Fall Decorations

Yesterday (Sat.), John and I spent the day at our rental property.  The realtor had been out this past week and gave us a list of things that we still need to do before listing the house. Ugh!  So while John finished painting the garage....

I scraped and painted the foundation blocks around the entire house and then painted the trim around the windows. I'm so sick of painting!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, guess what today was?  It was the last day of September so I spent it putting up my fall decorations. I always try to have it done for the 1st. of October so today was the day.

This took me way longer than it should have because like an idiot, I put my string of lights around the pillar without testing them first and of course they didn't work.  So I had to take them down, go to Walmart to get a new string of lights and then put them back up again. (Yes, I did test the new string before putting them up!) The old string did last several years so I guess I shouldn't complain.

I just love the colors of fall and most of the people in our neighborhood decorate and it always looks so nice. I also put up a few decorations inside the house. One of my favorite things is this "Fall Tree" by Lenox.  

It's something I splurged on a few years ago and wouldn't even think of spending that much money now on something that is out for a few weeks a year! 

Anyway, today was way more fun than yesterday!  HAPPY FALL!!








 

Things You Might OR Might NOT Know About Me:

 

·       I can’t relax if something is out of place in our living room…only in the living room.

·       Dressing up to me is a nice pair of jeans and a sweater! I’ve managed to wear jeans for most of my adult life.

·       I drive a Mini Cooper.

·       My favorite color is green.

·       You may know that I’ve been married to John for 26 years, but you might not know that we’ve been together for 31.

·       I don’t drink anything hot.

·       My favorite music: Country

·       I hate texting. Probably because I’m slow at it.

·       I’ve only worn a dress once in the past 20 years and that was to Lisa & Ty’s wedding.

·       I love driving down a tree lined road in the fall. When the trees make a tunnel and the sun is lighting up the colors of the leaves.

·       My favorite fair food: Corn Dogs.

·       I can’t stand when something is uneven or not level…drives me crazy! I will even straighten artwork in people’s homes when they leave the room.

·       To me, dinner & a movie means: Popcorn at the movies.

·       I’m afraid of heights. My palms will sweat just watching someone else up high…even something fake like in a movie or tv show.

·       I hate to fly. I will do it, but I hate it.

·       I’ve always wanted to live in the country and have 2 small goats, a miniature donkey & chickens OR live on the water…any kind of water, ocean, lake, river, creek… doesn’t matter.

·       I don’t read the obituaries.

·       I think I can do anything I’ve seen done on HGTV.

·       I LOVE sweets, but would pick flavors like lemon, strawberry, peanut butter or maple over chocolate…but I like chocolate too. Milk chocolate that is!

·       My definition of pride and joy: Lisa.

·       I can not pick a favorite flower. I love them all.

·       I could eat chicken (fixed different ways) everyday.

·       My biggest regret is not having another child.

·       I’m terrified of spiders. While I much rather someone else kill them for me, I can’t let them get away because I’m sure they will come back to crawl on me at night, so I will track it down and kill it. (Got goose bumps just writing this!)

·       I’m 2 ½ years older than John.

 

·       I recently got my first tattoo…it will be my only tattoo.
 

·       I’m a reality tv addict.
 

·                  My favorite beverage: Diet Mt. Dew! (in a glass with crushed ice please)
 

·       I would rather eat a big lunch and then “snack” for dinner.

 

Happy Birthday Mom

Today was my Mom's birthday....she was trying to tell everyone that she is 39, but she was born in 41....so you can do the math! 

She has been celebrating her birthday for several days now.  Lunch with her new friends this past week, lunch and a movie with Anna & Dick (her sister & brother-in-law) over the weekend and ending with dinner tonight at Red Lobster with John, Lisa, Ty & me. 

 

I know it hasn't been easy, but I feel she has come a long way in the past year. Getting out, making friends and settling in to a new home.  Keep it up Mom!

It's Poison Ivy

My rash has gotten worse. It is now on my arm, neck, face, stomach & leg and it is itching so much it's driving me crazy!  I know now that it is poison ivy.

But of course the doctor won't take my word for it, because my "word" can't be deposited into his bank account! I'm also told that his schedule for the day is booked up but that I can come at the end of the day and he will see me then.  She added that I should be prepared to wait because they have already told about 5 other people that they can come at the end of the day too.  Oh brother!

The itching is driving me crazy so I go, I wait, and....he says it looks like poison ivy. 

I then head to CVS to get my prescription filled and while I was sitting there I told the lady next to me that I think it takes as long here as it does at the doctors office and she and about 8 others who were standing and sitting there agreed! 

Now I'm just hoping this medicine start working ASAP!


Side Note: I wish my "word" could be deposited into a bank account because I'd be really rich! LOL

From Chillin to Freak Out

My weekend started off on friday with John being sick and I started getting a rash.  At first I wondered if the rash was a reaction to the contrast dye I had injected into my shoulder on thursday for my MRI. They told me I might have a reaction which could be anything from a rash, to being sick to my stomach or swelling of my throat, but said these things should happen pretty fast after the injection and that they would be able to treat me if anything happended.  So since I didn't start having this rash until the next day, I'm not sure if it's from that or not.  But, the rash has been spreading and I now have it on my arm, where it started, my neck, one side of my face and on my stomach!  I'm now wonder if it could be poison ivy?  But I haven't been weeding or anything so who knows? 

Which ever it is, I've not felt that great because of it and John isn't feeling good, so we didn't do a whole lot this weekend. Pretty muched chilled....that is until a few minutes ago when I freaked out!  John had been downstairs watching football when he came up to show me something.  He had killed a huge spider and felt the need to bring it upstairs and show me!

Now it's time for me to go to bed and I'm itching from my rash and now I'm afraid the rest of this spiders family will be out for revenge!!! How am I going to sleep now!?!

Soup For My Hubby

We normally go out to eat on friday nights, but John isn't feeling good...sore throat, cough, etc.  Sooo, like a good wife, I got on the internet to find the recipe for his favorite soup from Carrabba's.  It's called "Mama Mandola's Sicilian Chicken Soup". Then I went to the store to pick up what I needed to make it and then spent last evening cooking.  I have to say that my handy dandy chopping bowl that I impulse purchased from QVC came in handy and I didn't need any bandages this time either!

As the evening went on, John kept telling me how good it smelled. :) This gave me hope because he normally doesn't say things like that...then again, he is sick!

This is a picture of the actual soup from Carrabba's:

And here is mine:

I think mine looks close to the same and tastes pretty close too. So that was my friday night.

Hard Labor Day

John and I spent Labor Day....well, laboring.  We started the day at Lowes getting things we need for our rental property....paint for the garage, trim for the bathroom, light bulbs, etc.

When we got home we continued the job of cutting down the trees.  Of course we left the biggest and thickest trunked trees for last and we ran into a problem right off the bat.  One of the trees we were cutting didn't fall in the direction we intended. It fell towards one of the other trees and wedged it's self into the top of that tree!  We both stood there in the 90 degree heat, looking up at the tops of both trees and wondering what in the world we were going to do now!?! 

After hours of sawing, stacking logs, burning branches and sweating buckets, we both realized that the trees and heat had won...we just couldn't finish the job today.  There is one tree left standing, a couple trunks laying on the ground and a pile of branches left to burn. 

Did you notice his sweaty shirt?

 

 

After showers and drinking lots of fluids, we spent the evening like two whipped puppies.

It was tiring, but as they say...it's nothing a good nights sleep won't fix....tomorrow's another day....it isn't going anywhere, etc.

TIMBER!!!

Almost 12 years ago, when we moved into this house, I planted 5 twigs in the corner of our backyard.  They were so tiny that for the first 2 years you couldn't even see them from what was then our patio.  Finally they started to grow....and they kept growing until they were the tallest things in our neighborhood!  They had become a beautiful backdrop for all my daisies and lillies.

But as we all come to realize, beauty doesn't last forever. Last summer they started to die.  We don't know why, but one by one their branches started turning brown and started falling down.  They went from being a thing of beauty to becoming the "eye sore" of the neighborhood! 

You probably won't believe this next part, but I swear it is true....we've had 2 different tree services knock at our door asking us if we wanted them to "cut down those dead trees" and also one neighbor asked if we wanted help cutting them down!

Well, after a couple recent storms completely knocked down a couple of them, today we decided to do something about it. Chainsaw in hand, we started cutting our once beautiful trees into logs. 

Wanting to look on the bright side, I stated that it was like we grew our own firewood, to which John replied "It took 12 years to grow and will only take a few hours to burn!"

I also got to add another power tool to the list of tools I have now used.