The View Challenge - November

We have been quite busy getting ready for our community garage sale coming up Saturday. We have enough to sell for the whole neighborhood. I really don't know how we could accumulate so much in just over six years when we moved to this house. We had gotten rid of a lot of things when we moved here but I think items have been growing in our closets while we weren't looking. As you know, we are planning on moving to Belize and realize we cannot take everything we own with us. Houses there for the most part are smaller than here in the states and do not have the storage space we have here. Plus, we want to simplify our lives as much as possible. I may regret getting rid of some of the things I am parting with later but for now, I am biting the bullet and just doing it.

Thadd has been busy making minor repairs to the house and doing some painting outside. He painted the concrete driveway and patio as the old paint was all chipped and ugly. The outside doors needed repainting (they are all white and you know how hard it is to keep that clean), and some of the vinyl windows in the Florida room needed replacing.  He is going to tweak the landscaping then we feel the house will be ready to put on the market for sale. Please wish us luck as we can't move until we sell the house.

Here is my view for November. Big brother Henry with little brother Spencer. Henry loves Spencer.

Henry helping Mommy drink her protein milk shake. His eyes just melt my heart!

 

Spencer and a pumpkin pillow

 

 

 

 

 

 

This evening as the sun set, the skies turned the most beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange. I only had my phone to take pictures with but I wanted to share them. People were standing outside of their houses just gazing at these marvelous skies. My phone camera doesn't really do them justice.

 



 

I have been reading where some of you are having cooler, wet weather as winter creeps in. We too have had milder weather as it has only been getting into the low to mid 80's during the day and into the low 60's at night. Our Bougainvillea is loving this weather. It had just about stopped blooming when it was so hot but now is back in all of its glory.

Take care everyone! xxxx

Bonus Week from Viv

This week Viv has given us the poem "When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple". I am very familiar with this poem as my Mom had a framed copy of it hanging on her wall. She loved the color purple and so do I. Here is the poem and our challenge from Viv.

When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
By Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along the public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit.

 You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

The poem and the Dream Board gave me the idea to challenge you to think about what you would like to do or where you would like to be in the future.What do you think?

It doesn’t have to be when you are old, just in your future, maybe even tomorrow or next week. A dream holiday, a different house, new car, anything really. Perhaps also you could take photos this week of works in progress, family, crafts, something in the home or at work. Whatever you think fits the bill.

I don't like to think too far into the future but I am not a procrastinator either. Like others, I do like to have things to look forward to. It makes life less boring knowing you have something exciting coming up. So vacations are planned ahead. This is done sometimes because you can get a better price if you book in advance.  My husband is a list maker, plan ahead kind of guy which can drive me crazy if I let it. I like to live each day as it comes and if there is a nice (or not so nice) surprise within  the day, I say woohoo and go with the flow.

As far as the poem goes, I do wear purple. I have for years, even before I became old. I have always liked bold colors. I do hoard pens/pencils and like things in boxes. I have been known to go out in the rain in my socks or bare feet, wear terrible shirts and even my pajamas at times. I think living in Florida or maybe even being in the US makes some weird behaviors almost seem normal. Granted, a lot of this is by young people (especially the college kids, you see them everywhere in their pajamas or bathing suits), not by someone my age  but I can honestly say it is not unusual to see a 70+ woman working out in her yard in her bathing suit. I can tell you, it is not a pretty sight as a lot of these women still wear bikinis! LOL

Unfortunately, I have gotten fat (hubby hates it when I say that) but not from eating three pounds of sausage. I have accepted that this is the way it is going to be for me and I do not let it bother me anymore. I take quite a few medications and every single one of them has a side effect of weight gain. Then there is the insulin. Taking it causes tremendous weight gain and you couple that with bad arthritic knees which hamper your mobility, well, there you go. I have complained to my doctor that I don't even have to eat anything to gain weight, all I have to do is look at it! I call it weight gain by proxy! LOL

One thing I can say about our future that we are seriously working on is getting our house ready to sell so we can move to Belize.  I think we will be ready to do this in about two weeks. Saturday is the community garage sale and we have so much to get rid of. If we can sell all of this stuff at a decent price, we may become rich! Hehe!

So, in closing I am adding some pictures of the grandkids at the pumpkin patch and in their Halloween costumes. Spencer was a puppy and Henry was a dog catcher. Zach was a policeman.  That is one thing I can always look forward to, my grandchildren!

 Everyone take care. xxxx

October Quote Challenge

Our challenge this week is from Lynne and reads as such:

My quote for this week in October are 2 quotes on Laughter. I liked them both!
“A laugh is a smile that bursts” ~ Mary H Waldrip 1907- 1998
“ Remember you don’t stop laughing because you grow old,
  You grow old because you stop laughing” ~ Anon

It says “ we are passionate about laughing. It illuminates life. It is refreshes and invigorates us, enhancing our everyday world. Laughter is the icing on the fruitcake of our existence and too good to leave to chance. 

Can you remember the last time you had a good belly laugh?”

What makes you really laugh? Do you laugh as much now as you did when you were younger?

Show us some photos of what makes us laugh or you laughing, not just smiling.

Funny, I do remember the last time I had a good belly laugh. It was watching my grandson Zach at his karate lesson. I was taking a video of him and got so tickled and laughed so that I was jiggling my phone. For some reason I cannot get the video to play the right way on this blog. Sorry you can't see it for it is funny.

I don't think I laugh as much as I did when I was younger. I love to laugh but I don't think I have the same sense of humor as a lot of people. I have friends who watch all of these sitcoms on TV that I just don't think are funny at all. The only one I watch that makes me ever laugh is Big Bang Theory. A good funny movie will get me going as well (such as Old Dogs).

I saw a video from the Ellen Degeneres show that someone had put on Facebook that was hilarious. It was about two of her assistants that went to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. I am sure you can find it online if you want to see it.

My grandsons probably provide the best and most often reasons to laugh and smile. Their antics are so cute. Whereas Spencer is still young and doesn't get up to the same antics as the older ones, if he laughs it makes me laugh. Laughter is infectious!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me laughing. I am not photogenic and I do not like to have my picture taken. Never have. But these little guys give me all the reason in the world to smile and laugh.

 Everyone have a good weekend.  xxxxxx

Nostalgia - A Giant Leap

This technology got us chatting in the office last week..and here's my Nostalgia question for everyone this week:

Tell us about the biggest lifestyle changes in your lifetime..

Tell us how things changed for you from how your Mum lived..

Like most of you, when I was growing up none of the technology we have today was around. I remember having a black and white television and a telephone but our phones were very different. They were large, black and had rotary dials. Just about everyone had a 'party' line because who could afford a 'private' line? A party line meant that your house and a bunch of other houses in the neighborhood shared the same phone line. If you picked the phone up to use it (which we didn't all that often), chances are you would hear one of your neighbor's conversations going on. You would have to wait until they got off the phone to use it. Unless you had polite neighbors who remembered they were sharing a line, you could have to wait quite a while for them to finish their calls. The other unfortunate thing about a party line was, if your neighbor was nosy enough, they could stay on the line and listen to everything being said. It could be quite annoying.

Since there were no cell phones, I remember when you traveled by car on vacations, etc., if you needed to call someone in case of an emergency or trouble, you had to find a telephone booth somewhere to call for help. It could be quite nerve wracking if you had a flat tire or something. Then of course, you had to have the correct amount of change (coins) to use the phone. I remember my very first cell phone which was huge. You didn't have chargers for the batteries either. When they ran out you had to replace the battery which was expensive. I think I have gotten totally spoiled by having an iPhone where I can do just about anything as if I had a computer with me.

Speaking of computers, how did we ever learn anything before they came along? LOL?? A good part of my working life was using manual typewriters. The kind where you used carbon paper for extra copies, always kept an eraser close, and prayed you didn't make too many errors. Then they came out with the electric typewriter. I thought they were awesome! When they upgraded the electric ones to have a correction tape included, I knew life was good. Imagine my happiness when the first 'word processor' came along! I could type a paragraph, read through it to make sure there were no errors, and then hit the 'print' button and all of my words magically appeared on the paper. The next thing I knew, we had full fledged computerized word processors where you could actually see everything you had typed on a full screen. Then computers morphed to what we have today. We can find out everything we need to know about everything and everybody with just the touch of a button. Amazing! Computers sure made my working life much easier.

Growing up, I wanted to be just like my Mom. I wanted to be a stay at home housewife. I wanted to cook, clean and take care of my family. Most of my time growing up was spent with my Mom doing just that. She was there to get me off to school in the mornings and then there when I got home from school. I loved it. I wanted to do that as well. I did get to stay home with my kids some of the time but as the world changed and inflation hit, I had to go to work full time and my children became victims of the dreaded 'latch key' phenomenon. I didn't want that to happen but didn't have any choice.

In my Mom's day there were no microwaves, crockpots, dishwashers or electric clothes dryers. She had none of the conveniences that we have today. They had 'ice boxes' that held a huge block of ice to chill the food. They didn't even have indoor plumbing (meaning toilets, etc.). I remember visiting my great grandmother in West Virginia and having to go out back and use her 'outhouse' to go to the bathroom. My Mom would bathe us in a large galvanized tub on her back porch where the water had been heated on the stove. Times have changed tremendously and I am glad my Mom got to experience a lot of these changes before she passed away.

We played outside until dark or when our Mom's called us in. We climbed trees, swung on an old burlap bag swing, and played tag. Back then it was safe to run around your neighborhood and be curious about the tadpoles turning into frogs and catch lightening bugs in jars. If I had young kids today I don't think I would feel safe with them being outside without me being there to keep an eye on them. There are just too many crazies out there anymore. I don't feel it is safe anymore.

I could probably go on for years about this subject but I am going to stop now. I am adding a couple of pictures of the grandsons as usual. They are after all, IRRESISTIBLE! LOL!

Zach earning his second degree camo belt.

Henry being silly and Spencer chewing on a teething ring. He now has one bottom tooth.

Everyone take care. xxxx

Let's Reflect Challenge - October

This month, our challenge's word starts with I and it's going to be 

                                                     IRRESISTIBLE

This is such a positive word as it only has to do with the nicest things. 

You don't say bad weather is irresistible or catching the flu is irresistible, but a beautiful smile can be irresistible, a cake can be irresistible ( tell me about it ), that little dress or top in your corner shop is definitely irresistible.

So this month, we celebrate the arrival of Autumn and if you don't like it too much like me, we just think about the nicest things so we can go through.

So, what is irresistible for you ?

I am way behind this week with our challenge. I am still playing catch up after being gone all last week. I am not going to be able to do the second part of the challenge of food for each day of the week as what things I have prepared, do not match up with any letters of the days of the week. It has mainly been chicken, black beans and rice with kielbasa with the other nights not really even having dinner but settling for a bowl of cereal.

As for the rest of the challenge and the word "irresistible" there are so many things I find irresistible I can't even list them all. It is a wonderful word though and I think it is great that it was chosen. It is true that it can only be used in a positive manner. Off the top of my head the first ten things I can say I find totally irresistible are: my grandchildren, puppies, kittens, candy corn, roses, shoes, olives, tomatoes, cuban sandwiches, and deviled crabs. Unfortunately, the last two items on my top ten can only be found in Ybor City (Ybor City is an area outside of downtown Tampa. Locals here in Orlando try to duplicate them but fail in my opinion) Ybor is a two hour drive away so I don't get to eat them very often. "Huge sigh"

Since I find Henry, Spencer and Zach irresistible, I can't resist taking pictures of them.

Also, since I didn't post any 'view' pictures of outside before, I did find a few to take earlier this week. This is about as close to 'fall' as we get. These three pictures are of rain trees that turn yellow and then a pinkish red before they completely lose their leaves.

Hopefully next week will be better for my blogging. Everyone have a great weekend. xxxx

The View Challenge - October

Sorry, I am a little behind. I did not take my computer with me to Arkansas but I am home now and playing catch up. I enjoyed taking care of my grandson Zachary while his mom and dad were out of town. The only down side was he got sick right before they left so I had to help him get better. He wasn't able to go to school but I don't think he really minded that. LOL! By the time mom and dad got home he was all better and excited to see them. It was the first time since he was born that they had gone away without him (7 years) so I think they were a bit nervous about it.

Here is my view for October. Henry playing outside. He was loading mulch into his dump truck.

I don't have any new outdoor pictures at this time. I will have to find some interesting things to take shots of. I wasn't out much while in Arkansas so I have nothing from there to post. I tried to post a short video of Zach at karate but it would not load correctly.

My daughter sent me a couple of pictures of Spencer while I was gone that I thought I would share as well. He is turning out to be very photogenic like Henry.

 

 

 

 

Take care everyone. xxx



Just a note

I am in Arkansas this week but will be home Monday evening. I will post my views and regular blog then. I don't have my own computer with me so I don't have my pictures (they are on my computer at home). I have enjoyed looking at everyone else's though.

Even though Arkansas is considered the South, it is no way near as far south as Florida so they have quite a mix of seasons and temperatures here. They do have a fall and a winter and see some snow/ice in the winter months. This week though has been uneventful though we are expecting rain tomorrow (unless that has changed).

Again, I will catch up properly next week. Everyone stay safe and enjoy your weekend. xxxxx