And It's Still May

Well, I guess I am no longer blogging, just listing anything that pops into my mind when I do have a free moment every few weeks? And pictures, lots of pictures.  

I'll start with recently and see how far back I can remember.  Late Sunday afternoon my husband opened the refrigerator door and it's wasn't cold. It was barely cool.  He is pretty handy but the fridge part was toast.  I was panicked.  I spent way too much time searching box stores in the closest big city for a new fridge that we could quickly pick up before closing before calling my neighbors and daughters to move food items. And it was Sunday night, after going grocery shopping. Luckily we found room for almost everything, and tossed anything that seemed questionable. 

At 9 am on Monday we were at the local appliance store as they opened with dimensions of the opening. My choice was this one, the same model in white and a black one that I did not like as well.  I was desperate enough to purchase anything (grandkids had to arrive with pints of milk for their breakfast) but I do love it. I was hoping for a top freezer since my knees are too old for the bottom freezer on the old model, I like the color and even though the outside dimensions are the same as the old one, we went from 18.3 cubic feet to 20 cubic feet of room that is arranged much better.  And it was 30% off for Memorial Day, they delivered it in 2 hours and took the other to the recycling.  Look how clean it is!!!

I remarked to a friend that we have spent more money this month than I probably made in a year when we were first married.  I am placing some of the blame on our new neighbors. To make a long story short - they had a new tv delivered. A 65 inch flat screen. Mr. Merry was pouting because he all the sudden needed a great big tv. So I told him to go buy one. But first we needed a tv stand.  I ordered one from Amazon and the very nice truck driver knocked at the door and told us it was smashed on the truck and did we want to refuse delivery? Yes we did want to refuse. 

This meant we had to go to a furniture store to buy one for Mr. Merry to put together. But when we walked in the door of the store, they had living room furniture on clearance. And trust me, my living room furniture was pretty sad.  So it is Amazon's fault that we had to go shopping for a tv stand and came home with an entire living room. And add in a giant tv.

So far so good. I am standing by my grandmother's kitchen table and benches to take the photo and that is as close as food and beverages are getting to the furniture. Since it is like going to the drive-in movies, the grandkids can see morning tv (Blimpi) from the breakfast table. 

I also bought the tickets for my class reunion which were $150, including a dinner, a golf outing, an open bar, a pool party at the hotel and a card game tournament.  Since we are only attending the dinner and aren't "open bar" folks, it is an expensive outing. I promised my best friend (since grade school) we would attend with her and her husband (who are only going for dinner, too) as it was a goal when she started her second bout of treatment for breast cancer. The reunion will be about 3 weeks after her last radiation treatment in July. We have another longtime friend and her husband joining us so we should have a table of people boring nobodies like ourselves. 

I feel blessed because I did have money stashed in my underwear drawer secret account, a good sized check from a side job I needed to cash and some extra money in the checking account to pay for the living room and tv that we didn't know we needed.  And I got such a good deal on the fridge I think we can eeek that out, too.  I did put it all on my credit card for points so I will use the cash back to pay my bank account back.  I can remember when we were searching for milk money in sofa cushions in the 1970's and I am so glad we are at the point where the least concern was covering the cost of the new refrigerator. The main concern was finding a refrigerator! 

We attended the graduation from preschool of our next to youngest grandchild. 

We were guests at Grandparents Day for the youngest grandchild. 

We visited the Amish greenhouses. 

We participated in the nursery school's St Jude Trike a Thon fundraiser. 

We danced in the rain. 

My purple iris came up but need to be split (hence the string). 

We have had several overnight guests due to childcare issues in the past two weeks. There have been lots of car rides with little people immobilized in car seats and trips for ice cream which kind of defeats the purpose. 

Last weekend we had two small guests as their mother is trying to move out of her house in another town since they moved to the new house almost two months ago . . .  I think she is overloaded like her mother! Luckily she is a teacher and will be home full time at the end of the month. There is already a lot of interest in the house so hopefully by July it will all be a memory. 

Somehow I am going to be a volunteer in a political booth this weekend at our city's Strawberry Festival. By volunteer I mean I was volunteered. . . 

And to continue but on a bipartisan basis, I am taking an American History class once a week for the month of May. The class is not bipartisan - it is nonpartisan.  A group of women my age organized a class since they (and me) realize that we retained nothing we were ever taught about American History in school. A very kind professor has volunteered to teach us using the slides from her AP history class for seniors gaining college credit. I have taken copious notes (because I retain more if I write it down) and it has been very interesting.  We finished the amendments to the constitution last week and I can't remember what is next this coming Thursday which will be our last class.  I really have learned a lot and I am excited about that. 

I also signed up for a summer reading program which will require me to read books other than the cozy mysteries I am addicted to reading. Here is my bingo card and I hope that I can find every book in my pile of unread books so that I can maybe share some books with the free little libraries in my community. 

I'm sure I will find the free time to complete this reading project!