Early Christmas

I know I haven't done much blogging lately but I will try to get back in the groove . Jennie came up yesterday to go to a wedding in KC so we gave her a early Christmas present. We had it a few a days and it was killing us not to tell her what it was. Here are a few pictures of her opening the gift.

We wrapped four gifts in 1 box. Here she is opening the first gift.

The surprised look on her face was priceless. We each got iPhones for Christmas. We got ours on Tuesday.

She was sooooo surprised. The other boxes had a car charger, ear phones and a case.

Unfortunately she had to leave after she opened the gifts so she did not get to see much of what she had. RJ took her to Verizon on Sunday to get her phones switched. It is such a wonderful feeling to really surprise someone.

New Toy

Although I had a number of chores around the house I could have done today, I said "What the heck, there's always tomorrow" and went out and bought a new toy instead.  Actually, after all the negotiating, test riding, more negotiating, signing papers, getting insurance, etc, it took me most of the day to get done.  It's a 2002 Harley Davidson Road King.  As Sunnye would say, "It's what I've always wanted..."

New Living room

As you know, we have been working on our home. The living room is almost done. Here are a few pictures.

Here is our brown recliner loveseat and rust colored sofa. We have hopsack colored walls with chocolate drapes. The carpet is beautiful.

Here is the entertainment corner.

Here is the ottoman that goes with the couch. The curio cabinet is in the corner, have not found what went in there yet. See our guard dog "Clyde".

Monday Night Football is on!

Guard Hummingbird

We have a hummingbird who thinks he owns the feeder and chases off any other hummingbirds who get anywhere near it.  We were watching him for a long time today while he chased other birds, sometimes all the way up into the trees across the road, and then returned immediately to his "guard" position on top of the feeder hanger.  Sunnye went out to the shed and got another feeder.  We cleaned the bugs out of it, filled it up and hung it about 10 feet from the other one.  When we came back in and watched, we saw him trying to guard BOTH feeders.  He would fly back and forth between them chasing off any other hummingbirds.  I told Sunnye he was probably feeling stressed now that he has two feeders to guard!

Yes, that's the highlight of our day.  Is that sad or what?

Living room update

As you know, we have been trying to paint the walls of our home. We have the laundry room and dining room done. Now we are in the living room. Here are a couple of the before shots.

Here are a few shots of the walls after the paint. I thought it was going to be darker but I like it this color. What do you think?

The camera does not show how good the color really is. But is sure a lot better than what we had before.

As you can see with the lamp, our entertainment center is cream colored so it should stand out. The rest of the colors in the room will be greens, rust and brown.

This is what the entry way will have on it instead of the white tiles. It really looks good with the walls. Dennis had some input on this.Yesterday we finally ordered the carpet for the whole house. The carpet is a little darker than the walls. Now I have to get in gear and get the rest of the walls painted. As soon as this is all done, we get our furniture out of storage. When all done, we plan to have a open house party. Hope to have it done before the snow comes!

Dennis' Visit

My younger brother finally came for a visit. It was good to see him. Here are a few pictures of his visit.

On Saturday he arrives to KCI. We were looking for someone with a ball cap on, he always wears one. Said it was in his carry on. Boy, did he look good.

Because he is such a Chiefs fan, we had to go by Arrowhead. Got some great pictures around the stadium.

Sunday we went to Wichita to celebrate Owen's 7th birthday. Had a great time. Hard to believe he is that old.

Here is a picture of the Arnett family. The kids were really enjoying the day.

Dennis with his 2 favorite nieces, the only ones he has. Doesn't he look loved.

On the way home Dennis met Knute Rockne. We are such football fans.

On Monday we went to Prairie Band casino for free meals. Had a great time there. By the end of the night, only 1 person was down. Not to bad, 1 out of 5.

Here is a good shot of mother/son.

Dennis with Mom's car, "Lizzie". Checking the oil the before he leaves.

Needed the steering wheel cover to protect his hands from the hot Texas heat.

Said he needed his lucky rabbit's foot hanging from the mirror. Don't think it was very lucky for the rabbit.

And his Chief's bobble head for his antenna so he can find his car in the parking lot. Now the car looks like his. What a great visit we had. Looking forward to seeing him again.

Our Dining Room

RJ and I have been busy lately. We got our laundry room done and now we have our dining room finished. Here are a few of the finished pictures.

The wall color is the same as the laundry room. It really makes the wood trim stand out. And it also goes well with the film on our windows.

The cabinet to the right of the windows is new. It holds all of the canned goods. That was what we had on the metal shelves in front of the window. Now we can get to the windows. I think RJ and I may finally be getting the hang of this. The kitchen area will be done later. Now we have the living room walls primed and ready for paint in the morning. Will take pictures when it is done.

Our milo crop ...

You can take the boy off of the farm, but he'll just take the farm into the city!  As a result of feeding the birds, we've had a number of milo plants start up in our yard.  This one, I allowed to grow until I could tell if it was corn or milo.  As you can see, it is milo.  I really don't know what to do with it now that it's starting to head out.  I wonder if I could apply for a farm loan?  Perhaps I could make a capital investment to buy a combine to harvest my crop.  Of course, I would need enough money to buy a fancy new rig complete with air conditioning of course.  It's been so hot out ...

Number 2

Well, the Extreme makeover is done and we came in second. That means that our rent is half for the month of July. No bad for doing what we wanted to do to begin with. Here are a few of the pictures of the place.

Here is the deck that RJ built. I helped a little bit. We still need to put skirting around the base of the deck and stairs.

Here I am on the little bridge that we put over the drainage ditch. The shape of the bridge is like the shape of the deck. Now we have to do some fine touches left.

VERA BRADLEY

If you know me, you know that I am not much of a name brand person. But I saw a lady in Subway a couple of months ago and I LOVED her purse. Asked her where she got it and she said it was a Vera Bradley. Never heard of this so I asked my daughter, Jennifer, and she said that my other daughter, Carrie, had a Vera Bradley purse. Jennifer called Carrie and told her that I found something that I would like. Carrie said that she would get me a purse for Mother's Day. Got on line that night and found the purse that I wanted. Mentioned the purse to my mother and she said that she would like to have one also. We happened to pick the same pattern so my mother picked an alternate choice. When Carrie came through Topeka yesterday on their way back home to Wichita, she brought our purses to my mother (I had to work). I am in love. Here are a few pictures of what my purse looks like. What do you think? Is it me?

It holds everything I had in my other purse but I can find it easier. My mother says that everyone notices her purse and thinks it looks great. Maybe there is something to brand name items.

Yard work

RJ and I have been busy outside when the weather is nice. Here are some of the projects that we have been doing.

Here is the porch that RJ built. He custom cut the stringers. At least now we can get into the front door. We have to finish the steps and put on the railing. When we finish we will have steps on both sides of the deck.

Here is the flower bed on the south side of the trailer that I made. Not much color in this. Hope the flowers will bloom more. I put the flowers in pots because I didn't know where the lines were in the ground.

Here is the flower bed on the north side that I made. I put colorful pots on this side. The ground was uneven so I filled the area up with rocks.

Here is an old man that I hired to do the work. He was cheap. Now we can enjoy the swing. I hope to clean it up and try to stain it.

Here is a view of the yard from the driveway. Because it faces east, we get shade in the afternoon. Now to finish the front deck and then move on to the back deck.

Today is my birthday!

Today has been a fantastic day. Started with a video call from Carrie. Got to see all of the family. Then RJ and I went to Lowe's to buy what we need to build our front deck. Came home and then we went to Home Depot and got some plants for the yard. Brought them home and then we went to Walmart and got Miracle Gro soil and more plants. Here are a few pictures of the plants that we got.

Here are double bloom Begonias, white, red, yellow, coral and pink.

Here we have blanket flowers, (gallo orange, red and dark bi-color), shasta daisy and Dianthus (Barbarini purple). I also got Autumn fern, Japanese painted fern and English Ivy.

Here are the plants after I repotted them. RJ helped me with this. These are going on the north end of the house.

These are also going to the north end of the house. They do not need full sun. I am going to make a flower bed and put rocks in it and place the plants around the areas so RJ does not have to mow there.

And these plants will go on the south end of the house. They need full sun. It will be like the flower bed on the north end. We signed up for a contest here for "extreme makeover" for the outside of our house. We are doing things that we were planning on doing. We just have a time frame now. The contest is over the end of June. I sure am enjoying this. RJ treats me like everyday  is my birthday.

While I was sitting in front of the house I saw a new bird. Has kinda orange head and chest with a brown body. Any idea what this is?

Assorted Visitors

Today was a good day for us even though it rained off and on most of the day. Valorie and Chris came to see us on their way to Kansas City. This was their first visit since RJ and I got married. Wished we had more done to the mobile home but it was good to see them. Here is a picture of RJ, Valorie and Chris.

While they were here, we saw a new bird at the feeder. It is yellow and black. Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? We also have a red-headed woodpecker. RJ saw a cat this afternoon trying to catch a bird at the feeder but missed. We will definitely have to get a bird book soon to see what kind of birds we have here.

For some reason it was drinking from the hummingbird feeder. What a way to enjoy a wet afternoon.

Blue Bird of Happiness

I have heard of this bird but I have never seen one. This is what I am calling them. Today I saw two of them. They are not blue Jays but are prettier. RJ took a picture of one of them while I was at work. If anyone knows what they are, let me know. We went from buying large bags of cat food to large bags of bird seed.  Here is the picture. They are beautiful.

A green thumb

Yesterday RJ and I got to plant some of the plants that got from the farm. I was surprised at how well they had grown. Because we do not own the land here, a lot of them are in pots.

Here is a view from the driveway toward the end of the trailer. We can see this from our living room.

RJ suggested that we put some plants around the birdbath. The hostas were from the farm. I didn't know that they had gotten so big. I have 3 large ones and a small one. The concrete came from the farm and RJ placed it over where there had been some kind of tree that was cut down. They used something to mulch what was left of the tree. Anyhow RJ had to level the site, place the concrete and then the birdbath. The concrete was heavy.

Here is our hanging baskets and bird feeders. You can's see it but we have a regular bird feeder on the opposite side of the humming bird feeder. The plants in the circle were what was planted around the deck on the farm. They are perennials so I hope they will come up next year.

Here is my gardenia plant on the left and a double bloom hibiscus on the right I think I might put them on the deck in the back.

Here is my azalea, has pink blooms. I think I might have to take this in this winter. Hope I can keep it alive till next year. It is near the white table and chairs in the front.

Here are some flowers that I planted in boxes that were on my deck on the farm. They are petunias and not sure what the others are. I know this is something that I will have to plant every year. They are placed in front of the trailer instead of digging flower beds. Too many rocks in the ground to do that.

And here is RJ proud of the work that he had done. I must admit that I think we did a great job. Now if I can only get motivated to finish the walls in the house. It was just too nice to be inside yesterday.