IT'S BEEN A BUSY WEEK!

It has been a really busy last week!  We are finally getting settled, and I do have a couple of rooms that I think are pretty much the way they will stay.  For the time being, anyway!  Below is the kitchen with the eating area on the end.  I love that spot overlooking the swamp/wildlife area in back.  We have a lot of different birds visiting the feeders we just put out, and I hope we'll have many more as they become used to us.

The living room with the dining room behind the sofa.

A little different view of that same area, with the door into the kitchen.

The little piece of open door you see in the way back left of the picture below is to our bedroom.  I do not have that area finished yet.

Below is the dining room and living room from the kitchen door looking to the front of the home.

And the spare room isn't finished yet either, but I did dig out the first quilt I ever made, my sampler quilt from 1982.  I never really liked it after I was done!

It was completely hand quilted.  Something I would not be able to do today because my fingers would ache too much!

I still don't really like it, but I think I'll use it on the spare bed for awhile.  This room will also double as my sewing room, so I guess it's appropriate to have a quilt I made on the bed in there!

CLASS OF 2011

We have two grandsons graduating this spring.  We attended the first of those graduations last night when Caleb graduated from a small town Minnesota high school.  You know the kind I mean, a small farming community where the dress code includes jeans, flannel shirts, boots, and the green caps advertising farm equipment.  Oh, there were also the five inch stiletto heels, tight little skirts barely covering the undies, and the over-sized baggy jeans with the crotch below the knees paired with black T's with symbols and words I didn't know or want to know.  But the guests of honor wore green and white robes.

 

Their class flower was the spider mum and their class color was lime green. 

 The graduates marched in from both sides of the gym and met in the middle before taking their assigned seats.  Caleb and his friend met at the intersection with a huge hug.

 

Someone got a bit artistic with their hat, uh Caleb?  Good thing you are heading to art school.

Back to the small town thing.  With only 76 graduates, there is enough time, and enough community interest, to do a slide show including baby pictures of all of the graduates.  Here is Mr. Caleb in his bibs.  And his mullet!

I haven't seen the diploma to verify that it was signed, but I'm guessing it was.  Good job, Caleb!

The mess of silly string, popped balloons, and tossed programs under the graduates' chairs.  Poor janitor!

Here is handsome Caleb and his friend, and college roommate, Tony.  Congratulations guys!  If you behave at college I'll send you care packages!

MY NEW KITCHEN COFFEE AREA

Just a quick note to let you know I am still here.  Just kind of busy!  But I have the kitchen eating area ready, so come on over for coffee!

WE'RE IN

We are in our new home.  I think we have everything moved across the street, except for a couple of things in the garage.  Now I have to clean the old place!  We had done the windows a couple of weeks ago, and I also cleaned the oven, so the hardest things are done,

We have most of the furniture put in it's final spot I think, but have no decorating done, no pictures on the walls, and no final touches done.  Hopefully that will get done today and tomorrow, and then I can take some pictures to post. 

So far we are liking our new place and are thinking it was a good move.  I hope we continue to feel so positive!  I don't want to move again anytime soon!

My heart is heavy this morning as I hear the news of yet another town being wiped off the map.  It appears, now at first light, that Denning Arkansas has joined Joplin, Missouri as a terrible tragedy.  And Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas were also hit by the fierce storms yesterday.  It is heartbreaking to see the news footage being reported this morning.  My prayers for all of my friends who live in that area.  Please let us know that you are okay.

IT'S RAINING

Still no time on the closing.

We're moving anyhow.

It's raining.

Grrrrr!

Have a good day!

PACKING AND PRAYING

What a week this has been!  So much has happened since we decided to buy a place, only about three weeks ago!  I've made numerous trips to town, mostly to Lowe's it seems, and have put a dent in the bank balance.  I've ordered a cellular shade for the front window....which is 95 inches wide and expensive!  Then I purchased three area rugs for the wood laminate floors.  Expensive!  Remember I mentioned earlier that we bought a new mattress and that was expensive!  I am so done spending the big bucks.  It's making me nervous.

There was a small glitch in the whole process when we learned the appraisal was a little low, so we ended up having to come up with more money for the down payment.  But I think all is progressing, and if things go according to plans, we will close on Friday and will then move across the street to our new home.

Meanwhile, I have been packing.  Now, we sold our big home five years ago and I got rid of forty years of stuff.  Well, somehow, it seems we have stuff again.  And I'm having to sort and get rid of stuff as I'm packing again.  Mostly though I'm just putting things in boxes and plastic tubs, and I'll sort on the other side of the street as I put things away.  Why do we do that?  Accumulate stuff, I mean?  I really. really want to simplify my life.  Honest I do.  So I'm going to be very strict with myself as I sort and put away.  Hopefully I'll have a whole truck full for the thrift shop.

Mindless packing duties make for good prayer time.  And boy do I have a lot of people to pray for!  A bit over a week ago, Ernie's brother and wife went to visit other brother and wife in Arizona.  The visiting wife ended up in the hospital with ischemic bowel disease.  Doesn't sound like that was fun at all!  When she was released, the four of them started on a special trip back to Minnesota, going the long way and hitting national parks etc along their way.  In Sheridan Wyoming the vehicle became ill, and needed transmission work which necessitated waiting the weekend for the shop to open on Monday morning.  Meanwhile, my other sister-in-law had a heart attack on Sunday night!  It was so windy they couldn't get a chopper in so had to use a small plane to transfer her to a city with a larger hospital.  On Monday she had surgery to place stints in two arteries that were 90% blocked.  She is doing well, was released yesterday, and the plan is to start back home tomorrow.   What a trip!

Then this morning I received a call from our oldest son.  He told us that his wife's dad, who happens to live here in our area, has been admitted to the hospital.  He has been on chemo for a year now for lung cancer and things aren't going well right now.  

I won't ask you to come and help pack, but if you are so inclined, please pray for my two sisters-in-law, Susan and Karen and for Molly's dad, Mike.

It's getting close.  We are getting anxious.  In other words, we can't wait to move across the street!

ANOTHER PROM

Do you remember that a couple of weekends ago we went to prom?  Grandson Caleb and his date Anna  were all dressed up in aqua and white and looked so nice!  Well, this weekend we didn't go to prom, but we did receive the pictures from grandson Joe's prom up in the Cities.  Joe and his date were in striking black and red.  Beautiful, don't you agree?

 

 I have the best looking grandsons around, and they sure have good taste in prom dates!  What beautiful young ladies!

MADE MY DAY!

I received a text at 6:55 this morning:  Grandma, save me a spot at church!!!!

EXPLAINING MY ABSENCE

Friends, I am here to confess.  I am here to confess my recent activities that will explain my absence.  You see, I have been hitting the liquor store regularly.  Like, often.  Really often.   I was there again yesterday and I hauled home a dozen cases.  A dozen empty liquor boxes!  If  you didn't know, liquor boxes make the best boxes for moving.  They are strong, but not too large.  And they are free!  Bonus!

I have the hutches emptied, and a lot of my glassware and dishes are packed.  The living room and dining room are stripped except for the furniture and the filled boxes lining the walls.  Today I am hitting the bookcases and the fabric stash

And today I have a helper.  Ben, the youngest son of our daughter, Miss Kari,  spent the night, and so far sounds like he will be a willing helper.  I can always bribe him with Angie's Kettle Corn!  GFCF, of course.  Ernie is really getting back into the home ownership mode.  He is mowing, trimming, spraying, weeding, and generally spiffing up the lawn across the street.  And he's been spending lots of time in his new double car garage, putting together 2 cheap computer desks we bought the other day.  We each had a desk, one way too small, one way too large, so we got medium sized and they are just right!  We'll sell the other two on Craig's List.

There's always a glitch though, isn't there?  The appraisal came in a little low, so we're having to spring for a larger down payment.  I hope there is money left to live on when we're finished with this process!  We are getting excited to get this show on the road.  We should be having breakfast in our new home at this time next weekend.  I'll try to get some pictures up this week.

Happy Birthday to our son Chuck, who is out enjoying the fishing opener, I'm sure.  I should just say Happy Fishing Opener!  He is a fanatic!  Love you Chuck!

SIGNING PAPERWORK

On Tuesday I posted that we were working on buying a house.  Everything has galloped ahead at breakneck speed!  We close on May 20th!  This week was spent turning in more paperwork, signing more paperwork, checking with people, signing more paperwork, transferring money, signing more paperwork, and running to town to sign more paperwork.  I think we've signed our names a hundred times each!  In between signing paperwork and signing paperwork, we bought a king sized bed after running to a half a dozen mattress and bed retailers.  Have you bought a mattress lately?  Sticker shock big time!  Then yesterday we checked another four places before finding a headboard, a simple black iron headboard, that I was willing to pay the money for.  Now we have two beds for our new two bedroom twin home!

I have been packing up the fragile antique dishes, but the regular kitchen items aren't going to get special treatment.  After all, we are moving across the street!  Most things can be loaded in a laundry basket, carried across the street, unloaded, and the basket sent back to refill.  I have a lot of my mom's and grandmother's dishes that are precious to me, so they will be cared for lovingly.  The rest can be replaced in the event of a break. 

I need to get into the sewing area and pack up the fabric and other items there.  And that too can be packed in totes or laundry baskets and organized on the shelves in the walk in closets on the other side of the street.  I just may find I'll have room to buy and store more fabric!

We'll need a couple of rugs for the wood laminate floors, and maybe window treatments for the living room, but otherwise we should be good to go.  And I am getting excited!  I may not get around to posting often, but the way I've neglected this blog lately, what's the difference?  I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Thinking of mother's day tomorrow makes me miss my mom.  I wish I could hug her and tell her I loved her.  If you still have your mom you are blessed.   Make sure you at least call her and tell her you love her.

POST NUMBER 1 0 0 1

Originally I was going to do something fun, write something profound, or in some special way acknowledge my 1000th post.  And then I got excited about going to prom and just ignored the whole thing.  The occasion would have probably just passed with no mention, except that we now have some exciting news that would have really made for a memorable 1000th post!  Instead, it is post number 1001 that will contain our exciting news.

Some background information.  Back in May of 2006 we had big plans to travel.  For ten years hubby said.  We sold our house, retired, and bought a big RV and a truck, and we took off to Alaska.  We then traveled to all four corners of America and Canada during the next 18 months.   Things changed in January of 2008 when we decided we were needed back in Minnesota.  We rented the lower level of a duplex and eased back into living in one spot instead of traveling the highways and byways of our great country.  We sold the big RV, bought a smaller camper, and traveled for a couple of months during the winter the last three years.  However, it's getting pretty expensive to try to travel, and to maintain a permanent spot.  And think of all the money we were throwing away every month in rent.

So, here we are in the first week of May, five years after selling our home of 25 years.  And our big news is that we are buying a home!  We are moving all the way across the street!  We are buying a twin home, all one level, patio style with not a step on the property!  We will have a large living room/ dining room combination, a nice kitchen with an eating area on the end of it, two large bedrooms, both with their own bathrooms, two lovely walk-in closets, and a small laundry room.  And a double car garage.  And two small patios, one off the kitchen overlooking a swamp/wildlife area, and one off the second bedroom.  All the doorways are large, the hallway is wide, and bathrooms are handicap friendly, so we figure we can grow old in this home and not have to worry if one of us becomes handicapped.

We are excited!  Things are moving very quickly.  We decided, filled out paperwork, met with folks and signed more paperwork, and the ball is rolling!  All this in the last week! 

So, this afternoon I went to the liquor store!  No, not for spirits for celebration, but for boxes!  I hauled home a whole van full of lovely cases of brandy boxes....empty, of course.  And I am ready to pack up the fragile antique dishes from the china hutch and the barrister bookcase.  Most everything else can just be put in boxes and carried across the street, emptied, and the box sent back to the duplex to be refilled. 

So exactly 5 years after selling our home and giving away most everything and packing up the rest, we are buying a home and packing up and moving into our own home again.  Pictures once we're the owners!