A Makeover and a Medley

Hello my friends.....yes, I'm still kickin'!

I can't believe it's been since before July 4th that I have posted anything.

I don't really know why...I mean nothing earth shattering has happened to speak of.

Do you ever just get that way... and blogging almost becomes sort of a burden?
And steroid withdrawal didn't help matters either... the struggle is real, folks!

My excuse last week was that I took a week of "staycation".

All week long I was busy working on projects that I had been putting off for months and months needed done around the house...from early in the day until late in the afternoon.

Needless to say, the old gray blonde mare, she ain't what she used to be...

...at least until I am able to get my mojo back!

I actually surprised myself by not falling off the step-stool as many times as I was up and down it!

There's still lots to do, mind you, but getting that tiny master bathroom redo accomplished
was a big check mark off my list.

So before I get to the Medley questions,
I'll give you a little peek at my teenie-weenie bathroom makeover.

There are no before pictures but believe me when I tell you it was quite a transformation.




I used the same wallpaper (yes, I said wallpaper) that I papered our bedroom with

a couple of years ago....and you do realize that wallpaper is making a comeback, right?

It never really went out of style in my world, at least.
Anyway, unless I wanted to put up all new sheetrock, wallpaper was pretty much a necessity.

Whoever built and decorated this house back in 1985,

chose to put wallpaper in nearly every room...right on top of raw sheetrock...

...no sizing, no primer, nothing but raw sheetrock...and it and the wallpaper became one...

...impossible to remove without ripping layers of the that white chalky stuff.

So I have basically been re-papering the walls as long as we have lived here,

adhering any new paper to the original, irremovable paper!

The paper I replaced was a dark-ish, marble-ish, textured-ish looking paper.

WOW...what a difference this made in brightening up that tiny bathroom!

And I do mean tiny...another question mark as to why a master bathroom would be this small!

But if the room had been any larger, I may have actually died redecorating it! 😩

So now let's get on over to the Medley...

This week it's all about family...cousins, aunt & uncles to be precise.
So just copy and paste the questions from Terri's blog to yours...
...and well, you know what to do after that

1.  What can you tell us about your cousins, please, or someone who is close like a cousin?

Coming from a family the size of mine (8 kids) and since both of my parents also came from large families, I had so many cousins I couldn't keep track of all of them. Also, many of them lived quite a distance away from us, therefore we didn't see each other very often growing up and many of were not close. Oh yes, there were family reunions on both sides but it was really hard to keep track of that many people when you're a little girl.

Some of my older siblings among some of the cousins. I can't identify some of the cousins...lol!

My older siblings have a much better recollection of who everyone was and closer relationships as well. Since I was one of the younger ones, most my cousins were quite a bit older than me and I wasn't really super close to any of them. Of course I have many people in my life that are not actually "blood" family that I love dearly but comparing them to a cousin would be doing them an injustice since I didn't really have that experience.

2.  Do you still see your cousins and will you contact them on National Cousins Day?

I can't remember when I last saw one of my cousins...isn't that sad? Of course many of them still live up in Ohio and the family reunions of yesteryear just don't happen much if at all anymore...but when they do, I am rarely able to attend. When the aunts and uncles who were their parents passed on (which they just about all have), many of the cousins didn't keep the reunions as a priority. I have reconnected with a couple of my cousins on Facebook and even found an older cousin who I never knew until she stumbled upon my blog a few years ago. You can read about it here.


My long lost cousin, Sharon.



3.  Terri had a favorite aunt and uncle she will tell us about.  How about you?

Out of all my aunts and uncles, I did have had a few favorites. Among them was my Aunt Clara, one my mom's sisters and I have written about her on my other blog. She and Uncle Bud lived out in the country but pretty close to us. Their children were probably the closest in age to me and my siblings and we visited each other often. I loved visiting them at their old farm house with the wrap-around porch and the cow pasture across the road.

My sweet Aunt Clara who lived to be 103 years old!

4.  Did/does your family have reunions and can you tell us about them?

All throughout my childhood and beyond, family reunions were something I always looked forward to year after year. They were held every summer, always on a Sunday, at the same park in Troy, Ohio. This particular reunion was started by my mother's parents and was always known as the Davis Reunion. I don't remember any of my grandparents on either side but I do know they had LOTS of kids! The Davises had seven, each of the seven went on to have that many and more of their own. That gives you just a hint of how large these reunions were at one point.



My mom and five of my siblings at one of the Billheimer reunions.

My dad's family (the Billheimers) also had an annual reunion that I remember attending a few times but we were closer with Mom's side of the family. All of the Davis children are gone now and so are some of their children. Things change. For the past several years, my siblings have tried to keep up with our own reunion. We were unable to meet last year and of course we lost our dear oldest brother in 2017. We had a different kind of reunion that year...bittersweet as it was. Nothing has been planned for this year due to one reason or another but hopefully we can all get together in 2020!

5.  If you have children, are they enjoying relationships with their cousins, aunts, uncles?

Oh, they absolutely are! Our grandchildren range in age from 20 down to 10 and I can't remember a time when they weren't absolutely thrilled to be in each other's company, no matter what age they were. The older boys have always loved visiting the Tennessee Bunch...they LOVE their Uncle Adam...and Adam's two are always thrilled to see what "toys" their Uncle Aaron is tinkering with at any given time. The older ones even especially enjoy visiting the great aunts and uncles in Ohio and have frequently made those trips with us as well. And thanks to Facebook, my own two boys are probably closer to many of their aunts, uncles and cousins in Ohio and other states that they would not have had otherwise! So now, I shall bore you with some photos of my favorite group of cousins...

Cousins...when it was just the boys.

Cousins...and then there were four...finally, a girl!

Cousins just wanna have fun.

Cousins chowing down on some good grub and Parker's trademark silly face...lol!

Cousins chillin' in the pool.

Cousins with a moose.

Cousins/Uncle Adam group hunt.

The gang's all here!

6. Tell us something random about your week.

So I am back to work this week after my aforementioned staycation and it has been good to get back into my regular routine once again. To make things even better, the blood test results from last week's visit to my hematologist are coming back (there are a few still out) and so far, everything looks good. I think she took a dozen vials from me ...no kidding. Since the first of the year when everything started to go haywire, my blood platelets had been dropping like flies... BUT...these tests revealed that they are on their way back up! It's comforting to know that I won't bleed to death when I have my upcoming surgery! Also, we are currently experiencing a nice break from the heat after a dozen days of 90+ temps...a few days were nearly 100 degrees! It was in the 70s earlier today and is in the 60s as I am writing this. I am savoring every moment, as short-lived as it will be. Fall, I am ready for you!

*****

So that's it for me this week.

May your days be blessed until we "meet" again!