Decoration Day and Graduation

When I was growing up (back in the 70s!), my family referred to today as Decoration Day. I, incorrectly, thought you HAD to visit the cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of any deceased family members.  As an adult I realize that is a nice idea but not the true meaning.  Today is to honor all of those that served and died for our great nation. 

I start flying my flag today and generally have the buntings on my porch by today.  That flag represents something to me and I am very grateful to all those that have defended her throughout our history.  I hope that the current generation knows there is more to Memorial Day than bikinis, beer and the Indy 500.

Around here Memorial Day weekend has become the weekend of graduations.  I went to two and to three open houses over the weekend.  My cousin got cash.  I am pretty sure that is what he would prefer.  My husband's niece and my best friend's daughter, who is like a niece to me, received quilts.  Taylor also got a bulletin board my husband & I made.

Taylor and her mom and sister are all excellent instrumentalists. So, I had to give it a little musical flair.  I found this ribbon at Hobby Lobby.

The center is a wipe board and the rest is just random fabric and ribbon I have on hand.  If you can see the three little white buttons above the bottom center square, those are kitty cats.  When she graduated kindergarten she and I went and picked out a pattern, fabric and notions and I made her dress.  I used those buttons.  I saved the spares and they just had to appear on her graduation gift.  She loved it.

I posted the girls' quilts earlier but here is Taylor with hers.

She loved it.  She really liked the backing, too.  She is such a beautiful girl inside and out.  I asked her after her open house if her face hurt.  She said, "No, why?"  I pointed out that she hadn't stopped grinning the entire day.  We fed tacos to about 150 people yesterday who came to tell her congratulations.

Meghan's quilt was a hit, too.  She really liked it.  It is very much her and she put it on her bed.  I didn't really plan for that and now wish I had made it a little bit bigger!  Hers was in this post.


My other big accomplishment this weekend was finding the rebuild instructions for my husband's tranny.  He and son #3 had both looked and couldn't find anything. I didn't try until yesterday (about an hour before I needed to be setting up for Taylor's open house).  Guess what I found?  He was one happy man.  No idea why they didn't find it but he was thrilled that I did.  I have to say that I may have had one too many "shop dates" since I actually knew what I was looking at and that it had the information he needed.

All this sewing and cooking and middle age makes me seem far more girly than the grease monkey my husband dated.  I was reminded of all this yesterday when we were talking to one of our teachers from high school about cars.  He made a statement that I corrected.  He looked at me and grinned and said, "You are right!"  He turned to my husband asked, "How can you beat a girl like that?  She can cook and talk cars with you."  Glad to know I have SOMETHING going for me!

LOL

Congratulations to all the graduates.

Thank you to all who have and continue to serve and those that support them.

Mary