Curtains Maestro!

Are you ready for an overload of pictures of curtains? I spent all day Saturday putting up curtain rods and hanging the aforementioned curtains. I’m not very good at it since I’ve always had Dennis to do the drilling and the hammering when we’ve put up curtains before. I would just tell him where I wanted them and it was like magic! They got hung up. I also hung up three mini blinds! I have to tell you this was a test of what I was capable of. My back did great.

I would like to point out that I do not have my iron or ironing board, so I washed and dried them and hung them up as is. I needed some privacy and some curtains up. I will iron them after I get my ironing board.

Living room: there are six sheer white panels in the middle.

On each side is a light gray panel with the darker gray design. I think I like the way it looks. What do you think? I worry a bit about privacy at night, but I don’t want big heavy drapes here either.

The kitchen. I had to put up both of these rods and replace the mini blinds.

Our bedroom: please excuse the box of clothes on the floor. I forgot to bring my skirt hangers so they have to wait until Dennis gets here. I love these curtains. They are so breezy and delicate, yet there’s a mini blind behind it for privacy.

This is the bathroom off of our bedroom. It’s not a big room but I just love the looks of these flowery curtains. They are more gray than is showing in this picture. They are also fairly thick to give privacy and there’s a mini blind behind the curtains. I hung that too! The wrinkles really show here.

This is the spare bedroom which will be Piper‘s room. I just got plain gray room darkening curtains for here. The same exact curtains are hung in the office.

The patio door has one big panel made of the same material.

And speaking of the office, I put together the printer stand to! There is supposed to be a bookcase that matches, but it is still on back order.

Here is the backyard. Do you see that strip of bare ground behind the line of trees? I dug up 10 packed full, 5 gallon buckets of dandelions from that strip alone. I sprayed them almost 2 weeks ago and they were still blooming! I dug five buckets full last night and then I got up at 5:30 this morning and dug another five. I was trying to beat the heat since it got up to 92° today.  On the left you see the red rock bed. There is a bunch of groundcover in there that is weeds that I have to spray and dig up. I ran out of time in the cool of the day. I may go back out tomorrow morning and spray.

This afternoon I planted an ornamental grass and some geraniums in that planter at the end of the rock wall.

The Harley Davidson sign will come off of the shed as well as the sign that says 1903. Our deck is being stained on Friday by the same guys that painted the inside. I would do that myself but I am allergic to stain.

That’s mom’s house that is the pinkish color, next door.

It was a good day today. I returned some mini blinds that wouldn’t work in the family room and was able to get potting soil, four solar lights and some weed spray with the money I got back. Then I went to another store that Mandy told me about yesterday and bought another pot of red geraniums for the front steps. Little by little it is starting to feel like home. Once Dennis brings the U-Haul trailer with my kitchen things, I will be able to do a lot more cooking. I bought the bare minimum with me. Then, two weeks after that the POD should arrive with the rest of our belongings.

I have not had time to do any crocheting or knitting for several days now. You know that is very unlike me. I’m hoping tomorrow to make progress on the second sock. I am on the foot and on the homestretch!  Wishing you all a wonderful day.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Sunshine and cold

It is an absolutely gorgeous morning here, the sun is shining brightly but it is cold, cold! You can tell how windy it is by the flag blowing in the breeze. We even had snow all day Monday after having a cookout on Sunday afternoon with highs in the upper 60s. Such crazy weather changes. We have freeze warnings for the next few days, but next Monday is supposed to be 87F!

I have made a little bit of progress on Piper‘s blanket. It is very wide and I just don’t seem to have the crocheting/knitting time I had before so it’s going to take a while. I expected that and it’s fine. Some things are more important.

Mandy picked up this embroidery kit at the Target dollarspot. Piper wants to learn and I’m looking forward to teaching her soon.  It is mainly satin stitch so it should be an easy project.

Look at this mess! These are curtains for the living room, patio door, spare bedroom, office, our bedroom and kitchen. They all came about 10:00 last night by Amazon. Mandy is going to help me put them up this weekend since I have no drill to install the curtain rods.  They also all have to be washed to get the wrinkles out.

I spent one evening putting Dennis’s desk together. I hope to work on the file cabinet this afternoon.

I thought I would share this picture with you. I made it for Mom right after dad passed away in 1999. It’s one of my favorite crossstitch pieces I’ve done. She loves reading about angels and how they are around and helping us all of the time, although most of the time we are unaware of it.

The visiting nurse will be here in about half an hour so I need to get over to Moms. Monday I had my oil changed and got a grocery pick up order, along with going to the hardware store and stopping at our new credit union. There doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but I’m hoping things will start to calm down a little bit. I’m amazed at how much I was able to get in my little car that has helped make the house feel like home. I have photos sitting around, my own bedding, towels and toiletries.  I have my own dishes, pots and pans and silverware. People are still amazed that it all came in the car with me.

I’m finally able to keep up with your blogs, although sometimes it’s very late in the day before I can comment if mom has an early appointment somewhere. And then yesterday the screw fell out of my glasses when I got dressed. Have you ever tried to find the screw when you can’t wear your glasses? Ha! I couldn’t see anything. So I had to make a trip to the eye doctor to get my glasses repaired. It’s always something isn’t it? I was able to get Mom out of the house though, to ride along with me and afterwards we stopped at Runza and picked up lunch. Have any of you heard of Runza’s? They were invented here in Nebraska and they are delicious. Hamburger, cabbage and onions inside of a bun.

I hope all is well with you and I’ll try to be back here soon. Maybe I’ll have hung curtains to show you!😍

Much love and many blessings,

Betsy

New Project

Happy Thursday evening everyone. On Tuesday I had an appointment to meet my new primary care doctor. We have to get set up with doctors quickly so our prescriptions don’t have any lapses. He is a very nice man who seems young enough to be my son. It’s crazy and I’m not sure when that age switch happened! I used to always be younger than my doctors. Ha! After my appointment, I picked Piper up after school and we went yarn shopping. So fun!  She has been wanting me to make her a teal blanket and I promised her that I would take her to pick out yarn when I got to Omaha. Here is the start of her blanket. I have it folded over on itself as it’s big enough for a full size bed. I’m just using a simple crochet shell stitch and a size J hook.  It was just started it this afternoon so there’s not much to show yet.

I found this picture on a face book group that I’m in. I’m not sure who made it, but I saved the photo because I love the looks of this baby blanket. It looks so delicate and sweet. I think it will be one of my first projects after I complete Piper‘s blanket.  The yarn almost looks like cotton in the photo, but I think I would probably use baby yarn to make it.

This desk came with the house and although it is a very nice desk, it won’t work for what Dennis needs. He has two 21 inch monitors, along with a lot of manuals and other paraphernalia that he needs for his job. They will never fit on this desk. I briefly thought of moving it down to my craft area, but there’s not room for it there either. I’m going to try to get it moved down to the garage in the next day or two if I can find some help as it is very, very heavy. Then I will try listing it on Facebook.

Meanwhile, this is the set up I have ordered for Dennis off of Amazon. Not very expensive or fancy, but hopefully it will give him the room that he needs for working.

What do you think? Will I be able to put all this together and have it ready for him when he arrives in a couple of weeks? I’m going to do my best!

The plumbers were out yesterday and put in the shut off valve for the gas dryer, so the installers are supposed to be back tomorrow early afternoon to install both the new washer and dryer and haul away the old ones. I’m ridiculously excited to once again have a working washer and dryer.

The contractor is also coming out tomorrow afternoon to give me an estimate or at least get the information in order to give me an estimate on making some changes in the main bathroom. Instead of a whole new tub, I’m hoping he can just do that electrostatic painting thing to the green tub that’s there, as well as putting in a shower. The two sinks have a lot of rust on them that I have not been able to remove, so I’m hoping he can just put a new countertop with two new sinks on the existing cabinet. We are also going to replace both toilets. I will see what he would charge for it as opposed to Dennis having to do it in the short time he’s here in May.

Mom had some major issues with her eyes while she was in the hospital. We aren’t really sure how it had to do with the vaccination or the infection she had, but the hospital seemed to think it was related.  I took her to the eye doctor today for a check. She is blind in one eye from a stroke that she had years ago, so it’s very important that her remaining eye is kept as healthy as possible. She loves to read and it would be terrible for her if she lost her eyesight in that eye. It was a pleasant surprise to find that it is looking very healthy all things considered. She goes back in two months for another check.

I have truly enjoyed the time I’ve been able to spend with her since I arrived in Omaha. She is much more forgetful than she used to be, but then again, so am I!

I went to the Wednesday evening Bible study at church last night with my sister and I really enjoyed it. Meeting new people and renewing old friendships is wonderful. 

Dennis has been busy packing up boxes in the RV and taking things to our storage unit so we can list the RV for sale. We have decided that we really don’t want to pull anything quite that big even if we are able to travel in the near future. We don’t want to just put it in storage and have it sit there unused, so we’ve decided to sell it for now and if we are able to travel we will try to find something else a bit smaller since we won’t be living in it.

I hope that you have all had a good week and are remaining healthy. Thank you so much for being patient with me as I’ve been very sporadic in commenting on your blogs for the last couple of weeks. I have been trying to do better the past few days and I very much missed visiting with you all. We have Internet installed and I think we’re good to go now. 

Blessings and hugs, 

Betsy

Progress

Little by little I’m getting settled in. It has been a whirlwind of a week, that’s for sure. Mandy and Piper have been here nearly every day since I arrived, helping with everything that needed done. Piper is a whiz at cleaning! Mandy spent hours yesterday digging dandelions and mowing the grass at both grandmas and our house. My sweet niece Chaela and her husband, Tim, were also here yesterday. They worked so hard. Tim fixed one of my toilets so at least I can flush now! He also took some window blind brackets off the walls because I didn’t have a drill and the screws were over 2 inches long. Neither Mandy or I could get them out of the wall. He removed a door to the basement for me, replaced the outdoor floodlights that were burnt out and carried a table to the garage to dispose of.  I know I’m forgetting many other things that they both did to help me. I thanked them and they said “that’s what family is for.” We’re not used to that, as we have not had family around for so long. Such a huge blessing they have all been to me this week.

After they all left yesterday evening I spackled all of the holes that were left after the brackets were removed and will paint them tomorrow.

Many of you commented that you would keep the hardwood floors. I don’t think hardly anyone thought that carpeting was a good idea! So I’m going to take your advice for time being and just get an area rug for the living room and we’ll see how it goes.

This is a photo of our room. The bedding is from our little trailer and won’t be what’s in there once the pod arrives with our belongings that have been in storage. You can see Chloe‘s leash and a little box behind it. Those are her ashes. On top of the box is a plaster of Paris mold of her paw print and a little glass vile of her hair that the Vet gave to us. The white on the front of the box is where we can place a photo of her once I get one ordered.

I finally got this room cleared out yesterday. The only thing left is the TV that’s laying on the floor. I’m not sure where we will put that. This will be Piper’s room/guest room.

This a view of the living room as it looks now. Piper has some of her toys on the left side of the picture and the rest of this furniture is what was left by the previous owners. Dennis‘s mom desperately needs some new furniture so we’re giving her both of these sofas and at least one or two of the tables. I ordered a new sofa, loveseat, ottoman and two chairs yesterday. We were told the furniture won’t be in until June as there is a shortage of foam due to Covid and the freeze in Texas.  I’m still trying to decide on window coverings for these three windows.

This is the china hutch that was left for us. I have put some of my precious figurines in it that came from the RV with me. My sister also gave me our grandmothers china that she has had packed away in a box for over 40 years. Oh, the memories I have that are associated with this china. It is precious to me and I’m so happy and grateful to have it. And I have a place to keep it safe now too!

I had to order a new washer and dryer yesterday and it was delivered already this afternoon! Of course that couldn’t go smoothly either could it? It is a gas dryer and apparently there is no shut off behind the dryer. I had to call a plumber who is supposed to be here on Tuesday morning...I hope. Then I have to call and reschedule them to install the appliances. They did leave the washer and dryer in the garage and they look pretty.😍 Just got a basic top loading washer and matching dryer with no bells or whistle’s and it was still $1,600.00! Isn’t that unreal? Not a nice surprise when we were told a working washer and dryer came with the house.

I did use the oven on Friday night to make chicken pot pie for seven of us. I love my new double oven! It pre-heats much, much quicker than the oven did in our old house. The stove top worked well too, however, I think it’s going to take me a while to learn how to cook on an electric stove top again. I’ve had a gas stove for over 35 years.

I was able to go to Sunday school and church this morning and see some familiar faces. That was very wonderful, although I’m missing Dennis something terrible. This afternoon I sprayed the yards for dandelions at both moms and our house and made a trip to the grocery store.  The dandelions have bloomed profusely in just the last couple of days.

Well, I think that’s about it. I was trying to get caught up last night commenting on your blogs and I kept falling asleep. Finally I woke up with my hands still on the keyboard and I had been asleep about a half an hour. I am truly going to try to begin catching up with all of you again. Wishing you all a wonderful Monday and a blessed week ahead.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

I made it!

Hello my Friends! I just wanted you to know that I did make it to Omaha late on Tuesday. It was an unexpected driving experience, although I didn’t have any actual problems.  I had snow over all four major mountain passes with heavy fog where I could only see two car lengths or so in front of me. I had planned to spend the night in Rapid City, South Dakota the first night, but ended up driving further because there was a winter storm warning issued for Rapid City on Tuesday all day. When I woke up Tuesday morning there was a little bit of snow on the ground with little round snow pellets falling. I left there about 4:30 AM Spokane time and got out of the snow fairly quickly, but then it rained on me almost all of the remainder of the drive to Omaha. It stopped just before I got here.

My sister, Melanie, was here 10 minutes later and helped me unload the car. I have absolutely no idea what I would have done without her. No one can believe how much I managed to pack into my small car. It was like a clown car. Boxes and bags just kept coming out of it! 😂  She carried three times as much into the house as I did. I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I was for her.  I’m hoping once things settle down a little bit we’ll be able to spend a lot of time together.

On Wednesday I spent much of the morning with home health visiting mom and the entire afternoon at the cardiologist with her in the afternoon. I didn’t come over to our house until almost 7:00 in the evening. Today was pretty much a repeat with two more home health visits this morning and early afternoon before I was finally able to go set up a bank account and then pick Piper up after school.  She went grocery shopping with me because I had absolutely no food in the house. She was a huge help, and I’m not kidding. I had a list and she knew where everything was on that was on my list. If she didn’t know exactly where it was, she knew the general vicinity. Pretty good for a second grader. She’s been helping me clean too!

Oh, I didn’t tell you how dirty the house was when we got here. Before Melanie and I could even do anything, we had to sweep the floors several times and then use a dust mop. I’ve since swept three more times. I don’t know what is all over these hardwoods but I don’t like it! They feel gritty on my feet! I’m hoping to find time tomorrow to scrub them all down, but I really think we’re going to get carpeting.  Dennis really wants carpeting. The insides of all of the cabinets were filthy, so before I could unpack anything I had to wash all of the closets, bathrooms and kitchen down from top to bottom.  That’s what I’ve been doing after I come home at night. I got here Tuesday late afternoon and I was so exhausted that once we unpacked the car and I got the bed made, I was in bed by about 10:00. But last night and tonight I’ve been cleaning until much later. It was about 11:00 last night when I stopped and I believe it’s after 11:30 now. I finally have our bathroom and bedroom completely cleaned and the kitchen is about half done.

The dryer doesn’t work either.  I found that out after washing two loads of area rugs! I’ve checked the circuit breakers and the outlet and I don’t know what else to check. Hopefully Dennis will be able to figure it out when he comes in May. The toilets run continuously unless I shut the water off after each flush! Now that is convenient. (sarcasm). The microwave has cracks on the front of it and doesn’t seem to work very well either, but you know what? I still think we got a really good deal on this house. The yard is beautiful and the neighborhood is super quiet. That’s one thing I’ve always loved about this neighborhood. I’ve had the windows open every night and it’s perfectly quiet and still.

We knew there would be some things that needed to be done when we moved in, we just didn’t count on it being appliances! I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures for you today because I haven’t even thought about taking any. I’ll try to do better. The cable company is supposed to be here at 8:00 am tomorrow to install Internet so Dennis can work from home when he comes for vacation in May for two weeks. After that I hope I’ll be able to start commenting on all of your blogs again. I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet this week.  I haven’t even had time to read any of your posts. I truly apologize. I think my life is going to undergo a huge change from the boring life we led in Spokane. Ha!

I’ll try to do better with my next post. I just wanted to let you all know that I made it safely it’s just been very, very, very busy.

Blessings and love to you all,

Betsy

Happy Easter

Easter Blessings from our home to yours.

Betsy

Forgive Them

On Good Friday Jesus said.....

He died for you and for me and for all people who are to come. I pray that you will accept this precious gift.

He is the reason we celebrate this weekend.  Jesus Christ-LORD of all

Blessings and love, 

Betsy