A Great Weekend!!!

 We have had a really great weekend.

Both of us had a few things we wanted to do around the house on Saturday - I was still working on laundry and Louis Dean is always organizing his room.

We met back up at lunch and watched a program in the den.

Sherry taught me how to make Spanish rice last week and my first try turned out good!

Quesadillas, refried rice, a salad and burritos rounded out the meal and when we finished eating, we both decided to take a nap!

I woke up at 4:10 and had a text from Amber.

For Christmas, she and Mike had gifted us with a Stars Hockey game with all the bells and whistles and excellent seats!!! 

She said she wanted to give us the Total Package Experience and they would pick us up at 4:30!!

Oh, my! I thought they were coming at 6:00 so we compromised with 5:00 and threw it into gear getting ready in record time!!

Here we ARE!!!!

Mike dropped us off and went on to park while we took pictures and people watched.

The very first thing they did after we went through the doors was to take Louis Dean over to the Hangar where they bought him a cool Dallas Stars cap!

We had such great seats and the game was exciting, the food good - burgers, nachos, and beer.

We had so much fun!!!

Louis Dean leaned over and told me, "This is truly magnificent!!"

This was our first big outing since the Christmas show back in December - when Louis Dean fell on our way out to the parking garage.

They were not taking any chances this time and watched him like a hawk!

We stayed in our seats until the crowd had time to clear out some before we stood up to leave.

I noticed the police officers wearing their white hats and smiled!

Remember the old westerns where the good guys always wore white hats and the bad guys wore black ones?

Since Louis Dean had been to the Father/Daughter Dance on Friday night and the Stars game on Saturday, we decided to watch church online this Sunday morning and rest up a bit!

That didn't last long - the rest, I mean!

I needed to order a new gazebo cover, rain curtains and mosquito screens but I do better when Louis Dean is sitting beside me, so I order the right thing. Two heads are better than one!

We have a 10X12 Roth and Allen gazebo from Lowe's - our FOURTH gazebo since we've been married. LD has used pieces from all of the previous gazebos to reinforce the present one and it has proved to be sturdy enough to handle the storms we've had recently.

Once we ordered the replacements, Louis Dean felt compelled to get out there and take down the tattered remains. The wind and hail of last Thursday ripped up the rest of the top and shredded some of the netting and rain curtains as well.

He decided to take down all my lights since the hail had broken so many of the bulbs.

It was a lot of hard work! He even took up the rugs and hung them out to air.

Can you see the one on the back rail of the gazebo? It's not really a rail but the parts of an iron bedstead from an old home in Commanche.

The other rug is hanging on the line to the right.

I kept checking on him to make sure he was okay.

The only way I enticed him to stop and come in was to bribe him with popcorn, an icy cold bee, and a movie!

A Harrison Ford film is always good!

This one is from 1993.....

So what did I do all afternoon??

I cleaned and prettied up our bedroom!

Before we left for the ranch, I had changed out the flannel sheets for the pretty lemon themed light ones for spring and summer.

Pretty but I didn't like the 'feel.'

I remember when Benjamin was little, he was picky about his socks.

He couldn't wear them if they didn't 'feel' right and I can so relate!

Not only the sheets but the covers were not comfortable either.

I took all that off and replaced it with the down filled comforter, over some quality cotton blend sheets, and topped it all off with a floral cover.

I had put this in the guest room but then switched it out to here and added back the pillows.

Turns out I really LIKE them!

Perhaps I just wanted a change from all the white I had for so long.

Louis Dean is on blood thinners, so all that white posed extra work using the peroxide spray on all the blood stains on a daily basis. He can just walk by something that touches his arms or hands and before he knows it - he's bleeding. 

I'm loving the feminine floral look for spring and summer of 2023.

I brought home all the vintage looking floral textiles I had used at the camper/cabin for the last few years and have found places to use them here.

Some years ago, Amber said to me, "Mom, I love how you make your home so personal and how it's designed to work for you."

“If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own, it will never happen. If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new, you are missing the point. It is the old, the new, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn but loved things in your home that make it your own.” —Stacy Risenmay, Not Just a Housewife

And I do love my home!

 It's an eclectic blend of all the 'Lindas' I have been through my life.

I am a collector of tangible memories and other debris!

I close tonight's journal entry with this memory of me and my sister, Nita, on this day in 2015.

All of us who love her miss her every day.....

Now instead of crying at every memory.....and I still do that sometimes.....I can smile and thank God for all the years, months and days that our sister was here with us on earth,

I recently finished the book 'My 90 Days in Heaven' by Don Piper and it has blessed me greatly, as has 'Healing After Loss' by Martha Whitmore Hickman.

All the love and prayers of so many is slowly healing parts of my heart and I thank all of you, my sweet cyber friends for your friendship, love, and concern.

I pray to God that he will hug Nita and let her know how much we love and miss her.