A Year Ago Memorial Day Weekend, This Year’s Memorial Day Weekend, and May 30-31, 2015 Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend has always been one that I looked forward to every year. When I was younger it meant that family would come to our house for the weekend and we would celebrate all weekend long. As I grew older and started working it meant I had a three day weekend. My Mother enjoyed Memorial Day weekend as well.

For her it meant that she got to go back home to Oklahoma and spend time with her family and friends. Which included her Alumni Banquet every year.

She would gather up all of her Memorial Day (fake) flowers for the graves, along with her trusty shovels that she always carried in the back of her car. We visited four cemeteries on that Saturday before her Alumni banquet.

I loved that I was the one who would take her there for her last time of decorating all of the graves of most of her relatives.

We even searched and searched to find her Grandma and Grandpa Roberts. She was so glad that we finally found them since they had no flowers on their graves.

It was fun seeing Mom’s face light up when two of her childhood friends stop by to visit her. Marcelyn on the left of Mom was her very best friend and always tried to stop by to see her and her husband when she would visit Oklahoma. Marcelyn’s sister Gaye is on the left of her and she married one of Mom’s cousins. So they always said that all of them were kind of related in some way. With Mom if you were a friend you were considered family.

I had a great time that weekend hanging out with these three lovely ladies; my Aunt Marthie and Aunt Martha Ann. I drove all of them to and from their Alumni Banquet.

Mom rarely missed her Alumni banquet and it was always fun to see her face light up when she would see her friend Nina.

It was these five classmates 65th year since they graduated high school.

As we left my Aunt Marthie’s house on Sunday we stopped by one more grave before heading back home; Wayne, her brother’s grave.

I loved that Mom and I were not in any hurry to get home and she allowed me to sit awhile to take pictures and watch this interesting bull. (I am almost sure this was one of my relatives head of cattle). Little did I know; that Mom would fall and hit her head two days later and end up in the Intensive Care Unit for 5 or 6 days. And only the beginning of what would become the hardest summer of my life. Watching her go from such a strong and active person to a frail and unstable person was very hard.

Remembering that the anniversary of that weekend a year ago was here was hard for me. Then on the Friday before I received this lovely card from my dear friend Lisa. I cried and smiled at the same time. It couldn’t have came at a better time. Thank You Lisa!

Remembering Mom was what I needed and the card helped me through. Thank you Lisa! Saturday and Sunday I crocheted and I rested when I needed to. On Monday John and I decided to go out for breakfast. Apparently everyone in Wichita did too and they were at Village Inn. We decided to go to Egg Crate. It was perfect, we got right in and thoughts of Mom came rushing back to me again as we sat eating our breakfast. She loved to eat at the Egg Crate and one of the waitresses even called her by name when she would see her. Right out side of the Egg Crate they have a nursery of flowers and plants from the Stuzman’s greenhouse. Mom always loved looking through the flowers, so John and I strolled through looking at the flowers. I picked out just the right one that I think Mom would have loved. It was Portoluca Moss.

Then we headed to the cemetery. Mom’s grave site looked beautiful.

This time I couldn’t sit a while with her as it had rained and everything was wet. I added my little pot of moss that will flourish in the heat of the summer.

I will go soon and replant it in the little vase on the side of the stone. She always loved her rose moss and said that she loved it because she didn’t have to do anything to it; “it just grew”.

I then took a stroll down the path…

to Dean’s grave. I always love the decorations that are left there. You can tell that he was loved deeply. All of these anniversaries are hard but somehow we will get through them. Next one is in a few days. Mom would have turned 84 on June 2nd.

John did not have a good weekend. He had a toothache the whole time and spent a lot of the time just like this. I felt so bad for him. He did go to the dentist on the Tuesday after Memorial Day and he has to have a root canal.

On Monday after getting John situated with pain medication and a little something to eat I left him and went to Jennifer’s for a little cookout. Jennifer is a master griller.

It was wonderful; just the two of us.

I love having a grown daughter where I can just kick back and relax and let her do all the work. 🙂

I’m sure you were wondering if I managed to finish anything in the way of crochet, right? Well I am happy to say yes I did. Two more fox hats.

To add to the family.

This last weekend I am happy to report that I got three more tutus done.

I really love the way the dark gray looks with the fuschia tulle.

I love how this one turned out too. Olive green on top and blackberry purple on the bottom.

And oh my gosh those cute vintage buttons are to die for. Thanks to my cousin Sue for giving them to me.

I swear John gets his first wind some time after 4:00 pm every day. Me I’m a early morning person and by 4:00 pm I’m ready to start slowing the day down. But not John. Here he is at 7:30 pm rototilling the ground for our vegetable garden.

I know it’s late in the season, but the weather here has been very wet and John has been very busy with other things. John always comments that he loves it when I come out and keep him company while he is doing things in the yard. 🙂 This is the face he gives me a lot, when he wonders what I am going to ask him to do next. This look makes me smile.

On Sunday I made this tutu, which would fit a 3-4 year old. I love the mustard yellow with the pale gray

and the buttons were from my cousin Sue’s stash as well. Love you Sue!

John and I also went shopping for plants for the garden and for some of the planters around the yard. I had to laugh when I saw this tomato plant. My co-workers call me Tammy G. I bet you know that I had to get this tomato plant, right? So what have you all been up to? Did you have a good weekend? I would love to hear all about it.