Baby Blue… like the Colorado Skies…

Blue & Creme tie front jumper

One of my cousins, after years of not hearing from them, has joined facebook and found me – much to my delight. The brilliant thing about this is that we have finally reconnected a bit, and I’m able to see some of the bigger events in life. One of the recent bigger events was that his lovely girlfriend, K was pregnant with their third child. Being an avid crocheter, I had to make sure to send the new baby a gift. I dug into my “completed objects” of Ziploc bags and found a lovely baby sweater that made from debbie bliss yarn in creme and blue.

Blue & Creme sweater stitches

I recall that this was one of my attempts to modify a lovely newborn dress pattern into a sweater, and it took many tries before I was happy with how it turned out. I think I was saving it because it was such an accomplishment for me to make it. Now, however, is the right time to give it away. As I packed it up, I hoped that the baby would fit the jumper – (something one can never predict) and sent it on its way.

Yesterday, I got the brilliant news that it fits the wee babe beautifully, and the most adorable picture. I am so happy to get them because I rarely get to see what I’ve made “in action” as it were.

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Oh! Am I supposed to model this sweater?

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Well, I give it two “fists up”. 🙂

Congratulations to C&K on the birth of their third child, and such a beautiful little family! I look forward to hearing and seeing more every day – instead of chatting only over Christmas dinner.

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Remembering my Great Aunt

Marybelle (Steele) Habeger

MaryBelle (Steele) Habeger
April 23, 1921 – January 20,2011

Today, my heart is back in the states, with my extended family. Last Thursday, at nearly 90 years old, my Great Aunt, Marybelle (Steele) Habeger left this life and went to meet her maker. Today is her funeral, and in many ways, I wish I could be there. She is the last of my grandfather’s generation (on my mom’s side) and was our family historian.

There are many funny things that I could tell about my Great Aunt. She was a born-again Christian, and forever making sure that everyone around her knew her views on both God and Religion (agree with them or not). To her, there was no grey area – just the black and white as outlined by the Bible and the Bible scholars that she was reading about. This alienated many in my family, but I found it a charming one of her quirks, even though I didn’t always agree with her. In general, she was just as stubborn as the rest of us, but she always welcomed me with open arms and an open heart to sit around her dining table and learn about whatever she decided to chat about. My view of her was that she had a big cackling laugh, was very outgoing, and very classic in her ways – constantly to be seen with an updo, snappy yet practical clothes, and almost always ready with a story or a smile.

Having been born in the 1920’s (my grandfather was nearly a teenager by the time she arrived) and come of age in the great depression, she was creative and crafty. She constantly saved clip art – and was known well for using it to illustrate one point or another in her yearly Christmas letters. (She didn’t send cards – she literally would write exerpts from her year and her journal on anywhere between 2-4 pieces of paper illustrated in the margins with the clip art.) As a kid, these letters were eagerly looked forward to – because they were different, they were funny, and they were a way of relating to a great Aunt that I barely knew.

One of the amazing things about Aunt Marybelle is that she was always interested in family history. She inherited alot of family hierlooms that had been in storage for many many years – and took all of these hundred-year-old (and older) letters, photos, portraits, and documents that she inherited – and used them to research, document, and go back in our family history.   She also painstakingly transcribed from handwritten to typed versions many of the letters and documents that she received and used all of this to help her trace my family roots back to the 1600’s (pre-immigrating to the “Americas”) and then wrote two books about my family history and geneology.    To a kid who lived 1200 miles from where her parents, grandparents, and great grandparents grew up, these books were like a treasure trove.  I got to learn about people that I never knew, their life story, and not just from her nor a historian perspective – but from the letters and journals they themselves wrote.  It was not an easy task (nor one that she did quickly) and for that, she gave myself – and my entire family an invaluable resource – strong roots – so that we could grow up and continue the family line.

The bright side is that despite my Great Aunt having gone through 12 years of 3 times a week dialysis – and she remained fairly healthy and pain-free until nearly the end.  She lived in her home (With the help of my Aunt/Uncle, her son, and for the last week or so – a hospice nurse.)  She was able to really enjoy her life – and those of us involved in it – and she did her best to make sure it was filled with things she liked to do (gardening, reading, studying the bible) and people and pets she liked to be around.   She enjoyed her large extended family – and in the end, went just as she wanted to – without alot of fuss.   She went into the hospital not feeling well in the morning, and was gone by the evening.  Very quick and just like her, decisive.

I know that she will be missed – and I am sure that later in my life, I will wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t taken the initiative in preserving what she inerited for not just her own son, but for my extended family too.   I think that thanks can never express the gratitude that our family will always have for the time she spent researching and preserving our family history.   With strong roots, we each can reach upwards toward heaven, a place I know she now resides.

You can see her self-written obituary here:

www.dlnewcomerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/obituary.php?id=…

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80 Years Young

In my family, we’re lucky enough to have what we would call the “old age” gene. I can only hope that I get the privilege of continuing the tradition.

Flora Henshue 80th birthday

You see, my great, great grandma (above circa 1970), Flora Henshue made it to 80 + years old, and so did my great grandfather Stanley (Flora’s son) and his wife, my great-grandma, Hattie Henshue.

1957 -Jeff Ihus, Stanley Henshue, Dennis Ihus
Great Grandpa, Stanley Henshue, my dad and my uncle – circa 1957.

So, why this walk down memory lane? Well, because today, my Grandma (Stanley and Hattie’s Daughter) turns the big Eight-Zero (80).

1950 - Bernadine Ihus, Gordon Ihus holding Dennis Ihus 1 month
My Grandmother at 20, My Grandfather holding my dad (1 month old), circa October 1950.

I can’t be there to wish my Grandma a happy birthday in person, so I’m sending a bunch of Roses, and very much love her way.

Humor me, please, and let me tell you a little bit about this amazing woman. Starting in the 1960’s, (and with 3 sons still at home) my grandmother was an assistant librarian at Marshall Jr High school. (Prior Jobs, she’ll proudly tell you, were working “sexing” baby chickens and as a secretary.) She retired from the Jr High in order to take care of my grandfather (who suffered from Parkinson’s Disease) for many years, until he went into a nursing home.

My grandmother is affectionately nick-named the family “social” butterfly. At 80 years old, she is more active than many women half her age. She goes to swim-aerobics twice a week at the YMCA, plays cards with her friends every week (hosted at a different person’s house), and is an avid baker, ceramics painter, and quilter (she even participates in a quilter’s group). She still lives at home (which she continues to aptly clean herself), and still drives her own car (offering to take her friends to the doctor’s in Madison – an hour away from where she lives) among other things. She helps to organize events at her church (visiting shut-ins, helping as an usher, cooking for bake sales, feeding the local needy, etc), and at the nursing home across the street from where she lives. She has a big collie dog to keep her “active” and even still finds time to take bus trips to “get out of town” for anywhere from a day to two weeks. (This month, she’s packing her bags to travel the 1000 miles down to Georgia to visit my dad – and will be there for a week.) In addition, she has traveled and seen a bit of the world (Unfortunately, after my grandfather passed on) including Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland, as well as Canada and almost all of the 50 states in the USA.

Sometimes just hearing about all she does, and all the people she’s going here and there and everywhere with makes me exhausted – for her and myself. I always said if I could grow up and be half as active and have even a few friends like she does, I would be blessed many times over. I guess – I’m lucky to have such a “modern” woman as my 80 year old grandma to look up to. But then, if genes have anything to do with it, at 80, she could still be around for another 20 years – and not bat an eye. I certainly hope she is – because she is one of the many lights in my life.

A few great things I’ve learned from My Grandmother:

a) Do it while you can, and enjoy it. If you leave it until later, (whatever it is) someday, you may find you’re not able to do it anymore. (Knowing she lost my grandfather to Parkinson’s – in many ways – before they got to do all the things they planned to with their retirement – I think I really have taken this advice to heart.)
b) Sometimes the body has good days, sometimes the body has bad days. Listen to your Body and know when you should push yourself and when you should rest. My grandma goes constantly, but she also knows how to say “no”. I’m sure it’s taken her years to learn this – and it’s something that I still have trouble with, though I think I’m getting better.
c) Old age doesn’t mean you should sit in a rocker and stop living. When you stop moving, you stop using your mind, and stop TRYING to make a difference – then you grow old, you give up, and you die. So, don’t be like some of the older members of our family who decided at retirement that they’d had enough, pulled up their rocker and remote and just quit living. She’s proof that even small differences can make someone’s day. Oh – also, don’t be like those who worked themselves every day with no vacation – until the day they passed – because they didn’t take the time to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
d) Bad times come. It’s inevitable, and it’s Okay. But, it will all work out in the end. So, don’t give up – even when we make mistakes. Ride through them, learn, help others who will wind up in the same “rut” when you can, and rejoice that you have the bad times – because – if it weren’t for bad times, we wouldn’t recognize the good ones.
e) Finally, and most important – You’re NEVER too Old to Travel, to Learn, To Create, To Make New Friends, To Smile, To Laugh, or To Love.

So, Here’s to my Grandma, who turns 80 Years Young today –

Happy Birthday, Grandma – We Love You!

My dad's family
My Grandma and family, at her 78th Birthday Party – December 2006

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