Smiling in Nebraska

I'm in such better spirits. We are a family who loves to get together for Memorial Weekend...and not just once. Today was our second cookout and tomorrow will be the third! In between, we visit graveyards and I like to antique a little. This scarf was in an antique store that I went to in Omaha. It has the state seal of Alaska.

I went with my sister and her two children (my nephew and niece Malcolm and Alex) to a very large graveyard to visit their paternal grandfather's grave. He died when my brother in law was 15. Long before any of us knew him.

They cleared the area, cleaned the stone, planted some ganzania. It was so sweet to see the care that Malcolm in particular took.

I took a picture of these because I want Jim to make a few of these for me (they'd have to be cheap, wouldn't they?) and I'll paint them red/blue/ white...affix them to our home somehow...for the summer.

I'm still blue but, making the best of it!

Thank you to Lynn at http://lynnslovelies.blogspot.com/ for this award! You've made me smile!

One thing that I've learned, regardless of life's roadblocks and speedbumps, keep living! We went to a few Nebraska Vineyard/Winerys and tasted wine, even drank a little wine.


This is at Big Cottonwood Vineyard and Winery in Tekamah, Nebraska. Jim's paying, he had a pop here. As a professional driver, he can't have any measurable b.a.c. or he loses that license. This lady was the mother-in-law of the owner. She was so cute...and deliberate. I enjoyed talking with her. I wish I took a picture of the cheese platter she put together for us. It was 2 blocks of cheese in their package with a mish mash of crackers! Tasty though!


This is at the Silver Creek Hills Vineyard and Winery in Tekamah. We were doing the eastern Nebraska Wine Tour (my name for what we did) because Jim's sister and bro.-in-law were our houseguests for the weekend. They hail from Manitowoc, WI and enjoy Winerys.



This sign was on the wall at the Loess Hills Vineyard and Winery. The owners of that were really fun! "Live A Good Life. And in the end, it's not the years in a life, it's the life in the years". I took that sign as a sign!

Friday night.

Hello all! I keep hitting speed bumps in this journey I call life. Ok, I know it's called "My Good Life in Nebraska". But, lately...things aren't so charmed, let alone good. It's ok, one day at a time, right? So while I sit on my deck and meditate on serenity...I'm going to post some random photos that happen to be in this laptop.

Ahhhhh! Our cruise from a year and a half ago. My stepson Greg. and my son Zach. I love this picture. Greg REALLY didn't like me when I married his Dad. We had a big blowup the first few hours on this cruise. The next morning, I called him to our cabin, humbled myself and apologized. He was profusely sorry, we hugged and have been adoring each other ever since. My son Zach is to my left there. He broke his arm right before the cruise. He says this was still the best vacation of his life. Zach is someone I'm so proud of for his work on his character.

This is my ridiculous husband Jim. He is so funny! He's a MENSA member, for those of you who don't know, that's the really smart people's club. His sense of humor may seem slapstick...but it's really genius. This was 2 months ago when we were in Florida at this brother's home. We were fixin to leave for Ormand Beach for the day. He walked around the corner and told me he was "ready"...I had to take his picture.

Our dog Zoe is in the foreground with the burgundy collar. My parents now own Zoe's mother Brie. Brie is the one with the green collar. But, my folks, in their 70's...are never home so we have Brie a lot. Imagine that!

Here we are in Ocala, Fl...on that Florida trip. It was our Sister and Brother-in-law's 25th wedding Anniv. (2nd marriage) and we gathering to take a group picture. I took one of us quick. I guess I like this because Jim is super quiet...like a mouse. But, he is smiling so big here and being a bit silly. I love seeing the little things in him.

We were in the airport on the way home from Florida and Jim snapped this picture then did silly graphics. I like it too as he a man of so few words but, always manages to display his feelings.

My new antique white painted walls. The tinted glass table will have a table cloth on it.


My 21 yr. old son who was the 10 yr. old Poppy Painter for one of my other posts came out and quickly rearranged the whole thing and it's perfect. I am going to put the ficus on the lower patio and go with a large tropical plant in it's place.



Looking out from the living room.




I really like it. So, next will be things for the wall!

Time to Repurpose Things for the Deck

This heavy oak drop leaf table sat on my Grandma's enclosed front porch for years. I sanded as much of the paint splatters off of it as I couldThen I decided that I like it looking like this. This set sits in our living room right now. Am thinking I'll put this on our deck when Jim's finished painting out there.


The waiting room chair is something that I picked up on the Nebraska Junk Jaunt (300 mile Garage Sale) last fall. I love it so much and regret not getting the auqua ones too. The green chair is something that my Mom picked up from an estate sale and I've always admired it. She gave it to me for my birthday yesterday!


Here's a picture of the table and one of the chairs that's out on the deck currently. Poor picture, I know.

Mother's Day & Deck Priming

My Mom, Dad and Me. I was born on my Mom's 21st Birthday, May 10th 1958. My Dad's birthday is May 17th so, we celebrated all 3 birthdays today too.


My sister Candy and her children Malcolm and Alex.


Alex, Candy, Oudious and Malcolm today at my Mom's.


Here's my Saint Jim priming the ceiling of our covered deck.

Our furry child Zoe, taking a nap at Jim's feet.

Coverd Deck with a View (before pictures)

This is our cluttered deck, the view here is looking in to the kitchen.


More clutter on the deck, view looking in to the living room and reflecting the View of the hills.

Another view in the deck of the ugly paint color. I'm going to paint it a lighter color with some shade of blue for the cieling.

View of our deck from the living room looking out.

I'm standing in the kitchen looking out to the deck for this picture. I'm also ridding the deck of 50% of it's stuff. So! This will be finished tomorrow or the next day or the next, or the next.....

Lilac Friday (show and tell)

These are part of a 50 ft. long lilac hedge on the north side of our home. I told my husband, maybe we can sleep out here for a while! It smells so good here.


They're so pretty!


They're 4 different colors.



I wish they weren't so short lived.





So, I'll have multiple bouquets of them around the house for now!

What's on My Wall Wednesday!

The first thing on my wall is in the upstairs guestroom . It's three pictures framed by my mother for me. The picture on the left is of my maternal grandparents on their wedding day, then my parent's wedding picture, then my paternal granparent's wedding picture. I really love this and now I think that I'll move it to an area where I will see it more often!

This is hanging on the wall of our Master bedroom. It was painted by my oldest son Nathan when he was 10 yrs. old. He got some kudos for this in eastern Nebraska. This is most likely my favorite wall thing in the house.

About 9 yrs. ago, I was antiquing in southern Minnesota and found this vintage Lavoris pamphlet, I remember it was $1 and I had to have it. I framed it and it hangs on the wall of our main bathroom.

Springtime in Omaha

These dark pink blossoms belong to the Prairie Flame Crab tree in the front yard.

The first things we can put out here is the pansy...which is really a "tuffy".

I have tulips everywhere. I find if I take pictures of the tulips this time of year, I can determine which colors to add to the beds in the fall when I plant bulbs. My other challenge is to stagger the blooming time. In this one bed, I have fuschia and cream colors early in the spring. By the time the purple and dark purple came out, the lighter colors were spent. This fall, I'll search for late blooming lighter colors.

Several years ago I planted the Prairie Flame Ornamental Crab....Love it's dark pink blossoms.

Help me out here, is this a Verbena shrub? It's THE most aromatic spicy smell in our yard.

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