Short Update.....

Hi everyone. Hope you are all doing well on this beautiful sunny day. I am starting to feel a little bit better. Seems I am being treated for an ulcer. Yes....an ulcer. Tomorrow I have to go in for more blood tests. Last week I was dehydrated and my sodium was low....then the potassium was low....hopefully tomorrow everything will be normal. I think he will be checking my AC1 also because I have to fast for 12 hours. Oh I will be glad when I start feeling better.

This Saturday a contractor is coming in to tear down the kitchen ceiling.....so I have to get everything out of the kitchen cabinets because there will be lots of dust and junk.......uge, I think deep down this whole process has been bothering me. I will be glad when it is all over.

Next Saturday is the work day....there will be 25 people in and out of my house, doing painting, plumbing, electric work, landscaping.....I would like to run away for the day......Hope I make it through these next few weeks. Time will tell....if only I could just enjoy the ride. I never really liked rolly-coasters.

See you next month and hopefully things slow down a bit. I will try and remember to take some pictures so you can see the process.
Cheers ~ Louise

Tooo Much Snow and a Etsy Sale!

Hi everyone, how is it going??? As someone said to me the other day, "Life is full of changes, and they come without notice". Sometimes it would be nice to have a memo once in a while, but then again, if there was a memo, maybe I wouldn't want to see a change come!!!!

Today we had another change.....or challange.....or maybe it's an inconvenience???? JP and I had to go to the UPS store in Neenah (which is 10 miles away) and return the at&t DVR that stopped working. At&t sent a new DVR on Tuesday, the old one had to be back in their hands in 10 days...or else we would get charged $150!!!! Yikes!!! So needless to say we wanted to get the DVR back asap. We got back to Appleton, went to the Post Office to mail the Etsy order. Dropped JP off at home and I took off again to go pay the Electric/gas bill and to the grocery store. Here is where life changes.....I get back in the car and...gosh the brakes are feeling kind of strange??? So each stop I came to, I found the brake peddle becoming more squishy. Suddenly the brake light comes on........oh, oh, I better go home, will I make it home??? Dozens of questions filled my mind!!!

Thank God I got home with no mishaps. I told JP what had happened and he called the service station, they said to bring the car in....when JP drove the car to the garage, there were NO BRAKES!!! When you think...how a gazillion things could have happened. Apparently the brake lines are rusted out and fluid had leaked out. We will be with out a car for the weekend. JP is at work right now....someone from the company came to pick him up and take him to work. The service station will let us charge the $400.00, which is okay....but we still have a bill with them for $600...so there you have it $1000 bill for car repairs, and a loan on a car for $4000. I am wondering, how in the world does a person ever get ahead in this world....I probably will always wonder that, till Jesus' return or the day I die!!!

So here you can see how much snow we have had already....so much snow, but there are lovely flowers growing under all that snow. Tulips, roses, crocuses, peonies, lavendar, daisies, mums and misc. perrenials......it will be lovely when things start to grow again.

The snow is almost up to the porch....gosh that is deep, I don't remember seeing the snow that deep in all the 22 years we have lived here.

Here's a picture of our backyard.....snow is up to the back of the chair....so much snow and there's still 6-7 weeks of winter to go.

Well as I said in the title of this blog, I had another Etsy sale....so happy am I. She is a return customer and hopefully she just might return again and again. I am planning on getting more cards into my store. St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon, so I need to get some "green cards" in my store also!!

Time to close this blog and get some cards made and ride my bike for some exercise. Talk to you all later and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

Missing In Action ~ But Still Alive

Hi Everyone....hope you all made it through the storms that passed by your way. The above picture is our backyard...as you can see a few limbs fell and the yard is under water, almost like a little river back there. We have lived in this house for 22 years and it seems the last couple of years there has been lots of water back there...not sure why.

We really need to get the tree trimmed as it has been losing lots of limbs...last year a big limb fell on my swing and bent it in the middle....it still works but is not as cute as it used to be. 

In this photo you can see how the limbs are weighted down by ice. Was such a strange day with the wind blowing and the sound of the cracking ice......was almost an eerie sound. Didn't want to be out there too long for fear of getting hit by ice.

The next store neighbor is cleaning the front yard. That big old tree (which I dislike cause one day it may drop on our house) dropped a lot of limbs and his electric meter broke from the house, causing no electric for him or the neighbors across the street. We were fine till about 11am.

Here you can see limbs fell on both houses across the street AND on their electric meters cutting them off also. It sure was a mess. I was thankful we did not have a mess to clean up and then about 11am or so the electric went out on us too. 

I had to get really creative, getting JP ready for work was a challenge. I brought out the fondue pot that works with sternos, so I was able to heat up my coffee and make him some soup and peanut butter sandwiches.  He usually likes a smoothie for his lunch, so rather then that just gave him a bowl of fruit and yogurt.

Another problem that arose with no electric.............uge.....no computer. How in the world do you keep in-touch with the outside world????? Well, I had my transistor radio so I could listen to Rush, Sean and Mark, so that was okay........that passed the time. But when you realize, we take electric for granted don't we.....what would we do without it??? How did people do without it in the old days??? I just don't know.

The electric finally went back on about 6pm......whew.....I sure was happy. I had the candles ready for a long night. So, when the electric went on, what was the first thing I turned on??? Right, the computer.......everything working but the Internet....nope, could not get on the Internet....now what?????

So I was "Internetless" 3 days!!! I called "AT&T" to see if I could get back on.....nope I had to get an upgrade in my Internet service...........so I thought while doing that I might as well get an upgrade with the TV....I have finally turned in my "rabbit ears" for a better TV service........hey, now I can get "American Pickers" I am a happy camper now.

So, just in case you might have missed me, this is the reason I have not been around. No Internet can make a person very anxious and depressed.....that was me. I had to revert to doing things that did not need a computer.......good grief, was like living in the "old days." Well, hopefully things will get better. Now with all this new "high tech stuff" I have to think about getting a new computer....still using an XP and XP is about to run out of time by the end of this year............I see another up-grade coming!!!
You all have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh.
Cheers ~ Louise