Shower Me with Your Love

The baby shower for our daughter-in-law was last Saturday. The week before, Jim road his motorcycle to St. Louis so he and a friend could take a trip together. I decided to go up to Cincinnati last week, and then the two of us would meet in Indiana for the shower. While I was in the city of my birth, I was able to have lunch with relatives on both sides of my family. I haven't been to Cincinnati in over three years, so it had definitely been awhile since I had seen folks. 

Grandma Shower

My cousin Mary Ann was kind enough to let me stay with her, and she had a small grandma shower for me, which was super sweet. They gave a couple books, toys and a picture frame for the baby's photo - items for me to keep at our house for Baby Dub. They also each had a gift for me to take to the kids for the shower. But Debbie wanted me to open hers up. I first lifted out a little yellow crocheted cap. I immediately said there had to be a family story attached to it. She quickly acknowledged that there was. I next brought a little yellow sweater out of the bag, and it included a label. The label read "Made with love by Catherine Kubler" - my mother, who died in 1989. Mom had crocheted the set for Debbie's first-born, Nate, in 1985. Debbie had held onto it all these years, hoping that I would have a grandchild so she could pass it on. She wanted my grandbaby to be wrapped in her great-grandmother's love. Needless to say, we all broke down in tears at the sentiment. What an incredibly thoughtful gesture!

sweater set

On Friday I drove to Jasper, Indiana to meet up with Jim. We picked up a trailer for his motorcycle so we could ride together on the way back. Then we checked into our hotel in Jasper. We were able to park the trailer and bike at Megan's parent's house so we didn't have to haul them around. Megan's brothers and their families arrived at the house a little after us, as did Andy and Megan, so we were all able to have dinner together. I had them open the gift from Debbie, which was a good call as I teared up again as I relayed the story of the outfit's history.

Saturday morning we set up everything for the shower, with the guys lugging the tables and chairs around. They took off for a pub to eat wings and watch football while we attended the shower at the house. Everything looked great as the guests began to arrive at noon. We had sandwiches with sides, cupcakes and adorable cookies. We then played a game before Megan opened the gifts. As there were 30 people in attendance, this took quite a bit of time. They received some wonderful presents, and got a good start on outfitting the baby as well as the nursery. It was a wonderful, happy occasion to be sure.

Baby Dub shower

After checking out of our hotel Sunday morning, we stopped by the house to pick up the trailer and say goodbye. We had a long drive ahead of us, so we did not dally for too long. The drive home was fairly uneventful, despite the fact that this was the first time we had ever towed anything behind the new car. It took us 10 hours, which is kind of what we expected.

The kids will remain pretty close to home from now until the baby's birth. We may try to run up and see them once more before the Baby Dub makes her appearance. We are in the home stretch now!

Reflections

American flag

We are proud to fly the American flag at our home (even if the HOA did require that we get architectural review board approval before hanging it). Despite everything that has and is going on here and around the world, I still love the country of my birth. I also love photographing reflections, so capturing multiple images of the flag on our car was a bonus for me.

Speaking of photographs, we just had four of our area photos placed on canvas for the screen porch. We wanted to have some blue on the walls to complement the new cushions we got for the furniture in there. Since the porch overlooks the lake, it made sense to go with some of our nature photography. I think these will work nicely. Now to get them hung!

nature photography

Construction Update

The construction at our house is now complete, including sod replacement due to the damage caused by the construction equipment when the back patio was expanded and a retaining wall was built. These renovations were supposed to come on the heels of the screen porch addition in June, but instead did not commence until mid-July. The timing was unfortunate, but now that it is all done and the grass is beginning to look better it was all worth it.

screen porch with new siding door

For the screen porch we decided to just order new cushions for the wicker furniture as we didn't want to wait on new pieces. With Covid still impacting all things in our lives, furniture orders are taking 6-8 months to fulfill. Surprisingly we were able to get our custom cushions in just three weeks. We did, however order a cafe height table and two chairs for that space back in June. Those will not arrive until November. 

Because we expanded the existing patio, we also felt that we needed some additional furniture there. We decided upon two lounge chairs by the same manufacturing company as the existing outdoor furniture. Those were ordered in June with the table and chairs, and should also arrive in November.

The back of our yard has a berm leading up to the high point of the yard. It just never made sense, other than to the developer I suppose. With the addition of a retaining wall, it now looks like it has a purpose. The last thing that needs to be done is the planting plan. Jim is working on that today, with the help of a local gardening specialist. Because we live in a different planting zone, with totally different soil, we wanted the advice of someone familiar with those variances. It is our goal to have all the plants put in this fall.

patio extension and stone wall

Once that is all done, we should have a fabulous outdoor entertaining space. The lake view is great, of course, but the plants should provide a nice foreground to draw the eyes to the lake.