Hallway project

To match the other end with Liz's sweet 16. We will update the pictures to her sweet 16 when we get them done in two years.

Angela's recovery from wisdom tooth removal

Surgery was Friday ...

Day 2 (Sunday)

Day 3 (Monday)

Day 7 (Friday)- 99 % healed. Only a little swelling left on one side. Not too bad. (Outfit is her color guard outfit. I'll post a full body shot shortly!)
Now here is the kicker. We didn't do nearly the preventative stuff this time - no walking for days... Just ice on day 1 ever 30 minutes on and off. Then some icing on day two however not religiously.
Two kids same parents and Liz did more to actively prevent selling and Angela recouped faster. Interesting results, don't you think??

Project

Have to love when a project, thought, plan, comes together seamlessly after a year of picking up items ;). The crab was found last year some time. I couldn't find an original picture. The candle holders this year early in the year. And even better?? NO changes, painting or otherwise needed. Love it!!

























Original. See no changes needed. Add sand and shells and the beach comes to you :)

Before:

 

After:

AND AFTER...

 

 

Both girls have assumed this position now.  Poor Angela. She's using her iPod to type out what she wants and needs.  Aside from a failed attempt to drink water while still numb, we're on the road to recovery!

Georgia’s Guidelines for leaving a child without adult supervision:

Georgia's Guidelines for leaving a child without adult supervision:

•Children under 8 years old should never be left alone, even for short periods of time.
•Children between the ages of 9 and 12, based on level of maturity, can be left home alone for brief periods of time.
•Children 13 and older can generally be left as babysitters, with the exception of children in foster care. It is not recommended, however, that 13 year olds baby sit infants, small children and children that require special attention due to medical conditions.
•Children 15 and older can be left home alone overnight, depending on the level of maturity of the child.

WHAT THE????
I don't think so!!!

Weird thoughts on aging

Ok, so this year I'm a whopping 48.  I relate more in the 50's group than the younger group even with still having a 14 year old at home.

I watch folks retiring and think... shouldn't that be me?

 

Thinking this could be brought on by my 30 year high school reunion?  Could be, could be…

 

They're only in their mid-50's (57 or younger) and I think that should be me...

Me? 

Here's how it breaks down:

56 +2 months	2021	NOVEMBER 15th
20	2016	age: 51
30	2026	July

 

You’ll note that I’ll be 20 years of service at age 51… but I won’t be the right age to retire.. I have to be 56+2 months to qualify…. So if the early out states they will give me 6 years, I’m IN!!  Not likely, but worth the thought process.

 

So the breakdown with all things considered is here:

Age	Years of Service	Age Reached	Years reached
62	5	2027	2001
60	20	2025	2016
MRA	30	2021	2026
MRA	10	2021	2006

*MRA = Minimum retirement age.

 

If you retire at the MRA with at least 10, but less than 30 years of service, your benefit will be reduced by 5 percent a year for each year you are under 62, unless you have 20 years of service and your benefit starts when you reach age 60 or later (that would be 2025, may as well hang out another year!).  In my case that would be:  30% penalty = penalty 5% * 6 for years of service less than 30 UNLESS I get another job and don’t receive benefits until after 62… just don’t see THAT happening!!

 

2031 is full SS benefits as well… not that I really think that there will be ANY SS by the time I get to that age, but you never know.

 

Color code from above indicates yellow being the “reached” timeline and red being the optimal with no penalty.

So… 2026 it is… and it won’t have to be November, I think my service comp date is now considered to be July 16 so any time after July 16^th of 2026 is a GO!

 

That’s just depressing.

 

 

Score on summer clearance

Ok we all know I LOVE 90% off and wish these had been in that category however I am happy with 70% in this case. HUGE beach towels for $3.38 each. Whoop!!! I love Target clearance.


A few things @ 90% were found as well

Moving in early

Lizzie's roommate Kayla was able to move into the dorm on the 7th because she's in Band Camp (flags). Since Lizzie is rooming in a two bedroom dorm with her she decided to help her move in and found HER room unlocked. They each get a key that will unlock the apartment and one bedroom for security.
A plan was hatched to 'beat' the system and move the bulk of her stuff into the dorms a week early and here we are. I totally spaced getting a photo of the fully loaded car! The red wagon made short work of the load and we got it up there in two loads. Sweet!!

Making her bed



Tour of the apartment. Living room:

Kitchenette. The two doors you see are the girls rooms. Kayla's is the first one, Liz's is the second.

Bathroom sink area with Miss Kayla! Shower is to the right, potty to the left:

Shower. No picture of the toilet room as everyone knows what a potty looks like ;)

When we were driving out there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We commented on it as we couldn't play I spy. Then look what we got on the way home!

AND this is how 90% of the drive was for me with lack of copilot. :o/ hum.

So next weekend is the official move in and Lizzie's experience with college begins in earnest :) what an adventure!

New Chair

I will admit it has one issue. The seat has pulled apart I can take it apart and replace the webbing with another piece or mend what's there. We will see which I choose in time to resolve this little issue.

I've ran the cushion cover through the wash and odo-banned the padding for germs. And scrubbed the arms down with a Mr Clean scrubber and was grossed out at the guck to come off of it :oP

What would YOU pay? They compare at Ikea here:
http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/70078463/ ($49.99 if you're not inclined to look it up)

It was at Goodwill for $20 for a while. Then it hit 50% off whoop!! $10 and I was all over it!

Birthday girl

Birthday girl












Angela turned 14 in the 4th. We had grand plans to go out for Korean however they were closed! Bummer! We ended up at Zen's Japanese Steak House instead. Hibachi. Yum! Then home for CAKE!!

The Cake was made by Miss C - Skyler's Mom. She did a GREAT job, didn't she?

Coffee table

$8.50 + $2 spray paint a little time , cutting and sanding:

Project complete

Before:

After:

However I think I'm going to sell it instead of keep it.

First Day of School

 Awe, how sad - first year without Lizzie in the picture for first day of school! 

This is Angela's first year of HIGH SCHOOL as well - welcome to school Freshman Angela!!

final results on furlough pay difference

Ok, this looks MUCH better than it really is… the previous pay period was the FIRST week of furlough, so had ONE day missing and I lost $150, this pay period was another $150.  It really is right on target with the furlough calculator.  So – all in all, I have to say, for two days off a pay period, I simply will NOT complain!!

Butch is home from diving

His haul from the Baja California wreck. Hasn't seen the light of day since 1942. Pipette was found inside the green bottle so the dropper eroded over time. The stoppered bottle still has what appears to be rubber in it. Cool finds.

Daily activities

Another Fun Furlough Friday passes.

This one was productive as well. Went with mom to get her car washed and vacuumed. That place had fumes SO bad I think lighting a match may just have exploded it!! I got and almost instant migraine started. Yay :(

We went to Michaels and I made it out without a purchase, thank you very much ;)

Then Wal-Mart where I promptly bought my fav sinus meds.
Then Aldis and home to get the girls.

We picked up lunch for dad and everyone and went to their house to share lunch with them!

My list of "to do" was short for mom. Pack up an item they ordered and get it returned. Packing it was easy - return, not so much. I sat on the phone for 25 minutes on hold to get return instructions. Nothing. They give an option to give your number and they'll call you back do we left a number. I hope they call back and return instructions are simple.

I then went out and tied up tomatoes again. They are very weedy, but producing OK. We didn't know his method of planting so they're not as big as his typically are, but there are some on the vine
I helped get a large limb on the top of the burn pile too.

Then we headed to the house as I had folks coming over to swim and Angela needed to get ready for Guard Camp.

Why is it?

 

Why is it when I see the above job opening on line I always thing of the guy in the assembly line with a hammer banging on bomb heads??

LOL!

Georgia Mountain Getaway

My coworker and friend Karen was nice enough to invite the Ashwood's to share their vacation house and adventures with them this summer. 
We were up in Clayton GA for Wednesday night (would have gone sooner, however, Angela had band/color guard practice this week - darn it!)  We left right after work and headed up...

...and hit Atlanta Traffic and the storm coming up from the left side got us as well :)  Oh, well, could have been worse, we still made good time and got there in three and a half hours.  Good thing too as it was VERY interesting to find. The GPS insisted it was "there" when it was FAR from there... it was however at the end of the paved road.  I guess that is as far as Betty (the GPS) wanted to go :)
The drive in - starting on paved road...

 Found out this place is on sale via Zillow - a mere $589,000 however it does have a grass landing strip a hangar and a VERY nice house!  Sweet, I was just in love with the benches and swings on the covered bridge going TO the house!

 Another deceiving property - at the top of this one is a house that is about $275,000 don't be fooled there are $75,000 homes father back in the dirt sections :)

 Over the bridge and into the dirt road section for the last half of the ride.

 Next to the VERY full and fast stream.

 Favorite road sign on the way into the house!

 The house.  It's really Big - yes even with it being on a hill, it's very big.  Upstairs are three large rooms with two baths and an office/playroom (all are VERY large - we had Angela in the bedroom on a blow up bed along with a dresser, two nightstands and a king bed and there was a walk in closet and plenty of room to spare to get around everything.  The main floor had the living room, kitchen open area and the master bedroom/bathroom and the screened wrap around porch along with some open decking as well.  Downstairs was a TV room, with enough room for a pool table, exercise gear, bathroom (full) and another room with a ping pong table in it.  open porch running all round the outside of it.  The back had a three car garage and a steep rock garage up to the shed that held the tractor, firewood and such.  Above that was the waterfall as well as an "upper" yard of sorts with a tree house that was the bug house according to Liz.

 The driveway up..

 

So the first night we relaxed and played some pool and ping pong.

 Karen and Chris playing darts

 relaxing on the screened porch

 

Thursday morning the girls and I struck out on our own to go horse riding.  No one else was interested, but pointed us to a wonderful place to ride that offered "river" rides.

 Liz had Bailey, Angela was on Sadie and I was on Rex.

 LOOK I got them to turn around and smile for me!!!

 toes getting wet on this section - it got fairly deep .. but felt so good!!

 Blue heron just to the left of center

 This is how Rex rode the whole time... nose in Sadie's bum - hahahaha.. poor Sadie.  Good thing she didn't seem to mind and it kept her motivated to keep on going!

 Bailey had some serious "go to hell" looks on this ride, he would all of a sudden turn around and GLARE at Sadie.  you can tell she's is soo concerned about this, eh?  Ha!

 LOOK - proof I was THERE!!!!

We then headed up to Highland - where mom and I went when we went to see the leaves last year.

 

  We walked around the cute downtown then headed home... we got side traced at an alpine slide for another half hour or so!

 

 

 Oh, yeah, I went too!!  it was a blast!

Friday was the planned day for white water rafting...  We'll let the pictures speak for themselves

 The crew: Joe, Chris, Nate, Kathy, Matt, Clyde, Leah, Liz, Angela, Meagan, Donna, Jennifer

The only one missing was Karen :(

This was a GREAT trip!!!

 

Saturday a few went Zip Lining.  I was too large to go ;(  Angela was too scared to go all the way through with it :(  next year we'll both do it!!!



 

Only ONE war wound and it was from horseback riding and LIZ earned it!

OUCH!

 

What I woke up to every morning at 7:00am... yes, that is SUN streaming in and NO blinds on any of the windows there... weird.  Only the bathroom upstairs had a curtain.

 

On the way out of town we had to stop at Goats on a Bridge... it was right beside where we would turn around on the highway to get to our road... so we had to go and look.. no, really - goats on the roofs...

 and on the bridges between the roofs...

 and this is what is UNDER those bridges...

 and where the girls ar... hahahaha 

 no, really they are off to one side..

We did make sure we stayed out from under those walkways!!!  EWH!!

HA!!

And with that it's back to reality.. :(