Mom’s Memorial
We had Mom’s memorial on Sunday at Waubonsie park, like she requested. I meant to post this yesterday but didn’t have time (to be honest I am shirking work right now to do this, but, oh well.)
We ended up going black and white for the fliers.
We had it in the picnic shelter, which they would not let us reserve (they’re not making reservations this year because of covid, but are next year, if that makes sense to you.) Mel and Monica awesomely went early and claimed it, though we had some picnickers who were at the table next to it. After hearing us talk about a funeral, though, they took off. Not that I blame them. I mean, they could have stayed – we ended up not starting until three pm, so they had time.
My photo taking wasn’t really up to par, but you get the gist of the table arrangement, anyway. The painting is one of hers, and the books are all hers, too (they’re available on Amazon in paperback, and as free ebooks on Smashwords, by the way).
Since you can’t really see the photos…
If you want to watch the service I had to Facebook it for some people who couldn’t come. Facebook says that some of it is muted – probably the songs. They were Last of the Summer Wine, I’ll Fly Away, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, and Amazing Grace with bagpipes.
Monica did a great job, and I owe her so much for reading that because I’m not sure I’d have been able to get through it. But maybe if I’d read it over several times…Luckily I didn’t have to find out.
After the ceremony we had a picnic because we’re a picnic family. (My Grandpa had what would now be diagnosed as social anxiety disorder, and so would never eat in a restaurant, so all family dinners that weren’t at a house were a picnic, even in the winter time. They called those freeze out picnics, ha ha!)
It was a really nice day for it – though there wasn’t as much autumn color as we were hoping for, but there was some:
And that about covers it. Now I better get to work before people start harassment mailing me, haha!
Have an autumn colors kinda day!
Jo 🙂
On and On
Spent the day getting all the things printed for Mom’s memorial on Sunday. There’s photos for the display and then the little booklets. We ended up going black and white just because color is such a pain usually. Though it worked fine this time because we just dropped a new cartridge in. It apparently dries up in just a couple days of sitting between print jobs, so we’re going to try scotch tape on it to see if that helps.
The bro also got the pictures hung finally, while I was printing everything.
The big news of the day was getting the ferryman put together.
The lake, or river, is a bit small. Gonna have to expand it…
(He came from Home Depot, btw, and you don’t wanna know how much he cost.)
I forgot to show y’all the portal we’re going to put on the bottom of the tree, it’s like a doorway to the underworld.
Yeah, that’s bark that has fallen off the tree, that way it will match. I don’t think I showed y’all the sign stencils, either.
Other than that we watched The Bat, which was very low on horror and big on mystery. A good movie, and a good mystery, though, so I recommend it.
And that about does it. Have to run to the store tomorrow for last minute things and get the stuff gathered up for Sunday. I may take Monday off to decompress, I don’t know yet. We’ll see what kind of mood I’m in. Luckily, I won’t have to read the service, as Monica has agreed to do it. I thought she was a good choice because a) she’s super nice and b) she didn’t know mom really, so she didn’t have that emotional attachment that makes it hard to get through. I was going to try it, but since we’re filming it for out of town relatives, I didn’t want to put myself bawling on the internet. I dunno, I’m kind of uncomfortable with the whole thing being online, but I get it. Mel is gonna handle the music, I found the links but she has an Alexa speaker, lol! That way everyone can hear it. Gonna have to take them out to dinner sometime, though good luck because they’re sneaky about paying…
But, anyway, everything is printed and put in their frames, we even got table cloths. The bro wants to burn some incense, so gotta get some sand for the bowl, and then Mom wanted everyone to drink a toast. She wanted wine, but we can’t have alcohol in a state park, so she’s getting sparkling juice. It’s a compromise she can just deal with, lol!
Anyway, off to bed so I can get up tomorrow.
Have a ferryman kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Halloween is Coming…
Hello! Lookie here, it’s a surprise flower!
That’s almost as surprising as finally using the potato topping I bought more than two years ago. It’s all dried, so it never goes bad. I’ve been meaning to try it all this time, but I forgot about it, and when I remembered it, it was too big a hassle to do a baked potato…but anyway, we did it and it was delicious. Now I want more, ha ha!
Finally got started on Halloween decorating. About time, I know. First, we got the spiders going, though they need more web. And I need to finish the sign.
We also got most of the haunted forest done. It needs the vines still, and the sign, and the ghost, and a few more tombstones but the basics are there.
And last but not least, we got the tarp staked down. It’s smaller than we thought so we’ll have to pick up more Saturday.
Finished the day off with chicken pot pie and Garfields Halloween Special and Garfield in the Rough. Hadn’t seen that one in years. I remember the panther bit being a loooot longer, but oh well, lol! Also, the rabbit being voiced by Bilbo Baggins threw us off.
And that’s all I’ve got.
Have a surprise flower kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Godzilla is Not the King
Not a lot yesterday to really speak of. I mentioned a couple days ago that we needed to redo the contact paper in the crafty room because the other stuff was pretty but junk. Well, we finally did it and it looks pretty nice. Even better, it’s not see through.
I did get some cookies made. Oatmeal raisin. We fell off the year of cookies thing the last month or so, and I’m trying to get back on it because it’s fun. And tasty. Anyway, the recipe called for soaking the raisins in hot water for ten minutes and they’re right, it does make them plumper, I think. If you’re interested, the recipe came from https://www.recipetineats.com/oatmeal-raisin-cookie-soft-chewy/ They came out pretty good, though I got three pan loads instead of the two it says.
We also finally played Funko Godzilla. First off, the mini figures are amazing. Second, there is a bit of a learning curve and, wow, did it seem intimidating at first. But, after a round, we had it figured out and it was fun. I won, btw, mostly because I figured it out first. Go Megalon, King of the Monsters!
And that’s all I’ve got, so off I go to try to work.
Have a king of the Monsters kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Black and White or Color?
Working on the pamphlet for Mom’s memorial on Sunday. I have the inside sussed (she wrote the obituary except for a couple of small edits I made, and I picked the photo. The clip art came from vecteezy)
But I can’t decide about the front. She chose the photo – it comes from Dunans castle. Actually this isn’t the exact photo she chose – she had a low res one that came from the web, but when Duncan took some of her ashes there for us, he very awesomely took a much better quality image for me to use for this. He also took a bunch of other amazing photos there. Anyway, so the two choices are black and white or color:
I’m printing them myself, but ink isn’t really an issue – Walmart only sells the kind I need in a two pack of color and black, so not like I can save any money going one way or the other, so it’s purely an aesthetic choice.
After we get it chosen, then I need to spend a day printing them all up. Have to make my print layouts so they all line up. Fun times, haha!
I did get the funeral text all lined up – she left most of it, but not actually in order, just in disorganized chunks, so I have that sorted, and I found all the music she wanted. I’m not expecting a large turn out, maybe 20 people tops, but it’s the quality that counts, not the quantity.
That’s it for now. More later.
Have a pretty clip art kinda day!
Jo 🙂
Halloweenish
Hello! Hope you’re all enjoying fall. Things have gotten pretty autumn like around here.
Hopefully the color is good on Sunday.
This weekend we went to a couple haunted attractions. Sinister Sidney is an outdoor trail that you walk. It was good, I did jump three times (people hopping out of the shadows) so that’s something! Also, the severed cow heads were pretty gross. The other was Highway 2 Hell (it’s on Highway 2 …get it? Ha ha!) It’s mostly indoor and it’s more of an immersive experience. It was pretty intense, and I recommend it, too!
On the way to Hamburg, we saw some fun hay bale art.
And in Hamburg we saw a couple of places that have their decorations done.
Had lunch at Mondos with the family, and got a couple more pics of their decorations. They have really gone all out. I love it!
Speaking of halloween decorations, we did get the last nine branches and potted the forest.
The green leaves will die off, but that’s ok. Wouldn’t want our haunted forest to look too fluffy. I’m sure the guy down at the local compost dump was curious why we filled 19 buckets with dirt and then took someone else’s cast off branches. Ha ha!
And that’s what I’ve got so far. Now we’ll see if this will post.
Jo 🙂
RIP Roku Batteries
Just a quick note to say that, after days of bouncing from 3% to 0%, the roku remote’s batteries finally died tonight. Never fear, they have been replaced.
The last Halloween shows they saw were…
Which was our Friday selection and was pretty sappy. I recommend for very small children.
And
The House on Haunted Hill. Always a classic, and it was our Sunday choice.
At least they had a good run.
Clouds and a Peace Lily
Hello, hello. This blog is gonna be pretty much what it says it is. First, my mom’s memorial service will be next Sunday, so our cousin Theresa sent a beautiful peace lily.
And as for pretty clouds, here they come!
And that’s it. Look forward to some Halloween tomorrow.
Have a pretty cloud day!
Jo 🙂
Masks and Robins
It’s been pretty rainy the last few days, which I like, and, to be honest, nothing really interesting has happened. We did a smidge of work on making Mom’s old room the craft/barbie/photo/clothing room, but stalled out because we have to order the contact paper on line and need to buy the paint for the furniture.
We had a visitor the other day. I went to put towels away and saw this:
Of course we went outside…
Eventually the little one took off, but he was there long enough we were worried he was stuck.
As to masks, I have a stack of those beauty face masks so I’ve decided I need to start using them. This one looks a bit Martian
And I leave you with a bonus John Jones.
Have a tiny visitor kind of day
Jo 🙂
On for Days
For starters, no Halloweenapalooza for me . 😦 I had to cancel because of (topic not allowed). The only people who’d get that joke don’t read this, but anyway, it us what it is.
I haven’t posted in several days so this is to catch up. Yay.
First off, that contact paper we put on things in the new craft room? Stuff is already ripped. And it’s see through. Seriously.
I love the pattern, but if it can’t even be on a shelf without problems it’s no good to me, so Dad got some similar stuff from Walmart that’s cheaper and three times thicker. Not as pretty, but if it actually does the job…
Now we just have to strip all the old off and put the new on. The stripping part should be easy. I think if we snease on it, it should come loose. 🙄
And on crafty stuff, got the coasters put together. I used stone paint on the cardboard. I think they look pretty good. (Mom made the coasters for the bro for Christmas a few years ago, and we thought they’d look cool with out Tolkein decoration theme). They’re kinda bleached out in the pics, but you get the gist.
Oh. And thanks to Keaton and Jen, my pokemon cookie collection is now complete. The cookies have since been eaten, but their photos live on. (BTW, hubby ate mew and did not even notice, so a 50$ cookie tasted the same as a not 50$ cookie, just FYI)
Speaking of treats, we tried the cheese bread from Weee and it was amazing. I was going to share a link but they’re sold out. Sorry.
We have finally gotten the decorations started. Not a lot done, but I did weed the side of the house and we spider webbed our corpse. The big web is also up, but like vampires we did it after dark so I’ll get a pic tomorrow.
And speaking of decorations, the flood lights arrived. I just hope they’re actually bright, unlike last year’s.
On the topic of Halloween, we’re doing our spooky show a night thing again this year. Hubby picked Earnest Scared Stupid for night 1. Then we had It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown because it’s a classic. Then Wolfcop (via Hulu), which was new to us, and actually pretty funny.
“Who are you?” (Spoken to Wolfcop who is a giant wolf in a cop uniform)
“The fuzz.”
Hahaha!
It also covered some aspects of werewolves I never thought about before. *snicker*
Then there was The New Misadventures of Icabod Crane, which is a staple from my childhood that you can watch on YouTube. And tonight was The Fog via Amazon Prime. I had never seen it, but I remember my mother telling me it was stupid – and I hated John Carpenter’s Vampires – so we picked it purposely because we wanted stupid and bad. Only after discovering that it was a good movie did we google and realize it was the remake she said was stupid. Ah, well. It happens. Have a ghost one for tomorrow that looks good.
And last, but not least, the first three gourds have been picked. Aren’t they cute?
And that’s all I’ve got. It’s after bed time, so I’m outta here.
Have a surprise good movie kinda day!
Jo 🙂
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