Shopped out(at least for today!)

Well, we did it. We upheld the tradition! We left at 9am and just got home at 7. We did go to Ruby Tuesdays for the salad bar for lunch but the rest of the time we shopped!(1 hour drive each way). This is what the back seat looked like before our last stop. It was getting dark so I needed to take the pic.This is the "trunk" of the Cruiser. Not as full as sometimes but we didn't do bad. Neither of us was looking for clothes . Do you like my daughters sign?
This is all my stuff. The basket is for Jerzies toys at her house because she got so many for Christmas. As you can see I also got myself a new flag pole. I really didn't spend much of my Christmas money so I'll probably use it to buy the bathroom wallpaper.
How many of these bags can you identify? I'll show you what's in them tomorrow. Between all the bathroom work and all the walking today I need to put my feet up! Jerzie day tomorrow!

Bathroom break!

I'm taking a bathroom break but not the kind where you go to the bathroom, but the kind where stay out of the bathroom! The paper is all down and the shower is back together. I still need to do some more caulking but the first layer has to dry good first. I still need to fill holes ( with a cool tube of filler you just squeeze to put it in the holes, that I got in my Christmas stocking.I was at Lowes with my daughter stocking shopping for her husband and I let her know I would like some too!), sand the walls a little and prime in a few places. Then all I need is the paper!

Tomorrow my daughter and I need to continue another tradition. We have to SHOP!!! The two of us go to Erie every year on Martin Luther King Day and get all kinds of bargains. It is very important to keep traditions going! After all, it's part of our family history! Jerzie spent the night last night. Mom and Dad took some out of town family to the casino. I didn't get her until I got out of work at 10 but I love to rock her to sleep and cuddle for awhile. Mom came to get her before 10 because she loves to spend Sat and Sun with her. This pic was taken Christmas Eve in a new snowsuit from a friend and her Mets hat from Uncle Sammy.
I love this pic that my daughter took. She's doing her best to give Daddy a hug!
Hopefully, I'll have lots of goodies to show you tomorrow!

Shower project!

So, here's the thing! I've had nothing but trouble with the shower in my tiny bathroom ever since I had it put in. It always seems to leak. When I first had it put in it was tiled and water always seeped outside the shower. A couple years ago the tile started to fall off so I hired someone to put in a whole new shower. That was a nightmare in a couple ways! One, I had so much trouble getting the shower that I refuse to go to home depot any more! Two, when I used the upstairs shower I came down and found water on the dining room floor. After tearing up the bathroom floor and the dining room wall we discovered the old cast iron drain pipe was cracked which turned into a $1,000 project.Of course the shower has leaked since the beginning! I have gotten pretty good a caulking, which I have done several times. Since the bathroom is a mess anyway I decided to try to fix the shower! I took it apart today
You should not be able to see that wallpaper while standing inside the shower!
I removed the metal piece that connects the shower to the wall. I removed all the caulk with the help of a box cutter and some lighter fluid.
I have a heater in there to make sure everything gets dried out. I stripped the wallpaper and primed the plaster where the metal piece goes back up to help form a water barrier. Tomorrow I will put caulk on the wall before I put the metal piece back up. This is the step that is never done and that I think(and REALLY hope) will stop the leakage. If not I think I'll just pretend it's okay because I'm REALLY sick of this problem!

Snow?

I took these pictures 2 days ago around 7:30 AM. I took these 2 today about 1:oo PM What a difference a couple days make! I found this primrose getting ready to bloom. They do like the cool weather.
We're supposed to have rain for a couple days and then the temp is going back down. I'm sure we'll get more snow before it's over.

I got more paper removed in the bathroom today. The only problem with that is it means I've been very slow in the beauty shop. I had an extra night off at the store this week so was able to respond to several blogs I check out often but never had time to comment. I think they call that lurking!

Time for a change!

I finally picked wallpaper for my bathroom. I ordered it on Tuesday. I'm not sure when it will be in but I want to be ready so I started stripping the old paper. This is the pile I got on Wednesday. I worked on it some more today. Nothing like up close and personal time with the toilet! I ended up using a bread knife to get the paper off behind the toilet! It is only an inch from the wall. Thank goodness that part is done!
It was so easy last time I did it. There were no fixtures, no baseboards and no trim around the door or window.
I have a little under half of it done.I still have a couple tough spots to reach but I guess even that is good exercise.
This pile is from today. It's amazing how much paper there is in such a tiny bathroom! You can click here to see what it did look like. There was nothing wrong, in fact the paper is still on real tight, I just got tired of it. It's been like that for about 8 years. I'm hoping to get the paper removed this weekend plus see if I can fix a water leak problem in the shower.

Workout!

Well, I got my exercise today! This is what we got overnight. Not as bad as some people. I went out around 7 to start shoveling.(Sorry, didn't realize it was still so dark!) I shovel the front of the house and
the end of the driveway. I didn't have to work tonight and it's supposed to be 40 tomorrow so I didn't do around my car. This is the front from the other end (plus one of my fingers in my daughters really old but warm gloves that I keep repairing.) See my poor snow covered Cruiser on the right?

Then the walk to the house,
then to the left side,
down the steps,
turn left and the shop door is on the left. The hanging swing is just past the door but it's a little cold for that!
I took this pic in the beauty shop mirror when I got done. It's too dark to see the snow all over me. I think I got a good workout for today. What do you think?

Hey you!!!

Hey you out there! Yes, I'm talking to you! It's national Delurking Week! Time to quit hiding and make yourself known! I know I don't have a very big following but I would really like to meet those of you who visit often and never comment. This is your chance to meet a new friend! I'd love to return the visit!

Me weird?

I've been tagged a few times about 6 weird things about me but I guess I'm so normal I am having a hard time with it!(haha) I had to ask my kids for help! Believe it or not they had a hard time too! I'm afraid that is just because they are so used to my ways. I asked my son-in-law and I think maybe he had a few things in mind but was afraid to say them! Here goes!

1. I'll start with the not so funny one first. I have been having dizzy spells for over 30 years. This causes a major problem because I also have severe motion sickness. All I can do is go to bed. It usually passes in a day. Several doctors have tried to figure it out and I have heard everything from MS to arthritis in my neck. Now I just deal with it. The worst part is how sudden they come on.
Enough of that stuff now on to the good stuff!

2. I eat cold Campbell's Pork and Beans with grape jelly mixed in. I know it sounds awful but it's good. My daughter eats it too!

3. I can't sleep in flannel. No flannel nightgown or sheets. I used to but can't any more so I can at least blame it on age! I just feel too constrained. I cannot have any lace on a nightgown that touches my skin. It makes me itch.

4. I cannot stand to see someone put a tissue or napkin in their mouth. I gives me the shivers just thinking about it! My brother used to do it all the time just to make me crazy. ( I don't have any idea how I discovered this but is was when I was a kid)

5. I can only wear white cotton socks or my feet burn. This is difficult now because they put Lycra and polyester in socks now. I check all the sock labels and buy the ones with the most cotton.

6. I prefer instant coffee to drip or perked. When I started drinking coffee it was instant so that's what I'm used to.

My daughter helped with 3, 4 & 6,my memory isn't what it used to be.My son-in-laws offering is that I'm weird because I like my son-in-law! I don't think it's weird to like my kids spouses but it may be a little unique. I don't feel weird about that but very fortunate!

If you haven't done this meme then consider your self tagged! Please leave me a comment so I can check out how weird you are!

Exercise?!!

OK, it's a new year and I have to start working on these thighs! I've got my jogging suit and shoes on and I'm ready to go!
Gramma sure wishes she was as limber as Jerzie but I don't think I ever was! My daughter and I are going to try to walk 3 times a week. We can walk in our ice arena any time day or evening. They even put a special covering on the floor. I did walk almost 2 miles 5 days a week until I took on my second on my feet job. The hours at both jobs have leveled off a bit and I decided if I could put up and take down Christmas decorations in between jobs I should be able to walk. We'll see what happens! My doctor has really been on me about getting exercise. I like to use shoveling snow as a excuse but that won't work this year!

Messes!

I don't know what it is about this time of year but I get very tired of my little messes. This is a good thing or I would have really big messes! I decided today to clean out the messiest drawer in my computer desk. I didn't think to take a before picture so you'll have to trust me when I say it was messy! The first pic shows my nice clean cubbies which had to be cleaned because the drawers were now clean!(Of course I have a movie of Jerzie pictures as my screen saver!)This is my nice clean drawer!Naturally, one thing leads to another so I also cleaned out the cupboard in my night stand. I forgot to tell you that the computer is in my bedroom.(The only room in the house you haven't seen if you followed my Christmas tour)

This, for obvious reasons, will be my next project. Maybe tomorrow, if Jerzie is a good girl!

What were they thinking?

This car belongs to my neighbors best friend. She often pulls in the front yard instead of parking and walking to the house. That side of the yard is quite a hill. It has rained here for a couple days and the ground was already soaked. I'm guessing she got slightly stuck so my neighbor decided she could get it out. I don't know why or how but the car ended up here. Check out the front tire (click on pic to enlarge) and see how deep the mud is!
They had to get this flatbed to pull it out! Of course he was smart enough to stay on the street! (Yes, that is my pretty blue PT Cruiser! And yes, I do love it!)
These show you what the backyard looks like! I'm sure the landlord will be thrilled!

As I look out my front window I see she has more company. Now there is a huge pickup parked in the front yard! I hope they have better luck when they decide to leave!

Preacher boys

I thought I'd show you a couple more Sarah's Attic figurines. These are my preacher boys.

I just love all the details. The over sized jacket, rolled jeans and sneakers. My daughter especially likes the redheads because her husband is one. Gotta love those cheeks and ears! Can you just hear the "fire and brimstone" message? They are both preachin' right out of the Bible, no notes for them.
I really think I like my black kids more than the white kids. I definitely have more black ones. I have a couple more favorites I'll show another day.

Village gone!

My village is all put away and the bird houses are back up. All the undecorating is done! yea! I really get obsessed with getting done. Sorry I haven't been to visit, or if I have I haven't commented. ALL my spare time has been spent undoing everything I did the end of November. I'm expecting more time to visit now.I just made myself raspberry pancakes with "real" maple syrup. My niece and nephew have a maple sugar business and every Christmas they give us a gift basket with gourmet raspberry pancake mix, a bottle of syrup, breakfast blend coffee and some maple sugar candy. It's never too long after I get it that I just must have some pancakes for dinner. Yummo(as my son-in-law would say)!

This 'n that

This is the snowman insert that I talked about here. All the Santa's have been replaced with snowmen!

Is is about 50 and sunny today. Unbelievable for January. I got all my outside decorations down. Just the village to go and then on to something new.

I'm getting tired of the plaid wallpaper in my tiny bathroom so I've been checking out wallpaper. I haven't made a final decision yet but I'll have to start working in there. The good news is it's a small area so not too much work. The bad news is it's a small area with a lot of little, hard to get to spaces. I really like all the stuff in there so I need to find something that works with what I have. I'll keep you "posted" on the progress!

Calendar

My daughter makes me a calendar every year for Christmas. This is the first page. She puts birthdays and special days on it. She has even labeled Martin Luther King Day as shopping day! We go to Erie every MLK day and find lots of bargains! Fun day!! I got most of my indoor decorations down today. Still have to do the village and the china. There's always another day. It's supposed to be warm and dry tomorrow so I'll do the outside between jobs then..

Full house!

We had a great time today! There were 27 here and these are the 6 kids(not counting Jerzie). The oldest is 8 and the youngest is 2. They are all very well behaved kids! Little Johnny just loved Jerzie. He couldn't keep his hands off her and he was very gentle. He did want to pick her up and play with her and couldn't figure out why he couldn't!

My brother filling his plate in the kitchen.
The guys, with my brother again, guarding the table with all the cookies and candy. I really think they were keeping track and making sure no one ate their favorites!
Jerzie really got passed around but she didn't seem to mind. This is a cousin and her husband.
We had a super day just catching up with the family. Something we really don't do often enough.

A New Year

I took the tree down yesterday. Now it's waiting at the curb to be turned into mulch by the city. It was loosing some needles and I have a big family party tomorrow so figured it would be better to take it down. More room, less mess.

I started inviting my Aunt, Uncle, cousins and my brother and his family on New Years Day a few years ago. These are people who live close but we don't see much except for weddings, funerals and graduation parties. I decided we needed to see each other for Christmas. Not much work on my part. I just make some coffee, buy some pop and try to get rid of all the Christmas snacks, candy and cookies! Everyone brings a snack. It is usually pretty crowded but no one cares. It's just good to get together.

I'll probably start taking down the rest of my decorations on Tuesday. Everything but the snowmen, that is. I leave them up all winter. After that's all done I'll probably feel like this!

I wish you all a very happy and fulfilling New Year. Thank you all for visiting my blog and I hope to make more blog friends over the coming year!

I also need to thank my awesome (and favorite,of course) son-in-law for being so patient with me and redoing my blog when ever I get the urge! Thanks especially for the string of blinkie snowmen that I know gave you trouble and that I wanted so badly!