New Years Eve & Life Update

 Well here we are already 2 1/2 weeks into the New Year and I'm just getting around to posting my annual New Years Post.  Life happens and let me tell you 2025 went out with an unexpected event.

Early on the morning of December 28th (around 1:00 am) I woke up and heard Mike in the bathroom and asked if he was okay? He replied that no he wasn't that he was getting sick and was dizzy and not able to stand up. - Needless to say we immediately thought (it's another stroke) so I called 911 and got ahold of my daughter/granddaughter next door and headed off to the hospital.

The took both CT Scans and MRI scans and admitted him. - Through most of Sunday he was doing real well.  He was dizzy and had some vision issues but by Monday afternoon they felt he was well enough to come home.  The reports we were told showed no signs of a major stroke and they listed the cause of his visit as Vertigo. - Later we were told there was a "possible" sign of perhaps a mild stroke but nothing was really confirmed.  He was sick off and on from late Monday after he got home through part of Wednesday, New Years Eve so our celebration was a bit different.

Still we had a nice dinner:

We played some Yahtzee, Mike tried to play but he still wasn't feeling that great. - Everyone was still exhausted from the past few days so people went home for awhile to rest before coming back later for snacks, the New Years toasts and some Fireworks.

Mike watched from the window since he was still not steady on his feet and was having to use a walker to get around.

My niece Krissy had passed away on New Years Day 2025 and since she loved fireworks in her honor we set a few off to welcome 2026 in.  I did this composite of her:

And after getting up in the morning I set out her flowers where we remember her.

It was certainly not the way we had planned to celebrate the start of 2026 but we still celebrated just in a different way.

Mike is taking PT now for balance issues and the therapist said his Vertigo was caused by Labyrinthitis.  He's on different medication now to also try to prevent a stroke.  Each day he is improving and we are thankful for that.

 

A New Stadium - History in the making

 Well as you can tell it's been a few months since I've posted here on this blog. - Life just happens sometimes and I don't often get around to posting here as much as I use to.

Today I will share photos from an event we attended on Sept. 12th.

The local high school, Walla Walla High School (aka - Wa-Hi) hosted their first game in their brand new stadium.  For all of my life all the high-school games were played at Borleske stadium so it was quite a different experience watching that game at the High School.

Be sure to read to the end so you can see me!

The new score board

                A view of the field before the game started.

The High School Blue Devil Mascot

The Blue Devil symbol - This was painted on a building at the far left of the stadium.

The band playing before the game started.

Lining up to await the arrival of the team.

The inflatable that the team emerged from.

Heading onto the field.

Color Guard.

Halftime performances by the cheerleaders and dance squad.

Whenever the team would score this guy would run up and down the track waving this flag.  It was hard to catch a photo of him as he ran quite fast.

One of my favorite features of the new stadium is that they have blue lights that flash on an off after each score.

Surprisingly I did not take one single photo of the players during the actual game.  - Guess I was having to much fun watching them...

WIN!

These last photos are NOT mine. They were on a FB page from Walla Walla Public Schools.

This last photo shows the crowd.  If you see the little rectangle section in the left of the photo Hubby and I are sitting right behind it.  He has on a White Cowboy hat and I'm wearing a green shirt.

I cropped it so you could see us better.

More surprise visitors

We have a lot of different animals show up around here, lots of cats, a raccoon now and then and possums as well (even though we live in town on a busy street).  This though was a first.  Spotted one of the neighborhood cats looking down at our driveway and this is what it was looking at.

 

                                 Momma was moving fast.

The babies all caught up to her and then headed down the sidewalk. - They've been seen in the neighborhood for most of the summer in various places.

As they marched on down the sidewalk I caught this kitty eyeballing them as they headed towards it.

               I warned it not to mess with Momma turkey though.

A Surprise Visitor

Welcome - So I'm trying to post a little more often here on this blog (but I can't promise anything).

I was out watering my plants a couple of weeks ago when I noticed something moving in the flowers. - At first I thought it was probably a mouse since Mike had seen and pointed one out to me a few days before that. - Then it moved again and I spotted what it was...

Here's where I found it:

 Under that hanging basket and rose bush. - You can't see it because I took this picture afterwards to show where I found the critter. - You can however see my shadow!

So what was it... A Toad of all things!  -  I managed to get it out from under the plant and rose bush (that was tricky as it kept hopping away) and got it inside where I put it in a bowl with a lid so I could go release it. 

We live near a small creek which flows from one of the house across the street from us then under the street and comes back out a couple of houses down from ours.  That's where I release him.

We've lived in our house for over 30 years and I have never found a toad/frog in my flower beds.  It baffles us as to why it was there as it would have had to hop clear across the street or down the sidewalk to get to our place.

I was just happy to get him back to a cooler area and doesn't it look happy!

Summer Flowers

 Just sharing a few late spring/early summer flowers before the season is over and I forget to share them.

My pots of Petunias that sit on either side of our front door.  They've done real well this year.

I had a yellow one as well but sadly the winter killed off most of the plant and what little that did come up died due to the heat.

Both these pots were really pretty earlier on in the season but the heat has not been kind this summer so they are looking a bit under the weather now.

The bees really like this plant.

This is a really odd lily I bought a few years ago.  I'm still not sure if I like it or not.

The hydrangea has been beautiful this year.  Last year it did not have a single bloom.

I took this view looking down the driveway while the lilies there were still in bloom along with my Clematis, pot of petunias, hydrangea.

Hope you've enjoy a little from my summer garden.