Good Groundhog Day!

Nice, quiet, calm day at home.  Finally.  Got some paperwork and bookkeeping done.  One load of laundry.  Chicken and dumplings in the crock pot.  Raspberry bars made.  My March issue of "Country Living" magazine came in the mail.  And American Idol on TV tonight.  Perfect day for me.  I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but believe me, it was good.

It's also Groundhog Day. 
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so there will be six more weeks of winter.  Now, I live about 25 miles from Punxsutawney, and there's ALWAYS at least six more weeks of winter around here.  We have a saying in these parts: We have two seasons, Winter and July.  That's a little exaggeration, but not by much.  It's pretty here, though.

I was going to go down to help Melissa today with more curtain hanging, but to get to their house you drive right through Punxsutawney.  It would take me an hour just to get through Punxy with all the people and activities going on today, so we decided on Thursday.  They're having a new entertainment unit delivered on Thursday anyway that I'm anxious to see and help arrange.

Tomorrow Melissa is coming up this way and I'm meeting her at the old house to clean.  Now that almost all the garbage is out of the way we can get down to shining and polishing floors, sinks and appliances to get ready to show.  In fact, just by word of mouth in this small town, two people called me to ask if they could see it tomorrow.  We're hoping that it will sell right away without even listing it.  We'll see what happens.  It's been a hard decision by all in the family to actually sell the house as it was Grandma and Grandpa's for 50 years.  We've all finally come to the realization that we can't hold onto it forever and we'll all be more relaxed in letting it go.  When I go through old pictures of Christmases and family reunions at that house I get sort of sad and emotional, but time to move on.

Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa, I went to see them yesterday.  I took Grandpa his every other day supply of Hershey kisses and jumbo marshmallows.  He's 94 and happy and doesn't have a thing wrong with him except his memory, so what the heck.  We figure it's not going to hurt him at this point.  Grandma just looks so pitiful.  She's down to about 53 pounds now and she didn't even open her eyes while I was there.  We just keep asking the question that no one can answer, "How can a human live at that weight?"  And it just keeps going down.  We're praying for her to move on, too.  We don't even feel bad about thinking that or saying that anymore.

Busy and Growing Family

Oh my, it's been a busy week.  This was my first day in a week to spend alone in my own house and get some cleaning done here.  It's Friday, 5:00 p.m., and I'm finally sitting down with a glass of wine and catching up on my writing.  My Bob should be home shortly and is bringing home Chinese take-out.  This has become our new Friday night ritual.  We used to go out to dinner on Fridays, but we just don't feel like going out, especially in this weather.


The snow just keeps coming down.  Those schools that didn't close today ended up dismissing early.  I keep measuring the amount of snow by looking at how much is piled on my back deck railings and table. 

This was yesterday morning.  There's more now.

We need to get this shoveled off soon or it's going to get too heavy. 

                    Mom and Dad's house

My dad shoveling.  I know he's smiling, but he's not really having fun.

It's also very cold outside.  It was 8 degrees at 9:00 this morning and it's 16 degrees at 5 pm.  It's beautiful if you're lucky enough to be inside a warm house. 

Last weekend I wasn't so in love with this weather.  We moved Austin and family about 50 miles away, but with the back roads and the bad weather it takes about an hour and a half to get there.  Bob and Austin loaded the U-Haul themselves and I don't know how they did it.  I helped on the other end and spent the night with them Saturday night so I could continue unpacking and cleaning on Sunday.  It was so late, dark, cold and snowy that the U-Haul didn't get un-loaded until Sunday morning.  What a job!!  Bob and I came home Sunday and Bob said he felt like he just ran a marathon and I said I felt like I was hit by a truck.  We made a promise to each other that our furniture moving days are over.  The boys can find friends or hire professionals.  They have too much stuff now and we're getting too old.  We can do it, but the recovery time has increased greatly.

On Wednesday I went back down to the kids' new house with a car load of left behind items and continued the unpacking and cleaning.  The house is nice with a lot of potential, but it was really left dirty by the previous tenants.  I'm tired of cleaning but I can't make myself stop when there is still more to do.  I came back home Wednesday night and will not allow myself to go back down until maybe next Wednesday.  As long as Melissa is still asking for my help I will continue cleaning, fixing and decorating.  With her being pregnant I don't want her to lift too much or move furniture.

After I got home on Wednesday, exhausted and sore and getting into a hot bath, my #2 son, Brandon, called from Spokane.  It was 10:30 at night and I was surprised that he called that late, but he was telling me about their move into their house on Monday (see, if we're not there they find a way) and that they have a new mattress and new washer and dryer ordered and to be delivered when Diana returns from her visit here.  Diana arrived at her parents in Pittsburgh last night and she and Baby Riley will be stopping by my house tomorrow.  So I'm thinking to myself, why is he calling me so late and telling me this.  But I'm glad he called me so I'm asking questions about the house, mattress and washer and dryer.  Then he says, "and we also have another baby coming in August".  Oh My!!  Baby Riley is only 7 months old.  I am thrilled, though.  Brandon said that is why they called me first, because they knew I would be excited.  They were surprised but happy with the news themselves.  So now I have two new grandbabies arriving this summer.  That will make five grandchildren in six years for us.  I can hardly believe it. 

I now have more baby quilts to sew and baby sweaters, hats and booties to knit.  I just don't know how I can keep up!  I can't sew and knit fast enough!  I think we may be done with new babies after these next two, but I said that seven months ago!

Moving Into the New Year

This is going to be a hectic day.  This is moving day for Austin and his family.  They are only moving about an hour and 15 minutes away, but it's very cold out and a lot of snow.

Bob shoveling yesterday - there's a lot more this morning

 Austin is picking My Bob up at 8:30, in about an hour and a half, to go pick up the U-Haul.  The boys spent the night here last night so that Austin and Melissa  could get more packing done.  I'm going to gather up my cleaning supplies, some food for a few meals, a little bag for myself in case I decide to spend the night at the new house, then the boys and I will pick up Austin's brother-in-law that lives with them and we'll head off to the new house. 
The reason for the move is for Austin to be closer to his recruiting office.  It's a good move, but a hard one.  Austin is having to give up the house he's in now, which was his great-grandparent's home for 50 years.  It holds a lot of memories and was so convenient to us.  But these changes were in the best interest of their family, so life goes on.  This new house is not a "new" house.  Just new to them.  It's from around the 1960's and is a five bedroom, 3 bath with a unique layout.

 They'll just be renting it, so there are many things I would do to fix it up, but they won't want to do as a rental.  So I'll help clean it real good and offer my decorating advice.  Sometimes it's hard to draw the line between trying to be helpful and butting in.  I'll do my best to walk that tightrope.  It can be hard for me to not go overboard with the cleaning and the decorating because I enjoy doing it.  Why is it that I see dirt and problems where no one else does?  Just drives me crazy.  Anyway, so far they are asking for my help so I'll take advantage of the opportunity. 
The boys are still asleep, and as soon as they get up, which I expect to be any minute now, the "fun" will begin.  I sure wish I had slept better, but too much going on in my head.
Then last night my other son from Spokane called to say that they just got word that they got a three bedroom, 2 bath house that they had been on a waiting list for.  They are packing up their tiny apartment right now and moving on Monday.  This is a house on base (Air Force).  These on base houses are very nice.  They looked at houses off base to rent and there is nothing nice.  And they wouldn't be able to buy a home in Spokane that would be even close to being as nice as the base housing.  As soon as they get moved in, Brandon starts his six months of Survival Training and Diana will be coming home for a two week visit.  I wish I could go back with her and help clean and decorate their new home! That just won't be possible right now.  If they were closer I would certainly be there. 
I am hoping that I can get one whole day to myself pretty soon.  I think I'm going to be very tired after this weekend.
We did have our New Year's Dinner yesterday.

Table setting for New Year's dinner

 I cooked our traditional pork roast, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, applesauce, green beans with almonds, and chocolate peanut butter pie.  There were nine of us here. It was very good, if I do say so myself.  Austin and Melissa ate and then left shortly after to continue their packing.
Ohh - there they are!  They're up!!  Time to get this party started!!!