Wednesday Hodgepodge: End of Spring Edition

Than you Joyce for another set of great questions. Click on the button above to join in. 

1. Do you and your family enjoy camping? What do you enjoy most/like the least when it comes to family camping? When was the last time you camped?

OK what kind of "Camping" are you talking about here? The tent on the ground and sleeping in a sleeping bag - NO WAY!  A trailer, or RV? OK I can do that. I can see myself camping with that and have done a little of it in the past.  To be honest, it's been a long time since we have done that. Over the past few years our vacations have included a hotel room, with Internet service, hot water and even room service. After all, if I'm on vacation and have to cook and clean, is it really a vacation?

2. Did you attend a summer camp when you were a kid? Is that a happy or not so happy memory?

Yes, when I was little, I went to a day camp.  It was OK but it was not a great happy time. I knew I was there because my mother didn't want me around and was doing everything she could do to get rid of me. Not all women are cut out to be mothers, or wanted to be mothers, but became mothers none the less.  Nuff said.

3. Over the course of your life, what have you probably spent more time pondering than anything else?

WOW, it never fails - Joyce always ask at least one hard question.  I guess I would have to say I ponder a lot of "What ifs"  What if I had never come to know Christ. What if I had not married the man I did. What if I had not stopped having children.  What if I reacted in a different way to whatever. What if..... there are a lot of "what ifs". Too many to really count. 

4. Which of the seven natural wonders of the world would you most like to see? There are many lists of 'wonders' but this is the standard naturalwonder list-Mount Everest, The Great Barrier Reef, The Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls, The Harbor of Rio de Janerio, Paricutan Volcano and The Northern Lights.

Can I pick all of the above?  Yes, then fine - all of them but I have to pick only one, then the Grand Canyon because I love the south west.

5. What was your first real job?

I was a shoe packer at a shoe shop. It paid "piece work" meaning every shoe had a small tag on it, you took the tag off as you packed it and saved them till the end of the day and then turned them in and got paid according to the tags. Different shoes paid differently. Boots paid better that flip flops for example.  Women did this job and the "old timers" could be ruthless and would trip you and knock you over if you went after the boots. These were woman who were feeding their children with the money they were making and they counted on the money much more than I did. It was really cut throat.

6. Lemonade or Sweet tea...which do you prefer on a hot summer day?
I like tea sweetened with Splenda and lemon. Large and I am drinking one right now while I type this.

7. What is something that always brings a smile to your face?
Seeing the faces and hearing the voices of my Hubby, Children, and Grand children. I am so blessed. Hubby is one in a million!  He loves and cares for me more than I can express here. My children are grown with there own children and they are such mature, smart, funny, exceptional people.  Both have there dad's sense of humor which I love!! Our grand children are funny, wonderful and full of life.  What's not to smile about?

8. Insert your own random thought here.
The hay is down and the deer fence is up. The garden is officially in. Now to water it and watch it grow.

Great job Joyce, thanks for a great Hodgepodge this week.

Another Goal Achieved: Another project in the works

We interrupt this blog for a special announcement.  I  reached my 1200 miles Monday night (in fact I achieved 1202.74 Monday night). I am quite proud of having met my goal.  The lobster with butter will have to wait a few weeks, Hubby is working long hours this week and next week is Father's Day and I plan to take him out. Still, I have achieved something that I wanted to achieve and I wanted to share, now back to the regular blog.

I have my grandchildren's toys in this planter. Others are scattered around the living room, my home office, the back yard, etc.  This is not the toy storage I wanted in the house but it worked. Then we started the kitchen make over and an idea hit me... 

 I am using the old cabinets from the kitchen make over. They cannot be rehung but with a coat of paint, new door pulls and a new top will make these great for toy storage. But for now they look like this.

A work in progress for sure but I hope to have them up and ready for the toys soon.  Some projects take a while and that is OK. I'm learning patience, and I hope to learn that quickly.

Have a good day everyone. 

Weekend Review: 400/800/1200 Mile Challenge

I sure hope you all had a great weekend, I sure did!  Friday night after work, I put the weed block around the raised beds in our garden. Hubby did a great job making the raised flower beds. Saturday evening the plants went into the ground. It hopefully will be a good year for gardens! I want to put hay down over the weed block and maybe some mulch around the plants to help keep the water in. But for now, I'm very happy!

The fence around the garden will help to keep the wildlife  away.

Saturday, during the day, our church had it's annual "Give Away Day". Think of a really big yard sale without any prices!  Our men did a great job moving so many items to people's homes. Furniture, appliances, TVs, clothes, computers, office furniture, Christmas items, toys, and I kid you not even a kitchen sink and cabinet's were all given away. Many wonderful people came to give new homes to all the stuff. Also we had a Bone Marrow Registry so that people could sign up for that very noble work as well.  Once I got home from there, I started on the new project; turning our old kitchen cabinets into toy storage for our grand daughters. I'll keep you posted, photos later.  

Our Fearless leader Shanae hurt her back and is down for the count for now, but she encourages us all to keep on and to keep moving.  I did just that week! Weeding and painting were tops on my list. Here is the break down for this past week.Walking = 7.05 milesStationary Bike = 12.23 milesWeights = 7 milesYard work/painting = 38 milesStep Aerobics = 15 milesGrand total for this past week = 79.28Total for the year so far = 1186.83
I hope to reach my 1200 miles in a few days and then plan on my mini reward, Lobster! In Butter! All Low Carb!!!!
All in all it was a busy week and even busier weekend, now my allergies are acting up so I took Sunday and rested most of the day.  Body needs to rest as well but only for a little bit.   So tell me, how was your weekend?

The House of Many Colors: Minus a Color

Back in October we needed to replace our garage door and though we would have time to pain the bottom of our house so we ordered the garage in the new color.  Then it rained, and snowed and we never got to it so all winter and most of spring we had the house of many colors.

So we started with this

Hot Chocolate Brown, Mustard Yellow, Celery Green (Trim) and Burgundy Wine (Shutters) A lot of food groups here!

Then went to this

YUP Added Forest Green garage door!  

And thankfully we now have this!

Gone is the Brown and on is the Forest Green. I like having one less color on our house of many colors. And yet I like having more than one color.  We are a colorful couple, our house needs to be as well.  

Wednesday Hodgepodge:

1. Have you ever been to the US capital-Washington DC? If so, what's your favorite site? If not, what would you most like to see on a visit to that city someday in the future? Is it even on your list of places to visit?
I have never been to the US Capital but it is on my list of things to do.  I want see it all! The White House, the Monuments - everything!

Now to be able to take a month off just to go see it all!  Hay Hon, are you ready my blog today?

2. When did you last attend a wedding? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? Were you a summer bride? If you're single, is summer the season of your dream wedding?
I had to ask Hubby this one because I could not remember the last wedding we went to. He thinks it was the wedding of his niece a few years back.  There are no summer weddings coming up and I was a summer bride - July 1st 1972!  I was late showing up.

3. What is your favorite way to eat strawberries?

I like them sliced in a dish, on top of ice cream, on top of a biscuit with whipped cream, in cereal - hay I just like any way I can get them.  Doesn't everyone?

4. What is one thing you are especially looking forward to this summer?
Heat, sun, open winders, fans blowing, short pj's, longer day light, vacations!  OK so it's not just one thing but I am looking forwarded to them all and could not just pick one. Winters are long up here and they start early.

5. Do you use/like the self checker at the grocery store?
No I do not. I did use them a few times and it never failed that something went wrong and a person had to show up to fix the problem so I gave up.

6. Share a favorite piece of common sense advice.
Don't try to be helpful and use a hammer when Hubby is sleeping.

7. Barefoot, flip flops, tennis shoes, sassy sandals-your first choice for summertime?

Barefoot most of the time but my boss has an issue with that so sandals (flip flops if I'm going to be on the computer all day), but once home, they come off!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

It got warm enough this weekend that Becke decided it was time to go into the pool. She didn't lay down in it but did splash around and cooled off.  I love my girl!