Mom saved a lot of paper things, and photos. She made four copies of everything. Things would be published in her small hometown paper like this " Sherry and Mary Walling spent the weekend in Earlville with their grandparents". Or this "Rose and Harvey Holscher had their granddaughters, Jo and Elizabeth spend Saturday night with them". Mom would make four copies. Mom made many scrapbooks too. We had a great time going through them and it wasn't a problem letting things go. Maybe that is why we had to wait two years.
Mom even made four or more copies of photos. She even kept the negatives to all of them.
We decided not to look at each one knowing we would see the actual photo sooner or later. Plus our necks were getting sore holding them up to the light.
I promised Mary and Sherry that I wouldn't post the photo of them looking at negatives. They thought they looked weird and bad.
When we felt the need to step away from all that paper, we would go downstairs and help Sherry paint her doll room a beautiful lavender color.
This is the same color as our bedroom in Davenport. I had almost a gallon left over and it was just the right amount.
We would also go into their backyard greenhouse to look at Stuart's magic. He makes an empty greenhouse turn into the beginnings of a beautiful world of color, from seeds. I have never seen the stages and it is quite amazing how he does it. This is the stage of plants just starting to grow. The greenhouse will open in four weeks.
We noticed that Clayton Potman had grown into an old hipster.
Sherry pulled out all of the treasures we bought for her succulents. She said she would tell us to stop buying these containers when she had enough.
She forgot to tell us to stop.
She once got a drill press for Christmas, or her birthday, I can't remember. She drills holes in all of these pots to put her succulents in. She had one more box to finish drilling because we had gone to thrift stores and church sales that morning.
Before I go on about Sherry's succulents, I have to add this picture of something we found at a thrift store.
I was also excited to see what they sold in this small Wisconsin town tavern!!
Sherry puts her beautiful succulents into these beautiful and sometimes crazy pots.
Sherry imagines what kind of plant would look good in the pots and then plants them.
I hope you notice the ugly monkey. When I bought him at the thrift store, the cashier picked it up, looked at it, and made a funny face. I knew she was wondering why anyone would buy that. But doesn't he look great now? We can't wait to see if it sells and see who will buy it.
This is what I came home with. They even grow grass for cats.
While Mary and I were in Wisconsin, Mike sent us a picture of the 10 inches of snow Davenport was getting. It was so strange that Davenport, Iowa was having a blizzard and two hours north where we were, not one snowflake.
When Mary and I drove back, we could see where the line of snow started. We decided to detour off the the usual drive to look for a house once owned by our Dad. We found in all those papers that our grandmother bought one half of the double house for $1 and love and affection from her Aunt. That is what was on the actual legal document. This one half of the double house was then inherited by our Dad. We had no idea. We later found papers showing he sold it in 1952 when Jo was born, our oldest sister.
This is in a up and coming neighborhood in Dubuque Iowa, where Dad grew up and most of our family went to college. Dubuque is a pretty cool place.
Luckily, the 10 inches of snow had already started to melt because the ground was so wet.
The piles this morning at work are like artwork.
Hopefully, that is the last snow for the season. Still dreaming of spring!
