Line Dancing ~ LWF Garage Sale ~ Will The Decluttering EVER End :)

Ok first I meant to share last time that one day while at WalMart I saw some of those cute shorty skirts and thought I just might get one to wear for fun this summer.  I'm looking at them, holding them up to me - and finally realized the tag on the garment said tube top................

I know for a fact that wasp spray will kill garter snakes - how do I know this you ask?  The brown snake with yellow stripes that I battled last week died.  His dead, shriveled up body was in my planter in the front yard.  I had to have my neighbor to the north remove the body and I about had to stand in the street while he carried it from the planter to my trash can.  So evidently wasp spray will do the job - if you use almost a full can like I seem to for each snake I find in the yard.

The major decluttering continues - not sure when it will end but hope it will eventually.  It seems each day I work on at least one area of the house.  I was all ready to go to the household hazardous waste drop off yesterday - see pic below of my trunk full of stuff.  Got to Valley High and no one was there - realized the drop off is NEXT Saturday - heavy sigh.  I asked one of the guys at church (a WDM fireman no less) if I should take all that stuff out of my trunk since it was pretty warm today and will be again tomorrow.  I was a little concerned with some of the items in my trunk that the high heat could possibly ignite some of them and blow my car up (which would be bad, very bad) - Bill said I should probably unload my trunk - so I did last night after working the church garage sale.

This is Dude (aka Scruffy Dog from Build-a-Bear).  The kids picked him out and made him for me after Mike died - with each of them putting a heart inside so Dude has three hearts - and I've slept with Dude every night but maybe four or five since Mike died.  They named him Dude because whenever Mike would call the boys on the phone he'd say, "What's going on Dude".  When my sis-in-law, niece and I were in Branson last fall Chrissy and I stopped at the Build-a-Bear store on Branson Landing where I wanted to see if they had a Branson t-shirt.  I can't remember if they didn't have a t-shirt or if all the t-shirts were girly and Dude is NOT girly :)  I called that store last week and found out what this season's Branson shirt was, bought it and had them mail it to me.  Doesn't Dude look cute :)

Yesterday after realizing the hazarous drop off wasn't gonna happen, I visited the Dollar Tree before heading to the church garage sale.  Check out the cute, hibiscus table cloth I got - for $1.00.  I made the horrific mistake asking if they had storage bins and was told, "not for $1.00" and then got a very long and detailed account of how I was in Dollar Tree, not Dollar General........  wow.

So here's some of the crew from the church garage sale.  The three of us in front are trying to eat the same pastery.  It was announced this morning that over $1,000 was made at our two day sale!  There were no prices on any items - it was all free-will donation (give what you thought something was worth or what you were able to give).  Not too bad.

I stopped by the gargage sale with my last two boxes of stuff/donations and then wanted to pop over to the Fairgrounds for the art show - and then come back to do my shift at the garage sale.  The next two pix are a couple of things I bought at the art show.  I told people that I had THE best time yesterday at a show like this since Mike died.  We used to go to this event together - along with other craft shows - and since Mike's been gone I've still gone to some of the shows in the area but not really enjoyed myself.  Yesterday I was really getting into looking at things, talking to people (don't faint Chrissy) and treated myself to some items that I probably wouldn't have normally bought - but since I'm not taking a vacation this year I used some of my vacation money.

These are photos printed on canvas.  The vertical one is in my bedroom upstairs and the horizontal one is on the enclosed front porch.

Last year at the art show I bought Dad a really neat framed print of two draft horses and he really likes it.  I had hoped that artist would be at the show this weekend and she was so I treated myself to this print "Working Girls".  This artist has a couple more prints I'd like to eventually get.  One has a pair of brown (bay or chestnut) draft horses plus a pair of black draft horses in it - it's really awesome.

So after I was done at the art show at the Fairgrounds I was off back to the garage sale.  I was going from E. 30th and Grand (Fairgrounds) to SE 22nd (just south of Hartford).  Maybe 10 minutes at the most???  Instead of cutting back from E. 30th to E. 14th on Maury I thought I would continue to go further south on Vandalia Road for a little drive because I just knew I would run into either Indianola Avenue or worst case Army Post Road and work my way back to the garage sale.  I'm enjoying my drive in the country checking out houses but think I've probably gone too far for Indianola Avenue - so Army Post Road shouldn't be too much further...........  Nope.  So I'm like I should eventually run into 65/69 and take that back north into Des Moines to get to the garage sale.  As I drive under the bypass I thought 65/69 should just be up the road.....  Nope.  I eventually realize where I am - I'm at the Casey's outside of Runnells!!!!  And I'm heading the WRONG way to find Highway 163 to go past Southeast Polk, through Pleasant Hill and get to the garage sale.  So I turn around.  As I'm going through Pleasant Hill I'm kinda hungry (it's around noon) so I thought I'd hit their McDonald's.  The drive through was too busy so went inside - BIG mistake.  Ten minutes later I finally get my All American Cheeseburger Meal Deal without any Ronald McDonaldland cookies (the animal cracker type cookies) because those have been discontinued by McDonald's - really?!  It's tradition to buy two bags of those to share with Butler everytime I go to McDonald's - guess that tradition has come to an end.  So anyway - back to the car and to the garage sale.  45 minutes AFTER leaving the Fairgrounds I once again drive by the Fairgrounds to work my way back to SE 22nd and the garage sale.  Only me.................  Oh ya - what I thought was the bypass I drove under was Highway 65/69 that I was looking for and I still don't know where Vandalia took the turn that lead me away from Des Moines.............

After church I had my first of three half price line dance lessons (Living Social deal) at MadHatter Dance Studio (or something like that).  It was a lot of fun and I got a bit of a workout.  My main issue is for some reason I keep most of my weight on my left side so when I have to move to the left or just step or kick with my left foot it really throws me off balance.  I asked the instructor after class what I could do to keep this from happening - he said to release the knee of whatever leg I'm using so my weight is more evenly balanced.  Look out "Dancing With The Stars" and Maks - I'm heading your way sometime in the future - NOT :)

The picture below is my rearranged, decluttered upstairs.  Mike and I had a goal several years ago to get my Uncle's green chair (the one in the foreground) and the papason upstairs but we never did.  I now have both of them upstairs to enjoy - and got them both up there on my own.  The wall of pictures you can see has three small P. Buckley Moss prints, the two prints from the art show from this past weekend, a crocheted (sp?) McFall doiley and the large print above Uncle's chair is my remarqued Moss Print of Red Hat and Pink Hat ladies that Pat Moss signed "my title" in gold pen, Valley Junction Divas, which was the Red Hat/Pink Hat group I started a few years ago that no longer meets.

Sitting in Uncle's green chair is Roark - the artic fox that Mike and I made at the Branson Build-a-Bear store our last vacation together - which we had no idea it was our last vacation together.  Mike liked doing goofy/sweet thinkgs like this too - so he stood patiently in line with me (and all the little kids that were making their animals) to make Roark.  Mike kissed his heart (Roark has two hearts since we both made him) and Mike helped give Roark his "bath".  We named the fox Roark since that is the name of the resort where our timeshare is located in Branson.  Roark is wearing Mike's motorcycle "do" rag and wearing the Branson t-shirt that the store had that year.

Off to put a load of laundry in the dryer............

Happy Father's Day ~ And The Decluttering Continues

First - Happy Father's Day to my dad and all the rest of the father's out there.  Hope you all had an awesome day!

This blog is going to have lots of photos and with a whole lot of text to let you know the latest.  So get ready for the ride.

I blogged about getting my tomato plant - I think I blogged about it - anyway...  There was a red tomato one day but it was still sort of hard so I let it ripe and get bigger.  A day or two later I checked and it was soft feeling but no bigger - hmmmmmm.  So here is my first tomato of the season :)

It wasn't big - three baby bites and it was gone - but boy was it good!

While decluttering I found my uncles (Mom's brother) bandanas - this is after they were washed.  Uncle was an old-time sign painter who painted anything from signs in store windows (on paper and on the glass), to vehicles (usually gas tanker trucks) to full-size billboards.  He always had a bandana and I LOVE these colors!  First these are "real" bandanas, not those "things" that claim to be bandanas today - and you just don't see many colors other than red and blue now-a-days.

This is one donation of clothes that I took to WDM Human Services.  Check out how big the one box is with the top open.  I already donated a box that size of clothes earlier this month.  I finally got serious about going through the house and garage from top to bottom.  Mike and I had planned on doing this March 2010 after I finished doing all my traveling for work that February.  But Mike had a tumor appear in February and March 1, 2010 he was in the hospital for the first of three stays before he died in April.  It's taken me this long to get motivated to tackle this project.

Plus I had to have the right mindset because I have really gone through Mike's things.  I have a little bit of an issue of feeling like I have erased Mike from the house with donating his clothes, putting away all his ball caps and autographed golf balls from the Principal Charity Classic - but I haven't erased him in my heart.  The house really looks good - different - but good.  When the time comes for family to go through the house after I'm gone - they get to deal with all his ball caps (autographed and regular caps), golf balls, and shirts that I kept :)

One of the interesting things I found was a box of old ammunition - that went to the WDMPD to be destroyed......

And during all this I moved my uncle's green chair that had sat on the enclosed front porch forever upstairs all by myself - and his dresser that had been in the basement.  Wow.

The next two pix are what I ended up donating to my church's garage sale.  Hey - when you have lived in the same house since 1985 and haven't done a good cleaning for years this is what happens :)

Whether I would have gotten on this cleaning kick or not - I would have gone through the garage and basement to box up hazardous waste because this coming Saturday is a free hazardous waste drop off for the City of WDM.  Check out what I'm "donating" - and the sad thing is that Dad and I went through some of the basement and garage last year and got rid of hazardous things.  I happened to find Mike's stash.

Mike had a metal shelving unit in the garage that had finally seen its last leg (see pic below).  I decided I would get it out of the garage and replace it with one of the shelving units in the basement now that I had cleaned a unit off.  Well it wasn't that easy.  I had to unscrew the good shelving unit from the one next to it in the basement - why Mike screwed them together I have no idea.  Then I had to unscrew the unit in the garage that Mike had somehow screwed to the wall.  I'm just glad the blicky unit is out - not sure how I'm going to get rid of it - but at least it's not in the garage anymore.

This is my recycle bin - yes full of broken-down boxes and the large box of empty shoe boxes I mentioned in my last blog - NONE of those boxes are in the bin.  I'll be breaking them down this week to go out the next time the recycle bin is picked up :)

The next pic isn't the best but you can sort of see the "try to kill the snake with weed spray as I chase it across my back yard path" that I mentioned last time.  I took this pic from inside my house from my kitchen window (that's why you are looking at my back yard through a screen) but I had a better vantage point to show the path than the pic from last week.  The path starts on the right side of the picture and arcs up and to the left.  Now I mowed again this week and didn't see any snakes until I was almost done with everything - mowing, weed eating and spraying for weeds.  First I saw a large empty snake skin next to the round thing in my backyard.  It wasn't there this morning before I went to church.....  And then I saw a snake in the planter of my front yard.  So are garter snakes brown with decent-sized yellow stripes on them because that is what I saw.  I watched to see where he slithered away and then sprayed the poop out of the hole with wasp spray.  I walked outside a few minutes later and there was the snake - so I grabbed the wasp spray (not weed killer mind you) and sprayed the crap out of him.  He was going this way and that way in my front yard and once came my way - not good.  I have never seen a snake slither as fast as this guy did to get away from me.

Evidently I channeled Mike when I bought this at Bed Bath and Beyond because this is something he would have liked to have done.  My little greenhouse project will grow sunflowers, two colors of zinnas and something else.  I was putting this together Friday night while watching Nick Wallenda walk across Niagra falls.  That was totally amazing and mind-blowing watchinghim do that.

I have some other projects I'm working on:

• I bought some paint remover and supplies to see if I can strip the woodwork in my downstairs hall to bring it back to wood and then paint the walls.  If it ends up being too hard to get the paint off or smell too bad fumewise - I'll repaint the woodwork.
• I have my first of three line dancing classes next Sunday - I bought a deal from Living Social.  I'm looking forward to this - haven't danced since the last City Employee party Mike and I went to January 2010.
• And...I bought a DealChicken deal for a permit to carry a gun class - and found out my niece had purchased the same deal.  I'm not going to become Annie Oakley but thought it would be good to know how to shoot Mike's 9mm Glock.  When I was a WDMPD reserve we weren't allowed to carry automatic guns so I have a good, 'ole S & W wheel gun that I like. 

I remembered that we had bought two cots a long time ago thinking when the granddaughters visited they might sleep on them.  I got one out because they are like the beds you see some kennels use for the dogs and set this up for Butler.  It's a dog's life for him......  That's of a pile of dog food by his mouth, with a "pillow" to prop his head up, with his non-stuffing toy next to him, and he's covered with a blankie in case it gets too cold for him while I'm gone.  Wow.  And I take the staples out of his butt tomorrow - something for me to look forward to, right?

 

Yesterday and friend and I went to the downtown Farmer's Market - it's been YEARS since I went to it.  We were talking about all the pretty flowers and I said that's one thing I miss - Mike didn't buy me flowers often but he didn't do too bad buying them for me.  And I've only gotten flowers one time since he died - so we bought each other a bouquet of bright, fresh cut flowers yesterday.  We each put our bouquet together to get the flowers and colors we wanted.

Then I noticed 3-4-5 guys in suits and sunglasses and thought that was interesting and wondered who they were protecting.  Sure enough, there was a guy off to the side talking to someone with some of the "suits" just watching the crowd.  We didn't recognize the famous guy so we walked over to the "suits" and my friend asked who the famous person was - the Govenor of Massachusetts (sp?).  Why he was in Iowa yesterday I have no idea.  One of the "suits" was really friendly and chatty and actually let me take his picture wearing my friend's hat :)

Here's how my flowers turned out after I got them home, arranged them, cut them and put them in water.  LOVE the colors!

This isn't the best picture but I couldn't believe there was a squirrel eating on the round thing in my back yard this morning before church - thought he was too cute to not get his picture.

One of the bains of Mike's and my dad's existence is my papason chair that has been on the enclosed front porch forever - and in the way.  Both Mike and Dad wanted to get rid of it numerous times and I would say NO!  My goal was to get it upstairs in the bedroom and use it - well today I bought a new pillow for it and it's upstairs waiting for me to relax in it.  If Mike had a grave to roll over in - he would be.  I'm guessing Dad has lost his false teeth reading this :)

This morning a friend at church stopped me as we walked in commenting on my front porch - how much she loved it and wanted to come over and have some coffee with me.  She said at first she wasn't really sure it really was my front porch and not just a picture or something.  Well, the other side of the front porch is getting more organized now that the papason chair is gone.  The pictures below show the Caribbean side and the older, McFall side.

The two chairs were my in-laws and the tv was in the house when we bought it. There's a better picture coming up of that sign between the chairs.

 

Many, many, many, many years ago a good friend mentioned how he had an annual family reunion in McFall, Missouri.  Mike and I didn't believe him until we got a Missouri map and found it!  This friend kidded different times how he was going to "obtain" the McFall city sign for us - and one day it appeared on our front porch.  Mike kept it in the basement close to his work bench but I got it out today, cleaned it up and am proudly displaying it on the porch :)

Acts Of Valor ~ Pix, Pix, Pix ~ How Old Am I?

Don't faint - two blogs in one week :)

I got a phone call a few nights ago from some guy that starts out our conversation something like, "I hear you have a big birthday coming up.....65".  I'm thinking what in the world?  This guy acts like we know each other and are best buds.  I'm kind of dumb-founded for a minute and then say that I'm only 50 and will be 51 on my next birthday - and I don't say this very friendly.  The goober doesn't get that I might not be a happy camper on my end of the phone and continues ha haing and going on like we're buds.  I finally tell him that he really needs to watch it because he has just insulted a woman telling her she will be 65 when she will only be 51 - they need to get their records correct.  I think the lightbulb finally came on, on his end and he tells me that when I get the information in the mail that I don't need to look at it.  I tell him that won't be any problem.  Wow.

If you haven't rented the movie "Acts Of Valor" I think you should.  It was a good portrayal of Navy SEALs - what life is like for them - and what they go through on their missions.  I bleed red, white and blue and if I would have had better eyesight - and liked to get wet - I would have wanted to be a SEAL.  And some of the stuff they do - way too cool.  They showed a HALO jump (which Casey my middle has done many times).  High altitude, low opening.  And the "hot pickup" when their first two LZ's go bad was awesome.  Like I wrote on Facebook if any military personnel goes "down range" be sure to watch your 6 and God bless.  Hoorah!

One of Mike's orange day lilies in bloom in the parking of my front lawn.

I finally got around to spray painting two dark green, Adirondack foot stools that Dad had given us a long time ago.  I wanted them to be painted in bright colors to go with the enclosed front porch, but there just aren't that many bright colors in the spray paint inventory for plastic items.  I go to my local True Value - didn't see the primer for plastic spray paint - and ask the paint guy if I buy the white spray paint for plastic to use as a primer, if I could then spray paint another bright color on top of the white.  It's amazing how people don't listen to you.  The guy first says that I don't want to use the white as primer because it isn't a primer for plastic, and off he goes down some thought process.  I finally tell him I realize the white isn't a primer but try to explain again what I want to do.  Another light bulb moment - he realizes what I want to do and shows me the primer spray paint for plastic that I hadn't seen - way up on the top shelf.  I thank him and buy a can of the primer and viola - a sort of bright orange and pretty purple foot stool!

While I love Butler dearly and am very thankful I still have him - I wasn't too happy with him at 1:24 a.m. this morning - he was bright-eyed and raring to go.  Needless-to-say Mommy wasn't bright-eyed at all...........

I don't know what possessed me, but I signed up for another online dating deal - OurTime - for those 50 and older.  Again like I have said before, I don't take good pictures but come on guys - you are posting pictures to get women to be interested in you.  You are not posting a mug shot - and at least smile for good grief's sake.  And why are there no guys that come close to looking like the guys in their ads...................

Last time I mowed I didn't see any snakes in either yard!  But the time before I saw a snake in the front yard that I watched him slither away and sprayed the poo out of him with wimpy wasp spray - I think I probably drowned that one.  Then in the back yard a little guy decided he wanted to go cross country north to south and all I had was my weed spray in my hand.  So off we go, me chasing the snake, spraying weed spray.  And the stupid snake would turn around and open its mouth - maybe he thought he was hissing at me - so I'd be sure to really spray weed spray in his open mouth.  Well a few days later I'm looking at my back yard wondering why I have some dead spots of grass and then realize it's the path of the weed spray from the snake chase - check out the picture below.  I copied this picture into Paint and drew red circles around the dead grass/path (which I couldn't upload to my blog) but I think you can figure it out starting on the right side of the picture kind of in the middle and follow the brown spots (in kind of a semi-circle) to the left side of the picture. Lesson learned - don't use weed spray to chase a snake across your grass..............

I shared this experience with my chiropractor and he started to laugh and said "that's awesome" about spraying the snake and the dead grass path in my back yard..........   :)

Cleaning ~ Farmer ~ Movie

I have been on a cleaning spree in the basement - finally.  I have a pile of things for my church garage sale later this month, I recycle what I can and then end up throwing a lot of things out.  I have boxes of items I inherited when my uncle died (Mom's brother) and I found out that a HUGE box of empty shoe boxes had been moved to my house in 1999 - really?!  That will definitely be recycled :)

Butler's behind is doing good now that he has 8 staples in it :)  I think the staples will come out later this week - as in I get to borrow the staple remover tool from my vet and take the staples out myself...

Today was an antique show in Valley Junction and I went to it after church.  I was kind of looking for a plant stand for the back yard and this is what I found.  I think it's kind of cute.

I now think of myself as a farmer - I bought a tomato plant and strawberry plant from WalMart and we'll see how they do.

Last night I went to Lowe's to buy a push mower - old style that has the rotating blade that is powered by ... me.  I thought it might be nice to have one of them when the grass isn't real long - but it was a little harder to do than I thought.  I was so proud of myself putting it together - the handle - and then realized I didn't tighten the nuts good enough (by hand) when the handle started to pop off the mower as I was mowing.  I couldn't find one of the washers that had come off so this morning on my way to church I stopped at True Value to get a washer and some locking nuts.  Now I need to find Mike's rachet (sp?) so I can get the nuts on good and tight.

I also saw these cute little catcus at Lowe's and finally figured out what to do with the colorful M&M's cups I had bought a couple of weeks ago.  I think these little guys look pretty cute on my enclosed front porch.

I didn't cut back my butterfly bush this spring so it has grown taller than me.  I talked to Earl May and know that after the first frost I should cut this down to around 12 inches for next year.

My red hibiscus really had some beautiful blooms the other day - enjoy.

A friend and I saw "Men In Black 3" yesterday and it was a really good movie.  My first 3D experience and that was interesting wearing the 3D glasses over my lineless bifocals.  It was pretty funny for the two of us when one of the minor characters appears in a scene and he reminded us of a co-worker that she works with and I used to work with.  As she leans toward me, she says, "It's Davis" while I lean toward her and say, "Scootie" at the same time.

After the movie we headed to Orange Leaf - my first experience.  Get your own yogurt - and many flavors to pick from.  Then put on any toppings you want.  The kicker is that you pay by the weight...  But it was a good $5.00 worth of nummy.

Memorial Day ~ Black Squirrel ~ Butler's Boo Boo

I took a holiday from blogging last week.  I spent part of the weekend watching military movies on AMC.  I watched part of "The Dirty Dozen", don't know what it is about this movie but when I see it's on I have to watch it or parts of it - classic movie.  Then "The Green Berets" were on I don't know how many times over the holiday weekend.  Everytime Mike and I would see it was on I would say how I didn't want to watch it because John Wayne died at the end - to which Mike would say it wasn't John Wayne, it was the other guy that died at the end - so we wouldn't watch it.  But one time we did happen to catch the end to show me that John Wayne was alive at the end of the movie - I wished Mike and I could have had this "argument" over the weekend.  And then the icing on the cake was Clint Eastwood in "Heartbreak Ridge" - one of his better movies in my opinion.  Recon!

Butler's boo boo on his butt has been interesting.  We went to the vet like three weeks ago to have his cut cleaned and three staples put in.  It was healing nicely - but the meds he was taking were making his poo smushy.  After getting up early last Sunday morning to using my green machine twice to clean up poo on the carpet before 6:00 a.m. I decided I needed to do something about this - so I called the emergency hospital to verify if there was something better than rice to feed Butler to help settle his tummy and make his poo solid - rice was the best bet.  So around 6:00 a.m. I'm off to HyVee to buy rice...for my dog...and I was not a pretty sight at that time of the morning let me tell you.  Last Tuesday back to the vet for a check on the boo boo and it was doing perfectly - until Wednesday when he fell and popped two staples out.  Then Thursday he fell and split the wound clear open - so back to the vet on Friday (I think it was Friday) to get eight staples.  At least the vet said the wound had healed nicely inside out - the skin just needed to close now.

I was very excited to find a furry, black visitor in my back yard a week ago - check out the pictures.

I don't know if I'm getting any headway on the snakes in the yard but I'm getting really good at following them slither across the front and back yards spraying them with wasp spray or weed killer.  Tonight there was one slithering in the round area where one of my hibiscus sits so off I head for the wasp spray.  I spray it between the bricks, then it would stick its head out, so I'd spray it on the head.  After 2-3 times of peek-a-boo the snake decided to come out of hiding and charge me - bad move on its part.  I proceeded to continue spraying it with wasp spray until I had chased it into my neighbor's yard......

This week is spring cleanup week in WDM where you can put pretty much anything (within reason) out to be picked up on your regular trash pick up day.  I had a full-sized sheet of drywall that had been in my basement (in the way) for almost two years so I woman-handled it out of my basement, through the garage and to the end of my driveway - not an easy feet but I got it done and a while later someone had a new piece of drywall.  I've put other things out with some finding new homes and others will be picked up with the trash tomorrow.

The clean up bug has hit me so I cleaned out the bottom of the built-in china hutch in the living room.  Two of the three drawers were Mike's junk drawers that I had put off going through - but they are now clean - the whole lower part of the china hutch is clean and organized.  Then I cleaned out the drawers in Mike's night stand by his side of the bed.  Definitely brought back memories going through everything.

Below is another goofy picture of Butler hamming it for the camera and the very last photo is his shaved behind with three staples in it so that picture may not be something everyone would want to look at :)  Not imagine eight staples in a straight line on his poor behind...........