The hot hula mamas

All of us enjoyed our evening of hula and excellent food. My neices were excellent dancers. I am happy to see them preserving their heritage.

Ashley Inn without Rhett Butler.

I felt like I had entered the book "Gone With the Wind".

Ashley Inn

This Inn was something else. All victorian, every room, a real female kingdom. I could not visualize a single male daring to enter or perhaps only "real men" would dare enter.

Robin & Family

The last few days at my sister Robins was a whirlwind of family and loved one renewal. Brother Steve & wife Sharon, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Darrel, Brother Joshua and Tim & wife Ginny all came for dinner at Hollingworth home Tuesday. It was great to see everyone. They all were amazed a Robins' progress. Wednesday was movie and dinner out with my Nati and Katy who flew into Boise and traveled back home with me in my car Sunday. Thursday night Josh came out again and we all watched the dvd from the Arnold reunion in June. Heidi and Ren joined us. Friday night everyone gathered at Mindy's boyfriend's cafe. What great food and the floor show was excellent too ...my neices doing hula. They looked beautiful and danced like true Hawaiians.
We stood outside and talked for a long time after it closed. Saturday a.m. Kristi, Mindy, Katy, and Nati all went to garage sales and returned with some serious good deals. Robin and I were invited, but were completely wore out from our week of "relaxation". It was so nice to see our girls enjoying their "cousin friends" and loving the time they spent together.

Driving Miss Daisy (helping my sister)

I am in Caldwell Idaho. I came here with the intent to help my sister Robins' family take a little time off. Even though she is only in her 40s, Robin suffered a massive stroke just before Christmas. Her daughters organized themselves into an extraordinary team of mother helpers. Kristi has assisted with Monday through Fridays, Heidi takes nights, and Mindy does Friday night through Sunday afternoon. This has been devastating with Robin's husband Don in Iraq, medical and financial challenges, and their entire life being turned upside down, to say it has been hard would be an understatement. Robin was improved since I last spent time with her in March. She had a little "outing" planned for us, a night at Ashley Inn located in Cascade Idaho, a beautiful mountain town. Last week we had fun at this awesome victorian inn, but to my surprise it did not stop there. Robin decided she wanted to go on to McCall and stay at the Lakeshore. Robin no longer uses a walker or cane, but she does have a cumbersome brace, a limp, and one arm that does not function at all. She confuses words even though she is very with it in her mind, but her words do not come out the way she wants. This really discourages her, but I reassure constantly that if she does not give up, her articulation will be restored. It is that "give up" part that is the challenge right now. We found out on our trip that she can sing her words very plainly and in full sentences. We sang to some favorite songs I had bought off I-tunes. She could sing almost all of them.

We had a good laugh at the Lake Shore Lodge. She drives a fancy BMW and I could not find a close parking space to unload. When I inquired, they assigned us a valet. He got the keys and assisting us at the car removed Robin's luggage. I did not take my large suitcase because I thought we were only staying one night. I had put my "stuff" in a Albertson's grocery shopping bag. After helping Robin, he asked me where my luggage was. I pointed to the shopping bag. When Robin was out of hearing, the valet asked me if I was her driver? I said I was and turned and asked Robin, "Is you ready for yo room, Miss Daisy?" We did a lot of "Miss Daisy" teasing after that.

Decision to become a BLOGGER

I learned to type on a Royal manual typewriter when I went to High School. They were able to get electric typwriters when I was a junior or senior. Let's put it this way. I have come a long way. I was an okay typist, but when I was able to get my hands on an electric, I became a fast and efficient one. If you were making multiple copies, on the manual this required a razor taking off the letter on each copy, then replacing a small piece of paper to transfer a new letter on the paper after you had the hit the key hard enough to imprint over the mistake. Took forever. When the great new technology of electric typewriters was invented, a mistake was painted over with a product called White Out. A bad typist could easily produce a paper that looked with it had fallen in a paint bucket because White Out never matched the color of the paper. Fast forward to the computer age. I could not get over the fact that I could just do spell or grammar check and then click "print". Now fast forward again, I have made myself learn to text (which my husband says they had back in the days of the telegraph, so what is the big deal?), I love google, and then came the BIG decision...do I face book, blog, twitter, all of it or none? Most my age have nothing to do with any of it, unless they have children dragging them into it due to long distance. As we have all our children within a few miles, I did not need to utilize tech means to communicate. I see them often. However, to use blogging for journaling? My decision was made. I am now a blogger. Those who want to share, that is nice, those who don't, that is okay too, but hopefully I can journal and have some fun while I am doing it. Then to actually be able to click and publish it? Unbelievable!