Exceedingly Mundane

tidbits of random nothingness

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Jul
06
Posted by Stace

Lazy Days and Sundays

Or at least, today is hopefully going to be a lazy Sunday!

Had another busy week, just to hit the highlights:

Monday, we met with the carpenter, his boss and our builder at the new house for a couple of hours. They asked more questions than I knew how to answer about the size, dimensions, placement etc of cabinets in the kitchen and master closet. I’m basically getting Tim to help with that! I liked the layout of cabinets in the other house we are basing our house on, so I was going by that. I really liked how the laundry room was laid out. When we got up there Monday afternoon, they had already started the laundry room and it was different. So, different is fine! Just make it efficient and give me as much space as you can! I did talk to the builder about adding me a small linen closet in the space outside the master suite. It will only be 14 inches deep, but hey, I’ll take it. Ok, I just now went and measured my cedar chest, the one my parents gave me on my Sweet Sixteenth birthday. It’s 13 1/2″ deep, so now I’m even happier. Will give me more space for extra pillows, blankets and the quilts from my grandmother and the one Tim’s Mamaw made for him that we sleep under every winter 🙂

Tim laid out the master closet, with two built in dressers and one shoe rack (that’s what the builder calls it, we called it shelving, LOL!). He went by the house a couple of days later and didn’t like the second built-in, so he had them take it out and go back to rod space. We’ll have to share that one built-in dresser and the shoe rack, but oh well. We’re used to sharing, as we are in such a small space right now. I will just be really happy for a place to put my purses and all of his golf hats! LOL!

Wednesday, I got my haircut and ran errands. I still miss my dad every time I go for a haircut, as I always, always, without fail, went to see him on those days, when he was living here in the assisted living place. I’ve been thinking about him and my mom so much these days, since they helped me buy this house, and raised me in one house all my life. Bittersweet, that’s our key word.

Thursday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen, and Friday we went to Mount Olive to Tim’s Aunt Becky’s house for the annual Fourth of July get-together. Had a great time, as always. This year, I finally got my camera back out and took a lot of photos. That nostalgia stuff with missing my parents and moving out of this house that I’ve lived in for 21 years is till going strong, so I want to take a lot of photos of family at all times of the year, especially holidays. I posted a lot of them on Facebook, so I won’t post any here.

Biggest news that day – Brittany and David got engaged the night before! We’re so excited for them 🙂

After we got back on Friday, Tim went to Lowe’s and bought a new refrigerator for the new house. I had picked out a Whirlpool Gold french door style to match all the new appliances. We were originally going to get it at the builders supply place where everything else is coming from. But Lowe’s was having a sale through the holiday weekend, and it was 800 off regular price, and 400 less than what they quoted us at the contractor place. So Tim talked to them and they are going to order it, and store it until we move in September. How awesome is that?! I had no idea Lowe’s would do that. Tim went ahead and got an extended warranty on it, just in case. He also went for his main purpose -to buy a load of lumber to rebuild the fence.

We started on that Saturday morning. He tore down the old fence at our current house, and had bought posts and concrete to redo those, but decided to go with the ones already in place, as they look fine. He hung all the 2×4’s and then started on the dog ear boards. He got the front done, but we have all the back and Rick and Sharon’s side left to do. He is playing golf today (Sunday), since he doesn’t work on Sundays, but says he won’t play golf again until the fence is done! So, WOW, I will see a lot of him for the next few days, hahaha!

We were both exhausted last night by the time we stopped at dark and picked up all his tools. I was already sore and hurting, and today is no better. I’m just no good with manual labor! I’m so glad we’re having everything contracted out at the new house and there are no DIY home improvement projects on my horizon. Tim loves them, but me, eh, I do not. Anyway, we went to church, then for a late breakfast/brunch at Waffle House, then stopped by Kroger for milk and produce. Now, Tim is playing golf and I’m trying to be lazy! (Note for reference, the Lake Caroline clubhouse burned yesterday, July 5th, big loss). Been shredding old papers, stuff from the 90’s and 2000’s. I’ve shredded two full garbage bags so far, so I think I’m done for a bit! Need to still go through more magazines, I’ve got a huge pile left. And most of the house left to pack, but today, I think today I’m going to take it easy. 😀

Update: Tim called about 6:30 and happily reported that he shot his lowest score ever, a 70 at Lake Caroline! He was so happy and said all he wanted to celebrate was a burger at 5 Guys! LOL! I didn’t want to eat that bad, but he was so giddy, that I couldn’t turn him down. So we had a nice dinner at 5 Guys to celebrate!

Feb
03
Posted by Stace

Away from the blog…

Yes, I’ve been away from my old blog for another long while. I miss it sometimes, but just never seem to think about sitting down and writing a blog entry.

I needed to look something up again, today, so of course I turned to my blog. It is great for looking back to see what we did, where we went, what we bought, etc. I miss that, and the interaction with my blog friends who used to come by and visit regularly, the most.

Anyway. I was reading some old entries and found it interesting to read about tv shows we watched, books I had read, meals I had cooked, etc. I thought I’d do a little of that right now:

I’m still using GoodReads to keep up with the books I read. Last year (2012), I read a total of 94 books, which is probably the second most since I’ve been keeping track of how many books I read per year. This year, I hope to read at least 60-70. So far, I’m off to a good start. I’ve read 6 so far this year:

1. The Homecoming by Dan Walsh (sequel to The Unfinished Gift, which I read right before New Years)
2. The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen
3. A Time to Love (Quilts of Lancaster County #1) by Barbara Cameron
4. The Negotiator (O’Malley #1) by Dee Henderson
5. A Time to Heal (Quilts of Lancaster County #2) by Barbara Cameron
6. False Pretenses by Kathy Herman

Almost finished with The Girl in the Gatehouse, also by Julie Klassen. Not sure what I’ll read next.

Tonight is the Super Bowl. We’re not having a party this year. We had them regularly until 2009, the year the Saints went to, and won, their Super Bowl. We haven’t had one since and I’m ok with suspending them. A lot of food, a lot of people, and you never really get to watch the game and commercials with a house full of adults and kids. They were fun, don’t get me wrong, but I think I’ve just moved on from having them.

Tim and I will watch the game tonight, just us. I’m not rooting for either the San Francisco 49’ers or the Baltimore Ravens. I’m just glad the Super Bowl is in New Orleans. Wish the Saints had not had “Bountygate” all year and had made it. Maybe next year 🙂 We were going to do ribs in the smoker, but Tim decided that would make a lot and have a lot left over. So, he’s going to grill a few brats, and we’ll have those with sauerkraut, some home fries and salad. He’s still doing his healthy eating thing. He’s down 16 pounds since he started in December and looks really trim to me 🙂 He was doing P90X daily until he hurt his leg, jogging with Beau last week.

My shoulder is still hurting. I’m trying to do some stretching exercises and procrastinating on going to see the doctor. Boo.

Ok, enough updating for now. Maybe more later, maybe not 🙂

Jul
05
Posted by Stace

July 4th

Another year, another 4th of July celebration in the books. This makes the 17th year that we’ve gone to Tim’s family get-together on the Fourth. Well, except for maybe 2 years, we were on vacation and didn’t make it those times. His mom’s siblings and their families and friends all get together, and it’s Tim’s favorite time to go visit his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We always have a great time going. It’s held at his Aunt Becky’s house, and she has a pool, so the kids love going. We’ve never stayed until late, but I’ve always wondered if they do fireworks 🙂

We left before lunch to drive down. I made my mom’s lemonade cake this year to take. I always take a dessert, it travels better, I think 🙂 There was tons of food. Tim’s uncles and even Terry get together early on the day to grill up a ton of chicken, and it’s always delicious. This year, there seemed to be even more veggies than usual. Everyone’s gardens must be doing well!

After we got home, I had expected Tim to head to the golf course, but he surprised me and stayed home. We watched a lot of tv and just hung out inside, in the air conditioning! We got a short rain shower in the early evening – the first rain we’ve had in at least 3 weeks. I’m hoping for more soon 🙂 Someone in our neighborhood started shooting off fireworks (don’t they know it’s banned in our city and has been for over 20 years?!), and of course, it upset Beau. He does NOT like fireworks, he starts barking furiously.

It’s always weird when a holiday falls in the middle of the week. It was back to work for Tim, and back to a normal routine for me, on this Thursday. Gosh, I hope Christmas is not in the middle of the week this year, I better go look that up! 🙂

Aug
22
Posted by Stace

Recap

This has been a busy weekend! Lots of good stuff though 🙂

– Date night Friday night was an in-house date. We went and picked up some fast food and then watched a Harry Potter movie (#3, Prisoner of Azkaban)

– Saturday morning – Tim played in the church golf tournament. I went walking with Beau and my neighbor and we walked a longer route than normal (3.25 miles).

– Late Saturday morning – I went and picked up my mother-in-law Linda and our niece Brittany, and we had a girls day out. We went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Kohl’s. We picked out a ton of cute new clothes for Brittany for school and I even splurged and got 2 new sets of scrapbook stickers at Hobby Lobby. GOLF ones for Tim and birthday ones. I showed considerable restraint by not buying more, they were 50% off! We all went out to eat at one of my favorite places for lunch – Corner Bakery. I had the Chicken Pomodori panini and fruit, delicious 🙂

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Jan
04
Posted by Stace

A New Year

Happy New Year and here’s to a wonderful 2010! I hope to keep up with the blog, at least some, in the new year. I had a couple of long breaks in 2009, and missed out on “documenting” some of the things we were doing, and things going on. I hope that I can do a little more of keeping up in the new year.

I won’t go back and blog about Christmas, although it was a good one. We had three Christmases – one at home for me and Tim on Christmas Eve, one at my sister Gail’s with her family and my dad on Christmas Day, and one on the next day (Saturday) with Tim’s family. We had a great time seeing everyone and hanging out. We brought our nephew Zack (14) back with us on Saturday and he stayed several days. Tim took him to play golf, we took him out to eat every day (bad for the waistline, but nice not to have to cook or clean up much!), we went to see Sherlock Holmes, and we played a lot of Wii!

I fell short of my reading goals for the year 2009. I only read 59 books which is not a lot for me. I think I also failed to blog at all about any book during the year. I have been doing updates and “blurbs” (not reviews, I am not very good at writing reviews of books) over at GoodReads, so hopefully if you are a reader too, we are hooked up over there. I didn’t complete either reading challenge that I joined, although I was close, just one or two books short. I won’t join any this year, I think, but just read for the sheer pleasure of it. 🙂

We’re trying to get back into a routine, after the holidays and Tim having a week off from work. Routine is a good thing for me. I thrive on it and suffer when I get out of my schedules and routines.

The weather outside is frightful! Or delightful, depending on which camp you’re from 😀 I love the cold weather, but only when I get to stay inside, have the heat running, drink hot tea or hot cocoa, and bundle up under my favorite afghan, LOL! The highs this week are predicted to not go out of the 30’s and 40’s, so that is cold for us, definitely winter. I always appreciate my creature comforts more during weather like this!

Hope everyone had a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year – here’s to a great 2010 for all!