LIFE...IT KEEPS HAPPENING

Bruno says he doesn't want to get up today. I know the feeling, sometimes the bed is just so warm and cozy, and out of the bed, a little chilly. This morning is one of those, a little chilly, not cold, not bad, not snowing, just chilly, I hope it's going to warm up a little.





We finally started doing some serious wedding planning this last week. Nick made himself some stompers, you know to make the lawn level? An old pair of high tops some scraps of wood some screws.I've been trying to get the picture on here, It won't budge fron the bottom of the page:( Unfortunately he did his stomping while I was at work, I would have loved to see that. So now we have grass seed down. I spread some flower seeds in one of the front beds for our flower arrangements. I want to wait until the bulbs die back to do the other ones.



Nick knows I love fresh berries so he bought me three blueberry bushes and six raspberry canes. For absolutely no reason! I love him so much. I just hope the weather twerps are wrong about the temperatures this weekend, 31 degrees will throw a very large monkey wrench into our works.

Well, look who decided to get up! He really isn't to much help where the wedding plans are concerned, all he cares about is that he gets to wear a bow tie. We need to figure out the menu, the place, the time, argh! If you want to have a nice wedding there is just so much to do, so many little details. 

Nick and I really do try to live by the saying, use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. This is his hot box, made from old fence boards and the plastic that our new mattress came in. I have a feeling our entire wedding is going to be an upcycled affair. I'm alright with that, that's really how we live.

What was one thing you had, or included in your wedding that you didn't realize would later be very important to both of you? On the other side of that question, what was one thing you thought you just had to have that ended up not being very important at all?

Well, another day off, too many things to get done, and two boys who want to play. Better stop blogging for today.

Fill your day with beauty-

xoxo





HAPPY DAYS!

Happy Saturday! Wow, Saturday's are different here, busy, but at a slower pace. Like everything here, people are just not in as big a hurry. It's sort of hard to adjust to but it's nice. People take time for family and friends on the weekends. Of course I work weekends, have forever, wouldn't know what to do if I didn't, but part of the beauty of moving here is that, I have more time to spend with Nick and Bruno!



This is the first really warm weekend we've had, and Nick has the gardening bug bad, yes you can't get a shovel out of his hands for long. Brunotopia is a real mud pit when it's wet and a dust bowl when it's dry. We want to get some grass seed down before Ms. Jane gets here so that she and Bruno can sit on a nice cool lawn, but, it's still getting cold at night. I don't know.

Maybe soon. Nick has struck an uneasy truce with the neighborhood hooligans by promising them pumpkins at Halloween and he's started them. Wow, our friend Anton, aka, punkin head won't need to worry about pumpkins for a while!

He's even gotten quite creative when it comes to containers to start his seeds in, his basil for instance is in P.B.R. cans! Bet your not surprised Johnny V! That's my Nicky!!

I think Ga'mom and Ga'pop would be proud of his resourcefulness!

Well, Happy Saturday! Hope your all well and happy and check here on Monday afternoon for a big announcement. No, Ms. Jane I will not let you in on it before I announce it here Monday! Sorry!

Have a great weekend!
xoxo

WHAT A LIFE

Yum! Fresh strawberries! There's something about strawberries that says summer to me...here it is...mid March and the strawberries in the local Red Apple store are sweet and ripe...and large!

This was just an average sized berry! When I saw these at the market I knew that God loves me!!! Everybody sing...Jesus loves me this I know...look at how the berries glow.

I'm still walking to and from work, it's only 25 minutes, a lot better than the 50 minute bus ride in Portland, and I'm loosing some weight too.

This was the view going to work at 7:30 am yesterday. How beautiful is that? It's been cool and wet and overcast for the last 5 or 6 days here but it's still not as bad as Portland. At least the sun comes out for a little while every day. Coming home I got to see this...

Can you make out the snow capped mountains in the distance? Ontario is really surrounded by a ton of beauty, you just have to look out, not just straight ahead. On clear days this view is truly spectacular.

Nick built me this cabinet the other day, out of scraps of this and that. I love it! It gives me an extra 17 inches of counter space which I desperately need! The other counter is only 3 feet long! I think we will paint it to match the drawer pulls and really funk it up. I like that it looks really weathered.

Poor Nick, yes I had to say it again, the truck project has turned typically Nick and is not going well at all. In fact courtesy of the JERK at NAPA AUTO PARTS it could have killed us. The shocks went in in a wind storm, luckily no one named Dorothy landed a house on him, but it could have happened! Then he found a missing lug bolt...you have to disassemble the brake to fix that...and once that was done and the bolt was in, brakes bled etc. we went to run some errands. The brake fell apart!!! Why? because a guy at Napa told Nick he didn't need a spring (one that was on the brake when he took it apart) and Nick took him at his word. Lesson learned...not everyone here is a decent person! One of these days these older guys out here are going to figure out that people do look at reviews on line, and a bad review can in fact hurt your business.



Well, we've been in the house for one month, yesterday, and we still love it! Plumbing and all. We've made progress turning it from a rental house into a real home, and there are lots more changes coming. An old house is truly a labor of love. Speaking of love I just found out Ms. Jane will be here May 10th! I can't wait! Buno is beside himself! She doesn't know it yet but I just might have a project for her, one that will be a big part of our new home! TEE HEE!

Hope all is beautiful where you are-
xoxo

HURRAY FOR GRUMPDOLF THE SALT AND PEPPER

Thanks to a lot of blood, sweat, tears and good old fashioned elbow grease, we have indoor plumbing once again!



Those are two pieces of pipe that had to be replaced. I am so proud of Nick, I know that this was a physical challenge, not to mention a test of patients, I honestly thought he was headed for a nervous break down at several points.

He had everything ready to be turned on by noon today. wouldn't it figure that the one part he really wanted to replace, and didn't, was the only thing that leaked! He got that old fitting removed, we had everything turned back on and now (cue angles singing) WATER! In the pipes where it belongs!


 Bruno seems pretty happy now that we can start filling in the giant hole and send the Orks back to middle earth!

I found this ominous sign in the dirt right before the water was turned on. I just knew then that everything was going to be allright and that Nick and I are meant to be here, loving and caring for each other and this beautiful old house. I will never again take for granted the joy of a flushing a tiolet!

I'm going to go help fill in the hole now. Hopefully I won't be sharing anymore plumbing pictures.

It really is a beautiful day!

I DON'T THINK WE'RE IN OZ ANYMORE BRUNO

I've really struggled with what to write today. I don't like negativity of any kind, but, here I am...angry, frustrated and negative!

Why do I feel this way? Because the contractor we were going to hire to help with this plumbing project is a flake!!!! We have wasted, over three days, about 8 hours waiting for him to show up, he was 3 hours late one time, didn't show up another, Nick had to call him to find out he wouldn't be here, was supposed to be here around noon today, at 2 when Nick called he was on his way to a meeting. WHAT!?!? Is this what passes for good business in Ontario Oregon? Do you not realize that people talk? That not keeping your word is just as bad as not doing a good job? If you happen to be reading this in Ontario, RKC Handyman, DO NOT CALL HIM! He might do great work, but will he show up? I feel like sending him a bill!

The really sad thing is that I've had confidence in Nick's ability to do this job from the get go. If he hadn't waited I would have had water 2 days ago!! The other sort of sad thing is that, when I work, cutting hair I talk to how many people? Do you think I'll have anything good to say about you? People ask me all the time if I know a good-insert tradesman here-no but I know a bad one!

Enough negativity! I hate it! On a happier note, I got a little sewing done while I was waiting. I took one of Ms. Jane's napkins, a piece of lacey stuff of my Mom's and made a happy little pillow for the bed. I don't think I've done any hand sewing for at least 10 years, it felt good! Well, at 46, threading a needle is a lesson in patience, thank goodness someone showed me how to make a needle threader out of a piece of paper once.

That picture turned out a little dark, didn't it! Oh well.guess I'll try to get a better one later.

Nick is swearing again, I think the Orks have him, I'm going to try to go save him now.

Have a beautiful one!

A SUNNY DAY FULL OF POSIBILITIES

Bru is not so patiently waiting for spring, like so many of us. Our dirt is still pretty frozen every morning, way to cold to put little seeds in the ground, so we're all staying busy indoors, or trying to. Bru is making sure everything is hunky dory on the couch, cushion tester it's an important job you know!

I decided to clean out my make up drawer, before you judge me, I am a licensed hair stylist, and these are a very important part of my job. How can I convince you how pretty you can be if I don't even try! Going back to work this weekend, I really didn't want the frustration of trying to find things.

We  went to K-mart and I found these great interlocking bins, 9 per package for $9.98! Now I can get ready for work in half the time!! Speaking of work...I haven't even worked a shift out there and already, I've gotten a promotion. I'll be making what I did in Portland and I'll be the "assistant manager". It's going to be more hours than I want, with the wedding looming large and the yard being what it is, what I really need is time! Money is good but time is better. Oh,well.

Nick went to the post office, and brought home a package form Ms. Jane!! I love presents!!! I knew she was sending it but I had no idea it would be this packed with goodies!

Wow, these napkins are just the right shade of blue for the bedroom, and there is a beautiful round tablecloth that matches. We need night stands, I'm thinking a couple of those cheap round decorator tables and this cloth and maybe one batten burg lace cloth. I might take a couple of the Napkins and make pillows for the bed. As I was enjoying the feel of all this fabric and all these fun new things I thought about a blog I was looking at yesterday. I wish I could remember who's blog it was, but this woman refers to her Mother-in-law as her Mother-in-love. I actually cried when I read that, because that what Ms. Jane is. My future Mother-in-love! Thank you for all the goodies! Bru was excited that she remembered to put something in there for him. Well, we're waiting for the water department to come tell us to start laying the pipe. I might have water before I have to start working!! YEA!

Have a beautiful day! I know I will!!

OLD HOUSES, BAD PLUMBING AND TO MANY THINGS TO DO

My poor Nick. He woke up yesterday thinking that most of his big projects were finished. The fence is all done, he has a compost bin, Larry, Mo and Curly seem happy with the home he built for them. Just one more trip to Home Depot for new supply lines for the kitchen sink...famous last thoughts. Thank God we have a bathroom in the Quonset! The water in the big house has been turned off most of the last three days, but I think he has it figured out. I really hope so, he has been working so hard that his hands are ripped to shreds. This is the last big, nasty thing to do for now, after this I'm going to sweetly ask him to stop for a while and let his hands heal!

Speaking of projects...no sooner do I finish one...I add four or five more! My new project is to get rid of these horrible knobs in the kitchen!

Of course, after that, there's a dresser to re finish, a floral sofa that's the wrong colors and a wing back chair that needs help.



Some day soon I hope I'll wake up and think to myself, "Gee, this place looks great!" Until then I'll just keep adding to my to do list, at least I'm able to cross a few things off every day!

Have a beautiful day!