This is 93!

 

We celebrated my father-in-law's 93rd birthday yesterday.  Anyone who lives this long deserves all the cake, ice cream and presents!

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Hero!

My dear brother, Rod, would have turned 62 today.  I've written about him so many times.  He is still greatly missed!  This is my original post from September 22, 2008. 

Rodney coaxes her, she is practically his shadow. These two are really close, in every way."
- From My Baby book

The last few days I've been thinking of how we react to unexpected tragedies or difficulties. Whether it be the Metrolink crash or Hurricane Ike, the same response occurs. After the initial shock, the media starts reporting on how it could have been avoided or who was at fault. We humans have a hard time accepting that bad things happen, even to good people.

Going on a school field trip in a wheelchair

As I was thinking through a post on this subject, I kept thinking of Rod.

Valley Children's Hospital in Fresno some times felt like our second home.

 

 

 Rodney Dean Fultz was born on March 5, 1963, just 13 months before I came along. Within the first year of his life, it was discovered that Rod was a hemophiliac or a "bleeder" as he was commonly called. In spite of many, many difficulties and hospitalizations, Rod was an overcomer. I think God gave him an extra dose of grit in place of the clotting factor found in most humans!

What a brother he was! He had an incredible wit. You never got the last word with Rod. He had a comeback for anything you threw his way. I know, because this was the source of many fights between the two of us! As we got older, he knew when he was about to push me over the edge and would say something that would just crack me up.

Kindergarten class picture with a black eye!

 

Hearing him sing was a powerful experience. The second verse of "I'm Just Warming Up" with the words "all my pain and sorrow, up there I will forget", could not have been sung with more power or passion by anyone else.

If anyone had the "right" to question his circumstances or try to find someone to blame, it was Rod. But I can still hear him, not many months before his death, as we spoke about all he had been through in his life. He said, "Kathy, whenever I'm tempted to question or feel sorry for myself, I just read the book of Job. I can't complain."

One of many Easter dramas he performed in.

 

One definition of shadow is an inseparable companion or follower. Rod's example of facing life's difficulties is one I want to follow. I knew even as a baby, he was someone I wanted to "shadow".

To my friends who knew Rod, I hope you enjoy this photo walk down memory lane as much as I did! And whenever I hear "Jingle Bell Rock" I remember the Christmas when Rod and I entertained the family, he with his "crutch guitar" and me with some fancy moves!!

So much love and laughter in this shot!

God gave him music so he could pray without words.

SIXTY!

I reached a significant milestone on Saturday - I turned 60!  Les spoiled me with a trip to San Diego and it was just what I needed. I found a condo in Mission Bay on VRBO.  It was the same price as a hotel room, but had a full kitchen, living room and secure parking.  I didn't take any pictures of the condo, but you can check it out here.  (There are also only a couple pictures of me from the entire weekend, so I'm using pictures in this post of me before I turned 60!)

 

We arrived in San Diego Thursday afternoon.  After settling in for a bit, we walked to Miss B's Coconut Club for dinner.   I had the Jerk Chicken Wrap and Les tried El Cubano.  These were both served with very tasty fries.

We headed a little bit inland to Road Runner Sports.  I have been buying my running shoes from them since way back in the 90s when they were a mail order company!  San Diego is home to their warehouse and a store.  After checking in, my name showed up on the board as a VIP member for 24 years.  It was my birthday so I got a new pair of running shoes and Les got TWO new pairs!

 

We left Road Runner and headed to a nearby Walmart.  Les forgot to pack a sweatshirt and the weather was a bit cool.  We both wore our sweatshirts all day on Friday which was spent at the San Diego Zoo.  The zoo will get a full post of its own!

 

Friday night we both wanted Mexican food.  Very close to the zoo we found Barrio Star and it was a winner!  Our server recommended the tacos - the tortillas are made fresh in the restaurant.  We split a mixed plate and enjoyed every bite!  The steak tacos on the fresh corn tortillas were amazing.  (I'm drooling just thinking about them!)  He also recommended Extraordinary Desserts which was just down the street.  This was our least favorite place of the trip, but we did walk away with some chocolate.

Saturday, my actual birthday, was super mellow.  We walked along the beach path for a while and ended up at Belmont Park.  If I was turning 16 instead of 60, I would have jumped at the chance to hop on some of the rides, but I kept my feet firmly on the ground the entire time.

We went to Corvette Diner for my birthday dinner.  We have been going to Corvette's for 30 years and love the playful 50s atmosphere.  Their burgers and fries are great!  Of course Les let them know it was my birthday, so I got to wear a hat and be sung to.  We finished the night off with a peppermint malt that was delicious!

 

Sunday morning we went for a bike ride around Mission Bay.  A little over 16 miles of fun in the sun!

 

 

Once we checked out of the condo, we headed to Old Town San Diego. Our final meal was at Encuentro Cafe.  I decided to try something different and ordered the El Vainero - Sweet corn pancakes with Fresh Venezuelan Mano Cheese, Black Beans, Shredded Beef and Fried Plantains.  I had fresh squeezed mango juice and Les had passion fruit.  This was amazing!

We wandered around Old Town for a while.  We picked up some fudge at Cousin's Candy Shop and we also got a variety of root beers from Old Town Jerky and Root Beer.  And now I'm a contented 60 year old, loving life and looking forward to more adventures!

Coming Soon!

We got home last night from a wonderful getaway.  We celebrated my birthday in San Diego.  This included a trip to the zoo, a little shopping, a bike ride and so much good food!  We stayed in a wonderful condo in Mission Bay, just steps from the beach.

Today we got an order of plants.  Some of the ones we planted three years ago have gotten out of control and we are replacing them.  So I'm a little busy today, but I definitely have plenty to write about.

California Weekending

 

We got home from Hawaii late last Friday night.  By the time we got in bed it was after 1:00 a.m. on Saturday - Les' 60th birthday!  I'm a horrible blogger since I didn't even mention it here, but I'm a good wife who showered him with love on his big day.

Four hours later, Les' alarm went off and he was out the door by 6:00.  He met up with friends in Ventura and they rode the Cool Breeze Century ride - 100 miles on his 60th!

Meanwhile, I went to the grocery store to get enough food to get us through the weekend.  I also bought supplies for another batch of homemade ice cream.  This time I made cookies and cream, cherry, German chocolate cake, and Heath bar.  I'm having SO much fun experimenting with different flavors!  I don't really measure the add-ins, I use about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup for each quart of ice cream.

We hadn't been up for long on Sunday morning when we received a text that church was cancelled for the day.  This was due to tropical storm Hillary, with the threat of flooding and road closures.  The rain started mid-morning and didn't stop the rest of the day.

Sunday afternoon, Les was taking a nap and I was reading when I felt something a little different.  The wind had been blowing all morning, but I knew this was something else.  Within seconds, our phones started going off with emergency alerts.  It was an earthquake!  This was in Ojai which is about 50 miles from us.  Later that evening we had another emergency alert - this time for flash flooding.  Our total rainfall for Sunday was about 3.7 inches - more than a fourth of our annual average of 12 inches.

Les received two birthday gifts on Monday.  A bag of coffee from his sister, Lisa:

 

And a flugelhorn!  

 

 

This is something he's been wanting for a while.  His horn collection is growing:

Trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet

 

Things are definitely odd - a wildfire in Hawaii and a tropical storm in California, but one thing hasn't change, I was with my best friend!

Mammoth ~ Part Two

After a good night's sleep we enjoyed breakfast (and lots of coffee) in our condo.  Les had purchased his lift ticket online, but needed to get it validated.  He wasn't exactly sure if he could do that at Eagle Express, so even though the lift was close to the condo, I drove him over so he wouldn't have to carry all his gear. It was clear and sunny and looked like it was going to be a perfect day for my skier!

 

After Les took off I decided to go for a run.  The elevation of over 8,000' made the going a bit tough, but I took numerous breaks for pictures so it worked out great.

Les skied until the lifts closed - 27 runs for 27.4 miles and almost 27,000' of elevation!

We ate dinner at Giovanni's pizza and it hit the spot!  We ordered the spicy sauce and were ready for something sweet afterwords.  In the same shopping center we found Dessert'D and it was amazing!  We had a really hard time choosing what we wanted and ended up with dessert for the rest of the weekend, and some that made it home with us.  Pistachio bark and strawberry marshmallows...

And sweet cream pies in a variety of flavors!

Saturday was more of the same, except I went running before Les went skiing.  I enjoyed the less intense sun and cooler temps.

 

Les' second day of skiing was similar to his first - 24 runs for 27.5 miles and almost 25,000' of elevation!  He definitely got his money's worth on that lift ticket!

We went out for Mexican food on Saturday night.  El Charro Taqueria had good reviews so we went there.  It wasn't much in the way of ambiance, but the food was delicious!  Les was wiped out by the time we got back to the condo, so it was an early night for us.

The drive home on Sunday was just as beautiful as the drive up.  Sometime during the drive I commented to Les, "How did God come up with snow?  Why white?  It's such a beautiful contrast to the rocks and trees."   God is such an amazing Artist!

About 100 miles south of Mammoth is the town of Lone Pine.  This is the portal to Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the "lower 48" states. 

The peak is at 14,505 feet:

You may be wondering why I was happy with a ski weekend for my birthday when I didn't actually do any skiing.  I tried skiing once about 15 years ago and decided it's not for me.  But time with my sweetheart made it the perfect getaway!