End of 2013

Today is the last day of 2013.  What a year it has been.  It the past year I have changed companies, had my 60th birthday,  had shoulder surgery, sold a house, moved to an apartment and started building a new house.  And those are just the big items.  There were many other smaller but equally important events.  Looking back I think 2013 was a good year.  I am thankful for so many things.  First and foremost I had Elizabeth in my life.  She helped me celebrate the good times and comfort me in the trying times.  I could not have done as much without her love, support and guidance.  She is my rock and my conscience.  I know I can always talk to her and she will help me see things clearly.  It may not always be what I want but it is always what I need.  Elizabeth, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you.

Things are moving with the house.  The construction has started and it looks more and more like a real house each day.  Here is the latest picture.

That of course is Elizabeth standing in front of the garage.  As you can see we also have the driveway poured.

 

I am also thankful for good health.  While I still have to keep on top of things and take medicine, my system was in remission all year.  The shoulder is still recovering but seems to be fine.  I still need to work on range of motion.

 

At work things are starting to clarify.  I have gotten to know the way our new owner does business.  We are also in a much different place there during previous owner changes and we have been through several.  Not to boast but we have retirement money set aside and invested.  I also have very marketable skills and experience.  People who I use to work with that have left the company have had no problem finding new work.  If I had to leave I am confident I could have a new jobs within days if I wanted.

 

We have had some challenges this past year.  Elizabeth has had several health problems we had to work though including a pretty serious case of flu.  But even those seem to be under control and we have a plan for moving forward.

 

It has been a long year with Bryan in Korea.  He will be leaving there in just a few days.  It will be so good to see him again. 

 

While it was a year of growth and for the most part improvement in my relationship with my daughter, unfortunately I end the year on a sour note with her.  There are a number of reasons for this but it does make me sad.  Looking back I am comfortable that I did the right thing for me and my family.

 

All in all 2013 was a pretty good year.  Tomorrow I hope to post a look forward.

 

I hope all who read this have a Happy New Year's.  I expect Elizabeth and I will be sound asleep when 2014 rolls in.

Merry Christmas

We have had a wonderful couple of days.  On Christmas Eve we had our family celebration.  It was a small gathering this year.  Joining Elizabeth and I were my daughter-in-law, her son and my two grandsons.  My son is currently in Korea.  He did join us via Skype.  It was 4 AM there so he was just getting up.  We open gifts and had some snacks.  Also joining us was a very good family friend.  Here is the group.

That evening I had the last of my Advent Treats.  Rather than have an Advent Calendar, Elizabeth made one of these little packages for each day of December until Christmas Eve.  Each had a sweet inside.  Some had M&Ms some had mints.

That evening we turned on our lights for the last time.  Here is the outside of our little apartment.

On Christmas morning I got up and went to 8:30 Mass.  Elizabeth stayed home.  When I got home we ate breakfast then opened our presents.  Here are pictures of Elizabeth's gifts and mine.

 

Candi loves to help unwrap gifts.  She loves to just rip the paper.  Her is her standing in the middle of her work.

 



Santa was very good to me.  I got mostly clothes, a pair of shoes and some other goodies.  I got a new wallet, which I very much needed.  In it was some money.  Elizabeth was it was tradition to put money in a gift wallet for luck.  I never hear that before but I like it.  Elizabeth also got mostly clothes.  She also got some new pearls.  I really liked these as they are different colors.  Here are pictures of her and our little family.

 

 

After gift it was time to take down the tree and decorations and move it all to storage.  The apartment is just too small to give floor space to a tree.  We are ready to start 2014 as it will be a great year for us.

We wish all who read this a very Merry Christmas.

We have a house!!! (sort of)

Our new house is another step closer to reality.  Today they delivered the frame pieces.  They are actually built off site and then delivered to the construction site and erected.  Here a picture of Elizabeth standing in front of the house.

 

Here is a picture of Elizabeth with "Santa"   He does not look like Santa but he brought us a wonderful gift.

 

 

We are so excited!!!

 

How fast can I go?

I saw this speed limit sign while riding.  It has been a while since I took Driver's Ed or read a driver's manual so I may not be knowledgeable of the most recent changes.  How fast can I go?  The picture is of the sign as it actually exists.  It has not been retouched in any way.

Foundation

Our new house has a floor!!!!  On Thursday the foundation was poured.  In this part of the world the water table is too high to allow house to have basement so our house will be built on a slab.  It is the first actual part of the structure to be built.  On Monday the building material itself it to be delivered.

December 15

What in the world have we been doing?  Well here is an update.

First of all construction on the new house is progressing.  Slowly but we are seeing some progress.  We drive by our lot seemingly every day.  Currently the builder has cleared the lot, set the form boards for the foundation and put in the underground plumbing.  Yesterday they were putting the rebar in place.  Since the weather forecast for the first part of the week is sunny, we hope to get the foundation poured this week.  We also discovered that a house being built across the street and down several lots is the same floor plan as our house.  That house is about a month ahead of us in construction.  We are excited as Elizabeth did not visit the model with me and has never actually seen what will be our new house.  She has seen other models and the floor plan but this will help it become more real.  She is busy planning decorations.  My biggest challenge is holding her back until we actually see our new house when it is finished.  We need to see all of the colors before we select any new furniture and decorations.  Here are some pictures.

 

Last week end our new town had their Christmas parade.  Typical small town America.  The parade included floats and marching bands.  Also represented were groups like scouts, JROTC and high school cheer leaders.  There was also a group from of "Grannies" from the local nursing home.  It was a very cold night to be standing outside so afterwards we stopped at Starbucks for some hot chocolate.

 

 

 

Yesterday the local historical society had a home tour.  When we moved here we decided to get involved.  One thing we did was join the historical society.  We served as greeter and guide for one of the homes.  After we did our work we toured the other homes.  It was also the week end of airing the quilts.

 

 



As we were driving we passed a store that had Santa Cow out front.  We had to stop so Elizabeth could tell Santa Cow that she has been a very good girl this year.

 

 

By the time we got home we were beat.  We had supper, took Candi for her nightly walk and call it a day.  Today we plan to attend the Nutcracker as performed by the local ballet society.

 

Normally I take the last two weeks of the year off as vacation but this year I have too much to work still to do.  We do plan to take a couple of half days.  Tomorrow afternoon we will head to the local mall to finish Christmas shopping.  Then on Friday we will start the end of year vacation at noon.  We are very much looking forward to some time off.



Construction Update

We have some real progress on our new house!!!  We drove past it today, Dec 1, and the forms are in place.  This is the first real physical step in the building of our new house.  Needless to say we are very excited.  Here is a picture of Elizabeth standing on what will become the front porch.

 

We continue to get settled into our temporary quarters.  We have developed a little routine.  The mail gets delivered very late, sometimes after 7 in the evening.  So after supper I take Candi on her "woe" walk to get the mail.  We call it a woe walk as she tells me all her woes for the day.

Elizabeth is still recovering from the flu.  She was very sick for about a week and is still quite weak.  But she is getting better.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving.

This was an unusual year it that it was just our little family.  We typically invite a number of friends who would otherwise be alone but with Elizabeth being sick and us in the apartment not this year.  Sorry Steve and Sid.  Hope you guys found somewhere else to go.  We had the typical meal just a smaller version.  For example rather than a roast turkey we had a roasted turkey breast. It was delicious.

After eating we got some Christmas decorations out including the tree.

Does that tree look like it is leaning?

Right now it is about 6 on Sunday evening.  Almost time to eat and close out a wonderful week end.