Yes, it's sad... after just losing both our father and step father, cancer has again struck another family member. As we go through this, with support and love for our family, we are asking for prayers and kind thoughts.
Steve's family has also had too many family members suffer with this horrible disease, and has lost some of them too. It has been a shocking time for Steve and I, and for the members of both of our families.
Mom is adjusting well to the loss of Lowell, and we are in contact multiple times a day via computer, chats, email and phone. I am sure it's hard for her to get used to being alone, cooking for one, and filling her days with things to do. She is doing well, organizing her craft stuff, and handling the rest of the details that need to be done when one loses your spouse. I am so proud of her for stepping up and coping so well at age of 77.
On one bright note... we have something positive to look forward to! Our oldest daughter and husband have announced the forthcoming new arrival! Sometime in November we will be greeting our seventh grandchild!
Now, isn't he or she extremely handsome, beautiful,
educationally advanced and spectacular?
*just like ALL of our grandchildren???*
Since our coming home from Florida a few weeks ago, we have been getting back on track at home. With multiple obligations slated for Steve's work schedule and our family gatherings, we are trying to get the repairs completed on the motorhome too. We need to fix the waterpump seal leak and replace the clips on the alternator. Both projects require getting out on the ground underneath the motorhome to work on it. The only problem is that the weather isn't cooperating!
FIVE times since we got home, we have woken up to ***S*N*O*W***~~~~
The weatherman is promising warmer weather this week, and hopefully encouraging Spring to make it's appearance? After basking in the 80+ degree days in Florida a few weeks ago, this wet heavy icky frozen Wisconsin has been kinda hard to deal with.
My flowers are poking up their feeble leaves along the house on the south side. I carefully covered all of the tulips, daffodils and crocus to shelter them for the first two snow storms because I knew in advance. The last few snowfalls were more of a "surprise" so they didn't get covered. I hope they all survive.
I have been working on customer's orders for rugs that I had put aside while we were gone. Got a few orders completed and shipped out, and working on a few more.
My Newcomb Studio loom needed a front take up lever on the front beam The loom had come to me without a take-up lever. Until Steve could make me one, I had to either borrow the one from the other Newcomb or use a "strap wrench" for taking oil filters off cars! Finally, he took off the other one, matched up the materials to make a new one, and installed it last night for me!!!!
Back in business without having to swap levers from loom to loom just to weave.
Last weekend we had the opportunity to babysit for a couple grandtots. It was so good to fill the house with childish laughter and squeals of delight. We put the kiddos to work with projects and baking tasks and positive attention. It was a great time....
Making Auntie Lois's banana bread recipe:
Grandpa Pfun attended Chelsea's Hair Salon
Grandpa also attended their medical clinic....
using our blood pressure monitor and oxygen sensor,
they put Grandpa through a full medical checkup. He passed.
Any task we ask of them, at this age, they gladly join in and help.
They helped me work on this quilt, and also to finish up these rugs....
With the arrival of spring, we have a lot of projects in mind to get done around here. If the weather cooperates, we can perhaps start a few things this weekend.
Tonight Steve is going to lead the orientation for the camphosts we have lined up for the park this season. I am cooking up a meal to serve out of crock pots to the group of volunteers before the meeting starts. But then..... I am going to "play hooky" on the meeting and head up to Green Bay. Granddaughter Allegra is having her dance recital, and if you ask me, that is WAY more important.
Actually they were really good.... and I only had them from Monday night until Friday morning. Our oldest daughter had to go out of town on business, and our youngest daughter drops her son at the older one's house every morning at 5 am before work. So someone was needed to stay at the house for Jameson to come in the door at 5 am... and then transport all three to the daycare at 7am. Then the older ones are transported to school and back to the daycare until 5pm. So it's pretty important that they are babysat up there in Oconto instead of down here at my house in Chilton.
Each morning it's a routine of getting them up, dressed, eat a snack to hold them over till breakfast at the daycare, teeth brushing, backpack gathering, coats, shoes and finally strapped into the backseat of the car! Whew!
But we got it all done each morning,
with only one tiny meltdown
when a certain Diva insisted her shirt was too loose. LOL
I was even brave enough to double up and have Jameson spend a whole night as a sleepover! His parents wanted to finish a coat of paint on their own house's basement, it would be good if the 6 year old was out of their way and they could get it all done. I let the kids create "octopus hotdogs" for dinner....
They had so much fun constructing them by shoving the long noodles into each double sized chunk of turkey hot dogs. After boiling them up, they were ready to consume. Yummmm (yup, I ate them too) We also had cauliflower and carrots. I hope we are making wonderful memories!
While the kids were gone during the day, I had brought my sewing machine along. It was kinda fun sitting at my old dining table where I had sewn for so many years. Years of sewing at that table where I made all of my kids clothes, their baby quilts, and even my business suits. I also sewed many many ruffled country pillows in the 80's and 90's on a contract agreement with a craft seller who had me do the sewing for her. Later Steve refinished that dining table and we gave the set to our oldest daughter for her home.
The boys were kept busy with my tablets creating race cars and playing the "socks and underwear matching game" ... and Chelsea wanted to do some "needling" (her name for quilting)
Here is a little Utube clip of her working on a quilt with me:
The week went by fast, but I missed being home with my Steveio. We try to never be apart this long, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Because of all the turmoil in Chicago, and snarled up air flight schedules, Erin's plane was first delayed for a late Thursday return, then later cancelled completely. Oh well, I spent another night up in Oconto.... and got to share watching the Packer - Viking game on tv. The little Cheesehead Fans wore their jerseys and had bowls of Cheetos to snack on while watching their favorite players.... (Aaron Rogers and Clay Matthews) ...
They cheer loudly for the players, and understand the concept of
"downs" meaning they get three more tries if a First Down is achieved.
And, of course, the Packers won!
Friday morning all went smoothly as I dropped all of the kids off at the daycare. It was a sad goodbye for me, but they went on to play with their friends. Normal routine --- uninterrupted --- for them so they could stay in their schools and daycare while the parents all had changing schedules. I was so glad I was able to help out.
But then this very tired Grandmuddah went back to the house to pack her bags, load the car, and head on home to Our Old House in Chilton.
The last of my tomatoes had ripened and needed to get canned. I spent an enjoyable afternoon canning up the ripe ones.... skimming off the peelings by simmering them and then plunging into ice water. Then cutting up into chunks and canning with a bit of lemon juice and salt in quart jars. PING PING PING the sounds of jars sealing is music to my ears!
The very green tomatoes were brought in my biggest bowl, and the half ripe ones set out on the counter to finish ripening. I put the green ones in layers on trays with newspaper covering them and they should ripen up during the week.
After a wonderful welcome home from my Stevio, it was great to snuggle up in front of our fireplace and reconnect after being apart so many days. We don't like to take such long periods of time away from each other, and try to do just about everything together.
We got a few yard things done on Saturday but it was raining and cold and icky most of the day.
One project I wanted done was to buy some grow lights.
We found four old iron bed rails in the garage attic,
and spread them out over the old sawhorses in the basement.
Recognize this room Paula, Laura or Debbi?
I set out my pots of coleus that I have been prepping to winter over in the house. I have kept these same coleus strain of plants going since the mid-90's. I keep snipping off and rerooting and wintering over inside. The last two years I had them set in the guest bedroom up on the second story, but this year I will try the basement and have additional light from the grow light bulbs. We set them on a timer to give an extra 4 hours of daylight now, and will adjust to about 6 extra hours in mid winter. In the basement it will be easier to water them and not worry about drips from leaking flowerpots.
With the impending cold weather, we also turned on the furnace. ACK! Heat bills, here we come! We also started to turn on our electric mattress pad heater on the bed at night. Yes, winter is on it's way, and there isn't much we can do about it.
One project for Our Old House is to add a heat duct to the half bath on the main floor. The room originally was a closet near the back door of the kitchen. The previous family, the Kopf's, had added a toilet to the closet to make an extra bath. With four girls, that kinda made sense, eh? But I can tell you, with NO heat vent in that room, it's one awfully cold blast to the hiney to sit on that seat.... it's in the back hallway of the house between two different exit doors, and not really in the main heated area of the house. brrrrrr You do manage to get in, do what you gotta do, and get right back out again fast in the winter months!
We still have the yellow kitty cat toilet brush holder from the previous owners!
There was never a heat duct in there of course when it was a closet, who heats up their jackets and umbrellas? We had an extra register grid on hand from when we adapted the kitchen and changed the ductwork around... so we were all set to add new ductwork now, and top it off with an old register to look authentic.
Steve dug out the old register from storage in the garage attic and I cleaned it up. He figured out all the ductwork needed and measured and realized it won't be such a hard job afterall. We ran to Menards today and got all the proper ductwork and boot unit to put it all together sometime soon. I just LOVE these old copper register grids and so glad we saved this one to use again.
The other thing this little bathroom lacked is a sink. For the last year or so, after using this bathroom, we have always walked into the kitchen to wash our hands at the kitchen sink. That is kinda strange, and not quite what we want.
Recently I saw a program on HGTV called "Rehab Addict" where this spitfire of a young gal named Nicole Curtis rehabs old homes that are slated for the wrecking ball in Detroit and Minneapolis. A link: The Rehab Addict on HGTV Instead of ripping out and putting in all new stuff, she rehabs and reuses old stuff whenever she can. I think she is my new HERO! I watched enough of her shows at our daughter's house to know I will take the time to watch them online now. (we don't have cable so don't get that station here)
She had found a nifty corner sink for a house that had a tiny little powder room bathroom. Today while at a few stores, I tried to find one like it, but kept coming up empty handed. Has to be special ordered they said. So I bit the bullet and searched online. I found many in the $100-300 range, but most were still too big for the bathroom we had. Finally at this website: Vintage Tub and Bath I found the PERFECT one! On sale for only $69.99 plus FREE shipping! Wheeee
After the heat duct is done, this will be next on Our Old House list of projects.... Just have to pick up a cute faucet and some drain pipes and fittings, and Steve can tackle this one too.
Steve is also going to reverse the door in that closet. It opens inwards, and we will want it to open outwards. Just pry off the jams, hopefully not cracking any of them, and reversing it to open outwards into the back hallway. It should work, but the door will have to be in the closed position all of the time to get by in the hallway. Now with heat going in there, that should be okay.
By the way, I LOVE the tacky yellow wallpaper in there, and it's in great shape, so I am leaving it. Steve's brother Pete gave me a cute original artist creation with homemade paper in an interesting frame that just suits the room perfectly. We stained and poly'd up some oak trim for a top rail, and we added a "garage sale find" cabinet for holding essentials (toilet paper)
Then my friend Paula gave me this wonderful light fixture.
It had been in her sister's house and she now passed it on to me.
I think Nicole Curtis of Rehab Addict would be proud of me!
Our grandkids are all raised in the heart of Packer Country, so they are all about football! They all have Packer wardrobes of jersies, jammies and sweats. Gotta start em young, right?
While shopping last weekend, both Jameson and Chelsea tried on some Cheesehead hats. How adorable is this? And Allegra was donned out in her Clay Matthews jersey for game day!
We had little Allegra all weekend, and we wanted to take her camping too. But it was raining all weekend and we had to stay at our house instead. I had plenty of opportunity to take some photos. Here are the best ones:
We got in lots of early morning snuggles in our bed, with fits and giggles!
She was my little helper at the table loom... we worked on a towel together.
She LOVES the levers and put them up and down for me,
and patiently waited for the shuttles to go through.
Then she got to do the *beat beat beat* with the beater to make the towel.
It was story time each night before bed, and we had to set a limit on three books,
otherwise we would be reading the whole shelf of storybooks!!
We did some cookie baking while Granfaddah went to his horseshoe tournament.
It was still raining out, so we didn't go along as originally planned.
No fun for little girls to sit on a lawn chair under an umbrella. So we MADE FUN!
White chocolate chip and macadamia nut (premade) dough.
Then she carefully added some chocolate chips to the tops!
WHY do cookies take SO LONG to bake???????
But well worth it when they were done!
Allegra was also my model for some of my knit hats.
I got about 10 different hats on her to model for me
so I can list them on my Etsy site to sell for the upcoming winter weather.
(what a HAM!)
We hung out down in the loom room too.
She was busy weaving on my big looms, with my help.
And she tried out a new Birch Tree rug that I just took off a loom.
Looks like she was having fun, huh?
All too soon, it was time to head on home.
Thanks for the great weekend, Little Leggers Girl....
Al from http://thebayfieldbunch.com/ reminded me that I have not posted lately.... so I guess I better check in! I am wayyy behind on blog reading too.
Been a bit down and out here... besides the pneumonia, I seem to have some anemia and bleeding inside somewhere. Scheduled for upper endoscopy and (ugh) lower GI scoping on Tuesday. Will know more after that. But plans are still on for our long RV trip on the 23rd, come hell or high water!
Besides trying to stay on top side of the earth, instead of 6 ft under, we are also caring for the beedlebug baby Chelsea and the two rat dogs, Domino and Angel while Erin and Mark are off to the beach in Cancun.
(note the temp of 5 below and the wind chills of 25 BELOW zero on the tv screen?)
Granfaddah is doing a good job of wrangling the wee one
and picking up the endless toys over and over again.
Notice all the stuff up high on the entertainment center, out of reach of the wee one?
And here are the rat dog Chihuahuas that should have gone to Mexico WITH them!
and leave them there in their Native Motherland!
Are two chihuahuas called chihuahuii ????
The kids sent home email messages of -
getting couples massages,
laying on the beach,
exploring Mayan ruins,
dipping in the ocean and
going snorkeling.
All while we sit here in the Great Lakes with massive cold, winds, ice, snow and the top edge of the Monster Storm! How fair is that?
AND to top it off, the neighbors are down there too, so we are watching their house, and feeding their cat.
Steve has had to go shovel and snowblow at both of their houses, besides our house too. He sure has been kept hopping and really deserves a vacation!~
The other BIG NEWS today is that our beedle bug Chelsea poked through her second tooth today! Without a bit of fuss, crying, pains, or drooling. It just POPPED UP!
The kids will be back in Wisconsin on late Saturday, so we will move the dogs, crate, kid, toys, diapers and gear all back to their house before they pull. Get the baby sleeping in her own crib, and the dogs in their own domain. Then Erin and Mark can just come home, relax and enjoy their child and dogs... .and we can go back home to our own peace and quiet! LOL
That is about it for us.... just thought I would check in!
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