More Pics from Fort Bragg

I took 132 pics, but i only put in a few. Most of you have seen fort bragg last year, so i didnt want to put all of them here.

Long Weekend in Fort Bragg

This weekend Johns brother and sister n law was supposed to come over. we were gonna take them winetasting in Lodi. We keep telling them how much better our wine is than that overpriced Napa crap. I took sunday off so we could make sure to rest before i had to go back. I had a feeling it was gonna be a tiring weekend. well guess what? they flaked on us and called and said they had too much to do at home and couldnt come over. That was ok, we had a feeling it was gonna happen, so we made alternate plans.

Thursday morning I called the hotel we wanted to stay in to see if they a room available. Yes, they did. it was 179.00 a night. OUCH! that hurt a little, but it had a fireplace, jacuzzi and private balcony with a view of the ocean. its not like we do this every weekend. So we took the room, happy knowing we got to get out of dodge for a night.

Friday morning we got out of town around ten. it is along drive, about five hours, and leaving any later would get us here after dark. there was christmas music on the radio, and i was trying to guess the artist before it was announced. i was getting them right except for the newer ones. the one i was the most proud of getting right was a song from Natilie Cole. that took up about an hour of the ride until the station got lost. Car entertainment. John tried to get them, but he only knows a few names. it was fun.

We finally pulled into forte bragg around three. it really is a long drive. we went to check into our hotel, and the lobby had a nice fireplace, a covered tray of cookies, displays of jackets you could purchace. it was very nice. the guy behind the counter starts telling us about the room. there is a robe for you to use, its 80.00 if you take it home. in the fridge you will find some treats that are made daily in our own kitchen. I asked if we would get charged extra if we ate them. NO, they are yours as part of the room. there are wine and champaige glasses in the room along with a corkscrew. they showed us the menu for the restraunt and told us they would call in our order if we decided to dine there. we were blown away. then we went to check out our room and it was better than we have ever stayed in. i will post the pics i took.

Needless to say, about an hour after we got in our room, we decided to stay one more night. when we were here last year at this time, it was cold, raining, windy, general crappy weather. this time around, it si so hot. we havnet even put on our coats. the sun is out, we have taken walks, had lunch, stayed outside. watched the water and took some really cool pics. We will be coming back here for my birthday. yep, this is my destination for the next one. I am lovin it here!

I better get going. this is a little long again. i will put up some of the pics. Hope your dinners were great.

Thankful Thursday 13

I usually ask my sons what they are thankful for on thanksgiving. this year my kids are in their own homes, doing their own things, so i am going to list 13 things I am thankful for. I  dont usually do thirteens cus i cant think of thirteen anything. Hopefully this will be easy, so let me start at

1. I am thankful for a husband that loves me.

2. I am thankful for my family. I have 11 brothers and sisters, and I am greatful to all of them for one thing or another.

3. I am thankful for my two sons. I have had horrible thoughts, and thinking of them makes me happy again. They make the bad thoughts go away.

4. I am thankful for the home I live in. Too many right now dont have one.

5. On that thought, I am very thankful we took a fixed rate loan so many years ago.

6. I am so very thankful for the job that I have. I know it can be gone tomorrow, but today I still have it.

7. I am thankful for the insurance the job that I have provides.

8. I am thankful that John, my husband, has a very strong work ethic.

9. I am thankful for my fairly good health and that of my husband and sons. I dont know how it happened, but we are fairly healthy.

10. I am thankful for my friends that help me through the day. Yes that includes you if you are reading this. We all need each other in one way or another.

11. I am thankful i have a good car to get me from one place to another. The fact that it is paid in full makes it better, and it is my first car in my name only and i picked it out and i still love it makes it even better.

12. I am thankful for the life I have been privileged to have up to now. i am not special in any way, but all in all, i think I have lived a pretty good life.

13. I am especially thankful for our military, past and present, that have allowed all of this to happen. they have fought to keep our freedom, and to keep the bad guys at bay. If you are or were military, thank you. every day, thank you.

there, i did it. I think that is my second complete thursday thirteen. have a great Thanksgiving Dinner.

finished work of Art plus our new vanity

see how big those towels are, they are bath sheets.

Here is the finished pictures of the Bathroom. i love the clear shower doors, it makes the small bathroom look so much bigger.

24 and another potluck

I am sitting here at 11:00 am, wanting to go to bed, but i cant. again we are having a potluck at work, and guess waht i signed up for? turky. no, i didnt just call you a turky, that is what i am doing right now, waiting for it to finish cooking. I was gonna do the whole stuffing thing, but after i paid 21.00 for the turkey, i said to hell with that. the house smells good though. john will be surprised when he comes home for lunch. i hope it tastes as good as it smells. hold on a minute, i need to go baste n check it. brb. ok, i bet you didnt even notice i was gone. lol. next year im making green bean casarole. five minutes and it tastes like you worked real hard, to some.

we are finally done completly with the bathroom. we installed the vanity mirror, towel rack and tp holder. then i headed off to costco to buy some matching towels and a new rug for the floor. you dont want to land on the floor when you step out of the shower. I bought a cream colored rug and two cream colored bath sheets. i also bought two of a darker colored towels along with the hand towels and bath towels. i have never bought bath sheets before, but i really love them. they wrap all around you, with no surprise sneak peaks. some of us with more robust buns have this issue with regular towels. they feel fab and make the bathroom look finished. i dont have a finished picture right now, but i will soon enough and when i do, i will show you. its a very small bathroom so its kinda hard to get good pics. but i will.

are any of you fans of Jack Bauer? notice i capitolised his name? YES! HE IS FINALLY BACK!!!!!! i just watched redemption and LOVED IT! the series doesnt start till january and its gonna kill me to wait that long for him to come back. I got john watching it a couple years ago and he is waiting for it too. I CANT WAIT FOR 24 TO START ALL OVER AGAIN. YIPPEE! Jack could rescue me any time he wants to, or feels a need to, or thinks im in imminent danger and has to shoot up or blow up everything around me to save me. ohhhh yessssss. sometimes i crack myself up. like now.

i have decided to write a thursday thirteen on guess when, thursday. whoda thunk it? i am going to write thirteen things im thankfull for. i usually ask my kids to tell me what they are thankfull for, and they used to act like it was so difficult. i think i could come up with 13 things pretty easy. i am very fortunate, i better be thankful for what i have. as we all know, it can be gone tomorrow.

i think its supposed to rain today and tonight. if you are getting a massive amount of any kind of wet stuff can you please do a dance to send it our way. we could really use it. lots n lots n lots of it.

i think thats all i have for now. hmmmm strange, oh well. i will see you thursday. i have to go baste again. hopefully i can go to bed soon. snooooore.yawn

So Much and yet so Little

has been going on with me latley. that seems to be the way it goes with me. I either have a lot of free time, or none at all. right now i am in the none at all catagory. or it seems that way to me.

we are almost done with the bathroom. today we have to go buy a vanity mirror and install the towel rack and tp holder. yesterday as i was cleaning the bathroom and running water, i discovered the sink was leaking. that thing is driveing john nuts. it didnt line up correctly with the pipes that came out of the wall so he had to figure out how to fix that problem. the sink has been the only real issue. we got the new shower doors and they are beautiful. i cleaned them yesterday with barkeepers friend and now they are crystal clear. that stuff is very good. it took off all the fingerprints and marks from the installer. i think i will try it on  my car windows.

I had to stand in the showeer to take that.

last weekend we went to my sisters birthday party. i actually didnt know it was her birthday, the card said a party for carol, but i dont know their birthdays, so i just figured it was a party. anyway, we had a blast. i got to see my sisters i havent seen for way too long. we laughed, danced, visited, ate, then laughed and danced some more. her daughters put it together and they thought of everything. they bought these blow up guitars and a saxaphone. i have pics of all my family doing the rockstar thing with a blow up guitar. i know it sounds funny, but it was fun. someone got cutout images of elvis and marilyn monrow. so we were taking pics with them also. now elvis is in my garage with a gold blow up guitar around his neck.

My neice found these glowing margerita glasses on line. they are plastic and you have to bend the stem to activate the glowing stuff in them. that is what we drank out of all night. well, i did anyway. everyone else had wine glasses or shot glasses on beads around our necks. my brother tied all the ballons towards the end of the party to one of the glasses to try and launch it, but it was just too heavy and would only float up a bit then come back down. Thats my sister with the balloons. we had fun with that thing too.

this thing seems like its getting kinda long and i dont want to loose you to my ramblings so i will go for now. that is john in the background and my other sisters at that table. hmm, i just noticed that. well, i need to go try real hard to get caught up on what is going on with all of you. crap, loose a week and it takes a whole day to catch up.

see ya all later

Spring, Summer, Fall, Potluck, Winter

There really is 5 seasons. the missing one is Potluck. it happens at workplaces across the country around this time of year, there are many taking place every day for a multiple of reasons. This is how it happens. someone finds a reason to have one. the choices go on forever, birthday, baby, the many holidays, a team member leaving. then a type of meal is decided on and a sign up sheet is distributed around the workplace. As the actual date comes closer, the original organisers talk and make sure everything is coming together. then the day arrives and the food is brought in, people eat massive amounts, are happy and then have to bring home leftovers.

this happened last night with us on third shift. One of the managers that everyone thinks very highly of is leaving us and going to first shift. We will still see him, but he wont be working with us. he is one of those special people that goes out of his way to help where ever he is needed. so we had a potluck for him to wish him a fond farewell. we gave the folks a choice of donating 5.00  or bringing in a dish. the 5.00 was to buy meat to bbq. We worried about not having enough side dishes, but as usual, the was more than enough food to feed a few armies. I brought carrot cake, potato salad and an empty crock pot. I brought home half the potato salad and crock pot full of baked beans.

I threw out the salad, it had been sitting out all night. i dont know what i am going to do with a crockpot full of beans. there was such good food there last night. i wish i could have eaten more, but then i couldnt work. i think if you make something, you should also bring in the recipe, that way if it is really good, you can have it again. In a few weeks we will have the thanksgiving potluck, then a christmas one. its time to eat for every occasion. I love this season. do you?

its almost done!!!!

John worked so hard this weekend. he pained the bathroom, put in the floor and reinstalled the toilet. It didnt happen that fast. I wish it did. poor guy is exhausted. Now the last big thing is the sink/vanity. He has to do the light bar and accessories, but we can do that on tuesday or next weekend. the hardest part is done though and it looks great. Can you see the color of the walls? I am so thrilled with how this is turning out. and guess what, we get to return one box of flooring we never opened. tomorrow the guy will come out to measure for the new shower doors. this is going to be nice. i may just take loonger showers when it is done, just so I can look at it. on e of my friends dropped by to tell me something and i showd her the bathroom. she thought the floor was real stone. yep, john did an excellent job. we keep getting better and better at this renovation stuff. this is our third big project.

Im off to bed now. gotta bet to work at 8 tonight.

Another Early morning blog

the amazing happened to me yesterday. I went to Lowes and spent only 68.00. then I went next door and into Costco. here is the really strange thing, i walked out of that building under 100.00. this NEVER happens to me. I find something to spend my hard earned cash on. the thing was though, i went in there sleepy. that never helps. i didnt even bring in a list. i did forget one thing, not a critical thing so i dont have to go back.

today we will be painting the bathroom and hopefully putting down the floor. in my mind, it shouldnt take that long. im sure it will take longer than i want though. and hopefully by tomorrow we can at least reinstall the toilet. I am so used to heading straight for our bathroom, i find myself still doing that. i cant wait for this to be done. it really will be nice.

i was asked the other night if i wanted to work on vetereans day. i had to think for a second. i would get triple time, which the government would quickly snatch most of that away before i even get to look at it. if i didnt work i would still get 8 hours and that really was the better deal for me. so i will go in 4 hours early on sunday, get monday off then work three more days. i will come out ahead on this paycheck and not have to work so hard. good for me.

I got a couple pics sent to me from my son. get this. he has been talking to this girl online since he was a sophmore in highschool. they have talked on the phone, webcammed, and chatted on line. this week he and her met in person for the first time. sound familiar to anyone. he said it was so strange but he is having  a great time. he flew to Philly and sent me a pic of the liberty bell

then to washington and sent me a pic of the capitol at night.

These were both taken with his cell phone. pretty cool huh!  he has plans to keep seeing that part of our country until sunday when he has to fly back home. I am juast happy he gets to do this.

ok im out of anything else to say right now. hope you have something fun planned for your weekend.

New Beginnings

That is probably what most of us are thinking right about now. some are way too happy. some are sad and wondering what the future holds for them. I know, its only the changing of our guard, and it hasnt even really happened yet. it wont happen till next year. In the meantime, we can try to get an idea of whats in store by trying to predict the outcome by who he brings on board for his new cabinet. I will leave that particular task to those in more of the know than me.

While I was watching the huge celebration last night, and listening to the many comments i kept hearing the same thing, over and over. "Never in MY lifetime did I expect to see this. " I must have been a little nieve about this. I kept thinking this was about the persons views and values and goals of what he wanted to accomplish. I am happy we finally crossed the color line. that is not the issue for me. never was. it is his views, values, and goals he wants to accomplish.

so i am going to move on. try to anyway. what choice do I have, none. I am not the only person feeling like this. I would imagine quite a few of us with the R in front of our political standing are feeling the same way. I was able to gain a bit of respect for Clinton, so maybe i can do the same for obama. Im sure he is a nice guy. I just dont agree with his views, values and goals.

so this is me trying to accept and move on. Hopefully, our paychecks wont completley disappear, along with our savings and any other account we may have our retirement in. I can just keep trying to have my new beginning.

Our bathroom redo

These are some of the pics i took of the work in progress. I cant wait to see it all put back together.

John is starting

This morning we got up early, i made waffles, John made the bacon, we had breakfast and John started in on the bathroom. He took out the toilet first.

Water went all over the floor, but that didnt matter, that was gonna get torn up also. then he started on the tiles on the wall of the sink. A few of them came off clean, but we also have a couple big holes in the wall. John will patch those with that patch stuff. We also decided to replace the mirror/cabinet that that was put on the side of the wall. I dont know who's bright idea that was to put the medicine cabinet on the side wall. But now that is in the trash too. John didnt want to replace it at first, but he chipped the corner glass. Out it goes. woo hooooo. I hated that thing.

The next thing we have to do is paint. I am leaning toward the darker color. I think it is gonna look really nice, sorta rich. We looked at shower doors yesterday, and i really liked this dark brushed metal with clear glass. the clear will make the small bathroom look larger and the doors should stay cleaner. We will have to squeegie the doors after we use the shower, but it will look nice. John will start doing the plaster tomorrow. I think this may go faster than we figured. It is gonna look nice. it is costing more than we figured on, but its not like we will do this once a year. We probably wont do it again. But bathrooms and kitchens add price to the home value.

OK, thats it for now.

One Down, how many more to go

halloween has come and gone. We didnt get a whole lot of kids last nite. I had 104 bags of puffs and 48 chedder flavored ruffles. I dont know how many more i have left over, but i will give them away to neighbors. they have kids and will happily eat them. I just dont want them here.

yesterday i went and got my hair cut again. this is the shortest its ever been. I had it cut around my ears. it looks cute. I dont have a pic to show yet, but next time i fix it, i will try to get john to snap one. pretty much it is wash and wear. I can curl the top or even spike it if I want. the sides are short though.

So next up is election day. I dont know how to say how much i cant wait for this one to be over. i am sick to death of all the commercials and ads for the many different politicians and  propositions to vote for. I wish  there was some way to eliminate the ads from my viewing since i have already voted. why should i have to continue to hear this crap. This should be one of the hightest voter turnouts in recent history, and that is great. its about freakin time people took notice of the issues going on around them and added their voice to the mix. Here in california, two of the items we are voting on same sex marriage, which is a biggie and how big the cages are for some farm animals. I just wish it was over.

after that is thanksgiving then christmas. i wont go into those things yet. i love both holidays, they just make me feel good.

Today we are going to look at new shower doors for the bathroom. that is the last big item we need to buy for the redo. pictures to come on that one.

It rained thursday for the first time this season. thunder, lightening, the works. I slept through the whole thing. its supposed to rain today and tomorrow too. with lightening and thunder again. woo hoo.

ok, i think that is it for now. i need to get int he shower and do a little housework before it gets too late in tha day. i dont want to spend the whole day cleaning. hope you have some fun planned for the weekend. see ya all later.