Not Forgotten

We used to live in San Diego, on South Sunshine Street. Appropriate, huh? Anyway, we moved into the same apartment complex as my mom (Chuck agreed to it!) and lived there for about 3 years. There was a sidewalk right down the middle with 12 apartments on each side, facing each other. We were like family. We'd have bar-be-ques, parties. Sometimes after all the kids went down for the night, the adults would go sit outside and talk for hours. Even though it's been 24 years, I still keep in touch with our old apartment manager. It was unlike anyplace we've ever lived before, or since.

(My mom took this after we moved out. Our apartment was that door on the right.)

 

A year or so after we moved in, a young family moved in right next door to us. She was a single mom with two boys. Twins. And guess what? They both had Down Syndrome! They were so cute and very popular at the complex! Unfortunately, we didn't keep in touch after we moved to Washington, but I've never forgotten them. I'm wondering if any of you might know Nathanial and Daniel Unea? They'd be in their mid-twentys by now. I'd love to get in touch with their mom again. One problem, I can't remember her name! I have the boys names on the back of a photo I took of them at the pool when they were about 2, but for the life of me, can't remember hers. I'm hoping someone out there knows them!

Ancestors

This is a picture of my dad, John and his parents, Neota and George. 

My dad was 3 so this was taken in 1927.

 

My grandpa George fought in WWI.

My dad fought in WWII.

My great-great-great-great grandpa Ignatius fought in the American Revolution.

(Thank you Ancestry.com!)

But thankfully, none of them died in battle.

 I am grateful for all those who fought and who still fight today.

For our freedom.

For peace.

May God bless you and keep you safe.

Ya Gotta Love Payday!

Beth got her second paycheck last night. More than $100! This girl is ecstatic! She's saving up to buy a mini fridge for her apartment so each week she puts a little away. Almost there!

Salt!

A few weeks ago I was reading over at The Rocking Pony about how she was 'salting her pavers'. She had heard that salt, plain 'ol dinner table salt would kill weeds, so she spread it in the cracks between the pavers in her yard. And it killed the weeds!!

Salt is inexpensive and safe plus a salt shaker is the ideal way to spread it evenly. So I thought I'd try it. I took a salt shaker and heavily poured salt on a small area of one of our drive areas.

One week later, weeds, grass, even moss is dead!

 

 And look! It annihilated this dandelion!

I've read on Pinterest about using certain parts salt with certain parts water with certain parts vinegar... but all I used was plain salt. Awesome!! So now I've used salt on a much bigger area. Is it really this simple?? Does anyone know if there is a down side to using plain salt to kill weeds?  

Sometimes It's So Hard To Trust

Chuck and I were working out in the yard this afternoon when Beth came to the back door.

"I'm going to Firtells."

"Where are you going?"

"Bardale." And away she went.

We have a small market about 2 blocks from our house called Firdale Market. We can see it from our front yard. Plus there is a Bartells about a mile down a windy, hilly street. She walks to these stores fairly often so I wasn't too concerned. Until about an hour had gone by. I stopped pulling weeds long enough to ask Chuck which store she said she was going to. He thought she said Firdale, but too much time had gone by. She should had been home long ago.

I sent her a text asking her if she had gone to Bartells. The phone on the counter next to me beeped. Her phone. SHE DIDN'T HAVE HER PHONE WITH HER!

I went out to the front yard to see if I could see her walking up the street. Nothing.

I trust Beth. I trust her completely. It's all those OTHER people I don't trust. Like the guy driving the car that flew by our house doing about 90 the other day. Followed by two police cars doing 89, lights and sirens blaring. Or the guy who, a couple weeks ago, tried to lure a child into his car just a few miles from our house. I trust Beth. But those people make me nervous!

I told Chuck I was going to get in the car and drive toward Bartells to see if I could see her.

I got my purse... but I didn't leave. Instead I just stood at the front windows praying.

"Lord, I trust you. When she left I automatically prayed that you would put your hedge of protection around her and I believe you hear our prayers. Lord, I will trust you to take care..." at that moment she appeared on the sidewalk in front of our house. Whew!!

While she went to the mailbox to check the mail, I ran to the backyard. I didn't want her to see me watching for her! She hates it when we meet her at the door or wait for her on the porch. Like any adult, sometimes she just wants to unlock the door and let herself in.

I took a deep breath and tried to look busy. When she came to the back door and smiled at me, I smiled back. "Hi Beth!"

Thank you Lord!

Now I just have to remind her to always take her phone with her!

The Car

Here are a few pictures of Ryan and Sharaya's car. (Thank you 'Lena!) If you didn't have a chance to read my last post, he was in a car accident on Wednesday. He fell asleep while driving on the freeway, drove off the side of an overpass (a grassy area, just before the guardrail of the bridge) and rolled a few times.

Sharaya woke up Wednesday morning and when she realized he wasn't home she called him. He answered and apologized that he had fallen asleep at his friends and that he was getting ready to leave. (A conversation he doesn't remember having.) Sharaya fell back asleep and when she woke up an hour later, he still wasn't home. It should have only taken him a few minutes.

She called M and he said Ryan had left right after she spoke with him. Sharaya kept calling his cell phone and it just rang and rang. Ryan remembers feeling it vibrate when he was in the ambulance and tried to tell them that his wife was expecting him. Course, now he doesn't know exactly how coherent he was at the time and if they even understood him.

In the meantime, Sharaya's still at home, wondering where he was. Finally her phone rang. It was a social worker from the hospital. "We just want to let you know that Ryan is here and he's going to be okay."

"What? Who is this? Where are you calling from?"

Sharaya said they talked to her like she had already known about the accident. She said there was no preparing her or anything. Just matter-of-fact details. We thought that was a little strange. Anyway, he IS okay. Swelling from the air bags, bruising from the seat belt, but that's all. It's a miracle he didn't break any bones.

It's a miracle he's alive.

  

 

 

 

A Car Accident

Ryan was in a car accident this morning. He was on the freeway, driving home from a friends house and fell asleep at the wheel. He went off the side of an overpass and the car rolled a few times.

A friend of his was driving in the opposite direction and saw the cars react, then saw the dust and smoke. He called 911, but had no idea it was Ryan in the car.

Miraculously he came away with just bruises and scratches. He was at the hospital for most of the day and has no internal bleeding. No broken bones. The Lord was, without a doubt, with him in that car.

He's home now. Their car is totaled, but he is safe.

Thank you Lord.

Just Wanna...

...wish all you moms a very Happy Mothers Day!

Me and my mom.

This was taken the day she moved from Washington, back to San Diego.

Sometime around April 1998 I think.

She passed away in 2005.

 

 This is Chuck and his mom.

Taken at Ryan and Sharaya's Wedding.

July 2008.

 

Me and my girls.

April 2013.

I Wish I Had a Hazmat Suit

I actually thought that this morning as I was putting on the longest jeans I could find, the thickest socks, the chunkiest tennis shoes.

See, we found two large spiders in one of Allies toy buckets. Actually, Allie found them. In this sweet, 3 1/2 year old voice, "Nana, there's a spider in my cars."

WHAT?!??!

But she was wrong. There were TWO spiders in the bucket with her toy cars!

Diana came out and took charge. She grabbed a butter knife and was going to bludgeon them to death. "What is the better end to use, the knife or the blunt end?" I decided the blunt end because it was bigger and she had a better chance of actually hitting them with it.

I personally would have gone with a blow torch, but ours was in the shop.

Allie kept standing there, very close to them, telling Diana and I that she was afraid of spiders. Liar. If she was so afraid of them, she'd be in the next room. Standing next to me.

We thought about throwing a big towel over them, then putting the little bucket into a big bucket and throwing it outside. But neither one of us wanted to get that close to them. Diana debated about our next move, crouched a couple feet from the bucket. I stood a couple yards away, hot pads on both hands, waiting to run at any second.

I finally got the Raid. Diana sprayed them to death, then threw a towel over them. With the hot pads still on my hands, I grabbed the little bucket, put it into a larger bucket, then threw everything out into the backyard.

It would have been much easier if we had just had that hazmat suit.

More Boxes

It's funny how you go through stages with blogging. Some weeks it seems I'm on this all the time, thinking about what to write next, reading every blog I can, leaving comments...

Other weeks, I go days without even thinking about it. Or if I do, it's just a fleeting thought about how it's been so long and I really should post something.

This week has been one of those fleeting thought weeks.

I was thinking a lot about Kristen Kirton. Her birthday was last weekend and I couldn't stop thinking about her and her Family.

Our weather has been gorgeous lately so we're outside every spare minute, sitting in the sun, doing yard work or watching Allie play in her kiddie pool.

Diana took another trip over the weekend. She left on Saturday evening for Orlando and spent one day laying by the pool at the condo, then spent a day at Disney World. Then Tuesday, yesterday, she came home. Flew clear across the country... and was only gone three days. Unfortunately she was sick the whole time. She went to the doctor before she left, got some antibiotics and was told it would be okay to travel. So she went, but never got better. Still coughing, still had a headache, still feeling feverish. But she went. And had a good time.

Ryan has good days and bad days. Sharaya stays strong. At least in front of others. I've only seen her cry once, she's pretty amazing. Ryan has applied to a couple jobs but nothing has panned out. We're praying that the Lord would heal Ryan from depression. That this would only be a short season in their lives and not what their lives will be like from now on.

Beth is still working and still doing well. Her main jobs are folding pizza boxes and washing dishes. To me it seems natural that when she comes home we ask how it went. That's what people do, right? I want to know if she did anything new, if the manager said anything to her about anything. I'm the mom, I want to know!
This last Saturday her bus dropped her off, she opened the door and said, "More boxes. More dishes." Then promptly went down to her room. I'm beginning to think she doesn't like the nightly interrogation :)

Roozengaarde

We all went to Roozengaarde last weekend to see all the tulips. It was the end of the season so there weren't a lot of tulips but there were enough.It was supposed to rain, but didn't until after we got home!

Right after we walked in, Beth fell. I was walking in front of her and noticed a grate, like for water run off that was raised about an inch off the ground. The rocks around it had settled and a corner of this grate was sticking up just slightly. I know can be unstable on her feet, especially when walking on cobblestones or any non-smooth surface. I saw the grate, then quickly looked back at Beth.

This part all happened in slow motion. I glanced at Beth and as I turned my head back around, I consciously realize Beth is looking up at something. I think to myself that she'll see the grate, she'll look down in enough time... I glance back again... to see her on the ground.

Two strangers are going to her and beginning to help her up. She hugged me and started to cry. I prayed for her and we wiped off her pants and shirt. Sure enough, the grate got her. She said her knee hurt so I lifted her pant leg. Ouch. There was a gash in her leg... you could put the tip of your finger into the hole! It was nasty. I cleaned it and put a band aid on it (I keep some in my purse) and when I asked her if it hurt, she said no! What?! How could that not hurt?! (She told me later that it only hurt right when she fell.)

 

She said she wanted to sit down for a while so her and Chuck found a bench. After that, she never mentioned it again! I kept asking her if her leg hurt, "No." Wow. 

The rest of the day was great, just hanging out together. (Ryan wasn't able to be there.) The flowers were gorgeous and Sharaya and I loved taking pictures of everything! It had rained the few days before we went so we expected it to be muddy but it wasn't at all. We walked around the gardens, Allison ran all over. We really had a great time.