Good morning all. Pretty chilly this morning. The new doors sure do make a difference though.
Got all the boxes evened out and the vacuuming done. I will try and tackle the rest of the downstairs today. Dusting sure goes faster with nothing sitting anywhere or nothing on the walls. I really like the long handled Swiffer too. I can get up the walls and into areas my arms just weren't long enough and had Jack do.
Jack bought me clothing for an early Valentine's present. I was talking about getting something new to wear to my high school alumni banquet in June. I wanted something a little dressy but not formal and wanted it long. He bought me these two so I can take my choice I guess. I have a little black bolero jacket to go with the orange dress.
Maggie: Sounds like you have a nice cache of beef product for things. I saw at the store that Old El Paso now has flour tortilla "boats" for tacos. We used to buy the corn tortilla ones and make mini taco salads, but I haven't been able to find them for a long time.
Jean: Sounds like you went through it to get back home. I know they got almost 2 feet of snow in northern Indiana over the weekend. All of that went straight to the east and they may have ended up with another huge amount of snow. I haven't seen the weather reports. No, never tried having them paint them each a different color.
Susan: Glad you are feeling better. Just protect yourself. Kelly and I are talking about taking a beginner quilting class. I don't know how that will go. She sews, I don't but I am a very good hand sewer.
Good Afternoon! At least I think it is Tuesday . . . the sun is shining brightly and the streets are sloppy wet from sprayed salt. I had to go to the hospital and write some more checks this morning. Then I went to church intending to practice the awful bell piece we are playing Sunday. Instead I brought the book home and will "study" it - maybe use some pop bottles and "practice." After lunch I got a haircut and enough said about that. Finally have laundry in the washer and dryer so will have folding to do shortly. Have a pile of mail and newspapers to sort through. I don't know why it seems to take longer to get organized (?), unpack and put things away after being gone for a few days.
Maggie, thanks for starting the new thread! I have heard goat soap is really good. What type of roast do you prefer? The last roast I bought wasn't very good, and Bob didn't think so either.
"Gma," I like both of your dresses and think you should keep them both. I haven't heard our official snow fall count. Bob thought 6 - 7" but with the drifts it's looks like a lot more. I guess more is on the way. I would like to take a quilting class. My "sister" is a quilter and has made beautiful things to give away. She had small quilt squares, at the wedding reception, for guests to sign instead of a guest book. She plans to make a wall hanging for the newlyweds.
I need to change laundry loads so better get moving. Hope you all are enjoying a nice day!
Why does a shower feel better some days than another? I really enjoyed my morning shower this day ~ that warm rain coming down on me just felt so good for some reason.
Will just came in and handed me the newest WW cook book that looks like it has some great recipes in it. I am going to have a great time going through it this afternoon. It is one of the note book kind and chock full of all categories of recipes.
JEAN We mostly get sirloin roast which is lean and tender when crock potted then shredded. We sometimes get a 7 bone roast which doesn't have a bone anymore ~ depends which is on sale. With garlic studded in them and dry onion soup spread all over they pretty much taste the same.
DONNA FAYE How nice for Jack to buy you those lovely outfits.
Good morning to you all. Well I got our January utility bill and it was $330! Ahh well what can you do? They do now have the smart meter up and running and we can keep a daily accounting of what the bill will be so I can keep track of it. I just hope the weather warms up and stays warm, but I know they are calling for some possible snow tonight but then our weather area covers the Missouri bootheel and western Arkansas and north west Mississippi so who knows? I know it is going to be in the 50's today then the temps tonight are going to drop dramatically.
Never did get to the rest of the cleaning so will tackle it today. Can't say I was particularly busy, but left it for another day.
Got a thing from Tricare yesterday and the mess just doesn't end I guess. Now it looks like the hospital screwed up the billing codes for my drain procedure. They billed it under an injury/accident so Tricare sent me this personal injury form to fill out. I called the dr's office and talked with the insurance lady, but she had to talk to Cindi the nurse and try and figure out what happened. I know that numbskull who booked the apt with the hospital screwed it up somehow. He booked the wrong time, didn't give radiology proper info on what the purpose was so it is going to be a test of wills to get Tricare to pay for it I am afraid.
Maggie: I am done buying cookbooks. I am keeping those I use, but getting rid of those I don't. I find that nowadays I can find just about any recipe I want online and use it mostly. Saves having to dust more books. Hope you enjoy yours!
Jean: Hope you can get the hang of the song. I always buy chuck pot roast. I put them in the crockpot with one can of fat free beef broth and they come out nice an tender. I made beef bbq the other day and it was wonderful. Jack scarfed it right up. I prefer pork for bbq but wanted something different. If they fit I will probably keep both the dresses. They are both a crinkle knit so should be easy to care for. I have another Jacket I bought for the cruise that will go with the aqua dress and have a white short sleeved cardigan and a black short sleeved cardigan I can wear with the other one so will have a variety that way.
Good Evening! I think I am losing my mind! I thought I had posted today but guess not. Beth and Will's anniversary is next week and I looked at the calendar wrong thinking it was tomorrow. I had their card ready and Bob took it to a nearby town so they would get it tomorrow. I've done several loads of laundry and have most everything put away. I've worked myself into a major stew over this stupid bell piece we are playing Sunday. I probably would have been more ok if I could have been at practice last week. It's long and page turns include continuous ringing which is tricky when trying to turn a page. To top it off one bell has a loose clapper and the other bell clapper is too tight. Ok, enough grumping for one night!
Maggie, have fun with your new cookbook! Let us know when you fix something new.
"Gma," does the $330 include both gas and electric or are you all electric? I bet our's will be high since we had so many of really cold temperatures. Good luck with the insurance. I've had the coding mixup too, aggravating.
Tomorrow will be a better day! Hope you all enjoy the evening -- I'm going to get a glass of wine and watch tv!
Good morning to you all. Very chilly here this morning. Wind chill is 17. Daytime temps have been climbing quite a bit though so it is weird.
Time to get the nails cut down again as I am having trouble typing. I can always tell when they are getting to long. They look so nice a bit longer, but it is tough to type when they are like this. I worked with a girl at the law firm who had claws and don't know how she typed so fast. You had to be able to type 80 wpm to get a job there.
Got my checkbook balanced, a load of laundry going, made up my meds for the week, straightened up the downstairs and made a pot of iced tea for Jack. I will go upstairs and tackle it today as I did get the downstairs cleaned.
The lawn guys were out yesterday with their gas engine blowers and trimmers so the house smelled like gas for about an hour. They come up the walk right to the front door as the condos don't have front porches and get behind the bushes, which are on each side of the walkway right up to the building. It was loud and stinky. I have several of those Airwick auto sprayers in the living room and kitchen, but they didn't help it.
The kids will be here tomorrow as they are leaving today after work, going halfway like we do then coming on in. They won't be here until afternoon though so Jack isn't going to take off tomorrow. We will see them for an early dinner then go to Kelly's house for the evening.
I have started a throw for the new furniture. I decided I didn't want to fool with making pillows so am making just a throw and will buy pillows if I want them. These are the colors and this is the pattern. The gray is going to be the trim around the edges since we are painting the walls gray. We have picked out the paint colors, but have to go get samples to try out. The variegated yarn will be the main color then the yellow and green the accent colors.
Jean: Oh, I am so sorry the darn bell piece is giving you fits. I would have that sometimes when I would sing. I would just not be able to get something the way it was supposed to sound. It would drive me nuts. I used to sing first soprano, but my voice has dropped dramatically now. I only sing for my supper. I bought the boys each a valentine's day card and put $50 in Thomas's but we will take Jackson out and let him pick out stuff for himself. I think he would get a bigger kick out of it that way.
Well onward and upward gals. I need to get the day started. Have a good one. Faye
Good Afternoon! The sun is shining but not all that warm with the wind blowing. I went to the grocery store this morning and think everything has gone up in price since I was there last. Too bad we have to eat. I chased fur bunnies with the vacuum after lunch and need to wash some pans that don't go in the dishwasher. We are meeting our Maui traveling friends for supper. They want to go in January next year and we were thinking February - not sure how that will work out because we wanted to take the kids back, and the kids have Presidents Day off from school.
"Gma," I got the gift shop bank statement this afternoon and I balanced on the first try! Amazing how that happens when all the glitches are gone! Try putting a dish of vinegar out to take away a smell you don't like. I read that hint somewhere, Bob burned microwave popcorn (bag had a hole in it) the other night and it did stink. The vinegar worked. I really like the yarn colors and the pattern -- it will look so nice. I have the Valentine cards and need to get them addressed. Have a great time with your family. How's Kelly getting along?
May pans are waiting! Hope you are all enjoying a good day!
Good morning everyone. Doesn't seem quite so chilly this morning, but I am not out in it either.
Got the upstairs done yesterday so have a free day today. Whoopee! Guess I will knit on the throw. It s done in 40 stitch strips so you don't feel so overwhelmed as long as you don't get discouraged you have to make three longs stripes of one and two of the other then sew them up. Doesn't bother me. It is easier to take with me this way to the dr's or whatever.
Jack just left for work a few minutes ago so the house is all quiet 'cause the kid next door must not be up yet. They do something with him around 6 PM, either try to get him to eat, bathe him, put him to bed something because every night around 6 you hear him screaming bloody murder. I don't know how old he is, sound toddler age. When they moved in they only had a teenage girl and they have lived there around a year now so who knows. Maybe the girl had a child. Wouldn't surprise me any. She had a boyfriend hanging around all last summer.
Jean: Could you go over MLK weekend? Do the kids have that time off? Glad you whipped the church stuff into shape. Amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have hindrances. Kelly is doing well except she is on crutches and they moved into a new building and this one has no elevator so she has to climb flights of stairs up and down. She said last night that by 7 PM she is hurting but she was still up at 10:30 PM because she texted me last night about the kids getting here. Have to try the vinegar trick. We bought a solid glass door for the front and they got something all over the door so I have to go out there today and clean it. I do like having the nice all glass door, but I do worry about them coming up close to it and using that trimmer or blower and shattering the glass throwing up stones or whatever. We have some cheap outfit and they probably wouldn't take responsibility for it and we would have to pay for it.
Everyone have a grand weekend. We have no plans except to take the boys to Incredible pizza on Sunday. I imagine they and their granddad will have fun with the laser tag and the go carts. I will take my Ipad and knitting I guess. faye
Good Afternoon! The sun is shining brightly , clear blue sky, NO wind, and it's warming up enough the snow is starting to melt! Have spent the morning online ordering birthday cards for church, on the phone with Beth trying to find a time everyone can get together for Bob's and Will's birthdays, and emailing for open Maui condo dates. No wonder my house looks like a whirlwind went through most of the time.
"Gma," makes you wonder what is making the boy next door kick into gear every night. The Sioux Falls kids do get MLK day off, but not the Sioux City kids. The problem is most places rent Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday and January/February are prime whale watching time. It seems like kids are taken out of school for vacations more often than when we were kids or our own kids were in school. I would think your glass door would be safety glass. My fur boys come running when I go out to get the mail and love to look out the door. Because it is away from the rest of the house, I never leave the inside door open because someone could come in and I wouldn't hear them. We live in a safe neighborhood but one never knows. We are also close to a main highway. I know you will have a great time with Jackson and the rest of your family!
I need to fold towels and put them away, file the bills that came while we were gone, and balance our checkbook. Hope you all enjoy a fantastic Friday!
We went by the welding shop that on Monday is going to make a tow bar for the front of the Jeep and a rack that will hold a gas can that will go above the spare tire in the back and a place beside the tire to store the high lift jack. Since they will need to keep the Jeep all day we have a friend who will loan us his Jeep for the day so we won’t have the expense of renting a vehicle. This friend and his twin along with their parent s own several businesses across this state that sell crop sprayers. Huge sprayers all the way down to small ones. It will be nice to get that towing mechanism done then we can plan for our trip to get a new fridge installed in the MH in Texas.
I have all the points + figured out in the Taste of Homes Best of Comfort Food Diet book and so Will bought me another one by the same folks called Healthy Cooking which I will now start figuring the points + values for the recipes. These books have some really good sounding recipes in them with pictures of most of the food.
I got some fresh veggies to prepare and put in snack bags. I will eat at least one a day if I have the veggies prepared and ready to eat.
DONNA FAYE Our next door neighbors daughter had a baby and we never hear a peep out of him. He is a darling and the mother is turning out to be a good little mom. She didn't have a clue who the father was for she was so "active."
JEAN It is 78 degrees out as I type and feels like summer has arrived but I imagine we are in for more nasty weather before that happens.
Good morning to you all. Not too bad this morning and should be a lovely day. I think the kids are going to the zoo today not sure. I don't know if we will see them at all today except Jack is going out for coffee this morning with Jay alone.
We had a fun time with the kids last night. Lots of laughing. Jackson is hilarious. He made a point of telling me he had straight A's! He has already decided what he is going to buy with his Valentine's money so shouldn't be much to go in and get it as long as they have it.
Here is the troop in it's entirety. Forgive the blurriness. Jack's left hand shakes and I didn't notice until this morning it was a bit blurry. Jackson, Jay and Alicia on the left and Thomas, Tom and Kelly on the right. Jackson told Thomas and I that "technically you should be call Thomas ("th" sound)" so I got to kidding Thomas about his name. He picked it up about how he was going to need extensive therapy since his parents incorrectly named him, etc, etc. I had a great time with the kids. Lots of fun and laughter.
I saw Jack's first SS check is pending on our bank account.
Jean: We never open our front door unless someone knocks. It's just nice to open it if someone does and see the person instead of a ton of iron scrollwork over the windows. Someone had to come through the gate onto the deck to get at the back door and we keep the gate locked all the time. I don't leave it open either, but will this spring and summer I imagine. Hope you got your birthday logistics worked out. We are still waiting for RCCL to update their calendar so we can book. I sure hope they do it soon as their sale allows us $100 onboard credit per ship and $700 off each cruise.
Maggie: Hope you can get everything done soon. What is your projected date for leaving?
Good Afternoon! The sun is shining right now and it's a pleasant 45 degrees out. I did some laundry this morning, studied the bell music some more, and fixed a meat loaf dinner. We ate late because Bob was at the office working on tax stuff. Just finished washing the baking dishes and need a rest. I don't need much of an excuse to sit and rock! I don't know if I shared this or not from the wedding, but one of the bridesmaids had green hair and white makeup. I mentioned to my "mom" that I never saw her smile, and found out she was a "he" and is a beautician. Her dad disowned her and her mom was her support through the change. She got sick and died. How sad.
Maggie, do you figure points for all of the recipes in your cookbooks? That would keep you busy for awhile! 78 degrees would be such a teaser after all of our below 0 days. We have rain turning to snow in the forecast but I don't remember for which day. I hope that's wrong!
"Gma," what a neat picture! Thanks for sharing it with us. I'm glad you enjoyed the evening with your family. It's too bad Jay lives so far away. Has he always lived in Indiana? We're going to Beth's next Saturday for the birthdays. I should have my card club cleaning pretty much done except for last minute touch ups which I can do on Sunday or Monday. Need to figure out food and dig out recipes to make a grocery list.
Guess I will play my puzzle for a bit and then vacuum -- spring must be getting closer because the cats seem to be shedding more. Hope you all enjoy a super Saturday!
Good morning gals. Wow what a day yesterday turned out to be. Jack went for coffee with Jay and found out that it is about 90% sure they are going to be moving to Asheville North Carolina probably summer of 2017. He wants to start his own Ju jitsu dojo there and she is a pharmacist so would be able to get a job anywhere. The nice thing is, they will be in weather like our year round and they will only be 7 hrs away instead of 12!! We can do a lot more visiting with them. The bad part is I don't know how much I would be going to Indiana after they move. My sister, niece and family and friends live there but we would certainly not be making the trips we take now. We then get a call from Kelly about all meeting up for lunch so I hurried around and got cleaned up and off we went. We had lunch and while talking to Alicia found Jackson was going to go back to Kelly's and Jay and Alicia were going down to Beale Street so I ask if it was ok to take him shopping and they said sure. Thomas wanted to go, which surprised me so we all 4 went shopping for Jackson's Valentine's present and then ice cream. We had one awful, awful glitch though. We had just gotten onto I-40 and this little Toyota pick up in right in front of us got hit by someone changing lanes from the right and cutting it too close. Jack slammed on his brakes and thank goodness no one was behind us (God was with us for sure) and the Toyota was thrown across two lanes of traffic sideways, the car in the far left lane his it, threw it back into the lane next to us and the worst part, a semi in the lane on our right and next two us slammed into the truck and threw it into the retaining wall and onto the other car. I grabbed my phone not thinking I could call through the sync system and dialed 911 but I was shaking so bad I missed the first time and the second disconnected. Thank goodness they called back and I gave them the info Jack relayed to me as I couldn't think. We were all ok, but pretty shaken up by it all. God Bless him, Jack maneuvered through the mess and we went on. We had the boys and several cars including a policeman Jack saw behind us stopped. I have never seen a bad crash happening except on tv and I don't ever want to again. All I keep seeing is that poor semi driver locking up his brakes and slamming into that truck and being afraid of what we would see once we got past. I can't find any info about the crash anywhere to find out how everyone is. When we got to Toys R Us Jack put his arms around the boys and talked to them about if they were really ok and such. I worried more about Jackson seeing it than Thomas. Thomas was a darling and kept Jackson occupied. He kept telling him it was ok and not to worry about it that we were all ok, etc, etc. Jackson worships Thomas so he listened to him, but he kept talking all afternoon about cars blowing up and Kelly's house blowing up, etc. On the bright side, we did have a fun afternoon with the two of them. Thomas is so quiet and always has been and Jackson is a mile a minute chatterbox.
Today we are taking the boys to Incredible Pizza. They will have a blast since they are both older and can enjoy the stuff so much more. They have mini bowling and mini golf, laser tag and go cart rides. They have bumper cars and video games and such so they will have fun. Food is plentiful too so they can eat, eat, eat. I imagine I will just knit. I am coming along on the first strip of the throw.
Jean: We got up to near 70 and it was sunshiny and beautiful yesterday. I went without a coat all day. I bought some of that dutch milk wood cleaning stuff from an infomercial on tv. It came yesterday and I tried it on the kitchen cabinet doors, which are painted. It works really well so I took some over to our door. Jack gets greasy stuff on it all the time and the door is white so it is always looking dirty. Boy it cleaned it right up. I bought it to clean the kitchen cabinets because they look ghastly and I haven't been able to find anything that will clean them. They are white and it was really dumb for me to paint them white when we moved in here. I have to keep them for a few more years so I would like them to at least look decent. I have become am Ipad crossword puzzle junky lately. I bought one of these collections of easy, medium and hard puzzles and have enjoyed doing them. I play that darn Candy Crush Soda now because I have been stuck for months on the Candy Crush Saga and quit playing it.
Good Afternoon! It's a gloomy, foggy day in my neighborhood and has that damp chill feeling outside. I must admit the bell piece went better than I expected this morning. Practicing with the wine bottles helped! We went out for breakfast after church, I've read the paper, and went with Bob to the hardware store. While he looked for what he needed I looked at paint colors. We are sneaking up on the bedrooms ever so slowly! I'm thinking of using the same color for all four bedrooms.
"Gma," it will be nice to have Jay and his family living closer to you. Being a witness to that accident must have been awful! If nothing else shows how fast things happen. The pizza place sounds like a fun place for kids. I have been stuck on the same Candy Crush level for months. Someone whizzed right past me a couple of days ago. I think it's rigged on my game. I like Majong Towers and can usually move each day.
I need to pick up the clutter . . . again, and unload the dishwasher. Enjoy the rest of your day!
Steel Magnolias ~ #102
I have a little black bolero jacket to go with the orange dress.
I have heard goat soap is really good. What type of roast do you prefer? The last roast I bought wasn't very good, and Bob didn't think so either.
I haven't heard our official snow fall count. Bob thought 6 - 7" but with the drifts it's looks like a lot more. I guess more is on the way. I would like to take a quilting class. My "sister" is a quilter and has made beautiful things to give away. She had small quilt squares, at the wedding reception, for guests to sign instead of a guest book. She plans to make a wall hanging for the newlyweds.
I thought I had posted today but guess not. Beth and Will's anniversary is next week and I looked at the calendar wrong thinking it was tomorrow. 
I had their card ready and Bob took it to a nearby town so they would get it tomorrow. I've done several loads of laundry and have most everything put away. I've worked myself into a major stew over this stupid bell piece we are playing Sunday. I probably would have been more ok if I could have been at practice last week. It's long and page turns include continuous ringing which is tricky when trying to turn a page. To top it off one bell has a loose clapper and the other bell clapper is too tight. Ok, enough grumping for one night! 
Let us know when you fix something new.
Amazing how that happens when all the glitches are gone! Try putting a dish of vinegar out to take away a smell you don't like. I read that hint somewhere, Bob burned microwave popcorn (bag had a hole in it) the other night and it did stink. The vinegar worked. I really like the yarn colors and the pattern -- it will look so nice. I have the Valentine cards and need to get them addressed. Have a great time with your family. How's Kelly getting along?
The Sioux Falls kids do get MLK day off, but not the Sioux City kids. The problem is most places rent Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday and January/February are prime whale watching time. It seems like kids are taken out of school for vacations more often than when we were kids or our own kids were in school. I would think your glass door would be safety glass. My fur boys come running when I go out to get the mail and love to look out the door. Because it is away from the rest of the house, I never leave the inside door open because someone could come in and I wouldn't hear them. We live in a safe neighborhood but one never knows. We are also close to a main highway. I know you will have a great time with Jackson and the rest of your family!
78 degrees would be such a teaser after all of our below 0 days. We have rain turning to snow in the forecast but I don't remember for which day. I hope that's wrong!
I'm glad you enjoyed the evening with your family. It's too bad Jay lives so far away. Has he always lived in Indiana? We're going to Beth's next Saturday for the birthdays. I should have my card club cleaning pretty much done except for last minute touch ups which I can do on Sunday or Monday. Need to figure out food and dig out recipes to make a grocery list.