Friday Favorites - 4.22.22 - Looking forward and looking back

  

It's Friday!  As always, linking up with Andrea and Erika for some favorites from the week.  Please feel free to link up or just comment on the post if you don't blog.  

If you didn't catch my Easter Weekend post this week, this was one project completed -- many still to go in this room though :)

Per usual, I forgot to take a "before". . .I plan for days and days to start and then, all of a sudden, I DO IT.  Ha.  This is the best I have:

I'll show under-storage organization when I have it. . .I am going to put about half this stuff in another place but that place isn't ready yet.  We are super-pleased with the result but changed our flooring selection after we painted the walls.  Sigh.  Not a big deal -- I think I'm going to like what we chose now more anyway.

See this fence here???

GONE!

It looks so, so good!!!  I would say "I can't believe" but I CAN believe. . .we have been wanting this done for years. . .it has just been rotting away.  Here was the haul, just from that side, to take to the dump:

Actually, that wasn't all of it.  I didn't realize I didn't get a final pic -- Fred and I carried all this out as Tom chopped the sections up. 

Robert got to the other side the next morning:

And it was all done and hauled off before Tom got home for lunch!

It was great having Robert home for a few days :)

Putting Fred to work again ;)

Our now opened-up backyard:

Now, how to landscape???  Designers we are not :/

I have dreams though!!

I went shopping for our Gatlinburg weekend yesterday at Aldi's.  I got inspiration from Jen last week.  I got about everything we will need for the trip there!

We are doing chicken skewers one night and brats the next.  I bought easy things for breakfast and lots of sandwich stuff for the trails.  If you could see the bottom of my cart, it would be all the "snacky" stuff -- crackers, pretzels, cheese, and dips :). Oh, and they had skinny Arnold Palmer cans -- 12 for $4, which I thought was a good price and one of the kids' favorite treats.  We are feeding 10 people (if everyone shows up) so I hope I have enough of everything!

Another list of "don't forgets" -- do yours grow like mine did?

We are a game family. . .these are some of our favorites (Code Names is hidden in there too)

This was a couple of weeks ago. . .a favorite life celebrated -- Leo was 87 years old.  Tom knew him his entire life, he was almost like a second dad to him.  He was our driver on our wedding day.  He leaves behind a beautiful family and a life well-lived.

We were lucky enough to get to the lake with him last summer.  

His daughters, a son-in-law, one of his grandsons and a granddaughter.  He was preceded in death by all of his brothers and sisters, wife, and a son-in-law.  He knew and loved Jesus here on Earth and is now with Him in eternity. 

One of Leo's daughters sent this picture the week after the funeral.  If I had a copy, it would be a framed favorite in our home. . .it is the four kids from the two families up on skis together -- Tom, Debbie, Kathy, and Jennifer.  They have been together for 50 years (Tom is the baby) and I know they are all thankful to have lived their lives together.  

This is where we getting our boating legacy from. . .and I hope it is continued through the years through our families :)

Happy Friday all!  Click over to Andrea or Erika to read more Friday Favorites from other great bloggers :)

Jenni