Until we meet again

As many of you know, my family lost our Mom, Gram, Great Gram, Sister, Aunt, friend - Veronica Guczwa - the Matriarch to the Guczwa/Dudek Clans. She was just shy of her 96th Birthday by two and a half weeks. She had been on her way to St. Pat's church where she was hit by a vehicle as she crossed the street. She was air lifted to St. Joseph Hospital in Ypsilanti with multiple trauma injuries. After much discussion, prayers and tears, our family sent her on her way to the Lord. She would not have gotten better, would not have been herself - the Vernie that we all knew and loved.

Although I know there are tremendous amounts of pictures of her with other family members, I picked out a very few that I have to share with you. This photo was taken at her Granddaughter's wedding, Kathy and Dave Scott in August of 2008. Although many are missing, we were a large family of Herman and Vernie -

Six children & spouses (Mary Ann/Jerome Blaszak; Frank/Carolyn Guczwa; Ginny/Tom Nocella; John/Ruth Guczwa' Theresa/Phil LaVoy and Steven/Rena Guczwa);

Thirteen grandchildren/spouses (John/Shelley Blaszak; Drew/Becky Blaszak; Kathy/Dave Scott; Chris/John Odette; Tammy/Matt Carter; Tim/Laura Guczwa; Matt/Shell Nocella; Mark/Sarah Nocella; Erik Guczwa; Beth/Dan Murrell; Kevin/Kerry LaVoy; Greg LaVoy; Nick/Julie LaVoy)

and then twenty Great-grandchildren (Lance, Garek, Cooper Blaszak; Nick Kramer; Katelyn, Emily Scott; Mikayla, Ben Odette; Brooke, Juliann, Grady Carter; Noah, Tanner, Meghan Guczwa; Benjamin Nocella; Breana, Macy Nocella; Maddisen, Mason Murrell & Caleb LaVoy.

Mom loved her brother, Mike Dudek, seen here with wife, Nancy. He met her in heaven the day after Christmas, 2010 - what a reunion that had to have been.
Well known for her pierogies, she came to Oregon in August, 2008 and helped me make them. Now, I wrote down the recipe, but will have to decipher my notes to make sure they are the way she made them. I do know that frying them in butter - lots of butter - was the only way to eat them.
Always learning, Gram & Greg walked the beach with Phil & I, trying to figure out how those sand dollars came to be and what a clam "show" looked like.
And bowling...scoring her 200 game on her 94th birthday - well, what a wonderful day that turned out to be.
She liked meeting new people and once you met her, she was your friend. Here she meets the Honorable Robert Young, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Once in a life-time.
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren were the loves of her life. Here she talks to Caleb, her 20th Great-Grandchild. I am sure she was telling him many wise things.

But since December 17th, we have had heavy hearts and a major task ahead of us. Mary Ann, Ginny and I spent many hours in the house taking care of business. It is the Guczwa homestead and although it was a wonderful home to our family, it is only a house now with items that need to find new homes.
We found items of fun - this hat that who knows where it came from - thanks, Ginny, we needed to laugh that day.
Keys, keys and more keys. Ginny found the largest - actually only a half of a key - probably from a display of some sort.
We put most of the keys in this container. There were OLD skeletal keys that perhaps still fit the front two doors to the house; John Deere keys to many tractors both here and long gone; keys to the motor home; house in Arizona that is no longer in the family; and probably keys from other places that were found somewhere along the way.
We also found a few treasures - Mom's wedding dress. Mary Ann held it up first for her picture.
This is the back.
Ginny shares the front top and the crown to her veil. The brown coloring is from the beads that are still attached. That is the only coloring on it - it is in marvelous shape...thanks to the acid-free blue paper that it was stored in.
We also found this God Bless our Home written in Polish. I didn't get pictures to share here, but we also found a large print of her First Communion picture; her certificate of completion of the eighth grade, and of course, their wedding pictures in color and beautiful frames.
This was a favorite pose of hers in many of the family photos we came across, being silly and loving the attention. My suitcase was full so I will have to share more of these when I get back to MI and can collect a few more.

So, to you, MOM.....We all have heavy hearts filled with sadness that you are gone. We had a wonderful life with you, and all the memories will get us through the next stages of life. You will be missed by not only us, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but by all the friends you left behind. We only hope that we have turned out to be the children you wanted us to be and will continue to be the loving family you shared by example with us. God Bless you, we love you .... until we meet again.

Finally Updating our Blog

We went to the beach again in November and our camera had seen the last of taking pictures. Guess that salt inside doesn't do much for the camera guts so our camera has died. But I did capture pictures before then and just realized that I had not updated our blog in quite a while. Now, before you yell at me for the underline - I am trying to figure out how to take it off as it doesn't show up on this posting. Guess you will just have to bear with me for this one time.

This is the pumpkin carving that Phil did. I don't know what happened to the daylight one but you get the just of the happy face. Phil says it will be a traditional one from now on...that means I don't have to share it with you again. :-)
We decided to take a different route to the beach house and went via Cannon Beach, Oregon. As you can see, the winds play havoc on the trees and this is what a lot of the tree line looks like along the Oregon Coast.
There is a huge rock out off the shore called Haystack Rock and Phil wanted his picture taken for his facebook profile. Nice photo, Phil.
Yes, there is a quilt shop called Center Diamond in Cannon Beach so of course we had to go there. While there, Phil was near the door (wanting to make a fast get-a-way before I bought too much stuff) and overheard the staff asking "Are you Hoppers?" Well, that meant that there was a shop hop going on. Lucky me!!! So, of course I had to get into it when I saw the fabrics and the pattern. On the way out of town on Sunday we stopped at the participating shops in Ilwaco, Astoria and Claskanie. Will have to do the others another day.
This is the Paisley Duck Shop's quilt. I stopped there on Tuesday to pick up their block and took a picture of what the quilt could look like. There are some challenging blocks and I won't be doing it like that but am anxious to get started as it will be fun.

We finally arrived at the beach and after getting part way ready, we stopped by Betty's house to pick up Steve and Lou. Phil is very excited to wear his new waders - no getting wet for him.
"I'm ready!!! Let's go!!!" As you can see, Phil is anxious to get those clams. And the weather is nice. Yipee.
It was a beautiful night clamming and we all got our limits. Much nicer clamming in calm weather.
I had a sand dollar that was my final pick-up before we left the beach. The sunset was beautiful.
Saturday morning WaWa and Zee fixed french toast, and Bill was the breakfast sausage cook. Very relaxing morning.
While breakfast was being prepared, Phil and Dan relaxed with coffee and discussed the clamming the night before and the evening to come. What a fun time with everyone once again.

So, now that my Kodak Easy share camera is no longer working, I have a new camera to take to the beach. Will make sure this one stays in a plastic bag or something so it doesn't get all that salt air, water, etc in it. Kevin and Kerry are coming on Friday so look for updates soon.

Village Kids

Last week on Facebook, I told many people that I was doing a marathon session of working on the Village Kids quilt project. Phil was at work for the weekend and I had my chores done enough to sit and sew. Here is a little about the program and a few pictures of the quilts that we finished.

Village Kids quilt project was started by Bonnie Gallagher, a quilter who lives in the Sandy area. Bonnie has ties to the fire department and just knew there was a need for something that she could help with. Her mother was ailing and in order to keep her active, they began making lap size quilts for the kids of the Village of Sandy who had been involved in an accident, domestic dispute or fire. The police and fire department first responders, carry quilts in their vehicles and if a child/teen are involved, they are given a quilt to wrap up in. They are very upset so the quilt calms them, and in some cases, warms them if they are cold.

Bonnie is having health issues and her mother has since passed on so the members of QFAC (Quilting and Fiber Arts Club) in Sandy, have decided to help with this project. We had a booth at our 2010 Sandy Historical Society Quilt Show and asked the attendees to make a block for us. They could use whatever they wanted, as long as it was something that matched well in putting the block together. Ladies, kids and men alike stop by and created these blocks for us.

After the Quilt Show, I took them all home and did what I do best...organize them into quilts. I put 12 blocks together, some sashing and backing if I had it and put them into kits for the members of Q-FAC to put together. We received backing and batting from members and donations from others to help with this. While I was gone to MI, the members decided that at the first meeting of the month, the members who wanted to, would work on these quilts.

So, in the last four months, we created 26 quilts to give to the first responders. Some were quilted, some tied, but all were done with love.

The one on the left has fairy princesses on it, and the one on the right will be just right for a small toddler or baby.
The one on the left has cats on it and the right one has trucks and cranes. Perfect for small children.
A little boy would love this tractor and bear quilt and the one on the right will be perfect for a tween or teen .
Yep, there are cowboy ones...good for any age group.
This is Bonnie. She is the founder of the Village Kids program and was very excited to have our help in this project.
On Thursday, Oct. 28, we had a presentation of the quilts to Sgt. Burns of the Police Dept; Chief McQueen of the Fire Dept; and Chaplain Karen who goes to many of the calls in the area. Sgt. Burns said that at first they were skeptical of carrying "blankets" around in their vehicles. But once they saw the relief on the faces of the cold child, or traumatized teen, they were happy to carry them.
These are three piles of quilts that we presented to them. They were happy to get the "blankets". Chief McQueen said that the quilts help relax some of the stress of the victims so that the responders can do their job more efficiently. Chaplain Karen was also very appreciative of the quilting project.
We put the finished quilts in the tubs and the men were happy to carry them out to their cars. Thanks, Sgt. Burns and Chief McQueen, for doing your job and sharing a little of quilters to those in need. There will always be a Village Kid quilt made with love and hugs for those who need it in the Sandy area. God Bless you all.

October busyness

The last few days I have been busy with doing what I love to do...quilting and helping others. I have been knitting helmet liners for the troops in Afghanistan. Since you can carry knitting needles on the plane, I was able to work on some during my last few visits to Michigan. Wednesday evening, I turned in four finished liners to our contact to get them to the troops. Hope this helps, guys and gals. Stay safe.

Wednesday was our Wooly Wednesday class. I had not been since April...or was it May or June??? Anyway, I decided I needed to have a fun day learning from Debbie Busby and making a fall surprise. We made black kitty cats and pumpkins. Here is Donna working on her kitty.
We were surprised by a visit from Debbie's daughter, Amy, and her triplet granddaughters, Hannah, Emma and Olivia. All three have beautiful blue eyes and are just so cute and sweet. .
Well, while others were deciding how they could get a hold of one of these little darlings, being a Mini, I just went right over to help Grandma Debbie by taking Olivia off her hands. Oh she is so sweet and was really interested in seeing what everyone was doing. AND, she gave me my grandma fix for the time being.
Then we had to have our picture taken with the teacher showing our finished and almost finished projects. Debbie is holding Hannah who liked the pumpkin that Donna created.
Thanks for sharing your granddaughters with us Debbie. We really enjoyed out time with you at Wooly Wednesday. See you next month.

Busy October

This month is going to be almost as busy as last...well, it seems like it anyway. We started our month with a trip to Cabela's - see last blog - and this one starts with our new car. Yep, we bit the bullet and got rid of our Honda for a Ford Fusion. Oh my....why did we ever buy the Honda?? The ride is no comparison, smooth, quiet and oh so nice. It is a 2011, silver exterior and black interior. This pic is of me leaving for choir practice on Thursday. Has lots of options...we may be fighting over who takes the car!!

On Friday we went to Ocean Park, WA to clam for the weekend. Bill/Becky Doel are so gracious to invite us to clam and we love to get out on the beach and search for those little guys. Of course there is gear to be had, and Phil purchased his waders at Cabela's last weekend and I bought new rain pants and jacket. You never know what the weather will be like. Phil had to work on Friday so we got in late and didn't get to go out on opening day. But, we did on Saturday and that is quite a story. (see posting later on). When you get back from a clam dig, you need to dry out your boots, pants, jackets, etc. So, on Saturday afternoon, Phil, Bill and Dan created a boot drying hanger for five sets of boots.
This board had a long history with Bill and it needed to be used. So, Dan created the template, Phil carved it out and they all mounted it to the wall and hung the boots. What a great looking crew.
While they were in the garage working on their projects, we were inside working on ours. I have an embroidery piece of snowmen and trees that I brought along, Donna was working on her wool pineapple welcome hanger, and Becky was working on her son's tree skirt for Christmas.
We left our projects and went out to the beach about 3 hours before low tide. It was still light and raining a little. But when we got out to the beach, the rain picked up, the wind started to howl and it turned nasty. The Doels and Johnsons did get their limits on Friday night, and we were hoping to do the same on Saturday. Not to be done. After 1 1/2 hrs, where you couldn't see because the rain was coming down hard, it was getting dark and the waves were relentless, us girls gave up. Phil, Bill and Dan all had waders so they were happy to stay out to dig. We went in to make dinner.
Donna took pictures of us on the beach, so I will have to share them with you another time. My camera had already gotten a beach bath and I am not sure another one with salt water would be good for it. Anyway, everyone had a clam gun except one person and us girls took turns with the two we had. It was hard to see the shows and to be honest with you, they weren't showing very much. I had just walked back up the beach from the waves as I don't have hip boots, didn't have a gun and wasn't in too much of a hurry to go back out. Along came a clam floating right next to me so I scooped it up and caught my first and only one. I went out to let them know that we just had to be patient, someone else would do the digging, and we could just pick them up as they floated by. So, this bucket is our clams for the night - about 45 in total with 6 people clamming. Well, at least I got one!!!
These pics are of Sunday morning on the beach. Phil and I went to church and breakfast and then on the beach to enjoy the morning waves. It was still churning but not raining.
We saw some original sand art that someone left for our enjoyment. The brown nubs on the top are sand piles and the other items are the ocean long seaweed or something like that. Very creative.
This gull was just enjoying his Sunday on the beach as well.
There were a few surf fishermen out there and this man caught one as we drove by.
It was time to go home and we decided to go by the Cranberry farm on the way out of town. Ocean Spray has cranberry bogs there on the peninsula and it is harvest time this week. This is one of the bogs before being flooded.
You can see a flooded bog in the background, totally under water.
They have workers who are on beaters and they go back and forth beating the cranberries from the plants.
Very interesting and fun to watch. The museum has some of the original equipment in it and it looks like a little more time efficient now than before.
On our way into the beach on Friday, we had been waylaid by an accident around one of the curves. It was an oversized load of a huge crane that landed on it's side in a tight curve. On the way out of town we came across workers and a huge crane being prepared to lift the oversized crane out of the ditch.
It looked like quite a process trying to get this in place to do the lifting. I am sure they were at it all evening and were glad it was not raining like the day before. .
All in all, a successful weekend of clamming, great friends and food and relaxing at the beach.