Busy First Week ...

We took possession of the new house Tuesday afternoon and by Thursday afternoon, my son and I removed all the carpet and all the tile from the house.  2600 lbs loaded onto the truck and then off the truck into the dump!  All in 110+ heat!  Needless to say, Jeff is losing weight and I'm building muscles.

Removed carpet from dining room floor -- it's going to be tiled.

First step to new tile is removing the old tile, then the cement has to be ground off (oh, messy, messy, messy!!).  Only time I can imagine doing this is before you move in -- everything gets coated with cement dust!

Living room carpet removed ...

This will be the office -- two large closets -- yeah!

And we had the wrinkles on the pool steps removed.  The realtor's pool maintenance people let the water level recede and when the liner slipped, they just re-filled the pool with water.  The liner is only a year old so we had the company come back and re-do the steps.  They came out like new but I forgot to take a picture of the results.  Guess that will come next time.

Later this afternoon we're having a little family pool party and celebrating with champagne and chinese food and a nice dip in the pool.

Enjoy your weekend!

Weekend Ride

We had a meeting to attend on Saturday morning in Parker so on the way back home we decided to take a peek at Parker Dam.  The dam is built on the border between Arizona and California and supplies both hydroelectric power and water to areas of southern California, Phoenix and Tucson. 

 It is 320 feet high (with 235 feet located below the riverbed) making it the tallest dam in the world.  It separates Lake Havasu on the high side from the Colorado River on the low side so boat traffic cannot pass through the area.  But from the number of boats we saw on the river it doesn't seem to bother anyone.  There are 30 miles of shoreline along the Colorado River in this area with an abundance of RV parks giving access to the water.

It's actually quite a graceful structure ...

After you cross into California there is a scenic byway along the Colorado River ...

Here is the river, rocky mountains and sand dunes all in one spot ...

And these burros taking a stroll ... 

They were heading here to "burro heaven" ... green grass, shade trees and an irrigation system to keep them cool!

And this little fella is adorable ... 

Nice afternoon ride ... back to packing tomorrow.

Til next time, 

This is a re-post from last year since it says it all about the two fathers in my life -- 


The first part of this blog today is about my own father, Ryland, and is taken from the eulogy I gave at his funeral in 2004.  He died at the age of 85.

"[My Dad] was a serious man but we had lots of fun times and Dad always enjoyed a good joke and a good laugh.

By today’s standards, Dad didn’t lead a very exciting life but it was long and it was full.  Paul said in I Thessalonians 4:11 that we should make it our ambition to lead a quiet life, mind our own business and work with our hands.  Certainly Dad did that … He was a good and honest man who always worked very hard to provide for us.  For over 20 years he worked seven days a week and yet he always found the time to spend with the family.  He would arrange his long days so that he could be available for family activities in the middle of the day, then go back to his job at night to finish up. His was a quiet kind of sacrifice that you don’t see so much in these days.

I spent a lot of time with my Dad in my formative years.  When I was little and we lived on the farm I would sit on his lap while he drove the tractor doing whatever he was doing that day.  I followed him around so much he called me his “shadow”. 

Then when I was about 10 or so I started riding with him on his rounds to the farmers and doing his “bookwork”.  I didn’t so much like housework so the deal was that if I went with Dad to help him I could get out of the house cleaning stuff.  Well, that was only the  “frosting on the cake” because I got to spend many, many hours with my Dad all to myself in all kinds of circumstances and we talked a lot – sometimes about trivial stuff and other times about the nitty gritty things of life.  It was a blessing that has lasted all my life.

Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t perfect – he was stubborn and opinionated and his way was always the right way (and most times it was) but he was a good man trying to do the right things.  Brenda and I were blessed to have him as our father and we will miss him a lot.  But he is at peace now and his worn out body is resting -- and  -- I look forward to seeing both him and Mama again in the resurrection.  Now that will be a real blessing!

Rest peacefully, Dad … I love you …"

The second part of this is about my present husband who has no biological children of his own, but for over 20 years now he has been the father my boys needed and loved.  George has stood by them through all the trials of their late teens, 20's and 30's.  We are blessed to have him as head of our family and his example of quiet giving is bearing bountiful fruit in their lives.  Without him in those formative young adult years I'm sure their lives would have turned out quite differently. He has truly been a blessing.

 Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there who quietly go about their business of being fathers and have such an impact on their families and ultimately on our world.  

Blessings, 

OOPS!

Just found out yesterday that the VA loan we're using for the house requires that the eaves be refinished before closing in two weeks.  This is a big job that we were planning to do in the early winter (we're in Havasu after all), not in the heat of the summer.  But they will not close until the eaves are done. SO Jeff came out of hiberation (as he calls it) and we started today.  Oh my, oh my!  What a job!  We intended to do it over a period of time; now we have to have it done pronto.  And it was 105 here today and predicted to be 115-117 during the next few days.

Ok, take a deep breath and just do it.

This is how Jeff spent the entire day ... oh those aching arms ... and the sunburn to go with it.

We don't have access to the house -- I know -- we have to do this work before closing but we can't have access to the house -- only the yard.  But that's the way it is so we just deal with it.  The house and the view and the pool are going to be way worth it!

But since we do have yard access, we did take advantage of this --

And we're looking forward to many more days spent here.

Enjoy your evening -- we're both having a big cocktail and nursing our tired bodies. Hmmm ... I'm getting a little old for this stuff.  Guess it will keep me young!

Blessings,

Lookee ...

A thrift store find!  Lake Havasu is not the shopping mecca of the west so my poking around for goodies is rather limited.  But today I dropped off a couple of bags at the Hospice Retail Store and went inside to peek at what might have arrived over the weekend.  Oh, I found a goodie -- a complete set for 8 (nothing missing!) -- and with serving pieces -- of Wm Rogers silverplate.  It's the Devonshire (or Mary Lou) pattern from 1938 and it has barely been used.

Here is a picture just as I picked it up -- not bad at all.  I'll enjoy spending some time polishing it up and finding a chest to keep it shiny.  I have a set of my own given to me by my parents about 45 years ago and this new set has even less use on it than mine from what I can see.

A little bit of tarnish ...

Love the pattern ... detailed and delicate ...

And all for less money than I would pay for a set of stainless at Walmart.  Yippee!

Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow morning ... and then, since it's going to be 113 or so as it was today, I'm taking lunch to my son and we're going to spend the afternoon in the pool.

Make it a happy day!

Tick, Tock ... Tick, Tock

I hate waiting ... just plain and simple.  I don't like waiting in traffic or waiting in checkout lines or waiting at the doctor's office or waiting for the closing on our house.  I've learned not to fuss when waiting in traffic, checkout lines and doctor's offices probably because the Good Lord has made sure I've had plenty of opportunity to learn how to get it right. He says patience is a virtue; it must be because it certainly doesn't come naturally to me and it's been a long teaching process.

However, waiting for the closing on the house is something I don't do regularly and both my son, Jeff, who is ready to get started on the remodel and myself are just itching to get going.  We've got sample tiles and carpet and paint colors and we've got prices and some quotes.  So there is nothing to do now but wait ... ugh.  We've done all the prep work in deciding what direction to go that we can at this time since we don't have access to the house unless we call the real estate agent.    We both work the same way ... sometimes you just have to "be" in the place and ponder on what you want, what will work, and what you can afford to do.

So it's "tick, tock" time.  I've started cleaning out some drawers and closets to make sure I'm not planning to pack anything that I don't want or need and I have a couple of bags ready to take to the donation center.  I've started a collection -- of boxes!

I've saved a lot of heavy packing boxes I purchased for the move from Tucson BUT since they are heavy and most of them flattened to conserve space they needed something in front of them to hold them up neatly against the wall.  OOPS!  This is what is in front of the boxes ... guess that wasn't good planning was it?

Oh well, it will get moved around ... just not now.  I've got to get psyched up for that part.

In the meantime, I've got a good book and a nice tall glass of iced green tea and the clocking ticking until June 26.

Blessings on your day,

'Tis the Season ...

Summer in Lake Havasu brings lots of boats and lots of people.  Considering how hot it gets here it's a good thing we have a Lake or no one would venture to visit.  Those of us without boats love our air conditioning and pools!  We went down to the "Channel" early on Saturday morning so we could take a walk before it got too hot. These boats were out around 9 AM!  Music was blaring and grills were cooking everything from breakfast eggs to hamburgers and hot dogs.

There are little boats ...

And bigger boats ...

And "go fast" ... really fast ... boats.  

With some unique paint jobs ...

"Tis the season ... to go boating!  Just a typical summer weekend in Havasu.

Have a great day,

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions ...

Too many choices.  If there were less choices, then the task would be easier.  We've decided to go with a gray/silver color theme for the house.  I never realized how very many shades of gray there are and how easily it picks up the colors around it.  There is blue/gray, green/gray, yellow/gray, pink/gray, brown/gray ... and on and on it goes.  And what looks one way in the store or in the rental home where we are living now does not look at all the same in the new house.

We've finally decided (I think) that we are going through the extra work -- oh, I do mean real yucky, dirty work -- of removing all the tile in the house (over 1000 square feet) and laying new.  We cannot exactly match the tile that is there now and trying to blend together two different tiles just isn't working. This is the current tile --

So we'll be spending a good deal of our time at first just getting the old tile up.  I know from the flip house we did last year that it is a really difficult and dirty and back breaking job.  But my son says that if he's going to do the house he wants to do it right and it just doesn't look right to mix tiles.

These were some earlier possibilities we discarded for one reason for another --

I found a nice 18" tile today that looks really good with the lighting in the new house and is wonderfully neutral so we will not tire of it in the future.

Here is a closer look --

And, then, of course will be carpet and paint colors ... the carpet standing behind the tile on the bed above actually goes very well with the tile.  It looks a little blue here but that's because it's sitting on an aqua bedspread.  It's called Sterling Silver and is a very true gray.  The one to the left is quite blue and doesn't work.

And I have paint chips everywhere ... like I said too many choices!  And that choice will come later when we're in the house and can paint samples on the walls.  But I have some ideas.

So this is how my guest bedroom is looking most days now --

Nothing more I can do with this until I get some more carpet samples.  So off to enjoy a hot weekend -- it's 112 now at 6 PM and will probably go up another degree or two.  I can't wait to "own" this pool ...

We'll be taking our pre-dinner drinks up and taking a dip as soon as we close near the end of June.  The new house is only a half mile away so it's a quick trip and we'll be making it often.

Blessings on your weekend,