Friday, June 28, 2013

What a great day ...

Our 50th wedding anniversary celebration was last Saturday at the Methodist Fellowship Hall in Spencer and it truly was a great day.  More folks stopped by than I thought (the guys had to put up an extra table), we got to see some family that we hadn't seen in a while, there was lots of good food to enjoy, a storm blew through during the afternoon.  What else?  Oh, I think everyone enjoyed our slide show of our life.  So many good friends...  I was especially glad to see so many members of our church family there, too.  And Alan and Armanda came from Ridgeville.  Our nephew Kevin was there with Lori and we hadn't see them in years!  

I hope everyone had even half as good a day as we did!  We have been living on that 'high' all week.  We were tired by the end of the day and I thank God for our family ... Adrian, Gloria, Jeff, Jane and Veronica whipped the place back into place in less than an hour and we were all out of there.  

Here's a few pictures of our day ...

Before the open house began, we opened this unexpected gift from the kids -- a box of magazines and a couple newspapers from the month we were married, February 1963.  You can see which ones we chose as our favorites!  This will be sooooooo much fun to go through during the next few weeks!  (I can already tell you I LOVE the ads for shoes in this copy of Vogue magazine!)
Then the obligatory pix of us cutting the cake had to be taken ...
Here I am talking with Leland (Don's wife, Nancy, is in the green)  ...
We decorated the tables with these flower arrangements ...
There was a very nice buffet ... here's Margo and Neil, and Emma on the right ...
Talking with my brother Don; Mike and Cathy laughing ...
Us ...
It was a great day.  We received so many beautiful greeting cards, too.  What can I say!?  

But now it's over and time to move on to the next chapter.  Because  life goes on.  I go for a root canal next Tuesday.  (Wow, I sure don't look forward to that!)   Owen County Home Extension Homemakers Achievement Day was yesterday and I was privileged to present the awards to the Cultural Arts winners.  We go to Shawnee this weekend to see the next play.  A few 'vacation' days away are ahead soon.  The Owen County Fair begins in a few days and I have things to prepare for that.  The yard ALWAYS needs mowing.  

It's always something ...

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Whew!

It's been a few busy weeks and I've not had the time or inclination to sit down here to write.  But loose ends are being tied up, so I think everything will work out alright!  I anticipate having more free time soonest ...

Our two bathrooms have been remodeled!  Yeah!  With a lot of help from our friend Randy, the master bath was done first and we've been back in it, using it for a few weeks.  Randy lightly textured the ceiling and painted it; patched and smoothed the walls (I painted them); put down ceramic floor tile; fixed a problem shower.  It looks good and works good!  Wendell put in new faucets and cabinet hardware.  I like it!  Then Randy moved on to the guest bathroom, which is just now complete.  He again did the same treatment to the ceiling and walls (again, I painted the walls); put bright white subway tile above the shower with a band of interest; put ceramic tile on the floor.  I painted the vanity counter top and had some major problems but finally got them solved to my satisfaction.  Just finished that job yesterday, so we will not use that bathroom for about a week to give it a chance to cure.  (Then Randy will come back and caulk around the vanity.)  THEN it will be done.  Wendell put on new cabinet hardware in that bathroom, too

I have had fun buying a few new things for both bathrooms; new mirrors for sure, a few new towels, outlet covers, waste baskets, etc.  Now I'll have to find some wall decor for both rooms.

I'm telling people we're fixing it up to sell and that just may be true.  We can't stay here forever; the outdoor work is getting overwhelming.  But I've had a piece of advise from Mother -- don't move unless and until you "just have to".  Don't know if that's good advise, all things considered ...  I heard just this a.m. that mortgage interest rates are starting to inch up again.  Sigh ... with any luck we can put it off until rates are MUCH higher.  (LOL!)

Last Sunday we did a fun thing!  We went to the first play of the season at Shawnee Theater in Bloomfield and saw "The Tafettas."  It was very good; lots of energy and about a gazillion songs from the 60's.  Just our cup of tea.  After the show the group signed autographs in the lobby (in character).  Sort of funny -- the Taffetas are supposedly from Muncie, the town where I was born.  They made several jokes about Muncie ... Here's my autographed program.  Wendell said it was a good Father's Day; he enjoyed it.


Well, in a couple days we'll be having our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.  I'm not nervous now and I don't know if that's good or not.  I was nervous and anxious about a week ago but since I now have lots of lists made and things done, I feel more calm.  Making lists, and shopping, and having boxes of supplies ready does it for me.  I had the annual physical checkup thrown into the mix about a week ago so that was really why I was so anxious.  And I got a little taste of the "affordable" health care act while I was at it and didn't like it one bit.  Left a bad taste in my mouth ...

I've been lucky to be married to such a good man for 50 years.  It will be a good weekend, I know.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Back after a short hiatis ...

Sorry about the computer "vacation".  Had some computer/husband problems.  Too complicated to explain but I'll bet some of you have been there ...

Just noticed that I am getting lots of goofy comments so I had to go through and delete all of them, report spam comments to Blogger, then change my settings so only people who are registered as followers can comment.  Hope all of this went well.  You can follow/comment as anonymous.  

One of the big happenings in my life recently include helping work at the Fiber Fair in Washington on May 18.  It was a great day and I enjoyed helping teach the beginning rug hooking class in the a.m., then shopping, visiting and just generally hanging out in the p.m.  I got a wonderful little cobweb broom from the Sunflower Brooms lady ...  
Here's that sweet little cobweb broom; and it works great! The handle is smooth as silk!
I was able to sell all of my little hooked pieces at the fiber fair in our Guild Marketplace booth (as well as some other crafty "stuff") and came home a little richer.

A week or so ago I finished the run of place mats I was weaving.  It was my first venture at doing place mats on the loom and I decided that I definitely want to get a tabletop loom!  It is so silly to weave a 12" wide place mat on that big floor loom!  So I will have to start watching for a bargain on a tabletop loom on the Internet!  Margo says watch Craig's List! 
Here's my favorite set of place mats ... but not very practical since they were woven with silk ribbon.  Feels wonderful to the hand!
Second favorite ... because they are woven with selvages only.  Very unusual!  (You can feel free to save your selvages for me! LOL!)

Most of the other place mats are very practical and utilitarian looking.  This is something we needed and can use every day for sure.  Yeah!  I took one of my woven rugs to the Fiber Fair but it didn't sell.  

We did use up the end of the first plantings of radishes and onions; also stopped snapping asparagus.  Here's the end of that part of our vegetable garden ...



Planted more spinach, having harvested all of the first planting as of yesterday.  The garlic, tomatoes, cabbage, dill, pepper plant and more green onions are doing well.  I will have a long empty row soon and have to decide if I want to plant some sort of beans ... or beets?  Planted more radishes but if the weather turns hot they won't taste good.  We have surely enjoyed having these nice moderate days and cool nights with no AC needed!  Yeah!  Makes for a smaller electric bill for sure.

We're busy preparing for our 50th anniversary celebration and hoping we get someone there to share it with us.  This weekend we're going to Winchester to Mandy and Alan G.'s 50th.  Time flies ...

Have a blessed week, what's left of it.  Congrats to Jane & Craig -- XOXOXO.