Aaron

Just a few more of Aaron. He is the only one of my grandsons who is still enough and doesn't start making faces for me to get some good shots. Alas, this probably won't last much longer. I had a great time with my daughters and their families. They make me feel very loved.

Tucson-day 3

On Friday, we decided to get in just a little thrift shopping. Becky tries on some sexy kicks. Becky likes to try on shoes. So do the boys. Especially Brazey.

After a delicious lunch of assorted bento boxes at a restaurant the girls love, Mandy and I took the boys for haircuts when Becky went to work. Aaron's cutter had a jazzy leopard print drape.

Jack gave up a bunch of hair.

They show off the new trims.

Tucson-day2

On my 2nd day in Tucson, Becky and I had a lovely breakfast with Ana and Aurora. I had such a good time and talked so much I forgot to get out my camera. When Becky went to work in the afternoon Jack and I went over to spend time with the Tuckers. Then all 4 Tuckers, Becky, Jack and I had dinner at My Big Fat Greek restaurant. Jack is in a bright green shirt again but it's another one. Jack seems to like bright green.

Evan allows Mama Dee to take one picture where he isn't mugging in some fashion. Evan is my most difficult subject. Whenever he becomes aware of the camera, he makes a bunch of goofy faces.

This kid is easy. We had a really good dinner.

The Tucson visit-day 1

Mama Dee gets to Tucson around 3 in the afternoon. Wednesday is the day Jack has basketball practice. He is in the bright green shirt.

Jack and Becky's regular routine includes dinner at Boston Market on Wednesdays. So in keeping with tradition the Tuckers and I join them.

Love Jack's freckles.

After dinner, we run Wal-Mart errands and the boys run some wheelbarrow races.

May 28,1994

On this date 15 years ago, these 2 little cuties were married in Pekin, Illinois. Sorry Dave, that you had to work on the evening of your anniversary. May your sixteenth year of marriage be a good one!

Yesssss

Yes, Ramona. I loved this movie. I loved her. I loved the French narration. I loved all the Paris scenes, and I loved all the filming techniques and editing. This poor old beat up library copy might be replaced by a brand new one of my very own to keep.

the doldrums

The creativity hasn't been around for awhile now. Here are my meager sewing efforts for the past week or so. Two pairs of pj shorts for Jack and a blankie for a gift to a baby coming this summer.

I did the altar flowers for church again yesterday. The hydrangeas were lush and lovely.
I know I'm looking at the world askew when I don't want to take a picture of anything. My mama dove took her 2 sweet babies and flew the coop. They had gotten so big it was hard to distinguish the babes from the mom. Here's hoping that Monday is the beginning of a more productive week.

an important date

When I was growing up, May21 was an important date in our family. One of the reasons was it was our parents' anniversary. Barbara and Fenton were married in his hometown of Adams, Wisconsin in 1946. I always thought my mom looked just like a princess in her wedding dress. In subsequent years I learned that this dress was a borrowed last minute replacement and she hated it. I still think she looks gorgeous. She was 21 and he was 27. He was visiting an army buddy when they met.

However, each year the anniversary took 2nd place to the birthday of my mom's grandmother and my great-grandmother, Kate Davis Morris. My grandma is the cute little girl on the left with her 2 brothers pictured here. Boy babies wore dresses in the late 19th century. Katie was born in a covered wagon somewhere in Kansas and eventually her family came back to Illinois.

Here is my Grandma Morris somewhere in her 90's. She lived to 108 years of age. She was one of the people in my life who made a tremendous impression on me. She always seemed happy and content with her lot in life. She worked like a trooper and took care of everything and everyone. I rarely if ever heard her complain about anything. When I was a little girl, I got to go to her house every Sunday when my parents went to mass. She made me origami chicks and their feeders and strings of paper dolls. She always cooked bacon and 2 eggs with perfect runny yolks and never made me eat the whites. She was always there at all the important events in our lives. I hope as I age, I can do it as gracefuuly as my great grandma.

Lucky shopping day

Yesterday I met a friend from church for lunch. Being the superstitious (though I try to fight it) goof that I am, I saw a coin when I got out of my car at Desert Ridge. Subscribing to that "see a penny, pick it up" thing, I reached down to discover it was a nickel. So I thought maybe I'll have even more luck. Walked into Ross, on 10% off Tuesday for old ladies day of course, to find the purse I have been looking for for several months. It's the exact color of yellow I wanted, has compartments for many things, is somewhat shallow so things don't get lost. I was most pleased. Had a delicious lunch with lovely company at Zinc Bistro. Decided to break down and buy the shower curtain that I had been agonizing over at Anthropologie. When I paid for it, found it was 40% off. Whenever you receive an unexpected windfall such as this, my friend Miss Linder calls it lucky shopping day . And indeed, I had one.

Happy Birthday, dear David

Today is the birthday of my dear son-in-law David, wife of my daughter Becky and father of my grandson Jack. The first time I met Dave, he had long bushy hair in a great big pony tail. He looked very exotic and my daughter was head over heels. Then he got all that hair cut off and looked like this. Which I imagine is what Jack will look pretty much like in another 10 or 12 years.

David is a lovely son-in-law and I wish him a very happy birthday even though I am my usual late with his card. Love you, Dave!

the way we were

Being that this is graduation season for many, I thought it might be fun to have a look at my family back when. Denny graduates from Mt. Pulaski High School in 1962.

Deb receives her diploma from New Holland-Middletown High School in 1965.

Rebecca heads to her dad's alma mater in 1989, graduating from her dad's old high school.

And Mandy leaves the nest graduating from good old Mt. P in 1993.

Hi, old friend

I have very much enjoyed being part of the Facebook community and appreciate more than I can ever say my daughter Becky's help and guidance with buying and learning to use a digital camera, how to blog, becoming part of Facebook and her encouragement to keep going when I thought I would make the computer explode. (How's that for a sentence, Mrs. Beaver?) So anyway I located this lovely person, Carla on Facebook. I had about a 90 minute conversation with her on Saturday-the first we had spoken in over 40 years and found her to be the same upbeat and charming friend that she was way back when. We are in a photobooth at the old downtown K-Mart in Springfield,Il.

In this photo, we had volunteered to represent our nursing school in some kind of downtown parade. Carla helped me to have a whole new perspective on the years I spent at nursing school. I don't really look back on it with much fondness. I feel very grateful to her for presenting me with some whole new thought processes. Life is certainly a journey and sometimes I'm not always sure the road taken was the best choice but I'm beginning to believe that perhaps it always has been. For me the saying "we grow too soon old and too late smart' has always been applicable.

Yea! For a refurbished yard

A week ago Sunday we had a Beatles mass at our church as a fundraiser for a sister church in Mexico that we have decided to help. One of my friends had to leave early and asked me to look after the newcomer who was sitting with them. Lucky for me, he has a landscaping service and Dennis asked him to come over and give some estimates. So-yesterday and today Bill and his crew were here cleaning up the yard. We have new larger rock in the stream beds and lots of new granite over the entire yard.

It really does look fresh and inviting.

Dennis had them take out the scaly old river rocks from around the fountain.

She surely does like having all that new granite to poop on.

Made to order

I actually had an order for 3 sets of prayer beads this week and here they are. Most of the jewelry I make is given as gifts to my family and friends so this was kind of exciting.

This is my first attempt at a little "softie" which is the name this generation of crafters has given to little stuffed felt or fabric animals and geegaws. I thought this could be my mom's birthday cake since she really doesn't like cake anyway. It was fun to make.