Farewell 2007

The end is near - another year coming to a close. One of the blogs I read regularly gave a blow by blow list of all the bad things that happened to those close to her and I have to say - it was rather depressing to read it. Therefore, all I will say is "Farewell". 2007 wasn't a bad year - it wasn't a good year - it was just a year.

My one and only resolution is probably one of the more common ones around - lose weight. I absolutely have to do it. And I will do it.

On the way home from North Carolina, we ran into a little fog as we drove through the mountains. It wasn't bad driving but off the sides of the highway, you could see beautiful, fluffly clouds of fog blanketing the mountainsides. I would have loved to stop so I could get some good shots but for some reason, the highway patrol seems to frown on that behavior. So I had to be content to take them from the car. But even with that, I got a few good ones. I played with Photoshop on one of them - here's the before/after:

And here's another really liked. Hope you do too!

I still have SO much to learn about Photoshop - but the book that Ramsey got me is really helping. I've already learned a bunch of cool things - need to keep on going though. Oh - that's my other resolution - to take a photography class this year so that I can finally learn how to really use my camera.

I think 2 resolutions is a good number ~ don't you?

Have a safe, wonderful New Year's Eve. I'll be falling asleep on the couch since now-18 year old is probably going out and Dear Husband is at work until about 1:00. Oh well - saves money that way.

Have a happy one! Until next time...

Whee, Whee, Whee All the Way Home

Made it home today - about 3:00. All three of us. There was some thought that now 18-year old would stay for a few more days but I guess he wanted to be home for New Year's. Of course, not to spend it with me (Dear Husband will be at work so I'll hold down the fort alone) but rather to party with his friends. Lord, that scares me beyond words...

I tried to slip a collie in the luggage to bring back with me - I'm convinced that Lucy would just love being up here- babied beyond belief. But I think Grammie would kill me if I tried to sneak her up here. I did get a great picture of the 3 dogs together - they are all so very pretty. My "puppy" was quite happy to be home from the kennel - she's zonked out now - it wears her out. But she snacked on pizza with us and is sleeping on the couch next to me now so all is right with the world.

The now-18 year old hooked up Xbox Live tonight and now half my game sites won't come up - I don't know if it's a problem with Pogo or a problem with us. I'm thinking maybe Pogo since it doesn't look like many people are in the game rooms and that's highly unusual for a Saturday night.

We had a great visit - I really enjoy visiting with Ramsey and Larry and I know Dear Husband and now-18-year old love being there too. Christmas was wonderful - I think everyone enjoyed their presents. Hope so! I know I did.

Oh well - tired tonight so going to veg out for a while. Enjoy the puppies...

The Day After the Day After

We managed to avoid stores the day after Christmas but not so today. We were on a quest to find a large bag that covers a Christmas tree so that it can be stored intact - without the hassle of taking it apart and putting it back next year. But alas, we were unsuccessful in our quest. However, Ramsey did find some new stickers for her scrapbooks and VacationGirl found some new crochet string that was calling out to her. It said "buy me, buy me, buy me" so what's a girl to do? I also found a new book of crocheted doilies - the best ones I've ever seen so I know what I'll be doing on the way home Saturday ~ making the 'purtiest' mint green doily you've ever seen!

The men of the family went hunting today. Quail hunting. Now, help me understand - they bought the quail (12 of them) and went out to some huge field and released them - only to hunt them down again. They found and shot 4 of them and are out cleaning them now. The quail are winning 8 to 4, ha ha. I would have just kept the 12 and called it a day. I suppose it's one of those things I'll never understand - kinda like they'll never understand scrapbooking. Guess we'll be having some quail tomorrow. Whoo hoo.

Game plan for tomorrow is to go out to the meadow where the rest of the horses are kept and see them and the land as I'm the only one that hasn't seen it yet. And after that, we're heading to a movie to see Will Smith in "I Am Legend" - looks good.

Did manage to get a few pictures of the horses here today - was too lazy to walk to the big pasture so I only got the ones up near the house. Haven't played with Photoshop yet on them - need to figure it out first. But here's some of the untouched ones...

Christmas, Carmel, and Pecans

Christmas has come and gone and it was a good one. Dear Husband and VactionGirl left the homestead at 5:45 a.m. to head south to North Carolina for the week. It's usually an 8-9 hour trip but we pulled in at 1:00 p.m. - it's amazing what having no traffic (and no police around) can do for one's travel. Once out of Ohio, I was able to keep it around 80 mph except for the mountains and even that was still 65-70 mph. As we neared the treaturous turns on I40 that I have come to hate so very much over the years, I turned to Dear Husband and said "I have a problem." He immediately perked up and was very concerned - "what's wrong", he asked. I laughed and said "I don't know how to drive in these mountains in the daylight." Whenever I drive, we always hit the mountains at night - I have never driven them in the daylight. What a nice surprise. They're not so scary after all. I may have to rethink my stance and not hate them so much.

Christmas was good. Everyone got everything they wanted - plus more. I think everyone was quite happy. Here's a few pictures of the gift opening in N.C......

I made a pie! Nowanyone who knows me knows that I don't make pies. I make cookies, I make cakes, I make breakfast, I make dinner. I make lots of things, but pie is not one of those things. However, The Pioneer Woman (at thepioneerwoman.com) had the recipe for a pie that looked too good to pass up. So I tried it. As you can see from the picture, it turned out really good. Really good until we cut it. Then it decided to have to be scooped out with a spoon - guess I had a little too much carmel on the top. But even with having to scoop it out - it was still SOOO very good. Try it - you'll love it.

Tonight we're heading to a little german restaurant - I've been checking out the menu and can't decide what to pick. I know I want spatzle but there are a few really good choices. I'll let you know later.

Until then....

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

'Twas the day before Christmas
And all through the house,
The only thing stirring was
My wireless mouse.

The 18 year old's gone
Dear Husband's asleep
The dog's in the kennel
There's nary a peep.

That's taxed my rhyming skills so I'll quite while I'm ahead. We hopefully will be heading out around 5:00 in the morning. There should be little or no traffic so we should be able to breeze down to North Carolina. Then I can start taking pictures and post them here so you can see the "ranch".

So for now, I'm going to play games and wait till it's time to fix Dear Husband something to eat before he heads to work. I've got a nice sirloin just waiting in the frig.

So have a wonderful Christmas Eve - see ya later.

Pre-Christmas Travel

VacationGirl's holiday travel started early. The now-18 year old managed to get some time off of work and didn't want to wait till later in the week to head south to N.C. So, we jumped (well, maybe crawled) into the Tahoe at 5:30 a.m. today (Sunday) to drive to Lexington. Why Lexington, you ask? According to most maps of the United States, Lexington is not part of North Carolina. Did something change? Did N.C. purchase some land recently?

Nope - that's where we met Grandpa. He had been in southern Illinois visiting the old homestead and Great-Grandma (his mom). He had to come through Lexington to get home to the horses and Ramsey so he picked up an 18-year-old wingman on the way.

The weather was yuchy! High, high winds - Dear husband was driving and it felt like the car was going to blow off the highway. Lots of rain too. VacationGirl had the time of her life, though. Until we reached Kentucky, she had her own personal light show. Even though there was rain and clouds, every now and then, there was a small break in the clouds and the bright, FULL moon would peak out. But what made it really cool was how it would light up the clouds from behind - just before it would peek out. What a happy, beautiful surprise for VactionGirl. Anyone who knows her, knows she is fascinated by the moon - particually when it's full, like this morning.

We were home by 10 a.m. and continued to veg until around 4 when we ate at Outback. Then tomorrow, Christmas Eve, we pack and wait till Christmas day to head out for the farm ourselves. Dear Husband has to work Christmas Eve so we'll leave sometime Christmas morning. But VacationGirl is driving on that morning so no private light shows then - must watch the road.

Until then, Merry Christmas and safe traveling!

Too Much Fun

Too much fun - yep, that's what we're having - too much fun.

Today was the day for the carpet layers and tile guys to start. Things looked bright - we had the master bedroom and living room cleared out for them. They arrived a little before 9:00 and we were rolling. They tore up old carpet and pad in those rooms and the tile guy ripped up the tile in the entry way. Things are going way to good here!

Yep - too much fun!

The carpet guys left to go back to the shop to cut the carpet and get the file and materials for the tile guy. Apparently he thought they were gone a little too long so he cleaned up the old tile and left. We all assumed he would be back, but we were all wrong.

So one of the carpet guys is laying all the padding - at 100 lbs a roll. He was making good progress. So finally the other two carpet guys come back and unload all the materials but left the carpet in the truck.

The main guy apologized profusely, but they had to go finish another job. They had planned to go after ours today but apparently the lady had to leave town unexpectedly for a death in the family so they had to scoot. This was around 11:00. We're still making progress, though.

Finally around 2:30, the one lone carpet layer (with no carpet to lay) had finished all the pad he could lay so he called to find out where they were. They were finally on their way but by the time they got back, it was 3:15. Hmmmm, so much for progress.

Well - they were good - they stayed and laid the carpet in the two rooms promised so that we could move furniture again so they could finish the remaining rooms on Tuesday. Still don't now where the tile guy is - this could get fun!

So now, we have nicely padded stairs with little tack strips on each stair that you have to be ever so careful not to step on - or it will hurt! Trust me, I know - I stepped on one. OUCH! It will be interesting to see how the dog gets up/down since she just has to sleep near us.

Off to a good night's sleep and another fun carpet/tile day. We were hoping everything would be done Tuesday but the tile won't get done until Wednesday now. Better late than never though.

see ya,

Not...On The Move

Wow! The first time in over 10 years that Vacation Girl and family haven't traveled on vacation. It's killing me! I mean, it is really killing me. Instead of traveling, we're painting. And painting, and painting. And oh, did I mention that we're painting?

We (ok, me, only me, Vacation Girl) decided that we desperately need new carpet. The carpet in the living room and 2 of the bedrooms is over 20 years old and it's nasty! Then the wonderful white carpet in our bedroom is so not white that it's embarrassing. So, new carpet is on the way. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

But NOooooooo. If you get new carpet, you HAVE to paint - particularly if you're as messy a painter as Vacation Girl and Dear Husband. The guy at the paint store suggested that we wait until after we carpet to paint since the carpet will scratch the walls. I laughed so hard - when I paint I get as much on me as on the walls. So I could just imagine what fresh new carpet would look like if I painted after it was down. No Way.

So we've been painting almost every weekend for the past month. OK - I'VE been painting. Yep, me, myself, I. And I have discovered a very important fact about myself - I hate to paint. I especially hate doing the trim around the ceiling. However, in the guest room, I have to say that the trim job I did is worthy of an award - it was perfect. Of course, Dear Husband had to rub in great gobs of Icy Hot on my neck afterwards.

So, to be fair, even though Dear Husband isn't helping Vacation Girl paint, he IS working his butt off. He has almost single handedly moved most of our upstairs out to the garage. So that way, when the movers come and we have to quickly move 3 rooms into the 4th, it won't be a big hassle - we'll have very little move. And let me tell you - we've filled up over half of the garage with stuff.

So check out the colors:
Kitchen - cream with 1 DARK hunter green wall. (that was from about 2 years ago so not repainted this time)
Family Room - paneled - not painted this time.
Living room - Tan with white crown moulding and white baseboards.
Stairs and Hallway - Tan
Master Bedroom - Artichoke (dark green - kinda sage color)
Library - Dark Red Wine on one wall with beige on others (from 2 years ago so not repainted)
Guest Room - Butter on top (beautiful light yellow) and Rust - very dark rust color. With white chair rail and while baseboards.
Almost 18 year old's room - Navy blue suede on 1 wall and Camel (light brown) Suede on the others.

Yep - we LOVE color!

Pictures to follow after carpet is in.

See ya!

A Much Needed Break

Well, it's spring in Ohio and that means one thing - SPRING BREAK!

This year spring break couldn't have come at a better (and worse) time. First, the worst - work is unbelievably busy with our big Parts project and we're in the middle of system test which is NOT a time to be taking vacation. But when the schools dictate vacation times, you go!

From the best standpoint - it is much needed for mental health reasons. Time to get away from work and reflect on all the changes and plan a future course. Of course from the 17-year old's standpoint - it's just a week away from school! YEA!

We started off great - got on the road by 2:45 which is early for us by about 30 minutes. And believe me, during spring break week, 30 minutes is huge! Of course, that got us smack in the middle of the GE plant Friday afternoon, get out of work traffic but we still made great time. The weather was beautiful - until Corbin KY - then we got blasted with heavy rain ~ but only for about 20-30 minutes. Then back to blue skies and open roads (ok, the open roads part is wishful thinking on my part).

Easter is the time of year for miracles and I got one - I made it about 1/2 way through the mountains before it got totally dark - and there was NO rain! That rarely happens to me! It always rains in the mountains when I'm driving. But good karma was with me on this trip.

We made it in about 10:45 p.m. - tired but happy to be out of the car! Today (Saturday) was a day of errands for me and Ramsey (and a good lunch at Fatz) and playing with the horses and dogs. Monday is going to be devoted to restoring an old-fashioned sewing machine that belonged to my Grandmother. So we should have fun doing that - I'm looking forward to it.

Well, I've procrasted enough - time to get rolling on my homework!