Tuesday-9am

Good Tuesday Morning!

And I have been awake for some sunrises--LOL!

We've had some sunny days the past week...

...and some rainy days.

So much has been happening lately.  I think when I left off McFamily had been here and Leah had been working on shelves and punch racks.

She got up the two small IKEA (picture shelves) at the bottom and five of the metal racks when she ran out of screw anchors.

But she had gotten these two IKEA shelves up over the ink pad shelf wall unit behind the studio door.

I had been baby stepping away in the meantime...putting up a shelf here and a shelf there in the bookcases as I went along.

Doing things like hanging the oriental brushes on the little carousel holder...

...and getting all my other brushes into the various mason jars they are divided into (watercolor reg, watercolor teeny tiny, acrylic/oil, junk brushes, etc).

I got some things in the closet cubes...

...and more things stacked along the wall in the closet.

Karma doesn't care for all the activity...

...but things will be back to normal pretty soon.

Dagan was coming over last Thursday night to help.

We had these last boxes to empty.

I got the rest of this paper put away.

Even got the kitchen table cleared off again!

By the time Dagan left we had gotten a LOT done!!  We emptied the boxes, Dagan put up shelves wherever I wanted them in the bookcases, we got all but the last box for the low cherry cabinet put away.  That's what is on the craft table there.

I didn't care where things went as long as we tried to keep the art stuff in the two bookcases on the one side and the craft stuff in the other two bookcases on the other side.

And we shoved a lot of stuff...

...in the cubes in the closet, too.

Then...yesterday.
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McFamily came over in the evening after Dagan got off work and we all went over to Slumberland.  Yes!  The chair was finally in last week...in two sizes, too.  And I ordered my new chair (the smaller version, in chocolate) and the skinny end table with the outlets for all my chargers!!  They are being delivered on Friday!!!  I am so excited!!  :):)
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We picked up dinner at Pita Pit.  Dagan took Ian home at bedtime.  Leah stayed and was here till after 11:30pm!  All this got sorted and Leah put it all away into...

...the low cherry cabinet.

She finished installing the racks and filled those.

Even installed my new book/magazine basket on the wall in the bathroom.  How fancy am I?  LOL!

We hung things on the wall.  The Tibetan tapestry above the TV...

...Serena's pretty, cheerful daisy painting above the far wall in the studio (we hung it high so I can still stack a few things on top of the bookcase)...

...my leaf painting behind the Chinese brushes...

...my sisters angel she stitched for me watches over me while I sleep again...

...the three colorful angels, the "believe in angels" heart, and my male door angel are all up.  (Notice a lot of angels in my bedroom--LOL!)

Leah also set up the rotating picture frame for me on top of the desk.

Oh, I saved out three of the dried roses.  The rest I took apart and saved all the petals to use in paper making.

Baby Phil really likes it here and is three times the size already, I swear!

So...not much left!  We have two more pictures to hang...but I was doing so quite precariously and Leah has some of the actual picture brackets at home she will bring over on Friday.  We'll hang them before the family comes on Saturday.  
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Leah's coming over to help set up the new chair and end table on Friday after it is delivered.  They are going to call me on a time window for delivery--so, depending on when that is, that will determine if it is just her and Ian or the whole family.
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In the meantime, all I have left to do is fill the turntable again with all our crafting tools (that's what all is in the box)...

...sort through the "tall" box (containing every odd tall skinny thing I couldn't pack anywhere else)...

...and the big black bag of sewing stuff.

After which, I can take what's left of the empty containers in my bedroom...

...and store the leftovers in my bedroom (still have some empty small drawers) or out in the garage.  And then...I WILL BE DONE!!!!  OMG!!!!  WHOOHOO!!!
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I am actually going to be done by Friday--and have my new chair to boot!  Kind of find it hard to believe, you know?  Been five months.  Three to pack and two to unpack.  Whew!!!  Perfect timing.  My family will be up to visit this weekend.  :):) 
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The past two nights I have been dreaming about playing in my art journals--LOL!  I will be too sore to actually do that for a while, but my soul is ready to go!
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This afternoon I am hoping to make it over to Leah's to have her cut my hair.  Tomorrow Caroline is coming to clean, and Thursday Caroline's supervisor comes for her annual visit.  (Angie's bringing a newly graduated young lady on her very first home visit--she thought I'd be a perfect person for her to have for a first client...although then she might think everybody is as nice, Angie said--how sweet!).  Friday will be the furniture delivery and Saturday the Johnson Clan will arrive for a visit.  After that...I think I will collapse for a month--or two--ROFL!
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Oh, and my Amazon deliveries and a very special craft item should be coming this week, too.  (I know--you think I don't need any more craft stuff--but you will see how much use Leah and I will get out of this particular gadget we've been drooling over ever since it came out.)
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In the morning when I don't want to open the blinds right away (still in my nightgown) this is what Miss Karma does.  She is not going to miss out on a sunny morning due to her snail-roommate and pushes herself between the blinds and the glass door--LOL!

You may notice my silver water thermos above on the end table...and my red thermal cup was right next to my laptop here before I got started on the blog this morning.  No surprises here for the ladies over at Elizabeth's T-Stands For Tuesday--LOL!  

Tried to take a last pic of the living room before this changes already (but most happily) with the new chair...

...but it was so sunny this morning that it is hard to see.  I'll have to take a better one once the sun moves this afternoon.  You can't see her but Karma is lying in a pool of sunlight behind the chair down by the window there--listening to the beeping construction machinery working on the third building of our complex. 
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Anyways, I am soooooo thrilled to be this close to the very end of the move that it can actually make my eyes well up--no lie.  I don't think you'll miss all the tons of pictures of both my places over this long, long move--LOL!  (But it will be fun for me to look back on one day.)  This entire moving adventure was probably more engrossing to me than to all of you.  But I will do a video tour like I promised when it is all finished--and I am not hobbling as noticeably--LOL!  Hopefully within the next couple weeks. 
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If I wasn't so sore...and stiff...and tired...and unable to master them even when I was young...I'd be doing cartwheels next week.  ;) ;)
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Not sure if I totally agree with this quote right at this very moment, but it truly has been quite a journey.  :):)  Have a marvelous, marvelous week!!  
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 "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it."
Greg Anderson

Dad's Memorial

Last Sunday they held an informal memorial service for my dad at the Cokato Cemetery in Minnesota.

Was a beautiful sunny day. 

I talked to Mom that night and she was very happy with the whole day. 

People stood up and told stories about Dad.

I wrote a couple memories and Dagan read them for me off his cell phone.  :)  

Looks like there was a lot of laughing and happy recollections. 

 Mom spoke, too.

They had a table set up with a few pictures. 

Dad's ashes were buried with his hat right on top.  I loved that!  He didn't go anywhere without his hat.  :)

Afterwards they went to The Red Goat. 

Pretty silly, eh?  White goat with a red beard.  Mom says they have good food there.

Ian was one happy boy!

Here's the picture of Mom and Dad--young and in love. 

Well, many of you have heard the cottonwood tree story before, but since my mom asked me to post what I wrote for Dagan to read on Facebook I figured I would post it on the blog, too.   So here are a couple of Dad Memories:

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My early memories of Dad were of his big black lunch pail and goulashes.

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 We moved to Fridley when I was five years old.  One day Dad was pulling weeds around the cement block basement and window-wells of our new house and I came to watch him and ask questions, as was my job. I know I asked enough questions about weeds to find out that this one larger one (that looked like two till Dad pulled it up) was actually a baby tree! I begged him to leave it there to grow. Too close to the house, he said.  It tore my heart out to kill a tree.

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I missed trees so very much! Fridley was a brand-new, stark-naked suburb--barren--blank. I missed the "old" feeling of North Minneapolis. I dearly missed trees with birds and squirrels.

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I begged, pleaded, cried, and promised to water it--until Dad finally agreed to move the sapling. He planted it in the corner of the yard down by the street near the driveway. Just dug a little hole and stuck it in the ground...said he'd just forget and run over it with the mower. No--you won't--you won’t. I could tell he thought it was a foolish thing to do to his brand new sod and figured it would just die anyways or I would forget about it.

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But I remember standing guard when he mowed...and carrying glasses of water out to the tree.  Dad seemed surprised that it survived.  I remember spying one day and seeing him watering that tiny forked tree with the big green hose.  So I knew he had been won over.  Dad grew careful about mowing around it. I remember how excited I felt when it outgrew me and how annoyed Dad was--every single year--with the sticky pods all over the lawn.  (It happened to be a male cottonwood.)

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That two-trunked tree stood tall over the neighborhood. Was a landmark for directions.  I loved listening to the leaves tremble in the wind and watching them silver-shimmering in the sunlight. It is almost 60 years old--if it is still standing.  Towering over the block with deep roots that pushed up the asphalt road a bit along the edge of the yard. That tree and Dad have always been intertwined in my memory.

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I also can’t think of color TV without remembering when we got our first one.  I may not remember the year but I remember that after it was delivered no one was allowed to touch it until Dad got home from work.  Us three kids gathered around on the floor in silent excitement as he plugged it in--knowing we could be banned from the room if we disturbed him while he figured out this thrilling new appliance.  He gently moved the console back into place and found the on button.  We could hear the tubes warming up and all four of us gasped as Johnny Quest emerged from the blackness in bright-cartoon-living-color!

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Of course, Dad--being a lithographer and perfectionist--wanted to find another program that was being broadcast in color (remember the days when only a few programs were in color?) that had real people on the screen so he could adjust the flesh color.  We begged him to let us watch the last five minutes of Johnny Quest first.  To our amazement--he did--and sat there with us until the cartoon was over.  I think he was as blown away by the color as we were.

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Dad was notorious for fiddling with the tint to get the flesh tones just right.  He’d always tell us, if the flesh tone is right then everything else would be right.  

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The tint knobs were in the back--obviously to keep mere mortals away from the dials meant for the TV repairman only.  But they didn’t know my dad.  He’d be on his knees reaching back there turning knobs, asking us if it was better, never taking our word for it, popping his head around...back and forth...back and forth...just generally driving us nuts and making us miss the beginning of shows.  

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He finally settled down about flesh tones and they didn’t have to be perfect, but I think he hated it when color TVs started being sold with no tint adjustment.  There used to be quite an art to the various knob adjustments.  As the oldest, long before remotes, I had to learn knob skills.

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Dad loved Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Ed Sullivan...and HeeHaw!  He loved puns, slap stick humor, and any plays on words.  I loved to hear him laugh.  I guess that’s how I want to remember him--smiling and laughing.

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Love you, Dad. 

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Because I could not stop for Death—

He kindly stopped for me—

The Carriage held but just Ourselves—

And Immortality....

~Emily Dickinson, c.1863