Birthday Celebration with a Friend

Birthday Girl!

Tonight we celebrated our friend Lori's birthday. Her husband Mike invited eight of us from the Park to join them at a great new-to-us restaurant in Fresno called Pismo's Coastal Grill. The food was fantastic, the weather was perfect for the open-air feeling of the restaurant, and there's nothing more fun than celebrating with a bunch of good friends. The restaurant is famous for their fresh wild-caught seafood. The menu offers practically everything under the sea. I chose Grilled Sturgeon, a fish I'd never tried before served with grilled artichoke. Ken chose Ultimate Combo Louie (a seafood lovers fantasy with jumbo prawns, shrimp, and Dungeness crab, hard boiled egg, and gherkin garnish, Louie Dressing on the side).

Left to right: Judy, Jan, Mert, Me, Ken, Gray, Cecile, and Wayne

From left: Cecile, Wayne, Mike, Lori, Judy, and Jan

I painted this cute little box for Lori's birthday, she loved it!

Happy Birthday Lori, we had a great time.

Life is good!

Fun With Escapees Friends

Last night we were invited to join a bunch of our friends at Park Sierra for a Happy Hour. . . and that means bring your own chair, wine, and a snack to share. We gathered at Mary and Elaine's site at about 4 p.m. thinking it would only last an hour or so because we had a "storm warning" with the rain supposedly starting around 5 o'clock and last until 10 o'clock.

Ken had smoked a pork tri-tip for four hours, made a Mahogany Sauce and a Chipotle Barbecue Sauce to go with the pork, baked a dozen biscuits . . . all to bring as our contribution to the snack table. It's always fun to see what others bring . . . on the table were several salsa and chip combos, a tray of deviled eggs, a jar of peanuts, some smoked almonds, escargot-stuffed mushrooms, a plate of celery and carrot sticks, along with our smoked pork-sandwich fixings . . . needless to say we needed no dinner when we got home around 6 o'clock when it finally started to sprinkle . . . but only for a half hour or so. So much for the "storm warning!" With the weather predictions for next week of temperatures in the high 70s to 80s, summer weather may be on its way . . . and that would be a good thing.

About fifteen members and guests showed up with food and wine to share.

That's Elaine standing being a perfect hostess, making the rounds being sure to chat with everybody.

And Mary, in the shirt with the red band, makes sure everybody knows each other, introducing newcomers to us "old timers."

It was perfect weather to enjoy the sunset with the warmth of the fire pit. It was Elaine's job to keep the fire burning and she did a fine job.

Life is good . . . especially among friends!

Capisce?

We attended the third night of "Capisce?" with Jen playing Mama Mia. Capisce is a hilarious comedy and Jen was a star . . . the expressions on her face and her Italian accent had us laughing all night. Here are some of the expressions I was able to capture.



JD had a starring role also . . . I'll show you through pictures how he did. He was in practically every scene and remembered his lines perfectly . . . and what a ham!




KL was stage manager, a job behind the scenes. She kept the play, the actors, and scene changes running smoothly. Here she is receiving flowers and kudos from the director.

Life is good!

Spending Time with Family

My Southern California sister, Shari, is in town!

She happens to have a friend living in our neck of the woods who invited her to come up and enjoy a dinner play at at our church as the friend's daughter is one of the stars of the play, and Shari hasn't seen these folks in many years. They used to be neighbors in Azusa before the friends moved up to Oakhurst. Through this friend Shari learned that Jen, KL, and JD are also stars in the play so she had two reasons to make the 5-hour journey. She called to see if she could camp out at Jen's and made plans to make the trip.

At 9 o'clock this morning we met Shari and Jen at CD's ball game. It was a surprisingly cold morning for this time of year . . . in the low 50s . . . and CD's team (number 2 in their league) played the number one team. Of course we were hoping for a win, and it was a great game, but they did lose so the team remains number two. We all had fun cheering for our team . . . it was a pretty intense game.

It was a fun Girls Day Out.

After the game I dropped Ken off at home and met Jen, Shari, and KL at their house and we all went into Oakhurst for "High Tea" for lunch before seeing a movie. We enjoyed the sweet and savory tidbits and the tea served from a beautiful tea service, held our pinkies up, told stories, giggled and laughed and enjoyed each others' company.

The tea house is divided into four rooms, each with a unique decor. Ours was the Tinkerbell Room and "she" graced our table.

KL got dressed for tea by putting on her pearls.

After tea, all but Jen went to see Letters to Juliette, a real cute chick-flick showing at the quaint tiny little theater in town. (I just love living in a small town.) And I loved that my sister could be with us for this family time together. It was a fun day. And tomorrow we'll all get to enjoy the play called "Capiche!" which I am truly looking forward to.

Life is good!

Mother's Day and Cosmos

According to Wikipedia, Mother's Day is an annual holiday that recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. Ken and I have raised two wonderful daughters which made being a mom lots of fun. I've love every aspect of motherhood and love celebrating it!

Mother's Day was spent relaxing at Jen and PD's Simply Country with the barbecue going, the Cosmos flowing, the kids playing, and all of us enjoying each others' company. We were blessed this year with PD's mom joining us from Cambria.

With the busy-ness of the past two weekends —with the rodeo last weekend and goat show just yesterday— it was a great day, especially for Jen, to kick back and put our feet up.

Life is good!

Our first Goat Show

The baby goats are only five weeks old and today they, along with their mamas, were entered in a 4-H Goat competition in Chowchilla. KL had entered herself and her goats in five competitions. And they brought home five ribbons (a First Place, a Second Place, two Third Place ribbons, and a Fourth Place). Here is the day in pictures.

Here is Destiny looking her best for the judges. Because she was also entered in the "Best Udder" category she hadn't been milked this morning.

The judge gave her a good once-over, and is tested KL on her goat-knowledge.

KL and Destiny took Third Place!

This must be KL's second Third Place—this time with Cover Girl.

KL and her good friend Josh have fun competing with each other.

These are the First and Second Place goats in four categories competing for Best in Show.

This competition is called "Dams and Daughters" — KL asked her brother JD to help her handle the two goats—Cover Girl and her daughter Missy-Moo.

Handling all these goats can be quite comical!

KL is showing off LuLu, Destiny's daughter, in a category where the goats are being judged for their breed characteristics . . .

And LuLu took First Place!

The judge praises KL for her good work!

KL and LuLu . . . after a very long day. She and Jen have worked very hard to be ready for today's competition, and it was worth it!

Life is good!

In Appreciation

I am truly blessed to have my big sister, Patty. She is no ordinary person. She has been blessed with a big and generous heart, as well as a caring heart, and a sweet spirit. She also happens to be a retired R.N., having spent over 35 years as a nurse caring for probably thousands of folks in the Emergency Room of Santa Teresita Hospital in Southern California.

And because she was in the medical field, our family has come to depend on her expertise, getting her opinions about anything from how to treat a simple bump on the head after a fall, to more serious things like caring for Mom and Daddy as they became older and more frail.

It's been nearly nine years since Daddy died and a year since Mom passed away, and I wanted to do something for Patty to show my appreciation for all she did for them in those final years. So I decided to make her a quilt. I know she likes anything made by hand and I know she likes the color combination of blue and yellow.

I thought of making this quilt for Patty as I came across this pattern while browsing through a recent quilting magazine. It so reminded me of my sister that I stopped and ordered the fabric and had it shipped to me in Oregon last summer. However I didn't get started on it until after the holidays. I pieced the top and a professional machine-quilter, Sheila Bruner in Mariposa, did the quilting for me.

It was a fun project to work on. Working on it gave me plenty of time to think of all sorts of childhood memories being raised by Mom and Daddy. It was especially a time to feel appreciative of all that Patty did for them.

We just got back from a three-day trip to take her the quilt. She loved it and we had a great time together, as we always do. Thank you Patty for being you!

Life is good!

Coarsegold Rodeo

We've live in our little mountain for over ten years. And in that time the Coarsegold Rodeo has been held the first weekend in May every year. This year, for the first time, we have gone and truly enjoyed all of the competitions. We sat on the hard bleachers from noon until 4:30 this afternoon. If we go back tomorrow we'll take our own chairs and set them up on the hillside overlooking the arena like a whole lot of folks did today. Obviously they've been to the rodeo before and knew better. I won't bore you with the nearly 80 pictures I took but just give you a glimpse of this small town event.

I learned that cowboys come in all sizes. This one told me he was waiting for the Mutton Bustin' to start!

I felt a bit out of place with just my visor on and the back of my neck was getting sunburned, so I indulged in my own Cowgirl hat!

The rodeo started by introducing the crowd of about 300 to the candidates running for rodeo queen. Here is our friend Laura Haen who is running against eight other young ladies.
The queen will be crowned tomorrow.
(Remember she is the one who is our goat friend, previous owner of Destiny and a state champion in raising goats.)

The opening ceremony included a patriotic recording sung by Johnny Cash and this cowgirl rode her horse standing up circling the arena caring this beautiful flag. It gave me goose bumps!

Bronc competition . . . oh, my aching back!

Of course every rodeo needs a clown!

Cowgirls don't have to rope the calf and jump off and tie'em up. They do have to lasso them.

Here the cowboy has to chase after the calf, lasso it and get off the horse, run to the calf and tie up three legs together, fun and get back onto the horse who has by then backed up so that the rope is taught, and after he has mounted the horse and loosened the rope, the calf has to stay tied up for six seconds.

Here a cowgirl took a picture of her shadow . . .
note the new hat!

Calf wrestling—

Barrel Racing—my granddaughter wants to do this next year!

And finally Bull Riding . . . none of them qualified by staying on more than eight seconds.

Our 4-4 Club was in charge of the Pizza Booth as a fund raiser.

After the rodeo was over they were selling their pizzas at half-price!

It was a fun day.

Life is good!