Monday, July 27, 2009

Driftwood, Grandkids, Pancakes ~ All Weekend Blessings

When we were at the beach last week, I not only hit upon treasures of seashells, rocks, and beach glass, I also found a beautiful piece of driftwood. It was actually a very big, thick, heavy, solid oak plank, and it was about seven feet long. It was beautifully worn and weathered gray. I found it down the beach far away from where we had set up camp, and I dragged it along the sand all the way back with me.
Raymond and his brother Donald were laughing at me, and Ray kept saying that I couldn't be serious about taking it home. I was! And when it came time to pack up and go home, I dragged the plank of driftwood over to Donald's truck and asked him if we could take it and as Raymond shook his head no, Donald said "Absolutely!", because that's how he rolls.
Ray just rolled his eyes, but he helped Donald load it into the car (the plank was so long it went from the back of the cargo area, up past the middle seat where Jayden and I were sitting, and up into the front seat, between Ray and Donald).
We drove to Donald's house where our car was parked and began to unload our things from Donald's car to put into our car. Ray was not thrilled about putting the big old driftwood into his car so Donald offered to bring it to us on Saturday as the guys would be golfing together.
I didn't know what I was going to do with the plank, but it was beautiful, and I was determined to find a use for it.
Well, when I got up Saturday morning, the guys had long ago left for golfing, and everyone else was already up and about too. I got on the computer and read blogs and commented for awhile, and then I made myself a breakfast treat (as my daughter Ellie had made her usual Saturday morning trip to Dunkin' Donuts and always very kindly gets me a wheat bagel) and I made myself a cup of coffee, and I was settling myself down to feast when something caught my eye. On the dining table was sitting something unusual, something I had never seen before. My eyesight is bad and I couldn't really tell what it was and I asked my daughters, "What is this?". My daughter Katie said, "Oh, it's something Uncle Donald made", and then it hit me! That's my driftwood!
I ran over to it and I could not believe my eyes, he had made for me a very beautiful, rustic looking shelf out of my driftwood plank, and he also gave me some beautiful shells to display on it. I seriously was so touched, I had tears in my eyes. And then my daughter Katie said, "Oh no, here we go again! Now she's going to start crying again, and now she's going to have to blog about this!"
And then she says in her Edith Bunker voice (she always uses her Edith Bunker voice when she's imitating me) and she does a little Saturday Night Live parody, "Oh girls, you are not going to believe what Donald made for me! He took my driftwood and made me a beautiful shelf! Oh girls, I'm all 'verklempt' here, I can't even talk about it anymore, I'm so overcome with emotion, so just talk amongst yourselves please, I'm just too verklempt to even speak right now!"
She's a pest! But she's absolutely right! I am overcome with emotion. I am so touched by this gift of his time and his effort.
And, he later told me that the shells were a 'peace offering' because he thought I might be mad that he had cut up my driftwood!
Well, girls, I am all 'verklempt', so please, talk amongst yourselves.

Here's my driftwood beauty:









I especially love the way the wood bows out here and the knot is so beautiful!




We all agreed that our outdoor sink would be a good home for Donald's driftwood shelf.





Some weekend fun!

"Jayden, what's going on?"




"Mia and Erik are hiding from me!"



Now what's going on?







Everyone's hiding from Grandma!



Mia cooking for Jayden.



I guess he liked it!



Pancakes for dinner!




Jayden's Chocolate Chip Mickey Mouse dessert pancake being made on the griddle. He loved it!


After dinner we had a sudden storm of thunder, lightening, hail, and rain, all while the sun was shining! It's been a crazy summer weather-wise! It's been a wonderful summer otherwise!



Have a great day everyone!


24 comments:

  1. I love, love the shelf! What a sweetheart to do that for you...I would have cried too! It's beautiful and looks fantastic on your sink...Very pretty..lucky you!!
    Love, Jerelene

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  2. The Mia/Jaden pictures are just adorable (but I don't need to tell you that!) At your other site, I commented that your brother is a keeper. I was actually referring to Donald (brother-in-law). Now I see you have a brother Tom. It was interesting to read your wistful and winssome reflections about him.

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  3. Your weekend and driftwood turned out wonderful...now you have a perfectly good reason to drag home more driftwood. It made a beautifful shelf...how nice of Donald to take the time.

    The photos of Jayden and Mia are soooo sweet...especially Jayden letting Mia feed him...and her with her mouth open...then the big hug...just too sweet! Makes me smile!

    Take care Eileen,
    Wanda

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  4. Thanks, Jerelene, I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets all emotional over little (BIG to me!) things.

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  5. Rebecca, you can refer to Donald as my brother, he feels like he's my brother, he sure teases like a brother! And Ray and Donald were always close, and we do a lot with Donald and his family, and also with Ray's sister Susie and her family, so I do think of them as my sister and brother.
    And I'm glad you enjoyed my reflections on my oldest brother too!

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  6. Wanda, it was a beautiful weekend. And, you know, in my head I'm thinking of all the wonderful outdoor projects that I could have Ray and Donald working on if only I can collect enough driftwood!

    And I thought the same thing about Mia feeding Jayden with her mouth open! Do you know it's something I always did when I was feeding my little ones?! I still do it whenever I'm feeding a baby!

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  7. Beautiful piece of craftsmanship! The "hug" is a treasure!!! Cathy

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  8. Once again, so many good things about your post that it's hard to pick what to comment on...so how about everything??

    First, since no one else seemed to comment on the pool escapades, let me say how much that tickled me! I love when you write by the pictures as it is happening...they do such cute
    things with the little ones. It was hard to tell that little Mia was even under the pool hiding with Erik!!

    You made me really laugh here when I was picturing you dragging that huge piece of driftwood and then getting Donald on 'your side' about taking it home. Love what he did with it. Now you have something beautiful and practical...plus, I think those blue screws that went into it are so pretty!

    It was too cute seeing Mia cooking for Jayden (my granddaughter, Olivia has that same set and does alot of 'cooking'.) And then Mia opened her mouth while feeding him...do you know that I did that when feeding my babies and then started watching people and realized that MOST people do that! I wonder why???

    Mario used to make us nalesniki for dinner on Friday nights (I held on to the no meat Friday thing as a nice way to honor Jesus' sacrifice for us) and we LOVED it. Have yet to try making it since he died, but I would like to try again in honor of his memory, but some things are just so hard.

    Your daughter had me laughing out loud over her imitating how you would be and the tears and the blogging thing...tell her thanks for cracking me up over here (I think it makes me laugh so much because I see myself as reacting like you!!) Think I'll go read that again...yup, second time around and I'm just hysterically verklempt, so thank you Katie!

    Also liked the picture you took of the rain!

    Think I covered everything and then some!

    blessings and lots of hugs,

    marcy

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  9. I got misty-eyed when I read that Donald transformed one treasure into another. He did a beautiful job. I couldn't wait to click on each one photograph of your treasure and see the details of the driftwood. I understand why you wanted to take it home.
    I love Mia's hair...
    This was a great blog, Wanda. I stayed a while and took in each photo.
    Smiles,
    Jackie

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  10. Okay, before I respond to Marcy I have to respond to Jackie!!
    I AM NOT WANDA!!
    Jackie, I am hysterical laughing here!! With all the hoopla lately over calling people the wrong name, you come here and call me the wrong name! I LOVE IT!! I think we should all start doing it on every comment we make. Otherwise we should just start calling each other "Sister"!!
    But I'm glad you enjoyed my post, JACKIE!
    Smiles AND LAUGHTER,
    EILEEN

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  11. Cathy, thanks for visiting, I loved the hug too, and was so happy he kept up a good long hug, at least long enough for me to grab up the camera again!

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  12. Marcy, I'm glad you got a kick out of Katie, she had to repeat that over and over again after the guys got home from golfing too, much to Donald and Raymond's enjoyment! And I'm sure it will be re-enacted at the next pool party too!
    And I loved that Donald used the blue screws too!
    And I just said the same thing in my comment to Wanda about keeping my mouth open when feeding the babies!
    You are too funny commenting on each thing! I guess I could have easily broken this up into a week's worth of posts!
    And is Jackie too much or what?! I seriously could not catch my breath from laughing at her calling me Wanda!
    Seriously, we have too much fun here! It feels almost sinful.

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  13. Good morning Eileen. What a wonderful brother-in-law you have. I just love your shelf. It's beautiful ♥ Those pancakes sure look yummy. Your grandchildren are just beautiful. It looks like you had a wonderful weekend enjoying your pool. I hope you have a lovely day.

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  14. Hi EIleen-

    I love this story of your wonderful weekend and your driftwood now turned shelf for treasures. Oh how wondrous. And your pancakes look so delicious - I want some. :-) Does your daughter and your grand kids live with you?

    Love to you
    Gail
    peace.....

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  15. Hi Eileen,
    You are truly blessed. I really loved what Donald did with the driftwood, I love anything that comes from the ocean, and I probably would have dragged it down the beach too!

    The pool photo's were great, and I really love the pictures of Jayden and Mia, especially the one where he is hugging her.

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  16. My apologies, Eileen.
    I'm going to stop putting names in my comments.
    I can't seem to get them right....sigh.
    Jackie

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  17. Marcy, I meant to ask you, what is nalesniki? Is that like Swedish Pleta (Swedish pancakes are very thin, and very delicious!)?
    I think it would be nice for you to do a nalesniki dinner night once in awhile when you feel ready.
    Love, me

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  18. Hello, Carol, you're right I do have a very nice brother-in-law! And we did have a great weekend! Thanks for all your kind comments.

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  19. Hi, Gail, thanks for stopping in. Yes, my daughter and my grandson Jayden live with us. But my granddaughter does not, she lives close by though with my son and daughter-in-law and we get to see her lots so it's very nice!

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  20. Teresa, I am Blessed and I am very thankful too!
    And I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only nut who would drag a big plank across Long Island! I would have been so sad to leave it behind!
    Thanks for visiting and I hope things are going well for you, I'll be visiting over your way soon, I just want to get Jayden his second lunch (he says he's STARVING!).

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  21. Jackie, don't apologize, not necessary!
    And I'll stop teasing you now!
    I left you a comment on your blog.

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  22. Hi Eileen, Sorry I'm so late! I laughed so hard at what your Katie said about you crying and having to run and blog about it! That is something, I swear, that my Katie would have said! But I can see why you would get emotional over that shelf. I would too. I've been crying over everything lately!
    Mia and Jayden together was so cute, they are precious. Oh and by the way, chocolate chip pancakes are the only kind Katie will eat. I like them cold out of the fridge, no syrup. But my favorite pancakes are apple cinnamon.

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  23. Thanks for stopping by, Di!
    Yeah, Katie's a character! My sister-in-law said, "Why do our kids make us sound like Edith Bunker?!" I said I guess that's how we sound to them!
    I like almost any kind of pancakes! I especially like fruit in them for breakfast. I don't eat them that often anymore though. Ray made wheat ones this time, they were really thick and really delicious! I had one big plain one, and one small chocolate chip one. Yummy!

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  24. Oh I love the driftwood story! I wish you would have taken a pic of it during transportation home! That was such a nice surprise and sweet gift. It is a perfect addition to your yard! The shells are perfect on it! Isn't is wonderful how we can see the beauty of something no one else see! Then WAAA-LAAA there it is....someone else sees the beauty and it becomes the gift that keeps on giving! Loved it! Pool fun! I have a lot of that going on right now too! I really need to post before I end up writing another NOVEL! hehehe

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