Rub a dub dub, there's cheese in our hot tub

900 gallons of water and $150 later, our hot tub is beautiful!!  We have had the hardest time with this thing this week!  We never could get the water balanced and my rash still ain't gone away so we decided we'd just drain the water and start fresh.  We did that and then the water wasn't clear and the filter wouldn't clear it.  We did everything we knew to do and couldn't get it right so we went to the experts, a local pool and spa store, all sad and defeated, carrying a Mason jar full of water from the tub for them to test.  They suggested that we purge the system, a process that deep cleans inside the plumbing, components and jets, and replace the filter.  Larry did that Tuesday.  The purge is eco-friendly and biodegradable but the stuff that came out of that hot tub most definitely was NOT.  It was the nastiest orange cheesy-looking stuff I have ever seen.  I 'bout DIED.  And then I 'bout DIED again.  And then I got mad.  Really??  No way was that tub clean when we bought the house, like we were told.  We should have known, though, with the house being in the condition it was.  Lord, don't get me started again.  I wouldn't even be surprised if chlorine wasn't just thrown in there at the last minute to make it appear clean.  It looked like it had never been deep cleaned.  Arrrggggh!  Anyway, Larry worked on it most of the week, purging, draining, cleaning, rinsing, more cleaning (we even had to buy a wet/dry vac) and last night, we replaced the filter and started the refill again.

Stuff we had to buy and the instructions from the spa store 

And now we have beautiful crystal clear water!!!  Yay!!!

By the way, we are now taking donations for next month's water bill.  :)

Home

It's feeling more and more like home here every day.  Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Larry hung a tennis ball from the ceiling in the garage to hit my windshield so I'd know where to stop.  :)

It reminds me of a scene from my favorite movie.  Ha!!

Ami and Brian got a new entertainment center and we got their old one since it was a lot bigger than ours and we needed one that big to fill up all that space.  I think it looks great! 

It has lots of room to display stuff, like my growing collection of vintage baby planters.  That little cowgirl was actually mine when I was born.  It held flowers that my daddy's job sent me and Mama in the hospital.  I never actually intended to start a collection of these, it just kinda happened.  You know, at estate sales.  Totally NOT my fault.  :)  And they are sooooo cute!

I picked up this gorgeous old clock for $5 last weekend.  Larry replaced the cord and it's good as new!  I love it.

We got Tom chillin' in the freezer.  We got us one of those fancy Oster roasting ovens and we're going to try it out this weekend on a roasted chicken before the big day.

Yeah, they do.  They sure do.

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???

'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!  :)

Lots of stuff!

My little lady procedure went well Monday.  Well, it worked, but it wasn't without complications.  When I was waking up in recovery, a nurse told me that I threw up while I was unconscious.  The anesthesiologist freaked all the way out because I was already under but they rolled me onto my side, suctioned it out and I was fine.  I had done the nothing-after-midnight thing but thirty minutes prior to my surgery, I was given a small cup of Alka Seltzer to settle my stomach.  Yeah, right.  That's what came up.  And even though they told me I was fine, I am absolutely convinced that some of that Alka Seltzer got in my lungs because I have been congested and coughing like crazy (croupy coughing!) ever since.  Tuesday and Wednesday, I looked and felt like death warmed over and today was the first day that I felt normal.  Ugh.  This gettin' old crap...

But the procedure worked.  I officially bled for 59 days.  I know!  Shut up!

And the hospital lost my panties.  My $14 Victoria's Secret panties.  I know!  Shut up!

I'm just glad that's over and we can get back to normal.  But what is normal, anyway??  If you've been following us on Facebook, you know that we're about to buy a new house!  About five miles away, in a lovely little quiet neighborhood, out of town but not too far from civilization.  Here's a pic!  It is the most adorable little house!  Beautifully landscaped, move-in ready with a gorgeous deck, hot tub, fire pit with gardenias, a magnolia tree AND a palm tree.  And TWO windows in the kitchen!  I am so in love with this house!  We hope to have everything done and be moving the week of Halloween.  We put a For Rent sign out Saturday and Sunday, we had rented our condo!  To a retired military couple who need a place for his disabled brother to live.  Perfect!
God is just working out every detail!!

We celebrated Rhiana's birthday Sunday afternoon and visited with her, Juan and the girls in Roswell.  Juan made the most delicious Spanish egg and potato dish for brunch and we had sausage and fruit, too.  I made a dozen pink lemonade cupcakes and we had a chocolate ganache cake.  We just had the best time!!  We had found the girls a bunk bed at a yard sale a few weeks ago and we took it to them.  They love it! 
 
Mama gave us a scare this week, too.  She went to the hospital with chest pains and had to have another heart cath last night.  She had another blockage that was opened with a stent and she went home today.  God has answered so many prayers this week for us!!  We are never deserving of any of it, but we are always, always grateful.

We're going to watch the Braves play the Mets in Atlanta Sunday and I'm really looking forward to that.  And a totally lazy, do-nothing day tomorrow.