Moving and shifting clutter ...

The entry way "before"

 

 AFTER
 

 

Why on earth would i replace a perfectly good sofa/entry table, you ask?  It's not a great answer, but it's a good answer, it was to empty one more of THESE from the attic:

 

 

Now all of the table clothes and napkins that were in here are now in the drawers of my lovely new entry table.  The entry table is ... well, in the way right now, but will be shipped off to be loved by someone else in the near future, I'm sure!

 

 

I had to come in for it's close up shot... LOVE the red color and LOVE the hardware... shocked at where I found this little gem... are you wondering too?  BIG LOTS.  Yes sir, Big Lots had this cute table - more than I would have anticipated for Big Lots prices, however having been pricing these types of chests for a while, it was less than a chain store!!

MLK weekend

Shoveling Mulch!

The girls did an excellent job of spreading out the mulch and Liz was a good sport driving the wheel barrow.  She was short enough not to have to bend over to keep the front from digging in on the soft dirt.

 Dad overseeing the efforts :)

Unrelated to the weekend, in all reality, however I had been toying with some updates for the house... I am tired of my red bedspread and it's going to be replaced.  It took me a bit to warm up to this one - a day or two of it sitting in the bedroom, before I would actually take it out of the package and lay it on the bed.  I'm still not 100% committed to it as I have not removed ANY of the tags... however, I have another pictures somewhere that shows it in relation to the red curtains and red footstools and it really does look nice... a red throw pillow and it will be the perfect "addition" to the bedroom and the now faded to burgundy (you can see it in the background of this picture) bedspread will be retired - well, thrift store bound!!

In other updates that have not made it to the blog, the cameras were established in the last few weeks as well - we're "under watch" now.  We can see when folks are coming and going from our phones and computers.  Fun stuff.  Ahhhh love technology!

Lost weekends (busy? weekends?)

Sad when you come back to work and think "where did the weekend go" and it was a three day weekend.

I know, the things I did were on the "must do" list... and they were all productive... and in reality I really didn't do THAT much over the weekend, but it just seems to have gone "poof" and it was gone!

Saturday... I have no clue what I did on Saturday... I went to pick a kid up from a sleep over... I did stuff around the house... but not a lot from what I can recall - see - LOST weekends!

Sunday, I got up, read the paper, had my coffee... then took off to deliver some "good mail" to Beth Christensen's house.  This is in Perry, so I went by Mom's house to drop off the paper and help her with computer stuff.  Then home and a nap - yes, a nap.  I had Liz take my temperature as I had been coming home a few nights this week falling asleep (Thursday and Friday) for a few hours, then getting up and doing what needed to be done, then back to bed at a decent hour and sleeping the whole night.  I was running a low grade fever.  Hum... weirdness.

Monday, I had to get up "early" - which translates to 8am - to get Liz to her appointment at the hospital intake for volunteering.  While she was in her orientation process I went shopping for a new table for the entry with storage.  I believe I have found my table.  Butch was actually in agreement with the one I chose.  Yay!  I'm going to pick it up on the way home!!  I then went home, fought with Angela tooth and nail to get her MOVING with what she should have done while I was gone.... after that was finally accomplished, we were off and running to the Cochran Consignment shop!  There was a cop re-directing traffic where I typically turn anyway, so I thought 'Hum, wonder what's going on?' this was further asked when I got to the consignment shop and the street was blocked off there as well - with folks lining the street.  Yep, they were having a parade!  So, I got the girls to help me in with all the consignment things and the parade started while we were still shopping!  Fun.  I stopped and watched part of it.  It was entertaining for a Monday small town parade.  Liz in the meantime found a dress for her Prom.  $50.  I used my store credit to purchase it for her.  We’ll see what the alterations will cost her (and by her, I really mean me in the end, I’m sure!)  From there it was off to Mom and Dad’s house to help them with their asparagus bed.  Dad had mowed it for us so we could put some mulch over the top.  The girls and I shoveled and raked and spread to get a good coverage over the crop.  We’ll see if this will help them grow for next year J  by now it’s 5 o-clock.  Home, dinner, bed…

And thus why I wonder just where my weekend went.  I may just have to run away to the spring expo to take a break and have a girls weekend.

 

Graveyards

I discovered quite by accident that there is a graveyard a stones throw from our house.
A tree right in the middle if four graves.


Earliest burial 1933


Interesting...


Not sure if this when born or when died... Just thought this was cool with the moss in 1926.


From the car looking to the left side of the graveyard


Looking more forward.


Acids the car to the far right.



And at some point this week I came home to find the lawn torched. :o/ hum. Didn't expect that!





Yes, Butch is a pyromaniac.

What have we been doing lately

Angela and I went to grandma and grandpa's house to get the nuts off the roof. Even I got into the act.
Can you see Angela?


There she is!


Queen if the roof!!

Roadside chairs

Before




During (nice thumb!)



After


Oh so cute!!

Owls

Before


After


I like them a plain color however they either need to go bold or the wall does. Thinking about it as the bath was to be purple and in an effort to not go too dark I went way too light. Hum. To repaint or not to repaint...

Spelling Bee...

Angela made it to the school wide spelling bee for her middle school.
She was one of 20 students out of the roughly 675 students in the school
who made the cut.
I took time off to go and watch and wouldn't you know it, I left my
phone in the car, so NO pictures!! She was normal Angela on stage with
a nice yellow number 14 hung around her neck :)
She made it to the 4th or 5th round (I would have been out LONG before
then, let me tell you!) and was one of about 10 students left... then
the word came: Acquired - or some form there-of. Now the rules are a
bit strict, once a letter is uttered, it can not be taken back and you
could see it register as Angela muttered A... Q... (awh, crap!) - yep,
missed that pescky C in there! Bummer.
Her best friend Gracie was down to 1 of 5 students left and was given
the word fuedal. Yes, you are reading that correctly - not futile -
which, by the way, she spelled perfectly! I would have missed that one
for sure as well.
All in all a very entertaining morning in a middle school cafeteria. :)

WHOOOO???

This is who came to watch me hot tub tonight :)  I was sitting in the tub thinking "is that an owl?" I had been in for a bit and kept hearing him call, so I switched positions (and kept the bubblers off) and watched for him.  Had it not been for a couple of mocking birds giving him heck, I would have never found him!
I hollered in the house for Liz to bring them camera and see how close she could get to him... he was actually in a neighbors tree one house over, but had a very nice view towards us and apparently towoards the street and houses to the west of us.  He stayed there hooting on occassion to a buddy in the trees to the north.  When he finally took off, I would guess his wingspan was close to 6' - BIG guy!

More Christmas

Look - proof that I DO exist!  I'm not always behind the camera.  Thanks to David and Laura for the fun Texmas ornaments for the tree!  I got some nice LARGE silver stars and silver pine cones to put these with one year for a down home Christmas feel ;)  should make for a pretty tree.

I also got a new iPad and the security system I have been wanting for a while now.  Two of the four cameras are in operation much to Butch's delight - he's constantly flipping the TV over to see it!  ha!

 Christmas Dinner all set and ready to go!

(left to right: Liz, Sally, Butch, Me, Dad and Angela - mom is taking the picture)

 Looks like Lizzie is getting into the good stuff... she's not, it's the sparkling cider they so love during the holidays!  ha!

Christmas 2012

This Christmas was a "stay at home" Christmas and I'm afraid I took it way too much to heart.  I don't think I left the house with the exceptions of two outings.  Really.  I read and puttered around the house and read some more.  I managed to finish two books and get well into the third and if all goes as planned tonight, I may just make it all the way through book three and start into book FOUR!
I know, I know... get out of the house.  Nope.. thanks, enjoying my time at home sleeping in and being a total bum!!

Oh, and we discovered, or should I say, rediscovered puzzles.  Butch was even caught in the act.  I think I'm the only one who didn't sit down and really work on the puzzle :)

Traditions carry on and each child gets to open ONE present on Christmas Eve.  Angela got a neat air brush set from Grandma - she has had such fun with this!!

 Liz chose to open one from her friend (yes, just friend; and no, not gay!) Alec

The tree after Santa came to visit

 Angie was the first up... tried out her bike - varrroooom!!!

 Liz loved the cute light up bag that grandma gave each of them!

 Grandma got a nice new back scratcher... ah, nothing beats a good back scratch!!

 The last few pics of Elizabet were of her trying to get her new ipod out of the box - it was taped into a shoe box with little jingle bells inside... then she finally got it untaped off the bottom to discover it was GREEN!!

 Black Friday shopping WITH kids puts a damper on giving for Christmas, so Grandma wrapped the headphone box - to the headphones Angie has been using since she got them "early for Christmas" - hahaha - love it!

 It's a Dr. Who Christmas at our house!

 Playing push the dummy with Grandpa.  My camera was horrible against the light - I hope someone shares their pictures with me so I can get a good one going.  I'll try to photoshop these two - once I get photo shop loaded back on this computer!

 How we REALLY spent our vacation :)

 Pretty full moon right after Christmas!