It's October!!

So I'm a few days late.  I've been busy!!  We are waiting to hear back from the appraisal on our new house and that should be the last thing to do before we close on it.  We wanted to close around the 15th and be in by Halloween.  That is still the plan!  Cross your fingers, say a few prayers and send us some good thoughts.  We are convinced that God is 100% behind us as He has worked out every single detail up to this point.  We met our renters this weekend and they are the sweetest people!  They're moving down from Indiana because they just cannot bear another Indiana winter.  I don't blame them one bit!  It was nice to get snowed in for a few days last winter but when you think about having to deal with it for months on end??  That's just not for me.  And apparently not for them!  They are a really nice couple and we believe that they are another of the details God is working out.  They're helping us and we're helping them.

We had a yard sale this weekend to get rid of some stuff and we sure did!  Larry sold most of it Friday all by himself.  Saturday was a little slow but we honestly didn't have much left.  We made over $200 and I thought that was awesome since we were really just trying to find new homes for things we just didn't use anymore. 

Our neighbor, Gladys, passed away about a year and half ago, during an afternoon nap, and her children finally had an estate sale this weekend, too.  I went over and got a few things beforehand, some things that I remembered Gladys having, Christmas things mostly, but she had a medium Corning Cornflower casserole dish that I didn't know about.  I have the large and small already so hers completed my set.  My very favorite thing that I got from her house was a vintage tea cart that was still in the box.  She had never even used it.  I absolutely adore it and I'm thinking about storing some of my Pyrex on it in my new kitchen.  I think that would be just lovely!!

Gladys' estate sale was a pretty big hit.  There were people in and out all day long and that helped us sell the rest of our stuff.  Our renters bought a few things from us, too, and I joked that they were just going to take that stuff right back into our house!  Ha!  They also did something that made me cry.  Gladys replaced her stove a few years ago.  And she got a nice one, too.  My stove is the original that came with the house and it's 27 years old.  I've joked that she has hot flashes right along with me because the oven tends to run a little hot.  We've done some repairs to it over the years and the stove does great, cooks every single day and y'all know that oven has baked about a bazillion Sunday Cakes this year.  I have taken good care of it and it's in excellent condition for its age.  Anyway, our new renters went and bought Gladys' new stove and it's going in my kitchen.  Well, their kitchen now, I guess.  I think she would be so proud for us to have it.  I got a little emotional at the thought of her beloved stove going in my kitchen.  I remember when she got it.  She was so proud of it.  We're giving our stove to another neighbor who also has an original but it's not in very good shape.  So everybody wins!  They also bought her dresser, chest of drawers and bathroom towel rack.  I'm just tickled that her stuff will be used and will stay right here at home.

I'm starting a new part of my job tomorrow.  I'll be working in the VPP Group Office until February.  We are in the process of making all of our safe sites Gold by January so I'll be right in the middle of that.  The reps in the group office are the Gold Assessment team so I'll get lots of experience there.  I'm really excited about it!  

And I need to go to bed now so that I will be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to get to work in the morning!  :)

It's gone!

A few years ago, a guy moved in next door and he brought his monstrosity of an RV with him.  I have hated that thing every. single. day. since.

It blocked the sunshine on my flowers, it blocked our view of the street, it even blocked the toilet a time or two (okay, well, maybe not the toilet but you get the picture.  HATED.)

He turned out to be a pretty decent neighbor, quiet and friendly, and we never really saw that much of him.  He came over one night last week and told Larry he was going back home to West Virginia and we could get anything we wanted from his house.  Since our little house is already furnished to the max, we didn't get anything but a redwood picnic table and a weight set.  I set up a yard sale for him last Saturday, though, and listed it online and everything.  Since we were going to Atlanta, we really couldn't help him with the sale.  And he didn't sell anything.  :(

Anyway, he pulled out this morning!  I'm a little sad to see him go but I ain't sad AT ALL to see that RV go!!

Let's hope our next neighbor drives a Prius. 

I'mma be scared to come home tomorrow...

I came home today after getting the oil changed in my car and getting a brand spankin' new serpentine belt put on and found this in my driveway.

At first, I didn't know what it was.  I was scared.  When I got closer, I half thought, "oh well, it's just a finger" because I saw Final Destination 5 the other night and ever since, I have been going over the ways folks died in that movie so it really didn't even faze me much that there might be a FINGER in my driveway. OMG, what is WRONG with me???

Anyway, I got closer and saw that it is, indeed, a baby doll leg.  In my driveway.  Have no idea.

Yesterday, I come home to find a split rail in my fence was broken and lookin' all stabby and pointy at the culprit (as if to tell me, "HE did it!!") a busted-up limb from my neighbor's tree.

The limb also hit my satellite dish and knocked it OUT.  I had no signal last night but today, that seems to have been corrected because even though I didn't check all 200 channels, the channels I like to watch are coming in clear.  Except for HBO East.  HBO West, loud and clear.  HBO East, the one that shows the new True Bloods on Sunday nights, not so much.  Oh well.

What will I come home to tomorrow???

No fish pond for me!

Okay, so I wait all day to hear from the city about the water leak in my yard.  They never call.  I get home this afternoon and there's a little swamp growing out there!  AND water is bubbling out of the ground!  I call the water department back but of course, it's after 5:00 and they're closed so they connect me with 911 and I feel a little guilty when she answers, "Houston County 911, what's your emergency?" and I say, "I got water in my yard" but what can I do?  They connected me!

I tell her that I just want somebody to come out and tell me whose responsibility it is so I can get it fixed if it's mine 'cause it's GUSHING WATER EVERYWHERE OH MY GOD AND I'M A HIPPIE TREEHUGGER AND IT'S KILLING ME FOR THAT MUCH WATER TO JUST BE GUSHING LIKE THAT DON'T YOU CARE ANYTHING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT????????

She said she'd get somebody out here as soon as she could.

He shows up about 6:00 and told me and my neighbor, David, who'd already offered to fix it for me, that it was indeed my responsibility BUT that he would dig it out for us.  And he did and he wrote down everything we'd need and stayed until about 6:45 talking to us and telling us what to do.

I took his little list to Lowe's, got the stuff, went by Sonic and got some supper and came back and David and his daddy fixed it!!  In about two hours!!  What a wonderful neighbor I have!!  On THAT side, anyway.  On the other side, uh-uh.

Here are a few pics!!

 A root had cracked the coupling in the pipe

(They saved me the cracked coupling as a souvenir.

I told 'em I was gonna put it on my mantel.  Ha!

What's funny is I probably will.)

 

Here's some dirt!  :)

 David calling his daddy

Brand spankin' new coupling!

I don't know when the leak started but I'm guessing it's been a few weeks.  It just took a while for it to break through the ground.  Coincidentally, my water bill came today and it was $5 more than it usually is and showed that I used 160 more gallons this month than I used last month.  'Cause it was leaking into the ground!!  I can't stand the thought of 160 gallons of water just wasted like that!!  Next month's bill should be a doozy.  Oh well, it's fixed now and I learned a LOT.  I think I could even do it by myself next time!!

Love thy neighbor...

 ...even when he parks a fifth wheel big as the MOON this close to your house.

 Really??

I live in a neighborhood of condo duplexes, villas is what it says on the deed.  I love this neighborhood.  It's normally really quiet and peaceful, even though the hub of Warner Robins is directly behind us.  Last weekend, somebody moved into the condo next to me.  The same one that was painted that Gawd-awful hooker red a year and a half ago.  They moved in, parked this monstrosity in the driveway and left.  Just left. Seriously??  

OH!!  And I found a pair of hot pink panties in my front yard on Wednesday.  Never a dull moment.

But!!  On a HAPPY note!!  Look at my chives and basil!!

They gettin' so big.  :)

***Update***  The City of Warner Robins sucks.  There is NOTHING I can do about the RV/fifth wheel/MOON unless it blocks traffic or somebody is living in it.  I'm moving to the country.  

A Day Off

I have today off! And I really, really, reallyohmygod needed it. I had planned to sleep late but that damn dog next door saw to it that that wasn't going to happen. She did let me sleep until 9:00, though, but that's early for me. I was thinking more like 1:00! This dog has been barking since NOVEMBER and she's driving me nuts. I've talked to her owners several times and called the police once. The police came out, told them (and me) if they got another call, they'd take the dog. I don't want that. There are little kids in that house who love that dog and I can't take her away from them. So, I've just been stewin'. And throwing stuff over the fence at her, telling her to shut up. I can't sleep late, take naps or study. My neighbors tell me she's barking at squirrels. Well, that's just retarded.

I got a gift card from Walmart in the mail the other day with an invitation to come join them for the grand opening of our newly remodeled store. I needed a few things anyway and since I was already up, I got dressed and went over there and walked around a little bit and I have to admit, it looks so good. Even if the shoes are in the front of the store. I've only been in there twice during the remodeling process and the-shoes-in-the-front-of-the-store thing had me all in a tizzy. Shoes don't belong in the front of the store. That's just downright un-American.

I left there and went to PetSmart and got one of those silent dog whistles that I'm gonna try on Li'l Miss Prissy next door. The guy at the store told me I could try to train her to not bark by blowing that whistle when she does. We'll see...

I'm gonna go see Toy Story 3 this afternoon. I had a girls' night out Wednesday night with Lisa and Jennifer from work to celebrate me not having to go to class (We're so easy. We'll celebrate anything. Ha!). We went to Mellow Mushroom (yum!!) but didn't even get pizza. We did good!! I had the Capri salad and a half avocado sandwich on wheat. Then we went to the brand new theater out on 96 to see Killers. The movie was cute (and so was Ashton Kutcher!) and the theater is soooo nice. It's COLD in there, though, but they have pizza so it's a wash.

Raspberry Strudels And 2x4s Upside The Head

Well, maybe not upside the HEAD. More like upside the front of my car. I was coming back from seeing Larry today and from out of nowhere, this board flew up and hit my car! I don't know where it came from, don't know where it had been or where it went afterwards. I never even saw it in my rear view mirror. And the most wonderful thing?? It didn't leave a scratch on my car anywhere. I'm beginning to think I imagined the whole thing.

Jessi came and spent the weekend with me and we did 'bout eight loads of her laundry and we went and got her and Justin some groceries and then I took her home this afternoon. I always, always enjoy her company and I love having her with me. Things are a little strained family-wise where she's concerned but I don't much care. I'm on her side. Always will be.

When I got home, two little neighbor boys across the street were selling raspberry strudels. They said they were "50 cents or 2 for a dollar" when I asked how much. That was so dang cute to me. I gave the little one four quarters for two and he couldn't understand what I was doing. He kept wanting to give me 50 cents back. All they'd done this afternoon was take dollar bills and give 50 cents back so the quarters threw him WAY off. It was just so cute. And the strudels were awesome. Back in my day, we sold Kool-Aid and lemonade in the summertime. Kids are selling strudels now. How cool.

What was NOT cool was the pavement. And of course, I walked over there barefoot and burned the hide clean off the bottoms of my feet. Ow. You'd think by the time a girl is 42 years old, she'd know to at least wear flip flops on hot asphalt in JUNE.

Apparently, not this girl. :)