A Beautiful Day - - - Not!!

Today was an ugly May day! I cannot believe how hard the wind is blowing tonight! It's almost as if it were January and it was blowing up a blizzard!! The drizzle finally stopped around 12:30, but it's still damp and windy! We even kicked on the furnace this evening just to get the chill out of the air - and that's unheard of, because usually I won't let the furnace be kicked on after May 1st!!

I had a nice lunch with Sudi and Howard today. It's always fun to get together with "old" friends...one of whom is about to get even older!! Sorry, Sudi, couldn't resist that! After lunch I went to price a picture frame next door. Sudi told me it might even be more expensive there than it is in Ottumwa, and it was! It was $5 more, so I brought my picture home with me. I'll have it done here at M&J's! When I got home, my cleaning lady was just leaving and Dave called and said he was 10 minutes from home!! He got home and we both took a nap - felt so good! Hopefully I can sleep tonight - I know he won't have any problem!! He told me he'd just gotten off the phone with Bryan and that Bryan was coming home tomorrow around noon. I think I'll make a meatloaf, which is something he doesn't get often because Deanna doesn't eat beef. I hope I didn't make it the last time he was here - he'll think that's all I remember how to cook!

I bought several hanging baskets today at the Heartland Humane Society plant sale, but I could still use a couple more. I put them out when I got home from Fairfield, but Dave took them down and put them up against the house where they'll be protected from the wind. They were a bright spot in an otherwise dreary day! More later...

Thursday

I talked to Dave about 6:00 and he thought he was coming home in about a half an hour...he called back - chaos in Moravia. All kinds of problems. He finally got home about 9:30. At least he wasn't so tired that he wouldn't help me take out the trash, hang a new flag, put bird seed in the feeders, and hang my new oriole feeder. Come on over, birdies!! We made lots of progress in about 35 minutes!!

I'm pooped tonight. I changed sheets on the bed, which is quite a chore when your back hurts! Usually Dave helps me with that project, but he wasn't here to help. :( Then I went out to run errands - I went to work out, I had to take his shirts to the laundry, get groceries, pick up a new flag and a water filter, and I went to Earl May's to look at oriole feeders. By the time I got done with all of that, it was about 1:30 and I hadn't even eaten my lunch yet. After lunch, I went out and mowed the yard. Today I mowed on the diagonal, which takes longer, but I love the look! Anyway, now it's supposed to rain tonight and like 4 of the next 6 days! More later...

May 5th

Happy Cinco de Mayo!! I wish I had eaten Mexican food tonight in honor of the 5th of May, but I had an egg sandwich instead. Then I went to choir practice. Sunday's anthem is "No Night There", an old spiritual. It is wonderful. I wish I could clone myself so that I could hear how we do it. It sure sounds beautiful from where I'm standing!

Here's a picture of Simon Estes singing last night. He did a great concert. At the end of his concert, he and the soprano he brought with him sang with the Pella Christian High School choir. They sang the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Wow!! Can you imagine being a high school student and singing with Simon Estes?!! After the concert, he came out into the lobby and signed CDs for everyone. He even had his picture taken with the Royal Court of this year's Pella Tulip Festival!

Well, I think I'll go to bed now. Dave's not home yet, but he thought he'd be here around 10:00. I haven't checked the weather for tomorrow, but if it isn't supposed to rain it'll be another lonely evening...oh no it won't, I'll go to Fairfield! More later...

May 4th

Simon Estes was wonderful. Wow - what fun. I even bought one of his CDs which he autographed for me. I asked him when he was coming to Ottumwa and he said it was in the works...he just couldn't remember the date. I'll post pix tomorrow. G'night!!

May 3rd

When I got up this morning, and called Dave, he asked me to bring him a set of keys. So, after I ate my breakfast and got ready for the day, I took off for Moravia. I got really sleepy driving over there - the sun was shining in on me and I was so relaxed, I just got sleepy!! Coming home wasn't any better, but at least I made it safely. Once I got to Ottumwa, I went to work out, then came home and did all my "farming"! I'm getting very frustrated with Facebook. It just seems that everything on FB is in slow motion and I hate that! Today I couldn't hire anyone on Farmtown and thought I was going to have to do all my harvesting and plowing myself. I've got crops ready shortly and just hope that whatever was wrong is fixed by now.

Dave came home and hung my hummingbird feeder right outside my window. I can hardly wait to see if they use it. I'll be able to sit here and take pictures of them! I just watched Dancing With the Stars. Wow - they were all good tonight! tomorrow night I'm going to Pella to see Simon Estes in concert.

May 2nd

Sundays are always one of my favorite days. I love going to church and singing in our choir. We really did a great job on the song this morning! We didn't get applause, but we got lots of smiles and everyone said it was great. After lunch I went with Bob and Ann to Des Moines where Ann received an award for being one of the 100 Great Iowa Nurses for 2010. It was a very nice ceremony. There were probably close to 900 people at this event. Ann was the first nurse across the stage. I think it made her very happy.

Don't they look good? Bob felt he was overdressed, but we saw a little bit of everything there today.

Happy May Day

Dave was supposed to get me up early today so that WE could put up mini blinds in the family room. About 8:10 I woke up and came downstairs to find that he'd already put them up without my help! I asked him why and he said, he knew he'd be getting frustrated and I don't like it when he swears, so he just did it himself. What a guy!! So then, we ate our breakfast and I hear him on the phone. He called Bryan to see what he was doing today. Dave told me to get ready because we were heading to Waterloo to see Bryan. When we got there, we got a tour of bryan's "home projects". He's so handy! He has taken out most of the built-ins in his front room, painted it with 4 different paint colors (all tans - 1 is a darker taupe over the fireplace). It no longer looks like a 1950's room. He did a really good job. We hadn't seen his bathroom finished either - wow! It's fabulous. He said of all the tiles on the floor, only 1 didn't need a special cut! I don't know how to describe it, but he basically gutted the bathroom, retiled everything including the shower, and put in a new vanity. It is just beautiful! Now he's working on making a center island with 2 drawers and 2 doors (with slide outs in them) and a butcher block top (which he made himself!!) Deanna was in North Carolina getting ready for a presentation Monday, so the 3 of us went to Famous Dave's BBQ...then we came home!

We got home in time for Dave to mow and I got to watch the Derby and now I'm watching the NASCAR race! My guy is leading right now with 32 laps to go, but he hasn't had very good luck lately. I hope it's changed for tonight. Tomorrow is church and a really cool song for our anthem. We're singing several spirituals in the next few weeks and this is one tomorrow. It's called "Joy in the Morning". These spirituals are hard to sing because of their syncopated rhythms. This one has lots of sixteenth notes so hopefully we'll hit our entrances correctly. More later...