My Aunt Norma's Memorial Service was last weekend at our church. Marisella and Jackie set up the memorial table.
There was See's candy which was one of Norma's favorites. . .
Some of her 300 pairs of shoes as well as some of her scarves, hats and jewelry.
(l-r: Jackie, Susan, John, Jim)
Many of the cousins brought food. . .
Sometimes when the grandchildren visit, we have quiet times sitting on Grandpa's lap. . .
Watching the street crew in front of our house replacing the street slab by slab. . .
Brett praying and . . .
Reading so well from his Rhyming Bible. . . .
Painting snakes. . . .
and flower pots.
But sometimes things get a little crazy like when the grandchildren play Wii. . .
When Libby breaks into her stream of conscious song, "The Bunny and the Butterfly". . .
When we go on "excursions". . .
Play in Grandma's pool. . .
When they wrestle and when. . . .
My cousins Kathleen and Steve met my Uncle Ron to have a family history outing in Jefferson County, Missouri. We started out at the award winning Blue Owl restaurant in Kimmswick. After a brief swing by Ron's to refrigerate our "doggy bags", we headed to DeSoto, Mo.
Our first stop was the Maupin home on Boyd St. This is where Ron's grandmother and grandfather Maupin lived. At one point, Steve's mother, Norma, lived here with her grandparents.
My job was to show everyone the houses, but Kathy's job was to show us where our relatives were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Since she had visited each year with her dad, she took us right to them. Ron is standing between his parents' graves---Roy Long and Vivian Maupin. All of the stones in this area belong to our Maupin family---aunts, uncles and cousins.
Then, we headed out to Old Stonehouse Rd. where Thomas and Mary Long's farmhouse stands. Kathy's mother (Maxine) and my dad (LeRoy) lived here with their parents and Aunt Mary when Norma lived with the Maupins. Ron's Long grandparents lived in this farmhouse.
Old Stonehouse Rd. is named for the Old Stone House where our ancestors Milton Long and Catherine Brown lived (Ron's great grand parents). As recent as the 1930's, family members lived here. It was originally built to be a stage coach stop/inn (according to Fred Long). I don't know if the Longs built the house, but they lived here during the Civil War.
Our last stop was Bethlehem Baptist Cemetery where we located Louis Reiter's tombstone---barely readable. He was Ron's great-grandfather. We had a great time exploring the back roads of Jefferson County. I hope we can do it again some time.
Although many forwarded e-mails have wonderful sentiments, I have a problem with the graphics---they distract me from the message. There is too much animation and the graphics don't seem to go together. In this one even size seems to be an issue.
What you can't see is this came to me glittering on a rainbow background---that didn't copy. I tried copying the entire e-mail but the graphics don't "stay" and they lose their animation. . .
My daughters say they don't get e-mails like this---it's my generation who still marvels at computers and the internet. I think they are definitely done by retired people with a lot of time on their hands. So, again, I'm caught between generations!
So, as much as I admire the sentiments, my eyes hurt and I think I'm getting a headache.
While cleaning up an area of the garage, I got on the ladder and pulled a box down. From the dust on the box, it had not been opened in YEARS.
It was obviously an old box that had moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles. . .
And, back to St. Louis. When I opened it, I almost fell off the ladder. . .
It was the box of children's toys that went missing about 15 years ago. I was so distraught one summer when I couldn't find some of these, that I started re-buying many of these pieces on E-bay because I was sure they accidentally were taken to Good Will.
One surprise was my autographed book from Joan Walsh Anglund. . .
Rachel bought this for me a few years ago because she knew how much I love the Fisher-Price Little People and mourned the loss of that box of toys.
But, mostly it had my daughters' Fisher-Price toys---many of them are quite old with wooden bodies.
So, many Sesame St. pieces---the phone booth the count is in is dated 1973---guess I bought it at a garage sale---notice Mr. Roger's trolley which we acquired when we lived in Pittsburgh.
Some of the circus animals are quite old---the staircase to the house has a little room under it like Harry Potter!
Here are some other pieces----baby nursery, castle and misc. pieces.
Although I'm happy I found them, why couldn't I have found them BEFORE I re-bought many of them! So, Girls, are there any of these pieces you'd really like to have because I, now, have WAY too many Fisher Price Little People.
After being at a 40th Anniversary party last weekend, I am so glad we got married a year later---at least Dave's tux isn't blue!
While at that party last weekend, my daughter and I were talking about bridesmaids. She said she wasn't even invited to the wedding of one of hers. I made a conscious decision not to have friends in my wedding. I had my sister, Susan and Rose. Susan and Rose were not technically related, but they were closer than "friends". Susan's mother had been my mother and aunt's friend since high school---Bitsy even made all of my bridesmaids and wedding dresses. Rose was married to my uncle Ron and although she was my "aunt", she wasn't that much older and I considered her an older sister.
My maid of honor was my sister and Dave's best man was his brother Harry.
L-R: Jack Corrigan, Tom Morgan, Rose Long, Harry Morgan, Jane Provost, me, Dave, Elliott McDaniel, Susan Lieber, Harry Provost, Jim Long.
We had no idea our mothers would both be in pink. If I can recall the pinks didn't match as well as in this photo.
I love that I had my grandparents at my wedding. Dave's grandmother Ellice was still living, but she was in Florida. My daughters were fortunate to have three out of four grandparents still living for their weddings. I just had Roy living---Lena was his second wife.
I don't know why I had that train---it was just netting that I bought at a fabric store---no big deal. But, I am "almost a baby boomer"---the brides a little younger didn't even have that because it was pointless.
Cutting our wedding cake---no, we did not stuff in each other's faces---that was more of a Baby-boomer thing, maybe.
This was one of my least favorite wedding gifts---couldn't sell it, couldn't throw it out, couldn't donate it to Goodwill, and couldn't use it to serve cookies---purely decorative. . . and it has the wrong address of the church, just like the invitation. Dyscalculia strikes again.
This dinosaur exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden (AKA Shaw's Garden) is fairly child-friendly. Although the children can't climb on the dinosaurs, they don't move or make scary noises either. Some of the exhibits like the one above don't cost anything, but to see the bulk of them, there is a nominal cost.
There were however a few rules (above)
There were a number of birds in the exhibit. I'm not sure if they are always there or if they were brought in to show the similarities to their distant ancestors.
Above shows a white dove at a feeder beside a "dinosaur nest".
While we usually think of T-Rex and other huge dinosaurs, this exhibit had many that really did resemble birds of today.
These (above) reminded me of a cross between a stork and a swan.
These are black and white and resemble water fowl you might see today.
These reminded me of road-runners
But, they also had a play area---above you can see Roman trying to pick out a costume to wear---meanwhile the camera spied a scary "dinosaur"---is that Grandma?
There were also puzzles. . .
And puppets. . .
and dinosaur "poop". Roman wondered, "Why is there a fork and napkin by the poop?" Hmm
Although most of the exhibit was in the Climatron there was this large bird in the Temperate House and a mother and her babies on the grounds.
