More Beaded Bead Earrings

These earrings are created from a "beaded bead" using 4 faceted round crystals, 16 small bicone crystals that you cannot see from this shot and 2 larger bicones above and below the "beaded" bead and some tiny seed beads. They are fun to do and quite interesting looking earrings.

Sisters-of-the Heart

We've been talking about sisters on Facebook recently. I have only brothers. One of my wise granddaughters reminded me that one can have sisters who are not sisters by blood. These sisters are called "sisters-of-the-heart."

The first sister of my heart is Inez who married one of my brothers. We have known each other since I was ten or so. She treated me like an equal. She invited me to visit her in her apartment on the second floor of the post office (now known as the Old Bank Building). We shared a love of books and she generously loaned me some of her books to read. She was my model for how to treat my own young sisters-in-law when that time came. I had the honor of being one of the candle lighters at her wedding to my brother. Our relationship is even closer now.

The second sister-of-my-heart was my young sister-in-law Jane. She was eight when I married into the family. As time passed we became sisters-of-the-heart. She was very special in my life. When she was older, we could walk down the street and one of us would see something that tickled our funny bone - all we needed to do was look at each other and know it tickled both of us. We played many card games of "Spit" and she won 80% of those games. I continued to play because it was such a kick when I could finally beat her. She had such great eye-hand coordination. When she went away to college, I knew how homesick she was so I wrote her once a week all four years. We talked about everything and shared our deepest secrets. She asked me to be her Matron of Honor when she got married.

The third sister-of-my-heart is Ann. I really didn't know her growing up because she was several years younger than I. We got acquainted when her brother Don and I got together in 1995. It didn't take long for her to become a sister-of-my-heart. She encouraged me to go ahead and marry Don and not wait for any period of time. She and her husband opened their home to us and even found a Metnodist pastor to come there to marry us - and they were in the middle of moving from near Topeka to a home on a hill near Hays. Ann stood up with me when Don and I got married. We always had such a good time together.

These three ladies are sisters-of-my-heart and as such were a huge blessing in my life. I shared three weddings with these three sisters. The first photo is Ann. The second photo is Inez with my brother Bob.

Home in Marion

We bought a ranch-style home in Marion in late 1961. Possession date was December 16. So we moved across town with snow on the ground. Moving across town is much harder than moving across country because you have to do everything - packing, loading up, transporting, unloading and unpacking. A moving van comes to pick up your household goods, some of which you may have packed. The movers load the van. Then it is driven cross country. They unload it and you unpack! There are many trips back and forth from the old house to the new when you move across town.

The house was painted tan with white trim as shown in the photo. There were white drapes with orange and yellow butterflies for the picture window in the living room. The entry way and the wall with the picture window were painted orange. I do not like orange! It stayed that color because I did like the drapes.

Patti and Tony each had a bedroom. I crocheted small rugs to go by their beds. Patti had a white vanity that had been mine when I was a teenager. Mom made a pink floral skirt for the vanity.

Chuck built drawers to fit under Tony's bed. These acted as his dresser. His room was smaller than Patti's but we made it work. He had a small closet while Patti's closet was twice as large.

My father-in-law had used a photo he had taken of me for display at his studio. It was my engagement picture. It was a large framed photo. He gave it to us when we moved into our house. It hung over the piano in the living room.

That first Christmas, the tree fell over, broke lots of glass ornaments and scared poor Tony! We stood the tree up and vacuumed up the broken glass.

The Starry Drive neighborhood was filled with children. Some were older and some were younger and a bunch were about the same ages as Patti and Tony. We counted one time and figured there were about 50 kids on Starry and the area of A Avenue across the block.

It was a good neighborhood in which to live. It was a good place to raise our children.