Wedding Shower ~ Pottery Found A Home ~ March Madness

It's getting closer - two weeks from yesterday is THE day - yowza :)

I spent part of the morning yesterday getting my hair professionally colored so it would look good for the wedding - and a facial - which included a hand, arm and head massage - yes!

Wednesday night our small group at church had a wedding shower for Gary and me and it was fun.  We had pizza and other good food - a great devotional time on what a Godly/Biblical marriage should look like - playing the "Almost Newlywed Game" - and cake.  Check out the pix below.

Our small group leader sharing a devotional about marriage - thanks Little Bro :)

Getting instructions from our game show hostess for the "Almost Newlywed Game" and the newest married couple (with child) ready to play.

Gary and me really thinking about our answers.

Our longest married couple in our small group.

Gary smiling that we got the question right, "What does your wife/fiancé have too much of".  Answer:  clothes.  The game went to a tie breaker between us and the newest married couple with Gary and me finally winning by the skin of our teeth.

While I'm not a big college basketball fan, if there is a school or two from Iowa in March Madness of course I have to watch.  The Hawkeyes bowed out really early but the Cyclones made it to the Elite Eight - way to go Fred Hoiberg and team!  And we watched Gary's Arizona Wildcats which I'm becoming a fan.  Unfortunately both the Cyclones and Wildcats did not make it to the Final Four.  But it was fun to see glimpses of Lute Olson (THE best Hawkeye basketball coach ever and former Arizona basketball coach) and Steve Kerr who I remember as a Chicago Bull and Gary remembers playing for Lute at Arizona.

 

Today was an absolute gorgeous day and we were thinking it would have been a perfect day for a motorcycle ride but Gary needs to be do some annual/spring maintenance on the bike before we take it on a spin.  Unfortunately with working 10 hour days Mon-Fri and six hours on Saturday that doesn't leave a lot of time to work on it - with doing all the other things that we need to get done.  We're hoping the Friday before the wedding he can get the oil changed, tighten the chain, clean and wax the bike - with me helping where I can - so we can go on our last ride as an engaged couple and then Sunday after the wedding if the weather is nice - go on our first ride as a married couple.

 

After church and doing some things at the house, we (ok Gary) put up some of my Hozoni pottery collection in the kitchen.  Check out the pictures below of Gary precisely cutting Styrofoam to put above the kitchen cupboards for my pottery to show.  We think things turned out pretty nicely.

And lastly today before blogging I got my federal and state taxes done and filed online!  And I'm getting refunds - that's even better.

Sadie's Big Adventure ~ Our First Piece of Furniture ~ Getting Ready for Easter

This was quite the week for Gary and me workwise.  Gary has been working 10 hour days for two weeks now - plus six hours on Saturday - so he's been pretty tired most evenings.  And my team member that works our offices with me at work had to be out unexpectedly Tuesday - Friday with her son being in the hospital - so I had some long days myself.  And two migraines during the week to boot.

Before the house goes on the market, our realtor made suggestions of things that needed to be fixed at the house - so I called my handy guy Jon and gave him the list of things to take care of.  Now Jon is the guy that let Butler get out and run away on him and the only way Jon caught Butler was he trapped Butler against a chain link fence.  And Butler was like 14 years old.  Then Jon is the one that accidently left my gate open to the backyard and Cruz got out on her adventure the second day I had her.  So when Jon was at the house to go over the list of things to work on, I held up Rowdy and said, "Jon I have two cats, this is Rowdy.  The other one is Sadie, looks just like Rowdy except she's black, don't do anything to my cats."  Remember this statement later.

I get home Tuesday night after work and see Rowdy but no Sadie to meet me at the kitchen door - that in itself isn't unusual - Sadie sometimes is in the living room waiting for me.  Well, into the living room I go and no Sadie.  I start to get a little concerned.  So I check the solarium - Jon had to do something in that room - no Sadie.  I open every door on the main level calling Sadie's name - no Sadie.  I go upstairs and look all over - no Sadie.  But all of a sudden I hear a very faint "meow".  I keep calling Sadie's name and finally find her - behind the drywall in Mike's old closet.  I couldn't believe it.

I had a hole in the floor of my closet that we had put a cabinet over years ago, but Gary and I decided the hole should be closed so we had that on Jon's list.  I also found out when I went through all my clothes a week ago Saturday that the dogs had pretty much destroyed the drywall in the back of my closet - so another item on Jon's list to fix.  I figured Sadie had gone down through the hole in the floor of my closet, walked under the floor over to the other closet and got stuck.  I called Gary yelling, "Sadie is behind the drywall in the other closet upstairs."  Gary very profoundly replied, "What do you want me to do about that?"  I just shook my head and told him I was going to beat a hole through the wall and see if Sadie would come out.  I'm sure Gary was shaking his head at me on the other end of that conversation.

Down to the basement I go and find a small sledge hammer type hammer and up to the closet I go bashing a round hole down by the floor.  I call Sadie's name, nothing.  I get the laser pointer light Rowdy and Sadie love to chase, nothing.  I open a package of tuna and sit it by the hole, nothing.  I figure I have traumatized my cat.  So I go downstairs, make sure Rowdy is shut on the main floor with the pooper pan and food and head to Gary's.  I don't see Sadie at all that night.

I call Jon on the way to Gary's and tell him there is a cat behind the wall and that he needs to open the hole back up in the floor so she can get out if she can't come through the hole I made in the wall.  Wednesday morning I'm at a loss on how to get Sadie out from behind the wall, so during my devotions I pray to God that it's in His hands to get Sadie out of there.  I go home after work Wednesday and now there is no Rowdy to greet me.  Great.  But wait, I can hear two cat meowing like crazy.  I open the door to the upstairs and out struts Sadie, a little p.o.ed and a little grey from the dust behind the wall - but no Rowdy.  I hear more meowing and have no idea how he got the door open but he got trapped in the downstairs bathroom - goof ball.  Rowdy immediately comes to me, rubs all over me and Sadie.....has nothing to do with me.  I look at her and matter of factly tell her that I didn't trap her behind the wall.

Jon did not open the hole in the floor - he told me he had fixed that the day before.  But when he had taken the bad drywall down in the back of my closet, he had left for like 20 minutes, then went back upstairs and put the new drywall up.  Viola - open season for Sadie to just walk right behind the hole in my closet and get drywalled up......

Tuesday night it was time to take our St. Patty's decorations down and put up our Easter decorations - so check out the sliding glass door.  Gary's job is to design how our decorations will look and my job - to assist by peeling the decorations off the sheet and handing them to Gary :)

Yesterday I was at Gary's waiting for the phone call to tell me our first piece of "together purchased" furniture was going to be delivered.  We bought a dresser a couple of weeks ago and it was delivered yesterday morning and placed in Gary's walk-in closet.  My clothes will now have a home at Gary's.

 

Once again it's March Madness and while I'm not a college basketball fan I do root for any Iowa teams in the madness.  ISU just won over UNC in a nail bitter.  No matter how hard everyone tried - the game was over and ISU won - at least the officials got that call right.  Now Arizona Wildcats to play later tonight. 

 

I realized Steve Kerr was one of the commentators of the ISU/UNC game and said something to Gary remembering that Gary had talked about Steve one time.  I'm like, "You remember Steve from when he played at Arizona right?"  Yep.  I said, "I remember when he was one of the best three point shooters the Chicago Bulls ever had."  Fun reminiscing :)

More Artwork and Mugs Find Homes

This has been quite the week weatherwise in Iowa.  One day in the 60's and the next in the 30's and it snowed again last night - with tomorrow supposedly being in the 60's.  I'm just glad it stays light later each day.

Gary has been working a lot of overtime this past week - Wed/Thurs/Fri he worked 10 hour days plus six hours on Saturday.  Needless-to-say he's a little pooped in the evening.

My handy guy Jon was able to stop by the house Monday night after Gary and I got off work to go over things that need to be taken care of before the house goes on the market.  I told Jon to make sure he doesn't let the cats out - both Butler and Cruz got out on Jon - and he had a hard time catching that old greyhound.  Jon was able to do some work last Friday and he said he didn't even see either cat :)

Check another item off the wedding list - flowers.  I took color samples to HyVee today after church so they can match the cake decorations to our wedding colors.  The last biggie is getting wedding music downloaded to Gary's MP3 player or burned to a CD.  Gary is checking music out right now as I blog.

Yesterday while Gary worked I spent some time going through most of my clothes and deciding what I would keep and what I would give to The Salvation Army.  I think I donated 20 t-shirts along with a lot of other clothing items.  I'm also working with a lady to make a t-shirt quilt out of several of my t-shirts I don't wear but they mean something to me - because I don't want to get rid of them.

I have quite the mug collection and have whittled it down quite a bit.  Gary spent some of yesterday afternoon hanging three mug shelves and we put the mugs up today.  I still have more mugs than shelves but Gary said there is some room in his second bedroom that is his den/office where another shelf or two could go.

So check out the pix below of more of my artwork that has found a home at Gary's plus the mugs.  There is even artwork in the walk-in closet :)

These are two of my favorite P. Buckley Moss prints.  The top one is Davis County Courthouse in Bloomfield, IA where my folks are from.  I spent many a night when staying at Grandma Loper and Uncle's place looking at that courthouse.  They lived in an apartment above a business on the north side of the square.  The bottom print is North Side of the Square and the left, brown building in the print - those two large windows are where Grandma and Uncle lived.  The left window was in their apartment and the right window was Uncle's sign shop.

I love horses and the big, draft horses are my favorite.  This artist comes to a couple of the art shows at the Iowa State Fairgrounds each year.  I bought "the girls" (the top print) a couple of years ago from her and the bottom print last year.

 

I would have loved to have bought the actual painting that was on the feather of the horse - but that was a little out of my price range - so I settled for a print of the feather with the horse on it :)

Gary wasn't too sure about my little fox looking out of the tree trunk, but the little guy has grown on Gary - and found a home above the door of Gary's walk-in closet.  The closet that I'm trying to figure out how much room I can overtake for all my clothes :)

 

And the mugs are center stage in the living room.  The bottom shelf, far right are mugs from a trip to Arizona.  Gary used to live in Tuscon (twice) and he knows all the places that the mugs represent - which is kinda cool :)

Yes I'm Still Alive :)

I have been told by some friends that they have missed my blog and that it has been since October since I blogged - October 28, 2013 to be exact.  So here I go trying to condense the last 4.5 months into a quick blog - with pix of course.

Gary and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving holiday together by having his sister Karen drive from Gladbrook to ride with us to Atlantic to see his Aunt Bea.  She is quite the gal and made me feel very welcome.  We also spent some time with Dad that weekend and Gary helped hang photos on Dad's walls of his new apartment in Fair Haven in Pella.  We also got our Christmas cards sent out that weekend - my normal weekend to send my cards :)

Gary never does anything half way - even when it comes to hanging pictures.  Get the level out and make sure things are straight :)

Gary experiencing the Christmas card assembly line to get cards in the mail Thanksgiving weekend.  We only sent out one blank envelope without a letter or card :)

 

We had an exciting first week in December - Gary was called back by his former employer, Eagle Iron Works, as the first former employee they were hiring back because the company that is located in Pennsylvania, that purchased Eagle Iron Works in late 2012, was bringing production back to Des Moines.  So December 9th was Gary's first day back as a welder - what a blessing.

 

And on December 6th - Gary did it - he asked me to marry him.  He even got down on one knee to ask and give me my ring.  Of course I said yes and it's been a whirlwind getting things ready for our wedding on April 12th.

 

We thought it would be nice to put Christmas lights around Gary's doors to his balcony.  We enjoyed looking at the lights every night - even past Christmas.  Check out Gary getting the lights "just right".



 

I was able to purchase discount tickets for Jolly Holidays Lights - it had been years for either of  us to drive through this awesome display.

 

 

December was pretty uneventful but we did have a good first Christmas together.  We went to LWF's Christmas Eve service and then back to Gary's to open one present.  On Christmas Day we opened our other presents from each other and enjoyed having the day together.

 

It has been quite the cold and snowy Christmas in Iowa - it's easy to say everyone was getting tired of the cold and snow.  Gary and I are not winter outdoorzy people so outside of work, church and an occasional Friday night at Denny's we didn't do much :)

 

Valentine's Day has always been a special day for me and Gary made it even more special.  I got my flowers delivered to work on Thursday so I could enjoy them an extra day and then we got our marriage license on Valentine's Day.  We went out to Denny's for some fun and while there Gary was messing with his coat.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "looking for this" and proceeded to plop a small, wrapped gift on the table for me.  It was a western belt buckle - now I have to get me a western belt :)  Check out how we changed Gary's décor for Valentine's Day.  His sliding glass door has become our holiday decorating palette.  :)

Slowly-but-surely we are getting things organized, purchased or whatever needs to be done for the wedding.  We are going to have a unity candle and our colors are our birthstones - sapphire blue for September (me) and amethyst purple for February (Gary).  While those two colors are awesome together, you don't see many dark blue flowers available for my bouquet or Gary's boutineer (sp).  Thankfully Gary is very crafty and decided he could tip the flowers that would go around the base of the unity candle in our colors - check out his first attempt below.  The finished flowers are beautiful.

It has been challenging bringing two adult households together - we basically have duplicates of everything.  And where to live?  My house, Gary's apartment, get our own place???  My house would have been perfect except for the parking issue.  I have a little tuck-under garage so one of our vehicles would have had to sit outside and we would have had to juggle our vehicles in the driveway all the time.  And there would have been no place for the motorcycle and getting rid of the motorcycle was NOT an option in my opinion.  So after much talking and some praying we decided I'll sell the house and move into Gary's apartment for a while and look for our own place.  The good thing is that Gary was able to secure a garage for me - right next to his garage - in his apartment complex.  This will give me lots of room to store things that don't need to go into the apartment.

 

The sad thing is that we need to find a home for Rowdy and Sadie.  It breaks my heart to have to do this but Lord willing we will find a good home for the two of them.  Please pray about this for us.  Gary was not a cat lover when we started seeing each other, but he has become really close to Rowdy and Rowdy sits/lays on him all the time.  Sadie has even warmed up to Gary and allows him to play with her with the laser pointer light that she loves to chase.

 

Also, in January Dad fell in his apartment.  He went to the Pella ER, was admitted to the hospital and then into Hospice.  He has not officially been diagnosed with liver cancer but that is what the doctor thinks he has - along with heart issues.  He says he has some pain but whenever I call him he sounds very upbeat.  Please keep Dad in your prayers too.

 

So now we're ready for St. Patty's day and the wedding is five weeks from yesterday!  Yowza.

 

I have lived in my house for almost 30 years - I've only bought a house - never sold one.  So selling the house is quite the under taking getting it ready to show.  Gary and I have made good progress but there is so much more to be done, go through, etc.  I have brought some things over to the apartment and Gary has found places for them on the walls.  In the picture below, guess what two prints are mine :)

 

We are also starting "our" wall and had fun the other night putting several things up - along with my huge greyhound print.

 

Today was an awesome day weatherwise - it was in the 50's.  I convinced Gary to go for a little ride this afternoon to enjoy the day and being alive.  I will try to do better blogging - my goal has always been to do it once a week but things got a little crazy for a while.  So don't hold me to it, but I'll try.