Shredding

I finally got an item knocked off my "to do" list.  I have had a cardboard box FULL of old paperwork that needed to be shredded for probably close to five years.  I just didn't have a shredder (should I admit that????).  Anyway, the one I used to have before we hit the road full time quit working and we threw it away.  I did take some things (a box of stuff) to the credit union down south an they shredded it for us.  But I had a lot of things - like old credit card statements that I had been saying we needed to shred but never did.

Well, I finally ordered a new shredder from Amazon last week and it came on Wednesday.  I spent the next three days getting it all shredded - 11 garbage bags of shredding!

I really took my time as I didn't want to burn up the new shredder.

It's done and I don't have to worry about it anymore!

Yippee!!!!

We are working on a few little things around here  - when it isn't too hot to get outside.  (the temperature yesterday was 105 - that's HOT!!!!)  Dan is helping a friend pour concrete in his pergola area and now he is hot to trot to get our pergola built.  I think I might have convinced him that we do not need a 12 X 25 foot pergola, but I'm not sure.  A 12 X 12 or 14 X 14 would be big enough.  We shall see who wins.

I took mom to Gainesville yesterday for her checkup with her surgeon.  It was not a good day - she is getting much more combative when something happens that she doesn't understand or she feels like things aren't going the way she thinks they should.  She was very argumentative with the surgeon yesterday and didn't like it if he and I talked and she couldn't hear what we were saying.  He suggested that she see a gerontologist but she is not having that.  She is already refusing to see the oncologist which really isn't a big deal since he really hasn't done anything anyway.  Anyway, she was mad and upset with me and the doctor about all day yesterday.  However, today Dan and I went over to take out the satellite dish from her yard and she was all smiles.  Oh well, just something I will have to figure out.  (Don't want to complain on line, but I need to document somewhere).

Dan got his new log holder for the patio area - now we just need to go buy a truck load of wood so we will be ready when the weather DOES finally decide to cool off.  We figure that the wood will be cheaper now, while it's hot then it will be when the weather gets cooler.  We'll probably do that this weekend.

I have a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner tonight - and things are pretty quiet today.

Office/Craft Room Closet

 Well, we've been busy around here for the last week.

A week ago Monday it rained all day.   We really needed the rain and it was a nice quiet day of enjoying cooler temperatures and sitting on the back porch and listening to the rain fall.  Tuesday I had an appointment to get my hair cut.  It has only taken three haircuts to finally get something that I can live with.  The first one was the first of July when I was down in Lakeland, then Dan tried to fix it when I got home.  While it was better it still wasn't exactly what I wanted.  So, I finally made an appointment here in the village and got it cut.  Wednesday we took mom into town and went to WalMart to buy groceries.  Then we went by Lowe's and picked up the lumber for the shelves in the office.  When we got home I emptied the closet of all the stuff that was just piled in it.

This is just some of it.

Thursday Dan spent the day building the shelves.  We continued to have rain showers off and on all day, but he was able to do everything in the garage.

The closet is really deep on one end and we didn't want to waste any space, plus we needed a place to store our coats since we don't have a coat closet.

Thursday night we were excited to sit and eat pizza while watching

FOOTBALL!!!!

YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Football is BACK!

Friday morning I painted the shelves outside and then painted the supports.  We put two coats on each side and, once they dried, Dan installed them.

 It's amazing how much stuff you can cram into a closet.

After waiting overnight to make sure the paint was dried (because we got more rain on Friday)  I started putting things back into the closet on Saturday.  I was determined to have it organized where I knew where everything is.

First the box in the garage with the coats was unpacked.  (Yeah, another box emptied!)

Then I worked on getting things put in containers and baskets.  I figured I would finish things up on Sunday and do this post on Monday.  Well, when we got home from church Sunday I did NOT feel good.  I came in the house, changed clothes, laid down on the couch in the family room and went to sleep.  Now, if you know me at all you know that I do NOT take naps.  Dan said I slept for a couple of hours.  When I woke up, I just stayed on the couch and watched football.

First thing Monday morning, after coffee of course, I came back in the office and worked all day BUT  I got it all done!!!

So, here is my newly organized office/craft room.

I'm going to get a letter "L" and a letter "A" to put above and below the center picture.

These are the latest pictures I have of the girls and they were taken at their first day of daycare after they moved back up to Lakeland.  If you look close you can tell they were taken in the spring, as they have bunnies and an Easter basket.

 We went to the thrift store and found a file cabinet.

It may need a coat of paint - but for now - it does the job.

And the closet.......

All nice and neat.  I still need to make labels for the bins.

On the top shelf I was able to put things that we don't use that often, as this closet has to serve many purposes.  (Coat closet, storage for seldom used things, and storage for all my craft stuff.)

I still need to "tweak" these shelves but they don't look too bad.

Then we added these pictures.

My daughter gave me the sign several years ago and I have always had it displayed.  (I had it in the nursery/guest room down in Lake Placid).  It is a saying by Jiminy Cricket which says

"When your heart is in your dreams,

no request is too extreme"

Since this is a Disney quote I wanted to put the pictures that were taken when Dan and I took the girls to Disney the last time before we moved up to Dowling Park up with the sign.

This picture is very special to me - it's the first time that

Lorelai hugged a character without prompting.

When we walked into the greeting area she just ran up to Minnie and gave her the biggest hug.  Makes my heart happy. 

Today was cleaning house.  So much fun!  Ha Ha!

Well, that's it for today - hope you like my closet - I'm over the moon happy with it!!!

Now, I'm off to warm up some Chicken and Yellow Rice for dinner!

Trees

We have been waiting weeks to have the dead pine trees taken out of the backyard.  Our area has been hit hard with pine bore beetles.  They infest the inside of the pine tree and eat it from the inside out - you can actually see saw dust at the base of the tree.  Anyway, we had four that were dead and we had two more that needed to come out due to their location near the new addition.  Last Wednesday and Thursday the tree man was here and the dead trees are now gone.

 One of the men would go up in a bucket

 Tie onto limbs ........

While the men on the ground kept an eye on where the

limbs were going to fall.

Then it was time to top the tree .......

 Going ........

(see the rope that the guys on the ground were pulling?)

 going........

 going........

 Gone....

 Then it was time to cut up the big pieces and stack them for the truck to pick up and haul away

Picking the logs up

 Then they would come in with the stump grinder and get rid of all the stumps so, one day, we will have a nice smooth yard.

All nice and cleared.

 The pictures above were all taken on Thursday -

Wednesday was the day that they just "felled" the trees.

They were all in the side yard shown below after they were all gone.  What the guys did was tie a rope on the tree up high, then three of the guys would grab the rope while another guy would cut the base.  When the tree started to fall the guys holding the rope would let go and run.  We only lost one red bud tree due to this little procedure, but Dan didn't mind.  We have more in the yard and to tell the truth, Dan isn't a big fan of red buds anyway.

Oh, there was also the bush shown above.  It sorta got smushed under the truck.  Oh well, at least the dead trees are history.

The other thing we did last week was get the curtains up in the family room.

We had ordered some swags and they came in Friday - we got them all

ironed and hung and we thing they really help soften the windows.

Saturday morning we went to a garage sale in the neighborhood.  Picked up a couple of things - but nothing big.  We were also going to go to a sale at a shop in Mayo but we had the furniture repairmen coming so, by the time we got there at 1:30 they had already closed.

Dan was able to fix the issue with the sectional after the guys that showed up didn't have the correct part.  I wasn't sure that the warranty would still be in effect if we fixed it - but after waiting for over a month for the part and then not having the correct thing - we decided to just fix it ourselves.

Saturday night we watched the Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony - of course they saved Brett for last - but it was a good speech.  I was really excited that we were going to finally have a football game on Sunday night BUT there was an issue with some paint they used on the field that made it sticky and hard so they cancelled the game.  Bummer!!!!  Now I have to wait another two weeks before the first preseason game will be telecast.

We have been watching the Olympics some - watched Michael Phelps win his 21st gold medal last night and saw the girls gymnastic team win gold.  Don't know what else we will watch but at least it is something.

This week we are working on getting shelves put up in the office/craft room closet.  I need a lot of storage and this will be for not only my craft supplies but also extra storage for stuff that we don't have space for anywhere else.  I'm excited to get these done and then I'll be able to get everything finally organized!  Hopefully I'll have pictures for that next week.

Flowers

Just a really quick post to show the flowers beside the garage.  Dan and I put these together last week and they sure make the front of the house look better, but then moving the garbage cans from the front of the house made the house look better - LOL!

The yard is starting to look a little better - one step at a time.

This is cabinet Dan made for a friends apartment.  The bathroom was redone and she lost some storage space.  So, Dan made this for her bathroom to put towels on.  He is so talented (but don't tell him I said that - LOL!)

Oh, and you get to see the dirty garage! 

Today we went down and got Dan a new debit card with a chip in it - we still haven't decided if we are going to stop using the debit card or not.  We shall see.

Also went by Mom's this morning and talked to her about displaying her quilts in October - we are going to have to go through them and cut down on the amount she has out to display - she must have over a hundred quilts and wall hangings that she has done.  We'll see how many we are actually able to hang.

Changes

  On Friday I said that Dan was working on a couple of projects that I hoped I'd be able to share today.  Well, I can!  Dan worked really hard all day Saturday and got the project finished, painted, and installed.  Then I spent Saturday evening doing my thing - you know, the pretty stuff.

Let's go back and look at the pictures of the family room on Friday.

Do you notice anything with the windows?  No???  Well, you wouldn't.  They were very unfinished.

Now, let's look at today.

 See the shelves???  Yep, Dan built the shelves for me this weekend and I think they look pretty awesome.

We have ordered some curtains that we hope will be in this week that will change this area even more.  I think it will be the finishing touch for these windows.  Anyway, I am so happy with the shelves.  I still need to "tweak" the left side of the shelf on the picture above.  Not real happy with the way it looks - but I'll work on it. 

Plus, we were able to get rid of another box from the garage!  Yes!!!!

We also worked on one other area.

Back to Friday's pictures.

 This is the breakfast nook/coffee bar area.  I'm sure you were wondering about that big blank wall staring at you.  Well, I knew what I wanted there the whole time and we were able to install them Friday.

I had always envisioned big chunky floating shelves here.  Dan kept trying to figure out how he was going to create my idea.  Well, I was looking in the IKEA catalogue to show him the shelves and we discovered we could order the shelves that I liked cheaper than it would cost Dan for the lumber - not counting his time.  So - what does it look like?? 

 Here they are!

Now, if Dan had made them they might be a little bit thicker - but I think they look awesome.

  

Here's a close up for you.

The faux pine cone is just a space saver for now - I am going to do a chalkboard there but I just needed something to fill the space for a little while.  Almost everything else on the shelves are antiques.  The lantern on the top shelf was Dan's grandfathers, the bowl on the bottom shelf I got at an auction when we lived in North Carolina - it is filled with antique butter molds and I have my antique coffee mill that I also got at an auction.  Then there is my antique dough bowl in the corner.  Things are starting to take shape.

What else did we do last week?  Monday night I watched the Bachelorette on TV - this is probably the one show that Dan and I don't watch together.  I go into the bedroom on Monday night and watch it while Dan watches something else in the family room.  I think this week might be the final episode, but I'm not sure.  I like the girl this time and I wish her the best. 

Tuesday we went to an ice cream social here in the Village for the residents of River Woods (the private home owners).  I don't know if I have ever said what all is here in the Village as far a housing is concerned.  We have apartments that are rentals (duplexes, some triplexes, two HUD apartment "high rises" - one is three stories and the other is five - , and a few rental houses), there is a mobile home park (the residents there own their mobile home, but rent the lot), an assisted living facility, and a nursing home along with the private home "subdivision" called River Woods which is where we live.  Here in River Woods we own our house and land - we can sell whenever we want or we can leave our home to our family upon our deaths (you just have to be at least 55 to live here).

Wednesday we went to the grocery store and Lowes to pick up a few things - like the lumber for Dan to make my shelves.  We also got a couple of plants and planters for that area by the garage door.

Here they are before I got them planted.

There is one on each side of the garage door.

Thursday we had our friends Bud and Joyce down for dinner - nothing fancy - baked spaghetti, salad, and bread.

Friday we worked on the shelves.

Saturday I did laundry while Dan worked on the family room shelves.

Then came Sunday -

Actually I guess the first clue was Saturday - I had gone online to set up some E-payments and I noticed a deduction that I didn't know what it was - just a very small amount, but it just looked fishy.  Of course, our bank is not open on the weekend, so I wrote everything down and told Dan I would go to the bank Monday and check on it.  Well, Sunday I get a phone call from the fraud alert system at our bank about "suspicious" activity.  I call and sure enough someone had cloned my debit card and was using it in Orlando.  None of the hits were large amounts but they cancelled my card and told me to go to the bank today to get a new card and "dispute" the debits so we could get our money back.  I was at the bank this morning by 9:30, we have our money back, and I have a new debit card (this one has the chip in it - the old one didn't).  I really don't understand how the cloning of the card works - they didn't have my card- but they were using it as a "charge" card so you didn't need to have the pin, but it still is deducted from our checking account.  We have no idea how or where this happened - I  NEVER use the debit card online - but it happened at some store.  We usually only shop with it at WalMart, Lowes, or the local Village grocer so we are somewhat at a loss of how, but anyway now we have to decide if we want to continue to use the debit card or start using a credit card and paying it off every time we use it.  With the chip in the debit card it might be okay - I don't know - we'll have to make a decision on that.  I'm just thankful that I noticed it and the fraud alert team were on the ball and cancelled the card before any big charges were made.

Well, that just about does it.  Three posts in less than a week.  A new record!  Hopefully, I can continue to post regularly but I don't know what I'll write about.  We'll see! 

Have a great day!