Harvesting my garden

Yesterday, my bell peppers were finally large enough to pick for making stuffed bell peppers.

So I went out to my garden

I picked 4 large bell peppers

I took them in and made Rudy and Joe Stuffed Bell Peppers for dinner last night.

(These are the leftovers, forgot to take pic before they were served.)

I usually stuff and bake them whole, but this time I cut them in half, stuffed them and then put the extra stuffing around them and baked them. They said they really liked dinner!

Thank you card

I made a Thank You card for my cousin, Merlene.

(Tam! I used some of the paper you shipped to me, thank you!)

Merlene hosted our annual Simon Family Reunion at Cottage Grove, OR in June. Was good seeing some of the family, oldest living relative (that  I know of) was there, my Uncle Vic, he’ll be 94 soon!

It rained most of the time, but everyone made the most of it.

Every year, fewer relatives attend. Hoping to be able to keep it going, we’ve been having them since the 1960’s. It used to be always held in Corning, CA, but in the 1990’s we decided to have it in Oregon sometimes, that way the ones that live not in California had less of a drive. (We’ve held it at  Anderson, CA – Lake Wallowa, OR – Westwood, CA – Grants Pass, OR a couple times – Lake Siskiyou,CA -  R-Ranch, CA).  Hope I’ve not forgotten any places. Each year we try to get a different family member to host the Reunion.

When our girls were growing up, every June for vacation we took them to the Reunion. I pray every year we continue to have the Reunion.

Next year my cousins, Ina and Brenda will be hosting the Reunion, they are planning it for July of 2010 at Lake Tahoe, CA. Hope many can make it next year.

Rudy – last night!

On Sunday, the lamp went out on Rudy’s big screen tv. He was not a “Happy Camper” either!

So to watch tv on Sunday evening, he had to sit in the dining room and watch my kitchen tv until bedtime!

Well Monday evening, he said that wasn’t happening again!  He moved his recliner from the living room and it’s now in my dining room.

The tv is sitting on the other end of this counter.

He ordered the new lamp through Samsung, should be here by Friday, I’ll believe that when I see it!

Jakob loves to pretend he’s Papa when he’s here and watches tv in Papa’s recliner too!  He even asked me one day if he could take Papa’s chair home with him.

Happy 5th Birthday, Mason!

Today is Mason’s 5th birthday, he’s the youngest of our 7 grandkids!

He’s growing up way too quickly!

Here’s the card I made for him:

I took gifts over to his house from Gina’s family and us.

Here’s Mason with the gift from Uncle Joe, Auntie Gina, Kaitie and Jakob:

Here’s Mason wearing the gift from Papa and Grandmom:

Don’t you look cute in your new outfit?

(Guess it’s a little big for you, was hoping 4/5 wouldn’t be too big on you!)

Hope you have a great day today! I asked him what he was doing for his birthday and he told me “Nothin’, just staying home and playing!”

Miss you, my little guy!

July 19,1975 (sad day for our family!)

Was a day that totally changed our lives!

Rudy had just gotten out of the Army on 7-8-75, we were still unpacking from our move from Ft. Lewis, WA back home to Cottonwood, CA.

Mona was 3 years old, Gina and Nee’ were 8 months old and I was  about between 28 – 32 weeks along in another pregnancy. (The doctors and Madigan Med Ctr, Tacoma, WA kept changing my due date , back and forth from Oct. to Sept.)

On the night of 7-18-1970, I woke up about 2 am and was hemorrhaging. Rudy rushed me to the hospital, after dropping the girls off at my parent’s house. The next morning when they did emergency caesarean, Rachelle Dawn Morris arrived, weighing 1 lb 5 1/2 ozs. They never measured her length. She was flown from Redding, CA to San Francisco, CA. She only lived 9 hours 29 minutes. I never got to see her, only Rudy and my Mom saw her before they flew her to Mt Zion Hospital.

The girls grew up knowing their baby sister had passed away right after she was born.

We have no pics of Rachelle, only a very primitive ultrasound and cannot see much of anything in it. Ultrasounds sure have improved over the years!

Rachelle, we miss you so much!

Gosh! I’ve not posted in FOREVER!

Since we got home from our vacation to NJ, we’ve been busy filling out forms, searching for Rudy’s Army buddies from Nam and getting doctor & friends to write letters for Rudy’s VA claim.

It’s brought back alot of memories from 38 years ago (Rudy and I got married a  week after he got home from doing his tour in the Army in VietNam.)

We also had our 38th anniversary on the 17th! I made Rudy an anniversary card:

Mona called and wished us a happy anniversary and told us our gift would arrive in Sept. (Rudy spotted some ferns in her yard and really liked them, so she ordered some for our present, but the company will not ship to WA until Sept.)

Gina wished us a happy anniversary from Iowa and Joe stopped by and wished us a happy anniversary too! He brought a card over that Gina had made for us: awesome job on it!

Nee’, she IM’d me early Friday morning to wish us a happy anniversary.

We had a great time in NJ with Mona, Marc, Meg, & Madi. Rudy helped Marc put their bathroom back together while we were there, most of it was completed.

We went to Jersey City to catch the ferry:

Used to be an old train station.

visited Ellis Island:

Liberty Island: Statue of Liberty

Morristown: Ford Mansion,Washington’s Headquarters:

Jockey Hollow:

Valley Forge: Meg, Rudy & Madi

Princeton (saw the bridge they show on “House”),

Atlantic City: Madi & Meg on the beach

On the Fourth of July, we had an afternoon BBQ, went to new Ice Age 3d movie, then watched fireworks from the golf course hear Mona’s house. There were so many fireworks that we could see in the sky from many locations.

Was a good trip and it’s always sad when it’s time to go home!