Garage Sale Finds:

Yesterday, my mother-in-law, Darlene and  I drove around Mayberry, stopped at several garage sales, and then she bought me lunch at the Basecamp Grill in Sunriver.  We had chicken wraps, and they were delicious.  I took us down roads that I had never even heard of before, and we ended up inadvertently taking the back road from Sunriver home, looking for a garage sale that we never did find.  It was a nice way to spend the day!

First we stopped at Beverly and Julia's garage sale at the daycare.  They had decided to not have one after all, but have another idea, which I consider brilliant.  It is still in the baby stages, so I cannot divulge it at this time. They asked me if I could make them a website, if needed, and I said that I would be glad to do so. 

My goal for the day of shopping was to find things that I could use for yard art in the backyard garden area that Cary and I will soon be creating.  The weather hasn't been cooperating yet, and we may not have a huge harvest this first year, but we can get it set up and plant some flowers at least.  After we left the daycare, we went across the street to our first garage sale, and I found a cute little shelf for $3.00 that I can paint and use in the garden.

Next, we went to a beautiful home on the Big Deschutes river and, boy, did I score there!  The hostess is a crafter, and she has a booth at the La Pine Frontier Days selling jean purses and birdhouses.  I really liked her.  I bought lots of things at her house.  A big bag of lace scraps, alphabet beads, around 500 "critter" eyes that I can use on my sock dolls, and some old records.  Elvis records.  I was going to give them to my brother-in-law for Christmas, and already told him on FB that I found something great for him.   Then Cary said, are you crazy?  Those are worth a lot of money, we are keeping them!  Sorry, Rhett, I guess I'll need to find something else for you.  Good thing that I have 6 months left to shop.

I also found 17 vintage cloth napkins at that lady's joint, which I will be using in my adventures in table settings.

We went to a few more places after that and I came home with some books, VHS Kevin Costner movies for the trailer, fabric, chicken napkin holders and some pink dishes that will go well in the garden.  I also found a cute little lawn chair for a doll.  The thrift store in Sunriver, Second Tern, was having a 1/2 price sale, and I found a few treasures there.  Over all, I spent around $30.00, and came home with a lot of things that I can use.  You can click the picture below to enlarge it if you want to:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Now I just need to get busy and 
start sewing and crafting again!

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Our granddaughter Halie (the blond) and her friend.

Cool picture from Halie's FB page!

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Matthews at Work:

While some people in my family are going to the cemeteries today, and I work on my blog, others are working in the trailer park pouring a slab for the new trailer in space #7.  Looks great, you guys! 

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cary points out the job.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

My best friend husband.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cary, Jimmy, Logen and Maykala are hard at work.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Larry and Darrold

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cary checks the shoot.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jimmy, Maykala and Logen 

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Darrold and Larry

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Larry Matthews

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cary Matthews

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Memorial Day Weekend:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Rachel and Kinsey

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 My Great-Great Grandparents' Headstone

Every Memorial Day weekend, my mom, aunties, daughters, sisters and cousins "do" the pioneer cemeteries in the Drain, Oregon area.  I try to go, but have missed on many occasions, especially since I moved to a different part of the state.  I am missing again this year too, and I feel guilty.  I did see most everybody who will be there last Sunday at the 50th wedding anniversary party, but it isn't the same as visiting, cleaning and decorating the graves of my pioneer relatives.  Cary had to work today, and I just don't feel up to all the driving by myself.

Here are some pictures of past trips.  It is such a neat traditional event that our female family members do.  The men try it once and then decide, that is enough!  The little boys attend with their moms until they get older and then decide it is a lot of riding around, and they would rather do something else.  But, the dedicated ladies never miss; unless you are me and my sister Julie.  We have missed the past few years.   Oh, well, it is hard to do everything, isn't it?

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Baby Nigel

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Cousins Ethan and Chris

 

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Me reading to Nigel and Alex, around 15 years ago.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Nanny, Aunt Mardy and Mom

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Sally, Amy, Aunt Mardy and Nanny

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Sally, Nanci and Amy


These are from last year:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Kristin, Amy, Sally, Me and Kari

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Casey, Kinsey, Kari, Amy and Grandma Jody

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Rachel, Sally, Amy and Kinsey

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jen, Angie's Friend, Angie and Sondy

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jody, Mardelle and Sondy

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Aunt Mardy, Rachel, Kinsey and Casey
at Baby Earnest's grave.  
He isn't related but we always stop by to visit.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jen, Kristin and Casey

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Congratulations, Nancy!

Nancy called me last night, so excited, to tell me that she had gotten a new job with a wonderful company.  Cary and I are so happy for her, and are so proud of her.  Way to go, Nancy, we love you!

" Hey, you guys, she is the best choice!"
Cary, Me and Nancy in January

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

The Bus with the Black Bra and Duct Tape:

Back in the 1990's I lived the life of the broke.  My mother always said, if you are broke, you have hope and a chance of getting out of it someday.  If you are poor, sorry, there is little chance, unless a miracle happens.  Like winning the lottery or getting a scholarship.

I was in my second marriage and I had 6 kids, as a result of yours, mine and ours.  During the course of that marriage, there were between one and three kids living with us at any given time, at first in a two bedroom house and then later in a four bedroom farm house at a Christian Camp in Walterville, Oregon.

We always had food, electricity, and for the most part, jobs.  We also had a bunch of old cars.  We needed several, since you would never know which one was going to be working the next day.  And, we had to drive a lot, so they were necessary.  One of our old cars was a tan lowered 1968 VW mini bus with a black bra on the front.  It was more or less reliable, and it did hold everybody if there were all in town.

 Kristin and Ollie washing the bus.

 Peter and Nigel helping them.

 A view of the interior with my sweet little baby.

As you can tell, this VW bus was not anything restored or fancy.  I think we got it for around $400 and worked on the engine.  One day, to my dismay,  as I was driving down E. 13th, right past Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, the sliding door slid open and fell off.  I was scared and mortified.  Some nice man helped me get it back on its tracks, and after that we never opened that sliding door again.  I put duct tape across the seam to remind everybody not to open it.  The man I was married too, who never did do well with any sort of stress, yelled at me for ruining the paint job.  What paint job?  Brother.  See what I had to go through?  But the duct tape stayed, and we all crawled through the front passenger door after that to get to the back seats.

Speaking of the walk down the isle to the back seats, I will never forget when Nigel, who was 4 by then, had been playing the video games at Ponderosa Pizza in La Pine.  He was still young enough where he didn't need quarters, he thought he was winning the demo screen.  Ah, the good old days, before they wise up.  Anyway, he was also going through his 4-year-old cussing phase (they all get potty mouths around then, in my experience).  We were done with our pizza and got back into the van to go back to the cabin.  Nigel sauntered down the isle, as proud and cocky as a 4-year-old can be, and said, "Man, those bideo games are F****** AWESOME!!!  I said, hey, you can't talk like that!  It was still funny though, even though I didn't dare laugh.

As I mentioned previously, this bus was lowered.  That meant that when you went over a speed bump, you had to turn at an angle or you bottomed out.  I am still not sure why that was considered cool because it was rather impractical.  The bus was always cold, because VW heaters sucked back then.  

Are you wondering about the black bra?  It was the only ornamental piece on this vehicle.  My ex must have found it in the markdown basket at Knehcts Auto Parts.  It probably overdrew our checking account.  It went across the front, with openings for the headlights.  I remember being in staff meeting at the church where I was the secretary, asking in all sincerity the other staff members (who were all guys), whether or not you could run a black bra through a car wash.  They cracked up!  Then I realized how that had sounded and got embarrassed.  Oh, well.

That vehicle served us well for the price.  We sold it to a young kid a few years later, who never changed the title and left it abandoned.  We told the cops that it wasn't ours any longer, do what they had to with it.

Looking at the pictures of does bring back some good memories though.  We took the kids a lot of fun places in that old thing.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Vote Now! Julie Julie is working on her own t.v. show!

This photo reminds me of my Grandma and Grandpa's t.v.  
They called it "Old Faithful"

Julie, the funny lady close to my heart, has sent in her video audition for Oprah's new contest on helping some lucky participant to win their own television talk show.  Julie is an Oregon girl, living in our very own city of  Bend.  She is also the Julie Julie of Chubby Mommy Running Club @ http://www.chubbymommyrunningclub.com/  and Twist Pop Media @ http://twistpopmedia.com/

Help Julie win her own show by watching the video below, and then by voting lots of times.  You vote by clicking on the green button, after you open up the link.  I think that part is like American Idol ... the public has input in the choosing of the winner.

Julie's Audition: Everyday Fitness Adventures with Julie - OWN TV

Thank you for your support!

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.