Good morning!
As the snow melted like crazy this past week my patio looked worse and worse--lol! One solid mass of rabbit poop, bird poop, and sunflower seed shells.
One of the first signs of spring--return of the grackles!
I forgot to mention last time that I had suddenly gone back to being on day hours!! For two weeks now!! And I am generally awake all day long, too. I think I had only two short naps in this past two weeks. It is awesome!!! Funny how much we can miss things like having normal hours when they disappear. :)
Tuesday McFamily stopped by with leftover Easter egg/belated birthday cake. Dagan shoveled off as much as he could off the patio...all ice around the edges. Looked way better!
Can you believe how much brown grass you can see now when my planters were buried under snow last week!?
I called on the dishwasher and Gerald came on Wednesday. Turns out the water heater isn't running quite hot enough to dissolve my powdered dishwasher soap. So he wants me to (1) run the hot water and get it hot before I start the dishwasher and (2) change to a liquid soap. We'll see if that helps. He did turn the water heater up a bit but it doesn't hold the temperature and might be slowly dying.
I sent the sauna information packet and both Leah and my contact information with him. No rush. I will be here for sure till fall--probably winter. He's still interested, if a bit hesitant. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday Leah and the boys dropped off my groceries and some more boxes from the garage. She also dropped off that box full of rubber stamps to donate to the local YWCA Women's Shelter. :) :) Leah and the boys and her brother, Aaron, volunteered for sandbagging Wednesday and Thursday. Leah and the boys also went on Friday. (pics below)
Me--I filled up another box of books and started on satchels from the hallway bookcases.
These are the three IKEA drawer cabinets that will be coming with me to my new home. The two that live under the die cutting table (which is also coming with)...
...and the taller, skinny one by the door.
I plan to rearrange almost everything that is currently in these three. They won't be packed up till the last minute...so I want lots of goodies I can play with when I am done purging and packing. ;)
The snow has been melting away all week. Been in the 40s mostly during the day so I can have the patio door cracked...which keeps Miss Allie on her toes and in a perpetual state of spring fever--lol!
I got the first bigger U-Haul box from the garage filled with satchels! These were all art supplies and bookbinding stuff is in that top one.
Saw my first robin this last week...
...and the mourning doves have returned.
The glass and screen are so dirty from splattered dripping snow and ice that we can barely see out of them...but Allie gets close up. ;)
Friday and Saturday I worked on emptying my big wooden pen case...
...and moving pen and ink supplies into the bottom of the skinny drawer unit in the studio.
I'm not crazy about how I have them stored yet, but it will do for now.
Kept out the one drawer that held dip pen supplies because I do want all the calligraphy stuff in the same place for once. That all got stuck for now on the shelf that held all the calligraphy classes, etc. You know how that goes...constant shifting about...messier until it is done and organized. :)
Then I started in on the ink sample vials. Emptied the dresser drawer they have been in for at least 12 years...
so I could transfer them into a satchel.
Which meant I had to go through them all to combine duplicates. Over the years I have ordered say--a sample set of turquoises or blues or greens--even if I had a couple of those sample vials already.
I set myself up...
...rewatching Cadfael on BritBox (love that series!)...
...and got them all organized into color batches. No more duplicates. :)
Doing tedious things like this I find totally satisfying!
Allie was quite bored with it all.
While I was digging around...well, I nearly had a heart attack when I found this in my bedroom closet under a couple boxes!
NO!! How could I have missed a bin of files! I had no room for more files! My new filing cabinet is packed full!
But when I drug it out and opened it...
These are all EMPTY colored file folders and hanging file folders!! (I had my own office where I worked once in the 90s and bought all color-coded files--with my own money--and kept all the leftovers, of course, for my own files at home.) What a relief!!
Funny--the mismatched ones I have been using are getting so battered up that I even considered buying some new ones... and now I can go through and organize my files with newer folders and new labels and donate the rest of them. TaDa!! Totally forgot I had these!
Seriously--the OCD organizer in me almost had a heart attack when I saw that bin on the closet floor--ROFL!
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I have pictures from Leah, too, this week. Makes me think about when I will actually kind of become a member of McFamily. I will know more what is happening and it will be fun to hear it directly from the boys. ;)
Monday they went to West Fargo Public Library for making spring crafts. No pictures but Leah said they made flowers. Then Ian started soccer class at the Family Wellness Center.
Ian as goalie.
They took turns being goalie.
Tuesday they all went as a family to see the Mario Brothers movie. I was shocked to see this picture! What fancy red lounger-chairs!!! Doesn't even look like a movie theater to me.
Liam loved his first real movie.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday they went sandbagging. Aaron came with Wednesday and Thursday--and they filled 1 1/2 to 2 pallets both days.
Leah joked that I won't be able to tell which days the pics were taken because they wore the same clothes (it's a dirty job).
With all that snow melting so very fast the Red River is flooding for sure this year. So Fargo/Moorhead asked for volunteers to make sandbags and I'm so glad they were able to go and help.
There were different contraptions and ways to bag by hand.
The boys had celebratory pics on top of the pallets every day.
They got to sign their names on the big volunteers sign for Cass County.
When Leah and the boys went on Friday they filled over a pallet.
Afterwards they got to go to Burger King for dinner and to play on the playground. I guess it is a playground...more like a cool climbing area.
This is quite the contraption that can fill a lot of bags at once...called a spider. Looks like they had a lot of volunteers.
The boys did the by-hand way...bag by bag. It is nice to know they have helped people during the flooding. Turned out they had enough volunteers that they didn't need to go back on Saturday because they reached their goal! (Good thing as Leah said three days in a row was a bit rough...hard work!)
Then...the most exciting news (to me) is that Trent came over Sunday and they did measuring and planning for a lumber order.
Bathroom and studio marked out with chalk lines.
Line between studio and living room.
And then they went shopping!!
Lumber!!!
Leah says they are planning to pick up the pocket doors this week and hopefully get it framed out in the next two weeks!! I am excited!!
Meanwhile...
How am I feeling now that I took my last steroid pill today? Ah...don't really want to talk about it. Worse than a couple weeks ago but still better overall in the big scheme of things. I am just focusing on purging and packing as much as I can. So happy they are starting the framing! Spring is here. I'm still on days. Life is good! You are all wonderful. Have a fabulous week!! Till next time...
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