Preparing for the Weekend!!

We love our geckos and there are many of them!

We enjoy watching them stalk their prey and then catch them!

When we woke up enough to know our names, I asked Louis Dean if he could help me with three things.

The first one was putting the shade cloth up between the upper room - which is above the Christmas House directly across from our bedroom - and the eave of the house.

I did the shade cloth over my little hide-a-way in under an hour!

Louis Dean had a bigger better idea that involved adding a trim to secure the already stapled shade cloth. This took HOURS and every last ounce of my good humor!

I held it together and he finished his project and was as happy as he could be!

Of the three things I needed his help to do - only this one happened.

If I were taller, I could have done this job in under an hour.

I thought my hair was going to catch on fire!

No worries!

 I did therapy and made homemade chocolate chip cookies!

My sweet Pam (Reaoma's daughter) recently had a hip replacement so cookies make everything better!

I gave up the second job I needed help with and will deal with that one next week.

After our coffee and stupor time this morning, I asked LD to go with me to water our neighbor's flowers. I knew he would love to see their beautiful backyard.

I kind of made up for yesterday as Louis Dean did the watering all by himself!

Win! WIN!!

I, in the meantime, sat under their gazebo in the shade and played my word games on Facebook!

Look at how beautiful her flowers are!

We regrouped and ate lunch before heading off to do three hours worth of errands.

First stop - Family Dollar Store.

Second stop - Pam's house to check on her and deliver the chocolate chip cookies - minus the two LD and I ate on our way over.

Third stop - Walgreen's to pick up my antidepressant Rx.

Fourth stop - Kroger for a bottle of no alcohol wine and a pound of butter.

I'm not drinking real wine since I have a yearly physical next week and am hoping for a good report.

Fifth stop - QT for LD to fill our car up with gas.

Sixth stop - Car wash with free vacuumn!

Not the first car wash since we bought the car in Decemeber but it is the first time I've cleaned the interior and wiped it all down with Armour All.

Seventh stop - the Mexican grocery store on O'Connor Road that features a Mexican Bakery!

Levi's graduation party is tomorrow and Jesse and Rachel are making Mexican food so I thought I would bring Mexican pastries! I do so love them! Doesn't everyone?

Home to jump back into my to-do list!

Top of the list was getting the guest room ready for the weekend.

The Bell grands will arrive Sunday afternoon - all four of them - and will stay with us until Tuesday late afternoon!

I took all things cat related out and washed all the bedding, put up new drapes and cleaned like a mad woman.

The bunk beds are a double on the bottom and a twin on the top.

This is where the girls will sleep.

I washed every bit of the bedding and Louis Dean was a huge help in making the beds up again.

I used the dresser in there to display lots of framed photos I've come across in changing out the seasons.

The kids will get a kick out of seeing old photos of their mommy when she was in her teenage years!

So we are going to have a really  good weekend with Levi's party, and the Bell grands spending a couple of days with us. Amber told me the kids want to help me with projects. They are not coming to be entertained but to lend a hand - or eight hands - with things I need help with.

Kailey is good with technology so she is going to help me with the new kitter box, water fountain and automatic feeder for the cats.

Speaking of cats - Tabitha has escaped twice recently and both times satyed out all night!

And I was the one she got past!

I'm hoping one or all of the girls may want to do a guest blog post for me so I won't be posting chapter 20 until next week. It's an important chapter that I need to do some more editing before publishing.

This is going to be a great weekend with lots of family celebrating together!

First Sunflowers, Tuesday Treasures, My Quiet Spot and Wednesday Afternoon Movie with Ilene......

I was so excited to see my first sunflower here at home on Monday morning!

This one in the kitchen deck herb garden...

...and the second one is in the flower bed by the front porch.

Tuesday Treasures......

Brand new candle.....

Really large candle for just $5!

Brenda found these brand new honey hive salt and pepper shakers.

I'm a sucker for a good purse!

Even though I have never found the perfect one!

I bought these potted sunflowers and hope to fill my veggie stand with more sunflowers - as I find them.

Brenda gave me this Michael Kors dress!

A Travelers top!

I plan to use the two placemats on the kitchen table soon.

Love this!

I put this placemat in a white wooden tray and put it in my Quiet Corner.

The canvas is made of some kind of plastic so it's weatherproof.

absolutley!

I have had so much fun fluffing up this quiet corner and have been spending at least an hour or two out here every day!

It is my Happy Place!

This morning I made us a breakfast dish with a tortilla base.

Actually, it was more like 12:30 this afternoon so it was a lunch!

Ilene came down for popcorn, tea and a movie!

It's fun to have someone to watch a movie with!

Louis Dean says, "If John Wayne or Mareen O'Hara's not in it - then I'm not interested!"

Next week's movie will be Shall We Dance? with Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon!

That's such a good movie!

Children in the Closet....Chapter 19

 

Chapter 19

 

          It was in the winter of 1967 that Jesse and I started looking for a house. I was 18 and Jesse was 23. Jesse was now making decent money with his own masonry company Stone Creations. The name of the company was perfect as it suited his talents as a stone mason. He laid stone with what is called a hidden joint meaning the wall, or water fall, or chimney or fireplace all looked as if they were stones just stacked up with no mortar showing. Jesse worked fairly steady and had one and sometimes two helpers or laborers.  

         We lived within our means so when we didn't have work, we didn't spend any money. When we did have plenty of jobs, we stocked up on pantry items to hold us through the times we couldn't buy groceries. We always have something to eat and by this time I had learned to cook a pot roast, make chicken and dumplings and a dozen ways to make a meal from a pound of cheap hamburger. We were very frugal with our money. We continued to attend church at Northgate Baptist in Irving and continued to tithe. Jesse had professed Christ as his Savior and was baptized that spring.

              Since Irving was centrally located between Dallas and Fort Worth and since we had family in Fort Worth and most of our work was in Dallas, we decided to look at houses there. We began to look at houses whenever Jesse wasn't working.

               It was July when we found our home, located on a curved street that twisted like a snake with a luscious green lawn of St. Augustine grass (which I thought only wealthy people had having grown up with Bermuda grass all my life) and a huge elm tree in the back yard as well as an ash tree at the side and two pecan saplings in the front yard. We loved the way this house looked.

               Inside was as beautiful to my eyes as the outside was. Three bedrooms and two baths, a small den and a nice kitchen, it also had a covered patio outside the sliding glass doors of the den.

               Built in 1959, most of the homes in the neighborhood were occupied by the original owners at that time. Ours, however, had two previous owners and carried two small second liens on the property.That’s what made it affordable for us. We were thankful that we had established a good credit rating and bought the house on July 11, 1967.

              We were thrilled! Both of us had moved from house to house in our childhoods and we wanted a forever home that our children could grow up in and that we could make our very own. It was an exciting day when we moved in.

          Summer had the larger of the small bedrooms and we made the smallest one Baby Jesse’s nursery. Our bedroom had the bathroom and I thought that was the best thing in the world. We happily settled in and even bought some furniture for the den. We bought a couch that made down into a bed because we wanted to be able to have family over to spend the night.

               I believe I was born with the gift of hospitality and always loved homemaking and now I had a real home. That summer we invited our siblings over and it felt wonderful! Mother would stay for awhile when she dropped the kids off and I loved to show her all the new things we had done to the house. We put up curtains and I waxed the floors until they were so shiny, they looked wet. Pine Sol was always under the kitchen sink and I used it every day. Keeping a clean house was important to me and I loved doing it.

          Summer turned into fall and I had my 19^th birthday and then celebrated Jesse and my sister, Lanita’s birthday on November 5^th.  That was on a Sunday so I baked a cake and we had a party. Growing up we didn’t always get to celebrate birthdays and I think only Lanita had ever had a party. That was when she was four or five years old and we were living with Aunt Ruby.

              We invited Mother and my siblings along with their spouses and children over for Thanksgiving. Mother came early and helped me cook. It was wonderful!

               Our first Christmas in our very own home was a real celebration. Early in December we picked out a Scotch Pine tree and strung it with colored lights. And once again we made Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve.

               In the spring of 1968, Lanita got married. We invited all our siblings over for Easter that year and we grilled hot dogs in the back yard. In the summer we made homemade ice cream and ate it on the front porch. And in September Lanita gave birth to a baby boy. She was only 14 years old.

                Lloydine got married that winter. She was 16. Mother could not understand why she did that. She wasn’t pregnant like Lanita and I had been. Turns out, Lloydine just wanted an escape. She and I both married guys that had just as dysfunctional a childhood as we did, while Lanita married into a warm, loving family. We were so happy for her.

               Only Lonnie was at home with Mother now. He married before he was 20 and, like us, he married a girl who was just as messed up as he was. Between his crazy wife and his jealous mother, they made his life miserable.

Hide and Seek, Saturday Night With Ilene, John Wayne Bathroom and Embracing Summer...

I am loving my new little hide-a-way which I also call my prayer garden.

As soon as I wake up and check on Louis Dean, as to his where-abouts, before I slip out our bedroom door with my memory verse cards and spend my first few minutes in my private place.

I usually turn on my coffee and take my first cup out there.

I have my devotional books, prayer journal and daily diary and spend some quiet time in reading, prayers, praise and meditating. This morning the Lord impressed on me the blessings of summer and  the enjoying these blessings.

Summer time has been my least favorite season for many years.

The Texas heat is oppressive and as I have grown older, it is more difficult to tolerate than ever.

I'm not sure when this happened as I enjoyed the summers when Summer and Jesse were young and I continued to enjoy and embrace the season all through the years Amber and Benjamin were growing up.

Maybe age had something to do with it but I have been dreading the season for at least the last 20 years. Maybe more.

As I sat out there this morning, I looked up into the trees and heavens and it came to me that God is redeeming the summer months for me.

I was moved to tears when I realized how God has blessed this special prayer spot for me.

The shade cloth, the rug Summer gifted me, the honeysuckle the Lord had the bees plant for me.

If I wake up too late to sit on the kitchen deck for my quiet time, I have another retreat available.

I can even go out there at night!

As I was finishing up my prayers, I looked up and there was Louis Dean! He said, "Ifound you!"

I've told him where he could find me and I hope he always remembers.

It was a super sweet moment!

I confess that Louis Dean is losing some ground and I am treasuring our every day together.

I think this book may help me understand how to treasure and cherish this time of twilight with Louis Dean. I am adapting life as best I can to make sure he prospers and doesn't have to struggle.

That means limiting our time away from home as he does best when he is in his primary environment.

We stayed at the ranch for a week and it took five days for him to 'get his act together' again.

This isn't his fault. It's just the way it is.

Our next visit to the ranch will be from Thursday to Sunday and I am praying that will work for him.

I admit that I dearly love escaping to the country and I am praying we don't have to give that up!

Since we can't go out socially as often as we used to, I purpose to bring social ocassions to us.

Or to me. LD doesn't always join in on our Saturday night drinks, dinner and movie, but he does at least make an appearance.

The menu worked great except for the apricot bites!

They had great potential but I failed to capture it!

I meant to trash the recipe but since decided I will try again!

The pineapple wine, tonic water and sparkling water plus fruits and mint made for a delicious cocktail!

I had a great appetizer tray so we were full before dinnertime!

This was Louis Dean's plate since he had been in his music room while Ilene and I were grazing.

Our movie of choice!

It was really slow in getting started but when it finally built up speed - it was great!

Louis Dean came in to eat his supper and he watched the last - and best - part of the movie! 

Win! WIN!!

We have been sleeping late the last few days and I think that's a good thing after Louis Dean staying up all night for several nights.

We watched Fellowship Church online and then Louis Dean watched an Ed Young, Sr sermon after that.

I cleaned Louis Dean's bathroom yesterday and I love the John Wayne theme!

Very western and very Louis Dean!

Have you ever heard of drain flies?

We are expiercing a real battle with them.

They come from moths that feed on the 'gunk' in the drains.

We've poured boiling water down the drains. Sprayed insecticide.

Covered the drain holes.

Still - they remain!

I bought some Drano and I will be using that tomorrow.

This American Indian vase was made by Sherry and gifted to Louis Dean years ago.

I am in love with shade cloth and Louis Dean said he would staple up some between the Christmas house and our bedroom overhang soon!

So I am embracing the summer months and I purpose to enjoy them, according to the grace of God!

The Bells have enjpyed the best Hawaiian vacation ever!

Trystan, Kailey, Harrison and Logan celebrated their 13th birthday in Paradise!!

How perfect is that??

My beautiful daughter Amber celebrated her 40th birthday also in Paradise!

Aloha!

The most beautiful 40-year-old I've ever seen!

I was 36 years old when I had my daughter, Amber.

I remember thinking to myself that when Amber was 40 - I would be 76!

Back then that seemed so far away and yet - here we are!

I'm grateful that I am still here and still a big part of her life - and the lives of her four children as well as all my other grands....Sam, Faith, Levi and Rayne...and Summer, Jesse and Benjamin.

And I'm so proud of all my children and grands!

Amber has been to Hawaii several times!

Once when she was a young girl....maybe 10 years old?

If I had the energy tonight, I would look up in my diary as to the date.

It was a family vacation and we had a good time.

Then she had a couple of swim meets in Hawaii and we had good times then too, always staying several extra days after the competitions.

I took Amber to Hawaii in 2003 for her 18th birthday!

I was in the midst of divorcing Jesse, Sr and this was a very special time for us to spend her birthday here together.

Amber has always been so beautiful!

Inside and out!

The memories she and I had back then will stay with me always.

Now we are making new memories!

 Levi's graduation party will be next Saturday and we are so looking forward to that!

The Bell grands will be coming to stay with us soon after and we can't wait!

Good night and God bless you everyone who read my words.....