Just Simply Holly

The area that I live in is currently under a Winter Weather Warning! We’ve gotten about 3 inches of snow already and can get anywhere from another 3-6 inches, depending on which TV station you check…LOL! I know that isn’t much snow for this area, we have gotten more, but it’s falling very quickly and it’s also a very wet snow, so the roads STINK! On top of that we have freezing rain coming in tonight which will make the road conditions in the morning horrible! Hopefully that kids schools will be delayed and/or cancelled, but I’m also not going to hold my breath…LOL!

It’s been yet another busy day for me. I got the family room all cleaned up, transferred my hubbys info from his old laptop to his new one, finished transferring my stuff from my old computer to my new one, tore my old computer apart, put together the desk we bought for our daughter, set my old computer up at her new desk and hauled fire wood into the house. I REALLY could take a nap right now…LOL! Getting up so early yesterday morning really threw me off!

I’ve had the chance a few times today to sit and watch the birds outside at the feeders, OMG are they ever beautiful! At one point today I seen a total of 6 Cardinals between the 4 feeders. I’ve managed to get a few really good shots of the birds lately, I’ll have to get them uploaded to the computer so that I can share them with you!

Allright, enough play time, I need to get busy!

This won’t be a long post, but I wanted to apologize for my absence over the past couple of days. I woke up yesterday morning with the worst migraine I’ve ever had that decided to hang on and rear it’s ugly head for almost 15 hours! I was on the verge of going to the ER when it finally gave in and started to go away! So I spent the bulk of the day yesterday between doses of medication and sleeping.

Today was kind of an R&R day after yesterday, but I also had some homework to finish up before my Algebra class tonight. I also got the results back from my first Algebra test that I took last week. I scored a 95%!!! YAY!!!!!! This instructor is SOOOOOOOOOO much better than the one I had last semester! He breaks things down so much better, I actually feel like I’m understanding Algebra, which is scary on so many levels….LOL! But I do enjoy it this year, I don’t feel so stressed out about it!

Tomorrow morning I have my 6 month follow up appointment at the eye doctors. There was a “problem” at my last exam and he wanted me to come back in six months for a recheck, rather than a year. I know that there i something wrong with my eyes, I’m hoping it’s nothing more than the fact that it’s basically become necessary for me to get bifocals. If I’m doing something here at the computer I absolutely cannot have my glasses on or I can’t read, but if I don’t have them on when I look over to the TV, I can’t see that either…LOL! Getting older SUCKS! At the rate I’m falling apart, I probably should check into a decent life insurance policy….LOL!

I’ll do some catching up tomorrow, but for now I need to get some sleep!

I tell you, at first the thought of using the wood burner scared the CRAP out of me!  I guess after living next door to and working for a fire fighter for almost 3 years, and listening to the horror stories of some of the fires, purposely making a fire inside my home terrified me!  But after this morning, I totally LOVE it!  It was REALLY REALLY cold this morning, like the coldest it’s been this winter!  When I first got up the temp on the news was reading 1 degree, but I think that might have been a mistake because a few minutes later the weather lady said it was like 6 or 7 degrees.  But either way, THAT’S COLD!  And even with the furnace running and a couple of small space heaters to help out, the house was FREEZING!

So my hubby started a fire in the wood burner that I’ve kept going all day…LOL!  It’s not a roaring fire now, just some good hot coals!  And with the fan on the wood burner on, it REALLY helps keep the house feeling decent!  We don’t mind the chilly nights, but when it’s day time and it’s STILL chilly, no thank you!  And I’d rather burn a few pieces of wood than kick up the thermostat!  The price of bulk LP is through the roof and with the minimum amount for a delivery, it’s just not something we can do right now.  So we keep the thermostat set at 64 and supplement!

My son went back to school today.  Amazingly, he was up and had eaten before I woke up…LOL!  I guess he must have been excited about the thought of going back to school?  SCARY!  I’m trying to get some housework finished up around here so that I can go tomorrow and get the bills paid and do the shopping I need to do.  I also want to take my daughter out to lunch before she goes back to school on Monday!  So I’d better stop typing and get busy!  TTFN!

Have you ever had one of those moments in life where you see something happen and you think to yourself, “Did I REALLY see what I think I just seen?”. I’ve had a few of them, but one that happened a few years ago sticks out to me more than any other.

We used to live in a large mobile home community. Rather than everyone having a mailbox on their own property, we had those large community cbu mailboxes, the ones that you pull up to and each person has a key to their own box. The ones in our community were located in these circle cul-de-sacs at the end of each street.

Anyway, I didn’t live far from the mailboxes, so I would usually just walk down to check my mail. One day, as I was walking down to the mailboxes, I seen a large delivery type truck going around the circle where the mailboxes were. The next thing I knew, I heard this loud scraping type noise, then I heard the sound of metal breaking. As I got closer to the mailboxes I realized that the delivery truck had literally torn the mailboxes right off their pedestal. It seems that there was a car parked in the circle and the truck was trying to squeeze between the car and the mailboxes. If the driver would have had any common sense, he’d have realized that there was no way his truck was small enough to do that.

Yes, I changed the theme here again….LOL! As much as I liked the other one, it kept messing up and the background for the posts wouldn’t go down to the bottom of the page, so it was annoying me. Don’t plan on this one staying up because I have a code I need to put into the style sheet, but when I do it totally messes up the page. And it’s a code that’s necessary, so I’m going to have to find yet another theme. So stay tuned, you’ll never know what’s next!

P.S. You’ll come across some words in a foreign language with this theme, I can’t figure out how to change them, so for now you’re just going to have to put up with them

It’s been a rough weekend, or at least it started off to be one, but Sunday evening is here and I’m happy to report that although the weekend started off on a rough foot, it’s ending on a better note!

For the first time in our 17 year relationship, my husband and I had an argument that actually made us go to bed without saying good night and end up sleeping in separate rooms.  The argument lasted almost a full 24 hours, mostly because I was simply too stubborn to say the first words.  Fortunately he wasn’t as stubborn and things are now fine!  But let me just say that I now understand how financial stresses can cause marriage problems!

Today we got the news that my husband is getting his first out of town job assignment.  He’ll leave the house tomorrow morning around 3:00 AM so that he can be to his shop in time to head out to southern Ohio by 4:00 AM.   As of right now the pan is for him to be home in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, but if something happens on the job they may have to work Saturday as well, and since he’ll be working from 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM, he’ll end up not getting home until Sunday at some point.  Our daughter is having a ver difficult time at the thought of daddy not being home for a whole week, she’s been in tears on and off since she got the news.

For dinner tonight I made our family favorite, NACHOS!!!!  Rather than sit at the table and eat we decided instead to eat in the family room and watch a DVD that we bought the other day.  We watched Meet The Robinsons, and let me tell you, I HIGHLY recommend this movie!  At first I had a difficult time getting into the movie, but by the end I was TOTALLY hooked and can’t wait to watch it again!

Anyway, I need to wrap things up.  It’s going to be a rough night and a VERY early morning!!!

For a change, I actually got up and got busy this morning getting things done and getting stuff put away!  The drawers in the kitchen are now 100% done, I painted them yesterday and today I lined them and finally put silverware and cooking utensils in them.  It’s so nice to have those off what little bit of counter I have!  I’ve also managed to do 3 loads of laundry already, two of which were whites, mostly socks.  And I don’t know about you, but sorting and folding socks is my least favorite part of doing laundry!

We thought my hubby was going to be home from work today, he didn’t get the call yesterday that he would have to work.  Shortly after the kids left for school the phone rang and they called him into work.  Personally, I’m glad he went, he was REALLY starting to get on my nerves….LOL!  I love him with all my heart, but how he does things and how I do them are two different ways.  I don’t always think my way is right, but 99% of the time, his way is WRONG….LOL!

It’s still gray and raining here and the current temperature is only 50 degrees.  I still haven’t turned the furnace on, but I’m also running around with a sweat shirt on.  If I see the temp in the house gets below about 66, I’ll turn the furnace on.  If I knew anything about this dang wood burner, I’d start a fire, but knowing me I’d end up filling the house with smoke.  Maybe one of these days I should have my hubby show me how it works?

Well, I just heard the dryer go off, so that means the last of the socks are dried so it’s time for me to have loads of fun…LOL!  Care to come and help me?

It’s been another busy week here, but we’ve managed to get quite a bit of stuff done in the new house.  I’ve got a few things that I have to get done here online then I’m going to try and finish painting the kitchen drawers so that I can finally put my silverware and cooking utensils away!  We finally got the water softener out of the old house, boy was that a huge hassle!  We actually had to have a plumber come in and tap the line off because when they hooked it up, they didn’t put a water valve on the line for the softener, talk about a stupid short cut!

Today’s been a so-so day.  Hubby was in a “mood” earlier, which put me in my own “mood”, so now we’re walking around here totally avoiding each other and not talking.  What got me pissed off was finding out one of the dogs chewed up my only pair of really good black high heels and he didn’t think it was important enough to let me know when he found out, it came out later while we were talking about something else the stupid dog had chewed up.  So I was upset, and when I get upset I tend to spit shit out of my mouth that is really stupid, which I did, and he looked at me and told me I needed to grow the heck up (not those exact words).  So I told him where to go and to be sure when he went that he took his stupid dogs with him, grabbed my keys and left.  I went to the park and read a book for about 2 hours and came home.  When I sat down at my computer, he got up from his and walked out of the room….LOL.  So we’re going to play stubborn brats today.  Oh well, his loss, I have the right to be ticked off, this is the 3rd pair of my shoes that have been chewed up and I’m sorry, but I’m the one person in this house that never buys anything for myself, so it made me pretty mad!

Anyway, enough of that boring crap!  His football team is playing right now, although the game is almost over.  His team is up 23 - 13 with 1:07 left in the game, so it’s a pretty sure thing that they’re going to chalk up a win today.  They’re doing good this year!  My team plays a 4:00 game and I have a feeling we’re going to lose again.  We stink this year!  Who knows though, maybe they’ll prove me wrong!

In just about half an hour we’ll be on our way out the door to go sign the papers for the new house.  My husband and I were out and about today and on our way home I mentioned to him that it was a shame that there was a chain across the end of the drive, because if there wasn’t, we could walk around the house.  He said that the guy we’re going to rent it from wouldn’t mind if we stepped over the chain and went and looked, so we did just that.

I’m so glad that we did because at least now I know that the initial “presentation” of the house from the end of the driveway doesn’t give you even the slightest idea as to the true size of the house.  From the driveway it looks like a small ranch home, but once you get off to the side of it you see it’s “hidden treasure”.  It is actually an “L” shaped ranch that I have no doubt will be more than enough room for us.  By peeking into the windows I also know that it has a large living room as well as a very nice family room.  The family room is where the wood burner is at.  I was able to see into one of the bedrooms and as I suspected, that one was smaller than the bedrooms we have here, but it will still work well.

I do plan on taking the camera tonight and getting some pictures, but I’m unsure as to whether I’ll post them here or not because the people that moved out of the house left it in a HORRIBLE mess, so it’s very filthy!  We’ll see though!  Wish us luck!

Today is filled with appointments and bill paying in attempt to get things ready for the move, which will hopefully happen next weekend.  Tomorrow we have Algebra class from 8 to noon then we have to go up to Michigan in the afternoon for a cook out at my sisters house.  Sunday the hubby is going to be working all day, which stinks, BUT, it’s double time, so I’m not going to complain!

During all of this I have TONS of cleaning and packing to do!  We explained to the kids that we’re not going to be able to pull this off without their help.  We really need them to help by cleaning and packing all of their stuff.  They’re 14 and 12 now and more than old enough to be able to do this!

We go to the new house tonight to look over the work that needs to be finished, you can bet I’m going to be taking the camera AND tape measure along.  That way I can take pictures of the rooms and have the measurements so that I can semi plan how I’m going to set things up.  The more I find out about the new house the more excited I get.  We found out last night that it just had brand new windows put in in the last year.  Can you say HOORAH!  No more single pane, falling apart, drafty windows for me!  No more having to put plastic on the outside AND the inside of the windows in the winter!  Hubby and I also realized that with as surrounded by woods the house is, the chances of us getting the major cold winds in the winter are very slim!

So, yes, we will be giving up almost 1000 square feet of living space, BUT, we’ll be gaining a much better home!  I’ll post pictures as soon as I can, but it may not be until Sunday.