mary

Hey Y’all.

These past few days have been rough.  I’ve figured out that the weather has a lot to do with the way I feel.  It’s been wet, or cold or both the past couple of days and I’ve been hurting pretty bad.

All last week the weather was beautiful.  And I felt great.  The one day I went shopping, I actually went without my cane, that’s how good I was feeling.  Then things started going downhill.

Saturday we went shopping and I did ok.  It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining.  Sunday Micheal smoked a roast on the grill.  It was a fairly nice day, but not much sun shining.  The temp had started falling.

Monday I was still doing ok.  It had turned colder but hadn’t started raining yet.  I stayed in and took care of myself.  Tuesday was pretty much a repeat of Monday except the pain was a little worse, but Micheal took me to dinner and I managed pretty good.

Yesterday morning I got up hurting pretty bad.  I stayed in the recliner under my afghan all day.  When Micheal got home, he cooked dinner and did the dishes afterward.  It started raining yesterday evening.  It was 39 degrees when I got up this morning I was hurting so bad I actually took a Vicodin.  I haven’t taken a pain pill in about 4 months.  That’s how bad it is. 

Well, I got the curtains all made and hung in the kitchen (they look pretty good if I do say so myself), but I haven’t gotten the dust cover made for my keyboard yet.  As soon as I’m functioning better I’ll get that done, among other things.

I went digging through my linens last week.  I have a couple of beautiful table cloths that I’ve never used so I got one of them out and put it on the table, along with some lace placemats, gold chargers and a pair of beautiful blue accented lotus candle holders with white tapers.  I told Micheal that I was gonna stop saving the pretty things for special occasions and company.  We have a lot of nice things that have been stored and unused and I decided it was time to use them.  We already use our good china for every day. 

And when we went out to dinner Tuesday evening, we got dressed up instead of wearing our every day stuff.  We even decided we were gonna dress up and go out somewhere nice at least once a week.  No more waiting for special occasions.  We’re gonna make every day a special occasion.

Diet wise, things are still the same.  Someday….

Well anyway, here’s to making every day a special occasion, no matter what!!!

Y’all have a great day.

Hey Y’all!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged!  I’ve been busier than a one legged woman in a butt kicking contest and time has been passing so fast.  First we moved to
South Carolina, then Thanksgiving came along.  Then there was the trip to
Florida and meeting Nikki and Christmas shortly after that.  I’ve been doing a lot of shopping, of course, and I made the Christmas ornaments for our kids and grandkids.  And of course there was all that other stuff leading up to Christmas.

We spent the weekend before Christmas in
Myrtle Beach.  We spent one evening on the casino boat.  Boy was that a trip!  I’d never been on a boat bigger than a little john boat out on a lake.  And there were no waves on that lake!  But they had to take the casino boat out 3 miles from the coast before they could turn on the machines, and it was definitely an experience I’ve never had before.  The boat was really a-rockin I didn’t even have to drink to feel tipsy!!!

Since Christmas I’ve been trying to get our house fixed up.  Today I’m working on making curtains for my kitchen.  It took me two different trips to 5 different stores to find the material I wanted.  Yeah, I was being picky.  I didn’t have anything in particular in mind.  I just wasn’t finding what suited me.  But I finally found some pretty white crocheted material and bought that and when I stretched it out to cut it, lo and behold, it was patterned with tulips, my favorite flower!!  I have the material all cut and the curtains for the door ready to hang.  I just need to finish the ones for the window above the sink.

I’m also working on a dust cover for my keyboard.  Micheal got me this fabulous electric grand piano for Christmas and I don’t want it to fill with dust when I’m not playing it (it’s so dusty here).  So I’m gonna make a cover for it.  I have the material but just need to get it cut and sewed!

Micheal loved his sax.  He couldn’t believe I actually found one, and in such good condition.  It’s a C-melody, made in 1925.  They haven’t even made the C-melody since the 1930’s so it’s definitely a collector’s item.  He used to play one back in high school but it disappeared after he married his first wife.  He’s been looking for another ever since but hadn’t been able to find one.  But I did.  I’ve been looking for one for the past 5 or 6 years.  I’d found a couple on Ebay but wasn’t about to pay what they wanted without seeing them first, but they couldn’t even provide a decent picture.  I got this one from an old gentleman that collects and refurbishes old horns.  He made sure it was in perfect working order.

Ok, now on to the good stuff.  I haven’t lost any more weight, but I haven’t gained any more either.  From the time we moved here, over Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve stayed the same.  Yeah, I gained and lost 3-5 pounds then gained and lost them again.  But don’t we all do that? 

But the amazing (and somewhat annoying and frustrating) thing is, it didn’t and still doesn’t matter what I do or don’t eat.  I stay within the same 5 pound range.  During Thanksgiving and Christmas I had pecan pie, and peanut butter pie, and cookies and mashed potatoes and gravy, and dressing, and burgers and fries, and all kinds of junk and didn’t gain.  But I had days and days of eating nothing but fish, chicken, turkey and salads, staying within a 1200 – 1500 calorie range and didn’t lose.  My activity level stays pretty much the same.  Actually, I’ve been more active the past 3-4 months than in the past, but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.

Buddies, I get so frustrated sometimes that I just wanna puke!  But that’s even frustrating cuz I don’t puke, no matter what.  So I guess I don’t have to worry about becoming bulimic!!  When things settle down a bit and I get some time, I’m gonna go to an acupuncturist and see if that does any good.  I’ve been told they can help tremendously with my pain and possibly with weight loss.  If it only helps with the pain, then at least it’ll be worth the effort and money.

And speaking of pain…yeah, it’s still hanging around.  Always is.  I keep trying to run it off, but it just doesn’t want to leave.  But like I told Nikki, it’s something I’ve learned to live with and I go on with what I need and want to do in spite of it.  When we were together in South Beach, Nikki was worried about me the whole time we were walking around, afraid it would be too much on me, but it’s like I told her…I would be in pain if I was just sitting around in the hotel room or riding around in the car, and walking around spending time with her was a lot more enjoyable, so it was worth the risk of worse pain.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do in spite of how it makes you feel afterwards.

Well, I’m off to finish my curtains.  I’ll try to do better about blogging now that things have settled down a bit.  I got out of the habit and I need to get back into it.

Y’all have a fantastic day.

Good morning, Y’all.

Ok, so it’s been almost a week again.  I’ve been a busy lady lately!  I thought I was done with everything, but NOT!!!!!  I keep finding things I need to do.

Micheal got me a sewing machine cabinet for an early Christmas present so I had to get busy cleaning out the spare bedroom so I had a place to put it.  And I had to get the rest of the packages mailed so they would be delivered before Christmas.

Today I’m gonna be shelling pecans and sometime in the next couple of days I need to make cookies for Micheal to take to work.  Oh, and I still need to go pick up Micheal’s present when it’s ready.

I still need to pick up a ham and some pie shells for our Christmas dinner.  Micheal’s gonna cook the ham in the smoker so I won’t have so much to cook.  I made him a couple of pecan pies for Thanksgiving (my first time making pecan pies) and they turned out pretty good.  I’m gonna make him peanut butter pies for Christmas.

We’re gonna be home alone for Christmas.  Micheal’s gonna have to work part of the holiday, but not Christmas day.  Working for a school district, there are some things he can’t do while the teachers, staff and students are there, like taking down the mail server or one of the other servers they frequently access.  So when the whole school is closed for a holiday, that’s the best time for him to get some things done.  He’ll be able to take some time off in the spring so we can do something.  So we’re spending Christmas here.

My Dad and stepmother are going to spend Christmas with her family in
Texas.  They left this morning.  Consequently, my family got together this past Saturday for an early Christmas.  Dad gave me a call while everybody was together so I could talk to everybody, since that’s practically the only time I get to talk to my older and youngest sisters.  I used to call them at least once a month, but they can’t be bothered to call me except on my birthday, so I got to the point that I just don’t bother.  Then my older sister moved and didn’t bother to let me know, much less give me her new address and phone number.  On top of that, her daughter got married last month and they didn’t bother to tell me, much less send me an invitation.  And when we go out there for a visit, those two sisters hardly bother to show up.  They usually manage to give me a couple of hours during the entire time we’re there.

Now the sister just younger than me…she’s a different story.  When we’re out there, she takes time off from work so she can spend more time with me.  And she and I call each other at least every other week.  She lets me know about everything that’s going on.  She’s how I found out about our niece’s wedding!  The only reason Dad didn’t tell me is because he assumed Diane or Jana sent me an invitation.  Boy was he pi$$ed when he found out they didn’t.

Ok, enough venting.  I need to get started shelling pecans.  I’m gonna roast some for Micheal to take to work.  And I need to get some other things done, including some more work on the spare bedroom, so I have a busy day ahead of me.

Oh, I’m doing ok with the diet.  I’m not losing, but I am holding my own.  So that’s a good thing.  But I’m not buckling down on it at the moment like I should be.  After the holidays are over, I’ll get back on it full force.

Y’all have a great day!

I know I have neglected my buddies, and I apologize for that.  I’ve just been so busy trying to get everything done – unpacking and organizing, Christmas shopping and such - that I haven’t even thought about much of anything else.  Practically every day I find that there’s something I have to go out to get so I’m on the run, and when I finally get some time to relax, I do exactly that.  And it’s been a while since I wrote a blog, but there hasn’t really been much to tell, but boy is there now!

Saturday I met Nikki.  And she is absolutely gorgeous, both inside and out!!!

Ok, let me start at the beginning.  Micheal and I drove down to Fort Lauderdale to visit some of his family who were there on vacation from California and
Nevada.  Since we were gonna be so close, we made arrangements to meet Nikki.

Saturday morning Nikki picked us up at our hotel and drove us down to

South
Beach.  She drove around and showed us some sights, then we walked around for a while and she took us to lunch.  Then it was back to the hotel.

Let me tell you, the time we spent was just too short, at least for me.  We talked and laughed the whole time we were together.  And I’m really glad we finally got a chance to meet.  In my opinion it cemented a friendship that I felt we’d already begun online.

Ok, that sounded a little weird!!!  But I think a lot of you will understand where I’m coming from and what I mean.  You can never have too many friends.  And Nikki and I have communicated online for months and gotten to know each other quite well.  Some people think it’s not possible to become friends with someone who you’ve never met, but I’m here to tell you that you can.  And then meeting them face-to-face can serve to cement that friendship.

As for what’s been going on in my life…

We’re finally getting settled in here in
Goose Creek.  Most of our house is in order.  I still have some things in my spare bedroom/sewing/craft room to unpack and get organized, but I’m working on that just a little bit at a time.  My early Christmas present from Micheal will be delivered in a couple of days so that will help.  He bought me a really nice sewing machine cabinet with lots of storage.   (My early Christmas present to him was a BBQ grill/smoker, which he used to smoke our Thanksgiving turkey.)

I got my corkboard and map hung on the wall and have all my keychains on it.  And yesterday I got to add
Florida.

I have all my Christmas shopping done, except the little things I’ll get to fill Micheal’s Christmas stocking.  I can pick that stuff up at the grocery store since I always fill his stocking with Reeses Pieces, a giant Hershey’s Kiss and other assorted goodies.  Other than that, all I need to do is wait for Micheal’s main present (a 1932 Conn C-Melody saxophone) to be finished so I can pick it up.  Tomorrow I’ll get all my Christmas cards and the presents for family put in the mail and then I can sit back and relax a bit.  I still have cookies to make for Micheal to take to work but I’m cheating on those.  I picked up the ready made dough so all I have to do is put them on a cookie sheet and then in the oven.

Diet wise I’m doing ok.  I’ve held my own during Thanksgiving and our trip to
Florida.  I’ve actually managed to lose a couple of pounds so I’m happy with that.  But I’m not going to obsess about it right now.  After Christmas I’m gonna buckle down and stick to the plan that my new doctor gave me.  I’ve not deviated from it much the past few weeks, but I need to stay with it 100% for me to get the full benefits from it. 

And that’s about it.  Nothing much has happened the past few weeks, but what has happened was great.

Now I’m off to get caught up on some blogs.

Good morning, Y’all!

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve spent a lot of time unpacking boxes and trying to decide where to put everything.  I’ve arranged and rearranged cabinets and shelves.  I’ve arranged furniture and rearranged it.  We finally have everything in the house, including the new entertainment center and cocktail tables.  Yesterday I got some nice curtains for the living room and finally got them hung last night (I had to go back and get new rods cuz I bought the wrong size).  I still have boxes to unpack and stuff to organize, but I’ll get there.  But this is the first time in a long time that we’ve had a place where I can decorate, hang pictures, and all that stuff.  So I’m enjoying that.

And we’re enjoying living in a place where we have some room to move around.  Our little place up in
Indiana was very cramped, and we were limited in what we could do.  Here our living room is twice as big.  Our kitchen is 5 times as big and we have a nice dining room.  And we have 2 spare bedrooms…one we’ve turned into Micheal’s office and the other is going to be the spare bedroom and my sewing room.  I have plenty of walls to hang pictures of the grandkids on.  And I can finally hang my map of the
US to put my state keychains on…all 42 of them!  We have a huge back patio that is covered where we’re gonna put a couple of lawn chairs and we’re gonna get one of those outdoor fire pits to sit around and enjoy when then evenings get colder.

Yeah, I think we’re really gonna enjoy it here.

And I’m going to try to find some time to get back to blogging more often.  I apologize for deserting my buddies.  I haven’t meant to.  Things have just been so busy lately.

And the bigger and better kitchen is enabling me to cook more healthy meals so maybe that will help me get my weight loss back on track.  I’ve had so much to do the past few weeks that I’ve not had time to think about eating junk that I shouldn’t.  And I’ve been a bit more active, even though it’s not making the pain any easier.

I’ll get there.  It may take me longer than I’d like, but I’ll get there.

It’s done.  We’re finally, totally and completely residents of
Goose Creek, South Carolina.  We made it back down here Friday evening with all our things.  One of the guys that works for Micheal had offered to come over and help unload the truck Saturday morning, but we ended up not needing him.  We started taking a few small things off the truck and two boys from next door came over and started helping.  An hour and fifteen minutes later the truck was empty.

The rental service was scheduled to come in early Saturday afternoon to pick up their things, so it was a bit crowded in here.  I called Saturday morning to confirm the pickup time and they said they were going to have to reschedule us for Monday because they had to go pick up a housefull furniture from a woman who was a month behind on her rent.  I told them that wasn’t going to happen.  I told them that I’d scheduled that time well in advance and I needed their furniture picked up because we had so much stuff in here that we couldn’t move.  We went ahead and moved all of their stuff into the living room so we could put our bed and dining table together.  They did finally come and pick up the rental furniture within the time frame originally scheduled.

If we ever move again (I should probably say ‘when’), I’ll be there to supervise every aspect of the packing!  Cheryl had called me and told me everything was packed and all that was left was getting more tape to seal up the boxes.  I told her that could wait til I got there.  Well, I got there Sunday evening, looked around at the number of boxes, then called Micheal to find out what size truck he’d rented, and then told him I didn’t think it would be big enough.  He said it was the same size as the one he used to moved our things to
Fort Wayne.  I told him that by looking at the boxes, it just wouldn’t work.  We couldn’t figure it out……

Til I started looking in the boxes.  Some were only about half full, some were only about ¾ of the way full.  Only one or two were completely full!  I called Cheryl and told her there was a lot of repacking to do.  Obviously she didn’t have the experience packing that she said she had.  So she and her friend came over and we started repacking…and decreased the number of boxes by a least 1/3.

But when we got everything here and started unpacking it all, we realized how much they really didn’t know how to pack.  They would take something small and fragile, put it loose in the box, then pile hard heavy stuff on top of it.  Just as an example – boxes of Jello with canned food packed on top of them.  The Jello is still usable, but the boxes are crushed.  Luckily we haven’t found anything important broken…yet.  But if we do, it will be the first time in over 6 years of moving around that we’ve lost anything.  Well, there is one exception…my container carousel.  I have one of those space saving food storage container carousels that sits on a shelf and spins and holds 3 different sized containers plus lids.  They had laid it on its side in the box and piled heavy stuff on top of it.  It still holds the containers but it doesn’t spin anymore.  But that’s nothing major.  Oh well.  We don’t have anything that can’t be replaced.  

What was really funny is we still had the original boxes for some things, which I’d told her about.  She didn’t repack those items in their original boxes.  They packed the item and then packed the EMPTY box separately, sometimes in the same box!!!  Like I said, if (when) we move again, I will be supervising the packing 100%!!!!!

Other than all that, we’re settling in quite nicely.  We have at least half of the boxes unpacked.  Most of the kitchen is unpacked and a good portion of the office.  Our new entertainment center, coffee table and end tables will be here tomorrow.  The kitchen and bedroom are almost completely organized.

I’m holding up pretty well, so far.  I’m doing everything a little bit at a time.  I’ll start unpacking a box, then sit down for a few minutes.  Actually, I’ll sit in the recliner and find a good movie on TV.  Every time I get up to go to the bathroom or to get something to drink or something, I’ll unpack part of a box.  So far it’s working.  But I told Micheal that I don’t plan to do this again for a while.

And one favorable note…I got on the scale when I got back to Fort Wayne, and had only gained a couple of pounds since we came down here, even with all the eating out we’d done.  So I guess I haven’t done as bad as I thought I had.  Now I just have to find my scale again.  It’s still packed in one of those boxes stacked in the spare bedroom.

Well, I’m off to read a few blogs, go get some groceries, then do some more unpacking.

Y’all have a great day!

Good morning, Y’all!

Well, tomorrow morning I’ll be heading back to
Fort Wayne to get ready to move our stuff down here.  My housekeeper called yesterday (haven’t found a housekeeper here yet…gonna have to work on that).  She and her friend have most everything packed.  I told her to wait on the bed, the bathroom and some of the kitchen as I’ll need those things while I’m there (oh, and the TV and computer…gotta have some form of entertainment!).  So, there won’t be much for me to do, but I have utilities to get transferred back to the landlady and cable boxes to return…things like that, so I have to be there on a couple of weekdays.  I’ve already had our mail forwarded and changed the address on our credit cards and such.

So really, there’s not much reason to be heading up this weekend except the trip will be easier than on a weekday.  I won’t have to worry about commute traffic.  And even though I could make the trip in one day, I’m gonna break it into two and spend the night along the way.  I don’t want to over do it.  Yeah, I’m learning, finally.  I’ll drive about 8 hours tomorrow (with stops) and then only have about 6 hours to drive on Sunday.

Micheal will fly into
Indianapolis Wednesday evening.  He’ll get there about 7:30.  It’ll take a little over 2 hours to get back to Fort Wayne from there, so we’ll stop and have dinner before leave
Indianapolis.

Thursday morning we’ll pick up the moving truck.  Our housekeeper already has a couple of guys to help Micheal load the truck so it shouldn’t take long.  We’ll head out as soon as they’re finished.  We’ll stop along the way and spend the night and get back here sometime late Friday afternoon or early evening.  A couple of the guys that work for Micheal have volunteered to help unload the truck so they’ll be here early Saturday morning.  I’m gonna have the rental people come pick up the rental furniture that morning so we’ll have room to get everything in.

We did go shopping last Sunday.  We bought a beautiful light cherry entertainment center and a coffee table and end tables that match it.  They’ll be delivered the Tuesday after we get back from
Fort Wayne.  They cost a lot more than I would have spent, but Micheal said we can afford a few nice things for a change, so why not.  We’ll eventually buy a bedroom suite and a few other things.

Micheal is planning on us doing some entertaining so it’ll be nice having things to really be proud of.  And we have plenty of room here for that.  We even have a nice large covered patio in the back.  We’re gonna get one of those free-standing outdoor fireplaces to use out there.

I’ve been trying to watch what I eat.  I’ve been eating a lot of salad the past couple of weeks.  I don’t have my scale here, but judging from the way my clothes fit I don’t think I’ve lost anything but I’m sure I haven’t gained any more weight back.  So that’s a good thing.  After we finally get settled in, I’m gonna start concentrating more on making that scale go back down and keep going down.

Well, I’m gonna go read a few blogs then pack what little I’m taking with me tomorrow.  I’ll post again after I get back.

Y’all have a great day!!!

Good morning, Y’all!

I think we’re finally gonna be able to take it easy for a few days.  The past few days have really been exciting…I’m being sarcastic, if you really want to know.

Thursday evening I was cooking dinner and Micheal was putting new locks on the doors.  You had to jiggle the key in the lock to unlock the front door and the back door wouldn’t lock at all.  Anyway, I was standing there at the stove and I could hear water running.  It was raining pretty hard so I thought maybe Micheal had left the front door open so I walked into the living room to see.  No, it was closed, but the sound was louder, so I headed down the hall and looked in the front bathroom.  The toilet was overflowing and the tub was full of nasty water.  I yelled for Micheal and he came running.  He stopped the toilet from running and I grabbed the cheap mop I’d just bought but it wasn’t doing any good at soaking up the water so I went to the other bathroom to grab the few towels we have here.  The shower stall in the other bath also had water standing in it and it was just beginning to run over into the floor.

I think I’d said before that this house has hardwood floors all through it except the kitchen and the bathrooms.  The kitchen has linoleum and the bathrooms are tiled.  We were busting our humps trying to keep the water from running out onto the hardwood floors.  Luckily there is about a half inch rise at the edge of the tile in the door way…a sort of lip that was keeping the water in the bathroom.

We finally got the water mopped out of the floors and Micheal started plunging the toilets and the shower drain.  There was so much sludge in the tub and shower that it just wasn’t funny.  We finally got the water down but the mess in the tub and shower was truly nasty.  While Micheal was working on the plunging, I called the landlady.  She wanted to put us in a hotel for the night but we just didn’t want to go.  We’re both tired of hotels.  We had it where the toilets were usable and that’s what mattered.

The landlady arranged to have the sanitation department come out and check things out, which they did.  They said everything on their end was fine and that we needed to have our landlady take care of it on her end.  He did say if it happened again to call them immediately, 24/7 and not to try to drain it so they could check it under those conditions.  But everything was running fine so we thought it was just one of those things, til Friday night.

Micheal had to work Friday night and I decided that would be a good time to wash all the towels we’d used mopping up from the night before (actually this was about 1:00 Saturday morning).  Just as soon as the washer started draining I could hear water bubbling in the front bathroom.  I ran to the washer and shut it off, then headed for the bathroom.  The tub was filling up again and water was coming out around the base of the toilet.  The shower in the other bath had water in it again, too.  So I immediately called the sanitation department.  They came out and checked things again.  They said the drain on the edge of the yard was bone dry so the pipes had to be blocked somewhere under the house or between the house and their line.  Great.

About 8:00 yesterday morning I called the landlady.  She sent a friend of theirs out with a snake to clear the lines.  Barry finally got here around 2:00.  After almost 2 hours, Micheal called her and said she needed to call a real plumber because Barry wasn’t making any progress and didn’t know what to do next.

Well, the plumber finally showed up about 7:00 last night after Micheal had gone back to the office.  After 2 hours the plumber finally had the lines completely clear.  He called the landlady and told her that there were roots growing through the lines in the yard and it all needed to be replaced.  He also told her what kind of mess I had in the tub and shower from the backups (there was about half an inch of sludge in the shower in about a 16 inch circle around the drain).

Now, here’s the good part.  The landlady called a professional cleaning service and they’re gonna be here tomorrow to give the entire house a thorough cleaning – top to bottom and end to end!  I was dreading having to tackle cleaning that mess and now I don’t have to.  I did have to clean the shower in the master bathroom so we could use it, but now I don’t have to worry about scrubbing the tub and floor in the front bath.  The cleaning service is gonna take care of all of that, and they’ll clean the mess on and in the cook stove that the previous tenant left that I’ve been working on!  Would you believe I was planning to call a cleaning service myself?  I knew it would hurt me too much to try to take care of it all myself and now I don’t have to, and I don’t even have to pay for it!

So we’ve had an exciting few days.  Micheal got home from work a couple of hours ago.  He’s sleeping right now but after he wakes up we’re gonna go shopping for some new furniture.  We’re gonna get a new bedroom suite instead of keeping the rental, and we’re gonna get a coffee table and end tables for the living room.  And we’re thinking about getting one of those movable kitchen islands with a butcher block top.

Tomorrow I’m gonna sit here and relax while the cleaning service does their thing.  That’s gonna be nice.  I’ve been on the run ever since we moved in and I’m ready to relax a little!

I’m gonna go read a few blogs.  Y’all have a great day!!!!

Good morning, Y’all!

Before anything else, I gotta tell ya that I got to talk to Nikki last night!  She really sounds like a sweetheart!  And we’re gonna meet in December!  Micheal’s Grandfather has a timeshare in
Fort Lauderdale and he and Micheal’s mom, aunt, uncle and brother are gonna spend the first 2 weeks of December there.  We’re gonna drive down the second weekend to see them and we’re gonna meet Nikki while we’re there.  And I’ve gotta say that I’m excited!!!!

We finally got moved into our house, somewhat.  I’ll be going back up to Fort Wayne the end of next week to help my housekeeper finish packing then Micheal will fly up the following Wednesday.  By the end of that weekend we should have everything moved in here and set up pretty much the way we want it.

I sure am tired!  For the past several days I’ve been out running around at least part of the day every day.  Yesterday after the cable guy left I had to go get cleaning supplies and groceries.  But I played that smart.  At the grocery store, I made sure they packed the perishables separate and that’s all I carried in when I got home.  I left the rest for Micheal to bring in!

But today I’m staying in and resting.  I did finish unpacking a container of kitchen stuff this morning, but that’s it.  No more for today.  I think I’ll even have Micheal pick up something for dinner or just let him cook.  It depends on how I feel this afternoon.

I’ve not been watching what I eat too closely the past few days.  We’ve been doing so much running that last night was the first time I’ve cooked in almost a week.  But I made sure to pick up healthy stuff at the grocery store yesterday…salad stuff, Brussels sprouts, tuna…and plenty of veggies.  So I’ll do a lot better now.

And we have a nice big kitchen, so we can both enjoy cooking, at least since I finally got the stove cleaned half-way decent yesterday.  You know I just can’t figure it out.  How can people be so nasty and not be embarrassed half to death about it?  I mean, the cook stove is gas.  Two of the burners units had so much stuff burned onto them that they were just black.  I had to get a wire brush to use to get what I could off of them.  I didn’t get it all off, but I got most of it.  And there was stuff spilled under the cooktop.  It was a mess!  And the shower stall in the master bath had mold and mildew allover the girt between the tiles, so that had to be cleaned before we used it.  I’d be embarrassed to leave a mess like that.  And what’s worse, the landlady had a friend of hers come in and clean the house before we moved in and she didn’t clean all that.  Pathetic!!!!  I just don’t understand it.   I’m sure glad I’m not like that.

Ok, enough venting.  I’m gonna go catch up on some blogs.  Y’all have a great day!!!!

Good morning, Y’all!

It’s been a busy week…renting furniture for the new house, setting up cable, and utilities, re-establishing a local bank account, and such as that. 

Then yesterday morning I woke up sick.  My chest was so congested I thought I’d die.  After Micheal left for work, I went to Wally World (maybe 2 blocks away) and got some Nyquil and kept myself doped up on that all day.  I slept most of the day.  I’m feeling a bit better today but I woke up with my back hurting.  Can’t win for losing!

We’re meeting the landlady this evening to sign the lease and hopefully get the keys.  As of Monday the current tenants hadn’t moved out yet, but the truck was there Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll get the keys tonight.  The current tenants are military so they’ve been waiting on the military to do their thing.  But the landlady said we would have possession by the 1^st.  I sure hope it’s tomorrow cuz I have rental delivery scheduled for Saturday, but I can always delay that if I need to.

I still need to go shopping for things we’ll need til we get our stuff moved down from
Fort Wayne – bedding, towels, paper plates, plastic ware, cleaning stuff, etc.  I hate buying some things cuz we already have them, but they’re in
Fort Wayne and we need them before we move our stuff down.   If we get the keys tonight, I’ll go shopping tomorrow.  Then I can just take everything over to the house.  Otherwise I’ll have to keep it all in the truck cuz there’s no room for it all here in the hotel room.

And we’re gonna go get the rest of our stuff next month.  My housekeeper is going to start the packing.  Then I’m driving back up to
Fort Wayne around the 11^th or 12^th  of October to help and to get things done there.  Micheal is gonna fly up the evening of the 17^th.  We’re gonna pick up the rental truck the morning of the 18^th,  load it up.  And we already have plenty of help to load it so it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours and we should be on the road by noon at the latest.

Now all I have to do is find somebody to help unload the truck after we get back here.  The gave us enough time on the truck so we don’t have to rush to unload it, and there’s only a few pieces that Micheal and I can’t handle alone, so we really won’t need much help, but I’d rather have somebody to help anyway.  That way I won’t do myself in and I won’t have to listen to Micheal complain about how hard it was on him to unload all of it by himself.  Yup, I know my hunny!!!

Oh, the furniture rental!  They had a beautiful 4-poster bedroom suite that I rented.  If we decide we want to keep it, the price is really good.  But we’ll have to take a good look at it and see how it’s made first.  I didn’t look that close.  I was just looking for something to get us by til we get our stuff down here.  And the smallest TV they had was a huge 50 inch flat screen.  That’s bigger than the new one we just bought a few months ago in
Fort Wayne.  But we won’t be keeping the rental TV.  We already have 2.

I guess I’ve bored y’all enough with everything.  But that’s what’s been going on the past few days.  I have been trying to watch what I eat, but that’s been difficult.  We have the kitchenette here in the hotel, but every time I start cooking, the smoke alarms go off.  Go figure.  I mean, just boiling a pot of water sometimes sets it off.  I don’t know why they want to put such sensitive smoke alarms in places like this.  That’s a bit ridiculous.  So I’ve done very little cooking and we’ve been mostly eating out.  That’s what’s made it difficult.  I’ll sure be glad when we get moved into the house so I can start cooking normally.

Oh, the house…3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a huge kitchen with a dishwasher, separate dining room, big front porch and large covered patio in the back with storage room, large yard both front and back (all fenced in with chain-link), carport with storage room and plenty of shade.  The house has all hardwood floors so I guess I need to put rugs on my shopping list.  I’ll go to the thrift store and pick up cheap temporary curtains and make some nice ones after we get our stuff moved down.

Ok, I’ll stop.  I’m gonna go read some blogs and catch up with everybody.

Y’all have a great day!!!