Christmas Time on Craig Road

Unlike most everyone else, we did not get the snow for Christmas.  The day after Christmas it did snow quite hard all day, but nothing stuck until around supper time, and that was very little.  Guess Blythe is just below that line of colder temperatures.  Normally that is good, but a white Christmas would have been just so awesome.  My 3 and a half days off work was quite welcome.  I did take a couple or more naps while at home those days.

Christmas day was very nice.  All the kids were there about mid afternoon for presents and lasagna.  The weather was quite chilly, but the fire in the fireplace made for quite a cozy visiting day.  Everyone gave perfect gifts, and those receiving them thought the same.  My mother-in-law had not been feeling well (head cold), so she did not come to visit.  All the kids took food, desserts and presents to her and visited for awhile.  She sent back with them one cherry and one apple pie.  Yummy!!

Since I have pictures all over the place - in my phone, in my camera, and on my computer, I will post pictures later.  You actually may find the entirety of them on my photo album pages when I get them posted.

Until next time!

Seasonal Comments

 Thanksgiving has come and gone. Below is a picture of a cupcake from Cobii's Thanksgiving program at school.  So much sugar!  The head is a mini cupcake and all cake was pumpkin cake and so very good.

Here are the indians and pilgrims.  Cobii is tallest girl in front with brown shirt.  She enjoyed acting in front of all those people.  She was very dramatic.

 The turkeys were just too precious!

 And the pumpkins were more precious.

This is an edible (sp) centerpiece Carrie made for Thanksgiving dinner.  She used a styrofoam pumpkin to poke the sticks in.  Serve with ranch dressing - yummy!  The leaf decorations on the bottom came off a cake here at work.

We had an excellent day.  Lots of good food and people, and the weather was in the mid 70's and sunny.  We have had such strange weather this season.  Now it is cold and our lows for about a week will be mid 20's to low 30's and highs will be mid 50's or so.   BRRRRRR! 

. 

Now it is time for Christmas!!  Where or where did the year go.  This is my new tree.  Am posting 2 pics so everyone can have an idea of where I put the tree.  Needed the front windows for my plants as the daytime sunshine is big and bright by those windows.

I bought the wreath and decorations separate.  For a mere $8.00 I made this.  Looks much better in other lighting.  I took the Tree and Wreath pics mostly in the dark with I think the setting I should have used.

IT IS WHAT SEASON!!!!!!

Lynn, those roses are the knockout roses you gave me.  So very pretty.  Picture was taken last weekend.

When the cold weather gets here, may be the end of this!  I cannot believe the petunias are still going as strong also.  That thing looking like a rope running under the bush is my rope lights to find our way through part of the yard. 

Work is still going strong and keeping me busy for now.  Just got over a very slow time for me, but now got dumped on all at once.  Am trying to keep 4 jobs separate with what has to be done and what has been done.  It is ok to me. 

Everyone take care, have save traveling and shopping times.

October 27, 2010

I am still having some issues trying to get back in the seasonal swing at home.  New house, a yard in need of more work than I am giving it, and the fact that the year is about over has just overwhelmed me.  Little by little, I am trying to find a new routine that works for me and covers all areas and still have some time for myself.  Ha Ha!

Did find some time to go to the "Big" Burke County Fair.  A fair about 1 acre of land is NOT a fair.  Was all rides and games.  What few exhibits they had were shoddy.  If one cannot produce quality crafts, take them to the Burke Co. fair and you WILL get a ribbon.  There are more ribbons than exhibits.  It was actually very sad!  Cobii and Carrie had fun.  Cobii rode all the kiddie rides of course, and she rode all the big rides with Carrie that she was tall enough to get on. 

My mother-in-law is due back to the sunny south tomorrow sometime.  I miss her while she is gone.  My kids and I got her place ready - food in the fridge, yard mowed, house vacuumed, etc.  I am sure she is anxious to see my new house, since she left before it was delivered.

This is my confederate rose.  White today and pink tomorrow!  Somehow they suvived being in a bucket all summer.  When they are done for the season, I will plant where they belong - not sure yet where that will be, but I WILL find a place.  Mary has had one in their front yard for a few years now, and it gets very many shoots and so tall, way over her and Rick's heads!

Guess that shall be the end of my blog for today. 

Trying to Catch up to Myself

Fall has gotten here almost overnight.  Seems it was just a month or so ago that Spring arrived.  I have been working at trying to put my yard back together.  There are some things growing in my yard that I never had before, and some things I have kept an eye out for that either never came back or may appear next Spring.  Since there was a lot of 'dirt moving", there are plants (mostly day lillies) coming up in the strangest places.  This weekend, I got a rose bush out of a bucket and got it in the ground where it belogs.  I burned a pile of already burned wood leftover from burned house.  Actually, it was practically all the wood that did not burn from the entire place.  So that is another area of the yard cleaned!

A few pretty things blossoming now in the yard are confederate rose, columbines, oxalis and petunias.

This weekend also included getting my mother-in-law's yard and house ready for her to return for the winder.  She leaves the 26th of this month to return from her yearly visit to home in upstate NY.  Did not capture pictures of her before and after yard.  Carrie did find the remains of a snake in the bathroom.  Hopefully that takes care of the yearly snake visit in her house.  There are many stories of snakes in her house.  Enough of that.

Friday evening Carrie, Cobii and I decorated my fireplace for the season.  All decorations are Carrie's except the lights were given to me, the pirate pumpkin in front, Cobii decorated from a kit, and the sitting down scarecrow was my mother's, had been at Patches's house, and has now made it to my house again.

This is "Oma, may I please have a banana".  She was definitely pretty sure Oma was going to say yes!

The princess and the fur ball.

 

Yeah for 3 day Weekends

My weekend started with staying home from work Friday so the items in my home that needed repair or touch up could be done. 

I awoke at 5:30 AM to make some preserves - peach and cherry.  It was perfect timing.  As I was taking the jars out of the canner,  a wonderful crew of 2 men came from the home manufacturer to work on the inside.  There were tools all over three rooms of the house, but they did a fantastic job.  Everything looks great now.

Friday evening, Cobii came to spend the night with me.  We had to have a "hair do" time Saturday morning.  She always insist on putting ALL her pretties in her hair.  Glad we do not have too many!  We had fun playing, reading, and making good things to eat.  We always take a nice walk also.

Nap time is nice and quiet!

Sunday I started working in the yard to get it in somewhat decent looking state.  First I traded in my boots for a cooler pair of shoes that were hand me downs I wore to cleanup at the very beginning of cleanup after

the fire.

Have also decided it must be time for a new pair of gloves!

I started with a spot just off to the right of the porch, and it looked like this.

After some weed pulling, I found some things that would never never grow in my yard or fell out of some of my houseplants that did not survive the fire.

I have never had petunias in my garden, only store bought ones in flower pots, and not this color either.

portulaccas or flowering moss, has never been able to grow in my yard.  There were some in a hanging basket that burned.  The basket was in this area, and now they are ALL over.

Inch plant which is an indoor plant, had grown out of a pot in the yard, and just took over.  Hard to see them, but they will fill a flower pot almost overnight and make a hanging basket look great - like a waterfall.

This sassafrass tree just popped up out of nowhere.  That is OK, it will replace one of the trees I lost, AND ants do not like them!!

This will soon become........

This!

It had begun to get too hot for me, and I had probably done more than I am suppose to do, so this is where I left off.  Did end up with a pile of cuttings.  What green is left is what I found growing that is a keeper.  Little by little it will get done.

That was my weekend!  I also got all my laundry, vacuuming and mopping done.  Stayed home for 3 days.  Looking forward to the next 3 day weekend!

Whoo Hoo! I am back!

After being so very busy these last few months, I figured it was about time to do some blog catching up. Have read a bunch, no am going to post, but not a bunch. Some events (not in order by date by no means) that have taken place over these past few months are:

There was a graduation..... Carrie earned 3 Associates, 2 Diplomas, and 1 Certificate in Business Management and Entrepeneurship.

Clean up continued on the homefront with much help from everyone - age made no difference.

There was a miracle of a handful of Cobii's cousins from NY that visited the Rimmer household for about 5 weeks. Such a wonderful handful! They are now back in NY and nearly 7 months old.

Somehow I managed to sneak in a quick trip to Tenessee along with Cobii.

Back to reality. The moving in the new home took place, and I had a chauffer to help!

Until power was restored on the homefront, the hard work of carrying water to save my plants paid off.

Now that life has somewhat gotten back to a normal routine, I may be able to keep up with the blog a little more often. Just cannot wait until I get a new camera. Have used my cell phone and borrowed one from work, but it is NOT my SONY!

Finally, everything has been moved, and the place is very comfy as you can see.

Construction

The roof is complete! Picture does not really show much, but all sides look like this, just the other side is higher. I have to half way to Ma's to get a picture of the roof itself, one day maybe.

This Saturrday was quite productive for me. Besides doing all my laundry, house cleaning, etc., I replaced two screens, and made a shelf in one of my kitchen cupboards. Here is the before picture.Near the end of the project, the electric drill just DIED! It has been around this house since day one, so guess we had gotten our money's worth out of it. Anyway, this is what I ended up finishing the project with. Da Da Dahhhh!

It worked just perfectly also!! New shelf loaded up with the pots and pans! Now to make a door.

Now I am going outside to pick up some sticks, etc. since all I picked up before has been burned. Next time!

Day in my yard

This is before I started to rake all the leaves that have fallen through the winter. The area where the gazing ball is where Cobii will have her play area.

Got my "outdoor kitchen" cleaned up and lunch is nearly ready on the cooker. Did not take photos of food as I forgot!

One of various positions to get into during some frisbee throwing.

This little critter had crawled in the cover while it was off the grill. He seemed content.

The beginning of cleaning up. The fire was kept burning from 10 AM to 8 PM, and I got ALOT of yard waste burned.

Some of the Spring that has appeared. More and more colors are appearing each day. It is beginning to look and feel like Spring.