Memorial Day '11

Anyone that has read this blog for more than a year knows my mom's side of the family always has a big get together twice a yr. Thanksgiving and Memorial Day.
Thanksgiving is always at my folk's and then since we have so many coming from SE Iowa now, we have had Memorial Day down here for several yrs. This year Myron and I hosted the day.
We had 23 attending and the weather was great. It was pretty windy so most of us ate inside but the breeze kept it very comfortable with the temp in the high 80's. This year My cousin David's daughter has started playing clarinet so we were serenaded while we were eating.



SHOWER

This yr we had a special event in the afternoon. My only nephew, Ben is getting married in 25 days, so we had a family bridal shower for his sweet, bride to be, Cayla.
Sarah was in charge of the shower and Tenille and I took care of the food. We decorated with wedding pictures of the Grandparents, Great Grandparents and even one photo of one of GREAT, great Grandparents. It was such a nice time, very informal....and IF you look close you can see we had an eavesdropper in the living rm.... Ben interjected a few comments here and there ...AND was the object of a little teasing too !
(Remember to click on the picture to make it larger to see more details of our time together)
Hope you all had a great Memorial Day!

Bird ,Blessing And Blooms

Have you ever had a time where you just NEEDED to have God show you that He IS RIGHT here, hearing you when you pray, just knowing that you are hurting and discouraged. It isn't a big thing and I feel almost "silly" for struggling with it, BUT it IS real ! Well, Monday and Tues. were those kind of days!!! I prayed and just asked God if he could please give me an Oriole.
What an amazingly loving and tender Heavenly Father we have!
Yesterday an oriole perched on my feeder right outside my window!
Today he has been here almost ALL morning!! Thank you, Lord for showing yourself to me in such a tangible way!

Also wanted to show you the beautiful new blooms I have on my plant that a friend gave me over a yr ago! It is really starting to bloom again!

"Deano" is getting better !

A good friend of ours had to have part of his leg taken off a few weeks ago. He was just moved this week from Iowa City to Burlington which is closer for me. I had to go to Burlington today so stopped in to check on him and his wife, Suz. She had just gotten back from a little "run" to Wendy's for a little "treat" for Dean. You can tell by the look on his face it was SOOOO good !

Susie and Niece, Courtney got in the picture with a little arm twisting!

I was giving Deano I hard time about not smiling SO check out the eyes !!!
He is feeling better !

So glad you are doing so much better, Deano! Keep up the good work!

It's ABOUT TIME !!!!

This spring has definitely NOT been the norm! Usually by early to mid April I have my hummingbird feeders out for the homecoming of my hummers when they return from down South. This year with the remodel I wasn't even sure where my feeders were! Then last week as I was sitting on the couch in the living room a hummer flew up and hovered at my window looking in as to say" WHERE is our food ?????"
I thought, "I have GOT to find those feeders" then went on and got busy with other things. This morning another hummer did the same thing as last week SO.... I stopped what I was doing and hunted for the feeders.... found them... in the second or third place I looked. Got them cleaned up, and while I was looking I had gotten my nectar heating up....
Within an hour after I got the feeder out I had FOUR diving and flying to and fro around the feeder.
OH, I DO enjoy those little guys!

Homemade Hand Lotion

Wilma gave me this hand lotion about a yr ago and I LOVE it !
You can use it on any age and it REALLY helps dry skin problems. I use it on my psoriasis.
I lost the recipe she gave me so looked it up online.
Everything can be purchased at Wal mart. You can get by with the Equate baby lotion
BUT you MUST use the Vaseline Brand Vaseline.( It blends MUCH better)
27 oz bottle of baby lotion
2 tubes ( they come together) vitamin E
HALF of a 13 oz container of Vaseline

dump into a medium mixing bowl

( a little hint, to get ALL the baby lotion out of the bottle, after getting all you can out of the bottle, microwave the bottle in 10 second increments for 20 to 30 seconds)

with a mixer, whip for about a minute or until mixed real well.

put into clean containers.
These two big ones are marshmallow cream containers

Enjoy !!!

Garage Sale

As I posted last night... Wilma had a garage sale this weekend. It was New London's city wide garage sale.Yesterday some of us had sales but today almost EVERYONE did !!!Both days the weather was PERFECT !! 78 Degrees, sunshine and a light breeze!
We opened the doors about 7:30 and there were people streaming in little by little until about 10. We were on the North side of town and the main entrances into town was on the South SO it took people quite a while to get to us BUT when they did.... It was pretty heavy traffic. People coming and going constantly for a couple of hours. People are CRAZY! right in front of Wilma's house cars were parked on the EDGE of the street on BOTH sides, and cars would INCH their way between them barely missing mirrors and sides of the cars!!! I didn't get a picture but the "shot of the day" (that I missed!!!) was a pick up LOADED clear full going down the street a block from us.... SOMEONE had a GREAT day of shopping!

Notice the RED faces! We got our first real sun of the yr!

Our littlest shopper

Wilma did an AMAZING job organizing.... we are ALREADY looking forward to a fall sale!
( HOW MANY people say THAT after finishing a big two day sale????)

Yummy Supper

I am staying at Wilma's this weekend helping with her garage sale.
Tonight she made cornbread pizza, an original recipe.
She mixed up cornbread, poured it in the pan, add pizza toppings
and bake.

Remodel

As most of you know we have been remodeling since the end of January. We are ALL but finished.... If you have ever remodeled you know there are those little things.... still missing a couple of doors on their hinges for one reason or another... heat registers missing because we want to paint them to match the rest of the hardware, hanging a picture( a big one) got a surprise SO have to figure THAT little glitch out... tools and paint are still in a corner ( not quite done with them, have a little touch up painting to do) SO will post COMPLETELY finished pics at a later date BUT.... Sarah came over yesterday and we hung pics and got furniture positioned, and I just COULDN'T wait ANY longer to at least show you what IS done:O)


Here is what we started with...
(six yrs ago we started and just never got back to it until now...
thanks to some dear friends and an anonymous gift for materials.)
GOD is SOOO GOOD!
It is just SO OVERWHELMING!

Here is where we are NOW :O)
Can I just say...
I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What would I do without THIS girl!
She has come down and helped Mom every now & then through the process.

Check out her iphone...
It has a "level" Ap! AND it REALLY works !!!

Thanks, Sis for helping get this from a house to a "Home" yesterday"O)

My BIG Boy

I had a surprise last week. Spider-Man (Spidy to me) has been "Myron's Baby" and wouldn't even let me get near him, UNTIL last week. He walked up to me, rolled over so I could rub is tummy AND my heart melted. My little shy is special and NOT this guy is too! He LOVES to be petted AND brushed!!!
His coloring is so pretty! SO NOW I have two spoiled babies!