Back in the Keystone State

My last few days in Michigan have come to an end.  My brother, sister-in-law and I celebrated in style.  Last evening we went out for Coney Island hot dogs and ice cream sundaes.  This was after another marathon session of entering more items on Ebay.

All yesterday John kept running in to say, "We got another sale on Ebay."  Then a few minutes later he'd be in with some boxes saying, "We just got payment for these on Ebay."  Oy!  We had a regular little Shipping Central going at his house for awhile there.

Then this morning I got up bright and early (5: 15 a.m. is pretty early for me) and had already loaded up half the car by the time my brother got up.  He did the important stuff, like make coffee.  And then it was time to say goodbye.

It's never easy saying goodbye to John and Rose.  I always have so much fun with them - even if it's doing Ebay with them.  Poor Rose.  I left her with a living room filled with boxes and shipping material.  Her house may never be the same again.

I also had a few more things to pack in the car than I had brought out - like my new Majacraft spinning wheel, Lyda Rose.  And my Army fatigues that John insisted I take with me.  I am proud to say that my fatigue jacket still fits although it will be quite awhile before I can get back into my Army uniform.  I might be able to wiggle into my combat boots, though.  But hey, it's been over 30 years.

I listened to (and sang along with) some great gospel and praise music on the way home as well as heard some good gospel preaching, which kept me awake.  I ate too much junk food and drank too much coffee, which also helped keep me awake while driving.  And then I pulled into the driveway and walked into the house to find a VERY excited puppy and soon, one very relieved hubby.  So, as Shakespeare would say, "all's well that ends well."  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sweet Baby Jay

Twenty-eight years ago today, the Commander and I had just dropped off our daughter at a friend's house and had continued on to Bethesda Naval Hospital where I was whisked off to the Maternity Ward.  They didn't have time to even prep me because a certain little someone was pretty eager to come into this world.  That was fine with me because his sister had taken her sweet time and caused me 24 hours of hard labor in the hospital before deciding to make her appearance.

It wasn't exactly 1-2-3, but more like 7-8-9 and then there he was.  The Commander, who had been supporting my head and shoulders in the delivery room dropped me (I remember this distinctly) and rushed down to the OTHER end of the gurney to shout jubilantly, "It's a BOY!"

That little fellow stole my heart from Day One.  You couldn't have asked for a sweeter baby.  Oh, sure.  He was stubborn at times and if he thought he was right, he could be almost unmovable.  But he was my fellow "feeler" in a family of "thinkers" and always ready with a hug or a kiss when I needed one.  When his sister had been born, I had to return to work six weeks later.  But when Jason was born, I was able to stay home with him.  What a joy!  He was my little shadow.  Following me around everywhere (usually talking non-stop) and I loved it.

My little boy became a man almost overnight and try as I might, I couldn't keep him home forever.  I managed to delay the inevitable for awhile when he chose to go to college in our area and where I worked but even then I could see that he had the wanderlust (unfortunately, a family trait that he inherited from his mother).  There was a semester abroad and then came the announcement that we could sense was coming.  He felt God's calling to full-time service.  That led to trips to faraway places in Asia and then to Vancouver, British Columbia.

With each departure, I'd give him the old "Mom" lecture.  "Now you be careful.  Don't do anything stupid.  Watch what you eat.  If you get sick, for Pete's sake, see a doctor.  Why can't you go to some place normal, like Texas?"  And my own personal favorite - "Your dad and I are getting old. Who's going to help us move the furniture when I get the urge to rearrange the house?"

Then he met a girl...someone with the same sense of calling that he had who was also making trips to faraway places to follow God's call.  I should have disliked her instantly, sensing as I did that she would be another big punch in his ticket further away from us.  But how could I NOT love Laura?  She was so perfect for Jason.  God had created these two young people, put His desires in their hearts, and matched them up before they were born, I really believe.

Jason and Laura are married now and they are so right together, helpmates to each other in every way.  I thank God so much that we have Laura in our family and now, little Mikayla Joy.  But off they've gone again, thousands of miles away from us.

I don't know where the road will lead Jason and his family over the next years.  I continue to pray that it will eventually lead closer to our family and Laura's family but realize that this is not in my hands.  AND  I continue to stand by, ready to give my "Mom" lectures when they need one.

"Now you have a good birthday.  Don't eat too much birthday cake.  Wash your hands before you eat.   Are you getting enough sleep?  You look a little tired on Skype.  Could I interest you in a nice job in Missoula?"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASON!

An "ABC" Week

Whew!  What a week this has been.  I drove out to Michigan the latter part of last week to help my brother list things on Ebay that we had boxed up from our childhood home several years ago.  That's what I've been doing all this week.....emptying tub after tub of "things", photographing them, researching them online, writing up descriptions, and then listing them on Ebay IF they are remotely worth doing so.  It's been a very time-consuming, messy, and draining process.  So my Fave Five post this week is going to be centered on that but not entirely because the FIRST part of my "ABC" week has nothing at all to do with Ebay.

1.  "A" stands for "Anniversary."  Yesterday the Commander and I celebrated our 31st anniversary.  One of my bridesmaids commented that she couldn't believe that so many years have gone by since that day back in Nea Makri, Greece.  Well, neither can I.  It's been a great 31 years and I sure am looking forward to many more, Lord willing.

2.  "B" stands for "Berry Pie."  My sister-in-law, Rose, is a wonderful cook.  She whipped this pie up the other day from scratch, making up the recipe as she went.  It has blueberries, peaches, and strawberries in it and the crust was made out of gingersnaps.  Yummy!

"B" also stands for "Boy Scout Badges."  When I was going through tubs, I came across a bunch of Boy Scout patches, pins, and badges belonging to my brother.  We had lots of fun looking over the badges that he had earned (AND not sewn on his sash).  He's a real marksman and it was interesting that back in 1968 he had earned a badge in Rifle and Shotgun Shooting.

3.  "C" stands for "Cameras."  Our mom was a real camera nut.  One of her big hobbies was photography.  She went through cameras like some women go through shoes, always buying a new one when it caught her eye.  Consequently, we had a BIG tub of old cameras, lens, and filters to go through this week.  How about this beauty?  Some of the workmanship on these old cameras is pretty amazing.

4.  "D" stands for "Depression Glass."  I found some lovely pieces of Depression Glass in the tubs.  This is a cake platter in the Jeannette "Iris and Herringbone" pattern.  It was chipped so I'm taking it home.  I really like it and I don't care if there is a little chip on it.  It will do just fine to put a cake on.

5.  "E" stands for "Everything" holding a memory.  From old rolling pins and flour sifters to my old set of Army fatigues, it has certainly been a trip down Memory Lane.  Just last night, we opened up a tub and there sat all of my dad's hand tools from his little basement workshop.  Gosh, Dad died 31 years ago and it was like he had just walked into the room.  So I guess you could say that "E" has also stood for "emotional" this week.  It's been an interesting time.

What have been the highlights of your week?  To read other folks' Fave Fives, visit Susanne's blog at Living to Tell the Story.

More Treasures Uncovered

I should be hunching over the computer listing more things on Ebay for my brother but wanted to quickly put up some more fun things we found the other day while working on our "Mom" project.

Old merit badges my brother earned in Boy Scouts (and never sewed on his uniform - for shame!)

An Alvin and the Chipmunks glass that we both drank out of as kids over the years.

A very well-loved doll house that belonged to my grandmother.  It dates from the early 1900's.  What is particularly charming about it, is the fact that it has my grandma's and her sister's names scrawled childishly over the inside wall.

A Tru-Scale seed planter toy that my brother used to play with ENDLESSLY in our sandbox.  We even found a little ball in the seed chamber.  There is no way that little ball would have fit through the holes to be "planted" but I guess my brother didn't understand those things back in the day.

And this old dinged up 5-cup sifter that my grandmother used to bake countless pies and cakes.  Yum, I can smell them even now as I go back in time looking at this.

If any of you ever get to this stage of life where a parent dies or goes into a nursing home and you have to clean out your childhood home, you will understand the flood of emotions that we have been experiencing this past week.  So many memories have been surfacing as we hold these objects in our hands. 

Well, that's all I have time for.  If you want to look at the other things we have up on Ebay so far, I believe you can reach them by going to this link.

Working for Peanuts

Another day, another marathon session at the computer entering items on Ebay.  Here's a sample of some of the fun things I found today.  The mug above was a commemorative mug made to celebrate the opening of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore operetta and it was made in 1879.  I always thought it was just a pretty glass that my mom had.  Who knew?

This little jam server isn't any fancy name brand porcelain item but I thought it was very sweet.  Somebody hand-painted those little blueberry sprigs on each side.

This is a cuticle scissors that was art of a Bakelite vanity set my mother owned.  Over the years the rest of the set has gotten broken and/or misplaced but this little scissors has survived. 

I worked all day long photographing items and then researching them and describing them up on Ebay.  Then my work was still not finished.  I had to box them up.  My brother couldn't believe that I had managed to use up all the packing peanuts in a huge box before he came home from work today.  In fact, I had to text him to stop at the UPS store and buy more.

He came home with these.  But wait.....lest you think THIS is a lot of peanuts, there are actually more than meet the eye.

The bag is actually THIS tall.  That's a LOT of peanuts!

Somehow I think I won't have any problem going through them before I leave.  My brother is already complaining about running out of room to store the boxed items until the auctions end.

He's been putting them down in his basement in his exercise room.  When I went down there to see how he was arranging them, this is what I found.

And this!  "What kind of a system do you have to retrieve them?," I asked him.

"You didn't tell me I had to come up with a way to FIND them," he said. 

Oh, my.  I predict he is going to be looking through a lot of boxes when those auction items begin to sell.  Good thing I've put a paper in each box listing the item and the Ebay number.  But he still is going to have to open each box and look inside unless he comes up with a better system.

In the meantime, since I'm working for peanuts, this "elephant" is heading to bed to do some reading and sleeping.  Tomorrow I'm taking some time off to head over to The Spinning Loft.  More on that later.

To Auction, To Auction

Well, when you've been working for hours and hours doing nothing but cataloging things for auction up on Ebay and on Amazon, you don't have a lot of time to blog so I'm kind of reduced to showing you some of the fun things we've been finding in the tubs we brought from Mom's house and stored for years.  How about this blue straw hat?

Remember the stories about the French schoolgirl Madeline?  I keep thinking that this is the type of hat she would be wearing.

Now here's a stylish little number.  You can have your flowers AND your feathers, too.  I can just imagine my mom wearing this to church, back in the day when ladies all wore hats to church. 

But it hasn't all been hats.  We found some toys today and put a few of them up on Ebay.  This little guy is called Merlin the Magical Mouse.  I had no idea.  He must have been my brother's toy.

I DO remember Speedy Gonzalez.  Somebody is going to give this little guy a new home.  Funny the things that delineate our lives, isn't it?  Well, this is only the tip of the iceberg, believe me.  In case you want to follow our trail of nostalgia on Ebay, this link will get you to the red velvet hat I blogged about yesterday and then you can click on the link from there that says "See other items."  In the meantime, I'm off to work on some more listings. 

The Fickle Finger of Friday

Ah, Friday....You fickle thing, you.  Here I am, all set to describe five things that were highlights of my week and you end up throwing me a zinger. But more on that later.  I'm sorry to be so late in posting my Fave Five's but today has been a busy day and I am just now getting to do some of my own things on my computer, which has been otherwise occupied for the majority of the day.  So let's get to it, shall we?

1.  I arrived safely in Michigan to help my brother go through things from my mother's home to list on Ebay.  Oy, I had no idea there were so many tubs of "stuff" still in his garage.  This is only a small portion of what we dragged into the house this morning.  He's been storing it ever since we cleaned out Mom's house to sell so I have to admit that it is high time to deal with it all.

2.  I spent HOURS checking out tubs of books on Amazon to see if they were worth listing them up there for sale.  This is the small portion that I ended up listing.  The rest will be donated to a local public library.   There are plenty of others that are very nice books but there is no sense in taking the time to list them when they are only selling for a penny up on Amazon.  Much better to let a library make some money from their sale.

 3.  I separated a stack of cookbooks that my mom acquired from who knows where and will list those on Ebay.  Yes, this has been my "Command Central" all day.  I think I need a booster chair.  I'm so shortwaisted, that the table comes to my mid-chest which means that my computer is up much too high and I have to have my neck tilted back to see with these bifocals.  My neck is so sore.

4.  To take a break from books, I opened up an old hat box and started photographing some of my mother's old hats to list on Ebay.  Get a load of this classy bucket hat.  The ladies who act in the TV show "Mad Men" could wear this and fit right in.

Or how about this monstrosity?  Wear this and you might end up with a swarm of honeybees following you around.

My brother thinks this hat looks like you are wearing two black olives in the front.  I think you could paint eyeballs on each wooden bead and call it your "Daffy Duck" hat.

5.  Last, but not least, I got a Skype call from Jason, Laura, and Mika today.   They are settled in their temporary home in Jakarta now and Jason is just getting over a case of "traveler's revenge."  I guess in an attempt to be a sympathetic mother, I awoke this morning with the same type of thing so in between writing up auction descriptions, I was making mad dashes to the bathroom.  Oh, my!  Laura tells me that Mika is the hit of the area.  When they take buses around town, people are constantly snapping pictures of Mika on their cellphones.  In the slum, they scramble to hold her and call her "Doll" in Bahasa.  With such a sweet grin, I think she is simply irresistible.

That's it for my Friday's Fave Fives.  To read what others are writing, visit Living to Tell the Story.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

I had to go get my annual physical today.  The worst part for me is always getting my blood drawn, although getting on that scale is a close second.  But I HATE having blood drawn.  Now if you are of the squeamish persuasion, I am giving you fair warning that you might want to stop reading now.  Otherwise, hang in there.  It isn't going to be that bad.  As I was saying, I think most people who dislike blood tests are those who just happen to have difficult veins.  In my case, I have tiny veins.

Luckily, I have a little skin tag about 1/4 inch above where they always find the good vein so I can usually point to the spot where they need to give it a try.  And I always tell them "you only get one try.  If you miss, my veins go into hiding."

I also sing when they draw blood.  Over the years, I've built up quite a reputation as the singing patient.  I take requests.  Today they asked for a summery song.  I suggested an Irish song instead.  So I sang "Mrs. Murphy's Chowder" for them and then transitioned right into "The Wearing of the Green."  Darn, but she had a lot of tubes to fill up and since they have to use a butterfly clip on me (very small needle), it takes forever.  I went through all the verses I knew.   When she was finally done, they asked me if I was Irish.

"Nope, just had a grandmother who knew all the old Irish tunes so I grew up hearing those old songs," I replied.  "Besides, I like to sing peppy songs because I figure it might influence you all to draw the blood quicker."

So anyway, I was playing with my photo editing software and realized that when I click on the "auto contrast" feature, I can get this effect.  It makes my "wound" look so much worse than it really is.   I could tease my hair to stand up wildly, put heavy white powder on my face and walk around saying "Out, out, dang spot!"

Look what happens when I hit the "Auto Color" button.  Whee!  I'm a blue blood.  I can hear the nurses saying now, "Poor thing.  She's so regal that her skin is almost translucent.  We hate to mar her perfection."

But the reality of it is that it was all over in less than 5 (ok, maybe 3) minutes and I'll just end up with a tiny bruise.  Hopefully everything is good to go for another year, too.  And just think....at least this year you aren't looking at horrible pictures of poison ivy rashes.  I've learned my lesson.  I make the Commander pull all the weeds now.

Project 365 - June 16, 2010 (Day 20)

It was a day for annual physicals and blood tests.  Ugh!