Very Special Dishes

We had another good weekend. I enjoy good weekends when we are all together. Leland spends lots of time traveling in the spring so it is nice here in the fall when he gets to hang out with us.

Saturday we went to Lubbock to see my parents. We hadn't seen them since June so it was a much needed visit. We had a good time eating and shopping and of course playing and laughing with the kids. My Granddad and Maxine were able to join us also so it was a good visit.

My parents with Ry & Ray (not too interested in posing).

Also, my dad brought me the dishes I inherited from my grandmother. I was really looking forward to getting these. They are white pottery. Nothing fancy, lots of chips, but they are the dishes we usually ate on when the entire family was at her house. I packed up my dishes which Leland was sad that I was so eager to do. Mine were the one's I had registered for when we got married, but they were very dated. I had not thought too much into the future when I chose them so they are the burgandy and forest green that was very popular in the 90's. I'm excited that my grandmother's are just plain white so they should go with whatever color trends happen. The only problem was that her set is much larger than mine, so I had to do some rearranging. But we finally found a home for every piece.

Top: My Grandmother's piece of china, Bottom Left: My Grandmother's set of pottery, Bottom Right: My Great-grandmother's set

Dad also brought me another special set of dishes. There are only a few pieces of it left but they belonged to my great-grandmother Harmony. Yes, she is where my name comes from. I have always felt a special bond to items that had belonged to her since I was named after her. She died when my grandmother was about 12 so my grandmother always felt a special connection to me also since I carried her name. I had already been given a small glass that my great-grandmother got at the World's Fair in 1900. It has inscripted on it "Harmie 1900." We assume the vendor did not understand the spelling of her name when he wrote it on the glass. So I am very glad to have the few pieces of her dishes that she had purchased before getting married.

The last piece I received was one dessert dish of the good china of my grandmother's. Each granddaughter inherited a set of dishes. Of course we all really wanted the best set of china mainly because that is the set we remember using the most at her home. It was finally decided that we would draw out of a hat to find out who received that special set of china. After figuring out who would get the whole set, we agreed that each of us would get one small dessert dish so that we can display it and remember our grandmother everytime we saw it. I'm still deciding where I want to display that dessert dish and one of the pieces from my great-grandmother's set - obviously together. I'm sure there are more items coming from my grandparent's house. They had a very large house built in 1920 so it is full of many antiques. I wish my house was bigger so I could take more furniture and stuff, but I'm happy with just the few items I've already received.

Of course another busy week is ahead of us. Open House is tonight at the high school so I will be selling 06-07 yearbooks while Leland talks to students and their parents. The kids are off to one of their adopted grandparents here in town. Since we don't have any family here, several have adopted us and our kids. Also, the high school newspaper goes to press next week so this week will be very busy getting everything together. So here goes the life of a journalism teacher and his family.