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She drove herself over for the visit. She has a suspended license because of a dui she got last year. She brought Mary Jayne a new chair and they had a nice visit. So all in all it wasn't a bad visit.

Connie, I'm glad the visit wasn't that bad. And, that was a nice thought about her buying the new chair! I'm hoping small steps become a lot bigger for all of you!

On another (unrelated) note, I have to ask two questions:

1. What is your next project?

2. Have you ever thought about applying for one of those HGTV or TLC home improvement shows? You guys would be the best!

(Sorry, off topic, but I love everything you've done! The pictures are simply amazing!)

Yes, it is nice to have a nice visit. I unpacked boxes of do-dads (my gramma's name for stuff for the china cabinet) while they visited. So all I lack now is getting the curtains up over one window. I am going to do some tidying and will get photos put up.

Well, I do have several more projects to do...I still have floors to refinish upstairs. There are 2 bedrooms and a bath. The bath will probably have to have new linoleum put down. I need to pull up the linoleum and see what it looks like. I would really like the little hex tile and will have to ask my dad about that one. In the little bath I want to put beadboard up. Pretty much upstairs after the floors is cosmetic. We do need new stairs put in as ours are shot and I need to strip the woodwork that will stay before I can get the stairs started.

In the kitchen I would like new light fixtures and have them picked out already. Also the vent hood needs to come off. It is horrible. I lack the floor in there. I am waiting until I get the floor pulled up to decide what to do in there. Probably go back with linoleum as the floor looks pretty water damaged from the basement.

The bathroom needs major work. I want my dad to build some cabinets where a tiny closet is (with no door) and I would like him to put a door back where one was walled over. There is a closet they walled over and then it would have doors on both sides but old houses are supposed to be quirky. There is a big sink/vanity thing that is ugly. Also a huge medicine cabinet that hangs on the wall above the sink where I want to put a recessed medicine cabinet. I want to put a pedestal sink as I think that would make the space look larger and my biggest wish would be a cast iron claw footed tub. Not holding my breath on that one, have hubby talked into the other things. Maybe a little more persuading and coconut merigune pies. The floor in there I need to pull up and see what is underneath, but again I am afraid of the way it will look as you can see water damage there too in the basement. OH and did I mention the awful wallpaper?! It is easy to look past though but stripping wallpaper is a job in itself. We have stripped wallpaper in one room already and found mold and had to replace sheetrock. But that was caused by the hole in the side of our house that we found when we were getting ready to paint the house. The previous owner had an ac/heat until put in and the company put up flashing around the hole they cut into the house to install the ac unit and they didn't caulk or anything so by the time we pulled the flashing off (to do some stucco repair where it was cracking) the side of the house had desintigrated and there was a horrible leak in the basement already from the footing of the house being cracked. Well, the big hole in the wall made us realize gee, maybe not just the footing was causing all the water in the basement! So we decided to get new windows and siding. The siding is insulated (did I mention that my house is 102 yrs old and there is NO insulation?!). We had blown in insulation done in the walls and so that has really helped. It made me really sad to see the old windows go...they were original to the house but very drafty. But I do like the way the house looks now too. And no more mold!

So at this point you may be sorry you even asked lol. I lack refinishing floors in the baby's room and in my bedroom downstairs but mainly I think just a quick fix to get them fixed up and then I will be done....for a few years anyway! Oh and my hubby would say me and that mouse in my pocket are going to be pretty busy for a while...he isn't handy much at all. His secret weapon is duct tape...enough said!

I had thought about one of the home improvement shows but just never looked into it. I guess watching Trading Spaces spooks me! My luck I would end up with that courogated cardboard walls held in place with liquid nail...that was horrible!

I have some photos of the house here if you would like to see the outside being fixed...you will have to wade through assorted photos too...some of Mary Jayne as a baby.

photos of house

I haven't even looked at these photos in forever, this is my older grandaughter Tiffany (just turned 5) when we used to babysit her and many photos of my dogs. Looks like lots of misc.

yard and assorted photos


Well I will shut up now as I have to get cleaned up and go into town to pick up Tiffany for the weekend. She loves to come and stay and now that school is out we will be seeing more of her.

Ok I went back and labled some of the photos...enjoy!

Hi Connie!

I can't believe all of the work you have done! The pictures are beautiful!

My favorite line in your post: "Maybe a little more persuading and coconut merigune pies." LOL!!

Your garden looks so impressive as well. Are you growing tomatoes again this year?

How did your weekend go with Tiffany?

And I forgot to ask about Morty! He is one precious (and big) looking dog!

I said it before, but I am glad the visit went better this time around. Do you have another one coming up soon?

Thanks so much Brandii, I fell in love with the house the first time I saw it. It has such a warm feeling. Looking at this one first was probably the worst thing to do because the houses that we looked at after didn't even compare! We have lived here since 2003 I think. The yard was a blank canvas and so every year we try to do a few things in the yard. This year I have planted more perinnials. Also I have started a new little flower area and am experimenting with seeds for a cottage style flower bed. So far that isn't working out well! But if your monster dog doesn't get out of the back yard and tromp in your flower bed that might help out! It is hard to be mad at him when you see him having the zoomies, running like crazy and his ears flopping behind him. He is still such a puppy.

Coconut merigune pie is my hubbies absolute favorite. He is not much of a dessert eater other than coconut pie, apple pie and chocolate chip cookies. It took me quite a few times before the pie turned out decent. The first time I made it the merigune was so so and you cut into it and the cream part was like soup! You had to have a straw to eat that. I cried and was so upset! I always do scratch and told my husband I could've made 3 apple pies in the time it took for that one stupid coconut pie and the apple pies would have been great! I have gotten way faster at it now though. I guess because I finally found a good recipe that works. I think that is one of the keys to making that pie! That and a good mixer for making the merigune. I love to cook and it is so funny because my mom always tells me I am not the child she expected to be like that! Since we moved here I have started canning because he has space for a large garden. I also freeze stuff, mainly okra and black eyed peas. I had made jelly before we moved because of the sweet lady that lived across the street. It was like having your gramma next door. She helped me make my first jelly.

This year we are not having as much stuff in the garden as we usually do. The court date is right at the height of canning and also having a toddler doesn't give you much spare time for doing stuff like that! He planted 16 tomato plants, a lot of cucumbers (he has taken over the whole dill pickle making, he eats them in his lunch every day), squash, zuchinni, carrots, radishes, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, a few onions and garlic. Last year he planted 500 onions. We still have a few in the basement. I do a lot of cooking with onions. I love salsa and also can tomatoes for spagetti sauce. Nothing is better than a big pot of homeade tomato sauce! Usually we also have okra, cow peas and green beans. It takes quite some time to water that garden and it takes a lot of tending. But we love being outside.

Tiffany had a wonderful time. It was the city wide garage sale on Saturday and she and I went to some Friday evening and got some pretty pictures for her room. Also some cute pillows that look like flowers, a shelf for her 'llection. A couple of days before I went to an estate sale and bought her 2 little unicorns as she loves horses. So she had to have some place to put them that no one would be able to reach. We also got some little teddy bears for her collection and I had 2 cats I had got somewhere and I have been trying to declutter and so I gave those to her. My china cabinets are overflowing. We also got a few summer dresses, she loves dresses and so it was a nice weekend. My big purchase was 3 old lawn chairs from the 30's. $4 each. They had tons of patina! I am going to strip them and paint them to match the white color of the house. I also got a quilt for $35. It is very old and my hubby didn't think it was much of a bargain! I also got a metal martin house for the yard. No pole, but my hubby is a scavenger and will figure out something. We had drove off after dumping it in the yard and when we came back there were birds checking it out. Also I bought an old picture frame. At one time I am sure it had convex glass in it but it has regular glass now. I stripped it and need to get some dark stain and I am going to blow up a black and white photo of the house and put it in there.

Yeah Morty is huge. He is 7 months now and still growning. He loves having his walks after supper and that week we were refinishing floors he missed all his walks. I am going to start walking him in the morning early too. He has so much energy and is into everything. I think another walk would help. He is also too smart for his own good. We had left him outside while we were garage saleing and all the windows and doors were open and when we came home he was laying on his bed in the living room. I knew he could let himself out but didn't realize he could let himself in! The other day I had bought a new box of tide and left it on the back porch and he chewed the corner open and spread laundry soap in the back yard. So if anyone is looking for a way to kill weeds, putting tide on your yard will do that! Probably not real cost effective though.

Well, Mary Jaynes mom, I have told her so many times, any time she wants to visit is fine, I would meet her in town, we could eat lunch, we could go to the park. She could visit for more than one hour. She could visit more than one time a month. I don't work so it isn't a big deal. She came, after one hour on the dot she roared off. And I do mean roar. Ran the stop sign at the edge of our house. That always makes me mad when I see that. We live a block from the park and little kids are constantly walking to the park and they don't do well at looking out for cars. She didn't ask to make another visit. She doesn't work. I don't know if I told ya'll my son had a life insurance policy. Because it was an accident it paid out half a million. She recieved that money and is going through it like water. She has not paid one dime of child support. Not purchased on diaper or outfit. She bought 2 brand new 4-door pickups. One for herself and her mom. She bought her brother a used vehicle. A 4 wheeler for her boyfriend and a house. She was supposed to put $200,000 into a trust account for my grandaugher and my sons older girl. So each would possibly get almost a million dollars upon reaching age 25. She has still not done that. I just try not to think of these things. At first we hoped with all that money that she would straighten up and so far it has been party central. Also she is telling everyone that she is pregnant. We live in a small town so things get around. Anyway, enough sour grapes today....once again, sorry for the novella! Connie

I have talked to another lawyer and he said we could try for a guardianship, but at least with the DHS involved there will be someone there making sure she is actually doing better. With the guardianship after we got it (if we did) she could take us back to court at any time after she gets her life together and it would just be up to the judge as to what happens. The lawyer said best case scenario would be if we could talk her into signing her rights away, but I don't see that happening any time soon. I had talked to her about that before. Also the other grandparents would be notified of our plans to become her guardian and they could also persue that. So far they have not done much of anything, but you never know what might happen.

I don't know if I posted about this, but we have a new case worker. This is #5 in the past year. She is coming today to visit and I imagine she will want to open every drawer and ect. Hopefully she will be nicer than the last one. They have made us feel like we are the ones being scrutinized. They just keep telling us they hold us to a higher standard than they do the parents. Which should be the other way around. I sure don't know how they can keep any foster parents in their program. It is not anything I would want to do again unless I had to do it for other grandchildren or relatives.

I met the caseworker yesterday. She is very sweet and has only been doing this for 3 months. She said the average turnover at their office is about 6-9 months. That sure doesn't make you feel very good! So we had a nice visit and she wasn't rude and didn't go through every drawer or cabinet in our house. I will look forward to another visit from her. And Mary Jayne loved her so that makes you feel good.

Hi Connie!

I'm so glad the new case worker was pleasant--doesn't that make all the difference at times?

Is there any way to let the powers that be (for lack of better words) know about the lack of funding set up for the children? Or will you get a chance to talk about that in court?

Switching gears to a completely different and light note--I can relate to having a big dog running through your garden, and then finding it hard to be mad when they look so cute!

The other day my dog decided to pull the bag of potting soil across our back patio, rip it open, and then started to dig in the soil like we was digging a huge hole in the ground.

Keep in mind--the dog will be SIX years old in July. He loves to hang out with me while I plant flowers, but has never (in six years) attacked the potting soil. Until now.

I think I've got a quick clip of it, and if so I'll post a link to it later today.

LOL Brandii, Morty ripped open a bag of potting soil I left on the back porch but luckily we caught him in the act. Of course, it was brand new. At 6 your dog sounds pretty frisky still.

Well, we have given up complaining about the money thing. She is supposed to set up those trusts and I just figure that shows how little she really cares. I could see not setting up the trust fund for the other girl, but your own child? Who wouldn't want to have all the best for their own child?