I don't exactly have a bevy of photos. Grandma-in-charge was doing more than a few things at one time, my annual multitasking night. It was fun though. We missed the Seattle bunch and Mercedes.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas Eve
This family is at its finest when I get out the camera. Nobody ever wants to have their picture taken.
I don't exactly have a bevy of photos. Grandma-in-charge was doing more than a few things at one time, my annual multitasking night. It was fun though. We missed the Seattle bunch and Mercedes.
I don't exactly have a bevy of photos. Grandma-in-charge was doing more than a few things at one time, my annual multitasking night. It was fun though. We missed the Seattle bunch and Mercedes.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Pink
Well the collection grew again. Last year I posted three cards featuring pink trees. I had been hanging on to these cards for no particular reason except they stood out for having pink trees. I then decided I would call it a collection. (see December 08 on this blog). I received a pink flocked tree from my friend Susan in November, (She shipped it anonymous as if she thought I wouldn't figure it out!) and now the season just got a little pinker: Karlyn gave me the four pink trees decorating my retirement table at work and Nic, my stepdaughter, made me a pink button card.
Susan informed me about my "collection ideas." She thinks my pink trees and candle figurines are nice, but since I dub something a collection I usually wind up with someone adding to it. She thought it would be rather prudent of me to say I collect vintage corvettes or something a little higher on the food chain, you know - GO BIG!!
Susan informed me about my "collection ideas." She thinks my pink trees and candle figurines are nice, but since I dub something a collection I usually wind up with someone adding to it. She thought it would be rather prudent of me to say I collect vintage corvettes or something a little higher on the food chain, you know - GO BIG!!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Candles
Anyone who was young during the exciting fifties and sixties must remember these figurine candles. Last week my sister-in-law Lila gave me an old 2004 Martha Stewart Living magazine because it had a pink tree featured in an article. Well not one to let the magazine go without a thorough going over, I found this article about the little wax Christmas people, Santas, trees, etc.
In my childhood we had the Santa, the choir kids and trees. We also had fair size collection a Thanksgiving candles. In the going through the Christmas boxes I didn't run into any. I suppose Evie thought they had outlived their usefulness and tossed them or pack them up for the Goodwill to become someone new treasures.
Mom may have chucked the Snyder wax heirlooms but I was lucky enough to have the collection restarted when my other sister-in-law Sandra gave me these for Christmas a few years back. I can't rightly recall how the trees arrived but I will assume it was from an auction or the second hand stores that I comb-over in a timely manner. The cost was a whole 10 cents, which in my little people day bought a nice small brown bag of candy or if one were to splurge and buy a candy bar. The following comprise my collection of four.
The article did mention if you run across one of these treasures and it is showing a wee bit of dirt,to take a piece of pantyhose stretched over your index finger and gently rub in a circular motion, but best to test in an area least noticed. Or you can take a Q-tip dampened with soapy water and get in the crevices.
In my childhood we had the Santa, the choir kids and trees. We also had fair size collection a Thanksgiving candles. In the going through the Christmas boxes I didn't run into any. I suppose Evie thought they had outlived their usefulness and tossed them or pack them up for the Goodwill to become someone new treasures.
Mom may have chucked the Snyder wax heirlooms but I was lucky enough to have the collection restarted when my other sister-in-law Sandra gave me these for Christmas a few years back. I can't rightly recall how the trees arrived but I will assume it was from an auction or the second hand stores that I comb-over in a timely manner. The cost was a whole 10 cents, which in my little people day bought a nice small brown bag of candy or if one were to splurge and buy a candy bar. The following comprise my collection of four.
The article did mention if you run across one of these treasures and it is showing a wee bit of dirt,to take a piece of pantyhose stretched over your index finger and gently rub in a circular motion, but best to test in an area least noticed. Or you can take a Q-tip dampened with soapy water and get in the crevices.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Christmas Photos
With the size of our blended family I thought the easiest way to share photos would be to blog them. So here we go.
The old gray Mare and retired Ron.
Tad and Missy. Tad is still at Lowe's Garden as a landscape designer. Missy is a Radiology Technician at Trinity Hospital. They live in Minot.
Ronald Lee, Jr. serving in the US Army, like his Dad did in the sixties.
Erik is an engineer with CP Rail. He and Nicki live on Myles' and my old farm, same house he grew up in.
Nicki Espeseth, she is Title I aide with Granville Public. She is married to Erik and mom to Collin.
I love this picture of Collin, taken on the ship. He has on Grandpa's sunglasses. He is 4 1/2 in this photo. Collin is son to Erik and Nicole Espeseth.
Deanna, Ron's daughter, with her fella, Loren. Deanna is an esthetician by trade but currently working at a Seattle grocery.
Nicole, wife to Robert and the oldest (by 5 months) of entire crew. A stay-at-home mom to Lainey and Beau.
Lainey is just a plain and simple BEAUTIFUL child. She is 2 1/2 in this photo. Lainey belongs to Robert and Nicole.
Robert and Beau in their matching t-shirts. Beau is about eight months in this picture. His Dad is more than that! Robert is with F5 in Seattle.
Mercedes Anna at eight months. She is Billy and Dani's
Billy and his mama(the one with the stupid grin). He is the oil man and living in Minot.
Karlie Lynn on the first day of her last year of school. WOW!
Carsten absolutely hates to have his picture taken. A rare image.
Lacy, a happy go lucky girl of 12.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE ENTIRE CREW!
Addendum: I posted the entire (what I thought was) bunch and then forgot the three at home. There goes the Mom of the year award AGAIN!
The old gray Mare and retired Ron.
Tad and Missy. Tad is still at Lowe's Garden as a landscape designer. Missy is a Radiology Technician at Trinity Hospital. They live in Minot.
Ronald Lee, Jr. serving in the US Army, like his Dad did in the sixties.
Erik is an engineer with CP Rail. He and Nicki live on Myles' and my old farm, same house he grew up in.
Nicki Espeseth, she is Title I aide with Granville Public. She is married to Erik and mom to Collin.
I love this picture of Collin, taken on the ship. He has on Grandpa's sunglasses. He is 4 1/2 in this photo. Collin is son to Erik and Nicole Espeseth.
Deanna, Ron's daughter, with her fella, Loren. Deanna is an esthetician by trade but currently working at a Seattle grocery.
Nicole, wife to Robert and the oldest (by 5 months) of entire crew. A stay-at-home mom to Lainey and Beau.
Lainey is just a plain and simple BEAUTIFUL child. She is 2 1/2 in this photo. Lainey belongs to Robert and Nicole.
Robert and Beau in their matching t-shirts. Beau is about eight months in this picture. His Dad is more than that! Robert is with F5 in Seattle.
Mercedes Anna at eight months. She is Billy and Dani's
Billy and his mama(the one with the stupid grin). He is the oil man and living in Minot.
Karlie Lynn on the first day of her last year of school. WOW!
Carsten absolutely hates to have his picture taken. A rare image.
Lacy, a happy go lucky girl of 12.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE ENTIRE CREW!
Addendum: I posted the entire (what I thought was) bunch and then forgot the three at home. There goes the Mom of the year award AGAIN!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Fargo Video
I know it has been a long blog hiatus, just too much going on in the new life - like poor time management. But I did stumble across this clip tonight and want to post it for old Fargo folks. It is kind of an eerie video but it did jog my memory to some events and locals I had forgotten about.
Double click on the underlined and check it out. I had to click on the play arrow to get it to go, otherwise is was a white screen.
Double click on the underlined and check it out. I had to click on the play arrow to get it to go, otherwise is was a white screen.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Little Church in the Big Time
This is a rather misfit blog entry, I should have stuck to the original entry on Wednesday. In the November 30th (the cover is about Helicopter Parents) TIME magazine the Norway Church of rural Denbigh ~ the famed burial home of Sondre Norheim, and home church of the Espeseth Family ~ is featured in a teeny weenie picture on the second page of an article about church safety.
Yesterday Billy wanted to see the page and do you think I could find the magazine? I am still looking for it. When I originally started this entry I looked at the link but the picture of the church wasn't included. The first page of the article is a sketch and the teeny weeny one isn't include. I have included the article for interested readers. And of course, I had to include my own shot of Norway.
My question is why the Norway church? I googled Norway Lutheran and did get one photo of the church but not the one in the article and it was a few pages into the google images. Of the thousands of pictures of churches why Norway?
More unanswered questions.
Addendum: I found the magazine and yes, it is a teeny weeny.
Yesterday Billy wanted to see the page and do you think I could find the magazine? I am still looking for it. When I originally started this entry I looked at the link but the picture of the church wasn't included. The first page of the article is a sketch and the teeny weeny one isn't include. I have included the article for interested readers. And of course, I had to include my own shot of Norway.
My question is why the Norway church? I googled Norway Lutheran and did get one photo of the church but not the one in the article and it was a few pages into the google images. Of the thousands of pictures of churches why Norway?
More unanswered questions.
Addendum: I found the magazine and yes, it is a teeny weeny.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The Fargo Finish
November 20, 2009 the Fargo Forum stopped coming to our Velva mailbox; exactly one week after the closing of the Fargo house. More explicitly defined: the Fargo house was the home of my childhood, the grandma home of my children and the home where my parents lived out the best years of their lives. They are no longer living so they can't argue with me about the last comment, but I think they would agree, those days at 1514 were good.
They bought the house in the Beuland (spelling?) Addition back in the glorious fifties, 1957 to be exact. It was on the south edge of town and had a unique feature that for years I would be able to use as a landmark in describing where I lived: "It is the street with the evergreens growing on each and every boulevard." My father always hated those trees because they created a blind spot at every driveway. He was sure some kid was going to get run over. He did replace them (after an unconfirmed report of a late night booze induced chopping,in the old days my dad had a wild side to him!) with - guess what? Evergreens.
The ranch style house was never a stepping stone for bigger and better, despite my valiant efforts in later years. "Upgrade, come on let's loose this bungalow," may not have been verbatim from Miss Mimi but I'm sure I spit forth something equally as forceful. Fargo was growing and so was the square footage, but not at our house. My parents were content with what they had and were not ones to go deep in debt for a new look.
In discussing the house with my brother we aren't sure what the house was actually bought for, the purchase price. We wavered between $14,000.00 and $20,000.00. We sold it for $134,000.00 - not a bad chunk of change after all these years. It went to a couple who really wanted the house, enough to bid up 3 times. I am happy for them, even though with the nature of today's young people I doubt they will live in the house for their entire adult lives, like the predecessors. People just don't do that anymore. Too many, "let's lose this bungalow's" out there. I may have been ahead of my time.
The house underwent several cosmetic changes, thanks to the skillful eye of Evie, but never any structural revamping, unless of course I count the new concrete patio and back door. In the 70's my Dad went ham wild. He was a virtuoso in the ham radio world receiving his telegraph operator's license as a teenager. We always had ham gear in the basement, but when he put up a tower in the back yard about four stories high, I knew he'd gone ham wild, a less rabid version of hog wild!
We had a finished basement which was quite characteristic of the Beuland homes. I secretly felt we were jipped because we didn't have an incinerator like the next-door neighbors. Instead we had a bar, complete with a sink. The basement was our play ground for years. Memory serves that I took over the whole area, gee, I wonder where Tom played? I had a school room set up on one side and a house on the other. I did move my classroom for a time into the laundry room because I was tired of not having a door. My crookedly sketched, pencil drawn intercom lever was still visible above the light switch on the knotty pine wall as I carried out the last of the the boxes. Do you suppose they will wonder what the art work is? We also left them the stalwart heavy duty pencil sharpener firmly screwed down just a few inches away. Maybe a little girl will someday see a future classroom among the ironing board, freezer and washing machine - just like I did.
On the main floor my bedroom was first down the hall followed by my brother's and after the turn, my folks' - next to the bathroom. It's odd how I can sit here, 250 miles away and years later and still hear the sound of the hall light clicking on, or the sound the bathroom door closing, the front awning whipping in the wind. I have visions, just as well etched into my memory, of my Dad sitting in his chair reading the paper with the TV a wee bit too loud; my mom at the kitchen sink; my brother lying on his bed reading and listening to music on the Green Goody, a stereo (green, really) he won.
So now it's final. The Snyders have ended their tour in Fargo (Mom and Dad are buried in Moorhead along with the souls of the Mattson clan - the Snyder souls are in Livingston, MT). My grandparents and young Billy Deane moved to the big city from Dickinson in about 1919. They soon bought the house on 14th street (another half century of dwelling - I guess moving isn't in the English/Czech gene pool) and in '29 a lake cottage on little Detroit, solidifying their entry into the Fargo family crowd. So ninety years later it's time to say good-bye to a great home and a great little city, but not the huge and colorful memories we Fargo folks have.
They bought the house in the Beuland (spelling?) Addition back in the glorious fifties, 1957 to be exact. It was on the south edge of town and had a unique feature that for years I would be able to use as a landmark in describing where I lived: "It is the street with the evergreens growing on each and every boulevard." My father always hated those trees because they created a blind spot at every driveway. He was sure some kid was going to get run over. He did replace them (after an unconfirmed report of a late night booze induced chopping,in the old days my dad had a wild side to him!) with - guess what? Evergreens.
The ranch style house was never a stepping stone for bigger and better, despite my valiant efforts in later years. "Upgrade, come on let's loose this bungalow," may not have been verbatim from Miss Mimi but I'm sure I spit forth something equally as forceful. Fargo was growing and so was the square footage, but not at our house. My parents were content with what they had and were not ones to go deep in debt for a new look.
In discussing the house with my brother we aren't sure what the house was actually bought for, the purchase price. We wavered between $14,000.00 and $20,000.00. We sold it for $134,000.00 - not a bad chunk of change after all these years. It went to a couple who really wanted the house, enough to bid up 3 times. I am happy for them, even though with the nature of today's young people I doubt they will live in the house for their entire adult lives, like the predecessors. People just don't do that anymore. Too many, "let's lose this bungalow's" out there. I may have been ahead of my time.
The house underwent several cosmetic changes, thanks to the skillful eye of Evie, but never any structural revamping, unless of course I count the new concrete patio and back door. In the 70's my Dad went ham wild. He was a virtuoso in the ham radio world receiving his telegraph operator's license as a teenager. We always had ham gear in the basement, but when he put up a tower in the back yard about four stories high, I knew he'd gone ham wild, a less rabid version of hog wild!
We had a finished basement which was quite characteristic of the Beuland homes. I secretly felt we were jipped because we didn't have an incinerator like the next-door neighbors. Instead we had a bar, complete with a sink. The basement was our play ground for years. Memory serves that I took over the whole area, gee, I wonder where Tom played? I had a school room set up on one side and a house on the other. I did move my classroom for a time into the laundry room because I was tired of not having a door. My crookedly sketched, pencil drawn intercom lever was still visible above the light switch on the knotty pine wall as I carried out the last of the the boxes. Do you suppose they will wonder what the art work is? We also left them the stalwart heavy duty pencil sharpener firmly screwed down just a few inches away. Maybe a little girl will someday see a future classroom among the ironing board, freezer and washing machine - just like I did.
On the main floor my bedroom was first down the hall followed by my brother's and after the turn, my folks' - next to the bathroom. It's odd how I can sit here, 250 miles away and years later and still hear the sound of the hall light clicking on, or the sound the bathroom door closing, the front awning whipping in the wind. I have visions, just as well etched into my memory, of my Dad sitting in his chair reading the paper with the TV a wee bit too loud; my mom at the kitchen sink; my brother lying on his bed reading and listening to music on the Green Goody, a stereo (green, really) he won.
So now it's final. The Snyders have ended their tour in Fargo (Mom and Dad are buried in Moorhead along with the souls of the Mattson clan - the Snyder souls are in Livingston, MT). My grandparents and young Billy Deane moved to the big city from Dickinson in about 1919. They soon bought the house on 14th street (another half century of dwelling - I guess moving isn't in the English/Czech gene pool) and in '29 a lake cottage on little Detroit, solidifying their entry into the Fargo family crowd. So ninety years later it's time to say good-bye to a great home and a great little city, but not the huge and colorful memories we Fargo folks have.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Day One
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I guess I could say that each and every day upon waking, but today is something special - it is the NEXT chapter. Besides having a cold that has exacerbated into a nasty cough, I did thoroughly enjoy myself all day long. There were moments when I thought: I could wake up and this is just a darn good dream; I don't really have to go back to work tomorrow, not next week or even after Thanksgiving; I can start big, big projects and not have to park them for a few days or weeks. I kept getting back a smile on my face, and was pretty sure it was for real.
I did ponder some things I want to avoid in my new retired life:
1. bigger love handles, saddle bags, and double chin.
2. a mullet (from cutting my own hair).
3. becoming a hoarder with trails throughout the house.
4. being an avid caller on talk radio - after a brief exchange of triviality they conclude by saying "appreciate the call Mare" and hang up.
5. pregnancy.
6. becoming a sunworshipper (my mother would die all over again!)
7. when speakin,' droppin the g's on action verbs: lookin', goin', talkin'. It might fly with Sarah Palin, but not for me!
8. acquiring more than one house cat.
9. putting bumper stickers on my car.
and finally...
10. thinking I should return to the workforce!!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
And the Tree was Pink
What a surprise I had yesterday via the US Postal service. The last thing I'd ever expect to receive, please read on...
To preface this gift let's begin with last year's holiday blog entry (click on 2008 - the last entry of the year) about the feeble pink Christmas tree collection I have. The entirety of my analects exists only on paper, in the form of greeting cards.
Now one of the unbeknownst perks of the activity department is we are the unofficial drop off center for many a bundle of used greeting cards. I soon loved to sort through the drop offs as some of the cards were extremely pretty, interesting, old, artsy, unique, some really worth setting aside. This is how the pink tree collection took shape.
The first card I saw, possibly eight years ago, was stuffed, by me, into my note card holder thingamajig that sits on my desk. I never quite got around to tossing it, along with a few hundred other things. The card was so unique in its color, I couldn't let it go. Before long the first pink card was soon joined (about two years later ) by another. It was then I took the two cards home and put them into a "favorite cards" box. Last Christmas another pink card surfaced, and voila! - I had THREE pink Christmas tree cards and decided I had a collection.
After the blog entry in December of 08 my old, really my oldest friend because Roxy Rodgers and I do not keep in touch, friend Susan thought I should scarf up a pink tree on e-bay. Not one to rush into things, I nixed the idea. But I did give thought to one I saw at Menards on clearance. "Naw, you don't need to spend money on a tree, a pink one at that." echoed my alter id.
Well yesterday Ron goes to get the mail and upon returning walks into the house and says, "Did you order a Christmas tree?" Befuddled by his question I marched into the dining room and what to my wondering eyes should appear, a tree - and the tree was pink!
It didn't take too much sleuthing on my part as to where the tree came from, or more like, WHO it came from. Once again Susan had laden me with gifts. This is her most outstanding one yet: my very own pink Christmas tree. What a merry season this will be.
Lacy thought it looked like we should eat it. Merry Pink Christmas!
P.S. for Susan: this really makes the Midge doll things increasingly harder for me to swallow. You must have some Jewish mother guilt blood running in your veins.
To preface this gift let's begin with last year's holiday blog entry (click on 2008 - the last entry of the year) about the feeble pink Christmas tree collection I have. The entirety of my analects exists only on paper, in the form of greeting cards.
Now one of the unbeknownst perks of the activity department is we are the unofficial drop off center for many a bundle of used greeting cards. I soon loved to sort through the drop offs as some of the cards were extremely pretty, interesting, old, artsy, unique, some really worth setting aside. This is how the pink tree collection took shape.
The first card I saw, possibly eight years ago, was stuffed, by me, into my note card holder thingamajig that sits on my desk. I never quite got around to tossing it, along with a few hundred other things. The card was so unique in its color, I couldn't let it go. Before long the first pink card was soon joined (about two years later ) by another. It was then I took the two cards home and put them into a "favorite cards" box. Last Christmas another pink card surfaced, and voila! - I had THREE pink Christmas tree cards and decided I had a collection.
After the blog entry in December of 08 my old, really my oldest friend because Roxy Rodgers and I do not keep in touch, friend Susan thought I should scarf up a pink tree on e-bay. Not one to rush into things, I nixed the idea. But I did give thought to one I saw at Menards on clearance. "Naw, you don't need to spend money on a tree, a pink one at that." echoed my alter id.
Well yesterday Ron goes to get the mail and upon returning walks into the house and says, "Did you order a Christmas tree?" Befuddled by his question I marched into the dining room and what to my wondering eyes should appear, a tree - and the tree was pink!
It didn't take too much sleuthing on my part as to where the tree came from, or more like, WHO it came from. Once again Susan had laden me with gifts. This is her most outstanding one yet: my very own pink Christmas tree. What a merry season this will be.
Lacy thought it looked like we should eat it. Merry Pink Christmas!
P.S. for Susan: this really makes the Midge doll things increasingly harder for me to swallow. You must have some Jewish mother guilt blood running in your veins.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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