Valentine's Day is coming...

and I wanted to put up a picture of two vintage valentines. My mom received these two valentines from two of her pupils when she was teaching school in the early 30's. They fold forward flat and are signed in pencil on the back by the students that gave them.

P.S. The tablecloth and doily are made by mom as well.

Tuesday

Nothing much new to report - I was hoping to have a picture of a completed sock to put on, but that hasn't happened. I had to tear out a few rows, so I am only halfway down the foot to the toe. Soon.

Dentist apointment today. I still hate going to the dentist, even at my advanced age.

My Goodwill purchases today:

Do you think they are depression glass? I can't tell.

Hunter and the Box

When Grandma babysat Hunter yesterday we luckily had a large box for Hunter to play in and to "work on". He takes little pieces and pulls them off with his play tool set. Here he is:

Lovely birthday lunch for Diane

Yesterday several of us were glad Diane Thom had a birthday so we could go out to lunch. Here are a couple of photos of the lunch. The lady in the corner (in the bottom picture) is 94 years old and still going strong (well, not really too strong), but very sweet. Some of you from Minnesota will remember Diane from years ago.

Busy, but fun weekend

Chuck and Jean and Alveta came last Thursday afternoon. Alveta is from Minnesota and Chuck and Jean are bringing her to California to see her son. She used to be Madsen and then was married to another man for 20 years - sorry I can't remember her current name. But she is very sweet and I enjoyed visiting with her. Friday night I had them over. Friday Jean, Alveta and I went thrift store shopping and then went out to lunch at the "White House, a local Mediterranean restaurant that specializes in garlic food. Saturday we went to a used book sale at the library, then I had everyone over for supper and games, since it was Steve's birthday. Sunday was relaxing and we napped and knitted until supper when we were invited to Steve and Sandra's for a birthday supper which Sandra had prepared - all Asian food - and you will see the huge smorgasbord of food that she cooked. It was superb. Here's some pictures:

Knitting

I looked at your Picasa pictures that you put up of the ocean, Carissa. It's really cool that you saw those whales!

Yesterday I bought this beautiful ball of yarn and started my sock, after several mishaps and tearing out and starting over. I certainly am a novice, but there are so many helpful on-line tutorials and videos. I am now on the third row, so I think I am off and running.

Hunter was here on Sunday evening for awhile and Grandpa and I played hide-and-seek with him, as well as play-doh again.

Today I am going to clean cupboards - I have a hope of doing all of them, but doubt my enthusiasm will last that long.

It was a year ago today that dad died. I'm so glad he's in a better place now.

A visit from Hunter

Hunter came to see Grandma and Grandpa for the evening. Can't believe much he is talking now. He played with play doh for 2 hours. I found a recipe that includes cinammon and cloves, so it smelled good. You can see that he was making extreme car noises as they got stuck in the "mud."

Knitting and other things

Here is how my knitting is coming along. This is going to be a sock - there are several mess-ups, but maybe this will prove if I am too old to learn something new.

We are enjoying Wayne and Ross for a couple of days here, while it is raining and snowing. Rain this afternoon, so everything's slushy now.

Saturday night/Sunday

We had the kids over for tacos last night. Grandpa bought Hunter a new toy, which included a Jeep vehicle pulling a four-wheeler on a trailer, etc. - found it at Joe's - 50% off. So Grandpa spent some time with Hunter - I will post a picture of Grandpa outside with Hunter - it's dark and you can't tell, but it's in front of the house. Hunter laughed with delight each time he went down the little hill on the saucer.

Today we had a nice lunch at OCB (Old Country Buffet). Now Tim is studying hard for a weed spraying test that he has to take for work. I feel kinda sorry for him because it's pretty boring stuff to read.

San Luis Obispo Trip

We had a wonderful, relaxing time at Ben and Carissa's place. Carissa and I had an all-day shopping trip which included thrift stores, antique stores, craft stores, clothing stores..... We had Christmas dinner, which included ham, ham sauce, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, etc. Sunday afternoon we drove down and saw the elephant seals. December is the month they give birth and these baby seals are a week old or less. We drove by the Hearst mansion. We didn't have a chance to tour that on this trip, but we will do it another time. Carissa and I made lefsa and brought half of it to the Veldkamps in the evening to play games. Carissa wanted to learn to knit, so we got started on that. During a walk in a little town with antiques stores and such a lady gave us a whole bag of knitting magazines - so we looked through those, too. Carissa designed more bags to make and we cut one out and got it ready to sew. During the evenings we played games - we got going on Sequence and had a pretty good competition. I'll post a few pictures - I don't feel talented enough to post the picture right with the comment, but you will get the idea. On Monday evening we went to a "local" restaurant that was right by the wharf and the ocean - you can see the wharf outside the window - really fun! I will post some more pictures on my picasa site. Tim will put some of his scenery pictures on his picasa site - he got some nice ones of the ocean and some wildlife.










This is Lois Austin, whom I have been told a number of times that I look like, so we finally got to shake hands.

One More Snow Picture

I know these snow pictures are getting humdrum, but here's one of pop reshoveling the driveway.

Coldest Place ever

I saw this on someone's blog and thought it interesting in light of our cold and snow. Hard to complain about our weather, right?

Monday again

I have not posted any snow pictures, although dad put a couple on his picasa site. I guess at this point I'm getting more anxious about the snow than enjoying it. I am halfway ready but have several errands I wanted to do, and don't know if I will do them today or not. Last night when we came home from Steve and Sandra's there was a little drifitng in the driveway, even though Tim had kept it open by shoveling several times during the day. This morning there's a good 8 inches in front of the garage door which would need shoveling to get the Sante Fe out.

Friday- another day in winter wonderland

I am feeling just the teensiest bit housebound. It's really not bad, the snow is beautiful to watch. I had thought about going out to do a couple of errands, but after shoveling the berm out I lost the mood to go out and just enjoyed staying home the rest of the day. Susie has done a more than adequate job of showing the snow here in the area, so I won't post any pictures tonight.

Tomorrow night we are going to (another) Christmas Party at Tim's house (Tim's boss). Yay. It is a brand new house, so that should be interesting.

Wednesday

Tuesday at 1 below

I had a lovely birthday yesterday with several phone calls, including all of my kids!!! Thank you. Dad took me out to TGI Fridays. GOOD food. Dad had enough left over to take in his lunch today.

I feel fortunate to think that Selma Lundin, who is only 4 days younger than myself, will celebrate her birthday at the hospice house in Spokane on Friday.

One week from today we leave for SLO.

Frosty, the Snowstorm...

So you can see the weather this morning and: (the picture is blurry but you get the idea)

1) Be lonesome you're not up here
2) Be glad you're down in SLO
3) Both

It's very pretty to see the snow. Dad had to go buy shovels for the guys this morning and bring them all the way up to the office! In spite of asking them this week if they had shovels and they said yes, he got a call during the night that they didn't have any shovels.

The only reason I'm going to go out today is to go to Albertsons for a few minutes. It's a perfect day to stay inside.