Orange you glad we got some rain?

...and speaking of oranges, I just picked the last one off my tree.

I've been gone from here for about a month and when I got back I was so pleased that I still had one and it was really good. But, the matter at hand is the rain that we have needed so badly....and with none projected in the forecast but with the Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Mormons all praying, we've had a whole lot for the last few days......but not enough. This is Folsom Lake....much improved from a few days ago but still very low.

There's signs like this all over the place so I guess we'll probably be gettin' a little more in the next week or two...

I've enjoyed listening to and watching the rain and my little friends have been coming around a lot lately...

This red one is high on his perch watching over the goods, but there's always plenty for everyone.

Not so in the Olympics tho'.....just not enough gold to go around but it's fun watching success and difficult to watch some dreams dashed when they fall. I only get one channel here (free tv with my little antenna) and I'm so glad it's NBC.

I really do love watching all of the events.....

...but there's one event I just don't get......

...but when it comes to curling, this is what I'm talkin' about.....

JoEllen sent me these pics.....I guess Penny tried these twisty curly things and I think they are cute as a button, don't you?   (The phrase 'as cute as a button' may have originated from several sources. Some say its referring to the Button Quail, tiny and cute. Others say it's as cute as a shiny new button on a shirt.)  So with my flood and all, I've been a little stressed but very blessed....so very blessed, so much so that I'm really trying hard to be a better person. In all of my complaining....I pulled out my old friend......

 ...my all-time favorite book to remind myself that I want to be like Birdie....then I put this where I could see it each time I walked up the stairs of my broken basement.....

I found this quote in a book I started reading that has really helped me as well.....co-authored by one of my favorite Gospel Doctrine Teachers, Bryce Dunford.  He taught the Gospel Doctrine Lessons each Wednesday at noon at the Church Office Building when I was on my mission.

I was so glad I ran across this book and highly recommend it to everyone. So there you have it, a few of my favorite things again; rain, oranges (grown on my own tree), birds, curls on little girls, uplifting reading and the Olympics. With Valentines Day just around the corner, a holiday I just don't get but I'll embrace it (just like Halloween)....wishing we were in Disneyland like last year.....

Valentine's Day has always been Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.) but no more. I find myself on this day, enjoying a balmy, springlike day, anticipating the week-end rain and counting my blessings. I'm learning from "Some Wildflower" to be more vigilant in seeing the good.....to quote Margaret as she gets to know Birdie.... It was on the seventeenth day of December, a Saturday, that I ceased looking for Birdie’s faults, knowing that even if, or rather when, they appeared, they would be of no consequence.  In short, this is the day that I realized she was truly my friend–not only that she wanted to be my friend but that I likewise wanted to be hers.  At the age of fifty, I at last acquired a friend. (262)