An Accomplishment!!

It is very sad to see a sign on this place but I am so glad all the work is over. Now if it just sells.

Updating here.....

The last Microsoft update corrupted my computer. I had to format the thing all over again. Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I am still trying to get some things straightened out.
Stay tuned...................
thank you kindly

Canning season is upon us once again. I didn't know whether we would be here for that this year or not so I didn't prepare for it.  The house project went a lot slower than planned so here we still are.

My sister-in-law has been doing a lot of canning this year as usual. I went with her on a few trips to the Amish for fresh veggies. I honestly don't even know where my "canner" is at so I asked Minnie if we could do them at her place. She has the perfect set up for it. She loves to can so she told me to go home and come back later. The following pictures are of her getting the tomatoes ready for canning and the finished product. (22 pints)

I just wanted to share this photo with you. This is an old wicker love seat that my mother-n-law had. Considering how old it is I think it is in really good shape. The lady that bought it (along with the two matching chairs) thought so too. She had someone all lined up to redo the cushions. 

The main reason I wanted to show you this is because of the linoleum floor under the love seat. I bet you have never seen anything like it before.

Labor Day

I don't know about you but my hubby has a 4 day weekend coming up. Unfortunately we will probably be spending it taking the rest of the things out of my mother-n-laws house so the realtor can finally take over. With September upon us now I am expecting folks to find a place to burrow in for the winter. Cross your fingers this place gets sold soon. This picture was taken right before the realtor was called. (That's hubby in the picture)

As I said in an earlier blog, I am sanding down an antique chair and repainting it. When the finished product is ready I will show you the before and after picture.

Happy Labor Day!!

I just have to share this photo. It brought tears to me when I saw it. My mother has dementia so she will never remember this moment but she was able to hold her great granddaughter Abbie. This picture was taken on Abbie's 3 month old birthday 8-25-16.
I love this picture!

Sleep Apnea:

Are you tired when you get up in the morning? Maybe you are not getting the right amount of oxygen as you sleep. My hubby recently was sent a sleep apnea tester. He had to hook up to this machine for three consecutive nights. If the light on the machine stayed green, it means he passed that nights test. When the machine came, it all was packaged in separate little compartments that you had to connect together.

Each cord goes to certain places on your body and the whole thing then connects to a square box on your wrist on one end and the tester box on the other.

Okay...so here he is hooked up and ready to start the machine:

I hope you can see on the machine where they check the three connections out before it starts. One is for the oxygen tube running to your nose, the second is a tube running around your chest and the third is for your pulse on your finger. Once everything checks out, you push the start button. The machine will tell you it is on and the last thing it says to you is "Good night." 
When you wake up the next morning you shut it off and unhook yourself.

The machine has to go back within 15 days of getting it or else you are charged $1500.00. Needless to say, I shipped it back this morning.

Now we wait for it to be analyzed and the doctors report.

This is one of the tables that was at my mother in laws home that we kept. By the way, I am still cleaning out the place. The down stairs is almost complete now. I got a hold of a fire victim for some of the furniture. They were replacing one of the logs on her home and somehow that's how the fire started. The place was burned down to the ground. Thankfully she and her family survived along with her pet.

Black Clouds:
Last year was very rough for us. We lost my husbands mother, one sister and a brother-n-law all within seven months. I thought that black cloud hanging over us would travel some where else after that being everything happens in threes.

Now here we are in a new year and there have been three trips to the E.R. within the last month. My hubby, my sister-n-law and myself. I guess that black cloud hasn't left yet. My condition is ongoing with lots of testing scheduled to get to the bottom of things. More on this later I guess. Hubby is much better too.

The picture below is my sister-n-law. Her vitals were only 41 over 30 when the ambulance took her. She had a heart attack and had to have her gall bladder removed. The infection in her system caused the heart attack. Luckily we still have her and she is home once again. (you can't see all the tubes running because she is covered up.)

I fell in love when I saw this. It looks so life like, but it's not. If you put a battery in him he also snores.

First of all I would like to say I am sorry in being lax on this blog. I have recently had some health issues pop up and am now trying to deal with that.

This is some of my niece's flowers. Aren't they beautiful?

Recent photo I thought I would share. Hubby took photo so it's a bit blurry. 
By the way...almost all the books were taken in the sale. A lot of things were taken but she has so much stuff it didn't even make a dent. We are now looking for someone to take the stuff to an auction. If not that we do know someone that will come and just pack up everything and take it away. More on this later I guess.

Ready as I can be right now............

Just thought I would share a couple photos with you all. My hands are peeling from all the washing of glassware and nick-knacks. Tomorrow is finally the big sale day. Remember this is a very old house. My mother in law's father built this thing and she ended up with it. She passed at age 83. I haven't even started on the upstairs yet. This is just only a portion of everything that is set out. There is also lots of furniture. I am dead on my feet at this point and need a rest after this before I dive in again.

 

Update here:

I am elbows deep in cleaning out my mother-in-laws house. The water has been turned off to the place so I am hauling knickknacks and dishes back and forth to wash them. There were heavy smokers in there years ago and the nicotine has to be washed off everything that sat around. There is a community yard sale in the village coming up this month on the 18th. We are on the list so wish us luck in selling as much as we can to empty this house. I am guessing it will be several sales before all of it is gone. This woman collected stuff for years. She was eighty three when she passed and never threw anything out. I will enclose a picture when I get everything set up for the sale. Wish me luck.

Flooding in Texas............
One of my sisters in Texas sent me a picture of the flooding in Texas. They have gotten more than their share of rain and expecting more. This picture was taken while she was driving. Take a look at the water line on this mobile home in the background. This is the Brazos River and it has been in the news.

When it rains......It Pours.......

I must share with you what happened to us over the holiday weekend. On May 28th this past Saturday we got up as usual. Once my feet hit the floor I am usually non stop on the go most of the day. I still wasn't up to par when i had gotten up. The day before I had a really nasty vertigo attack. My husband said he was going to do nothing but be lazy over the holiday so after coffee he sat in front of the television. We were suppose to go that evening to a bar-b-que but decided against it since my head still wasn't right.

I sat down to watch television with my hubby when all of a sudden the television (Direct TV)went out giving us that awful code we had been dealing with for quite some time. Code "775". This means the television was not getting a signal from the dish.

By this time we could smell something burning. Mike ran outside to check on the dish. The last time the "Direct TV" folks were here they had replaced the whole cable underground to the house. They connected the cable to the side of the deck. White smoke was billowing from the deck. You could tell something was burning. The spigot on the outside hasn't been hooked up yet for the hose so I was running around like a mad woman filling anything I could get my hands on with water. We finally managed to contain the fire. Now Direct TV is investigating the issue. I have to have a forum filled out by the fire inspector even though we put the fire out ourselves. I have a stack of things to do before we can get the cable back on. They say 4-6 weeks. In the mean time my husband has temporarily run a cable cord to the dish so we can watch television. (The Direct TV people said that was fine, they just couldn't do it until everything is resolved).

Mind you, I had planned to stain this deck now I have to wait.
All I can say is thank God we didn't go to that cook out after all and were home.

Memorial Day and A Very Special Birthday


Thank you to all our service men out there for their service. The ones that are alive and passed.

Memorial Day is always a sad time for me, especially when it falls on our daughters birthday. We lost our daughter in 1988 on Memorial Day. The hurt never goes away. We love you baby!

(I have had bouts of vertigo lately so have not posted much)

Rantings.......................................

I was all prepared this morning to make it to the cemetery to clean headstones before Memorial Day and our daughters birthday.
You know how some times you get started on a project and something else comes up? Well, today was my day for that I guess. 

I left the house fairly early to run by the bank and the post office before my cleaning project. When I got to the bank I noticed someone had set up an easel and was painting one of the buildings on the main street. I just had to go over and take a peek and of course that led to a long conversation. This man is one of the local artists in town. He says when he gets the urge to paint something he just sets up and gets to work. I will try to get one of his finished paintings to post here some time in the future. He would not let me take a picture of him painting. 

While I was talking to him I noticed a Gallery had opened up on the main street as well. I just had to run in and take a peek. That lead to more conversations and just before I left there the man that let me do my book signing on my first book in his business establishment walked in and we talked a while. By this time it was getting close to lunch and I knew I had better get to the cemetery before it got any later so off I went with my pail, scrub brush and baking soda. (baking soda is very good in cleaning head stones).
I finally got it finished and then came home to vacuum, sweep,and mop plus a few loads of laundry.

How was your day?

I am thoroughly disgusted. My computer was down and I didn't get to post on the Reflections list. I am going to post mine on my blog anyway.

My Reflections on the A-Z Challenge of 2016

This was my second year of participating in this contest. I thought
I would do something a bit unusual this time and try the "Theme"
posts, using the word "Family". As it turned out I really had a great time.
I was afraid all those q,v,x,y and z letters would be hard but once I
started, I really enjoyed  it. It's a good thing my family is so large. Ha!
As for followers, I didn't have many but I did pick up two new ones. I am grateful for that. I do intend on coming back and checking blogs throughout the year and can't wait for next year. Hmmmm... should I enter the theme post again or do something every day? We shall see
.
I want to thank you all for putting this on each year. Soon though I will run out of space for the badges. Not sure what to do about that.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there! Let me tell you about mine.
Hubby wanted to take us to breakfast this morning. Being where we live it is always a long drive to do anything. We ended up at "Ponderosa". I guess others had the same idea. We waited in line quite some time but then finally it was our turn to be seated. 
When we got up to get our food (smorgasbord) half of the containers were empty. The kitchen had not caught up with the demand. Eventually everything was filled up. The food was delicious until I found a hair in my potatoes! That did it for me.
I was very disappointed.

Have you ever heard the saying:
Orange sky in the morning, sailor take warning?
Mike husband learned that when he was in the navy many years ago. I took this picture this morning. Looks like we are in for a stormy day.

This was taken on May 1st 2016. Mama's 85th birthday. To think she was on life support less than a month ago is amazing.
Love you Mama

Windy days

                                Wind Chills

I don't know why this year has been really terrible with high winds. It is suppose to be spring in the north-east. I still have to wear a winter jacket out when I walk my Andy. We were lucky enough to have the sun out for quite a few days. Now the rains are coming.

Are any of you experiencing these wind chills as well as me?

Zesty

Zesty, jolly, kind, world traveler, all these can describe my Grandmother on my mother's side.
Mamaw loved life and all it had to offer. She took many cruises and always had a whole slew of friends. Mamaw loved putting on parties, her bridge games were no exception. Each one of her granddaughters took turns going to see her when she lived in California as they got older. She would come to Texas to visit us and always ended up taking one of us back with her for the summer.

I remember her telling me about her disco lessons that she took in her seventies.This woman was very petite but you listened when she spoke. She was married several times. After the death of her last husband she moved from California to Texas to be near my mother. (There was one other sibling that died at an early age.)

She always drove with one foot on the gas and the other on the break pedal. It was very hard to sit in the car with her when she drove, always being in a hurry. She eventually had a terrible accident and  almost died. That was the last of her driving. She was in her nineties when she passed. I think of her often.
(photo was taken not long before she passed in her nineties) 

Yankee

I have no idea after all these years why the north and the south still feud back and forth. I have first hand knowledge of this, I being born in the south and my husband in the north. The civil war was a long time ago but yet the feud still goes on. With all the upsets in our country going on now, such as the terrorist attacks, how can they still feud? There are much more important things.
 (photo courtesy of dream time)

X-ray

Most of my adult years I have had headaches. Some a lot worse than others. One of the doctors I went to ordered an MRI head scan. I was dumbstruck when I found out the results. Away I went to a specialist that dealt in these matters. I was told I had a tumor on my brain. The type I have is very rare, thankfully everything is alright. The specialist told me he thought I was born with it and showed me on my head where the tumor is. There was nothing surrounding it so he said I would be fine.
My headaches are from allergies and sinus.
(photo above courtesy of public domain)

Woods

There are forty-three state forests located in Saint Lawrence County. The county is located in northern New York on the border with Canada and along the St. Lawrence River.There are numerous places to hike and explore.
My husband went with his father at a very early age to hunt for the first time in one of these wooded areas, taking the old hunting dog.
Everything changes with time and now you see "posted" signs all over where it was free to hunt years ago.

Vertigo

Vertigo is a very nasty thing to have. I was diagnosed with it a few years back.  I woke up in the night and when I opened my eyes the room went completely upside down.
My husband took me to the emergency room. I was given medication to be followed up by a specialist. The specialist spoke with me and we narrowed down the list of why this was happening. The final verdict was being misdiagnosed when I had a sinus infection. It evidently was a viral infection instead and by not treating it properly I will now have bouts of vertigo for the rest of my life. The specialist did recommend certain exercises to help me and they do work most of the time along with medication.
(photo above courtesy of public domain)

Uncle

I only had one uncle in my family being my father only had one brother and my mother's brother died at an early age. On the other hand my husband had five uncles. I was only privileged to meet two of them by the time I came into the picture. One was out of state and the other we went to see as often as we could.I really liked this uncle. He made me a hanging clothes rack that I still use today. I really do miss him as he is no longer with us.

Thea, 

I thought maybe I would post me up here too since I have most of my siblings.

This picture was taken a few years back. For those of you that don't get snow, maybe you will enjoy this one. It took quite some time to get the perfect coat and boots to stay warm. Ha!

I have been in wind-chills of sixty below since I have lived in New York. Most folks around here think of New York City but we are hours away from it. We are about an  hour from Vermont and 20 minutes from Canada. (5 minutes by boat).

The first year I came here I was fascinated with all the snow. I remember going out and stopping a snow plow so I could take a picture. I was teased about that for years. Then I went and walked out on the St. Lawrence River where it froze and people had put ice shanties out to ice fish. I was so scared the first time I went out there. I look back on this stuff now and realize how silly all of it was.

I will not always live here though, soon my husband will be retiring and we shall move back to Texas or at least close to it, to see my family.

I mention before how I opened a package and saw my name on the book I had published. That was my first. I have written another since (editing) and working on a sequel to the first one.

Sewing

I enjoy working with my hands. All of the quilts I have made were all by hand. The wall decorations were sewn on this old machine that I have. Believe me I have had three other machines but this old one is the best and never breaks down. The bobbin doesn't hold much and it can get frustrating but it does beautiful work. I have made dolls, rabbits stuffed animals and etc...even dabbled in macrame for a while. I won several ribbons on my cross stitch pictures.

This seamstress machine was made over before I got it. The foot pedal was removed and changed to an electric motor.