Here She Comes!

Spring that is. My very most favorite time of the year. Some years Billings forgets to have Spring all together. Other years Spring gets started and is murdered (yes murdered!) by a late snow storm. This year, although our temperatures are still all over the place, Spring is looking particularly lovely.

The clematis is climbing

The periwinkle is blooming


Tulips and pansies are in full bloom

Lamium is going crazy in the backyard

Bushes are leafing out

Raspberries are fully leafed out

Asparagus has made its appearance

Peas, radishes, lettuce and carrots are all up and growing

Bleeding Hearts are, well, bleeding!

This odd looking early-blooming peony is almost ready to open it's first bud.

Every year I say "This is my year to garden." Every year my plans are derailed. But really! This! is! my! year! to! garden! No marriages, no new babies, no surprises. Right, family? Right?

Hearts And Hands

Hearts and Hands is the annual community service project sponsored by the Billings and Billings East Stakes which took place on Friday and Saturday. There are 38 organizations who receive various donations, ranging from quilts to food to baby layettes to school supplies. All donations are used locally. Below is a picture of the finished products, ready to be picked up by the organizations.

Long shot of the distribution tables.

Last year we added a used clothing drive for women. Donated clothes are checked for stains, then sorted by type (dress, pants, shirts, shoes, purses) and sized and hung for sisters to sort through. Anyone can take anything and any amount of clothing they want. Some clothes are pulled for Billings "Dress for Success"--a charity that gives professional-type clothing to needy women for use in interviews or jobs. Leftovers are picked up by Salvation Army.


Below is a picture of the stage where elementary school kits were assembled. These kits include a new backpack, new pencils, markers, glue sticks, notebooks, markers, crayons, and scissors. If we have more supplies then requested by local charities, we donate them to School District 2.


These are finished backpacks in the teen room. They have school supplies and hygiene items. They are intended for charities that service homeless or runaway kids. We don't always meet the requests made by the charities we work with, but we do the best we can, and the charities are delighted to get our donations. It's heartbreaking to see the amount requested each year and know there are that many needy kids and teens in our community.

Below are sisters assembling teen kids

Below, a picture of the 100+ clothing protectors for nursing homes.

A shot of the gym where quilts were being tied. We try to involve other churches, and one really wonderful church participates every year, including their pastor and wife, teenage sons and their friends.

We make baby, twin, and lap size quilts. Most of the quilts were finished before the service days this year, freeing up valuable time. For the first time in many years we finished every single quilt. Last year we sent home 40 quilts to be finished and donated later.

Each assembly area had a sign that listed what was to go into each kit. Donated items were separated into piles and sisters walked around the tables, adding one of each item on the list to their bag.

Piles in the layette room:
toys

diapers

clothing

receiving blankets and burp rags

Other projects that I didn't get pictures of were the friendship bags---basically a bag of food for people who are in need of their next meal, the hygiene kits for Women's shelter, Salvation Army, and Family Services, the knitted caps for cancer victims, and the clothing and book donations for Head Start, and the blood donation area. We provide the biggest blood donation days for the local blood bank.

I am always so amazed at the generosity of people in our community. There were many pieced and hand or machine quilted quilts. At a time when many people are in need themselves, there were so many donations.

Sweet 17 and Never Been....Oh, Never Mind

Happy Birthday Megan!

Megan told me this week that 17 is a "nothing birthday"---not the socially important 16th birthday and not the emancipating 18th birthday. She did not volunteer to forgo her nothing birthday presents.

Here's what Megan's friends were doing last night while Megan was sleeping.

The reluctant birthday morning pose.


Unfortunately for Megan, her birthday is a shared event. She has school, I have two solid days of Hearts and Hands, not to mention a 33rd anniversary to celebrate.
I have a feeling Megan will still be celebrating her nothing birthday without me.

Because I Said So!

When we were kids, Mom use to pull leftovers out of the fridge and say "We need to eat this. It's getting old."

Not exactly the most appetizing sales pitch for supper.

Last Friday we had our monthly Stake Relief Society Sisters temple session, followed by our luncheon. I made chicken salad with croissants for 3000 or so. We fed around 25.

Since then we've been eating a lot of leftover chicken salad: chicken salad on croissants, chicken salad quesadillas, green salad with chicken salad.

Each time I feed the leftover chicken salad to my family, I inexplicably find myself saying "We need to eat this. It's getting old." Hmm....

Cause Two is Better Than One

When I Grow Up I Want To Be...

Hailey walks in wearing my shoes and reading glasses

and says in a stern, gruff voice, "My name is Grandma. It's time for dinner."

Me: "It would be so nice if I could put on Hailey's shoes and maybe her hairbow

and be Hailey for awhile."

Megan: "It won't work. Hailey's got your grumpy expression down,

but you're too old to pull off her face."

Some days you can't win.

Today Is My Lucky Day....

...but I'm not counting my unhatched chickens just yet.

On February 17, 2006, the front end of this car was hit by the front end of a stop-sign-running driver. She went to jail on an outstanding bench warrant, I went to the repair shop followed by the poor house-other driver was not insured. On Monday I received an official-looking letter from the city demanding that I appear in court today regarding this matter or go to jail for failing to appear. No explanation, no bring this information, no "is this a convenient time for you?"

So, good citizen that I am (and not wishing to be a jailbird), I went to court. Shockingly, other driver wasn't there! Turns out she's been in three accidents in five years, and pulled over for other reasons twice, each time with a suspended licence and no insurance, and each time she's failed to appear in court.

Is it just me or is there something wrong with that picture?

I testified. Yes, I'd been in an accident. Yes, it was judged to be 100% other driver's fault. Yes, I was out money--the $1000 deductible. Yes, my insurance paid the rest since I had comprehensive coverage.

Then it was other driver's lawyer's turn. I guess you get a lawyer even if you don't come to court. How old was this car?(1999) How much was the repair bill? (don't remember) Why didn't they total it out? (don't know) How many miles were on it at the time of the accident? (around 100,000) What was the blue book value at the time of the accident? (don't know) and finally "HOW LONG DO YOU THINK SUCH A HIGH MILEAGE VEHICLE WOULD HAVE LASTED ANYWAY???" "Well," says I, "at least another 110,000. That's how many miles I've put on it in in the 4 years since the accident. And optimist that I am, I hoping for another 50,000 until we can launch our last child and buy our sports car." The judge laughed. The lawyer fell silent. I'm thinking the lawyer thought that car was in a scrap pile.

A real Perry Mason moment.

The judge thanked me for my testimony, awarded me a $1000 judgement, and said they'd be sending me checks as the money came available from other driver's garnished wages.

Excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting for that check in the mail.

Duplex Redo Deluxe, Part 1

When we got word our 1332 renters would be moving Jul 2009, we knew it was time for a major rehaul of our rental. Our renters, who lived there for 15 years, were heavy smokers, and our duplex had not had any updates other than flooring, replacing worn out appliances, and paint. Having been built in 1971, it was in rough shape. Cabinets were falling apart, light fixtures were dated and brittle with age, counter tops were gold glitter Formica with pieces totally missing, and the renters had broken windows and put big holes in the walls.

How I wish I had thought to take more before pictures during the process! There were just too many things going on in our life--Ashley's wedding, Amy's move, etc.

Before

Here is the bathroom, after stripping down, but before remodeling. The walls were originally white, now grayish brown from cigarette smoke. The smell of smoke was so horribly overwhelming in the beginning it was hard to work.

Ashley and Stan stripped the old carpet out.





The windows are aluminium and pretty cheap, but still functional.



Here's a view of the old cabinets.

After
By September, we realized Amy would be our new tenant. We also realized that predictably, the redo was taking a lot more time and money than we hoped.

Here is a view of the new stair light and laminate flooring. Stan has done most of the work by himself. The only thing we had done was the counter top.
I did the painting--I'm not much of a plumber/electrician. The color is "creamy pebbles"--kind of a grayed taupe.

This shot shows the new doors, light fixture, molding, and paint looking down the hallway. The popcorn ceilings all had to be painted since they absorbed so much cigarette smoke. Removing the popcorn is not an option, as it very likely contains asbestos.

Good-bye yellow smelly ceilings with gold glitter flecks!



New curtains, chandelier, and more flooring





The fireplace has been pretty much left untouched. I've come to love the exposed brick look in the duplex. It's amazing that none of our renters have decided to paint it over the years. Renters tend to do things like that and hope the landlord doesn't notice.




A view of the new kitchen. What an improvement over the old one!


The entry area--note the new doors and doorknobs. McKay helped Stan put the doors up. It is definitely a two man job.

I should also add that we did a partial redo on the 1334 side when our renter Pat went on vacation. We replaced the kitchen, living room, and bathroom flooring with the same laminate as well as cabinets and counter tops, and did some painting.

Stan still has the bathroom and bedroom molding to put up. We had plan on using the old molding, but it had so many layers of paint and was so brittle and cheap, it became impossible to reuse. The same was true of the plug and light switch covers.

Stay tuned for Part 2! We also plan on adding a 2nd bathroom off of the upstairs laundry room. Then comes the outside--replacing the roof, fence, and some problem siding, all the 1971 originals.

Today Is My Lucky Day!

Nimble Thimble is a local quilting group that meets at the downtown First Congregational Church. They make dozens and dozens of quilts that are donated to worthy causes, as well as selling raffle tickets and refreshments to raise money to rent their church space and buy supplies for next year. I ran over to their annual quilt show today and bought a $5 raffle ticket in the spirit of supporting a worthy cause.

I won the grand prize! It's a pieced queen size quilt, machine quilted.

Even better, when I went downtown to pick it up, Hailey and Makayla in tow, the quilting guild was so excited to see me and "my cute little girls". It wasn't until one of the women asked Hailey (gesturing to me) "Where is Mommy going to put the quilt?" and a second one asked "Is your Mommy always so lucky?" that I realized they all thought I was the mom and not the grandma. I was going to correct them. Really I was. But why spoil a wonderful day by admitting I had been too old to have a baby for at least 16 years? It probably helped that no one there was under the age of 85. Good to know I can still pass as a spring chicken to SOMEONE. Yup. All and all a very good day!

What We Did on our Spring Break

We enjoyed the Montana grandkids and a Montana break in the weather.

We enjoyed some fabulous scenery...
...in Island Park, Idaho.

We froze!

We visited our favorite bathroom (West Yellowstone, MT).

We watched McKay score 15 points in the All-Star game,

and make 10 out of 10 shots in the free throw contest.

We spent time with the Backmans....


...and the Pearsons
We trashed Jessica and Jorden's kitchen
We bought a dishwasher from
good old RC Wiley in Salt Lake City...

...which Handy-dandy Stan installed (Backmans didn't have a dishwasher before. Stan cut through their existing cupboard, did the plumbing and wiring).

We spent time with the cutest boy in Idaho.