New babies

Becky brought over the newest members to her family. New twin baby goats. Goats are such social animals that they will follow her anywhere and she doesn't have to worry about herding them.

As usual I have the pictures out of order but will try to comment on the ones that need a comment.

The babies are only 3 weeks old but they are still tiny.


Suck, suck suck, they will try to suck on anything. One of the babies simply didn't know what to head for and still is a little "dim" on the whole eating thing. Becky milked the mama and the dim baby seemed to do a little better drinking out of a pan. I told Becky that if that baby was in a whole herd of goats and didn't have the attention she gives it, it would have simply starved to death.




In the window of the door you can see my cat, "Kat" taking a great interest in what is going on. You can also compare the size of the baby goat with the cat.


Becky "loving" her baby.


I suspect that the goat is trying to eat Becky's shoe


This is the picture I wanted to show you first. It is of Becky bringing the goats for a visit.


And this is of the whole "herd" heading home.

July 7th is the date of a celebration in our family. On Friday we all were able to get together for the celebration and three of the men in my family LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sushi and frequently go to a Japanese restaurant where they order the "all you can eat boat" that is in the first picture. The get together was great. I love my family and miss the TN part of my family but I have had enough Sushi now for another 5-10 years and I didn't even partake of the all you can eat servings. I enjoy most food and can eat almost, ( you will note that I said ALMOST) any food but there are other choices that I make most of the time.

The boat below is intended to serve 4 people. That is not counting the salad and soup that automatically comes with the meal. BB said he was not going to do the all you can eat anymore. He "hurt" himself. Way too much food.



In the picture below you can see grand daughter struggling with the chopsticks and if you look closely you will see that Michael has a little spring device connected to his chopstick to make them work a little easier for us non-Asians.



Below, Uncle Carl (BB=baby brother) is the only one aware of the camera. Must be that he is/was a pro photographer.

Going, going,...

Because of the monsoon season and the dust in the air, we have some very pretty sunsets. I always thank God for His good work. The first picture is a closeup of Picacho Peak (it is perhaps 10 miles from us as the crow flies, alias "Piggy Mountain", as my TN daughter calls it. If you use your imagination you can see the mama pig looking Heavenward. Heading toward Phoenix while on the highway you can see a smaller peak facing the mama piggy that looks as if baby piggy is also looking up.

Tricks

It runs in the family. Playing tricks on other people. I remember old family stories about tricks played. Some a bit mean, some funny. My grandparents on boths sides of my family had porch swings. Good memories come with those old porch swings. Sadly, I don't have a place to hang mine anymore so it is out in the "South Forty" hanging in a tree that no one swings in anymore. The porch swing story: My dad took an old telephone generator? (hope that is what it is called. It was what was used to crank the phone to ring up the operator) and connected it to the metel chains that the porch swing was hanging from the porch roof with. When my my uncle (his brother) sat down in the swing and put his hands on the chains, my dad cranked up the telephone generator thus sending an electrical shock raging through Uncle Lloyd that caused him to lift him and the two who were sharing the swing high up into the air.

Another trick: On April 1st, my grand dad situated himself, standing in the corn crib where he fed his cows, put a rope around his neck and simply waited until grandma came to find him, of course playing out the look of being hanged until dead, tongue hanging out, head canted sideways. That was a mean one. Meaner than the telephone trick.

These stories lead up to the picture below. My BB's youngest daughter, who lives and works in San Francisco, put tape on the bottom of a co-workers mouse to his computer and sat by enjoying his trying to get the mouse to work, tapping it, wiggling it, all the things you do to make it work. HE GOT EVEN! The next day she came to work and found her cubical FOILED! As you can see, her whole cube is covered with foil. I believe the only thing that was not covered with foil was the screen to her computer and Amanda herself.

Amanda: I didn't have anything else to share so you are the blog for today.

Just something for the blog today

When I reached age 70 I started to realize that life is way to short! I have way too many UFO's. (To you who are not into knitting or crocheting, UFO means UnFinished Objects). I always finish what I start but sometimes it takes me a while. There is so much yarn (and fabric) in my sewing room, so many books and patterns that I feel the need to hurry, and as one lady said on a blog, when she puts down one UFO and starts another project: "I can't help myself". I never use the word BORED but sometimes I can't wait to finish a project and get started on another exciting one. All that said, I posted a picture below of me knitting something I DID finish and now don't even remember what it was.

Now I need to clean up my kitchen, perhaps pull a weed or two out of my veggie garden (it rained yesterday and that task should be a bit easier, easier if I can whomp up enough energy to get moving) and then work on a sweater/jacket/hoodie my grandson as me to make for him.

Bowl, not blow

BOWL.......BOWL.........BOWL........EVERY SINGLE TIME I TRIED TO RETYPE THIS WORD IT CAME OUT BLOW...........IT IS NOT MY FAULT, IT IS THE FINGER. MUST BE THE ARTHRITIS!

More IBM pictures

My grandmother gave me a cream and sugar blow along with matching gravy boat many years ago. I believe she was considering "moving on down the road" and wanted to leave me something to remember her by. I ask her where she got those items and she said, "OH, don't ask me". She couldn't remember. At 70 y/o I am forgetting where I obtained some of the items I have. Below are more paintings we aquired along lifes way but I don't remember where we bought them. Now, they are just pretty pictures to hang on the wall.





I DO remember this picture. It was taken on our trip from CT. to Nova Scotia. It seems to me that the name of the place was "Peggy's Cove". The artist in Tucson painted the picture. She got the little boat floating a litte too high in the water but it is a good memory.

IBM

I----I've
B----Been
M----Moved

A long time acronym for the comapany of IBM. I don't know if it stands true anymore because my late husband retired after working for IBM for 30 years about 19?? (can't remember, over 15 years ago at least). At any rate, we started moving with IBM in 1975 and lived in 4-5 places because of IBM. We learned to enjoy the local artist where ever we moved and made it a practice to purchase a painting in each place we lived. I will show you some of the art work we purchased.





This picture is one of my favorites. My husband, early in life (high school) was a serious photographer. He took wedding pictures, working in a photo shop and earned spending money and did the same while working his way through college. He and I each had twin Suzuki 850 touring motorcycles (purchased while we were living in Danbury, CT) on which we took many memorable road trips. We took one trip from Danbury, CT to Nova Scotia. While we were there the Lupins were in full bloom and as tall as our thighs. He enjoyed taking pictures of churches. He took this picture and we had it painted from the picture after we moved to Tucson, AZ. The church in the photo was not a very picturesque church, being an old, old clapboard building so he gave the artist another picture of a prettier church and she painted it in.

This is the only picture my husband ever purchased w/out me. He had accepted a job in Boulder, CO and as typical of our moves, was there before the rest of us while we remained behind trying to sell our house. As you can see, it is a picture of the Aspen trees and a mountain river. It must have spoken to him.




This picture is one of the first oil paintings we ever purchased. We started in San Jose, CA (good ol' silicone valley). We purchased three paintings by this lady. Her name is Nancy Kaiser. She told us that she was in Spain when she saw the possibility of a painting in what she was seeing outside a restaurant window. There was a gardner tending the flowers in the old cart and when she approached him to ask permission to take a picture of the cart, not understanding English but seeing her camera, was very flattered and made a nice pose with a big smile for the picture. Of course, as you can see, she painted only the picture she had in mind, sans the gardner. It is a very large picture that I have hanging over my piano.


No more pictures for now, I have knitting to do.

Remember this?

Some time ago I posted these pictures and ask if anyone knew what it was.
I received several suggestions/guesses. Amazing, amazing. Yesterday I went to the Bernina store and purchased a guide for "Accessories, Presser Feet and Attachemtns for my machine. Amazing again. A picture is in the guide with the explanation for it's use. The most amazing thing is, that it is an attachment for my machine and it came in a bag of various sewing things at a thrift store. I owned a Necchi for almost 50 years and finally got to the place where I thought perhaps it would be OK if I purchased a new machine. I bought the Bernina almost two years ago and love it. I am having a great time. I am almost finished with a Crazy Quilt. I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

The "Whatzit" is: An accessory which may be used in conjunction with
Darning Foot #9 and is called a Darning Ring...this hoop stabilizes the area to be mended. The arm of the ring fits into the bed of the machine to hold it in place, while the hoop portion is movable so the fabric can be positioned and manipulated freely for stitching.

Now good friends and readers, you can stop thinking and puzzling about the Whatzit and get some much needed rest!!

Just a few more

I tried to put this picture on yesterday but the computer was not co-operating.

A tired puppy. Too much vacation

Becky, working on the ever present crossword puzzle

Uncle Boyd

BB and oldest daughter. BB is about 6'2' and daughter may be about the same. Her grandpa on her mom's side is about 6'5-6" I told you we grow 'em tall in our family.

Becky's husband, clowning for the picture...I think!

Big kids and small had a good time in the Activity Room

One of the Unc's. On the way home. He sais he wanted his hair SHORT for the summer. His wish is my command. Short it is. The good thing is...hair grows.

A few more vacation pictures

I love my little camera. I believe they are called web cams??? It is OK to correct me if I am wrong. I often dis-remember the names of things. I have a hard time with nouns. When my sweet grand daughter lived with me she talked me into buying a different chip? to go into the camera so that it would accept more pictures and my BB reset it so that it would hold even more. He said that it would hold over 800 pictures. I took over 100 on the trip. It is so much fun to take pictures and not even think of the expense of film, having to go to the place to have it developed, go pick it up, etc., ect., etc., I love all the new teck stuff I am able to do. Anyway...more pictures.


Michael always takes a good picture.

You KNOW I just had to include this one!


Michael (or MIKE, which he now prefers) Becky's son and Princess Lily, (Beth's baby.



This is Paul, Beth's sweet hubby and Kala's dad (for all of you who know Beth and Kala) I don't know why he was frowning, he is one very sweet man.

This silly site will not let me add anymore pictures!! So, I will quit for today. I have things to accomplish anyway............"Till tomorrow

Two down, one to go (vacation that is)

I just arrived home yesterday after a week in Williamsburg, VA with 14 of my family. Seven from here in my desert, five from TN. and two from Baltimore. AND A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. I will attach some pictures with some names. There have been a couple of request for names.
I put the first picture in only so that you can see the background. My late husband used to take beautiful pictures. He took them of scenery. I always fussed at him for not taking pictures of people. I am making up for that. Most of all my pictures are of the people I love.

We were at a Marriott Resort in Williamsburg, VA. All very beautiful. The beautiful part to me is that my family were all there, except for Kala. I hated that she was not there. My babies are growing up and I will be losing them year by year. Spencer will be the next one. Love them while you can, you can't keep them babies forever.

Danica, (Becky's daugher) and Sam (Beth's son)



The one and only #1 son. To those of you who have known us forever, you are seeing a reproduction of his daddy.

The ever photogenic Lily.

BOYS WILL BE BOYS.......Michael, Becky's son and Beth's son Sam (in the headlock)

Youngest daughter Beth...Kala's mom


Beauty Queen Lily

Oldest TN grandson Spencer, Beth's son. Can you believe this fella is only 17 y/o?

Here is a picture of the same "boy".

Below is a picture of BB Carl, his oldest daughter Rebecca and her friend Addie. She is the short one. All of my family are tall, tall, tall.

Below is a picture of "Da Boys" My baby brother Carl and my oldest child Boyd. I believe the man with the hat was probably a signer of the Declaration of Independance. Why? I don't know. He just looks official.

Oldest dauther Becky, husband Bob and son Michael. At the airport awaiting a plane home.


I may put a few more pictures tomorrow. For now, THAT'S ALL FOLKS.