Beginning of Summer, 2012

Once again I am giving this way too much thought and just need to stop thinking and blog.  I am going to try to put pictures in some kind of order but cannot guarantee this program will do it so this could be all over. 

 Fathers Day at Bryan's house.  Pudge with the 4 grandchildren--Travis, Anna, Abby and Jamie.

 Bryan with his beloved dog, Casey.  She is a very crabby, needy dog but she loves Bryan and he loves her (most of the time,)  She does not like me.  She will tolerate me when there is no one else around.  Casey is getting old (14) and has had some serious issues.  Not sure how much longer she will be around.

 Kitchen in Mom's basement is done.  The only thing that is not here is the microwave.  We have since gotten one and installed it over the stove.  I really like this kitchen. We bit the bullet and got granite counters and I am not sorry one bit. The cupboard to the left was Mom's.  I am going to use it for a pantry.  Fits perfect in the niche.  Looks very different from the before kitchen.  The basement apartment is 97% done.  We will be moving in there once house is sold.  There is very little furniture because we want to move our stuff down there.  I do need to take some pictures of the rest of it.  I think I have some during the "fix up."  Maybe someday I will get those posted.

 In June I spent 9 days at Kari and Charlie's watching the kids.  K & C went to the Olympic track trials.  Jamie and Travis building a sand castle.   

 Jamie making a Welcome Home sign for her parents.

 We also went to the Minnesota Zoo.  Bears were really active.  The whole time I was there the weather was hot and their air conditioning was not working properly.  Made for an interesting time there.  Especially at night with the bedrooms being upstairs.  But we managed.

 End of June--Suzette Heinz came from Illinois to visit.  She was a dear friend of my mom's and one of the things she wanted to do was go to the cemetery.  We picked up Gemma and bought some wine.  We are here at the grave toasting mom with a glass of wine while Gemma sang one of Mom's favorite tunes "A Jug 'A Punch."  It was memorable.  Mom would have loved it.

 Beginning of June--Anna's dance recital.  Here I am with my two beautiful granddaughters--Anna and Abby.  These two look so much alike that I have to do a double take to try to determine who is who.  Usually Anna's wears her hair just like Abby's.   Both of these girls make me so proud and happy.  Anybody who is a grandma knows what a thrill it is.  Just in case anybody is wondering Anna is 14 and Abby is 16.  Not sure how that happened.  Seems like day before yesterday they were playing with my American Girl dolls and having tea parties with me.

 Bryan, Jane, Anna, and Abby

 One of our civic duties for the summer.  Neighbor kids and I painted fire hydrants around Willernie.  Leekie, Amber, MyMy, Zoey and Aaron.

 KOA (Keep Old Active) club met at Judy's farm.  We had sand pail lunches that Judy put together.  It is always so much fun with these people.

And Mom's stone is finally in place.  We picked it out shortly after we returned from AZ.  I wanted to do it before we left but that did not happen. Kind of struggled picking it out.  At first I thought I wanted it to match Dad's.  But then it looked so masculine.  So we decided on this realizing that it didn't matter if it didn't match.  And besides anyone that knew my parents knew that they were two very different people.  So it was fitting in my eyes.  And I do like the humming birds because she so enjoyed them in AZ.

More of My Life

Got to keep posting if I want to get things documented about my life.

September 14, 2012 (Friday)  -- Spent this day in Osceola, Wisconsin with Steve and Cynthia.  Steve is our postmaster here in Willernie so Pudge sees hime every day when he gets the mail.  He invited Pudge to be in a golf tournament with him.  Cynthia & I are big garage sale people so while they were golfing we went to the sales.  But first there was a tour of their big, beautiful home that is out in the woods.  That was great.  What else that was impressive to me was the amount of canning that Cynthia had done.  OH MY GOODNESS!!  Beautiful jars of tomatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles.  Now I know how much work that is.  It is very tedious.  She seemed to enjoy doing it.  Their garage is full of equipment and shelves for all of this.  She gets most of her produce from farms close to her and she has a big garden at one of her relatives.  Also there were baskets of pears which were really delicious and apples.  They were waiting to be canned into pie fillings.   Need to mention that she also taps her maple trees in the spring and makes syrup.  Reminds me of Ma Ingalls.

The sales were so much fun.  She is really fun to go with because she is really into garage sales  And the day was beautiful.  I did not get too much. 

Later in the afternoon we hooked up with the guys and had dinner at the golf course.  Then we paid a visit to one of the farms.  I was so impressed and it was so much fun.  The owners were gone and she was given permission to help herself with apples, pears, and tomatoes. 

 This is only a very small part of her canned goods.  I think there is something very pretty about home canning in jars. 

 At the farm--Cynthia is gathering apples in her skirt.

 Loved the pumpkin patch.

 Steve getting apples.

 This farm had so many quaint vignettes that I really liked.  Behind the red building there was a bunch of chickens fenced in.

 Had to have a shot of this huge pumpkin.  I was eating one of the delicious, juicy pears that we had just picked.

I really liked this branch that was laden with apples.  I thought it was so pretty.

Went home that evening with buckets of apples, pears, tomatillos, some tomatoes, beautiful jars of canned goods, and a wonderful loaf of banana bread. 

Happenings in My World

 

 

Junk Bonanza --continued. 

So you probably are wondering what I bought at the Junk Bonanza.  Answer:  Not too much.  I did buy some Annie Sloan paint.  Now if anyone follows any decorating blogs like I do you will know all about this paint.  So much blogging has been done and there has been very little if any criticism about it.  They were selling it there and I knew that so I planned on getting some.  This summer I went to Savage to get some.  There are very few dealers here in the Twin Cities.  It is for painting furniture.  I just opened a can two days ago and am in the process of painting a chest.  Love the way it goes on.  So very easy and very little prep work.  Not sure if I love the results.  Of course I am not done.  I will post about this project when completed.  At least I have good intentions of posting about it. 

 

 

 

 This is the other thing I bought.  It is a knife handle.  The blade was cut off.  There is a little suction cup so you can hang it.  You can put water in it to keep a stem alive.  I really like it.  But the best part is this is Mom's silverware.  They had all kinds to choose from but when I saw this I knew that was it. 

 Here is her set.  All of the pieces are not there.  They must have gotten lost over the years.  I remember playing in the sand with the spoons and I bet that is where some of them stayed. 

 I love the way Mom has documented things.  In the silverware chest this note was in there.  It says: "Liz Reed's lst set of silverware.  Purchased from Stanley Co. about 1951

 Friday, Sept. 21, 2012--Mahtomedi's Homecoming parade.  Krissy, Gemma, Suzette and I decided to decorate the Patty Wagon. It soon became the "Zephyr Mobile." We had fun doing it.  The theme was "Old Zephyrs Still Have It."  I hope my friend Nancy Veenis gets on this blog to see that Gregory is still alive and well (much to my husband's dismay) and was on duty for the parade. And he did a good job of it too.  There is somewhat of a story behind this guy.  Nancy bought him during the summer at a garage sale and had him in my classroom that fall.  She named him Gregory.  He sat on top of the file cabinets and at the beginning of each quarter he would hold a welcome sign for my students.  He was in about ten of Centennial's homecoming parades.  I would pull him in a wagon behind me.  Then one year he got kidnapped.  Yep--there was a ransom note on my desk.  He was gone.  Ransom was chocolate chip cookies placed by the bike racks.  He was returned after a few days.  Still not quite sure who did it and how on earth did they hide him?  He is so big.  Time for me to retire.  I really did not want to get rid of him.  But I didn;t really want him either.  He would be hard to store.  .  Nancy put him out at the senior all night party with a note saying he needed a good home.  Nobody wanted him.  I could not let him go into the dumpster.  So he came home with me and he guarded the garage for awhile.  Now he is on guard duty in the shed.  A few arguments have happened because of him.  I am not ready to get rid of him yet.  And see what a good job he did at homecoming.

 I donned my poodle skirt, saddle shoes and borrowed Jennifer's letter jacket. 

 Gemma was a Homecoming Queen Wannabe.  She had on an old formal, a tiara, large gold earring and a white wrap.  She is such a good sport.  I have to say we were a big hit all along the parade route.  Lots of people taking pictures. Nothing but good and fun comments were heard.  I was amazed at the number of people that turned out for this parade. It was so much fun.

At the end we were directed off the parade route to go into the high school parking lot.  Zephyr Mobile quit running.  Oh! Oh!  Checked the gas tank.  Suzette says "Looks pretty empty to me."  We ran out of gas.  Thank God for cell phones.  Called Pudge but he could not get to us right away because streets were blocked and traffic was bad.  Not to worry.  We had fun sitting there because we got to see the parade as everything had to go by us.

Here we are still waiting.  Pudge came and got some gas into the tank.  It started right up and we proceeded to go to my house for wine and conversation.  Pudge had made a big pot of chili that day so we dined on that.  I wish I would have taken pictures of the table that I set. 

Missing In Action

Well many of you have probably been wondering about my blog and why there has been no activity. 

Excuses are as follows:
-Now it has been so long that I do not even know where to go with this or what to focus on because my life certainly has not been at a standstill. 
-By the time I get through doing everything else on this computer I am brain dead and have a hard time once I am tired. 
-Been busy
-Many times I just simply give all of this way too much thought.  I need to quit just thinking about it and go for it.

I think I am going to start with recent and then hope I can carry through and go to the past with my pictures and thoughts.  So now that I am walking through this in my thoughts I need to go to my pictures.  OK--here goes!!Oh yes!!!

Last Thursday (Sept. 13, 2012)  Diane, Laurel, Krissy (high school friends) and I went to Shakopee to an event called Junk Bonanza.  If any of you read any decorating blogs on computer you would know all about this.  So many of them talked this up and I wanted to go.  It is right up my alley.  They take junk, thrift store finds, and dumpster diving acquires and make cool things.  Oh yes!!  This could make anyone excited in my opinion. 

 My goofy friends posing.  Diane, Krissy and Laurel.

 Lots of fall flowers and decorations.  There was so much to see.  It was crowded.  But it didn't matter.  We were all excited and amazed at some of the things we saw. 

 I liked this worn out broom with the witches hat and a raven.  It had a "For Rent" sign on it.  Now I could do something like this. 

 This was really neat.  In the foreground---circles of wool strips wrapped and bound with a measuring tape and a small button.  Oh!!  These are really cute pin cushions.  Wrong.  They are erasers for a chalk board.  I have to say that chalk boards were really the thing.  Saw all kinds of them made from anything you could imagine.  I really liked many of them that I had seen.  The little jars in the back were not anything unusual.  In fact I have some of these exact same little vases.  The intriguing thing was that they made stopppers for them out of buttons.  Hard to see the detail from this picture but they were so darn cute.  Now who doesn't have cute buttons in their sewing box? 

I accidentally got this same picture in again.  Tried to delete but did not work.  I hate to goof around with it too much because chances are I would lose the whole thing.  I am speaking from experience.  Thought:  I think I need a new camera.  Not liking the pictures.  They are not very clear and lacks color and detail.  Of course, I am sure it is not the one taking the picture. 

Well as long as I am on a roll I am going to try some more pictures.  Here's hoping for the best. 

Nope.  It is not going to work.  Don't ask.  I am worried that I am going to lose this so I am going to post and hope I can keep my motivation to write on this blog again. 

Cousin's Visit-Feb. 1 - 13, 2012

One of the things we did while they were here was go to Tucson. I always wanted to visit DeGrazzi's museum. For those of you who do not know about DeGrazzia--he is an artist and I really like his paintings. He paints a lot of Indian children. They are usually very cheerful and colorful. The museum was fascinating. It was where he lived and it was somewhat of a compound. It is in the desert but I have to say it was not far out of the city of Tucson. This is me putting a penny one one of the shelves of this rock pyramid. Don't ask me why. There were all kinds of pennies so I thought that is what I should do.

Looks like Pudge is ready to clobber her with his club. He wasn't going to. But then again this was toward the end of her visit so maybe .... hmmm.... Just kidding. He enjoyed her as much as I did. This is on our patio. It did cool down in the evening but it was still nice. However, Donna had to bundle up. She said she liked it better when she was down here the year before in March when the weather was warmer. Now Janet preferred February and the cooler weather.

Linda, Pudge & I went on a mountain hike. It was great!! Somewhat difficult but all three of us enjoyed it. And it was a perfect day for a hike. The trail was well marked. And there were a lot of hikers on this mountain. After this we bought walking sticks. I love mine.

Linda & Pudge overlooking Apache Junction on our hike up Silly Mountain.

Happy Hour!!!

We went to Eloy, Arizona which has one of the largest sky diving schools. We got to see about 15 sky divers land right in front of us. I do know that people come from all over the world to this place. In this picture Donna is training to jump. Pudge & I saw 10 people practicing their jump from this contraption. It was one of those where they were to connect with each other up in the air. So they would simulate jumping out and determining where they were to hold each other. Fascinating.

Then another day we went to South Mountain. We are eating a picnic lunch. This was after we went to the top and viewed Phoenix. You can sure tell it is a valley from up there.

We went to Arizona Golf Resort just to look around. We came across this boy who was selling golf balls to raise money for his class trip to Washington DC. I thought this was neat. Also it was here that our car got hit with a golf ball. No damage--just a loud clunk.

Back at DeGrazzia's museum-- Donna, Janet and Gloria. This blog sure doesn't put things in consecutive order. They really need to improve things on blogspot. Not sure who to complain to about it. And it is free so I guess that has to be considered. This was the courtyard outside. I found it fascinating. Lots of stuff and some murals. I liked it. Shannon was also with us. I didn't get any pictures of her. This was a fun day.

Linda in front of one of the murals.

One of the many rooms at DeGrazzia.

Bless their hearts!!! They are helping me look for a costume pattern.

One day we went to Sonja's in Chandler. Sonja is a childhood friend of Janet's. Donna knew her too but she was more Janet's age. We took a walk around her complex. Cannot remember the name of it. We were fascinated with this pink cactus. I really like exploring other developments and believe there are plenty of them. Most are 55+ and say "for active adults."

Sonja's complex has lakes and our walk included walking around this one. It was a beautiful day.

Linda picked lemons in Sonja's back yard.

Now I am going to publish this right away being as I already lost it once. I did manage to get it back. The following paragraphs were supposed to be at the beginning of this blog not at the end. Like I said they need to improve this blogspot.

This is going to be hard to pick and choose which pictures I am going to want to post on this blog from when Linda, Donna, and Janet were here. I just went through them and there are a lot. I am not going to overthink this. I am just going to get started. When I get overwhelmed I don't want to tackle it. So -- once again-- just get started.

They all arrived on February 1. Linda came from Chicago. Janet & Donna from Minneapolis. Their flights came in about a half hour apart so that made it easy. They all left at different times. Donna stayed until the 6th. Linda stayed until the 8th and Janet left on the 13th.

Oh!! We did have a good time. I always like getting together with them.

Sewing Costumes for 2013 Review

Oh -- how I wish this blog would behave like I want it to. I have tried to write text above all these pictures to introduce this subject. It is not going to happen. So I will just make the best of it and continue on. I have spent a lot of time this winter on heading up the costume committee for our 2013 Review. I am not sure how much "heading up" I am doing. It has worked where the people on the committee has taken on 3 or 4 of the dances for costumes. We have consulted with one another and got ideas but once we finished with that we all fell into our places and ran with whatever was "our baby." Connie took on one of the numbers--Opus. BTW-our theme for the whole review is "Thanks For The Memories-A Tribute to the 1940's USO Show. It is going to be good if I do say so myself. It was decided that the people in this dance would meet at my place to get fitted for this costume. It ended up being productive and a good time.

The costume is a green sparkle material. It is going to be a shrug and a little swingy skirt worn with a pink long sleeve leotard. And we will be wearing snoods in our hair. Sandy is posing with the shrug over her T shirt.

It ended up being somewhat of an assembly line. Connie is cutting skirts. I was sewing waist bands. The others were drinking wine and giggling.Alicia put the waist band around her chest. Darlene is looking on and shaking her head. I was laughing as I took this picture.

Ruthie holding up the costume. She is 84 and still tap dances.

I really like this picture. Darlene has her pants off here because we were fitting her skirt. She is hiding behind Connie. I promised everybody that I would not take any pictures that would embarass them.

Opus is a hard dance and I am struggling with learning it. It is so darn fast. My mind knows what to do (sometimes) but my feet won't move fast enough. I need to practice, practice, practice. It is stressful for me to learn dances. I like it when I know it well enough to not have to think about it so much and then I feel like I can add my own style. Right now it is just so much concentration. There is no way I can even smile. It doesn't come easy for me like it does for some of the others. You ought to see Connie. She is shown one time and she has it. She starts dancing the new stuff right away. I am amazed and I envy that.

"Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree is the one that I have had to make and be in charge. It is a pinafore made with apple green with big white polka dots. It is a pinafore trimmed with eyelet and rick rack. On the bib and pockets are some sequin apples. Now the young people reading this are wondering "pinafore" what's that? And "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." Never heard it.

Along with all of this there have been others that we have to put together. We are repurposing some that were from other years. And we are making some look different with hats and head pieces. I am running out to the storage unit at least once a week. I have bags of sequins and material in the guest room. It is all a little overwhelming but I have no doubt it will all come together. Everything has to be done by November 1, 2012 for pictures. And it will be.