Showing posts with label Sophie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sophie. Show all posts

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Treasures


You know what the secret is to finding "Treasures in the Attic" don't you?
Send your neighbor on the treasure hunt. . What you overlook or think isn't too exciting, they may discover and see as a worthy treasure.

Take this trunk. I don't know where it started life, but I know that my father rescued it from a barn and it belonged to his father or grandfather. He acquired it in the 70's, painted it, then my mom sent it to the basement where it was living underneath the stairs covered up with all kinds of stuff until my neighbor discovered it. My neighbor (I can't remember why she was even down there).... saw it and insisted I bring it upstairs.



It really doesn't look too bad in the living room. And it's a great place to store the pet "stuff".

Know what it used to store? Long forgotten prom dresses, party dresses, and ballroom dancing dresses. I remember seeing these dresses when I was very young, but I just assumed that they had long since disappeared.

This was my mom's prom dress in 1947.



She said she was mortified when she got to the prom and discovered that everyone else was wearing the same dress. Apparently it was THE DRESS to wear that year.


This was a ballroom gown that she wore in the late 50's I believe. The gardening aunt has a picture of Grandma in this dress....maybe she'll read this post, dig up the picture, scan it, and insert it into the post (hint, hint, hint).



(Who says Carol can't take a hint?)
The dress used to be completely green, but the satin has faded to gold with time. I guess it's allowed since it's pushing 60 years old.


Here's the best dress.

My grandmother made this dress for my mom for a dance her first (and only) year at IU.

I think that was in 1949 maybe?

It's a great dress for dancing....





And spinning....









And the best part of this dress is that I remember when we were little either our Grandmother or our Mom (I don't know which one) made a matching dress for a barbie doll. That's buried in another box in the basement somewhere.....

What's buried in your basement?

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Victory


Man....it is WAYYY too early in the morning. It better be worth it.

The Destination...



The Outcome....

The Benefit.......

The Victory......

Hey!

Where did those size 9 feet come from?

Time to go shopping for:

Shoes (Size 9!)

Bubble bath

Lotion

It's been a long four weeks, but I never heard a complaint. Good job, Sophie.

NOW. NO MORE TIP TOES - OK?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Memories and Weeds

But they said to walk! Really, they did! The nurses said to walk so that she could practice walking on feet rather than toes....a rather novel idea for Sophie, the infamous tip-toe walker.....

But they didn't know Sophie. They didn't know that when they told her to walk and told her the more she practiced walking on her feet rather than her toes, the sooner she would see results and get those casts of that she would take them for their word and walk 2 -3 miles per day.

The result? Blisters, sores, and NEW casts. At least these are sort of creative, don't you think? And they match her skirt.

She wasn't at ALL happy about it when they told her to stay off of her feet all weekend to let the blisters and sores heal. SOOOO BORREEDDDD........

BUT THEN! God provided....in the McDonald's drive-thru.....picking up 49 cent cheeseburgers! Who should appear in my rear view mirror shouting my name? Mel-Mel-'s Mom! (Hi Laurie!).

So.....I kidnapped her daughter.........(I'll return her someday, Laurie, don't worry!)

Sophie was SOOO excited! So, in the last 24 hours, Laurie, we have introduced your daughter to Wii Fit.......



After you ever seen 3 tweens more engrossed in exercise?


Look at that concentration on that girl's face!


Sophie's in charge, cracking the electronic whip. Stretch Mel! STREtch!

Unfortunately all that hard exercise makes for some hungry kids. So, Laurie, we took your daughter to Steak and Shake for supper, Mrs. Curls for dessert (I think she had a large twist cone), Panera bagels for breakfast (with Hazelnut cream cheese), and NOW they are making cookies.... But hey, what 10 year old little girl sleepover is complete without a homemade batch of cookies?


The cookies are in the oven right now. I didn't stay there with them while they mixed up the batch...I figured it was time for them to follow a recipe and fly on their own. BUT, they decided to add some left over hazelnut coffee (ummm...did I tell you, Laurie, that I let them have coffee this morning? After only 1 hour of sleep last night I thought they might need it...), and hazelnut creamer, and hazelnut extract. I'm kind of worried about these cookies, they are really liquidity and aren't thickening up at all....ummmm....wonder why?

Oh, well...that's how they learn. They are having fun and making memories. That's what counts.

Meanwhile, some weed fairies have invaded my garden and in one night have completely taken over! (hee, hee!) I thought that when my sister said to EMBRACE THE WEEDS, she meant to learn to live with them. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it).

What a mess! Are there any vegetables in there? Please?












Ahhh....love the Zinnia's!

Ahhh!!! Green Beans! I knew there was something under all those weeds!

Hope everyone is having a great summer and making lots of sweet memories!

"HUGS"

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Excavating


Ummm....watcha lookin' at Victorina?


Umm...OK....

Watcha doin' Sophie?

" Excavating....want to see all the cool stuff I've found at the bottom of this old compost pile?"


Old compost pile is right. This is the corner that 40 years ago, we used to burn the trash each evening....back when trash burning was allowed. For those of you old enough, remember the smell? It was kind of a pleasant, comforting smell, dont' you think? This corner hasn't seen a fire for many, many years. We did use it for compost once upon a time, but I dont' think it's been touched for the last 5 years or so.


Nothing like getting right down in there and "experiencing" the dirt.


"It's all in the name of Science, Mother Dearest!"

It's hard to see, but she has unearthed old coke bottles, glass fingernail bottles, and other mysterious items that should have never been in the burn pile to begin with. No, Carol, there were no marbles or other childhood treasures. At least not that I know of.....or not the last time I asked. They've been digging back there a lot lately. Looking for more buried treasure I suppose.


BTW...the compost was EXCELLENT! It has been sitting there for years and years. The dirt is rich, black, and beautiful. I should know. I used a lot of it as I planted six flats of flowers today. I would show you the pictures, but that would requiring movement, and I'm too sore to move from this spot. I think I shall stay here forever.......


Another by the way....we've been doing more than just digging in the dirt and planting flowers. We went to see the new Narnia movie yesterday, Prince Caspian. EXCELLENT movie! The kids and I loved it. Well worth the money and missing a bright sunny day outdoors.



We've also moved on to a new book series that we are addicted to: The Dragons in Our Midst series. The first one is Raising Dragons. This is a series of four books by Bryan Davis, that are too good to put down. We actually read the second one straight through by accident. It took about 9 hours and my voice was hoarse, but we couldn't find a non-suspenseful place to stop! Seriously! We're in book 3 right now, and the kids are glaring at me.

It's time to read.


They're waiting.... Not very patiently......


Night-night everyone!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Teeth

Last week, Seth lost a tooth. He named it Bob. He was happy with the four quarters the tooth fairy left him.

This week Sophie lost a tooth. It was a baby molar. It also came out with a cavity.

"Mom? How much would it cost to get a cavity filled at the dentist? "

"I don't know, maybe $100 or more. Why? "


"Well....don't' you think that you should at least pay me half of that for saving you all that money? "

HUH???

"Well, if I hadn't worked hard to make the tooth loose, and hadn't worked hard to pull it, then you would have had to pay the dentist to put a filling in it. Therefore I SAVED you money. I think you should share that savings with me. Don't you?"

Uh.....NO!

She comes from a line of lawyers, can you tell?

She settled for a 50 cent bonus.

Wait a minute....did I just PAY her for a cavity??

Thursday, April 3, 2008