The Saga of Getting a House Ready to Sell.

Wow! I haven't posted since December! It seems as Wendell is now a permanent resident of Assisted Living. I go to see him almost every day, unless, like Saturday, I had an out of town jewelry show. It was good. I've teamed up with one of my friends who does pottery and her husband makes hand-turned pen barrels. We had a good day until we tried to start home and got a vapor lock in the gas line. AAA delivered us home about 9:30 PM. I've been busy...I'm still in the original house...Have been camped out here since November, when I thought I was moving. Now things are really a mess. Three storage units later, the house is still what would be considered fully furnished. All of my pictures (a lot of pictures) are stored in my daughter's spare room. A couple of weeks ago I was talked into renovating the interior of the house, since it hadn't sold. Still having the original wallpaper, etc., it really did need to be updated after 20 years...I was just hopeing someone would love the victorian look and would buy it without having to invest in the renovation...wrong again! So now we're in the middle of wallpaper down...painting going on...light fixtures and kitchen cupboard door pulls being changed. Everything brass must go...guess what was in style 20 years ago...yes...brass! I have been beat back into the utility room...all my current jewelry making stuff, computers, current paper work...my life. With all the packing up in November, I lost some of my bead making tools...you know, the necessary ones, like my didium plated glasses and the mandrels I make the beads on. So finally I ordered more. In fact, it's been quite the challenge to keep all my bead and jewelry making "stuff" from getting packed away. Every once in a while I have to retrieve a tub of stuff I'm trying desperately to keep track of. What I want to know is...why can't I end a sentence with a preposition? Who made up that rule anyway? Are they dead yet? OK...my break is over. I must get back to packing up the utility room. I have reserved a corner in one of the storage units for my very important stuff, and that's where it's headed. (I will be soooo glad when this is over and I can get settled in somewhere!)

I don't believe it!

I just posted, and it ran the whole post into one paragraph! AARG! Unbelievable!

I hate change!

Yes, I said the "H" word...I really don't like it when I use that word...it's so harsh. But I've been trying for months to add to my blog, and it would go into the drafts, but it wouldn't post (whine, whine...would I like a little cheese with my whine?) Finally I "updated" or whatever it is they called it, and going to, what seems to me like coming through the back door, I finally got on... But if all I do is complain...well, that's not very interesting...just had to blow off a little steam. Having said all that (now you know what a complainer I can be...cat's out of the bag) I really don't have time to post anything, as it is late, and I really do want to get some sleep tonight. Quick catch up: Wendell (husband) took a nasty fall, down a complete flight of stairs on Oct. 11. Surgery on Oct. 12, to repair a ruptured quadridecpt tendon in his right leg... In the hospital for 7 days, transfered to a care center for acute rehab... I decide there's no way he can come back here with all the stairs, and start looking for a house, find one that is handicapped accessable, one level, perfect, in most ways, and the other ways, I can either change or deal with...put a bid on the house... put our house on the market...start packing to clear out the extra bric-a-brac so someone can actually see the house, say anyone wants to look. Our offer on the house was accepted, which put me into overdrive to get this house ready to sell, and to move...everything is now fair game for packing, except the bare essencials...and a few of them got packed...but who cares. Here is where I stop to praise two of my best friends...did they stand by to see if I was going to ask for help? No! They were here in a heartbeat, initiating the packing, helping me make decisions, encourageing me to not be discouraged, listening to my frustration with all the hoops you have to jump through to buy a house, etc., etc., etc. My cousin and her husband came from out of town two days and helped, my friends grandson and son, my daughter and son-in-law, hauled away enough stuff to fill a 10' X 30' storage unit. Now we're filling the garage. Everytime I get the house to looking pretty good, it's like the walls explode, and there's filled boxes lining the walkways, waiting to be moved to the garage. I need to have a BIG Garage Sale! This is a lovely house, and I'll miss the beauty of the crown moldings, recessed ceilings, the large rooms, the four closets in our bedroom, and the three closets in the other three bedrooms...most of all, I'll miss my sunporch. I won't miss holding my breath everytime Wendell is on the steps, nor will I miss trying to get up the vertical driveway in the snow and/or ice. I won't miss trying to keep up with 15 flower beds and a four level yard. Were I younger, it would still have been a challenge, as I have too many other interests than to want to be weeding flower beds. Love the flowers. OK...I've gone on too long...I'm not going to do spell check, as I tried it and I don't think it works, as I can't type this much and not have misspelled something! So just consider misspelled words as typos.

testing....testing....

Testing...testing...

Another day, another disaster...

I am totally amazed at everything going on in the world...earth quakes, tsunamis, radiation fall-out, hunger/starvation, a third war in the middle east. (Did I read something about this in the Bible?)

With two grandsons in the Air Force, and three other grand children already out "in the world", you know, the day to day of making a living and all the decisions they're needing to make...the rest of the grand children growing up fast and will soon be turned out into a world of turmoil and total uncertainly...it's like being in the eye of the hurricane...total chaos all around, but peace within. My peace comes from God...he has it all in his hands. Food and Gas prices rising daily...I'm watching to see what God's going to do.

September...

At the ripe old age of 67, almost 68, I am a great grandmother...Instead of signing my emails to my grand kids, "G'ma J", I can now sign them "Gr. G'ma J". My oldest grand daughter gave birth to a little girl on Sept. 8...another Sept. birthday...Grandson#4 is on the 2nd, Grandson #1 is on the 10th, and Grand daughter #1 is the 28th. I have a great niece on the 9, as is my husband's and his best friend's.

My friend and I have been going strong on the beads. We're going to have a "private showing"...in other words...anyone we can drag in here to look at, and possibly buy the jewelry I make from the beads. It really speeds me up to have Sandy do all the "dirty work"...that would be anything other than making the beads and the jewelry. She says, "I work for beads." I think I'm going to buy a plain canvas bag, stencil "I work for beads" on it and give it to her with several sets of beads in it...maybe for Christmas. I used to do some stenciling... hummm... wonder where my "stuff" is.

This was a really busy week. It was my team's turn to cook at church on Wednesday. We had baked potatoes, meatloaf, corn on the cob and angel food cake with triple berries and whipped cream. Yum. Everyone seemed to like it...except the last two through the line...we were told to prepare for 45, we prepared for 48 and ran two short...usually I run long, but not this time. = (

In preparation for Wendell's and Walt's birthday dinner, I made BBQ meatballs on Monday and froze them. On Tuesday, I made the potato salad and the 3 bean salad that has turned into 6 bean salad. Then Thursday morning I made my "World Famous Butterhorn Rolls". = ) I'm not sure exactly what I did all day long on Thursday, but I was busy the entire day getting ready, which was kind of funny, as I thought I was all ready after I got the rolls done. Just little details I guess. Oh yes...I made layered salad too. Sandy got here about 11:00 to help out. There were 15 of us. It was a fun time. I slept a lot today. = )

OK...my allotted time is up...I need to put 2 weeks of pills into boxes before I go to bed.

Later...

Oh my! Here it is...Already August! The kids will be going back to school in several weeks. We've already done our yearly school shopping trip to the mall.

We spent two weeks in Colorado again this year...same wonderful old two story-four bedroom log cabin by a mountain stream. This year we were there at the time of the Glen Haven Fire Department's breakfast and the Arts and Crafts Fair at the town hall. It was great...I met a fellow bead maker, and she let me come by and pick up some pointers. She's been a bead maker for 16 years, and is just as excited about it as if she just started.

We also spent a day with a friend from my high school days and his wife. They drove over Trail Ridge Road to be with us. We ate lunch at Hunters, took the gondola to the top of a nearby hill, and finished out the day setting in the shade, enjoying drinks at the local juice establishment.

My adventuress grand daughter has now arrived in Malaysia. I'm following her blog, which is her way of staying in touch with friends and family. I check each day to see if she has had time to add another post.

My grand son's wife graduated from her Air Guard basic training last weekend, and now will be starting in on her specialized training in Texas.

Actually, at this moment, I can think of no more news...I think my brain has been soften by watching too much TV news. Can you believe the goings on in Washington DC?...as they say, "inside the beltway". What are those people thinking of!...or are they thinking at all!

And can you believe Chelsie Clinton is 30 years old...she's been dating her guy for over half her life! Wow! I'm impressed!

And how about Arizona's governor...She, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman are my heroines! They, along with my grand daughter "the adventuress".

OK...It's late...