Friday, July 20, 2018

Misc House Stuff

This pile of boxes was my kitchen, before it was my kitchen.
Lotsa Boxes!


Bought these for the grandkids,
So they'd have them to play with while Halley and I worked on the house.


The kitchen coming together . . . . .

Halloween costume for Chancy!

It was exciting to see all of those boxes turn into a kitchen.
(IKEA kitchen that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE)



I had these made for the kitchen but didn't use them . . . . 
Just thought they were too much, with everything else that was going on.


Justin pulled this all out of one of the air vents!
A pack rat's paradise.


The grandkids have gotten in on the painting action.
Killing the floor (Kilz)




So nice now!



Halloween Outing


There is this really fun place called Gardner Village.
During Halloween a lot of people dress up like witches and go there.
I thought it would be fun if Halley and I and the girls dressed up and went.

What a fun time!














Girl Times

When we first moved back to Utah and Lincoln wasn't here,
Halley and I spent a lot of time shopping for house stuff.

One of the favorite trips for the girls
was to go to Ikea.

It's quite an outing for them.
and us!

The girls have to try out all the chairs and beds
and whatever else is around.





And what friends they are!
so cute that they are holding hands.



Palisades 2017

This is from a year ago,
Blogging has been extinct recently for me!
Palisades is upon us this year again.
It is a yearly routine for the Stevens' Family for over 20 years.
We haven't been involved mostly because we lived over 2000 miles away.

It is fun to look back and see the growth that has happened in this year.
We were still living in Maryland.  
Our home was for sale and sold on this trip, while we were away.
Now we are fixing up the home we are living in here in SL.
I was looking for a job, and now I have a job.
The grandkids have grown.
Our kids all have changed a little from us being here.
We have changed from us being here.

This year because of work, we will not have all of them with us in Palisades.
But that in itself is a good thing.

This trip was a good time, it was a bad time.
Isn't that true with almost anything in life?

It was so great seeing the kids interact with the grandkids and other family.















Saturday, May 12, 2018

What do I miss?

I haven't felt like blogging for a long time.

It is 5:30 am and the inspiration has hit me.

I must blog.

Many people ask me if I miss Maryland.

How can I not miss Maryland when we lived there for 18 years?

Some things are ingrained.

Today when I woke up at this early time in the morning,

what did I miss?

The woodpecker, that woke us up each morning.
He/she sat on the metal covering of our chimney,
just above our heads,
and very distinctly pecked away at that chimney.
They peck fast and furiously for a couple of seconds, wait and do it again!

The first time we heard it, we didn't know what in the world it was.
Took us a few mornings until we discovered it.
and after that we expected it.
The person who bought our home may have experienced the same thing.
Or maybe not, maybe he has always woken up to a woodpecker pecking the house!

Other things I miss . . . . . 

The footsteps of squirrels dropping off of their tree highway,
onto our roof on their way to their next limb.
(our lot was wooded, 32 very mature oaks and pines)

The mole in the back yard,
who is digging his way through our used to be lawn.
Actually, I don't miss him.

The ground bees which are making their appearance in our used to be lawn.
Who keep the mole company.
Who one year, I caught as they hatched.
The most amazing thing!
As one hatched, it stopped, helped the other out of the ground,
flew off . . . . as the next one stopped to help the next one out,
and so on and so on and so on.
They were very docile bees.
You could walk through them and they took you no notice.
We fought and fought and fought those bees.
Who wants bees in their lawn?
On second thought, I don't miss them either. Ha!

The red robin, who built her nest in our front shrub,
in which we had a perfect view of from our front window.
She was less than a foot away.
She would,
Build the nest,
lay her eggs,
sit on her eggs,
hatch her chicks,
feed her chicks,
the chicks would become too fat for the nest,
and would soon gone.
They grew so fast!

The cardinal that would try to nest in the robin's place.
She never quite was able to take over the bush!

The blue jays that were more plentiful when we had a dog.
They love dog food!

Later on in the year,
when our holly trees were full of red berries,
(did you know there are male and female of every tree?)
only one of the genders had red berries.
A flock of robins would come and all at once,
peck each berry off of the tree!
An awesome sight.

Right now the hostas will have unfurled their leaves.
Some of those leaves twice as large as my foot.

The Japanese Maple will be it's full purple/red wonder.

The dogwood will have bloomed,
The azalea, the rhododendron, the camellia,
the magnolia, the ornamental pear.

The rain that watered the yard so thoroughly
that a sprinkler system was not needed.

Do I miss Maryland?

Yes . . . . . but Maryland was traded for so many other nice things.

Which if this post weren't so long, I would choose to elaborate.

But will not.

Good day.

Or if you lived in Maryland the saying would be . . . . no kidding . . . . . 

Have a blessed day!

What a nice saying.