Monday With Summer and Tuesday to Town.....

Summer spent the weekend with some friends in Waco so she and I met up Monday to have lunch and hit up some Goodwills.

I decided to bypass Mart and turned off the Countyline road which brought me out to a paved road. 

I like the subtle differences in the scenery.

Linda and Andy live really close to some of my favorite places - HEB, Home Depot and Conquistador Mexican Restaurant as well as Luby's and Walmart which has our bank inside.

I picked Summer up at their house and we shopped a Goodwill before stopping for lunch at George's.

I love that place. Louis Dean not so much - so it was perfect!

We both had skinny margaritas and they were delicious and only 100 calories!

I didn't hit a jackpot on the goodwills but I did get a few treasures.

It was good to spend some time with Summer!

I dropped her back at Linda and Andy's and came home fully intending to take a nap.

Louis Dean surprised me with a coffee bar area he had designed, made and painted while I was gone!

So one thing led to another and I was moving things around like nobody's business!

We burn our paper trash down here and that makes starting a campfire easy peasy!

We even had colored flames!

I thought it was from my art palette paper but a friend told me she puts her strands of burned out lights (she decorates with them year round as I do) in the fire and it makes the flames colored.

Who knew?? Now I do!

Louis Dean was pretty pleased with himself!

I absolutely LOVE the coffee station!!

I had gone by HEB on my way back from Waco and yet I still managed to forget a couple of things.

So after our Bible reading - and Sherry brought my Bible Basket home with her Sunday night! - I decided to go to 'town.' As in Mart. I love that little town.

I was in the Dollar store when Louis Dean called and asked me to buy a small hack saw and an extra blade. Hmmmm.....there's no hardware stores in Mart! The auto/hardware store across the street from Read's went out of business last year. Read's was my next stop for potatoes and a ham steak which I am fixing for our Easter dinner. That and potato salad and baked beans will be our menu and blueberry muffins for Easter morning breakfast. We'll watch services online.

Anyway, after I checked out I turned around and asked the older guy checking in the next line if he knew where I could buy a hack saw. He said, "You....might.....try......................."

I waited and waited and finally left thinking he had forgotten what he was saying.

As I got to the truck, another checker lady came running out and said he said to try Watson's Feed Store. I thanked her and that's where I went.

This is an amazing place! Built over 100 years ago and run by the Watson family, it is a proud part of history right there on Texas Avenue.

Much of the store is as it has always been and that's the special charm of shopping here.

They did, indeed, have hack saws. I now know they are adjustable and that the numbers on the blade indicate how many teeth are in a space on the blade so the more teeth - the finer the cut.

It was a pleasure to do business there today!

I happened to drive down an alley on the way from Read's back down to where the feed store is.

I just stopped in my tracks when I saw this cozy little spot....complete with a cat sunning on the chair.

It belongs to Virginia who owns the Vintage Shop. I wonder if they live here.

As I drove down the alleys I noticed several people lived in the backs of these fine old buildings.

Somehow that made me happy!

I love everything about driving on the country back roads and shopping in small towns.

I rolled the truck windows down and breathed the heady aroma of 'country.'

It smells the way green looks. Not the same as mowed grass. I smelled that on a side street in Mart and it wasn't the same as this sweet smell of earth and growing things.

I had a welcome committee meet me at the gate and I had to honk my horn to get them to back up!

I splurged $2 on a little yard art at the Dollar Store!

Our kitchen work station is coming along nicely.

We moved furniture this afternoon - turning the table the other way around so the chairs will sit at the table instead of against the wall. That meant Louis Dean had to move the big fancy printer he bought for me that was living underneath that table. That prompted him to move the water heater (which is still not hooked up yet since we still don't have 220 electric) and then he built a shelf for said printer which just happens to have an electric outlet right next to it!

You change one thing and then everything changes!

I like it!!

While I was getting ready to cook dinner, Rufus and Blue came to visit!

They know I'm always good for a meaty treat or two.

Sometimes I have been known to give away Louis Dean's lunchmeat!

It worked out perfect that Dean and Sherry joined us for dinner!

I cooked some chicken and simmered it with a jar of Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce from Aldi.

Served over rice, we also had jalopeno pepper poppers and garlic bread. Sherry and I had small glasses of Pacific Fruit Vinyards Sweet Pineapple Wine - also from Aldi.

I'm loving having the table where we can actually use it for meals and it was wonderful to have all four of us sit there tonight for dinner!

You know what prompted the first of all the changes we've made?

Spilled milk!

Sunday afternoon Louis Dean asked me to pour him a big glass of milk.

I poured the very last of what we had and sent a text asking Dean and Sherry to bring a gallon back for us on their way home that night.

Louis Dean settled down in his chair and spilled the entire glass of milk!

I was busy doing something so he said he would clean it up. 

Like that was possible. He tries but he is no housekeeper and I was busy and just looked down and watched him swash his tea towel back and forth soaking up the milk. I told him I bet that was going to stink!

Monday I forgot about the spilled milk but by Monday night Louis Dean said he thought a skunk had been spraying nearby. Nope! It was the spilled milk. Now spoiled milk.

Before we went to bed last night we made a plan on moving everything so I could soak the floor down with OdorBan and Fabuloso. Remember the floor is a deck with indoor/outdoor carpet on top, so I can hose it all down and it just dries up nicely!

Tonight we were sitting and admiring all the changes and how nice it turned out - all thanks to spilled milk! There's always a silver lining to just about every mishap!

I close tonight with this picture of Mother and me.

Taken just one year ago.

It's a good photo of her.

I am so glad I took so many pictures of us together.

You know, I have yet to cry since Mother's death.

I think it may be that I was ready for her to be at peace.

 I'm not sad she's not here but instead I am happy she is in heaven.