OUR 17TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY -- PART TWO

 Hello, friends.  Hope you all had a great day today.  I'm finally getting back to you to finish the story.  I meant to a few days ago, but things around here been hectic.  Right now I have ordered a pizza for dinner and I am waiting for it to be delivered.  Being lazy today.  I've been fighting a headache for several days so I figure I can do a lazy day.

So let's continue on.  On Sunday morning I got up before Joe and had some quiet time by myself.  It was such a nice and pretty room and I was enjoying it.  I took my medicine and looked at some stuff on my tablet.

I took a picture of this painting they had hanging in the bathroom.  I have seen this picture in other rooms that we have stayed in at this hotel.  I love it and had to get a shot of it.

When Joe got up, he got ready for church and then I did.  We were going to go get breakfast, but really didn't have time.  We had donuts and bananas with us and they made a great breakfast.

We checked out and then went to the Paradise Bible Fellowship Church.  We have been wanting to go there for awhile, but it's so far from home.  We were not disappointed.  We are friends with the pastor and he is a great speaker.  The people there were all so friendly and some of them recognized us from when we went to Annual Conference.  I wouldn't mind going there every week.

After church we went to lunch.  There is a new Sushi restaurant that we wanted to try, so we headed there.  And what a good choice that was.  It was so new to us -- all you can eat but you order it one or two dishes at a time.  You are given a small plate to eat off of and the dishes come out on small plates.

We began by ordering iced tea and California rolls.  I didn't know how it worked at first.  Joe was in the restroom so I ordered two  California rolls, one for each of us.  But then we figured out how to do it and split orders of sweet potato rolls, beef gyoza, beef with noodles, and vegetable tempura.  Everything was very good.  We will definitely be going back there again.

Then it was time to head for home.  We were going to look at some of the stores, but it was raining pretty hard and it was a two hour drive home.  So we figured we would be back later.

It was such a great weekend.  So relaxing and enjoyable being there.  I have part two of the get away up on YouTube so head on over there to see the video.  I also just found some photos of the first day that I didn't post.  I will do another post to show them to you.

And now it is time for pizza so I will say good night for now.  See you all soon.

Until later...

Kathy

OUR 17TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY -- PART ONE

 Hello, friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful day.  It is really early here (around 3:00 a.m.) and I am usually awake between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m.  Sometimes I sleep as late as 4:00 a.m. but seldom later than that.  Why?  I wish I knew.  When I was working, I couldn't get up for anything and was always late for work.  Now that I have all the time in the world, I keep waking up early.  Usually when I am waking up, Joe is just going to bed.  He is a night owl.  Not me.  Sometimes I feel as if we are ships that pass in the night.  Literally.

But I really wanted to tell you about the wonderful anniversary weekend we had.  Our anniversary was on Saturday, September 16th.  We had planned to go to Lancaster County for the weekend.  Actually Friday and Saturday nights.  About a week before we were going, I called the hotel to confirm our reservations.  This is something I do on a regular basis.  It's always good to know that everything is OK.  The person I spoke to said that she did not see a reservation for us.  Nowhere.  And there were no rooms available.  It just so happens that this weekend is when all the fall festivals happen in Lancaster and so getting a hotel room is hard.  That's why I had made the reservations at the end of June.  She did have a room available on Saturday and Sunday.  But it was more expensive.  Much more expensive.  So I took it for just one night -- Saturday.  Our anniversary.  I called several other hotels, but there were no available rooms.  And we really wanted to stay at the Fulton Steamboat Inn.  So that is how I left it.  I was so glad I had called and not just showed up and found out there was no room.

We were going to meet some friends for lunch that day, but as time went on I realized we would not get out there in time.  So I contacted them and told them it would have to be another day.  That was fine with everyone because I gave them a lot of notice.  We ended up getting to Lancaster around 2:00 p.m.

We were hungry, so we looked for someplace to eat.  But everything was packed with long waiting lines.  Festival weekend brings in lots of people.  We decided to eat where we were going to meet our friends, the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant.  It's one of our favorite places.  But since we had to pass it, we decided to go to the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market first.

It was really crowded, and we had trouble finding a parking space.  This picture is from a couple of years ago.  But every empty place you see here, was filled.  I think we found the last empty space in the entire lot.  And fortunately, it was next to the door to go in.

We had a good time looking around at all the different booths.  We had decided not to buy anything perishable, so we went to the jam and jelly booth first.  And boy did we clean up there.  We got Chow Chow, Tomato Jam, Vidalia Onion Relish, Jalapeno Jam (for our friend who like hot things), Mango Salsa, and Tortilla Chips.  I got a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (so good and so much cinnamon), and a pumpkin whoopie pie for another friend.  Whoopie pies are OK but they are not my favorite.  Joe got a couple of bottles of "Joe" brand iced tea.  Really good.  I bought a couple of autumn potholders from an Amish lady I was talking to about quilts.  And finally at the produce stand we got a couple of really beautiful (and delicious) beefsteak tomatoes, a bunch of bananas, and two sweet potatoes.  The tomatoes and bananas are gone.  I had one of the sweet potatoes for dinner last night and it was delicious.

We left there and headed over to the restaurant which was right next door.  My legs were really hurting, so I opted to get a dinner.  Joe went for the smorgasbord.  I had ham balls in pineapple sauce, applesauce and green beans.  Joe had rolls and a salad, meat loaf and mixed vegetables, and three desserts:  apple pie, cherry pie, and chocolate ice cream with hot fundge sauce.  He does like his sweets.  Everything was delicious.  Such a good dinner.

Then we headed over to the hotel.  The Fulton Steamboat Inn literally looks like a 19th century steamboat.  Both outside and inside.

We got to the front desk and the guy there said we had two rooms booked and four people.  What?  Here the person I had spoken to on the phone had not seen our reservation, but there it was.  And it was for Saturday and Sunday.  The other one was just for Saturday.  One was a room with two queen beds.  The other was a king bed suite.  Of course we chose the suite, but it was more expensive.  Because of the mix up, they gave us the suite at the lower room rate.  We didn't have anyone to take care of our cat on Sunday, so we opted for the one night.

We certainly made the right choice.  The suite was beautiful.  My YouTube video is going up today, so if you get the chance, take a look (Kathy's Happy Home).  Everything was wonderful there except the room was dark.  There was only one window and it overlooked the deck on the third floor.  If you look at the picture above, the room was right behind that big half-circle and towards the right in the picture.  Other than that, everything was great.

And now I have to stop because I need to get myself together to get out of here and get ready for Bible Study.  But I will do day two tomorrow.  I hope you come back for that.

The entire weekend was so wonderful and I'm so glad we got to go away.

See you all next time.

Kathy

IT'S FALL

 Hello, friends!  Happy Saturday and Happy First Day of Fall!  And what a day it is.  We are having major storms this weekend.  All weekend.  The guy I have to mow my grass is supposed to come today, but I doubt it.  It is only 6:00 a.m. and it is already raining.  Apparently this is part of Hurricane Ophelia and is hitting the entire east coast.  Oh well.  This will be a good day to clean the house.

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor for my annual checkup.  Great news.  Everything looks great and I didn't even have to get new glasses.  Dr. Moore said my eyes had changed so little that a new prescription wouldn't be needed.  Yay!

Let's see what else has been going on.  Well, I lost my calendar that I call my life book.  I have EVERYTHING in it.  I write not only reminders and appointments, but phone numbers, receipts, etc.  I had it, called my friend to set up a time to go to her house and help her set up her computer, and then it disappeared.  Yesterday I was sitting on the sofa and felt something hard pressing into my back.  I looked and there it was.  I actually kissed the book.  Funny thing is that I had been sitting in that exact spot for a week and it never showed up.  But I am SO glad to have it back.  Now I can get the paperwork I need to get my tooth pulled.

I have needed to have a tooth extracted since June.  I have seen four dentists who didn't want to do it because of my heart condition.  I could have a heart attack in the chair.  I finally ended up going to the hospital.  They have agreed to do it there because the ER is down the hall from their office.  I am very scared to have it done.  But it is getting worse all the time so I just have to suck it up.

Last weekend Joe and I were in Lancaster County celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary.  I have to write a post on that.  We had the best time ever.  I can't wait to go back.  Hopefully soon.

I really want to write more in here.  I just never seem to have the inclination or to know what to say anymore.  Life is...  well it's life right now.

But it's fall beginning today.  I love summer and fall is a close second because I love all the colors and smells.  But we all know what comes after fall.  My least liked season of the year.  In the meantime, I will enjoy what is going on now.  Except for this awful storm.

I am going to end now and get on with my day.  Hopefully I will be back next week and catch you up with some things.  Hopefully...

Until later.

Kathy

A BUSY DAY

Good morning, friends!  Hope you are having a wonderful day.  I am still in my nightshirt, watching Netflix, and waiting until I can take my next dose of medicine.  I take my thyroid pill, wait an hour, take my high blood pressure and stomach pills, wait 20 minutes, then I can eat and afterwards take my heart pill.  It's a complicated process in the morning.  Some have to be on an empty stomach, some on a full one.  So each morning I get up early and take a couple of hours to just get myself together.  After breakfast I get ready for the day and then do my Bible reading and prayer.  By that time I've usually been up about 3 hours and I'm ready to start the day.

There was so much I wanted to do yesterday, but none of it got done.  So I have to run my errands today even though it is supposed to be the hottest day of the year.  (It was really hot yesterday too.)  Going to the bank and picking up my prescription are the most important, although I want to stop in Lidl's to see what they have.  That may wait for another day though.  Oh, and I also have to pick up my Amazon order at the locker at 7-11 around the corner.  Ever since we had a package stolen from our doorstep, we have been having our items sent to the locker.

I have so much cleaning to do at home.  I'm going through everything and asking myself if I really want to keep this, or can I throw it away or donate it.  Amazing how many things I thought I really needed, but now don't.  Maybe someone else can use them more than I.

I'm also working on cleaning out the kitchen.  I decided that was probably my easiest room to clean and if I get that done, it will spur me on to do more.

I have some reading to get done also.  I have a book I borrowed over a year ago and still haven't gotten to it.  I really need to get it read and give it back.

I think I will now get off of here and get on with my day.  Hope you all have a lovely one.

Until later...

Kathy

 

WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER

 

Hello, friends!  Can you believe it is September already?  How did that happen?  It seems the year just slips on by without any of us noticing it.

September 1 is a special day because it begins the end of the year.  Before we know it, it will be December 31 and another year will begin.  *sigh*   Oh well, we can't stop time.

Every year for the past 10 years or so I have made spareribs for dinner on the first day of September.  This year I couldn't afford them.  I saw the price and gasped.  So, I am breaking with tradition.  I saw a pork roast for $5 on Manger's Special and I got that.  I am going to put barbecue sauce on it and that is going to be dinner.  I need to start the potato salad soon.  Don't know what else I'm going to have, but I'll have something.

It's time to start decorating for fall too.  So much to do.  I have to clean first though.  I don't know how so much junk gets into this house.  As I am going through things, I am asking myself, "Do you want to move this with you?"  Most of the time the answer is no and out it goes.  As I finish decorating, I will take pictures and show you.

I do love fall.  I love the colors.  I love the scents.  I love the flavors.  I just don't love what comes after fall.  So, I am going to soak up today and enjoy it.  Hope you enjoy the first of September too.  What are you doing today?

Until later...

Kathy