Are You Still Here??

Well, Golfer and I are still here and we haven't received any of those "I've been Raptured" emails from any of you, so we can assume the preacher didn't know what he was talking about! And, oh so conveniently, the paper says no one knows where he is this morning. His radio station is playing "recorded church music".

Don't get me wrong, I believe anyone should be allowed to believe whatever they want as long as it doesn't endanger others. Live and let live, I say. But, come on! Some of these people just have to make you chuckle and wonder. I don't hide the fact that I believe in God. I have personal experience with his saving powers. I talk to Him every day. I don't believe in a vengeful God though. I believe he's a loving God.

I do, however, believe there is a special hellish place for truly evil people. You know, like some of those that have been in the news lately.

Having said that, let's consider the new businesses that started up recently while expecting the end of the world. I mentioned the emails. A company would take your email and send it to all of your family and friends who were still here after you were "taken". You could write something like, "I've gone. You haven't! Ha ha!" or "Hey, don't forget to water the plants, and the mortgage is due on Monday." What would you really want to write in a case like that? I bet there were some interesting messages. And then there is the company that would take your money and guarantee to take care of your pets after you were gone. I am curious about their business prospects this morning. I personally believe that our pets will be there, wherever, when we do leave earth.

So anyway, life goes on. Work is progressing on the houses in our neighborhood that were damaged in the fire this past week. There's a lot of blue tarp on those three houses. The home owners association is collecting donations for the family whose house was struck by the lightning. We dropped off a gift card yesterday.

The weather is warming up here and will be HOT for a few days, if not for the whole Summer! I have to go out and yank a few more weeds later this morning. Also have to clean the mailbox again. It's a favorite sitting spot for the birds.

Boxer had his last football game for this year and is signed up for tackle football for the next time! Bloomer had a very successful dance recital and we're told she did the highest leap of any of the dancers! BeyB has made the honors program at her school and will be in advanced classes starting in 8th grade. We are proud of all of them and love them much!

Well, since life is still here as we know it, I have things to do and must go. Stay safe!

Nature's Fury

About twenty-four hours ago we were having one of those "scattered" thunderstorms that are so common in our area this time of year. Lots of thunder, lightning, and rain. Nurse J called us to see if we were okay because she was on her way home and saw smoke and firetrucks coming this way. Then we heard sirens. Down around the corner from us, a neighbor's house was hit by lightning. In a very short time the house was destroyed, in spite of the many firetrucks that came to help. The houses on either side of the struck house were damaged also. One has been condemned, but they say might be salvageable. There have been work crews on all three properties all day. I've seen them as I've gone to and from work and errands. The good news is that everyone had good insurance and no one was hurt. In fact, no one was home when the lightning hit. A retired fireman who lives next door broke in and rescued the family dog before the firetrucks got there.

Golfer took this picture only about half an hour after the lightning strike and you can see the roof is gone. There were still flames shooting up.

Golfer and I are fine. There was smoke, of course, and some ash on the car, but that's nothing. As I type this, it is getting cloudy and windy again and may rain some more.

Stay safe out there!

Fine Tuning

Hey, all!

I hope all is well with all of you! We've been keeping busy here. Finishing up some household projects and upkeep, and I have finally !! gotten all the piles moved out of the library and put away! I've hung a couple things in the bedroom, so I took a couple more pictures in there. We really like the new furniture.

The first picture is my dresser. To the left of the closet is the small cabinet that was Mom's. It has little keepsakes and things on the shelves. You can also see the new clothes hamper in the corner.

Then I took one of Golfer's dresser and you can see his autographed picture of Erin Gray!

It's been warming up again here and has gotten muggy. The A/C is back on. There was some rain last evening and is supposed to be more today, but so far just off and on cloudy. I worked in the yard for a while and tidied things up. Seems like there are always weeds to pull up!

I finally finished the new shelf liner project in the kitchen, so that's all done. Hooray!

So all is calm here right now. Take care and stay safe!

HOORAY!!!!!

We have bedroom furniture! Golfer and I have spent the last couple hours going through the bags, boxes and baskets that our clothes have been in for several weeks. And then deciding on placement in our new dressers. Everything is now put away, the bed is made and the vacuum has been run. Ahhhh!

Stay safe! I've got to order pizza now!

Darn Time Has Been Flying Again!

Hey, all!

It's a lovely sunny day here in Virginia. I might get to turn the heat off again! It got so cool a few days ago that it had to be turned on again. We had a few thunderstorms lately, but nothing major in our immediate area. The yard is green and things are growing.

We have a delivery date for next Tuesday for our new bedroom furniture! As soon as it gets in place Golfer and I will be busy putting things away and sorting through clothes. The other new furniture probably won't be delivered until the first part of June.

My work has continued to be busy. Quite frankly, some days at the church it's a mess. The church is in a major period of transition and change. I'm hanging in there for now.

Golfer had the opportunity to go on a golf trip with some friends and he had a great time. I'm glad he got to go. While he was away, I did some things around here like relining the kitchen cabinet shelves and did some extra cleaning. I also read a couple good books. I did practically no cooking - just did a pot roast with lots of veggies the first day he was gone and that was dinner for several evenings.

I wish a happy Mothers' Day to everyone! You either are a mother or you have a mother, so have a good day. I've been coping with some emotions since this is the first year without my Mom. I found this picture while going through some of her things recently.

We miss you Mom.

Stay safe everyone.

High Class Living!

Hey, all!

Things are still busy and most days it feels like just one thing after another. But we are slowly progressing.

Since the last post - sorry it's been a while - we had to have the sprinkler system worked on. That was one of those "one thing leads to another" situations. Walt, the Spring Green guy wanted to come aerate and wanted Golfer to mark the sprinkler heads. So Golfer goes out to do that and the system needs repair. We wait a few days and the sprinkler man comes and installs a new part and then discovers a new leak elsewhere. So we wait another few days and finally yesterday he came with some special equipment and fixed that problem. Today after he mowed the grass, Golfer turned it on to mark the heads and discovered another leaking sprinkler head. So we made another call. Sigh.

Walt is coming to do his work tomorrow or the next day. He actually stopped by today to check on how things were going!

We also had Steve power wash our house, and the patio, porch, driveway, etc. Looks nice. We also hired two of his men to move our old bedroom furniture out to our garage. We were trying to sell it, but that didn't work out and we decided to donate it. Most places won't come into your home to pick things up. So for a couple days Duke, the Mustang, has sat outside and the garage has been full of furniture. Today someone from Refugee Services came and picked up the furniture. They were glad to have it and we'll claim it as a tax deduction.

Lynn, the decorator we've been working with, came one afternoon and helped us hang some of our things. And we looked through catalogs and picked out some new artwork to hang. It was amazing to watch her hang things. She didn't mark or measure, just "eyeballed" it and everything is hung perfectly!
It's hard to get a good photo angle but maybe you can tell how they are hung.










I've come to realize that all my life I've been hanging pictures too high!

So our old furniture is now on its way to new homes and we're waiting to hear on our new bedroom furniture. We expected it to be delivered around now. The living room furniture probably won't be here until June. and that brings us to a scene reminiscent of when Golfer and I were first married. Our furniture consisted of a bed and some lawn furniture! Here's our bedroom now; please note the stylish arrangement of Rubbermaid storage containers being used as night stands! Golfer thought of that! Those are our new lamps though! The box springs and mattress are sitting directly on the floor. That has caused much concern for the furry kids. No place to hide and nowhere to stash toys! Golfer and I were actually able to catch Cecil this afternoon and I clipped his nails and combed him. Of course, we did go around the bed a few times before we got him!

So that's how things are here. Stay safe!

Covered Windows!

Hey, all!

Been busy around here. We finally got some window treatments! (I am trying to train myself to not say "curtains") There were a few glitches in the process, but we really like what we have so far. Turned out that the finials for four of the rods were on back order and Lynn did not realize that until they started the installation, so some of the rods just have bare ends for now. And the rods for the sheer panels in the bedroom didn't show up at all. But we have come to understand and realize that this whole decorating project does not work in real life like it does on HGTV where at the beginning of the half hour show they show a mess and in thirty minutes they go "TA-DA!" and things are perfect.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. First is the bedroom. There will eventually be some sheer panels under these and finials on the ends of the rods.

These are the living room. (with finials!)

These are the office. They needed to be light blockers because in the afternoon the sun comes in and hits us right in the eyes when we sit at the computer. And we can't move the computer without a lot of re-wiring.

The last picture is of the library. These drapes proved difficult. The color and texture are perfect for the room. But the first set of panels we had were poorly made and did not hang well. Lynn and I discussed possible solutions and I decided I wasn't going to put that much work into them. We we took them down, took them back and got the last two panels available in the area and tried again. They are better. But I did take Lynn's suggestion and put little sinker weights in the hem corners and now they hang even straighter!

BTW - our furry kids are never happy having strange people in our house doing things and making noise, but they do seem happy now that they have discovered they can hide behind the longer length window treatments!

Stay safe!