I'm home again!!!! (At least for a little while)

FIL's surgery went really well, I stayed for his recovery and to take him to a couple medical appointments and headed home May 2.  It was nice to be able to be home for my birthday!!!!

Before I came home, Todd was home by himself over a weekend and planted my tomato plants for me.  I wasn't very excited, mainly because he has so many more important projects that need to be done in the house, but also because I wanted to do them myself so I knew what plants are what.  I had two kinds of seeds (sent to me from Simens, who I wrote a couple testimonials for last year) I planted on a flat, it was easy to see that each half had one kind of seeds.  But when he planted them, he THOUGHT he kept them separate, but he can't explain to me what is what.  (grrr)  Anyway, what's done is done and they are growing.  We'll see how long it will be before they get tomatoes on them.   Right after I got home, I did go get some lettuce seeds (two different varieties) and Todd wanted Radishes, so those were planted right away.  I also had seeds that were sent to me for Green Beans and Cucumbers, so those I planted last week.  Everything's coming up already!!!  I can't wait for home grown produce again!!!!

Todd is getting anxious for tomatoes, so I went to Home Depot last night and bought some bigger plants, so hopefully we won't have to wait so long to pick some.  I planted them today, and finally decided to take some pictures to update my blog!

YAY!!!!  Garden is started!!!!!


Tomatoes and Lettuce:


Tomatoes and Radishes:


More Tomatoes and the 2nd variety of Lettuce:


Green Beans:


Also Green Beans:



And finally - Cucumbers:

I planted two containers of these, but only one container is showing up for now.  Crossing my fingers that the others start showing up soon.

And I cheated last night when I bought more tomato plants - I found one that already has a tomato on it!  lol



Anyway, I'm hoping to be home for a while.  We have a short trip to Las Vegas planned in June, then Megan and her family will be here for a few days.  They are moving back to Kansas from Hawaii - YAY!  We're anxious to meet their newest addition, Hudson.  He was born March 9.  We've seen lots of pictures, but it will be nice to see them all in person.  The bad news is David will be going to Afghanistan later in the year.  But at least Megan will be much closer to family while he's gone.

I'll try to get more posts done.  So keep checking back!!!

Looking back on my blog, I realized something.

I REALLY MISS MY GARDEN.  I know it's only mid-April, but last year at this time I was full speed getting plants and seeds planted.   This year I've been going back and forth to Nebraska to help my Father-In-Law, who's having health issues.   I've told him ever since Nel passed away in 2009 that if he ever needed anything, just call, and one day in February he did.  He was having back problems and went in for scans and things to try to figure out what's wrong.  He went through some physical therapy that seems to solved the back issues for now, but they also found an Aortic Aneurysm.  The first time I started going up there, I stayed the night in OKC, started out the next day in a snow storm, only to get a call saying the surgeon cancelled his appointment due to the storm and it wasn't rescheduled for another two weeks.  So I turned around and went home.   Made it back two weeks later, had appts with Cardiologist and Surgeon to get details of the surgery.  Cardiologist is out of Omaha, and he said we needed to do a stress test before scheduling the surgery to make sure he's well enough.  Couldn't do physical stress test, due to risk of aneurysm rupturing, so doing a chemical one.   We went to Omaha a couple days later, but his blood pressure was way too high.  Had another Dr. appt and they put him on a couple more  BP medications and said to keep track of BP for a couple of weeks.  So I came back home until he called to say they finally rescheduled the stress test for April 1.  Another trip there and two tries at the stress test in Omaha, and we finally got the OK to schedule surgery.  SOOO, I'm headed there again later this week.  Todd and I will stay with my parents in Milford while FIL's in the hospital in Lincoln, since Milford is lots closer than Falls City.  There are two ways to put the stent in for the aneurysm: one cutting open his stomach, the other (and much less evasive) is through two small incisions in the groin area.  Either way, he'll stay in the hospital two or three nights.  We're hoping they can do it the less evasive way.  If so, recovery will be much quicker and I'll have a good chance of getting home sooner.  If not, who knows how long I will have to be up there.   I told him I'd stay as long as he needed me.  Luckily, I can just bring all the paperwork and computer for Todd's business and run everything from there.  We did change banks, since we were banking with a "Hometown" bank, I had to mail deposits and that didn't work very well. So we switched to a national bank that has locations in Nebraska (Lincoln), which will work a lot better.  If I stay for a while after surgery, I can do deposits there.  The company that he's leased to is about 30 miles from Falls City, so I just go pick up his checks.

So that's why I haven't planted my garden yet - I don't know when I'll be around to tend to it.  I did start a bunch of tomato seeds, the ones I received from the company who asked me to do testimonials for their plants I had in the garden last year.   They are growing very well and will soon be big enough to be planted.  (I was really excited because one variety was seedless.)  When I'm gone, I put them on the floor in front of the sliding glass doors and make a "Tent" so they at least get a little light.  Sam's good about coming over while I'm gone and watering my plants, etc.  We also have lots of neighbors who keep an eye on the house.   She's also going to keep Brute for me while I go on this trip - since I'll be at the hospital and running everywhere, I think it will be best this time.  I'll miss him something TERRIBLE!!!!!  I hope he gets along well with her dog and two cats!

Anyway, keep checking back.  Once I know I won't need to make too many more trips north, I'm going to at least plant some things in the garden that don't take too long to grow.  I really miss fresh tomatoes and green beans, along with home grown lettuce.  Cross your fingers that everything goes well with FIL!!!!

Here's what we spent our savings on......

Before we left for our trip to Hawaii, one of the windows at the front of the house cracked and a chunk was missing.  After getting quotes on replacing the glass($300), we thought maybe we should just look at replacing the window since we know we'll have to do that before we sell the house anyway.  The people from "Renewal by Anderson" wouldn't even come out to look at the window since Todd wasn't home.  They required both homeowners be there, plus, they are "higher-end" windows and the person I spoke to acted like we wouldn't want to spend the money on that quality of windows if we're going to sell the house in a year or two.  So I also called Champion Windows, explained to them that Todd can't be here, they said they prefer both homeowners be present, but it's not required.  They came out and we had Todd on speaker-phone most of the time, and decided to go with them.   Instead of just replacing the one window, or even just the windows at the front of the house, we decided to replace ALL the windows in the house!!!   Thinking it would be a miracle to have them installed by the end of Jan or early Feb, I was VERY surprised when I received an e-mail from them on Dec. 20th saying the windows will be here in a few days and they wanted to install them on the 23rd.  The only problem was that when I received the e-mail, we were sitting at the airport in Dallas waiting for our flight to Hawaii.  lol  I had to call them to let them know the 23rd won't work for us.  They were going to check to see when they could re-schedule and get back with me.   I didn't hear anything from them while we were in HI, so on the way home I called, and they said Dec. 31.  OK, can't imagine the workers would want such a huge job on New Year's Eve, but that's fine.   Got up that morning and Todd and I removed all the window coverings, moved furniture out of the way, etc. and called right at 8 am to make sure they were still coming.  The person in Austin said Yes, but about 15 minutes later, we got a call saying the workers were coming from Temple and since it was "drizzling", they weren't sure it was going to happen.  Jumping to the end, they didn't come and re-scheduled for Jan 3.  Three guys showed up pretty early, just after 8 am and didn't leave until almost 8:30 pm.  Not breaks for lunch or anything!   It was COLD that day, so not very comfortable for Todd, me or Brute while the house was pretty open.  But I'm very glad the new windows are in!  We now have screens on all the windows (didn't before) so when it's nice outside, I can open them and get a nice breeze through the house.

Now - on to PICTURES!!!!!

Front Before:


Front AFTER:  SUCH an improvement!!!!!!  The old windows were single pane and wouldn't open.  The new ones are double pane and open!!!!!

They have since come back to put something underneath the window on the right, so when it rains it doesn't drip behind the stone exterior.  I'll get a picture of it soon.  :D


The side of the house with the Kitchen and Living Room
Before:


After:  The windows that open up and down tilt inside the house for easy cleaning!!!!!  Both the top and bottom parts of the window.  (Now I don't have an excuse for dirty windows.)


The office - After:



Here are few "while" pictures I snapped:
This was the most shocking one - while the front windows were out and before the new ones were installed.  We had them increase the wall underneath the windows by 8 inches so we wouldn't be required to have tempered glass.  Brute wasn't too happy, though.  The old windows were low enough that he could just put his chin on the windowsill, now he has to put his front paws on the ledge to see outside.  (He does that when I go out the front to get the mail.)


In the office:




Todd Supervising:


The two guys who were removing the old windows, got a little ahead of the one installing the new ones.  The back bedrooms didn't have windows AT ALL for at least two hours.  (Our electric bill that we received yesterday didn't make me very happy.)



The back with the new ones installed.  Todd still has some painting to do.

We had already replaced the sliding glass doors a few years after we purchased the house, so didn't get new ones now.  The colors don't match exactly, but they're close enough.

We're still waiting for them to find someone to tape and float the drywall on the inside.  Apparently the guy they usually have do it was gone for a week, and I don't know what else is taking so long to....  I'll give them a few more days before I call.  Todd says he doesn't mind it not being done because he can do it himself, but I have too many other projects for him to do while he's home!!  (Like some more raised beds for the garden!)

Overall, I'm very happy with them!  Once the rest of the work gets done, I'll decide on window coverings.  I did put the old ones up for the windows on the hall just because I don't like people to see that well inside the house.  The windows by the table aren't that bad, but they will eventually have something on them.

Take Care!!!!!

Sorry it's been so long.

We made it safely back from Hawaii, but things have been pretty busy.

But let me share some more pictures of the trip!!!!!
This was taken on a high-surf day.  The back of my shorts got wet soon after this picture was taken.



I've already posted a few pictures of our room at Turtle Bay Resort.  I truly don't think I've ever been anywhere as beautiful as there!!!!!  I took a morning to walk around and take pictures to share.
This was just outside our room.


To the right outside the rear of our cottage (That's the Main Resort Building):


I'm still trying to get the rest of the photos uploaded, so once that is done, I'll post some more.  :D