A Tribute to the Lady in the Blue Dress

Well, after several weeks of being close to it, my Grandma Foltz passed away this morning. She had been suffering from dementia over the past few years, and had also been in failing health. She was 92. So, while it is sad for us, I am glad that she got to go to Heaven today and that she's not suffering here anymore.

I like what my aunt wrote to describe this morning: "It was very peaceful for her. In fact, she didn't make a sound yesterday and in the night, except to breathe. I had checked her about 5:05 a.m., and then I dozed off. I had a very vivid dream about Mom sitting up in bed, throwing off the covers and oxygen, and dancing her way to heaven."

So here are some memories about my Grandma:

First of all, my Grandparents are the ones who taught me what it is to love, in the way they loved each other and served each other. I remember them "fighting" over who would get to do the dishes, each refusing to let the other help. I think they're the first people who I realized I loved.

Second, when we were younger, Grandma would sew dresses for me and Eleanor. As we grew, we got to design our own dresses and help sew them. That was a really fun part of visiting them.

The third story is about how Grandma got the title: The Lady in the Blue Dress. When I was in elementary school (2nd grade?), Grandma and Grandpa came up to visit for a performance at school. During the performance, Grandpa had some heart trouble, and an ambulance had to come and take him to the hospital. So their short visit turned into several weeks until Grandpa was well enough to go home. But they had only brought clothes for 1-2 days, so Grandma ended up wearing the same blue dress almost every day to the hospital to visit him. I think the nurses gave her the name. But it was very fitting - she did like the color blue!

So I'll miss you Grandma! Give Grandpa a big hug for me, too.

Town Hall for Hope

So I finally got a chance to watch Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope. It's a great contradiction to the doom and gloom on the news. He tells the other side of the news - like how much the stock market has gone up since it hit its low.

So if you need a little bit of financial hope, or if you think that government will save you, check out this link: http://vimeo.com/4491396

Little Changes make a Big Difference

We're making a few changes around the house. Not big changes, but they are making a big difference.

First, we are removing the door to nowhere. Our house was built as a two bedroom. Later an addition was added to make it 3 bedroom plus an office. This was accomplished by splitting one of the bedrooms into the office and a hallway. But they left the doorway to the "bedroom" there, effectively leaving a door in the middle of a hallway. So we finally decided to take the doorway out.

I got things started by tearing out the doorframe and some of the drywall. Jason took out the rest of the framing. It was a team effort to get the lightswitch moved over and the three-way switches rewired. And then the rest has pretty much been up to Jason - taking out the paneling, putting in some replacement drywall where the door was, and mudding in the holes. It's still a work in progress - here's a half-way through picture:

The other difference is that I found a kitchen cabinet to help with the shortage of storage and counter space. I sold my trumpet a few weeks ago and used the proceeds to purchase this estate sale find.

It's in the style of a "Hoosier cabinet" with a bread box and flour bin. The table top slides in and out for additional space. I had never heard of a Hoosier cabinet before, so here's where you can get more info about them.

"Loaded with labor and time-saving conveniences, the Hoosier cabinet was among the earliest design innovations of the modern American kitchen. This culinary workstation allowed owners to maintain an efficient and clutter-free kitchen by centralizing utensils, cookware, tools, and ingredients all the while providing a space in which to prepare the meals of the day." - IU Press

Anyway, I'm really excited. There's a lot of room inside to store things, so I'm trying to plan where I'm going to move things around in the kitchen to be more efficient. Hurray!

Farewell to the Fairlane

This post is a bit late in coming, but in March we sold the Fairlane.

Jason bought the 1970 Ford Fairlane for $300 several years ago, when he bought an antique truck. He intended to sell it to pay for the shipping of the antique truck, but one thing led to another, and he ended up driving it daily for over 3 years and putting on 18,000 miles .

But he took it to the shop and they informed him that the transmission could fall out at any time because the frame was rusted through, and we decided it was time to part ways with the car. It sold on Ebay for $205.

Goodbye Car!

New Curtains

It was time for some new curtains in the living room, so in January I went to Joann's and got some fabric for over 50% off. Over the past week I finally had some time to put them together. Not super fancy, but I'm quite pleased with the result - especially since the total cost is under $100.

Curtains open during the day:

Curtains closed at night:

I'm also going to be making a throw pillow out of some leftover material. The fabric has embroidered swirls.

And check out this bouquet Jason got me nearly two weeks ago for Valentine's Day. They're still beautiful!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, we fell down on the job with regard to getting pictures over the holidays, but I can still fill you in on what we did, right?

We flew down to the Dallas area to visit with my sister. We did a little bit of pre-holiday shopping and decorating. On Christmas Day, one of the gals from Eleanor's Sunday School class came over to spend the day, since she wasn't able to go home. That was fun, having someone around who seemed to appreciate our weirdness and quirks.

Our family has some unique present-opening rules. For example, presents are opened one at a time (unless two people received the same present). Also, no one is allowed to wake others up - everyone is to wake up on their own. Since the day isn't really about opening presents, we had a leisurely morning, a hearty Christmas dinner, and then got around to opening the presents in the afternoon. After all that we took a walk to work off the Christmas candy.

Friday and Saturday Mom, Eleanor and I went shopping =) which was a lot of fun. Jason and Dad went to the Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFKennedy. (They didn't want to go shopping with us!) Then they played Wii.

On Sunday we visited Eleanor's church, Stonebriar Community Church, where Chuck Swindoll is the pastor. He spoke about not knowing what the future holds, and being prepared for whatever may come - with Christ!

We had lots of yummy foods at yummy restaurants - Cheesecake Factory, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and IKEA. Yes, IKEA has a cafeteria, and the food is quite good, and inexpensive...

We flew back to Indy a few days before the New Year. Since we both had to work, and we're tired old people, we didn't do anything at all for New Year's Eve. But on New Year's Day we visited Jason's sister and brother-in-law for brunch, and then visited his brother and sister-in-law to meet their new daughter.

Speaking of Amber - she wrote on her blog recently about a Meijer Ambassador program she recommends they start. I recommend something similar for the US Postal Service. As a frequent shopper at the USPS, I really dislike having to answer all the questions every single time. I recommend a Frequent Mailer ID that allows us to bypass the security questions at the beginning of the purchase, and the "would you like stamps with that?" questions at the end of the purchase... Just a thought.