Catching Up

There are no excuses as to why I haven't been around here.  So I'll just start catching you up.

Valentine's Day was nice as Donald brought home tulips that were just about ready to bloom.  They were lovely:

I really love the container they came in.  Now, the tulips have come and gone.  Only thing left of them are the shriveled up stems that I need to cut off and put the bulbs away until next year.  Or, I can put them in the refrigerator for about six weeks and they will bloom again.  Maybe I'll do that. 

I don't know if I mentioned we have been, okay, not me so much except as a supervior, working on the inside of the motor home.  We started with just the tv cabinet because we had an old tv in there which worked just fine as long as the, oh, what's that box called that we all had to run out and buy for our old tv in order to watch it digital{?}, anyway, we had one in the motor home until it went ka-poop.  So, we were talking about getting a flat screen for it, therefore, we had to take down the cabinet the old tv sat in. 

That cabinet is gone now.  No tv there yet!  Then the shower was leaking so Donald tore the whole bathroom out including the floor and re-did everything.  He put self sticking tiles in the bathroom and I'm not at all happy with it.  He also put a floating floor down in the motor home which was left over from a room we did in the house and because he put a couple of staples in the floor where it met with the rug, it has separated a little.  Donald's not happy with that, but it doesn't bother me.  :)  Now, I've decided to take out all the carpet and just replace it all with the floating floor.  

New Bathroom Floor

Where the carpet and floor meet.

Here's the kitchen-I bought smart tiles at Home Depot to put on the wall behind the stove and sink

These are the tiles I chose.  Smart tiles are heat proof; sorta plastic, but they are peel and stick and you can cut them with scissors.  Easy

Here are the 'cracks' in the floor.  Floating floors are not suppose to be nails or staples because they 'float' but since Donald nailed down the rug with the floor it started to separate.  It really bothers him! LOL  I'm all for just filling in the cracks.

Renovation realities in the house--haha.  About a year ago our 1970's in wall oven gave up the ghost.  We had some problems with it in the past, but Donald was always able to get parts.  But, there comes a time when it is just vintage and parts can't be bought for it anymore.  We were slightly looking for a new oven when sales ads came out or when were in the stores, but the cheapest one we could find was $1, 399.00.  Wow.  Now, one day we were in Lowe's looking around when Donald came upon a stainless steel wall oven, display model, the last one of it's kind {so the sign said} for $876

.00.  Seriously?  Plus, we got 10% off that!  Here's some advice for anyone near our age..never, ever think you can remember measurements of anything in your home no matter how many times you measure it or how long you've lived in your home.  Haha.  The 'new' oven measured 29" opening and I was so sure that's what our old oven opening was.  So, as not to pass up a great deal we went ahead and arranged to have it sold to us (we didn't have the money at the time; had to come back next day); then when we got home, we measured the opening and it was a 26" opening!  Uh-oh.  Then we had to brain storm how we were gonna extend the cabinet in order to install the new oven.  Here's what we came up with:

You can see the lighter colored wood  under Donald's drill.  That's what we added.

On the left is the added wood.  Donald hasn't cut the the front 'bar' off yet.

I was pleasantly surprised the stain we had on the shelf in the basement matched really well with the rest of the cabinets.

Always a mess when renovating!

A bit blurry, but the opening is ready for the oven.

And here it is.  Thankfully, the cabinet hasn't fallen down! :)

I've made meatloaf in it and that's all I've done.  I need to go to the store and stock up on food!  

Next blog entry is gonna be about gardening.  Oh, I can't wait to get my plants in the ground or in containers.

Blessings!

Catching Up With Ya'll

My, oh my, how time flies by.  What have I been doing?  I don't really know.  Crazy.

I guess I do have a few things I'll share.  They aren't in any chronological order. 

I had some squash growing in my garden and decided to find a recipe on youtube.  I picked one that I thought would be good and easy, and it was when it came out of the oven, but reheating it wasn't so good.  Next time I will try a different recipe.  But here is the one I did make.  

Meghan's 28th birthday was the beginning of the month.  She was actually due to be born on August 12th, but she just didn't wanna be born then and she waited a long time -- Sept. 6th to be exact!

Donald took me out eat one night and we found this soda made by Coca Cola.  Never saw it before, so that was weird.  Did you know that Pepsi Cola Company makes a drink called Baja that is only exclusive to Taco Bell?  Anyway, here's that Inca Cola looks like:

To me it tastes a little like bubble gum.  I didn't ask Donald what he thought it tastes like and he didn't say.  Sometimes you just want something different.  

And, omgosh take a look at this.  Creepy.  Donald and I were on the side of our house when I spotted this.  It's getting to be spider season around here, but really!

What the heck kind of spider is that???  I've seen more and more of these around.  We live with woods around us, but living here for 35 years this is a new breed.  And these spiders are humongous!!  Please let them stay outside.  If I ever got one of these in my house.....can't even thing about it.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating Adam's birthday.  It's three weeks after Meghan's, but different years, of course.  

It's already started to get chilly here in Maryland.  Donald and I have had no vacation per se this year since he's having to go to the hospital every single day for treatment.  He has 3 weeks vacation he needs to take or he will lose.  I think once he gets back to work he's boss won't be happy to have him gone again.  I'm thinking maybe Donald can have four day work weeks until his vacation is used up.  The doctors are saying he might be able to go back to work next week.  I hope so.  Otherwise, he'll have to put in for SS disability.  {thumbs down to that}

I'm starting to think more about eating vegetarian..more fruits/vegetables.  I think if I can come up with some vegetable dinners I can slowly have a couple nights when we eat that and eliminate the meat.  I'll have to work on that.

That's all for now.

Blessings!

Catching Up..a bunch of stuff

This post is gonna be a few different things.  First, we went to the Baysox game last weekend.  Of course our team lost AGAIN! LOL  Oh well, we had fun. 





It was the last game of the year so no more baseball games until next year!

Next, it was dd's 26th birthday.  My cousin took us all out to dinner for her birthday.  That was so nice of her.  It's not often we can get together and talk and have dinner.

My ds is ALWAYS making funny faces

Dd, my cousin and me

Then we went to ds's house so dd could open her presents.

So yesterday morning my dd called me.  She told me that the car dealership just two miles down the street from me was underwater.  Shocking!  I get on the internet and start searching and sure enough most of my town is underwater.  I've lived here for 33 years and we've had a little flooding from the rivers here in town but never, ever nothing like this.

This is the County Administration Building

This is the main street in our town

This is the main highway Rt 301

This is the dealership just 2 miles down the street from me.  I'm just glad that we have a town in the opposite directions that we can get to.  So, within the last two months we've had an earthquake, a hurricane and now flooding.  So, what's next?