Spring Cleanup & New Toys!

It was a beautiful sunny day here yesterday and Chuck got lots of yard work done.  Flower beds cleaned up, strawberry bed cleaned up and the garden tilled.  He also got a couple of leaf piles that had accumulated cleaned up so that I wouldn't have to worry about what may be lurking in them.  Copperheads tends to blend in very well with leaves on the ground.......Eeeep!

It IS my favorite time of year here in BF Arkansas.  I got back just in time to see the Dogwoods leaf out and they are starting to bloom.  The woods behind the house are just enchanting when all the Dogwoods are in bloom!

It would have been a perfect day for riding, and oh how I wish I could have hopped on my Susie and gone with him!!  He did have a 'victim' lined up to go riding with him, but he crapped out at the last minute.  It seems his wife had a honey do list that she insisted on being taken care of.  It's hard for Chuck to find 'victims' to go riding with him and that's a damn shame.  I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'll never ride again, but some days it's a real downer.

I got all my San Diego photos transferred to Flickr yesterday and actually got them all labeled, too!  I'm not always very good about that, in fact I haven't been very good about uploading my photos to Flickr lately.  I need to stay on top of that!  I didn't take near as many pictures as I intended to whilst in SD because of all of my careful packing, and remembering to pack my chargers for 3 other devices, I forgot my camera charger and extra battery.  Doh!   I will get it packed in one of my bags for my Alaska trip today! 25 days!!  Woo Hoo!!

Poor Gus puppy is depressed this AM.  He had to stay home with me for a trip to the vet.  He hates not going to work with his dear ol' dad!  But his allergies are acting up.  His eyes are running and he's got an itchy bare spot by his tail, so I wanna nip it in the bud early.  He'll snap out of it once he realizes that he will be going with me in the 'Ho and can guard it while I make a couple stops :-)


I was a bad girl yesterday and gave in to my desire for a new toy.  I've been wanting an iPad (or tablet of some sort) for quite some time now, but just couldn't justify spending that much on something that I could live without.  After seeing and playing with Poolie's, the desire to possess one increased tremendously!  And what did I find in my email when I got home, but a notice of a great deal on one at HSN......so.......I ordered this

If I find I'm not totally enchanted with it, I can always send it back......somehow I doubt that will happen.  When Poolie made the comment that since she got that, she never takes her laptop on trips with her anymore, I was 'sold'.  Between the tablet and her iPhone, everything is covered.  And every time I travel, especially by air, I find I want less and less to drag around with me.  I used to carry on all that I could and I just have no desire to do that anymore. 

Holy Cow!

Another week, another post.  Can't keep up the daily thing, although I regret it because I like having a reference to things and after so many days have passed, I forget most of what I wanted to write.  I even made some notes......they're around here somewhere....... LOL

My last post was  in regard to trying to de-clutter and reorganize "My Room".  Well, some of it is done and some is not.  No big deal.  It will happen.  Actually the knitting bug that bit me back in May has been taking over and I've been a knitting fool, with some occasional reading tossed in the mix.  Why I've even been in the kitchen more and much to Chuck's delight he has recently consumed 2 batches of cookies and a cake! He's been like a kid, so excited that I have felt like baking again.  LOL

During that time frame my PC was in the hospital.  A bad storm and power outage zapped my network adapter and the  apparently my battery back up was dead and I didn't know it and the abrupt shut down corrupted my OS and blah, blah, yada, yada.  The poor battery backup is about 12 years old and was located in an out of the way place so that I never noticed that the lights were off and that it was simply functioning as a $150 power strip!  Got a shiny new one, and it's placed right where I can see it!  I found a great local repair shop and at first I was not pleased with them because they 'missed something' but they went above and beyond to make it up to me, so all is well.  I had my laptop, but am rather limited with what I can do on it (with my photos, bookwork, etc.) thus I had more knitting time.

I have several knitting projects I want to complete before December and a sewing project or 2 as well, but I am just not as enchanted with sewing as I once was.  Once I get a table cleared off and my Embroidery Machine stuff put away, I can get working on a couple quilts as well.  Chuck keeps reminding me to not be so hard on myself for the things that I can't do around the house and do just relax and let myself DO and ENJOY the things I want to do, because for all intents and purposes I am 'retired'.  I think it's beginning to sink in.  I have spent far too much time simply lost in thought trying to come to terms with all the changes in my life and wasting too much energy on the negative.  I think I'm on the way back up the hill out of my black hole.

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Well, heck!  I started this like, Wednesday I think, and never finished or posted it.  Duh.  I was just about to start a new post, but will toss this out there and write one later.  I'm off to get ready to go shopping with Victoria!  My 1st outing of it's kind.  Let's hope I hold up.  My Vicodin is going into my purse as soon as I hit the Publish button :)

Clearing the Clutter

Well, I started with my computer area and now I'm making a sweep of the whole room.  Cleaning out and attempting to organize.  I tend to 'accumulate' and I never seem to have the 'proper place' for some of my accumulations.  Of course, it was too easy to let things pile up while convalescing from 2 major surgeries.  Just trying to keep the kitchen and dining table looking decent, resulted in a lot of things ending up in "My Room" to be taken care of later.  Ha!

I have to be in the right mood to do this sort of thing, because a lot of 'stuff' just needs to be tossed and it's real hard for me to just toss stuff.  I tend to hoard......like my Dad did :). Today was a pretty good day for it.  But I also have a lot of good stuff that I can't simply toss.  I need to donate it, or box it up for a yard sale or something.  That involves more thought.

So far I have cleaned off the pillows and bears that were living on my nice oak rocking chair and I bought a foot stool, so I have a nice little corner in My Room to sit and read or knit.  I bought that rocking chair 19 years ago, so that I could be a proper Grandma and sit in it and rock Riley when she was born.  I think I did that 2, maybe 3 times.  LOL  It just wasn't comfortable to sit and rock in, but it works good now with a foot stool.

Now for the rest of the room.  My 12 year old Babylock Embroidery machine and the multitude of stuff that goes with it, takes up a good portion of the room.  It's crazy that I have it set up and ready to go on this big ass table in front of my huge bow window and I haven't even turned it on in at least 3 years.  But I'm afraid if I put it away.....I won't ever use it.  How silly is that?!?  The first few years I had it, I embroidered everything I could get my hands on.  I'm sure I got at least 1/2 a life time worth of use out of it! 

My sewing area is way too small, and I really need to put away all the embroidery equipment and make room for that so that I can have room to more easily work on quilts.  I'm far more interested in doing that than I am embroidering.  I've had a quilt in progress for Timmy for EVER that I need to finish, I have the pattern and fabric for a quilt for Riley, and a pattern all set to go for Maggie, plus many others....but those come first.  After my back surgery, I couldn't sit at the sewing machine and do all that reaching forward and such {therapists orders...plus it hurt like crazy} so I just lost my mojo.

Now the knitting fever has struck and I'm acquiring yarn and patterns and have no place to put it.  Well, I have lots of room for it, as we have a huge house, but I have no 'proper place' for it.  I won't even mention the stacks of books tucked here there and everywhere {cuz my huge bookcase is full}

Then there is my computer area, with printer, scanner, copier, fax machine and the dreaded Eagle Construction bookwork stuff!  AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  Because of my {boring} limitations, I am only really able to do a little bit each day.  And sadly, I have to admit, I have been dealing with my 'physical problems' for so long that in the past 3 years I have just spent WAY too much time uninspired and had no incentive.  Just couldn't make myself work on any projects, read any books or do much of anything.  It's been crazy!  I am coming out of it, but still have my days. 

If only...........But in the meanwhile, I need to TRY to make the best of what I have, where I am.  And I do try......but I'm lost without my family.  It's been 8 years this week.  It was supposed to be 2 years.  And that's all I'm gonna say about that. 

Beasties in the 'Maters

There are about 10 Hummingbirds flitting about, feeding or waiting their turn, at the 2 feeders on my front porch.  Murphy is sitting on the table by the windows, just trembling!  I'm not sure if she is trembling with delight or despair!  LOL  She's chattering, too which is something she usually does when she is curled up near me and is seemingly content......not sure what it means in this case.  God, I love that cat!!


I had a rather horrifying experience with my patio tomato plants today.  I've wanted my own tomato plants on the back patio since we moved into this house.  For some silly reason, this is the first year I have actually gotten any for myself.  I have/had? 2 Husky Cherry plants and 1 Grape Tomato plant.  I've been tending them carefully and they've been doing so well.  Especially the Grape Tomato.  In fact, after Chuck left for work this AM I had intended to go back out and take pictures of this robust, healthy plant with it's awesome clusters of Grape Tomatoes on it.  But, alas, I got distracted by my pot of Kick Ass coffee and FaceBook.....then laundry, then baking.  In fact I was right in the middle of melting my butter and white chocolate (for my Raspberry White Chocolate Blondies...yum!) when Chuck came in the back door and gruffly demanded to know what the hell I did to my tomato plants! 

Me: Nothing.....why??
Chuck: Well, all the leaves are gone off the plants!
Me: yeah, right.  Bull shit! I'm trying to bake here.
Chuck: SERIOUSLY!!!
Me: WTF?!? They were fine when you left this AM.
Chuck: Well, you better come and look at them now.


2 of them...stripped 90% clean!.  Bare stems and only a couple tomatoes that had started to ripen.  All leaves and green tomatoes GONE! Between 9 AM and 2 PM.  5 Hours. So there we were, circling the tomato plants, scratching our heads, when suddenly I saw the biggest, ugliest, fattest green worm I have EVER seen in my life! Well camouflaged , wrapped around the last green Grape Tomato!  SOOOO disgusting!!!!!!!! Chuck plucked it off and stomped it, while I kept finding more and more!  Between the 2 plants he plucked and stomped 9 or 10 of those beasties.  Upon Googling them, I found out that they are Tomato Horn Worms.  These suckers were like 4-5" long and as big around as my pinky finger!  Nasty, nasty, nasty.  So nasty that I won't even post a picture here. 


There aren't any (yet) on Chuck's tomato plants out in the garden.  I sure hope they'll be spared.  We're having enough trouble keeping them going in all this hot weather.  What the weather hasn't ruined, the resident Armadillos have been digging up.  Sad gardening year around here, I'll tell ya'.


I keep little weather icons on my desktop.  One for here in Rogers, AR and one for North Pole, AK.  104 here today and 58 and sunny there.  You ALL know where I wish I was right now!  And not just for the weather.  I know I just missed out on 2 yummy birthday cakes!  


Sure wish I had more input on my last post about my cookbook.  Of course, since I started this new blog after not having written much for so long, my readership is down so I guess I can't expect much feedback.  Ah well....and so it goes.  All y'all will be sorry when me and my cookbook make the big time.  Just sayin'.

I'm Gonna Be A Writer!!!!!!

Well, sort of a writer.  I have finally decided to do something that Chuck has been trying to get me to do for years.  I'm gonna write a cookbook!!

Years and years ago, I had found this awesome program {Kitchen Gourmet} that I could enter all of my recipes in.  It had a great layout and made a nice presentation.  One year for Christmas, I printed it all out, put it in sheet protectors and made a nice binder cover for it and presented it to Terri for a gift.  Through the years and several computers and operating systems later, I can no longer use that program, but I have all of those recipes printed out and many more added to it.  Occasionally, Chuck will mention to someone that I "wrote a cookbook", like it was some big deal.  They always end up asking for one and I have to explain that it's just my personal collection of recipes from friends and family.

The past few days I have been looking at different cook book software, trying to find a replacement so I can get all organized again, and found one I tried and liked= Incentive #1.  A dear friend has just written a book and is about to have it published= Incentive #2  A couple of close friends have mentioned that they would love to have access to some of my recipe collection and I thought how they would really make great gifts= Incentive #3 And the last time I saw the one I made for Terri, it has been well used and could use freshening up=Incentive #4.  So, I have decided to embark on this mission and hope that, if nothing else, I will come up with something that my friends and family will enjoy!

I'm excited and hope I can make it work!  I have recipes that were my Great-Grandmother's, my Mom's (both of whom were amazing cooks).  I have some of Terri's, Chuck's Grandmother and many from numerous friends.  And along with the usual categories, I plan to add an Alaskan specific category. And mayhaps even a "Derby Girl" category! There will be foot notes about the friends and family, as well as some photos, I hope.  I plan to put as many photos of the food items in that I can, as well.

So, if any of you dear ones would care to suggest any recipes or SEND me some of your favorites, I will 'test' them and add them to my book :) .  My original was simply called "Family & Friends Recipes", s0 I will be thinking on a unique name for this as well.  Any and all suggestions are most welcome!!  So, send recipes, title ideas and so on.  I will eagerly await your input!

Aside from the fact that my 6 hummingbird feeders are constantly surrounded and require refilling each day, not much else is happening.  I may have to sneak off to Lowes and get a couple more feeders!  They are so fun to have flitting around my front and back windows!

Why Do I Need a Title???

It's so friggin' hot here. Still. And more triple digits predicted for next week.  We need rain SO bad!  Our lawn and the pasture is so dead and dry that even Gus, our Cocker Spaniel, leaves a little cloud of dust behind him when he trots across the pasture!  You should see the cloud of dust the horses raise!!

In this shot, you can see how badly poor Gus needs a hair cut, and I took this a couple weeks ago, so you can imagine his hairy curly self now.  Also alot less green on the ground than that now, as well.

He does get to go to the groomers tomorrow, now that I can get out and about, so he'll be all sleek and fast and COOLER!

I'm happy to say that my hip is feeling great, most of the time.  It even feels normal.  Sure wish I could act and move like it's normal.  sigh..... It's really hard to keep myself from just 'doing things' when it feels normal.  But I'm not all healed yet and it's not ready to have me do all this normal stuff like bending or sitting comfortably or dancing thru the living room to the Boondock Saints theme song.  Sucks, I tell ya'!  But I try to stay focused and I improvise a LOT.  I just wish I had longer toes so it would be easier to pick up stuff that I drop.  hee hee

We've got 2 birthdays coming up this week.  My 2 baby boys, Tim and Xander!  Tim will be 11 on the 3rd and Xander will be 6 on the 5th!

Here's a great shot Terri got of them yesterday with a couple of Storm Troopers at AlaskaLand.  Pretty awesome huh?

So funny....Terri said to Xander "they look pretty scary....what if Darth Vader is near by".  Xander replied, "Mom, they're just guys in suits."  He's just so damn logical all the time, I told her she mayhaps should have named him "Spock".  LOL

Oh, yeah....an update on our toilet disaster the other day......they are fixed and all is well, however we now need to replace the ceiling in the Living Room.  I am so thankful I am married to a Contractor that has spent his whole life doing such things!  I figure it will only take him 2 or 3 years to get around to it. :-p

Doctors, Tires and Toilets

I woke up this AM fully expecting to have a really great day.  I had my 1st follow-up appt with my surgeon, after which I was going to Sears to get much needed (and long awaited) new tires for my Tahoe and THEN, I was/am supposed to get my hair color done this afternoon.  That's about 2 weeks over-due.  Ick!  So, here's how it went......

Went to the DR, didn't even get to see HIM, but  saw one of his PAs, which is fine.  My X-Rays looked good, my progress and healing is all exceptional, but.........none, as in N.O.N.E. of my restrictions are lifted, except driving.  For 3  (THREE) months more!  I was crushed.  This DR is so over cautious.  I guess that can be a good thing, but man!  I did tell them that some of these restrictions (like the way I have to sit) are a wee bit hard on my back.  His reply was that if I was to dislocate my hip, I'd forget I even had a back!  Well, allllrighty then.....

So I go to Sears, so not in the mood to wait for tires and they tell me it will be a 2 1/1- 3 hour wait.  WTF?  No way was i gonna even attempt to sit there that long, even with my Nook in my purse!

Now, let's go back to last night......when I went to the potty and the toilet plugged... I plunged and plunged til I could plunge no more and called called upstairs for assistance.  By the time it was all said and done, BOTH toilets upstairs were backed up as well as the bathtub in one bathroom and the shower in the other.  Thank God we have a toilet downstairs....and it works.  So HE was supposed to have an early day of it today and be able to meet the plumber here this aft.  But NOOOO.  I just get a call and he told me the plumber (friend of his) is gonna try to be here before 2:00 (hair appt time) and for me to just let him in, show him where to go and it's okay to leave him..........Good grief.  It's 1:45.  He better be getting here!  Only takes me 4-5 minutes to get to Becky's, but still.

I'm thinking it might not be a good day to get my hair colored, but then again I am optimistic that she will make my day!  **sigh**

Oh, and BTW.  When you have one Brand New Hip and the other one NEEDS to be Brand New, it can make ones sex life......shall we say, a wee bit interesting......not!  Just sayin'.  Thought all y'all needed to know.

I Don't Know........

Don't know why I haven't written for a few days.  Time has just slipped away, I guess.  Who knows!  But I am just certain that I have lots to report on.

The roof is done, thank GOD!  It's quiet and Murphy is happy once again.  All is well in her little kitty world :)

I've been out driving on my own, even tho' the Doctor said to wait 6 weeks.  It felt SO good!  I love driving, even if it's just to go on errands or even if it's just to drive!  Mostly I love road trips, but it's been a coon's age since I've been on one of those! (and NO, that's not a racial term).  Racoons tend to live quite awhile, unless some poor boy that has a pet coon also has a little sister that feeds them poison berries!  In a case like that, they don't live long....I'm pretty sure he knew I didn't mean to kill his coon.

Anyway, I have driven to town to pick up a prescription and to visit the newly remodeled Dolla@r General nearby.  Boy, are they ever cleaning up their act!  Wal*Mart has started opening new little stores called Wal*Mart Express that is supposed to be similar to Doll@r General stores so I guess they figured they better re-group and they have done a damn fine job of it, right down to the new staff at this one!  Anyhoo, I also drove to Missouri (about 20 miles round trip) to get cigarettes (yeah, I'm still smoking....whatever) and that went well.  I don't like the angle that I have to adjust my seat in order to be sitting properly or that I have to be quite so far back so I can keep my leg as straight as possible, but after next week I think I should be able to sit normally and can readjust my seat.  I'm just glad that the seats are electronic and can be adjusted in so many ways!

A week from today is my follow appointment with the Surgeon and I can barely wait!  I hope he thinks I'm doing as well as my PT guy does and lifts a bunch of restrictions.  There are some changes that can take place at the 6 week mark, but many of them have to wait until 3 months or 6 months.  I'll take what I can get for now, tho', but I won't do anything I'm not supposed to do until he says it's okay.  Well, except the driving thing.

Roof, PT and DERBY....Oh My!

This AM I still have men banging around on my roof!  All week this has been going on and all week, my poor kitty, Murphy, has been in hiding.  She is terribly unimpressed by the noise.....as am I.  They 'say' they will finish up this AM and I sure hope so.  Murphy & I want our "little piece of quiet" back!

I thought that yesterday was my last day of Physical Therapy, but NOooOoO.......PT Dude says that I am doing so well and so far advanced with my progress, for only being 3 weeks and 5 days post-surgery that he wants to give me some more challenging exercises.  Joy, joy, happy happy. :) So, he'll be back 2 more times next week, after he checks with the good Doctor to report on me and get authorization to 'step it up'.  Actually, it's all good, especially since I'm doing so well because I'm so "young"!  Weeeeeeeeeee.  Gotta love THAT!  {and I DO.  Truly, indeed, I do!}  I ditched my walker at least a week ago and am using my cane.....when I don't walk off and forget it.  Have I already told you this?  Probably.  Sorry :-D.  I no longer have much hip pain at all.  Mostly some discomfort when I over-do it.  My back bothers more than my hip, at this point, but I am hoping that the continued exercises will strengthen my ab and back muscles and help with that.  I'm pretty sure that since I'm 1 year 4 months post spinal surgery, that my back is pretty much as good as it's gonna get.  But I am so thankful to be able to walk again, that I will deal with it!  Trust me!

I'm so anxious to get in my trusty Tahoe and drive......just go somewhere, anywhere.  Being cooped up 24/7 since June 20th is grating on me.  But it IS a bit better now that I am able to do more besides "sit" and "lay down".  I mean, I can do laundry (except for the carrying), I can cook, I can sweep and mop (carefully and not perfectly, but, hey...it's something!).  Best part is, I can take showers by myself now, but I sure do miss having Chuck scrub my feet! {cuz I still can't bend over and he was SO good at it!}

Okay, enough about me....let's move right along to my latest favorite subject, Roller Derby!!!! Yay!!!  Gonna share some great photos of the last couple practices.  I sure wish it was me there shooting the pictures, but alas......I must enjoy the pics taken by others and be thankful that I get to see such great new shots every week!

First up is my sweet Xander!  Yes, folks.  The little man is on skates and determined to be a referee for the Midnight Sun Roller Girlz.  hee hee.  That's Camo Cazi helping him and my Emily (Emma Lee the Strange) in the background.

 He went down....but look at that smile!  How fun!

 This amazing action shot is the girlz practicing jumps over a skate board, in this case.  {They'll jump over anything...or anyBODY, for that matter!} We have my Riley (Boom-Dot Saint) on the left, Chelsee-U-Inhell in the middle and Camo on the right.  I really don't know why Riley looks like she just swallowed a frog.....If I coulda been there, maybe I'd have more insight.  Hmmmm

 This one is of Boom-Dot and Raggedy Andi doing 'Chariot Rides'.  Tough workout for the lead dog!

 And last, but not least is another awesome shot and it's of Camo and Raggedy Andi doing 'Leg Whips'

Aren't these girlz spectacular!!  But wait!  There's more!
Next up is Maggie {Morbid Maggie} getting her 'skate on'!!  Woo Hoo!! 

 And Emily {Emma Lee the Strange} getting HER 'skate on'!  I'm so proud of all my girls.  They are so gonna rock when they get a Junior Team going!!

Well, that's it for today.  I hope ya'll have a great weekend :)

Holy Crap!

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last bloggage! And I was doing so well, too, damn it all. I've certainly had a lot of stuff whirling around in my wee little brain to write about. And I've got a lot of new blogs to read, too, and haven't done that!

A couple of the highlights of the past 2 weeks have been a couple of snow storms, one of which we are in the midst of as I write; the switch over from Dish TV to Direct TV, which keeps getting postponed because of the weather; switching over from DSL with our phone company to WildBlue Satellite internet, which barely made installation between storms; my legs pretty much quit working for about a week.....let's see....what else. 3 people I know had babies.....awwwww. My cheap ass router that is 5 years old took a dump, so I got a NICE new one so that if we EVer get Direct TV set up (which will include a DVR...yes, I've been living in a DVR/TIVO-less world) I can watch stuff on my computer whilst HE watches reruns on the Western channel.

I guess the best part of all this stormy weather is that Hubby didn't work for several days and we both survived him wandering aimlessly around the house with his mouth running like a whippoorwill's ass in chokecherry season. There was a day, many years ago {seems like a life time ago} that I would have loved to have been snowed in with him! But....unless you live way out in the bush, Alaskans simply don't get snowed in! In fact the schools are out for weather only when it hits 40 below. The schools are still open, but your kids don't have to go. As for me, I would take Terri to school myself rather than take a chance on the bus breaking down at those temps. Anyway, Chuck has been to work the last couple of days and now he's home....doing that aimless thing again! AGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Or he stands for {what seems like} hours, in front of my computer desk, staring out the window at the horses or whatever. I'm sorry, but it totally messes with my concentration when someone is hovering. How the hell can I write a blog or read anything?! I did just ask him if he was going to stand there all day and he got all huffy, put on his coat and boots and is outside shoveling! Hahahaha. Worked for awhile, as long as he isn't in a pissy mood when he comes back in. Then I'll be sorry I opened my big mouth!

Poolie wanted some pictures of Gus in the snow, so here are a couple I took of him and some others I snapped today of the snow.

Cleaning Up My Act

So did I tell you that my good friend {and neighbor}, Deb, came and helped me clean my house?  A couple of weeks ago, this amazing lady came by every afternoon at 4:00 after working all day, and worked for about 3 hours a night for 3 nights.  My house looks amazing.  She has been offering to help me since before my surgery and I always declined.  Chuck offered to hire her to do some of the heavy and difficult stuff for me and I told him that, no way was I gonna have my friend clean my house. {As a side note, she works for Chuck cleaning houses that he remodels and repairs for a local bank after they have to repo them}

Anyway, since we have all tile and hardwood floors thru the whole house, it requires sweeping and mopping.  Vacuuming would be easier for me.  Sweeping is difficult because of the twisting motion of my body as I do it.  But between Chuck, Gus and daily visits from Deb's grandsons, there is much dirt, hay, leaves, etc, etc tracked in and so I do sweep fairly often.  It's a daunting task, but I suck it up.  But Deb comes in one night after work, sat down and said I'm gonna smoke a cigarette with you and then I'm gonna mop your floor and I won't take no for an answer.  And she did!  She moved the table and chairs and stools and everything else and "mopped" the floor on her hands and knees!  I busied myself putting all the odd things away that end up out of place and just sitting around.  When she was done with that, she scrubbed all of my kitchen cabinets and oiled them.  And that was just the 1st night!  She was an inspiration, for sure.  The next night, she did the laundry room and downstairs bathroom, while I oiled the coffee table and end tables.  During the day, I managed to get all of my curtains down and washed and got the windows washed, as well as washing up all of my 'treasures' that have been sitting collecting dust on my shelves in my sewing/computer room.
 My house looks wonderful, and it's surprising how easy it is to keep it that way now. 

Chuck unearthed my Dirt Devil that I totally forgot I had, and I've been using that instead of sweeping {easier on my back doing the forward motion thing} and using my wet Swiffer mop afterward. It was just too easy to let some things go undone, because I knew I would be hurting before I was finished.  But....I'm afraid that it's time to admit that I might not get much further than I already am and I just need to suck it up and do it!  It'll be a hell of a lot easier now.

Chuck was so insistent about paying her, that they got into a big old fight and she wouldn't speak to him for 3 days! God knows, they could use the money, but she wouldn't take it! It was pretty comical, actually.  But she wanted to do it for ME.  She knew how badly I wanted the house to look nice for Terri and RH's visit and had been watching me struggle trying to get things accomplished and she had just had enough of me refusing her help!  She is an awesome friend, indeed. 

Now if I could just get Gus to quit leaving his toys all over the house! LOL

I'm still trying to get used to wearing one contact lens.  It's been a week and a half and it's not happening yet.  I know some people that got used to it that quickly, but it can take several weeks for others.  I'm not sure I'll have that much patience!  But I will give it a bit longer.  It sure is nice under many circumstances, but not for everything.