Retired Mountain Lady: Family and Friends

Showing posts with label Family and Friends. Show all posts

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to son David! I wish we could all be together to celebrate today, but due to the pandemic we will all have to just enjoy these memories sitting at home instead.

David and Sons

Get out the smoke machine

He's always game for some fun.

Grandpa time

More goofy fun!

Actor, vocalist and tap dancer.
What a great time we had watching him perform with the Hamilton Players in Harvey and The Drowsy Chaperone. He took tap dancing lessons for his part in the musical. True dedication.

With Grandma Eileen at Harvey performance

Professor and scientist at the University of Montana and Inimmune.

Some of the vaccine team in this photo. Go team!

Retired Mountain Man and I hope he has a fun and crazy day.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee.....

I am cleaning and moving things to get ready for carpet installation. Apparently I had not cleaned in one area for about 30 years. I know, that sounds really bad, but the location was extremely difficult to get to. A closet in the basement that is four feet deep. I found these on the concrete floor in the very back corner. There was a blue box and an old plastic grocery bag with ???? in it. I admit that at my age I had to get a broomstick to pull and drag them out.

I could be wrong but I think this record player was a Christmas gift to Jamie when he was 5 years old. His favorite song back then was Davy Crockett, the theme song to the mountain man's TV show. He played it over and over. He liked it so much that when his baby brother was born, he chose his name, David.

We've had water damage in the basement several times, so it's a little worse for wear, but I bet it works. The problem is that I don't have any vinyl records left to test it out. Darn. I just might have to buy one to find out.

So what was in the grocery bag? Treasures that went with the "Army Battle Mountain". It was a Christmas gift to David in about 1980. I searched for photos of the playset on the web and found one that sold on ebay for $250.00. Wow. Too bad I don't have the rest of it.....

It's time for it to be donated to the thrift store. There are no flashing lights or obnoxious noises that came with these toys, but there were originally about 200 assorted army men. I can't tell you how many times I stepped on one with my bare feet. They were pointy little things....."OUCH! I'm gonna kill that kid". Oops, I don't think you're supposed to say those kind of things anymore. Fortunately for him, he's still living.

For your listening pleasure.....

Saturday, July 23, 2016

G. Eileen Crawford

She didn't like her first name so it was officially G. Eileen. Over the years the G. has come to stand for Griz, as in the Montana Grizzlies. She knew her football and was the one to beat in the annual football pool.

When your life spans more than 92 years, you have had some experiences and left your mark on the world. My mom was always there for her five children and their spouses, her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. Not to mention the rest of her family and friends. She had your back.

Mom with her parents, Julius and Ella, 1924.

She was an avid sports fan and very athletic herself. I always admired athletic ability because I do not have any. I did not inherit any of that from my mom, but fortunately for me, I did inherit her love of music. She and her sisters loved to sing and at every family reunion that is what they taught all of us to do. Play music and sing. Our music at New Year's Eve and the Oyster Party came from that tradition. I hope that I am passing it on just like she did.

Some of my "singing" cousins.

Mom, Aunt Shirley, Aunt Betty, Grandma Ella. Aunt Merle not in this photo.

She loved football and her favorite teams were Nebraska and the Montana Grizzlies. She baked her delicious "Christmas Cookies" every year and mailed them to each of us. She loved to dance and even though she was recuperating from a broken ankle, she was dancing at Dylan and Sarah's wedding last August.

In the photo below, she is standing on a chair after dancing in the conga line when we were on a cruise. She always denied doing it, but I have proof.

Topping off the champagne tree on the cruise.

Here we all are in our Nebraska Red!

She marched in the 4th of July parade with the Cougar Creek Band in 2011.

And she loved to fish! Here she is on Seagull Charters.

I could go on and on....

Did we get it right mom?

I love you!

We all hope to live a life as well lived as you did. If we achieve that, we will have done something.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Fridays are still busy even when you are retired.

Someone asked me the other day what I did to stay busy since Retired Mountain Man and I decided that we had done enough traveling and cruising. He said, "What do you do?"

Friday:
It began with a trip to Sandpoint for an appointment and the weekly grocery shopping.

It was a beautiful sunny day so when I got home I headed outside. I am still working on putting my garden to bed. Yes, I know you are probably thinking, "how long could that possibly take? Hasn't she been doing this forever?" It seems like that to me too.

I harvested the last vegetables from the garden, my carrots and a few beets. They were in my raised beds and now the beds are weeded and covered with weed block for the winter.

I think I waited too long to dig up the carrots as some of them are a bit large. It's time for a meal with roasted carrots, beets, onions and potatoes.

Next on the list was mowing my lawn for the last time. At least I think it will be the final mowing for 2015, but this has been a strange year weather wise.

As I was mowing the lawn I discovered that my new John Deere mower worked really well as a leaf blower. There were a LOT of leaves on the lawn and it either blew them to the edge or it mulched them.

I love my John Deere, even if it is yellow and green.

In the evening Retired Mountain Man and I headed to Clark Fork for the Wampus Cats Homecoming Football game. We had to get out our winter coats gloves and hats AND we took a blanket. All of those items were needed as there was a cold breeze blowing down the mountains.

Jens is number 75. He wore the pink socks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

We only made it through the first half of the game, but we did get to see Jens make a great interception!
The Cats were playing without two of their key players so they struggled playing against Kendrick. I don't know what they feed those boys from Kendrick but they all seem to be 6'6" and weigh 220 pounds.

We were proud of our team as they never gave up!

Go Cats!

As for how I fill up my days, I don't know. They just seem to fill up. It's like one of my favorite quotes that's posted at the top of my blog, "Life happens while you are busy making other plans." John Lennon

Thursday, October 15, 2015

No Way! Our cute "bug" can't be a senior already!

The years are just going by too quickly for me. Retired Mountain Man and I are so lucky to get to know all of these beautiful kids. It is so much fun watching them grow up and reach every milestone in their lives.

Here's a photo of our little "Lester Bug" back when she was just testing everything out at Elk Camp.

This would be a photo from her first Oyster Party, along with Jens.

Last Tuesday evening we went to watch Leslie play in her last home volleyball game, which happened to also be Senior Night.

This is one very proud dad.

The whole family was there!

We are looking forward to the next milestone for Leslie. It's going to be an exciting year. The Clark Fork Homecoming football game is this Friday night. We will be going to watch Jens play.