Sunday, March 20, 2011

St. Patrick's Day and my Dad

Me and my Leprechaun that I made
 
 I was going to post this on Thursday but time got away from me and it never got posted....anyway...Happy St Patrick's Day. St Paddy's day has always been kind of special to me. You see....my maiden name was Murphy..so I am Irish....well actually my heritage comes from all over the British Isles but on March 17th I claim to be very Irish. My Mom use to tell the story of how my Dad always wore a green carnation on his lapel on St Patricks Day so in honor of my Dad (who passed away when I was just barely 7) I try to make sure I am all decked out in green....even tho he has been gone for over 40 years.....a girl can still want to feel close to her Dad....so Daddy Happy St. Patricks Day
A layout of my Dad....have scrapped this photo many times

Saturday, March 5, 2011

A Riley Post

Love these photos of Jase with Riley taken a year a part

This was almost the last photo we ever had of Riley

Riley's welcome home layout

 
Riley has such soleful eyes


He certainly does have a goofy personality...fits in  just fine with our family...lol

This is my latest favorite picture of Riley. Jason took it with his phone and sent it to me one day at work. Even though it's not the best quality...it makes me smile. Two years ago I lost this little pup while I was walking him...he was gone for the longest 3.5 days of my life. I felt so guilty. He was only 10 months old at the time and I couldn't believe how much he had become a part of our family until he was no longer there. We cried, we prayed, we did everything that we could think of to do to find our little pup. It was cold one night while he was gone, it rained another....I remember standing at the door at work and being just so incredibly sad...all the while having a constant prayer in my heart for his safe return. Finally after 3.5 days my friend Angie called and said that she and her son had seen him....Jason and I flew over to where they were and rescued him from some bushes on a busy street over by the high school. (and near the freeway too I might add). I pulled him out of the bushes and this dog was so excited to see me...of course the feeling was mutual...he just couldn't stop giving me doggy kisses. The rest I guess you could say is "history". He's now nearly 3 years old and still goes absolutely crazy for me everytime I come in the door....you'd think I had been the one that was lost for 3.5 days not him....I guess maybe in his mind that's exactly what happened.





Thursday, March 3, 2011

My heritage

Ruth Rundle Circa 1950 something

This is my maternal Grandmother. I'm guessing she is probably in her 50's somewhere...kind of like I am now. She was a wonderful lady though I think she probably wasn't always the easiest to live with. She was born in 1900 was married in 1926 and raised my Mother during the Great Depression....she was one strong lady. The other day I got to thinking...I have a feeling she and I were more alike than I ever knew. Though strong isn't necessarily a word I would use to discribe myself. My grandfather was a soft spoken sweet man, not unlike my husband. A man of few words but when he spoke you listened. Gramma on the other hand was the outspoken one, the animated one, the storyteller.(Sound like anybody else you know?) She was born of pioneer stock, she use to say. She grew up on a ranch in Grass Valley CA and she loved to entertain Linda and me with stories of her growing up on the ranch. I think that Gramma was probably a scrapper of her day...I have loads of old photos of my Gramma's all pasted into albums....if only they had a few more stories to go with them. She was an elegant lady....she grew up in an era when women dressed up to go shopping....I don't think she owned a pair of slacks....certainly not a pair of jeans...tho she did have her "Rompers" that she wore in the yard when she did yard work. Gramma taught us to be "ladies" she taught us manners. After my Dad died she and my grandfather tried very hard to make up for his absence. My mother was their only child. They took us all out to nice places for dinner and Linda and I were expected to act accordingly. This of course became difficult if dinner took too long to arrive. I am sure that it was from Gramma that we learned to make "sugar cube trains" with the sugar cubes on the table in the restaurant. She wanted to keep us entertained while waiting for dinner. Unfortunately I couldn't pass this fun game on to my kids cuz "sugar packet trains" just never worked very well. lol

Gramma had her darker side too...and unfortunately looking at myself recently I fear as though I have inherited one of my grandmothers darker qualities...Yell first.....think about it later....I don't ever recall my gramma being upset with me but I can remember my Mom calling Gramma in the middle of the afternoon and interrupting "her show" and Gramma yelling at Mommy and then hanging up on her. You see, my Gramma was a die hard Soap Opera fan....As the World Turns and Days of Our Lives as I recall. My Mom never watched them so she had no clue she was calling her in the middle of something important (well important to Gramma anyway...lol) Of course this was YEARS before VCR's or DVR's so she couldn't see "her show" at a more convienent time....My Mom never could get the times right because I know Gramma hung up on her on more than one occasion. Years later....I became the Soap Opera junkie....only I could record them so I didn't have to hang up on whoever might call. I am sure my children and my husband can atest to the fact that I often yell first and think about it afterwards....it's not a quality I am proud of but one that I continue to keep working on. I often wonder if that wasn't why my grandfather was so quiet...he was just trying to keep the peace in the family...guess I will never know....at least not in this life anyway.


Well there you have it a little bit of trivia about my wonderful Grandmother. One thing I do know for sure she loved her family.She and my grandfather did everything they could for my Mom after my Dad passed away. She was their world.  She out lived her husband and her only child. I cannot even imagine that. She was indeed one strong lady.

I am closing this post with a few layouts that I have done of my Gramma.



Gramma in her "Rompers"
Gramma as a young girl
One of my favorites
Gramma with her golfing friends
Three Generations my Gramma is in the middle