Lunch Date, Goodwill, Art, Power Outage! All in a Tuesday!

It was last Tuesday when I came down with a bad case of allergies. I can even tell you what TIME!

4:00 in the afternoon! Texas in April is nothing to sneeze at! Literally!

It's been a solid week of hacking and choking and coughing!

SO....when I woke up this morning I decided I needed a bit of cheering up!

I called Amber and suggested I take her and her quad squad to lunch!

If that little face doesn't cheer my heart nothing can!!!

The babies were troupers at loading up in the car and Logan even climbed up in her own car seat!

That's my girl!

They were very well mannered at Chick Fil-A!

Trystan MAY need to work on her sharing skills.......

but all in all it was a success!!

Everyone that passed us had a smile on their faces!

I think it is awesome how these little ones can cheer people up just by BEING!!

I love them all!!! All FOUR!!

Logan is still my mini me and I must say it squeezes my heart when she is so happy to see me!

When I arrived this morning Kailey and her mom were in the front yard cutting roses.

I went in to the play room and Logan was sporting these cool glasses!

See??? I bet you're SMILING at this pic!!!

See what I mean about the blessings of children cheering us up?

Trystan takes her TV very seriously!!

She had confiscated the remote control and accidentally taken all the batteries out -

thus interrupting her Bubble Guppies program!!

Oh, DEAR!!

It did me good to see the quads and hear their sweet voices and visit a bit with my daughter.

You could say I 'got my bucket filled!'

I helped Amber get them unloaded from the Suburban - they go in a line like little ducks from the car through the garage and into the house! We got them all down for their naps and I told them I would see them in the morning! I am SO happy they live close enough so I can be there in just a few minutes when I 'NEED' a quad fix!

SINCE it was TUESDAY and SINCE there is a great Goodwill store just a little ways from their house - 

that's where I headed next!

I made another GOOD haul from GOODWILL!!

Three acrylic wine glasses for Louis Dean, an autobiography of Henry Fonda, Life of a Slave Girl - both will be great books to read aloud! Various and other sundry things filled the cart and I was a happy camper!

I came home all smiles and after putting away all my goodies started vacuuming up all the cottonwood fluff that started falling yesterday afternoon! Once again I can tell you the exact time they started falling! 2:00!!

We had the French doors open - which is a foolish thing to do since we have all these allergies - and the fluff just drifted on in the house!

THEN it was time to put out the oil paint!

I surprised everybody tonight!

I cleaned out my paint box! Paint BOXES!

I had two.

A big yellow tackle box and a cardboard one.

I had some tubes that dated back to the 1970's!!

WHAT a mess!!!

Artists are seldom tidy!!

But just LOOK at THIS!!!

Louis Dean had bought a new tackle box for our upcoming trip down to his son's ranch.

I asked to see it and LO and BEHOLD - it is now MINE!!

No worries! LD will buy himself ANOTHER new one!!! Soon......

THIS is the odd but still workable tubes of paint!

Thanks to Ruth Ann who came early to class and would tell me at intervals while I was sorting and tossing my oil tubes - "You're doing GOOD!"

The other  ladies arrived shortly after and we began to paint.

NOTE* They were ALL properly impressed with my neat oil paints!!!

We painted less than an hour when the power went out!!

We all took our tea and went outside to sit and visit.

After awhile we decided to use lamps, cell phones and flash lights to see to clean our brushes and call it quits.

Just as the last of the brushes were done - the lights came back on!!

We still called it an early evening and after visiting some more everyone went home and I came out here to join Louis Dean in the gazebo!

The wind has died down and my coughing has greatly improved!

Actually the wind just STOPPED! Abruptly! 

Allergies are weird things but I'm not taking any chances.

We will be sleeping in a sealed room with the window A/C on.

I have babies to see in the morning and I would rather NOT be coughing and hacking!!

Memories from eHarmony.com ~April 2005

Louis Dean and I 'matched' on eHarmony on April 16, 2005.

What a difference April of that year made in how I lived the rest of my life!

While we began our 'communication' on the 16th - we did not meet in person until April 30th.

By then we had emailed and telephoned back and forth.

We even did some instant messaging on the computer - a new thing to both of us.

Hard to believe that's obsolete already!

On Saturday April 30, 2005 we meet at the Fort Worth Zoo for our first date.

My mother took the picture of us together in her living room.

She said she just KNEW we would be a good match when I sat down right next to him!

At that point in my life I was no longer a 'hugger!' I didn't even hug my own brother!

The fact that I felt so comfortable and safe with Louis Dean was a very good sign.

That day seems so long ago......and yet again - it seems like yesterday!

Louis Dean was talking marriage on our very first date!

This is a picture of the first time he came over to see me......and meet my house!!

Meeting my house was about as important as meeting my family!!

Wasn't he cute??

We have had fun together ever since.

So many hours of laughing and doing and being.....

There have been difficulties along the way but never between us.

He had a scary time with a heart attack and then another near one a year or two later.

I did a blog post 'You Have a Match on eHarmony.com! on our 5th wedding anniverary

and then another - Thank you, eHarmony!

on our 7th wedding anniversary.

I love being married to Louis Dean! He is without a doubt the nicest, kindest man I have ever met in my life.

We wake up together every morning and go to sleep together every night.

While the shadows of our years are growing shorter we still treasure every minute, hour, day, week and year that the Lord has given to us.

Looking back I am still amazed I married so quickly - but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Thank you, eHarmony!!

We were a perfect match!

AND we still ARE!!

'The Courage to be Myself' and Wandering Around the Yard.....

I have a poster in my bathroom and I read it every single day. We are who we THINK we are and we are who we TELL ourselves we are. This poster is by Sue Patton Thoele and was adapted from her book, The Courage to be Yourself.

I have spent the day quietly and reflectively.

Having a sick day gives us permission to STOP and think and ponder some of the issues we are dealing with, savour some good memories and contemplate life in general.

April is a special month for me. Louis Dean and I met in April - 9 years ago. We married less than two months later.

The weather turned warm today - in the low 90's! It won't be long before Louis Dean will haul that big old shop fan out and position it to blow in the gazebo.

I wandered around the yard and piddled a little bit. Pulled a weed or two and watered the container plants.

Louis Dean dug up and moved nearly ALL of our roses earlier this spring.

Except for this bed. 

The honeysuckle blooms in the back along with MINT!!

Rosemary bushes are on either side making THIS flower bed the most fragrant of all!

If we can get the plants off to a good start BEFORE the triple digits of our Texas summers we have a chance on keeping them!

Love this little guy holding a few marigolds.

While we didn't turn on the A/C today I DID turn the window unit on in the guest room and took my nap this afternoon. This is the new handmade quilt I picked up at the Salvation Army last week! $19.99!!

I have heavy curtains hung on the windows which make it a lovely DARK room for napping!

After I got up I made my first batch of Friendship Bread - at least the first batch in YEARS!

Back in 1988 I received a starter and made it every week for the next 13 years!

I lost it during the few years of life changes and am happy to have it back now.

My sister (Nita) gave me the starter and she bakes it every week.

Another friend gave me a bag with the Friendship Starter in it back in February but it never made it home with me! Still not sure where I lost it!

Our yard is developing more of an English garden appearance.

I love 'profusion' as opposed to neat landscaping.

I also like little pots of things tucked here and there.

My garden angel reminds me to pray as I work.

We are loving the fence our sweet neighbors put up!!

Louis Dean intends to continue the fence all the way around the back yard.

He'll do it in sections.

Before the fence, though, he is making a sand box for the grandchildren.

It will be 4 X 8 feet with a stone path along one side.

He is even designing a cover for it!

 

We started our day outside on the deck sipping coffee.

Since I am still 'under the weather' we watched Ed Young, Sr. on TV.

Of course, we watch him every Sunday anyway, and usually we then attend Fellowship Church where his son pastors.

We are ending our evening in the gazebo with a slice of warm Friendship Bread and a glass of wine.

A sick day can still be a good day - and this one was!

Red Neck Clothes Line!

Friday mornings find me driving west to Fort Worth! I admit to being a little under the weather this morning.

Tuesday afternoon I developed a croupy cough and every day since then I have felt a little worse.

Mother suggested IHOP and hot coffee sounded good to me.

While Mother can't actually SAY 'IHOP' - I know what she means when she acts like she's drinking coffee and then says. "Don't you think??"

She would be disappointed if I didn't take our picture every week!

I had turned my phone where we could see ourselves and Mother noticed the sunlight through her hair and thought it was messed up!! Mother and her hair!! Louis Dean calls it a 'glue job!' It won't budge!

After we ate I took her home and showed her a slide show of all my Easter pictures. There were none of my oldest son and his family and she noticed. I assured her he was there but by then we were feeding the babies and I couldn't get around and snap any of him. Mother hasn't seen him in so long she can't remember! That's why she likes to see my pictures. I visited my sister, Deanie, for a few minutes before coming home, turning on the AC in the guest room, spraying my throat with some spray Deanie gave me, smearing Vick's Vapor Rub on my chest and Ben Gay on my neck and crawling into bed where I stayed for nearly 3 hours!

When I woke up I noticed Louis Dean had changed out the laundry I had started this morning......

however I was surprised to see his overalls hanging from the fence!!

He is so funny!! Once when I was out of town for a few days he changed the sheets in the bedroom.

He laundered them and put them back on in time for my homecoming. I was pleased but wondered where the down comforter was. He said he didn't know!! He remembered washing it but could NOT find it anywhere!!!

I finally found it draped over this picnic umbrella!!!

He said, "Oh, YEAH!!! Now I remember!!"

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at him anymore - but I am!!!

Never a dull moment with HIM around!!

After my nap I sat in the gazebo with him while he rested.

He had a project going on today!

This is the area where our spa used to be and he's now turning it into a sand box for the grandchildren.

He's always doing SOMETHING!!

Since I'm still not feeling well he was in charge of dinner tonight.

Hot dogs in the gazebo!

Works for me!!

Happy Friday Night, Folks!!