Monthly Archives: November 2016

Hither and Yon

Another eventful week.  Veteran’s Day morning was spent at our youngest grandboys’ school where there was a Veteran’s Day celebration.  I had to get up way before my wakeup time, but I managed to do it. How did I get up so early for years and years?  Getting kids ready for school.  Sending David off to work and sometimes me just getting home from work.  When I cleaned our church years ago, I would go in at two o’clock in the morning and clean until I had every bit of that church clean and come home in the late morning and go to bed.  It really messed up my sleeping schedule.  I am finally on an eight or nine hour a night sleep schedule that seems to work well for me.

Anyway, this isn’t about me sleeping.  It’s about the Veteran’s Day celebration.  All the veterans were met at the door and asked to wait to be seated in the cafeteria.  The rest of us went to get seats.

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This is our daughter, the mother of our youngest grandboys.

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The veterans came in.  I think David was the oldest one and probably served longer than any of the other men.  Thirty-seven years in the army National Guard.

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There he is again.  Or is that Santa Claus?  That little boy is thinking, “I’m sitting right in front of Santa Claus!”

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This is the school principal. They make them young nowadays.  She gave a little talk and introduced the veterans, the pianist and this boy who played taps.  He goes to the school.

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Taps always sends a chill down my back.

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The children who had a veteran there were asked to come stand with them.   Our two grandboys there.

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Although they don’t look too thrilled to be there, our daughter said they were real excited about the day.

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Each class sang a patriotic song.

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One of the songs they sang was Amazing Grace.

The younger classes had made cards for all the veterans and David got a handful.

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This is the  one our grandson made for his grandfather.  It is hanging on our refrigerator.

We walked through the halls of the school looking at all the things on the walls.  It always amazes me how talented children are.

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This wall of quilts  caught my eye.

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This was quite a project.

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Minions always show up when you least expect it.

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It was a very nice morning, but we had places to go and other things to see so we said, “Good-bye,” and off we went.

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David at the wheel, we were going to northern Ohio to a Folkart and Antique show.  I read about it on Facebook a while back and said I would like to go, so we went.

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Over the rivers and through the woods.

To a tiny town called Peninsula.  The show was held in this building.

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Inside were lots of beautiful handmade things.  All kinds of treasures and a few antiques.

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I bought this in honor of our next president.

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And this because I collect Santa Clauses.

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And this because the man who had the booth literally put it in my hands and said I needed it.  Like two heads, but I bought it.

Because sometimes serendipitous things happen to us, there happened to be an estate sale in town.

 

At this log cabin.

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On this busy street.  Ha.

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Plus the log cabin was for sale and all its contents.  It had belonged to an antique dealer who was quite the collector of primitives.  The cabin was stuffed and everything was for sale.  And this was the second week they were doing it.

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Signs telling us we must behave ourselves.

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See that green chair in the corner?  It was twenty dollars and I am crazy about old chairs, but we didn’t buy it.  We went back the next day to see if it was still there, but it had a sold sign on it.  Always buy something when you first see it, because it will probably be gone next time. Oh, well.

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This room had stacks of really old, but beautifully kept quilts.  There were so many things to see that I forgot to take many pictures,  but it really was amazing what one man can collect in a lifetime and now, it’s all being sold.

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There was a forgotten little garden outside with the cutest picket fence.

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We saw this sign while driving around.  Thought I might try making one like it.

After we were finished at the cabin, we looked for some other antique stores and quilt shops.  We were directed to the town of Seville, Ohio by one quilt shop owner who told us there were a lot of antique stores there.  And wouldn’t you know it? Another serendipitous moment because all the stores in town were having a pre-Christmas sale! And, yes, there were several antique stores.  Really good ones. With good prices.

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Ummmm?

And here are some of our treasures we purchased.

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Vintage Christmas tablecloths.

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Vintage sewing paraphernalia.

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Cute little clothespins with a clothesline.

 

 

 

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Vintage children’s books.  I love the graphics in them.

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A Jim shore Santa Claus at a VERY reasonable price.

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Some of the stores even had pretty bags.  I am not throwing this one away.

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We got this little lampshade back at the cabin, I forgot to show it.  But isn’t it adorable and only one dollar.

Tired and hungry we ate at this restaurant that night where I had the best penne pasta with Alfredo sauce and shrimp that I have ever tasted.  With crusty bread, it was a very delicious meal.  They also do carry out because the night before we ordered food at our motel and I had a wonderful turkey sub sandwich which was so big, I could only eat half of it.  We brought it home and the dogs had a real treat with the rest of it.

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Anyway, this was a really good restaurant. Good service too.

So coming home the next day, we took mostly back roads.  We saw a sign that said, “covered bridge,” so of course, we had to check it out.  Remember the Big Cedar?  We drove and drove and drove and David said, “This isn’t going to be like the Big Cedar and nothing is going to be there, is it?”  But, there was a perfectly nice covered bridge and several people were there.  Men were fly fishing in the river going under it.  We walked across it and spent some time taking pictures.

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We were surprised that the fall colors were still so brilliant this far north of us.

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We’ve traveled many roads together.  Some of them have been bumpy and hilly and some have been smooth, but we have been over them together and that is all that matters in the end.   It was a wonderful trip and I really hated to see it end knowing we won’t be going anywhere until next year, but we have such wonderful memories.

Hope you are making memories or remembering fond things in your past. Bye.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Happenings

It seems like when Summer is over and school starts, the year speeds up and there are so many things to do and places to go.   With five grandchildren, there is always something going on that we grandparents must attend.

Every year about this time my three older grandchildren’s school has grandparents’ days.  One year we went to the elementary, middle school and high school to attend for all three.  This year we only went for two days, for the middle school and the high school.

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Every child in my  grandson’s class had made a poster for their grandparents. This is the one our grandson made.  I thought it was very appropriate.

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We attended classroom activities and chapel.

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There was an election for mayor and our grandson was in the running.

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I always take pictures of their lockers so I can use it for blackmail when they are older. Ha.

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I love this boy.

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He is so much fun to be with.

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I see this picture and think, oh, my, he’s taller than me now.  He was just a tiny boy a few days ago.  I always tell him he reminds me of my father and tell him I hope he grows up to be just like him as my father was a very wonderful man.

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The next day it was the high school’s grandparents’ day.  These are my two oldest grandchildren and the tallest one is not the oldest.

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The school was putting on Sound Of Music and our granddaughter designed and painted this sign for it.

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We are very proud of how talented she is.

We took them both out to eat and spent a nice time with them.   Love how nice it is to carry on a conversation with them.  They are not ones to sit and say nothing, that’s for sure.

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Next we had Halloween, Thanksgiving and a birthday all on the same day since three of my grandchildren will be in Chicago for Thanksgiving.  So I asked the grandkids to dress up.  This is a Blue Man and a Wizard from Harry Potter.   The other one is dressed like a teen-ager.  I don’t have pictures of our other two, but one of them was dressed as a prisoner in a black and white striped suit and the other was dressed as a policeman.   They were so cute.

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I had made a birthday cake for the boy in blue. He requested my chocolate chip applesauce cake for his birthday.  He had already blown out the candles, so I asked him to re-enact it so I could get a picture of it.   Our younger grandson thought this was funny!

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I’m getting ready to paint our kitchen.  I don’t know why I do this, but every time there is a holiday, I think I have to paint something or rearrange something.   You can’t really see this yellow very well, but it’s really pretty. David said I just picked this color because it had the word, “chick” on it.  Maybe.

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Next up was the musical.  Sound of Music.  One of my very favorites.  I had been singing the songs from it all week and was so excited to see it.

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Our granddaughter played one of the nuns. “The grouchy one,” she told me.

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Here’s our son with his daughter.  He was in several musicals in high school and in college.  It runs in the family.

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The orchestra tuned up.

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A sold out crowd.

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The whole play was so good. There are some really talented young people in that school.

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Maria being dressed by the nuns for her wedding.

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Some of the nuns.  There were a lot of them.

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“Climb Every Mountain.”  That song always brings tears to my eyes.

I always look forward to the musicals at this school as they are so professionally done and of course I am not a bit proud of my granddaughter’s parts in them.

This week we are going to our two youngest grandchildren’s school where they are going to have a veteran’s day program.

We have some other plans, but I will tell you about that in a later post.

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Nothing like the pure blue skies of Autumn.

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And nothing like a hot cup of mocha latte with whipped cream on top.

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With birds feasting at the feeder.

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And knitting socks with beautiful yarns.

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I’ve finished a pair with this yarn.  I have become a sock knitting machine.

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Time to get out my Jim Shore Harvest Angel.

Time to pick the last roses of the season.

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I wish you could smell this rose. It is from one of David’s grandmother’s rosebushes that we dug up and brought to our house after her house was sold.  This has that old fashioned rose smell that is so wonderful.

 

I hope you are enjoying Autumn.  It goes so fast just like every season.  So wrap your arms around it and take pleasure in each crisp, lovely day.  Soon, the snow will fly.  Bye.