50 things to be grateful for at 50 years old

My card from work said “Make a list of 50 things you are thankful for”...

So here goes:

I’m thankful for:

1.       Butch - that although he lacks in planning, he's here and indulges my whims when it comes to the tiny house (buying, fixing, decorating)

2.       Elizabeth - for being a great college student

3.       Angela - for being my favorite child (we joked about this over the weekend - don't worry, Liz was there too)

4.       My Mom – for always being my sounding board

5.       My Dad – for always jumping in on silly projects without a second question or thought!

6.       My MIL – for being a great MIL and now neighbor to the tiny house

7.       My sister – for inviting me to go on a trip half way around the world with her – I’m so excited to do this with her!

8.       My Brother David – for calling and checking up on the folks with me (yes, even if you do spin me up on the subject – ha!)

9.       My Brother Robert – although we don’t talk often, I’m grateful he will be coming out to spend some time with Dad to give Mom a break to go to the AGW with the rest of us!

10.   My relatives – who humor me with AGW and are always willing to drop everything and come join when they are able!

11.   Janet, Gail and Brittney for being my scrapping buddies!

12.   My job – that allows me to do the things I would like with travel, playing and the tiny house.

13.   The tiny house – believe it or not, it has been a fun treat to work on it – although it took long than I ever anticipated, I know it’s there and available to use to have fun, bring friends down and enjoy some time in the sunshine state!

14.   Travel, the places I have seen and the fact that I stretched my wings when I was younger and struck out on a trip to Australia

15.   Begin able to dive the Great Barrier Reef – what an experience!

16.   My continued love of travel and ability to do so… next up India!!

17.   My back yard.  I know that sounds simple, but really it is a little slice of heaven out there sitting watching the world go by…

18.   My new car – it’s a nice new member of the family for sure!

19.   My old trustworthy car “Bertha” – she is going strong even though college life is hard on her (more dings!)

20.   The knowledge to get a stick shift car to train my girls on – as they want to travel the world and learning a stick shift is paramount to their life goals to stretch their wings when the time comes

21.   My girls’ ability to LEARN to drive a stick shift and not complain too awfully much

22.   The opportunity that I have had to live in multiple areas – Las Vegas for the diversity and the things I got to learn while there

23.   The opportunity to work with Travel Exchange and get some wonderfully inexpensive trips out of the bargain (to include my honeymoon flights)

24.   The opportunity to travel to Korea to see Butch while he was stationed there (twice)

25.   The opportunity to live in Italy

26.   Being able to see Oktoberfest in person (twice!)

27.   Being able to see the tulips in bloom at the Keukenhof gardens, the outer areas of the Netherlands, the cheese factories, all sorts of tourist stuff in that part of the world

28.   Being able to travel to Egypt to see the Valley of the Kings in person, so dive in the Red Sea, to see parts of Egypt when things were relatively ‘calm’ in that area

29.   Having a wonderful daycare “mom”  who I’m still in touch with today – who took my baby in like she was hers

30.   To live in Utah for those years, even though I don’t like the snow, it was worth it to be close to family

31.   To have moved to Georgia and have Butch get the jobs he has had since moving here – they have been a wonderful financial support and made our lifestyle possible

32.   The house we live in currently, even though with kids moving out it’s starting to seem bigger and bigger

33.   The fact we have room to have Liz and her friends from colleges away from here meet “in the middle” and crash at our house – and they WANT to!

34.   Work friends.  I have found I have more than I thought I did over the last few months and it’s a nice feeling

35.   My job again – in that I have enough leave to do what I want without too much outward planning and a last minute trip to Guam only requires a phone call and a little juggle of not taking leave during xx week to make it happen without strapping me for leave

36.   The fact that I will have the opportunity to GO to Guam as I have wanted to go since Damian and Tandy got there!

37.   Angela’s impending “Sr.” trip next year – it has been nice to dream up places to go and things to see on our trip to come

38.   that I switched to the job I have currently

39.   that the new coworkers are very personable and friendly and welcoming

40.   for my free sandwich from Firehouse subs today – lunch was a whopping $3.00

41.   that Butch is getting treatment today instead of being buried from his accident during diving last week

42.   that medicine has come as far as it has

43.   For massages every two weeks and insurance to pay all but $20 of it – and I’m so looking forward to it this week!

44.   For the fact my kids are huggy, lovey girls even though they are older now

45.   For my hot tub in the winter

46.   For my swimming pool in the summer

47.   Friends who can relate to me and my daily life at work and at home

48.   Long distance friends who make me smile when I hear from them via email and Facebook – those that I can just pick up where we left off and be good no matter the amount of time in-between

49.   Wow – suck again!!!  I should be 25 as that is where I stopped the first time! So I guess I’ll be thankful that folks still look shocked when I TELL them I’m 50 today!

50.   The fact I MADE it to 50 – the things I have done the risks I have taken in my life… it’s amazing I’m still alive at this point in time!

Better discovered early

Angela and Butch took my car to go get paint brushes for her school class today. I refused to go. (wonder WHY?). They came home and Angela said my car was hissing and her dad said she was hearing things so I went out to investigate and low and behold it WAS hissing. Right from the tire. There was a nail in it :(




See that shines part? Yeah not supposed to be there.


Yep a nail.


Donut tire in place and sitting @ dealership to fix it. :(

Destin bound and having fun

First let me apologize for the horrid color on these photos. My phone camera got stuck on a weird color setting on there and me without glasses the fist half and not paying attention the second really makes for some badly colored photos. But photos they are and documentation as well, so they stay ;)

I had seen on a blog (www.savvysouthernstyle.net 8/9/2015) about her visit to Destin and an antique shop there called Antiques on Holiday. I thought vacation type holiday. Come to find out the STREET its on is Holiday street. Cool. The place was AWESOME. And I need to hit the lottery to bring some of the GIGANTIC cabinets and built-ins back to Georgia with me!!



Karen found a small bottle of wine for us to share tonight as well ;)


I was caught flirting with my new boyfriend ;)


Can't you believe this is antique French lighting?? Really. I must have this. Hahahahaha. Nope.


Yep this is really the price wowzer they LOVED their stuff there!!

We continues on through one more antique store just in front of the first. Made our way to Old Time Pottery where a new table was purchased for a lamp in the living room. It's growing on me. My favorite is art I picked up but I think I'll make you wait until we hang Ito see it ;)

We went to Goodwill then headed to the beach.











Beautiful day out there even if we looked pained in our smiles! A nice relaxing day.

Home again and we ate leftovers for dinner after a big Mexican lunch out today. Then over to visit Sally for a bit and home again to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening surfing blogs and Pinterest.

Weekend

Deserted the fam in favor of a girls weekend disguised as a trip for the home inspection for insurance.

Karen met me at the house and we drove down together. We had Good trip down, and when we got here I got to met a new friend in Cleo. What a hoot!

Karen's sister met us as well. We dashed out for a quick lunch and to pick up groceries before the cable guy and inspectors came.

When we got back home the cable guy was already here (early!). We sat and visited while the cable guy installed everything waited. We had a little bit more of a wait until the inspector made it.

The inspector was very impressed with the little house. Took lots of pictures and said "no problems here". I would hope not for all the $$ that's been poured in ;)

I've also learned a lot about gluten free stuff today too. Interesting. Not sure I could do it unless I had to!

After the inspector left we loaded the old table into Cleo's car as she fell in love with it and really I was going to donate it anyway, so it's much more fun to see it go to a home that wants it ;). She was thrilled. ;) me too.

Karen, Kathy and I then went to the beach to take a walk. Very nice night for a walk on the beach. The sunset wasn't so impressive due to the clouds, but a nice walk.
We saw these.



What is that? Closer look



Still unsure??



Picture from Google. It's a button jelly fish and I would have taken WAY more pictures of them but my phone died. Dang battery!!! Ugh. They were all over and the seagulls weren't eating them either. I picked one up with no ill effect. Glad they didn't sting of affect me in any way. Some can have reactions to the tentacle. I'm not one, thank goodness ;)

After that, back home to clean up and try a gluten free dinner. Not too bad really ;) we talked some more then bed early as we had all been up early this morning. The only difference is that neither one of them sleep well. We'll see how o I do sleeping later than 6:30! Wish me luck!

What I learned this weekend (Florida house)

The main bathroom is TINY. 

 

I have never had to stay in any other bedroom and use the main bath to get ready. 

 

I found you can't open the door to the closet in there without bonking (technical term) into the old fashioned towel rack and you certainly can't stand in there, and see yourself in the mirror with the closet door open. 

 

Solution?  Remove the closet door.  It's not really needed in my opinion – the closet in there is currently holding towels, a makeup tray and a few long skinny trays for tooth brushes and toothpaste.  I guess my only issue with removing the door is now there is an open shelf close to the potty that has tooth brushes in it... then again, I store mine in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror, so I don't care :)  That’s evil isn’t it?  The medicine cabinet will hold three of those skinny containers easily for tooth brushes and toothpaste.  They’re very handy!  (The medicine cabinet AND the trays for the items)

 

The 1/2 bath doesn't have this issue because the cabinet is off to the right when you stand at the sink and I'm not social while getting ready so having the bathroom door shut while having the closet door open doesn't bug me :)  Mom pointed out there is nowhere to put blow dryers and curling irons when you’re getting ready in that bathroom as well.  I hadn’t noticed as I always have the closet door open and mostly just plop the hairdryer into the sink anyway!  (and I don’t use an iron)

 

I will have to look for another one of those “hot” holders for the back of the toilet in that room.  I have the one in the main bath, it’s not been on the back of the toilet as I had the towel hook bar over there waiting to be hung (which it is now). 

 

Next up in the main bath is the artwork I had planned to hang in the main as well as the face towel/washcloth hooks to be put in place over the toilet…. See, the list isn’t ending is it???  Sigh.  Oh, well, at least it’s getting shorter J

 

I would LOVE to get rid of the old fashioned towel rack in the main bathroom, however it’s the old 1960’s tiled in place rack.  Yeah… I researched it on YouTube – you have to chisel each of the end tile mounts out, then replace the now missing tile with a replacement tile.  As this is 1960s tile and I doubt anyone carries that pale gray blue color anymore, so matching the color would be a booger.  I think we will just leave it in place for now and reformat the room if/when we ever gut/remodel it we’ll remove all of those and put up more modern fixtures.

Work work work.

I thought our list was short enough to justify Mom and Dad coming down. I thought we would have lots of extra time. Hahahahaha. I should KNOW nothing is that quick/easy/painless.


I had wanted to bring dads little green rolling cart to paint however a good old fashioned chair did the trick as well. Dad did a great job painting and caulking to baseboard in the bedroom. Looks GREAT!!


Dad then assisted Angela with dresser assembly. Between them they assembled a beautiful little blue dresser.


Angela also assembled the cutest table for the dining room.


Dad attempted to install the hardware on the closet door. Angela and I both failed it. Butch ended up installing it. Yay Butch!

We also were greeted with the new counters. However discovers a few "treats" left over from the install.


Glue glob. Yeah, that removed a little paint. :( booo


They also cracked the faceplate on the stove during install.


The most shocking is the color. In the pictures it didn't look blue enough. How very silly I was! Look at that color!!!

And onto hooking the gas back up!!








All the way in!!


Butch in the hole and Dad supervising. Worked out well. Has all hooked back up and a functional stove.

On to the rest of the house.


Pillow cases put in place. Bringing all the colors together.


Curtains up!! The far right corner gave me FITS. Butch had to step in and rescue me from myself and power tools!!


The bunk room has ART and the rug went down even though it's not my favorite, it's nice to have it in the morning on your feet. Angela stayed in the room this weekend and the beds passed with flying colors on the comfort scale. Good to know.


She was also thrilled with the curtains. Installing them was funny. We measured everything but the rod. Whoops. I on the bracket too far out and had to remove, relocate and paint over my spackle job.


I picked these up at goodwill. I debated the frames however really loved the boats!


The coral room. I needed more light but it was a rainy and still needs a bit more work to pull this room together.


Master bedroom. Note the blue dresser on the right.


Another angel. Cute little dresser.


The kitchen again with the table in place. I was able to sit with Mom and Dad for breakfast. We got easily however I wouldn't sit there while anyone was cooking!!


Cute little table on a rainy dreary day (the massive can lights ARE on!)


And the final push before heading back to the house. It was a productive weekend.

The list was set to paint the hallway patch job and around the kitchen walls with wall paint - done.
Paint the baseboards that were installed last trip (bedroom and kitchen - both single walls) - done.
Install doorknobs - done.
We also caulked all the gaps in the doorways. Well MOST of them. I ran out (again!) of caulking before done (THREE tubes!). Lots of gaps!!
Clean - done!
Replace the pump housing - nope but a possible connection to get it done? Hard to tell.

And with that another weeks done.

Wednesday events!!

Today was orthodontist final visit. A confirmation to only wear her retainer at night. Yay Angela!!

Today was also hair cut day!


Nothing new on the style...





Looking good!!

We also got wonderful news and pictures of the countertop. From Sally!

First the good news. Remember when the tree went down next door? (http://donnasworddoodles.blogspot.com/2015/04/ttttttiiiimmmmmmbbbbbeeeeerrrrrrr.html?m=0)



The neighbors cleaned up their tree mess on their side!! Shocking and only FOUR long months later! Wow! Oh, well. It's finally no longer a threat to our house. Yay!!

Also our counters are IN!!!








As weird as this sounds they are not blue enough. Ha! Ok I will hold judgement until I can see them in person on Friday night.

Im so excited!!

Ikea trip

I found a beautiful table for the little house and only 35" wide yay! I love this one as it extends from 4' long to 6' long. Should be very nice in the little house :)


And a cute blue dresser for the master. The one in there currently will move to the coral room.

I also got curtains for the living room as well as the bunk room. And many many more cool things...talk about hemorrhaging money. The perils of paying full price for things. I'm not a fan!

We came home then went to Target and hemorrhaged more money, this time for Angela's room and room makeovers. Why do I agree to these things?

Failures as a mom...birthdays and first day of school

First day of school pictures were a total bust. I left, the kid was still getting ready. I get home to pick her up for teeth cleaning appointment. And THIS is how I was greeted for pictures. Hum, yeah, she is 16 and such a joy at times. Sigh





She did look cute for her first day in her new outfit. First day as a Junior!!

Then day two I was trying to get another picture. Yeah, she overslept again. So no pictures. But it was her birthday! Happy 16th to Angie!!





Ah, there's my pretty girl!! Happy happy birthday to our birthday girl :)

A productive weekend

Ok this looks weird. But it shows that all of the cabinets have knobs :). While installing the knobs we were removing the drawers and taking them to the living room in preparation for the countertops in a week or two.


Pretty knobs!!!


The kitchen in review ;)





Repainted the floor under the sink. Goodness in the few weeks after it was painted originally it got gross. I guess this is a hint of things to come. I'll see about getting some stick on tile to go under there.


Ah, new cabinet painted and installed and looking great!








Enough pictures of the kitchen?? Ha!! Can you tell we're excited to be prepped for counter tops?

I should have taken a picture of the newly painted (primer) wall in the hallway as well. Whoops! I was dashing through the house taking pictures as we were packing out.


This is the view on the way out of town... BIG storms. I ran through two big rain storms on the freeway and another Mariana. I turned driving over to Butch and took a nap...


And woke up to THIS view. Hum, not much changed... Ha!