now it's just Tuesday...

 ...but not just any old Tuesday, it's a sunny 90 degree Tuesday in July!  What's not to like?  

I got up this fine morning, got some coffee and bee-lined for the comfy chair.  I wasted some time, and read some news and some blogs, and then before nine o'clock, I was on my way to Walmart, all by my lonesome.  I had important things to get.  

The camper came with hideous toppers on the blinds, and they cannot be separated, unless we got a skilled surgical team involved.  Paul couldn't figure it out.  One of them came loose on our last camping trip, so he took the whole kit and caboodle down for the operation, but nope, if the blind goes back up, the ugly valance/cornice goes too.  

So, we scrapped it, and since we're going tomorrow and I'd like to cover that window better than when we stayed in it last time, which involved taking a cute camping blanket I got from Target for $3 at the end of the season last year, and closing the edges of it in the cupboards, then tucking the bottom behind the couch, it covered the window...but.  :)

Miniblinds...but they are SO long, and this window is wide and short.  So I bought a curtain rod, and...two adorable kitchen towels...and those cafe clasps, so I can just clip them up.  I am capable of getting the drill and putting up the curtain rod, but Paul is way MORE capable, so I'll see if he'll do it later.  

I also found a birthday present for Evelyn, bought hot dogs, pepperoni, and sugar free popsicles, and a platter and some bowls for the camper.  I'm trying really hard not to overload it, minimal is nice when camping, but these were so cute and the total for the matching platter, two bowls, and two tiny bowls:  $5.  

Home....ahh, home.  But only for a few minutes, I went to Kathryn's for a swim!  Seriously amazing.

Home again...my deck plants need watering, the garden is thirsty again, and I have to pack.  I am partially packed, but I need to grind lots of coffee, as we won't have electricity, but hmmm, I could hook the coffee grinder to the generator...freshly ground IS better!  

Yesterday, I went to the thrift store with Miss Charlotte Claire and Miss Camille Anaya.  I told them when we were going in not to put just everything in the cart, it's not Tuesday, I don't have 25% off.  Well.  They behaved.  Cam found one pair of cute jeans, Char found a skirt and two dresses...I was the problem.  I found Allbirds Merino wool sneakers for $9, that fit me perfectly!  I found FOUR tops from C.J.Banks, just my style, and five dollars each.  I got some books for camping, and after my surgery... then a jean skirt, fits perfectly...it was a bonus day, but it came to a hundred bucks!  The prices have really been creeping up, but wow!  

I bought some sweet corn this morning from Walmart, it looked fresh and was only 33 cents an ear.  Some for Achilles' family (he loves corn!), and some for us.  It's hot to cook, but we have steak to grill, a birthday gift from Sam and Grace.  So I thought corn would go really well with it.  

Random things I like:

Vaccuming when it starts to get dark, using the headlight of the vacuum cleaner...you cannot see the dog fur during the day, but oh dear, it's there!  (it's weirdly satisfying to see it and vacuum it up!)

A genuine smile from a stranger.

Making friends with the cashier.

Tipping the kid who pumps my gas, he always seems so tickled.

When someone else makes dinner...last evening, Miss Char cooked the chicken breast, sizzled  it up in little chunks in the iron frying pan, very well seasoned, so good.  They had theirs with lemon pasta, I had mine in crispy lime corn tortillas with cilantro and lime hot sauce.  

Zucchini bread.  I love it when it's really cinnamon-y and moist.  The garden promises a bumper crop, a few are almost ready, so I need to dust off my low carb recipe and get out the shredder that attaches to the kitchen aid mixer, and get moving.

The tiger Lillies in full bloom on the country roads.  The fields of corn flourishing, and just everything about the warmth of summer.  Lightening bugs.  (except for when they get in my room!  The other night, there were two in there!  One was minding it's own business in the corner of the ceiling, just blinking on and off.  The other one though, possessed by Satan!  It was terrorizing me!  It would start to dive bomb towards me, I would wave at it and it would go back to the ceiling...I tried to close my eyes and go to sleep, but who are we kidding?  I had to get up and wave my pillow at it until it got near the door, then I whooshed it right into the hallway and closed the door.  The other one furtively planned to move as soon as I closed my eyes, but I closed them anyways, and have no idea where it went.)

Things I don't like:  

The camper refrigerator is broken.  Paul thinks a new circuit board might do it, but it wouldn't get here until Saturday, and we're leaving tomorrow.  So, we're going back in time to when we didn't have the luxury of a propane run refrigerator (and freezer!).  Coolers.  Ice, and coolers.  

(the ice melts, the stuff gets wet, baggies are your friends...)

I don't like when I have to do a lot in the heat.  Heat is nice for being on the beach or by the pool, taking frequent dips to cool off.  But when you have to bring loads of things to the camper, nope, not fun.

Sand.  I like sand where it belongs, on the beach.  I do not like sand in my camper, or worse:  in my bed.  I bring nice white cotton sheets to the camper, and wipe my feet diligently before getting into bed, because I am the princess and the pea with sand.  

(Sunny, on the other hand, loves sand, although admittedly the late Suri Tubbikans was the REAL sand lover, she was a chocolate cinnamon donut every time she came trotting (in later years hobbling) out of the lake after fetching the stick, she would roll in that sand.  She extra liked getting it all over her face.  It's hard to go camping without her.)

Catsup (ketchup?), mustard, mayo...no thank you!  I will eat small amounts of mayo on a tomato sandwich, but mostly it's a no.  

Ah well.  Never a dull moment.  You all have a really nice afternoon!

a huge surprise and a baby shower!

 Saturday morning:  I woke up bright and early, because I'm 60 now, and that's what we do.  The house was rather clean, and sometimes when it's clean, it's nice to clean it even more!  The girls got up and helped out.  We went outside in the heat, smotheringly humid and sunny, just so hot.  We filled the little pool on the deck, I went and got into my swim suit, and sprayed myself with the hose...turned it on "mist", and ahh.  Well.  Kathryn texted she might come over.  It's very hot here on the deck, I told her.  Then Sonja and Oscar came...Margaret and Adrian pulled in....Emily and Mariel...then my niece Katie was walking across the lawn...wait a minute.  They pulled a surprise party for me!  Molly and Josh came, and Ben and Ashley, then Suzanne and Zech.  Evelyn and Nate.  13 of the kids and spouses, and all 16 grandkids were here, with our friend Annetta too.  (Abigail, Aaron, and Jonathan were the only ones not here!).  I realized how all the grandkids were present, and I said It would be a great time to get a picture of all the grandchildren!  Well.  They said to open my present first, and would you believe, it was a picture of ALL the grandchildren?  They got together and took it a few weeks ago, and didn't tell me.  

16 grandkids, the oldest one is 11.  There is one two year old, and three that are turning two this summer.  They are my pride and joy, the sunshine in my life.  They turn a clean quiet house upside down, but oh are they amazing.  I remember years ago, someone asked my mother which grandchild was her favorite, she said, "Whichever one I'm with."  That sums it up.  :)

Ruth and Rhys

Grant, Wulf in the green chair, Tenny, Declan, Blythe

Maeve getting in the pool

Newton likes all the activity.

I love this picture, Benjamin and three of his sisters, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne

The boys...

Miss Char with some little ones...

Molly Rose and her Denzel

Uncle Nate with baby Ellis

Rhys, Jamie, Blythe

Rhys and Ruth picking berries

Maeve and Jamison

Jamie and Declan

Ben in my comfy chair, Oscar, Zech, Sam, and Darius enjoying the cool.

Darius smoked two briskets, brisket is my favorite...it was so good...the kids brought over all the food!

Josh gets the prize for the best uncle, playing with the kids

How many grandchildren can fit in Grandpa's truck?

It was a good day, crazy and fun and hot, but cool in the house, thankfully!  The kids had water balloons and squirt guns and they ran wild.  There were 41 of us here!

This fine morning, I got up and watered the garden in bare feet, one of my favorite things...then got the meatballs in the crockpot with Stubbs barbecue sauce, then started on the buttercream frosting for the cake and cupcakes for the shower.  

Marble cake...(I used my wedding cake recipe, took two cups of batter out, added 1/2 cup melted chocolate chips, then 4 tablespoons of baking cocoa bloomed in hot water, and used to marble in the vanilla cake). The cake wasn't the neatest...but the frosting has 5 sticks of butter, and is amazing.

The cupcakes!

The finished cake.

Ms. Sonja Kathleen...

The food!  Ashley made the fruit kabobs, Emily grilled lemon pepper chicken and had all the fixings for some amazing chicken wraps.  She also had huge lettuce leaves for the low carbers.

Camille with baby Ellis, Elise with Rhys, and Charlotte Claire with Sonja

Elise and Rhys, cousins.

Sonja was showered with so many adorable baby gifts, clothes and dresses and bibs and pacifiers and a bath and a baby monitor and and and...Oscar came to help open the gifts, and he's so excited too.  Babies are blessings, straight from heaven!

Now I'm home, had to wash up the mess I left this morning, the frosting bowls ect.  Here I sit enjoying the nice cool air in here, ahhh.  It's been a busy weekend, but just lovely.  Paul has not taken a break.  He has most of the bead board installed in the bathroom, Darius so nicely came over this morning with his table saw.  It's not quite finished yet, but looks nice.  

Tomorrow, the pool then to the store with the girls to get snacks for their trip to Norway this week.  Paul and I are going camping on Wednesday, Ben and Ashley and family have a site too.  Maybe some of the kids will come up to visit us, and enjoy the beach.  I hope the weather is nice and hot and not rainy.  Anyway, you all have a nice evening!

oh yeah we are getting there!

 

These are "before" pictures...

New flooring!

Not quite "after"!  The mirrors aren't centered, we just put them up temporarily, as the backsplash isn't up yet, none of the bead board.  The middle drawer had to be removed to make room for the drain pipe, but the front will be removed and fastened back on, so it doesn't look like it's missing a tooth.  The light fixture is staying, but it needs to be cleaned and shined, and another light bulb needs to be put in.

This fine day, I went to the pool, then we went out to brekky at a place in town.  I had the meat lover's omelet, with no cheese, and it was fantastic.  I only ate a few bites of the fried potatoes, but oh the raisin toast...mm hmm.  

We said our goodbyes, then home I went.  Not for long though!  Benjamin picked me up, he had errands and asked me to go along.  Gladly.  It was challenging to get in and out of his van, but I managed.  Time flew, we had no shortage of things to talk about.  

Not too much more is going on.  I'm ready for Sonja's shower on Sunday, made a cake and cupcakes today, and I'll be making bbq meatballs.  I'll frost and decorate the cake tomorrow or Sunday morning.  I bought a bag of really lovely Lindt truffles, with pink wrappers.  :)

Ah well...we're having a cozy evening at home, an I'm enjoying it immensely...have a good night!

well, here I am, having a wonderful day!

Long before HGTV, back when we had three channels of television, on Saturday mornings, there was a show called, I believe, "This Old House". I've heard jokes about it being This Damned Old House, and worse.  They would renovate, and find a problem, and another problem, it was a slow moving show, not like the flashy home improvement shows now.  

Anyway.  Last evening, we drove to the small city to visit Lowe's, which is always fun with Miss Char and Miss Cam.  They really like home improvement stuff.  We went down the lighting aisle, and perused the faucets, and hoped the ones coming in the mail from Walmart are actually nice.  We looked at some flooring, then ventured back to get our p.v.c. bead board.  Welp.  Online, it said there were 15 in stock.  No, there were NONE in stock.  They had the packages of small ones, but none of the eight footers.  

Home, late dinner, still a nice evening.  

This fine morning, the girls went off to work, and I went to a different Lowes by myself.  First, Target, and a stop in Starbucks for a free birthday drink.  The sweet girl who works there accidentally put sweet cream instead of regular cream, so she gave me that one too, which I brought to Kathryn.  Anyway, I wandered around and got some blonde roast iced coffees, confectioner's sugar, butter, sour cream, and a bag of frozen meatballs.  Nothing exciting.  Then to Lowe's for my pickup, this time I made sure they had them by ordering and paying ahead, and going when we got the notification they were ready.  

Then, since I had no eye-rolling teenagers with me, I ventured into Hobby Lobby.  I was looking for some baby shower things for the cake.  That store is too much fun.  I looked at the mirrors, would love new ones for the bathroom, but even with 50% off, ouch!  It was fun to look, but I was mindful of my owie knee, which was killing by the time I got out if there.  I have to be careful, it's SO hard to drive when it's like that.  

But, one more stop, at a local dairy store for two half gallons of ice cream, because hey, it's my birthday.  I know I have hot fudge here at home, and sprinkles, so we may as well have sundaes tonight!

Then, instead of going home, I went to visit Kathryn and went for a swim.

Now...some people are coming over, and Paul is working on the bathroom.  The new faucets came in the mail, and I am pretty pleased.  They are really nice faucets, and sell for more than double, even triple what I paid for them.  So I was actually surprised when the shipped and arrived on time!  

Ah well.  I need to move it move it, the house needs some cleaning up, and here I sit.  Paul picked blackcaps, I'm thinking of making a cobbler...you all have a really nice day!

perhaps, maybe?

 A call from the Orthopedic office yesterday: they're resubmitting my request at the end of the month, so a possible August surgery!  I don't want an August surgery, because we have TWO camping trips planned, (we got such a good site for each, both beach sites, especially the Labor Day weekend site!). Plus, Sonja K. is having a baby around then!

But.  Sometimes you can plan and prefer, but then just have to accept that you aren't the boss of the whole wide world.  :)

Bathroom demo woes....oh, the sad sad saga of DIY-ing.  It's so satisfying when it's finished, but in the middle, not so much.  The door is reinstalled after having it set in the dining area on two stools for a few days, getting coats of trim enamel.  (It will have to come back off when we try to fit that vanity through the doorway to install it.). The pipes, oh dear...the way the drain pipe lines up with the middle drawer of the new vanity:  we will have to remove the drawer and attach the drawer front, so it won't really open.  We can't figure out any other way, other than move pipes around, and heck, our old vanity had three drawers too...the middle drawer lost it's bottom YEARS ago, so we only had two, and look at us, all alive and well!

I try to be so nice and kind to Paul about these things, trying to smooth over the fact that ha, he thought our bathroom was fine before.  He does it all for me, so I work on not being TOO demanding.  The other thing we figured out:  the vanity top is actually a half inch too wide for the space.  This means we make a groove in the wall and fit it in, and cover that with bead board.  Somehow.  

The girls have it all painted, so when they get home from work we are going to Lowe's to buy more bead board.  It's the waterproof vinyl stuff, safe for bathrooms.  We will need trim too, so it gets pricey, but at least our labor is free, right?  Here's how much it's cost so far:

One white one piece vanity top with sinks:  $100 on Marketplace.  This is where the whole can of worms was opened, the cookie we gave the mouse, the beginning of the cascade...because you can't put a new vanity top on an old vanity!

One white 60 inch vanity, from the Amazon return/overstock store:  $400 with tax (you can't put a new vanity in a bathroom without a fresh coat of paint!)

One quart of Sherwin Williams Symmetry paint in matte finish:  $35

One package new mini rollers:  $4

New paint brush:  $9

Shower curtain from Target:  $20. (You NEED a new shower curtain!)

Two boxes of luxury vinyl planking waterproof flooring:  $140. Why replace the vanity and the top with that old tile still in there?  Makes no sense.

Two Delta faucets:  $120. New faucets, of course!  One didn't work for a few years now, so we needed new ones at some point anyway!

Still to be purchased:  bead board, trim...and who knows?  

This whole ordeal makes one thing clear:  we should NOT start in on the kitchen countertops any time soon, as we want butcher block...and who knows what else?!

This fine morning, after the pool, I went to Costco with Kathryn and her small children.  There was a playhouse there all set up, Achilles went in and was delighted.  Miss Rhys and little Jamison were in the front of Kathryn's cart clamoring to go in that play house, so we helped get them out to go in and try out the playhouse.  I asked them if they would get back in nicely, afterwards, and of course they said they would.  When we let them play for a few minutes, I asked them if they wanted to get in my cart or their mama's, and they said, "Mama's!", so in they went, no problem.  :).   

I got croissants and a birthday gift for Sam, and a bag of Hershey's chocolate nuggets, and some Celsius, which the girls like to take to work.  I don't drink energy drinks, coffee is fine with me.  I also got a bag of Unreal coconut bars, they're like Mounds with less sugar.  They are SO good, pricey, but I try to hide them ha.  

So now I'm home, everything is put away, the kitchen is tidied up, and I'm relaxing, getting energized for my trip to Lowe's when the girls get home from work.  My afternoon coffee is almost gone, and it's nice and comfortable in here with the new AC unit humming away.  We had the windows open for most of the day, as I prefer fresh air and hearing the birds stinging, to the hum of this thing, but then it got really warm in here.

Sonja's baby shower is this coming Sunday, so exciting!   Never a dull moment...oh, and this is my very last day of being 59, I'm enjoying the heck right out of it!  Have a good afternoon!

moving right along!

 

A picture from the wedding, Margaret, Kathryn, Charlotte Claire, Camille...

This is what reno projects look like at my house.  Fancy-like, using a paper plate for the roller paint.

Ms. Fix-it Camille removed the door handle for me.  

The color they chose:  

Symmetry, by Sherwin Williams...

NO SAD BEIGE, I said.  They assure me this isn't sad.  There are pink undertones, it will look cottage-y with the beadboard.  We'll see.  They did one coat of paint, and painted the ceiling, and are at work today, so slowly she goes.  

I need to get moving, I'm going to Target with Kathryn, to pick up that shower curtain.  I put a coat of enamel trim paint on that bathroom door that's propped up on stools in the kitchen, I gave the other side of it two coats yesterday.  One more coat later when I get home, and we can put it back on, or just wait until the flooring is in and the vanity installed.  Thankfully we have two other bathrooms.  

Ah well.  This is shaping up to be a really good week.  Tomorrow my friend Annetta is going to hang out here while her car is repaired in the garage down the road.  Kathryn and I might fit in a trip to Costco, then Thursday I turn the big 60, which I refuse to believe.  There is no way I am that old.  My mother used to say that she would look in the mirror and wonder why that old lady was looking back at her.  She was 60 when she started her nine year stint of kidney dialysis, three times a week for the rest of her life, as she passed at 69.  

We can complain about being old, but if you're reading this, you are alive, and where there is life there is hope, and...as my mother used to say, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life", so be thankful and find joy in your day, ask God what He would like for you to do.  Then listen, and be obedient!  

just the cupcakes...

This pic is from strykingphotography, as we waited for the bride to walk down the aisle...that's me in the curly ponytail, 4th row from the back.

Darius and Kathryn, Jon and Rosi, me, my brother Bob and his wife Mary...lovely pic, I was eating some mashies.  

Camille, Amanda, and Miss Charlotte Claire helping with the ice cream

The cake, four layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and flowers on it..

 I don't have good pictures of the bride and groom yet, as they asked the photography be their own, which is a good idea.  But, I wanted to show you the baked goods we worked so hard on...

I just got back from the pool, slipped out of my Birkenstocks, and moseyed around the yard in bare feet.  I checked on my flowers, watered them, gave the garden a big drink.  Camille and I staked up the tomato plants the other night, they are thriving and I hope we get the tomatoes before the bugs do.  I hung out some laundry, rather draped it on the deck...it's so warm and breezy, almost 90, why turn on the dryer? 

 Now we're leaving to go pick out paint for the bathroom.  I'm letting the girls decide.  They're so happy to help, why not let them choose?   So you all have a good day, and don't melt!