Painting Finished/Now Ireland!

I finally finished painting our house!  Yippee!!  I was determined to get it done before I left for my trip to Ireland, however I barely made it!  Next to Thru-Hiking the A.T., painting our house was probably the most challenging task I have ever attempted.  I learned a lot as I went along about scraping old paint, caulking and filling in cracks and holes, priming and painting!  I am enjoying being semi-retired and having the extra time at home to tackle such tasks!  Here are a few of the before pictures:

I took these photos on April 11th, the day the Construction Crew arrived to begin our carport addition.  You can really tell it is early Spring in Texas!

This morning, I went out and took the following  photos of how our house looks today!

We will have to ignore the "date stamp" on these photos!  Today is really 09/10/2012!  I was using our litlle Sanyo camera, since I have already packed our Canon camera, and I didn't know the date would even show on a photo!  We are planning on what kind of "pad" we want to put down under our carport.  Probably some kind of Pavestone.

Yesterday, Tom and I made the 7-hour (roundtrip) road trip to Rosevine Cemetery to honor my daughter Candace, on the second anniversary of her death, by placing new flowers on her grave.  The weather was absolutely perfect for a road trip!  The morning began at 56 degrees, for our two-mile walk, then we attended our Sunday School/Bible Study class, and then headed for Rosevine around 10:45 a.m. with gorgeous sunshine and mild temperatures. 

I had retrieved my luggage a week ago, and packed for Ireland, however when the cool front came thru over the weedend and I was reminded what 56 degrees felt like, I "exploded"  my packed suitcase today, and reevaluated my clothing for Ireland!  Switched out a few items, and now I think I am ready for my trip!  I am so excited!  I've never been "across the pond", so I'm looking forward to this adventure with my sister, Norma!  There are 31 people on this Tour, 25 of whom are from the East Texas area.  Only 36 hours from now we will be on our way to DFW Airport to begin the first leg of our journey to the Emerald Isle!  I will be journaling each day and plan to update this blog upon my return.