Sunday, June 04, 2006

The Beginning of the End

I only have eight more days of school and since this summer I only have a couple of fairly easy online classes and one week long AP Psych class I'm looking forward to a real summer vacation. Yes, folks, I'll be weaving, sewing, spinning, dyeing, knitting, gardening, kitchen organizing, hell - I'll even throw in some attic and garage cleaning.

Despite writing exams (for my students) and papers (for my instructors) I still had some time to work on my Northcott Rib.



The other big news since I posted last was my mother's 90th birthday.



She thought only my one sister was taking her out for lunch but the rest of us took off work and met them there. Later all the grandkids and spouses stopped by for pizza and cake. Not the grandest party, but it's what she wanted.

Our present to her was to put a new roof on her house. She lives alone and would feel uncomfortable with lots of people she didn't know working on the roof. My brother has rehabbed several homes, including the one he lives in now, and thought this would be a good solution. Of course we had to pick Memorial Day weekend when the temperature was in the 90s.



The old man is in front, one of my nephews to the right, and my brother (the job foreman) on the ridge.



My oldest son, Dan, and my brother-in-law scrape the old layers of the kitchen my father added to the little ranch I grew up in.



I tried to go on the roof but punked out. My job, along with food prep, was to cut these sets so the pieces were staggered. Reminded me of strip quilting.



The supervisor watched over everthing. Yes, it was 90° but some of her meds make her feel cold. Funny, when I was growing up I never saw her wear a sweater unless she was using it as a coat.



Just in case it wasn't crazy enough, we had two little ankle biters running around the house. My daughter and niece thought it would be cute if their new dogs got to know each other. Looks like they did! (Don't worry, no damage done! My daughter's partner protected their little Bella from big, bad Marley!)

10 comments:

  1. LOL over the ankle biters... yeah... with 3 I know what you mean. I used to work construction and did pretty good until we roofed a 3 story house. That really to got me. My mother gets cold too due to meds - I guess we know what to look forward to, don't we? Knit/crochet lots of sweaters now :-)
    Have a happy summer coz your readers will reap the benefits... more blog posts!

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  2. Ohmygod what a nice family you are. I'm going to print this out and save it for my sons when I am old!

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  3. Wow!! Your mom looks fantastic for 90 (heck, for 75, she looks pretty dang good)! And kudos to the family for giving her a present she needs and will use. :)

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  4. What a luck mom you have! Y'all are a terrific family! I hope your summer vacation turns out to be everything your imagination can conceive!

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  5. Happy birthday to Mom! So nice that the family would put together a group effort to give her something so useful. She looks fantastic, too - I would never have guessed 90!

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  6. Great post! You guys did a super job :) The sweater looks great, too.

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  7. Hi Charleen...I tried to answer your question about the pattern on my blog, but blogger seems to be out of commission right now.
    The pattern you asked about is Butterick 3532. I've made it a couple of times and am pretty pleased with it. Had to make my usual alteration to the crotch depth on the pants, but for me that's a given.
    For all of the patterns...if you click on the photo, the number of the pattern is in the browser bar.
    Your Mom does look wonderful! Perhaps not minding the heat is a blessing in the summer time!

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  8. Charleen, if puppies result from the dogs "getting to know each other", please let me know. A dog for DS#2 is part of the new house deal, which is looking more and more like a definite every day.

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  9. Wow - congrats and happy birthday to your mom!

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  10. sounds like the perfect day! happy birthday to mom!!! :)

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