One step closer...

Sorry I've been horribly neglectful of this blog and truly have been wanting to get it going again but life keeps getting in my way. 

Anyways...

Last summer my mother could tell my poor back was about to give out while attempting to keep up with all the mowing of her lawn (around 2.5 acres and more if you include the old orchard) and told me she was going to get me a hot tub.  I was like, sure you are once you see how $$$ they are!  So I decided to call up a good friend of mine that happens to be in that line of business and took mother down to look them over and give her a dose of reality. 

Fast forward to present and hopefully by the first of August, my hot tub will be sitting on my nice sturdy new deck with me in it basking in all the wonderful hot foamy water...My Mother totally blew me out of the water by being doggedly persistent even after hearing the price.  Kept driving Ron nuts about where we would put it because we'd better be deciding because she was getting me one.

For my 50th birthday (this past Spring), I was treated to a nice long weekend in Pigeon Forge, TN and the cabin we rented had a hot tub (I made sure of this) and my goal was to get mother IN the hot tub so she could see first hand how wonderful they are!  Well, needless to say, I got her IN the tub for all of about 5 minutes and during this time, all she could do was say "I can't breathe, there's way to much water here for my liking!"  And that was without the jets going!  Poor mother!  She later stated that she actually enjoyed it (yeah right!) 

Does she look like she's not breathing?  I don't think so either but who am I to say! lol  She did say that she will get in the one that she bought (again...yeah right!)  But don't be surprised if you stumble upon this blog and there is a photo of my beloved little mother in my hot tub!  She is an amazing lady and I wouldn't put it past her! 

Bad news is that in order to get said hot tub installed, we have to upgrade our electric service...can we say that between building the 16x18 deck (cost roughly $3500 with the hubs doing all the labor) not to mention the actual cost of the tub, this was not anticipated but according to the hubs is necessary to keep us from blowing the main breaker.  So we have a tentative date of July 22 for this phase of our little project scheduled.  Then once we get that all updated...the tub will be delivered, setup and filled and within roughly 24 hours, this ole Puddle will be languishing in happiness!  I may even have to take the day off, who knows! 

Counting down the days...

October 8, 2012

So a year has passed me by and yep, it snowed today up around Timberline Ski Resort (Canaan Valley) and as far as I'm concerned, they can keep it!

This past year has been interesting.  We had a very (VERY) light winter and a rather warm spring/summer and October so far has been quite chilly at night but the days (until today) have been nice (70's).  Today it rained and didn't get any warmer than 45 degrees...sigh...

March came in like a lion for my brother.  His neighborhood suffered a horrible tornado on March 3.  Fortunately for him, his wife and 18 month old daughter were with his in-laws down in Florida and were out of harms way.  Most of the homes around him were damaged quite severely and while his house was damaged, he could at least stay in it.  Most folks couldn't.  It's taken him all summer but he's getting some grass going and some trees planted and even had time to put in a pool.  He took his lemons and made a lovely lemon meringue pie...honestly he could fall into a pile of manure and come out riding a horse!

R and I finally got around to finishing at least one room in our house...our 8x16 closet.  Well, we are finished to the point I need 3-6' pieces of Rubbermaid shelving to be 100% but I'm happy with 98%.  Now on to another room! \o/

Will try to be a bit more attentive to my "blog"...mebbe...

October, 2011

What a start into Autumn...SNOW...no fortunately we didn't get any snow but just a couple hours northeast of us...oh yeah...prolly 3 inches.  Had a very dear friend ask me via Twitter what was going on with the weather down here in the States (she's from BC, Canada).  Can we just be ok that it is part of the "Signs of the Times"?  One thing for sure, it got my attention and I brought in my plants that had been out all summer.  Oh and this next weekend?  Supposed to be in the 80's...Yep...signs of the times...have a great Autumn!

July Here I Come!!!

Don't know about you but personally, I am SO ready for July!  June has been crazy and I'm hoping the first part of July will be a wee bit more quiet.

I have so much facing me on the home front that I wish I could take a couple of months off work just to get caught up. 

I do hope that all I know has a very safe and wonderful July 4th.  I will be (hopefully) working on my house in some capacity but if that doesn't work out, I will be over at my mother's mowing her lawn.

Be blessed!
Puddles

Skinny Latte

Yes, I said skinny latte.

That is the color of my kitchen.  Well, part of it is anyways.  For the past couple of weeks the hubs and yours truly have been working (FINALLY) to get the kitchen cabinets put in.  We were blessed by a co-worker of mine (love you Philie and Janie!) who gave his wife a new custom kitchen from the husband of another co-worker that builds custom kitchens and when Barbara ask Phil "what are you doing with your old cabinets" I was on the receiving end!  (THANK YOU BARBARA!). 

This August will make 2 years that we've had them but didn't have them in.  The only crinkle in this blessing was the colour of the countertops...turquoise.  They were really in great shape but I'm not much of a turquoise fan so I enlisted the help of a very dear friend of mine that is great with colors.  I sent her a couple of photos of the cabinets and countertops right away and when we finally had a chance to discuss it, decided a creamy coffee tan/beige color would work. 

So tonight on the way home (had to pick up my hubby who was stranded...truck in shop for repairs) I shanghaied (sp?) him to Lowes.  I initially was going to get primer but by the time the very dear lady at the paint department got finished with poor Ron, my $12 gallon bucket of primer had turned into a 5 gallon bucket of paint WITH the primer included (1 less round of painting) and tinted "Skinny Latte" and cost over $100! 

I was so darn excited (this has been 5 years in the making people!) that I flew home, fed Ron, and set about sanding between the upper and lower cabinets like a mad woman!  Even Ron was impressed at how nicely the dry wall sanded down for me.  Then as it was getting darker and darker (we still have no lights in the kitchen...I know I KNOW!) I finished the paint job and called for Ron's inspection.  "Looks good hon" was my prize!  (YAY!!!)  Now I know that its prolly going to look rather pathetic tomorrow but right now...that Skinny Latte looks pretty darn wonderful to these baby browns!

Just think of me as one happy little puddle right now...think I'll go make me a cup of "skinny latte" errr decaf w/cream...

June...ALREADY?!?!?!?

I'm 3 days into June and just realized that it's June already...what happened to April and May?  Oh that's right, we had winter/spring, sleet, hail, LOTS of rain, MORE rain and some really wild thunderstorms...then it just turned HOT.  Seriously, we went from a daily high of 60 degrees to 90 in less than 24 hours it seemed.  Folks round here were scrambling around to get their air conditioners put in like crazy. And just in this last week have folks been about to kills themselves to get their gardens planted. 

I just know that the next time I remember to blog, it will prolly be blowing snow again...sigh...and I will be lamenting where my summer of 2011 went...

Spring at Toadhill Manor

After a very long and draining winter, we thought we had Spring in the bag but Mother Nature has or rather is trying to pull a fast one it seems. We had highs on Sunday (April 10) in the mid 80's and yet tonight the weather geeks are saying there "could be" a winter mix when we wake up tomorrow...So with that said, I think we'd all better drag our "woolies" back out for one more go round and hopefully, the beautiful warm days will return and mebbe by July I will be able to replace the flannel sheets with cotton for at least 1 month this year! Until later...be blessed!