We Made It!!!

Before I go very far into the post, I just want to let anyone with nefarious ideas out there know that we do have house sitters while we’re away. Not only that, we have amazing neighbors on all sides of us that are watching the house with eagle eyes. That is just one benefit of moving into a neighborhood where everyone has known you for 45 years!

Our flight out of Omaha was delayed for quite some time and we only had a one hour connection in Chicago so before we even left Omaha, the wonderful people at American Airlines had rebooked us on a British Airways flight leaving Chicago a few hours later. That was the best thing that could have happened. Since we had to take a train and go through security again in Chicago that gave us plenty of time to accomplish all that needed done security wise and still have time to get some dinner at one of the restaurants.

The flight was a wonderful one on British Airways, where they fed us both dinner and breakfast with regular trips through with water and juice to keep us hydrated. We actually arrived a little early in London and we breezed through immigration. We didn’t even talk to anyone. We simply had our passport and hand print scanned and our photo taken by a machine. Our bags were waiting on the luggage carousel and we walked straight through customs without talking to anyone there either. At the end of the corridor stood Alex waiting for us with a big grin on his face. Oh how wonderful to see our boy after over one and a half years!  The first thing he did was buy his dad a cup of coffee, but I used the restroom and then off we went, driving through London.  We went straight to his house and haven’t left since.

We’ve been in here for two days now and we’re having a lovely time visiting. However, we aren’t allowed to leave the house or back garden until five days are up and we “test to release” from quarantine. It is all a bit hard for me to understand since beginning August 2, anyone arriving in the UK from the United States who is fully vaccinated does not have to quarantine at all. Since we arrived on July 28 we have to quarantine the entire 10 days unless we test negative on day five and day 8, even though we are fully vaccinated. Then we have to test again before leaving to go home. There is so much we want to do, much of it outside where we wouldn’t even be around other people. Oh well, we are still having a wonderful time.

The house in London is a beautiful three-story home right in the middle of the city. It’s within walking distance of many places. One of my favorite parts about European cities, is the fact that you can walk to the shops and restaurants and just about anything you need. Anything else is just a short train ride away. I always miss that when I go back home. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to experience any of that yet. Ha! We are not allowed to go outside the front door, but we are allowed in the back garden. This garden is not a bad place to spend time at all. I sit there knitting or reading your blog posts.

Here is the view from our bedroom window. You can see some of the skyline from here. So far we have had two of the best nights sleep of our lives in this room. It’s quiet and cozy. We have had the windows wide open and I have a hard time believing just how quiet it is in the center of London.

Dennis has been doing some work from here and so has Alex. They have also done some home-improvement projects. Dennis made up a list of lumber and tools required and Alex went to the local home improvement store.  They spent the afternoon putting drawers and shelves in the pantry. It looks very nice! They had planned to work on the decking this week too. You can see in the photo above where Alex removed one board to see if it had rot in it and it did. Now they are trying to decide whether to replace the decking material or take the decking off and leave the brickwork underneath. If it keeps raining the way it has been the past couple of days, the time for Dennis to help him will have passed, although I’m sure we will be coming back before too much time has gone by.

I am able to read all of your blogs and I am doing so, but I didn’t bring my laptop with me and so I am unable to comment. For some reason Blogger quit letting me comment on my iPad or iPhone a couple of years ago. Teresa tried to help me solve it, as did several of you, to no avail. Please know that I am trying to keep up with all of you.  Connie, I am praying for you and Far Guy as he gets to know his new doctors. Val, I am enjoying reading about your move and how all three kitties coped in their own ways. Sam, I’m glad you had such a wonderful time with your family right now and looking forward to all the new projects. I know that’s just a few of you, but I want you to see proof that I really am reading your blogs! Ha! Oh, and Connie in WA, I absolutely love what you did with your new pick-up. It’s exactly what I would like to do, but Dennis isn’t so keen on it. 😂 Take care everyone and I’ll try to post again soon. Love to you all.💜

Blessings love and hugs,

Betsy

Visitors, some yarn and plans

It’s been a pretty busy week. Dennis left early Sunday morning for Spokane and he’s actually on his way home right now. He should be flying over Grand Teton National Park as I type this. His uncle Al and two cousins, Janet and Bonnie, came to visit this week. It was very nice having the two houses right next-door to each other. Uncle Al and Bonnie stayed at Moms and Janet stayed here with me. It was like having a girls slumber for three nights. Janet and I stayed up talking every night until well past midnight. After all, we had 30 years of catching up to do. We had only seen each other briefly at a family wedding during that time. I just wish we had had another guest room so Bonnie could have stayed here too and all three of us could have visited. They left to drive back home to Minnesota this morning. It’s too bad Dennis didn’t get to see them as they are actually his cousins. We hope to see each other again this fall before the snow starts flying.

I did finish another wheelchair blanket for the veterans home…

And made an identical one to the one I made last week.

I also have for stockings done for Piper’s advent calendar. I promised her one like the calendar I made myself last year.  The little socks go fairly quickly. I’m just using a pattern that I found online for baby stockings.

Mom told me she needed some new hot pads so I whipped her up these double-sided crocheted hot pads and she was thrilled to get them.  These things last forever. Usually they get stained and disgusting looking long before they wear out!

Yesterday we picked up Aunt Joyce from her new home in an assisted living facility and took her to Applebee’s for dinner. She just moved in three weeks ago and she’s absolutely thrilled with it. She loves all of the activities and the fact that she doesn’t have to cook at all anymore. She does have a little kitchenette, minus a stove. She has a balcony that overlooks a courtyard with the fountain. I tell you what, I would move there in a heartbeat. The only thing I would change is I would like a full kitchen. That is Aunt Joyce on the left, Mom in the middle and Uncle Al on the right.

Here’s a picture with the two girls. Bonnie is on the far left and Janet on the far right. Uncle Al will be 90 next year, Mom will be 85 in September and Aunt Joyce is the same age as Mom. Uncle Chuck was Joyce’s husband and Mom and Al‘s brother. He passed away last winter. We had so much fun together over the past four days and I’m looking forward to the next visit we have.

Miss Piper spent the night last Friday and I cut hers and Grandpa‘s hair. She swept up the hair as I cut it off of Grandpa’s head and she couldn’t believe how much I was cutting off! She was really getting concerned that he wouldn’t have any hair left! It looked like I had shaved a cat, there was so much hair on the floor when I was done. He has a lot of very thick hair.  All I did with Piper though, was cut the ends off. Not even a half an inch came off.  She was thrilled with getting to wear the cape.

The next morning she decided to do my hair. There’s not much of it there to style but she was putting barrettes in it anyway. I had put her hair into a French braid because it was very warm out. This Saturday we’re getting our toes done again. Oh how I love this little girl.

I spent a few hours on Tuesday and all morning today working on paperwork for our upcoming trip. Now the state department is warning against travel to the UK because of an upturn in Covid cases and a high threat of terrorism?! We are still going to try to go! My thought is I have just as much chance of catching Covid here as I do by going to see Alex. It’s the same variant as here and we will of had the same vaccinations than if we stayed here in the States. I sometimes wonder if this will all ever be truly over, or if it will constantly just be a new variant.

 I am washing sheets and towels right now and then I will go pick up Dennis from the airport. Yay! I’m looking forward to having him back home with me where he belongs. 

Take care everyone, 

Blessings, 

Betsy

We’re connected again!

Hallelujah! Isn’t it crazy how dependent we are on electricity and the Internet? Dennis tried his best to work using the hotspot on his phone, but that didn’t work very well for zoom calls. 😔 Last night about 10:30 we finally got Internet again. I tried to catch up on some blogs this morning and I think I’m just going to take it from today with commenting. I have been reading everyone’s blogs on my phone though. Thank you for being patient with me.💜

This is just a small branch down from a tree about a block from us. The neighborhood pool is behind it. There are huge trees completely uprooted all over Omaha. Some streets you still can’t drive through. Many trees went through the roofs of houses. Miraculously, I haven’t heard of anyone who was seriously hurt during the storm or the cleanup. 

My project this morning was painting the closet under the stairs. The walls didn’t take long at all. What took time was all of the shelves built into the stairs. The shelves sure are handy for Dennis’s hats and other odds and ends. This closet and the coat closet at the top of the stairs still have just reeked of cigarette smoke. I wish we had had the painters paint the closets too when they painted the rest of the interior. I didn’t think they would be a big deal because they didn’t look bad at all, but my goodness they sure absorbed the cigarette smoke and nicotine. One by one we will get them painted now. It seems these two were much worse than the bedroom closets. 

 

We have several of those little puck lights throughout the closet so we can see clear in the back and around the corner.

Last night I made this recipe from a family that we watch often on YouTube. She did two different four ingredient dishes and this was one of them. I used one tube of Pillsbury biscuits, with each biscuit cut into sixths. You pour about a cup or so of pasta sauce on top of the cut up biscuits and stir around to coat the biscuits. I used leftover spaghetti sauce from dinner the other night. Then the recipe just calls for browned hamburger or sausage on top of that and mozzarella cheese. I also cut up green peppers, onions, black olives and mushrooms, although the recipe didn’t call for it. I baked it for 30 minutes at 375. It tasted just like a Pizza Hut supreme pan pizza! There is plenty for dinner tonight along with a green salad again. Yum!

I made this wheelchair blanket for the local veterans home. It has not been washed or blocked yet so the corners are curling a bit.

Then I started this wheelchair blanket last night. It’s lots of fun and interesting to crochet too. I still have to do the second side, which I’m working on now and then both ends. After that a border will be added. I’ve never done this pattern before and I really like it. It adds just enough interest not to get bored with by just making granny squares.

Lots of people around here still don’t have their electricity or cable/internet service. With our whole house generator we were able to plug in Dennis‘s mom‘s refrigerator and freezer, our neighbor on the other side of us was also able to plug in her refrigerator and freezer. We loaned our camping generator to the family across the street so they could keep their refrigerator and freezer plugged in. Neighbors helping neighbors.😍

We’re still working on trying to make sure we have all of our paperwork in order for our trip to London at the end of the month. The Covid protocols are the most difficult to get done correctly. Dennis has to fly to Spokane on Sunday through Thursday of next week. Then we leave just a few days after that for London. Life is quickly going to get crazy!

I hope all is well with you and for those of you out west, I’m thinking of you and praying for you with the fires and the heat. I talked to my best friend Jenny yesterday and she says the smoke is so bad that she constantly has a sore throat these days. Lots of fires all around Spokane. I know they’re also bad in California and Oregon. Take care and be safe.💜

Much love and blessings,

Betsy

Storm!

Hello everyone! Just popping in to tell you we had a doozy of a storm last night around midnight. Over 199,000 people were without power during the night. It’s now down to about 88,000 people but I have a feeling we won’t have our cable and power back for several days from the sounds of it. We are so grateful for the whole house generator that was here when we moved in. Our air conditioning and everything is working as normal. I was even able to run the dishwasher tonight!

But, I can’t comment on anyone’s blogs. I can only comment on my laptop and I have no Internet right now. I can read your blogs on my phone but I can’t comment on my phone for some reason. I haven’t been able to for a couple of years now. So, if you don’t hear from me just know that I’m still reading I just can’t communicate with you!

The storm we had was not a tornado but it had straight line winds of over 96 mph. They just said on the news that it was the equivalent of a category two hurricane that came through Omaha last night!!!  It even tipped over a FedEx jet into a building at the airport just a few miles from us. Our area of town got the brunt of the storm. Huge trees are completely broken off from the winds. Basically we had a hurricane blow through that lasted about an hour to an hour and a half. It was pretty scary during the night. Please pray that our Internet comes back before Monday when Dennis needs to be back to work. 

We have many, many trees down in our neighborhood. You could hear generators and chainsaws around the neighborhood all day long. Lots of people had roof damage, trees that fell through their roof, trees on cars, etc. We count ourselves as very blessed to only have a few small branches in our yard. 

I’ll talk to you again soon.

Blessings,

Betsy

Raccoons 🦝!!!

Happy Friday y’all! How are things with you? It’s another warm but sunny day here, although severe thunderstorms are predicted for this evening. I’m very excited! We’re going to dinner at Curt and Barb’s house for the first time since we got back to Omaha. We went on our first date with them a very long, long time ago. Let’s see, I was 15 years old and I’m now 61. 🥰 They’ve been friends for a long time, so we’re really looking forward to this evening and having a chance to talk without a lot of other people around, and just get caught up again.

But first I would like to show you our dinner companions last night. These five guys were right outside the window by our table. There were 11 raccoons in all. 🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝🦝😂

This restaurant is about 10 minutes from our house and is pretty well known. I love their little masks and faces.

They put out chicken, bread and potato scraps mixed with cat food for them and several feral cats in the area. It’s fascinating to watch them use their “hands” much like we do.

This is how close they were to our table. No zoom was used!  Just on the other side of the window from me.

I have wanted to try having an orchid again for years. I had two in the past and promptly killed them. Literally dead within days. My sister has beautiful orchids and told me how she cares for them, so I’m going to try again. Dennis bought this one for me Tuesday night. Isn’t it beautiful?

We’ll see how long it lives.

I don’t remember if I showed you the cross-stitch I finished while living in the RV. I had it framed after we moved into the house. Sorry about the angle. The sun was glaring on it so I had to move to the side.

My sweet friend Kim from Napiers Knits sent me this gorgeous #2 wool and project bag. I have to figure out what exactly to make with it.  Thank you SO much Kim. It’s beautiful. 💜🤣💜

I finished four more pair of mittens and I’m ahead of my goal through the end of July.

I also started a lapghan for the Veteran’s home here.

My sister took all of the baby hats and blankets to the hospital for me yesterday. They were thrilled to get them and also need some other items that they will contact me about making.

I hope you’re all doing well. I pray that each of you is well and that the Lord will make His face shine on you and give you peace as you go through difficult days. 

Much love and many blessings,

Betsy

Happy 4th of July a Day Late!

As my mom always used to say, I’m a day late and a dollar short! Yesterday was just pretty busy and I never was able to get a post done for the Fourth of July

We spent the day out at a lake near Fremont, Nebraska with Brad‘s parents and brothers. I’m sure you’ll recognize this little cutie. She had a wonderful time celebrating the day. We had lots of good food and good conversation. Although it was a hot day with a high of 93°F, there was a nice breeze all day so it was very pleasant outside.🇺🇸

They have a golf cart parade every year and it is so much fun.  I was in the cart with Brad‘s mom, their other granddaughter Shelby is in my lap and Piper is looking over our shoulders. Mandy, Dennis and Brad‘s brothers were in front of us on a trailer being pulled by his Dennis’s 1953 Ford tractor. We were bringing up the rear of the parade with only one more cart behind us.

Here are the two Papa’s with their pride and joy between them. We have so much fun with Marilyn and Dennis, yes, his name is Dennis too. It makes things so much easier on the kids when you all get along and enjoy spending time with each other doesn’t it?

We came home and opted not to go to any fireworks displays. We were pretty tired from all of the fresh air! There were no worries about missing fireworks though, as they are legal in Nebraska. There was seriously not a break in the pops in the air until about 4:00 this morning. It was a constant bang, bang Ratatat-tat. You know the big finale they always have at the end of a firework show? That’s what it sounded like from about 9:00 last night until 4:00 this morning. Continually. It was seriously awful. I have heard on the news that there were quite a few people hurt too and lots of fires started. I just don’t understand the mentality. So much money going up in smoke. Oh well. It’s not my place to judge and not any of my business. I do love fireworks, just not until four in the morning when people have babies trying to sleep, others suffer from PTSD and a lot of dogs and other animals that can’t deal with the constant sound.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

I do hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July and were able to celebrate in your own way if you were in the US. I missed wishing happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends. I’m so sorry. So here you go. Happy Canada Day!

I have gotten six pair of mittens done since my last post. This is Hobby Lobby’s I love this yarn and I do love knitting and crocheting with it. It is so soft.

Remember this? My yarn wall?

And now look at all of this yarn! I tried to count the full skins that I have here and in totes and I lost count at 250! There’s a story to tell here. 😍

Friday night I put a grill that was here at the house on Facebook marketplace and in the top of my feed it showed two totes chock full of full skeins of worsted weight yarn for sale for $40. I messaged them and asked where they were located.  She asked what I plan to do with all of the yarn and I told her about the mittens and blankets that I make. I did have to drive all the way across Omaha, but with the interstate system here it only took me about 20 minutes! Saturday morning I was there a few minutes after 9:00. They were having a garage sale and there were three more FULL totes of yarn sitting there. Apparently her grandmother used to make blankets for nursing homes and baby things for hospitals too. She died recently and left all of this yarn behind. Most of it is in very recent colors, so I know it isn’t very old. When she told her grandpa what I was going to use it for, he gave me all FIVE totes of yarn for $30! He also threw in a brand new knitting machine that is still in the box for only five dollars. I have looked at knitting machines online and I know it is at least $100. It literally has never been taken out of the box. The big problem is knowing if I will be able to figure out how to use it! He was so glad to know that the yarn was going to be used for charity things. What a blessing! I won’t have to buy yarn for a long, long time. I have virtually every color that I would need.

Baby yarn is on the top right. Sock yarn on the top left. There is some Number 2 fingering weight in the farthest right column and most of the rest of it is worsted weight except in baskets where there is cotton and  balls of sock yarn.

I didn’t have any room for this, so I just kept it in a tote. I want to make a few red, white and blue blankets for the veterans home so I thought I would just keep it all together.

Wow! God certainly blessed me when he allowed that picture to show up in my Facebook feed Friday evening. I had no intention of buying any yarn, but how could I pass this up? If any of you need any yarn, please just ask. I will be happy to share.

Dennis is off work today and has just returned from running a few errands. The gentleman who bought the grill that I was listing on Facebook just came and picked it up. I highly recommend that method of selling anything you would like to get rid of around the house! It has worked out well for us since we’ve been here and I even bought our dining room table and chairs and the little table in the living room for my plants using FB marketplace.

I hope you are all having a lovely Monday and that things are well with each one of you. Take care and may God bless you all.

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy