Another 20 tidbits of my life

41.  I took tap dancing lessons for about a week as a child.  Then I heard of a recital.  Not sure what it was, but I did know that I wasn’t going to go on no stage and dance in front of people.  I retired after a few lessons.  I used the excuse that mom was going to have little brother Terry and I should help.  Made me sound ever so generous, but it was just stage fright.

42.  My favorite doll was Susie Walker.  Recently, I learned that she was really named Saucy Walker.  Hm.  I was shattered.

43.  I love Virginia in the spring and fall.  I always want to be there during these seasons.  It will never be the same without my two aunties.

44,  Scotland is wonderful.  I hope to go back.

45.  I stare at clouds.

46.  I watch too much television.

47.  I enjoy finding shells.  It is always amazing to me to see how they are formed and all the colors in them.  East Coast has some pretty ones. 

48.  I won’t move if I can’t relocate my grape arbor.

49. The best nap I had was on a picnic table at the ocean.  I laid on my stomach and just fell into a deep sleep.  That was 30 years ago and I remember how good it felt.  The sun was beating down on my back and it was total peace.  

50.  I hate to buy shoes and clothes.

51.  I want to go to the glass museum in Tacoma, but haven’t made it yet.

52.   Rocking  in a porch swing with my grandbabies is the best thing on any day!

53.  I play word games.  I find them interesting. 

54.   I have never had a speeding ticket, but the girls and Mike are waiting for the day. 

55.  Tennessee has a special place in my heart.

56.  Camping used to be fun.  Now I prefer a casino with room service.

57.  Buttons are beautiful. 

58.  I hand sew…it relaxes me.

59.  I am very organized when I have to be.

60. I delight in making little goals and fulfilling them.  If you set the “bar” low, it is pretty rewarding when the little goals have been accomplished.  It leads to bigger ones.

20 more fascinating facts of Nancy……

21.  Secretly, I would love to have been a dancer!  (or an actress…I picture myself like some Kathy Bates in Misery.  Evil….(insert maniacle laugh!)

22.  I iron clothes.  I like to iron.

23.  If I could bake and eat more, I would bake Angel Biscuits.  (Thank you Aunt Sallie)

24.  I can smell the sea.

25.  I don’t like cold feet.

26.  I don’t like to mess with my hair. 

27.  I like soup.

28.  I eat palines and cream ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

29.  I used to sit on a board for the community for our nuclear energy in our county. 

30.  I was a volunteer for 7 years tutoring junior high school boys and girls.  Loved it!  They were just kids that needed someone to encourage them and tell them that they were important.  We all need that. It was a great deal of work and fun.  I was chosen for Citizen of the Month in Aberdeen. 

31.  I can play the accordian. I can play the piano….both miserably.

32.  My girls like my home cooking and I love to bring them dinner when I visit, thought I grumble about being put out.  hee hee. 

33.  I floss more than I did a year ago.

34.  I make homemade noodles from time to time. 

35.  I have been watching One Life to Live for 37 years.  I feel like my name should be on the credits.

36.  I love to sing…I sing as well as I play the accordian.

37.  I spin, knit, weave, crochet and quilt. 

38.  I love birds.

39.  I take naps when I can find the time. 

40.  I love antiques and think there is a soul old things.

It makes me smile!

I just love this picture.  Erin sent it to us last night.  He loves the bathroom, but as soon as there is a desire to potty train, it will be the last place we find him!  He will hide, run, ignore,and blame the dog.  This picture made me smile and I hope it will do the same for you.

 

 

100 things about me?

I was totally amazed when I read someone’s blog where she listed 100 things about her.  I thought, what a huge number and started reading.  She was a very accomplished, highly educated professional lady and her list of awards filled up about 30 of her 100 “things”.  I am not accomplished, highly educated, professional or a lady, so this might be a real challenge, if not impossible.  I thought I would go in groups of 20.  These aren’t going to be in the order of importance, but just random things. 

1.  I hate pink.  I can tolerate rose, but pink just about makes me puke.  Please, don’t make anything in pink and ask me what I think of it.  I won’t be able to get past the color.  I love pink on babies and that is it.

2. I love blueberries.  I love them raw and muffins.  I got introduced to them as an adult in Colorado while visiting family with a dollop of whip cream.  It was love at first taste.

3.  I put one sock on, then one shoe….repeat..one sock and one shoe.  I never put both socks on and then the shoes.  I don’t know why.

4.  I cry when I hear the Star Spangled Banner or God Bless America. 

5.  I laugh when I see someone fall.   Can’t help it.  Cracks me up. 

6.  I love my morning coffee. 

7.  One of my favorite places is walking the spit in Port Angeles and being on the water.  There is such a sense of peace.

8.  Friends…good friends.  I can count mine on two hands, but they are the true people in my life I can count on for everything and anything.  They are the people that will tell me there is a huge hair coming out of my chin or broccoli stuck in my front teeth.  They appear when I am at my lowest and pull me up to my feet.  I love you all and I hope I tell you often. 

9.  Babies…oh, what a gift from God they are!   When they get out of the bath, there is nothing sweeter to my nose.  I love their pudgy little hands. 

10. I loved being married.  (still)

11. Fall is my favorite season.

12.  I really don’t care for holidays.  I feel like I am forced to eat cake or buy gifts. 

13. I like taking pictures.  If I could do things over, I might want to be a professional photographer.

14.  I can’t read very well and it frustrates me.

15. I love driving a car and traveling. 

16.  I adore my daughters. (one is my favorite and she knows who she is!  smile)

17.  Mike is still my best friend and he can make me laugh when all I want to do is pull my hair out of my head and crawl into the fetal position! 

18. Socks are still my favorite thing to knit.

19. I love the smell of bleach and cleaning with it. 

20.  I hate to paint…you know, walls and houses.  Oh, I hate even opening the can!

 

There, that is my first installment of my 100 things about me.

Back to my coffee.

Mrs. Green Goes to Washington!

I started my obligation to the court of Clallam county…better known as Jury Duty.  I became #28.  Ah, #28.  A fine number to my ears.  Having been on a trial before, I know they take the first 13.  Even if they kick off a few ahead of me, I am going home by noon.  whoo whoo. 

I signed in and walked to the court room to begin the sitting process.  It is like a morgue.  No one is talking or even looking from side to side.  It is totally silent and if there is one thing I can’t stand, it is silence.  By the same token, I don’t want to sit next to a yakker who thinks they need to vomit their life story to me.  Music?…a little  Barry Manilow might be nice wafting through the room. 

I was heavily armed with yarn, knitting needles, cell phone, tissue, water bottle, two candies and a package of gum.  If I had a bigger tote, I might have drug my spinning wheel in, but there I was.  I walked in, sized the group up from the back of their heads and decided to sit in the back row.  I am sure all the “bad kids” sit in the back of the room, so I thought I should sit there. 

I looked around and started laughing to myself.  There in the front row was Mrs. Red Hat.  She was a very old looking woman with bleached blond hair.  On her head, sitting at a cocky little angle was a bright red velvet beret.  Oh please…yank that hat off your head!  It did nothing for her and only made me laugh.  Her ensemble was completed with flip flops that snapped with each step.  In the interviewing, the lawyer asked her what she did for a living.  She was an “educator”…then she started in telling us every credit she had ever earned since her days as a Brownie leader.  She ended with her Masters in Human Development and Psychology.  I kept thinking, please don’t put me on a jury panel with her.  I would have to kill her…just for the hat alone!  The lawyer must have thought along the same line….he excused Mrs. Red Hat and she flip-flopped her way out the door. 

Next to Mrs. Red Hat was the Hippie Pants.  I know she was a flower child and still had the same hair style.  Parted in the middle and hung down like a wet cocker spaniel.  She had one eyebrow and black roots on her head.  She decided that she just had to eat.  She had to eat something in a plastic bag and it rattled each time she put her hand in the bag.  She ate, and ate and ate…until I was just wanting to scream, “Put that damn wrapper down and shut up!”  ( Did I mention, I have a short attention span and I really detest rattling paper….don’t take me to a movie!)  After Mrs. Red Hat told us her whole life story, it was the Hippie Pant’s  turn.  The lawyer asked her to tell us all about HER.  Hippie Pants took it to heart.  She started her life with “in the beginning…” and went from there.  When it came to on the 7th day, she rested.  She was ever so accomplished…just ask her.  It is funny how some people do so much and you have to pry their story out, while others just spew their life’s story at the drop of a hat.  I KNOW I couldn’t have been in the same room with her.   I couldn’t have looked in her eye with that one row of fur over her two eyes.

We sat there for two hours and listened to lawyers ask questions of us jurors.  I think I dozed off at one point.  They droned.  The case was a civil matter and would involve gas tanks installed properly or improperly at a gas station.  There was going to be a lot of technical talk and I think it would have been rather boring in the long run.  I was chosen on a bank robbery case last time and it was really interesting.  I liked it. We even set him free!  The law is really messed up.  If you don’t use a gun, threaten or scare anyone, and steal money from a bank, you can’t be charged with bank robbery, but have to be charged with burglury.  Duh?  What?  Yep!  and…it has to be all 12 of us in agreement.  Well, he didn’t have a gun, knife or anything in his hand…didn’t yell, shove, push or scare the teller (and she chased him out of the bank) and so we had to give him a slap on the hand and have him charged with wearing a bad suit jacket, but NOT bank robbery.  Really ticked us all off, but one gal was not going to change her vote to let him off, so we had to come back with the lesser count.  amazing.  The law works to protect the guilty rather than seek help for the victims.

Well, after two hours of knitting, I was excused and will have to call tomorrow to see if they will need me again later in the week.  I hope, if they summons me, I get picked.  If not, cut me loose. 

That is about all I know….

The Stump falls

I really thought, in my heart of hearts, that the stump would be upright for years to come.  We had started to dig the stump on Sunday and got the pick out.  Then the shovels.  Rakes. The Spud did the best job…it is an old tool used to peel the bark off of trees and then a good ax.  The moat was dug and still it stood strong against us.  There were three major roots about the size of a log in itself.  Mike cut them.  We dug more and more…raking and pulling the gravel, rocks and dirt up and out.  This morning, I got the hose and did the water treatment.  I find that water is a great way of loosening up the roots.  I jabbed and forced the water to make a path under the stump.  it worked.  Mike took over and soon, he had 5 tunnels of water under all the roots.  I cleaned the house and watched Mike dig and survey the progress.  He announced that it was time to try pulling it out.  Mind you, it didn’t move a bit.  It stood there as mighty as a tall oak.   He tied the bright red rope around the top of the huge stump, twice and ran the rope through a hole in the fence he created by pulling out a slat in the fence.  He backed up big blue, the truck, and began to pull. 

The first attempt, the rope gripped the tree stump tighter and stretched.  Nothing.  He stopped, retied the stump and tried it again.  He moved the truck about 2 feet and the stump began to give way.  I wanted to kick myself for not having my camera!  It just fell over in slow motion.  Not snap, crackle or pop.  It came all the way out of the wet hole. 

Mike hooked up the pressure washer and spent more time knocking the soil from the roots. 

I don’t know how we are going to get rid of the wood.  I guess that will make itself clear when the morning comes and we have to deal with a huge slab of wood laying down in the middle of my garden spot. It is all covered with ivy and the ivy vines are about the size of a quarter in circumference.  Mike has a trusty chain saw and he loves to fire that up and hack at something.  So far, I have managed to stay out of his way.  Here are the pictures of Paul Bunyun and his work.

 

Mike and his ax. 

 

 

Out of the hole!!!!

 

This is Mike’s truck.  He removed a slat from the old fence and nosed his truck up to the fence.  Ran the rope through the hole and tied it to his truck.   That is as far as he had to pull back before the tree gave way.

 

Just have to start working on the damage done. 

 

 

Peyton has nothing to do with the stump.  I just found this picture on the camera.  What a sweet little face!  I miss him.  I better go down and pick him up and give him some kisses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls..

I started writing blogs with such a happy heart and of late, but it seems it has been so much tragedy around me.  I thought I would shake off the sadness and chat about happy things.  Bells and flowers.

Let me explain a simple fact.  I do my best thinking (and my worst) while drinking morning coffee and pondering.  I ponder a lot.  I am not sure pondering is still in vogue, but ponder I do!   When we bought this house, it had a nightmare of a yard.  It was totally labor intensive.  The owner planted roses.  Around each rose bush was a ring of large painted rocks.  They were also painted on both sides!  Both sides?  That totally blew my mind for a long time.  Who paints rocks on both sides, let alone one side?  That is one sick and twisted mind, but I digress.  Anyhow, she had 32 rose bushes and in doing the math, there was at least 9 rocks around each bush.  Then in the middle of the yard, there would be little flower bed…also ringed in rocks.  Then along each side of a yard, a bed full of growing things…edged in painted beach rock.  In the middle of all this red painted beach rock, there was this huge tree.  It was a Himalayian something or another.  It had been topped many times and was huge, except in height.  It shed off needles that were about 2 inches long and like razor blades.  It had to go!

We de-limbed the tree and left the stump.  One day, while drinking my morning coffee, it came to me!  Let’s put our big train bell (doesn’t everyone have one?) on the stump and grow ivy around it.  Ivy…now there is a non-evasive plant.  I can train it to cover the ugly stump and it will support the huge bell. 

We did and it worked, until this year when it started to rot…the stump, not the bell.  I was tired of roto tilling around the stump and it was time to go.  I pondered the placement of the bell and thought…hey, let’s put it on the deck.  Worked!  Looks good and with minimal effort and arguing, we settled on a place and installed the bell.  I believe he/she is happy there.  Then the stump removable began.  Mike refers to it as the moat.   He has dug on it for days.  Cutting roots larger than most trees and filling it full of water at night to wash away the soil and loosen it. 

The plan is to get it cut around, remove a few fence boards and then gently pull the stump out with our truck or find someone with a huge winch.  Not sure which will work or if any will.  I am increasing my insurance policy just for the heck of it.  

Mike had a great uncle Dolph.  He was a bit “tilted” as far as I was concerned anyhow, but he used to cover a stump with a tarp and put a few sticks of dynamite under the stump.  His success rate was modestly good.  The one memorable time was when the stump lifted up and over the house and ended up in the front yard.        

 

This is the bell in it’s new home. 

 

 

This is the stump and moat.

The rest are flowers that caught my eye around the yard.  Just because they were there and make me happy.

 

 

 

These only grow in the early spring. 

 

My ferns I borrowed from a nearby forest.  They are happy under a cherry tree and the new shoots are ready to grow.

 

 

 

 I miss the people that have passed and I know I cannot bring them back.  But, I am going to remember them with good stories and warm thoughts.  Spring reminds me to look forward and not backwards.