Growing Into Our Parents

I often open my mouth these days and hear my mother's words come pouring out. How is it we use the same words as the last generation when we thought we were so different?

But my brother Russell has me beat...he not only sounds like my father, he has become him! The picture above of Russ could easily be mistaken for a picture of Dad at that age. Same tall stance, same cowboy boot strut, and same slight paunch taking over where , unlike me, he was always slim and trim. Funny how time slips away.

Blue Skies, Texas Weather

We left our car at the dealership to get it serviced today, so I took Gampy to work. On my way into town this afternoon to pick him up, I had to get a shot of the pretty sky.

Long ago and far away in the Northwest, when Gampy and I started dating and we were talking about visiting his parents in Texas, I said "let's go before it gets hot." Even though it was only May, he said "Too late!"

I thought he was kidding back then, but having lived in Texas for over 5 years now, I can tell you there really are four seasons in Texas: Hot, Hot, getting a little cooler, and gonna get hot soon. I love Texas weather from mid-October to mid-May. The rest of the year I wish I had a cabin by a creek in the hills in some other state...probably Alaska.

New Blog For Junk Crazy Me

If you're interesting in changing junk to "junky-home-decorating-stuff" (my dear husband's description), then I invite you over to my new sister blog: http://oneofmeiscrazy.blogspot.com

For ease, you can click on it in the blogroll on the bottom, right-hand section of this blog. Sorry, if I knew how to make a link for you here, I would be writing a different kind of blog!

If you stop by One Of Me Is Crazy, you will see my failures, as well as my successful makeovers in the coming days. You will find out how a paint blob on the floor can save you the chore of repainting a whole room.



If you're not interested in my home projects, please continue to join me here for future updates on my rantings on life. I've been taking it easy and thinking up all kinds of crap I hope you will find entertaining.

What Was I Thinking?

Have you ever put a new pair of sweatpants on and forgot to cut off the tag and then found yourself in the middle of Target where you discover that the tag is hanging out the back of your pants and you tuck it in (praying no one else saw it hanging out and thinks you stole them) and tell yourself thank God you didn't buy them at Target and then forget about the tag again until that night your husband says "Whut is that there ah hanging out ah yer drawers?"

Yeah...me neither.

World's Oldest Hippy

Last March when I flew to California, I took an airporter from San Francisco airport to Sonoma County where my mom picked me up. While waiting, I managed to capture some pictures of one of the cab drivers picking up a fare. I always wondered what happened to the hippies in San Francisco after 1967's "Summer of Love"...now I know where one of them went!





I love that the advertisement sign on the top of the cab says "RELAX". Me thinks he has that down!

The 60's and Finding Family

Just wondering... if you grew up in the 50's and 60's did you wear the curlers with curler cap like I'm styling in this mid-1960's picture?

I had never seen this picture of me until last night. It was sent to me by a sister I lost contact with years ago. Around Labor Day, she emailed me after finding me on Classmates.com. I joined Classmates simply hoping to find her, now after a year on Classmates, she found me. I am grateful. She's like a plug for a hole in my heart.

My dad married her mother when I was around 7 and Kathy around 10. For years we shared only camping trips and family vacations, then when I was 13, we shared a room together for the next 3 and a half years. For an only child, she never showed any distress at having to take in this younger, seldom seen, step-sister. For her friendship and acceptance at a time when I really needed it, I will always be grateful.

Due to our parents divorce, we lost contact during the time I was in the Air Force. She had moved out of state, but my father always wished to get in contact with her and he and I tried one time to find her...in the days before the internet...but she had remarried and moved to yet another state, so our search never panned out. Not knowing her last name proved to make our search impossible back then. God bless the internet!

Girls Just Wanna Have...Shopping Trips

We've been to Albuquerque to visit Lily and her family. While there, we shopped at Trader Joes where Lily walked the whole store pushing their "future shopper" cart. She was adorable of course.

How Does He Know?

On yahoo.com's website there is an article about Stephen Hawking that announces that Mister Hawking has now decided that God did not create the universe.

My response is... unless you are God, how would you know for sure?

Yesterday And Today

This was yesterday...



This is today...



Somehow 32 years passed in between.

Wilf And Digby

One of my favorite blogs...





http://wilfanddigby.blogspot.com

I find this blog so entertaining. The writer use to live in Italy with his partner and two dogs. He changed the blog title when they moved to France, and then sadly, one of the dogs died. If you love dogs and loved the crazy european characters in Under The Tuscan Sun, you will enjoy this blog. Take a look.

Is It Just Me Or Is This Creepy?

I was perusing Craigslist this morning and came across this listing. It is for a little girl's bed and end table. The creepy part is why in the world would you take a picture of the bed with what appears to be a man (naked?) lying on the little girl's bed.



Here's the night stand to go with it. Definitely a little girl's room. Creepy? What do you think?

Random Thoughts

Hey, have you ever been surfing blogs and fell asleep with your finger on the "down arrow" and woke up to find the blog pictures whizzing past your eyes?

Yeah...me neither.



Here is yet another fine presentation of how well I take pictures...this was my sister Becky and I when we were in California last Spring...



Man I'm good!

Among The Homeless

We are now homeless...Will we be out in the streets soon, trudging through the snow? Lost without a home? No, we're just happy to have the sell of the house over with today! YAY!!!

One thing I will miss though, and that's watching the squirrels out in the woods in the back sneak into Steve's yard next door and steal peaches. Sometimes we're treated to watching the squirrels roll the peaches out of Steve's yard, across the open area behind our back fences, and into the woods.

Steve planted 4 peach trees when we moved here 5 years ago. One year he bragged about how many peaches he harvested, but this year the squirrels seem to have managed to cart most of them off when he wasn't looking. I guess that's why they call it "squirreling it away" when they talk about people storing things up!

Anyway, it was hard to keep a straight face when Steve came fuming out of his yard with his shorts, cowboy boots, and big 10-gallon hat on, fussing about his lack of peaches...there's a saying in Texas "Big hat, no cattle"... but in this case, every time I saw him in his get-up, all I could think was "Big hat, NO Peaches!"



You can see his peach-less trees all lined up on the other side of our fence. "Hey Steve... what happened to all your peaches???"



It's for sure we will miss the peace and quiet, but it's also a sure thing that we WON'T miss the acre of mowing needed at least once a week.



We'll miss the big soaking tub in the master bath. I could use a good soak right now with all the moving we've been doing!



And...of course...I'll miss that front row seat on the couch watching the squirrels come from those trees way out there and sneak into Steve's yard and then back out with a nice juicy peach!



As my oldest daughter Jenny used to say when she was little: "Goodbye house" ..."Goodbye flowers" ... only I'd have to add: "Goodbye peach trees and squirrels" ..."Goodbye..." Well, you get the picture!

Staging Homes For Sale

With our home sell final on Friday, we're moving into Gampy's parents house. Their house has been up for sale since they moved to a retirement community several months ago due to health problems. Their retirement community provides assistance, weekly housecleaning, all meals served in a lovely dining room, transportation to appointments and shopping etc. This allows the elderly residents to live as independently as possible in their own apartments.

Mom and Pop are hoping that by Gampy and I putting our furniture and accessories into their house, it will help it sell faster. Here's what we've done with the place:










What do you think of our work so far?

Do Dogs Smile?

Some people say that dogs can't smile or laugh, but I disagree. In the picture above, it's very clear that Wrigley is so happy to be with his family on a car ride that he's smiling away. What do you think?

Moving Day

Today Kobie (the master of handymen) is bringing some friends to help us move our heavy stuff. Our house is sold and we're moving on. I was looking at the backyard and thinking how much I will miss the peace and quiet that comes from living near our woods and the lake. Five years here is the longest we've stayed anywhere since we were kids.



Here's a shot of the rickety wheelbarrow I bought from an old couple recently. I'm sad I won't be here to see it when the flowers start really blooming and the trailing vines cascade over the sides. We decided that we must leave it since it seems sort of attached to the property, unlike the movable patio planters that we have already moved to their new home. The wheelbarrow seems more like a permanent resident even tho it's only been there a few short months.



I'm also going to miss the trees and flowers planted here and there around the place, this one especially. When it's in bloom, it's really lovely.



But then again, I look at pictures and start thinking of all the work involved with keeping up an acre of land...To get rid of the weeds in the beds around two sides of the house, I spent 8 hours on my knees putting down fabric mesh and then bark made from old tires.

I really recommend the "faux bark" made from rubber tires for any area where you don't plan to plant flowers. The rubber bark repels insects and retains it's color for years, unlike the mulch we put down around the trees, which has already lost half it's color and brought with it a variety of bugs we had to kill!



I don't think Gampy is going to miss his Saturday morning rides with his friend John Deere. The weather is over 100 degrees each day now, so it's up early if you have to mow anything.



All in all, it's been a good home. The neighbors are friendly and will welcome the new couple who are buying it. Look, one of them stopped by to say so long...see Mr. Red Bird sitting on our fence in the corner of the picture below?



Oh...shit! It's 10 minutes to 8:00 and Gampy is sleeping in today...the cable man just called to say he will be at the new place in 15 mins, then Kobie called to say he didn't have to work his usual job last night so he'll be here earlier, at 9:00 a.m. instead of 10! ...I'VE GOTTA GO!!!!

Little Mary

This post isn't about how to take the worst picture ever, although the picture above could be in the running for that contest.

No, see I was trying to capture areas around the house that are my favorites. The fireplace is one of them. I change the mantle often, but always leave the picture of "Little Mary" in the arrangements. Here she's in among my antique cowboy boots and my crown (What??? Like you don't have a crown?)



Here's a close up of Mary's picture. Her little feet are so sweet I could just kiss them. Dirt and all! My husband's paternal grandmother had a little girl who died when she was a toddler, then she had Little Mary. I can tell from the picture that Little Mary must have been adored by her mother. See how she dressed Little Mary all up, but left those cute little feet sticking out? You wonder...how must her Mama have felt to have this little treasure after losing her first little girl?

Little Mary would've been my husband's aunt had she lived past childhood. Sadly, she died when she was 3 or 4. Her mother fell apart after her death and was sent to a hospital to get over her depression because that's what they did back then. How terrible she must've felt, left completely alone with only her longing for her precious little girls.



Her sweet little face will forever remind me of what's important in life. Her cute little dusty feet will help me remember to not take myself too serious.

Fixing To-Do List #2: Fixin Up A Blackboard

Life has been busy lately, more about that in a later post.

For now I'd like to show you another project I completed a while back. I painted an old frame white and will age it down later. Then I bought a piece of MDF (medium density fiberbroad for the new crafters amoung us), which is basically the new plywood, and expectantly waited for Gampy to cut it for me...and waited, and waited.

So, after taking the measurements of the inside of the frame myself, I took me down to Home Depot (H/D) and bought another MDF board, which the nice guy cut to size for me... for free...right on the spot...NO WAITING...wow, I love it when the handyman is sooooo handy!


Here's my handy-dandy work station, AKA kitchen island protected with cheap 99 cent shower curtains from Walmart (WallyWorld) and cans of beans from the cupboard to use as lifters. Man, McGiver has nothing on me!


I first painted on a couple coats of red-colored primer. I use two primers, either white or red (for the darker colored projects) and a cheap throw away foam brush and a throw away foam 2 inch roller. After the primer dried, I painted on 3 or 4 coats of blackboard paint from a small can of it bought at H/D.






I'm impressed with myself here that I got project no 1 (the chandelier) in the shot with project no 2. I love when my picture-taking talent morphs past primitive!



So if ya'll want a cheap decoration for your wall, try making a blackboard. You can paint the blackboard paint on almost anything. The other bloggers in blogworld would've written a snappy cute saying on the blackboard, but my handwriting has always been so shitty it would've cheapen the look, not improved it. Imagine the blackboard with writing on it...like for instance:

Dinner Menu: Beans from the cans on the counter

Well, that's not too snappy, but I'm sure you get the picture.