Man Cave upside down

Is there such a thing as a 

"Woman Cave"?  

Each time one of the kids leave the roost,

we have figured out some other way to use "their" space.

None of them could move back.

There just isn't room!

This was Chancy's choice of paint color for his room.

Which is now fully and completely MY room.

I liked the blue and so decided to keep it . . . 

BUT

it didn't matter how much light I turned on in this blue room,

I just couldn't get enough light in there,

and it made me feel

BLUE.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to repaint the room.

My opportunity arose this week

as McKay is gone for the week to EFY,

and his room was available for me to fill with MY furniture.

Here is the result:

My HAPPY room!

Let there be light!

Before:

Awwwww . . . . after:

One thing I was disgusted with however,

is that NEW over $30 a gallon paint/primer paint.

It DID NOT WORK very well

with the dark paint I was covering.

This took me THREE coats to finish

and I still can see tinges of blue coming through . . . . 

I am pleased with the final result!

My "Woman Cave."

Fun to do . . . . to do . . . to do . . . to do

My dad had this saying he loved to quote to us kids:

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

This is very good advice for those who work hard.

(which my father did do)

I didn't find out until I just googled it that the proverb has another sentence.

"All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy"

I know some people who fall under this category!

(including us sometimes!)

Our family had chosen to have a weekend full of play this weekend . . . .

It may have happened except for this . . . .  

Our trees decided to let go of their leaves last week.

This is what greeted me one morning when I drove up from seminary:

A carpet of leaves

 . . . . if I hadn't known there was a driveway in our yard

I wouldn't have known!!!!

So instead of taking our weekend away.

We decided to stay home and not be a mere toy.

The work didn't seem as hard this fall.

Thanks to hurricane Irene that took about a 1/3 of our work away.

or at least 1/3 of the work was done at a different time!

Working outside made me thankful for many things . . .

The beauty of fall . . . . .

I was thankful . . . .

that I could experience plants that

For me . . .

had only existed in books before we moved here . . . 

plants with names that were so romantic and now just roll off my tongue

like I've lived around them a lifetime . . . . . .

Dogwood, magnolia, holly (badly pictured below) hosta, camellia, rhododendron and azalea's.

I don't know that a weekend of play could have been

more exhilarating

than our day of work was.

Pretty interesting egh???

Miss Industrious

A couple of weeks ago my sister invited me to her "Tastefully Simple" party.  I went just to be supportive of her.  I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

I've been to these parties before, but this lady had something put together something that has intrigued me for quite some time.  She had menus that were put together (of course, using her products!) that you could prepare and then freeze and have on hand for a simple "warm up" meal later.  10 menu items that I could see would translate into 20 meals for my small family.

Needless to say . . . . I bit . . . and ordered the meal plan . . . . she had shopping lists put together, complete with labels to place on your freezer baggies once you had the meals done.

I don't think I've ever purchased so much meat at one time before.  I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef . . . . . . I thought it'd be fun to take a picture of all the ingredients for the meals but didn't put all the meat I bought out for the picture!

I also bought these ziploc vacuum bags thinking that the frozen food should last longer with less air in the bags.

The menus include roasts, sloppy joes, chili, chicken noodle soup, stew, crunchy chicken, and more.  I didn't get all the meals done . . . . but now have 16 meals in the freezer (minus the ones we've already eaten).  It feels nice to know they are there.  The crunchy chicken menu actually made enough for us to have 3 meals!

They aren't quite the same as my own homemade cooking . . . . . but has given me ideas of how to use my own recipes and do the same thing with them.  It'd be fun to do this with someone else . . . . I was in the kitchen for 5 hours and was pretty dang tired when I was done . . . . and I still had two menu items to go. 

Do any of you do meals ahead like this? and how and what???

No Fooling with Mother Nature

Mother Nature hasn't been kind to us in this area.  She has been exciting, but not kind.

Since we've lived here there have been:

tornadoes

ice storms

mega snow storms

blazing heat

hail storms (which gave us new siding, windows and a roof)

tropical storms

earthquake

 and yes, the latest, an actual bonifide hurricane. 

 Recently I've heard people mention that they are wondering when the locusts will appear.

  It's about all we have left! 

(hopefully)

When we moved here we were told that it was a pretty temperate area. 

tem·per·ate -- adjective -- Not excessive in degree, as things, qualities, etc.

Totally NOT what this area is

We thought it was so temperate that when we moved here we actually

left our snow shovels behind in Utah

Ha, Ha, Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. . . . . . . too funny!

We actually got away easy with our recent hurricane. 

Not as much damage as other tropical storms,

and not near the damage of the hail storm. . . . . .

This greeted us when we opened our front door.

This also greeted us . . . . he survived and seemed happy, though I have a love/hate affair with this rat with a furry tail.

Our deck. . . . . thankfully the table got corralled before it got a chance to fly away.

We've got the front yard cleaned up,

with the back yard still to go . . . . YIKES!

Mother Nature always gets her way . . . . . 

A day for the record books

Yesterday was quite exciting.  You could say it was earthshaking . . . . . . .

I wasn't going to blog it, but why not?  Here is a message I sent via Facebook to my son Justin who is working in the wilds of Wyoming at Yellowstone National Park . . . . . he would have loved to be here.

Justin, We had an earthquake here yesterday! It was so cool! it lasted for about 45 seconds and at first I thought McKay was pressing really hard and fast on his xbox controller and I has about to tell him to "cool it dude" when I realized the bookshelf beside me was about to fall over and I put my arm out to steady it.


McKay thought that the wash machine was off balance and shaking the whole house. We met each other out in the hall and tried to decide where we would go to ride it out . . . . in the shower?, in the bathtub? under a doorway? under the table? then we decided maybe we should just go outside. ha! ha!

One of my first thoughts was, "we aren't supposed to have earthquakes here!" What is this?

We ran outside to see if the neighbors had felt it too, and no one was home. We were by ourselves!

Oh! it was 5.9 and was centered about 100 miles from here in VA.

Pretty freaky!

Love, Mom

What I forgot to tell him was that shortly after the earthquake the cell phone system jammed up and didn't really open back up for a good two hours after.  Our Internet service went down for a while, so other than text messaging that needed to be sent and resent, we were cut off from the world for a while. 

I couldn't see any damage here other than a few things shaken off shelves that I would randomly pick up through the day, and my file cabinet doors shook open, but they hardly like to stay closed in the first place.

Now we brace ourselves for possible aftershocks.

Definitely a day to go down in history. 

Be careful what you pray for . . . .

My life is like a roller coaster.  Ups and Downs.  In and outs.  Slips and slides.  So I was feeling kind-a low about an ongoing problem/challenge in my life, asking for some relief, and what I got was a boat load of other challenges to take over my life.

A little over 30 days ago our tenant here in Waldorf gave us her 30 day notice.  No problem . . . . we'll just turn it around and rent again.  Ha! If it were so easy!!!

I've been haggling with SMECO (our electric company) for several days now . . . . . . WHY?  They tell us that sometime between our tenant turning off the power and us turning it on that someone tampered with our meter, broke the seal, broke the lock and stole electricity from them (a big $8 worth).  There isn't even a outlet on the outside of the house!!!  After a series of things that I'm not getting into here, we decided that it was the contractor (hired by our tenant) who had been given a key to lay carpet, stretch carpet, paint and other small odd jobs.  The power company turned off the power, he needed it, and we believe, broke into the meter and turned it back on so he could get his work done.

Why is this a bad thing?  SMECO wanted and got $600 to turn the power back on! 

We decided to withhold the contractor's pay until we could get some answers.  He decided that he couldn't wait for payment and went in our townhouse with the intent of pulling out the carpet and undoing all that he had done. . . . . . he just didn't know that my husband was there working at the time he chose to enter and do the dastardly deed.  YIKES! 

Needless to say, we don't need a contractor who is H - E - L- L -bent on doing damage to our property and so decided to pay him, pay SMECO and get the power turned back on.  This all started last Friday and we finally got power today so we could finish up the cleaning/painting/etc. to get it ready for tenants again.

YES!  be careful what to pray for.  My prayers were answered, and I definitely forgot about my other problems for a while!!

Shiny and new!

It has been quite a process getting our house repaired after the gargantuan hail storm we had.  We had so much hail damage that we got a new roof, siding and shutters thanks to the insurance company.

We decided that since all of this it would be nice to get new windows (but they were on our own dime!)   The windows needed to go in before the siding.  It was interesting how they peeled back the old siding to put the windows in. 

Now I'm a thinking those bushes have got to go!

The windows and siding took three days to put on.  It was kind-of weird to have workmen working on windows.  I hated to be in the same room that they were in.  Below is a picture with the new roof, Siding and windows, but something is missing!

A couple of days later our shutters were delivered.  Actually it was yesterday!  I really like them! 

Now I have a question.  We have three people that live in this house and three opinions.  Can you match the opinions with the person? and then which would you do?

~paint the door barn red?

~leave the door the same color?

~Paint the door a dark green to match the shutters?

A little side note - Lincoln and I decided to attach a flag post to the house.  After screwing three screws into the flag pole holder (and our new siding) we realized that it was to flimsy to hold the flag we had purchased.  We wanted to kick ourselves!!!  We had just created three holes in our newly attached siding!!!  ARGHHHHH!!!!!  Yesterday when the workman came I asked him first, if he spoke English (while the house was being done there was ONE guy who spoke English and he didn't stay around the whole time!!!)  and then second, if he'd come over and look at our flag pole holder. 

He spoke enough English that I could relay my problem to him.  Thankfully the workers left a little extra siding under our deck and "spit-spot" the siding was fixed!!!  NO HOLES!  He marked where the studs were located for us and I gave him a $20 dollar bill!  He refused it at first, but was kind enough to take it and was happy for his efforts.  I think I was happier!!!!  Whew!  Disaster averted!

First Installment on a Mixed Blessing . . . . .

A little while back we had a terrible hail storm in our neighborhood.  A mixed blessing.  Mixed, because we had a LOT of damage on our house and our yard (our oak trees are still shedding leaves)  and because of the damage we will be receiving a new roof, siding, gutters and shutters.  We are getting new windows to finish off the job right.  So, about three weeks ago our shingles were delivered.  A neighbor came up to me and said "how did you get neighborhood approval so fast?"  WHAT????  neighborhood approval????  So I quickly called our contractor and put a screeching halt to our new roof until I could get NEIGHBORHOOD APPROVAL!  Geesh!

Shingle Delivery . . . . . .

What an awesome way to get them up there!  You can see the color of our old roof.  Brown, mixed with a nice mossy green!!

And approximately 3 weeks later when the work finally got done!

Ahhhh Ohhhhhh!  Problems.  I can't make heads or tails out of this picture, but we needed to repair a joist and put new plywood on the roof.  The man said he'd show me the damage, but didn't have a camera.  I told him I had one and sent him up for pictures so that I could "justify" the extra cost to my hubby.

The new roof!  I had them upgrade to better shingles.  Lincoln hates them, but I love the "dimension" it gives the roof.  They are a charcoal color now.  I can't wait for the siding and windows!  It'll come at the end of the month.

WOWZA!!

Yesterday was McKay's birthday.  14 on the 14th!  He had a friend over last night so that he and his friend could go to the airshow on the base early this morning. 

Last night, Lincoln and I decided that the boys were old enough to be alone for a little while and we took a  quick run to the store.  While we were at the stack-it-deep-and-sell-it-cheap-store we could hear a big storm passing through.  I tried to call McKay several times, because I know he gets freaked out sometimes at home when I'm not there.  I couldn't raise him. 

When we got out of the store there were a few hail stones laying about.  I wished I had my camera because they were huge.  I'd never seen hail so large.  As we drove home, we could tell that we hadn't seen anything yet!  When we arrived in our sub-division I was worried about the boys.  There were leaves and tree limbs everywhere and the whole place was covered in hail stones and mist.  Most of the neighbors were outside surveying the damage. 

This is what met us at our house:

This is the front of our house.  I've had at least a dozen people tell me this year how nice my yard is looking.  Not anymore . . . . . my hostas are toast.  You can't even see the sidewalk in this picture.

Oh!  Those hostas were so pretty!  One of my piano students parents, just this week informed me she was coming and getting a start from these, they are very unusual.  I told her I wouldn't even let my sister have a start.  Sorry Trude!!!!!  Pride does come before a fall, doesn't it????

McKay and his friend Kevin were happily playing outside when we came home.

Kevin, holding some hail.

Lincoln, holding some extra large pieces.

Yesterday, I raked up all the sticks and yard waste from the yard.  I wasted my time, I'd say.  I think half of our autumn raking is now on the ground!

Looking out the back yard over our garden.  I haven't inspected my poor little garden yet.  I'll bet nothing is left . . . . . .

Another shot of the back yard.

Our deck . . . . . My trees on the deck look sickly, and the flower pots I had planted are  . . . . yes, not doing well!

I really should have repaired the japanese maple.  Yikes!!!  More damage.

I think we are going to get new siding out of this storm.  The house is pock-marked, and look at the shutters!  The screens are torn up also. 

We hardly ever lose power.  We didn't even lose power during the 3-foot snow storm.  We lost power during this storm!  It was kind of nice.  The boys couldn't play x-box, and we played a nice game of "Clue" using headlamps and flashlights.  The power was back on by the time we finished the game, and we lost the boys to their cyber-world!

I imagine this was "tornado-like" weather.  We couldn't watch or listen to the news, so I don't know if there was a tornado watch.  We were lucky.  Some of the neighbors actually lost the windows in their cars.  Our truck does have hail damage . . . . but it is 12 years old!  Maybe we'll get a new paint job?  New siding?  New paint for the truck?  Maybe this wasn't so bad after all . . . . . . .   :)

Busy as a Bee

This spring has been so sweet for me. 

I've been working a lot in my yard.  Each time I go into it I can't help but think of my situation last year.  Last year, I had surgery mid April.  My recovery time was 3 months.  For 3 months I wasn't even supposed to pick up a gallon of milk.  I didn't touch my yard.  No new plantings.  No watering.  No garden.  No nothing. 

So this year I've been repairing some of the damage.  Thank goodness that the gods love us here and we get lots of water naturally, so most of the yard survived it's bad treatment!  This year, I've planted my garden and have added to my perennial garden, put together some flower pots, and generally have been puttering around keeping things cleaned up and well weeded.

There is one kink in this lovely picture.  One HUGE kink!!!  Ground bees.  They have decided to take over my back yard!!!  There are hundreds of them, and hundreds of holes in the ground where they are nesting and laying eggs.   I want to be in the yard, but I don't want to be walking through hundreds of bees!  They aren't aggressive, thank goodness.  I can walk right through them, and am invisible to them, but it gives me the heebie jeebies to do it.

Terminix wants $500 dollars to get rid of them.  The dude said we have biggest ground bee problem he's ever seen and gave me a lecture about "prevention" verses "cure."  That was JUST what I needed!  NOT!

We've tried baiting them . . . . . we tried using a bug zapper . . . . . we've caught and killed bugs, but NOT bees!  We've gotten advice from people about how to get rid of them . . . . spray them with dish soap . . . . . pour gasoline on them (YIKES!) . . . . . put down poisonness granules . . . . . . we are a little leery . . . . . but for a $500 savings I think we ought to try one of these, and soon.  The hives are growing exponentially, by the day.  LITERALLY!  These are VERY.    BUSY.     BEES.

Stay tuned for more of this saga!

I am wounded

Oh! Why didn't I notice this before???  One of my babies is injured!!!!  My beautiful Japenese Maple that I have raised from a twig (a $35 twig).  I chose it for it's shape . . . . I chose it for it's price.  You cannot believe what a Japanese Maple the size of mine costs (and it really isn't that big now!).  It must have been damaged in the snow storm.  Even though it is injured it still looks so beautiful.  It is all leafed out and in it's splendor. 

I was walking by it today, and not one but TWO of its branches are splintered down to almost just bark holding it together.  I am amazed that those branches haven't died . . . . any ideas on how to repair this baby of mine???

Oh!  The poor thing!!!

Looking at it from this direction you wouldn't know anything was wrong with it :(

I looked out the window . . . .

and what did I see? Robin Red Breasts eating Holly Berries!! I was heading upstairs to do something and I noticed a bunch of activity out on the front Holly tree. This tree has been loaded with red berries and it is so pretty. I guess the birds are having a hard time finding things to eat because about 20 of them were picking our tree clean. Pretty neat. Here is a video I took of it:

Snow Totals

As we were out shoveling the last 6 inches that fell, one of our neighbors said they had heard that we had recieved up to 29 inches of snow. After taking this picture I think I may believe it. This snow comes up to the top of our deck railing. Pretty impressive. It is still snowing!

sNoW SnOw sNoW!!!!

We are in the middle of a major snow storm. This is our 3rd time to go out and shovel the snow and we should see possibly 5 or six more inches before it is over. I'm thinking there is 18 inches right now. It came up to my knees when I stepped out in it to go and do the most important job of all . . . . . clearing off the satellite dish!!!!

The hardest thing about shoveling is throwing the snow up on to the huge piles that are accumulating.



And miracle of miracles, our road in front of our house actually got plowed this snow storm. We had several snows with no plowing. I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw it! They just came by again (amazing!) and since we were out shoveling they did a better job and didn't leave tons of snow in front of our driveway! Woo hoo!