Sisters and stuff

Have I mentioned lately how great my sisters are?

We spent all day Saturday( and I mean all day! left to go home about 11:00 p.m.) going through more of mum's things. It was such a fun day! Brenda brought us a yummy lunch so we could just power through the day.

We thought we would just finish up quickly in mum's bedroom and get started somewhere else, but when we started going through all of her clothes and cassette tapes (books and music) it took till about 2:00!
When we were going through mum's clothes, well, some of them were right out of the 70's. I got to thinking about the stuff Candice picks up at the DI, and this was right up her alley.
So I brought home some real doozers...Candice loved them!
We went out in the back room next and started going through mom's vases, flower, and crafty stuff. Found some real treasures... pin curl clips? There was also a huge bag of permanent rods and papers. Wow that brought back the memories of all those perms mum used to give us. We never went to a hair dresser...mom trimmed our hair, and gave us perms on a regular basis. Then when I started coloring my own hair, it got kind of scary cause the perm and the bleach I put on my hair didn't react very well together. Oh my! I remember one time when mum was taking the permanent rods out, my hair was really slimy and about half of it broke off. What was left was super frizzy. I remember crying a lot. I think that was the first time I went to a actual hair dresser (Karen Fredrick) and she tried to fix it. This was right before I started high school, and I got a super short hair cut. Ha! I when I look back at my school picture from that year, I always remember why my hair was so short!
We made it through all her vases and other cool dishes she had out in the back room and then started on the drawers below. They were full of all of mum's crochet patterns and crafty stuff. We decided it was going to take way to long to go through those, so we moved to the kitchen.

We started with the drawers with her cook books and recipes she had saved.

It was still daylight when we started...

We got into all her cooking utensils, bake ware, and pots and pans. She had some real pretty Pyrex, most of her things were the ones we grew up using. I think they used to just make stuff better than they do now. Her pots and pans were the originals and still in good shape. She had some newer pans that looked a lot more beat up than the old ones.We kept at it till about 10:30, getting as much done as we possibly could because Faith and Aaron were going to be moving in the next day.

It took us about a half hour just to load everything up, clean up and get on our way.

Kelley helped me unload the next morning....I'm so grateful for his patience and understanding as we go through this process.

I'm glad I've got an empty room so I can just go through stuff as I have time.

This was one of the first stitchery pictures I made for mom.

We came across these pictures and I was taken right back to when I was a little girl. These cute kitty pictures were hanging on the wall in my bedroom.

This was another table cloth I gave to mum. I made this one...I remember loving to do it because it had lots of fun lazy daisy stitches.

( She also never used this one...It's ok, I understand and would probably do the same thing.)

Ha! This is one of those wild things I brought home for Candice...she was so excited!

" I'm so glad you found it! That's the shirt I was hoping you would bring home!"

Mum's apron... this is what I picture her in.

I found this picture in the back room...it's a small picture, but it stirred a memory from when I was a little girl. Wish I could ask mum where it came from.

Don't be jealous...I got the duck lamp....it's Awesome!!!
I wanted it and my sisters were thinking.... probably no... so when I went to take it off mom's dresser, I saw it was plugged into the wall. I didn't know it was a lamp! I found a switch,

flipped it on and volia! Duck lamp!

I think this was the top to our wedding cake. Mum was great at saving stuff like this. I think she had saved every corsage ( and there were a lot!) that she was ever given. Also every doodad,favor, or hand out she ever received. So much stuff to go through...but so much fun.

I feel like I've gotten to know my sisters in a whole new way. I have never lived close to any of them since I got married, and have really missed having a close, day to day kind of relationship with them. We would get together maybe once a month, but not usually have time to really talk and open up about our lives and our feelings. This has been a real gift to me...something long overdue and precious. I know it will take a little more effort to get together with mom gone, but I think all of us have felt the importance and joy of being together and will do what ever it takes to keep building this sweet relationship.