Friday, January 24, 2014

The goin's on these days...



Here we are at Friday afternoon again...thank heavens!  It's been a pretty good week overall, but I've had a few trials thrown my way, and I haven't been sleeping very well - so I'm looking forward to a little home time.

My car is giving me fits...we thought it was needing a new battery, but I'm not so sure about that now.  The battery guy put his charger on it and the car wouldn't turn over at all.  Presently, I'm stuck at the clinic until my hubby rescues me later.  I still have 2 hours before closing time, so I'm not really stranded at all.  And I guess I'm thankful that it happened here where I have heat, lights, a computer and my dogs.  Right?

Anyway, we have the weekend to try and get the old gal back on the road, and in the meantime I'll be driving the truck.  It'll be good to get Big Grey back on the road and blow a little carbon out of the engine - that's what my dad always said.  :)

Last Tuesday was my birthday.  Yep, I'm officially 54 years old now...and I'm perfectly content with my age. I had to go into DMV and get my license renewal; new picture and all.  Have you noticed how much bigger the picture is now?  It's huge by comparison!  It's just this big, old face and not much else now...oh goody.  But surprisingly, there's not much change in the last 8 years, or at least you can't really tell by the picture.  :)  Cuz, let me tell you this - there have been lots of changes in the past 8 years!

My dear hubby took me out for dinner - my choice.  I picked the local Pub.  We had cheeseburgers and nachos.  Perfect!  My dear friend Claudia sent me a beautiful bouquet of tulips...so pretty!  The orange ones actually smell like oranges.  Isn't that something?  Another dear friend took me out to lunch - we had Mexican and a wonderful visit.  And, I received lots of birthday wishes from friends and family.  A lovely birthday!  I didn't even have cake, aren't you proud of me?  I've been saving that for this weekend!  My hubby and I are going out for a seafood dinner with my sis and bro in law and this restaurant has wonderful deserts...I'm going to splurge just a wee bit.




As far as our living room makeover goes, dear hubby is making good progress.  Ceiling is finished and looks great!  All trim and curtain hardware has been removed, and putty repairs have been made.  We have one wall finished and I'm absolutely loving the new color!!  It looks so rich compared to the stark white.  I was a bit concerned that it might be a little dark for the room, but it is just perfect.  And...I've double-checked on the laminate flooring and it's still readily available.  We're going with the same flooring we chose for the kitchen.  It's fairly dark and has a rustic, farmhouse appearance.  I love it.  Highland Hickory.  We're going to replace all the trim boards with more period correct type trim, and that will be painted a warm off-white.  I'm thinking it will contrast nicely with the gorgeous, rich wall coloring and the dark wood floors.  Then - I'm going to put a large area rug down in the main seating area near the pellet stove and the entertainment area.  I've found the rug I want at Costco...just might go and buy it this weekend, or at least check them out more closely and then buy it online.  I discovered yesterday that the online price is $40 less than in-store.  Can't beat that, and shipping is included.  I'm so excited!!

And then...comes the bedroom re-do.  Ssshhh!!  Don't tell my hubby, he just might string me up!!  :)

As a thank-you to him for doing all this work, I'm planning on surprising him with a new tv.  I'm thinking one of those large - 72" or so, flat panel tv's that make everything look so much more colorful and realistic.  Hopefully we can mount it up on the wall and save even more space by not having the big entertainment center in this half of the room.  Then we can add another chair or two, creating a nice conversation area which will accommodate a few more people comfortably.   Did I mention that I'm excited!?

In other news, our weather has been just outstanding.  Really.  It's been dry and sunshiney for the most part, and grey and fogged in some of the time.  But the temps are brisk, but not freezing.  We're in a very unusually dry weather pattern, and since there's nothing we can do about the weather, might as well enjoy it.

The horses are all doing very well.  They're fat, hairy and pretty much sassy frasses.  Ladde has been doing his utmost best at creating his specialized look of being chocolate-dipped.  *sigh*  Do you realize just how long, and how much effort it takes to scrape thick, dried-on, grass-encrusted mud off of a 17 hand white horse????  Ha! - White - I'm using that term lightly here.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

And my old, precious girl, Kadie.  She will be 30 years old this coming May, and she's doing great!  She's holding her weight well, eats all her senior feed and vitamins, all of her alfalfa but the sticky parts, and eats some of her grass hay.  She eats the grass hay much better when it's served up outside for breakfast, as that's all she gets.  :)  The point is, her teeth are fine, and she can still eat forage.  She's even been laying down more, which is a good sign that her hocks aren't as stiff or painful as they once were.  The joints are probably fully fused now, and when she lopes (which isn't often), she has this short-strided little bunny-hop lope that's just too cute.  She's too cute!  She's as fuzzy as a bear, still has a twinkle in her eye, and is quite opinionated about most things.  She's just simply an angel, with a little attitude!  Love her so much...

In fact, all the horses are doing just great.  Harley hasn't had any injuries lately, and that's always a reason to be thankful.  My neighbor did tell me that just yesterday, he ran into the perimeter fence when all the horses, (including him) were running around and playing.  She checked him out, and determined that no harm had been done.  *sheesh*  All I can say is that, I am so very, very thankful that I do not know what transpires out in that pasture when we're not around.  I would be a nervous wreck!!  Further proof that my morning ritual of sending up prayers for their protection every single day - is working.  Uh-huh.  I know that.

Weather is supposed to be spectacular this weekend.  We're working on the painting, going out for dinner and maybe making a trip to Costco...other than that, who cares?  We're free birds and have no real agenda!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!!!

Lorie @ Cingspots

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like all is well - and glad you had a wonderful birthday!

Grey Horse Matters said...

Happy Birthday! Sounds like everything is coming along well with the renovation. Glad the horses are doing well too. Beautiful flowers. Send some of that nice weather to the east coast when you get a chance! Enjoy your weekend.

Unknown said...

Well Happy Birthday Friend! Glad you some nice quiet fun for your day. Your house project sounds fascinating, although it also sounds like a whole lot of work to me!

I'm going to throw this out there about your car...you probably already know...before you throw a bunch of money at the big parts, check those cables. They are they cheapest part of the ignition system to replace and are very often the culprit. Too much corrosion down at the starter.

Denise at Autumn Sky said...

Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, maybe a little late? I love tulips and yours are beautiful. What a perfect idea for a Winter birthday....or any birthday!
I want a couple of new area rugs too and I have my eye on one or two.
Have a very nice weekend.

Ranch Girl Diaries said...

Your posts always make me chuckle!! Happy belated Birthday! The flowers are lovely. The makeover will be great. RB would drool over a 72" TV!! :) I got a bathroom redo about one month before I had the baby (that panicked me a bit lol!!)

aurora said...

Happy Birthday Lorie!! Gotta love having happy fuzzy horses. Sounds like thing are going well for the most part. It's either car payments, or car repair payments. Hope the ding, doesn't sting - too bad. Jeez, I really shouldn't post in the morning lol!

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Happy Birthday!

C-ingspots said...

Thank you Cindy!! I'll check them out...well, I'll mention it to my hubby and he'll check them out. I'm almost useless when it comes to fixing cars. I can add oil, water and jiggle things. Much more than that, and I'm lost.

Carolynn Anctil said...

Happy Belated Birthday!

I hope you share a picture of the new rug when you get it installed.

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

First of all... Happy Belated Birthday! It sounds like you had a wonderful few days of celebrating. I always like doing that. Stretching out the celebrations over a few days.

Your living room redo sounds wonderful!!! It must feel so good to see it coming into fruition. I love when interior renovation does that. It feels so good.

By the way, reading about your horses makes me want to meet each one of them. I'm one of those people that loves meeting horses and "talking" to them more than riding them. I don't know why. I just always have. And your babies sound like they'd be great "conversationalists".