Dotty Dog

Our Rat Terrier, Dotty, thinks she owns our yard. As a matter of fact, she thinks she owns our house and us. And in a way, I guess she does. Here she is at one of her favorite knot holes watching to see if anyone is going to get too close to her yard. She will give them that vicious bark that says, "this is my house, I'm here, come closer, let me smell you!" She runs up and down the fence to attract any attention she can get.

Dotty heard a noise. She is very alert to frogs, birds, bugs, cats, etc. She will investigate and take care of any matter that she deems a problem in her yard.

She roams freely in the flowerbeds and paths to make sure everything is in order.

There are many frogs under the logs. She is listening for them. Not pictured, but she will stand for minutes on top to the log pile with her head turning her ears to the sounds. It drives her crazy that she cannot get to the little frogs. She digs at the boards, sniffs, goes from one end to the other, trying to figure out how to get those little frogs.

Oh, a distraction from the logs! What could it be?
In the house, she is the food hunter. She listens for cupboards, refrigerator, drawer, and bag sounds. She knows when it is interesting enough to station herself in the proximity of getting a handout. She does not beg with her voice, just stares you down or nudges you with her nose.

She owns the couch. This is her favorite sleeping place. This day she had gone to the SPCA Doggie Day Spa for bath, nails, and ears. They gave her the bandana. She is feeling pretty special now that it is over! There was no part of the spa that she loved while it was happening. She was not thinking...Wow, I'm a lucky dog, but when it is over, she thinks she's hot stuff! She was even famous in Sunday's Hanford Sentinal, because she was pictured getting her bath. But I don't think it has changed her attitude any.

Not pictured are the 2 videos that I made of her playing with her little Black Rock. She is fascinated with this rock. She loves to paw, nose, flip, swat, and stare at this silly rock. You would enjoy these, but after 4 download tries, I gave up...I didn't think the videos were corrupted! Oh well.

As you can see, nothing much is happening around here other than both Lyle and I have been sick almost 2 weeks and that is a boring blog.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Catching up on August

Lyle has been working in the backyard. I has needed refreshing.

Even though the grass does not need to be mowed anymore, there still is a lot of upkeep. Dottie is Lyle's faithful companion and takes care of barking at people behind the fence, sniffing out the frogs, and chasing the birds.

He is making some raised flower beds by recycling the logs from our old bench and arbor. It is a lot of work!

Changing topic....Here is Grandma Lois on her 84th birthday. By her count, she got 29 cards from family and friends! She had a good day.

Aug. 18 - 20, Nate came up to visit. We always enjoy his help and company. Grandpa Clayton and Grandma Lois are always thrilled to see him. He takes a lot of time to chat and listen to them. Here he is visiting Clayton at Hacienda Nursing Home.

Last week's Farmer's Market got a "Fly Over" from the Lemoore Naval Air Station Jets. Look closely to see the specks in the blue sky. That is as good as I can get as a photographer...sorry!
Some people we talked with....Maria Silva, mother to Mike and Holly, and grandmother to 1.

David Dibble, film maker and really nice guy! David's Fort Roosevelt's film has been accepted to a southern California Film Festival. We wish him well! He is currently working on a western for a commercial. It will be shot locally.

And Stephen Abbas, fantastic photographer and really funny guy! In a good way! That's our latest. Hope you enjoyed!

Grandma Lois turns 84 today!

Lois was surprised today as she was pushing Clayton around Hacienda Nursing Home. As she rounded the corner, she commented to the 8-9 nursing assistants, "Oh, someone's having a birthday party." I came up with the camera and they blew the horns and she found out it was for her. She was very surprised! (Clayton was not paying attention at first!)

Mom is pretty easy to surprise! Nurse Diane grabbed the camera to snap one with mom and myself. (Miriam and a Dr. are in the background.)

We got Clayton to smile for this one. He was awake by now!

Taking 2 of the cupcakes back to the room and leaving the rest for the staff, Clayton was ready for cake! I grabbed his bed table and he was set. He had that cake done in no time! He gave mom a birthday card signed, Love Clayton. I know he really appreciates her company each day.

Mom had said she would wait on the cupcake because she had a big breakfast, but then said, "Well, I can't let Clayton eat alone." (Notice his is 2 bites away from being gone! :) It was a nice little party that included Clayton.

You never know how long they will both be with us. We must enjoy and appreciate the wonderful parents we were blessed with and make special moments to remember.

Happy 84th Birthday Lois Lind!

( Note to self, next time, take a picture of the nurses and the cupcakes before they are gone!)

Vote for Favorite Vegas Kitchen and Lyle :)

Choose your favorite Las Vegas Model Kitchen.

Vote with Photo # +kit.

Choose your favorite Lyle pose.

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ie: 1 kit. 1 Lyle

Hoping to get many comments!

This is your chance to let us know you read the blog!

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Lyle relaxing talking to Lois in the very last Model home of the weekend in Vegas.

It was the 30th house. So some kitchens were not photographed!

Remember to click on Comments and vote for kitchen and Lyle. Any comments are welcome.

Hope you enjoyed a little kitchen tour from Las Vegas.

Fun Vegas Trip!

Well, we just got back from a wonderful trip to Las Vegas.
Here are some of the highlights of our trip.On Friday, Sight seeing at Caesar's Palace Forum Shops is always fun. The architecture is amazing and grand. We love to see the latest fashions and window shop at the exclusive stores.

But, Marlene always has her eye out for the bargains. Here is one of her favorite places to shop. Bixou Terner sells all items for $10. Watches, scarves, handbags, etc. (Not pictured, but at New York New York, she found another place with nothing over $10 as well.) We stopped at FAO Schwartz LV for pictures. This gigantic Trojan horse welcomes you into their store.

This picture is for Bee. She loves doggies. So we posed for this one just for her.

Later we checked in to our hotel Red Rock Resort in West Las Vegas. It is one of the newest places. We were on the 14th floor. We think there is about 18 floors. The halls were beautiful and very long. Each room has its own private hall to enter into the room. So as you walk, you do not see any doors in the main hall. The room was beautiful. Right up there with The Wynn. Lyle said it didn't have the bed turn down service, mints on your pillow, or the remote control curtains like the Wynn, but the room was extremely nice! Our wall of windows faced the LV Strip. The view is fantastic!

We loved the marble deep soak bathtub with tv, separate showed, and sliding door closure to the toilet. The entire bathroom walls were covered in chocolate color leather squares. We had to feel it to know that they were not tiles. NICE!

On Saturday night we attended the Jackson Browne concert in the pool area. We got a lounge by the pool and reclined or sat there in true comfort. From time to time, Marlene stuck her feet in the pool to enjoy the cool water. The weather was perfect, about 75 degrees, with a little breeze! It was such a nice venue. Even though there were thousands of people there, the general admission and huge area gave everyone plenty of room to walk around and get as close as you wanted or sit and put your feet in the water.

Toward the end of the concert, we got up close and Lyle snapped this picture. The concert was excellent! His lyrics and sound were so enjoyable and fun. I hope to post a couple of videos for you to enjoy a taste of the concert.

On Sunday, we visited a huge church called Canyon Ridge Christian Church. They have 5,500 attend every week. There are 2 Saturday and 2 Sunday services. It is in North LV. The worship was good. The huge flat screens were amazing high definition. The piano and drums were on their own raised stages. The lighting was great. We were disappointed that we did not get to hear the main pastor speak, it was the seniors' pastor. The message was solid.

We were very early when I shot these pictures to show the stadium seating. Very comfortable, but you can really pack in the people with these seats. By the time church started, it was pretty full. The campus was very nice and there was a friendly casual atmosphere.

On Saturday and Sunday, we visited Model Homes. 30 to be exact! Saturday was North LV and Sunday was South, all on the West side of town. We were most impressed with the North and up in the hills. We drove up very far north then very far west. We thought we were at the end of LV. Later we found out, there was even more beyond our findings.

There are amazing views as you drive the 215 which circles the city and keeps you off the surface roads.
Marlene took 32 pictures inside these homes. Perhaps there will be a blog coming, but I will spare you the details today. Here are 2 amazing kitchens we found. This picture was taken from the balcony to give you the perspective of this 2 story kitchen. Although beautiful, not very practical to reach the top cupboards! You would need a ladder somewhere!

This was one of our favorites in our favorite house. The cupboards are beautiful. The eating bar is raised on the granite island. Cupboards were upgrades, granite is standard to these homes. NICE!

We finished off our trip last night by going to New York New York. We walked through and noticed the changes. We walked a little outside and took some pictures. The weather was beautiful. A little breeze and very comfortable!Deciding that our most of our curiosities had been satisfied, we left 1 day early. The only thing that we did not do, that I thought would be fun, was to ride the Foreclosure Bus. You can sign up to ride around and find cheap houses. Well, after seeing all the new beautifully decorated model homes, it just didn't seem that appealing.

We have many more pictures that are not posted. Perhaps there are other blogs about this fun trip. Stay tuned.