Big Cheer!! Movers are scheduled for Friday.

Yesterday, I had enough. After a month of driving back and forth to the new house from our old house, a 45 minute drive—dark both ways, I decided enough was enough. We have been working on things every day and it seems like we just can’t get the to do list done. Every time a new project is started it ends up with us having to back and do something else first. This weekend we started on the kitchen sink and ended up having to replace the dishwasher first – which still needs leveling and bolting in. Thank goodness hubby knows how to do all this stuff. But, I am learning through all this. I got my own screwdriver now with different attachments and I even know what these attachments are used for! I want my own power drill like my daughter has. I do have my own electric mouse sander, but that was a craft tool that I am using for other purposes.

I told hubby that our new hobby in our senior years will be getting the house the way we want it and we will be working on it for years! Can you believe this house was advertised as move in ready?

We put on a new roof
We pulled down the wallpaper in kitchen, painted with a oil based primer – two coats, painted with a semi-gloss – three coats
We pulled down all lights, wall plates, smoke detectors, and got the house ready for painters
Painters painted ALL ceilings, wall and trim on three bedrooms
We put up all lights, wall plates, smoke detectors and purchased a new light for living room twice – and will replace the second one too
Removed oven and drop in stove to move plug in for stove that was over the counter, then had to put back in after new outlet was put in (we are still uncertain about a piece that seems to just sit there-wonder where it really goes?)
When working on kitchen sink discovered dishwasher was leaking and had to replace it
Put in new faucet set for kitchen sink

Still to do:
Put in new cartridge for bath tub faucet
Put vents in through to roof for hot water heater (needs two), clothes dryer, bathrooms, stove and air conditioner
Move clothes dryer vent from venting to garage
Replace copper tubing for refrigerator with flexible tubing which means work on clothes washer faucet where it feeds from
Repair chimney which does not have a rain cap (rock holding down a plastic tub lid is on it now)
Fix closet door in guest room – needs epoxy to replace broken spot in top where hinge goes

In the next month or so I need to pull down the wall paper in the bathroom and do the walls – prime and seal, texture, and paint. I just wanted to wait until we were moved in before starting that.

Or to be more precise, watching spackle and joint compound dry. So much fun. OH, there is the noise of the roofers to help pass the time.

Yep, we took the plunge, searched for a house with the help of  a relator and found a great one. The only trouble is, it needs some work. But, when we looked around for an alternative, we just could not find one we liked as well as this one. It has three real nice size bedrooms, two baths, a two car garage with lots of storage space. It sits on a .63 acre corner lot. And most exciting to us, it is hooked up for gas. So, I get to cook on a gas stove again.

The kitchen is nice size and has lots of storage, but it had WALLPAPER which I really don’t like. Hubby was going to pay someone to take it out, but the bid was way too high. The younger daughter and I got started and was able to pull off all the wallpaper in one day. There was a little texture under part of it and the rest has something like backerboard on it. But, once I primed it with Kiltz, we decided it did not need any more texture but just needed to straighten out a few spots here and there. Only those few spots keep mulitiplying!

Hubby got tired of watching me work on the spots and has taken over doing the putty knife and joint compound routine. He is very finicky on this which is good so I just gradually backed up  nd let him take it over. Soon, though it will be time for color on the walls. I am going with a warm bamboo shade of beige - -can’t wait for all to be smoothed out and dray so I can start on the color!

Here is a photo of the kitchen in progress. See how messy I am! But, give me a break it is my first time ever painting or doing anything like this. As you can see, I maybe went overboard on the blue tape stuff. I sure hope it did its job as I went over it a few times here and there.

This past weekend was so precious! It all worked out so well without any planning or forethought. Don’t you just love when everything just falls into place like that?

Hubby made it home on Thursday to get things all squared away up here for the holiday weekend. Though, I don’t know what there was to “square away”. Then the older daughter came in on Friday with our grandson and we had a lot of time to talk and catch up. Plus, MiMi got to hold that precious bundle of energy and let him get used to us again. On Saturday we went into the big metropolis of Gatesville and had a lovely late lunch and then it was on to WalMart for stocking up on baby items for future use.

But, Sunday was the prize. The niece that lives up here on the hill with us had a fish fry planned for in the afternoon. So hubby got up in the morning and went to the younger daughter’s and did some plumbing work that had been planned. When he came home, he brought her with him. How he managed to pry her away from her studies is beyond me. But I do know those girls will do anything for their daddy.

Another suprise for us on Sunday was the attendance at the fish fry by hubby’s other brother and his family. It was so good to see them. We have not had much time with them and it was really nice to be able to chat and get to know them. Our prayers and loving thoughts have been with them this summer as they lost a son the beginning of July in a car accident. I don’t believe parents or brothers or sisters ever get over losing a family member like that, especially when he is only 18 years old.

Sunday evening and night we had all of us together under one roof for the first time in years and it felt so cozy and, well, just RIGHT. The girls did sister type things and the grandson relaxed in my lap for a long time. Those moments are precious and are stored away in my memory to warm me up on cold days.

Of course, all good times come to an end eventually, and they went home this morning. The laundry is done except for the sheets which I will get to tomorrow and I was able to get a layout done of a precious moment of this weekend. The grandson had his first bubble bath up here this weekend and of course the camera had to come out. Here is the layout I made with those photos. Is he not the most handsome little boy you have ever seen?

Splash!

We are in Houston for the second weekend in a row. I’m not sure how my health is going to take it, but I just had to come this weekend to see my brother and two of his kids.

Jim

They are only here for a few days, so there was not enough time for them to come up and see me. In addition, my older sister who they are staying with, invited a lot of other relatives over to have a get together on Saturday so we had a great party. It was so great to be able to see them all.

Towards the end of the day, most of us who would brave the heat, ended up around the pool in the back yard and some of the kids (sorry JJ, you are still a kid no matter how old you get or how many degrees you get) ended up in the pool. Here is a great photo of some of the kids as they were jumping into the pool.

JUMP!

Doesn’t that water look so inviting? I just don’t know how I stayed out of it. But, I was concerned for sun burn and this old skin just would not have recovered as well as it used to from sunburn.

MOVING ON

The store still is having problems. A couple of weeks ago, it was down and I found out they (the hosts) were moving it to a new server. The old server had reached critical and had to get some relief. Since our account was one of the larger ones on the server, we were one of the lucky ones to be moved. Then, about a week or so ago we were hacked. Someone broke into the code and entered some stuff about viagra for our entertainment. It took a while, but I got that fixed, installed a security patch and changed passwords all around, changed the database connection and more. Then, this weekend, there was another issue. I was just sure we were under attack again as the server was showing critical volume. But, it was not  - the security certificate that I had purchased from the store was not getting along very well with the new server. It took a while to get that straightened out but it eventually was fixed. It was not fun trying to figure all that out while on the laptop WITHOUT all my passwords AND on the cell phone instead of a regular phone. AND of course, I was supposed to be spending time with family not worrying about the store.

Now, I wonder what will happen next with the store?

Moving ON

So the mojo is coming back and soon I will be having new items in the store. It is about time. I have one kit in the works for all you out there that have fishing photos to scrap. I might even be able to get some CU stuff made to go with it. I love the photos I found to extract for this kit . If I was on my desktop at home, I would pull a completed one up for you all to see. Soon though.

It’s hard to decide which is the biggest news to start with! so without any order here it all is:

I am now at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking - a major big store and I am thrilled.I have about 15 products uploaded so far and will be working on getting more in the store in the weeks to come.

I got a brand new computer! It has 8 GB of memory and a 580 GB hard drive. Walmart had it for soooo cheap, I could not resist. Though I did wait for about a month to be sure I was really wanting it.

I finally broke down and purchased that software that was eating at me - it cost more than the computer! After waiting since last Fall, I just could not see putting the old Adobe software on my brand new computer.

We got a baby crib for the grandson for when he visits - so much nicer for him, his mama and the rest of us. I first redid that guest room to make it look nice and inviting and then added the crib. It did not cost anymore than the taxes on the software I got from Adobe, so I figured why not.

Grandson is growing and can now roll over from stomach to back. Not so fun for his mama as he can’t yet get back to his tummy again and won’t sleep on his back. They were just here for a few days and it was great to see both of them. He is not one to be rocked to sleep, but is such a wiggle worm! But, when it is time for bed, his mama just has to lay him down and out he goes. I just don’t remember it being that easy for my two babies.

So there you have it, my news! all of it is very exciting to me, perhaps you will rejoice a little with me? I hope to get better again at this blog stuff, so be looking for some freebies and all in the days ahead.

Yep, we are back from Louisiana and I got some gorgeous photos!

But, just like I thought, I have a lot of catching up to do. Plus, I just went out of my mind over the weekend and signed up for two more store and am working on trying to get into two more. Watch me burn out ladies little by little.

No, I probably will thrive on it all!

More about the new stores in future posts. I will introduce them one at a time.

Most important I want you all to see this layout-not because my layout skills are so great-though I am not embarrassed by them. But, this layout has my little fella in it–the grandson. The photos are not over a month old so I am doing good right–not too late in getting them scrapped? I used my Whispers of the Forest kit for this and really love how the cardinal and butterfly work in with this layout. You can click on it to be taken to a larger size in the gallery.

I have a nice little gift for you all too. It is a template I made. Before we left for Louisiana, I spent an afternoon making templates for the store blog and while I was doing it I made a few for you all. Hopefully, I am caught up on my templates at the store blog for the next five weeks, so I can afford to share these with you ladies.

Here is a preview of the template:

Drat, gotta get that image fixed to match the blog!

Happy New Year!! Did you all make lots of resolutions? I guess I am going to have to knuckle down and figure out what I am going to do this year about my weight and physical condition. I WAS going to have surgery this month for the acid reflux, but that has been canceled. Hubby does not feel it is for me. But, since I am not going to have this surgery (which the docs said would cause me to loose about 15- 20 pounds) I am going to have to figure out a different way to control my acid reflux and to loose some weight. Sigh, I guess it is going to take some work.

Another area I need to get some improvement in is the house organization. I just looked in my closet and realized that I am only using a fraction of the space in there wisely. The rest of the closet is stuffed with clothes and things that we will never use again. Then, there are the things in the other closets of the house that need to be organized and things in the cabinets under the sink and things in the buffet in the living room, things in the shelves in the bedroom —-the list goes on! It doesn’t help that hubby has issues with throwing stuff away. He just does not believe in it. I have to wait til he is out of town sometimes to do a good clean out.

So, did you all make some resolutions?

Moving ON

Check it out, my newest kit, Whispers of the Forest, is the Divine Digi Deal this week. This means you can get the kit for $2.00!

This is the kit I showed a preview of a week or so ago. It has a fairy, a unicorn and much more. With 23 papers the papers alone are worth the $2. Here is a preview of four of my favorite papers in the kit. But, it also has a bunch of regular papers that are not so hard to use.

Next week I will be posting a challenge in the forum at Divine Digital and the participation gift will be an add on to this kit. Just a tip about this add on, it will have another fairy in it.

Yep, finally got it done. Monday, I purchased some little ornaments so I could use the little tree and after seeing them sit on the table for two days, I finally stopped what I was doing and put up the tree. It’s just a little tree but enough for the two of us. I did not even clean house like I traditionally do before decorating for Christmas. Dayton was fascinated with the whole thing and crept closer and closer to see what was going to happen next. Clio just kept her distance. I told hubby it would not be more than 24 hours before Dayton had the tree down and in pieces, but hey it’s his Christmas too! Here is a photo of the tree. The photo is a little blurry, but I never could get good photos of Christmas trees for some reason.

Moving On

I’m having a sale of some of my products at DigScrapStation. Anything I have that remotely looks like a Christmas item is on half off. That means my penguin Photoshop Action, some alphas and I even brought back some kits that I had retired. Here are just a few. Each image is linked to their page in the store.

Moving ON

To pay you back for the way I use my blog for advertisments, here is a little freebie. It is five brushes in the theme of Christmas. I have included in the download zip the png images of the brusehs as well. The brushes look a whole lot better than they appear in the preivew.

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Have you got all your preparations done for Christmas? In our house it just does nt seem like it is going to happen. There is no tree, no decorations and nothing to tell anyone that it is that time of year. We used to do that big routine, tree, presents, lots and lots of decorations. But, lately it just doesn’t seem worth the effort. No one is expected to visit, there are no drop ins to be allowed for, and well, with just the two of us, it just doesn’t seem worth while to spend hours and hours decorating the house.

We have just about finished our present shopping. Just three more people to buy for and then that will be all. I was going to try and make a few things, but might not have the time.

But, please notice, I did decorate my blog and the store!

Missie Update

I sent an email to find out if there was any news about Missie and got a reply from her son just a few minutes ago. There is no change. Missie still has not woke up. He says her body is slowly breaking down and they just wait and try to keep her company, talking to her and spending time with her. He said to please let everyone know they appreciate eveything, the email, the prayers, the thoughts and the candles.

This has got to be one of the most difficult things a family has to do is wait by the bedside of one who is dying. I cannot concieve of the agony they are going through.

Moving On

I don’t have any new products in the stores, but wanna just tease about a new kit I am working on. It has trees, a cardinal, a fairy of a different sort, a unicorn and well, I just had to make you all a sneek peek of the kit. See what you can discover about the kit below. And you are going to just LOVE the price when it get reavealed!

Moving ON

Oops, hubby came in the door. He was out of town for overnight and now is back. That means I have to behave now. No more staying up til 5 in the morning for me.

CU Freebie for you all

I made a few overlays for you all. There are three patterns, two edges and one texture overlay in this set. I also included a sample paper I made. These are Christmas themed so enjoy. The edges are red and green, but you can change the color quite easily on them for other purposes.

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It was late Saturday afternoon before I got the word that hubbie, sis and mom are OK in the Houston area. Sis has electric phones, so of course they don’t work. Hubbie’s cell phone can’t get a signal, but sis’s can. So they are charging it up in the car to be able to continue to use that one phone.

Without power, hubbie is planning on making a run up here to do some shopping for a generator and to get some clothes washed. He has not been able to make it to our Pasadena home yet, but is planning on trying tomorrow. Neighbors who were contacted by phone, say it is OK and that the neighborhood did fine.

I am concerned about Mother and am hoping that the residence that she lives in will be able to get generators to be powered up soon. She needs to be where things are configured for people with wheel chairs. Plus, it would be much more comfortable for her if she could get somewhere that is air conditioned. After leaving the hospital she had been checked into a nursing home for special nursing care for an infected bone in her ankle. Hubbie and I were under the impression that if they had to evacuate the nursing home, she would be bussed to Austin. But, on Thursday, they discharged her early and she became the family’s responsibility. By then it was too late to get her anywhere but to sis’s home in Crosby. The traffic on the road would have made a trip in a regular vehicle too strenuous for her. Of course, in my mind, undergoing the storm and its aftermath is too strenuous for her!!

But, they are all OK –no electricity and none expected for weeks. But, at least they are well, and not sick or injured.