Monday night I couldn’t sleep my knee was bothering me all night. Then on Tuesday it felt even worse. It felt like a muscle pain and I was worried I may have torn something. Jeff had a half day on Tuesday because we had a guy come out to look at our crawlspace and driveway.

We were worried about mold in our crawlspace because it gets wet down there since it’s just dirt. The guy said it was wet and we need to take care of that of course with their system. Jeff and I before he came over estimated how much it would be and he blew past both of them. It’s a hell of a lot of money! I felt like passing out when he told us. And that didn’t include jacking up our driveway.

You know me I am clumsy! I tripped and fell a month ago on our driveway going into our garage. I have a nice scar where I fell on my leg. Our driveway is uneven and it sank by the garage door. That is where I tripped and fell. We had talked about jacking it up so it’s even. Jeff and I estimated how much that would cost as well and he blew past that as well.  For both things to be done it was around twelve thousands dollars because you know I have that laying around. Twelve thousands dollars! That is when I pass out because that is insane! Have to think of something else to do with our crawlspace and something else with the driveway.

A weekend ago I hurt my knee mowing the lawn. It was getting better I thought but Monday night it was being painful. I felt it a little on Sunday and just thought it would go away. Wrong! I called the doctor which I so hate doing! I don’t know what it is but Theda Care has gone down in customer service over the year. The lady told me to go to the ER or go to the walk in clinic. I said which one should I do. She said ER would be the fastest. I told Jeff we got to go after our appointment as it’s my right knee and it hurts to drive with it. He said no we are going to the walk in clinic which I am glad we did. It was fast as I was the only one there.

I had a great doctor! I never know what I am going to get but she was great! I had to get a couple of x-rays. I never had two people do x-rays before. They sucked! Everyone knows getting an x-ray of a part of the body that hurts it’s going to hurt. But these two people where really hurting me to take x-rays of my knee. I told them so. I asked if they could be more gentle they both looked at me like I am nuts! So I just bared it as they put my knee ever which way. I didn’t but I felt like crying when I was done with x-rays.

Found out I sprained a muscle in my knee. Painful! The doctor gave me some painkillers and told me iced it, bandage it and try not to do so much on it for a couple of weeks. It sucks! It’s summer I want to go do things.

I feel like I can’t win this summer for some reason.

This week was a four day weekend. We didn’t have time off though it was hard work! That is why blog I am really slacking on writing you this Monday. Feel tired and my legs are sore.

Thursday Jeff’s friend Derek came over. We had a bunch of wood left over from the winter that we don’t need now that we have a pellet stove. Jeff told him if he wants that wood he can have it in trade for cutting down some of our stumps so I can mow them over. Then he says I will take any trees you don’t want too. Deal!

Anyway Derek’s wife came too. She is a small woman and wow is she strong! Way stronger then me. What I thought was funny is I was watching Derek cut down the stumps in our yard. I never see that done before so I was curious. His wife Courtney I think she thought I was checking out Derek. Which is too funny! First of all not attractive to me at all. He to me is very young looking. I think he is either twenty five or six but he looks nineteen. I don’t really dig guys that look that young. Funny towards the last stump she come over and says “Hey babe! Are you almost done?” She said babe louder then the chainsaw and looked at me. In my mind I was laughing. He stopped to say he was. She put her hands on her hips and swayed and smiled at him. I was trying hard not to laugh. It’s funny to spot those things.

Our bathroom is coming along. We have to do our bathroom in chunk because of money but it’s getting there.

Can’t tell but that floor is one piece but looks like tile. Easy to install and easier to clean.

Sunday was father’s day and we made lunch. Jeff made dessert and I made Indian tacos. Had to get up early to make dough then fry them. But it was a good day and we had fun. We bought a snowblower off my dad and we gave Jeff’s dad the snowblower. We gave my dad a gift certificate to a place that puts VHS tapes on a flash drive. My dad has some old home movies that he wanted transferred.

Last week my friend Helen said that knitting makes her happy and also playing music. That got me thinking what do I do that makes me happy?

I like writing in my blog. It makes me happy. Why? Because if something that is bothering me writing about it makes me feel better. I also like blogging about the improvements on our house. I like to look back and see what a great job we are doing. I like writing about my dogs. They are a big part of my life. I don’t have children so they make me happy.

I like cross stitching it makes me happy. I like looking at a piece of aida and imagine what can be put there. I like being creative and deciding on the possibilities of different colors rather then always following the pattern and the colors it comes with. Yes I sometimes follow the color pattern exactly but not always. In my opinion I have created many beautiful pictures with thread.

I like writing stories. I like creating a whole new world where my characters live. Writing stories make me happy. I have six completed rough draft chapters done for the book I will publish. This year I am working on completing the story. I want to next year complete it fully and find someone to draw the pictures for it. My story is a zombie story. However I have some other stories as well that has nothing to do with zombies and some that are. Different scenarios with different characters.

All these things make me happy.

Loathe by definition means feel intense dislike or disgust for.

That is what I have. A few years ago I decided to be positive in my life and it has helped me. But there are just some things I will loathe or people I loathe forever.

For example my mom wants me to go swimming with the grand kids this weekend. When has that ever been fun? Sure I understand they may be fun for some people but for me I hate it. Maybe if I had a kid then it would be fun but I loathe swimming with the grand kids. It isn’t fun for me. First of all that means I have to act like an adult. Why would I want to do that? Don’t get me wrong I like swimming but I want to swim on my own terms I do not want to worry about little kids. Also little kids that I don’t know very well. We are related but I only see them sometimes and holidays.

Person. I loathe this woman Jeff works with her name is Amanda. I have never liked her. You know some people you meet in your life and there is just something about them that you hate. I have had that feeling about her since I met her and when Jeff talks about her. First she does sometimes now but when Jeff started she flirted with him a lot! I dislike that but I didn’t loathe her. Also Jeff is dumb when it comes to flirting. He doesn’t know when a woman does that to him. I’d be like she flirting with you. He be like oh really? Funny.

Anyway one time a couple of years ago she came over to do a demo for a vacuum cleaner. That is when I met her. Just something about her that made me not like her. I think it was her fake happiness. Ever see anyone with fake happiness? Fake smile and the giggling. Ugh! I so hate the giggling so fake. At this time she kept saying “Good thing I like dogs or I grew up with dogs.” Meaning your dog Koko is very scary. Funny. I know I shouldn’t but I laugh when people think Koko is scary. Gentle giant alert. Koko loves people and gives them more kisses then me. Jealous.

Jeff tells me she does the most stupidest things to get attention of guys. Really? DUH! You can tell what kind of person she is. Maybe because I am a woman and I can spot a fake or maybe just because I can be observant. Or maybe it’s both. Not sure on that. However the tribe decided now to do security cameras everywhere. She was concerned you could see her workout. Yeah I could see that. But when she is done working out she walks around the office in her tight skimpy work out clothes. So let’s get this straight you don’t want people to see you workout but you keep your sweaty workout clothes on when you are done. Hmmm attention whore much?

Finally Jeff said the other night he dislikes Amanda. She doesn’t work hard as the rest of us. Really? FINALLY! All the stories I hear about her from the others as well just puts nails in her coffin.

I don’t loathe this person but I loathe the situation. Sheyerna my friend from Facebook. I hate that she never got back to me about hanging out with her. I dislike that she blew me off. I see her hanging out with others that she hasn’t seen just as long as me. Sometimes I think of asking why but decide not too. I am actually hurt that she did that. She was at my wedding she took pictures. I really liked her and thought she was interesting. I loathe that she did that to me. So maybe I will eventually say something. I must brew about it more though.

Yesterday was Memorial Day and that means a day off for most. It was nice having Monday off. Memorial Day is to remember those who died in the Military to make America free. THANK YOU!

Most people cookout and spend it with family and/or friends. We didn’t. Usually we spend it with my parents but decided to move ‘lazy Sunday’ to ‘lazy Monday’ even though it wasn’t all lazy day.

I had to mow the lawn this weekend. Last week I thought ‘I don’t need to mow this’. That turned to my lawn needs mowing! It just wouldn’t stop raining last week. On Sunday I mowed as much as I could. I literally had forty minutes left to finish which it takes me two hours to mow the lawn. I was mad but nothing else I could do when it poured. Had to finish it on Monday. Bad part I twisted my knee mowing the lawn now I am in pain.

Backstory. Nine years ago before I got married my mom asked me what I wanted as a cross stitch pattern for her to do for my wedding. I picked out one. Anyway she never got to  it. I have been married for nine years this year and still it’s not done. However she hasn’t finished anyone’s and everyone is supposed to get one. So she gave me the pattern and I finished in two weeks. It’s in a temporary frame for now because I don’t want it to get ruined. I dislike the frame so I hope soon I can find one I like.

Can’t really tell in this picture but it’s on sparkly aida. Also this pattern sort of reminds me of little digital people from the nineties. I changed the pattern greatly on colors. I wanted our wedding colors which was blue and white. Jeff really did wear all black and he had a red tie. It matches us.

I got pretty far on Rick Grimes this weekend.

Starting to look like a person with a body. There is hope yet I will be finished by August.

Jeff and I had an adventure on Saturday. Been looking on getting a pellet stove only because we have electric heat. So expensive to run electric heat in the winter. Our fireplace does not do a good job heating anything. Nice to look at but that is it. It’s first we buy wood, he delivers wood, stack wood, stack wood in little area then fireplace. So many steps and dislike stacking wood. With a pellet stove just have to clean every so often and put pellets in everyday. That isn’t so bad and Jeff said he would stack the pellet bags since they would be too heavy for me anyways. Also we can still see the fire.

We had to travel to Berlin Wisconsin never been there before. It’s about an hour and forty five minutes from our house. We saw the pellet stove we wanted on Craiglist. The guy wanted twelve hundred for it. We had to move this or that to get that kind of money. Jeff is pretty good at making people to go down on their price as well so I know we wouldn’t pay that anyway but just in case needed to have it.

Anyway in Wisconsin brat fry’s are a huge thing especially in the summer. As we are driving through a small town on the way there we saw this flashing thing further down the street. As we got closer we saw this:

Can’t see the sign but it says ‘Brat Fry’. A little excessive if you ask me to tell people you are having a brat fry sale but then again this is Wisconsin.

As we pulled up to this guy’s house I had a thought. Why no matter what when we want something on Craiglist it’s always at someone’s house who’s house isn’t the greatest? Seriously! It’s always at someone’s house with shit everywhere and shitty cars etc. This guy’s house there were beer cans everywhere, shitty cars, shitty garage filled with a bunch of broken stuff. And this guy had chickens running around and a scary looking rooster. He was huge! It ran around yelling. I was scared of it. I didn’t want the rooster to come over and peck me. However we haven’t met anyone who wasn’t nice though. He was nice and helped a lot loading the stove in our truck. We paid one thousand fifty for the stove. It was worth the drive to get it.

It’s heavy! Not looking forward to getting this in my house later this year. This will heat our whole house without using the electric heat. Looking forward to that.

As you know my parents are moving. They are and were getting rid of a lot of things. They gave us these:

These dishes Jeff looked up they are four hundred dollars new! That is crazy! I would never buy dishes that expensive. But that is my mom she likes things like that. Not me and not for dishes. I would feel bad if I broke one and knowing me that is bound to happen. The dishes we had before were getting old and we got them from our wedding. Jeff was using a plate and it broke in half in the microwave that is when you know you dishes are dying. We got a whole set and it’s complete. I like using the coffee cups with the saucers makes me feel fancy. I know I am silly.

Last weekend Jeff worked on the bathroom. I would help but really can only fit one person in the bathroom. Next weekend we want to work on the floor that is when I will take a picture. Jeff said in two months time that the bathroom will be done.  I can’t wait!

I love flowers. I like looking at them and some smell wonderful. However I can’t plant flowers. I swear they hate me. Usually by this time I get a little pot and plant some flowers. Every time they die. Either they flower then die quickly afterwards or just plain die before flowering. I don’t know why either. Also in my lifetime I have killed two cacti. Didn’t think that was possible to kill a cactus but to my credit the first one I had for five years.

Now that I live in my own house I thought there is enough trees and wildlife that this time I won’t plant any flowers. A couple of weeks ago when the weather was nice I saw Tulips and Bleeding Hearts on the side of the house! First of all Bleeding Hearts that is so cool!

This last weekend a new flower bloomed. Some sort of daisy.

I didn’t have to do a thing and I got flowers! So neat! Now I have to ask my mom if I have to do anything in the future to keep them. My mom is a flower guru or plants really.

Also I finished Rick’s face. Now I have to work on his body and I can’t finish his hat just yet. He needs an arm so I can stitch the rest of the hat and his gun. Funny to talk about him in pieces but really he is in pieces right now.