Just For You, Bruder Bear

Hey, Bruder Bear.  Remember the basement guest bath? The one you've been forced to endure using for a number of years? The one with the unbelievably green fixtures?  Take a look now!

Just look at that bee-u-ti-ful sink!  Gorgeous new faucets!  And a lovely new toidy which sits higher! Yes, the counter is the same, and unfortunately for now the tub is the same, but no more will you have to endure shaving over an ugly green sink.  Dan has been hard at work, with more planned. Come visit and see!!  ♥

Note to those who have not visited this bath:  The fixtures were bright green.  For those of you who would know, Washington Water Power green.  With gold faucets.  I know.  It doesn't even bear thinking about. Why we waited this long is a mystery that will never be solved.  

Dinner and A Movie

Our town has two old movie theaters that are still in operation--of sorts.  They are both used for special events and the occasional movie showing.  A week or so ago we were driving down Main Street on a Friday afternoon and noticed one of them had a free showing of Casablanca that night.  It's one of Dan's favorite movies and he was super excited at the prospect of seeing it on the big screen so we decided it was a "must see."  

We always usually have a date on Friday nights; it's a longstanding tradition and we both look forward to it. Mexican is our usual food of choice and we have several great places to choose from. (When we both worked and had kids at home, our date was Saturday morning breakfast out.  "Hi!  I remember you from last Saturday morning!  How was your week?")

We managed to remember our movie plans once we got home and went out for dinner early enough to have plenty of time to eat, take our leftovers back home and get to the theater.  A small crowd assembled and we settled in to watch a video favorite in all its big screen glory. We mouthed the famous phrases and enjoyed the entire evening.  Ahhh, the classics, where you leave satisfied, not horrified.  ♥

Fall is Definitely Here!

Of course fall is here--it's November!!  And apparently it's been some time since I've posted.  Ah well, I'm back.  

Dan is off to the woods today, daylight savings time is over (big yay to that!), and I was actually up before seven, thanks to the end of the aforementioned DST. It's a dampish, cloudy day and here I sit in my jammies, enjoying a cup of coffee deliciously flavored with raspberry white chocolate creamer.  (I think I drink coffee just for the creamers, but that's another story.)  

Since Dan was off early, I made myself a bowl of my favorite cool weather breakfast--oatmeal.  (Dan is not a fan.) I use old-fashioned oats, cook it long and slow, stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter, add a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and top it off with vanilla almond milk. Yum!!!

The peanut butter adds protein and it only takes a little maple syrup to sweeten a bowl compared to the amount of brown sugar I used to use.  

Saturday was spent at an out-of-town soccer tournament watching Cameron's school compete.  Dan, Ann and Daniel went up on Friday and were thrilled to watch the team win two games including defeating the number one seed.  Cameron scored eight goals between the two games!!  Saturday was the final playoff for the top spot, and while they didn't win, Cameron scored both goals in the 3-2 heart breaker.  He also received a trophy for being one of the top league players.  And the second place trophy the school won is pretty impressive, too.  It was a very cold, windy and damp day, but we all huddled together, kept warm and had a great time! (And a little chocolate didn't hurt, either.)

Hope you're all staying warm and cozy--  ♥

Pedicures: A Silly Little Post

My adorable daughter dropped in one evening a few weeks ago and handed me a bottle of nail polish.  She said she had a bottle, really liked it, and thought I'd like one, too.  Fun!!

Now, lest you think I have beautifully manicured and painted fingernails, think again.  Oh, I long to, but it has never worked out for me.  My hands are always in some kind of mess, or I'm scrubbing something, and the polish, should I actually have some on, is gone in a flash.  

But, about twenty-some years ago I discovered that feet, in sandals, look a lot better if they have some color on the nails.  So I began to buy fun colors and painted away.  I even discovered that it was totally fun, in the dead of winter, to take off my socks and discover wild red polish!  It always made me smile.  

I'm far too cheap, um, frugal, to pay someone to do my tootsies.  Hey, there's fabric to be purchased! So every so often I sit on the edge of the tub, soak my feet in some scented bath salts, buff them, and slather on lotion.  Then I contemplate my color choices, apply, and watch some oldie rerun on the tube while the color dries. It's always an upper.

Here's today's efforts featuring the polish Ann brought me.  It's glittery!!  And the color changes with the light. It's my current favorite.  

The bottle is so classy that I keep it out on my nightstand to admire.  The color number is 315.  And seriously, this stuff lasts!  I have to work hard to get it off with the polish remover.  

And one more thing:  over the years I've discovered that if I think I don't have time to give myself a pedicure, my priorities are seriously out of whack.  It's my firm belief that everyone needs to take time for some fun pampering.  I know I feel great when I do.   ♥

My Genius Husband

Now, first of all, I need to be sure to state that I know mine is not the only genius husband around. But he is my genius husband.  :-)

Back when we were working on the new landscaping for the front yard, we discovered that our original plan wouldn't work because of a French drain that ran beside the driveway.  Our Plan B (or was it C?) was to use small river rock inside a rock edging and plant boxwood, which we did. BUT we realized our pretty river rock would soon be orange because we have our own well and our outside water is full of iron which turns everything but the grass orange.  Our underground sprinkler system covers the whole yard with the exception of the new area because it was formerly (huge! gigiantic!) shrubs, so we had to supply some sort of watering system.  

Enter my genius husband!  Our garage has a set of faucets that run in-house (read treated) water.  The original owners of our house, who had it custom built, probably installed them for washing cars, but Dan realized that he could run a hose from them to water the new area, thus preventing orange rocks.  He dug a hole, crafted a pop-up sprinkler head that the hose could attach to, and added a green cover to be placed when it was not in use.  Voila!  Green grass, no orange rocks!! It's easy to run the hose out of the garage (it's usually left attached to the faucet), water that section, roll up the hose and replace the cover.  

Yes, it's October and we're still watering.  The days have been glorious and the colors are beautiful!  ♥

A Family Project

This is a little late in coming to the blog because I forgot to take my camera. Yup, big oops. So I decided to use my cell phone camera. Which I was totally unfamiliar with. The pictures were all taken outdoors and in the sunlight, which meant I never really knew what I was getting. All this to say that the pictures did not turn out exactly stellar. But I do have documentation, of sorts.

So what were the pictures of?  Well, my dad built a combination shop and garage in back of their house about 1965.  The roof is sloped to the back with the very back just above ground level on the hill behind.  The original roof was tarred and Dad had redone it some years back, but it was leaking and causing him to worry. At ninety-one, there was no way he could do the job himself anymore. Family to the rescue!  

On Saturday, September 6,  Dan and I drove down. Bruder Bear had arrived the night before and son-in-law Eric and grandson Cameron were due in shortly after we got there.   Dad had decided to put on a tin roof this time and he and Dan had already figured out all the materials needed and those had been delivered by the local builder's supply earlier in the week. 

Now commenced the figuring, measuring and hole drilling.  As Dan, John, and Eric conferred, at one point, I heard someone utter the comment that there were too many degrees working on this project! I had to laugh. (How many degrees you ask?  Five between the three of them.)

Conference in process with Dad overseeing.

Finally deciding on the correct placement for the holes for the screws, they began the work.

The hole drilling station.

John placing the first strip.

A terrible picture of the whole crew.

It was a hot day but the guys worked hard until late in the afternoon when, red faced and worn out, they stopped.  That Saturday also happened to be my mom's eighty-ninth birthday so after a rest and some cleanup, we all drove down to the local Mexican restaurant and had a great meal together.  As we headed back to our trucks after eating I remarked to Bruder Bear that it had been many a year since we'd been on main street together on a Saturday night.  Lots of memories in that town.

The roof was finally completed Monday morning and BB headed back home.  It was a great weekend with four generations of family working together.  Poor dad was stewing about not being any help up there, but I assured him everyone who was working was doing it because they wanted to.  I told him it was time to reap his harvest.  ♥

Happy October!!

Ahh, one of my favorite months has arrived!  Brilliant blue skies, crisp mornings, and carpets of brightly colored leaves.  Absolutely gorgeous in every direction.  

And here inside the resort, the call to cozy meals is being heard.  Time to bake bread, cook up soups and stews and bake a few cookies.  Yesterday I made a loaf of yummy whole wheat bread and realized I needed to pull some bags of extra flour from the freezer so they'd be available for the next baking.  A few years ago I bought a bag of King Arthur white whole wheat flour.  I'd been reading about it and thought I'd give it a try since I'm not a big fan of things that taste heavily of whole wheat. It did seem lighter.  Since then I've used one I really like from a brand called Wheat Montana that my dad bought for me (available at a market in their town). I finished that one up and now I'm going to try one from Trader Joe's and see what I think.  I've also used Bob's Red Mill stone ground whole wheat, but for a 100% whole wheat bread, it's a little heavy.   

Meanwhile, small steps on the updating of our house are continuing.  Dan is working away on parts of the yard and last week we installed a new toilet in the upstairs guest bath.  An elderly guest was here a month or so ago and after using the facilities, she confided in me that she thought she wasn't going to be able to get up from our standard height toilet.  I told Dan it was time to replace it with a new higher model as we couldn't have guests stranded in the potty.  I had fallen in love with Kohler's Tresham line of bath fixtures and was planning on using them for our bath, so I was thrilled to find they made them in the color already in the main bath--Mexican Sand.  We ordered one through our local plumbing shop and Dan was able to easily install it.  

Only at the resort will you be asked to admire a beautiful new toidy!!  Now to replace a few faucets in that bathroom and the light fixture and it'll be set.  On to more projects!!!  ♥