Dare I hope?

I went through what I *think* are the last two boxes of scrapbook stuff to be sorted! I kept more than I should have... oh well. My mom is planning to come "shopping" tomorrow after I get off of work.

Progress note

I must say I am really proud of myself. Inside scrapbook stuff done - still have to tackle a few boxes in the garage. I've got quite a bit sorted out to give away.

I hope I can keep up this momentum until I am done. I think I can, I think I can -- I know I can, I know I can!

Update

Linens - done.

Scrapbook supplies - in progress.

Kitchen gadgets - pending.

Part 1 complete!

Success! I have the guest room completely cleaned out - all of Chris's stuff stored in the closet in that room. We hauled off another truckload of trash. (We'd taken 3 just from stuff in the garage). It's amazing how much you accumulate over the years. I just put it all in the guest room and shut the door.

But now - the room is completely empty!

I have all of my scrapbook stuff left to organize, a bunch of linens left to find a home for, and some kitchen gadgets. (next project will be the pantry - where I plan to put said kitchen gadgets).

I'm going to re-arrange the dining room.

Tomorrow we might go get Chris's bed from his cousin's house where he has been storing it. I'd really like to do that to get that room set up. It's ridiculous, we've been in the house for two years and I finally got down to business. I was not going to take 5 days off of work and not work on this project.

Chris and I went to have Mexican for supper, and I was telling him that to me all of the sudden, the house seems larger - he agreed. I mean, it's like we just built another room on the house.

I have a ridiculous amount of scrapbook stuff.

I'm really pleased with the progress I've made.

STILL cleaning out

I have sort of re-defined my garage cleaning plan. I decided that I needed a place to put the garage stuff that makes it through all of the cuts and winds up in the keep pile.

So... we never got the guest room set up, and it just morphed into storage space, but I'm determined to make it a usable room. So... I decided to start there.

I have gone through all of Chris's things and put all of his things in that closet. Let me tell ya, I can pack a closet!

So, I have started accumulating all of my scrapbooking stuff in one pile in the living room. Wow. When that is added to what is in the garage - double Wow. I am going to set up a workable scrapbook space and I am going to scrapbook!

I am throwing away a bunch of stuff! I'm so proud of myself.

I've got two more full days I can work on it, so my goal is to have it all cleaned out and organized by Monday night. Then, I can start incorporating the stuff from the garage.

Soon, I'll be able to park in the garage again.

Mission de-clutter is well underway.

Time off

So, I'm at the point at work where I have to start taking vacation time or lose it. So... I got the calendar for the rest of the year and mapped out 20 days. I scheduled myself mostly 3 and 4 day weekends. Thanks to Memorial Day, I'm taking a 5 day and Chris is taking a 4 day weekend.

A friend of ours came up from Florida for a quick visit.

More garage cleaning planned after she heads back home. I think I'm going to clean out some closets as well. I'm on a mission to de-clutter.

Idol

Well, I have to say, I was rooting for Adam. I am not totally bummed that he didn't win - think about it - he never has to sing that cheesy song again and we don't have to hear him sing it on the radio. We will however have to hear someone sing it - and hopefully Kris will do better in the studio with it than he did on the show.

The other not so bad reason is that now Adam has the freedom to do the music he wants without having to worry about the Idol contract. Rock on Adam.

The finale was amazing - enjoyed the show. They pulled out all the stops on this one.

Simple things

Sometimes it's the simple things in life that are the best. I'm sitting on the sofa with my laptop. Willy is right beside me, purring and giving my hands an occasional head butt when he wants to be petted. I love that cat!

More about our Sunday

After we got finished bird watching, we went to Dairy Queen for breakfast. First time we'd ever gone there for a sit down breakfast. They haven't been serving breakfast all that long, so we never thought about it. It was a pretty good meal.

So, it was back home to start on the garage. It was really a good day weather wise to work. It was overcast, and not too hot. About 6 pm, we decided we'd done enough for the day and were happy with our two days progress. I think we need another day, maybe two. It's slow going. If paper were magnetic, I'd be the magnet! I've got boxes and boxes of paper and other stuff I should have thrown away a long time ago. So, I'm sorting: Keep, trash or burn. Chris moved all of his stuff outside and sorted through it and brought it back in. It's an organizational project for him.

For me though, I had a walk down memory lane, I found myself coming across some unexpected memories of lost loved ones.

I found a picture of my grandfather "PaPa".

And from my grandmother "MayMay", I found so many cards and letters and coupons which she loved sending to us. It was one of her favorite things to do - send us coupons with a note buried somewhere inside, she'd ask you if you got the coupons, and you'd say yes, and she'd want to know if you found anything you could use, and of course the answer was yes... and she'd know if you had gone through them or not depending on whether you knew about the note -- I missed making her a doctor's appointment one time because I only thought I had gotten coupons, another time, I didn't see the note to bring her some of her favorite candy the next time I came to vist. I learned that I had better go through the coupons carefully.

And from my grandmother "Grandma", I found a Valentine she sent me when I was in elementary school.

I found a couple of notes from my friend Sandi who died in a car accident. I also found a few cards from her parents. I also found the thank you note they sent me for the scrapbook I had made of photos they'd never seen of Sandi.

I found photos from my friend Janet's rehearsal dinner. Janet died of an aneurysm at age 36. We were lifelong friends - our mother's met when we were babies. We grew up together. I was in the Czech Republic, we'd taken a lunch break from rafting down a beautiful river, the Vltava, I was standing outside looking at a castle on the side of the river when I learned of her death. We had one more day of rafting and camping planned, but we cut our trip short. The guys in the group hitch-hiked back to the cars and brought our rental to us. We had to drive 2 hours to our penzion, then we packed as fast as we could and drove 4 hours to Munich, Germany and caught the next flight out. We made it home in time for her funeral.

I found a photo of my friend Penny from nursing school. She died of an aneurysm in her late 20's. I recently saw her mom and she asked me if I had any photos of Penny. I told her I thought I did, but had no idea where they were. She asked me to please send her a copy if I ever ran across them.

I found a photo from my prom, my date was Jimmy. He died late last year in a motorcycle accident.

A bittersweet walk down memory lane today.

Beautiful Sunday Morning

When we got up this morning, we knew the plan for the day was to work in the garage some more. It was still early, Chris was on the back porch and called me out to see some woodpeckers. I grabbed my camera, but when I got there, they had flown away. However, I did manage to see some bluebirds ...


and a squirrel...


Then, in just a little while, the woodpeckers came back. I was able to get some good shots of them I thought. Here are a few of my favorites.

Spring Cleaning

So, Chris declared today was clean up the garage day. I was happy about it because it's been getting on my nerves for a long time. Last summer, I decided I was tired of paying $65 a month for a storage unit so I cleaned it out and brought everything home and it took root in my garage. Add Chris's tools and guy stuff... and our cars ended up outside.

We ended up getting a good bit done, but we have a long way to go. I worked some on the back porch - lots of pollen everywhere, and he removed some bird feeders and bird baths the former owner had put in the yard- they were getting really weathered. Chris also took down a dead tree in the front yard --- THEN we started working on the garage. My job is to sit still and go through boxes - keep it or trash it.

Tomorrow is another day....

Happy Birthday Hassel

Happy Birthday Hassel.

New look

I decided it was time for a new look to the blog. What do ya think?

Cute pictures of Willy

Just thought I'd add a couple of recent cute pictures of Willy. I found this bed for him at Wal-Mart and he loves it! That is his "purple monkey friend" with him.



Managed to catch this photo of him in mid-yawn. I actually laughed out loud when I saw how it turned out.

Gordon Lightfoot

Last night we went to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert. We really enjoyed the concert, heard some great music, relaxed and enjoyed. The crowd gave a standing ovation when he performed "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". This is one of Chris's top 10 favorite songs of all times. I was so glad he was able to see it performed live.

The crowd was somewhat amusing to watch - lots of aging hippies...

So, this is what

So, this is what $5600.00 looks like.

Rainbow

We had some rain, and in a little while the sky behind the house turned an odd color. I went to look out the front door and saw the neighbors pointing up toward the sky. So, I stepped out on the porch and saw what they were pointing at. It has to be one of the most beautiful rainbows I've ever seen. I wasn't able to get it a shot of it all in one frame.

Weekend

I've had a busy weekend, yesterday started with some house cleaning, then I left to go to the shower, home for some more cleaning, then off to meet Chris's parents for a Mother's Day dinner for his Mom.

Today, it's been laundry and some relaxing. We went and had a quick meal at the Chinese buffet here in town.

Just a few more hours before bed and starting the work week.

Baby shower

Yesterday, I went to a baby shower for Chris's cousin's wife. This was they cake they served, it was done by Chris's aunt, and it was wonderful! All of the food was great. It was easily the nicest baby shower I've ever been too. Company was great. She received many nice gifts. She's due June 10th, so soon, there'll be a new member in Chris's family.

Tinkering

Chris has been tinkering with the carburerator on his motorcycle since he got home from work. I got a lesson on carburerators.

I cooked burritos for supper, it was one of those "I hope we have something in the freezer" nights.

He came in long enough to eat, and now is taking a test drive.

May May

Today, lots of people are celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and I was treated to a Mexican meal at lunch. But today, my thoughts keep circling back to my grandmother, who we called May May. Today would have been her 85th birthday.

I miss May May.

$5600!!!

Well, the A/C unit is going to cost $5600!! It's a bigger, better, more efficient unit than we had priced at first. I'm still reeling from the sticker shock. It has a 10 year warranty, and there's a $1500 tax rebate because it is a 15 SEER unit. Thank goodness Chris did all of the research on it, and thank goodness for signature loans.

Milestone

Today I reached a small milestone. One week without Coca-Cola.

I'm tired of getting dehydrated and needing IV's, and I know I don't drink enough during the day. I tended to drink one Coke at lunch, and one at supper and maybe a little other fluid during the day, but usually not much. So, I decided that I needed to do something.

I bought some juice, (cranapple, etc), and I have made an effort to drink more at work. So, I'm drinking juice now, and I'm actually doing better. I've done better than I thought I would with giving up the Coke.

I finally understand...

As Mother's Day approaches, you naturally think about your mother. My Mother isn't a fan of Mother's Day, her philosophy is that you should love your mother every day, not just one day of the year because someone decided they could make money on a holiday.

Well, I do love my mother every day of the year. I was blessed with the best mother ever.

So, you're probably wondering about the photo of the shoes. Growing up, my mother would wear what I thought were ugly shoes. She'd say, "but they're comfortable". Well, as you can tell by the photo, I finally understand. You can convince yourself that ugly shoes are cute shoes because "they are so comfortable." How do you like my new cute shoes?