A rare family visit. Remembering some summer fun...and cuteness!

   It has been approximately 7 years since my oldest nephew and his wife flew out from California to see our family.  Their older daughter, now 7, was only a few months old at the time.  They had a second daughter who will turn 2 this September, so there were four of them flying this time.  They were lucky that both girls didn't really mind the flights.
      My oldest brother (grandpa to these two girls) hosted a Gleason-Leohr family picnic while they were here, and they also celebrated with my sister-in-law's family as well during their 2 week stay.
    This trip was full of 'firsts' for the two girls.  I can't believe it, but they had NEVER seen FIREWORKS before!  They also went to Lake Michigan for the first time as well.  Of course, it was the younger niece's first plane trip as well, and although they had a layover in Denver, both girls seemed to enjoy the trip, like an adventure.
    When I found out that we had not only one, but TWO baby girls to be born in 2012, I was immediately spurred to create baby girl albums.  I gave both mothers their albums during this visit and the family picnic.  I am also creating copies for all us aunts and grandmothers as well.

 Skylar, granddaughter of my brother Robert.

 Walking off (not) into the sunset... Jordan's girlfriend Marci, Skylar, and Robert.

Robert's daughter Jennifer with her daughter Skylar, the first grandniece born in 2012.  Skylar is a VERY girly-girl, & her nursery was done in a baby animal theme, so her album is made of not only the pink & green, feminine items as on the cover, but also contains several animal prints.

     I created Gleason Girl albums for the ladies of our family as well. Aunt Pat's is seen above. Rather than concentrating on the two youngest girls, I included bits of each of us in order of age.  If I did not have a newborn photo, I used the photo at the youngest age available.  I included a more current photo of them when available, & included wedding photos of myself & adult niece Sarah.

     Aunt Pat ended up crying TWICE, first when I gave her the ORIGINAL (& only copy?) of her brother's (my Uncle's) senior album, seen below.  She wasn't expecting either of these gifts, and I think she really appreciates them!

     My cousin Marvie (Marvin Jr.) was one of many relatives on this side of the family, who I have not seen in several years, so that was a special treat.  There were also a lot of new family members who I had NEVER met!  Needless to say, I took LOTS of photos & am trying to share them with as many as possible.

Mystery of the missing purple glove: A Pellet Stove ODYSSEY!

     Another home maintenance issue came up this morning.  Wesley & I got up to the wonderful situation of the pellet stove on the main floor of the house not running, and it was only 64 degrees on that floor.  As soon as I got up, I remembered waking up earlier and grabbing my sheet and comforter to pull it up to my face, so when I came downstairs, the thermostat for the stove was the first place I went!
     "Auger Jam" read the error screen.... trying the 'retry' button to no avail, I reached for the pellet stove user's manual, plus fired up the laptop, anticipating a needed search for how to remedy the situation.  After turning on the furnace and turning up my pellet stove in the basement, to help warm the house while I worked on the problem (AFTER getting Wesley to school), I set off to my usual morning routine of everyone's breakfast and preparing Wesley's lunch.
     Within a few minutes I found both the error message information and schematics for the parts that I needed to work with, and told Wesley that I had to remove a cover from the stove to work on it later.
     One youtube video search later and approximately an hour (the same as the video's creator had estimated) of tedious but easy work, and I had heat again!
     I assumed that the stove had the same problem as his... pellet dust build up blocking the auger and it's eye, but low and behold, as I removed the auger from behind the burn chamber..... I HAD SOLVED THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING PURPLE GLOVE!!!

     As usual, I took photos as I went through the steps of removing pellets, removing the wiring and the auger.... and THE GLOVE CAUGHT IN THE AUGER!  The above photo shows the twisted shape of the metal auger with the glove twisted up in it, and the auger motor and wiring harness in the lower left corner.
     I was both surprised and greatly relieved that I may have solved the problem so quickly, and hoped that I hadn't damaged any of the wiring while I did it.  I sent Michael another text message (yes, I've begun texting him since we found that it SOMETIMES reaches his phone from our home) that I had 'made fire', and posted on facebook that I thought I deserved a nap. 

So much to catch up on, AUTOSHIP, and getting a LOT of pages done utilizing kits!

      (This is one of many catch-up posts that I am completing, after FINALLY finding a program which works with both my laptop & blogger.  It has been over a year since I began the struggle of posting, needing to load my photos onto a memory card from my laptop and load them into blogger with our old pc upstairs.  For some reason I was only able to add text to my blog with my laptop.
Now, from this fall...)
      I was lucky enough to obtain the AUTOSHIP of Inspired Inc's (Lisa Bearnson's collaborative kits) Top Page Layout kits!  After going through a 'dry spell' of not creating many layouts or other papercrafting projects, I have gotten several done in the past few months. 
http://www.hsn.com/products/inspired-inc-top-page-layouts-kit/7310252
    ( The single shipment of the Christmas/holiday order is still available at:
http://www.hsn.com/products/inspired-inc-holiday-happenings-top-layout-kit/7604970 )
     I was even featured on the 3 BIRDS DESIGN blog, with a page created using 3 Birds Design lines!

http://3birdsdesign.com/2014/09/03/august-scrapbook-sketch-feature/

  

     Utilizing the Inspired Inc layout kits, I was able to document several of our summer activities, such as our (almost) daily walks with Dakota.
   I have a ton of layout photos to post, as well as our Halloween adventures and other fall activities!

Brill Christmas Dinner 2014

     Michael and I were able to attend the Brill Christmas Dinner again this year.  I was sick last year and didn't remember that they had changed venues.  We went to James Port Brewery (Restaurant) and had a wonderful meal.

     Michael had a Bourbon steak, while I had the Lake Perch dinner.  Delicious!  Michael tried a different cider flavored beer, which was not what he was expecting.  I enjoyed a chocolate mouse cake with cherries....yum!
     I met a new friend, who also suffers from chronic pain, so we had a lengthy discussion separate from the dinner table, and I plan to invite her and her husband over sometime soon.  On our way home, Michael said that he had told her husband he expected we would be spending New Year's Eve together lol.
   

Gleason Christmas 2014 at Sarah's home

     My niece Sarah hosted the Gleason Christmas this year, in the old farm house home of herself, husband Paul, and his son Ryan.  Brandon is now living down state with his dad, but always comes to his mom's home for Christmas.  This year, her oldest son Alex moved back down to North Carolina, and now he is currently planning to move in with his girlfriend Amie.  Sarah was blessed with them driving here for several days over Christmas, returning to North Carolina after celebrating Christmas with the Gleasons.

This is the NON spicy meat...

This is the majority of her Christmas village, with a few pieces in the living room, and the rest in the school library.

    Wesley has been exchanging gifts with Brandon for the past few years, as they are the only non-adult children/grandchildren who regularly attend this gathering.  We followed Sarah's exchange gift guidelines of gifts being purchased from second-hand stores, yard sales, etc.

(Nearly) vintage STAR WARS puzzles from
Aunt Deb; these were Justin & Jordan's when they were little!

My FATHER'S hatchet...

     For the 2nd time this Christmas season, I broke down in tears in response to seeing Wesley's gift.  He had asked for a hatchet, after reading the book of that name at school.  A young boy became lost, with only a hatchet to help him to survive.  When Wesley opened his gift from Brandon, I realized that it may have been one of my father's, and when they said yes, I was already in tears.  It is very rusty, and needed to have the handle reinforced, but that doesn't matter....it belonged to my late father.  The fact that it is rusty only reinforces that fact, as he had several tools which were rusty, damaged, repaired and repaired again.   The attitude of those who grew up during or after the great depression:  that idea of repairing rather than replacing an item..... using, re-using, and using them up. 

DT fail, but I'll probably keep trying

    I recently submitted my 2nd Design Team (DT) application projects, but did not receive the message or phone call that I had hoped for.  I may have taken this as a sign that this is not meant to be part of my path, but I have heard others discussing design teams on podcasts or their blogs, having had to apply several times before being accepted by any company.  This also holds true for having their work printed in our dearly missed scrapbook magazines.

After we hosted Gleason Christmas in our new home, 2005, 23 month old Wesley decided to have another taste of alcohol-free wine, St. Julian's, which we love!  I caught him in the act, even getting one photo before he realized that he had been caught in the act.

I do NOT claim to be a card maker, but again, I included a card project.

      The link to the entire "Oh Christmas Tree" mini album that I created recently:

http://www.pineconesandroses.blogspot.com/2014/12/oh-christmas-tree-mini-album-displays.html

    We were required to submit 3 projects, preferably showing variety.  I had completed all three of these projects 2 weeks before the due date, but was still contemplating the submission of a Christmas display that I wanted to create to sit on top of my zero-clearance pellet stove which we installed in my studio this past spring.  I wanted something mounted onto a sheet of plywood or white board, so that I can lift the entire display in one easy step, since I have to load the pellets by lifting the lid on TOP of the fireplace.  I never decided on a design, so I broke down and submitted the above projects on the final day of submission.  I'm sure that my error of trying to send high-quality (large) files was not in my favor either.  After sending in a message stating that I would be sending in my submissions in two messages, Chasity was kind enough to agree that I needed to downsize my files.  Thanks AGAIN to my favorite little birdy!
    I will continue to 'play', creating scrapbook pages or other projects at my own pace and free will, but will keep in mind the possibility of reapplying, continuing to both admire and sometimes drool in envy of the talents in others, ever hoping that I would some day create something nearly as beautiful or painstakingly detailed.
     This, the first day of our new year, 2015, marks a few altered plans or anticipations, but I will try to 'go with the flow', hoping to grow and evolve my interests, and possibly my skills, in many ways. 
     I will, once again, choose "Better" as my 'word of the year', & pray that I can continue to learn something new or do a good deed each and every day.

Christmas with a lot of 5th graders!

     I was able to attend another one of Wesley's school Christmas parties.   When I arrived all the 5th graders were still in various rooms watching several movies:  Beethoven's Christmas, Ice Age, Annie, & another which he cannot remember.  Each of the four class rooms hosted a different movie, with the students being allowed to go to another class room if necessary, to watch the movie of their choice.  Mr. Lundberg was playing Beethoven's Christmas, and there was enough time for him to play some of the movie's extra scenes, including bloopers.
     This year, they were allowed to bring an exchange gift, which had not been allowed in younger classes.  With a limit of $5, I thought it would be difficult to find a gift that Wesley wouldn't mind receiving himself, but leave it to he and Michael.... they found an air driven vehicle that scoots across the table or floor!  It was a hit!  When his science teacher came into the room to hand out some projects, she gave him a high five for giving a science-oriented toy.  I told her I was trying to turn him into my little scientist, and Michael often finds science oriented toys or projects for him.

     A good time was had by all, including a great choice of Christmas-oriented snacks, which included some delicious orange slices, of which I went back for 3 more!  One of Wesley's classmates was dishing out her Grandma's 'famous' cheesecake.  He told the 4 parents who attended that they HAD to try it.  I splurged and had a small slice along with my orange slices, and it WAS delicious.  I couldn't talk Wesley into trying either of those items, but he still had a LOT of foods to choose from.

  

After arriving at the party I realized that I forgot to cut Wesley's hair for Christmas.... oops!  We managed to get it done soon after though.