This beautiful lady is Sara. She’s my son’s fiancee. Yep, this month he popped the question to his long term girlfriend. The marriage is in a few years. I’m getting a wonderful daughter without all the mess of raising one. But that’s not why I’m congratulating her. I’m congratulating her for graduating college. She’s now a physical therapist going on to medical school! That she worked hard for and made it! We are all so proud.
This morning we got up early Mike dressed in his whites, we picked up Sara (Aaron’s girlfriend) and headed to North Milwaukee to the Military Entrance Processing Station or MEPS as it’s called. Aaron had spent the day there Tuesday doing all he needed to joint the Army National Guard. However, he knew a very special military officer he wanted to perform the swearing-in ceremony for him – his father.
Here’s the pictures from this morning where Capt Mike Eklund swore in his son Aaron Eklund.
Now may I proudly introduce PV2 Aaron Eklund of the Army National Guard. He’ll be serving while he continues to attend University of Wisconsin Madison. There he’ll be with the ROTC program except when he takes the winter semester off for boot camp. Upon graduation he’ll be commissioned as an Officer and plans to work for the governor’s office in helping with preparedness for pandemics and bio hazards.
Our family is proud to serve.
I found the photos I made back in the Christmas season at the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend,Tennessee. On an usually warm day during the holiday visit my mother-in-law (Donna) and I went over to Townsend to see the decorations in the cabins. Her garden club had done the decorating for a previous year and we were curious to see this year’s decorations. The men were golfing and this would feed my shutterbug. However I downloaded the photos onto my netbook and forgot about them. Until I found them yesterday.
Thus you are getting Christmas at Easter. I have to say much of this isn’t new to me growing up in the Appalachians. Honestly some of the things I’ve seen used or chatted with people that used them in their childhood. Several branches of my family has lived in the Appalachians since receiving land grants for their service in the American Revolution. Much of this speaks to my roots in the area and my genealogy research.
Here’s a few beauty shots I make of the decorations and place. The stagecoach rules amused me. If you want to see more of the pictures from that day click on any of the photos here. That will take you over to my Flickr photo stream where you can surf about.
Hope you enjoyed this Christmas for Easter post. As I always say I love to hear from you here or any where – don’t be shy!
Until next time!
A new year is on its way, giving us a reason to do year in review. I look back on the last year of this blog and see I didn’t make the most of what I had.
I want to change that in 2012. The first thing I did is read up on blogging advice. Let me tell you, there’s no shortage of it out there. There’s books, websites, and even blogs on how to blog. I jumped in reading here and there. Trying to glean commonalities from all them. Honestly there was very little.
Post regularly – whatever the interval I decide post regularly. That was the most often mentioned point in all the advice givers. Okay I got that, I fell down on it last year. I hate to set the goal of daily but it’s what I yearn to do. However I will set a goal of AT LEAST monthly. There that leaves room to strive for the daily goal but still set myself up for success.
Focus – Oh heck several say pick a topic and stick to it. If you want to chat about multiple topics make multiple blogs. I’m sorry that might be fantastic advice but it’s just not me. I get bored with single themed blogs. I get bored just talking about one thing. I don’t see it as focus but limitation. I like diversity and have worked hard in my life to embrace all aspects of myself. So this ain’t gonna happen. Consider me stuck in the variety show format. Tune in here to see what act comes next song, dance, stand up comedy, dramatic piece. My focus is to entertain us.
Simple layout – okay a few mentioned don’t over clutter your page. No problem there. I won’t. I don’t like clutter. Like I said in the real world I can’t think in clutter, in the virtual world I can’t take visual clutter.
Define why you blog – I blog to share, to entertain, to wave at the universe as we take a ride around the sun on this big ball. Good enough?
Self promote – Well I’m not one to be schlepping all the time. I hate people who just do that on social media. They only tweet to sell me something. Pfft I want that I can watch tv they do it every few minutes. Best I can do is post the link to my latest blog in my other social media. I’ll try to remind people they can subscribe by rss & e-mail. That’s about it. Since I don’t like people always selling to me I’m not comfortable doing it to others.
Be controversial – Oh lordy – that’s NOT me. Yes I have political opinions mostly leaning liberal if you want to know. Yes I have a religious view but that’s personal between me and what I consider divine – none of your business just as I consider yours none of mine.
I’m here to have fun and hope you are here for that too. I’m not here to debate, get snarky or any of that. Here it’s the we all get along, live and let live. Life is too short to not enjoy it and arguing isn’t enjoyable to me.
In the end what did I decide for my blog for 2012?
First off I need to become more proficient at using WordPress.
Second I need to post here regularly. I think I will post at least monthly. My plan is to come here more often with small thought posts instead of Google+.
Third this is a smorgasbord of topics, just like life. I’ll review comics that read regularly here. I’ll talk about writing and my struggle with it. I’ll chat about genealogy and family stories. There will be beading pictures and talk about how I plan to sell the backlog of what I make. Plus I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been doing with photos to illustrate. Heck I’ll try to include photos in everything just because I like pictures.
That’s about all I got. I’m going to here more often, chatting away about what interests me. If you like it share it with others. If you want to join in and chat feel free to comment here, on Google+ Mary Louise Eklund, on twitter @marylouiseeklund, flickr or email me marylouiseeklund at yahoo.com or gmail.com
Until next time… take care and do say hi.
Christmas morning photos are never pretty, never flattering, and honestly they shouldn’t be. They should be memories of good times, great presents, bad presents, and the gratification of the anticipation of that Red Ryder BB Gun or whatever was the equalization for you.
So after making our morning photos some of me need years of distance before I post them on the internet. However these have years behind them…
This was my folks house in the ’70s. Apparently we either gave gift offerings to the TV or often confused the TV with the tree. That’s Samson there in the floor. He was my beloved cat I got in 1976 and my folks had him well until after I was married. He was HUGE. He was the runt of the litter so name was meant to be ironic but he grew to be 4 inches between the base of each ear. At his healthiest he was a lean muscular 30lbs. One big lover in the house and the terror of rabbits, snakes, and birds outside on the farm.
Thought you needed another photo of such a fine feline fella. Best as I can guess this is Christmas of ’78 – ’80. We have always gotten our pets Christmas gifts – a tradition that carries on today.
My life was good getting nice toy hauls. But I remember that robe. I hated it. It was frilly and stiff. My grandmother had an idea that Christmas morning pictures should be pretty. She’d even get up and dress for them. She wanted us to dress for Christmas dinner. It’s because of her we made pictures of the dinner table (how would she feel of our Pizza Roll lunch & out for dinner tonight?) Still I make picture of dinner tables but these are at least amusing
As I said Nannie dressed for Christmas morning pictures and this morning my son showed the same trait by dressing for early morning unwrapping of presents. As a kid he told her he was sorry she got only clothes but this year that’s what he got, clothes, by his own request.
Speaking of dressing for the holidays – can you be too matchy matchy in holiday sweaters? They think NOT!
Speaking of fashion I too made some dubious choices. First off note in the late 70s I made the duckface before the duckface was cool! Also yes, that’s my name in patchwork on the legs of my jeans… what can I say it was the 70s.
Like I said we have lots of table photos for Christmas dinner. In this one mom looks like “Kill me, just kill me now.” Which I went hunting for smiling mom picture. Didn’t find one until I started doing Christmases at my house. LOL!
I looked through Mike’s old family photos. They were laughing, except one where it looked like Len was trying to get out of the photos.
There’s more blasts from the past on my flickr account. If you are really curious you can click on any image here to go there and cruise around.
As always glad to hear from you here, on Twitter @marylouiseklund, google + under my name and of course on Flickr. Won’t be posting real regularly over the next week but once life returns to a routine after the holidays. Here’s wishing you a great New Year!
I got burned out on Christmas over a decade ago. It was a time when I was working full-time, well more than full-time. December was a big push month there so I worked 80 hours a week. On top of that I had to act cherry at corporate functions, school functions, and such. It seemed every weekend was booked by the start of November. So the holiday push for me started with the Halloween costume selection and ran until mid January when the mass annual training event was over at work. I now know why Scrooge was all “Bah Humbug!” he was over worked.
As Aaron has gotten older we’ve worked to slim down our holidays. We spent two Christmases in Florida with no trees, no decorating, and time with each other. Oh yeah, with spectacular sunsets on the beach too. That’s now the Christmases by which I measure my Christmases.
Since lounging on the beach isn’t always an alternative we’re trying to learn to strike a balance between festive but not overdoing. This year I was dragging my feet on putting up a tree. We agreed to do a smaller one. Instead of getting an artificial we got a real one. It’s only 5 ft our old artificial one was 7 ft. It’s not as wide at the bottom and sits on the foot locker that now holds ALL the Christmas decorations. That’s right Mike and I went through our decorations with the idea of keeping only our favorites. In the small foot locker is the storage for all the Christmas decorations we’re doing. However, Mike got cold feet on selling the decorations that didn’t rate space on the tree. So they went into a container and storage until grandchildren or Mike consents to let them go.
I have to admit that in the end I was happy with the result. It’s manageable. It took less that two hours including going out to buy the tree. That’s better than the hours we spent before. The animals don’t bother it any more than they did the artificial one. However I’ve added sleigh bells to the decorations so I can shout NO! when I hear them jingle. Now everyone I’ve talked to that sings the praises of a real tree carry on about the wonderful smell. Well this tree has no fragrance. Nope none. I thought maybe I was just not smelling it being here all day but no return from errands still no smell. Mike bought those pine tree car deodorizer and now they decorate the tree to give the smell. The end story is I think we’ve solved the house decorating issues. No Christmas dishes, only the manager scene Mike made and a small tree.
Next comes outdoor lights. When we first moved here I was all for them. I mean they show beautifully in the snow. In January I came to a bitter realization. There’s more snow and below zero temps when it’s time to take them down. Oh and they freeze to the pole, shrubs, and banister as they melt the snow then you turn them off they go cold in a wet spot and freeze. Removal wasn’t worth putting them up to me. I was raised with no outdoor lights. Heck we lived on a farm, no one could see them. Best we could hope for if we put up lights that the cows noticed. Today Mike does it because he wants it. They are totally in his domain. I just turn them on and off.
A bit more about the lights. I don’t like big showy Christmas lights. Being raised in the energy crisis I see them only as a waste. A few for holiday cheer, okay. Enough that you could be seen from a passing airliner – TOO MUCH. So we have a simple display with the classic big bulbs. However, Mike wanted more lights this year. I guess it makes up for 2 ft less of tree. Except the adding of two more strands of small indoor/outdoor lights kept blowing the fuse in the main strand. So he had to settle for our small tasteful display.
The next chore we set out to evaluate was the holiday letter and card. I’ll be honest I’d forgone them the past few years. I’d bought cards with noble intentions, but nope didn’t do it. We like to do a news letter and honestly like getting non-gooshy ones from friends. There are people we don’t contact often and it’s nice to hear what they are doing. Still writing a letter that is informative, fun, and covers the year for three people without exceeding a single page is difficult. I attempted it this year. For those who got a copy – I’m sorry if I didn’t achieve my goal but enjoy your personally hand decorated letter. Yes I decorated each and every card. Each was unique, yep just like those special snowflakes I despise. Some had Christmas themed decoration like the one in the picture. Others had snow scenes with sleighs and skating penguins. I know I was asking for stress making cards and doing a letter. I mean I’ve got a closet full of nice cards I’d bought the last few years paving that road to hell with my good intentions. Yet what motivated me this year were the dumb foam stickers. I know my inner child was giddy with the prospect of using them. However in the fifth hour of card designing my inner child had fallen asleep and the adult Scrooge was still sticking away. But once done the inner child again strutted about proud THEY had made the cards this year. The bottom line to improve this was make it something I wanted to do. Thin down the list to people to less than 50. Okay it’s doable, maybe sell the stash of cards and each year make it an inner child project. Heck, my list is smaller than Mrs. Astor’s because I don’t have her servants.
Gifts another area that’s been rethought the last few years. Wrapping gifts, something I used to take great pride in as a newlywed. I loved decorating the presents instead of just wrapping them. Then I kept it up to make it special for Aaron. Then presents because placing an order, hounding for lists rather than get one thought gift. I got jaded. Honestly we are lucky if we want something we get it or save for it. The things we save for are too big to put on a list. Try new windows for the whole house as a gift item on your list, really beyond how do you wrap it who wants to spend THAT much? Our answer has been to get back to what’s important giving. With those who were amenable to the arrangement we’ve forgone giving gifts to each other and donate to a charity of our choice in the person’s honor. I’m proud to say that we’ve helped people, rescue animals, sent kids to orchestra camp, and much more.
Still we give small gifts and more to Aaron. So wrapping is necessary. I try to do it all at once. I shop then I wrap. When I wrap I now take over the dining table because sitting in the floor now kills my back after an hour or so. My dining room is now a mess as I wrap gifts very basic – paper and a sticker label. Don’t forget we have several people with December birthdays that’s why the other wrap is out.
In the end I think I was a victim of myself. My trying to do too much. Make it all an event, all festive, all over the top I see that in hindsight. My advice to those starting to feel burnout. You don’t have to do it all. Sit down with those you share the holiday with and be honest, what’s important to your celebration and what can you cut. Do all the gifts have to be a work of art or are they happy with paper and a label? Do you need to make cookies or is that something you’re doing just because you think you should? How much decoration is festive and how much is a chore? Make some decisions so what you do is meaningful not a something that you drop your head put your shoulder pads forward and push through. I wish I’d realized that before this year. I might have actually enjoyed many more holidays beyond the two at the beach.
In the end no one is perfect, no one can do it all but you can do what makes it festive for you and yours. That’s where we are finally going this year. If we’d done this earlier maybe we’d discovered the beauty of the Durkee Mansion years earlier. Still I’m thankful we’re finding our balance, it’s about time.
As always I want to hear from YOU. Feel free to comment here, on Google+ (+mary louise eklund), Flickr (Mary Louise Eklund), and/or Twitter (@marylouiseeklund). Not on Facebook, I don’t go there any more. You can e-mail me at either of my email accounts marylouiseeklund at either yahoo.com or gmail.com. I try to make it easy to find me. Also if like this rate it and use as many of the share buttons there as you’d like!
Until next time – I hope you are enjoying the season instead of being stressed by it.
Today was the last day to tour the Durkee Mansion here in Kenosha. It’s been decorated for the holiday season. We’ve talked for five of the last seven holiday seasons (two of them we were on active duty in Tampa) we need to go tour the historical structure in our town. However, holiday season happens and it’s never simple and by the time we looked up it was over and the house was closed.
We made the effort today, with more presents to wrap but the bulk of the holiday chores done we decided to take time to tour the home. We were justly rewarded for our small effort of getting off the couch and turning off football. Okay that wasn’t a small effort as the two games had Bears in one and the Pack in the other. Still my photography hobby was greatly pleased to see such lovely decorations in a restored Victorian home.
The entrance of the mansion has all the detail painting you’d expect on a Victorian home. Yet I thought the entrance somewhat stark for a Victorian home. Later with talking with a volunteer I learned what it was missing. The once elaborate and breathtakingly ornate wraparound porch with all the lattice work detail of the period is long gone. The plantation windows (the large kind that go to the floor where you walk through them when open) that we saw in the parlor and dining room once opened to this porch. Glimpses as to what the porch looked like can be seen in the early graduation pictures of the Kemper Center School for Girls. They posed on this ornate porch. Today the windows are just large windows with iron grates at the bottom on the outside
The home was said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Durkees were abolitionist. Mr. Durkee’s brother was involved in finding railroad “stops” in the Kenosha area for escaping slaves. The Mansion has a root cellar that is accessible by a trap door in the floor of the pantry. Lore holds this is where the Durkees hid slaves they hosted as a train stop on the route to freedom. Currently the door is under a large pantry armoire and not visible to visitors.
The house isn’t furnished with original furniture. Instead it is furnished with period correct pieces donated by the community. The restoration and care of this lovely home is a community effort. It is so sad that we have missed out on seeing this treasure for so long. The holiday decorations are also donated and done by volunteers. Each room had a podium explaining the room function and listing the volunteers who had decorated it for the holiday. Much of the decoration was Victorian inspired with the heavy draping of many fabrics and the ornate nature of the decorations. It was set to be a feast for the eye. I did enjoy finding areas to highlight with my lens eye and appreciate the efforts of everyone who donated time and materials.
The main area of entertaining guests would have been the main floor were the parlors and dining room were located. Then the third floor where the ballroom was located. Unfortunately the ballroom is now closed off and houses the furnace and other mechanicals to service the home. I so would have loved to have seen a restored ballroom decorated to the nines for Christmas. Though it did seem odd to me that the two main entertaining areas were not adjoined but rather required passing through the family’s floor.
The other odd thing to me was the home faces away from the lovely view of Lake Michigan. They must of had a spectacular view sitting there in the middle of their ten acres. Only the bay window in his room can glimpse the lake. I would have highlighted that view from my home and ballroom much like the Vanderbilts did at the Breakers in Newport. Okay maybe not as ornately as the Vanderbilts but orientation wise like they did or the Ringling home in Florida does the Atlantic.
Back to the main floor. There were three parlors. The guest parlor that would have showcased the best the Durkees had to offer in furniture, decoration, and such. This was to the right of the foyer or entrance hall. The hall was where the guest would have given their cloaks, gloves, and gentlemen doffed their hats. Also calling cards would have been left there by each guest. Straight back from the foyer was the ladies parlor where Mrs. Durkee would have enterained lady vistors. Back and to the right was the gentlemen’s parlor where Mr. Durkee would have entertained male callers. I’m sure much political discussion went on in that room given Mr. Durkee’s career.
All of these parlors were accessible by the Butler’s Walk a hallway that ran through the core of the house and connected with the servant’s hall. I did find the ceiling in the servant’s hall lovely and today it’s where you can view photos of the early graduating classes from Kemper and get a glimpse of the house’s porch.
One of the striking features of the home’s main floor was the stained glass windows. They were glittering with the bright winter light streaming into the dimly lit home. One thing we take for granted now is good lighting. Early light bulbs weren’t as strong as we are used to today. Nor did one light a whole room, instead one lit the area where they were. One of the mad extravagances of George Vanderbilt at his Biltmore home was fully lighting rooms with electrical lights. Still the pleasant cozy dimness highlighted the lovely colors of the glass in the windows. Check out my flickr account for some shots of the other windows.
The second floor or family floor held five bedrooms. At the time they lived in the home the Durkees did not have children. Later when the Kemper Center operated the girls school this floor had classrooms, offices, and the Mother Superior’s bedroom. Today they all have been restored to bedrooms. They are lovely but in the interest of space I’ll only highlight two. The one that was the Mother Superior’s bedroom and one I just liked the furniture.
This is the bedroom the Mother Superior later chose as her bedroom. I can see why on two counts. First it had the largest fireplace so it would be a warm bedroom. Here in the late 1800s I can imagine the winters could be brutally cold and being next to the lake I’m sure the wind was brutal. Next it just outside it’s door was the sitting room for the family area I’m sure that was good place for the students to gather between classes and she would easily keep an eye on them. At least those were my imaginings as I stood in the bedroom doorway. It was also a good sized room but not large like the master bedroom so I’m sure it was a nice size to be her private area. There are more pictures of the room on my flickr feed so click on any image in this post and go over to look about.
The other bedroom I just thought the bed was lovely. It was decorated as a ladies room but there were men’s riding boots by the fireplace. **waggles eyebrows** What lovely horseman put his boots by her fire? **wink wink** Really who can’t see lovely decorated Victorian homes and not fall into a romance novel state of mind? Okay guys I get it you can do it but even I, the not really a romance reader gal, couldn’t help it.
Now back down the stairs to the servant’s areas. I didn’t get any pictures in the pantry where the root cellar hatch is because the room was very small and often crowded given the historical significance of it. I did get a shot of ceiling in the servant’s hall. The floor was also very attractive being striped by alternating light wood with dark wood in the hardwood floor. This was a wide hallway where the servants would gather outside the small kitchen where the dry sink was located.
What’s a dry sink you ask. Well ignore that pump handle and spout there it’s just decoration. A dry sink had no water and no drain. You went out to the pump and carried in the water. You washed the dishes in the water you heated on the stove there in the dry sink pans. When you were finished you carried the dirty water outside. Thus the sink was truly a dry sink just a place to hold the dishpans.
That concluded our tour of the home. On the way out I made a few pictures of the Kemper Center grounds including the Simmon’s gym built in 1910. The school was a very progressive one for women. The nuns taught chemistry, physics, horseback riding, pottery making, and many other things. The gym even included bowling alleys. The classes were small at the most 24 girls. The girls lived in dorms on the grounds. A woman who graduated from Kemper was well educated and knowledgeable about many things. They were finished ladies.
Just as we were getting in the truck to go home I spotted a red fox, yes a real wild red fox strolling down the sidewalk of this historic lake front community. We sat in the car and watched him for a bit. The lady walking on the other side of the street paused to watch him trot along occasionally stopping to sniff here or pee there (gotta mark territory ya know). It was an odd thing to see as we can’t recall any woods near there for him to live. I guess he was just like us enjoying a day out in the sun with no snow and temps that weren’t really cold by Wisconsin December’s standards.
As I’ve said multiple times in this post there are more photos on my flickr account. You can also view larger sizes of any of these by clicking on them and going to that account. Also as always I’d LOVE to hear from you. You can comment here, e-mail me at any of my e-mail accounts (marylouiseeklund at gmail or yahoo) or tweet me @marylouiseklund. I’m also on Google+ as myself but you won’t get me on Facebook. My old account there is there but it’s dead. Until next time – Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and hope life’s treating you well.
So obviously keeping a blog with everything else I’m doing isn’t working. I’m rethinking what I’m going to do with all my social media and blog. I’m thinking of turning this into more of a personal journal than official writing blog. Apparently that will suit my style.
For those who met or followed me on Facebook. I don’t do that any more. Ever since Facebook updated their system to track you even when you sign out, I stopped using them. I considered that an invasion of privacy and apparently so did the FTC. You can now find me on Google+ because it’s a system that turns off when you log out. They already had their brush with the FTC with Google Buzz and cleaned up their act. I’m me over there too, Mary Louise Eklund feel free to circle me any time. Also say hi in the comments.
I’m also on Twitter. Love it as I can shout out to the world from my phone when a thought is worth sharing. I’m marylouiseklund over there. Note one e for the end of Louise and the start of Eklund in that handle. Also over to the right my tweets run so you’ll see links I think are interesting shared there.
Now to tell you what I’ve been doing since August.
Hmm, I’ve been doing craft shows selling my jewelry. I’ve had a booth with two of my friends Paula Lawlor and Jean Rabe. We’ve had great shows and really bad shows but in the end I just want to support my craft addiction. After the first of the year we plan to open an esty store. I’ll let you know about that when it happens.
Jean is moving at the end of January, her husband has taken a new job a bit south of here. He’s already moved there. I sure will miss them. Jean was a bit part of our writer’s group. She brought years of experience in writing and editing to our group of newbies. Now we’re on our own after January.
As for our little jewelry/craft group. We’ll go on with lessons learned from this year. There are some other crafters interested in joining us. After the holidays we’ll meet, choose what craft fairs we want to do starting in the Spring and start the application process for them.
Mike had active duty in Japan. This was months after the big earthquake in northern Japan. He did get to go sight see once before the work started. We got to chat regularly over the internet. No we didn’t use Skype but instead Yahoo IM but the voice chat. I think he enjoyed Poland more last year because with that group he got to see more of the host country. Here he was on base most of the time working the night shift. Never know what you’ll get but the Navy still lives up to its promise of seeing the world.
Aaron moved out into a dorm at University of Wisconsin in Madison. He’s doing so well. He comes home regularly to see his girlfriend Sara. As a result we get to see him regularly. As you can see he’s having a great time a college discovering odd things like an old gas mask without the filter and public transportation.
I rediscovered the fun of having ideas, doodles, plans, notes, and such all in one nice book. My new journal book of choice is a large moleskine with grid paper. The great thing about gridpaper is I can draw out floor plans of settings I create in my stories. I can do calendars, and such. Also when I take a notion to sketch it helps having a grid. I’m not a good sketcher but at times it makes me happy.
We didn’t just sit around all the time but did do a few things without going to a single theme park. We took an airboat ride out on a local lake. That was lots of fun. We got to see alligators and other wild life. I told Mike it felt like I was riding a couch across the water. I loved it and would like to go do it again sometime.
We toured the Leu House and Gardens. There they have a wonderfully historic house with beautiful gardens. Mrs. Leu loved roses and her rose garden was unbelievable! The roses were in bloom and I did enjoy making pictures of them until the mosquitoes came out at dusk! Didn’t see the rest of the gardens as we ran to our car to avoid the blood thirsty swarms! Next time going more toward mid day when the sun is high and mosquitoes are low.
Life’s not all been crafting, moving and vacation. We did deal with a huge plumbing issue that happened when the sewage pipe from the second floor cracked and drained through our walls and into our basement. The whole basement had to be redone. That took a while to get in order but our insurance covered most of the cost. THANK GOODNESS!
We lost Grandpa Mac this fall. He was Mike’s maternal grandfather, Dale McAllister. It was sad but a blessing Grandpa was freed from his body. He’d not been in good health and had to be in a nursing homes. We’ll miss him. The funeral service was excellent the minister recounted many of his funny tales make all of us smile remembering the man we knew.
As for writing, I’m working on a Steampunk novel. I’m using the characters from my two published stories. It picks up just after the Steampunk’d story. All of it takes place on the Plebeman estate. It’s been fun and soon the first draft will be done and sit on the hard drive to cool before my editing/rewrites. Then it’ll be out to betas.
Next big project will be an urban (but really rural setting) fantasy set in town I grew up in and my parents still live, Greeneville, Tennessee. I’ve been working on that story concept and plot for months. It should be fun to revisit the area but with a fictional twist of course.
As for genealogy, I’m still plugging away at it. I’ve come to terms that I will always have a filing cabinet of information awaiting input into my family tree program. I’ll always be collecting more documentation and always be behind. All this despite I only deal with dead ancestors and relatives. Such is the life of an amateur genealogist.
We haven’t had any snow that stuck to the ground until today. I’d been counting my blessings and hoping for a snow-less winter but that’s too much to ask for in Wisconsin. I count my blessings that it is late starting this year and hope for an early spring, say oh in March!
Hope the holidays are treating you well. Now that you know what I’m up to give me a shout out to tell me what you’ve been up to. You can reach me here, Google+, Twitter, Flickr (where you’ll find this photos in large sizes and many more from these events & other things), or at either of my e-mail addresses marylouiseeklund at yahoo.com or gmail.com. I try to make it easy to be found.
Mary Louise Eklund 