Ah

Today's temperature was: 83 degrees

Today's humidity was:  52%

Sunny--cloudy--sunny

It's Michigan--if you don't like the weather--wait a 

minute and it will change.

A bit too humid for me today--I noticed when I went out onto the porch to throw the cat litter bag in the garbage--so I came back in and stayed inside all day--enjoying the A/C.  I do not do well with hot weather--I guess that's why I like fall and winter?  In the summer, when I am shut up with all the windows and doors closed--it is like being shut up in winter time.  I like the windows open, the doors open--the breezes coming in.  

So anyway--I was so amped from my birthday yesterday, that I couldn't get to sleep until nearly two o'clock this morning.  When my alarm went off at 8:00, I shut it off, turned over and slept until 10:00.  Why not?  I had no where to go and nothing much to do.  :-)  

I looked at the pictures from yesterday--I really need some new clothes!!!  My shorts are so wide at the hem, they almost look like I have a skort on.  My top is so big, it makes me look bigger!  Oh well--I just can't fret about clothes--I can't afford to buy new ones and I don't go many places in the summer AND I am too old to worrying about being stylish--so--why worry.

Karen, Maddie, Susan and I were exploring the attic yesterday--we found some great things.  My sister gave me a wooden box she found that we figure was our great grandmother's.  It was from a face soap company.  I collect wooden boxes and was thrilled with this one.  Looks practically new and I know--it is over 100 years old.  We also found a whole trunk of bonnets--some quite fancy.  There was one that looked like a widows bonnet--probably our great great grandmother's.  I put it on and it didn't fit my head at all--people back then were so much littler.  It had a big bow to tie under the chin.  I put it on, tied the bow, made a very dour face and Karen took a picture.  She hasn't sent it as yet. 

I also found several Ivory crochet hooks!  Maddie thought they were plastic until I told her that plastic hadn't been invented until after I was born.  I took two of them and want to use them the next time I crochet a project.

Then when we left the attic, there was a picture, hanging on the bedroom wall, of our great grandmother.

Karen said, "Mom--you look like her!!  I thought you looked like your mother's side of the family, but...look at her face.  You look just like her."  Which I did.

I thanked Karen for the observation and said, "Ah--how nice.  You think I look like great grandma Sophia in this picture?  Sweet--she was in her eighties when this was taken!  Thanks a lot."

Meanwhile, Madeleine Sophia is giggling in the background. 

Oh by the way, I gave Susan the Christmas tablecloth I cross stitched.  She tried it on her dining room table and it is big enough to put 4 leaves in the table and still fits.  Probably big enough to seat 10 people.  SHE LOVES IT!!!

I forgot to tell you something last night.  While I was in their garage, I noticed a whole bunch of gingerbread trim laying along the west wall.  Chuck told me that the craftsman ( a friend) that made their fireplace and other nice trims, took a long stretch of the original gingerbread to cut new wood.  Then he decided to make it out of Trex--the composite that they make decks out of nowadays.  He took measurements of the lengths he needed, then made a stencil of the original and now has the Trex all cut and--IT WILL NEVER HAVE TO BE PAINTED!!!  Their contractor is coming early next month to put new siding on the house--the narrow kind, like the original and Susan is painting ALL the shutters.  Then, when they repair the wrap-around front porch--that house is going to be the showplace it was when it was built!!  I am so excited!!

Chuck and I are fighting with Susan.  She doesn't want to put the trim back over the doors and windows...because, birds like to built their nests on top of the trim and...Susan is terrified of birds.  I don't think Chuck and I are going to win this one...but...maybe?  Like Susan says, "I want to keep it looking like the original."  Well then?

Look at some of the old pictures Susan found of...me :-)

My first birthday and already I had the habit of chewing my tongue.

I still do when I am concentrating on something--like cross stitch or crochet.

I was born on my cousin Helene's 6th birthday--so here we are

1 and 7.  She was named after my grandma, and my grandma's only niece and her precious--until I was born.  

Helene was 80 yesterday--she still claims I ruined her life, LOL

Okay--this is not at all PC.  People nowadays would be horrified.

I am 2 1/2 and am sitting on a farm machine.  No seat belts.  

No way to hang on, except tightly to the seat I am sitting on.

A lot of our machinery was converted from horse drawn

to be able to pull with a tractor.  The farmer sat on the seat

and drove the horses.  

As you can see, this is hooked up to the tractor

and Daddy is about to go out into the fields.  

And it's a manure spreader

So as you can see--I got no respect.  

I also rode on the hay mower--the

long cutter blade just a foot from where I was sitting.

TWO AND A HALF--who does that to their child?

I loved every minute of it--or sitting up on the slippery fenders of the tractor. If I had slipped forward, the tractor wheel

would have run over me.  I SURVIVED!  I never once got hurt

while I lived on the farm.

Mother made this for me for Kindergarten Halloween.

The costume fits the child's personality.

It was red and white--she sewed every dang red and

while circle on it, by hand.

Man--it looks like I am standing in front of an old, 

falling down house!

Well--we had no indoor plumbing until I was 8.

First day of Kindergarten.  We went all day!

Note the ankle high shoes--suppose to make our ankles stronger--

they did not.  And the socks--one up and one down.

And how tall that child is for 5 years old.

I look like the ragamuffin I was/am.  LOL

An interesting note, I told my kids yesterday and grossed them out--I was born in this house and afterwards--my father took the placenta and buried it under one of the trees in the front yard.  Part of me will always be there!!!

Cool--huh?

============================

My Daddy's funeral was 5 years ago today.  I didn't even think of it until late this afternoon.  He died on the 18th, and I didn't even think about it that day.  I wonder what that means?

I always remember and think about my mother on her birthday, June 16th.  I always know which anniversary year it is on the day of her death, March 15th.  I remember so much about her.  Why then do I not think of my Daddy on those memorable days?

Well--let's delve into that psychologically--shall we?  

Yesterday is the first family event we have had at the farm since my step-mother died.  I thought about it when I got home--I have never felt more comfortable there, since I was a little kid.  The last 42 years in that house, were filled with anxiety, for me.  It didn't matter if it was a family picnic, Christmas, or just a visit by myself.  Some critical or nasty side-ways remark about my foolishness was always made.  Now "those people" are not present.  I can be who I am--without worrying.  

Can you even imagine how freeing that is?  How relaxing that is? Of course you can't. Your Daddy's were special to you--your first love.  You were his Princess.  I have read that the closeness between a father and daughter is far more important then between mother and daughter.  It gives the daughter self confidence--self respect and teaches her the kind of man to look for as her husband.   

Perhaps that is why I view yesterday as one of my best (recent) birthdays. I was so calm and relaxed--having a ball playing croquet and not a worry that "someone" was going to tell me I talked or laughed too much or too loud.

<sigh>