Making Progress

Sometimes it feels like I am spinning my wheels.
Working hard but nothing really to show for it.
So many ideas that I've been suffering from a lack of focus.
Stuff I see that I like and want to do, yet still drowning in the stuff I saw yesterday that I'm trying to implement. Is it every really finished?
Time to sit back, breathe deep and get some perspective.
Time to dig out too.
Get ready for girls camp
a 50th birthday celebration
helping Aaron and Celisa move
and school starting
All in rapid succession.

But first a few pictures of what I've been up to:

The hallway
It took forever to find the little pictures to fit in the collage and not cover faces with the words.
Finished is good.

Dining Room - actually in progress.

This picture shows the new light fixture as well as the sliding glass door that replaced the smaller window.

Not finished but as it stands today.
Much more roomy.

This china hutch was passed down to us from Marks' mom and will now pass to Aaron and Celisa as we share the love. The buffett that matches it is already at home with Amy and Jordan and holding Grandam T's china.

New built in makes it so we can get around the table now.

These shadow boxes took some time too but I love the way they turned out.
If any other descendants of Grandma would like to do something similar I have some more of her monogrammed silver (forks and spoons only) that's a partial set and you are welcome to have a few pieces.

The family room before

and now.
The wall to the left is quite big and blank but I have plans for a family tree with pictures.
If you are related to us - I would love a recent picture (.jpg file) of your family to put on the wall as well as pictures of great (or great great great) grandparents.
Or I'll use an old one or pluck one from facebook...

I also need some input about the eating area and a wall in the living room but those pictures will have to wait until it's not so bright outside.
Until then... I'll go get my shovel and start digging...

Oh yea happy birthday to my sister Lisa, you're awesome!
want to be inspired check this out and this.

Flash Back Friday: Not Born on Halloween

My Grandma Gusty was not born on Halloween but Halloween is on her birthday. She was born in Switzerland where they didn't (don't?.. I don't know) celebrate Halloween. She is the second from the left, the girl with dark hair and full lips (for more details about the other women in the picture, see my dad's comment below)- she said her sisters teased her because she looked so different than the rest of them. She, along with her sisters and mom joined the church on the 6th of May, 1914 when she was nine and she came to the US sailing from Cherbourg on the 22nd of May, 1926, when she was 21. She worked as a nanny and house keeper first in Salt Lake City and then in LA. She learned English here. She met my grandpa, the mailman, as she awaited letters from her beau back in Switzerland. They were married in LA and later my grandpa joined the church and they traveled to the Mesa temple to be sealed.

Grandma was a "Rosie the Riveter"
and worked at McDonald Douglas during World War II.
(I love her handwriting.)

This is my grandma and Grandpa shortly before my Grandpa passed away in the early 70's. My grandma's hair didn't go gray until he was into her 80's and she lived by herself until she was 90? - clarification dad?
She passed away just before Jennifer's second birthday in '97. It's hard to believe she's been gone 11 years. Somehow she remains with me though. I see her full lips on my children and our sweet Ruby. Every Thanksgiving we eat on the china that was hers. I am grateful that the relationships we form here will continue with us forever. Happy Birthday Grandma... I look forward to our reunion someday.

Flashback Friday: Chocolate cake

Have you ever seen one of these before? When I was growing up my dad's parents would often visit for Sunday dinner. My Grandma Gusty would always bring a chocolate cake in this very cake saver. Years later she explained to me that the only proper dessert is cake... and knowing the chocolate lover my grandma was, it was always chocolate. (Celisa would have loved her.)

I don't remember exactly when it was but Mark and I were in town with our three kids and we were visiting her. As we were getting ready to go she pulled out the cake saver which had not been used for a while. She showed me a little dent in it and a small spot of rust and made a few suggestions as to how to get it perfect again. As we were putting on the kids jackets and gathering toys, she continually got more uneasy. Suddenly she disappeared into her bedroom and then reappeared with another cake saver. "Here" she said, "take this one - it's perfect." Then came her confession, "I was going to keep it in case I want to take a cake somewhere but I feel guilty not giving you my best one". Now I felt guilty, even knowing what the proper dessert was I never took a cake anywhere unless it was in a 9x12 pan. This obviously meant more to her than it did to me until that moment. Despite my objections I left with the perfect one. Unfortunately I have never used it to this day. Maybe it's time to do a little baking and visiting....

Fresh Cut Grass and mud pizza's

The smell of newly cut grass always reminds me of Saturday trips to my Grandma Burton's with my dad when I was around 10. This is my Grandpa and Grandma Burton Christmas of 1972. My Grandpa died in April of '73. After that my dad made regular Saturday trips to my Grandma's house in Inglewood CA. He would cut and edge her grass, trim trees, deal with roots that were raising the sidewalk and do whatever my Grandma needed. I would play outside while my dad worked. I remember playing with a toy pigeon that could climb the wall with it's suction cup feet. My grandma would give us kids rides in the wheelbarrow. One time a man heard my grandma and dad talking and told her she had a beautiful accent and asked where she was from. I laughed inside at his ignorance - this man knew nothing, it was my other grandma who had an accent. Grandma Light was from Utah, she said things like crick (creek) and "Land Sakes!" Grandma Burton grew up in Switzerland and came to the US when she was 18 learning English after she arrived ... but I knew that's just how grandmas talked.

Grandma Burton was very proper in all that she did. She always brought cake to our house when she joined us for dinner (which is THE only proper dessert). She never drank Coke - only Pepsi. She always put her napkin on her lap and dabbed carefully at the edges of her mouth during dinner. One time Lisa and I went with my dad to her house. It was a beautiful day and we were playing outside. Lisa made a gourmet mud pizza that would fit in the palm of your hand complete with little sausages and pepperoni. My grandma came to see what we were doing. We were a little worried that we would be in trouble for playing in the mud but we told her we made a pizza and showed it to her. She asked if she could have some. Lisa handed it to her and to our utter shock she actually took a little bite! We both cried out for her to stop and told her it was made of mud! She acted shocked, turned her head and daintily spit the mud to the side with a little "ptew" sound. No wonder it didn't taste very good. We all had a good laugh.

It's interesting how a smell can bring back some much...