Getting Close

We are getting really close to setting up our website to sell our lamps.  For the last 3 weeks Rich has been cleaning out the garage and setting up the lamp shop for production.  We have cleaned up a lot of junk, donated a lot to the Salvation Army and put things up in deep storage (the rafters).  He also has been doing a lot of projects and honey do things that have been on hold for a while :)  Last night he began securing the bases and tops.  He has made a lot of lovely designs.  We will be taking individual shots of each lamp for our website, so the customers can pick and choose which one they would like.  We are so very excited to begin production.  We also are going to be making vases with designs that will be lighted on the inside and have a place for arrangements on top to be used for special parties or weddings. Lastly, we are going to be making personalized funeral urns for people and for pets.  Here are a few shots of the shop and of the lamps Rich was working on last night.

Ballet Photos

Mary had so much fun in her ballet class this last year.  These pictures were taken a week before their big show at the end of June.

My New Bike

Rich built Mary a beautiful bike.  We had a lovely little bike that was given to Mary as a gift with the horse head and tail but she out grew it.  Rich's folks had bought a bigger bike at a garage sale for $5 when she was a baby and we had it stored up in the garage rafters.  Last week Rich got it down and completely repainted it and rebuilt it.  We bought new tires, handle bar grips and pedals.  Rich took the little horse head, seat and tail from her old bike.  The little bike she had was still in really good condition, so we gave it to a man in our church that fixes up bikes for needy children to have. All it needed was a seat. Here is a picture of her on her bike and a short slide show showing Rich working on the bike and Mary supervising :) Needless to say we have a very excited little girl on our hands!

 

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Here is the link to the slide show: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=113b8e432f7f65a0aa8e1c2&skin_id=1605&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
 

School Room

About 10 days ago Mary and I went to a children's festival in the town that I went to grade school at.  We parked in the schools parking lot and took an old fashioned trolley car ride to the festival.  When we returned to the school, we walked around the grounds and I admired how it had been so beautifully restored.  This shot below is the stairways and doors that I always went up and through to go to my 4th grade class.  Now there is a restaurant in the lower level that was the cafeteria and all the other rooms have been upgraded and restored and are used for vocational classes and the gym has been turned into a ball room that can be rented out for special events. 

 

This last week or so I have been changing our guest bedroom into a school room for Mary.  We will still keep the bed in there and it can be used for guest when they come.  Our guest bedroom had been used to store stuff and keep junk out of sight. lol  So, Rich and I have been going through all the stuff we are not using and donating it to the Salvation Army.  It is very refreshing to lose all of that junk and have room for what we need to do.  I bought 3 bookcases for $30 on Craig list for my birthday.  Two of them I am using in Mary's school room.  I plan on using them for all Mary's school books and reading books.  Mary just loves her new room.  I made one wall with her ballet class bulletin board so that we can keep track of all the things going on there.  I want to get a large bulletin board to go on the wall over the bed to put her art work on and learning charts on.  She will be starting kindergarten this year and I will be homeschooling her.  Our community has a really good Christian homeschooling group, so I will be part of that.  They do yearly testing to see how your child is progressing and have all kinds of field trips and group activities for the kids to be part of.  I am very excited about this coming year and all the things that both Mary and I will be learning.

Her desk area.

The book shelves

Her ballet class bulletin board.

Summer Flowers

My garden is in full bloom.

Eleven Years Ago Today!

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Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=1128ba15ce64a383b0962fa&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Big Fireworks in the Sky!!

Mary had a lot of fun and new experiences this 4th of July.  We got up in the morning and went to a near by town that has a parade.  We joined up with some friends and had a great time.  We saw lots of fire trucks, police cars, flags, horses and old cars.  All the fun things in a small town parade! 

 

In the evening we went to see a beautiful fireworks display put on at the fair grounds.  We didn't go onto the fair grounds as it is really crowded and hard to get out of.  We watched in a local church parking lot that is near the fair grounds.  Rich took a video of the last few minutes of the show.  You may think, "Oh more fireworks..."  but if you enjoy some really good concert band music, you might enjoy the video.  We post it for our family memories and Mary was marching around the living room and clapping her hands as I played it.  I know she will be talking about her special 4th of July where she got to see the big fireworks in the sky for a long time to come.  In past years we just had some small fireworks for her in the back yard.  So this was very exciting and memorable for her.

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Here is the link to the video:  http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=112299628cde479dfdf13aa&skin_id=1604&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

A Wonderful Day

Today marks a very special day for our family.  It is Rich's first day at his new job (our ceramic business)!  He has finally retired from the HVAC & R work that he has done for the last 30 years.  He has worked for a number of different companies.  He was employed at this last company for 7 years.  We are going to be making ceramic lamps and custumized funeral urns.  We are very excited about this and we will be posting our web page in a little while.  It was such a blessed day today to be working around the house and in the yard and have my sweet husband right there in our garage.  We had a little outing for lunch.  We all loaded up in our van, Mackie included, and went to the car wash.  I think our dog, Mackie, thought the world was coming to and end.  He sat in my lap and shivered.  Then we went to Sonic and had Coney Island hotdogs and ice cream for dessert.

 

Freedom Cake

Mary and I made a red, white and blue cake today.  We call it our freedom cake.  I used a box of white cake mix and divided it into thirds.  I used food coloring to dye one blue and one red. 

  

Then I baked them.  The blue one looked green because of the browning of the outside.  I frosted it with butter cream frosting.

Mary decorated it on the top.  I just turned her loose and she thought up the design all herself.

I thought she did such a good job and she is only 5!

Then we put some candles on it.

Here's the happy girl with her cake.  She can hardly wait for daddy to get home and see it!

Fun Father's Day Picture

On Father's Day at our church they served a pancake breakfast and then they had this little photo booth set up in the corner of the fellowship hall and 2 gals were taking pictures with a nice digital camera.  They took a serious one and a fun one and I fell in love with the fun one.  Mary picked out her Viking costume all on her own.  She sure takes after Rich in her dramatic flare.  Rich was very active in the drama group at our church down in Southern California and he took acting classes at the local community college and did really well.