A Parting Shot

This horrible economy is really hitting close to home. Justin and Chandel both have been laid-off of their jobs for months now. Just this week SPI announced the closure of the local mill. Approximately 150 jobs will be lost. This doesn't include the truck drivers and other contract workers that will be affected. The county is not looking good budgetarily speaking either. The school boards are considering closing schools and combining them with others. It looks like Gottschalks will be forced to close pretty soon also.

It's so hard to stay positive when the outlook is so dreary. So, when little golden opportunities come along you've got seize the moment, the day, etc....

Here is a golden moment I encountered when I went home for lunch.

That's right, it's Chandel cruising in Lily's Dora the Explorer Jeep!

Ah, and here is Miss. Lily whining and asking her Mama to get out of her truck! Oh, she did finally say please and Chandel did get out (with a little help from Justin). :-)

Carpe Diem people!

Daffodil Hill

I've been wanting to go to Daffodil Hill for years and today Quentin and I finally went! There were a few reasons I chose to go today.

1. It's Opening Day!

2. Irish Days is going on in Murphys today, so I figured the crowds would go there instead of Daffodil Hill.

3. We're supposed to get a big storm tonight, so I thought it would be best to see the flowers before they were buried under a few inches of snow.

Daffodil Hill was founded in 1887 in Volcano, CA. There are six acres of daffodils, which include about 300 varieties and about 500,000 blooms annually.

Here's a picture of some daffodils. Their color reminds me of sherbet ice cream. I don't know why.

Here's a little cabin behind a field of daffodils.

Here's a peacock strutting his stuff. When he shook his feathers they made a buzzing sound. It was really cool.

And here's a shot that my sister would have wanted me to take. I wish she were here to take one herself.

This shot is for my Mom. It's not from Daffodil Hill, but it's a redbud bush that was along the side of the raod on the way to Daffodil Hill.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Spring...2 Days Early

Friday the 13th Strikes Again

Normally I'm not too concerned about Friday the 13th. It's generally just another day. But, today I had to take Quentin to the doctor AGAIN! This is his 4th trip within the month. First trip was for an ear infection. The doctor on duty was a "holistic" type and wouldn't prescribe antibiotics, so we went and bought some over the counter stuff and the Q suffered a few more days. Then, he couldn't handle the pain any longer, so we went back to the doctor. This time there was a different doctor on duty and he prescribed antibiotics.
Around this same time Q was developing a cough. It was getting worse each day, but I was giving him Robitussin and sending him to school. Monday, he decided he couldn't handle the cough any longer and he had an upset stomach, so we went BACK to the doctor. They prescribed Robitussin with Codeine and we figured out that the upset stomach was from Quentin eating cough drops like they're candy! Go figure!
So, Tuesday and Wednesday he went to school with no protesting, but still having a bad cough. Teacher said it was okay, because a third of the class is coughing. Wednesday night he did his homework. He ate his dinner. He read his book and he took his shower. By this time it's getting to be 8:00 p.m. He sits down on the couch to read a little more and a couple minutes later I look over and he is asleep on the couch. Now, at this point I'm thinking it's odd that he fell asleep so early, but I figure the time change is catching up to him. Apparently, I was WRONG!
Thursday at 4:00 a.m. Quentin wakes me up and says he's dizzy and feels like he's going to throw up, which he promptly does! YUCK! I take his temperature and it's 101.6. That's high people! I start pumping him full of liquid ibuprofen to get the fever down. Later in the day he seems to be doing a little better, so we both figure that he'll go to school on Friday. Apparently, we were WRONG!
This morning at 6:00 a.m. he woke me up coughing and saying he was dizzy again. I check his temperature and it's 102.5! That's really high people! He also is now complaining that when he coughs he has to spit. Great! So, back to the doctor we go...I know what you guys are thinking. Oh, she's one of those hypochondriac (is that spelled right?) parents. Well, I'm NOT! Today the doctor checked his breathing again and said that he's weezing and has a fever. I already knew all of that! So, she says that he has Bacterial Bronchitis. She prescribes another antibiotic and an inhaler. The inhaler makes him nervous. He says he can't hear himself weezing and he thinks he's breathing fine. We get the prescriptions filled, we buy some chicken soup and we finally make it home. He uses the inhaler (and survives) and he eats his chicken soup. He takes his antibiotics....and promptly THROWS THEM UP!
So, a Happy Friday the 13th to you too!
:-)

Friday Traditions

It seems that in my family Friday has always been the day of the week that we spent together. When I was a kid my Dad and Mom would take my sister, brother and I out to dinner after work. When we lived in Gila Bend there weren't too many choices of restaurants, so a lot of times we would end up at Exit West, which was the restaurant attached to the Best Western Hotel outside of town. Man did I love their shredded beef tacos! Two tacos please...that was ALWAYS my order. When we moved to Phoenix we mixed things up a little more. Sometimes it was Mexican Food, sometimes Italian. But, mostly it was Chinese. It was a buffet place that I don't remember the real name of because my Dad insisted on calling it Tai Fong's Bent Fork! Ha ha! Love ya' Dad! Justin always picked the same thing at this buffet...jello and green salad! Not a single other item. Dad got mad every time! Threatened not to ever take us back, but we'd go to old Tai Fong's Bent Fork over and over. :-)

When Quentin and I moved to Sonora we started going to dinner every Friday night with our extended family in the area. When Mom moved we kind of quit going out on Friday for some reason. But, since then Quentin and I have started our own little Friday tradition. We call it Movie Night. We either rent a movie, pick a movie from our extensive DVD library, or we go out to the movie theater. If we stay home and watch a movie, we turn off all of the lights and have popcorn and call it our movie theater.

This past Friday night we watched our movie at home and we also decided to do something a little different. We went a little wild and baked and decorated some sugar cookies! They were yummy! Here's a picture of them:

I hope you all have your own traditions that make you happy!