# 538 - Moving the Grown Baby!

Just after Christmas, we helped Stefie move out of her apartment. Stefie is our youngest daughter, a 24 year old who just finished all academic requirements for her Master's Degree. She is amazing.

It was nice to help move her out of her apartment that takes about four hours to reach by Texas Highway. She was happy to move back to Greater Houston, especially since she was born in Houston. Now, she is again close to many family members and old friends.

We had quite a great time getting her moved out, maybe a bit too much fun.



While packing, we gals are members of the Pony-Tail Club!

Our guys, Sgt. Dave and Officer Brice soon showed up to do the heavy lifting.

There won't be any complaints from us gals about cleaning and dealing the details of packing as the guys poured sweat while carrying heavy furnishings down a long flight of stairs.

Stefie had a lot to do. She had final, straggler items to pack at the last moment, but we parents had to head out for our long drive home, so the young kiddos wrapped up their final moments in San Marcos on their own.

We parents did as much as we could, as much as the kids were ready for us to do, until we headed back home while pulling a flatbed trailer carrying the bulk of the apartment items...the living room furniture, dining furniture, bedroom furniture and lots of boxes. Sgt. David and I drove for hours with no tail lights working on the flatbed trailer, in spite of every effort to make them work, so I drove lose behind him, protecting him and other drivers from pulling behind him. At least we had mostly highway the entire way home as the tail-lights could not decide whether to stay on or off. That is another project for Sgt. Dave to tackle...looks like the wiring has passed its life cycle and needs to be revamped.

Brice stayed with Stefie to help finish packing and to load the remaining boxes and items into their U-Haul style truck that they would also bring to unload in our immense storage building the following day.

Brice putting back a light fixture the apartment
complex installed in the WORST spot...in front of
the cable connections. He had removed it so they
could see the television. Here, he is using what he
can to reach the 9 foot ceiling fixture for a reinstall
of the light, but standing on a chair and then a bucket
while dealing with live wire was interesting.

Throughout Stefie's college days, we provided her with a Nissan Frontier as her vehicle...it's an old, but reliable gal. Lately, the truck had been chugging. Turns out, there were clogs in the fuel pump/filter or whatever. Since Brice is an rookie Officer and my husband is a Sgt., poor Brice ended up on the ground doing all of the icky mechanical work and he was covered in heavy grease and grime, but Brice said, "I couldn't let the Sgt. do it." One thing is for sure...Brice is a smart young man.

Thank goodness storages come in all sizes, but we had plenty of
room in ours to allow their furnishings and boxes to be included,
saving money that would been wasted on another storage room.

Our family is so unique. Brice will indeed soon be our son-in-law and we are thrilled, we love Brice, but the poor guy in law enforcement lives at work and at home with ranking respect that is in his blood to honor. He is such a good kid. We are blessed to have Brice in our lives.

Since Stefie was having problems with the Nissan, her daddy let her drive his Dodge while we took the Nissan...it chugged along the way, but it pulled the trailer loaded with furnishings and made it. I admit, there was a bit of breath-holding along the way. Stefie's daddy will be doing work on the Nissan over the next few weeks to get it in tip-top shape. It's been a GREAT truck that helped provide transportation for both of our daughters as they went through college.

At one point, Sgt. Dave and I gave each other a kiss and said, "Thank God we had our children young!" Neither of us could imagine doing this at 60 instead of in our 40's. Having kids young worked out for us.

We were also glad to get home to our furry babies...they were so good, even though they were left at home all day long.

So, both of my daughters are finished with college, at least the portion that we helped support them through.

A celebration for us PARENTS would be awesome, but we are too exhausted!

# 485 - Long Overdue Country-Life Update

This are going slow out here in the country. We've now been here almost seven months. Things have often been exhausting, yet so peaceful and beautiful.

Living on raw acreage is challenging. A couple of weeks ago, we suddenly didn't have water and it turned out that a neighbor hit the line with his tractor. Such is the life of a country dweller.

For the past couple of months, the weather has been ultra-yucky, which translates to bad conditions that prevent you from doing much outdoors. The private road leading to our residence has parts that are so muddy and bad that we simply avoid driving, unless necessary. We've put in road stabilizing material, but these things take time. Unless you put in concrete, you've got to keep at it so you can deal with the low areas or water-logged zones that need elevation changes.

This past week we had some excitement. Our Australian Shepherd, Howdy, went outdoors with my husband and he immediately raced for the thick part of the woods. Sgt. Dave was yelling commands for Howdy to obey, which he normally turns on a dime to obey, but he kept going. Sgt. Dave normally carries a gun at all times, but he didn't have one, so he ran back and grabbed one, then went after Howdy.

Using his machete to reach Howdy, Sgt. Dave finally made it deep into the woods to find Howdy's reason for bolting. I knew something bad had happened...Sgt. Dave told me to stay inside because he knows I have a tendency to be too curious.

A while later, he comes walking in and saying, "This is a drawback to living in the country, look at what we've got..."

Puppies!

These two had been in the woods for a while on their own. The day before I had heard yelps, but could not figure out where the sounds came from as the forest can makes sounds echo and boomerang.

Oh goodness.

Thankfully, we found the black and white puppy, a male, a good home of some old friends of ours.

Howdy is not keen to have his lips chewed on by tiny teeth.
He's the Big Boy on this acreage and things go HIS way.

So, he's living in the Greater Houston area with a wonderful family. But, the little white/brindle gal seems to be adopted by our own family.

She is so sweet, she won't give up. She's gives Howdy kisses.

I think I lost the battle with finding her another home after Sgt. Dave began calling her "Grace," which I morphed into "Gracie-Baby."

I was NOT expecting to be raising another puppy, another dog...but this is how it goes.

After laying down the law, Howdy
becomes a big buddy.

We don't have fencing in place, so that's an issue, but she seems to be smart enough to stick close to her new home-base. It appears she doesn't want to be lost in the woods again, one time is enough for her.

Other than that, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my oldest daughter's house in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area as Sgt. Dave had to stay home due to work and work and work.

Me at Heather's house for Thanksgiving.

My son-in-law did a fabulous job with the turkey that had been "harvested" from the farm approximately 48 hours prior to Thanksgiving. I do believe it was the freshest and most delicious turkey I've ever eaten, definitely the biggest I've ever seen --- about 25 pounds.

Of course, being with both of my grown daughters, son-in-law and grand-baby brought me tremendous joy.

Photo taken by my brother-in-law, Warren.
I sure love my Grand-Baby!

It was made even better by my sister and her family joining us!

Photo taken by Warren.

Aunt Stefie loves her baby Coraline!

Aunt Stefie with Coraline. Photo taken by Warren.

The day after Thanksgiving, we all had a ball visiting downtown Fort Worth and my son-in-law took the entire family out for Italian food at Taverna --- delicious beyond expression.

My TALL oldest daughter, Heather, then me, my sister, Robin, my
youngest daughter, Stefanie and my precious youngest niece, Shaye.
I love these gals - I am a blessed woman.
Photo by Warren.

I stayed five days at Heather and Henry's house and that gave me ample time to get up close and cozy with my sweet first grand-baby. I brought Sgt. Dave some Thanksgiving food leftovers for him to gobble down and my road trip was peaceful.

Life is full of beauty, in spite of the sprinkling of heartache, which we all contend with on some level. I am thankful because my dad's long year of chemo and radiation has come to an end. We are praying he gets good results in the coming months after battling this aggressive cancer. My husband's nephew was murdered on Father's Day and his confessed killer has been indicted by a Grand Jury, so we are always emotionally drained as we contend with the upcoming trial and with knowing a killer can throw enough money at the system and remain on the loose...but his day is coming. I try to not get bogged down by the slow pace of things here in the country, and I COUNT MY BLESSINGS!

The guest cabin construction will begin by February 1st, so I am hanging in there and glad that I planned for a year out here before construction began because the weather is definitely our boss.

This cold weather hurts my body --- I am a pure Southern gal and cold weather is not so awesome, but it's a time to prepare for Spring chaos.

I'm preparing.

# 449 - Dream Home Tour, by Accident

Since moving to the country a month ago, I've come across some houses that catch my eye, but there's this one house in particular that makes my heart go pitter-patter.

Every time we pass by the house, I tell my husband, "That's my house, a dream home! We have to stop and take pictures!"

So, this past Friday, on our 27th Wedding Anniversary, my husband finds a spot to pull off so I can jump out in front of my dream home and take some quick snaps shots as he pulls the car down the road alongside the house for a turn-around.

Man...I was so happy to just get a few photos!

This house is an older Southern style home and the colors make it pop beneath the wooded grounds.

And, to shorten the story, the home-owners happened to be sitting under a few tall oaks in the backyard and as we were getting ready to leave, I decided to walk up to their back fence to ask about their paint colors. The woman kind of looked us up and down as I was telling her that I LOVED her house and confessed to hanging around the frontage to get a few shots.

She opened her back gate and said, "You two come on in and I'll take you on a tour."

Heart - Be - Still!

And so we spent about two hours with our new friends in our small town as we got a tour of EVERYTHING.

And it turns out that Shirley is an artist. She takes me on a tour of her studio in the house. This room has plenty of natural light and she pulled out a few canvases and drawings to show me her latest projects from photos she'd taken when on vacation in Florida. She's about to go to Alaska and will be taking more photos upon which to base her artwork.

Then, she shows me a wall of books. She's not only an artist, she's a published author of many books that provide instructions for painting some of her favorite things.

And there in her studio, I see a wall of books --- books that I've seen many times at stores such as Hobby Lobby, and I ask if I can buy a couple of them on the spot.

I buy the books. Of course, book is on how to draw roosters/chickens.

Then, we take more tours of her gardens and grounds to have a fascinating look at artwork Shirley's son produces out of old shovel heads, hoes, horseshoes, etc., Below is a bird made from an old shovel. Her gardens are a LOT of fun!

But, the house had me falling in love --- built in 1934, it is a beauty. I loved the red doors and red shutters with the white trim and picket fence.

Over the years, the house had gone through numerous additions, but the nine foot ceilings and open rooms with pocket doors and wide wood trim brought character into this house that you don't see in newer homes.

She has two homes on the property, but the house with the metal patchwork roof had been the garage --- many years ago, it had a one car garage with a small section set aside for living quarters, probably for a servant or grounds-keeper. It is now converted into a beautiful cottage.

And Shirley showed me her "Outhouse" that was never really an outhouse, but is a garden tool shed. The old license plates serve a double function, they add personality to the structure and cover the holes in the wood chewed out by squirrels.

And here we have another piece of shovel art --- a strange shovel critter with horse-shoe legs.

The walking path around the house is made up of all different kinds of stones and patio steps that she found or purchased through the years. Somehow, it all comes together to look WONDERFUL and welcoming.

Shirley let me know that a couple of people have stopped and told her to name her price for her place because they insisted on buying it. But, her home is not for sale. She loves it there and adores it.

 

And I get back to our own little home, which is now an RV as we prepare the land for our future home to live in until we are old, gray and full of happy wrinkles --- happy-smile-wrinkles.

 

I felt inspired.

 

Taking her books outside, I set them down on a chair and kept shooing the chickens away because they were interfering with me trying to get a good shot of the books. Finally, I realized that the chickens could not have posed any better, so I clicked and laughed at the coincidence. My chickens are looking at me looking at a book about how to draw chickens.

 

 

 

And since my field of study in the field of Humanities had been Visual Arts and Design, I realized that we "art-types" are often drawn to each other. I don't know how it happens, but creative people are built with some kind of mysterious magnetic that pulls us together. Perhaps since I wore my new hat during my outing that day to Shirley's house, she knew I was an artist by looking at me.

 

I had a wonderful day --- who would've thought a tour of a stranger's house would turn out to be such a beautiful experience? And I also got to look at her daughter's newly published children's book, a hardback book in a retro-style that made me crack-up.

 



 

And our anniversary lunch earlier that day had been enjoyable, but the local restaurant is off our list for future visits. There isn't much to choose from around here, so it is hard to mark one off, but usually for good reason. At least we had a great lunch that led to our outing at the Dream House!

 

Being married for 27 years is not an easy task, but we've come to the point to where we are in a great place --- in all areas. It's definitely a "feel-good" time of being happy and content and thrilled about our new direction.

 



 

Shirley, and her friend, BJ who is a World War I AND a World War II veteran have invited us to come back or to meet them for margaritas at a nearby Cantina where the locals love to go! I am not much for drinking, but I do like chips and salsa, so I will probably hang out with them.

I better start sketching some chickens so Shirley can get a few laughs of her own.

My dream home led us to make new friends. Bravery and graciousness combined to make for a beautiful 27th anniversary adventure.

# 377 - Ring ding-a-ding Day at Texas State University!

This week, my "baby" girl received her class ring from Texas State University. Am I proud? Yes, you're darn tooten! Stefie is a sassy little thing, barely 90 pounds, but she felt ten feet tall as she heard her name called from the podium to prompt her ring ceremony walk.
Texas State is a unique university in the Texas Hill Country. It has the San Marcos River winding through the town, which eventually leads to the Guadelupe. If you've never been to Texas, then you might want to know about this major recreational activity that many, many Texans have experienced...floating the river, me included, YEARS ago.

Old Man River - - - San Marcos

As part of the Texas State Ring Ceremony tradition, the students receive their rings and then dunk them into the river. Paying tribute to this tradition, the university sets up an elaborate waterfall, filled with water from the San Marcus River and as the students are handed their ring, they then walk to the waterfall and dunk their ring into the water so that all can go through this ritual, whether they make it to the actual river, or not.

Of course, the students are encouraged to take their ring to the actual river for an official ring dunking, on the spot. I can only imagine how many rings are floating at the bottom of that river!

As for us parents, this moment was a tremendously positive memory --- to see that kid walking in all her cuteness to get her ring --- it was a lot of fun. And since she looks so darn young, not at all like a 22-year old woman, my husband was yelling, "I'm so proud of my thirteen-year-old daughter!" It was quite humorous.

Now, we've seen both of our daughters receive their university rings. Our oldest, Heather, received her ring from Texas A&M. The big moment at that massive university was simply waiting for the chance to sign for the ring, but Texas State is small enough to actually still call each student's name in an official ceremony to get their ring. Both experiences have been wonderful.

The Sisters --- My Girls!

I can tell you one thing...Texas State is an awesome university and a perfect fit for my youngest daughter. The college town of San Marcos is jam-packed with every restaurant and store imaginable, enough to rival any metropolitan area. In addition, the town is comprised of rolling hills and trains tooting their horns on the various tracks, to make it feel like an authentic old town combined with awesome technology and convenience of today's time-frame.

Best of all, my husband's Aunt Normandy, who is right around 80 years old, showed up for the ceremony. She had received her own ring from Texas State during her youth, sometime in the 1950's.

I took a photo of these two gals together and of their hands displaying their Texas State rings. Since this aunt never had children of her own, she is especially proud to have family following in her footsteps.

Over 60 years difference between aunt and niece's ring day!

For the celebration dinner, we took the kids, including our awesome new son-in-law, Henry, as well as Stefie's sweet boyfriend, Brice, to Outback Steakhouse --- the restaurant of Stefie's choice. Being the Ring Girl has its advantages!

Dinner was delicious and we enjoyed an evening of fun conversation revolving around football, funny television shows, the history of the Berlin Wall coming down and other interesting topics. Then, our oldest daughter kept saying, in a too loud voice, that her husband's dinner of pork smelled like a "fart." I wanted to explain to the neighboring tables, "She's a degreed Biology major...please excuse her sense of 'scientific' terms during dinner." A fart? Really?

Overall, this day with Stefie was a wonderful time to share with her...seeing her earn a token of her hard work was rewarding in itself. Plus, her ring was fairly gorgeous.



 



 







Our grown daughters; they are getting to the point to where
they will be doing things, for better or for worse, with their
own growing families. It sure won't be easy, but it will be
worth it. Once our kids start having kids, they will learn how
challenging life can REALLY be...CAN'T WAIT!

   

I am delighted to be the proud mom of a Texas State student. Being a Native Texan, I understand the pull this university has upon Stefie. In my opinion, they are blessed to have her...she is one smart doll.

Yes, I'm strutting proud Momma gear!

# 370 - Super Sexy!

A few weeks ago, on the drive home from Heather's wedding (our oldest daughter), my husband was a sly devil and took a photo of me snoozing. He immediately posted it on Facebook. He liked it. I had no idea it existed until my sister called and told me she loved the picture of me asleep on the way home while wearing our mother's red hat.

What?

The hat had been put on an honor chair at my daughter's wedding for her grandmother and since I had it in my lap on the way home, I decided to wear it to help block the sun from my eyes. The shape of the hat worked perfectly to block out harsh rays of sun so I could relax and catch some much needed zzzz's.

Between my orthopedic neck pillow, the pillow in my lap, my cell phone hanging from the collar of my shirt, and the red hat with my hair splayed everywhere, I thought this shot was Super Sexy and had to be passed on to my blog buddies for a peek. I think the orthopedic pillow cinched the "S" in sexy...Don't you think?

I guess I should be thankful there wasn't an open gaping mouth or drool involved. It could be worse!

# 361 - The Good Stuff - A Fan & A Honeymoon

Funny moments at weddings always bring a smile and stress-relief.

The Bridal room had a problem with the air conditioning, it was crowded, stuffy and uncomfortable. Two fans were brought in and the person who was most covered in fabric, the Bride, got a fan right up the skirt.

Also, if you look closely, you'll see that each gal is holding a red SOLO cup because their bouquets were needing a drink of water to remain fresh and lively. So, these intelligent women made temporary vases out of the plastic cups. Between the fan blowing up Heather's wedding dress and the solo cups in hand, this is one of my favorite photos!

And here is the Maid of Honor, my youngest daughter, Stefie, holding her bouquet in a solo cup, looking as if she's ready for this wedding to get started.

Here is the Bride's bouquet in a solo cup...such moments of pure beauty.

And here are the girls, minus the fan and minus the solo cups. The bride is radiant and all the girls are a beautiful sight to behold.

Through the afternoon, the girls helped each other to battle the damage that the high humidity was doing to their hair. Such sweet moments.

And I love how my Bride-daughter seems right at home in that wedding dress!

Now, for the vacation of a lifetime, the Honeymoon! Henry and Heather are spending three weeks traveling around Europe. On Monday, they landed in Athens, Greece, they went to Venice, which Heather feels is very over-rated, and they have enjoyed staying at a resort in Mykonos. All the pictures are like postcards...here are a few they have shared so far...

Little Venice

Walking the streets of Mykonos

View from their private balcony at Santorini.
The beaches have RED sand!

Another of Mykonos.

So far, it seems that Santorini has been their favorite place. I can't wait to see the pictures from ROME! Good thing they are having a beautiful honeymoon. It's wonderful that they can electronically share their pictures with us instead of the old-fashioned torture of having to bring home rolls of film that must be processed and passed around to visitors.

This kind of sharing is much more efficient and real-time...it's amazing.

I wonder what I'll get to see tomorrow? Hopefully the face of my child in one of the photos so she can prove these are not just postcards!

Have a great one everybody!