40th wedding anniv party

Last weekend our 3 beautiful children gave us a 40th wedding anniversary party at Kim's house. It was wonderful! Especially wonderful is the fact that they each profess to still love us in spite of our poor parenting skills as they were growing up. They each took a turn in front of the guests telling stories of growing up in our care, how we nurtured and loved them with wire-hangar spankings and motherly F***bombs... which apparently worked because those techniques helped shape them into wonderful adults! The good memories of our camping trips and other travels with their Kelly cousins was fondly remembered as well.

Kids don't come with handbooks telling the parents exactly how to nurture each one, so it is all a crap-shoot if you ask me. Learn as you go. But we tried hard and worked ourselves into grey-haired grandparents, Thanks be to God, and the result is good.

We are all doing OK and are thankful for that.



The evening was a lot of fun, the food was excellent, all our grandkids were there and it will be fondly remembered for a long time.

An added bonus was having Lara visiting from Australia. She lived with us in 1988-89 as an exchange student. She and her mate Tom are in the US for a month visiting. They arrived here, bought a van then they drove to Ohio to buy up bikes to ship home and sell. Quite an adventuresome pair! The reunion has been sweet!
Here's Lara with us the night of the party (and Braden getting into the act too):



A real highlight for Mike and me is the photo we were given of all our kids and their families. Tara's mom was the photographer and, with her sharp skills on the computer, everyone is looking at the camera! Thanks to all for agreeing to do that photo shoot. It probably was not easily done what with a few known wiggle worms present! Hopefully a few cold ones eased parental nerves afterwards at home! Thanks, again, Kids; the photo now hangs over our mantle and I love it!
Here's the fab photo:


God willing, and the creek don't rise... we will make it to 41!

THANK YOU AGAIN, children of mine; it was SWEET!

all together again

At a birthday party for William, we all gathered and had a family photo shoot. It was difficult to get all persons looking forward, smiling, keeping their hands to themselves.. hahaha.. but the expert photographers kept clicking away, and this is a good result. It is excellent because all of us were together and that rarely happens these days. Here you see Mike's mom with Mike and me, our kids and their spouses and their kids. Thanks to Pam and Moe for hosting us all, and thanks to God for this season of enjoyment of each others company.

According to Jordan I needed a new cell phone last week, so 'we" picked a phone that has a camera (imagine that!!) and it actually opens up to reveal a very tiny KEYBOARD!! How cool is that too?? What will they invent next? So Autumn came over to spend the night and helped me figure out some stuff on the phone. We took a self portrait using the camera flash and sepia tone setting. What fun! This afternoon I have spent two hours trying to get the phone pictures from the phone memory card into my laptop. No easy task. But I finally did it. HA! how do you like me NOW?
We are over-run with zuccini... so there is another loaf of zuccini bread baking right now. smells mighty fine, in the a/c, on a hot day.



The girls spent the night with us and this morning we took more timed pics with Papa's camera. How come watching that red blinking light on a self-timer camera makes everyone laugh like crazy?? it's magical.
We are easily entertained. The girls skunked me last night in a game of Monopoly too. And I have a hard time beating Jordan in CLUE now. Am losing my touch, darn. But that's ok.

We're having guests from OZ this weekend. The girl who stayed with us as an Australian exchange student is coming to visit with her husband. it will be nice to see her again, and our girls are so excited for her to meet their families. I hope their traveling timing works out so they can see TnT as well at the end of the month.
Be well everyone!

happy 4th

It's been a nice 4th of July weekend but I sure miss the Idaho Kelly's that are not here yet and the 2 KY Kellys as well who stayed home while Bill visited here. and a couple of other kellys didn't join us,but everybody's got to do what they got to do as 'they' say. I am just thankful for the times I can hang around before the heat takes its toll on me for the day and I have to retreat to the a/c.
Here's a brief look at our weekend;
oh, watch it! It ain't that long! grab a beer or an iced tea and just watch it!!!!
LOL.
(It takes longer to post these things that it does for anyone to watch them. that's why I appreciate them so much when others do it. thanks. you know who you are!)

Twins 2nd Birthday

On our second birthday in 1948 we got dolls and buggies to play with. These photos are from a bunch of old photos my cousin Marilyn sent me this week. The 4 photos here were taken on the front lawn of our house on Harcourt Ave off Jefferson Blvd in LA. Grandpa Powers had build 2 brick houses side by side on lots behind his office on Jefferson. We lived in the 3 bedroom one and Frank and Enid lived in the other 2 bed room home. The houses shared a common driveway. I think we only lived there 2 years before we moved to another new house on Virginia Road in LA, across Crenshaw from Gram's house. The only memory I have of living here is one late afternoon I stood crying and screaming at the gate of the driveway at Gram and Grandpa Powers to come get me and take me with them. They had come over to get Frank and Enid to go out somewhere. They were all getting into a big car and I could not understand why they ignored me!! Dad finally hollered at me to get my ass into our house and be quite. So I must have done so, otherwise I'd be dead now. hahaha.
MOm years later told me another story of living in this brick house. Enid always had bulldogs around. The dogs would live in the house and she would cook food for them, sometimes not feeding Frank but always feeding the dogs. Mom and Dad could look out a window from our house across the driveway into a window into Frank's dining or living room. One night when Frank and Enid were gone, Mom and Dad watched Enid's bulldogs eat a box of chocolates that had been left open on a table. the dogs soon got ill and crapped all over Frank's house. Dad must've gotten a huge laugh out of that escapade.
Anyway, in the above pictures, I do not know me from Joan. We both seem to have same style shoes, so I can't just say I am the one in the orthopedic shoes. But I may be the one on the left because it seems the twin on the left has her left leg sticking out funny like it is just an outrigger for balance, and that is always a good clue to find myself.
Now... you all gotta admit these photos are CUTE, right??? They should NOT bring hysterical laughter.
more later.

Hair-do hell

Joan on left, Jayne on right. our natural hair in 1951.

This was 1953 probably, with John, and Dad is shown in the background.

Then in 1954 we got perms. Jim truly thought we looked lovely as you can tell by his face.



Jayne on left, (pissed off evidently)at Christmas 1955 (i think.) HORRIBLE perms!






The 1950's brought all kinds of hairdos, and home or professional perms were all the rage at times. There was a home perm brand called "Toni". The commercial featured a pair of twins and the refrain was "which twin has the Toni?" You might imagine the teasing this brought about when Mom began to get us perm brillo-pad-heads. I was so upset after one perm that I recall going into Mom's bathroom for an hour and wetting my bangs down to plaster them against my forehead so they would not be curly. I hated having poodle-head but we did what we had to do to fit the times.
Oh, the price of beauty!

We planted sunflowers in April with Braden. Sunflowers are cool to watch grow. Some days you'd think they grew a whole foot more when the sun shines. Even in our recent June gloom days, they have been growing. Braden is amazed each time he comes over at how "giant" they are getting. Some times he doesn't see them for 2 weeks. The first part of this video was taken May 6 on a sunny day when Grandpa picked him up from preschool and brought him over for a few hours. The rest of the video is from yesterday; a June gloom day, but the amazement at the sunflower growth continues.
Sorry for the beet crop failure, Mikey. I will take the blame for not reading the directions and soaking the seeds overnight before you almost killed yerself planting the seeds. (OY! Ira! Are you killing yourself??) live and learn!