1999 - 2007, Christmases Past

1999

Here is our first grandbaby, Morghan Grace!

I had waited a few years for this precious gift,

a grandchild and I've had so much joy and pleasure

ever since!  Morghan, you paved the way

 for the rest of the babies to come!

Remember when we tried to crowd into the fireplace room

because PaPa wanted Christmas morning by the open fire?

My children were all grown up. 

I had lost the joy, expectation and the Christmas Spirit.

Along comes a baby and brings that all back!

2000

Morghan (positively!)  and Kerry's little one, (I think!)
Morghan Grace, I love your hair and your cheeks!
okay, and your ears and your nose!  lol
Your fat dimpled elbows, your sweet breath.
Okay, you get the idea.   hmmm . . .  your knees too!

2001

Proud big sister and baby Jack.

These two are the beginnings

 of my love for my grandbabies. 

Look at the pride in Sister's eyes!

And Jack just goes along with it all!

How can a Nana resist? 

 2002

Proud Morghan, Jack and cousin Gabby.

oh my gosh!  how precious! 

Dear Gabrielle has joined the

"kissable cheeks gang"

and taking it all in stride!

Look at the twinkles in those eyes!

Love you guys!

Maddie and Joey

2003

What a sweet picture. 

This photo just makes Nana

want to cry for joy!

I am so glad my grandchildren love one another. 

I know they will always take care of each other.

2004

This is adorable of them all! 

How did we get them all to sit still long enough

to take several photographs?

Oh, I remember, Nana had her first ever battery

operated Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer nose!

Look at the suspicion in the youngest one's eyes!

but Jack and Morghan already know they have a silly Nana. 

Freys, 2005, Twister! 
Now it is getting harder to get everyone in the same picture. 
We had fun with this game for a year or two!

Hofs, 2005

Gabby and Joey are intent on the action. 

I know somewhere I have the Hofmeister Christmas Card

but there was one year I put in a photo of the Small Frey in their jammies

and Traci and Craig emailed a photo of the Little Hofs in theirs

so maybe this was the year.

My photo collections seem incomplete for 2006.

I don't find any photos after September 2006. 

I know I had Christmas cards made up

and I know I would have taken pictures at Christmas --

Unless I was in a coma or a straight jacket? 

I wasn't . . . was I?

I've been hijacked!  I've been robbed!

computer crash??

2007
whew.  here my little precious ones all are again
and number six has come along. 
Audri seems interested in Jack,
Morghan seems interested in Audri
(or any baby that comes into a room -- like her Nana!)
And now the younger ones are having some fun
and not so suspicious of their Nana and her camera. 
Merry Christmas, little ones!

2008

And in 2008, my Christmas cards had six cuties . . . and an inset of Audri. 

It wasn't this inset but that's a cute one. 

A year later and Audri is STILL interested in Jack!  lol

And Nana still loves Rudolph noses, reindeer antlers

and lively, determined, opinionated grandbabies.

Okay, Okay.

not babies . . . Grandchildren.

2009

And Sweet Bella makes seven! 

Again, I couldn't come up with the Christmas photos

but here we are, with all the grandbabies in the picture.

And Johanna and Erica.  Thanks, Traci and Craig,

for taking the picture on the occasion of

Himself's birthday. 

And someone else joined us, just above Erica's head.

Angel, you are welcome in our home. 

Happy ten years, in this post.

Great Years.

And those years went by in a heart beat!

Can't wait for the next ten years! 

2010

And here is this year's series. 

These three photos together tell part of the story

of what it takes to get seven children to stand still,

 to look at the camera, and yes, it is okay if you smile too!

But this series was much more dramatic

 than what was caught in these pics. 

I think that's the way life is, and the way life should be.

We will muddle through the hard parts,

making the best of the times as we go.

Laughing at ourselves.

Being gentle with others' feelings.

Looking back, we will remember the highlights,

the best and the happy times. 

No sense in wasting energy

on old grudges,

 hurts and disappointments. 

Chin up!  Positive Mental Attitude!

Smile for the camera!

Make merry memories for little ones.

For you. 

For life. 

 

There!  that's Ma's sermon for the year!

Love you all to pieces!

Go ye gentle, into this New Year!

Christmases Past

Times and toys were simplier in the "good ol' days".

Blocks, dolls, balls. And boxes. 

Do you all remember playing with boxes? 

The first toy I remember wishing for, for Christmas,

was a life-size baby doll.  And I did get a big baby doll that year.

It wasn't the one I had picked out in the catalog

but I learned to love that baby, and to sew for her

and I loved my Vickie Darlene! 

Vickie Darlene still lives in my heart (and in a box in the closet)

and is now about 55 or 56 years old, herself!  Poor baby!

Look, here is the little stove the children still use.

Johanna got it for Christmas about 1982. 

She looks to be about 3 in this photo so

that little stove is going on 28 years old!

We still play with some of those dishes too.

And Craig, I'm sure there's some GI Joes

in that pile of packages.  There's a few

of those guys still hiding out around this house too.

Kristy and Erica, I wish we could see what you

girls got for Christmas that year.  Do either

of you remember what you might have wished for in 1982?

Now, this year, Christmas 1975,

Kristy and Erica each got a home-made robe, with hood.

I'm not sure they knew the robes were homemade

but those little flannel gowns stood them in good stead,

wrapping up shivering little girls after a bath.

They also each got a dolly, a doll bed and blankets. 

They each had a new night gown from Great Gramma Sychra.   

There were a few more things too, but not many

and an orange and candy cane in your stocking.

Write down your memories . . .

Visitor

Nana was sitting at work after lunch today when this Dude waltzed in and gave me a handful of candy canes.  I grabbed my camera and chased down the hall after  him. . . just caught him before the big melt down! 

Some year when I'm retired, I'm going to do something like this. 

This Dude bounced through leaving smiles, questions . . . and candy canes in his wake.  What fun!

An outing

Entroup, we saw Disney on Ice today. 12 of us. I think we all enjoyed the ice skating, the music and effects but I’m thinking in the next year or two most of these little rag muffins (hey, that is a term of endearment!) will have, may have . . . Probably will have outgrown the Disney presentation.



You know I love ice skating and I thrill to the jumps and grace and athleticism . . . and we saw some great skating, don’t get me wrong! But I’m afraid we are a little blasé with Mickey and Minnie and Goofy. We might be tiring of Ariel, Peter Pan, Mickey and Minnie . . . somehow it was all too familiar.


(Oh, but wait, Nana will be here to take Audri and Bella a few more times! Nana may have to take the two “little” girls while Mama’s and aunts take the “big cousins” to bigger and better and more grown up things!)

Anyway, we still enjoyed getting together.



We enjoyed classic songs and stories.



There was still wonderment and excitement.

There was shock and awe!

There was appreciation for the choreography

And the hard work and commitment!

For gosh sakes, the commitment itself would fill 10 or 12 semi trucks. Those young skaters put hours and hours into training and skating and performing. I really really appreciate that!


There was technical and engineering evaluation . . .
 

. . . oh my gosh, how do they do that? 

That's what Nana wants to know. Just HOW do they that?

Indeed, all in all, it was a very good day.  

                                                                            Love you all!  Nana

Bella Bu

I hear her folks call her Bella Bu . . . or is it Bella Boo?  I think I prefer Bu but I am just Nana and defer to her Mama and Dad. 

I have always adored babies and little people and I love it when I see a little one's personality developing.  I also love to watch a small one react to their image in a mirror. 

Bella Bu is just plain pretty!  and delightful to watch.  And doesn't miss a thing!   

My name is Bella and I'm here to explore and have fun!

Oh wait.  Who's this little girl?

Me?  Really? 

I like her!  I like me!

I'm Isabella Noel. 

And Nana loves this little girl! 

I think Bella does too! 

Country Ramblings

I went for a Sunday drive today with brother Gary and Donnie Wilson, a second cousin.  We drove all around Pleasant Township, Union County, Iowa.  My ancestors were some of the earlier homesteaders to move into this part of Iowa.  So as not to lose all the oral hand-me-down family history, I think a project this winter will be to write down a little about different family lines.  This will include your dad's side too as I have done a lot of learning and recording of the Hofmeisters and related family lines.  Someday, if someone develops a a thirst for family history, these small bits and pieces will give you a place to start.


Today's drive was to rediscover homes and farms of the Union County Wilson line.  I had been by these houses and down these roads as a child and young adult but I never paid enough attention.  Now, wanting to document the homes and farms, I needed help from family members.


James Blackburn Wilson was born in 1811 in North Carolina.  He married in 1832.   After a financial set back and loss of his farm about 1847, George, his wife and two oldest children walked the 400 miles aross the mountains to Randolph Co, Indiana where George had a sister living.   The Blackburns were of the Quaker, or Friend, religion and George's sister was in a Quaker community.  During the westward jouney, George's 3-year old daughter rode on a horse and later a wagon.  In Indiana for 9 years, the family worked and saved and planned and in 1856 they left for Iowa with two wagons, one pulled by 4 oxen and one pulled by a team of horses. 

The James B Wilson family first settled and lived in a log home in Iowa in what would become Pleasant Township, Union County, Ia.  They put a house on the south side of what is now called 255th Street, Section 22 Sandcreek Township.


James later built a house of lumber that was sawn from his timber on his home place.  He broke the prairie sod with a 14-inch walking plow and harrowed it with a thorn bush tree.  He hunted squirrels with a muzzle loading rifle and if he could get a squirrel between himself and the tree, he would shoot the squirrel and then dig lead shot fom the tree to melt down, remold and use for the next squirrel. 

James Blackburn Wilson

5 Nov 1811 - 7 Jan 1893

Martha, his wife, had sheep that she sheared and the wool made into yarn.  She had a loom that she wove cloth on,  She raised geese for the feathers for beds and pillows.  She could not read or write but was midwife and nurse for any neighbor who was sick or delivering a babe.  She planted apple trees and flowers and vegetables, saving the seeds from year to year and for herself and the neighbors.  When they first made their home in Union County, the closest store or town of any size was Burlington, Iowa.  Later, the railroad came bringing more homesteaders and towns were platted.  Iowa grew up around these pioneers.


James and Martha Wilson died in the 1890s and are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Sand Creek Township, Union Co, Iowa.


Descendents are:  son, George Washington Wilson who married (1st) Elizabeth Wright and had seven children.  After Elizabeth's untimely death, George married (2nd), Mary Ella Willis and had seven more children.


Mary Ella Willis married George Washington Wilson on 14 Nov 1881.  He (George) had a family of seven children.  From the Wilson history:  "One girl was married and the others were still at home with their father.  She (Mary) helped them until they finished school and married.  She welcomed them when they visited the home with their families.  She remembered the birthdays of all their children, and visited them in their homes."  Mary must have been a good stepmother for this to be handed down all this time.


From  the "James B Wilson Family History, 1763 to 1964" written by Lyman Wilson (my great uncle), "George (Washington Wilson) voted for Abraham Lincoln when Republican party was first started.  Later he was interested in new Populist party and in the Democrat party.  He served as school director and treasurer and was township trustee for several years . . .

George and Mary Willis Wilson, front left

Mary in white full apron and George, with Gramps' beard and stance.



George enjoyed visiting and made many trips on trains to other states to visit relatives.  He went to World Fairs in St. Louis and Portland, Oregon."


So that's where Gramps got his wanderlust!


George's daughter Martha Jane (Mattie) Wilson married Robert Briggs Austin.  Robert's family had been hired to dig tile ditches to drain the wet farm bottoms for the Wilsons.  George and Mary Wilson were not impressed with their daughter's decision to marry the son of a ditch digger.  "We would have been better to leave the farm wet", mother Mary supposedly said,  I learned to today on our pilgramage.


BUT!  if George Wilson hadn't hired the Austins, Mattie wouldn't have met her Bob, married, and had eight children including Forrest, my dad -- and that would have been the end of this story!  So I'm glad Mattie met her Rob and had her nomad life.  My Gramma Austin was always cheerful and kind and quick to laugh and play jokes -- somehow, I don't think she was regretful about her life.  I know for certain she wasn't sad nor bitter.  Here are my grandparents about the time I was born. 

Grampa, Robert Briggs Austin

and my cheerful Gramma,

Mattie Jane Wilson Austin

The Wilson line goes back 4 or 5 more generations beyond James Blackburn Wilson, right back to Ireland.  The Wilson line leads us back to the Blackburns.  There is a huge active Blackburn Family Association of which I am a member and the Blackburn line also begins in Ireland.  So there, that explains partly my long-time interest in Ireland, traveling and all things family.


The Austin line.  Ha!  Now that is a story for another day. 


                                                     Thanks for listening . . . love, Ma

Gardening

Gardening has become such a good thing in my life.  I have always loved digging in the dirt, from the early days of mud pies.  I have always, in the spring, loved to smell the wonderful aroma of freshly plowed or dug dirt.   This flower above is "Live Forever".  When I pulled this picture up, I wondered, who's house is that?  lol  That's my new (old) house with the nice new blue trim!  I like the blue trim and I like the Live Forever! 

 

This little beauty is an annual plant.  An annual is with us just for this year.  For the summer.  This little brown eyed susan vine took off and went rampant!  It has covered the clematis and the little Olla and the shed deck!  I hope the clematis comes back next spring!  Isn't this pretty, tho, with the sun shining through the leaves and the brown-eyed blossoms looking on?

This is the "cottage garden" and that tall plant with the red flower is a hollyhock.  I knew hollyhocks as a small child.  Maybe the memories of our parents and grandparents associated with flowers and trees is what brings many people to gardens and gardening.  As a little girl, I plucked the hollyhock blossoms and buds in my grandmother's yard.  Using a bud (a flower not yet opened) for the head and a bloom for the skirt, my sisters and cousins and I made dolls of the hollyhocks, using a nail or a stick.  Come on by next summer and I'll teach you how!  Hollyhocks are bienniels.  They grow the plant one year then come back the next year to bloom.  So to get started, you need to plant hollyhock seeds two years in a row. 

Then there are trees.  I have enjoyed many trees in my time but this honeysuckle tree is my all time favorite.  I love the shape of it.  I love the blooms, in late spring, early summer with the bees thick and noisy.  I love the fact that my grandchildren can get up in that tree all by themselves (or okay, maybe with a little help from Nana).  And now I love it more with the picket fence beyond and the Nana / Papa flowerbox.  This is such a pretty setting with the God of the Garden on the left and the birdbath fountain on the right. 

Our vegetable gardens have done better this year, way better than the last several.  In the past, we have had tomato blight and hardly a tomato.  Last year we got about two peppers from several pepper plants.  This year we have 6 pepper plants and have had a bushel of peppers.  And look at the size of this one!  They are still growing and producing this 25th day of October -- a record for us.  Also, I have finally managed, in my fall garden, to grow radishes.  Himself loves, loves, loves radishes and I have not been able to grow them since we were kids in Sioux City and Hubbard.  This fall, I started planting a few every 2 or 3 weeks and we are finally harvesting some.  I and Audri are still eating cherry tomatoes and there are big, regular tomatoes starting to ripen.  There are two volunteer cucumber vines I am babying and potatoes in the compost pile.

There!  that is far more than you needed and wanted to hear about my summer and fall gardens.  If you have read to this point, you have won a prize!  Comment and I'll send you your winnings!  love, Ma



Birthday

Himself had a good 63rd birthday because I (the otherside) did not stop at a Garage Sale or Consignment Shop in honor of his birthday.  That was my present to Him and he liked it!  No card, no present, no stopping and/or buying at garage sales.  Happy Birthday!  Happy Birthday, Himself! 

and Many More!  Audri and Bella are taking cover!  They are taking cover while you huff and puff!

Heat Pump Saga

For the last several years, our heat pump has had an intermittent problem.  Ask any Quality Control inspector or  plumber or electrician and they will tell you an intermittent problem is the worst kind.  The hardest to solve!  So these last few years, Himself stewed and worried.  He checked and trouble shooted (trouble shot?).  He called this plumber.  He called that one.  He got up in the night to switch to back-up heat if the heat pump shut off.  We didn't want to give up on our heat pump because when it is running, it saves us a bunch of money. Also, it was one of the very first geo thermal units in Creston.  

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, who built this house, had the heat pump installed by Franklin Kinkade, a pioneer in this area in geo thermal.  There are pipes that go 700 feet in the ground -- down and around -- three separate pipe systems filled with an anti-freeze solution.  As the solution of chemicals and air circulates through the ground it cools off or heats up, depending on the season.  The solution in the pipes is brought in and the heat or the coolness from the ground is "exchanged" into the house -- it either warms up in the winter or cools off in the  summer.  

In the summer it takes hot air out of the house and puts it into the ground.  In the winter, it takes the warm temperature out of the ground and brings it into the house. 

Our electric bill in the early years rarely (very very) rarely went over $100/mo.  Of course rates went up and the heat pump began to fail and the bills increased.  Sometimes the heat pump worked and sometimes it didn't.  Some nights it didn't!  There were days when Himself was sleep deprived.  It was time to do something. 

It was time for action and we called up Franklin Kinkade.  Yes, he is still around but as he is retired, we called up the guy that took over for Franklin, we called in Matt Wood and his 2 cronies, Michael Haag from Orient and Rich Egan from Creston.  (As chance would have it, Kristy and Erica went to school with Matt and Johanna went to early elementary with Michael and high school with Rich.) 

Anyway, as in a screen play, stage right.  "Enter the Plumbers". 

They came in on Monday and began demolition.  Somtimes there were two plumbers, sometimes three. 

The took out duct work and removed the old unit. 

Demolition continues!  What!  There's a hole in my ceiling?

Out with the old!  In with the New!

That trailer was full by the time they had pulled all the old duct work and the heat exchanger.  And here's the new unit, still wrapped in plastic, with the two wheel cart, above.  It took 4 strong men to push that baby up three flights of stair, each flight a little bit steeper.  But they gotter done! 

These little babies gave us all a bit of a fit.  The installation was done.  The shiny new ducts were in place.  The heat exchanger had been bullied up the stairs.  The wiring done.  The guys were gone home.  Oops!  Himself went to put the closet doors back on and these babies were HOT!  Too hot for their own good!  So here came Matt and Rich back for another 2 or 3 hours.  It got on nigh to 8:30.  After deep thought and speculation amongst the men and Himself, after an evaluation of the big bang theory and a debate about evolution vs the Bible, after trial and error, they rewired the pumps.  

They rewired the pumps and the heat pump came on, the motors purred and stayed cool and the house started warming.  Problem solved!  New Heat Pump installed!  Success!  And it has purred like a kitten for a full week!  Praise the Lord!  Himself can sleep in peace. 

And they put the Heat Pump and equipment back in an orderly fashion and vacuumed and swept and cleaned the bath tub!  And ran.  They ran like the wind and vowed not to stop down at the corner but to put as much space between Himself and themselves and possible!

What gentlemenly plumbers!  I wanted to adopt all three!  or marry them off to a daughter!  lol

PS:  the bill came today.  Whew, it wasn't as bad as we had thought.  And the rebates and tax breaks are going to make it cost effective.  And Himself can sleep in peace.  Amen. 

HOLY COW

Found this observation and "math" in the internet on my of my favorite blogs . . .

On average I cook dinner 6 days a week. Sometimes I even cook on vacation - now that's crazy!52 weeks x






40 years


equals ------ HOLY COW, that's 12,480 meals. 

I guess I've cooked a good HALF of these meals . . . but between Himself and I, we have cooked that many.  My Mama, before the days of restaurants and fast food places, cooked 3 squares a day, 7 days a week.  Okay, maybe every week or two they went somewhere for Sunday dinner but even then, my mother probably took a cake or a "covered dish". 

I've been married 40 years. 

Himself has been married 40 years. 

That's a whole bunch of meals!

October

I love this weather!  Cool nights and warm days in the 70s and even the 80s.  We had a cool spell where it was only getting up to about 60 degrees and I didn't enjoy that nearly as much as they warmer days.  Himself loves, loves, LOVES October and November and all fall weather!  It gets down to 65 degrees and I'm putting a sweatshirt on my arms.  I can wear shorts and sandels and no socks . . . but I have to keep my arms warm.  Himself doesn't need a jacket or sweatshirt until it is more like in the 55 degree range. 

This is last year, 2009.  October 23, 2009.

Wasn't it pretty? 

This year, we nowhere have this much color yet.

Last  year, Des Moines had snow on October 6 or 8 or somewhere in there, I heard on the radio.  This year, I still have cucumber vines, green peppers, tomatoes and even a few radishes, growing in the garden.  I am planning and thinking -- studying on how to build little A-frame greenhouses around these last vegetables so as to get the fruit to maturity.  I have an abundance of old windows to use now that Himself and Dana and Nick replaced each and every window in our house.  Maybe this weather will hold another month and I won't have to resort to little greenhouses?

I love the internet!  Have an idea and "google" it or use your favorite search engine, and whatever you are imagining, is already in the internet!  Well, maybe not exactly, because I was thinking about little A-Frame greenhouses and I didn't find a picture of one of those but maybe I just didn't search by the right word.  Anyway, look at these little greenhouses all made out of used, wooden windows. 

These three photographs respectfully "borrowed" from the internet but not for profit or gain.