The Brenda Photo Challenge-Flowers

Pretty spring daffodils!

These are on a bush in our back yard. I don't know what they are but I love that they are so tiny and delicate!

These are glass flowers in the ceiling of a hotel in Las Vegas.

Whew..it's hard to keep to three pictures! To see more go HERE!

House stuff

A good part of Saturday and Sunday morning was spent tearing the carpeting off of the stairs and the upstairs landing. Before:



And after





We got a nice surprise that the wood on the steps was in pretty good condition. We should only have to do minimal sanding and staining. The under part (or whatever it's called.. riser I think) was painted white. We did some damage taking off the carpet tack strips, but with some sanding and repainting it should look decent.

Unfortunately, the upstairs landing is not hardwood. My plan is to install a wood floor on the landing and sand and stain the stairs the same color. I am thrilled just not having carpeting on the stairs anymore. So much easier to clean! We still have carpeting in all of the bedrooms though, but I think there may be hardwood underneath. I eventually would like to get the carpeting out of those rooms. The good thing is we can take our time because nobody ever goes upstairs except us!

Well the cats do but they don't care!

Marcasite.

We finally had a nice enough day for me to go to a few garage sales on Friday. There was several subdivision sales in my area. Didn't really find anything that great but I did get this pretty pin:



I guess I have this thing for marcasite. It always catches my eye at sales.
I got this pendant at a estate sale a few months ago:



Then of course this pin and earring set I bought at another estate sale:



This peacock pin was my grandmothers.



This lapel watch also belonged to my grandmother.



It's actually pretty old, and it's genuine marcasite, which means that the stones were pressed into the silver versus glued in like modern marcasite.

Yesterday morning I walked for the American Heart Association Heart Walk. It was only three miles (versus the breast cancer 3-day, which I would probably never do. Not because I don't want to walk for three days but because I am no fund raiser and can't imagine trying to raise over $2,000, which is what you need to qualify to walk in it!) but it was very nice out and I had a good time! Unfortunately, I only raised $30 because I kept forgetting to ask people for money!!

Oh well...it was for a good cause!

Mother's Day

Thanks for your comments about our sweet Tori. I do miss her.

We had a good weekend otherwise. Chris and Marissa took us to MGM Grand for dinner at the buffet. They have the best food there and I ate way too much! As usual, it was wonderful to see them! When Chris asked me what I would like for Mother's Day, I actually channeled my mother by saying, "Other than to see you guys, nothing!" She used to say that all of the time!

Speaking of my mother. I usually bring a big bouquet of lilacs from our bush in the backyard to the cemetery on Mother's Day. This year I could barely scrap up a couple of decent branches. It must be the cold weather we have been having because my lilacs were very short lived!

Shauna went to dinner with us on Friday and then came over on Sunday for a while, too. No news on the job yet, still keeping our fingers crossed. It's agony to have to wait especially when she is so anxious to get a new job!

This Saturday morning I have to walk 5 miles for the American Heart Association with some people in my department at work. I did not do the fund-raising I was supposed to do and only managed to scrap up about $30.

Oh well, I will never be known for my mad fundraising skills!


Hey baby, how you doin'?

In Memory of Tori

This is a repeat of a post I did a few years ago. Our elder cat Tori died early this morning. She was exactly 19 years old.



This is Tori.

Tori is the second cat I have ever had. She is a torti. She's brown and black and beige. She has beautiful brown and black eyes, and a cute little pink spot on her nose.

I got Tory from a neighbor who rescued animals. Tory and her siblings (I can't remember how many, now) were living under a deck. Their mom just disappeared one day. They don't know what happened to her but her kitties were too little to live on their own. They were rescued and bottle fed by my neighbor. Tory was actually about 6 months old when I got her. I was not really wanting another cat at the time but my neighbor held on to her. I guess she knew that I would change my mind eventually. I did and I'm not sorry at all.

She has been the greatest cat. So sweet and affectionate and always ready to purr. She used to jump 6 feet up the wall to get a spider or fly or whatever bug happened to be there. She was also a great hunter. We used to joke that she single-handedly wiped out the population of mice and moles in our city she used to kill so many. One day she even got a little bunny. You can bet she got in trouble for that one!

She also has used up 3 or 4 of her nine lives. Once she was caught in the dryer with a load of clothes. Once she disappeared for two nights; I think she got locked in a garage or shed. Once she got caught in a back yard with a dog and had to take shelter in huge hole that the dog had dug until we could come and rescue her.

She's 16 years old now. Although she is the only cat that we allow to go outside, she never wanders anywhere anymore. She stays in the back yard, laying in the sun or watching the birds fly by. She's slowed down alot but she still is in really good health.

I know some cats can live into their 20's and I'm hoping she's one of them.

Well, she almost made it. She was a great cat and we will miss her like crazy.



Tori 1991-2010

Hoping...

As I type this, Shauna is doing her pre-employment testing here at the University of Michigan for a possible job in Neurology. I hope I am not jinxing her by mentioning it here and I really hope she gets this job. She has worked at a grocery store for the last 10 years and she is so done with that. She has a Bachelor's in Behavioral Sciences and a certificate in medical billing so getting her foot in the door here would be a good start to bigger and better things!

It has been beautiful and sunny here this past week. I love spring. My flowers are going crazy and look at the size of my clematis!!

(pic)

It should start getting blooms pretty soon!

LATER: I wrote the above post earlier at work this morning. Since then Shauna did excellent on her tests and they already called and got a good reference from her present employer. All that's left now is for them to officially hire her..which they better do after all that! I am excited to have my daughter working at the same place I do!



"OK I see that bird and if you would just let me out of here I think I can nab it!"

Brenda Photo Challenge-Circles

It's time for another Brenda Photo Challenge. This one's circles!


Corks!

Dish cloths.


Pretty dish.


Go HERE to see more circle pics!