Hello Monday

Hello friends how was your weekend? I had big plans for my weekend big plans I tell you. But in typical “me” fashion when I plan too much I get totally overwhelmed and wind up not doing much at all. But oh well isn’t that what weekends and days off are for.

Let me just tell you the weather here has been pretty much perfect. Cool mornings warming up to toasty, but not too hot, sunny afternoons. The leaves are falling. When I am driving down the road I have to stop and get a picture of all the beautiful colors. Sometimes I get caught in a swirl of falling leaves and I just have to stop and watch them. Luckily, I live on a road with not much traffic.

On Friday night the moon was almost full and Mark and I went out to try and get some moon shots. He was using his big camera with a tripod so his shots looked better than mine. I just didn’t want to drag everything out and I used my cell phone. I wasn’t really after a detailed shot. But I didn’t think my little cell phone did too bad.

Saturday was a beautiful day. The kitties were playing by the lake. They love the cooler temperatures with the warm sunshine. They are so active during the day. They roam everywhere. We always bring them in at night because of the bastardly coyotes.

I spent some time out on the deck reading and maybe taking a short nap. It was so nice. There was a slight breeze just enough so that the sun didn’t get too warm.

I worked on the temperature blanket. I am getting a little behind on it. I have heard some people say once they get so far behind they don’t feel like they can catch up so they just stop working on it. Remember it is one row per day so if you get a month or so behind you have a lot of catching up to do. I am not that far behind. Yet. Lol.

***So many red and orange colors. I am ready for some cooler colors.***

I also worked on my Halloween hats cross stitch. I probably spent more time on this than anything. The going is really slow on this. I’ll be lucky to have it finished in time to put it out for Halloween.

Sunday afternoon my nephew and his wife brought over this large bench. This bench has been in our family for a lot of years. My sister first had it in her house for many years. She then gave it to my nephew and his wife, and they had it for several years. They decided to get rid of it and I hated for it to be out of the family I said I would take it. So, they brought it over and we put it in our upstairs hallway. I think it fits there just perfectly. I have always loved this bench. I was really glad to get it. I have a thing for benches. The only problem is they take up a lot of room.

So that is about it for my weekend. Grocery shopping and laundry and the usual also. A lot of down time and that was just fine. So how was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello friends and happy Monday. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had a bit of a whirlwind weekend and am currently in San Antonio for the week. I always hate leaving my husband and kitties behind but knowing my husband is there and taking care of everything makes my being gone so much easier. I am still emotional thinking about Scruffy not being with us and I will miss him forever.

I took part of Friday off because I knew I had several things to get done before leaving on Sunday. We also had a visit scheduled with the staff at the nursing facility where my MIL is staying. We do this every two weeks to determine how she is doing, what progress is being made etc. and most importantly when she might be able to return to the Assisted Living Village that she knows and loves as her home. It went pretty well and the plan is still to get her back to the Village.

Once I got home I started rummaging through my closet. I’m wondering what on earth I am going to pack for five days of mid ninety degree weather in Texas. The weather in our part of Tennessee has been so lovely. And the coming week is cooler weather and definitely fall temps. Oh well I will enjoy when I get back.

So I dug out several things I could take with me that won’t make me have a total meltdown on the streets. I am such a procrastinator when it comes to packing and I knew realistically I wouldn’t even start until late Saturday night. And I didn’t.

Saturday morning I did a grocery pickup. I also did laundry for the upcoming week. I puttered on some projects, full force packing procrastination was real, I cooked dinner, I even watched the end of the UT and Florida game. Finally I drug myself upstairs to start packing. I don’t know why I hate to pack I guess it’s because I never know what to wear.

I had to get up at 4:00 AM Sunday morning to get everything ready to go. My flight didn’t leave until 10:00 AM but I had an hour long drive to Knoxville to meet a couple of other people going with me. I like to get up really early anyway and chill for a few minutes while I drink coffee. And no matter how much time I allow I am a big rushing mess getting out of the house. Thankfully Mark was there when I left and he helped load my very heavy suitcase, it weighed 43 pounds, and get me on my way.

Our flight was very uneventful and we made it to San Antonio by 1:00 which was actually 2:00 for me because of the time change. We are staying downtown near the Riverwalk. After stashing our bags we took a short walk near the Riverwalk and got something to eat. Events were planned for later that evening so we went back to the hotel to prepare for that.

More pictures of the trip in a few days.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello Monday

Hello friends, How was your weekend? it was back to work for me today. After those first few initial hours back I am fine but man where did my week go? And how did it pass by so fast?

I spent the day today catching up on email and getting some things done that had come up while I was off. I also spent some time on several frustrating phone calls with our vet, The UT Veterinary hospital and then finally getting Scruffy an appointment with the vet my niece works with. I am so worried about him I can’t think straight about anything. I am just afraid that something is being missed. I want to do whatever I can for him. I think we need a second opinion.

As you may know from my previous posts we did a staycation last week. Scruffy is not doing well and I just didn’t feel right leaving him behind with anyone and taking him with us was not an option.

It was a fun week. A lot of chilling out and not doing much mixed with some work outside in the shrubs. We also got our gate painted, finally. We still have some landscaping to do around the gate so it is not completely finished. We removed some dead bushes and cleaned up a large area in front of the house.

I had lunch with my sister, my niece and a friend on Tuesday. We also took flowers to my sister Pat’s grave. I visited my MIL a few times while we were off. She is doing pretty well, she is still getting therapy at the full facility nursing home.

On Thursday I went to Knoxville with my sister and we did a little shopping. So many of the stores don’t have a lot of merchandise. A cashier at TJ Maxx told us that they were hardly getting any orders in.

On Friday hubs and I went to a nearby town that we rarely visit. Mark wanted to visit a shop there. It was a beautiful drive. We also stopped for lunch at a small restaurant. They specialized in barbecue and we had the brisket. It looked amazing but the taste was not there. We didn’t eat half of it which is a good thing I guess because the portions were huge.

***The view was totally worth the drive.***

***The food looked amazing but it was not. The French fries were the best part of the meal.***

On Saturday I did a grocery pickup and drove to Sweetwater to deliver some bread I had baked to my nephew. He has been asking for my bread for a long time. I finally got some bread made and delivered. It was a beautiful but foggy morning.

***I stopped by my MIL’s house on Saturday and just look at these spider webs.***

We also celebrated our sweet Scruffy on National Dog Day. I have an appointment tomorrow to get a second opinion on the congestive heart failure. He is having some other issues now and I’m just not sure that is all that is going on. Prayers for my sweet Scruffy.

Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday, It’s Vacation Time!!!

I was supposed to be waking up at the beach this morning for my first full day of vacation. But you know how plans are, sometimes they’re just not meant to be.

We decided to stay home and not do our beach vacation this year. With everything that is going on with Scruffy I just didn’t feel like going away and leaving him. He is on several different meds for the congestive heart failure and he is doing really well. But because he is still not feeling the best I just didn’t want to leave him. Taking him with us really wasn’t an option .He is having some diarrhea and a ten hour car ride for him, and us, would have been miserable. My sister in law usually keeps him for us but I just didn’t feel right asking her to handle all of that. The meds and cleaning up after him right now is a lot. I didn’t want to board him because it is just so stressful on him. Changing the dates was not a problem for me but Mark’s work has been so crazy this was the week he needed to take.

So here we are. I guess we are having a “staycation” I am not really upset about the vacation and to be honest I think Mark is sort of happy to spend a week at home doing nothing. I guess this is not the time to tell him my big plans for the week like cleaning out the garage, cleaning the driveway, painting our gate that never got painted and planting shrubs around the new gate. Yeah I will let him enjoy his coffee first. Realistically I know I won’t get those things done either but it is fun to dream.

But first I have to tell you about our great family day we had last Sunday. It was my Sister in Law’s Birthday. My niece and her daughter came in from California and we had lots of other family we hadn’t seen in years. It was a great time. I volunteered to bake the cake. I was a little nervous because I hadn’t made a really large cake in a long time. But it turned out great. Nothing fancy just colorful and it was yummy. The Birthday was held at The Fort Loudoun State Historic Area. There is lots of room to play and fish and hike and just have fun. We love this place.

***My sister-in-law, Pat and her daughter***

***Spending time with family is just the best. I love these guys!!!***

I actually started my vacation on Friday. I was scrolling through Facebook on Friday morning and saw that there was a Trade Fair at The Living Heritage Museum in nearby Athens. So I jumped up, got ready and got to the museum around noon.

There were several artist set up demonstrating their art. Such talent and great ideas. I enjoyed it so much. I think it was the perfect start of my vacation.

***The spinning and quilt making were my favorites.***

***I am fascinated by bee keeping. My dad had bees when I was growing up. I would love to have them now but Mark is allergic and is terrified of having them here.***

***This lady was demonstrating Calligraphy***

***Lots of people were trying to weave.***

I stopped in and saw my MIL at the nursing home. We had a great visit. She is still having therapy so that she can get stronger and move back to the Assisted Living Village where she was living.

Got groceries and went home and chilled. I don’t take Scruffy on long walks anymore. He is just not interested and the vet said to do what he feels like doing.

On Saturday I did some house cleaning so that I could enjoy the week off. I also read on one of my online books I have through the Libby App. I go to the app and I reserve books that I want and it seems like they all become Available at the same time. You do have the option of putting them off for a week and still stay in the rotation. I have had to do that a few times.

On Sunday I was very lazy. I worked on my Halloween cross stitch and took Scruffy for a couple of short walks. I decided to make meatloaf for dinner. I like having the leftovers for lunch during the week.

So it should be a very quiet vacation week. I did work in my flower beds today and got a lot of old and dead plants cleaned out. Mark’s grandmother had some large concrete planters on her front porch. No one has lived in the house for years. I wanted the planters and was afraid that someone would steal them before we had a chance to get the. Mark brought them home last week and I can’t wait to get them cleaned up and some flowers planted in them.

***I can’t wait to use these.*** ***They are very old.***

We finished up the day going into town and getting dinner and bringing it back home. I got a yummy chicken Cesar salad.

So how is your week going so far? I plan to have a lot of fun on my “staycation”. Sometimes those can be just what you need.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!