either. So while I was waiting I was able to get some cool pics of the birds hanging at the bird feeder. So instead of Presidental planes you get wild birds!!! ENJOY!!