Odds & Ends: Denise’s Page of “Likes”

1.   The best obituary I’ve ever read.  And I always like the two pictures, a “before” and “after”if you will.   Published in the Seattle Times today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mildred HENDRICKSON Born August 1, 1922, to a Danish immigrant and his Montana wife, Mildred Marie Jensen was always more of a Millie. She had four handsome brothers and, after moving to Seattle and marrying William Hendrickson, had four children of her own: Mark, Mike, Sally, and Mary Ann. She loved Elvis, her family, and traveling the world, possibly in that order. She liked to stay up late, took her fiction hard-boiled and always did her ironing during the Carson show. A diehard sports fan, Millie was liberal with both her air horn and her insightful opinions regarding the referee's eyesight. She wore lipstick, could belt out a tune and had a thing for Frank Sinatra. Eastgate was her home for 56 years and she loved to have people over to visit. Said visits generally ended in extremely competitive card games, including, god help us all, Phase 10. A boastful winner and a terrible loser, her family clearly takes after her. She loved to laugh and her sigh of exasperation has yet to be equaled. As a grandmother with gambling tendencies, Reno was a frequent port of call, but wherever she went she always came back loaded with pictures, (at the Eiffel Tower, in the Coliseum, on a Mississippi riverboat arm-in-arm with notorious pool hustler Minnesota Fats etc.) foreign currency, and exotic trinkets for her seven grandchildren (Amy, Jeff, Glen, Calli, April, Laurie, Kelly) and one great-grandchild (Martez). She was greatly loved and will be missed. Donations can be made to The American Legion Fred Hancock Post No. 19, of which Mildred was a lifelong member.

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2.  Comic of the Day.  Also posted in today’s Seattle Times.

 

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3.  Best Sherlock Holmes and Generally Great Netflix series.  But don’t watch it yet!   This is a modern adaptation of Holmes and Watson.  Sherlock has a smart phone and he’s not afraid to use it.  If one disregards the very watchable, but not literarily accurate, Robert Downy, Jr.’s Sherlock, this is the best Sherlock ever put on screen. 

It’s done by a British company and the episodes are about 90 minutes long.  This means they only make three of them in a season.  The next season will be released in 2012.  The 2010 finale ended with a cliffhanger.  Don’t torture yourself by watching this excellent series too soon.  But do treat yourself. 

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4. Craziest thing Kyla has done this week.  Coming back from a walk, I opened the garage door and then looked away.  When I heard, “Mama!”, I looked back.  Kyla had grabbed onto to the door handle and was dangling about a foot off the ground.  The girl who didn’t have enough sense not to try to break the garage door did have the sense to let  go before she got too high.

Boy, Won’t Daddy Be Proud

Kyla:  Mama!  Look what I am doing!  I’m building a wall!

I called Daddy.  He takes full responsibility for this. 

 

While Kyla was hard at work, Piper and Wesley used the minivan to run some errands. 

And just because I need to record this to tell to Kyla when she is older--

This child who will not eat casseroles, eats her hamburger completely unadorned, despises sauce on her noodles, this child, made her own dinner tonight so she wouldn’t have to eat a taco casserole dish.  She took a tortilla, ripped up string cheese, put heated slices of sandwich thins (bread) on top, sprinkled it liberally with dried cranberries and raisons, and rolled it up into a taco.  She ate the whole thing.

Little sister followed suit, but put only the dried fruits, Mexican cheese and sour cream on hers and ate only half of it. 

Forget-Me-Nots

I was going to spend the evening blogging (and I still will), but I got entangled in the chaos of pictures saved on two separate computers. As I’ve tried to sort it out—to make the Definitive Collection, if you will—I came across these photos from last May. 

Our yard, while providing many hours of grueling labor, takes pity on me in spring and overloads our steep, un-walled banks with forget-me-nots.  And my darling girls love bringing me and Daddy many bouquets.

 

In a classic Piper outfit, she comes bearing a gift.

Kyla is running toward the house with her contribution, too. She can be a little shy.

 

Here ya’ go, Mama!

Grandma and Grandpa

Dwayne’s parents were able to drive up and spend a week with us, and just left yesterday.  Somehow, I didn’t get many pictures (my camera “hides” from me more often than my keys), but we had a great time together.

 

The kids loved the extra time they got with their grandparents.

 

 

My very kind mother-in-law suggested I stay home (after a week of meetings, guests, and birthday parties) while they all went on an adventure to Whidbey Island.  I rested and they played.

 

I know I have more pictures of Dick and Darlene reading to the kids and playing, and even some of Darlene on the trampoline with the imps!  Must be on the other computer…

Kyla’s Final Fifth

I’ve never thrown a kid birthday party before.  For Kyla’s fifth birthday, she wanted to have a party with her friends.  And she wanted to go fishing. 

Luckily, just down the street from us is a trout farm.  Small, shallow pond, lots of hungry fish.  It was quite successful.

We just invited the “big kids” from playgroup and their dads, because, really, a 1:1 ratio was a pretty good idea.  Piper was made an honorary 5-year-old and she and I fished together.

 

Caught one!

 

I think all of Kyla’s dreams about fishing came true.

Kyla caught one, too!

 

Our dead fish are in those bags.

 

These dads rock.

 

I face-painted while all the dads grilled the trout.

 

And look at this awesome cake!  My friend has recently gotten into cake making/decorating.  She found some ideas for fish cakes and tweaked it to get it just right for Kyla.  Those M&M pieces were devoured quickly!

Not Enough Birthdays

Dwayne’s birthday is one week after Kyla’s.  This was really cute when she was first born.  Now, it’s just kinda of inconvenient.  We weren’t able to get Kyla’s birthday parties all in before Dwayne turned 37.  And we skipped his actual birthday and celebrated the next day.  Darlene, Dwayne’s darling mother, made the cake and frosted while I was gone that morning.  What a wonderful woman! 

Piper wore this dress all day long.  Now that pictures, Easter, and The Wedding are over, the girls can wear them into the ground.  The dresses are always filthy by the end of the day, but by some supernatural alignment of the stars, remained unstained.

Oh, My Goodness, Cuteness (and Talent)

Of course, I am talking about my sister-in-law, Julie.  Earlier this summer, she blogged about skirts she had designed and sewn to match shirts that she had bought.  I had hoped she had made this for Kyla.

And look! She’s worn this a few times this week she likes it so much!  I can’t get a picture of Kyla not moving, but trust me, it’s cute.  She’s wearing it backwards, but that is just standard wearing procedure in our house. 

 

Thanks, Julie!!

In the Castle

Years ago, when we had foster kids, my dad made us a wooden picnic table.  It has become our homeschool table that isn’t actually used for schooling.  Recently, when the girls put the benches on top, it becomes a castle. 

This is where Daddy caught them reading together in their private space. 

 

Wesley doesn’t seem to mind too much that there’s no room for him.  There are still plenty of messes he can make.  Which is why he is grinning.

This Can’t Be a Kruger Family Camp!

80 degrees Farenheit.

No rain or even clouds.

This can’t be our annual family camping weekend!

Everyone came, we shared two sites, celebrated Kyla’s birthday, swam, and generally had a wonderful time. (Okay. If one had to be honest, one may have to admit that Saturday had been a rotten day. But I got better.)

Look who got her brand-new bigger kid bike!

 

And cake.   Auntie Janet stopped by Baskin Robbins on the way to the campground to pick up Kyla’s strawberry ice cream and chocolate cake.  Thanks, Janet! Everyone loved it.  And darn it, we had to eat the whole thing before it melted.

 

And look who’s trying to walk!  Hi, Parker!  We walked several yards this way.

 

And can a woman deserve higher praise?  This woman, my mother, took care of all the food (and clean up), held the babies and babysat so we could go to the beach sans the diaper crowd.  Thanks, Mom, for giving me some of my sanity back that I lost on the way to the campground.