"Before and After" May Kids

Speaking of "Before and After" photos, here are a few of the three May kids through the years.

The dates are "guess-estimated" and probably out of order.  

 

About 1949 Mary seemed to say,  "Oh, please may I have a baby brother or sister?"

This is in 1952 when Philip was still a mere twinkle in Daddy's eye!

  
 

Beware:  

ADULT content (Tee Hee) 

TOPLESS babe

Then we were three.  This was more like 1954.

This is about 1954.  I had forgotten about those curtains.

A busy summer day at play. About 1954

1955  Weren't our blouses charming?

1956  Taken by Mother's childhood friend from North Carolina, Margaret Sparger Honbarrier.  

1958 Christmas.  We cut our own cedar tree every year.

1958 This might have been the day we went to Ed Brown's wedding, where Philip was the cutest Ring Bearer ever!  Grandmother May made our dresses and Phil's adorable suit.

1959 Even then Anita liked clothes with "sissy" stuff designs.

1959 On the steps at Uncle Robert & Aunt Ruth Freeman's house.

Maybe this was 1957 or earlier.  It's obvious by Phil's bare feet that he wasn't going to school with us.

1960 Summer days relaxing on the front porch.

 1960 Oh, how we loved visiting Grandmother Freeman in Dobson, North Carolina.

1961 Sherando Lake?

1962 The Mays at home in the country.

1962 Ooh, la, la

1963 at Monticello.  Mother and Daddy took us on an educational trip/vacation at least once a year, such as the World's Fair in 1964, Niagara Falls, etc.

1963 Sugar Maple Festival in West Virginia

 Our family camping trips were rough for Mother -- all the same cooking to do but in more difficult circumstances.  We were basic campers and slept in tents with cots.  The box on top of the station wagon held our camping gear.  In spite of inconveniences, we shared great adventures and made wonderful memories.

1963 Time for School

1963 Easter Sunday.  That is the dress, jacket and hat I made for a sewing contest.

1964 The corsage might be from my junior prom.

1967 Visiting Grandmother Freeman again.  I also made that green wool suit.

1969 Christmas

1973 Anita's wedding.  She was such a beautiful bride!

1996 Mother's 70th birthday party

1999  Christmas time again.

2005 Mother's 80th birthday party - a big bash in the church's fellowship hall.  About 80 people came.

2010 Our last photo with Mother at the week-long celebration of her 85th birthday at Philip's home in Waxahachie, Texas.

2011 The 3 Mays after Mother's Celebration of Life Service

Here's an overview.  
Click on this and any other photo for a larger version.

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P.S.  I wish we'd done something like I was doing with my grandchildren every year.  It makes viewing the pics more fun to see the people in the same order.  Here's an example.

How blessed we were to grow up in such a wholesome setting, surrounded by people to guide, nurture, encourage, teach and love us. 

Earthquake Escapades

NEWS FLASH......THIS JUST IN:

"Seismologists have determined that the earthquake outside of DC on Tuesday was not from a fault line but rather the result of our Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves." 

Breaking News:
It has been established that the DC earthquakes occurred on a rare and obscure fault-line;  President Obama is deciding whether to call it “Bush’s Fault”, "Tea Party's Fault" or "Not My Fault."

Earthquake, Hurricane, HUH?

There was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the East coast of the USA this afternoon about 2 p.m.  That is quite unusual.

I was having lunch at "Bowl of Good" restaurant and wasn't aware of anything.  Ed called.  He'd been on the sofa and said it was like when a load of laundry gets unbalanced and makes noise.....then he realized there was no laundry.  He said the books in the bookcase against the living room wall were rattling for about 15 seconds.

The epicenter was at Mineral, Virginia, which is about 80 miles east of us.  They did have china break and pictures fall off walls there.  Some schools and businesses were evacuated as a precaution.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene has weakened to a Category 1 storm but could intensify and hit somewhere on the East coast this weekend.  I just hope we get some rain from it, both in Florida and in Virginia.  

Guess we'd better expect the unexpected --- be it earthquake, hurricane or whatever weather comes our way these days....whether we like it or not!

After tons of work.....

As I said, I forgot to take "before" pictures.  But, anyone who saw these places before will know that a LOT has been accomplished.....yeah, clearing out 90 years worth of accumulation!

(If you've never been to our house or seen these sheds, you might want to skip this post.)

Click on each photo to see a larger view.

 

Basement

Former freezer room below.  Those boxes belong to the house tenants.

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The "old kitchen" shed in the back yard.  When my grandparents bought the house in 1920 it was the typical frame farmhouse with 2 rooms upstairs, 2 rooms downstairs and a room on the back for the kitchen.  

When they remodeled in 1942, they doubled the size of the house and literally took off that old kitchen room, making it into a storage building.  It was so full, you could barely get in the door.

  

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One of the machine storage sheds out near the barns.   

These two shots are "before".

 

Now for the "after" shots of the shed.

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Neither Grandaddy, Daddy nor Uncle Bob were known for keeping a neat or organized tool shop.  Plus, they saved everything.  The amount of metal, tools, equipment and trash that came out of this building is mind-boggling.

The dairy barn is swept and cleared out, too.  

This huge operation was with the help of family, the auctioneer, the metal scrap guys, and my trusty helpers from the Linden Rhodes family (they rent the farm), the house tenants, Faith and Jonathan Histand and others.  I sincerely thank them all!!! 

Considering we didn't get up here from Florida until the middle of May, this was all done in 3 months.  No wonder I'm tired!  It is such a relief and feeling of accomplishment to have this finished.  

Now we can move on to the next step --- getting the farm on the market.  Know anyone interested in a farm of about 95 acres in the middle of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia?

Busy Butterflies Socially

When it rains, it pours!  Some weeks go by that we don't have anyone to go out with.  Not this one!

Monday we saw my nephew, Levi, and his buddy.  Hunter and Mary Margaret Hollar, along with Cousin Jim Bowman, joined us for dinner.  Levi is ready to start his senior year at JMU.  Sam, his buddy from high school, has never been to DC or Virginia so drove up with Levi and will fly back in a few days.

Levi Walker May and his friend, Sam, from Texas.

Tuesday, our Florida friends, Jan and Dave Clements, arrived in their RV.  They were staying at the campground at Natural Chimneys.  We went to see them that evening and they came to our house on Wednesday.  Thursday they went on Skyline Drive to Big Meadows Lodge (where I was a waitress in college), then came to our house.

Jan and Maggie Clements - I've never seen such a well behaved dog...a real mama's girl!

Dave's  "Life is Good" shirt refers to the life of an RV traveler.

After supper, the highlight of their visit was a requested trip to the famous Kline's Dairy Bar in Harrisonburg.

This evening, we're going to meet my friend-since-first-grade, Lois Brown Horne and her hubby, Ken, for a tour of the Rockingham County Fair, if it isn't raining.  

As they say, "When it rains, it pours!" (pun intended).....so it is with social life.

To-Da-Dump

To-Da-Dump, To-Da-Dump, To-Da-Dump, Dump, Dump, Dump! 

What an exciting ("exhausting" would be a better adjective) two days this has been.  Yesterday, Grant Rhodes, his little sister, Lorena, and I cleaned out the tool shed.  

Even though the auctioneer had taken sellable stuff and the metal scrap guy had taken the metal stuff, there was STILL tons of stuff to take.  Lots of build-up happens in a shop in 90 years.

I never would have believed what 3 people could accomplish in an hour.  The tool shop looks totally different now.  Again, I forgot to take pictures.

When Grant and I got back from the dump yesterday, we cleared out the "old kitchen", a shed in the back yard.  

Even though the truck was full, we managed to add 5 chairs and many other items from the basement today.

It was an engineering masterpiece of mammoth proportions.  We practically held our breath during the whole 20 mile drive hoping nothing would fall off.

The items today were easier to unload, in spite of the horrid smell and the wind that blew things straight back into the truck.

Grant really got into it and tried to break the glass items he threw.  He wouldn't believe me that the bedpan wasn't ceramic until he heard the metal clink -- and it didn't break.

Hula, anyone?

Bye, bye, "Stuff"!

It's interesting and rather ironic.....what a beautiful view there is from the dump.  I do know it's a beautiful feeling to have the tool shop and the shed cleared and cleaned.

April Before and After with Wow Factor

Here is a before and after photo that I want to share with you.  My 24-year-old niece, April Krull lives in Ohio.  She had the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass last summer.  

(Silly me, I thought that a person comes out of the surgery all slim -- NOT!)

April has consistently exercised and made good food choices.  She's discovered she enjoys running and zumba.  

April, I am so proud of you and you can really be proud of yourself!  

Now comes the even harder part...staying this way.  (I know because I've reached my goal in Weight Watchers several times in the past 25 years.  When I gain a little, I get right back to the meetings.  A lot of it boils down to understanding that every bite that goes in your mouth does matter.)  

You can do it, April, and as you requested, I'm going to be checking on you!  I watch your You Tube update almost every week.  http://www.youtube.com/user/cuteelk87 

Before and After Farmhouse Rooms

There's something about human nature that makes us enjoy seeing before and after photos, whether it be of homes, dieters, or makeovers.  It's almost therapeutic for me to see these particular comparisons because it makes it clear how very much we "girls" did accomplish during our whirlwind work week.

Click on each photo for a larger version.

BTW (by the way) we haven't cleaned yet so you might see some dirt --- shock, gasp!

What fond memories I have of the front porch, especially in the summer.  That's where we six May grandchildren hung out and played silly card games.

I also did a lot of sewing there, using the large window-seat as my work table.

I could kick myself for not taking a photo of Mother's room before we cleared it.....wouldn't you know, it was one of the lightest and prettiest rooms of all!  Anyway, it's certainly open and airy now.

The thing you can't see is that the closets are still full of beautiful clothes.  Anita insisted we keep the clothes because she wanted her daughters to go through them.  As I suspected, neither Ellen, the 29 year-old, nor April, the 24 year-old were keen on anything in there.  (This is one time I wish I wore a larger size....hmmm, let's rephrase that.... This is one time I wish Mother had worn a smaller size!)

The farmhouse is slowly getting cleared out.  Naturally, I'm bringing home a few things along the way -- especially photos.  Every time I think I've found them all, some more show up at odd places. 

Note to self:  Never store photos in a basement or in a shed that gets damp.  

I have such good intentions and am in the process of scanning them but it takes so LONG!  Hopefully, I'll have an "after" shot of this disgraceful desk one of these days!