Piano Project

In early February, a dear friend offered our family a free piano.  She was moving to a smaller place, and it was an older piano that needed a lot of TLC. 

So started our great piano improvement project.  It needed to be stripped, sanded, stained, and laquered all over again.  It's spent a lot of it's life in an storage shed, so a through cleaning was need.

The whole sanding process was horrible.  It took a lot more time, effort, and stress than we originally thought.  But it has all been worth it for our beautiful new addition.

Now we just need to luck into an abandoned paino bench!

Dressing Room Dilemma

   Oh, the optimism of walking through a department store picking cute outfits, one after another.  The thought always crosses my mind that I have so many outfits picked out, that I really can't afford to buy all of them.  Then as that cold, miniature dressing room door shuts, things quickly go downhill.

   Today, I was shopping for a dress for an upcoming wedding.  The first dress I tried on was a sharp pencil skirt.  Those dresses do not flatter my thunder thighs at all, but they seduce me with how cute they look on the hanger.  Getting it on was a bit of struggle, but at least I didn't hear any strings tearing.  (Don't act like you've never tried something on just to hear that small ripping sound!). 

    I found that my hips don't lie, and that little pencil skirt looked  like a cobra swallowing a large mouse.  After a small sigh of resignation to my body type, I started lifting the dress over my head.  It got to my rib cage and abruptly stopped.  Hmmm... So then, I suck in a huge gulp of air and tug as hard as possible.  It didn't budge, but it did get to a point where it could neither go back down towards my hips or up to my shoulders.  I'm stuck with my arms and head trapped in the skirt portion, while my lower body is bare to the cold cruel world.  Now the panic starts sinking in.  I'm all by myself in this room, and I physically don't think I can get out of this outfit without the jaws of life and a few fireman to assist.  I keep up a steady mental mantra of, "You were able to put this dress on, so you should be able to get it off."

   I briefly think of yelling for help to the dressing room attendant, but she looked so tired and overworked.  I was afraid she would take one look at me, take a quick photo to post on facebook, and go to the manager and give her resignation.  So then the dress vs. woman wrestling match began.  I lean all the way over thinking that it might squeeze my ribs in a bit.  No luck.  Maybe the dress was catching on my bra.  Nope.  I put one foot on the wall for leverage, regret eating that banana muffin last night, get a good grip of the dress, and pull like I've never pulled before.  Pop.  I shoot out of that dress like a shaken up champagne bottle.  I won the battle, but the pencil skirt left me something to remember her by.  The clasp on the "cute, tiny" belt left a scrape up my side. 

     And that was just the first dress I tried on.  I had to look at myself in that horribly lit full length mirror and give myself a good pep talk.  Okay, so maybe you should never try a dress on that size ever again, but that doesn't mean there's not a perfect dress out there for you.  There are a lot more fish in the sea.  I vowed to that reflection that I wouldn't give up today and complemented my calves for looking great.

     Many dresses and many stores later, I found a dress I have fallen in love with.  Unfortunately, It's not dressy enough for a wedding, so my adventure will continue another day....

Grandma Mary Krile

At a week shy of 99 years old, my Grandma passed away last week.  She was a strong, faithful, and humble woman.  There's a joke I heard the other day that a Catholics worst nightmare is that they die, get to purgatory, and Mother Teresa's still there.  That's the way I feel about my Grandma.  She had unwavering faith and solid convictions her whole life.  While we weren't extremely close, there are few memories that I hope to share and pass down to Clare someday.

• Grandma was raised by her Grandfather in Wisconsin, while her father worked 6 days a week. 
• At the age of 22, she came from Oshkosh, WI to Pisek, ND to care for a relative.  She was then asked to become the priest's housekeeper and stayed in Pisek from then on out. 
• My grandfather courted her by giving her Holy cards.  Even though there was a 17 year age difference between them, they got married in 1940 when she was 27 years old.
• She worked at the Post Office and became Postmaster in 1973
• My Grandfather died in 1961, while my Dad was still in college.  Grandma never re-married, and lived way more of her life as a widower than a married woman.  I can't imagine living that long without your husband's support and love.  There meeting in heaven must have been a beautiful sight.
• She lived by herself in a single wide trailer in Pisek till she was 91.  She never drove a car and would make daily trips to the grocery store down the street.  She knew how to survive the harsh winters of North Dakota.  I've heard stories of getting a bowl of snow from outside and waiting for it to melt to get drinking water. 
• She used to have a beautiful orange cat that was a great companion.  When the cat died, someone gave her a fish.  The next winter, the fish froze in his bowl.  Winter's were harsh!
• In the summers, Grandma would have massive gardens on either side of her trailer.  Corn, dill, cabbage, peas, and beans sprouted everywhere.  The best memories were snapping green beans on her huge two bench swing in the back. 
• Grandma was an avid gardener, talented crocheter, cook, piano player, card player, and reader.
• The last time I visited her in 2008, my Aunt Rosemary kept insisting she play canasta with Kevin and me.  Grandma kept going on and on about how she couldn't remember how to play and that she had forgotten everything.  Her memory was starting to fade then, and she had good and bad days.  Finally, we talked her into playing.  We gave her 2 minutes to get her cards straight, and then she whomped us every round.  We didn't even have a chance.
• I want to say thank you to my parents, who drug all us kids on the three day drive, one way, every other summer trip to get to visit Grandma in Pisek, ND.  I know it was a hard trip to make, but I'm grateful for every memory we made. 

At my cousins wedding in California.

The last time I got to see her, and Kevin's first time to meet her.  I was just finishing my 1st Trimester with Clare and got to ask her a lot of advice.