Bandits

We are so excited to have Maggie here with us for most of June. She is our youngest daughter, still in college that is feeling a little homeless since we moved up here. She drove the 13 hours by herself this past Thursday. Here we are cooking in the new kitchen. Once I get every thing done in the kitchen and cleaned up a bit, I will post more pictures.

The other day I was looking at the Hy-Vee sale flyer when I noticed they were giving out 200 free tickets to the Quad Cities River Bandits baseball game. Hy-Vee is a grocery store where there is a helpful smile in every aisle.

Maggie and I grabbed three tickets and looked forward to going to the game. Mike thinks they are single A minor league. I guess that means they are very young players high school and college age.
We parked our car and headed to the entrance of John O'Donnell stadium which is now called Modern Woodman Park. I will continue to call it John O'Donnell because I like the way it rolls off my tongue when I say it fast. Plus, that was the name of it when I went to games with my Dad.
As we were walking to the entrance a train came along and we had to wait for it to go by before we could get to the stadium. It was a very long train.

Finally the train had gone by and we headed in. Behind us is the Centennial Bridge which crosses the Mississippi. 

The Mississippi does flood and after many floods in the stadium, they built a wall to prevent the water from going in.

Last night the water was only over the back sidewalk.

Before we ordered a beer, we decided to go on the ferris wheel. 

We then enjoyed the game.  

The River Bandits won with a big lead, 14 to 5. We decided to walk around the ball park before heading home. We found the horses were too tired to carry people in circles.

The view is beautiful.

We had so much fun we will probably go again when Maggie's boyfriend, Chase is in town. 

Memorial Day

When my parents were alive, they would do something I thought was a little crazy on Memorial Day.  They would load up their car with potted flowers they picked up a fews weeks before, from Stuart and Sherry's greenhouse and head out for a day road trip. I know that doesn't sound crazy but the actual road trip part does.  They would go to Dubuque where Dad's parents and other family members are buried and leave the potted flowers on the graves.  Dubuque is a 1 and 1/2 hour drive. They would then drive to Earlville, 1/2 hour away from Dubuque, where Mom's family is buried and put potted plants on their graves.  The would then head to Greeley to my cousin, their niece's house for lunch. Earlville to Greeley is a short 15 minute drive.

After lunch they would go back to the Earlville to pick up the flowers, then back to Dubuque to pick up those flowers, and then head home. The flowers would then get planted in their yard or maybe sometimes back to the greenhouse. They did this every year and as they got older, I would try to talk them out of it, or at least just leave the flowers there on the graves.  Mom refused and said they would always do it. I would get so worried about them driving all day but then my sister Mary started going with them.

Now that my parents are gone and I am up here, I knew I needed to go to the cemeteries. Mike was in his hometown, Lisbon that weekend because his high school was having their annual banquet and was honoring his class of 1977, yes 40 years.  So Mary and I decided to go but we had a little problem. We had planted all of the flowers we got from the greenhouse when we were up there.  Mom never liked people spending money on flowers so we  thought maybe we could go to Wisconsin to get flowers and then to the cemeteries but that would be too long of a drive for us.  We then remembered Mom and Dad on Fridays, would go to the wholesale flower warehouse in Davenport and get cut flowers the warehouse was not planning on selling. Mom and Dad would then deliver them around town to nursing homes, their church, and other places. Mom had just won volunteer of the year for doing this, right before she died.  Before Mom died, she handed over the flower duties to another church member. I called her up and asked if we could have some flowers to take to Mom and Dad's grave. She thought that was an excellent idea.

I then remembered years ago on Memorial Day, we went to a ceremony at the Church across from Sherry's house in Wisconsin. Mary, Sherry and I cried during that ceremony because it was so moving. I told Mary I would like to go again.

Monday morning Mary and I went to Earlville and put four roses on Mom's grave and four roses on Dad's. The cemetery had also put a WWII flag up for Dad. Our cousin Sandy (we think it was Sandy) had already been there to leave flowers.  We also left roses for Grandma and Bop. I didn't take picture of their headstones.

We then went to Dubuque to leave roses on Dad's parents, our grandparent's graves.
I had never met Julius or Mary. We always thought as kids how weird it was to see Mary Walling on a headstone when our sister was Mary Walling.

We then realized that Great Aunt Dory was next to Mary. I have recently found a recipe for Great Aunt Dory's caramel cookies and have been baking them quite often. I just happened to bake a batch the night before to take on our trip! So Mary, my sister alive next to me, and I ate a cookie over Dory's grave and left one for her.

We were not happy about all the tall grass we had to pull away to take these pictures.  It is usually a well kept cemetery.

We were glad we were leaving cut flowers so we wouldn't feel like we had to go back and get potted ones. We probably wouldn't go back and pick them up anyway.

We then drove on to Wisconsin to spend the night with Sherry and family.  Here is Mary, Al and Sherry.  Please don't be upset that I included this picture, Mary and Sherry!

In the morning we walked across the street to the Church.

The three of us teared up again.
When I asked the Legion guys if I could take a picture of their guns, they were more than happy to let me take a picture, and one guy wanted me to take a picture of him holding a gun.

We also got a little history lesson. The guns are refurbished from WWII and the Korean wars. They have six blanks and two real bullets. They shoot three blanks at every cemetery so they can do two cemeteries without reloading. It only works if there are two real bullets in the mag but they are blocked somehow from being shot. I am probably not repeating that correctly but it was very interesting when they were telling us this. They were so happy to tell us!

Mary and I loaded up my car full of plants again and headed home. I didn't take pictures of the greenhouse this time but it looked like Stuart had really sold quite a bit.  As soon as everything is blooming in our yard, I will take pictures.

My Mom, Bonnie Walling

These past few days have been hard. A year ago May 22,  my Mom died. I started thinking each day what had happened last year. The first sign something was wrong was when my sister Jo called and asked if I knew where Mom was. Jo had a feeling Mom was in the hospital. Jo had been talking to her every day since Dad died less than 60 days earlier. Jo couldn't get a hold of her and the last time they spoke, Mom wasn't feeling well. Mary confirmed Mom was in the hospital. Each day we would get a report and it always sounded like Mom would be able to go home until one day the Doctors asked for a family meeting. Sherry came down from Wisconsin, Mary lives here in Davenport, but Jo and I had to conference call with our cell phones. They were asking us what our wishes were.  No feeding tube and we would take her home. I packed up my car and headed up early the next morning so that I could be there for a meeting with my sisters and the Hospice nurse at 4pm.  Hospice was pushing for us to put her in their home but we all knew Mom wanted to be home. I even told them, and our minister who was also there, that I didn't want Mom to be upset and haunt me later if we didn't take her home.  So it was decided she would go home the next day.

I was a little worried to see Mom so Sherry showed me a picture of her taken that day. I was happy for that because I was then prepared. Mom was awake and I believe she knew who I was. It was hard for her to communicate. I told her we were taking her home the next day and her eyes brightened as she was able to get out one question, tomorrow? I told her yes and she kept trying to say tomorrow.

She came home on a Saturday morning. Jo was to fly up that day but something happened to her flight, which I can't remember right now, where she didn't make it until Sunday.  Mom had several visitors Sunday. Christine, the minister came over and sang hymns for an hour. It was beautiful. I listened to her while I was cooking supper for the four of us. After Christine left, I told my sister's it was time to eat. We left Mom alone for less than ten minutes when Sherry got up from the table to check on Mom. Mom had passed.

Mom waited for all of us girls to be there and then waited for all us out to be out of the room when she left.  We all feel she died of a broken heart.

A little bit about Mom......
She grew up in the small town of Earlville, Iowa.   My grandparents decided to move to California when Mom was in high school so she ended up graduating there, in Pomona. She played the clarinet in the band and was to play in the Rose Bowl Parade but that year the parade was canceled because of the war. She was disappointed.  This is Mom in her band uniform.

They ended up moving back to Earlville and good thing they did so Mom could meet Dad. They met at a Lawrence Welk dance.  Mike and I try to watch Lawrence Welk every Saturday. It brings back memories. Mom and Dad always watched it and so did Mike's parents.
Here she is so happy when she was dating Dad. I believe he took this picture.

And then this happened.  Good thing they tried one more time for a boy because they got me!

She was a stay at home mom and spent a lot of time volunteering, playing the piano, and teaching the piano. She had so many students. We would have to stay in the basement or outside when students were over for their lessons. I always knew when a student made a mistake because those pieces were stuck in my head. She was still teaching piano the day before she went into the hospital. She tried to teach us but it just didn't work out.

She also LOVED to play the Zither. She couldn't plan any trips on Saturday's because that was Zither practice day. She would never miss practice.

I like the below picture of Mom on her 89th birthday. She looks so happy!

Unfortunately a few months later, a car backed into her as she was walking to her car in a Walgreens parking lot. She broke in three places. I thought that was it for her but she wasn't ready to go. I believe she thought they would never die. She was so strong willed that she recovered in less than four months. We were all amazed.



You can learn more about Mom around 7 minutes into this audio.
http://www.edwards-ucc.org/media/2016-05-27_Bonnie_Walling.mp3

Mom and Dad were married 66 years. Dad was 89 when he died last year and Mom was 90 when she died 56 days after Dad.

I wasn't sure if I was going to include the following picture but it is pretty cool to see how close they are now. You can see Dad's blue vault inches away from Mom.

They are together, once again.

Getting Closer to a Complete Kitchen and Fabric Farm Fun!

The counter top was put in Tuesday!

It is a solid Quartz surface. I watched the three guys put it in for awhile, but there was too much tension between two of them that I had to leave after I felt confident they knew what they were doing.  They were friendly to me but you could tell one guy didn't like another one. Oh well, at least I have counter tops!

Yesterday the plumber came!

By the way, birds have made a nest in that fern. It is fun to watch.
The plumber got the sink working. Yippee, no more washing dishes in the bathroom! He hooked up the gas stove and plumbed the dishwasher although, we have to use an extension cord to use the dishwasher because the electrician hasn't come yet.

We have one very happy cat, Binx. He will only drink water out of a facet and struggled finding us at the right time to get a drink in the bathroom. We are usually always in the kitchen and can turn it on for him.

We ate our first meal tonight. Here I am cooking, without a glass of wine because I have to go to Church later to help polish the hand bells.

We have the fridge plugged in but since the electrician hasn't been by, it is in the living room.

And we still don't have lights in the kitchen. I am second guessing getting pendant lights. I don't really like them and I think there will be too many hanging lights around here. I love recessed lights but was talked out of getting those for over the peninsula.  The two holes on the right, right above the window will be the eyeball lights. They are recessed but have a part you can move to direct the light where you want it to shine.  The two lights at the top of the picture is where the pendant lights will be and the last hole, will be a flat ceiling light. Hopefully I will like this.

The electrician will be here Monday. Exciting times.

Last night we had tornados all around us. I forgot about all the tornados they have up here in Iowa. Luckily, we can hear the sirens. They are extremely loud and scary.  When I was taking care of Dad last year the sirens went off and I ran into his bedroom and asked him what should we do? He said "nothing". So we didn't do anything. Of course when they went off last night, I ran outside to take pictures. Everything was yellow for awhile.

We had extreme gusty winds and some rain. The wind was the scariest and I always have nightmares about tornados.  Luckily, all of our dead trees made it through. That is what Mike was worried about.

Today I went to the Fabric Fun Farm to take a class on painting fabric. My friend was teaching it and they offer this great fun once a year with different types of fabric classes. Before I left, I told Mike I wasn't feeling very creative today and was struggling thinking of what to paint on my fabric. He suggested this, his drawing

He thought maybe it looked too much like a bunny, so I drew this.

I had a great time there. The following picture is of my friend, Terre and some of her art which is painted fabric. Isn't that beautiful?  She quilted the fabric and the gold is the paint.  Sitting next to her is my other new friend and neighbor, Carolyn.

We are actually in a barn where there were stations to learn new fabric things. It looks empty but it was very busy before this picture. We were one of the last courses of the day.

I showed everyone what Mike wanted me to paint and they all thought that was cute. I am not sure if they thought I was really going to do that, but I did. I told them Mike was getting a cat pillow for Christmas. As I was painting this, I thought out loud that it looked really elementary. All agreed except Terre. She said all art is beautiful.  Notice the added footprints. This was a suggestion from a person across the table. She also asked me if I planned to paint a garage. I was a little confused because since I have been painting the whole house, I thought she really meant my garage. I then figured out she was telling me in her own funny way that I was wasting paint by making huge piles of it on my palette paper.

The reason why I had huge piles of paint on my palette paper was because of my second piece.

Everyone thought it was beautiful! I think they were worried about me when I did the cat. I surprised myself.
All the other artists were painting birds and trees and other beautiful things but I can't do that. It would end up looking like the cat.

When I placed my two pieces together, I realized I had just made the back for the cat pillow. Mike will love his Christmas present!

Now that I look at it, my abstract actually looks like skyscrapers in the sky.

And, one more look at the kitchen. Before and After.