Missing her...

Today, I've really been thinking about my big sister, Beckie. She was 8 years older than me and I always looked up to her, thought she was really cool. Well, she was. She loved working with the severely handicapped, loved nature and being natural, loved so many things...and I loved her for it. Most of you know, but she (along with her 3 other boys) was murdered when she was 34 years old by her 15 year old snake step-son whom she tried to love, too. He has never been remorseful. As a matter of fact, he is still trying to convince the press that it was her fault, or blame her and drag Beckie's name through his hellish lies just to get notoriety for himself. I'm so glad my mom doesn't have to know about this crap anymore.

Taco Tuesday

Last night, in the middle of the night, the sounds of screaming cats came through my bedroom window screen and woke me with a start. I laid back down, and listened to the exorcism for another 5 minutes or so. I smiled with the peace of mind that my cats were safe and sound asleep at the bottom of my bed and not out causing such ruckus. I moved my legs back and forth to give each a little nudge and realized NO CATS. I jumped up and listened with a clearer mind...the screams from hell were coming from downstairs! I rushed to the basement to see what the heck was going on.

The light caught them by surprise...George and TT were on the washer and dryer close to the open window all puffed out like dandelions! I looked at the window and the cute face of a giant gray cat was looking through the screen. PSSS PSSS PSSS a few times...clap clap clap and finally "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" gently crossed my lips. (lol) My great attempt to scare the cat away worked and my cats and I finally trapsed back up the stairs to find the bed and tried to fall asleep.

Ugh. Ya know when you need to do something really basic to help your sleep, but just can't wake up long enough to do so? That was the next case. I was needing to shut the window because the cold breeze kept me from a comfortable sleep. Could I get there? NO. More awake time.

RING. Cell phone. Husband calling me to wake me so I can get ready for my Dr. appoint. Ahhh, I can lay here just a little while longer...then a little while longer...then pushed that little while longer to where I needed to kick butt to get ready. First things first. Go downstairs and shut off the fan by that open window and close up the rest of the windows so the cool air stays in. UGH. Here's what I saw...
Water coming out of the hot water heater. NOT a good time. I looked closer and noticed that the moisture was only dripping OFF the heater, not from it. So I looked UP.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes the pipes are calling...but that wasn't the source either, then DRIP...stinky floor wood drop in my eye. (umm, and when am I going to get my shower for the dr?) Drip, another...The floor joists were soaked. Something from upstairs was leaking. I ran back UPSTAIRS to investigate the plumbing. I couldn't hear the sound of a broken pipe...I couldn't find anything in the bathroom, nothing under the kitchen sink or around the dishwasher...then I saw water in front of the fridge. I pulled it out, and YEP. The water line going into the ice maker was leaking and must have been doing so for quite some time. The water dripped through the hole in the floor that the electrical and plastic lines were running through.
So I called husband, ran over to my poor neighbor's house, got him up, and he helped me figure out where to turn the valve off for the water. Then I rushed out the door for my appointment. After I got back from the DR., my neighbor came and fixed the leak...This pic was taken when everything was all cleaned up and the leak almost fixed. The water had been at least a 1/2 inch deep.

The moral of the story:
Don't wait for a broken water line to find out you have an odd square tile under your fridge.

Below, you see mom's family, all the brothers and sisters (12) and her parents. Today, my Aunt Goldie called to let me know their brother, the last brother, passed away at age 90.
It's been a very, very long time since I've seen Uncle Harry and I don't really have very many memories of him. The painful thing, the part rips my heart and fills my eyes with tears is ANOTHER death in mom's family. And, of course, it stirs the pain of her loss, as well.

Below you see Uncle Harry, standing next to Goldie's belated husband, and Harry's belated wife, Esther.

It just really makes me was. Now there are three girls left of their giant, depression lived family. RIP with all the rest, Uncle Harry.

Ugh.

Eye Candy

Here are a few nice things to look at for your weekend!

Our beautiful Cathy's smile!
Uncle Bill in his new home!

My jungle of 4 o'clocks!

My sunflower! (husband is 6'3)
Happy eye candy!

For those of you that think animals don't have emotions:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25796645#25796645

This made me cry!

FANTABULOUS FRIDAY!

NO new pics, just a new post about even when it's summer...Friday always seems to be a good day! Hope you all have one and a good weekend!

A few family "ahhh" moments...

(Vel...this post might make you cry!)

My Uncle Bill (dad's brother) I haven't seen since his dad, my grampa Harold, passed 18 years ago..
Gramma and Grampa's cabin in Story...doesn't look like it did when they owned it...gramma had the most beautiful flowers in the world...now there are some bushes and fake chickens, ffs.

Uncle Bill, my son Ed, Aunt Lenora, her son Kelly and his daughter Riki...

Ed's strums...

Blurry

but beautiful. Megs and I had such a wonderful week together. She sure worked hard with all the wedding
"stuff"; it wouldn't have happened without her!

I love you, Billy Socks!

A week's worth of stuff

But here's how it ended! So special!

Ugh

Sometimes weddings are really fun...there's love in the air, hopes for a bright new future for 2 people that really love each other...
There's lots of festivities planned around the romantic ceremony and reception...

All the family and friends gather together to see the happy couple start their lives together...

But for some of us that are trying to plan and cook and organize and get things ready for this couple that won't make a decision and stick to it, it makes us helpers turn into cranky and irritable WITCHES!

King Theo

Hi all! We are having a wonderful time getting ready for the wedding. Today, Megs and I took the morning off to go see Theo. We had a great visit and lunch...

Can you see it in their eyes?

Theo enjoyed his lunch and Megs enjoyed feeding him!
What a darling baby...he's 8 months old, in the 75th percentile for his weight, 50th percentile for height. He's a darling little chunky monkey! :o)

Steve and Laura fixed a wonderful lunch for us!


I loved watching Megan play with the little King!

Here is Steve, Megs, and Laura, the proud parents of a very lucky, beautiful bouncing baby boy!

On the road again...

to my best friend's wedding...I'm matron of honor. She's 44, it's her FIRST. I'll be back in a week. Don't know if I'll have internet or not. If not, I'll definitely miss you!

Bye Bye chick-a-babes!

BTW, today we floated 23 miles of the Yellowstone River. (Couldn't take pics because I don't usually have my camera because...can't get it wet.) Anyway, it was awesome...we saw 5 bald eagles, 1 golden eagle, 7 or 8 blue herons, tons of geese and pelicans!

Koobs was wondering...

1. Why do they call that Stillwater when it's not
still?
That's a great question, Koobs, as you can see it isn't very still! I don't have an answer. I did a little research to find that it is the LEAST still river in the state. This thought is one we must ponder and it makes me go..."HMMM" Anybody else have thoughts on it?

2. What's an outhouse? Can dogs use them?

HERE is a great web page with info. Basically, an outhouse...out west...is an outdoor bathroom and it DOESN"T have a flusher! No running water...just a hole in the ground. They DO stink, although technology has improved with the air circulation.
I've included a couple pics of outhouses. One is ours that we transport, the other is one we used in MOAB (no roof!)
Ours, of course, isn't a hole. We have a porta-potty in it. Dogs don't use them because they can just use any tree, post or cacti outside to pee on!

3. That's a river? Our creeks here are much bigger
than that.
Many of the river pics I take are CLEAR up in the mountains...origins are the melting snow and glaciers. They are clean and pure and cold. By the time they get to your neck of the woods, many many other rivers and creeks and dumped into them, making them much larger.
We are right on the Yellowstone River which is what Lewis and Clark followed in the early 1800s, mapping out the west...a very historical river and beautiful as it meanders around, lined by cottonwood trees. Here's a little video of the lovely fresh mountain water! The sound is that of the water running...very loud!

4. And last, but certainly not least, why doesn't Gus
have his own blog? We would love to hear from
him and he could attend all our pawties.
Well, I asked Gus about this. And he looked at me with great thought.
Finally he expressed his torn decision. He says that he is SO busy with his important tasks...
that he gets SOOO worn out...

he just can't find the time! But I'm sure he could find time once in a while for a party!

I hope I answered your questions, Koobs. Please feel free to ask all you want and I will try to answer them for

Headed home...

I stopped to see a very dear friend of 25 years, Silvia, whom I hadn't seen for 8 years. We met when she was a waitress and I was a hostess at the same place. Her son was 9 months, mine was 6 months. So good to see her!

And I stopped by to visit with my nephew, Monte, and his awesome wife and 2 beautiful girls.
And I thought it was so cute...he gathered rocks from all over the state to make this fountain in their yard...HOW COOL IS THAT? Love ya, Goosa!

I got home, after being gone for a week, and we headed up the mountain to check out a new hiking place.
The mountains are FILLED with glorious flowers! Below, you see gallardias (yello) and purplish lupine. (BTW, contrary to what gramma said, it is pronounced lu-pin with a short i sound. Lu-PINE with a long I sound is anything referring to scary, wolf-like images.)


Nice mountains in the background.
JO, please look up in one of your 5 new flower books and tell me what these tiny little blue ones are, they are soooo cute!

My childhood favorite...mountain bluebells.


Here's the trailhead...we only walked 40 minutes in, but it's great...


Gus liked it too! Down the embankment on the left is a great river.

That big ol' tree grew on just a little dirt on a ROCK, ffs.


This would NOT be a good place to raft!

And what do you think this pic is of?


Yep. The tree fell and hit the outhouse! Glad I wasn't in it! Or if I had been close, I would have REALLY needed to use it! lol Lots of fallen trees this year from all the heavy, wet snow. At least it didn't completely block the door! lol

The Stillwater is still a bit too high to float.

We've camped in this spot, not it's flooded. There is so much snow melting that the rivers are buldging, 2 to 3 times the amount of water running in them than average this time of year.

So, we aren't rafting. Probably head out camping this weekend, then I'm off to see my BF get married, I'm maid of honor...her first wedding @ age 44! I'll have lots of pics of that! Megs is going too and we'll be meeting up with Michelle, can't wait! Tah tah for now! (I LOVE having summers off!)