It's that time . . .

Judging from the TEN MEDICARE pieces of mail I have gotten in the LAST FEW DAYS, guess everyone must know I am turning SIXTY-FIVE this year! No telling how many I will get between now and the time I actually turn SIXTY-FIVE ! !

Wouldn't you like to have the money all these people waste on postage?  I sure would - it goes directly from the mailbox to my trash can.

I still contribute all the hearing aid junk mail to my HD - he denies that it is for him, though.

45 Years . . .

It all started with a blind date for a hotdog roast set up by fellow telephone operator with a couple of Air Force guys in 1965 and a wedding in 1966. . . 

March 24, 1966  - March 24, 2011

And all the addresses over the years - went from Amarillo to Hampton / Newport News, VA to Sherman to Garland to Sherman to Denison to Howe to Lubbock to Levelland to Lubbock to Odessa to Sherman to Cross Cut (Cross Plains) to Sherman to Cross Plains to our current home here in AZLE. Whew!!

Now it is  45 years of marriage later with three children, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

And to Jerry:
It was such a pretty day we decided to
take a walk,
And we had not gone ten steps
before I knew
That you and I are long past
the point of no return.

Hand in hand we go
Still close, still loving,
Still looking and overlooking
The flaws we hide from others.

Side by side we move,
Sometimes closer, sometimes farther apart
Because of ways we read and talk,
Agree and disagree.

Step by step we advance
Against the cynics,
Those all-knowing unknowings who honestly think
Marriage is dead.

But how can marriage be dead
In a world I choose to walk with you?

How can marriage be dead,
So long as we still seek, still cling,
still want each other?

So at this corner of our life,
Stop and listen to me now, my love,
I still seek,
I still cling,
I still want
To walk the rest of the way with you.

In this uncertain world
This much I know for certain:
I still love you.

Grow . . . Please Grow. . .

 We hope to have a nice looking yard this year. We already planted some St Augustine grass and it is doing well.

We bought plants for our front yard today and my HD put them all in the ground.

These are Lantana, the left one is camara Irene and the right one is mont Trailing White.

More Lantana, the left is new gold and the right is another camara Irene.

Here, in the middle,  we have a Chinese rose bush (don't know the proper name) that we have carried from house to house for years. It is a tough one to survive all we have put it through. In the back pots is purple Jew and the front three are mother in law tongues.

These shrubs came with the house and have not done well but new growth is coming out so perhaps this year will do better.

I wanted to add some color to the shrubs so we picked up these Photini to put in the middle of the others.

Two more of our rose bushes. You can probably tell I am not a "plant person" and do not know the names of many of them. Mom used to give me house plants and send along a sympathy card with them, 'cause she felt sorry for them.

But my HD is very good with plants so they might just survive!!

We even had a purple bloom on one of the iris we moved last year!

We want to have a hedge across the front but not into the city easement so we started out with just these two.

They are Holly Yaupon Dwarf shrubs and really pretty. We will have to add more a little at a time.

Look what finally turned up . . .

I looked EVERYWHERE (I thought) for our Christmas stockings last year. I finally decided they got lost in the move, just over a year ago.

Well, my HD cleaned out the tool shed and this is what he found!

Wasp Exterminator . . .

The wasps - yellow jackets - have been really bad here. We think they were in the soffit or walls of the house and can get through the tiniest of cracks. They were also abundant in our tool shed.

For the tool shed, we set off a bug bomb to take care of them. Couldn't do that for the walls of the house so we concocted a "wasp exterminator."  It's homemade - can you tell??

I read on the Internet about using sevin dust. We filled the paint pot with the dust and used the air compressor to blow it in all the nooks and crannies of the exes and cracks around the windows.

May have to do it again around front since we didn't hit it as heavy as the back, but for now we don't see any in the back yard and very few in the front.

Phase 3 - Moving Our Nolting Into Our Building

Phase 3 is COMPLETE ! !

It took a bit of figuring with just two people moving a 12 foot quilting machine but my HD is good at figuring things out. Actually we did most of it and when we got it to the building, a neighbor lent a hand there. We could have done it though, since it was not near as heavy when we took the machine head off the bed.

We used the floor jack to lift one end up, then blocked the legs with lumber until we could get the dolly under it.




It was not near the chore we thought it would be.

For the other end we had to be a bit more creative since we only had one dolly. We used an appliance dolly (usually known as "Grandpa's skate board", with lumber attached and a space for the frame to fit down into to keep it from shifting on us.














We loaded the head onto our tool cart to move it around.

 We just rolled it around to the back yard with no problems. Got it put in and all back together and ready to go!

We have a little air conditioner in the window that does a good job and heating should not be a problem either. With the loft up there for insulation (not to mention all the junk, treasures stored up there, it works well.

My HD has his 8 foot area all arranged with plenty of room for him.

Moving Nolting Quilting Machine - Phase 2

Phase 2, cleaning out part of building is complete, among other things . . .

We put a lot of things in our new loft and divided up the building. Eight feet for my HD's computer stash and the remainder- almost 16 feet for the machine and supplies.

We moved quite a bit into HD's area, cleaned the floor and HD put glue and tile down yesterday. It's lookin' good. Still have a lot of sorting to do to clear out his computer space but making progress.

 

 

Wish some little leprechauns would work some magic to move the machine out there now! We are figuring how much we will need to take apart to move it. That will be Phase 3!

After we get it in, we will see what all shelving, table, etc we will need, then see about selling all the excess shelving and tables we have. It is amazing how much "stuff" you accumulate.

Visitors

Our son made it home on leave from Afghanistan last weekend and it is so good to have him home, even for a couple of weeks. At least his time over there will be short when he goes back. We enjoyed a short visit over the weekend and will see them again next week.

We are keeping their dog (our granddog) while they get some visiting done. Her name is Coco and we have kept her many times before, once for several months. We have been told that we spoil her horribly - and I want you to know- it's all true! She is a Chipin (part chihuahua, part minpin), same breed as our little Daisy.

Coco is a bit heavier than Daisy and several years older but they are having the best time playing together. The are exhausted at the end of the day. Daisy wanted to play her usual evening "fetch" but kept falling asleep with the toy in her mouth. She was sitting at one point with it in her mouth and almost fell over asleep! She is so cute. Both are sweet dogs.

I know we will hear about how much we spoiled Coco when we take her home next week. :0