Getting some improvements done!

What a happening week we've had!! First of all, here are some pictures Dick took at Anthony and Lori's.  I'm missing the rhododendrons this year.  They got their private road blacktopped and have not been allowed to drive on it for a week.  So they have been parking in a Rotary Club parking lot at the bottom of their road and walking up and down!!  Many times in the rain.  Thankfully they had a three-day weekend in which they didn't need to get the boys to and from school.  Finally tomorrow they will be driving their cars up that nice road!!  After ten years of ruts and stones and puddles and broken, old black top that was never done right whenever it had been done years ago.  There are four other homes on this road (Anthony and Lori are at the top of it,) so they all are pitching in to pay for this improvement.  Dick did the much-needed mowing over there yesterday and took these pictures for me.  

Now back to last week here at our house.  As I said in my last post we moved everything out of our living room and dining room except the couches in preparation for the carpet stretching and cleaning on Wednesday.

Here are some pictures of the ripples  our carpet has gotten over the years.

Our office/music room, spare bedroom, and kitchen became the temporary homes for all the stuff! 

Dick took a vacation day on Wednesday.  I told him that it would make so much sense to get the walls painted while we had everything moved out.  Hmmm.  I put a quick message on Facebook, and guess who commented first??  My sister Doris, telling me that her husband Dale could do it.  He has spend his whole adult life as a carpenter/painter.  So we decided that Doris and Dale and their daughter Ellen would come up from Lancaster on Friday.  

The carpet guy arrived Wednesday around 10:00 and got started.  I was feeling very tired and had a touch of diarrhea, but Dick and I went to Lowes to buy paint.  It was a cool, rainy day and I was beginning to feel worse and worse.  I just couldn't get warm and I felt like I had no energy at all.  When we got home from Lowes our house was so cold!  The carpet guy had gotten hot and turned on our AC.  

I didn't know where to go to get warm while he was still here.  I ended up going to my bathroom and turning up the electric heat really high, and I stayed there until he was finished.  

Then I went to bed with my coat on and a lot of blankets, and I still couldn't get warm!  I obviously had a fever.  I think I slept for a little while, and of course when I woke up I was hot and flushed.  I took this lovely picture of myself to see what I looked like, lol!

We were very happy with the carpet when it was finished.

I don't even remember what I did the rest of the day after he left.  There was no TV to watch, and I didn't feel well.  I didn't say a word to Doris about not feeling well.  I was so sure I would be all better by Friday.  I am so rarely sick. 

On Thursday I felt better, but still no appetite.  I did our laundry and in the afternoon I went up to the church to update the choir notebooks.  While there I felt my first hunger pangs and came home and ate something before Dick and I went to choir practice.  I felt great that evening.  

After choir practice we took more things out of the rooms in preparation for the painting - pictures, drapes and curtains, electrical and light switch plates. 

Doris, Dale, and Ellen arrived around 9 am on Friday, and Dale got started.

Doris and I supervised as well as we could - from the couches, lol!  Ellen was watching funny things on her phone and giggling all day, lol!

For lunch we girls went to Sowers Harvest Cafe in downtown State College.  I forgot to take any pictures.  On the way home we stopped at Burger King to get Dale a big burger and fries.

All day the weather kept dramatically changing from sunshine to crazy rain and wind, back to sunshine and then more rain and wind.  One time we thought it looked nice and sunny, so we girls decided to go for a walk.  But guess what?  We were only a few houses down the street when it suddenly started raining.  So back to the house we went - to do some more supervising from the couches!

Dale got finished right around 5 pm.  Dick stopped to pick up our pizza order on his way home from work.  We set up a folding table on top of the blue tarp.  Doris had brought fresh, recently picked strawberries along, and we enjoyed them on top of ice cream for our dessert. 

I think it was around 7 pm when they were ready to leave.  I did remember to get a picture of them.  We had such a fun day!  Maybe we'll do it another time when I have another room ready for Dale to paint.  

Then we got the drapes and curtains back up, the couches placed properly with the rug and coffee table, Dick's recliner back together and put in place.  And the TV!!  We had made it through three days with no TV!!  Considering that we never had a TV until our kids were teens, I guess it wasn't such a crisis, haha! 

On Saturday morning we got more things in place, including the dining room table and chairs.  But I could not find my dining room tablecloth anywhere!!  

Hours later I sat down at the computer and noticed the table cloth down beside the filing cabinet.  I guess I had run out of places to put things, haha!

We haven't put any pictures back on the walls yet.  Dick hated taking them all down, knowing he would need to put them back up again.  So I won't push him about it.  

Also, our TV is still on the floor because Anthony has a newer one for us that will be hung on the wall above our media console.  So we're not going to get that huge media console out of my kitchen until after the TV is hung.  

Our Memorial Day weekend was super uneventful, which was okay I guess.  I felt a little sad though, especially when looking at picture in my Facebook memories.  

As I said, Dick was mowing over at Anthony and Lori's on Monday.  I watched several episodes of Call the Midwife and went for a walk. 

I took these pictures.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!

I took this picture at a neighbor's place while I was walking.  I don't know what it is.  It really didn't have any fragrance, but so beautiful!

Elizer is enjoying being at his daddy and his grandpa's house and seeing cousins on that side of his family.  I hear from him sometimes, often little video selfies or text messages that look like this!

Then I often reply with a picture or video or audible text message.  On Sunday morning I got this video from him before church and I could have cried.  Not sure if I'll be able to post it successfully here.  I'll try - I really wish you could see it. 

That's it till next time!