Finally Connected!

It took over 2 months but we finally have Internet and a phone! I never imagined it would take so long to get service or I would of started the process a few months before we moved. They have the line laying on the ground along side the road, then to our house just to get us service and have promised to bury it as soon as possible. I'm thankful the dogs have not decided to chew on it yet!

It's been a hot and humid summer and I am so glad that we are starting to feel the fall weather. I have a couple funny reptile stories to share, at least one of them is funny! On a beautiful day about a month ago I had all the dogs out and they were running around playing. I went to go take a break on my swing that Terry hooked up to a tree for me. It's a bench swing with a back and sides, big enough for two people. As soon as I sat down I felt something on my chest and looked down and a lizard was staring at me, he must of been climbing up the chain and when I sat down it jiggled the chain and he fell off right onto my chest. We had a few seconds where we stared at each other and then I realized there was a reptile crawling on me and I jumped off the swing and started shaking around and the lizard fell off and it ran under the fence into the woods. I'm not afraid of lizards, I just don't want them crawling on me!

A few weeks ago on another warm day I went out to check on my garden as I had some poblano peppers that were almost ready to pick. The plant was on the end of a raised bed which is two railroad ties high. I have have concrete pavers between each bed to walk on and as soon as I stepped on the paver I looked down and there was a black snake coiled up and I must have stepped on him or just brushed him because he lunged up and tried to bite my knee - luckily I had pants on! Literally scared the crap out of me and he took off and was gone in the blink of an eye. I was grateful it wasn't a rattlesnake, already came across one of those in July and hope I don't see one again for a very long time, if ever. After the snake incident I went for a walk down the property and came across another black snake, it was 6-7 ft long and it was the biggest one I have seen yet. I was already freaked out over the other snake, which was half his size but didn't want this snake on our property so I picked up a big branch that had fallen and thought if I touched his end tail it would scare him and he would take off into the woods. Well, I touched him and the snake turned around and stood up like a cobra and screamed and ran off the other way! I came back a bit later and he wasn't interested in moving so I picked up the branch again and gently pushed him and he started moving slowly. My branch and I escorted him to the fence and he did not want to go under and kept turning to go back on the property. I finally gave up and just stayed behind him to see where he would go as I didn't want to come across him unexpectedly. He went up onto a dirt hill that was overgrown with brush and by this time our two older dogs were by me and one of them saw the snake and started barking and the snake coiled up and was lunging at the dog several times. I was yelling at the dog and I finally got a hold of him and took him off and put him in a kennel until the snake left. I went back to the snake and he went into a hole that was in the hill and I think that is his home. Everytime I walk by I go slow and look to make sure he isn't around. I'm hoping all the snakes hibernate soon so I can take a snake break, It's exhausting having to watch where you walk all the time!

We still don't have our kitchen floor down yet and are lacking some furniture but it feels so good to finally be here in our new home. In our kitchen/dining room, we're walking on scrap carpet pieces and opened up cardboard boxes laid flat. The cardboard boxes are great, if you spill something you pick up the box, throw it away and put down another box! I'm not going to miss them though when we get our floor installed.

I'm so excited about spending our first Christmas here that I have already got alot of our decorations and my tree out from storage - I know, it's way to early! They are crowding up the dining room and I'll take my time over the next month or so going through them and decorate a little at a time.

I got my craft room mostly organized and will post photos soon, it's a little messy right now and I need to clean it up before I get photos. I love my new craft space and all the extra room I have and my favorite part of all is having a sink, I'm so glad that Terry suggested putting one in here. (His first idea was to put a toilet up here, he said then I wouldn't have to go downstairs all the time!) Luckily the sink won over the toilet idea!

I've been working on some crafty things, mostly Christmas and also started working on projects for Custom Crops again.
The Santa image on this card is a to/from Christmas tag, along with some lace, doily, glitter, ribbon and adhesive pearl from Melissa Frances.

I made these tags with some wood shapes from Michaels that I painted, inked and glittered. I added some rusty stars, hearts and bells with fabric to finish them off.

And, a project for Custom Crops. You can find the supplies and directions here.


I'm so glad to have internet again and look forward to getting back into a routine!
Hope everyone has a great week!
Annette