Another Update

It is Tuesday evening and we are home for the night. The project is getting closer and closer to being finished. Yesterday, we hung all the walls. Today we got everything mudded and tomorrow we will sand and texture the ceiling and then the drywall part will be done. After that, we have a place in front of the sink to fix, possibly replacing the sink and sink cabinet. Then the new floor will go down. YEAH!

And now some pictures of SPRING! Jessica’s temperatures are much warmer than ours. Down where she lives, there are many signs of spring. Her daffodils are just ready to bloom. On the road down to her house, we see lots and lots of daffodils already blooming. We are like kids in a candy shop, looking for them, trying to be the first one to spot them.

The maple tree in her yard is full of buds.

The onion grass is huge.

Dandelions are already starting to bloom. I thought you all should know that while I’m there its not all work. There are flowers to enjoy, warmer temperatures and, of course, GRANDBABIES! I have a blessed life.

Well, I better get busy. I had hoped to catch up on what’s been happening in everyone else life but it is late and I still have much to get done. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 14, 2012 6

Sunday

Hello ladies. Weather here has certainly decided to change. Just a few days ago, we didn’t even need a fire. Last night, temperatures dropped to 5 degrees with wind gusts of 60 mph. This put the wind chill to about -10 or lower. To top all that off the power went off about midnight and stayed off until around noon today. Thankfully, we do not need electricity for heat or we would have definitely been cold. However, when the electricity came back on, our water was frozen. We had left it running slightly last night so that it wouldn’t freeze but when the power went off the pump stopped working, therefore the water stopped running. We worked on thawing it out after lunch. We now have hot and cold water in the bathroom and laundry room but only cold water in the kitchen. Thank you, Lord! It seems no matter how hard we try, when the wind blows that fierce and the temperature drops that low, our water seems to always freeze. I am very grateful that it thawed as easy as it did. You all may remember a few years back, our water remained frozen in the bathroom for an entire month. YUCK!

Well, that’s enough of my woes. Last week, I heard a funny saying for when someone is complaining. “Do you want some cheese with that whine?” I think I’ve whined enough. Sorry ladies. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

February 12, 2012 5

Grace and Sam

Grace and Sam are pretty big buddies. She is usually his watcher and Julie has Daniel. As you can see, Sam must be barricaded away from the construction zone. He is just a little bit too much help.

He looks a little sad, don’t he?

The electrical is all done and the ceiling is hung. Monday we will hang the walls and start putting the mud on (hopefully). After that, the new floor goes down. Hubby will be building her a pantry to go beside her new stove.

The boys were very happy when they were allowed inside the construction zone to help. They worked very hard pulling up the old tile. Daniel would pull it up with his special tool and Sam would carry it to the trash. Very good helpers.

Temperatures here are very cold. Wind gusts of about 40 mph with an actual temperature of 13 degrees, putting the wind chill below zero. Our wood stove has been working hard keeping us nice and warm inside though. I hope you all have a great weekend and stay warm. God bless.

February 11, 2012 5

Update on Facelift

Hello ladies. Just a quick update on our progress so far. Here is a picture of the ceiling just as we were beginning to tear it all down.

After tearing down all the ceiling this is what it looked like. We now have 10 recessed lights in the ceiling but I didn’t get any pictures of that. We came home late this evening to feed up all the animals. We’ll be leaving early in the morning to go back and work some more. Tomorrow we hope to get the lights finished and start hanging the sheet rock. We also will be tearing up the old floor and putting down a new laminate flooring. We will have to do some leveling of the floor first though.

Her new stove was delivered today. She is so happy with it. Her old stove was just a stove top with the oven built into the wall, probably an early 70’s model. If you look in the background you will see the old oven. This will be coming out and Hubby will be building her a pantry to take it’s place. They also plan on painting the cabinets.

Well, that’s all for tonight. I hope to get caught up on everyone’s blogs tonight but I’m not sure. I’m pretty tired. Please be in prayer for David. He had surgery on his knee back in January and it still hurts him quite a lot. It definitely is not healing as fast as we all thought it would.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

February 8, 2012 5

Having Fun

Good morning, ladies! We had a great visit yesterday with David, Jess, and the kids. It was a nice warm day and as you can see, most of it was spent outside. If you look on the ground you can see where Daniel’s boots are. I guess they got in the way of swinging.

Sam and Katie. Sam had so much fun sitting with Katie and taking pictures. Every time the we would take a picture, he would just bust out laughing. So of course, we took MANY pictures. I thought this one was the best.

David helped Hubby fix the brakes on the car yesterday. It was a full day’s job but we think they are finally fixed. Thank’s again Dave for helping. Jess and I worked inside on making her some applebutter. She ended up with 5 qts. We had spaghetti with homemade sauce, rolls and cinnamon rolls for dessert. Daniel told me spaghetti was his favorite. I made a new recipe for cinnamon rolls and I really liked this recipe. Much better than the one I had been using. I got the recipe here. http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-dough.html I also posted the recipe under sweet dough in my recipe file. I did divide the recipe in half and got 18 cinnamon rolls. I will definitely be making them again. We are planning on starting a remodel at Jessica’s on Monday. Her kitchen is getting a facelift. I hope to remember to take the camera and I’ll show pictures of the process.

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

February 4, 2012 6

Chickens

Every evening we turn the chickens loose to scratch and play. They love it!! They stand right at the fence when we go out to turn them loose. Each one wanting to be the first one out the gate.

As of right now we have 13 of these lovely ladies, 4 red and 9 white. We want to expand the chicken house and lot this spring and get more-maybe about 20.

They are extremely curious ladies. They follow us around wanting to be petted. If any of us step outside they will come running up to us to see what we are doing. They are definitely a lot of fun to have around. Today has been warm but the wind is a little strong. Jess and David and the kids are coming up tomorrow. I hope to get some new pictures to show you all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 2, 2012 5

Our Visit With The Horn’s

We had a great visit with the Horn’s yesterday. We were celebrating Mckenzie’s birthday. They had the table decorated so pretty and cheerful.

Best of friends!

Mrs. Vicki’s goats and chickens.

While the kids played, Vicki showed me how to make a blue jean skirt out of old blue jeans. I think it turned out really nice.

I hope you all have a great evening. Supper tonight is pork tenderloin roast, fried potatoes, corn and fresh baked rolls. God bless.

January 26, 2012 7

Wednesday

Monday afternoon the rain stopped and the wind really picked up. The girls finished their outside chores and wanted to stay outside for awhile. Do you see the two little dots in the distance? Well, that’s them. I took these this pictures from the house as they were walking the field.

They are never out without company. The cats always follow them any time they walk outside. I zoomed this picture in so you could see them better.

And, of course, Shadow. He would never dream of allowing them to be out of his sight. I’m not sure why this picture turned out so dark but you can still see him.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The girls and I were at Jessica’s. The temperature at her house was in the 60’s so I know it was probably in the 50’s here. I love this weather-makes me think about spring. Today is supposed to be nice too and then rain is in the forecast. The girls and I are going to the Horn’s today after school. YEAH! We are soooo looking forward to it. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 25, 2012 5

Ice

Yesterday morning we awoke to this. Ice was everywhere. We think the fog froze as we had lots of fog. It was slippery here but once we got on the road it was fine. We awoke this morning to sleet. YUCK! Thankfully, the temps warmed up enough to melt the sleet before Hubby left for work. The rest of the day so far has lots of rain and fog but no sleet. The girls and I had planned on going to Sam’s today but we have postponed that trip until later in the week, for just in case. I do not want to take a chance on running into slick roads.

We have been doing school today and, of course, a little house cleaning as well. Supper tonight will be beef roast with potatoes and carrots and homemade rolls (which I better get busy making). I will leave you all with one more picture. This was taken yesterday about 5:00 p.m. while we were on our way to church. Still a little icy with a little fog.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 23, 2012 7

Saturday

Today is a rainy day here in Floyd. It was raining last night when we went to bed and still raining this morning when we got up. I think it is supposed to rain most of the day. Julie and Grace have been watching a young neighbor boy occasionally. He will be coming over today while his parents go to a funeral. I think it is good experience for them and gives them a little spending money of their own.

I made several new recipes this week. The first one was kielbasa with cabbage and noodles. It was very good. Last night we got really adventurous and made mexican rice with homemade flour tortillas. I sauted kielbasa, onions, garlic and mushrooms to serve with the rice and tortillas. We ate our supper in the living room while watching a family movie. The girls helped me with the tortillas. There really were a lot of fun to make. A little time consuming but fun. We will definitely be making them and the rice again.

Well, I wanted to share the recipes with you all. We will be having homemade pizza for supper tonight using the pizza dough recipe I used last time. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

January 21, 2012 2