Flowers 2012

I've been waiting VERY patiently all early spring to get my garden going! I made somewhat of an actual plan this year. **gasp!** Some new things from years past. Most notably, the new stonework. Bye bye cinder blocks, hellooo pretty wall bricks! :-D Also, new colored mulch. I battled with that one, as I usually like to get the recycled stuff from the county, but... That free stuff has no color and just turns grey over time. :-/ Tried a few new varieties of flowers as well. here's pics! the before

after

After (from under the blooming crab apple tree)

new roses

east side of the house, where it's not easy to see. But *I* know it's there! ;-)

*Que the "Rocky" theme song*

In my panic about getting the house appraised, I decided we HAD to get all the old flooring out of the garage before appraisal day. I was all set to get a good chunk of that done last Saturday. However, once I got home, that all changed. The landfill closes at 1pm on Saturdays. WHAT?! As my lil sis said, "that's when people have the time to get there!!" @@ Sooo...Monday am I started in on the work myself. Managed one load up before they closed due to high winds. Yesterday I go the rest up. That floor weighed in at 4000lbs. So adding up all the work I did: bagging up (one shovel full at a time) broken tile/grout pieces, loading the car, unloading the car.... 10,600lbs. Thanks to DH quick math skills where I initially didn't want them, yep. 5 and 1/4 tons of flooring that I moved in 2 days. And I am now glad I know this. What an accomplishment!! All my time at the rec center, even when I didn't want to be there, has paid off already. :-D I have NO plans to do any more big projects until maybe July. (Still need to get that deck done.) At least for the last two weeks, I feel like I've won against "the syndrome". (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue) As those of you that have this know, some times just getting out off the bed is a huge accomplishment! I'm a stubborn person, and as my DH says, I don't take the slow ramp up, I jump up the stairs. lol!! If I can do something like this during crunch time, surely I can convince myself during my bad days that yes...I CAN get out of the bed, and I CAN get on with my day. ;-) ***running through the streets with my arms raised in victory!!***

Remodeling

Ignoring my blog, thanks to Facebook... Here's what we've been up to. Lots of hard work, but so worth it now that it's done! Ready for that appraiser now! ;-) Kitchen Sink Before

Kitchen Sink After!!

Downstairs bath Sink Before

Downstairs bath Sink After!!

Living/Dining Room Floor Before (I HATE that tile!!!)

The beginning of a long weekend.....

The LAST tile!!

New Subfloor going in

Tools of the trade

And it's IN!!!

Baseboards in, Olive inspecting

Kitchen repainted and new light box. LOVE it!!

Master Bath before

(what WERE those people thinking?!)

After. NEW LIGHT!!

Shelves for Erik's hobby

New towel bars and a little class

looks MUCH better with the tile than that awful blue!

Believe it or not, the previous owners painted AROUND the toilet, leaving a sillouette. @@

So that's what we've been up to since the end of last year!

The $80 soap dish

Ok, not really. But. We ended up at The Container Store yesterday. Dh wanted a small plastic bowl with a lid for his shaving soap, so it would be easier to take out of town. He found one, and it was less than $4. But then....I found these CUTE mason jars large enough to fill with my gf pasta. Then more small enough to hold the gf binders (xanthan and guar gums). THEN we found a really cool lid rack we can put on the door so the glass lids aren't a mess in the cabinet. And heavy duty metal measuring spoons, that dh so kindly suggested for my gf baking. And then...he found an organizing system for all the nails and stuff in the garage. Oh yeah....and a collapsible laundry hamper for his nasty work clothes. So yep. That little soap dish cost $80 in the end. ;-)

I have to say though, dh has managed to save quite a bit when shopping for more work clothes. He goes straight to the clearance racks. He recently had a pair of jeans get ripped up while in a tight space. They went in the trash they were so bad. The latest cheap clothing "score" was a pair of jeans for $5!!! Found a couple yesterday at Old Navy for $10ea. T-shirts, thankfully, go on sale all the time. He's found a couple for a buck or two.

A good friend of mine once told me "the more you make, the more you spend." I REALLY gotta knock that off. :-P

****heading to the nearest shop-a-holics anonymous meeting****

no gluten...except on vacation

Vacationing is not what it used to be for me, dietarily speaking. Cross contamination everywhere. And worst of all was discovering that certain foods are made in different manners depending on where you go. Green chili can be thickened with either corn starch or wheat flour. Guess where I ate? The place that used wheat flour. UGH what a night that was! :-X (And I need to remember to ask if the enchiladas come with the red or green sauce. @@) Being tired on vacation doesn't help in the food recognition category either. I was so tired one evening, I ate some macaroni salad. With regular noodles. OY! At least is wasn't much, and didn't do too much damage.

I am utterly amazed at how my body is changing on the inside. How it handles things now that I've got all the irritants to the system out. I had no idea that the majority of my food allergies could be "cured" by not eating wheat! The allergists explain it like this: you have an allergy bucket. It can only hold so much, then it tips. As in, you have a reaction. The more allergens introduced to the bucket, the more frequent the reactions as the bucket is nearly full all the time. So I'm trying to keep my bucket on the empty side. But wheat. Dang. I LOVE wheat! In breads, pasta, cake, cookies, doughnuts.... *drool* Oh well. I love my health too, and I LOVE not having to worry about when I'm going to have yet another very painful reaction to something I ate.

Busy day checklist

Breakfast...check
lunch for later: salad....check
sandwiches....check
snacks and drinks....check
loaded up car....check
early service at church....check
long v-ball tourney and didn't leave anything behind....check
studio ballet performance....check

got home after everything and Olive is screaming before we even open the door. Isis is.....CRAP!!!!

Cats NOT locked in bedrooms for 12 hours..... oops :-(

NOTHING can be made "cat proof"

Too bad dd didn't figure this out before 1am this morning. @@

About midnight last night, Olive started calling for Isis....loudly. Dd shooed her noisy butt downstairs. Not an hour later, she was back at it. I got up this time and started looking for Isis in all her usual places. Not inadvertently locked in any closets, not snuck into the garage or basement, not in the laundry room, not under the bed in the master bedroom, nor in the closet. So I very begrudgingly woke up dd and asked her to look in her room for Isis. She insisted she couldn't possibly be in there because she cat proofed the bed. Isis was under the "cat proofed" bed. >:-( Bad cat was probably under there kitty laughing at Olive the whole time!! Took me forever to get back to sleep. And I'm in a flare again. Lovely. Cats may not hold grudges very often or for very long, but I'M holding one today!! :-P