One Amazing ARK

My uber talented brother-in-law, Clayton, made this ARK for me. I asked him to build it so Ron and I could put our animals on it that we collect on our travels. The top (the house part) comes off and it's empty inside. I love it! And I love my bro.-in-law for making it for me when his workshop was officially closed. Thanks Clayt!

More Happy Birthday

...It was as if Heavenly Father said "Hey, it's your birthday, here's some gorgeous sunshine." It was the loveliest day. My dear friend, Becki, picked me up and treated me to lunch at Burgerville. I had a cheeseburger and the most devine chocolate cherry shake! She is so much fun to visit with.

Becki is the kind of person who inspires you to be better than you are. I love that girl! Some friends stopped by with fun surprises, and our kids sent me some fun things to open as well. I got texts and calls wishing me happy birthday and I got to go to the dentist...hey, who doesn't consider N2O a happy birthday present??

******** ******** Later, my hubby had fresh flowers delivered to me. He also gave me a beautiful necklace and pair of earrings, which I can't wait to wear someplace fancy, and he cooked a most delicious (and surprising) bacon wrapped filet mignon dinner, cleaned everything up himself, and gave me the Most. Amazing. Footrub. Ever! Yep, it was a great day to turn 52!

Dreams really DO come true!

What a wonderfully perfect day this has been so far! It began at 5:00 a.m., with juice and a birthday card, then a bit of a treasure hunt. My hubby is always surprising me with the funnest gifts. Last year I wanted to make a headboard for my bed and I got a beautiful, (huge) piece of plywood. This year I just asked for a foot rub (he gives a killer foot rub!) but he had been busy in his office for more than a week. So if he was practicing giving a foot rub, it wasn't on me! Ok, so back to the treasure hunt...

These were the clues I found in our bedroom, my artroom, the bathroom by the guestroom, in the guestroom, in the linen closet, in Ron's office, in the bathroom across from Ron's office, and our bedroom closet. Which eventually lead me to the toy closet in the bonus room where I found this:

Notice the size in comparison to Ron's drums. It was big and heavy! >WE INTERRUPT THIS POST TO BRING YOU THIS ANNOUNCEMENT: I am a super fan of artist James Christensen. I have been dreaming of one day owning a print of his work called The Ten Lepers.

THE END Back to my post... So finally after years of dreaming... of wishing...of coveting... of searching on EBAY, Craigs list, KSL.com... my wish was fulfilled!!! I finally got the print of my heart's desire! . . . .

.. . I absolutely L.O.V.E. my husband. He makes me laugh every day! This is the best birthday EVER!

OK, I cry 'UNCLE'!

I'll be the first to admit that I have mocked many Washingtonians (is that a word?) for being such scaredy cats of a little snow. Calling snow-days at the schools when there is barely a skiff of snow on the ground and it's melted before first recess. I lived most of my youth in Utah, and we walked to school in 3 ft. drifts...uphill...both ways...barefoot! Ok, maybe not barefoot. But it snowed a lot when I was a kid, and we just carried on. This week I showed you the pictures of our beautiful culdesac covered in a fresh blanket of newly fallen snow, so pretty...see the happy pine tree in the upper middle?

HA! Well the wicked step-sister of mother nature has reared her ugly head, and she is called ICE! See how sad that same pine tree is now?

Most of the trees in our neighborhood have suffered damage. The yellow circles indicate breakage, and the red arrows indicate the broken limbs. The green color indicates the only trees on our street which didn't sustain any damage, because their gardener chopped the heck out of them last fall. Hmmm...maybe THAT's the ancient Chinese secret!

Our sad tree in front has broken off onto the street and onto the second terrace of the yard. Our power went out for a little while during the night, but our house stayed pretty warm. Ooh I hear the garbage truck coming, I want to watch him do the 'Ice Capades' down our street!

I Love Snow Days

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

It's a puzzle

I love doing puzzles. I get a little obsessed when I get started on one, however. It's just like reading a good book, I don't want to stop until it is finished. * On a strange side note, say the word puzzle several times and it really starts to sound weird. See?? You tried it didn't you?