April 7, 2025 Monday--5am

Good Morning!

I only see this pair of partridges--likely without mates.  Seems the false spring had the rest of them off nest building somewhere.

Keanna was here Tuesday.  The snow had started Monday night, if I remember correctly.  Snowed off and on for a couple of days.  Heavy wet snow.

That was the most snow I think we have gotten at one time all winter.  Here's the view from my patio from left to right.

Rabbits and birds were here early looking for food.

I put out some seed and Allie settled in to watch.

Didn't take them long--lol!

I went on the antibiotics for five days.  I'm a little better, but not all better.  Not running a temp anymore.  Just finished pills.  Did finally get moving by later in the week.

Changed the shower curtain.  Thinking spring--lol!

The snow was sinking.  

I finally got laundry done, letters set up to answer, banking for the month done, bullet/planner set up for April, and since Allie likes to sit and watch the door for some reason lately...I moved her bed from the bedroom that she hasn't been using lately to the spot where she watches the door.  Shockingly, she was happy with that.

Oh, and Allie and the blue flatter throw on "her" chair...took her a long time to finally lay on it.  And if I take that very throw and put it over me in my chair she won't set foot on it.  She especially doesn't like the fluffier softer ones I use that most cats I've ever had would prefer and make biscuits on.  Allie is so strange.  It took months for her to approve of the bed she's in above.  How is that one much different than this one behind my chair that she accepted first-and-only for the longest time?

 Only Allie knows--lol!  She has her secrets, I guess. ;)

By Sunday--the majority of the snow was gone and we were down to snowbanks once again.

Oh, and I decided that since these mandala pages are hard to color while inside of the book that won't lie flat and harder to tear out than I expected...well, I took a metal ruler and craft knife and cut all the pages out.  You can see the page on the right I tore out for Liam last time they were here.  What a mess!  It even ripped right into the picture.  He'll be pleased they will be easy to pick and color from now on.  Me, too!   Liam has taken to coloring these and that makes me happy.  :)  That's my colored pencil one on the left.  I need to do another one soon.

On Saturday there was a Hands Off gathering on the bridge between Fargo and Moorhead, Mn.  They were hoping for 500 people to show up and had about 2,000!  They plan to keep gathering for an hour every Friday for the next three months!  In April here they will meet in front of the post office in Fargo.  In May they will meet in Moorhead somewhere and then in June back to Fargo somewhere.  Made me very happy and lifted my spirits to see how many people came out all over the 50 states on Saturday.  Over 1300 different groups I heard.  :)  And I even heard there were international gatherings in our support, too.   

Another spirit lifter for me this week was on Sunday...I got a text from Leah asking "Map for the studio please".  Meaning she couldn't find my sketchy floor plan copy she has...and that their friends were probably over there again helping with the IKEA furniture!!!  Whoohoo!!  Yup!  What a wonderful surprise!  That meant they were either putting together the other hutch or the Billy bookcases that go in the studio.  

Was the Billy bookcases!

She needed to know where the hutches were going and where the Billy bookcases were going.  The three skinny ones are made to fit around a corner.  

The other hutch will go next to the one that is put together on that back wall.

The Billy bookcases are together!!  TaDa!

More to do in the living room/kitchen/great room--lol!  

But it is all coming together!

As far as the big IKEA furniture left to put together...we're down to another hutch for the studio, two 8-drawer dressers for the living room, and the new expandable kitchen table.

This past week Ian got to ring the bell for finishing Level 4 at Haley's Hope (help with dyslexia).

Proof that heavy wet snow stuck together well for snowman building.

The boys get deeply involved in their projects.  Here they were making a maze for some little bug thingies that crawl along--hex bugs or hex bots?    

And then Saturday was Home Depot craft day.

Earth Day planters.  :)

Anyways, that's about it for this week.

Nope--breaking news!

I just found out from Leah that there are problems with some of the rest of the furniture.  The other hutch and the two 8-drawer dressers!  The hutch is made wrong--parts drilled and made incorrectly so it won't fit together.  Has to be returned.  And there are not two 8-drawer units of drawers.  Turns out all we have is a few extra drawers.  So she has to check and see if we paid for those two 8-drawer units or if they accidentally gave us some extra drawers for the 12-unit sets of drawers.  And I don't think IKEA carries much of Nordi anymore...at least they don't have the ones I ordered online anymore.  *sigh*  We thought it was all there stacked in my garage.  

I have searched through IKEA to find a replacement that would work for those two sets of drawers.  I found some drawers that actually match my wardrobes--so they would work just fine.  Have to see what Leah finds out later.  She was too exhausted to go find the information Sunday night. 

Isn't it crazy how things just have gone wrong almost every step of the way with the build.  Now we will be dealing with IKEA and a trip to Minneapolis (about 4 hours one way).  I really hope they don't give us much grief about this.  They still carry the hutch, so that shouldn't be a problem to return.  And if we didn't order the two 8-drawer units--then we can return the extra drawers.  If we did order them--we need to get store credit as they don't carry them anymore.  Time will tell.  Always something, it seems.  So, putting furniture together has kind of come to a halt at the moment.  

I do have the three boxes that make up the new expandable kitchen table--but two of those boxes are still in my garage Leah said.  There are some smaller things (not from IKEA) that still have to be put together.  The wall shelves unit, bathroom bench, and a chair/step stool.  So maybe can get some other stuff put together in the meantime, I guess.  

Well, such is life, eh?  It's always something.  In the meantime, I just finished my meds.  Have to go in for a urine sample on Friday.  Feel a bit better than I did, anyways...for now, at least.  My health makes about as much progress as the apartment--ROFL!  ;)  Have a really good week and see you next Monday.  :) :)