Daddy's Toys

I saved way way too many of Bryan's toys. It didn't help that he's a saver too. And now we have 15 some bins full in our basement. I decided that his Boys are old enough to have some of his things.

 Here is Owen playing with Bryan's Rambo fort. Owen likes to play with it, but he prefers using his army guys.

There's something about watching your Grandson playing with Daddy's toys.

Welcome to a New Year

 Our Christmas was spent with a breakfast in the morning with the Flory family. I was just so happy and content to hold the Grandsons and hug Bryan and Mary. I miss them! I was lucky to get a picture with Luke in it. He decided that he is never going to let anyone take his picture. He's convinced that it will end up on TikTok. "You can't be too sure what people will put on the internet."

Stacy and the boys, Brian and Steve all came over for dinner. Todd was hurting with a backache so he couldn't make it, but Nicole, Logan's girlfriend, came. It was all perfect. I got plenty of hugs and caught up on older Grandkids lives. I forgot how active teenagers and 20 years old are.

Dylan turned 21 on the 29th. Hard to believe. We took our gift out there to him and got a picture, before the nonsense of turning 21 happens.

New Years Eve Mike cooked some yummy steaks on the grill and lobster in the air fryer. A Nice quiet night at home. 

I did my part by roasting marshmallows in the fireplace and made us s'mores for dessert.

I'm ok with being home, keeping safe, and doing my part to get this virus under control, but Damn it was really, really nice to be with family after some 6 months apart.

One For The History Books

 So I am looking on Facebook - which I don't normally do - and I see on The What's Happening in Elgin page a post of History books about areas of Elgin. 

I click on the book about "The History of the 400 Block of Summit Street Elgin, Illinois" because OMG we lived on that street. I scroll down and start reading about the book and this is what I find.

Look close and you can see "Who served as a lieutenant in the Elgin Fire Department?"

Dad!!! My Dad served on the EFD when we lived on Summit. I jump on Amazon and order the book. lf this is about someone else then I was out the the $22 I spent, but if it's about Dad then we are in a History Book.

YES! They are talking about my family. 

Looks like the house was built in the 1880's. 

They bought the house May 1, 1947 for $3500 and had a house payment of $32.38 on a 12 year mortgage.

They sold the house Sept. 16 1963 for $9000. 

It tells of Dad birth, death, military service and the clubs in Elgin he was a member of. It tells more of Mom and her parents. I guess I forgot that Grandpa Budney was born in Poland when it was part of the Russian Empire and Grandma's maiden name was Sementokowski (Shorten to Smith). No wonder my Ancestry profile said 65% polish.

There is 4 whole pages of The Kolbergs who lived at 426 Summit Street.

Sad there was no mention of us kids. 😢

I haven't read the whole thing. Truth be told I hunted down 426 Summit St. first. I gotta find out about the White Sox player next. A lot of the book is just County Clerk mumble jumble, but I'm gonna dig thru it anyway and see how much more I don't remember.

This is one for the History Book.

Thanksgiving 2020

 

Happy Thanksgiving from us

We did not spend this Thanksgiving the way we wanted too. It was just me and Mike. We and our immediate family decided to each spend our day apart. Safe in our own homes with just the people who live there.

Did we want to have everybody over and hug and laugh and eat too much - of course we did.

But we also know personally just how awful this virus is. That someone you played "who can hold their breathe the longest" as a kid is now suffering to take a breath. That they are laying in a hospital bed watching for you and just seeing a nurse or Dr. because you can't visit. 

I know everybody has to live their lives the way they think is best. I know there are people who don't and won't wear masks - I feel bad for them. I'm not going to ask you to. But please, please know there are some who believe and hope and pray that just a simple face covering will save someone catching this serious vicious disease. 

And know that words hurt - Making fun of someone who is staying back from you and wearing a mask and refusing to shake your hand, high five or fist bump is doing so for a reason. We are not paranoid we are experiencing something we never hope you or anyone you love will ever go thru. 

 

This is What I Need

 Our old 1980's computer desk has taken up way too much space in my sewing room. We don't use the desktop computer anymore and the desk was just holding office stuff that I condensed down into 1 file cabinet and 2 small storage office bins.

I decided after climbing around and digging into bins, and hauling the bins up and down from the basement I needed to SEE all this beautiful color material that I got from my neighbor.  It was time for my sewing room to look like one. 

With the desk gone I got to drawing out exactly what I thought it should look like. I gave the design to Mike and after a short conservation and some input from him, he was convinced he could build exactly what I needed/wanted.

I had no doubt he could do it. And he didn't disappoint. It's exactly what I drew for him.

I thought it needed to be painted. reason 1 - I wanted more color and 2 The material would slide better on a painted surface. I chose a navy blue that looked more royal. It only took 2 people to say "Cubbie Blue" and I ordered some contact paper and white paint to hide some of it.

Storage Galore

I got 7 bins emptied. Still have room for the office stuff (printer, file boxes, file cabinet and my to be filed away box) and my TV. It's perfect.

Everything I need 

There is no mistaken who's room this is and what I do here. I love being in my retirement room.

Don't feel to sorry for Mike he has his space in the basement.

Control Burns

 We have a forest preserve at the end of our street. Every few years they do a control burn. Most of the time I just get to see the end results. It doesn't take much time to burn the small area.

This year Sharen caught the fire in action from her front yard and sent me a picture.

Fire view

By the time I got into my car and headed down there for a closer picture, this is what was left. Just a walking path of green grass threading thru acres of charred weeds. It's pretty impressive.

Field of burn

The weather was perfect for being outside so when I got back home I decided to get started on my winter clean up on the yard and have a control burn of my own. 

My control Burn

We are not allowed to burn leaves in our county, but I had plenty of scrap wood from cleaning out our wood pile. I decided to retire the old bags game and it found the pit too.

I will plead the fifth if asked if any leaves from the yard joined the crap wood. 😇

New Walkway and Lanscaping

 When we moved here in 2004 I wanted a front porch. The one that was here was a tiny cement slab that wouldn't even hold 3 people standing.

In the spring of 2005 Mike built us a front porch. Or did it become a deck when we took down the railings, anyway I enjoy sitting out there. 

What I didn't like was the downspout that ran over the worn out paver sidewalk that helped it sink and buckle.  It all got very slippery in the cold weather. The holly bushes I had planted were taking over. It was so ready for a change.

I called a few landscapers I found online. 2 never got back to me. 1 came and told me it was too small a job. 1 gave me an estimate of $10,000 (yup, he clearly was not interested). I gave up. Mike made one phone call to a landscaper he found on Home Advisor and he came out 2 days later. I told him just what I wanted and he emailed Mike 2 days later with an estimate and a start day.

Seriously thinking it all got done so fast because they would rather deal with a male than a female.

Sad and Old

The only job I had to do was to dig up all my tulips and daffodils. No small task.

I was just hoping I got them all

The workers showed up on a Wednesday and got busy digging the old walk up and digging a drench for the down spout. I was so excited. 

Day 1 completed

Both men (Miguel and Moses) were very friendly and polite and didn't mind me asking questions and telling them just what I wanted. It probably helped that I let them know I enjoyed their music and made them fresh coffee. They even brought lunch with them which I happily warmed up for them in the microwave.

No More Wet Sidewalk

We got some rain the next night and the buried down spout leaked. They got that fixed real quick and started on putting down the bricks. 

When I told the guy who was here for the estimate I told him I wanted Autumn red body with a bright red border - He said "OK?" like I didn't know exactly what I wanted. I almost said I'm a quilter I know what I'm talking about.

When they started laying out the walk I stood over them and told them just where I wanted it - moved 15 inches closer to the house so I and everybody that needs a little help doing stairs can use the post.

I noticed that the border bricks were not the bright red ones I ordered. Sure enough - wrong ones. Now I'm thinking OMG what if I was at work when they were doing this? it would of been wrong location and wrong color.

Heating the cracks for sand

When the boss man came and asked me how thing were going I told him I wanted to add some more boxwoods for around my flag pole. It looked really naked on the other side of the walk. He told me  o problem and the next day Miquel and Moses showed up to do the landscaping with 7 bushes. Just like that - no hassle - no problems.

Ta Da New Sidewalk

The boss came back for the final inspection and admitted that he wasn't sure on the pattern. I then told him I was a quilter and I like the ones with a bold border best. He asked me if he could take a picture of it for his website. HA, I said of course....

Now I just need to get those tulip and daffodil bulbs planted.