Hello Monday

Hello friends, how are you? There’s not a lot going on with me right now but I did want to catch up with you. I am quite okay with nothing going on. I have been working and taking care of all of the babies. Taking care of the babies is actually a lot. Four cats and a very large dog can take up a lot of your time. I have been to some thrift stores and a couple of estate sales and I will show you a few of my favorite finds. I have several knitting and crocheting WIP’s. That stands for Work In Progress. I am working on a new shawl, some socks, an afghan for a Christmas present, and a Halloween cross stitch. So I have a lot to do to finish all of those. I will keep you posted.

I had a visit to the dentist last week to get my Invisalign Braces checked and possibly to see if I was finished with this little season of torture I have been in, Just kidding it hasn’t been too bad and I have lost sixteen pounds since starting. so that is a very good thing. I knew two teeth were not quite together and touching the way they needed to be and sure enough more trays were ordered. I will be in these another two to three months. Boo, I am little sad but I want them to be the way they need to be. If you missed my post about getting my braces you can check it out here.

A couple of weeks ago my sister and two nieces and I went to Knoxville with my future niece in law. She had reserved a time at a bridal shop to try on wedding dresses. So fancy. My wedding dress actually came from JC Penney’s. I ordered it. That was a different time. I am overjoyed that she is experiencing everything possible on her wonderful day. I was so happy to be invited for her dress shopping. I had never been wedding dress shopping. The shop was beautiful and they served us champagne and took photos and it was just lovely.

***It was a family effort to help pick the dress.***

My sister and nieces and I took advantage of being in Knoxville and decided to check out Vintage Market Days. This is a fairly big show with antiques, crafts, lots of Christmas and Halloween decor and it happened to be going on the same weekend. It was a lot of fun but I didn’t really find a lot. I bought two small pictures and a small basket. I am collecting baskets to make a basket garland to hang on the side of my kitchen window. It’s not one of the huge garlands that some people are hanging around their mantels. Mine will be small compared to those. All of my baskets are fairly small. I saw a post on Instagram where someone had done this and I loved it.

***All of these baskets could fit in the palm of your hand. I like the small ones. It is so much fun looking for them and not as easy as you might think to find them.***

I have been working on a granny square blanket. I am using eleven different colors. Each square has four different colors. I put all of the colors into a bowl and randomly draw out four. Those are the four I use for that particular square. I am loving this. Some of the colors seem weird together but when I crochet them into a square they look very unique. I try to do at least one a day.

***Here are the colors and a few finished squares.***

***I put a piece of each color in this bowl and draw them randomly.***

***My big bag I use to keep everything together***

One of my favorite thrift finds so far, is this precious clock that I found at a garage sale for $1.00. It is about 8 inches tall. I told my friend I was with, that even if it didn’t work I could replace the clock movement. The woman selling it told me that it chimes every hour and drove her husband crazy. I took it home and put batteries in it and it works perfectly. It also keeps perfect time. It chimes a different tune every hour. I love it!!!

I wanted to mention a few books I have recently finished either by reading or audio book. I will do a much better review of more that I have read very soon.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I can’t believe I hadn’t read this book before. I love Ann Patchett. But it was not one of my favorites of Ann’s. But I did enjoy it. She is such an amazing writer. I would give it a 3 out of 5.

This is the story of Lara and her three daughters who return to the family orchard in Northern Michigan. Lara tells her daughters about her past when she worked for a theater company called Tom Lake. She also shared her romance, or most of it, with a famous actor Peter Duke. Delving into her past makes the daughters consider their own future. It is definitely worth a read especially if you are an Ann Patchett fan.

The Correspondent. This was an audio book for me and it was a little long in places. But the letters that Sybil Van Antwerp wrote to her brother, her best friend, to famous actors, etc. makes you want to consider writing a letter, not a text, to correspond with whomever you want to. Why not? I grew to love Sybil and felt totally in tune with her. I would give this a 4 out of 5.

Theo, oh Theo how I want to be you when I grow up. I was a little late to the game of reading Theo of Golden, but it is a book I will treasure. Theo arrives in a small southern town and visits a local coffee shop. He notices pencil portraits of people of Golden hanging on the walls of the shop. Theo begins purchasing these photos and gives them to each person in the photo. There is a reason Theo picks this town and you will discover that when you read the book. Theo made me want to be a better person, a more loving and forgiving and kind person. How many authors can do that? I give this a 5 out of 5. I will always have this book in my library. Read it!!!!!!!

So that is what has been going on with me. How about you?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

What A Crock!!!!

It was actually about 7:00 PM Saturday night, Labor Day Weekend, that I started this post. I was thinking about the days events and suddenly it was hilarious. Not all of it just parts of it. I guess I just had to laugh or cry about the whole day. This is what went down:

It started Saturday morning last week. My nephew Chris and his wife Amy and another nephew Tyler met at my house to hang a picture, put down a big rug and go to the Mennonite Market near Tellico Plains.

After getting the rug down and the picture hung and furniture placed we took off for the market. We also decided to visit some of the local antique stores in Tellico Plains. We first had a delicious lunch and then split up to visit the shops. Things were going great!!!

I have a favorite shop on the corner square and just as luck would have it I found a large jug/crock to add to my collection. It was quite large and heavy. It was sort of buried in the back of a shelf and I almost didn’t notice it. I told the store owner that I would swing back by to pick it up as we started out of town.

After visiting a few other shops we started to leave town and I had Chris, who was driving, swing by the shop to pick up my jug. Tyler, the other nephew jumped out with me to get the crock and carried it to the truck. We decided to put it in the backseat between us so it wouldn’t get damaged.

As we were driving out of town Tyler said that he smelled something really bad. I said maybe the fields were being fertilized. Tyler said no, that it smelled like death. He leaned over the jug and said “it’s coming from this”!! I too leaned over to sniff and it was really bad!! The top of the jug was too narrow and deep to see what was in the bottom. But we were pretty sure there was something dead at the bottom.

We were about fifteen minutes from my house and as soon as we got there Tyler jumped out of the truck with the crock. He ran over and started beating the crock on the ground. I yelled at him to stop because I was afraid he would break it. No sooner had the words left my mouth, that he yelled out that he had broken the handle off. I’m not going to lie I was so mad at him. I was furious. I had just paid a lot of money for that crock and because he was careless it was ruined. He told me he would pay for it and I said “forget it, it’s ruined” It’s an antique I yelled out.

After several shakes of the crock a lot of gross things started to come out. It appeared to be a nest. A rat’s nest!!! Sure enough a small rat carcass came out. We grabbed the water hose and started filling it with water. I turned around for a second and heard my niece say that the crock appeared to have blood in it. Nope, Tyler said, “that’s my blood” The crock was wet and slippery and it slid down the inside of his hand. Slicing his hand as it went.

When I first saw his hand the cut looked much worse than it actually was. A lot of blood will do that. He had sliced the part of his hand just under his thumb. At first it looked as if the gash went all the way down his wrist. I am not one to be calm in situations like this and I freaked out!!! Luckily Chris’ wife Amy is much calmer. We washed the cut, and got a better look at the gash, and all agreed he needed stitches. Amy and Chris wrapped his hand and I drove him to town to the Urgent Care.

Luckily we were the only ones in the place and he got right in to see the doctor. She said she had to make sure there didn’t appear to be tendon damage. Luckily there was not. He got four stitches and we were headed out within the hour.

Tyler is actually my great nephew and though he is 24 years old I guess I still feel responsible for anything that happens to him when he is with me. I felt so bad that he had cut himself. I knew it would affect his job for the next week or so. I felt just terrible that I had gotten so mad at him.

Tyler went home and I went back to my house. I went back out in the yard, to the scene of the crime, and continued cleaning the crock. Two more rat carcasses came out. I also felt bad that the rats had gotten into the crock and couldn’t get out. Tyler said at least they all died together.

I cleaned and cleaned the crock and finally filled it with bleach and let it sit like that for a couple of days.

I glued the handle back on and it doesn’t look too bad. But more importantly I did learn a lesson that day. “Things” can be fixed a lot easier than people can. And I need to be more forgiving when accidents happen.

What a story, one we will never forget. I know I won’t.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

An Old Lady Gets Braces

Through the years I have always had a bit of a buck toothed situation going on. I also had a gap on each side of my upper four front teeth. It never bothered me while growing up but I noticed as I got older that the gaps were increasing and I was possibly starting to look like Howdy Doodie. Many of you may be too young to know who that is.

My dentist told me that as we get older teeth shift. Several years ago I had looked into getting braces. I was going to have to wear them for a while and I am talking the full metal package. I decided against them. I could deal with the spaces.

My dentist retired and I have a new dentist. When I went for a cleaning she mentioned Invisalign braces. These are clear flexible trays that fit into your mouth. You can barely see them.

I said I would think about it. I have been through a lot this year and just didn’t want to make any big decisions. Plus they are not cheap. That was last year and I said I would think about it after the first of the year.

Fast forward to May and another cleaning. The lady cleaning my teeth, who I love, asked me about Invisalign. I told her I was still thinking. She said she had them and was in her fifth week. I couldn’t believe it. You could not tell she was wearing them. She went through a bit of the process with me. You have to wear them 20 to 22 hours a day. You cannot eat while wearing them and you can only have water while wearing them. It is a commitment. You get a set of trays based on X-rays of your mouth. You switch the trays out every week. The number of weeks you have to wear them, and the number of trays, depends on how much correcting you need. I said “sign me up!”

I got the ex rays that day and the braces were ordered. It took a few weeks to get them in.

I had my appointment to get them and everything went smoothly. You actually have to have these little buttons put on several of your teeth. Again, the number of buttons corresponds with the severity of the correction. The buttons help guide the teeth to straighten and shift them where they need to be. I received a box with 13 trays, numbered by the week.

One of my buttons kept popping off because it was being placed on a capped tooth. So the tooth was smooth and the button didn’t adhere well to the tooth. I have already popped it off a couple of times and had to return to have it put back on. I have 13 buttons total.

Now, what do I think of these? I can let you know more in a couple of months. I am starting my sixth tray this week. You change each tray every 7-10 days. You can tell when they are ready to change out because they get loose. I suddenly start having a problem pronouncing my s’s.

I have my 2 hours a day down to the minute. I usually have them out for an hour in the morning while I have coffee and eat breakfast. I then take 30 minutes at lunch and 30 minutes when I get home for dinner. It is a bit of a pain to have to brush and floss after every single meal or snack so taking them out is a decision to be made.

A plus to all of this is that I have lost 9 pounds. It really makes you realize how much mindless snacking you do. Or let me say that I did.

I know this is a commitment that will last forever. I will have to wear a retainer at night. I am okay with that because I have been wearing a bite guard for years.

I am sharing a couple of very candid photos of my teeth. It is a bit uncomfortable to put them out there but I want you to know the full process.

***When I first started five weeks ago. You can see the buttons on several of my teeth.***

I will have to wear these for about 16 weeks. I have read that the shifting mostly takes place the last few weeks. We shall see. I am also using a whitener that helps but some of this is just from the photos.

Most insurances do not cover this procedure. But it never hurts to try. Mine did not. It is about a $5,000.00 investment.

I know that sounds like a lot of money but I had become very self conscious of smiling. I hated the gaps on the side of my teeth and these photos don’t do them justice. So I decided before they got any worse I would try the Invisalign. There are days I wish I hadn’t started it. No sipping on coffee on the way to work unless I am prepared to take them out. I think in the long run it will be worth it. I will keep you posted. Pictures were taken on the sides and I can share those at the end of the process.

That is just a little about what has been going on with me. How about you? Have you ever tried Invisalign or know someone who has?

I am not receiving money for posting this but if any of the Invisalign sponsors would like to pay me for my opinion I am willing. Ha!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello, It’s Thursday, Let’s Catch Up

I am currently sitting in my living room where I just saw a huuuuuge spider around my fireplace grate. I grabbed bug killer and sprayed but he got away. I am sure he will be back to get me while I sleep. Darn cats and Bunnie I thought they took care of these creatures. That is my current Thursday evening.

Hello friends, you may have been wondering if I would ever return. I have wondered myself. I love my blog and sharing with all of you. I also enjoy reading all of your posts. I am getting caught up. It is just that I haven’t been myself. I guess I never will be that person that I was before my husband passed seven months ago. I actually had to go back and read that sentence again because it is so hard to believe that it has been seven months. Sometimes it seems like only yesterday. The pain feels like it was only yesterday.

I have been trying to keep busy but it doesn’t really matter, the grief is there, always, like a new unwanted friend who has moved in with me. She sits beside me and walks with me every step of every day. She is like a shroud that covers me and keeps me from being myself. That is the only way I can explain it.

I get by day by day and that is all I can do right now. Sometimes only hour by hour and even minute by minute.

I am back to work mostly full time. I usually work four days a week. The babies and I have developed somewhat of a routine. I guess it is that routine that has kept me somewhat sane.

I worked out in the yard for a bit on Saturday and it was great being out in the sunshine. I had to thin my irises. I took out about twenty before the spade I was using broke. I will have to get back to it next weekend. These are Irises I got from my mama’s house many years ago. I share them with all of my family so we will always have them. Bunnie stayed close beside me. Bunnie is my big dog that came to us last year in June. She is still so terrified of people. I am trying to work with her and help her adjust but she does not like me out of her sight. And the poor baby only has one good eye. I know she spends most of her time terrified unless I am right with her. Bunnie is a work in progress.

I bought a porch goose. Lucky for me I found one nearby for only $29.99. You may not be familiar with these cuties but they are very popular right now. I named mine Millie. I think she is a Canadian Goose. We have a lot of those on our lake right now.

***Here she is in her St Patrick’s Day outfit that I crocheted for her. I am currently working on her Easter outfit.***

I am trying to work on another jigsaw puzzle but look who is on top of it. I’m not sure why Gus and Kitty Kitty love lying on the puzzle pieces.

I have been spending some of my Saturdays going to estate sales in our area. I go with my nephew and his wife. We have had the most fun. Look at these two chairs I got for only $25.00 each. They are in great shape and very sturdy. I am going to paint them and put them at the lake. They have a very beautiful flower pattern on the arms.

***I can’t wait to get these painted.***

I can’t remember if I shared my photos of my crocheted sweater that I finally finished.

It’s actually not as dark as it looks in the photo on top.

This is more the original color. But man it is heavy. It has already gotten so warm here I will probably have to wait until next winter to wear it. That’s okay.Please excuse the mess in the background.

Most of the Daffodils came and went. But aren’t they beautiful.

I am busy making my sweet goose Millie an Easter outfit. I will show you when I am finished.

I am watching closely and still haven’t seen the spider.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!