New Unsolved Mysteries...

This is it...the last day of October...sniff, sniff...also the last full week of electioneering...hip, hip, hooray!  How was your weekend?  We worked at the other house aka The Project.  Okay, BG worked and I mostly stood around until he needed me to pull a wire through an opening as he fed said wire from up in the attic down to me.  Sounds like a fun time, eh?  Not really, but at least progress is being made, so that is good news.

~ BG's truck isn't part of the mystery...see the flower pot?  Stay tuned~

Will you have Trick or Treaters at your house?  We don't usually have them in our neighborhood.  I'm not a big fan of Halloween, but I've been known to tell stories of strange happenings around our house this time of year.  The following are true stories that I call our Unsolved Mysteries...for this year.  I'll share them here and I hope you'll be able to figure them out, because we sure can't!

~the flowers aren't so pretty now, but I took this photo of them for the story~
  

First, the flowers.  I snapped the first 3 photos yesterday while we were at The Project.  The pot of flowers above is a closeup of the flowers in the photo above this one.  The flower pot used to belong to a friend of my daughter.  I say "used to" because sadly her friend committed suicide 2 years ago.  Kim was given the pot along with a few others by the husband of this friend.  

In late April, Kim planted this pot with purple verbenas.  About 2 weeks later, Kim and her boyfriend broke up.  The boyfriend was the brother of the friend who died.  After the breakup, which was a difficult time for her, Kim didn't care too much about the flowers and stopped watering them.  That was nearly 6 months without water except for a little rain now and then and the flowers are still living.  How did they survive that long during the hot summer we had?  It's a mystery.

Now, the bigger mystery involves bloody spots...in the same room as another unsolved mystery took place a few years ago.  Some of you may remember it, you can read about it here.

BG and I were in Branson in early September and our daughter was at home.  She had fallen asleep in the recliner and woke up around 3 am and after a visit to the bathroom she went to bed.  The next time she woke up, it was around 7 am and she was sitting on the potty in the bathroom with her kitty meowing at her feet.  

Our daughter sleepwalks occasionally and she always ends up in the bathroom.  This hasn't happened in quite a long time.  I need to mention for the sake of the story that she also has periodic nosebleeds.  I'll also mention I asked her if it was okay that I tell all this about her!

When she got up and stepped around the half wall to wash her hands, she saw blood drops on the vanity, on the floor, on the half wall,  on the mirror, and up both closet doors as well as the door coming into the bathroom.  Also a large spot of blood on the carpet just outside the bathroom.  
      

The floor in front of the potty or that area wasn't bothered nor did she have any blood on herself or her clothes.  She examined all the cats and they didn't have blood on their paws or anywhere that she noticed.
  

After taking photos with her phone, she started cleaning it up and noticed that some of the spots were dry and some looked like fresh drops.

Looking at the vanity, it looks like perhaps a kitty stepped into the drops, but she found no sign of blood on their paws or that they had tracked blood on the floor when they would have jumped down.

The spots on the floor were mostly perfect round spots.  She did find a few sprinkles of blood next to her pillow and a spot on the quilt.

All of this was very disturbing and she called us in Branson to tell us about it and told several friends.  None of us has a clue what this was.  The hubby of a friend has lots of nose bleeds and told her that she would have gotten it on her clothes if that is what happened.  

When we got back home several days later, I happened to notice that one of the cats had a sore on the lower side of it's mouth.  I'm thinking that maybe a fight had taken place with another kitty and a claw ended up tearing a place and it bled.   Maybe the cat shook it's head and that's how some of the blood ended up on the mirror and doors. 

Whatever happened, it was a good amount of blood drops.  

Someone suggested maybe a cat had killed a mouse.  Well, we don't have mice ever get in the house, so it wasn't that.  

We don't have a clue what it was, but after the other happening I wrote about I'm beginning to wonder what is going on here!  What do you think might have happened? 

Have a fun Halloween!  As for me, I'm going to keep the bathroom door shut to keep the goblins out.
  
xo Cheryl

Fall beauty, kitties and a prayer request...

"There should be new words every October for the 

colors gold and scarlet and bronze and russet.

There they are, living fire, and a re-establishment

of God's good will to earth."

~Gladys Taber

This October has been too warm for the trees to put on a lot of color this year in my area.  Last year it was much the same, well as I remember.  The photo above is one I found in my archives from a few years ago.  There are some beautiful trees around, but they are mostly in the residential areas. 

It's hard to believe that soon we will turn the calendar page and October will just be a memory.  I've loved every minute of October and watching the changes each day brings.  

October 29th is National Cat Day.  I personally think every day is Cat Day at our house.  lol!  Stormy certainly thinks so.  She is one smart kitty and understands a lot of what we say.  She has her ways of telling me what she wants.  Part of it is just the way she looks at you.  Can you tell I love her?  I love all of our pets, but I have to say that there is just something special about my Stormy girl.  I often think of the kitties that are at the Humane Society hoping to find a forever home and say a prayer that they may find someone to love them as much as we love our kitties.  Someone might say...you pray for animals, too?  Why, yes, I do. 

   

A table full of a few of my favorite things caught my eye...dishes and roosters and sunflowers.   Aren't the colors wonderful?  

I was very tempted to buy a couple of the mugs, but BG reminded me that we had plenty of coffee cups and didn't need any more.  Spoil sport.  Never mind he's right and I don't have any room for another thing in my cabinets, but I really, really wanted these.  I do have a cute pair of fall mugs that we're using right now that I bought 2 years ago and put away because of that lack of room and then...I hate to tell this part...I couldn't find them last year.  But this year when I cleaned out a junk storage closet...voila!  There they were...so I washed them and made room for them to use this fall season.  Oh, to have a dish pantry!

  

The beautiful bouquet of flowers was given to my daughter for Boss's Day which was Oct. 16.  See the beautiful rose at the top?  I wish I'd gotten a closer shot of it, it was so gorgeous with apricot edges fading to a soft yellow in the center.  Other smaller roses were also in the bouquet.  

My friend Ell's hubby raises the most beautiful roses.  I met Ell over 30 years ago at church and we've been friends ever since.  In the summer, they would almost always bring a big bouquet of the most beautiful roses of varying colors to place on the table in front of the pulpit. 

Ell called me this week and gave me some news that was hard to hear.  She has Stage 4 heart failure.  One side of her heart is pretty much dead and she has blockage on the other side.  The doctors tell her that there's nothing they can do except put her on a list for a heart transplant.  They gave her a batch of pills and pages of things to do and not to do.  She told me that she nixed the idea of a transplant saying that there were many younger folks who needed one worse than she does.  Ell is 75 and has a strong faith, but she has already dealt with many health issues and she is not very strong physically any longer.  I am asking for prayers for her health and also that she and an estranged daughter will be reconciled before it's too late.

Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for being my blog friends.  I didn't know when I came back to blogging after being away so long if anyone would be by to visit.  And then I lost my blog list and I'm still trying to get it back up to speed.  It's a busy season for many of us and I've noticed blogging has slowed down for others too.

Enjoy this last weekend of October! 

xo Cheryl

Monday Musings

Did you have a nice weekend?  It was a busy one here, especially for BG.  He worked on the wiring at The Project (our rental house) and ran into more problems.

I've tried so hard to get him to hire the work done, but he is one stubborn man and refuses to pay for work that he can do himself.  Never mind it might take him a dozen years long time, he is bound and determined to do it All.By.Himself.  If you detect a bit of frustration from my end here, you might be right.  :)  I do appreciate his dedication and hard work even if it doesn't always sound like I do! 

Well, the good news, or bad depending on how you look at it, is that he is having to take out part of the walls and our carpenter/friend said take out all you need to because he could repair them and BG agreed to that!  

The wiring as I've said before is a big mess.  It would take too many paragraphs for me to explain so just take my word for it!   

Meanwhile, I just wanna say wake me up when it's all done!  Much like the election.  Can't wait until it is over.  I can't watch TV because the media drives me nuts with their blatant bias and lies that are told.  When presented with the truth, they won't report that, of course.  Okay, enough with the whiny stuff.    

  
It is a beautiful fall day and I'm leaving in a few minutes to get some groceries and just enjoy a drive down a few country roads.  I love to be out and about in autumn soaking up the warmth of the season and seeing the changes in the fall foliage.  Soon enough the leaves will be gone, but shhhh...we won't talk about that yet!  

I made some chili over the weekend and it was so good.  I found 2 cans of chili beans, 1 can of tomatoes and 1 can of tomato sauce and I had some hamburger in the freezer.  Just enough for one pot, but I'm going to stock up as we love chili when it turns a bit cooler.  We have had some warm days, but the nights are much cooler now.  Do you make chili often in the fall and winter?  With beans or without?  What is your favorite soup?

   
Halloween is a week away.  I have another "spooky" happening to share.  Maybe.  We're still puzzled about this one, so I'm trying to figure out how to write it up and then I'll see if I want to post it by Halloween.  Ha!  Don't you just hate when people do that?  Leave you hanging, I mean.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

xo Cheryl  

Where I've Been...

~Sunrise at Branson~

Our little fall getaway was a spur of the moment decision.  Love those!  Fortunately, BG still has plenty of vacation days from work and was able to take off.  He had promised me, after all, that we would go back to Branson while the Harvest Festival was going on at Silver Dollar City and Oct. 16 was their last day.  I gently reminded him that he should always keep his promises, so we packed a bag and off we went!  

First thing BG does when we arrive at the condo is unpack his ashtray and put it out on the deck.  ha!  Since we weren't having visitors this trip, we opted to rent a one bedroom condo.  It was very nicely decorated in an outdoorsy theme and we loved it.

The second thing Mr. Excitement BG does is take a little nap while I unpack.  It is a 4 hour drive for us to Branson, not a real long trip but I suppose it is exhausting when you are the back-seat driver. lol!  

I thought you might like seeing more of the condo.  Here is the dining area and kitchen, the bedrooms are all on the right.  They lock up one bedroom and bath to rent it as a one-bedroom condo.  This condo is a bit smaller than the one we usually stay in, but plenty big enough for us.  There is a washer and dryer behind the folding doors in the kitchen.

Not a very good shot, but we enjoyed watching the full Hunter's Moon coming up over the lake.  

This was a hazy shot, but you might see a bit of color in the trees.  I'm afraid the color won't be that great because it has been very dry in Branson this year, so many trees have already turned brown.  The lake levels are way low.

We have season passes for SDC so we parked in the preferred parking area.  We still had a good walk up to the gate where we boarded a small bus to take us to the entrance. 

Mums greet us as we get off the bus...the park is beautifully decorated for fall.  Mums, pumpkins, sunflowers, fall wreaths and scarecrows galore!

This fall festival had many craftsmen showing off their skills in addition to the usual ones that are at the park during the year.

We always take time to stop and listen to the Homestead Pickers.  They are very talented, most of them can play several different instruments.  

I spotted this sign on the wall when I stopped in at Sullivan's Mill for a loaf of their yummy cinnamon bread.  It made me laugh!  

Some beautiful fall leaves at the park.  It was a very nice, warm day!

In spite of spending around 5 hours in the park, we didn't see even half of it.  My knee wouldn't allow me to walk any further, but what we saw was fun and we enjoyed ourselves even with a few aches and pains.  

We had a great time in Branson even though we didn't venture too far from the condo most days.  The drive home Monday was a challenge.  It was a pretty day, but the wind was blowing so hard!!  We were thankful to get home safely from another wonderful stay in Branson.  More memories to relive on those long, dreary winter days that will be here before long.  

See you soon!

xo Cheryl     

Enjoying Fall!

Hubby and I have been enjoying another little getaway the past few days.  The weather is supposed be near 90 today.  Not exactly fall temps but the leaves are turning and it's so pretty!  We both love autumn and have enjoyed our time here.  

We are traveling back to our home today, so I will be back to visit and post again in a day or two and tell you where we've been.  I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.  lol!  Comments are closed for today...see you soon! 

Enjoying A Nice Fall Day

 "I'm so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers."  

~L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I'm loving this beautiful fall thus far, but the rain today makes me want to nap.  We were needing some rain, so I'm happy to see it.  To all the bloggers who may be affected by the hurricane...please stay safe!  

I have to say that it's been hard to get back into the swing of blogging after a long break.  Nothing too exciting going on around here to tell about.  And not having a blog list in my sidebar isn't helping.  I'm going to have to get a new one started since it doesn't look like the old one is going to reappear.

Meanwhile....

 
A few fall touches have appeared around the house, courtesy of my daughter.  I'm enjoying the cozy feel that autumn brings to the inside of the house with a little fall decor added here and there.  

Yesterday was spent at the Big Town.  While there, I found my car heading toward Upscale/Resale, so I forced myself to go inside since I was in the neighborhood.  Ha.  I only bought 1 book for 50 cents and a bundle of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazines for a dollar bill.  Even though I don't need another magazine, I couldn't pass these up.

Now, I'm going to get to work on that new blog list for my sidebar, and hoping I can get BG to go out to supper with me.  Maybe he will if he sees I don't have anything started when he gets home from work!  Wish me luck....:)

xo Cheryl