Busy for being Retired

July is almost half over and I'm Still battling the computer. I guess the 'REFRESH' wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be.   I couldn't find a restore date that would work so the computer suggested Refresh. So I moved all my personal files to an external hard drive. That took some doing but I managed it in half a day.  Then I turned that external drive off (actually disconnected it), so the computer could "refresh" itself. Now my printer software is lost and that's a pain in the neck, cause it isn't that old. I guess I need to get some software to fix it. That would still be at the old house.  

I moved to my grand daughter's apt in May and the rest of my stuff is partly in storage and partly at my daughter's house, which I guess I'm supposed to be moving next Sat. to the storage shed. I'm going over to her house on Wed to go on a tour of the Nuclear plant that has been converted to a museum so I'll look through some things and maybe find the computer discs then. Meanwhile, I'm fussing with the darn computer, trying to help Bridgit at the new house but with a broken AC in the new house it's been very hard for me. The local heat wave has been very tough on me. If I can't get it done early in the day, it's not going to get done. We have had temps over 100 for two weeks now.

Meanwhile, I'm spending my mornings doing a couple of College courses online. This apt. has very good AC so it's easy to sit here with a sweater on and a blanket over my lap and listen to the Professors. Then I read and take a test. I've finished the first course I signed up for and have received the Certificate of completion. These courses are "Not for Credit", which is why they are Free.  Not doing school today, it's Sunday. 

I'm enjoying being able to cook for Bridgit and Olivia. Then I clean up the dishes (her dishwasher is broken), since the apartment has had the new dishwasher in their possession since Nov. but still haven't installed it for her. Don't know why but so be it. "It is what it is!" I've been washing dishes by hand for more than 65 years now so I'm really good at it. (lol)

I've had time to relax and enjoy the new adult coloring and have crocheted a new scarf for myself. Dani (my daughter in Colorado) put me onto this new 'thing'! I've known how to crochet for years but this is a new medium for me. Crocheting with ribbon is new. Quite easy but you must be careful since it will unravel at the drop of the stitch. Instructions are on 'you tube' if anyone is interested (Kyra that's for your info) and it's really quite easy. I've been doing just the basic one but there are more complicated ones to do. Make a really neat gift. 

A picture of my scarf collection:

The Red White & Blue is the last one I've finished, just in time for the 4th of July. There are 3 that Dani wanted me to have when I was there for her accident. And there are a couple that I've done since I came back that she sent me home with the pkg of ribbon yarn.

I haven't done a scrapbook page in over a month, and I really haven't had any withdrawal shakes or anything like that, (only joking). I'm really frustrated at not having my software but I tried the 'Gimp", and a couple of others but nothing beats my Scrapbook program. I'm going to look real hard for it on Wednesday and then maybe I can make some new ones.

Meanwhile, everyone enjoy the summer. It's going to be my favorite time of year soon and I'll be really happy about that. Fall has such great colors and Miriam has already got another new kit almost ready for me to play with. And I'm dying to use the new kits from Kyra but just don't have the software yet.

Hugs to everyone and good wishes for great health. 

Another small computer problem

Seems like all I do is fight with this thing. Now it's whatever thingy controls the jpegs and a lot of the graphics in the scrapbooking kits from my friends. Needless to say, I haven't done much in the way of scrapbooking. Got to get my Grandson the IT Guru to 'remote into my computer' and see what he thinks.

My little 'nucleus family' has found (it fell into our lap) a new place to live with everyone of us having our own bedroom. It's in pretty nasty shape and Grand daughter is going to be doing the painting with a friend of hers after she washes the smoke covered walls. I've picked 'seafoam green' for my room and I've ordered Sage colored curtains for the two windows in the front. Haven't decided on the window that faces the side yard yet because it's going to be the window where I put Mrs Beasley's window sitter. Even if she has no claws I'll bet if she tried hard enough she'd rip something up.

I'm going to see if the Knights of Columbus will loan me another hospital bed.
It shouldn't be a big problem and maybe I can get them to take the ramp.  I'd prefer to give it to a veteran but so far none have come forward.

Anyway,  I've taken up crocheting with the ribbon stuff and making those scarves you see the ladies wearing these days. Pretty good at that but I've know how to crochet for years...just never did with the ribbons.  And then my daughter who was in the bus accident turned me on to 'adult coloring' books. They are very relaxing and I enjoy doing them.  Here's a couple of the pictures I've colored:

I did this one with a lot of permanent markers and some Gel Pens. Took a couple of days.

This one was fun. It's part markers and part gel colors but the cat didn't have a line down her face. I put that there. I love doing these pics. You can find the books on Amazon and here in the U.S. they are now at Hastings. 

And here are a couple of pictures I managed to get done before the software or whatever it is that's wrong with this PC. Maybe it'll fix itself when I get the new Windows 10, in a couple of weeks.

From our Colorado trip...taking Dani home from her stay in the hospital. She's doing better but she's still only working 1/2 days and using the walker. The blow to her head probably is making her Vertigo worse than before. Kit is 'Daisy Chain' by Twilight Scraps.

The 3 little girls who were swimming in the pool but I made it look like they were at a beach. Kit is 'Smell the Sea' by Studio Manu.

My thanks to both of these ladies who do such beautiful work. And I can't wait to get back to making pics with a new kit by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart and another one by Miriam's Scraps. I'm having withdrawal.

Hugs to all and have a great week ahead.  I'm staying inside...we're expected to have 107 up to 112 degrees all week. I'm not going out in it!!

Little trip to Colorado

I haven't been to my blog or read any blogs for a week now. Last Wednesday I got a phone call that my oldest daughter had been in a bus accident. The bus she was riding to work got T-boned by a SUV.

Daughter Dani got a whole body of bruises about the size of cantaloupes and a real nasty concussion (Arachnoid concussion of the spider veins in the brain). Needless to say I rented a car and my Grand daughter and I drove half of a day and all night into Thursday to get to Colorado where she lives.
Here's the pictures of the bus:

As you can see it was a mighty hard hit to flip a bus over on it's side and it took a crane to get it back up again. When I blew up the picture I think I saw where Dani's head hit the opposite side of the bus. She had to get the glass pieces out of her hair. Bridgit helped her into the shower and she washed her hair in the hospital. Then when we got her home she washed it again and combed it with a fine tooth comb. 

We got to Grand Junction on Thursday afternoon (mix up at the car rental so we didn't leave WA till 4pm). And it's a 912 mile trip. house-to house. Naturally being 75 years old we stopped a few times for bathroom breaks and since we also got Olivia out of school and being only 10 yrs old she wanted to see everything.  I didn't do any of the driving (I left it to Bridgit) and also she doesn't think I should be driving at 75 yrs old anyway. 

It was a great big surprise to walk into Dani's hospital room at 1:30 in the afternoon. Bridgit had been getting updates from her little sister who was in the room with Dani but even Missy didn't know we were coming. Bridgit told her that she was going to call the room and talk to her mom so Missy gave her the room number. When we got to the hospital Bridgit asked for a wheel chair for me since I don't walk very far without the hips giving monster pains. So since we hadn't told anyone we were on the way, we sent Olivia in first to give her Grandma a big hug. Then Bridgit wheeled me in and every one cried! Big hugs all around. 

Dani was tired of waiting for the X-ray people to show up for her X-ray we made them give her a script for it at the out patient pavilion. We did it the next day and then went shopping at Wal-Mart. Dani & I were both in the electric carts having a good time.

Dani is moving right along in her healing and the Insurance co gave her a real nice walker which Missy promptly decorated with different colors of bandannas!

We drove back up here to WA on Monday Memorial day. Really took some time to enjoy the scenery and the rock formations.  Drove through several rain storms but the little Hundai Spirit or whatever it was did really good. Gets great gas mileage and rides real smooth. Didn't have cruise control which is probably why Bridgit got a speeding ticket in Utah. Only black spot on the whole trip.

Very pretty

Olivia likes to climb in the rocks.

Heading into the rain.

One of my favorite trip games is finding animals or bldgs in the cloud formations. As you can see in the last two pics we were heading into a band of rain . It was a fun ride anyway.

Back to normal here. 

Happy Mother's Day

Just a short post today and only 3 scrapbook pages. I've moved out the house I used to share with my daughter and now I'm staying with my Grand daughter. I've still got a lot of packing and storing of things from daughter's house but I'll get it done.

Still going to Rehab for the lungs and Cardio also. Some days it's fun and other's it's real hard on arthritic knees. The machines aren't too bad but the aerobic dancing is way too much.

I wish all of my friends and followers a very Happy Mother's Day!

Friend Ashley and her daughter as she was taking her to school to become a world class chef!

Bridgit and her daughter Olivia a couple of years ago as they were out hiking.

Gr-Grandson Aayden with his Auntie Vanessa on her wedding day!

Time to get a cup of coffee to start my day right. God Bless you and have a great day MOMs!!

I'm back and it's lovely weather

It's really beautiful weather here in the North West. It's 7 am and the temp is 45F  with very little clouds in the sky.  It's going to be in the high 70s today and I think I'd better water my tomatoes. I got one of those little pods and put it into a regular pot and watered it. And I've got little sprouts coming up. The Sage isn't doing as well but it doesn't get any sun where it is so I'm going to move it to the front of the house and see if that helps.

My Cardio Pulmonary Rehab is going along just fine. We've progressed to aerobic
exercises to music and it's quite tiring.  My Osteo spinal problem isn't really getting worse but it isn't making dancing easy at all. Most of the time I have to sit to exercise. But last week we weren't on the bikes or other equipment at all so my core muscles are going to be really worked hard today. I have the resistance at 5 on a scale of 10 so I'm pushing my legs and shoulders pretty hard. But it's going to be worth it. And I've dropped 20 lbs in the last two months so I'm really happy with that!!

Bridgit and Olivia have been here for the last 4 days because my daughter went to Portland for a little vacation with her boyfriend and his mother. She met the rest of his family and they all had a good time. I have a new picture of her to share.

This is Charlie hugging a beautiful tree she found in the Portland neighborhood.

Eddie is one of the Thursday night gang and we don't get to see him as often as we'd like because he travels so much for his job.  But he's a great cook and I loved this snapshot of him.

Great Grand daughter Kadence in her Easter outfit going to her Grandpa's annual Easter egg hunt in his back yard.

And don't I always have new pictures of the puppies around the house. There are 3 of them these days. Two puppies will almost always be in my lap when I'm in the recliner watching TV.

Darling Olivia asked if she could help me around the house so I put her to work on the kitchen floor. We called it her Cinderella Duty for the day. She really enjoyed herself.

Robert Williams (family friend) with his newest grandson!

And you've been watching this little darling as she grows up. She'll be 2 this year at Thanksgiving. Maybe not the same exact day but she was born on Thanksgiving day in 2013. Amyah is growing so fast!

And that's about the end of it. Many things to get done and Rehab to get ready for!!  God Bless everyone and have a great day!

Easter is gone for another year

Last week was Easter and the kids all had a great time at the different houses they spent the day at.  Bridgit & Olivia helped me with my version of eggs. I'll show you in a minute.  I finally got the pictures of Olivia's new temporary hair style. So naturally I made a scrapbook page of them. And a couple of others also.

A good friend who left us way too soon.

Olivia's new hair colors. It's almost all washed out now.

Olivia's 4th grade class is raising "Salmon" in the class room and in a couple of weeks they will be large enough to release into the local rivers. She is very excited about this school project and she thought it would be today to release them but it was just an outing to Ice Harbour dam. Now I'm not sure which one they will release the little baby salmons into, the Snake or the Columbia.

We are lucky enough to live in the immediate vicinity of 3 rivers. The smallest is the Yakima River which flows into the large Columbia River. The third one is the Snake River which runs up through Idaho and maybe into Canada. I don't have a map right here so I can't say for sure. They all three join together here in the Tri Cities and the Columbia takes all that water to the Ocean. The Columbia is what separates Oregon and Washington States. And there are a bunch of dams on the Snake and the Columbia. 

Not much going on. Am having a quiet weekend I hope. Doctor appointment on Monday morning and Cardio Pulmonary rehab in the afternoon.

This is how I do the eggs. This way I haven't wasted the color on something I'm going to shell, cut in half and devil the yokes anyway. I just color the whites, then put the deviled yokes in them.

Have a great weekend my friends.

Hugs, Corrine

It's Thursday Nite Pot Luck tonite.

We had 3 or 4 birthdays this month from the usual Thursday nite gang and they opted for Italian.  Brian is making Lasagna, and Kellin is making spaghetti (I think). Right now he's shampooing the carpet. I spot scrubbed it a day or so ago and he's bound to have to pick up a lot of suds. I couldn't figure out how to get them back up. I stand corrected. The noise I hear is the vacuum not the shampooer.

I've been enjoying my Cardio Pulmonary rehab for these last three weeks. I didn't make the session yesterday due to some intestinal issues but I'm back to normal again.  At the Wednesday session during the cool down session we play harmonica's as a way of breathing exercise.  Sounds absolutely atrocious but it makes us breath harder with our diaphragm. I guess that's the object of the exercise!  There has been a 24 hour stomach bug going around the locale and I guess I was out in the stores and breathed it. Maybe I should wear a hospital mask whenever I leave the house. I remember seeing the street vendors in Yokosuka wearing them all the time. I thought so that they wouldn't breathe on the food they were selling (something I appreciated) but it could have been for their own protection.

And last week I had a serious problem with the computer again. One of the updates that pop in automatically for Microsoft windows 8 was a little bit messed up. It took out some stuff and locked up some other stuff. When I started to fix it myself the computer said just "refresh" the system and it would fix everything back to factory specs but wouldn't touch any of my files. They lied. In transferring some of the files back...it quit in mid stream and when I tried again, the remainder of the files were gone. But I had the original download of files from Kyra, Miriam, Raspberry Road and a couple of others who are my faves.  But all the lovely word art with nice sayings from Linda kz were gone. But I've been getting them back and few at a time. Linda's files aren't zipped files so I didn't have the original...that's the one that was lost. At my age all I have left is patience so I'm getting them a few at a time.

Here's a few of the newest scrapbook pages.

A young lady named Jessica all grown up and her daughter.

A boss I had back in Grand Junction, Lori and her friend Jayne out on the town!!

Dear Olivia has the cutest face I just can't resist make a scrapbook page to show off!!

A friends dog named Vista. They live in Wyoming so she is getting used to the cold and snow. Looks like snow agrees with her!

Aayden who is always making faces and just enjoys himself. Back in Feb of 2015 who knows what he was enjoying. Or some one said cheese and this is the face that goes with cheese.

My brother's cat is named Boss and my sister's cat is named Ruby. It looks like they really do get along.

A friend and her husband at their winter home in Arizona.

Big brother Bud at about 18 months.

Daughter 'Charlie' and her boyfriend Kellin off to another event.

Now it's time to get in the shower and start getting ready for the festivities tonight. And poor Bridgit is so sick this morning that she may not make it.

Until another day! May you all be blessed and enjoy your spring.