My 29th Anniversary

Today is my 29th Anniversary. It just seemed like yesterday that I was married to Tom. Then there was the birth of 3 children, Sara, Jacob and Micah. Each of them went from preschool through high school, and finally college. 2 of the children are married, and each of them have a 15 month old baby. I am a grandmother to Makenzie and Caden, and loving it!



For the first time in a long time, both Tom and I slept in! It was lovely! I woke up early, but drifted in and out of sleep, as I’m sure that Tom did too. We finally got up a little before 9! We had an egg and bacon sandwich on toast.

Tom did chores, as he had to see if he could get our tractor started to do round bales to the horses. He changed the ignition, but that wasn’t the problem. So it looks like I’ll be feeding horses baled hay for the next week.



Tom and I went to the Home and Garden show at the Lancaster Event Center. We are thinking of building, or having someone else build, a sunroom and a screened porch. As we walked around, we also looked at hot tubs. I would just love sitting in a hot tub in the middle of winter!!!

Jacob and Amber had called and we needed to meet him to pick up an outside table set. We took it over to his house, and Tom helped him to install a ceiling fan while I played with Caden.





Caden also tried helping Pop and Daddy with whatever he could find to help with!



Tomorrow is Amber’s birthday and we took a gift and some Easter decorations.

Micah and Amy met us at Jacob’s house too. We all went to Fireworks for our Anniversary. We had an enjoyable time, visiting and catching up with everyone. I had an excellent red wine from Chile, so good that I had a 2nd glass! Caden loved watching the flames of the fireplace. He shared our dinners, and loved the cornbread and the macaroni and cheese. I enjoyed an excellent steak with mushrooms, and a baked potato with all the toppings. Tom enjoyed a full rack of bar-b-que ribs!



In 2 weeks, we are going to see Sara, Jake and Makenzie for Easter. It has been 2 months since we have seen them, and it will be fun playing with Makenzie too.

Now I’m relaxing on our reclining sofa, watching Undercover Boss. The sofa has a heater, warming up my lower back. Feet up and drinking a glass of merlot. Hubby snoring on the other end of the sofa. I turned his heated sofa seat on too.



Life is good. During hard times, remember the good times! I’m ready for another 29 years! And playing with the grandkids! Maybe next year, I’ll be lounging in a hot tub in our new sunroom!

Spring

Today. March 20. The first day of Spring. But you wouldn’t know it by what it looks like outside.

Snow. 20’s. Wind. Frozen water hoses again!

Cold weather. How can it go from 60’s on Thursday to 30’s on Friday to 20’s today? I was colder today doing chores than all winter when it was in the minuses. Can it be because the snow is melting and everything is thawing, and the dampness is here?

But this also means robins.


Geese flying north.


Green grass starting to grow.


Horses shedding. Horses lying in the sun!


My horses seem to be eating more now than they did all winter. The mares are probably coming in heat! But I noticed the cold is making them shiver. Eating more hay will keep them warm. I hope our tractor gets fixed and I get round bales back out to them. I have had to feed them square bales this week. I don’t like carrying 60-70# square bales, in the mud, and in the cold!



Birds singing. This past week, I have noticed how much the birds are singing. As I was taking pictures of the robins, I noticed how much they sing. They don’t like to sit still very long when they know predators are near. Am I as much a predator as a cat?



Geese flying north. Do you know that when you try taking pictures of them, they are flying very fast? I love watching them fly. I love seeing how they make a V. Do you know that geese are loyal and mate for life? Why did people lost that trait?

29 years ago, there was snow on the ground in Pennsylvania. 29 years ago, I didn’t notice. Today is the first day of spring. Tomorrow is my 29th Anniversary.

NE Horse Expo is Over

The Nebraska Horse Expo is over for another year. My tack store vendor area was a success. And not only is Expo done for another year, but this may have been the last year for me as a vendor. I am closing the store in 2 weeks. I say may, as I still have so much more product to sell. I might have to box up everything, and have vendor booths at shows, and if it doesn’t all sell, I may be back to Expo next year!

This is my 2nd day at home after Expo, and I need the rest. I was brain dead yesterday. I didn’t get much accomplished. But that could also be from the noise of home renovations and the smell of varnish. Our living room hardwood floors went in last week, and they are being sanded and varnished this week. I will be so glad when everything is done and the home is put back together again. I do see the end!

I will also be glad when the boxes are unpacked at the store. I get to unpack and reorganize what didn’t sell at Expo. I will have continued store specials for 2 more weeks. Then, I’ll get to box up what doesn’t sell and bring home. I’m sure I’ll be bringing some items home! I suppose my summer will have me setting up a booth at some horse shows!

Now it’s time to get caught up on paperwork from last week. I did get bills paid yesterday and that is always a good feeling! Lol! I need to put in some sales, process a few new inventory special orders, and work on taxes.



I need to start working on my spring training and lesson schedule. It will soon be time to think exclusively about horses! I’m ready to get back to teaching Centered Riding exercises. I’m ready to trail ride. And I’m definitely ready to get this blog back to writing about horses and what I’m doing with horses.

Once again, come along on the ride with me. I promise it won’t be too long now!

The Floor is In!

The house is still messy, but the hardwood floor is in! It is gorgeous! Tom loves the variation in the coloring of the wood. After 3 years, I have finally gotten used to it and really like them.



This is the floor before sanding and varnishing. The grain of the wood is still noticeable, but wait until you see the floor when it is varnished. The grain will just pop.


The colors of the walls go very well with the wood. I love my bluish grey walls around the windows.


The deep burgundy color just pops on the south wall. The west windows are so large that the room can handle a dark shade. The trim has lighten the rooms even more.


The stairway is painted slightly darker. I hope it hides all the scuff marks that walls seem to get! The walls appear a little bit bluer, but that is ok, as my favorite color is blue!



Today the floor is being sanded, then it will have the first of 3 coats of varnish. The 2nd coat will go on tomorrow. The floor trim will be added on Wednesday, as well as a piece of wood on top of the ½ wall. The final coat of varnish will go on Thursday.

There is a little bit of trim work needing to be finished in the master bedroom. The window seat needs to be finished with a wooden seat and trim. It will be good to have door knob on the doors too! The pocket doors, going into our bathroom, took me a little bit of work to get it to close!

Some day, hopefully soon, my house will get back in order. But after the final coat of varnish, we are to stay off the floor with furniture for 2 weeks! Then everything needs to be put back!

Living Room Hardwood Floor

The living room floor is in! It will get sanded and varnished next week.

The rest of this week, I am packing, unpacking, and setting up a vendor booth at the NE Horse Expo at the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln.



We took racks over tonight, and tomorrow, I will get boxes and boxes of tack and clothing unpacked. And Breyer horses, and jewelry, and anything else that I can fit into 8, 10' x 10', booth area. after I survive the next 4, long days, I will post about the Expo, and about the next home renovations! Until then, pray for the mud to dry!

Continued Home Renovations

February 19, 2010

Oh my goodness. My house is tore up! A few home decorating thoughts have turned into a month project already, with no clear ending date!



What started as a continuation of our hickory hardwood floors, that we laid 3 years ago in the kitchen table area and hallway, has turned into a larger project. Now spreading into the living room/dining room area, we also spread our renovations into the bedrooms. I’m not complaining, as I am going to love how the house is going to look, when it’s all done!

Right now, new natural cherry doors hang on the bedroom and bathroom doors where old, hollow, walnut stained, dingy and dented doors had hung. And cherry doors now hang on all of the closet doors and in our 2 pocket doors in our bedroom. The light wood has already lightened up the spaces. I noticed that lightness, as when I go into my bathroom area, I look to see if I have turned 2 lights on as the area is so much brighter.

Why stop with doors? We moved on to trim work. We are lining all of the bedrooms with cherry floor trim, and framing out all of the windows, and the 1 window seat in our bedroom. We are also trimming out the living room/dining room windows.

Did I miss anything? Oh yes, we are installing a ½ wall in place of an iron railing. We were going to put in a wood railing, but we decided that with noise from watching tv downstairs traveling up an open stairway, a ½ hall will decrease some noise.



We are repairing a large hole in the dining room floor! We had a roof leak about 5 years ago, maybe longer. We had the roof repaired, discovering that it had hail damage at the time. Leaking stopped, so we didn’t look further for damage. Then when we pulled the carpet up, this is what we found, dried but damage flooring from that water. The water had come in from the garage also, getting between the 2 walls and getting the drywall and floor wet. Even though it had dried, the damage was already done. We are lucky the floor dried and only a small amount of area was damage.

March 6, 2010
Where has the last 2 ½ weeks gone? It only seems like yesterday that I started this blog, and I haven’t posted since February!

We had the weekend of the 20th and the following Monday to continue to get ready for the flooring, then we were gone to Florida the following week for Tom’s work. We came back late on Saturday, 27th, and had Sunday to recover from a very tiring working vacation. We can’t do late nights and early mornings any more!

We pushed on Monday, March 1st, to get as much done as we could. The electricians were there earlier in the day, installing 6 recessed lights in the family room, which lay below the living room. The family room had no lights, and no windows. We had 1 large doorway that brought in some light, but not nearly enough. With the upstairs room tore up, it was time for lights. And what a difference. We love our room. 6 lights, 2 lights on 1 dimmer switch and 4 lights on the other dimmer switch! Movie night will be every night! I am really pleased with the family room. With a new sectional, with 4 reclining seats, 2 of which heat up and vibrate, no one will leave that room!



Relatives from Colorado, with 3 little boys under 6, arrived at 1 in the afternoon as my contractor was building the half wall. Construction was put on hold as we visiting with Tom’s nephew and family until Thursday morning. Family was leaving as the contractor came. He finished the half wall and repaired the flooring. On Friday, we had the dry wall work started. Did you know that this is a 3 day process? Mudding, drying time and sanding, every day for 3 days. We skipped Sunday, as we all need a rest.



But, no, I didn’t rest, as the hardwood floors were going in on Monday, so that only left Saturday afternoon and Sunday to paint the living room. The ceiling was painted with bright ceiling white paint Saturday afternoon, after I came home from the store.



I started the south accent wall Sunday morning, painting it a deep burgundy. The color I had picked out for the other walls turned out to be a light baby blue, so I had Tom pick out a light blue grey to bring home. He brought 2 colors to choose from, and the one works perfectly. I love the color of the room.



Now to finish the floors!