Oh, so tired!

What a day - started it with buying a new bucket of laundry detergent - $20 Sears brand and it does 275 loads. And, best of all, it actually works! LOL The best $20 I've spent this year - since my first bucket lasted from the end of January until now - about 9 months. I unloaded my car today also - finally. I think it's a new record though - I unloaded it LESS than a week after my return. :-D

I did splurge a little at the nursery. I bought pansies and violas to put in the front yard. Then I came home, reclaimed the flower beds (we won't talk about how long it's been since I've done anything with them) and actually planted most of them! I also went through and trimmed out a bunch of brush and used my blower to move most of the right side yard and front yard leaves to the road. I shaped up the nandina bush too while I was at it - and have finally decided that I like it. I've had a love/hate relationship going on with that bush since I bought the house, so it was a relief to decide that it was ok after all. LOL

As I'm typing, it's pouring outside - I'm so GLAD I moved all those leaves! Now the water run off will drain more easily, and hopefully not cause me anymore problems. Wish I could take the blower up on the roof and use it to clean out my gutters - that would be a huge help. Oh well - one thing at a time.

My next big plan is to figure out who to foist all this dern Halloween candy on. Trick or treating was tonight and I got a whopping 5 kids - and 4 bags of candy to give out. All I know for sure is that it can't stay here. No way, no how, one way or another this stuff is history!

Well that's the update of my exciting life - I'm just a 'party' animal. I think I'm going to have an ounce of two of my very good port and head for bed. I hope your weekend is going at least as well as mine!

Long week

Yes, it's been a long week and I'm very grateful that it's nearly over. I FINALLY went and talked to the mortgage company - and then talked to another mortgage agent who gave me some very good questions to ask. Tomorrow, if it's not too busy, I'll call the first one back and clarify some details. If it's really as good as it sounds, I expect to be signing a new mortgage within a month. Keep your fingers crossed! LOL To make it work long term, I have to commit to the idea of selling within a few years - but the longer I go without a garage and a bigger yard for the guys, the easier that thought gets. And every time the neighbor's teenager blares his car radio going in and out of the alley, the idea is positively delicious!!! Besides, I've had this address for almost 3 years now - and we all know I've never lived at any address more than 4. I thought I'd killed that rolling stone mindset, but it's still there - prodding me from the depths of my brain, whispering "isn't it time to move yet???"

I have to wonder, is it a military-kid thing, or is it just me? I don't think I move just for the joy of moving (cause really it's a royal pain in the ass!), but sometimes I wonder if it's an ingrained habit. Or, did I inherit the 'restless' syndrome, that drove my ancestors to travel, always looking for a 'better' place? I don't think it's a case of "the grass is always greener" - as I like my home and my area. I just have very specific wants that this home will never be able to provide - short of bulldozing the neighbor's house and buying the lot - ROFL. Who knows - I might actually get lucky! The bungalow across the street has an empty lot next to it - and two older spinster sisters that have lived there for an eternity -

I have no idea how I got off on this ramble - but suspect it has to do with wants/wishes and exhaustion all rolled together. Y'all have a great day!

Try this again

I posted on Saturday, but there was a glitch and the post never made it to the blog.

So, just a quick review of the weekend. I spent a large portion of Friday getting ready for the craft sale next Wednesday. I bagged up soap crayons, put hangers on dozens of Christmas ornaments, and then spent several hours dipping spoons in milk or dark chocolate, cooling them, then putting either vanilla or mint candy stripes on some of them. Then I bagged them up in groups of four. Hopefully people will buy them to stir their coffee/cocoa with at work. If not, well, if I'm lucky they'll be serving coffee at Granny's party and I can give them away. LOL I made 120 of them, or 30 bags. Guess we'll see how it goes. I am STILL working on the throw - I put it aside for awhile and then, when I was ready to get back to it, I had hurt my neck! It's still doable - especially since I've completed nearly everything else. Cross your fingers and hope I actually sell something this year ok? Julie Hardy (Gulley) made 20 pairs of earrings and I'm hoping that they will sell as well.

On Saturday I went to the Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA with Scott, Carla and Bekah Earley. We had a great time, but there was a surprising lack of apple related activities there. There were two growers, two tables that were selling apple butter (and not even the really good kind with pecans and raisins!) and two places that were selling apple pies. Very disappointing in that respect, but the festival overall was nice and we got to see a lot of neat stuff.

Today, I did a little tidying in the TV room, and got about 1/2 of the remaining handstitching done - and the rest won't take as long as there's no more 'figuring' to do. Then I've just got to neaten up the edges and pray that Mum's old sewing machine can sew this monster's edges together. LOL

I've got a lot to do between now and Friday, when I leave to go home for Granny's birthday party, but hopefully the essential stuff will get done, and I will come out of this sale with some cash in my pocket.

I got an estimate on tree removal this evening also. To just remove the one big tree was $3500, and the guy honestly didn't recommend taking it down. I also got his evaluation of another tree and an estimate to just have 4 trees pruned back instead of removing any. The problem tree is a hackberry tree. I am now off to research the net to find out more about this strange tree. :-) Y'all have a great week!

One week later

Well, after a week of ice, heat, ointments, a desperate session with a massage therapist and assorted drugs I can now move my neck reasonably well. I wake up feeling nearly normal and end the day tight and sore. Obviously not all the way back to normal yet, but functional. I'll just have to keep on being nice to it... :-(

So, the dogs are having a 'sing' in the front room, I've eaten breakfast, the laundry is caught up, and my kitchen is already 90% clean - all in all, the day is off to a good start. AND the bedroom is clean! Hooray!!! I'm on a roll.

Happy Birthday to Cindy!

Happy Birthday to Cindy - the best thing to ever happen to my baby brother! I hope you're having a wonderful day - your birthday card is still sitting in my car :-( Oooops! Anyway I hope you're having a wonderful day. Enjoy your birthday dinner and hey!, one of those hugs from Erin? It was really from me. :-D

Update

Hello everyone! All my plans for cleaning etc went out the window this morning. It seems I slept on my left shoulder all night long. This by itself would leave me sore - however, to top it off, around 3:30 something startled me awake, causing me to jerk my head to the right and pulling every muscle on the left side of neck in the process.

Do you know how many muscles it takes to lift your head when you're getting out of bed? It's amazing! Took me at least 10 minutes this morning to figure out how to get out of bed without hurting anymore than I already was. Finally ended using my hand to support my neck as I moved. I tried heat - NOT the answer. Finally ended up trying ice and that has helped a lot. I can stand up and move around. Yippee.

I did get some stuff accomplished today - like updating photos in both my photo blog and my dog stories blog - you'll have to check them out and let me know what you think. Now I think it's time to go lay down with the ice pack, and maybe a Flexeril. Geez this hurts - only I could manage to hurt myself while ASLEEP! Grrrr...

Home again, home again, lickety split!

Yes, that was me last night, coming home from Nashville. What a neat city! I picked up my treasures from BuyEssex (and definitely got a deal!) and then went to check out nearby Radnor LakeState Park/protected wildlife area. Very beautiful, and peaceful, and the weather was ideal for a good stroll. Sunny, but cool, and lots of shade. The trails were wide and well-tended and I did ACTUALLY see some wildlife while I was there! Lots of squirrels and turtles, a few chipmunks (a personal favorite of mine) and a small group of deer. After that I drove into the city and found Centennial Park, across from Vanderbilt University. Really cool thing about this park is that it has a to-scale copy of the Parthenon on the grounds. Of course I took lots of pictures and will post some of them when I get a moment to relocate the camera.

Steve and I met up when he got off work, and he played tour guide for a few hours - driving me around downtown and showing me the sights - what a neat city! It's bigger than I'd like but it's interesting. It was good to catch up with him, and see his life there in Nashville - it obviously agrees with him. We compared stories on the wonders of being an aunt/uncle - his niece is now 6 months old and he's totally in love with her - lol. Then it was past time for me to be heading home, where the boys were anxiously awaiting my arrival. I am going to be SO tired later today!