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About seven years ago, we started coming to our house for summer visits, which lasted for two summers, before we moved in permanently. I hated the bushes for two reasons. First, I thought that if someone were hiding in the bushes to rob the house, no one could see them. Second, they were so overgrown that they blocked sunlight and made the inside of the house very dark. So we started chopping. And chopping. And chopping.
Till we got this. I like it so much better! The house is a Federal style house which was originally built in the 1860's. It has been remodeled since then, with rooms added and such, so we don't really know what's original and what's not, except for the log beams with their bark still on that hold up the house!
You can see that the clapboard goes right to the ground. Modern homes are usually up a few feet, so foundation plantings are installed to hide the foundations. We have no foundation to hide. I've tried to find some information about authentic Federal style landscaping, but I've not had much luck.
I would like to hide the electric meter and the oil intakes, but other than that, I'm thinking that all it needs is a good kitchen garden outside the back door.
When we first moved in, I had romantic notions of the first occupants. It was right after the Civil War. What did they think about? What were their dreams? How did they survive economically? What did they sit in the yard and do? I used to bring this up with Mark all the time, but he didn't share my romantic wanderings.
One day he was in the basement trying to repoint the stone foundation. He came up the stairs covered in cement and said, "I know what your first owner was thinking. 'Why does the house have to be so damn big?'"
I knew they looked good, but I didn't realize how good until I saw the old picture! My impatiens had been doing real well. We'd had lots of wet weather, but then it dried up a bit. My impatiens were wilting one night. There was rain in the forecast, but after looking at the radar, I knew we'd either get lots of rain or no rain overnight. I decided to water them, and am I glad I did! We didn't get any rain. I watered them for the next few days, then we had a rainy spell again.
They seem to be very happy!
This picture was taken in 1981 right after Mark's graduation ceremony. Of the many pictures in my albums, this one is burned in my memory. We'd been dating two years by this time. Notice the white tuxedo jacket and black pants. He has already taken off his bow tie and received his carnation.
A friend once said of her enormous engagement ring, "I like what it says about my partner." That stuck with me for a long time. I have a small engagement ring, and it's a ring Mark's mother gave him to give to me, because when we got engaged, we didn't have real jobs yet. I have always loved my ring. Mark once asked me if I'd like a bigger diamond ring, and I said no, that this was my engagement ring and it couldn't be replaced. I finally figured out why. I like what it says about my partner. I married a guy who had nothing and wanted to share his life with me. This was the boy I fell in love with. This was the boy I married.
Twenty-seven years later, here's Andy standing in the exact same spot, graduating from the exact same school. We live in Mark's Aunt Margaret's house, and I knew exactly what I was doing when I said, "Andy, stand right here." He didn't have his carnation yet, but he's on his way, not coming back.
The old tree is gone, and so are all the old people who attended Mark's graduation. I still remember his father getting all choked up during the ceremony. It is one of the few times I've ever seen a strong man cry, and I've never forgotten it. He died less than two years later.
Andy doesn't know it, but he's a lot like his grandfather. I think if he'd been alive to know Andy, they would have hung out a lot. Their conversations would have been peppered with, "I know just what you mean."
And here's all my guys, standing in that spot.
Here's Andy receiving his diploma. The ceremony was lovely. Oh, and we just found out, he's a National AP Scholar. He worked hard for that.
Life is good.
I've never been so excited about eating zucchini in my life. Andy just went to the store to get stuff that will go with zucchini for dinner, but the star will be the zucchini.
One we will grill tonight. We just grill it right on the grill and slice it and eat it. We never knew we liked zucchini (I actually thought I downright hated it) until we ate in a TGIF's in Dayton, Ohio. Andy was in fifth or sixth grade and he ordered something that came with grilled zucchini. We all shared his and we've been fans every since. I had only ever had it as zucchini bread (which I actually like, but it wasn't the zucchini that made me like it) or as the ghastly mix of stewed tomatoes and zucchini. That I hate.
The other one? I'll have to open my mind and my Google surfing to the possibilities.
I have misplaced a memory card with pictures on it that I want to post. I have retaken a few here, but I'm distressed about Andy's graduation pictures. I suppose it will appear. They are so small and easy to misplace.
This is the door Mark made for the cellar door. He covered it with roofing, hoping that it will take less maintenance. There's so much to maintain here, we need to simplify as much as we can.
I took a whole series of pictures of Rob and me replanting this area with grass. It's right at the end of the driveway and was weeds and bald spots. We killed the weeds with round-up, dug out the stumps from cutting down bushes last year, and reseeded. Baby grass sprouted up.
We have so many areas that need reseeding, we just do a section at a time. The first one that I did about two years ago looks thick and lush. I still stand and admire it. We cut down all the old landscaping from around the house, and that one spot's landscaping was thick and had spread. It took us all summer to cut it down, then we ran out of time and just spread some seed late in the fall. In early spring, I spread some more. It looks gorgeous now.
I hope this driveway spot does as well. I will spread some more seed in the fall and spring, and we'll see!
This is the family calendar. Conveniently, it was in need of flipping, so I thought I'd show you. You can see that the top one is written on and all crossed off. We are now onto the second calendar.
So I washed off the top one, flipped them, and added the new dates. Whenever one of the boys needs a ride or wants me to go to something, I ask, "Is it on the calendar?" If it's not on the calendar, it won't happen.
With this system, we tend to show up at everything we are supposed to show up at, even when we don't want to go.
O.K., it's a sucky picture of me, but there I am using one of the wooden spoons.
I was just delighted when I discovered the clothes pins with our names on them. I knew right away where to use them. This is "the white board." It's not just any white board. It's "the" white board. All important family communications, except dates, go on the white board. Dates, of course, go on the white board calendar. Duh.
If someone has an important piece of paper they are supposed to remember, like Andy's school picture form and check, important because school pictures can only be ordered that day (!*!$@! Andy), then the important paper is clipped to the red string with a clothes pin.
Now when a paper appears, it will be easier for family members to determine if it is for them or not. I just love them.
Thank you!
Andy turned eighteen, so we needed to party. He wanted an ice cream cake, so we made the ice cream cake to beat all ice cream cakes. Did you know that an ice cream cake from Carvel costs $10 per quart? This one cost $1.50 per quart.
I used three half gallons of ice cream and an entire package of Archway cookies. I used a large bowl and lined it in plastic wrap. I put the chocolate ice cream in first and pressed it down with a plastic-baggie-covered hand. Then I chopped up half the cookies and put them on with a few mini chocolate chips. Next was a layer of vanilla, then the rest of the cookies and some chips, then strawberry ice cream. I refroze it good and hard and popped it out of the bowl. I whipped up some whipping cream with blue food coloring and frosted it, then sprinkled on some mini chips.
I think it feeds 50. It cost about 10 bucks. I love a good bargain.
Our family parties are very exciting. This is Andy, my son, next to Mark, my brother, who is holding Seth, Mark's new son. Seth is about two weeks old here. We were at my Dad's house. There were about twelve other people there, making a lot of noise. These three didn't seemed bothered.
They all have good excuses. Andy's eighteen and sleeps erratically, Mark's been up a lot with the new baby, and Seth's only two weeks old.
I'm excited that Seth's joined the family. His little family is very sweet and all very happy about his arrival. Seth has a 21 year old sister and a 14 year old sister, along with a wonderful mom and dad. He's a lucky boy.
Rob is officially a high school student. This is the picture from the eighth grade promotion ceremony. You'll never find him in there, but I like the picture. He goes to an all-boys Catholic school with a dress code. This is how they dress every day. If you see them in person, it's hysterical. As you enter the building, they look so cute all dressed up, but as you get closer, you notice the rips, stains, and wrinkles. One day while joking with a teacher about this, she smiled and said, 'They smell, too." I love honest teachers.
When Mark is at work, Blaise likes to sit on his side of the bed. I used to think Blaise's ass landed on Mark's pillow accidentally, but eventually, I realized it was his favorite position. I used to tell Mark this, but I don't think he believed me. He just thought that I thought it was funny to say, "Brush off your pillow honey. Blaise slept with his ass on it, and he does it too much for me to bother changing your pillow case."
I've often noticed that when I'm serious, people think I'm funny, while my jokes go unnoticed.
Anyway, here's documentation. The dog loves Mark and wants to share his life with him, in his own special way.
Sad news. Java has Feline Immunodeficiency Virus and Toxoplasmosis. There is no cure, but we might be able to control the Toxoplasmosis long enough to extend her life for a while more. Or maybe not. We'll just have to see.
You can see the place on her paw where the fur was shaved off for her IV. She had come home Wednesday night and could not walk straight. We immediately took her to the vet, thinking she'd either had a stroke or was poisoned. The vet said that it could be antifreeze poisoning, and that was potentially fatal, so we had to take her to the vet emergency hospital. When we walked in, the receptionist got on the intercom and called "triage for Java" and someone ran right out and took her. It was kind of funny, since we didn't even know that our city has an emergency vet center with specialists on 24/7. Who knew there was a market for that?
Six hundred dollars later, poisoning was ruled out. Her tentative diagnosis was Vestibular Disease, which looks terrible but isn't and goes away on its own. She came home stable to wait for some last test results, and we stated thinking that when we were kids, someone would have put the cat in a cardboard box in the cellar and said "Let's see how she is in the morning." For $600 the vet put in an IV, ran some tests, and did the equivalent of putting her in the cellar box, only under the watchful eye of expensive specialists. We were thinking we'd spent a lot of money to find out she could have slept in the basement and recovered.
I was shocked when the vet called and told me the news. I'd convinced myself she was going to be fine.
She is tired and unable to walk straight or jump effectively. This doesn't stop her from trying. She knows where she's going, so she sets out for the food dish and walks in a wobbly path, then falls over once or twice on her way. If we don't follow her, she gets to her old food dish spot on the dryer and leaps three feet straight into the air, then lands on the floor like a sack of potatoes. We hear that and go get her.
She has always liked to be held. As a kitten, we called her the "the cuddle slut, 'cause she'll cuddle anyone." Now that she's tired and unstable, she likes to be held a lot. She's still sweet with no personality changes.
She's had a great life and has been a joy to share life with. She's the sweetest cat I've even known.
Till we got this. I like it so much better! The house is a Federal style house which was originally built in the 1860's. It has been remodeled since then, with rooms added and such, so we don't really know what's original and what's not, except for the log beams with their bark still on that hold up the house!
You can see that the clapboard goes right to the ground. Modern homes are usually up a few feet, so foundation plantings are installed to hide the foundations. We have no foundation to hide. I've tried to find some information about authentic Federal style landscaping, but I've not had much luck.
