Getting Ready

Good Morning to you all! It's another warm sunshiney day here in the midwest. I have a few errands today. I need to pick up prescriptions before our trip and I'll take Mom along and we'll have lunch at a local family owned cafe. She likes it, the food is great and it's not overly expensive like most places are now.

We leave on Sunday to start our journey to Spokane. We'll stop in the Black Hills for a few days, then to see our son Jamie and his family in Montana, before making our way to Washington. The plan is to take almost a week to get to Spokane, be there for a little over 2 weeks and then a week to get home. Of course it all depends on how Mom does with us gone so long. Mandy will be here, looking after her for us and we will be calling Mom several times a day to see how she is. We're looking forward to four weeks of living in our little trailer and calling it home. We still hope to do more traveling in it in the future, but we'll have to see how that works out. In Spokane, we'll once again be parking in our friends driveway like we did last year. Mooch-docking is what they call it. lol We'll actually be house-sitting for them for a week as they leave for Italy the day after we get there. We're taking care of their little dog, Izzy, who Zoey loved playing with last year. They have a perfect camp spot for us with electricity and water too. They have a huge yard and garden and a salt water pool to play in. Then, we'll have another week with them when they get back home. It's wonderful to have friends that are like family back there. I know it will be hard to leave. I'm already registered for a ladies tea at the church while I'm there. Fun times! We haven't decided our route back home yet. Of course there is the normal way we drive. I-90 straight across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and S. Dakota. We've done that dozens and dozens of times and would like to see something new. We're thinking of going down to Utah and taking I-80 across Colorado and Nebraska. Or, go across N. Dakota and check out the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It may be too hot for that though.

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll get done. It depends on internet capabilities. I'll be able to read your blogs on my phone, but it could be the usual commenting issue. I'll sure do the best I can and I'll be able to keep up with your escapades! :-)

Last week Miss Piper and I went to see the new Little Mermaid movie.

It was pretty good and stayed true to the storyline of the original animated movie. Parts of it were really dark though, dark as in it was hard to see different scenes. Even Piper commented on it. I think they were trying to get the idea of how dark it is underwater when you get really deep, but it was frustrating instead. You knew action things were happening and you could barely see them. Still, it was very much worth going to.

Piper and Lizzie spent the night that night and Lizzie was exhausted from playing with Zoey. She gets much more tired than Zoey does. I think she was probably the runt of the litter but she is the sweetest little baby. We all love her so much. I thought this picture was so cute of her. She loves her babies and blankets.

Tuesday I picked Piper up and we ran errands together. Twelves stops in total and she is a trooper and very helpful. We stopped at "Henry's" for lunch. It's a family owned restaurant in Crescent, IA, just across the Mormon Bridge from Omaha. We eat there after church often. Wonderful food for good prices. After lunch one of our stops was the cemetery to put flowers on all of our parents and grandparents graves. She really likes to help with that. She knows that they are her ancestors too, and likes me to tell her stories about them. Especially my Mom.

Another stop was to visit with Grammy. She would literally kill me if she saw this photo, but she won't, so here it it! Ha! We had a good time laughing and talking. I knitted that blanket behind her head for her for Christmas last year. It was made with scraps, holding two worsted weight yarns together and plain garter stitich. It's really fluffy and warm and she likes to cover up with it in the evenings.

I finished the granny blanket but I haven't washed and blocked it yet so it looks a bit wonky. It will go to a nursing home right arond the corner from us.

One sock done and the other past the heel turn. I'll work on these on vacation. It's just a k1, p1 ribbing for 18 rows and the Hermione stitch down the cuff. The foot is plain vanilla. Hermione is another free pattern on Ravelry.

I finally found a fingering weight yarn for the Multnomah shawl that I like. It looks black and white in the photo, but it's really a dark navy and cream. I'm thinking about adding beads around the feather and fan portion, but haven't decided yet. It will be for the kids wedding in Cambridge in September. This is their "fun" wedding since they had to keep cancelling it due to covid and just settled for a registrar wedding. Now they can celebrate with all of their friends and family and they can also show off Baby "J"! My dress is a dark blue sleeveless number. It could be cool in the evening so I thought a shawl might be needed. I've barely made a start on it and I'm getting ready to switch to a circular needle. Multnomah is a free pattern on Ravelry. I've made several of them for different people. I actually made a sparkley one for my niece  Chaela to wear at her wedding.

And now I've got to run. I'll pick up Piper and Mom in a little while. Tomorrow I HAVE to begin packing as I've done virtually nothing. It's hard to pack in advance when you will be using most things up until departure!

Have a lovely day my friends and I'll try to send you updates throughout the month.

Blessings and love,
Betsy

The heat is on!

Good Morning! We've had a really hot week or so here and although today is a bit cooler and only around 80F, the humidity is still pretty high. In other words, it's been miserable to be outside, so I've been staying in the air conditioned condo, car or any other place that has A/C.  One of the meds I take makes me very intolerant to heat and I'm absolutely miserable once the temp goes over 70. Seriously. In fact, the words of the neurologist were, heat can kill you, so stay out of it! So, to the best of my ability I do stay out of it. When home, I always have lots of things to do.

I fiished another "Every Which-Way" baby blanket. Zoey is always helping no matter what either of us are doing. Isn't she the sweetest model? The yarn was the $1.00 Ice Cream Big Scoop Ice Cream yarn in the bargain bin at Michaels and I still have a bit left over.

Now I'm working on a wheelchair lapghan and have 22 of 24 squares done. Then will come joining and putting on the border. I'm using scraps of different worsted greeens that I have. All are machine washable.

I don't think I showed you the queen size headboard and nightstand I found on FaceBook marketplace for $25.00 for both pieces. There isn't a scratch on them and the pattern on the headboard is beautiful.

The pencil drawing above the bed was drawn by Mandy when she was in the 8th grade in art. I love it.

The matching nightstand. The lamp is one of two matching ones that were left in our last house. Dennis has one by his chair in the living room.

The quilt and afghan were made by me, years ago. The luggage rack is from an antique store in Spokane. It actually comes in very handy and I think I only paid $15  or so for it, probably 25 years ago.

This was Melanie's purchase last week at the antique mall. Isn't it great?

And I missed posting this beautiful sculpture last week that was at Lauritzen Gardens. Isn't it something? The garden has sculptures hiding everywhere, behind bushes and trees. You have to keep your eyes open. They have different "hunts" for kids throughout the year. Easter, Halloween, etc.

I thought I would show you my view right now as I type this. We've put curtains up in the living room. They are sheers with small grey flowers. I like them so much that we've ordered the same curtains for the other windows. They're supposed to arrive today and I can't wait to put them up. The "Zebra" shades that are supposed to be the latest in home decor were worthless at keeping light out. Our bedroom was lit up like daylight at night and since they were "light filtering" you could see right in the room if the lights were on after dark, even with the shades down. Happily, they left the original white blinds in the closet of each room and we've been replacing the "expensive" blinds with the old ones. They have the wide white slats and look great. They work perfectly and are much more our style and they actually give us privacy at night. The only room that doesn't have them are the living room and so far the curtains have been fine for nighttime. We may eventually get white blinds for them too.

I've got to get moving so I can get to the church service at our old apartment. I help with some of the ladies who have trouble navigating their walkers and wheelchairs and I enjoy the singing of the old time hymns every other week. You don't hear them much in regular church anymore. Everything is the newer songs, which I also like, but I miss the hymns. It's something I really enjoyed about the apartment and plan to continue going when I can.

I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon, full of God's blessings and peace.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Oklahoma??? Nope.

It's Friday! What a whirlwind of a week I've had. Memorial day was the quietest day of the week.  This was the week that Melanie, (my sister,) and her daughter Chaela and I were supposed to go to Pawhuska, Oklahoma to Pioneer Woman's wonderful Merchantile and restaurant again. But instead of riding in a car for hours at a time like we did last fall, we decided to have a "Staycation" right here in Omaha. They are driving to the Mall of America in Minneapolis next week with Melanie's daughter-in-law and granddaughter for another "girls" trip, and goodness knows, a LOT of things have changed since we moved away 30 years ago right here in Omaha. There is so much to see and do here that we could stay right here for a long time! There are a LOT of pictures in this post and if you're interested in what we've been doing all week, come on along. :-) If it's just crafty stuff you're here for, please come back next time.

Now, I'm not like all of you wonderful gardeners that know the names of flowers, I just appreciate their beauty. Our first stop Wednesday morning before it got hot, was Lauritzen Gardens.org if you would like to look them up online. This beautiful place is so big. It has all kinds of flowers, a rose garden, tea garden, minature trains that run constantly, oriental gardens, memorial gardens. Inside is a tropical paradise and a very nice gift shop with lots of elegant things mixed in with the more typical touristy products. This is my second trip here with Melanie and I would love to go sometime in the early spring or fall when it's not as humid and hot.

Lots of gorgeous roses.

We had a bush just like this one when we were growing up. Melanie and I both commented on it.

Love the two colors on these roses.

Look at this beautiful red rose. Gorgeous. All of the photos here are compliments of Chaela. I just love my precious niece. She is the sweetest girl ever. She puts up with everything these two old ladies throw at her!

You can have bricks laid in the memorial garden in memory of loved ones. Mike is Melanie's husband and Chaela's Dad ,who died five years ago from the nasty cancer that claimed him way too young. He was a great guy.

Margie was his sister who also died from cancer. Georgianna was their Mom. I think this is a great way to show love to them. I know Mike liked to visit here at the gardens with the grandkids.

Our next stop was Candyland in the Old Market area of Omaha. I can't believe that I didn't bother to get any photos of the actual Old Market. This is the area by the river that was the business district of Omaha when Omaha was first settled. It was pretty historical and rough and tumble for a long while. Just in the past 30-40 years it has been reformed into a big tourist spot with fantastic restaurants, exclusive shops and kitchy places like the next shop, which is Candyland.

There is a huge video arcade in the back with vintage arcade games.

Every corner you turned had something different. There was no rhyme or reason as to the placement of anything. One corner had thousands of PEZ containers, another had a life size statue of Elvis. Here was Olaf waiting as we turned a corner. I LOVE Olaf! He's my favorite Frozen character. Obviously because of the name, there was LOTS of candy, especially from our childhood. Older candies that are hard to find now.

Here we are with one of the Blues Bros. We couldn't figure out how to get the other guy in the photo. This was hard enough and he looks like he's patting Melanie on the head! :-)

Next stop was a used bookstore that had books stuck in every nook and cranny. There goes Melanie looking for the perfect read.

We both were overwhelmed and got claustrophobic pretty quickly so we went outside and waited for Chaela.

Next stop on the corner was a very whimsical metal art shop. Chaela found these sunflowers and...

this ladybug art pieces that she was interested in, so she took a photo to show her husband. He wasn't as keen on them as she was. They had lots of fun sculptures in that place and we laughed a lot while exploring in there. 

By that time it was about 1:30 and we hadn't had lunch yet. It was also getting really HOT so off we went to the very north edge of Omaha to the Alpine Inn and had a great lunch of fried chicken, hamburgers and chicken gizzards! You can guess who ordered what! This place feeds the raccoons right outside the windows. Unfortunately we didn't get a table close enough to get a photo for you, but there were raccoons eating. They put leftovers out on a big metal table and they come right up and get it. They're quite entertaining.

After lunch we went back to Melanie's house and watched some music videos of Home Free. We all love Home Free. Tim & Chaela, Mandy & Brad, Melanie, Dennis and I. In fact, if you remember, the kids bought us tickets to a Home Free concert last December for our Christmas gifts. Melanie, Dennis and I spent the night in Kearney, NE and saw the concert together. We also caught Covid that weekend. Fun Times!  After our explorations that day I was home in time for dinner and slept in my own bed that night. Now that's a great vacation day, when you get to sleep in your own bed.

Yesterday the girls picked me up and off we went, heading southwest out of town toward Lincoln. Actually, very close to the state park that Dennis and I like to go to is an Antique Mall.  Chaela had been there before, but Melanie and I hadn't. We spent a very fun 2 1/2 to 3 hours wandering around. I found so many treasures, but I resisted all except a pretty cake plate. I had gotten rid of all of mine when we moved into the trailer so I splurged and spent an entire $11.00 on one. I'll take a photo for the next post. It has a tiny chip which is why I got it so cheap but I love it anyway.

Just look at all of these beautiful things. Each booth is owned by a different vendor, so there is a LOT to explore. The following photos are just a small fraction of the treasures you can find.

I wish I had a place for this gorgeous dresser, or buffett. Whatever it is. I really love the carvings.

How about a mermaid anyone? Or a birdcage?

There were quilts galore. A lady was there telling people how she buys quilts and cuts them up to make jackets. I almost cried. What a horrible fate for these gorgeous quilts. This was one of my favorites.

I thought this was a cute idea. It's a sewing box.

The seat cover is a pincushion and comes off for storage. 

This was Melanie's purchase. A hall stand. We couldn't fit it in the car with the three of us, so she paid for it and Tim and Chaela were supposed to pick it up tomorrow with their truck. They went last night though and surprised her by driving up with it in the back of the truck, two days early! It looks great there doesn't it? The color goes with her newly painted living room very well.

I almost bought these because I thought they were cute. When I changed my mind, Chaela snapped them up. The bottoms have rubber stoppers so you can actually get your money out.

After the Antique Mall, we went to another candy store. This store makes their own candy. I didn't get any photos but between the three of us, we spent a LOT of money there. I got salt water taffy, dark chocolates with mint, carmel/vanilla covered pretzels and dark chocolate pretzels. Now THIS is a store I could lose my mind in. 

Next we went to "Round the Bend" steakhouse in Southbend, NE for lunch. Oh. My. Goodness. They specialize in Prime Rib but we were a little early for that. The building is up on a hill and there were thunderstorms happening all around us. We could see the lightening and the rain falling in sheets while we enjoyed our delicious lunch of swiss mushroom burgers, and Chaela had a Chicken Fried Chicken salad. Yum! The clouds actually were a bit scary at one point and we decided that being on the top of a hill probably wasn't the place to be in a tornado but all's well that ends well.

Next stop was Walmart. Melanie, Chaela and Tim are in the market for new bikes. The little town they live in is pretty flat so it's perfect for bike riding. All of them are in need of new bikes. Here's the one cute Chaela picked out. It's call Margaritaville. It even has a pineapple cup holder. It's pure Chaela, who loves bling and shiny things. Isn't she a cutie?

And here's my big sister with her bike of choice, sticking her tongue out for some reason. Yes, it's a boy's bike but we both learned to ride on the same 26 inch boys bike long, long ago and it's the one she liked. Her choice also has a cup holder.

And that's the end of the Omaha staycation for this spring. What fun we had! The time together was the best thing of all. We spent a lot of time laughing and that was wonderful. After years apart, we cherish these days we can spend together. Unfortunately Mandy had to work. We're hoping that next time she'll be able to join us on our adventures.

I hope you didn't find this boring. Much of the reason I wrote this was so it would be saved and I could look at it again in the future. I didn't get much crafting at all done this week. Today was spent grocery shopping for us and Mom, taking her to Cracker Barrel for lunch, (where I found some Christmas presents. Whoo-hoo!) When we got home Mandy was here with Miss Piper and Lizzie who are spending the night with us. We had pizza for dinner, a beauty pagent by Piper and the puppies and by then it was her bedtime! As I said, the week flew by.

I hope your weekend is a wonderful one and that you take time to appreciate the little things. Because the little things really ARE the big things when it's all said and done.

Blessings and love,

Betsy