Need another picture?

LOL...and he's not even 4 months old yet!

On the Distressing and Startling Lack of Safety Pins In Modern Society

Have you noticed? Not so long ago, EVERY woman carried a cache of emergency stuff in her purse, "just in case".
Beyond the Hazel Bishop and compact, you'd find a little yellow tin of aspirin, a few bobby pins on a folded-up chapel veil, and a rain bonnet (each in their own little plastic pouch), a couple of stocking clasps from a worn-out girdle, even a little sewing kit sometimes...(in our case, there was usually an open pack of powder-covered Walnettos, too)...but always, ALWAYS--safety pins.

Where have they gone?

Safety pins were the universal fixer: a torn seam, a broken necklace or rosary, a missing button, a fallen hem? Get the safety pins--you'll hardly be able to tell. Some were even decorative--kids made bracelets out of 'em, and plaid kilt skirts sported a huge gold version. I understand the horsey set used the giant ones to keep a blanket on Trigger after a workout, and dad kept one in his toolbox--safety pins were ubiquitous, right?
Now, I suppose it's all velcro, and clothes don't need to last like when we were kids.

LOL...what brought all this up? Those ridiculous elastic bra straps with sliders. (IMHO, beyond a 32A, boobs should NOT bounce. Neither should they be allowed to hang nearer the waist than the collarbone...and my bra is considerably BEYOND). I needed some safety pins to keep the stupid slider from SLIDING.
ARGH.

Yes, I have a little container of safety pins in the junk drawer, but I really had to hunt for 'em. They shoulda been in my purse...lol
(P.S. They are now).

FUN

Sometimes, you just gotta goof-off--yesterday, 6 friends and relatives descended on J&B's house to "visit". Actually, it was to play with the kids...lol

Man, we had fun. KQ was amazed by eight adults singing HER songs, all at once. The look on her face when we all did Itsy Bitsy Spider with hand motions--well, what can I say? I'm converting the 23 Mb movie to MP3 even as we speak, and it's only 42 seconds long...lol

Her little brother is growing SO fast--at 14 weeks, he can hold his head up, and he giggles! He's built like his dad was at that age, and he's every bit as cute, too. His job yesterday was being a straight-man for the rest of us, and to be cuddled and held. He was excellent at it!

My Sweet Potatoes

Here's a song written by an obviously over-tired dad during the night...HERE, it's dedicated to my present and future grandkids: KQ, MM and the Plum...lol

Dinner at Buca

There was a time when going out to eat was a fairly dignified affair...good food, polite conversation, sharing news...no one colored on the menu or dropped her BA on the floor, or fished in my iced tea for that slippery lemon slice....but damn, THIS is much more fun!

KQ tried the lemon wedge her dad offered her...it made her shiver and squirm, but she wanted to try it over and over...lol
It was raining before we got to the restaurant, so I had my umbrella along. As we left, I was carrying KQ, and showed her how the umbrella worked--POP! It's open, and we were under it! Then, POP! it's gone into a foot long stick. POP! There it is again, over our heads!

I LOVE the idea that she thinks I'm MAGIC...lol!

BTW, my name is now Damma.

The State Fair with grandkids!

Yes, ok....I don't usually like the State Fair, right? I might get talked into going every six or seven years, but I always vow--NEVER again. LOL

However, I didn't need to think about it too hard when B said she thought she'd take the kids to the fair, and did I want to go along? She's been to the fair in her home state, but never the MINNESOTA State Fair.

WELL, then...a certain foolish pride kicks in, right? (Where's my rolling-eyes smiley when I need it?)

Mercifully, with little kids, it was short...but they made it delightful...lol

TO:

MY FAVORITE DAUGHTER AND FAVORITE SISTERS

AHEM--did you not get my e-mail about the family tree?

Did you go look??

One bit of out family goes back ELEVEN generations to before 1555...it's worth checking just for the novelty.

(Umm, Primo, wouldja add dad's Army pic to the site, please? It could be his primary picture, too. You have the power). You're all editors, ya know?

lol...See? I can get rough.

xoxo

What color is "Joybubbles"?

If you heard the name "Joybubbles" on the news early this week but didn't pay much attention, here's the rest of the story...

I'd like to claim Joybubbles as purely Minnesotan, but in truth he only spent his last years here. He died August 8th of a heart attack.

Over the years, one of the goofy pleasures in Minnesota has been a column in the St Paul Pioneer Press newspaper called Bulletin Board. It's the best 'feedback' method a paper could want. I used to buy the paper JUST for that, but now it's online, so I read it every day from here...lol

Anyway, Joybubbles was a regular contributer to the give-and-take on BB. Heres a COMPILATION
of contributions he called in over the past few years. It's also a beautiful tribute to a perpetual 5 year old.

You'll notice that one thing he wished for was a Crayola crayon color called "Joybubbles"...and today, another contributer suggested we all go to the CRAYOLA SITE and suggest it!

If you scroll to the bottom of the page you'll fine "Contact us".

Hmmm....maybe a clear crayon with swirls of color in it, and definitely some GLITTER!

Have YOU ever heard of St Nicholas, Mn?

.....LOL...me either, until Shari said her family helped settle the area.


Map from the diocese of St Cloud website.



They came here from Luxembourg (the country) and built Luxemburg (the town, south of St Cloud). If you recall, that little town is on F-L-A-T land.

Well! Evidently, some of those farmers wanted what they knew--good soil, loaded with rocks! They moved west another 10-15 miles and found a gorgeous hilltop to put the blacksmith, church and bar on. But, Oh, oh....land disputes, a different townsite and the bishop gets involved, right? He wants those settlers to move to where they're building a NEW church, about 2 miles farther west.

And that means moving the cemetery.

Some people dug up the relatives and carted 'em to the new digs (oooo!), and some flatly refused.

Who knows why the bish was so adamant, but it makes a person realize that politics and favoritism aren't all that new.


Click the pic...you should get a good size shot of the area, with the original site pinned there in the middle, and the "new" town towards the bottom, with Cold Spring at the top.

So, ok...mystery solved, right? The little cemetery I wrote about is all that's left of the original townsite. As though you'd EVER go looking for it..........lol

Wanna play "Where in the World"?

Here are two pictures, taken within 20 miles of my house. I'd never been to this spot--it's just never been on my radar before this morning...lol

Odd what people do out of 'devotion', huh? I'm not being snotty--I CAN understand the motivation for something like this and I recognize my own ancestors' mindset at work here, too--but what I don't understand is how making (or buying) a painted, gold-leaf, 'realistic' statue of the BVM and building a chapel to house it would accomplish much.

Was it built because of a promise made over the outcome of something? "I'll build you a chapel if...." And did it work out? Or, was it simply to provide a quiet place to meditate? And, why would this enclosure be more holy than the beautiful hillside it stands on?

The cornerstone says 1936. It's in excellent condition, so for 60+ years, someone's been maintaining it. I suppose at the very least, it could be one families' tradition....

See? There are STILL mysteries...lol

Yes, Primo, we're STILL cute

I'm hoping that KQ and MM have a Good Buddy relationship as they grow--like Bid and Willie do--cuz it seems to me we did a good deal of hair pulling when we were kids.

"But Sibling Rivalry is different than competing", right?

Nuh-ah.

Still, maybe Primo was just able to run faster than Secundo on this particular day...lol

Yeah....we were cute; so cute that they kept adding-on to the batch.....

...until they finally got it right...lol

(Bro was frosting after that, IMHO....)

You need more pictures, already?

Like second kids everywhere, I have a feeling this one will have the same experience as I did as a kid.

They forget to take pictures of every new move...they take for granted open eyes and adorable hand waving and tender moments snuggled with mom. It's still WAY cute, but it's normal now, especially with a big sister like KQ.

We Seconds have always just had to tough it out, and live without the daily annoyance of flash photography. Some of us were (and ARE) even cuter than Primo sib, but you can't prove it by the amount of pictures in our albums...lol

Even this proud grandma hasn't been to visit as much as last time, but luckily, his mom sent pictures this week.

Wanna see?






XOXO....Bird

LOL...Hi, Colleen!

Last night, I drove down to the Cities to spend some time with "the other Grandma" AND the new lil boy and his family.

Out of 37 pictures I took, these are the best ones, cropped and combined for your viewing pleasure...lol
(See? I lined up the couch perfectly here!)








J and B took us out to eat because both our birthdays are in the next two weeks, and because they love us....

(Hope your trip home was good, Colleen. We did a GOOD job with those two, doncha think?
Hugs, M)

Welcome, Little Grandson!

Oh, man....life is truly SWEET....!

He was born yesterday afternoon, and he gave me plenty of time to get there...lol Hmm...now I need to make a movie called "Mason Michael"!

I'll get to see him again later this week 'cuz B's mom'll be here from Arizona, so we'll have a Grandma Get Together at their house. I'll get a few good Family Portraits then, ok?

Get the popcorn and Junior Mints...it's showtime again!

You know me...once I get started on something and like it, well, I embrace it (which is NOT the way certain unnamed sibs would state it...LOL)

But see, I have all these pictures from the olden days in the family, and they're just here, in an album and a shoebox...doing what? Pah...not a thing.

SO, me and Movie Maker got together and produced this, just for YOU.....

A HESCH FAMILY PORTRAIT


You're WELCOME!

Lilies and the Fourth

Look at the size of these lilies! They're the party-favor-bulbs from E&S's wedding (almost TWO years ago already!) LOL...I had to go measure the siding--what you see here is 33" of siding plus the blocks--who knows why they got so tall this year?

They're what the word 'awesome' was invented for, I think....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tonight's the kind of night those of you "Ustas" will remember as one of the reasons you left Minnesota:

It's rained on and off all day. There's still a cloud cover, and the only movement outside are the robins getting a few more cherries before dusk.

The air is so thick the mosquitoes don't realize it's NOT water. It's two nights before the fourth, so a neighbor is outside setting off furtive firecrackers (shhhh...it's not legal, ya know) but the smoke deters the mosquitoes for a few minutes...lol There's a blue haze in their yard, spreading just above the grass...a dead giveaway if the law comes down the alley.

And that reminds me of Earl the cop and our own experience with illegal fireworks, remember?

Ah, summer. Can't WAIT till it's over.

Half of Infinity

This morning, E & S left on their summer vacation and stopped here on their way out of the state. As we mom's do, I went to get my camera...lol

S said this was like those between-mirrors pics, those INFINITY mirrors, only implied...lol

Yes, it is! We could get into philosophy here, couldn't we?

Oooo--Stuff!

Remember the George Carlin quote about home being where you store your stuff? The flip side, I suppose, is that LOTS of stuff make it more 'home'...lol

I was in the garage just now, putting the wheelbarrow away. It hangs from a hook on a rafter since there's no wall space left. Up above the rafters, there are boxes. Of stuff.

I didn't go look what they hold, because I know it's truly nothing I NEED to keep.

One is a box of fabric mallards and roosters I made in the 80's....another is a box of cornhusk dolls I made in the 90's. (Truthfully? There are TWO of those...at least). Silk flowers....empty suitcases...birdhouses...my wedding dress...and second-hand stuff that my mother couldn't pitch either....so now I store it.

Why? It's been there all this time because...well, it's not hurting anything being there, right? What real difference would it make if I had empty rafters?

Thing is, clearing the garage would lead to clearing my downstairs craft room, and then the basement "attic" of stored junk....and then my office...and then, closets...lol

To what purpose, though? These days, I think long and hard about acquiring almost anything because I'll have to deal with it, physically, in my house. I quit garage-saleing years ago, and thrift-store shopping, too.

I don't need more stuff.

The only advantage of clearing those spaces now would be so that someday, my kids won't have to.

They're both sentimental and would keep some stuff just because it used to be mine...the same reason I have some of mom's stuff...lol

Would an empty garage or basement or craft room feel good to me....or just feel empty?

Do I rent the dumpster, or do they?

A NEW toy

I found a new toy right here on my computer...it's the Windows Movie Maker program, and man is it fun! See if you "get" this, ok?

Blowing the Sun Up

LOL...turn up your sound!

A Spring Thingy

CLICK HERE then move your mouse over the center of the page...voila! A spring garden!