Exceedingly Mundane

Another week down, at least we’ve finally pushed through July and are into August. September cannot get here soon enough for me! 🙂 Sensing a theme to these weekly posts, LOL!

Let’s see, by the time the weekend gets here, I can rarely remember what I did earlier in the week. Oh, this was a week with a lot going on with my sister Suzanne. I spent several hours with her on Monday, trying to get her up and out of bed and then she called and got an appointment with an outpatient intensive therapy treatment. I went with her Tuesday morning to the evaluation interview. I stayed with her while she filled out paperwork, till the counselor came to get her, then let her take it from there. She started on Wednesday and came over most every day this week. She borrowed our truck on Friday to move some stuff to her storage unit, and also had a bad night that night. We saw her today after church, had lunch at Corner Bakery. I hope next week gets better for her.

Tim had another busy (aka bad) week at work. He worked late most every day and also at night late (think, 11 PM or midnight) a couple of nights. He only got a chance to play golf one day, on Thursday. After Suzanne borrowed our truck Friday afternoon, he worked till about 6:30 PM, then we went to check on the house. They started painting and have most of the first coat sprayed on most of the surfaces (ceilings, walls, cabinets, etc). They have the outside painted, the cedar parts and also the eaves and door frames around the garage doors. The builder warned us that the painting will probably take 2-3 weeks, but in looking back, the cabinets took 3-4, so I guess that’s ok 🙂 Friday night, we stayed at the new house till nearly dark, then swung by Krilakis for a late supper. I had the regular, lamb gyro with Greek salad. Tim let me snatch two of his french fries 🙂

Saturday, he got up early and went to play in a golf tournament with the church. They played out at The Refuge and Tim and his group came in second! He won a gift card to Lowe’s, which definitely comes in handy right now 🙂 After he took a good nap, he started prepping and then painting up front in our current house. He finished the guest bathroom cabinets and baseboards last week, so started on the front bedroom and hallway. We have furniture all over the house, along with stacks of boxes that need to go to the storage unit. It’s lovely around here right now 😀

Sunday, we went to church, where we wrapped up the summer series on Characters who teach character. Today our regular pastor spoke on Samuel. He pointed out something I had never noticed, that the Bible never says anything bad about Samuel! He talked about his unconditional surrender and devotion and it really struck a chord with me. We will start a new series next week, I guess, they didn’t mention what the topic would be. School starts back this coming week, so the church and life groups will have a new start as well.

We came home after church and waited on Suzanne, and then went to a late lunch with her at Corner Bakery. Tim had pancakes, Suzanne had a scrambler and I had a half panini (California grille, a vegetarian one) and mixed greens salad. I made soft tacos and beans last night, and think I’ll do eggs and breakfast food tonight. Still working on cleaning out the freezer and pantry. It’s hard for me not to buy stuff to replace what I’m using. I’ll have a huge shopping trip once we move and I have the new fridge and pantry. Looking forward to that!

It’s late afternoon Sunday and Tim just left to play golf with Corey at Patrick Farms. Corey flies back from North Carolina every month or two to work and play golf with Tim 🙂 I’m not sure how much golf he’ll get to play this week, so I hope he enjoys today! We’ve got a lot of work to do with the painting, blinds, trying to find a realtor, getting insurance stuff worked out and probably going to pick out hardware. Also, we have to attend a therapy session for Suzanne and I have to get my hair cut this week. I prefer it busy right now though, more to do makes the time go by faster. I’m ready for August to zip by and be ready to move in early September sometime!

Another week down, closer to having the house finished! That can’t come soon enough for me 🙂

Let’s see, the week was fairly quiet. I did housework and normal stuff on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday after work, Elizabeth stopped by and we took a pickup bed full of boxes to the storage unit, then took Liz to see the house for the first time. Wednesday, Suzanne stopped by for a visit.

Thursday, I had returns to make to a few stores. Then, Gail came and brought Sam and Katelyn back to their house, they had been staying with her since the weekend. She came here and we went shopping and to run errands. We ran by Marshall’s and TJ Maxx and bought a couple of small things. Then we stopped at Big Lots and actually found some food items, I was pleasantly surprised at what a large assortment of Bob’s Red Mill products they had. I’ll have to remember to go back there after we move and stock up on a few things. After that, we went over to see Suzanne’s apartment, as Gail had not had a chance to visit her there. We hung out a while, then ran by Fresh Market to get the Thursday Meal Deal. This month’s (July) deal was cheeseburgers. We got 4 burger patties (2 beef, 2 turkey), brioche rolls from the deli, cookies, coleslaw, and slice cheese. Next month’s deal is supposed to be noodle bowls, I’ll be interested to see what all that entails.

Gail spent the night and then headed out Friday. I ran to Kroger and did a big grocery run. Tim did not play golf all weekend, which is very odd. Saturday, he decided to stay here and work on the house. We’re down to the wire to get things fixed up around here to put our current house on the market, before we move to the new house. He cleaned up outside, washed down the siding and doors, painted around the front and back doors and also washed the gutters. I did some packing inside, in the master bedroom closet.

Sunday, I got up and was nearly ready for church when Tim came in the bathroom and said “I do NOT feel good, I can’t go to church”. Which for Tim to say, means he is near death’s door 🙂 He stayed home all day and rarely left the couch. Now, today (Monday) he is even worse with a stomach bug, but is working. Suzanne came over Sunday afternoon and stayed for several hours. She had a setback and is very upset. I went over to her apartment today (Monday) and tried to get her up and out of bed at lunchtime. She is not eating and is very depressed. Before I left, she called and got an appointment at an outpatient counseling place across town, and is hopefully going to be accepted and start a 6 or 8 week intensive outpatient therapy regimen. She is really struggling and we’re doing our best to help her.

We should be contacting a realtor soon, to list the house, which means we’ll shift into an even higher gear. I am going to have to clean more around here, bummer! And have things presentable at a moment’s notice, I suppose. I’m just itching to get a final date on the house and proceed straight to the moving phase 🙂 We ran up to the house yesterday with Suzanne and they had everything prepped for painting but had not started. They had, however, stained the outside doors and they looked really good.

Another week down, wonder how many to go before we have a closing date! At least July is almost over. Oh, and Saints training camp started, so that is wonderful news, LOL!

I’ve posted many times in the past, probably every July and August, about how these are always the two hardest months of the year for me. When I worked full-time, I rarely took vacation during this time, and it was a long time between July 4th and Labor Day. Now that I’m not working, Tim is but plays golf all summer (and we rarely go on vacation this time of year), and the heat is so bad (although this year not NEARLY as bad as normal), the two months of July and August always seem interminably long. And this year is no exception, and probably even worse, since we are trying ever so hard to patiently wait for them to finish with building our house!

We check on the house every week. Tim, usually 2-3 times a week, me usually once or maybe twice. He comes away uber-excited and pumped up. Me, I get dejected that they don’t seem further along and there seems to be *so* much left to do 🙂 It helps that we’ve been taking pictures every step of the way, and sharing them on an IOS photo stream for family, so I can look back to May when it was just dirt, then foundation, then framing and see just how far they HAVE come. But still 😀

We logged another week in the books. Tim and our neighbor Rick finished up the gates and the fence work, so that is now done. It looks really great. I teased them both that we should hire them out, they do really good work 🙂 Tim had a rough week at work, having to work late a couple of nights and having some really bad days where he was chasing problems and on conference calls pretty much the entire day. I hope next week is a lot better for him.

On Wednesday, Kathryn, Katelyn and Sam dropped by after work for Sam to come stay with us, just like his big sister did a couple of weeks ago 🙂 Sam and I had fun, when we spent time together. He was mostly happy to take his mom’s ipad, go in his room, close the door and binge-watch cartoon “movies” or tv shows from Netflix. He could do that hours at a time, unless he got hungry. He never seemed to get bored! If we tried to read a book (he did NOT want to do that!), watch something together on tv or play the Wii together, he got bored in about 8 minutes flat! LOL! We went to the library and got books for bedtime stories, had dinner at Newk’s (HIS choice, surprisingly!) on Wednesday night with Uncle Tim, and then went to check on the house. Sam had a ball playing in the mountain of sawdust in the garage, LOL! Thursday, Aunt Liz came over for a late lunch, then we went to Sam’s Club and Kroger to pick up some things that Sam likes to eat (chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, chocolate chip waffles, strawberries). We ran into Aunt Suzanne in the grocery, which was nice. Aunt Liz stayed for supper and waited for Uncle Tim to finish work late, so he could work on her vehicle when he finished. She was long overdue for an oil change 🙂 It was good to get to see her, and we look forward to seeing more of her as she winds down summer vacation and gets ready to get back to teaching in August. Sam watched a lot of Netflix on Friday, since it pretty much rained all day. His parents and Katelyn came by after work on Friday and we all visited for a while then went to eat. At Newk’s again, Sam’s choice 🙂 He seems to like their free breadsticks and cheese pizza.

Saturday, Tim had an early morning tee time and then stopped by to check on the house again. They are still finishing up cabinets and building the island and his vanity for his bathroom by the office, also known as one of the guest baths. He spent some time helping me visualize the kitchen and layout and where things might go after he got home. I’m still struggling with the difference in cabinets and drawers at the new house, versus what I have here, where it’s located and how I use it. It really helped when he tried to help me see it and work things out in my mind, but it will really just be after we move and get things unpacked and try to live in the space, before it’s actually going to click for me, I think. One of my big failings, I just can’t visualize things until I actually *do* them.

Today is Sunday, so church. Another good service in the same series, Characters who Teach Character. Guest speaker Floyd Vanderbergh, with Strategic Impact and also a member of our church. He spoke on Gideon and his experience from the book of Judges, good sermon. Afterwards, we ran by Kroger, since we were completely out of milk and almost out of bread. I’ve been trying to use more of what i have here, but still need milk, bread, juice, eggs and lots of produce 🙂

Tim is going to play golf later, and right now he is happily watching recorded British Open coverage on the DVR. I saw online today that there are 7 more Sundays until Saints regular season football begins. I cannot wait!

In other news, Tim’s parents left Monday morning on a cross country trip. They’ve been to Memphis, St Louis, Dodge City Kansas, Mesa Verde Colorado and are driving through Nevada today, headed to the redwoods in California. They’re having a great time, I think!

On the home front, I’m going to try to cook more from my pantry and freezer this week. Tonight (Sunday) we are going to have breakfast food. I don’t have anything nailed down, but am tentatively planning meals this coming week of hot italian sausage sub sandwiches one night, salads, oven bbq chicken with coleslaw and baked beans. I probably won’t get to the crockpot red beans and rice (with sausage), maybe next week on that one. And I have a package of frozen ravioli that I am going to use soon. As I’ve warned Tim, I’m spending less at the grocery right now, which is counter-intuitive to what is going to happen – that I’m going to spend a lot more re-stocking things after we move, when we have less cash to work with. But, oh well!

I finished a library loan book yesterday, the latest by Dee Henderson entitled “Undetected” about a US Navy submarine captain and a genius young lady in the field of sonar. Good book, and now I’ve got another library loan, “Missing You” by Harlan Coben. I don’t read a lot of fiction that is not Christian, but he is one I do enjoy. Not sure what I’ll read after that… We’ve got some stuff to watch on the DVR, since we didn’t watch much while Sam was here and Tim has been busy since Thursday watching British Open coverage.

OK, that’s it for another boring weekly update! 🙂 Hope everyone out there (if anyone is actually out there reading this!) is having a great week and weekend 😀

Some more random questions! I’m slowly trying to work out (in my poor head!) where I’m going to put things in the new house. I’ve lived in my current house 21 years and I can’t seem to figure out where things will go in the new house. So, I have some questions about where YOU put things in your own home!

1) Where do you store onions and potatoes?

2) Do you keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom and the kitchen? Or just have in one space and move around as you clean?

3) Do you keep your jewelry in the bedroom, bathroom or a closet?

4) Do you store spices next to your stove?

Sandra, over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, posted this meme. Even though she didn’t tag me specifically, I thought I’d play along 🙂

Aprons – Y/N If Y what does your favorite look like?
Yes, I have a grand total of one! Red, with an embroidered “S” on it, that my sister Gail made and gave to me for Christmas a few years ago. I love it! 🙂

Baking – Favorite thing to bake?
Cookies or brownies, but I love to bake everything. Oh, and bread, does that count?! 🙂

Clothesline – Y/N
I don’t have one, but the house I grew up in had one. I wish I did, but the house we are at doesn’t have room in the backyard, and I don’t think it is allowed either here, or the neighborhood where we will be moving soon. Both have pretty strict covenants

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No. And I haven’t added that to my culinary bucket list… yet!

Everyday – One homemaking thing you do everyday?
Making the bed. Some kind of dishes or unloading the dishwasher.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes. A small one out in the garage. It’s an older one with a manual defrost and I’ll be very happy one day to get a bit larger one, but mostly, a frost-free one!

Garbage Disposal – Y/N
Yes

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
My recipes file – I have a personal recipe software program on my computer, and the recipe database I maintain on our website (here)

Ironing – Love it or hate it?
I don’t like it, but will do it rarely, when the need arises. I don’t find that need very often!

Junk drawer- Y/N – Where is it?
I have two in the kitchen right now. Not sure how that is going to translate to the new house. Probably one in the kitchen and one in my desk drawer in the hall

Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme?
Current house – yellow and red. The new house is a very open plan and will have beige most everywhere, with a speckled brown/black/white granite on the island and countertops. Island will be black. For now, I’ll keep my red accents (towels, rags, potholders, etc) until I can afford to replace them. And then, I don’t know what color scheme I’ll go with… could always use suggestions!!! 🙂

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Making a house feel like our home. Having it be comfortable and cozy. Making everyone feel welcome. Cooking to feed and nourish our bodies. Lots of things 😀

Mop – Y/N
I have a steam mop that I use on the tile. I try not to use it on the laminate, I have a spray that I use, with a rag, on my hands and knees. I’ll have to find out from the builder how to care for the floors at the new house. I think most of the house is pine, will need cleaning instructions!

Nylons – Wash by hand or in washing machine?
I haven’t worn them in years, but when I did, I just wash them by hand and hang them up in the bathroom. Classic!

Oven – Do you use the window to check on things or do you open the door?
Now that I have a nice new stove (sniff sniff, hate leaving it behind, but glad for more new appliances), I use the window.

Pizza – What do you put on yours?
On homemade, it’s usually pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, red onion and cheese. When we order, I usually get a Hawaiian pizza and Tim gets a supreme

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Read!

Recipe Card Box – Y/N
Yes, I still have one with some pretty old battered recipe cards. I use it often!

Style of house
Hmmm, no idea! Both our current one (21 years old) and the new house are very similar to other houses in their respective neighborhoods. There’s a certain style to brick houses here. The new house is very open though, which we love 🙂

Tablecloth and napkins – Y/N
I either use a tablecloth or runner on the kitchen table. I will eventually, in the distant future, get a dining room table at the new house and I guess I’ll use either a tablecloth or place mats. I only have a few cloth napkins, just for show. We use paper napkins!

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Fairly well organized. I hope the new house is the same! Looking forward to having the sink in the laundry room, where I can store a lot of cleaning supplies in there.

Vacuum – How many times per week?
One on a schedule, daily or as needed the rest of the week

Wash – How many loads per week?
Hmm, without Beau, it probably averages 5-6, depending on the time of year

X’s – Do you make a daily to do list and check it off as you do things?
No, I just know what I want or need to do each day. If there’s something special going on, a get-together or holiday or party or something, I make lists for that, but not on a day-to-day basis

Yard – Y/N – Who does what?
Tim does most all of the yard work. I cut grass maybe once or twice a year if he needs help. I do plant flowers and herbs, but he does the regular maintenance stuff

Zzz’s – What is the last homemaking task you do for the day before you go to bed?
Clean up the kitchen

OK, some Exceedingly Mundane random and assorted questions for today:

1) What is the price of milk where you live?

2) When was the last time you printed out a photograph?

3) What’s a movie or TV show you are liking or have enjoyed recently?

4) Do you have an area in your house that has clutter? Something that piles up on you, like mail or dishes or laundry or receipts?

5) How much is gas where you live?

That’s basically the update for this past week: Tim and our neighbor Rick have been rebuilding fences. 🙂

Let’s see, this past week Tim did not play golf once. He played last Sunday, but has not played again. He and Rick worked on our fence and then Rick’s. They have all the 2×4’s up, all the fence boards up now and are working on gates (2 each).

Wednesday at lunch, we drove out to check on the house. Still working inside on cabinets and trim, putting up crown moulding and they had started on the inside brick. Friday afternoon, we got some rain showers around 4 PM, so Tim and Rick decided to take a break. We went back to check on the house, then went out to eat (Chinese buffet!) and to Harbor Freight. At the house, they had finished the inside brick, both the keeping room fireplace and the arch going from the great room into the kitchen/keeping room. They had the outside shutters built, but not installed. I’m hoping for garage doors, driveway and things like that soon. I am hoping they can do some outside stuff while the carpenters are still busy inside. Oh, and Friday evening, they had started on my screened-in back porch! Yippee!

Friday, I ran errands most of the day. I went to Kroger, to Harbor Freight (for a gift card) and the post office and also to Sam’s. Suzanne met me at Sam’s and got a whole cart full of stuff! I hope she has room to store it all 🙂 She also filled up her Toyota with gas.

Saturday was a work day around here. Tim and Rick started around 7:30 AM and finished up about 7:45 PM. I worked some in the attic in the morning (the only time it’s bearable up there), and threw down some stuff to take to the storage unit, as well as some stuff I dragged to the curb for the garbage to pick up. I found my old footlocker and got even more nostalgic and misty-eyed. 🙂 I’ve had that blue footlocker since I was a pre-teen or teen, and it contains papers from my childhood all the way through college.

Sunday was church (guest speaker from a church plant in New Orleans, but still on the same series, Characters who teach Character). The speaker used Jehosheba from 2 Kings 11, who saved the baby Joash from the queen mother Athaliah, who killed all of her grandsons after her son Ahaziah had died. Jehosheba saved the royal line of David, thereby keeping God’s promise, and showed tremendous courage. So this week’s character trait was courage, good sermon 🙂

After church, we stopped by Corner Bakery, but the line was out the door (we were late, had stopped to visit and chat after church), so we went to Walmart instead. I had to get some color safe bleach, mouthwash and I got 2 totes to store stuff from my footlocker in the attic. Since Tim had been working so hard on the fence all week and not playing golf, I told him to pick where he wanted to eat, so of course, he picked Dickey’s BBQ! I have a new plan of action for there, to stay away from some of the meat. I tried a baker (potato) this time and plan to try the Smokehouse Salad next time. I’m still eating pretty bad, but maybe not as much red meat and cholesterol for me. I got the pork tangler potato. Huge baked potato with pulled pork and fried onion strips on top, it was extremely tasty! After our free ice cream, I got Tim to walk next door to Home Goods. I had wanted to look for an Oxo container to store my flax in (I got a HUGE bag at Sam’s, and need something to parcel it out into). I couldn’t find the size I wanted, so I got a glass jar with green lid instead, cute for my new pantry! 🙂

Sunday, we got a rain shower around 1:45, so that sealed it for Tim, he was really too tired to play golf he said. I thought he might cave and go, but after the rain, it was a bit soggier and a lot more humid, so he decided to stay home and rest. After a couple of good naps for him, we rented “NonStop” with Liam Neeson from Amazon video. Good movie! Then we watched an old movie I had recorded on the DVR, the last Twilight one. Then we cleaned up a few tv shows. Oh, and we tried Extant this week on the DVR, the summer sci-fi show with Halle Berry. Tim is on the fence with it, but I sorta liked it. We’ll see how it goes and if we keep up with that one or not.

Now, it’s another Monday and I need to be cleaning house, but I’m very unmotivated. It is hard with boxes and junk everywhere. But we need to get things cleaned up, Tim wants to list the house soon and I dread having to have it ready to show at a moment’s notice. I also hate that he will have to figure out where to go to work if the realtor wants to show it during the day, but that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it 🙂 First, he has to finish the gates and call the fence “done” 😀

Oh, and for food, I made pork fajitas last week, chili dogs, and then we ate out Chinese buffet Friday night. Saturday night I made veggie quesadillas. Sunday we had Dickie’s for lunch, then popcorn with the movie, then Tim made us homemade salsa for supper (I was going to do breakfast food, but he said he was fine with just salsa and chips). Tonight I’m making meatless stuffed peppers and a salad, and I will probably do fried rice and potstickers later this week.

Well… I certainly do ramble about nothing! Not much to report, but there’s another week in the books. One week closer to them finishing the house and us being able to move! I’m so antsy and ready for them to just be done already 😀

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!

Not a weekly update but a random sampling of items in my head…

* The rice trick with wet electronics really works. We had never had a reason to try it until I dropped one of the house cordless phones into a sink full of dish water last night. Sigh. I’m SO clumsy. It really bothers me. Luckily, Tim took out the battery, dried out the unit, we put it all in rice overnight and it’s working fine this morning.

* There are squirrels are all over my bird feeder. Now, this is notable because I also have a squirrel feeder on the other end of my yard. Granted, it is currently devoid of eat-able corn, but still. I miss Beau, he was my squirrel hunter. And apparently, I need to investigate getting a squirrel proof bird feeder.

* I haven’t been doing Menu Plan Monday, but thought I’d post what we had this week. I’m on a mission to clean out some stuff from the freezer and pantry. Less to move! This week:

Monday – l had a BEC (bacon egg and cheese) and Tim had a BLT with the one and only tomato he will probably get from his plant. It’s nearly dead 🙁
Tuesday – pork fried rice with homemade pink sauce and potstickers
Wednesday – Crockpot chicken and artichokes over penne pasta, caesar salad
Today (Thursday) – turkey sloppy joes, Harry&David dip with crackers, chips & fruit
Friday – eat at the family reunion (I’m taking crunchy asian slaw and chocolate chip cookies, gotta get in the kitchen this afternoon)
Saturday and Sunday are undecided, but I might make chili dogs for Tim

* Had another Pinterest FAILURE. I made a coffee creamer with sweetened condensed milk that I pinned, and I did NOT like it. Poured almost all of it down the drain this morning. I hate wasting, but I just didn’t like it.

* I had a good time watching the World Cup this summer, Team USA made it to the quarterfinals but lost on Monday to Belgium, such a heart-breaking game. Haven’t watched any Wimbledon, and Tim is looking forward to the British open (golf)

* Tim is drinking tea now at home and no Coke Zero… yeah! We used to buy cases of Coke Zero at Sam’s Club, and he’s now gotten off of them almost totally, at least at home. I think he gets Cokes out at the golf course, and I know if we go out for burgers or pizza, he gets one, but he’s doing MUCH better!

* And lastly, I’m a basil killer. Every year. Every.Single.Year. My plant starts out great and then once they start flowering, they go downhill fast. Now, it rained every day last week and I think my basil got too wet, it looks horrible. Half the stems are dark brown, I guess from water rot. Sigh, I think my oregano is almost gone too.

I’m sure there’s lots of other random thoughts floating around my brain, but that is all for now! Whew! 🙂

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.

I suppose it’s inevitable. You live in a house for over 20 years, you accumulate items, you make a house a home and make memories in it, and then, you decide to move. It’s natural that one gets nostalgic and one gets sappy and dare I say, one gets downright sad at times. Maybe it’s just hormones or so recently realizing how much I miss both my parents. Or some other maudlin thought pattern 😀

I am working on cleaning out magazines today. I realize how much things have changed since I first moved in this house. I used to get a ton of magazines. Back before anything was digital, I did silly things like subscribe to a newspaper that was thrown on my driveway daily, subscribe to magazines that showed up in my mailbox once a month, etc. My, how times have changed. I don’t subscribe to magazines any longer. I have dallied with online subscriptions, but I just find that I don’t read them often enough to justify it. So, once I page through the last ones (won’t be today, I have stacks of them, LOL!) and put them in the recycle bin, I will probably never see another magazine in my home.

Same thing with music cd’s (which I’ve packed) and movies, which have yet to be packed. We’ve done fairly good through the years with moving to new technology, yet I realize, I have lived through a time where there were just 3 local tv stations and no way to record tv or movies. Then, the advent of the VCR, and magically, I could record a tv show or movie to watch later. What a spectacular idea that seemed at the time. I think I have mostly purged the house in recent years of old VCR tapes that contained things I had recorded from TV. We’ve moved on to DVD’s and Blu-Rays (buying movies which we watch from time to time). I’ve packed up a boatload of music CD’s, realizing (much like the magazines), I probably won’t ever buy them again and may not even use them again. I do everything digital, with iTunes or Amazon and various and sundry electronic devices.

I remember a rotary phone and calling someone before you left the house to drive to see them, to let them know you were coming.

I remember my mom being so excited to get a humungous box for her kitchen called a microwave.

I think I’m getting old. And I think it’s starting to hit me how much work it’s going to be to pack up my adult life in boxes 😀

P.S. I’m also thinking right about now that maybe it was a good thing we never had children… not only more stuff to pack, but more memories and harder to come to grips with moving them out of a house they grew up in.