time for another trip!!! YEAH!!!!

i am soooo excited! i am getting closer to my trip--just a matter of days now. still lots of things to get done before i go but i have confidence that i will get most of them done anyway.

i am doing so many wonderful things this trip.....i am really blessed to have such a supportive and encouraging husband that makes this all possible....he would give me the moon if it would help me be happy. he knows that this trip will be a good thing for me, and that it will make me happy.....so, he will stay home and hold down the fort and encourage me to go and to have a full and blessed trip.

so, where am i going and what am i doing?? i am leaving on st. patty's day--THE best holiday EVER....and driving to fresno to have lunch with my 95 yr. old grandma. then, i am going to lodi to the cemetary where my sister is buried, then hitting sacramento in time for a nice little evening with my "from 1st grade friend" Christi out to see the play Avenue Q. i hear it is a bit racy, but VERY funny, an adult themed sesame street.....leaving wednesday morning to get to redding to see a friend that used to do daycare for me. i am REALLY excited to see her and to meet her 6 kids. then, on thursday........i am driving to meet a friend. literally meet her. i have known her from the internet for a few years now, have never even talked with her on the phone, but i am going to go stay at her house!!!! and then, friday, we are taking a road trip together!!!! i know, i can't even believe it either!!! it is SOOOOOO old me, or should i say young me, to do something like that. but, older and wiser me is being cautioned by my kids about stranger danger LOL so, if i end up dead...it could be my friend that used to live in nebraska and now lives in oregon is not really who she said she was LOL i could end up in the pacific ocean--she lives on the beach and we are going for a walk along the beach that evening--i can't EVEN wait!!! and, i will get to take a new picture of my feet in the ocean :o)

friday--march 20th, the first day of spring--is my dad's birthday. he will be in portland!!! wow! what a co-incidence....my friend and i are driving to portland! (actually, that is the original intended desitnation--i just added all the other fun places to go along the way. ) so, i will stay with my parents at my aunt and uncles in portland, then, saturday am, my sister will arrive--we will have a blast!!!

my sister joan and i have such a FUN time together. we laugh. and we laugh. and we laugh some more. we laugh at everything, and at nothing...we think we are hysterical--we are, to each other....we have such a fun time when we get together. i can't wait!

my brother mark is supposed to get in from germany, and ray-my sister ruth's husband too on friday. my brother gary and his wife mary are getting to portland earlier in the week....and david and debbie live there abouts too so all the quinsland kids AND mom and dad are going to be there!!! hip hip hooray!!! it had been over 20 years since all 8 of us had been together....often we would have 5 kids and mom and dad, and ONCE we had all 6 kids but no mom and dad....then, when my sister passed away, we were all together for that.....how sad that it was my sister's funeral that got us all together.....my sister ruth would have loved it soooooo much to have us all together and for her to be here to see it.....

so, now, our first happy reason to gather again.....alex (gary's son) is getting married on sunday the 22nd so we are all going to be there for the wedding and also for celebrating my parents 73rd birthdays (march 20th and 25th) --what a fun time we are going to have.

then, i start heading back home tuesday and arriving on thursday....it is gonna be one LONG drive, but i am really looking forward to it. i LOVE to drive, and i am gonna get to see some of my favorite people--it will be grand.

friday,