This past weekend was Valentine's day. Although we didn't do anything super "special" we did spend time together (for a few hours anyways). We both worked at the shop in the morning. I left at lunch time and went to the craft store to pick up some supplies that I needed to make a special gift for lee. When I returned he was out like a light on the couch so I left him there to finish his much needed nap and prepared to my Valentine's gift to him. I mixed up the brownie mix, added the peanut butter and chocolate chips and put them in the oven and started on my project. I took a large spoon and a small spoon from our original wedding set of silverware. I glued them to the backboard of a shadow box and made a label that said "Spooning since 1984. Lee and Mickey. Simple but has so much meaning to the two of us. First of all we have been together for over 30 years. The spoons were from our original silverware set. Not to many pieces left after 30 years and two kids! "Watch mom. I can do magic and bend this spoon" and my little strong man did just that, bent the spoon. The time that I took to make this little "dust collector" means something to me. I made it with love for someone that I love. (and he loved it by the way) I will be the first to tell you this was not an original idea. I did get it off of Pintrest. (yes I am an addict) As I cleaned up my craft mess, the brownies were done. I began to think about the special meal that I wanted to make for us to share. I skipped the traditional pasta that we usually go with, and skipped the steak...I know how could I right? We had some garlic mashed potatoes left over from the night before so I took them out and added bacon bits, grated cheese and parmesan cheese one egg and mixed it up. Put them in greased muffin tins and baked them until they were little golden puffs of potato goodness. (yeap...another Pintrest idea) I had some pork chops marinating in some Kentucky whisky teriyaki sauce and added a little extra bourbon for some ump. While all that was going on I sautéed some thin sliced onions in "real" butter. When they were done, I added the pork chops. With that first sizzle of the meat hitting the pan came a wonderful aroma of the bourbon burning off. Once they had a good crust on them, I lowered the heat and let them soak up the onions and the bourbon. I had planned on making baby glazed carrots but spent to much time in the craft store and didn't have time to stop at the store, so I had my choice between green beans or lee's collard greens. I went with the collards as this was a meal for my king of hearts. (I don't eat collards except on New Years day for the hope that it will be bring wealth all year.) I toasted up some garlic bread and dinner was done. I cleaned off two places on the table and platted dinner up for the two of us. It was not my best meal but again, it was "made with love." And I didn't hear to much complaining. For dessert we had warm peanut butter brownies with chocolate chip ice cream. (I forgot the caramel topping..) Lee bought me three roses and this really cute square balloon that the dogs kind of freaked out over. I love roses and the card that he picked out was just perfect. (so cute that I will be framing it!) I gave him my gift of the "spoons" and he really liked it. I mean, I  have given him gifts I have made before and I could tell that he was like "ok...this is nice." but he thought that it was a really neat idea and loved that I made it for him. He asked me when I did it as he knows that this past week was another crazy week. I told him while he was taking his nap and not to tilt it upright as the glue was probably still drying. Lee and I love to just spend a few minutes in the morning "spooning". Our bodies are warm, relaxed and it is a great way to start your day. In the arms of your lover.

Christmas...I got this under control!!

Every year...and I mean EVERY YEAR...I say that I am going to make the most of the "Holiday Season" this year. I am going to decorate the tree like the ones I see in magazines and on the home decorating shows. The lights will be up on the house and the yard beautifully decorated. The Christmas cards will be in the mail by December 1st. All year I have collected scraps of paper with homemade gift ideas that I am going to make for all my friends and family. I say that I am going to get all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. I am going to bake Christmas cookies for all my friends and neighbors and work associates. All this so that the week of Christmas I can sit back, relax in front of the "natural" gas fireplace, listening to Christmas carols and sipping egg nog with Lee. And then......I wake up from my dream and say holy cow it is three day before Thanksgiving already?? I hope that the grocery store still has turkeys and will it thaw out in time? Where did the summer go? Did we even have Halloween? Christmas is how many days away? And the panic, stress, and craziness set in. I tell myself that "Its ok. Calm down. We still have time. We just now have to cram all there is to do into the next month." I think to myself "If I do one thing a day I could have it all done by Christmas. Oh wait. I have a job. OK that leaves three weekends. Six days. One day for decorating the house and tree. I could do the Christmas cards on my lunch hour. Two days to make the homemade gifts (I can crochet in between the glue drying right?) If I make my list (and check it twice...ha ha) then I can get all the shopping done in one day (because I cannot possible make every gift a homemade gift!) and all the wrapping done the next. One day to do all the baking and to deliver all the goodies. That is six day right? No problem...I got this under control!! 
Let me tell you what I did get done this week. (Yes I said this week.) The tree is up, (We did get that done the first week of December, however, the outdoor lights are still on the coffee table.) I got the cards done and in the mail. Sorry they maybe a little late? The homemade gifts? Well I have some of the craft supplies? I get credit for that right? Shopping? I still have four days. I got a list and the stores keep saying they all have the all have the "perfect" gifts. I should be good. I did attempt to bake the cookies. Lets just say that nothing goes as planned. I got the biscotti done and the no bake cookies and lee's favorite candies made. The biscotti was a little burned, the candy did not turn out so hot this year, but it is still edible, just not ok to give as a gift. (Carmel was ROCK HARD!) the no bake cookies? Well, how can you mess that up!! It was about the only thing that turned out ok! So I picked out the best of the Biscotti, put it into a gift box and added the no bake cookies. "A" gift box....and the lucky winner this year? The Goodyear Gang at Lee's work!! Hope you enjoy it boys (and Melissa!)
I have made a vow to myself that next year I am not going to torcher myself like I have every year before. I am leaving the tree up all year, and just changing the decorations on it and the rest of the house to match the other yearly holidays. (I will have to find a Mrs. Claus to go with Santa on valentines day..) Once a month I will lock myself in the spare room on a Saturday and complete at least ONE craft project for someone. I will vow to pickup one gift a week for all those I have to buy for. (I will have to remember where I put them...) I can fill out the Christmas cards while I am relaxing on the beach during our summer vacation. I will pick one person each month to receive my "Homemade" Christmas cookies. Come on! Haven't you ever heard of Christmas in July?? Then maybe just maybe I will be able to sit by the fire and enjoy the egg nog...with lots and lots of rum!

But seriously, I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and that they remember what this season is really about and that is the birth of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God bless you all...

And another item to cross off the bucket list....

Ok this was only on the summer bucket list but it is done! We went camping this past weekend in Charleston SC. yea....the weekend that it was 105. (and is still HOT). Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE the heat and it really wasn't the heat that bothered me...it was the whole weekend. It was just a BIG comedy of errors. I kept looking around for Laural and Hardy...they had to be near by. First of all Thursday night we didn't finish getting things together until almost 11:00. (this from two people who are usually in bed by 9:30 at the latest.) We were taking the car so it had to be packed Thursday. Friday I get up late for work. Hurry through my morning and made up the time...only to forget to wake up Lee. I get to work and NOTHING went right. I found out my new seating arrangement for our cubes in the new office. Lets just say that I won't have far to walk to the bathroom and I will be sure to see everyone as they come in for the day! Front and center in front of the bathrooms. (REALLY!!!???) How about the boiler room? Is that space available? I could not concentrate after that I was so upset. I could only think about all the things that I still had to do at home. I forgot a drink at lunch and had the driest chicken strips this side of the desert! That chicken was dehydrated for sure! I only took a half hour for lunch so that I could leave 30 minutes early which means.....no lunch time nap. Two things I need to be happy. Tea in the morning, and MY NAP! I go back to work and of course nothing was important all week until FRIDAY afternoon. I busted my butt and was wrapping things up at 3:45 when I remembered...I was suppose to leave at 3:30 to get Greta to the kennel on time. (Once you are behind at the beginning of the day, I don't think that you ever catch up.) I race home, (thanks Gracie Grand (My Grand Prix) Grab Greta and off to the kennel we go. She was ok until we were walking in the door and then she knew I was going to be gone for a while. I felt guilty. But no time for that! I got home and finished packing what little bit of food we were taking. Twislers, cookies, trail mix, water, water water and more water. Oh and peanut butter and jelly just in case. (To many good restaurants in Charleston to cook at a campfire!) Lee came home after forgetting his wallet at work and had to go back. We finally head off down the road and Lee doesn't have his phone. Since he was going golfing Saturday, and I had to drop him off, and he had to call me to pick him up...we needed the cell phone. Back to the house we go! No big deal. We only made it one exit up the interstate. We get back home and he can not find it. We know he had it when he was on his way home because he called me to make sure that I was ready. Dresser? Nope. Counter? Nope. Pants? Nope. His truck is famous for swallowing cell phones between the seats. Nope not there. I finally call his phone with mine while he is in the house looking again, and I am in the car waiting...I hear his phone ringing...IN THE TRUNK!! Oh look it is in your golf bag that was in the trunk. So much for making to the campsite before dark! The ride down to Charleston was ok. We get to the campsite and it is NOT what we expected. Did I mention that it was 105! They take us to our site. It was a small site and in the tent next to us was a young couple with five kids. We have a 6 person cabin tent with a screen porch. A small site was not going to work and did I mention five kids?? We ask the ranger if they have one of the other sites available. "Sure" just on the other side of the tent with five kids?? Really dude? They finally put us across the campground with no one around us. Sorry...I just wanted peace and quiet if I was going to have to be at the campsite all the next day...So we start unpacking the car before it gets to dark. Thank goodness we have done this before. We get the tent up...with only one or two incidents. The front was up and standing, the middle was up, the back was on the way up as the front fell. Laural and Hardy? (I know they were there, I just know it) Tent was finally up. Check. Air mattress. Check. Sheets and pillow. Check. Chairs. Check. Food and cooler. Check. "Is the tub of camping supplies in the backseat? No you said Thursday night you had all the gear out of the garage. Oh...ummm...yea about that."
Now mind you, the tent is up, the bed is up and we are soaking wet because it is STILL 105! I thought of what was in the "Camping tub" and since I wasn't cooking we should be ok. Thank goodness I left the flashlights in the other camping bag that was managed to be packed in the car. We left the "fly cover" that goes over the top of the tent off since the whole top of the tent is screen. We got undressed and laid on the bed under the stars...and the camp fan blowing. After all the "Oh mans!!" that filled our day, we could do nothing but laugh and thanks God that we had each other and could still laugh. Although I did decide that Saturday night we would be sleeping under the hum of the air conditioner in the hotel room.

Cross it off the list...

This weekend I was able to cross something off my bucket list. (and I plan on adding it back to the list next year!)  I participated in the Relay for Life Walk. Thanks to my wonderful friends and family members I was able to raise $262 for the American Cancer Society. When our work outreach program (thanks OLT!!) announced that they were going to enter a team for the Relay for Life this year, I was very excited!
Cancer touches every one's life in some way. You, a family member, a friend, a co worker we all know someone who has or had cancer. I personally can count eleven people in my life that have had or is currently battling cancer. (Keep fighting Aleana, Lucy and Ralfel!) I lost my dad to cancer and it sucks! I miss him so much.
I have been wanting to do this walk for years but just never found the right opportunity. What a cop out right? Like my brother said to me, "In order to accomplish a goal you have to have a leader or be the leader." I am the first to admit that I am not a leader but this is something that I believe in and I was not going to let this opportunity "walk" by me. I really wanted to do this walk in memory of my dad, MSGT. Robert W. Juda Sr. (Ret.)  and in memory of Jayne's dad, Mr. Brian Hayward, who she lost to cancer, and also for Cindy's dad, Ralfie who is currently battling cancer. I wanted to do this because I hate cancer and I believe in the work that the American Cancer Society does. My three hours of walking and the soreness I felt the next day, was NOTHING compared to what our loved ones and these survivors went through. They are the tough ones.

I know that I don't have many readers or followers, but I think that this an important cause and I encourage you if you are reading this to do a Relay for Life Walk near you. Encourage the company you work for to start a team or support someone on a team, and don't let the opportunity "walk" by you.

Just wanting to cuddle?

Tonight Gretta weaseled her way into my lap again. Usually she will lay with Lee in his recliner. Tonight he told her no. I was in my usual seat on the love seat and Gretta jumped up in the seat next to me. Find a place to lay down and settle for the night baby girl. Now what you have to know about Gretta is that she is a very "touchy feely" kind of dog. She needs to be close to you. She slowly leaned across the arm rest. Little more, little more. First her paw on my arm. "Back off Gretta." Next thing I know she is weaseling her way onto my lap and onto my blanket. Do you think she wants my attention?

What you also have to know is that we have a blanket in our house that three, yes three people have claimed to be theirs. First of all I bought it because it was lightweight and soft and warm. I purchased it just after Ellie was born. I use to wrap her up in it when she was a baby and she would settle right down and go to sleep. Gretta came along six months later and since Ellie and I were usually curled up in the blanket at night, Gretta thought she should be too. Wham three owners. Even today when Ellie is here, her and Gretta fight, yes actually FIGHT over the blanket. If Gretta is buried in it and sound asleep, you can bet that Ellie will grab it and pull as fast as she can sending Gretta flying. "It's my blanket Gretta!" When Ellie goes home, Gretta is right back in it. "It's my blanket Ellie!" and finally when Gretta is in her bed or laying with Lee in his recliner, I will curly up in MY blanket Ellie and Gretta! But as long as I have to share it, Ellie and Gretta are the two that I would not mind sharing it with. Back off Merlin...MY BLANKIE!

OH MY GOSH!!! It is DONE! Wow what a weekend. I know that I am probably not making much sense right now, but I am still soooooo excited that we have a fence!! Three plus years we have waited and debated on what to do with the backyard and now it all seems to be coming together. We still have a loooong way to go but it is really taking shape.

After a week of not being sure we should be spending this money for a fence, trying to get all of the "crew" together (we went from 9 helpers to five) and fighting the weather, it looked like it was not going to come together. So when I came home from work Thursday and saw this "ok ok" painted on the lawn I was thrilled and my prayers were answered. It was going to be ok and we should do this. I took a half day off Friday to meet Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat at the house. We could at least make sure that we had all the supplies we needed to do this project and start marking out the lines. Lee got home a little early and he and Bill started digging holes by HAND. I had an auger reserved for Saturday but we couldn't wait. Of course the first thing they dig up...a rock. Every time the shovel went into the ground and we would hear "clunk" we would all hold our breath in hopes that it was a small rock. We knew going into this project that we would end up hitting a lot of rocks but we didn't think that we would hit as much as we did. We dug up enough that Lee will be building a outdoor fireplace. But by the time that it started to get dark, Lee and Bill had five post up!! Now we only had 17 more to go!

As you can see from the picture my Uncle is just a little guy but MAN he is amazing! So smart and so strong! We got started early the next morning and by 10 had two panels up and several post in. We knew that digging the post in the back of the property would be more difficult than going down the sides so we decided to focus on getting the holes dug for those post. More rocks. So much for the auger. We had to dig the holes wider, not only to get the rocks we could out, but to work around the others. It was going to take two bags of cement to hold the post because it was not deep enough. I went to our favorite hardware store and got more bags of cement and a ten pound sledge hammer for the rocks. AJ got the rocks we could not get out busted down pretty good. Of course Lee German stubbornness took over and he was not giving up on the "rock" that was in the way and causing us to think that we may have to use another post and work around the rock. Lee kept working at it and got the rock out! It will now be in the center of his fireplace!

Once we got past digging out the holes for the post in the back of the property, where most of the rock are, the rest of the holes went pretty good. We started putting up the panels. When it came to the down slope of the hill we had to make a few adjustments. We took all the slats off of the panels and used the frame to create the slope. Perfect! Didn't I tell you Uncle Bill was amazing? If I was doing this on my own I would have two open spaces in the fence!

Saturday we finally quit around 7 or 8. It was amazing how much we had gotten done in one day. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get it all done over the weekend and rain was on its way. 70% chance of rain. Well, we would see what the morning would bring. It brought rain! It was a little drizzly at first and Lee and Bill went right to town. They got the last two post in, the ones with the most rocks! And were putting up the panels. Pat and I went out to help run for tools and hold tape measures and levels.

Next thing we know, despite the mud and wind, we got one gate up and headed to the other side of the fence to get the second gate up. Once you do one, the other was a piece of cake...with more rocks.

All that was left to do was the individual slats on the two sides of the hill. Lee and I could do that on Monday night. We got everything cleaned up and headed inside for dinner. WOW! Amazing that we were able to get so much done in such a short amount of time. We let Greta out and she was like a true hound dog...nose to the ground. She was still a little apprehensive about being off the leash but it didn't stop her from checking out every inch of the yard.

Thank you AJ and Leah for bringing your muscles and "Muckers". Thank you Uncle Bill for all your hard work! You know that we would only be on the second post right now if it wasn't for you! Thank you Aunt Pat for doing all the tool running and putting up with the MUD! Hope your shoes some clean?? We are done for now. Next project...landscaping and a fireplace...made of rocks!

Yard project!

The future fence! So excited to get this started!

The path leading to the top of the hill where the grass is finally growing! We want to cover the path with pea gravel and then put a sitting bench at the top of the hill.

Photos of the backyard on top of the hill. The pile of stone is the fire pit...that will come down and the stones will be used to line the natural garden around the clump of trees in the middle. On the patio and the back of the house the outdoor carpet will come up and we will resurface the patio and possibly extend it to the other side of the fireplace.

I love coming home to the front walk way. I think that this fall or next spring we will be getting more of the Knockout roses to place around the yard. They seem to do really well here. I can not seem to load these pictures right tonight so sorry they are all jumbled...

It is not much right now, but it is home and we are doing what we can to make it nice. Lee has really got the yard to come a loooongg way. Especially the backyard. From a hill of weeds and overgrown bushes to grass! Next is the fence in a couple of weeks and then the rest of the flowers and shrubs to add to the landscaping.

We also decided instead of trying to work the fence around the tree in the middle of the property line and block of the path the neighbors have worn, we would just angle the fence around the tree and leave the path. You see, the elderly lady that lives behind us walks that path to go to her son's house next door. Although the neighbor and we do not see eye to eye about his dog, we did not think that it was right to block off the path and make "Momma" as we call her, walk all the way around the block to get to her son's house. "Momma" broke her leg last year and we actually missed seeing her walk down the path. The grand kids would push her in her wheelchair down the block to the house. It was cute to see her laughing as they zigged and zagged her wheelchair. We are not really "loosing"any property. It is still there. It is just not inside the fence and we are not using it. We will gladly let "Momma" use it. After all, as our neighbor once reminded us, life is difficult enough. If later the new potential owners don't like the way the fence is, we will explain why we did it that way and maybe they will have a little understanding too. If not then they are not deserving of our home.