Graduation Party

Right before Audrey's graduation party was set to start, Jodi & Scott Riggin stopped by with this awesome sign! They put it up on the front of the house which just added such a great festive flair to the event. Jodi is so talented!!! THANK YOU!!

We had literally spent the last three months working on the yard in the evenings and weekends to prepare for Audrey's open house to be held in the backyard. We put in new landscaping rock (2 & 1/2 tons), flowers and plantings, and even added 3 yards of dirt to the front yard along with new grass (from seed). The lawn was not "quite" full by the party, but still looked pretty good. The backyard looked great and the afternoon was looking very promising on a nice but not too warm sunny day:

The party started at 5:30pm and by 6:30pm the winds were starting to build up and the rain started falling. But by 7pm the rain was coming down in buckets!! We had guests stranded in their vehicles in the driveway waiting for it to "clear up" a bit. Thankfully someone had brought an umbrella so we sent Mariska's boyfriend out to rescue them. We had chairs set-up inside so guests were able to stay indoors and enjoy visiting without braving too much of the weather. For treats we paid a very talented baker duo to prepare the desserts and they did a fabulous job: Chocolate Pie Bites, Jumbo Snicker doodles, Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt, Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange frosting, Graduation Cap Sugar Cookies and the most popular - Brownie Pops (dipped in caramel and then dipped in chocolate). Yummo!! Thanks Susan and Meredith for doing such a wonderful job. The added benefit for me not having to stress about the baking was very much appreciated and allowed me time to spend on the yard. I did add fresh fruit to the buffet - pineapple, raspberries, green grapes, red grapes and strawberries. We served ice water with sliced oranges (instead of lemons) and then had a big orange bucket of ice with "Orange" and "Black" Cherry Pop. You do know that WV's colors are orange and black? If not, you do now!


We are so grateful for those that were able to make the open house and also those that sent their best wishes to Audrey in the mail. She was very appreciative of everyone who thought of her during this fun time in her life.

1946 International K-6 Truck

Mom told Audrey one day that she had sold dad's K-6. Audrey really liked that truck and had thought it would be around forever. She had some of her senior pictures taken with the truck so we headed up to take a few "last shots". Grandma redeemed herself a little because she presented Audrey with the shift knob from the truck as well as a little history booklet with pictures. Below is an excerpt:

"When your grandpa first brought this truck home, I cannot say for sure. Great-Grandpa Walter Gramlow was a mechanic for Pacific Fruit here in Spokane and he probably let your Grandpa know it was for sale. The Pacific Fruit delivery trucks had a van and for many years that is how your Grandpa used it. He would deliver produce to the produce houses in Spokane. There was Pacific Fruit, Spokane Vegetable Growers, Peirone, Keiner and Produce Supply as well as a couple of grocery stores. It was the delivery van for many years and the field trucks were the farm pickups. About the time we leased Calkins Airport for the carrot field was when Grandpa put the hydraulic flatbed on the K-^. He used off the shelf hydraulic components, but fabricated the bed himself. It then became one of the field trucks that followed the Carrot harvester and brought the carrots up to the packing house. About that time we also repainted it the green color that it is to this day. The K-6 and a 1968 1-Ton Chev pickup that he also put a hydraulic lift and built a bed for were the field trucks for many years. Your Great Grandpa Hastings drove for us, but always drove the Chev."

Cemetery Tours

We stopped by the cemetery on the way home from church today to add flowers to dad's grave. Mom and the grand kids had already stopped by on Saturday on their annual Memorial Day cemetery tour. They visited the different cemeteries where Grandma Carr, Grandpa Gramlow, Aunt Charlene and Grandma Whisler are each buried. Then they went to Aunt Carol's house (Grandma Whisler's sister) to visit. She served them some delicious oatmeal raisin cookies (and Mom is in charge of getting that recipe for Audrey evidently).

WV T-Shirt Quilt

John had worked for West Valley for about 10 years and had a number of t-shirts from various events. I packed them all up and shipped them to Kathy, who made this fabulous t-shirt quilt for Audrey's graduation from West Valley High School. Kathy cut the t-shirts into 6" squares and then backed the quilt with denim squares. Audrey was very excited when she opened the package that came in the mail today. Thanks Aunt Kathy!! (oh, and Sidney kitty thinks the quilt belongs to her...)

WICKED

Audrey and I purchased our tickets to Wicked over 1 year ago! And we were mighty excited to see it. We met Jessie, Emma and Sharon at the Olive Garden for dinner before the show. Then we headed downtown to see the show. "Wicked" is the story of the Wizard of Oz, but from the wicked witches point of view. We LOVED it!! I'm really glad that I had not read the book prior to going, so that the story could unfold for us. The music was great, the actors were great, our seats were great and we had a wonderful time with Jessie, Emma and Sharon. Let's go again!!!

2 Movies / 1 Time

We really wanted to go to the movies today so invited the Heerdinks' to come along. The only problem was that John and Audrey wanted to see one movie and I was not interested in that one. When Angela said Robert could not come and it would just be her - problem solved! John and Audrey went to Priest at 10:50am and Angela and I went to a chick-flick, Something Borrowed, at 10:55am. Yeah! After the movie we checked out Williams Sonoma before deciding we were hungry. We headed to Dick's Hamburgers for lunch. It was a great day to sit outside and share some fries with the seagulls!!

Mother's Day

What a great day! Had crepes for breakfast, nice service at church and then my favorite chicken salad croissants and pea salad for lunch. John and Audrey gave me a cookbook and a blade for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I sure am spoiled!!