Late Night Entertainment for Our Guest!

Took Cheryl out to the ol' ball park this evening!  Elijah has a new nickname = Little "E" = because there are two Elijahs on his team...and there is quite a size descrepancy...the other Elijah is Big "E."  The Bucks (Elijah's team) won the game.

Woody decided not to walk this morning since he is still having allergy problems and decided that one length of time outside would be enough for today.  Cheryl and I haven't done a lot...mainly we've sat on the front porch talking and looking at the birds.  We have also taken great pains to learn a new card game...Skip Bo...I think that we have the rules down finally!  It has been a bit of a learning curve for us at our advanced ages...ha! ha!  Cheryl won't admit as much of an advanced age as I since she is seven years my junior!  We have periodically had entertainment join us on the front porch with the names of Isaac and Joseph.

Sunday Blessing!

Elijah was baptized today!

Hosts

We're busy being hosts...two different kinds of hosts...first being hosts for my sister Cheryl...her plane arrived on time last night.  Wade and Alex picked her up at the airport.  We got home a little before midnight so didn't have much visiting time last night.  But able to get a good start which has continued on to today.  We spent a good amount of time sitting on the porch talking and also visiting with the neighbors (Nathan, Kathy and seven of Cheryl's great nephews and nieces). They love their Auntie Cheryl! After supper tonight (Stuffed Spud Soup), we got the dishwasher going and she and I headed off to WalMart...shopping is something that I do more while she is visiting!  We had to pick up a couple of necessities...mainly coffee...I realized late last night that I had only decaf...oops.  Nathan and Kathy came to the rescue this morning with enough coffee for today's pot.  Now we are good to go for her visit...at least as far as coffee goes...I'm sure more shopping trips will occur!  We also got some candles to discourage the mosquitos...now to see if I can tolerate the smell when they are burning...maybe I can if they keep me from being nibbled.

The other hosting that we are doing is pictured in tonight's photos.  We are hosting caterpillars on our curly parsley.  They are enjoying it...glad to oblige this ravenous stage in their lives!  They are stripping the stems pretty bare. There are four of them altogether.  I hope that there are enough leaves for them to get to the next stage in their life cycle!  Nathan and children researched and found out that these caterpillars are going to become Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies.

Woody walked his four miles early this morning.  Later in the morning he went to the library and made a stop at the grocery stores (2) for some items that I forgot to put on the list and also a couple that went on sale today.

Winging Her Way to TN!

Well, if we can believe the airline, her plane took off on time...so in a few hours Cheryl will be here.  We actually left our house before she left hers out in AZ.  We needed to come early so I could leave my sewing machine and serger at a sewing machine dealer in Murfreesboro.  They close at 5pm so we have quite a few hours to hang out till Cheryl is picked up at the airport in Nashville.  Melany and family live in Murfreesboro so we had made plans to stop and visit and take them out for supper.  Melany is at her school's Fall Festival, but will be home before too much longer. The activity she is in charge of is outside so she said that she would be home once it got dark...and sun is down so will be dark before long.  Alex, our oldest grandson offered to pick up his Auntie Cheryl at the airport and we gladly accepted.  We will stay here and visit and wait.

Woody walked four miles this morning.  He said that he should have started a bit sooner...got a bit warm...our temps are going back up...got into the 80's today.  After his walk, he took off to do our weekly grocery shopping.  I pretty much just continued to get ready for our visitor.  Worked on spiffing up the front porch...I relocated quite a few spiders and wiped off the chairs so we should be able to sit and enjoy the porch while Cheryl is here starting tomorrow.  Be home a bit late to sit and chat on the front porch tonight!

One To Get Ready! (1)

Here's the beans before and after cooking for almost 8 hours in the oven at 250 degrees.  And, even if I do say so myself, they are pretty tasty.  I will let them cool for a little while and then pop them in the refrigerator and they will be ready for one of our meals this weekend.  And, besides the title hinting at the day in the countdown...it also tells that I have one more recipe that I plan to make tomorrow before it is time to leave the house to pick Cheryl up.  After Woody goes to the store I plan to make Stuffed Spud Soup...and then I am through with cooking till we run out of what is already cooked and I have to make more!  Since I have a couple of things in the freezer we should definitely make it a little beyond the weekend. The downstairs only has a little left to do...mop the kitchen floor and clean the kitchen sink (I think).  Of course there are always those unexpected jobs...like this afternoon when I discovered that a pipe had broken under the sink in the downstairs bathroom.  What a mess that was as there were towels stored under in that cabinet...all soaked...oh, well, our plumbers (Nathan and Graham) were johnny on the spot and are in the midst of fixing it.  Nathan thought that he had a pipe that would work...but it didn't so it will take a trip to Lowes before it can be fixed.  I have gotten all the downstairs vacuumed with Woody doing his domain...the family room.  I still need to do a lick and a promise in the upstairs.  But things are winding down on getting ready...good thing!  I will work on the front porch while Woody grocery shops in the morning.  We finally saw sunshine today...nice after quite a few cloudy and overcast days.  Woody walked four miles this afternoon and on his way home stopped at our pharmacy to pick up one of his prescriptions.  I managed to get a pair of jeans cut out for myself.  I needed to get them cut out so I could fold down my cutting table and store it away.  Woody is now at Elijah's baseball game.  I stayed home to get a little more done and perhaps sit and rest for a few minutes. Cheryl doesn't get in till late tomorrow night so not sure when I will be able to blog...might blog from Melany and Wade's house if I take my ipad...or might be very late tomorrow night...or might not be till Saturday morning!  Time will tell.  But I can now say, "Tomorrow is the day!" The only thing that worries me saying that is that there is also that saying: "Tomorrow never comes!"

Two Turtle Doves (2)

And, no, I am not decorating for Christmas prior to Cheryl's arrival...but tonight's blog title is appropriate due to the task that I did last night after I blogged. I decided that I would polish the silver spoons that hang in a wooden display in the dining room...last time Cheryl visited it was pointed out to her that I hadn't polished them prior to her visit...so am trying to rectify that oversight from her last visit.  Wonder what will get pointed out to her this time...because there is plenty being left undone!  Anyway, I polished all thirty of the spoons (a task that I do probably no more than twice a year...mainly they get done at Christmas time).  After I got them done, I decided that while my fingers were all black that I would look for other tarnished silver items.  I polished a silver dinner bell and a couple of other spoons and bells and then I remembered this shelf of bells that resides in the living room all year long as a part of my bell collection even though it depicts The Twelve Days of Christmas.  The twelve bells each represent a different day in The Twelve Days of Christmas song.  So on day two of the countdown till Cheryl arrives, the Two Turtle Doves bell is all shiny once again!  I finished the other side of the long kitchen counter this morning.  One of the things that I asked Woody to do was to put a watermelon in the fridge and I suggested that he cut into it before finding a spot for it.  Well...he cut into it and watermelon water just spewed out of it...all over the side of the counter that I did yesterday and down the front of the dishwasher...and onto the floor which hadn't been mopped yet, thankfully...I knew better than to mop the floor too soon!  We got that mess cleaned up and I slightly mopped that area of the floor so we wouldn't stick to the floor.  Before I left to go work in the church library, I made my recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup.  I need it for the soup that I am planning to make on Friday before heading toward the airport.  I made an easy casserole for our supper tonight.  And, just before heading up to blog, I vacuumed the living room and part of the dining room.  The only thing that I have to do before going to bed tonight is start soaking the beans for making Mother's recipe for Boston Baked Beans.  They have to soak over night and then cook for a loooooooooooong time tomorrow.

This afternoon while I was working at the church library, Woody went on his walk.  He included a stop for a hair cut...looks like we are all getting haircuts prior to Cheryl's visit.  I got mine cut yesterday, Woody got his cut today, and Cheryl is getting hers cut tomorrow.  Woody called his haircut a "chairyl cut" in honor of Cheryl's visit. Ha? Ha?

We have continued to have drizzle off and on...Irma revisiting.  I think that everyone will be glad to have Irma take her leave! I'm looking forward to sunnier days!  It's predicted to be quite nice for the start of Cheryl's visit.  I hope so as she is looking forward to sitting on the front porch.

3 Days to Go!

Seemed like these three pansies were a good photo for Countdown Day 3!  They are especially good as they are some pansies that I took a picture of the last time that I went to Arizona...pansies from Cheryl's pretty gardens.  Of the two of us, Cheryl is the one who got the green thumb! She loves puttering out in her gardens...me not so much...probably my flowers sense that!

It has been another busy day...though I haven't gotten a lot done in the house as this was haircut day and after my haircut I decided that it was time for my obligatory Walmart trip prior to having visitors!  I "always" go to Walmart just before I leave on a trip and almost always go to Walmart just prior to a visitor coming.  I do go at other times...but those two times seem to be "necessary trips!"  Today I "needed" to go to Walmart because the two flourescent light tubes in the kitchen both went out...I can't remember when they have gone out at the same time before. And, because I needed to stop and buy the flourescent lights, I figured that it was a good time to go on and pick up the other things that had been accumulating on a list as I have been bustling around the house.  I got all the items on my list and got back home and Woody had already attempted to take the burned out...these are the 48" long tubes...not the easiest.  Well, he managed to get the one out that we thought had gone out and replaced it with the one that we had in reserve.  BUT after he did that we realized that both were bad...AND neither of us can get that one to turn correctly to come out of the fixture...Woody has the problem that he can only raise one of his arms over his head...a hard job to do one handed!  And, for some reason I have never been able to do those tubes...we continue to take breaks and then try again.  So if the saying: "If at first you don't succeed, try try again" is true then we should eventually be able to get it out and then replace it...if not then I guess that we will just have to wait till Nathan or Graham are home to help out...if not maybe it will be the first thing that I ask Cheryl to do after she gets here!  It has been a bit hard to work in the kitchen as it seems rather dark without the overhead lights!  Thank goodness for the lights under the cabinets, over the sink and over the stove.  But I will have this "no lights" time period to explain away anything that I just "think" is clean because I can't see!  Today I started on the other side of the kitchen...just cleaning off the counter...wiping off appliances, etc. One half of that side of the kitchen looks wonderful!  I just cleaned the inside of the microwave (on yesterday's side of the kitchen...not quite finished over there yet!)  I grabbed the towels out of the drier as I was coming upstairs to blog and have them folded and hung in the guest bathroom.  I have waited as the neighbor grandchildren use that bathroom when they over here and use those towels...hopefully they will stay clean for three days!

Woody walked to the prayer room at church and has just returned.  We haven't had much rain in the daylight hours...mainly just a drizzle or fine mist...enough earlier this afternoon to turn on the windshield wipers and the lights on the car automatically.  I'm not sure how much rain that we got due to Irma as the rain gauge decided to stop registering...where is Graham when we need him for these technical things!  But the flowers continue to be happy with the rain that we have been getting.  There are lots of leaves down...not sure if it is due to the wind or just heavy rain that we got for a while last night.  I was never really aware of a lot of wind...maybe I was asleep for the wind...or just didn't hear it due to hearing rain on the roof.

Well, back to doing "something" to get ready for my visitor!