More Old Pics and Random Stuff

Here is some of the things I've discovered while scanning old pictures. 

Even though the purpose of scanning them is to get rid of them and the photo albums they were in, I am unable to actually throw 99% of the pictures away! I keep throwing them in a big one of those plastic shopping bags you can get in any store! When I'm finished it's going to be pretty full and then what?   

Not all of the pictures bring back happy memories! When I come across one that reminds me of something or some time in my life that was less than happy I usually tear it up and throw it away without scanning it.  Get rid of the picture and hopefully get rid of the memory! 

When I scan a picture I can then edit it which is nice. I can lighten them up and make it clearer. It works great on these old pictures! 

I'm really impressed with my 16GB USB that already has hundreds of pictures on it and has only used a fraction of the memory it has! 

Anyway, here's a few more pictures to share.

This is the only picture I have of me, my mom and Shauna. It was taken in 2001, at the last Christmas we had at my parent's house. My mom passed away the following September. 

This is Shauna when she was 6 years old and a flower girl in a friends wedding.  I had her dress made by another friend who took a picture of the bridesmaids dress and made a little girl replica of it! The day of the wedding it was pretty hot outside and Shauna was complaining all the way there in the car that she was hot didn't want to be a "bwidesmaid!" She did really well though walking down the path and very carefully dropping the flower pedals as she went! 

And because it's been a while here's my two favorite guys in the world! 

Maxwell went to his first birthday party for a school friend. All his little friends in school are girls! 

Levi's teacher regularly sends pictures of the kids to the parents! Levi sometimes gives Shauna a hard time before going to school and she has to literally pick him up and put him in the classroom! Then she gets a picture like this a few minutes later! 

That's all for the moment. I'll be back again with more old pictures to share! 

Until then stay safe and well my friends. 

Victoria aka Tori

This was the 2nd cat we got about 6 months after we got Stacy. 

Fine, go ahead and tell them all about me! 

We named her Victoria but always called her Tori. She was a Torti and we got her as a kitten from the same co-worker we got Stacy from. Seems Tori and her litter mates were abandoned under someone's deck when they were very tiny. My coworker was a cat foster mom and she bottle fed Tori and her litter mates until they were old enough to be adopted out. 

Of course, seeing as we now had a love affair with cats it was a given that we would be adopting one. I can't for the life of me find any pictures of her when she was little. All the ones I have are digital taken after she was grown. 

She's only the boss because I let her be! 

Here's her and Stacy at the kitchen window. They got along pretty good as long as Tori remembered who was boss! 

Tori was my cat thru and thru!  She loved me and I love her something fierce. Of course, I loved all my cats but there was something special about her!  She purred all the time and so loud you could hear her coming before she walked into the room! She came to me anytime I called to her and slept with me every night! 

Back in those days we used to let our cats be indoor and outdoor cats. They would go outside during the day and always come back in the evening or we would find them and bring them inside. They never went very far so it was easy. 

Tori was a great hunter and I think she single handedly decimated the vole and mouse population in our neighborhood. Every day there would be dead creatures  at our door! 

One time she didn't show up in the evening or all the next day! As you can imagine I was sick at heart thinking something happened to her. We walked all over the neighborhood asking if anyone saw her but nobody did. I cried all the next day I felt so bad! Then late that night I heard her meow at the door wall in the backyard. I ran downstairs and there she was! So thirsty she ran right to the water bowl and then ate a whole bowl of food! We figured she must have been trapped in someone's garage or shed!

I wonder how many creatures I can get today? 

Another time I hadn't seen her all day and as I was walking around the house I noticed the dog in the yard behind us was barking and scratching at a hole in their backyard. Rich grabbed some lunchmeat and stood at the fence feeding and distracting the dog, while I ran around the block and went into the backyard. I don't know if they were home or not but I didn't care! I ran to the hole and sure enough, there was Tori way deep inside! She came to me as soon as she saw me! Thank goodness the dog couldn't reach her! I carried her home and she didn't go outside for a few days! 

You really didn't think I'd let that dog get me did you? 

One time, and this is really hard to write about even to this day, I was doing laundry and had just thrown about 5 pairs of jeans in the dryer. After a few minutes I heard Tori meowing really loud. I stupidly thought she was outside ready to fight with another cat so I walked all around the outside yard to find her. I didn't see her or hear her so I went back in the house. When I was back inside I heard her meowing very loud and deep like she was in distress. Then it dawned on me that she was in the dryer! I flew into the utility room and pulled open the door and she came stumbling out! She was very warm and actually steaming a little. I immediately called the vet crying and they told me to give her lots of water and watch her for a while to see if she showed any kind of distress. She actually was fine after about 15 minutes and jumped up on the bed for a mid day nap, giving me a dirty look on the way! I on the other hand couldn't sleep for weeks just thinking of what would have happened if I didn't get her out in time. I would have been devastated to this day! I actually have tears in my eyes typing this.

Chill out mom, I'm fine!

There were other small incidences where she could have been hurt or worse. She kept us on our toes for most of her life. Eventually as she got older she slowed down a lot and didn't go outside so much. 

She started losing her eyesight but other than that she remained pretty healthy. 

Yes, getting old is not for the weak!

Then one day she started walking in circles and couldn't stay on her feet because she had developed some neurological issues. We knew it was time to let her go. 

We made an appointment at the vet but as was typical of Tori she did things her way! She died in my arms before we could get her there. We buried her in the flower garden at our old house. 

She was 2 weeks short of 20 years old! 

I still miss her to this day. The above picture is one I have in a frame here in my craft room. She was by far the best cat I ever owned and there will never be another one like her! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Our First Cat

Well, looks like you are going to be getting a lot of posts about old pictures that I am scanning! 

I thought I would show you the first cat we ever owned. 

She was a long-haired white calico named Stacy. We got her when she was 5 years old from a friend of a coworker of mine.  The friend and her husband were both doctors and worked long shifts. Stacy was lonely even though she had other cats in the house. She loved being around people and so her owners thought she would be happier in a house with lots of people and activity!

We tried to keep her isolated in Shauna's room for the first week we had her because we also had a german shepherd mix dog named Missy. 

But Stacy was having none of that and scratched at the door until we relented and let her out! 

She adapted pretty well to us, or I should say she allowed us to be in the same house with her! 

We also learned that cats pretty much go where they want! 

Yes, she is laying on the stove!  Good grief! 

It's didn't take her long to find these guys either!

We had a couple hamsters at the time and Stacy's favorite past time, if she wasn't picking on the dog that is, was to try to see a way she could get to them! 

Speaking of the dog Missy, the cat was not at all intimidated by her and quickly let her know who was boss! Missy was a gentle dog though and would not have layed a paw on her! 

She really was a pretty cat and she lived to be 16 years old.  After she passed away, I gave some pictures of her to my mom and she made me an exact replica ceramic cat. 

She was a wonderful cat and started our love affair with cats. We've had 7 different cats through the years including the three we still have now. 

On my next post I'll tell you about Tori, our cat that actually used all of her 9 lives! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

What's Going On

We've finally been enjoying warmer weather and an abundance of sunshine the last few days. Today it's 86 and low humidity at only 17%.  A beautiful Spring day if a little bit warm! 

Our Maxwell lost his first tooth the other day! He told me it was "wobbly" about a week or so ago! 

The tooth fairy came that night and left him $5! Inflation is everywhere these days! Our kids used to get $1 and if I recall correctly I used to get a dime! 

I pulled out the Legos that I saved from when my kids were little. Levi got right to building a house. 

I'm amazed at how quickly he figured out how to build it with doors and windows! 

Shortly after I retired I bought a scanner with the intention of scanning the pictures I have in about 10 photo albums. This was something I planned to do during the winter months when the weather was too cold to be outside. The first winter I managed to get a bunch of them scanned and then I lost interest in it for a while. Lately, I have been in the mood to work on them again. I've been scanning mostly pictures from the 80's and 90's when our kids were growing up. 

One thing I am kicking myself for is not writing the event and the date on the back of the pictures! There are so many that I am having a hard time figuring out when they were taken! 

Here's a picture of me and my mom. My best guess is 1989-1990.

We're both holding coffee cups and we both look like we have bed heads! I can't think of any reason I would have stayed the night at their house. I think the kids and I may have spent the night with her when the family men were deer hunting. My mom didn't like to be home alone. 

Well, that all for now. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough this weekend to get some flowers planted! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Estate Sale Time

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I used to be a big thrifter! When our kids were growing up a lot of their clothes and toys came from garage sales, rummage sales and flea markets. I wasn't cheap but I was practical enough to know that as fast as they outgrew their clothes it didn't make sense to spend a lot of money on them! 

But that was a long time ago and now I rarely go to garage sales or rummage sales.  There is not really anything I need from them anymore. I have plenty of clothes and am trying to get rid of all my tchotchke's (boy, I had to google that word to see how it was spelled!) 

However, I do love estate sales! Not so much for the stuff but to look at the houses! Yesterday I went to my first one of the year at this house. 

This is on a street about a half of a mile from my humble home. This street only has about 8 houses on it and they are all mansions! This is actually the third estate sale I've been to on this street. 

Needless to say I was excited to get a look at the inside of this house. I'll show you some pictures!

This was the small dining area off of the kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of the kitchen because there were too many people in there. 

A lot of the bedrooms and closets were filled with Christmas decorations. The house had 6 bedrooms and looks like each one had it's own bathroom. 

This was one side of the master bedroom. It was huge!

This was a "small" sitting area right outside the formal dining room. I wish I could have gotten more pictures but there was a lot of people there! 

They were having a bag sale, where you could buy as many clothes and shoes you could fit in a small, grocery sized bag for $20. 

And then there was this.

A doll with half of a head! I didn't look to see if there was a price tag on it, I just ran from the room!

I usually like to look at the jewelry but there was very little of that. This is the only thing I bought. 

Brand new in the package for $1. Practical and useful! That is the only kind of thrifty shopping I do anymore. 

I have a busy rest of the week. I am working today through Saturday and I am having Shauna, Brad, kids and Brad's parents over for Mother's Day brunch. 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends!