He's Baaaack.....

Lee & some of his Catalogs

My gardener is back. It must be spring! I realize it doesn't look like it, it doesn't feel like it and it certainly doesn't say it is spring on my calendar yet. But since my gardener has arrived, it must be spring!

I finally heard the message. I was told to prepare for seed ordering. The catalogs have been arriving in our mailbox for nearly two months, between 50-60 different ones. Who would have thought there were that many places selling garden seeds. I have tried to ignore that the day was getting closer. Last fall when the last of the garden was pulled down, and the last tomato and pepper cages were carried to their winter resting place, I was told that our 2008 garden would be MUCH smaller. I doubted the message and the messenger. Why?? Playing in the dirt is part of Lee's personality. I wondered - could a smaller garden be in Lee's future?

We sat down to order seeds. Brett, our oldest son is a big lover of "HOT" peppers to quote Brett. Brett had already brought over his pepper seed order before this day arrived. So we looked at tomato, pepper, cucumber, green bean, swiss chard, summer squash, winter squash, and zucchini seeds. We made decisions regarding all these seeds, I made my lists and told Lee I would go online in the morning and order his seeds for him. Surprise, surprise it really isn't much smaller - Lee's 2008 garden.

The next morning at breakfast, Lee made the declaration - "Do not order tomato and pepper seeds for me. I am buying tomato and pepper plants. Just get ALL those other seeds."

The orders have been sent and Lee is now eagerly awaiting the arrival of his seeds. He is already planning his garden on cardboard, so we are READY. Yea!!

Happy Birthday, Derek!

February 21st is Derek's birthday!

This is again a special day at the Towle House. Derek was born, in Moline, Illinois just 15 months after his older brother was born! At the time I thought - Wow - I have two boys, 15 months apart - I was 22 years old that day in February.

(When I posted a Happy Birthday to our oldest son, Brett in November, I was chided just a small bit about leaving out the year....Well that was 1963 and 15 months later, Derek in 1965)

As all can see, I was able to see both my boys grow up to be men to be proud of.

Derek is our resident Police Officer. He takes care of all 'police type' stuff for me. He currently is a Captain with the Greenfield Police Dept - filling in as Interim Police Chief - until one is appointed. Derek provides "quick" travel for me when I need to go to the hospital (like in the middle of the night), and provides eyes and strength when his Dad needs it and I can't perform as needed and always comes right over whenever I call saying "I need help". Thank you for all you do for us Derek. We are so proud of you and hope your day is a very special one.

Derek with his Dad and older brother, Brett in 1965 ~ ~ and ~ ~ Derek now as our favorite Police Officer! (I am so thankful that my abilities as a photographer and equipment have improved immensley since 1965.)

Happy Birthday, Derek, with Love, from Mom & Dad

Gene

We have been blessed the past 14 days to have Lee's brother visiting with us from Long Beach, California.

Gene made only one request before he got here - and that was to have some snow - which really was not my preference. But ... apparently God was listening and He sent - SNOW! Not much, but almost enough to say it really snowed.

While Gene is at our home in Greenfield, I am on vacation. I only have to do the cooking... you know, meals, homemade cookies and homemade bread. That is small price to pay for all the things Gene does for me.

This brother-in-law of mine takes care of many things for me. He is my main driver. I get to sit in the backseat while he is in Indiana - and I really love that! He takes me wherever I need to go, he takes Lee to his various activities and becomes our very own personal driver.

I never have to do the dishes. That is Gene's job when he is here. What a joy that is. I do the cooking, and then when dinner is completed, Gene cleans up the kitchen. I was unable to get a picture of him doing dishes. He yelled at me ( well 'yelled' is a relative term...) but he very FIRMLY told me I had to delete the one I took. He even threatened me - with the camera he gave me last year and I was using to take pictures. So I gave in and deleted the pictures I had taken of him doing the dishes.

Getting the mail and paper every afternoon becomes something Gene does when he is here and I am always delighted at that. You know the Post Office motto - "Neither snow nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their rounds" and Gene does that for me, as shown in this photo on a cold, snowy, windy Indiana afternoon.

The fact that I have been sick the entire time Gene was here was frustrating, but we managed quite nicely. Lee took care of Gene's noon lunches. Gene was there for Lee in the shop all the times Lee required "eyes" and I was keeping my bed warm trying to get rid of whatever has invaded my body.

I am aware that he mentioned to someone at church this past Sunday that he has a "few complaints". Guess you need to know Gene. While relating this to me, he laughed real big. As my granddaughter Cindy used to tell me when she was only 2 years old "Just kidding". Early in Gene's visit we were talking about something and I gave him a little harrassment and his comment then was "I'll get you Bette". Guess he got me at church this past Sunday.

Having Gene here has been a true joy and we are always excited when he says he is coming east to visit us. Come again Gene and safe travels back to Long Beach.

This - That - and the Other !

I'm all alone in the house this morning. And I am not expected to be anywhere, anytime today. Thank the Lord for both blessings. Aloneness , quiet and no place to go.

Getting up this morning I thought I was well. Been up about 3 hours - and no - I guess I am not well yet, better but not well.

Lee and Gene have gone to Indy to visit our newest grandchild. I was not allowed to join them due to whatever has invaded my body. The Mommy and Izzy do not need any extra things to deal with.

Speaking of Izzy and her mother - here are a couple of new pictures. Isn't she just wonderful. I guess being Grammy allows me to show off my beautiful little grandbaby.

It has been a while since we have had a baby. A couple of posts ago, I told you about Paige. She is the next youngest baby we had and she is now 5.

Parker, Brett's son, is only almost 4 - but since he and his Mom and sister joined our family in October, I missed all the fun baby stuff with Parker.

I must try to get some laundry done today. And the bed, couch or recliner is calling me, so I will be a responsible adult and get my work done, so I can go horizonal. Enjoy your Saturday and Sunday.....from this Upstreet Grammy

Family has arrived!!!

Last week I feverishly did as much spring cleaning as I could manage to fit into the week. I felt like I was progressing quite remarkedly for an older female - I thought..... When I 'think' sometimes that is not a good thing.

I went to bed Saturday night thinking, one day of rest and I can finish preparing for my family who will arrive to visit - from California.

Woke up Sunday - before my feet even hit the floor, I thought "Oh, boy, this isn't good. " Something hit me overnite - nausea, dizziness, weakness - and I thought - ?the flu? Maybe only the 24 hour stuff. I'll be okay tomorrow.

Tomorrow arrived and I still wasn't okay - in fact I'm still not okay 6 days later. But Dr. O'Connor was reassuring - it isn't fatal, so you all are stuck with me. Just Gastritis which the good Doc says can last from 1-10 days. At day 6, I'm ready for it to leave.

Well cleaning was over. I managed to dust, vacumn, make the guest bed, clean the guest bath on Monday & Tuesday with Lee's help, and then back to bed I went.

Gene, Lee's younger brother from Long Beach, CA arrived Tuesday late and between he and Lee have survived without my help. I have spent most of the time in bed. Finally I am feeling a little better and managed to check my e-mail, blogs and 'you know' all my "important" stuff. Then I decided to blog, not for sympathy, just to forget all the stuff going on.

Gene has been out this afternoon doing road repair on our driveway as this picture shows. Lee always has a list of jobs for Gene to do while he is here. They are busy completing the list. They did mailbox repair yesterday. In a recent storm, the snow plow wiped out our box. Today it is driveway repair - I guess it is on with the list for the next 10 days that Gene will be here.

I think that is all the news from Upstreet and I just might go check out how warm my bed is. Have a good weekend. Catch you all later!

From the mouth of Babes....

Or in this case a five-year-old.

I took down all my Christmas decorations the first of January. It is now the 2nd of February and all those decorations are waiting in the exercise room - stacked around in piles, overflowing various containers, lining the edges of the room, hanging from the walls and the furniture, an absolute disaster of a mess. As you know from my previous post - I have been scrapcarding and apparently not tending to my normal duties as a housewife.

Last night Paige was visiting and during the course of conversation, all of a sudden she announced.

"I have to wake up early tomorrow, run downstairs,check the weather and see if the groundhog saw his shadow"

I asked her "What happens if he sees his shadow". The answer came very excitedly from this little girl, "Then we will have six more weeks of Christmas". Isn't she adorable? ( Of course I am her grandmother and all my Grands are adorable, handsome - you know - wonderful children. )

But what a relief. I may not have to worry about packing away all that "Christmas Stuff" in my exercise room. We just may have six more weeks of Christmas. I know because Paige learned it at school and told me herself.

Here I am - and all is well....

It has been some time since I last posted and even though I check every day to see if my friends have posted and read theirs....Oh, my goodness gracious....I am so lacking in my very own posting - - - - I really hate to admit it. But the secret is out. I'm moving slower after that BIG number birthday last summer.

All of that being said. I was inspired at Christmas 2007 by a very dear friend of mine, Martha who helped introduce me to Scrapbooking last summer. I am not very good, but I do like doing it. Every bit of it....what fun. Wish I had known about it when my children were small. Oh well, that means I have 44 years of pictures to scrap to catch up.

This is what was my inspiration this past Christmas looked like. Isn't Martha clever and so very talented. I was so impressed! I decided I want to scrap my cards for Christmas 2008. But I am definitely not as exceptionally gifted as my friend. So when I found a Greeting Card Project Pack - named "Boughs of Holly", I thought hmmmm....with help I just might be able to pull this off. So I have been making Christmas cards along with spring house cleaning this month, and like I mentioned - I'm slow. Therefore I haven't been posting any blogs. Not that there was much to blog, but I guess I can always find something to talk about. And some might even find it interesting. That is part of the fun of blogging!

You can check out the picture below for some of the cards I have managed to create so far. If I do all 70 that I usually send out, I have to keep busy every month of the year doing some, or who knows it could take 2 years to finish the cards for 2008. By then - who would care? Yeah - that's what I thought....Nobody! So hopefully I will manage my time better in the next few months and find time to blog as well as my scrapbooking, errr - scrap carding!

Bette's 2008 Christmas Cards.........so far