Filling Up the Time (waiting for our stuff)

We are still waiting for our household goods to get here.  We kinda thought it would've come by now, but last we heard, our stuff made it as far as Billings MT last Monday, and is still sitting there (as far as we know).  It's good to know it's on its way, but it only took us 2-1/2 days to drive from Montana to Cheyenne to South Bend.  So ........................  what's up with that?  I don't know.  I suppose the rumors are true that they are short on truck drivers.  Anyhoo, in the meantime I am learning to get by on less, and it's actually good for me, I think. I have to get creative and think outside of the box sometimes, learning to make do with what I have.  I do wish I had my stuff though cuz I can't make cookies or bread or pies or smoothies or pizza or ice cream etc.  One day last week I started making some salad dressing and then realized I didn't have my food processor; it still tasted good but it didn't have the smooth texture that I was aiming for.  So until I get my stuff, we are limited to stove top cooking and sandwiches. I also miss having my scrap booking stuff.  I thought I would get really bored without having my stuff, and sometimes I do start to feel bored, but we've been finding ways to fill up the time while we wait for that big glorious truck to show up in our driveway.  

As you can see, I got all that black paint scraped off the fireplace, and I like it a lot better now.  It took me two afternoons to do it with that can of brain-cell killer that I bought from the paint store.  I couldn't get the paint off the grout, so it still has a black "grid" pattern, but maybe the grid pattern really doesn't look that bad.  Later on, after we get the upstairs repainted with a different color scheme, we will decide if we wanna pursue changing it, but for now, I can live with it.  I'm just glad the whole thing isn't black anymore.  But now it seems to clash more with the brown paint on the walls, which makes me more eager to start painting the upstairs.

As for the downstairs, we started working on painting the big areas.

As usual, I did all the frog taping, and Chuck is doing the painting.  The downstairs will get done pretty fast cuz the walls are like big blank canvases. 

The upstairs will be more of a challenge.

You can't really tell in these pictures, but we are repainting with a color that is very close to the color that was on there, and then we will complement that color with a light gray (and cover up the walls that are beige colored).  I know the carpet is an ugly green, but since it's the downstairs, it's not gonna bother me that much.  I am getting excited about filling up this space with my scrap booking stuff!!

Today we made a new kind of commitment.  We decided to identify with the church that we've been worshipping with, so I am happy to say that we have a church family again.  We are very happy with them!  They are such a nice group of people and I know we will make some really good friends there.  Anyhoo, every time there is a 5th Sunday, which was today, they do what they call a "church-each-church".  At first we didn't know what this meant, but it basically means the same thing as what we've been doing in Wasilla all these years.  Worship service, potluck, and then worship again.  Since we had our evening service right after potluck, it freed up the rest of our day, so me and Chuck took another drive into some other towns, which is something we've been doing when we just wanna go do something.  We enjoy looking at historical places and going into antique shops.

Today we drove north into Michigan.  First we went to a little town called Buchanan.  When we first rolled into the edge of town, I was reminded of "Planet of the Apes".  Remember when the three astronauts were getting close to the ape city, and they started seeing those scarecrow-looking things?  Well, we started seeing a few scarecrows on the edge of town, and then when we got further into town, they were EVERYWHERE.

You probably can't see this very well, but everywhere where it looks like a person is standing, that is a scarecrow.  The downtown main drag had scarecrows lined up on both sides of the street.  Upon closer inspection, we learned that every business owner in town puts one out.  I just thought it was such a cute idea!

The scarecrows weren't scary looking though.  They fashion them to match their business.

For example, this one has a broken arm and a broken leg.

This one has a cat sticking out of the top of the overalls.

Anyhoo, we got coffee at a coffee shop and kept walking around the town and found this trail.

It was supposed to be a trail that skirted along a little river and it just kinda meandered all over.  

And then it led us to these ducks.  Unfortunately, we only had one quarter, but they sure like to crowd around you when they hear that coin drop in the food dispenser slot.  I always feel bad when I have to tell the ducks "sorry, all gone!"

Then we went to another town, Niles, and spent some time in an antique shop.

Then we drove around and saw this big old house.

I hope to get back there another time during it's open hours.  It's a museum that supposedly has a lot of stuff in it.  I would love to go in there and see what it's like on the inside.

Then we got hungry and went to a local pizza joint.  We were the only customers in there so we sat at the counter and chatted with the old guy while he made our pizza. He said he was a native of Niles (he was born there and never left) and told us all kinds of things of what it was like to live there as a young boy.  The building that he is now using as a pizza joint, he said was built in 1838 and was originally a place where they repaired horse buggies.

On the way home,  this "sea of pumpkins" caught my eye, so of course we stopped.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of pumpkins and gourds.

Pie pumpkins were $1.50 each, so I bought two to add to my growing collection.

The weather is starting to cool off a little bit now, and we are seeing more and more Fall and Halloween decor, so I feel justified buying more pumpkins now.  I don't know how many I'll end up with by the time I quit buying them, but I'm sure I'll be picking them up here and there as I see them during the next few weeks.  Buying them in Alaska wasn't this easy or this cheap. Up there, you had to go out of your way to find them and then pay out the nose for them.  Here, they are so abundant, they will find you and they are so affordable!  

I now have five!

So anyhoo,  yes I want my stuff, but so far I've been happily distracted.

Tomorrow I go to Michigan and visit my friend Tammie!  Woo-HOO!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

So we've been in this house for about 2-1/2 weeks now, and I've already talked about the good things I like about this house.  I didn't list everything I like because there's a lot to like.

Now let's talk about the bad.  Recently, like a couple days ago, I realized something about this house that I don't like.  There aren't very many windows, and the living room has NONE.  The closest one is  in the dining area which runs into the living room, but I don't count that as being in the living room. This, along with the dim yellow lighting, and with all the yucky brown paint colors, makes the house look dark and dim and depressing.  I am used to my house in Wasilla where I had a lot of really big windows that always kept the place looking bright and cheery.

So, we are gonna brighten up this place, starting with the ugly.

There are a lot of really ugly paint colors in this house.  I think the bathrooms and the big rooms downstairs are the ones that are doable for me, or at least I can live with them for now.  The rest of the paint colors in this house gotta go.  But first, I want to tackle this fireplace.

We discovered that there is some pretty gray tile hidden underneath this coat of black paint.

Someone please tell me WHY, OH WHY? would anyone PAINT over pretty tile with BLACK PAINT?!  These people must've really liked their house dark and depressing.  It's bad enough that there's not enough windows to let the sunshine in, but then to add dark paint?  Sheesh!  I suppose maybe it was the "in" thing when they did it, but it's not my thing.

I guess the reasoning for this really doesn't matter.  What really matters is that I get it off!

So I started scraping it.  First with a razor blade, which didn't work very well.  Then with a butter knife. It comes off okay with a butter knife, but doing it this way is gonna take forever!  And my hands get so tired - I don't wanna get carpel tunnel. Plus there's the problem of all those little crevices where the paint has to be poked out.  And it can't be scraped off the grout at all.

So I went to Sherwin Williams and told the guy what I'm doing, and he sold me this stuff.

Now all I need is a big chunk of time, and good ventilation, and hopefully I can get it all done in one day.

Hmmmm, good ventilation might be a problem..........I hope I don't fry what brain cells I still got left.

Lack of windows, ya know!

I will just have to open all the windows I got and try to pick a breezy day.

In the meantime, we got Justin's room all done, and we are now trying to decide which ugly to tackle next.  I am studying some white and light shades of paint to cover all these browns upstairs, but while I'm working on the fireplace, we will probably do all the downstairs first and then focus on the upstairs.  We are gonna have a LOT of painting to do.

All I know is that this house needs to be brightened up, and I'm already sick of looking at these drab dreary depressing browns!  

Getting Settled

As I type this, we are getting new carpet installed in the three upstairs bedrooms.  Lots of noise here now, but that's okay.  I just wish I knew where Weeners went.  I looked and looked and looked and looked and looked and looked for her, but she's a very very very good hider.  Hopefully, she didn't run out the door when the carpet guys had the door hanging open, but I doubt that.

Anyhoo, last week was pretty busy.  We got a lot done, and even found some time for R&R.

We already had some family visitors:  Chuck's sisters Karen and Judy were coming back from their trip in Tennessee, so they stopped by to see us.

Chuck got his usual back scratching from JudyBug.

They spent the night and Chuck fixed them breakfast.  Then they went outside and looked at our plants some more before they left (plants are Karen's forte).  It's always fun to visit with them.

On Friday we took a little trip to Shipshewana, about an hour's drive from here going east.

It's a little town in "Amish/Mennonite Country" so seeing the horse and buggy contraptions was a common sight.  I tried to get a good picture, but every time I saw one I wasn't in a good position to get a decent picture.

Shipshewana has a lot of really neat stores there.  Our friends Pete and Tammie took us there once a few years ago, so I thought of them whenever we saw places that we've already been.

Chuck spent a lot of time looking at outside patio furniture and then he saw this kitty garden decor that was on sale, so he bought it for me.  I set it up next to our birdbath in the back yard.

Then we went to the meat and cheese store where they sell hormone/steroid/antibiotic free clean meat.  

The prices actually weren't too bad, so we bought some ground beef and some chicken thighs, and also a box of hamburger patties, and of course cheese.  Chuck's new passion seems to be Swiss cheese.  Before we left, we ended up ordering 1/4 side of beef, which will be ready to pick up in two weeks.  It's gonna be a LOT of meat.

We did find some patio furniture, but not from Shipshewana.  This is the time of year when the stores are trying to get rid of that kind of stuff, so we found a set on sale at Menard's.

They also had these pumpkins for $1.89.  Each!  Not sold by the pound, like in Alaska where you can easily pay $5-6 for one.  I was so excited to see them so cheap I wanted to buy the whole case, but I refrained myself and only took three.  For now.

In Shipshewana, I saw them being sold for $1.50 each!!  Wow.

But the temps here are still too hot to feel like pumpkin season.  I guess that's why I only bought three so far.  I need the temps to cool down so it will feel like Fall.  The temps here are still hovering in the upper 80's, and all the trees are still green as can be.  The locals here say that this is unusually warm for September.  All I know is that I'm ready for this heat to pass.  I hate feeling too hot to do anything outside.  I'm not used to this.

Weeners is really enjoying listening to and watching her new fowl friends.

We've already seen several pretty birds here that we didn't get in Alaska.

I have no idea why Peeka decided to go in the garage and lay on top of the car.

Your guess is as good as mine.

We've also started the painting projects, starting with Justin's room.

There are several rooms in this house that have a hideous color.  Blue isn't a bad color for Justin's room, but this blue was too dark and bold.  He picked out a softer blue that looks a lot better.

We are trying to decide which room to do next.

Chuck started his new job yesterday, so I am starting to get used to being in this house all day without him, and trying to get back into the groove of cleaning, and making supper every night again, with what little cookware I brought with me.  I got back into my Greek too, but it's been time consuming trying to get caught up on it.

I'm also trying to get more exercise and trying to find a routine that works for me.  Chuck does a good job with his running, but somehow it's easier for him to just go whenever he has the urge to run.  For me, I have to plan it all out.  There are some bike/jogging/walking paths in the neighborhood that we've been utilizing.  They are nice because they keep us out of traffic's way, and there's also some interesting things that we pass by, like an old cemetery, and some really old houses - one of them built in 1847.  Last night I went for a walk and didn't use that path; I went on some side roads and walked into Michigan (yes, we are that close to the border!).  It's a nice walk if you go in the evening when it's not so hot out.  Once you cross the Michigan border, you step into farm country which is a lot nicer than looking at suburban neighborhoods.

I wish I had my stuff.  There are times when I feel bored and I have the urge to go downstairs and play with my stamps.  As of last Friday, our stuff was still sitting in Anchorage, and they couldn't tell us when it was gonna start coming our way.  I brought my hand sewing with me (Justin's quilt), but this house doesn't have good lighting for sewing, and it's too hot to sit outside, and the sun room doesn't have any furniture in it yet.  So I twiddle my thumbs when I don't know what else to do.

The carpet guys are almost done and I have to get supper started soon.

Bye!

We Moved!

Well, here we are in our new home in Indiana!

I know some of you were waiting to hear how our trip went.  I couldn't post anything until now for obvious reasons.  Where did I leave you hanging?  Oh yeah, our household goods were being packed away by the Samoan dudes.

They set up a table in our garage and took their lunch break which consisted of corned beef mixed with rice.

Peeka really enjoyed exploring her new "kitty park" in our living room.

So on Monday they loaded up the truck and emptied out our house, except for the stuff we decided to take with us.  We ended up sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags, and then got up real early on Tuesday morning so we could start our road trip.

But first, we stopped in Palmer for breakfast.  We ate at the Noisy Goose where they have this bear looking in the window at the customers.

The trip itself really isn't worth writing about because we didn't stop to see or do anything.  We just aimed for our destinations each night before it got dark.  And since I was driving, I didn't have many opportunities to get pictures of anything.  Chuck was driving the truck (with Peeka), and I was following behind him in the car (with Weeners).

On the first day we drove from Wasilla, Alaska to Whitehorse (YUKON, Canada).

On the second day we drove from Whitehorse to Fort Nelson (BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada).

On the third day we drove from Fort Nelson to Whitecourt (ALBERTA, Canada).

On the fourth day we drove from Whitecourt to Grand Falls, Montana.

On the fifth day we drove from Grand Falls to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The 6th day was Sunday so we went to church in Cheyenne with Karen and Kris.

After we had lunch with them, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska.

It got dark out about two hours before we got there, and then we saw lightning, and then the rain came down so hard, all I could see was Chuck's blurry tail lights.  It was a scary time for me.

On the 7th day we drove from Lincoln to South Bend, Indiana.

We stayed on I-80 and skirted the southern side of Chicago where the traffic was crazy AND we drove through another downpour of rain!  Another scary part!

We drove 4200 miles in 7 days.  Well, actually it was 6-1/2 days cuz we spent the first half of Sunday in Cheyenne.  I was able to get just a few pictures along the way.

Before we crossed the Canadian border, we let Weeners out (on a leash).  This was her last time in the Alaska weeds.

For the most part, she did pretty good in the car.  She spent a lot of time on my lap, or Justin's lap.

Or she would find a place in the back part of the car and just sleep.

When we were driving through Canada, we came to spot where there was a small herd of bison on the highway, blocking traffic.  

And occasionally we would see some caribou.

We didn't see any moose or bears.

Whenever we stopped for a potty break, we tried to let Weeners out.  Sometimes she would paw at the windows while we were driving cuz she wanted to go outside really bad, so we tried to take her out when we could. Peeka was the opposite.  She was too scared to go outside, so we quit trying with her.

In northern Wyoming, the rest area had some baby bunnies running around.  They were so cute!

So when we got to South Bend, Chuck looked for a Super 8 cuz they will let people bring cats in the room for an extra fee.  We needed 3 nights in a hotel, and it was really hot and humid in South Bend, so we couldn't let the cats live in our vehicles for 3 days! Anyhoo, when we got there, we thought we went to the wrong one cuz it was under construction and we thought it was closed.  But it was the right one, so we went in, got checked in, and found out where they apparently keep their kitty customers.  They put us down at the very end of this hallway that smelled like cat pee.  Our room also smelled like cat pee.  

Then we soon found out that place was a dump.  Chuck said if the health inspectors came, that place would've been shut down.  The cat pee smell is only the beginning of their troubles.  Just trust me - it was a DUMP!  There was mold all over the ceilings and walls, especially in our bathroom. Chuck even went through the trouble to borrow their vacuum cleaner so he could clean out their bathroom fan AND he fixed the toilet lid which was about to fall off.  Plus our blow dryer was dead so we had to ask for a new one.  PLUS, we were supposed to get a continental breakfast, but it was closed off with yellow tape.  So they just put out some coffee decanters which contained room temperature coffee that tasted like watered down sawdust.  We ended up going to Starbucks for breakfast every morning. Anyhoo, we really appreciated getting out of that place when we closed on the house!

So we got there Monday night and were closing on our house on Thursday, so we spent that time getting familiar with the town and our new neighborhood, and also went to a furniture store and picked out some furnishings that we knew we would need for the house.  Everything went smooth with money transfers and we were able to close on our house Thursday afternoon, so Thursday night we slept in our new house on the floor in sleeping bags.  Woke up with an achy back, but I was just excited to be in our house.

On Friday we had our furniture delivered, one of them a guest bed for our guest room, so we are sleeping on that until the rest of our household goods come, which by the way, hasn't even left Anchorage yet, so it could be mid October before we get our stuff.

Anyhoo, we are so happy to be in our house!

The guy who lived here was widowed about a year ago or so, and she had an "English garden" going, so there's a lot of interesting plants in the gardens outside, most of them I have no clue what they are. The plants are kinda sickly looking cuz the owner didn't take care of them (it was his wife's thing), and I am not a green thumb, but I hope we can make it look really nice again.

Peeka already found some ledges to sit on.

At night we leave the bedroom window open and listen to the frogs.  The cats will sit on the window ledge and listen to them too.

And of course Peeka already lounges on my kitchen counter.

Weeners did a lot of hiding at first, but it didn't take Peeka very long to feel at home here.

"rub my belly!"

After we moved in, we found some really cool amenities that we didn't know was here.  Like this hot water dispenser.

It's perfect for someone like me who likes to drink hot tea almost every night.  No more heating up a mug of water in the microwave!  This dispenser makes instant tea, and it's always ready!

Okay, so this is not an exciting picture, but this is really cool, especially for people who like to sweep their dirt under the rug (no, I am not one of those people).  But this house comes with a central vac, and it works really good, so we really won't need to use our regular vacuum cleaner that much anymore.  And it turns out we really won't need a broom or a dust pan either.  This little hole under the kitchen cabinet leads to the central vac bag.  If we flip the switch, we can sweep all our dirt into it, and it gets sucked into the central vac bag.  How cool is that?

Here is my kitchen.  Nice and big with lots of cabinet space.  The only problem is that they are so high.  I cannot reach the top shelves without a step stool.  This kitchen was made for a giant woman.

I wanted an island to use as my work station, like I had in my other house, so I was kinda disappointed that this island has a range in the middle of it, BUT!....if you look behind it you'll see that I have a long uninterrupted counter space, which makes up for the loss of island space.  

Look Ma!  Two ovens!  It's hard to see but next to the fridge is an oven and a microwave.  The oven that you see in the island is actually a convection oven, which I have to get used to. The owner of the house told me that he mostly just used the regular oven by the fridge.  The range is electric, which is a disappointment cuz I prefer gas ranges, but it's something else I will just have to get used to.  The only thing I really HATE is that refrigerator!  It's one of those fancy ones with the double doors.  I HATE THOSE!  But it came with the house, so I will just have to tolerate it.  Unfortunately, it's fairly new, so I will have to tolerate it for a LONG time.

I have a very nice laundry room, also with lots of storage area.  You can't see in the picture, but the wall opposite the washer and dryer also has more cabinets, plus a place for me to put my laundry sorters.   The washer and dryer came with the house.  A little too fancy for me (too many features), but they are pretty nice.  I think I figured out now how to use them.

I love the sunroom, but we are going to repaint it.  It's too much bold yellow.  After we tone it down and add some wicker furniture, it will be really nice in there.  It'll be great for reading or hand-sewing.

This is the study room where I will be doing all my Greek and Bible studying.  Chuck will use it too, for work related stuff.  It would also work as a Halloween room if Chuck would let me, but I think he would put his foot down about that.  So I think my Halloween decor will be scaled back quite a bit now.

I didn't take any pictures of the bedrooms, but we have a nice master bedroom/bath and two guest rooms (come stay with us!).

The downstairs is ridiculous big! 

What you see here is only half of it!

It's hard to tell on the pictures, but it really is so ridiculously big, it's almost laughable. Even with all my scap booking stuff and my sewing, I still won't fill up all that space, but after I get my stuff, I will be spending a lot of time down there.

Justin's bedroom is also down there, with a full bathroom.

But we will probably use some of it for storage cuz we are not allowed to have a shed.  All of Chuck's manly belongings will have to go in the garage, which has limited space.  So everything we had in our crawl space and stored in our shed will have to be stored in our new basement.  I suppose a significant amount of space will be taken up just by my Halloween stuff.

As for our neighbors, we already met some of them.  On Saturday, a lady from across the street came over and provided us with lunch and a pan of brownies.  She's a really nice lady.  We went over there today to return her brownie pan and she invited us to stay and visit with her for a spell. 

Then today, another neighbor lady came and brought some more goodies.  She has a swimming pool behind her house and told us to please come over and use it whenever we want.  She's not home a lot and she doesn't want it just sitting there not being used.

And as you know, my good friend Tammie is now only an hour and a half away!  So she and her husband Pete came to see us yesterday.  She brought me my rhubarb and raspberry plants, which are all looking very healthy. They stayed for dinner and we got caught up on a lot of things.  It was so fun seeing them again!  I am of course planning on going to her house in the near future.  We have a lot of stamping to do!

Today we visited a church in Mishiwaka.  It was SO different than what I'm used to!  After we left, I wanted to fly back to Alaska cuz I missed my Wasilla church family so much!  But like Chuck said, I have to give them a chance, and I know he's right.  The people were friendly enough; the problem is me trying to force myself to let go and accept change.  For some reason, it comes easier for Chuck to do that.

So that's pretty much the gist of it.  This week Chuck has off, and then he starts his new job next week Monday.  So we will be spending the week picking out paint, getting more settled, and taking care of important business, like opening a bank account and things like that.  And on Wednesday we have someone coming over to measure the bedrooms so we can start the ball rolling for changing out the carpet.  We want to get that done before our stuff comes.  We will have lots of things to do to make this house our own, but it'll be fun.