It's time for Block 22 out of 24 that we need for the Pieces of My Life QAL at Melva Loves Scraps. After this final 12 inch block, there are two 6 inch blocks still to be made and then I'll have to really get serious about the final construction of this quilt project! Block 22 is Jacob's Ladder.
Melva shows this done in just two colors in her post, but I did a little googling and saw that I could make it in three, and that would still be appropriate! I wanted to add in my floral focus fabric, and it fit well for the HSTs.
This block signifies moving up the ladder of life, and we're thinking about our spouse, their family, and our career path in life.
My husband, Mike, grew up in a family of 6 kids, with his mom and dad, Glen and Goldie, mostly in the southern Wyoming, western Nebraska, and Northern Colorado triangle. He was born in Ogallala, Nebraska, and graduated from high school in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Mike's dad was a truck driver and his mom was a cook for a living. When we met, Mike's mom owned a diner in a small town in eastern Colorado, and we spent a lot of time there hanging out with the family. Sometimes I even waited tables!
This is one of our favorite pictures of the family, taken before the two youngest sisters were born. Don't they look like the quintessential 50s family? I love Mike's mom's hairdo! Mike is the youngest brother sitting on his dad's lap.
My in-laws took me right in, and I became another daughter to them - I felt so blessed that way. Not everyone has that experience with their in-laws. Many times I have felt closer to my sisters-in-law than to my own sisters. I don't have many photos of me with the sisters, but do have lots of good memories of time spent together.
Here's one more of the siblings with Mom, minus middle brother, Ron, who was ill himself at the time. This was our last Mother's Day with Goldie in 2021.
Tammy, Mike, Glenn, Jr., Bobbi, and Sandie.
Mike was in the Navy from 1969 - 1973. It was the time of the Vietnam War, of course, and he chose to enlist in the Navy rather than get drafted. I've written about his Navy experience before. He was a helicopter crewman, based out of San Diego, California. He spent a lot of time on aircraft carriers in the Pacific. His buddies from the HC-1, Det 3 group have become our dear lifelong friends!
Another favorite photo of him with his folks - he says this is from Christmas of 1969, right after boot camp.
We lost Glenn in the 1990s - way too young,
but had Goldie until 2021, and I miss her still.
Over the years of our marriage, I've had multiple jobs - I even worked part-time at Walmart for a couple years when the kids were little! I had been a stay at home mom for about three years when they were first born, and we wanted to go to Disneyland! So I got a job at the new Walmart in town so we could save up enough for a big trip. That happened in 1988!
As the boys got a little older, I taught preschool for several years, and then was able to go back to school and participated in a post-baccalaureate program for people with a Bachelor's degree who wanted to get their teaching license. After that I was lucky to get a job teaching 5th grade at our neighborhood school, and did that for 20 years! I loved being a teacher - sharing books, and teaching reading, writing, math, history, and science to the kids. One of my favorite science/health units was the respiratory system. We got to dissect sheep lungs at the end of the unit each year. It was fascinating!
In this picture, the kids were labeling the parts of the lung,
and I was helping them make sure each label was in the correct location.
I retired at the end of the 2015 school year - hard to believe it has been that long ago now. I loved teaching, but am happy to be retired now, too!
