Boo

Happy Halloween everyone. I apparently had a little trick played on me early. The post I thought I didn't do was published on the 23rd. I don't know how that happened. I can only blame it on the ghosts that are out to play tricks on unsuspecting people.

So today the work starts on the bathroom. Tomorrow I'll show you the before pictures. That in itself is a little spooky. I just hope there's no tricks when he starts ripping into things.

I'll be hanging out in the dark tonight instead of passing out candy. It's just easier that way. Gibbs would drive me crazy going ballistic every time the door bell rang.

Other than that I've got pictures Amanda sent me in a text message of the pumpkins that Rob carved. Maybe she did some of them too and I'm sure that she'll text me later to correct me and set me straight.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween.

oops

Well it looks like I forgot to do a post for today sorry about that. Be back tomorrow

doodling

I was scrolling through Pinterest the one day and I came across a pin that showed how to draw some Halloween themed pictures. I couldn't help myself I decided to give them a try. Here's a bad picture of the pin I saw . I took a picture of my computer monitor 

And here are my doodles

Fish story

Today I'm going to make a quick jump back to the day Amanda and I went to Kraynaks. When we were walking through the store we were looking at all the ornaments and there was a bunch of fish sitting in this one display. I'm assuming they were there to appeal to someone who wanted a fish themed Christmas tree. I picked one up and Amanda took a picture

Then she told me but don't make that face. Well if you know me you know that only made me want to make a worse face

And this last one because I just couldn't help myself

big delivery

So a while back I posted about my plumbing issues in the bathroom. He's been here three times changed and fixed certain things but still my issue continues. The problem is the plumbing inside the wall which he can't get to. I had two choices I could do a cheaper redneck thing or bite the bullet and have him rip out the whole tub. After getting an estimate, I decided that I would invest the money and have it done right. I'm going with a walk-in shower instead of a tub this time because that's just what I prefer. Monday he came over and dropped it off and then next Monday he'll be starting the work

Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. he'll be ripping into my bathroom. The work is supposed to take about 3 days so I'm taking off Tuesday and Wednesday too. It's a bit scary spending the money but I'm also pretty excited. I'll be showing before and after pictures later. 

Pioneer Woman Wednesday

The Pioneer Woman has plenty of stuff for the kitchen. She has things for the bedroom and throws and pillows for the living room. Now, she's moving into the bathroom. 

Speaking of the bathroom, come back tomorrow to find out what I'm doing in the bathroom next week. Please don't be scared by that last statement. 

Little trees, big Santa

After looking at all the displays at Kraynaks, we headed out into the store and did some browsing. One of my favorite pictures from the day was this one that I took of a bunch of little bottle brush trees they had for sale

There was no shortage of Santas. Wouldn't this one look fabulous on a front porch? I didn't look at the price tag on him but I'm sure he was no in my budget.

The reason for the season.

The last display at Kraynaks is always one that depicts the religious side of the holiday.

fall foliage

The day that Amanda and I went to Kraynaks, I drove, she snapped pictures of the fall foliage. 

All aboard.

Santa has his train all packed up and ready to go.

The woodland animals are gathered round the camp fire roasting marshmallows.

Mrs. Claus looks on to make sure Santa heads out on time.

And the elves are always there to help.

Not what I intended

 Today I wanted to show you a video I took of the Christmas village amusement park rides. If money were no object, I would be adding these to my village. Any way, for some reason the video uploads to youtube as a short and it doesn't give me an embed code to post it here.

I'm posting the link to the video on my youtube channel but I can't guarantee that it will work.

https://youtube.com/shorts/8PHXWxut7cw?feature=share

Amanda says

I got a couple text messages from Amanda yesterday morning and I decided to share them since they are regarding Kraynaks. 

The first text message

I think you should explain to ppl that Kraynaks has always had Santas Christmas land open in September due to the popularity. By November the lines reach out the stores doors to see it. As soon as Christmas ends they start on Easter bunny lane and then as soon as Easter is over with they start with Santas Christmas land. (I just see a few ppl saying stuff about it being early and the marketing thing). 

 

The next text message

This is from the website.

From September 10th thru December 31st, Imagine a world of make-believe with twinkling lights, glittering trees, and a magical array of life-like characters.”Santa’s Christmas Land” is a 300-foot, indoor starlight avenue of uniquely designed artificial Christmas trees. Each tree has a specific theme that is enhanced and complimented by surrounding scenery and a cast of life-like animated characters. 

let it snow

Yesterday morning when I went to my car to go to work, there was snow on the roof and the windshield. I think it's only appropriate that today I show you the snowmen in some of the displays at Kraynaks

?

The dogs of Christmas.

 There was no shortage of dogs in this display. I loved how all their heads moved. I've included a short video.

And some pictures as well.

Are you ready for this?

Because I took a ton of pictures when Amanda and I went to Kraynaks I have to break this down into several posts. Not only do I have the pictures I took, but I also have pictures that Amanda sent me. Okay so let's get started here's the entrance

 

When you first walk in and look to your left.

And when you look to your right.

The first few were decorated like stores. I liked this dress on the mannequin. The top of it was all poinsettias.  

Come back tomorrow to see Christmas going to the dogs.

But first

I know, I know. I said I was going to start showing you some of the Christmas displays we saw. The thing is, I did that cake order yesterday at work, I wanted to post that and get it out of the way. Well I got the cake frosted put the border on did the writing and was drawing the vines on and suddenly my bag farted and left a big green blob right on my cake

 

All was not lost. I just covered that blob up with flowers

  

I didn't put the star on the cake because if I did I wouldn't have been able to put the lid on the cake container. I gave that to them separately.  The lady who picked it up said it looked great and thanked me so I guess she was satisfied. 

it was a fun day

Yesterday with Amanda was a really fun day. We were gone most of the day and by the time I got home I really wasn't in the mood to get pictures ready for a post. I've got one just as a teaser

We headed to Kraynaks in Hermitage, Pa. again. This time it was for their Christmas display. You may remember when I posted the last time we went there which was for the Easter display. I know it's a bit early for Christmas but I took a ton of pictures so lots of blog material

Say what?

Yesterday morning I was on my way to work. There is one stop light in our little town. There was a car in front of me, the light was red and they had their left turn signal on. As I was sitting there I noticed that the license plate was rather crooked. The next thing I know they made their left turn while the light was still red. Really? Are you kidding me?

I told you yesterday that I had talked to the ex-husband. My phone rang, I answered it, said hello and the next thing I hear is hi this is your ex husband. Really? Are you kidding me? We were married for 21 years I'm pretty sure I know what his voice sounds like there was no need to identify himself.

Wednesday I got to work and the floors were as dirty as they were when I left on Tuesday. I left a note for the girl who closed on Tuesday night telling her that the floors needed to be mopped every night. I also told her that there was no way she could make me believe that she mopped the floors. I ended the note with don't make me come back to have this discussion with you. Thursday morning the floors were clean. I thought my note had worked until I went in Friday morning and saw that once again the floors were dirty. Really? Are you kidding me?

Anni asked yesterday why I don't like doing a full sheet cake. Well, they're big, they take me a lot longer to do than the 1/4 and 1/2 sheet cakes do. For some reason it takes me forever to frost them. I keep fussing with getting the icing smoothed out on the top of them. 

TGIF

 For some reason this has been an incredibly long week. I am so glad that it's finally Friday and I have a day off tomorrow. I have plans with Amanda for a fun day out.

As for yesterday's post, I have a few things to add. Just to clarify, this was the ex husbands name on the letter along with his wife. This didn't come in Wade's name. The other thing, I did actually speak to the ex. Amanda got a hold of him and had him call me. He did in fact refinance a loan he had to get a lower rate. How they had my address on this letter is still a bit of a mystery. Any way, should anything more come you can bet that I will be right back on the phone.

I've been meaning to call and make an appointment with the dentist. I've had this temporary denture for several months now and I think it might be time to go for the permanent one. I keep forgetting to make the call. Yesterday they called me to see if I might be ready. So now I have an appointment on Monday. 

Sunday I'll finally be doing that cake order that I made the star for. It'll be nice to get that out of the way. For some reason I'm just not looking forward to doing it. I think because it's a full sheet cake and I hate doing full sheet cakes.

Since today is simply random, I went to the archives and picked a totally random pictures. Does anyone remember when I was doing the index card art? This was one of them. They were rather fun to do.

Even the dog looks at me like I've lost my last marble.

Well that was odd.

 I got a letter in the mail yesterday from Northwest Bank. I opened it without paying much attention. When I opened it I realized it was address to my ex husband and his wife. It was in regards to their loan and had a due day for their first payment of 11/04/2022.

Being a little concerned, I went online to the banks website to get a customer service number. I didn't trust the one in the letter. Turned out to be the same one. I called customer service and explained the letter and told her that we have been divorce for over 20  years. She looked in her computer, said she had MY address and said they're going to be wondering where their statements are. She asked if I was able to get in contact with him at all. I said no but I could contact my daughter and have her get a hold of him. 

Now that I think of it though, they should have had his phone number. The whole thing was just odd.

Pioneer Woman Wednesday

I'm beginning to think that the Pioneer Woman will put her name on just about anything. I saw these when I was at Walmart the other day

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