July Home Picture

This is a July picture of our home taken today. You can tell the air is still smoky, but Malcolm has done a nice job of keeping our lawn a lush green and manicured. Malcolm installed a nice screen shade for the front window to keep some of the heat out.

Happy Birthday, Amanda

It is Amanda's 29th birthay today -it is a joy having her so close by. We wish her a very happy birthday and every good thing. She is a great young woman.

Grandkids

Amanda dropped by the other day with her children. The boys got excited about playing a game from the lucky charms cereal box and were really into it while Carson found some old blocks and sticks which were heirlooms from Malcolm's childhood.

Paige's visit

Paige came over to spend the afternoon with us. We made her a memory book of some of her favorite pictures. Of course there was her favorite movies, but she was interested in doing things today. We snapped green beans and cooked dinner together and had a really fun afternoon.

Arnold & Donna's 60th Anniversary

We attended a 60th anniversary party for Malcolm's Uncle Arnold and Aunt Donna in Grass Valley at the home of their Son Tim. It was a very fun party and it was so fun to see Malcolm's cousins and aunts and uncles who we had not seen for many Years. We drove up with Malcolm's Mom, Elizabeth and had a wonderful day visiting, eating and celebrating Arnold and Donna's very special anniversary.

Malcolm's Cousins: Malcolm, Mike, Tim, Dan & Susan

Dan and Pam

Susan and Mike - Sue and Donna

Tim and Sandy & Malcolm & Patsy

Tim and Sandy were responsible for the anniversary party. Tim is one of Arnold and Donna's Son. They prepared a delicious buffet of salads, meats, rolls.

Amanda

Hi Family,
Amanda has been sick and in the hospital with some nasty infection. Please remember her in your prayers. She is doing fine and is in good spirits.

Rachel's New dress

Rachel picked out her fabric and pattern and I made her a new dress. She looks so pretty in lavender with a matching bow in her hair. She is pleased with the result of our efforts.

Matt & Rachel's Week

We have had Matthew and Rachel this week and had so much fun with them! They are happy with anything we do and appreciate everything. We have shopped, taken walks and Grandpa fixed with old scooter that his Dad made so they have had a blast riding it down the street. Last night they found a round metal ring and played with it for hours and had so much fun. We just sat in our chairs outside and watched their imagination with a simple object!

Movie Day

Grandpa has begun a tradition for summer to have a movie day on Monday mornings with Amanda & Tyler's boys. They love the action movies and have been watching the Indiana Jones series - even with popcorn. Afterward, we fix them lunch and goodies. We invite any grandchildren to join us and spend some time with us this summer.

Day with Grammy

On Tuesday, Paige wanted a day with Grammy so we went shopping, had a happy meal and as you can see we took a nap, which Malcolm took a photo of. It would be fun to have all our grandchildren close so we could have a day with them each!

Father's Day Celebration 2008

We had a fun Father's Day celebration on Saturday with Malcolm's Mom and Amanda, Tyler and their children. They got Malcolm a shirt which says, "We are hooked on Grandpa! All the children's names hang down on hooks - very clever and looks great on Grandpa.
We had a yummy lunch with salads, bread and dessert. Later in the evening we went to a HP Party in the country and had more yummy food and great company. A very fun and relaxing day! Dad's day was complete with phone calls and cards received from our children!!

Update on Our Garden

Malcolm is our gardener and put in some posts today for our grapes at each end of one of the raised beds. He then strung some strong lines for the grapes to climb. It looks like it will work great. We have enjoyed green beans and cauliflower from the garden already.

Trip up North

Tuesday, Malcolm and I drove up to Val & Don's home in Redding and celebrated Malcolm's birthday with yummy hamburgers and strawberry shortcake and played with Nicole and Jon. We had a fun evening and a good nights sleep. Wednesday we drove up to Medford to attend our granddaughter, Brittany's high school graduation. We had a good visit with Todd and Billie and Billie' Mom, Susan. In the afternoon we had pizza with Brittany, Sarah and Andrew and the rest of us - it was delicious! The graduation was very short and very nice. Brittany looked so pretty and was very sweet. Some pictures were taken and we will share them we they get to our computer! We spent the night at Susan's who was so kind to us. Thursday am we had breakfast with Todd and Billie We saw this picture is Mt. Shasta with a mushroom shaped cloud on top on our way home. I took it through the front window of the car so we were surprised it turned out so well.

June Election

Malcolm and I took our absentee ballot into the election office yesterday and a photographer from the Appeal -Democrat asked permission to take our picture while we were sumitting our ballots to the election clerk. We were surprised to see the picture on the front page of the paper this morning!

Matt & His Cake

Matt getting ready to blow out his candles on the pirate cake. He was so cute and enjoyed his cousins so much for the whole day!

Matt's Birthday & Visit with Brian & Deb's Family

Brian, Deb, Rachel & Matt came up to our home for a visit and birthday party for Matt. I made a pirate cake for Matt and really had fun finding stuff to put on the ship. Deb brought pirate decorations so the children had skull cups with hat and hats for the children too. They had such a good time together. We barbecued and had cake and ice cream.