Maw-Maw said what?

Ok… so you waited days for me to finally post this blog. Actually most of you haven’t even missed it… most of you didn’t even notice that I didn’t post the blog I said I would post.
Anyway.. on to my post…

So I was on vacation with Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw, minding my own business, when we passed a sign that said “watch for falling rocks”. Maw-Maw decided to comment on this sign…. She said “we better watch, cuz if a rock hit the car it would upset our apple cart”.
“What? – it will what our what?” I thought. Just briefly however, becuz really I was thinking… if a rock hit the car it would upset ME – forget the apple thing!
So… I get home and I am trying to tell mom this crazy thing Maw-Maw said.
“Maw-Maw said if a rock hit the car it would disturb our apple gate!” I said in a tone to let mom know Maw-Maw was crazy.
Mom said “Maw-Maw said what??”
“disturb our apple gate” I repeated.
With that mom agreed that Maw-Maw must be crazy… becuz that made no sense.
So some time passes – maybe a few hours – and mom says “Kase, did Maw-Maw say upset our apple cart?”
Apparently “upset your apple cart” is a phrase and “disturb your apple gate” is a phrase I made up :) I am very good at that… but if you read aunt robbie’s post about Maw-Maw… it is possible Maw-Maw said “disturb your apple gate” and I was right :) Or I said it wrong and I get it honestly… either way… :)

Not good!

ok... so we laid the tile... laid the grout.  we pushed ourselves to the breaking point all hours of the night so that the kitchen could be walked on before we had company.  

Our company is coming in tomorrow (wed).  So after praise team practice at church I could do my second coat of paint and start cleaning the house.  You know make it not look like a construction site.  I have tons of laundry to do... but cant walk on the tile back and forth knob pulling... so i have waited.

Anyway... Scott called his uncle (our visitor that is coming) to see when he was gonna get in Wed.  Paul responded with - "i am boarding my second plane and will be there around 2:30pm"

TODAY!!!!!!! not tomorrow!!!!! i have 3 1/2 hrs to make my house look decent!!!!!! 3 HRS!!!!!

so why i am wasting time blogging!!!!????

gotta go

Kitchen Floors

Ok so... the tile has been laid... well except for the utility room and pantry.  Oh and the tile backsplash... that will be done in the same tile but with the tiles turned so they are diamond shaped.  The utility will probably be put off till the washer is working well :) anyway...here is a pic of the tile being laid.  The color of the tile is a tanish, brownish, maybe slight (very slight) goldish tint.  dont know how it looks on everyones monitor.. so i thought i would specify.  Yes the tile could be lighter to brighten the room... but we have dogs and i am looking for something more practical :)  we also got "mocha" colored grout... again a dark color so it wont show dirt and stains.  Yes i could seal the grout to protect it from stains... but just incase i dont... i wanted it dark :)

Here is the tile after the grout - we finished that tonight - so we will be able to walk on it tomorrow.  The grout takes like 20 min to lay and the cleaning of the tile takes an hour... that wasnt fun.. but i dont want hazing on the tile either... so you gotta do what you gotta do :)

The biggest issue has been that the doggie door is in the utility room and you have to walk thru the kitchen to get to it... so the dogs have not been able to go outside unless i let them out.  Since they are used to a doggie door... they want to go out for no reason... all the time... all day long! cant wait for tomorrow :)

Anyway... the color we decided to paint the wall (still needs another coat, even though it is one coat paint :( ) is called Trench coat... not that that helps... but it is a dark "coffee milk" color.  Again... dont know how it looks on your screen.  Again... could have painted it lighter... but you wouldnt believe the dog slob that gets on my walls... i need to live in a completely medium brown colored house to not show all the mess the dogs make.  My Pastor's wife told me that kids will be easier than my dogs - lol!  With them i at least shouldnt have to clean all my walls once a month :)

So that is all.. it is 11:30pm and i still need to feed the dogs... so off i go ...

Bridal Session Today

I took bridal portraits today, since no one I know knows her I thought I would share one. Color may be wrong on your pc... depends on how your monitor is set up. Mine is set with my lab...
Anyway... we are laying tile... so i will get to my "what did Maw-Maw say?" blog a little later :)

Is this ok at eat?

So when i was like... 7-8ish... i was swimming in our jacuzzi, minding my own business, and mom called me in to eat lunch.

i came in, like the obedient child that i was, and sat down at the bar.  I dont remember what was on the plate except mac and cheese.  not any ole mac and cheese but GREEN mac and cheese.  I looked at it and looked back at mom - who was just carrying on like nothing was strange.  I finally said... "why is this macaroni and cheese green?"

to which she responded by looking at my plate and back at me like i was crazy...

"it isnt green kase - macaroni and cheese is yellow".

"i know... but this is green!" i responded... like she was the one who was crazy.

she reaches over and grabs a little with her fingers and eats it... then says

"kase, if you dont want to eat it... just eat the other stuff on the plate - u dont have to say it is green".

okay... so was i crazy?  i stared at it... blinking... nope - still green.  not even slightly yellow!

"mom, this macaroni is green!  i see green!" i whined back.

"kasey... macaroni and cheese is yellow ---- yeeee-low" she said slowly like maybe i didnt get it.

ok... now i am on the verge of tears... not becuz the mac and cheese is green but becuz i am apparently the only one who sees this strange color!  even my sister is looking at me like i am crazy.  

"but mom - i see green" i said with big alligator tears on the rim of my lids about to fall.

then the laughter starts... truly i dont know how my mom and my sister kept a straight face through this little prank they were pulling.

my mother had, apparently, decided to put green food coloring in the mac to see what i would do... she had told gretchen to play along.

so.... was i scarred for life? no!  i came from the loins of this prankster!  i decided to play my own.

next time Maw-Maw was over... her and mom were in the kitchen washing dishes.  I went to the fridge... pulled out the leftover mac and cheese... opened it were Maw-Maw could see inside and said "hey mom... is this macaroni ok to eat?"

"yeah" mom said not even thinking about it being green.

Maw-Maw quickly chimed in - "oh no baby! that is bad... it's green!"

lol! ha ha - i am not so easily beaten :)

tune in next time for "Maw-Maw said what??"

Many talents

okay okay... i wanted to get in on these old family stories.

so... i was staying at Maw-Maw's - nothing new there.  i think it was right before school started and i had gone school clothes shopping (i could be wrong though).  anyway... i had just gotten this new pair of adidas tennis shoes... they were so cool becuz grey/silver had always been my favorite color (i think that was due to my years of love for unicorns and they usually had silver horns and hooves)...  anyway... the adidas were a light grey.  so a) i loved the color and b) they were unique because they werent the standard white like everyone elses.

one day while i was there - i was in the bathtub and Maw-Maw came in.  She held up my adidas, all proud of her work, and they were WHITE!  Only Maw-Maw could make grey sneakers white!  I didnt want to say anything - so i mustard up a "yeah - they look good" all the while wanting to cry becuz my cool grey shoes were now white.  sure they looked brand new... but they were already brand new!

She proceeds to tell me how much she scrubbed them and how they would still not lose that dingy color.. so she had to use white shoe polish!

there is truly no telling how hard she worked on them before she gave up and got out the shoe polish.

so when mom picked me up - i met her at the door and pointed at me shoes.  she looked at me and said "arent those supposed to be grey?" -- the moral... Maw-Maw can make anything white :)

oh and she can also iron wrinkles out of anything.  this was proved when gret stayed at her house with her "cool" built in wrinkle shirt (the style at the time) and Maw-Maw managed to iron the built in wrinkles out.  Dont know how she did it... but she, again proud of her work, told gret how hard it was to get the wrinkles out! lol

of course Maw-Maw's talents were very handy when Lavenya Gussy (my cabbage patch doll and childhood companion) got dirty!  she could have her looking good as new in no time.

i even remember Maw-Maw taking me to garage sales to buy premie baby clothes for her. There are actually a few funny stories about Lavenya... but i will save that for another time :)

all in all... Maw-Maw is a woman with many talents... and i cherish every moment spent with her - present and past.

Love you Maw-Maw!

tune in next time for: Is this okay to eat?

interesting finding

So.. if any of you wear glasses (even sunglasses), you know that they have some sort of gravitational pull on matter.  much like my rear end has a gravitational pull to the ground, or like full panties have a gravitational pull to your... well to give you a wedgie.

anyway... glasses have to be cleaned all the time even if you havent moved from your comfy seat, or touched them with your hands, or had a dog lick them, or had water guns shot at you, or had food thrown at you (not squash, cuz that you just smear on the walls), or sanded anything, or ... well anyway... you get the picture... the lens in your glasses get dirty.

well... i have found that there is a matter impervious to the pull glasses have on said matter.

SPACKLE!  that's right joint compound will NOT get on your glasses.

with my texture project i have learned this interesting fact.

if you think that is amazing - let me explain just how amazing it is.

i have spackle on my legs, my arms, my hands and fingernails, on my face, my hair, my shirt, my sweat pants, my feet (top and bottom), and even in my mouth.  maybe that isnt too surprising if you have done some extensive spackling projects...

BUT

how bout this... i HAVE IT IN MY EYE!!

that's right, in my eye!

again that may not be all that surprising to you.

- drum roll please-

I HAVE NO SPACKLE ON MY GLASSES.

i have it in my eye - well not now.. i got it out before writing this of course - but i HAD it in my eye and nothing NOTHING on my glasses!

the glasses i am referring to were not in my glasses case in the bathroom either...

they were actually on my face the whole time i was texturing - THE WHOLE TIME - really.

not a speck of spackle is on them!

Amazing!

i am thinking of trying to put spackle on my glasses and see if they repel it.  like maybe it will actually jump on the walls if try to spackle my glasses?

Gret got a blog

this is for those of you not paying attention to my blog list and didnt notice "Mur mur mur mur mur mur mur mur" Gret got a blog! 

Gret is my sister for all you loyal fans who follow my blog ;)

walls

ok so if you have been reading my blog you know i have been redoing our kitchen.  we ripped off the wallpaper so i am in the process of texturing it.  i didnt know how much texture i would need w/paint so i painted an area to see how it would look.  so here is the pic. still have lots to do.

14 knob pulls

ok.. so a little back history.

i sold my washer and dryer (6 yrs ago) becuz when we were buying our new house in houston we were going to get all new appliances.  needless to say.. the down payment is not all the money you need.  it was a new home so we had to sod the backyard, get mini blinds in all the windows, furniture to fill up the 4 bedrooms, paint, etc.. Washer and dryer were the last things on my list of things to spend money on.  

Hello... decorations!  

Anyway.. we bought a used washer and dryer... about 20 yrs older than the ones i sold.  Seriously this washer was made when i was born!

However, i grew to love it. -insert "awwwe" here-

It finally broke less than a year ago.  The part to fix it was more than we paid for the machine... so off to craigslist (gotta love craigslist) - i bought another one... same model just a few years newer (really just a few... i think this one was made when i was 5yrs old).  how can i go wrong?  i loved the last one so much.

one week later it broke too - sigh! ok ok i get it... get a new one!

so i did.. guess what?

nope you're wrong... it didnt break..

the pipe in the wall is clogged or something.. so it has a slow drain.

we have tried drain-o and it didnt work.  we got a hand held snake to run down it and it still doesnt work.  so tonight we try that root killer stuff... maybe we have roots in the line?

however, in the midst of all this we are still wearing clothes and therefore i still need to wash.

believe it or not we have actually tried to stick the drain hose out the back door and just let it drain in the yard... the hose isnt long enough though.  scott brought in our large outdoor trash and said "hey we can drain it in here".

yeah moving and dumping a large trash can full of water sounds easy... and fun too.

no

so... the solution?

14 knob pulls!

when the machine gets to its first draining (after the wash) i lean over it and listen to the wall :)  when i hear the pipe fill up.. i pull the know to stop the draining.  the water goes down the pipe... then i push the know to start draining again.  the pipe fills up... pull the knob to stop the draining.  you get the picture.

it takes 7 knob pulls for each draining cycle to empty the tub of water... one after the wash and one after the rinse... 

really fun!

anyway.. back to washing.. i need to get 42 knob pulls in today.

second day with Runt.. i mean Felix :)

Second day with Felix has been better.  The newness has worn off so 4of7 is letting him get some rest.  We have even made it through feedings with no problems.

He is a love puppy... he will snuggle right up against u in bed.  Last night he couldnt stay snuggled long though, because 4of7 wouldnt give him enough peace.

I thought he was a cross between 4of7 and Riggins but today i am seeing a lot of Big-a-toe.  He has a nice mix of the family looks, and of the family traits.

If i had to say right now if he could live with us peacefully... the answer would be yes.  We have him till Thursday, so we will see how it goes.

I think Ernie is moving in Sept/Oct -ish, so Felix would be a permanent/temporary member of our family at that time.  Temporary if Ernie and his wife find a house soon... they will be able to take him back.  That might be hard on us after having him for a while... but if we could do it with Riggins we can do it with Felix.  Especially since it will be in our minds that he isnt really ours.

trial run w/felix aka runt

So today we start our trial run w/felix.  We had named him Runt when he was born - he was the last one born out of the 7 pups - but we didnt call him 7of7 :)

So we are keeping him till thursday afternoon.  so far the only problem has been the LARGE amounts of slobber all over the living room floor :)

He cant go anywhere without 4of7 following him, poor guy.

anyway here are some pics... he looks like a cross between Riggins and 4of7.  He is the one with the collar on in these pictures.

Me and fertility! :) or the lack there of

Those of you who know me, know I have been trying to get pregnant for a
while now (4 plus years). I did some research (as I do with everything)
and found out about charting basal body temps. Started charting and
found that I am pretty normal. I do ovulate and my luteal phase (half of
cycle after ovulation) was a little short (11-12 days) but not too short
(anything 10 days or less). Charting still did not work.
Found out this past November that I had a large cyst on my ovary and
fallopian tube. They went in to remove it and also found endometriosis.
So again… the research began. I thought for sure I would get pregnant
right away since during the surgery they also flushed my tubes. Nothing
happened besides I stopped sleeping, put on weight, water retention,
started having bad headaches, blood sugar got off so I crave
sweets/carbs constantly, and the list goes on.
Back to the doctor I went. He put me ambein to get me to sleep and see
how much of my symptoms are just exhaustion. Did some blood work… will
get those results when I go back for my follow up visit on the 24th.
So during all of this I have still been researching… I came across
progesterone info for every single problem I have been having. The
doctor had mentioned he wanted to check my hormone levels (estrogen and
progesterone), but this was before my surgery. With all that has gone on
he has not had my levels checked.
Anyway… so progesterone… apparently woman who have endo are always
estrogen dominant – and website after website says add progesterone!
Having problems getting pregnant? Add progesterone! Short luteal phase?
Add progesterone! Miscarriage? Add progesterone! Cant sleep, have hot
flashes, pre/peri/post menopausal, headaches, water retention? Add
progesterone! Thyroid problems? Add progesterone! Website after website
I got the same thing.
So I am going to self treat… since the doctor has been putting off
checking me. Plus even if he checked me – he would put me on synthetic
progesterone (progestins) and I have read bad things about this type of
progesterone. Natural progesterone is over the counter because it comes
from yams or soybeans and therefore a food product.
I got some yesterday (although I don't start taking it till ovulation) –
Progest-care from Sunharvest. I had wanted the Now Foods brand but they
didn't have it. However, with my continued research… I will be buying
Happy PMS cream online from now on. Progest-care and Now Foods brand
have added herbs or EVO (evening primrose oil) that are not pregnant
friendly. If I wasn't trying to get pregnant any with USP progesterone
would be fine. Anyway the Happy PMS cream meets my natural "hippy"
criteria and price range J Plus you can take it your whole pregnancy if
you need too.
If interested you can read a cool story from a lady who used Happy PMS
cream during her pregnancy - http://www.beyondfertility.com/art205.htm

Ironically in the midst of all of this scott went and got his hair cut
and his hair cutting lady, who recently had a miscarriage, had been
having a hard time getting pregnant again. She wasn't sleeping and was
"acting crazy" – her words. She said she went and bought some
progesterone cream and a month later was pregnant. All the more reason
for me to give it a go! Although I have not had a miscarriage… if my
progesterone is low… I may be fertilizing an egg and just passing it
with my period because my LP is a little short and it doesn't have time
to latch on.
I have high hopes! :) So keep me in your prayers! I will keep you updated
on how it works… and if you don't care to hear about it… you can just
skip those posts :)

stuff

ok so first i wanted to make a plug... check out Robbie's blog tomorrow for "Aunt Sis and the Propeller" (did i spell that right Ash)? lol

it should be a good blog... i am excited :)

anyway... so after rubbing panty hose on my rear end (as per Aunt Robbie's advice) i went back to work on the floor.

Here are some pics of the floor after the linoleum (at least the top half) had been removed.  it still needed to be scraped in these pics... we have already finished scraping though.

then we pulled all the broken pieces of concrete out of the hole so we could fill it properly.  as you can see from the pic we ran into some problems.  what are these pipes? 

after we fill the hole the tallest pipe will probably be 1/2in from the top.  Our guess is that these pipes leaked and the original owners brought them up out of the foundation to fix them and then just threw some concrete on top.  notice i said on top... just a thin layer.

so anyway.. this is where we are now.  if all goes well we will at least get this patched tonight.

then when we have some more time we will pull the washer, dryer, and fridge to get the linoleum out from under those.

washer is still draining into the house :( thought we had fixed it... so i threw our bed sheets in there... nope.  now we have wet dirty sheets :) fun!

stayed tuned for more kitchen remodeling fun :)

Floor

So today we are ripping out the floor in the kitchen to lay tile.  

I will post pics later.

the people who lived her before had added an extension to the house and it somehow got a hole at the seam.  so the linoleum had a hole in it too.

anyway apparently you cant just rip up linoleum.  go figure.

half of the linoleum stays on the floor, the top half comes off.. but not the bottom half.

anyway... scotts dad said a steam wallpaper remover is the way to get that stuff off.  steam and scrape.  scott went to get the steamer.. i will let yall know how it goes.

i have been trying to decide if i want to steam the wallpaper off that is in the kitchen too (since we will have the steamer).  my problem is.. this is scott's dad's rent house.  the real estate market is prime for buying right now and we have no desire to own this house so we wont be staying here.  do i really want to do all the work of removing the wallpaper and then texturing and painting the wall if we wont even be here next year?  no of course not... but then again... i love before and afters.  tile on the floor, a nice tile backsplash, a nice taupe colored paint on the walls... it would be pretty.

again though... i told scott i wanted to buy by Jan/Feb... so is it worth the work to enjoy it for only 6 months?

hmmm

Fox or cow?

So the question is.... are you a fox or a cow?

i should preface this blog first with the fact that i am some what of a hippy.  some what because it is more of i want to be than i actually am :)  i am

 into the whole green thing, we feed our animals a raw diet (raw meat and bones - yes the bones too), we dont vaccinate our animals (or ourselves), we try to buy organic when we can, we pay extra on our utility bill for "windtricity", we recycle

, use alternative medicine when we can, dont use chemicals in our house for cleaning or for yard work, etc...

however we do still eat unhealthy a lot, we dont drive hybrids (yet), and we dont live off the grid :)

anyway... so i am on this email list from a website i love www.mercola.com.  scott recently said that he had read an article about how flip flops are bad for your feet. i have HORRIBLE feet (thanks mom) as does most of my family.  so a couple days after scott told me this i get my email from mercola's website about flip flops being bad for your feet - ironic.

apparently there is what is called a "cow walk" and a "fox walk".  the cow walk is a learned thing that people do because we wear shoes that restrict the natural way our feet move.  a fox walk is what babies do who are just starting out walking and have not trained there feet to walk incorrectly.  apparently the "heel-toe" walk is wrong and called the cow walk.  the fox walk is more of a toe heel walk.  not exactly though... more like a test the ground with the fatty part of your foot then roll to the flat part.

with flip flops your toes try to hang on to the shoe so you are doing this weird tension with your toes while you walk.  apparently it shortens your stride too.

so the cure... back to nature.  go barefoot when you can.  we live in a "no shoes, no shirt, no service" type of world - so barefoot isnt always an option.  but when you can - be a fox not a cow :)  interesting to note - when you fox walk you engage your butt muscles... which doesnt happen when you cow walk.  so fox walking even helps you look less like a cow by using major muscle groups and therefore burning more calories :)

interesting side note.  when you walk on the ground (not carpet, concrete, tile) you are getting rid of free radicals in your body.  the ground is - just that - a ground and it discharges these free radicals - bonus!

okay... so the moral... dont be a cow :)

oh and i found this cool shoes that people say are close to being barefoot... not pretty though :) they are called fivefinger shoes...

another dog?

Okay... so we have 3 dogs.  Not just any dogs... 3 big dogs!  We had 4 but 2 of them fought - really bad fighting - so 1 had to go.  Riggins now lives with Scott's mom.  Riggins and Zeauxy had a littler almost 4 yrs ago and we kept 2 of the litter.  Since Riggins is now with Mary, we just have 3 - the mom and 2 of her boys.

This is 4 of 7 (yes, for real, and we call him that)
This is Big-a-toe (yes that is his name)
This is the momma Zeauxy


So now on with the story.

Scott calls me the other day and asks if i want another dog?  are you kidding me?

anyway he proceeds to tell me that one of the people who got a pup from our litter (we only had one litter - so it is 4of7 and Big-a-toe's brother Runt - well his name is Felix now) has to move and cant take the dog.  The owner plans on getting a house in seattle as soon as he can but is having a hard time getting an apartment that excepts big dogs.

So i told scott we have had 4 big dogs before... as long as they dont fight... that would be fine. Plus scott has seen Felix a few times but i havent seen  him since he was 3-4 mo old... so that is kinda cool.

I dont know, however, how much singing i will be able to take from scott if we get another brother in the house.

he sings to the pups all the time now...

"we're brothers, till the end of time

together or not your always in my heart

your hurt your feelings and you will cry no more - ORE"

you get the idea..

anyway... we have to try a trial run first... we cant have the fighting again and Felix still has his... ummm ... boy parts... our boys had theirs removed when the fighting started.  We were hoping it would stop the fighting but it didnt.  

Anyway... scott told ernie (the owner of felix) that if we can take him that ernie can have felix back whenever he gets a house in seattle.  ernie was excited about that.

if the dogs fight - however - and we have dominance issues... that wont be an option.

my uncle may want felix... but if that happens ernie wont get him back - so scott is hoping he can live with us - peacefully :)

so that is my new blog... long yes... but hey i have blogged something everyday!  im getting good at this :)

forming a habit

ok so another boring blog real quick.  i am really just trying to get myself in the habit of blogging - i have never been much on journaling and such so i am forcing myself to start :)

i really dont have much to say... well actually i always have lots to say, but since i normally dont blog my brain doesnt automatically think - "hey you should blog that".

well... now that i think of it i do have something to blog about... but i want to try adding pics too (probably the icon above this box next to spell check thqat says add image -huh?) and we have VBS tonight so i dont have time right now. you have to wait and see what it is going to be about... is the suspense killing you?

aunt robbie still doesnt have a blog :( i am waiting patiently for that blog - cuz i know it will be good :)

insert random thought here

insert random thought here

anyway... scott is ready to go - so it is off to VBS!

plumbing is stupid

so.. a real post. actually i dont really have time for a real post because we have VBS at church tonight. it starts at 6pm but Scott's car (breaks maybe) are messed up so he has my car. Yay! another thing to pay for! we have had plumbing problems this month too... literally everything that has water going to it has messed up this month. scott fixed both toliets, the master sink faucet, and the outside spigots. We still need to fix the kitchen sink, the spare bathroom sink, and the washing machine drain - sigh. see EVERYTHING has messed up - plumbing wise this month.
anyway... scott is home and we need to go... so more to come later!

Test

ok i have a blog - cool - now what?