Sunday, September 18, 2022
Twins For Sure
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Hello Again, It's Nearly Fall...
It's been a long time. I thought I'd check in and see how many people are still blogging from the old days. Blogger has changed so much, I had to work my way through how to post all over again.
I'm still in the midwest, out on the prairie. Youngest Daughter and grandson said they are reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, The Long Winter, about her life on the prairie as a child.
Youngest Daughter's last text said the Ingalls family was huddled in the kitchen trying to keep warm. Snow had nearly made movement outside impossible, and the cow stopped giving milk due to lack of nourishment.
To make matters worse for the Ingalls, snow blocked the train from making deliveries to their small town, so seemingly there was no hope in sight...a hard scrabble life for sure!
Maybe reading The Long Winter will make life look pretty good for all of us right now.
Thanks for dropping by!
Monday, September 6, 2021
Projects, Projects, Projects...
I think I might be filling up my space with projects to keep from feeling the loss of my old life. Sometimes I don’t feel like a whole. What was WE is now just me.
I guess that’s where all the projects come in.
This is a cabinet I'm working on for the entry by the garage. It started out as unpainted wood. Kind of blah.
Saturday, August 14, 2021
How Many Bones Can You Break Getting New Carpet?
Well, if you read my title above, you might know why I haven't posted lately. The answer is 3 or 4 bones in my case!
Right after my last post, the construction guy I've been using to upgrade things in my new house removed and replaced the carpet in my bedroom and closet.
Things went smoothly until Tony asked if I had a second vacuum so he could put both of his 20-something-year-old helpers to work vacuuming for me.
I think he was a little miffed at them, as he was doing the final threshold alone, and they were just standing around talking and watching him work.
I had been sitting and staying out of trouble in the living room. I tend to be the "hands-on" type, so that's how I was staying out of their way!
As I carefully stepped over the carpet doubled back in the threshold on the way in, I was happy to get my first look at the new carpet.
The problem was on the way back out! I got distracted by a clogged vacuum filter I was carrying and wasn't watching where I was going.
In a hurry, I tripped over the unfinished carpet in the threshold and did a Lucille-Ball-stumble out the doorway and into the opposite wall!
My hands naturally went up to protect myself during the fall, and I fractured the middle fingers on both hands.
Later I drove myself down to an Immediate Care facility where they have X-ray machines. Both middle fingers were fractured, the left worse than the right.
They put splints on both middle fingers, which really improved my ability to flip people off should I choose to do so!
As for my toes, my left foot got tangled up in the piled up carpet in the threshold, which caused me to trip in the first place. Stumbling, I drug my foot over the newly installed tack-board causing some punctures and a toe or two got fractured in the tangle.
If you've ever broken a toe, you know they don't do much for them. I broke one of my toes the night Wild Bill and I got married, and we went home the next day after the doctor said just stay off it.
I haven’t gotten the room in shape yet, but here’s a picture of the threshold after Tony finished it up.
Thanks For Dropping By!
Monday, August 2, 2021
Buying A House - Making A Home
At the end of January, I closed on a house in a Del Webb (55-plus) community in Illinois.
Up to that point, everything had been temporary actions!
Buying a house required making a commitment and fully admitting Wild Bill would not be here to help make this house a home.
So, here I am...back again and planning to stay. I hope all of my blogging friends will join me in this new journey.
Please help by giving your advice, or even just an opinion, whenever I'm stuck with indecision -- If you're an old reader, you know that happens quite often!
Thanks For Dropping In!
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Another Thanksgiving Passes
After the last two Thanksgivings, a nice quiet one is welcome in our family this year.
The youngest granddaughter and I spent yesterday together baking pies and enjoying a few of her Christmas presents a little early. Okay, a lot early!
She was always Grampy's Girl after all, now I'm the only one here. We both wish it was different, but that's life. I'm thankful she and the family are close by.
I hope you are all doing well now too. It's been a long year, that's for sure! I've found that getting back up on my feet has been a struggle, especially as the anniversary of Wild Bill's passing is only a few days away.
Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me. Thanksgiving was our downfall last year...this year it was my goalpost.
Thanks for dropping by!
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Finally Fall And Decorating Dilemmas
The cool weather has finally started showing up for us here in the middle of the country. YAY!
I was looking at old posts on my blog here, trying to figure out what I might have left in my storage bins to decorate with for fall.
The photos of this pumpkin-scarecrow make me happy. I've loved the scarecrow for many years now, and I believe I kept him. I won't know for sure until I tackle all the bins in the garage.
I have to admit, I made so many bad choices when we sold the house so quickly! The things I loved didn't seem important right then...they were just things after all, right?
Yes that's true, but they were also packed with memories of all our 26 years together. Wild Bill loved to tease me when I started getting out my bins marked FALL.
He would shake his head and ask (in his best Texan twang) if we were "Ah fixin' to decorate?"
I was thinking I might skip the fall decorating this year. Maybe I'm a little afraid I got rid of all my fall decor in my haste to get the house cleared out during our move from Texas.
I know for sure I sold and gave away things that I really would've kept if I hadn't been so stressed at the time. Please learn from my mistakes!
I put all the decorations in moving boxes and gave away the old bins marked with the season they held. The boxes were in storage until we bought a house in Mississippi where Wild Bill wanted to continue treatment.
Oldest Daughter and I moved the storage boxes from Texas to our Mississippi garage right before Wild Bill took a turn for the worst and everything was forgotten for a time.
When I sold the Mississippi house at the end of Feb, I donated and gave away a lot more than I should have...that's how I ended up here today wondering if any of my favorite fall decorations are in those unmarked bins in the garage?
I'm going to tackle the bins today, and we'll see in a few days what survived.
Thanks for dropping by!
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Lucky 13
The number 13 is my lucky number. My father was born on December 13th, my mother was born on May 13th, and they got married on August 13th. Yep...that means today would be their anniversary if they were still married.
My dad died in 1994, but they had been divorced since 1956. Despite that, he loved my mom until the day he died. They married very young during World War II when he was only 19 and she was just 16. He always said they were just way too young when they got married.
My dad was in the Navy and home on leave during the war when he saw my mother headed into the roller skating rink with a group of friends. He was smitten with her and followed them in.
Someone yelled, "Betty, I have first skate with you!" and my dad yelled, "Betty, I have second skate with you!" Then he followed them into the roller rink and put on skates just so he could skate with her and find out who she was.
Dad said it was love at first sight for him. I do believe it was. They dated for the 2 weeks he was home, and he asked her to marry him before the second week. When she said yes, he had a big heart tattoo put on his left arm, above the wrist, with an arrow through the heart and the words Don & Betty boldly filling the center of the heart!
Despite the early divorce, they remained friends all their lives. My two step-mothers both asked repeatedly that dad have his tattoo covered over...he refused. It was still there the day he died.
Thanks for dropping by!
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Home Goods
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
My Garage With Teeny Apartment Attached
A couple of months ago, I moved into a garage with a small apartment attached. Yes...you read that right!
I think my garage is bigger than my apartment...
My teeny apartment is just 750 square feet...but I love it.
I'm the first one to ever live in it, and it's the first time in my life I've ever lived in a place all by myself.
Family is close by, and I've got some great neighbors. I'm good!
It's a bit of a challenge to decorate and furnish a small place and still be comfortable without being overly cluttered.
For 2 months it's been pretty bare! I think I'm up to decorating now since stores are starting to open up.
If you remember, I sold most of my furniture in Texas to the people who bought Rivercrest Cottage. What they didn't buy, I gave away.
Looking back, it wasn't a smart move. LOL!!! We had two storage units filled with "pretties" and no furniture when we got to Mississippi!
When we bought the Mississippi house, I bought new furniture trying to quickly make it a home for Wild Bill. It felt like we were going to have a fresh start! That didn't work out...
With Wild Bill gone so soon, I gave our new furniture to the people who bought the house and went to
Most of my special "decorating stuff" I have left has to go into the oversized garage in bins. It was love at first sight for the garage...
There's a small driveway in front of the garage, so I can leave the car outside and use the garage as an entertaining area. There's no room for a table in my apartment, but in a pinch, I could put folding tables and chairs in the garage if I needed to feed people.
I want another ping pong table in the garage like we use to have. That is, if social distancing ever ends.
Illinois tends to get cold. The garage has a wall heater to keep it warm in winter.
I won't use it unless I need to do some work out there. I don't think I'd want to pay the bill for heating it more than just a little.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Struggles
Hope all is well with you...I've found it's easier to say you're back than to actually be back!
The last 7 months have been a struggle to get back to normal, especially in this world of shutdowns and Covid 19.
I wanted more than anything to get a haircut, especially when my bangs almost reached my chin! But long hair started to grow on me (no pun intended) and now I'm leaving it that way.
I'm working on downsizing now that I have everything I own in my garage and small apartment. It seems you have to go through your things about a blue million times before you actually get to a point where you have just what you need and no more.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Life Does Go On...6 Months In
Hey Everyone! I'm trying to come back.
Finally getting my feet on the ground and starting over instead of hiding out...
I rented a very small apartment with a large attached garage. In the Illinois winters that garage will be a godsend.
I gave most of our furniture to the people who bought our house in Mississippi so I'm living, for the time being, with a few borrowed pieces of furniture from my daughter who lives nearby.
With all the businesses shut down, it's been hard to buy furniture so I'm taking it slow. I plan to buy a small home next year so will try to keep the furniture minimal.
Last weekend, I drove down to Mississippi with some friends and picked up what belongings I kept in a storage unit there.
I put everything in my attached garage for the time being while I determine what stays.
I know this 70 year-old church pew will stay. I love it. I bought it on Facebook Marketplace from a wonderful couple who became my best friends during the 7 months in Mississippi.
Juan and Floria were truly angels who showed up to help me through the worst part of my life. I will forever be grateful that God sent them to me just when I needed angels the most.
I hope you'll come back and see me. I'm determined to get back to blogging and life and hope you will share it with me.
Friday, March 13, 2020
Back From The Abyss
It's been a while...Let's catch up!
I spent December with family in Illinois. In early January, Oldest Daughter and I went down to Mississippi to get the house Wild Bill and I bought last August ready to sell.
Our house was located in the town of Southaven (northern Mississippi) just south of Memphis Tennessee.
On the night of January 11, 2020, there was a bad storm in the Memphis area. In Germantown TN (west side of Memphis) 20 to 30 houses were demolished by the storm.
The next day, Sunday the 12th, a couple standing in the middle of the lot that was her home the day before, made a call to a realtor friend. The couple had been planning to marry in the spring, then buy a new house together in the summer...
"We're going to need a house a lot sooner than we thought!" they told their realtor friend as they picked through the rubble of her home.
"I have the perfect house for you." Realtor Friend replied.
I was packing boxes that Sunday (getting ready to have our realtor put the house on the market) when he called me asking if I would be willing to let a friend of his see the house right away. How could I refuse when I heard their situation?
The next day, Monday Jan 13th, the couple came to see our house... packing boxes and all!
All the home-selling advice you will ever get advises you against showing a house before it's cleaned up and ready -- but what the heck -- I had a feeling.
They came, they saw, they liked. But...they wanted to look at the competition, just in case. I knew they were "The One's" and didn't even bother to put the house on the market.
A few weeks later, the couple returned with her 3 daughters to look one more time.
On our back patio that day (with an engagement ring in his pocket) he got down on his knee and proposed to her and her girls.
They got married a few weeks later and, as a brand new family, they moved into the house at the end of February.
I left them most of the new furniture we had just bought and moved on. The house was never really our home, it's just a place we once lived.