quilty chick

Some sewin' goin' on!

2011-08-28T17:45:00.015-05:00

I renewed my sewing mojo when I went on a weekend quilting retreat back in April. I took a Santa kit, to work on, that I have had in the wings since... the beginning of time more or less.

He turned out quite cute, if I do say so myself. I hung him haphazardly in the living room, in August, to see how he looked. Santa looked like it was too hot outside to have him on the wall. Now he is hanging comfortably in a closet... for another month or two. It felt great to get that quilt finished.

Santa was followed by a log cabin that was part of a quilt along at our local quilt store.

It is stripey and dottie and just wonderfully crazy.At this point I swore I would never do another log cabin as this is possibly the most un-square quilt I have ever made.

I quickly forgot that vow when I saw the coolest log cabin that is an American flag. I may have to make it for the marine. If he can fight for our country...I can surely suffer through another wonky log cabin, right?

Then I did 2 little tunics for my precious twin nieces.I have not sewn clothes since I was in college. I may not ever sew clothes again. These sweet little tops had shorts that went with them. I won't even go in to the comedy of errors that was me attempting... and then scratching the shorts idea.

Next on the agenda is making a slip cover for my darling daughter-in-law.
It if a funky junk store chair that I am going to slip cover with cotton seed bags. She is going to put it in her sun room. I am waiting until a day when I feel I have sufficient brain power to start that project. After the shorts debacle, my confidence is temporarily, I hope, waning.

These spurts of creative energy are usually followed by fits of rearranging and reorganizing of the Quilty Shack.

Can you tell it has been a scorcher of a West TX summer?

Here the little shack is earlier in the summer when the geraniums were slightly more happy and everything was a little less dusty.

There is always a plethora of animals hanging around the Q.S.Missy, ever in the center of activity.

Then Jake,...who earlier in the summer dug up my cute little flower beds in front of the Q.S., looking for a cool spot. Darling.

Of course Bianca......the sweet Bordie Collie who is in dire need of some sort of spa day.

Opening the door to the QS, always to be met by cluttered chaos that creativity generally creates.
Off to the left is lots of storage spots, my cutting table and dresser turned ironing board.The. Best. Junk. Store. Find. Ever.
Old metal school lockers. Spray painted pink, what else? The storage capacity of lockers is stellar.

Back up at the front, past the dresser, is my sewing machine. It is parked on an old wooden and enamel table that belonged to hub's grandmother.

Keep going to the left is a bulky cabinet with more great storage capacity...Keep in mind that this photo shoot was not staged. It is real life in the Quilty Shack...complete with pictures that have fallen off the wall and everything.

Next to incredible hulk cabinet, is my junk store (sense a pattern here?) cart, which I left in its original chippy yellow paint condition.
Above it is an old wooden ironing board which also belonged to hub's grandmother, that is currently being used as a bulletin board, if you will.

My rusty cart holds some serious essentials...

...an electric hot water kettle thing, Starbucks instant coffee and a Scentsy warmer to make things smell fab. A ridiculous amount of quilting magazines and an old school set of canisters, which were found at the junk store too. Why do you ask? In the canisters are some people snacks, along with kitty and doggie treats. You saw the unruly gathering of animals hanging around, and that was not even the half of them, they get hungry.

Missy has quickly caught on to the snack stash....and is obsessed. All the puppy treats were gone...so she polished off the kitty treats. Meow.

Lastly we have my newly appointed scrapbook desk, which is still under construction and organization efforts...I have not scrapbooked in some 3 or 4 years sadly, nor have I printed the 60,987 pictures on my computer. But, as you can see I am working on that. In theory anyway. Also you will see I painted the bathroom door with chalkboard paint. Good times.

Now, Missy is bored so I guess I better go.

School. Already?

2011-08-23T20:47:00.004-05:00

So, my last post was 6 days in to summer. Yesterday was the first day of school. Where did you go summer? I love summer because I love blonde rascal being at home with me. End of story.

Let's review his unwillingness to be photographed on the first day of school, shall we?

The sleepy scowl.
Followed by complete disinterest.
Ending with a smirk as he makes his escape and runs for the car.

On a side note, back to school time does give me hope that cold weather is scheduled to appear in the next few months. I am a winter girl. Bring on the cold and the dark at 6pm and the quilts to snuggle under and the fires in the fireplace and the hot chocolate and snow and rain and icy windshields and cold toes and....well all of it! West Texas has had a HECK of a summer. Over 100 degrees for some ridiculous record # of days. 50 or 60 days. Sweating is so unattractive. No rain....since almost going on a year now. Honestly. We have gotten a quick rain shower, 10 minutes at a time maybe twice this summer. It is bad. Brown, dead, ugly bad.

SO all you summer lovers (Mary) I have paid my dues to summer weather. It better snow, rain, sleet, hail whatever it has to do for a little precipitation in this parched country, this winter. And cold? Bring it. We have had extreme heat....so I feel like a little extreme cold is only fair. I'm just warning you. I have sweat like a stuck pig all summer, so conversely it is time to freeze the proverbial tushies off this winter. Mmmmhmmm that's right.

So let's talk about blonde rascal and how he is in the 6th grade now? Why does it go so fast? He is half way through his schooling....well K-12 that is, because he will be going to MIT or Harvard or Yale or wherever his little heart desires, except the University of Texas because we bleed Red Raider in this house.....but I digress. Thank goodness in this little bitty school that he attends, 6th grade is still elementary. My heart is not ready for jr. high. I have this one year left to make snacks for the class, gifts for the teacher, attend class parties....and I plan on fully embracing it!

Sunday at church, he went from Sunday School to Youth Group. Ack. My baby. The up side of that is that both hubs and I reminisce fondly about our experiences with our respective church "youth groups" growing up and how it holds some of the most fantastic memories. Oh the fun. In fact hubs is still very, very close to this day to the ~~band of thieves~~ friends from his youth group. We are excited for the good times in store for blonde rascal.

My Dad requested a showing of the first day of school pics so that they could see blonde rascal's new brace-free smile! Well as it turns out the first day of school pics were apparently too early in the morning to, well, smile.

Here is the brace-free smile from when we went to Schlitterbahn a few weeks ago...
That would be me, hubs, the marine, darling-daughter-in-law and a brace free blonde rascal getting ready to brave the water park... which I am hoping is a good excuse for why I sort of look like a drowned something or other in clearly the most unflattering swimsuit cover-up known to man which will promptly be donated to Goodwill. Ahem. But isn't my new daughter-in-love cute??!!

And finally for your viewing pleasure, Dad, a full on mouth view whilst at the orthodontist immediately following the brace removal....Charming, eh?

Sweet, Sweet Summer Time

2011-06-06T08:00:00.002-05:00

School has been out for one week. Bliss. This momma loves summer. I love not having a to stick to a stringent schedule and necessary bedtimes and homework. Last day of school, blonde rascal getting his honor roll medal. That's right my boy has it all, brains and good looks.

Now I must get you caught up on all the riveting occurrences that you really should know about...

*I had to laugh because I got some comments on my last post from people who had considered putting in a pool, and I have caused them to ponder on that idea. Here is the standard that you must accept if you decide to put in a pool... you have to digest and know as the gospel truth that it IS expensive and the upkeep is time consuming... always, every summer, no breaks. If you think the payoff is worth sinking your money and time into.....then go for it. If not then join a country club, neighborhood pool or make friends with other poor schmucks who have pools. Come visit me and swim to your hearts desire!

*Elmo is a baby daddy.

Sassy is the baby mama.
A fine couple, yes? They had 4 pretty babies. More on that later. We still can't catch the little rascals in order to photograph their cute selves.

*In April I went on a weekend quilt retreat with our local quilt store and it was dreamy.
Between LOTs of eating and laughing, I did get some work done. I'll show ya later.

*We took blonde rascal and his BFF to Great Wolf Lodge in Dallas for his 11th birthday.

My baby boy is 11?

He is my greatest joy in life.
In a fit of laughter on the floor, above. He is regular character, that one.
How is he big enough to be shooting guns?

Blonde Rascal's birthday is May 9th, which always hits on or near Mom's Day.
Which is fine with me. I mean, what better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with the little man who made me a mom?
Eleven? Yet in my mind, he will always be like this....
So, we were in Dallas for b.r.'s birthday and Mother's Day. On Sunday, Mother's Day the boys took me to Bass Pro Shop.Just exactly how many fishing lures and varieties of bullets are there? Painful is what that was.

That is all for now. I must go make elaborate plans our Father's Day trip to Dallas where we will be shopping at the largest quilt store Dallas has to offer....

Evolution of the swear word

2011-05-28T08:03:00.014-05:00

The alternate title to this post was...Swimming pool parts massacre.

Back in the day, before in ground swimming pools, swearing was a gentler sport. When was the first in ground pool? I should have googled that since, you know, I am bent on having an accurate and truthful blog. I am guessing early 1900's?

Before that date, whatever it was, swearing amounted to awwww shucks, durn, phooey, fiddlesticks, tarnation, crimeninny, cotton pickin'....

Install the first in ground pool and hello $%*@, !*##, @&$^&#, %+?!, #$}=*!

Have some mercy on the foul mouthed, potty talkers of the world. It ALL stemmed from the poor schmuck who had to maintain the first pool.

This is our 3rd summer living in this house. When we were looking at the house I was mildly worried about becoming a pool owner knowing they required a tad bit of maintenance. However, we really loved everything about the house and property so my pool apprehension got swept aside and we bought it.

Summer #1. By the end of the summer, whilst digging in the couch cushions for spare change to buy pool chemicals & parts, we were scratching our heads wondering just exactly how much grief an in ground pool could cause? Well, look at this and this post, if you are brave

Summer #2. Let's just say that hubs did have a really comfy retirement sum tucked away. Living in a box under a bridge in our golden years won't be so bad. We'll have such ~~torturous~~ happy memories of summers full of swimming!

Summer #3...which is right now in case you are confused. Took the pool cover off on Friday the 13th. That's appropriate. Admittedly, May 13th is waaayyy too late to be removing the pool cover but we have had a windy, windy spring. If you know West Texas, then you know what I mean. 50 mph sustained winds is sort the norm for a bad spring. So had we removed the durn pool cover earlier we would have been digging patio furniture, dirt (and lots of it), tree limbs, leaves and whatever else could have blown in, out of the pool daily.

On Friday the 13th I spent $ at the hardware store for chemical, salt, acid, etc... Understandable for the initial start up for the season.

I failed to mention that when we took the cover off, it was very swampy and nasty and terrible.

Not to worry. We diligently chemical-ed and vacuumed and back-washed and monitored that week and things slowly were looking up.

The following Friday it was back to the hardware store, because you just can't have enough acid at a time like this. Both to snort or shoot up (whatever you do with acid) AND dump in the pool. (Who is funny this morning?) Oh and salt. Saltwater pools love them some salt. You can't just go buy 10 of Mortons blue cylinders of salt at the grocery store and call it good. Oh no, we need mineral fluffy, fancy, super dooper, $ salt. Anyway another $ was spent last Friday.

However we had achieved a somewhat normal shade of blue and we were darn skippy proud of our progress. The water was cloudy but it was a blue you could find in a crayon box.

Wednesday morning. The cloudiness in the water was gone! We did it. The sun broke through the clouds.....Haaaaaaaleeeeeluuyah!!!

Wednesday afternoon a doozie of a wind storm popped up and the bottom of the pool was covered in dirt. Irritating but not the end of the world, just turn on the vac and all will be well again.

We innocently turn on the pump and backwash. The start up the vac. Sand starts pouring out of the jets into the pool. (Which is what happened the first summer when we had to drain the pool) So we begrudgingly take apart the sand filter, which is no cake walk. A part had come loose, hubs reattached it. Put it all back together. Dig as much sand out of the pool as we can. Turn it back on. More @$*$^@ sand blowing out the jets.

We savagely disassemble the filter again and same part had blown off.

We live in a small town with certainly no pool companies nor parts available.

Thursday I make the 180 mile round trip to San Angelo, home of our favorite family owned pool store. These folks are really nice and needless to say, have gotten to know us very well over the past three delightful years! I did not re-read the previous pool posts I linked to above, much too painful. So if you bravely read those and I am now repeating myself, I apologize...but the pool store keeps records in the computer of what you buy, your water readings, etc... My name in their computer is misspelled...Broke instead of Brooke. It, sadly, cracks me up every time I am in there. I won't let them change it.

Additionally, to add insult to injury on that trip to the big city I had to go to Lowes to buy PVC pipe parts. Hubs had sent me with a precise little list. Have you seen the PVC section at Lowes? For the love of pete I wanted to scratch my eyeballs out in frustration. I was already in a hyper--foul mood by the time I got to Lowes after the pool store...and then I had to paw through 45,000 PVC pieces parts.

Schedule 40, male coupling....what the tarnation is that? I was seething with anger when I left Lowes.

We had hopes for our bright young blonde rascal to go to college one day. Perhaps an Ivy League? Those hopes are dashed now. He will be in the box under the bridge with us. I spent his college fund that day at the pool store. Ever bought a new sand filter for a pool? Oh and a new booster motor for the vac too. It seems that sand in the lines screws all the bearings and such in a motor straight to poop.

Angry is what I am now. I am not a habitual cuss-er. I am nothing if not a genteel, refined, polished southern woman. Ahem. This pool makes my face turn red and steam blow from my ears. If there was ever a moment when I could just cuss like a sailor...it would purely pool related.

As I was leaving the pool store $ lighter, a fellow customer was in the store and I over head him innocently say y'all put my pool in about a month ago and now the water isn't looking so good. It took all I had not to drag him outside by his ear, violently shake him by the shoulders while yelling with tears in my eyes WHY, why would you do something so stupid as installing a #*%$& pool??

Instead I stood silently while the owner, who I am sure has a tidy retirement & college funds for all his children, said oh no problem 6 bags of blah blah, a case of blah blah and 12 bottles of blah blah will fix you right up. That will be $16, 493.

I get home from my 180 mile round trip at about 8:30pm and we commence to installing the new filter. At midnight after hubs worked like a champ at the installation, blonde rascal was a gem and a huge help to his Dad and I had entertained myself thoroughly with schemes of how we could get rid of the pool...dynamite, a heck of a storm shelter, giant flower garden... we slept like babies.

I like to call the above photo...the Clampets re-plumb the pool.

And the money shot....The million dollar pool part summer.

Here we have trash, empty pool filter sand bags.50lb bags and we needed 500 lbs. Ask me how my back feels.

Thankfully the pool gods were kind. Not running your pump for 4 days is generally a death sentence, the water will go green and that is not a good quality in this case. Luckily our water has stayed clear and now the filter is running.

Uhhhh....the booster pump for the automatic vac is not working but hubs thinks it might be an error in his wiring. So he is still figuring that one out.

(I paused at this point in my blogging and went to manually vac the pool.)

Guess what? Now the $&%# control valve handle won't turn. Sounds like it has sand jamming it up. Hmmm sand? How odd! So I can't turn the pump to filter. Square one? Hubs is out of town. I am on the verge of l-o-s-i-n-g it. Good news is I did call the only known pool boy in this town. Left a message. If he calls back and says he does not have room for another client I will scream and cry and cuss...out loud this time.

I am moments away from calling the realtor.

Come back soon to read more of this painful saga.

Sincerely,
Broke Brooke

Burning questions

2011-05-06T18:49:00.005-05:00

First of all I am irritated with Blogger. I don't know what has gone on in the past 5 months or so.... but I can't change anything. Not my font, not color, nada. Am I missing something? Do I need to download something? It used to be relatively easy to change. Does anyone know the answer to this? My blog needs a serious update & cleanup. However, I am pooh pooh-ing the whole situation because I don't have 12 consecutive free hours to figure out why I have no creative freedom with Blogger anymore.

Secondly, what does Queen Elizabeth carry in that purse of hers? For the record, I did get up at 4:45 am to watch the royal nuptials and was positively giddy about the whole situation. What can I say, but the entire thing was fabulous. I think Kate is stunning and a breath of fresh air. William is charming, Charles is a door knob, Camilla is a woofer, Harry looks like fun and Fergie's daughter's hats were just flat out bizarre.

Anyway, it seems like whenever I see the Queen, she has her purse. Her cute grandmotherly purse hanging in the crook of her arm. What on earth is in that thing? Receipts from Target? A Starbucks card? Keys to the palace? Her Jitterbug? (Kleenex goes without saying, as you cannot be a grandmother without them, amen?) Hubs thinks there is a James Bond-ish little gun in there. I vote for a package of peanut butter crackers. What say you?

Lastly, I have pictures of every minute detail from the last 100 years since I have not been blogging regularly. Bet you can't wait to see those! I perused through them just now...where to start? In an effort to stay on task with my burning questions theme....

Here is the marine on the Friday morning before his wedding. He is stationed in AZ, so he drove all night to get here. Understandably a nap was in order before the craziness of the weekend started.

Let's take a closer look....
There is a weapon in his waistband? (Probably not unlike the one hubs imagines QE to have in her dainty handbag.) During his nap, the day before his wedding, on our living room couch. Was he expecting an attack? Pre-wedding jitters? Of course one would have to think, what kind of a damper would a nap time gunshot wound place on the honeymoon?

Well, that is all. I declare with every quarterly post, as now seems to be my schedule, that I will post more often. I really like hearing myself talk, so I do hope to be posting more frequently....

In the meantime please tell me why Blogger is a butt and how to resolve it, what you think is in QE's purse and for the love of Pete, do tell if you had a weapon on your being on your wedding day.

The big wedding day arrived

2011-03-31T09:26:00.007-05:00

Here is my family, in the marine's last moments as a single man! He looks pretty calm, huh?

Our darling d-i-l was calm too. Nerves of steel, those two.

Then came the ceremony.

It is official!

After 10,000 pictures, it was time to eat cake.....

....and party like rock stars......

It was a fun, sweet, crazy day. However, I am glad it is a big happy memory now! Looking at pictures is fun....and no stress! Welcome to the family darling d-i-l!!

Goin' to the chapel....

2011-03-09T09:43:00.009-06:00

The Marine is getting married Saturday.

Hubs and the marine looking dapper.

Can I just say I am thankful I have boys. This wedding stuff has worn me smooth out. And I was only worried with the responsibility of the rehearsal dinner. I. Can. Not. imagine being the mother of the bride.

The shower was this past weekend.
Cute daughter-in-law to-be and me at the shower. (D-i-l needs a blog name...hmmmm.)
Whoa, the shower was a serious loot fest. They got everything they registered for at 4 different stores, and then some. Very blessed.

(I need to have a 16th year of marriage shower. I'm just sayin')

It is down to the wire now. I have lists on top of lists.
The guest bedroom looks like Hobby Lobby vomited all over it.

Due to Uncle Sam owning the marine, the wedding that was going to be in May, was moved (in January) to March 12. So we had 3 quick months to prepare. Living in a small town has made the task a little more challenging...having to drive 90 miles for anything other than what could be bought at W-Mart!

It has been a frazzled 3 months. It hit me yesterday morning while I was ironing blonde rascal's clothes for the weekend....The Marine is getting married. It suddenly jumped from this event that was running me ragged to my son getting married. A huge life event. Then the tears started rolling all over my ironing board.

The marine is my stepson, but has lived solely with us since he was 9. When hubs and I married he (the marine, not hubs) was 7. He was the cutest little thing and he worshiped the ground I walked on. He became a teenager and I did not think he was so cute anymore....nor did he worship the ground I walked on any longer for that matter! But through it all we stayed tight and not once has he ever disrespected me with "you're not my mom" as can happen in so many blended families. For that, I love the kid even more. In my heart he is my son.

Now he is approaching a milestone and I fear I will be a snifflin' blubbering fool at the wedding. I think I need to add a flask, matching my dress of course, to my list. Surely taking a snort from a flask is acceptable at a small town wedding, right? Think charming, like Steel Magnolias.

I am gaining a darling daughter and I pray much happiness over their union.

Should I mention that my washing machine went out a month ago? How is that for timing?
How about the fact that it went out the week before we were going to Mexico in September. (Read: this is the second time in 4 months that it has petered out.) Did I mention it is only approaching its 2nd birthday. We bought it new when we bought this house.

In September it was the main computer board that went out. Same part again this time. The repair man came a month ago, determining that it is the same part. He ordered it and it took 3 weeks to get the part. When he came to install it, the part was bad. Re-ordered another one. Still waiting.

Should I mention how terribly inconvenient it is to go to the bloody laund-ro-mat while trying to plan a yippy skippy wedding?

Oh, and how there is family coming to stay with us this happy weekend? Hope they are understanding of the roll of paper towels I leave by the shower for them to dry off with.

I will also say that one of the machines I was using at the laund-ro-mat yesterday malfunctioned mid-cycle. Completely true story. It seemed like a really good time to "go postal", if you will.

It goes without saying that I now have a flask that matches both my washing machine AND machine #14 at the laund-ro-mat.

Which leads me to my final point, very soon my name will be Brooke G. Whirlpool. Someone at Whirlpool is mere days away from me opening a can of you know what all over them. Won't be pretty.

But don't worry about me, I'm not stressed.

Finished Quilts of 2011: #1

2011-02-28T15:04:00.005-06:00

Quilting really is kinda funny, huh? Buy lots of fabric, cut it up and then sew it back together.

I finished the quilt for my daughter-in-law to be. The shower is this Saturday.
It is a Kaffe Fassett pattern called Quilt Romance.

She wanted red and turquoise so that is what she got, baby. It was an easy pattern.

Normally I quilt my quilts on my sewing machine. Which I am no good at, don't enjoy at all and downright dread. In fact it makes me want to cuss like a sailor. I got the name of an older couple in town that have a long arm quilter and they quilt for the public. I hired them. Best thing that ever happened to me. I took it on a Wednesday and got it back the next day. Glory be.

Is it too early to tell Santa I want a long arm quilter for Christmas this year?

Hello Beautiful!

2011-02-27T19:00:00.003-06:00

This was my Christmas present from Hubs. Isn't she divine? Her name is Pinky Lee. She took her maiden voyage today. Chocolate chip cookies, a lovely way to break her in, yes?
Blonde Rascal was very happy to meet her.

I think she is stunning.
Pink. I would like for all of my appliances to be pink. Hubs, however, probably would not dig that.

A big week for birthdays!

2011-02-22T19:04:00.012-06:00

Today is my adorable twin niece's first birthday! Woo hoo! Happy Birthday Hadley and Isabelle!!!Big sugar lumps of sweetness, those two are!!

Tomorrow is my wonderful Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!! The following is a picture of my me and Mom circa early 1971. How precious is that?

Truly visible depiction of the love of a mother. I have a picture of myself and blonde rascal in a very similar pose, when he is exactly the same age, circa 2000. That was in the stone age before digital, or at least before we had a digital camera. I was going to scan it and show it here....but said picture is in a frame and it is stuck! I will shred the picture if I try to remove it. Hmmmph. Anyway just trust me it is cute. And would have been super dooper cute to compare with the one of me and Mom. Hmmmph.

Finally today, in addition to my nieces, is another noteworthy family member's birthday...

Yep, it is true. Missy the wonder weenie dog turned 4 today.

Yes it is also true, we made a big deal and bought her gifts. Won't you please notice my dusty floor in the picture above?

She waddled around this morning trying to decide if she should tear up her new "baby" or chew on her new bone. She had no idea what she did to deserve the sudden bestowal of gifts. She is a brat, but we are ridiculously in love with her anyway.

There you have it, 2 days and 4 amazing women celebrating birthdays! Admittedly I use the terms "amazing" and "women" loosely when describing one of the birthday girls today...but would hate for her to feel left out. Brat.

2010 The year of the quilts: A Review

2011-01-30T16:25:00.017-06:00

In 2010 I was determined to get a lot of quilting projects finished. Gee, I bet every quilter in America makes that statement every year.

In the first 3 months of 2010, I finished one quilt project that had been lingering for way too long, made 2 baby quilts and a wall hanging..... as shown in this
2010 The Year of the Quilts post.

Then I finished a quilt for our bedroom. When we bought this house, I decorated the master bedroom around my favorite Ralph Lauren sheets. I wanted the room to be calm and serene.

By then it was summer time and my quilting mojo slowed way down.

I did manage to re-vamp and clean up the quilty shack though. Here it was at the last quilty shack viewing

I pretty much decided there was NO room for needless decor. If I could not use it for storage or function, it was out.

One of the biggest "duh why didn't I do this sooner" moment was to butt up another table to my existing sewing table. Pretty sure if I could squeeze a little bed and a fridge in here, I might never leave!

November rolled around I finished this Christmas flannel quilt.
The backing was a panel with cute vintage looking Christmas pictures. I think the line is called Kiddie Christmas and it is a Moda fabric.

We all fought for this one over the holidays. It is warm, warm, warm!

Forward to like 20 days before Christmas and I am sewing like a crazy, nutty, crack head woman trying to finish 2 quilts.

One for my sweet mother-in-law. I forgot to take pictures of it, so I had to take these at her house.

(Good grief, those pictures were taken with my clearly inadequate camera phone. You were thinking I needed to repeat my photography classes, huh?)

It was a turning 20 pattern. Easy peasy.

And I also made hubs a quilt. It was made with the Marines and blonde rascal's old jeans and cami's that the Marine wore in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He thinks I am the coolest wife ever. Naturally. Frankly, I had an ulterior motive....he is always cold and I am hot. I hate the heater being on and breathing in warm air. Now I just mummy wrap him in his quilt and turn down the heater. Mwwhahaaaaaa....

In the middle of all that I decided to make blonde rascal's 3 teachers, mug rugs. Like I had nothing else to be doing? That was a bizarre thought, but thankfully since they were so tiny they went together really fast. And I got brownie points for the semester!

That has me closing out 2010 with 7 quilts completed, one wall hanging and 3 mug rugs. Hmmmm wonder what 2011 will hold?

So many quilts to make, so little time....

Aperture, metering and histograms...oh my!

2011-01-29T18:30:00.002-06:00

Now that I am 40 (as I discussed in length, probably too much length, in my previous post), it surely won't be too long and my hair will start having a lovely blue cast to it, I'll start driving 25 mph under the posted limit, my pants will begin having a higher polyester content than natural fibers and my shoes will become more practical than attractive. I can accept that as my plight. However, I am not fond of the idea of my brain turning to mush. The brain is a muscle, yes? So it must be exercised!

We had a local photographer come to our house and take some family pictures before Thanksgiving. Very local in fact, she lives in the small town where blonde rascal goes to school, her twin daughters are in his class, etc.

I know, I know, family pictures...yawn. I'll stop now.

Thank goodness for cool options in photography now days, amen? We aren't stuck with getting our pictures taken in a cheesy J.C. Penney studio. Not to sound harsh JCP, but it is true. Your studio shots are severely goofy.

She was fun to work with and we were super pleased with the results. Carol McCowan photography, if you really wanna know.

It is a fact that I am deeply in love with my Canon Rebel. It is...my precious. It is smarter than I am, and I am not ashamed to admit that. It takes super pictures all by itself but I know that I am not using it to even half its full potential. The reason for that, is... well... even the Canon Rebel for Dummies book is over my head. It is some complicated stuff.

Much to my delight, my girl Carol teaches a digital photography class at our College on the Square. Which takes place...wait for it...on our little town square. Squeal!

One of my Canon camera loving friends and I signed up for Carol's class. We are now in week 3 of the 5 week course.

My aging brain has been thoroughly taxed. I mean, I thought a histogram was a medical procedure. Oh no...no it is a wacked out graph that tells you if your picture has lost detail in any of its light or dark areas. Or some such craziness as that.

I am so in awe of the capabilities of the camera, combined with the fact that with a little additional knowledge on my behalf could produce even better pictures. The technical information has become a little easier to process, in small bites. There is a lot of thought to be put into each shooting situation, but that will become a little more like second nature with time. Lots and lots...and lots of practice. And then, more practice. Thank goodness for digital. Learning photography with film would be SO inconvenient!

I tried to get my model to cooperate with my need to practice yesterday morning. Alas she was too tired. Her mornings are incredibly taxing. Her largest order of business each morning is building a nap nest in the couch.

Worthless wiener dog.

Photography class sums up my Thursday evenings. It fills my brain and gets the rusty neutrons firing again.

Then, every other Saturday morning, this morning in fact, I fill my heart.

With fabric and sewing and a room full of fits of laughter and wonderful women! We formed a little group at the local quilt shop, also on the square (squeal!), and we are each making a log cabin quilt. Mine is stripes and polka dots, in wacky colors. So fun.

My head is full and my heart is happy, I call that a good week.

Holy Mackerel!

2011-01-17T10:08:00.000-06:00

As a few of my kind friends pointed out in my previous post, my time line of events was missing one event. Yes, as it turns out I forgot to mention that between Thanksgiving and Christmas I had a birthday. I am pretty sure that had it been just another run of the mill birthday, my kind friends would have not even brought it up. However, since I turned 40, yes 40, 40, 40, 40...they felt compelled to not let it slide. Yes, kind friends indeed. Like Mary, my dear friend who is like 24 and to add insult to injury looks like she is 17. Yah, just wait Mary, if I can still see to type by the time you turn 40 I'll be ratting you out too! And then there was Linda, my faithful lifelong friend since jr. high. She ratted me out, well because she has lots she could blackmail me with, and also she shares in my pain as her 40th birthday was 3 weeks after mine.

40. There it is all out in the open now.

I am sure if you had asked me 20 years ago, my opinion of 40 was practically one foot in the grave.

Now, I would honestly not want to go back to 20 for all the money in the world. OK maybe better said this way, I would not mind having my 20 year old hottie tottie body combined with my 40 year old brain and heart.

I feel like I am the real me now. Real experiences to learn and grow from, 40 years of beloved friendships, always the possibilities of new friendships along the way, cherished memories and my heart full of the people I love.

Life is great at 40.

The best perk of growing older as I see it, is that you can speak your mind. I plan on losing more and more of my filter as each year passes. Life is too short. By the time I am 90, they will then be chalking it up to senility and that is fine with me.

My other thought on growing old is that you MUST maintain a cool haircut. Once the style goes, it's all over people. Again, at 90 while I am spouting off my crazy opinion, I may only have 20 hairs on my head but they will have a sassy cut. Imperative.

My good (over 40) friend LoriusedtohaveablogEaton and I often discuss hair via random text messages. It is a highly intellectual friendship we share, don't waste your time trying to understand it. Anyhoo, here is a run down of our worthy opinions....Kathie Lee Gifford clearly needs to cut that nonsense off. Every female on any and every version of "The Real Housewives" need to cut off their over processed manes. And finally Lori threw Sandra Bullock's long do at the Golden Globes last night under the bus. Just so you know.

So, back to me and my 40 year old self. I have a good haircut, a quickly diminishing filter and I am healthy (thank God for that). I had my yearly physical last week and chose to see the nurse practitioner as it is SO much easier to get in and see her, rather than wait 3 months for an appt. with my dr. and then wait in the exam room for an hour.

She made me get lab work done. I am a needle phobe and my veins roll. Blood draws are never a barrel of monkeys for me. I'll save the story for another day about how they had to stick me twice to get a vein and I was on the verge of passing out, sweating like Lindsey Lohan in church. The little lab tech was screaming out for someone to get me some orange juice. While I was screaming just find a vein you dimwit! I inherited this needle weakness from my father. Thanks Dad! Well, I guess I just told you the story that I was going to tell you another day. Nevermind.

Anyway, my lab results came back with a vitamin D deficiency and bad cholesterol at 108. So I am now taking vit. D and Omega 3, for my cholesterol. I do feel the nurse practitioner is being a little over zealous with the high cholesterol thing, I mean the American Heart Association hardly sneezes at 108. Better safe than sorry I guess. Do you know what Omega 3 consists of? Mackerel, anchovy and sardine. Blech. The 2 soft gels I have to choke down daily are the size, and coincidentally smell similar to that, of a small rodent.

I believe the cholesterol thing is also hereditary, thanks for another one Dad! I mean I honestly do eat low fat and exercise. OK so, I was running 3 miles a day for the first 9 months of 2010, until the day we boarded our plane to Mexico in September. You know, to eliminate as much beach jiggle as possible. Have not run another step since then. Well, unless you count the occasional spontaneous footrace I challenge blonde rascal to. Gotta show that punk who is boss every now and again.

Then after Mexico hubs and I did sort of a clean eating program for 3 weeks and I lost 12 lbs. All of this to say come on cholesterol, cut me some slack! I feel confident I will beat it though, what with my mackerel/anchovy/sardine breath and all.

Now that you have wasted 3 minutes of your life, that you can never get back, by reading all of this complete nonsense, I will stop.

Do come back though. I am taking a photography class AND joined up with a quilting group that I am sure you are dying to hear about! Hopefully for your sake this will be the last time I speak of Mackerel and good haircuts, in the same blog post anyway.

Now leave me a comment and tell me how you feel about getting blood drawn.

Cheers to 40!

Merry Christmas!! Oh wait...it's January.

2011-01-12T09:55:00.007-06:00

Christmas Eve, blurry photo, but at that point I was feeling rather blurry myself. As in tired, weary, worn out.

Well, no rest for the weary, as they say and as always the entire Christmas season was wonderful despite the lack of sleep. Full of family and fun and cherished memories!

Since one of my most recent blog posts was chocked full of Halloween festivities, I must recap for the sake of keeping the blog chronologically in check.

November brought our 15th anniversary. I had an adorably talented local chic (thanks Ashley!!) make a mini-wedding cake for us. It was so fun!That's some cake baking, decorating fabulous-ness right there! Almost too pretty to eat....almost.

That weekend we took a trip to San Antonio for a little celebration get away.We remembered The Alamo.

Had an all around great time, just the two of us. I love this man. He is my rock, my bff and he holds the key to my heart! I am blessed by having him and honored to be called his wife for the past 15 years!

Next up on the time line....
The Marine got engaged! Wedding March 12, 2011. Jeepers, right around the corner. Darling girl and we are thrilled to be welcoming her into the family!

Followed of course by ThanksgivingYes, I decorated for Christmas BEEEFORE Thanksgiving and it was the best thing I have ever done. Loved it. Yes, blonde rascal was in his pj's for turkey day dinner. Yes, despite how it looks we did have more to eat than pink jello salad. It was a nice, easy going T-day since it was just the 4 of us.

After Christmas blonde rascal and I drove to Houston to spend a week with my family. The best part of that was getting to be with my ridiculously cute and fun twin nieces!Seriously folks, not much more adorable could they get!

The year ended by B.R. and I driving back from Houston on NYE. Hubby left home that morning to go to a roping in San Antonio, so it was just me and blonde rascal.
This is how an 8.5 hour drive from Houston to Snyder treats me. It is not pretty, my road hag look. Anyway we partied like rock stars that night and made ice cream sundaes. Blonde rascal clearly got hopped up on whipped cream. We were asleep in bed by 9:45. Glamorous life.

OK so that catches me up. I'll be back around Easter time for another re-cap. Kidding (I hope) as I do miss blogging and am aiming at being a more regular blogger!

Life in Grace

2011-01-04T17:00:00.012-06:00

Funny thing about blogging is that once you start reading someones blog you feel like you know them, even if you have never personally met. I have fallen in love with Edie at Life in Grace! She is completely hilarious, a dedicated mother and wife, a talented decorator, an all around smart and spunky girl...and that is just the tip of the iceberg! My favorite of her posts is this one. Mainly because her decorating style is so amazing...funky and outside the box. Also because that is soooo something I would do, take a ten minute plan and turn it in to an all day house re-arranging! Anyway today is her birthday! She is in need of an extra special "blog hug" this birthday as her home burnt to the ground the Tuesday before Christmas. I pray for her family the peace that only God can provide.

The gamut of emotions that must follow that experience are unimaginable. However as Edie said in her post, the only thing that mattered was that her entire beautiful family, dog included, got out completely unharmed. Thank God.

My heart broke for her as I read her post and at the same time made me think of my family's safety in the event of a fire. I went through the house and replaced all smoke detector batteries. I decided I would do that every New Years and 4th of July. Ordinarily we only replace them when they start chirping and you want to hit them with a baseball bat!

Then Blonde Rascal and I did an emergency drill in his room. I reiterated that should he ever hear the smoke detectors go off in the night, he is to immediately climb out the window. Not ever try to come through the house looking for us. We set an outdoor meeting area by the pool. Then I went outside and coached him through climbing out his window. Of course that turned humorous as he struggled, wiggled and fell to the ground! But I slept better that night. While our "drill" was light hearted and silly, I feel certain that in an emergency the details of how to get out of the house safely would come to his mind.

Then in a dreadful flash of some sort of teenage foreshadowing he decided to try to climb back in the window!I told him in no shape, form or fashion did he need to master THAT skill. That had us giggling again as climbing back in was far more cumbersome than climbing in!

As it turns out Jake wanted to climb in the window too...

Pray for Edie and her sweet, sweet family as they travel the emotional road of re-establishing their home. Then, go change your smoke detector batteries and make an escape plan. I say thank you Edie for sharing this journey with us, as your story may end up saving another family.

I was in the quilty shack today!

2010-10-31T18:46:00.008-05:00

I wasn't sewing though.I was using these. Don't worry, all of my digits are still attached.

I SHOULD have been sewing, but alas I was rearranging. I need to go to furniture re-arrangers anonymous. Seriously. Last week in Sunday School I suggested we rearrange the furniture. So we did. It is like if I feel the furniture would work better a different way, it will just eat away at me until it is done. Freak show, I know.

So some ideas had been lurking around in my head about the optimal layout in the quilty shack and they had to be acted upon...post haste.

I'll try to take pics tomorrow for a little reveal.

Here is Alvin on the quilty shack porch...Nothing says sewing room more than a napping cat on a quilt right?

There was a bake sale at blonde rascal's school last week. I made chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Oh my.

The cookie dough inside ends up not raw but not cooked either....sort of in between the two. Delightful I tell you. Kids go nuts for them. I got the recipe here. Only difference being I used a cake mix, canned frosting and that Pillsbury break apart cookie dough.

Last night was the rowdy, sugar crazed, exhausting fall festival at blonde rascal's school. Is it just me? I can't wait for that thing to be OVER every year.

Here is B.R. and his buddy the grim reaper. B.R. was an FBI agent. See his little secret agent ear piece? Seriously, we go all out around here.

Gosh, looks like our brave agent is taking out a sniper in the school gym rafters or something.

By the way all you people with daughters, check out this costume....
It was Volleyball Barbie. So cute. The shower thing was fun too.

In other news, we adopted another stray kitten.
Scrappy. Look at that cute little booger. We take all the barn cats we can get. Barn cats= less snakes. Amen.

Look who is driving the tractor?
Yes, he is 10. Yes, that would be his father who let him do that. His mother was in the house and unaware that her baby was driving a large farm implement.

And here he is driving cattle!
Or pushing them or moving them or whatever it is called.

My goodness I love that boy.

Brain Drain.

2010-10-18T09:04:00.010-05:00

I have nothing to say really, but I miss blogging so when I have nothing specific to say I think I will just ramble. Flush the brain, if you will.

Blogging is time consuming. Amen? Especially with pictures, that whole uploading thing is for the birds. So no pictures today.

I love this time of year. SO much. The cooler weather just makes my heart go pitter patter. Pumpkin scented candles are the best thing ever. The "fall back" time change? BRING IT! Although it seems like it is happening so much later in the year, did they change it? Dark at 6:00, love it. Candle burning, little lamps on all over the house, snug as a bug in our cozy home. Makes me happy!!

In wildlife news this week....I killed a snake with a hoe, got stung by a wasp on my finger (which incidentally in case you are wondering, a scorpion sting hurts worse than a wasp) and we were woken up in the ungodly wee hours Sunday morning by the outside dogs incessantly barking at something that was growling.

When we were leaving for church, the silly doggies greeted us with porcupine quills in their muzzles.

Sunday afternoon was spent wrestling dogs to the ground and yanking quills out with pliers. Well, hubs and blonde rascal did that. I have a weak stomach and cannot partake in activities like that.

I am going to decorate for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving!!! Although I'll probably not put up the tree until the day after T-day. I love Christmas decor and it just really sucks to put it up after T-day and then take it down 3 weeks later. Last Christmas was our first in this house but we went to TN for Christmas so I pretty much only put up the tree last year. Christmas decor in a new house, that's exciting! So that's that.

I bought a Spanish nativity while we were in Mexico. Love it, a lot.

Equally riveting, I bought panty hose this weekend. I think it has been 10 years, if not more, since I bought/wore panty hose.

**We lived in Cleveland for a few years during my teen years(Dad's job transfer, and then back to Houston) where panty hose are referred to as nylons. Likewise in the south carbonated beverages are all lumped together and called "Coke" and in the north "pop".... you guys vs. y'all. Yankee/southern folk language barriers, that's a good topic for another day, yes?**

I did not buy them to wear. Does anyone still wear them? Obviously someone does, because CVS had a stellar selection, I must say. I bought them to cover the cracked pool strainer basket which allows leaves and crap to go through the basket and then into the strainer in the pool pump which then slows down the filtering process thereby making the pool green and the vacuum not work and generally pissing me off in a big way AND pool strainer baskets cannot be bought in this small town they have to be ordered, meaning at this point in the game I will just buy panty hose(nylons) and get a new basket next summer.

How do you feel about run on sentences?

Pinky swear to me that you will never lose your mind and have a pool put in your yard? Or in our case, buy a house with a pool already there. Please save yourself. However, it does feel reeaally good to jump in the pool after mowing the grass in July. Fully clothed right from the mower to the pool. I think honestly the best option would be to have a pool boy. A pool boy AND a yard boy. I'll work on that, and a new strainer basket, for next summer.

I am going to make 2 quilts as Christmas gifts this year. However I am going to make a wall hanging and finish another quilt BEFORE I start the gifts. I said it out loud so I am now accountable.

OK just one picture. Because well, that dang weenie dog is so cute.

The men folk were roping yesterday afternoon and Missy was doing what she does best....bossing. Bossing the steers, horses, humans, other dogs, cats.... the world is hers. She rules it in no uncertain terms. Thank the heavens above that she sleeps inside because had she been outside with that porcupine? Her crazy vicious little sassy weenie self would have fought to the death and she would have been covered head to toe with quills.

All righty then, I feel lighter now letting all that worthless information out! Off to turn on the pool vacuum. Praying to the pool gods that we can put the cover that S.O.B. this week. Sorry, but I'm keeping it real this morning. Stream of consciousness thing.

Now please leave a comment, if anyone has really stayed with me this far in this ridiculous post. Leave a comment telling me when the last time you wore panty hose was OR if you have an extra pool strainer basket you could send me OR if you have ever been stabbed by a porcupine quill OR admitting that my weenie dog is cuter than your dog.

Best week evah.

2010-10-04T09:17:00.010-05:00

A year and a half ago hubs and I pulled up roots and opened a new chapter in life in a small town. A small town 90 miles away from the city where hubs was born and raised, where I have lived since 1989 when I started college and where blonde rascal was born.

We started a new business, working our fingers to the bone to make it work. Blonde rascal started in a new school, a tiny, tiny school much different from the huge school he had attended.

We sought God's direction in this new chapter and really have felt His hand on it the whole time. Our business has been even more successful than we could have imagined. Blonde rascal adores his tiny school and friends. We found a great church, the kindest people and some priceless friends.

This group of friends, 3 couples, wholeheartedly adopted us and welcomed us into their motley crew!!! They have befriended us and loved on us like we were old friends. We have been so blessed by having them as we started out new in town.

The best news is that they have gone on tropical vacations together the past 2 years. Since we got voted into the gang, they invited us to go along this year!

Last week we spent 7 nights and 8 days in Mexico. The Mayan Riviera.... Playa del Carmen, right on the Caribbean.
Boy we know how to pick friends right!

Fellow bloggers please know that before you die, you must go to this resort... Secrets Maroma Beach.

(All inclusive resort and airfare at a very VERY reasonable price, booked through www.cheap caribbean (dot)com. By reasonable I mean when you divide out meals (LOTS of eating!), drinks, airfare, lodging for 7 nights...it is amazing, I don't know how the resort comes out ahead)

We got off the shuttle from the airport and walked into this exquisite lobby
Where we are immediately greeted with a glass of champagne and a cold towel lightly scented with lavender. I'm not gonna lie, it's hot in Mexico so that towel felt super good.

We checked in and walked further, passing by and partaking of the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies sitting out, entering into this gaawgeous main lobby area.
It sucked to be us, right?

Then it was off to our room. It was beautiful.

Hard to decipher in this picture,

but this is the spa tub in our room, partitioned off from the main part of the room by that little curtain. Curtain that was gently blowing in the Caribbean breeze. The breeze was blowing in from our open patio door.Which led out into our private swim up pool. This little pool connected all four of our groups rooms, which I have to say was undeniably the highlight of the trip. Our gang had the most ridiculous fun in this pool. The hysterical laughter echoing out of that little pool was no doubt heard across the resort!

It was dreamy. Worth every relaxing, soothing, gorgeous penny (or peso as the case may be) that it cost!

The last hoorah of summer...or The Griswold's take New Braunfels!

2010-08-27T20:56:00.010-05:00

We snuck in a quick end of summer trip last weekend, getting home literally the day before school started.

We loaded up the family truckster and hitched on the (new to us) travel trailer. It was our maiden voyage for our little travel trailer.

There she is our home away from home! Let me tell you, it was $90 total for 3 nights in the RV park. Sheesh, where have you been all my life trailer?
We of course brought Missy the wonder doxie, no family trip is complete without her.

She was the trailer park queen, a coveted title no doubt, with her cute self. She got comments everywhere we went..."She is beautiful"/"What a pretty little dog" / "Is that a Dachshund?"

Some fellow campers at the park had a Dachshund and as they walked by our spot with their short haired doxie one of them said "Look there is a hairy weenie!" To which, of course, blonde rascal and I giggled and snorted. Guess who has a new name added to the long list of endearing things we call her?

(She did get knocked down from her trailer park beauty queen, big head status today when the lady who cleans our house asked if Missy was pregnant! Wha...???? Why no, she is just fluffy, and big boned and she has a great personality and she makes her own clothes...)

Also along with Missy in our humble trailer was ZZ. You have not met ZZ yet, he is a new addition to the family...
Apparently no trip is complete without him either.Nobody asked if he was pregnant.

(ZZ is short for ZZ Top. Don't ask me.)

Friday morning we headed out to Schlitterbahn. First the fellas checked out the park map online so we could make our plan of attack.
RV parks have wi-fi. Sheesh. $90, who knew?

Schlitterbahn admission was significantly more than $90, but who's counting?Hubs and blonde rascal in the lazy river. The only picture I got...camera and water park don't really go well together you know.

It was fun, fun, fun. We had such a great time and were completely exhausted when we left that evening.

The next morning we floated the Comal River. By the by, our swanky RV park was right on the river.
That was ridiculously fun. Good times, great memories.

My sunglasses are on the bottom of that river.

Based on the adventures of those 2 days I feel I should give pause and discuss the importance of females getting a swim suit that appropriately covers and holds in all fat, jiggly parts, stomach, buttocks, bulges...that no one wants to see. Really ladies, have some respect. None of us are perfect but if you are pushing 350 lbs., I feel like it is obvious that a bikini is not the most flattering choice. Yes? I digress again...

Anyway RV park life was fun, relaxing and a great family getaway.

Toasting marshmallows....

Grilling burgers right next to the neighboring trailer and their sewer poop chute hose hookup. Dinner's ready!! Yum!

It was incredibly fantastic to be with 2 of my favorite guys (and the dog...and the hamster) for a fun weekend before the craziness of school started up again.

New school year, same emotions....

2010-08-23T10:01:00.005-05:00

I walked into blonde rascal's room this morning at, after a lazy summer, a shockingly early 6:45 and said Good morning, wake up for your first day of 5th grade!...... I swallowed the lump in my throat as I thought 5th grade, how can that be when I could so vividly see in my mind walking into his room and seeing a happy, chubby baby smiling back at me from his crib like it was yesterday?

I am always sad when school starts, not only because I have to realize my "baby" gets older and older, but also I so enjoy summer just hanging out with the little man and hate to see it come to an end. He is for sure a bright spot in my every day!

Enough pictures Mom!! He took the camera and decided Jake would make a good subject....

I guess I can hang out with Jake today, but that's just not the same....even though he is pretty cute!

Blonde rascal was excited. His teacher this year is super kind and nurturing, a real sweetheart.

I left his classroom without hugs and kisses, like I used to get in his early school years. That would be SO uncool now. He was happy to be there. That makes me happy too.

I think I will go kiss Jake. He is very free with giving kisses!

News worthy

2010-08-16T16:45:00.004-05:00

So I have been MIA all summer. It has been a great summer, a busy summer, but sooo fun nonetheless. School starts a week from today and I am dreading it! I like having the little man with me all the time.

There is so much to say about our summer.... I may never have to time divulge all that information. However there are those instances where something happens and it MUST be blogged about A.S.A.P. You know, like a to die for recipe that must be shared, a monumental family event, a super cute new haircut, a fantastic find at the junk store.....

OR.....

How about a scorpion in my shorts this morning that stung the everlovinghell out of my tender inner thigh/lower buttocks area?

That is a blog worthy event if I have ever heard one.

Yes sir, in my shorts. That's what I said. While I was in my shorts too, mind you. Me and a scorpion.... sharing my khaki shorts. Cozy, huh?

How in the name of Pete did that happen you ask? You know I am going to tell you.

It all goes back to my mom telling me to pick up my clothes when I was a kid. Should of listened. You see there was a lovely pair of khaki shorts, on the floor of my closet and I chose to wear them today. Yes they should have been put back in the drawer after I wore them last, hindsight is 20/20.

I put on said khaki shorts after getting out of the shower. Wore them for a good 15 minutes before there was a devilish horrible stinging in my britches! That is the part that makes my skin crawl...that dang vile creature was hitching a ride in my drawers whilst I was putting on makeup and such. Nightmarish honestly.

I went to pull the trash bag out of the kitchen trash and obviously bent in such a manner that was not pleasing to Mr. Hitcharideinmydrawers.

Instantly there was this fire burning trauma going on in my shorts and I was momentarily dumbfounded by just what exactly was going on. I commenced to yelling and stomping. It was a very painful intense burning, so I pretty quickly had a horrified good idea at what the culprit was and shucked my shorts in a mighty fast manner. In the kitchen no less, all the while both blonde rascal and Missy the wonder mini-doxie stood mouth agape staring at the spectacle I was obviously making of myself.

As I flung my shorts, the dastardly scorpion fell to the ground where in a blind searing pain filled kung fu moment I stomped on it with my full body weight. I did have flip flops on thank goodness.

Then I grabbed an ice pack out of the fridge and waddled over to the ottoman, in my underwear, in front of blonde rascal.... and sat my left cheek on the ice pack.

It still burns 6 hours later, thank you very much.

I told blonde rascal I'd pay for his therapy later in life. I can see him laying on a therapist's couch in his young adult years mumbling..."my Mom..... hollering....underwear...... ice packs...." Poor kid.

Mog

2010-06-13T18:28:00.003-05:00

Obviously I am on some sort of monthly blogging thing now. So, I give you my monthly log...Mog if you will.

I have so much more to say but apparently not enough time. You know, important things...like how much money we have spent on pool chemicals, rattlesnake sightings, cool patio furniture from the junk store, how much I adore summer with no schedules. The list of totally irrelevant information I could be forcing on you on a daily basis is limitless. Unfortunately I am not organized enough to blog daily.

Today all I have the energy for is a story from Sunday School. Don't worry I won't be getting all theological on you. When blonde rascal came out of his SS class this morning he was totally fired up because two girls, sisters no less, completely lost their cool and starting fighting over a sticky note in their Bible during class. He said it was off the hook....screaming, crying, slapping. He stated, for the record, it was the best SS class ever.

Does this mean he will be amused by mud wrestling when he is older? Whatever. If unruly girls keep him looking forward to church, then so be it.

The return of the phantom blogger

2010-05-08T19:15:00.008-05:00

My Dad keeps reminding me that it has been over a month since I have blogged. (It is so nice to have a fan!)

A month? Does time always fly this fast or am I getting old?

At the end of my last riveting post, we had just returned from NC. Let's take it from the top since then....

1. Easter. Jesus lives! And obviously less important but somewhat noteworthy for the sake of killing time....

A giant chocolate rabbit to keep blonde rascal whacked out for days...
Coloring of the eggs. You should know that this one says "Mom rocks"
The holiday would not be complete without the jelly bean pooping bunny. I'm not gonna lie, it's funny every time.
2. I did a re-decorating re-vamp on blonde rascal's room. I don't have any "after" pictures yet, so it is pointless to continue that conversation. Other than of course to further justify why I have been absent from blog land.

3. In case you just stumbled across my blog (lucky you) I'll give a quick precursor to #3. We moved to a small town a year ago and hubs started a used car business. We are equally blessed and thankful that the community has embraced us and the business has taken off. Unfortunately that took my willy nilly part time involvement in the business to a full time status. (Cutting out way too much of my goof off time!) Now, hubs got a taste of this entrepreneur stuff and got all crazy, bidding on an auction of 150 FEMA trailers. Now we all work 900 hours a week. Again, we have been blessed and the customers are coming out of the woodwork to get these travel trailers. That is the main reason I am MIA. I will have to devote a post to the trailers... fun times! (P.S. if you are in the West TX vicinity and need a TT give me a shout.)

4. I like Vanilla Ice. That has nothing to do with why I have been absent, but I felt like getting it out there. Word to your mother.

5. Another issue, again nothing to do with my absence but just go with the stream of consciousness right now please, is my oven. More specifically the timer on the oven. When we moved here a year ago and did a little kitchen remodel on our new house, we got a new oven. Maytag. They are generally known for quality products yes? Well the stupid timer on said Maytag beeps 3 times in a row when it is done...and that is all. Done, will not beep again ever. Is it just me or is that wrong? Granted continuous beeping is somewhat annoying, but how about beeps at intervals until turned off? I NEED more beeps in order to not burn dinner.

Back to my original purpose....

6. The Marine got to come home on leave for about 2 weeks.

He was glad to get to drive a horse instead of an armored bulldozer!
Did you ever wonder where the term slinging snot came from?....Now you know. That steer needs a kleenex.

Or what a modern day woolly mammoth looks like?....
I digress.

We were so glad to have him home, he deserved some time off after fighting in Afghanistan.

#7 I have been working on the porches and trying to get flowers planted, in my spare time. Again, no "after" pictures so that post will come later.

Incidentally while sprucing up the porches/yard, I droped an extremely heavy bottom to a bird bath on my big toe. I have had the bird bath for like 7 years. The bolts rusted and fell apart. We re-bolted the top to the bottom, and then it got hit by the lawn mower & fell apart again. It has been in the garage for like 2 years because I am cheap and bird baths are not, I refuse to get rid of it. So I glued it together last week with some E6000 wonder glue that bonds anything. Or at least that had been my experience with that glue until I picked up the bird bath and the bottom smashed my big toe right in the joint. Ouch. I got a big gnarly bruise. I thought I was beginning to see the likeness of the Virgin Mary in the bruise. In which case I could have sold pictures of it on E-bay, making some big moolah. Unfortunately, it ended up looking more like Papa Smurf.

The bruised toe has caused me to run all gimpy on the treadmill, which in turn has cause all kinds of weird blisters/callouses, skin peeling. I am in dreadful need of an intervention by way of a pedicure. No time for that......

#8 We went to the car show in our little small town. Blonde rascal took a friend from school.Beautiful cars...
Hot Wheels races....
Trophy for winning a coloring contest....
And the real crowd pleaser....The tire burn out competition.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you the burn out competition...
Nice.

The next competitor had a bumper sticker on his tailgate that summed up the whole event....
Nice.

Man, I am tired just reading all of this nonsense. I hope to be back soon. Maybe tomorrow? It IS Mother's Day tomorrow after all, so I will exercise my right to do nothing, but blog if I so choose. How else am I going to get all this useless information out of my head, huh?

Welcome home, hero!!

2010-03-31T08:46:00.007-05:00

We loaded up the car early last Wednesday and drove to North Carolina. West Texas to North Carolina. I will spare you the details of how grueling and devastatingly long THAT took.

After a flight around the world from Afghanistan, The Marine was scheduled to be back at Camp Lejuene around noon on Friday.

They had a welcome area set up in a maintenance bay on the base. Lots of eager family and friends waiting for their soldiers!How precious is that little guy waiting for his daddy?

Blonde rascal was anxiously awaiting his brother's arrival too...
There was some cool machinery and things that go boom for us to look at while passing the time.

Some brass walked around and met the families and thanked us for letting him borrow our son.That was pretty nice, we thought.

They told us the bus was on its way. They had to stop first at the armory to turn in their guns (thank goodness) and then go to medical and get blood drawn. Finally that was done and here they came.

I couldn't help snapping a picture of this little girl in her cute dress...obviously waiting for her daddy.

The bus pulled in.......and I could not help snapping another picture, that little girl's daddy was the first one off the bus.SO heartwarming, even though I did not know these people. That started my tears flowing!

At last after nine tough months, there was the face we had been hoping and praying to see again!Ahhhh....Thank God!

He grabbed his bags.......and we were out of there. We really did ask if we could help carry anything!
Blonde rascal did strap on one back pack.

I was a little scared to touch anything....The Marine affectionately called what we were smelling "the smell of deployment"....it was strong to say the least!

That didn't stop blonde rascal from trying on a few things!

We enjoyed getting to spend the weekend with him. He had some incredible pictures and even more incredible stories. It is somewhat amazing that any of them come out of it alive. Keep praying for those brave men and women over there still fighting for us!

Feels good to sleep peacefully again now that he is safe. Feels good to be out of the dang car too!!! No more road trips for me any time soon!

Month 3 of "2010 The Year of Quilts"

2010-03-20T10:55:00.008-05:00

I started January off by making 2 quilts. An easy, easy pattern that has jumped to the top of my favorite quick quilt patterns.

Aunt Gay tipped me off to this pattern, it is a spin on a Wrapping Paper Quilt pattern.In a nutshell... you cut strips varying between 2" and 4". Adhere fusible batting to your backing. The stroke of genius is that as you sew your strips together, you sew them to the backing. Poor explanation I know, but what it boils down to is you are quilting as you attach your strips. Makes for a fast, cute quilt!

I made two for my new twin nieces, Hadley & Isabelle!

The backing of this one was too cute... cowgirls.

I also made a wall hanging for their nursery.

It was super quick and so fun. I don't have much need to sew girly stuff at my house, so I love the opportunity to make girl gifts!

In February, I finished my parent's Christmas present. Sadly, I DO mean their Christmas 2009 present!!!! Ridiculous I know, but they are my parents so they love me anyway!

I had all the blocks completed for this quilt, it was a 2008 $1.00 a month club at my LQS. Then came 2009 and moving/starting a new business....who has time to quilt through all that. The center block was a huge ornate applique. I think that is what made me put this quilt on hold, I knew the applique would take forever.

To remove some stress from my quilting life, I determined that the applique center was not needed! Not a pattern I would normally choose, but oh what I learned. Some of these blocks were very challenging, which greatly boosted my confidence as a novice quilter.

Now I have only one U.F.O. (unfinished object) in my sewing stash. It is going to be a Christmas present....a 2010 present thankyouverymuch!

I do have quite a few projects to start (AND finish!), waiting patiently on my newly organized quilty shack shelves. I plan on making a dent on those in 2010. If I do one a month, whew I'll be in good shape. Then I can buy more fabric in 2011!! Sounds like a plan, a good plan.

The Quilty Shack

2010-03-17T20:56:00.014-05:00

The Quilty Shack is organized!! What a feat. I spent a lot of time last weekend cleaning it out.

The previous owners built the shack before they put the house on the market, so it still feels new. (Same thing with the pool, put in the summer before we bought the house. Wish they would have waited and NOT done that!! Bloody pool.)

Back to the shack. Previous owner wife ( very young couple, cute, cute girl...and interestingly enough we are in the same Sunday School class with her parents and have become really good friends with them. Love this small town.) Anyway, wife cuts hair. They adopted a sweet baby girl and she didn't want to go to the salon anymore, so they built the shack so she could cut hair at home.

Here it is when we viewed the house for the first time....
I was sold.

Yep, that's blonde rascal. Making himself at home. I am pretty sure he helped himself to a gumball or something too.

When we first moved, of course it was a disaster because I took the contents of my sewing room in the old house and DUMPED it. I was so thrilled with the delight of having my own free standing little sewing room, that I "cuted" it up and wanted it to be all sweet and cozy. Then I worked on a quilt or two and realized that the SMALL sewing room needs to be waaaayyy more functional than cute.

So, I paired down the furniture that was in there and added a little more storage space. Now, I just love it. Want to marry it.

Welcome! Come in....

This is the wall on the right when you walk in...See, function is more important than cute.

I did manage to squeeze in some cute. A favorite antique that now holds crafty supplies...

Topped with a sweet saying a dear family friend made when B.R. was born. A cute pic of baby B.R. and a pic of The Marine and I at Disney World 13 years ago. Not to mention my favorite Willow Tree piece, which my dear M-I-L gave me.Ohhh and one of my favorite childrens book...The Quiltmaker's Gift. Darling story.

I took some old Singer instructional books that belonged to hub's grandmother and framed the covers.

I also now have a roomie.

It's Jingles and he is man enough to sit on my pink shag rug.

Jingles and Val, RIP, were our house cats at our old house. When we moved to this house, and there was no ideal litter box spot, so both cats got moved to the big insulated barn.

Then when Val went to the big litter box in the sky two weeks ago, we could not leave lonely Jingles in the huge barn by himself. So he became a resident of the Quilty Shack.
I got a groovy chair at the junk store ($5 thankyouverymuch) and threw an old quilt over it for Mr. Jingles.

This is the space behind the door to the left.Hubs built a window seat for Jingles. Awwwww.

There is a tiny little bathroom.
I found a cute picture (duh, at the junk store) for the bathroom.

Remember these pegs from my last $5 a bag trip to the junk store?
BAM! A coat of spray paint.The Quilty Shack also serves as a pool house in the summer. (Bloody pool)

I remember this shelf hanging in my childhood house.My Dad brought it to me when they last visited, knowing how I like old stuff. Then he told me he made it!!! I never knew that. So now I love it even more. The book on the shelf, "Brookie and Her Lamb" is a book that my Mom read to my brother and sister when they were little. She decided that, if they ever had another baby and it was a girl, she liked the name Brooke. Well guess what...I came along a few years later and I am Brooke (or still Brookie to my Mom!). We found the book on Ebay a few years back. Anyway, quick shot of spray paint to the shelf and pink knobs, good to go.

My sewing corner.
Projects waiting to happen....
Cutting and ironing area...The old wooden ironing board also belonged to hub's grandmother.

My one true love...
The Pfaff. Sigh. My sweet Aunt Gay made the "sewing machine place mat", if you will. Hard to see in the picture but it has clear little pockets in the front.....perfect for my seam ripper and Carmex! Love it.

Best part about sitting at my sewing machine is the view....I can look out at the pool....wait for it....bloody pool. I look at it and dream I am on vacation, looking at a sparkly pool, a pool owned and maintained by someone else!!

Here is the front of the quilty shack now, in all its winter dreariness. I painted the door. Need a cute bench or something AND some flowers. It is all on the list.
For Mother's Day I want a screen door... a slamming, wooden screen door. That would be perfect for the quilty shack, right?

There it is in a nutshell, my heaven on earth! Come and visit!

Peace out and meow.

Rattlesnakes on a Friday!

2010-03-14T18:24:00.006-05:00

Blonde Rascal got out of school on Friday at noon. Coincidentally, the annual Rattlesnake Roundup in a town about 30 miles from here started on Friday also. Of course b.r. wanted to go. I on the other hand was a little more reluctant. I had been once before, about 20 years ago while in college and that personally was enough for me. But hey, you do things for your kids, yes?

I believe the point of the rattlesnake roundup is to raise money for some organization? Gah, I should pay more attention. Anyway, insane crazy ridiculously nutty people go out and catch the rattlesnakes, bring them to the roundup and there is a winner for the biggest snake....or something. (Again with the not paying attention.)

So then they kill the snakes (praise God) and cook them, sell the skins, blah... blah... blah. It is redneck heaven. Not judging here, just stating the obvious!

They were milking the venom from the snakes.Venom is used as an anti-venom. Is that right?

It was simultaneously cool yet creepy to be that close to such a feared varmint.

The following picture gave me heart palpitations....
My blonde rascal is one brave hombre!

We live amongst the rattlesnakes now, however in the almost one year since we have lived here we have not seen one on our property. ( I hope I have not jinxed that by saying that out loud!!) I attribute this to 2 outdoor dogs and 3 barn cats. Seeing the snakes at the roundup was reassuring in that the snakes were not attacking the plumb fool handlers standing in the pits. Meaning, they are not vicious but must be provoked to attack. For instance stepping on one would be a bad idea. Happily though, they do not hunt down humans!!

My favorite part of the roundup was this fine smart gentleman....
Mwwwwwhaaaaa! Cutting their evil little heads off!!! You go boy!!!

Here snakey, snakey.....
Come to the chopping block.....
SMACK!
Ahhh....now THAT is what I call revenge.

They then went on to be skinned. You'll thank me for not taking pictures of that, I can assure you.

We went to buy some fried rattlesnake meat, but it was all gone. Sold out. Not joking. (See what I mean about redneck?) You see we were on our way to some friend's house for dinner that evening. I thought it would be seriously hilarious to take rattlesnake as an appetizer. Darn it.

So tomorrow is Monday, the first day of Spring Break! Whhhheeeeee! Poor b.r. woke up feeling puny this morning. Has a fever. He has not missed one day of school this year due to sickness. What kind of justice is this?? Hopefully he will be back to full speed tomorrow.

Saturday morning at the junk store

2010-03-07T12:53:00.021-06:00

Blonde rascal and I headed out Saturday morning for the junk store. Whoot! Sale sign!

It was $5 day. Fill a grocery bag for $5. Blonde rascal and I scored a gold mine for $10. It appears to also be"drive your weird color truck to the junk store" day. Honestly, yellow and orange in the same parking lot at the same time. Odd.

That blonde rascal, he knew there would be payoff for him.You didn't think he would go with me for nothing, did ya?

Oh, and then there was this....
The coffee shop was the only thing shaking on the sleepy little town square.

We made a quick stop at the grocery store.Yippee....see the boxes, little girls? Score. Girl Scout Cookies.

Followed by a visit to the hardware store.I probably don't need to tell you what happens when a horse kicks a faucet in a pasture. It involved a flood and then hubs doing his least favorite thing....plumbing. He sent me to the hardware store with a list of pieces parts.

We finally made it home and unloaded my loot...

A simple pitcher. Always good for fresh flowers.

Check out this nightmare...I have plans though, assuming I can get the glass dome off. It is glued down. I ran a razor knife, over and over, around the bottom to try to cut the glue. Then heated it with the hair dryer. Tried a little Goo-Gone and the razor knife again. No go. Any suggestions?

Some cute pink cloth napkins,
Some pegs,Hello? We have a swimming pool. Never enough places to hang towels. (~~Really, who am I kidding? I could have 7 miles of hooks and there would STILL be towels thrown on the ground~~) A quick coat of spray paint and those will be good to go.

Look at these monsters...Wicked medieval/1970's wall sconces. I have big plans for these bad boys.

Frames and plaques just screaming for a makeover....
Red polka dots, need I say more?
3 little wall shelves... Again, spray paint and good to go.

No brainer....Turquoise dishes. Love.

Lastly was this doozie....Oh dear. I feel pretty certain this was ugly when it was brand spankin' new.

However, a surgical removal of all fake greenery and fruit was all it needed. That and a little paint, candles and some ribbon for flair.

The polka dot jar found a home on the kitchen counter holding my most used utensils.

Blonde rascal then commandeered the camera.
Just look at me, the bizarre smirk on my face is from the joy of hunting for $10 worth of treasures that just need a little imagination and spray paint! (I have no idea what Missy's excuse for being bizarre and smirking is, she sleeps all day for cryin' out loud!)

Really, you know what's even more fun than rummaging through junk? Rummaging through junk with my favorite little man. Laughing, talking, being silly and treating him to a Saturday morning donut. That is bliss!

I copy my ideas from other brilliant people...no need to strain my own brain power, right? Go get some inspiration at Metamorphosis Monday!

Random thoughts and a farewell

2010-03-05T21:13:00.009-06:00

Another busy week goes by....is it just me, or do they all seem busy?

A skunk sprayed my car. Seriously, my car. We live in the middle of nowhere and he gets my car? Miles and miles of country....yet my car is the target. Nice. Smelly Volvo, it's how I roll.

I went to the library this week. Grabbed a book off the shelf, one I had wanted, and checked it out. Turns out it is the large print edition. Who knew? I kinda like that huge print. So easy to read. I'll be heading to the geriatric section every time I go to the library now.

I have had an eye infection of some sort, thinking maybe it stemmed from a cold I had last month. The infection cleared up, but eyes still red. Now, corneas irritated and swollen. Corneal edema.... again with the who knew? Currently hoppped up on eye drops for that. I have not been able to wear my contacts for the past 3 weeks and I have seen the eye dr. like 100 times. It is finally clearing up thank goodness. I am incredibly irritated by wearing glasses. Should be cleared to wear contacts in a few days. Yay. Glasses make me downright grumpy.

Blonde rascal told me the other day that Google was not doing very well. What?? He told me he had been looking at the stock market on his iPod Touch when he goes to bed. What???

The Marine will be coming home from Afghanistan in about 2 weeks. Thank you Jesus. God bless our soldiers.

I had to have my cat put to sleep today. Hard day. Sad heart for me. He was 14 years old. My Valentine. Hubs gave him to me on our 2nd Valentine's Day as a married couple. Hubs was a police officer at the time and worked the evening shift, getting off duty at 11p.m. I got off work at 5 p.m. so kitten Val was my source of entertainment in the evenings.

14 years of sweet memories. Val perfected the aloof "cat-ittude" as the years went by."I am not paying any attention to you, I will not acknowledge your lowly presence"

Our 4 legged fur balls grab hold of our hearts, don't they?

Rest in peace, buddy. Valentine~ 1996 - 2010

Sew, what's new?

2010-02-22T09:19:00.007-06:00

Yesterday afternoon I stayed holed up in my quilty shack. It was divine. I am so close to finishing a very important project, that will go in the mail this week. Then I can show you.

I am feeling motivated and organized and pumped up and the mojo is flowing. 2010 is the year for quilting baby. I am taking pics of all the projects I AM going to finish this year. I will post a big quilt to-do list, and then I will be accountable to finish them. Right? Right!

In other news, blonde rascal has spring fever. It was like 60 yesterday. Sunny & pretty, but still a little brisk. B.R. however was dreaming of hot weather.

First we made snow cones.Did you have one of these when you were a kid. Holy smokes it is an arm workout. Good thing I only have one kid to crank out ice for!!!

Next he put on shorts and splashed around on the pool cover.He had fun, perhaps we'll just leave the cover on all summer. His own water trampoline, if you will.

Crazy kid, his legs were beet red. Now, it is forecast to snow tomorrow. Weather is bi-polar in these parts.

Finally in my most important tidbit of news for the day....guess who turned 3 today?Mmmmhmmmm...it's Missy. She got a weenie dog baby for her birthday. Does this mean the terrible twos are over?"Terrible is my middle name, dude."

Snow, dogs, kid...and lots of laundry

2010-02-13T08:23:00.011-06:00

FINALLY we got some snow. I know the rest of the country is cursing the snow at this point, but I have been waiting for this. We woke up Thurs. morning to 4" of snow. School was delayed 2 hours, so Blonde Rascal wasted no time getting outside.It was a wet heavy snow, the pretty kind that sticks to everything.

I have titled the following picture...
"Please God let it freeze solid and go away"

Blonde Rascal could not have been more thrilled with the weather conditions.

Likewise the dogs enjoyed frolicking.

Bianca stayed on task as usual, despite the fluffy stuff...
"Must. Herd. Horse."

Our newest addition, Jake (the Australian Shepherd that showed up at our house a few weeks ago and after checking with the pound for a searching owner, we could not turn his lovable self away) was beside himself.
He is slightly A.D.H.D and the largest sugar lump personality I have ever seen. He thrives on lovin'.

Of course it goes without saying that the most entertaining part of the 4" snow was the minature weenie dog with 3" legs.

"Missy, where are you?"
"Huh?"

There was no walking through the snow for her. No sir, it required more of a flopping, bucking motion.

Speaking of flopping, check out those ears...

Because she had to plow through the snow, it completely stuck to her.
She was the abominable snow weenie.

Good times for sure. Except that B.R. changed wet clothes 3x's that morning, 2 more that afternoon. And now, now it is mud. Which requires ridiculous use of the washing machine. Additionally I will mention that Missy has had three baths in as many days. Oh well, snow and mud are what little boys (and their dogs) thrive on, right?

Hope everyone it having a great V-Day with their loved ones. My two favorite fellas and I went to church this morning and are now spending a leisurely Sunday together.

Tomorrow is a school holiday and we are going to the big city for teeth cleanings and then an orthodontist appt. Blonde Rascal is somewhat irritated that his holiday is chocked full of dental appointments. Poor kid, rough life.

The best day of my life

2010-02-10T18:23:00.002-06:00

Wedding Day? ....meaningful and wonderful, for sure.

Birth of child? ....undeniably a gift from God.

I'll even be materialistic for a moment and say... Christmas 2 years ago when hubs completely knocked my socks off with a beautiful diamond ring? (Bling always makes for a good day no doubt)

I have to be honest, nothing compares to today.

I walked into our house this afternoon.......

....after the cleaning lady had been here all day.

Sweet merciful heavens.

I am sitting here all slack jawed basking in the glory of the cleanness. I mean it is ridiculously clean and I am not the least bit tired! Usually when it is this clean I am laying on the floor crying like an unruly toddler because I am so exhausted from the torture.

Base boards....spotless. Light fixtures....no dust. Bath mats...still warm out of the dryer. (Honestly, there is something remarkably wonderful about fresh bath mats)

In all my 39 years I have never hired someone to clean. Thank goodness we started our own business and I was forced kicking & screaming to be the bookkeeper thus not having time to clean the house.

The even better glorious news is that the cleaning lady is coming every other Thursday. Sigh.

I am signing off now...I must go gawk at the spotless glass shower door.

Electricity Nazi

2010-02-08T10:54:00.006-06:00

Got the electric bill this weekend....$540.00. Say what? Yes, $540. Never in my life. Shocking? Devastating? No. It just flat pisses me off and I will win.

The problem is Hubs. Our roles are reversed. He is cold and I am hot. (hehee giggle...I am hot) He gets a slight chill and cranks up the heater to 72 which to me is completely unbearable. Hot air blowing around is utterly intolerable in my opinion. I blame this neurosis of mine on growing up in Houston. I feel like I can't breath when the heater is filling my lungs with hot air.

(It has been cold outside, I understand the need for a little heat, I really do.)

#2. Hubs and b.r. got in the hot tub last month. Had to let it run for like 3 days to heat up and then left it on for another week, assuming they would get in again. The @#$% pool pump comes on automatically when the temp falls to keep the pool from freezing or whatever. You know what I say, let that bad boy freeze. Fill it with dirt. You all know how I loathe anything around here that has a pump or requires chlorine or salt. Bain of my existence.

#3 I had to run the heater in the quilty shack when it was frigid. I can't have the pipes bursting in there. A tragic disaster that would be. So scratch #3, it is ok if the quilty shack burns electricity.

I am the electricity nazi now. Cranked the heater down, I sure did.

These chumps will be glad they got Snuggies for Christmas now....

Hubs being theatrically thrilled with his Snuggie....

Mmmmhmmmm, who's laughing about the Snuggie now? (BTW, the people who invented the Snuggie are laughing all the way to the bank, right?)

So the heater is turned down. We'll live. We had a fire in the fireplace last night. Good, warm. Fire and Super Bowl go very well together. I could really give a flip about the S.B. or football in general for that matter. But you have to watch it, you know? Otherwise you'll be the odd man out around the water cooler the next day. I only love my college team and will faithfully watch them play. I guess that is because the memories of going to those games warms my heart ~~and what was in the flask at those games warmed my heart too~~. Anywhoo, back to the SB. I think The Who still has it. They rocked and I was happy about that. Rock-n-Roll forever baby.

So here it is Monday, my day off by the way. I am happily at home. It is cold outside and 62 in the house. Guess what? I am cold.

A recipe you need to know

2010-01-31T15:08:00.004-06:00

This recipe was in our electric co-op magazine thing that comes monthly. They post member's recipes. The only reason I look through the thing is for the dang recipes. Only folks that live in the country use an electric co-op....and we all know good ol' country folk make some wicked good chow.

Well, I should clarify. This recipe is not wicked good. It is wicked easy....and good, but not wicked good. Many times easy surpasses wicked good in my book. Ya know what I'm saying?

So here it is...

Peach Cobbler in a mug:

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon instant nonfat dry milk
1/8 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
dash salt
1 snack sized container of diced peaches, drained.

Microwave butter in a mug until melted. Add sugar, flour, dry milk, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and 2 tablespoons water to cup. Stir, then add peaches on top of batter. Do not stir. Cook for 2 minutes in microwave at 70% power. Let stand in microwave for one minute. Remove and let stand until cool enough to eat.

FYI it is cool enough to eat immediately....assuming you plop a big scoop of vanilla on top. Right?

I made mine w/o the dry milk....because who has dry milk in the pantry? Not me. It was fine w/o it.

Easy and good. It's a keeper!

No news is good news

2010-01-30T09:35:00.008-06:00

I miss blogging! Somehow life runs amuck and my blogging gets put in last place. I feel like I am in the eye of a tornado!!

This whole own your own business thing just sucks the life right out of you. The problem, as I have figured it out, is that I consider myself a part time employee with no schedule. Working willy nilly makes the rest of my life, well...willy nilly. The house does not get cleaned, random grocery store trips are made, homework does not get started until after dinner when blonde rascal is tired, laundry is not done until there is an urgent lack of underwear. Which all combined makes me downright cranky.

January was a crazy month. MIL had her knee replaced. I stayed a few day in the hospital with her. She came through like a star. It won't be long until she will be back in the honky tonks dancing the night away with younger men. Kidding! But, she and her new bionic knee are well on the road to recovery. I made a quick trip to Houston for my sister's baby shower. Which was loads of fun. Twins. I made 2 quilts which I will show you...when I have time to download pics.

Then you throw in cold weather, a new adopted stray (outdoor) dog, work and more work....ugh.

Let me clarify that I am thankful for the crazy busy work to be done at the office, which means our business is thriving. It is busy, more successful than we every imagined it would be at this point and we are thankful. God has blessed us. So having to work like mad is really a good thing. Food on the table, roof over our head....life is good.

Also I know there are women who work a million more hours than I do at less forgiving jobs, that don't allow for coming and going as you please, as mine does. Have mercy do I feel for them. They deserve a lot of respect! Don't even get me started on the single mom...and how the heck she ever accomplishes it all. The thought of it all makes me appreciate my 3rd child...a.k.a. hubs!

So to remedy my dislike for the disjointed lifestyle I decided to take control of the reigns. I will work T-W-TH. Of course there will be some M and F that I will have to work, but at least I will be able to grasp in my brain a "schedule". On top of that I am hiring someone to clean the house every other week. There I said it, no shame, I am making money and so if I choose to spend it on housekeeper so be it!!!

Hello quilting. 2010 is the year of the quilts. I am finishing both the projects I have started and the ones I have not started. I finished 2 quilts and a wall hanging in January which I feel like is a great start. Do you know that happily sewing away the hours in my tiny quilty shack is bliss? Pure joy, make me giggle with glee! Too bad quality quilting fabric is expensive and hours spent sewing a quilt could never convert equally to dollars... if it did I would get rich selling quilts. I adore making them. It is for sure my happy place.

January 15th was the year anniversary of buying our house! A year? Already? Which also reminded me that I have not ever done before and after posts of all the remodeling we did.

Why? Because I am SO behind on scrapbooking and picture organizing. I have got to get a grip on the pictures. I love my scrapbooks, precious memories that are so fun to look at. I need to quickly get caught up...somehow.

Hmmmm...it all sounds like a very basic need for simple time management. Drat.

Boy I have my work cut out for me. I will be back soon....and hopefully regularly, to let you know how it is all going!

On a side note, I have had to turn on the word verification thingy for my comments. I am being bombarded with spam. Vi@gra, shady investment opportunities...you name it. Funny thing is, I never have had spam. I have a Mac. Mac= no spam, no viruses. Mac = love. Then one fine day I logged on to my blog from the office, on my PC at the office. PC sucks. PC = spam and viruses.
I apologize for you having to type "blashwomp" in order to leave a comment....but please still comment because I love you so!

Untapped Potential

2010-01-08T15:33:00.004-06:00

Blonde rascal and I were studying his spelling words Wednesday night. One of his words was master. Often times while studying we put the words into sentences. Blonde rascal said..."Mom has her Master's Degree". (I am not real sure where he even heard of such a thing?)

To which I replied...

Mom: "No I just have my Bachelor's Degree, which is sadly not as impressive."

BR: "In what?"

Mom: "Communication Studies"

BR: "What do you do with that? (same thing I am sure my parents thought)

Mom: "Well it is not a specialized degree....it is very generalized, so I could do lots of things!" (read I'll never get paid the big bucks)

BR: "Like be a moto cross racer?"

Mom: "No doubt!"

BR: "Or a Monster Jam driver! You would love to drive a monster truck!"

Mom: "You know I would SO love that!"

BR: "Or you could just keep on being a bookkeeper for Dad's car lot"

Oh yawn! That is so sad. I had so many exciting career options at my fingertips and I end up with bookkeeper.

I laughed and hugged him and told him the only job I ever wanted was being his Mom. Then I showered him with kisses as he freaked out and tried to get away from me.

However, it is comforting to know that should something ever happen to hubs and I need to support the family...there is always that Monster Jam option.

The picture says it all

2010-01-02T21:41:00.004-06:00

Greetings bloggy friends! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, blah, blah, blah!

Christmas is wonderful. I love it, eagerly anticipate it, totally adore it. But sort of like a visit from your crazy Great Aunt Myrtle, you're kinda glad to see it end. Amen?

This picture entertains me greatly. It was Christmas night after all the hoopla, and hubs and I look like zombies.
"Santa Schmanta" or "Bah Humbug" or "More wine please"

We drove 1,000 miles to Columbia, TN to spend the holiday with my pesky brother-in-law Mark and sweet sister-in-law Sherri and family. We had a fantastic time....great food, laughs and loving being with family.

The only down side was that on Christmas Eve it snowed like 5" at home, while we were in TN with no snow. Boohoo.

We came home on the 26th and there was still snow on the ground and we got a little more snow on Tues. I believe that snow is proof that God love us and wants us to be happy. I love how it blankets everything in silence. I love how it makes me want to curl up at home with a book and hot chocolate. Sadly for me we don't exactly live in a snow zone, so that may be the only snow we see this winter. Sniff.

We spent New Year's Eve with friends, where surprisingly I stayed awake until midnight. It wasn't easy, but I persevered. Staying up until midnight is so overrated.

So while I am happy to be done with the hoopla, I am not ready for school to start again. I have way too much fun hanging out with my blonde rascal.He is such a source entertainment to me. I love simply talking with him. His thought process, his vocabulary, his sense of humor, his laughter.....it all makes my heart swell. But back to school he must go on Tuesday because unlike staying up until midnight, an education is not overrated. I mean, he is going to have to graduate from college, have a rewarding career that he enjoys and succeeds at, so he can take care of mama when I am old, wobbly and drooly.

Got Bacon?

2009-12-09T20:00:00.005-06:00

A little beggin' at breakfast at the casa de quilty. Missy has perfected her cute puppy look at mealtime. And no, she does not have her own chair at the bar. (Sheesh, we do posses some manner of decorum around here!) The back of the couch, where she perches, edges right up to the bar.

In case you were wondering....

2009-12-08T22:03:00.005-06:00

...I am a rock star. I have known this all along, but today on my 39th birthday blonde rascal confirmed it.He made me this sweet card, including a picture of Alvin our barn cat. (No, I did not get a card from Jake and Reese, although I am sure they were thinking of me, that is my People magazine peeking out.)

I let him lick the icing on my glittery pink birthday cupcake.....only because he feeds my rock star delusion.

It is a good thing I think he is so cute.
(Yes, you might notice I have on my pj pants while my top half is still donning my normal clothes. It was 7pm, and that is what you do when you get old. Or as my good friend Kristen explains...there are no transitional clothes between daily wear and jammies, straight to pj's is where it is at.)

It was a fun day. Hubs gifted me with some new clothes cash. I SO need clothes. The best moment of the day was when The Marine called from Afghanistan. He did not realize it was my b-day...he had not slept in 3 days and is fighting a war...perfectly understandable! None the less, it was perfect timing. Hearing his voice was a gift.

39. Hmmmm. That has great potential to be scary, the safety net between me and 40 just got pulled out from under me. It is a good thing I still feel like I am 22. And I am a rock star.

Is it really December already?

2009-12-06T21:04:00.008-06:00

Where to begin? You notice how time slips right through your fingers the moment when you flip the calendar page over to November? You catch your breath again in January when you are packing away the final box of Christmas decorations.

There was all of this, the days before Thanksgiving...

Which in turn led to lots of this....

Food and family. What more could you ask for?

We have so much to be thankful for, and the family I so love dearly (both those present at Thanksgiving and those far away!) tops my list.

A few days later it turned super cold and we got a little of this...Love it.
Unfortunately that was all we got and it melted off that day. It has stayed pretty cold since then. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more!

Saturday night was the Christmas Parade here in small town West Tx. A friend invited us to ride in the parade in the covered wagon with him.
How fun was that? It was cold and bumpy and charming and heart warming all at the same time.

The parade route took us around the square. The end.

It was big time! Crowds lined the street and we waved and shouted Merry Christmas.
I loved watching the towns people smile and enjoy the parade. Simple.
This fantastically adorable store opened about 2 months ago on the square. I just can't get enough of it."Hi Mason Jar! Mmwwahh! I love you!

I was so excited, looking forward to getting some cool night time pretty lights shots with my camera. I even took it off automatic and had been playing with different settings in anticipation. However, a jarring ride in a wagon is not ideal for night photography. Most of my pics ended up looking like this...
I don't know how Laura Ingalls got good shots, her Canon must have been much more fancy than mine.

After the parade we took our shivering selves to the coffee shop (which I might add is remarkably hip for this small town), also on the square. It was almost like an out of body Mayberry experience. There were people milling around the square, greeting friends and enjoying the pretty lights on the court house.

It seemed so Norman Rockwell like. It made me smile. This big city Houston girl has fallen in love with this small town and its people.

A tender heart

2009-11-17T21:48:00.004-06:00

I packed a care package for the Marine yesterday. It was sitting on the kitchen table last night, box still open.

Blonde rascal wrote a note for his brother and put it in the box. Then he went off to his room and came back with an armful of Hot Wheels. He put the cars in the box and I asked him if the cars were for his brother. (His brother would totally understand that gesture because anyone who knows blonde rascal, knows that he has 9 million Hot Wheels and loves EACH individual one. It would be a significant symbol of love to be given one of his cars!)

However blonde rascal said that no they were not for his brother, they were for the Afghan children.

Big tears streamed down my face, my heart bursting. He gets it. How proud that made me.

At bedtime we prayed for each child in Afghanistan that the Marine will be giving blonde rascal's cherished Hot Wheels to. Prayed that they would not have fear and that they would know that there is a God that loves them.

I probably should go check blonde rascal's Christmas list now...there might be a plea for more Hot Wheels!

The Chair

2009-11-10T21:50:00.013-06:00

I finally finished the chair.

There it is before, my little lavender Craigslist chair & ottoman number, in what I have claimed as my little reading nook.
I simply cut the fabric according to what section it was going on, pinned it all together right side down. Took it off, sewed it up, then turned it right side out and slipped it on. The sewing was a little difficult because of the curves...but it is a shabby slipcover, so wonky seams are part of its charm. Right?
There is someone always jumping into my shots...If it is not that one, then it is this one....
Not to mention a hazard to my feet while snapping pictures because of this...

You'll notice the big black hutch thing from the before picture is gone. That is the rest of the story. Hubs thought the hutch took up too much room. I was not offended by this because, first of all, it itself was an affordable Craigslist find from a few years ago that I bought for our old house, not some expensive piece I had pined over for years. Second of all, that meant I would have to scrounge around and find something new to put there. It's a good thing that rearranging furniture is my most favorite thing to do. Hubs never has much of an opinion about decorating (mainly because he knows things get moved around so often) so when he does, I know it is a valid point.

The one and only thing to do was to head off to my most favorite spot in our new little town. A ginormous junk store. It is ha-uge and crammed full of ~~crap~~ juntiques and treasures.

This is only one level. It goes on and on. See the hole in the ceiling. It's a classy place. I kind of itch and wheeze when I leave but it sure is fun to prowl around.

I spied the perfect piece....
See it under all the "treasures"?

It had no mirror and no knobs, but after a little cleaning it was a real beauty!

When we bought the house there was a little opening of spindles in that wall. Spindles scream 80's, yes? So we made the spindles go away.

Here is the before, when the previous owners still lived here...
...and now....

p.s. Today is our anniversary! 14 years of wedded bliss to my favorite person!

p.p.s. Happy Veteran's Day! To all veterans and current military...a great big hug and a thank you!!

p.p.p.s Go find lots more ideas and inspiration on DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land!

Oh. My. Gosh.

2009-11-07T08:34:00.003-06:00

We are having company over tonight. Late last night I made these to serve for dessert.

I believe it would be in your best interest to make some. Today. Do not hesitate, do it now.

For the love of all things sacred, it is apple pie in your hands people.

What are you doing still sitting there reading this?? Go! Go peel and chop some apples. Round up all the butter in the fridge. Apples cancel out the naughtiness of butter, you knew that right?

And don't dawdle on Meg's blog, it is totally delightful yes, make the bars first and then go peruse her blog....with apple pie in your hand.

Oink.

Eau du Toilette

2009-10-26T09:16:00.006-05:00

It sounds so (did I spell it wrong?) sophisticated when spoken in French conjuring up images of a lovely perfume.

As opposed to here in West Texas where it would be, and especially in our case this week, "EWWWWWW... the toilet?"

At our house the past couple of months there has been this random waft of sewer odors on one end of the house. There was no rhyme or reason to when we would smell it, so we imagined it to be a vent pipe clogged up or something.

We are having family here for Thanksgiving so I wanted to rectify the random poo smell problem.

I called the plumber this past week and he crawled under the house, lucky man, only to find that the pipe to the master bath toilet had come loose.

Sewage under our house. Sewage that in a perfect world goes to the septic tank. That explains a lot, yes? I was mortified on so many levels. He said that the kitchen sink was tied in to all of that, so there was also food decomposing on top of the ewww the toliet!

He repaired that and the sewage smell is gone. Thank you Jesus.

In other news, thank you for all the prayers and kind wishes for our American Soldiers. After I posted that, we have not gotten any more phone calls reporting attack. Instead the Marine has told us interesting stuff. Like how it is so hot that he sat the instant mac-n-cheese, that I sent him, on the hood of his crane and within 10 minutes it was cooked. He also said that the Iraqi people are appreciative of the soldiers being there. And how the soldiers interact with the Iraqi children. That makes me feel good. He is being moved to Afghanistan in a few days...and that does not make me feel so good. More prayers.

Last weekend I experienced one of the best days of my life.

This.........got covered up.
I will not think of that pool again for 4 or 5 months, when with much regret we uncover it again! Covering it was a major pain in our bottoms. It took all dadgum day as you can tell by the night sky in the after picture. Think trampoline like material being stretched over a body of water, with much of it sinking while trying to hook the springs down. Nightmare I tell you. Good thing we bought the house with the pool already there, because I hate to think HOW upset I would be if I had spent 30K or whatever it cost, on nothing more than a thorn in my side.

So, Thanksgiving at our house. The countdown begins. The honey do list is getting longer every day. Hubs loves that. My list is kinda worrisome. For starters I must recover my lovely lavender Craigslist chair & ottoman in my little reading corner.
I am terribly intimidated by this project. Wish me luck as I am starting on it today.

Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be....Soldiers

2009-10-16T09:27:00.004-05:00

There is our Marine on the right, live from Iraq! It makes us so happy to see that boy with his cute smirk on his face. The fully loaded automatic weapon he is holding is a little disturbing... but I am glad he has it.

I wish he was here. Here loafing around on our couch. Overdrawing his account. Skipping his cell phone payments. Generally driving us crazy. All of that seems like such a better option now.

His unit has been attacked twice in the past week. He called last week after fighting for like 12 hours. He admitted to hubs that was scared for his life during those 12 hours. There were no fatalities, but some of the guys had to be flown out. They wear all that protective gear thank goodness. The marine told us that he does have cuts and bruises from the shrapnel.

He called hubs yesterday to tell us they had been under attack again. He said he now has trouble sleeping....flashbacks.

On the days we get those calls I turn into a big fragile emotional blob of jello. It is almost too much information to handle. The days between the calls I am able to stay strong and pray. I know the only humanly possible thing I can do is pray.

One side of me wants to call the president and scream at him to send our soldiers home. That part of the world has been fighting since the start of time, and I don't believe anything we do will stop that.

But, alas I am not in charge. (Thank goodness, huh?) Our Intelligence Agencies are privy to more information than we could even be able to imagine or handle. I have to trust their judgement.

Our son voluntarily joined The Marines and when he did, he swore to obey the orders given to him. He is doing his job and I am so proud of him for that.
Today as we all go about our mundane daily activities...grocery shopping, homework, Starbucks, watching TV, blow drying our hair, blog surfing (not that I do that), eating dinner with our family...and do it all in peace without fear of attack, think of our soldiers who could be fighting for their lives at this very minute across the globe. Pray for the safety of those brave men and women.

And for crying out loud when you come across a member of the military...pat them on the back and thank them.

The quilty shack is no place for a 9 year old boy

2009-10-13T20:57:00.012-05:00

Edited to add: Some words have been highlighted like they are a link, and they are, a link to games or stuff for sale. I didn't do this and it does not show up on the Html so I can't remove them...hmmmm has my blog been attacked? Don't click on them!)

The feature about this house that sold me was not the porches, cozy interior, the ~~damn~~ pool or the pretty surroundings. No sir, the quilty shack was the clincher for me. Yup, the outbuilding that the previous owner was using as her hair salon had quilty shack written all over it. It was what made me sign on the ''x".

I have not had time to sew at all since we moved and it was a disaster of epic proportions.

The Marine's best friend from high school got married last weekend. We have known this kid since The Marine was in 8th grade. I spent many years yanking him around by the ear, smacking the back of his head, feeding him... you know just like he was one of mine.

He married his high school sweetheart whom we have also known for years. So I decided these two deserved a quilt as a wedding gift.

In preparation for this I had to get the quilty shack in working order.

I chose a Saturday a few weeks ago and set about organizing the chaos.

My 9 year old shadow decided to "help" me. While I was trying to organize, he was bringing stuff in that he thought would be fun to have in the quilty shack.

For instance, his gumball machine...which he decided to take apart....

The remote control fart machine...Which let's be honest, no sewing room would be complete without one.

The cat...
Cars...

And of course what every boy leaves behind......a muddy floor!!

In the cabinet in the little bathroom he deposited Oreos and Cracker Jacks.......the child goes no where without snacks.

Despite all my "help" I managed to get the shack organized at least enough to sew in.

And I happily unearthed a completed quilt top that only needed quilting and binding. Ahhh a quick wedding gift!

So the wedding was Saturday evening, at the bride's house, outside. Don't let me forget to mention we had a cold snap Saturday...and it was 44 degrees at the time of the outdoor wedding.The poor sweet bride said she was numb.

So was I. Sitting in that metal chair in 44 degree weather. I pondered during the ceremony if it would be rude to go unwrap and snuggle up with my wedding gift?

Thou shalt not covet.

2009-10-08T08:01:00.005-05:00

But you will.

A few weekends ago MIL and I went to visit hub's aunt and uncle in Weatherford.
We had a grand time, as we always do.

Dear sweet talented Aunt Gay, who I have mentioned before is my quilting muse, gave me the most wonderful quilt she made for our new house. And I should mention it is perfectly charming. And I completely adore it. And no you can't have it. (By the way, hubs still holds his Aunt Gay responsible for strong arming him into buying me what he considered a ridiculously expensive sewing machine. Man I love that woman....and my Pfaff)
You're kinda coveting right now aren't you?

I think I have read somewhere that it is ok to covet...handmade quilts.

It's shaping up to be a great weekend.

2009-10-03T09:36:00.004-05:00

Hi. It's me again. A month since my last post? That is terrible. So much to say, so little time.

I'll be brief.....12 million things on the list today. Including touring the original jail on our little town square. Riveting.

For Mother's Day I was so generously and kindly given a gift certificate for a spa day at the local spa. For a small town, we have a really nice, upscale, state of the art spa. Weird huh?

Anyway the day finally rolled around where a day at the spa fit into my schedule. Yesterday. I was so excited.

It started with a facial. Glory be. I believe that is what Heaven will be like. Streets of gold sound nice and everything, but seriously facials are where it's at.

Then on to a short stay in a sauna. With a bottle of water, that slipped out of my greasy hands (the facial included a hand and foot treatment) and made it look like I peed on the floor of the sauna.

Next up the massage. She first used some sort of belt sander like massager that was just out of this world. She said my shoulders were a mess of knots. Welcome to the last 6 months of my life lady. She had hot stones and hammers and all kinds of nonsense going on with those shoulders.

I was a limp noodle after that.

She left me at the end of the massage to go fill a deep claw foot tub with hot water and sea salts for me, to soak out the toxins she had just massaged out. She returns to retrieve me...with a big pina colada in her hand just for me. Oh mama.

I get out of the tub and go to get dressed, as it is now time for my mani/pedi. While I am getting dressed my phone rings and it is the school nurse telling me blonde rascal threw up. Nice. That is not appropriate talk for spa day.

Hubs was out of town, so I reschedule my mani/pedi (darn I have to go back) and take my pina colada breath self to the school to pick up my son. Classy.

B.R. was a reflux baby and so now he has a hypersensitive gag reflex. He was fine. He told me he had the hiccups and that made him throw up. You know the school does not care why, they just want the potential germs out of the building! I totally agree with that, so blonde rascal had a few extra hours of afternoon fun together.

Last night we went to the high school football game. B.R.'s school is t-i-n-y.... 6 man football. I had never seen 6-man. Wow, that is some crazy football. It is funny how 60 degrees in football stands feels like 40. I had a little blanket and was still cold! I am going to have to make an orange and black quilt for football games.

Hubs decided that he needed to get on a healthy eating plan. During the start up of our new business and moving....we have been eating like crap. Which let's be honest make you then feel like crap. He did some research and came across Jay Robb's diet. It nothing difficult, just healthy eating and eliminating processed food.

Hello? That is what we all should be doing. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon with him. This plan starts with a 3 day fruit flush. Sounds fun huh? Flushes out the toxins and food addictions/potential food allergies etc.. so they say. Day one is protein shakes every 2 hours and then veggies and protein for dinner. By the 2nd protein shake I was about to puke. Yuck. I stuck with it though and made it to day 2 and 3 where you eat fruit every 2 hours until dinner. I love fruit. Love it. But dadgum I was sick of fruit and SOO hungry.

Hubs lost 7 lbs after the 3 day fruit binge. I lost 2. Go figure.

Monday started just the healthy eating plan. Let me tell you how good we feel. Wow, who knew eating right would do that? It is remarkable. It is basically (all fresh) fruits, veggies and protein, with some natural fats thrown in.

I weighed this morning and had lost 5 lbs. this week. I have thankfully never had to diet, but could loose 15 lbs. if I wanted to be at my pre-pregnancy weight. Suppose I could do that by simply eating healthy! Duh.

The cool apart about this healthy eating lifestyle plan is that for one hour, on one day out of the week you can eat whatever the heck you want.

We have chosen Saturday nights as our free hour.

Do you know where we are going tonight? A wedding reception in the big city. Do you know that it is going to be down right embarrassing how much I consume in one hour tonight? I am going to be hunkered down over a plate for one hour shoveling food into my mouth. At least that is the "carrot on a string" that has been leading me all week. The sad part is that I am sure my stomach has shrunk and I will be full after 10 bites.

I will however, and this is a promise, be having cake. The brides cake, the grooms cake and whoever elses cake I can find.

I am going to make a complete spectacle of myself. Blonde rascal is entertained by this. He envisions his mom pushing people out of the way for food. It could happen.

Yep, it's shaping up to be a good weekend around here. How about you?

Things

2009-09-04T11:23:00.004-05:00

#1. Blonde rascal, while getting ready for bed the other night, asked when we were going to clean the house. I said "huh?" while looking around his bathroom which was clean, well relatively for the most part clean. He said "You know put all the papers, stuff and boxes away".
Hmmmm...good question.

#2. Took the Missy to the vet yesterday for shots. She was NOT impressed and they had to muzzle the little beast. She weighed in at 16 lbs. Ummmm.... miniature dachschunds technically max out at 10lbs. She is a healthy, solid little booger with lots of hair. Additionally she does run all the live long day (when she is not in someones lap) and we all know muscle weighs more than fat. She is just fluffy in my opinion.

#3. I firmly explained to hubs last weekend that my new work schedule at the office would be Monday and Wednesday. No questions asked. I indeed did work my scheduled days this week. Plus Thursday and Today. Appartently he misunderstood me. This schedule explains #1.

#4. I ordered an Ab Lounge Rocket something or other on Amazon today. (I AM "working" today, just in between blogging and ordering things on Amazon.) Since blonde rascal is 9 years old now, I have decided it is time for the baby bulge pouch thing to go away. I am thinking that after my runs in the mornings I can hobble over to the Ab Rocket and knock out a few crunches. That is the plan anyway. Supposidly the Ab Rocket massages your back while you are crunching. Sounds fab, I'll let you know how that works.

#5. I made Snickerdoodles yesterday to send to the marine. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the box to get there and if the cookies are anything more than crumbs at that point.
Snickerdoodles. Yum. (Explains the need for #4, being pregnant 9 years ago is kind of a lame crutch at this point, no?)

#6. The marine says that Iraq is hell. 130 degrees. He asked us to send him some Under Armour boxers. Apparently your drawers get a little sweaty in that kind of heat. I went to Amazon to order the boxers (see I was on Amazon for a good reason...the comfort and well being of our soldiers) and lordhavemercy Under Armour boxers are like $15 A PAIR. For those of you who know me as the frugal shopper, this was a painful purchase! But at this point I would do whatever the boy wants. So that was my legitimate reason for being on Amazon this morning....and we all know how ridiculously fun it is to browse on Amazon.

#7. I love how Fall is in the air. It is still in the 90's during the day, but the mornings on my porch....oh joy I can feel it coming. I am cold weather girl so I am anxiously awaiting those crisp days! (You too Mary?) I bought my favorite Yankee Candle this week....Pumpkin Spice. It is dreamy.

#8. I am just dying to start up my sewing again and put my quilty shack to good use. The poor cute little shack that looks exactly like it did when I moved all my sewing stuff into it, what 5 months ago? It is still a deplorable mess of boxes and stuff stashed and chaos. So sad. (See #3....work schmerk.)

#9. It is a long weekend! Yay! I WON'T be working this coming Monday. No sir! Thank you Labor Day!

The Creek Bed

2009-09-02T09:18:00.010-05:00

In wandering around our property, blonde rascal discovered a little run off creek bed. He has since claimed it the ultimate boy space.

He took me to see it Monday after school. He was so proud of himself because he had chopped down a wayward branch with a little saw.
As we walked to the creek bed, the 3 amigos of course tagged along.

Bianca will follow blonde rascal to the ends of the earth. That is what she does...she is as loyal as the day is long.

Missy, on the other hand, while being somewhat loyal......came along mainly out of concern that Bianca will get more attention than she will.

Not to mention she is always looking for someplace new to get dirty.
The 3rd amigo, A.J., who thinks she is a dog, naturally joined in on the adventure.
Blonde rascal was investigating, he found some sort of wild gourd that he split open.

He claimed he felt kinda like Surviorman, we love that show at our house.

There were rocks to be moved...
...in order to build car garages of course!
There was even some kissing going on in the creek bed....
We had to watch out for these......ouch!

A.J. was in a constant state of adorable kitten pounce readiness...
Blonde rascal played with his trucks......he was in heaven.

I sat there and soaked it all in. It was a beautiful afternoon, rather relaxing in that little creek bed. Blonde rascal chatted away happily. Telling me which of his cars would work the best in the dirt and slopes. How he wanted to put some r/c all terrain vehicles on his Christmas list, to drive in the creek bed. Perhaps we could build a fort down there where he could store his bb gun and a lantern and snacks. Campfires and tents were discussed.

It was time to start dinner and homework so he parked his cars in a hollowed out tree.
We headed back to the house, blonde rascal still chatting away and I felt supremely content. At that moment there is nowhere else in the whole world I would have rather been, than in that dried up creek bed with my favorite 9 year old.

Runnin' with the Bloods & Crips

2009-08-28T15:39:00.008-05:00

I dusted off my running shoes this morning. I have not run since May. Mainly because I did not know where my running shoes were and/or our lives were such a crazy mess of moving and new business starting that I did not have time to do anything else.

Oh sweet burn, how I have missed it. Running makes my mind right. I eeeked out 2 miles this morning, sweating out 3 months of stress/turmoil/change. The glorious high of the toxins pouring out. It's good stuff I tell you.

Anywho...the treadmill is now in one of our barns. It was one of the last things to move from our old house. It is so ridiculously heavy and awkward, that I decided it would be easier to dump it in the barn rather than painfully schlepping it through the house into one of the guest rooms.

Ideally of course, I would like to run outside, on the roads around our house, but I need to build some stamina back up. I would be embarassed for a farmer to find me sprawled out in the grass on the side of the road, sucking wind.

So in the meantime I will be running in the barn. Granted it is an insulated barn so it is not as archaic as it sounds.
And I do have a cool view....Well really that was a selective shot of the view. It was actually a little more depressing...

The one lone remaining trailer load of junk from the old house to unload. Ugh.

This barn is also where our former house cats now reside. You see, I decided that I was done with cat hair on every surface AND since we got little Missy love...the cats had determined that any elevated location (kitchen counter and dining room table) was a better option than being pestered by the mini doxie. I was SO done with all that. So they were relocated to the barn.

This morning when I innocently decided it was time to begin running on the treadmill again, I had no idea that a gangsta style turf war would ensue. Bloods and Crips type stuff.

It involved the indoor barn/former house cats....
Val, who was yawning, and is always gloriously grumpy....and

Jingles, who I dare say is still pissed that he is no longer a house cat.

We'll say they are the Crips or more appropriately in this case....The Crankies.

The Crankies who lived a quiet peaceful existence in the barn, until this morning when I raised the overhead door and let the rift raft in.

The Bloods...or The Bozos as it were. Enter this motely crew, the 3 amigos, an unlikely band of friends.....
1. Bianca, the ever loyal, kindest Border Collie around.

2. Missy the goof ball, boss of everyone, getting her morning roll like a hog routine out of the way.

3. Lastly, A.J. One of the wild kittens we adopted from the pound to roam our property, keeping it free from vermin. Only instead of remaining wild, A.J. is a little sugar lump. Hangs out on the back porch getting love from the humans and strangely enough bonding with Bianca and Missy.

I got on the treadmill and had to blast my i-Pod so I could hear over the Crankies vs. Bozos who had created a mad house of running, jumping, hissing, barking. Thankfully after about 6 minutes they got tired of all that nonsense and the Bozos went back outside to find some trouble elsewhere. Sheesh.

After my run, I plopped on the porch and drank coffee. Bliss.
P.S. Thanks for all of the kind words and support of our soldiers! I appreciate it!!

Heavy Heart

2009-08-25T17:23:00.012-05:00

Our Marine left for Iraq today. Hubs flew to NC to see him off. I was just sick that I could not be there too, but I needed to be home to get blonde rascal situated in his new school.

Hubs sent a few pics that he took this morning with his phone...

Our Marine is the handsome smiling one on the far right! Wow, look at those young faces...those faces will be protecting us a world away while we sleep peacefully at night.

Here he is (in the middle) before they all got on buses that would take them to Cherry Point, NC where they would board a plane headed to Germany (we think) and then Iraq.

Sigh.

I have fought the lump in my throat and tears welling in my eyes all day.

I talked to him last night to tell him bye. I told myself that I would be strong and not cry....but I turned into a blubbering, sniffling, snotty mess at the end of the call.

You may have jumped 3 feet when you opened my blog and some righteous rock & roll came blasting out at you! Sorry. (If it is too loud ~~you are too old~~ just turn your volume down for crying out loud) The fact is am a fan of My Hero by the Foo Fighters. Last night when I got into bed, I reflected on the fact that I had evidently had bought the cheapest alarm clock available, because it is only a radio alarm...no buzzer option. This was never an issue... until we moved exactly 15 miles from nowhere and there is no radio reception. Whenever I have had to set my alarm this summer, I have set it to "static" as that is my only option. Back to last night, I turned on the alarm to set it to some static...when loud and clear came "Hero" through the speaker.

When our hero joined the Marines a year & a half ago, I knew this day would eventually come.

There have been ~~thousands~~ one or two times through the years that I have wanted to strangle him with my bare hands....that is my prerogative as a mom. But I don't want anyone or anything else to harm him.

I am vacillating emotionally between scared and proud. Thankfully, I have my faith in God and confidence in the training he has received to soothe my fears.

And pride? Please, my buttons are bursting with pride. Nothing is as noble as serving your country in my opinion.

We are now looking forward to getting emails, pictures and phone calls from him. And sending him packages chocked full of any and all goodies that he wants. And counting down the months until his feet are back on U.S. soil.

1st Day

2009-08-24T16:53:00.005-05:00

Summer abruptly came to a halt this morning. It was interrupted by the first day of fourth grade.

Blonde rascal was being disagreeable and not wanting to smile for the camera before we left for school. I think he was still asleep...he could hardly stay awake for breakfast.

Until I told him I would ground him for 2.5 years unless he smiled....then I got the ultra cheesy smile....

So off we went to a new school, in a new town. We waltzed into his classroom, blonde rascal cool as a cucumber. No fear. His teacher was perfect. Super nice and outgoing, welcomed him right in.

I left him, got into the car...and cried a few tears. A bundle of Mommy emotions came out....how can he be in 4th grade already, I hope he makes friends, is he nervous....

I went back for lunch. It is a tradition that the school board grills burgers for all the kids and parents on the first day. Benefit of going to a tiny school! He was playing with the kids and interacting like he had been there for years.

Thank you Jesus!

On the way home from school I was asking him about his day. He told me all about it and then said "I like it better than Bennett" ....which is his previous school that we loved with all our hearts. Of course his reasoning behind liking his new school better was that he felt like the classes were shorter (they switch rooms for some classes) AND they could take their shoes off after lunch! Whatever the reasoning, I was so elated and thrilled that he liked it.

I started off the new year by kissing up to the teacher....

A cute chalkboard glass from Pier One, that was ridiculously affordable at like $3, and some sunflowers.

To cheer ourselves up with the first day of school looming, I made this cake yesterday.
I got the recipe from Meg's blog. I big puffy heart her blog!

It was time consuming....lots of dishes to do. But it is so fun to look at and yummy too!

Summer?

2009-08-09T10:10:00.010-05:00

Summer always flies by....but seriously THIS summer flew at warp speed. Moving to a small town and starting our own business was definitely the #1 time drain on our summer. Not the usual fun and frolic of most summers, but busy and productive.

We close on our house tomorrow morning. Amen. Then Tuesday morning blonde rascal and I leave for Houston to visit my parents for a few days. Houston in August = constant sweat....lovely!

We have enjoyed our new house and our new town. The car business has been busy, a total blessing. The people we have met have been very nice. Lots of genuine, good people, very down to earth....I like that. We found a church we like. I got a local haircut and color.... and very much liked it! Yay! AND it was $40 cheaper than my big city cuts!

Our summer in a nutshell...The guys did some of this. Yawn.....

I have much more fun concentrating on these schmucks.....
There used to be a certain thrill of the shoot, photographing the steers. Wondering if I would irritate them and they would try to gore me. Now, they just ignore me and my lens.

As you know, the marine was here for a week...Sadly these are the only pictures I have of him, from the night he arrived. My camera battery died....and my charger and extra battery were in our old house. Tragic really, because I feel like I have lost an arm without my precious around. Thankfully, a trip back to the old house and I was back in business!

We were so glad to have him home...but he quickly wore out his welcome. He is SO financially irresponsible. Even worse than that, in total denial of it all and refuses to accept any accountability for it. We have held his hand (enabled) long enough...and it all came to a head. Dear parents out there in blog land....learn from our mistake and start teaching/enforcing financial responsibility to your young 'uns at an early age! He is a good kid with a lot of potential...just a LOT of growing up still to be done.

Add to the drama that ensued while he was here, the fact that 9 year old blonde rascal absorbs all of the things that his 21 year old marine brother talks about. So while the marine was here I felt like I was CONstantly reprimanding b.r. for calling things and people stupid and talking about blowing up things and shooting people....ugh. Wore me OUT I tell you.

He leaves for Iraq somewhere between August 26-29th. It is a very scary yet proud moment for us. God bless the men and women who willingly fight for our country. Blonde rascal starts school on the 24th. I won't leave him while he is starting a new school in a new town .....so hubs will be going to North Carolina to see the marine off. I HATE to miss that...but you can't be two places at once.

So, school for blonde rascal. Now this is a story. Our address is Snyder, but we are technically in a small, small ISD. An ISD that I have never heard anything really great about. Before we bought this house I went to the Snyder administration office and inquired about transferring into the district. They said not a problem, never had to turn a transfer down. The elementary school is just 2 years old and was built larger than needed.

Monday was registration for new students so we went and registered at the school and they then told us to go over to the admin. bldg. to fill out the transfer paperwork.

At the admin. bldg. I cheerily announced that we were there to fill out paperwork for a transfer. To which the sweet secretary to the superintendent, whom I had spoken with when I was there in the spring, replied "We are not taking transfers, the school is full". I was speechless....jaw hit the floor.....eyes welled up with tears....."whaaaaat???"

SO...l-o-n-g story short, we have been accepted as a transfer to a different ISD about 10 miles to the west of Snyder. Another small....I said SMALL...ISD. However, this one came highly, highly recommended by everyone I grilled about it...strangers, the bank president, teachers, friends, cashiers at the gas station, our real estate agent....everyone I came across. 52% of this school's students are transfers from Snyder. In fact in talking to friends from Lubbock, who knew about this school district, had only stellar things to say about it.

We visited the school and actually really liked it AND felt a great amount of peace about it. God is good....funny....but good! When I was near hysterics when this all went down last Monday, hubs kept telling me that this is all a part of God's plan. God has had his hand in this move and new life adventure...why would it be any different for blonde rascal's school???

It is just weird for me, the Houston girl who graduated with 850 people. Blonde rascal's school in Lubbock had like 1,000 kids in it. Now, now his graduating class will have 17 kids. WOW. Not bad, just different. Looking back though, 2 of my college roommates were from very small towns. They were more dedicated to academics and much better behaved than....uhhhhh.... me and all of the other big city kids I hung around with. Anyway....go Ira Bulldogs!

In a entirely different story of my lunacy.......this summer, is how I eradicated 99% of the points of entry for scorpions into our house. Yep, I wasn't taking that one lying down. No sir, mama took matters into her own hands. In a nutshell it involved window screen and caulk. The people at the hardware store are entertained by my dedication (or irrational fears as it may be) and my best friend the pest control man wants me to come to work for him.

We adopted 9 cats, who were on death row at the pound.Barn cats, that is. Good stuff, they are cute and they keep the mice/snake population at bay. By the way we have not seen a rattlesnake ALL summer. God knew that I was too fragile in my scorpion neurosis to be able to deal with venomous snakes. However, last week while driving about 1/2 a mile from our house I did run over a rattlesnake on the road. Intentionally ran over. But that is the first and hopefully the last one I have seen.

I have had a few moments of fun with Craigslist finds.......and spray paint. I'll show the "after" soon.

Blonde rascal has been an absolute gem this summer. He had a buddy from Lubbock come down to spend the night last week.They had a fabulous time. He has had to spend a lot of time at the office with us, but has just rolled with the flow and not complained. He is turning out to be quite the car salesman and gets paid for cleaning the office.

Since the birth of the car business I said that I would help out in the office such as run errands, make copies, etc... But there was NO way I was getting involved in the financial nightmare of it all. Well hubs and his business partner have been going along great guns since the end of May when they opened for business...selling cars...but not doing any bookkeeping.

I decided that I would eat my words and do it for them...or else it would NEVER get done and hubs would have a heart attack from all the stress sooner or later. So I am the official book keeper now. All I have to say is that I am NOT the bookkeeper type and I must give a shout out to Quick Books and to my pesky brother-in-law Mark who has been an invaluable help to us getting the books set up. Which once I get caught up from the first 2 months of business, it probably will only require a matter of a few hours from me weekly. No big deal.

I quit my last official job, when blonde rascal was born, 9 years ago!! I have a whole new respect for working moms. The house is a MESS (a lot of that has to do with unloading the final loads from our old house), we have very few groceries and I have NO desire to cook after working!!! I tip my hat to all of "us" working moms! I have to count my blessings though, because I decide my own working hours and come and go from the office as I please, with the only obvious downside being no paycheck. Ack!

Despite all of the crazy busy nutty stuff, we still had our moments of summer bliss....lots of swimming, trips to the snow cone place, adventures exploring our new area....loving being together as a family.

Whew... that was a lot of babble coming from me. Now I am caught up and hopefully can get back to more concise, meaningful, worthy, fulfilling blog posts. Bah!!

Weenie Races

2009-07-20T21:27:00.018-05:00

If you don't find doggies endearing, then I suggest you move on to another blog right now.

I have realized in the month we have lived in our small town that you can't wait for the fun to come to you. No siree, you gotta make or find your own fun.

Blonde rascal and I saw advertised on TV, weenie dog races at a famous steakhouse on a ranch about an hour from here. It was a fund raiser for the SPCA.

Of course we went. No question there. Hubs and the marine opted to not go along with us, as blonde rascal, Missy and I headed off to the Perini Ranch Steakhouse in Buffalo Gap, TX. That's weird huh? Their loss.

Upon our arrival we found weenie dogs as far as the eye could see. There were booths and vendors and...weenie dogs.

Our little Missy was overstimulated by all the excitement and by far........the most booootiful weenie around.

We did find an exact replica of Missy...
This was not a prejudice, exclusively all weenie event. All breeds were welcome.

There was a fluff ball in a tu-tu...

This ridiculously charming hound....
A cute face with soulful eyes....

There are no words....
Amongst all the shortness was this magnificent, stately, LARGE Doberman....He was very well behaved but you could see he was dreaming of a "hot dog" for lunch!

Then there were the weenie races.This handsome young lad was getting registered to race. Put your game face on dude.

The actual races were ha-larious. Very few actually made it to the finish line. Too much distraction.

Here is a proud owner and her winner wiener....

We didn't enter Missy in the races, mainly because there were like 200 entries and they raced them 6 at a time. Whew. We only stayed for an hour or two...it was Africa hot.

It was a fun change of pace for the afternoon and money was raised for a good cause.But, we were all glad to be leaving and heading back to the car....the air conditioned car.

The Marine has landed

2009-07-11T09:40:00.007-05:00

...or parked as the case may be. He drove from Camp Lejuene, NC and arrived yesterday evening. He is on leave for a week and we are thrilled to have him.

Blonde rascal has been taunting him on the phone all week, saying that the marine would not be able to throw blonde rascal into the pool. Blonde rascal had his swimsuit on, in anticipation, about 4 hours prior to the marine's arrival time!

The Marine threw blonde rascal, much to his delight, into the pool within 2 minutes of his arrival.

The Marine had just returned from a month of training in the Mojave, where most days it was 113 degrees, so he immediately put his swim trunks on. He said he had dreamed of pools while in the desert.

The wrestling began....
Then the cannon ball competition....
First up was blonde rascal, who while getting an A for effort and all around cuteness...his splash was minimal.

Meanwhile, the marine produced with height and form.

Resulting in some large waves.

Lastly, hubs who relied on ......ummmmm.... mass rather than form or height........also produced some serious wavage.

After 3 or 4 cannonballs a piece from those clowns and it was a veritable tsunami in the pool.

I was too busy photographing the event to participate. I would have been the perfect combination of mass, height and form. I would have out splashed them all. Uhhh-huhhh....just wait until tonight.

P.S....the best news. Our house in Lubbock SOLD yesterday!!!! Wooohoooo! BIG stress off of our shoulders! Thanks to all my family and friends who prayed! God answers prayers!

It was only a matter of time.

2009-07-09T08:33:00.002-05:00

Late last evening, hubs and I were sitting on the back porch enjoying the peaceful calm of the sunset.

When all of a sudden a blonde rascal streak ran out the back door, launched off the back porch, ran madly towards the pool and jumped wildly into the pool.

A naked blonde rascal. Big huge belly laughs coming from his little streaking self the whole time.

That's our boy.

(p.s. the pool which I have pretty much despised since we bought this house and removed the cover...I now adore. With its beautiful CLEAR, clean, crystal blue water!)

Am I weird?

2009-07-08T09:53:00.006-05:00

That is a rhetorical question. There is no need for any of my friends in the peanut gallery to answer that. I know what your answer would be.

We live about....I dunno....5 miles from a prison. Does that worry me, you ask? No. There is 5 miles of wild and woolly country, winding roads and lots of other houses between us and the prison. Not to mention I have much more pertinent things to spend my time worrying over...owning two houses, scorpions, the money pit pool, wondering if I will ever get to turn on the TV and NOT see coverage of the Micheal Jackson media overkill.

Also, let's not forget that our house is protected by this........deceptively cute, yet vicious, spazzoid, rabid, freak show, little love muffin of a miniature Dachshund! She would go all German on an escaped convict.

Anywho, I like to take a shortcut which takes you right next to the prison property. The prison sits smackdab in the middle of a bunch of farm land. Guess what those punk prisoners get to do most mornings? Pick weeds, acres of weeds. Ha ha, hee hee, har har...bet more than one of them are regretting robbing the 7-11 whilst picking weeds in the mid morning heat with the sun relentlessly beating down on them.

What is really fascinating though, is the 6 or 7 guards on horseback which make a wide perimeter around the working prisoners. Just like the lawman in an old western movie, there is a big fat shotgun strapped to the saddle.

I drive by real slow, as I am totally intrigued by the whole situation. I will probably get a call from the prison inquiring as to why I am lingering around the prison.

Just once I want see an inmate make a run for it, and the horseback guard chase him. Do you think they would shoot out his kneecaps first or whack him with the barrel of the gun on the back of the head while galloping by.

There is no Target...or Goodwill....or Hob Lob...or quilt shop in this sweet little town, so you understand that I have to pass my time somehow. Good thing I am easily, easily entertained.

A miracle

2009-07-05T19:41:00.009-05:00

This is a pump.

This is 20,500 gallons of water being pumped into our pasture.

This is blonde rascal at the lake last summer.....

...oh wait.... that wasn't the lake, that is our pool....
We threw in the towel Friday evening and decided to drain it.

It was nasty. N-a-s-t-y.

Here it is Saturday morning.
We started to refill it that afternoon....
.....took some cool diving board pictures....

Blonde rascal played in the deep end, which was the shallow end, while filling...
It is currently the most gorgeous shade of blue.
We now let the 12 bags of mineral salt something or other that we dumped in today, which I won't tell you how much per bag THAT cost, circulate for 10 days. After that, all it "supposed to" take is one small bag of refresher once a week. Easy as pie.

We'll just see about that. That was its last chance though. If it ever turns to pea soup again....it will be filled with dirt and turned into a lovely garden.

And after emptying 20,500 gallons of water into our pasture on Friday night.... Saturday and today we got a total of 2.5" of rain. I saw one of the horses doing the back stroke.

The rain in Snyder....

2009-07-01T10:00:00.007-05:00

...falls mainly on the horse.

"Huh?"
Sorry, just a lame shout out to "My Fair Lady" which ranks in the top ten of my favorite movies.

But seriously, it has rained about 3" in the past two days. That can only mean one thing....mud. Mud makes our country lifestyle so exciting.

Ahem, unless you are the maid in charge of laundry and bathroom cleaning...but I digress.

Blonde rascal can't stay out of the rain....It is like a gravitational pull or something.

And then, then when it gets really, r-e-a-l-l-y muddy he does this......
Notice the little bat looking creature running along beside the Gator? That is none other than our wonder weenie, Missy.

Yah, it was real fun until she got involved.
Heaven help me, like I don't have enough to do without any help from this master of disaster.

Missy loves chillin' with Josie. I have a pretty good idea though, Josie sees Missy as a turd with legs!

Wheeeee!
The good news/bad news summary...
Good news....this is the view from the porch of my quilty shack after the rain. Serene. If only I had time to organize the shack and actually sew in it. Soon....hopefully.

Bad news? I had to wrestle the beast to the ground and drag her to a bath...."Bath? I don't need no stinkin' bath!"

An apology to our sons...

2009-06-30T21:54:00.005-05:00

....because as of today when I visited the pool store (for the second time in 3 days I might add) I am pretty sure any hope of you inheriting any money from us went "down the drain", if you will.

Your Dad has taken apart and rebuilt the vacuum (more than once) like some kind mechanical wizard. Diagnosed why sand was spewing into the pool and then repaired it. I am pretty sure if the car business fails he has a shot as manager of a pool store.
The chlorine, acid, salt and algae eater we have poured into this pool would probably be a normal summer supply for at least 5 pools.
But not to worry boys, when your Dad and I die then YOU will be the proud owners of the green swamp!

My first lesson in small town ways

2009-06-26T09:21:00.002-05:00

We have moved, well I can't really consider the moving process complete since we still have stuff at the old house, so I'll say we are living in our new hometown of Snyder, TX. Population 10,000. Not tiny...but certainly smaller than anywhere I have ever lived. People say the bad thing about small towns is that everyone knows your business.

Hub's used car lot is booming, way more than he and his business parter ever expected this early in the game. It is a blessing, but they are exhausted and stressed out.

I, as I have prattled on about previously, am tired. Worn out by moving and all the craziness that ensues from it.

Yesterday I decided blonde rascal and I would run some errands for a little change of pace from the unpacking nightmare. We went to the library to get a library card, hardware store to get some ~~dynamite~~ filter sand and acid for the pain-in-my-arse-pool, post office, cool juntique store....

A hairdresser at the salon where MIL gets her do done, through casual conversation with MIL found out we were moving to Snyder and happened to have a good friend in Snyder, also a hairdresser. She claimed this hairdresser was a master at color. This was months ago, MIL gave me the woman's name and the salon she works at here in Snyder. Of course I have long since lost that written piece of info. I remembered the woman had a different name that started with an X and thought I knew where the salon was.

During our errands yesterday I decided to stop by that salon just to see if I could in fact find her. I am in desperate need of a cut and color, not to mention numerous other beauty routines that have fallen by the wayside during this move.

I found her there and much to my relief she had cool hair and good color. I told her about her friend in Lubbock recommending her and she asked what brought us to Snyder....a question that all locals ask. (Should I be concerned that they are questioning why we would move to Snyder?)

I told her that my hubs was the owner of the new car lot on 37th street. Everyone knows about that.

She said..."OHHHH y'all bought Kelby's house" Turns out Kelby (the previous owner of our home) who is also a hairdresser, used to work at that salon before they adopted a baby.

Then she said "You have a son...."

I said "yes, this is blonde rascal our 9 year old son."

Hairdresser: "No, I mean an older son"

Me: "We have a 21 one year old Marine"

Hairdresser: "Yes! I cut a girls hair who has been talking to him online"

Me: "Huh?" (Perplexed, thinking how can she know all this?!? The Marine had told us months ago that he found a girl from Snyder on Facebook that he had been talking to. That is how he rolls with the ladies, he has one in every city in the 48 contiguous. He has been gone over a year, way before moving to Snyder was even a thought in our brains....and he already has connections with the babes in town.....that's our boy.)

Happily for me, the hairdresser then told me that this girl is a great girl from a wonderful Christian family. Went on and on singing her praises. THAT made me happy, the Marine needs a good, morally upstanding, sane, girl...so I took note.

There it was, my first surprising lesson in the small town grapevine.

The moving gods are funny

2009-06-24T10:37:00.004-05:00

I don't specifically remember the moving gods while studying Greek mythology in high school. But surely they exist, right? How else can the nightmare of moving be explained? The moving gods and I, however, do not share the same sense of humor.

We are 90% moved out of our old house. All furniture moved, all that remains is the garage, attic, barn and miscellaneous annoying crap in the closets. Our house has not sold...which is ideal at the moment so we can move at a leisurely pace. But, Dear Lord, we are about done moving so please send that buyer now!

*I can never find an extension cord when I need it, for example Christmas. Whilst moving, I have found no fewer than 627 extension cords.

* Cleaning supplies and old towels (being saved for messy cleanups, dog bathing... you know the ones) multiply like rabbits.

*I have not had our mail forwarded yet (yes, we still pick it up about once a week when we are there moving stuff). The only address I have gone online to officially change is ....People Magazine. Priorities.

*A/C in old house went out. While we were packing stuff and it was Africa hot outside. Pleasant. The up side was that when we listed our house with the realtor, we purchased the home warranty to entice buyers. Thankfully that warranty goes into affect at the time you list. So the new fan motor for the A/C only cost us a $60 service call.

*The garage refrigerator went out after we moved it. Not a necessity by any stretch, since it just holds the overflow...and well, beer, which IS a necessity when moving while it is Africa hot outside. I digress. The garage refrigerator still had a lot of Pedro in it. Did I mention we moved the fridge last Sunday and realized it was not working....8 days later. Nice. Hubs and his buddy loaded the fridge onto the trailer by scooping it up in the bucket of the tractor, which may or may not have had something to do with why it is not working now....I'm just sayin'. Redneck moving may not always be the best method.

* I celebrated moving/unloading/organizing the entire kitchen in the new house, by actually cooking dinner and making a cake for dessert. Only to have the kitchen sink stop up. Hubs could not make it budge, so the whole nasty mess of dishes had to sit out until the plumber came the next day.

*A huge tree limb on a tree in our backyard came crashing down from a large gust of wind. Didn't land on anything luckily, just another untimely check mark on the the to-do list.

* The swimming pool a.k.a. science experiment gone awry is about to be the death of me. We bought this house with a nice new shiny year old saltwater pool. I was a little leery of having a swimming pool....I mean you have heard pool owners complain of the upkeep. However, "they" say saltwater is very low maintenance. Take my word on this dear readers, just join your neighborhood pool. Never, ever, never get a pool in your backyard. I think we have made it full circle in the learning curve of the chemicals...to the tune of about $500 in the past month. Now the sand filter went haywire, spewing sand into the pool. Not to mention, not properly filtering the water at that time. The pool was green so we could not see the bottom of the pool much less sand on the bottom. Hubs read about the sand filter on the internet, disassembled it and now it needs more sand. Did I meantion we live in a town of 10,000....no pool store readily available. Then the automatic crawler vacuum thing wasn't sinking to the bottom of the pool. More internet reading and hubs determines that sand effects the vacuum. We might have to buy a manual pool vacuum to get rid of the sand. The pool brings new meaning to the term money pit.

All of this to say...a few more days of this and the pool is going to be filled with dirt and my hair will be completely gray. In the mean time...we are enjoying the pea green swamp. Someday I am sure I will love the pool....maybe.

On a much more entertaining note....One of our barns has a little potty room in it. I opened the door yesterday and was very disappointed to see that someone had made a mess and been wasting toilet paper. For shame.

However there was no human being for me to scold...Dang mice.

Incidentally, our house cats now reside in this barn. Don't be alarmed, it is insulated and perfectly suited for large amounts of cat hair, hairballs and litter boxes. Anyway, justice was served as there was a mouse carcass on the floor with a perfectly content cat licking his paws nearby. Don't chew my Charmin.

In amongst all the weariness and headaches of moving...we are enjoying our new digs. On Father's Day evening we took a ride around in the Gator. Well hubs and I were in the Gator, blonde rascal chose his own means of transportation....
That is until we came across this......in all my excitement at seeing this I didn't take time to focus very well....Yep, it's a bobcat. Totally cool. It was at this point though that blonde rascal ditched his dirt bike and hoped in the back of the Gator with us!

Here is a little tour....
The road leading up to our property is a little hilly. I am looking forward to running that...when I regain my running mojo which the act of moving has temporarily robbed me of. Not to mention, where are my running shoes?

The rugged open landscape is calming.
Our property is, as is our entire neck of the woods, surrounded by these wind energy turbines.

Interesting.......old and new wind power, side by side.

That is all for now friends....I am off to unpack something or study the extra large, in ground petri dish in our backyard. Sigh.

"One time, at church camp..."

2009-06-22T08:26:00.005-05:00

Our bus caught on fire. Really it did. It was all good though...no injuries, deaths, explosions or hysterics.

I didn't take my camera to camp...but this event totally warranted using my Blackberry camera. I mean, I have a blog to write and all.

We were about 6 miles from the camp and the engine starting smoking profusely. We were on the winding roads in the mountains of New Mexico, other vehicles were pulling onto the shoulder of the road because of the massive amounts of smoke we were producing. There were flames coming out of the engine, but we made it to the side of the road and evacuated the bus without incident. Praise God!

As the kids were exiting the bus, one boy ran by and excitedly said "This is so much better than last year!" That cracked us counselors up, it became our motto for the week.

It just so happens that where we pulled off on to the shoulder happened to be right in front of a cattle breeding facility...interesting. However, the scenery was gorgeous.

Blonde rascal monitoring the arrival of all the emergency vehicles.

We called the camp and they sent vans to retrieve us and we all made it safely to camp.

It was a great week and the kids naturally had a blast. Me? We had an awesome group of counselors...and we had a blast too!

I am glad to be home....and back to my regularly scheduled moving madness. However things are beginning to take shape....sort of.....around here so I hope to be back to blogging more often..... soon!

Alive n' kickin'

2009-06-14T15:13:00.003-05:00

I am still here. We have moved, for the most part and the new house is a disaster. The typical moving scenario....too many boxes, where to put stuff, general disarray. But alas it is summer so who cares, right? I have long, hot days to schlep boxes around.

Blonde rascal and I leave tomorrow for church camp in New Mexico. Pretty much a welcome hiatus from the moving mayhem for me!

I hope to be back to blogging next week. (fingers crossed!) So much to share..."Murphy's Law moving edition", our swimming pool that I just might fill with dirt before too long, adventures in the new life of being the owners of a used car lot in a small town, the many injustices/calamities of a city girl helplessly making her way in the country, hopefully quilting...or at the very least getting the quilty cottage organized. The list goes on and on. I know you'll be hanging on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about it all!

In the meantime, don't be jealous because I am going to camp with a bunch of sweaty rowdy elementary age kids for a week. : )

It's a par-tay!

2009-05-28T10:27:00.008-05:00

The Nester, of "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" fame, is hosting a lampapalooza party! I have been on a lamp kick lately so I thought I would join in on the fun. I just did 2 posts on lamp re-dos so I will link to them here and here.

Next on my list, like THIS weekend, is a fabu burlap lampshade re-do. Just like what Rhoda did. I think I have the exact same buffet lamps that she does. I got them at Lowe's years ago. The silky shade is a little too formal for me, so bring on the burlap!!

Now go visit The Nester! Now, go now! Soak up some ideas to try out yourself at the lampapalooza. Her blog is chocked full of lots of incredible ideas. Easy ideas and best of all she gives you the OK to do your own thing...throw caution and any preconceived "decorating rules" to the wind!

The craziness before the calm

2009-05-27T08:38:00.010-05:00

Blonde rascal's last day of school is this Friday. As we all know, the last week of school is jam packed with stuff.

Last week his class presented their "Living Museum" project. Very fun idea, research someone who has contributed to society and then present yourself as that person. SO cute.

Here we have adorable Emily who chose the smart Sacagewa.
Landon chose the stately Teddy Roosevelt.
And then, then there is my boy....Yep. Johnny Depp. Trust me it was a stretch finding what Johnny has contributed to society, other than entertainment. I could hardly tell blonde rascal to say that Johnny drives a Prius and supports the legalization of marijuana, now could I?!? Anyway it all worked, I just made up some stuff about Johnny Depp....kidding!

It did make me giggle that he chose him. I was like do your thing boy....don't be like everyone else and pick someone dull. Enjoy your research!

In college, I was a communications major. I had to give LOTS of speeches. The O-N-L-Y speech I remember in those 4 years was one where we had to pick someone notorious to research. I chose Charles Manson. It was faaasssinating. Everyone was scared of me after that, but I got an A. The research was enthralling, how he could brainwash those young people. Watching "Helter Skelter" did in fact scare the crap out of me. That was just an added bonus, as I do love a good scare.

So who am I to fault my little progeny for choosing someone interesting to research? Keep it real, always keep it real son.

(By the way, he got a 100%.)

Last Friday was Buddy Field Day. Lots of sweaty kids.

This game made me laugh...what is it called...bats in the belfry???Dizzy and weaving running children are funny! They were like little miniature drunks.

B.R.'s teacher is priceless. We love, LOVE, love her. She was totally worthy of me making her a quilt as an end of the year gift. However, insert us starting a new career and life 90 miles away while still living here...and the time somehow slipped away from me. Instead, I have had this blog bookmarked for months. I copied her and made this cute gift....
Finally, yesterday was award day. I won't bore you with how fabulous and brilliant my son is, he is you know, by rattling off all of his awards. I'll just show you how cute he was...

....getting congratulated by his fantastic principal.....

...and exiting stage left. Done with 3rd grade! It is bittersweet because we are so ready for summer but at the same time we will miss this school. We have had a wonderful experience at his school. However as he starts in the fall at a new school in a new town we will love it too. A lot of my love for his school came from me being involved and volunteering. Getting to know and build bonds with the teachers and staff. Which I plan on continuing at his new school! Besides all that, even if we had not been moving to another town, the district changed the boundaries so he would of had to go to a different school next year anyway. Change was in the cards any way you look at it.

Saturday we are having a garage sale at MIL's house. Not fun, never fun. It does make moving easier because as I tire of packing... I just say forget it I'm selling it! Plus whatever paltry profit I make gets turned into a decorating fund for the "new" house. Wheee!