Treasures!

What a lovely weekend we had around here! Saturday was a beautiful day ... mild weather, blue sky ... the things we love about the mountains! Our next door neighbor, Bruce, has a smoke house in his backyard and he was smokin' meat on Saturday. They invited us over for dinner and it was delicious! He'd smoked racks of baby back ribs, texas ribs, chicken thighs and breasts and some salmon. Wow! The smoke house setup is so very nice ... and it's in a building that really reminded me of grandaddy's meat house in Virginia. It was a great time had by all. After dinner we went to the town auction! Bruce didn't really want to go, but his girl friend (Beth) did, so off we went ... I'm not sure any of us had ever been before ... but we got the hang of it very quickly! The painting is one of our treasures, "Rainbow Cats" by an artist in Maine by the name of Sally Caldwell Fisher. She has some great water scapes, but of course we just love these colors, and according to the website we stole this painting. Our treasure!!!! Next thing we acquired was an old abbey bench ... from around the beginning of the 1900's they figure. It fits perfectly in our hallway! We also got a wicker chair for the screen porch and a much needed snow shovel ... and a fabulous bed frame for the guest suite!! We also had a WONDERFUL evening of FUN and merriment. I highly recommend the "hillbilly auction" as the auctioneer so proudly named his auction!!!

Yesterday, although it was supposed to be a day of rest, we actually worked. I began the kitchen cabinet painting project on Saturday morning, (taking off the hardware, doors, etc.) and finished the priming (2 coats, of course!) yesterday. We also are preparing the master bedroom for redo, so there were hours of moving stuff out of the room and sorting out the storage space, etc. Paul is surely sore today between lugging all that stuff and his weekly Sunday soccer game. He was in goal yesterday so I'm sure he's a sore puppy today! But he won't admit it :-).

I'm getting very excited because things are actually getting accomplished! And we can really see things changing before our very eyes! Paul spent most of Saturday reworking the furnace filter pump and tubing, and getting that old girl back up to snuff. Now he REALLY is my hero!! It's so nice to have heat around here. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, so we're all getting prepared for that! Thank goodness we got that shovel (haha!). The plumber is supposed to be here in the morning to fix the pipes going to the upstairs bathroom. However, he was supposed to be here the week before Thanksgiving, so we'll see!

Please keep good thoughts for my sister-in-law, Debbie, who is really struggling with kidney stones. Also a big fat HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Paul's niece, Sara, who celebrates her birthday this Tuesday (tomorrow).

Hope everyone is warm, happy and healthy. Paul & Cheri