On the Road Again

Perhaps I should say that we are STILL on the road! Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever be home long enough to get all moved in to our new house. Hubby and I left last week for Nashville to visit our son and granddaughter. Son didn't have vacation time, so it is our "job" to keep Sweetie Pie entertained while he is at work. Or, maybe I should say that she keeps us entertained while he is at work.

She turns six next week. Where did the time go? Most of our time is spent playing "Peter Pan" or "Rapunzel". There is a Civil War statue nearby, which we walk to at least once a day. At the statue, there are also long, cement benches, which turn into a ship's plank. "Wendy" bravely walks the plank, while "Cap'n Hook" (Pappy) urges her on. Meanwhile, "Peter" (for once, I'm not the witch!) waits to swoop in and rescue her before she splashes into the water. After playing that for 500 times, we go to the park and switch to Rapunzel. This time Pappy gets to be Prince Eugene and I'm Mother Gothal. Pappy tries to hurry the story along and wants to cut Rapunzel's hair, but he is quickly reminded that "it's not time for that, Pappy!".

We did have one mishap, as we usually do, in the middle of the week, as usual, when there is not enough time for complete healing. Sometimes I have to double as Cap'n Hook and Peter Pan. Cap'n Hook was chasing Wendy, she fell, nose first, right on the concrete. OUCH!! Took the skin right off her cute little nose. There wasn't much blood, but we had to put a bandaid on every little spot, which was not easy on a little nose. And then, we have to send her back home with a scabbed up nose. Her mom probably wonders what in the world we do that she always comes home with some kind of boo-boo. (We have fun and play hard, that's what we do!)

After our week was up, we drove out to Little Rock, AR to visit some friends, since we were half-way there. We had a nice time and ate some great food. Then we left on Monday morning for Indiana, so Hubby could work with BIL for a few days. I did a little painting for SIL, but now I have the day to myself. Tomorrow, I may be helping her strip wallpaper. The fun never ends!

We have been having all this beautiful weather, but can't be home to start getting our garden ready, and bush-hogging the "yard". Oh, there's so much to do! We have a water purifier system coming on Friday, so we have to get home before that is delivered. The plan is to get the water purifier set up, and get my kitchen sink installed. It will seem like pure luxury to have a working sink again. Maybe we'll even get the dishwasher hooked up. That will seem like heaven!

I have a bunch of pictures to show you, but, can't be home long enough to get them downloaded. (Good news! I found my camera cable wire!) I wonder if life will ever get back to normal. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get all moved in. I wonder if life will ever slow down enough for us to enjoy it. It seems the harder we try to slow down and simplify, the more we hear "not yet".

But, we'll keep doing the things we need to do, in order to accomplish the things we want to accomplish, even if it kills us! heehee 

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Will Wonders Never Cease, and When it Rains, it Floods, and as a bonus, Bra Shopping

That is a ridiculously long title, but a fitting one!


When I last left you, I believe that Hubby was riding atop the gazebo as it was being moved to its new permanent place. I guess he wanted to get the bird's eye view of our estate. 


Anyway, his next crucial job was to work on plumbing, so that I would have a place to wash the dishes, which for now is in the basement utility sink. (Every day is like camping! I wish I liked camping.)  Plumbing has never been a joyful experience. It usually consists of a lot of frustration and @#$%  and *&^%$^&*% and other various and asundry words. At the outset of a plumbing project, he tries very hard not to swear, and some of his phrases can be quite comical, but as time goes on and drips keep appearing, and he has to re-do the process, the words flow quite profusely. So, as the plumbing time grew nearer, I did what any wife would do, I started praying, and stayed as far away as I could from the plumbing area. He worked. I prayed. He worked some more. I prayed. It seemed very quiet in the basement. I thought about going down to see how things were progressing, but thought better of it. Better to leave well enough alone. Finally, the moment we had been dreading waiting for arrived. Hubby came upstairs and announced that it was time to pray, because he was going to turn on the water and see if he had to re-do the whole thing. "Not to worry", I said, "I've been praying." Then I uttered a last, desperate plea. 


He turned on the water.


I waited for the spewing of words, signaling the dreaded "drip". 


It was quiet.


I waited some more.


Still quiet.


Finally, Hubby came upstairs, announcing, "I can't believe it! The first time in my ENTIRE LIFE that I haven't had a drip!" He was quite pleased with himself, and I uttered a prayer of thanks, and gave Hubby a congratulatory hug. 


So, now I am able to lug all our dirty dishes down to the basement, wash them and bring them back up. 


In case you are wondering, we have been using styrofoam plates, and "red solo cup!" and plastic forks. But, the only thing we burn (yay! we live in the country, so we can burn our trash) is the plates. The cups and forks are too nice to throw away! Crazy isn't it? Oh, and there's also the pots and pans that need washed. 


Someday, maybe next week, I will have my kitchen all put back together. Hubby is currently in Florida for a few days visiting his H.S. friend and best man. He's on Hospice, due to hardening of the lungs - I can't remember the actual name of it - but, death comes from suffocation. It's a terrible way to go. There are some things more important than a kitchen sink.


Also, while Hubby was gone, we had a big rain storm. Before he left, he said to me, "Make sure you listen for the sump pump, that it keeps running." So the next morning when I awoke, I was happy to hear the sump pump running. I didn't worry, nor did I go down to check the basement. However, when Amazing Daughter went down to shower, she informed me that we did indeed have water in the basement.


Thankfully, due to the first flooding, we made sure that everything in the basement was put on a shelf, and anything on the floor was in plastic tubs. We have a solid and quality built home, but there is one thing that wasn't done correctly. And, that is the basement floor. It wasn't made to drain into to sump pump. No. It's higher in the middle, so all the water goes to the side opposite the sump pump. I spent most of the morning sweeping the water to the sump pump area, only to have it continually coming back. I felt like the widow whose oil container never emptied. (l Kings 17:12-16) After the first hour, I decided to go down every hour and sweep away, and finally, after several sweepings, I decided to take a longer break and go bra shopping.
(Due to losing 40 pounds, my cups no longer runneth over, and in fact, there's quite a bit of wiggle room. And, when I say "wiggle", I mean, ohhh, that might be too much information....Never mind.)


That little adventure took a good three hours, because first I had to figure out my new size, then I had to find that size on the 70% off rack at Kohl's. Compared to my old size, the new size looks like a training bra! But, at least I no longer have to worry about the dreaded "gap". It is kind of weird to button a blouse without having to pull and tug.


Well, that has been my week in a nutshell. Now, I must get back to the fun-filled job of unpacking and putting away of "stuff".

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Project 52 Update

Well, glory be, believe it or not, I'm finally getting around to Project 52. Here it is, closing in on March, and this is only the second or third update. Oh well, the year is still young.


For some reason, setting goals seems to be much more difficult blah uninteresting uninspired unimportant ...as you can see, I'm having a difficult time just coming up with the right word. Not sure what it is exactly, maybe it's just all due to moving, and my goal list has been put on the back-burner.


With that being said however, there are a few goals which can be crossed off the list! And, after all, that is the whole point of making a goal, being able to cross it off the list, and being able to look back on the year's accomplishments.


#1. Find my (rough draft) list. It has been found. I thought it might have been  lost forever during the move, but it appeared almost out of nowhere. 


#2. Finish the list - as you can clearly see, this has not been accomplished!


#3. Reach my goal weight. This has been accomplished, for the first time in my life. I finished my second round of the Hcg diet in mid-January, so now the test   will be to keep it off.


#7. Move into a new house. This has been accomplished, although it is far from being completed. We are making progress, and the rooms are actually starting to look like rooms and not a storage warehouse. The washer and dryer are hooked up and running. We have a working toilet and a small sink. And we have access to a shower in the basement. Hubby is diligintly working on plumbing today so we will have water in the utility sink in the basement. (Please God, let this be true!) There aren't too many things that he hates working on more than plumbing. Currently, I don't have water or a sink in the kitchen. Let me correct myself, I do have a sink in the kitchen, but it is not hooked up. Hubby bought me a farmhouse-style sink, but it can't be installed or hooked up until the rest of the lower cupboards have all been installed. Oh, it's all quite a frustrating mess, and we find ourselves going round and round in a vicious cycle, trying to get the top priority things finished first, but there's always something else that needs to be completed before that one thing can be done. And, on top of all that, there is the usual "where the heck is _______? I know I saw it somewhere, but where that is, I do not know!" I hope that I will still have my sanity when all is said and done! If you are wondering why we have moved into this sad state of affairs, the short explanation is that we were forced into it. It was not our plan. 


I will be posting some pictures soon, (or later!), but first I have to locate the camera wires for downloading onto the computer. Actually, I may have already downloaded some pictures. Hold on while I check... 

Living room - Before

Living Room - After

Other end of Living Room. I ended up painting the
bookshelves brown. They look much better.

Dining Room - After
I always have to have a yellow room somewhere!

Our Bedroom - After
Blue and planning to have yellow accents.
My favorite color combination.

Jennee's room

Kitchen - It looks much more put together now.
The cupboards are actually against the walls
and not in the middle of the room!

Shared office space with Hubby.
(Hopefully, he won't regret it!)
My area is in the back by the window. He gave
me all the extra kitchen cupboards for my crap
craft and card making supplies.

When everything is put in its place, I'll give you another update. And, now I must get back to work, and start putting things away! Have a happy Monday.

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Inch by Inch

Inch by inch it's a cinch, or so I've heard. I'm inching along, making progress on our house. I've had a paint brush in my hand for what seems like eternity. And, if painting my house wasn't enough, I took a break and did some painting for friend yesterday.


I have a few "before" pictures to share. I'm not sure how they are going to work. My new camera has a photo booth thing-a-ma-jiggy (can't think of the word), and I thought it would be brilliant to have the entire room on one photo. 


But first, for your viewing pleasure, this is our first attempt at the photo booth.

Me and Jennee

Jennee's bedroom

The bathroom - which has to be totally
redone. Pink and purple! Really?

Living Room
(Today's project)

Dining Room

Kitchen

 As you can see, only the bathroom is in bad shape. The kitchen was also in good shape, and usable. However, we bought new kitchen cupboards when we lived in North Carolina, intending to remodel our kitchen there. But, we found ourselves moving back to Ohio instead, so we've been dragging and storing these cupboards along with us for three years. They have now found their permanant home. Unfortunately, the upper cupboards are much longer than the original cupboards, and the only way they can be used is to tear out the header, which we are NOT going to do. The finishes don't match, but we're hoping to get new doors made, eventually. (We discovered that although we bought our cupboards in NC, they were made about 30 miles from where we live in Ohio!) The upper cupboards are going into my craft room, so I will have a place to store all my crap treasures and keep them out of Hubby's sight.

I hope to have my "after" pictures next week. There's only one more room to paint, then the moving can begin!

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Discombobulation!

My all-time favorite word is discombobulate.  Not only is it fun to say, but it also expresses the status of my brain most of the time. At this present moment, it expresses the status of my home. I would quote Webster's definition to you, but I can not find my dictionary at the moment. (I know there is a way to look that up online, but I also know it will take me way too long!)  But, my definition is: total confusion.

I was away for a week, visiting my son and granddaughter, then little "Sweetie Pie" came home with us for a week. That right there means "no work will get done"! Add to that, I've been painting for my brother all week, add to that, we get to finally "move into" our house, add to that, I need to seriously start planning for our garden. 

We've been living here for a year, but haven't really moved in. It's a rather long and discombobulating story, but, in a nut shell, in 2008, we sold our business in Ohio, moved to North Carolina (because we were sick of Ohio winters and have always dreamed of living in the south), big financial crashes in the summer of 2008 sent us reeling, being in the construction business, we knew we'd have to find work, but had no connections in NC, so we moved back to OH during a snowstorm, I might add. My sis-in-law had recently married, and moved out of state, leaving her house in OH vacant. We moved in, with the understanding that when it sold, we would, of course, move out. Not knowing how soon that would be, we left a lot of stuff in boxes, never really decorating, just being. Now, a year later, the house has not sold.  So, we've made arrangements to stay here for a few years. Whew! Turned out to be a big nut!

So, now my head is spinning with all the fun stuff that usually accompanies moving into a new house. I've pulled out all my unpacked boxes and have them stacked everywhere! It's like Christmas! I'm unpacking things that I haven't seen in two years, things I have forgotten about. (Which makes me wonder how badly I needed it in the first place. But, we'll travel down that road another day!)

So, if I don't make it back to the blogging world for a week or so, you'll know that I'm wandering around the house, probably holding on to something I need to find a place for, wondering where to put it, and hoping my discombobulated house, will soon become a nice, calm, relaxing home.

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