What Did You Do Today?

[Marilyn]

Oh, and Betsi! So hope all goes well with your reunion, your trip to Seattle! And that your flooring goes in well and looks great!

[gja1000]

Whew! we have worked all yesterday evening and all day today. But we have gotten soooo much done. Gary's shop looks great, we have everything separated out amongst fishing, hunting and carpentry. It's all organized and looks great. I'll be taking some things to OK when I go for Gary's get together to give to his sons. The rest of his things I'm going to go through slowly like Janet suggested. There's no hurry.

I'm going to turn our office into a bedroom. Gary and I both had computers in there, but I'm giving Gary's computer to Abigail. I decided I could move my computer desk to my bedroom because the kids are taking the king size bed and with a regular sized bed in here, the computer desk will be just fine. I'm going to put 2 twin beds in both the bedroom. That way I'll have beds for Brooke, Bryan, Abi and Emma to sleep in when they come to visit. That will be much better. I think I'll be really comfortable having my desktop computer right here in the bedroom. If I can't sleep I can get up and get on the computer. LOL!

We have worked really hard this weekend. I'm really happy with all that we got accomplished. Now, I can work leisurely sorting through things and deciding what to do with them. I am going to take some of Gary's hand tools, some fishing rods, and a few other mementos that I know he would want his sons, aunt, uncle and sisters to have, to OK when I go up this month.

I'm tired but so pleased with all that we got done.

[Marilyn]

Gayle, so glad you had such a productive and rewarding day. I'm sure it helps to stay busy and make plans for the future. I'm sure Gary's sons and family will really appreciate your thoughtfulness!

We got up early and cleared the remaining decorating items out of the Parade Home. The cleaning people were just arriving when we finished to prepare for the owners to move into their new home.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and cleaning. I did take time to go to the farmer's market. So today we ate fresh sweet corn picked yesterday, fresh purple hull peas, home raised tomatoes and cantaloupe. I bought a few pickling cucumbers, too so I can put up a few jars of dill pickles. Don't think I'll find any fresh dill though. There wasn't any at the market, so may have to use dill seed this year.

Tomorrow after worship I hope to steam clean carpets. No rest for the wicked as the old folks used to say!

[DIANE W]

Gayle, i am so glad you have had help getting sorted with the tools etc, it makes the job easier too with being able to chat as you work.

I just wanted you to know i am thinking about you all, it is so so hard, but take each day at a time - you will get through it.

[Janet]

You all were busy Gayle to get a workshop in order....especially a man's workshop...lol I'm so glad you're pleased with the outcome. Gary's sons are going to be so happy to have some of their father's things. You are so thoughtful. I am also glad you're going to take your time with the other things. Plenty of time, it will also help keep you busy when all you want to do is think.

As with the computer....that's exactly what I do. If I can't sleep, I either get on my laptop or iPad.


Marilyn...we have a Farmers Market here too, but it's not as good as I would like. There is a guy that drives a small van around to small towns and I've been buying off of him. I honestly have never tasted fresher and better tasting veggies and fruits. He comes to a small little burg about 15 minutes from me on Wednesdays so I always look forward to see what he has.

Yesterday I went to an auction. I'm so glad I did. I bought a new couch (I think it's called Micro Suede), it's a chocolate brown color and is beautiful. It's only 2 months old and I bought it for $300. Their neice told me they paid $1200 for it. I also bought a beautiful dining room table and chairs that were a couple of months old also for $70. I'm just so happy. I've not been able to find some good deals for quite some time and the first thing I wanted to do... was show Mom. Anyway....as soon as I get them in the house I'll take some pictures. Right now the dining room set is still in the van and the couch is sitting in the garage. When both the guys are home this evening we'll bring them in. Ricky had to work, Rick is in working on the rental house and I'm trying to get things caught up here. It was a very good day yesterday.

[Lindsey]

Yesterday Scott and I spent the whole day in the city again. We did a lot of shopping for wedding stuff again! We had to go to the liquor store and try to get an estimate of what we need to buy because we're running our own bar. Then we went to an engraving store and bought a little pewter piggy bank train for our ring bearer with his name and our wedding date on it. I also found little heart shaped jewelry boxes and I had those engraved for our flower girls too, to put the jewelry I bought them in it! Then we headed to a book store and bought our minister a $50 gift certificate and a little book of inspirational quotes that has a gift card holder in it I know he gets paid from our church fee, but I know it's not a whole lot and we wanted to do something a little extra too!

We also did some test driving again! We found a 2009 Ford Edge in our price range with pretty low kms. We've decided to stay away from the Enclave because the ones we can afford are 08 or 09 and they have lots of major issues, according to what we can find online! After test driving the Edge I think I feel more comfortable in it, especially for city driving. Anyways, this one has navigation, the vista sunroof, memory seats, heated leather, everything we wanted! Except a factory tow hitch. The salesman told us that Ford does not do factory tow packages for Edges, but we googled it later and they do! We could put on our own tow hitch but it wouldn't tow nearly as much. We're thinking we'll get a small trailer in the next couple of years and use it for hauling yard waste to the dump etc. and we are hoping for new kitchen appliances in the next couple of years too that we'd need to haul with a trailer. So we'll have to see if an aftermarket hitch would do that much for us.

Today I'm just doing some chores and working on some more wedding stuff. Scott is labeling the wine bottles today, and I'm going to print out some fun questionnaires for our guests (such as, how many kids will we have?) so we can keep them and look at them years down the road In the meantime, we have "Jukebox Oldies" on tv playing through the house, laundry being washed, and a beef roast being cooked in my brand new slow cooker from my mom I love Sundays!

[Gina]

Lindsey how exciting when is the wedding ? I am sure that you are plenty busy these days..

[Lindsey]

It's July 7th Gina! Coming up too fast lol! I don't know where the time went!

[gja1000]

Lindsey, you are getting so close! It's so much fun to be "with" you while you take care of all the wedding details. I love it.

Janet, your day at the auction sounds like so much fun and you found so many great things!!! I can't wait to see pictures.

The kids left about noon today, Abi had to play volleyball at 5:30 and they live about 3.5 hours away from Austin. It was hard to see them go. I have a lot of things to do, but still I love them being here.

I bought a bed. YAY! The kids were going to take the tempurpedic king bed home, but then Bryan realized that our king bed was actually two separate twin extra long beds, so he took them apart and put them in the guest room. They fit perfectly and they are REALLY nice beds, so my houses guests will love sleeping on them. I already had one twin bed in the other bedroom, so I only had to buy another twin bed, instead of THREE! Yay again! I bought a full size bed for me. I didn't want it to take up too much room in my bedroom since I moved my computer in here. I found a really nice bed, I hope I like it. Both beds will be delivered tomorrow, so everything will be ready for the kids to come back soon! This weekend Brooke and Bryan slept in the king bed. Abi slept on the twin bed, I slept on the couch and Emma slept on a pallet on the floor. Next time, everyone will have their own bed!

I had one really hard moment today. Our renters always make the rent check out to Gary and Gayle Acton. I don't know why but they did. So, of course when I received the June rent check, it was made out to both of us. I decided to take it by the house and tell them about Gary and ask then to make another check out to me. I knew the wife had a reoccurrence of breast cancer, but we hadn't been over there in a couple of months, so I didn't know how she was doing. I knocked on the door and one of the sons answered. I told him I needed to talk to him and he asked me to come in. I was standing in the hall and told him that Gary had passed away and he was so kind and he hugged me and told me how sorry he was. He asked me to come in and sit down and when I went in to the living room, I could see the flowers everywhere and instantly I knew that his mom had also passed away. Turns out it was just a few days before Gary. Oh dear, we both cried and consoled each other. They are such a wonderful family. There is the father, two sons out of HS and a daughter who is 14. Whew! That was hard. One son had been working during the day and another working in the evenings so that someone would always be home to take care of the mom. The son I was talking to had been working in the evenings but he said he was transferring to days so he could be home in the evenings to spend more time with his sister. I thought that was so sweet.

Janet, I was thinking of you as I went into our rent house. I want you to know that I am so lucky though, our house was SPOTLESS. I didn't call or anything before I went over and I am so pleased with house nice it looked. The wood floors looked better than MINE! We have stained concrete in the back part of the house, so they should be fine. I know lots of other things can happen, but I was so relieved to see the house looking so wonderful.

[gja1000]

Got my new bed today and it is nice and comfy! I think I'm going to like it a lot. I got the twin bed too and it is nice also; however, the twin sheets I had did not fit it so I had to run out and get some. Ross, a discount store, had some really nice 350 thread count for $10.

[DIANE W]

Wow thats really good a price for 350 thread count Gayle..... I really do like good quality bedding, i have some 400 and 650 thread, and once used to good quality -cheaper just wont do, but i paid a lot of money for my bedsets, the cheapest was £50 and that was at a discount of 45% as well.

I am glad you are getting sorted with the house, it will be so much better now everyone having their own beds.

I know it is very hard for you, but i am thinking about you and praying too.

Take care of yourself.

[DIANE W]

Today has been a beautiful day, lovely and sunny and warm, so i bought some plants for my hanging baskets that i have at the front of my holiday home. I have six baskets and i bought some lovely plants, yellow and orange marigolds, blue lobellias, double hanging petunias, pink and white that are perfumed and are gorgeous, and some others i cant recall the names of - i am not very good with names of plants. So i came home and planted them up and they look really nice (i will take some pictures once they get growing and fill out a little), i have lots of leftover plants, so i will take them home and do my 2 baskets that i have on the front of my house.

We are away (at holiday home), until Sunday 10th, and i am just relaxing and chilling out. I have had a problem with my eye though, very swollen and wow painful in my head and ear, had to go to the hospital and they gave me some anti-biotics as they said it was an infection - been on them now for 3 days and the swelling is going down, but the pain is still there, feels like someone is jabbing a needle into my ear.

My uncle has been in the hospital as he suddenly went off his legs and couldnt walk, also had pain in lower back, he was finally admitted to hospital 2 weeks ago - what a job i had though as he kept refusing to go. I had to be very firm with him in the end, as he couldnt stay at home unable to mobilize, he is now in rehab, so i felt i needed a break away, it is very tough working, looking after him and my family too, i think thats what caused me to feel so ill lately.

I am going to enjoy my week off work and brace myself for going back home.

[gja1000]

I went to dinner with a cousin who only lives about 20 miles from me. We talk on FB and play Words with Friends and Draw Something, but we don't see each other that often. She is actually from my step side of the family so I was never super close to her, but she is a really really nice person, so we had a nice time together.

[DianaB]

Gayle, it seems like you're keeping busy getting things all in order. It will be nice to have beds for everyone when they come and visit.....It sounds like you got a really good deal on sheets. I shop at Ross when I go to Muskogee and visit my Aunt. It's a cool store!!!

How sad to find out that not only had Gary passed but also your renter. I'm sure it was nice to see that the house is being kept up.

Oh Diane.....I'm so sorry that you're ear is causing you problems. My Mom had an ear infection that made the whole side of her face swell. I hope it gets better soon!! Get lots of rest at your holiday home!! It sounds so nice!!

Marilyn, it's so good to have you back!! You've been missed!! You are so busy.....I can't believe how much you travel!!!

Nothing much going on here.

[Janet]

Yesterday I worked my 'you know what' off and now I'm so sore. I started by cleaning the hutch that was given to me. It was so dirty that it looks like a different hutch. I can't believe how long it had been since I moved furniture and dusted. There was so much dust I'm totally embarrassed to admit. I use to be such a picky house keeper, but not anymore. I would be if it was just me, but for now...not so much.

I will be posting pictures of the furniture I bought in the pictures forum.