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So every time I try to spring clean ( I know it is winter) I always find something to make me get side tracked, this time it is old photos. As you can guess the cleaning has gone by the way side and I am now looking at a bunch of old photos. How old? Well let me see I think about 13 or 14 years for the ones of Isabella, and I would like you to notice the dress and hat she is wearing, yours truly made them ( and you thought I was just another pretty face).  I would like to ask Isabella what happened to that dolls hair? Now the one of Bill and his father Bill SR was taken in 1953, I didn’t even know he had this picture.  Anyway I wanted to share some of them with you. Bill would have been about 11 and boy don’t they look alike!  Hope they make you smile like they did me.

Well, I finely did it!! When I was back in Michigan this summer my sister Connie introduced me to the world of Artist Trading Cards, little tiny works of art the size of a playing card. Connie has done some amazing stuff, while I on the other hand am struggling to join her in her talented pursuit. Early in the fall Connie spent some time in Arizona and we spent hours making cards.  Now there are web sites where you can post you cards and hopefully someone will want to trade with you, Connie has been trading her cards for awhile and after watching her at her trading my sister in law Gwen and myself joined a trading site. Gwen posted cards right away and was off and trading but not me. Heaven forbid that someone might find fault with one of mine and say something. Gees you would think that when you get as old as I am you would be over that crap and be willing to take it on the chin. Right? Well guess what world after four weeks or so I have worked up the nerve and posted some cards on the web. Now if they trade or not that is a different story, but one can only hope and I will keep you posted.

So here it is 2:00am and I am still putzing around, I am in one of those I cant’s sleep mode. I tell my self “self it’s two o’clock  in the morning and you should be in bed” but then I say to my self ” but I ain’t sleepy self” and around and around we go. Now I know they say when you get older you need less sleep but 4 hours in the last three days is a whole lot less! So I come to share my woes with those that are interested and even those who are not. Thing is I  think I should be tired, I shampooed my carpet today ( I have Bunko tomorrow night, heaven forbid that they see a spot on the floor no matter what kind of spot it might be), spent three hours at the library gabbing with friends and doing a craft I have done many times before, went to bingo ( won $15.00 but spent $22.00, that should make anybody tired) and came home and watched Dancing With The Stars ( don’t even want to talk about that, boy did the wrong person get booted off tonight). Now that makes for a long day and I should be fast asleep by now but nooooooo ,I am in front of the computer thinking  that after I finish this post I should play a nice game of Bookworm and that brings me to the point. Now I have reached an amazing 1,003,080 on my I Phone, yes I know you are thinking why is she playing Bookworm on her I phone, because I can! You see every time I have to wait for someone or ride in the car I play phone Bookworm, I sometimes think I could use a magnifying glass but I started this game on the plane ride back form Michigan and it is still going. I wonder if there is some kind of record for phone Bookworm? If you know let me know, would love to try and beat it. OK, you guys have a good night I am going to play Bookworm, not on my phone but on my computer, I have a game going on it also, the phone one is just for when I am stuck someplace with nothing to do. Sleep tight don’t let the bed bugs bite!

My life has been a series of ups and downs since my last post, I survived my airport experience only to endure a 5 hour airplane ride in one of the tinniest seat I have ever sat in with my knees locked in the same position for the whole ride! Just think that seat cost $12.00 and I am old enough to remember when a seat came with the cost of the ride and you didn’t have to pay for your luggage  but I can tell you this much the seat coming back to Arizona cost a lot more than $12.00 cause I moved up to the big fat seat in the front, Spirit dose not have 1st class just big fat seats so I rode in the big fat seat class on my return flight. My visit was great fun and seeing my grandson face when he work up on his birthday and I was there was wonderful, I am always back in AZ when his birthday comes so it was a special day for us both. My return to Arizona was sweet but bitter, my souvenir from Michigan was a cold which gave me an excuse to go to bed and try to sleep my way though the 7 year anniversary of my husbands death ( it didn’t work but it gave me reason to hide from the world) but not to worry I am back. For the last two days I have been making  jewelry, you see I have a craft show in two weeks, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea it not like I have not made stuff for the show when I was in Michigan this summer, I did I just keep giving it away. They say you never stop learning and that is true I learn not to show my friends and family what I made because when they admire something I can’t say oh you can have it for $……….  I have to give it to them because it makes me happy ( and I hope it makes them happy), the problem now is I have to work my little fingers to the bone. Now I am sure you are all wondering what all this  rambling has to do with the hail to the champion  thing, absolutely nothing!! You see I introduced my sister to my favorite game Bookworm and she was just 300 points shy of 7,000,000 when the dreaded burning letter got her. So to all you bookworm junkies lets see you top that, oh I did get to 747,349 on my I phone during my plane ride to Michigan and for all bookwormers the one for your I phone is sure a lot different than the one I play on my computer (go figure). So Hail To Connie the bookworm champion and I bet my friend Dick is in a Bookworm frenzy trying to top that score, I don’t even think I will try. Now you all now that is a bunch a crap!! Look out Connie here we come.

OK, so I know that I just returned from Michigan BUT something has come up and I am flying out of Vegas tomorrow. The thing is I am not real fond of flying, it was bad enough before all this security crap but now you have to be at the airport so early that the time you spend waiting to get though all that stuff, take your jacket off, take your SHOES off, kind of makes you wonder what they are going to make you take off next, you could have been where you are headed to already! Don’t even think of getting though the metal  detector without it going off, I need to carry a big sign that says I beep so just go ahead and pat me down, because sure enough when I pass thought the magic arch it is going to go off. Now I try to tell them that I have more metal in my body than a Robot but will they listen,nooooooo their going to make me take off my shoes and whatever else they can make me remove without my being arrested. Finally when everything has been removed that might beep they will let me pass because well some people just beep! Now the really stupid thing is that that is the easy part because now you face the 42 mile walk to your gate, why is it that none of the gates are close enough that you don’t have to take a bus to get to them?  Sad thing is in 5 days I have to go though the whole thing again so I can come back to sunny Arizona because my son tells me it is snowing in my Michigan neighborhood and as much as I love him and my Grandchildren I hate snow but business is business so off to the airport I go tomorrow. I was going though some pictures I took this summer and I am going to post one because that is the way I want to think of Michigan as I head off tomorrow. Warm and Sunny, with natures wonderful creatures every where.

Yesterday we drove to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, it was breathtaking!! You could never take your car into the canyon before but the Indians are letting you drive down to where they take the rafters to go down the river, at $15.00 a person it was worth every penny. You start in Peach Springs and drive all the way down to the Colorado river, it was amazing to be so close to the river and all that fast moving water. Bud, Gwen, Connie and Pete got up close and personal to the river and since I am just getting better I was forced to forgo the up close and personal thing, I can barely walk can you imagine me trying to swim that fast moving thing. My falling in the river would have been the topper of the day, we all took our cameras and the first thing we see are two donkeys, and since I am still limping and having a lot of pain I get to set in the front seat and of course that makes for fast action on, so I am snapping and snapping pictures of this geat  looking donkey who by now has it nose stuck though the car window eating some potato chips. Now you must understand that every person in the backseat is complaining  that I am getting the best shots and they were right but the thing is those pictures of the cute donkey are only a memory in my mind, because I forgot to put the compact flash drive in my camera, it is a good thing that I decided to see how the picture turned out or I never would of known that there was no memory card in the camera. On the brighter side I got some nice pictures of a big horn sheep and some nice shots of the canyon and river, that I would like to share with you.

Wow!! If I had wanted this kind of weather I would have stayed in Michigan and waited for Michigan snow, instead I hurry back to Arizona to miss the white stuff and what do I get, Arizona Snow, go figure. Yes believe it or not it snowed on the Grand Wash Cliffs, now this is not unheard of, it dose snow in Meadview but generally not till January or so, not in October. Give me a brake, I have got my heat on and it is not even Halloween yet. Those poor kids that are use to trick or treating in shorts and a tee shirt are going to have to wear ear muffs! Yes, three days ago I was out on the boat with no pole Nutter, my brother who took all his fishing stuff off the boat so has to not be tempted to fish and was tease so badly by the jumping fish that he finally said “Just call me no pole Nutter”. Now that quote leaves to many ways for me to get in trouble, so I will move on. Like I said we were on the boat three days ago and it was 87 degrees and last night it was in the low 30’s, and my heat is on and I am wearing a coat and this is Arizona and as you can guess I am a little bummed out. So hows the weather in your world I would like to know? Better than mine I hope and just to show you that it dose snow in my Arizona, below is picture from one of last years snow. Enjoy!

Yesterday I went in the desert with Gwen, Connie and Pete, Bud stayed home to watch the NasCar races. Now if there is anything that man likes better than fishing  it is watching cars go round in circles followed by an exciting game of Golf. Now don’t get me wrong I love my brother to death but his choice of sports might have been just a little more excitement that this old ladies heart could have handled, so I chose the desert. One of my better decision I might add, we decided to go up to the Grand Canyon and take Buck And Doe road over to Peach Spring, which is the tribal center for the Hulapai Indians and then take old route 66 back to Kingman. Buck And Doe road takes you across a mountain range that has some breathtaking views of the Canyon and then brings you out to old 66 which is great fun just by it’s self! It was another beautiful day in my world and I am sorry my brother didn’t go with us because I am sure our day was a lot more exciting than his, well there was that one small misshape with the Bronco and he did have to come and rescue us, but still and all, the race was over by then. Below are some pictures of an old General Store we stopped at to get something to drink, I hope you enjoy them.

Lake Mead was beautiful to day, the water was like glass and the light for taking photographs was amazing. My brother Bud took me , his wife Gwen, her brother Pete ( who just arrived from Alaska) and my sister Connie out on his boat today. Now to say that was nice of him would be an understatement because his boat is a bass boat and boy dose the man love to fish but today his took all the fishing stuff off the boat so he wouldn’t be tempted to stop and fish. Now it seems to me that the fish must of some how known this because they were jumping out of the water today almost as if to say, “ha ha look at me, you can’t catch me” but I got the impression that he was thinking, ” I’ll be back”, just like the Terminator. Aside from Bud being tormented by the fish it was an outstanding day, we saw a wild Donkey, all kinds of birds and even a herd of cattle drinking from the lake, took a bunch of pictures and watch a beautiful sunset. All and all it was one of the better days in my world and I would like to share a little of it with you. Enjoy!

WOW, I can’t believe I have been home five days and still can’t seem to find the time to unpack! All thou I have managed to get my new computer, that my son built for me, up and running, heaven forbid that one would have to go without ones computer for any length of time let alone five days. One must have ones priorities in order, correct? No computer no blogging right? Now I want to talk about my trip back from Michigan and I would like to take the time to thank my brother Bud who every summer drives me and my zoo from Arizona to Michigan and then in the fall drives us all back again to Arizona. Now I know that this might sound like a simple enough thing to do but when you have a traveling zoo things can get a little hairy ( pardon the pun), all those pit stops and finding motels that take pets can be a little stressful but Bud takes it all in stride, EXCEPT this trip back from Michigan, Buds wife Gwen ( better known as the Queen),  Gwen’s niece Laurie, my sister Connie and her Lab Sasha followed us. Well sometimes they followed us, sometime their GPS took them to unknown places, sometimes they passed us and then wonder how we got behind them but one of the unknown places that their GPS took us to turned out to be this very cute little diner on old route 66 where the Queen came face to face with the King. Now Gwen love the king and has even been to Graceland, so it was only fitting that she have her picture taken with him, so I hope you enjoy the picture as much as she enjoyed having it taken. All in all the trip was fun and I can’t wait to do it again.