a final look at the bucket list

Monday marks Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer. So, as I was looking at the bucket list and realizing we did well, I thought I would share. Here goes...
1) Sign up and walk a 5K--actually did this June 1, in less than 55 minutes--I was really reaching for an hour. Now, all the house related stuff:
2) Siding the house-- contractor was here Friday night, scheduled to start in 2-3 weeks!!
 3) Roof the house--contractor was here Friday night, scheduled to start in 2-3 weeks!! Started 8/29!
4) Get a new furnace and A/C Done!!
5) New gravel in the driveway--gonna call this week and see if we can get this done.  Done!
6) Gut Robert's room and paint--we need rid of the airplanes. This I am putting off, see below  

Then the "Me" stuff

7) Hit the 65 lb mark on my weight loss journey -- I am a little over 55, still think I can hit 65 by Monday the 23rd, which would be the first meeting in the fall.
  8) Start over with the couch to 5K and do it faithfully I am starting week 5 Monday morning!
9) Get a pedicure so Robert bought me a wonderful LED manicure system for my birthday, so I'm not spending the money on the salon but I have beautiful nails!!
10) get a manicure ditto from above!
11) Plan a month of workouts and stick to it (July) still haven't done this, but I don't go three days without exercising. I am gonna schedule September because I am ready to do some toning exercises.

  The the family stuff
  12) Get away for a day-we have had some good family times this summer
13) Get away for the weekend--hopefully this can include Robert but we will see. Done
14) Help Robert on his house--Oh it's started, and more than we imagined, but it will be wonderful when its done!
15) Help Andrew with his next project (my mom's back porch) DONE!!
  16) Help Andrew with his next, next project ( a headboard for our bed--yep, still on the list)yeah, with all the stuff going on at Robert's, this IS off the table again for now.

   Then, last, just the stuff I want, or NEED to get going on.
  17) Redo the basement--it's a wreck!! especially since we had a flood a few weeks ago. Laundry room looks better for now, the rest still needs some work. The guys are working a lot of evenings at the farm, I need to be doing the same downstairs.
  18) set up my craft area--I haven't scrapbooked faithfully IN TWO YEARS!! This too
 19) Finish the laundry room--for now anyway. Done!
20) Make a new reading list--although that is the one thing I haven't fell short on :-) --Yeah, who was I kidding that I needed to put this on a list to get it done, I've probably read more books than ever this summer. I am in the middle of a series but I have an author friend who was a new book coming out here in the next few days so I will probably stop with the series and read it.

I made the mistake a few years ago of doing a fall one, I always go into survival mode in September anyway because work gets crazy. This year it will be crazier than normal because we start LIHEAP Tuesday, Thursday I speak at head start, Friday I start networking all the Head Start centers into their new printers, the following Tuesday and Wednesday, I hope to finish that project--20 centers in three days. Should be fun. On Thursday the 12th, Andrew and I fly to Oklahoma (via Atlanta) for his class reunion. We return on Sunday night and I have to be at work at 7 on the 16th to get what was supposed to be done on Friday done. I have three parent meetings to speak at in September as well and then AWANA starts the 11th.  Andrew and I stepped down from being the high school directors this year. Our jobs and the houses are just all we can handle right now. I love helping but with high schoolers now days the lessons are usually about sex, drugs, actions, reactions, world problems and it's all just stuff you have to know your lesson very well to keep up with them and I don't want to do it if we aren't going to do it right. So that's that.

Happy Saturday night! (will show more roof pics AND Robert's house pics soon!)

Finally

August 29th, 2013..... the first day of the roof project. The one I have been trying to establish since May. The thing is, through all the blunders, I believe I have found the perfect contractor for us as he seems to treasure the same little oddities of our house that we do. He came by yesterday and told Robert they were starting today. I had to go to Olney this morning so I ran by on my way. They were just getting everything delivered. So I got to see my roof first the first time......or our roof, but it was what my heat desired and that was what Andrew said he cared about.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love green but I also don't ever want to be like everyone else. The green on other houses, except for one in T-town, seems to be forest. When I saw the yellow house in T-town with the patina green roof, I was in love. So, I found the roof, and then I had to find the right guy to find it for me local. And I did just that.

When I showed up this morning, he told me to come and see my roof. I said I was in love and he said that was what he wanted to hear.

So, this evening, I came home and walked around the house and got very excited. I didn't realize they were replacing as much as they were. They have the first piece of color up!

So, onward we go...

Vacation Attempt 3, or maybe 4.

Well...

On Friday, August 9th, at 4 p.m., I officially went on vacation. At about 2 on August 12th, I went back to work. I really did take the 13th off with the understanding that I was probably going back to work at 8 the morning of the 14th. We finally alleviated the problem that morning and a little before noon, I was back on vacation. Thursday it dawned on me that I could probably finagle this coming Monday and Tuesday off to make up for the days lost this week. So be it, for now anyway.

So, what have I done on my summer vacation, you ask? Well, I helped Andrew put a new ceiling in my mom's utility room, aka the back porch (according to her, it is too nice to be a porch now so it's a utility room. It is enclosed, so if that's what she wants it to be, that's what it is.) I had just finished holding up the last big piece when I had to go back to work so he finished there while I ran to Greenup, conveniently, Mom is only 8 mile from the office.

Tuesday, I packed a picnic lunch and Mom and I headed to Mahomet to what USED to be the botanical gardens. It is still labeled as such but, sadly, is a far cry from what it was when we were kids. We met Nila there and it was still nice getting to be together. We went to the carillon and picnicked. I wish I would have taken pics of lunch because I thought it was really good and they said it was too. It was all pretty reasonable points-wise too.
I made
Chicken Salad Wraps (with dried cranberries)
Dilled Potato Salad
Italian Green Bean Salad (ZERO points!)
Deviled Eggs
and
Angel Lush for dessert.
 The desserts were really cute and I did take a picture of them, 3 points!

 



 The worst part is, I stole the look from Taste of Home magazine, but definitely not the recipe. It called for Sweetened condensed milk AND sour cream in your pudding. Please people, I swear we, as a nation, just see how fattening we can make things. Mine is just plain old sugar free pudding.

Here are pictures from the day though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, we also went to the Carillon, I was the only brave sole to go up, which I did without it killing me!!!  Yeah Me! and yes, I think it was 5 or 6 flights of stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to their little museum after lunch and then we said our goodbyes and headed home. Mom and I stopped in Champaign and Mattoon for a little shopping and ended up in Charleston at just the correct time to meet Robert for dinner. Great day!

 

 

Thursday, we got gravel, 4 loads of it. I was the only one home. When you get gravel, the truck spreads it and then one has to take a rake and spread it some more and even it out. Did I mention I was the only one home?  I have my little activelink that tells how much activity I do each day. I have a daily goal of 2 points. I did 11 that day....and sat in my jet tub for an hour. I seriously didn't figure I would be able to move Friday but surprising, the sore was totally gone by about 9 am. Again, I'm in MUCH better shape than I used to be!

 

So then we are to Friday, my 46th birthday. What a glorious day!!!  First off, my hubby got me one of those birthday cards that makes me melt. *insert your eyes rolling here* Sorry, it's how we roll. Robert bought me a gel nail kit that I had been wanting (and it works!!!  it really, really works!!). Andrew had paid for me a little shopping spree a couple of weeks ago and was taking me out to dinner. 

 

My mom came down and took me to lunch at Parklanes.

 

 

Robert got off early enough to make it all the way home and then he and I went back to Greenup to meet Andrew to go to Terre Haute for dinner. We went to Tokyo Japanese Grill. I love that place. All in all, it was just an absolutely perfect day.

 

 

Here's a couple of pics...

 

 

 

and that brings us to today. What a day!

 

 

We all started out at Parklanes for breakfast, Robert went to work, Andrew went to Menard's and I went to have my hair done. This afternoon, we met up at the farm to start working on Robert's house. I actually just brought the guys lunch and then came back home to do some chores here, but they met with more problems after I left so they are back at Menard's right now, buying more supplies. We thought we were replacing the floor in the living room. Unfortunately, because of the way the house was built, we will also be replacing the floor in two bedrooms. Already breaking the budget and it is day 1. It will be worth it in the end but these first days of seeing exactly what all you are facing can be a little challenging and a lot scary. Hopefully tomorrow we get to make some real progress!

 







 

 

So that is vacation so far. Tomorrow we are going to church and then straight to the farm. Monday the guys both head back to work, and I hopefully get more things I wanted to do done around here. Today, I managed to clean out the fridge, freezer, and the two remaining food cabinets. Monday, I AM going to conquer the laundry room!

 

Happy Saturday everyone!!

The Answer Jar

So, most of you know that my birthday is next week. It looks like I am actually going to get to be on vacation for my birthday. Today, midst the flurry of trying to get everything caught up so I can take said vacation, Cathy, the Outreach Worker for the Cumberland office, walks in and plops a birthday present on my desk--telling me it is from her and Vonnie, the Assistant Outreach Worker and I have to open it while she is there. She made me a very pretty necklace, got me some scrapbooking supplies as well as a pack of sugar free gum (she can find the neatest flavors--this one was dreamsicle). The there was a jar......

An Answer Jar....

Cute, but not nearly as cute as what was in it......

The Answers......

 

 Cathy and Vonnie had went through their emails from me and picked out some of my most used and/or their favorite answers. It was hilarious and I giggled about it all afternoon.


Some of the favorites were--Yes, LIHEAP.net is down again.
                                              Look in the manual
                                               just do it!
                                              Really??!!
                                              If a monitor saw that...
                                              I don't want to hear that
                                              Pray about it.
                                              play nice, ladies!
 and of course, the one that I use when they have brought out the mom in me....
                                             Because I said so!!


there are over 40 of them, and it truly just made my day.

Just had to share, somebody else should do this, it's too cute not to share.

Checkin' in on the bucket list

It seems this summer has been spent spinning my wheels so I decided I better check in and see if I could even update the "bucket list" at all. To my pleasant surprise, it's not quite as bad as I thought, and there are some things that just need changed, so let's take a look...

1) Sign up and walk a 5K--actually did this June 1, in less than 55 minutes--I was really reaching for an hour. Now, all the house related stuff:
2) Siding the house-- contractor was here Friday night, scheduled to start in 2-3 weeks!!
 3) Roof the house--contractor was here Friday night, scheduled to start in 2-3 weeks!!
4) Get a new furnace and A/C Done!!
5) New gravel in the driveway--gonna call this week and see if we can get this done.
6) Gut Robert's room and paint--we need rid of the airplanes. This I am putting off, see below 

Then the "Me" stuff

7) Hit the 65 lb mark on my weight loss journey -- hope to see 53 this week!
 8) Start over with the couch to 5K and do it faithfully (gonna start Monday the 17th) I'm taking my own time this time, I am doing week 3 for the second time.
9) Get a pedicure
10) get a manicure
11) Plan a month of workouts and stick to it (July) I didn't make this, maybe this month!

The the family stuff
  12) Get away for a day-actually done this a couple of times, Robert and I are taking a day this Saturday too.
13) Get away for the weekend--hopefully this can include Robert but we will see. Done
14) Help Robert on his house--we have a bit more on mom's and then we will start, I'm not going to redo his room because since he got a job, it looks like he could move in the next couple of months. Just gonna wait until that happens and redo the room instead of trying to do it with all his stuff in it.
15) Help Andrew with his next project (my mom's back porch) in progress
 16) Help Andrew with his next, next project ( a headboard for our bed--yep, still on the list) moved further down the list, but still there

  Then, last, just the stuff I want, or NEED to get going on.
  17) Redo the basement--it's a wreck!! especially since we had a flood a few weeks ago. One of my main projects planned for vaca
 18) set up my craft area--I haven't scrapbooked faithfully IN TWO YEARS!! This too
 19) Finish the laundry room--for now anyway. also that week
20) Make a new reading list--although that is the one thing I haven't fell short on :-) --as I stated, this is not a problem. Just started reading a new series through Love Inspired, The  Without a Trace series. The first book, What Sarah Saw, was awesome! Just started Framed! last night.