Welcome to Thankful Thursday - June 30, 20ll

Praise the Lord, all you nations, extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the

 Lord endures forever  Praise the Lord.

Psalm 117:1 &2 

Greeting Sweet Friends,

It is Thursday Again.........already, 

 can you believe it,

these days just fly by so quickly, 

 it is truly shocking sometimes!!

Hope your week has been a good one,

and you have lots of reasons to give

Thanks to the Lord.

With the Fourth of July right around the corner, 

I have been thinking about how blessed my family

and friends and anyone that lives in America really

is,  we are truly blessed to live in a free nation,

Oh,  America has her problems,  we all know that,

but I truly can't think of any other place in the

world I would rather live.  No other country has

the freedoms that we do!

So my

#1

I am thankful

is for the blessing of living in this country and for

the independence that we have, and the men and

 women of our military who continue to fight for

our country and the freedoms that we so easily

take for granted on a daily basis.

#2

I am thankful

that we can have freedom because of what

Jesus did for us on the cross, as well.  

He is the freedom giver for sure......

#3
I am thankful
we want have to worry with our lawn this holiday
weekend,  since our neighbor so sweetly took
care of that issue for us.

#4

I am thankful

for having good neighbors and especially the ones
 that will be moving soon.  We certainly will be
sad to see them go.  They have really been a
blessing to us many times!

#5

I am thankful

for all the rain we have had lately, cause the water
 table is low and their have been quite a few wildfires
 lately in Florida,  so wet is good!

#6

I am thankful
for a nice lil afternoon nap,  this dismal weather
made me so sleepy,  and it is fun napping when
it is raining!!  lol
and I feel much better now..........

#7
I am thankful
for fruit,  I love fruit,  all different types of fruit,
in smoothies, by themselves, in cereal,  in crepes,
in pies, and  cakes.  Simply delectable!!




#8
I am thankful
dinner will be easy tonight.  Rotisserie chicken,
leftover potato salad,  and a new veggie recipe
I got from Kraft foods via email yesterday.
I'll give you the recipe if it tastes as good
as it sounds!!

We had it....it was pretty good but I would
add some onions and garlic the next time!!

#9
I am thankful
for relationships that the Lord brings into our
lives, whether permanent, for a season or
by a chance meeting,  and that he gives us
the ability to affect people and they us, in
 very simple, small ways most of the time!!
That simply amazes me...................

#10

I am thankful
that we have the freedom to have Bibles in
our country and most households have 2 or
more in their homes.  Can you even imagine
what it would be like not to have one??


I remember a young airman that used to
attend our church years ago,  who fought in
the Gulf war as a helicopter pilot.  He was
shot down and put in an Iraqi prison as a
POW.  He was a christian kid that never
ever imagined he could ever be anywhere
without a bible.  He of course,  did not have
the gideons visit his jail,  and he said he
could only remember 2 small verses that
he learned in Sunday school as a child,
and he would quote them over and over
again to himself, because they helped 
him so much.  Praise God he survived
that ordeal and was freed,  and one of the
 first things he wanted was a bible.
That story really stuck in my heart!!

That is really why it is so important for
us to be  reading and memorizing God's
word.  Cause the more we read it the
more we remember it,  and then you
can also work at memorizing it as well,
Cause we never know Folks............
when that could change for us!

#11
I am thankful
for our judicial system.  Don't know if most
of you have heard about it or not,  but there
has been a murder trial going on here in 
Florida called the Casey Anthony Trial.
I will spare you the details as they are not
 pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.


We have been following some of the trial,
as it has been televised daily,  it has really
been amazing to see the working within
a court room,  and all that goes on,  not 
quite like all those Perry Mason movies
 we used to see as kids.  They really go
to such great lengths to see to it that a
person gets a fair trial.  They really had
a great judge sitting on the bench as well.


The jury will be going into deliberation
on Saturday I think.  The attorneys
finished up today,  so will be interesting
to see the outcome.


It was very very interesting to watch,
tho it is very sad sad circumstances.




#12
I am thankful
that a lot of decisions got made about the
wedding this week,  and we really know
where and what we are doing for sure now.
What a relief that is..................

 #13
I am thankful
Hubby got his first whole paycheck.
Have to say that was fun!!




Well,  that is my thankful list 
for this week,


Hope you are looking for things
 to be thankful for too!!


Life doesn't always seem good, 
 but God is always good, 
and there are always things to
 Thank Him for........
sometimes you just have to 
ponder a bit,  but they are there, 
 Happy Pondering!! 


Thanks for coming by, 
 always love hearing from you,

Love, Hugs and 

Fourth of July Blessings,

Nellie

Recap of weekend and Monday

Good Afternoon Sweet Friends,

How was your Monday??

 and how was your weekend???

Our weekend was good, relaxing, restful,  rainy, and productive
 in an accomplishing sort of way, not so much a work way.

We still haven't gotten to mow our yard cause of the rain, 
 course, we so need the rain, so don't want to complain about
 that, but it is starting to look a lil like a jungle out there!!  lol

We watched "you've got mail" on Friday evening as we
 exercised,  and that is one of our favorite movies,  it is so
 cute,  and Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are just so great
 together.  Have never seen a movie by either of them
 that I didn't like.  I just love Meg Ryans perkiness!! lol

Then much to our thrill.........we finally got into see the
 lady,  guess I should say young lady, at the hotel to talk 
about the wedding plans.  Finally!!  Yea!!

Have to say tho, that.............

I was stunned...........we had only emailed back and forth 

about a dozen times, and in my mind's eye I had pictured a

 lady probably close to my age, since she said, her Father was

 gravely ill,  and then later passed away. Usually that would be

 about the age when one would normally lose a parent, and

she had said he was gravely ill,  that doesn't seem like term-

inology a young person would use.  My heart had gone out

 to her tho, because at any age it is hard to lose a parent.

I had told her we would pray for she and her family, and

we did!  Then we heard he passed away and I told her

again we would be praying and sent our condolences
 via email.

Turns out she is this beautiful vivacious, sweet,  young  lil
 blonde gal,  probably about 30 I would say,  and as soon as 

she knew who I was she hugged me, and said thank you so much

 for being so patient with my situation, and we had an instantaneous

 bond, and now my heart was with her more than before even, 

 I felt a sense of shock at her age,  and as she walked away for 

a moment I said to my Dee, is that her, still not believing my eyes,

 and she said yes, and then I felt a.sense of horror for her, that 

she has lost her Dad at such a young age. For some reason I

 felt like crying because she was in between the ages of my

 children, I guess,  and I could only imagine how they would feel.

  and I was thankful...........thankful for the fruit of the spirit of 

patience and gentleness, that God gives us as believers. 

 Thankful that I wasn't so worried about our Wedding plans

 and our circumstances, that I let that override the

compassion in my heart I felt for her!!

  God is good Folks!!

At another time, shortly after meeting, she said something

about that she would probably be there the night of the

wedding helping out,  and I said excitedly, oh, you'll be 

here, and she said yes, mam,  Lord willing!!  She is also

 a Southern Belle from Georgia and makes me wonder
if she isn't also a fellow believer in Christ.

We had a very delightful and successful meeting with her,

  and let me tell you God used her to show us favor once again.

  She was so incredibly helpful, and was full of great suggestions

and is not charging us for the use of one room, and then she

 is trying to get the fee waved on another area for us, and 

we never asked her to.............she just said she was gonna

 try cause she knew we were on a budget,  

(she knew our story as well.)

As we parted,  I asked her how she was doing,  and she

showed me her dad's dog tags, she had them around

her neck, this time I was struggling not to cry,  cause the

 one thing I have of my dad's is his dog tags, (another long

story)  and I asked about how her Mom was,  and she

 said she is having a really hard time, and began to weep, 

saying they were married for 40 years.

Again feeling a sense of kinship with her, since we ourselves

 have been married  for 40 years; I began to weep as well.

 She said, the house is so empty,  and we sensed that was

 very hard for her too, since she lived in Fl. and her Mom

 lives in Ga., and again we told her we would pray especially, 

 for her Mom.  She thanked us and seemed genuinely pleased, 

 She said I'm sorry I did mean to make anyone cry,  and

 we said, Ohhh, honey don't you worry about that!

I look forward to what the Lord is up to in this chance

relationship,  she really seems like such a precious

young lady.  So it will be fun working with her.

Today Mr. Sweepy and I have been cleaning,  altho

he does the sweeping,  I still have to change his cleaning

clothes and move things out of his way ............and

of course, put them back.

But it is like having a helper,  while he is sweeping I 

am able to do other lil details,  that I might not have

time for otherwise.  He is truly a blessing!

Also rearranged the family room furniture today too,

to try and get a lil more of a summer look............

took some before shots,  and will take some after

shots once I change around some of my accessories.

Hopefully, can show you some pics next week.


Had to come back and tell you that we saw a really
 heartwarming true story tonight that came from
 where else...........Netflix. 
 It is called "Something the Lord Made". 
 It is another Dr. movie but it is really good,  and will leave
 you crying, or at least wanting to............keep your hanky 
closeby just in case!!  We both highly recommend it!

Well, Sweet Folks..................

Glad you stopped by...............

Hope you are glad you did too!!

Remember.......  be kind and patient with those you come

 in contact with because every person you meet is fighting their 

own battle.............. and in the end you will be glad you did!!  

Love, Hugs and 

Kind and Patient  Blessings,

Nellie


Couldn't believe it.............when hubby went out to put
his stuff in the car this morning, our next door neighbor 
came over and said hey, someone is gonna be mowing 
our yards soon.  He should be here soon,  I have seen 
your car has been gone everyday and figured you must 
have gotten a new job,  so hired this guy today!!
What a blessing that was cause I told you it was
starting to look like a jungle.


 Hubby has been mowing his lawn too,  for a while now, 
 and we were so happy to be able to do something for
 him for a change cause he has done so many nice things 
us every since he moved in about 5 years or so ago.
He has been incredibly good to us many many times.
He, his wife and his daughter are all such sweeties,
and  we sure will hate to see them go!


God is Good,  All the Tme............

My first Metamorphisis Monday - Our bathroom reno and re-do Part 1

Good Monday Morning Sweet Peas,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!!

Ours was good,  and I will wait and tell you about it

tomorrow cause this is already gonna be a long post

with lots of pictures.

Just recently I came across these pictures and realized

Oh My Heavens,

I never showed yall the pictures of our bathroom  reno

and redo!   Sorry about that, especially to those of you

who have been followers for awhile!!

Think I was doing a Monday Manna series at the time 

and by the time I finished I just forgot all about them.

Better late than never,  I guess!   lol

This was the tile we started with and it was all over our floors

and sides amd back of our shower enclosure all the way up

to the ceiling.  So this was a huge project removing it all.

This is the shower stall after all the tile was
removed and hubby had done some plumbing
work and put in new wallboard.  This was
a big and time consuming job!!

This is the bottom of our step down sunken shower, and
a lil part of the bathroom floor. Getting this tile off was a
 real bear,  cause it was stuck right to the concrete, so
we basically had to bust it into pieces to take it out.
The tile on the walls also had to come out, but that
 part was a bit easier.
We had an unbeknowst  leak and one day I leaned on
the tile and it just caved in!!  Shock a roo~

This is the opposite side of the shower stall

 and under the window where the potty sits. 

 The water had leaked all the way behind the

 potty,  so hubby had to replace the wallboard

 there as well,  but this time since it wouldn't

be covered by tile,  he had to tape and putty

 it as well, to make it look like a nice wall.

  He had never done this before...........

but he did a amazing job,  and the drywall

was not as thick as the old drywall,  so that

made it even harder,  but it came out as

perfect as could be!

Where the gray wall is and a little passed
where the white is would be where the
seam was,  See how smooth and nice
it came out!!

After we finished the wall and got the whole

bathroom about painted,  we removed

our old potty and finished painting the wall

behind it,  and then commenced with tiling

the floor.  We had already tiled our dressing

room area years back, and had bought

the tile to do this room too,  just had never

done it,   so was I excited,  you bet!!

Here it is with the new grouted tile and
you can see the hole over there where
the new potty will go!

Here it is with the new potty,  and the new
blue walls.  This is a good representation
of the true color.  You will see some other
shades,  at times it was hard to capture
the true color.

Once we finished the bathroom floor,  we

started tiling the shower walls,  starting 

with the back wall first,  then doing the right

side then the left.  I have skipped a lot of the

process,  I know this gets boring but kinda

wanted to record it for us too!

All these shots are before grouting and show the 

fixtures being set in place.  You have to hold it

in place overnight with duct tape .....

or you will find it on the shower floor!!  lol

Hubby and I both worked on this part
of the project.

Here it is starting to come together, back wall now
 grouted, getting more exciting with each step.

Here it is with back and right side grouted.

This is really out of sequence but oh well........................

This is with the step down grouted and the bottom

of the shower tiled and waiting for the grout.

Here hubby is grouting the bottom tiles, and we are 

getting more and more excited as we are nearing

the end of this long and arduous process.

Now fully grouted with the new faucet and 
water spout.

New shower head,  and love these pretty decorative

tiles that we added!

This was the old shower curtain still,  but
we are done......................Yea!!
at least with this part, we will still have
the dressing area to do yet but it want 
require quite the hard work this portion did!!
Praise the Lord!!

We finished the tiling about a week before our

39th Anniversary.................so we decided to

get it all decorated and then not to use it until 

our Anniversary,  so it would be like an

 Anniversary present to ourselves.  

(that will be 2 years ago the end of  this coming

October -Our Anniversary is the first 

part of November.....

It  took so long to do it  because there was a lot of work, 
as you can see,  it was almost like rebuilding the walls
 and of course, hubby was working full time,  and then
 we had a family crisis in the middle of it

We absolutely love it,  and are very proud of our
handiwork everytime we go in there!

Here it is with a new rug

These are melamine plates that I bought at Target
 for $2.00 each. This is a very tight space and from
earlier experience I found that any thing easily
 breakable is not a good idea,  so thought these fit the
 bill,  these are on the wall across from the potty.

After the tile this is my 2nd fav part,  this wasn't really
what I planned for the window dressing,  but I wanted
to have it look at least finished until I did what I really
wanted and to have it nice for our Anniversary!
This was a shabby chic runner I bought at Target
years back so just decided to attach it to some
hooks and Well ah,  a new window dressing was
born..............I liked it so much,  it is still there!!  lol


This picture was taken from the doorway.

I had found this lil tabletop pc. with drawers at Walmart
for $4.00 and thought it perfect for the bathroom,
one drawer has soap, another a washcloth,  and another
hair conditioner.  The things I tend to forget when I get
in the shower at times!!  No more getting out of the
shower to get them,  just reach out of the shower and
pull it out of the drawer.  Has worked beautifully! 


I originally planned to paint it since it is black but
could never decide what color and the black looked
sort of dramatic,  so I just left it like that!


Anybody got any ideas for another color to paint it???


This shot was taken from straight in front of the potty!

This shot was taken from the shower stall.
 Almost can't see the black pc, 
The flower jars came out of a lil metal milk crate
like container,  there were 4 of them.  The 4th
one I used in the dressing room area,  which
you will see next week.

This was taken from within the shower
you can see a lil of the new shower curtain
I finally chose

Here is the total view.  Loved the lil shower hooks.
Round circles of pea green and edged in bronze
to match the shower curtain.  The curtain rod over
the window is also the bronze it looks like black
in some of the pics.  


It was hard to get great pictures in such a small
room,  but this is the best I could do............


Next week,  I will share the dressing room area,
it will be a lot more fun. I had been blogging awhile
 by the time we started that part,  so I did get some
good before shots too, and it was not as much
 hard work to do in that room,  and..........
 we were so thankful for that!!




Well,  hope you enjoyed your visit with me today,
sorry these pics have been so long in coming.


I am linking up to Susan at between naps on
the porch for Metamorphisis Monday!!




This will be my first time doing this.
So if you want to see more fun transformations
Click Here.


Have a Meticulously Marvelous Monday!!


Love, Hugs and
Transformational  Blessings 
Nellie