Time is just flying by!

I skipped September altogether!  I went back to work on the 3rd and spent the first month working in administration with absolutely NOTHING to do.  Made for very long days.  I moved back into my position as assistant to the Vehicle Control Officer and that's where I wanted and needed to be.  We went and "yard saled" at an F-15 building that's about to be turned over to C-130s and got everything I'd need for the new office.  A desk and chair from the flight chief's office and a filing cabinet from the planning office.  I am set now!  I love the job, I get along great with the VCO and since we've been working together for two years anyway, we hope to turn this into a permanent thing.

I'm still going to physical therapy on my foot twice a week.  They just extended my treatment for eight more weeks so that will be a total of four months' therapy.  I think it's helping.  My range of motion anyway.  They've taught me exercises to try and strengthen my muscles around my ankle to help me with stability, since I'm still wobbly as all get out.  They've suggested shoes (I got the Brooks Ghost 12s and I LOVE them!  Well, the right one, anyway.) and compression socks and we've done fluidotherapy with cellex (which is ground corn cobs that heats up really well) and they're going to cast me for custom orthotics.  I have extremely high arches and cannot find an orthotic that works well for me.  I do like my Vionic and Spenco shoes, though!  I'm supposed to start aquatic therapy (Larry and I LOVED the heated pool at the beach in August and I'm excited to see if I can do more with my foot in the water) later this month. 

Larry ran his very first 5K last Saturday and he did so good!!!  He finished in just over 40 minutes, with absolutely NO training, no practicing, he just got out there and started running.  That was just amazing to me.  It was to benefit the folks at the Georgia Arrhythmia Foundation, the same doctors who performed Larry's ablation in August.  We took Banjo and had a great time.  We even won a door prize!  A big box of Pyrex baking and food containers!  Oh, we thought that was HILARIOUS!!  But we'll sure use 'em!  We don't have much of the new Pyrex stuff, just leftover containers that I buy by the season.  I always have to get those Halloween and Christmas ones.

We went to the fair Wednesday night for a date night supper of corn dogs, hamburgers, black-eyed peas & cornbread and apple dumplings.  Ahhhh, fair food.  Larry had worked down there setting up his job's vending booth in the McGill Marketplace and he'd seen some really cute leopard tops and cardigans he thought I would like.  So we got one.  A lightweight cardigan that fits just right.  ALLTHELEOPARDTHINGS!!  I just love leopard stuff these days and my closet will confirm that fact.  A couple of weeks ago, I got me a pair of fleece leopard britches and I'm just waiting on that first cold snap.

We've made plans to go up to the mountains next month and we are so excited about that!  We rented a house in the woods with a creek and we're gonna enjoy the flea markets and antique stores and the lots of peace and quiet.  Banjo's going, too.  

I cannot wait.

All the Pyrex!

If you know me, you know I've been collecting vintage Pyrex for a while now.  Over five years.  It all started when my Maw passed away and I took her Amish Butterprint home with me.  When Larry and I discovered estate sales in 2014, it just took off from there and now we've got 238 pieces!  Whaaaaaa???  

I usually take them all down and clean them and the shelves a couple times a year, and rearrange them for the seasons.  I haven't been able to do that since before my first surgery.  I've just been dusting around them.  I don't let our housekeeper near the Pyrex.  They are off limits.  If one breaks, it's ME that broke it.

I started physical therapy this week.  I'm going two days a week for about an hour at a time, doing strengthening exercises, mostly, because I'm not going to be growing back any ligaments or tendons.  We're working on building my muscles up to help support where the ligaments and tendon can't anymore.  I was feeling up to it yesterday so down came all the Pyrex and I cleaned them, dusted the shelves and put them all back, rearranging them and putting fall patterns and colors front and center.  Larry helped me and I think we did a great job!  We also moved the dining room table next to the wall so now we have all this space in the kitchen!  Our kitchen and dining room are one big room open to the living room and I love that layout.

Here's how it looked once I got them all down off the shelves.  I blocked myself in and I had to make a maze to get through.  Banjo wouldn't even come in there!

Here's me, hard at work!

  Here's after!

Soooo much room now!  I told Larry we got lots of room for dancing in there now!

I moved the chicken lamp from the counter to the table and we like it there.  I just love a lamp in the kitchen.  It makes things so cozy.

I go back to work after Labor Day.  I feel like I'm nesting getting ready for a baby!  There's so much I want and need to do before I go back to work.  I'll be cleaning and organizing something every day!

Happy Birthday to me!

Your homegirl is 51 today.  Another year on this old planet.  A fun year, a sad year, an unbelievably stressful year.  Things don't always go the way you want them to or even the way that they should go but somehow, you have to keep on keepin' on, keep getting up to welcome the sun every morning, keep reminding yourself that even the bad is not that bad.

Larry made my birthday super special, with our trip today up to Senoia, to get up close and personal with our favorite TV show, The Walking Dead.  We had such a fun day.

This morning, he woke me up with this vintage Pyrex Happy Birthday mug, that I'd never even seen in the wild, only online.  It debuted in 1967, just like me!  I love it!!  

And he had waiting for me this delicious chocolate ganache cake and cards from him and our boys.

Yesterday, I opened this gift from him.  A vintage Pyrex promotional casserole dish in Blue Willow!  Another treasure I have never seen in the wild.  Well, I did see it once, in about a zillion pieces in the bottom of a box my sweet friend, Brandy, sent me.  It didn't make the trip from Virginia.  Dang US mail!  But the lid did and until she reminded me, I'd forgotten all about it! 

51 feels pretty good already.  Now if I could just STOP worrying about things I have no control over, 52 might be even better.

Valentine Tea Cart Time!

I put together a little Valentine tea cart tonight and I think it turned out just LOVEly!

I just love the pink pom pom trim!! 

Larry put a little book in my stocking at Christmas called What I Love About Us and inside, he filled in the blanks.  I thought it was just perfect for the tea cart.  Some of his answers were funny...

And some were oh, so sweet.

Christmas

It sure didn't feel much like Christmas outside (78 degrees!) but it felt like it in our hearts.  Larry and I exchanged our gifts yesterday and had Santa for Tabbie Hoffman and Banjo this morning before we went and had Christmas with my family in Oglethorpe.  Lots of love and laughter and babies and presents.  Oh my goodness, the presents!  

This is what Santa brought our boys.  Banjo got a Dremel nail trimmer and Tabbie got a feeding maze toy.  They each got a toy (Tabbie's is a catnip-filled banana!) and treats and new vanilla-flavored toothpaste in their stockings.  And Larry loved his Notre Dame plush blanket and lounge pants that Santa brought him!

Larry got me the Farm Vet Barbie set (with the itty bitty chicken squeeeee!), a rare 1960 promotional Golden Grapes Pyrex chip and dip set, a vintage Petunia Pig drinking glass, a new cereal bowl, some Optical Illusion cards and a sweet, sweet coffee mug that he wrote on with permanent marker.  He wrote, "When I was young and dreamed of love, I saw a shadow of you.  When I grew up and experienced love, I realized the shadow was you."  Yep, he's a keeper!  He also got me a Pyrex Old Orchard casserole dish (with the lid!), a pair of Pikachu bedroom slippers, a Pokemon Monopoly game, a selfie stick, a beautiful Christmas bracelet and I know I'm forgetting something...anyway, I racked up!  I got a new FryDaddy from Mama and Daddy (along with a cute top, socks and my old stocking slap FULL of stuff) and a gorgeous tapestry from Ami and Brian that I think I'm going to use as a tablecloth.  I also got some soft slippers, a new coffee mug and some bath stuff.


 
Santa came to see our backyard birds, too.  They got a bird seed bell that I smeared peanut butter on and hung from our magnolia tree on Christmas Eve.

We went to Christmas Eve service at Southside Baptist yesterday afternoon (and even though it was 70 degrees when we got out, it was snowing in the lobby!  They had a snow machine going and it was so fun!) and then we went to see the new animated musical, Sing, and we enjoyed it so much.  Such a cute story and some really amazing talent.  We loved it!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  It's always so sad to me to see it go.  After weeks (months!) of planning and shopping and picking up this and that for this person and that person and then it's all over in a flash.  A big, wonderful, chaotic, wrapping paper flying, flash.

And we'll do it all again next year. 

I can estate sale all by myself

Larry worked today so I went out on my own, in search of treasures and boy, did I find them!

I started out at a living estate sale here in town and I missed an Americana casserole by thiiiiiis much.  My eyes always scan the kitchen/dining room areas first for Pyrex and before my eyes and brain could connect, this lady had snatched that dish right out from under me!  I didn't even see it until she had it tucked under her arm.  Good for her, I thought.  There'll be something else along today that's even better!  I found an unwanted, unloved olive green (the great big one!) mixing bowl that I got for a dollar and the cutest little pink pitcher for $2.  It's a Teleflora and not at all vintage but I love it anyway.  

From there, I drove to Elko to the widely-publicized Schneider estate sale.  Well, we had to go to that one!  Mr. Bernhard Schneider is a very, very wealthy man and he owns a good bit of property down Perry/Elko way.  His house on Elko Road sold recently and all of the contents were for sale today.  Some folks said they've gone back to Germany.  What a gorgeous house!  Paved driveway from the road, beautiful landscape, breathtaking lake and the cutest little lake house, swimming pool, tennis court, you name it, they had it.  Except maybe Pyrex.  They didn't have none of that.  But!!  I got something kinda sorta like Pyrex.  German Pyrex!  Like!  Called JENAerGlas.  Jena Glass.  That's what I'm calling it.  I got the Jena Glass vintage casserole dish with a groovy orange and green floral design, some tiny Noritake tea set dishes, a cute little 70's German trinket box in bright orange, a rug for my kitchen and it seems that there's another Mrs. Schneider who loves pink.  Her bathroom was adorable!  The prettiest pink wallpaper I think I've ever seen.  I checked the tags on her pink towels and sure enough, Cannon.  Squeeee!  One appeared to have never been used.  I got three of them and three wash cloths.  One of the wash cloths, a mitt, really, was made in West Germany.  You know that thing's old!  I found an Italian cosmetic bag in her closet and I got it because, yeah, it was pink.  I found some cool German drugs in it, too!  Just allergy meds and an antibiotic blister pack, but still it was cool to see German medication names. 

I left there and drove to Vienna to an estate sale I read about and the prices were so good down there, I bought just about everything they had left!  Ten cents, fifty cents.  You can't beat that.  And cute things, too!!  A Homer Laughlin Virginia Rose sugar bowl and a Noritake sugar bowl, a Lenox ivory and gold Santa figurine, some tiny cups and saucers and my favorite, a Marigold Carnival glass flower dish.  I loaded up and spent $10.  :)

On my way out of town, I spied a little hole in the wall (and I do mean HOLE) thrift store and I decided to stop.  I am SO glad I did!!  As soon as I walked in and my brain and eyes connected and told me there was a PYREX SNOWFLAKE DIVIDED CASSEROLE DISH WITH THE LID on that table covered in dust and dirt, I grabbed it up and held it to my breast like it was my long-lost child.  I almost peed in my pants right there.  I have wanted a Snowflake for months!  I've never seen one in the wild, just on eBay and Etsy and then they were $25 and up, plus shipping.  I ain't doing that.  This one had the sweetest little price tag on it.  FOUR dollars.  I'm telling y'all, I was about to cry.  The lady who runs the place (and there was NO A/C in there but I don't even think I noticed until I was paying her for my stuff) started telling me that it was hers and she'd NEVER EVEN USED IT and it sat in her dish cabinet for 45 years.  What the what???  I never even put it down.  I felt so bad about paying her $4 for it that I bought everything else she had on that table.  That's a good woman right there.  I got more little teacups and saucers and a platter with roses on it and several milk glass pieces (I got 'em home, washed 'em, Googled 'em and found out that one of the dishes is a Hazel Atlas Diamond milk glass candy dish so more squeeeee!).  She charged me $10 for ALL of it.  I'd tell you to go see her but her store doesn't even have a name.  All I can tell you is I think it's on 7th Street and it's right next door to her son's auto parts store.  I thanked her profusely, swore to never put that baby in the dishwasher and left, thanking the Lord all the way.  See, He did have something better than that Americana planned for me today!

I got back to Perry and hit the New Perry Hotel liquidation sale and I got pretty pillowcases out the eyeballs and some wine glasses even though we don't even drink.  They were lovely and a piece of local history so I got 'em.

Here are some pics of my treasures!!

 

 I still can't believe I got this thing for four dollars.

Forty-eight

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday!  All those boxes were Pyrex!  Larry got me six new pieces, four of them were pink gooseberry Cinderella mixing bowls.  The whole set!!  I didn't have a whole set of anything and to have pink, well, y'all know how I feel about pink.  :)

He got me another loaf pan to replace the one that broke last Saturday when I baked a banana nut bread to take to the hospital for Rhiana.  As soon as I turned the bread out to cool on a towel, the pan cracked and broke in half.  I guess it was too old, got too hot, that bread was just too good, I don't know, but it was 40+ years old.  I've never had a piece break on me like that.  I guess it was bound to happen.

The loaf pan he got is a FireKing Peach Luster, that really pretty peachy-pink iridescent color.  I used it tonight when I baked zucchini bread, along with the meat loaf pan I picked up when we did the Peaches to Beaches yard sale in March.

We went to Casa Mexico for supper.  That's my favorite place around here to eat!  I love their fish tacos.  Like SO much.  There was a little girl there who was turning 8 and I was turning 48 so they brought out these beautiful sombreros for us to wear and a delicious sopapilla and sang Happy Birthday to us.  It was great!  Larry was SO impressed with the sombrero!!

Juan, Elizabeth, Emma and I did a Birthday FaceTime call while we were at the restaurant.  They just wanted to tell me happy birthday!!  That was so sweet.  First time anybody besides Larry has called me to do that.  It was fun!!

I had 207 happy birthday wishes on Facebook that I was completely blown away by!!  I had a bubble bath, a nap and the day off work.  I painted my toenails and curled my hair.  It was a fabulous day!!  

I used my Kohl's birthday gift card to buy candles and pillows!  New bed pillows and this sweet little one.  Larry has always called me Sunshine, since the very beginning.  

I thought it was just perfect.

My Almost-Birthday Goodies!

Larry has left little presents on my birthday tea cart this week.  And both days he had to ask me what that was on my tea cart.  Duh!  I understand yesterday but today, too??  Golleeee.

Yesterday there was this amazing piece of Biblical history!  It's a widow's mite and was struck by hand in Zero A.D., the year believed to be the year Jesus was born.  So it circulated during His life!!  It might have even been one of the two!!!  That would be so awesome.  In case you don't know the story, it's in Luke and Mark but here's Mark's take on it:

Mark 12:38-44  King James Version (KJV)

³⁸ And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
³⁹ And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:
⁴⁰ Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
⁴¹ And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
⁴² And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
⁴³ And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
⁴⁴ For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Jesus was not at all impressed with all those rich folks throwing money in, money that was really just a portion of their wealth and He knew they were pretty much just showing off.  But He was very happy with this poor widow woman gave every bit she had, willingly and without hesitation.  I think my little mite is one of her two.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  :)

 
Today, there was this adorable vintage bookends set with a little boy holding an ice cream cone and a little girl holding a present looking like they're going to a birthday party and they're kissing!!  

Sooooo cute!  I probably won't have the heart to put tiny books between them and separate them. 

These are my presents for tomorrow!  He let me open one tonight, though.  I'll give y'all one guess...

Yep!  Pyrex!!  A bowl with handles in the Old Orchard pattern.  I only had the one piece in that pattern.  Yay!!  Can't wait to see what's in the other boxes!

It is well with my soul

Winter came back this weekend but we didn't let it stop us!  It was 37 degrees and very windy yesterday morning when we loaded up a dresser that my sweet friend, Stacy, gave us for Baby Charlotte, and headed up to Atlanta to deliver it so Rhiana could paint it and get it ready for tiny pink clothes.  Larry sanded it down last week so all she'd have to do is paint it.  It's beautiful, solid wood and very old. The date on the mirror is 1958. Rhiana loved it.  And she's already painted it white.  It's going to be so beautiful in the baby's room.  We stopped on the way in Juliette to have lunch at The Whistle Stop Cafe, one of my very favorite places to be!  I posted on Facebook that I was going to see Idgie and Ruth and I sure did!  I even have photographic proof.  :)   I love these sweet girls!!

After we had a plate of those famous tomatoes, we had a pulled pork (or is it??) dinner plate with sides, cornbread and sweet tea.
  

We got there about an hour and a half after they opened and they were sooooo busy!  They always are, though.  We ate at the counter rather than wait for a booth and I'm so glad we did.  I'd never eaten at the counter before, in all the times I've been to The Whistle Stop, and I found that I actually preferred it.  The atmosphere is so much better.  

This plaque was right where we sat.  I'd never even seen it before and I've been up there at least a dozen times.  The tea was sweeter and the tomatoes were the best they have EVER been.  I took a few to Rhiana and Baby Charlotte.  They enjoyed them, too.  :)

I took a few pictures of Larry while we walked around.  This was his first trip to The Whistle Stop and I tried to show him everything.  Here he is at Big George's smoker grill.  I love how they're trying to keep everything the same.  It's been 24 years since the movie crew left and so much of McCrackin Street is exactly the same.

Here's Big George doin' his thang back then.

 This is how he does it now.  :)

We stopped by to see old Smokey Lonesome, too.

Larry tried to see whose mouth was bigger. The donkey barely won.

We took back roads into Atlanta since we had the dresser on the back of the truck and that was soooo nice.  The sun was shining, we had a beautiful view of blue sky and green everything around us and we just enjoyed the drive.  It took a little longer and the girls were getting antsy by the time we finally got there.  We had a great visit full of hugs and giggles, got home late so we've had a very lazy day today.  Unmade bed, pancakes for breakfast, pajamas until the afternoon, a pretty relaxed, awesome day.  :)

We hit a few yard sales on our way out of town here yesterday and I stayed in the truck while Larry checked them out.  We struck gold at one of them!  Literal Pyrex Gold for a DOLLAR.  75+ old rock and country albums for $12 and a 1964 Milton Bradley Password game for two dollars.  This casserole is a pattern I'd never seen before!  Golden Honeysuckle.  Just in time for summer!  Pyrex made this beauty sometime between 1962-63.  It's older than me!  (Oh yeah, Larry put me up a clothesline, too!!  Yay!!)

We put this up over our back door today.  I just love it.

When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul

(Horatio Spafford)