Something for Sunday

And so it begins....the assessment to find all of the pool problems after our recent "Big Freeze" and zero degree temps.

Hoping we don't have underground cracked pipes. Just looking at the pool, we can't see any cracks. We'll see...

Also, we keep reminding ourselves that better this happened outside than IN! I am grateful!

I also have some good news and bad news! 

Good news, it looks like our fish have survived!! That's a miracle as our pond is so small. I thought it surely froze all the way through. 

Bad news--most of my plants inside the house froze. I thought they made it through because they actually looked good at first. I think they froze in place! Once they started to thaw, it's showing.

Some of these might actually survive, but they are losing leaves every day. We'll see. It won't exactly break my heart. I'm pretty tired of dealing with them. But on the other hand, I feel like there's something missing if I don't have any live plants. 

Scrapbook Saturday

AYM (A Year of Memories) for 2026 is all about our home. 

January's quote was "There's No Place Like Home." Each person can interpret it anyway they want. 

I'm using the quote as an embellishment on my page rather than the title.

My title this month is "All Brand New"--"I think I'm going to like it here"--a quote from Annie.

I decided to tell the story about our move to Nashville. Then, on the other side, I journaled a little about each of the places we've lived. I made a little house shaped shaker to represent the year we moved here. 

Susan's layout. She focused on many of the homes she's lived in.

I

Karolyn's layout. She also showed all of the homes she's lived in.

Nancy's layout. She told the story of building their house in Devon Park. We all met each other in Devon Park--everyone was from somewhere else--except Nancy. She was born and raised in Nashville.

Pam had the same idea--she focused on the building of their new home in Devon Park.

Jeanne and Janet did not send their layouts. We'll be having our AYM meeting on our retreat, so we'll see theirs then.

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

The family is going to be in town this weekend for Morgan's baby shower. So, I thought I'd show you some great and inventive baby things you can do with outdated furniture. I've added a couple of extras just for fun!

Who hasn't had one of the super heavy cheap bookcases?

I think this is an adorable way to put it to use. This is about the easiest thing you can do--although I would probably prefer to paint it. 

I remember when Sandy was moving from Charlotte. The most expensive piece of furniture they owned was their entertainment center. No one wanted it and no one would take it. She said it pained her (and me) to pay to have it hauled to trash! It was really a pretty piece. But if you don't have the room, then it has to go. 

This is a clever way to re-invent this one:

Isn't this the cutest little kitchen? Even that darling picture that looks like a window!

I suppose this was a little dresser.

How adorable is this little (big) dollhouse?

There was a time you could pick something like this up at a garage sale for 5 bucks. Are garage sales still a "thing"? I don't see signs anymore.

Anyway, what a cute little stove from junk!

I've never seen anything like this.

But it sure is a clever use of an old chair. Just cover it with assorted stuffed animals and upholster it in plastic.

This looks like it was probably one of those old chests that had doors on top for clothes. Or maybe it was a smaller entertainment center with doors.

It sure makes a darling little reading nook! Love the light and the little book shelf.

And finally this one. An extra large entertainment center turned into a changing station.

I think it's a brilliant idea, but could certainly be decorated a bit better. I love the color.

If I liked to paint, I would probably love to try my hand at something like this. But really, what comes to mind is that this would be a perfect hobby for retired men with nothing to do!

I'm Back!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I'm sure you've heard--or experienced Nashville's "Big Freeze." Well, here are 15 random things related to that:

1. We were without power for 5 1/2 days. We spent those at Stephanie and Nicky's along with a few other "displaced" seniors with no other place to go. 

2. Once we got home, we had power, but no WiFi which means no tv. It wasn't a complete disaster--although that Saturday was 8 days long!! Butch was on the fence about his trip to El Salvador because he didn't want to leave me with whatever might happen. I told him that whatever happens is going to happen whether he's here or not. 

3. On Sunday--in the wee hours of the morning, Butch and his friend, Jack did head to El Salvador. Me, with no tv became a cleaning fool. I cleaned 3 of our 4 glass doors and screens on our fireplaces. It's something I don't think about. It's awkward and a dirty job, but I got it done. I also cleaned out the drawers in the pool bath--sorted through and got rid of old beach towels. I cleaned out a couple closets in the back hallway. I cleaned the edges of the moulding on all of my cabinets in the kitchen--no fun, but it needed it. Anyway, you get the idea--a lot of nit-picky stuff.

4. I was able to make my phone a hotspot, so I could at least have WiFi and watch Netflix. But, I could only do it about an hour in the afternoon and an hour in the evening. I'm used to doing more than one thing at a time when I'm watching tv, but when I have to watch on the computer, then I cannot also be editing pictures or falling down the "font" rabbit hole at the same time on my computer. I went 8 1/2 days without it. 

5. Once the WiFi was back, I spent a lot of time printing pictures and journaling. I'm trying to get ready for my scrapbook retreat coming up a week from today.

6. I bought new underwear after I cleaned out my underwear basket. I got rid of 13 pairs. Victoria Secret had a great sale, so I bought some new ones. I have a total of 19 pairs. That means I can go somewhere for 19 days without having to wash underwear. Also, my girls don't like to hear this--these are the last underwear I'll ever have to buy!!

7. I spent 2 hours--yes, 2 hours cleaning out my jewelry. I was ruthless. I'm getting rid of a lot. When the whole gang is here on Saturday, I'll have it laid out for them to pick through. I still like most of it, but the bottom line is that I tend to choose the same pieces all the time. I'm hoping someone else will get some use out of some of it.

8. I spent quite a bit of time doing some things for Morgan's baby shower. I used to do big events ALL the time when I was in the height of my FUND raising years. Doing this little shower brought back all of the anxiety I didn't even realize I had back then. I make lists and check them dozens of times. Did I ever mention I'm a little obsessive? It's going to be fun!

9. I've read 5 books during the past two weeks. A couple were memoirs that were audio books. 

10. Butch said that he was glad he wasn't here as he would have been climbing the walls. I agree with that. What saved me was that I went to lunch with friends and even saw a couple movies. If I had to actually stay home the whole week, I would have been going stir crazy for sure. 

11. The night before Butch was to come home, we had an hour and twenty minute FaceTime conversation. That was fun--we had happy hour together. FaceTime definitely makes me feel like the person is with me.

12. I paid attention to how many tree services contacted me--9 brochures in the mail, 2 front door calls and 3 texts. I had no idea there were that many tree services in Nashville. We are on the list with our arborist. Since we don't have anything that's an emergency, I told him just to put us on his list. 

13. We came out of this storm relatively unscathed. We had plenty of trees/branches down--I am sad about losing a dogwood tree, no telling what the water bill is going to be from running 11 faucets for 9 days--double that for hot AND cold--not counting all the water we've lost from the pool since we apparently have cracked pipes (don't know that damage yet), but my prayers were answered. I prayed that any damage we have would be outside and not INSIDE the house. I didn't want to have to deal with that mess!

14. Unfortunately, Butch had to miss the Super Bowl as he was on his way home. Steph, Nicky, Mindy and Justin came over. I loved that--perfect way to end a long week--seeing my family!!

15. Oh, and one last thing. A police officer came by to do a "welfare check." I thought Steph sent him. He mentioned crossing us off his list, so maybe it was just a list of seniors that were without power. Nice to know someone is paying attention to us.

Scrapbook Saturday

Okay, here it is--the end of my December Daily album. It was so much fun to make--can't wait until next year.

In the layout, I included the sign I make for "beverage bar." 

In the pocket are cards that I had the family fill out at our Christmas Eve breakfast.

Here is where I used the DEC title that I made. I also made the fireplace. The story is about what we do every year on Christmas Day: Disney parade with Nicky's Bloody Mary's, Christmas brunch (this year--sometimes it's a turkey dinner) and then everyone goes home--by 1-ish! Butch and I change our clothes, clean-up and nap. After that, I start my Christmas "take-down" by disassembling the dining room. 

I made a section for special cards I received this year.

This one is from an earlier page, but since it was in the middle of the layouts I hadn't yet posted, I wasn't sure whether I've posted this one or not. I was too lazy to figure it out!

I could not resist adding all of the festive stamps this year.

This is the end page of this album which concludes with our New Year's Eve "fancy" dinner.

And as they say, "It's a wrap!" 

I'm well in to 2026 now!

Me on Monday

Well, we came home on Friday evening. We got the news around 1 p.m. that our power was back. After 6 days, we were excited!! Butch went home to check on things. By the time he left, the temperature in the house was almost 50 degrees--heating up nicely.

When he got back to Stephanie's, we discussed our plan. Since it was already 4 pm, we decided to wait for Nicky to get home and Steph to finish work to have happy hour with them. We packed up our stuff and by that time, they were both ready to PAH--TEE! We weren't sure if they were celebrating as a normal Friday night or the fact that we were leaving!! (It was so sweet--later, Butch texted them to thank them for their hospitality. Steph replied that it was kind of lonely with us gone!)

We got home around 6 pm--unloaded the car, continued laundry (Butch had already started a load earlier), wiped out the refrigerators and put all of the food away. By 7 we were finished and in our jammies sitting in the family room staring at each other! We started a fire and tried to talk! The problem was, we've said it all! We had no internet which also meant no tv. We were able to make our phones hotspots so we had music. We each sat there in front of our computers doing our own thing.

Saturday was the longest day of our life!! I was able to watch a couple things from Netflix on my computer. I read--a lot! I couldn't scrapbook because I couldn't print pictures or anything else for that matter. 

Butch was leaving for El Salvador with his buddy, Jack very early the next morning, so we just went to bed early. Next morning, we picked Jack up at 4:45 for the airport. When I got home, I had breakfast and watched something on Netflix. I had already decided that I couldn't bear another day with nothing to do. So, I planned to call Connie and invite myself over to hang with her and Amanda for awhile. 

As it turned out, I became a cleaning fool! I cleaned out the pool bath cabinets and drawers. I cleaned out one of the cabinets in the hallway--except for the top shelf which I couldn't reach (no way am I getting on a step stool!). I cleaned between the washer and dryer, then underneath the dryer. I was on a roll! 

When I finished the cleaning, I had a late lunch and discovered that our internet was back! Not trusting that I could count on it, I went upstairs and started printing stuff so I could scrapbook today.

While I was upstairs, the Ring sounded. I looked at who was at the door since it was 5:15 and getting pretty dark. It was a police officer. So, I just answered with my phone to see what was up. He said that he had received notification—we were on some list he had—that since we’d been without power for so long, we needed to be checked on. I guess that’s what they call a welfare check. I don’t know if he was going door to door, but he made the comment that he could check us off of his list. I’ve watched enough Datelines to know that just because a young guy is in a cop’s uniform doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a real cop. He could be a fake and “after” some little old lady!! Love that I can handle everything through the Ring without ever having to go to the door! Much safer for sure.

I came downstairs shortly after and decided to have a bowl of cereal for dinner while watching some tv. About 7 p.m. the power went out--again!. I sat in the dark figuring out my plan: was I just going to bed, or should I go to Steph’s. It was only about 5 minutes and the power came back EXCEPT—no internet which meant no tv. This morning it’s the same. At least I printed those pictures!! 

I meet my friends at 11 am at Panera for lunch before the movie. So, hopefully when I get home from that, everything will be up and running again. I’m just sad Butch isn't here to change all the clocks!!! We each have defined roles!! No, really, I miss him already for other stuff--like talking!!