April Fool!

Spring Melody

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-medley-donna/

April will be here soon...too soon. Our 61st wedding anniversary is next week also. To many of you that will probably sound like a very long time and it is. But it has been a very good 61 years. 

It certainly doesn't feel like spring out here...very cold and windy and rainy. Not my favorite weather.

I re-did my blog for Easter as you can see. But Easter is on April Fools Day. That doesn't sound like 2 holidays that would go together, does it? Our weather forecast doesn't sound like a very good day for an Easter egg hunt.

I have been going through thousands of my theme and wallpaper files. I have so many made and I know they will not all get submitted because I doubt if I have that much time left to do so. Firefox doesn't have footers anymore. (The small space along the bottom of the FF page) so I went through and deleted all of the footers. I am a very organized person but I have lots of different files so had to go through spring, summer, fall, winter, holidays, etc. Plus I have some stored in the Cloud so had to go through those also. I know I shouldn't take any time making any new ones but I find things I want to work with every day so keep making them.

Dreams...do you dream? My husband never used to dream but he does now. I have always dreamed but I dream a lot more now. So we are beginning to think that you must start dreaming more when you are elderly. (Elderly sounds so much better than old!) We both dream about family members that are no longer with us. Which is sad but in other ways not. But strange.

I just read a wonderful book that I got through the library. I had to ask them to order it as an eBook, which they did. It is by Kristin Hannah. It is the 2nd book I have read by her. the first one I read was "Nightingale". One of my grand daughter's recommended it because she and her friends had read it and loved it. This last one is called "The Great Alone". It was a wonderful book. There were places in it I had a hard time reading and took me back to the time we took care of my Mother in her last months. But I would always go back and read some more. My husband actually read it and liked it, too. I would recommend it to anyone that is a reader. Super book. I am going to put some of her other books On Hold at the library so I can download them when they are available. They must be very popular because there is a number of people that have them on hold.

I get most of my books from Amazon free. I subscribed to two email letters that I get every day. One is Book Bub and one is Freebooksy. You put in the genre of books you would be interested in and they send you an email everyday with books that are free or the price has been reduced. If you are a reader I would suggest trying it out. You may not want to get an email every day, but...if you like to read it is a pretty good deal.

What do you think of Facebook and what they have let happen?  Personally I am not a Facebook fan and that is why "MaDonna" doesn't have a Facebook account. From what I have seen of it...most of the people only show beautiful family photos and how well they are doing or they are having wonderful vacations, etc. It can get a lot of kids in trouble, too. I admit it is a good way of finding out where and what your family is doing, but that is about all. I do Twitter once in awhile, but not a big fan of that either. It takes a lot of time to keep up with all that social media. My sister is on every social media site there is, I think. But she is an actress, acting coach, professional speaker, etc. so she uses it as an advertising extension.

Time to fix lunch so I will sign off for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. We get to spend time with grand kids and great grand kids so that will be fun. I can't believe how fast they grow. Our oldest great grandson is taller than his great grandparents...scary. When he was born I didn't think I would probably be around when he was a teenager...and I am!

 Sunset on the Dunes
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sunset-on-the-dunes/

March

Florals Purple Butterfly

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/florals-purple-butterflies/

I can't believe it has been a month since I wrote on my blog. It seems like last week. We are having a beautiful sunshiny day today and supposed to be that way tomorrow and then back to rain. We actually hit 70° over the week end. We got to spend the whole afternoon on the deck and just soaked up sunshine.

I just looked out the window and see my 82 year old husband on a big ladder getting ready to cut the top out of a tree. I wish I hadn't seen him! He is supposed to tell me when he is doing something like that BUT he never does!

I have had so much fun this past week working on some special designs. Making wallpapers to match. Desktop Nexus still doesn't have their website fixed yet so none of the older wallpapers show. I have sent a few wallpapers to people that have asked for them so they can match up a theme. I keep all of my wallpapers and themes in a file but since there is around 20,000 it takes me awhile to find them. Especially if I have changed the name of it when I submit it but not on the file.

Well, I had my 79the birthday last month but I can't say I feel any older. I am still doing push ups and riding my exercise bike 5 days a week. I admit I don't do as many pushups or ride the bike quite as fast or hard as I used to. But since my back is better I have started up doing the floor exercises I used to do but not as many of those either. 

I hope you have updated your Firefox to 59. That update just came out this past week. I try to keep my extensions and Firefox updated because of security, etc. So if you haven't checked lately it might be a good idea to check.

I would like to submit more themes than I am because I have so many but I don't want to hog up the site too much. 

I am finding it hard to keep up with the news, too. It seems like there is something new and astonishing every hour or so. So I keep very busy. But I am the kind of person that can't sit for very long without doing something. When we were taking care of my Mom at the last, she said to me, "You don't stay sitting very long, do you?" And if I am sitting, my feet are moving and sometimes my hands. My husband tells me I move my feet all night long. I need to make some phone calls and I end up with not enough time. We don't go to bed till after Steven Colbert so it is midnight by the time we get to bed.

Well, I am going to get back to work and I wish you all a Happy Saint Patrick's Day. 

Winter is back........

Mount Rainier Sunset

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mount-ranier-sunset-by-m-donna/

Wow, but winter came back to Washington state with a blast from the Fraser River Canyon. We got a northeaster from Canada and it is soooo cold. We lost power yesterday for a while and TV/Internet was out longer. Luckily we had just gotten home from visiting our son and daughter in law or we wouldn't have been able to get in the house because the garage door wouldn't have opened. I didn't take my purse with house keys!

We didn't lose any trees but our neighbor lost several of his 50 yer old pine trees. 

Our daughter had us over Saturday to celebrate my birthday a bit early because her daughter's family was up for the week end. We had a baked potato bar with all kinds of toppings. I love baked potato's and don 't make them for myself because I never have sour cream. (Hubby doesn't like it) Birthday cake, ice cream and all the trimmings. 

I can't believe I will be 79 next week. I don't feel that old, most of the time anyway. But the calendar doesn't lie.

We had a nice Valentines Day. I made my hubby some of his favorite foods and a cherry pie that I put a heart cut out on the top. At our ages we don't give each other gifts anymore. Just happy to be together...and eat cherry pie.

Since we couldn't watch the tube last night we read for hours. My hubby finished his book and I couldn't download another one for him because internet was out. I had just cleaned out his Kindle because he had so many books in it. I think I will leave a few in the device from now on. We had the kerosene lamps lit and with my tablet and his Kindle we could read because we keep them powered up. But you do need a book in it! I am signed up at freebooksy.com and Book Bub and get emails each day that have free or lower priced ebooks so I actually get most of my books free. So I have tons of books in the cloud. And the books that are too expensive I can usually get them from the local library and download them so I have it for at least 21 days. 

Have been waiting for our property taxes to come. We always dread that. We have paid taxes on our place for almost 51 years so we have paid more in taxes than we paid for it originally. I don't know how they expect elderly people to be able to stay in their homes when the taxes keep going up but the income certainly doesn't. With the current administration I don't think it is going to get any better, either. They don't care about the children or old people. I think they care more for the fetus and rich people. Have to make sure they are all doing well...but if you are born and old....the hell with you. 

Oh Oh! More politics so I better sign off for today. I have to figure out something for my blog for March since Feb. is almost in the books for this year. I like to change the graphics to match the month.

Can't wait for Spring and Summer!!!

~Have a great week~

Spring Garden Serenity

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-garden-serenity-madonna/

Ending January

Snow Flakes for Blue Eyes

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/snowflakes-for-blue-eyes/

We are looking at the end of January already. I have to admit I am tired of the cold and wet. More on its way. too.

My 79th birthday is next month. I find it hard to believe next year I will be saying, (hopefully) I will be 80 years old. That sounds like a really old lady, doesn't it? I have to admit sometimes I feel old, but not most of the time. My problem is my mind feels young but the body doesn't want to move as fast as my mind. My husband tells me to slow down all the time! And I mean all the time. 

Our oldest grandson gave us DNA kits from ancestry.com and we sent them in right away and I am so anxious to get the results. I have done years of work on the genealogy on both of our families so I know some of what I will find out, I think.

I have had some very bad dreams in the last week and I don't want to say anything to the kids because they would worry. One night I dreamed that my husband was lost and I couldn't find him. I woke up with my heart pounding so hard I think my husband could have heard it if he was awake. It took me a long time to start feeling normal and I can still remember how I felt in the dream. Then two nights ago I dreamed he had a heart attack and I was trying to get him to wake up and I felt so lost. So frightening! We have been together for almost 62 years. I doubt if I could be without him. I just hope the bad dreams are over. I don't like them.

Desktop Nexus has been having problems for this past week. I couldn't get to any of my wallpapers for several days and none of the older ones show up yet. Several people have written and asked me to send them the wallpaper they wanted to match the theme they were using. Luckily I save most of my "stuff" so I can do that "if" I can find it. Sometimes I change the title on line but not in my file so if I do that I will never find it.

Have been working on some Valentines themes. I got the valentines this morning for the great grandkids while we were shopping.  I get our greeting cards at the Dollar Tree all the time. You can get some pretty nice cards there for 2 for $1.00 and you can't beat that. I used to make them with Print Shop. But the program doesn't want to work with Windows 10 very well. It says it won't, but I can fiddle with it enough to get it to work long enough to make the family calender each year. I don't want to buy a new version of it so I hope it will keep working.

Now to the present day news! Wow...When I wake up in the mornings I can't wait to turn on the news. The local radio station that had all my favorite talk show people on recently changed to "old music" so I found i♥ Radio on line and found a station I can listen to on that. All of the sexual harassment that has been going on and no one either said anything or just kept quiet is amazing. I can't believe some of these guys have gotten away with it for so long. In another way I can see it. I have only worked at one outside job in my life so I don't have any experience but when I was interviewing for it,  the "man" did ask a totally unprofessional, totally embarrassing question. I was dumbfounded at the question BUT I STUPIDLY answered him. I should have said that it was inappropriate for him to ask that and if it happened now, I would. But back then I don't think I had ever heard the words, "sexual harassment". To think that we have a man at the head of our country that has gotten by with that for years and is STILL the head of our country is unbelievable. I can not understand the thinking on the right side of the aisle right now. I am glad women are speaking out and standing up for themselves. I think we need more women in the government and business. If I were younger I would definitely run for something. I was asked to run for County Council in the 1990's when we were fighting the Japanese corporation that was trying to build a huge housing development on the farm land that surrounds us. I imagine they will start that up again this year since everyone says there aren't enough houses available on the market.  I feel very strong about not developing all the farm lands. I believe that there will come a time when we can't depend on CA for growing so much of our food supply. WA and OR weather is changing and it may come a time when these two states may be where you purchase your vegetables from. If there are houses covering the landscape...they won't tear them down to grow food on. 

I better quit the preaching! Once I get going on this I don't shut up.

I hope you all have a good week end and stay warm. 

Sunrise Winter Cabin

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sunrise-winter-cabin/

Brrrrr!

 Spring Farming Theme

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spring-farming-theme/

 

I hope everyone is keeping warm.  We are warming up a bit here in the Pacific Northwest. I Have a bud on a rose! If you have read some of my posts, you know that we took care of my Mom when she was dying from ovarian cancer in 2002. She wanted to stay in her home, so my brother and sister-in-law, my sister and my husband and I took turns staying with her so she could be at home. Anyway, she had this beautiful rosebush and no one wanted it, but me so we got it. My husband dug it up and planted it. New Years day it had a bud! It was only 28 or so out so it really surprised me! Mom was wishing us a Happy New Year!  But last night the weather guy said we had more sunny days in December and lots of plants were showing new growth. It was a nice thought, anyway!

I keep finding new things about the new Firefox that I like. I have a large monitor on my desktop that I do all my work on and the address bar on FF was just too long, so I opened up Customize and added three spaces to it so it made the address bar smaller and you can see  lot more of the theme you are using. I am sure you all know that but I didn't! 

On Tuesday morning when my husband went to go out to his shop he found a stream of water running on our garage floor! Our hot water heater sprung a leak so we had to replace it. He wanted to replace it himself but had never installed a propane hot water heater so we decided to have it installed by the local company that originally installed it. They thought it would be 3 or 4 days! But they called that evening and said they could be out the next morning! It is funny how you just take it for granite that when you turn on the hot water faucet, you get hot water! So I only had to go two days without and I managed but hated it. What was so funny about the whole thing was when a grandson called and told me his folks hot water heater went out a couple days before and his Dad had to take the day off to install a new one! So our son's went out the say day as ours.....he heard water running in the middle of the night and looked into their garage and it had water running out the doors! So they had a bigger leak than we did. But it was sure a coincidence! 

Can you believe the politics in our country? I have become such a news junky because of it. I truly believe we have a man as president that acts more like a third grader than president. It is embarrassing. 

Well, my football season is over. I don't watch any except the Seahawks and they had an embarrassing game last week and that ended the season. I will miss them. Our daughter comes out every Sunday and brings tons of food and we really enjoyed watching the games. She never liked football before, even when she was a cheerleader! 

I am going to sign off for now. May write more tomorrow since there is no football and our daughter is visiting her children.

Have a great week end.

Winter Retreat

Winter Retreat

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/winter-retreat-by-m-donna/

Christmas is over and every one can start making their New Years Revolutions! I guess lots of people make them and lots of people break them. I made one last year and broke it the 2nd day of January. 

Sounds like most of the US is having winter weather. It has snowed here for several days but just a bit on the ground now and supposed to warm up and probably start raining soon.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday. I feel so lucky and almost guilty about it at times. Christmas eve day was very busy. Our oldest grandson and family came with Christmas cookies and a gift for us. I have always wanted to have the DNA tests done at Ancestry but just didn't feel like we should put the money out. But they gave us each one and we are sending them off today. Am very anxious to get the results. I have worked for years on our family trees and gotten way back to the 1600's so will find out if everything is accurate.

In the afternoon our daughter came out with a bunch of food to munch on while we watched the Seahawks game. We were so afraid they would lose because we have lost so many of the players with injuries. The game the week before was just horrible. Worst game we have ever watched! But this was a totally different team! Anyway it seemed like. Our daughter and I have very loud voices and my poor husband's ears were burning! I think he will get his shooters muffs for Sunday's game! 

Not long after the game was over another grandson and family showed up and we got to visit with them for awhile. They had to leave so the boys would get home and to bed before Santa came.

Christmas day all of our kids came and we had tons of munchies. Everyone brings snack type stuff and then I let Papa Murphy do all the prep work for our dinner and I bake it! We started doing that several years ago and that makes the holiday a lot more fun (for me anyway) than preparing a huge Christmas dinner. We had such a nice time and I know I am lucky to be able to spend time with our family. Now we are eating left overs! 

How are you liking the new Firefox Quantum? I am very happy with it now. I did have to get used to a few things though. I am using an extension called Tab Close Button that I really like. It put a big X on the address bar and will close the tab that you have open. I usually have lots of tabs open and would sometimes close the wrong tab with the new Firefox so I got this extension and works like a charm. 

I am finally using the Pocket also. With the older FF I used the new page to have the sites I used most saved but it isn't as easy to put them and keep them on the New Page now. So I broke down and started using the Pocket. I can't say I am thrilled with it and I could adds a few "ticks" to it if it was my extension but had to break down and learn how to use it. I used to have my tabs on the bottom and liked them that way but the extension that trick was on doesn't work with the new FF. I am hoping someone will figure out an extension so we can do that again. 

We got the pictures back of our surprise 60th wedding anniversary and am going to post a picture of our cake. I think I wrote about it a couple blogs ago so now you can see it. I am sure it is one of a kind. They asked for mountains, flowers and Seahawks! And we got it all.

 I want to thank all of you that have become fans and use my wallpapers and themes. So many of you have posted such nice reviews and I really appreciate those. I try very hard to reply to each one. I want to wish you all a wonderful 2018! Don't know how prosperous we will be with the new Trump tax. I know the corporations and businesses will do very well. I just hope they pass it on to their employees but am not so sure about that. I would love to have a more tranquil 2018 than 2017 has been. I am very tired of the drama and hate that has ramped up this past year. 

Bucks at Sunrise

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bucks-at-sunrise-by-m-donna/

Mid December

Country Home Winter

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/country-home-winter-by-m-donna/

Christmas is less than two weeks away. Are you ready? We don't buy gifts anymore but I do write checks to the great grand kids which isn't very Christmasy but they get so many toys and clothes I figure they can put the money in a savings account and use it later. They won't get much interest now but hopefully someday that will go up. I am giving them each an old Christmas ornament from the trees we have had on our trees for many years. 

I think we (I) finally got our new internet modem and phone working all right. That was a huge challenge. I did find out that when you fill out a survey for a company they actually read them. When we got our Sleep Number mattress I filled out a survey they sent me and was very truthful on it and several days later they called me and actually sent us out some extra foam to use at no charge. So I filled out the Comcast survey. I actually gave them 4 stars which wasn't bad but they still called to find out why I only gave 4 stars. So I told him about the whole episode and how it took me 3 days on the phone, a tech guy coming out, etc. He was very honest and said it sounded like they needed to have their tech people have more training. What irritated me about the whole thing was I actually knew that Comcast would have to send their firmware to our modem, since it wasn't a Comcast modem that you rent. But I never thought about asking the tech support on the phone if they had done that! I figured that would be the first thing they did.  But it took the tech guy that came out go get to the 4th tier of support (which I found out was the engineering dept.) to actually push the firmware into my modem to get it to work. I had done a lot of research on line before I ever ordered the modem from Amazon so things would go smoothly. But as I have said, they didn't. But we cut the phone line and that will save us a lot of money over a years time. Plus we didn't even have long distance service because that cost $10 a month more!

My husband will be 82 on Sunday and we are going to our daughter's house to celebrate and watch the Seahawk game.  Her kids will be up so it will be good to see them since it has been a few months.

Our weather has been beautiful this week but sounds like it could start to get rainy tonight. Yuk! 

I don't know if I will get back to the blog before Christmas so if I don't I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

Snowman Lights the Way

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/snowman-lights-the-way/