Spring's A Comin'

 

 

It's a beautiful day here suppose to get in the seventies--so nice.  Hubby is trying to make it rain, ha-ha!

We got our pick-up worked on, so yesterday he tried to power wash all the oil spots off of the driveway.  The truck was leaking oil a lot and messed up our driveway, but never fear, hubby will take care of it. He loves to clean.

 

It's so nice to have a break in the winter weather.  We just recently got rid of our last snow.  I love the snow, but I also love warmer weather, and I'm ready for a change.  Spring is almost here..

 



New Stuff

 

We got some new things at our house.  First, a Christmas tree that is pre-decorated---just plug her in.  It has jingle bells all over it and when my hubby walks by it jingles.  It's about 4 feet tall and fits on my piano nicely.  I'm really in the Christmas mood this year, and it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

 

 We got two new medicine cabinets--one for either side of the big mirror.  This frees up some counter space--gets all the little bottles out of sight--Yea!!

 

And, lastly two new door knobs--we could actually use more of these, but this is a good start.  We've been living in this house for 40 years, and it time for some new knobs.

Next I would like for us to build some shelving, and maybe one of those cabinets like we made our daughter (plus maybe one for another of our daughters).

 

I made a pecan pie, and two pumpkin pies today also.  We ate one of the pumpkin pies already.  I'm getting up early in the morning to cook a Thanksgiving Meal for seven, Lord willing, that is.

Whew, it's been a busy day, and tomorrow's going to be busy also.  God has blessed us so much.



Happenings

 

I have started a new study--Judges.  It's a slightly depressing book because of Israel's disobedience and idolatry, but to learn how to drive out your enemies (disobedience), it's a great book. 

 



 

 

On another subject, our garage door opener finally gave up the ghost.  It's been acting up for a while, and we got our money's worth out of it, because we've had it a very long time.  Hubby picked up a new one, and he's installing it now.



 

 

 

It has a new feature our old one didn't that I'm gonna like.  You can lock it down (turn it off).  Pretty nice.

 

 

ANKLE UPDATE:  I went to the doctor today about my ankles, because I'm not making a lot of progress--at least to my liking.  Sunday, when we got to church, my ankle (the broken one) was hurting so badly that I had a hard time walking.  After eating lo-carb for a whole day my ankles improved.  The doc took x-rays again, and it is getting close to being healed, but he thinks I need physical therapy, so I start that tomorrow.  Stronger ankles here I come.  He assured me I wasn't going to be crippled the rest of my life.  Yea!

 

Apothecary Cuteness

I've been trying to freshen up my counter tops.  I received some really cute apothecary jars for Christmas.  On Pinterest I've pinned several kinds of things to do with them--now I'm rearranging things to see what I think.

There are no guarantees that it will remain this way.

Here's the jars--ain't they cute? 

I like the little birds on top; so sweet.

Which leads to more moving things around. 

I like the quote below.  Not everyone enjoy's my opinions.

I moved my herbs and spices.  They were in a merry-go-round type of contraption that collected a lot of dust, and was hard to clean.  It's gone now.  The herbs and spices are lined up on the back of the buffet part of my hutch.

I can still find them, and hopefully they won't catch as much dust.

We had a New Year's Get-together here yesterday with 31 guests.  I was afraid my house wouldn't hold them all, but it worked out nicely.  Of course we didn't eat until 2 pm because of Church.  I had a Jr. Burger on the way home to hold me until then.  We cleaned up this morning before breakfast. 

I love, love, love a clean house.

Joplin Visit

We have been wanting to go to Joplin, and see if the house we had built for us was still standing.  So last evening our youngest daughter, Erin , hubby and I, did just that.  We lived in Joplin for 3-4 years when we were first married.  This is the house, and it looks like it got  new roof, but it looks pretty good.

The apartments across the street don't look so good however.

We drove a couple of blocks north, and this is the area where my hubby's boss lived.

When we lived in Joplin there was a tornado that went down seventh street.  We weren't aware of it though, and his boss came and got him to take him to work because of all the injured.  (He worked at St. Johns Hospital.)  Funny thing though,  Hubby said his boss disappeared while he did all the work.

This is St. John's Hospital on the horizon.  Not much else is left of the area.  They have got a lot of the debris cleaned up according to the news.  This is the first I've seen of it, and it looks pretty barren.

Our oldest daughter, Jennifer, was born in this hospital.

The area north of the hospital is just a lot of foundations of the homes that were there.

I took these pictures through the window of our car.  

 (You can see the reflection of my striped top in some of the pictures.)  It's hard to imagine how they will ever come back.

Next, I have some pictures of the schools:

The picture below is a distant picture of the high school.  If you click on it you can see the devastation.

Another school here.

I'm not sure if this was a school or not.

(My hubby informed me this was the front of the High School.)

Further north we drove by the rental house we lived in while ours was being built.  It looks a little different now.  There was a huge tree out front and a tall hedge along the front when we lived there.

After we moved away we were in a tornado where we live now.  I wrote about it here.

I wish Joplin the best in their recovery.  They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  I'm sure they are getting stronger, but it's a hard process, and their losses are so sad.

Snow, Snow, Snow

I can't believe it, we got more snow--looks like about 3 inches.  I may actually get my fill of snow this winter.  It's been several years since we've received this much snow.  When my hubby and I were first married back in 1970, we received 24" of snow in the town we lived in.  My hubby worked at the hospital and couldn't get to it--that broke my heart.  I was glad he wasn't stuck at the hospital when it snowed.  I wouldn't have enjoyed the snow at all.

It's a lovely sunrise this morning.   Thank you, Lord--Isn't He a marvelous creator?  The stunning beauty He created is so awesome--Its hard to comprehend the marvel of it all, it just blows me away.

Something else I enjoy is our aquariums.  It's hard to get a good picture of the fish--they wiggle too much.

The Baja Sharks, and the Clown Loaches I will never get a good picture of they're too busy--you can see the Dwarf Gorami, and our big old black Angel Fish though.

Something else I want to show you is our huge house plant that turned into a small tree over the years.

I doesn't look so huge here, but it takes up a good portion of this small bedroom.  Once it warms up, it's going outside.