I am still in New Mexico. At times I am thrilled and others I am so sick of desert. I am thrilled that I have gotten to spend so much time with my sister, Maria. All the snowbird friends I made in March and April have returned and they have again taken me in as one of them. On Sundays we have 'movie' night. (Two sundays ago I fell asleep in the middle of The Expendables). Gary, the gentleman who is in charge was not impressed, ha ha! Tuesdays are game night, oh and on Halloween after work I went to their party yum! had great homemade food. We played a card game called Golf and dice games and I have to say that I had not laughed so much in a long time. There's Phyllis and her husband, they are cool cause they wear tie dyed clothing. Debbie and Dave are so friendly and energetic! Ed and Donna are sweet. She works at Walmart, he does all the cooking and everytime he goes to grocery shop he has to stop and harass me, all in fun. There's Gary who's single and an instigator, boy he makes me laugh. Then Don, who's adventurous and so matter of fact, but I love him!! George, the Wyoming cowboy, who constantly wants to chat. A couple of days ago I gave him a ride to the post office. Sharon and Clay, she's the puzzle lady and Clay's sense of humor and teasing just kill me!! I can't forget Wyn and Ki, they have taken me under their wing, their tenderness and kindness have helped me so very much. Ki's great at jigsaw puzzles and Wyn is so fair and beautiful. I wish I had known them years ago. Their kitty hates me though!! Maynard is the only man who does aerobics with all us women so we love him plus me and him have clicked and we laugh so much together. Frank and Anna who adopted me as their daughter left to Florida a couple of weeks ago. Paulette and Bill are heading to Corpes Cristi and I miss them terribly. New people I've met are Newell and Linda, and Terri but I can't remember her husband's name. He's funny cause he calls me Walmart cause he can't remember my name. There are many more, but then this post is already long enough. I just have to say that though I miss everyone familiar in Idaho, I think life is meant for us to meet as many people as possible like I have here. When I think about leaving I get so so sad.

Lately I've been thinking about how life is so short. Yes, I am almost the big 50 and I don't even know where the time went. There are some things which I regret. I know, I know we are not supposed to regret but I am human after all and I bet not the only human to have them. My son plans to attend BYU Hawaii for a year. When he told me, I was immediately for it because when I was college age that was one of my dreams. One of the dreams which I let go down the tube. Therefore I am encouraging him and am going to do whatever I can to help him. Sometimes people ask me if I could go back what age I would go back to. It's funny how I never say teenage years or twenties. Although I would go back to age 22, I guess. I think it's a great age because I could definitely change lots of things. Yes life is short and I am 'over the hill' but I am happy to say that it hasn't stopped a 24 y.o. and a 19 y.o. from calling me 'Beautiful' and 'Good looking' and though I was flattered I do not want a young guy. I want an older, mature guy someday!

No matter how old our children are, parents never stop missing them or worrying about them. We may argue on the phone or sometimes speak unkind words to each other but it all goes away when we are reunited once again. All the bad is forgotten and we focus on laughing, kidding, just plain enjoying each other's company. My mother is almost eighty years old and there are times that I wish that I could go back and be a kid again. All the things I would do differently. I think I'd help her more, talk to her, listen to her more, learn from her. When all is said and done, we can't go back, but we can step forward, be better and strive to reach eternal life where we will never again be separated from our loved ones. What a wonderful goal! What a loving Father we have who gives all His children this opportunity.

Now I am looking forward to a whole new upcoming visit from one of my grown children!! Yeh!!Fourth of July weekend I'll get to see my eldest daughter. She is the absolute best! Some of the things she does for me are: my nails! lets me wear her clothes, borrow her purses and shoes (she has zillions of them!), makes me slow down and smell the the roses, so to speak: she makes me drop whatever I'm doing no matter how busy I am or how many weeds I have to pull, to snuggle with her, catnap with her or just plain hug or jump on the bed, whee!! She's the best! The guy she's dating will be accompanying her and I am so-oo excited to see him also. He's so fun!! He is not ashamed to go to the store or other places with an old lady like me. If I'm having a bad day he immediately makes it better just by his cheerful smile and energetic greeting! I have not ever seen him down, even when he was taking some very difficult engineering classes! I think the best thing I like about him is that he shares twinkies and raspberry filled donuts with me!

On Wednesday I got to hug my second daughter, yeh!! and then she went to Idaho with me. Since then we have been hanging out, watching movies, cooking yummy food, doing yard work, visiting the neighbors, going to the doctor, to Target, buying shoes at Payless and grocery shopping! If I had not had her here I would have been bored to tears. Her endless cheery energy and sound advice have kept me going especially at times when I have wanted to yell in frustration. She reminds me constantly of Father's love, His perfect plan and of the blessings to which we are entitled if we will only do His will. I have known this for decades, yet I tend to easily forget at times. Families is what life is all about, helping, supporting, encouraging and loving each other.

Recently we drove the winding road to the Gila cliff dwellers' ruins. We were told that it was about a 2 and a half hour drive, little did we know! It took us nearly four hours! The views were breathtaking, the road dangerously narrow and the ponderosa pines, wow!! I didn't know that NM had ponderosa pines! We were able to take the dogs to the trailhead but there we had to leave them in kennels provided. The hike to the cliff dwellings was shady, curvy and at times a bit steep, but well worth it. Okay, funny highlights, one of the grouchy rangers told me sharply not to lean on a rock which was roughly three times as big as me. He said that the rock was older than him, I wanted to say, duh, but no! I didn't. I was nice. The ceremonial rooms, workrooms, sleeping rooms, the workmanship of the cement were, well . . I can't find words to describe them. I felt a kinship with these long gone people. The Book of Mormon people came to mind, yeah they were relatives with the people who lived here at one time. There were ladders we climbed to look over walls at other rooms. On the hike down, there were many rock stairs and mostly sand mixed with gravel. I slipped with my tennis shoes and scrapped under my right knee, there was even a small goose egg or should I say a robins' egg bump, stained my capris and was a little embarrassed as there were two teenage boys behing us about 10 feet. I have a very low pain tolerance level, so I wanted to cry but instead I forced myself to keep walking, although I stood to the side so the teenagers could pass. We reached the bottom shortly and when the dogs jumped into the river I did too, up to my knees and the robins egg on my leg disappeared and didn't bother me the rest of the day. There's something to be said for cold, cold river water!!

It is Pacman's 30th anniversary and I have to say that I am thrilled! It automatically loaded onto Google's homepage and I have spent an enjoyable evening playing it over and over again like I used to when I was as teenager. In college I was one of the Pacman champs. I remember being challenged and challenging anyone and everyone I met. We'd go to the gameroom and play and play, maybe this one of the reasons that I didn't get very good grades that first year. . !?