Snails

Because of the 1 inch of rain we received on Tues night a bunch of snails were out crossing the concrete trail at Walnut Creek. I walked on the trail between the houses today and saw 1 large one. They are so cool looking.

Walking in Walnut Creek with Alyona and Zoya

On Sunday Alyona and I made plans to walk in Walnut Creek on Wed. It's quite pretty there, lots of trees, paths, a little creek. They let Zoya off the leash onto one of the dirt side paths and she loves running and getting to be a wild woman.

But it rained 1 inch last night and the dirt side paths were muuuddy. Soon even Alyona and my shoes were caked with mud, we were slipping, my Skechers were getting suctioned off. We walked back to the concrete sidewalk path, still a nice walk. We walked 2 miles and Alyona needed to get back and begin work.

I enjoyed our walk.


It was quite muddy

Can't see the pretty Cardinal in this pic, maybe it flew by the time I got it snapped

Raked leaves

Yesterday I raked leaves in the back yard. The live oak drops leaves and seed thingies that look like caterpillars in Feb and March. What a nuisance. They inbed themselves in the lawn and make the lawn crunchy to walk on. This is the second raking; Rick already raked once in Feb.

Last week I swept off all leaves on the front porch and back patio. The back patio I did twice and hosed it down good, including washing all the furniture. The very next morning, a thin layer of yellow pollen was back.

At least it was good exercise.

Spring has sprung and it's lake time

Scott was just waiting for some good weather and Rick to be available to get the wave runner ready. He enjoyed his time on the lake. Always so pretty and peaceful on the water.

St Pat's Day

We aren't Irish but what's not to like about Leprechauns?

Painting the fence

After the houses were built behind us, especially the huge one with hardly any backyard, both us and Bruce were getting flooded down the side of the fence after days of big rains. The Roaches house got it worse than us, but it ran a small river along the fence. We talked with Bruce several times about what to do; finally last summer he had a landscaper take out the old, falling down fence, trench and river rock underneath, and rebuild a new fence. Solved the problem about 80%, which is 100% better than it was. But now I had a fence to paint.

Last fall I began painting and got it about 1/2 to 2/3 done. The rainy weather put the project on hold until this spring. Scott is out right finishing it, and then repainting the fence on the other side. We had it done 4 years ago, but with this hot sun, it already needs it again. The fence in back we will let go until the subdivision gets the old fence taken out, then I can paint (stain) the fence that was put in by our other backyard homeowners.

We will be quite happy to have this done.

Chris and Rick cutting boards

Chris has been working diligently trying to get his house finished. It looks super nice. Unfortunately they are getting busy on it just to sell it. Alyona wants to return to Seattle, at least the PNW (Pacific Northwest). She loves everything about it, it speaks to her soul.

Granddog spending time with fav uncle

Alyona needed to go to Dallas today and tomorrow, so Scott, being the good dog uncle he is, volunteered to watch Zoya. Chris presented it to me as, "so Zoya won't have to stay home alone on Monday." Fair enough.

Teeth

I finally decided on what I was going to do for sure with my mouth and teeth. Back in Nov and Jan I met with Dr Peppard and went over all my options. I decided against the surgery for sure. He wanted to cap almost every tooth in my head and I said no to that.

On Fri I have 2 bridges to replace the 2 baby teeth that were pulled that I wish I hadn't had pulled. Oh, well. It was a decision I made so I have to live with it. And then replace the crown that the dentist in Philly did that started this whole mess over 4 years ago.

Strange how one little thing can have such ramifications.

Fred Memorial

Rick came to Utah on Feb 25; the ggrrls and I picked him up from the airport at 4pm, went back to the townhouse and they stayed overnight. So much fun to have them. Paige's church wasn't until 4:30 on Sunday because they were splitting the ward so we didn't take them back until 3. Ended up not going to church with them, all it was going to be was talking about how the new wards would be and the ggrrls stayed at Paige's with us.

Cathie and Rick, McKay and Brie came over for dinner.

Rick and I had an enjoyable time with Scott even tho Rick had to work most of it. The FDA showed up on Mon Feb 27, which was a super bad time for Rick.

We left early 5am on Wed March 1 to go to Indy. It was fun, but we were so wiped out when we got there. Had Pizza King, which Scott and Paige had been craving. Jason wouldn't even meet us, said the pizza was no good any longer. It's still good, or at least we 4 thought so. Chris' flight got messed up so he didn't get in until midnight, Jason picked him up.

On Thurs Rick spent the day with Barbara helping her with all the legal stuff, organizing papers, etc. The 4 kids and I went to Danville, drove around everywhere. Tried to go into our old house, but no one was home. Ate at "La Ra." One of Scott's favs from high school.

Rick helped Barbara on Fri also, the rest of us kept ourselves occupied. Jason and Paige went to his gym on Thurs and Fri.

The Memorial was at 10:30 on Sat. Robin spoke, Jason spoke, the minister spoke, Harry and Paige sang. Paige's was lovely, as were Harry's 2 songs. Paige kept mentioning that we should get a nice pic of us at the Memorial and of course we kept forgetting, so now I don't have a pic I would like to have.

The church women had a luncheon after, they are so kind and Christ like at that church. It would be a fun church to attend.

Went back to Barbara's and spent time with Brian and their 3 grrls. We all are trying hard to stay close to them.

Came home to Jason's, went to dinner, then bed. Had to get up super early, 5am. Paige got up at 4:30am  and Rick took her to the airport.

Scott, Rick, Chris, and I got back to Austin. We were all completely wiped out.
Scott is staying with us until March 21.