SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

I am feeling very sentimental today.



I was cleaning and found this very unusual vase that my middle son D'Angelo made for me when he was a little boy. It made me think of when my three sons were little. I looked around for some of the things given to me by my boys when they were little. It s funny what things a Mother will save. This vase is now sitting on the bookshelf in my office.



This is a picture done In chalk by my youngest son Tony when he was very young. It hangs on my wall in the guest room.



This is a rock with gold in it. Given to me by my oldest son David when he was working at a mine in Nevada many years ago. It sits on my patio table. The rock has actually moved with me from Vegas, to California and now it is in Oregon!



This is a pizza cutter that my son David brought home from Pizza Hut when he was working there. It was when we lived in Vegas and it was his first job. He must have been about 16 years old. I still use it !


OK, I have sentimentaled all over you.

What items have you saved that your children have given you?


*****************************************************************************************************************

My husband and I will be flying to Las Vegas in the morning to attend our granddaughuter Melissa's graduation from Le Cordon Bleu Collage of Culinary Arts on Saturday.
CONGRATULATIONS LISSA NAE !!!

We will be returning on Tuesday evening so I will be off line until then.

Those of you that have participated in the Fathers Day ATC Swap...I will be partnering you together on Wednesday June 3rd.

MEMORIAL DAY

A day to remember those that have passed away.

We have memories, we have pictures and we remember....


Our family members, friends and acquaintances....


Our soldiers that have had their lives taken away in war....

We miss them and feel such sorrow but we will always have the memories.

I lost my Father when I was 7 years old and wonder often what he would be like today. I wonder what he would think of me and what he would think of his grandchildren. I lost him at such a very young age and I have so many questions I would love to ask him.

I lost my Mother just this past February and I miss our phone calls more than I thought. Even at my age I still have questions that I need to ask Mom.

I have lost many dear friends and numerous relatives over the years and I miss them all.


Happy Memorial Day ? Yes, because we have memories not today but every day !

FATHER'S DAY ATC SWAP

Father's Day is coming and I thought it would be fun to do an ATC swap since our Mother's Day Swap went so well and was so much fun !

If you would like to participate please comment to this post no later than June 1st.
Father's Day is June 15th so those of you that want to participate should have your ATC's ready to send out by June 1st.
I will pair up the participants so that we only have to do one ATC for our assigned partner for this swap.

The theme of course is Father's.
Feel free to post on your blog about this swap. Spread the word !!
Sign up and lets have fun !!

BUSY THIS WEEK

First of all I want to say that this week I made 9 ATC's for my blind trade with Michelle Reed Art For Hire. She is the lady in California that emailed me to do a blind ATC trade. I posted her 9 cards in a previous post.

It was fun and challenging since I only had 1 ATC made when I agreed to do this with her so here are my 9 ATC's and they will be off to her via United States Postal Service on Monday.

Circus Fun....Giddy Up

Mystery

Can You Hear Me Now?

Wish

Cherish

Push Me

Knowledge

Dreams

Seattle Coffee

I also signed up of an anniversary giveaway. This was with Susan Cleveland of Black Berry Creek. She is celebrating her 500th post and I WON first place. The first place prize was 3 yards of toile fabric !

I am so excited, I can't wait to create something with this.



We have a big project going on here at Green Acres. We are in the process of putting on a bigger brand new TimberTech porch. It is almost complete. All we have to do is the ceiling.We also had our deck painted and it so pretty!

Here are some before and after pictures so far. Next we are putting in a paver sidewalk and new rain gutters. This place is getting a anniversary since we have been here in Green Acres 2 years ago April 28th.




Our Old Porch...notice the size is very small.

Demolition Starts


Tools are made out of wood to help lay the new TimberTech Boards


Getting set up for the work


Measuring and sawing and much saw dust. Yuk! This is my husband and Doug working together through the entire project.


Our contractor Douglas Conrad . After he removed all the old cement and railing, now he is ready to begin the new porch.

Doug's helper Josh....what a hunk huh?


The foundation is new cement under this new frame.
Notice the wet ground....yep, they worked in the rain for three days!


The first rail is in. Proud workers...Doug, Josh and Alan.


They also removed all the old cement of the old sidewalk.

Old sidewalk is gone. Ground is ready for the rock and sand to lay the new paver sidewalk.

We recycled the old sidewalk and used it to make a place to put the generator we are going to get .
Dirt will be here and maybe some bushes to cover the generator. Below this is a cliff that leads down to the creek on our property.

Our deck before the new paint.

Here is Douglas and Josh, his helper finishing the firs coat of new paint.

Our brand new porch completed and beautiful. Notice the size now! Wow, what a difference.


One of our dogs Petey is enjoying the new porch.

We Love it! Now the new pavers go in next week. I will post pictures of those then.

Oh by the way....remember the rain and the guys working in the rain? Well this project has taken 5 weeks. It was raining and cold when the project started. It rained so many days in a row that they could not work because of the wet ground. Yesterday and today when the job was complete it was 85 degrees which is very hot here in Oregon because of the humidity! We are all glad it is done. Now we can enjoy sitting out on our new porch and watching the dogs play in the meadow and just enjoy our beautiful scenery!

MY WEEKEND

I received this beautiful ATC from another Mother's Day Swap participant. It is from Sherry Campbell of My Mother's Daughter.
Look how beautiful it looks and the lovely work she did. Thanks Sherry, I love it!


Saturday we went to Charleston, a neighboring community on the bay for dinner at Portside Resturant and Lounge.

We got a table by the window so we could see the water.


This old boat was part of the decor outside the resturant.


Sunday we went to breakfast and as we were looking for a place to park ....wait what do I see in the window? Is it? Let me get closer.....



It is! Right there in the window of a novelty store was a huge picture of Audrey Hepburn. The same image used for an award by Jeannene from Love Conqures All !

I could hardly believe my eyes but there she was! How funny! Guess you were thinking of me huh Jeannene?

I got calls from all of three of my sons and a wonderful card from my oldest son David. Also a really touching email from my granddaughter Melissa. I also had many comments about the tribute to My Mother and I thank you all. You all made the loneliness not so bad.

That was my weekend. What did you all do this weekend? Tell us about your Mother's day.

A MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE TO MY MOTHER

Mama

I want to tell you how very much I miss you. To not have you here on Mother's Day is so hard to believe. I have so many memories of you and of my childhood and how special you made me feel. You made sure that I knew you thought I was your "beautiful daughter" and I remember not 2 months before you passed away you told me that "no matter what happens, no matter.... what you loved me and were very proud of me".

Some of my memories are how hard you tried to make sure your children had what we needed. You worked so hard as a single Mother after our Father passed away and left you a widow at the tender age of 32 with two small children to raise.

I remember the used bicycles you stayed up all night painting so that they looked shiny and new on Christmas morning. I remember you never could keep a Christmas secret and if we tried hard enough you would eventually tell us what was in that pretty wrapped present.

I remember you picking me up from first grade and how scared I was that you would not come to get me. I loved horses and I wanted one of those plastic horses at the five and dime store so bad. You said to me that if I didn't cry and be scared for one week that you would buy me that horse. It was hard but I did it and I still remember that awful feeling but you kept your promise and I got the plastic palomino horse.

I remember you always sang "School Days".....school days, school days, dear old golden rule days, reading writing and ritimatic. Talk to the tune of a hickory stick.....every year on the first day of school.

Every Easter you would sing "Easter Parade"..In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, you'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade. Oh how you loved to sing.

I remember when my Daddy passed away when I was 7 years old and how sad I was that you didn't have him anymore or ever again.

I remember you taught me to live by the Golden Rule. You taught me morals and you taught me about Jesus. You taught me to stand up for myself and to love and share and forgive.

I am the person I am today because of you Mama and I am proud that I was your daughter. I miss you so much but know that you are basking in the glory of God and that someday I will be there with you and Daddy.

I Love You Mama, Happy Mother's Day
Rest in Peace

TWO MORE ATC SWAP'S

I received two more ATC's from a Mother's Day Swap hosted by Vickie at Whispers of Inspiration.


This is a sweet little ATC with a copy of a painting called "Martha, Patient Strength"
It was sent by my daughter in law Lori Garbarino at Out of My Mouth Your Heart Speaks
Check our Lori's blog for more paintings like this!

Thanks Lori I love her!

This darling ATC was sent by Jane Palmer

Thanks Jane, for not having done this before I think it is just terrific!
Thanks for participating it was fun and I hope both you and Lori will do this again.
THANK YOU AND HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

WHAT A SURPRISE !!!!

I had a package at the Post Office today so I picked it up and I was so SURPRISED at what was inside. There was an envelope from Vickie of Whispers of Inspiration . The envelope had the cutest girl with a bonnet on her head painted there by Vickie.



Inside the envelope was this beautiful 8 x 10 collage of my Mother!


It was such a surprise that I started crying because I have been missing my Mama realllllly bad the past 2 days. I have been biting my lip and trying not to cry at the drop of a hat so when I open this up I was just so touched. It was just what I needed...a picture of my Mama smiling at me!
Vickie of Whispers of Inspiration
was one of seven swap participants for a Mothers Day ATC swap and I was expecting the swap ATC but not an extra surprise. I am so happy about this and so honored that she did this especially for me.

Vickie was the first blogger I made a collage for and she has been my inspiration every since that day. She has encouraged me and supported me and complimented me when looking back at those first collages... were really not very creative. She supported me with her kind words through the death of my Mother in February and now she is sending kind thoughts with this magnificent collage.

I love it Vickie and I will cherish it always as I do your friendship. I am going to find just the right frame for it. Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

I also had an envelope from a great gal that sent me an email after reading my blog and wanted to know if I wanted to do a ATC blind trade. I thought this was a great idea so I said yes. Unfortunately she does not have a blog but I have been encouraging her to get one. She has been doing collages for about a year and she wanted to trade with ME! This is her envelope with some really creative art and writing on it.

And here are her nine ATC's. Her name is Michelle Reed - Artist for Hire and she lives in Long Beach, CA.
I now have to get to work on making up enough ATC so I can send her nine ATC's. This is going to be fun and interesting to see where it leads.

Thanks Michelle, your work is very creative! I love all nine of them.



When I went to town today to pick up the mail and on my way I remembered that Deb in NC over at
Gittin it outta my header ask me some questions about the area I live in. She was especially interested in my "Lane". Sooo....


This is Davis Slough. It is at the bottom of the road out of my lane and is the end of the Slough.
Salmon fishing is very popular in this spot when in season.




You did know I live in Green Acres right? Here is the sign to prove it! Giggle giggle.


This is the DIAO Barge that comes in from Panama to load up wood chips. They take it back to Panama to make paper products with. Coos Bay's main industry is logging..we have plenty of trees!

DIAO BARGE
WOOD CHIPS PILED UP AT THE MILL



Ok,we are entering my lane. It is actually called Green Valley Lane.


Better view of Green Valley Lane


Rounding the corner of the lane to my house.


Oh look to the left up the hill...there it is...my house. Soon to be painted a cedar color and we are adding a new porch and paver sidewalk as we type.


Ok coming up on my driveway or road to my house. Turn Left!


Ok we make another left turn up the hill and there you are at my house.

Welcome! I will have more pictures when our project with the painting, pavering, porching and new gutters are finished.

I had a great day!

THANKS AGAIN VICIKE and MICHELLE!!!