Raw

Moody, soupy, gorgeous monsoon sunsets!

Uff Da

Tear apart, tear apart, pack, pack, pack, put everything back in exquisitely perfect order, have appraisal, termite inspection, home inspection, and buyer hubby seeing house for the first time.

All the inspections went really well.

Tear apart, tear apart, organize everything you've torn apart into some semblence of a garage sale tomorrow.

They moved up the closing date by two & 1/2 weeks! Yeah, of course we can do it. Right. And we will.

I forget that we've kind of done this before. Actually a few times. It's a killer at the time, and we'll shake our heads down the road and say "I can't believe we did that!" But we'll do it.

I can't wait to get back to regular blogging and checking out everyone's posts!!! But it will be from the ROAD!!! :)

Deep Thoughts For Those Who Take Things Way Too Seriously

- A day without sunshine is like...night.

- He who laughs last thinks slowest.

- On the other hand, you have different fingers

- I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

- The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap.

- 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot

.- 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

- Remember, half the people you know are below average

.- Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

- If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

- OK, . . . . so what's the speed of dark?

- Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

- Every one has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

- How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?

- What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

- Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?

- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.

- Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.

- Light travels faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

- Life isn't like a box of chocolates; it's more like a jar of jalapeno's. What you do today, might burn your bum tomorrow.

- How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Recently, we made another trip to Phoenix to see my mother.



I won't go in to what led up to the trip, but a miscommunication brought out some pretty ugly stuff.



I've shared before that my mother has always known how to express herself in a most angry way.



After driving up there for four hours, I discovered that she had left me a venemous message on my cell phone.



It was funny though, when I listened to that message, I could only feel sad for her because she was so confused.



We talked it through, she apologized, and we laughed about how wicked she was.

Yeah, it was hot in Phoenix! That last temp was registering the temperature in the Walmart parking lot!

Friday My Town Shootout

On another note, I was fascinated with the variety and beauty of some of the shirts I saw people wearing at the 4th of July gathering at our park.




There were demonstrations of these beautiful beasties "working."

Wouldn't be a 4th of July celebration without "B Troop" from Fort Huachuca!

This is always a popular stand around here!

Have a wonderful weekend!

All God's Creatures Sunday

We were on a quest early this morning to find the Mexican border and 16,000 American flags being put up along that border in a little town called Palominas. There aren't too many roads off of the main (LOL) highway that run down to the border.

Smith Rd. is unpaved, with only a few houses. If you let your mind go there, it can be unnerving, thinking about the proximity to the border and the people smugglers, and drug smugglers that could be encountered in this area. But being daylight, we kept on the teeth-jarring, tractor paved road.

Dead End. Could there have been another road that goes to the border?

Disappointing. Imagine seeing 16,000 American flags on the Fourth of July!!! How cool would that have been? Luckily, so as not to have been a total waste of time, we came across these guys along that same road.

After returning home & doing some research, we found out that while we were on the right road, there is a small right turn that will take us to the flags. We'll head back there tomorrow morning for loads of pictures. But for this afternoon, we're headed to the Veteran's Memorial Park to see the jets fly over, and to hear our awesome Governor, Jan Brewer, speak.
Have a wonderful 4th! Be safe!

Yippee!

Excuse me. Sorry to interupt, but I have an announcement to make...


We have sold the house, the big house! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
It will close on August 23rd, which happens to be my daughter's birthday!
I need to take a trip to Phoenix to see if I can figure out some assisted living for my mom, still not settled, and then get back here for some serious packing, donating, and throwing away!
We're so excited, and feel so very blessed with this good fortune.
Thank you Lord!
That's all, you may resume your business!

Terrible Picture

I know, I know. The lighting was ALL wrong to get a good shot of this, but it cracked me up & I wanted you to see it.

This is how my dogs spend their day. Every day.

Sweet Shasta has always slept under the bed. It's like her den. For a while, we had the bed lowered when Hubby had his hip replaced. But then it was just too sad that she couldn't get under there. Up the bed went again.

Willy, on the other hand, has always enjoyed the lifestyle of the spoiled & rotten! I can't tell you how deep his sense of entitlement runs. But it's deep!

Auto Contrast

I love auto contrast! I do. It improves my photos emensely with just a mouse click.

We were sitting out on the back deck last night watching the clouds try to wring out a few drops. The clouds were interesting, strange.

And with a little auto contrast:

All God's Creatures Sunday

Dog days of summer? Bunny days of summer. Ahhhh...

Chillin', coolin' the belly...but always on guard!

I hope you find a nice cool spot to relax today!

Mediterranean Vegetarian Sandwiches

Hubby is always gathering recipes from everywhere. Not just gathering, but actually making the recipes. He's good like that. Surprisingly, he finds lots of good ones from the newspaper!

Sometimes the recipes that Hubby has for eggplant makes me wonder if I like eggplant. Sometimes I adore eggplant. This was one of those times that I fell in LOVE with eggplant! In fact, we're having it for lunch again today. We used the Japanese eggplant because we think the skin is more tender on them. We added arugula on ours as well, since we have a giant container of it.

Mediterranean Vegetarian Sandwiches

2 thin sandwich rounds

6 slices eggplant, 1/4 in thick

Olive oil cooking spray

2 Tbs red pepper flavored hummus

2 Tbs feta cheese

Place eggplant onto baking sheet. Spray eggplant with cooking spray.

Heat the broiler. Broil the eggplant 4 inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until the eggplant is browned, turning the eggplant over halfway through broiling.

Split each sandwich round in two. Spread half the hummus on each bottom layer. Divide eggplant and cheese between sandwiches.

Friday My Town Shootout

This weeks theme, Water/Lakes/Streams, is brought to us by Nicole. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to seeing lots of water!

Any water at this point would be a very welcome sight! I know many of you are experiencing a lot more water than you want right now. But I don't think there is any water around here, not until the monsoons really get going. It's dry. It's like those old western movies where someone is crawling across the desert, seeing a mirage, dragging themselves full of hope towards that illusion, only to get there and scoop up a mouthful of dust...

So I had to go back into my archives to find photos from monsoon seasons in past years.

Along the trail in Ramsey Canyon.











To check out more water in a much grander scale, go to FMTSO!
Ahhhhh.....Have a refreshing weekend!

Monsoon-ish

Yesterday was the first real monsoon weather of the season.

We watched it move in from the southeast.

I'm not sure if any of the moisture actually hit the ground.
Did I hear a rumble? Or was I wishing it?

A Little Different Father’s Day

I’m sure you started off as a good Dad
Although you didn’t have a good example of one to follow.

I’m sure you loved us in your heart everyday
And that it was just the alcohol that got in the way.

I’m sure we must have celebrated a Father’s day or two
But I sure can’t remember a one.

I must have made you paper gifts in school
That you carried in your mind and heart.

Funny how it took so many years to go back to the beginning
And see you for the fragile human that we all are.

My own inadequacies show up in my memories of you
And my understanding has come full circle.

So on this day of love and respect for the fathers in our lives
I say, you did what you could do. I forgive you.

Happy Father’s Day.

Thursday's Thoughts

One of my struggles these days is figuring out the assisted living arrangement for my mother. She is in an independent living environment right now. In this same compound is an assisted living side.

She’s ready. Her day to day living is getting more difficult for her as her body weakens and her breathing is harder. She has wonderful doctors up there. One of the doctors helped me explain that it’s time to move to assisted living. I so appreciate that. Although we had spoken about it numerous times, it was as if she thought I was pushing her to the end of life. She’s had a couple of mild falls that left her cut and bruised, but it tells me that it’s time for her to have more help. She’s more inclined to make that move after those falls. It’s hard now because she doesn’t feel good and is unsteady.

There are limited funds that may take her through, but may not. I’ve been looking in to programs that might help kick in should she run out of money. For some reason, these decisions get left up to me. But I don’t want the sole responsibility of this particular decision.

I have 4 brothers. My oldest brother talks to my mom frequently but lives out of state. Two other brothers talk to her infrequently (also out of state). The other brother has been out of the picture for many years.

Well, today I laid it out in an email to my brothers. I need help with this. I don’t want to make the decision alone. How about some help researching some programs? We all need to think about the actual move. It is so obvious that she needs the extra help that assisted living will provide. But because it involves what’s left of her money, I think we should all be involved. And truth be told, I can’t imagine that they would not think this is a good move for her. We’ll see. I don’t ask for help very often. In fact when I moved her up there to independent living, I pretty much did most of the packing myself. I asked my brother if he could help me unpack at the other end, but he had plans already, but did come a couple of weeks later to hang pictures.

So, I feel good about asking. I didn’t have to, they probably would have been fine had I just gone ahead and got her moved. But what happens if the money is gone, what would she do then, and I hadn’t asked them? So this is good. Maybe I’ll sleep tonight.

Let the Cloud Games Begin

All God's Creatures Sunday

I love having the water dish outside my window, to watch who comes to drink. Mostly birds and bunnies, but there have been times when the dish is dry just the next morning. Maybe javalina, or deer, or coyotes. Remember the morning I saw a bobcat out there?

Well, today it was a pair of roadrunners.



They know this is a bird haven around here, and they come looking for little birds to eat. Well, little birds and lizards.



On another note, remember the geranium on my front porch?



Well, it hasn't been looking too good. While investigating, I discovered that the irrigation tubing had come out of it, and was laying on the ground. Rats! So I had my face down inside the plant, trying to wind the tube inside the branches so it wouldn't come out again. All of a sudden, a bird flew in my face out of the plant! Scared us both! A mamma quail, sitting on her eggs! Friday morning I checked on her from inside the window. Yes, still sitting.

Another check Friday afternoon...


Wishing you a blessed day!

Friday My Town Shootout

This weeks theme, Public Art, was chosen by Barry & Linda. This should be a fun one! If for some crazy reason you have never checked out Barry's blog, you must. You'll go back again and again!

So, my little town does not have much in the way of public art. I'm not sure why. I'm thinking that there are probably all kinds of things on the fort, but the main gate is being redone, so I chose to not go on base. But here are a couple of things I found around town, and, I have to say, I really like them!

This first one is almost completed. It's a water tower that sits alongside the animal shelter. I love the colors!

The second one is on the side of a big building. I quite fancy this one as well. :)

To see more shootouts, please click here!
Have a great weekend!

A Lucky Shot!

These two played around the feeder for a few minutes before they settled down enough for one split second shot!

Wishing you a wonder-full day!

Life at this House

is pretty good if you're a bunny.

A place to run, and jump, and play.

Or just lounge around in the shade on a hot afternoon.

A St. David Retreat

One morning, not too long ago, I got up in the morning, ready to crawl out of my skin. Anxious, overwhelmed, and knowing I just couldn't sit in the house for one more day. Yeah, these feelings have been going on for a while. I think that's why I cut way back on posting. I felt boring.

I walked in to Hubby's office and said, "Let's get out of here. Let's just go. Let's get in the motorhome and go to St. David for a couple of days."

Don't I sound really fun and spontaneous??? Well, I'm not. I'm a planner. I have to think about things, evidently. Hubby is the spontaneous one. We balance each other. When he wants to do something really wild or crazy, I'm the one that brings reality into the picture. But this time, he had to think about it. For about 10 minutes.


I ask you, who could be all uptight here?


This goose swam around all the time with the mamma duck and the babies. She must be a wanna be mamma!
A very cool thing that we discovered was in the mornings, the trees would be full of so many birds that we don't generally see at home, even though home is only about 35 miles away. Hubby got some great shots! The photos were taken through a window & screen, so they're not as sharp as we'd like.
Vermilion Flycatcher

A Goldfinch admiring herself in the mirror. Cracked me up, she went back there over and over.

A beautiful Cardinal

Yes, we came home feeling refreshed and ready to keep on.