Sunday Pie

Our very first Sunday Pie in our new house was...PUMPKIN!  

I made one this afternoon to try out that new oven!  Larry said it was the best pumpkin pie he's ever had in his life.  He said it won't last the night.  Ha!

I just used a basic recipe:

1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
2 eggs
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice and I cheated and used a frozen pie crust.  :)  

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, then bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 35 more minutes.  Easy peasy!

It turned out great, tastes amazing and totally hit the spot after a long, stressful week.  It got us in the mindset for Thanksgiving, too!  Can't wait!!

Settling in

We are just about done!  Larry's working in the garage today, I'm roasting a chicken and unpacking THE LAST BOX!  I want to get the carpets shampooed today but may not get there.  I've done something to my left shoulder and I'm in a good bit of pain.  I might just take it easy today.  It is Sunday, after all.

We have worked pretty much nonstop unpacking boxes and arranging things.  If we hadn't had to stop and clean every single surface, we'd be done by now.  Everything was covered in 2-3 inches of dust and grime and we got the last of the ceiling fans cleaned last night.  I knew I was going to have to clean to get the house up to where I wanted it but I never expected to find it the way we did.  Oh well, now I know it's clean and as Larry calls it, "Ginger clean".  Ha!  This house is too beautiful not to keep it up and keep it clean and that's what I'm going to do.  Live and learn, I guess.  And don't expect anything, that way you won't be disappointed.  I've had to really pray about this because I've felt way more anger and animosity than I should have.  I just wouldn't do that to someone and would never expect it to be done to me.  But it was and as disappointing as it was, I'm dealing with it.  I finally got the floors mopped and the last of the blinds and light fixtures scrubbed yesterday.  This house is clean now and I guess that's what really matters.  Time to move forward!

I had my coffee out on the deck this morning and I used the opportunity to take a few pictures, in the peaceful quiet of a gorgeous fall Sunday morning.  Tabbie Hoffman joined us for about a minute and then he was ready to go back inside.  He's still not completely comfortable and spends most of his time under our bed. 

Larry hung my mushroom birdhouse from the magnolia.  Perfect spot! 

I've been a little intimidated by my fancy new Kenmore Elite oven so this morning, I made blueberry muffins.  Something easy, something fast and they turned out pretty dang good.

 

We're having Thanksgiving here this year.  We wanted to have our whole family together in our new home to celebrate and give thanks for this amazing year we have had.  I decided I'd better try out the oven before I try to cook that turkey!  So we're having roasted chicken and potatoes, veggies and pumpkin pie for an early supper today and from the smells coming from that kitchen, I'd say I figured it out just fine.  

Bronze baby shoes

When Larry was a baby, his parents had one of those portraits with the bronzed baby shoes made of him.  Since they were an Army family, they moved around a lot.  All over the world. When Larry's mama passed away in 2005, it finally came home with me.  It is my most precious possession.  More precious than my rarest piece of Pyrex, more precious than my wedding rings, even.  I'm serious about that picture!

So serious that before we moved, I specifically told Larry there were several things I was taking to the new house myself.  Tabbie Hoffman, Banjo, my Pyrex and that bronzed baby shoe picture of him.  When I went to pick up our boys at the condo last Wednesday, they were there, my boxes of Pyrex were there but that picture was not.  I shrugged, thought to myself that one of the guys packed it anyway and I didn't think much of it.

In the chaos that ensued last week with the moving and unpacking and cleaning (OMG the cleaning!), I didn't miss it.  I figured we'd get to it eventually.  As we unpacked box after box and got closer to having no more boxes to unpack, I started to feel a little panicky because we had not found the picture.  By Tuesday, I was in meltdown mode.  We looked everywhere.  In boxes we'd already emptied, in the attic thinking it was in with some Christmas stuff, in boxes of tools from the shop, in our suitcases, everywhere.  It was not here.  We could not imagine where it was.  Neither one of us remembered packing it.  Larry called the guys who helped us move and none of them even remembered seeing it.  I was devastated.  Squalled for three days.  Larry tried to console me, telling me it was just a THING and was not worth me getting so upset over.  I was so upset and stressed, I broke out in a rash all over my neck, chest and arms.  I could not be consoled, could not rest.  Crying all the time, I kept telling Larry, "That thing has moved 30 times and been FINE.  We move ONCE and we lose it!"  I was just heartbroken!  

Larry thought that maybe somehow the movers who moved the family out of here picked a box up by mistake, that maybe it was on its way to New Mexico and we'd have to just wait and see.  We knew that it was NOT at the condo because we'd gone over there last Thursday night to steam clean the carpets, mop and just give it a good deep clean before our tenants moved in.  Nothing was left in that condo!

Even though I only have a 10-minute commute to work every day, I use that time for quiet time with God.  That's when I pray about stuff and talk to Him about my day, my life, just whatever.  This morning, I told Him I couldn't figure it out.  I had no idea where that picture was but I knew that HE did.  I told him, "I know You're going to get it back to me." and that I trusted Him completely, in all things, even when I don't understand them.

I got to work, settled in at my desk and got ready for my meeting at 10:00.  

At 9:36, I got this picture texted to me from Larry with a message, "See the resemblance?".  He's standing just outside the front door of our condo.

I immediately started squalling uncontrollably, I called him and said, "Oh my God, where was it???!"  He'd gotten a text from our tenant saying he'd found a baby picture that we would probably want.  Probably?!  

So where was it, you ask??

In a kitchen cabinet.

Where I put it.

For safekeeping.

I remembered immediately.  We were packing my Pyrex that night and I said, "I'll save this for last, wrap it and place it on top so it'll be the first thing that we take out."  Sounded like a good plan, huh??  I put it in the cabinet to keep it safe, shut the door and promptly forgot ALLLLLL about it.  I'm blaming it on menopause brain.  That's my story...

I've never been happier to see anything IN MY LIFE.

 Do you blame me???

We have moved!

Whew!!  What a crazy week.  We closed on our new house Tuesday, started moving in Wednesday and we have been nonstop ever since.  We have pretty much gotten the big stuff in place and now we're tweaking and fine tuning and putting pictures up and stuff like that.  We are wore slap OUT.  And sore in places we didn't even know we had, our backs are stiff and cranky but our hearts are full and content.

We had such a fun Halloween!  There are tons of kids in this neighborhood and we sat out on the porch and Larry gave out the candy. 

Here he is waving at the neighbors.  And eating Troy burgers.  Thanks, Mama and Daddy!

My favorite trick-or-treater, sweet little Lion.


 
And his sister, Dorothy.

I took this shot of Larry and Banjo that I absolutely love.  

We had a cold front blow in Friday night and I do mean blow in.  Like 30 mph winds!  It was so cold yesterday but has warmed up a lot today.  We suffered our first damage from the wind, too, a slat blew out of the fence and Larry's out there now repairing it.  And talking to neighbors.  :)

We're taking it a little easier today, resting up from four exhausting days, and decorating a bit.  I put the German cuckoo clock up.  And sure enough, it's set at 2:24.

'Round here

This month is nearly gone!  And it went fast!  We close on our new house on Tuesday and we've done nothing but pack boxes and donate stuff for two weeks now.  This is how we livin' right now.  Oh. My. God.  I will be so happy to have some space again!  I tell Larry as I walk through the living room that this is A-MAZE-ING!  A maze, indeed.  We move Wednesday!  Gonna get a big U-Haul-It (as my Uncle Frank calls it!) truck and move it on up out of heah!  Anybody wanna come help, come on! 

Tabbie Hoffman was having a little difficulty taking it all in, despite my constant reassurance that all this will make so much sense next week, I promise!  He was being really clingy and hiding under the bed again but he seems to be adjusting now.  He's really good about that.  Just rolls with the flow.  Eventually.  It took a week or so to adjust to Larry, a couple of weeks with Banjo and now this.  Bless his heart.  His whole wittle world is upside down.  

He's found a new spot to nap in all this chaos, though.

Last Saturday, we went and helped our older granddaughter, Elizabeth, celebrate her seventh birthday.  The girls love the movie Frozen so Lizzy had a Frozen-themed costume party.  Everything was soooo cute and we just had the best time!  I snapped this one just as she was blowing out her candles.  I love all the smoke!  Ha!

Larry and I decided to go yard saleing and to an estate sale yesterday because we figure we'll be too busy unpacking, organizing and settling in next weekend and possibly the next one, too.  I have always wanted an amber Indiana Glass hen candy dish, ever since I was a little girl and my grandma had one.  I've been looking for one all summer and I finally found one at a yard sale yesterday!  Larry found a Pyrex bowl in the Primary Blue design at a yard sale Friday and it turned out to be a really old one, from the 1950's, with the old trademark and everything.  He got it and a lid for a dollar. 

At the estate sale yesterday, I saw and immediately fell in love with this vintage German cuckoo clock.  It didn't come with the winding key but I didn't care if I ever got it wound up.  I couldn't leave it!  They wanted $6, I offered $4 and got it!  Larry concocted a key for it, with his bad Macgyver self, and wound it up for me.  You have to constantly wind it, though, like every hour or so, and I probably ain't gonna do that.  (Read: ain't nobody got time for that!) so I'll just set it for 2:24 and leave it there.  That's Larry's birthday, Maw's birthday, Uncle Gene's birthday and also the street number for our new house.  224 is a pretty special number for us.  That's what attracted us to the house in the first place.  It just seemed meant to be and since every single detail has worked out, even those little snags the devil tried to throw at us, we know that God is behind us all the way, cheering for us and clearing our path.

Three more nights at Schneider Condostead.  A little bittersweet, but SO exciting!  We have had quite a year and we can't wait to see what's next!

Wonderful weekend!

Our house looks a lot like this these days.  The appraisal was absolutely perfect and we're just waiting on a closing date, hopefully within the next seven days!  We are so excited and so ready to go!  We're already talking about putting in a pool next summer!  Our renters signed their lease and they are paying us six months in advance!  We could not have had a more blessed experience.  It was a little hairy worrying over and waiting on the appraisal but we prayed that God's will, not ours, be done and guess what?  His will was exactly what we wanted!

Since I have no leave at work (a lonnnnng hospital stay and an unrelated surgery will do that to ya!) and we're moving in the middle of the week, Larry is going to be stuck doing the majority of it by himself during the day while I'm at work.  Any amount of help is greatly appreciated!  We are planning to rent a U-Haul truck for at least the first day, maybe the second, too.  We have a little 1,000 square foot condo but there's a 16x16 workshop and attic to clear out, too.  Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it!

So I won't.  :)  Saturday, Ami had a booth at the Wesleyan Market and sold some of her beautiful artwork.  Mixed media art canvases and they are gorgeous!  It's obvious that she got ALL the talent in our family.  It skipped me, it skipped Ricky and just piled all on top of her.

Here she is showing off her pretties while Brian gets a bear hug from Larry.

Wesleyan Market has lots of cool stuff!  Fresh produce and live music, too!  We had a great time, got to spend time with our entire family since Mama and Daddy went, too, and Ami sold some of her art!  And then the four of them went with me and Larry to see our new house!

Since our country still recognizes today as Columbus Day and since I work for Uncle Sam, I had this day off.  I don't believe it should be a holiday, I mean, the man was NEVER HERE.  But nobody ever asks me anything.  All I know is that if we do have and homeschool a child, he or she will hear a whole 'nother tale about how this country was "discovered".  That said, I didn't take the day off.  Banjo and I worked with Larry on a rental house he's been working on and we replaced a ceiling fan.  And it was fun!  And we learned a lot!  And we fussed at the fan!  And we laughed!  And we had Dairy Queen burgers for lunch!  It was a wonderful day.

A wonderful weekend, actually.  As usual. 

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!  :)