Remodel!

Soooo we are remodeling our bedroom!  I know!  This is really exciting!   This idea has been thrown around for about two years now...heaven knows it needs it.  I still have the lovely green flower wallpaper  trim and my mauve carpet!  I guess that dates it back to  1986 or so.  Not to mention the nail marks that have surfaced over the years and the crack coming down from the ceiling on one wall.  The house has settled over the years and our room is really showing it.  We've done a few things with the room that is our bathroom over the years.  When KC was born, we turned it into a cute little nursery room.  It was just big enough for his crib and a dresser, but it was cozy and it worked to have him right off our bedroom.  Then when he out grew the crib, we changed the room into a bathroom.  That took some doing.

We already had the pipes all set up for a bathroom from the room below, so it worked out pretty good.

Kelley has redone the tile in the shower a few times, after having some disastrous leakage into the room below.  Then there was the time when we hit the copper pipe  behind the wall while hanging a picture.  That was a good one!  It was just like in the movies where water comes squirting out of the wall!  Ha!  Wow I am really grateful that Kelley can fix stuff.

Anywho, We have been wanting to have a bigger bedroom and it seemed like a simple concept to just take out the wall dividing our bedroom and my sewing room ( pretty much the catch all room for every thing that  won't fit anywhere else....ironing board, sewing machine,  filing cabinet, and all my craft stuff.  So we talked about it and took a look at the situation, and Kelley said it was do-able...not simple, but do-able.

We decided to make a walk in closet where we could actually fit all of our clothes....( not just mine, with Kelley's  things scattered in two other rooms like it is now.)  And the shoe situation...well it is not cool...I try to organize, but it's not working!  We thought while we were at it, we would re-do the bathroom and put in a fancy tub and new shower!  Wow! This is exciting!

So, we started out by taking everything out of the linen closet in the hallway...(minor detail, forgot about the closet between those two rooms)  then Kelley took the shelves out and dismantled that closet.  He rebuilt a new door way into our bedroom cause that has all got to be different now.  Then he took the whole closet out.  It opened up a lot of room and made the space seem a lot bigger!  Then Saturday, Rick came over and they started on the electrical revamping.  He sure was a big help. 

He  is a great friend and always there when we need a hand.

After figuring out where all the wires were coming from and going to in the main wall, ( that is a whole other story...we have had two different cable companies...then dish tv, so needless to say, there are many superfluous wires that I don't know what they go to!) Kelley took that wall out.

  

Wow!  Now the room really opened up!  I almost wish we were taking out the other wall that is part of the other bedroom upstairs.  Then it would really be a nice big room.  But I think we need to keep the extra bedroom for value in the home, and for when my Livy Loo comes to visit!

 This room ( where my sewing machine was) really has the most lovely view out the window. In the summer time, I like to leave the window open so I can hear the noise from the waterfall in the pond.   Someday, I'd like to have french doors where the window is and a little balcony to go out on from our bedroom.  Wouldn't that be romantic?

Kelley is  pretty amazing...I love how he will tackle new things...even if he doesn't really know what  he's doing or what obstacles he'll run into till he gets there.  He just keeps plugging along till he gets it right.   I admire that about him.

 So this is where we are at now..  kind of feels like camping!  I'll keep you posted on the progress...

Ladies and Gentlemen....it's the Beatles!

We all got together on Monday because it was Presidents day and Brenda and Leslie had the day off.  We decided we were REALLY going to get some stuff done and clean everything out of the rooms we had kind of cleaned out, but mostly just moved stuff around in.

 These cool Beatles bobble head dolls  were Bruces.  Mum had wrapped them up and put them away carefully with all of his things.

We cleaned out the cupboards in the living room...all the old Readers digests went into the garbage.  I don't know what happened to the Coronet magazines ( the magazine before Readers Digest)  Mum had a ton of them that dated back to the 1930's.  Those are fun to look through...my how times have changed!

Then we went to the other cupboard and got out all the Child Craft books.  These were very precious to each of us because we grew up with mum reading stories from them to us.  Thumbing through these books was like taking a peek into a corner of my brain that hasn't been opened for about 50 years!

 Very cool!

 Uncle Clyde's painting that hangs over the mantle on the fireplace...yup, we're probably all going to want that.  We talked about dividing up the bigger items and furniture in the house ( we're just about to that point) and all agreed that we will never let any "thing" come between us or cause bad feelings.

 Leslie and Alan gave this to mum and daddy forever ago...it has such a sweet meaning...perfect for our family.

"Let there be laughter, gentle words and singing under the shelter of this room tonight.

May tender thoughts from heart to heart go winging, beneath the candlelight.

These whom I love may wander far, but this good night is mine to make them strong...

and who can measure all the power of laughter, or tell the strength of song?"

Cleaned out the spice cupboard and found a few other treasures we had overlooked before...

 We each took home a few recipe boxes so we could copy some of our favorites  from mum.

 Don't be jealous Candice...someday, you will inherit this from me!

 Mum had four sets of China...this was my pick...Beautiful!

 She had enough Corelle that we could divide it up and all have a small set of our own.

Then we went upstairs and started going through some pictures  mum had in a box.  These were some of my favorites...

We each left with our arms full of pictures to take home to copy. Always leave with my heart full too.

Soooo, I said I'd never do it, but this last Saturday I went ice fishing with Kelley, the young women and young men.  I'm not sure what got into me, it must have been because the days have been getting warmer  ( 40's) and I have really been feeling the bug to fish. 

Kelley prepped me for it, reminding me that just cause it's  45 degrees in the valley, it's sure not going to be that warm up at the lake.  I took his warning seriously ( I really hate being cold!) and went and got me some nice warm boots and gloves.

And boy, oh boy was I glad!  It was freakin freezing up there.

The sun was shining, but the temp was 18 when we got there.

It was a lot of fun though.  I haven't got to know the young women in our new ward yet, so it was fun to spend the day with them.

Will Cotner's dad came up and fixed us a real nice breakfast.

Kelley, Reed and Jerry made the holes in the ice and got us all set up.  I was pretty impressed with some of the girls fishing skills....there were a few who had done this before and knew what they were doing.  In fact the only one's that caught fish were two beehives!  Ha!

 Same time, different location,  Camille and Kate were NOT freezing, but sweating as they hiked Camel back in Phoenix.  Glad they could spend the weekend together!

My little sweetie pie lost her first tooth!

 Camille said Liv was bouncing off the walls excited when she woke up to find the tooth fairy had left her a whole dollar!

Then she said she wanted to get Sam something with it. 

Sometimes, I just want to eat her. Ahhhh I miss them so.

So glad Camille keeps me up to date with lots of pictures.

Tinkerbell shrinky dinks I sent her for Valentines day...I remember my girls got a big kick out of them so I thought she might like them too!

I love those dear hearts and gentle people who live in my home town!

Daddy and his buddies making sauerkraut in the back yard.  Isn't he the best!

It's his birthday today.  He would have been 96.

Sure do miss him.

Even after all these years, I glance around the yard when I pull in the drive way, expecting to see him out raking leaves.

When we were together Monday, we came across some scrap books Aunt Pat had put together.  They were full of clippings and  pictures and announcements she had collected over the years about people from Providence. She had a whole stack of them so we each took a few home to look at.  I spent about two hours the other day going through them.  How fun to see all the things that went on after I had gotten married! ( I had the years  1979-1983)

With Uncle Clyde being the mayor for so many years, they really were right in the middle of everything that went on. 

Aunt Pat wrote a column in the Cache Citizen ( a newspaper that covered all the small towns in Cache Valley) all about what was going on in Providence.  It was surely a simpler (and better!) time when  the articles included things like...

"Friends of Cliff Anderson were happy to see him in church Sunday after his stay in the hospital" or "Lola Brisco is spending a few days visiting with her mother in Hurricane"  Or  "The Jolley family is on their way to Disneyland after winning the Cache Citizen write in contest" Or,  "Third Warders are busy brewing the sauerkraut for their annual turkey-sauerkraut dinner which takes place on Nov. 10"  or " The sparkle in Lori Jeppson's eye rivals the sparkle on her finger from the diamond she received during the holidays from Don Anderson"

Aunt Pat also wrote  a lot of articles for the Herald Journal.  She had a real gift for writing stories and poems. Her loving, humble and very clever personality shines out through her work.  I'll have to do another post with some of them.  Brenda has inherited the same gift and has written a lot of really great poems.  We came across  several she had written for mum and daddy over the years.  She wrote a poem for me when I got married that is really special to me that I keep in my book of remembrance.

Anyway, back to the scrap book...It warmed my heart to read about these things that happened, they may not seem newsworthy, but they made a big deal about them cause they really cared about their neighbors and what was happening in their lives.  I miss that.

I'm pretty sure she had every wedding announcement, baby birth, mission farewell and home coming, funeral, and just when ever someone did good included in that scrap book....and what makes it special to me was that these are the people I grew up with...they had a big influence on me and are what makes Providence home to me.

Wait...I have to do just a few more....these are awesome!  "Cattle thunder down main street in Providence as they make their annual trip to summer range up blacksmith Fork canyon." "Providence Third Warders are enjoying the new turquoise carpet throughout the church which replaced the very worn orange carpet."  'Providence men must be working extra hard these days because four of them have recently had surgery for hernias...walking carefully now are..."

Love these people!

A few more articles, I noticed...  Aunt Lovena...of course she was the costumer!  She sewed everything!... even down to Uncle Buzz's Sunday suit.  She was, and still is pretty amazing!

This is Joyce Bitters...We called her Joycie.  I picked berries for her every summer most of my growing up years. Her and Mel owned and operated a big fruit farm up on the bench.  Mel would come around about 6 every morning and we would jump in the back of his truck and he would haul us up there to work till noon.   Strawberries...50 cents a case...raspberries 75!

Corey Knowles ...my first crush.  He lived across the street and we kind of grew up together.  We would play kick the can and walk home from school together.

My friend Alan

Our neighbors, the Willits.  She was a very dear friend to mum and daddy and Vern spent hours talking over the fence.

This was the post master in Providence. He was such a kind hearted man.   I remember he would always have a piece of candy for my when daddy and I would stop in to pick up the mail. That is another memory that has stayed with me...one of my favorite things was to be able to go on the milk route with daddy.  I had to get up really early cause he started before the sun came up.  I can still remember the way his truck smelled...can't describe it, but it was good!  We would go all around the valley...clear out to Mount Sterling, picking up the full milk cans, then leaving empty ones for them to fill the next day.  When he had the truck of full milk cans, we would head over to Gossners to drop them off.  I was always intrigued by the conveyor belts and machinery that swept the full milk cans into the big building.  After he had loaded up the clean empty cans, we would go into the office there and get an ice cream, then head for home.  We always stopped at the post office on the way though to pick up our mail and grandma Braegger and Pat and Clydes mail too. I thought that wall with all the little boxes was just the coolest thing ever and really thought I was somebody when daddy taught me the combination to our box so I could open it.

Then we would head over to Grandma Braeggers house....which reminds me of another wonderful smell that is deeply imbeded in my senses.( Molasses cookies?)  She would always have a cookie for me our of her big aunt Jemimah cookie jar.  Then we would walk down the little path that led over to Pat and Clydes house to take them their mail too.  It was always fun to go see them....They were the kind of people who just made everyone feel special. 

This was an article in the paper about mum and daddy's place.  It won many awards over the years for the beautiful flowers and yard.  That's daddy and Bruce above and us girls and mum below.

(Wish these pictures were better...I don't remember seeing that one of Daddy and Bruce before...I guess they would be about 50 years old!...oh these weren't from the scrap book...this was one that was in mum's scrap book I am also going through)

Donette was my best friend all of our growing up years. I could write a book about the fun we had! 

These two were also really good friends all through school.

Aunt Dorella...still going stong !  She has lived a life of serving and taking care of others!  I hope she is enjoying letting others take care of her now!  ( I can just hear her cussing the fact that this is the situation she is in now)

Thanks Aunt Pat for these wonderful books...and for reminding me of what a charmed life I had growing up in this simpler time, surrounded by these good people, in this special place they call Providence.