Why do I do this to myself?

I've been at a loss since, my favorite farmer's vegetable stand has decided they're not selling at their stand any more.  I LOVED going there for my summer veggies that we don't have in our own garden, or for larger quantities that I can freeze or can (think green beans and corn).   I found an ad in our local shopper for a place that was about 30 miles away, north of Medford, WI.  Their website showed all kinds of veggies along with some fresh berries.   Let's go on a road trip!  

I was a little bummed out that ALL they really had were berries, but then again, I couldn't resist buying 8 pints of fresh RASPBERRIES!  Yes, they were rather expensive, but they were oh, so worth the money!  

What is one to do with EIGHT pints of raspberries?  

Why make raspberry jam, of course!  


This is where I start wondering why I do these things to myself!  You see, we didn't leave until 11:30 a.m.  By the time we got the berries, made a stop at Walmart and then the local grocery store, it was 3:00 by the time we got home!  



For anyone that does any canning, you KNOW that starting at 3 p.m. is probably NOT the best idea!  But, what was I to do?  I couldn't wait, as raspberries are WAY too fragile and need to be dealt with the same day they're picked.  I was told these were picked today, so there you go!  

Gotta start with all the prep work, and when you're doing any home canning, that means sterilizing.  The only way to do that is to boil the jars, lids and rims.   

The lids and rims are boiling in a small kettle.










The half-pint jars I bought at Walmart are boiling in one of my water bath canners.  I discovered today that I actually have THREE water bath canners!   And, as we'll find out shortly, that's a GOOD thing!  





The nice thing about raspberries is that they mush up really well all by themselves once you add some heat to them!  I put all eight pints in my big stock pot (and ya'all wonder why I have so many BIG pots, pans, bowls, etc.!  I really DO need (and use) them!).  

Most recipes call for a cup of sugar to each cup of raspberries, but I find that to be entirely too sweet.  My blood is sweet enough, I don't need to add that much sugar to it!   I like my jam sweet, but I don't want it to be overpoweringly sweet.  I want to taste the berries, too!  

The berries are here cooking with about 16 cups of sugar (almost 10 pounds!).  That's HALF of what is recommended in every recipe I researched!   They needed to be cooked until the candy thermometer reaches about 221 degrees.  Because of the natural pectin in raspberries, you don't need to add any "Sure Jell" to it when it's cooking.   




I filled up the twelve 1/2 pint jars I bought, and I still had a LOT of raspberries left.  Oh, geeze!  Abby helped out by running to get me more jars, which meant I had to start the whole sterilizing process all over!  ACK!  So, there I was, with one canner on for the jars of jam I had to boil for 15 minutes, and another on sterilizing pint jars, and yet another kettle on with the additional lids and rims!   

Doesn't everyone want to have three burners going on a HOT summer day?  Yes, I had the air on (thank goodness for air conditioning), but it still managed to heat up the kitchen! The new exhaust fan over the stove and ceiling fan over the kitchen table really helped disperse the heat I was generating!  

I think I was finally done at about 8:00 at night!  Yes, I ask myself . . . why do you do this to yourself!  LOL!  Oh, well.  I doubt I'll ever learn my lesson! 

I ended up with 12 one-half pints, seven pints, and one quart of raspberry jam.  Adding in the 10 pounds of sugar, it ended up costing about $2.00 per half pint (not including the cost of the jars, lids or rims).   The jam didn't jell as well as my strawberry jam did last year, and is a bit runny, but once you open it and put it in the fridge, it thickens up nicely!   

Oh, that whole "why do I do this to myself" thing?  Well, I'm in the middle of making homemade bread now (Sunday), so that I can take some incredible bread to work to toast and have with my amazing jam for breakfast!    Another hot day here, and what better than to bake some homemade bread!  LOL  

Hope everyone's enjoying summer and the bounty of summer as much as I am!  

Love, peace and prayers to all!

Julie

What Happens When You Buy me a Trifle Dish?

So, aside from a WONDERFUL surprise party for my 50th birthday, Greg and the kids got me something I've been wanting, but never bought for myself.  A TRIFLE dish!  

Seeing as it's been almost a month, I figured I better put it to use! I looked up some recipes on-line, and realized that I could pretty much do anything I wanted!  How simple is that?  

 I started with a layer of brownies that I just made and cooled. 

Then added a layer of vanilla Bavarian Cream that I bought at the Mennonite bulk food store, salted pecans, and a layer of chocolate Bavarian Cream. 

Then added a layer of homemade whipped cream.

Another layer of brownies. 

More Bavarian cream and pecans.

More chocolate Bavarian cream

More whipping cream. 

Final layer of brownies.

More whipping cream and pecans. 

And a drizzle of caramel!  

I'm pretty sure, officially, there are 10,000,000 calories in this!  I'm also pretty sure it's going to be awesome!  

THIS is what happens when you buy me a trifle dish!   

Minnow got hit by a truck. Prayers please!

Our neighbor across the street was pulling out of her driveway.  Minnow, being the jerk that he is, started barking and running toward them (he was not on a rope, but that's a whole 'nother story that I'm not going to go into).  One of our other neighbors was driving south on our road.  Minnow ran out to the road barking at the neighbor across the street, and the other neighbor hit him.  Fortunately, he was driving a truck, and Minnow escaped a lot of injury because Alex was able to "straddle" him (and Minnow's a little guy), but it seems that his injuries either came from hitting the rear axle or from rolling on the ground, because Alex saw him rolling behind his truck when he looked in the rear view mirror.  Poor Mater saw the entire incident, and just stood there on the side of the road.  He KNEW his little buddy was hurt and he's been very sad all day.  Animals KNOW.  They just do.  

Minnow's left eye was injured and was out of it's socket.  The vet was able to put it back in and stitched his eye closed.  It will need to stay that way for at least a week.  We won't know how much damage there is for a while.  It all depends on how stretched out the nerves, etc. were from coming out of the socket.  I know.  It makes me queasy too.  

Minnow had a lot of swelling in his head.  We still do not know if there is any sort of skull fracture.  Because of the swelling, they had to put him on IV meds to reduce the swelling.  My poor little boy was yelping in pain, but there was nothing the docs could do, because any pain meds would interfere with the meds he was getting for the swelling, and the swelling was more important to deal with.  They had him in a kennel with towels all around him, on an IV, and his head elevated, with ice packs on it, to help with the swelling.  When I went into the OR to see him, he heard my voice and tried getting up to come to me.  That was a good sign!  It showed he had spunk, and he recognized me!  YAY!  

Minnow is now "resting comfortably" according to the vet.  He is no longer yipping in pain, and some of the swelling has come down.  Based on my conversation with the vet, I believe she is very surprised at how well he is doing!  It appears that he's going to make it!  Thank you, Jesus!  We still have a long way to go, but so far, he is doing much better than expected.  I'm not sure how we're going to pay the vet bill, but I do know that God will provide!  Jesus is hugging my Minnow and healing him and I can't ask for more than that!  

Please pray for my little Minnow!  

ER Ambulance Trip -- NOT how you want to start your day!

Today was quite the day, to say the least.  I was supposed to work the late shift at work, which means 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.  Not a really fun shift to work, but there's a 10% shift differential, and I usually go in at 9 a.m., so I get 2-1/2 hours of time and a half, PLUS I get the extra 10% on those 2-1/2 hours.  Can't beat that!   Anyway, I got up around 6:15 to start getting ready for work. When I came out of the bathroom, Greg, who was still in bed at the time, has this conversation with me:  

Greg:  I'm confused.  Do I have a job? 

Me:  HUH? 

Greg:  Do I have a job that I go to every day? 

Me:  What are you talking about? 

Greg:  I'm serious.  Do I have a job that I go to every day? 

Me:  Greg, you're disabled.  You haven't had a job in three years. 

Me:  What is going on?  If you're messing with me, I'm going to hurt you!  

Greg:  What day is it? 

Me:  It's Wednesday.  What do you do every Wednesday night (he goes to prayer group at church) 

Greg:  I don't know. 

Me:  What did you do on Saturday?  (He went to a Christian men's conference)

Greg:  I don't know.  What day is it?  

And on it went!  I was really scared at this point and thought maybe he was having a stroke.  He was blinking his eyes really fast and looked SO confused!  I called our neighbor, Wendy, who is a nurse and asked her about it.  She had me ask him to smile and see if one side of his face was "droopy."  He smiled, as much as he could, and wasn't droopy.   I then asked her if I should just drive him to the hospital, she thought it would be better for me to call an ambulance, because if he WAS having a stroke, if something happened on the way to the hospital (about 25 miles away), I would not be able to deal with it, so I ended up calling an ambulance.  

You know, we've been pretty used to Greg being ill and being in the hospital, but this was DIFFERENT.  It wasn't the "normal" heart failure that he's had numerous times that I was used to.  This was SCARY, because I had NO IDEA what could be going on and what was happening to him.  I was actually quite scared!   I don't like that feeling!  

After the ambulance left, I called Pastor Will and his wife, Pastor Jen.  Neither were available at that time, but when I was riding to the hospital with Erica (she drove), Jen called me back.  I was totally OK, until she started asking about how I was doing!  I just about lost it, and almost started to cry.  I knew I couldn't do that, because Erica was in the car with me and driving (Abby was a short distance behind us in her car with my dear friend, Jessica, who made all kinds of arrangements to have her kids taken care of so she could come to the hospital and be with us!).  I had to be strong!  It's really HARD sometimes to be so strong!  This kind of stuff isn't about me, it's about Greg, so when someone starts to ask about me, I get all choked up, because no one ever asks about me!  It's not like no one cares, but it's because the main focus is on the sick person, not on the caretaker.   

Once we got to the hospital, Greg had already had blood taken for testing, an IV had been set up, and they were just starting to do some heart tests, because of his pacemaker.  The tests all came out fine, including when they tested his pacemaker.  Thank goodness! 

I have to thank Pastor Will and Pastor Jen.   She had some stuff to do in Wausau and Will went with, so while he dropped Jen off to do her shopping, he came to the hospital to be with us!  I do LOVE our church!  It was awesome to have him there, along with my friend Jessica.   Thank you, Father God, for putting these people in our lives!  I don't know what I'd do without them!

Next, they took him for a head CT.  The good news from that was that they shot some dye or something in his IV and were able to see all his arteries leading to his brain.  All of those were clear!  They said that while everyone has to worry about a stroke, in a normal sense, all of his arteries were clear, so he had no reason to worry any more than a normal person!  YAY!  That was GREAT news to hear!  

It turns out that Greg was having a reaction to his meds.  He's taking about 15 different ones, and they're tapering him off some, and increasing some others.   So, all is well!  Greg is fine and we were back home the same day. 

Praise God!  All is well, and Greg is as normal as he can be!  LOL 

Blessings to all! 

Julie

  

NEW Washing Machine!

I bought a new washer 2-1/2 years ago from a store in Wausau.  It was a model that didn't have an agitator in the middle, but you still had to put the clothes around the outside.  Well, it didn't last very long, and suddenly it stopped rinsing and spinning.  We had to go and hit the button to get it to rinse and spin, and it was kind of a pain in the butt, because we didn't remember to go and change the setting until we remembered it and it was time to dry the clothes, and then we'd find them sopping wet in the washer.  Here's what we had. 

Greg went to a men's Christian conference in Marshfield on Saturday, so I told him how much we could afford and to check around for washing machines.  I also told him I wanted a front load machine.  He went to a bunch of places and found a FABULOUS deal on a Sears front load washer, and even better, he was able to fit it in his car and bring it home!  How awesome is that?  

The only thing we had to do was get the old washer out and the new washer in! Not an easy task for me and Greg!  Fortunately, we had Abby to help us!  She's so good about helping out with stuff like this!  

So, thanks to Abby, we have our NEW washing machine in the house!  Fortunately, the washer and dryer are right inside the door, so once we got it in the house, we didn't have far to go!  

This washing machine is AWESOME!  So glad we decided to go with a front load! 

Blessings to all! 

Julie

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Today marks the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of me starting my new job!  It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed.  Since I started my new job, so many things have changed.  I'm not only making more money, but I have health insurance coverage that I can actually AFFORD, my daughter is working with me again, along with two of her friends and one of my cousins!   I have the ability at this point in time, to work unlimited overtime, so I'm putting in extra hours to pay for the things we need to fix up around the house that we've neglected for so many years while we didn't have anything extra.  I can even pay our mortgage and other bills without suffering a panic attack!     I paid bills the other day, and was amazed that I wasn't panicking after paying our normal monthly bills, and also paying Greg's doctor bills!   The transformation in our lives has been HUGE!    

I owe it all to God!  Every bit of it.  The new job, the ability to pay my bills, the ability to work overtime, the ability to replace old appliances and other things that desperately need replacing, being able to pay for vehicle repairs, and being able to help my children financially when they need it . . . It's all because of HIM!   All the glory goes to God!  The blessings He has bestowed on our family are amazing!    

So, to keep this short and sweet, YAY for me on my one year anniversary!  This is an awesome company, and in the top five of the largest companies in its field in the WORLD and I can see myself working here until I retire!  There are so many opportunities here that I can also see my wonderful Erica working here and growing and moving up for years and yeas to come, until SHE retires!  Yes, it's that awesome!  

Again, all the glory to God for He is the one that placed me and my family in this position and gave us these wonderful opportunities!  

Blessings to everyone! 

Julie

Springtime in Wisconsin!

So, yesterday morning, I woke up to 6 inches of SNOW!  Yes, I said we had SIX INCHES OF SNOW on April 10!   That was some sort of cruel joke from Mother Nature, to be sure!  

This was taken out my bathroom window when I got up to get ready for work. We knew it was coming, but it was still pretty awful to wake up to that!  It was so wet and heavy, I almost needed 4 wheel drive to get out of the driveway!  It ended up being in the 50's all day, so even though everything had to be plowed for the morning commute, most of the snow had melted by the end of the day. There were just some bigger "piles" left by the plows that ended up melting today. 

By the way, today was GORGEOUS!  It was in the 60's, so I was able to take almost all of my houseplants outside and get them all cleaned up!  They really needed to have the dead stuff cut off/picked out and be rearranged a bit. The plants I had to take outside were mostly hanging plants.  I have a gorgeous spider plant with TONS of babies.  It's actually two different kinds of spiders that I combined a few years ago.  I bought a Hawaiian spider when I worked at the greenhouse (that one is a green spider, with variegated babies) and combined it with a variegated spider that I've had for over well over 10 years.  They're doing great together, but needed to be cleaned up a bit. I also cleaned up a pothos, a Marantha (prayer plant), a helicopter peperomia, a brazil philly, a curly hoya, a purple wandering Jew, and a Chinese evergreen (or Aglaonemia, for those that know plants).  I have one other plant that I need to take outside and work on -- a HUGE mican philly that's hanging in my bathroom, but is way too big for me to take down myself.  I'll need Greg to help me with that one.   It felt so good to be able to be outside and get some spring cleaning done!  

Speaking of spring . . . the foul outside are LOVING this warm weather!  I asked Greg to bring out the goose "pond" today (we stored it under the deck for the winter) and turn on the outside water.  Once the "pond" was filled up, I hollered for Rufus.  It didn't take long for him to realize that he had a pool to swim in!

  

Rufus spent at least 20 minutes in the pond just going crazy and washing off all the winter grime.  He was SO happy!  The female watching here has not been in the pool yet (we just got her over the winter) and was having a hard time getting in it.  I'm sure she'll make it in soon enough, because she was VERY curious and excited about it!  

It was so awesome to spend time outside watching the chickens, geese and ducks enjoying themselves in the warmth that is a spring day in North Central Wisconsin!  

We have a few hens that are VERY friendly and let you pick them up and pet them.  We got them as babies last year, so this was their first winter.  They managed just fine, even in the sub-zero temps we had.  

Hope everyone else had a great day!  

Blessings to all! 

Julie

23 Years Ago Today

I know that today is not the "exact" date, but I also know that it was Holy Thursday, and it was a day that would change my life forever.  I was just 27 years old.  Working full-time and a mom of an adorable little one year old boy.  

Many of you know that Greg had cancer.  Actually, what he had was "Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma" which is a cousin of Leukemia.  A cancer of the blood.   What happened 23 years ago was life-changing for all of us. 

Turning back the clock, to December, 1991.  Our health insurance deductible had been paid in ful, along with our out of pocket cost.  Greg needed to have a bone spur on his foot operated on, and seeing as the insurance would be paying for all of it, because of Aaron's birth costs, we decided it was time to have his foot taken care of.  When the doctor did his pre-surgery physical he found "something" in his gut, but couldn't figure out exactly what it was.  He sent him for a CT and other tests, which all came back inconclusive.  We didn't think too much more about it.  After all, the doctors couldn't find anything wrong, so no big deal.  Greg had that foot surgery, and everything was fine . . . or so we thought. 

Four months later, Greg found a lump near his groin.  The doctors decided that they had to operate.  Aaron was just a year old at the time.  We had just had a big party to celebrate his first birthday on Palm Sunday.   On Holy Thursday, Greg went in for surgery.  It was to be "day" surgery and he would be coming home that night.  My in-laws babysat for Aaron so I could be at the hospital. 

I remember the surgery taking longer than what they told me.  I went to the nurse's station and asked what was going on.  They, of course, didn't know, or now, in hindsight, as I recall the looks on their faces, they knew something was wrong, but weren't about to tell me.  A while later, a nurse came out and said that the doctors had found "something," and now they wanted to check out those suspicious "things" in his stomach area.  They needed me to sign an authorization to make the incision.  Of course, I signed the authorization.  What else could I do?  

A while later -- it seemed like FOREVER, the doctor came out to talk to me.  I remember as though it was yesterday, sitting in the waiting room and having the doctor tell me that my husband had cancer. I believe he told me it was lymphoma, but I'm not sure.  I remember asking what I thought were the right questions, and I very clearly remember asking if we would be able to have any more children!   I was doing really well, until a nurse came up and moved a box of tissues onto the table in front of us.  It was then that I lost it and started crying.  I'm pretty sure this doctor was not used to having to give someone this kind of news.  And there I was, all alone, trying to digest all this after what was supposed to be a simple day surgery.

I remember we decided that we would not tell Greg that day and needed to wait until the next day, when he was more lucid.  I called my mother-in-law to tell her, and apparently, she called Greg's sister at work to tell her.  After I made sure that Greg was settled in his room, I decided it was time for me to go home and take care of Aaron.  There was nothing more I could do at that point.  As I was walking to my minivan in the parking lot (yes, I actually drove a minivan back then -- don't judge!), I heard someone call my name.  I turned around to see my sister-in-law, Jody.  She told me that she told her boss that her brother had just been diagnosed with cancer and I was all alone at the hospital and that I shouldn't be all alone and she needed to leave work to be with me.  That was, without a doubt, the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me!  We went back to the hospital and visited with Greg a bit and then left and went to my mother-in-law's house to get Aaron. 

I remember the next day going to visit Greg and he said to me:  "What the hell happened?  It feels like they ripped my gut open!"    I responded with "they DID!"  Then I told him the news.  He had the same attitude he's always had.  OK.  What do we do about it!  

I can hardly believe it was 23 years ago that our lives were changed forever.  There are so many other details that I remember, but this entry is long enough as it is.  Suffice it to say that Holy Thursday has so much meaning for me.  It's hard to believe that my husband has been a cancer survivor for 23 years!  There are not many people who can say that, and it is only because of God's grace that he is still here!  

I'll be writing more about our cancer journey in the next week or two, because we have another milestone ahead, and this time of year just hits me kind of hard.  While Resurrection Sunday is an amazingly joyous day, I usually have a difficult time dealing with all the things that have happened around this time of year.   With that said, it's time for me to go to bed and dream happy, peaceful dreams.  

Blessings to all!  

Julie

I was humbled . . .

We have some neighbors who are, shall we say, a bit "odd."  That's putting it nicely.  They have some issues, so to speak, and there's a bunch in the family that are just not all there.  That causes problems in more ways than you can imagine.  Because the patriarch of the family passed away, they are now living on very little money, and things have become desperate.  They decided to auction off all their "stuff" and hopefully, auction their house, too.  I'm not sure what they're going to do after, but that's not the point of this entry. 

I had been to their place to look at their "stuff" well before they decided to have an auction.  I guess you could have called me a vulture.  I was there for me.  To see what I could find that I wanted, and to see what kind of deal I could get.  I like antiques and other "old" stuff, and knowing what I knew, figured I would have a lot to look through and would find some cool stuff.  I was not wrong! There was a LOT of "stuff" to look through, and of course I found a few things I had to have.   

When I showed them what I wanted, I was told "you can just have it.  You've always been nice to us."  Now, these are people that have had legal problems, and lots of other personal problems.  Like I said previously.  While I have always been nice "to" them, in the few encounters I've had with them, I haven't always been nice "about" them.  I've made my own comments to others about them, and I've wondered myself about all their issues.   In short, I was human, and believed myself to be "better" than them.   I could not have been more wrong!  

I was totally humbled by what they said to me!  I don't know if humbled is even the right word.  I know that I haven't stopped thinking about what they said to me and I know that this was a very important lesson that Jesus was teaching me!  Here I am, someone who's finally doing OK financially (I have a good job, can work as much overtime as I want to make extra money and can afford to pay my bills and even save some money to buy some new "stuff.") I can certainly afford to pay for the couple things I picked out from these people, and they, who have so little they are selling just about everything they have, are telling me that because I was "nice" to them I can just HAVE it.   How humbling is THAT?   

I don't know that I'm even writing this in such a way to show what a profound impact this has had on me.   If you've read my blog in the past or know me at all, you know I'm not usually at a loss for words!  Ha!  I'm just totally and completely awed by such a simple act of kindness.  All because someone thought I was "nice" to them, when in reality, I just was not "mean" to them the way most other folks are.  I saw Jesus in this poor, unsophisticated, uneducated, unstable family.  They may not know that Jesus is shining within them, but He is!  I will add this family to my prayers in a way I never did before, and I would ask that you do as well.  Their simple act of kindness toward me has completely floored me.  

This encounter makes me want to strive even harder to be more like Jesus.  He is my rock and my salvation, and the very least I can do is try to emulate Him, to the best of my ability, and remember this time in my life and how someone else was so Christ-like to me, when I absolutely, positively, without a doubt, did not deserve it!   

Like I said, I'm not sure that I'm actually conveying this the way I intended and the way this has impacted me, but right now, it's the best I can do.  I'd like to leave you with one of my FAVORITE new songs.  This is Matt Maher, Because He Lives:  

It is my most fervent wish that Jesus is able to touch you and speak to you the way He  did to me!  

Blessings to All!

Julie 

NEW Dishwasher!

I am SO happy!  Our dishwasher was pretty old . . . it was here for about a year before we moved in, which was 11 years ago this coming July!  That's a LONG time for a dishwasher . . . especially if you have hard water!   Yes, we have hard water, but it tastes AMAZING, and we don't even have a filter on it!  It just comes up from the ground and into our drinking glasses!  AMAZING is the only word I have for our water!    

Our old dishwasher had two cycles . . . ON or OFF.  Yes, that was it!  None of the other cycles worked.  LOL!  It was so bad that the dishes were pretty much CLEAN when they were loaded in the washer!  Greg had this "thing" about rinsing them before putting them in the dishwasher.   The soap dispenser no longer worked, so we just poured the dishwasher detergent in there.  The rinse aid thingy didn't work, either, so there was no chance of having "spot free" glasses.  None, nada, not happening, period.   Did I mention how LOUD it was?  And by LOUD, I mean, if I was sitting here at my laptop in the dining room, watching TV, I couldn't hear the TV over the sound of the dishwasher!  It was LOUD!  I'm pretty sure the people before us never actually had it attached to the cabinets!  The more time that went by, the louder it got!  Seeing as the "delay start" function didn't work any longer, the only way to run it without hearing it was hitting the start button when we went to bed . . . which, considering everything else, made you wonder if it was going to spring a leak and we'd wake up with water all over the kitchen floor!  NOT a very comforting thought at bedtime!   Here's the "old" dishwasher . . . 

So, I saved up some money and sold some stuff and managed to get an  AWESOME deal on a new dishwasher!  I'm SO happy!  We thought about having Aaron install it for us, but after doing some research on-line, we decided to let a professional handle it.  After all, everything in this house appears to be jerry-rigged (as you will probably recall from my last post about the ceiling fan!).   We got a smoking-hot deal on the dishwasher, so I was actually able to afford to pay someone to install it for us, and it was much less expensive than what the store wanted for the install. 

We also decided that we'd pick it up ourselves, and save the delivery fees.   Because my truck has the cap on it, we were pretty sure it wouldn't fit in there.   We lucked out, in that our neighbor needed Abby to get her son's truck from Wausau and bring it home, so Abby met me at the store and we had it loaded into the truck she was driving. 

Here she is bringing it home for me!  

Of course, the ONE DAY it rains is the day we have to haul something!  Not a big deal, though, because we had them add some shrink wrap to it so it would stay nice and dry.  We were a little concerned about getting it out of the truck, but it turns out that this dishwasher is incredibly light!  Abby was able to take it out of the truck all by herself!  

We were able to get the dishwasher installed the very next day, so I was extremely happy!  It works out well that Greg is home during the day and can take care of this kind of stuff, so I don't have to take a day off work or worry about when we're going to get it done.   It ended up taking about three hours to install, but I only had to pay for two hours labor, which was great!   The guy who installed it said that it was really well built and the entire motor (or whatever you want to call it) was totally enclosed to help make it super quiet!  

I know it's hard to see a difference, as they're both black, but trust me, there is a HUGE difference!  The first time we ran it, it was soooooooooooo quiet that I forgot it was on, and went to open it to put something in, and water sprayed out all over!  LOL  I've now learned that you can just pull the door open a little bit, wait five seconds for the water to shut off, and THEN you can add more dirty dishes to it.  :-)   We're so used to rinsing stuff off before putting it in, that I've actually be putting stuff in REALLY dirty, just to see how it does!  And let me tell you, it does an AMAZING job of cleaning all our dishes!   

Yes, I am VERY happy with my new dishwasher!   

Blessings to all! 

Julie

Hello Again!

It's been a rough year, and I guess I just wasn't into blogging.  I was doing everything I could to just keep plodding ahead.  I've been thinking about my blog a lot, and I guess that meant it was time to get moving on it again!  I'm not going to make any promises, but it seems like the time is right to restart this blog!   

With that in mind, rather than going over everything that's been going on here in the middle of nowhere (that would be a LONG post!), I'll just start with something recent!   

If you've read my blog, or know me, you know that nothing is ever as it seems when it comes to any sort of home remodeling or even just updates in our home!   As I've been working on painting the master bedroom (the ONLY room I've never painted in the ten years we've lived here!), I knew we needed to update the ugly old ceiling fan.  I was going to wait until I was all done painting, but that's one job that seems to be taking a little longer than usual.  Not only was the old ceiling fan UGLY, it made a lot of noise when the fan was on.  It was a ticking sound . . . so you get this tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . tick, tick, tick, tick, tick . . . tick . . . tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick  . . . ok, so you get the picture!  It was ANNOYING, to say the least!  Yes, it was something that we kind of got used to (like the sound of traffic when you live on a busy road), but when you're first trying to fall asleep it was awful!   Here's a picture of the old, nasty fan.

So, after work yesterday (yes, I work on Saturdays now, but only because I WANT to, not because I HAVE to!)  -- I guess you may not know, I got a new job last April!  I'm in the health insurance industry now, working for one of the largest health insurance companies in the world!  What that means is that when I go to work on Saturday, it's because I get time and a half for the overtime!  YAY for my budget!    OK, I'm getting off track here . . .  Sorry!

After work, I stopped at Menards (a big home improvement store in this part of the country), to pick out a new ceiling fan.  Erica was with me (she works with me at the new company and gets to make overtime, too! YAY for HER budget!).  Anyway . . . Erica picked one out that was really nice (a Hunter) and was on sale for $70 off!   We couldn't find one in a box, so she asked one of the sales reps if they had any.  The only one left was the floor model.  It was marked down to $109.99.  Seeing as it was the floor model, I did my best to get more of a discount, but they just weren't budging.  I was shooting for $99, but it just wasn't happening.  Oh well, at least I tried!  It was still a GREAT deal.  I figure they saved us about 85% of the work, because basically all we had to do was wire it up!   

It's a good thing that Erica's car allows you to lower the back seat to make the trunk bigger and accessible for putting bigger stuff in.  (We carpool to work and she wanted to drive.)  Oh, not to go off on another tangent here, but with Erica now having an awesome full-time job, she has been able to buy a new car for herself!  She got a great deal on a 2008 Dodge Avenger last month.  Yay for Erica!   So, we were only able to fit that HUGE ceiling fan into her trunk because of the ability to put that seat down.  Whew!  That was a relief!  

So Greg and I start taking the old fan down.  He's removing the screws from the cover plate, and as he's on the last screw, I ask him "it's not going to fall, is it?  Do you want me to hold it."  Just as he's saying "No, there's a bracket holding it up under this" the FAN COMES CRASHING DOWN!  Seriously!  The FAN CAME CRASHING DOWN and landed on the bed!   Can you say HOLY CRAP?!  Well, we sure did!  Ha !   We've found so many things jerry-rigged in this house, but who would have thought that someone would actually jerry-rig a CEILING FAN and NOT use the bracket to attach it to the ceiling!  Seriously, this thing was only hanging by those itty bitty screws that are used to attach the cover plate to the ceiling to hide the wires!   WHAT MORON DOES THAT?!   I'm almost afraid to sit here at my laptop underneath the ceiling fan in the dining room, because it's probably the same!   

We WERE going to give the fan to our friends, Nate and Jess, but when it fell, one of the blades landed between the mattress and the bedframe and snapped. 

Unfortunately, that means it's going to end up in the garbage.  Not much we can do about that!  

Not too much later, we had the new fan up and running!  

What's really cool is that the top light is a night light and leaves a soft glow in the room.  VERY nice!   It was so awesome to sleep last night without that awful ticking noise from the old fan!  It was also comforting to know that the fan was hung properly!  This thing was HEAVY!  It's on a LARGE bracket that is attached to the ceiling studs, so won't be going anywhere and is certainly not going to crash!  This one is also much bigger than the other one, so moves the air a LOT better than the old one.   

So, there you go!  Once again, nothing is ever at it seems at this house!   Oh, and just to leave you with something super cool . . . last Saturday, driving home from work, there were two Bald Eagles munching on a dead deer in the median of Highway 29!  I actually turned around to go back and take some pics!  

One of them flew into the trees on the side of the road. 

How awesome is THAT?!    And, in case you're wondering, all that snow in the picture has now melted!  

Blessings to all! 

Julie