Getting back to normal

It's been 6 weeks since we moved into our new house. I'm liking the idea of my own bedroom even if I'm sharing it with a small pooch and a cranky old cat. They are both in bed with me and it's funny because they really don't like each other. The cat, Mrs Beasley, is 13 years old and I guess in kitty years that's 91, which is why she's cranky all the time.  They tolerate each other except when the puppy thinks it's OK to play with her. She will slap puppy silly and I think the pup has figured out that Mrs. Beasley has no claws in the front feet so it doesn't hurt at all.  They make getting up a little bit exciting.

We've settled into our new house just fine. We've been working on the vines in the back coming over the fence and trying to take over the house.  We go out and cut them down and fill up the yard waste recycle bin for pickup every other week. It got emptied yesterday so this weekend we will finish cutting the vines away from the fence and cleaning up the front. I need to put some weed-be-gone on the front yard so the tall weeds won't come back and then I can put some grass seed down to winter over and maybe next year we'll have a grass yard as opposed to several types of weeds.

Going to have a friend of Bridgit's look at the stove and see if he can fix whatever is wrong with it.  Right now the only part working is the top burners. It's a pretty glass top stove and I really like it but I miss not having the oven to make pizzas or bake cakes and cookies.  And I'm not electrical savvy so I can't just jump in and take the panel off and do anything. Probably electrocute my self so I'm not even going to attempt it.

I'm still taking some college courses from Hillsdale College. I've finished 2 courses so far and I'm half way through the 3rd class. This 10 week class is on the Presidency and the Constitution. Learning just what they're doing that they hadn't ought to be doing.  Sadly, it's a lot of stuff that was never allowed in the original founding of this country. It just makes me more aware of what to consider when I get out to vote this year and next.

I have the new software for my scrap booking and Kyra, Mat, Miriam and Manuela B have given me some beautiful things to work with. Here's a few.

Great grand daughter Kadence and her big sister ready for their first day of school. It's a Girl thing is the name of the kit by Arlene at Baby Bear Designs. 

This was a Christmas family picture from 2011. Me in the back, 2 of my daughters on the couch with my Grandson David, his 3 kids and Olivia on Aunt Nene's lap on the far end. The kit is called Coffee by Sunshine scraps.

My two Grandsons that live in Colorado. The kit is 'Seaside Sunset' by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart designs.

I honestly can't remember how many files I opened to get a piece here and another piece there.  Rest assured I'm not the one who made graphics of the paper, nor the frame.  It's Grand daughter Bridgit playing around on our friends front porch. Looks like she's ready to fly away on that broom. Can you guess that Halloween is one of her favorite times. 

This is me from at least 46 years ago on Midway Island. Husband and a bunch of SeeBees built a cover for the two middle houses in our building on the base. One of the SeeBees lived on the other side of the wall so it was just easy to make it cover both patios. The kit is called 'Celebrate Life by Raspberry Road Designs.

Kadence and her sister Mia in 2010 when Mia got to go to school and Kaddie stayed home. Kaddie was only 3 in this picture. The QP is by Mat from one of Miriam's mini kits which are never very 'mini'.

Olivia went to the Benton County Fair with Uncle Cole and wife Sandy. Bridgit is taking the pictures of the face painting and fake tattoo. Looking at the bottom I see I have typed the name of the kit wrong but it was made by Miriam's Scraps either way.

That's enough for today. Time to take the little dog outside for his duty.

God Bless and have a great evening.

Hugs GrandmaSarge74

Nothing going on from July 15 just found

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything.  It's about time I did something. 

I've been busy downloading some new kits to make pages with. One of my favorite designers had a great bargain going on in one of her stores. I bought the whole shop for $25. and believe me that's been a great time for me. She is really a fantastic designer and her kits are so easy to work with. I've picked up a number of them for Halloween and some for Christmas too! I mean, it's a scrapper's paradise to have the run of the whole store.  Kinda good thing I have a large external hard drive to store things on.  For anyone who's interested here's the lady's web site:  http://www.twilightscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=113

I'm settled into my new living quarters. I'm sharing an apartment with my Grand daughter "Bridgit" and her daughter Olivia. We're saving to buy a house of our own with a fenced in yard for the little dog we have. Her name is 'Serenity' but she's anything but serene. She's a little Chihuahua who has lots of hair and she does look pretty funny some days. She likes to chase my cat and doesn't quit even when she gets slapped by Mrs. Beasley. Pictures of the two of them.

Little Miss Serenity. She's grown a little bit but she's still only 4 pounds.

Mrs. Beasley hasn't changed much. She was born in April of 2002 and I believe she's doing a kitty menopause cause she is really grouchy. Doesn't get along with anyone and even takes little bites of me.

Back at last

 Had a major crisis on Thurs. when at about midnight on Wed. we had an outage. I was sitting on the front steps trying to get my lungs adjusted and cooled down. Then at 2 am when the power was restored to the block (I was still awake) the lights on the boxes controlling our big TV starting flashing and going out and then coming back. I finally fell asleep around 3 or so and was wide awake at 6 am. Lights were still flashing. I didn't turn on the tv but I did try my computer. It would come up and then flash black screen and then come right back to what I was doing. we fussed with it all day Thurs and finally Bridgit called one of her surrogate dads. She talked to his wife and Steph drove Kenny over here. 

He came over and checked things with his meter but we aren't sure what he was seeing. He finally called another surrogate Uncle and he agreed to come over in the morning. I went to a friends house that was A/C'd and slept in her recliner. Then Friday am Kenny showed up and picked me up and came up here again to meet with surrogate Uncle Jim. Jim is an electrician with the school district so he could be trusted and after a few measurements, and taking the panel apart, he said to call the city that we were getting bad power from the pole. This is a Friday morning. First Bridgit called the landlord and Uncle Jim explained what he thought was "bad power" from the pole.

The landlord called the city dept in charge of incoming power from the pole to the house. They managed to snag a crew finishing up a job and diverted them to our house. They looked at the meter panel on the outside of the house. Took the meter off and opened up the panel. Discovered that the "???" (can't remember the name of the line) was burned out by the power surge coming back on Thurs. in the early am. Since that was the line burned out it was our (Meaning the home owner) responsibility to fix it. Now this whole time [several hours] Bridgit was on the phone with the landlord who lives in Seattle and calling the certified electricians on the list of names the city maintenance crew had given her and finally found one who could come out and look at it. The city crew had cut the incoming power from the big pole to the little pole on our house earlier so he just got right to work.

But there had to be one last glitch: A permit was needed, so he went to city hall to get the permit, and the clerk at the desk wasn't going to issue it because of the forms needed, so said electrician called Bridgit and told her the clerk wouldn't do anything till Monday. He gave her the phone number of the clerks desk and Bridgit called her directly and it was a sight to listen to from this end. Bridgit calls them "a come to Jesus talk" and she doesn't use them very often but when she gets stressed and worried about me she will be the proverbial Mother Hen. After her tirade, the electrician came back with the proper permit and proceeded to fix the incoming line to the house. Then Bridgit called the city back and the clerk said an inspector had to sign off before thee power could be turned back on. Of course it's Bridgit making this call to get the power restored and she reminded the clerk that the electrician we used was their own already approved and certified contractor so the power could be on and the inspector could come by on Monday for the final sign off. 

Must have been the same clerk cause the city crew came back just before their end of work day at 3 pm and they restored our house to normal. Just one stressed out Bridgit and the landlord was very impressed with how she got things done on our end and all he had to do was give his billing info to the electrician. She never told him that between the calls to the landlord and city and electrical contractors she finished off a bottle of wine. 

Friday evening was a breeze. We were ok in the house, and Bridgit was just mellow enough to be calm.  And the reason Bridgit has so many surrogate Dads and Uncles is because her biological father died when she was only 2 yrs old. These men are group of buddies who ran around with him in the 80s. She has 2 surrogate Dads and a whole passel of surrogate Uncles.  It was a pretty rough time for all of them and they vowed that would look after his little girl and they are doing just that. 

I realize this was a pretty long post but I was telling a true story and I didn't want to mess it up. You can laugh cause I sure did from where I was sitting and knowing I was the cause for the 'come to Jesus' talks that were done. She reminded the clerk that her grandmother was a 20 year veteran, and former Hanford worker who was on Oxygen 24/7 and if they didn't get the power restored to run her concentrator she was going to call the TV stations and tell them how the city was treating a veteran, let alone a 75 yr old senior citizen. That got their attention real quick.  I'm proud of her but sometimes she gets a little overboard.

Now I'm back to normal. Making pages with my replacement software.

A lovely mother of 2 charming kids whose pictures you will see now and then here on this blog.

Great Grand daughter Kaddie from 2010 with her siste Mia.

Lovely mother to Kaddie & Mia..

Moe at Liz's wedding. If there is a baby in the area she'll be finding it. This one is Lucca.

Mow and husband Phil at Liz's wedding.

Beautiful QP by Mat from Miriam's Scraps.

A dear friend from my 6th grade era who found me through her daughter finding my name and now we talk almost every day. And she sure surprised me by being in New Zealand now. 

Time to get ready for my errand run to the bank and grocery store.

Have a nice day Hugs to all.

It's been awhile

I noticed my last post was July 12; a whole month ago! Well, all I can say is it's been so hot my brain couldn't think of anything to post about except heat in the 100s.  today it's going to be in the mid 80s which is fine with me. We have 2 stand up fans, 2 double window fans, 1 small fan, 1 Ionizer and I portable air cooler going 24/7. Can't imagine what our electric bill is going to look like. If it weren't for going down to Lorene's to do some laundry, or going to the many doctors offices I've been to, we wouldn't have any relief at all.  The total energy man came by and did an assessment/estimate for the land lord to put in different A/C-heating combo. It'll get him a tax break and us some cooler air.  When you have a lung problem of any kind, (my COPD/Emphysema and Olivia's Asthma & whatever Bridgit has also) it makes breathing in extremely difficult. We have survived and the end is near.

One day last month (July 20th to be exact), I sat here in this un-airconditioned house waiting for the delivery of the new floor tiles for about 4 hours. Then after he had loaded everything (10 heavy boxes) and I had locked up the house and headed to the bus with my "cadallic walker". I thought since it was a back track from the bus stop to our house I'd leave by the other end of  our block. All of McClellan is confined to this one block. We are the 4th house on this side and our number is 1801 and then there are 2 other sets of numbers the 1701s and the 1901s. Doesn't make much sense to me but hey, I didn't set up the numbering system.

 Anyway, I went to the corner and turned right and then promptly got lost for over 45 mins in 104 degree heat pushing my walker. I had my oxygen and a bottle of water but I managed to get a case of 'heat stroke' or so I was told that I did. A 3 day stay in the hospital and I was diagnosed with a small heart attack and low potassium. Had to have 3 transfusions of the plasma with electrolytes in them and 6 horse sized pills of potassium. They didn't do the 'cardiac stress test' since the one doctor decided that I'd already had the equivalent of their treadmill test walking around for 45 mins in 104 degree heat. And even after a cool shower and resting in the recliner for about 4 hours  I asked Bridgit to take me to the ER. The chest pressure was making it difficult to breathe again. So we did and they decided I needed to be their guest for 2 more nights.  Best thing is they brought me ice cream whenever I asked for it.

Now I'm going to start making more scrapbook pictures. I had to buy another copy of my program and it arrived yesterday. I'll save this draft and actually post it after I'm done playing with the new version of Scrapbook factory deluxe.

Ashley with her 2 grandmothers who went to Oregon for her graduation from Chef's school.

A little day out and a tour of the pirate ship "The Lady Washington". At least it looks like a pirate ship and the crew all look like pirates in the dress code. No eye patches nor parrots on board. 

Lorene taking a selfie at the beach in Oregon after her daughter graduated. It looks like Ashley's getting wet for the first time and it looks cold.

Mia and Devin on the Lady Washington.

Lorene's 3 daughters together again and very happy.

Olivia went camping with her Grandpa Kenny and Grandma Stephanie. They even got her mother to go and spend some time in a tent and the other niceties of roughing it!!

Well it's time to get our act together and go to Lorene's for dinner. Ashley the new Chef's school graduate is cooking dinner and we are all set to be amazed.

See you again in a couple of days.

Busy for being Retired

July is almost half over and I'm Still battling the computer. I guess the 'REFRESH' wasn't as helpful as I thought it would be.   I couldn't find a restore date that would work so the computer suggested Refresh. So I moved all my personal files to an external hard drive. That took some doing but I managed it in half a day.  Then I turned that external drive off (actually disconnected it), so the computer could "refresh" itself. Now my printer software is lost and that's a pain in the neck, cause it isn't that old. I guess I need to get some software to fix it. That would still be at the old house.  

I moved to my grand daughter's apt in May and the rest of my stuff is partly in storage and partly at my daughter's house, which I guess I'm supposed to be moving next Sat. to the storage shed. I'm going over to her house on Wed to go on a tour of the Nuclear plant that has been converted to a museum so I'll look through some things and maybe find the computer discs then. Meanwhile, I'm fussing with the darn computer, trying to help Bridgit at the new house but with a broken AC in the new house it's been very hard for me. The local heat wave has been very tough on me. If I can't get it done early in the day, it's not going to get done. We have had temps over 100 for two weeks now.

Meanwhile, I'm spending my mornings doing a couple of College courses online. This apt. has very good AC so it's easy to sit here with a sweater on and a blanket over my lap and listen to the Professors. Then I read and take a test. I've finished the first course I signed up for and have received the Certificate of completion. These courses are "Not for Credit", which is why they are Free.  Not doing school today, it's Sunday. 

I'm enjoying being able to cook for Bridgit and Olivia. Then I clean up the dishes (her dishwasher is broken), since the apartment has had the new dishwasher in their possession since Nov. but still haven't installed it for her. Don't know why but so be it. "It is what it is!" I've been washing dishes by hand for more than 65 years now so I'm really good at it. (lol)

I've had time to relax and enjoy the new adult coloring and have crocheted a new scarf for myself. Dani (my daughter in Colorado) put me onto this new 'thing'! I've known how to crochet for years but this is a new medium for me. Crocheting with ribbon is new. Quite easy but you must be careful since it will unravel at the drop of the stitch. Instructions are on 'you tube' if anyone is interested (Kyra that's for your info) and it's really quite easy. I've been doing just the basic one but there are more complicated ones to do. Make a really neat gift. 

A picture of my scarf collection:

The Red White & Blue is the last one I've finished, just in time for the 4th of July. There are 3 that Dani wanted me to have when I was there for her accident. And there are a couple that I've done since I came back that she sent me home with the pkg of ribbon yarn.

I haven't done a scrapbook page in over a month, and I really haven't had any withdrawal shakes or anything like that, (only joking). I'm really frustrated at not having my software but I tried the 'Gimp", and a couple of others but nothing beats my Scrapbook program. I'm going to look real hard for it on Wednesday and then maybe I can make some new ones.

Meanwhile, everyone enjoy the summer. It's going to be my favorite time of year soon and I'll be really happy about that. Fall has such great colors and Miriam has already got another new kit almost ready for me to play with. And I'm dying to use the new kits from Kyra but just don't have the software yet.

Hugs to everyone and good wishes for great health. 

Another small computer problem

Seems like all I do is fight with this thing. Now it's whatever thingy controls the jpegs and a lot of the graphics in the scrapbooking kits from my friends. Needless to say, I haven't done much in the way of scrapbooking. Got to get my Grandson the IT Guru to 'remote into my computer' and see what he thinks.

My little 'nucleus family' has found (it fell into our lap) a new place to live with everyone of us having our own bedroom. It's in pretty nasty shape and Grand daughter is going to be doing the painting with a friend of hers after she washes the smoke covered walls. I've picked 'seafoam green' for my room and I've ordered Sage colored curtains for the two windows in the front. Haven't decided on the window that faces the side yard yet because it's going to be the window where I put Mrs Beasley's window sitter. Even if she has no claws I'll bet if she tried hard enough she'd rip something up.

I'm going to see if the Knights of Columbus will loan me another hospital bed.
It shouldn't be a big problem and maybe I can get them to take the ramp.  I'd prefer to give it to a veteran but so far none have come forward.

Anyway,  I've taken up crocheting with the ribbon stuff and making those scarves you see the ladies wearing these days. Pretty good at that but I've know how to crochet for years...just never did with the ribbons.  And then my daughter who was in the bus accident turned me on to 'adult coloring' books. They are very relaxing and I enjoy doing them.  Here's a couple of the pictures I've colored:

I did this one with a lot of permanent markers and some Gel Pens. Took a couple of days.

This one was fun. It's part markers and part gel colors but the cat didn't have a line down her face. I put that there. I love doing these pics. You can find the books on Amazon and here in the U.S. they are now at Hastings. 

And here are a couple of pictures I managed to get done before the software or whatever it is that's wrong with this PC. Maybe it'll fix itself when I get the new Windows 10, in a couple of weeks.

From our Colorado trip...taking Dani home from her stay in the hospital. She's doing better but she's still only working 1/2 days and using the walker. The blow to her head probably is making her Vertigo worse than before. Kit is 'Daisy Chain' by Twilight Scraps.

The 3 little girls who were swimming in the pool but I made it look like they were at a beach. Kit is 'Smell the Sea' by Studio Manu.

My thanks to both of these ladies who do such beautiful work. And I can't wait to get back to making pics with a new kit by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart and another one by Miriam's Scraps. I'm having withdrawal.

Hugs to all and have a great week ahead.  I'm staying inside...we're expected to have 107 up to 112 degrees all week. I'm not going out in it!!

Little trip to Colorado

I haven't been to my blog or read any blogs for a week now. Last Wednesday I got a phone call that my oldest daughter had been in a bus accident. The bus she was riding to work got T-boned by a SUV.

Daughter Dani got a whole body of bruises about the size of cantaloupes and a real nasty concussion (Arachnoid concussion of the spider veins in the brain). Needless to say I rented a car and my Grand daughter and I drove half of a day and all night into Thursday to get to Colorado where she lives.
Here's the pictures of the bus:

As you can see it was a mighty hard hit to flip a bus over on it's side and it took a crane to get it back up again. When I blew up the picture I think I saw where Dani's head hit the opposite side of the bus. She had to get the glass pieces out of her hair. Bridgit helped her into the shower and she washed her hair in the hospital. Then when we got her home she washed it again and combed it with a fine tooth comb. 

We got to Grand Junction on Thursday afternoon (mix up at the car rental so we didn't leave WA till 4pm). And it's a 912 mile trip. house-to house. Naturally being 75 years old we stopped a few times for bathroom breaks and since we also got Olivia out of school and being only 10 yrs old she wanted to see everything.  I didn't do any of the driving (I left it to Bridgit) and also she doesn't think I should be driving at 75 yrs old anyway. 

It was a great big surprise to walk into Dani's hospital room at 1:30 in the afternoon. Bridgit had been getting updates from her little sister who was in the room with Dani but even Missy didn't know we were coming. Bridgit told her that she was going to call the room and talk to her mom so Missy gave her the room number. When we got to the hospital Bridgit asked for a wheel chair for me since I don't walk very far without the hips giving monster pains. So since we hadn't told anyone we were on the way, we sent Olivia in first to give her Grandma a big hug. Then Bridgit wheeled me in and every one cried! Big hugs all around. 

Dani was tired of waiting for the X-ray people to show up for her X-ray we made them give her a script for it at the out patient pavilion. We did it the next day and then went shopping at Wal-Mart. Dani & I were both in the electric carts having a good time.

Dani is moving right along in her healing and the Insurance co gave her a real nice walker which Missy promptly decorated with different colors of bandannas!

We drove back up here to WA on Monday Memorial day. Really took some time to enjoy the scenery and the rock formations.  Drove through several rain storms but the little Hundai Spirit or whatever it was did really good. Gets great gas mileage and rides real smooth. Didn't have cruise control which is probably why Bridgit got a speeding ticket in Utah. Only black spot on the whole trip.

Very pretty

Olivia likes to climb in the rocks.

Heading into the rain.

One of my favorite trip games is finding animals or bldgs in the cloud formations. As you can see in the last two pics we were heading into a band of rain . It was a fun ride anyway.

Back to normal here.