The Last 50?

Really, I didn't plan to get to the end of the month and be 50 short of one hundred things I'm thankful for. It is much easier to be thankful each day for a few things than to sit down and try to list 50 at once. Should I continue into next month being thankful? Or just live in denial that tomorrow is December. That would solve several of my other problems as well.

51. Cable TV
52. Large closets
53. Cardboard boxes
54. Pancake syrup
55. Tortilla chips
56. My Mom
57. My Dad
58. Scotch tape
59. The internet
60. MP3

Over the Road and Through the Pass

There were no rivers, no woods, and it wasn't our Grandma's house, but...

We were invited out for Thanksgiving dinner. We took the road less traveled. (It is also the road most traveled. It is in fact the only road. This is the good section.)

This is the house that sits 25 miles from just about anything.

We could see it up on the hill, but then you had to drive up the 'driveway'.

By then the sun was setting.

They posted a sentry to look for us.

It was a wonderful dinner with extremely gracious people, who cooked gluten free right down to the pumpkin AND pecan pies for the STP. And they sent home leftover pie.

We were very thankful.

The Chandelier

The big reveal of the dining room included only a wish for a chandelier for above the table. I mentioned it to a CL (church lady) and she says she has one in her basement. It was in her house when she bought it and she always hated it cause it needed cleaned and it hung crooked. So I could just have it. So I took it. And I had it rewired by a professional. (I don't really trust the STP with things that might catch the house on fire. And he wasn't too keen on the idea of the chandelier in the first place.) And I cleaned the crystals. And the STP put it up in the dining room. (The STP can handle that sort of wiring and by then he was convinced I wasn't giving up on the idea.) And I like it because although it isn't craftsman style and it is fun. Sadly it was missing 7 of the 144 crystals that it needed. CL says she has no idea why they aren't there. I just strategically placed the empty spots towards the far side of the chandelier. And I reveled in it.

Enter LGWTA (Little Girl Who Talks Alot). She takes a look at the chandelier hanging on my ceiling and says she had a crystal like that once. She and CL's grandaughter used to play with them in CL's basement. Maybe she still has it somewhere...

So I stopped hoping that CL will find the missing crystals somewhere in her house. I figure they went home tucked away in little girls' pockets. And I took one crystal to the light store to see if they could maybe order some and to see how much they would cost. And the LOL (Little Old Lady) at the light store brings out her box of mismatched crystals (Picture my mom's button box--only full of different prisms and crystal) and at the bottom of the box she has 5 crystals that match perfectly. And I'm thinking that maybe LOL's granddaughter used to play with CL's granddaughter. But she only charges me $1.25 per crystal. And now the chandelier looks like this. And I don't want a chandelier anymore, because I have one. Now I want a little glass lamp with dangly crystals to set on my Fern Green table.

Oh, and I want to be the kind of grandma who has a box of things that little girls would want to play with.

The Door

We love the door. Dixie does not love the door. Behold, I sit at the door and whine...

Ten More

41. Sweaters
42. Leftovers
43. My new phone
44. Dinner invitations
45. Claire Marie the Fabulous
46. Optimus Prime
47. e-mail
48. Brothers
49. Sisters
50. Jell-o

Decisions Made

I am not going to paint the door orange. The stain turned out so pretty that I put on the back of the door that I decided to use it on the front too. One more coat and it is ready to rehang. The incredibly handy STP hung the door last Friday. He did it just the way I wanted it. He scored big points with me for that. Because my primary love language is 'acts of service'. And he knows it. I rewarded him with a little of his primary love language. Wait...where is this post going? Let's just move on....

I also need one more coat on the table. I still wish it was coriander. Fern Green is a little too bright. But I own the Fern Green and I already have 2 coats invested on the table. After some debate I decided not to call it coriander. That would just make me wish it was coriander. I decided to forget all about coriander. (I am not doing too well with that.)

In addition to those two projects, I also completed a computer project over the weekend. (Lest you think I had an overly productive weekend: What I didn't do included dishes, laundry, and grocery shopping.) The computer gives me a crick in my neck. It has to do with my progressive lenses and my monitor placement. I have to tilt my head way back in order to see through the bottom of my lenses to read the screen. And then back down to look at the keyboard because I never really mastered typing without looking. (Typing is what they used to teach in school instead of 'keyboarding'. Keyboarding sounds way more fun than typing. I might have worked harder in keyboarding class. But if I was young enough to have had keyboarding, then I wouldn't be old enough to need progressive lenses.) If I just look at the keyboard and not at the monitor, then I end up typing a big string of letters in a dialog box that I somehow opened by mistake. So my neck is sore from working at the computer. But the project was pretty much fun to do and I got it done and that is good. I made it for someone else, but I liked it so much I decided to get one for myself.

I can't decide what to do tomorrow. It's my day off and I'd hate to spend it cleaning, doing laundry or grocery shopping.

Still Counting...

31. Green Paint
32. Red paint
33. Black paint
34. Yellow paint
35. Blue paint
36. White paint
37. Off-white paint
38. People who name paint colors
39. Fern Green paint
40. Coriander paint

I wanted to paint the table coriander 'cause I like the name better that Fern Green, but Dave said I should maybe choose by the way it looked rather than the name. I am still thinking about painting the door in the big room Fall Leaf (okay--orange). Still thinking....

I'm Going to Paink it Geen

I own several tables. The one in the dining room that we stack things ..er.. eat breakfast and dinner at. The one in my bedroom that I stack..er...use as my home office. The one in Alex's room that he stacks..er..does his homework at. One in the big room that used to be in my old kitchen that I just couldn't part with when we moved. There was one in my old laundry room that I stacked laundry on. It didn't move with us. There was a little table that the girls used to have tea parties on. I painted it and sent it to Claire. I have a folding table in the attic--the kind you call a card table unless you are married to a STP.

I have one more table. It is in my head. It belongs along the empty wall in the living room. I know exactly what it looks like. I know how much I want to spend on it. It is perfect. I just don't know where to find it. But the other day I went into the used furniture store in Dodge City to see if my table was there. My perfect table wasn't there, but I found a great temporary table. One that will do until I find the perfect table. It is the perfect size and it folds--kinda. The top lifts off and the legs fold flat. It cost all of 15 dollars. It is made of wood and the best thing is that it needs painted. So I'm going to paint it green. I bought the green paint yesterday and I sanded this morning. Ready to paint?

I was born ready.

Signs of Fall

The View From the Front Porch--

Not that it was a contest or anything, but here is what I painted:

And here is what God painted:

And this:

And this:

Oh, yes, God wins big time tonight.

And 10 More

21. warm days in November
22. little meatloaves with the good sauce
23. miscreants who make the honor roll
24. ice cream with toffee bits
25. Monday Night Football
26. balancing at the end of my banking day
27. warm pink slippers
28. an evening with nowhere to go
29. finished projects
30. pencils with erasers

The Miscreant and the Diet Pepsi

miscreant
n. a disbeliever; heretic
adj. depraved; behaving badly

I haven't had a Diet Pepsi in a week. Just to prove that I don't really need it and I can stop any time I want to. (I don't really plan to stop. As soon as I convince myself I can stop any time, I plan to buy a cube of DP Max, hide it under Amanda's bed and drink 23 of the 24 cans myself.)

Outside the youth building, three youths were observed tossing cans of Diet Pepsi into the air and watching them explode on the concrete slab that is the basketball court. Here is the back story. The youth pastor gave them a twelve pack of warm, outdated diet pepsi. On the way home they discovered the explosive power contained therein. After they had launched 4 cans the youth pastor spied them and confiscated the remainder of the 12 pack. He called their parents and reported said behavior. Alex, one of the co-conspirators, said he felt like a miscreant. As well he should. That is no way to treat Diet Pepsi.

The basketball court got scrubbed. And I'm sure he meant miscreant as in 'behaving badly' rather than 'heretic'.

The List Goes On

11. my husband
12. my Bible
13. the color orange
14. paint
15. paintbrushes
16. Steeler football on TV
17. my Jesus
18. ice crystals
19. jumper cables
20. parking lights

Let Me Make That Crystal Clear

It was too cold to paint today, but the fence is completed to the point that Dixie could run outside. Bring on the squirrels, she says.

Tech Support

I just want to say that the STP (small town pastor) fixed the internet on my computer and built a gate today. I am married to one awesome man.

Pumpkin Pi

30 Days of Gratitude

My internet is not working on my computer. This is a source of ongoing frustration. But fortunately my husband has a computer which works. So if I work quickly while he is up on the mountain I can post ten things I am thankful for today.
1. On line bill pay
2. Public schools
3. Books about Peter Pan
4. Red haired boys
5. Paint rollers
6. Dish washers
7. Pick up trucks
8. Apple butter
9. Nail clippers
10. Rain

In other news: Alex was a bedsheet ghost for Halloween and the cruised the north end of town with another family (in the family tradition of the most candy for the least effort). We carved a pumpkin, which I will post a picture of at a future time. We bought a freezer. I decided who I am voting for tomorrow. And I am rethinking my pro-life/pro-choice stance.