A Tribute to My Daddy - Part 1

I have gone back to work, which is currently the only place I have a computer. For this reason, I have not had sufficient time to sort through all of the pictures I want to post, so I have decided to do a series of posts in tribute to my Dad.

I am somewhat of a genealogy buff, so just in case someone out there in blogland does a search for the WEBSTER family of Robertson County, TN, I want to include information here that may help them find what they are looking for. Or, if a family member of one of the people that appear in the pictures I will be posting happens to do a search, I want them to find these as well. These pictures may not be posted in chronological order, but I will put dates on them when I know them.

I'll start with Daddy's obituary as it appeared in the Robertson County Times:

"George Dorris Webster, age 81, of Springfield, passed away Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at his home. Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 15, 2010 in the chapel of the Austin & Bell Funeral Home in Springfield at 11am with Brother Martin Babb and Christopher Webster officiating. Burial will follow in the Hillcrest Cemetery. Serving as pallbearers will be Zach Webster, Evan Webster, Michael Dickey, Steve Webster, Steven Wilson and Josh Miller. Honorary pallbearers are Wayne Webster, Joe Webster, Johnny Link, Vince Hester, Jim Roberts and the Unity Sunday School Class of Springfield Baptist Church. Visitation will be held at the funeral home on Friday, May 14, 2010 from 4-8pm. Mr. Webster was born June 4, 1928 in Robertson County, the second of four sons born to George W. and Mary Adeline Dorris Webster. He attended Mt. Pleasant School in grades 1-8 and graduated from White House High School in 1949, where he was a member of the first WHHS football team. Mr. Webster was a Veteran of the US Army serving as Staff Sergeant with the 452nd Armed Field Artillery Battalion in Munich and Neckarsulm, Germany during the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1956. Mr Webster retired from the Tennessee Gas Pipeline/Tenneco in February of 1989 after 41 years of service. He was a loving husband and father, devoted to his family and was a member of the Springfield Baptist Church. In addition to his parents, Mr. Webster is preceded in death by his brother, Samuel Estes Webster. He is survived by his wife, Christine Alsobrook Webster; son, Christopher (Nancy) Webster of Huntsville, TX; daughter, Kathy (Johnny) Link of Fairview, TN; brothers, Wayne Webster of White House and Joe (Verma) Webster of Dickson; grandchildren, Riley Dickey, Talynn Dickey, Ava Hester and Zoe Hester. Memorial contributions may be made to Willowbrook Hospice or the Springfield Baptist Church Building Fund. Both may be sent in c/o Austin & Bell."

The following picture appeared in "the Line Tennessee Gas Transmission Co., February, 1958" a publication that was (is?) put out by Tennessee Gas Transmission Company/Tennessee Gas Pipeline/Tenneco, which I think is now called El Paso Corporation. Daddy is second from left, leaning back, with his elbow resting on the table/desk behind him. The caption reads, "ON THE JOB during construction were TGT's Eddie Tarver, George Webster, Jack Overton, and Tony Richter. Not pictured are Dick Knesek, plant foreman, and Wes Saunders, Engineering."

Perhaps You've Wondered Where I've Been?

I've been staying at my Mom & Dad's for the last couple of weeks. No computer access.

Daddy had a stroke in January and a worse one in March. The March stroke took out his whole left side. He'd been having a hard time getting around for the last 5 years or so because of the severe arthritis in his back and the spinal stenosis that was pinching off the nerves to the lower part of his body. Then the strokes. The trip to the hospital, rehab, the nursing home and then home. He finally got so bad that Hospice was called to help out. Taking care of an 81 year old man who can't do anything for himself is awfully hard for an 80 year old woman. It's been really tough.

Daddy died at 1:18 a.m. May 12, 2010. Mom, my daughter, a wonderful friend and I were with him. We buried him on Saturday. It's really, really, really hard.

This is my Daddy with my daughter at her wedding, June 2004.

I'm trying to put together a better tribute to him than this, but I thought you might have wondered where I've been.

Happy 60th Birthday My Handyman

This is My Handyman.
The love of my life, though I've only known him for 11 years.

He has been such a blessing. Not only to me, as his lucky wife, but to my entire family as well.

He is the most caring man I've ever known.

He puts up with me and all my wacky ideas.

He shares in my joys as well as my sorrows.

He loves my daughter, who was 18 when we married and calls him Daddy, because he has been such a good one to her, in the absence of a "real" father.

He loves my son, who has sometimes been a challenge, but has grown and changed into a very good young man.

He loves to fish.

He loves being outdoors.

He loves his family-all of us, both blood and steps.

His Momma and Daddy did a REAL GOOD JOB raising this man!


He calls my children's children, his grand-punkins and he calls this little sweetie (his son's little girl), his button, 'cause she is, as he says, "cute as a button".

Her Mom & Dad are expecting a little boy at the end of July - he calls him "Beau" - as in "button & bow"!

I thank the Lord EVERY DAY for bringing him into my life.

We married after I had been a divorced, single Mom for 13 1/2 years. At our wedding, when the preacher asked if anyone had anything to say, he said, "today I consider myself the luckiest man in the world!"

Happy Birthday my darlin'. And may we share many, many, many more!

Another Finished Knitting Project

My youngest granddaughter in the Confection Baby Shrug that I made for her. Don't you just love the model's pose!?! I had to ask her Mom to take some pictures of her wearing it 'cause the ones I took were no good.



Here it is from the back.

This was a really quick knit and I'm a SLOW knitter! I used Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn (Lavender) that I got at Michael's. It was actually the remainder of a skein that I used for another sweater. If you haven't tried this yarn, you should. It's soft and washes up really well. I've used it for many, many projects.

If I can just round up my other granddaughters long enough to get their pictures in the sweaters I've made for them I'd have more FO's to share!

Finished and Nearly Finished Projects

I was lucky enough to have a 3 day weekend off so that My Handyman and I could get some projects finished. Fortunately the weather partially cooperated-it was nice and warm and sunny, but the wind refused to quit blowing. Blowing wind, as you know if you've ever tried to paint outside, is no friend to the painting process. That is, unless you LIKE little bits of grass and dust clinging to your beautiful painted finish!

My Handyman worked on this project. This is the 1923 footed tub that I bought off of Craigslist last year. Here it is when I first bought it. My Handyman got it out of the living room, by himself (don't ask how), and set it up on blocks, bottom up, so he could clean it up and get it painted. After a LOT of cleaning with sandpaper and a wire brush, he was able to paint on a beautiful new white, oil based coat of paint. He used what we thought was supposed to be a chrome spray paint on the feet, but it came out looking more like pewter. Here it is all painted with it's tennis ball shoes in place (they will make it easier to slide across the floor when we get ready to put it in the currently being remodeled bathroom). The inside is in pretty amazing shape. Not pristine, but good enough that I don't feel the need to go to the expense of having it refinished. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the inside.

And these are the finished chairs from my previous post. We got them all sanded and primed and put on a pretty new coat of black spray paint. Then I wiped on some polyurethane and let it dry really well. I recovered the seats with the latest and greatest fabric that is sweeping the Internet blog world - a canvas drop cloth from Lowe's. I paid a little over $4 for it and I still have enough to cover a couple more chairs or use for other projects. My Handyman is working on sanding and painting the triple dresser. One of the advantages of having a husband who is currently "laid off" is that he is home to do projects and he is actually willing to do them, with little or no grumbling! Love that Handyman!

More finished projects to follow.

New Old Chairs - For the Front Entry

I've been looking for a pair of chairs to use on either side of the triple dresser that I've put in our new front entry. I found this pair (actually there were 6, but I only needed 2) at the Habitat Home Store in Nashville. They aren't the exact, perfect chairs that I was looking for, but I liked them well enough to go ahead and buy them. However, when I first spotted them I realized that the price was only a week away from being slashed to 1/2.

If you aren't familiar with the pricing practices at Habitat, when an item first comes in it is given an "original" price. Then several weeks later it is marked down, then marked down again in another few weeks. If the item hasn't sold within 30 days of the last mark down, you can buy it for half of the last marked down price!

So I waited, hoping I would get to them before someone else, but knowing I wouldn't be really upset if I didn't. Well - I got lucky and bought them for half of the last price on this tag: That's $12.50 each. More than some would pay, but a good price for me. They are sturdy chairs, now that My Handyman has put the old wood glue to work on the wobbly backs.

They will be part of the project that me and My Handyman will work on over the 3 day weekend.

Come back and see how they turn out.

A $12 Picture Frame

This is the 6 foot by 6 foot wood window that I bought at the Habitat Home Store for $12 a few months ago. You should have seen the look on My Handyman's face the day I brought THIS home!

After I explained to him what I had in mind, he decided it was a great idea. So one day, while I was at work he cleaned it up and put a good coat of primer on it.

The next day he painted it a nice glossy black and hung it on the wall in our new front entry, which is another work in progress. It is really heavy so he screwed in some heavy duty screw in hooks at the top of the wall and into the wall studs and attached the screw eyes into the top of the frame. I was really thrilled when I came home from work and there it was - EXACTLY like I had pictured it (pun intended)!

And here it is hanging above the FREE tripple dresser I got from my Mom - Thanks Mom! It needs some work too, but we'll get to that eventually. At first I thought I'd paint the whole thing black, but we live WAY out in the country and get A LOT of dust, so I'm not sure thats the way to go. Feel free to offer your suggestions.

My Handyman just propped some family pictures in the openings so that you could see how the plan is coming together. Now I need to make a trip to Michael's for some mat board to put in the openings and mount the pictures. I will be able to swing the frame away from the wall to change out the pictures as all the grandbabies grow and change. I think I'll add something about FAMILY using some of those great vinyl letters that you can get from so many sources these days.

What do you think? How have you used old window frames in your crafting?