31. 41. Memorial Day. Vacation!

In just under 2 weeks I will be visiting far off places! Well, to me anyhow! I will be going with Ryan and Austin to North Dakota.  I am so excited!!  To see the place where Ryan grew up, see where some history took place, ah! Can't wait!

It has officially been 1 month since my 31st birthday and to date, it has by far been the best!  I saw a wonderful couple say their I dos before their family and friends on that day. Ryan had bought me some very beautiful pink lilies and a very nice card to go with them.  But that wasn't all, I had my other gift at his place.  I didn't get to open that til day after.  Turned out it was a sailor bear (Ryan is retired Navy), and he (the bear) sings Anchors Away. Very cute!! Domino wasn't quite sure what to do when I was playing with the bear, making it sing.  He kept backing away.  ahahaha!

And just 2 short weeks later was Ryan's 41st birthday, or as he's now calling it, the 1st anniversary of turning 40.  He tells me that 40 was a pretty good year for him.  He tells me that its because he met me, a true companion, his girlfriend.  Makes me feel warm fuzzies when he tells me that.  I too tell him that 30 was great cuz I met someone that makes me feel as good as he does.  Anyhow, onto the real tale.  We went to Berlin-Ichthyosaur National Park for his birthday.  I couldn't really do what I wanted, which was to take him to lunch in Reno, broke you know... It turned out to be a really fun time! Erin, Ryan, and I toured some of the old building in the mining town of Berlin, then got a non-tour tour of the Ichthyosaur fossils.  Our tour guide was a character.  He told us how the fossils were found, how they believe that there is at least 4 animals there.  Showed us different types of ichthyosaur, shared interesting facts, and even cracked some jokes. Great time. :)  We got back to Fallon, had some pizza at Pizza Hut, then called it a day. Usually on Mondays, I try to come back to Yerington, after our long day, I decided I was too tired to drive home.

Memorial Day was fun this year too.  It marked the 1 year anniversary of my friend Erin to her husband Jimmy. It was kinda funny that I was in Fallon, on that same day, exactly one year previous.  Well, made me chuckle.  Since mom was also in Fallon with me that day as she was a year ago.  Anyhoo, Ryan and I held a BBQ for a few people.  We had invited Erin, Jackie, mom, Ila, Garry, and Ed.  Sadly Erin and Jackie couldn't make it.  For good reasons. Jackie was trying to aquaint her new kitten to her older cat and it was Erin's anniversary.  It was fun none the less.  Ryan and I had provided drinks, burgers, and chips.  Mom had brought a delicious fruit salad, Ila had brought potato salad and Garry (hahaha) and Ed had brought deviled eggs.  Good times, good conversation, and good friends. That is what BBQs are about!!

Like I'd mentioned, I will be going on vacation in less that 2 weeks! I really can hardly wait! Can't wait to see his mom and dad again, meet his daughter, and visit the farm that Ryan keeps telling me he won't get me off of!

 Have a great night folks! Will write again soon!!

Reading material

So lately I've been on quite of a bit of a reading kick.  I've started reading about 5 or 7 books, not sure cuz some are on my kindle.  Finished about 2 of them and started reading another.  Oh and I also picked up a new book at the grocery store.  What? It was only 7 dollars...

One of the ones I've started reading is one I've read before.  Its Chicken Soup for the Father and Daughter's Soul. Yeah I'm one of them.  I've read quite a few of them.  They're great and they're easy reads.  I highly recommend them.  Anyhow back on topic.  This book, if you couldn't tell Chicken Soup for the Father and Daughter Soul is about the relationship and love of a father and daughter.  I reminisce about my own memories about my dad.

Now if you know him, he appears gruff, grouchy, and just plain ornery.  But that's just the surface.  He is really the best man any girl could ask for in a dad.  He is loving, kind, funny, and loyal.  I wouldn't trade him for all the money, all the jewels in the world.  He is priceless.  No matter what his daughters get themselves into, he will always try to help the out.  He doesn't want to see us fail.  One of the nicest things I heard from my dad was said not too many years ago.  I had heard that he had said that I have gained and become quite knowledgeable about the store.  Well, it was something along those lines...the original comment made me choke up and cry.  Was a wonderful thing.  For a man like him to say that, a man that doesn't share feelings overly well till recently, spoke volumes. 

Another memory is on a little further back...and more a multitude of memorable moments.  I love traveling with my dad.  He's really laid back.  Plus when its just me and him, I feel more comfortable talking to him.  There are still some things I don't share with him, in the last 6 or so years, I do share more than what we had when I was a kid and teen. 

Dad connected with a couple cousins that he didn't know existed.  One, she lived in Florida.  Debby and dad really clicked.  He went down to visit her back in October 2010.  They talked constantly, emailed.  Then one day, dad didn't hear from her.  I really bothered him.  Understandably so.  We only found out recently what happened...she died...less that 60, I think she was barely even in her 50s...  I don't remember her brother's name, so I'll call him cousin, but dad reconnected with him.  Christmas Day he called cousin.  He and dad shared an emotionally charged conversation.  He was really hurtin' (cousin) that this was his first holiday without his sister.  The two men have made plans to get together and meet.  Was a wonderful Christmas on that respect.  *smile*

I love my dad.  I truly, truly dread the day that he is no longer here.. He is a one of a kind man, with a truly kind and generous soul.  Doing thing because the NEED to be done, not because they want the attention for doing so.  Grandpa raised him well.  The world will be a darker place when he is not down the street, not cracking it up at Ace..

Holiday Season...

As I read my sister's blog, I am saddened with the uncertainty of her working future.  She is one of the strongest women I know.  She's a hero to me, the type of person I wouldn't mind being like.  I wish that there was something I could do to help her out but her being in Portland and myself being here, well, makes that rather difficult...and my finances are a little strapped currently.  My heart and prayers go out to her and her little family that she receives a holiday miracle.  Love you sis..

She shared some memories of our childhood, fond memories that I had completely forgotten about.  The winter nights we spent up at Topaz with our grandparents.  I loved those times.  I learned so much from the years we spent there growing up.  One being the importance of sunscreen..I received the worst sunburn of my life there.  Also the major importance of wearing helmets.  Cheryl and I were cruising around the countryside, and we ended up on a rode a little too narrow for our Yamaha Moto4, and down this hill we went.  As usual I end up with just scrapes and Cher is the one bleeding.  How I managed with no bleeding wounds is still beyond me.  Well we manage to walk back to the house and get grandpa and grandma and we get the 4 wheeler back to the property, no worse for wear.  I think it fared better than we did.  Remember sis?

There was the one Christmas that was the last time my Gramma Jeanne came down.  It was wonderful to have her visit.  At 7, she was the coolest gramma in the world.   Learning more about her over the years as I became an adult myself, she still is an amazing woman.  But that's another blog.  I want to tell this story but as per usual, I'm not sure how to start it.  So I'll just start with that day.  It was December 26th.  Mom, Cheryl, and I were taking my grandma to the airport so she could fly back to Seattle.  Unfortunately the 3 of us didn't make it.  (Gramma did, my uncle and aunt got her to the airport.)  Right outside of town on McLeod Hill, mom rolled the van we were in.  Mom was reaching for something on the dash (yes, she was driving) and drifted onto to shoulder, she over corrected, once, twice hitting that soft gravel yet again but this time it sent the van rolling.  We landed tire-side down.  It was a miracle that the swerving didn't happen seconds later, because coming up the other side was a hay truck.  We would've been mere memories in the lives of the people who knew and loved us.  And I was really lucky to walk away with nothing more than seat belt burns.  If the rolling had taken place any sooner, I wouldn't be who I am, because I had just sat back down literally seconds before the van ended up upside down.  That was almost 22 years ago now.

Good memories of the holidays always included being around family, my grampa in particular, just because I loved (and still do) him so.  The first Christmas without him was tough on all of us.  He was such a integral part of the festivities, that we were almost lost with out him.  He had passed the carving of the ham or turkey on to dad long before but it was his job, as patriarch of the family, to slice the holiday pies.  I still think it should be his job, but he is no longer here so that had to be passed to someone.  We all take turns.

It brings to mind the Christmas Cheryl fed our old lab Sparkie pecan pie off our dad's china and our grandmother's silver.  I did get a picture, tho when I took it I was afraid that it wasn't going to come out since I was laughing so hard.  Man, gramma and mom were very very angry!  The rest of our family laughed with us, but not those two!  Mom laughs about it now, for it is a fond Christmas memory since the dog is no longer with us either..

This holiday is the start of something new too.  Since the breakup, I have found someone new.  Justin.  He's absolutely amazing. Not that Tim wasn't, he was just different.  He treats me like I'm something utterly special.  I know, I know, cheesy to say, and I am special.  Its just nice to be shown so, you know?  I know a person can't complete me but I feel great when we are together.  He makes me smile just thinking about him.. Like now. (:

If I don't write before the 25th, Merry Christmas to you all.  I treasure you in ways that I cannot explain.  Thank you for being my friends, my family, my life!

Childhood and Alfalfa

I've got two stories to share today.  First is one that oddly happened while riding the bus home from school one day and the other while attending college.

While filling out a fishing license the other day, I was talking to the guy and we got talking about nicknames and how people end up with theirs.  His name isn't really important, his nickname is what brought on this randomness of a memory.  His nickname is Nacho.  Yes like the food.  Well, suddenly this memory of a bus ride home popped into my head.  I was telling him about this ride home one day and this one kid was picking on another kid named Nacho.  He said, "that was me!" Me: "isn't that just so random a memory!"  Him: "I didn't realize you rode that bus"  Me: "Yeah I was blond back then"  :)

So random!

While making a delivery, I passed by a field of freshly cut alfalfa.  Ahhhh what a wonderful smell!!  Its a smell that I missed desperately while attending school in Susanville. 

One day, I believe it was March or April, while several of us were sitting in the cafeteria, talking and laughing and all that, I realized what time of year it was.  I spouted off with "I'm missing out the first cutting!!"  You should've been there to see the looks I got!  hahaha!!  These were all big city type kids and were looking at me like I had lost my mind!  Well growing up across the street from an alfalfa field, I didn't realize what I was missing till it wasn't there!

I'm sure you all have a memory like one of these :)

Grandpa memories...

This time of year always brings back memories for me. Memories of my grampa, probably my favorite person in the world. He got me in a way that no one since has. He has been gone now almost 11 years, and I still miss him like he just left. He and I would spend our friday afternoon before Memorial Day cleaning up his uncles and his parents's graves at the cemetary, preparing for the holiday. To this day I still do it. I can't help it, I feel that its my place and my honor to do so.

As a child, my sister, grandpa, and I would do it, though I didn't understand why. As years went by, Cheryl quit joining us. I'm thinking it was because she had "better things" to do, as she was becoming a teenager. But I continued to do it, even in high school.

Grampa was a World War II veteran, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I wish I could've learned about his experiences during the war and as a POW, but he never spoke much of it. He was a quiet man, I think thats why I loved him so much. As a child I was really quiet myself, that is unless you knew me pretty well.

Grandpa loved to garden. I mean really loved to. He did have 2 of them.. hahaha One in his backyard, the other at their house at Topaz. He grew just about everything! Tomatoes, melons, strawberries, raspberries, asparagus just to name a few. My favorites were the strawberries and raspberries. In a scrap book that I still have, is a picture of me in the raspberry plants at Topaz. My grandma also told me that one time they found me sleeping underneath the bushes.

Memorial Day weekend was the first official weekend of summer fun at the lake. We would play in the water as long as the weather would hold out. It was also the first offical bbq time of the season. Dad or Grampa would cook burgers and hotdogs, gramma would make salads, cut up berries and veggies, and chips would be put out.

My sister, many cousins, and I spent many happy years up at the lake. Until we lost grampa...that was a tough loss for me. I lost my comrade. He had fallen and broken his neck at Topaz, though it did not kill him, it brought him closer.. He was taken to Washoe Medical and the first night there he was pumped full of pain killers his old body wasn't used to. He didn't remember anyone and that just broke my gramma's heart, his wife of almost 50 years. He spent the last weeks of his life there. Towards the end, he started recognizing faces again. But he never left there alive. One week after my high school graduation, he passed on to the next world.. I cry thinking about it.. he didn't deserve to go in such a manner.

His funeral was attended by many. The church was full, people standing up the sides, even people standing outside in the early summer sun. Many wonderful things were said, I learned some new things about him. But the ending is whats memorable. To end on a happy note, we sang "Take me out to the Ballgame" as he was a huge San Fransisco Giants fan. The funeral director even mentioned that this was the first funeral he did that ended on a happy tone. This was the last funeral he directed. But he's a story for another day...