Rob Gets a New Ride...after a Mere 13 years!

Rob has had a 1997 Ford Expedition for a long time. It has about 200,000 miles on it. It has been a great vehicle! But it was time for a new vehicle and he was on the lookout for one. He really wanted a King Ranch one and those are really hard to find it seems. And he wanted at least a 2008 or newer because that is when the style changed. One day Rob found a 2008 King Ranch Expedition on cars.com. It was being sold by a small dealership in Chelsea, Alabama (near Birmingham, AL) called the Linda Pierce, Inc. dealership. I called and made all the arrangements and we set up to meet Mr. John Pierce at the Columbiana, AL McDonalds the next night at 8 pm. Mr. Pierce was great! We both just liked him so much. Rob drove the car and liked it and then we gave a deposit contingent on our Montgomery mechanics checking the car out.

Mr. Pierce showing Rob how everything in the vehicle works. He was such a nice, decent man.

I'm glad I brought my camera. I just had a feeling this was going to be "the car" he would buy.

Rob getting out of the Expedition. I knew he had decided to get it by his body language.

Mr. Pierce and his son-in-law drove the Expedition down to Montgomery so that Mr. Woodham could take a look at it to make sure it was in great condition.

Going up on the racks...

Discussing the car before they gave us the report...

A meeting of the minds: Mr. Pierce, Robert and Mr. Woodham's son.

At this point Rob has gotten the good report and he's gonna have a new vehicle. He's thinking, "Wow, that's a lot of money. Do we need a new car really?"

5 Easy Questions That Can Make Clutter Disappear!

Like most women, I am always in search of the perfectly organized house. I found this article in the 9/27/10 Woman's World magazine.

1. Does it make me happy?

This is the first question professional organizers ask their clients, reveals Jamie Novak, author of The Get Organized Answer Book, "It doesn't matter how much your grandmother liked it, or how you think you should feel about it--if it doesn't make you smile or you feel guilty and stressed about it, it shouldn't be in your house!"

Still not sure? Stash the item in a box of similar things, date the box and put it away for a year. Distancing yourself from the item physically helps make your decision down the road a snap, Novak says.

2. Can I photograph it?

Have something big and unwieldy--like an overgrown collection of stuffed animals--that you're hanging onto because of the happy memories associated with it? A photo will take up less room and spark the same happy memories as the thing itself, says Trosko.

Tip: After taking the photographs, store the images on a free website like Picasa.google.com, Flickr or Facebook, where friends and family who share the same memories can enjoy them, too!

3. Can I scan it?

Certificates, child's drawings, old letters...scanning them into a computer doesn't just save you room, it also keeps them safe and secure forever! No scanner? No problem! Any office supply or copy store will do the scanning for you--some libraries even have scanners you can use for free. You can also photograph documents with your digital camera. "It works fine, especially if you use the document setting!" says Marla Cilley, head of household-tip website FlyLady.net.

Tip: Know a tech-savvy teen who has an all-in-one printer? He or she will probably be glad to scan hundreds of papers for the same hourly fee you pay for mowing the lawn or babysitting, says Novak.

4. Do I have two?

"Lots of us have kitchen cabinets overflowing with can openers, ladles and other stuff handed down to us," says Cilley. "So keep the best and donate the rest." And if that's proving to be a challenge (and not just with kitchen items), try this: Tweak the question above by asking yourself "Which one do I like most?" Novak recommends. "Then, instead of keeping every piece of costume jewelry Aunt Bessie left you, you can pick out the silver brooch of hers you always loved to remember her by." The same goes for vacation souvenirs. "Instead of keeping everything, just hang on to one thing from each trip, preferably something you can use, like a mug or salt and pepper shakers. Every time you use them, you'll be able to enjoy those memories again!:

5. Who could I make happy with this?

Chances are, objects that are a burden to you will be a blessing to someone else! For instance, if you've got four needlepoint pillows your grandmother made, your cousins may appreciate being offered one. Or, if you've got one vase you use often and three you don't, give the extras to a resale shop that supports a favorite charity. You'll get the extra space you need, and research proves that donating to a great cause delivers a happiness boost that can last for weeks!

---Barbara Hustedt Cook

Flower Power to the Rescue!

Flower Power Garden Designs is a company started by Teresa Corley. Their numbers are (334) 285-1759 and (334) 782-5651. They redid our backyard which desperately needed it!

This is what they did in our backyard: dug up 2 roses and oleander, trimmed lower limbs from bradford pear tree, prepared the beds for planting, dug holes for shrubs, laid weed guard, replant oleander and red rose, laid stepping stones and pea gravel at gate entrances and installed edging around all beds (approximately 110 feet).

The shrubs they planted were: 2 pink knock out roses, 2 pink double althea (rose of Sharon), 7 Indian hawthorne (white or snow), 7 pink and white encore azaleas, 1 pink crape myrtle, and plant 2 cleyera and 1 crape myrtle we already had.

I really am almost embarrassed to put the "before" pictures of our backyard. I think it looked really nice...many years ago. Lately, not so much. And I absolutely love sitting out on the patio during the fall weather and enjoying the day.

So, as you can tell by the photos we needed some serious help with the backyard. My friend Jan had just had her backyard done by Teresa Corley of Flower Power Garden Design and she had so many good things to say about her. Based on Jan's recommendation, whose opinion I always trust, I made the call, got an estimate and got ready for a new yard!

The bradford pear tree had become so overgrown! It was awful! Even the grass looked bad.

About the only one who liked the backyard was little Bodhi :-).

Could it be more blah??!!!

I love to watch the birds and we have several birdhouses that Rob fills regularly with birdseed and we get so many beautiful birds! All we had planted was one oleander and a rose bush.

Boring and blah, blah, blah.

I was so excited when Teresa said they could come soon!

I get confused on the order to upload pictures sometimes in blogger, so here is an after already

:-). Bodhi is looking like he is in a new backyard...and, for all practical purposes, he is!

It already looked so much better just when they cleared so much overgrowth from the bradford pear.

Wow, isn't this like night and day?

I know to most people this may not seem like a big deal, but I just LOVE the changes. It is just so nice and so peaceful in the backyard now.

I really loved the pebbles Teresa put down and the landscaping pavers at each gate creating a little walkway. And I really liked the edging she picked out. Normally, I am totally "hands-on" and have input on exactly what to pick out, but, on this project, I just asked Teresa to pick everything out and I had no decisions to make.

This is the project in progress. They worked so hard!

Another after. Since they put the edging all the way around, it made the backyard feel bigger I thought as well as just making it look more manicured.

Rob lost his Mom in August 2009. This was a gift from her and we love having it in our yard now.

A closeup of the angel birdbath.

I loved these edgers. Teresa got them from Lowes.

Isn't this adorable???!!!

I kept thinking to myself, "Why didn't we do this before now?!"

Here is the farthest corner after. It used to pretty much be a black hole.

We already had these plants but Teresa trimmed them down and they look a lot better, too.

Teresa planted us two knockout roses and they are so pretty!

This is our new view looking out from the patio. Such an improvement! We are so thankful!

FRONT YARD:

I wish I had before pictures for the front yard makeover. After the backyard turned out so nice, we asked Flower Power to do the front yard, too. We had this huge section in front of the center of the house that had all these dead shrubs with all these weeds growing up from them. They looked like a jungle. Teresa dug those old shrubs up and planted some new ones.

Flower Power planted five variegated pittosporum, two bridal wreath snow storm spirea, two sasanqua/camellias, three kaleidscope abelias, and three half moon pansy beds.

Trust me, it looks sooo much better!

Teresa picked out this red edging from Lowes called "perfect edge." I really liked it, especially the color. It was made by Calisto.