Happy Birthday Grandma! Pictures of a cute couple..closer to Christmas!

Jacob and Allissa in Disneyland 💜

Tuesday morning we got ourselves up and out the door at about 0700.  Took highway 50 to Carmichael, CA.  We called her a few minutes before we got there to tell her we were arriving. 

Beautiful morning of the 13th..from our back porch..

Closer view from the porch 

Gardnerville, NV

Highway 50..quite a bit of snow..very pretty

Lake Tahoe in the distance

Diane was there and about an hour later Ken's older brother Dave and his wife Emmy came to visit too. We got there about 1100 and left about 1430.  For awhile Ken's brother Don was in on the conversation all the way from TN.  I don't like speaker phone, but in this instance it was nice! 

It was a short visit but better than no visit for her 92nd Birthday! We headed home and by the time we got to Minden we were hungry so figured CVI was a  good place to stop.  Turns out for the first time really we were disappointed.  These are servers we never see because we're usually there for lunch not 1700 for the dinner crowd.  By the time we got our food it was cold.  I asked the server to stick it in the microwave which she did.  Just not impressed with anything! We got home about 1930 or so.  

Wednesday morning after watching the news we were really glad we didn't wait to go over the hill.  Snowing, chains and later the highway shut down because people don't know how to drive when it's snowing!  

It was a day of wrapping and rechecking the list to make sure everyone is taken care of present wise.  Just waiting on 2 from the same place and a gift certificate needs to be bought.  Whew...:) 

Organized mess..

A happy mess, but a mess...haha.

About 1600 Ken texts me asking "where's the egg nog" a cute pic of a fire going? What the heck he had just told me he wasn't sitting down yet?! Well, he got a fire going out back and about 1/2 hour later we both sat down for happy hour in the cold temps.  We were nice and warm though! Karen came over and joined us a little later.  

Troublemakers! Egg nog and brandy..oh so yummy!

Looks like another storm coming in over the weekend so we've made the decision to head over on Saturday morning, drop gifts at Russell's, my friend Joanie's and then to Georgetown to drop them at Bryan's.  All that will leave is Eric's which we'll drop on Tuesday when we pick up the trailer. The news is saying travel Saturday, not Sunday.  So hopefully they are right. Probably another one day turnaround.  

Grandson, Jacob and his sweetie Allissa took a trip this week to Disneyland. I got a sweet text from her saying they wanted to share pics throughout their trip so I'm sharing them with you.  Made my days getting these pics. 💜

Jacob made his own light saber at the new Star Wars exhibit..
That's our Sailor to be next month!

It's so pretty at night

Last night's picture..they had a blast!

Our Marine, Seth will be home next week for Christmas. We're all excited to see him for a few days before he heads off to school for his job! 

Well, he's done it again!  It looks like Happy Hour is out back near a warm fire :)

Have a great evening everyone!  

Birthday buddies, Antique shopping, Adam visits, Ken's dr visit

Well here we are again..another catch up post.  I don't know why I don't blog more often..no excuses..

It's been so cold our beautiful wreath has stopped
dropping needles!! Think they're frozen. haha.
15 degrees this am with a high of 37! Brrrrr...

Friday the 13th was my 64th Birthday!!! How did that happen?! Luckily most of the time I don't feel like I should be 64 so I consider that a blessing.  I heard from all my sons along with daughter in law Cheryl who called trying to beat the crowd.Haha. She didn't, as Russell had called first. Heard from 3 of the 4 grandsons that were able to call. Seth is at MCT school, so he couldn't call if he wanted to.  Adam forgot, but I talked with him the day before.  So many shoutouts on FB and on my phone. :) Happy Day! 

Ken offered to take me to breakfast and/or lunch but i was happy to stay home. We had plans to go to Karen's for dinner.  We headed over late afternoon and had a wonderful time.  Her grandson, Niko is my Birthday Buddy.  He turned 9!  He's such a cutie and gives the best hugs :) I've got another buddy..Haylee Madsen, she turned 17 and is just a doll! 

Haylee..way too grown up already!! We used to go
ATV ing w her family about 11 to 14 years ago..💗

Niko and some presents

His grandma Karen put $$ in each balloon so they had to be
popped! 

Cameron, Niko and Sophia 

Sophia watching her cousin open gifts..

We probably spent too much time by her large propane fire pit, but that's ok we certainly enjoyed.  

Saturday morning we picked up Karen at 0915 and headed to Fallon about an hour away from here.  We were headed to Just Country Friends an antique shop we enjoy.  Spent a couple of hours there and she spent a lot of $$.  I spent $5.00 on a old red sauce pan and Ken spent $45.00 on a cast iron kettle for the wood stove.  After that we headed for Stockman's Casino for a nice lunch. After that we headed home as we had a parade to attend later. 

Our little town holds a Parade of Lights in December.  This was the 3rd annual and what a turn out!  They had 51 entries which were pretty amazing. It was certainly cold and in my mind I thanked my sister for my Uggs she bought me a few years back!! We headed over to Karen's mom's house for a bit before heading home. 

Miss Izzie, Karen's mom...💜

Miss Amelia attending her first parade! That's how
cold it was! 💗

A little blurry but Mr. and Mrs. Claus!

Sunday morning we got a call from Adam saying he wanted to come over.  He worked at the pizza parlor from 1000 to 1600 then he was driving over.  I told him his Papa had a dr appointment Monday, he was welcome to run around with us if he wanted.  He got here about 2000 and of course being a boy, he was starving! Luckily Ken had bar b qued some awesome chicken and I made mashed potatoes so he had a hearty meal.  It was a pretty early night for us all. In the end he decided he was just going to head for home in the am.  We always say this kid has the gypsy in him...he likes driving and going if he's got a few days off. 😀

Today we said goodbye to him as we left first.  The Dr. appointment went well. Dr. Foster is so awesome!  He wants Ken to get a CAT Scan in April and then come back.  He's still shaking his head to figure out why Ken had the issues he did.  I got my hug before I left. :) 

We did a bunch of running around in Carson City and then had a late lunch/dinner at Betsy's Big Kitchen.  We lucked out and got Lisa once again.  turned out we were talking about how great she is and it turns out we were sitting right next to her sister and Lisa's husband! They enjoyed hearing us talk so good about her. :) 

We headed home and I wrapped a few presents.  We've decided to head for CA and to visit Ken's mom tomorrow.  Her birthday is Wednesday but it's supposed to be snowing over the summit!  It'll be a one day turnaround as next week we'll be over for a few days because it's Christmas.  

Have a good night!

Water leak fixed..another beautiful ornament!

Time is certainly marching on!  Where the days go is beyond me!  We've pretty much been home just trying to get things done.  This beautiful ornament came in the mail for me 💖💖 Thank you again, Christina, Eric, Seth and Mason. I'm getting spoiled! 

Love this!!

Ken worked on the water leak and eventually got it fixed.  Thank goodness he can do this stuff, hate to think what it would have cost to have a plumber doing it!  Glad his shoulder is fixed as there's no way he could have dug all that sand out and put it back. I did offer to help him, but he wouldn't let me.  Under the house was pretty  wet, so he's taking the crawl space door off everyday and has a light under there to help dry it up.  

These pics are so Ken can remember what/where this
plumbing is in case he's got to find it again 

That's electrical out of what was the well house, we're on city
water now. Holds my wine frig now. haha. 

I've been ordering and wrapping packages trying to get it done so we can deliver some in Sacramento while we're there for the day next week. A special person has a birthday next week. :) 

We've had some pretty sunrises this week

Yesterday (Monday) we had to go to Carson City.  Ken needed to get an X-ray done for his pulmonary appointment next Monday.  All is good, it's just a follow up.  He got that done first thing.  He stopped at his bank and then we went by Lowe's to pick up a couple more strings of Christmas lights.  He needed a few more for the bunkhouse and outhouse. :)  We went by Target to return a pizza stone I ordered for a gift.  It's a stone, so how do they package it?  Put it in a plastic bag and send it via UPS.  I opened it as it sounded noisy...it was now in 4 pieces!! I ordered a blanket too, that was in a box and bubble wrapped! Go figure!

The lights are colored, but the color isn't shining through..I'll post the
bunkhouse and outhouse pics once he's happy with the lights ..LOL!

We went back and looked to pick up another one.  Well, it was double what it was online. So when I got home I ordered the same one for the cheaper price.  We'll pick it up on Monday when we're there for Ken's appointment.  

When we left there I wanted to go to Ross to pick up a few things.  Ken waited in the car, not his favorite store LOL.  After that it was nearing 1400 so we headed for Betsy's Big Kitchen and Linner.  Always nice to go there, Lisa sees us and she knows what we order to drink. :)  Headed home after that. 

Karen called as she was headed home from Reno. Her grandson, Cameron was at her house and it was getting dark. Ken headed next door and picked him up. He visited a bit until Karen got home a little later.  He's 10 and such a good kid.  We had a wonderful time visiting with him. He's like talking to a little adult :) 

This morning (Tuesday) we read blogs catching up on our friends.  Nancy from Kissack Adventures did some baking yesterday which looked incredible! Ken kept saying I should make the peanut butter ritz crackers covered in chocolate. Ok, ran to the Raley's  to get stuff I didn't have!  Oh these things looks divine! Ken, who is not a chocolate person is actually going to try one in the am with our coffee. I'm going to cheat too and have one.  I made him a new recipe of pineapple banana bread. So we'll see how it turned out. Mexican Christmas cookies are on the agenda for tomorrow.  I'm going to have to unfollow Nancy if this keeps up! LOL..

Banana pineapple bread

Peanut butter and chocolate covered ritz crackers.
Looking forward to one in the am. 

Stole it from  FB.  Russell, Aaron and Jacob decorating their tree.
Kind of bitter sweet as this could be the last time
for awhile that they decorate together, as Jacob leaves
for the Navy next month :) 

Well, it's Happy Hour time! Have a great evening! 

A special gift. Snow and little recap of the USS Midway

Well, here it  is Thursday one more time! Getting closer to Christmas very quickly.  

We've been home other than one day of running to Carson City so we could visit Home Depot so Ken could pick up the parts he needs to fix the water leak under the house.  While we were in town, grocery shopping needed to be done and we picked up a Chromebook I found online for under $100.00.  Why? I'm thinking Ken will like it better than his ASUS.  I love my Apple, so I don't think i'll be spending much time on it. haha. 

I did some baking yesterday and then started wrapping presents.  Sure doesn't look like as much as when the grandkids were little, even though I probably spend more money.  Speaking of that, thanks again to my hubby for quitting smoking 31 years ago and putting into an account every month. It gets released at Thanksgiving and it certainly makes Christmas shopping a lot easier on the budget! 

Yesterday the mail came, this came in the mail! Thanks to Eric, Chris, Seth and Mason.  Early Birthday present! I love it!  

We've had a couple of days of snow..I love it, but know it's not what our Canadian friends like to see. We don't get it very often and it doesn't stick around too long, so it 's just perfect for us. 

Ken took this pic of the living room into the kitchen..it's really not that big. I thought it looked nice though..

Beer he had in San Diego, found it at Total Wine!

We've got fog and snow is melting slowly...

I thought I'd go through some of the pics from our trip to San Diego, just as memories. 

Beautiful isn't it..

Downtown San Diego..

Inside the Midway..Silver the officers used..

Officers dining quarters

80 gallon vats..

Russell chatting with a volunteer

Jacob in the brig..LOL

Jacob and Seth..our 6'3" Sailor to be..is going to have to duck
everywhere he goes inside a ship! haha.

USS Midway..very impressive!

Aaron in the driver's seat..

They don't look too impressive..I thought they might have
changed Jacob's mind..but they didn't.

Yesterday was my sister Linda's 61st Birthday! Hard to believe the baby is 61! 

Time to wrap some more gifts..Have a great afternoon..