A Little Family Time!

We arrived back home by 10:00 am yesterday. It was a LONG day since we got up at 3 AM!

First we dropped Lucy off at home so we wouldn't have to haul her around all day in the back of the truck!

Be it ever so humble - there's no place like HOME!

Then we headed straight for Fort Worth to see Mother!!!

I never realized how much I would miss seeing her every week. 

Normally I do the Friday morning beauty shop run.

Now this falls to my sisters. One drops her off and the other picks her up.

Both of them make Mother's life SO much more enjoyable!!!

My sister, Deanie, is AMAZING!!!

She is a December Baby and since I won't be here for her birthday I brought her a little something!

Her favorite cupcakes in all the world!!!

They are from Ooh La La and they are d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. Seriously so!

The first time she had one from there was the day after the quadruplets were born!

She and I loaded up the back of her SUV - it was STACKED with box after box of cupcakes!

We took them to the hospital for the doctors, nurses and staff.

Ever since then - it is a tradition that we get a cupcake from Ooh La La whenever she is in town.

Town being Houston/Katy. I don't think there are any here in the DFW area.

They always feature a cupcake of the month.......

Let me tell you this 'Pumpkin Spice Latte' was wonderful!

You'll never guess where we took Mother that afternoon!

Now - bear in mind this was someplace Mother REALLY wanted to go and there was something she REALLY wanted to see!!

The cemetery!!

She had long wanted her headstone done and she wanted to SEE it!!

So there it is and she was happy!!

Deanie had driven all the way out here the day before just to make SURE and certain it was all as it should be before bringing Mother out.

Mother's daddy and mother, sister and brother are all there.

I'm not sure why this was so important to her but it was!

Deanie pays attention and spent a great deal of time getting this done.

Thank you, Deanie, and HAPPY  a few weeks early Birthday!!! 

From Fort Worth I headed to Arlington to see my oldest grandchildren.

They had a Reading Under the Stars activity at school that evening so I took them!

That pizza was pretty darn GOOD!!

It was late when we got home last night.......

let's just say we slept very well!

At home and in our roomy bedroom!

About the time we come home we are SO ready to BE here!!

Then when it's time to go back down to the camper we are SO ready to GO!

It is working out nicely living in these two completely different worlds!

The Mully Grubs are GONE!!!

I am finally feeling more like myself today! Thanks, in part, to Nicki's comment on my post yesterday!!

"As it is Sunday, I hope you are feeling better today. Will it give you a small chuckle (or maybe a big laugh) if I tell you I Googled "mully grubs" as I thought that perhaps it was a Texas pest of some sort.....after all you had been cleaning but could not get rid of the "mully grubs"....I had to laugh at myself when I saw what it meant - just another phrase I am not familiar with!!!!"

If you are reading this, Nicki - thank you SO much for the good laugh!!

And for those who are unfamiliar with mully grubs - here's the Urban Dictionary Definition -

"A period of time when one is feeling down and out. Depressed, hopeless, lonely and sad."

That being said, I am on the mend. This was our last full normal day at home. Since we were gifted with that extra hour this morning - I spent mine doing art!

This afternoon I attended a Wedding Planning Party for my niece - which was a lot of fun!

It was held at my sister's house (where my mother lives).

Tomorrow is Nita's birthday so it was like a double party!!

There was plenty of tasty tidbits to nibble on!

Yummy dips.....even a birthday cake and champagne to toast both the party and my sister's birthday!

(Thank you to Shannon for the pics! I left my camera at home!)

We were looking at ideas Leah had saved to her laptop.........

(Leah is the beautiful bride to be....)

and I MAY have been a little more emphatic about some points than I should have been!

It was all in good fun and we had a blast!

So, yes, I think I finally got rid of the mully grubs!

THEN.......I came home!

Still no mully grubs but there WAS a 'gnashing of teeth!'

I had waltzed off for the afternoon leaving Louis Dean UNATTENDED for several hours!!

It is really not safe to leave him home alone for more than a few MINUTES!!

Even then it is RISKY!

The area in front of the stone privacy wall was all uneven and hilly where it was supposed to be FLAT!

(LD has added soil a number of times to build up the ground for his cucumbers - which failed to grow!)

I had asked him if he could level this off and he had already taken 2 wheelbarrows of dirt and carried them to the back. (Now I did not ask to SEE where he had put them! Sometimes it's best to just not KNOW!)

Can you see the TV antenna LD bought?

 He could only get the picture to come in if he put the antenna on TOP of my lamp!

The plan was for him to watch football this afternoon and go out and get one more wheelbarrow full and take it to the back. WELL......when I got home he had dug all that ground up like a herd of gophers had attacked it AND uprooted the row of liriope plants and Asian jasmine that was perfectly FINE!! He MOVED these plants to an area where they do not belong and now will most likely die. He actually planted them where years ago he killed all the bushes by cutting them down to the ground with his chain saw! Perhaps he was trying to redeem that act - I don't know.

I decided to ignore all that disheveled landscaping in the front yard and come in and do some more work on my Santa paintings. I donned my paint smock, opened the turpentine and flipped the switch to the attic fan.

I smelled something BURNING so I called for Louis Dean to come fast and see what was going on!!!

He yelled, "Not to worry!!! That's just some TRASH I was burning!"

For some unknown reason he got the idea in his head to BURN all our trash.

I am at a total loss as to how his mind works!!

We live in the CITY and have trash picked up at the curb.

I didn't last long at the art table tonight.

Hard to be creative when the putrid smell of 'Burn' is sweeping through your house.

This is not to be confused with the sweet aroma of a wood fire in the outdoor fire pit.

No - this is more like what you would smell at a landfill. 

So thus ends my day.

No more mully grubs - they have been replaced with the gnashing of teeth and the pulling of hair!!

It may well be for the best that we will be returning to the camper soon.

It is a much smaller area and there is more control there.

Poor Louis Dean.

He just can't have ANY fun!

November Days......

It is hard to believe we are down to the last month of Fall. I shall miss it so. It IS my favorite season.

This has been a somewhat melancholy week. I think being sick for so long has taken its toll on me.

This is the LONGEST trip 'home' we have had since we left in August. It will be a full week when we leave Tuesday morning. I've missed 'Home.' For the first time we walked in and the house smelled VACANT!

No one had been making coffee or doing laundry or cooking for the past three weeks and more so there were no smells of 'Home' to greet us. It didn't take long to remedy that! I threw open the doors and turned on the attic fan. Since our arrival I have gone through several buckets of Pine Sol water swishing down the cobwebs and wiping down counters and cupboards. For all my cleaning and nesting - I still can't seem to lick the mully grubs!

I tried my best to get in the spirit of things on Halloween night and I did stay up until the candy was gone and my favorite Trick or Treaters had come by!

These are our sweet neighbors and 'Little Red Riding Hood' brought treats to US!!

Spooky fingers!!

Louis Dean got a kick out of this!

They were cookies and I ATE mine!!

He's saving his!

Our other sweet former neighbors came and it was good to visit.

These children have grown up before our very eyes!!!

After the candy was gone we turned off the lights and went to bed!

I thought if I could just catch up on my sleep I would feel better.

Thursday was a happy day for LD! He bought a brand new AX!

You know how excited men get over tools!

While he played chopped up some firewood I was stuck in the house drinking all this yucky tasting herbal concoctions!

Together we did manage to collect a basket of pecans from our tree.

They are small this year. Very small!

But since we have not HAD a crop in the last two years - we'll take it!

They will go in sacks and we will take them back with us to Houston.

LD can wile away many an hour shelling pecans.

I can use them up in baking about as fast as he can shell them!

Friday I was with my precious mother and we had a good visit.

Lunch was at Red Lobster - her favorite - and she ordered a BIG bowl of clam chowder!

The waiter was sweet and filled that dish to the brim and she ate every single bite!

We spent some of the afternoon in front of her TV!

We cancelled our cable and since we have no antenna - we have NO TV!

NO news coverage at a time when so MUCH is going on!

So I got comfortable on her couch and she and I watched HER favorite news station - CNN.

I admit we both dozed off and got in a little nap!

I left Fort Worth and picked up my three oldest grandchildren on my way home.

Faith is a GREAT reader - she reads with such EXPRESSION!!

She read 80 minutes! A whole book!

Sam and Granddad enjoyed some music together.

Louis Dean was SO impressed with Sam!!

Sam would play a piece and LD would say, "Play it AGAIN!!"

He was thrilled with Sam's musical ability and brought out his mandolin for Sam to try.

Sure enough! Sam took to it and in a few minutes was playing better than Louis Dean!

Levi made some AMAZING OOZE!!

He filled water fountains......

ate cookies.....

told us all about the art he did (after he made the ooze, picked up pecans, ate hot dogs and more than one piece of candy!) He is an active little boy with a real artistic side and a great imagination!

In case you don't know - the picture is of a Cowboy with his whip and gun. Levi remembered that he FORGOT to paint in some cactus! He planned to do that when he got home as I had already put the paint away!

Sam treated us to a concert to end the evening.

All too soon their dad was there to pick them up.

We enjoyed being together. The kids were surprised that our camper wasn't in the driveway!

They are still not quite sure about us not 'living' here all the time and 'living' in the camper!

Today has been quiet. Lucy has taken to barking at Louis Dean like a crazy critter so I have been keeping her in the kennel when he is up and about. She's fine when he's sitting down. The moment he stands up - there she goes! I sent Louis Dean off on errands and enjoyed being 'Home Alone' for a bit.

I sat in the gazebo with a glass of tea and a book.

Just what I needed.

One of his errands was to buy an antenna so now we have TV!

(I don't think I could handle watching Patton again! As good as George C. Scott was in it!!)

This afternoon I edged the front yard and was picking pecans and doing the odd gardening job when Louis Dean came out to join me. Together we make a pretty good team and get a lot done.

It's getting about that time when we go out on the driveway to watch the moon.

Don't know why I am such a limbo of a mood but  have learned the best thing about feelings is that they change. Feel what you feel.  Feelings aren't 'right' or 'wrong.' They are just feelings. It is what it is. Things come to pass. They don't come to stay.

Keep doing the next right thing.

So.....I am going to enjoy this early November evening with my husband (who has been careful and watchful of me today since I am not often in a 'mood.').

Tomorrow is a brand new day.....

Welcome to My World!!

We were so happy to welcome my mother and sister to Quadville!

They arrived Sunday afternoon and left Wednesday morning.

We had a BABY packed visit!

Deanie was happy to have her arms filled with baby girls!

My mother had been looking forward to this day for months and months!

The visit - which was originally scheduled for August and then September - was delayed because of Mother needing a cancerous mole on her face removed.

She looks beautiful and the surgery healed up nicely!

She held one baby after another until she had held all FOUR!

Too bad I didn't get a pic of her holding Logan!

This is Trystan.

Aunt Deanie was a huge hit with the quads!

She could make all of them laugh and laugh!

She made us ALL laugh!

Harrison warmed right up to her.......

.....and Kailey LOVED her Aunt Deanie doing the 'Little Green Fly!'

This was the very FIRST time we noticed Kailey imitating!

We celebrated their arrival with some seriously good food!

Mike has a state of the art grill and he knows how to use it!!

Meet and Greet Time for the siblings!

Love how their toes touch!

Here's Great Grandma with Logan!

Amber is such a good mom! Nothing was easy about her quad pregnancy and the 57 days in the hospital on a Magnesium Sulphate IV! OR the 2 months in the NICU as she traveled back and forth every day while trying to recover her strength!

Truth be told - she is STILL trying to recover! That doesn't stop her from doing everything she can do to help the babies in their development. She is a real MOM!

She has added these bumbo seats to their daily routine.

Mother was there for this the next day and got right down there on the floor with them!

She is amazing!

I HAD to show them our favorite Mexican restaurant one evening!

They also got a tour of our camper home!

We had so much fun!

The next day Deanie was back to making the babies laugh!!

Trystan DOES love her Aunt Deanie!!

So does Logan but we had to admit - she was a harder audience!

Harrison was sporting his newest cap from Aunt Summer!

Can't leave Kailey out of the Quad Squad Parade!

Between all of us - we took hundreds of pictures!

Mother was excited to have this time with the quads!

She was sad when it was time to leave.......so were WE!

We all had such a good time.

There was a baby in every one's arms nearly the entire time!

I joined them for breakfast at their hotel for one last visit!

Seems like the time flew by!!

I was happy they were able to 'see' Quadville for themselves!

There is SO much more going on than you would believe possible.

Thank you, Deanie, for coming!!!!

Thank you for bringing Mother!!!

PLEASE come back!!!

We miss you already!