Thursday With Lillian and Gazebo News.....

Yesterday I woke up feeling like a tank had run over me and this morning I woke up feeling fine!

I turned on the coffee and mixed up a batch of Lemon Poppy seed muffins while it brewed.

Then I took my coffee back to bed for prayer time using my prayer journal while they baked.

I used a recipe from one of Summer's friends mother.

Don't you love recipes with 'history?'

I did add some lemon extract to this and a lemon pudding mix would have made it even better.

I arrived shortly after noon at the nursing home.

Lillian had said she couldn't eat and didn't want to go out to lunch when I talked to her yesterday.

The lunch tray was still on her table when I got there and it looked really good. An enchilada, beans and rice. She said she didn't want it so I took a bite of it and it tasted good. I was all prepared to eat her lunch when she asked. "Are we still going out to eat?"

Yes, we ARE!!! I put my fork down and said I was just sampling the cooking!

Our first stop was to get pedicures.

She said she used to go to a salon on Hulen Street so we started looking for it.

Trail Lake is just off Hulen so it was right there in the neighborhood.

Nothing looked quite familiar so I spied one called Legacy Nail Spa.

I whipped in and called them to see if they could do two pedicures.

No sense getting in and out of the car more than we needed to.

I think she enjoyed it!

I know I did!!

She said it was the first pedicure she's had in years.

It won't be the last!

She had a few things to return to Walmart so that was our next stop.

She got store credit and was able to buy two new tops and a pair of dark denim jeans.

I drove on down Hulen and told her to tell me when she saw a place to eat our late lunch.

I saw Dixie House and she said she had not been there in years and years.......and since she didn't seem too impressed.....I drove on.

We ended up at La Madeleine's again.

Our second visit.

This time she ordered quiche and I had the tomato basil soup.

We lingered long over lunch just eating and visiting.

The waiter guy cleaned off our table while we were still sipping our tea and he chatted with Lillian in French. We couldn't understand him but she had fun 'talking' to him!

She's been a widow for two years. Shortly before Mother moved into Trail Lake Nursing Home as her roommate.  They had been married for 65 years and she has so many good memories.

Her husband was in the Air Force and they had lived in Germany and London.

When she had to show ID at Walmart, the lady spotted her Military ID and it turns out she was from Germany. Her parents live there still and she and her husband go back every 6 months to visit for several weeks. She's a US citizen now and proud of it!

This is Rosemary - Lillian's favorite 'medicine lady.'

We had a good day together.

You can see Lillian is wearing lipstick again and taken an interest in fashion once more.

Getting out and about takes some energy and effort but I think it is so important to connect with others. That's good for all of us. 

I came home and Louis Dean was all excited and said he had something to 'show and tell.'

I took a picture of him and he continued to tell me what he had done to get that piece of the gazebo frame up. I looked at it and admired him and came inside and pulled up some photos on my laptop.

Just as I thought! He had put it up backwards! Poor guy.....I had to tell him.

No way would the rain curtains and the mosquito netting work on the outside of the frame. The flap of the top would cover them up making it a real ordeal to zip and unzip them.

He took it pretty well and I held the frame while he unbolted them and the re bolted them on the correct way. He had the hang of it now.

His motto is - Get organized. Talk to wife. Get Reorganized.

He worked steady and lost two Allen wrenches on that back pole there.

I need to buy him a whole other set!

I left him to it while I went in the storage building and started pulling out some sunflower decorations.

I did my happy dance as I hung this first piece of all things sunflower up on the front door.

I rejoined Louis Dean and we had a glass of wine in the gazebo!

Or at least under the gazebo frame.

First time in a long time.

We sat and reminisced about our 14 years of gazebo times.

I love that we have 'history' now.

Well, I have sat here and written the last of tonight's journal entry while coloring my hair. I have rinsed and conditioned it and now it's time to shower and go to bed. 

Louis Dean said we would meet again for one last glass of wine - but after his hot bath I went in to find him sound asleep in bed. 

I'm sure he will be up in a few hours to raid the refrigerator.....but by that time I will be sound asleep in bed.