Tuesday, July 28, 2009

TIDBITS

So we're finished moving and I haven't touched a box or heavy piece of furniture since Saturday night......so explain to me why I am still so sore EVERY morning that I've gotten up since. I could understand Sunday and maybe Monday but today is Tuesday and I still have issues when standing and taking those first steps. I quit screaming first thing, now it's just a low moan that carries me from the bedroom to the hallway.

This morning I think I've stumbled on one reason...I DREAMED I WAS MOVING ALL NIGHT LONG.....packing and lifting and carrying boxes. I have just gone insane, plain and simple.

But we're finished. I have renamed Massey Gardens #2 (since we've sold #1) Massey Ponds. I think we're going to like it over there, when we're finished unpacking and rehabbing.

I've "misplaced" one of my granddogs. Ginger H. The last dog that lived with DD and SIL. I was tasked to babysit her this past weekend and since it was a big moving weekend, I opted to leave her and Snoopy in the city house since I was coming back in the evening. Snoopy was quite anxious about a canine guest, so I put her in the house and gave Ginger H. the run of the yard. She had a nice bed on the back porch, fresh water, a rawhide chew bone and I fed her a good breakfast of Snoopy's food before I left. I had asked the neighbor to check on her in the evening because I might be coming in late and when she did, she discovered the gate was wide open and Ginger H. was gone. Who knew she could figure out how to open the gate. In four years, Snoopy has never even tried.

The neighbors drove around looking for her a bit and then called me in the country and I headed home. I looked all over for her and no luck. DD and SIL told me not to "stress" she runs away from everywhere and she'll be back. This happened on Friday and today is Tuesday and so far she hasn't came back. DD seems more upset over it now which makes me feel worse than I did initially. She is microchipped but didn't have her tags on her. So if she makes it to the Humane Society, she'll find her way back home but if a person has her, with no tags, that's pretty much impossible.

I did find it oddly comforting though on Saturday morning before I left for the country as I was driving around looking for her in the rain, I kept seeing rainbows. I really took those as a sign that she was fine....whereever she was. I'm superstitious like that.

I've been fighting poison ivy for two weeks now. Papa suggested maybe it was shingles instead and a neighbor seconded that suggestion. I've been using prescription cream and taking steriods but. it. just. won't. go. AWAY.

The P's spent last week (with their parent's) at the Lake and were reported to have had a fantastic time. Perfect reported he went fishing and caught corn (what they were using for bait). But now, both of them and DD are all sick with summer colds now. Poor P's.

So there are a few tidbits of life happening around me.

Until next time....Grammy

Monday, July 27, 2009

To-MA-to, TOM-a-TOE, TOE-MATER

Here are some updates to our hanging upside down tomato plants.






Growing by leaps and bounds but nothing red....YET.

TOE-MATER GRAMMY

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

SUMMER AT THE POOL(S)

We are always building pools at our house. I really think we should just get a pool built-in and be done with it all.



This is the first summer that Perfect needed a pool....(yes those are my legs, naturally I'm in there with him!)

Then last year we built this monstrosity.



Papa taking it for a test run.



and then Perfect.



Then this summer we decided to forgo the big pool monster and get something more manageable for tiny children.



Perfect seemed to really enjoy it...Precious, being the diva she is, didn't enjoy the spray in her face and passed.



So one country weekend, I found this and thought Precious would really enjoy it more.



She didn't.



Maybe next year will be a better pool year.

Persistent Pool-Purchaser Grammy

WALKING DEAD

Can you be asleep (or actually unconscious) and still be walking around, somewhat functioning? That's exactly how I feel these days. We have suddenly sold Massey Gardens #1 and had three weekends to empty a house of nine years of living. Everything went to the rehabbable Massey Gardens #2.

No, of course it's not finished yet. We still have three rooms to do. Big rooms, like the kithen, dining room, and living room. But that didn't stop us from cramming a whole entire house into three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a storage room. We have yet to empty the garage or storage room in #1 but at least the new residents of #1 have the house empty for the most part, to move into.

And suddenly. Yessiree bub, that's exactly right. What went from "if so and so moves to #2, I think I'll buy #1 from you", into, "we have sold our house and need to move into #1 by 7/25".

I've been having difficulty with this suddenness and can't refrain from making snide comments about being "kicked out of my home" and pitching fits when Papa feels the need to spend a day mowing the grass.."it's not your's any more, let it grow". As well as the constant "you started the wheels rolling in this dog and pony show, so quit complaining".

Papa is, to put it plainly....lazy. He doesn't like packing, he doesn't like moving boxes around, he doesn't like going to town and begging for empty boxes, he doesn't like doing much whatsoever on the weekends but hey, this wasn't my idea (another of my often made comments the last few weekends).

I suppose I'll get over my negative attitude with regards to this and come to terms with it. #2, being the rehab, is going to be completely new and as we dismantle #1, we just see more and more that needed to be done (that we weren't getting to) to keep that house standing, so we're better off in that regard.

Also on the positive side, we're off the main road, so the teenage party boy behind us can do as he pleases, the hundred of cars passing by all night long won't be affecting us any more (ahem....we kept that tidbit to ourselves and didn't share this kid's new weekend activity with our new neighbors!)

What's so hard is that we are trying to accomplish this move only on weekends and still maintaining our normal life Monday-Friday,,,work, social obligations, summer fun, P Wednesdays, etc.

So far, we have managed, without counting the 24 hour asthma event I suffered from last week after spending a day cleaning out dusty cabinets with Mold registering 31,000 outside. My poor lungs can only take so much before they rebel and shut down. But 24 hours later (having slept 22 of those hours), I was back at the moving site!

Then we had Almost Step-Son's fit throwing Friday and leaving after 10 minutes because he felt we weren't organized to his specifications on his arrival to help move big furniture. I had a list of 17 pieces that were empty and ready to go but he fixated on the one room that wasn't packed up yet, threw a fit and left. Papa explained he just didn't want to help to begin with so "we don't need his stinkin' help."

So my neck screamed, my calves cramped up, and Papa and I started lifting and moving all we could. SIL came by and helped us out last Sunday with his arm wrapped up in an ace bandage with a pain patch (sprained wrist from doing laundry----that's an entire blog in itself for later). We just treated him as a mover with 100% capabilities and trod on.

Papa sold some old dirt bikes to a co-worker and when he arrived and they got all the bikes loaded up in his truck,,,,we sprung on him and his wife that we needed some help moving a piece of furniture. That was an understatement. It took him, his wife, Papa and I all to move a piano (no I don't play, I won it in a raffle).

Papa had suggested a couple of weekends ago that maybe I should sell it because it is so hard to move but all I could picture was the movie Cold Mountain and the piano going down the road in a horse-pulled wagon. If Ada Monroe can have her piano moved under those conditions, during a war to boot. I, at least, could have mine moved across the road with me! So my heels dug in and my beloved, unused piano moved to #2.

So in a nutshell, that is what I've been up to the last month, hence no blogs. Things are settling down, we see the light at the end of the moving tunnel (more rehabbing hasn't been set to schedule just yet) but I'll have a little more spare time for blogging and such now.

Your beat down, worn out Grammy.