only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
Archive for the ‘Life’ Category
You know how the housing market is in a slump? Well, around here it’s really bad. One house was taken by the bank, stayed on the market for over a year and finally sold for half of what was originally listed. Not only that, but the house isn’t even going to be a home. It’s going to be a store!
This isn’t the first time someone has converted one of these homes in my neighborhood to a store. It’s just that the one that was here for decades is gone now, the owner having died many years ago. Our community has been without a small store for over 10 years. With no public transportation and the nearest store more than 6 miles away, a gallon of milk or loaf of bread (or roll of toilet paper) can be rather costly when you factor in gas prices.
My husband and I have talked about what great small business opportunities are in these little communities along the Ohio River. Simply providing a small selection of common staples like milk and bread, dry goods and cigarettes would be a gold mine. With home prices so low and most smaller neighborhoods having very liberal zoning laws, this is a great time to make a move.
The store that will be opening in my neighborhood is just down the street from me. I have no problem with it and in fact, welcome the addition to our community. Other neighbors, though, don’t feel the same. At least one neighbor has complained about a “business” being so close to her home. I guess I can understand that, except that I doubt this “business” will attract so much traffic that it would be come bothersome. Time will tell, I suppose.
Right now, I’m just anxious to have a place to get milk when we’re out. And toilet paper. Mostly toilet paper.
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You may notice that I’ve spent less time online lately. I notice it, too. In fact, every day I deal with blog posts in my head. Unfortunately, I’m never near my computer when these ideas spring to the front of my mind. That’s because the real world has taken a terrible toll on my cyberlife.
Right this minute, in fact, I’m typing on my laptop surrounded by moving boxes filled with kids’ clothes that no longer fit anyone in this house. We go through this every season - packing up the things that don’t fit, reassigning clothes to others, tossing anything can’t be repaired with a 10 minute stitch job.
Oh, I mentioned that I’m typing on my laptop, right? Well, that’s a big deal in itself. You see, Levi moved the laptop from the second floor to the first floor of the house, closing the lid for the short trip. Bad idea. The little knob/slider/whatever that you move to open the laptop is broken so I never close it all the way. I’ve tried for 4 days to open this thing and finally managed it with a finger nail file.
I’m not sure how the next few days will play out, if I’ll find time to finally post the video from my anniversary dinner (just the kids playing, but sweet), Chris and Leah’s wedding or any of the pictures I’ve taken over the past month or so. I’ll try. Just stay tuned. Those ideas are swimming in my head and making their way to my fingers. I just have to find time to put my fingers on the keyboard.
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Busy. Busy. Busy.
I think I’m finally going to have the opportunity to sit and breathe a little. This past month has been beyond hectic.
On the plus side, I have loads of things to blog about over the next few weeks. On the down side, I haven’t blogged as often as I like to this past month. I think this is called Real Life Getting In The Way of Cyber Life. Or something like that.
Yes, there are still things that are keeping me busy. The kids are starting to school and I have a trip to plan next month. Luckily, it’s a domestic trip so I won’t be needing a passport but I still need to book my flight soon. Like yesterday.
Just don’t give up on me. I have some great pictures and even a video or two to post here. I promise, I’ll get to it. Soon.
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I love my home. Really, I do. It started out as my grandmother’s house but after much remodeling, it is truly our home. I designed it and my husband built it. It’s big and roomy.
And yet I’d give it up if I could find a way to live near my mom. If we sold our house we’d be lucky to afford half the square footage in my mom’s neighborhood. I’d still want to do it, though. I want to live near my mom.
I know it’s a buyer’s market right now. I don’t need to talk to a real estate agent or mortgage lenders to know that. Just a quick look at the real estate section of the classified ads each week point to falling housing prices and a real buyer’s market.
I guess I know in my heart that I’m in my house to stay. I won’t be leaving my house or my neighborhood anytime soon. My heart just isn’t there anymore.
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I almost had the thrill of a lifetime. Almost.
At the far end of walk-in closet in my mom’s upstairs hallway, is a short door that opens up into the attic. When we were kids it was always a magical place since we could peer in as my mom retrieved Christmas decorations or put things inside, but were never allowed to actually go in ourselves. Naturally, I’m allowed to go into the attic now and so I did venture in for a few minutes the other day.
I didn’t open any boxes or anything. I just looked around and remembered some of the stored items from my childhood. What I didn’t expect to see was the original box from my Kissy doll. You have to be kind of old to remember Kissy but for those who are younger, Kissy would pucker her lips and make a kissing sound when you squeezed her arms together. My sister and I each got both a Kissy and Chatty Cathy one Christmas.
My mom was wonderful about getting us really great babydolls. I think it was probably because she grew up during the depression and didn’t have much herself. She was probably giving us the things she wished she could have had as a young girl.
Anyway, Kissy was not in the box. I kind of knew she wouldn’t be but for a split second, I hoped. I wonder, though, if the box is worth anything. Maybe to a collector?
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It’s hard to believe that Brian and Nick began working on the apartment out back almost two years ago. They did so much work and did a wonderful job on the ceramic tile, drywall and cedar panels in the living room. Now all they have left are the kitchen and bathroom. We’ve got the kitchen figured out with some salvaged cabinets but we’ve been stumped on the bathroom.
When we built our home, we designed the bathrooms the way we wanted. With this apartment, we have to fit the bathroom into the area that’s already there. That’s quite a challenge. Of course, I’m doing my research and I’ve found a site that might make arranging Small Baths much easier.
If that bathroom was meant just for Nick, it would be different. We could probably get away with a small shower, a used sink and toilet. But we have to make sure that this bathroom will be fitting for Nick’s daughter, Kendyll, also. Little girls need a nice bathroom. Especially, Kendyll needs a bathtub right now rather than a shower.
Not only are the prices at Better Bathrooms excellent but the packages make shopping so easy. Just pick the package you want and you’ve got all your fixtures. Oh, and the bathtubs are all available with whirlpool options. I love this one that comes with a shower screen. Even though I use my shower every day, having the whirlpool option makes it so much more useful. My son works in construction and nothing helps aching muscles like a whirlpool. With a whirlpool in his apartment, he won’t need to ask to use mine anymore.
Better Bathrooms is a one-stop kind of site. Not only do they have an enormous selection of every bathroom fixture you could want, they also provide ceramic and porcelain tile. In fact, I noticed that they’re having a clearance sale on their bathroom tile right now. This would be a perfect time to order materials for our bathroom project since I’m falling in love with the Italian Porcelain tile. I wonder if I can convince my husband to re-tile our bathroom with it when he does the apartment bathroom.
If you’re planning to remodel a bathroom or even add a small bathroom to increase the value of your home (an extra bathroom is an excellent investment), do check out the great deals at Better Bathrooms. They make adding a top notch bathroom easy and affordable.
This is a sponsored post
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Oh, what a trip to the store today!
Everyone who lives around here expects backed up traffic and single lane roads during the summer when road crews are filling potholes and paving. It’s the price we pay after all the snow and salt-treated roads. And it’s better than losing a tire in a pot hole.
Today, though, was exceptionally slow. It wasn’t just the road crews, either. I just seemed to get behind every driver out for a leisurely ride. When your main roads are all two-lane and twist and turn, you do not want to get behind a 90 year old guy in a 1987 Crown Vic going 37 MPH in a 55 zone. It wasn’t any better when I found myself behind a truck filled to overflowing with cattle supplies for the farm out the road. Even if I could have found a safe place to pass him, I was too afraid that something would fall off that truck and land on me.
Don’t get me wrong. I respect old people (especially since I’m almost there myself) and I appreciate what farmers do. I just don’t want to drive behind them, especially when it’s the temps are in the 90s and I’m trying to save gas by not using my A/C.
I won’t even talk about the bees in the parking lot at the grocery store today. I think from now on I’m doing my grocery shopping at midnight.
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It’s almost Mother’s Day. Every year for Mother’s Day in May and for my birthday in November, I do a few things just for me. For one, I color my hair. Yes, I do that twice each year. I now have about two dozen gray hairs so I think I may have to start color a little more often than every 6 months, though.
I also get my first and last pedicure of the season on these two dates. The timing works out well and I’m really looking forward to my pedicure next month. I try to be good to my inside health, too, so I make sure to do a colon cleanse every May and November, combined with a cleansing fast.
In 2001, I got my first and only tattoo as a Mother’s Day gift to myself but I have no plans to do that again. Some years I buy makeup or tech gadgets, too. This year, I’m keeping it simple.
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This past weekend was very busy, at least for me. I’m happiest when I’m laid back, coming and going when I please, with no schedules or time frame. This weekend wasn’t like that at all. That’s okay; it’s good to do something different now and then.
The thing is, I didn’t have a lot of time to blog more than a paragraph or two here and there. I didn’t have time to sit down and really delve into any topic. For some reason, with everything going on around me, I kept getting these ideas for great blog posts. All the while I kept thinking that come Tuesday, when everyone was off to school doing their own things, I would sit down to blog these great topic ideas.
Except now that it’s Tuesday and I’m the only two legged animal in the house, I can’t remember a single idea from this weekend.
I’ve been taking this aging process in stride, resigning myself to the gray hairs popping up and the wrinkled skin sagging down. The memory issues, though, are just beyond what I’m able to accept. Either give me my youthful appearance or return my brain to its former brilliance. No fair taking both.
And now I’m going to sit and think. And hope I don’t nod off.
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One of the biggest eye openers for me has been that TV show where the professional thieves break into a home to prove to the homeowner how non secure their house really is. The eye opener is that dogs aren’t the best way to go.
My dog, Belle, is a gentle American Pit Bull Terrier but she is a little territorial. Mostly, she barks when anyone passes by the house and she goes ballistic when they approach the doors. I can’t imagine anyone coming near the house without those inside knowing. But what about when we’re not here? I’m not sure she would attack anyone for just entering the house. She would have to sense that one of us might be in danger.
I’ve done some research into various security systems and I’m going to talk to my husband about them. I doubt many people, no matter how desperate they are for whatever is in this house, would take a chance with Belle in here but you never know. An additional ademco security method might be in order. I’m sure Belle won’t be offended and I know I’ll feel safer, especially with my husband traveling for work. Now, to work out the cost.
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