El Paso or Bust!

The first stop on our roadtrip was El Paso, TX, to visit my nephew, Trey, (aka Willard A. Nielsen, III! It had been a while since we saw him last so it was really nice to visit with him, his wife, Lizzy, and son Blake.

It's amazing how much Trey looks like my Dad (at least I think so). My Dad didn't have the dark hair but everything else reminds me of him.

After driving for over 9 hours, it was wonderful to kick back and relax, eat dinner, and visit with family.

Our next stop is Quartzsite, AZ, which is another 9 hours of driving. These two legs of our roadtrip -- to El Paso and then to Quartzsite -- are the longest of our entire roadtrip.

Thank goodness!

Do You Take the Time to . . .

Recycle? Or are you the type to ask, "What for?"
Or "It's too much trouble."


I'm the type who believes in recycling. It's NOT too much trouble and I know "what for."


Where I live, recycling is picked up twice a week, and we pay for this service.

At home one day, I decided to STOP pouring precious water down the drain. How many times have you poured water down the drain?
I now have a bucket in the kitchen and I pour any remaining water in a glass into the bucket. When the bucket is full, I water something outside with this water--water that would have been poured down the drain. I'm happy and I know the plants are happy!!!!

I also try to use both sides of printer paper. Why throw away a nice sheet of bond paper just because one side has printing on it? I will collect these sheets of already-printed-paper and flip them over in my printer and print on the other side.

These little things I do may or may not make that much of a difference but, inside, I feel better.

Earth is a wonderful place to be, let's try hard to keep it NICE for everybody for generations to come!

I'm Yoki

For my birthday, Zip got me a Dairy Queen cake. Have you ever had one of those?

Hmmmm, they are gud!!!!! See my cake!

Yeah, it's for a Yoki instead of a Yuki but I didn't mind. It was MY cake and it was gud.

I love the sprinkles on it. So "happy" and festive. Whenever the weatherman talks about "sprinkles," I envision colorful little bits of fun on something--not the noncolorful drops of rain.

I got an IPOD docking station called a LadyBug. It's RED and it's so cute. The wings of the ladybug are the speakers, which fold out. When it's asleep, the wings are in.

You can see some of my Brighton presents too.

Well, too bad I can't share some of my delicious cake with you--it's all gone!!!!!

One Good Trick Deserves Another!

I have known Zip for almost 40 years! He has been a part of my life for most of my adulthood.
How in the heck he can STILL surprise me is surprising for sure.
It was close to my birthday and I came home from a doctor's appointment. Zip was out doing something.
What do you think I found? I found a Brighton gift bag hanging from the ceiling!!!
Yeah, you read that correctly.
A Brighton gift bag hanging from the ceiling.

I stood there and just stared at it for a while, wondering, hmmmmm, what's THAT all about?????

I knew that Zip had done it, of course, and I was surprised, that's for sure. Pretty creative, I thought.
Hang my birthday present from the ceiling. I hadn't thought of that.

Well, one good trick deserves another, right?

I had bought Zip some presents too. Our 38th wedding anniversary was the day after my birthday, so I thought--HA! I'll show him. I will surprise HIM.

So I got a ladder from my stamproom, but it wasn't high enough. So I put that ladder away and got another one from the garage. I got the bag down and slipped HIS anniversary presents in the bag. I had to do this FAST because I didn't want him to see me with the ladder.

I put the ladder away and stared at the bag. And what do you think I saw? A part of the plastic bag with his presents inside was peeking out.

RATS! I had to go get the ladder again and take the bag down. I shifted things around (and no, I didn't peek at my presents!), rearranged the tissue paper, and hid HIS presents.

Hurry Hurry Hurry! I had to hurry. This time, BEFORE I put the ladder away, I looked up and checked out the bag. Good, nothing showing.
Quick, put the ladder away.

And don't look "guilty" when he comes in. Whew! I was safe. He should suspect NOTHING.

Well, the bag hung there for days. He suspected nothing.

One evening, he went into his train room and closed the door. Hmmmm, what's he doing in there???? He comes out with something in his hands. I asked him what he was doing? Nothing, he says.

Yeah, nothing indeed. Well, he goes and gets the ladder. WHAT? The ladder???? OH NO!!!!
Why???
I asked him what he was doing? Nothing, he says again.

I'm sitting on the couch in total disbelief. He is getting the Brighton bag down. NO NO NO! He will see his presents in there. He may even "feel" the presents in there. Darn it all.

I told him that he didn't have to put the cards in there. He could just give them to me.

Well, he just looks at me, as if saying, mind your own business! I thought I was totally busted. I was sweating bullets. I just watched him. I watched him for ANY reaction. Nothing.

Could it be? Could it be that he doesn't suspect anything???? Oh my gosh, I was dying inside.

He put the cards inside the Brighton bag and put the ladder away.

I just sat there, staring at the bag. This was going to be even BETTER than I had imagined.

He had taken the Brighton gift bag DOWN AFTER I had put his presents in there and he didn't even know it.

Well, to make a long story short--on the morning of my birthday, he got the ladder and said that anytime I wanted to open my presents, I could.

I went immediately and got the bag down (in front of him). I sat down next to him.
I rummaged through the tissue paper and pulled out the HEB plastic bag. I asked him, "What the heck is this? What kind of present is this????? A plastic bag?????"

Oh my gosh, you should have seen his eyes. He kept looking at it. His smile turned to--what?
I gave it to him and asked him, "this is what you got me????"

Well, of course, he KNEW he had NOT put the plastic bag in the Brighton bag so he opened the bag to see what was inside.
What I had bought him were some prints of the Durango train from Durango, CO. They were 5x7 so not real big. When he realized that I had put them in HIS bag UP IN THE CEILING, he yelled. I ran. I ran fast because he was after me!

Oh my gosh, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.

Yeah, after 40 years of knowing Zip, he DID surprise me BUT I surprised him too.

One good trick ALWAYS deserves another!!!!!