Month: November 2012

Not many posts this week because most lives are not back to normal. But we are. Back to normal, that is.

We were pretty well rested up by Monday when the work week started. I remembered I’d forgotten to advertise in the Alert for the special speaker I had coming in today, but we had a decent turnout, anyway, so that was a relief. I tend to worry that no-one will come. It was on the 10 warning signs of Alzheimers and it was very good.

We still have snow on the ground and it looks like it is trying to snow just a smidge right now. As long as it is this cold, bring on the snow! It will get me into the Christmas spirit so I will get my decorating done this coming weekend.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Can’t wait to see pictures of our get-together. I brought my camera, then didn’t take any.

The gal at Walmart said “It looks like you are starting some Christmas shopping,” to which I replied, “I’m just finishing my shopping, since I want to have everything ready to go by Thanksgiving. It is weird wrapping presents on November 18, but it is also nice to have it all done. I still have a couple more things to finish making and I’ll be done, at least as far as my offspring and theirs. We are thinking of getting photo-frames for our Mom’s. Even thought they don’t have internet, we can just bring pictures and dump them in every three months when we go down. I think they would both enjoy having it. Then I just have to buy little things for the people I work with and for the piano kids.

After one cold, wintery-feeling day, it has warmed up again. Not as warm as before, but still unseasonably warm for hunting season. I’m not complaining! Warmer weather = less heating fuel used.

There was a great house for sale at a significantly reduced price that will make a good rental with no (and I mean no) remodeling or redecorating. Scrub the carpets, wipe down the walls and we’re good to go. Well, we need to get a fridge and stove, but we’re putting money in the loan for that.

So, no, we didn’t buy it with cash. But by the time we have enough to buy a house with cash (for a rental, that is), the housing market may have recovered and we won’t find as many really good deals. I still maintain that I won’t take out a loan for a new house for us.

So, what we are getting is a Wausau manufactured home on a double lot west of the tracks in that subdivision, on a deadend street, so it is a very, very quiet neighborhood. There is no basement. There is a non-attached two car garage and the house has two bedrooms and a full bath on one end, then the living room in the center on one side and the kitchen and dining room across, then the other end has the master bedroom and bath and a laundry area sort of in a big hallway to the garage entrance. I know the lady who lived there before her stroke, but I didn’t know whose house it had been until after we’d made the offer and had it accepted. But the story about how this house came to be for sale sounded familiar, so we looked up this gal’s former address and, sure enough, it was hers.  I knew it had to have been an older person, because everything is so clean and nice. The plan is to get in there and spruce it up a bit and have it rented before the first payment is due!  Won’t that be a switch?

I finally got the south bedroom repainted. The past renters hadn’t finished it and I just didn’t feel like doing it. But it meant I had one less usable room. So I finally primed it last weekend and painted it green today. I’m not that happy with the color – a little too bright. My color coordinating book says it goes well with purple. The green I wanted goes well with off white. Oh well. It is done and it will be the guest room, as well as my “office.” Now we can turn the former guest room (where Chloe was the only guest) into a storage room. We have three shelving units in there, but have not started bringing the boxes up yet, because they all need cleaning off. Soon, though.

I don’t talk about work much, but I had a really good week. It was my receptionist’s birthday and I made a cake and everyone liked it. And she was very surprised and happy, which made me happy.  I got all the particulars in place for our Christmas show trip to Fanny Hill in January and we even got a great ticket price! I got the craft room cleaned really good, which it has needed for years (I’m not exaggerating!) We sold a lot of the cookbooks and the Cameron Center took a whole box (50 books) to sell up there, so we are down to only 75 left! I actually got the newsletter done and into the printers today because our potluck is a week early because of the holiday!

And, on the home front, I got another piano student, so I am up to 12. Which isn’t a lot, but it is several more than I had a month ago.

We took another Friday-Saturday trip to Waukesha this weekend. We couldn’t leave on Thursday night like before, because of choir, but we had plenty of time with our moms anyway.

We cleaned out Mom F’s vacuum cleaner. She said it wasn’t sucking very well, so we checked it out and (I kid you not) there was about 18 inches of the hose packed tight with dog hair. We pulled it out and pulled it out and pulled it out and finally blew the last of it out when we couldn’t pull any more out! Needless to say it works A LOT better now. We also replaced an outdoor motion sensor light for her. And we went out to eat (her suggestion), which was actually quite fun. We introduced her to avocado and spinach dip (at Applebee’s) and she tried a really good grilled chicken dish with a baked potato substituted for the mushroom and rice pilaf, because she doesn’t like mushrooms. She didn’t know you could ask for a substitution, so I think she was pleased.

At my mom’s we did the usual toenail work and hair trimming (I do the back every time I come down, despite the fact that I’m about the world’s worst haircutter). Then I mostly sat and talked, because she doesn’t get around well at all. I also helped get some mats out of her one dog’s coat and scoured her sink and washed up some kale for freezing. We brought Subway subs and left an extra half for her supper. She really enjoys them. We left around 4:30 and got home by bedtime, but with an extra hour to catch up on our rest!