Category Archives: 6 Looking Back // Memories!

I’m at that age where you have lots and lots of memories. When I am waxing melancholy…

Music on a Monday // My Fav Carpenter’s Songs

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

the carpenters cassette

Karen Carpenter would be 63 if she were alive today.  Oh wow-she was THE voice.  When I first started diving into the pop music scene, I was ten, and I’d sneak my dad’s little leather-encased transitior radio outside and turn the buttons just so until I found the station and there it was: Close to You, and Bless the Beasts and the Children, both charting at that time.  I’d hold it my ear as I sat in the tire swing as evening fell and her smooth voice just enchanted me, took me to a magical, romantic place.

transistor radio

I found this image of a transistor that was already sold on ebay.  I think my dad won his in a contest at work and I am almost positive it was this exact model!

The Carpenters had such a mellow, beautiful, soft sound, it is almost a miracle, during the changing times then, with Woodstock, drugs and the 70s, that they’d be so successful.  But Karen’s voice was like butter, so smooth, so low….I LOVED that because I was an alto.  She became my hero, so easy to sing with.

Honestly, it would be harder for me to list 5 of their songs that I don’t care for, because I can’t think of any.  But I decided that if I was going to make a list of 10, I’d just have to let the songs that come to mind first be the ones I list.  Because on a different day – the list could be considerably changed and still be true, still be my top ten favorites.

For I love the first song I ever heard them sing (“Close to You”) the best, because it was the first.  But I also find their cover of the Beatle’s “Ticket to Ride” just hauntingly beautiful.  How did they have the nerve to do a Beatles song so soon and how was it able to be fully theirs and so amazing? And “It’s Gonna Take Some Time This Time,” was so picturesque, so beautiful in words, bending trees and wisdom on living through hard stuff and how you can learn something from everything, even the heartbreaks.

“Touch Me While We’re Dancing,” and “I Know I Need to be in Love” are also wonderful-wonderful-wonderful!

Oh-oh-oh-oh – as you know, one of my all-time ever fav songs is “Merry Christmas, Darling,” but I am not adding it here.  Because it is a Christmas song.  And a song about home and it has made other lists. But you know I LOVE it!

There were even post-humous releases, after Karen’s shocking death in 1983.  “Make Believe it’s Your First Time,” and “Now,” among others.  Richard has released more material as recently as 2001, including the much-recorded,  “The Rainbow Connection,” and, as if no one else had ever recorded it, it is pure Karen.  Just beautiful.

SO MUCH good music.  I have taught my kids to appreciate the Carpenters.  Sometimes we still play the vinyl albums.

karen and riichard carpenter

Here is my list.  Ten of my favorite Carpenter’s songs {not necessarily in order}, out of so many more favorites:


Hey-I finally got on Spotify and it is awesome! {The first track doesn’t work, but it is listed again later.  Ignore it and listen to these amazing songs!}  IF YOU ONLY LISTEN TO ONE, listen to “Good-Bye to Love.”  Her voice is just UH-mazzzzzzzzing!

  1. Close to You // “Why do birds suddenly appear everytime you are near?  Just like me they long to be close to you.”  This is a happy song of the general sense of well-being we get when we are loved and in love.  Bright. Joyful.  So sweet.  The song just skips down the sunlit street of happiness.  Hear the birds chirping, figuratively, anyway?
  2. Good-Bye to Love // I was 11 and just loved (and sang along with great fervor) the dip-scoop of the melody, “I’ll say good-bye to love…no one ever cared if I should live or die...”  Haha.  It also appealed to the deep drama in the heart of a prepubescent girl – already longing for the love of her life to appear.
  3. Superstar // The funnest lyrics to sing ever:  “Baby-baby-baby-baby-oh-baby…”  :)  Actually, this song is so haunting and full of longing, “Long ago and oh so far away, I fell in love with you before the second show.  Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear, but you’re not really here, it’s just the radio...”  See?  Doesn’t this work in a way it almost couldn’t now?  Because it would be “You’re not really here, it’s just Pandora or Spotify or live steaming or an online station or YouTube or iTunes or…?  “Come back to me again and play your sad guitar…”  *sigh*
  4. Hurting Each Other // “Closer than the leaves on a weeping willow, baby, we are…”  I mean – songs that have lyrics that can create a picture like this in your mind just stand the test of time!
  5. Rainy Days and Mondays // “…always get me down.” Melancholy at its’ absolute finest.  And if it’s Monday AND it’s raining, then I probably will be found, “Talking to myself and feelin’ old,” but don’t worry – “…we know what it’s all about…”
  6. Yesterday Once More //  Sweet. “When I was young I’d listen to the radio waitin’ for my favorite songs. When they played I’d sing along, it made me smile…” For me, this is a true story.  Music is everywhere now, you don’t have to wait for your favorite songs on commercial radio.  But as this song goes, when I hear an old song from past times, “Those old melodies still sound so good to me as they melt the years away. Every sha-la-la-la, Every wo-o-wo-o, still shines…”  Memories in music are the deepest and sweetest.
  7. I Won’t Last a Day Without You // Dave sang this to me at our wedding.  Before that, it was just another in a long line of beautiful Carpenter’s songs, in the hit-after-hit line-up they had going.  But Steve Hellwig played, and Dave sang, holding my hands and looking straight into my eyes.  That was 32 years ago (in 8 days).   “It’s nice to know that you’ll be there if I need you, and you’ll always smile, it’s all worthwhile...” I hope he still thinks that.  :)
  8. Bless the Beasts and the Children // This is a universal song about just being nice, about covering and caring for little children and helpless animals.  Just be nice.  Live here and protect the world God created.  “Give them love, let it shine all around them…”
  9. For All We Know // I wonder if there was a wedding between 1971 and 1985 that didn’t have this played or sung?  Quintessential wedding song!
  10. We’ve Only Just Begun // Rolling Stone Magazine included this as one of their top 500 songs of all time.  Ok-if there was a wedding between 1971 and 1985 that didn’t include #9, I bet they used this song!  “We’ve only just begun to live, white lace and promises.  A kiss for luck and we’re on our way. We’ve only begun…”

Karen was the {most amazing} voice, Richard, the genius behind the production and arrangements, the lyrics and the clear-cut direction they had musically.  Smooth, clear, timeless songs, a sound that flows like a clear mountain stream through the 70s soundtrack of my heart and soul, their deeply felt and beautifully communicated music will always be important and very high on the songlist of my life.  From a transistor radio to 45s and LPs, to 8-tracks to boom boxes and stereos, to digital, I love the Carpenters!  Always have, always will.

*Free as a song, singin’ forever…

Oh, and is it just my imagination?

Copy of Life

2 Mi Familia, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

My mom is the queen of jotting notes on scrap paper.

She was searching for something she had written about a dream she’d had, among a million things she has written and saved, for hers is a poetic heart, easily inspired by everyone and everything around her.  She opened the drawer of her desk and began to search for that certain thing she wanted me to see.

As she rifled through saved momentos, cards, letters, photographs and her most treasured keepsakes, she was lamenting how vexed my dad is for her to keep it all, but  she was telling me how each thing she has touches her heart and means so much to her.

“I probably keep too many things,” she mused as I smiled at the stacks of  copies of articles or funny emails, pieces of paper scribbled with her handwritings, no value on the open market, but oh-so important to her.  As I waited, she explained,

“But I just want a copy of life!”

I love her.  I love reading all her little writings, too.  Her blog is on paper in a very special drawer.

 

I love

2 Mi Familia, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

Written & performed by Tom T. Hall

Oh dang – I didn’t even totally get this song when it was a top-40 hit in that 1973-74 era (soooo known for great music, click here).  I do now.  Must be old.  :)

I love little baby ducks,

Old pick-up trucks,

Slow movin trains, and rain.

I love little country streams,

Sleep without dreams,

Sunday school in May, and hay.

And I love you too.

I love leaves in the wind,

Pictures of my friends,

Birds of the world, and squirrels.

I love coffee in a cup,

Little fuzzy pups,

Bourbon in a glass, and grass.

And I love you too.

I love honest open smiles,

Kisses from a child,

Tomatoes on a vine, and onions.

I love winners when they cry,

Losers when they try,

Music when it’s good, and life.

And I love you too.

I love…{a list}

I love Baby-Bailey stretching as she wakes up, Dave making my morning coffee, seeing the tomatoes plump up, floating in the pool, people who love you anyway-even if they could decide not to, my granbebes knowing how much I love their hugs and kisses and running to give them to me, how much Sandy-the-Dog believes the best of me, when the trees serenade me, freshly-mowed grass, bees gathering pollen from my flowers, the tiger swallowtail that was dipping and diving and fluttering over my head yesterday,  a word in season, a word of encouragement without the slightest eye roll or “you-should-know-this” superiority, that Gavin knows how to buy and sell on Ebay with his hard-earned money, and that his sisters so look up to him, that Hunter believes I am the one person in his life that he can sway at any time in any way and I have no plans to make him think otherwise.

I love pre-school with Averi, chasing Amelie and her big, sweet hugs when I catch her, Malakai for all I am learning about the love of God towards us who have been adopted and grafted, Gemma’s long, red, curly hair, Guini’s sweet freckles, baby dill pickles, purple petunias, Kosher salt, the antique church pew in my kitchen,  and harmonizing with my parents.

I love my grown children and the people they have married.  I love my husband of almost 32 years.  I love Joey, Timmy, Tami & Danny and their families.

I love the grandparents I once had and getting to be one now. I love cinnamon toast and a little ice cream with my caramel sauce.  I love a Caramel Frappucino from Starbucks and chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A (with Bleu Cheese Dressing and Hot Sauce!) and a large iced tea with lemon, please, and the mountains and a wild-running river stream, and a sandy beach with clear waters and a good conversation without time limits that leaves you wanting more.

And chances are, if you are reading this, I love you, too. 

I love a lot more now than I once did.  I could have gone on all day.  What do YOU love?

Pictured: Gavin behind the Powers house in the open-space.  A Friday night sunset in June.

Happy Birthday, Tredessa, born on a perfect June day

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Which came first?  The perfect day?  Or the perfect baby being born to make a regular, old day so perfect?

Q: What do exotic eyes and head-full of thick, dark hair, a yellow-embroidered sun-suit with a yellow bonnet, ginger-molasses cookies from the grocery store bakery, my first “private room” at the hospital, water breaking at a church softball game while dad was in the outfield, being 11 days past my due date, a Scrabble game (which I still contend I was winning) and Howard Community Hospital in Kokomo, IN all have in common?

These are the bits and pieces of your arrival, your story, your birth, your place in the family history.  Tredessa Christine Rhoades Faaland: You made us mommy and daddy and 3 adorable girlies, the Rhoades Family, 1983.

Monday’s child is fair of face…

I have been re-living your beginnings so much this spring because of Bailey Sophia.  So many thing about her remind me of you, her hair, her kissable cheeks, her content and laid-back disposition.  June of 1983 was one of the most notable months of my life, the summer that followed memorable and lovely: your father was ordained, there were long afternoons in the backyard with your two sisters splashing in a pool, great music on the radio, and my little baby girl in a yellow carrier, right by my side in the green grass on sun-shiney days.

Dessa at 2 weeks 

Dessa at 6 weeks 

And now here we are, 30 years down the road – celebrating your extraordinary life, unable to fathom what we’d ever have done without the most-middle-child of them all.  You are a center-point, a bridge, an equidistant intermediary.  You are observant and intuitive; careful, but powerful.  You’re a challenging, but honoring daughter and your trust in God is an inspiration.

 

Dessa at 5

I am so pleased to see the life you are leading.  I am so happy God sent you love in a very good-looking, strong, humble package.  I am so thrilled that you have gotten to go to the nations in Jesus’ Name and serve selflessly in high-places for the glory of God.

More than anything this year, I am so excited with you and for you that you are with child, that you carry a dream within – as you have so longed to have children.  I am rejoicing with you and counting down the days.  Your child will be loved and adored and watched over with great zeal – because you have sown that into the lives of so many other children while you were waiting.  It will all come back to you.

For your 30th birthday, I pray and wish and bless you with this (my version of a birthday card):

So HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY, Dessy-Poo.  Your momma loves you, girl.  You bless my heart and set me straight.  LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!! xxoo

Happy Father’s Day, to my papasan

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 6 Looking Back // Memories!

He was all of 21 when I was born, my dad.  He practiced being a parent on me.  :)  It worked because he has become truly fabulous at it.  I am my father’s daughter.

Love you, dad.

I like THESE dads, too:

My husband Dave, whose children are his most treasured possessions in this life.  He thinks about them, prays for them, tends to their requests and loves them so much more deeply and passionately than they could probably ever know.  You, all my sweet children, have a dad whose everything, heart and soul, is invested in you. 

Tristan, DP, Rocky and soon, Ryan: These amazing young men {{my 4 sons}}  are unleashing godly, Kingdom-building, generation-honoring, thoughtful, intelligent, giving, loving, world-changing, worshiping, joyous children on the earth.  I call said children my grandbebes.  But the 8 + 1-in-the-oven {Gavin+Guini+Gemma+Averi+Amelie+Bailey+Hunter+Malakai+baby-to-be-Faaland}?  Have WONDERFUL daddies!  They are so blessed!!!

Happy Mothers Day, mommies far & wide

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think,

ESPECIALLY-Happy Day to my own sweet mom

Oh, sweet mamala.  You make me laugh.  And cry, sometimes, too, from laughing so hard. But mostly you just make me smile, and feel loved!  My whole lifelong I have had a most amazing mom, but I only really-really got to know her deeply after my kids were older and she was my current age (too busy in life).  Then I finally got to see her heart and understand her soul and mind and how much I really finally began to hope-hope-hope to grow up to be just like her.  It is my aim and deepest wish to somehow attain to become as wonderful as my mom, if that is even ever possible.

Happy Day to all MOMS far and wide

I fear I’ll forget some important acknowledgements, but if I could just say to a FEW women I know…

Happy Mother’s Day to Heather, Amy Jo, Patrice, Candi, Pearly-Q and Marilyn.  Your kids range from newborn to fully grown and I learn so much from you, time and again.  But especially today, to my Marilyn.  You raised 2 lovely, lovely children, who gave you more babies.  A couple of months ago, you lost one – except that he isn’t lost, we know this.  He has just gone on ahead.  And today on Mother’s Day, since Jason isn’t here to join Kori in saying it, I know he knew and so I will say, You are one of the best moms on the planet and I know your children never ever have doubted your love and affection for them.  So happy Mother’s Day, sweet Marilyn.

Dana, my sweet, you look at your children with such deep affection and reverence.  I am inspired by your love for them and your capacity to love the children around the world.  Your heart is big enough to do all God is calling you to, this is evident.  So many children to come…

I also wanted to say Happy Mother’s Day to my little sister.  Tami has not birthed any babies in the physical sense, but no one can deny the place she has held in the hearts of teenagers and kids everywhere as she and her husband have led youth groups and churches across the country.  Everybody loves Tami and if anything had ever happened to us when my kids were little, she was going to have all 5 of mine!  :)  As an aunt, she is superb, and she’s carried my mommying burdens with me many times.  So on this day, I recognize the nurturing gift and godly woman and mother figure she holds to many, many people looking for a spiritual mom.  You are wonderful, Tami.

Stef – what an honor I have had to get to watch you become a mom when Sawyer was born, and to get to walk the halls with you for Wryder’s birth.  The care and details you pour into these babies, how you invest in giving them a loving home and a wonderful life is amazing.  I hope you can see that God trusts you with them – that you are the one He knew could do this.  You are a lovely mama.

And my friend Stephanie, I have to say Happy Mother’s Day to her!  Steph, you have proven that even though it is hard and there are battle wounds, you can blend and watch a family thrive.  I love that you and your son joined yourselves to your handsome love and his children and are beating all odds.  Yesterday to see the joy, the happiness, the this IS working for us, we are family: priceless!  Well done, Stephanie!

Plus TWO nieces:  My niece, Lori because she has LOTS of kids and never loses track of them or faith in them.  And recently-lots of extra-mommying has been happening.  Happy Mother’s Day, Lori.  AND Elise-the-Niece gave birth to her baby boy, Blake Matthew, at 00:04 this morning.  HAPPY Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to My Daughters, Tara, Stephanie and Jovan

Tara was born just before Mother’s Day in 1979.  I took her to church that morning, just 4 days old.  I heard the Mother’s Day sermon and felt the awe of what had just been delivered to me.  By God Himself! Beauty.  These women – are so good at what they do, so far beyond what I ever was.  I am constantly amazed as I watch them  raise their own {8} lovely children.

And Happy Day to the ones who made me a mom: Tara, Stephanie, Dessa-Poo, Rocky and Stormie-kins~

Every Mother’s Day I think I should be thanking my 5 kids.  Plus the ones who call me mom, now, the ones I did not have to labor over (blessed!).

To the 5: You are my trophies and my reward – heritage {!}, not for anything I could have or would have thought to do or be as a mom, but because God can only give amazing gifts, and oh, so He did!  But you’re testaments to Him, He is so faithful and good and He knew I needed the ways each of you challenge me.  I love watching your lives and seeing you become the glory of all God had in mind when he reached into my womb and created your little beings there. I love watching your families grow and seeing His faithfulness poured out over you, too.

dave and jeanie rhoades familyJust recently got this  photo in some of Dad Rhoades’s belongings after his death.  I had never seen it.

Please give me all the way to the end to become the mom God has in mind and I promise I shall keep trying with all my might to get there. You are the proof that God is able to use feet of clay and everyday vessels.  He is just so faithful.  I am just so blessed.

Tara + Dave = Hunter and now Malakai, too (Doesn’t he just make this Mother’s Day all the more special?). Three men and a beautiful woman!  Adoption, so amazing, so sweet.  Our firstborn is blessed with a lovely family.  I love you so.

Stephanie, you started the growing-family thing by marrying Tristan, then giving us our very first grandbebe, plus two more darlings: Gavin, Guinivere, and Gemma May.  The Kelley family, head-turners and beautiful.  I love you deeply.

Tredessa loves Ryan and we love him, too.  And they are a family (we pray for many children for them in the future!). You are a joy and delight as you have always been.  Love you lots!

Rocky and Jovan and all their little women, Averi-J, Amelie Belle and baby-Bailey fill the world with frills and fun.  Rock-bo, you’re blessed and surrounded by love and respect, including mine.

Stormie, our sweet baby girl ~ favorite auntie and love of our lives.  You are the final flourish, the grand finale, the ‘ta-da.’ Love you like crazy, baby girl.

Oh, and one more thing~

Ryan and Tredessa are pregnant!  They told us a few weeks ago and were going to make us stay silent for another month but they couldn’t wait either!  Bebe is due in mid- December and we are so happy. :)  So, Happy Mother’s Day to you, too, Tre-Tre!

It IS a Happy Mother’s Day!

Joyous Birthday to the firstborn, my Tara Jean~

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

To the girl who was deemed Liquid Joy {or Joy-bear} while she was growing up~

As the music at the banquet

As the wine before the meal

It was 5:55 a.m. The sun had just broken through bright and I felt the earth move.  Actually, probably less the earth moving than having that first, distinct contraction – that sign for which I had waited, wondering if I’d even know when you’d be coming.  But there it was – a new sensation, so marked and unambiguous, I knew everything was about to change forever.  I drank in the sun as it rose through my window.  I looked at the clock and my heart palpitated with wild excitement.

Today is the day.  This child for whom I have prepared and waited would arrive.  Today – this baby that had caused me to exercise daily and eat so many vegetables for its’ health – now we would see.

Boy or girl?  I didn’t know, but I was praying for a baby girl with blond hair and rosy cheeks (like the baby of one of my college Bible teachers).  I had a vision in mind…

No one but Grandma and I even knew.  It was our happy little secret all day as we went here or there.  I wrote down contraction times and when asked by friends and church family, “When are you going to have that baby?”  “Oh, maybe today, I’d tell them,” smiling so big inside about the best secret in the world.

5:55 a.m. and the clock spun wildly around until 5:55 p.m. when I told Grandma, “I need to go to the hospital now.”  I am not sure how I knew it except that I was packing my bag and when a contraction would come, I’d have to stop what I was doing to breath through it.  I was giddy with anticipation, feeling out of control.

But grandpa.  He wanted us to wait and drop him at the church.  So we left at 6:15 and drove {the almost opposite direction} to drop him at his office around 6:30 p.m. and then we were off to the hospital.  Okay-maybe I am being dramatic, as it was only about a 10 mile trip, but when you are in transition…

We pulled up to the doors at emergency so my mom could drop me off and I was met with a wheel chair at 6:48 p.m.  As we went over the bumpy grate going in, I said to my wheelchair-pusher, “Could you stop for a minute?  I am having a contraction and need to breathe.”

“Oh, honey,” she said with great disdain.  “You are never going to make it.  This is your first baby and you will be in labor for at least 20 hours and if you are acting like this now, you will never make it.”  I figured she was the expert and I thought if what she was telling me was true I would never be able to do this for 20 more hours. I was not going to make it.

But I also kind of wanted to hit her.

She delivered me to labor and delivery and you were born at 7:16 p.m. – just 28 minutes after my mom had delivered me to the door.  I have never gotten over the fact that I didn’t get to smack that wheelchair pusher.  I just never have.

As the firelight in the night

So are you to me

At two

And like so many other things in your life

You surprised me and showed right up and it was beautiful and mysterious and awe-inspiring and magical and spiritual and breath-taking and it was you and me, just us. And you looked at me, and I couldn’t quit looking at you and though we’d only just met, I felt so at home with your warm, fuzzy head. The smell of you, the contour of your face in the barely-lit room: proof of God’s love for me.  A gift straight from heaven!  I knew I was undeserving.  I knew no one, no one, but God could have, would have entrusted you to me.

At three

As the ruby in the setting

As the fruit upon the tree

Oh, love story of love stories – my baby, my own, a sweet tiny, pink-bundled girl.  Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, joy of joys.  I wondered if I was actually allowed to feel this happy –  because I was sure some one would take you away if they knew.

As the wind blows over the plains

So are you to me

 Read about Kai’s adoption story here

And now, joy-child, beautiful woman with two sons of your own {I learn so much from watching you mother them, love them} – it is a day to celebrate your birth, to remember and recall that day thirty-four years ago with gratefulness and thankfulness to a loving God who drew my heart to His with the most loving-kindess imaginable in the form of a girl, tender and sweet, now a woman – wise and lovely.  I do thank God for you.  I do.  So I wish for you (a prayer-wish, of course):

As the wind blows over the plains

So are you to me

So are you to me

Happy Birthday, firstborn and namesake.  Happy Birthday, daughter and friend.  I love you.

 

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

Am I sure about this?

Absolutely…not.  But am I going to do it?  Yes, I am.

So – I have this ridiculously ornate, gold mirror I have been using for many years now.  I have used it in an early 1920s Craftsman, an 1800s Victorian, a 1970s split-level and most recently here, in the “sanctuary.”  It has been flanked by barn art (I have a thing for barns), Victorian paintings and in this house, I just went for it and surrounded it with religious iconic paintings in more gaudy, gold, Italian-made, ornate frames.

I can tell you everything about when I got it.

That is weird, right?  But it was the week of the earthquake during the World Series between the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants in October of 1989.

We had a house guest and he wanted to go looking through junk stores one day in Norfolk, NE.  There was a really odd one with tons of space and hardly anything in there that called themselves a tool store.  All I know is I bought 5000 lace, paper doilies for $5, a Hymnal published in 1910 for $1.25 and 2 old-old, heavy, well-made frames (the small one was $2.00).  But this?  This gold one is the piece-de-resistance from that day.  Measuring in at 4′ x 4′, it was a steal for only $5!

It is wood construction with carved wood details, and is actually three separate frames layered into one.  Trying not to be too technical, but we used to own a frame shop, so I can’t help it.   If you brought in a good piece of art and wanted something done in museum-quality, you would pay by the foot for each of the parts.  Each!  There is the outer frame, an inner liner that is velvet-wrapped (a framing detail rarely used these days and quite costly), and inside that, a thin gold-washed liner.

The outer frame is an over-the-top, heavily-ornamented, Italian Baroque.  It is gold-leafed to the max, REAL gold-leaf.  You can find, if you search, where the leaves of gold came together here and there, but it was done well, not spray-painted by a machine like most frames today.  I couldn’t even afford that much gold leaf, if I wanted to do a project this big, now.

The dark parts you see in the carvings are where the wood, once carved, was stained a deep, dark mahogany.  The leafing was on top.  It wasn’t washed in later, as is common now.

I hauled it home, ordered a mirror insert, and voila.  At every single house, Dave has cringed wondering whether the wall would be able to hold it, but it isn’t as heavy as it looks and every wall has been up to the challenge.

Authentic, old-world beauty

It was considered junk when I nabbed it in 1989.  And not everyone could appreciate the style, for sure (I love Italian ornate), but there is one thing it has always been, all these 24 years of it’s time with me: authentic.

It really was from the 1960s, really Italian, really wood, carved-wood, gold-leafed Baroque, not some imitation of those (many of which are done nicely, but…).  A real beauty.  Aging, certainly, but true to its’ intent.

Gulp

Now it is going to get a face-lift.  I am painting it white – even the velvet.  My daughters are egging me on. It will hang on a charcoal-colored wall.

I seriously doubt if this new look will have the stamina to last 24 more years.  Much like an aging Hollywood beauty, once the face-lifts begin, more will have to follow, I am certain.

I know about furniture facelifts’ short life-spans because in our early marriage, in the 1980s when wood was so vogue, we spent much time and effort stripping all the antiquing and painting people had done in the late 1970s and thought: “What were they thinking, painting this beautiful wood furniture this color???”

And with all the painting going on these days – I hold my breath…because this mirror?  Is never going back to its’ authentic, real state again.  Much like Kenny Roger’s big round eyes which will never crinkle in warm smile lines like they once did, when I make this step, this is a white frame.  It can’t go back.

Most people will see it next to the Home Interiors framed mirror or the Ung Drill I just got from IKEA and assume it is like those: fake, but fun versions of something from another continent.  It will be sort of like having a Kim Kardashian next to an Elizabeth Taylor.  Maybe Kim is beautiful, but it is hard to really tell and we never got to see her before every possible augmentation.  But no one will ever doubt Elizabeth was drop-dead, breathtakingly beautiful, and real.

I will know my frame was beautiful all along.

It is going to look fabulous.  It will be totally dramatic.  I need a big change for fun (bye-bye, Under the Tuscan Sun house), but these changes cannot be undone.  Ready or not….

I know.  I am so silly, huh?

 

Buckskin Joe, where did you go?

6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

Somewhere, in one of the 6 large boxes of family photographs my camera-totin’-mama has been hauling around for the 50+ years of her marriage and children’s lives – there are pictures from THE family vacation of a lifetime.  I’ll have to try to find some next time I go see her.

We didn’t do many big vacations growing up.  We might take four days in St Louis to hit 2 Cardinal Baseball games and spend a day at Six Flags over Mid-America, or go see relatives a state or two away.  Of course Camp Meeting and Church Camps were annual events.  But extravagant travel was not part of my growing up years.

But one year, oh yes, there was this one year…

Let’s go to Colorado!

My Uncle Bill convinced my parents to join him and my Aunt Donnitta and their 6 kids (before number 7 came along) for a camping trip to Colorado.

The whole trip deserves its own blog, as it was a journey that took in the whole of Colorado.  We went everywhere from Trail Ridge Road to The Royal Gorge and back again and camped beautiful Colorado that June in 1971.  It was an amazing trip.  I saw thousands of hippies, bought beaded Indian dolls and giant pencils at little shops filled with cedar boxes, shot glasses and state-spoons, was afraid we’d fall off a mountain cliff as we drove up-up-up and nearly froze in the early morning air – plus threw a few snowballs in the high country in the bright Colorado sunshine.

But the best thing of all?

Buckskin Joe, Colorado!

Oh, I loved Buckskin Joe!  It was a tourist-trap-type “ghost town” that was part theme park, part movie set (the actual reason it had been built), part peek-into-the-old-west, part pretend-you’re-in-an-episode-of-Gunsmoke.  They had gunfights in the streets and swinging saloon doors and horses clopping down the road and cowboys with chaps and spurs and buildings to tour and trinkets to buy, not to mention – saloon girls!

Since I was regularly found watching the old black and white “Wells Fargo” reruns on Saturday afternoons at home, my mom took me to the “newspaper office” in Buckskin Joe and had a headline printed up for me on an old-fashioned news-form, “Jeanie Moslander holds up Wells Fargo Stage.”  It looked so real.

 

It was originally built (a gathering of buildings from real Colorado ghost towns were relocated) in 1957 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for making movies.

Because westerns were an American staple at that time, Buckskin Joe was a bustling, well-known place.  There were people coming and going and we got to observe several “bar brawls” and guns being pulled and fake-fights with cowboys throwing a drunk tumbling down the dirt streets.  There was even a train that took you right out to look over The Royal Gorge – scary!  Oh, it was imaginative and fun.  I really thought I might run in to John Wayne while I was there.  I hoped maybe Little Joe Cartwright or Heath Barclay from the Big Valley would show up, marry me and we could do our trading in Buckskin Joe regulalrly.  :)

A partial list of movies that were filmed there

Cat Ballou (1965) Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin

True Grit (1969) John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby

Barquero (1970) Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Forrest Tucker

The Cowboys (1972) John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bruce Dern, Slim Pickins

The Brothers O’Toole (1973) John Astin

Mr. Majestyk (1974) Charles Bronson

The Dutchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976) George Segal, Goldie Hawn

The White Buffalo (1977) Charles Bronson, Jack Warden

How the West Was Won (1977 TV mini-series) James Arness, Eva Marie Saint

Comes a Horseman (1978) James Caan, Jane Fonda, Jason Robards

True Grit: A Further Adventure (1978 TV movie) Warren Oates

The Sacketts (1991) two-part television movie, Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck

Conagher (1991) Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross, Ken Curtis, Barry Corbin.

Cannibal! The Musical (1993) Trey Parker

Lightning Jack (1994) Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding Jr.

 

I never forgot Buckskin Joe.  So when we moved to Colorado, we added a trip to Buckskin Joe to the things we wanted our kids to experience.

Well, let’s just say, that by the mid-to-late 90s, the time we made the family trip, the glory days were past.  I bet there weren’t 30 or 40 people in the whole town the day we went.  There was hardly any staff.  The buildings were primarily empty and just there to observe, as opposed to the 70s when each was interactive and filled with fun activity.  There were still train rides and horse rides and some fun old-fashioned carnival style activities, and of course, still cowboy-days artifacts and the old Colorado buildings, but Buckskin wasn’t the same.  Buckskin had lost its’ glory.  Still I was glad to have taken my kids to a place that lives in vista-colored-infamy in my memories

In my secret heart, I vowed to one day return, buy it and put it on the most-desired-vacation map again!

The next generation

Not long ago I decided it was time to take the grandbebes.  My heart palpitated with the thought.  We could drive to Canon City on a Friday.  I would dress them all like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and we’d hit cowboy-paradise first thing Saturday morning.

B A D  News

But alas.  It is no more.  When I googled to find out prices and hours, *sniff *sniff, I found out it got purchased by a private party.  And this person has disassembled Buckskin Joe to move to his own ranch far, far away (Gunnison) – never to be enjoyed by me again.  It is his, all his.

Some billionaire (William Koch), who has nothing better to spend his money on  than my very heart and soul, is making my dream of taking my grandbebes to Buckskin Joe a dream that will never happen.  Sadness.  Deep abiding sadness. *sniffles

I’ll never forget you, Buckskin Joe, and the imagination you ignited in me.  Happy Trails, old town.

Now – where else could I take the grand-girls-and-boys that dressing like Dale and Roy would be acceptable???  :)

My little Stormie, {happy days}, my sweet

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

I am a WEEK late posting your birthday blog.  But…I gave you Wryder for your birthday.  :)

Well, actually Stefane and Wrex gave you Wryder and Stefane was the one who REALLY gave you Wryder, but I was there at the time and so happy he arrived to celebrate your birth – April 15 is now a wonderful day {x} two.  Take that, IRS!

In rather a similar year, you were born in a Sioux City spring – one that had been hot already and nice and included play days for your siblings in the wading pool, but then: pow!  A big wintry blast from the north caused an ice storm and that is when you decided to arrive.

Job 30.22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you have dissolved me in the roar of the storm.

And though advisories were issued saying no one should be out on the roads unless absolutely necessary, you were in every way, {absolutely necessary} and so worth any and every possible risk (even though we only had to drive 3 blocks so it wasn’t wholly challenging for us – but had it been, we’d have taken it!).  You have been a joy every single day of your life.

Proverbs 10. 25 When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away…

I love the baby you were, the chubby little recipient of the love of three sisters and a big brother.  As a little girl, your heart couldn’t have been sweeter (“Be-member, mommy, we like to shnuggle“).  As a young woman, you are admirable and lovely in all possible ways.  You are a loving sister and auntie, everyone in the family will agree, a servant among the saints and an honoring daughter to your father and me.

And on that, I must wholeheartedly call down the covenant  blessing of the LORD upon you, for the honoring, because the fifth commandment comes with a promise {reward} and I agree with the Word of God in Ephesians 6

“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: That all may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.”

May you live long and may it go very {very} well for you, my sweet.

I pray you’ll find true, lasting (and wildly intoxicating} love and have a fabulous wedding outshone only by the madly devoted and playful romance of a marriage that lasts with zealous passion forever.  I cannot wait for you to be fruitful, filling the earth with talented and godly children, creative little bebes who are the joy and delight of their aged grandparents {hint, hint}.  May your spirit, soul and body be sanctified through and through by God Himself, the God of Peace. 1 Thess. 5.23-24. I pray you live and reign in the spiritual Kingdom of God, yes – may that go well ~ righteousness/peace/joy in the Holy Ghost!  And in times of tears, may it go well for you and may you know the Comforter intimately.  May it be well with you in being filled when you’re hungry and refreshed when you’re thirsty and I totally think you should inherit the earth (and let’s throw in making your name great in the earth – why not?). Your purity of heart will intensify your ability to see God and I hope all your mercy comes back to you by the truckloads.  May it go well with you, Stormkins – in creativity and design and ideas and use of your talents, in your singing and playing for the worship of the Lord; may it go well in your life in all the tasks and jobs you put your hand to and favor with God and men; I speak the promised well-ness over your property and your resources and your heart to be generous to the poor and the orphan and I pray the dreams I know about and the ones none of have ever heard, but have been heard by heaven, come to pass.  And I pray all this, knowing it is now released into the halls of heaven and will reverbate in your life long after I am gone.  The words are out there, now.  Can’t take them back.  You are BLESSED!  Live long on the earth – live well.

I love you, baby girl.  You were the last because we could not in any way have improved on the five we got.  We had to stop while we were ahead.  You were the completion of the first phase of the family God was building.  And I thank God for you, sweet girl.  Do you know how much you’re in my heart?  Soooooo much.

{love, mom}