Exceedingly Mundane

Time for my weekly update as to what we did in the week past… boring, I know! But it helps me keep up with what’s going on 🙂

Last week we stayed pretty busy again. Wednesday, we met with the decorator who works with our builder, and spent pretty much the whole day picking out items for the house. First granite, then tile, backsplash, travertine for the master countertops, carpet, etc. Then fixtures, lights, fans, faucets, sinks, toilets, etc etc etc. Long day and I hope everything turns out ok. Tim picked the light fixtures for the foyer, dining room, breakfast room and the pendants over the island. He sees things better than I do, so I trust his judgement 🙂 We took the standard set of appliances that our builder uses. We picked out a fridge, but are probably going to end up getting it on our own from Lowe’s.

After we finished, in a nice soaking downpour, we met Kathryn and Katelyn in Clinton and brought Katelyn back with us, to stay till Friday. Katelyn got to pick what she wanted to eat and do while she stayed with us, so she picked pizza for supper Wednesday night. We all ate the pizza buffet at Pizza Inn near us, then went to check on the house. Katelyn was the first one to see some of the brick installed! They had the back screened in porch done, and some along the back. After the house, we ran by Lowe’s to look at refrigerators. We found one quite a bit cheaper than at the contractor’s place, which really surprised us.

Thursday was a busy day for Katelyn and I while Uncle Tim worked hard (he had a project going in this weekend, so had a lot of work to do on Thursday and Friday). I talked to Katelyn Thursday morning about what we were going to eat for lunch and dinner and found out she didn’t like those things! I thought all kids liked grilled cheese, but she vetoed that for lunch, so off we go to Kroger to stock up on things she liked to eat. We got hummus, carrots, Twizzlers, hamburger buns and meat, doritoes, cherries and a lot of other fruit. Aunt Stacy wanted to watch the USA play in the World Cup match, so we did that when we got home. After the soccer match (which we lost, 0-1 to Germany, but we’re still not eliminated!), we went to feed the ducks and geese. After that, we went to visit Aunt Suzanne and her cat Swatch. After that, we stopped at the library to get a new book to read at bedtime 🙂 Katelyn picked “Henry, the Dog with No Tail”, which was quite good! Katelyn watched some streaming kids shows while I fixed supper (Uncle Tim was at the golf course till dark) and we had supper. After a bath and the bedtime story, she got a good’s night sleep. She’s a very good houseguest 🙂 We stayed home on Friday and played games and Hayday on the ipad!

Friday night, we met Jeremy, Kathryn and Sam at Pizza Inn (yes, again, it was Katelyn’s pick and Sam was all for it, LOL!) and had supper. Suzanne came and visited with us while we all ate, then we all went to check on the house. Unfortunately, with the rain, they had not done anything since we were there Wednesday night, boo hiss. Jeremy, Kathryn and the kids visited till late, so it was great to see them and catch up.

Saturday was a busy day. Tim had an early tee time (7:20, so he left around 6:20) and shot a great round – he shot 71 at Lake Caroline! He had lunch with the guys he played with, and I had some fruit, carrots and hummus after he got home. I had spent the morning packing while he played golf. I got about 12 boxes packed and Tim helped me tape them up and get them stacked in the dining room, waiting for a trip to the storage unit. Tim went out to cut the grass, and it started raining before he was quite finished. I went out and helped for a while, picking up stuff he had trimmed and picking up golf balls in the back. We both got a bit damp (me, damp, Tim, soaked) 🙂 Saturday night we stayed in, and had leftovers (popcorn for me), homemade ice cream that I made and watched stuff on the DVR.

Sunday was church, brunch at Corner Bakery. Tim had a tee time for 2:30 with some buddies, but his parents had called Saturday late to say they were coming to town. So, I planned to go meet them for lunch and shop with the girls while the guys went to the new Harbor Freight. However, Tim’s buddies had other stuff come up too, so he ended up not going to play golf and went with me to meet his parents and Terry and Emi. They ate at Zaxby’s, while we visited with them. After that, we split up and the girls went to the mall and Tim, Terry and Mitchell went to the tool store. After the mall, the girls stopped at Walmart then we all met up at Sam’s. I had a few things to get at Sam’s so we shopped while Terry stocked up for the store. Emi had brought us tamales that her friend Rosie had made, so we had those for supper when we got home (along with guacamole that I made). We watched more stuff on the DVR and then Tim had to work starting at 11 PM.

Today is Monday and Tim has a busy day at work. We are supposed to go meet with the carpenter sometime today to go over the cabinets, closets, etc at the new house. It seems that the rain is going to stop for a few days, I think it rained every day last week, so I will have to get back into the habit of watering my flowers and herbs soon. Bummer. 🙂

Another recap of our weekend, that appears to be the only blogging I do these days! But at least that’s better than nothing. I used to blog daily, when I first started, and do lots of memes and questions and fun things. I think those things are mostly gone in blog-land, or are they still out there floating around? I used to do Menu Plan Monday and I know that one is still going strong. I am just not as good at coming up with a firm menu as I used to be! I’ve learned to be more flexible with food, especially during prime golf season!

Anyhoo, I digress. Last week was pretty busy, with Zack here early in the week, then Elizabeth came over one day to hang out and show us her new Macbook from school. Wednesday and Thursday, Tim worked on the deck, cleaning it and putting on more protectant (man, I’m going to miss my deck!) We went after work on Thursday to take a few boxes to the storage unit and also check on the house. Tim played some golf, I did some reading (just finished Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren and The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, both of which I loved!). The week flew by!

By the time Friday rolled around, we were ready for a weekend! Tim played golf after work and I made us a huge platter of nachos for supper. We both overate, but they were really good! Dessert was frozen chocolate/vanilla swirl yogurt. By the time Tim got in, it was too late for a movie, so we just watched TV shows from the DVR.

Saturday, he got up early for a 7:30 tee time. He was supposed to play 18 with a group, but he came in early, as one of the older guys in his group was dizzy and they were all afraid he was getting heat stroke, so they quit after 9. He was originally going to bring home Chick Fil A for him, me and Suzanne, but we shifted gears and called Suzanne to let her know. She came over and we all went to eat lunch at Majestic Burger. I got my regular fish sandwich (grilled mahi mahi on wheat), Tim got a chicken philly and we split onion rings. We also got the fried portobella bites to share with Suzanne, and I believe she got a big salad. It was all really good! We wanted to take Suzanne to see the house, but she had plans, so we went ourselves instead. The sheetrock was pretty much complete, there were 2 workers in there finishing up sealing the joints between sheets. The house next door that is nearly complete but not sold was having an open house, so I finally got to go look around. It’s a lot bigger than I thought, it’s two story, with a huge bonus room, bathroom and two large storage areas on the second floor. It’s about 200 or 300 more square feet, we thought, and Zillow lists the asking price at about 18,000 more than ours. So, hopefully we’ll have nice neighbors! Anyway, we looked at other houses in the area that are being built, and noticed that the other two lots by our builder down at the end of the street had sold, so he is completely sold out on our street. After we got home, we watched some tv and movies. Tim watched World War Z, streaming free on Amazon Prime, but I skipped that one to read my book. Then we both watched GI Joe:Retaliation, also on Amazon. I fixed us a healthy supper of panko baked cod and a big Caesar salad, since we had the two bad meals previously of nachos and Majestic.

Sunday was busy with church (still in the Characters who teach Character series, this week was Elijah) and then we went to brunch afterwards at Corner Bakery. Tim had a tee time of 3:05 but it started raining around 1 PM and he called at 2:15 to cancel. It stopped about 2:30 and then he and Braxton went to play 9 holes and practice at around 5 PM. I finished my book and worked on a pile of magazines while he was gone. After he got in, we had breakfast for supper, then watched the last 2 episodes of Crisis. I think that both Believe and Crisis were cancelled, which is a shame, we enjoyed those shows.

Now, it’s Monday and we’re back to the regular routine. We meet with the decorator on Wednesday, to pick out things for the house. Tim has to take another day of vacation, supposed to take the better part of the day. I’m sure this week will fly by, or at least I hope so! They are supposed to be starting on the brick for the house, so I’m hoping by this coming weekend, it will be fully bricked! Getting closer, but still a LONG way to go and I go back and forth, being anxious and not anxious to go ahead and move! LOL!

Last weekend flew by (again) and I never got a chance to blog about it. Time to catch up 🙂

Last Friday night, we went over to Suzanne’s new apartment for Tim to help with some stuff. He worked on the dryer (and we had to make a quick trip to Lowe’s) and was going to work on some of her electronics, tv/surround sound, but she was tired so we didn’t get started on that. She is settling in and I hope she is doing better. Sometimes hard to tell 🙂

Saturday was busy. I had originally thought that Tim would play golf, since he almost always does, but he said he wanted to get some other stuff done. We visited a long time outside with our neighbors, Rick and Sharon, whom we are going to miss horribly. We will see them at church, but it’s not the same as living next door to someone for 20+ years 🙁 Main objective of the day: We went and rented a storage unit to start moving stuff into. Tim cleaned out the garage for a while, loaded a pickup truck bed full of stuff, and we moved it into the storage unit. It’s near the new house, so of course… we had to go check on the house! We spent more time there than I would have liked – it’s still in the wiring stage, so right up Tim’s alley. But I can only look so long at electrical wiring, surround sound wiring, internet/ethernet cables, plumbing, etc. After that, we came home and I made a pizza using the items from the Fresh Market Big Meal deal that I had gotten on Thursday with Gail. (Did I blog about that? Gail and Don came down Thursday, so Tim and Don could play golf. Gail got her first visit to the house, then we went to Fresh Market and Marshalls and TJ Maxx. They left early Friday AM, like 5:30 AM!!). Anyway, the pizza was good and we watched either TV or a movie, I have already forgotten!

Sunday was a tough day, but turned out better than I had hoped. My first Father’s Day without my Dad. We went to church (where I teared up multiple times). Our pastor’s father (also a pastor) gave the message, part of the series we are in, Characters who Teach Character. This week was Abraham. Our pastor’s father is also celebrating 50 years of ministry, and had once been a pastor in our church, so it was a really nice, really moving service. After church, we changed clothes and headed to Tim’s parents house for the day. We got to visit all day with Tim’s parents, Terry, Emi, Brittany and Zack and also had lunch with Jackie, Stephanie, Tony, Ramsey, Tyler and the twins. The only ones missing were Mark, Amanda and the kids. We were so hoping they would come, since Tim took off work for Monday and Tuesday, as we were planning to bring Ethan home with us for a couple of days. Anyway, we stayed until dark and headed home, and Zack followed us back. He did stay and played golf both days with Tim.

Monday, I caught up on housecleaning and also did some cooking. I made banana bread and crockpot maple bbq chicken for sandwiches and fresh green beans that Linda had sent home with us (YUM!). Tim got Zack to help load up the treadmill and they took that to the storage unit, then played golf all day at Lake Caroline. After they came in around 5 PM, we had supper, and then headed to Malco to see “Edge of Tomorrow” with Tom Cruise. We all really enjoyed it!

Tuesday was another day of golf for Tim and Zack. They played twice out at Patrick Farms, then Zack headed home. Tim came in really tired and a bit sunburned, but he had a great time playing, so he was happy. We had leftovers for supper and caught up on more tv on the DVR.

Today, today is hump day and the time is still flying by. On one hand, it is and on the other, more dominant hand, the one that wants to move to the new house, time seems to be dragging! Several more months on the house. I’m ready for it to be done. Tim and Zack stopped by Monday and they had started on the insulation, including the special Pro Pink insulation we are adding to our custom build. They should finish insulation, do sheetrock and probably brick in the next 7-10 days, so it will look more like a real house then, no more studs showing! 🙂

Another uber busy weekend in the books! Not interesting for anyone else, but I like to record some of what is going on these days. Especially when we do fun things like go check on the house (our new big thing, LOL!) and we spend time with family and have such a good time!

I had thought Tim was going to go play golf on Friday after work, but he surprised me and said he wouldn’t go, so we could go check on the house and go out to eat. Such a sweetie pie! We went and checked on our house (Tim had been there the evening before to meet with the builder and electrician). I had not been since last Sunday, when Tim’s family came to see. From Sunday to Friday, they had made a lot of progress – the roof was finished, the front and back doors all installed, all windows have been installed, the two fireplaces are in, and the duct work done for the heating/ac system, which was also installed in the attic. We also went and looked at a couple of others houses further along, being built by our builder, to get an idea of fixtures, finished details, etc. We have to meet with the decorator soon to pick out a lot of things. Lots going on!

After we left the house, we were hungry and couldn’t decide where to go eat. We both decided that since we’d been good all week eating salads, we deserved to splurge and be bad, so we went to Pizza Inn for the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet! That’s something we hardly ever do, it has probably been 3 or 4 years or more since we’ve done that. I usually make pizza and every once in a while, we order or pick up pizza, but we never go to a buffet. Plus, I wanted to check and make sure they would deliver to our new house (they will), since I think we’ll be too far away from the Papa Johns we both love. After supper, we went to Dick’s to look for golf balls for Tim and ran into my old buddy Braxton. We talked to him for a long time, and it was good to see him and catch up on things. We were going to go check out the new Harbor Freight, but it was getting too late, so we went next door and ambled through Home Goods till they closed. So many things I want to buy for the house. Tim is like, you have to wait, I don’t want to buy more we have to move!!

Saturday, Tim had an early tee time with his buddies. After he got home (I had cooked lunch, but he brought us Chick-Fil-A home for lunch, as a surprise, along with a chocolate shake for us to split, do you notice a pattern of splurges!) and we ate, we got ready and headed out on more errands. We went to the new Harbor Freight they just opened near us. Tim had a blast, browsing and shopping, and after nearly 2 hours, I finally coaxed him into leaving. We went to the dollar store and TJ Maxx after that, and then, even though I had food cooked from lunch, we were out, we were hungry, so we stopped for supper! We went to the Papitos near TJ Maxx and had a huge meal. Tim ordered the Fiesta Dinner, which came out on two huge platters. I got the Baja Fish Tacos and they were really good! We took leftovers home, but haven’t had a chance to eat them yet.

On the way home, we called to talk to Mark and Amanda. They actually had been trying to reach us at home, to see if we had any photos of the church Tim and Mark grew up in, as they were having their 100th Anniversary on Sunday. So I spent several hours going through old photos and sending to them, and Mark worked all night on the slide show for the anniversary. Sunday morning, we got up and drove over to Tim’s family and we had the celebration at church for several hours. They read the 100 year history of the church, we visited with lots of family and friends (Tim had not seen a lot of these people in 20 or 30 years), we had lunch, then singing from two different groups. Kindred Spirits, which has Steven in it, and the Leaf River Boys, which has Tim’s Uncle Richard in it, playing the harmonica. After all the festivities at the church, we all went back to Linda and Mitchell’s and visited for several hours. Tim had brought his pistol and everyone took a turn firing it. I, of course, was the worst shot by far 🙂 Ethan had a shell casing come back and pop him in the face, so he had a nice bright red shiner to show for his first effort with a pistol! Brittany took me, Amanda and Abby down to see her new trailer. She’s so excited! It needs a lot of work and I asked her if it would be ready before our new house, and she said she wasn’t sure! It will get all new paint, all new floors and a lot of other work before she moves in. We stayed pretty late, then left and swung through Wendy’s for a late, late, late supper on the drive home. Obviously, WAY too much eating out this weekend, but that always happens when we stay so busy, always easier to pick up food while we are out running crazy. Tim and I are both pretty tired today, but we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend! (Note to self: no pictures here from the 100th anniversary at the church, I posted them on Facebook instead).

* I’m reading a free Kindle book, “Abducted” by Janice Cantore. The second in the Pacific Justice series. Read the first and enjoyed it, so thought I’d go ahead and read the second one. I also recently read two from my library’s website, the first two books in the slightly Amish themed series “The Inn at Eagle Hill” by Suzanne Woods Fisher. Was glad to find them at my library and get them for free. I also recently read the latest by Francine Rivers, “Bridge to Haven”, also from my library. Deciding what to read is the only problem I ever have. I think I have over 830 titles unread on my Kindle, a nice wish list at the library, Kindle Prime books I can borrow, etc etc etc. Finding time and selecting the book is the only real issue for me these days 😀

* I’ve started my annual summer watch-a-thon of the Harry Potter movies. Most of our shows have ended for the spring and even though we pick up a few shows in the summer on cable, I still have plenty of time to watch Harry and his friends. We are also re-watching several of the Marvel movies together lately… Tim and I have watched Thor, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers in the past couple of weeks

* I’m not cooking much. We had a ton of food last week leftover from our Memorial Day cookout, then Tim grilled burgers over the weekend. After all that meat (ribs, hot dogs and burgers), he decided he needed to eat lighter. So, Sunday he declared that this week would be salad week. We got some grilled shrimp at Sam’s, a big thing of lettuce, veggies and mushrooms, and have been having salads every night. Tim, bless his heart, tells me that he is losing a pound a day. Me, on the other hand, I’ve gained about .8 of a pound. Go figure.

* We started a new summer series at church. Looks like another good one, as always. The title is “Characters Who Teach Character” and focuses on patriarchs and figures from the Old Testament. Solomon and wisdom was the first week. This week will be Daniel, but we won’t be there to hear it. We’re going to Tim’s family’s church for their 100th anniversary celebration.

* The sun is shining today, for the first time in a while. We’ve had very unseasonable weather since Tuesday of last week (the day after Memorial Day). It has rained every day. I have so enjoyed not having to get out and water the grass, plants and flowers. I was very dismayed though, since they were framing the house (wood and water don’t mix in my mind) and then trying to get the roof on. The contractors know what they are doing, I suppose, so I’m not supposed to worry, Tim says 🙂

* I’ve packed about 10 boxes and still haven’t made a dent in anything. I want to pack more, but keep thinking, I will need that or use that or whatever. I guess the majority of the packing will have to be done in the last couple of weeks before we close.

* I’m not walking or exercising at all. Big fat slug. But it has been raining and I’m just not motivated.

* My sister and her husband celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this week! Congratulations to Don and Gail 😀

* On a snack kick lately of honey mustard pretzels. Cannot seem to eat enough of them. And my summer drink is an organic strawberry lemonade I found at Kroger. So good, I could drink a whole jar every day, but try to limit myself to one glass every day or so. Oh, and I still have chocolate every day, of some kind. Life is too short not to enjoy it 🙂

Ok, boring post, but it catches me up a little on what’s going on.