One More Gallery Wall and My Angel Number 222

 

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

 

I am now posting TWICE  a week !!!

 

 I will be posting on MONDAY and FRIDAY!

 

 

As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....

 

 

Today, I will be sharing One More Gallery Wall.....

 

 

In my last post, I shared some vintage family photos and wonderful Easter items that my friend Anne Marie gifted me when she came to visit on Saturday afternoon....

Click HERE if you missed that post!!

 

 

 I want to Thank Angie, over at God's Growing Garden, for choosing my post, 3 Valentine's Trees in the Living Room,as one of her features from last week's Tuesdays with a Twist Link Party!!! 

Thanks so much, Angie!!!

 

 

I also want to Thank Barb, over at French Ethereal, for choosing my post on my dear friend Anne Marie's Home, Anne Marie's Winter Home Tour, as one of her features from last week's Share Your Style link Party!!!

 

 Thanks again, Barb!!

 

 

And I also want to Thank Bev, over at Eclectic Red Barn , for choosing my post, Red and Gold Valentine's in the Living Room, as one of her features from last week's Thursday's Favorite Things Link Party!!!

 

Thanks so much, Bev!!

Please stop by and link up to these wonderful parties!!!

 

 

And now for a few Personal Notes...

 

 2/22 was this week....

222 is my Angel Number....

 

 

 

222 was the house number in the address of my Childhood Home....

 

 

2/22/1987 was the last day I saw my Dad alive....

 

My parent's came to babysit my sons, who were sick with Measles after contracting it at Day Care, so Joe and I could attend his Grandmother's big 80th Birthday party....

 

I grew up without Grandparents so I was thankful for Ba Ba Barna who was the sweetest woman I ever met.....

My Dad passed away suddenly 4 days later on 2/26/1987....

It is hard to believe that 36 years have passed and I now have lived most of my life without him.....

My Dad and I shared a special bond and relationship because I was BLESSED to have spent more time with my Dad than most children ever get to do.....

You can read about that HERE in a post I did about becoming his caretaker at the age of 12 after his construction accident which left him partially disabled....

 

This was the last picture taken of my Dad before he passed away ...

 

 

 I always joke that when I got married my parents bought a snow blower and a ride on lawn mower because I did all the shoveling and cut the grass from that age of 12 after my Dad's accident.....

Click HERE to read another post I wrote about my Dad.....

2/22/2019 was the FIRST day that I no longer had to go to work anymore as the day before, my Ortho surgeon told me that my knee was so bad, causing me not to be able to walk, that I could not work and scheduled me for Knee Replacement Surgery.....

Since they had shut down the Unit I worked on for 37 years a month prior, I knew that I would never return to work again, later resigning that August, 6 months prior to my planned early Retirement at 62 years old....

I have seen 222 countless times since the day my Dad passed away....

 

On license plates in front of me, when I wake up in the middle of the night and when I suddenly think of my Dad and look at the clock and it is 2:22pm in the afternoon!!

I believe he is now my Guardian Angel, guiding my life, and 222 is definitely my Angel Number....

Not a single day goes by that I do not think of my Dad.....

 

 

 

Since Ash Wednesday is a meatless day for Catholics, I added some mushrooms and some Italian Seasonings to an $8.99 Price Copper Pizza for dinner....

 

 Can't beat the price.....

 

 

Instead of Fasting on candy, chocolates and baked goods like so many Catholics do, how about Fasting on these instead????

 

 I finally started to pack away Winter in the Den....

Since we have not had much of a Winter here in NEPA ( NO SNOW!!) , I really hated to put Winter away...

But I did and today, I will be packing away the Christmas things I left out for Winter and tomorrow, decorating the China Cupboard and area around it for Saint Patrick's Day...

This is the only area in the house where I do so....

 

We actually got a "bit" of snow the other day....

It changed to rain and quickly melted....

We are 2 feet below Normal in our snow fall amounts....

Glad we do not depend on well water and it will be interesting to see the effects on our area's water supply with no melting snow pack this Winter to replenish it.....

You may remember that I rearranged the pictures on this Gallery Wall going up the stairs....

Click HERE if you missed that post...

I also started to go through my Mother's pictures and documents that she saved, dating back to when she was born.....

These were just a few of the pictures....

Last year, I framed these 3 Certificates.....

 

My Father was a First Generation American while my Mother was a Second Generation American with their families having immigrated here from Poland......

 I had one frame that would be a perfect fit for my parent's Wedding Certificate from 1942.....

 

 

 

  Even in 1942 when they married, it is still written in Polish!!!! 

 

 

 

I then had to find matching frames for the others.....

 

 I found them first on Amazon, but then I sent Joe to buy them at Michael's for about half the price!!!

 

  I would have paid $30 on Amazon for both and even though I have not been in Michael's in at least a year, I had qualified for 20% off and paid $15.28 for the SAME frames!! 

 

I do find Amazon very expensive...

 

 

I am also BLESSED to have my parent's First Holy Communion Certificates from 1928...

 

 

They were the same age and received First Holy Communion together even though I am not sure they knew each other then....

 

 

All are written in Polish.....

 

My Dad's last name is also written in the Polish version.....

This was the name I grew up with...

KOLOJEJCHICK, Not KOLODZIEJCZYK

My Moter's Maiden name was also spelled the Polish way....

MACINA and Not MACHINA as I knew it to be...

This is why I get very upset when people in this Country have the attitude that immigrants need to "Learn to speak English"

My paternal grandparents, especially my grandmother, and Joe's maternal grandmother, never learned to speak English before they passed away...

It is very hard to learn a second language ...

However, statistics now show that most countries in the World are multilingual....

Leaving the United States as one of the only countries whose people speak only one language...

Sort of makes us look really stupid in my opinion, don't you think???

 

  Last year, I decided that I would do a Gallery Wall here to pay homage to my parents and a different time in History.....

 Since I had to arrange the opposite wall and took pictures from this one to do, it was the perfect time....

Now, this is not a wall that is easily seen....

In fact, you really only see it if you are going up and/or down the stairs!!!

 I had no intention of spending a lot of money on frames so I spend Joe to Dollar Tree to buy basic black frames....

He bought 2 different types which was fine with me....

I framed what I wanted to....

 

 I also had these vintage "Cabinet" pictures are they are called...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I didn't actually want to spend the money on larger frames for them and then Joe came up with this idea for another project that I was working on....

These Command Strips are not hooks but velcro ones used for hanging pictures!!!

 

 Well, they worked great not only with hanging the cabinet pictures but I also used them when I needed to hang smaller frames up high and close to the sloped ceiling because I could not reach the area to hammer a nail in the wall....

 

How did I push on them to make sure that they would stick to the wall you ask????

 

 I used a Swifter Floor Broom, with no cloth attached to it, to press them against the wall!!!

 

LOL!!

 

Hey, it worked!!

 It was bad enough that I almost broke my neck a few times by hanging on to the hand rail, which I discovered is LOOSE, and  also bending over backwards on the railing at the top of the stairs to reach around the wall to get to an area......

It truly was much easier when I painted this stairway over 11 years ago with a long handled roller and taping an edge paint brush to another long handle.........

Well, here it is......

 

Now I know it is not perfectly spaced....

 

And I apologize for the lighting.....

This is a dark stairway with only a light in the hallway upstairs....

I think that maybe it may be better to start that the top.....

Hanging things here at the top was NOT easy!!!

I did manage to reach around the wall from the top of the stairs, while bending backwards over the railing, to hang some pictures and documents....

Upon my Dad's death, he received this signed by President Ronald Reagan....

WWII picture of my Dad...

A picture of my parents before they were married....

I used the Command Strips to hang that picture and this one, of my parent's Wedding with their Best Man and Maid of Honor.....

As I said, it may not be perfect but this wall is not really seen by visitors.....

A letter received, signed by President Harry Truman, upon my Dad's discharge from the Army....

My Dad was a Master Sargent in the Army during WWII......

My parent's Wedding Certificate in Polish.....

I have no idea what year this picture was taken of my Dad....

 

Taken in 1945

 

 My Uncle Midge ( Michael) , Best Man and my Mother's Neighbor who was her Maid of Honor....

 

 

My Dad's First Holy Communion Certificate from 1929 in Polish....

 

 

 

 I used the Command Strips to hang these cabinet pictures.....

 

 

 

 

 

My Parents were married on June 6th, 1942

 

 

 

 My Mother's First Holy Communion Certificate in Polish....

 

 I hung my Mother's First holy Communion picture below her Certificate....

 

 I had 2 copies of my Dad's Discharge Papers from the Army so I framed the front.....

And the back....

I am very pleased with how this wall came out....

 

 

It makes me happy when I get to gaze upon all these memories of another time, one I was not part of, in my parent's life.....

My parent's would be 104 years old this year....

 

 They were close to 40 years old when I was born....

 

 

 And I was quite the surprise as my Mother was told she would never have any other children after she gave birth to my sister 10 years prior....

This project was something I wanted to do since my mother passed away 19 years ago.... 

 

 

I think it is only fitting that I finished this wall on 2/22!!

 

  

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I displayed some treasured family mementos and pictures....

 

 I do have one more Gallery Wall in the downstairs Hallway....

 

 

 

This wall plays homage to soon to be 45 years of  Marriage and our family....

 

I often joke that it our Wall of Shame sometimes and not Fame!!

 

LOL!!

 

My next post will NOT be in Monday but it will be on TUESDAY, February 28th, when I will be participating in the Tea Time on a Tray Blog Tour hosted by Katherine, over at Katherine's Corner!!!

 

I will be joining over 20 Bloggers for this Blog Tour!!

 

 

Here are a few sneak peeks of my interpretation of Tea Time on a Tray!!!

 

So I hope you will stop by to visit again on  TUESDAY 

for that special Blogging Event!!!

 

 

 Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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