Marie Has Wheels

For the first time in her life Marie is driving a vehicle. She has wanted an electric wheelchair for years and something always prevented her from getting one. Finally Fran and I took the bull by the horns and got her an appointment to be evaluated and bingo! She got a custom made wheelchair built just for her. She even got to choose the color. It is bright blue. She drives it with a joy stick.
Marie may have to buy new furniture, because she does do a little bumping into things, but when she does she laughs. Marie is so happy!

Marie's 94th Birthday

We had another fun day yesterday. Marie's son, Roger, from Texas was here to help celebrate Marie's birthday. We picked up Marie and took her to a Chinese Buffet. She said that she had never been to one before She thought that a buffet was a good idea for fast service. She enjoyed people watching especially people that were eating with chop sticks. She said if she tried that she would have food all over the place.
When we got back to Stockton we took her to a green house and picked out plants for outside on her deck and a house plant called a fuzzy jew. I had never seen one; it really was fuzzy.
Of course, before we could leave she gave us a loaf of zucchini bread and a loaf of homemade white bread. She may be ninety four, but she still knows her way around the kitchen!

Fun Day With Charlie And Nancy

Yesterday we all had a really good time. Fran’s Uncle Charles and his wife came to visit from Dallas, Texas. Charles is my mother-in-law’s youngest brother. We had a lot of laughs with teasing each other.  His aunt and uncle talked about old times. And of course, his mother told stories and every one laughed and added some of their own.

Fran’s aunt and I hit it off right away and teased each other like we had known each other for years. It was so much fun.
Marie sang a song in French that she had learned when she was about two years old. It is called Soldier Come Home. It was beautiful. I had been recording everyone singing karaoke and had left the recorder on by mistake, Thank Goodness! Now I have Marie singing for posterity. Here are some pictures

Family History Pictures

I have a lot of pictures with few to little stories to go with them. Today I will post the pictures and you readers post your comments on the comment section to see if you remember these pictures. I will then tell Marie and she will be so pleased.

Fran and I invited her here for Mother’s day lunch. After lunch she sat in front of the computer and read the stories and looked at the pictures and started to reminisce even more than she had originally. I just wanted to let you know how much she is enjoying this part of her life.
I am starting with some easy ones.

Dolls From Yesteryear

My mother-in-law is so talented. She can make something out of nothing. For instance, her son found this little western hat while walking down the street. He gave it to his mom and viola the cutest pin cushion I have ever seen.

In the early seventies Sunbeam Bread had a very cute little girl on the wrapper. She had blonde hair and a cute blue and white dress. You guessed it. Marie sewed the outfits and dressed the dolls. I looked them up on e-bay they classify them as rare. One sold the other day for over a hundred dollars. Marie has one that she makes new outfits for. One is a wedding dress and the other is a blue and white crocheted dress and hat. I am so not talented I cannot see the difference between crocheting and knitting.
I wanted you to see just some of the dolls that she has made.

Green Is In And Has Been For Years

I got such a laugh the other morning when I was watching the news. There is a new craft going on. I about choked on my coffee. My mother-in-law has been doing it for years. Giving them away and teaching other people how to do it.

That craft also helps the environment by using and reusing plastic bags. She makes hats out of the bags she gets at the grocery store and Walmart. That is the first gift she gave me. She also gave me one for my daughter. Marie wears her hat with the little red flower on it every time she leaves for town. She has her little plastic hat on the picture of her and Fran dancing at our wedding. The girl in our kitchen is my daughter, Melanie.
Marie gave me a plastic hat for one of my friends. She wears hers on her boat to keep her hair dry. Good idea!

I just got back from Marie's house. I told her that I had put a story on the internet about her plastic hats. She pointed to a hat that was laying on her couch. She said, "That's my celebration hat." I asked her why she called it that and this is how the story was told: One day in 1959 she walked into a grocery store called Victory Market. She had her plastic bag hat on that happened to be red, white, and blue. Every one almost jumped at her exclaiming over her hat. Several people took pictures of her, wanted directions and patterns and put her picture in the store's newsletter. So you see the days of the plastic bag hat are not new, but over fifty years old. I haven't tried it, but I bet they wash like a dream! Oh just another note, Marie told me that she has even made them for Barbie dolls, how about that!

Marie's Flowers

Marie told me that tending the garden and the flower garden was one of the things that she really enjoyed all of her life. She still has a garden at her house now, but needs some help with it. However, she does not need help with planning what she is going to plant and where she is going to plant it. She orders a lot of her bulbs and plants through the mail in different nurseries and the other day she even got some from Publisher’s Clearing House. She said you just never know!

This year she had given Fran and I a list of plants to get at the greenhouse for her. She wanted cucumber plants, zucchini plants, cabbage plants and some tomato plants. It had been raining so much we had to “mud” them in, but they are doing really well. She stood on the deck and supervised. She told us where to plant them and how close together etc. Actually she was a big help because everybody does it differently.
Roland wanted to get his mom some flowers that come up every year so Fran and I went in with him and got Marie three azalea plants. When I had her go out on the deck she sucked in her breath and went “Oh, my, they are beautiful.”
I thought you might like to see some of her beautiful plants that she has started and then you can enjoy them with her. There are two pictures of flowers that she had years and years ago when she lived in Massachusetts. Those flowers are just a splash of vivid color. She had me take pictures of those so I could put them on the “internet.” Enjoy.