My Nephew - Davy - ELOPED!

Well, I forgot to mention in the last post that we also got a call from DH's sister to advise us that their son (only boy out of 6 kids) had gotten married on April 20th - actually he eloped. Took everyone by surprise. All we can do at this point is wish him well and hope that it all works out for them. He is 18 and I believe she just turned 18 very recently. We will be waiting for updates on that issue to see how it all pans out.....I think she was still in shock when she called us.

Also, his little sister Reina, went to her Prom on the 18th and to quote her "had the best night of her life". They looked very sharp in their outfits. She is so pretty (he's not to bad either LOL!)Here is a picture of Reina and her date Alec.

They say it happens in threes....

And I believe it....Thursday, Harold discovered that the toilet was leaking. Okay that is ONE. Yesterday, Jacob called to advise that the Jeep broke down on him. Luckily it was on base, but it was still 8 miles from his quarters and he is leaving today to go to LA for 3 weeks for training. That is TWO.

Our neighbor's son-in-law, Danny, is a plumber so he came and took the toilet apart and luckily he is pretty sure that just the wax seal needed to be replaced, however, since we planned to replace it with a taller toilet when we had the bahroom redone (once we get the money, shower leaks, but that is another story, no longer using it - using hall bathroom), we decided to go ahead and replace it now, since the old one was off and it needed some of its guts replaced anyway. So, Danny came back this morning to go with us to the store to get the new toilet and guts for the hall toilet (which also needed to be replaced). Well, before going I decided to ask him if he would also replace the sprayer in the kitchen as it does not work, when looking at it we discovered that when you turn the water on and then squeeze the sprayer, no water comes out of the sprayer (which was the problem), but now when you release the sprayer the water does not revert back to the faucet and it took us awhile to get it going again, so we decided to replace the whole thing. So that is THREE. Which actually made me happy as I never like that faucet anyway.

So, now I have a new kitchen faucet, I like it however, with all the new water saving features everything has now, I don't care for the water pressure it puts out, but I don't think that would be any different with any others, so I'll have to get use to it....I got one of the ones where the faucet and sprayer are all-in-one and also included a soap dispenser, which is where the sprayer use to be. It was a 3-hole, so we put a cap in the 3rd hole. The new toilet is in and working perfectly - Yeah! My arthritic knees are going to love that higher seating. They started to put the new part in the hall bath, but it was the wrong size or something, so Danny and DH have run to the store again to get the right part. Thank God for good neighbors.

So hopefully, that will be the only problems for awhile...three is enough. Can't wait to get my master bathroom redone and usable again (well at least the toilet is now usable again). We are going to have it completely retiled with a nicer tile, new linoleum and painted, but first we have to save up the money for that as it is very, very costly, so that won't be anytime soon. Oh yes, Jacob, just had the Jeep towed back to his quarters parking lot and will just get it repaired when he returns, one friend of his thought it might be the starter, as they couldn't even jump start it, another thinks that because the battery connectors were so corroded that it might just need to be cleaned or the battery replace, so he will find out about that when he returns.

Thank goodness, I have a dinner date planned with some of my non-red hat friends (yes, I do have some of those as well). We try to get together at least once every other month as once a month seems impossible. At the very least we try to get together for each others birthday month...there are 6 of us and we usually manage to get at least 4 of us that are free at the same time...today we got 5....Lydia has not joined us for a long time and made it in Feb. and this time. Gayle had to cancel at the last minute as she had been very busy and I think Mary said she either had to work today or go in tomorrow, so something had to give and we were it. Oh well, we will catch her next time. She and Mary are the hardest ones to find a Fri. or Sat that is free and they get home too late during the week to do it then.

UPDATE: Danny came back over and we discovered a tiny sliver of charcoal had come thru the tube and was blocking the water flow right at the flow restrictor and once that was removed the flow did increase and is perfect now...SO now I LOVE my new faucet.

Historic Garden Week in Virginia

The Sweet MagnoliasTaken in front of the home on Beverly Dr.

Yesterday my Red Hat Sweet Magnolia group went on the Historic Garden Tour in the Westmont subdivision here in Fredericksburg. You went on a tour of 5 homes and their gardens. All were absolutely breathtaking. So, I decided I just had to share a few of the 77 pictures I took. The hard part was deciding which ones to pick - everything was sooooo beautiful.

These are pictures of the first house we visited on Greenway Dr., built in 1966. Unfortunately, you could not take pictures inside the homes. I wish you could as they were beautiful, but I can understand why. The flowers on either side of the entrance were also used on the garland you see around the door and there were beautiful floral arrangement done by local groups throughout each house. Most of the greeters were dressed in period clothing - I'll include a few of those as well.

The second house also on Greenway Dr. was built in 1961. There are over 150 Azalea bushes decorating the grounds of this home as well as many other beautiful plants

The third house which was on Beverly Dr. was completed in 1946, with an addition being constructed in 2004 (right side from the round front porch on to the right). The backyard hosted a beautiful view with gazebo, Koi pond, swimming pool complete with a pool house that has been converted to a guest house. We were also treated to a cool beverage and homemade cookies at this location and were able to enjoy them on the patio next to the pool. I also had to include a picture of the tree on the patio with all the bird houses in it.

There are birdhouses hanging all over in this tree, look closely and you can see them.

The last two homes were on Highland Road. The first was built in the early 1950s. The current owners had some extensive renovations done in 2008. The backyard ran along side the driveway for the previous house on Highland, so we cheated and went up thru the backyard and then around to the front, toured the house and ended up in the back courtyard again. So the pictures looking up at the house are of the back of the house and looking from the bottom of the sloping yard up to the house. Later are a few from the house looking down.

The front of the house, the mulched area slopes up.

Fountain that is in middle of driveway/parking area. Yard slopes slightly down to house at end of stonework driveway (stairs on far right to go down to house)

The 5th and final house was built by its current owners in 2005 and is the newest of the houses and was absolutely beautiful. It included a 2-story atrium, complete with skylights along the entire length of the residence. It also has a basement level, complete with an elevator connecting all 3 floors.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I posted more than planned, but they were all so beautiful it was hard to leave any out (but I did). Oh yes, after the tour we enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Brock's in Downtown Fredericksburg.

Cards by My Sr. Ctr. Ladies

Today was my day at the Sr. Ctr. again. No planned card, just took supples for some all occassion cards and let them make what they want for what they needed them for. They had a blast. One of the ladies had painted a wooden cross and wanted me to decorate it, so with the limited supplies on hand, we stamped some leaves and a few flowers on it. It didn't come out too bad considering.


Here are some of the cards they made...I actually remembered to take my camera and then remembered to actually take some pictures again.
Aren't they a creative bunch....I just cut the paper for them once they decide what they want to stamp and they take it from there. I give a few tips every now and then.

WARNING! WARNING!

Jacob finally decided to take the plunge and get his driver's license. He came home today for the weekend and his dad took him to get his license. SOoooo, consider yourself warned, he is out on the road now on his own. ;-D I just had to give him a hard time, actually he is a very good driver, so you should be safe...I just have to get thru the first time he is out on his own driving... which is right now. He decided to go visit a few friends. He will be taking George's Jeep back to NC to use until George is done with his training and then depending on where George is stationed as to if he will have to return it to him or he gets to use it until he deploys in Aug./Sept.

P.S. Despite the time shown for the posting of this it is acually 9:56 pm now.

Dinner with Friends from the Free Lance-Star

Sheila, Paula, Opal & Kristin

Standing: Me, Cindy W., Jane, April

Sitting: Sheila, Opal, Kristin

Went to dinner last night with some of my old co-workers from the paper. I left there in May 2004, but Opal, Kristin and I get together every few months for lunch. Opal decided to have a "Classifieds Alumni Party". Sheila worked there before I came on in Nov. 99 and April left a year or so before I did, Jane left a couple years before I did. Opal, Kristin, Paula, and Cindy W. are still there. We had a great time, reminiscing and finding out what has happened to others that have left and some that are still there. We plan to do this again and hopefully get a few others to join us the next time.

Family Day in Ft. Knox, KY

We got to go and visit George for Family Day/Weekend in Ft. Knox, KY this weekend. Jacob was able to go with us, so we drove to Ft. Bragg, NC to pick him up on Thursday and then headed to KY. We finally rolled into our hotel at 3am and then had to get up and be at the base by 9am for the ceremony. We listened to a short speech and then they had the guys don their berets for the first time. This picture was taken after they turned around to present themselves to the families attending. You can only see half of George's face behind the short guy on the end of the 4th row from the stage. Jacob had gone up front before it started and George spotted him for the first time and was so glad to see that he had come. It made the long drive worth it. After the ceremony we signed out two of his buddies (Dombrowski & Cuevas)and returned to the hotel. We had gotten an extra room for him and his buddies to stay in. We went to lunch with another buddy (Richards) and his family, who as it turned out were also staying in the same hotel, so we also did dinner together at a Mexican restaurant that was next door. They spent most of the weekend in their room, playing games and eating (I had made each of them up an Easter basket - plus all the things George had asked us to bring. As expected most of it was not eaten, so a lot either came home or Jacob kept it. He took all of the candy with him to take to work and put out for everyone there.

The donning of the beret!

Pvt. Ferenz

He may look a little swollen on the rt. side of his face (I don't see it) as he had to have a tooth pulled on Thurs. He had the appt. already for that, but the day before on the way back from their march, it flared up and by the time they marched back and he got to the dentist he had a major infection. The dentist pulled it, cleaned it out good and chewed some people out for not setting him up to have it pulled long before now. He was not happy about it being left to have a chance to get infected, as the tooth had been coming apart and had been infected before he went in and he had been on meds for it just before he reported and he had told them that. It was feeling and looking much better by the end of the weekend.

Jacob and George (and no that is not a beer - its one of those energy type drinks)

Dombroski - Cuevas - Richards -Ferenz

Forming up and preparing to return to their barracks.

George is in the middle - 3rd row.

It was hard to leave, but it had been nice to be able to spend Easter weekend with both boys. George had to be back on base by 4pm on Sunday. He starts his Armor Crewman Training this week. Graduation for that is the end of May, so we will be returning for that. We did not leave until early Mon. morning. Then the long drive again to drop Jacob off and head home. We got in about 1am.