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.

Wow. September.

This summer has just flown by!  With Larry's three eye surgeries and our trips to a new foot doctor and a new dentist (because I need six new crowns of course I do), we have had a crazy couple of months.  

Last month, I was moved to another office at work to be the admin for one of our flights and I bought a new Jeep!  Well, a new-to-me Jeep.  Turns out I had some retirement left unclaimed at Citigroup so I hurriedly claimed it and bought a right-off-the-lease Jeep.  It's my very first ever SUV and I love it!  It's also the first ever car I was able to pay cash for.  That was a great feeling!  It's white and I named her Pearl.  

Gardening this summer was a flop.  It's September 1st and we just now today ate an atomic grape tomato.  A tomato.  One.  There are a couple more on the vine but the peppers didn't do a thing and the sunflowers kinda disappointed me, too.  I pulled up the last of them today.  Oh well, there's always next year!

We'll be beach bums toward the end of the month and I am so looking forward to that.  And then a trip to the mountains in November.  

And then Christmas!  Good Lord, time, slow down.

Road trip to Orlando!

What a wonderful week we had!!  I was one of two VPP Steering Committee members chosen to attend the VPP Safety and Health Conference down in Orlando and Larry took the week off and we made a vacation out of it!  My fellow Steering Committee member and friend, Kathy, went down with us on Sunday and while Kathy and I were at the conference every day, Larry went sightseeing and enjoyed the hotel pool.  It was cloudy most of the week, with rain toward the end, thanks to Hurricane Hermine, but we still had a wonderful, unforgettable time and I am grateful to have been allowed this experience.  We learned so much!  Elizabeth Smart was our closing keynote speaker on Thursday and I sat there on the edge of my seat through her entire speech.  What an inspiration that girl is!  She has not allowed what happened to her control her life.  She's happy, she's married, she's a mother.  And she's an activist for child safety.  She has gotten the best revenge she could have on her captors.  She didn't let them destroy her.  I am so proud of her!!

The conference was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Conference Center and I joked on Facebook that I have GOT to get out more because that place was like nothing I have ever seen before.  It's a TWO MILLION square foot, $400 million resort and convention center with four and a half acres of air-conditioned, glass-covered atriums that have the most beautiful gardens, plants and fish ponds.  I was walking around that place with my mouth hanging open.  No lie.  And let me tell y'all.  They "put on the dog" for us and took such good care of us that I was starting to smell a little spoiled by Wednesday.  

We registered on Monday and were given nice, insulated bags filled with goodies; Little Debbie cakes, bottles of sea salt rubs, miscellaneous VPP items.  We made our own convention badges.  This was mine:

   
And here's me and Kathy on Day One!

We spent the week attending workshops and talking with vendors and collecting freebies to take back to our folks at work.  And eating.  Lord, did we eat!  They served us lunch every day.  Steak, chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, veggies, penne pasta, raspberry mousse tortes, key lime pies, salads and yesterday, on our last day, they sent us home with box lunches.  Italian with provolone on hoagies, turkey wraps and roast beef on focaccia bread.  Sandwiches, pasta salad, an apple, a brownie and a bag of chips.  We ate good.  TOO good.  Ha!

Larry found out about a park in Kissimmee called Lakefront Park that was a nest for Pokemon!  We went one night and just racked up!  There were probably a hundred people out there, walking around hitting Pokestops and catching Pokemon.  Larry caught six new ones!  I caught one that I didn't already have but since there was a Pokestop right there at our hotel, I ended up catching 183 Magikarps while we were there.  I'm that much closer to evolving my Gyarados!

Larry and I squeezed in a quick trip to Magic Kingdom.  We only had time to see one park this time and we both wanted to see Mickey and Minnie and all the gang so we went to Magic Kingdom.  It rained off and on but we still had a wonderful time!!  Larry had gotten us matching "He's mine" and "She's mine" t-shirts and of course we had to take selfies at Cinderella's castle.
  

I went to Disney World as a child with Mama and Daddy and Ricky and then Larry's mama and I went in 1997.  That's it.  I've only been twice.  And it's been nearly 20 years since the last time.  Everything came right back though!  There were a few things I wanted to do again and with Larry.  It's A Small World was one of them but it was closed for maintenance.  We did ride The Haunted Mansion ride, though, and that was as fun as I remembered.  We rode the Mad Tea Party tea cups, sat in on a Monsters, Inc. comedy show and the Hall of Presidents show, saw the Country Bears Jamboree and explored Tom Sawyer's Island.  I don't do roller coasters or anything HIGH (fast is okay!) so Larry rode Space Mountain and Splash Mountain by himself.  We saw the parade, the fireworks, Mickey, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Piglet, Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Fairy Godmother (who told us she LOVED our shirts!), Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Aladdin, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story and Pluto.  

No trip to Disney World is complete without that iconic Nestle Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar and by the time I was ready to get one, all of the carts had closed up!  I couldn't leave without one!!  So we walked and asked and walked and asked (I'm guessing seven miles from the Pokemon eggs that hatched) and it started raining pretty heavily.  I was soaked to the bone!  Finally, FINALLY, Larry sees a sign that has the ice cream on it!!  We walk up and start telling the girls in the shop our story and I said, "LOOK at me!"  :)  I handed one of them a $10 bill and she took pity on me and just GAVE me an ice cream.  There's that Disney hospitality!!  

The most pure form of happiness.

We had the best week ever!  We got out of there before the hurricane hit and brought so many wonderful memories home with us.  

There really is magic in Orlando.

What happened to June???

Wow!  It's July already!!  I had a wonderful birthday month.  Larry spoiled me slap rotten with Pyrex and other gifts, a beautiful cake, fish tacos on my birthday, a movie date and lots of love.  He made me a beautiful wooden planter for the front porch that we filled with apple blossom caladiums.  And this weekend, he's working on a garden bench.  

Here's a pic of the caladiums when we planted them June 12th...

 

And here they are today!

They really like it out there!

Mama Bird never laid any eggs in her nest in the decoy plant that I made for her.  :(   But somebody laid an egg in the plant next to it!

So we are still on nest watch, even though it doesn't look like there's even a nest for this little egg.

Father's Day, I shared my birthday with Daddy and we had a little party for both of us.  I got two pairs of cute pajamas from Mama and Daddy, a sundress and a super cool vintage pitcher from Ami and Brian, two really pretty beach totes from Mama and Ami and Ami gave me some sunscreen to take with us on our trip. 

I see SO MANY posts on Facebook about folks going to the beach and getting cooked.  Get you some Banana Boat spray.  It works.  I use the 50 or 100 and we've been to the beach three times now using that stuff and have not even gotten pink.  It works!!  Protect your skin.  Get you some!!
 

Does my mama know me or what??  :D

 

I got a beautiful cake, a pineapple plant, a vintage silver butter dish and bread plate from my folks at work.  I was told early last month that I'm being reassigned to C-130's so I'll be leaving my F-15 family soon.  I'm not entirely happy about that but I trust my God.  I know He's got something wonderful planned for me and I'm pretty excited to see what that is. 

Larry gave me several really beautiful pieces of Pyrex for my birthday and one piece, my Holy Grail Friendship, arrived in about a bazillion pieces.  We are still battling the seller for a refund.  Ugh.  My friend, Stacy, saw my post on Facebook about it and she ordered me another one!  And it was here, in one piece, just a couple days later!

I told Stacy that that was the true meaning of friendship.  :) Stacy and I went to electronics school together and both got jobs at the base because of it.  God puts people in your path for a reason.  I'm so glad my path crossed Stacy's.

Larry got me a brown on white Town and Country (it kinda looks blue in this picture but it's brown) and a Shenandoah one day and came home with a yellow Cross Stitch and yellow and black Gooseberry another day!

Last weekend, we went to Jekyll Island and celebrated some more!  We played footsie in the sand, rode the waves together, had fresh seafood for supper at Latitude 31 on the water, watched our very first ever lacrosse game at the soccer field and just had a wonderful restful, relaxing weekend.  We'd been babysitting our friends' puppies for them last month so they took care of our babies while we were gone, too.  

We had such a great time!  And then we came home and the house was 80 degrees and we had to get the AC fixed last week.  Ahhh, the joys of home ownership.


  

But for a couple of days, we had this.

So now it's July!  We're having steaks and baked potatoes and ice cream cones tomorrow for the 4th and we'll probably sit out on the porch and watch the neighborhood firework show.  

Happy 4th, y'all!  Be safe, be happy, be loved.

My first chili trophy!

We had a chili cook-off two weeks ago at work as a fundraiser for our Wingman Day that we had today.  I entered the cook-off with a chili recipe that was part mine and part two other recipes that I tweaked and came up with one really good pot of chili.  I named my chili "Afterburner" because one, it was hot and would burn you afterwards and two, afterburner is an extra little kick of fuel into the exhaust that makes our girl go a little faster.  And be a little more badass.  :) 

And I got SECOND PLACE!!  My very first time competing in anything since I baked cookies for a 4-H fair in the 5th grade.  First place went to a coworker who is famous for his chili, Brunswick stews, pulled pork, you name it, Mr. Farrell can cook it.  He's won five chili cook-offs with that recipe, which was just meat and seasonings, true Texas chili.  He even has a team down at the Big Pig Jig down in Vienna (and today he invited Larry and me to come down there and be his guests in November!) and they've been cooking pork for over 20 years.  The man knows his stuff.  So for me to come in second behind Mr. Farrell in a chili cook-off was an honor and I was tickled pink!

We didn't have trophies or anything like that, just a certificate for the first place winner so my sweet Larry went and had me a trophy made.  He gave it to me today at Wingman Day so that I could show all my friends.  And I'm showing it here so y'all can see it, too.  If you read my blog, you're my friend.  Even if I don't know you.  :)

My first chili trophy.  I love it.

April Fools'! It's a tornado.

If March came in like a lion, then April came in like she owned the place.

We'd been having problems getting our garage door to open for several weeks and we noticed last week that it was just getting harder and harder for the remotes to work.  They'd never really worked well since we bought the house and we changed batteries and bought new universal ones (which did not work with our system, by the way) and pretty much put up with it.  Well, Larry decided Thursday that he was done and he called somebody out here to just replace the whole thing.  The guy was coming out Friday morning.  So then, of course, Friday morning, we got up and the door wouldn't open at all.  April Fools'!  But pretty perfect timing on the hubby's part, I thought.  Larry was going to pick up his paycheck and come back and wait on the garage door guy and I went to work.  It was black as night, raining just a little and really, really windy.  I met my friend, Valerie, in the parking lot to pay her for some Avon I got from her and went on to my office.  I had just settled in at my desk and was checking my email, planning my morning, when one of the work leaders came and got me and told me we were going to our shelter-in-place, that there was a tornado warning for our area.  Just then I got the weather alert text on my phone.  Our shelter locations in that building are the bathrooms for the guys and the admin area for the girls.  We all huddled in the office, I counted 18 of us, and waited, updating Facebook and texting the whole time, asking for doughnuts and coffee, which we did not get.  We were in there almost 45 minutes.  I never heard anything other than the sirens and the rain.  No train sound, no strong wind, nothing.  Now granted our shelter-in-place areas are interior rooms surrounded by concrete and it's hard to even keep a signal for your phone in there, much less hear anything going on outside, unless it's an air ratchet tightening down a bolt on an F-15, of course. You can most definitely hear those.  When it was all over and they let us out, the whole right side of the hangar was full of water and there were sparks shooting from the main hangar door.  Our old roof (that's getting replaced this summer, wooo hooo!) was springing leaks all over.  We gathered together buckets and containers to catch the water and found orange cones and placed them all over the hangar.  Safety first!  We were not allowed to leave the building.

Word started trickling in from other areas on base and we started to hear how bad it really was.  Part of Building 81's roof came off, debris was all over the flight line, the tower clocked the wind at 92 mph, two F-15s and three of our wings were damaged.  No one actually saw a funnel cloud but this crazy guy who works out there actually used his phone to video what he was seeing, he says before the worst of it hit, and that video went viral in just under an hour.  120,000+ views and 5,000 shares on Facebook.  That was wild.  I think he got into a little trouble about it, too, since (1) he wasn't supposed to be using his cell phone to take pics or videos and he knows that and (2) he was not in his shelter at the time.  But since his video made The CBS Evening News Friday night and got Robins Air Force Base some national attention, I imagine all is forgiven.  :)

I had already decided I was going HOME at lunch, as did most folks, and walking out to my car, I got to see it all for myself.  It looked like a war zone!  Tree limbs, branches, debris everywhere.  I got to my car and it looked okay.  A few pine branches were on it and I pulled them off and tossed them to the ground with the thousands of others.  I walked around to the drivers side and that's when I saw a piece of my side mirror on the pavement, the mirror nowhere to be found.  I looked for it but I'm sure that thing is somewhere on the other side of 247.  I picked up the mirror back, which was still surprisingly in one piece and I left.  I called Larry and told him about my mirror and that I was leaving, going to run a few errands and then I'd be home.  The garage door guy had an emergency so he would be over to fix ours in the afternoon.  Perfect.  We'd both be home by then.

I called the damage in to our insurance company and went by a body shop and got an estimate.  $452!  For an 8-year-old car's mirror.  Crazy.  That's what you have insurance for, right?  And it could have been so much worse.  Some folks out at the base had their cars flooded and I heard one lady had her passenger window blown out.  That was some powerful wind, I tell you.  They finally called it a tornado this morning, I think.  They were just saying a severe thunderstorm with ferocious winds up until this point.  Yeah, right.  Nobody saw a funnel 'cause we were all locked down.  Well, all of us but Henry, I guess.  :)

Garage door guy came and installed our brand new garage door opener and spring and took $500 of our money for his trouble.  But it's soooooo nice to have remotes that WORK and a door that jumps to attention when when you say so.  I walked clear around the block and the remote worked from waaaaay over there.  Now ain't that cool??  

Here's our pretty new garage door opener.

 And here's the spring.  Just beautiful. ;)

I have weeds to pull and soil to prepare for seeds and baby plants.  Thanks for watching.  See ya next time!

What we've been up to!

Another month is nearly gone!  We decided to take the month of January off, as in NO plans for the weekends, to just rest and do some projects around the house.  The holidays were so crazy and we were so rushed to go here and get that so we decided to have a peaceful, easy January and we have.  It's been so nice!

We'll kick off February with Ami's birthday and then start hitting estate sales again!  I'm so excited.  It's been a while since we went to a good one and I think my body's in detox!  I'm also looking forward to the Peaches to the Beaches yard sale in March, too, and maybe another trip down to Florida before summer.  Yay!!  Beach!!!

The Great Blizzard of 2016 proved to be a blink-and-you'll-miss-it dusting of snow around here.  Literally.  If your eyes were closed at 4:30 Saturday morning, you missed it.  I was up, excited to see something, so I let Banjo out around 4:45 to find everything outside covered in a fine snow dust.  That was enough for me!  I woke Larry up to come see!  This was our little patio table.  :)

It was all gone by 7:00.  The blizzard was pretty bad further north.  14 deaths were reported and some states got three to four feet of snow.  No, please and thank you.  The Good Lord knew exactly where to plant my feet!  I'll take my little powder-dusted table any time.

One of my January projects was to clean out my closet and dresser drawers.  I got rid of everything I had not worn since we bought this house and I was amazed at the things I still had!  I boxed up some 100 items and we took them to the Heart of Georgia hospice thrift store in Byron.  We like to go there not only because we find rare vintage treasures sometimes but because they do so much for the terminally ill and their families.  And it's all non-profit and volunteer.  They survive solely on donations.  We took a truck load of stuff up there and brought a few things back.  :)

Some of the things we brought back were scarves, hats and gloves that we donated to Chase The Chill here in Central Georgia.  We saw a story about them on Channel 13 about them leaving scarves and hats tied to trees in Washington Park for the homeless in Macon and we wanted to be a part of that.  We bought every scarf, hat and pair of gloves the store had and when I told the cashier what we were going to do with all those things, she had tears in her eyes and let us have them all for 29 cents a piece!  We met someone from the local chapter the other night and gave her a bag full.  We are going to be on the lookout for things like that at yard sales and estate sales from now on.  You can get scarves and hats virtually for free at estate sales.  No reason we can't try to make someone's winter night a little warmer.

We got this little plant stand at the thrift store that day, too.  It was a sad sight but I saw potential!  I saw a place for it on our front porch!  I think we paid $4 for it.  Larry painted it for me and gave it back to me today, as an early Valentine's present.

Here's the poor little thing before.

And here it is today!  All ready for a pretty pink pot.  :)  I love it.

 

I put together a Valentine's tea cart.  I don't have a lot of Valentine love stuff (crazy, I know, since we got married on February 13th!) and I hope to add to my tea cart collection this year.  Of course, I had to decorate with some Pyrex!  March 1st, the Easter cart goes up!  

I just love these vintage Valentine party napkins I picked up at an estate sale last year.  And my Beatles All You Need Is Love tablecloth that Brandy made for me years ago.  :)

My 1958 Holt Howard Cozy Kitty salt and pepper shakers are perfect for a love theme.  That little flea bite on his nose is adorable to me.  I thought about fixing it but it's just so dang cute!

I graduated from my Georgia Tech OSHA program last week.  They gave us a really nice ceremony in the ballroom of the Horizon Event Center at the base.  We had three guest speakers and we were presented with these beautiful certificates mounted in pretty wood and glass frames.  They also gave us a really nice Georgia Tech laptop bag and lapel pin.  

I'm back in my office in F-15s now after having been in the Commander's Action Group VPP office for four months.  It's kinda like starting all over again each time I come back "home" but we're getting there.  I'm going to start teaching some of this OSHA knowledge to my folks in the coming months.  We're undergoing a complete restructure in our squadron since Rewire is now finished.  I've had mixed feelings about that.  On the one hand, I remember how miserable I was when I worked there but on the other hand, I'm grateful for the things I learned (about the plane and about ME) and for the people I met and worked with "down the hill".  We had a lot of fun in spite of all of our challenges.  So I am a little sad about Rewire standing down.  It just seems weird that there will be no more F-15 rewire work done at Robins. The end of an era, so to speak.  Most all of the people are still with us, though, nobody lost their job over it, but there won't be any more running 27 MILES OF WIRE through that plane, clamping them down, stripping and then splicing them together to make that fabulous girl fly.  We'll be just fixing her now, fine-tuning her and adding technology to make her better.  I thank God every day for the opportunity He gave me when He sent me to Robins Air Force Base and for the doors He opens for me at every turn.  I can't wait to see what He's got in store for me next.  I know it's going to be awesome.

Knowledge is power!

I am a strong believer that learning is a lifelong experience.  Get as much education as you can, whenever you can.  I kinda regret the years I did nothing but work and live my life when I could have been in school somewhere learning and collecting degrees.  Going back to school was one of the best things I ever did!

Sooooo, when I had the opportunity to take a Georgia Tech OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) course at the campus here in Warner Robins, I jumped on it.  There were six classes and we finished up the last one today.  These classes were so much fun!  We learned so much, experienced so much (playing the part of a Safety Specialist at a simulated badge manufacturing plant was a hoot!) and I can't wait to take all that I learned back to my F-15 family. 

This was a wonderful opportunity for me and I'm so thankful my training supervisors sent me through the course.  It wasn't cheap.  Tuition for each class was a whopping $875 so that means Robins Air Force Base paid over $5,000 for me to go.  That's a huge investment in me and I plan to give them back the most positive return for their efforts. 

The six classes I took were Standards for General Industry, Industrial Hygiene (that one was my favorite!), Machine Guarding, Accident Investigation, Safety-Integrated Process Improvement and this week, Ergonomics for Work-Related Musculoskeletal and Nerve Disorders.

We were given binders for each class as well as the 2015 1910 OSHA regulations guide, along with highlighters, pens, pencils and page markers.  We all received certificates with the Georgia Tech gold seal for each class and we'll receive the official framed one at our graduation ceremony at the base on January 20th.

The Georgia Tech faculty, which consisted of engineers and researchers, was knowledgeable, friendly and they made the classes a lot of fun.  We even went on a field trip!  During our Machine Guarding class, we went out to the base to do a walk-around safety inspection and were able to identify a few hazards and to give them praise for some things they were doing just right.

My head is full of all sorts of things and ways to keep my folks safe and free from danger and injury.  Tearing down and rebuilding airplanes can be a dangerous job.  We have injuries out there nearly every day.  I hope to be able to sort through my notes and thoughts and be ready to do my own version of OSHA training with them after the first of the year and together, we can create a safer and healthier place to work!

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!  :)

What's new

Several things are new around here.  

I have a brand new Etsy shop!  Heart Full Of Hippie is what I called it.  I've been collecting a few things here and there from estate sales that Larry and I go to every weekend so I thought I'd try my hand at vintage sales.  I only have a small number of things listed so far but I have a box full of dainty teacups and beautiful saucers from the 1960's in a box along with a stack of crisp, white, embroidered pillowcases that I picked up last weekend and a few little knick-knacky things.  I get absolutely giddy at the prospect of going to another estate sale.  I have really gotten addicted in the short time we've been doing this.  It is so much fun!!  And the treasures you can find in a house that's been lived in and loved in for 40 or 50 years are boundless.

We got a new king-sized bed and we love it.  We found this quilt for it and I think it's just beautiful.  I love the teal blue color, the stitching, the soft texture of it, just everything about it!  And it goes with pretty much all of my vintage sheets and pillowcases, too.  Like that matters anyway 'cause the more mismatched everything is, the mo' better I like it!  :)

And I got a new job!  I applied back in April for a position on the new VPP Steering Committee for F-15s, interviewed for it and got it!  I found out June 3rd that I had the job but I didn't want to say anything until I was sure it was a done deal.  Well, they moved the three of us to an office today and we officially started our new jobs as Steering Committee members.  They interviewed 74 people and selected nine base-wide and just three for F-15s.  I was one of the three they chose.  I found out later that my interview scored third highest out of all 74 that they interviewed!  I don't even remember what all I said!  My interview was in the afternoon, I went straight off the floor, in jeans and a t-shirt, my hair in a ponytail.  I just went in there and was myself and I guess that's all I needed to do.  Anyway, in case you don't know much about VPP, it's an OSHA-implemented program, their Voluntary Protection Program, that's designed to keep workers safe and healthy while on the job and at home, too.  A site (building) can receive recognition for being and maintaining Bronze, Silver or Gold standards, with Gold being the ultimate goal.  We have seven sites in Eagle Country (that's the F-15 world) that need to be Gold by the first of the year.  It'll be our job to get those buildings as safe, as clean and as healthy as they can possibly get and then help them maintain that standard.  I am really excited about the whole experience!  I'll be working in the VPP office for four months starting in September, where I'll train and work and learn all I can about VPP and hopefully be able to solve a few issues for my squadron and then in January, I'll go back to my office and put what I've learned to work.  I am so grateful for this opportunity and I thank God for it.  I feel like a kid two weeks before Christmas.  I can't wait to see what He has planned for me next!  

We ate at Panda Express (again!) tonight and these were fortunes from the two cookies I had.  :)

I love old stuff.  The guys at work told me I wasn't old last month when I turned 47, they said, "Miss Ginger, you're vintage!" (yeah, they know my obsession with old Pyrex, they see the stuff I post on Facebook and a few of 'em even read my blog.  Thanks, y'all!!  I love ya!) and the older something is, the more precious it is to me.  But I have to say new stuff can be pretty dang sweet, too.

Playing Santa

Andrea and I delivered the gifts we'd collected for those children at the substance abuse facility yesterday.  What a wonderful experience that was!  This is my trunk, about half of what we collected.  We had split the loot Monday night at work and agreed to meet in Macon yesterday at noon and drive over together.

The first thing I noticed about the place was how beautiful and peaceful it was.  I guess I expected some clinical white concrete building.  I don't know.  I really don't know what I expected, never having been in a drug rehab place before.  I just know I definitely didn't expect a beautiful homelike building with river rock trim.  I didn't expect it to look so cozy inside either.  Sure, there was a reception counter where we had to sign in as visitors but there was also a huge Christmas tree in the foyer and delicious smells coming from the kitchen/dining area.  After all, though, we did get there at lunch.  They were having ham and scalloped potatoes.  Some of the girls who live there call it a prison.  Well, it's the prettiest, nicest, cleanest, most peaceful prison I've ever seen.  And, trust me, I've seen 'em.

Most of the children were either in daycare or school so we didn't get to meet them but we met all of the moms and the administrator told them who we were.  They'd already been told what we were doing.  They were all so thankful and appreciative and a few of them came up to me and personally thanked me, hugged me and one of them handed me her baby!  The one-month-old boy that I also sponsored (I ended up sponsoring three children!) and I was so happy to meet him!  :)  Now I know who's going to wear those warm teddy bear pajamas that I bought.  Andrea and I really got attached to these children the last three weeks and we were so excited to see this baby and the little two-month-old baby boy who was also there.  He stayed asleep the whole time, though, no matter how hard I tried to wake him up!  He was not at all interested in hearing about Santa Claus.  

We unloaded our cars and completely filled up their conference table.  The door to that room stays locked so our secret is safe.  Santa will be delivering our gifts on Christmas Eve, just as he should.

We left a disposable camera for Christmas morning pictures.  I sure hope they remember to take them!

Those girls are blessed to have that second, third, fourth, hundredth chance and to be able to keep their children there with them.  I've been praying for them all ever since I heard about them but now I can put faces to their names when I ask for strength and courage for them to defeat the monsters that hold them.  

I left there feeling really, really good.

Remember that time it was December 8th and I didn't have a tree up yet?

Yeah, me neither.  

It is killin' me not to have a tree up!  I've seen so many beautiful Christmas trees on my Facebook news feed and of course, Mama and Daddy, Ami, Debee, every-dang-body has gorgeous trees!  While it's killing me not to have one up yet, too, I am determined to wait on Larry and wait on that live one I've wanted for years.  It'll be worth it.  I think.  I hope.  :)

I have decorated for Christmas, though, and wrapped most of my presents.

 

 

The sweet little rosy-cheeked family from Taproot 

 A few things I thrifted this year.  

I am so happy to give them a new home and a new life!

 

I have three Nativities but this one had never spent Christmas outside the box.  

I thought this year was about time.

Aren't these vintage Christmas kitchen towels adorable?!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Etsy?

My friend and coworker, Andrea, and I discovered that there are ten children living with their recovering moms at a drug rehab facility in Macon and that they are probably not going to have much of a Christmas.  So we decided instead of doing a Secret Santa thing at work, we would involve the guys in playing Santa for those children.  There are five of them who are just babies, aged one month to a year old.  They really just need clothes and diapers.  The rest are ages three to thirteen years.  I'm sponsoring a little 5-year-old boy who only asked for a Lite Brite.  So Santa's bringing Jeremiah his Lite Brite along with a book that I hoped would encourage him and a stuffed Snoopy to cuddle.  The guys have been really, really sweet about choosing children to sponsor and donating money.  We've gotten so much that we were also able to fix a stocking for each child filled with coloring books, crayons, stickers and a little bit of candy and every child is getting packs of much-needed warm socks.  The babies are all getting clothes, diapers, wipes, bath stuff, toys and new pacifiers, too.  And the older children are all getting the toys they asked for.  I am so excited about this!  I can't wait to deliver everything to them. 

Oh Santa Claus, I still believe in you
There's still a kid inside of me that still believes you're true
Oh Santa Claus, the kids are tucked in tight
It's time to play ole Santa Claus tonight  

(Santa Claus (I Still Believe In You) - Alabama)

Sunday hodgepodge

Tabbie Hoffman and I enjoyed our daily nature time this morning.  He always has more fun.  I sit and drink my iced coffee while he does his thang.  Here are a few things he liked about today's "outside". 

Munching on an acorn
 

Exploring the leaf pile

Spying on the neighbors

It's been hot here.  90 degrees hot.  Ridiculous for October.  I am really looking forward to the thunderstorms and rain we've got coming tonight and in the morning.  Maybe it'll cool things off some.  And maybe it'll all clear out before I have to leave for work.  Speaking of, in case you were wondering, yes, I am working. I worked all week while the people in control of our government played their games.  My job is considered mission essential so we worked.  We worked overtime, too, nearly every day and all day yesterday.  Those 4,000 or so "non-essential" (I hate that word.  We are ALL essential.) employees that were sent home from Robins should go back to work this week.  It looks like they got a paid vacation last week.  A week off with pay and they didn't have to use any of their leave to get it.  They got a sweet deal!

I finally got around to washing those vintage sheets and pillowcases I bought last Saturday and getting some of them on the bed.  I lovelovelove that daisy sheet!!  Everything I bought was clean, no stains or tears.  Perfect condition!  I am so happy with everything I got!!

One of the albums I got, though, Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billy Joe, had a different record inside.  Jim Reeves' greatest hits.  Early Jim Reeves.  I'd never even heard one song.  So I got on eBay, found another Bobbie Gentry album for $4 and got it.  It arrived Thursday.  Now for a record player!  I found one at Best Buy that I really like.  And, Santa, I have been really, really good this year.  :)

I admit that I run a little behind in the technology department.  I finally got a smartphone in July.  I am a stickler for use it up, wear it out, make it do so I kept my little flip phone for five years.  I've had Directv for three years and I've been pretty much happy with the service and the reception.  It's even gotten better in heavy rain.  The monthly cost keeps going up, though.  And the price of movies keeps going up, too.  I pay from $3.99 to $6.99 per movie and that's just crazy.  So I signed up for Netflix again this week.  I had it years ago, back when they mailed you a DVD to watch and you mailed it back to them.  I have a Wii, thanks to my sweet hubby who got it for me for my birthday five or so years ago, so I updated the system (it had never been done) and got Netflix on it so that we can watch things on the TV, as well as on our phones and laptops.  $7.99 a month for unlimited movies and TV shows and there are thousands.  I have no idea why it takes me so long to do stuff.  I saw that all 202 episodes of "The X-Files" are on Netflix.  Larry will never leave this house.  :)  That was our favorite show and he missed so many episodes.  I watched, wrote him a synopsis of every one and I even recorded them on VHS.  So, yeah, I have 100+ episodes of "The X-Files" on video cassette.  Still.  Ha!  I'm really excited about starting at the beginning of Mulder and Scully's story and watching it with him.  Three months and two days!!

Willie

When I went back to school in January to finish up the electronics program for my co-op requirement, I had to go on swing shift at work and one of the first guys to take me under his wing was Willie Whitehead.  Willie had been at the base for many years and was a master electrician.  He knew everything about everything and could just tell you what was wrong with something without looking at it.  I saw him many times just walk up to that plane, turn a few things with his wrench and walk away, saying, "there you go".  In addition to the experience and wisdom he brought to our crew, he also made a mean pot of coffee.  He kept our coffee going round-the-clock in the break room and when you work second shift, you need your coffee.  

Willie had this big toothy grin that just lit up the room.  He had contagious laughter and a crazy sense of humor.  He loved bananas.  He also smoked like a chimney in winter.

Part of my training that I had to complete was ops checks in Cell 6, where Willie was assigned.  Every single time Willie saw me in the cockpit, he would yell up at me, "Get down from there!" and just laugh and laugh.  He said I was going to get hurt and had no business up there.  It became our little private joke and I got to the point where I would just yell, "NO!" down at him before he had a chance to yell up at me.  That always made him laugh.  Willie fussed at me for cleaning the break room, too.  He said the guys wouldn't appreciate it or keep it clean and that I was wasting my time.  I'd tell him, "Yeah, but Willie, it's filthy and I can't stand it."  He'd just shake his head at me. 

Willie got sick this spring.  He didn't know what it was but he suspected his heart.  He went to the doctor who put him in the hospital for tests.  After countless tests and many uncertain days, it was discovered that Willie had stage four lung cancer.

He never returned to work.  He did, however, attend our Wingman Day fish fry Labor Day Friday and I am so thankful that I got to see him and talk to him and hug him and tell him how much we missed him at work.  He had lost so much weight and he was weak as a kitten but that smile was exactly the same.  He hugged me back and told me he was glad to see me. 

Willie passed away last week.  Just precious few months after he was sitting at his table in the break room eating his banana without a care in the world.  I'm sad.  I miss him.  I miss his grin, I miss his laughter, I miss his fussing at me, I miss his white hair.  

Willie, I know you're in heaven now but I wish I could tell you to "get down from there!" and come back to us.  But you're in a place where there is no cancer, no pain.  Only peace, love and laughter.  And I know our F-15's are even more beautiful from up there.

The 20th already??

Wow!  This month is just flying by!  I just realized that I haven't even blogged about anything since the 7th.  I have been busy busy busy!!!  I worked last Saturday and pretty much slept all afternoon Sunday.  I'm taking this weekend off since this house doesn't clean itself and we have Baby Lizzie's 1st birthday party Sunday afternoon!  It's hard to believe that little baby is a year old already.  A lot has happened in a year.  She learned to laugh and patty cake, she got some teefies and she's thisclose to walking.  Oh, and she's getting a little brother or sister, too.  :)

When Larry went to Quitman, I prayed that time would go by fast for us and it really, really has.  We are a little over three months away!  He's taking a welding course right now and he's really enjoying it and doing awesome at it, too.  He joined the Student Leadership Council there at the college and he's involved with that as well as keeping things going at the Refuge.  I worry that he's going to burn out but so far, so good.  I guess it's just good that he's not like poor Jacob in the Bible, who had to do seven years of indentured servitude just to get a girl he didn't even want.  At least at the end of this, Larry gets the girl he wants.  :)

My sweet friend, Lisa Skinner, made Larry some chocolate chip cookies last week and sent them to him.  He said they were delicious!  Thanks, Lisa!  You are such a great friend to us.  And you shamed me miserably because I didn't think of it first!  :)

Three months nineteen days!  We can do this!