OCTOBER 2018

                        

WHAT in the world? I mean is it really fall already?  OCTOBER??

What happened to AUGUST and SEPTEMBER?? First for me to miss two whole
months without a post here. I guess there really isn't much going on and much traffic to read blogs any more at least for me anyway. 
I have been busy doing the fall clean up of the closets and getting rid of things that I no longer use. Guess I have been doing that most of the summer. It's been a long hot summer here and now even in to OCTOBER we are soaring with almost 90 degree weather here. It is breaking records..I cannot recall such a crazy summer and fall. 

ANYWAY.. I had a friend come and visit me and was able to go and do some shopping and see what was new in the big stores out of town. Living in an apt building there is plenty of coming and going, but here we pretty much mind our own business. The biggest excitement is leaving to shop.😁 The styles surprised me.. they all looked like the 70's. Guess I should watch more QVC or something on tv. The paisley patterns, vests and even some bell bottom pants. I felt like it was a dream. I remember when wearing high heel shoes with JEANS or pants was TABOO.. NO way.. Now it is a fashion statement.. crazy world. 😇I can find all kinds of bargains at the local Goodwill store. I love that place. Make a wish list and sooner or later you will find what you need. Got a nice air purifier cheap. I was thrilled. My niece brought me her old air fryer and so I am now looking for pans etc that will fit inside it. It is just the right size for me. I love using it, just have to practice more. 

I had a good friend of mine move to Florida this summer.😢 Sure miss her being around but she was tired of the cold and the snow and decided to make a change. OKAY, here comes a hurricane.🌀🌀 She is not directly in the path but may get some wind etc..they are battening down the place just in case. I am sure praying for all those who might be affected by this one. Glad I am staying in Michigan, I feel pretty safe here. No earthquakes or fires or hurricanes. We might get a tornado, but that is pretty rare also. 

Well wherever you are, hope your fall is a good and safe one. 
  

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY...

JULY came in blazing, made me miss those cold freezing days this past winter.  Sure we complained on how cold it was, but we could keep warm. Keeping cool is harder I think. Dealing with this humidity and heat has been hard. I have barely left my place for days now. Just too hard to breathe it. People with upper respiratory problems really struggle with it. Can't wait for the cool off. Sure do dread my electric bill it will be a whopper. We have had little rain here, the grass is brown and the flower beds are suffering. I noticed that the morning glories I planted last year did NOT come back like I thought they would. Lack of water I am guessing. The management took the hoses away here because other tenants were using them to cool off their children with water slides and pools, breaking the tenant agreements they signed. They are lucky they did not get evicted instead of a warning. Some do spoil it for others. The plants suffer. Too hard to carry buckets of water to keep them going. Not much happening here but I sure hope you all 

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

MAY 2018

                                           

Goodness it has been a while since I stopped by here and blogged. Life gets busy I guess. We had cold weather into April and some places got SNOW. I thought that Spring would never get here and then we had NO Spring to speak of, it went straight into Summer. 
It feels like JULY or AUGUST already. We are breaking records for heat, as are other places in the USA.  I got my AC put in just in time. 

      Earlier this month, my niece's daughter turned one.. my how the time flew by, she is almost walking on her own and saying words and answering us. Growing up so fast.                                  

                                  

I have been spring cleaning all the closets and getting rid of clutter.  Finding things that I totally forgot I had and things that I surely  don't need any more. Our town has a brand new very large Goodwill store, so I have donated a lot of it.  There is  now room for me to collect more.. The cycle returns.. LOL  Can't pass up a great deal..no way. 

Well, whatever you are doing this Spring, Summer, I sure hope you have fun doing it 

IS IT REALLY SPRING???

APRIL 2018   IS IT REALLY SPRING?

                                           

                                                                             

A lot of people all over the country are asking that very question. 
Blizzards in April..cold winds and day after day of below normal temperatures.
The calendar says Spring but mother nature has different ideas. Just means to me that those trees and flowers are going to be blooming later in my neck of the woods and our summer will either be long or really really short, I hope for the long one. 
All I know is I sure don't want another repeat of this winter. I am looking forward to warm breezes, sun and spring flowers. It might be in MAY or June but it will come eventually. Hope where you are things are warm and you are enjoying it! 

BEFORE GOING HOME...

                                     

HOME...in my long journey to get there, I landed in several different cities, places, and situations. One was a tiny apartment that smelled like smoke and cats. No telling who lived there before me, but I was so glad just to be there for awhile. It lasted 4 months.I went out of state for a few weeks to check some jobs and places out. That lasted 3 weeks. I stayed with a friend for 4 months near the lake and that was a joy. I had no money to contribute much to bills and such and felt it a burden to stay on. I filled in many many applications and could not find work so I left there with an offer to stay with my sister. That was when the nightmare began. 

I HAD no idea what I was getting into. Sister had a large home full of "stuff". My mother's stuff,some of my stuff, her stuff. It ended up being rooms full of stuff. She
had many rooms sealed off and there was little heat. I stayed in my clothes and coat and slept in a chair in the living room for three days. When I got tired I would go upstairs and sleep in her bed when she got up. I would stay up there and try to move things around in the other room so I could put a bed in there. On the fourth night I had had enough. I made a call to social services to get some help. I used her car to go get some information the next day. When I got back home, there was a bed in the bedroom and I could finally make a space to rest. Social service could put me in a motel for awhile, but the ones in my town were not that good and one was actually dangerous.Sis figured she might get into trouble, so she moved the bed in the room while I was gone.  So I called them and told them I had decided to stay there. 

                               

                  

WHAT we didn't know was that Sis was getting sick. Very sick. I would be needed to help her out and was glad I was there to help. 

 I am a believer that you are where you are supposed to be. I don't question it. 

SO I stayed there at least 3 years. Three LONG years. I had my applications in for apartments and just waited. It was all I could do. I was sick so much of the time, that I could not work. I just did not have the energy to do it. I was looking for an apartment with a "voucher" attached so I could get a section 8 break.Those are so hard to find and with my income I just had to wait.  I got offers to leave there several times for visits with others for awhile. I took them gladly. When I would leave it was like a whole new world. Space, and I could breathe. I hated to go back, but knew I had to. I was beyond thrilled to get the call about the apartment. The ordeal where I was, made me feel like I had been so restricted. I was finally able to wake up from the nightmare and move on.  BUT NOT YET... 
                               

                   

                                             
 In the meantime, Sis had to go on STEROIDS. They changed her, and the sister I knew was no longer. She gained weight rapidly and was so easy to irritate that the cat and I gave her all the room she needed to try to deal. I hope I NEVER have to deal with that stuff EVER.  Several years later my sister is still not the person she was, it is a sad thing. Many trips to doctors and being transferred to larger hospitals helped find what was wrong with her. Her life changed drastically. She was forced to go on disability and stop working, she had been working since she was 18. So as she lingered there in the ICU I got the call for the apartment. I told her I would take it sight unseen. I had to wait to see if Sis was going to recover well. She had many appointments and could not drive.
                                

                    

 I had to wait and that was hard. It was in another town 15 min away. I chose the town because I had no car and could use the transit bus to go out.  It was July and it was hot. A nice older lady had lived in the apartment for  24 years. She was transferred to a nursing facility and that gave the manager time to give the apt a makeover. ALL new everything. It was a real blessing. 
I took the keys and had to get directions on how to get to the place.It was like buying a car or a house sight unseen. I did not know the city well and did not know where to go.  I opened the door and was smacked in the face with the odor of fresh paint, fresh carpet and linoleum. The maintenance man was there still painting. He said I would have to wait til the paint "cured" some. In the heat of the day the smell was overwhelming and I could hardly breathe. There was NO air conditioning. I was so relieved that this new "home" was light, bright, and CLEAN!! I sat in the car and wept. How blessed I was to get this wonderful place, I hated to leave it but had to. Over the next month Sis improved and I began to move things from where I was to the apt. I had to start over. I had no dishes, no pots, no glasses. No furniture only a blow up mattress, two folding chairs and a folding table. I made a list and shopped the Goodwill  and the dollar store for items. It was a long time before I felt like the place was really mine. Sometimes I would wake up and be relieved it was not all a dream. 
It really does take time to make yourself a HOME.. mine has been a real pleasure more than most know.