AROUND AND AROUND

I've finally started walking again.  As a birthday present to myself I went to Bowling Green's Kummer/Little Recreation Center and paid my $2.00 for a yearly walking pass.  The cost was to pay for the card, not really for the privilege of walking.   I had been looking at this place on the internet for over a year and just never took the initiative to check it out.  It's not in the best part of town, but I don't go when it's dark out.  I get there about 3:15 and right now I'm already up to 2 miles.  The 2 miles took me just under 33 minutes today.  I'm still dealing with walking shoes that are rubbing my heal or old shoes that don't really have enough support.  I'm sure that eventually I'll get that problem worked out.  I didn't get to walk one day this week because the electricity was out and they had to close.  Next week they'll be closed on Thursday and Friday, but I'll probably be too busy to walk then anyway.  They have a nice college student working at the front desk.  It's nice to know that someone is on watch while I'm walking. 

I couldn't ask for a nicer indoor track to walk on.  It's only 3 lanes wide, but so far I've only had to share it once with someone else and he only passed me once.     
If you look at the picture above and down the left side of the building you can see the half moon windows that are along the walking track.  There's lots of light and you can see what the weather is doing outside.  The downside is that you have go around 12 times to walk a mile.  At first I was having trouble keeping track of the laps, but I discovered that the stopwatch on my phone has a lap counter.  I just touch it each time I complete a lap and it tells me how many laps I've completed and how long it took to walk each lap.

 There is a nice room upstairs with a vending machine, a flat panel LCD TV, tables and chairs and water fountains.  There's also a meeting room and restrooms.
The main floor has 2 basketball courts with 3 rows of bleacher seating.    You can see the rail around the walking track in this picture.   For those that have trouble with stairs, there is an elevator to get to the second level.  They use this center for the Special Olympics and I'm sure the elevator comes in handy for them.
Below are a few pictures that I took of the track.  I had planned on taking more pictures when I finished my walk that day, but a group came in and were in the vending area and I didn't think it was a good idea to take pictures of strangers to post on my blog.
This picture shows the big half moon windows.  They're really nice.

Looking down on one of the basketball courts.

The goal right now is nothing more than to get myself moving.  After sitting at a desk all day and then coming home and sitting most of the evening I felt a great need to get some exercise.  I'm hoping to, at some point, start walking 4 miles several times a week.   When I get to the 4 miles, that means I'll have to go around the track 48 times (assuming that I'm in the middle lane).  Therefore, I'll be going around and around and around and around!!!  We'll see how it goes!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!

I can't believe that Nate will be 2 years old on Sunday. Looks like we're out of babies in our family again.  We pretty much stick to having little ones for a short while and then have to wait until they grow up before we have any more (unlike handyman's family, where there are always babies).

We're happy that the kids are close enough that we can head down for lunch with the birthday boy tomorrow.  

It's great to finally have a little boy in the family.  Since we only had girls and then the first grandchildren were girls, we didn't know what it would be like to have a little boy.  He's cute and funny and daring!  There's no telling what all he'll get into the next few years.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!

SWAGS & JABOTS

When we first bought our house back in 1996, I made some cheap valances for the living room and dining room.  

Now it's 2011 and I finally decided to make some changes in the valances.  The old ones had started out a deep burgundy, but as time has passed, the window side of them had turned almost pink due to sun exposure.  Here is a picture from Thanksgiving, 2003 with the old valances.

This is a picture of the girls with their Grannie.  As you can see there is nothing fancy here on the window.

I found a picture while I was surfing the web that I really liked (see right).  I like the shutters too, but not for the living room.  I looked all over the internet for directions to make swags and jabots.  I found little bits of instructions, here and there, but not one set of instructions to use for the whole thing.  With the help of my handyman husband, we got the patterns made, figured out how much material I would need, and he purchased the mounting boards.  I lucked out and found a new bolt of fabric at Hancocks that had plenty of yardage for our project and the price was great - only $6.00 a yard.  The cashier even gave me her 20% discount so that helped out even more. 

I made a muslin pattern to use as my practice swag.  Let me say, this was more than a little challenging for me!  When I finally felt like we might be able to pull it off, we went to work. 

We set up both of our 6' long tables, side by side, in the living room.  This turned out to be a great work space.  We had cut out the pattern while sitting on the floor and I'm getting much too old for that.  (It wasn't even easy when I was younger.)  We spent most of today working and although everything is cut out and sewn, we've only gotten one swag and the jabots on the boards. I could not have done it without all the help from my handyman!

But I've got to tell you,  I love it!!  It turned out as well as I wanted.  Isn't it gorgeous? 

Now if we can just get the double one to come out looking as good as this.

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Here is a picture of just the jabots on the double window.

I'm not sure when we'll get back to it as tomorrow we're heading south to celebrate Nate's 2nd birthday!  

SWEEP & MOP!

I don't normally like a product well enough to post about it, but I bought myself something last week that I really do like! I've never liked cleaning my hard surface floors. NEVER!! I've tried sponge mops and string mops, but I never felt like my floors were clean unless I had gotten down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the floors after using a broom to pick up all of the loose dirt. I think part of my problem was that I felt like I was always starting out with a dirty mop. While I was shopping at WalMart last week my eye was drawn to a different mop - the Rubbermaid Reveal. This mop has 3 washable pads, an attached bottle that holds an liquid cleaner that you care to use and has a sprayer on it to put the cleaner on the floor. I love it!! I can dry mop the floor first with a clean pad and then, if it's dirty, put on another clean pad (they're easily attached & removed with Velcro) and start wet mopping with a nice clean pad. Once done, remove the pads, put in the laundry and I still have an extra pad if I missed a spot!


And since it's so much easier to use, hopefully I'll clean my floors more often and they won't get so yucky!! Wish me luck!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY GABRIELLA!!

Hey girl, Happy Birthday!! I can't wait until we can get together to give you your presents!!
We love you!! Hope you're having a great day!

FALL BREAK 2011

I decided to take off work for the entire week of Fall Break this year. Normally I work part of the week, but I just needed a good break. The first four days we spent working around the house. There was plenty to do there and I didn't accomplish all that I wanted, but I did make a dent in things.
On Saturday, Handyman picked up our new sofa, see here.
Then we drove out to Jackson's Orchard and bought 1/2 bushel of Golden Delicious Apples. Normally we buy Red Delicious, but they had 2nds of the Golden Delicious so we saved $5.00 over the Reds. We ended up freezing 12 quarts of apples to fry this winter.


We also bought 1/2 peck of Bartlett Pears. We peeled and grated enough pears to make a batch of Pear Preserves. We got 4 pints of these. That left us about 6 pears to just eat.


I gave Toby a haircut and bath/shower which he had been needing for quite some time.

Of course Sunday was regular day of worship at our church home, Christ United Methodist.
We studied Chapter 7 of The Story. For those who haven't been able to read completely thru The Bible, this book takes you chronologically thru the Bible. This book is being studied in a lot of different denominations including Baptist and Presbyterian.

With the cooler weather, I had been thinking about Pumpkin Pie. My mother almost always made a couple this time of year. Since she's not here to do it and they were sounding awfully good I made one regular and 2 mini pumpkin pies. We ate the 2 minis that night and brought the other one to the cabin on Wednesday.


And since I make such a mess when I make pie crust, I decided to make and bake one to freeze so it'll be easy later on to make a butterscotch or chocolate meringe pie.


The first couple of days at the cabin we just enjoyed our view, read books, and played on our computers.

View from the cabin.

On Thursday, Handyman had to go to the Corp Office to purchase his launching pass for the year. I rode along with him and then we went to check out the new park by the dam. They have a great concrete walk around that you can fish from or just take a stroll on. There is a boat ramp to launch your boat, a nice playground for the kids and an amphitheater with a tiered seating area.




On Friday morning, Handyman took his boat out to do some fishing. No fish... Then after lunch I went out in the boat with him and I finally got a look at where the cabin is from the lake. You couldn't see the cabin, but I know it was up there somewhere!!


The weather was perfect out on the lake and there weren't many people out, but we saw several boats with kids who were probably on their fall breaks.

Getting ready to take the boat out for the day.

Tomorrow we head back home so we can be at church on Sunday and then it's back to work for me on Monday.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!

Living Room Redo

Our living room was getting a little, ah, old. We've been in the house for 16 1/2 years and had never painted any of the walls except for a couple of the bathrooms. Handyman had stripped the wall paper off of the walls in one of the bathrooms and the other one had once been a closet and the old laundry room. When we bought the house the walls seemed very dark to me since we had antique white walls in every room in our prior home. But lately we were getting the urge to go a little darker. I wasn't really sure about it, so handyman painted the bonus room first so I could see the color on a larger scale. It turned out that I really liked it. Below you can see the difference - the wall on the right is the old color, on the left is the new color.


Then there was the couch & recliner that were bought on New Year's Day in 1997. They were getting tired looking and need a good cleaning. The love seat that had been in the living room was recently moved to the cabin. We had bought a couple of really comfy chairs a while back and even though I like them, I was a little concerned with matching them.

We found a new couch at an Overstock place here in town. It's an Ashley Furniture couch and they still sell it in the store, but we got it for about half of their price. I wasn't certain that it would go with the chairs so the fellow let me bring a pillow home to check the color. We really liked the colors together!!

The coffee table never was quite what I wanted, but there were elements of it that I did like. I didn't like the little spindles at each end or the scallops, but I really liked the turned legs and the handy little drawer. Handyman has removed the part that I don't like and is rebuilding it so there will be a flat table top and he'll keep the drawer. Yeah!!!

The green table to the left of the sofa was a little odd ... I liked the basic design of the table. I found it at the church bazaar. One of the church ladies had painted an antique table with green crackle paint. I kind of liked that, but then she had painted purple grapes on the top of it. I tried to hide that the best that I could with chotskies, but it took up so much of the top, I never could quite cover it. It was also kind of rickety -- it wobbled quite a bit. Handyman had told me from the beginning that he could tighten it up. It's in his workshop now being glued, tightened, and repainted. I should have it back soon.

I'm still looking for a chair to replace the little mauve swivel rocker. It doesn't look too bad, but I'm ready for a change there too.

I'm also looking for material to make new window treatments. I'm hoping that I can figure out exactly how to make this. I think it is so neat looking. I won't replace the mini-blinds with the shutters since we almost always leave them open anyway.

Here are just a few more shots of the living room - the beautiful bookcase that handyman made for us.

The bookcase from another angle.

And my curio cabinet with many family heirlooms.


Hopefully it won't take me too long to get the rest of the living room finished.
Toby just has to get in the pictures!!

What a Difference A Day Makes

While I'm off on fall break I'm trying to get a few things done here at the house before we head off to the cabin later in the week.
I took a picture of my yorkie, Toby, yesterday and I noticed how badly he needed a haircut. He was even beginning to get some curls!

Sooooo, today I decided I'd better give him a haircut while I was off. He usually tries to run off while I'm working on him so this time a wrapped his leash around the foot of my chair and hooked him up so he couldn't get away.
See what a cutie he is when he's all trimmed up!! I still have a few stragglers I'll have to cut at some point, but he does look so much better. He also go a shower so he's much cleaner. Now he's ready for a road trip.

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY KATIE BETH!

Today we went to Nashville to celebrate the birthday of our oldest granddaughter, Katherine Elizabeth. It is hard to believe that she's turning 6 already! Kate -- what a joy you are. We are so blessed to have you for our granddaughter.

I hope you enjoyed your day today and will again on Monday.

We love you.

LONG DRY SPELL

It's been quite some time since I last posted. We didn't really have much going on for a while, then we were busy for a while, but I just never quite had the inspiration to write anything. No excuses, I just didn't do it!
In August, Handyman & I took a long weekend and drove to eastern Kentucky to visit with several of my cousins, their kids and my brother and his wife. The main reason we met where we did, Jenny Wiley State Resort Park, was because of our ancestry. You see, Jenny Wiley's sister, Elizabeth Borders, was my 5th great-grandmother. making Jenny Wiley, my 5th great-aunt. Jenny Wiley was captured by Indians, her children and brother were killed, but eventually she escaped from the Indians and returned home where she eventually raised another family. The park has an outdoor theater and each summer they have a production about her life, "The Jenny Wiley Story." Handyman and I had seen the production several years ago, but they had rewritten the play last summer. As it turned out, we didn't like this one as much as the one we had already seen and the last scene was rained out this year so I'm glad that we already knew how her life turned out. I enjoyed the time we got to spend with family. Over the last 5 or 6 years it seemed as if every time the cousins got together it was for a funeral or memorial service.
It was so nice to be able to just enjoy being together.

--The Bartlett Family Cousins--

TO BE DELIVERED

Handyman has been busy lately, but has finally gotten the final coat of paint on the bookcases. They'll soon be delivered to Nashville and will probably need a little touching up after making the trip. It will take the truck along with a trailer to get it all loaded. The two end cases are actually 2 pieces each - a base and an upper. The middle bookcase is all one piece except for the crown at the top, which, thanks to the experiences of an old friend of mine, was made separately. This makes for an easier move. The crown on the two end pieces will be added at the time of delivery to assure a 'perfect' fit and the base will be added to the bottom front to cover all three pieces seamlessly. I can't wait to see it in place.

Handyman showing off his masterpiece.

Beautiful, just beautiful!

HANDYMAN BUILDS AGAIN!

Our oldest daughter and her husband will soon close on their new home. I am so excited for them. The house has so much room that they'll be able to use the formal living room as a library and still have plenty of living space. Since our son-in-law is a professor and our daughter home school's their oldest child and will eventually home school their other two children, they have a growing number of books at their house.

Here is a picture of what will be their library.

As soon as her daddy, my handyman, heard that they wanted bookcases to go in their library, he started working on the plans. After getting the go ahead from our daughter, he began building the bookcases this week.
The first day he had to go to Lowe's to purchase all of the materials, but when I came home, he had already started.

This is what he accomplished the first day.
The middle section.

The second day, he worked on the two side bases and the upper shelves on one side.
I made handyman stand beside it because it didn't look as big as it really is in the pictures.
He had his eyes shut, but he said that was okay because he was just being a measuring stick!

Today when I got home, he had put together the other end section.
Note - the sections are all separate so they will come apart and transport easier this time and any other move they may make in the years to come.

There will be doors on the bases of all three bookcase and the shelves are adjustable. He still has quite a bit of work to do with making the doors and painting, but it's amazing how quickly it's gone together already.

It's really great to have a handyman around !!

FARMER'S MARKET

On Saturday I visited our local farmer's market. There is one certain display where I purchase most of my veggies because they have just about anything you would want and usually the biggest and best looking tomatoes.
This trip I bought squash, big juicy tomatoes and small red onions(the red onions at Kroger are always huge). For dinner that night we had Bacon & Tomato Sandwiches, Fried Squash & home canned Green Beans. Delicious!!



After purchasing the produce that I had specifically gone for, I decided to walk thru the market to see what else was available.
I was surprised to see Wine for sale. They were set up so you could taste the various wines that were available and even though it was only 10:00 on a Saturday morning (their clock said 5:00) I got to taste several kinds of locally made wine. Some of them I liked and others not so much, but in the end I decided to purchase a bottle of the apple wine. I think what swayed my decision was the name - Alvaton Apple.

I'm planning on waiting until the kids are here to open the bottle. It was a little more expensive than what I prefer to buy, but I thought this would be nice for a special occasion.


On a similar note - a few weeks prior to this I asked handyman to pick some strawberries for us so I could make some jam. He picked enough for us to have a couple of shortcakes, make a batch of jam, and freeze enough crushed berries for two more batches of jam.


I love the bright red color you get from freshly made strawberry jam. It tastes delicious too!