SISTERS' WEEK -- DAY ONE (SATURDAY)

I may be on vacation today, but it wasn't much different than any other Saturday.  I began by doing a load of wash and then picking up Debbie and we went food shopping.  She came home with me, helped me to unpack things.  Then we attacked the kitchen.

Yes, it's cleaning day at Kathy and Joe's.  I'm still working on it, but most of the kitchen is now scrubbed, smelling lemony and looking great.  The rest of the house?  Ah...  well now that's a different story.  I'm working on that.  Give me time.

But time is something I don't have a lot of because my sister Elaine will be here tomorrow.  Catch 22.

I'm having difficulty because my back and legs are bothering me today.  I had to inherit my dad's family's back.  My brother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins all have the same problem with their back and legs.  It's not fun.

So just checking in while I take a little break.  I'm heading out to make dinner.  I'm having a honey/maple ham steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.  Yum.  Then it's back to work.  It will get done.  I just have to pace myself.

High 86 degrees at 3:05 p.m. -- Mostly cloudy.

IT'S FINALLY HERE

Well I made it.  I am finally on vacation.  It feels great to know that I have a whole week where I don't have to go in to work.  It feels horrible to know I need to clean the whole house in one day -- today.  I will just do the best I can and that is all I can do.  Tomorrow is my sister's birthday and she is coming to stay with me for a few days so I want things looking, smelling, and BEING good.  She is allergic to my cat and I am allergic to her dog so we never spend a huge amount of time at each other's houses, but we don't stay away from each other either.

Today was an easy day at work.  Boss took off today to go down to his shore house.  Must be nice.  Well, it was nice for us.  I got just about everything done.  The couple of things I have left Diane has offered to do for me next week while I am off.

I borrowed some pictures from my cousin Rich that he took after the funeral on Monday.  I thought I would show you my extended family.  Here are my Uncle Nick's children:

Butch and Debbie.  Debbie is the cousin next to me in the grandkids list.  She is 10 months younger than me and 9 months older than my sister.

My cousin Butch is the middle kid.

And my cousin Essie is the "baby".

This is my Aunt Sis -- my dad's sister.  She lives in Florida so this is only the second time I have ever seen her.

 I don't have a picture of my Aunt Alice or Aunt Sandy.  Since Joe and I did not go to Butch's house after the cemetary and I was not taking pictures at the funeral, I didn't get them.  I will have to make sure I get some.  Hopefully I will see Aunt Alice this week.  We found we live really near each other and want to stay in touch.

So for the first day of Sisters' Week I will be food shopping, cleaning, doing wash and generally being busy.  But it will all be worth it for the rest of the week.  I'll be checking in and hope you enjoy my "travels".

Until later.... 

Friday -- Partly cloudy.  High of 83 degrees at 2:25 p.m.

BACK TO WORK

I returned to work on Tuesday.  It was a mad house.  So busy and not enough people to take care of everyone.  We were running.  I will be so glad when the need to send someone to McPherson Square is over.  Hopefully it will be just another two months.  Yesterday was a little better.  I am starting to get caught up on things.

I told you that I would show you the cute little lamp I bought.  Here it is.

I turned it on tonight and it is almost 2 a.m. and it's still burning.  It looks great from the outside too.

I also got new flowers for the outside pot.  They are looking nice.

And I also got a new welcome mat for the front door.  The outside of the house is now all spruced up.

I stopped at Shop Rite on the way home.  I have almost nothing in the house to eat.  So I just bought some things for dinner for last night and tonight.  Then I stopped at Dollar Tree because I hadn't bought enough flowers for the pot.  When I got out of the car I was amazed at the clouds, so I got a shot of that.  They look like a stripe across the sky.  So pretty.

Well, here it is Thursday.  Just two more days until vacation.  Boy do I need it.  I just hope I can get everything done around the house that I need to before Sunday.  I keep coming home from work and falling asleep on the sofa.  That's what happened again tonight.  I just woke up, will do a few things and then go back to sleep.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

Hope you have a great day today.  I'll be back later.

Wednesday -- sunny, high of 81 degrees at 9:45 a.m.