Grandma Bubbles Revealed

A long time ago I promised to tell you why I call my Grandma (my Mom's Mom)- Grandma Bubbles. Today I will tell...

But first look at these grandchildren of Grandma Bubbles' at her house in Michigan in 1967.
Left to right ~~ My brother, ( he's the youngest of my 3 older brothers). My cousin, John. Wearing braids is me!! Then my cousin Barry ( John's brother).
We were holding some of Grandma's barn kitties. There were ALWAYS kitties. I loved them.
Check out our triplet "P.F. Flyer" blue sneakers!!!!!!
I called them P.F. Pliers

Ok, so here's the story....
I always called her Grandma Bubbles.
My brothers (they are all older than me) always called her Grandma Bubbles.
What we never knew until we were all adults was why we called her that.

My brothers told me about a dog that she and Grandpa had -way before I was even born. A dog I certainly never knew of or remembered hearing stories about. A dog called "Bubbles".

I, on the other hand, had always called her that because her snow white colored hair was in short curls that looked like "bubbles in a bubble bath" !!

The whole time we called her that, we never knew our very separate reasons for the nickname!!!!

Best Friends

This is A on her First Holy Communion day in 2005 with her best life long friend M. He lives two houses away. His Mom and I went through school together.

I made A's dress and veil. Click photo for more detail. It tied in a big satin bow in back. She wanted to loop her beautiful new rosary onto her sash. It was given to her by her Aunt Rose {her Godmother}. A's middle name is Rose. She wore a necklace sent to her by her Aunt Suzette and a family heirloom ruby ring that was given to me by my Grandma "Bubbles" on my sixteenth birthday. I wore the ring on my wedding day, also.

M was afraid to get too close to his friend. She looked too pretty and too fragile!! Later in the day after A changed clothes, she was back to his same ol' buddy!!

Happy Birthday My Suzette

A very Happy Birthday to my "big sister" Suzette who has known me since I was pre-school age. I love you!

I hope your trip to the Pacific coast is wonderful!

Send me some more of your great photos and I will make more California ATC's like the one I did here with your San Fransisco boats.

Generations Stitch Us Together

This is Mr. S. holding my boy N. at an honest to goodness old time barber shop.

They have had their hair cut together since N's first time.

Mr S. is my Friend's Dad. My friend and I met in 7th grade. You can see L. the barber and just a sliver of Mrs. S. in the reflection of the mirror.

Mr S. has Macular Degeneration (eyes) and Dementia. Since their daughter, my friend, lives about 3 hours away in Michigan. I help them by driving them around town to the barber, the store and doctor appointments. I take Mr. S. to/from respite daycare two days each week. I have even sat in the E.R. and hospital rooms with them. I am so very glad to be able to help them.

My kids are very good at adopting Grandparent figures, so they are often involved too.
My friend's sister recently moved to Michigan.

They would like their parents to be near them. To help them.
Mrs. S. is having a difficult time shifting gears as she has been in her home here for 50 some years. A huge life event to move everything you know as familiar. Everyone involved knows it is for the best. But, there sure are a lot of raw emotions floating in the air for everyone involved.

Over the years while I have spent time at appointments and such with Mr and Mrs S. I have carried along fabric scraps and have sewn yo-yo's to make into a quilt. {Click where "yo-yo's is underlined to learn the history of this type of quilt.}

You know "Idle hands..."
The project has always been a great conversation starter to be sure!!!

This is our cat lounging on the yo-yo quilt at home.

These are some sections that I flopped on the scanner to show you. The result of helping my friend's parents has yielded a yo-yo quilt the size of a double bed. ALL HAND STITCHED.

Generations do stitch us together.

I got a bonus far beyond a quilt ~~ No value can ever be placed on the relationship my kids and I share with Mr and Mrs S. -- my 7th grade friend's parents. It's priceless.

When they make the move North to be with their daughters, we will have forever all the memories ~~and a quilt that stitched us all together!!

Books and old toys and stuff

My hutch displaying old toys and books and stuff.
The hutch is ever changing...for seasons, as a prop for display photos for listings.... and sometimes even for dusting purposes!!

Click on it to get more detail.

Of Note:

~~The large picture frame holds a photo of my Mom at age 9 standing next to a pony (done by a traveling children's photographer).

~~The smaller picture frame holds a photo of my Dad and me on my first birthday sitting on my cousin's horse.

~~Yes, those are REAL wooden shoes. Sent by one of my mom's pen pals overseas. I used to clod around in them as a child across the tile floors of the kitchen.

~~The stuffed cats are the Three Little Kittens and my Grandma Bubbles made them and stuffed them with nylons {not pantyhose}.

~~The wooden Noah's Ark was a gift long ago from Santa. It opens and has tiny wooden animals and Noah inside.

~~The Block City bricks we had growing up.  My kids love playing with them and call them old fashion Legos.

~~The rest of the things have been either been mostly inherited but some were thrifted. My brothers and I pass things back and forth through the family when we get tired of stuff.

My Momma

That's my Momma on the left.

I think the little scowling girl may be her cousin.

She was a great doll lover/collector her whole life. I have her doll collection.

My mom died in 1995 after I helped her battle metastatic breast cancer for 8 long years. It spread almost immediately to her lung and then eventually to her brain.

Of her 4 children, I am her only daughter. I took her to every doctor, hospital, surgery, radiation and chemo appointment for 8 years. Then cared for her around the clock for the last 4 years.

B had already been through the cancer deaths of both his parents since we were married, and a miscarriage of our second pregnancy. In the end, when my momma was bedridden, he needed to help me care for her and all it involved, since I was more than half way through my 3rd pregnancy.
My mom always said B was her "favorite son-in-law". To which he would reply, "I'm not worried about losing that status. I've kind of cornered the market!!"

At the time of my mom's death, B and I and little E. and my brother were at my mom's side, here at home. I was 5 months along in our 3rd pregnancy carrying our second daughter, A. My 4th pregnancy would end in yet another miscarriage. Our 5th pregnancy brought us our little boy N.-- then we quit while we were ahead!

July would have been Mom's 80th birthday. I miss her.

Here's a cool fact about my Mom; one of many:

Once, at Christmastime she wrote a letter to the occupants of each of the houses in which she had lived in her lifetime. { Growing up, my Mom's family moved several times between Ohio and Mi.} She informed them of when she had lived there and shared specific memories about certain rooms or areas of the house, told about how her bedroom was set up, what she saw as a view from her bedroom window and memories of playing in the yard as a child. She even shared the story of meeting my Dad when they lived on the same street.

She received replies from almost all of them. The people were so amazed that someone would do that and thought it wonderful.

So did I. I have the letters.