Start of the Holidays

We have the family float entered into the Tifton Christmas parade. The new holiday g-dad tee-shirts have been ordered. Best of all, Eileen with help from Grandaddy, Andrea and Randy, Andrea's brother got cutouts and lights put up.Once again the sled with Santa's list, Rudolf's jail,the little country church and most important of all, the manger scene grace the front lawn. I just hope our new neighbors can stand the lights for the next month.

Anyone have a homemade cookie?

As we enter week three progress is being made. These pictures were taken last week and don't show the tile on the counter top. At least we can run the dishwasher now. What amazes me is how I still manage to not lose any weight. We can't make homemade bread, cookies, pancakes, etc. without a whole lot of moving stuff around so it just isn't worth it. the first thing I will do in my new kitchen is make a huge pan of gooey cinnamon rolls. Did I mention I might have a problem kneading the dough? My new counter top is about three inches higher than the old one. I could go retro fifties and wear high heels with my apron.

Speaking of Pecans

Eileen and I both had the same dream the other night. We dreamed we were digging pecans out of the grass with our toes every time we closed our eyes. This is what happens when you spend all day looking down for the brown nuts in the brown leaf piles.
I have developed a new technique this year to accommodate my advancing years. I call it the "rake and scoot" method. I rake all the leaves/pecans into long rows. Then I sit on my bottom at the beginning of the row and with one hand rake through the leaves while picking out pecans with the other. When I finish the area in front of me I scoot on down the row until I reach the end. I have developed the twirl method for moving my bucket. I simply turn it up on the bottom rim and roll until it advances to where I want it to be. There are a couple of downfalls to my methods. First,is the occasional antpile I happen into. Then there are the bugs whose homes have been disturbed by my raking. There is also the unknown hard objects found while digging through the piles. The biggest problem this year has been Roxie, the compound dog of the moment. She takes my sitting on the ground as an open invitation to come nuzzle my face and sit in my lap. While she is not a very large dog, these actions make it impossible to sort out pecans. If I push her head away she takes that as a sign I want to play a little rougher. Thankfully, she is easily distracted if you throw a stick for her to fetch. She chases and picks up the stick like a pro but has not mastered the art of returning to the thrower. I try to keep sticks with me as I scoot along and hope she will find distraction as she runs happily away from me!

Here we go again!

Eileen asked the question the other day, "Why can't we have a simple remodling project"? The kitchen floor needed to be replaced so they tore up the old one. Lo and behold there was rotted, dampness that meant cabinets had to come out. So we have flu stricken kids and adults in a house where we are washing dishes in the bathroom sink. This was also the week David started his substitute teaching career. Throw in Jed on crutches for six weeks (thank heavens no surgery) and life truly becomes a comedy. Oh, did I mention I need to get a new battery for my camera. Anybody going to Walmart? They don't sell batteries at Lowe's or the hardware store. The ones benefitting from all the madness are the squirrels. They are glad we don't have time to pick up the pecans covering the ground.