October 28, 1977

I was looking for a picture to put on Facebook. My family puts up pictures of some old lady who is 50 pounds overwweight, has wrinkles, bags under and over her eyes and extra chins. I don't know who she is or where she came from. OH, wait, it's me! I still don't know when that happened. I really don't look that bad in the mirror, but pictures don't lie, do they?

I don't have a scanner, so I was going to take a picture of the picture my daughter always said looked like Hayley Mills in Parent Trap. I was probably 13 or 14. It was too much effort to go downstairs and look for the album, so I turned around and shot this one that was hanging on the wall over the sofa.

Weren't we hippie want-a-be's? It's hard to believe we thought we could afford to be married. Mike was just getting started in a construction business and it was barely paying for itself. There wasn't any salary. I bought him the suit from J.C. Penney's for about sixty dollars. He wore it for many years. I think he had wingtip shoes from high school. His granny's friend made my dress out of double knit. My shoes were black patent leather sandals with big platforms. The were in the dress up box until Marcy was in high school. We got married in his mom's house. I didn't realize for many years what an imposition that was. She had 3 kids probably 8 and under and had to clean and get ready for a houseful of guests. The pastor stood by the door in the front room and our family sat around on the furniture and extra chairs. They told us later that the cuckoo clock went off when we were saying our vows. I was so nervous that I didn't hear it.

We were 25 & 26. I didn't want to get married in the church. I think I was against every thing just on general principal. It's a good thing my in-laws tolerated me until I grew out of it. We drove a 1967 Chevy van for our second car and that was what we let our siblings decorate. Afterwards, we went home. I was so exhausted I felt sick. We went to Hawaii for our 10th wedding anniversary. That was when we could afford it and only because we had friends in the army there who let us stay with them and lent us a car.

It was a wonderful 27, nearly 28 years, I am so blessed that God looked after me and sent such a wonderful man to put up with me.

Report Card: Wild Thing

I took the quilt top to Whatever yesterday. Below are the comments I received. We had small group because of illness. I wish I could depict the vocal inflections that accompanied these. Videos would be even better, but I didn't take it to heart. I enjoyed putting it together.

It goes.-meaning the colors went together
That's nice.
It's okay.
You know I like bright things.- this from my mother-in-law and she really does.

Wild Thing

I posted in the past about out Whatever Craft Group at church. People bring in their leftover fabric and we make quilts for new babies, foster children and each year's H.S. graduates. I kind of fell into the rotary cutting. (Wasn't as painful as it sounds) Our rule of thumb is cut 6" wide strips if they can be at least 18" long. The rest goes to 6" and after those, 4" squares. We try to work with donations, only buying batting and sometimes backing material. The strips are used to make a 6 hour quilt which is a quilt-as-you-go. We are trying to get ahead on our large quilts for the graduates since May will be here before you know it. Some of the ladies only want to tie, so I have used the 6-hour pattern to make just a top. I liked these colors. I'm pretty sure when I show it to the group the most positive comment will be that it is very bright. I had fun putting it together, but I don't really trust my style choices. Hopefully, someone else will love it. Be sure to click on the image to get a better view of all the fabric patterns.

Reading this day 02.07.09

I just finished reading The Long Walk Home by Will North. I recommend it for easy reading. I'd call it a grown up love story. I'm currently reading The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry. It's my favorite kind of story. The hero runs all over the world trying to solve some mystery and gets shot at, double-crossed and maybe falls in love.

The weather is changing here. It fell into the 50's with a harsh wind. Cooler yet tomorrow.

See you at God's house tomorrow morning!

Wait a while, it'll change.

The last 3 days have been up in the 60's but just a few days ago the highs were in the teens. It's hard not to get spring fever and start planting something or uncover the roses. The thermometer topped out at 73 degrees today, but about 10 a.m. a 36+ mph wind came in out of the west. The gusts are estimated at 45 mph. Oh, the weather in western Kansas! It's been such a dry winter, I've been trying to water trees while it was warm. The dust today was just too much, it was hard to breathe outside. I drained the hoses and put them away. The temps are supposed to start falling back to normal with snow on Saturday.

I feel guilty, looking at the temps in Minnesota and envious that Georgia looks like May to me. I always wait until at least May 14, my son's birthday, to put out bedding plants. Frost should be done by then. Although we have watched out the window at some wicked thunder, wind or hail storms that ruined his birthday parties.

I hope your weekend is a good one. Blessings to you all.