A Little Bit of Everything!!

Saturday John and I moved with the help of 2 wonderful moving men!!  They were absolutely wonderful!  Unfortunately they ran out of time, so tomorrow John will be moving boxes out of the apartment garage to the storage unit with the help of the same 2 wonderful moving men.  We are all settled in at Megan and Ken's.  It is so nice to be out of the apartment and back into a house again.  Teddy is so much happier, even though he is a little confused.  He thinks we are just visiting Megan and Ken and he keeps looking at us wondering when we are leaving-LOL!  I also meant to say Megan help me bring some things over to her house-she was a big help.  Both she and Ken are making us feel really welcome staying at their home!  Thanks you two!!

Yesterday after I meet for a little while with my knitting group, I drove past our new house.  Oh my goodness did they get alot done!!  The siding is done, they started painting the house and trim, the inside of the house was painted white, the kitchen cabinets and granite countertops were all in, the doors were hung, the trim was done, the vanities were in, the special mouldings were done in the hall and dining room, the cubby next to the garden tub was done, the folding table in the laundry room was done, and the septic had been put in!!!  What a difference 1 week made!!  Here are just a few photos I took:

Sorry the pump jacks are in the picture for the front photo but they are going to be painting the house this week.

 This is the color of the house with the trim being a light cream.  The back of the house was already painted.

 This is our kitchen-cabinets and granite countertops!!

 This will help you see the color of the cabinets a little better.  I love this color-so nice and warm!!

 Picture framing in the Dining Room.

This is part of the backyard.  They had to take some trees down for the septic and they did remove the beautiful dogwood tree that was there.  I will be planting a new one in the Spring.

Yesterday Jenny, Kevin and Owen came over to Megan and Ken's neighborhood for a Halloween parade.  Owen is going out for Halloween as Popeye.  Here is his picture:

As you can see in this photo he wasn't a real happy camper, but right after I snapped the photo he started smiling.  He has a little pipe Kevin made with a dowel and a solid block of wood for him to hold.  He also carried a can of Popeye spinach!!  Too funny!

Well that was about it for our weekend!  I hope everyone had a good one!

The day before our Move!!

Friday, glorious Friday!  Last night I think I packed everything that needed to be packed for the move to the storage unit.  There are boxes all over the apartment, bags of pillows, and food all packed up to go to Megan's house for our 3-4 week duration.  When we moved into the apartment 6 months ago we didn't hang any paintings, we didn't put any knick knacks out but we did unpack alot of kitchen things.  I love to cook and I needed my old friends with me.  I left some of the things in boxes but not many.  When I started packing a week and a half ago I didn't think I had that much to pack up and get ready for the storage unit but I was wrong.  My jewelry making gemstones, wire, beads, etc. all took some time because they had to be packed with much care.  I had to also pack up my yarn stash, which took one whole night!!  YIKES how much yarn had I bought!  This chapter of our life is coming to a close and a new adventure is starting!  I have to say I can't wait!!  All the sacrificing we have been doing for the past few years has been totally worth it because we will be moving into our new craftsman style home that we haven't wanted for some time now!

Everyone have a great weekend and say prayers for us that the move goes smoothly!

Drywall in the new house done!

This picture isn't the greatest but atleast you can see the drywall is all done in the new house!  This is a shot of the breakfast eating area (on the right) and the great room on the left.  This was later in the day so you can see by all the windows and doors, we should have great light!  I love that the kitchen/breakfast eating area opens into the great room!  Great for entertaining and talking/visiting while I cook.  Hopefully they will get the siding and shutters on this week and do some trim work.  I'll keep everyone posted!

Home sick today!

I went to work yesterday even though I knew I was sick after visiting the Dr. Today I just couldn't go in.  I have decided to take today and tomorrow off.  I need to rest and drink plenty of fluids.  I definitely would not get rest at work.  I have to be all better and rested by Saturday.  This is the last weekend we have to pack before the move on the 27th.  I did some packing last Saturday but not nearly enough.

I hope everyone is having a great day!  I'm off to make some hot tea with honey.

Well I can tell it is Fall!

Yesterday I finally broke down and went to the Dr.  Every Spring and Fall I seem to be getting a cold that goes into something else.  Well this Fall is no exception.  I have asthmatic bronchitis again!!  I am now on 3 meds.  1. Augmentin, 2. Prednisone and an inhaler.  I think should just about kick that bronchitis from here to the curb!!  I have already taken one round of Prednisone, 2 rounds of Augmentin and 4 puffs on the inhaler.    I feel better already and I'm definitely breathing much better.

While I was at my Dr. the front desk receptionist told me they got a new computer system so I had to fill my information out all over again-just like I was a new patient!  That was fun-NOT!!  I was at the Drs. office because I felt crummy and now I have to sit here and fill out 5 pages of paperwork plus HIPPA information! They need to put this information on the Cloud-LOL!!

Saturday was a Cooking/Baking kind of day!

Yesterday John and I had to go to his office to fax some documents from his Notary Closing on Friday night.   We decided to have breakfast at The House of Pancakes in the South Park section of Charlotte.  We had never been there.  I had blueberry pancakes and John and bacon pancakes, yes I said bacon pancakes!!  Then we proceed to drive to Mint Hill and check out our new house.  They had the whole thing insulated and drywall in every room.  They will be installing the drywall tomorrow (Monday) and putting the siding on the outside this week.  We are so excited!!  After planning the layout of our furniture in the new house and landscaping of the outside we had to stop at Harris Teeter.  While I was there I picked up apples for apple crisp, kidney beans and tomatoes for chili.  When we got home I made the chili, made the apple crisp and I also decided we needed beer bread.  The whole apartment smelled wonderful!!!  I was sitting on the front porch knitting and my neighbor stopped by and said she smelled a roast, was I making a roast.  I told her I was making chili, apple crisp and beer bread.  She was so jealous, I told her I would have her and her husband down for dinner but her in-laws where in town.  I didn't have enough for the whole group.  Dinner at the McD's was really awesome if I must say so myself!!  It was just a baking/cooking kind of day!!!

I hope you all had a great weekend!!

Pictures of Megan's Actual Costume

I was going to wait until Megan had the costume on, but I really couldn't wait to show it to all of you!  It would look much better when she is wearing it, but this will give you an idea of what I have been doing!

Megan's Halloween Costume is Done!!

I don't have any pictures of the costume that I just completed for Megan, but here is the Simplicity pattern envelope.  I made the one on the right.  Megan found taffeta in the same color as on the pattern envelope and she even found the black and white striped material for the bustier!  Someone had given her a cute little black velvet hat similar to the one in the picture too!  There were alot of pieces in this pattern.  I thought the bustier would be easy and then I found out there were 8 pieces of boning in it, that need 8 little sleeves sewn onto the bustier and then you slide the boning in them!!!  The coat is lined and it took 4 hours to pleat the entire bottom half of the dress!!  All in all I think it turned out awesome, if I may say so myself!!  I will take a photo of Megan in her costume when she tries everything on and is all dressed up for her big Halloween party!  Enjoy Megs!!

Leaves are Changing!!

(Photo via pinterest.com)
This weekend as John and I drove to Jenny's house in Concord we noticed the leaves are changing.  The sugar maples of course are starting their usual color bloom right now!  They are always the first and they are beautiful! The weather has gotten much colder here!  Last week we were in the 80's and today it is 60!!  It is also rainy and overcast.  Those leaves will certainly start changing even more with the cooler weather.

If you live in the South, you will also see the camellias have started blooming.  I love these plants!!  I couldn't grow them when I lived in NJ but I have a double red one here (right now it is at Megan's house).  It is loaded with buds.  While this one doesn't start blooming until closer to December, it is really beautiful and looks like little cardinals on the leathery leaves.  Here is a photo of one similar:

(Photo via google.com)

I just love this time of year, especially here in the South!!

I Love Weekends!!

(Photo via pinterest.com)
I am so glad the weekend is here!!  I need a break from work!!  I have so much to do at home too.  I decided though on Sunday, I am only going to relax and do what I want to do!!

Tonight I will be sewing away!  I have the skirt to Megan's costume to make.  There are also alot of pieces to this part of the costume and all the pleating to do.  It will be beautiful when it is done though!  After the skirt the only thing left for me to do is some last minute fittings and then it will be complete.

Tomorrow John and I will stop by the new house and check the weekly progress.  Then we will head up to Jenny, Kevin and Owen's house.  We are bringing up our porch plants from the apartment to stay at Jenny's until the house is done.  We already have a ton of plants at Megan's.  The plants that are mostly going to Jenny's are my hostas.  I do however, have a huge palm tree that must really like where we live now because it has 3 huge fronds opening to make the huge palm tree even bigger!! We probably will have to use my company's truck to move that plant!

Sunday is suppose to be a really gorgeous day out.  63 degrees is suppose to be the high.  I'm thinking I can sit out on the apartment porch in my comfy wicker chair and knit or read or both!  I can drink my hot tea and just sit there and relax.  I'm sure John will join me too!  I do have to pack some things up, but I think Saturday late afternoon might be a good day for that because Sunday is going to be my rest day for a change!!  I'm not even going knitting with my knitting friends!!  They are all up in the mountains at a retreat anyway (I decided not to go-there is just too much going on in my life right now).

Hope y'all have a great weekend!!

Neighbors

Last night John and I had dinner with our neighbors-they live in the apartment above us.  We had breakfast with them one other time.  It was just a really nice and enjoyable time!  They are building a house also, but won't be in their house until December 20th if they are lucky.  They are building in a different town with a different builder than we are.  They have 2 grown children and we have 2 grown children.  They were original from PA and we were originally from northwestern NJ not far from PA.  We like alot of the same things too!  It just really makes you appreciate some of your neighbors and people you meet in your life.

Saturday John and I had stopped by the new house with some friends to check it out.  We found out the HVAC system, plumbing, water line from the street and sewer line to the septic had been installed.  When we were all done we were standing in our new front yard and a young woman pulled up in her SUV.  She asked if we were the new owners and we said yes.  She introduced herself as our new neighbor.  She and her husband have a 15 month old little boy named Jack.  He is only 5 days younger than Owen!  Owen will have a nice little friend to play with when he visits us!  She seemed very nice and is not liking apartment life either while she waits for her house.  As we were all standing around talking another lady walked up and introduced herself as our neighbor but from the other side of the neighborhood.  She was older and we also had alot in common.  She knits, does a little garden and watches all the birds in the neighborhood building nests, feeding their young, etc., etc.

I told John between Saturday and last night it just makes me smile that there are so many wonderful people out there.  Kind of makes you feel or warm and fuzzy!!