Tools of the trade that we would not trade.

 

Stirrup hoe

This stirrup hoe is great for weeding.  It is sharp and cuts at the roots.  It was a birthday present from by gardener brother in law.

Anvil Loppers

What I look like when I use my favorite tool:

What I feel like I look like when I use my favorite tool:

A cool hammer

I love this little hammer. It fits in my hand so nicely and has great balance. I also love the streamlined magnetized head with a narrow fork. I don’t know where it came from, but my best guess is that it was my father’s or my mother’s father’s. When I need a hammer, I always go to this one first.

Every day can be a DeWalt Day!

You've got your DeWalt table saw......

....and your DeWalt drill.....

.....there's the handy DeWalt oscillator.....

....of course your DeWalt chain saw, handy for a country girl......

......like our model here, holding another DeWalt favorite......her drill (or is this the oscillator?)

And finally, the tool with the mostest! 

Favorite vacation photos, even though Kelly does not like picking favorites.

Emmy and Jack....along Pacific Coast Highway

Pam

Some of our best trips have been simply up to see Grandmom, either in Tennessee (mine) or Pennsylvania (Fred's.) Here's one from a visit to my Mom's when the kids were little. How reckless I was, letting my kids walk around up there. Someday my kids will have this evidence to prove how lax parents were about safety back in the good old days.

Robin.....taking Blais to Portland.

Kelly

The top is the Indian Ocean from Featherbed Nature Reserve, Knysna, South Africa.
The second is Sam atop Tabletop Mountain, Cape Town. One of my faves. 
The last are whimsical stone guineas at Kirschenbosch Botanical Gardens outside of Cape Town. They are a big as an armchair. 
Best trip we’ve ever taken. 2004. 

 

Cute little baby bumps

 Emily and Ryan

Kelly and Sam

Pam and Connor

Pam and Mackenzie

Robin and Robert (and Duffy, bonus picture.)

My Robert birthday story.  I went to the hospital on February 14 in labor, thinking he would be born any time. Blais went to my cousins’ and had a lovely time spending a Sunday with them.  After hours of waiting and walking around the block, he still was not ready so they  sent me home and said it would probably be several more weeks. That night I had such pain in my back, I was crawling around on the floor with Duffy rubbing my back. My sister called early the next morning, heard my tale and  told me to get myself down to the doctor’s office and demand something for my pain. We took Blais with us, one diaper, and one bottle thinking they would send us home. As it turned out I was 3 cm dilated so they took me over to the hospital to start the delivery process. We called my cousin to take Blais but she couldn’t get there for a couple of hours.  She was miserable with a soaked diaper.  When my cousin got there and got Blais in her brand new car, Blais had a runny diarrhea to christen the car.  I hope Sally has a diaper with her for poor Blais.  Labor went on all day and Robert was born at 830 Monday night. Healthy and big enough.  

Robin and Blais 

Blais-maybe at Christmas in PC.  Blais due March 13 but born February 19.  My Blais pregnancy story.  I was on couch rest starting mid-January.  We had started a major renovation of our upstairs bedrooms to be completed before Blais was due, so I was home to rest but surrounded by construction workers and noise.  It was my birthday weekend and I told Duffy I was so looking forward to having the house to ourselves.  Duffy looked stricken and admitted he had invited about 10 people over for a surprise birthday party on Saturday for dinner.  I asked what he had planned and he had planned nothing.  Long story short, I planned my own party, baked my own cake, and carried it into the living room singing happy birthday to me.  

Now why is that old thing still hanging around?

Old boyfriend's denim jacket is way too big and shapeless for anyone to want to wear.

An old bride’s maid dress from the days of Optometry school, 10 pounds ago, for a wedding that no longer binds two people together, with a mink stole that belonged to Tom’s grandmother, which smells like a musty old dowager that lives alone and hasn’t left her house in 52 years. Why do I still have these in my closet, you ask? If you figure it out, please let me know.

Second picture coming. I’m sending now, because we will be at the lake this weekend, and I really didn’t want to carry them with me. And that stole is HOT!

Y'all know I was in my mid-30s before marriage and children came my way. And, when it did, boy did I feel lucky, blessed, thrilled, happy and ready to partake of all it had to offer. One small thing I'd been wistful for was my own little girl so we could wear matching dresses sometimes. Here's a cute ruffled sundress I got in Hawaii. We also had a winter plaid jumper outfits (good for around Christmas), and a pink flower version with youthful empire waistlines, great for Sunday School. I still have them all. I enjoyed wearing them much more than dear daughter ever did. But wear them we did!

When I went to work as a lawyer in 1984, I had a coat made for me from fabric my grandfather had brought to my mother from his trip to foreign places.  It is a heavy wool.  It is lined with black satin.  It was designed and sewn by my bosses wife Eileen Marzetti.  It had huge shoulder pads which I took out but the shoulders are still huge.  The coat weighs 5 pounds.


I too have my mother’s mink stole which I have never worn.  But where do old mink stoles go?

 

Dislike, disdain, but don't discard.

EJ----------Gilded Venetian

This dining room mirror of my mother’s has followed me for over 30 years  

KS--------Table and chairs.

RH--------Limoges finest French ivory china.

This China belonged to my grandparents and then my parents and now me.  There are 18 place settings plus serving dishes and, believe it, finger bowls for dipping fingers for cleansing.  I have used it a few times but mainly it collects dust.  I don’t want to give it to goodwill and have actually thought of asking my kids and nephews if they would like to split it.  Also to the right are some of those under platters which I can’t remember what they are called.  But, here it sits, hidden, in all its glory.  Maybe I could scrape off the gold?  

PZ-----------This boyhood desk.

I'd like to be rid of it. It was Fred's as a boy. But when we didn't have one of those nice credenza type things for our dining room, we put this in the space "temporarily." Now, I (honestly, I haven't brought up the issue of desk removal in years) will probably never get shed of it. (As one might say back in Tennessee.)