Memory Monday, Mom

I'm calling this Memory Monday. I have memories and it's Monday... I may do this for awhile. I've posted memories of words that begin with the letters A, B, and C...so next up is the letter D.

Dancing and Delaware Dam.
Dancing, I was a young teenager getting excited about going to school dances, or dances during the summer months at the cities playgrounds that were run by the Recreation Department. Dancing...dancing with boys, pretty darn exciting in those days. Mom was always a good dancer. So, on Sat. we often turned on the TV, moved a chair or two and danced with Jerry Razor a local TV personality on a teenage dance show, or the more widely known American Bandstand with Dick Clark. Mom would show me steps as we watched and tried to figure out what they were doing on TV. So, the flip side of this was, I knew how to dance; but lots of the boys back then didn't. sigh...lol Still good memories though.

Delaware Dam. A place the family often traveled to in order to fish, to picnic and to just spend the day together outside. We traveled about an hour from home to get there, which seemed like forever to us kids. Sometimes we'd fish, sometimes we waded in the water, sometimes we'd roll down the grassy hills. We thought those hills were huge when we were kids. Seems everything seems so much bigger when you're young. Sometimes we walked across the dam which had an open grate and you could see the water below to get where we going for the day. I was always afraid, not sure why...but always felt relieved when we got safely to the other side.

Thanks for the memories Mom.
The purple iris is one of many in the backyard. They line the fence rows and are quite beautiful. The starts came from Mom and Dads backyard long ago. I had a vase full of them on the table last night, since Daddy was coming to dinner.

Badges, BlogUpp, and Bridge

Ok, the voting is in...see my new badge! I like it; but am keeping the lightpost in my file in case I want to change it somewhere down the line. Thanks to all who took the time to vote and voice your opinions, much appreciated. Please feel free to grab my badge and add to your blog. That way clicking will bring you here easily. Right click on above picture and save to your computer, add widget to your blogspot blog, click browse and find the picture on your computer; then add url for my blog which is http://4ccccs.blogspot.com/ I really need to change that, if I can remember all the places it's listed that way in order to get it changed. But, for now...I'm leaving it, even though it's a weird url.


This badge is one I made for Jan, my SIL. I know she'd love visitors. I also know lots of you are animal lovers so think you'll enjoy her blog. Tell her I sent you traveling her way.

Have you noticed my BlogUpp widget? It's cool. Click on it and you can find other interesting blogs. Add one to your own blog easily. No registration required. Simply click on the widget, once on their page, add your url and presto......you have a widget. Cut and paste the code on your blog and have fun visiting. It truly is quick, easy, and very enjoyable to go blog walking in places you might not otherwise have known about. Have fun!

And now for my 3rd B...funny how everything today was a B word! I've updated things over on The BridgeThanks so much for all the help. Please take a look and see what people working together can accomplish. And...please feel free to help spread the word, even if you yourself don't knit or crochet. Thanks!

Please take a look, Vote...I need feedback

I've made some badges for this blog and can't decide which one I like best. Would love some feedback to help me decide. Sandy's Space....how does one represent that. Space as in up in the sky, I love to garden, the page where one can make these fun badges doesn't have yarn, and that doesn't represent me always ...soooooooooooo what do you think:




Tell me which design you like, some are repeated with slight color changes, and or changes in font style or font size.

Heading to basement to throw load of laundry in, then outside to do more planting. Should get flowers done today? Think I need to make some black bean soup for Daddy, he loves black bean soup.

For fun...please scroll back to previous post, you can have fun with this video too, pass it along once you plug in your name. Too cute not to enjoy. Everyone needs a laugh.

PLEASE check this out, I'm still so moved by this I just can't put it all into words. THANKS BUNCHES LADIES!!

I feel soooooooo Honored

If My Mother were still alive, I could have honored her in the video. Please click on the Title to this blog post.

Just think you're own name here ladies, and enjoy!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Please scroll back if you've not seen the awesome gift 7 very special ladies sent me.

AND, for the animal lovers, please pop over to SIL, Jan's blog (soon to be posted), a special video there for ya.

7 Amazing Caring Women! SEVEN

LOOK!
This beautiful comfort ghan made for me by some of my wonderful, kind and very caring ladies here on the internet. We've not met face to face; though some of us have known each other for several years. My words of gratitude can not possibly measure up to how touched, truly touched I was when I opened this box. THANK YOU!
Beth, Lynda (Bunny), Scarlet, Ghost (Diana), Faith, Sandie, and Wendy. All the squares are lovely. Even my hubby was impressed. The card was beautiful. I have it here on my computer desk reminding me daily how good people are. Yes, I am very sad at losing my Mother. I miss her everyday. When I read your card I filled up with tears; not because my Mother died; but because you all have such loving hearts to reach out to me in this way.

Daddy came to dinner last night and I shared the card with him, and explained how I knew each of you. He's 83, doesn't really get how we can know each other via the internet --in that he doesn't use the computer; but he's heard me speak often of things we all have worked on together. And so he knows it's only distance that keeps us from being friends face to face.

I thought perhaps my other readers here might also enjoy knowing how we've come to know each other. Sandie and I first became acquainted on Crochetville. She had been involved in a project with squares that was coming to an end for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The thread was long, I read it all and wanted to help; not knowing the project was now over. Shortly after Sandie and I chatted; she decided to keep the project alive and re-organized it from the original person who had headed it. Ghost (known to us in the group Squares4Survivors) as one with smoke flying off her crochet hook, and Bunny (Lynda) were also in that group. Through blogging we stumbled into each other again and frequent each others blogs. Faith, Beth, Wendy,and Scarlet are all friends through the wonderful world of blogging too.

Many of us blog about life, about knitting and crocheting for charity; and many have been very active helping me with my local homeless charity project, Bridge and Beyond.

I thank you all, truly from the bottom of my heart. This comfort ghan, does indeed bring comfort and will for many years to come.


(((((((HUGS))))))))

I wanted to post a 2nd picture giving you a little different view of this beautiful afghan

Camping, Creativty, and Courage

Mom and Dad, the day after the wedding of my youngest nephew, summer before last. This photo taken in my older brothers and SIL's back yard where we all just chilled after the wedding, the rehearsal dinner. We were celebrating hubby and my Anniversary (35), younger brother's Mike and his wife Dee's Anniversary and both of their birthdays, AND the end of chemo for young Janet...many of you will remember my niece Janet and her battle with bone cancer.

Remember the good times, which aside from my nature; Mom said in some of her last moments.

Camping:
Mike, Mom and Dad and I were camping locally on an Island that we got to from our small fishing boat. Took several trips to get the 4 of us, and our camping equipment there. The Island was soft and sandy and we were the ONLY people on it. Soooooooo cool. (older brother Chuck was working and couldn't go). Mike and Dad fished and Mom and I set up camp, made dinner and did our thing. Sleeping on the soft sand in our tent was comfy.....

Mom and Dad were up having their morning coffee at the picnic table, Mike and I racked out. Next up me. Sorta. As I started out of the tent (no doubt to make my way to the woods to go potty), bees surrounded me. Quickly I zipped the tent shut and yelled at Mike to wake up. Mom and I decided, with Mikes help the bees were waking up. The bees that lived in the sand, that were asleep when we pitched our tent. So, I jumped back in the tent to help Mike hit the floor of the tent to stun or better yet kill those bees. Mom and Dad were at the ready to drop the tent poles the minute we escape. Naturally, we're all moving fast; and laughing.

Whew, made it. Bees stunned, escape made, tent downed super fast and moved quickly off the nests.

Some how, we all managed not to get stung.

Creativity:
I know anyone who knows me is immediately thinking, knitting and crocheting. Sure, Mom taught me to knit when I was very young and that will always be with me. She didn't teach me to crochet; but......being creative is more than that. Being creative with how you cook, how you stretch the family budget to get the most for the dollar. You know, look in the fridge...not much there. Take a look in the cupboards...even less and still make a meal so the family you love will have something to eat. And really not just something; but a balanced meal. Being creative means taking clothing and furniture and making something worthwhile from it.

The dining room table still in use at Mom and Dad's house is a table Mom rescued from the curbside when we were young. We lived in half a duplex, a rented duplex. The older woman next door had died and her place was being emptied. She was the owner. A table carried from her basement in parts (legs and top separate, with burn holes we were told had been used by the guys to play poker) held possibilities for my Mother. She got help to carry the table to our basement. She spent months working on it. Cleaning it, sanding it, filling the holes with wood putty, staining it, and using a nail made what looked like a knot hole in a couple of larger holes. She and Dad put the table together. It's Oak, it's beautiful. The family ate more meals there then I can count. I don't remember how many leaves there are; but a huge number. As the family grew with us kids getting married; we could still all sit around this table at Thanksgiving.
Fine china, linen table cloth and the family around that table is a memory I will never forget.

Courage:
The courage Mom showed at the hospital is something to marvel at. She never cried, not when they put in 3 different chest tubes, not when she wasn't able to speak due to a respirator being inserted a 2nd time, not when she watched them hang the 16th unit of blood, or when they had to get ultrasound to help place her 4th arterial line because her veins were so bad. In her long 7 week hospital stay, she never ate a meal. She had a feeding tube and went weeks without water except for a swab in her mouth, or an occasional pop cycle. When she had so much fluid in her system that it oozed out her pores she showed courage. When she had the opposite problem and had so many tubes/hole that she drank a swallow of juice and it came out her side, she showed courage. When she made the decision that it was time to stop all the medical intervention; she showed courage. Not a tear did she shed.

Just some of the things I will always remember that start with the letter C.

Love you Mom