Nellie's Sweet Shoppe

Yesterday Nellie and I had a somewhat sad but enjoyable outing. We attended an open house for a sweet shoppe in Smithville. I had read about the open house in a local newspaper. What caught my eye was that this sweet shoppe was called " Nellie's Sweet Shoppe".  I felt Nellie and I should attend to see what kind of goodies they had and to get her picture in front of the sweet shoppe's sign. Nellie was delighted at the thought of treats and a photo op. We were not disappointed by either. As you can see several pictures were taken and the treats proved to be yummy. Pumpkin fudge was Nellie's favorite. A week or so ago she had pumpkin pancakes and has had many cravings for pumpkin since then. I, of course, always gravitate toward chocolate and nuts. I ended up with a pecan turtle however my request was for the cashew turtle. Now comes the sad part. The woman waiting on us became somewhat emotional as she explained to us the origin of "Nellie's Sweet Shoppe", which is probably why I ended up with the wrong turtle. The shoppe is named after her daughter Janelle or "Nellie" for short. Her Nellie had a cancerous mole on her knee that was removed. Many years went by and she developed another cancerous mole but by the time it was diagnosed the cancer was everywhere in her body and it finally caused her death. Family members got together and opened the sweet shoppe to help raise money for melanoma research and to distribute literature about this type of cancer. The open house yesterday was for this purpose. Nellie and I bought six raffle tickets. Nellie won a certificate to a beauty salon and I won three months of fudge. I get to go and pick out a pound of fudge for the next three months. Actually I will get the first month and Nellie will have to get the last two months. I forgot to mention we bought a caramel apple stripped with chocolate which we shared, grape flavored gummy penguins, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered sunflower seeds and caramel corn besides the pumpkin fudge and pecan turtle already mentioned but not mentioning the many samples we tried. I will mention that Nellie had TWO pumpkin fudge samples and I ate a mocha sweet. OOOPPS! It was sooooo pretty I immediately stuffed the whole piece in my mouth not realizing until it was too late that it had coffee in it.

Out with the Old and in with the New

Mom and I came home on Thursday. We arrived to a new sidewalk and new section to the driveway. They had torn it out before we left for Portland and it had rained a lot while we were gone so we thought it might have been to muddy for them to pour the driveway. Fortunately they were able to get it poured. It looks pretty good. They also mudjacked the front steps so they are now pretty level. Mom spent most of the day on Saturday power washing the sections that were not replaced. They had a lot of algae, dirt and mud, and other stains and now they are all cleaned up. It took her about 5 hours and 10,000 gallons of water!

They also replaced the pad by the back door and it is now attached to the foundation of the house. It also looks pretty good.

On Friday they came out and replaced the carpet in the living room. The red is now gone and the light brown is in. We got the handrail all painted black and in place. We need to touch up some places where the black is nicked upstairs and then that is done.

Now the task is to keep it all clean while it is on the market. The sign is now in the front yard, however, the house is not officially on the market until Tuesday.

The carpet is now in in the basement. The ceiling is finished, the doors are trimmed and all the vents are in place. We wish we had done this when we knew we were going to live here because it looks great. The basement is so quiet and comfortable now.

This is what was Mom's craft area. We also carpeted the stairway so once you go through the door to the basement, it is all carpeted. All that is left is a little touch up paint on the support posts and the basement is completely finished.