Our first night!

Our first over night stay! An awesome view. I love it here.

A NEW TRUCK FOR GORDIE!!

We felt we had to get this truck for a few reasons. 1) we need to haul a lot of stuff away to the dump. The rugs gotta go - the kitchen floor - gone and a large microwave stand in the kitchen - history!

Can you believe that if you do not have a parking permit in your area you can only park for 2 hours at a time or risk getting tickets. You must prove that you own/rent in your area. We had to show or truck insurance papers since the water/garbage/electric will not come in our name for at least one month. The parking permit cost $60 a year. You must have a California vehicle.

8 hours of hard hard work! Day One!

Today was our first day in our home in San Francisco. The house has been neglected for years and needs lots and lots of repairs.

Today I spent 8 hours and never got out of the kitchen. The refrigerator took me hours to clean. The walls and cabinets took me the rest of the time. I am so sore and tired. Here is a picture of the wall. (Cigarettes and grease - not a nice combo) I am not done yet with the kitchen.

Not rich BUT would like to help someone help themselves!

Can the cost of a meal out, or a movie with snacks, be a force for peace in the world?

In 2006, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a man named Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their work with microfinance: not small business loans, but TINY business loans, often less than $1,000. Over the next several months, I became interested in news stories about microlending, and the idea that an amount of money that seemed small to me could aid an entrepreneur in a developing country to improve the prosperity of a business, a family and a community.

What an appealing idea. But, until I heard about Kiva, I knew of no way to add any of our own resources to the effort. That changed yesterday when I sat down at my computer to learn about this amazing organization.

Kiva is a non-profit group that lets me (or you) connect with and loan money to small businesses in the developing world using a computer and the internet. From their website, you can help sponsor a business of your choice for as little as $25 (charged to your credit card). Your contribution is consolidated with those made by other lenders into a loan of as little as a few hundred dollars and loaned, through a micro-credit organization, to a specific borrower for a specific need.

This is not a donation; it is an unsecured loan (with the possibility that it cannot be repaid), made for a specific time period with a specific repayment schedule. When the loan is repaid, you can choose to reinvest with a new borrower or to withdraw your funds.

I won’t try to explain more than that - the Kiva.org website does a WAY better job than I can. I WILL say that exploring the website and setting ourselves up as micro-financiers was fun, interesting, and rewarding, and the website is designed to keep it that way: profiles of borrowers and lenders (you can see profiles of others who have lent to “your” borrowers); a link to your portfolio, showing the status and analysis of your loans; journals describing the progress of the borrowers.

WE CAN DO THIS.
LAURA

She is so AWESOME!!!

That would be Chyrisa (my daughter) who honored her son Mark memory by making 23 bags of items for the battered women and children home. Mark would have been 23 on 5-23 and she wanted to honor him by giving back in some way. The ladies that received the gifts were over joyed that in her saddness she could do something for others. She says she will do something each year on his birthday. A few people at work knew why she was taking Mark's birthday off and they donated $270 to help fill up the bags. I hope to send some pictures but right now they are having computer problems.
I love my daughter so much she is such a blessing in my life.

Another Sad Day Of Remembrance!

Mark was born 23 years ago today. We were all there for the birth of our first grandson. He was born at Kaiser in Redwood City, CA. (and today I was at a different Kaiser for blood work but thought I would add this picture to our blog with Kaiser in the background.)

These tee shirts our daughter, Chyrisa made for us to wear on special occassions like today.

Chyrisa is doing something really great to celebrate her sons 23 years on earth. I will add the picture as soon as they are sent to me.

Click on the picture to see our shirts better. They are some happy day with our beloved grandson, Mark.

Flowers are such a beautiful gift from God!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

We are leaving Lodi, CA today and headed for our friends house in Union City, CA where we will be in the motorhome in their yard for months to come. We will be moving in to San Francisco house on June 1st. We will keep the same cell phone number but here is our new address for the next three years at least.

4547 20th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114

Happy Birthday dear Sissy!

You are getting younger every year.
We love you Jeannine!

A Sister Day!

Here's my sister, Dr. Lana doing my hair and makeup.
What a fun day we had. Thanks, Lana!

Thank you to my all our children for a wonder day!

Mothers Day is not my favorite day. Not having my mother makes me extremely sad. Then not having Mark and knowing how my daughter is suffering makes me sadder. BUT lemonaid out of lemons made me have a good day with my neice, my step sons, my beautiful new daughter-in-law, Joseph, (Dee husband) Matt my cousin and Dee's best friends Galene and Marty. All the kids! Dinner superb, friendship even better. I wear my mothers ring and my mothers necklace with great pride.
THANK YOU FOR A GREAT DAY!

Another one

Yes, not sure how I will be using these bird cages BUT no birds for sure. I don't want to have to worry about anything else living right now. We want still travel some more.

Let's get h'ordeurs ready!

This is Dee Dee my neice and her best friend, Galene making jalapena poppers. Oh yeah they were HOT!! Jalapena peppers stuffed with cream cheese and then wrapped in bacon and cooked on the BBQ!

What a great day of family fun!

We are all at my neice's (DeeDee) house for mother's day. Dee, Garrick, Miriam, Brent, Matt and Gordon.
Brent and Miriam celebrating their 1st year anniversary.

Lunch with my grandson, son and cousin!

We shared the day with my sweet grandson, Junior, (me) wonderful son Garrick, Gordon and cousin Matthew in Iseleton, CA.

My two new finds!

Oh yeah! I just love these two new brass lamps
one is a floor and one is a desk lamp.

Let's go from dark to light in the living room.

If you click on this picture you will see this fabulous paintable wallpaper. It is textured and light tan and white. A real possiblity for the living room. The living room is a dark blue right now and this just must be lighten up.

Another new chair for our SF house!

I love my garage sale finds.

A new chair for us.

A wonderful day with our grandsons!

Dylan and Derek beat the pant off us in Scrabble.
A great day!

Robert!

Happy Birthday Roberrt!

You are finally 18, we cannot believe it.
Have a wonderful day!
Love you, Grandma and Grandpa.

San Francisco!

A beautiful day in San Francisco.

Let's Party!

Here we are ready to party many moons ago!

Tiffany Anyone???

Here is a couple of lamps I bought for our home in San Francisco.
Do you like them?