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.

Why do people have to be like that?

Yesterday Lee was telling me about a “Lady” (And I use the term lightly) that had pulled into their already crowded and small private parking lot at work. They clearly have signed posted that say “No Parking. Parking for (his company’s name) patrons only. Cars will be towed at owners expense.” Now even if I could not read, I would know that the big red P that was circled in red and had a line through it would indicate that I could not park there. Guess she couldn’t read or just thought that she was “special” or something.
She proceeded to park her car, get out and start to walk across the street. One of Lee’s co workers stopped her and said “Excuse me ma’am but you can not park there. This area is for our store customers only.” She looked at him and said “I am just going across the street.” He proceeded to tell her, “I am sorry but you will have to move your car.” She started in on him with “You people are racist.” REALLY? Nothing was said about the color of your car. Lee’s co worker walked back into the building as she began to pull her car out of the parking spot. She stopped in the middle of the driveway, rolled down her window and threw all the trash in her car out the window. Then began calling all of them every cuss word a sailor knows.
Why do people have to act like that?
What made her think she was above the law and can park in a no parking zone? What is racist about asking you to move your car since you were A. illegally parked and B. not a patron of the store?
Was it really necessary for her to be so belligerent throwing trash and cussing like a sailor? Maybe next time the employee’s should follow the rules and have her car towed at her expense instead of being “civil”.

So many times I hear (and I am GUILTY of it too) people express their opinions out loud. Or express their opinion about a topic that may offend someone standing near by or even the person they are talking to.
I heard this comment this week and it made me go “Hue.”“If people think that riding my bumper while I am in the “fast lane” is going to make me go faster then they have another thing coming!” My first thought was:Why can you just not get out of their way if they are not able to get around you?
But what I really wanted to say was: (and this is the Mario Andretti in me!)“No, we are not only hoping you will go faster, but we are hoping that you will get out of the way and stop holding up traffic!”

Follow the 90/10 rule.
10% of life is made up of what happens to you.
90% of life is decided by how you react.

10% of your issue was that someone was riding your bumper.
90% of why you were still mad about it an hour after you were at work was stress that you brought on yourself. You could have moved over. You could have speed up. (not really safe…but)
It made you mad. “How dare they? Do they not know that I am going as fast as I want to?”
Turn it around.
10% would be spent on moving over. Done finished.
90% would have been spent on getting to work safely, and having a better day instead of letting a stranger mess up your ride into work.

We have rights in America and THANK YOU to all our service members who fight for our rights, but we don’t have the right to be “mean, hateful, rude, crude, obnoxious, belligerent, sassy, mouthy ect…”
We do have the right to treat each other with “kindness, love, respect, compassion, benevolence, humanity, care, concern ect..”

Be kind to one another … and to yourself!

Only one thing to say...start them young ladies!! Shopping princess Ellie!

Just not right...

Some of you might not find this funny, but when you were as tired as I was, didn't feel like shopping, and just wanted to go home to a nice little relaxing drink...you laugh and just say what the??? I guess you can go down this grocery store isle and get your "kicks" and munchies all in one!! Whole new meaning to one stop shopping?

Paint paint and more paint

I took Friday off from work because we refinanced the house for a lower interest rate. In the long run it will be a good investment. So since I was off Friday and Lee would actually be off on Saturday (Two weekends in a row!!) I thought it would be a good idea to get started on painting the inside of the house. Now let me remind you that any sentence that starts with "I thought it was a good idea..." usually ends up not such a good idea after all. Thank the good Lord above that this did turn out OK. I started with our bathroom Thursday after work. I did all the pre cleaning of the walls and taping off and cutting in the corners and baseboards. We decided on a pale yellow and deep red. I know yellow and red right? But it really does look nice. I first saw the colors in a beauty salon in Michigan. (Thanks MJ'S Salon in Oscoda Michigan!) Friday morning I finally got started. Having a power roller I thought I will be done in an hour or so and I could relax the rest of the day. It is so funny how I think things will only take me an hour to do...
First I had to remember how the roller worked. I must have thought that I didn't need the instructions any more because they were no where to be found! My memory slowly started coming back to me as the pump turned on and I pressed the button on the roller. I watched the paint slowly being pumped from the container you pour the paint into, up through the pump and into the tube. I started rolling out the paint and was on my way. I was so proud of myself. I got most of one wall rolled out but had to stop when it reached the edge of the bathtub. I couldn't reach that high up and knew that with my ever so gracefulness, I would slip on the edge of the tub for sure. Safety first right? So I put a chair in the bathtub and started rolling out the wall above the tub and shower. After a couple of rolls I realized I needed more paint in the roller. I press the button and the pump comes on. Yeah we are still good! Wait...no paint is coming out? I look down and see that the tube is no longer in the pump and paint is still coming out. I grab the tube and what happens?? Paint goes every where as I am flinging the tube around saying "Where is the paint coming from!!" Thank goodness all the paint was flung on the bathtub walls, shampoo bottles a little on the bar of soap, and the chair. I put the tube back in the pump and remember what the little black clip on the end of the tube was for. While trying to wipe up the paint that was flung everywhere I managed to step into some paint that was on the chair. I am not giving up yet. I wrestle with the paint container, tube and pump and get started again. I get to the next wall with the toilet. I was able to get the roller around the toilet and knew that I would have a little touch up work to do since it was a tight fit but paint washes off of porcelain right? I finish behind the toilet and look at the wall and see a unique "roller" pattern..."What made that mark?" Oh well, roll over it and WALAA. Done. Another obstacle tackled. The mirror and lights are next. I move the chair to in front of the mirror and get a look at myself before I step up to begin painting above the mirror. Wow, instant hair color that matches the newly painted wall and I created a new faux finish! All I could do was laugh. I am almost done with a 6' by 8' bathroom and so far I am truly covered from head to toe in paint. I still have one more bathroom and our bedroom to do...Lord help me. Three hours later I finally finished painting the bathroom, took a look at my hard work and loved it. Now time for the clean up...should only take about an hour right?