Another pile............

If you know me at all, you know I drink a lot of crystal lite! It's my feeble attempt at drinking water?!?! I'm one of those that consumes liquids all day long and I drink crystal lite as opposed to downing diet coke after diet coke!!
I decided months ago that I should save the containers that the mixes come in because I COULD make adorable "things" with them and give them to friends......................
Okay - I've shared - now I MUST fix one up all cute!! I've tried to decide what I could put in them. Maybe some homemade biscotti? Candy? I don't know...............Please - any suggestions? I will get one all fixed up and give it to the person who I decide has the best suggestion. NO I WILL NOT FILL IT WITH MONEY OR GIFT CARDS :-)! Let's hear it! You get busy with the ideas and I will get busy with the decorating!!!!

Piles of piles

Why do I do this?!?!?!?
Currently, I have 3 piles sitting there, staring at me, waiting for a response - looking repulsive!!

This pile is sitting on the desk in my office.........................
This pile is sitting by the desk in the kitchen..............
This pile is in my office in a cute basket trying to disguise itself..........but that doesn't help........
I HATE piles, I do however love files! I have a cute basket with matching, pretty files, waiting for me to break down those piles and get them organized.....................
I actually do love filing too - I enjoy getting things where they need to be.

I need to make a date with myself - AND GET RID OF THOSE PILES!!

The finished project

Well, as finished as it's going to be until we save up for the last item.
This is the spot where the "Big Green Egg" will go someday. If you don't know about these, go here: www.biggreenegg.com
These things are awesome! Our friends Dan and Marla have one and it does an awesome job with a piece of meat. It's a ceramic barbeque and it gets hot and you can keep it hot for a LONG time. It's great for making pizzas, rustic breads, etc. They have a whole cookbook for it and I will definitely be getting that with it!
Now, I just need to add a few great pots of plants and we'll be ready! The cushions on my chairs around the table need to be redone!! I've looked into buying new cushions, but YIKES, you might as well buy a new set! Seriously new cushions are a fortune, unless someone has a tip for me where to look. My friend Julie said she would help me sew new ones, but she has a wedding in May and doesn't have time for a big project like that right now. Any suggestions? Any websites? Come on by anytime for a sit on the back porch - I hear you can get a really GOOD latte' here!! :-)

Next project

Last week I told you I saw my husband coming down the driveway with a trailer full of trees - he has been wanting some trees forever!! We both feel like our house looks like it was dropped on the middle of 2 acres and it desperately needs some bigger trees!

Mind you, we've never really stayed in a house long enough to see trees get big, or our landscaping mature, but I'm hoping maybe this time we will!
When I opened the door to take pictures, Max ran outside - and he was scared to death of the 4-wheeler. Randy picked him up and put him in the wheelbarrow for a ride and right after I snapped this picture - Max jumped right out the back! We're lucky he didn't break his legs - that's a long way down!
After Randy set the trees around, he would sit and look at them for a while(I know the pic is dark - but I just had to show you) and then go move them around some more. I told him classical music would've helped inspire him!! This morning he was back out there moving them around again. Maybe he won't plant them and we'll start a new trend of landscaping you can rearrange! :-).
The outdoor kitchen is painted, tiled, grouted and waiting for the drop in barbeque that is coming on Thursday. I'm waiting to post pics of it done - I don't want to string you guys along too much - it'll lose the excitement!!

Have a great day - enjoy the sunshine - there's more coming! We are having friends for dinner on Sat. night to "christen" the new barbeque! Can't wait! Saturday is supposed to be 63 and sunny - make your plans now!!

Project progress

Here are a few more pics of the progress of our current project...............



I filled the nail holes this morning and Randy is Painting it this afternoon, and says he wants to grout yet today too! Is he a driven man or what?!?! I'm so blessed - I will say, "he's a project finisher"!!

Bring on Barbeque season and evenings on the patio!

Today is just a putz around the house and get some things done. So far *cleaned out fridge and threw out all growing things!
*washed fronts of all cabinets
*laundry
*dusting
*coffee with Hubby!

Oh yeah, that reminds me............I just looked up and saw hubby coming down the driveway with a trailer full of trees for the yard. He's busy as a bee - It's like someone lit a fire under him! You don't thing he'd sell the house without asking me do you? HMMM!

It's officially a project

On Monday Randy started in on the next big project here at Korthuis Manor (yes there's lot's of landscaping still begging to be done, but that will be a constant project for a while with 2 acres).

When we built our house we had the back porch designed to have an outdoor kitchen someday..........................someday is here......................sort of.

We're going to go as far as we can without spending much money and then we will purchase items as we have money available.

Here is the beginning stage..........................
Now, if you know my husband at all, you know that the project has progressed quite far already - he's a driven work horse, but I can't post all the pictures at once because I need blogging material!! :-)

More to come - now we just need spring - AND NO MORE WIND!!!!! (I was up at 12:30 this morning making sure all the furniture was secure outside)

Fun night last night with friends, food, and scrapbooking. Never can get enough of these moments. Of course I don't have pics because I was enjoying myself too much! Thanks girls for all the laughs and swapping of "middle aged woes"!! :-)

Thank goodness for angels..............

Did you know that when you board a flight in Seattle at 10:45pm and the flight is SUPPOSED to arrive in B'ham at 11:45pm - IT DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK?!?!?!

Yes, I just spent 5 great days with Judy and family in Boise - but it did not end pretty. I'll blog the good stuff later - this is for venting............

I booked the last flight out because it required fewer airmiles for a ticket. My sweet husband had called and said he would stay up late and pick me up instead of dropping my car off for me in the parking lot (for those of you who know Randy - staying up late is a HUGE act of love).

When we started boarding the flight they mentioned that there was fog in B'ham and it could become an issue (flashback to my travel agent days: FOG + TINY AIRSTRIP=no landing!!). The flight attendant said "the captain says it looks fine and shouldn't be an issue - jump forward to 11:45........................"folks, this is the flight deck and we need 1/2 mile visibility to land and right now we only have 1/4 mile so we're going to stay in a holding pattern for 30 min and hope we get a window to land". Now, jump forward 30 min. "ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the seatbelt sign if any of you are needing to get up and use the restroom".......................................I'm not stupid, I know what this means!! I had been watching B'ham from overhead for 30 min now - the marina, the mall, grouse mountain, the little dipper, I could see cars, ambulances heading somewhere - clear as far as I could see.........................anywho - we headed back to Seattle!!!!!!!!!!

Randy headed back home. They offered us a $50 rate at the Ramada Inn, but we had to be back at the airport by 6:30 to check back in - that would be $10/hr to sleep - no thanks. I decided to just sit it out at the airport.

The VERY SHORT version is a gal from our flight was sitting in baggage claim waiting for her sister who was driving down from Abbottsford to pick her up (yes I'm right on the way home and I was biting my tongue!!). The young lady was a beautiful Christian gal and she and her sister brought me straight to my front door-they offered - God is so good!!!! It was such a blessing and I so enjoyed talking with 2 young married ladies that are serving the Lord.

I crawled in bed at 4:15AM - but in my own bed - and I didn't have to pay $10/hr to sleep - although if you divided our mortgage by 30 days............................I'm not going there!!

Baby it's cold.....inside?

My list of "to dos" has been piling up and among the ever present bins and Christmas decor that needed to be finished putting away, is the freezer encrusted in ice. I've been waiting to do it when Randy is home on a Saturday so he can help me. I usually handle this chore alone, but this is the first time I've had a freezer in the house and not in the garage. Normally, I empty it out and hose it down and clean my garage floor while I'm at it - but in the house it's very different.

Here's how it looked in the beginning...........................
the food waiting patiently to go back in.........................
AFTER! It's such a good feeling to get that chore done!! I open the door when I go back there just because it looks so great! :-)
Yes, this is the same shelf that was full of ice.......................I also got all the Christmas decor packed up, bins re-labeled (I love my labeling machine!!), got them put away back in the shop(thanks to Randy), and got the house clean and back to normal. (and no, the decorating fairy DID NOT show up much to my disappointment!! We did have some friends for coffee real quick after church today - and SHE IS DEFINITELY A DECORATING FAIRY - and she just told me it looked wonderful - I appreciate it, but it's just looking yuk to me) I do realize that in the picture below I have 2 plants on my coffee table - above and below - I did move the bottom one!)
We were having the friends for dinner, so after I got all the chores done, I got the table set.................
hopped in the shower at 5:15 and they arrived at 6.

Great day - got lots done - and keeping me going was the goal of relaxing with friends - I work better with incentive!!

Anyone want to come decorate

Ok - I DID not get all my Christmas down last Saturday!! I got it all out of our bedroom and the guest bathroom and cleaned it thoroughly, and then......I moved on to other things. This is so unlike me - I'm kind of scarin' myself!

I've been moving things off coffee tables, etc and collecting them in a pile on my counter, and a pile over by the piano. Last night I tackled the tree. YUK! I put the table back against the wall and tried to hang the huge picture back over it and scratched my wall......................grrr!

This is what things are looking like now......................
I'm excited about putting the everyday decor back up, but I am not wanting to just throw it back up in the same spot as before. I'm a person that has a terrible hard time thinking "outside the box" and once I have a decoration somewhere, I can't move it. These are my "spots" to be adorned waiting for someone to bestow upon them a cute knick knack to display! (besides pledge and swiffers that is :-)
I think it would be lovely for someone(a decorating fairy of sorts) to come look at all my stuff -and tell me where to put them.!!(I mean I DO have great stuff - think about where I work!! Of course you're thinking "why do you need help you're a Grandiflora Girl - BUT - remember, I'm the bookkeeper - not a displayer!!!! Very different skills involved!!)

Any offers????? :-)

I'm stuck................

USUALLY- I love to decorate for Christmas

USUALLY - I do it in a very organized fashion, tree first, then living room, get a bin out and empty it put it away.....etc.

USUALLY - once I get the stuff out I'm done in 2 days...(here's where the breakdown begins....)

USUALLY - is NOT happening this year.

Mon - dear hubby and I got ALL the boxes down and into the garage, then Mon. evening after work, my goal was to get the tree all done. Made dinner, started a batch of bread, got the tree out of the box,(I got the tree up and that's as far as I got - I went to bed at 9:30 and left a naked tree)
Tues - worked and went to the basketball game

Wed - home ALL day to decorate - had Christmas Tree decoration crisis, cleaned the bathrooms, made homemade soup and crusty bread, MADE A BIG MESS by hauling in too much and working in a very disorganized fashion. I DID get the tree done and a couple small areas.......but lots left to do!

Thur - needed to do the B'ham run and was planning on FINISHING decorating when I got home cuz' I had to work tonight. Got home from B'ham unloaded and put everything away, made dinner and went to work.

Tomorrow - I work - I'M PLANNING on finishing tomorrow night - but so far my plans haven't worked this week and I'm living in a mess and it's stressing me out BIG TIME!!!!! (which of course makes no sense as to why I'm sitting at the computer blogging - but it's too late to dig in tonight!!)
....................the best laid plans of mice and men!

Here's how the yard is coming along...................

Earlier this summer I took pictures of the process of planting a yard and landscaping. I decided it was time to show you the progress - still lots to be done - but so much accomplished!

One weekend in August Marla and I took the girls school shopping for a couple days and I came home to this. It's a huge project - 2 ponds with a stream between them. Randy asked me to remind him next time not to build such a large water feature - I reminded him I had no input on this one :-) It will be beautiful - but a LOT of work ahead........(there's been more progress since I took these pictures - so more updates to come)

Upper pond..............
Lower pond..................................
Stream in between..................................
The fireplace on the back porch is done - what a fabulous place to enjoy coffee!!
Here's the front yard with a retaining wall..................
I love the look of a retaining wall lined with boxwoods - it makes me happy!

and someday there will be boxwoods lining the sidewalk to the front door.

I'll stop here now and show more on my next post.