HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

                    

Have fun everyone!!

                                      

A Steady Rain……

Hello all…..I wrote this the other day and saved it….just random thoughts and thought I would put it in anyway….

There is a steady rain here today. It’s dark and kind of dreary. One of those days when you want to just stoke a fire in the wood stove, or turn on your heat and curl up with a good book or a ball of yarn and a hook.

Obie got me up early this morning. Bobbie is still sleeping, which is good, because he is still not feeling well. He’s has a head and chest cold that won’t go away. It’s the cold that keeps on giving. It recycles itself. Last night I started noticing the catchy throat myself. I guess I’m getting it too.

I can hear the buzzing from the bedroom, the sound of his rhythmic snores. When your nose is stuffed up and your chest is full, it’s hard to breath while sleeping. His mouth is doing the work. That quiet chain saw sound is comforting to me. I’ve been hearing that for almost 22 years now. I can’t imagine NOT hearing it. It used to bother me…now it is comforting. Isn’t that strange. Years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.

I don’t think I would be able to sleep if he wasn’t here. There have only been a hand full of times in 22 years that we were not together at night and I couldn’t sleep. Can you sleep if your spouse is not with you? Maybe it’s me.

I was reading some of Claudia’s random thoughts over at Mockingbird Hill Cottage this morning. It got me thinking. There is something going on around the country that is very irritating to me. It happening with young girls and some women. When they speak, it sounds like they are asking a question? They used to call these people Valley Girls, in the 80’s. Is this the valley girl of today? Here is an example of what I mean, on a youtube video……

This girl has asked David Horowitz a question “Valley Girl Style”. It drives me crazy to hear people talking like this. The worst part of it is, if I am around someone speaking Valley girl for any length of time, my husband says I start talking like this too!! OMG…I like didn’t even know that! Ha ha….And you couldn’t even hear my valley girl accent….could you? So what’s up with this way of talking? Where did it come from? Paris Hilton? Where? There are so many women speaking Valley too! Come on ladies….what’s up with that! Very weird.

Yesterday, my son Kyle and his girlfriend Sarah came out for the day. They helped Bobbie and I get some work done here on the plains. My garden finally got put to bed and every last plant was dragged out and put into our big pile out back. We have an area where we put all of the leaves, pine needles and weeds and dead plants from my garden. Sarah and I did the garden and Kyle started on the leaves and pine needles on the front lawn. Then she joined him. They would fill a huge tarp and then drag it out back. They worked very hard. Here are some pictures they did not want me to take! That is a lot of leaves and pine needles. They work well together….although he tossed her into the pile at least twice! Here we go……MUSH!! MUSH!! Come on mom!! Do you HAVE to take pictures of us doing this??? Why YES son I do! Here Kyle….I’ll pull you AND the leaves.

That’s a heavy load. They are getting there! Just a little further to the right. What a great job they did!!! Yay!! And would you look at my beautiful garden all cleaned up by Sarah (and a little bit by me)…. It’s all ready for next year.

What a great day. The day before, I made a huge spaghetti sauce with ribs and sausage and lots of veggies and garlic. After the kids came in and got all the leaves out of their underwear (Sarah…from Kyle dumping her in the leaves too many times!)…..they sat down and filled their plates with pasta and sauce and fresh salads and iced tea. It was 70 degrees and the most perfect day to do this in late October. Bobbie mowed and also helped with raking and removal of logs and sticks. We got rid of 2 huge piles of brush a while back and now have a small, very neat pile, that we will burn soon. Obie and Kyle’s dog Katie enjoyed running around and playing. Obie did keep getting distracted by some strange critter hole. Jack Russell’s like to dig, and that he did. The problem was it was in front of the ramp going into our shed. I kept shooing him away and filling the hole and he kept coming back! The little devil was persistent! So……it was a great day and my yard is just about ready for winter. Bobbie and I are happy campers! Now if we can just get this construction done!

Finishing Touches…..

This is a temporary feeding station for Baby and Obie in the kitchen. They eat together every morning and night, just like this, side by side. Today it was on this old rag of a rug. Behind the rug is a paint table temporarily folded up against the wall. Up against my front door is this… I hope there isn’t a fire cause we aren’t going anywhere  fast! Since we are in the middle of finishing the beams, Bobbie wanted to make sure we had wiring put in them for our surround sound system we are purchasing at some point. He was thinking ahead as usual. Here’s the left beam above…. And the right. This will be concealed and eventually a speaker will go on each beam. Our finish boards are not on the sides of the beam yet. We are looking at lots of crown molding. The doors and frames got all painted and put back. WE purchased new door knobs yesterday, along with many more items…..another hundred or so dollars spent at Lowes! Boy do these doors brighten up our house! This is my Indian popcorn I grew in my garden this year! Aren’t they cute? I made 4 swags. These three hang on my deck and then I have another here… on my back door. I love the colors. I guess the corn won’t get popped! I also took a dark oak framed bulletin board that has hung in my kitchen for way too many years and gave it a makeover. You can see it kind of in this old kitchen picture hanging above the calendar in the left of the photo. See it covered with all those papers? Here it is now all girlied up….but before I show you, I have to tell you I had to blur out all the names and numbers on there so it looks weird!! Oh well….you get the idea? All those crazy white lines are me blurring out with the paint program. Not very good job! These cards are from two of my best girlfriends.. Can’t wait to hang it back up. Do you think it’s an improvement?

Back on my diet and I have already lost 6 pounds. Weigh in is tomorrow and I am thinking I may stay the same…..you know why? I did well most of the week….until this happened….. One of our customers stopped by and gave us these.BIG candy bars. His company makes the racks that hold these in the stores and he got them  free. I can’t tell you how good that white chocolate coconut one was!! Oh my freaking God you have to try it! These are all new to the public. White coconut, chili, and sea salt. The only one I didn’t eat yet is the chili….it’s in the freezer calling my name each day……The sea salt is very strongly chocolate…deep chocolate and good. The white coconut is just plain addicting if you like white chocolate….my God who doesn’t?

Happy Fall to Ya’ll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October Flying By…….

Hope you are all doing well. This month seems to be flying by quickly. That didn’t happen in the heat of July! We had a long and very dry summer here in the northeast. I am very grateful for the cool temperatures during my absolute favorite season….fall. Looking back at my blog entries from last year, I noticed we were under construction last July through October too! What the heck? We must love torture? No….just kidding. I am extremely grateful we can do it.

Would you believe we are almost done….getting close. We love it so much, we decided to have our dining room floor re-sanded on Nov. 15!! I know….call us crazy…it’s alright! We will be without heat for 3 days. Our monitor heater is in that room and must be taken out. Pray for warm days! It’s ok….my husband thought ahead and we will be fine. The floor has looked pretty skuzzy for a while. It will be sanded right down and will get 3 coats of poly….one at a time…over 3 days time. What a treat! My kitchen and dining room floor too! It’ll feel like a new home!

I still have not put my garden to bed….next week I’ll do that with some help. I did get all my popcorn ears taken out and they are beautiful! I made 4 swags with them. I’ll show you next time I post.

So what do you all do for Halloween? Anything special? I used to have costume parties years ago….when my kids were very little. Then I focused on my kids going out trick or treating and what they would wear. Then they grew up and started going to their own parties. They I focused on handing out candy to the neighbor children. Then children stopped going trick or treating around here. Do you remember why children across the country stopped going out door to door? It was the apple razor blade scare. Remember that? Did you know that it is a myth? It’s an urban legend……read this….Poisoned Candy. I was shocked to find this out. Kids around here go to parties at schools and homes. A few will go out trick or treating. I’m not sure what they do in the city? What a shame that a myth caused all that fear. If I don’t make it back, have a wonderful end of October and …

Coming Along…..

A sneak peek…..the old brick linoleum floor from 1983 in my kitchen, now looks like this!

That floor was not cleaned yet….still had some grout gunk but you get the idea. Believe it or not, that grout color is not white….it is Smokey Grey and so is the tile. It kind of grew on us after a while. It’s not the color they showed us at Lowe’s….don’t get me started! I don’t know how people do Reno’s and stay sane…honestly…..it must be why some move out and hire a crew to do everything. We cannot afford that so we do a lot ourselves.

Kitchen being painted (by us) and new doors being stored in the dining room. We found out they had to be painted after we hung them. They came back down and we are painting them now. Those old oak cabinets and black countertops won’t be replaced for some time to come. We will probably paint them at some point. The beam between this kitchen and our dining room had to come out and be replaced. It was cracking and moving and old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our friend cutting it into chunks after he has secured the ceiling on either side. That was quite a job.         My son Kyle helping and Obie supervising.  

Three new long boards go in side by side and then into the interior walls for support. These will not show. A custom beam will be boxed around it. Here’s the beginning of the custom beam. More boards to go up on the wall below and the top will have crown molding. We will need to paint it all. New doors begin to be put up but have to come down again to be painted. What were we thinking? It all worked out though. So much nicer than the old brown stained doors from the 80’s we had. These Christian doors are not solid wood but they serve the purpose and I think they look wonderful! They are about 60.00 a piece at Lowe’s. Goodbye old brown doors and molding……hello clean white doors and molding!!

I will post some more as we get closer to finishing. My wonderful husband put out his back and has been recooping for the last 4 days. All that heavy lifting!! So….we are at a standstill until next week. He needs to heal. I’ll be back with more soon. Sheila…..sorry I missed your kitchen makeover party! Hope all of you are well and enjoying this fall season! I have not even cleaned out my garden yet……next week…..and a yard sale is in order for possibly next weekend. I know….I’m crazy? When you renovate, you start to look at all your “stuff” differently I guess? Out with the old and in with the new? Something like that. See you soon…………….. I am not going to miss looking at this!!