# 153 - Day 1 of Filming "Randy to the Rescue" is now complete!

Okay folks, we're not in Houston any longer. At least not right now because we're filming in Dallas for a reality show. Gasp!

Our first day of filming for the series "Randy to the Rescue" on TLC is finished, but we still have another full day of filming before it is a total "wrap."

The episode with my daughter and our family should air around July this summer. Henry had to stay in the background, mostly because he has a side to him that is very much gentlemanly Southern cultured and he doesn't want to see anything on Heather that might be selected for the wedding day, he wants to be WOWed as she comes down the aisle for their big moment.

One of the first things the production crew did was to put Heathers microphone equipment on her body...stringing it through her clothes so that you could not see it when looking at her face-forward.

Stefie is talking into the microphone!

Oh, but you could definitely see it on the booty-side of town!

On this first filming day, they decided to do some one-on-one interviews with Heather and her family. Usually, they said, it's the mother who gets to go in for the interview, so they were ready to send me marching orders.

I am so darn camera shy that when the producers went to call me in to do the one-on-one interview with the mother, I asked if Deputy Dave could be with me in the room. Then, we began to talk about how fathers never get to be interviewed and the producer said that was simply because most fathers don't show up. Sad. So, we ended up sending Deputy Dave into the interview room and he was perfect for the interview.

Then, as we were all sitting there, I asked Risa, the producer, "Why can't Stefie go in an interview? She's the female version of the interview you might want to get...she's Heather's sister AND her maid-of-honor."

Stefie is wearing the black shirt.

So, you can imagine Stefie's surprise when they made a few head microphone 007 calls, then pointed to Stefie and said, "You're up! Put on some lipstick, they're ready to take you to the interview room."

Stefie's face and neck turned red for a brief moment, then she put on her fabulous smile and headed for the bright lights and cameras!

Basically, the first day of filming gave us the opportunity to be introduced to Randy, one by one around a bling-style wedding cake. Then, Heather met the make-up artist and hair stylist that will be doing her hair and make-up today (Tuesday) for the second day of filming. And on our first day of filming, we were able to walk around and look at some dresses hanging on a few racks as the film crew followed us along.

We were rather opinionated, boisterous and clashing. No joke. It was not a contrived production...I would love for my daughter to wear a wedding dress with SOME lace and maybe sleeves, heck, even Kate Middleton in the royal wedding just wore sleeves.

Us three girls considering the dress before us...hmmm...not sure.

Heather and I checking out a unique looking dress, but it's
not her dream dress.

Supposedly, sleeves are cost intensive. But, Heather is not exactly into sleeves. She does like some lace, but just a touch of it in the right place.

She will be wearing her cowboy boots with her wedding dress and Randy was simply relieved that the boots had a bit of a heel on them. Henry carried around a back-up pair of high heels that Heather had actually sparkled up on her own with her creative side; Henry was so sweet to carry around these shoes all day.

The one thing that we found to be a lot of fun was that none of us in our family are really starstruck by any person, but we do appreciate Randy's uncanny ability to fit a dress to a woman's body-style while listening to what she does and doesn't like and he matches the style of dress to her type of wedding. His knowledge has been long earned since he's been in the business since he very young; his expertise in the area is what has gotten him on television...along with his charismatic personality.

Heather's two friends, Stephanie and Lindsey,
then my two girls standing side by side in cowboy boots, Heather and Stefie

This year, Stefie and I attended a Bridal Extravaganza in the Houston area and we bought special tickets to actually see Randy with "Say Yes to the Dress" give a presentation about wedding dress selection considerations. This old momma was quite surprised. Well, I was actually really happy when he gave a little boost for sleeves when he said that he LOVED sleeves, but not everyone could afford them because they cost so much to be added to a wedding dress, so we've moved to the sleeveless style dresses. However, he didn't think that those would be staying in style for much longer because sleeves are making their come-back. Actually, he said they never left, but the shops carrying most of the dresses were carrying what the main stream public wanted...strapless and affordable. That makes sense.

I'm thinking, can't we take some lace off of my wedding dress from when I married the girls' father over 25 years ago and incorporate it into the dress some how?

The "Holding Room" where we'd all chill out until the next step.

As for meeting Randy in person and each of us getting to shake his hand...the introduction held particular importance because it gave Heather an opportunity to explain to Randy that her wedding theme was based upon "City Girl Meets Country Boy." Of course, this introduction was captured by the film crew that surrounded us.

No pressure!

And as the day wore on, we would get to take little breaks...I guess Heather and the girls embraced more of their country side as they sat here in between filming and had a beer. Yes, Stefie is 21...we all had to sign photography/videography releases and the person in charge of these looked at Stefie as she drank her beer while handing her the form and saying, "Are you old enough to sign this form?" She laughed and held up the beer, "If I'm old enough to be drinking this, I'm old enough to be signing the paper."

Dad and I just wished everyone had drank a cola. But, this picture is what we had to confront and it was not half bad, especially since they barely got to take a few sips before they were called into another room for more filming. Ahhhh, that's too bad....and that's life in the big city of Dallas right here in this picture below folks.

Anyway, the show will be interesting because all of us have differing opinions. Often LOUD opinions. Heather would hold up a dress and actually have sparkles in her eyes, but her friends would be saying, "Oh no, that's not it at all," or her dad would be saying, "I don't see a turtleneck on that dress," and I'd be saying, "Yeah! At least it has delicate straps!" and Stefie would stand there saying, "Ugly."

It will be a challenge to find the right dress.

Today's filming, which will be the second day of shooting, we will be watching Heather try on a few dresses and they will be filming our response. Everyone is rooting for her, but I guess we will see what she comes out wearing because Randy is getting to pick the dresses that he thinks she should wear.

Watch it have sleeves!

If so, I might have to let loose of my evil laugh. Or I just might cry because at least I get the chance to SEE her in a wedding dress with sleeves.

Heather and Henry

#152 - Road Trip to Dallas

Going from the Houston area to the Dallas area takes around five hours. This week we will be participating in the filming of a new show for Randy of "Say Yes to the Dress." I believe it airs on The Learning Channel (TLC). Our oldest daughter has actually been approached and selected to be filmed. This means, her entire family and her wedding party is supposed to be there for the filming.

However, most of her bride's maids are either working or live out of state and cannot make it for the mid-week shoot. So, that leaves Heather's sister, Stefie as the only wedding party member to show up. My daughters are extremely close sisters. Stefie is going to be Heather's Maid of Honor. She is blessed to have a sister stick by her through thick and thin for this mid-week film shoot.

So, Deputy Dave, myself, Stefie and our three dogs drove the five hour trip today to get to the Dallas area so we could support our daughter and be a part of her filming excitement.

Since we own land a couple of hours outside of Houston, we travel quite frequently and we bring the dogs. Our dogs are fabulous travel companions. However, this would be our first road trip since we rescued Belle the Yorkie. Needless to say, traveling with this dog as been a disaster.

The first part of the trip goes like this...Belle the Yorkie is super hyper anxious. I finally get her to sit up in the front seat of the truck with me and I try to get her calmed down and relaxed in my lap. All is well when suddenly, Belle began throwing up ALL OVER ME. I'm not talking a little upchuck moment...we're talking about a large bowl full of chunks throw-up. All over my jeans and down into a pool of vomit on my seat.

Deputy Dave made a smooth, yet hurried exit off of the freeway to a convenience store where I quickly cleaned up everything as best as I could. We bought some disinfecting spray, wipes, and water...I rubbed and scrubbed everything in an attempt to rid ourselves of the vomit smell. Not pleasant. So, into her kennel she had to go with a fluffy towel. We put her little kennel on the arm rest between us in the front seat; she still had adequate air, was comfortable, but minutes later, she was throwing up again. I felt so sorry for her! Basically, she vomited off and on for the entire trip. Now, we realize that Belle the Yorkie is not a traveling kind of dog. She gets extremely car sick.

As soon as we arrived to my daughter's house, I ran with Belle still tucked inside her kennel, straight for the bathtub. I put the entire kennel into the tub, then coaxed her out toward the warm bath water. She got a great bath, I disinfected the kennel, washed the towels in bleach in the laundry room and our little Belle the Yorkie was like brand new. She just can't ride long-term in a vehicle.

But, I felt like the biggest yucky ball of grossness. I had a dog vomit on me, soaking dog hair had been against my body as I held the towel trying to dry her off after the wash and I just wanted a long shower. But, Heather walks in, "We're taking you guys out to eat tonight to this restraurant ran by two sisters...it means the world to us, they are expecting us...HURRY, they close in a few minutes and are waiting for us."

Great, the vomit clothes will be going out to dinner with me.

I looked down at my jeans, my shirt and knew that I was disgusting, but we drove all this way to see my daughter and I couldn't let a little vomit or dog smell deter me from spending every moment I could with her. I hugged her with my body leaning out a good distance and said, "You really don't want to get close to me after the day I've had; we'll go for a better hug once I'm out of the shower."

So, I did the unthinkable. I went to dinner in the clothes I'd worn all day. EWWWWWW!! Yes, I'd used disinfectant wipes and everything else imaginable to clean my jeans earlier in the day, but my mind still could see little vomit bacteria embedded in the fibers of my jeans. I could not touch my leg or I might hit the "vomit spot."

Needless to say, dinner was delicious. No one commented that I spelled like a vet's office and we all went to look at some incredible Christmas lights that were engineered to perform a quite stunning light display along to songs so that the light action matched the music. It was incredible.

Finally, we got home and I got to take a shower. I put my clothes in my daughter's washing machine and was free of doggie body fluids --- not exactly the best day trip I've experienced, but not the worst either.

Regardless, I'm very excited about our activities over the next few days. We will be meeting some interesting people; learning some helpful facts about selecting a wedding dress for Heather's body type and I just hope we don't say anything horrendous that will be on television.

I wonder what Randy the television personality and wedding dress expert will think about Heather wearing cowboy boots with her wedding dress? Surely he will realize we ARE Texans; after all, we will be filming in Dallas, not New York.

My oldest daughter is thrilled to have this experience, but she is accustomed to being on television...I'm not. I run from television or from having to be put on the spot with a microphone in my face. It's not that I mind public speaking, that's okay, but I don't like television moments such as, "Your daughter is getting married and surely you are one of those dragon mothers who is disgusted by every dress your daughter tries on because it's not a replica of your own wedding dress."

I'm waiting to see what happens. Hopefully, they will be surprised to see that this mother loves everything her daughter tries on...I always think my girls are beautiful, no matter what. I'm easy to please. Life is beautiful.

So, Lord, please don't let me make an irksome expression during the filming because we all know it will be cut, pasted and edited to look as if I were horrified by the dress with the feathers sticking out of it.

Lord, let me be a good mommy or at least wear a great Poker Face!

#151 - Country House Details and Metal Building Prices

I was taught that the details creates an overall statement when it comes to decorating. For our country cabin, I want to steer clear of industrialized products as much as I can. I'd rather purchase odd things for the house that are hand-made by local artisans.

I don't want a typical house this time around...I've done that already...quite a few times. This next cabin in the woods will be a fun home for Deputy David and I to explore our fun side while giving the house character. It will surely be a challenge to think out of the box.

Below, there is a chandelier made from antlers...this is different and I like it.

What about this bathroom and the different kinds of wood designs at play?

Okay, this picture below is a MUST in our next house...floor to ceiling shallow shelving so that I can store things and not have to dig to find what I want. I'd rather go all the way to the ceiling with shallow, short shelves and get as much space for storage as I can grab.

Now, a country cabin cannot have regular, plastic switch plate covers. Noooooo, we must have irregular home-make wood switch plate covers, hopefully made from the trees on our land.

And for some interesting conversational pieces where it most counts, how about this toilet paper holder? It has a raw, wholesome element to it that might make the entire experience even MORE organic that it's going to be. Irk.

With January fast approaching, we are getting ready to put a sign in the yard. But, first we must replace our front door, replace a few window sills, do some exterior painting and I should do a bit of pre-packing in certain areas...such as putting away all of the girls china dolls from their childhood that are on display in a bedroom upstairs...not everyone digs china dolls.

Also, Deputy Dave and I found a rather huge "Barn" metal building this week that we liked. It is 32X40 and near 16' at the peak, but all side walls are 8'. They had advertised this building to be $23,000. however the price was reduced to $17,500. We do believe we can find one for a much better price, but we're off to a good start.

The great thing is...we have our dimensions down and know how many overhead doors, etc., we would like for our storage building. It will be so nice to have a structure this large on the property and it would even accommodate having a second story built inside of the building for added storage space. There's no doubt that Deputy Dave will soon be getting his dream work shop. He will have a place to hang out and create whatever woodworking project he wants to tackle. I may join him and make a few small projects myself. I can only imagine the things we'll come up with! But, to start, he'll be focusing on our cabin since he'll be handling most of the construction himself.

It will also certainly be nice to finally have a place to store the lawn tractor, the utility trailer and anything else that needs to be stowed away --- with plenty room to spare. I'm so excited about it because we've always been relegated to a tight two-car garage where there's no enough room to keep all of the tools and garden supplies AND a vehicle, but our building will be so large that we will definitely be spoiled. We'll still be checking prices with some other companies, but it's looking pretty good so far.

Each week, we take more steps toward making it to the land full-time. I think that once the sign goes up in our yard that we'll be a bit shocked. It will be weird.

Of course, once a potential buyer comes to our house and sees the chickens in the backyard, they will no longer wonder about our reasons for moving...they will clearly be able to see that these sellers are definitely moving to enjoy a life in the country.

And these sellers will be taking their chickens with them!

It will be a new beginning for all of us!

#150 - Best-Friends---City or Country AND Tighten It Up Thursday Update

Whether you live in the city or the country, having a best-friend who sticks by you through thick and thin is a priceless treasure.

My ultimate best-friend is Kelly. She and I were friends before we could even form words because we lived next door to each other while growing up. Our parents were great friends; we all had a fabulous life together for many years.

Kelly's dad and my dad were motorcycle enthusiasts, so Kelly and I took many, many road trips on the back of a few bikes with our dads. It was a natural way of life for us two daughters. Come to think of it...if my dad and I ever had a father/daughter bonding experience, it was all of that motorcycle riding throughout my years growing up. It was pretty cool. I've still to meet any other teenager who is taken to tennis lessons on a motorcycle. 

In fact, I didn't have any other friend whose father rode a motorcycle, just Kelly's dad, who was like a second dad to me.

And our parents would actually take extended motorcycle trips for days and days at a time. They all enjoyed life so thoroughly. Kelly and I have some wonderful memories.

For a few years in my childhood, my family moved to Scotland so that my dad could work on an offshore oil rig in the North Sea. I went to school with the Scottish kids, lived in a house off Inchmickery Avenue and slowly developed a strong Scottish highland accent without knowing it.

Finally, after Scotland was coursing through my blood, it was time to come back to America. Kelly and her family picked up my mother and us three kids from the airport. My happiness at seeing Kelly was incredible, but when I began to chat with her about old times, new times and everything in between, I got this funny expression from Kelly and she said, "You talk funny."

I quickly closed my mouth because I didn't realize that I talked funny. The REALLY "funny" thing about most accents is that you often don't realize you have one at all, until someone points it out, like a best-friend who is completely perplexed by the Scottish-Texan friend with the changed accent.

Over the next year or two, I worked extremely hard to get rid of my accent. Back in those days, in the mid-to-late 70's, it wasn't so cool to have a foreign accent all the time. At least I didn't think it was so cool because it didn't feel good when people continually stared at me with a weird expression every time I spoke. Therefore, I worked hard to listen to the difference in my accent and to try to catch myself when the Scottish burr was coming out thick and strong. It was not easy.

These days, I'm back to my good old Southern drawl, and I only get a few stares when we leave the Southern states. For old fun, I sometimes will talk in my Scottish accent when saying my grocery list outloud to myself or when I am singing an old Scottish song that I know by heart from my time there, but I will never speak with this accent in front of anyone because, to this day, it is very uncomfortable for me to allow anyone to hear me sound that way. I guess I associate it with a bit of trauma with moving from country to country at such a young age.

However, the Scottish language still often comes natural to me, especially when I become angry...that's when the old accent wants to make a huge comeback, but I remain aware of it and keep it at bay. And when I hear the bag-pipes playing...I have been known to go to my room and close my door so that I can imagine my swords (my dancing practice swords) on the floor, crossed over one another and I hold my arms just perfectly with my fingers position just right and I begin my highlands dancing between the blades, with my one foot lifted and the toe swiping back and forth around my calve muscle and so on. Yes, all the time I lived in Scotland, I took Highlands dancing lessons, the real deal. So, the bag-pipes truly do MOVE me in a unique way.

Since my Scottish accent was such a shock to my American friends, I was suddenly horribly shy and would be incapable of sharing my love of beautiful, mesmerizing bag-pipe music that seemed to resonate through my body, nor would I share my unique form of dancing on the practice swords that I kept in my bedroom back in America.

There would be no more dance performances before the Scottish public --- the performances where we actually got to dance around gorgeous, shiny, sharp REAL swords. And the reason that you MUST practice, practice, practice this form of dancing is because the admiration of this dance comes from the fact that you must NOT LOOK DOWN while dancing around the swords placed across each other, you must highstep from quadrant to quadrant using fancy footwork without looking strained. You dance around the blades and do so gracefully, without kicking the swords out of place, and without injuring yourself.

I performed around real swords in Scotland, to real bag-pipe music, and I did not kick the swords. But, back in America, soon my practice wooden swords would disappear...one would be used as a cross after being stuck into the backyard dirt to memorialize a fallen pet. I had not wanted to use one of my wooden swords from Scotland, but my dad stuck it in the ground, not knowing its meaning, and there it rotted. After that point, I would use anything I could find to perform my private Scottish dances in my room.

As for Kelly, she loved me even when I sounded "funny." We will be friends from the cradle to the casket. She is like a sister to me. There's hardly a week that goes by when we haven't spoken multiple times, at length. We support each other, encourage each other, pray for each other, share Bible verses with one another, we vent with each other and understand each other. Yes, we understand one another because we've known each other for...forever...forever as we've known it so far.

I am thankful to God for him giving me a friend like Kelly. A friend who cannot be run off by anyone. A friend who is as close to me as anyone who shares the same blood with me.

Thank you God for Kelly!

Kelly and myself --- this past week at her house.

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Okay, as for my Tighten It Up Thursday Update, I weighed myself today (Wednesday) and already saw an additional one pound weight loss for this week which gives me a GRAND TOTAL LOSS so far of NINE POUNDS!!!

Since I am shooting to lose 25 pounds total, I am getting closer and closer and only have 16 pounds more to go to meet my goal!

For the good part in all of this...I am at the point to where I can DEFINITELY feel the difference in my clothes. I can feel the loss of those pounds mostly in my legs and in my booty. Actually, I can see and feel it all over, but those are the two places where I seem to lose the most weight. My jeans are not fitting so snug any longer, I'm the owner of jeans that now are sagging in the booty area. And I can sit around and walk around so much more comfortably in my jeans. My waist line is diminishing and I am glad for the positive change that I'm seeing in myself.

Since I am going nice and slow at this weight loss, it's sometimes hard to even notice and then I step on the scales and am shocked each week to find the numbers dropping and dropping.

I guess this coming year, I really will PARTLY be a new woman...a new woman who will need some new clothes in a few sizes smaller than the ones I already like to wear baggy. Things will be changing for me and I'm excited, yet I'm still taking it day by day. 

I refuse to buy any new clothes until I've lost the full 25 pounds. Then, it will be enough to justify a new pair of jeans and a few other things. The size difference will warrant some smaller things; I think I'll be able to handle that shopping trip.

When that day gets here, I'll be sure to blog about it as well!!

#149 - Scary Chemical Release

Last week, after 9:00pm, Stefie and I were driving home in our separate vehicles, she was following me home along a road that skirts several chemical refineries. Actually, every road to our house skirts some kind of chemical refinery.

However, I've grown up in refinery land and my father made a living by supervising a nearby plant. I grew up going through a few local explosions, chemical releases and mishaps that had the potential to be very scary. A few times an explosion would be so powerful as to cause windows in homes nearby to break. Our area has plants that produce some toxic chemicals that would cause death within seconds of inhalation.

That along with the plants that produce jet fuel can make for a thrilling roller coaster of a ride for a residential address.

But, back to last week, as my daughter and I were following each other home, with me in the lead, I found myself driving through a section of the Parkway that was suddenly inundated with a heavy chemical that felt as if I were breathing in hairspray that was being sprayed constantly into my airways with each breath. I began to choke and spew and I looked in my rearview mirror to see Stefie behind me at a distance, getting caught by the light. I knew she had just hit the area of chemical release and she needed to (safely) RUN THAT LIGHT and get the heck out of that invisible cloud zone.

I tried calling her repeatedly, but our phone kept giving me a "Network Failure" message. I was panicked. I had been forced to press the gas pedal to the medal so that I could get away from the mystery chemical, but knowing that Stefie was stuck back there did not make me feel good. Not being able to reach her by cell phone made me feel even worse...I knew we would not even be able to make an emergency call, if needed, from that location.

Since it was about 9:30pm, there wasn't much traffic, but a traffic light holding you up in the middle of a chemical cloud is not a good thing.

Finally, I got Stefie on the phone, told her to high-tail it through there and that as soon as she made it through the chemical release that she'd need to get into some fresh air. She did say that her lungs were burning and she couldn't figure out why it would suddenly be getting so intense inside the truck with that kind of smell.

I told her, "THAT my dear is the smell of a chemical release, don't ever forget it, and be glad you lived through it."

We rushed home and our lungs were very irritated. At first, I didn't know what to do. So, I began calling a few numbers which led me to call 911. This is how that conversation went...

The operator said, "This is 911, state your emergency."

I said, "I'm not sure who to call, but I've grown up in this area and am positive that my daughter and I just drove through a chemical release about 15 minutes ago; I'd like to know what chemical it was because our lungs are burning."

I gave her the approximate address of the Parkway where the chemical release had been evident.

The operator responded, "Yes ma'am, we know there was a spill or a release of some nature and we could send ambulances to you right away."

I'm feeling a bit startled, but I said, "I don't think we need ambulances because we are not in severe distress and it's now been about twenty minutes since we were initially exposed, but since we do have lung irritation, I just need to find out the chemical that was released so I can be prepared for any side effects."

The operator said, "Ma'am, that's the problem, the Fire Department and the Assistant Fire Chief have already been on the scene, they must have arrived just after you and your daughter had passed through the scene. They do acknowledge that a chemical was released, but they cannot locate the source of the chemical release because none of the chemical plants are assuming responsibility for it. So, at this point, we have no idea what chemical it was."

I thought...just great. We've breathed in something that might not even show increasing negative effects for quite some time and there's no accountability by anyone at 9:30pm because something or someone royally messed up.

Then, about four days later, on Sunday, I woke up to find that I could barely croak out a sound. My lungs felt swollen inside and this was not an episode where you could cough out congestion and clear your lungs to better breathe. For hours, I could not get enough air power to form words with enough sound to make them clearly heard. However, as the day wore on, I was feeling better, but I couldn't help but wonder if the lung irritation of that week had come to a head --- feeling as if there were internal scabs of some sort that were trying to heal over. It was not a great feeling.

Stefie didn't seem to have problems beyond 2-3 days of the event, but I did have more lasting trouble and that's probably because each of my lungs have had their turn at collapsing in the past and they are scarred pretty bad and weakened to start with, so this episode of driving through the chemical release was not healthy for them. Since I had no idea who the source of the chemical release could be traced to...I will have to simply hope that the chemicals were not the kind that cause long-lasting problems.

Later this week, I'll phone the Fire Department again and will see if they've discovered anything new in their investigation. I might try to find out what plants are in that area and what products they produce so at least I will have an idea of what we might have come across.

Needless to say, this event was scary and gave me pause to again consider the best reason for moving from this house is so we can live in a safer environment with more healthy airspace...living in the country will be lovely...it will be so nice to be surrounded by pure air and to finally not have to worry about the threat of sirens screaming in the air to give the "Shelter in Place" warning.

I'd much rather be standing in the country, breathing in fresh air filtered by the surrounding forest as we raise and grow as much of our own food as possible...away from chemicals.

However, today, as we sit in our house that is surrounded by such heavy petro-chemical areas, the real potential for danger is that we might find ourselves in the midst of a chemical spill as it flows through the air into our house before the Shelter in Place sirens even have a chance to be heard, which has happened quite a few times already. This area does make products that most of the country must use in one form or another, most of us are using many things that are products from these chemical plants, but I just don't want to be a neighbor of these petro-chemical companies any longer.

Anyway, as we drive past the refineries and look at their condition --- the obvious signs of decay and deterioration bothers me greatly; I often wonder how long it will be before the next big disaster is at our fingertips.

For the past few days, I've been a bit stunned by our scary experience. Words cannot express how thankful I am that my daughter and I are safe and sound after breathing in such scary chemicals that burned our lungs as we felt there would not be an escape. All we could do is drive faster to get farther away from wherever the chemicals were coming from...believe me, air is a precious thing that we often take forgranted! We are blessed; it could have been much worse.

However, I'm looking forward to a more peaceful, healthy and better smelling life than this address can offer. And after my experience this past week of being impacted by a chemical release, I'm more ready than ever to get moved to that fresh country air!

And, I won't be giving up on the Fire Department's investigation as they try to uncover the chemical that had been released into the air. Since I was not the only person calling 911 with problems breathing, I'm hoping the matter will soon be revealed and the people who were responsible, yet not accountable will be held to the fire on this one...there were houses right in the area off to the side of the road of that chemical release and I can only feel terrible that they might be enduring more releases that are untraceable. I hope it comes to an end soon so that no one will be in danger.

#148 - A Farm Honeymoon Starting in 2012

Sometimes, it's difficult for our friends and family to understand that Deputy Dave and I are looking forward to living in the county and to building a country style home.

Country style with a rustic edge. We want a cabin with personality.

We want nothing like the houses scattered around Houston, mostly in cookie-cutter fashion, we want an old-style, unique country home built with high-grade materials and while using excellent standards, but not a copy cat house that is similar to the one built around the block. We live in a neighborhood like that right now.

The picture below is almost exactly what I am looking for in our country cabin design as it relates to the front porch and to the construction materials. I can imagine Deputy Dave and I lying together in a double hammock at the end of the porch as the dogs snooze nearby.



I am actually looking forward to having a metal roof. That will be a first for us, we've never owned a home with a metal roof, but I hear that people usually love their metal roof.

I imagine we'll have some extra seating here and there on the property, made from trees that came off our land.

Since we've had chickens for a few months, we've learned how destructive they can be with your gardens, so we will be enforcing a few limitations on their free-ranging. The chickens will still have a specific area available for them to enjoy nature's good stuff, but not anywhere near our gardens.

But, the picture below shows something similar to what I am expecting to enjoy on the land for our veggie gardens, partially raised, easy to walk through and fenced off nicely --- just in case a farm animal gets loose, they won't be able to trample our gardens so easily. I'm hoping to have a nice view of our gardens from the house. Planning the layout of everything on our land has been a challenge, the hills, the creek, the forested areas...we must consider everything carefully in our design.

I'm sure we will learn more as we begin living on the land full-time. Experience can be the best teacher. I've definitely learned that chickens will attack your garden and it will end up looking as if a massacre had occurred. So, the gardens below look like a good fenced off design suitable for a small farm. On our land, the chickens won't get a chance to mutilate our gardens.




I must say, this old-fashioned sink and old-style wood counters make me smile.

I'm not really digging this kitchen, but the part of the kitchen I like in the picture below is the natural tree beams incorporated into the island's design. Awesome.

Okay, the kitchen below is intriguing. I love the large windows that give a gorgeous view of the outdoors; I love the natural stonework: I might have some heavy breathing over the the stripped tree running through the center of the room and I definitely am in love with the natural stone countertop around the stove. This kitchen seems to be a true one-of-a-kind.

This rustic kitchen with the Shaker-Style cabinetry is nice. The added cabinetry at top adds space for your kitchen items to be stored when not needed.

Here is another front porch with the architectural design that I am expecting for our house --- this is the kind of cedar siding that I am looking forward to coming home to. However, I don't want a narrow front porch...I know our front porch will be a main area for huge gatherings in the years to come, so it has to accommodate plenty of people. Plus, it must be long enough and wide enough to hold a hammock or two, a couple of swinging benches and a couple of table sets.

I love the bathroom below....definitely not installed by Lowe's or Home Depot!

Here is another version of my house --- the kind of siding that I like and the country cabin appearance that I'm shooting for us to build. I actually love the red trim around these windows. Oh la la.

This house I've included in the picture below is because of the changing elevation beneath the house --- this will be similar to what we will have to deal with when building our own cabin. But, the cabin built below has been constructed to adapt to the differences in the ground.

 

And, barn doors are a beautiful thing! I'd love to have my pantry shelving covered by sliding barn doors.

Deputy Dave and I have been taking more steps, every week, to prepare our house for the market. We expect to get it listed in January sometime.

Meanwhile, we are looking at metal buildings to have constructed on our property --- this building will have a concrete foundation and it will eventually be Deputy Dave's large workshop. He will need this space since he will be doing most of the home construction himself.

We will also start looking at RV's again. We've owned several RV's through the years, but this next one will be Home-Sweet-Home for a few months as we're building our cabin. We must stay at the property during the construction phase because our land is so rural...we cannot leave any construction materials on the property by itself...we must be there to make it known that residents are on the premises at all times.

So, we've got to get that metal building built and start thinking about what kind of RV we'd like to purchase this time around. I'm hoping we can find an RV at at auction for a price much reduced from the regular market price. Deputy Dave and I purchased our last RV in this manner, by auction, and it was the best purchase we've made. Hopefully, it will work out for us again.

I hope the RV will be roomy enough to meet our immediate needs, yet cozy so that the two of us can enjoy lots of cuddle time. After being married for more than 25 years, we've definitely had our ups and downs...and getting married very young will also bring in a lot of acts of immaturity, but we've made it so far and we've already been through such horrendous hurdles that most people don't confront until their end years together...we did our horrendous hurdles up front.

At this time in our lives, we've worked our way through some hard things and now I realize that we're just now hitting the most wonderful phase of our marriage --- a phase of fun and excitement and enjoyment ---- it's a big adventure for us at this time in our lives. Besides, my mother always told me that people who are married a long time don't get there by it being an easy road...they get there by firm determination, by sticking together through the worst and then basking in the beautiful moments together.

So, Deputy Dave and I are about ready for a second honeymoon right now. I think we're about to start our Farm Honeymoon and it will surely be a fascinating time in our life.

#147 - Hair Color Blindness

This past week I decided to let my daughter's friend cut my hair. Well, I didn't actually DECIDE to have her do my hair, the story goes more like...my youngest made sure I went.

Stefie's friend, Kirsten, is going to school to be a hair technician or a hair stylist or a beautician...I don't know what the politically correct term is these days because it changes so often that I can't keep up. I just know that I appreciate a person who can cut all of these unruly strands of hair in such a way that it gives the illusion that the hair is working out a buddy system to look "in place."

To make this entire situation clear, it needs to be understood that I rarely get my hair done. It's been about a year since I last had a professional cut. But, I do get restless with my dead ends and my tendency to grow a lion's mane is strong, so I purchased a pair of scissors strictly for hair-cutting from Sally's Beauty Supply and went to town cutting my own hair.

Cutting my own hair is nothing new for me. I've done this off and on throughout the years. Since I don't have tons of layers and my hair is naturally curly, I figure that any mistakes I make will be...well...hidden within the masses.

So, about a month ago, I snipped and snipped until about two inches were gone. Back up...since I wasn't actually measuring and I didn't have a set of standards to follow with each snip, it only FELT as if I had cut about two inches...all the way around my hair, evenly. HA!

Then, this past week, my youngest daughter, Stefie, stared at me as I stood there in the living room with my hair in a  ponytail. One part of my ponytail had a segment of hair dripping down much lower than the rest of the ponytail, like a straggler section or hair that had suddenly grown about four inches longer than the rest of the bundle of hair. Stefie's eye got really big and she said, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?"

I reached up and touched the ponytail, aware of the dipping part that I could not straighten out so that it would blend in with the rest of the ponytail and I said, "Well, I cut my hair and it would seem that I didn't do such a straight job of it. But, it's not too bad."

I stood there watching Stefie's expression as her mouth dropped open, and I asked with more insecurity,"It IS okay, isn't it? I mean...I cut it a couple of weeks before we had our big Thanksgiving gathering at the house."

Stefie replies, "You have got to be kidding me."

I pulled on the strands that hung low and separate from the rest of the hair in the ponytail and I said, "I can go get the scissors and you can just snip this part off for me."

Stefie continues to look at me as if I have lost my mind. Then, she whips out her IPhone and starts furiously text messaging someone. She looks up and says, "Mom, you have an appointment next week to see my friend Kirsten who is going to beauty school; no one can do worse than what you've done, so you're going to go see her and get a real haircut."

So, I did go to see her friend and Kirsten actually LISTENED to me; she didn't give me reverse angle layers that hang terribly with my curly hair; she didn't do the criss-cross-chop-chop to my ends in fancy scissored finger-work action; she didn't cut off another five inches off my hair, she simply did what I asked...she trimmed it up in a straight cut fashion while taking some bulk off from around my face.

Unbelievable! My face curtains are tailored so that I can SEE again!!

She didn't give me a freaky haircut that hairstylists normally love to do and that leave my curly hair screaming in all directions. She gave me a simple face framing cut and my curls have been so very happy and falling perfectly upon themselves instead of hanging in chaos.

To top it off, Stefie's friend Kirsten says to me, "If you get your hair colored, or get low-lights, or get high-lights, then you will give me a huge boost in my standing toward me reaching my required studio hours...and we can get rid of all of that grey hair!"

Gasp! What? You don't like my grey hair Kirsten?

Yes, the bright fluorescent lights of the hair studio had indeed pointed to my white strands of hair. I told her, "Well, we maybe can do some low-lights...put some brown back into my hair."

Kirsten makes a funny expression, "Brown?"

I reply, "Yes, I'm a brunette, so maybe we can put some dark brown streaks back through my hair to tone down the white hair."

Kirsten looks at me with a frown, "Well, I don't think we should put brown in your hair because, you are not a natural brunette, your hair is color is in the blond family --- on the dark end of blond, but still, you are an ash blond."

Kirsten proceeds to hold up hair swatches against my natural hair color so she can prove my color to be on the blond spectrum.

I look at the swatches, pull them back, squint my eyes, put the swatches back up to my head and do this a few more times in disbelief. I didn't believe her, the swatches must be wrong.

She gets an instructor to come over and talk with me about how I should not go darker, but that I should go lighter because it is more compatible to my natural hair color...as if I had spent a few days out at the beach. I still wasn't sold. So, the second instructor came over to give a third opinion that my hair shade is indeed in the blond category and getting high-lights would be very close to my natural color, but going darker would be a huge contrast.

How come no one ever told me before that I am an actual ash blond instead of a dark brunette? Why have I never figured out that I have hair color blindness?

Okay, I think I better listen to the THREE people standing here along with the TWO OTHER associates...five hair professionals are telling me that the hair swatches are the real deal, so I start to shift my thinking around a bit.

I'm a blond. Does this mean that I'll suddenly start to have more fun?

Hmmm. I think not.

Regardless, I let Kirsten high-light my hair before she cut it and I walked out very happy. I didn't have the blond look since much of my own hair color was kept, she just weaved a few strands of high-lights through my hair and it just made it look pretty much the same, except the "high-lights" were more blond instead of white. Interesting.

My hair is a little wet still right here -- on the way home
from the hair school, but at least I still have my hair!!

As for Kirsten...I found it refreshing for her to hold such firm, knowledgeable opinions in such an early stage of her budding career, in spite of this woman who tried to tell her how to do her job.

And, I liked her honesty. Her honesty might prevent me from grabbing the special scissors and pretending that I am a beautician any time soon.

It's nice to see this young woman following her natural abilities to do hair. She's good and I'm glad that my daughter was horrified enough by my own scissor-hands to make me this appointment.


Two curly haired girls, but Stefie is on her way
to the airport to fly to Arizona and still has wet hair!

Thank you Stefie.

Thank you for not letting me walk around with the lopsided pony-tail for more than the month that I had already done it.

Stefie has also threatened to throw those hair scissors away.

We watch out for each other like that around here...




# 146 - Another Tighten It Up Thursday Update

Had to repost a correction with my math --- actually have lost more than I had figured out.

Well, I'm here to happily report that out of my 25 pound weight loss goal...I have now lost a whopping eight pounds! I'm so close to a ten pound loss that I can TASTE it!

Over the holiday gathering, my daughter Heather actually noticed my weight loss and made a nice comment. But, she's perceptive that way.

I've had a lack of appetite, so that definitely helps with the weight loss. But, I cannot believe that I actually lost weight over the Thanksgiving Holidays...this is probably a first for me.

If I keep going at this rate, then by Christmas I should be mighty close to that 25 pound weight loss goal. But, for today, since I have lost a solid eight pounds, I have 17 pounds more to meet my weight goal. But, having these several pounds gone do make a nice difference for me.

And what will I do once the 25 pounds is gone? Well, then I will start on my next lump goal of another loss of fifteen pounds. That should put me at a weight that will give me leeway and it will change my clothes sizes significantly. I'm sure those last fifteen pounds will be extremely stubborn to remove, but I am ready to take them on!

Taking off the weight slowly has been rather easy. I eat a variety of foods; I really do not deny myself, but I do watch the portion sizes. I figure, my frame is already petite, I just don't require that much food to keep going, so I better adapt to the proper nutritious intake required for my small-frame.

Little changes do indeed make big differences!