Yep, there he is. My sweetie! Every year, 2 times a year, Doug makes breakfast for his ward choir. He is the ward choirster and when they have practised on the Saturday morning before their Sacrament Meeting programs, Easter & Christmas, he feeds them. It has become a Windsor Ward tradition. People join the choir just for the food he makes. (just kidding).

This year he had buscuits and gravy, a NON-negotional food item, and tons of cut-up fruit with our favorite fruit dip. Milk and OJ round out his meal. This year his practise was at 7am!! And we served the breakfast right after that. It was yummy! Early, but still yummy!!

I guess we only got PART of the before fruit - but I'm sure you can picture the after: cantaloupe, pineapple, oranges, apples, strawberries, bananas.....I think that was all of it....oh, wait, grapes, both red and green.

I'm not sure what this was, but here I am. I think Kai, who just turned 4 years old, was trying

to get some great shots. And yes, I look great!! Nice job Kai!

Another great shot is this one: Jason, got an elbow during a basketball game.

Today, Tuesday, I haven't done my bike riding yet. I might have to do it to and from my church meeting tonight. Right now I'm watching a couple of grandkids and even though they have a bike 'trailer' I don't think I would be able to pull them.

Not for 4 miles anyway. I have, however, been riding these last few days. I don't want you to think that I've given up on that goal. I don't know why I haven't posted them, maybe it's because I don't have anything exciting to add. I do want you to know that those two balls that were in the canal last week (check my older blogs) are still there AND their numbers have increased. I didn't have my camera with me, but there are now 5, yes 5, balls in the confines of the canal.

(sorry, there's not too many images on the internet of 5 balls!) (Also, the balls in the canal were of course NOT these types of balls. Once again, check back on my older blogs).

Thats funny to me. Why wouldn't - who ever lost them in there - want to get them out? It is possible with a pool skimmer to do that, right? But maybe it would look funny to walk, or ride, down the canal road with a pool skimmer dragging behind you.

This guy probably didn't have to walk very far.

I searched all this morning for some pictures that we took Friday night. So, when KT or Shan get home with their cameras I'll look and see if we used their cameras, because the photos are not on my camera. I won't tell you what it's about, you'll just have to check back tomorrow.

Wow, my ride today was 6.33!!!!! I can't believe it. It was a great day though! Well, not as great as yesterday! Cloudy and rainy, my #1 kind of day. I headed east on Broadway and rode until Higley, south until Southern, west until 41st, and then I hit my old route - Flower, Maple, Farmdale, Gilmore, 37th, Dewberry, Dragoon, 37th (again), Clovis, Maple and back down Dewberry!! I loved it. I'm not looking forward to summer riding however. I'm a little nervous. I guess I'll start my 'swimming' training of the triathlon then instead of riding. Here were my 'neat' finds of today:

Yep. Jack. He was laying in the gutter. A mild black scar on his face - but he looks great on my Suburban already. He loves his new home.

A flower among rocks and every kind of cactus known to man.
As most of you know, I am not, repeat not, a cacti person. I dislike, abhor you might say, (only because we are not allowed to say 'hate' in our home) cactus. Now, if I were lost out in the desert and I happened to need to get nutrition from one, I would not hesitate to do so. Or if I needed shade while we waited to get rescued then I would also enjoy the use, limited use, of the cactus that I would stand by, but other than those 2 things, I keep my distance from them all.

Who can't love this!!?? And, of course, I found a heart......

Right in front of the bishops house. A cute little leaf.

Okay, this last part is for you mom....A few weeks ago, I put the Crocus plant that you gave me out on our barbque, thinking that it was done blooming....well....with all the rain, look what happened.......

2 more blooms! and it looks like a 3rd is still going to open up! Fun! With my 'failured' blooms from last years plant (the count was zero), this one is paying back several times for that. For anyone who is wondering - our garden is growing like crazy. Stop by sometime and check it out!

Another rainy day! Can you believe it? I am loving 2010! I was for sure that the rain was gone for the rest of the year...or at least until Monsoon season in August, but, yeah, it's hanging around! Yesterday I rode my bike 4.36 miles. I loved the route I took, which ended up heading south on 32nd, across the freeway. Not too much traffic and not too many people either. Nice. My grandson turned 4 on the 19th, and we had his birthday party last night. My daughter, his mom, is so talented. I was never good on birthdays, and she has taken my example and done the opposite with fun, inventive parties. She made this cute cake with the help of Katie !

Real homemade fondant was used - 2 different flavors of cake and the arms and legs are hostess donettes!! I'm sure she'll share all of this on her blog too! Later we had a DeWitt FHE. It was fun, nice weather (not a hint of rain) and of course good company. We love all you DeWitt's! With Ed and Gayle there, we, Doug and I, were NOT the old-foogies and we usually are, so it's nice to spread that title once in a while.

Friday - I'm back to riding my bike. I went 5.01 miles (that .01 is important). The weather is wonderful and I'm excited to be back to the normal routine. On my ride I found these:

Yep, some little person's ball, but on a closer look:

two balls. Sad really.

A new ant hill. Is ant hill supposed to be one word?

And here is a license plate in a tree.... Crazy...

I tried to go to a website that tracks the distances that you walk/ride to see if I could figure out how much we walked each day in Las Vegas, but I don't know enough of the roads that connect to Las Vegas Boulevard to know where we walked to or back from. Now if it showed the hotel/casino's names, I'd be able to know, but I'm just going to have to guess. The first day we walked from the MGM hotel to the Bellagio hotel. I'm sure it was a 3+mile round trip. And we had all 3 little kids with us. Kai did a great job not complaining about all the walking. I'm sure it helped to have so MUCH to look at that he didn't really notice how far we were going. And that didn't include the walk just from the parking lot of the MGM hotel to the lobby - another feat in itself! Believe me, we all slept really good each night. Which reminds me - girls - how come I got elected to sleep on the blow-up mattress! Thank you Allan for keeping me company in the living room and a special thanks to Kai for being my bed-buddy. I think the girls, K & S, will be on the floor next time we are at a hotel. Plan October Break my dear girls.

Well, I broke down and bought a camera the next day at Costco in Las Vegas. Shhhh...Doug doesn't know yet. But we needed one right? We were going to be there a couple more days. So, here are some photo's........

Las Vegas sign......duh....

The Paris Eiffel tower........ Bellagio..

The Mirage volcano show (11pm at night) (poor kids)



A few shots from inside the Venetian.....

And here is some of my entertainment as we drove home! We saw a show at Circus Circus, I guess they learned alot in Vegas. I also guess what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas.

I'm bummed. My camera was stolen. I'm sure I had some pictures that we'll never get back and that's what makes me the most angry. We had had a great day and then this puts a 'maddening' damper on it. We were in line to go ride the 'terrifying' rides at the top of the Stratosphere and we had to go through a security checkpoint and then stop for a 'kodak' moment for the ride people to take our pictures and then at the top of the tower we noticed that Allan no longer had his ticket OR my camera. He ran back down the stairs, asked around by the security area and picture area, who sent him down one more level to the 'real' security station, for lost and found, and it wasn't there. We couldn't have left it -where ever- for more than 5 minutes but someone must have needed it more than me. I get so angry at people like that. Take my camera, but leave our camera card. Oh, and the thing that makes me the most angry is that it had to be someone standing right in line behind us, watching us search my purse for the ticket and camera! At least within the first 10 people or so. It wasn't too busy because it was 11:30pm! So, not too many more people came in line behind us before we realized we were missing it. I've had the camera for about 6 years, I know it's outdated compared to what's out there, but I still wanted my pictures. Auuugggghhhh!!! An update later about the rides.

I'll let you know right up front that I won't be riding my bike for the next 4 days! So, with that...

Good morning folks! There isn't much to tell today. We are at Brian and Celynda's house for the next few days. Spring Break this year is on the 'less expensive' side. So here we are camping out in their home and we are going to do as much free stuff as we can here in Las Vegas. The Bellagio water show for sure, the feeding of the MGM lion, maybe seeing inside the Venetian (?) where they have a canal and then the statue shows. However, we are going to the Stratosphere to ride some of those rides. Yeah, if I didn't send you the email about 2010 vacations, remind me to do so. They will turn your stomach! That, the Stratosphere tower, will be our big ticket item on this trip.

After these rides and when our stomach settles we will be going to the local thrift stores.

The highlight of ALL of our vacations!!

Oopsie....I didn't ride yesterday. My plan was to go shopping at Goodwill. On Thursday's it is Dollar Day. Certain colored tags are only $1.00. My day was planned and I was excited. However, I didn't make it. Instead I went to Costco to have some pictures printed to send to Kevin. When I send my emails I can only attach 3 pictures, so, at the most, he gets to see about 9 or so, and that's only if I send 3 short messages with pic's attached. Then of course, while I waited to have them printed up I did some shopping. I love Costco shopping. I splurged and bought a new phone for the kitchen. It is a cordless phone. I fought for years NOT to have a cordless phone because of the 'misplaced' handsets, but we will give it a try. It came with 2 other handsets, one that will go into the family room downstairs, and the other into Doug's music room, also downstairs. Hopefully, (ha ha), we will always have a phone in the upstairs kitchen. Otherwise we will have to go racing down the hall to our bedroom. Hm. I'm not a pretty runner.

Today's ride took me south on Val Vista and then west on Southern. I had ridden there once before and was amazed at how many trees lined the North side of Southern. So that was my quest today: to see how many trees there were from Lindsay back to Pueblo. 4.37 miles was the total today. So does anyone want to guess? I actually did not start counting trees until I reached Los Alamos road which is just a block or two east of Lindsay. Okay, the answer is 163! Crazy! It was fun, but I had to take my IPod out so I wouldn't lose count - if and when I would start singing or humming along to my favorites, which happen to be lately, "Forrest Gump Suite", and the theme song from "Ever After". LOVE THEM! Very relaxing to ride too. Now if I'm wanting to really push myself, I have to listen to something else, but lately I'm into just enjoying my ride.

An interesting sight that I saw today:

Aren't they supposed to be doing this ?:

Well, I know it was early but not this early:

Also, a couple more hearts today:

A glove

and along the bottom of a brick fence:

and stretch you imagination on this one:It's really like 2 or 3 hearts holding hands.

I have made a great mistake in raising my kids, and it has affected my girls mostly. I usually 'ban' the making of bacon during the week because it makes our clothing smell and apparently our hair. You can always tell when someone has had a certain kind of food in their home that day. And I challenge you to remember smells that you have smelt on people and their clothing as they have walked by you in the stores, schools, meetings, etc. Today I said I was going to cook some sausage and pancakes. My oldest daughter came around the corner of the kitchen wearing 'protection' on her hair. Now, I don't remember sausage smelling on people, but it was hilarious, so we all jumped in on her worry. Here we are looking at the culprit

and here, we are not worried because we are protected.

This is why my kids look forward to having General Conference. We treat ourselves to scones. Basically, fry bread with butter, honey and/or powdered sugar. But the smell of deep fry oil is very powerful, so we only get to eat them on days we won't be going out or won't be having visitors in. Then we have to have our favorite candle from Gold Canyon burning most of the day. (thanks Susie for the candles). We prefer Sugar Cookies or Birthday Cake candles. Mmmm......

Today my ride was only 4.14. A nice quiet ride. I went down into Sunland Village homes and then accross the canal into our neighborhood. Not much traffic nor people. It was great.

I did notice I was going to need these more and not so much these:

Yesterday, as you know, it was overcast! My favorite, favorite time to ride! I love it! Here is what it looked like as I rode east on Broadway:

Doesn't it just want to make up curl up with a book and blanket on a large front porch in a super soft rocking chair? And have snacks and drinks just sitting next to you all day long?

Like this one! I love it. Now for the books I'd read.........

Anything by Nicholas Sparks or some from John Grisham - maybe a funny one by Mary Ellen Edmonds and of course my annual favorite read, "The Miracle of Miss Willie", by Alma Yates.

My drinking choices would be, hot chocolate in the morning time (and then again in the evening), ice water and strawberry lemonade! Snacks would be, pretzels, chips and salsa from Ole's (out of business now) or Gecko Grill, or Rosa's. Yum. Also, chips and dips and bite size Mounds candy bars. And a midgies tootsie roll for later. Okay, back to my ride...I ended up riding 5.01 miles! I went E. on Broadway, N. on 41st, E. on Main, N. on Greenfield to University, W. on University until Val Vista, S. on Val V until I reached Dragoon, E. on Dragoon, N. on 39th, E. on Clovis and then home. It was a sweet ride. On my way I saw two things to share:

What is this? It was out in front of a home on University. I can't figure out what it really is. Could they be selling them? There was no price tags or signs anywhere that I could see. Maybe they are just decorations welcoming any visitors that be coming to their home today. Maybe it's their childs birthday and they found lanterns instead of balloons. Or they were on sale after the Chinese New Years celebration and so thats what they wanted to us. I don't know.

And then I saw this: It is in the parking lot of Albertson's located on Val Vista and University. I was confused, because this is what we see everyday outside of our dining, kitchen and living room windows:

I'm not sure which one I dislike more.