Happy Mother's Day

Nope, I haven't lost it yet - just wanted to share a little experience I had this week. Let me first go back about 2 years when G'ma V was up visiting. At that time, she asked J if there was anything of hers that he wanted. He replied that he would like the "desk". The desk is an old one that she used for many years in her office and later bought from the county to put in her home. That day, it was decided that J's name would go on the desk.

In March when I drove to AZ, I stopped by his sister's to pick up the desk and bring it home. Then I moved my rolltop desk out of the way and replaced it with a nice flat top desk that the monitor would fit on so much nicer. The desk is wonderful and we are very happy to have it.

Back in 1983, I wanted a rolltop desk more than anything else I could think of so when I found this one, we bought it and brought it home. Over the past 23 years, we have moved it from house to house and state to state with J doing a lot of complaining about the desk. But that was "my desk" and I "loved" it. It's extremely heavy and with the new desk, I knew it was not something we needed any longer. We talked about what to do with it. I had asked my children and neither of them were interested in it - can't blame them for that as it is totally impractical to use with a computer.

For the past several months, we have been talking about what to do with this desk. Monday morning, when I sat down to my computer, a thought came to me (or was that a prompting) to put an ad in the Thrifty Nickel. Of course, you are thinking, why not sell the desk. But that's not what I decided to do. I decided that I would put it in the giveaway section. I typed up a quick little ad (which are free by the way) saying Free for pickup - rolltop desk, we'll help you load. Then I stressed for 3 days whether anyone would be willing to come way out here even for something free and if no one did, what was I going to do with this thing.

Yesterday morning, I got a call from a man who asked if his parents (who live 16 miles from us) could come and pick up the desk. He told me that his mother has always wanted one. I told him that would be fine - if they could come between 4:30 and 5:00 yesterday afternoon as that is the only time my husband would be at home.

At 4:00 a lady called and said, "My son told me to come to your house and pick up a desk so I wanted directions how to get there". I told her and she said they would be here on time.

J got home from work and we moved the desk out of the house so it would be easy to load up. Guess I should say easier because I still wasn't sure how we were going to get that desk in the back of a pickup and I had a feeling the people coming to pick it up were even older than us so probably wouldn't be much help.

At 4:35, a blue dodge pulled into the drive way and a gentleman about 75 or so got out. Followed by his wife - much the same age and very tiny. She glanced over, saw the desk and the look on her face was priceless. She kept saying things like "oh, it's so beautiful", "I've always wanted a rolltop desk", "it will be so treasured by our family", "you're just going to give it away". Since J has had to move the thing so often, it didn't take long for us to get it loaded up. The gentleman talked to John for a little while about growing up in this area. Then the lady gave me a big hug and said "God bless you". All I could think of to say was "He surely has." and then added "Happy Mother's day from your son".

The Dress

So in March when I was in CO working and trying to spend a little time with the granddaughters, J decided she was sleeping in "my bed" (which was fine with me). So the first night (before the son / father laid down the law and informed me that 7:00 bedtime meant 7:00 to sleep, not to play on the computer), I decided to show J some pictures of her when she was a little girl. So, I flashed through pictures of her when she was a tiny baby. I showed her pictures of days when her mama and I spent quite a bit of time trying different outfits on her. I showed her pictures of her 1st birthday. Then, I showed her some pictures I had taken of her in a dress that my Grandma DeCurtins had made for me - a crochetted pink and blue dress that really needs a slip underneath but I wanted a picture but was afraid she was growing so fast, I wouldn't get on.

When I showed her this picture, she put her nose right up against the computer screen. "The dress, the dress, I have to have that dress. I explained to her that it was too little and was at my house. We then played Nemo awhile and went to sleep.

The next day when I turned on the computer, she wanted to see the picture of the "the dress". So, I would show her. I then decided, I needed to make her a dress of her own. So, I have been spending a little time each day for the past several weeks working on a dress. It is too bad that they do not make a silky crochet thread like my Grandma used to make my dress but I think she'll be happy with this one when it gets finished. Or at least I hope so.

Geo Gee

Well, I went geocaching with my sisters and some of the kids and had a wonderful time. It was a bit warm but Gargantua was cool -- was there a snake or only a sneaky snake ;-)

And the 2 part cache with the little magnet was interesting. Everyone made it look so easy so I came home thinking - piece of cake, I can find a cache.

Saturday morning, I printed one out called Stillwater. During lunch, I asked J if he wanted to run out and help me find it so I could leave off my TB and be done with that. At first he was a little reluctant but then decided the dogs could go along. We knew we couldn't be out too long as we had to go into town to have dinner with a group of people from work.

Although the log said it was only 14.3 miles from my home coordinates, the mileage to get there was more like 35. So, at 12:05 we loaded up in the truck and headed out. I expected him to turn where he always turns for work so when he didn't, I said "the gps is pointing that way". He said, I think we'd better go to the lower Stillwater road.

Okay so we got there and drove and drove and I'm watching the gps and it gets down to one tenth of a mile and J says "there it is". "There" was an old cabin that was in shambles. Sure enough the gps went to 0 right by that pile of mess.

We searched for over an hour and a half but then cause we had to get back decided we needed to leave. We'll go back there again and see if we can find that one. Meanwhile, I'm checking out one that is about 20 miles from here on the highway and if I can't find that one, about 40 miles away is a TB house which is super easy so I can find it and get this TB on his way.

Darn - I really wanted to find that first cache on my own (well with J's help) because it has a tb pig in it that has traveled over 14000 miles.

Last night on NBC, there was a 3 minute blurb about geocaching. There are over 1/4 million caches in 200 countries. guess that can keep P & S busy for a very long time.

Oh well, if at firt you don't succeed, try try again so wish me luck.

Happy Birthday...

Today is "my" Dad's birthday - I cannot imagine Dad living 84 years on this earth and getting old. It would be kind of interesting to get them to do an aging on a picture of him to see what he would look like today if he was still around but I'd really rather remember him as he was. A bit over weight, sucking in his stomach to be skinnier. It would be so great if he were here to talk to about the reunion and help us make plans, if he were here to cook dutch oven chicken and the best biscuits in the world and potatoes and onions (sometimes with too much pepper but still great). If he were here to take all the grandkids and great-grandkids on a "cousins" hike.

Too soon, he left us - almost 22 years ago now although it seems like just yesterday. But lo and behold, on his 3rd birthday after he left this earth, our family was blessed with a new little spirit. It was so wonderful to be able to once again celebrate March 7th as a day of birth instead of just a reminder that Dad was gone. A little spirit who was a great help to Mom in so many ways, especially in getting her off the coke drinking habit. Happy Birthday Briana - I am so glad you are a part of our family.

A Quilt for John

When JW was young, his Tata bought a piece of property in Oracle for Wilfred to raise a family on. The place had a small house and a dumpy trailer. For a while, the family which consisted of JW, his father, mother and 3 siblings (with twins on the way) lived in the existing buildings. They slept in the trailer and would head to the house every morning for breakfast.

Wilfred’s brothers would come to Oracle and help him work on the house. JW remembers once that they had finished a wall (the house was made of brick) and when they got almost finished, they noticed it wasn’t square so they had to take it all down. Not only did this mean they had to knock down all the brick but they then had to clean all of the mortar off each brick so it could be used again.

Finally they finished the house and moved in – the trailer went away and the little house turned into “Nana’s casita” where Nana and Tata spent many weeks in the summer away from the heat of Florence.

When John and I got married, the family had to work to get the inside of the house painted so it would be presentable for a reception. The floors were all concrete except for the living room floor which was a wonderful Mexican tile (and remember that 35+ years ago, winters were quite a bit colder in Oracle). I remember when they finally got doors on the closets and how thrilled Lois was over this little thing that most of us take for granted and carpeting on the floor - oh my – that was truly a blessing. Then shortly before Wilfred died, they actually got central heating.

So with the concrete floors while all the kids were growing up, you can just imagine how cold it was in that house. Since we had the opportunity to live in Nana’s Casita when Valerie was born, I know that they definitely did not keep a roaring fire in the fireplace at night (wood was too precious) so I know they woke to just a few glowing embers in the fireplace. Because of that, each of the beds were piled high with blankets to keep you warm.

I remember one time when we lived in Blythe and we went to Oracle for Christmas. Todd had just gotten a new water bed and we had the privilege of sleeping in it. He hadn’t got the heater with it but instead there was the normal pile of blankets on top. So we spent the night rolling around and round warming first our front and then our back. Needless to say, the next night, we told Todd we would sleep on the couch and he could have his waterbed back. We also told him he should get a heater – not sure if he ever did.

Fast forward to a time when we left Arizona to move a little further north. We decided to buy a down comforter and it has been so nice that that is the only covering we have had on our bed to keep warm for the past 11 ½ years. Meanwhile, in the past several years, I have made numerous quilts for babies, gifts, service projects etc and each time I am working on one, JW asks “is this for our bed”. Then he talks about how he loved to sleep with a pile of blankets weighing him down during the night – blankets that if it got a little warm, you could take one off or two if needed where as with our comforter, it’s all or nothing. So being an old woman, I spend a lot of time every night tossing and turning, covering up, uncovering and doing it all again.

This month, I have committed to finish some of the quilts I have started. I had made some bargello quilt tops and decided that if I took one of them and added two 10” borders all the way around, I would have a 100” square quilt that would be lovely on my king size bed and the start of building a stack of heavy quilts for us to sleep under. So far, I have finished a quilt for Madison (a Star quilt in recognition of the Lakota blood that flows through her veins and her ancestors who lived on this continent long before Columbus made his way across the seas) and two small ones for service projects.

Last night, I sat in my chair finishing tacking down the last 3’ of the binding on a 72” square quilt when I got finished JW said. “So, this one is for my bed right?” “Nope”, I told him “but this one can be used for snuggling on the couch if you want?” He gladly accepted that offer and grabbed the quilt because with a temperature of -5 outside it was a bit chilly inside. Of course as soon as we got comfortable, one dog needed out and then the other and then it was time to head to bed.

I have received the backing fabric for the red and black quilt though – this is the one for JW and with any luck, by next weekend, we’ll have the 1st of several quilts on our bed and I won’t have to feel so guilty about No quilt for John. And the quilt I finished last night, I’m thinking I’ll just keep it down here on the couch. (4 quilts down and 26 more to finish – woo hoo I am at last making progress).