A Red, White and Blue Monday

Greetings on Memorial Day, 2016!  I hope you all are having a good holiday, but most of all I hope everyone is remembering the reason for this day, honoring those military members who we have lost.. 

I am linking up to Jeanne's Blue Monday.  Please stop by and see all the blues for today, and say hi to Jeanne!

Carl and I normally would be at our city's Memorial Day gathering, but since we have now moved, we will need to start a new tradition here in the Reno area.. I have been at our son and daughter in law's home the past couple weeks helping with the grands, just got home Saturday evening so didn't have time to research local events.  Next year for sure!

I thought I would share a few images I found on Pinterest with some 'blue'.. more appropriately, today, red, white AND blue!

and one new blue, for us

 



That's about it for today, it has been a quiet holiday for us..Thank you for stopping by, would love It if you would leave a comment!

Blue Monday

I've decided to join the gang over at Backyard Neighbor for the weekly Blue Monday, joining my dear long time friend Anne, who blogs at Phamilyblog..

What on earth can I post for Blue Monday...let me go through some pictures...then maybe I can come up with a theme..

Grandson Jack gathering flowers

Frenchman's Lake, CA 

 Great nieces and nephews at Moonrocks

 Carl and I at Moonrocks with our Razr

 Grandgirl Gracie taking a picture

 This artwork is named Sassy, love the blue scarf!

 Enjoying ice cream with Mimi

Nevada Highway Patrol Car

 

Well, I've enjoyed visiting with you today, be sure and link up and also go read some great blogs!

 

Barb



 

MOM'S MEMORIAL OPEN HOUSE

I was going to go  right back to the hotel room after Mom's open house on Thursday, May 12, and put up a blog post,  but I was so tired and wrung out, it's taken me this long to share some pictures.  I made a pretty table of memories to honor my mom..Pictures, trinkets, things that were representative of the things she loved.  I hope I did her proud.

There was not actually a 'service', just family and friends gathering to honor mom..Sherman's Deli in Palm Springs provided delicious sandwiches, salads and desserts, and Bridget Kraychir, a local real estate agent and friend of my folks, provided her Casita for the gathering in Palm Springs.  The pastor who ministered to Mom during her time with hospice came and sang a couple of favorite songs of hers that they would sing together..Mom loved singing...beautiful songs, silly songs, she sang them all as we were growing up.

My brother Raymond put together a beautiful slide show of Mom's life.  I spent about 3 weeks digging through our newly moved boxes looking for photos to scan and send to him and with Dad's help, he found a lot of photos at my parent's home.  Here is the YouTube link the slide show if you would care to watch:

https://youtube/bysW4lvcqCc

Hope the link works, it's worth the few minutes!

It was so great to have both my sons, Scott and Dan, there...Scott traveled from Northern CA with his two little ones, Grace Lily and Jackson Scott.  Dan was there with his girlfriend Annette.  My daughter in law was not able to take any bereavement leave due to her agency's regulations and is very low on vacation days as she has only been with the agency a couple years.  So she was missed and I know she missed being there to honor Grammy.

Our cousin Linda and her husband, Fred, travelled from Arizona, my cousin Lanell came from Orange County, and Linda's daughter, Danielle also attended.  My dearest friend-sisters, Denise and Eloda were there to support me, as were long time friends Eric and Jen, and their little one, Owen.  My brother Raymond's wife, mother in law, and brother in law attended. My sister was there with her sons and their wives. 

Anyway, I will post some pictures for you to see...My mom would have loved to have her life so honored by so many who loved her, of course I know that she was there in spirit holding our hands.

 Scott

 Denise and Dan

 Owen

 Dad,Fred, Linda and Lanell

 Danielle

 Sister in Law Lynette

 My grandgirl Gracie and my brother Ray

Carl and I

 My dad

 Pastor

 Nephew Matt and daughter Autumn

Fred, Linda, nephew Joe, Amy, Lanell and Dad

 

Like I said it was a lovely couple of hours, then it was over..A sense of finality, of some closure, for me anyway.  I've had my ups and downs since Mom passed in April.  I miss her but I know that she is in Heaven with our Heavenly Father, healthy, happy and watching over all of us.  That helps, although the heart doesn't feel that way at times.  My dad is very lost, they were married over 65 years, so very understandable.

 

I feel very blessed to have so much love around me, indeed I do!

 

Thank you for visiting!





BLOG POST AND WEEKEND FUN

I just wrote a post that I have decided to save as a draft, for now.  Thinking and typing, something I needed to do.  Have you ever done that, written a blog post and not published it?  I never have before.

It's been a busy couple weeks, we made a trip to Southern California to visit with my dad after my mom passed away.. He's not doing very well to say the least but I think he's doing the best he can at this point.  We will be having a memorial/open house on May 12th, so Carl and I will be driving to Palm Springs area on the 10th.  We will be driving back on the 13th.  I am looking forward to honoring my mom, not looking forward to family drama, that hopefully, will not rear it's head on that occasion.  No drama from me, the day is about Mom.

Our son and daughter in law came up Saturday morning with the grandkids..It was a cool, chilly day.  They can start out in the Sacramento area, where they live, and drive up here and it's a totally different weather day, two hour drive can change everything.  We all went to a fundraising activity called Kids and Big Rigs.  Lots of fire engines, tractors, cranes, etc..for the kids to get up close and personal to.  It was so busy, lines for everything, so if we do it again next year, we will wait and go in the afternoon, which was suggested by a fellow visitor.  But I think they enjoyed themselves..

 

I hope they had fun..we came home after that.and Poppy took our son on a ride on the quad we recently purchased..then our son put their helmets on, buckled them up, and took them one by one for a ride.  Oh they loved it.  We told them they could go for a ride whenever they came to visit us, we bought it for the entire family to use.

 

 

After a little bit of resting time, we went to dinner at Steak N Shake, kids always like going there and the price is pretty good for taking the family out..

 

Sunday, Lainie and I went shopping at Home Goods and we each found a few things we had to bring home. .stopped and had iced drinks at Starbucks, and then found the cutest consignment store to browse through...the kids left for home mid afternoon and Carl and I had to take a nap.. We love having company but we definitely needed a short nap!

 

Today was a 'don't even get dressed' kind of day.  Tomorrow I have things to do, places to go, so will get up and dressed early.  Stiff neck today, probably because I fell asleep on the sofa, again.  Have to stop doing that!

 

Well, that's about it for today,

Wishing blessings on all.