June Marches On

It's a dark and cold day here at the resort.  We even have the heat on!  I confess to sitting here in my jammies and robe while I contemplate what I'm going to do today.  Given the weather, it's safe to say I'll be spending the day inside.  Meanwhile, my sweetie is out in the woods helping some foresters try to determine what's wrong with their plantations.  (FYI:  plantations are what foresters call areas where they have planted trees.)  Hope he stays warm and dry!

I picked up my knitting again after a few weeks hiatus. I've made enough socks that I thought I knew what to do next without looking at the pattern.  Turns out, I was wrong.  I had to pull out several inches on the heel, but now I'm a few rows into the correct sequence.  I predict I'll be knitting on this cozy, indoor day.

On the scrapbooking front, I have completed seven pages in the last few days!  Yay for me!  Onward and upward: summer of 2002 coming right up.  :-)  I do have a problem though--when I finish this album, as in use all the pages that are in it, I will have used the last of my Creative Memories supplies and they went out of business.  I have checked locally and on the internet, but it seems albums had changed dramatically since I was last busily scrapbooking, and I don't care for the new styles. I hope to be able to get some from a new company that is supposedly taking Creative Memories place, but so far my attempts to meet up with the consultant haven't panned out.  I guess I need to try again.  There's always Ebay, but I don't shop there and really don't want to try although I may have to in the end.  

And in the sewing room?  I had to order some fabric for the center of the runner I'm working on, but it came a few days ago so I can get back to it. 

Looks like I have plenty of fun projects I can work on today.  Guess I'd better get in the shower and get started on this day!  ♥      

D-Day

For those of us born in the years following World War II, there's only one D-Day.  June 6, 1944.  And tomorrow marks the 70th anniversary of that "Longest Day", the invasion of Europe by the allied forces against Hitler's Germany.  

As my faithful readers know, my dad was a member of the 101st Airborne Division.  Tonight will mark their anniversary as they boarded their planes and gliders to travel to France to drop by parachute behind enemy lines before the beach assault of the next morning.  Dad had turned twenty-one just a month before. Like many other soldiers of that war, he was a small-town boy raised during the depression.  He will sometimes comment that he was eighteen the first time he saw Spokane, the region's largest city.  Three years later he traveled the width of this country, sailed the Atlantic, spent months in England, and then jumped into France where he would fight for his life and his country.  

1944 -  Dad is the one standing.

I've heard him say more than once that no amount of money could get him to live those war days over again, and no amount of money would be worth what he learned through that time. 

He's ninety-one now.  Those amazing men of that era are passing from our midst daily.  We have been blessed by their sacrifice.  ♥

Landscaping Update

After many hours of work and very tired muscles, my sweetheart has almost finished the re-landscaping of our front yard.  Last weekend he purchased more little boxwood and planted them along the driveway.  He was working out of town most of this week, so yesterday was devoted to trying to finish up.

A trip to a landscaping store brought a trailer full of rock back. Shovel after shovel of it was placed in the appropriate places.

A side-note on the trailer: he bought it last summer to use when he cut firewood.  He'd contemplated buying one for years, but when we bought the new truck, it had a shorter box, thus had less wood-hauling capacity, so he made the plunge.  It has proved to be a very wise purchase.  He used it all hunting season to take the 4-wheeler, and then this spring it was a life saver when he took out the shrubs.  And now it proved it's worth again when it made unloading the rock much easier than from the box of the truck.  

But I digress.  Back to the yard.  It's looking so great!  

Now all we need is to add to the sprinkler system and plant grass.  We're almost there!  ♥

Saturday...and the End of May

I am amazed to think that tomorrow is the first of June. Summer is arriving and it feels good.  My sweetie is hard at work on the front landscaping so I'm planning to reward him with a big ol' homemade pizza for supper.  He said it sounded wonderful, bless his heart.  

Down in the sewing room, as I mentioned yesterday, I'm working on a new table runner.  Earlier in the month, while my brain was recovering from being at Mom's and helping her, I needed to sew.  Since the kit for this runner was laying out, it was a no-brainer to start it.  I didn't have to think about finding a pattern and then the fabrics to go with it; all was in readiness.  So runner it was.  

The border on this runner is composed of, are you ready?  One hundred fifty-six pieces.  Yup, 156 pieces! Stitch, stitch, stitch.  Eventually they will go around an appliqued center piece that will feature the leaves you see in the middle of the above picture and will look like the border on the runner pictured below (also shown in earlier blog posts here and here).

I have the fabric to make the last runner in the set which uses a big border type fabric for the center rather than an appliqued one.  At this point I'm not certain I am willing to do another of these borders, but maybe in a few months...

Meanwhile, on the scrapbook front I've make it to Keaton's arrival (he was twelve in February).  Oh well, I'm getting closer to the present!  ♥

Catchin' Up -- Again

Due to Mom's illness, my blog has been left standing by the side of the road for too long, so I may be posting several days in a row here.  Shocking, I know!  

We have not yet come to a conclusion with Mom's medical issues, but we've found that while it is serious, it does not involve anything life-threatening, which is a relief. She's dealing with things that she'd rather not at the moment, however, and weighing a difficult surgery against going with the current treatments.  Not an easy choice for someone who will be eighty-nine in just three months.  

Meanwhile, grandsons Cameron and Keaton have just finished another year of school and with it came Cameron's graduation from eighth grade!  

Oh how that boy is growing!  He's taller than his Grammy now, with Keaton not far behind.  They both had a great year of school and did so well.  We are very thankful and blessed to be their grandparents.  (Picture shamelessly stolen from the school's FB page.)

I'm slowly working away on another table runner from the Keepsake Trio quilting pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts and will post about that soon.  Another pair of socks is also on the needles and scrapbooking pages are being created.   

And last, this is just for you, Hallie.  Here's a picture of this morning's toasted cinnamon raisin English muffin halves as they came out of my fabulous new toaster (plain, no butter; peanut butter added after photo):

And this concludes today's update.  Stay tuned for more, hopefully tomorrow!  ♥

Toasters

I know, this sounds like a frivolous topic, but really, how your toaster works first thing in the morning can affect your whole day!  See, it is an important topic.

I've always been a toast lover.  Toast and jelly/jam, toast strips and an egg in an egg cup (total fun!), toast with soup, cinnamon bread toasted and spread with butter. Mmmmm...

So, when I got married, can you believe this--when we settled into our little home on wheels, the only toaster we had was a '30's model that someone had given Dan. It had drop-down sides which meant that the bread had to be turned to toast both sides and constant checking was required to avoid burning said bread.  We made do for several weeks and then, lo and behold, we were the blessed recipients of not one, but two magnificent toasters as late wedding presents arrived.  Guess the wait really made me appreciate toasting both sides at the same time!

Some years later, probably quite a few, and we finally took the plunge and bought one of those big toasters that did four slices at once.  This was a big thing when we had four people waiting patiently for their morning toast. I loved the convenience except that it seemed that no matter how I set the controls, one side would always be under or overdone when I did four slices at once.  In short, I couldn't trust the toaster!

Over the years, several more 4-slice toasters made their appearance at our house, but alas, they all seemed to suffer from the same malady--they couldn't make up their minds about when the toast was done.  I was forced to stay by the toaster's side and perform multiple checks. This procedure often failed if I was also cooking eggs.  (A multi-tasker I'm not.)   Oh the inhumanity of it all!!

When we recently spent a number of days at my parents', I had multiple occasions to use their toaster and as I went about my business, I discovered an amazing thing--I could put the bread, or English muffins, in, push down the levers, walk away and come back to perfect toast.  All four slices!!  Eureka!  I had toaster envy.

A week or so after getting back home, we went to the happiest place on earth.  No, not Disneyland, Costco!! And in my perusal of the housewares aisle, there, on a shelf, was a toaster very similar to my parents'.  A brief discussion with Dan resulted in one landing in our cart. It's a newer model than mom and dad's, but it works! It works!!  I can walk away and come back to perfectly toasted bread, waiting patiently to be removed and devoured.  

So, do you want to see a picture of my new toaster?  Of course you do!  And here it is!

Isn't it beautiful?  It has extra buttons that can be touched after the main lever is pushed to toast bagels (toasts the cut side without burning the back), defrost first (if you, like us, often deal with frozen bread) and then toast (all in one step), a reheat button (leftover waffles anyone?), and a cancel button which will pop your bread up pronto.  

Oh the joy!!  ♥

Life!

We had a lovely Easter with family here including Bruder Bear and Mom and Dad (Gigi and Great Papa).  As usual, we had our indoor "picnic" of ham and salads and Cyrus O'Leary pies.   Why, Kahlua and Key Lime of course.  :-)

The grandsons had a great day and had fun dog piling in the living room.  

Gigi got in a snuggle with Cameron and Daniel, to her delight.

Then, the morning after Easter, Gigi woke up to discover she had some health issues so Dan and I spent almost two weeks with her helping her learn some new things to deal with the problems.  There are more tests to be done before we have all the answers, but for now she is doing well on her new regimen. 

So, you ask, how is our re-do of the front yard coming? Well, Dan has been busy catching up.  Before we were gone, he used our 4-wheeler and its snow-plow blade to help level the dirt.  With a little help from Dan and his pulaski, it worked surprising well!

The last few days he's been busy laying large blocks to define the area between the driveway and what will be grass.  We discovered a French drain covered with fine gravel next to the driveway which must remain, so we had to come up with an alternate to our original plan which was to just have grass along there.  Much more work for Dan, but bless his heart, he just keeps plugging away.

Here he is working on the front after he's rounded the corner from the driveway.

We're off again tomorrow to take Mom for more testing, but hopefully I'll be back shortly with more updates!  Life sure does bring changes to plans at times!