May to December

Oh boy am I just a little behind in posting.  Just a lot of life going on here.

On Memorial day Larry Coartney had called me telling me the time of the service being held at Enon Church.  So I packed up Jeri, Sarah and the grandkids and we went down.  This is one of the traditions that started with Grandma Coartney.  Such a good thing to pass on to the future generations.

Clayton sang God Bless the USA in a talent show in Oakland.  Of course this is one pretty proud grandma.  He has such a beautiful voice even if I do say so myself.

 Church camp.  Very blessed.

Dropping the boys off after camp with all their stinky stuff.  They look tired but filled.

Jeri entered her "old" car in the World Famous 4th of July parade.  Just ahead of her was her husband Chris in his identical old car.

Cheese!  Nuff said.

Swimming at the neighbors.

Dad's corn.  Knee high by the 4th of July.  Really!

Spending a little quality time with the cousins.

Got Linda to Covered Bridge.  "What happens at Covered Bridge stays at Covered Bridge".

Couldn't resist.

 On to fall, and football then basketball.  Run, run, run but oh how fun.

Braden the determined.


October 24, 2014
So my evening was pretty peaceful until around 10:15ish.  Was  sitting in my chair with the TV on and my laptop on my lap.  Was working on the church books.  Saw something flutter by the front  door.Kind of startled me since Joe was not home yet.  Then a few seconds later I really saw what it was.  I had a bat in the  house and no one there to rescue me.  I got up and went into the dining room and the stupid thing followed me.  I knew I couldn't call Brad because he's been getting up at 4am to go to work and he would have been in bed and asleep.  Ronnie and Patty were in bed as well since  Dorothy is living with them, they didn'tneed to get up and come take care of me. So I just went out to the porch and got the broom.  Started  swinging.  Finally hit the thing and knocked it down.  Stepped back  to collect myself since I was extremely excited.  And the nasty thing started flying again.  I hit it again and went to get the trash can from the kitchen and the dustpan so Icould pick it up  and take it outside.  Well guess what it started flying again.  Hit it one more time this time I whacked it with the broom stick while it was down.  I broke the broom hitting it.  I had taken a picture to send to Joe.  He called me on his way home I had just walked back in the house from taking the bat out.  He wondered why I was so out of breath.

When Jeri played volleyball we gave her the name Pitbull Pardi.  I think that Kristyn has the same traits. 

Clayton is in the midst of playing right now.  Learning lots getting to play with the big guys.

Almost 40 years out of school and I still call these beautiful ladies my best friends.

Thanksgiving!

Just makes you sigh or at least it does me.  My sweet, sweet baby girl.

Little out of order but this was dad's soybean harvest.  Ronnie getting to haul in.

Throw back picture was in honor of our veteran on Veteran's day.  Thank you Brad and Sarah.

Joe was invited to go out of state to a Pheasant hunt.  He had so much fun.

Cheese!

Original photo taken about 1987.

Photo remake taken 2014.

The three amigo's.  Honored to attend "MJ's Menagerie" benefit in honor of Mary Jordan.

Christmas program at Church.  Ugly sweaters required.

My group of high schoolers.

The budding artists.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and everyone of you.

God Bless.

On of Mom's favorite holiday's was Easter.  I don't know if that was because it was the beginning of nice weather or everything thing seems new in spring.  New babies, lambs and chicks.  Always fun, always smiles, always family.

 Mom loved that the 4H would use her store as a staging place.  Mom always got her picture taken with the Easter bunny. 

Oh how many smiles would we have seen while watching miss Lindy Lou gather up her Easter Eggs at the first Egg hunt she could participate in.

We're off to see the Wizard the Wonderful Wizard of OZ.

It has been a whirlwind of a week for the grandkids, aka munchkins and flying monkeys.  They signed up in January to be part of the Oakland and Kansas High School musical.  Three all day Saturday sessions and this week every night from 4:30 to 9:00 or so.  It's been an experience of a lifetime for them.  They have enjoyed every minute of it.  Clayton even had a small speaking part.  Of course in a small community you can wear several different hats.  The Producer for the show also had to double as the wardrobe designer and sewing staff.  On Wednesday night she asked Sarah to help finish the costumes.  Sarah helped put finishing touches on Dorothy's dress and between them they made close to 20 monkey vests with no pattern.

 Kristyn said early on "I'll be in the show Grandma if you bring me flowers".  How could I resist.

 These boys are hot.  I mean REALLY hot those monkey suits were very fuzzy and very hot.  They were covered in sweat after the show.

 I'll try to get a better picture of them as munchkins.  This was on Wednesday night when they all tried on their costumes in preparation for the Thursday night dress rehearsal.

 This was the only good picture I got last night during the performance.  The rest of them are fuzzy.  I had to zoom in as we were in the bleachers.

Here is the entire cast of Munchkins.  There are more little ones in the play that were Winkies and Monkey's.

Can't wait to go back tonight.  The set's were amazing.  Kudoo's to the cast and crew for an awesome performance.

Sad day

My heart is heavy as I sit and type.  Still cannot believe the news we received.  Doug Thompson, my cousin, my friend is gone.  He went home, not this home but his home in heaven.  So since I heard the news Saturday morning the memories have been flooding my mind.  Playing with all the cousins at Grandma and Granddad Coartney's.  Building an igloo on Thanksgiving day when we were little.  Those 4 eagle scouts knew how to do anything, or so we thought.  Playing king of the hill, corncob fights, going to Granddad's pond, climbing tree's I'm sure there's lots more but I just can't remember everything we did.  Yes we are family but the real blessing is that we are friends too.

The questions keep flooding in.  Why?  Could we have helped?  Today I'm making a choice to not go there.  We may never get the answers and you know it doesn't change for a minute how we feel about Doug.  He was a good man, dad and husband.  He was family and he was a good friend.

We miss you and will think of you often.

Doug's Memorial service information message from Lester.

A memorial service for Douglas Thompson will at 7:00 Pm Saturday , March 29
at First Christian Church, Ames IA -611 Clark Ave.
Family will receive friends one hour before the service.

If any of my relatives are not able to come at this I will not feel slighted if you can not be here.
  Possible motel to stay Saturday night is;

Best Western 515-296-2500
2500 University Ave. Ames

Or
  HolidayInn  515 -268-8808
2609 University Ave, Ames

I hope I have Included all the information you would need.
I my have left out something this has been a very trying week.
Lester Thompson

Bathroom Remodel 2014

I've been waiting, saving & planning for this day for years.  We purchased my grandparents house in 1989.  The only room we hadn't touched except for wallpaper and paint was the bathroom.  My cousin David Hawkins moved back into his grandparents home which is next door and guess what, he's the best tile guy in the area plus he does home renovations.  So in January we started in on the bathroom renovation.  Took out a small closet and a really small hallway and enlarged our bathroom to double it's size.  You see our home was built in 1925, before indoor plumbing.  So in the 1940's, from what dad and aunt Karan think, they took out a wall between two bedrooms and added an indoor bathroom.

This bathroom has been my dream for years.  I've remodeled it in my head over and over.  I absolutely LOVE it.

  

This is the beginning.  In the bitter cold January the remodeling had started plus we made the choice to sleep downstairs in our guest room.  Which as you can see is right next to the bathroom. With the demo starting this was probably the last day for our shower.  We did get to keep our toilet for several more days.

 This picture shows just how small our old bathroom was.  This was about it.  Joe always said that you could
sit on the pot, soak your feet in the tub and wash your hands in the sink.  The old sink was just about where the frame to the pocket door is in this picture.

 The beginning of our new shower.

This picture is all new space for our bathroom.  Prior to this it had been a small closet and even smaller hallway.

 We had David move the shower head up about 6".  Joe is 6'1 and we didn't want it to hit him in the face. 

 We had originally planned on having a fiberglass bottom but since the bathroom was only 4'6" instead of 5' wide we got a tiled floor and much to my pleasure a corner seat.

 

We ended up having to move a wall about 8 inches into the room next to the bathroom to accommodate our new pocket door.  That small amount of space really made a huge difference in the size of the room.

 Let the tiling begin.

 I had wanted to try to make sure my choices went along with the age of my house.  I didn't want it to look like I had an extremely modern bathroom when the rest of my house has the character of a house build in 1925.  I know they wouldn't have had tile like this in 1925 but i guess you can say eclectic.  A good mix of the old and the new.

 I've ordered a new linen cabinet that will sit beside the sink.  It is not expected to arrive until April.  Hope it matches.

 I love the pocket doors.  I really makes the small space a whole lot bigger.  David had ordered the solid wood doors in December and when they came in they were white vinyl covered composite doors.  He told them I would not accept them since I wanted the solid wood doors to match the doors in my house.  How correct was he.  These doors look fabulous.

 We also needed a shelf to hold Joe's razor so I bought a glass shelf but it was too big.  More than likely my new mirror would have gotten broken.  Then it his me I had the glass shelves out of the old medicine cabinet.  The shelf holders worked perfectly with the old glass.  Which I like even better than the new glass shelf.