Thursday, March 9, 2017

Wassup?

Thinking: About how much work Stephanie and Nicky's move is going to be. Yes, I know it's on them, but Butch and I are the type to pitch in and help. We cannot rest when there's work to be done. It's exciting and overwhelming at the same time. They sold their house in ONE day for the full asking price. The housing market in Nashville is still HOT! 

Thankful for: OnStar! The "kids"---although they are adults, they will always be the "kids" to me---had a car problem on their way home from a music festival in FL---in my car! OnStar rescued them, but they lost a day while they waited for the water pump to be replaced. Now maybe Morgan and Jordan will re-think driving 12 hours to music festivals. Seems like flying would be cheaper.

Cooking: Beans and dumplings. I hadn't made it in at least a year. It's one of Butch's childhood favorite meals. Considering I did not grow up eating beans---I had never heard of a pinto bean in my life---I really like it. Since Butch was out-of-town this weekend, I decided to surprise him. 

Wearing: The weather has been so nice that it's about time to pull out the spring clothing. Even as I type that, I don't know what that means. When I was little, growing up in St. Louis, we had 4 distinct seasons. We had spring coats that were lighter weight. I don't know if you can even find spring coats anymore. Around here, you just move to lightweight jackets and sweaters. Actually, that's pretty much what we wear all winter!

Hoping: The repair of Mitchell's car goes smoothly. On the way home from the same music festival, he was hit from the rear and sandwiched between two cars. Luckily, the traffic was moving so slowly that no one was hurt. As Morgan and Jordan were on the side of the road with their problems, they said that they saw that there was an accident, but didn't realize it was their cousin! That held up the traffic for another couple of hours! 

Taking: My needlepoint rug in for cleaning. It's been at the front door for 20 years now and has never been cleaned. Surprisingly, it doesn't even look dirty---and lots of people have walked on it in all kinds of weather. It's a small rug---4x6 and will only cost $65.00 for the cleaning. I think I can afford that once every twenty years!

Planning: On trying to get something accomplished towards cleaning out closets. I can't seem to move from the planning stage to the actual "doing" stage. 

Working: On the AYM kits---until I was interrupted with those car problems! I spent the rest of the day stressed about the "kids!" 

Reading: Ordinary Grace. It's pretty good, but I must say, what I'm most loving is getting my electronic books from the library for FREE! You have to be willing to wait. I'm #500 of 39 copies for Hillbilly Elegy. There are plenty of books available right away.

Loving: Saving money on books! I've already saved $45.00 this year by using the library.

Needing: More clothes! Most of my clothes are buried under tarps waiting for the master bath renovations to be completed. At the beginning of all this, I pretended I was going on a long trip and "packed" accordingly. I'm so sick of everything I kept out for myself. 

Watching: Bates Motel. It's sooo good and creepy. I can't watch it if Butch is out-of-town. The "kid" who plays the teenaged Norman Bates is incredible. He's British, well educated and can speak several languages. This is the last year, so I can't imagine what will happen to wrap it up.

Creating: I'm about half way through with my round robin page. Again, interrupted by the "kids."

Bumming: That it's going to be another month on the reno. I'm telling myself two months so that I don't stress out about it. There is still so much to do.

Hearing: GMA on the tv---about, you guessed it---President Trump. I'm so sick of all of it! 

Appreciating: Butch. I guess that's because I hadn't seen him in 12 days. We were two ships passing in the night with different travel schedules. I really missed the guy---and his 6 words a day!

Dreading: Steph's move! But looking forward to the decorating.

Regretting: I might be regretting the decision to stay here. The new homeowners behind us have cleared out the woods. It feels like they are right on top of us. After 22 years of having complete privacy, it's hard to lose it. I'm most distressed about the disturbance of the cool wildlife we've had in our backyard.

Weekending: It's going to be a busy one. We have poker Friday night. Stephanie, Mindy and I are going to St. Cecilia's Rose Gala honoring Mrs. Stamps. She is head of the drama department. We were all involved. Then on Sunday, we're touring the set of Nashville. The storyline of the show this year is pretty lame and with the death of Rayna, I think it's on it's last leg. Still, it was so much fun to have a show filmed right here! But what I'm most looking forward to is hearing about the girls trip to Antigua. 

That's about it from around here.


Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Sweet Photos


Meet sweet little Harper Monroe. She is the baby of my niece, Jessica (my brother, Matt's daughter). She is the cutest little thing. They live in Texas, so I'm not sure when I'll be meeting her in person.
And this is her big brother, Max. He's all tuckered out from taking care of her!

Monday, March 6, 2017

Monday Memos, Mail and Me

Even though I was gone last week, I came home to a few fun things in the mail.
 I ordered these little notes from Crafty Steals (or one of those discount sites) for my AYM kits.
 I got these adorable Beatrix Potter plates from Pottery Barn Kids. They were inexpensive since they are melamine and on sale. I actually liked the ones from Pier 1, but they were more than I wanted to pay.
 It's been 10 weeks so far on the bathroom project. It's slow going. The vanities were delivered this week. That's exciting, but we're still have a long way to go.
This was delivered to me in the form of a text. Mindy is using the leather back pack I got for her in Florence at the leather market.  I still haven't used mine. When I brought it home, Butch said, "I don't think I've ever seen you use a backpack." He's right. I haven't used it yet. But I'm going to. For sure. Sometime. I don't know when.
And this was pretty exciting. Paige, the daughter of my friend, Nancy, was able to get us tickets for Hamilton. The girls and I are going the first of April. I'm so excited because when I tried to get tickets  all the way back in September, they were sold out. These tickets are called "house seats." They are saved for the family and friends of the cast and crew. The good news came in the way of an email.

That's about all the fun stuff that came in the mail this week. Thanks to Sian for starting this meme.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Members of the Family

I don't believe I've ever done a post dedicated to animals. But now that there are so many new "family members" I thought it was about time!

Stephanie and Nicky were the first with Rio. She's a quirky cat for sure.

Morgan was next with her dogs:
 This is Walter. He's an English Shepherd.
 Here is Sadie. She's an Australian Shepherd. Just goes to show what little I know. I had only ever heard of German Shepherds!

 Next came Titan.
This tiny little Maltese belongs to Sandy and family.
 When the family is ready to go anywhere, he climbs in to his crate so they'll take him along!
 He's going to be getting his first haircut this week.
 He's definitely a cute little guy. I played with him while in Charlotte last week. At one point, I was trying to read. He was barking at me for attention (by the way, he's not a barker as some small dogs can be). I was trying not to make eye contact because I have a compulsion to wash my hands after petting the dog. Anyway, he leaped up in to my lap! Sandy said he had never done that before. I was trying to get him to do it again so they could see. Of course he wouldn't.
 Finally we have Jordan's cat, S'mores.
Her coloring makes her look like a Smore.

I think it's time that I acknowledge that these pets are members of the family. Heck, I guess they are since I bought them Christmas presents!

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

A Few Layouts

Here are a few of the layouts I did on our sister's crop a few weeks ago.

I am not a particularly artistic scrapbooker. I rarely use ink or stamps. My formula is: pictures, title, story. Then if there's room, embellishments. My main goal is telling the story. I pretty much always have a lot of pictures.


 The flip flop to the left is a fold out to accommodate more photos.
 The little book opens out.
 This was my AYM (A Year of Memories) layout for January. I took this one straight from my blog: "Let me tell you about my stockpile issues!"

I finished quite a few more, but since we didn't have a printer, the journaling is not done. I'll share when I finish them.