Me and my Best Friend!

Finally after a  second antibiotic I started feeling better. By Thursday Jeff and I decided to go away for a couple of days, to celebrate our Anniversary ( that we missed ). So we ended up in Anacortes. It was about 10 degrees cooler because of being near the water. It was beautiful there and it was just nice to get away!

Of course we tried to do all our visits to the shops on Friday, because we knew they would be closed on the 4th.

We went up to the Look out point and it truly was breathtaking! How grateful I am with the freedoms we have, and to live in such a beautiful country!

We love antiques... we have always liked things from the past and the history that comes with them. I even found a few things for my studio, I am anxious to see if they will work!

We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast and it was a beautiful old house that had been remodeled. I would recommend it to you but...they didn't have air conditioning...which isn't a shock, most of us don't... but in our room, only one window opened. It was hot that day remember, and so our bedroom was very very hot and we just had a tiny fan. It was a tough to sleep and when we got up the next morning and told the owner how hot it was and miserable at night...she said " well no one ever told us that before, we will have to get that fixed, that was about it. " Oh well, next time we will obviously pick some where else, but it still was a wonderful get away!

For the 4th of July we went to Deception Pass, it was here on the 4th of July in 1988 Jeff and I came for the first time to Washington to visit. I remember Amy was 5 and Brad was almost 2, I had sewn some cute summer outfits for each of them. As we flew in to Seattle...it was raining and cool. It stayed that way the whole week we were there. We had to borrow clothes from my family that we came to visit.  Jeff and I had to buy a jacket and some sweatshirts. And on July 4th they took us to Deception Pass, they kept apologizing for the weather, but when we took one look at Deception Pass, rain or clouds...we were in love!  We thought...how great is that, to live in a place that you can wear sweatshirts...almost all year long!  We knew then, this is where we wanted to live and raise our family. Just a few short months later, that is exactly what we did! And we have never, never looked back!

 We had lunch at the park Deception pass, we also remember bringing the kids here camping when they were little.

Then for the evening we bought our dinner and went to the Marina and listened to the bands that played at the Anacortes 4th of July ROCK THE DOCK, they even had a Town Cryer come and talk about Independence Day and how blessed are to live here!

We came home late right after the fireworks! What a wonderful get away for our 33rd Anniversary! 

How grateful I am to be married to my best friend for all of these years!

Date Day!

Well,  yesterday we decided to just sleep in and then get up and go to Mount Vernon and LaConner for the day!

We started out at a store that sells old doors and windows ( and anything else you can imagine ). We were
looking for a door to make a couple of things for Lauren and Nik's wedding reception. Trust me, it will look
neat especially since Jeff is going to make it.

We found just the ones we wanted with the doorknobs on them...great deal!

Then we decided to eat our lunch and just check out the town of Mount Vernon. Not a very big town but a lot of fun stores. The first thing we saw as we were walking down a side street was a huge black board painted on the side of a building with this on it...

It had all kinds of answers on it, some very thoughtful, some sad, many happy ones and some just down right weird! Since there was chalk on there also...we decided we should right our own wish on there. You can't read it probably but it was...before I die, I want to finish all my quilts for my family! :) I know you can stop laughing now!

Jeff's wish was of course... something he wanted to do on his motorcycle, ride back to the East Coast!

Then we hit some antique shops...always fun and entertaining!

I even found the perfect gift for my sister in law Shirley! Never been opened :)

Then we headed over to LaConner for dinner and just a stroll around town, fun to see the sights, so many things bring back memories of our childhood. ( Good ones )

Then we tried one last selfie through a store window and a mirror...ok, I am new at this.. I realize that! All in all, it was the perfect Date day.  I have been so sick for so long that we have missed many of our Date Nights, and definitely the chance to go too many places.
 How grateful I am, to be feeling better. I felt blessed to spend the day with my best friend!

Heading to celebrate the 4th with the girls. Have a wonderful 4th. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful and wonderful USA!

Friendship, Road Trip and Antiques!

Today a friend and I decided to go on a roadtrip

to Anacortes, it was wonderful to be by the water and to just relax and go to Antique Shop after Antique Shop. Of course we threw in a couple of Quilt Shops too.But mostly we just relaxed , shared our live's stories and appreciated just having the time to connect. My friend has a young family and so getting away for her was really vital!
Interesting how you meet people and some of them you just know from the very beginning... that you were meant to be Forever Friends! This sweet friend is young enough to be one of my daughters, how blessed I am to have a few ADOPTED daughters in my life!
When we were there we saw a ton of motorcycles and of course thought of Jeff. It was actually an annual Motorcycle advent that was going on called the Oyster Run , I think that is what it was called? Anyway there were 100's of motorcycles and since Jeff loves his so much, I decided to have Brittany take a photo of me; to show Jeff what type of motorcycle he would have to own in order for me to ride on the back with him. It looked like a recliner.  At least it wouldn't hurt my back huh?
Need to head to bed, grateful again for all the friends who make my life brighter and better! Thank you!

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

Brandi Snyder quotes

Day Three

   Well today started out at Leroy's Auto Shop again. This time he put 4 new tires on the car, so we should now be ready to head out of town tomorrow. We walked around town for the hour that he put the tires on the car. There wasn't really alot to do in the town, most shops we closed or empty. I kept asking myself what do the people do in this town. 
   After we picked  up the car we went to Lexington, Virginia and went to see some of the homes that had a lot of history in the town. Actually my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a well known mason and we visited one of the mansion that he built. That was on my grandmother Austin's side of the family. That who our son Lee was named after. Interesting enough, the street that the Manson was built on was called Lee Street. We took pictures of the bricks that he made the sidewalk out of, I think some of the patterns would work for a beautiful quilt. We took photos of the house from the street and then I told Shirley we should ask the family if we could take photos of the house outside. She said no, we shouldn't... but I thought what do we have to lose. So we walked up the long walk way and bravely knocked on the door. After telling her who I was, she invited us in and then had her husband come down stairs.
His name was Grigsby and he was a descendant of our family. He and his wife had bought the house just 4 years earlier, and he had done extensive search on the history of the home and the whole town. It was unbelievable how excited he was to meet us and hear what genealogy information that we had. He went around and showed  us some really neat things about the home. Like the orginal windows that the glass maker etched his name in one of the window panes. Yes, it was great that we knocked on that door!
   Next we went down in to town and to a local book shop that was suppose to have some more books with information about our family history. I noticed that outside the weather was getting really stormy. We turned on the radio to find out that there was a storm watch and a tornado watch going on. I am not really fond of big storms so I told Shirley that we should probably head back to our hotel. She however doesn't have the same fear and so she told me that everything  would be fine and so we went on to a local Antiques store. We bought an umbrella earlier but there was no use to open it up, between the hard wind and rain there was no use. We got into the Antiques shop called Dukes and the electricity was out from the store but they had emergency lights on and so Shirley said that was good enough. She is a die hard collector I believe! Sounds like me and the Quilt Stores! But there aren't any Quilt Shops around here, can you believe that?
Luckily the tornado touched down in Richmond and in one other town closer to Buena Vista, where we were this morning. Lucky for us that we were visiting in Lexington instead! :)
We finished up the day with dinner and then back to the hotel to swim and pack up for tomorrow. What a fun day.
Good night dear friends.

"In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future"

Author: Alex Haley

"But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you from the wisdom of former generations."

You know you are getting old when...

When my son and his wife lived with us this past winter (while doing their internships for college), we really had a fun time together. One of the things that stands out in my mind, (which quickly reminded me of the difference in our ages) was...when Brad got hurt or was sick, I got him the Hot Water Bottle out. ( Now just a side note here, Brad and Krystal love old things, old records, old clothes, yes they think the more vintage the better.) So when they saw the Hot Water Bottle they were thrilled, they couldn't believe I still had one of those. Then they went on to tell me, that they don't even think Hot Water Bottles are made any more. By the way they went on, I wondered if I should even be using it, or put it away so that I can sell it and be rich some day?

It was just a reminder that I am getting older! :) Oh well, it is going to happen, it just seemed it came faster than I realized. I smile every time I get that ( old, vintage ) Hot Water Bottle out and realize that I am now the Grandmother ( Nana ), and many of my things will be consider antiques before long. I guess that isn't so bad. I actually have a lot of my grandmother's things in my home, they too, are considered antiques. I love having my house filled with them, it reminds me of her home and that was a good memory. So hopefully, I provided Brad and Krystal a few sweet memories for the future!

I guess, I am ok with getting older, as long as my kids don't say jokes like this about me...

"Yo momma's so old she went to an antiques auction and three people bid on her"  Yes, that would hurt! :)

"About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age."  ~ Gloria Pitzer

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."    ~ Mark Twain 

'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years."   ~ Martha Graham