Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Feeling Empowered !!!!



Let's just say this........I can now add "plumber" to my bucket list. I have had a leak for about 10 days now and had simply just been catching the excess dripage into a vase below. The person who usually helps me out with this sort of stuff has been out of commission with rotator cuff surgery. He is wonderful and does all my fix it stuff.
Come on.........I am not helpless......I am a very strong woman. So......over the weekend when my son in law Joe was here, he took a look. He said undo this...yada, yada, yada. So yesterday I did the unscrewing and took the part with me to the store and "she" set me up with the parts that I would need with a few extras...mostly because I live 30 minutes from anything.
Well...........as you can see......I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so very proud of me!!!

Monday, August 24, 2009

West Temple



It's a beautiful site when a storm rolls into the canyon. We really didn't see much rain from this but I love to photograph the sky and it's always right outside my front door. Ahh...Zion....

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Mother - Daughter Weekend!!!

This past weekend my daughter Mackenzie came to spend a couple of days with me. Yeah!! We love to be together. We ate at all our favorite restaurants!!! OSCARS..........Best restaurant in Springdale. We hung out and watched movies and just enjoyed being together. Her Hubby had dropped her off and then he traveled north to do stuff with his family. He then picked her up here on Sunday...............

These pictures are taken up on Rockville Mesa.......This is just a few miles from where I live. Tell me I don't live in the greatest place in the world. I never get tired of the views here. In the green area below is the city of Rockville.












Joe has decided to construct his own patio. He and Mackenzie had traveled up here a while back and he saw all this cool flagstone. So.......today......up the mesa we went to get flagstone.








Well.....Lets see honey.......I think I can lift that big one too. You just watch me!!!





You can see from the wall where the stone has fallen from it's side!! I was a little nervous at times and praying ....................but that's what mom's do right????




Loaded up and headed back to Vegas with our precious cargo................................












My Cute Kids

These pictures were taken in a little ghost town called Grafton just down the road from me. My cute kids were here three weekends ago and we drove out there. Do you remember the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Well, some of the scenes were filmed here.





Vacation 2009

This past week my mother and I traveled east for a 7 day vacation. We flew out of Vegas at 10:30 at night and then had a small lay over in Detroit. We landed at Regan International Airport at around 9AM and we were off and running. What a great airport. We had a shuttle that picked us up and took us to our hotel in Arlington Virginia right next to the Pentagon. From there we were on our way. We would spend the next 5 days running between Washington D.C., Arlington and Old Town Alexandria Virginia, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

I hope you all enjoy the journey as you look through my photos.

Thank you mom for being "my mom" and the best friend a daughter could have. I love you.

The Metro.....aka "The Subway"


It was certainly mysterious to say the least.........Underground transportation??? What......I'm a country girl at heart and now I even walk across the street to work. My mom and I had decided that this time in D.C. that we would learn to ride the metro. Just looking at the ticket machines was a bit overwhelming for us. I was a little shocked when there was a nice lady that appears to work there....she must do cleaning around the machines...but she came up to us and helped us by a ticket. Yes...........I gave her a tip! We were now on our way through the gate after we inserted our ticket. Very Cool.....Well, it didn't take us very long and by the second day we had "mastered the metro"......... guess I'll be crossin that off my "bucket list"............

Christ Church in Alexandria Virginia

Christ Church construction commenced in 1767 and was completed in 1773. George Washington was a parishioner at Christ Church, although he served on the vestry in Truro Parish where his home, Mt. Vernon, was located. Washington once bought and later rented a pew in Christ Church and attended services in Alexandria. His pew is the only pew preserved in its original configuration.
The Church Yard was the burying ground for the town of Alexandria until 1809. Nineteenth century interments were in the church's cemetery on Wilkes Street, the resting place of many members of the Lee and Mason families. I love this stone and in all my years of cemetery sleuthing I have NEVER seen one quite like this. It not only notes the birth and death dates but also the time of day. It makes one wonder what the significance of the time was to the family of this wee child.


Robert E. Lee married Washington's step-great granddaughter, Mary Custis, and attended church here throughout his life. A silver plaque is on both the Lee pew and the Washington pew. This is mom and I in the Washington pew. Robert E. Lee as a boy grew up just about 2 blocks from here. We were not able to tour his home as it is privately owned. We did however tour the Lee-Fendall home. This property was owned by Robert's father "Light Horse Harry". It was an amazing old home and was dressed for the period. That home was later privately owned for thirty one years by John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers. He lived here until his death in 1969 when at that time the home was then restored and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Old Town Alexandria, Va.


Church services are held here every Sunday and the public is welcome.


In this picture you can see the various pews that you would purchase or rent. You can see the little door that swings out in order for you enter into the pew. Some are smaller than others. You sure couldn't have to long of legs to sit here for very long.







Beneath this mound lie the remains of thirty four confederate soldiers which were disinterred from the Alexandria Soldiers Cemetery (Federal) and re interred in this ground on the 27th day of December 1879 under the auspices of the southern memorial Association of Alexandria Virginia. These men were prisoners of war who died in the Federal Hospital in this city.





Pentagon City Mall

This is the Pentagon City Mall. It was amazing. We stayed at the Sheraton in Arlington and the hotel would shuttle us about 5 minutes to this mall so we could get on the Metro. This mall had four stories and then the metro (subway) ran underneath it. We really had never seen anything like this before. Of course we did some shopping and then ate a few meals at the food court. We enjoyed watching all the people that were here.








Ronald Regan Building




Arlington National Cemetery

This is the Columbarium section 8 where my dad in "inurned" at the top left. If you can look to the back and see a white wall running along the road this is where now they are adding more room for "inurned" military graves. I can't tell you exactly how long the distance is but I am guessing it was close to a couple of miles and it appears that it runs about 4 niches high.
A few flowers, a poem and spending some time with my father. I miss my dad every day!


These are new markers from when we were here last August. Waiting.......Waiting.....for the permanent markers. New sections all the time..........New dead.............It is still shocking to me..the effects of war. I am always humbled when I am at Arlington. Burials on a daily basis are close to forty. The one section near my father appears to be the newest with almost all the stones we looked at are labeled "IRAQ"..........My heart aches for the loss.












We love watching the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown. The Old Guard........
























George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Located in Alexandria, Virginia just right off the King street metro stop. It is the only Masonic building supported and maintained by 52 grand lodges of the United States. Ground was broken in 1922 and completed 1932.






I'm still not sure what this sign was all about but it was cute and so...........I had to blog it!