Happy Birthday Turtle!



Her Dad gave her that nickname, and now Grandma J will call her oldest Granddaughter Turtle on her blog.



Don't ask me how this happened, but Turtle turns 17 today. She was born in California, but transplanted to Florida. Even though for most of those years she was on opposite coast from her grandma, we always saw each other often.

This is Turtle's kindergarten picture. One of my favorite pictures of her.

These cousins have shared many Christmases together...

Here's Turtle with Grandma J and her (blind in one eye) dog, Charlie, that same Christmas, (1994)

Connecting for another memorable Christmas and remain good friends .

They have traveled to California from Texas and Florida for summer fun on Catalina Island with their favorite grandma.

Turtle and her dad are best of friends. Her dad even got a small tattoo of a turtle, which makes Grandma J thankful that he didn't nickname his daughter "Princess". I love they way they still hold hands at Disney.

Grandma J's granddaughter loves to surf on both coasts.

Here she is with her dad and younger brother. She's becoming such a beautiful young lady.

The same two goofballs on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe on New Years Day.

I love you Turtle, and I miss you too. So, since I can't be with you in California for your birthday, I want to send you lots of love and a recipe for Turtle Candy. The same ones your Dad buys you every year....but this year maybe he will make you some! Ummm, yeah, let me know if that happens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BETTY CROCKER EASY TURTLE CANDY

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 2 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Chocolate

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 oz Pecan halves (about 72)
24 Caramel candies
1 t Shortening
6 oz Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 300ø. Cover cookies sheet with aluminum
foil, shiny side up; lightly grease. For each candy,
place 3 pecan halves in a “Y” shape on foil. Place 1
caramel candy in center of each “Y”. Bake just until
caramel is melted, about 9 - 10 minutes. Heat
shortening and chocolate chips over low heat just
until chocolate is melted. Spread over candies and
refrigerate 30 minutes.

The Rita Chronicles Part IV
Rita The Enforcer

It's been a while since I've told you anything about Rita's exciting, exotic hard working life.

Rita went from being a stay at home mom and wife, to a widowed mom and student at the age of 51. She got her Real Estate License and had a wonderful successful career for many years. When she retired from Real Estate...she took up the mantra of the yellow police vest in Huntington Beach CA....

Crossing grade school kids every morning bright and early. Rita was a rule follower all her life, and so, when she raised her red stop sign, she expected the students to follow the rules.

Her first assignment was a crosswalk near an elementary school that was close to the high school. This meant that she would be crossing teenagers as well as grade school students. Of course these older students knew the rules so Rita didn't think they would be a problem. Besides Rita raised five teenagers and just because they gave her some lip once in a while, didn't mean she wasn't cool enough to handle some students she was stopping traffic for.

That first day, as she stepped off the curb, wearing her yellow vest with the word POLICE on the back, and her arm raised high, displaying her red stop sign....some teenage boys came racing up...Rita bellowed into the wind for them to hear.

"Walk your bikes, boys......no riding skateboards in the crosswalk"

only to have one of them say, "F&*% you, old lady".

Poor Rita was devastated! She knew she had to report this behavior....but she hated doing it...because she wanted to get along with all the students. When she relayed the incident, she was told to ignore the older kids...and she did. No more incidents.

Rita loved her new job and keep it for many years. She loved the kids, and they loved her...giving her all kinds of interesting gifts. One Christmas a little kindergartner gave her a pair of lacy underwear..it was obvious they weren't new, and his mother had no idea he had "re-gifted" her underwear.
Rita loved getting paid for two hours in the morning and two more in the afternoon, even though she worked less than an hour each shift. In CA you have to get paid a minimum of two hours per shift...sweeeeet! This meant Rita was an early bird shopper...getting to the stores before they opened.

As most of you know,Grandma J was a public servant, and because she worked hard(ly), she had every other Friday off, she would take her dog, Charlie to go see his grandma Rita at her "work" in the afternoon. The three of them would cross the kids together.

Grandma J always wanted pictures....but Rita didn't want any at all! Grandma J did capture a couple of Charlie and Rita in Rita's car...waiting for the afternoon shift to begin.


As soon as Rita saw the camera...UP WENT THE STOP SIGN! So, this is the best I can give you of Rita on the job! Yeah, I know, it's a picture of a picture because my scanner is on the fritz.

Things That Go Bump In The Night........part 2

Even though I wasn't aware of any Native American (commonly referred to as Indian) burial grounds directly adjacent to my new home, I knew several existed along the California coast. There is quite a bit of Indian culture as well as Spanish in California, and most people have a basic knowledge of the Spanish language because half the streets, towns and businesses have Spanish names.

Grandma J loved to walk her dog, Charlie up to the park on the Mesa to run and play. It was a very nice park with a great vista of the ocean that was about a mile away. Another nice feature was the fact that hardly anyone was ever there. Without any facilities, it wasn't very popular.

Another element of life along the Southern California coast is liquefaction. The soil is unstable and sandy. There are also a plethora of fault lines running through the area....so a bit of creaking is normal and just stuff settling all the time. Believe me, trying to scare people about earthquakes never worked because they still crowd there sweet arses into the State of CA. Except me of course who moved to Texas....which is a whole multi-part blog in itself.

A little creaking at night.....we're used to it. Hearing a kitchen cupboard close not so normal. But then, maybe I really just imagined it. One morning, I get up, go downstairs and three cupboards are open. Now, I never ever leave cupboards or drawers open...EVER. My cupboard doors were the type that didn't have knobs, and were self closing with a nudge. So, I'm feeling a little nervous and I check all the doors, and they are still locked. OK, I tell myself that maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing, and just because I never leave the doors open, I might have accidentally forgot.

For a few weeks I hear and see nothing. Then one night I'm watching TV and hear what sounds like footsteps upstairs. I turn the volume down on the TV.....hold my breath as I listen, and listen.....

Nothing! I turn the TV volume back up and forget about the noise...until I get up to fix some tea. I walk past the stairs on my way to the kitchen and hear the upstairs bathroom door shut. I freeze in my tracks for a moment. At the same time Charlie lets out a growl. I grab his leash, put it on him and take him out front.....now I'm afraid to go back in!

I walk Charlie around the neighborhood, and realize I'm being silly. No one could have gotten in the house without me seeing them or Charlie barking. I shake it off and go back inside, and fix my tea.

Later, as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard some noises downstairs....I hold my breath, as usual. The noises continue, but I freeze, lying there with Charlie, holding my breath, facing the opened bedroom door. My thinking was this, if someone was down stairs, so be it. Just don't come upstairs and we will all be fine. Take what you want, just leave me alone....I eventually drift off to sleep.

I become sleep deprived....as this continues off and on.

No one gets much rest anymore. Then one day, I had company over, and one of my friends, who was a planner with the city, remarks about how surprised he was when the city of Huntington Beach approved the permits to build on this tract of land. I asked him why he was surprised. He said the parcel wasn't large enough for most builders to consider developing, and the easement requirements were stricter too.

I'm like "huh?"

He said, With the Indian burial ground up on the mesa, most builders were reluctant to take on the additional cost of having an archaeologist analyse the perimeter to determine the burial grounds boundaries, so the city waved the requirement as long as they agreed to add a flood control easement between the hill and construction.

Now that I knew about the Indian burial ground up on the mesa, it made sense that over time, with erosion due to the soil conditions in the area, some of the relics had no doubt made their way down below. I was probably living on someones grave.

This was a relief to me. Honestly? I decided to have a little pow wow with my Indian friend. If you could have been there, you would have had me committed.

With Charlie on my lap, I told my boarder that we had to co-exist with respect for each other. She just couldn't go around scaring me. Guess what? It worked. Every so often I would hear a door or cupboard...then I would quickly remind my friend that it wasn't nice to try and scare me because it didn't work anymore!

**I've added a new gift idea below. It's a new infomercial by Vince the Shamwow guy....remember? You'll say WOW everytime. Thanks to my boyfriend Michael K. at dlisted, I borrowed it from his site....take a trip over, he's the funniest evah!

Deck The Halls With......

.......OUCH!!



No, I'm not flipping you off. That happens to be my index finger after putting up my outdoor lights, after my finger got into it with a hammer, after putting up my tree. Then I went to Taco Bueno to get some Macho Nachos for us.

But, that's not what this post is about. I was putting up my Christmas tree, and I brought out all the sentimental ornaments that I've accumulated over the years. You know the ones....the clothes pin reindeer made by a kindergartner in 1976, or the walnut skiing on popsicle sticks.

Then there are the ones for your dog. The dog that went to doggie heaven in 2001 at eighteen years old. Charlie, a cockapoo.....a very macho cockapoo.

This may be boring for some of you, and it will probably make some of you roll your eyes....it won't be the first time, so roll away.


I'll start with this picture of Charlie and me at Petsmart in 1995, just so you have a visual of him.

This is a foam handmade ornament I bought at work to support United Way in 1994.....the lollipop is nasty probably rancid. I bought everyone in the family, one of these, but I only have Charlies. I'm sure everyone else still has theirs, and puts it on their tree, right?

Then we have this one from Heart Shaped Hedges husband's two cats, Bubs and Sweebs circa 1999.

And another from those sweet kitties in 2000.

Ok, so that's it! That wasn't too bad now was it? I still miss Charlie, and I just know he would have been best buddies with JJ......maybe!

*NEW!! The 3rd in a series of my great Christmas gift ideas has been added at the bottom of the page. Check back often for more gift giving ideas.