YAY!!! ... A New Toy!

Dear Hubby sure knows the way to my heart.  Yesterday he told me that he would like to go and price some carpet cleaners and my eyes lit up lol.  I know, I know, I'm not normal.  It's the little things, like the fact that my floors will finally feel cleaner to me.  I wish we could afford to rip all of it out and put in new flooring, but I will settle for the little things for now. 
Our house is nearly 100 yrs old and I know the carpets have been replaced since then, but to me it feels like they are older than that.  I've wanted to clean the carpets since the first day we decided to move, so this is HUGEEEE for me to finally be able to do this.  I can't wait to fire her up and put some new life back into my carpets.  Gotta run ... I hear her calling me!!!

Until next time...
Sara

Hot Weather, Relaxation & Flowers

This past week has been pretty hot and humid.  The weather man keeps calling for rain, but it seems to skirt around us just about every time.  The fields and gardens are getting pretty dry and the crops are on standstill.  The other day I was outside and noticed Mr. Squirrel running across the yard.  He seemed to be on a mission.  A little while later I caught him napping in the shade of one of the maple trees in the yard.  He was all sprawled out on the branch, enjoying the cool breeze.

While I had the camera out, I decided to take a quick walk around the yard and check on my plants and flowers.  My one bush is absolutely LOADED with these beautiful pink blossoms right now.  It's so full that the branches just hang from the weight.

I also noticed that my peony is finally blossoming.  My white one blossomed out about a week or so ago and the pink one has been loaded with buds for quite awhile already.  I figured with the lack of rain, it was being stubborn and refused to open.

I need to do a little research on my hosta plant.  This guy is getting pretty big and I would like to divide it, but I need to figure out when the best time of year is to do it.  I figured with the size of him, I could probably have enough to space it out across my entire flower bed along the backside of the garage.    The bed right now is just filled with river rock and plastic underneath.  This hosta sits on the far end of the bed and spreads about 4 feet wide.

I have 2 other hosta plants down by the garden shed, but they are a little smaller than this one, but a different variety.  They are the green with the white stripe down the center of the leaf.  I would like to eventually divide those off too,  but they have to grow up a little more yet.

Dear Hubby and I took advantage of this nice weather we have been having and decided to clean out the vehicles the other day ... all 3 of them!!!  It seems with everything that has been going on the past few months, it kept getting pushed off to the side.  We broke out the windex, armoral, and the shop vac and made an afternoon of it.  We managed to get it done between a few beers and cocktails!  Other than that, there's not much going on around here.  Just been working on the house and yard work... the typical boring stuff lol.  I hope everyone is well and enjoys their day!

Until next time...
Sara

Birthday Humor!

This has to be one of the best birthday cards ever!  Leave it to Dad's sense of humor and my brother Sam to put a smile on my face.  Thanks Mom for capturing the moment and writing it down!!!  I love how Sam has to squeeze into everything and make his presence known... too cheap to even buy me a card on his own!!! lol

I did have a wonderful birthday though and everyone from my family called to send their birthday wishes.  Dear Hubby even made me an excellent meal of steaks on the grill, garlic buttered shrimp, loaded baked potatoes and homemade birthday cake.  He even took the time to make the garlic butter, by roasting the garlic in the oven and whipping it in the butter the night before. 

I did have to prep myself though for the huge meal.  I did the trim mowing while Don was on the riding mower.  I figured with the meal he had planned, I needed to burn a few calories before hand so I didn't feel so guilty eating it.  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and family that love me so much!  My thanks to all of them for being a part of my life.

Until next time...
Sara

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to the Best Mom Ever!!! 

Thanks for being a GREAT MOM!!!
I love you and miss you!

Until next time...
Sara

A Busy Week!

This has been a busy week for Dear Hubby and I.  We have been dog sitting the Brother-in-law's dogs this week while he is on a motorcycle trip to Tennessee with his wife and a group from their church.  They dropped the dogs off with us last Fri. evening and will be returning home tomorrow.... which is not coming soon enough.  Don't get me wrong, I loveeee the dogs, but when it's been so long since I have had my own dog, let alone house dogs, they tend to get under the skin a bit.  They are slightly spoiled and always under foot.  I feel like I can't even pee alone anymore and heaven forbid you should have food..... ANYWHERE in the house that is not theirs!  Here is a rare moment where they were actually laying still long enough to get a pic.

The chocolate lab is Bosco, and the little dust mop is Stitches.  Overall they are pretty good dogs, just not trained to MY standards.

On top of taking care of the dogs this week, we also had to do some more moving.  As some of you may know Dear Hubby's Mom is in the nursing home.  About a month or so ago we had switched her into the Assisted Living side.  Unfortunately, we felt that with her deteriorating health she wasn't getting the care that she needed and had to put in a request for an emergency move back to the Medical side.  We spent hours upon hours meeting with the Director and with Hospice, voicing our concerns about what we felt wasn't right and what we are paying for and not being done.  I felt that after 3 straight days of meetings and moving my Mother-in-law, that I should just pull up a bed beside her's and take up residency also.... but they don't have a psych ward there for me!

 On a brighter note, the birds have been chirping and the sun has been shining.  It was a bit on the warm side the past few days being in the mid to high 80's, but I will take it.  Here are a few pics of the cardinal, chirping sparrow and doves that have been hanging out under my feeder.

With all this nice weather we have been having, I was also able to cut my second batch of asparagus yesterday.  I probably let them go a day or two too long, but it is what it is.  I had some pieces that were over a foot long and twice as many as I was able to cut last time.  I left a bunch of smaller, skinny pieces for seedlings for next years crop. 

Now I just need to get on Pinterest and find some good asparagus recipes.  The last batch went into some homemade beef chop suey.  I was thinking maybe some cream of asparagus soup, but we will see.  Any good suggestions for your favorite asparagus recipes?

Until next time...
Sara

Walk Around the Yard!

Yesterday afternoon Dear Hubby and I took a little walk around the yard to see what's popping up as far as flowers.  We just recently moved into the house that my husband grew up in, so everything around the place is new to me.  Here are a few pics that I took, unfortunately I don't know the names of too many of the plants or trees, so if anyone knows what they are I would greatly appreciate some help on some names.

 

 This is a bush about 6 ft tall and around, with these pretty yellow flowers.  All that Don could tell me was that it was one of the many Mother's Day gifts from over the years. 














This next tree is about 20-30 ft tall with these big white flowers.  The flowers are about the size of my palm.  I was thinking maybe a Magnolia??? or a Flowering Crab???  but I am really unsure.

These cute little blue flowers are only about 6 inches tall.  I know I have seen them in my flower catalogs, but the names escape me.

 This is another unknown for me, I'm thinking it is probably in the lily family but there are no buds yet to help me determine what it might be.

I love my big burly Maple tree in the back yard.  I don't know if it's the character in the bark or the big burls that I love more.  Now it has the little leaves popping out of the bark and it makes it look like vines crawling up the sides from across the yard.

I found this cute little bird's nest left over from last year.

I even found a couple spears of asparagus popping up already in the garden (that hasn't been cleaned out yet)  Coming from Northern Wisconsin, we usually don't tackle the gardens until at least June, so I'm not use to looking for asparagus in the middle of April.

We took a little walk down to the creek and saw a few raccoon tracks in the sand.

The coon have been paying visits on a regular basis.  They have found my bird feeder a few times already and last night I noticed the neighbor's motion light kept coming on then off then on again, so I got up to investigate.  There were 2 pretty decent sized coon playing on the neighbor's patio, Don finally opened the door and yelled at them and they took off down the alley.

We noticed the other day that there was a hole under the corner of the barn where we store the lawn mowers, so we did a little investigating.

Don had opened the door and we heard a hiss and a growl and something clunking around inside.  The insulation was all tore up and ripped down.  Upon further investigation we realized the squirrels were the culprits of all the damage.  I really hope they don't have a nest of little ones in there, I guess we have some cleaning up to do!!!  Just outside the building are a bunch of left overs from their winter feasts of our black walnuts.

Between the coon and the squirrels I think Dear Hubby and I are going to have to go on varmint patrol.  I hope you enjoyed our little walk around the yard.  Again, if anyone knows the names of any of my plants, trees or bushes, I would appreciate the help.

Until next time ...
Sara

Another New Chapter!!!

WOWZERS ~ It's been a long time since I have posted last.  I feel like I have gotten whipped away to a different world these past few months, oh wait, I have been.  Oh where do I begin ...  This past December, Don found out that the company that he was working for decided that they were going to be closing their doors.  They informed him that they were going to try to remain open until the end of March, with lay offs as certain jobs were no longer needed.  A week after getting the news of the company closing, my father-in-law passed away.  With Christmas just a few days away and New Year's following right behind, we were rushed to do a service to honor his wonderful life that fit into the families schedules from out of state.  I think with the restrictions we had we gave him a service that would have exceeded his expectations. 

Two weeks after we laid him to rest, I ended up in the E.R. with seizures and a brain aneurysm.  Of course at the time of this happening, it had to be some of the worst weather of the season.  With the windchill, we were having -50 below temps and a snow storm that reminds you of what life would be like living in the Arctic.  The ambulance had taken me to Rochester, which is only about 10 miles away, but with the condition I was in (blood pressure of 215/200),  they didn't have the proper Dr's to treat me.  They decided to transport me over to Fort Wayne, which is about 2 hrs away on a good day.  They wanted to transport me by helicopter, but with the weather conditions, decided it wouldn't be safe to lift off and were forced to transport me by ambulance again.  I was in Fort Wayne for 4 days but have no recollection of being there.  I wasn't in a coma, but I was non-coherent.  I do remember talking to my Momma on the phone for a brief moment before I was out of it again, and I vaguely remember Don trying to feed me jello and whipping it off my cheek.  I remember thinking to myself while he was feeding me that "Boy, you can tell he never babysat a little kid and had to feed it!" lol  Granted jello isn't the easiest thing to keep on a spoon while trying to feed a half-coherent patient, but I do remember chuckling to myself over the situation.

About 2 weeks after I was released from the hospital, Don's position with the company had finally come to an end and he was left without a job.  We decided to take advantage of his time off and we moved to a different place.  With his father's passing and his mother being in the nursing home, we decided to move into their house instead of letting it sit empty.  I look at moving here as a new chapter in life, moving forward to bigger and better things.  Lord knows it can't be any worse than the past few months have been and that it can only go up from here.  So here are a few pics of our "new to us" home.

We have 4 city lots that sit on the edge of a small town with a population of about 500 residents.

The little brown shed on the left side of the above photo is our property line to the north.  The house sits on the corner lot.

 

The pic above is the alley way that runs through our property and my gardening shed, compost pile and garden space.  Our property to the east here runs all the way over to the creek, which is pictured below.

 In the above pic, our property runs to just beyond where the second snow patch ends.  The trailer on the far left is part of our property, with a renter for a little extra income.

The below pic was taken from the alley looking back towards the creek.  The big tree next to the garden shed is one of our black walnut trees, which has a family of pine (red) squirrels living in it.  The little buggers were up there throwing seed pods at me while I was taking pics. 

The photo below is the backside of the house and garage.  We have a 3 season sun room on the back of the house that I am looking forward to spending a lot of time in.  I'm picturing hours of sitting out there this summer playing cards, reading or just enjoying the sunsets in the evenings.

That's the extent of my little tour for now.  As I get the inside of the house in order and as I explore my many flower beds tucked around the property, I will be sharing more pics.

Until next time ...
Sara