Thoughts from Miller Manor

Good-bye Miller Manor

2011-05-23T04:52:00.006-05:00

After sixteen years and thousands of memories, we have sold Miller Manor to a young family and have bought a newer home very close to Ornery's work. I am not going to post here anymore, and if you are a regular reader here you already know that, but if you have stumbled upon this blog and wonder why this is the most recent post, that is the reason.

It has been a wonderful journey into blogging here at Thoughts from Miller Manor over the last four years, and I have met so many interesting friends here. If you are interested in reading about the next chapter of our lives, ~~please drop me an email at orneryswife(at)gmail(dot)com and I will send you an invitation to read our new private blog~~ you can find us here. Thank you for dropping by!
tm

A Clean Slate

2011-05-22T05:33:00.000-05:00

While packing up the last of our bedroom yesterday, I realized that when we move into Zoe Cottage and have a closet twice the size as the one we have shared for the last 16 years, I will be able to move out of the night stand, guest closet and armoire full of plastic boxes that have housed my clothes for the last few years, and into 1/2 the dresser that currently houses Ornery's clothes since I will be able to hang more of his clothes! That means we will both be hunting for things for several months after we move since none of our known dressing routines will be the same.

Other routines will change as well, and once we get moved in we'll be jumping back on the healthy living bandwagon after eating out (and poorly) for the last few months. I didn't think I would miss the sauna for the few weeks it has been apart, but sure enough, I have thought several times I would like to sit in there for a while. With the very short commute to work leaving more waking time in the day, Ornery and I hope to start walking again in the morning, and we'll have more time to spend in purposeful pursuits after work.

Tomorrow is the big day! Early we rise to load the cars of the things we will carry over that way, then the movers arrive around 8:15 or so. We close at 12:30 on Miller Manor, and go directly from there to the closing on Zoe Cottage. By then the movers should be done and ready to unload at the new place. So far everything has gone like clockwork, and we couldn't have asked for a better team of people to work with.

I sent out a bunch of invitations yesterday for my new blog but there is a short window of opportunity to reply, so if you got an invitation and want to keep up with our story online, you'll need to act quickly. If you didn't get one but want to keep reading, please send me an email or leave your email address in a comment so I can invite you. I won't be posting here anymore, and while I intend to keep the blog online (as well as Recipes from Miller Manor and Miller Manor Designs) I am not going to be updating any of the old blogs associated with Miller Manor. I really am starting with a clean slate.

Sounds of Saturday

2011-05-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday! It is fairly quiet around here as we wrap up the last of our preparations for the big move on Monday. Well, I say it is quiet until I stop to think about the sounds I am hearing...

Quiet chatter of the clerks at Panera as they go about their work while we eat our breakfast
Ornery and me laughing out loud while recalling various scenes of a stupid movie
Scratching sound of a pen on paper as we draw out the floor plan and list of items needed for the new garage space
Buzz of a neighbor's chain saw as they trim some trees
Whirring, clattering and clinking sound of Ornery removing the mirror from the dresser in our room with his drill and dropping the screws into a bag for later reassembly
Screeching sound of the end of a five year old roll of duct tape as it unfurls around a mirror box containing the last of our wall hangings
Tones of the Addams Family theme song as my phone rings
Ripping sound of the tape as I take it off a box I had already packed to find something Ornery needed, and again to put something in a different box that I had left out by accident
Clinking of a pile of keys while Ornery rummages through to find the shed key
Seal-like barks of the dog behind us as Ornery opens the shed to remove the lawn mower
Droning sound of the mower as he cuts Miller Manor's lawn for the last time
Puttering of the weed eater as he trims the overgrown edges around the yard for the last time...
Chirping songs of robins and other birds as they enjoy the cool morning
Squeak of rubber wheels on tile floor as we shuffle boxes from one room to another with the dolly
Swish of the metal gun safe as it is moved across the carpet from the closet in preparation for the move
Squeal of surprise as Ornery has a bit of fun with his wife
Airplane sounds as the washing machine spins out the water from the last loads of laundry

We hope to also hear some worship songs and teaching this evening as well as voices of friends calling out greetings, and according to the forecast we'll possibly hear a bit of thunder and rain. Otherwise, it is a pretty quiet day...

Rainy Days and Friday!

2011-05-20T18:31:00.000-05:00

The weather has certainly decided to show a variety of facets to us lately! Today we woke up to rain and it looks like we will be going to sleep to the same! It stopped briefly this afternoon, but not enough to let anything dry up. It means we won't be able to mow the yard as we had planned, but the grass is certainly greening up nicely! :)

I think we are all packed except for the last minute stuff. There are a few things that we will take care of this weekend, and Monday will be CrAzY busy, but I am really much more prepared than I have ever been in previous moves. At least that I can recall--it HAS been 16 years...The moving company called today to check in, and I asked if they had missed my calls for boxes, she said, "Yes!" I am sure she was being sarcastic! I am very excited about it, and with only the weekend to get through, it will be here before we know it!

I had a bit of time to read some of the news today. Crazy stuff going on--end of the world, 517 migrants trying to come to the US and detained in Mexico, and most of them from Guatemala, and more. I am glad I don't spend a lot of time on those news sites--they are pretty depressing, not to mention very subjective! I doubt I will have much time to think about the news for the next few weeks, and that is OK by me!

We really appreciated all the anniversary wishes yesterday. It was a nice day, and we celebrated as best we could with all our things packed up! We usually look at our wedding photos, and some of the other scrapbooks that document our dating days and the early married years. Once we get settled in, hopefully we will take some time to revisit those early days again.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Quick Post

2011-05-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

I had written my Thursday Thirteen post earlier in the week (I just love blogger's delayed posting option!) but I wanted to note here that we got the call yesterday that all is finally set for the closings. The buyer of our buyers' house FINALLY got the final approval yesterday. Talk about just getting in under the wire! We were all sweatin' it for a few days because if the first buyer failed to qualify, we were stuck with a bunch of packed boxes and nowhere to go!

We are getting a little more money back at closing than we thought we would, but that is really very nice! We went last night over to Sam's Club and got a card again after being non-members for a couple of years. We were excited to find some Gladiator garage organization stuff there, actually quite a bit of it, for some really good prices (comparably--they are still spendy!) It will mean that Ornery won't have to build all the cabinets as he thought he would. I am relieved, because he should be able to assemble these items in a much shorter time than if he had to build something from scratch, meaning the garage will sooner be organized! Ahh.

The kitchen is done, and all I lack is our room. Four more days!

Thursday 13: Happiness is Being Married to Your Best Friend

2011-05-19T04:25:00.092-05:00

Today Ornery and I celebrate 32 years of wedded bliss. There is no one I would rather spend my life with than this gentle, funny guy who knows just how to make me feel like a cherished and adored queen, and encourages me to be myself without censure.

We have had an empty nest for a little over four years now and while the lack of children at home took a little adjusting, I have to wonder if I had known how wonderful life with him would be "after" if I would have pushed to have kids in the first place! I really do love my kids, and I am glad we had them, but even with as much love, time and energy as I poured into their lives I have to say I think this time in our lives is better than any other so far.

It has been a long time since I posted a Thursday 13 list, but I thought in honor of our anniversary I would give a list of 13 things we have done to keep our love alive and fresh.

Never leave the house in the middle of an argument. Can you imagine the grief the remaining spouse would feel if something were to happen to you--never being able to make it right, wondering if they were the cause of losing you or whether you were gone for good? The potential for permanent relational damage is not worth the tantrum!
Never say anything that is demeaning or embarrassing--in private or in public. If you see something in their life that you think needs to be changed, private honest communication is better than harsh teasing or innuendo. The couples who say hurtful things about their spouses in public make everyone uncomfortable, especially the spouse if he/she is present! A deep and abiding love is not something to make light of, but a rare and treasured gift!
Remember we are on the same team. While we may choose different methods to reach an end, the most important part is that we arrive together and in harmony. There is no right or wrong way because each method relies on our perspective, which is almost always different from our spouse's! Clearly communicating our perspective without offending and being open to the other perspective will pave a smooth path for compromise so both parties emerge as winners.
My problems are MY problems, not yours. If I am angry, it is not because YOU did something, but because I chose to affix significance to what happened. As long as I hold myself responsible for my own feelings, you will not need to defend yourself, thus causing more friction.
Never go to bed angry, either with each other or with someone else. Even if it is an outside circumstance, it is easy to transfer the anger to your spouse. If there is no way to resolve the issue right then, at least take a few minutes to release the emotion attached to it by saying, "I release this anger, it is of no benefit to me." It is really that simple.
Give and receive graciously, especially compliments and kind remarks. I tell Ornery often that he is perfect, and in my sight (and in God's because he is in Jesus!) he IS perfect. I know there are areas he would like to change about himself, (and there are areas I would like to change about myself as well) but when I remind him of my love in that way, he feels ten feet tall and like he can face any challenge that may come his way with me by his side. When he tells me I am perfect, I know he is looking through the eyes of love, but I want to be perfect because he believes me to be so.
If you want something, be specific--no mind readers live here. This means there may not be a lot of surprises, but that can be a good thing! I used to "wish" that Ornery would bring me flowers, but once I started buying exactly what I wanted and thanking him for it, we were both much happier for it! If we are grocery shopping together (which we usually are) he will often ask if I want some flowers, and sometimes I do, but other times I know we are going to be gone too much for me to enjoy them. I appreciate his generosity and willingness to do something frivolous for me even if I am often too ~~tight-fisted~~ practical to do it for myself.
Spend lots of time dreaming together. Talk about where you would like to go, what things you'd like to see, people you'd like to meet, etc. Then work toward those you find worthwhile. It is not kind for one spouse to sabotage the other's dreams through overspending or denying their importance. Likewise, not all our dreams include the other person, such as Ornery's dream of flying again. Realizing that if that makes him happy, it would be selfish to keep him from it, I know I will do whatever it takes to help him reach his dreams and goals.
Be yourself. The only thing worse than not being loved for yourself is being loved for someone you are not.
Notice the little things that make your spouse happy and make them a part of your day as well. Ornery likes the bed to be made, so I try to do that every day even though it is not really important to me. I like to have the clothes put in the hamper instead of left on the floor, so he is careful to always make sure his clothes make it into the basket. We aren't always successful with the follow through, but often enough we don't get frustrated that our wishes are not being considered. There are hundreds of little insignificant things we do for each other every day that add up and show the other person how much they mean to us.
Do all you can to make the other person's life simpler. We are generous with time and energy to each other. There are things he can do better than I can, and he willingly (without nagging) does them without complaint. Similarly, I make sure his life runs smoothly by taking care of hundreds of little details that he doesn't enjoy doing, and in fact forgets even need to be done! When we come upon something neither of us enjoys, we share that as well, knowing that a shared burden is only half as heavy.
Understand that we are different, and rather than feel frustrated by that, learn to capitalize on it. Ornery and I could not be more opposite if we tried. He is quiet, gentle and peace loving, with the tendency to think things through to the death. I am loud, wild and confrontational and make snap decisions. He is slow and methodical, I am fast and furious! Through the years I have discovered ways to communicate that were not intimidating to him, and he has learned that it is okay to be more abrupt and outspoken than he would normally have chosen. This has been a huge part of our marital success.
Laugh together often. Find humor in things that would normally be painful and look for the bright side in every situation. When one is down, the other is there to pick them up. Laughing together is probably the greatest gift we give each other, and we do it a lot!

There are many other little things we have found through the years, both things that work and things that don't, but these are enough to make any marriage a happier one. We both entered our marriage young (I was 19!) and with a lot of "baggage" to work through, but through trial and error, and by the grace of God we have discovered a haven in the midst of turmoil and been blessed beyond measure with a deep abiding love.

Only FIVE MORE DAYS!!

2011-05-18T07:49:00.000-05:00

My heart is fluttering with excitement and my grin is wider than a Cheshire Cat's as we are counting down the last few days until our move. It is happening so fast, and yet not nearly fast enough!

Last night I finally parted with some of Ornery's hard earned cash to buy some new (green!) sheets for our bed and some dishes at JC Penney's. We ended up with six green large square dinner plates, ten small square salad/snack plates that are white with green leaves on them, and eight small square green bowls. We first looked at Pier 1 Imports to see if we liked any of those dishes better, but after seeing them in person, the pattern I thought I liked from the photos online didn't appeal. I did find some fun table linens there that I might go back and pick up later, though. Pier 1 has a lot of brightly colored things that appeal to me.

I didn't end up finishing the kitchen yesterday as I had planned. I did get the water hook-up taken care of after wandering all over downtown Broken Arrow getting frustrated at the woman who told me where the utilities office was. She said it was on Detroit, it turned out to be on Dallas, which is about four blocks away. The city provides four large rolls of trash bags for each house each year, but all trash must be bagged, so I guess they figured they should provide that for you... It's a nice idea. They are much more restrictive about the trash they are willing to haul, which means you have to figure out some other way to get rid of things.

I am pretty sure after we get moved we will be trading in the ~~heap~~ Jeep for a pick-up truck. Every day when Ornery goes to work I cross my fingers that he'll make it there and back without incident and that we can trade it off before the thing falls apart completely. The van isn't in much better condition, but it has about 1/2 as many miles on it, so we are hoping it will last another year or two.

My sister in AZ made an offer on a house and it was accepted last night, so they will be moving in 6-8 weeks, depending on when the buyer of their old house closes that deal. They hope to be able to lay some tile and do a few other things to it before they move in. It seems like 2011 is the year for lots of people to shuffle their stuff!

Blogging from Panera

2011-05-17T07:34:00.000-05:00

I'm blogging at Panera for the second day in a row since all the tables except the tiny one in the kitchen have been disassembled--the desks as well. I assure you it is no hardship...

We are less than a week away from our move! Yesterday I got more of the kitchen packed, and plan to finish it off today. All the glassware except a few dishes we will use the rest of the week are now in boxes, and all the upper cabinets are completely empty. The cabinet under the sink is the biggest "problem child" remaining with all those cleaners and such. It would be really bad if they spilled in transit...

I spoke with the mortgage representative yesterday and she said everything is moving along apace. It may be that we can close on the new house a little earlier than 2:00 PM, but we'll just have to wait and see. I also took care of all the utilities yesterday except the City for the new house. I will have to take the application in for that, and hope to do that today or tomorrow. I find it somewhat aggravating that all the other services are with the same companies we currently have, and they are still charging us hook-up fees--between the internet, electric and gas it will be $77.00 just to transfer service. At least they will be added to the first bill instead of having to be paid up front.

I tried to change my address with the library last night, but I must present a piece of mail or other proof of my new address. I'll just wait until they require me to update, which they do annually. So much for trying to be efficient. There are just a few other businesses I will need to change with, including the bank, but I think I'll wait until the move actually occurs for the rest. We get so little actual mail since we do everything on line anymore that it doesn't seem very urgent, and the mail we do get is the kind that goes straight to the trash...

Ornery has had to dust off some of his web development skills this week. Impact has asked for volunteers for a big project they are working on, and he answered the call. Unfortunately, I packed all his dot-net books... His evenings have been full of much more intellectual pursuits than mine have. :)

The weather has been so pretty these past few days. It is cooler than we usually expect this time of year, but I have really enjoyed the vivid blue skies with the white puffy clouds and soft breezes. I just hope it stays this nice until after we get moved. At least we are not moving over Memorial Day; historically that is one of the worst weather days of the year. I can't remember how many years we have experienced torrential downpours and major flooding over that weekend, but it is enough to remark upon.

I think it is interesting that when we listed our house I wrote that we hoped to be moved in before the end of June, and as we worked feverishly to sell the place I moved the desired date up to Memorial Day weekend (for fear we would kill ourselves trying to get everything painted!) I am very pleased that it has turned out even better than I had hoped! It will be exactly 11 weeks from the date we listed until we close. Amazing.

Weekend in Review: Mountains and Mole Holes

2011-05-16T08:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a busy weekend we had! After working all day on Saturday to get things ready for moving the desk, we quit at about 5:00 to get some dinner and go to church. The message was just what we needed to hear--reminders of how much God loves each person, no matter what they have done, are doing or will do, and that no matter how hard we work, we will never be good enough, but through God's grace believing in Jesus we have it all; eternal salvation and abundant life here on earth.

Shad gave an excellent analogy of going to the 60th floor of a building. (You can hear the message here) Those who trust in Christ and believe He is The Way, get on the elevator and press the button marked 60 and up they go. They don't have to push the elevator up the building nor do they have to hold themselves a certain way, chant certain mantras or anything. They just get on the car, push the button and have faith that when the car stops they will arrive at their destination.

There are those, however, who believe that once they become a Christ follower, they must work to earn righteousness or holiness. They are like those who think to take the stairs to the top. The myth is that the staircase of works goes there--in fact it is a Stairmaster, taking the walker nowhere at all. There were so many wonderful ah-ha moments for us I can't write them all but if you are interested please feel free to click on the link above to hear what he had to say.

Having the refreshment of fellowship with like-minded believers was just what we needed, even though we still had things to do to be ready for Sunday's visit by the new home owners. We were really glad we went.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit later than I had planned. I was up in the night and then made the mistake of going back to bed--that always leaves me a little groggy, and Sunday morning was worse than usual. We went to Panera for breakfast, then back to the house to get busy. I vacuumed the house while Ornery shuffled the rest of the stuff that had to be moved out of the way. There are mountains of boxes in the garage and dining room now, but most of the other rooms are beginning to echo quite loudly. The exception is our bedroom which looks like a minor disaster has occurred leaving a huge mess in its wake.

By the time they arrived at 11:15, we were ready, and I had even packed a couple more boxes! We had fun with them--can't believe how much like us in personality they are. He is a programmer, she is a home maker dedicated to raising her little boy. We laughed and talked and had a great time. They took us out for Mexican Food at a nearby restaurant and we noted that we even shared similar taste in food!

As they were leaving, Megan noticed a dead mole down by the curb. We knew we had moles, and have been walking all over the tunnels for years trying to smash them down. The front and back yards are riddled with them. In all my 51 years I had never seen a mole, so I was surprised at how small it was. Something (probably a dog) had dug it out of the ground and gnawed on it for a bit before leaving it as a gift (?) for us to find. There was a little hole where he had been caught, and I was surprised that the perp didn't go ahead and finish off its booty. Lucky us. ;)

As soon as they left, we were back at it, this time in the garage. Ornery has a bunch of cans and bottles of various oils and fluids that needed to be put in something for transport. He got rid of a few and boxed the rest. Then he put the garden tools and various other odd shaped items into the empty mulch and trash cans and took down the extension ladder and hooks he had used to hang it up. There is still a little bit left to do out there, but I think I can manage it without a problem.

This week is our last week at Miller Manor! I have shuffled a few things from last week's list to this one, but over all, I feel like we are in good shape for the time we have left. The last of the kitchen and our room and bathroom remain, and then all the little last minute things that can't be done until right before we leave.

It's hard to believe it has been a month since we were in Dallas and reading the offer on our house! The time really seems to be flying by. We are so excited and can hardly wait to get moved and begin making Zoe Cottage our own.

Where Did It All Come From??

2011-05-14T16:46:00.000-05:00

I thought surely I had plenty of boxes to pack up my house, but this morning we made another run to pick up more large ones and mirror cartons. I think I will have some small ones left over, but I really didn't think we had this much stuff!

We made much progress today. The kitchen is 80% packed, the spa room is completely emptied of our stuff (the new owners' new living room furniture is there now), and all the packed boxes are either in the garage or the dining room. The laundry/craft room is empty and ready for the desk to move from the office into it tomorrow morning. Ornery disassembled the dining room table and the craft room table, and I have boxed up all but a couple of the wall decor items. I have boxes for the big mirror and two other framed posters, but haven't wrestled them into the boxes yet. That requires some serious contortionism!

All that remains (besides the rest of the kitchen) on this week's list is our bedroom, but I am hesitant to jump right in there just yet. We still have a week to live here and I hate to live out of boxes--or worse, have to do without because I don't know what box something is packed in! So far Ornery has only asked for a couple of things I had already packed, but I know if I get serious in the bedroom I could get into trouble.

Making matters even more interesting has been the crazy weather which should be in the 60's at night and 80's during the day but has reverted back to March temperatures of 40's at night and 60's during the day. I am certainly not unhappy about that turn of events, since I much prefer to be a little cool than hot and sweaty, but it does mean that we are not able to part with all the long sleeved clothes for even the next week.

We are moving several pounds of dust and dirt with us, as I have not been cleaning things as I pack them. They will all need to be washed when we unpack them anyway, so I figured why waste the effort twice. I am surprised, however at all the things I have taken out of the cabinets that are less than clean. I used to think that only happened to old people, that their sight got bad and they couldn't see the dirt. It must mean either I am getting old or my theory was flawed. Neither is a happy thought. :(

Ornery and I have laughed our way through the process of packing, though. I love being married to such a fun guy. I know this could really be stressful, but so far we've done really well and I don't anticipate it being any different once we get moved. Life is really, really good.

Friday the Thirteenth

2011-05-13T13:07:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I finished packing the craft room and started on the kitchen. I have an entire dish-pack box filled with Pampered Chef baking stones, and that wasn’t even all of them! I think that might be a wee bit excessive. When I wonder which pieces to get rid of, however, I don’t seem to be able to part with any of it. This morning I packed another heavy-weight dish box with the rest of the Pampered Chef stones and all but the small size Pyrex dishes. I have also gotten much of the pantry packed, and a few things from other cupboards as needed to fill holes in the boxes.

Before I got too immersed in the packing this morning, I made a run to Atwoods to buy some new tires for the dolly. Seriously, has there ever been a more wondrous store? Even better, the location is about a mile from our new house. I foresee many Saturdays spent wandering the aisles there, especially once we start our garden. Since today was Friday the 13th, they were giving 13% off everything in the store. The wheels ended up costing about $13.00 each. What a spate of 13's! Now if only I can get 13 boxes packed today, I should be nearly to the end of that chore!

I am starting to run out of spaces inside to put the packed boxes, so it is good that the dolly will be operable by tomorrow so we can put some stuff out in the garage. We are trying to keep most of the stuff toward the front end of the house for easy loading--thus it will take less time and cost us less, theoretically. Depending on how quickly they load the truck, however, we may end up paying them to sit around while we are at the closings. I hope not, but I guess it can't be helped if that is the case.

I am glad it is Friday. It is only ten more days until we move, and I am so ready! Well, maybe not the fully-packed sort of ready, but emotionally and mentally I am more than done with all the clutter, and am anxious to get back to my tidy existence. I realize that will take some time, but I fully intend to get one room fully assembled as quickly as I can so I may retreat to it when I get overwhelmed. In fact, Ornery is taking Monday and Tuesday off, and while Elizabeth and I are unpacking boxes Tuesday, he will be painting the master bedroom. Hopefully that room, at least, will be done by Wednesday morning. While he is at work Wednesday through Friday, I will continue with the unpacking, and over the weekend, I hope to get the library painted and settled as well. It seems extremely ambitious at this point, especially after working so hard to get out of here.

The goal is to be able to park in the garage by Memorial Day, and since the boxes are going to mostly be unloaded into the garage, that gives me a week to do a whole lot of unpacking! I would say I probably won’t blog much during that time, but I am sure I will need a break from time to time…

This weekend we have the buyers coming over to take delivery of some furniture they bought and are storing here until closing, and then we will help them move the desk from the office to the craft room. Before they arrive we need to shuffle some of our stuff to make room in the appropriate spots. It is the motivation I need to get things done, I suppose...

Kick in the Pants

2011-05-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much to say for the last few days, so I haven't written anything. I have been very mellow, sleepy and uninterested in doing anything, so I have been pretty quiet. Today, however, I woke up with a bit more energy and zest. In fact, it hit me today as I was recording the times for closing that we are really moving! I have been going through the motions of packing and coordinating but haven't really thought that much about the end of all the work. It is probably good it took so long, since I seem to get really excited and then burn out.

I got most of the rest of the craft room packed up this morning, then went to the moving company place to pick up some more newsprint and some shrink wrap (really wide plastic food wrap) to finish things up. While I was out, a friend from out of town called and asked if we could meet for lunch, so that took up most of the rest of the afternoon.

Throughout the day, however, I was in contact with the buyer of our house, and it looks like we will be busy with them this weekend. They are keeping my desk and coming over so we can help them move it to the other end of the house. They are also meeting a delivery driver for some furniture they purchased but must have delivered. Long story shortened, but we agreed to have them deliver it here so they wouldn't have to pay for an extra POD to move it in.

That means I will have to really get on the ball tomorrow and Friday to get things out of the way. It might be just the motivation I need to get my list done. I clearly need some sort of motivation!

Weekend in Review: Two Weeks Left!

2011-05-08T15:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day! It has been a quiet weekend here at Miller Manor, and we have delighted in the reprieve from all the work! We slept in both yesterday and today. Saturday we spent several hours at Ornery's workplace, ostensibly to shred a couple bags of papers, but after wearing out the shredder we ended up going through his desk to lighten the load there for the upcoming move to the new building. Apparently the president said they didn't want to move any unnecessary stuff, so they should clear out the stuff they didn't need. Alrighty!

We drove by our new house--it is hard to stay away!--then picked up a few paint swatches at the nearby Lowe's. Then we went by the library and Ornery picked up a dozen books on garages to figure out a scheme to make his new man-cave as functional and pleasant as he can. We spent the rest of the day reading and lounging around.

Today I packed up most of the craft room and Ornery mowed the lawn. While I was in the craft room I noticed some bugs in the window. I asked him if they were inside or out, and indeed they were in. Fear always rears its ugly head when I see winged insects like that, but it turned out that they were only ants, not termites. Whew. Still not fun, but nothing that we need to stress over. I don't know how they come in, but I am sure there are plenty of little places exposing the inside to the outside.

Now we are waiting on the burgers to cook on the grill, our second meal at home today! This week I pack up the kitchen, so eating at home will be less likely by the end of the week, but I do plan to leave a few things out for us to cook and eat with that will go in a box to be unpacked first thing in the new house.

Other than packing, my week is completely devoid of commitments. I can't remember the last time that happened! We are down to the last two weeks before the move. It can't happen quickly enough!! I am so glad I have been packing for a while and I don't have the whole house to do now. This week besides the kitchen and the rest of the craft room is the master bed and bath. That is pretty much the rest of the house. I have some work left in almost every room, but it is minimal and I have left the last week to take care of that stuff.

It has finally decided to warm up and be summer, a state we were beginning to wonder about having deserted us this year. I can't say I love the heat, but I have most of my warm clothes packed up and it wasn't fun being cold!

Happy Friday!

2011-05-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

I think someone must have been messing with the calendar pages and left a few days out! How did we get to May 6th so fast? Sunday is Mother's Day, a week from today is Ryan and Ale's second anniversary (?!?) and in two weeks (5/19) Ornery and I will celebrate our 32nd year as husband and wife. I have sure lost track of the time--one of the benefits (or side-effects) of being so immersed in a project I guess!

Ornery has been dreaming big-time about his new garage. I am surprised he doesn't have a floor plan all drawn out and a list of materials to buy right after we move. :) He is very excited about his work shop. As for me, I have just been plugging away at my lists with momentary flashes of excitement for how it will be at Zoe Cottage. Right now it just looks like a lot of work in my future!

The living room looks really naked without the mobile and pictures up. The only decoration still in place is on the mantle where the clocks and large painting are waiting for us to carry them away in our car. Those beige walls are really blah now, and even after all the Realtors telling me how appealing they are to buyers, I still just don't get it. I hope it isn't too long until we can paint in the new house. There are a few rooms we may leave, but I have already picked colors for several of them. :) The bull-nosed corners might be a bit of a challenge if we don't want to continue around them with a new color, but I am sure we will figure it out.

I got all the errands run yesterday, so I think I should be able to stay home today. I plan to start on a dish pack in the kitchen since I still have several glass things on the bar that need to be packed, and then work on finishing up in the garage. I am not really excited about washing out the garbage cans and all the gardening tools, but I suppose it won't kill me. :)

Packin' It All Up

2011-05-05T07:35:00.014-05:00

Only 17 more days and a wake-up until we move!! I can't believe how fast the days are rolling by, and I am pleased to have most of this week's list already finished.

I got the garage essentially done yesterday, and last night Ornery emptied the shed except for the gas powered lawn equipment. There are still items that I don't know how to pack, things like tool boxes (a box of those would be terribly heavy!) and some power tools such as a wet grinder and the scroll saw. Then, I still have to figure out a good way to transport a shelf-full of assorted oily car related products that the movers don't want to put on the truck. We still need to take down the mobile in the living room and air up the dolly tires to move boxes around once we move. I don't know how every tire in the place gets flat so quickly, but the tires on the dolly, wheelbarrow and hose cart are all flat as pancakes. Ornery bought some slime to put in them, and hopefully that will help keep them bouncy enough to use.

The chimney repair man came yesterday afternoon and fixed the cracks in the chimney. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we don't have anything else break down before we move. I hope for the new owners' sake that if anything else is going to fail, it will happen while it is under warranty, and that they will have a good life here at Miller Manor since we have fixed so many things already.

Ornery and I talked quite a while about how to set up the new garage, and we think we have a workable plan. We had thought to use a slatwall system, but after pricing it and considering our needs, we opted for a different storage solution. We have a lot of pegs for a regular peg board, and for the most part those are efficient for storing things off the work surface but easily in sight. We'll hang a couple 8 foot sections of that along the long wall above where his work benches will be. Then we plan to build in a large (6'W X8'H X2'D) cupboard with doors on it at the front end of the small bay to house all the stuff we have had out on shelves in this garage. Hopefully it will keep the stuff cleaner--a major consideration since he is going to be doing a lot of saw-dust creating in there. Then, we will paint the cabinets, existing shelves and work benches all the same color so it will look like it is supposed to go together. I think he is almost as excited about the garage as he is about the rest of the house! I am thrilled for him to have a "man cave" and still have it look nice. Now if he can remember to put things away after each project...

Today is de-clutter day. Every room has a mess in it that needs to be straightened up. I don't mean just the piles of packed boxes--I intend to leave them scattered around to make the loading easier, but the little piles of papers, empty boxes, and clutter seem to be multiplying like unattended rabbits. Part of the problem is that I have packed enough things that my usual storage spots are not available, but I don't think I can handle the mess too many more days. I am glad to have the chance to stay at home and take care of all this. I can't imagine having a job and trying to move!

Fuzzy Headed

2011-05-03T19:52:00.061-05:00

I can't remember the last time I stayed up reading until 1:00 AM but I did that last night and was a little fuzzy headed this morning as a result. Despite the short night, I woke up at 5:30 and got busy right away, beginning with the laundry and doing some online requests for change of address to the magazines we subscribe to. Since it usually takes them a couple of months to switch all that over, I am guessing there shouldn't be any problem with the magazines arriving before we move. I love it that all that can be handled online without mailing anything or making calls to automated systems and waiting forever on the line for a real person to pick up the phone. Yay doodies for technology!

I also wrote a letter to my aunt, then realized I had packed my stamps. :( She is one of the few people who still send personal snail-mail, although I seem to have offended her and her letters have been rare as hen's teeth of late. Then I finished laundry from last week, and started the whole process all over again. I don't know how we go through so many clothes, but it seems like every couple of days I have two or three loads of laundry to do. I packed a few boxes in the craft room, emptying out the little closet there.

My pj day ended at 10:30 when I finally had some clean clothes to wear, and I went out to run some errands including the purchase of some stamps to mail my letter. I stopped at the end of the drive to pick up my mail on my way out and found the renewal notice for one of the car tags so I thought I might just go ahead and take care of that while I was out since I would be right next to the tag agency. I was surprised to find that I had no current insurance verification form so I made a quick call to the insurance agent and had them email it to me. It took a while for it to arrive, but I am safe again. I am sure glad I haven't been stopped by the police for anything!

Ornery fixed the plumbing issue when he got home--it has to be a first that he didn't have to make more than one trip to Lowe's to finish the project!--and we went out for dinner. It was a productive day, and one filled with good news--our house appraised at or above the sales price (they don't tell you exactly how much), and my sister in Tucson sold her house within a week of putting it on the market for $30K more than they listed it for. Four people looked at it and all made offers. The buyer had been looking in that neighborhood of 49 houses for a couple of years. He really wanted to live there, but it is also a beautiful home and move-in ready.

I like happy days like that, even if they do start out fuzzy!

I Wish It Was All Done...

2011-05-02T19:29:00.000-05:00

The day didn't pan out quite like I thought it would, but it's all good. I went with Ornery to the chiropractor this morning, then dropped off some papers for the Realtor. I worked at home for a bit finishing up more of the office, then I packed two wardrobes from our closet. It almost echoes in there! :)

My lunch date cancelled, so around noon I ventured out again to run a couple of errands, stopping first at JC Penney's to decide how many and what style of dishes I should get... I couldn't decide so I didn't get any. When I came home, I gathered all the make and model numbers of the appliances for the home warranty and emailed them to the Realtor, then started working on the garage. I am SOOOO glad I spent so much time organizing it over the last year. We got rid of a lot of stuff, and it has made packing it up a lot easier than I feared. I actually made a lot of progress, but there are many items I have no idea how to pack or if I should even try to box them up.

When Ornery came home from work he helped me for a while out there, removing the flag pole holder and other little items from outside. While he was taking all the quick connect parts off the faucets and hose, he discovered that the front faucet needs a new washer put in it as it is dripping quite a bit. He is off to buy the part now. I sure hope our new house doesn't have any plumbing problems, but at least he finally got the toilet fixed...

I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow. I may make it a PJ day and do laundry and pack things in the craft room. Wednesday afternoon the chimney repair guy is to come and fix the chimney if the weather permits. I guess he doesn't want to be up on the roof in a thunder storm. If I do go out, it will be to take a load of stuff to the Goodwill donation center as I have come across a few things I missed on the last round.

If the weather is nice tomorrow evening, we might start hauling things from the shed to the garage so the movers have fewer steps to make (thus taking less time to load, saving us $$). I will wash out all but one of the garbage cans and use them to put things in like shovels, rakes, etc. There are quite a few things that will travel well that way, and since the movers suggested it...

Both Ornery and I said today how much we wish we were already moved, but since we aren't, we are making the best of it. Other than wondering how to pack things, I've had a pretty good attitude and have not gone into "overwhelmed mode." Elizabeth is planning to take the day after closing off from work and coming to help us unpack. I will certainly be glad for the help at that point. I have enough time to pack, but I will be anxious to unpack and get settled. I think it will take most of the summer to really make it home.

Weekend in Review: Three More WEEKS!!

2011-05-01T16:59:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed church last night--the first time we've been in ages--even though the attendance was really light due to the women's retreat that took about 1/2 the congregation away for the weekend. We are starting to feel like we are a part of that group, which is a nice change for us.

I didn't fully complete my list for the week, but very nearly, and since I packed one room scheduled for next week, I think I am ahead. I only have a few items left in the office--mostly things that I don't know what to do with. I still have a few of those on the bar in the living room as well, so I might just put them all in a box together.

Ornery and I went to Walmart today to buy some totes to store all his camping gear in. They will be stored in the garage at the new house, and the two 36 gallon totes contained all the supplies exactly! There was no extra room and nothing left out. We also went to Office Depot and bought some banker boxes to move the files from our file cabinets in. We have not had good luck moving them full, so we decided to empty them--and I am sure they will travel better. The banker boxes fit the hanging files perfectly, making packing and unpacking very easy. Our rewards card covered most of the expense, so they ended up being much cheaper than the counterparts offered by the moving company.

It has been cool and rainy all day today, which has lent itself to making us sleepy. It feels much like a fall day, but the green grass and leaves belies that notion. We have worked in a desultory fashion, but I suppose accomplished enough to say we weren't complete slackers. :) At any rate, the closet, which was completely full before the weekend, is now almost completely empty, and all the book shelves have been cleared with the exception of Ornery's plastic models--which have me baffled for a way to transport them safely.

This week I have to schedule the chimney repairs and get them done, have lunch with a friend and continue with the packing. Garage, shed and the last of the rooms I have already "finished" are slated for completion this week. I also have a Dr. appointment with the chiropractor and an appointment to meet up with the Realtors at some point to hand off a form.

Time sure does seem to be flying by. Here we are already in May, and only 22 more days until we are in our new digs! We spent a lot of time planning where to put things this weekend, and even found a great solution for the craft room storage. It will be fun to set things up in a new way--I just hope I can find everything when I am done!

Bummer.

2011-04-30T17:21:00.000-05:00

The buyers decided we were being too fortunate, I suppose, and are asking for chimney repairs of $180. to be performed. Bummer. The TRR Supplemental not only stated which repairs they wanted done, but also the company that was to do them, so we can't even shop for a better price. Oh, well.

The weather here has been gorgeous today, and we enjoyed a fairly long outing at Lowe's then lunch with Elizabeth and Jeff at a little cafe near our house called Duffy's, then a stroll through the beautiful plants and other gardening accouterments at a local nursery called Southwood. It is high dollar, but they do have some beautiful things.

While we were at Lowe's we bought some reading material, and spent most of the afternoon leisurely perusing it. Ornery is out filling the cars with gas--it was nice of him to do that without me so I didn't have to see the price!

Big Sigh of Relief!

2011-04-29T14:19:00.000-05:00

Ornery and I are so relieved to learn that the buyer of our house did not file a TRR Supplemental requiring us to make any repairs, and that the appraiser will not be asking for any repairs either. We'll find out for sure about the price and its comparability to other similar homes sold in our area next Tuesday or so, which would indicate whether or not the house will appraise at or above the sale price. I think it will without any problem.

We are looking forward to a very nice relaxing weekend knowing that all the things that had been hanging over our heads are gone. Elizabeth says she is coming into town for a visit and it will be nice to not be so busy trying to get things done while she is here.

Can I tell you how relieved I am???!

Appraisal Day

2011-04-29T08:19:00.000-05:00

Despite the heaviness in my heart for those throughout the south who have lost family members and all their earthly possessions to the horrible tornadoes yesterday, life continues to march forward here. Sometimes when a person is going through a tragedy it is hard to imagine that there are other people who are living as though nothing untoward has happened. It almost seems irreverent to do anything but mourn.

Today the appraiser is to come and do his job at Miller Manor. I understand that we are not out of the woods yet for repairs as he could find any number of things that we'd have to fix in order for the closing to occur. Such is the way with appraisals, and especially for FHA loans. According to our contract, we are on the hook for up to $1,000., but I doubt he will find that much. I am hoping for no repairs and at least the sales price for the value. Our new house appraised for $500. over what we are buying it for. That is just right--enough over to make us feel like we got a good deal but not so much that the buyer feels gypped. The same company that appraised our new house is doing this one.

Once he leaves, I will hit the packing again. I was a total slacker yesterday, not doing a single thing of any value to anyone except doing a bit of dumpster diving for a handful of used boxes and starting the laundry. I missed a friend's birthday, discovering it on my calendar just as I was going to bed, and that made me sad. I do look forward to being moved and past all this busy-ness, even though it hasn't really been terribly stressful -- or at least as much as I anticipated. And that is a good thing!

Wearing Blinders

2011-04-28T05:06:00.000-05:00

It seems like my world has taken on a very narrow view and perspective, all revolving around relocation of our personal possessions. I rarely go anywhere except to take care of errands relating to the move, and I am so focused on the various details I don't remember the last time I did anything else! I imagine reading the daily updates has been somewhat dry but there is a part of me that won't let me cease the prattle.

Last night I got a call from my Realtor letting me know that the buyer would like to have a fireplace inspection this morning at 10:30. He seemed to think they would not be filing a TRR supplemental (for repairs) which would release us of any further responsibilities toward repairs, but that they wanted to check to see if the fireplace starter is something that might be repaired in the future. They only have until the end of today to file the supplemental, and I am hoping they won't surprise us and require us to fix the thing.

I finished packing two rooms yesterday, (the dining room and spa room) and only lack one box of finishing in the living room. The remaining items are very fragile bone china plates and some glass pitchers, and I am a little nervous about how best to pack them.

A trip mid-morning to the scrapbook store where I participated in the garage sale a couple of weeks ago netted a $52.00 check (much more than I anticipated!) and a carload of empty boxes. Some of the boxes were useless, being too small for anything, but there were several sturdy ones that will be great for books and glassware. I have already used several.

Today, other than the fireplace inspection, I hope to finish up the office and that last box in the living room. I also need to do some laundry. That will leave tomorrow and the weekend to work on transcription and locate more boxes. I still haven't even started on the first message yet, and I am feeling a little sad about that. However, since this is only Thursday, and I have almost my entire list done (except the office) I am confident I will be able to do one message this week and not have anything else hanging over my head while I do it. Next week's list is fairly light in comparison, so maybe I can get more than one done then.

Only 26 days left!

Minor Detour

2011-04-27T07:14:00.009-05:00

Well, I hadn't planned to pack the living room this week, but since we had to move the wall units (which were full of stuff) to stretch the carpet, I ended up doing just that yesterday. Ornery was supposed to have helped me move the bed before work but since we overslept, he ended up coming home for lunch. I spent the morning emptying the units and packing them up, and when he came he helped me move them and the bed. As it turned out, the carpet guy ended up moving them all over the room anyway, but at least they were empty making it fairly easy.

As for the paint spot under the bed, our memories had it much larger than it actually turned out to be, and the guy used a razor and shaved a lot of the paint off the surface. It is still there, but much less noticeable, and considering the overall shabbiness of the carpet, I don't think it will matter much in the big scheme of things. At any rate, he didn't charge me to do that, so I ended up paying less than I had budgeted for the job--always a happy coincidence!

Each day I have made significant progress on my lists. The rooms are looking sparser and the piles of packed boxes are appearing all over the house. The most complicated aspect of the whole move seems to be figuring out how to pack things so they won't be broken when they arrive at the new house. If we moved all the breakables in our car, we would have to make a dozen trips, so I am trying to keep the things we move ourselves to a minimum by carefully packing most things to travel on the truck. People have been moving things across the country for years and having little breakage, so I know it is possible.

I got all the crystal from the curio cabinet packed in one of the stout boxes we got from Jeff and Elizabeth, and plan to fill a second box just like it with glass from the wet bar in the living room today. There will still be more glass, but I have been promised three dish-packs as soon as they are back in stock at the moving company. I have about four more boxes of books to pack in the office, and then all the stuff in the closet there. At the moment I have a love/hate relationship going with walk-in closets! They hold a lot of stuff...

The new house doesn't have large closets in the small bedrooms, but the master more than makes up for the lack! In fact, I will have enough room in the new closet to house all my clothes so I plan to put the armoire I am currently using for that purpose in the craft room to store office and craft supplies. We are still trying to figure out how it will all work, but each day more pieces fall into place.

I have high hopes for finishing at least one of the four rooms I have started today. The easiest would be the spa room, followed by the living room and dining room. The most stuff is in the office, but I have been avoiding it rather assiduously. :) I don't know why I tend to flit from one room to another, starting and stopping frequently, but that seems to be how I roll these days, and at the end of the week the list seems to be all crossed off, so I don't suppose it really matters.

Just 27 more days!!!

A Little Giddy

2011-04-26T07:27:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was an exceptional day! I got several boxes packed in the office, emptied the desk, and ran several errands. The best part of the day was in the evening when the inspectors descended on Miller Manor in a swarm and declared our home fit as a fiddle! They even thanked us for having such a nice house to inspect. I can only imagine the things they find, but we worked really hard to make it easy for them, and go well for us!

Besides the two of us and the buyers the following people were roaming the house all at once: both Realtors, the buyer's insurance agent, a structural engineer, two people for electrical, mechanical and plumbing, a security system inspector, the termite inspector, and the buyer's dad. It was pretty hectic there for a while, but we answered any questions they might have, and in the end they all gave their reports.

We have to lower the little electronic eyes in the garage that make the garage door go up if there is anything in the way, but otherwise we have NO REPAIRS!! AND the buyers said they would keep the desk, so we don't have to move it! Yeah! There were only two other things they noted: one was the bathtub drain plug doesn't work (I had a rubber stopper there for that reason) and the other was the gas starter in the fireplace doesn't work, but since the fireplace still works without it, neither one was added to the repairs list.

Ornery and I were so happy last night we could hardly sleep! In fact, I was up for a couple of hours in the night, and we both overslept the alarm!

One of the errands I ran yesterday was to take my Social Security card by the mortgage company for them to copy. While I was there, they asked if we were ready for them to order the appraisal, and since we have finished with the inspections on the other house, I had them go ahead and do it. That should be back in about a week or so. The appraisal on our house should be coming up pretty soon, as well. All seems to be proceeding apace, and it looks like we really could close on the 23rd as scheduled!

I stopped by the moving company to see if they had more used boxes, but they were out. I hope they call me soon, as my supply will be gone by the end of this week, and I still have a LOT of stuff to pack! Someone said that I could get boxes at WalMart late at night or early in the morning-- I would like to wait a bit and hopefully avoid that, but I may have to go that route.

The only blight on the day was that the hall toilet is still leaking, despite Ornery's last attempts at stopping it. I don't know what he has planned for it next, but I wouldn't blame him if it involved a bit of TNT and a match. :)

This afternoon, the people are scheduled to come patch a piece of carpet in the master bedroom and stretch the carpet in the living room. They said that we don't have to move the furniture to stretch the carpet in the living room, but I don't know how they will do it if we don't. This morning I will be getting things ready for that--moving the bed and emptying the wall units in case they decide they really DO need to be moved. It should be another busy day!

Weekend in Review: Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T19:09:00.000-05:00

It has continued to rain all weekend, with intermittent clashes of thunder thrown in for good measure. It has been a fairly gentle flow, however, so the plants should be delighted. The dark skies have encouraged Ornery and me to spend a great deal of time with our eyes closed. Sleeping. Napping. It has been a nice little reprieve from our hectic schedule and one we both apparently needed.

Despite a horrendously late start to the day (2:00!) we managed to get the last few things done on our list, with the exception of the toilet, which Ornery is currently taking apart "one last time" to see if he can get it fixed. Goodness, what a nightmare that has been!

We did get the last bit of painting done, at least we hope it is the last! We had failed to paint inside the coat closet trim about six inches from the floor. While we had the paint out, we filled all the holes and painted the filler, then touched up a few little places where the paint was thin. We also got the gold paint from the hall and spa room, and I filled several holes and painted them and a small area that had been missed altogether when we painted the hall five years ago. How I never saw that until this week, I don't know! Anyway, it is all done now.

I have added a few more things to this week's list, including the first message of a series I am transcribing for Impact Ministries. They are working on getting all of Dr. Richards' messages in eBook format, and I have volunteered to do some typing and/or editing. I just got my first assignment on Thursday. I have never done any transcription work before, but I can't imagine it will be too difficult. I am looking forward to being part of the project, though. This first series is eight messages that are about an hour long each. My goal is to have this series done by the time we move. Once I get all the stuff packed and other jobs done on my list, I will not have a lot else to do, so I think it is possible to accomplish that in four weeks.

I have also had time to think more about how I want to decorate various rooms in our new house, and have come up with the name for it: Zoe Cottage. The architectural design is a French country cottage style, and when I did a search for Zoe House, there were lots of other things using that name. Once we move, I will be starting a new blog by that name and leaving this one behind. I secured the blog address, but haven't done anything else with it yet.

We are scheduled to close (and MOVE) four weeks from tomorrow! I am SO EXCITED!

Counting Down: One week down, four to go

2011-04-23T16:29:00.000-05:00

The list I made for this past week included the guest room, the halls and guest bathroom. They are all empty, items are all packed, and I even spent an hour vacuuming the rugs and cleaning the window and mini-blinds in the guest room. It was surprisingly dirty! The capiz shells I had in the guest room are going to be hung in our bathroom at the new house. There is a window above the garden tub where they will look lovely hanging over the wooden blinds. Those took a while to pack, since each strand needed to be carefully stacked and put in a small zipper bag. I still don't have them in a box yet, but that is about all I don't have packed from that room. Ornery disassembled the guest bed, and other than the parts to the bed, one chair and a book case, the only thing left in that room is one large box of pictures that was too heavy for me to move by myself. I also packed all the smaller framed pictures and all the posters that were not behind glass using rugs, blankets and towels. All the filled boxes and suitcases are in the dining room. We figured the less traffic on the rugs the better they would look at closing.

Ornery is still fighting with the hall toilet--it drips about once an hour, but enough to be irritating! He noted that the tub in that room also was draining slowly, so we bought some liquid plumber to put down there to clean it out. Works great, now! He spent a couple of hours going through some of his stuff, sorting it better than what it had been. I can't say he got rid of a lot (as in none!) but at least he feels better about finding things, and the things he has are more condensed.

He is currently in the master shower with a scrub brush and a barrel of elbow grease. We have fought the mildew in that shower ever since the first time we used it, and despite having the grout replaced in it, we still have mildew in all the same spots we did before we paid to have it done. We are thrilled that there is NO grout in either bathroom at our new house!

We only have a couple things left on this week's list--cleaning out the water heater closet in the garage is one of them, and scrubbing a strange looking spot on the garage stem-wall is another. We have noticed a few places that need some paint touch-ups, so that will also happen this weekend. The new owner has inspections on Monday, and we want things to be in tip-top shape for that! We know for sure they will make us raise the water heater, but we are hoping that is our only required "repair" before closing. We will also have to have a small area of the carpet in our room replaced, but we have plenty of carpet to replace it with, so it shouldn't be a problem once we find someone who can do it.

We still haven't found anyone who wants our desk. We are going to ask the buyers if they are interested, if not, I'll donate it next week. It would be ideal if they wanted to keep it! The office is on next week's list, along with the remaining few items in the spa room and the dining room. Mostly all that needs to be done in there is the curio cabinet, but that is pretty full since I keep finding more glass in various rooms to pack with the contents I already had in there.

I am glad I didn't plan outside work for this weekend since it has rained and rained! We had a bit of hail yesterday, but I don't think it did any damage here. The water has sure greened things up, though. It feels really good to have a plan and be on schedule for completing things. I am feeling confident that we will be ready when the movers arrive, and that is a great feeling!

Good Friday

2011-04-22T09:23:00.000-05:00

Well, there are two interpretations of my title--Good Friday as in the holy day, and good it's Friday as in glad the week is almost over! Ornery gets a 1/2 day holiday today--from his paid job, anyway. ;)

The movers came yesterday to give an estimate, and it is about what I thought it would cost--around $1,000. to move the whole house, and we ARE having them move it all except for the few things we will take in the cars. They brought some boxes and I went by their warehouse and picked up some newsprint for packing the glass things. I will need many more boxes before it is all done, but at least I can get a good start on the project.

I had started packing a few things in the boxes I already had, but didn't get very far. I have been really sleepy all week, and not wanting to do much of anything, but today I got up revved and rarin' to go. We dropped off the Jeep to get the oil changed (it has been whining for over a month that it was time...) and then I drove Ornery to work. I will swing by and pick him up on the way to the new house for the pest inspection later this morning, then we'll go pick the Jeep up on the way back home.

Unfortunately, they called and told us that the rear end needs to be redone, and it would cost probably double what the car is actually worth to have it fixed. We'll bring it home and park it in the driveway, with the intention of trading it in after we move. They guy said it was in really bad shape and could go out any time, but that the rear end was a very common problem with that vehicle. I am thinking that ALL problems are common with them as we have sure had our share since we've had it!

Meanwhile, I have been working on packing the rooms I had set for this week: the guest room, the hall and entry hall closets, and the guest bathroom. Ornery will disassemble the guest bed sometime this weekend so it will be ready to go. He is already ahead of my schedule in some areas since he took apart the sauna last night. He has been very devoted to the task of completing the items on his list without me having to say anything to him or a word of complaint on his end. I am married to such a good guy!

We have already had a moving casualty, as I had propped my ribbon rack against the wall in the guest room and it fell over. I didn't realize there were no screws in it (Ornery ALWAYS uses screws!) and it was just held together with glue. It came all apart! It is salvageable, but repairs won't happen for a good while. Until then the ribbon rolls are stored in a couple of plastic storage boxes.

Despite all my purging and organizing over the last couple of years, we still have a lot of extra stuff. Who needs seven indoor extension cords and five extra power strips? Ornery is notorious for buying two when one would do, but I can't blame it all on him. It seems like we start into a project thinking we have something and can't find it, so we buy another one. Since we move so infrequently, those lost things don't appear with regularity, but as I am unearthing things in closets I rarely visit, I am realizing we have bought another one a few too many times!

Back to the packing!

Dreaming in Color

2011-04-20T16:10:00.002-05:00

This morning we had the inspections at the new house. There were a few things the seller will need to fix, but it wasn't too bad. At least it wasn't after I had a nap, at the time it seemed insurmountable! Looking around at the house more closely, I noticed that the whole thing will need to be repainted--in and out--in the next year or two. It is tired looking.

The curtains are all awful, but everyone has their own opinions on those, anyway. The tub didn't drain, the laundry room sink has a leak, and the biggest issue seems to be that the fireplace is vented out of the wall instead of the roof, and even though it is only gas logs, the fact that there is a wooden pergola and a wooden soffit directly above the vent caused the inspector to think it would be a fire hazard. The Realtor, however, said that they have been doing that for years and had no problems. We'll see how it all comes out. I would be just as happy without the fireplace at all, and I really can't see us using it, but it would be a shame should we ever decide to sell and have to deal with it then. It would be nice, however, in the event that we have another ice storm and have no electricity.

The pest inspection is on Friday, but we already found carpenter ants in the library window. That was not a happy find. Ornery wasn't worried about any of it, and came away pretty excited. I was just too tired to deal with anything negative today. I wasn't weepy, but nigh unto. I was thinking the whole time, "we'll have to find another house!" Good thing he was there to bring everything into perspective.

After that was finished, I came home and took a nap. Despite three phone calls in the midst of it, I rested enough to wake a little cheerier. I decided I should get out and do something fun, so I took myself over to Target to buy a gift card, then to JC Penney's to buy a wash cloth we had scoped out last weekend to use for selecting a bedroom paint color. (I found the bedspread I liked at Walmart of all places...) While there I also bought one of the salad plates (in green) from this set, in hopes of getting at least two full place settings for us to use for everyday. I am also drooling over these dishes from Pier 1...

The color of towels we found is called Perfect Celedon, and we will pair it with Perfect Oregano. The bedroom will be painted a lighter shade of the celedon, and the curtains will be the oregano. The bathroom which adjoins it will be painted latte (I think). There are sheets the same color light green, which was a very happy find, so now all I have to do is find a bed spread and I'll be set!

After Penney's I went to Lowe's to pick up paint swatches and two little magnets to replace the ones that are broken on the dining room shutters. Ornery finished painting that window sill last night, so once these are replaced, that room will be ready for inspection.

I noticed today that all the magnets on the library shutters at the new house are broken off, too. Fortunately they are fairly inexpensive, since there were about 12 of them missing! We may decide it is worth the extra money to put in metal instead of plastic, since they obviously have a short lifespan.

Outside, now that things are fairly greened up, we noticed that we have a LOT of work to do, taking out undesirable shrubs and trees, trimming stuff, and removing the things that didn't survive the winter. The sprinkler system is a nice perk, although I am not sure how much use it will get, since we don't really water the grass. I suppose it will be handy for the flower beds and eventually the garden, though.

Ornery is really excited about the postage stamp yard--ten minutes of mowing and he'll be done, unlike the hour or more it takes to mow and edge this one. The fence is marginal, and will probably only last a few more years, but there are NO DOGS in the yards surrounding us!! YAY! I heard one bark the first time we looked at the place, but have never heard anything else the other times we have been there. I cannot express how happy I am about that situation! The couple buying our house have two big dogs, a Rottweiler and a Golden Retriever or lab, I don't remember which. Makes me glad they aren't moving in next door to me.

Tomorrow afternoon, the moving company will come to give an estimate, and to bring some packing materials and boxes. Then the work begins in earnest! I am glad I took today "off" and got some much needed rest. I haven't fully recovered from traveling last week, and even though I have slept well each night, I haven't really felt "done" in the morning all week. Ornery has had some of the same issues, and today hit the alarm several times before finally rising! It will be months before things slow down very much for us, but I think it will be worth it.

Details, details, details

2011-04-20T05:42:00.001-05:00

Tuesday started with breakfast here, then meeting with the Realtor at 9:00 to give her a couple more papers that had to be signed. After she left, I tried to take a nap because I was so sleepy. It didn't work, though. :(

I never did finish the cooking, but I called and made an earlier appointment to take care of the loan application, and met Ornery at the bank building across town at about 10:00. We locked in on a 20 year fixed rate of 4.5%, which I thought was a pretty good deal! All the closing costs and down payment will be paid from the proceeds of the sale of Miller Manor, so we won't have to come up with any more money at closing, except to pay the movers.

In the early afternoon I sat down with my lists and divided the work load across the five remaining weeks to get a plan. The project seems pretty big to me and I needed a place to start. As I explained to Ornery later that evening, this weeks list is longer, but I imagine that as we go along, each week will flush out a few more details that will need to be added. This one is longer due to preparations for the inspections next week.

The teen needing a scrapbook for her swim team banquet arrived with her mom at 4:15. We did 20 pages in 4 hours, and finished the project. She was very pleased and I am elated to have it finished. When I was scrapbooking for pleasure, about the best I could do was one page per hour. Obviously we didn't do a lot of embellishing, but these pages were better than most of the ones I did when I first started out. From what I gathered it will likely be one of the better ones on display at the banquet Thursday night. I don't really care, I am just glad to have that behind me.

While I was waiting for them to arrive, I made a couple of wedding cards to send to couples for whom we have gotten invitations this week. I used the colors of the invitation to make the cards so they matched. :) One was black and white, the other peach and pink. I just need to buy one more gift card, then I won't have to worry about missing the deadline or finding the stuff a year from now realizing I had never mailed it!

While I was working with the girls in the studio, Ornery finished up the dining room windowsill and primed the outside of the back door. He is making much more progress on his list than I am on mine! Once the women left Ornery and I had a nice little visit, ruminating on the joys of being married to your best friend and placing the other person's joy above your own. I'll leave it to your imagination as to why after spending four hours in the company of near strangers I might have a renewed appreciation for my own marriage!

This morning we have the first inspections at the new house, so I will be trotting over there with my tape measure and notebook to get some measurements and start making lists for after the move. Once I get home, I will begin packing. I have to start sometime...

Caught in the Whirlwind!

2011-04-19T04:48:00.011-05:00

It has been challenging to get everything done each day, but I am clipping along fairly well. Yesterday morning, I started out at 5:30 in the kitchen, reheating a quiche I had made the week before for a quick breakfast, finishing the last of the laundry, and then taking a shower. We had a chiropractor appointment at 7:15, then I followed Ornery to the car rental place to drop off the car and take him to work. While on the way, I scheduled appointments for the engineering inspection and termite inspection. When I got home, I took care of the insurance call, and contacted a mortgage company about financing. We were already pre-approved for two other companies, but this one is the same one the buyer of our house is using, so it would make closing much less strained.

Meanwhile, the phone kept me hopping. Friends, relatives, Realtors, and assorted other house sale related calls took up a good amount of my time amidst the cooking chores I had set for myself. I started two roasts in the crock-pot, then put the chicken on to cook, and in another pan began searing some meat for stew. By noon, I had the chicken chopped and part of it in a pot of chicken chili, the stew made and in the freezer, and everything ready to make hobo dinners for dinner.

I stopped for hot dogs for lunch, then back at it to make chicken salad for today's lunch, macaroni and cheese, and hamburger patties to freeze. Since I had dropped Ornery off in the morning, I had to go back for him at 4:00. Then at 6:30 the buyers of our house wanted to come by to see into the attic, which had been blocked when they came to see it before. We had a really nice visit with them, and showed them a number of things about the house to keep them excited! :)

After they left, I put the roasts in the refrigerator to deal with today, 1/2 of which will be made into chimichangas, the other for Easter dinner with Jeff and Elizabeth. That pretty well takes care of meals for the next five weeks! By the time we move, the freezer should be empty, the pantry bare, and the refrigerator ready to unplug for a couple of days. By cooking so much ahead, I won't have to worry about keeping out spices and stuff like that, but we won't have to eat out either.

Today, I have some packages to mail, the finance appointment this afternoon, and a scrapbook to help with this evening. Ornery and I are trying to tie up the last little loose ends before they come to inspect and appraise the house. The back door needs to be painted, the dining room window sill needs paint, and the bathroom still needs some touch up work done. It seems like we will never get it all done! I could use a clone some days, but so far I am faring okay, despite the frenzied pace we seem to be marching to. I gotta say that I am sleeping really well these days!

Weekend in Review: 4.17.11

2011-04-18T04:33:00.004-05:00

If I had to sum up this weekend with one word it would be tired.

Travel always wears me out, and then the excitement of the move sent me over the top. Yesterday we started out with grocery shopping, followed by Ornery taking a nap, (I would have also taken one except for the exasperating pair of beagles barking and baying in the neighbor's yard when I made the attempt), then stops at several stores to make some returns--items not needed since the house sold.

After that we drove over to the new neighborhood and wandered around for a bit. Our new house is in the most amazing location! There are major stores (Target, Lowe's, a dozen or so big name restaurants, Reasor's grocery store, and more) all within a mile of our new house. We were astounded and thrilled. Our old house is in a very convenient location as well, so I am glad we are not trading "down" in that regard.

We also toured another home in the neighborhood that had an open house sign. It was nice, but much bigger than ours, and way out of our price range! The downstairs area would have been sufficient for us, but the upstairs was made into a little apartment complete with kitchen and sitting room. The Realtor who was sitting in at the open house had been to the broker's open at our house last week, and commented on how cute the house was. Aww.

Plans for an evening outing never materialized either day. We were both just too worn out to want to get out. Maybe next week.

As for this new week, the hundreds of phone calls and all the inspections take place over the next ten days, so I am sure I will be a busy girl. First off is a visit to the chiropractor, then take Dave to work so he can return the rental car--we missed the open hours on Saturday. When I get home, I need to cook all the food we bought yesterday, finish the laundry, and begin the calls as soon as places are open. Later this afternoon, I expect a phone call from someone who wants help with a scrapbook...I said I would, but it would be great if it doesn't take too long.

I am hoping that amongst all those other calls, I will hear back from someone wanting to buy the desk I listed on Craigslist, but if I don't sell it this week or next, I will call AmVets or someplace and donate it. It needs to be someone who will come pick it up. I think I will be pretty busy until the end of the week, and Thursday afternoon I have someone coming to give me an estimate for moving. I should probably call a few places to get some comparisons. Once I have an idea of the cost and logistics for the move, I will begin packing. Good times are ahead.

Let the List Making Begin...

2011-04-17T07:49:00.000-05:00

I am a big proponent of making lists. I love crossing things off and when the page starts to look a little messy, rewriting it to a new clean sheet and adding to it to keep it nice and fluffy looking. In preparation for this move, I am thinking my lists will be forever fluffy and messy!

Today I am focused on the grocery list, however, and getting some food into the house for us to eat over then next five weeks--that's all we have until closing! It will be tricky to find the balance between having enough and none left over to move, but I am sure I can rise to the occasion. :)

I don't have any idea how much I made yesterday at the craft garage sale. Since all the money was handled at the front counter, no one had to mess with the money, which was really nice. There was not the huge turn out that I had been led to believe they would have, and I had a minuscule amount of product compared to many of those women, but I didn't return with much stuff. Part of that is because I didn't sell it all, and part of it is because I made a big donation of the items that were left to the Broken Arrow Senior Center, a local non-profit group that does a lot of volunteer projects in the community, including making several thousand cards for the Blue Star Moms group. I don't know whether or not they will be able to use all the stuff I sent, but I listed it and will take it as a deduction from my taxes.

I only spent $14. of my profits, however meager or large they might be. I didn't sell any of my QuicKutz stuff (except one binder, which leaves me in the lurch for storing the dies, but oh, well) which would have netted me the most amount of money. When they fell out of favor, they fell hard! No one was even looking for that at all. I have about a tote-ful of stuff to find homes for again, but over all, I still have a much leaner studio going into the move to a smaller space.

I dropped by the World Treasures mall to check on my booth there, and while it didn't look like anything had sold, the records showed I have sold $18.00 so far this month. If I can do the same in the second half of the month, then I won't have to pay my rent! :)

The Realtor put the SOLD sign up in the front yard yesterday. With the freshly mowed lawn, it is a nice looking yard ornament! Beginning with breakfast at Panera, I spent the whole day in a state of euphoria. I laughed until my sides hurt as Ornery and I sat at the scrapbook garage sale. I don't even remember what he said that got me going, but I can't remember the last time I belly laughed so long and hard. He is a good best friend.

Today, I am tired and a little overwhelmed. I have a hundred phone calls to make this week, inspections to schedule, financing to arrange, and movers to interview. The list making is a good exercise to help put order to the chaos, but even that seems huge today. Maybe I will get a nap later...

Happy Blogoversary to ME!

2011-04-17T03:44:00.012-05:00

Thoughts from Miller Manor is four years old today! In four years I've written around 1400 posts here. My writing style has changed, (my whole LIFE has changed!) I have met lots of interesting people from all over the world, and I am still loving this venue of putting my thoughts into words.

Happy Blogoversary to me!!

A Little Time in Dallas

2011-04-16T05:21:00.114-05:00

Sunday afternoon, as soon as we finished cleaning up for the open house, we grabbed a bite of lunch and hit the road for Dallas, TX. Ornery had a helicopter simulator to enhance with one of the products from the company he works for, and I had the opportunity to go with him and sit in a hotel room all alone for five days with nothing to do but read. It was heaven!

We had Sunday evening free, but after all the work from the previous week, we opted to dine nearby and go to bed early. Monday, he worked about nine hours in a couple of different shifts, and we were able to spend a little time napping and visiting. Tuesday he went in early in the morning, came home for lunch and ended up staying home the rest of the day because of food poisoning. Wednesday he worked all day and late into the evening, as well as Thursday.

After four breakfasts of powdered eggs, Friday morning we arrived in the breakfast area to smell bacon and I just couldn't do it another day. We bundled ourselves into the rental car and drove about 5 miles to the nearest Panera and enjoyed some real food. We went back to the room to pack and check out, then over to the office for him to finish up. At 2:30 we finally left, but he was victorious and the simulator was fully operational with the new software installed.

On the way home, we laughed about a variety of blog titles we could have used for this post based on the things that happened on our trip.

1. Sixty, the new 45; this because no one in Texas drives the posted speed limit. NO ONE. In fact, Ornery told me that he had heard they were thinking about raising the speed limit on highways there to 85 MPH. Why not? They go that fast all the time anyway!

2. Wrong Side of Town; as we were filling the car with gas, I looked for stuff to wash the windshield and ended up going inside to ask. The man made me promise to bring back the scrubber/squeegee, and had to locate a bucket for water. He asked me if I saw those guys out there in the parking lot, a rag-tag group to be sure, and then said that if he left anything outside it would be gone. We hurried out of there.

3. Naggie Loses her Mind; For the last year or so we have been notified of map updates for the GPS, but since they cost almost as much as a new unit, we opted to just keep using the old ones. This trip was probably Naggie's last one. She has either "recalculated" too many times or spent too many hours in the heat because she would have had us go out of our way several times. Sad to see the old gal go, but when she would have had us exit and take ramp ahead to get back on the same highway, we had to turn her off.

4. You Ain't in Texas Anymore; Ornery drove the entire trip, and did an excellent job of navigating the crazy speed demons of Texas, but he was quite exasperated when we reached Oklahoma to ride behind Dawdle McPutz and his many relatives. They seem to take pleasure in driving in the left lane, just the same speed as those in the right, keeping traffic effectively blocked.

5. Wildflowers and Politics; I have not spent a great deal of time in Texas, but in none of my travels in the past did I see the beautiful blue bonnets in bloom. They are quite thin near the border, but all over Dallas in the medians and along the less traveled roads, they filled the fields with their beauty. Unfortunately they were growing amidst copious amounts of bindweed. While one might think it pretty with its pink blooms, any farmer will tell you it is certainly the most noxious of weeds ever to propagate on the earth. The dichotomy reminded me of politics and how the people are the blue bonnets and the politicians the choking weeds working so hard to squeeze the life out of their free flowing beauty.

6. Kansas Meets Texas at Atoka: The wind most of the week was pretty stout, but we missed the worst of it where the tornadoes converged on the southern end of the town of Atoka, OK. When we drove through I mentioned to Ornery that the ice storm sure took out a lot of trees there, then as we drove on we realized that they had just recently been shorn by the winds of a devastating tornado. The town was a mess with metal wrapped around trees, many of them uprooted or with tops lopped off, semi-trailers on their sides, and homes with most of their shingles missing. The school which could be seen from the highway looked like a bomb had exploded there. Rescue and clean up crews were everywhere, and we chose the one convenience store in town everyone else decided to visit to make a pit stop. Wow, there were some rednecks there!

7. All Boxed In: We stopped for a fly-by at Elizabeth and Jeff's house to pick up some empty boxes they had laying around. We were grateful for their help loading since it was so cold and windy, and scurried on our way with every available spot in the rental car filled with packing materials. What a blessing!

8. A Chilly Reception: The wind was still really blowing when we arrived home, and we were anxious to get inside. Unfortunately, the garage door to the house had been locked, both top and bottom locks! We hardly ever need to use the keys to the front door, but I just happened to have one on my key ring or we would have had to call the Realtor to let us in! When we left, the days were in the upper 80's, so we had the air conditioner on. When we got home, the inside temperature was 66, a bit cool for our liking. Welcome back to Oklahoma!

9. Back to the Real World: After spending five days in idle pursuits, (Ornery really did work a lot of hours, but it was a change of pace for him as well) we were immediately thrust back into reality with a meeting scheduled at 8:00 this morning to sign the contracts/offers on the houses, and then return the rental car, and then to spend the day selling my craft supplies at an indoor garage sale at the scrapbook store in Broken Arrow. We plan to attend church tonight for the first time since January, and enjoy some additional fellowship tomorrow night at a friend's house with some Bible Study. Some time today or tomorrow, I have to make a grocery list and menu plan and restock the freezer and pantry. They are both bare! The laundry is in process as I type this post--another desperate domestic state!

The best news of all is that even though we are home again, we don't have to launch into more painting and fixing up of the house. We will return a few things we bought to do that with including the weed and feed I SO hated to pollute the environment with, and begin the arduous task of packing up all our belongings to move to our dream home instead. While that is not my favorite pastime, I certainly prefer it to painting!

We Have a Contract!

2011-04-14T08:34:00.000-05:00

The Realtor called last night with the news that we have had an offer on our house. It isn't as much as we had hoped, but we had to weigh the cost (and energy expenditure) of painting more and the stress of having the house always ready for viewing with the additional funds we might hope to gain by waiting.

As the song says so aptly, we decided to "take the money and run."

SO, sometime this weekend we will make an offer on our dream home, the same one that wanted more earnest money earlier. We will offer several thousand dollars less at this point, since they didn't accept our full price offer on contingency. Hopefully since that house has been on the market for a few months, they will be eager to accept this one without any changes.

Meanwhile we are now trying to figure out how to be out of the old one and into the new when all the closings (the buyer of our house is closing on their old home then closing on our home and then we have to close on the new one) are on the same day. How does one go about moving out? Closings are set for a Monday, which means that moving must take place on a weekday. What a snarl, but a nice problem to have!

Back to Work

2011-04-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

Ornery was sure sick for a while, but I think it was food poisoning, as it was over after he got it all out of his system. He slept for about 16 hours, but seemed to be fine this morning, so he went back to work today after a light breakfast of applesauce and toast. I am sure glad he is better!

As for me, I am enjoying solitude. I have a stack of books I have been working my way through, and other than the rare phone call, I have been enjoying the total quiet. I must have really needed the break, as I am sleeping a lot and when I am not asleep, I want to be! Just a couple more days till we hit it again, though. I am trying to forget that...

Broker's Open Update

2011-04-12T16:28:00.000-05:00

The word from our Realtor is that today's Broker's Open House was a great success, and they even have a showing tonight at 5:00 as a direct result! Yeah! The Realtors attending all gave us suggestions, but we will meet with them on Friday to discuss them all. Several said to take all the red out of the house, including the red brick in the spa room, the living room, the entry hall, and I am assuming the office brick wall, as well. She didn't give all the specifics but I would as soon not know right now. I don't want to think about it until we are rested for a few days.

Meanwhile, Ornery must have a touch of food poisoning. Bleh. I hate when we work too hard and get run down that we can't seem to fight off the usual stuff. I am hoping that is all it is, and that he will soon be back in fighting form pretty soon. It would be really bad if he got really sick! :(

Keeping our fingers and toes crossed that we get an offer from tonight's showing. How cool it would be to not have to do any more painting!!!

A Genuine Redneck!

2011-04-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, all that work outside in the sunshine really crisped my neck! I am now officially a redneck!! :)

The Magnificent Miller Duo of Ornery and his wife succeeded in completing the bathroom and cleaning up the house by noon today. The open house was somewhat of a flop, however, with only a couple neighbors coming by to view it. :( The new photos are not up on any of the websites, so until then, I don't think we'll get much traffic. After we get the last two rooms (entry and master bedroom) painted, we'll pay to have them come back and re-take all the photos. Meanwhile, there is a broker's open scheduled for Tuesday, and hopefully we'll get some lookers that day.

Now, for a week off!

Covered in Dirt from Head to Toe

2011-04-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

We started out in the yard this morning at about 9:00, and finally quit at 2:30, still lacking only a few things, but so tired and dirty we could hardly wiggle. I looked down at my feet and saw they were almost black with mud, and when I felt a little tickle in my ear I reached up to scratch it and found it was gritty and full of dirt!

I took far fewer breaks today and worked about twice as hard as yesterday, and Ornery kept up admirably well. He worked on turning the soil in the long front bed beneath the bedroom windows, adding the last bit of smelly compost materials from our bins and a bag of vermiculite as he worked. Once he was finished, he planted the six spirea bushes and put the big rocks back in place. It was hard work, as the soil was pretty dry and hard, and filled with old roots from the Japanese Maple we had taken out about 5 years ago.

While he worked on that, I tackled the bed along the garage. It was filled with leaves (on purpose to keep the weeds out) and some weeds. Once I had it all cleared of debris and cut back the long daffodil stems, I put Preen and cotton seed hulls down, then planted a few petunias and marigolds at the very front edge. Then I finished putting mulch down in the other two beds across the front, and finally raked to level the newly turned soil and put down Preen and mulch in the bed where Ornery had been working. We took care of other little chores as well, including cleaning up the garage again from all the mess we had made with the outdoor projects and repairing a bit of edging along one of the beds that is determined to come apart.

The van is finally devoid of all the yard accouterments (soil, mulch, plants, etc.) and swept out. It could use a good washing from being out in the driveway for the past few days, but otherwise not much worse for the wear. It has been really windy, and each gust seems to add another layer of grit to the cars, and more tree droppings to the yard. The maple seeds were first, and now the oak blossoms are beginning to fall. That is about the only part of spring in Oklahoma I really don't care for.

Once we were done outside, we showered and took a wonderful nap. All we have left now is to finish the bathroom. Ornery will cut in the ceiling and trim, and I will start cleaning for the open house tomorrow. I am really glad we opted not to do the entry hall before this showing, as I am pretty sure we already took on more than we should have. I sure didn't realize the front yard would take us so long to finish, and in fact we still aren't completely done. It will still be there next weekend, but we are taking off from the house chores until then.

Workin' Like a Dog

2011-04-08T18:15:00.000-05:00

I am not sure I have seen many dogs work hard, but the saying sounds impressive, anyway. :)

I made an early call to the chiropractor and he was able to see me at 7:30, so Ornery drove me over and held my hand while I fought the tears as Dr. G massaged the muscles that had clenched down on the knee and leg bone I had twisted in/out of the socket. I don't know if his intent was for me to then go home and walk on it all day, but we had too many things to do for me to just sit around.

We stopped for breakfast after the appointment, then went to Lowe's for a new weed-eater, some shrubs for the front of the house, and some plumbing parts for the bathroom. I bought some flowers and a liner for a metal wheelbarrow plant holder Elizabeth gave me for Mother's Day about 8 years ago. Ornery had found it in the attic while putting something else up there, and I decided it would make a nice little porch ornament.

I took lots of breaks, but when I would break, so would Ornery, so we didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. He mowed and used his new weed-eater on the lawn, I finished putting mulch in the bed I had left from yesterday, and weeded and mulched most of another long bed. I swept the porch and sidewalk, raked a bit and helped clean up the remains of a couple of bushes we planted a few years ago that just never really did well. Each year the top leaves turned a very unappealing black color that made them look scorched.

We found some pretty white spirea bushes on sale at Lowe's for only $8.50 for 2 gallon sized plants. They look healthy and are all in bloom, and since the spirea I planted in that bed is about the only thing that has survived, I have high hopes for these as well. They get a bit bigger than I would like, but if the house sells, that will be the new owner's problem, not mine. They are prune-able so I think they will do nicely.

We added vermiculite (at only $1.00 per bag--regularly $19.00!) to some of the beds, and are putting Preen down to prevent the weeds from coming back for a little while, anyway. I have already gone through two full bags of cotton seed hulls (mulch) and only have three left, so I am hoping there is enough to finish the front beds. It was an expensive day at Lowe's!

The dogwood on the Northeast corner of the front yard is fully blooming now, and there are still a few blossoms on the redbuds. I think the yard will look quite charming when we get it all planted and cleaned up. We just lack the six spirea, two flats of annuals (red petunias and orange marigolds) and the rest of the mulch. Ornery will put down the weed and feed in front and fertilizer in back once we are done with the beds. Everything is really dry right now, in fact we are under a high fire danger warning, so I have started watering already. What ever happened to the April showers?

Ornery is currently applying the last coat of paint to the bathroom walls, and we will reassemble that in the morning before going back out to finish our yard chores. It is currently 88 degrees, a bit toasty for us, and the warmer it got, the longer our breaks were. It is supposed to be hot again tomorrow, but hopefully we will get done early in the morning so we won't have to be out in the heat.

As for my knee, it is much better than it was yesterday at this time, and I am grateful that today was Friday and I didn't have to suffer through the weekend. Now I know a bit of what I should do when it happens again--this was not the first, but certainly the most painful time, but it is not an appealing prospect. Those deep tissue massages are not fun, even if they are effective!

A Set Back

2011-04-08T04:51:00.001-05:00

I had too much enthusiasm for the job being close to done, I suppose. At any rate, I have had a set-back and we won't get the entry hall done like I had hoped before the weekend. I got out early yesterday and bought curtains for the craft room, returned stuff and bought more at Lowe's then drove out to Bixby to buy some mulch.

When I got home, I ironed the curtains and hung them. Then I headed out to the shed and got gardening implements and loaded them into the wheelbarrow, then worked out front on the flower beds. I had only made it half-way through one bed when I heard a pop and felt my knee clench. This is not the first time it has happened, but I sure wish it had waited for another few days to act up on me!

So, I spent the rest of the day with my leg elevated. Ice seemed to make it worse instead of better, so I just pumped in the pain relievers and tried to stay off of it as much as possible. I sat on the couch and listened to the neighbor dogs bark and bay all day, and even into the night. At 8:30 when I went to bed (with my iPod on to drown them out) they were barking, at 1:30 they were barking, at 3:30 they were barking, and at 4:30 I got up and reported them to the police via the city's online action line.

My knee is marginally better today, and I am hoping Ornery (who took the day off so we could get our projects done) can take me over to Dr. G to see if he can give me some relief. This will be my second visit to him this week for accidents related to getting our house ready for sale. It might be cheaper to hire the work done!

Ornery got the bathroom all primed last night, so he will paint that, reinstall the toilet and towel bars, and work in the yard today. I will concentrate on getting better. :(

Some Photos of U-taupe-ia

2011-04-07T05:11:00.002-05:00

These are pretty lousy photos, but you can get an idea of how it looks since we have painted...

The living room from the front door.

The laundry area

The craft room--since I took this photo I have moved the two carts and ribbon rack so they are more out of sight. The ribbon rack is under the right edge of the table, and the two carts are to the left of the table by the window. The boom box is up on top of the right shelf on top of the table. It all looks very put together...

My craft table.

It is hard to believe the amount of stuff I got rid of, and how "little" space all my craft supplies now require. It feels fresh and comfortable again. Can't wait to get back to it one of these days!

Room Number Four Complete!

2011-04-06T18:50:00.000-05:00

The craft room took me 24 hours from start to finish. I still have some paint tools to clean up, but the room is all cleaned up and put back together. The window treatment is lacking something, so I think I will try to find some inexpensive valances to cover the top of the mini-blind. I took some photos with my phone and emailed them to myself, but they haven't arrived yet. As soon as they do, I'll post pictures.

Ornery has the mud on all the bathroom walls, now it just needs to be "sanded" (we are going to try to use a wet sponge to see if that is as effective without all the dust) and primed. If I can move tomorrow after my painting marathon today, I plan to at least get most of it primed for him so he can paint it tomorrow night.

I bought some light teal-ish colored rugs that almost match the towels I already had, and I found a very nice framed beach scene poster in my stash in the guest room closet that I will hang above the towel bar. The molding I bought for a frame around the mirror is too wide, so we are not going to do that little improvement. I will return it tomorrow on my way to buy mulch for Friday's projects.

I don't remember the last time I worked so hard so many days in a row. The last month (has it only been a month since we listed the house??) has been a whirlwind of hard work and busy-ness. I hope we get some good feed back (and a contract!) from this weekend's open house.

Consecutive Projects

2011-04-05T16:42:00.000-05:00

The Realtor came today to take new photos of the living room and dining room for the websites, and while she was here I told her of our goals of which rooms and in what order we plan to paint. She was thrilled with the living room, said we were wise to do the bathroom next, but thought that before we tackled the master bedroom we should do the studio because it is so different from the rest of the house.

SO, this afternoon I got busy and got most of it emptied out, and Ornery will help me pull out the washer and dryer this evening so I can paint in that area tonight, then I will paint the rest of the room tomorrow--or as far as I can get. While I am working in there, Ornery will be continuing in the bathroom. Tonight is the mud application, tomorrow the primer and Thursday the paint. Friday we will put up all the hardware (towel bars, frame on the mirror, and so forth) and do yard work.

Saturday we will clean house to be ready for the open house on Sunday and the broker's open house on Tuesday. It will be nice to have a week off from painting. Here is hoping that sometime next week we sell the house so we won't have to paint the entry hall and our room! :)

Little Progress for a Monday

2011-04-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Ornery strapped on the respirator and painted the sealer on the bathroom wallpaper residue this evening. We'll work on the smoothing with joint compound tomorrow. I did NOTHING on the project today. It was cold, windy and gray outside, and I curled up under a blanket on the couch and read all day. I did fix a nice dinner; steak, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables and some gruffins (made with granola).

I spoke with both partners on the Real Estate team that listed our house today. I called her this morning to find out how to go about posting a new photo of the non-orange living room on all the websites. She is planning to come over tomorrow afternoon with her camera and hopefully take some pictures she can use. Later in the afternoon, her husband called and asked if they could hold another open house here this Sunday. Nothing like a little pressure to get the project completed before then--and the mess cleaned up. Seriously, anytime there is joint compound involved, it results in a mess of the highest order!

We should have it all done except for the frame around the mirror, which is something I think will add a nice touch, but which I don't think we will have time to finish before Sunday morning. The mirror is affixed to the wall with some sort of adhesive and there are four screws as well. Unfortunately, the adhesive does not go all the way to the end of the mirror, and the screws were not anchored well, so one end sort of bows out away from the wall. I saw a DIY show once while we were traveling that featured the decorator putting a set of three wooden frames on the mirror, and while that might look okay, I think just framing it and securing the end with the molding will be more effective. (and simpler!) Ornery says he'll need to rout out a groove for the mirror so the trim will be flush on both the wall and the edge of the mirror. It will only go on three sides, since the mirror is flush against the little back-splash around the sink.

The other thing I may not have done by then is finding and buying some new rugs for the room. I have some teal-ish colored towels, and I think I will just see if I can find a bathmat and toilet seat cover in a matching or coordinating color. The shower curtain is white, and I am going to have to find something to put on the walls once they are painted because they are really going to be bare looking without the wallpaper! I think I may have a beach poster or two that might work...

Third Room Finished

2011-04-03T04:19:00.009-05:00

Thirty hours after I began working on the living room, I moved the last piece of furniture back in place and we sat to admire our work. The three beige walls look almost white next to the white ceiling, but they are indeed Killim Beige, from the bottom of the baseboards to the top of the walls, 13 feet up. This is the third completed room; the kitchen, dining room, and now the living room.

Not only did we finish the living room yesterday, we also got the tank removed from the hall bathroom toilet and all the vinyl layer of wallpaper removed. Elizabeth came over and helped me for a little bit (after we went shopping at a nearby resale shop and scored BIG for her wardrobe!), but the vinyl came off quite easily. Even the second layer would come off easy enough with some water and a little coaxing if it wasn't for the third layer that seems to have been attached to the bare sheet rock with something as sticky as contact cement. We begin today on the laborious task of sealing the paper, coating the walls with mud, then smoothing and resealing before finally painting them beige.

Ornery said, "This project seems to have some scope-creep going on..." after I mentioned that we also needed to fix the sagging shower curtain rod and paint the ceiling where the vent fan replacement left some different colored textured stuff. Yes, scope-creep is a good term to explain our projects.

From what I can tell, the walls are not terribly smooth beneath the third layer of paper, anyway, so we would have had to do a lot of smoothing (or texturing the whole thing) to paint even if the paper had come off easily. While we will get it started today, I am sure it will take most of the week to complete that room. Before we do anything, however, I will be covering everything in there with drop cloths to make clean up easy. The project needs to be finished before next Sunday, as there is going to be a Broker's Open House here sometime during the week of April 11th.

We'll take a week break before tackling the next room, which will be the entry hall, followed by the master suite. If need be, we will also paint my craft room, but we have decided that we will use the darker paint (Latte) that is on the bottom section of the kitchen/dining room walls for that room and the entry hall walls. Soon we will be living in U-taupe-ia. :)

Weekend Warriors

2011-04-02T08:26:00.000-05:00

We are not the typical weekend warriors who head out early Saturday to conquer lengthy paths in running shoes or seek out thrills on bikes, playing fields or in the water. Instead, we don our painting duds and pick up rollers and brushes to transform rooms. It is the battle against non-conformity in which we are engaged, taking a beautiful, brightly colored room and transforming it to a putty colored space to appease the masses.

We have almost all the primer up in the living room, with only a bit of cut work up near the 13 foot ceilings to tackle, then we will put on one coat of paint and be done with that room. The primer (cheap Olympia brand, odorless, on sale for $12 something a gallon) was tinted the same color as the paint and has covered so well we are amazed. The paint will be merely a formality at this point, because all the orange is essentially gone.

It should be finished by the end of today, then Ornery will take the tank off the hall bathroom toilet so I can work in there next. While I am working in there removing wallpaper, he will paint the entry-hall ceiling. That should take care of our weekend and the first part of next week.

We went to breakfast at Panera and enjoyed a nice little visit, and when we arrived home Ornery looked longingly at his scroll saw. Then, on the way into the house from the garage he said, "It would be a nice day for some disc golf." Then, "It would be a nice day for a bike ride." Before he could launch into all the other things "it would be a nice day for" I burst his bubble and said, "or painting a living room!" :) It would indeed be a beautiful day for any outdoor pursuit, but we would really like to get moved into our new place soon, and to do that we need to move out of this one.

So we have put the blinders on against all the distractions, and are going forth into battle armed with paint brushes and a remarkably happy attitude. We intend to have a contract on this house by the end of the month if we have to drown ourselves in Killim Beige paint to get it!

Good-bye Panera Room

2011-04-01T12:25:00.000-05:00

It has become evident that despite the fact that most people who come into our home SAY they love the colors, the people who might wish to live here do NOT. So, Ornery and I have reached the sorrowful conclusion that our beloved Panera inspired living room must revert to its former (16 years ago) beige color after only six months of our enjoyment. We are going to leave the red wall for now, and the entry will remain red, although we may paint the ceiling in there beige to help lighten it up a bit. Next I will strip the hall bathroom and paint it beige, then our jungle green room and bathroom will be the last to go. I hope to be able to leave the studio, but if need be, it can go blah as well.

It will be a several week long project, but those who tour it all say the same thing about the colors, and now that some of it is beige, I have no interest in living here anymore, so whatever is expedient to get it sold is what I am after. The people who saw it last night said that they didn't like the master carpeting (which we had said we would give an allowance for) and the color of some of the rooms, although they didn't specify which ones they didn't like to my Realtor.

Today when the customer came over to shop the paper and other scrapbooking stuff, I learned that she was a Realtor in Illinois for 25 years. I gave her a quick tour of the house, and she said the same thing... while she never would have thought to put them together herself, she liked most of the colors, but most buyers would not. Also, the hall bathroom is really dated with that wallpaper in it. One more interesting thing she said was that the dining room didn't really seem to fit the rest of the house, which was what the stager said when the wallpaper was in there! It isn't surprising that it doesn't really go now, since nothing else has been beige...

What I want to know is why, if everyone wants beige walls in their homes, do they make so many different colors of paint? And I see people in Lowe's all the time buying different colors! What ever happened to the buyers who had imagination and wanted to match their walls to their decor instead of having a blah palette? And look at the decorating magazines! They all show photos of colored walls amongst the boring beige ones. And why is it that when we buy a house we have to paint all the rooms to suit our taste, but we also have to paint the one we are leaving to suit the buyer??

It all seems so unfair, but oh, well. Just get me out of here before I start climbing these beige walls! :)

A Few Blogging Changes

2011-04-01T04:53:00.009-05:00

I have deleted a few of my blogs, but I merged the posts with other blogs. My homemaker and positive blogs are merged with this one, the two Miller Manor Designs (old and new) have been merged and I got rid of the Ornery's wife blog altogether. Blogger makes it really easy to merge them, and I am happy to have fewer blogs to keep up with. :) The only problem I am having is that I can't seem to get rid of the pages, so I just deleted that feature on this blog. The pages transferred from one blog to the other, but once I deleted the old blogs, I was unable to access the pages to edit them, and when you clicked on the tab it said that page was not available.

In Other News:
Late in the morning, I got a call from my Realtor about the counter offer on the house we want to buy. We decided not to counter back, so the original offer is rescinded at this point. Ornery and I both had a sense that we should wait, and if we are able to sell our house in the next few days or weeks, we may really be glad we did, since that will allow us some bargaining room.

I finally got dressed and out the door at 2:00, made a deposit, picked up library books, mailed out two packages, dropped another load at the Goodwill donation center, and bought a light for the kitchen. Ornery got busy as soon as he arrived home and installed the light--I think it is really pretty, and makes the room look bigger without that fan hanging down in the middle of it. It's not quite as bright, but it does take 3-60 watt bulbs, and we only have 40 watts in each slot, because that is what we took out of the fan.

At 3:30 I got a call from one of the Realtors who showed the house last week requesting another showing at 7:00. I hadn't gotten all my errands run in the afternoon, so after a salad bar dinner at Jason's Deli, Ornery and I finished all we could and arrived home to find them still at the house at 7:45. I guess it is a good sign that they spent so much time here. My Realtor will contact her later today to find out how they liked it.

By the time we got groceries put away and everything cleaned back up, it was 8:15, and Ornery went to bed. I had slept 8 hours the night before, then taken a two hour nap in the morning, so I was still going strong at that time so I stayed up to read.

Today I am meeting with the person who called to shop the scrapbooking stuff, then buying mulch and making a run to the bread store for Elizabeth, who is coming to visit tomorrow and has had a craving for some fresh/homemade bread.

AND I am praying really hard that those people buy our house so I won't have to do anything else to it! :)

What's Next?

2011-03-31T04:18:00.002-05:00

I had one customer come shop the scrapbook paper yesterday, but she didn't put much of a dent in the pile, despite buying over 100 sheets. I've sent out the notice to some of the others who came and see if any of them are more interested. I think I pulled out 1000-1500 sheets of paper, and was pretty ruthless with only keeping that which I loved or had a plan for how to use. I have enough paper in my scrap cart alone to make several hundred cards, and I may do that before I cut into any more new sheets. It is fun to work with a set of several coordinating pattered papers, but for now I think I will try to whittle down the pile of scraps first.

After she left, I crashed. I didn't sleep long because I had two phone calls in the midst of my nap, but it was enough to keep me up for the rest of the day. It seems like days when I visit the chiropractor I experience a strong urge to sleep that day for some reason. When I woke up, I thought it would be a good idea to make some granola (I hadn't made any since November!) and some cowboy cookies. I cleaned out the pantry while I was at it, although that wasn't hard since most of the stuff I cleaned out went into the granola.

We never did get back with the Realtor yesterday to counter the counter-offer on the house we are wanting to buy, so I imagine that will happen sometime today, although I don't know that for certain. I am also going out to find a new light fixture for the kitchen to replace the fan, and print 16 pictures of my grandson for my new photo collage frames.

Then, my list is remarkably empty. I suppose I could go out and work in the yard, but I think I'll wait until it warms back up a bit for that. The Realtor suggested I fill up the beds with flowers, but I know Oklahoma weather well enough to know that I need to wait another couple of weeks first. By then the perennials will be blooming--or at least up and filling the beds with foliage-- and I won't need to plant annuals. She said I needed to pull out all the weeds... I think she was referring to my mums and wild strawberries and other perennials. They aren't real pretty in the early stages, but I love that I don't have to keep replanting them.

The peonies and hydrangea are already leafing out quite nicely, and the astilbe and rhododendron (I think) have also started coming up in the far east bed. We had a better than usual showing of daffodils on the west side, and it looks like the cannas are starting to come up in there, as well as the iris, coral bells, and of course, the mums. When it all reaches maturity, the bed is fairly well filled up. The burning bushes and other flowering shrubs have started leafing out, with the exception of the dwarf crape myrtle which always starts later. In the back, the lilac and other plants we put in last spring are coming back, although I don't see any blooms on the lilac yet. It takes a few years before they bloom, I think, especially when they are neglected like they were last year.

The most troublesome bed is the one beneath the bedroom windows, and nothing really grows well there, (except weeds!) despite all the varieties I have planted through the years. It would help, no doubt, if I watered regularly, but we tend to travel a lot during the summer for Ornery's job, and that leaves them neglected when they most need some care. My other reason for not wanting to plant anything else is that I hate to put any more money into the house if I am not going to be here to enjoy it, and to fill up those beds with color would cost $100's.

But that still leaves me with the question of what to do with my time! I am toying with the idea of stripping the bathroom wallpaper. Even if we don't end up being able to sell the house, it really does need to go. Since I am not under any time deadline, I can do it myself, and paint for that small room would cost about $30. which is a cheap upgrade, indeed. Then the question remains: what color should I paint in there??

Blast from the Past

2011-03-30T09:37:00.001-05:00

Strange things occur in the brain while a person is sleeping, and while it took me several weeks after I saw a photograph to make the connection, I realized in the middle of the night that I had met my chiropractor's deceased wife about 20 years ago. My kids played and rode horses with his kids and have many shared experiences, although I don't know if any of the kids would remember something from so long ago. At my visit with him this morning, we talked about it and I had quite a long walk down memory lane. She passed away 17 years ago, and he was really surprised that I even remembered any of it...although probably not any more surprised than I was! :)

After my visit, I came home to spend some time taking care of the things I culled from the closet cleaning episode of yesterday. Amongst the rejected items on my desk was a pile of old file folders and before discarding any of them I went through them all. I located my daughter's report cards from grade school (she is 30 now and they are quite yellowed and old...) and a series of poems I wrote several years ago when Ornery was sick with a cold. I sent them each of three days via email to his team/supervisor. When he got back to work they said, "No more poems."

How rude!

Day 1

My bones are achin'

My nose is wet--

Not signs of health

I do regret

So I'm stayin' home

In my own little bed

So my nasty germs

You need not dread.

Day 2

I'm feeling just good enough

To be ornery and bad

And the troops say when I

Go to work they'll be glad.

But I'm still sort of drippy

And hackin' a lot

So I'll stay here today

And not share what I've got.

Day 3

Wife has taken

Real good care of me

So now I am feeling

Mo' better.

She says one more day of her

Canned chicken soup

And she'll send me to work

If I'll let her.

PS; to my anonymous commenter, I have had to change the settings on my comments to not allow anonymous comments because I have been getting quite a bit of spam. I hope this isn't too troublesome to you. I have enjoyed hearing your thoughts.

Contracts and Warranties

2011-03-29T20:15:00.001-05:00

Today we submitted a contract with a contingency for the house we would like to buy, and it was returned with a small counter, which we accepted. At least we have our foot in the door with that one, but of course it could still be snatched from us if another buyer comes along with a better offer or our house does not have a contract on it by the end of April.

Meanwhile, I spent most of the rainy day inside doing laundry, cleaning out the office closet and sorting through my scrapbooking papers. I got rid of about 1/2 of the printed paper and called one of the women who had shopped before to schedule a time for her to come tomorrow to shop the paper.

At about 4:15, Ornery's mom called and invited herself over for a visit. She really was not going to take no for an answer, even though I told her we had a lot of stuff going on. She brought her leftover lunch and I reheated the last of the roast and made some more mashed potatoes and veggies to go with it. She offered to take us out, but I already had dinner in the works.

After dinner, Ornery took the ceiling fan with the burned out motor in the kitchen down so we could return it to Home Depot. Unfortunately, they have changed the return policy and the warranty would have to be handled through the manufacturer, and we would have to pay the shipping for them to repair/refund, etc. A ceiling fan is fairly heavy, and by the time we paid for the shipping on it and waited for it to be returned... well, it just wasn't going to work. We will not be shopping at Home Depot anytime soon--if ever. I was as nice as I could be but I told the man as we were leaving that this was one of the reasons that Lowe's gets all our business--they stand behind their products and would not have hesitated to refund or exchange for a like item.

Later this week, I will go buy a cheap light fixture from Lowe's to hang in the kitchen in place of the fan. After two fans have burned out there, I am thinking it might be better to just put in a light. Meanwhile, it will be sort of dark in the kitchen...

Mom stayed until almost 8:00, but I have been up since 3:30 this morning, so my jaw-popping yawns helped her decide it might be time for her to head out. We had a nice visit--the first in quite some time. Now I am off to bed, hopefully to sleep a bit later than I have been.

Productive Monday

2011-03-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

I woke up really early--I think it was 3:30--this morning, and decided rather than sit around waiting for the day to start, I would jump in and get it going. :)

I fixed the coffee, cut some quiche and put it on a stone to warm, and puttered around in the kitchen doing a few things while waiting for Ornery to get up and at 'em. He eventually got up--not so much the "at 'em." I collected receipts he needed for some insurance fax, put together my list of things to do and even wrote a blog post. I spent a bit of time looking online at properties the various sites considered "comparable" to ours, and figured if others were looking at those, ours had a really good shot at being sold pretty quick. Especially if what they say about folks not wanting homes with a lot of wallpaper is true. Wow, some of it is just downright nasty!

By 9:00, I was ready to head out with my framed posters to take to Hobby Lobby for a price adjustment, and all the rest of the errands I had planned. I took items to donate to the Salvation Army, then priced and arranged my leftover garage sale items in my booth, dropped a few used books by the Book Place, and talked to Elizabeth on the drive home during her lunch hour. I applied over the phone for pre-approval for the lending process on the new house, talked to a friend I haven't heard from in over a month, and visited with the Realtor about yesterday's late viewers. They are apparently still looking, but our house is on "the short list" of the ones they liked. We got a call late last night asking about taxes and dates of improvements, so I am assuming there might be others interested as well.

The trouble with starting out so early is that by 5:00 I am ready to go to bed! For dinner, we will have left over roast beef and mashed potatoes from yesterday which means I don't have to really cook tonight--that is very nice. :) I think Ornery plans to take down the fan in the kitchen tonight, and if he gets to it, my only errand tomorrow will be to exchange it for a new one. Otherwise, I plan to tackle the office closet and catch the laundry back up. It is supposed to be rainy and cold, so it might be a good day to stay home.

This and That

2011-03-28T04:56:00.051-05:00

Apparently our Open House went well, although we didn't get any contracts/offers so far. I am still waiting to hear back from my Realtor about the one who came after the Open House was over.

We were disappointed, but we'll keep trying. Comments about the color in the house were varied--some like it, some do not. I can tell you that it wouldn't take me very long of looking at beige walls to go maniacal, so I hope we don't end up having to paint the rest of the house to please the masses. Our Realtor was quite praising of all our work and how well we prepared for the open house, to the point of offering to hire me for her other sellers to help them do likewise! I told her to call me; I am certainly for hire!

This week we will begin the process of getting pre-qualified for financing on another home should this one sell. I also hope to get through the closet in the office; it seems to collect stuff more than any other in the house. I also need to deliver all the stuff from the garage sale we put in my van to various locations, and take my receipts and poster/prints back to Hobby Lobby to get a refund on 1/2 price since they are on sale this week. With the refund, I will purchase the collages I meant to get Friday. What a blessing they are on sale!

The only thing left over that didn't get done this past weekend was the removal, exchange and replacement of the kitchen ceiling fan. The lifetime warranty on the motor along with the receipt I found while cleaning out the files last week will enable us to replace it free of charge, and Ornery will do the labor. He has to remove the old fan first for us to exchange it.

It is nice to start out with food already prepared for most of the meals for the week, and a short list of things to do. The beautiful weather is taking a break and giving us chilly days for a while, but it won't be long until it warms up for the summer. I kept hoping for a spot of rain, but the skies have been stingy with their moisture this month, so I will need to do a little watering to encourage my herbs and shrubs to green up and grow quicker. The herb bed, once I got all the weeds out, looks quite stunning already. It should be a wonderful summer for the kitchen!

I have often heard it said that one typically waits until they are ready to sell their home before they do all the improvements they have dreamed of (or needed) doing, and I always thought it was a shame that people didn't enjoy the fruits of their labor. I have a few of those chores that have wanted doing for months/years, but we have not hesitated to make our house to our liking along the way. Even so, it seems to me that our house has never looked as good as it does right now.

The one thing that seems to have suffered the most lack of attention is our yard, and I am hoping that once it warms up a bit, I will be able to get out there and spruce it up a bit, especially in the front. If we don't have a contract by mid-April, I will plant a vegetable garden just as though we were staying--at least I hope to do that... :) I had grand plans of growing lots of produce last summer, but they came to naught.

Well, here's to a new week--the last one in the first quarter of 2011. So far this has been an interesting year!

Weekend In Review: 3.27.11

2011-03-27T15:57:00.000-05:00

On Friday, we had a showing of the house, so I packed up the computers and never had a chance to get them out before the open house today, so that is why I haven't posted in a few days. Never fear, however, I have certainly been busy!

Friday morning, I went to Claremore for cream, then to Hobby Lobby to select some pictures to make the dining room a little less sparse looking. I changed out the table cloth, set the table, added candles on the center, rearranged some of the glass, and hung 8 pictures in the dining room. I also purchased two white poster frames for the brightly colored posters I wanted to hang in the kitchen. WOW what a difference those made! I sure wish I could post the pictures, but my computer is still not friendly with my camera, so I am thinking I may try with my phone, email the pictures to my computers and post them that way. It will have to wait until tomorrow, though as I am writing this post at a coffee shop.

By the time I got all the pictures framed, hung and everything else rearranged to my liking, I had no time to do the cooking that I had planned to do that day. At about 4:30 that afternoon, someone came to the door wanting to shop my craft sale. I let her shop (she was related to one of the customers from the previous day). I had gotten a call earlier in the day from a Realtor wanting to show the house at 5:30, and they really liked the house--it is in their top three--and when they left, I had another customer for the craft stuff who spent $100.00!! Ornery and I enjoyed the rest of the evening just visiting and reading.

Saturday morning, we got up early and I fixed breakfast at home, then we worked out in the yard for a while, Ornery mowing and weed-eating, and me pulling weeds and picking up yard trash. I filled a whole drum liner full of stuff from the yard, including the last of the mums from last fall. Ornery broke the weed-eater trigger making it very difficult (but not impossible) to use, and the fuel line on the blower broke rendering it completely useless. At least the mower still works...

My cooking tasks still called to be done, so I got busy in the kitchen making Cavatini, 2 quiches, beef and bean burritos and a pot of potato soup. It seemed like it had been a month since I last cooked, and it very well may have been! It sure felt good to get all that done and be able to eat at home again.

Sunday morning, we had our weekend breakfast date at Panera, then went home to finish the last minute cleaning for the Open House. I vacuumed and dusted, Ornery took care of a few things out in the garage, then we got busy and boxed everything up we had left from the craft sale and stored it on the garage shelves. The rest of the stuff was divided into two piles, one for the little craft booth at the Antique Mall, and the other pile of things to go to Goodwill. The garage sale is officially over, the garage is swept and the tables all folded up and put away. The cars can both park inside again, a situation we have really missed for the last week or so while I had everything all set up in there.

Our house looked magical when we were done. We put on some quiet music, started the roast in the crock pot, turned on all the lights and marveled at how amazing it all turned out. We left it in the capable hands of our Realtor from 2-4, and then there will be another Realtor showing it to a client between 4:30 and 5:00. We are believing for an acceptable offer from at least one of those who have seen it already or will see it today.

Then we will make an offer on our dream home. It is everything we wanted. Really, everything. We have already laid out how we want all our furniture in the house, and mentally moved in. Over breakfast we drew out floor plans, decorating schemes, and decided what rooms would accommodate which pieces of furniture and how we would make it "ours." It was open today at the same time ours was, so we went and made some measurements and thought more about it. It really is perfect. If you are of a praying bent, please join us in agreeing it will be there for us and all will work out for us to move into it.

We have decided that we are all done preparing the other house for sale, and are going to start "living" there again. We have pretty much tried to keep it show ready all the time, and now that the closets (all except the office) and all the cabinets have been gone through and cleaned out of the excess, I am going to be at my wits end trying to figure out how to fill my days if I can't work in my craft room and live in the house.

The only other exciting thing that happened is that I got this adorable picture of my grandson on Friday, which was his first birthday! It seems like a good way to end this post...

Is he not the cutest little boy EVER????

Blond Moments

2011-03-24T06:21:00.000-05:00

I broke the three cardinal rules for grocery shopping yesterday:

Don't go when you are hungry (I hadn't eaten breakfast OR lunch yet)
Don't go when you are in a hurry (I only had 90 minutes from the time I left to drive across town, shop, pick up some lunch and get my stuff put away)
Don't go without a list (Nothing sounded good until I got to the store, then everything did!)

With complete disregard to the rules and focusing only on the fact that I was running much later than I should have been (due to sleeping in and organizing my closet), and the fact that I had PROMISED my husband the night before I would shop in the morning, I set off to Whole Foods.

I ended up buying things I didn't really need, NOT buying things I did need, and leaving my bag of cold foods (meat, dairy, etc.) in the bottom of the cart. Fortunately, a clerk found it and they put it into the cooler for me until Ornery could go by to pick it up after work. I felt SO stupid!

I drove into the drive-way with my groceries at 12:53, only seven minutes before I was to open my craft supply garage sale and there was a woman sitting in her van out front waiting for me to open. It wasn't until I started looking for the cold stuff to put away that I realized my bag was missing, and I had no one to blame but myself!

The sale was rather a smashing success. I only had five customers in the five hours I was open, but the average purchase was $40.00, so I felt pretty good about the time spent. I sold enough crafting stuff to the first customer that I was able to get most of the garage sale items out on the tables, and by the end of the day had gotten rid of a lot of that, too! Not only did she buy a lot of stuff, she took all the cans of latex paint I was going to have to get rid of somewhere!! I couldn't believe it! She has a little store in a place called Persimmon Hollow, which is a little "village" of antique, craft, collectible and flea market type shops. She also told me that she might be interested in taking me on as a consignor, which I may do once my lease is up--or maybe even before.

It was pleasant in that most of the time there was only one customer shopping at a time and they were very friendly and interesting. The weather was a beautiful, sunny 72, and I cannot remember the last time I had a sale under such ideal conditions! I didn't put out any signs, only used the Craigslist ad to get customers, and by previewing the buyers with a few of the "goods" I think I got the ones that were really interested in my merchandise and not the normal garage-sale shopper looking to coerce me to sell the already low priced items for even less than I was asking. No bargaining needed with prices as low as I marked them.

Ornery brought the groceries home, the last customer left at 6:30, (the sale was supposed to end at 4:00, but she couldn't get there until later) and we had a quiet evening at home. Tonight we go look at a house, but I am pretty sure we won't buy it--not unless the price drops quite a bit. The Realtor changed our open house time (again!) to Sunday from 2-4. If the weather is nice enough on Saturday, we may try to finish up our garage sale that day and be done with it! I'll box up the craft stuff and save it for the sale at the scrapbook store. It would sure be nice to have the garage all cleaned up for the open house.

It has turned cooler again, and yesterday when I checked there was even a little bit of snow forecast, but since this IS Oklahoma, that sort of thing is the norm. I was tempted to buy a basil plant at the store yesterday, but I knew it would freeze, so I resisted the temptation. :)

Dirty Old Business

2011-03-23T08:42:00.001-05:00

I sold a few things yesterday to three scrapping friends who came by to shop by invitation. I put an ad on Craigslist that I would be open this afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00, so we'll see what sort of interest is generated.

Ornery moved some of his stuff from the master closet into the guest closet so it would look bigger. I have a few pair of shoes to take out of there, and a small shoe shelf to remove, but otherwise I only lack the office and garage water heater closets to clean out as far as the closets go. I will have to be in the garage all afternoon anyway, so I'll work on that one then. I also need to get all the stuff I culled from the various closets off the guest room bed and either put them in the garage sale or bag them up for Goodwill. Over all, everything should be in pretty good shape for the Open House on Saturday, and possibly even the garage sale for the following week.

I did have an unpleasant experience last night with a former contractor. When I was cleaning out my warranty and receipt files for all things house related, I came across the receipt from Grout Care of Tulsa dated May 14th, 2003. There was something on the paper about a warranty, so I called to see just what that warranty covered, and if they would be willing to fix the mess they created so many years ago. I should have called immediately after they finished because it really was a shoddy job. Anyway, I had to leave a message and the owner called me back at about 4:30. He was quite belligerent and defensive, making it sound like it was all my fault, demanding to know why I was calling now after 8 years, back-pedaling about possibly having been done an employee he had hired, etc. and finally said he would come and look at it at 6:30.

I really only wanted to know what the warranty covered, and whether or not the work they had done 8 years ago was still covered. It was not an unreasonable question since the receipt said something about there being a warranty, but not any of the details. If it was not covered, I was not going to be upset, merely resigned, and I was merely calling to inquire.

However, his horrible treatment of me DID make me upset! When he got here, we went back to the shower and he argued about how he had never had a blonde woman working for him (yet that was who did the hall bathroom) and that he couldn't believe I had waited 8 years to call if it had been bad, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

When I tried to speak he told me to "JUST LISTEN!!" never giving me a chance to state why I had called or what I wanted him to do to remedy the situation. Finally, I was able to say, "If you didn't warranty the work then why did you bother to come? That was all I was asking when I called. I just wanted to know whether or not you warranted the work for 8 years."

When he said he could fix it but he'd have to charge me, I said, "I am certainly not going to give YOU more money to fix the problem your company created!" He started in again telling me to listen to him, and about how I was at fault; I told him, "Get OUT! Get out of my house NOW!!" I was shaking I was so angry! He was still arguing all the way to the front door, which I slammed behind him, and I heard him still talking as he walked down the sidewalk toward his car!

I was all that was solicitous and kind, and he was nasty from the moment he opened his mouth on the phone. I felt like I did really well keeping a level head until the end when I told him to get out. I was only upset for a few minutes after he left, and was able to put it out of my mind and enjoy the rest of the evening. Ornery was pretty sure I would be worked up for a while, but I did some EFT meridian tapping for my emotions, and then we went for a walk to the park in the beautiful evening. I never thought about it again all evening.

Even going over it again now, where in my former days (before EFT) I would have gotten all worked up again, I am calm and only disbelieving that anyone who owned a small business in this economy would have the temerity to talk to a customer in that fashion and remain in business!

Terrific Tuesday: 3.22.11

2011-03-22T06:47:00.000-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy with listing our house, so I missed Terrific Tuesday last week. Here is a list of things that make me happy today!

Having the annual physical exam out of the way for a year. (not the going, but being done with it!)
Clean closets and drawers
Redbud trees in bloom
Daffodils blooming in my yard
Visiting with old neighbors
Watching the antics of a squirrel as it dug in the dirt and then did all sorts of dance moves!
A clean and well organized craft room
Dreaming about a new home
Getting text message photos of my grandson
Sleeping in after working through the night on projects that wouldn't let me sleep

Hopefully I'll be back next week, we'll see!

The Clean-up continues...

2011-03-22T06:36:00.002-05:00

Once the photographer was finished taking pictures of the house, I got busy cleaning out closets. The coat closet, guest bathroom and hall closets took just a few minutes, the guest room closet took a while longer. I have a huge pile of "get rid of it" on the guest bed, but the closet looks great! I still have the garage (water heater), office and master bedroom closets to tackle, and those will not be much fun. I don't think any of them has a lot of extra stuff inside, but they are somewhat jumbled up and call for some straightening.

When I came across some items that would need to stay with the house, I decided to locate all the warranties and manuals for permanent fixtures. The files were about 3 inches thick, and filled with some things I wanted to keep and some things I needed to leave, so that took several hours to sort through. Then I totaled up the receipts for improvements we have made to this house. The total amount was staggering, and that wasn't even all the stuff! There were a few things I didn't have the receipts for, but not many. :)

The other thing I did was sweep out the garage and set out my craft stuff for sale.

tools

Embellishments, books and QuicKutz

Stamping and embossing

storage, paper, more embellishments

I filled up two six-foot tables, two four-foot tables and the round patio table. That is all the tables we have for the sale, so I will have to sell some of this before I can set up the regular garage sale stuff, which is currently sitting in boxes under the long tables.

Ornery asked me if I had taken photos of my clean craft room yet, and I had completely forgotten that. Unfortunately, my camera and my computer are not speaking to each other today, and the photos will not upload. That was a complication I surely didn't need!

This morning, Ornery and I have our annual insurance physicals--the ones that are required to avoid having to pay a stiff premium (several hundred dollars!), so we will go get our blood drawn and answer a few questions, listen to a lecture about the importance of mammograms, colonoscopies, and all the other tests we eschew, and hopefully be done with it for another year. It should be interesting to see how we fare this year as we have both gained back a lot of weight and are in a very stressful time in life with the move. Thanks to Dr. G (the chiropractor) we are feeling quite healthy despite all that!

After that chore is done, it is back to the closets for me. I hope to have them all clean by the end of the day, and all the garage sale stuff in the garage and maybe even priced. AND I need to buy some groceries!

Weekend in Review: Post number 1350

2011-03-21T07:07:00.000-05:00

In just a few days this blog will be four years old, and today is my 1,350th post! I have stopped looking at every life situation and experience as blog fodder, but I still enjoy journaling this way. Now, on to the weekend in review.

We survived! Going into it after working so hard all week, I wasn't sure we would. We have showed the house twice now, and today (Monday) we will have pictures taken for the internet viewers. I still need to pull out the dead mums in the front bed and tidy the studio once more before she arrives at 10:00, but otherwise we are in good shape.

Sunday afternoon after hanging curtains and all the other stuff we did, we decided to drive around in the area of Broken Arrow where we might want to live. We even toured a house that made ours look like a dream come true! (as in, that one was a major money-pit!) Not that there were structural problems, although there was water on the floor in the master closet from the hall bathroom that was going to cost the insurance company a penny or two, but there were many things we said we didn't want such as a sunken living room, washer and dryer opposite each other instead of side by side, and a tiny master closet.

The houses we found later, but didn't tour, were considerably more expensive, but not really when one considers how much it would cost to make the first one livable. We looked at the pictures online (what a wonderful service!) and found one we really liked but it is a little bit out of the price range we had wanted to pay. Location was perfect, as well as everything else about it that we could tell, but it is hard to get excited about paying higher payments... The price per square foot we are asking for this house is $66. but the ones we were looking at were $89 to $100. Less square footage, more money and variations on whether they would need a lot of work. The one we really like would only require one room being painted (if I could live with beige walls in the rest of the house) and that is the pale blue master bedroom.

We have decided that if we are asked to do anything else to sell, we will just stay here. We are finished fixing for someone else to live in when other homes costing more have lots more to do to them than ours.

House Photos

2011-03-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally have some before and after photos of the kitchen and dining room. I think it is really boring, but I made it mine in a few ways. If the house doesn't sell, I don't care if it did cost a mint to paint it, we will NOT keep it beige!!!

The wild kitchen wallpaper coming down. This little section took me about an hour to get off. We ended up only stripping the border (not shown) and this one section of the wall in the kitchen. The rest of this type of paper was sealed with an oil based sealer, then the corners floated and sanded to hide the seams. It really looks like it was removed, and with the sealer, there won't be any problems repainting later.

Dining Room view one--before. I really liked this room, but apparently it "didn't go with the rest of the house" and "nobody wants to deal with wallpaper" so off it came. I had originally planned on rehanging the shelves, but Ron was able to counter-sink the mollies, and I didn't have the heart to put new holes in the wall!

Another view of the dining room before. This was after I put the rug down--it's the wall opposite the first photo. This wallpaper came off like a dream! The vinyl came off in fairly large hunks, and the backing with a bit of water applied, peeled right off.

This is also the dining room looking into the kitchen hallway. The marker board is in the garage sale.

I was sad to take down the custom vinyl design I had up there, but there was no good way to save it, and I sure wasn't going to paint around it! The picture on the left is now hanging in the guest room where the picture was hanging that went into the office to replace the family photo wall. Seriously, there has been a major domino effect taking place!

The new dining room. The only thing we rehung on the walls was the mirror. The little table at the head of the table is actually a small computer desk I moved from the craft room. The scarf on the table is one Ryan brought for me from Qatar. All the stuff we added in here helped to cut the echo down, but the room feels pretty empty without anything on the walls.

Here is a view of the dining room (and some very clean shutters!) from the kitchen hallway.

The view into the kitchen hallway. What a difference! I admit the kitchen wallpaper needed to go, but I sure wish we could have used something besides beige on the walls...

More hallway.

Nothing really changed here, other than the fact that the counters are completely cleared off and there are new curtain valances above the windows.

A better view of the window. We painted around the window frame and got rid of a lot of mess left from when we changed out the counter tops and put up the tile. The Formica had gone up into the window frame a little bit, but we opted to not put tile there, so there was a yucky looking line and unfinished sheet rock there. It really needed to be painted, but was another thing that just kept getting put off.

The poster on the table will hang on the wall once the glue dries... I borrowed an old frame for this new poster I have been looking for a home for, and wouldn't you know, the little hanger on the back came off when I tried to bend it out to go over the nail. So I glued it back on! The beige table cloth is only for showing the house. It is cotton, and requires copious starching and ironing, and I am pretty sure it would show every drop of anything spilled on it, so the rest of the time I will put my green one over it so I don't have to keep ironing it!

Notice also that the island that was formerly in the middle of the kitchen is now against the wall between the oven and the garage door. It really is much roomier without it in the middle of the room, but I miss the convenience of setting things on it while I am working in there. The trash can (for showing) is in the pantry, another thing I could not get used to!

So, that is the finished project. Now, for the outdoors stuff, the garage sale and living in a sterile home until it sells. Keeping it clean has been quite a trick!

Waitin' for the Plumber

2011-03-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

I woke up at midnight, wide awake. After laying there for an hour, I got up and looked for quiet jobs so I wouldn't wake Ornery. I reinstalled all the switch plates and most of the outlet covers, moved the little desk from the studio to the dining room to act as a side board, unloaded the dishwasher, and went through a ton of craft supplies. I worked until about 5:00, then went back to bed until 8:00, when Ornery also got up.

While we were enjoying our coffee, I got a call from a Realtor wanting to show the house today. She had five houses to show a prospect beginning at 1:00, and we asked if we could be last.

Ornery set to work on filling the nail holes and painting the trim he replaced yesterday, and I turned into a whirling dervish! I washed all the crystal from the curio cabinet and all the glass inside that piece of furniture, then reloaded it. I carted all the dining table chairs from the spa room back to the dining room and rehung the mirror (with some help). Then I got out some red linens to put on the new little desk and table, and used my red glass as table decor. I washed the picture window and the shutters, dusted all the furniture in the living room, and spent time in every room of the house taking care of nit-picky things.

The last thing I did was price another load or two of stuff from the studio, and dumped all the stuff that was still on the table into the laundry basket for attention at a later time.

Then, I took a shower.

Then the sewer decided to back up.

Ornery was not able to get it unstopped so we called the plumber. $152.50 for a Saturday service call.

We managed to coordinate the Realtor and the plumber so they weren't here at the same time, but the prospective buyer was looking for something light and bright, and our house is not that, although I am not sure any house would be today since it is overcast and rainy. Hopefully once the photos are up on the websites people will look online before they make us clean up the house to come see it! :)

Open house is a week from today, and I think I am as ready as I am going to be. We are going out to get some curtains and table cloths this afternoon once the plumber leaves, and I will continue to work my way through closets and drawers to thin our possessions to a manageable quantity. Next week I'll send out the word to my scrapping friends to see if they want to come shop my craft supplies, and I will continue to gather and price things for our garage sale. That said, the garage will not be as neat and tidy as the rest of the house will be for the open house, but much neater/cleaner than many I have seen.

Next post I will put some photos of the finished rooms. They won't be as good as those by the professional coming on Monday, but at least you can see what we've done. And it's a lot!

Almost Finished!!

2011-03-18T20:02:00.000-05:00

I sure wondered if it was possible when we began this project on Tuesday, but remarkably, all that is left of the wallpaper removal project is some trim touch up, reinstalling all the switch-plate covers and a bit more clean up. Our friends from Royal Touch Painting did an amazing job. They caulked above all the kitchen cabinets and smoothed out the mud Ornery used on the sheet rock joints, and did all the painting. They managed to paint the entire dining room and kitchen with about two gallons of paint! The product they used was Kelly Moore Acry-shield, and it covered like a dream!

While they were busy inside, Ornery and I spent some time out in the garage. He had to cut the mitered end of the replacement piece of chair rail he had split out, and decided to try it with his scroll saw. It worked beautifully. He did a trial run or two before he made the final cut, and I was so happy for him that he figured out how to do it. :) He was quite proud, too! Then, he cleaned up the mess from our bat family and repainted that little area on the front porch, and sawed off the ends of some wood trim on the front of the house that the inspector told him about when we bought the house 16 years ago! We still need to get some topsoil and mulch for that little area, but other than some flower bed clean up and weed and feed, the outdoor stuff is pretty much done.

I spent some time going through the three shelves full of painting supplies and ended up sending home several containers of things (thinners, primers, etc.) we won't ever use with Ron. He was happy to get them, and we were happy to get rid of them--it was a win-win situation! I moved everything I could away from the outside wall and swept a pound or more of dirt out of there, then organized the shelves and garden bench. Then we took several things (like snow shovels and our hideous paint splattered ladder) out to the shed.

I have quite a pile of full cans of paint that I need to dispose of, but I think I have been through almost everything in the garage now except for our Christmas stuff, and I think I will wait on that for a while. It wouldn't sell in a March/April garage sale, and I might put up a little tree in my booth at the antique mall later this year to sell the ornaments the kids and I no longer want.

Tomorrow I will finish up the cleaning and hopefully Ornery will get the trim painted and finished up. I have to clean all the glass that was in the curio cabinet as well as the shelves inside, as when I emptied it to move it out of the dining room I realized there was a lot of dirt inside there! I also need to get all the stuff I have priced from the studio out into the garage and clean that up enough for pictures. I hope to have the project complete by Wednesday. It was much bigger than I realized when I started on it, but one that sure begged to be done!

Sunday is lawn and garden day, and by the end of the day we should be completely ready to have photos taken for the virtual tour and to show the house to anyone who might wish to see it. Ornery asked me if this week was what Purgatory was like. I don't know about all that, but we have sure worked hard and are both tired to the bone!

Amazing Progress Today!

2011-03-17T17:13:00.000-05:00

We had just finished removing the last of the wallpaper border in the dining room and washing the walls when our friends Ron and Diane arrived at about 9:00 this morning. Ornery did the climbing and I did the rinsing of the washcloth and washing of the lower areas. Diane and I actually ended up stripping the wallpaper from the dining room (bottom half of the wall was papered, top was painted) and had all but the clean up done by noon. Meanwhile, Ron patched, caulked, and I don't know what all else, but as of 5:00, the dining room all has at least one coat of something, either primer or paint on all the walls! The kitchen has primer on all the papered areas and Ornery is finishing up floating out the seams around the sheet rock he replaced.

Tonight we have to go buy some chair rail trim to replace the piece Ornery broke while he was taking it off, and get it cut, hung and painted. We also have to remove the last little strip of border above the back door in the kitchen. It is VERY POSSIBLE that we will be done with the painting by the end of tomorrow!! I know it may not seem like a miracle to some people, but for Ornery and his wife, it is truly a miracle of monumental proportions!

In addition to the painting situation going on, the movers came to take the roll-top desk from the office today. That room is almost clean again and set back up. We thought they would have to go through the window, (which we removed and then put back in and washed) but they took the office door off the hinges, put the desk up on its end and wheeled it out on a four-wheeled cart down the hall and out the front door. We moved the little couch table we were using as a desk in the guest room into its place, giving Ornery a spot to set up his computer should he desire to do so. Mostly we've kept the computers in the traveling cases in the event we have to run out the door for a showing, but since the place is such a mess right now we aren't showing it--and there have been calls!

We had one small disaster, and that was that the ceiling fan in the kitchen quit working. Ornery thinks it is just a switch, but what a pain! I doubt we will try to fix that right away, although it would be nice since the days are warmer (82 degrees today!) to open up the house and have the fans on. Fortunately, we have an insurance policy courtesy the listing agency, that covers such things, so we may be able to get a new one for the $50 deductible. I'll have to read the fine print to see if it will help us out.

I really do think that the next person to look at the place will probably buy it. It may be overly optimistic, but the house really looks GOOD! :)

Talking to Myself

2011-03-17T08:16:00.003-05:00

I must be spending too much time alone because I discovered a few days ago that I talk to myself. All the time.

Ornery, who happened to have hearing protection on while using some power tools, complained that he couldn't hear what I was saying and I thought, "I didn't say anything, did I?" So, I started noticing and realized that I do talk to myself a lot.

I think I do it more when I am tired, and that is certainly my state with all the activity going on around here right now!

Incremental Progress

2011-03-16T17:05:00.001-05:00

We have some friends who own a painting business. They are coming in the morning to take care of the wallpaper. By take care of it, I mean they are going to prime it, then use drywall mud to smooth the seams and imperfections in the walls, then prime again. We just had to remove the border, and since Elizabeth came over today and removed most of that for us, we are in fairly good shape for them to start in the morning.

Ornery stayed up until 1:00 this morning working on the kitchen wall. The repair is mostly done, he just has to put the sheet rock on and float the seams. Oh, it's not REALLY almost done, but in comparison to the beginning point, it has progressed well. It wouldn't have even cost a lot except that he needed to buy a power tool to saw in the close areas. It was indeed a mess behind the wallpaper, but it is much better now.

I made little progress on pricing my craft supplies today, however I worked on it a good portion of the day while Elizabeth stripped wallpaper. Today's tasks involved hundreds of stickers and solid colored card stock. I am stumped on a good method for dividing up and pricing the printed papers. I still have all those thousands of sheets to go through, and a few nooks and crannies I have yet to open up, plus all the rubber stamps and a few notebooks full of stickers and other stuff. I might have gone through 25% of my stuff by now, although the paper seems to be a daunting task. I think I'll save it for last. :)

Those who scrapbook regularly will appreciate the good deals I am offering, I just hope I don't end up with any of it left to find homes for once I reorganize everything. I have been putting the priced items in boxes and totes, and I have one 4' table completely covered with the boxes. If I was to spread everything out, I think I could cover several 6' tables!

Ornery didn't take today off like I thought. It was a miscommunication, but he is off tomorrow and Friday. There is SO much to do--get ready for the movers to take the roll top, finish prepping the walls for the painters and then all the clean up, which will be massive after the sanding of sheet rock mud. We are tired but very glad to be getting all this done. By Monday, we should be ready for the virtual tour pictures... I hope.

Who Hangs Wallpaper with Super Glue??

2011-03-15T13:53:00.000-05:00

Apparently I do, since the stuff is so hard to get off! I guess it wasn't with super glue or it wouldn't come off at all, but it is only grudgingly parting in very small pieces under great persuasion!

The Home Stager came on Monday afternoon, and praised our lovely home EXCEPT for the rooms with wallpaper. "The paper must come down if you want a quick sale," she said. Then she drove the dagger deep when she told me what color to paint... "Kilim Beige and Latte." It should be called "killing me beige" because it will be SO hard to put beige paint on the walls! Even Ornery was whining about it, and asking if there was any possible way we could avoid that travesty. I begged to the point of groveling, and she insisted it would be lovely and just the thing buyers would like.

I asked her about all sorts of possible options, and that was her final answer. So, I went to Sherwin Williams and picked up the paint swatch and will take it to Lowe's where I have a gift card that will pay for most of two gallons of paint. Then I went to Target to buy a rug for under the dining room table because "It echoes in here." The rug didn't really kill much of the sound, but it was cheap and will "go with anything," as the stranger standing outside told me as I was carting it to the van. I grimaced. I don't LIKE things that "go with anything!"

THEN, still reeling from that bit of news, the Realtor called at 8:30 PM to say they were planning an open house here THIS WEEKEND!!!

"Oh, no," I said. "I don't think that is a good idea."

The photos are scheduled for Monday morning, but at least if we aren't finished with the work by then we can reschedule that. The new date for the open house is the following weekend, still a week earlier than I had planned for. I should probably be glad he is getting on it so quickly, but one of the things I asked them was what we needed to do before we could sell, and they said, "Nothing!" So, we listed it thinking that some clean-up was all we'd need to do... Oh, well, whining doesn't solve anything, but I have certainly done a fair amount of it over the last couple of days!

At 6:30 this morning, I started on the tedious task of removing the paper in the kitchen. It needed to go anyway, but I was hoping the next owner would decide what color to paint in there and do the work. After spending several hours and only having a very small area uncovered, I called a friend who has a painting business. They are coming in the morning to help us out. They will put an oil based primer on the paper, put mud on at the joints, let it dry and sand it, then paint. I don't think I can afford for them to do the whole job, but if they can just help us get the paper covered in the hallway and the dining room, that would be a help. We will still have to remove the borders in both kitchen and dining room, but fortunately, the walls are only 1/2 covered in paper!

Ornery is taking tomorrow off, as well, so he can replace the sheetrock that was damaged by the termites a few years ago. It will take him most of the day to complete that and be ready to paint in there, so I have been trying to get the paper off from that area first.

I can't work bent over or sitting on the floor for a real long period of time without changing positions, so I worked on that for a while, then worked on pricing stuff in my studio for the big sale. I worked pretty much non-stop on that project yesterday other than when I was visiting with the stager and running the errands to fulfill her requirements. (They aren't really required, just strong suggestions to help it sell faster.) So, it has been back and forth from the kitchen to the studio and back to the kitchen. Ornery was kind enough to bring me a Panera frozen caramel after his dentist appointment this morning, and that was a very nice little treat and about the only break I have taken!

So far in the areas I have cleaned in my studio, I have gotten rid of 50-60% of the stuff in the containers. Not all the containers were purged, and I have really only gone through about 20% of my stuff so far. I set up a few tables in the garage to stack the priced items on. I foresee having to set up more before too long. I may decide to have a little "pre-garage sale" sale for just the scrapbooking stuff. I think if I advertise it on Craigslist and call a few friends to spread the word, I should lighten the load a bit.

So, that is the crazy pace we are currently running at: wrinkled fingers and broken nails, aching backs and cramped toes. Will it ever end??

Weekend in Review: 3.13.11

2011-03-13T17:13:00.000-05:00

Ornery is quite certain I am trying to kill him. Between all the work yesterday getting our booth up and functional at the little Antique Mall, and the huge list of work to do today on the house, we are both almost comatose from exhaustion!

I woke up late this morning (7:30) and found a message on my phone from 9:00 last night saying that a Realtor (couldn't understand the name or company name or phone number) had an interested buyer and she would like to show the house today at 4:30. We had 8 hours to clean top to bottom and prepare for all the activities scheduled for this week, including the virtual photo tour and staging designer, as well as the departure of Ornery's huge roll top desk. We got the desk emptied, the entire house vacuumed, dusted, and cleaned. Ornery touched up some trim paint and we even shuffled a few pieces of furniture.

We finished at 4:00 and left for Panera, which is where I am writing this post. The house has never looked so good! I REALLY hope the Realtor was calling from her cell phone and the message I left this morning actually reached her. I would be so disappointed to have killed ourselves for nothing!

This week I am going to be deeply immersed in my craft supplies. It would be great if I could get all that done and have time to actually play in my studio. Here's hoping!

Open for Business at World Treasures

2011-03-12T16:22:00.000-06:00

We ended up painting the wall blue with leftover paint from my studio. We arrived at around 10:00 and unloaded everything from the van. Ornery painted and I hung dominoes on the bulletin board. We hid everything behind the book case and the picket fence display, and went home for lunch and to pick up the Hoosier cabinet. By the time we got back, the paint was dry enough to take the tape down, but there were still areas that were wet. (Paint doesn't dry as well when it is cold... just sayin') Here are some photos of the finished project...

This is the left side of the "booth"

This is the right side of the booth

There were a few customers who wandered through the place, but not a lot given that it was a Saturday. The shop is located in the Oak Crest Shopping Center at 1639 Main St. in Broken Arrow. The store is called World Treasures or something like that. The sign is painted on the window, and there is a banner out by the road on a pick-up truck. They definitely need better signage...

I still had some things to price when Ornery finished with his part so he went home. He was beat! I have worked the poor guy to the nubbins this week. I think we'll both be glad when everything is done and the house is sold.

The photographer who takes the photos for the virtual tour called this afternoon to set up an appointment for Monday morning, but since I am not meeting with the stager until Monday afternoon, she said she'd call after that. I really don't think there is much I will need to do, but just in case...

Getting Stuff Done!

2011-03-12T08:30:00.001-06:00

It looks like we are going to be pretty busy this weekend. Ornery mowed the lawn last night, even though the grass isn't green yet, the weeds are quite happy to see the rain and sunshine.

Today we are taking another big load of merchandise to the shop at World Treasures, the "antique" mall on Main St. in Broken Arrow. We are also taking all the paint and equipment to paint the little section of wall that is my "booth." I am thinking I will mix the blue and green in my craft room, and make a teal/aqua sort of color out of it. There might be enough of either color, but together I am sure there will be plenty. The spaces next to mine are bright red and sort of a dark slate/green color (that one is hard to tell given the lack of light), and mine is currently painted white but is very scuffed and dirty looking. A fresh coat of paint will liven it up considerably.

When I went yesterday I spoke with the owner about some of my concerns, and in fact asked if I could get out of the contract, but she showed me a better spot, a little bigger than the one I was going to rent, and even though it normally rents for more, she is letting me have it for my contract period for the same price as the dark corner. I am much happier with the location, and it has a great deal of potential... I took all the Miller Manor Designs merchandise over yesterday, and Ornery met me there with the small bookcase. Today we'll also take the Hoosier cabinet over to use for displaying various glass and other merchandise. The van is pretty well loaded with "stuff" and by the end of the day, we should be very tired, and our booth ready for business!

The rest of the house is looking quite sparse as I clear things out that we don't plan to keep. I am afraid I am going overboard too soon, but we'll see. The biggest project left to tackle, besides some landscape work outdoors, is my studio. I spent a couple hours in there last night going through my QuicKutz and pricing the components. I am going to think long and hard about each and every item I have in there, and only plan to keep a minimal amount of supplies and just the tools I use all the time. I don't know what sort of space I will have for my crafting when we move, and I'd rather not move it all, anyway.

The way I am pricing the items from the studio is with the tags and numbers I will need to put on things for the garage sale at the scrapbook store. That sale is on April 16th, but my garage sale here is March 31 and April 1. I'll advertise the stuff on Craigslist as available at the garage sale, and whatever is left will already be priced for the Scrapbook Garage Sale; that way I only have to price things once, and I can tell whether or not my prices are too high or too low on items based on the response at the garage sale. I want to get rid of the stuff, but I also want to be fairly compensated for it, as well. Such a challenge when selling used stuff!

It seems like one of the most complicated and time consuming aspects of sales of any sort is selecting a price to charge and marking each item. It took me a couple of hours yesterday to do just that on the items I took to display there. I have tried to check the going rate for things on Amazon and eBay, but some things have such disparate prices that I end up making up my own anyway.

My brain finally seems to be working again, and as I check things off my list, I am feeling a bit more "in control." All the changes have upset my equilibrium just a tad, the most obvious one has been the level of continuous activity I am participating in! I wake up at 4:00 raring to go, and hardly stop all day, then I fall into bed very early in the evening. Last night I lasted the longest of any night this week, and was still working on things at 8:00.

I think I will be ready for my Monday appointment with the lady who does staging, though. We'll see if my idea of what looks good for selling jives with hers. I sure hope so, I am tired! :)

Setting Up Shop

2011-03-10T08:01:00.000-06:00

I am having a really difficult time trying to organize my thoughts! I have too many irons in the fire, I guess. There are so many projects with a domino effect that I am almost afraid to start one for fear of ending up with a huge mess! We tried to make lists last night, but I was too tired to think straight. I might need to go sit in the sauna for a while and calm down! :)

The first thing on my radar is to get my little shop corner in the Antiques Mall set up and ready to go. Ornery will help me take the old Hoosier cabinet over on Saturday, but I still have to empty it. I have emptied a little book case I used for my cookbooks in the kitchen, so that will go over first, as well as the picket shelf that he made for my crafted merchandise. I hope it will be okay to mix the two types of merchandise--new and used.

After we get the cabinet over there and the merchandise set up, we need to spend some time on the yard, mowing, putting down weed-and-feed (which really goes against every fiber of my sensibilities!) and fixing up the ~~weed~~ flower beds. I want to get those hairy potatoes planted this weekend as well. Ornery and I will continue to go through rooms, closets and drawers paring down our stash of junk.

Last night he pulled out a brand new tent that still has the tags on it. I will see if they will take it back where he bought it, but if not, we will sell his old one and keep the new one. He also culled most of the paperback books he had, and I will start with the used book store for those. It is nice to have credit there. The books they don't want will go in our little booth. What fun to have an outlet to sell things without having to have a garage sale!

We also need to figure out what to do with all the stuff he has in the desk that is going back to its owner next week, and I am trying to muster up the nerve to start paring down my craft supplies. I have a tote listed on Craigslist, but I have only had one person interested, and she is apparently not in much of a hurry. It will go over to the shop this weekend if she hasn't bought it by then.

One good thing about having the house listed is that I have to be up, dressed, and the house clean early in the day. No lolly-gagging around!

What a Wednesday!!

2011-03-09T16:58:00.000-06:00

I usually accomplish the bulk of my projects Monday and Tuesday and have the rest of the week to putz around. This week seems to have started out full throttle and gained speed! I have had several "aerobic" moments, that is for sure!

Today started at 4:15, and has not slowed down much since then. I listed four new items on Craigslist at about 5:30 and one of them got a spate of calls and emails that really kept me hopping! I finally got rid of it around 11:00, and wouldn't you know, I got a nasty email from one of the would-be buyers because I didn't hold it for her! Her remark was that I "must have needed the money worse than I valued my word," but I didn't ever say I would hold it for her, and in fact in the first email I noted that I would leave the listing active until she arrived. I should have said "...arrived or it is sold." Oh, well...live and learn.

I made arrangements to have a moving company come and take Ornery's sister's desk back to her house. It will be a spendy proposition, but it is a beast to move, and by the time we rented something to haul it in and hired some muscle to help us, it would have cost almost the same as hiring it done. We paid the money.

Elizabeth arrived at about 9:00, and I had just sold two of the other listed items and was trying to get a photo of another. The Realtor called at the same time wanting to know if he could come by to get the key box and sign up. That done and all the major sales for the day completed, we went to Flight Safety to watch Ornery eat his lunch and so he could escort Elizabeth around to visit her old pals from when she worked there.

Our next stop was a little antique mall in Broken Arrow where I rented some space to sell my stuff from Miller Manor Designs and some of the other items we are wanting to get rid of from the house. The contract was for six months, but I don't know how successful I will be. The place was cold, dark and the worker didn't know much--or speak English very well. I will go back on Friday to talk to the owner and see how to label my merchandise and start setting things up. I am really excited about it, but I could tell Elizabeth was pretty skeptical of my success--even as she spent $10. on something there herself! :)

A quick stop at the bank for her to get a new debit card and lunch at Chipotle before we headed back home to take down the pictures from the office wall. We took most of the pictures out of the frames, and I slipped them into an empty scrapbook to deal with later. The rest of them I have on a shelf up in a closet. Jeff came back to pick her up at about 3:00 and they scurried home to let out the dog. It was fun visiting with her, and she was a great help with the photo wall, climbing on the desk to remove all the nails and high pictures.

I played phone tag with the home stager, so I still don't have a consultation time set up. The photos and other stuff that will go up on the various websites won't happen until she comes, so I am hoping we can connect before long. The couple who listed the house won't host an open house here until the first weekend in April at the earliest, so in the mean time, I am scurrying around to get together all my junk for the mother of all garage sales March 31 and April 1. That is three weeks from tomorrow.

I always say it, but I SWEAR this is my last garage sale EVER!!! What a lot of work they are! The hardest part of this one is trying to keep the house "showable" while getting ready. Good thing I like a challenge.

Money Monday

2011-03-09T04:54:00.021-06:00

In addition to locating and meeting with a Realtor yesterday, I re-posted a couple of things on Craigslist, and put my scrapbooking tote up for sale, as well. So far I have sold the Fossil bags and had nibbles on the other two. The lady who bought the Fossil bags asked me to deliver, so I got an extra $5 out of the deal.

The dry bag buyer seemed promising until he asked me to go down almost 50% of what I was asking (less than 50% of the new cost). Ornery said that was too much of a discount, and I think once we get all his camping stuff out and listed, we will get a better offer. No rush at this point.

I almost missed the conversations about these items since I was so busy getting the house cleaned up for the Realtors. I wasn't really ready when they arrived, but close enough for a first run-through. The couple we are working with seemed really nice, and I think they will be easy to work with. I am to call a home stager and we'll see what she recommends. The agents seemed to think the only major change would be to remove the wall of personal photos from the office. They said people would stop and look at the photos and miss the house!

I wonder what the neighbors will say when they see the For Sale sign in the yard... it goes up today!

Changes in the Wind

2011-03-08T10:23:00.000-06:00

We are meeting with a Realtor tonight to find out just how much work we need to do before we can list our house. We are hopeful that it won't be a lot, but we know of a few things, and we'll be hustling to get those done as soon as possible. If I had my way, the house would sell and we would be moved by the end of June, but I don't know if that is realistic. We'd like to get to a place where there was ample space for a garden, and enough of the summer left in which to plant it!

Meanwhile, I will be busy whittling away at our accumulation of stuff to make a move much easier to handle. We have both said we could walk away from almost everything and start over, so if a person wanted to buy it as it sits, we would certainly entertain an offer!

We had planned on waiting for a couple of years but both of us feel somewhat of a sense of urgency, so we are acting now. I have already come up with a name for our new place, and we don't even have it yet! This has been Miller Manor, and somehow I feel that the name should stay with the house, even if the next buyers don't use it. In my mind, this place will always be Miller Manor. Our next place will be Zoe House. Zoe's Greek meaning has to do with the quality of life that God has and gives his children.

Stay tuned for updates, I am sure I'll want to record all that is happening!

Terrific Tuesday: 3.8.11

2011-03-08T04:39:00.000-06:00

This week's Terrific Tuesday is all about the things that made me happy in Florida Last week. It was truly a wonderful time!

Time spent with my son and his son. Here they were pretending to ride a 4 Wheeler in front of the Bass Pro Shop in Destin. They are both having fun pretending, imagine what those smiles would be like if they were actually riding!

Time with my beloved. We enjoyed so much conversation and interaction. Here we are in front of Bass Pro by a pick up truck.

Who wouldn't enjoy relaxing on the white sandy beach??

Panera breakfast--every morning! This one is in Destin, and was our favorite of the three in the area...

Lunch at Barefoot Bar-B-Q in Seaside. Mmm.

This beautiful pavilion in Seaside. Someday I will have a party here...

The beautiful glass at Fusion Galleries. A true feast for the eyes.

Playing Cribbage with Ornery... at Panera in Mary Esther.

Watching the sunrises and sunsets over the water, watching the pelicans glide effortlessly over the surface of the water, and just listening to the waves from our balcony.

Sitting at Panera with my computer! I had my coat on because they keep it so cold in there!

Back in the Saddle Again

2011-03-07T13:42:00.000-06:00

Apparently vacation is over.

Ornery woke up at 3:30 for coffee. I wandered in around 4:30 to join him. We didn't talk much as we were both still pretty sleepy. I unpacked the last of the stuff from our trip, put away the last of the groceries and took care of some computer stuff before he left at 6:00.

Then I...

made chicken chili for the freezer (Ornery wanted some for his lunches)
made the bed
took a shower
cleaned out a cupboard in the kitchen
cleaned out a bunch of clothes from the guest room closet
went to Claremore to the dairy
filled the van with gas and went through the car wash
picked up my new eye glasses
tried to file a claim on my phone insurance... Net result = no new phone + insurance cancelled.
took a pile of clothes to the resale shop to consign
took what the resale shop didn't want to the Goodwill drop off (most of it)
took care of all the accumulated mail that came while we were gone (mostly filed it in the recycle bin)
wrote two thank you notes and another short note and mailed them
deposited two checks at the bank
made a menu plan and lists for the week

All before 1:00! I am not sure why I felt compelled to get everything done in one day, but I feel pretty good about the number of check marks on the list!

Almost Home

2011-03-06T05:58:00.000-06:00

(If you are a regular reader, I am sorry about posting all the posts at one time. It didn't seem prudent to announce to all and sundry we were away, but I did write almost every day on our trip so you can go back to the date of February 26 and read from there if you want all the latest news.)

All good things (they say) must come to an end, and we were actually ready to get back home to our own kitchen and bed. Even though the vacation is over, it has renewed us and recharged us so going back home will be nice as well.

The forecast for Saturday was rain, rain and more rain. The weather-weenies didn't lie, this time! We left Fort Walton Beach at about 7:30 in a really light mist. We drove as far as Maumelle, AR where we ended up at the same hotel that we stayed in a week earlier. The drive was mostly pleasant, very quiet as both of us were pretty mellow, and at moments quite tense as we could barely see the road ahead of us through the driving rain. Fortunately, that was the exception, not the norm. After we got a little way into Arkansas, the rain stopped altogether, but we hit a few areas of fog that seemed like they might be problematic had we been driving at night.

Things had greened up considerably since we drove through last weekend, especially on the lower underbrush beneath the big pine trees in Mississippi. We saw a lot of evidence of spring, including some volunteer daffodils, lots of tulip magnolia trees in bloom (such a shame the blooms only last a few days), and what appeared to be some sort of fruit tree as they looked a lot like Bradford Pear trees. Water stood in many of the medians and bar ditches, as well as the furrows in the many fields we passed.

I am writing this last post while waiting for the hotel's breakfast bar to be opened. We are all set to hit the road and should be home in just a few short hours. It was a really nice trip, but I am sure glad to be going home!

Wrapping Up the Week Away

2011-03-04T18:05:00.014-06:00

Thursday we spent the day alone, mostly at the condo. Ornery took a long walk up the beach while I read a whole book in one sitting--a rare delight!--then he took a long nap. We ate breakfast at Waffle House, lunch was tuna sandwiches at the condo, and had dinner at Five Guys Burgers. It was a delightful day of just relaxing and spending time together. I took a couple movies from the free rental kiosk in the lobby, but we didn't end up watching them.

Friday morning, we were to meet Ryan and Ale at 6:00 at the Panera near the base for breakfast, then follow them back to their house on base to await the movers arrival while they took care of a couple of other errands. We stayed and helped until a little after 1:00. Ornery took Micah for a long walk to the nearby park and played with him--entertained him for over an hour--while I was marking off the numbers on the list of packed items as the movers unloaded them and took them into the house. I think his time with Micah was one of the highlights of the trip for Ornery, as for the most part Micah had not really warmed up to him yet.

The house was nice, a single story duplex with three bedrooms, a one-car covered carport with an extra pad for another car, and a small storage shed next to the carport. There was a nice little room just off the kitchen they were using for a music room and office, and all the bedrooms seemed to have nice closets and plenty of storage space. Rooms were light with lots of windows, and in all, I think they will make a very nice home there. It is near two small parks and on the side of the base that is very close to the private beach.

When we returned to the condo, I finished up the laundry I had started before we left early in the morning, and Ornery took another long nap. The red flag was flying down on the beach, and the waves looked awesome rolling far up onto the beach. The mood of the water changes so often, and it doesn't seem to matter which one it takes on, I seem to love them all.

We wanted to see the kids one more time before we left, so we stopped by Olive Garden and picked up dinner for all of us "to go" and took it to their new little house. Micah was asleep for the night already, so we didn't get to see him again, but we continue to marvel at how happy he is. The amount of work they had gotten done was amazing! We enjoyed our visit, but were all very tired, so as soon as we got back to the condo, we went to bed.

Wednesday: Cool and Breezy

2011-03-02T20:22:00.001-06:00

We had coffee and showered, then packed up our computers and went to Panera for breakfast and some writing time.

It was cold where we were sitting, but we couldn't sit in a booth because there were no outlets to plug in our computers. So, we both wore our coats! :) At about 9:30, I found information about a used book store, so we went over there and found a few things. The owner said when she moved here there were 12 used book stores in the FWB/Destin area, and now she is the only one. There were four people in there wanting to trade with her besides us, so I guess she will be there for a while longer, anyway.

From there we went to the Junkyard Dog thrift shop next to what used to be a scrapbook store. While I was sad to see it gone, I wasn't surprised. There are several of the places we used to shop that have gone out of business over the last year or so. The Junkyard Dog was several steps up from Rough Stuff, the thrift store we went to a couple of days ago. They have much nicer merchandise and it is clean and neatly arranged. The prices on several things were sort of high, but I guess that is to be expected. I found an old Scrabble game and some padded hangers for me and two wooden toddler puzzles for Micah.

We had plans to spend the day on the beach, but it was pretty cool and breezy. Ryan and Ale were planning to come for the day, but had appointments in the morning, one of which netted Micah a pneumonia vaccination to which he had some slight reaction. Ale wasn't feeling great, either, so we ended up just spending a short time with them on the beach--I was huddled under a thick beach towel, and still cold! We got a few photos, though...

After we froze for a while on the beach, we took Micah back up to our condo and he took a little nap while we visited with Ryan and Ale. He woke up pretty unhappy, and while they gathered their things to go back to their temporary housing, I read a couple of books I got for him at the book store.

He was very attentive to the words and pictures and sat quietly while I read to him four books.

Ornery and I dined on Ritz crackers and dill havarti cheese for dinner. In all it was a very nice day.

Tuesday: Seaside and the Beach

2011-03-01T21:29:00.026-06:00

The clouds we experienced all day Monday were gone Tuesday morning, and a north breeze blowing off the water made it too cold to do more than spend a very few minutes on the balcony. We rose at our usual 4:30, and had coffee, then waited for the sunrise, but missed it. We talked about how nice it would be to live here all the time, especially if we could wake up to the waves lapping the sand each day! What a refreshing time this has been so far!

We left around 8:00 and had breakfast at the Destin Panera. We sat there for about an hour and a half, then walked around until the shops opened at 10:00. We bought Elizabeth a couple of t-shirts from the Life Is Good store, then drove to Seaside.

Brisket sandwich, baked beans and macaroni and cheese. The guy sure knows how to cook!

We were regretting our long sleeved shirts after about 10:00, but in the shade, it wasn't too hot. Here is Ornery about to devour his lunch. VERY tasty fare!

We ate lunch at the Barefoot BBQ place we remembered from our last trip there, and then walked around for a while,

The public beach access at Seaside, FL. I don't think the camera did the blue water justice, but you get an idea of how eye-popping it was.

This is a little party pavilion behind a place called Bud and Alley's Bistro. When I saw it before, I said, "I want to have my 60th birthday party here." It is really a lovely little spot.

finishing at my favorite Fusion Art Glass gallery store. I think if I was very wealthy, a lot of my money would go to that place!

This lighted sculpture of glass and metal was designed by the gallery owner and a local metal worker. It retails for $5800. They would be happy to take a special order for any color or size...

This was my favorite piece, although there were very few items in the whole gallery I would have turned down. It retails for a little over $1500.

This was Ornery's favorite piece. It was, according to the clerk, the most expensive piece in the whole place, and was made by an Italian master craftsman. Figures. It really is an amazing work of art, with different sections featuring different textures applied at various temperatures. The lighting didn't really do it justice, either, but if you click on the image, you can see some of the various textures. It retailed for over $5000. but I am not sure just how much it was.

I think it would be pretty fun to have a light like this in an entry way. Not so sure about the Medusa look, but over all, I really like it. Can't imagine how heavy that would be, or how in the world they would hang it, but I guess they have it all figured out or it wouldn't be up there!

We got back to the condo at about 2:00, and spent the next 2 and a half hours on the beach. Ornery walked up the beach toward the wharf, and I sat in a chair getting sun on my legs. Seriously, they were the color of the sand when I got there, but they were showing a decided pink cast by the time I walked back across the dunes to the condos. It was pretty warm today, probably around 80 degrees, but there was a nice little breeze that kept things from being too uncomfortable.

The beach side of our condominiums

The glare off those legs is something else!

Ryan and Ale did NOT have as pleasant of a day, and ended up not coming over at all. We reheated leftover pizza from our first night and watched Pride and Prejudice. In all, a very pleasant day.

Monday in Paradise

2011-03-01T05:49:00.000-06:00

Ornery and I were up early, and at Panera shortly after they opened for breakfast. Ryan had to work and finish in-processing, so we were on our own for the day. I had seen a sign for a thrift shop called Ruff House, obviously a rescue organization, and a few other shops as well, so we finished our breakfast and hung around the condo (and listened to the sermon online that we missed Friday night) until 10:00 when we figured things would be open.

First we stopped at Ruff House, but it was pretty disappointing. In their effort to "make money" they had overpriced all their items (in my opinion) and might have sold more if they had bothered to clean anything. What a yucky place! It even smelled rather doggy... Just up the street and around the corner we saw another little shop that featured flea market and antiques in the sign, so we parked and entered a much more pleasurable little place. The attendant was a hoot, and she and I parlayed for a while as I perused the immense amount of merchandise on display. We found some amazing things in there, but again, priced for someone who wanted things much more than we did. She said she might bargain, but I could tell our prices, even at a bargain, would be quite different.

We lunched at a little Bistro we discovered on our last trip here, and I stopped in at a little "grandmother" shop and looked for a fun little outfit for Micah, but didn't find anything I thought would please. Ornery gave me some grief over being "grandmotherly" but said I escaped by not having bought anything there. :)

We took a short nap in the afternoon, and then watched Sydney White, one of the two movies I brought from home. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to operate the equipment, and I am not sure even now exactly the sequence to get the things to work right. I also did some laundry and dishes. Even though we are mostly eating out, we still manage to dirty a few things.

At about 5:00, Ryan and Ale came over and we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, then we all came back to the condo for a short visit. They had all sorts of news about the house they will be moving into, but their household goods won't be moved until Friday, so we won't actually get to help them much. Micah lasts until 7:00 PM, and then he is done. To be honest, by 7:30, I was done, too, so we went to bed!

Terrific Tuesday: 3.1.11

2011-03-01T04:54:00.000-06:00

Another list of things I enjoy, that make me smile or for which I am thankful--It's all the same, really!

Snowball throwing contests with Ornery. We are both completely awful, and we laugh uproariously at our ineptitude!
Discovering old treasures hidden in storage totes filled with unrelated items
Taking a road trip with my beloved and singing "Roll, Roll, Roll Your Goat, Gently Down the Stream" with Ornery--loud and off-key.
The alphabet game--taking a letter off any sign on the road in alphabetical order, one letter per sign.
Revisiting favorite haunts in distant cities
Burying my toes in the warm sand by the Gulf of Mexico
Small-talk with strangers in check-out lanes
Back scratches and head rubs
Pedicures with bright colored polish
Quirky functional objects, such as odd shaped clocks or furniture

Thoughts on Flea Markets

2011-02-28T14:01:00.001-06:00

I like the idea of flea markets, where any vendor can set his/her own price for merchandise that has seen better days, but not so much the execution. It seems like people want much more for their junk than I am willing to part with in most cases, but from time to time I stumble across something I think worth paying for.

Today I scored a Peter Rabbit board book for Micah (25 cents), and a little set of miniature dominoes in a little plastic box, and still in the original wrappers for $3.99. I like them because they are the old style--ivory colored with black spots on them. (the ones in the stores now all have multi colored spots on them instead of black) I look forward to making something fun and interesting with them.

At another flea market shop, I found a regular sized set of double six dominoes, but they were asking $10.00 for them--probably not a bad price if I had wanted them to play with them, as they came in a beautiful inlaid wooden box--and I wasn't wanting to pay that much for them. I would have bought the old Monopoly game pieces as well, but I am not into paying $20.00 for a partial game, no matter how old it is! I did find a puzzle for 50 cents, and since I was only wanting it for the pieces, not to work, I'm not worried whether all the pieces are there or not.

I also found a new little wall clock for my studio. It is a purple flower on the outside, and a nice looking face. It was cheap, and I have been wanting to change out the office clock for some time, so I will put the one currently in the studio into the office.

The hardest part about flea market shopping is that there is so much to see! I like to stand in one spot and just take in the whole wall or shelf of stuff before moving on. I can spend a LONG time in one shop. Today I had fun interacting with one of the shop owners; she was quite a character. :)

Weekend in Review: Tourists

2011-02-27T05:49:00.000-06:00

Our first full day in Florida began at 5:30 when we awoke from a really nice sleep to a very foggy scene outdoors. The fog never did lift all day, but it didn't rain, either. We showered and went to Panera, arriving just moments after they opened, and ordered our breakfast while awaiting the arrival of Ryan, Ale and Micah. We had mostly finished eating and were playing a game of cribbage when they arrived.

After everyone was finished with breakfast,(and Ornery had sufficiently terrorized his grandson...) we stopped at Publix to buy a few groceries and a sand pail and shovel for Micah, and then came back to the condo to unload everything and switch Micah's car seat from their car to ours. Then, we set off on an adventure. :) We drove east on Hwy 98 from Fort Walton Beach to San Destin. We shopped at the Destin Commons, the outlet stores at Miramar, and then trotted through a few shops in San Destin.

We bought some t-shirts for Ornery, a Nalgene water bottle and a new bumper sticker for my van at the Life Is Good store, and a puzzle for Micah at a learning shop while we were at the Destin Commons.

There was an old pickup truck parked in front of Bass Pro Shop, so we took a few pictures there.

Micah and Ryan on a four-wheeler. Starting that boy on adventures early!

Not quite the belly of a whale, but I bet Jonah would have traded places with Micah... :)

Then, I got a new purse and billfold from the Fossil outlet store in Miramar, using money I got as a gift from my mother-in-law for my birthday. Ryan and Ale found some good deals on shorts for Ryan and Micah, and a new Coach bag for her. I drooled all over some of the beautiful glass art pieces at the Fusion Art Glass gallery and shop in San Destin, and then we returned to the condo. Ryan and Ale took a very tired Micah back to their temporary quarters, with plans to possibly return later in the evening, but Micah and Ryan both fell asleep, so they decided not to come back.

As soon as we got back to the condo, I switched into my new purse. :) It is a similar green color to one I already had, but it is bigger, and the lining in my old one was coming apart--which is how I justified buying another of the same color. It truly is my favorite color, and I know I will use it to death like I did the first one.

My feet are tired and I am already done for the day, but it is still very early. There are only a few more places I really want to see while I am here, so I am hoping once I get all that out of my system, I'll be able to settle down and just enjoy the beach--and what a lovely spot of sand and sea it is! March 1st, they will begin beach service for the residents, which means we will get two beach chairs and an umbrella set up each day for the rest of our stay.

Finally in Florida!

2011-02-26T22:34:00.067-06:00

Our original plan was to leave home early this morning and drive straight through to Ft. Walton Beach in one day, but I was really glad we chose to leave yesterday instead. Despite my predilection for Holiday Inn Express beds, I spent a miserable night and woke up achy all over--and a tad grumpy. The hotel did offer a fairly tasty (as those things go) breakfast, so we opted to dine in and skip our usual Panera stop. When we left at 7:30, it was cold--in the 30s, so I put my sweatshirt on to ride in, but by about 10:30, I was wishing I had stayed with my original choice of a t-shirt.

Our driving passed without incident, and we talked about all sorts of things--what we wanted to do in Florida, and what we wanted to do about our house--sell now and move into a small (cheap) place and build or just what. I am not sure we came to any conclusions, but this time the discussion feels more real to us both--like something will actually come of the talk other than a bunch of dreams. What we want in a home filled a rather amazing amount of discussion time!

We did see quite a few state troopers on the road, but we managed to avoid any stops of that sort. The funniest things we saw were a sign in a convenience store requesting aid finding "our little boy's dog who went missing on Saturday." Then, along the side of the road was a rather disreputable looking heap of junque called "Tiques and Fleas"--it was a place where one could, if they were inclined to dig for treasures among the not-so-treasury stuff, antiques and other booty. We laughed about the sign for miles.

We stopped a few times for gas and for lunch, and once just outside of Mobile, AL where we were sure there was a Panera, but couldn't find it--until we got back on the interstate to finish the drive. It was right where I thought it should be, but we couldn't see it for all the other stores that were in front of it. I guess Panera was just not to be today! Mobile was apparently in the throes of Mardi Gras celebration, and of all things, the parade route was right down the highway! It took us twice as long to wander through that rabbits warren of narrow streets than it usually does, and we were never so glad to see the Bankhead Tunnel as we were today. There were plastic beads all over the streets and traffic crawled through the one lane each direction. People were crowded all along the streets, some still sitting in lawn chairs, others scrambling to pick up the colored beads, and yet others in ridiculous clothing (or lack thereof). It was quite an experience and we were glad to get in on the tail end of it instead of arriving at the beginning as we would have done had we gotten out of Little Rock when we planned.

The last hour of travel is always the hardest for me, but we arrived to find that the Breakers had repainted their buildings and made several other improvements to the place. We located our condo and discovered it was the same one we stayed in when I came with Ornery for the first time in 2008. It also had been redecorated, and all the carpeting replaced by tile and wood-look linoleum flooring. The furnishings had been changed somewhat but most of the decor was just as I remembered it. I was delighted!

Ryan, Ale and Micah came over just as we were finishing unloading all our stuff--and we traveled really light this time!--and I ordered pizza to be delivered so I wouldn't have to get back into the car again! They stayed until Micah got fussy, but we had a really nice visit. We have plans to get together in the morning for breakfast at... Panera. :)

Here are a few photos Ornery took of Micah while we were sitting around talking.

Aww, isn't he sweet?!

Feeling Wordy

2011-02-25T06:14:00.000-06:00

I am itching to do some writing. Other than my blog, I haven't done much in quite a while, but I think that is fixin' ta change as we say here in Oklahoma! Words keep pinging my brain and I itch to make them sparkle. I have just about completely cleared my calendar for the month of March, and I have a feeling they will be tired of seeing me at Panera by month's end!

Yesterday I dusted off and updated my writing blog. I haven't written there in a while--since September of 2009!-- but I will probably be spending some time there for a while. It is under a pen name, and a separate gmail account so I can write anonymously for a while. Sometimes I am afraid I will offend someone if I write my heart, and that really can limit what I say. One of these days, maybe after I publish a book or two, you'll find out who I am writing as.

Meanwhile, IT'S FRIDAY!!! Goodness, I am looking forward to this weekend with my beloved!

My Birthday Present

2011-02-25T05:48:00.000-06:00

Ornery asked me what I wanted for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I said, "I want to go on a trip."

So, since Ryan and Ale were in the process of relocating to our favorite vacation spot anyway, we decided to hop in the car and spend a week relaxing at the beach. It has been over a year since we had been to Ft. Walton Beach, FL, and after the record breaking winter we have had, it seemed like a real good idea to finish out the season in a warmer clime.

We left Tulsa at 3:00 on Friday, the 26th and drove to Maumelle, AR where we spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express. They are fast becoming my favorite chain, as the beds are about the most comfortable of any chain I have stayed in. We arrived there at about 7:30 (we stopped in Van Buren for dinner at Chili's) and plugged in the electronics to recharge.

The only excitement for the day was in Oklahoma on I-40 there had been an accident. We were actually forewarned of the event by two bright pink road signs that said, "Accident Ahead." It must have taken them quite a while to clean up, but by the time we got there they had somehow gotten the very twisted and broken semi-tractor and trailer out of the ditch and back up onto the shoulder. The wheels had mud and grass glommed onto them, and the side of the trailer was all dented and scratched. The chassis was so twisted that the fuel tank was resting on the ground. There were all sorts of emergency vehicles at the scene, as well as a couple of tow trucks.

The wreck was along one of the many miles of roadway under construction--that seems to be the norm for Oklahoma roads, and we spent a good amount of time on the turnpike and I-40 going 55 mph on one lane instead of the posted 75 on two. Naturally, the traffic slowed to a crawl as the rubber-neckers had to gape at the wreck, but we didn't see any blood or gore, just the evidence of a very rough ride by some poor trucker.

We wondered if he was trying to text while driving, or if he just got lulled into complacency watching the orange barrels slowly pass by...

A Load Off

2011-02-24T04:10:00.007-06:00

Ryan and Ale took the piano over to her parents' house last week and left with a few more furniture items yesterday, then I delivered and/or mailed three items I sold on Craigslist and one item sold from the Miller Manor Designs website. Since we had cleared out so much over the long weekend, things are beginning to feel a little more roomy around Miller Manor these days! I drive into the garage and have to sit for a moment in the car and admire the empty shelves before I go inside! Even Ornery's workbench is still mostly cleared off.

My sister tells me as much as I am continually clearing stuff out of the house, she is surprised there is anything left. Believe me, if we had to move tomorrow, I would say there was still way too much stuff! I don't know why it feels strange to get rid of it all at once, but we seem to do it in layers. We are slowly getting it down to the essentials and the things we actually use.

Closets seem to hide things well, and often it is a matter of out of sight, out of mind. When we are not using an item any more or it is in the way, it tends to find its way into one of the out-of-the-way closets to moulder until I feel the itch to organize something. I think we finally have all our kids' stuff dispersed to their own abodes now. It has taken us several years, though!

Next month, I am going to start listing things on Craigslist from my craft room. I have way too much stuff there to ever use up, and someone just might have a use for some of it...One of the local scrapbook stores holds a quarterly garage sale in the store, but I am always too late to sign up for a table, and the space goes quickly. I think I will actually do better with Craigslist anyway. The nice thing about a garage sale type set up is that you only have to worry about being available for a few hours. With Craigslist, you are always "on call" so to speak, arranging pick-up times that are convenient for the buyer. Inconvenience must be worth something, though, because I never would have gotten the prices at a garage sale that I have been able to sell items for online.

So, in case you have been wondering how I am filling all the time I was spending on Facebook, now you know! I've been spring cleaning. :)

I Wuv Craigslist!

2011-02-23T19:03:00.000-06:00

I have never had much luck buying or selling things on eBay, but Craigslist is my friend! To date we have sold a treadmill, desktop and laptop computers, canning jars, a portable awning, and two model kits. We have also listed things for free that have disappeared wraith-like from our porch or curb. I still have a number of things listed there, but have been really surprised at how quickly things move. The only thing I have ever listed there that didn't even get an inquiry was an antique wall phone. I probably was asking too much for it, as that was before I knew to search for prices on line.

Ornery bought his scroll saw from Craigslist, (at about 1/3 the new cost) and we found our last two dogs there. (which might be why we don't still have them...) I don't know how they pay for their site, but I am sure glad they make free advertising available to all and sundry!

I have learned a few things in all my buying and selling:

If someone asks you to hold it, don't take the ad down until the item is paid for and gone. Get a firm commitment of a time to deliver the item, and if they don't come by then, move to the next person who asked about it.
All Caps your ad title and make it concise.
I prefer to do all the communication by email, especially since I have a smart phone that buzzes me when I get an email, but once the negotiations have moved along fairly far, I give my phone number.
Do a Google search to find out how much others are charging for similar items. Amazon sells an amazing amount of stuff, and you can almost always find the item you are offering for a wide range of prices. My philosophy is that I am trying to get rid of it without just throwing it away, so any money I make is a bonus. With that in mind, I often price my item at the lowest price on the web, or just a hair lower so I can sell it. If the buyer then turns a profit as well, bully for them--it's a win-win!
If someone just can't get over to pick up the item, but they are really sure they want it, they can pay with PayPal. Instant money! Just remember that PayPal does charge a fee, so if you want to collect your full amount, be sure you add that fee in to the final price.
If you are looking to buy something and it comes up, act quickly! Good deals don't stick around for long.

This isn't my first post ranting about the wonders of Craigslist, and I have a link here for you to check out some of the other things I noted when I was selling before. So far, I have had nothing but good luck with this venue of turning trash to treasure.

Hardy Little Dudes

2011-02-23T06:09:00.002-06:00

I thought for sure that the herbs would all die after that huge snowfall plopped down on top of them, and some of them like the eucalyptus did appear to die, but there are still a few plants that are green despite the brutal cold and two weeks of snow cover.

This photo (above) is the long herb bed in the back yard. from the top to the bottom the green(ish) patches are rosemary, oregano, sage and lavender. The little spikes are volunteer garlic plants that came back after I failed to find the bulbs once the tops died down. The eucalyptus is in the wire tomato cage, and since the rest of the plants died back after the first frost, I don't know how many of them will come back once the temperatures warm up for good. I am really glad we put all those leaves in the bed to help keep the weeds down. You can see that there are some intrepid little weeds at the far right between the lavender and eucalyptus. Unfortunately, this particular strain is not only very hardy, they are quite difficult to get rid of!

This is another bed, located at the end of the house next to the garage. I noticed a couple of days ago that the daffodils were pushing their way up through the leaves, but today they are really showing some substantial growth and lots of buds.

Behind the daffodils are a bunch of yellow cannas, but they won't be up for quite some time. They are quite showy with their green and white striped leaves and brilliant yellow flowers that bloom all summer. The best part of all is that I don't have to touch this bed all year except to pull a few sprigs of grass and the occasional weed, and dump a pile of leaves on it in the fall. I can do "neglect" with the best of them!

In other news, we have already gotten refunds for both state and federal taxes! I was so excited to see that Federal refund sitting in our account this morning! Of course it is already spent, but I really wanted it to arrive sooner than later! I'll share later what we used the money for, but it is pretty exciting!

Terrific Tuesday: 2.22.11

2011-02-22T09:53:00.000-06:00

Today I have another list of ten things that make me happy or for which I am grateful... enjoy!

Sharing conversation hearts with my beloved and laughing about what they say
Cooking a favorite food and having it turn out just right
Snuggling with Ornery under a shared blanket on the couch while we drink our coffee on a cool morning
Learning about a new application on my cell phone, all by myself!
Cleaning out a bunch of old junk from the garage and shed making things look organized and tidy
Seeing robins for the first time in the spring
Changing plans, especially if the original plans were not something desirable
Pictures of my grandson sent to my phone
Hearing a sermon and realizing how much I have grown
Resolving conflict wisely and without infringing on boundaries

Mon-Tuesday

2011-02-22T08:24:00.001-06:00

Three day weekends always play with my mind, but I am ever so happy to have Ornery home when he can be. President's Day yesterday was a productive day, with multiple naps thrown in for good measure. :) I had determined I would get all the food in the refrigerator cooked up and ended up making a huge pot of potato soup, two quiches and some chicken and vegetable stir-fry with rice. I also baked a batch of Cowboy Cookies. I worked three loads of laundry* in between the cooking sessions, and finished reading a book I had started the day before.

(*An interesting note about the laundry... When I found out that I could return the timer for the dryer for full credit, I asked Ornery to remove it and reinstall the old one, since it still worked. He did so, and I sent the new one back on Friday. Yesterday when I started to do the laundry, I closed the dryer door, expecting it to turn on. It did not. Hmm. I hit the on-button and it turned on. I opened the door and it turned off, and when I closed the door it did not turn back on. I guess there must have been a loose connection and when he reinstalled the old timer, it "fixed" the problem. It was a delightful surprise, I will tell you that!)

Ornery and I sat on the sofa and finished off the few conversation hearts we had left from Valentine's Day, laughing and being silly as we read them and discussed the flavors of the various colors of hearts. We reminisced about our dating days, and reiterated how happy we were to have found each other. He also spent quite a bit of time in the garage sawing the clock parts for the first kit. He really needs to get a shop vac--hopefully that is going to happen soon. I bought an apron for him to wear so he wouldn't get sawdust all over his clothes, but he misunderstood and thought it was just for staining...I clarified for him. :) So, while I thought I had all the laundry caught up, it turns out I have one more load to do today.

Ryan and Ale return today from a quick jaunt with her family to California for Ryan and Micah to meet her extended family. None of them had come to the wedding, so he had a lot of catching up to do since Ale has met Ryan's entire family! They will be coming by at some point with a U-Haul trailer to pick up the cedar chest I made in high school, along with a few other odds and ends we are either giving them or unearthed in our cleaning that already belonged to him. The original plan was for them to leave for Florida tomorrow, but plans seem to change with those two about as quick as the Oklahoma weather, so I don't know for sure what the final plan is--if they even do! I cannot imagine driving as much as they have in such a compacted amount of time. Grand Forks to Tulsa, Tulsa to Los Angeles and back to Tulsa, and now from Tulsa to Ft. Walton Beach. At least the end destination is a pleasant one!

Today I am planning to start painting the little train Ornery cut out for Micah's wall. It has numerous cars in addition to a car for each letter of his name. (little is a relative term, as the whole thing will be over six feet long when it is finished) I hope I can do it justice with my paint job. I have never tried anything like this before, but it can't be too difficult, right? If Elizabeth happens to come over today as she had planned when we thought Ryan would be here early, I may give her a paint brush to move along on the project a bit faster. She is a lot better at that sort of thing than I am.

We saw some robins yesterday, and I fussed at them for eating my worms. :) I haven't dug around in the garden beds in a while, but I doubt there will be a shortage, even if a whole flock of robins happens by! Those worms were happy dudes among all the kitchen compost I put in there for them to eat. Too bad we aren't going to put in much of a garden this year. It looks like another busy travel year, and without my kids in town to drop by and water, pretty much anything I plant would die in the heat.

Ornery and I were discussing the dearth of friendly neighbors yesterday as we were trying to decide whether to move or not. (AGAIN!) The discussion seems to surface with regularity and barring any unforeseen circumstances, we plan on buying or building in about two years. This is the first neighborhood (including apartment complexes) we have ever lived in that we were not on friendly terms with all our neighbors. These people are either all too busy or reclusive, and we don't have anyone we could count on to watch our house. It's sad. Additionally, every single family that has lived in the houses around us have owned dogs that they leave outside to bark at any and every noise that happens along. Given that we are very early risers, that means we often to to bed before the 10:00 PM barking curfew, and have to use our iPods to drown out the barking.

So, while the house is big and the location handy to most of the places we usually go, we are ready for a change. I don't think Ornery is as ready as I am, but he is less enamored with fixing things up than he used to be, and I am just plain ready for a change. I have never lived this long in one place! (16 years) I was hoping to move this year, but I think we might be in a better financial position in two years, and I don't want to set ourselves back if we don't have to. So, we'll continue to weed things out and fix things with selling instead of staying in mind, and take in the occasional open house on the weekends to see where we want to move. It will be a novelty to take our time with something like this as we usually do things very quickly. I guess age has its advantages.

Contagious Cleansing

2011-02-20T16:42:00.002-06:00

As with most of my projects, one thing leads to another. After our huge day of working yesterday, and getting some responses from our Craigslist ads, I decided to put a few more things on there. Today I sold some canning jars and encouraged Ornery to seek out any additional flotsam he might have to get rid of. He pulled out a few things from his camping/backpacking stash, including a brand-new pair of gaiters which we are returning to Backwoods for store credit. (They sell Smartwool socks!)

He emptied about five plastic storage boxes, and parted with the remaining two plastic model kits, a SeaLine Dry pack, and a few other odds and ends. I listed eight separate items for sale on Craigslist and have a buyer (hopefully) coming for our portable awning on Tuesday. Ornery cut up the rest of the wood at the curb for burning in the fireplace or hauling away. Closets, shed and garage are all cleaner and we have less junk to trip over! :)

Only a couple of bags of this garbage is from inside the house, the rest is from the garage and shed.

Ornery is off Monday for President's Day, but the weather is supposed to turn colder, so it was good to get our outdoor work done over the weekend. The only thing we have left that I had hoped to get done is to put all the lawn stuff down--gypsum to break up the clay soil, and some organic lawn fertilizer that says, "No planning needed--apply any time." That is my kind of product!

My Birthday

2011-02-20T05:28:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday. Now most people would probably rather do anything other than clean the garage and shed on their special day, but that is what we did! We hauled out lots of lumber to the curb, threw away two big garbage cans full of junk, and cleaned about a pound of dirt from the garage floor! We unearthed some frightening things like Ryan's old tackle box containing some bait (10 years later it doesn't smell any better...) and a pair of dirty socks, of all things! We swept out five years of accumulated dirt from the shed, and with the lumber all gone, I was able to rearrange things to my satisfaction--an organizer's dream!

We dined out for all three meals. Breakfast was fairly early, lunch fit in right around noon, but since we worked so hard all day, by 4:30, I was really hungry! So, after dropping off the paperback book rack to our favorite little used book store, we fought the traffic over to our favorite Chinese buffet. And was there ever traffic!?!! It was such a nice day, I guess everyone decided they should be out enjoying it--and there were a fair number of motorcycle owners doing just that. Traffic on Memorial was backed up from 61st to 71st, and on 61st street for at least a mile between 61st St and Hwy 169. We managed to meander through a neighborhood and come out at a light, or we might still be sitting in traffic!

We finished off the day by giving Ornery a haircut (his rooster tail was getting a little too prominent!) and dragging our very tired bodies to bed early. It was such a nice day, and I feel so good about all we got done.

New Wheels!

2011-02-19T13:02:00.000-06:00

But not the kind I would really like to have! We had to get new tires for the van today. It had been seven years and almost 60,000 miles, so I suppose they were due, but it sure wasn't what I wanted to spend my tax refund money on! We wish we were ready to trade it off, but not just yet, and since it is the more reliable of the two vehicles (although only slightly) it seemed wise to continue with the maintenance. It has been many years since we have made a car payment, and the occasional repair bill seems like such a trifling exchange for that!

We are cleaning out the shed and garage today. We took $65. worth of stuff back to Lowe's and have several piles of free stuff to give away--listed on Craigslist. We have so much stuff that has been just hanging around without a good use! Life seems to have a way of changing and our needs and desires change with it. I have canning jars, flower pots, garden implements, and a rather large assortment of crafting supplies that I just plain am not going to use in the foreseeable future. Now that Ornery is doing so much stuff out in the garage with his new saw, it seemed prudent to rid ourselves of some of the unwanted stuff to make room for his new hobby and all its accouterments. My garden bench is being re-purposed for his wood crafting--and since it has just been used for storage for the last several years anyway, it is exciting to be able to put it to good use.

We have a gorgeous day to do the work, and I guess my break is over and I need to get back at it!

Lunacy

2011-02-17T06:47:00.000-06:00

Last night the moon looked so close it seemed like an alien object in the sky. The moon-rise was fairly early, and despite the amount of daylight still remaining, it was starkly evident in the blue sky when I first noticed it. When we arrived home from running errands, I looked up to see my friend again and noted that where the sky had been clear earlier, it was now cluttered with clouds and they were rapidly scudding across the moon's surface, attempting to obscure my view. When the thin wispy clouds ran by, there was little change in the light emission but when the darker clouds rolled over it, I could barely tell it was there.

Had I realized it was time for a full moon, I might would have understood my foul mood of the previous two days. Yesterday I was much better but the day before, I didn't even know myself! I may need to start paying closer attention to the phases so I can be more prepared for those lunatic moments!

Loving Libraries

2011-02-16T19:20:00.000-06:00

Tonight as I walked into the massive foyer of the regional library I frequent, I experienced such a rush of feelings I could hardly contain myself! I stopped just inside the door and inhaled the familiar fragrance of cooled air blown through filters that must collect a certain amount of paper dust to make them smell just so. The display cases currently feature a local homeschool group and are filled with photos of students and their projects. The topic changes monthly, but I have often spent several minutes studying the contents, as they are invariably interesting.

There are several meeting rooms off the main foyer, including a relatively new children's theater area fashioned after a pirate ship and called Connor's Cove. I've never been in there, not having any children at this time in my life, but if it is anything like the rest of the library, I have no doubt it is a wonderful room.

Through the second set of glass doors and past the electronic alarm devices I had the sense of passing through a hallowed portal of intellectual wonders. A children's area lavishly decorated with trees and animal murals houses a huge collection of the books my children (and I) read many years ago. A woman is walking through that doorway carrying a bag so full of literary treasures she can barely tote it! There are children of all ages present, from toddlers to pre-teens, presumably as caught up in the wonder of the free use of so many tomes as I am.

The circulation desk hosts four stations for assistance and two self-check computers, and is surrounded by shelves floor to ceiling with books labeled with the names of people who have requested them from other branches. Our county has an extensive circulation system with 25 branches and a bookmobile, and an internet site that allows one to shop the catalog and request books from any branch to be sent to the one most convenient. If the system doesn't have a title, they are also connected with an inter-library loan program which enables one to pay a nominal fee and check out a book for a month.

I read somewhere not long ago that Tulsa County has an above average constituency rate compared nationally, with 70% of the residents having library cards. The patrons are quite diverse, and at any given time one can find toddlers to the elderly shopping for materials, reading the periodicals or engrossed in the research or internet activity on one of the dozens of free access computer stations scattered about.

As Ornery and I were discussing my love for the library over dinner, I began recalling all the time I had spent in various libraries growing up, then when our children were young, and even now that they are grown. The best times I recall homeschooling were the hours we spent at the library choosing reading materials, and then going home with grocery bags filled, reading them all, and returning a few days later for more. My kids were insatiable readers, although I don't think Ryan enjoyed the words as much as the pictures. :)

I am glad that we live in a place that values libraries so much. And on that note, I believe I shall go read. :)

Life of the Self-Absorbed

2011-02-16T05:24:00.007-06:00

The decision to get out of all the social networking sites and forums has been fomenting for a while. I am not sure why I chose yesterday to do it, but I deleted my name from about 20 different websites, including Swagbucks, Facebook and Twitter. I deleted over 100 bookmarks from my browser, and stopped following all but a very few select blogs. I cleaned out my contacts list in one email account and completely closed out another. I had no idea I had so many tentacles attached to the interwebs, but the feeling of decluttering this area of my life is refreshing!

Each day as I spent time reading status updates of people I am barely acquainted with and interacting with a few of them, I felt more and more like the internet is too open in practically every sense of the word. People feel so free to air all sorts of remarks with little thought of how they might come across--or perhaps it is for shock value. Reputations are ruined, hateful remarks float around attaching little barbs to innocent bystanders and all in the name of socialization. I can do without that type of abuse, thankyouverymuch.

It took me most of the day to close all those portals to my little computer, and the only ones I have left open are fairly one-sided--blogger and gmail. I am not trying to gain an audience with my blogs, and if you are at all regular reading my posts, you will know that I am not working very hard at entertaining. More to the point, I am using this little corner of the web to flesh out my own thoughts. Some of them are worth passing on, others not so much, but as I grow and change, I like to be able to track my progress--or lack thereof.

The time I have wasted in the various social forums can never be regained. That makes me a little sad, because while it has been somewhat entertaining, I don't think it has brought any peace to my life. I'd like to revive the letter writing program I started a few months ago, and spend my time on the computer actually writing something. My dream of taking my computer to Panera and hammering out a novel has been buried for the last year or so under an ever-growing pile of social media connections. It finally just felt like too much.

I think blogging is a very self-absorbed form of communicating, because it really doesn't give another person much of a chance to interject unless they comment, and most of my readers don't comment on very many posts. It is sort of like writing a letter to the editor or a note to a friend and sending it in the post. But I LIKE that form of communication, unless the letter is accusatory or rude, and I really do try not to be inflammatory with my posts. If I am feeling exceptionally testy or am dealing with a specific person I write on a private blog where no one can read it. Even there, however, I am careful with what I say; not because I fear someone might read it and be offended or think little of me, but because I myself might re-read it later and feel shame for such revelations of shoddy character. All those highly volatile feelings soon dissipate and turn to ether unless they are somehow grounded by the written or spoken word.

Having axed all the connecting fibers except this one, I imagine I will feel somewhat adrift for a few days while I adjust to the surfeit of time I had previously spent online. I hope it will bring better content to my blog and more focus to my other writing--not to mention peace to my soul.

Terrific Tuesday: 2.15.11

2011-02-15T13:04:00.000-06:00

Today's list contains ten foods that make me smile:

pancakes cooked in the shape of a heart and topped with real maple syrup
shortbread cookies with pink frosting from Panera
tacos made from scratch with fresh guacamole on top
cheese curds--for that matter any kind of mild cheese!
pineapple upside-down cake for my birthday
hot dogs with all the fixin's--especially striped from the grill
grilled bison burgers topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions
Chipotle Burrito bowl
garlic mashed potatoes with the skins on
any meal shared with my beloved Ornery

Tick-Tock

2011-02-15T08:23:00.000-06:00

My beloved is like a kid in a candy store with his new toy. I mentioned in an earlier post that Jeff and Elizabeth had ordered two clock kits for him and they finally arrived last night. The moment the doorbell rang Ornery was running for the door, having expected the arrival of his package for a few days at that point. His grin was huge as he carefully cut open the first box and reverently peeled back the plastic covering.

Exclamations were multitudinous: "Look at how cool the spokes on the gears are!" "I wonder how thick this wood is." "I really like the ..." I was a little surprised he didn't start on it right then, but it was already almost 7:00 when it finally arrived, so a bit late to begin on a project, but I know he will be tackling it very soon. He took the instructions to work so he could copy the illustrations for the parts that need to be cut out. The only parts that had been cut were the gears, and indeed, they are quite interesting looking.

When we first discussed the redecorating of the living room last year about this time, I told him I wanted one whole wall dedicated to interesting, quirky clocks. The ceiling in the room is about 12 feet high, which leaves a fairly large expanse of wall to cover. Now that Ornery has a scroll saw and plans for at least three clocks, with another on the way, I imagine I might soon have my wish. I have always been fascinated by clocks, and even on our honeymoon we discussed having several around the house. I am so glad we are in agreement! :)