Hot Summer Nights?

Don't you wonder about those Hot Summer Nights? Seems we only had about two weeks of them. I always open the windows to get a breeze at night. With one cover, I get a little cool at times during the night - just pull the covers over my head. That works better with a down comforter, as just your breath will warm everything up.

But this morning, it was 65 in the house when I woke up, and I had to turn the heat on! Yikes! Is this global warming (which Christopher says is actually the next ice age), or what?

I wonder what August will bring. Usually during the fair it is soooo darn hot - seems like a zillion degrees. Can't wait for the little critters that come down after the fair closes. I'm ready for them this year!

I have been cleaning house. And I mean Cleaning House! Seems like once a year, there is a big "do" over here, and my big "do" for this year is this weekend. So I have been cleaning carpets, planting all my left-over plants, scrubbing, waxing, washing, drying, etc. I even (get this) cleaned Brady's room! WooHoo! It has been vacuumed, waxed, washed, dryed, clean sheets, tools stacked neatly (come get them Bradster!!) and almost looks like a regular room... I am going to put a "Room for Rent" sign on it soon.

Have a great weekend!

Matt's Birthday

Matt's birthday was Sunday, also. He loved the fir bowl I got for him, and lamented on what kind of price I must have paid for it. I'm going to let him wonder, too! Heather was nice enough to join us for his day, as was his mom, dad, and baby brother. He was in church for most of the afternoon, o-k, all of the afternoon, but I was able to finally get the charcoal started and cook his chicken before anyone arrived. (Heather came early, she said she could smell the charcoal lighter fluid at her house, and thought she better come early to make sure I didn't burn anything down!). Everyone had a good time, I think, and matt's son did call that evening to wish him a good day.
I don't know if I have ever told my sisters about the rift between matt's children and us. They have placed Matt out of their life in the belief that he was comitting a mortal sin by seeing me before he was divorced. Our church believes you should not date until the ink is dry on your divorce papers. Never mind the fact that he hadn't lived with his ex for more than 9 months. Never mind the fact that we have repented through our church, and been forgiven. So, for the past 5 1/2 years we have been in and out of their "good graces", depending on their current mood and relationship with their mother. I have given up, pretty much. So, when his birthday came I invited those that have been loving and supportive of him these last 5 years. Slim list on his half!
But, it was nice to do this for him. I love him so much, I just want him happy, you know? And, wow, he loves his new bowl!!!
On another aside, his bathroom project is only 2 weekends from being completed. Then the job of paint and decorations begin. I am still leaning towards coke bottle green. The glass blocks in the window will be that color, and I think it's a real oceany color. Well, we'll see.
trudy

Margi's Family Vacation

Hi, I'm back....what a great time we all had. We rented a cabin on the Spokane River and had our trailer parked next to the cabin. We had two boat for everyone to use!

So the grandchildren went from don't take me over the wake in the tube to wakeboarding in the matter of five days. It was really exciting to see. This Grandmother even tubed for the first time ever. The Grandchildren were so excited to see me finally put the book down and get out off my lounge chair...hey it's a vacation!!

I didn't speak to Ryan..left a message and he didn't return the call...maybe some miscommucation on my part. But heard that Trudy was able to talk to him..and he said he would call tomorrow. I hope everthing will turn out okay. Let us keep out fingers crossed!

Will call or write to update all of you.

PS My grasses our going crazy in this heat!!! Looks great.. Love ya all, Margi

Ford Family

The Cook family is definitely a Ford family.

One Sunday morning, about four years ago, when I still lived at Kiefer, Christopher came for his morning coffee. Soon, Quincy showed up. About half an hour after that, Lexi showed up.

They were all visiting in the kitchen when I walked out the front door. I couldn't believe what I saw - three Ford pick-up trucks sitting in front of the house.

A quick call to Brady, and he roared up with Blue. (Blue is the 4 x 4 Brady got from Marge & Dennis when he graduated from high school.) Brady also had the brown truck.

Chris's Bronco couldn't make this historic occasion, as the transmission was out. We didn't feel it was worth a ticket if he backed the Bronco down four blocks.

This picture was taken from the Brown's house across the street:

People were honking and waving as the pictures were being taken.

As Brady said, even Cook chick's drive Ford Trucks. I said "well, the neighbors sure know when the Cook boys come to visit their mama!"

We are now a family of 16 Fords. Two Broncos, TEN pick-up trucks, one very nice Fairlane, one beautiful red Escape (mine!), a motorhome, and some old car Brady inherited.

The funny thing is, the boys are very good at trading, so there isn't a whole lot of money involved in their acquisitions!

I keep nagging the boys we need to have another "family photo" taken!

Missing nephew...

My e-mail server is off line, so I will ask you here! Did any of you get a collect call today? I did, and wasn't able to answer it in time, so they hung up. I wonder if it was Ryan W...I tried his cell phone and it's no longer in service. So, buggers! If you have heard from him, please let me know! Also, I am unable to post pictures because my kodak program on my pc is hiding them in files, and we don't know the passwords! Isn't that weird? Anyway, let me know! Thanks, t

Birthday Girl(s)!

Saturday was Kesiah's fourth birthday! Quincy and Lexi had a big party for her. Big kids, little kids, grandparents and great-grandparents enjoyed the fun. The picture above shows Kesiah in her birthday hat I bought her from the Farmer's Market, and brother Riley. If you look real close, you will see she is smiling not at her grandmother, but at her mother, Lexi, who is standing to the side of me.

Kesiah and Lexi have always been very close since Kesiah's birth. It was so weird, but Kesiah couldn't have been 10 minutes old when she heard her mother's voice, and her little head turned in the direction of Lexi's voice!

BGF Glenda Harzell celebrated a birthday last week, so Glenda, her husband Mike, their daughter Maranda, Maranda's boyfriend Anthony and myself went to the Soap Lake Business Man's Club to listened to the Sagebrush Skillet Lickers. I visited with band members Darrell Morris (he has a great spot on MySpace), Don Johnstad and Tom Brimm.

Mike Hartzell is soooo darn funny. He drinks about a gallon of coffee a day, with 5 teaspoons of sugar in each cup. He is a ball-of-fire. On the way home, he spotted a road-kill, so we had to flip a U and inspect the remains. Oh boy.......

It was a fun day & night!

Malibu Barbi

After two years of asking my boss to let me buy the Malibu Barbi Mansion from him, finally, he relented!

Barbi's mansion arrived in the form of three large pieces for the house, and a HUGE box of dolls, clothing, and accessories.

Riley had fun playing with the mansion over the weekend, and Myriah loves it.

When Deena and her friend Ronnie came to pick up the kids Monday night, Deena walked into the house and said "Barbi's Malibu Mansion!!" They oooed and ahhhed over it for quite some time.

Seems like I need to have a Girls Night In so we can all play. Dollhouse are great fun, for the young and also the older generation! So have some fun today!

My Gardens

Okay, you guys knew this was coming............ photos of my gardens! Ho-hum to some of you, but my sisters will appreciate this!

When I bought my property (one acre), there were only a few trees, lilacs and irises left, after being abandoned for over a year. I planted pine, fir, maples, quaking aspen, and a few other trees (but never enough in this part of the country!). So far, I have planted over 20 trees.

The very next item on my agenda was hauling in 20 yards of dirt, moving all that dirt by hand, and putting in the big (80 foot long) flower garden:

It's hard to take a picture of an 80 foot flower bed, so I've broken down some of my favorites:


Here's a beautiful white (I believe Siberian) iris that is one of my favorites. At least......until I get the red one I just saw in a catalog. They are taller than I thought they would be, so I have to move them to the back. Is that a beginner's mistake or what? and here I thought I knew something about gardening.

Here is a picture of the lily by my front door.
It is huge and very fragrant.

This picture shows liatris (purple), daylilies (red-yellow) and roses (burgundy).
This is from the back flower bed.

Above are Echinops and day lilies.

Here's lavender and knock-out roses.
That's it for tonight - this has taken me two days to post!

Being a Grandma

Riley and I had a great weekend - he spent the night on Friday. Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer's Market. Moses Lake has a great Farmer's Market - we bought cherries and blueberries, Kesiah a birthday present and had fun visiting with people we saw.

Riley and I then went to Ephrata for Basin Summer Sounds. A co-worker, Randy, has a brother (Don) who plays music in the Soap Lake area. I've listened to their music several times at the Soap Lake Businessman's Club. What a great sound they have! The first time I heard them play, they had several musicians join them - one guy was ZZ Top all the way, the other guy was Merle Haggard. The second time I heard them, they had a great saxaphone player, whose name escapes me at this moment, but it'll come to me in the tub............ Anyway, their music was phenomenal!! I really enjoyed the way the band members enjoyed their time on stage too - it's always fun to see a people really enjoy what they are doing!

I found out via the local newspaper a classmate, Tom Brimm, plays in the band so I wanted a chance to talk to him. Tom looked soooo the same! Tom must be the original "Head Banger", as throughout the entire concert, his head banged down with every beat.

It was great music, and I forgot how much I love to listen to great music! So next year, Basin Summer Sounds will be on my agenda!

Today I took Riley, Myriah and Jeremiah to the former Moses Lake State Park. It was great to have them "out there" swimming, and me relaxing on the grass! Here's a photo of Riley and Myriah goofing off:

Here's a great shot of Myriah. Myriah is smart-as-a-whip (like her dad, but without the bad habits), a 4.0 student, and she wants to be a lawyer. Myriah has wanted to be a lawyer for years and years..........

Quincy & Lexi's Vacation

Quincy, Lexi, Riley and Kesiah went to the Oregon coast a few weeks ago with Lexi's family. I got a strange telephone call from Quincy during their vacation - Quincy apologized for everything he ever did to drive me crazy when he was a kid (which if anyone knows Quincy, well, let's just say there were more than 100 occasions). Seems Riley wasn't a happy camper, so to speak! I remember many times when my dad would come over, and the three kids were just a LITTLE wild running through the house, and he would laugh and say "Mo, why don't you have a couple more?" I'm sure I was an angel, but sometimes the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Here's a great photo of Lexi & Kesiah. Kesiah was named after her great-great-grandmother.

Riley found this starfish for Kesiah. She said it had snails on it!

Here is Riley up a tree, so to speak!

This is a great photo of Quincy & Lexi - although I have to admit, Quincy still looks a little tense. I am happy my sons have good marriages, and have wives that truly love them! We are a family that has many blessings.

Goodbye Dear Friend

Today I said my final goodbyes to my dear friend Byrdeen Worley. Byrdeen passed on 10 days ago in Kadlec Hospital. Marilyn Bertram and I visited Byrdeen in the hospital the Sunday before.

It's amazing what you don't know about your friends! I didn't know her first name was Theodora, and I didn't know she flew an airplane.

I did know she was kind, hardworking, compassionate and generous. She was active in politics and many organizations, including the BBCC Foundation board, which is where I met her. I appreciated her good humor, her determination to get the job done, her kind heart, and her love of the students she supported through the Don Worley Memorial Scholarship at BBCC. She was a very special lady, and will always have a piece of my heart. I would say rest my friend, but I'm sure she's organizing a political rally, a prayer meeting or a wine dinner!

Surprise Barbeque

After Quincy and Lexi returned from their vacation last Monday on the Oregon coast with Lexi's family, Quincy called me up and wanted to come over for a barbeque. Guess he wanted some time with his not-so-normal family! We had a great impromtu barbeque that evening. Brady and Kharsyn were over also, so here's a photo I took of Kesiah, Riley and Kharsyn.

Sisters

I think I have finally recovered from my trip to my sisters house in the Tri cities. I have a hard time traveling, but enjoy it too much to just stop. Too young to roll up the carpet and put a do not disturb on the door! I really enjoyed spending time with my sisters, and wish that we could spend more time together as we grow older (really bug the crap out of our kids, too!).
This is a much quieter summer for me, with my grandchildren living away from me, spending their summer with their dads. But, I still have my furry kids, here. I didn't list them in my interests because they are more like family to me, now! Too hot to get in the garden to work, will have to do that after dark! It has been so hot, here, with temps from 100 to 110 on my patio! Even Shadow (my male schnauzer) and Kizzy (my female schnauzer) are happy to lounge around the cool house napping.
Wonder if my sisters would like to go to the beach in September with me, around Sept.17 -20 th ( I think I will check later). I will post some pictures soon, as soon as I figure that out!
Take care, t

Recall

My recall appointment was rescheduled due to computers being down. They must have had Vista! Next appointment is Monday, so I'll keep you posted!

Birthday

I have attemped to write this blog several time. Hopefully I will be able to submit this before everything breaks loose.

Thanks for coming down for my birthday..hard to believe that I made it to sixty years old almost. I remember when 60 years old was an antique! Now I'm here at this age. Our parents didn't give use any guidelines for living past 60 years as longevity is not a family tradition!

Really excited about this vacation and getting away for the whole week, we'll be in Davenport. If you want to drop by call me on my cell phone.

Thanks for the information on the plants..needed something rather large and for a part shady and sunny area. The sage sounds good. Need to break up the plants on the other side also. Need to get some photos on line so you girls can come up with some ideas.

We are so very blessed don't you agree? Will leave message on Ryan phone number and try to catch up with him sometime tomorrow. Take care both of you, Love you, Margi

Evening Scents

Tonight as I walked around the big garden, I was pleasantly surprised to smell the spicy scent of pinks! Although they have mostly finished blooming, the smell was wonderful!

The weather has cooled off somewhat, and it was great to walk around the garden and take photos - come back and look!

Which reminded me of a challenge I have. My best friend Faye is blind, and can no longer maintain her small flower garden. Out came the burgundy sunflowers, and all that remains is day lilies, liatris, lilies and miscellaneous flowers.

I told her I would think of something for her garden spot that would still keep her in touch with her love of flowers. I thought of a large, multi-level fountain, with blooming water lilies, miniature cattails, etc. But I forgot about pinks! As we know, blind people's smell is much sharper than ours, and what a wonderful fragrance to remind you of better days and better gardens. Alyssum is a fragrant flower also. But I will have to check on what flowers are fragrant all season.

Faye had her roses taken out, as they were large and too much trouble. Miniature roses do not have a scent.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Dreams

After a great day celebrating sister Margi's birthday, I was exhausted! Too much good food (and a great Bahama Mama!), shopping and visiting, coupled with a several sleepless nights in a row, resulted in a deep, deep sleep. But the dreams! The most interesting one was about flying.

I dreamt I could fly - not in an airplane, but physically. Whomever was trying to convince me to give this a try - my reply was repeatedly, "I can't fly - I'm not stupid!" Finally, I just took off. Wow, what a ride, reminded me of flying to Moses Lake from Seattle during one heck of a squall in a small Metroliner. But it was funny - I could fly! Wobbly as heck at first, then steadying out. I woke up thinking "what a dumb dream".

BUT, believing in what our subconscious tells us about dreams, I looked it up. Seems like my life has been a little wobbly lately (no fooling!), but now I'm charting a straight course.

So the moral of this blog is we can't control the people in our lives, only our reaction to them.

Day One

Trudy and I drove to the Tri-Cities in her new Mini-Cooper! Road trip anyone? It's a great little car - and pretty good gas mileage too!


After spending the day with my sisters, celebrating Margi's birthday, I had the idea of creating a blog to share more information and photos on our day-to-day lives. With family and friends through-out the world, sometimes it is difficult to stay in touch. We invite you to share our joys and love of family and friends. And Yes! we love our gardens!