A New Week, A New Gate

Hello and happy Sunday, how was your week? Another crazy week here at the old Casa.

Last Monday was Valentine’s Day. I don’t know how much you celebrate but me and the hubs are pretty low key on it these days. I ask if he was getting me something and he said yes. I said have you bought it? he said no. I said I would love to have yarn. He said that was fine with him and off I went to buy for Valentine’s Day. That is how we roll around here. I like flowers but they are so expensive and do not last. I like candy but definitely don’t need it and I do love yarn and I can never get enough of it so it was a win win. Very romantic I know heee heee!!!

I actually spent Valentine’s Day with my Sister. She had to have a procedure done in Knoxville and I took her. We had to be in Knoxville at 7:00 AM. I had to leave my house at 5:30 AM to get to her house by 6:00 so we could make the almost one hour drive to Knoxville. The hubs also had to work that morning so he was up and helped take care of all the babies’ feeding and outside time. The procedure went very well and I was back home by 2:00 so I took a short nap since I had gotten up at 3:30.

It was a busy week a lot of different things going on, My sister and her procedure, I had to take Molly for an allergy shot, Sister lunch and work of course but I guess the thing that stands out the most is The Gate. Let me explain.

My husband and I have been married for more than thirty years. We have been through a lot together, a kidney transplant, with me being the donor for him, job changes, we have built two houses together, one house to live in and one house to sell. So you see those are things that can be challenging for a couple. Especially the building of the houses. But nothing and I repeat nothing has ever caused us to disagree more than the gate we decided to have installed at the top of our driveway.

Our driveway is very long, a lot of people drive down our driveway not realizing that it is a private drive. Now that we have all the kitties and they are out on the driveway someone could come down the drive and run over one of them. I can’t even think about that. So we decided to install a gate at the top to prevent anyone from coming in. Plus a gate would add extra security. When they say that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, were they ever right, whoever they may be. I totally thought my husband knew what I wanted in a gate and he thought I knew what he wanted and it was supposed to be somewhat the same thing. Wrong!!!

On Monday when I came home from taking my sister to Knoxville the men who were putting in the gate were at the top of our driveway. They have done lots of work for us. They built our deck on the back of the house a few years ago. We know and love them. None of the happenings in this story was totally their fault. I waved as I went through and went on in to take that nap I mentioned. On Monday all they did was set some poles so nothing too exciting with the gate.

On Tuesday hubs called and said they were working on the gate and it was almost finished. He was so happy and excited. I couldn’t wait to see it.

When I pulled into the driveway that afternoon all I could see was this huge wooden fortress looking thing with a metal gate in the middle. The wood on either side of the gate was not even. It was so uneven that it actually hurt your eyes to look at it. Because of the property line, so I am told, one side of the wooden fortress was much shorter than the other. Also the gate almost looked like it was off its hinge the way it was hanging. I drove on down to the house in shock. Hubs came bounding out of the house all excited. “Do you love it”? he asked. Lord I just couldn’t help it I was so ugly about that gate. NO!!!! I said. “I hate it”. It’s not what I expected at all. I thought it was going to have one post on each side. It looks like a fortress. A jacked up fortress!!! Who do I look like? freaking Rapunzel?? I knew I was terribly over reacting about the gate but I was so disappointed. He said they had been in a bit of a hurry and would be back the next day to straighten out anything we didn’t like. I suggested they remove it. This didn’t go over too well. We live in a very rural area and certainly don’t need anything fancy but it wasn’t what I had in mind. Lots of heated words were exchanged that night. We called a wary truce and called it a night.

After much deliberation on the gate we decided to extend the other side to make it more even. I know!!! even more fortressy looking. But at this point I was unsure what would help. When they returned a couple of days later we, me and hubs, both met with them at the house. I told them we had had some miscommunication with each other. Me and hubs, not them. Because we were close to the property line we were not going to be able to add more wood to the other side of the fortress. They suggested we shorten the longer side and make the two sides even. Well yeah!!!! That is what I had in mind in the first place. So they took half of it out, they rehung the gate and redid the wood slats. We still have a lot of work to do. We have to paint the wood and we bought those cute little solar end caps to go on the posts. We will also plant shrubs around it. I will definitely show before and after pictures when it is all done. And I guess for now the divorce is on hold. Rapunzel has spoken.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Wordless Wednesday 2-16-22

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Happy Birthday to My Blog

Again I say this. Same sentence just a different year. It’s so hard to believe that four years have passed since I started writing this blog. A lot of things have happened in these four years. I will recap a few:

We lost my brother Allen. (2018) He passed away on February 13th. One year ago today actually. It was a blow to our family. He had just celebrated his Birthday on February 10th. And while he had been sick we thought he would recover and he didn’t. Writing about him was one of the very first blog posts I did you can read it here if you missed it. Saying Goodbye to my Brother Allen. He was the best big brother in the world. He was quite a bit older than me and was actually in the military when I was only five years old. But as we got older we became really good friends. He loved to travel and he liked hearing about all of my adventures. We talked a lot about places we wanted to visit. He loved looking a travel pictures. He had the biggest heart.

*My brother was a veteran in the* *Airforce and I always thought he looked so handsome in his uniform.*

We got Scruffy!!!! (2018) It’s really strange the way we got our Scruffy boy. My sister and her husband were coming back from my brother, Allen’s, funeral and it was storming and raining really hard. They noticed a small dog in their headlights as they turned into their garage. It was Scruffy. He followed them into their garage where he spent the night. He was in terrible shape. He had a bad skin infection and was almost totally blind from cataracts. I went over the next day and got him and took him to the vet. He was not chipped. No one came forward when we tried to find an owner. I took him home. It is one of the best things I have ever done in my life. He was only about six years old at the time. We have no idea what happened to his eyes. A couple of months later we got cataract surgery for his eyes and he can see!!!

***This is what poor Scruffy looked like when we first got him.***

A couple of months later that same year my little mother in law fell and broke her hip. She had a lot of issues and had to move into an assisted living center. She had just befriended a small gray cat at her house. Mark and I started going over and feeding the kitty and we fell in love with her. That is how we got our sweet Kitty Kitty. She also had some health issues. A polyp in her nose was preventing her from breathing without making a horrible noise. We took her to the U.T. Veterinary hospital, same place Scruffy had his cataract surgery, and they were able to remove the polyp and now she is just fine.

***Kitty Kitty looks like such a baby. She was only about six weeks old when we got he***r.

In July of this past year we added five more kitties to our family. We now have eight fur babies to take care of. We love them all and now can’t imagine life without them. You can read more about the kitties in this post. She came in on little cat feet.

And in the meantime lots of other things happened. My great nephews and nieces have grown up so much, they have graduated from high school, started college, gotten cars and jobs, started middle school and high school. And they don’t care much about spending time with aunt Lisa anymore. HA!!
We have taken trips, vacations, had anniversary and graduation parties, had doctor visits, some of them just plain terrifying, Mark had shingles which landed him in the hospital for three days. You can read about that here: Scary Times
We celebrated holidays, retirements, sickness and health. We had approximately 208 Sister Lunches.
And don’t let us forget COVID. This led to a whole other world of not seeing family and friends, not spending time together, job challenges and being quarantined.

Wow!!! As I said a lot has happened in the last four years. I know you can tell from reading this that my family means the world to me and I would do anything for any of them.

Through the last four years I have enjoyed having this blog so much!!! It is a place I come to and share things with you. I published 318 blog posts. And I am so grateful for each and every one of you who take the time to visit, read or comment or like my posts. It is a great way to get to know new friends from all over the world. I have made some amazing friends since I started my blog. I now have an online diary of pictures and happenings of my life. I know a lot of people think blogs are on the way out but I still think they have a great place in our world. If you are thinking of starting a blog I would highly encourage it.

So here is to many more years. Thank you so much for reading!!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday. I don’t know about you but I am so ready for the weekend.

I wanted to share some of my favorite things with you this week. So here we go.

I purchased my first orchid. My friend Penelope has so many beautiful pictures of hers. She always talks about how cheerful they can be all winter long. I decided I wanted an orchid. I have had this one for over a week and it is still alive so that is a good thing. Of course I have had some helpful tips from Penelope. I am eager to add a few more in different colors.

I just have to tell you how much I love this foaming face wash. I use it every day when I take my makeup off. It makes my skin feel so soft and clean.

Check out these Valentine’s earrings from Made to Shine. This site has lots of different earrings you can check them out here. http://www.made to shine.com

My love picture I bought at Hobby Lobby. I bought it on the clearance rack for $5.00. I think it fits perfectly for Valentine’s Day.

I have pulled off of knitting for a minute to work on this temperature blanket. The colors of yarn coordinate with the daily temperatures. I have been recording the average temp every day since January 1st. I am on January 18th. The rows are really quick to crochet and by the end of the year you will have 365 rows. I am so excited about this I have wanted to do one for years. Those darkest blue colors were during the cold snap we had in January when the daily temps were only about 35 degrees F. I will keep you updated on the progress

My Pioneer Woman place mats. I am loving them. I think they even look a little Valentiney.

This series on Netflix, The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window. this is an interesting series. It has quite a bit of satire and is a little silly at times but I enjoyed it.