Confirmation

Roger was confirmed.

Roger was chosen to be one of the 2 readers for the ceremony so he walked into the sanctuary first. It also meant we got reserved seats in the front row, so I got some good pictures. 

I was so proud of him - he stood up straight, looked up from his reading (though I missed that part) and spoke loud and clear. Really great job.

His cousin Gerald was his sponsor. 

It was such a great day. Everyone was invited to the gym for pictures with the bishop. Mike and I opted out of those pictures, but we did get one with the star of the show, and I took one of him and the proud family. I did ask Bryan if he realized that he and Luke and Owen had matching shirts. Well, not until I pointed it out. Ha! 

Proud family 

Very proud grandparents

I wish someone would have told me my knit top was bunched up. Am I the only one that sees it?

We all gathered back at the Flory house for food. I made my first charcuterie board. It turned out pretty good, but you’ll have to take my word for it - forgot to take a picture - Sorry

Roger has turned into quite the handsome, kind, polite, thoughtful young man.

Arlo Dog Sitting

 When Bryan told me they were ready to get a dog. I raised my hand and told him we have dibs on dog sitting when they went on vacation. 

Pickup at the shelter

Off they went and we had Arlo (R-Roger, L-Luke, O-Owen) for a week. He was just a puppy, 6 month old. Mike and I were excited, but hesitant - it’s been 25 years since Cheesecake. 

Arlo won our hearts pretty quickly. He spent the first night sitting at the front door waiting for Mary or Bryan. That first night He tried really hard to go to sleep in his cage, but he needed someone, so I took him to bed with me. The second night he fell asleep pretty quickly, but woke up and got back into bed with me. 

I took him out every morning for a quick walk, but most of his long walks were with Mike. 

He loved the creek

Warming his butt after his 40 minute walk

I think he had a good time. Mike bought him a new toy. And played and played with him.

I got to hold and snuggle with him. I say that’s a fair trade. He is just a baby so he slept a lot. 

Loved my quilts

We decided that we didn’t want a permanent pet in the house, but we wouldn’t complain if the Florys wanted to take another vacation. Love you Arlo!

Quilts

 Last summer Mary asked me if I was interested in making quilts out of shirts and baby outfits she had saved from the boys.

I have always wanted to try and make a t-shirt quilt so I agreed to give it a try.

1 bin for each and a misc bin for any boy

I was amazed at all that she had saved and could not wait to get started. I was very careful about not getting them mixed up, I started with Roger. 

Scraped

Sewing blocks

Picking blocks

It was time consuming, each block had to have interfacing.  I did not want to screw it up. I wanted to enjoy the journey. I took my time and set Christmas as my deadline.

Each quilt had the same row width

I saw so many pieces of outfits and t-shirts I’ve seen in pictures thru the years. I was praying these turned out like I wanted them too.

I took some time off and worked on another project. Time is slipping and I needed to get back at them.

It was October and I needed to concentrate. I finally got the tops done. I’m really liking where this was headed. 

Owen 52 blocks

Roger 55 blocks

Luke 48 blocks

I decided on fleece for the back. It’s warmer sturdy and washable without shrinking.

Now the fun part. Ok, I love everything about quilting, but this is the place where I can share this with my Mom. She paid for this longarm machine. I know she would be so proud of me for doing this.

Roger’s

Owen’s

Luke’s

I did manage to finish for Christmas. Why so many pictures? These are not all of them. I had Mike take these photos to make a book for Bryan, Mary and the boys to see my “Making of the Quilts”. I really wanted to share the journey with them. 

I sent the quilts home with them Christmas Eve. I wanted them to open them as a family. 

Bryan FaceTimed me and I got to see them open them. It was exactly what I hoped for. Boys were excited. Mary was excited and Bryan thanked me again and again. 

A big thank you to Mary for saving these memories and trusting me with them to put it all together.

Christmas 2024

 We did not have a white Christmas again this year. We did have breakfast with the Dupplers as usual, but it was the four of us.

Christmas Eve was at our house again. Everyone came except for Todd (hope he’s doing better soon).

Mike had bought a game for us to enjoy - Uzzle. We all took a turn. Roger and Logan seemed to catch on pretty quick. Winners… I did much better when we each had our own card instead of trying to match the same picture. It was fun.

My dinner of lasagna, Mac n cheese, garlic sticks and salads must of been good most was gone. Or they were all hungry. Our traditional grandkids photo was taken.

Grandkids

Christmas Eve has always been at my house. I love that the family realizes how much it means to me and makes an effort to be here with us. I know some day it won’t be this way. I stopped a few times and looked at the family all together, laughing, talking, playing and filled my heart with the sights and sounds of love.

We spent a quite and delicious ham dinner with Sharen and Dup Christmas Day.

Patio

 It was time to replace our back deck. It needed repairs. It also was cover for an infestation of chipmunks. Yes, a lot of chipmunks. Last year a friend told me an easy way to get rid of them. 2023 I removed (ok they died) 24 chipmunks. Their kin folk moved in and this last summer 27 were removed. I was done playing around. The deck had to go. 

Removed my beautiful hosta first

Mike found a concrete company that would rip off the old and give us a new cement patio. He was a local, born and raised in Elgin who started out working for his father and Uncle. He could start in 2 weeks. 

In the mean time we looked into getting a screen porch. Way too expensive so we got an awning instead. No more sticks, acorns and leaves falling on us.

Time to rip up this deck. The top deck was reinforced for our hot tub so it was stubborn, but these guys worked Hard!

Hauled it all away too

We were really looking forward to walking out the garage back door to a flat surface. Cement was poured 3 days later.

I got a curved outside edge with a pattern border. It turned out so good, just what I wanted. 

I asked them to leave some of the dirt they dug up to level the ground around the patio. I wanted to fill the corner with some hosta plants. 

pile didn’t look THAT big

Mike and I spent 3 weeks off and on taking rocks out of the dirt, spreading the dirt along the side of the house where their equipment tore up the lawn and filling in round the patio where I wanted the plants. We would not give up.

18 hosta

Sorting the rocks out

I can’t wait till spring - fingers crossed they all come back.

One last job. Repair the house where the deck was attached. Mike wasn’t to confident he could do it, but I had no doubt.

Replaced the siding

Power washed it

We both got to painting and it looks new. Oh wait, it is new!

I’m looking forward to next summer with no chipmunks and drinking cocktails on the new patio under the new awning. 

Owen is 10

 So our baby grandson turned double digit. Owen loves to cook. He is always in the kitchen helping Mom. This summer he took a cooking class and his love for cooking grew.

His birthday wish was to spend a day in the kitchen with Grandma. I was all in!

He loves my homemade Mac n cheese so that was certainly on the menu. I suggested a birthday cake so he could make my Mom’s buttercream frosting (which he eats from the bowl) and play around with my decorating supplies.

First thing was to get him looking like a chef.

Apron and chefs hat

I told him my most important step in baking. Baking is measured - so first read the recipe and get out all the ingredients. Whenever you are done with using the ingredient, put it away. You never know when you will get interrupted and lose your thought about using each ingredient. That’s what he did. We used a cake mix, chocolate of course and added extra chips.

Next came the frosting. I told him he could taste as much as he thought he needed too. He is the cook, just had to use a different spoon each time. He was all in.

Cook approved

While the cake was baking - he tackled the Mac n cheese. He made it from scratch starting with the roux. He hesitated, but with some encouragement from Grandma he pushed through. I told him everybody has to do it a first time. Next time it will be easier. Now cooking you have a recipe, but you can embellish to taste. He really liked that idea.

Taste testing the Mac

Yummy

Now time to decorate that cake. He colored some frosting orange for some pumpkins.

Filling the piping bag

Piping the pumpkins

This was so much fun. He really did all of it himself. I just stood by for questions. 

I asked him what he is gonna remember most. 

1. Looking into the measuring cup for the 1C. Line 

2. When done piping push the bag down on the cake instead of lifting up. 

3. (My Favorite) Grandma like to sing while she cooks and spending time with just her was the best birthday gift.

Not his favorite part was the clean up. He didn’t hesitate to get the dishes done. I did send this photo to Mary and Bryan - neither one could believe he volunteered to clean up.