Thursday in Mineral Wells and Friday Hair Day!

I was up early Friday!
Awake at 7:00 and on my way to Fort Worth by 9:00!
Picked Lillian up at 9:45 and we were in Mineral Wells shortly after 11:00.

It was an exciting day to be there, too!

There were lots of press and important people in front of the Baker Hotel to hear the official announcement!

 The Baker Hotel was sold Thursday to a group of investers and will be restored with the work to begin immediately. The plan is to be open again in three years  for the first time since it closed in 1972!

It's going to be amazing!!

My cousin Pam lives in Mineral Wells and she absolutely loves it!

We met her at The Market at 76067 where she works part time.....but not that day.

She pulled into the parking lot just as I was getting Lillian out of the car.

Talk about perfect timing!!

Lillian fell in love with Pam! But then everyone loves Pam!!!

This market is amazing!

It's BIG and has all sorts of rooms from clothing to plants and a florist to an olive oil selection like I've never seen before to children's clothing to art and sculptures to - you just name it! 

I love the cow art!!!

Isn't she precious???

Ah.....those dishes!

Pretty things everywhere you look!

The paintings were all done on thick pieces of wood.

This one was trimmed out in crinkled tin.

My eyes notice all things 'bee' these days.

Lillian was not feeling well when I picked her up that morning but she perked up more with every passing hour!

We stopped for lunch at the Market's 'Coffee and Cocktails' Cafe.

Oh, MY!!!! The food was delicious!

Four BIG Meat Balls!!!

Pam ordered these and shared them with us plus she had some to take home!

Lillian had a cup of tomato soup that was even better than La Madeleine's!

I had soup and salad!

It was a champagne kind of day!!!

My very favorite kind!

Doesn't everyone have champagne on a Thursday when they are in Mineral Wells at the Coffee and Cocktails Cafe? I know I do!

We continued our looking and browsing of the Market after our leisurely lunch.

A super cute dressing room!

Old doors were used everywhere!

I love how they combined the use of the existing vintage walls and floors with the use of other vintage materials alongside some sparkly new ones!

This landing was my favorite place in the entire store!

Pam said the owners found this under layers of added veneers.

I had wondered how they 'did' this!

They didn't! They simply uncovered it!!!

Can you even imagine how exciting that must have been to see?

My view from the top of the staircase......

and to the left!

NOW! For the bathrooms!!!

There were four and I visited all of them!!

This one is my very favorite!

See how clever it is??

I wish you could have heard Pam telling us about her first visit to this bathroom!

She saw the mail slot and basin....and kept waving her hand in front of it thinking the water would come out. Nothing!

Then she noticed the doorknob! Could that be it???

Pretty amazing, huh????

You can see they have some very creative designers!!!

This was one of the bathrooms in the Cafe.....

I love the flooring!

This is the other one.

Not labeled men and women......just bathroom.

I liked that. 

Now for the bathroom upstairs.

All the clear bulbs look like a bubble bath!

There's an old newspaper dated 1957 in the window.

You can see the Baker Hotel from here!

The Christmas room was next to this bathroom.

I like the way they decorated and painted but kept some of the character flaws as the crack in the plastered wall.

You can see the pretty but extremely aged linoleum in this room.

It was cracked and I spied this hole.

You can see they used a layer of newspaper under this flooring.

I was wondering what year would be printed on that paper.

I believe the hotel opened in 1929.

I just loved this place!

In another area upstairs was this very worn wooden flooring.

Just think of all the people who have walked across it over the years.

Back downstairs.

You can see they had pillows plus shirts and all sorts of things with 76067 on them!

I could have stayed all day.

The Market at 76067!

If you are anywhere near Mineral Wells......you need to go to the Market!!!

Lillian and I hugged Pam bye and we headed to the Crazy Water Store!

Lillian needs to drink more water and she says she used to like sparkling mineral water.

That's the purpose of our visit to Mineral Wells.....named after its famous mineral waters.

While we were at the Market with Pam, Lillian sampled Crazy Water #1, #3 and #4.

She said she couldn't taste any minerals.

Really????

So I brought her here and we tried it again.

We ended up with 6 bottles of sparkling Crazy water and 6 bottles of Crazy Water #4.

The lady had to open a bottle of Sparkling water for us to sample and then she gave us the bottle.

So we headed home with Lillian sipping her water and eating a pecan praline that Pam had bought for her at The Market. She was a happy lady!

I noticed all the pretty purple flowers when we were driving in so I stopped to take a photo on our way home. This is horsemint but looks so different from the kind we have at the ranch.

Sherry says you can tell it's horsemint by the square shape of the stem.

This is the Purple Wood Mint variety.

All varieties bring hummingbirds, butterflies and bees to your garden!

It was about 4:00 when we got back to the nursing home and I started hanging up all Lillian's pictures and fluffing her new room to make it more like home. I put fresh sheets on her bed and a new comforter. She has changed rooms so many times, there's no place to write her new room # on her clothes. I will do her laundry from now on so I said no more writing!!

Her new roommate is a very sweet lady named Ruth.

She was a pastor's wife. He passed away 15 years ago and they never had children. She has little family if any left so a friend is her guardian. Ruth has dementia and needs someone to make medical and financial decisions for her. Her guardian is named Sue and I have not met her yet.

There is a good bit of drama and trauma going on and I feel so sorry for Lillian.

Ruth is precious but her guardian is all controlling. She has Ruth's best interests at heart, I feel certain. The problem is she does not realize that this is Lillian's room, too.

The deal breaker is that she has video and audio monitoring of the room which means she can hear every single word we say. Lillian is not allowed to watch the news as it 'upsets Ruth' although we did watch the evening news and I saw no signs of this.

I can see the video monitoring of Ruth's side of the room but the audio is an invasion of Lillian's privacy and we are going to have to talk to those in authority at the nursing home.

I admit to being discouraged when I got home at 8:30 Friday night.

Louis Dean and I will be back over there on Saturday to play music and visit with Lillian and I intend to unplug the audio! Louis Dean said it is against the law to record people's conversations without their consent and Texas has very strict privacy laws.

I'm reminding myself that God has a way of working things out and this, too, will bring good in the long run. But then I start thinking and fretting and that is getting me nowhere.

We had a treat Thursday night!

Sherry came up from the ranch and spent the night with us.

She came bearing gifts from the garden!

Fresh red cherry tomatoes from the plants Dean gave his dad.

More jalapenos and two huge yellow squash!

AND this book!!!

She read it and said it was good and now I'm reading it!

I have missed the last several bee meetings but plan to be in the country for the last week at least of July and on so I can attend them. They are on the fourth Tuesday of the month except for November and December and I think they switch weeks then.

She was working Friday here in Irving at the home office so we were blessed to get to sit out in the den for an hour or more and visit together. She's the one that told us about the strict privacy laws Texas has.

I woke up this morning just knowing I needed to get my hair done!
Today!!!!

My sweet stylist and dear friend, Yulisa, worked her magic once again.

My hair has been thinning for the last 15 years or so and I am trying different ways to fluff it up and make it look better. I still prefer short hair but if the top is a bit longer I can tease it and volumize it a little. 

I bought a wig! Just in case I need it someday.

But it was a LOT of hair!

Once upon a time I had long hair.

Not as thick as this, though!

Miss Kay cut it for me into a more suitable style and let me tell you - it was such a fun afternoon at K Hair!!!

But I had one more thing.....

I recently bought a 100% density human hair small wiglet and that needed to be cut to fit my style.

Miss Kay can do anything!!

The next time I color my hair - I will color the wiglet as well.

I'm wearing it in these last two photos.

Here it is after midnight and I am feeling better than I have all day.

Getting your hair done does that!

ONE appointment!

TWO stylist!

THREE cuts!

This is the silky green comforter from my Tuesday Treasures.

The window AC unit is on to ensure a super comfy temp.

I turned the sound machine on to Oceans.....

The diffuser is misting out lemongrass.......

I think it's time to go to bed.