Much going on

It's snowing here in Grand Junction but not very much. Phoebe (the dog) has some pretty muddy claws because of the construction going on outside of my back yard.  They are building another Sub-division in what used to be a "Cow Pasture".  The sub-division I'm in was built in 2016 so it's not bad. They built them 6-attached together. Luckily I'm on the end of the building and at the end of the Cul-de-sac.  It's the main reason we all have 2 very large sky-windows. Anyone between me and the 6th house don't have windows in the middle of their house. One in the back bedroom and a large sliding glass door in the Master suite. Then I have a window in my office at the front of the house and there is a window in the living room, not very large at that but it lets in light.  So the number one house in this brick has a window in their dining room if that's what they have on the outer wall.

    Christmas was without snow, and it's not doing too much today either. So it wasn't a "White Christmas" but it was Christmas anyway.  A little mix up in the grocery order but we survived it. We use the Walmart delivery service since we pay for it and they put it right at our front door. They used to ring the bell but the dog makes so much noise I'm around the corner before they run for their life, (only kidding) she's a  5 lb Chihuahua but she's got great lungs. And she can hear the FedEx truck and anyone else that pulls up by our driveway so she knows the difference between a truck and a car so normal visitors are pretty safe.

    Now about the Mix-up in the Grocery order. Denise had my list and I said a small ham about 3 lbs, which would have done well for the 2 of us but then Dani showed up and announced she was doing the cooking. So she asks what I had planned. I said, Ham, sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots with a Fruit salad for desert because I wasn't going to bake anything but the sweet potatoes. And they were really good. So I explained what happened with the ham and she said she'd fix it. What the problem was what Denise said she put on the order. She said about 1 lb of ham thinly sliced or already sliced (whichever she said) and when we put every thing away that was delivered we had a baggie with 1.68 lbs of Deli sliced ham. Since I wasn't going to bake deli sliced ham I was at a loss and said I wasn't going to use the ham. I should have threatened to use a can of spam but Dani beat me to that one. She just said don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it and she did. I believe she put it in a skillet for a few mins and then put it on a serving plate. I had 2 slices that I dutifully cut with my fork into small chunks that i could eat and the whole meal was really pretty good.

   I told my good friend in the Netherlands that I was going to post some of the pictures of my Christmas decorating. I have been collecting Annual Teddy bears for about 25 years now but they didn't all make the journey from Walla Walla to here so we weren't overwhelmed by the bears until Denise thought se needed some more. I have 3 now with 2020 on their feet, the one from the Millennium has a loud countdown to the midnight when we start the new year with a 2 instead of a 1. The dog doesn't like the noise. I'm surprised she hasn't attacked it when ever Denise pushes the button. But I also have at least 49 Santa Statues along the ceiling shelf that runs through the dining room and into the living room. There's a similar shelf on the opposite side of the living room which is where the Bears are hanging out. The Angels are poised on top of the kitchen pantry ceiling.  I've let all my children and grand children that if they want to pick a few I'll be happy to send them. The couch has 5 bears, the fireplace at the bottom and the floor has another 9 Santa's. It's probably time to downsize a little bit. Here are the pictures.

                                Angels that I made a few years ago.

                                Angels from the stores.

                                My birthday present from Denise & Dani.

                                I think I bought the White one and

                                the girls bought the other one.

                                Bears that are dated, one up there says 1996.

                                More bears but not all their feet are  showing.

                            The start of the Santa Wall.

                            Close to the middle of the shelf.

                            Starting down the other side.

                            The end of the Santa on the shelf.

                            When our K-Mart closed I couldn't pass up the sale.

                              More Santa's or maybe a different view of the                                     same ones.               

                               Above the TV with a window picture but no                                     window.

                             The top of my tree.

                             The opposite side of the dining room.

                             The latest bear fell over and Denise said OK.

                            The bear up against the Sloth is the Millennial bear.

                            On the back are some of the Ceramic Angels I                                     made about 55 years ago.

                            The poor dog couldn't make it outside like he was                                 designed to do so he's tree watching.

                            Denise's Angel that watches over us.

There are a few more but I think 22 pics is plenty. 

Happy New Year to all my friends and family.
 

 

 

 Well I guess I'd better explain myself. I closed out for some reason and never did get back to printing anything.  Forgive me. I'll do better today since it's now December 6th and I don't know how to erase this short thing with no Title.

Moving into the new house

We are happily in our new house. Another duplex but this one has 3 bedrooms, one of which is my office. Only one of the girls lives with me because the oldest daughter still has 2 sons at home. I am so proud of my girls, that they want to take care of me. My lungs aren't getting any better so I'm on Oxygen 24/7 even if the one technician said I didn't need to be. He doesn't have to walk from one end of the house to the other end just to make a bathroom trip. I just don't tell him. I moved to a different city/state so I don't see him anymore.

When I moved to this new house in a different state, I came without furniture. My daughters have taken the responsibility of putting together the furniture. Starting with my bed, then came a desk for my computer. Then I needed a chest of drawers for some of my clothes, and after that came a dresser for the other daughter that actually lives here with me, and then her new bed. And in the ensuing days, there was a large stand for the TV, a 50 inch one at that. Then it was end tables for the living room, a nightstand for my bedroom, and 2 stands for Denise's room, and then a second dresser for my bedroom. All of those items came in a big box in pieces with instructions and all the necessary nuts and bolts but a special screwdriver for the building of all of the parts to make a house a home. And there is a "cubby with 8 places for the storge and one more bookcase for my reading books.

I'm about halfway through a new series of mysteries and I've been building another series about a Scottish Bakery with the laddies running it being helpful in solving mysteries. The setting for this series is Michigan in a Scottish town up there with a lot of Scottish descendants of Scottish parents. They run a bakery with a sitting room in a converted funeral parlor. Three ladies from the same college who got together years after staying in touch and deciding that they could handle a bakery with one doing the baking, one doing the books, and one running the front of the business and sales floor.

The latest project for my girls was to "clean up my collection of Santa's before the Christmas season hits us. Charlie can attest to the size of my collection. The sad thing is the big tote with the Teddy bears in it didn't fit on the moving truck without raising the price of the truck by $700. dollars. They have turned the dining room into a hospital for large Santa dolls. A toothbrush to clean up the faces, and brush their furry parts of their clothes. There is a shelf at the top of the dining/& living room that runs all around the 2 rooms across the top. It looks to be about 12 or so inches deep but we can tell when they got this part of the building "move-in ready" they didn't bother to clean up the years of dust that previous tenants hadn't cleaned either. I bought a very large ladder so the girls can take turns cleaning that shelf so the Santas have a place to reside for the upcoming season. They will put the dolls up there with some tissue paper covers until it's almost Christmas and then we'll take off the tissue for the holidays and put it back on until we move again next June. Hopefully into a single unit with a fenced back yard. And a small space for my garden.

I want to grow my own tomatoes and maybe a few more herbs that will taste better fresh from the garden.  I tried pumpkins at one of our houses in Richland but lost my balance and landed on top of the poor little pumpkin plants which killed them for the season.

At least I'm in a bigger house than the one in Walla Walla and my #2 daughter is living with me. She considers herself as the alarm in the night. She came in one night when she heard me fighting for breath and handed me the O2 cannula and said: "put this on". I must have pulled it free because it was pinching my ears (one ear has had part of the top removed from cancer) so it hurt a little and in my sleep, I pulled it off.

Well, I've been up for 3 hours so it's either time for taking my vitals or fixing breakfast. I have some small jars of boost but I can't drink them anymore because in my old age I've developed lactose intolerance. It really hurts to drink milk any more. But I'm going to try the Almond milk to see if I can handle that on my cereal.

Everyone have a good weekend and be safe!
Hugs from Colorado

Don't have any pics to show yet. Can't find my cameras. but I can take pics with my new phone that my Grandson Bob fixed up for me!

The Almond Milk is pretty darn good.

 

Moving day on the Horizon

Yes, I'm moving again. For some reason, I didn't make any new friends in this town excerpt for my newest landlord, his Property Manager, and my neighbor across the street. There is a really nice lady (just moved in this month) in the other half of this duplex. For some reason, she is as homebound as I am. These days it's because I'm saving a heap of money for the moving truck and an airplane ticket for my grandson who's driving the truck and towing my car all the way to Grand Junction, Colorado.  I'm going to be sharing a house with my #2 daughter, who will be my new caregiver when I get there. But she is already giving me hints, like don't go out in public without a face mask.  She's going to find us a nice 3 bedroom with a back yard that is fenced, (if it isn't fenced I'm going to get permission to fence it at my expense), so my little doggie can run around in circles if she wants to.  Or maybe just get into whatever nonsense she wants to. Denise is wanting a dog also so my doggie will have a play buddy!

Denise will be helping me separate the Genealogy files I've accumulated over the last 30 years that I've been chasing relatives and getting copies of military records, birth certificates, marriage certificates, and census pages for the families. my file has 5,135 people in it. I haven't kept track of how many are still alive but I know it isn't over 100. Since the file goes back to the 1600s when the Corbin's first landed in Virginia and the Shirleys landed in New England. Over the years the two families have lived and populated quite a few states. It's fun to find things in old newspapers and census forms. Now it just means separating them by families and then breaking that down to subfamilies.  I might not stay sane doing this. I'm the worst at tracking the paperwork. So there are probably duplicates o-plenty.

I'm giving away the breakfast nook that I have and I've already given the large accumulation of freeze-dried meals (commonly known as Survival packages) to my new Grandson. I made him my grandson after the divorce from the granddaughter he was married to. She treated him as badly as she treated me and we decided that we didn't need anything to say we were related. Our spirits have found an ally in each other. We will both miss the Great-granddaughter, but there isn't anything we can do about it. Maybe when she grows up and becomes aware of the manipulation that goes on in her family she'll reach out to us. I pray that happens.

The only excitement in this town was the flood. It didn't reach my street but my neighbor said if there was an evacuation for our neighborhood he wouldn't leave me behind. He has a really big suv and a doxie so it will be an adventure at the least. I had my suitcase and Phoebe's car carrier by the front door.  It has a small fancy medicine carrier that is stocked with 7 days of my meds and Phoebe's case has small plastic bags of water, dry dog food, a blanket to sleep on and her papers in an envelope. She has a chip so I'm not worried about her. She wraps herself around my neck when we get in the car and I start the engine.

I haven't done any new scrapbook pages in a long time because I've been having trouble with the COPD and the winter wet weather. We had 2 days of snow but that's all. But I'm going to get some done soon. I have some new pictures that I have to put names with then I can make a nice page.

Hugs to everyone from Washington State!

Happy 2020 14 days late!

Another year is in the books. Not all of it nice but mostly good. My live-in caregiver is gone but the VA has set me up for a really nice lady (a young widow with 2 young kids) and she comes 3 days a week.  I found some Christmas things that should have been mailed to California last year but never got done. I had my caregiver wrap them up and put them under her tree for her 2 young boys. One is 2 and one is almost 4. They were thrilled with the book from "Surf Sharks.com". And 2 T-shirts with the SurfSharks logo on them. I asked her how many times she's had to read them to the boys and she rolled her eyes and said at least 3 times every day.  Might be a good way for the boys to learn to read.

This young lady is a CNA but so far I've been not needing physical help.  She did take me to the bank yesterday since I'd already been there once and I'm not too happy with the stability of my car. When it's necessary I go out, such as the Albertson's or to Walmart. I think I'm going to have to go to our Hobby Lobby to find some heavy-duty pins to fix the new cover I got for my Recliner. I'm going to have to either order a new recliner or order another larger set of furniture covers. This caregiver helps with some of the chores and makes sure I'm taking my meds. She gets the clothes out of the laundry and I sit in my chair and fold them.

There is a big move for me in mid-May or late May. I'm moving back to Grand Junction to be closer to my daughter. Actually, we are going to look for a nice house big enough for her and me.  She misses the Christmas in my house and I'm sure she'll help me when it comes to putting up the tree and all of the other things that I couldn't use this year because we don't have a fenced yard and my neighbor says that the outdoor decorations in an open yard run away during the night so he quit putting anything up.  All of them are in my storage shed (I hope)(I didn't oversee the packing granddaughter's things from the storage shed) but if they are gone then so be it.

  Denise says we need a 3 bedroom, 2 baths so we each have our own bath.  And I'm insisting on a good-sized back yard so my puppy can run to her heart's content. And if Denise can find a nice dog willing to get along with Miss Phoebe they can chase each other around the yard, inside the fence! Maybe that kind of exercise will help Phoebe gain a pound or so.  She only weighed almost 5 pounds last Vet Check and she's 3 yrs old. Almost 4. (Pictures at the end of the post). My little Chihuahua-Chihuahua is the friendliest dog in the neighborhood (Both of her parents were purebreds). She loves to go to the bank with me cause they all run out to see her and play with her. So far the Bank Manager hasn't said anything so she goes with me. I've never left her alone. When granddaughter was here she had Phoebe's mother so they played together but she hasn't had a buddy since November except the ones she meets in the stores. All the younger kids want to pet her and they all ask if they can pet her. I tell them yes, Phoebe loves kids.

Here's what I missed from the yard.

The last time I got to use them was Christmas 2017. Going to have a great time in 2020!

This is what I did to the inside of the house this year 2019 Christmas, even if I was here alone. I had a big Turkey dinner, delivered by my good neighbor across the street.

 My fireplace and the book case next to it with my snow people and my Angels from a when I lived in Denver and could do ceramics. Rest of the Angels are in the storage shed, but I made a whole cadre of these angels that I call my Italian Angels.

 This is Sleigh and one reindeer on the kitchen table that is in my living room.

 This is the bottom of the tree with my good friend Jess's packages waiting for him to come down.

Every year I get a new teddy and this is 2019. I think I started this back in 19?? but some have been given away to little ones. 

 The tree is so tall you can't see the Angel on top. But she's one of the angels I made when I

 Angels are on the watch. The two on the park benches are Italians (at least I think they are) and are only a small part of the whole crowd. They angels on the top shelf are ones I've made from sequined material, ribbons and craft store wings and halos.

 My caregiver made this arrangement out of some faux flowers and greenery, etc and I liked it so I didn't put it away with the rest of the decos.

had a room that I could use as a craft room.

 Keeping with the Blue theme is the wreath on the door. On the inside since it might just take wings and fly away if I put it outside. The tree is white and the ornaments and garlands are different shades of blue.

Here's the top of my 7 and 1/2 foot tree with the little angel on the top.

P.S. It snowed all day yesterday and most of the night too. Walks have been shoveled twice.  It was still coming down when I took this picture.

Time to say Aloha or rather Meli Kalicki Maha as they say in Hawaii!

Day 3 of being alone again

Bridgit decided to move out last Tuesday but it took Wed., Thur., & Friday for her and her gang to get everything of hers out of the house and then out of the storage shed. And when I say everything, I really mean everything that she assumed was hers. All of the paper products, (TP, Napkins & Paper Towels) and there was a really big amount of them. But she left the roll on the holder in the bathroom. lol  Some of the kitchen cabinets were pretty bare but I used that as an excuse to shopping.  Now I'll also have to get a new TV. The one that was mine was the one that came over on the Pinta Maria. Isn't fixed to do cable so I haven't watched any tv since Friday when the Cable Serviceman brought me a new HDMI cable. Have no idea what it does except it is a very important item. Longing for the good old days when we just turned it on and we had channels and programs to watch. I do have some of those new little antennas that work without the cable. I just can't get it hooked up and wouldn't know which one of the 3 little hickeys in the back to hook it to! Then yesterday my friends brought me a 43 inch TV and hooked it up already. And after they left, I pushed the wrong button to open the mute, (no glasses on) and now it's in need of some tender loving care and some very simple instructions for the Octnagiarn to follow. My neighbor across the street came over and found just which buttons to push and now everything is A-OK! And now I have to move the 'recliner' so that I'm at the right angle to see the big screen. I get a kink in my neck watching it with my body in a twist. Think I'll put the rocker in the other room since it isn't safe yet. Needs a seat made for it which I'll get around to next summer.

I did have the opportunity to rekindle an old friendship. He was my buddy in the Prepping Game. And I have been at it for 3 years now. And 5 of the office boxes and a multitude of articles on the computer and on jump drives. If the Poop hits the fan and we need information, I have over 17,000 articles that cover any issue we might encounter. Of course, at 80 years old I shouldn't be worried about that anyway. If it's my time, then so be it. But my old friend is still young so he will need all that information. Lucky for him he only has a few hardbound books to worry about. The Lost Ways vol one and two and the Lost Medical info from people who didn't have a doctor close by.

Because the VAMC and my daughter are nudging me in the direction of Assisted Living and the VA has a contract with a couple of the facilities it wouldn't take much to talk me into moving. When I started labeling things for my friend and his Dad thinks that's cool. He loves making those soups and kinds of pasta. He says it feeds the whole family. They took two boxes of food, a camp stove with butane fuel and a very large Knapsak that is a Tactical Rangers first thing he grabs for a mission. Prepper buddy thinks it's cool and his Dad was the fire Chief many years so he already knows what should be in there.  When we start on the storage shed in another week or so, there are at least 2 large boxes of survival food packed into a watertight container. They are for 1 month for a family of 4. And I gave him back the garage tent that was at our house in Richland. So he can put the Tent in his Dad's back yard and put all of those goodies in it out of the Snow and Rain. Layering the inside bottom of the tent with pallets from the big stores, (usually for free), will keep everything high and dry. And it's going to be frozen also, Snowing in Walla Walla, so it's probably snowing further up the road also.

I went over to my recliner to catch my breath and the next thing I knew it was almost 1pm. Guess I'm not really sleeping very well after all. Well, I have 2 appts with the counselor that made me so mad last week and the Geriatric team of one busy nurse and one physician who specializes in Geriatric ailments counselor. I've made up my mind I'm not doing the test for Dementia yet again.She's going to have to wait until I have both feet on the ground from this latest fiasco with my granddaughter.

It's begining to Look Like christmas

    We had some snow, about 1 inch, which lasted for 2 days and is all gone but continuing with rain. If the temp falls too much lower it will be snow again. But I'm still able to drive myself to where I need to be going. I definitely wore myself out yesterday. First I went to Safeway got most of the items on my list but it seems that Safeway doesn't stock any of the "Fresh" dog food that needs refrigeration. So I brought everything home and lugged it up to the house and into the kitchen. I put the cold stuff into the frig and put the rest on the counter. Then it was back into the car with my little dog and another ride to the Albertson's store for her dog food. She doesn't like the kibble type food so I feed her fresh cooked meats and veggies from the Fresh Pet company. A little more expensive but if she eats it I'm happy. Maybe she'll gain a pound or two. Right now she's at 4lbs 9ozs. That's a little dog.

  I so wanted a White tree this year and on impulse picked one up. I have pretty high ceilings and the Angel on the top has only 2 inches clearance. I can't do a whole lot of standing and walking around but I have gotten most of the tree decorations on the tree. A few more to go but it must wait for Grand-son-in-law to come down. He's over 6 ft so his arm can reach the top two or three sections of the tree. This is a 7.5 foot White Kennedy Fir, (whatever a Kennedy fir is). It's very pretty!
 
  I have a very large Wreath to put on the wall behind my new TV. My friends bought me a 43 inch TV in exchange for a very large amount of Survival/camping food and gear that I had been collecting. With my health the way it is, I don't need to prepare for surviving in the woods, I'm going to be in an Assisted Living community probably halfway through the year.  Oh, the wreath is from my days in a Red Hat Society. It's red and purple and I love it. I might even circle some of my pretty Red hats around it.

 
   I have a very large Red Bow for the front door and maybe we'll wrap some garland around the pillars of the porch. I even have an extra string of lights to wind in with the green garland.

  I have a doctor appt. this week with 2 Geriatric specialists, (one nurse and one doctor). It's easy to figure out...80 years old, 3 children, 5 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren is enough to make anyone grow old. I'll have to admit the Asbestos in the lungs isn't helping anything. The barracks I lived in for 2+ years had not had Asbestos Abatement done on them so it was all around the water pipes and in the floor tiles which I had the fun of running a very large floor polisher on. I loved that part. Made my arms a little stronger to handle that big monstrosity. That was back in 1960 thru 1962.

  I've taken some pictures of my tree so far so I will put them here. My neighbor across the street loves the tree. It sits in a corner of the living room which has windows on both sides of the corner of the room. But the tree is so tall it sort of doesn't fit in one picture unless I'm clear across the room to take it. But you will get the idea. I took this picture from my step stool so I was higher to get a better shot.

 Lovely Angel that I made 5 years ago and she still holds on for another couple of years.

This is my Red hat wreath. will have more pictures when the kids come down from 

Tri-Cities thist Wed. I believe it will be.

It looks sort of strange to have fireplace with Oxygen bottles stashed right in front of it. The fireplace unit is fake, lights only.

  Have a great week, friends and enjoy getting the seasonal things taken care of. Ham for Christmas dinner with sweet potatoes and green bean salad! Yummm!