Old stuff....

I got this wash stand a couple of years ago. It was the right price and the right amount of
peeling paint and sticky drawer and loose boards on the bottom shelf. You know, cool old
stuff! BFA says I need to add more of this type of information about my house in my blogs.
So, this is for her. This is the official plant stand. I have these plants. Several of them. This is
only one of the plant stands. Recently, one of the Christmas cactus plants actually fell off of the stand
it was on! Broke in several places, but it is ok. One of the Christmas cactus plants came from my
mother's house, after we had to put her in the home. This is suppose to be funny, as she always said that. At any rate, it didn't bloom for the longest time. Then one day I told it it had to go out in the compost if it didn't bloom! Well, I guess it didn't want to end up there as it bloomed that year and every year since. The plant in the forground is actually hubby's. It has to go to work with him sometime. He left one job and got another....at his age! What was he thinking?? He travels a lot with this new job. One of these days the dining room with get painted a really bright color, or the master bedroom will get a facelift. Actually, that room has all of the old really ugly rose wallpaper removed. Now, I really like wall paper, and if this room's wallpaper had been cute rather than dated ('80's!), it would have stayed. Choosing a color for a room with pale peach carpet is a challenge. Especially since I want sage-y green and Hubby wants pale cream! Arg! And he will never know. Took down some old wall border in the dining room. Took me some time as I am vertically challenged. I took it down in stages: first the north wall (figured he wouldn't notice) then the west wall, then the south and east at the same time. He still hasn't noticed! And that has been over a year ago! Ah engineers. Ya gotta love 'em.
Spring is around the corner...tomorrow, asctually. Found a great new church and am really enjoying the preaching. The main pastor is, as he puts it, just one of the elders. How humble is that. He is a true man of God. He loves the people and has a heart for God. And hope springs eternal, right?
All I can think of is : Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. What a great song. Hope you find it in the hymnal and read the words. Grace. What a charming sound.
All from the bush
ME

New, newer and old

Good day ya'll. Thought I would post some of the MFA's friends from church. The lovely ladies are in the kitchen working hard at cleaning up, perhaps hamming it up, more than likely. At the MFA's church, they have Sunday School, church, eat lunch together and then have a afternoon service. MFA spent a lot of time looking for the "right" church. One time she called and said she had to get up early for church. I asked her why she was going to such an early service, she answered, because it was less crowded. Being from the mid-west, Iowa where the "good" churches are much smaller than the "good" churches in the south. She was looking for that smaller church, like back at "home". She found one. But the drive is 45 minutes, hence the shorter day.
This little princess is my Lilly. She became a big sister on Jan 29th. Her little Liam was 7#13 and 19". He was almost 3 weeks early, so had to spend some time in the hospital. He is now home and doing well, gaining weight, up over the 8# mark. Told my daughter-in-law that he was up to his "real birth" weight, as opposed to the actual birth weight.
I have not as yet been to see Liam, as I think I told you hubby changed jobs and doesn't have any vacation.
The cost of flight is up, too. So we will see when i get to go down again. I told this when I
was down visiting just before Thanksgiving. I guess she is a great help to her Mom, and Landon
tells Liam all about his day at school. This little guy loves to read. I sent down a package
that included a book for Landon to read to his siblings.
Warm today, in the mid 40's and this is Feb! All of the snow is gone, and we had a lot.
Well, I need to close for today.
Keep walking with the Lord, all the way. Trusting His word.
All from the bush
me

Snow and Christmas tree

Hello again. I don't blog for days and then twice in a row! How is that? Well, I thought I would post a pic of the day after the snow storm . This happened during Christmas, it was snowing hard when I brought Hubby home from the hospital. The roads were bad and parking lots were awful. Next is one of the ways I decoate my tree. You take those lovely picks that Michael's or Hobby Lobby has and just put them into the branches of the tree. Lovely! I have 2 Christmas catus plants. One is very old and original to me. The other I inherited from my sweet mother some years ago. For a while that catcus would NOT bloom. I told it that it had better bloom or it was to the trash pile! Well, it bloomed. Both plants actuallt bloomed for Christmas this year. Amazing. One is still in bloom, the other decided not to bother. Maybe it will after a while......
All from the bush
ME

Winter decorations

Here are 3 of the arrangements that I have picted up over the last few years. The one on top of the mirror, which is a very old mirror by the way, I got at a small but charming floral shop in a very small town west of where I live. Actually, I think the arrangement over the painting of Bete Degris is also from that shop. It is Victor, IA. If you blink on your way to Des Moines on Highway 80, you will totally miss the turn off. The bottom arrangement I have had for a number of years and use it every Christmas/winter season.
My husband had surgery 2 days before Christmas. He had his tonsils out and some other throat work done. He spent one night in the hospital and I stayed with him that night. He has done well in his recovery and has been at work this week. Have not done much in the way of sewing, but I did cut out somethings--does that count? I have to make up a couple of bags for the grands and will post them when I get them done. I will also get some photos up of "before" and "after" of our kitchen cabinets. Took off the gold and put on some dull finish knobs and handles. This a cheap (well, sorta) way of remodeling a kitchen. Hopefully there will be a before and after of the sink and faucet....all in due time, as the man of the house recovers and has time!
All from the bush
ME

trip south continued

This is my new McMansion! Not! Seriously, you might recognize this as one of America's finest mansions. It is, of course, Builtmore of Ashville, NC. Originally the home of George Vanderbuilt, now a museum but still owned by the Vanderbuilt family. It was all decorated for Christmas and just amazingly beautiful. Several of the rooms were not open to the public, rooms that Jerry and I saw about 2 years ago when we went through in January. Emily, the MFA, is a "card holder" so I got in at a better price, $10 off. It was overcast and a warm 70-ish when we left Greenville, only to arrive in Ashville to 56 degrees and rain! We walked from the parking lot to the house, then all through the house and decided to take the shuttle back up to the parking lot, as it was coming down pretty good. We then had dinner in Ashville, then home to Greenville. The next day, we had to get up early to travel to Charlotte NC to catch the 6:30AM! flight. That flight took me to Atlanta, for a 2 hour layover til the flight out to Moline. Then home in freezing drizzle --what fun!. It was good to be home and have Thanksgiving at the home of some friends from church. Although I did miss being with family. Well, enjoy these pics. All from the bush ME

Trip South

Good Morning: At least it is morning at this time of writing---er, typing. Here are some photos from my recent (before Thanksgiving) trip to the warmer south. At this typing, however, the south is almost as cold as the north! Well, not exactly, but close. I have a couple of cute photos of my lovely granddaughter, Lilly. She is 4. I tried to get a photo of her brother, but ended up with videos instead. Just can't read those little settings--the digital camera I use has a switch and pictures of where that switch should be switched to, all in BLACK!! How is one to "read" that! Lilly and family live outside Atlanta. The joke about Atlanta is that when the Lord comes to call us home, we will all have to go through Atlanta first! From Atlanta I took the train to Greenville. OK, just to let you know about the times of this trip, here goes: Wed I left the house at 3:30 AM! to catch the 6:30 AM out of Moline, IL
Moline is a cheaper airport, however, it an hour and 3/4 away. So I get to Atlanta airport around local time 10:30-ish. Get picked up around 11:30. Then go to the school where Drew teaches and Landon, who is in K-5 are. Stefani is also subbing that day so Lilly is with her. I go to Landon's class--all 4 of them--should have taken a pic! They are sooo cute. One little girl looks just like the Disney's cartoon of Tinkerbelle! No lie! She is just adorable--and tiny! Just like Tinkerbelle. So we leave the school (after going to lunch twice!--only eating once....fyi) and are home for a couple of hours, then take off to meet some people from Drew's church for the before church on Wed night dinner. Zaxby's has this special for kids meals on Wed nights. Then we go to church, then home and chat for a while.....finely getting to bed after 10PM! Got up early to make sure I see Landon before school. Stef is So organized! Landon knows exactly what he is wearing everyday as she has his daily clothes in separate bins. It helps that the school requires uniforms, which are very nice. Landon looks great in red, with his
white blond hair and big blue eyes. Then Stef went to school to sub and Lilly and I played outside and I picked leaves (sorry no pic) much to Lilly's horror! How dare I do that! Then, after lunch Lilly and I went to school to watch the high school do their choir, band, speech competition. Then home and out to Olive Garden for dinner and then to the train station. Here is a pic of the Atlanta train station. Reminded me of an old movie. Left Atlanta by train around 9-ish. Got to Greenville at midnight.
But was greeted by a sweet and lively 2nd child, the MFA. I will close, but add more pic.
All from the bush
ME