Finally gotten around to it.

I've finally taken the time to post and give credit for several awards fellow bloggers have bestowed on me.  I do, and did, appreciate them.  It just took me almost forever to do something with them.  Even that was with the patient instruction of one of the award presenters.  Thank you.  

Next, I need to figure out how to give an award myself.  I'll work on that; hopefully it won't take nearly as long.

Last old slide.

This is the last of grandma's slides that show the dresses my mother made for me--at least since I was about 12 years old.  I know my sisters could put together a similar set.  She was so much more clever than I realized at the time.

When I was a senior in high school, the music/theater director led us in writing a play (or maybe it was an operetta).  The plot was about lonely miners and a bunch of women who are looking for husbands.  My part was that of a tomboy, a pal of the miners, who naturally falls in love with their leader.  He doesn't look at me as a bride, until I dress like the other women and show my feminine side.  

Of course there was a predictable happy ending with lots of brides and grooms.  

I'm not certain this was the only killer red dress.  I remember another one too, but apparently there was no picture taken.  Okay, that's my stroll down memory lane.  Besides making me more aware and appreciative of my mother's talent, I took my sewing machine in to be serviced.  I think I'll try a little sewing of my own.  I'll start small.

Spring in the Utah high desert

I went for a walk yesterday in the late afternoon.  That is the warmest part of the day here, but it felt good to me.  The picture is looking southeasterly, and I could see that rain was trying to fall in the distance, but probably not reaching the ground.  I loved the different blues of the sky and the reds of the mountains.  It is windy today which might mean a cool down for the weekend.  I like the heat, and always feel bad for those people who seem to have a comfort zone of less than 10 degrees.  You know the ones: too cool below 69, too hot above 78.  They probably have seven days all year when they are truly comfortable.

There are other wonderful shots at SkyWatch.

More inadequate appreciation of Mom

Here are more photos of the dresses I know were made by my mother.  At the time, I just accepted that she would put together something for me.  I suppose, as an ordinary, self-absorbed teenager, the fact that she was darn good at it flew right by me....whoosh.

The young man with me was a classmate and also part of the cast of Showboat.  The white dress was fabulous.

I decided to put a couple more dress pictures in, even though my eyes seem to be closed in the pictures.  Appreciate the dresses, not me.  This one had a collar of sequins.  I have again cropped out my date--not because he wasn't a nice guy, but my romantic history is not the point here.

Mom must have made this suit too, probably just to wear with the boots.  I sang "These Boots are Made for Walking" at some event.  I know I'd ham it up a lot more now than I did then.  Oh the confidence and wisdom of age--if we could have that and the youth and beauty at the same time.  Watch out.
This dress is another one I remember.  It was a pretty brocade with fake fur on the sleeves.
I really liked this dress because there are at least two pictures of me wearing it.  This was after our wedding and the birth of our son, so it must have been for a sibling's  special prom or something.  Oh my gosh, we are so young and skinny!

Is everyone tired of my memory lane yet?  I haven't found too many more pictures among grandma's slides showing more cool clothes, but I know there is a killer red dress somewhere.  Maybe I'm almost finished.

You have to smile.

I just spent a week with my son's family in South Carolina.  I got to go to a baseball practice with my 11-year-old grandson and a softball practice with my granddaughter.  The baseball practice was familiar.  I had sons who played, students who played, and I knew what to expect from boys that age.  It was baseball practice.

On the other hand, my granddaughter's softball practice was...entertaining.   First of all, she is barely 5--the youngest in the coach-pitch league that goes through 9-year olds.  Let me tell you, there are a lot of differences between 5 and 9 year old girls.  Second, she is a very girly girl.  She even runs delicately.  She gently and gracefully puts her toe on the bag, she sometimes spins around before picking up a ball from the ground, and when she comes in from the field she is often skipping.  One of her coaches made a circle on the field so she would remember where to stand.  

Her mother says that when she comes to bat, the audience smiles and "aaahs" because she is so small.  Once the coaches have managed to get her to stand in the right place and hold the bat correctly, there are no expectations.  She does, however, occasionally hit the ball.  It doesn't go very far, but enough that she can sometimes dance her way to first base. She says that makes her coach call her his secret weapon.  They are very sweet with her.  (You can click to see the picture better.)

I don't know if she will always like softball, but she does like to visit with others and play games so she's having fun.  That is really what matters now.

Underappreciated Mother

I hurried back through the many slide copies to find a few that I could quickly recognize as me.  I wanted to put them in a better order, but loading pictures so they turn out where I want them seems to be beyond my technical ability.

On the left is a dress for Pioneer Day, which is a very big deal in the place where I grew up.  I must have been involved in some special performance.

I don't know what dance the red dress was for,  but I did crop out the guy I was dating at the time.   I have several more shots with he and I together.

I think the orange suit was for something  like an interview for a beauty pageant or something.  I needed to look polished and respectable, but stylish.

The blue shift with ruffles and the lavender dress remain a mystery in my memory.  I have a corsage in one, so it must have been a dance.  But, my hair was up in the other so it was also obviously for something I thought important.  Those shapeless dresses were cool in the mid-sixties.

This very young me was for my first big dance.  The high school held a "post prom" the day after the real deal, especially for junior high students.  I was in 7th grade and had a date with a boy in my class.

This last shot is a real keeper although I don't remember why we took it.  It is my sisters and I with my grandmother, who passed away when she was far too young.  As near as I can figure, I was about 18 (which would make my sisters 16 and 14--give or take a year).  

I am pretty sure than my mom made most of these clothes.  I'll have to show them to her and see how many she remembers--probably more than I do.

I do know that I took her for granted.  I don't now.