Friday, March 23, 2012

Marching On

The Third Week of March
St. Patrick's Day
The First Day of Spring
These are milestones in the year.
Each week is filled with little mileage markers--pillars to mark my gratitude.

1. I had a milestone this week--my birthday.
Since The Professor is on Spring Break and I am not, we decided that a four day whirlwind trip to Phoenix would be a fun way to celebrate my birthday and visit our oldest--The Chaplain and his wife.  It was just right!  I requested lunch at The Farm Kitchen at the The Farm at South Mountain.

2.  My cousin who lives in the mountains north of Phoenix drove down to meet us and spend my birthday with me.  I tried to upload a photo of the two of us with me wearing my new green and blue sweater (yes, I did finish it!) but blogger told me that I am out of space and must purchase the privilege to post more photos.  So, no picture of the sweater.  (I experienced this before and I didn't post any pictures for a couple of weeks and then blogger allowed me to start posting photos again.  Maybe that will happen next month...any comments from your experience with blogger and photos would be greatly appreciated.)

3.  On Sunday, The Chaplain's in-laws who are lovely wonderful fantastic kind fun enjoyable amazing people (yes, they really are!) joined us for lunch.  Uncharacteristically, we had to avoid a rainstorm while we dined under the veranda roof of the cafe. (yes, it evidently does rain in Phoenix.)

4.  The drive through eastern California and western Arizona contains its own beauty.  I love the muted desert colors.  Approaching the Coachella Valley from the east (think: Palm Springs), the highway swoops down into the low flat area which is surrounded on three sides by towering mountains.


Yes, the mountains really do have snow on their peaks.

5.  In the fourteen hours we spend in the car, we encountered traffic accidents, two of which seemed rather serious.  According to news stories we read later, fortunately, no one was killed.  But it reminded us that we are truly thankful for uneventful road trips.

This has been Willow's Week--Susanne hosts Friday Fave Five to allow us to share the blessings of our week.  If you want to join, or just read,  here is the link to Living To Tell the Story.

18 comments:

Faith said...

Oh HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! So glad you had a safe trip out to see your son and family. That restaurant looks like a place I would thoroughly enjoy...even the name is delightful!! I had fun browsing their website. I've never been out west other than a week long trip to San Francisco and 2 weeks in Kansas City MO so looking at your pictures of the desert area was fun. Have an enjoyable weekend!

roxie said...

Hooray for a lovely birthday!

ellen b. said...

Glad you had a good extended birthday weekend and got to see family and celebrate! Blessings...

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

That's a lovely way to spend your birthday, and, belatedly, Happy Birthday!

I got that message from Google in my second year of blogging; now I pay them just $5.00 a year for tons of photo space.

Bethany said...

It sounds like you had a terrific weekend! Those photos of the mountains are incredible. Yes... the West definitely has some gorgeous scenery!! I need to visit you someday!!

Kiti said...

Mama - You can put your photos on Flickr (have Dad help you) and then instead of uploading photo files to Google, you can just use simple HTML code (again, ask Dad) to put the images in your posts. There is a space limit for Flickr too, I think, but between Google and Flickr, you should be able to have enough space to keep posting.

Kiti said...

I should add, Flickr is a Yahoo service, so you can just start up an account using your Yahoo login that you already have.

Laura@OutnumberedMom said...

Happy, happy birthday. That sounds and looks like a wonderful trip! Have a great week ahead.

Tracy said...

Happy Birthday belated, Willow! Glad you had some extra time and fun with family. LOVING those mountain views! :o) Happy Spring Days ((HUGS))

Melanie - Author/Editor/Publisher said...

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you had a great week! Glad you traveled safely : )

Gattina said...

It's a beautiful landscape when you drive from California to Arizona. We did it two or 3 times.

Gattina said...

Happy belayed birthday ! I almost forgot !

Brenda said...

I'll add to the picture advice, if you have a Picasa account, just go in and delete some pictures, that is what I do when I get that message. It sounds like there are lots of ways around this problem though!

Happy Birthday! Sounds like you picked some fun ways to celebrate your day.

Annette Whipple said...

Happy birthday! It sounds like your birthday trip was well spent. :)

(I happen to have great in-laws, too. I love my husband's family as much as my own. It's a real blessing.)

As for photos, I heard...don't know if it is true, that if you make the photos smaller on the blog, they take up less room, but I have no idea if it is worth it. I pay for the additional storage. It's worth it to me since I have my family blog and then the other one, too. And I like big photos at least some of the time.

Catherine said...

I'm glad you had a happy birthday, a lovely trip, and a finished sweater!

I draft all of my posts using LiveWriter. it adds the photos, and allows me to watermark them, too. I don't think there is a storage limit.

Once I post the draft to my blog, I check to make sure it looks okay then I publish it.

I hope you have wonderful week. :)
Catherine

aspiritofsimplicity said...

It sounds like you had a lovely birthday.

nikkipolani said...

What fantastic birthday adventures! Sights and tastes and family and road trip, too!

Marg said...

Happy Birthday! It's funny how those years creep up on us without too many hiccups along the way.
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend with your family. That's a wonderful way to celebrate.
I also pay annually for the extra storage...because it is truly worth it to share your photos. I'm not even sure what it costs...but very small like under $10.