4-22-2019 Monday--2pm

Good afternoon!

Busy week last week.

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Tuesday I had an apartment inspection.  Went fine.  Annie is just as scared of smoke alarms as Karma was.  ;)

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Wednesday Leah cancelled on our Craft Nite (forgot she'd double booked--LOL!).

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Thursday the stars aligned and we finally had my birthday over at McFamily's!  Worth the wait.  Had both Chinese and ice cream cake!!  (Ate leftovers for three days!) A wonderful time.  Liam is scared of me, though.  Need to get over more often.  Forgot to take any pictures...again--duh!  Got a gift card for Baker Nursery for flowers for my planters!!  A trip will be coming in May--whoohoo!!  Oh, and three cans of my french vanilla international coffee, too!  

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Friday there was a crane doing something behind the apartment building across the way.  Every time I'd see it pop its head up I'd think of a dinosaur with a long thin neck--LOL! 

 Most of the snow was already melted away.

Not long ago I couldn't see the garages or most of that apartment building.  

Spring has come on strong.  

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Saturday was Gramma Day and I had a surprise for Ian.  I found this box of puzzles on Amazon of his favorite show right now--PJMasks! 

 Twelve puzzles (5-24pcs, 5-48pcs, 2-100pcs) for under $13, so I knew they were going to be thin and he'd have to be extra careful with them so they won't bend--but I knew he would be. 

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Naturally, he was excited and want to do puzzles first thing.  Wanted me to get out the big piece of gator board.  We started with one of the easier puzzles that had 24 pieces.

Much to my surprise he finished four of those and still wanted to go on. 

He finished all five of the easy ones and also put together one of the medium hard ones with 48 pieces...which he did almost entirely by himself.  I just helped gather colors together for him.

By that time he'd been doing puzzles for a couple of hours and was ready to quit.  We had french toast bagels with butter for a snack and watched another two episodes of Our Planet on Netflix.  Since he'd arrived later because they'd gone out for lunch unexpectedly and Mama had already packed a lunch he had his packed lunch for dinner while Gramma had some of her soup.  Ended up watching a show on Curiosity Stream on the Deep Ocean with David Attenborough on my laptop at the table while we finished dinner.  (Grammas can do that--LOL!)  We took all the puzzles apart carefully and packed them in separate bags.  Lastly he wanted to do some punches for a while.  Was a good day!

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I was pretty tired and slept a long time.  Leah lent me a travel pillow that is really nice for sleeping in my chair.  I'm also trying a bottle of sinus spray for allergies that she uses before she goes to bed.  I thought I would absolutely hate spraying something up my nose but it's not too bad.  Not sure if it is making any difference yet.  Been about four nights and I still can only breathe out of one nostril at a time--LOL!  But I'll keep using it.  Seems like I might not be quite as clogged up.  ;)  Worth a try.

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Annie waiting for me to come to bed--LOL!  

Sunday Dagan, Leah, and Ian came over while Liam was taking a nap (Leah's brother Aaron was at home with him).  Yesterday was garage/patio day!!

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Before

After 

Can hardly wait till I have flowers out there.

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I'm not used to having spring fever.  

Kind of exhausting--LOL!

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They brought the tall ladder with them so they could take down the bird feeder.  Brought out the feeder, humidifiers, etc, to the garage.  Even rolled up the additional rug from the studio and Dagan carried that out, too.  

I wanted to see if the chair mats will stay put better and not buckle and slide all over the place on the flatter grey carpeting vs. having the plush rug on top.  We'll see how it goes.  Feels promising when you walk on them now.  :)

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We brought in the patio chairs and tables, the bird dish, the pot I keep the garden hose in (which broke end of last fall so I need a new hose), and my summer clothes bins.

Leah noticed the fans, too!  I had forgotten to put those on the list, but they are both inside already--whoohoo! 

Leah even cleaned them off for me.

 

I'm sure I probably missed something with two trips back and forth and all of us carrying or pushing the cart--LOL!  Having many hands make short work of a big project.  So thankful they help me out like that!!

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After they left to go home for dinner I took a bucket out and scrubbed down the chairs and the little tables...just so I could sit outside and read Marie Kondo's ebook on my tablet.  I told you spring fever is exhausting--LOL!  It was really windy, so I had to go get on a lined hooded jacket but I collapsed and read until my fingers were so cold I could hardly swipe the next page because the tablet didn't recognize me as a living creature--ROFL!   

So--busy week.  Oh, I also worked on the book and finished the next week/chapter in Julia Cameron's book--1989-1993.  Those were the pet shop assistant manager years, decision Mike would be the last boyfriend, and the arm injury at the printing factory.  (I thought I needed a job with better pay and benefits.)

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In the book she asks questions like what sound brings you back to that time period and what smell--for me the sound was of a pet shop--birds, puppies, and the door bell dinging and the cash register.  Smells--both dirty cages/aquarium gravel and hot glue/paper by the printing presses.  Funny when you think about the answers that come to mind first.  I think I have three more weeks to travel back through time and end up right here.  ;)

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Annie loves the patio door being opened when it is warm enough, but I think she misses the birds eating out there.  They do come for the water though already.  :)

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Any minute I should see people wandering by on the lawn.  It is almost 3pm.  I thought this was interesting on our weekly activity list.

They've never asked the residents (seniors) to come out and help clean up the yard before.  The mowers will be starting their weekly visits pretty soon.  My back is in no shape to do all that bending.  I'd need one of those grabber thingies--LOL!  Dealing with laundry day will do me in today for a good long rest.  Later tonight Leah should be coming over to finish her invitations (and I'm hoping be up to cutting my hair).  She won't be here until 8:30-8:45pm, so I have a few hours to put my feet up after I get done folding and hanging clothes...which will be soon.  

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So, folks!  That's it from Fargo for this past week.  I am so happy to have the patio ready for reading, fans at the ready for hot weather to come, and the clothes bins are in, too.  I finished reading Marie Kondo's book through the first step--clothing.  So this week I plan to start on that purge.  Be searching for joy in my t-shirts, I guess--LOL!  One odd silver lining to having the touchy back is that I can take my time going through a big pile of clothes on my bed because I am not sleeping in there anyways--ROFL!! 

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From Annie and I--have a memorable week and search for your joy!  Till next time...

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"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow."

 Helen Keller