Then and now.

In the Spring of 2007 I planted a number of lily bulbs. This one had the weirdest looking stock as it came up. It was rectangular...about 2 inches wide and half an inch thick and it grew and grew. Then the buds started forming. WOW, 69 on that 6 foot stalk and they all bloomed. The whole front yard had the wonderful fragrance for weeks.
The bulb must have split because this spring 2 stocks came up right next to each other. Between the 2 there are 19 flowers. It sure isn't as spectacular as last year but I'm still lovin' it and enjoying the fragrance.

A few things from Minnesota

Here are a few of the items we brought back from MN last week. The shaving mugs belonged to Jerry's grandfather.
I don't remember for sure where Jerry's Mom got these dishes. Kinda think they were a grocery store promotion. There are 12 place settings and 2 other plates than the ones shown... salad and bread plates. I think they are very pretty but I'll think twice before using them. The gold will not last long in the dishwasher!!!
The sewing machine is still in the garage. I wanted it and no one else wanted it but what do I do with it?? I'm working on that though. It is a Singer treadle with a coffin top. Plan to call the local Singer shop and see about getting a belt and then will see what happens.

Back home.

We got back from our trip to MN last Wednesday. It was a very busy week. All the decisions to make..what to dump, what to give away and what to keep. Emotional. Elaine was a saver...cards, statements...everything. I think we saw every Medicare statement she and Glen ever received. We felt the need to go through everything. Never knew when there might be something important in that drawer, that bag or that folder.

Our son was such a wonderful help. He did the driving. We had a rented van to bring "stuff" back to MI. We and the sisters and a BIL were all happy to have someone to do all the lifting. He had quite a bit of down-time though while us oldsters were doing our "deciding". Thanks Gregg.

We had invited relatives to come over and pick out anything they would like. At first we thought we'd have an auction but the auctioneer didn't think we had enough good stuff.....antiques! Our last night there we met a lady who volunteers at a resale shop in Red Wing. Understand there are 6 Lutheran churches that manage the shop and they are able to donate 3 to $4,000 to the projects they sponsor. Wow that was what we liked. She and her husband came with a truck and a car and took most everything (except furniture). What a relief since we all had reservations to leave early the next morning. Since we left most of the furniture has been taken. The house is for sale. Wonder how long that will take!!!

I still have some boxes in my dining room to unpack and the table is full. Haven't figured out where to put all the dishes. We brought a wood trunk to MI that Jerry's great grandmother had all her belonging in when she came from Sweden around 1880. That is going to Gail in AZ. Sunday we met up with our granddaughter's husband who is working this week in Flint. He is bringing the trunk (it's full!) back to AZ in his truck. Thanks Damian for doing that for us.

Jerry is still in soooo much pain. He saw his doctor today and will be having an X-Ray on his shoulder and an MRI on his back. Hope the doctors can figure out what to do to give him relief.

While we put in long days and worked hard we had a good time with the family. Sometimes sadness at what we had to do but there was plenty of time for lots of laughter. Sure got tired of restaurant food. Cousin Jane invited us for a wonderful home cooked meal....did we ever appreciate that. And how wonderful it was to get home to our own beds and pillows. Think I miss my pillow the most.

Flowers in our yard

Welcome to our yard. I tried to get some pictures before we have another rain and wind storm. It is so hard on the flowers. Branches fall and break off the taller plants. I need to figure out how to post more than 5 pictures at a time. I've seen some posts with many pictures. Any help out there?




Think I need to get my pictures turned around too. Have a nice walk but watch out for the hungry mosquitoes!!

A walk around our yard.

Will the Quilting Police come after me??

I sure hope not. Don't think my grandson will though. I've decided I just can't machine quilt the large blue squares. I had grandiose plans to do free motion stars, then just squiggles and now I'm going to tie it. It was so exhausting quilting in the ditch on the stars that I'm giving up...throwing in the towel. Dorm quilts usually end up on the floor anyway, don't they?
These are the quilts I made for S's brothers at U. of MI. They were just straight line stitch in the ditch so were much easier. I feel bad giving up like I'm doing. When the granddaughters graduated two of them designed their own quilts and the other wanted "pink". Those were hand quilted. Of course that was quite a few years ago.
Oh, my, am I feeling guilty. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel better about quilting.

A Starbucks delivery!

How about that! A home delivery of my fav cho mint drink. I didn't go on the usual outing with friends today. Instead I went with Jerry to see his DR. He had a shot in his hip a couple weeks ago to take care of pain and that seems to have worked. Last week he lifted some bags of leaves to empty into the yard trash barrel and thought he had a hernia recurrance. He had double hernia surgery about 10 years ago. The DR thinks it is the other hip instead of the hernia. So, more meds.

When we got home I thought I'd use my Magic Bullet and try to make a poor man's replica of my drink. Where in the world could the ice chopping blade be?? After looking and looking it was about time to give up when there was a knock on the back door. There was Corinne with my drink!!! What a surprise and what a good friend. It was slightly melted so I didn't even get brain freeze.

We're going back to MN this week. We're meeting up with Jerry's sisters and will work to get their Mom's house ready to sell. Not a job for all of us 70+ folks. To the rescue comes our son G. He will drive us, lift and haul furniture etc. I think our grandson from Mpls. will come to help one day.

We're taking the Lake Express across Lake MI. Sure hope the weather will be good. We've taken either the Express or the Badger across the lake for quite a few summers. Anything to avoid going around Chicago!

A new bag.

I'm still working on graduation quilts. Better get them finished before the graduates head off to college!!. My shoulders and hands get sore trying to maneuver all the fabric and batting around my Viking. So, I needed a break this weekend and sewed myself a Miranda Day Bag. I messed up on a few of the directions but am happy with the results. Made a small quilted bag for my camera that will fit into one of the many pockets in the Miranda.

Red, White and Blue.

I almost forgot that I had a quilt to hang for the 4th. It has hung outside for a few years and is really faded but doesn't seem too noticeable from the street. And no one comes to the front door!!! There were quilters today! Oh, was Ellie embarrassed last week when she realized that she was supposed to bring lunch. She really lucked out that no one else came.This picture is from last Oct. when we had "quality control" looking for pins before sending the quilts off to Lutheran World Relief.
We watched Anja for a few hours sat. night. Wow, those little legs are constant motion. We had such fun!

Here she is with Lala her baby doll.

Anya didn't have her own clothes at the orphanage. An outfit she might wear one day went to another that size the next. She is making up for lost time and changes her clothes many times a day. She does a great job and gets everything on straight..even tights. Her Mom and Dad placed a big order from Hanna Anderson recently (60 and 70% off). Such excitement for Anja when she saw all those clothes. She does share them with Lala!