Memorial Days Remembered

This has been a Memorial Day weekend to remember. We've had a lot of storms go through our area. Tornado sirens went off last night a couple of times. I don't get scared anymore, just nervous! I walk the windows just like my Dad did. I did talk to my neighbors out of my bedroom windows last night. That was a new experience! We were very fortunate -- all we got was a lot of rain and some hail. The hail wasn't all that bad either, just scary. Further to the northwest of us wasn't so lucky. Seven people were killed in Iowa during this Memorial Day weekend. Five in Parkersburg and two in New Hartford. I've been to both towns at one time or another in my life. The last time I was in Parkersburg was about 2 years ago. The pictures that they've shown on TV are unbelieveable! Homes completely destroyed. I hope and pray that none of us every have to live through anything like that.

I spent the majority of this weekend doing what I love . . . scrapbooking. I'm working on a book for Jim's Dad and as usual, having a great time doing it. I'm not sure I'll ever outgrow my love of this fantastic hobby. I subscribe to a couple of magazines and get some ideas from them but usually just use whatever I have to do what I want. I take parts of other articles, pictures, etc., and use them the way I like them. Might not be right, but it's my way!!!

I sat here the other night and went down memory lane. Remembering what we did on Memorial Day (or Decoration Day as it was called when I was in high school). From 8th grade until I graduated from high school we always had a slumber party at Pam's house. It was tradition. And we always had to march in the Memorial Day parade. The majority of the girls that attended that party were also in band. Some times it was extremely difficult to march the 2 or so miles to the public cemetery cuz we were really tired! But we sure had some good times. When I was in 8th grade (yes, I still remember some of my eariler years) I ended up in the back row of the band with mostly juniors and seniors. I think we were the leftovers. I can still remember marching along with them and all the fun we had. Made me feel like I was part of the group and being only in 8th grade that was important. We never did get much sleep. Took walks very early in the morning, called boys we knew early in the morning. I'm sure their mother's appreciated us and they probably did also. It was always the same boys we called. Wonder why? I'm sure if I look through my boxes of pictures I'll find plenty of those parties. I know I slept the majority of Memorial Day.

It was also a time to go to the cemeteries and place flowers on the graves of our loved ones. We'd pick lilacs from our lilac bushes, honeysuckle, peonies and other flowers growing in or near our garden. We went to a lot of cemeteries. My mother's parents were buried in the Postville Cemetery, my Dad's parents in the Monona Cemetery, my grandmother's sister in a private cemetery in the country. My aunt and uncle and cousin Jane were also all buried in the Monona Cemetery. As I got older and got married Harry and I still visited the cemetery on Memorial Day. His parents were in Luana, and mine at Swede Ridge. Swede Ridge is a little country church and cemetery outside of McGregor. It's a very beautiful place on a summer day. Overlooks farm fields. A fitting place to bury my parents who spent their whole life on a farm. My nephew Jer (my brother's little boy) is also buried there. It was just something we always did. Put flowers or plants on the graves of our loved ones. I've gotten away from that habit the last few years. That's sad.

I still love and honor my parents, my little nephew, my grandparents but just don't get up there any more. My excuses are many. Not enough time, gas too expensive, flowers and plants expensive and have to be off the graves after the holiday. Really not good enough, is it? We honor our dead on Memorial Day -- we honor all the men and women who lost their lives serving their country. God Bless them all. I think that's enough walking down memory lane for today.

I talked to my daughter last night. This is her holiday to work. She was out earlier in the evening babysitting her friend Katie's triplet neice and nephews. I remember when they were born -- March 31st. And they're beautiful children. I haven't seen them since they've been walking and getting into everything. Barb says they're a handful, but all healthy and happy. That's the important part.

They had storms in the Des Moines area too. Congratulations to my daughter!! She has accepted a position with one of the clinics with Methodist Hospital. The great part about this position is no more weekend work or holidays. Wooo Hooo! Congrats Barb! Here's hoping all goes well in the new position. Leaving a job is hard. You leave behind friends and in Barb's case patients. She told them they could find her at her new clinic. It's exciting and nerveracking going into a new job. Here's to you Barb! I know you'll be an asset wherever you are. I'm very proud of my daughter! Does it show???

I'm furstrated at the moment. I'm putting this book together of Jim & Mandy's wedding and went to add pages and none of the page protectors I have fit the book I'm using! Guess I'll start all over with a new book. I buy albums and page protectors when they are on sale at Hobby Lobby -- now I have to remember to buy page protectors that fit into my albums I bought. We should all have such problems!!!

Back to work tomorrow -- oh darn. But it is a short week. Have a food distribution on Saturday. Hope to spend some time with Bill. He usually comes to all the distributions and sits and talks to me for part of the time. My job is mainly to take applications on new people that come in for the food. It gives me some time to talk to him and some of the other people that volunteer for this program. I'm usually really tired when I get home from there. So take a nap and then, hopefully, get to work.

We have an all jeans week coming up at work. June 2nd through June 6th is hygiene week at work. We're getting together with the local Dollar General stores to promote our hygiene program. So . . . if you want to wear jeans through that week you bring a hygiene product or $1.00 a day, to cover buying some. I think we should do this more often with other projects. Everybody likes wearing jeans to work. Unfortunately we have a board meeting that week. Have to see what the boss thinks about wearing jeans to a board meeting!!

I'm getting hungry so I think I better go find something to eat. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Stay safe.

In addition . . .

Good Morning! Just in case anyone actually reads this . . . I forgot one of my Mother's Day gifts. Barbie also gave me a set of knives and a knife block. She was tired of using my old, beat-up knives when she visits. Thanks Barb. They're already up and being used. The old block and knives will go to Goodwill or some such place. Maybe somebody can sharpen them and get some use out of them.

I think I have everything drug up stairs that I brought home with me from last weekend. This weekend one of my projects is re-potting a bunch of my plants. I have a jade plant that is living on about an inch of soil and the water that I dump into the pot. That's the first plant to be re-potted! The soil is thanks to Barb also. She couldn't find a small bag when we bought plants last weekend so gave me some leftovers and believe me I can use it. I'm going to break up some of my aloe vera plants (some of the gals at work said they were interested in having a couple of them) and just give some of the others new soil.

Got my fan upstairs also. I haven't put it together yet, but will tonight. I'm interested in seeing how it works. Had not Jim & Mandy got that for me I would have bought one. It should definitely make my bedrooms more comfortable when it gets really warm.

Scrapbook alert . . . I finished Barb's book of Jim & Mandy's wedding last night. It turned out well. Or at least I think it did. And it's not a monster one either -- I tried to keep it down to size. I have a real problem when I scrap and have all these pictures to chose from -- I don't. I just put the majority of them in the book! They say less is more, but guess I haven't got to that point yet!! I have 3 more books to do on the kids' wedding and a couple of baby books and just thought of this the other night, but I never did a Colorado book for myself from last year. I should be good for a few months!!

I better get back to work. Weekend sounds like it's going to be a nice one. Enjoy everyone. Until later . . .

Mother's Day

Hope everybody had a great weekend. I sure did. I had a board meeting on Thurday night so was able to take the majority of Friday off as OD (off duty) time. I took care of some errands, etc., around town and 'got out of Dodge' around 1:15. I arrived at Barb's house about 4:30. Glad I have a key so that I was able to get in. She's suppose to get off work at 3:30 p.m. but had paperwork to do so I just moved all my junk inside and waited for her.

We made connections with Jim to find out what he and Mandy were doing for the evening. He was out with friends (a coworker was leaving) and Mandy was on her way to pick up Jayke. Jayke is Mandy's nephew from Council Bluffs. He spent the weekend with them. What a cutie!!

We stuck some laundry in (I always take my laundry to Ankeny)! We decided we were hungry so left a phone message for the kids and took off for Old Chicago. Had a little wait but did that at the bar and a great meal after. As usual there were plenty of leftovers so . . . Barb has lunch for a couple of days this week!!

Watched some movies when we got home. Have you ever seen "27 Dresses". It's a riot! One of the gals at work was just talking about it Thursday morning and when Barb said she had it, I had to see it! If you haven't seen, do. It's a really cute movie (chick flick!).

Our plans were to go to Farmers Market on Saturday morning, but it was raining nicely when we got up. Change of plans! We grabbed some breakfast and took care of some errands. Barb wanted to go flower shopping so we headed to Mernard's and bought flowers for her flower boxes. We even got them in the soil before we left for Jim & Mandy's. They look real good!! The sun finally came out later in the afternoon, but it sure was windy and cool. Rain came back for the evening hours.

I just had to go to the scrapbook store in Ankeny and pick up a few things. Scraping is my life!!! We also made a stop at the Dress Barn and got me some new tops for spring/summer. I'm hoping it soon gets warm enough to wear them. Can't wait.

I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking (surprise, surprise) and finally finished a book for Jackie (Mandy's mom). I had promised her one at the wedding. Mandy was checking it out when we took the picture of her and Jayke. Jayke found pictures of his mommy and his grandma. It was really fun watching him pick people out of the book. Hope Jackie enjoys it as much as I did putting it together.

We had lunch at Barb's. Did some more laundry and headed to Urbandale. Jim & Mandy gave us the grand tour of their home. It's great. They've done a marvelous job so far and have some great ideas for the future. I love it! I enjoyed my evening with my children. Jim grilled ribs (in the rain) and Mandy had stuffed potatoes, salad, burnt garlic bread (sorry Mandy, had to put that in) corn-on-the-cob (delicious) and fresh strawberries and bananas with a fruit dip. It was a fantastic meal. Mandy had just told Barb and I that she usually ends up burning the garlic bread -- about 2 minutes later that's just what happened. We ate most of it anyway!!! Jayke is a great kid to be around. He's very entertaining!! He's a very sweet little boy. I can see why Jim and Mandy love having him around.

Mandy & Jayke went to get movies while Barb and I tried out Jim's Wii game. Is that how you spell it? He has Guitar Hero II. What a hoot! Jim's pretty good at and Barb didn't do too bad either. I could really get into those games. I got booed off the stage the first two times I tried it but finally got all the way through one song and didn't die! It was fun. I want to try bowling next time. Beware Jim & Mandy I'll be back!!

We watched "P.S. I Love You" while Jayke watched "Sherk" and went to sleep. He's such a good boy. It continued to rain, but it was a great evening with my children.

Sunday was very windy. Barb lost her grill cover -- someplace. We looked around for it but didn't find it. At least her Iowa State and Cubs hangings didn't disappear. We decided to all go to the late church service together. Barb already belongs to St. Stephen's and it's just down the street from Jim & Mandy's house. Worked out real well. We went to the comtemporary service. Jayke enjoyed it. He was very good in church. Jim & Mandy bought me an orchid to wear to church and out for dinner. That was so sweet. I love flowers and they know it. Thanks so much kids!

Mandy wanted some pictures of us since it was Mother's Day and here are a couple of them. There's one with Barb, Jim and I too, but that's in Mandy's camera. I'm sure she'll send one on soon.

We had lunch together and then it was getting to be time to take off. Jim, Mandy and Jayke were going to McDonald's Playland until it was time to take him home too. Barb and I headed back to Ankeny and copied some pictures for me of Christmas. I'm a scrapbooking nut and wanted some pictures from a different angle than the ones I have. Hey family, if you have some good ones, let me know and I'll get some copies from you. Got packed up and left Ankeny around 3:30. Always takes longer than you think it's going to.

I faired pretty good on Mother's Day this year. Got a new shower curtain, and beautiful towels from Barb. I can now take down my snowman curtain. Barbie also bought me my shirts at Dress Barn. Thanks sweetie! I love all of it! Jim and Mandy got me a tower fan (with remote). My apartment is air conditioned but it's a window unit and he mentioned to Mandy that the bedrooms get pretty warm sometimes so they decided on the fan. I love it! I was thinking about buying one myself. Now I don't have too. Jim & Mandy also got me my orchid. It's lovely. It was a good Mother's Day weekend. Thanks guys. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Hope we can do that again some time soon.

There, I finally wrote about something other than scrapbooking or how boring my life is. Things are looking up! Have a great week. Talk to you soon.