SoMe PrOjEcTs & HoW wElL dO yOu KnOw SoMeOnE?

WOW...I can't believe how long it has been.
I am so sorry that I have been away for such a long time BUT I have been kept quite busy with some projects, Spring Cleaning and the death of my Uncle. Every so often though I did pop in to check up on you ladies to see what was new.

We had a beautiful sunny weekend BUT boy is it cold out there today. And they are not calling for Summer like temperatures at all this week. We are only going to be getting +6, 9 and 11. BUT my flowers are growing so that is encouraging. I got a chance on Saturday to work a bit in the flower beds...cleaning them up and weeding.
I can't wait to see them all in bloom...

Like I mentioned, some Spring Cleaning did get done. I went through all of Abigayle's clothes to see what still fit her and what not. I filled one large black garbage bag full. That child grows like a bad weed...LOL. The doctors claim she will be a 6' tall girl, she definitely will not take after her Mommy :) And you know I believe them. She is the tallest in her class...even taller then all the boys. That's OK...I tell Tabitha she will be the one to reach all the high things for us...LOL. I then cleaned out my cupboards, medicine cabinets and closets. Feels good to get rid of things that I no longer need. And looks good when you open the doors and see organization.

I also kept myself busy with some redo's. I had these candle holders for well over 15 years and decided they needed a fresh new look. I love how they turned out and I separated one set. Here is one on my bread board on the stove...but knowing me, I am sure they will find new homes.
The other found a home in the dining room on my other bread board. I am not liking this display as much so of course there will be more rearranging :) I still haven't made my pantry cakes but am thinking they might get done later this week.
The other set I placed on top of my shelf...
I then re-did this little shelf that hangs in my half bath. It use to be country blue and since I have a couple pieces painted in barn red I thought it would look good with a fresh look.
I also had my Dad's neighbor build me a couple pieces of furniture, like this beautiful table.
He does such wonderful work and charges next to nothing to make them. This little table cost me $40...better then paying full price in a Prim Shop. So of course today I got busy painting, sanding and staining it. And all I can say is WOW!!! I LOVE how it turned out...
This is where it will sit. I haven't got it decorated yet because the stain is still really sticky. So once it is dry I will take another picture of it with the lamp that has been stored awaiting for it's home :) And since I am putting the table here, I had to move a few things around. Like this light in the box, I could not keep it there since a lamp will be on the table. So I moved it over to my husbands desk.
It hides a bit from hubby's computer screen but I think it looks good here. Look at all those wires on the floor. They drive me insane!!! But since we no longer need the heat on, I will try to hide them better. And then since where my chair sits, with the table and bench I no longer had room for my candle stand. So I moved it over by hubby's desk and my antique one.
It doesn't mean it will stay there but for the time being this is where it will go. And if you look closer or enlarge the picture you can see 5 different spoons sitting with my cutting boards. I went to the Dollarstore and saw these packages of spoons unfinished. I thought how easy is it to paint them up and display them. Hubby was suppose to build me a spoon rack on his day off (Wednesdays) but due to certain circumstances he hasn't gotten to it yet. But I know he will get it done when he gets a chance. So until then, this is where they will sit.

The other piece of furniture is this dry sink. BUT my oh my did he build it really big. It's almost 5' high...too high for me. And it is also to wide to put where I had intentions. And since my Dad delivered these things to me this morning, I felt to bad to ask his neighbor to cut it down. So this Wednesday, Mike's job will shrinking it down a bit so I will be able to put it on my front porch with my Summer decorations. He charged me only $50 for it. I see these sell for well over $200 in the Prim Shops...so you can bet I was really excited.
I will paint and distress this piece in a green color. I can't wait to get it finished and displayed. It will look so nice! He is also building me a dog dish...well it will hold Daisy's dog dishes but he didn't get it finished yet. Once I receive it and get it all painted I will make sure to post a picture. Since everything else in the house is all so prim...I thought Daisy's dished needed to be also :)

Then yesterday hubby and I went shopping for stains because our deck needs to be re-done again. And since we need to redo it, I thought how nice it would be in a color. I chose a nice green color for it. I know, your all thinking green...RIGHT? But wait and see the color...I LOVE IT! But the guy at the store was really nice because he told us that the stain will be going on sale within the next few weeks so we should wait till then. He also recommended that it's not a good idea to stain in these cool temperatures because the stain doesn't penetrate as good. Now that is what I call Excellent Customer Service. He was so helpful and really knew his stuff because we were also looking at that 1-2-3 Rock Sealer step. He recommended in our area it was not a good idea because of the quantities of salt that is used in the Winter. I wanted to redo my front porch because that one is made of cement. But it takes a good 5 days to do all the steps and when Winter comes the salt will just ruin it anyways. So he recommended for us to use the color paint stain. It will penetrate really good in the cement and last ALOT longer. So now here I sit looking at all the paint chips trying to decide which color to go with. Decisions...decisions...but boy is it fun. And then this week or next we should be getting our new front door, this is well over due. The old one has had the buns. When it is closed you can still see outside...many cracks. I know this was not good for the Winter months...imagine all the heat we were loosing? I wanted to go with a color door but could not decide on one and then thought I will not be staying here forever so it was best to put a white door that I knew would not turn people off. So now I can't wait! We will have plenty to do for the next month to come but so looking forward to it. It will be nice to have a fresh new look in front of the house and out back. And then with all the flowers in bloom it will be soooo nice.

WOW!!! I guess this turned out to be a pretty long post...but please bare with me, I almost done.

One of the main reasons I have been away for so long was because of my Uncle Romeo. Sadly he passed away one week ago yesterday, April 19th. We had his wake on Tuesday and funeral Wednesday. That poor man suffered for two very long weeks. Every couple of days, the Doctors would tell us that he had only 24 hours to live. But something kept him going and we all did not know what. He amazed the Doctors and they could not explain what was keeping him going. His sister...my Aunt, her husband and his two kids never left his bedside for those two full weeks. They would eat, shower and sleep at the hospital right in his room. It was so nice to see everyone pull together for such a sad time. But my Uncle was very grateful to see all of his brothers, sisters, In-laws, Mother and children by his bedside. He thanked everyone for coming. I am so touched because when his children arrived from the airport and walked into his room, his eyes twinkled. I will never forget that...

I was really worried about my 97 year old Grandmother. I was so scared to see what this would do to her. You know, I am not ready to loose her yet. I know she is 97, but that is my second Mom. All she kept saying was why did God not come and get me instead of him? It has to be so hard to see one of your children go before you. I pray that I never have to go through this. But you know, my grandmother did really well. She remained very strong. But I truly think what helped had to due with the language barrier. You see Gram does not speak nor understand English and my Uncle's funeral was all in English. So Grammy did not understand a thing the Priest was saying. So I truly believe this made the funeral alot easier for her.

Now to the title of my blog...
At his funeral my Uncle who helped in taking care of him said the eulogy. It really makes you think..."How well do you know someone?" You may think you know someone really well, like no one else knows my husband like I do but do I really know him? I did not know that Uncle Romeo was a clock collector. I guess he had well over 120 clocks and they were all set at the exact same time. Imagine that? My Uncle then went on to say some really nice things about Uncle Romeo that I truly did not know. I learned alot about him that day. But what was most important was that Uncle Romeo kept asking the family to give just 10 minutes of alone time. But no one would really give him that 10 minutes that he wanted. When the family would step out of the room, the nurses or doctors would enter. Then finally that Sunday morning, the family decided that maybe Uncle Romeo was holding on because he did not want to die in front of them. So everyone decided to step out and go for brunch. Within 15 minutes from the time they left the hospital, their cell phone rang and it was the nurse. My Uncle passed away at 11:15am. He kept asking for those 10 minutes because he wanted to die alone. They all thought that he wanted them by his bedside for when the time came but he really wanted to be alone.

So how well do you know your husband, mother, father and everyone else? A thought I will leave with you...

I dedicate this post to my Uncle Romeo...
You may now rest in piece and be with the Angels.
1942 - 2009