Beautiful Clearlake in California

Beautiful Clearlake in California
Pacific Ocean/Mendocino Feb 2016
Update: March 6th, 2016.
After a very very long year of learning to live a new life with my most recent handicap. I am getting movement in my arm!! :) It started the end of August and has been progressing, slowly. My issues with paranioia and depression are also getting better. I am confident that things will continue to progress. However, loosing a whole YEAR of my life is devastating to say the least. However, keeping a positive attitude for the most part has been a huge challenge, but I do it. I am grateful to all my family and friends that have been so encouraging and helpful. Thank you..




Saturday, April 25, 2015

Few days with the Brooks

I had told Phil about some of the issues we were having with the trailer, like opening the slide and catching one of the cupboard doors and ripping it from it’s hinges! Fart fan not working, etc.. you get the picture.. He said, “No problem bring it down and I will fix it”! Oh cool!! Finally agreed on a date, so we headed down on Tuesday last week.
In the meantime Toni had posted on FB a cute little photo of their new puppy, Lacey and Mary Ann fell in love with it and made a comment and before you know it, Toni invited Mike & Mary Ann to come and visit too!! Smile So there was a crew..
For dinner the first night we had Barb & Lucas (Phil & Toni’s daughter and grandson) and Lindsy, Chris and Colin over for tacos.. It was a nice evening..
The next day was work day on the trailer.. While the “girls” went downtown “Thrift” store shopping.. Great day.. Smile
For dinner Mike Mohoff cooked up some lovely fried RIBS!! they were so good!! with lasagna and salad.. good dinner..
Phil tried to fix our “pulling the trailer” problem without success.. Seems the front end is light, steering isn’t good? Trailer looks to be hooked up perfectly..  Came home Friday..
Monday took trailer to Victor in Kelseyville.. had to drive 35 mph all the way there.. scary pulling the trailer.. gotta get this fixed..

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Russian Easter with Mike & Mary Ann

We have been invited several times to celebrate Russian Easter with the Mohoff’s and I do believe this was the first time we were able to make it..
We arrived on Saturday the 11th of April mid-afternoon.. No sooner did we get there and Mary Ann’s daughter Tracy and grandson Lyndon arrived! Let the festivities begin..
Both Mike & Mary Ann had been preparing for this celebration for a couple of days.. They had already prepared food by the “plenty”.
We had a casual dinner the 6 of us on Saturday evening.. And watched some TV and retired early.
Sunday morning was busy.. The 5 of them took a nice 5 mile walk while I stayed and took my time getting ready for the day.. Smile Takes me longer these days to get things done..
Wasn’t long and they were all back from their walk.. Soon dishes were in crock pots, pressure cookers, ovens, etc.. All the delightful aroma’s were so inviting..
Soon people started arriving.. Family and Friends most of Russian decent of some type.. all except us and a few other friends..
What a fun day it was!! There was lots of VODKA going around.. home made VODKA with different flavors.. and of course you just drank them as a straight shot and down the hatch! I personally had over the course of the day about 6 or so shots.. However Everett I think had slightly more.. Because I saw him looking at people with one eye open and one eye closed.. guess if he had both eyes open he saw double.. Smile 
It was a fun fun time! Thanks guys for having us!!

Russian-Orthodox Easter

Easter (russ.: Пасха [Paskha]) is in Russia the major religious celebration of the year. It is even more important than Christmas. Faithful and atheists, kids and adults, city dwellers and country folk go to church to attend the Easter Mass. Easter in Russia is a lot more than a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a long and powerful tradition that could not be eliminated even by the communists. Easter cleanses our souls and thoughts. It brings peace, joy and hope. And, of course, the Russians are looking forward to a happy family feast with lots of special Easter food like Easter bread, traditional cheese cake Paskha, Easter eggs and other tasty treats.

In Russia Easter is usually celebrated later than in the West. This happens because Easter dates are determined by different calendars. The Russian-Orthodox church uses the old Julian calendar, whereas the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches switched to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Family Easter

On Saturday evening we celebrated Easter at Mike & Julia’s home in Petaluma..We also celebrated Lindsy and Mike’s birthdays.
The evening started with an Easter Egg Hunt at the house..Our grand kids were all in attendance, Colin, Gianna, Gillian and Gemma..  All the neighborhood kids were invited as well. I do believe Julia did about 300 plastic eggs for the kids to hunt for..
Mike & Julia fixed a wonder Easter dinner.. nice ham, ribs, scalloped potatoes, shrimp salad! And a lovely fruit basket cake that Jamie provided.
What a great Easter it was..

Celebrating Lindsy’s Birthday

Easter weekend! Here for the weekend festivities!
Lindsy’s birthday was actually Thursday April 2nd..
So we planned a Saturday, of wine tasting and lunch.
We left Lindsy & Chris’ house about 930am and headed over to
Viansa Winery, arrived there about 1015am or so.. Lindsy’s co-worker Omar was our server at the winery.. He was so nice and so informative about the wines!! We had so much fun with him!
This was Lindsy’s first time wine tasting..
After the winery we headed over to the
Rutherford Grill in Napa County at the community of Rutherford…We had made arrangement for Jim & Shirley to meet us at the grill..
We had a wonderful lunch! I think we all had the French dips.. They are so good!!

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Saturday, April 4, 2015

Colin’s game on Friday Night Lights

Colin our grandson played under the lights on Friday night at Major Field at Lucchesi Park in Petaluma. This was the first time Colin has played baseball under the lights! Colin is 8 1/2 yrs old, plays 1st base or 3rd base.. Unfortunately his team “Unique Insurance” lost, 13-9.. They were so fun to watch!! Lots of family and friends out to watch..

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Friday, April 3, 2015

Sicily’s for Dinner at Hidden Valley

Jim & Shirley’s daughter Pam is visiting here from Alaska..
We all got together for dinner at Sicily’s.. It was great to see Pam.. hadn’t seen Jim jr for awhile, so it was a nice visit.
We hadn’t seen Robbie the bartender for a year! Since the last time Pam was here! Robbie did work at the Boars Breath in Middletown previously.
It was great to see him! He is so fun! Pam was happy to see him as well as the rest of us..
We had a delicious dinner! Seemed like everyone had something different..
Poor Pam was so sick with a cold/flu.. she hung in there like a trooper!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Camp Smith at Indian Flats

Great idea Rudy & Faith came up with.. They invited us to a campout in the middle of their vineyard on a beautiful grassy knoll.
There were 5 of us rigs.. Rudy & Faith, Milt & Priscilla, Jim & Shirley, Jim & Jan and us.. We even had a couple of delightful guests!! Phil & Toni..
What a great time we had!
March 29th, 30th, came home on the 31st.. Great time..
You guys are so much fun!! All of you!!