Birthday Redux

Andy's birthday is January 28th and mine is January 29th. Last year there was a great big ol' nasty ice storm that rolled through NWA on January 27th, knocking out the power for most of Northern Arkansas. We weren't able to celebrate our birthdays together (we weren't living in sin at that time). We celebrated them a few days later at the Days Inn which was one of the few places in F'ville that had power.
I am pretty sure that's why Andy fell in love with me - I found a place with electricity.

So what happens this year? Big ol nasty storm comes blowing through on our birthdays! Again! It's not nearly as bad as the one last year but it's still pretty impressive by Arkansas' standards. There is several inches of snow on the ground already, this coming after a night of freezing rain and sleet. Poor Andy is out working in this crap. At least I get to work inside.

We've had a nice couple of days despite the weather. We had friends over for dinner the 26th and the 27th. A bunch of friends whose company we really enjoy. Everyone had a good time and the food was fabulous. Of course this year I am missing having Tad here for my birthday - a first ever for me since I had him 15 years ago. That makes me sad. But other than that, it's been nice except for the crappy weather.

I've enjoyed today though. I always love my birthday. It's such a cool day. I've successfully completed another year of my life. I've laughed and loved and cried over another 365 days that I was gifted with. I've stumbled some with a failure here and there and had great successes as well. A few more wrinkles and gray hairs. A thousand more beautiful moments of love and joy. How freaking cool is that! It's why I love love love my birthday. I am now 43 years old. That's a lot of memories and laughter and tears I've been gifted with. I am blessed. Birthdays rock!

So today I've been in charge of potty patrol with Bubba. I would have bet money that this little shih tzu would hate the snow. He's a toy breed, right? Aren't they supposed to be frail and girly and fragile and sort of wussy? Oh no, not our Bubba. He LOVES the snow. He goes racing around in it, happy as a polar bear. He buries his head in it, snaps at the flakes flying in the air, carries around chunks of it, digs stuff up out of it, the whole nine yards. If I had a sled his size I am sure he would use it. He is really turning into such a delightful addition to our family.

That's my update. Now I am off to eat some more of my yummmmmmy mushroom soup. I already had my favorite - cold chocolate birthday cake for breakfast! YUM!

Love on!

Bubba

Bubba is a Shih Tzu puppy who showed up at our house without a collar or a home, so we took him in. That is, his name is Bubba now that we decided his name is Bubba. Clearly, he's a Bubba.

We are trying to find his home, but he and Morgan think that he already has. Ours. He has no microchip, no collar, and there is no one looking for a Shih Tzu puppy in the city or county. No one has responded to our ad on Craigslist.org. There are no signs for missing dogs in or around our neighborhood.

Stinky thinks that we should drop him off at the nearest truck stop and wish him well.

Admittedly, he's sort of a wimpy dog, but he's lovable and sweet. Why a pure-bred Labrador puppy couldn't show up is beyond me, but that's how family works sometimes. We don't always get what we ask for. We don't always need what it is that we want. Bubba found us and we found him. He's in our family now, and he's already comfy with everyone.

Except Stinky, who hates his guts.



After hanging some furring strips, I put up two sheets of peg board in the garage for Morgan and I to hang our stuff on. Directly behind my truck is a two-foot-by-four-foot wide strip of peg board cut from the end of this one above my work bench where I am putting the string trimmer, extra line and two-cycle oil. Very handy.



I like the blue. We had weighed gray, taupe and considered a bamboo green, but the blue won out.

My favorite hardware store is getting rid of a bunch of hangers and selling them for 10 cents apiece. I bought 40, but it looks like I need about 40 more.



As for the riding lawn mower, it turned out really well. The carburetor came out of the cleaner looking brand new and the rebuild kit went in without a hitch. It started on the first pull, though the idle circuit was tuned a little fat. I leaned it out and it runs like a top.

With a new fuel line, float bowl, fuel filter and muffler (which looks bad now that the paint has started to burn off after running for a bit), it should be ready for spring. I'll be happy if I can mow the lawn without having to hop off the mower to shake the needle loose.

On a sad note, the air compressor died. Though the crank case seemed full of oil given how oily everything was, it had been run while dry quite a bit before ending up with me. I fixed it up and then cracked open the crank case only to find that it was filled with metal dust. The connecting rod was worn completely through, so I had to scrap it.

Working inside

After Morgan redid the master bathroom, we were left without a toilet paper holder; mostly because we found one that we liked, but it costs $45 and partly because, well, we just never got around to buying one. Then one showed up today both on the floor of the bathroom and on my chore list.

I hope that is the last time that I have to use a screw driver whilst sitting on the toilet.



Morgan and I marked our first year of knowing one another on the 15th. At least that's when we decided our anniversary was. It's hard to believe that it's been a year already. It's hard to believe it's only been a year. Funny how it works that way when it's good.

As a present to mark this and my upcoming birthday, Morgan bought a table saw for me.

I'm not good at receiving unexpected gifts, especially ones this large, but it is a very nice gift and one that I will use and enjoy. After growing up in a house with a wood shop, it's been difficult to live without a table saw.



With said table saw, I have begun to hang cleats in the closet in Morgan's office to put up shelving. She's good at going to The Home Depot and sweet-talking the men there to use their radial arm saw to cut the shelves, so I'll let her do that part.



I used caulk to fill around the cleats, and will paint them in a few days with some wall paint that I found in the garage. The paint has aged a bit, though, and even with good shaking and stirring it still fails to match perfectly, but it's close enough for a closet.



Morgan picked up this old handmade air compressor at an auction for $8. My best guess is that it was made in the 1950s and charmed me immediately. The surplus motor needed some rewiring, the belt was shot and the air hose was rotten, but after a bit of work and some parts from Lowe's, it works well enough to fill a tire.



This is probably a project that is more my speed, the Ariens riding mower is getting a modest overhaul during the winter months. I get along with gas-powered objects. The carburetor was rather lacquered and needed to be rebuilt, but I have it soaking in a carburetor cleaner and it's looking very good so far. I will also replace the belts, the fuel line and the spark plug wire; sharpen the blade and try to fix the three flat tires with some new inner tubes. I might even move that weird ground wire that someone decided just had to go over the manifolds.

The engine had a bad tendency to surge, and the float would stick shut, but it always started, though it took a bit of pulling. Several times while mowing, it would lean out and I had to give it a good shake to break the needle valve free. Our neighbors must think we're really odd, but with a pirate flag flying over our deck, shaking the lawn mower is probably the least of what all that has made them think that.

Pics

Preparing the Mentos blast off




Tad's truck on Christmas morning. White Christmas!



The aftermath at our house.


Even Stinky Cat got a present, a stuffed mouse toy.




Tad and I burned this wood eagle puzzle toy thing. Because burning stuff is always fun!



Tad and Stinky.


Our 1st Christmas tree.



Antique toy tops. Neato!




Tad, Andy and my mom. Weirdos.




Andy and my mom. Earlier Andy was wearing the pointy hat which is actually a xmas decoration. Weirdo.



Tad in his snuggie and welder's mask. Weirdo. I have no idea where these people get it from. No idea.


My mom and the girls, Micah and Myriah. They got new chewy toys for presents.


Everyone was pleased with their haul at Mom's house.

Andy was not pleased with this haul of junk I bought at an auction back in the Summer. We left most of that box's contents there.


Tad and Andy checking out loot.

My mom and her fabulously wrapped presents. She always does these elaborate wrappings and decorations on her presents. It makes you a little sad almost to open them. Almost.




Andy opening a box! Neato!


Tad and Andy. That's what happens when you've been bad - Santa makes you wear the Christmas dunce cap.


Tad, Andy, Josh, and my dad.


My mom and her Christmas tree. It leaned a little.

Hope everyone had as much love and laughter over the holidays as we did over ours.

Love on!

Merry Mentos

We'll post a nice Christmas entry tomorrow, complete with nice pictures and stuff. But for now we wanted to share our new Christmas tradition. The great thing about a new family is creating new traditions. We found one that Andy, Tad and I all agree is a total keeper. We will repeat this tradition every Christmas evening for years to come. Woot go us!


Love on!

Turtles and thanks with a little bit of Xmas

We've been remiss in updating this blog. There is a myriad of excuses I could offer. It's been cold. We've been busy. Not much happening outside the house. Plain truth is we've just not gotten to it. I am getting to it now so hold on to your hats, this will be a rather rambling entry as I try to get it up to date with what we've been up to. Totally typical of me to ramble and be all over the map.

Thanksgiving was nice. My parents and Josh (younger brother) came over to eat with us. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures but we didn't take any pictures. It's really sort of a shame. Andy is a professional photographer and I love photography too. Between the two of us we have five cameras. And we didn't manage to shoot one picture of our first thanksgiving together. Oh well. It was a nice meal. Andy and Josh had steak because they don't care much for turkey. I didn't manage the timing right so the boys had their steaks about 30 minutes after we had our turkey. Andy doesn't care for thanksgiving as a holiday but I love it. I've always loved thanksgiving. More than the food it's the reminder that I have so very much to be thankful for; we all have so very much to be thankful for.

Case in point! I had purchased my turkey about a week before thanksgiving. Two days before thanksgiving I went to the grocery store to buy all the fixings to go with the turkey. I spent enough money that I qualified for a free turkey. "You get a free turkey because you've spent over $100. Do you want it?" "Uuuuuh sure." This because we are so conditioned to say "yes" to something free. (Remember - there is no such thing as a free puppy!) I am not even out of the grocery store before I am thinking to myself, "Shit. What am I going to do with two turkeys?" I called my mom. She isn't biting. As I am talking to her it occurs to me. I'll craigslist that bird! I figured there had to be someone who could use a free turkey.

I got home and immediately put it on craigslist. Free turkey for someone who needs it. It was a 12lb turkey. Sadly, as I knew would be the case, I was inundated with emails from people wanting the turkey within 30 minutes. The first email was from a single mom with four children (three teenagers). We agreed to give her the turkey and Andy spoke with her to make arrangements to meet. She told him she was struggling and how hard it was to feed that many kids. I have one teenager. She had three teenagers and one younger. Four kids. There have been times I have barely squeaked by as a single mom and then only because of the help of family and friends. It is beyond hard sometimes to just make it.

I started going through our cupboards and loading up grocery bags with stuff. Lots of stuff. I even through in some steaks in case any of her children didn't like turkey. I ended up sending five bags of groceries and a turkey with Andy. When he got back he said he had never seen a child more excited over food before. I wished I had sent more. I was humbled and grateful. That woman and her family made my thanksgiving. She reminded me how heroic people can be. She is out there doing everything she can to take care of her family. I feel thankful that I had a turkey and one to spare. I feel thankful that there are people like this unknown woman out there who give me something to aspire to.

Huh. That isn't much about our house, is it? But it's about our lives so it's okay. Plus it's our blog so I get to write what I want! So where was I?

Uhhhhm. The house. We've not done much to the house the last few weeks because it really has been cold. Not the right time to plant really. We've continued to clear out brush and weeds. The rest of the front beds got the mulch treatment. I trimmed back the big tree/bush/shrub on the front corner of the house. It looks much nicer now. The Christmas tree is up and has presents under it. We have just been busy living our moments.

It will have been a year this New Year's Eve since Andy first emailed me. It seems like yesterday and yet it's hard for me to imagine him not having always been a part of our family. It's just a given that of course Andy is part of my family. It's funny how that works.

I'll leave with pictures of random stuff. Andy eating the mudpie I made him one day recently. I love making mudpies. It's too bad we tend to give that up as adults. You can see Andy's hesitation at first. He obviously got over that though as you see he ate the whole thing. (Yes, he actually took a bite of my mudpie - that's love) Stinky Cat hanging around doing what he does best. My NOEL figurines. These were my mother's originally. They are about a bazillion years old. They've been on my dresser at Christmas for over three decades now. They are pretty beat-up and ragged looking but I couldn't love them anymore. They are Christmas. I used to always have them spelling LEON when I was a younger girl. Some shots of the house. A seriously ugly puppy at the shelter. (I keep checking to see if they have our dog yet - the dog that says, "Oh hi! I was waiting for you to come bring me home) A clay turtle that I bought for a dollar at a local art school/studio. It was made by some young child and was sitting in this studio/gallery with all these beautiful sophisticated expensive pieces of pottery. He was just sitting there, so sad because he knew no one would ever want to take him home. He felt so different and ugly next to all the pieces that everyone ooohed and aaaahed over. I saw him immediately and said, "Hi! I knew you would be here waiting for me. It's time for you to come home." I bought him immediately. I would have bought the turtle table we saw at an auction. I told Andy I was going to buy it for five dollars. Because damn was it atrocious! I didn't buy it. Someone else bought it. For over $45. Unbelievable. It's okay though because now my little turtle is home where he belongs and living with George, the fabulous turtle that my friend Juli has let me borrow and hang on my wall for now. I love love love him. He wants to hug Andy's head with his mouth. Life is good here on Robin Road.

Merry Christmas!

Love on!

Pond!

Some really cold weather moved through the area on my days off, but I bundled up and did a little work outside. I built part of the spillway, planted some lily of the valley around the rocks and spread a bag of mulch around the pond. After the plastic pond settles over the winter, I will need to level it and then we can get some fish!

I still need to finish spreading mulch and to run electricity to run the pump for the pond, but Dad's coming out in the spring. That sounds like a good project for the two of us.



After finally getting all of the unwanted plants out of the bed on the west side of the house, I added some topsoil and planted an Azalea to take the place of one that I transplanted and the others that have died. Now I need to get some mulch.


I moved the wood pile to a cool metal rack that Morgan's father gave to us, allowing me to clear out the rest of the English ivy that was growing up the fence and along the ground. The fence is badly rotted from the years of having the ivy on it, but it should be OK. And it looks so much better with all of the unwanted shrubs along here. You can see a Nandina that we planted on the left. Maybe more of those along here? Not really sure.