July 15, 2011

New piece of wood

Now painted

Did a little repair work on the eaves of my house. I had a spot where one section of the wood was rotting. Put up a new piece of wood and painted it.....good as new!

July 14, 2011

Tried out a new recipe from the grilling cookbook I got for my birthday. This one was Kofta in pita pockets with cucumber and tomato salad.

July 13, 2011

Sunflowers are the theme of my kitchen....saw this one outside and thought it would make for a good picture to add to my decorations at some point.

July 12, 2011

Had a little down time at work today so I wandered out to the garden center to look at the flowers. I found these lily’s with the droplets of water on them, and couldn’t resist taking a picture of them.

July 11, 2011

My friend Sarah introduced me to a sparkling white wine. It is very sweet, and has a fantastic taste to it. Very impressed!

July 10, 2011

Had a random moment at the checkout line today, and I thought I would buy a lottery ticket. I spent $2 for it....and won $4. I’m okay with making a couple of bucks profit. :-)

July 9, 2011

Nothing special to take pictures of today. I was looking back through my pictures from when I was in Maui (wishing I was there again), so I thought I would share of my few favorites.

July 8, 2011

The neighbor across the road decided to get rid of lots of the beautiful trees on his property. Sad to see the trees go, but the logging process was interesting to watch. It was neat to watch the the equipment as it cut a tree down and held it upright--all at the same time; then it would swivel around and dump the tree on the pile.

This part has a giant saw blade on the bottom, so it saws through the tree while holding it upright so it doesn't fall in an unwanted location.

Holding a just cut tree

A close-up of it holding the tree as it moves it

Dropping the tree off on the top of the pile

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July 7, 2011

Little green moth things hanging out on the ceiling outside the house.

July 6, 2011

Went up to the McDowell Creek Falls area today--just felt the need to get out. I took Ariana with me and we hiked from the lower falls (Royal Terrace) to the upper falls (Majestic). It is was so quiet, cool, and beautiful!! It was a great way to spend my afternoon.

Royal Terrace Falls

Majestic Falls (from the top)

Majestic Falls (from the bottom)

McDowell Creek

Moss covered picnic area

Moss covered picnic area in black and white

Trying to get Ariana to sit still long enough to take her picture.

Ariana chilling out on top of a giant boulder

July 5, 2011

New kitchen table! I've been looking at this table for about 4 months now. I loved the table but have been trying to decide if I wanted to spend the money on it. The table went on clearance for a good price....so now it's mine, and I love it!!!

July 4, 2011

Noticed that the mountain lily finally decided to bloom.....better late than never I suppose!

July 3, 2011

The green pepper plants have their first peppers....yay!

July 2, 2011

Scored some FREE imitation crab today! It was on sale at Safeway for 2/$3...I had two, $1 off coupons (which brought me down to 50 cents a package), and then I used Safeway’s doubler coupons getting another 50 cents off each package, so they were free. :-)

July 1, 2011

A not yet ripe blackberry, but the pink and green makes for a nice picture!

June 30, 2011

Ferns!

June 29, 2011

Here are some of today’s freebies! I picked up a free box of contact lens solution with lens case and eyeglass cleaner and cloth from the Walmart vision center (printed the coupons online). In the mail I received some mosquito repellent patches and a sample of Garnier Fructis shampoo.

June 28, 2011

My sister’s dog Rex was hanging out at my house today since his “girl” was over here. Here he is having just eaten dinner, chilling on the dog bed, and protecting the bowl.

June 27, 2011

The grape bush is taking off.......looking forward to having some grape juice in the fall.

June 26, 2011

Not sure what these plants are really called....but my mom calls them “hens and chicks.”

June 25, 2011

Happy Birthday to me!!! 

My ice cream cake.

My best birthday present--my sister home for a visit!

Presents from my parents

Presents from my sister

My sister playing some "mean" miniature golf!

Miniature Golf course in Albany.

Another picture of the golf course.

Our bowling scores--we are awesome! Okay, not really!

So, today was my birthday.....and it was actually a really good one for a change. My best present arrived around 11:30 this morning--it was my sister Jaclyn, who lives in Texas. Talk about a surprise!!!! The family all went out for lunch, then we came home and had cake and then relaxed for the afternoon. Then Jaclyn and I went out in the evening and played a round of miniature golf and went bowling.  All in all a pretty great day--one of the best birthday's I've had in a long time!!