Time Flies!

In just a few more days, 2011 will be 1/2 over.  In some ways it seems like the year just started, and in others it feels like it should be much later!  I think that June has really flown by!

Yesterday was almost a wash for me. I started out energetic enough, but after a visit to the good doctor, I drug my tail through the rest of the day. I worked in a desultory fashion on a few things, but mostly just sat and stared off into space. It isn't really like me to have such a day, but I guess it's okay to be out of sorts once in a while.

I did accomplish one of the more onerous tasks on the list, and that was to clear off my desk and make some new files. I don't know why that seemed so bad, but I had certainly been dreading it with vigor! I also got the new red shelves in the garage lined, and organized all the painting supplies to fill it. I am not sure I would have accomplished that task had Ornery not been out in the garage hanging the pegboard.  I wanted to be with him, and it is hard to just sit out there amid the chaos without doing something.

He did get the pegboard hung, using his new miter saw to make the cuts for the furring strips. He had a Cheshire Cat grin on as he made the cuts. I am sure Lowe's is glad he finally got one of those saws so they wouldn't have to continue to clean up the drool--he's been eyeing them for months, and any visit to any one of the local stores gave him a chance to study it more.

Now that the pegboard is hung, my next job will be to prime and paint it. Once that is complete, I will paint the workbench and then we can move everything in. With the assembly of the large Gladiator cabinet, the hanging of the tool bars and completion of the red shelves, I have made great progress with emptying boxes and finding homes for things. Really all that is left to unpack are the garden supplies and things that go on the pegboard or his workbench. We have made remarkable progress on it over the last week--really much more than I anticipated. I figured it would take us a month to get settled into the garage!

I may work on that some today, but I have a few other fish to fry first. I have a 20% off coupon for Pier 1 Imports that expires today, and I would like to see about some new pillows for the living room couch, chair cushions and possibly some table linens...  Then, I need to go by World Treasures and pick up some of the things from my booth.  We have the rent paid now through Sept. 1, but I need a few things I have there so I'll start bringing them home a few at a time.  Of course it is supposed to be another scorcher outside--it is the end of June, after all...

We have decided to take the month of July off from projects and just enjoy our new home--well, after we finish the garage. We plan to do some entertaining and I know Ornery is chomping at the bit to get out there in his new man cave to finish the clock he started back in January/February. When we resume projects in August, we'll get more painting done--maybe the kitchen first? There are a few little areas that we really want to change--they are painted a very dull grayish brown, and we still haven't painted our bathroom or the guest room, which were both pretty high on the priority list.

After it cools off in the fall, we'll begin building raised garden beds and doing some other yard work in preparation for next year's growing season. I think Mimi and Chuck are coming around Thanksgiving to help us with a few projects like the door from our closet to the laundry room and the screened porch. Before we know it Christmas will be here!

It seems an eternity ago that I was thinking about my goals for the year. I went back and read through all those posts and don't think I have accomplished a single one as they were written.  The nice thing about goals is that there isn't a set process to achieve them. Over all, I think I am in just the right place for me to be in at this time. Who knows when I look back on the year in December what I will discover about the outcomes?

Establishing Routines

Monday evening before we started working on our little projects, we sat in the library and talked for a bit. We decided we would try to get some new routines going, including reading the Bible together in the morning.

So, yesterday we made some coffee and drank it while we started reading the book of John in The Message. We got a little bit of a late start, but spent an enjoyable time talking over some of the verses we read and marveling at God's generosity and kindness. What a blessed people we are!

Since we ran out of time, I fixed Ornery breakfast to go while he shaved. It was really a wonderful start to the day. After he left, I sat down to my own breakfast and made a schedule for the remaining items on my list for this week. I started right in on the day's items--

• wash the sheets
• move the bed away from the wall to hang pictures above it (with Ornery's help--that bed is really heavy!)
• paint the purple shelf in the garage red--  I wore about as much primer and red paint as I got on the shelf, but it certainly looks better than it did! I ran out of vinyl floor tiles to finish lining the shelves, but once it is finished it will look SO nice!
• list stuff on Craigslist. The shelves we took down from the garage were gone in 10 minutes, as was the old marker board we had hanging at Miller Manor for many years. We tried to find a home for it here, but it just didn't fit. 
• picture hanging -- some in the hall needed rearranging, and I wanted to hang the three above the bed and some in the garage.

It took me all day, but I got it all done! I even managed a short little nap after lunch, but woke up when the lawn crew arrived to tame our jungle. I was a little surprised they were able to mow since it rained this morning--a wonderful dark-clouds-rumbling-skies-ground-drenching sort of rain. When Ornery came home, we ran a couple of errands--Lowe's for more tiles and WalMart for some plastic storage boxes. By the time we got home we didn't feel like working any more in the heat, so we migrated back to the library and enjoyed a quiet visit while watching the neighbor kids play with the cat.

Speaking of the cat, I have named him Trouble. (as in Here Come's Trouble!) He loves to sneak into the garage when the door is open, and yesterday after Ornery left for work I heard him meowing in there. Someone must be feeding him, because he doesn't look like he has ever missed a meal, but we are trying to discourage him from hanging out here.

Today is another busy day--after coffee and quiet time with my beloved. Hopefully, I'll get as much done today as I did yesterday!

S-L-O-W Monday

We were really dragging yesterday!  It was hot (heat index of 111+) and we were tired from the weekend. Ornery's night was cut short by the house alarm system when the back-up battery decided to die around midnight. It took him ten minutes of poking around in the box before he finally figured out how to make it shut-up.  I wish there was a way to get rid of the whole system, but I imagine it was quite expensive to install and maybe someday we will pay to have it monitored. Meanwhile, I feel a bit like Big Brother is watching me...

For some reason I woke up at 4:00 and couldn't go back to sleep, and even a coffee, some Spark and a couple of cat naps throughout the day didn't revive me.

Instead of working in the hot garage as I had planned, I concentrated on taking care of things inside.  I made an early run to Whole Foods for a few groceries, then did laundry, finished unpacking and organizing my side of the closet, and worked in the kitchen. I uncovered a small table lamp I had forgotten about, and even though it doesn't really go in the library, I put it beside my chair to read by. I will just need to buy a new shade which I can pick up on our next Lowe's run and it will work just fine.

This evening, instead of working on the garage like we probably should have been, we took care of a couple of other inside things.  Ornery took off the old broken magnets on the library shutters and replaced them--I washed the window and shutters.  Then we hung the new curtain rod and curtains in the guest room.  THAT was a pain, since the first iteration placed the rod too low on the wall for the curtains which were longer than those that previously hung there. :(  Hanging curtain rods is probably my least favorite part of decorating.  By the time we were done with those two jobs I was worn out, and even though there were a lot of other things left on that list, we went to bed!

I forget how many little details there are to take care of when you move. It seems like every time I enter a room I realize there is still something that needs to be done there.  Of course, it could be I just see ways to improve it anyway, but I will be glad when everything is all cleaned up and things finally settle into their homes so we can just relax!

Weekend in Review: The Marvelous Man Cave

Ornery swears that the last three days have actually been three weeks in duration.  I have to admit, we have certainly crammed a lot of living into the time!  It is hard to believe that we've only had Big Red (his truck) since Friday night.

Saturday, we climbed into it and went to breakfast at Panera, then over to Lowe's where we did our part for the local economy. An hour later, we were unloading all our purchases into the garage to begin Project Man Cave. The first step: Ornery had to install the "new" seat in the van. That done, he moved both vehicles to the drive way to make room for all our projects.

The previous owner had hung shelves using unpainted particle board and closet bar brackets. The result was a sturdy but ugly arrangement. We left one section up above the sprinkler controls for Christmas storage, but removed the rest of them on both sides of the garage.

In the absence of an outdoor shed (such things are closely monitored in our addition) we figured we would need to hang the garden tools on the wall. We used four sections of Gladiator tool bars and a variety of associated hooks to hang them on the north wall near the overhead door. Everything from axes to snow shovels found a spot there. It took us several hours to learn the ins and outs of stud-finding, install the bars, then unpack all the tools and arrange them to our liking, but the end result was quite satisfactory.

We removed a considerable amount of junk the previous owner left behind, then arranged the floor jack, folding tables and ladder along the wall under the shelf with the Christmas decorations. The Christmas trees went to the (very hot) attic, along with all the extra doors, screens and cabinet shelves that had been stored in the garage.  That enabled us to hang the extension ladder across the west (front) end.  It isn't the ideal spot since it impedes the opening of the water heater closet, but it was the only place that would work.

We worked in the garage until 6:00 when we took a shower, ate dinner and watched a movie to keep us from going to bed at 7:00. We both slept very well that night! The only thing that enabled us to work so long out there was the fact that there are air conditioner vents! We opened them up and set up two fans, and while it was still over 80, with the fans moving the air around it was not too uncomfortable.  We also drank a LOT of water!

Sunday morning we again ventured out in Big Red to Lowe's, this time to buy some paint. Ornery decided on a battleship gray color for the walls, pegboard and workbench so we bought a gallon of that and a quart of red to paint the big wooden shelf unit we brought from Miller Manor--it is currently purple.

The next task was to build the 48-inch Gladiator storage cabinet. What a dream to assemble! The instructions were easy to understand, the parts clearly labeled in a handy little tray, and everything went together just like it was meant to! We finished it just before lunch.

Next we moved everything from the south side of the garage out of the way, then we painted the long south wall and 1/3 of the west wall to the kitchen door with the gray. I rolled the walls while Ornery did the trim work on the top and bottom. Once we had it painted, we moved the Gladiator cabinet to its new home and loaded it up, then put the purple shelf on its back on a table for me to clean and paint today.

Once it is primed and painted, I will put peel and stick vinyl tiles (left over from the kitchen) on the shelves to help keep them clean.  We will set it up next to the Gladiator and load it with all things paint related--and as often as we paint, that is a considerable collection of stuff!  Eventually he plans to put doors on the front of it, but at least it will look nice for now.

Once he has the pegboard hung on the south wall (all sixteen feet of it!) we will paint it gray and trim it with black corner molding.  Then, we will prime and paint the workbench and cover the top with a sheet of stainless steel to keep dirt from falling between the 2X4 top pieces.

The east wall is where the overhead doors are, but on that end of the single car bay, we are going to sort of partition off one end for all the yard and garden equipment. The garden bench will face into the workshop area and its back will delineate the edge of the "shed" portion of the room. We'll be able to access the items stored beneath it from either side, and the table top will give Ornery extra work space.

We still have a lot of work to do in there, but we made significant progress this weekend. While I would like to finish it off by the end of Saturday, I know how hard it is to get much done in the evenings so I am not going to stress if we don't make it.  At any rate, I will wait until the room is finished to take and post photos, but I promise, they will be coming!

It looks like it's going to be a busy week!

A Little News

We bought a pickup last night--the same one I wrote about. It is a 2007 Toyota Tundra and has 12, 260 miles on it! There are a few things wrong with it, but anything we find will be fixed within the first thirty days.  After that we're on our own. I was shocked and amazed that Ornery got it in the garage, but he managed. It is really tall, and I have to work pretty hard to get up in it, but it is very nice, and my man is very happy. The salesman kindly asked if we wanted to have our photo taken with the heap for old times sake. No. We. Do. NOT. They gave us about 3 times as much for it in trade as we anticipated, and more than we paid for it, so we were happy!

Since my sister Mimi is not blogging at all anymore, I thought I would give a little update to the family about her latest endeavors...  They are moving into a smaller house, and before they can move in they are having to redo all the plumbing, tile the floors, move some walls and repair some termite damage. They don't ever do things by halves and this is a typical Young project! The plumbing had to be redone because it was originally built with a faulty product that was recalled--unfortunately the contractor used it after the litigation requiring repayment for its use.  It looks/sounds like a big job, but they are pretty excited about it and are making steady progress on the job.

I feel a little guilty about just painting a couple of rooms when they are practically rebuilding their house, but not TOO much. :) As for our house, I got the guest room mostly put together yesterday.  All it lacks is to hang the new curtain rod and different curtains for now.  We plan to paint in there later (it is a very dull gray/taupe color) and get a new spread, but we need to get the garage done first. We will begin on that today after Ornery puts the van back together with the new seat.

Good times shall be had by all. :)

A Change of Focus

After spending the last five months or so on things related to our dwelling, we have changed our focus to the abysmal state of our vehicles. This week the driver's seat in the van gave up the ghost and laid flat, never to revive again.  I ordered a salvage yard replacement for it which we picked up yesterday afternoon, but I have been without a car since Tuesday--it's hard to drive without a driver's seat! It has been on its way out for a couple of years, but with all the other things happening in our lives, I had not taken the time to deal with it as I should have.  The van is still fairly mechanically sound, although none of the power windows work on it and the driver door power lock doesn't work--these are mostly just inconveniences.  We recently replaced the tires on it, and not too long ago had the transmission replaced. The air conditioner and radio still work in it--the two most important things on a car as far as I am concerned!

The Jeep, on the other hand, is less than affectionately referred to as "the heap" around here.  The undercarriage is rusted out so water gets inside the passenger side in a car wash, the heat doesn't work on the passenger side at all which means in the winter when you are already cold it is even colder since the heater blows cold air on you! The rear end is shot and leaking fluid on our new garage floor, and the power lock on the passenger side door doesn't work--that is really more than an inconvenience since there is no key hole on the outside!  There is a short in the wiring for the radio which makes a loud rattling static sound most of the time, especially on rough roads (which includes practically every one of Tulsa's streets!)  The ride is quite an adventure, and every time I get in I wonder if it will strand us somewhere!

We bought it from Ryan for about $1,500. two and a half years ago, and other than new brakes and general maintenance, we haven't put any money in it.  The repairs it needs individually cost more than the car is worth, and combined tally up to several thousand dollars. It has more miles on it than the van at +/-175,000 miles to 115,000 on the van, so it is the one that is on its way out.

Ever since we turned back in the leased 2005 Tundra pickup, we have missed it, but we have really enjoyed not having any car payments.  Our reason for letting it go was to get rid of our debt, which we mostly have, but the time has come to take some action.  Hopefully soon we will have a newer pickup in the garage and be happy behind the wheel again!

So, that has been where our focus has been the past few days, doing online searches and arranging our finances to be able to buy.  Tonight we will go test drive a red 2007 Tundra Ltd. with low miles.  If it is all it is purported to be, it will come home with us to Zoe Cottage.  We'll have fun coming up with a name for it, because all nice cars should have names, don't you think?

Just Hangin'

Last night Ornery brought the ladder and drill in to hang up a few things.

 First we hung the copper wind chimes outside the library door, which is next to the front door. These puppies are really long, but the ceiling is pretty high.  We hung them a little lower by using a copper hanger that we bought at Silver Dollar City last summer. We had talked about hanging them on the back porch, but even though it is sheltered, the chimes are really loud and we were afraid they would wake us up (or the neighbors!) This way they are out of the weather and add a little something to the entry way.

 While we were there with the drill, Ornery hung the door harp.  This is the third house we have hung it in!

 Next was the mobile, which looked small in the other house but appears twice as big as I remembered in this closer area. I am sure part of it is that it hangs lower here as the ceiling is only 10 feet instead of 13 as it was in the Miller Manor living room.  Finally, we hung the oak shelves  that Chuck's dad made all those years ago on the wall next to the curio cabinet. I don't know that I am happy with the arrangements on the shelves, but they will do for now, and it enabled me to clear off the dining room table!

We didn't hang anything in the studio last night, but I thought I would post a picture of my little set up. The door behind the artbin cart to the right of the table goes into the guest bathroom.  It opens into the other room and hits the entry door from the hall. Once we get everything all settled and are ready to tackle a big project, we plan to take this door out and close up the wall on both sides, then lay tile on the floor in both the bathroom and studio/office. I'll post more pictures after I finish putting it all together.

Kitchen Pictures

I think the kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in this house. I love the bookcase, the cool little open shelves above the stove to show off my fun orange ceramics, and of course the huge pantry. I also am quite fond of the pull out shelves that Dave installed for my pots and pans in one cupboard and Pyrex dishes in another one. My only complaint so far is that the hot water never really reaches the sink.  I take a dishpan to the laundry room and fill it with hot water to wash the dishes, but it hasn't been too onerous. At least the dishwasher cleans the ones I put in there.

This is the first view coming in from the garage.  The garage door is to my left from where I am standing, and the laundry room is directly behind me.  To the left of the stove, above the counter I have all my spices, below I have racks holding all my Pampered Chef stoneware and other baking pans. Nothing slides against anything else, so there is no more screeching as I pull out a bar pan!  To the right of the stove, below are all the pots and pans and above all the baking type supplies, such as mixing bowls, food choppers, etc.  I use that little section of counter more than any other.

This is from about the same spot as the first shot, only looking a little to the right.  You can see the edge of the cookbook case just left of the center of the photo. 

The bar area opens to the dining room, and the cabinet at the end of this set opens from both the end and the front. It is an odd shape, but pretty roomy. My tool box is down there. :)

Nice long counter top, but the far cupboards both on top and bottom are pretty much unreachable. I have scads of clear glass plates for entertaining stored down below, and the glasses (which we rarely ever use because we drink out of our Nalgene bottles) are in the upper cabinet. Next to that is plates and bowls, and the far right one has cups and all the small Pyrex dishes I use for storing soups and such in the freezer.

This is the view from the other entryway.  Directly behind me is the living room, to my left is the dining room and to my right is the hall to the bedrooms and front door.

It isn't very inspiring as far as the color goes, but I have plans to paint it green--there isn't a lot of wall space, but I think that will perk it up quite a bit. :)

Pictures!

I took a few pictures yesterday afternoon to show that we really have been busy... The first three are the new library.  (You may remember the before pictures I posted here)

Now, here are a few pictures of the living room...

This is the view you first see when you walk into the room.

And, finally, a few pictures of the back yard 

See the poor grape vine in the pot? Not very happy. :(

LOVE this flagstone patio w/ pergola. It really does shade the living room.

We plan to screen in this little area this fall sometime.  It is a nice sized area and will easily accommodate a love seat and a table, which we hope to add in the future.  Meanwhile, it is a delightful spot to hang out when it is raining outside. 

Besides take pictures yesterday, I did a lot of work at my new "desk" (the old kitchen table!) taking care of the huge mess of papers that accumulated during and since the move. Most of them are happily ensconced in their appropriate places now, but I need to make a few file folders and refine my storage system a little bit. There were several business matters that needed tending: those are all caught up now, and that feels great.

Today I will work some more on the studio/office and pick up around the house. Thursday will be one month since we moved and it would be way cool to have everything put together in the house by then, although that seems a little ambitious. We still need to work some on the guest room and hang the mobile and wind-chimes, plus there is a pile of pictures I need to do something with--besides keep moving them from one room to another! The garage still needs a lot of work, but each day I have decided to do a little something out there to help it out. I know Ornery is pretty overwhelmed by the task.

Each day we get a little closer to finished, though, and after spending so many months in the mode of home repair/decorating and moving projects, I wonder how I will fill my days once we're done?!

Weekend in Review: We're Cookin' Now!!

Saturday Elizabeth came over and helped us all morning to figure out where to place things on the wall in the living room.  (I will have to post pictures at another time, but I wanted to get things recorded while I still could find them in my brain.)  By the end of the weekend we had the living room complete--for this particular version at any rate.  Other than the work, the only expense to put together the room was the cost of two 36" floating shelves which we hung above the couch.  Eventually I would like to hang some sort of quilt or tapestry wall hanging on one little section of wall that needs something, but I am not in any hurry, and I want to find or make just the right thing.

The feel of the room is very peaceful, with the only splashes of color found in the red glass I have scattered around the room.  The rest of it is very neutral, with old gold being the underlying color/theme.  We had a framed poster hanging at Miller Manor in the living room for a long time that went perfectly on the mantle. I cleared the wall units completely and replaced only the few things I wanted to keep there. The entire room is filled with favorite things from long ago and our time together as a family.  There are a few photographs, all the old clocks, favorite glass pieces and hand-made items from Mimi and Annie Laurie scattered about. By removing all the furniture from the window-wall, we can now sit and look out onto the lovely flagstone patio.

When Ornery wasn't wielding his drill to install wall anchors for the mirror or shelves, or helping me move furniture in my studio/office, he was working in the library. When Elizabeth left at 1:30, he didn't have any paint on the wall, but by the time we left for church at 5:45, we had the wall where the book cases went completely painted, all the shelves set up and about 2/3 of the books placed in them.

As usual, we were glad to have gone to church even though it was hard to want to stop when we were making so much progress.  The theme (of course) was Father's Day, and we were reminded once again that whether our earthly fathers were good or bad in their roles, we have the ultimate example in God the Father, who loves us unconditionally and desires only the best for us. Ornery and I reflected later on the idea that God loves people so much, even when they are disobedient or misled. We are so blessed to have Him as our Dad. :)

Sunday morning, we got up early and started right in on the list.  Ornery painted and I unpacked stuff in the studio.  I had to re-assemble all the little shoe shelves I had used for storing things on my table, but after that was done, the boxes were very easy to empty. I plan to bring home the little book case from the antique mall booth and put it in there with the rest of the stuff that doesn't have a home yet. I truly don't know what we were thinking to have considered putting the sauna in that room.  It would have been really crowded and not very functional.

We had planned to wait until we could do all the renovations in there to unpack and move in, but I just couldn't stand to wait that long to have my "office" back.  I have been without my address book for weeks, and June is probably the busiest month of the year for birthdays and anniversaries--hence I have missed many of them.  The calendar is hung and the file cabinet is repopulated so I am happy and back in business once again.  One of these days we'll get in there and put down tile, close off the extra bathroom door and paint, but for now, at least I have access to all my junk. :)  Even the ugly fan is not as distracting as it was when the room was empty.

Eventually, Ornery got all the paint on the library walls--and managed to only have a few spots of it on his person! We positioned the rest of the furniture, hung up the things on the walls and put the files back into the file cabinet. By 9:30 we were completely done with that room and it is stunning. It has the feel we were trying for in our living room at Miller Manor, but couldn't quite capture. We've never had a dedicated room for a library before, but we are thrilled to finally have one here at Zoe Cottage. The "back" wall is completely filled with the four oak bookcases, and the little seating area at the "front" of the room is everything a reading spot should be!

We used a long narrow couch-table for Ornery's desk (used to be in our guest room) and other than a chair mat for his desk chair and a reading lamp to set on the file cabinet next to my chair, the expense to redecorate was just the cost of two gallons of paint.  There are still a few little things that need to be done in there--caulk around the window, wash the window and shutters, touch up a bit of trim-- but otherwise it is exactly as we pictured it the moment we walked into it the first time, only better if that is possible.

When I unpacked the boxes in my craft room I came across the missing red rugs, but I still have not located one of the framed posters we had in our bedroom before the move--it is certainly puzzling.  I am hoping it is stashed someplace in the garage and we'll uncover it when we work in there next weekend, but at first glance it appears to have been lost somewhere along the way. It is not that big of a deal, but I really liked the frame and unsolved mysteries sort of make me crazy!

This week I will concentrate on finishing my studio/office and clearing off the dining room table which became the depository for anything that didn't belong in the living room.  The bar in the kitchen is likewise filled with flotsam and jetsam -- tools, dust cloths, etc. The whole house needs a thorough cleaning, and there is still a bit of cooking that needs to be finished.  Once Flight Safety reimburses us for the travel expenses we incurred from the trip to Alabama, we will buy the things needed for the garage--tool bars for the garden tools, peg board, etc.--and begin working on organizing that.  Then Ornery can get back to his clock making. :)

So, overall, the weekend was extremely productive. We are wearing our Super Ta-Da capes today to celebrate. :)

Pictures Up!

One of the few tasks I accomplished yesterday was to hang these posters up in the hall.  Two of the posters had to be framed, and that took a little bit of time. I had to do a bit of math to get them to all line up right, but I was pleased with how they turned out. The hall is about 30 feet from the door to the end of the wall where it meets the kitchen, and it called for something big.  I hung another one similar to these on the opposite wall. I can't decide if I like the red rugs on the floor, they don't really "go" but they will do for now.

Sauna!

Sorry about the poor quality photo, but at least you can see how easy the sauna fit into the room--and the new curtains, too!  The Ceragem is barely visible in front of the window on the right side.

Even though the outside temperatures have been hot and hotter with a good dose of humidity thrown in for good measure, we decided we should set up our sauna yesterday. The original plan was for it to go in the office/craft room, but since that room is many months from being ready to occupy and pretty small, we opted to put it in our bedroom, which had plenty of room to accommodate it without feeling the least bit crowded.  The ceragem bed is also in there, which will encourage us to use both with a bit more frequency.

Yesterday afternoon I had a pedicure and a massage.  I am so toxic after the stress of the move, travel and months of eating out, that every joint in my body was aching, so I thought I would start out with the massage. The therapist I have gone to for a few years happened to have an opening 15 minutes after I called to make the appointment, so I was happy I called when I did!  I have an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow morning, and may go back for another massage next week, depending on how I feel. I took some OTC pain relievers before falling asleep on the ice pack last night, and this morning I feel quite a bit better.  I imagine that taking some steps to cleanse (such as the sauna) and a eating a healthier diet will help as well. Probably taking those prescribed supplements couldn't hurt, either!

I fixed dinner in my wonderful kitchen last night. As I was standing there with everything in reach, I shouted to Ornery in the other room, "I LOVE MY KITCHEN!!"  It is so big, and there are counters in just the right places to help me be efficient!  It took me a long time to figure out the best configuration for everything, but I am really happy with what I have done in there.

Today my focus will be cooking the food I bought yesterday and napping.  I had hoped to start working on the library, but we are both still recovering from our trip.  Here are some pictures of it right now--it is a huge mess with furniture and boxes scattered all through the room, but we have a plan to start painting the wall where the book cases will go, and once that is all done, I will set those up and move into them so that much stuff will be out of the way, and we'll just shuffle things around as we need to reach the other walls. Not as nice as being able to paint in an empty room, but certainly less work in the long run than moving everything out and back in. At least we aren't painting the ceiling in there. I can hardly wait to get it all set up!

This is the view from the doorway. You can see the edge of the window peeking  from behind the bookcase.

This is the wall we will put the book cases on.  They won't quite fit without the door being slightly closed, but the four of them should fill the wall quite nicely.

This is a view from the same corner of the previous photo. There are boxes of books stacked all along that front window wall. There are two seven foot book cases, and two that are about 7 inches shorter, but about that much deeper.  The tall ones will flank the shorter ones, and I hope to eventually put books along the top of those so they won't look shorter at all.

Speaking of paint, I don't think I said what colors we are painting in the library. We settled on a deep terra cotta color (Valspar Earth elements collection Burnished Copper) for three walls, and a brick-ish red Valspar Eddie Bauer collection Calico) for the last wall.  It isn't quite as orange as the Panera room at Miller Manor was, but we both agreed that might not be a bad thing.  I think it will have a very warm feeling, and will be one of the most frequently occupied rooms in the whole house.  (Photos of the finished project are here.)

It's Good to Be Home

We spent our last night on the road at the Holiday Inn Express in Fulton, MS.  The view out our window was of a piney wood, and the place was like a resort in its quiet peacefulness. We had thought about getting up really early to start home, but decided to just start out whenever we woke up, which was in time to eat the free breakfast there before we headed out.

We made it home yesterday at about 3:30.  It was wonderful to walk into Zoe Cottage and feel the peace here. Everything was just as we left it, except the grape vine, which did not survive two weeks without water. it is quite dead. We unloaded and then took the rental car back to Enterprise.  It was the nicest riding rental of any we have had.  Unfortunately, on the way home yesterday, we caught a rock on the edge of the windshield and returned it with quite a crack on the passenger side. No worries, the man at the counter said--Flight Safety will take care of it.  Cool.

We unpacked most things and put them away last night, gave Ornery a much needed haircut (it was long before we left, but out of control by the time we returned!) and even enjoyed a game of cribbage and watched an old (1930's?) rendition of Pride and Prejudice starring Lawrence Olivier and Greer Garson before bed.  Readjusting to sharing a queen sized bed after the king size of the past two weeks was a little challenging, but I think we'll manage. :)

This morning, we got out early for breakfast, then I was off to Lowe's to buy paint for the library, and across town to Whole Foods for the first grocery shopping since sometime in April. The drive back was a nightmare since I was used to taking the speedy route along Riverside home when we lived at Miller Manor.  Every major street--31st, 41st, 51st, 61st--is under construction, and there is no easy route to get home.  It took me 30 minutes, with all the detouring I ended up having to do.  I don't know what route I will take in the future, but it won't be the one I took either going or coming home!

Now, I have more errands to run, and much cooking to do.  I can't wait to start eating at home again. It seems like forever ago, and my clothes are testifying to the fact that eating out causes significant weight gain. Hopefully it will come off as quickly as it went on.

So Long, Dothan

I am packing up and doing laundry this morning, and we plan to leave here around 1:30. We are spending the night in Fulton, MS--about 5.5 hours down the road-- and then heading home tomorrow.  Can't wait to get back to Zoe Cottage, even with all the work waiting for us there!

The work I have been doing on the book has been wasted for the most part.  We were working under the assumption it was to be published in paper form, and needed to be created in Publisher.  Today we found out that it needs to be in Word, so all the formatting is lost. I will have a lot of work to do when I get back to the project, as I still have one whole message to edit, and all the rest of it to re-format in Word. It will be later this week before I can do it, though.

Road Trip!

We left Dothan at about 6:30 this morning and drove to Ft. Walton Beach for a short visit with Ryan, Ale and Micah.  The traffic at that hour was light, it wasn't too hot, and we made pretty good time--it is just about a two-hour drive.  Our visit was fun, even though Micah didn't recognize us and was very shy.  We chatted about all sorts of things until 11:30, then we trotted out the gate into what surely could only be termed as Mayhem.

Everybody, plus his uncle and dog, was driving through town--all the way to San Destin which was about 25 miles.  After we turned onto 331, the traffic thinned out a little bit going north toward I-10, but headed the other direction, it was slow moving, bumper to bumper all the way to I-10.  The beaches were crowded, the malls were crowded, the streets were crowded, even the water was crowded!  There is a sand bar just west of Destin and there must have been 200 boats out there partying the day away.  There was an inflatable water slide and all sorts of other paraphernalia in the water.  Crazy!

We would have come back to Dothan via the same route we took to get there, but we wanted to make a short stop at the outlet mall in San Destin first. It was short, alright! Too many people! We snagged a Whataburger for lunch and hot-footed it out of town as fast as we could go while driving on two lane roads behind drivers who eschewed cruise control and preferred talking on their cell phones.

Once we got back to Dothan, we stopped by the visitor center for Ornery to get a couple of post cards for his collection (from each site he works at), then back to the hotel where we discovered our key cards had been deactivated since our original reservation was to end today. Easily remedied, and happy to be back where it was cool again.  It is 102 degrees outside.

Since the simulator techs only work until 6:00 on Saturdays, Ornery decided to work from the room this evening. It will be nice to have him handy. :)  I am pretty tired, so I don't think I will tackle the book project this evening, but I am going to be devoted entirely to the project for the next two days, as I have a LOT of work to do once we get home.  When I finished yesterday I was on page 86 or something near that, and slogging through at a snail's pace. I sure would like to have that book finished by Tuesday when we leave here!

Learning Curve

We were to leave to go home tomorrow, but due to ... well, we aren't now. We have figured out a way for Ornery to get a few hours in at work on Saturday and still take some time off to go visit the kids in FL. I would have regretted it immensely if we were so close and didn't get to at least catch a glimpse and a hug from the little hooligators. Ryan is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in February, and while nothing is ever sure in this life, it seems like international travel, military employment and the combination of the two in a war zone adds additional adverse conditions.

Yesterday was a very productive day for me, although I anticipate it taking several more before I am finished with the first book. I have a whole new appreciation for editors and lay out artists--and I am not even doing anything fancy!  I figured out how to insert a contents page, and have 10 chapters complete.  That is maybe 1/3 through the whole project.  Yesterday I used a "fine tooth comb" for the editing and added a lot of little blurb boxes to the layout. As pages shifted, there was more shuffling--each change causes somewhat of a domino effect, but as I said before I think I have the first ten chapters complete. I worked for seven hours, which is quite a long time to be glued to a computer.

I am learning a lot through the process, not only the skill to do the job, but from the material as well.  As I edit, sometimes I have to think through to a better way of phrasing something which leads me to think more closely about the message. The Healing Power of Forgiveness is the title of the series/book and when I have not been working on the text or layout, I have been thinking about the implications of the content for my own life.

I am not one to hold a grudge, and I can't think of anyone I have not forgiven (which means to send the offense away, not reinstate the relationship or say that what the offender did was "okay") except myself.  I am very hard on me, and have unrealistic expectations of perfection.  I am working on that. Learning that it is okay to fail and that I will still be loved even if I am not doing everything right has been a bigger challenge than I thought it would be. I realized during a recent conversation with my daughter that I instilled that same sense of works-based-acceptance in my kids. I hope they don't take as long to get past that as I have!

It is what both Ornery and I were raised with--the idea that if you behave as expected you are loved, and if you misbehave you won't be loved or accepted.  In fact, it is made worse when the church teaches that when you sin you separate yourself from God, even though it is clear in the scriptures that it is not our sin that is the divisor (since Jesus already died for all the sins of mankind), but the decision we each make as to whether or not we believe on His son for our righteousness.

I am not saying that sin doesn't cause havoc in our lives, because it certainly does, but there is no point in adding "insult to injury" as the saying goes, by not forgiving ourselves when we fail to reach the mark of the high calling we have.  The issue {of confession (saying what God says about our sin--it is forgiven), repentance (changing the direction so we don't continue to miss the mark), and forgiveness (sending the the offense away so it can no longer effect my emotions and relationships)}  is not that our sins cause us to be separated from God, but that unforgiven sin causes us to disbelieve we are who and what God's word says we are--righteous through Christ!  We in turn don't believe He still loves us.  It is our own attitude toward the sin that causes the breach in the relationship, not that God can't stand us because we are not perfect--for how can we be made perfect without Him? And if He has perfected us, how can we alter that state, either to the good or the bad?

The learning curve to move from religious thinking (I am saved by Christ, but made or kept righteous through my behavior/good works/etc.) to a relationship with a loving Father has been rather long and slow to come. I am really glad to have this book to remind me of the importance in knowing my righteousness is not anything I can effect by my behavior, and by sending away (forgiving) offenses (either those done to me or by me) I can keep the lines clear between my Father and me.

Rambling

Today we went to breakfast at Panera. SURPRISE! :)  No, it shouldn't be a surprise, since it is one of life's little pleasures for me that has become a huge bit of an obsession!  The store opened at 6:00 for its first day of business, and we were the third customer of the day--someone dawdled in the shower or we would have been the first. We were greeted by the GM, the store manager, and numerous other employees (which is how we found out we were the third customer.)  It was a delightful departure from powdered eggs and grits, the standard breakfast fare here at the hotel.

I imagine we will go back for dinner, since my My Panera Card has $2. off a U-pick-2 and a free one, not to mention a free bagel and free drink on it.  We could practically eat the whole meal for free!

Meanwhile, Ornery is off to work.  He extended the hotel reservation until Tuesday, and it doesn't look like we will make it to Florida to see our kids unless something changes significantly (like he puts on his SUPER SIMULATOR cape and develops super-programming powers.  I offered to make him a cape with SS on the back and TADA on the inside, but he just smiled and shook his head. bummer.)  We'll find out later today when he talks to the project manager how it will all play out, but it may be we'll need to come for a second two-week stay later in the summer. I hope we don't end up extending this trip for another two weeks, although now that Panera is open it might not be too bad... :)

Our tub drains really slowly, so I anticipate at least two interruptions to the day later--one when the maid comes to clean--changing out towels is really all that is needed--and then when the guy comes to fix the drain. I imagine it just needs a little Liquid Plumber poured down there, but I don't know if hotels do that sort of thing or not.  Maybe I don't want to know.

I don't really have anything to write about.  It has been quiet here, and I doubt it is important to record what I ate for lunch or how long my nap was. I really should have brought something to do, but all my craft supplies were still packed, as were all the books. I do have a journal here I might break out later today and pour some ideas and thoughts into, and I have 1/2 the book left to do the layouts and editing on for Impact, but once that is done, unless she sends me another to do right away, I am without any projects.  I have to say it has been really nice to be bored for a change!

Blessed

I spoke with Elizabeth for about an hour yesterday evening.  It is not rare that we talk during the day, but it is rare for those conversations to last longer than 5-10 minutes now that she is working full-time.

During the conversation we were talking about how blessed our family has been.  We have always had our needs met (and most of our wants), we laugh together a LOT, we haven't had any life-altering diseases or accidents--in fact the only broken bone I can recall any of us having was a year or so ago when she broke her pinky finger while running in basic training--and we are all doing pretty much exactly what we want to do with our lives.

As I listed off several of the things I was grateful for about our family, I realized how truly wonderful my life has been, despite the loss of my mother at an early age.  My sisters were both there for me at crucial times in my life, I've had a best friend off and on throughout my years, and am married the man of my dreams--a guy who still, after 32 years of marriage holds my hand when we walk together in public and treats me as his most treasured possession.  Happy does not even begin to describe how that makes me feel!

My time here "roughin' it at the Marriott" has given me time to relax and put aside all the busy thoughts and actions of my regular life, and reflect on what a truly wonderful existence I have. It isn't something that can be bought, nor does it depend on circumstances to feel it.  The joy in my heart is because the Author of joy resides inside.  It is He who gives me the ability to look at life through the lens of peace and love, even when it would be easy to feel hurt or angry. And THAT is the greatest blessing of all.

Panera Comes to Dothan!

Before we left home I did a search to find out if there were any Panera Bread cafe's in the area, and to my sorrow there was not.  However, Ornery came home from work a couple days ago and told me there was one to open soon, but he didn't know the location.

Last night we went out to a used book store and on the way I screamed, "PANERA!!" There it was, in all it's green and gold glory right next to the road we were driving on and only about 3 miles from the hotel.  Since we were in the wrong lane, we stopped back by there on the way home from the book store to program the coordinates into the GPS.  There was a sign on the door that said, "Opening June 8th." We'll be there. :)

As for the book store, it was called Red House Books.  From the outside, it appeared to be fairly small, but inside it was crammed with books, and I do mean crammed, floor to ceiling, with the narrowest little aisles and maze-like layout you could imagine!  Wow!  I asked the woman at the little desk at the front if there was a method to her madness--it truly was an insane looking conglomeration of reading materials piled helter-skelter on the shelves--and she told me how things were laid out. It was actually fairly logical once you got past the initial shock of how close everything was. The place was a claustrophobic's nightmare, but I put on the blinders and stayed in one little corner of the place gathering some reading material to keep me distracted while Ornery is working.

Ornery has been working lots of hours and as of this moment, thinks we will need to extend our stay here a few days at least, but he won't know for certain until later in the week.  I am okay with the extension, at least we are together for part of the day, unlike how it would have been if I had stayed home. The hotel is certainly plenty comfortable and it is handy to lots of things, so I am content to be here as well as anywhere. While I would like to get our house set up, I can't imagine being away from my beloved for weeks at a time if I could be with him, and surprisingly, I have not been anxious to get back to all that work just yet!

Slow Motion

I am so spoiled living in Tulsa (now Broken Arrow) to be right on the backbone of the information highway. Our internet at home is so fast to load it is almost instant.  I never pay much attention to the speed until I am away, and I don't know if it is the heat or just the location, but things here are moving as slow as cold molasses!  I am pretty sure if I had to wait that long at home I would not be doing much on the computer!

I finally started yesterday on the editing project I am doing for Impact Ministries.  I mentioned in another post that I was doing volunteer work for them as Dr. Richards is having all his message series transcribed to written form and publishing them in eBook format.  Well, I started out transcribing, but I only got one message done of the series that I was assigned.  I let them know early on that I was going to be preoccupied with the move for a few weeks, and planned to attack the project with gusto on June 1.

Meanwhile, someone in Canada has a corner on the speedy transcription work and they needed someone to edit.  As my readers here on the blog, you might be able to tell me whether that was a good thing for me to do or not, but I am willing, and as far as it goes, able.  I began yesterday on a four message series and have a little over one message formatted.  I am editing, formatting to their page size/style, and naming chapter titles, as well as filling in gaps where needed--sometimes he is repetitious and sometimes he offers partial sentences or thoughts. It is a time consuming project, and one I can certainly see why they might not want to pay an hourly wage to a professional editor to complete.  I can't work on it for too long at a time or my brain hurts, but if I let too much time pass between sessions, I forget and have to re-read what I have already done.  This four message series could be very time consuming!

The nice thing about doing the project is that I am getting more hands-on interaction with the material, most of which I have heard numerous times.  The series I am working on right now is called The Healing Power of Forgiveness.  I am much more of a kinesthetic learner than auditory, so this should be a great thing for me!

Ornery is working today and tomorrow, but I asked him if he would mind coming home a little early today so we could go out somewhere.  I have been in the hotel for two days and I think I might be needing a break. He concurred, although I have no idea what we will do when we go out.

Alabama Trip Update

Happy Friday!  We have been in Dothan for three days and so far, so good.  We did have to change rooms this morning after something started going on with the 20 Ton air conditioning unit that was situated just below our window.  At about 9:00 last night it began cycling on and off about every 30 seconds.  I can handle continuous drone but not when it is on and off like that.  We both slept with our iPods on all night, which means it was a fitful night.  We asked to be moved and they graciously allowed us to do so.  We are probably not in much better of a room as far as noise goes, (we are the first room after the elevator) but hopefully there won't be interruptions to our sleep as bad here.  Bonus is that now we are on the first floor--no more elevators! :) (or getting lost while finding the way out! LOL!)

Ornery made some good progress yesterday, but says he still has a LOT of work to do before he is finished.  We had originally planned to drive to Ft. Walton Beach tomorrow, but we agreed that it would be better to wait until next weekend to see how far along he is.  This way he can work through the weekend and hopefully be finished by Friday, which was his original planned departure date.  Then, we can go to see Ryan and Ale and then home from there. We know that road quite well after making so many trips!

It has been really hot here, over 100 degrees for the last two days.  I think it is supposed to be slightly cooler--94 for today--but I am pretty glad I can stay indoors. I'll be doing some laundry later today, hopefully that room is well cooled! I feel rested finally, after two days of napping and lounging. I plan to begin some editing work for Impact Ministries today, a job I am slightly nervous about just because I have never done anything like it before.

That is all the news!

About that Antique Mall...

In March, just shortly after we decided to sell our house, we rented a little 4X8' space at a place in Broken Arrow called World Treasures.  It is not in a very good location, and the managers/owners of the place are trying to do everything on the cheap, so they don't heat in the winter or cool in the summer, and 1/2 the time when there are no customers (which is almost every time I have ever been in there) the majority of the few lights they have bulbs in are turned off. They have advertised on Craigslist, which is where I found them in the first place, but other than that I can't tell that they have done a lot to encourage customers.

English is not their native tongue, and the parents or sister of the wife are sometimes present when I go in.  They do not speak ANY English, and all conversations must be done with the owner over the phone. It has been a bit of a hassle that way.  Additionally, they watch customers like they are going to steal things, following them around and in general making the customers feel very uncomfortable.  There are signs up that say, "Please do not handle merchandise before you buy" and that sort of thing.

The rent is sort of high for no more service than you get, but there is no commission and they do all the legal stuff like collect and pay sales tax so I don't have to.  The first and last month's rent on a six month lease was paid up-front, and since then I have paid three more months of rent, partially from the sales I made.  This last month I actually made a profit over the cost of the booth, but I figure by the end I will have just sold enough to pay the rent on the booth each month, if I am really lucky.

My main goal was to sell some of my Miller Manor Designs creations, but not one of those items has sold since I started there.  SO, considering that much of the stuff I have to sell would not like sitting in the heat and humidity of the building all summer, I plan to pay the last month of rent I have to pay to complete my obligations and get my stuff back out of there before the summer heat ruins it.

I will chalk it up as a learning experience. It still leaves me wondering what to do with all my stuff--so far I have used a lot of it as gifts, but I don't know what I should do with the rest.  I'll be thinking about that.

Progress Update of the Move and Redecorating

There are still many things in each room that need to be done, but the boxes are unpacked and furniture in place in the following rooms:

• Living room: just lacks things on the walls and general pretty-ing up
• Dining room: lacks wall decor and hanging of the mobile
• Master bedroom, bathroom and closet (which really could be called a whole separate room!): lack wall decor and a few things in the closet that need to find new homes in the furniture we just moved back in the room. Also we will be painting and tiling in the bathroom, after which I will replace the window coverings with the capiz shells we had in the Miller Manor guest room window, and later putting a door in the closet wall.
• Guest room: needs wall decor, new curtain rod and possibly a new bed spread. 
• Hall bathroom: will get tile and likely new paint 
• Kitchen: needs paint and things put up on top of the cabinets
• Laundry room: needs some door pulls on the cabinets above the washer and dryer and a curtain hung over the opening designed for a freezer but which houses the gun-safe.

Other than the boxes of books still stacked in the library which is waiting to be painted before we move in, and a few boxes in the garage, we have gotten rid of most of the cardboard in the house.  There are piles of pictures/posters/art stacked in several rooms awaiting their final resting place, but until we get the library and studio/office put together, I don't plan on hanging very many things on the walls.  I want to see what goes where, and until the walls are painted and furnishings in place, I won't know even what walls are available.

When we return from Alabama, we will first tackle the library.  Three walls are going to be painted terra cotta, and the fourth one will be brick red.  After that, we will work on the garage so Ornery can have access to all his tools again, and finally we will work on "my room," which will take a lot of work! 

First we have to empty it all out. The sauna, all my craft supplies and the armoire from our bedroom set are all in there.  Then we will take out the carpet and close up the door that goes into the bathroom from the bedroom--replace the sheetrock, put in new trim, texture the wall, paint the walls and ceiling--and then lay ceramic tile on the floor. That tile will eventually go in the guest bathroom and the little nook area outside the two rooms as well, but Ornery will learn the skill on my studio floor. o_0  Then we will move everything back into the room and set it up.  I figure that will take us until about September...

Once the weather begins to cool, we will begin working outside on all the projects we have planned.  There is a lot of general clean up--removing dead shrubs, trimming hedges, thinning perennial flowers, and taking out some trees.  Then we will begin working on our raised vegetable and herb garden beds, and possibly some fruit tree raised beds. A screened wall on the fourth side of the enclosed porch area and new light fixture (without drooping fan blades!) will complete our outside work.  I am hoping Ornery will use his scroll saw to craft some scroll work for the corners and door of the porch, but we'll see how it all goes.

Eventually we plan to paint the kitchen and put in a door from our closet to the laundry room.  Hopefully we'll have some help for that project in the form of my sister and brother-in-law around Thanksgiving time.  

So, in the first week we made significant progress, but the jobs that remain are pretty big so they won't go quite as fast.  Hopefully by Christmas things will be ready for company!

Directionally Challenged

I have never been one to notice my surroundings as far as the direction I should turn to return to my car in a parking lot or a place when I am visiting someone out of town.  It is one of the reasons I hate driving in an unfamiliar area--well, that and I just really don't care to drive, but that is beside the point.

We have been in and out of this hotel four times and I still have to read the signs outside the elevator to know where I am going.  All the halls look alike and I get a little panicky when I step off the elevator and notice that there are no significant indicators to tell me how to get out of the place.

Last year when we stayed for two weeks in Albuquerque we were on the ground floor, which helped somewhat, but from time to time I would still walk down the hall the wrong way and have to turn around and go all the way back the other direction.  It is frustrating, and somewhat embarrassing, especially when Ornery can go someplace one time and remember the directions forever more.

It's one more reason it is good for me to hang around with him.  He points me in the right direction all the time, and doesn't laugh (too loudly) when I start off in the wrong one.  He's a pretty good guy.